Thanksgiving in Taichung

11-27-14 7:03am Thurs. 

I made two pumpkin pies last evening. I had a slice for breakfast just now and it wasn't half bad. Here is how I made it: 

The crust was made of Walkers fine oatcakes, crushed down to crumbs and mixed with water and an egg. I then molded it around the bottom and sides of two baking trays. The oat cakes had been in our closet for months since they're not very tasty on their own; the crust could have been better if I had added some sugar.

The pumpkin filling was made with the 29oz. can of Libby's I bought at Finga's last year; I was going to make pumpkin pie last year but balked at doing it. To the mix I added four eggs, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 3 tsp. ground cinnamon, 2 tsp. nutmeg. I could find no evaporated milk so I used about 400g Nestle Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk instead and added no extra sugar. I blended the mix and put it into the crust lined  trays baking it in the toaster oven at 210c. for 15 minutes and 180c. for 45 minutes, then I let it cool overnight. 

When I return from my bike ride, I will ride over to the turkey-rice stand and the lady who bakes yams on both sides near the Taiwan Railroad crossing on Dong-Shan Road.  Right now I am going to boil a few potatoes in preparation for mashed potatoes and gravy. I will not have Stove Top stuffing which I forget to buy in Brooklyn last August. I also don't have Ocean Spray cranberry jelly so I bought a jar of locally made cranberry jam which I'll have instead. Finally, the meal will have Taiwanese sweet corn; 69NT each! The soup will be either corn soup (if Leona chooses to make it) or split pea soup from Kauffman's in Intercourse, PA. I want to save the matzo ball soup for next month's Hanukkah dinner. 

This dinner is my desire; Leona could do without it. The roasted turkey we bought last year was good but wasted on a transient and uncaring staff at American Eagle; worst of all, the boss and her husband invited themselves and their two children. Some gifts of pastries, fruit, and beer were brought. In all rights, I shouldn't be celebrating the day the Europeans settled in North America and began their assault on the natives, but it's in my culture since I was a child. I remember the feeling of being together with Bubby, Pop, Auntie Ray, Uncle Joe, Kenny and Raymond on the holiday. It was dysfunctional, it was chaotic, but it was my family. Dad left for Florida, my sister left 'Zimbabwe' for Japan, and finally the dinner tradition was continued at Mom's and then at our home in Sheepshead Bay. Now, Simone and Renna will celebrate with their boyfriends' families. Ariel said he may find a restaurant that served turkey dinner (though I wonder if he's talking through his hat again) and Amanda will feel some effect from Thanksgiving in New York City, though not necessarily a turkey dinner. 

Gig at Red Room

 11-16-14

I had a nice day yesterday. I went to Taipei alone to the Red Room open mike, read an excerpt from my book and sang and played a song on my harmonica. No one took a photo of me or was there to record me unlike last me in July when Ariel went with me. I could have asked this young medical student I was chatting with but I forgot because the introduction I got was abrupt. I sold no books to the cold, noisy crowd of one hundred. Still, I had fun in Taipei,

When I got off the HSR, I took the metro to City Hall station, to the Eslite Dept. Store where they have two floors of books and a CD's. I got The Travels of Marco Polo, though the clerk said they didn't have a copy there. I got My Life, the autobiography of Helen Keller and a deluxe edition of Tommy by The Who. I couldn't find Green Mansions and I forgot to look for a Clapton CD anthology. The ride to the event Red Room event was convenient; a five minute walk from the train station. It was in an area that used to be Taiwan Tobacco Monopoly property. There were many cafe's there and stylish youth stores. I found the location that red Room rented by accident entering through the rear door. 

Though everyone was friendly, I felt a bit uncomfortable because of the constant drone of crowd noise and no focus inside, unlike in Red Room's regular spot above the beauty salon; they rented this space for their 5th anniversary but there were no more guests there than there were in July, about 100 or so. The crowd talked throughout the acts. I sat on a wooden bleacher next to a young med student named Rowan (he was too young to get my Rowan and Martin reference) from NTU who had spent a month at the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland. He was cute but boring. 

     After an unprepared set of a rock 'n' roll  group, Red Room threw in an unannounced readers' theater-type radio show which was too long and not listened to by most people there. When Trevor asked me if I would be the first open mike I said "yes" though I was hoping to go on later; I wasn't sure when I arrived if I was going on at all because I hadn't received a confirmation and Trevor, one of the organizers, hadn't responded to my inquiry I sent a few days earlier. I could have called but it didn't matter; a guy named Mono (who received a goodbye gift because he was leaving) showed me a sign up list. I asked about setting up the books I brought to sell and was told to announce them during my open mike. Though I played a populist self-publishing attitude, it didn't translate into any sale. I passed around two books as if they were chocolate samples (something a food table did later on) but it didn't get as far as ten feet away and was put down by whomever looked at them last. One lame-brain young woman seated to my right treated me and my book like a patient at a hospital emergency room when I returned from my set; "Oh, that's so heartfelt," she said concilatorily. "I recall seeing your book on a Facebook page," she said as she fingered the cover of a copy. "How many have you sold? Really?" She handed the book back to me not wanting to buy or even look. The announcement Trevor made for me was lukewarm and the book was swept under it. They should have been displayed on their Red Room table but I wasn't invited to put them there. The 'new-age' honcho of Red Room didn't remember to welcome me personally (he should have remembered me) but gave a little speech about his purposes in doing this thing of his. 

The next time I go, and I will go next time, I will not play my harmonica or sing; only read a poem and excerpt from a story. And I will not let Trevor put me on first, a no-no according to Ariel who warned me about it in July and put me up in the middle; let the crowd see the other acts first to appreciate me more. 

 And the other acts were shitty. Some guy in a Chinese pirate get-up swooped around the floor instead of doing some real tai-chi or something. A woman with a nice voice did a karaoke the second time after a technical difficulty the first try. A white haired dude in a Panama suit spoke of nothingness for longer than my set and a drunk redhead raved on about not joining the army (she had pre-stress syndrome) and Mono and Trevor cut her off, just as they cut me off, mercifully, since no one was listening to either of us, anyway, though there was nothing better to swallow afterwards. One black dude played with his belly-button in poems about who he really was; it got the most sympathetic response from the lost crowd used to playing with their own navels. A pudgy novice did a ridiculous partial strip tease to sleazy music. When the music continued after she left the set, I was expecting Trevor who took the mike to continue the strip tease; that would have been funny. My policy of not making red Room the focus of my visit to Taipei was wise; I was too satisfied with the rest of my trip to be disappointed by it. Even the free meal and drink that came with the 350NT ticket wasn't enough; I had to go to Mo's Burger when I left the show early at 9:30pm in the middle of an slumber party improv by four language school buddies; where were the pajamas? 

 

Prem - Beautiful, great food, low price, Eastside Taichung

Upcoming Mr. Big Concert in Taichung

11-10-15

Leona got tickets to see Mr. Big who, miraculously, are playing in Taichung. It will be the best (and only) English show this year. Wu-Bai was a good Chinese show. We missed The Pet Shop Boys a few weeks ago and passed on other lame foreign groups and singers. 

Taichung Jazz Festival and Halloween

10-25-14

      November 15 is the next open mike at Red Room in Taipei. I will be there and read a story, poem, sing a song with my blues harp, or a combination of two or three. It is the fifth anniversary of Red Room and there are events starting at 1pm. 

      Tonight I am going  to Peoples' Park where there's a culmination of the Taichung Jazz Festival.

      Next Saturday will be the Halloween Party with bands  I already bought two tickets for me and Leona. That same night there will be a free concert of Taiwan classic singers on the Westside. Leona wants to go to both. 

   

      We had a nice day yesterday going to Yi-Song Street. On Yi-Song Street we went to a shop and spent 1000NT having plastic coating shrunk covering my HTC smart phone to protect it from scratches. The phone was over $300us; 

      I hear the loud speakers on trucks of election candidates. Leona and I hope Mr. Hu, who has been the KMT mayor of Taichung for thirteen years loses. He has neglected the old city and moved the seat of government to the exclusive Westside. He is just now allowing the building of one elevated light rail and a random bus lane on Taichung Port Road (now called Taiwan Blvd.) We hope DPP candidates win locally as they seem to care more for Taiwanese people though, nationally, they've abandoned independence but support American interests. 

10-26-14

      Just as the Taichung Jazz Festival was really rock, Jack Bruce was, too. Mark Kaplan e-mailed that Jack died yesterday. There was nothing more for Jack Bruce to do but live a long life; he died at 71. He had created all his great music years ago and got the credit he deserved at the Cream reunion concert more recently. It looks like I will play "Train Time" at Red Room on Nov. 15 in his memory. 

      The Taichung Jazz Festival went on for a week. Today is the last day. Leona and I went last evening. I'm glad we did. I didn't listen to any of the music but we strolled around in the dense crowd and visited some of the food stalls. We went into Eslite Dept. Store's music/book department and I got Anthem of the Sun on vinyl for $33 us. I've never heard it before in forty-five years since it's been out. I also got Dark Horse CD and an East Village Other CD of recordings they made in the late 60's. Everything I bought was from more than forty years ago. 

     Last evening Leona rode the scooter and we went to Peoples' Park for an 80's classic Taiwan music concert. It was free. We sat and relaxed for three hours sitting on a ledge. I had a little bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream to mellow me. Leona and I fit in perfectly with the crowd. I finally heard the music of the woman in the poster over my dresser in the dressing room on the second floor at 1210 Ave Y for eighteen years. She was standing in a forest wearing a shroud and looking down with long hair covering her face. She sounds like Enya. Not bad.

      After the show, after 10

pm when outdoor shows have to end, we got back on her scooter and went to find the place where the Halloween party was supposed to be held. On the way, we stopped off at a shabby night market and I ate unremarkable dumplings and smoked chicken tails. Leona then looked around for the night club and finally found it. It was a nice night club with a stage where we saw a few shitty bands try to play rock 'n' roll. The beat was good though and I moved my body wearing the evil mask I wore the night before and the year before at American Eagle's Halloween event. The 500NT ticket only entitled us to one fucking bottle of beer; not a mixed drink! I drank my beer with a straw through a slit in my mask. There were beautiful Ruskie women in flimsy maid outfits roving around arousing any schmuck who paid them to. Many people were dressed well or in costumes, except Leona; she wouldn't do something as 'silly' as wear a costume. She had fun there, I think, and even danced a little, but when she sat down and started fiddling with her new smart phone, I knew it was time to go; the evening wouldn't be getting better. 

      I suggested we leave. We left around midnight. Just as we were getting to the scooter, the ladies from American Eagle - Zoe, Alice, Kammy, Monalisa, and Monalisa's Russian friend - showed up all dressed up. Teacher Darren was going to be DJ-ing at 3am and they wanted to support him. In truth, if Leona wasn't there, I would have turned around and stayed to talk, dance, and drink with them. Instead, Leona took a photo of us and then we got on the scooter and left. Leona didn't know which way to go home but didn't ask me; I am good at directions. Finally, after going the wrong way, she mentioned she wasn't sure where to go and I pointed the way. We got home at 12:45.

Wu-Bai Concert in Kaohsiung

10-20-14

      Leona and I had a fine weekend in Kaohsiung. Everything we did, we enjoyed. From the scooter she drove to the Taiwan Railroad local to the High Speed Rail, the Kaohsiung MRT subway to Central Park and the Harmony Hotel, to dinner at Outback Steak House, and the Wu-Bai/China Blue concert at the Kaohsiung Arena and back to the hotel to make love and sleep, only the forty-five minute wait for our dinner was a concern. Sunday, making love again, and after breakfast at the hotel, we walked across the bridge over the Love River to Wu-Fu 4^th Road to Caves Book Store, a second hand record/CD shop, Mary Food Bakery, and lunch at the food court near the HSR station before heading home.

   

Ching-Shui and Japanese Typhoon Winds

10-12-14

      Leona took me to Ching-Shui yesterday, a nice little city on the coast over the Dadu Mountains just northwest of Taichung, north of Da-Ya, home to the mafioso Buddhist temple. Ching-Shui, meaning "clear-water," is a town with a public school build by the Japanese during occupation, the same style as Leona's school in Tan-Zih that was misguidedly torn down twenty years ago. There are a dozens of Ching Dynasty and Japanese era buildings and a shrine up the mountain where a museum has recently been made to house archaeological finds from the aboriginal roots of Taichung three thousand years ago. Leona and I had a great time walking around the city, visiting their famous rice with pork cause topping restaurant, and taking photos of the old buildings. 

      It took over an hour to get to Ching-Shui on the Taiwan Railroad Coastal line which goes south way down passed Xin Wu-Er's HSR station and doubles back  north past Sweeney-Poo's resting place cemetery. If we could go straight west over the Dadu mountain from Beitun, Ching-Shui is only about ten miles as the crow flies instead of the fifty miles I think we looped cross to get there. It was such a windy day with the largest typhoon of the season carrying 150 mph winds towards Japan this morning reaching out over Taiwan on its way north. When we got home at 6pm, the fencing around the patio ledge was bent over from the wind, a heavy potted bush fallen, and the trash can lid of our cistern flown away, hopefully not hurting anyone. 

Public School built in Japanese times still in use.

Public school teachers' offices.

The feel of an old Japanese school.

Rehabilitating an old structure.

Only one part is brick.

Will it be fixed or demolished?

The entrance

To be fixed up

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Part of the revival

Japanese bridge marker

Famous stick rice restaurant

Man riding one of five original ice cream carts

What would Colonial Sanders think?

Hope they can save this little beauty.

Ching-Shui's logo, everywhere

Japanese shrine to 1932 earthquake 

Part of the old fort wall

Male lion guard

Female guard

The old wall.

Japanese cistern still in use

Stairs down from the Japanese shrine

Stairs up to the shrine

Beautiful old building