mastodon 4.7.3+vivaldimodauthor • director • actor • musician
A T Beaune Creations, Taiwan
Faculty, Taiwan universities
D Johns Hopkins, Peabody
pro-reality, pro-imagination
pro-democracy, pro-humanity
he/him
Liberté, beauté, vérité, amour.
Live the questions.
Lee Teng-Hui was that rarest of world leaders: one who comes to power in an autocratic system and happily puts his job up for grabs in a transition to democracy.
Taiwan’s first national presidential election took place 30 years ago. Here’s a look back.
🌊 Taiwan’s southern port city of Kaohsiung enjoyed a One Piece parade last weekend, courtesy of Netflix.
Researchers describe what we are learning about the origins of human speech, and share some reconstructions of how the earliest languages may have sounded.
Dream big, kids.
Once in a while,
epic things do happen.
We will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.
– Christina Koch
Earthset, 2026 April 7 Tuesday.
(NASA)
Happy International Dimetrodon Day!
(April 5)
Earth, nightside, 2026 April 2 Thursday. Photo: Reid Wiseman, Artemis 2. Brightness enhanced.
A sliver of sunlight appears in the atmosphere at upper left, where zodiacal light also appears as Earth eclipses the Sun. Auroras may be seen glowing green at top right and bottom left.
(NASA)
Wishing our friends in Manchester a festive ten days of cinema.
March 19-29
MFF Tickets and Schedule
https://www.manchesterfilmfestival.com/
I’ve got a lot of good films to catch up on.
Complete list of Academy nominees and awards:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c33jkvmzl4ko
The world has lost a human rights champion in Lam Wing-kee (林榮基). The Hong Kong democracy advocate relocated to Taiwan and re-established Causeway Bay Books in Taipei City.
🙏🏼
Watched a charming video about Switzerland, written and produced by a Taiwan university student. Now I want to make cheese fondue! 🧀
https://www.aboutswitzerland.eda.admin.ch/en/fondue-the-convivial-swiss-dish-par-excellence
What the pop-up says: ‘We care about your privacy.’
What it means: Forget about reading this article.
The people at Timeline Studio do love their craft.
台灣台北 Taipei, Taiwan
Ah, how shameless—the way these mortals blame the gods.
From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes,
but they themselves, with their own reckless ways,
compound their pains beyond their proper share.
– Zeus
Homer, The Odyssey, 1 (Fagles)
Laurie Anderson
‘Hiawatha’ (1989)
🌲 🌌 🌕 🎆 🌲
‘These are pictures of the houses
Shining in the midnight moonlight...’
Congratulations to Yang Shuang-zi (楊双子), author of ‘Taiwan Travelogue.’ Her novel is among six on the final shortlist for the 2026 International Booker Prize. This marks the first appearance of a work by a Taiwanese author in the final round of the award.
Semifinals! 🙏🏼 衷心感謝。
Jury
Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral)
Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull)
Dan Jinks (American Beauty)
Wendy Finerman (The Devil Wears Prada, Forrest Gump)
Gary Michael Walters (Whiplash)
Mike Medavoy (Black Swan, Shutter Island)
Siena Oberman, Artemis Pictures
Adam Novak (Eternal Sunshine)
Photo: Alton’s Images
Total eclipse of the Sun by Luna, as seen by the Integrity crew on 2026 April 6 Monday. Faint illumination is provided by Earthshine—the re-reflected glow of sunlight bouncing off Earth. Three bright objects are the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury, with a faint Neptune also appearing.
(NASA)
Homer is new and fresh this morning—and nothing, perhaps, is as old and tired as today’s newspaper.
– Charles Péguy
I’m reading Aristotle’s Poetics again. An unexpected bonus this time is the sly way translator Malcolm Heath, in his notes, tweaks the nose of the hypercommercial Blake Snyder. In example plots, characters keep endangering other characters’ cats. 😄
🐈⬛ 🐈 🐈⬛
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/260883/poetics-by-aristotle/
Welcome home, Integrity. 🌏
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
– T S Eliot
A classic is a classic because it is new every day.
I enjoyed this discerning review by Carlos Aguilar.
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-worst-person-in-the-world-movie-review-2022
A popular translator of Homer’s Odyssey discusses a popular adaptation of the epic for cinema.
London Review of Books
‘An Uncomplicated Man’
Emily Wilson reviews a film by Christopher Nolan
LRB
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man
🌞 ‘Bite of the Sun’, a new fragrance by Liu Chen-hsiang (劉禎祥), will debut at Taiwan’s first professional fragrance trade show.
Scent Taipei 2026
March 20-23
Taipei World Trade Center
📖 Kao Peng-hsiang (高鵬翔), designer and author of ‘The Visual Guide to Taiwan Letterpress Printing,’ has received recognition at an international book design competition in Germany.
A bold researcher in Taiwan builds the world’s first time craft. She journeys to the distant future to find humanity’s descendants living lives of delight, erotic frolic—and unspeakable dread.
Semifinalist,
Outstanding Screenplays
Quarter-Finalist,
Manchester Film Festival
linktr. ee/atbeaune
鞋故事 XIÉ GÙSHÌ (Shoe Story) is now streaming on The Short Film Show, a new platform for short films at their best. Click the link to watch!
https://theshortfilmshow.com/film/xie-gushi-shoe-story/699dd380ce960fd9faa23f77
Mandarin dialogue
subtitled in English and Traditional Chinese
________
鞋故事 Xié gùshì (Shoe Story)
來自台灣的新喜劇短片
a new short comedy film from Taiwan
哆啦囉 DORA LO
羅濟豪 JAMES C H LO
紀彣潔 WEN-CHIEH CHI
sound design 陳子翔 TZU-XIANG CHEN
film by 唐博訥 A T BEAUNE
Enjoy a bouquet of African animation!
https://www.marmaladecollective.com/must-watch-african-animated-series-and-films/
🇭🇺 Peter Magyar’s Tisza party wins in a landslide ‘celebration of democracy.’ Congratulations to the people of Hungary!
https://www.dw.com/en/hungary-election-orban-concedes-painful-defeat-to-magyar/live-76750838
🟡 Taiwan won three gold, three silver, and three bronze medals on the opening day of the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships at Taipei Arena on Thursday, including a podium sweep in the women’s 500-kilogram club category.
Earth, nightside, 2026 April 2 Thursday. Natural light photo by Reid Wiseman, Artemis 2. The planet Venus (upper left) appears just beyond the crescent sliver of atmospheric sunlight. Visible land areas are dotted by city lights in South America, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula.
(NASA)
Congratulations to Chia-Hsuan Lin and Visconti Arts on their new partnership!
Ms Lin, esteemed conductor and percussion artist, debuted the role of Shahrazad in a national broadcast of ‘1001 Nights: The Radio Play’ by ICRT. (Script by me.)
#ChiaHsuanLin #ViscontiArts #music #conducting #conductor #classicmusic #1001nights #atbeaune #ICRT #script #screenplay #radioplay #audioplay #Taiwan
Pop-up: ‘We care about your privacy.’
User input: ‘Get lost.’
🇹🇼 Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) paid tribute to former President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝, 1923-2020) and Taiwanese independence activist Su Beng (史明, 1918-2019) on Tomb-Sweeping Day.
Meta (IG, FB, Threads, WhatsApp) has snuffed plans to turn user content into AI fodder.
Thanks to CAA and SAG-AFTRA for speaking up. 👏🏼👏🏼
Now available on ResearchGate, the full study by Dr Alton Thompson.
‘Auferstehung: Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s Rhetoric of Resurrection’
For World Theatre Day (3.27):
‘FLIGHT 109: a short travelogue for stage.’ Stage piece by A T Beaune 唐博訥 based on Sandra Tavali 李婉菁 musical setting of William Shakespeare’s sonnet. Subtitles in English and Chinese.
Cast: Dora Lo, Chase Lo, Jacklyn Kuah, and Michelle Hsu as Aqua, Lando, Chandler, and Avery (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air). Vocals by Wendy Chen.
Finally watched Joachim Trier’s ‘The Worst Person in the World.’ Through the device of literary ‘chapters’ we get a compelling story that feels utterly honest and real.
Looking forward to ‘Sentimental Value.’
For World Theatre Day (3.27):
‘FLIGHT 109: a short travelogue for stage.’ Stage piece by A T Beaune 唐博訥 based on Sandra Tavali 李婉菁 musical setting of William Shakespeare’s sonnet. Subtitles in English and Chinese.
Cast: Dora Lo, Chase Lo, Jacklyn Kuah, and Michelle Hsu as Aqua, Lando, Chandler, and Avery (Water, Earth, Fire, and Air).
Vocals by Wendy Chen. Directed by Lyra Angelique and A T Beaune.
If you wait until your house is perfectly in order to step out your door and have an adventure, you’ll die never having stepped out your door.
🌕
Mission patches for Apollo 8 (1968) and Artemis II (2026).
菜單上的饅頭
台灣 台北 士林夜市
Mantou on the Menu
Shilin Night Market
Taipei, Taiwan
Enjoying Bruckner’s epic Eighth, performed by Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Paavo Järvi conducting.
Dory on the Boardwalk
Huashan1914 Creative Park
華山1914文化創意產業園區
