The temperature dropped to 7 degrees Celsius on Fr…
The temperature dropped to 7 degrees Celsius on Friday and stayed there all Saturday amid a misty rain that defied umbrellas. I spent as much of the day as possibly at home, where my radiator provides a small measure of heat if I sit on as I would a small, off-white horse. But The Betelnut Brothers were playing at a place called Kafka’s Beach or something like that in Gongguan, and David and Conor were doing a duet performance at Alleycats later, so I wrapped myself up and headed out around 6 for hotpot with friends where I could 1) keep warm due to all the little hot pots, 2) oogle the waiter, who would’ve made a good pirate, and 3) disparage the people at the table next to us, who had brought a small dog that was clearly in no danger of being added to the hotpot.
I had to duck out early though, to catch the Betelnut Brothers, who are five aboriginal guys who send wonderful, spine-tingling harmonies booming through the speakers. Between songs they would tell horrendous jokes that the audience clearly enjoyed:
“We were at a church once and after we got finished all the old people’s hands were locked together in prayer. Guess why? Gout!” (laughter)
“An old guy died and his widow and grandson went to see the body, which was pulled out of the freezer, and of course condensation formed. The grandson asked his grandmother, ‘Why is grandfather sweating?’ and she said, ‘How should I know, he’s never died before!'” (laughter)
Sandman showed up in a spiffy NT$600 “Dead Man’s Jacket” about halfway through the show, and we got to talk with some of the brothers during the break. They knew of David and said they’d try to make the Alleycats show later. Unfortunately we had to leave before they were finished to catch a taxi to Alleycats ourselves.
David and Conor were already performing when we arrived, and the place was packed, but began to empty quickly as the night wore on. We were the last to leave, behind even Alleycat His Grand Self, but for some reason we didn’t want to go directly home, so Sandman, Conor, Cat and I began to walk. Somehow we ended up at DV8, and the next thing I knew it was 5 a.m. Cat and Conor took a cab, while Sandy and I started walking again, making all the way to Fuxing South Road before we gave up and hopped in a cab back to Bitan. I got to bed at 6:30, though the sky was still dark due to the weather.
Harry called at 9:00 a.m. Needless to say, I wasn’t in much of a mood to get up, but we’d arranged to put up the Taoist mirror at an appropriate time between 9 and 11 this morning, so I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. Harry arrived not much later, and we put up the mirror outside on my balcony wall to address the problem of the building corners facing us, a real no-no, fengshui-wise. That done, we had vegetarian lunch downstairs, went for a walk and then spent the afternoon at the Sandcastle chatting with Jojo and enjoying the kerosene heater there. It’s good to get together with friends in depressing weather like this. It’s supposed to be less cold over the next few days. At least it’s not raining at the moment. I have to do laundry.
