a tale of two parties

[amw]

This weekend was 端午節 Duanwu, aka Dragon Boat Festival. That's one of those rebrandings that feels a bit out of left field because when most people in Taiwan think about Duanwu they don't think about canoes, they think about zongzi (aka "Chinese tamale" aka rice pyramid filled with stuff wrapped in a banana leaf

Comments

[siglinde99]

Sunflower is a lovely description. Your comparison of the two weekends was great - the first one had me laughing and asking “so, how much did you really hate it?”. But the second one, delightful as it sounded, had me rather concerned about sanitation. 300 people and not even outhouses?

[amw]

Oh no, it wasn't that bad! There were 5 or 6 porta potties serviced each morning and a water truck. What wasn't available after the first few hours was the flush toilets and hot showers in the camping area.

[siglinde99]

Whew - that’s totally fine. I don’t love the porta-potties but that’s a decent number for the size of the event and way less likely to spread horrible gastro diseases. It’s pretty much how we survive when we do our camping events. The only showers of any kind happen if people bring those portable shower bags and heat them in the sun.

[amw]

Oh, I should probably also post this song too, which is a very well-known and oft-quoted joke in some of the circles I hang out in but maybe other people never heard it before 😅

[picosgemeos]

Back in my day we bathed in mud and wiped with leaves, and we liked it!

LOL!

I love your posts on your parties.

[king_of_apathy]

I don't think I've know anyone with as highly specific taste in music as you have. It does make for very entertaining reading. I'm convinced that you would have hated 99% of the music events I've ever been to, especially as the great majority of them were guitar based!

Sounds like it was a much needed break from work. The festival location looks gorgeous.

[amw]

I think music taste gets more specific the closer you get to the stuff you actually like. For instance, if i am listening to some country music, and it's terrible, then it's like oh well, it's just country music, of course it's terrible. But if it's at least approaching a genre that i like, then i get annoyed that the artist didn't make this choice or that choice that would've made the song a million times better. Perhaps this is just part of listening to music as a musician, you deconstruct it too much? I do think that in some ways the more i learned about making music (and subsequently DJing it), it took a level of enjoyment away from hearing stuff that perhaps once might have seemed more novel or exciting.

But music nerdery aside, the whole point to go to parties or clubs for me is to listen and dance to the music. So if the music isn't something that i want to listen or dance to, it defeats the whole point of going in the first place. I think that's what makes it so disappointing, like going to a nice restaurant and then they

[nahele_101]

The set up looks very "psytrance-y" in my mind. I don't mind an OCCASIONAL vocal trance song, but endless? Just...stop...it.

I'm more into house music anyways...deep and progressive house is my jam. I personally wouldn't have minded funk and reggae, but I like variety. Vocal trance for hours? No.

Was the Rainbow Festival there the big one? I wasn't aware there was rainbow folks out there. The BIG one here in the U.S has some weird shit going on there. I was intrigued in the past, but now think I'd be too "mainstream" for it since I have a regular job, a house, dogs, was in the military, follow western medicine, etc. I sorta feel like I don't fit in anywhere at times, so I just go with my life as it is.

[amw]

I was surprised at how detailed it was for a relatively small party. When we were throwing psytrance parties in the late 90s/early 00s in Australia the lighting setup was usually just a couple of spots and a screen for projections. The technology has come a long way since those days, but also i think the amount of money being spent might be more too.

I'm not sure if the Taiwan Rainbow earlier this year was the global one, i'm not really that in tune with the scene. For me i've always found it a bit too "woo" as well, and something that creeps me out in particular is the "free love" vibe in that corner of the hippie scene. I don't like the BDSM/kink scene for the same reason, even though they sometimes play decent techno music. Raves to me should not have any overt sexuality beyond cuddle puddles imo, it takes me out of the vibe. But, you know, more power to those who are into that stuff i suppose. I hope they don't end up targets for abuse. I try not to be judgemental and just share the overlapping things with the people who might see