18 Lover continues to be a wise choice for some housey-housey in an intimate setting on Friday evenings. SL plays a little bit of what he fancies which varies weekly — the last few months have seen him tinkling the ivories with some live keyboard work over stripped-down beats, throwing Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water into the mix and generally larking about before Victor takes to the tables.
Last week we were treated to Crystal Waters' Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) and, lo and behold, not only did we get to hear her 1991 debut, but crystal of the balls variety must have been broken out as well. The lady herself visits Ministry of Sound tonight for a live PA.
The New Jersey-based songstress is known best for her debut, written with the Basement Boys, a combination of a potent political message and unforgettable vocals, which has been remixed and re-released several times over the last 15 years. It still airs on radio and it's appeared on so many compilation albums that Ms. Waters is probably living very comfortably off the royalties: but not one to rest on her laurels, she aced a second hit single with 100% Pure Love in 1994 and has also put her vocal talents to good use in collaboration with a number of artists. Bravo Friday is the name of the night and the fun kicks off at 10pm. Door damage is NT$700. Victor and Jimmy Chen provide support on the decks.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MOS
Down in Tainan's Fusion Lounge tonight, Luxy/the Loop resident Reason guests at Fasten the Fusion/Restart from Nil Part 2. If there's a lot of Fusions in that sentence, then the line-up should tell you why: nine DJs playing electro and progressive, house and breaks, drum'n'bass and trance mean that there's something for everyone. Tickets are a staggeringly cheap NT$400 for the men folk and NT$200 for the girls.
Hsinchu is not famed for its electronic music scene, but stuck out there in a forgotten corner of farmland, curious things are taking place. Dakar, Ugly, Grant and Poverty go on patrol as the Breakbeat Army storms the Windy City's Club Cammi tomorrow night. Expect breaks both old and nu-school, electro, funk, hip-hop and, erm, brum'n'bass [sic]. Not sure if this is a typo or whether they'll actually be playing drum'n'bass from the UK Midlands ('Brum' being short for Birmingham, non-Brits,) but looks interesting nonetheless.
Also tomorrow, Taichung's Oldies Bar presents A Nickel Bag of Funk, featuring Taipei-based DJs That Guy and Two Hands, Miaoli's Lazy Daze and Kaohsiung's Antihero. As the name implies, funk is the order of the day so dust off those platforms and shake out those Afros, and get down, get down. It's NT$200 for everybody and that includes a beer.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
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