SideTracked

Gasp (not the last)

2009-08-22T18:29:38Z

I've barely updated all summer, and summer's almost over!
It'll be as if these last three months never happened!

Tile Love

2009-06-27T00:29:48Z

Tile Love
Love for scooters.
Love for tiles.
Love for love.

I was there.
Now I'm here.
More later, when chattiness can no longer be helped.

Legs!

2009-05-07T02:23:43Z

Not Hollow

2009-05-04T00:05:56Z

Frankenveggie
It was like a little plastic pop-out fetus, this parasitic twin growing inside my red pepper.

Not Dead, Just Vulnerable

2009-04-19T08:41:40Z

20090418 Bonfire Madigan
Still looking for a portal, not a cure.

In Summary...

2009-03-04T09:26:15Z

20090201 On the Web

2009-02-02T00:32:54Z


20090201 On the Web Are the spiderwebs there because we never open this kitchen window, or we never open this kitchen window because of the spiderwebs? Whatever the case, it's gotten a bit out of hand the past few months, but it seems kind of silly to do anything about it when we have a strip of fly paper hanging up right next to this window, too...

ETA: On second thought, I'm just going to backdate when I feel like it. If you want the daily scoop, you should go to and join roll_of_28, or check my gallery for these pics.

A Candidate for PassiveAggresiveNotes.com?

2009-02-01T05:49:54Z

A Candidate for PassiveAgressiveNotes.com?

After briefly consulting with two of the White-Haired Old Dudes who also frequent the dog park, we decided to take down this note. "If it is true, we're really doing a disservice," S. stated, just before ripping up the note for good measure. Frankly, I think there's more going on than just the "facts" that this note so shrilly indicates (and I question the veracity of some of these claims, given how often I'm at the park and what I've seen for myself). This whole bit about "selling" her foster dogs? She's probably asking for an adoption fee, which is totally reasonable and within limits. The very idea that anyone could be making a living off the mutts she rescues is just ludicrous... In the past (as in, over a year ago), it's true that I've seen some of her dogs with possible aggression issues, but the ones that stick out in recent memory have been either half-dead and/or sweet as pie. It has also been over a year since I've seen her with more than four dogs at once.

Which is not to say that these claims might not have been true at some time. It just doesn't settle well with me that someone decided this was a better way of dealing with a situation than actually talking to the woman in question. Granted, Ms. R. isn't the easiest person to talk to, thetypeofwomanwhodoesn'tletyougetawordinedgewise. But from what I've seen, she has been known to change and amend her ways when people have talked to her. What more can you really ask of a person like that?

Well, I guess it's obvious that I've taken sides in this matter. I'll choose the side with a name and face, thanks.

Also, roll_of_28 starts tomorrow. The idea is to post a photo a day, every day, for the month of February. I think I'll cross-post this year, so apologies in advance for the few of you who may be subject to repeat postings from me for the next month.

The Sun Dog and the Goof Ball

2009-01-08T04:12:08Z

The sun dog and the goof ball -- which is which?

Peeling Bamboo Shoots

2009-01-06T08:24:25Z

Peeling fresh bamboo shoots -- surely there's some poetic metaphor to this process, whereby these rough, outer layers are stripped to reveal the tender, edible meat underneath. I'm feeling too inarticulate to take this a step further myself, but surely someone's written about it before. It's such a soothing, tactile experience, the way each layer crisps off, revealing another layer of fuzz and sheen, clean like cat's fur.

I'm writing this mostly because I love fresh bamboo and want to gush about how grateful I am to live in a part of the US where it's freely available. I also wanted to throw this out on the internet because I'm not actually sure if I'm peeling correctly. No, I know, it's stupidly simple, but the way I'm doing it seems inefficient and unnecessarily wasteful, so I'm hoping one of my foodie friends might be able to help me figure this out.

Cuz I shouldn't have to call mommy every time I make a mess in the kitchen...

So I start with a hefty chunk of bamboo, and start unraveling from the bottom up. Easy enough.

Each of the bottom layers has a nubby ridge. So cute.
I keep peeling off each layer of bamboo until I can snap off the tip with minimal resistance.

Finally, I end up with a tiny little edible stump, while everything on the left is discarded or fed to the worms. I hate paying by the pound for food where half the weight ends up being thrown out anyway!

... but what remains is pretty tasty!

Tales of the Broken Family Tree: a Mix CD

2008-12-21T07:25:45Z

The title of my most recent mix CD is shamelessly stolen from a talk by film scholar Zhang Zhen on the recurrent orphan figure in postwar Sinophone cinemas. Just as orphans abound in Chinese-language film, so too are they scattered throughout Chinese-language music. No, this isn't exactly a holiday-themed mix, but I've been sitting on this list for some time.

This collection is loosely collected around the subjects of orphans, filial piety, and families of both the idealized and dysfunctional sort. One CD wasn't enough at all, but I'm happy with this first attempt. I've got songs in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, aboriginal languages (but oddly, nothing here in Cantonese), culled from the world of 1930s Shanghai starlets, to one of Jay Chou's cheesiest (but oddly infectious) mommy tributes, to the work of imagistic, elegiac Hakka lyricists like Zhong Yongfeng of the Labor Exchange and Lo Sirong.

And sorry, I haven't made it available for download. I'm still playing around with the liner notes and decorating ideas. If you want an actual, CD copy, drop me a line with your address.

1. BAI Hong [白虹]: Poor Papa and Mama [可憐的爸爸媽媽]
2. Nan-Wang Sisters [南王三姊妹]: Mother's Wreath [媽媽的花環]
3. TSAI Mimi [蔡咪咪]: Mama, Give Me a Guitar [媽媽送我一把吉他]
4. FANG Rui-er [方瑞娥]: Papa Was a Sailor [爸爸是行船人]
5. WOO Ying-yin [吳鷹音]: Daddy Says No One Will Marry Me [爸爸說我沒法嫁]
6. Linda LIN Dai [林黛]: Orphan Park [孤兒樂園]
7. XIAO Fang-fang [蕭芳芳]: Mother is Good [媽媽好]
8. GONG Qiuxia [龔秋霞]: Thinking of Mother [思母]
9. ZHANG Fan & CHEN Juanjuan [張帆 & 陳娟娟]: We Want a Daddy [我們要爸爸]
10. CHEN Fang-lan [陳芳蘭]: An Orphan's Wish [孤女的願望]
11. KINMEN Wang & LI Biing-huei [金門王 & 李炳輝]: Mother, Please Take Care Too [媽媽請您也保重]
12. LO Sirong [羅思容]: Dancing with Mother [跈等阿姆跳舞]
13. Labor Exchange Band [交工樂隊]: Two Generations [兩代人]
14. YAO Li [姚莉]: Little Brother [小弟弟]
15. KOO Mei [顧媚]: Mother, Where Are You? [母親你在何方]
16. Jay CHOU [周杰倫]: Listen to Mother [聽媽媽的話]
17. Totem [圖騰]: Father's Words [父親的話]
18. WEN Hsia [文夏]: Mother, I Will Be Brave [媽媽我也真勇健]
19. TSAI Mimi: I Love Mommy and Daddy [我愛爸爸媽媽]
20. GI Lu-hsia [紀露霞]: Unaging Daddy [不老的爸爸]
21. T.C. Yang [楊租珺]: Orphan of Asia [亞西亞的孤兒]
22. LO Ta-yu [羅大佑]: Orphan of Asia

Material World

2008-12-14T04:17:36Z

I hadn't expected to use this bag for as long as I did. It's not my color (ecru), dirties easily (yes I've washed it several times already), and not a messenger bag (my preferred style). But it was cheap -- free with attendance at Academia Sinica's "Rethinking Modern Chinese History" conference, and sturdy enough to hold the excess of conference papers, catalogs, and other promotional materials circulated for that 3-day event. Years passed, and then I dug this tote out of the closet in a desperate moment, when my army messenger bag failed.

It may not have been made for a battlefield, but this bag held up remarkably well, stuffed as it was with books, more books, student papers, binders full of tabloid xeroxes for that thesis I still haven't finished, and of course, that oversized anthology which I had to carry to campus 4 out of 5 days a week. After all that my bag has gotten me through, I'm sad to see it die. One shredded strap fell so softly off my shoulder the moment I walked into the last lecture, it felt like regret. My bag may have given up before the end of the semester, but I'm not finished yet. This very thought makes me peevish and more prone to start up random games of Facebook Scrabble that I shouldn't be playing.

Little, stupid stuff like this makes me anxious and melancholy these days. No wonder I haven't written here in a month. In my earlier days, the number of entries per month seemed inversely related to how I felt: low moods, high output volume. Now that I have more at stake in writing, the opposite seems to be true.

Sleepy Schizo

2008-10-27T08:43:23Z

Bowdu's not always cute. He gets downright ugly when I merely fondle his paws and try to inspect his nails. That's the result of a few rather traumatic nail-clipping sessions back in Taiwan for ya there.

Seconds after I took the picture on the left, he flipped over, kicked one leg ceiling-ward, exposed his tummy, and gave me this apologetic puppyface:

Weirdo.

You Talk, I Listen

2008-10-25T05:55:46Z

As soon as I saw this man's hat, I recalled the first time I saw him on the bus. He caught my attention, as intended, because of the large laminated sign clipped to his black backpack: LISTENING SERVICE -- YOU TALK, I LISTEN. Even if his service is actually bait for some sinister recruitment scheme (yes, I'm a cynic), it's a beautiful idea.

I want to take him at face value because he's the logical extension of the white-haired ex-hippies I've been befriending at the dog park lately. Chatting with these older, laid-back locals and playing with their dogs helps counteract the intensity of my discussion sessions. Too much youth can be downright overwhelming. Yet taken in combination with more moored individuals, I feel like I'm only now starting to get a sense of the human character of this place. Though we've been here over two years, there's still very little that feels "familiar"... but no doubt, this is a comfortable place to be.

Lurking

2008-09-30T06:51:35Z

Prohibitive

2008-09-06T01:11:06Z

Four Nos

NO RADIOS.
NO ALCOHOL.
NO DRUGS.
NO DOGS.

Get Rollin'

2008-08-28T02:17:46Z


20080820 Rollin' Celebrating a few final moments of summer delirium before buckling down and getting serious this fall semester... Wait, it's already a bit late for that, isn't it?

Edit: Bowdu Kaleidoscope
Oh my goodness, this addition makes the post EXTRA delirious. I must put it in!

Made with the assistance of KrazyDad's Kaleidoscope maker and Cute Overload.

Looks Different

2008-08-20T22:24:10Z

Oh yeah, I'm back in the U!S!A!#1!, where the fruit looks all different...

... and where I've spent much of the last week dealing with the nuisances of car ownership. Finally passed my biannual smog test after several trips to two mechanics and a bill that averages out to about an extra dime for every mile I've driven in the past two years. Luckily, I don't drive very much, but the places my car gives me access to -- off-leash dog parks and cheap Asian grocery stores -- are so central to my lifestyle here, I just have to consider this an unavoidable hassle.

It's just a hassle though, nothing more. I'm not as hardcore as the driver on the right. Now that's a car that displays some tough love.

Mango Mama

2008-08-12T04:39:24Z


20080811 My Favorite Fruit Vendor She has the nummiest crispy green sour mango in all of Raohe Night Market (I bought a big ol' bag of them, so what's left is under the spoon).

I'm off for one last dip into the film archives. Plane outta Taipei leaves tomorrow in the early evening, and there's still a lot to do before then!

Disney's Musical to Promote Cross-Cultural Understanding

2008-08-10T10:33:24Z

So the South African cast production of The Lion King has been playing down the street at the Little Superdome since the beginning of this month. Just outside the arena, this exchange was overheard between a middle-aged (presumably) Taiwanese man herding a horde of brats and a Black couple, presumably spectators or possibly staffers hanging out before the show. They looked like they might have been chatting for a little while before I caught this snippet:

Taiwanese man: You like Taiwan? Is very hot. Like you home.
Black man: ... I'm from New York.

Watching the Olympic Mass Ornaments from Across the Strait

2008-08-08T12:33:22Z

This is too hilarious...

A mere five minutes into the live broadcast of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, 台視 interrupted the singing children for a cold cut to commercials, like they were timed to play at that EXACT minute -- ad revenue must be earned as usual. What a way to me feel like a sucker for being incredibly curious and actually wanting to witness the opening ceremony as a carefully choreographed performance in its entirety. Obviously the Taiwanese don't care about the Olympics the same way they do on the other side of the strait, and that commercial break really drove the point home.

It's the first time a commercial break made me laugh.

Okay, 25 minutes into the opening ceremony, I think the TV stations figured out they need to turn off pre-programmed commercials... unless that previous interruption was deliberate? Hmm.

Back to the show.

Edit: 30 minutes into the ceremony -- just kidding. Commercials are still running. For 中視 too.

Edit 2: 45 minutes in: I totally want to learn tai chi now. OMG, THE INSIDIOUS EFFECTS OF TELEVISED SPECTACLES -- IT'S WORKING.

Edit 3: 56 minutes in: Of all the stupid things, smiley face fireworks was the tipping point for me. I think I cried a little. Help. This is too much.

Edit 4: I love how the announcer specially points out every one of Taiwan's 邦友, diplomatic partners.

Edit 5: 台視 cut to commercials right in the middle of the USA's team entrance? Harsh! Someone must be asleep at the controls -- this parade's been going on for a while now. 中視 still rolling. They're talking about how rich the US team is, and how many athletes are rooming in the city's fanciest hotels.

Final: Went to sleep before the lighting of the flame. Woops.

Sensorium of Taiwanese Indie Music

2008-08-03T09:46:18Z

Aside from the first fourteen years of my life and now (forced frugality during grad school), I've been a voracious consumer of music. My own acquisition habits have always varied wildly, undetermined by typical market analysis categories such as, say, age or monthly income. I've been purchasing a lot less music these past couple years, turning to other, intangible venues for my fix such as freeform radio, last.fm, music blogs, and more recently, muxtape.

This summer, I've cut myself some slack. More honestly, my defenses are considerably weakened by physical contact with pieces of music that I can't find elsewhere in the world. And local musicians do indeed make an effort to put out materially alluring products. Am I only noticing packaging more this summer as musicians and record labels, in general, are engaging in more desperate measures to combat music downloading?

Not that I'm willing to draw any direct correlations between the amount of music downloaded and the amount of music not purchased. There's a whole host of factors inbetween, and what goes into purchasing decisions varies from person to person. Local musicians have got my attention which is the first step to getting my money, anyway. I'm willing to buy music based on packaging alone, forgiving even mediocre music if it looks and feels like care went into its construction... though no amount of packaging and sincerity can salvage truly bad music, I'm afraid. Making purchases based on packaging alone is obviously not a foolproof method if your ultimate goal is good music. There are some real stinkers in this summer's loot, which I am not afraid to name, but there are also some real praiseworthy pieces, where the musicianship reflects the effort that went into packaging.

Anyway, here is an overview of my Summer 2008 Local Music Purchase Highlights, based on packaging alone. There's more and I'm not going to review every purchase I made, but this is the stuff that needs to be visually admired, fondled, read and textually processed as well as heard, beginning with one of my favorites and then proceeding in no particular order:

The Countrymen [阮對庄腳來], We Are From the Country EP
Release Info: Gamaa Music [迦碼], 2008; 199NT
Sound and story: I was introduced to this Taichung-based folk-rock band through a last.fm user who kindly shared their demo with me. Their unusual name is the Hanzi transcription of their Taiwanese name, góan tùi cheng kha lâi. It's a name that sticks out. So when I saw this cute little burlap sack silkscreened with their band name, I snapped it up. Now this is a proper debut, even if the 3-song EP is tantalizingly short.
Their sound is very warm, very organic -- not a surprise that they're trying to promote respect for local roots and agricultural laborers with their music. The burlap sack even contains a small handful of scented, dried country grass. Ironically, I think I'll have to dump the grass before I pack it up in my suitcase, lest I get stopped at customs for importing illegal plant matter. What comes from this soil must return to this soil...

Chen Guanyuu & the Hohak Band [陳冠宇＆好客樂隊], The Gangster's God soundtrack [炸神明],
packaged with Guo Jincai [郭進財], First Chair Suona Player [第一支]
Release Info: Hohak Band/Isle Networks/music543.com, 2006 and 2005; the Gambler's God soundtrack is available on its own, but it's worth the extra bit of cash for the extra 11 minutes of material on Guo's single.
Sound and Story: I'm a sucker for metallic embossing. Flash me a little sparkly and you've got my attention. But this set also got me excited on other merits -- a film about the Taiwanese underworld?? By Ho Chao-ti, who did the documentary on my favorite Taiwanese band, The Labor Exchange? Featuring a soundtrack by ex-Labor Exchange band members, reformed as the Hohak Band?? With an additional solo CD by their fabulous suona player? Bring it on! It's splendidly mixed, deserves to be bumped up a bit on your stereo to get a feel for the electronic twiddles that undergird this soundtrack. Again though, too bad both CDs are so short.

Various Artists, Wu Sheng: Poems & Songs [吳昇：甜蜜的負荷，詩，歌]
Release Info: A Good Day Records [風和日麗唱片行]/National Museum of Taiwan Literature, 2008; with bonus downloadable ringtone codes!
Sound and story: I initially noticed this because of the beautiful covers – front and back embossed to resemble woodcuts. Then I noticed it was a compilation CD including the likes of Lo Ta-yu, ex-Labor Exchange Band lead singer Lin Shengxiang, Zhang Xuan, LTK Commune... and with luminaries such as these, the others had to be promising too. Brought it home and was not disappointed. These songs were written based on poetry by Wu Sheng, a Taiwanese writer whom I hadn't heard of before. It's a lovingly compiled tribute, so that others may know his work and his legacy.

Wu Sheng [吳昇], The Sweetest Burden: Poems & Recitations [甜蜜的負荷，詩，誦]
Release Info: A Good Day Records / National Museum of Taiwan Literature, 2007; 2 CDs, with video footage of Wu Sheng's readings
Sound and story: Based on the awesomeness of the above CD, I went back and purchased a copy of Wu Sheng reading his own works. Some of these poems are set to music -- not as carefully crafted as the songs in the compilation, but definitely complementary. Wu Sheng recites in both Mandarin and Taiwanese, and the listener is encouraged to follow along in the lavishly illustrated, full-color poetry booklet that accompanies the CD. It's more a piece of literary history than music, but lovely all the same.

T.C. Yang [楊租珺], A Voice That Could Not Be Silenced, 1977-2003 [關不住的歌聲]
Release Info: Trees, Music & Art [大大樹], 2008; with bonus documentary video footage of TC Yang demonstrating in front of the Garrison Command in 1986
Sound and Story: This one is history and music. While many of the "campus folk" artists from the late 1970s/early 1980s sound rather dated now, T.C. Yang seems to have stood the test of time -- or at least aged much more gracefully. Most of the songs are just her on acoustic guitar, belting out lyrics in a voice that refuses to sound as operatic and 'trained' as some of her contemporaries. This collection includes a thick, bilingual booklet detailing her brief and politically-charged music career, including lyrics (with translations). Trees, Music & Art gets props for giving the entire package such careful attention. Everything is translated, including musician credits and photo captions, and more importantly, it has been proofread. With just a little extra effort, this label has made its music accessible to a wider international audience, staking a viable claim for the future of Taiwanese music.

GTS & the Chun-mei Taiwanese Opera Troupe [春美歌劇團], White Horse [我身騎白馬]
Release Info: Major Music Production House, 2007
Sound and Story:With liner notes that trumpet this album as "an example of world class music quality," this, too, is primed for international distribution. GTS, a producer with a degree from the Berklee College of Music, was hoping to update the sound of Taiwanese Opera by giving it this electronic lounge treatment. Unfortunately, the final result is rather painful and unbearable, even as background music. Then again, I think that traditional Taiwanese Opera has plenty of vitality on its own and is hardly in need of aesthetic reinvention; it's the folly and ego of electronic DJs who think oldies can be so easily recycled. Despite stated good intentions, I think projects like this tend to do a disservice to the originals and the idea of remix projects in general. The Shanghai Lounge Divas collection remixed by Ian Widgery comes to mind -- bland, overproduced, and with the exception of maybe one track, generally lacking in creativity. The same can be said for the music here. There's a difference between sampling, catching the groove that makes an oldies tune what it is and then refining it by playing with it, mixing it, cutting it up and rebuilding it, as opposed to straight-up lifting entire songs and rolling them in layers of sound that don't necessarily go together. This is the musical equivalent of making a burrito by using, I dunno, a hunk of durian, coating it with mayonnaise, sprinkling on some canned corn and wrapping it all in seaweed before rolling it all up in a flour tortilla just because it's never been done before. Gross and unnecessary.
Package designer Xiao Qing-Yang [蕭青陽] at Shout Visual Studios does, however, deserve props for building a record sleeve that makes this more frameable than listenable. Nice textual details -- Hanzi lyrics and romanized pronunciation guide for every song. No translations of lyrics, but brief descriptions of the songs and project details are offered in English.

V/A, Face TCM -- Taiwan Colors Music Compilation, 1999-2005 [認識角頭, 角頭音樂精選]
Release Info: Taiwan Colors Music, 2005; 1 CD, 1 VCD
Sound and Story: Another album that makes use of painted faces. I was introduced to this label sometime back in... winter of 2001? or so by a friend who was passing through the States after having spent some time in Taiwan. The label has an important place in Taiwanese indie music history as the original organizers of the Ho-Hai-Yan summer rock festival and more, and this compilation celebrates its roster of defiantly free-spirited and heterogeneous artists including aboriginal solo artists and groups, Taiwanese dialect-singers both folk and modern, an underground radio DJ, and even expatriates who have played influential roles in local musical culture.

88 Balaz [88 Guava Seeds, 八十八顆芭樂籽], The 44 Stone Lions [肆十肆隻石獅子]
Release Info: Taiwan Colors Music, 2008
Sound and story: Though they didn't follow through with the compilation CD, a TCM trademark is that all albums come in what appears to be 10" LP sleeves, but they're actually CDs. I think the increased surface space permits them extra room for tactile and visual creativity in packaging. The very latest TCM release by 88 Guava Seeds came strongly recommended by Jeff. When I saw the wild cover art and the fact that they based the title of their new album on a classic Chinese tongue twister (what can I say? I'm still a bit of a language geek after all), I had to pick it up. Musically, this band is punkier than what I typically listen to -- borderline crusty, but you seldom get that crusty with local acts. At least not in any official releases that I've heard. I anticipate quite a different situation in a live setting, so I might venture out to one of their shows on my last night here for comparison's sake.

V/A, IS #3
Release Info: Isle Networks / music543.com, 2005
Sound and Story: Music543.com is a website that serves as a convergence point for all indie music lovers in Taiwan (but not limited to Taiwanese music), with articles, message boards, streaming radio, an online store, and more. That's about all I really know. What I want to know is where can I pick up MORE fantastic compilations like this one! It's already the third in a series produced by Sandee Chan [陳珊妮], a successful musician herself. I recognized a couple of the bands like My Little Airport and Pixeltoy, whom I think I heard about from William. Aside from those names, the heft of this CD is what struck me. I had to find out what was in it, so I purchased it. Unpacking it was a bit of a ritual in itself, with a cardboard sleeve that unfolds in four directions to uncover a stack of ten cards -- a general introduction, and one card for each of the bands featured on the CD. A lovely mix of acoustic and folktronic twee in this collection. Basically, the whole thing looks good, sounds good, feels like a precious musical treasure. Keepsies!

Kimtak [儉德大廈], In the Forest and Wilderness [在森林和原野]
Release Info: Harbour Records, 2006
Sound and story: I was attracted by the fairy tale storybook packaging of this Hong Kong labelmate of My Little Airport. Unfortunately, the lack of heft here, unlike the above compilation, should've been an indicator of this band's mediocrity. Despite the nice clothbound cover, there is almost nothing inside by way of liner notes. You get a cryptic beginning to a story of a girl who dreams of a tree with no memory -- and then it seems that the responsibility for the rest of the story is given to the music and the listener. The band's contemporary influences are pretty obvious... Sigur Ros + Mono + Godspeed, basically. But they never actually manage to swell and peak the way that the most generous purveyors of loud-soft-loud instrumental post-rock do. There's a lot of noodling, but it was all as limp as this description. Sorry, I was bored.

Natural Q [自然捲], Natural Q No. 4 [破捲而出]
Release Info: Pumping Robot Studio [給氣人音樂社], 2008
Sound and story: Hey, dustthouart, how would you translate the title? I thought it might be a pun on their band name and a variation on the idiom 脫穎而出, "to be outstanding", but I've forgotten where the original idiom comes from anyway... something about bamboo? Anyway, after seeing their live show with K., I've been on the lookout for the new album, which I finally picked up yesterday. It's hard to tell from these pictures, but what I liked about the packaging was how they managed to give it texture that resembles a hand-made product. The marker streaks actually look like marker streaks -- gives it a very personalized feel that matches their friendly, intimate sound. One surprisingly thing about this CD is that it's been given a Government Information Office seal of approval, having received official funding for its release. I had no idea the government was pumping money into local music too. As much as my current research in film rides on the idea that state-supported arts can still be creative and truly artful, I'm not sure how I feel about this discovery...

V/A, CABACA [卡巴卡]: CC Asia Band Album
Release Info: Himalaya Records/CABACA Creative Commons, 2008, also available at http://www.streetvoice.com.tw/cabaca
Sound and story: Lim Giong and Jutoupi's contributions (under various incarnations) are standouts on this album, aimed at promoting awareness of Creative Commons licenses. They throw in a t-shirt, pin, and weird cell-phone related gimmicks that I don't yet understand into this package, but the whole point here is that they don't actually care if you download it or not. So is it worth actually purchasing? Uhm, it's very hit-or-miss. But it's probably one of the most experimental musical projects to have come out of Taiwan in recent years, and I feel like that in itself deserves attention. From tracks 17 through 50, you basically get a number of clips that are anywhere from 9 to 43 seconds long, meant to serve as satirical ringtones (collected mostly by Jutoupi who has a really smart understanding of how personalized ringtones can also serve as cultural signifiers -- these clips are fascinating from a sociological point of view!) or material for future remix projects. Do what you want with the material -- it's all part of the politics of play.

I'm giving it all a thorough listen and plan to put up a personal list of favorites on my muxtape this Friday, my last Friday before heading back to the States. So stay tuned...

(Im)pending Doom

2008-07-27T18:03:07Z

Passing Hsinchu on the High Speed Rail, southbound to Tainan

Does this look like an approaching typhoon?

I didn't think so either, but I'm cloud illiterate.

After spending a sunny, relatively dry day in Tainan with William and Peter and James and Sara(h), I was surprised to return north to pelting rain and news of yet another typhoon shutting down the entire island tomorrow. A whole extra day to catch up on postponed communiques!

A more ominous portent of the weather to come.

Someone Else's Sleepy Shiba

2008-07-21T14:38:32Z

20080721 Someone Else's Sleepy Shiba
In the absence of Bowdu at my side I've taken to stalking other people's shibas. They're pretty popular here -- I see about two different ones each week, and this little gal nearly every day because I deliberately walk past her home on my daily route. Funny thing is, she's always asleep, blobbed out in the subtropical heat just like this.

Today was a little different. She's usually resting on the cool tile in the parlor/storefront of her home, but her family was apparently out for the day because their storefront was shut up, and her bowl of kibble and water were sitting out on the sidewalk. As expected, she was asleep when I passed by around 2pm, just lying on the sidewalk instead of with her people. But if you'll notice, the weird thing is she's just lying there unleashed. And her home is right next to a road. The one time I saw her awake, she was slowly waddling home from the middle of the road. She's too old to dart across (though I was really wishing she'd move a little faster as I watched her!), and apparently already used to cars and scooters avoiding her rather than the other way around. Even though scooters rule both the roads and sidewalks here, people here have somehow trained their dogs to not get hit by vehicles when walking unleashed, no matter how notoriously impossible to trust off-leash -- shibas included. Like I've said, I've never understood how they do it.

Close to Home

2008-07-20T13:51:21Z


20080716 Asiaworld Not one of the more attractive or interesting department stores in Taipei, but it's close to home.

Was supposed to go to Tainan this Sunday to visit William and Peter, but Typhoon Kalmaegi was apparently much harsher on the south than it was on us here in the north. Instead, I'll hop aboard the High Speed Rail and see them next week.

This weekend wasn't very newsworthy, but there's a lot churning around in this little overstuffed noggin. Maybe next time.