Saturday 10/26 Night
of Beethoven, Indians, Dinosaurs, & Eminem
Jonathan
and I met at CKS Memorial at 6:30 to watch a free outdoor symphony concert he’d
heard about. It was a beautiful mild
breezy night and there were big balloons in the shape of elephant heads
floating above, a big playground set up on the side, people practicing Chinese dance
in the middle as always, and for the concert there was a makeshift stage set up.
Everyone sat on the floor. The concert was for the National
Symphony Orchestra’s 15th anniversary. They played a lot of classics; the Haydn concerto was my favorite,
which was the opening. There was
also a Romeo and Juliet overture, and a piece about ancient Rome. The emcee woman would explain a bit
about each piece; she was kind of flighty. At the end she thanked the conductor, a French man, and told
us all to give him a [something in Chinese] as thanks. We expected this meant they were going
to sing him a well-known Taiwanese old song. But instead, after a lot of buildup, at the count of three,
they all clapped in a little rhythm (like “shave and a haircut” but
different). We cracked up, and the
Frenchman looked like he was expecting more too.
Toward the
end it was getting too cold. They
ended with the 1812 Overture and used actual cannons, that was pretty
cool. We went to the ShaoLongBao
place I discovered with YuJung and ChiYuan and it was great again, Jon agreed
it was a great find. Stella called
to ask about Plush but I didn’t want spend 700NT (Saturday cover). We then called Brad to see if he had any
ideas, maybe a Halloween party at a pub?
He didn’t know so we cabbed to AnHo and ShinYi to look for something and
stopped in a café for sweets, then Brad called and suggested we meet at Heping
and Fuhsing where he had somewhere in mind, so we cabbed again, met him and
found out he meant Club 2F which I told them was a club for 550NT so they weren’t
interested, so we cabbed AGAIN toward a German bar Brad knew about, but it was
closed. This was hardest time
we’ve ever had finding something. We
decided to look for Indian Bar which we’ve heard about; its theme is American Indians
and dinosaurs, which yes have nothing to do with each other. Did lots of walking and ended up in the
area we first cabbed to. It looks
vaguely familiar and I think I was there during Love Boat. It was so empty, and more restauranty
than a pub, but we just ordered a 3000 cc keg figuring it was about 6 beers.
We tried
to think of drinking games and spent more time thinking of them and describing
them than doing them. Brad suggested
quarters, flipped a 10NT piece into his full cup and actually drank it, it grossed
me out and I said “As a public health professional I protest this game. Do you know how many germs are on that
coin?” He said the alcohol kills
them but I said beer’s not nearly strong enough. Then Jon taught us the bee game where you say “[Two bees fly
into a flower patch]” and throw rock-paper-scissors and pretend to slap each
other and make noises depending on the outcome. I thought it was cute but don’t think Brad was amused. Then Jon tried asking the waitress if
she knew any games, she didn’t know what he meant and referred us to another
bar. Either she misunderstood or
was trying to give us a hint.
Across was
a big table full of girls who looked like lesbians, one having a birthday (we
knew because they were drinking like crazy, then set a cake in front of her, and
abruptly she threw up). Jon
decided to go ask them, because he is literally incapable of spending any night
out without making ten new friends with complete strangers. He was there for a while, but sure
enough we heard them go into fits of laughter, he came back and taught us the
game, but it was just “Tsai Chuan” (throwing out fingers and yelling what you
guess the sum will be) which we knew already. The waiter suddenly brought us a free deck of Indian/Dinosaur
cards that were incredibly cute; but since we still couldn’t think of a game, I
used them to build houses.
Brad and Jon said I had to go
check out the men’s bathroom; the urinals were totem poles. I asked if they really had faces, they
said Yes, you pee at the face, and it’s very um, uncomfortable. I went to take a picture. The sinks are in the shape of dinosaur
skulls and the water runs out the mouth.
I was very buzzed and red now and we
stayed until closing. They rushed
us and I said “[OK, we just have to finish our beer, we can’t waste it since we
really like your beer,]” Jon and Brad
commended me for sounding so authoritative. The staff didn’t look happy with me at all, so I poured a full
glass for each of us and solemnly said we must chug. On the count of 3 I chugged and when I slammed the glass
down, the two of them were just watching me and never drank! Wussies.
Outside: where to now? As we walked we came across a white
truck which was really a huge portable lav. I went in to look, then saw a ladder going up the side of it
and climbed onto the roof, yelling “I’m king of the world!” Leonardo-style,
hearing Jon groan, “Oh Lord.” They
yelled for me to give them my camera. I almost threw it down to Brad but Jon quickly climbed up
halfway and offered to take it for me, thank goodness he is the sane one. We heard an angry whistle and saw
nearby workers motioning me to get down so I quickly posed for the photo and
scampered down.
We don’t
know where to go but a cab was sitting there so I said, “Let’s ask him!” Climbed in and asked the driver, “[Do
you know where to go dance, a fun place?]” He said sure so I waved them in, Jon groaning, “I can’t
believe we don’t know where we’re going and you asked a cabbie.” Jon and I asked the him if the place he
was taking us was expensive, and he thought that meant we wanted expensive
but we quickly corrected “[No, we like cheap]”. We suddenly stopped and it was Juliana’s, the place that
Gary said was full of “high rollers”. There was no cover and they asked for only my ID (yay).
Inside was
a bar in the center and tables all around, a small dance floor in front of the bar,
a terrible slow song playing and hardly any dancing. I looked for the DJ but there didn’t seem to be one, or he
was hidden. And rightly so, for
playing this crap. Then it picked
up and there was good music, lots of hip hop. Jon spotted a girl he said was “the only one here he would
consider”; she looked ABC and familiar to me, maybe from ShiDa. When Eminem’s “Without Me” came on
Jonathan was impressed I could rap along the entire song, but said the girl was
behind me doing the exact same thing.
Rats, I need to find another talent.
Outside, we
split up and Jon walked me home even though it’s a couple blocks out of his
way. Thank goodness for reliable Jon.