Facciamo un altro piccolo salto nel tempo, un viaggetto di quindici anni, e andiamo a vedere cosa usciva nel 1993. Era praticamente l’inizio degli anni novanta, la decade in cui il prog è riuscito a re-inventarsi ed a riproporsi al grande pubblico.
Tre band che ancora oggi sono ai vertici del rock progressivo uscivano con il loro primo full-lenght. Sto parlando degli Anekdoten, con il loro splendido Vemod, i Threshold con Wounded Land, e i Tool con Undertow. Vorrei anche includere una quarta formazione, più defilata per quanto riguarda la fama ma sempre di grande spessore; gli Everon (Paradoxes rimane ad oggi uno dei loro lavori meglio riusciti).

Moltissimi gli episodi sinfonici di quel periodo, seguendo la scia dei Marillion. Stupendo il Window of Life dei Pendragon e il Second Sight dei Legend. Perle melodiche ancora un po’ grezze ma che rimangono importanti testimonianze di quel momento.
Ovviamente la novità rimane il filone prog-metal, venendo appresso ai Dream Theater e ai Queensriche. Oltre ai già citati Tool e Threshold, bisogna ricordare i Conceptions, i Saviour Machine (anche loro al primo full-lenght) e gli Atheist con il travolgente Elements (intenso episodio di metal con influenze progressive e tanta fusion).

Ma di album da segnalare ce ne sarebbero davvero tanti. Eccone per finire altri tre.
Ever degli IQ.
The First Day di Sylvian e Fripp.
Serpents in Camouflage dei Citizen Cain.

I ‘90 sono stati anni importantissimi per l’evoluzione di questo genere. L’escalation verso sonorità diverse e una migliore qualità di produzione è in corso tutt’oggi. Il fermento creativo si è sicuramente ammansito, ma le idee da poter sviluppare sono ancora tutte laggiù. Basta fare un piccolo salto nel tempo e andarsele a riascoltare!

A photo that my wife Joanna Rees took from her exhibit.

I went to bed at about 1AM last night. I made the mistake of getting up at around 1PM today. When you either wake in the middle of a sleep cycle or sleep too much, you feel all groggy and mixed up. That is called sleep inertia. Naturally everyone suffers a bit of sleep inertia when they wake up. It's normal.

I've been experimenting with power naps and caffeine naps this week. I'm pretty satisfied with the results. The half hour naps are really good and bring back my alertness. I've even stopped needing an alarm clock to wake up in time. They will be useful in the upcoming semester.

Last night, I met my wife near the Starbucks at Guting MRT station and we went and hung her photographs at Citizen Cain. Here is a post she wrote about the upcoming exhibit, which opens tonight.

We picked up the prints from the framing shop and went to Citizen Cain to hang them up. We managed to hang all but two up in about half an hour. The last two had to wait because people were seated at the booths. After having some food, I told my wife to go and hang them up. I told them that it would be better if I didn't help and that she should ask permission first. She was able to hang up the frames easily. People enjoyed seeing her large nightlife prints.

We arrived back home at around 11PM.

My wife was a bit frazzled and antsy about this. She always gets this way during her exhibits. This being her first in Taipei, it's an understandable feeling. I'm not too worried. Her genre is pretty unique and I'm sure that she will sell some prints. The exhibit is on for two months.

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Power Naps

Citizen Cain:
Address: #67 Dong Fong Street, Taipei
Chinese Address: 臺北市東豐街67號
City/Area: Taipei
Phone: 02-2708-4557
Website: http://www.citizencain.com

Photographer: Maggie

My friend, Maggie, was kind enough to snap a few photos for me.  Thank-you Maggie!

Lily and the gang organized another successful night of music at Citizen Cain last week.  Actually, I'm going to correct that statement.  Citizen Cain owes yet another successful night of music to Lily.  She's the woman behind the show.  Lily's in charge of promoting and organizing the show.  She also takes care of the sound system, musicians and organizes practice nights for us. 

Lily is well-known to anyone who's a Citizen regular.  She's the lady with the big smile on her face and a kind word for everyone.  

There she is!  Lily also happens to be an amazing performer.  She does a terrific impersonation of Tina Turner and belts out Filipino love songs like they're going out of style.  I think she's one of the nicest people I've met here and that's a big statement because I really have met some amazing people over here.  Lily is definitely someone John and I like to spend time with.  We just wish she wasn't so busy all the time!

Roger and Paul

The party kicked off at 8pm.  I was a little sad to arrive so late in the evening.  My last class finished in Shu-lin at 9pm.  I didn't arrive until the second set and wasn't able to sample any of the mouth-watering food that was being served.  But the tunes were good, despite two interruptions from the police.  Apparently, the upstairs neighbours are really touchy about sound.  Despite the interruptions, everyone seemed to have a good time.  I'm looking forward to the next event sometime next month. 

We hope to see you at the next show and for those of you who are musicians or for those of you who would like to join in the fun, we are more than happy to have you join us! 

Hey Y'all. Word up! Our monthly acoustic night is here again. We'll be providing another fun evening of entertainment at our very own Citizen Cain. Come out and join Lily, Carrie, Elissa, Bryan, Paul and Roger. We'd love to see you!

We've expanded our repertoire and added some new faces. Master Chef Joseph Teh will also be cooking up his favorite Filipino recipes for one night only!

The show starts at 8pm on November 15, 2007.

Citizen Cain is located at No.67 Dong Feng Street, Taipei, Taiwan.

Lily and I on stage at Citizen Cain after the show.

Last night was a successful night at Citizen Cain. John, Scott and I arrived at 9pm and the place was packed. We found a tiny table off stage and hunkered down to wait for the show to begin. Lily kicked the party off at 9:30pm. Despite only a short rehearsal earlier this week, everything went off without a hitch. It was a successful night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

Singing at the Cain reminded me of my first year of singing at a similar type of bar in Northern China. My singing career in China blossomed from a few acoustic sets a week to performing seven days a week with a full seven man band and plenty of work in recording studios and television programs.

Giving up singing when I left China was really hard. I've sang ever since I can remember. I've found it difficult to meet musicians in Taiwan. There aren't as many live bands performing in Taipei, as there are in China, so it is a real treat to find and work with musicians again. Thanks to everyone who came out and joined us for the evening.

Our guitarists, Paul and Bryan, from the Phillipines. We're looking forward to spending more time with these two talented musicians.

Yours truly singing "Sweet Child O'Mine."

Lily Huang. Our very own Tina Turner.

Facebook | Photos from Acoustic Night - Open Mic Lily Huang From left to right: Lily, Paul, Bryan, Carrie and Lance.

This week has been an insanely busy one. Our friend, Scott, arrived from England earlier this week and has been staying with us. We've spent a few nights with him catching up on the last six months.

We went to Citizen Cain last night so I could meet the guitarists for Acoustic Night on Saturday. The manager of the bar, Lily Huang, asked me if I would like to join them for a few songs. We were able to briefly run through half a dozen songs for the event on Saturday. I'm pretty excited about being asked to join. I've really missed singing since giving up my gig in China. I've found it difficult to find musicians around here to mesh with, so I am thrilled to meet Lily's friends, Paul and Bryan, from the Phillipines.

Lily, Lance and I will be providing the vocals for these two talented guitar players on Saturday, September 15th. It will be a chill evening of music. Come on out and join us for a few drinks. The show starts at 9pm. Citizen Cain is located at #67 Dong Fong Street in Taipei. View map here.

Hey All!! Join us for our Teacher's Day - Acoustic Night! It's an “unplugged" sort of thing...no big amplified sound. We have an in house system and mics. All we need are the players!! Acoustic guitar players & singers!! We have a full bar, great space, great food, great beer and wine selections, martinis and cocktails too.

Drink specials:
Tequila ntd 50 Jager ntd 50 beer ntd 100 House Cocktail ntd 100

Food Special: For teachers only - 25 percent discount on all food menu!!!!!

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Nevertheless, we always try to make good-byes a happy occasion, and Citizen Cain is usually our meeting place of choice. As it turns out, this weekend was a pretty good weekend for saying good-bye.

Reach To Teach usually throws good-bye parties for their teachers. A few weeks ago, we said good-bye to Dhruva and Anna. This week, John, Jo, Ella and I joined a full bar of well-wishers to bid farewell to our friend, Alex Justice. We spent most of the night listening to good tunes and catching up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile. There are always new people to meet.

John and I met Alex last year when Reach To Teach created their first flag football team. They finished a successful football season as TAFFA Champions. The team members are a close-knit group of friends. Alex is moving to Hanoi, Vietnam. We know we'll be seeing him again. We're gonna miss you though.