Taidong was ok, though we didn’t stay as long as w…
Taidong was ok, though we didn’t stay as long as we had expected. The Bunun festival was pretty fun, with dancing, singing, drinking and shooting guns into the air, basically a powwow without the drum circle. The sun was so fierce I began to wonder if the camera batteries in my bag were in danger of exploding, and I had to keep the camera itself covered with the tripod bag most of the time, lest it get too hot. Dean was quite red afterwards in spite of putting on sun lotion that morning. Though everyone was very busy with festival-related activites, we did manage to find a couple of actors for our planned shots, though we only had about half an hour with them and the fellow playing our elder rushed off in the middle of the first take. Oddly enough, Taiwanese seemed to be considered the “foreigner” language instead of Mandarin. I guess they associate it with outsiders. That was just one of many ways in which the standards differ from the Han Chinese population of Taiwan. Another difference I noticed when we were sitting down in a Bunun household, when the parents were cooing over how beautifully dark their daughter’s skin was. “Just like copper, or almonds!” they said. A refreshing change from the “Ooh I’m almost caucasian!” campaigns of the skin-whitening crowd in Taipei.
On Sunday I tranferred the last of the footage to get to Dean so he can catch up with the editing and special effects. I would have liked to stay in Taidong longer and enjoy the fresh air, scenery and just not being in Taipei, but Dean wanted to get to work as soon as possible. Ah well, maybe next time.
This afternoon as our daily thunderstorm swept through town I watched this hilarious short (warning: huge file) from Trey Parker circa 1995 (via Womble). It’s a wonder he could get all of those celebrities in his film pre South Park.
According to my site meter I’ve surpassed my quota for this month, but the site’s still up. Still, I should upgrade my service so I don’t have to cut it so close all the time. It’s not much to upgrade; I’m just still feeling the punch in my wallet after having to pay much more in taxes than I had expected this year.
