My friend Andrea recently sent me an email remarking on the fact that Taiwan looks incredibly colorful, particularly in comparison to Poland, where she is living this year. So I thought I'd post this black and white picture of a shrine I saw at Ximending a couple of weeks ago, just to kind of even the score. Does it look like Poland now?
This photograph is from a show I attended on Wednesday night. As things were wrapping up, everyone who had performed got on stage to do one giant, confused song together. Very fun.
OK, well I guess I am posting some fieldwork photos from now on when I feel like it. No more apologizing. This is a photo of Teacher Liao, playing a sanxian and telling me a story. I went to visit him in the mountains today and I think I will go back again.
A family friend whose company operates a factory in Sanchong invited me to observe their annual weiya a few weeks ago. What is a "weiya," you ask? Simply put, it's a party that Taiwanese businesses throw towards the end of the lunar year--employees and partners alike are invited and everyone eats and drinks and drinks and drinks some more. I took this photo towards the beginning of the evening, when everyone was still fairly sober. What you're seeing is a makeshift stage the employees set up in the middle of the factory floor for speeches, karaoke, drag performance, and even magic tricks. By the end of the night, a petulant (drunk) employee had torn down all the balloons and popped them with his feet. 
Beitou is one of my favorite spots in Taipei--the hot springs are magical, there are cool museums to explore, and the area is quite walkable. I've visited twice in the last few weeks and I hope to be able to spend even more time there over the next several months--there's just so much to discover. 
I am especially fond of the Beitou Public Library--so fond of it, in fact, that I selected it as the site for our wedding photos a few weeks ago! It's the first LEED platinum-certified (I think) building in Taiwan and I'd love to go back some day to hang out and browse the stacks. The last time I was there it looked like they had a lovely collection focused on green design and construction and wildlife conservation.
If you haven't had a chance to visit the town of Sanxia (三峽), get yourself there as fast as your feet will carry you. Its "Minquan Old Street" (民權老街)--painstakingly restored to Japanese colonial era glory--is packed with very cool restaurants, shops, galleries, and antiques malls. Touristy? Perhaps. But I don't care because it's awesome.
