:Ghosts

Subject: Luodong

9/07/14

Was picked up right off the Xinyi line yesterday and travelled to the coast in Yilan County with Kitty, Vera & Sandy: three older and extremely unattractive Taiwanese women. English levels: intermediate. Kitty, a stout 34 year old with an enormous tattoo of a medieval shield brandishing the name “Robert” on her forearm, drove us in her golden Mercedes "300E” as (really good) Taiwanese music blasted through the speakers. Vera, 24, with huge breasts, false teeth and reptilian facial features, sat in front of me while Sandy, also 24, with her black-pored face and burly, unshaven legs, sat right beside me. Their afflictions of the flesh bypassed my standard notion of the ‘Foreign male/Taiwanese girl’ relationship and resulted in what felt like a more authentic interaction. There was no Energy spent thinking over sensual temptations, which would have been disgusting. And yet beyond this their skin cried of innocence, and the more I listened to the tonalities of their Mandarin, heard their laughter, or allowed them to observe what they called my “marble” eyes, the more I felt genuine spirits in all three of them. Once we left Taipei, the one hour highway drive to the coast really "heated my senses" and revealed the more tropical zones of Taiwan. A single mountain-tunnel would last over ten minutes, the perpetual stream of fluorescents beaming above until we emerged on the other end to dense canopies and overlooking temples. We arrived on the beach in Yilan with its soft, black sand and green, hilly backdrop. The water was actually hot and it soothed the cockroach bite on my lower calf. If you glanced passed the quay made of black stones there was a sense of the derelict dredging, whereas a look to the shore evoked the original Kavalan in their aboriginal squats.

Wire Sigils

We left the beach to head for Luodong Township, driving along expanses of highway past the Mitsubishi Savrins and through smaller industrial sectors where you can recognize the chronological flow of gaslight, electricity, telephone, running water, and MRT. The aged four-fold interaction of prisons, freight yards, ice plants and officer barracks. Luodong ran amok with scooters & cars bumper to bumper in the neon ambience. Buddhist ceremonies were occurring next door to bone-setting clinics and mechanic shops. The night market overflowed with hoards of people. Golden 50NT coins exchanged hands for fish balls, bagged fried chicken, and lamb skewers. The three girls and I seized a small metal table with tiny metal stools next to a booth where we were served pig intestine, pig belly, and minced pork with chunks of ginger, clusters of steamed yam leaves, and rice bowls. Overall, the whole day, including a gas “pitch-in", cost me around 500NT (~$17).

By the end of the night I had agreed to teach Vera and Kitty’s friend english in a clandestine language-lab that I will establish. Still not sure if I will follow through with it though. This may lead to a wider network and some hotter “initiates.” Vera agreed to 1400NT per two hour session.

———

I arrived at Tim’s apartment (top floor, no elevator, vaulted door) last Saturday to go to Korner, where I met Sam: a looming, six foot tall, bald Australian who works in marketing for English schools in Taiwan. He works in Taipei, gets paid an Australian salary, and holds his money in a Singaporean bank account. He lived in Japan for two years (more fun, he says) before coming to Taipei (better place to live, he says). By 11:30 PM we arrived at Korner, the only sign of it from above being a black stairwell leading down as well as the distinct crowd of foreigners and Taiwanese youth clustering above. Before going in and beneath a freeway column I met Victor, an “experimental filmmaker” who embraced me for my equal knowledge of Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Wong Kar-Wai & Christopher Doyle, Leos Carax and Peter Greenaway. He claims that Taipei is a good place to make movies and also has some good theaters. Tim’s roommate, J., an aerodynamic looking Asian with black hair tied tautly behind his head in a bun, and the one in charge of Korner, was also there.

We descended into the sweat-box to the pounding of Ancient Methods. The entrance fee was 200NT (~$7) which included a drink. From memory, the whole interior was completely black except for a tree that seemed to sprout out of the wall. Aside from a few tables near the entrance and a fully-stocked bar the only thing besides the dance-floor & gothically-caged DJ area was a table with one candle at the far end of the club. I remember nearly vomiting from a poisonous whisky shot, black girls, girls from Canada, one of the DJs (Petstov) being enormous and having no shirt, and the frequent mention of “green ecstasy” (although it never showed its face). From here, the night blurs and becomes harder to explain.

Korner is place that can grant itself to local myth. It deserves a brutal death or police-shutdown. It is not quite at the point yet of defining its existence through the specificities of "a scene" and it is definitely not the deepest or darkest a club can get. But what is good is its humility, it is a humble and intimate place with good people and good music. The carnal-drive is pushed to the background yet sex is clearly still obtainable in more crystallized and alien forms. I met an Australian man who, wearing a tribal bone-necklace and on Ketamine, told me that he worked in the “fashion industry” and “music” and lived in Tokyo. I heard that apparently there is a group of three men and one woman in Taipei who go under the moniker “The Vampires”. They ingest massive amounts of drugs and consistently host orgies. Their record for staying up is seven days.

Street Dog & Woman

Tim and I emerged from Korner around 3:00 AM with a group of Parisians and a Spanish girl, all of whom were leaving the next day. I kept hearing “fucking place” and we all piled into two separate taxis. A drive through the Taipei nervous system and we arrived at “The Fucking Place", a dingy bar that hosted an upward, wooden stairwell before you arrived inside. The place was packed with characters, beer was cheap, and I drunkenly watched the sunrise from a window as “Hotel California” played and a 28 year old Taiwanese ballet teacher grabbed my penis beneath the table. A grotesque women, she had the face of Methuselah, covered in powdery-white makeup and scarlet lipstick. Whenever I stood up she would swing her leg over my shoulder, thrust her pelvis at my cock, and emit gibberish. It was hectic and I remember not being adverse to roughly grabbing her ass, groin, or arms as she fed me white wine.

Tim and I emerged into daylight from “The Fucking Place” around 5:00 AM. My perception was no longer smooth and everything was happening in “scenes”, just small increments separated by black. Tim had lost both his shoes and we ate McDonalds on a curb beneath the Wenhu MRT line before going our separate ways. I was surprisingly only a two minute walk away from my apartment, which I found easily.

Upcoming events:
- Possibly head to Lanyu, where Sam knows a local I can stay with.

\\ NHR