It’s late so I’ll be brief. Oh, who am I kiddi…
It’s late so I’ll be brief.
Oh, who am I kidding?
Last weekend was the Migration Music Festival, and I went to see the first two nights of performances, along with several friends including the rest of the Muddy Basin Ramblers, who played there last year. We sat out on the grass along with what seemed like several hundred other people. The first night I saw a gypsy band called Taraf de Haidouks. They were incredible, their music so fast and their enthusiasm so infectious that they soon had the crowd dancing in the aisles and, towards the end, even on stage.
The next night, Saturday, I trudged up the hill in Da-an Park once again, but found a very much more subdued crowd. On the stage a heavyset blonde fellow made strange jerking motions to the sound of an electronic beat and a violin. They were Norwegian and rather ineffective. But the crowd suffered through it because we knew what was coming afterwards: Soul Flower Mononoke Summit!
SLMS used to be a punk band, but after the 95 quake in Kobe they found themselves performing to entertain quake victims without electricity, so they traded in their electric instruments for traditional Japanese ones. They rocked just as hard, and each song was enthusiastically welcomed by the Taiwanese crowd in spite of the pouring rain. “Kawaii!” the lead singer said as the crowd reacted to his every gesture. We walked down front to get a better look before it was over. Sandy and Jojo had to tear me away from gawking at a certain cameraman so they could go get some food at a SE Asian restaurant near Yongkang Street.
On Sunday, which is Halloween, we’re putting on the radio play at Peshawar. It should start around 4 in the afternoon. That morning we’re going to shoot a scene for the movie there, so it’s going to be a busy day. Saturday won’t be a breeze either, as we have rehearsal, and I will need to bring half the equipment for the shoot, since I can’t carry it all by myself. Funny how these things always seem to coincide. That’s what working on weekends’ll do to you, I guess.
Several people have come to look at my apartment, and one couple even wanted a second look. So far no buyers, but I’m not optimistic that I’ll get to stay here much longer. It’s really annoying having complete strangers waltzing through your house every so often. They could at least trapse through like normal people.
Elections are coming up, first the presidential poll in the US and then Legislative elections here in December. I’ll be glad when they’re over, though I doubt I’ll be happy with either result. I’m just sick of everything being forced into a partisan black-and-white context. There’s so much intense debate over everything that there is no real debate. It’s all posturing; reason and logic have long since departed. Hopefully after the dust settles I can look forward to actual discourse resuming on meaningful subjects.
So much for brief, or getting up at a decent morning hour tomorrow. Oh well.
