Great Live Band near my house!

I happened to drop by Yong Kang Park on my way home after dinner and came across a live band performing... there was a huge crowd and after a while I guess I know why :)

The band playing is called Spoon-de-Chop, they have been performing at Yong Kang Park for the past 8 years, always on Saturday nights... the band is very international, comprising Taiwanese, Japanese, an American and a Macedonian... they play a diversity of music as well, from Chinese songs to Japanese songs to Taiwanese songs, even solo performances in English and Macedonian... the lead singer is Japanese and really talented; he plays the harmonica, guitar and San Xian (a three-stringed instrument).. what's really cool about them though, is that they play for beer and not for money :) talk about combining passions for music and booze...

I sat there to watch and listen them play for almost 1.5 hours, along with quite a number of other residents...

Here's a clip of them performing the very well-known Suki Yaki (上を向いて歩こう)

and here performing Grandfather's Clock in Japanese (大きな古時), a really beautiful children's song (google the lyrics if you are interested) which I learnt in music class in primary school



More clips that I recorded can be found here:
Folky Japanese song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BwFcLNsxUM
Chinese song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Y0M52ZDhc
Shima Uta 島唄 (yes the AIESEC dance song): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk8NNojfvqg
Sanshin no Hana 三線の花: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hwg6m7ptSs

To find out when they are next performing, check http://spoondechop.blogspot.com/

Quick and Short post

Yesterday (saturday, 28 Feb) was a pretty happening day so I took a lot of photos and videos, but since I'm still uploading and sorting them out, here is just a quick, short post about politics and quirkiness in Taiwan...

This is the main gate of the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, taken by me on 28 Feb 2009


This, however, is the same gate taken by me on 6th May 2005 during my 1st visit to Taiwan

The words on the same gate are different!!
It's actually because the previous party in power, Democratic Progressive Party or DPP, under Chen Shui Bian decided the name was not appropriate (related to Taiwan's history and the significance of 28th Feb, or 228 incident) and changed it from “大中至正” literally translated to mean "Great Mean/Perfect Uprightness" to “自由廣場” or "Liberty Square". This was done in December 2007.

What's interesting, is that now that the Kuo Min Tang or KMT under Ma Ying Jeou is in power, the gate will soon be updated to its original name of “大中至正”

Perhaps this is a way of boosting the economy through government spending on infrastructure and construction... Let's see when the exact date of change is.. since I stay about 20 mins walk from the Memorial Hall, I just might make a trip down..

p.s. thanks to Sandy for telling me about this on Friday :)