"Beiguan' is a form of traditional Chinese music. The "Old Styles, New Grooves" festival aims to make it contemporary
By Max Woodworth
Everyone is encouraged to come out this weekend to Da-An Forest Park and save beiguan (北管) music. Or is it support beiguan?

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Compiled by Ho Yi
The 16th Golden Melody Awards made many happy faces last Saturday with glittering stars holding up their newly secured best-something titles, waving and laughing out of sheer excitement on the stage. However, there is always something bound to go wrong at every big party, and this year's biggest embarrassment award would unanimously go to musician Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), who mistakenly went up to the stage for the honor of Best Male Mandarin Singer, which was in fact given to Stanley Huang (黃立行).

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By Jules Quartly
The boyz from K One were fitted out in matching white suits, with those cute, comic-type haircuts that are all fringe and no substance. They were busy signing autographs after a performance in Taipei's fashionable Ximending when Hartley Pool bounded onto the stage in his buttoned-up dayglo orange corduroy shirt, jeans pulled up tight to his crotch and hair slicked down.

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By Diana Freundl
A large number of small venues in Taipei put on live shows every night of the week, but only a few are subsidized by the government, allowing underground and unfamiliar artists a chance to perform and get paid.

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By Ian Bartholomew
Kun opera is regarded by many as the most venerable and influential form of Chinese opera, dating back at least to the 1500s. It has long existed in the shadow of its more showy descendent, Beijing opera, but is now making something of a comeback.

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By David Momphard
TT Puppet Theater has their hand in it again. Long the protector of local puppetry traditions, their offering tomorrow -- and every Saturday this month -- comes from the Italian tradition. For those familiar with the foreign-run company, this comes as no surprise. Company member Pippo Massimo helped bring Marco Polo to the tiny stage and this time is bringing Fagiolino.

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By Jules Quartly
Red-I and The Riddim Outlawz were set to roll up and blow out some roots, lover's rock and reggae at Luxy last night with the first of a new series of live gigs at the city center club.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie talke on the lastest and possibly most violent film in the long tradition of Hollywood romantic comedies
By Stephen Farber
Even the title is evocative: Mr and Mrs Smith calls to mind a classic Hollywood star vehicle of the past, the identically named 1941 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In that picture, two stars of the era, Robert Montgomery and Carole Lombard, played a "squabbling Punch and Judy," according to the New York Times review.

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With integrity and unconventional wisdom, the film tells of a youngboy who is taken in by his HIV-positive uncle
By Stephen Holden
What happens when a sexually free-spirited, HIV-positive dentist becomes the unofficial custodian of his 9-year-old nephew? That's the question posed by Bear Cub, a wise, sweet-natured Spanish film, in which an uncle, Pedro (Jose Luis Garcia-Perez), takes in his smart, very hip young nephew Bernardo (David Castillo) after Bernardo's mother is detained abroad.

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A ghost train takes a businessman on a nasty tour of London's Underground
Over the years, there have been quite a few movies, thrillers mostly, concerning strange denizens lurking beneath cities in the underground system -- among them Luc Besson's Subway, Michael Apted's Extreme Measures and the recent Hungarian picture Kontroll.

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With all the Oscar contenders piled up late in the year, Hollywood fills the slow months with films destined for late-night cable
By A. O. Scott
A little more than two weeks ago, when much of the US movie-critic population was in Cannes pushing and shoving our way into four or five movies a day, the news arrived from back home that the general public did not appear to share our zeal. For the third spring in a row, the box-office grosses and the number of tickets sold for first-run theatrical releases had fallen, data that provoked concern and speculation in Hollywood and in the industry trade papers. What could be keeping people away from the movies? Bad weather? Economic uncertainty? The high price of gasoline? The angry and polarized political climate?

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The Ministry of Justice presented three anti-drug films on Wednesday as part of the government's efforts to fight drug abuse.

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Address: 36 Yutang Rd, Fengshan Village, Shoufeng, Hualien (花蓮縣壽豐鄉豐山村魚塘路36號)
Telephone: (03) 865 0360/3808
Open: Breakfast/lunch from 9am to 2pm and dinner from 5pm to 9pm
Average meal: NT$1,000 for two
Details: There is no menu and the staff does not speak English
By Gavin Phipps
If you plan to take a trip to Taiwan's picturesque east coast this summer and are looking for something healthy and different to chow down on while in the Hualien area, then a visit to the Fuli Fish Farm Restaurant (富麗漁村餐廳) is a must.

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Address: 6, Lane 106, Longjiang Rd, Taipei (台北市龍江路106巷6號)
Telephone: (02) 2508 2373
Open: Noon to 9:30pm. Closed on Sunday.
Average meal: NT$490
Details: Credit cards accepted. Menu in Chinese and English. Service in Chinese or French
By Emily Drew
After studying French cuisine for nine years and living in France for six, chef Alain Zhong (鐘晏浦) can create nearly any dish from any region of France. His restaurant, Aux Petits Oignons (歐柏小館) features some of his favorite dishes and specialities.

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