Dancing Through Sunday presents …

My big project. Unveiled.

Dancing Through Sunday is myself, Audrey Harton, Sway Lee, and Cresencio Victoria.

We are an imaginative promotional collective fresh to Taipei’s bustling nightlife striving to bring the latest international faces and musical influences to this already vibrant city. We are an eclectically collaborated team hailing from all over North America and Taiwan, all passionate and inspired musically and creatively and wanting to make ourselves, and our influences a vital staple in Taipei’s nightlife and underground music scene. Joining forces with Dim Mak from L.A on a residency and LUXY nightclub in Taipei means the crème de la crème in international electronic artists in Taipei’s finest and most elite nightclub.

Who better to establish this party circuit than Steve Aoki. Aoki bridges the gap between commercial and underground music culture and he unconditionally represents the vibe that we want to create in this city. Scores of unparalleled parties promoting quality and originality are imminent, promising the finest electro that will glue you to the dance floor and have you dancing through Sunday …

MSTRKRFT, The Bloody Beetroots, Felix Cartal, Bloc Party, Auto Erotique, Shit Disco, Armin Van Helden, Shinichi Osawa, The Kills, Pase Rock, S.P.A, and Strech Armstrong are just a few artists represented by Dim Mak and in our realm of possibilities.

Dancing Through Sunday X Dim Mak Present

Steve Aoki

@
LUXY

Saturday December 26th, 2009

November presale: NT850 + 2 drinks
December presale: NT950 + 2 drinks
Door: NT1100 + 2 drinks
But 5 tickets together, get 10% off

Available at: NEU, Pet Shops Girl, Screaming, M@M, KGB, mo! relax, LUXY

A thousand million thank yous to the creative brilliance of Liam Thurston for the industrious design. And especially for putting up with us.

www.liamthurston.com

Friendlies, support and encourage our success and making things evolve and thrive in this city. Buy your PRE SALE tickets TODAY!

Dr. Joshi’s Holistic 21 Day Detox

In 2008 I gave up the happiness of indulgence for 21 days in the name of Joshi. This rather wholesome and impressive regimen limits you from any wheat and gluten, dairy, fruit (except bananas), some veggies (mostly nightshades), red meat, coffee (even decaf), sugars, anything artificial and processed. It is intended to flush out all those frightful toxins and fats that your body has stored, and restore the bodies Ph from acidic to slightly alkaline, all whist dropping a few kilos.

Prior to ‘day 1′, I read Joshi’s book which was more of insight into the programme than a meal plan like most ‘diet’ books deliver, and although it was slightly frustrating as I had little knowledge as to what I was allowed and not allowed to eat, I do think it’s necessary to read the book so you understand WHY you are doing this. For anyone interested, I do have the book here in Taiwan, but it would certainly be a crafty mission to do this detox here considering the resources available, as well I have another book targeted towards eating whole and holistic foods.

Being who I am, I blogged the whole experience, complete with recipes, meals plans, and the suicidal thoughts that came with my system being depleted of caffeine and chocolate (in the end the coffee cravings nearly killed me, I cheated, I did, on a small organic decaf coffee with soy milk, I’m a cheater). I’ve found myself often linking the blog out to people who have expressed interest in it, and have now decided to just officially promote it. Ye, promote it. Once I killed the initial 7 days, I HAD NEVER AND WILL PROBABLY NEVER AGAIN FEEL THIS GREAT IN MY LIFE. I RECOMMEND. Especially for those, as I, who struggle with food allergies (Mom, are you listening?).

Good luck and Godspeed…and go eat a carrot.

Dr. Joshi’s 21 Day Hollistic Detox/

Sawasdee Bangkok

To quit life and become a nomad gypsy spending it meandering countries huddled alongside the immense and enchanting Mekong, my days spent absorbing literary wisdoms of my favorite authors, basking in the fiery southern sun, and trekking ravishing sceneries bestowed upon by stunning hillsides and breathtaking sunsets, is my greatest dream. I’ve been fortunate enough to experience this for weeks at a time on many occasions, this time not quite in the jungle, but near the edge, a weekend in grimy, gritty, ghetto Bangkok for my birthday. Far away from any parties, I spent it poolside, breaking only to be fed and watered and purchase purses, I was in bed each night watching BBC by dusk. Happens every time.

I hammered through The Time Travelers Wife, a book recommended and given to me by my aunt. I had a tough time wrapping my head around this book as it’s far from my style, but once free of all distractions except the looming threat of a sunburn, I was quickly immersed in the complexly written and emotionally compelling story, tears streaming down my face becoming the swimming pool below. I recommend. I dried my tears and read another cover to cover, by an author highly favored by and an influence on authors I perpetually read, a book I have been holding and anticipating for some time, the Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. It began so promising in a powerful manner, introducing extraordinarily satirical characters like Mike Fallopian, Manny Di Presso, Dr. Hilarius (the protagonists psychiatrist), but in the end, more like the middle, I was thoroughly dissatisfied. The final 5 pages did finally help shape the book as whole, but I found myself searching for links to its theme over and over throughout. It was frustrating, quite irrelevant more often than not. Perhaps this is because it’s dated, and I am only of the ripe age of 26, though this has never stopped me from enjoying a classic before; but perhaps it is merely because I had such high expectations, as I do of everyone and everything, and this resulted in a greater let down. Fortunately, at 147 pages, and not having packed another book, I finished it. I don’t recommend.

I think I will write a blog solely on book reviews and recommendations. Soon.

Back to Bangkok Dangerous. I sunburned my boobs (every time) and realized there is not enough lemongrass in my life. I found DAIRY QUEEN and a degree from the University of Ottawa for $30CAD. We stayed at the Rambuttri Inn on Soi Ram Buttri, a far more easy going and blasé soi than it’s renowned equivalent Khao San Road. 850 baht ($25CAD) / night for this rooftop. HIGHLY recommend.

180 baht ($5 CAD) for all of this.

That’s stir fried vegetables and tofu over brown rice with a spicy garlic sauce, a fresh mango smoothie, beers, water, and menthols (note the warning pictures on these menthols). Money goes a long, long way in Asia, so you’ve heard. I backpacked Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia for more than a month on less than $1000CAD (Vietnam soon!). Massages in SE Asia are a dime a dozen and drain you of about $5 for an hour for pleasure pains by a little Thai women whose bijou hands are her deadliest weapon. But MaiThai massages are cheap thrills not to be missed.

This was horrifying, particularly playing on my fear of fish. It does not hurt, only tickles. Not so much a massage as an exfoliant. Or a leech like attack. These inch to an inch and a half long ‘doctor’ fish are from Turkey and have a hunger for dead skin. My mom is going to tell me get a grip when she reads this, but I screamed, I SCREAMED, I couldn’t do it. The feeling of these sucker fish between your toes is that of a submersing your feet into just as many hissing cockroaches. So dramatique, I know. You don’t know how long it took to get me to stick my feet in just long enough for Audrey to take this photo. Fear factor.

The floating market was yet another overcrowded money snatching tourist attraction, in which I overheated to that of Bikram and bailed on for refuge in an air conditioned van for the remaining hour of the venture.

In place of birthday cake, I ate grasshoppers and chicken hearts. Becoming Taiwanese! Breakfasted on the big day in Bangkok, lunched mid air with Air Asia, dinnered in Taipei like the Japanese MY BIRTHDAY ON RICE SOCIETY, but the party was on Friday the 13th. Friends came and caroused with Nick Chaney and I as I turned 25 (for the second time) and Nick bid farewell to Taiwan (for the first time, they always come back) in hopes of happier tummies in New Zealand. We made dreams real and memories last in photos and in the heart.

Photos from Thailand Fall 2009

Photos from Thailand Winter 2009

Photos from Birthdays and Bye Bye’s

Stay tuned, I have an announcement.

Au revoir.

Only in Taiwan…

Sometimes I reckon I am a comic simply because I only sleep on Sundays and power through the rest of the week high strung and delirious (speed talking is one of my skills). Or because I am extremely talented in impersonating forest animals. But really, my hilarity originates in the fact that the affairs I find myself engaging in in my everyday are hysterically amusing and would probably never happen in any other part of the world. At least once a day, many times more, things happen which make me mutter (and sometimes holler) ‘Only In Taiwan’.. or OIT as we’ve abbreviated (xie xie Will). If you live abroad, no doubt you can relate. Do not mistake these tales for ignorance, I am actually extremely cultured, but even so I am slightly naive, I have a rather short temper, and I make fun of unfortunate foreigner happenings. JUST FOR LAUGHS.

These cultural accounts, past, present, and future, will keep you amused with an array of easy readings and effortless laughs to brighten your day, whether it is snickering at me or chuckling with me, I promise to impress. I’ll update often.

Beneath the header, you’ll find ONLY IN TAIWAN, follow my narratives there.

Memoirs of a Polish Canadian Geisha

November. Scorpio season. It’s frosty with a few flakes back in the homeland, even so I’m basking in the warm autumn rays of the Taiwan sun, which despite all the pollution, still finds its way to kiss my face. Last nights party was Monster Massive, a Taiwanese trance party with ravers in the thousands. It’s possible and probable that I went home with more than a few electric blue glow sticks vibrantly illuminating my purse. I HATE trance.

Monster Massive @ The World Trade Center, Halloween, 2009

I was a Geisha. I’m almost Japanese now.

And with that, comes this.

Click the image above to see more. And then, Wiki it all, as I did and absorbed myself in to find this information. Fascinating. This is traditional Chinese foot binding. Originating in the 10th century, and ending in the 20th century, finally outlawed only in 1949. This tradition was practiced amongst only the wealthy and elite, symbolizing their freedom from exertions of ANY sort. Also did it seem, that the smaller the foot, the more coveted the woman. This tradition prospered as did the social and sexual desirability of such women. At the age of 3, when bones are only beginning to develop, the arch of the foot was broken and bound for 2 years, and then emerging from the cocoon was a foot measuring 3 to 3 and 1/2 inches. A lifetime of pain, to walk in those feet. All for a man. Then for fashion. To this day. High heels…diets. It’s all relative.

Famous!

Gay Pride Parade Taipei City 2009. Another affair with numbers in the thousands, 25 000 to be unofficial. For a country, and when I use the term country, let it be known I worry to be politically incorrect, but for a country, I feel, that is so conservative in so many social essences, especially those sexual, the entire occasion most definitely radiated with spirited sexual energy (in many forms), passion, and pride. I partook in the parties especially charmed and with the utmost admiration.

Cresencio @ Gay Pride (make up by ME)

Run on sentences may or may not be one of my skills, I love them. Literary or vocal, I’m fast and intense, too many thoughts and too little breaths. Recently I happened upon a blog in which I was quoted AND my photos used, and the blogger had written that the whole bit was written by a girl in Taipei who was strung out, high, or something. Strange, that. I am high strung at best, I like the sound of my own voice (or the look of my own words, I suppose), and am ridiculous in demeanor to be sure. At least she properly cited my blog, which upped my counters some. I struggled slightly today with WordPress, an upgrade is now looming, as I want to integrate some space where I can tell tales of my cultural retardedness, like how tonight we hit a new Tepinyaki spot free of any English menu, and therefore ordered by bhhhaaaaa-ing at the chef, meaning we wanted mutton. Only in Taiwan. Not to be mistaken for ignorance, I am actually incredibly cultured, but also really, really entertaining. I will brighten your day.

The days go by, smooth and swift, but not all filled with Cheshire smiles despite how wonderful its been. Audrey is my constant in this Asian life, with all that is happening, the wild and the wicked, she holds my hand through it all. Thank you. This life is surreal and psychedelic, peculiar and out of this world. You should be jealous. Very, very jealous.

Taipei Street Scene

The trials and tribulations of Olivia Wycech

Jesus. Some time has past.

It’s Saturday night, and I’m wrapped warm and tight in a purrito and watching Eraserhead. I’m so happy. I’m so tired. I’m so busy. But so so happy. In the beginning, the first six months of becoming Taiwanese were cumbersome with plaguing homesickness and such, and the following six spent in anticipation of a voyage back to the motherland, which can all be summed up with tales and tunes of broken hearts and concrete floors. Well here I am, back in Taipei, and hella stoked with all that I’ve done, am doing, and will do. I think perhaps these blogs became slightly too personal at times, with apparent underlying tones, but they did what they were supposed to bearing in mind my flakiness when it comes to staying in touch, even with my parents. Sorry. I’ll do better. There has been so much happening that sometimes I have trouble separating my dreams from reality, or my dreams are spilling into my reality, or my nightmares, or vice versa, anyway it’s easy to lose your subconscious mind in this surreal world I dwell in. I digress. Photographic adventures have been plentiful (with the exception of Japan, an unfortunate account that breaks ma petit coeur to talk about), though Flickr is and has been going strong, and stories I will catch up on in tidbits by sneaking in little literary laughs from time to time like ‘Did I tell you about the time I had betel nut spit in my face, or the time I pissed off the mob and how they got their revenge, or when I wiped out on a highway into oncoming traffic driving a manual motorcycle in Cambodia, and the best, the time I was suspended from the ceiling by a rope wearing a pleather cat suit for a computer commercial?’ Life is grand, never stagnant. Stimulating and scholastic, and obviously THE TIME OF MY LIFE. Crookers are (still) the soundtrack to my life, I’m on scooter number three, have indulged on snake blood and apparently I like fish, and have learned that I am, by default, a European citizen and can work, play, and educate myself wherever this Euro heart and soul desires. This summer past opened up doors of dreams for me that we’re shut tight prior to, though for the moment, this nevereverland in Asia is my raison d’etre. I have, however, set my sights on a relocation to Shanghai next year, but since being back in Taiwan, WHO KNOWS. What is for sure, is that there is no more North America in my immediate, or far off future. COME VISIT.

Monks monking in Luang Prabang, Laos

Since my last pennings of German gibberish, I’ve trotted soils in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos (Laos I will write about again, Laos caressed me down), I’ve danced with devil under the pale moonlight of the Philippines, again, gone for broke in Japan where I existed solely on grapefruit sake and the fanciest of Hi Chew flavors, and of course, home sweet(?) home Canadiana … I’ve acquired new lenses, moved into the most humble of abodes, owned a rent-a-dog, and gained a roommate, best friend, mother, sister, and girlfriend. Allow me to introduce to you Audrey Harton. Dear Audrey, you are the warmth inside my purrito, I love you.

Beautiful Boracay

I promise promise to keep you more au courant with my Taiwacky antics, collective of hilarities and sorrows and all which make up my wonderful existence in my wonderful life in the wonderful land of green tea and dumplings. No more heart stuff after this. Something light. Something funny. SEND IN THE CLOWNS!! I leave you with photographs and pleads for Bridgehead coffee to my door. It’s almost my BIRTHDAY! 7F-1, No. 473 Song Jiang Road, Taipei City, TAIWAN. Ahem.

HUALIEN EXPRESS

Spirited Sway in Juifen

The Temple of Doom

Spirited Away

Rock In Hoes

Choeung Ek Killing Fields

National Art Gallery of Canada

Taiwan Style

Ta ta…

Halbschlaf im Froschpyjama

Bangkok is sundresses, backpackers, lady boys, fresh fruit with muesli, pad thai, and Euros. So many Euros. It’s HOT AND SUNNY and suuuuper cheap. Laos tomorrow.

LOOK WHAT I FOUND..

San Zhr Abandoned UFO Pod Village

FINALLY, I wrote something, right? There are far from enough seconds in a day. Don’t we all feel it? I could really use the 10 or so extra days that Pope Gergory XIII removed from our calendar in 1582. Between working full time, Christmas plays, moving, the holidays (what holidays?), two root canals, PLAYING WITH MY NEW DIGITAL SLR, and just living Taipei, my minutes are precious. My 5 day holiday I spent in deep slumber, dreaming of the magic that is going to happen in just 10 more short sleeps, love and lust await me in south east Asia, all of which my new camera will capture. Wait for it.

San Zhr Abandoned UFO Pod Village. Could there be a more captivating draw for a quest? North of Taipei, just 15 minutes east of Danshui on a motorcycle, just after highway 2 joins with the coast, lie the shabby remains of a once aspiring futuristic housing/hotel development, now cursed by spirits, legends, and Taiwan weather alike.

The construction of the pods began in the 1960’s, or was it the 1980’s? Nobody knows. Nobody knows why the project was halted and then abandoned, or whether it was to be luxurious housing or a futuristic vacation spot for the wealthy. Nor does anybody know how or why the complex was left in such a state of disrepair.

Before I ventured out to this charismatic ghost town, researching the pods found so many tales that try to tell what the pod project was meant to be, and why it was left abandoned. One story tells that there were so many fatal misfortunes during its construction, and being how superstitious the Taiwanese are, no one wanted to visit, let alone live there. Superstitions go on, alas this Saturday afternoon, the site was packed with Taiwanese visitors, aspiring photographers or ones embracing fears, we were far from alone. The story goes on. The souls of those who passed during construction are said to linger, preventing any plans of completion or redevelopment. While reading of the pods, an online article reads that the buildings couldn’t be demolished, since destroying the homes of spirits and lost souls is taboo in Asian culture. However, other articles also state that the government is pushing strong for a fast approaching demolishment.

A contradicting story, one of so many, tells that the project began construction in the 1980’s and was funded with money made on the Taipiei stock exchange, but shortly near completion, a developer ran with the money. Another version tells that the company funding the project ran out of money. With no re-investors, weather and ghost stories played their part on the deterioration of this complex.

Yet another tale states that developers went ahead with construction without yet receiving the proper permits and approvals from the city to go ahead, which were then after denied and when left with no license to run a business, the doors were closed on the project.

The complex is a treat for ones imagination. The spherical, once vividly colored pods, look like the prototype could have been made by gluing Smarties atop of one other, after the architect was hours deep into an X-Files marathon. The rotting Roman looking structure was to be shops. The site has two pools and a cave made from fake stone. It was to have a small amusement park in the middle and a dam to protect it from storm surges. Funny, that, since the pods themselves were constructed of fiberglass, over top concrete. Situated right on the northern shore, winds, rain, water, and so many typhoons have contributed to the demise of the pods. It amazes me to think how these were ever believed to have withstood tropical coastal weather systems. Many of them have completely fallen apart. Windows are few and far between, walls are almost non-existent, stairs are crumbing, many no longer have roofs, some have even collapsed on themselves. But the ones left intact showed signs that people had been living in them, probably squatters or kids looking for a thrill.

A photographers delight, as much so for an explorer, or simply a way to spend an afternoon in Taiwan, the pod village is one of Taiwan’s many best. 2009 is going to be a lively year. I’m ready for it.

See my FLICKR photos of the pods here….

“The Cube is an imitation of life itself – or even an improvement on life.” – Erno Rubik’s

Have you ever even SEEN a solved Rubik cube lying around? I haven’t, I’ve only ever picked them up, frustratingly mumbled how, and thrown a few against a wall. I was on the MRT and noticed these two guys fiddling with Rubik’s cubes. They saw me watching, one sort of nodded at me, and thirty seconds later completed the cube. 30 SECONDS! Speedcubing, is what it’s called, I only wish I had taken a video so you could see how fast his fingers moved. I LOST MY MIND and went on about this for hours.. guy must work in computers, math or something genius, to have memorized such algorithms. There are 519,024,039,293,878,272,000 or 519 quintillion possible combinations to solve this cube, have you even ever heard the number quintillion? But it can be solved in as little as 22 twists.

And here I thought Jenga was tough..

A football game in Connecticut was delayed when one player, Bob Blake, failed to take the field. He was found in the locker room playing with the Cube.

One of the youngest Cube solvers ever back in 1981 was seven year old Lars-Erik Anderson of Norway. He often did the Cube, but could not explain how!

Stay tuned for our special investigative report on the clitoris, ” Nature’s Rubik’s Cube”

My parents are going to kill me!

These are my new wheels. Fucking WOOOOOOOOOOSH!