I (Still) Love SciFi.

Stray observations for 02.22.2012

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 01:00:45 +0800

It rained.
… and will probably do so for about, I don’t know, let’s just say… forever. Give or take a few days.
It’s 1 AM and I forgot what else I was going to write about Wednesday.

White Wabbit - Taipei, Taiwan

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:33:00 +0800

So David B. went to Taiwan about 3 years ago for a conference on the way to a fancy PhD in ocean physics and searched online for record stores. He found White Wabbit where he met Simon who was working there at the time. Simon took David around town and shopping for older used records. David ends up making a mixtape of his finds.

When David found out I was in Taiwan he immediately got me in contact with Simon because Canadians are the best people in the world.

While Waiting Room has mostly punk/hardcore/metal, White Wabbit mostly stocked Indie Rock type stuff. There is no way in hell I would have found my way to this shop without Simon’s help. THE SUBWAY IN TAIWAN? SO EASY. THE STREETS? SO HARD.

Another smaller record store. A bit bigger than Waiting Room. Pretty neat that White Wabbit had a wall of music from Taiwan/China (second to last picture is the wall). Waiting Room also had a section of Taiwanese punk/hardcore/metal that I can’t wait to go back this weekend and buy the shit out of.

I picked up a few of Simon’s recommendations and will post stuff as I get a chance to listen to it.

The receipt had a lottery number too.

Here is a better article on White Wabbit that isn’t filled with my bullshit nonsense rambling. It’s written by Catherine Shu who writes one of the blogs Dorothy loves and highly recommended to me when I was originally planing on coming to Taiwan (before I cancelled my plans only to leave last second anyways because my life was/is a wreck).

I’m going to end here because it’s past midnight and I’m talking in staccato.

P.S. If someone from Taiwan related to White Wabbit or Waiting Room reads this through google translate, when I said the store’s were small I didn’t mean it in a derogatory way. The fact that there are not one but TWO independent record stores in Taiwan is amazing.

Stray observations for 02.22.2012

From my understanding of what Simon told me, motherfuckers love their shoegaze around here.
The Chinese name Simon gave David B. to sign up for RenRen (Chinese Facebook, because goddamnit David) roughly translates to “calm interior, angry exterior, half-horse-half-dragon-mythical-creature-surrounded-by-fire”. Not joking.
My Chinese might not have been as terrible as I thought. Simon and I managed to have a conversation about SST/Dischord records, Black Flag, Agnostic Front, Husker Du and Swami Sound System. It took us about 10 minutes to figure out what Circle Pit was in Chinese and English, though. Still surreal.
My phone is supposed to be activated sometime today. This should lead to 97% less dying on my part.
I’ll write more tomorrow when I’m more awake and not completely scatterbrained, or at least less scatterbrained than usual.

Stray observations for 02.21.2012

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:01:00 +0800

I found out why all the receipts have a lottery number on them: Wikipedia page on the Uniform Invoice Lottery and another article
I joined the NTU gym today after going to the National Palace Museum. It’s only 30 bucks for 6 months. This also answers the question of “Can I not be a stupid bro for longer than a week?” NEVER STOP BRO’IN BRAH. SICQQQ.
It is pretty damn easy to be vegan here.
My sleep schedule was so jacked in the states that I’m on a normal sleep schedule without any jet lag right out the gate.
Dorothy and Jessica won’t let me shave my head because they say people will think I’m a goon if I do. :-\

Stay observations for 02.20.2012

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:27:00 +0800

Maybe I’m getting old or less cynical but all the kids are adorable little monsters here. I want to smoosh all their faces.
The above sentiment will almost assuredly change into me screaming “You think because you can speak proper Chinese, that you’re better than me?!” before drop kicking a 4 year old in the face out of frustration in about 2 weeks time.
My Chinese is so bad.
So so bad.
I have a cut on my butt and I don’t know how it got there.

Tumblr’s messaging service doesn’t allow links, so I’m making this post is for...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 12:26:00 +0800

Tumblr’s messaging service doesn’t allow links, so I’m making this post is for someone on here who I’ve been in contact with and this will also serve as a checklist for myself:

I went to Waiting Room yesterday which is near NTNU, you can find the address here: http://on.fb.me/x3jkvE .

They gave me a list of venues:
underworld-taipei.blogspot.com
thewall.com.tw
and facebook.com/revolver.taipei (a bar + venue).

There’s also another music store/sometimes venue near NTNU called White Wabbit, here’s the website: http://on.fb.me/ABGqwW and press clipping: http://bit.ly/zwJDqm

My friend Dorothy who is crazy about Taiwan but stuck in the states linked me to a few blogs, this one is her favorite focusing on general ex-pat stuff:
http://shuflies.blogspot.com/

My friend David who visited the country for a bit last year told me I had to go to this theater called SPOT. It’s the old US embassy converted into an indie movie theater: http://bit.ly/xWCkf4

That’s all I have right now, hopefully that helps you a bit Karrah. I know next to nothing about Taiwan so let me know what you end up finding too! I’ll probably buy a travel book the next few days though those don’t always list the fun quirky stuff that locals know about.

No Order - Track 2

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:47:00 +0800

One of the clerks at Waiting Room gave me No Order’s demo yesterday while I was at the store after I asked in my terrible bullshit Chinese about shows. Even though they clearly understood what I meant, I may or may not have tried to pantomime the word “concert”. Yeah… I don’t even know. I think I… made a triangle with my hands or did jazz fingers. You know what? Forget I even said this, I am totally not being socially awkward in Taiwan. Whoever told you that is a liar.

Back to my point. THERE IS A HARDCORE BAND IN TAIWAN WITH A PRETTY GOOD GRASP OF THE AESTHETIC.

DUDES! DUDES!? DUDES.

The reason I’m freaking out is that while Japan has a well established (and glorious) punk/hardcore/metal scene, the rest of Asia for the most part has/had nothing. My limited contact with Taiwan during childhood visits painted it as the white picket fence suburbia of Asia.^*

SO I SAY AGAIN: DUDES, HARDCORE IN TAIWAN.

THAT FELT GOOD TO TYPE.

^* This is almost certainly untrue and possibly some sort Taiwanese-American on Taiwan racism/stereotyping.

No Order - Track 2 One of the clerks at Waiting Room gave me No...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 11:41:00 +0800

No Order - Track 2

Back to my point. THERE IS A HARDCORE BAND IN TAIWAN WITH A PRETTY GOOD GRASP OF THE AESTHETIC.

DUDES! DUDES!? DUDES.

You have to understand the reason I’m freaking out is that while Japan has a well established (and glorious) punk/hardcore/metal scene, the rest of Asia for the most part has/had nothing. My limited contact with Taiwan during childhood visits painted it as the white picket fence suburbia of Asia.^*

SO I SAY AGAIN: DUDES, HARDCORE IN TAIWAN. THAT FELT GOOD TO TYPE.

^* This is almost certainly untrue and possibly some sort Taiwanese-American on Taiwan racism.

Waiting Room - Taipei, Taiwan

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:39:00 +0800

So sometime around October/November I started noticing that my Plot video was getting views from the address http://www.waitingroomtw.com/

Clicking through blew my goddamn mind. You have to understand that every time I’ve gone to Taiwan since I was young I’ve tried to find anything related to punk/hardcore/metal online a few weeks before I had to fly there and I always ended up with nothing. Last time I went to Taiwan in 06/07 the only record stores I found were terrible pop music stores that sold mainly books/CDs and had records only as decorations.

Waiting Room turned out to be a punk/hardcore/metal record store (What?!) and I ended up spending a few hours clicking through to other sites trying to learn about the Taiwan music scene that seem to have sprung up since the last time I was there.

Me being an idiot, I forget the address and name of the record store as soon as I get to Taiwan but finally found it again after digging through old Youtube Analytic reports. I knew this was one of the first places I had to go today as soon as I got time to explore the city by myself.

I left the apartment at 8 hoping to get the store by 830 but after getting lost for an hour (not an exaggeration) trying to find the store, I look up and by pure chance manage to see “Waiting Room” in crisp white letters. I spend another 10 minutes circling the building trying to figure out how to get up to the shop on the second floor (because again, idiot here) until the nice lady at the tea house explained that it was a residential building so I had to ring the apartment buzzer to get in and holllyyy fucking goddamn:

Stray Observations:

1) Store dude: “Oh I used to listen to a lot of hardcore but now I mostly listen to Stoner Metal”
*Spit double take*

2) There is definitely an Integrity, Born Against and Minor Threat record on that wall. Also a Q and Not U featured CD with blurb.

3) Dudes and Dudette knew what the Che Cafe was.

4) THERE IS A GODDAMN BORN AGAINST RECORD ON THAT WALL. UP THERE. ON THAT FUCKING WALL. IN TAIWAN.

This next year is going to be so righteously weird.

I’ll post a Video Postcard of the store when I find a better internet connection. The place I’m staying at has dial up speeds.

Moral of this rambling story: I am so goddamn stupid. Also? I need to find a phone with GPS or I will literally die.

Yo so life took a turn for the weird and now I’m in Taiwan and will most likely be here for a...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 02:17:00 +0800

Yo so life took a turn for the weird and now I’m in Taiwan and will most likely be here for a year. I vaguely remember a Taiwanese record store/blog/label linking to one of my videos a while back.

Was this you? Get in contact with me, ESPECIALLY if you have info on the punk/hardcore scene here or know of any good vegan places.

I know next to nothing about Taiwan and could always use more friends.

More Danny. Always more Danny.

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:41:01 +0800

More Danny.

Always more Danny.

Wolves in the Throne Room @ The Che Cafe on 01.27.12w/ Griever...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:11:29 +0800

Wolves in the Throne Room @ The Che Cafe on 01.27.12

w/ Griever and Ten Thousand Leagues
8 PM Door | 8:30 PM Start
$12

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.27.12_WolvesintheThroneRoom

Photo

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:24:39 +0800

Photo

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:24:26 +0800

What the hell? What is wrong with people? Did you forget how to...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:44:00 +0800

What the hell?

What is wrong with people? Did you forget how to use words?

How does destroying the Che Cafe help anything?

Also “cocksucking” coming from an anarcho-crust kid who should know better. Really? Really?

You understand you just called the Che volunteers fags after starting a fight about gender politics?

I’m getting this info second hand from volunteers so feel free to hit the ask button if you want to explain, but come on.

Thou @ The Che Cafe on 01.12.12 w/ The Body, Crime Desire, Age...

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:49:36 +0800

Thou @ The Che Cafe on 01.12.12

w/ The Body, Crime Desire, Age of Collapse, and Ficciones
7 PM
$10

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.20.12_Thou

HEALTH @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:05:00 +0800

HEALTH @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day 3)

w/ xbxrx, WITT (Reunion), Upsilon Acrux, Realization Orchestra, Kenseth & Brandon, Dead Animal Mod and DJ MNSTRPSY

5 PM
$15-20

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.08.12_HEALTH

xbxrx @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:04:00 +0800

xbxrx @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day 3)

w/ HEALTH, Innerds, WITT (Reunion), Upsilon Acrux, Realization Orchestra, Kenseth & Brandon, Dead Animal Mod and DJ MNSTRPSY

5 PM
$15-20

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.08.12_xbxrx

Innerds @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day...

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 14:03:00 +0800

Innerds @ The Che Cafe on 01.08.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day 3)

w/ HEALTH, xbxrx, WITT (Reunion), Upsilon Acrux, Realization Orchestra, Kenseth & Brandon, Dead Animal Mod and DJ MNSTRPSY

5 PM
$15-20

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.08.12_Innerds

Weatherbox @ The Che Cafe on 01.07.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:31:00 +0800

Weatherbox @ The Che Cafe on 01.07.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day 2)

w/ No Age, Crystal Antlers, Mrs. Magician, FIDLAR, Lanterns, Wild Moth, Devfits and DJ Keith Sweaty

5 PM
$15-20

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.07.12_Weatherbox

Devfits (Rob Crow of Pinback) @ The Che Cafe on...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 07:29:41 +0800

Devfits (Rob Crow of Pinback) @ The Che Cafe on 01.07.12 for “I Promise” Fest (Day 2)

w/ No Age, Crystal Antlers, Weatherbox, Mrs. Magician, FIDLAR, Lanterns, Wild Moth and DJ Keith Sweaty

5 PM
$15-20

Full @ http://www.archive.org/details/01.07.12_Devfits