[pictures by Lou-K]

Our Taichung contact Rex Chen (陳奕仲) set up a show for us at Nells Home, a neat coffeeshop in Taichung city. The moring after our Taipei show, my friends Li and Jona roadtripped down to Taichung in my dad's bright blue sporty vehicle. Nells Home is owned by Nell, who is super friendly. Nell has four cats that casually wander in and out of the shop.

The night began with an impressive solo exteneded vocal performance by Alice Hui-Sheng Chang. Alice is a Taiwanese sound artist who has recently returned from Melbourne. Pinkos played a set following Alice. During our set, we invited Alice to improvise with us. With no prior discussion about it, we delivered a piece of compatible sounds to support each other and Alice's vocals.

Alice's solo set

pinko dance?!!

[pictures by Li Chang]

Our Kaohsiung was scheduled a week after the Taichung show. During this week, pinkos hung out in Taipei. We ate lots of yummy food - we had mango ice at the Ice Monster twice!. We went to ShiLing nightmarket, Tamsui, Gunguan, Taipei 101, 24-hour Elite bookstore, KTV [KaraokeTV] and lots of coffeeshops with wireless Internet. Also, we made some noises with Alice in a studio and went to Lou-K and Rex's show at NTU.

Bright and early on the morning of Saturday, 6/23, my dad and pinkos embarked toward South Taiwan. Our destination was Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan. We experienced changes in not only climate, but also in vegetation as we headed south. South Taiwan is positively tropical whereas Taipei and Taichung are "vaguely" subtropical [because summer in Taipei is definitely more intense than Virginian summer]. In the extreme heat, we gladly took a nap inside the air-conditioned car while my dad drove the whole way. On a detour, we followed a sign for a saxophone museum where my dad excitedly promoted us an internationally touring "experimental" band.

We arrived in Kaohsiung in early afternoon. Ling-te, the boss at Womb Bloc, along with the staff there welcomed us with a great big smile and readily available hands. The lineup consiststed of artists and groups of indie rock, shoegaze, punk, ambient, world music, and experimental improv for which Pinkos and BRC + Kina represented. The day-long event brought lots of musicians and music enthusiasts to Womb Bloc. We were scheduled to play last at Womb Bloc's one-year anniversary fest. We sat back and enjoyed the day's festivities while meeting lots of interesting folks. [Unfortunately, I forgot to ask someone to take pictures of our set. No pictures of pinkos in action at Womb Bloc.]

We had a great time performing and meeting lots of interesting artists and enthusiasts. We thank all the people who have made this trip possible. I hope that this trip is the beginning of our trans-Pacific exchange and collaboration.

For more pictures, check out our flickr page.