Firelight Chats

In this early morning episode of Firelight Chats, Denis Chang strummed his way to the Spacelab to jam with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. The trio improvise about everything from growing up in Canada, attending a French school, discovering music, learning about Django Reinhardt, becoming obsessed with gypsy jazz, training with Sinti in a caravan, language learning & acquisition, performing & teaching around the world, to philosophical questions about the importance of understanding culture when engaging in artistic pursuits.

Denis also shares stories about initiating a successful protest to change restrictive policies towards taking musical instruments onto the Taiwan MRT system, launching a new jam session format at Taipei Blue Note, and what he thinks about Taiwan's music scene, young musicians, and the system that subsumes and often shapes them. At the end, they play a spirited Firelightning Round and the episode closes with a full jazzy track from his band.

Denis Chang is originally from Montreal, Canada, born to Taiwanese parents who fled an authoritarian regime. A professional musician and Taiwan Gold Card holder, he is currently living in Japan on an Artist Visa. He will be returning to Taiwan in October of this year to perform at the Taipei Gypsy Jazz Festival with his band, Duved and his Transatlantic Five.

In this good morning episode of Firelight Chats, Jason Cole Mager ruminated his way to the Spacelab to chat with Kane & Mocha by the fireside about art and life. Recently married and smack dab in the middle of his first solo exhibition in Taiwan, the three take a tranquil time out together to ponder art, music, movies, money, masks, love, history, culture, NYC, family, education, politics, symbols, color, and memories.

At the end of the episode, Kane engages Jason in a Firelightning round, which leads to additional insights, reflections, preferences, smiles, code names, and otherwise frivolous banter.

Jason Cole Mager is a NYC-based artist who has been living and working out of Taiwan. Originally from the Midwest, Jason studied in Indianapolis, Michigan, and Boston and has earned an MFA from Hunter College. His first solo exhibition, entitled "To Taiwan," is currently showing at the 99 Degree Art Center in Beitou (March 4-26th, 2023).

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Indri Leonardi calmly stormed into the Spacelab on a glorious night to chat with Kane & Mocha by the fireside about life, love, death, and everything betwixt and between. Laughing joyously throughout the episode over stories about Indonesia, language, ethnicity, religion, saving & spending money, graduate school, expensively honing her craft, crying through her Meisner class, dating apps, memorable swipes & secret gardens, financial planning, the importance of food, Chinese and Taiwanese culture, family pressure, and the problem with over loving someone, they chat deeply and earnestly about the ups and downs of life.

From an appetizing beef rendang ASMR experience to an acapella ode to Indomie instant noodles, Indri shows her range and indomitable spirit on the mic. As a bonus, she belts out another Indonesian and one English song, both also acapella, and still had enough power at the end of the episode to engage in a Firelightning Round. Indri makes several public pleas throughout the episode, and we can only hope that they not only go answered, but that they do so with commensurate style and fancy abundance.

Indri Leonardi is originally from Medan but grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, but has been living in Taiwan for the past 9 years. She is a graduate of NCCU, works for an Indonesia company in Taipei, and is the star of Susanne Palm's upcoming film, The Bonus Daughter.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Anthony van Dyck swung by the Spacelab to reminisce about his 34 years in Taiwan. With his Taiwanniversary FB post serving as the springboard, Anthony regaled Kane & Mocha with tales of yesteryear, including the English teaching & buxiban business, long work weeks, Taiwanese Chiayi gangsters, Taekwondo black belts, becoming involved with the famous Forumosa website before it was even called that, and images of trash heaps, stray dogs, serious pollution, taxi cartels, flying cars, manual censorship solutions, fun yet dangerous rooftop amusements parks, pachinko parlors & free cigarettes, bootleg movie cubicles, pre-movie propaganda clips, frozen shoulders, and having a pizza named after him.

While meandering down memory boulevard, Kane & Anthony took their opportunities to digress down other quaint alleyways as well, chatting about military service in Taiwan, Chinese language learning, emotional release, the best yoga studios in Taipei, working on the Taoyuan Airport MRT line, midlife crises and finding love again, and his hopes for dual citizenship between the two countries that have become an integral part of him. At the end of the episode, Kane engages a tired Anthony in a hot and fast-paced Firelightning Round, which he ends up sweating out with grace, serenity, and aplomb.

Anthony van Dyck is originally from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He is a proud single father of two Taiwanese daughters, a founding member of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, and runs several FB groups for expats, including Second Saturday Social and Taipei Curry Council.

In this evening episode of Firelight Chats, Susanne Palm smiled her way to the Spacelab to chat about the intersections of Sweden & Taiwan with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. Having first visited Taiwan in 1984, she shares some stories about her early days in Taiwan, her theatre and acting experiences, her favorite places & people, unfortunate events, coincidences and fate, earthquakes, and her transition from theatre to filmmaking, including her short films Love Ghost, Ghostlove, Ghostfree, and the upcoming Bonus Daughter. Ghostlove has been officially selected to over 60 film festivals around the world and has taken home 25 nominations and 18 awards.

On the Swedish side, Susanne also talks about her 11-year-old dreams of being a journalist, becoming the elephant, circus, and rock music reporter for the local newspaper at 15 years old, interviewing the Prime Minister of Sweden as an 18-year-old, religions and traditions, politics, culture, nature, the education system, and being a Swedish teacher.

Susanne Palm is originally from Gothenburg, Sweden and has lived in Denmark, France, Ireland, the UK, & Taiwan. She can be found on Instagram @swedishsuz & @loveghostfilm.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Jonathan Gropper hummered his way to the Spacelab to have a spicy chat with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. With his most recent article published by Commonwealth Magazine serving as the hot plate, they cooked up some frank & juicy food for thought about Taiwan, the Gold Card program, dating and honeymoon phases, culture & mindset, international aspirations, PR & marketing, government officials & ministries, big business, real estate, and whatever else looked appetizing on the menu du jour.

For dessert, Kane & Jon bantered about what it might take to set up a meeting with President Tsai Ing-Wen. With a bit of time remaining at the end of the episode, they also dipped their spoons into the blockchain soup, discussing a particular project of interest called Ubiquity DAO. 

Jonathan Gropper is a serial entrepreneur, Taiwan Gold Card holder, and graduate of Rutgers University, where he earned a doctorate in law. Born in Israel, Jon lived in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Miami, and has spent the last six years living in Asia, including three in Taiwan.

In this first episode of the 2023 Firelight Chats season, Cameron Bairstow swung up to the Spacelab from down under to join Kane & Mocha by the fireside. Cam shared his stories about playing for a top-25 American college basketball team, being drafted into the NBA by the Chicago Bulls, representing his home country of Australia in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics, and his new ventures into the sports agency world. Cam also shares some of his preliminary thoughts and takeaways of the Asian basketball scene in general, and Taiwan's positioning and prospects more specifically.

As Kane & Cam chatted, friend of the Firelight Family, Alex Olin, sat at PodMic 3, working away on his laptop and chiming in whenever necessary. Towards the end of the episode, Cameron plays a quick Fire Lightning Round of randomly blistering questions.

Cameron Bairstow is a former professional basketball player, Olympian, University of New Mexico graduate, and is now heading a professional basketball agency called Rise Sports Management.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Emily Haver directed her way to the Spacelab to chat theatre and more with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. In their third attempt to record a podcast, they aim to make every happy moment count, covering everything from her childhood memories in the States, high school life in China, discovering Wong Kar-Wai, college life in Seattle & studying abroad in Chengdu, returning after graduation to study at a prestigious theatre academy in Shanghai, and comparing life in the mainland with her current life in Taiwan.

As two star-crossed lovers of words, culture, language, and the arts, Kane digs deep and asks Emily about her favorite books, the topic of her graduate thesis, her writing process, her favorite playwrights, her experience producing and directing her own works, her inspirations, her favorite and not-so-favorite foods, her foreign language skills, and the things that otherwise drive her. At the end of the episode, she gives dates & times for her upcoming shows in Taipei and gives some words of comfort & advice to any young, aspiring playwrights facing an increasingly uncertain world.

Emily Haver is a Taipei, Seattle, and Shanghai-based actor, playwright, and director. She has her B.A. in Theatre and a minor in Chinese from Seattle University, and an M.A. in Intercultural Communication Studies at Shanghai Theatre Academy. She grew up in the Washington cities of Seattle and Renton and spent her teenage years living in southern China.

In this episode of Firelight Chats, Ruby Wu drafted her way to the Spacelab to chat architecture and more with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. In this wide ranging chat, Ruby shares stories of her educational journey, from attending Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School, studying abroad for a year in South Carolina during high school, experiencing a Chinese-themed American prom, soccer & bloody accidents, playfully cheating every once in while, nap time and culture shocks, getting accepted to her 2nd choice college, stalking Frank Gehry, interning under slave labor conditions for an up-and-coming Japanese architect, falling head first into an escalator, working in Beverly Hills for her first job, and blocking out everything else that no longer matters.

Kane and Ruby also talk about their confusion about Taiwanese units of measurement (坪) & Taiwanese laws governing responsibility in architecture, her battle with the architecture licensing exam, her worries about and dreams for the future, and their mutual love for MMA.

Ruby Wu is a 4th generation family member of a leading, family-run conglomerate in Taiwan. She is a graduate of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), lives back in Taoyuan with her family, and is currently working for a small architecture firm in Taipei.

In this late-night episode of Firelight Chats, Hanif Wang enters a secret portal to the Spacelab to laugh a lot out loud with Kane & Mocha by the fireside. In this wide-ranging chat, Hanif shares stories about being an alien, attending a Harry Potter-ish boarding school in Darjeeling, constantly trying to make his mom proud, being the son of a mysterious king who may or may not have had ties to a Muslim warlord, working as a DJ in Kathmandu, playing an important role in two well-known films in Nepal (Kagbeni & Sano Sansar), earning 2 apples for his first paycheck in Taiwan, graduating from a prestigious MBA program, and working as a marketing manager for a tech/computer components company.

Kane & Hanif also engage in exploratory reconnoissance about the topics of religion, education, language, culture, travel, love, mountains versus beaches, and how to satisfy a deep hunger that drools throughout the night.

Hanif Wang is an ethnic Tibetan, Taiwanese citizen who was born in Nepal, went to high school in North India, and completed his undergraduate studies in Canada. Hanif also earned an IMBA from NCCU in Taiwan, where he has been living and working for the last 14 years.