winter up the parkway

January 28, 2006 - Interstate ride taking me past my usual turn around point on Route 9W. Obviously this was during last month's warmest January on record or something or another. The curve in the road was catchy enough for me to stop and shoot it. Not much of a shoulder here, and a big coach bus came barreling down from behind as I fumbled for the fisheye.


I know this as Exit 4 off the Palisades Parkway, the last exit in New Jersey before it veers off and stops being parallel to 9W. 9W continues down into Nyack.


Oak Tree Road across the border in New York state goes over the Palisades Parkway. This is north.

Running across the road, this is south.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Rocks Off (The Rolling Stones)
2. With Arms Outstretched (Rilo Kiley)
3. Ask the Lonely (The Four Tops)
4. Party's Fall (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
5. Country Honk (The Rolling Stones)
6. Everybody's Gonna Be Happy (The Kinks)
7. A Pillow of Winds (Pink Floyd)
8. The Stalker (Urge Overkill)
9. It's Too Late (Carole King)
10. Oratorio - "The Seasonings" (P.D.Q. Bach)

Smorgasborg, bunch o' random pics

January 22, 2006 - New Jersey inspection sticker, good for two years! Sweet. I was thinking of a Peter Gabriel album cover for this. Or not.


My brother's building in Fort Lee. It was cold that day. We were going into the city for my sister-in-law's sister's "flat screen film festival".


January 24, 2006 - Walking across the George Washington Bridge to meet up with my sister-in-law's sister who signed a recommendation letter for me for a language program in Taiwan. She learned a lot about me and our relationship from that letter.


January 26, 2006 - When all else fails, take a lomo of your steering wheel. Route 4 West in Englewood, NJ.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I'm Not a Saint (Echobelly)
2. Shangri-La (The Kinks)
3. Saturday Night (Suede)
4. Isolation (Joy Division)
5. Coming Up (Ani DiFranco)
6. Sugar (Bikini Kill)
7. Sometimes I Make You Sad (Supergrass)
8. Fat (Archers of Loaf)
9. Next Exit (Unwound)
10. Sahuri Balukini (Himalayan/Nepalese music)

Interstate Ride

January 21, 2006 - As I mentioned, warm January meant more days riding than I would ever expect in January. So many riders were out that day that I actually caught up to a person and passed him. That's actually pretty hard to do. You need to be going significantly faster than someone to catch up and pass them. Unless you started close together, which, actually, I think was the case here. He had a headstart, not by much, and it still took a while to catch up to him and shoot him.


I wasn't able to do my 20 mile default ride because there was a rock slide on the Henry Hudson Drive, which was my return route, and it was completely closed off. Instead, I continued up Route 9W into Upstate New York and made my way back from there, extending the ride to 25-26 miles. This is a ride-by shot, so it's a bit blurry.

iTunes Soundtrack:
1. These Are the Days (10,000 Maniacs)
2. Perfect Kiss (Sakura)
3. Dropout (Urge Overkill)
4. Hillbillies from Outerspace (The Vaughan Brothers)
5. In the Cage (live) (Genesis)
6. Black Country Rock (David Bowie)
7. Troubled (Peter Gabriel)
8. You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
9. Los Endos (Genesis)
10. Bodies (Smashing Pumpkins)

Corner of Rock and Mauro

January 18, 2006 - dramatic clouds, shot out my window.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Vision (Victor Wooten)
2. Not Too Soon (Throwing Muses)
3. Starstruck (The Kinks)
4. Way Down in the Hole (Tom Waits)
5. Me & My Bass Guitar (Victor Wooten)
6. Insomniac (Echobelly)
7. Your Woman (White Town)
8. So Lonely (live) (The Police)
9. There's a Fine, Fine Line ("Avenue Q") - between love and a waste of time
10. Lord Is It Mine? (Supertramp)

This used to be my playground?

January 9, 2006 - Little League memories. I knew it as Johnson Field, but it got re-named later to my chagrin, thus introducing me to the idea of impermanence in this life. We had a "Minor League" and a "Major League" and a "Babe Ruth League". I was on a championship team in the minor league. The team was Siegfried Motors, which is now (still) a Volkswagen dealership on the corner of Charlotte and 9W. I played catcher and hated it because I didn't get to wear a baseball hat on the field like everybody else. But if I didn't play catcher, I would've been stuck in right field where each team's sucky player is put out to pasture. We went undefeated and won all 10 games we played. They called me the best catcher in the league, but there was no stealing in the minor leagues, so it's not like I did a whole lot as catcher. I was more like a moving backstop. I couldn't hit for squat, but I did get one hit against our main rivals, Englewood Cliffs Ambulance Corps, the team with all the cool kids with cool older brothers who coached them and engineered them to all be on the same team. I got a double and scored an RBI. We won 3-2. I must have been like eight years old.


The same ol' S-curve riding up 9W. January was incredibly warm and I never expected to be able to go riding. I'm a wuss with no winter gear, so I don't go riding unless the temperatures are well in the 50s. Otherwise, I just spin on a trainer in the basement while watching episodes of Buffy.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Rock Paper Scissors (Ani DiFranco)
2. For You Blue (The Beatles)
3. Epilogue - Theme from City of Angels ("City of Angels")
4. Fever Few (Throwing Muses)
5. Natural Mystic (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
6. The Overload (Talking Heads)
7. Glorious (The Breeders)
8. Sliver (Nirvana)
9. What A Day That Was (live) (Talking Heads)
10. So Divine (Sakura)

Trip to New York

I don't get into New York nearly as much as I should. But geez, is there much else to shoot except buildings?


January 4, 2006 - I was accompanying my brother to the boat show at the Jacob Javits Center, but took off for a bit to shoot.


Madison Square Garden. 34th St. and 8th Ave.


Jacob Javits Center. 34th St. and 12th Ave.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. King of the Kerb (Echobelly)
2. By My Side ("Godspell")
3. In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
4. Mouth Almighty (Echobelly)
5. Stories to Tell (Stanley Clarke)
6. 1542 (Mary Timony)
7. Thank You (live) (Led Zeppelin)
8. Ima Yora (Storm & Her Dirty Mouth)
9. Lovely (reprise) ("A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum" - Sondheim)
10. Uncertain Smile (The The)

Some blown out winter-y scenes

December 31, 2005 - This is the Jones Road overpass over Rte. I-95 approaching New York off the New Jersey Turnpike and I-80. You can't see this if you go there because, in keeping New Jersey to its reputation that there's nothing worth seeing here, any view from this overpass has been completely blocked off by ugly panels. I got this shot by holding Bebe over the panels and shooting blind. This is looking west. Rte. 80 starts several miles down the road, and I used to live at the other end of it in San Francisco. Yes, I've driven the whole thing.

This is looking east into Fort Lee, quickly coming up to the George Washington Bridge:


Perhaps a default shot out my second floor suburban window:


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Been A Son (Nirvana)
2. Tomorrow Never Knows (Phil Collins)
3. Silverfuck (Smashing Pumpkins)
4. Stutter (Elastica)
5. Fly Me to the Moon (4 Beat TV version) ("Neon Genesis Evangelion")
6. Every Word (Belly)
7. It's Nearly Africa (XTC)
8. This Eye (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
9. it (live) (Genesis)
10. Pueblo Nuevo (Ruben Gonzalez)

Big Menorah

December 30, 2005 - Englewood, NJ. They seemed to have become all the rage. They kinda look like they're made of cardboard, though.

iTunes Soundtrack:
1. Big Star (Anzen Chitai)
2. Heathen (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
3. Symphony No. 41, I. Allegro vivace (Mozart)
4. Hide and Seek (Dreams Come True)
5. Out of Gas (Modest Mouse)
6. Someone to Die For (Belly)
7. Revolution I (The Beatles)
8. On the Run (Pink Floyd)
9. Sometimes I Make You Sad (Supergrass)
10. Don't Give Up (Peter Gabriel)

Fifth Avenue

December 28, 2005 - post-Christmas hanging out with my brother's in-laws in New York. My brother's in-laws are awesome. They've been great to me and they've been so helpful to me in various things since my brother married into their family that I don't know what I'd be doing if he hadn't!

Fifth Avenue was really crowded, not surprisingly. It was a miracle that we were all able to stay together. I just held up Bebe and shot.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Shim Shime Panima Jyales (Himalayan/Nepalese music)
2. Rockaria! (Electric Light Orchestra)
3. Right ("They're Playing Our Song")
4. Twilight Alehouse (Genesis)
5. Black and Blue (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
6. It Takes Two (Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston)
7. 76th Star (Rebecca)
8. Here is the News (Electric Light Orchestra)
9. Dragonhead (Throwing Muses)
10. Mofo (U2)

'Twas a Dreary Day before Christmas

Or two. December 23, 2005. I was looking for a stuffed totoro for my infant nephew, so naturally I went to Edgewater, where the last remnant of the Japanese occupation of the economic bubble exists in the form of the Mitsuwa complex (formerly Yaohan). Seriously, in the '70s and '80s, there used to be tons of Japanese families in the area because Japanese companies sent their workers to New York and housed them in New Jersey.

It has a sweet location right on the water with skyline views of New York City across the Hudson River.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Happiness Is a Warm Gun (The Breeders)
2. The Imperatives (Rainer Maria)
3. The Sun On His Back (Camera Obscura)
4. The Wind and the Wolf (Keiko Matsui)
5. Turn It On Again (Genesis)
6. Crosseyed and Painless (live) (Talking Heads)
7. A Clean Break (Let's Work) (live) (Talking Heads)
8. Custard Pie (Led Zeppelin)
9. Friends (Rebecca)
10. Next To You (The Police)

Yamaha Beech Customs (redux)

Roll opening shot, frame 00. My rearranged set with two rack toms. Before I had it set up like John Bonham, with one rack tom and two floors. It was cooler before, but I realize now that my style of playing is better served by having all the toms closer together for faster fills.

Since taking this lomo, I set up the last piece that hadn't been set up, so now there are two crashes in front, and the ride is now lower and to the right more. You can barely see the China on the right in this shot. I have way to much stuff for the kind of drummer I am, but I swear I use everything.

I'm looking for something portable for when I go to Taiwan, and I'm vaguely thinking of looking for some paying gig playing drums there. How I'm able to think I'm good enough to get paid to do this is a little beyond me, but...it'll beat teaching English. I would love to get these puppies over there, but I'd only do it if I found something that paid to get them over there.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Star of the County Down (Béla Fleck & The Flecktones)
2. Roi (The Breeders)
3. In Your Eyes (live) (Peter Gabriel)
4. Breakerfall (Pearl Jam)
5. Twilight (Electric Light Orchestra)
6. Hair (Southern All-Stars)
7. Bring the Noise (Public Enemy)
8. Crack in the Union Jack (Suede)
9. The Man Who Sold the World (live) (Nirvana)
10. You Wonder How These Things Begin... ("The Fantasticks")