In case you think im not working I am
I AM SO CULTURED YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW. Tuesday night - to celebrate 10th Anniversay of TBC Taiwan office, our little delegration's trip to Taiwan, and 20th year of the Canadian Trade Commission office, both organizations put on a "2006 Canada-Taiwan evening of music" celebration. total black tie media event. Banners on lamppoles and posters all over the city to promote it. All we wanted was "noodles and beer" but whatever. amazing 2000 seat concert hall venue. "big as shit" click
so the highlight was performances by this Taiwan rock star-pianist dude- Eric Chen. Amazingly huge all over asia. Plus the 70 person Taiwan Evergreen Symphony Orchestra led by Taiwanese-Canadian assistant conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Ken Hsieh. This guy is only 25 and apparently is a huge deal both in Vancouver symphony circles and over here where he is shortlisted to become head conductor of the national orchestra. I know-total cultural night.
"Together for the first time" as they say, performing a mix of Canadian and Taiwanese music. We're in the first row- total vip. dispite this the BC delegation is dismayed by the lack of beer and foam #1 fingers. Much deliberation on whether trying to start the wave would reveal lack of class. Decision: we'll wait to see if the taiwanese in the balcony start it first.
Huge b0y-band like reception when these to walk on stage. So one canadian symphonic piece, then one taiwanese composition. The canadian pieces are all about nature, outdoors-y stuff with names like "Chanson Joyeuse"- peppy tho. The korean pieces are all about love, lovers, lack of love, lack of lovers and variations on that. What it says about the two countries, i'll leave that to you.
Kenneth has chosen two songs by David Foster, since he's from BC and internationally known. Starts with the theme from St. Elmo's Fire (!)
Andrew McCarthy- "why do they put ice in the urinals" Emilo- "cause it tastes better". Needless to say I had to explain the movie to the...older? senior? CEO delegates
So now im a HUGE fan of this conductor guy. If he would have launched into "pretty in pink" by the psychodelic furs I would have thrown my underwear at him.
Anyway- next song is the theme to the 88 Calgary Olympics and it goes over huge. amazingly done by the Orchestra who really get into it. Followed by more Taiwan folk songs about icky-feelings n stuff.
Encore - Music of the night - from Phantom of the Opera. nice
Cue girls screaming, much flower giving. At the end we meet Ken's mother who flew in from Vancouver.
A huge autograph line forms after the event for Eric and Ken. Im talking apparently 2 hours signing autographs. here's the crazy part. 10 minutes into signing, Christine from TBC Taiwan (who's friends with Eric the rock star, who set this evening up), grabs both Ken and Eric from their signing table to come take pictures with us for the media.
yeah- panic and confusion ensues from the people in line. What the hell they're thinking. Who ARE do these guys think they are? we're going to have 12 year olds and their parents kicking us any time.
we pose with the guys, for media shots as quickly as we can, so they can get back to the table. We meet both of them and both are really cool. BUT now we have a problem. the people in line see the rock stars with us schlubs and think we must acutally BE SOMEBODY. So people start breaking the line to get photos with the rock starts with the unknown SOMEBODYS. we congratulate ourselves on not drinking beer the whole night as planned.
Then the people in line start looking in ther programs to find out who we are. Page 2 is Rod Harris (CEO Tourism BC)'s picture with a welcome message etc. So all of a sudden this woman makes a b-line for Rod for his autograph. We think its a joke. She's serious. We still think its a joke. She's still serious. We make fun of Rod. The space -time continum breaks down.
"GOOD NIGHT TAIPEI!" and we exit the building through the basement as to avoid paperazzi
pics above
so the highlight was performances by this Taiwan rock star-pianist dude- Eric Chen. Amazingly huge all over asia. Plus the 70 person Taiwan Evergreen Symphony Orchestra led by Taiwanese-Canadian assistant conductor of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Ken Hsieh. This guy is only 25 and apparently is a huge deal both in Vancouver symphony circles and over here where he is shortlisted to become head conductor of the national orchestra. I know-total cultural night.
"Together for the first time" as they say, performing a mix of Canadian and Taiwanese music. We're in the first row- total vip. dispite this the BC delegation is dismayed by the lack of beer and foam #1 fingers. Much deliberation on whether trying to start the wave would reveal lack of class. Decision: we'll wait to see if the taiwanese in the balcony start it first.
Huge b0y-band like reception when these to walk on stage. So one canadian symphonic piece, then one taiwanese composition. The canadian pieces are all about nature, outdoors-y stuff with names like "Chanson Joyeuse"- peppy tho. The korean pieces are all about love, lovers, lack of love, lack of lovers and variations on that. What it says about the two countries, i'll leave that to you.
Kenneth has chosen two songs by David Foster, since he's from BC and internationally known. Starts with the theme from St. Elmo's Fire (!)
Andrew McCarthy- "why do they put ice in the urinals" Emilo- "cause it tastes better". Needless to say I had to explain the movie to the...older? senior? CEO delegates
So now im a HUGE fan of this conductor guy. If he would have launched into "pretty in pink" by the psychodelic furs I would have thrown my underwear at him.
Anyway- next song is the theme to the 88 Calgary Olympics and it goes over huge. amazingly done by the Orchestra who really get into it. Followed by more Taiwan folk songs about icky-feelings n stuff.
Encore - Music of the night - from Phantom of the Opera. nice
Cue girls screaming, much flower giving. At the end we meet Ken's mother who flew in from Vancouver.
A huge autograph line forms after the event for Eric and Ken. Im talking apparently 2 hours signing autographs. here's the crazy part. 10 minutes into signing, Christine from TBC Taiwan (who's friends with Eric the rock star, who set this evening up), grabs both Ken and Eric from their signing table to come take pictures with us for the media.
yeah- panic and confusion ensues from the people in line. What the hell they're thinking. Who ARE do these guys think they are? we're going to have 12 year olds and their parents kicking us any time.
we pose with the guys, for media shots as quickly as we can, so they can get back to the table. We meet both of them and both are really cool. BUT now we have a problem. the people in line see the rock stars with us schlubs and think we must acutally BE SOMEBODY. So people start breaking the line to get photos with the rock starts with the unknown SOMEBODYS. we congratulate ourselves on not drinking beer the whole night as planned.
Then the people in line start looking in ther programs to find out who we are. Page 2 is Rod Harris (CEO Tourism BC)'s picture with a welcome message etc. So all of a sudden this woman makes a b-line for Rod for his autograph. We think its a joke. She's serious. We still think its a joke. She's still serious. We make fun of Rod. The space -time continum breaks down.
"GOOD NIGHT TAIPEI!" and we exit the building through the basement as to avoid paperazzi
pics above
posted by Jason K at 8:36 AM
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