i'm doing things
Last Sunday i jumped onto a bike and headed north. I was in the mood to go see the sea.
A bunch of thoughts went through my mind as i made my way along the riverside greenways, up onto the dyke, back down to the boardwalk and through the mangroves out to Tamsui. I thought to myself, God i love cycling, it's like driving at night.
I hate internal combustion vehicles for the damage they do to human health and the social fabric of communities, but i always loved driving at night. Like the David Lynch signature scene, a highway stretching out into forever, just you on the road, alone and free.
Last night i was dancing to a song that featured a long sample from Lost Highway. "What do you mean? You're where right now?" "At your house." "That's fucking crazy, man." "Call me. Dial your number. Go ahead..."
And as i continued cycling i thought to myself that cycling is like dancing too. They hit very similar emotions for me, in that you are deeply connected to humanity without having to interact directly with anyone. On a bike, no matter where you go, there's always someone who's been there before. Even in the mountains someone was there to blaze the trail. You're just rediscovering what already was. It's an ideal way to explore the domain of humans, the places we've built. You're more connected to the space than you are in a powered vehicle, but you still have the speed and mobility to never have to dwell. You can be a part of the world, but you're watching it go by, you don't need to stop and get trapped in it.
Dancing is like that too, if you go to a proper nightclub. There is very little interaction between people, it's about each person finding their own journey on the floor. To be clear - everyone is sharing the same space as everyone else, and it isn't the same experience to dance on your own, but the perfect night is the one where you go and be with everyone while not having to talk to anyone at all. Just celebrating the beauty of humanity, enjoying each other's company and all we have built, without the pressure of needing to communicate it through language.
That's why it was so frustrating last night when a drunk foreigner came up to me and yelled, "so how did you find out about this place?" The instant tell that someone is not really a raver, when they think the idea of a nightclub is so exotic that nobody could possibly ever find out about it by just looking up "places in town that play techno music" on the internet. But what really pissed me off was when i just gave her an exasperated look in response, she grabbed me and said "and you know what, we really need to fix your posture too!"
Yo. Fuck you and fuck every fucking woman who has ever said that to me at a nightclub. (It's always women.) I don't know why they feel like they have the right to put their hands on my body and try to "fix" me, but i'm forty fucking three years old and i have no patience left for it. I physically pushed her away from me. A bit later she came back and said how sorry she was for saying such a stupid thing and kept repeating "i'm an ally! i'm an ally!" An ally of what, exactly? Ravers?
Dear anyone who goes to a techno club who is not a raver. Rule number one. Don't fucking go up to people who are cutting loose on the dancefloor and try to start a vapid "so, you come here often?" conversation. That undermines the entire purpose of the dancefloor. Rule number two. (The fact this even needs to be said.) Don't try to fix how people dance. Oh, and to anyone who considers themselves "an ally", one of the most obnoxious things you can do is loudly proclaim how much of an ally you are. Like, way to fucking center yourself in a conversation that wasn't even being had in the first place. People go to nightclubs to forget about all that stuff. Just let it go. That's the fucking point.
Last Sunday i let myself go further. I cycled north, under the overpasses, between the highrises and temples, across the bridge, along the metro tracks, and i blinked away tears. I am so blessed to live where i do.
I realized i love these cities of Asia, or at least this corner of Asia. I just feel so comfortable and happy. For sure they're not as walkable as European cities, but they're so much more visually arresting. I love the skyscrapers rising from the mountains, highways defying gravity as they weave across rivers, cutting perfect curves through the mist. I love all the flashing lights, the hustle and bustle, but also the tight alleyways and urban decay and places to get lost, places that still feel raw and local and haven't been gentrified into chain restaurants and condominiums.
When i got to Tamsui i didn't want to stop. I got some watermelon juice, a lumpia and some 豆花 dòuhuā (tofu pudding) from some places i have visited before. (That's how it works in countries where there is no tipping. You show appreciation for a place by going back to that same place the next time. I could've chosen from a half dozen different places to get the food i wanted. I chose the ones that treated me well before.) And then i decided to keep cycling north/west up the coast until i got tired.
Or, i tried to cycle up the coast, but due to the geography it was hard to do. The main coastal road is a little bit inland, and it sprouts little tendrils that follow creeks and rivers out to the actual coast, past factory villages, abandoned resorts and small farms. After following a few of those routes and only succeeding to cut across the creek in one of them, i headed back to the main road and pushed on, up and down the hills, joining the weekend traffic.
It's Taiwan, so of course it was fucking raining. Well, drizzle. I passed a small resort-type community with dozens of Italian and other European-inspired coffee shops and restaurants along the seaside boardwalk, all looking very sad and wet with few customers to speak of. Then i turned off the main road and continued on to reach a cape called 麟山鼻 lín shān bí. I had originally been planning to cycle further than that, but due to all my little side trips and backtrackings i realized it was time to turn around. Turned out the cape was in a national park or heritage area called 白沙灣 bái shā wān (White Sand Bay) that had a coastal bike path heading exactly back the way i came that i hadn't been able to find before, so it was a fortuitous point to make the turnaround.
One of the great things about doing a bicycle day trip (as opposed to a multiple-day bike tour) is that if you are struggling against the wind in the first half of the day, you know that when you turn around, things are going to get better. So, heading back to Tamsui, not only did i get to travel along a picturesque seaside greenway (for a small portion, at least), but i also had the wind helping me back up and down all the hills that had sucked so hard in the other direction.
Instead of leaving the bike at Tamsui and taking the metro home, i decided to just keep on cycling back to the city. By the time i got back to Taipei proper it was dark, but once you're in the city proper there's enough other lighting that's just fine.
Last night i decided at 3am that i had turned into a pumpkin and cycled home from the nightclub on roads that were almost completely empty. I am utterly frazzled today from not getting a proper night's sleep, so it's probably a good thing i didn't try to hold on till the end like i used to when i was younger and less decrepit.
It was a good night, last night. The music was described as groovy disco, Balearic beats and acid... and that's exactly what it was. I am not a huge fan of disco, but in the context of those other sounds i was expecting the sort of diverse sets you hear from the early days of electronic music (WBMX Hot Mix 5 and so forth) and neither the locals nor the visitor from Japan-by-way-of-Finland disappointed. Yeah, there was some shameless disco, but also R&B/soul, hip house, deep house, tribal/afro beats, new beat, dubby druggy weird shit and - my favorite - acid! I danced the hardest i have danced in years. It was the best music i've heard since leaving Berlin, and (aside from a gaggle of drunken foreigners) a totally chill, cool, relaxed crowd. People dressed in casual clothes. Hoodies, sneakers, tank tops, sunglasses, bucket hats... just proper old-fashioned ravers doing old-fashioned raver things. I felt so at home. It was fantastic. Much less self-consciously hip or fashionable than the Shenzhen mainstream electronic scene, and at least somewhat less foreigner-dominated than the Shenzhen "underground" scene (which was only really one club - Oil).
To be fair, i think the Taipei "underground" scene is only one or two clubs too, and this was one of them. I knew i wanted to go there when i saw capacity was around 150 but they put a Funktion-One sound system in anyway. In 1992 Kerri Chandler released a compilation called "a basement, a red light and a feeling", and that title pretty much captures what it means to love underground house music. When you just got those things, you got everything.
And it brings me back to the thoughts i was having on my bike ride that Sunday. I love electronic music precisely because it is such human music. The sound of synthesizers is sounds that we built. It's our technology. It didn't happen by accident. It happened because we built it. And i love that. I love what humans build and what humans do. I love big cities and industrial megastructures and techno music and technology in general. Of course i appreciate parts of the planet that are less touched by human civilization, and i adore finding spaces Out There where i can be alone, but at the end of the day i love humanity and i love what we are and what we can be and i want us to thrive. It's why it's so disappointing to me that people fight over such petty things, or actively push back against progress and growth. Imagine what we could do if we just focused on making life better for humans as a whole instead of trying to get (or keep) a small slice of pie as individuals.
Great, now i want pie. But i am too fucking tired to leave the house.
Monday and Tuesday are public holidays in Taiwan.
I am thinking of jumping on a bullet train tomorrow and heading down to Kaohsiung where the weather is warmer and sunnier and i can get a bit of a change of scenery.
Another change of scenery, that is. Since the new year i have been making an effort to get out of my rut. Eat fresh greens. Cycle to work. Drink less alcohol. Dance to techno. Check out the south. Just get out there and live. Hell with the skin condition, hell with the water and electric problems in my apartment, hell with work. Just live.
A bunch of thoughts went through my mind as i made my way along the riverside greenways, up onto the dyke, back down to the boardwalk and through the mangroves out to Tamsui. I thought to myself, God i love cycling, it's like driving at night.
I hate internal combustion vehicles for the damage they do to human health and the social fabric of communities, but i always loved driving at night. Like the David Lynch signature scene, a highway stretching out into forever, just you on the road, alone and free.
Last night i was dancing to a song that featured a long sample from Lost Highway. "What do you mean? You're where right now?" "At your house." "That's fucking crazy, man." "Call me. Dial your number. Go ahead..."
And as i continued cycling i thought to myself that cycling is like dancing too. They hit very similar emotions for me, in that you are deeply connected to humanity without having to interact directly with anyone. On a bike, no matter where you go, there's always someone who's been there before. Even in the mountains someone was there to blaze the trail. You're just rediscovering what already was. It's an ideal way to explore the domain of humans, the places we've built. You're more connected to the space than you are in a powered vehicle, but you still have the speed and mobility to never have to dwell. You can be a part of the world, but you're watching it go by, you don't need to stop and get trapped in it.
Dancing is like that too, if you go to a proper nightclub. There is very little interaction between people, it's about each person finding their own journey on the floor. To be clear - everyone is sharing the same space as everyone else, and it isn't the same experience to dance on your own, but the perfect night is the one where you go and be with everyone while not having to talk to anyone at all. Just celebrating the beauty of humanity, enjoying each other's company and all we have built, without the pressure of needing to communicate it through language.
That's why it was so frustrating last night when a drunk foreigner came up to me and yelled, "so how did you find out about this place?" The instant tell that someone is not really a raver, when they think the idea of a nightclub is so exotic that nobody could possibly ever find out about it by just looking up "places in town that play techno music" on the internet. But what really pissed me off was when i just gave her an exasperated look in response, she grabbed me and said "and you know what, we really need to fix your posture too!"
Yo. Fuck you and fuck every fucking woman who has ever said that to me at a nightclub. (It's always women.) I don't know why they feel like they have the right to put their hands on my body and try to "fix" me, but i'm forty fucking three years old and i have no patience left for it. I physically pushed her away from me. A bit later she came back and said how sorry she was for saying such a stupid thing and kept repeating "i'm an ally! i'm an ally!" An ally of what, exactly? Ravers?
Dear anyone who goes to a techno club who is not a raver. Rule number one. Don't fucking go up to people who are cutting loose on the dancefloor and try to start a vapid "so, you come here often?" conversation. That undermines the entire purpose of the dancefloor. Rule number two. (The fact this even needs to be said.) Don't try to fix how people dance. Oh, and to anyone who considers themselves "an ally", one of the most obnoxious things you can do is loudly proclaim how much of an ally you are. Like, way to fucking center yourself in a conversation that wasn't even being had in the first place. People go to nightclubs to forget about all that stuff. Just let it go. That's the fucking point.
Last Sunday i let myself go further. I cycled north, under the overpasses, between the highrises and temples, across the bridge, along the metro tracks, and i blinked away tears. I am so blessed to live where i do.
I realized i love these cities of Asia, or at least this corner of Asia. I just feel so comfortable and happy. For sure they're not as walkable as European cities, but they're so much more visually arresting. I love the skyscrapers rising from the mountains, highways defying gravity as they weave across rivers, cutting perfect curves through the mist. I love all the flashing lights, the hustle and bustle, but also the tight alleyways and urban decay and places to get lost, places that still feel raw and local and haven't been gentrified into chain restaurants and condominiums.
When i got to Tamsui i didn't want to stop. I got some watermelon juice, a lumpia and some 豆花 dòuhuā (tofu pudding) from some places i have visited before. (That's how it works in countries where there is no tipping. You show appreciation for a place by going back to that same place the next time. I could've chosen from a half dozen different places to get the food i wanted. I chose the ones that treated me well before.) And then i decided to keep cycling north/west up the coast until i got tired.
Or, i tried to cycle up the coast, but due to the geography it was hard to do. The main coastal road is a little bit inland, and it sprouts little tendrils that follow creeks and rivers out to the actual coast, past factory villages, abandoned resorts and small farms. After following a few of those routes and only succeeding to cut across the creek in one of them, i headed back to the main road and pushed on, up and down the hills, joining the weekend traffic.
It's Taiwan, so of course it was fucking raining. Well, drizzle. I passed a small resort-type community with dozens of Italian and other European-inspired coffee shops and restaurants along the seaside boardwalk, all looking very sad and wet with few customers to speak of. Then i turned off the main road and continued on to reach a cape called 麟山鼻 lín shān bí. I had originally been planning to cycle further than that, but due to all my little side trips and backtrackings i realized it was time to turn around. Turned out the cape was in a national park or heritage area called 白沙灣 bái shā wān (White Sand Bay) that had a coastal bike path heading exactly back the way i came that i hadn't been able to find before, so it was a fortuitous point to make the turnaround.
One of the great things about doing a bicycle day trip (as opposed to a multiple-day bike tour) is that if you are struggling against the wind in the first half of the day, you know that when you turn around, things are going to get better. So, heading back to Tamsui, not only did i get to travel along a picturesque seaside greenway (for a small portion, at least), but i also had the wind helping me back up and down all the hills that had sucked so hard in the other direction.
Instead of leaving the bike at Tamsui and taking the metro home, i decided to just keep on cycling back to the city. By the time i got back to Taipei proper it was dark, but once you're in the city proper there's enough other lighting that's just fine.
Last night i decided at 3am that i had turned into a pumpkin and cycled home from the nightclub on roads that were almost completely empty. I am utterly frazzled today from not getting a proper night's sleep, so it's probably a good thing i didn't try to hold on till the end like i used to when i was younger and less decrepit.
It was a good night, last night. The music was described as groovy disco, Balearic beats and acid... and that's exactly what it was. I am not a huge fan of disco, but in the context of those other sounds i was expecting the sort of diverse sets you hear from the early days of electronic music (WBMX Hot Mix 5 and so forth) and neither the locals nor the visitor from Japan-by-way-of-Finland disappointed. Yeah, there was some shameless disco, but also R&B/soul, hip house, deep house, tribal/afro beats, new beat, dubby druggy weird shit and - my favorite - acid! I danced the hardest i have danced in years. It was the best music i've heard since leaving Berlin, and (aside from a gaggle of drunken foreigners) a totally chill, cool, relaxed crowd. People dressed in casual clothes. Hoodies, sneakers, tank tops, sunglasses, bucket hats... just proper old-fashioned ravers doing old-fashioned raver things. I felt so at home. It was fantastic. Much less self-consciously hip or fashionable than the Shenzhen mainstream electronic scene, and at least somewhat less foreigner-dominated than the Shenzhen "underground" scene (which was only really one club - Oil).
To be fair, i think the Taipei "underground" scene is only one or two clubs too, and this was one of them. I knew i wanted to go there when i saw capacity was around 150 but they put a Funktion-One sound system in anyway. In 1992 Kerri Chandler released a compilation called "a basement, a red light and a feeling", and that title pretty much captures what it means to love underground house music. When you just got those things, you got everything.
And it brings me back to the thoughts i was having on my bike ride that Sunday. I love electronic music precisely because it is such human music. The sound of synthesizers is sounds that we built. It's our technology. It didn't happen by accident. It happened because we built it. And i love that. I love what humans build and what humans do. I love big cities and industrial megastructures and techno music and technology in general. Of course i appreciate parts of the planet that are less touched by human civilization, and i adore finding spaces Out There where i can be alone, but at the end of the day i love humanity and i love what we are and what we can be and i want us to thrive. It's why it's so disappointing to me that people fight over such petty things, or actively push back against progress and growth. Imagine what we could do if we just focused on making life better for humans as a whole instead of trying to get (or keep) a small slice of pie as individuals.
Great, now i want pie. But i am too fucking tired to leave the house.
Monday and Tuesday are public holidays in Taiwan.
I am thinking of jumping on a bullet train tomorrow and heading down to Kaohsiung where the weather is warmer and sunnier and i can get a bit of a change of scenery.
Another change of scenery, that is. Since the new year i have been making an effort to get out of my rut. Eat fresh greens. Cycle to work. Drink less alcohol. Dance to techno. Check out the south. Just get out there and live. Hell with the skin condition, hell with the water and electric problems in my apartment, hell with work. Just live.