Akram Khan has been working with Cloud Gate Dance Theater; the results of the collaboration will be presented at the end of the month
By Diane Baker
Akram Khan is no stranger to Taipei, or the capital's dance lovers. He's performed here twice as part of the Novel Hall Dance series. But his most recent visit was different he said, because he was seeing the country through the eyes of its own dancers.

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By Diane Baker
When one thinks of Taiwan's dance world, of course there is the megalithic Cloud Gate Dance Theater (Cloud Gate Dance Theater), the Neo-Classical Dance Company (新古典舞團), the Legend Lin (無垢舞蹈劇場) and several smaller companies (five to 10) people such as Crossover (台北越界舞團), and then there are the individual dancer/choreographers — but they don't do ballet, at least not classical ballet. People who want to see ballet are largely dependent on foreign infusions, which thankfully, have become more frequent in recent years.

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By Noah Buchan
Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) is disillusioned with Taiwan's political scene. Fed up with the constant partisan bickering and lunch-box battles in the legislature, the founder and president of the Lung Ying-tai Cultural Foundation (龍應台文化基金會) — a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Taipei — hopes to provide an antidote to Taiwan's political chaos through hosting a series of lectures called Taipei Salon (台北沙龍). The lectures are conducted in English.

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Compiled by Jules Quartly
Last night's big gig at Zhongshan Soccer Stadium in Taipei was, conveniently, on a holiday to commemorate the 228 Incident. So, before everyone could get down to the serious business of enjoying British band Muse, there were a lot of speeches and films about whither-now Taiwan. The reward for staying to the end — after 11 hours of eight local and international acts — was a one-and-a-half hour performance from Matthew Bellamy and the lads. Ten thousand fans were inspired enough to do so, according to our sister paper The Liberty Times, which rated the show a big hit. It said Muse's set was a "special blend of baroque rock 'n' roll," citing Bellamy's background in classical music as inspirational.

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By Noah Buchan
Those wanting to hear Placido Domingo sing as a tenor had better get their tickets fast as this is probably the last time he'll sing as one in Taiwan. The internationally acclaimed tenor will give a one-off concert in Taipei tomorrow night, where he will perform with Argentinean soprano Virginia Tola.

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By Ron Brownlow
For decades, scientists have struggled to reconcile the seemingly contradictory theories of relativity, which explains the behavior of planets and stars, with quantum mechanics, which explains how subatomic particles work.

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By Gareth Price
Chicago's DJ Rees Urban spanked the Vinyl Word last week, unhappy about this column's coverage of his protege Heavy Grinder, who played two weeks ago at Champagne Thr3e.

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Robert De Niro's latest movie takes the glamor and glitz out of espionage and gets down to the nitty gritty of deception and intrigue
By Manohla Dargis
The Good Shepherd, a chilly film about a spy trapped in the cold of his own heart, who seeks to put a tragic human face on the Central Intelligence Agency, namely that of Matt Damon. The story more or less begins and ends at the Bay of Pigs. In between there is a spicy, lively interlude in the 1930's at Yale University, where little boys are made of skull and bones and secret societies. Yale leads to World War II, cloak and dagger and a British spy cut from the same bespoke cloth as Kim Philby. Then it's over to Washington, where the citadels of power loom against the cheerless sky like tombstones.

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Will Smith and son are down and out in the 1980s, but not for long
By Manohla Dargis
A fairy tale in realist drag, The Pursuit of Happyness is the kind of entertainment that goes down smoothly until it gets stuck in your craw. Inspired by a true story, as they like to say in Hollywood, the film traces the fleeting ups and frightening downs of Chris Gardner, whose efforts to keep his family from sinking into poverty evolve into a life-and-death struggle of social Darwinian proportions. It's the early 1980s, and while former US president Ronald Reagan is delivering the bad economic news on television, Chris is about to prove you don't need an army to fight the war on poverty, just big smiles and smarts, and really sturdy shoes. (It also helps that the star playing him is as innately sympathetic as Will Smith.)

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When Ami Ankilewitz was barely 18 months old, his mother was told that he had a rare motor neuron disease called spinal muscular atrophy and that he was unlikely to live beyond six. Now 34, Ankilewitz lives in Tel Aviv and works as a 3-D animator, despite weighing only 39 pounds [17.7kg] and being able to move only one finger on his left hand.

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Hong Kong's veteran female director Ann Hui returns with a poignant social tale in contemporary China
By Ho Yi
A leading figure of Hong Kong New Wave cinema, acclaimed director Ann Hui (許鞍華) makes a long-awaited return to local theaters with the tragicomic drama The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (姨媽的後現代生活) starring a first-class cast of great actors from China and Hong Kong. The flick examines the deprived and the outcast, left behind by the fast changing society in China laden with Hui's signature synthesis of humanism and a feministic sensibility.

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This film's idea is that Diane Arbus coaxed out her inner freak by focusing on nudists, twins and the retarded
By Manohla Dargis
In Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's novel about humiliation and marble-white flesh, Venus in Furs, a seductress named Wanda taunts the man who would be her slave, "And so now fur arouses your bizarre fantasies?" Impatient for the inevitable answer (yes, and how), Wanda begins "coquettishly draping herself in her splendid fur, so that the dark, shiny sables flashed delightfully around her breasts, her arms." From such turgid lust and swollen prose a perversion is born, as well as a slow-burn Velvet Underground song.

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US director Martin Scorsese, newly minted with a long-awaited Oscar for The Departed, will team up with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger to make a rock film, industry press reported this week.

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Address: 8F, 98 Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北市忠孝東路四段98號9F)
Telephone: (02) 6638-9699
Open: 11am to midnight; closes at 2am on weekdays
Average meal: NT$399 to NT$599 per person, plus 10 percent service charge
Details: Chinese menu; credit cards accepted
On the Net: www.bullfight.com.tw
By Ron Brownlow
You can get Japanese-, Mongolian- or Korean-style barbeque almost anywhere in Taipei, but few places offer the kind of views Bullfight (鬥牛士) does.

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Address: 4F, 45 Shifu Rd, Taipei (台北市市府路45號4樓)
Telephone: (02) 8181-8166
Open: Daily from noon to 3pm for lunch; 6pm to 10pm for dinner
Average meal: Lunch sets from NT$480, dinner sets from NT$780, plus 10 percent service charge
Details: Credit cards accepted. Menu in Chinese and English
By Noah Buchan
The number of items available at hot pot restaurants throughout the island is only exceeded by their ubiquity on the streets of Taipei. In addition to the different meat, seafood and vegetables found at these dens of gluttony, patrons can also choose from Thai, Korean or local broths to boil their food in. The recently opened Mihan 101 on the fourth floor of Taipei 101 and operated by the Grand Formosa Regency, has taken the average shabu shabu restaurant and made it upscale by creating four unique broths based on traditional Japanese recipes.

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Theater

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