Abba Fever may not be the real deal, but after ABBA hung up their mics 25 years ago it's the closest you'll get
By Jules Quartly
Knowing me knowing you, aha, you'll have Fernando on your iPod in preparation for the arrival of the ultimate glam tribute band Abba Fever at the Taipei International Convention Center this weekend. It is time once more to unpack the platform shoes, put an iron over those flared jeans and tighten that perm.

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By Noah Buchan
Grammy-winning conga player Poncho Sanchez will come to Taipei on Sunday for a one-off concert featuring some great Cuban beats at the National Concert Hall (國家音樂廳). The line-up of songs include jazz standards such as Night in Tunisia and The Nearness of You, plus a number of original songs such as Agua Belen and El Shingalin.

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By Ho Yi
As Taiwan has recently jumped on the global bandwagon of appreciating handmade goods as a counterpoint to the evasiveness of digital technology, it was only a matter of time when interest turned to vinyl records. Starting this weekend, Eslite music department initiates a 10-day feast on LP records that offer a completely different music-listening experience than the digital encoding of sounds.

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By Noah Buchan
"I never really had [the] talent to do the creative side [of performance]," said Ping Heng (平珩), who has just stepped down from a two-and-a-half year stint as artistic director at Chiang Kai-shek Cultural Center. "I think you have to be crazy to become an artist and I always think I never push myself [hard enough]."

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Compiled by Ho Yi
Fierce competition in the sagging pop music market and the tabloids' obsession with sex and celebrity have prompted record companies to cook up increasingly elaborate schemes to garner free publicity and place their singers under the showbiz spotlight. The transgression of good taste may now be par for the course.

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By Ron Brownlow
Shooting at people with toy guns is fun, and the Taipei area offers no shortage of places where weekend warriors can engage in friendly battles. The problem is that most paintball and BB gun venues are in out-of-the-way places like Wulai (烏來). Motivating a group of people to make the trip can be a hassle, and bad weather can ruin everything.

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By Gareth Price
Several years ago, when this column was christened, vinyl records were still the staple of DJs across the island, and across most of the world too. CD decks, such as Numark's CDN-22 have been around since the 1990s and in 1998, with input from DJs Jon Acquaviva and Richie Hawtin, the first incarnation of digital vinyl was released as Final Scratch, allowing a piece of vinyl to be used to control MP3s on a computer. But it took several years before the supremacy of vinyl was seriously challenged.

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The much anticipated big-screen adaptation of the graphic novel regains some credibility for the sword-and-sandal's genre lost by ‘Troy’ and ‘Alexander’
By Bob Strauss
If you're wondering why the new movie 300 looks like nothing you've ever seen, the basic reasons are as old as civilization itself: art and commerce.

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This film leaves a bad taste in the mouth with human kebabs seasoned with a smidgen of incestuous lust
By Bob Strauss
Given the recent spate of horror-movie prequels, we can at least be grateful that the makers of Hannibal Rising, in perhaps their sole moment of clarity, decided that Hannibal: The Beginning might be a tad obvious. As it turns out, the title, with its priapic agency and whiff of retribution, is the high point of a back story that ought to have remained firmly in our imaginations. Like Leatherface and Freddy Krueger, Hannibal Lecter is a monster who thrives in the dark; probe his past, and there's a danger of finding only banality.

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Yao Hung-i's award-winning debut feature ‘Reflections’ might show the influence of Hou Hsiao-hsien, but it manages to establish a style of its own
By Ho Yi
A long-term production team member for the doyen of Taiwanese cinema Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), cinematographer Yao Hung-i's (姚宏易) debut feature Reflections (愛麗絲的鏡子) mirrors Hou's attempt to capture the anomic life of the youth and turns in a visually accomplished drama on a lesbian affair in contemporary Taipei.

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As an ABBA tribute band prepares to hit Taipei this weekend, Pierce Brosnan has become the latest star to sign up for the big-screen adaptation of hit ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, it was reported this week.

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Address: 201 Dunhua S Rd Sec 2, Taipei (台北市敦化南路二段201號)
Telephone: (02) 2376-3156
Open: From 6pm to 10:30pm
Average meal: Chef's Table Deluxe Menu is NT$4,990 plus 10 percent service charge
Details: 48-hour advance reservation for parties of six to eight
By Jules Quartly
Currently, one of the most outstanding places to dine in Taipei is at the chef's table in the Marco Polo restaurant on the 38th floor of the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel (台北遠東國際大飯店). The table appears to be a solid block of cream-white marble and is so large it is hard to communicate with the person opposite without raising your voice. Surrounding the table are scarlet colored, velvet King's chairs and these provide a startling conceit. Though the center of attention, our party was hidden from view by the high backs of the chairs and the overall effect was of privacy and exclusiveness.

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Address: 49, Ln 308, Guangfu S Rd, Taipei (台北市光復南路308巷49號)
Telephone: (02) 2741-5365
Open: 8pm to 4am, Sunday and Tuesday through Thursday; 8pm to 6am Friday and Saturday
Average meal: NT$200
Details: English; credit cards not accepted
By Ron Brownlow
Spaceman has landed.

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Theater

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Top Five Mandarin Album

Feb 23 to March 1
1. Peter Ho (何潤東) and I Want to Tell You (好想對你說) with 9.81% of sales

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