Taiwan Day #4

In the morning we watched some more films, and in the afternoon we attended a forum where we had a panel discussion about the production of our projects.

After the forum, the festival treated us to an evening at the hot springs. I was told that going to the hot springs is a very traditional Asian thing to do. Doing some research online, I learned that Taiwan is ranked among one of the world's top hot spring sites. Several people asked me if I had ever been to some hot springs before, and they were all surprised when I said yes, in Colorado. I couldn't take photos inside, but here are some as we walked down the steps and to the pools -




Upon arriving, I learned that the biggest difference between the hot springs in Colorado and the ones here was that it was mandatory to be completely nude. I'll admit that public nudity is not my thing, and I contemplated not going in. However, as soon as I saw a woman relaxing in a hot pool with the steam rising all around her, it looked so luxurious I couldn't resist. And I'm glad I decided to go in - the pools were extremely relaxing as well as spiritually uplifting.

After that, we had dinner. It's customary there for people to go to the hot sprigs and then eat afterwards - in fact, admission to the hot springs was free with the purchase of our meal.

We ate in our own little bungalow-type of dining room that was set up with a TV screen for karaoke if we wanted to use it.





After dinner, we were going to go someplace else for karaoke, but since everyone was super-relaxed from the pools and the meal, we decided to just go for a quiet drink out.

We went to a cute little bar that had an atmosphere like a coffee house. The owner of the place sat down with us for awhile and chatted.

One of the visiting filmmakers suggested we get some dessert, and one of the festival coordinators selected some items off of a menu for us. A few minutes later there arrived tiny plates of meat, noodles, tofu, etc.

"I thought we ordered dessert?" she asked.
"That's what this is. It's not like it's going to be cheesecake," she teased.

(I asked my guide about this the next day and she said that little dishes that you order with drinks are called desserts, and regular desserts like cakes and cookies are called desserts too. So it's kind of confusing.)

We were mostly still full from dinner, but we all sampled the various items. The owner/cook/bartender was from Lebanon, so many of the dishes were Lebanese and quite good.

MILK - does a body good

I don't know if there's been a historical movie that has so accurately spoken to a present day situation as MILK. The parallels between the movie and the recent activity over prop 8 is so similar that it's uncanny. It's almost as if the film is in direct response to the current political situation, yet it was filmed before any of it happened.

Of course, it's been "happening" for a very long time. A different decade, a different proposition, but the same idea over and over again. Do we deserve equal treatment, do we have a right to be protected under the law, do we have a place in our democracy and in our country.

The rallies and protests in the film against prop 6 closely echoed my experience with prop 8. The signs were the same, the chants were familiar, the emotions were identical. Just seeing the group of people in the movie rallying for GLBT rights got me choked up. It was the same feeling I had when I marched in the protest downtown last month. Feeling the energy of a group of people all passionate about the same thing is very moving.

MILK humanizes the gay political movement in a way that I believe no other movie ever has. What is the "gay agenda?" For Harvey Milk, it was helping to prevent suicide amount young gay people, who are 2-3 times more likely to be at risk. For people who say that the GLBT movement is selfish, that we don't think of the children and the family, or the impact any of this will have on the "fabric of society," I think it's clear that they aren't looking at the entire picture. We are the children, we are the family, we are part of society. We are a part of all those things. To not make a place for us undermines the value of all of it.

I sometimes think it's funny that I'm a lesbian, that I drew the right card at birth that enabled me to experience this on a personal level. But how wonderful it is, how much richer your life can be. You're forced to deal with yourself, your life, your family and friends. With your government, your media, your religion, your stereotypes, and your own rules and regulations. It's not always easy, but it is empowering. To go through this process that so many of us do, and come out the other side better because of it.

I think this is the same process that society is now struggling with, not just with GLBT rights but with the change that accompanies it. We've come to a point where we all have to deal with our government, our media, our religions, our stereotypes, our rules and regulations. It's won't be easy, but it will be empowering. And we will come out the other side better because of it.

Taiwan Day #3 - part two

After the screening, my guide and I left the theater and headed over to Snake Alley, a night market notorious for selling snakes to eat. They also offer snake blood mixed with alcohol to drink for vitality. However, most of the locals think it's gross to eat snakes, and I read on the internet that it's mostly for tourists. Other interesting dishes you can find there include turtle and mouse.

The night markets start around dusk and we arrived a little early, so there wasn't much happening yet. The restaurants seemed to love putting the live snakes out in front to lure people in, but there were signs everywhere saying that we weren't allowed to take photos. A festival volunteer told me she thought it may be because they don't want that kind of cultural publicity.

One restaurant looked like a pet store out front, with glass cages of mice and what looked like hamsters and gerbils. A man was holding a large, beautiful yellow snake. My guide asked him if those critters and the snake were to eat and he said no. So maybe it was just a ploy - who knows.

Another place had a turtle tank out front with aquatic turtles that looked just like the ones I used to have as pets at home. I really don't know why people enjoy seeing the animals that they are about to eat. I know it's supposed to be good because it's "fresh," but bringing back memories of my cute little turtles Sam and Nella did not do the trick for me.

I did manage to get a photo of one of the more interesting items for sale - rooster testicles, supposedly eaten to improve a man's sexual performance.



We also saw Betel Nut, which is also called Taiwanese chewing gum.


It comes from a tree that looks like a palm tree, and locals chew it like tobacco. There are health risks associated with it, such as mouth cancer, etc. However, the substance is not regulated the way that tobacco is and there are no age restrictions on purchasing it.

After snake alley, we went to Taipei's largest and most popular night market called Shihlin. Since it was a weekend and getting a little later, Shihlin was packed.



We walked around the food court and fought the crowds and the heat. Even though it was October, the weather was as hot and humid as July. Inside the food court, there was also an incredible amount of heat coming from open cooking fires. Too cool off, I bought myself some boba (also called bubble tea), a cold and sweet milk tea with big black tapioca balls at the bottom. It's popular in Koreatown here in L.A. so I wanted to try it there. I read online to avoid eating dairy and ice cubes in Taiwan, both of which were in the drink, but I decided to go ahead and "live on the edge." It tasted similar to the boba here in L.A., but the one in Taipei was a little more subtle in its sweetness and the flavor of the tea came through more, which I liked.


After that, my guide insisted I try some stinky tofu soup (pictured above). The heat inside the food area left me wanting anything but something hot and stinky, but since stinky tofu is famous in Taiwan, I wanted to try at least a bite. After we had some, my guide told me that it wasn't that stinky, which I found a little disappointing because I wanted to get the full experience of it before I crossed it off my list. Not that it was ever on my list, but I suppose it is now.


Next we went to a walk-up grill type bar where they cook the food in front of you. I had some beef and veggies and it was exceptionally delicious, in addition to being cheap (the food in Taipei is generally much less expensive).





After that, we walked around and saw some pigs feet (in the photo above). My guide asked if I wanted to try some.
"Does it taste like ham?"
"No...it's chewy..."
"Then no."
I don't suppose I would completely rule it out, but the idea of gnawing on a foot sort of gives me the heebie jeebies. One of my most visual memories from my trip to Hong Kong several years ago is of my friend and her father gnawing on some chicken's feet over dim sum. Now if you've ever seen a chicken's foot (and who hasn't), then you can imagine how hard it might be to extract some food from it. Definitely a lot of gnawing going on there. A pig's foot does look like something actually edible, although if you look closely in this photo below, you can see the foot pad on the right hand side. Maybe the chewy part is just a big callous...


By the shine on those things, they almost look like cinnamon buns, don't they? Almost.

We also saw the big cahonas - bull's balls.



They were huge and...beautiful. The design in them made them look almost like a work of art, like a handmade glass vase.

Other than the chicken and pig's feet, most of what I deemed inedible my guide thought the same about. One stand sold chicken stomachs, which she thought was particularly gross. But after seeing the turtles, mice, and variety of testicles, I didn't think that sounded half bad.

On the metro back to my hotel, my guide and I talked about the grossest things we'd ever eaten. I told her I had alligator once in New Orleans which I thought was pretty good, but she thought that sounded really gross.

"Have you ever eaten snails?" she asked.
"No."
"Did you have that bread at the press conference with the black things on top?"
"Yeah."
"Those were snails."
"...I thought those were olives."

A perfect ending to a perfect day.


-

Taiwan Day #3

My guide and I started the day off by visiting an authentic tea house in Maokong, an area on top of a mountain where there are a lot of tea farms. The gondola ride up was out of service due to a recent typhoon, so we took a taxi to the top.


From the tea house, we had a great view of the city -



We also had a view of this huge temple.


Legend has it that if couples go to the temple together, they will break up soon after. It has something to do with the god being jealous.




At the tea house, we ordered traditional Chinese tea which you brew yourself in a tiny tea pot and drink out of tiny cups.



The miniature size of everything made it feel like we were at a kid's tea party (I told my guide this and she thought it was really funny; you never how some of this humor translates culturally).


We were given a tea pot with water on a hot plate to continually refill the mini teapot. The water soaked in the mini teapot with the green tea leaves for less than a minute before we transfered it to another container where it waited until we were ready to pour it into our shotglass-esque tea cups.


My guide also gave me a quick Chinese lesson. She explained to me that Chinese was originally based on picture representations of people, animals, and other things. Over the years the language has morphed so that most of it is no longer picture-based, but with some characters you can still see the image of what is being represented, such as with "farm" and "horse."


Inside the teahouse, I found this sculpture made entirely from the exoskeletons of lobsters (click on it to make it larger) -


After Maokong, we went to Din Tai Fung for lunch, which is famous for their dumplings and xiaolongbao (pronounced vaguely like "shalombot.") Xiolongbao are similar to dumplings but have a different shape and a different sort of filling.



Din Tai Fung is a chain restaurant (there's even one on the outskirts of L.A.) and is inside of a mall, however in 1993 the New York Times voted it as one of the ten best restaurants in the world!

The wait was an hour long and we needed to be back at the theater for a screening of Butch Jamie, so we dined in style by getting an order to go and eating it on a bench in the mall. The xiolongbao we ordered had a really excellent flavor. I'm not sure how it compares to the Din Tain Fung restaurant out here, but I plan to go someday to compare.

After lunch, we went to the screening of Butch Jamie. The Women Make Waves Film Festival scheduled three screenings of the film, however there was only one while I was in town.


The screening went well - people seemed to enjoy it and I took a lot of photos with fans and signed autographs.

Afterward, we gathered in a separate room for a Q&A. Sitting next to me is the translator.




After the Q&A, we went to two of Taipei's famous night markets. I took a lot of photos at the markets, so I'll be back soon with part two!

Taiwan Day #2

With all the excitement at a temporary standstill over prop 8 and Butch Jamie's DVD release, I thought I'd pick up where I left off on my trip to Taipei last month. I've only gotten through the first day, and I have four more to go! If you need to catch up, you can read Day 1 part 1 here and Day 1 part 2 here.


Whereas my first day in Taiwan I took the most photos, my second day I took the least. But I still had a very productive day.

I started the morning off at the National Palace Museum, which is on the outskirts of the city.



Below you can see some of the surrounding greenery.



We weren't allowed to take photos inside, so that's it for the museum. The inside was nice, but I'm not a huge fan of museums in general (even though I really do try to go and be cultural) so I'm not a good one to ask. But if you're looking for a museum in Taipei, this one is supposedly the best.

After that, my guide and I went for dim sum, which I was introduced to when I visited Hong Kong several years ago. I have since been only once, in Chinatown here in L.A. My guide told me that dim sum originated in Hong Kong, although it's very popular in Taiwan. The restaurant we went to is open 24 hours and is a popular place to go after clubbing. I didn't take any photos, but we ate lots of tasty little items. As you may know, the whole concept of dim sum revolves around eating several dishes of small appetizer-type items, such as a plate with three dumplings, another plate with two small seafood tarts, etc.

Like in Korea, you don't tip in Taiwan, which is a really convenient custom except of course when you want someone to go out of their way for you. When my guide asked our cab driver to make a quick stop at a convenience store on the way to our destination, he refused. He did drop us off at the store, but didn't want to wait for us while we were inside. So I guess tipping does lead to some benefits after all.

That evening, I saw two films from fellow visiting filmmakers. The festival had organized a forum for us in a couple of days to talk about the production of our projects, and beforehand we made a point to see each other's films. Also that night, we went to a filmmaker's party that the festival had organized.

So that's it for Day 2. I took a lot more photos on Day 3, so I'll be back soon with more of my adventures.

Jsh-amie le Butch

Butch Jamie is now officially on DVD! Here's David and I at the release party last Wednesday (OK, so the photo's a little cheesy. But kind of cute, right?) -


We had a fun time at the party. I had a friend of mine who I haven't seen since my Freshman year of high school unexpectedly show up, as well as a couple of fellow Smith College alums. I ran into a representative from Here TV who told me that they're buying the TV rights (they've been in negotiations for awhile, so it hadn't yet been official). They raffled off some free DVDs and David won Season 5 of the L Word which he gave to me.

Earlier this week, After Ellen published an interview I did with them -

"Michelle Ehlen is a cinematic jack (or should we say jill?) of all trades. For her debut feature, Butch Jamie, she wrote, directed, produced, starred and edited the film, which centers on the adventures of a struggling butch lesbian actress in L.A. who lands a male role and runs with it. Shot on a shoestring budget in upstate New York, the film landed Ehlen Best Actress accolades at the 2007 Outfest film festival in L.A., and the laughter of just about everyone in queer festival audiences around the country."
--Click here for the rest of the article.

Also, I found out that my French distribution company, Optimale, will be releasing the DVD soon. Check out the totally pimped out, bling-bling DVD cover they designed -



As for the U.S./Canadian DVD, you can order it through several different retailers, including Wolfevideo.com. You can also rent it through Netflix, Blockbuster, and many independent stores.