For the last nine years, rock has been the only kind of music played at the Ho-Hai-Yan Rock Festival (台北縣貢寮國際海洋音樂祭) held annually at Taipei County’s Fulong Beach (福隆海灘). While that’s not about to change anytime soon, at least this year dance music fans can roll as others rock when 12 local Taiwanese throw a beachside party called “Together” nearby the main event, which, like the festival, is free.
“This party is all about having a good time and celebrating the happiness that music brings us,” said Al of BPM productions, the event’s organizer. “We’d also like to take this great opportunity to share the different types of music we each represent with hundreds of thousands of high-spirited music fans.”
The lineup includes Dragon, Taiwan’s premier psytrance producer/promoter, Apple, Al, Fion, Amber, Tommy, Allen, Barfly, Joy, Josh, Psyan and JS68. Together is today and tomorrow from 2pm to midnight. From Fulong Train Station, walk down Fulong Street (福隆街) towards the beach. The party is at the end of the road.
Meanwhile, back in the big smoke, Taipei’s first reggae bar, Roxy Roots, holds its grand opening party tomorrow beginning at 9pm with Taimaica Soundsystem providing the tunes. Roxy Roots is at 90 Songren Rd, Taipei City (台北市松仁路90號), tel: (02) 2725-3932. On the Net: www.roxy.com.tw.
Another piece of good news for those who enjoyed (or missed) the reggae bash at Walilei (哇哩咧), an Italian restaurant in Cianshui Bay (淺水灣), on June 6: Island Jam and the Black Reign crew are going to host a free party there once every two weeks until the end of October.
“The party starts at 5pm but people can get there anytime in the afternoon and enjoy the place, relax on the beach, watch the sunset, have cocktails and food. There will be DJs all the time and big speakers outside, so if people want to dance it’s not a problem,” says Taili of Island Jam. “If they feel good and want to stay, we’ll keep playing music!”
There’s a party tomorrow, July 11 and July 25.
To get there, take the MRT Red Line to Hongshulin Station (紅樹林捷運站). Then get a cab to Walilei, 12-1, Beishhizi, Sanjhih Township, Taipei County (台北縣三芝鄉北勢子12之1號). The total journey takes about an hour. On the Net: www.walileitw.com.
Recent news on the DJ grapevine is that three outstanding expat Canadian DJs and promoters — Matty D, Gareth Jones and Cap — are leaving Taiwan. Matty D and Gareth Jones, known as the Swank DJs, are definitely not strangers to Taichung’s party animals; the two rabble-rousers have been responsible for some wild nights over the past few years.
Their last shows are today from 11pm to 5am at Club Jump, B1, 8, Keelung Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市基隆路一段8號B1), www.club-jump.com, NT$500 admission; and tomorrow from 10pm to 5:30pm at Liquid Lounge 98 Chungming S Rd, Taichung City (台中市忠明南路98號), NT$400 door damage.
Cap’s farewell party, Save the Last Dance, is tomorrow from 11pm to 4am at Hook, B1, 1, Alley 7, Ln 205, Sec 4, Zhongxiao E Rd, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段205巷7弄1號). Admission is NT$150.
“I want to thank anyone and everyone who has ever stopped me to say ‘great set’ or ‘I loved that song you played.’ Hearing those words means more to me than getting paid sometimes,” says Cap. “Lastly to the guy who told me at Peacefest one year that I play too much Michael Jackson ... ‘Never too much.’”
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist