A family member has departed. I’d like to go home, especially considering the approaching Christmas season. A lonely one to be had. Alas, this doesn’t look likely. It’s my Dad I would most like to be there for. Say a prayer in Canada, light an incense in Taiwan. Sad face.

In lighter news, we went out to LUXY last night, and much to our surprise (we were told this wasn’t going to happen) there was a billboard sized glossy ad for our Aoki party outside. Happy face.

This is a rant.

All of my/our energy is going to promoting and creating hype for our party. For a city of such size, it’s extraordinarily hard to draw a crowd. Electro and indie dance are still fresh, this is something we’re trying to change. I was lucky in Canada, DJ’s du jour every weekend, sometimes Thursdays. Here we wait a month between parties, and (this is the apparent theme to my post) as foreigners are less than all the rage in the ‘indie’ crowd, we rarely we make our way out to the smaller, more intimate indie spots. ‘Tis is shame, it’s where I want to be. The predominant motive that compelled us to throw parties in Taiwan, is to change this. BRING MORE MORE MORE ELECTRO AND INDIE DANCE TO TAIWAN. You’d like to believe that every hipster, scenester, indie, or whatever party kid would fully support us, right? FOR THE LOVE OF MUSIC. Well, it’s not all love in this world. The party crowd (and when I use the term ‘party crowd’, I am referring to every neon kid in tight pants, an artsy t shirt, and converse that listens to whatever obscure indie band that hasn’t but might soon be mixed and remixed, and, pun intended, dances through Sunday at electro and indie dance parties.).. so this party crowd, in every city around the world, is especially pretentious (I’m sure this statement reaches many stereotypes, but those I am not a part of). Selective in music, selective in friends, trends, hangouts, what have you. I get the feeeeeeeeeling that here in Taipei, I am one in the minority in this ‘indie clique’. But this scenes bread and butter is music, it is the bond that ties all these kids together, gives them something to talk and be passionate about, and is also the one predominant thing that we (foreigners) have in common with them, a wholehearted passion in musical interest and party vibes. Forget language barriers, this should be enough. Not always.

Countless times, Audrey and I have gone to an indie party and have often been the only wai guo ren’s there, we dance as hard, as fast, and with as much devotion for the music being pumped into our ears as the hipster bumping into us, we stay until the lights go on, and all the meanwhile no one says but a word to us, except for maybe the one kid who thinks being seen with a white girl is still cool (ugh). And still we go, alone, the two of us in our own clique, and we dance. Because we love the music. But not always the vibe. The vast majority of my partying has been done in THE city of all cities, Montreal, so I’m coming from and longing for THE vibe that every city wants to be (that we want to create). Lofts, clubs, and warehouses rammed with eccentric and eclectic kids losing it on the dance floor, all coming together pour l’amour de la musique!

I find this vibe lacking in Taiwan. Possibly and probably because I am an outsider. Inside AND outside of this scene, some Taiwanese hate foreigners. We are tolerated, but not always liked. Albeit, this is with reason. I don’t dismiss the notion that some foreigners should not be liked, we have it easy here and some halfwits have abused this which has resulted in somewhat of a stigma being pinned to foreigners as a whole. Some might call us pretentious too, fine. 5 years ago, you could teach English here while not even possessing a high school diploma, some of these pinheads are still here. Times have changed, reputations have not.

Dancing Through Sunday is three foreigners and one Taiwanese eggroll that is easily considered one of us. We live, breathe, and dream music, we love electro particularly, we love to dance, we love Taipei. We want to put Taiwan on the map, make it a regular stop in Asian touring rosters. We want more music, more dancing, we want the party vibe to reach everyone. We want the DJ to play a track and see the entire club go wild. We’re doing this for every same reason that our Taiwanese counterparts do it, but we do it in high heels. Perhaps these anxieties are just my own, but I hold this awareness and these impressions I’ve battled all week since presale tickets hit stands last Saturday. I am anxiously awaiting comments and criticism on our party becoming official, I am eager to see if we have the support of the party kids, which in my opinion only, is our target audience. I worry that with our limited communication, our choice in venue, us being foreigners, this being Aoki’s second show in Taiwan (why go see him if we’ve already seen him?), and the overall hype surrounding the party, they won’t come. Because it’s not ‘indie’ enough. So then we’ll have no parties, except for the ones in our living rooms, at all.

Indie is only a trend. It has materialized, as all other trends of the 90’s, the 80’s, and so on, with the intention to move heaven and earth artistically, creatively, and uniquely, and once diminished, will leave but a faded style. More than less of this indie crowd are conforming to anything and everything mainstream anyway, and are a paradox of what indie really defines.

Just be yourself.

And I will continue to wear high heels to indie parties.

I miss Zaphods.