I got to the ICRT studios this morning at about 9,…
I got to the ICRT studios this morning at about 9, and Rick Monday was still bustling around with the controls as Bill Thissen read the news next door. Apparently Bill gets up really early to prepare the news and then stays on to exchange banter with Rick throughout his show between news and traffic reports. I sat down and waited for my cue while the morning show started up and various announcements were read through. My part didn’t start until after 9:30 or so, and I wasn’t quite prepared for the first question, i.e., how I ended up in the Taiwanese army, even though I’d been given fair warning. There was also something wrong with my microphone settings, as my voice wasn’t loud enough. After I relaxed a bit everything went quite well. Bill brought in some tea and coffee from downstairs, and then he sat in on parts of the interview. Occasionally we’d go to music and just chat among ourselves. Even though I’d left a message on forumosa.com for people to call in and harass me, nobody did. Instead we got a handful of curious emails. Rick really pushed the English-language publishing angle, and I hope it bears fruit of some kind. All in all I enjoyed myself, and the three hours went really quickly. It’s not a bad gig they have there.
After lunch I went home and, on a whim, called Sho, who had called me out of the blue a few days ago to ask if I wanted to go out for drinks some time. It turns out he’s filling in for a friend at a small clothing store just a few doors down from where I live, so I went over to give him a copy of my book. We chatted for a while and then went to the Rose coffee shop, an upscale pseudo-English tearoom. I’d never been in one of those store before, as they look really expensive, with faux ivory columns, red carpets, leather chairs, etc. In fact, it wouldn’t be too bad for the extra scene we’ve been thinking about putting in to the Lady X film now that it’s a two-parter. Hmm.
It turned out it wasn’t all that expensive, though. Sho was wearing a white wife-beater, which rather stood out among the well-dressed patrons. It didn’t help when he started talking about his experiences doing strip shows in Japan and how guys would write their phone numbers on the money they threw at him. At one point in the conversation I looked around and realized we’d apparently scared everyone away; the place was completely empty. We had a good chat, though. “Surely you have a stage name,” I said at one point. “They don’t just call you ‘Sho the Male Stripper’ do they?” He said no and told me his stage name, which I don’t recall exactly except it has three characters, two of which are gang (‘steel’) and pao (‘bubble’ or ‘to copulate’, I’m not sure which).
I really should go to sword practice tonight, as I’ve missed several classes already, but I’m still feeling rather tired these days. I also really need to do my laundry before I have to go to the laundromat wearing a paper bag.
