Sharing the free concerts that I watched

[Blue]

Nice thing is that certain communities in Taipei offer free concerts to the public. Here are certain concerts that I attended. Very fortunate that they didn't capture too much of the audience (very fortunate that you can't see yours truly).

Here's a weird art-house concert with the xiao player suddenly switching the orientation of the flute:


A bangdi player:


This music describes the romance of taking a train to northeastern Taiwan:

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[edcat7]

My liuqin teacher told me about a performance he just played in, the Chinese part of the audience were all talking...loudly. He wonders if this is typical? Even David mentioned that his hulusi recital was not recordable due to the audience noise.

[Blue]

That's not typical for indoor audiences in Taiwan.

Curiously, when the silent movies were brought to China in the early 20th century, people did chat out loud. Here I quote a short passage from the novel "Moment in Peking" by Lin Yu-tang: "In those days of the silent films, talking during the play was permissible, in the best tradition of the Chinese theater audience . . . . Consequently talking was no annoyance to anybody, just as at a foreign dinner party where one can keep up an intermindable chatter with the person beside him because everybody else is chattering. There was a tendency to raise the voice in order to be heard by the other person."

[xindi]

Here's a weird art-house concert with the xiao player suddenly switching the orientation of the flute:

I guess he can play in a different key, by blowing in the shorter end?

The last weird art house concert I went to see turned out to be Jack Dee lol.

The clip you've shown is intriguing. I wish I could understand it. As far as I can decipher, the girl is talking about her lost tabby cat wandering in a snow blizzard in the woods? The flutist' repertoire is hauntingly good fun

The bangdi playing did my head in (sorry). I know this is a favourite concert pitch, but it's quite a challenge for me to get through its high pitched behaviour.

Lovely romance on trains through Taiwan! Unlike London - I could do a good concert evoking the feelings of train travel in London: basically, never getting started...starting, then stopping, stopping again, stuttering; breaking down, and then restart, only to delay the whole thing, before kicking everyone out! Very little romance on London's trains


As for concert noise ... Ed - in Hong Kong, free concerts tend to have noisy audiences. Paid ones in concert venues, tend to attract a different clientele. The last guzheng concert I visited in Hong Kong, older folk were chattering non-stop - an unamplified guzheng faces a huge challenge this way....I can only imagine how daunting it is for a liuqin player, making a smaller volume.

In cinemas there are always folk who are noisy, throwing popcorn and coughing/spluttering/choking loudly too. It makes being a performance artist, a real challenge.

Lin Yu-Tang's observations are more astute: his commentary on herd behaviour of the masses still applies today.

[Blue]

All the original romance of traveling on Taiwan's regular trains has been evaporated by horrible delays, uncompetitive ticket prices, aging infrastructure, faulty signal equipment, and an all-powerful railroad worker's union. People take the Taiwan high speed rail for more comfort, near-perfect punctuality, and better customer service. Still many are crazy and nostalgic for the railway bentos, which do sell like hotcakes.

The Chin Yuan Chinese Orchestra in the original inner city section of Taipei (curiously located near Taipei's camera vendor and repair street) hosts occasional free concerts inside their tiny auditorium. Refreshments are offered during intermission through the generous donation of certain patrons. (They served heavenly Longan/Guiyuan cupcakes the last time I was there). Despite the fact that these are considered community concerts, everyone's very quiet and respectful. All guests are encouraged to sign the guestbook. They also distribute survey questions with the most curious question being: “How much would you be willing to contribute for a concert like this?” The director of this orchestra actually mortgaged his home to help keep the survival of the orchestra's headquarters.

People in Taiwan could be chatty in outdoor concerts, but it's not a big deal thanks to those gigantic amplifier systems drowning out all the chatter.

I omitted a part of Lin Yu-tang's passage, which actually went like this:

Waiters served tea and threw wrung hot towels across the hall with a loud “Hey!” while other waiters caught the towels as neatly and as remarkably as if in a lighted room, so that sometimes one would see the dark shape of a wrung towel flying across the screen.

Written similar to what Xindi says . . . . . . . .

[Blue]

PS: Donsiau happily encourages visitors to sign his paper guestbook.

[xindi]

Fascinating to hear that there is even a song devoted to railway romance. Interminable farewell scenes with Dr Zhivago on black and white celluloid film with atmospheric steam puffs billowing around elegant lady passengers somehow got displaced into evil Jaws like baddie characters from James Bond movies, searching out our ever suave British hero from cabin to cabin to do some naughtiness.

Romance on trains seems rather quirky and unfamiliar from my cultural background. I suppose in Lin's era, the novelty of train travel was mostly ripe for every human possibility. A bit like flying planes. As a child, I used to love going to airports and flying in planes. It was a romantic journey of exploration, seeing the clouds; the disappearing fields and cities beneath, and the excitement of a packet of our very own peanuts and maybe a soft drink if we didn't spill it. Now with all of the masses of bargain flight hunters cramming and shoving, and sitting on the wrong seat (some kind of denial, that they really do have to sit in the middle of the aisle and window seat!) who insist on turning up on a plane near completely pissed, with maybe spare capacity to handle 'just another' shot of double vodka, I really don't relish air travel.

Staying at home ... is romantic

[xindi]

I was referring to my home, not yours lol

(j/k)

[Blue]

Some of those baddie characters love to carry a cat with them, telling the agent in a matter-of-fact manner that the agent's doom is near. Cats do bring a calming sense of security to those sinister masterminds.

There's nothing romantic seeing Dr. Zhivago suffering from a heart attack on a train because what seemed to be his significant other didn't know that he was trying get her attention. Too tragic. And the significant other perished probably in a gulag. Finally the assumed daughter had the innate talent to play a stringed instrument. Too bad it wasn't a pipa!

Lin didn't find railway travel to be romantic either, especially during the time of war. In Chapter XLV of his novel Moment in Peking, there's a pretty gory description of the Japanese attack of a railway line between Shanghai and Hangchow (Hangzhou) during the early days of the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945.

He did mention that in normal times, train travel between Shanghai and Nanking (Nanking) was 7.5 hours. Shanghai to Hangchow 4 hours. Soochow to Shanghai 2 hours.

I won't comment here your very last statement despite the bloody temptation to do so, do ya hear me Xindi?

Hazelnuts served on Turkish Airlines taste better than peanuts. Still have a pack left.

[xindi]

Was that Goldfinger? The bald guy in the underwater sea octopus....

Dr Zhivago was romantic! Death looked so appealing - just like Ophelia, floating down the river, tragic endings with beautifully wistful music kind of neutralised the very agony that the characters went through. Maybe that's just me, romanticising black and white films

Lin's travel times are interesting: rail travel, before last year's high speed trains, have only really shaved about half the time off the journeys in over half a century. I suppose there are many more built up suburban stops in the way.

Okie dokie ... I know when I'm being told off

You have better quality nuts on Turkish Airlines than we get on our British flights then. We're lucky if they're not out of date when we receive them lol.

[Blue]

We are sure digressing from the main topic, but it can't be Dr. Julius No, the half-Chinese, half-German mad scientist who lost both of his hands by either the Tong Syndicate (book version) or radiation (film version).



It's Ernst Stavro Blofeld in "You Only Live Twice."

Blofeld: I shall look forward personally to exterminating you, Mr. Bond.

Blofeld: James Bond. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They told me you were assassinated in Hong Kong.
James Bond: Yes, this is my second life.
Blofeld: You only live twice, Mr. Bond.

[Blue]

And since we're on the subject of romance, today is valentine's day. For those like Xindi who has rice flour and azuki beans and is struggling to make tangyuan, let me propose an alternative: use the ingredients to make mochi and stuff a fresh strawberry into that filling. If one succeeds, then one has rivaled the chefs of a typical Asian department store!!! I'm suggesting strawberries because it matches the color of Valentine's Day.

[Blue]

Staying at home ... is romantic

Not when one is depressed.