Sounds & Sights of Silva – Vol. 1
Rainy Taipei & Quarantunes
The first edition of this newly-renamed newsletter arrives looking out over a rainy Taipei. I am currently on Day Five of my 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine and while the room itself is fairly small and the weather outside has been mostly stormy, I am enjoying the view out my window. Tamsui River, Beimen, Ximending all are Taipei landmarks within my immediate view. The building with blue company sign and clock / temperature ticker forces me to learn how to convert Celsius into Fahrenheit. Beyond that are the mountains that surround the urban center.
As I’m sure you all would agree, being isolated in some capacity for the last two years has given me a new perspective on how to be alone, despite my introverted self already having a good idea. It’s not worth it to feel like being constantly productive, however you want to define that for your own needs. As Jenny Odell writes in How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, “Solitude, observation, and simple conviviality should be recognized not only as ends in and of themselves, but inalienable rights belonging to anyone lucky enough to be alive.”
I plan to continue spending minutes, maybe bleeding into hours, observing the part of the city I can see and imagining my future visits to the rest in ten days time.
黃雨晴 Yuching Huang - “Agate”
My first night as a free person out of quarantine and health management will be met with a concert at The Wall, one of the music venues in Taipei. My friend Kayleigh referred me to this show, headlined by Yuching Huang, a dreamy pop group who will be debuting their new record – reminds me a bit of Beach House who just released their highly anticipated new record last week as well.
Vampire Weekend – “Step”
The throwback for this newsletter is from Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City mainly for the album cover originally taken in 1966 by New York Times photographer Neal Boenzi from the peak of the Empire State Building which reminds me a lot of my currently foggy city view.
Tomberlin – “idkwntht”
Here’s a warm hug of a track to close this newsletter that I think could accompany anyone on a rainy afternoon. Tomberlin’s songwriting is incredibly comforting, and her sophomore record titled after this song comes out in late April.
Follow the full playlist of Sounds of Silva featured tracks.
Listen to Zach’s radio show archive for Friend From A Big City on Deadbeat Radio. Listen through the most recent episode spotlighting music from Taiwan.