After promising to give the stage over to local acts overlooked by other music events, last weekend's Formoz Festival 2007 (野台開唱) did little to promote fresh local talent. Most media coverage focused on the 30 outfits from Japan.
Japanese songstress/model/actress Anna Tsuchiya and hip-hop act Teriyaki Boyz led by NIGO, the founder of high-profile street clothing brand A Bathing Ape, were among the biggest draws. The lead singer of Ginkgo Boyz (銀杏Boyz) stole the show when he stripped off and exposed his trouser snake to the crowd. The overexcited Japanese lad was arrested and fined NT$9,000 for public indecency last Saturday.
Sunday's performances seemed tame in comparison with the exception of Rize's lead singer Jassie from Japan, who put on an acrobatic show on the stage scaffold that earned a big round of applauds.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
What happens when pretty boys Bang Bang Tang (棒棒堂) meets the popular singing contest finalists now known as the Million Star Gang (星光幫)? A full-scale war between the fans on each side.
The raging battle began shortly after the Gang appeared on the Bang Bang Tang boys' variety show on Channel V and the former insulted the latter.
"Bang Bang Tang can neither sing nor dance. The only thing they do well is to sell their faces," the Million-Dollar camp said.
"Yea, but the Million Star Gang doesn't even have faces to sell," the Bang Bang Tang camp retorted.
Pop Stop has to admit that both camps have a point.
Having long since passed into oblivion, Chin Han (秦漢) rose from the dead when his unlikely romance with Hong Kong actress Nancy Sit (薛家燕) made it into gossip columns this week. What's the big deal? The 61-year-old man was the lover of former Mando-movie star Brigitte Lin (林青霞) for 21 years.
At the time, observers predicted Han and Lin would eventually wed. The diva's knot was tied instead by multi-billionaire Xing Li-yuan (邢李源) in 1994, right after her long relationship with Chin ended.
Over a decade later, the well-preserved Chin caught Sit's eye when the pair were appearing together in a Chinese soap opera. Saying her head got dizzy every time she saw Chin, the veteran actress proudly announced that her Prince Charming liked to call her "sunshine" on set and the feeling was mutual.
"He likes younger women. All the girlfriends he has had in the past are below the age of 40," an anonymous friend is quoted as saying in the Chinese-language press.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern