After class yesterday, one of my friends took us to a (literally) underground music store that he’d discovered the last time he was here. We walked the wrong way for about fifteen minutes, and I must have added about ten new places to my imaginary NTU Bucket List. Which, by the way, I’m never going to finish in the three weeks I have left. But I digress.
We found the store after another fifteen minutes or so, and it was simply fantastic. The entrance was lined with graffiti and heavy instrumental music was blaring from god-knows-where. The store itself is tiny and cozy, with shelves of music from Europe, Asia, and North America, by bands I have never heard of in my life.
Usually I avoid CD stores like the plague; places like Amoeba and Rasputin always seem to ooze a sort of sanctimoniousness that I associate with everything I dislike about stereotypical Southern Californians. But this one was different. Maybe it was because the guy who owned the place was actually friendly despite my failed attempts to ask for recommendations in Chinese, or maybe it was because they gave us a 15% discount. Or maybe being in Taipei just puts me in a good mood 24/7. Anyhow, I loved the place. Yes, it was intimidating to be surrounded by shelves and shelves of music I never in my wildest dreams thought I would give a damn about (the high-school-me would throw herself off a cliff if she read this post), but in a good way. I can’t really say. It’s almost the same kind of excitement I get when I’m in a bookstore, immersed in others’ thoughts and fantasies made tangible.
Except I still like books more. Music, I learned yesterday without
too muchregret, will never be a true passion of mine, the way visual arts, literature, and museums are. But it isn’t a passing interest, either. It’s something in-between, like a really nice friend I blow off from time to time, but who is always there for me when I need it. Which is kind of a bad analogy that shows just how manipulative I can potentially be. But it works, I think.
Books will always be my first love too, but thus place sounds awesome …. itid be so cool to go there :)
