With Valentine’s Day sneaking up on us all like a lecherous drunken expat at Carnegies’ Ladies Night, the following classy parties offer the chance for couples to cut loose and get loved up and desperate singletons to find someone special to get down with.
Kaohsiung has found the love with Mark Stewart’s Frisky promotions hosting Marcus Aurelius, Nina and Lexicon performing at Valentine’s Break Up IV.
The Valentine’s Break Up parties have been going strong for the past three years now and are “a great way to let loose after a few tough weeks of work, have a great night with that special someone ... and win lots of prizes including a NT$10,000 designer bracelet,” said Stewart.
Valentine’s Break Up IV at The Roof Park, 15F, 165 Linsen 1st Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市林森一路165號15). Tomorrow from 10pm until 5am. NT$400 plus two drinks. Arrive before midnight to receive three raffle tickets.
Miss Represent plays liquid funk drum ’n’ bass at VU Live House tonight, promoted by Konkrete Jungle who are working hard to develop the drum ’n’ bass scene in Taiwan.
MissRepresent has been working the crowds for seven years in Europe and for drum ’n’ bass heads out there, this is a must-see event before LTJ Bukem hits Luxy in two weeks. MissRepresent from England is, “overjoyed to be playing for the first time in Taiwan.”
Liquid funk drum ’n’ bass is often referred to as “intelligent,” which some feel disparages the rest of the genre.
“Liquid is not aggressive,” said MissRepresent. “Liquid funk d ’n’ b is more chilled and deeper. It attracts a different crowd than the jump-up crew who are into the harder stuff. It is intelligent in the way it works the crowd.”
Like tonight, MissRepresent often plays without an MC because “they can make it or break it.” She prefers to let her music do the talking. “I am looking forward to digging out some new stuff that people may not have heard.”
Also playing with Miss Represent are Too Bad It’s Not Tronic, comprised of Matt Schism and Eben Pretorius, and Konkrete Jungle boy NoNSeNsii from the US.
For the boys, your NT$600 entrance fee gets you a drink while the lucky ladies only have to pay NT$400 for the same privilege. Sexist? Yes. Fair? Probably.
MissRepresent at VU Live House (地下絲絨), B1, 77, Wuchang St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段77號B1). Tonight from 11pm until 4am.
On the Net: www.missrepresent.com
With plumbing problems resolved but a few issues remaining with the neighbors, Copa reopens tonight with The Love Below. A Valentine’s Day warm-up for those looking for decent cocktails and an eclectic track list of songs to do with love, solicited over the past few months from the Facebook group Bet I Can Find People Who Love Love (the brainchild of man-about-town, Tommy Milloy). With Cap (yours truly) and Sunrise Soup.
The Love Below at Copa. Tonight from 10pm until late. Free entry. Copa Bar, 2, Ln 137, Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市大安區延吉街137巷2號).
Tomorrow in Taipei there’s Return to Paradise, a new club night launched by the resurgent ESPDJs, who are recreating the Eden Deep Inside house party vibe, which ended on New Year’s Eve two years ago. Playing will be Saucey, Matt Ward and SL, the latter of whom is “synonymous with deep house,” said Saucey.
The party will be going off at China White, “because of its intimate size,” said Saucey. “We have rented a beefed up sound system to provide us with the extra oomph required for a nice rolling deep house set.”
Return to Paradise at China White, 2F, 97-101, Dunhua S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City, (台北市敦化南路二段97-101號2樓). Tomorrow from 11pm until 5am. NT$350, includes one drink.
What was the population of Taiwan when the first Negritos arrived? In 500BC? The 1st century? The 18th? These questions are important, because they can contextualize the number of babies born last month, 6,523, to all the people on Taiwan, indigenous and colonial alike. That figure represents a year on year drop of 3,884 babies, prefiguring total births under 90,000 for the year. It also represents the 26th straight month of deaths exceeding births. Why isn’t this a bigger crisis? Because we don’t experience it. Instead, what we experience is a growing and more diverse population. POPULATION What is Taiwan’s actual population?
After Jurassic Park premiered in 1993, people began to ask if scientists could really bring long-lost species back from extinction, just like in the hit movie. The idea has triggered “de-extinction” debates in several countries, including Taiwan, where the focus has been on the Formosan clouded leopard (designated after 1917 as Neofelis nebulosa brachyura). National Taiwan Museum’s (NTM) Web site describes the Formosan clouded leopard as “a subspecies endemic to Taiwan…it reaches a body length of 0.6m to 1.2m and tail length of 0.7m to 0.9m and weighs between 15kg and 30kg. It is entirely covered with beautiful cloud-like spots
For the past five years, Sammy Jou (周祥敏) has climbed Kinmen’s highest peak, Taiwu Mountain (太武山) at 6am before heading to work. In the winter, it’s dark when he sets out but even at this hour, other climbers are already coming down the mountain. All of this is a big change from Jou’s childhood during the Martial Law period, when the military requisitioned the mountain for strategic purposes and most of it was off-limits. Back then, only two mountain trails were open, and they were open only during special occasions, such as for prayers to one’s ancestors during Lunar New Year.
March 23 to March 29 Kao Chang (高長) set strict rules for his descendants: women were to learn music or cooking, and the men medicine or theology. No matter what life path they chose, they were to use their skills in service of the Presbyterian Church and society. As a result, musical ability — particularly in Western instruments — was almost expected among the Kao women, and even those who married into the family often had musical training. Although the men did not typically play instruments, they played a supporting role, helping to organize music programs such as children’s orchestras, writes