car vs. bike

July 30, 2007 - Driving on Route 4 East in Paramus on my last day in New Jersey before leaving for Taiwan that night. Weird being in one place at one time, suddenly you're in another at another time.


July 27, 2007 - New York City, West Side Riverside Bikeways, they have cute little bicycle streetlights that most people seem to ignore. They're more cautionary than mandate it seems. I try to obey them, seeing as they put so much effort into making all those cute little bicycles. They're really high, though, I was stretching my arm all the way up trying to get the bicycle in the shot.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Icarus (Borne On Wings of Steel) (Kansas)
2. Get 'Em Out By Friday (Genesis)
3. Again and Again and Again (Wings)
4. Add It Up (The Kinks)
5. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Carole King)
6. Pussy Cat Dues (Charles Mingus)
7. Assassing (alternate) (Marillion)
8. Driven to Tears (The Police)
9. One After 909 (The Beatles)
10. Hayfoot Strawfoot (Duke Ellington)

view from my brother's apartment

July 25, 2007 - Fort Lee, New Jersey, the view from my brother's apartment looking north of the view-obstructing building, with the George Washington Bridge in view. . .


...and the view south of the view-obstructing building, looking across the Hudson River to New York City. The apartment is pretty cool. Whenever they drive into New York, they pull out the binoculars to check the traffic situation.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Reckoning (Ani DiFranco)
2. Ellen West (Throwing Muses)
3. Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
4. Symphony No. 2 "Romantic", IV. Allegro Vivace (Rachmaninov)
5. Sora Yori Umi Yori (Puri Puri Samba '91) (Princess Princess)
6. A Pile of Time (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
7. Beeswax (Nirvana)
8. Chloe (Song of the Swamp) (Duke Ellington)
9. Nobody Home (Pink Floyd)
10. The Wedding List (Kate Bush)

July 25, 2007 - Yea, right, so what? A building. A department store. But malls and shopping are a New Jersey characteristic. What else do we have? Mullets? Bruce Springsteen? Bon Jovi?!! I make no apologies for shooting this. This Kohl's Department Store is on Route 4 in Paramus.


July 30, 2007 - Garden State Plaza interior, Paramus, N.J., at the intersection of Route 4 and Route 17. Paramus probably has more shopping malls along these stretches of highway than anywhere else in New Jersey. Garden State Plaza is the one that has transformed and grown the most over the years. While I was growing up, it wasn't covered, and walking through it now, I still remember the outdoor thoroughfares in the same locations of the halls here now.

This is a long exposure and there are plenty of people walking through this shot, but since the Lomo Fisheyes don't capture low light levels well, none of them registered. I'm holding the 2 against a railing to keep it steady.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Worse Than Detroit (Robert Plant)
2. Stay Free (The Clash)
3. Live Wire (AC/DC)
4. Tremelo (live) (Mission of Burma)
5. I Can't Do It Alone ("Chicago")
6. Chinsagu no Hana (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
7. Quicksand (David Bowie)
8. Shinshi Raika (Chitose Hajime)
9. Thought I Was (live) (Rainer Maria)
10. D'yer Mak'er (Led Zeppelin)

Bud Weis Er

July 24, 2007 - Riding up River Road from Edgewater to Fort Lee, New Jersey. That's a Budweiser can. Occassionally, something catches my eye, regardless of which camera I'm carrying, and begs to be shot, even going out of my way to shoot it, like this shot. My bike is further on up the road and I actually walked back to this thing to shoot it. Nutty. A lot of times these instinct-type shots are worth it. But this is like "what the . . . ?"

iTunes soundtrack
1. INS (Archers of Loaf)
2. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
3. Corcovado (Quiet Nights) (Cannonball Adderly & Sergio Mendes - ultralounge)
4. Smile (Pearl Jam)
5. My, My Metrocard (Le Tigre)
6. Pride (In the Name of Love) (U2)
7. Next! ("Pacific Overtures" - Sondheim)
8. Clones (We're All) (Smashing Pumpkins)
9. Sometime (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
10. Hot Rock (Sleater- Kinney)

Duck


Duck


Goose!

July 24, 2007 - Edgewater, New Jersey. These are the advance frames of a roll I started shooting while visiting family in New Jersey. It was really nice to be on my own bike while I was there. This is along the Hudson River, naturally, with New York City across the river.

Here's a normal shot of the scene with those women sitting down there.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. She's Always a Woman (Billy Joel)
2. Memory ("Cats")
3. Bang a Gong (Blondie)
4. Pictures of Success (Rilo Kiley)
5. The Cinema Show (remixed) (Genesis)
6. Friends (Rebecca)
7. Radar Follows You (Versus)
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
9. Hide In Your Shell (live) (Supertramp)
10. Heaven (live) (Talking Heads)

commute photo essay - fin

Taida Main Gate (台大大門口). Upon crossing that last intersection, there's a small plaza to cross to get to the main gate.


The language center is on the other side of campus, a good 10-15 minute walk. Royal Palms Boulevard is the main strip through campus, leading to the main library, which I guess is the centerpiece of campus. To get to the language center I have to ride to the library and then continue off to the left to that far edge of campus.

Thanks for watching. There are some stray lomos from the commute that I'll still sneak in.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Lively Up Yourself (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
2. Polovstian Dance, No. 1 (Borodin)
3. Heart of Gold (Sakura)
4. Man On the Corner (Genesis)
5. Rhinosaur (Soundgarden)
6. Don't Push Your Foot On the Heartbrake (Kate Bush)
7. Annie (Elastica)
8. Flexible Strategies (The Police)
9. When You're In My Arms ("They're Playing Our Song")
10. The Company (Fish)

commute photo essay - exit #3, the last stretch

So from the last post, after turning right through the gate of the bikeway, that road merges with traffic coming off the Yongfu Bridge (永福大橋) after about 200 meters, and then after maybe another 200 meters the road reaches this T-intersection. This lomo doesn't capture the moving jungle of morning traffic, but this is a rolling shot, and I'm not about to pull out a lomo if the traffic is particularly hairy. Ordinarily the amount of traffic usually doesn't bother me, but the fumes do, and since I end up hitting two red lights in this stretch, sitting in an invisible cloud of motor scooter exhaust, it's become a route to avoid.

At the T, I turn left and make a quick right.


This is at the end of the quick right, the second traffic light, and on this morning, I actually got both green lights for the first and only time. So this is another rolling shot. Normally I'd be at a stand still in the midst of choking poisonous gas. But of course I got green lights, since really what I wanted was to get the red lights to be able to shoot the glut of motorscooters at the red lights. The Taida campus is across this street, Roosevelt Boulevard, on the right. While the motor traffic veers left to continue on the road across the intersection, I get out of the stream of traffic to the right, to the relative safety of campus. Emphasis on the "relative".


iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Lamia (Genesis)
2. White Sun (Takeshi Yamaguchi)
3. Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats ("Cats")
4. Prince of the Punks (live) (The Kinks)
5. Cherry (Spitz)
6. Disconnect (20 Minute Loop)
7. Satellite (Dave Matthews Band)
8. Ein Deutches Requiem, VII. Selig Sind Die Toten (Brahms)
9. Kazet (Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens)
10. Free Four (Pink Floyd)

commute photo essay - exit #3

At the top of the ramp leading out of the bikeway to Gongguan, there's a plaza area and a bike rental area. Apparently someone's been making use of the plaza area. If this was the U.S., I would guess it would be BMX folk, but I don't think BMX is that big in Taiwan. They have areas were people can practice tricks, but I've never once seen them being used. At least not by anyone with skills. I think I saw an old lady doing Tai Chi once.


And the actual exit to the surface road. It's a bit of a trick to get through those yellow rails, placed there to prevent motor scooters from easily passing through, but with a little practice you learn to zip right through on bike. From here I turn right to go to school. About a quarter mile down I hit rush hour traffic with morning classes, and it's pretty hairy, which makes this way not the ideal way. The danger doesn't bother me, but the motor scooter fumes make me loopy.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Water (The Sugarcubes)
2. Drain You (live) (Nirvana)
3. Satellites (764-HERO)
4. Valley of One Thousand Perfumes (Mary Timony)
5. Get Crazy! (Princess Princess)
6. Celluloid Heroes (The Kinks)
7. A Room With A View (Pizzicato Five)
8. Air (live) (Talking Heads)
9. Ayo Joget Lagi (Campur DKI - early 90's Indonesian pop)
10. I'll Wait (Van Halen)

commute photo essay - columns

I think I've shot these orange columns a lot. They kinda stand out. But there's a cool dragon graffit on the base. It's kinda shy down there, I mean why didn't the artist go all out and make it a bolder statement?


Contrast with a blue column near the top of the ramp, leading out of the bikeways. I'm not sure what it says. Something about the water park district, welcome (which is not a water park, per se, as much as it's a display or museum of water usage? How big can you yawn?). The crest of the ramp is at the right. It's all downhill from there, so to speak.

Oh, and I don't think this column is holding anything up. It looks like it's supporting the roadway above, but it's not. It's a random, free-standing, welcoming column. Go fig.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Skin & Bones (The Kinks)
2. Hootchi Kootchi Moon (Bubble Gum Brothers)
3. Norwegian Wood (The Beatles - Anthology)
4. The Hills of Tomorrow ("Merrily We Roll Along" - Sondheim)
5. Peek-A-Boo (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
6. Lonely! (Frente!)
7. Fall Down (Throwing Muses)
8. Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, II. Andante (J.S. Bach)
9. Wild World (Cat Stevens)
10. The Man With the Child In His Eyes (Kate Bush)

commute photo essay - exit #3

This is the approach to the last way for me to get to school, just a bit down from the second way. The bikeway continues down the left, and the ramp on the right leads to the Gongguan exit. It's a tiny hill, but a pain in the ass. I see a lot of people just get off their bikes and walk up. On my clunker commuter beater bike, it's just a pain in the butt.


This signpost is at the intersection of the ramp and the bikeway. It's right dab center in the above lomo, but too small to see, due to fisheye effect. This series seems to be taking forever. Partly because on some days I shot to show the route, and sometimes I was in the mood to shoot sights along the way. When I did this in San Francisco, I didn't shoot nearly this many shots.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Let It Bleed (The Rolling Stones)
2. One Note Samba/Recado Bossa Nova (Leroy Holmes - ultralounge)
3. The Good That Won't Come Out (Rilo Kiley)
4. Tommy's Holiday Camp (The Who)
5. The Ocean (Led Zeppelin)
6. Mafura Man (Spitz)
7. Can't Be Sure (The Sundays)
8. Uptight (Everything's Alright) (Stevie Wonder)
9. Breaking Glass (live) (David Bowie)
10. Slipstream (Jethro Tull)

commute photo essay - exit #2 fin

Casually passing by this thing, I thought it was some sort of exotic flora, but it turns out to be totally artificial. I wonder if it's, um, art. It may have something to do with the Treasure Hill thing, because there's a plaque nearby that mentions something about it.

Anyway, it's the last lomo I have from this exit.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Shulaba La Bamba (Southern All-Stars)
2. Sinfonia Concertante, S. 98.6 (P.D.Q. Bach)
3. Kazoointoit (Ani DiFranco)
4. The Waiting Room (Rare Air)
5. The Xie-Dun Festival (Nomad - Echoes from Shangri-La)
6. Asoi (Javanese street musicians)
7. Fly Me to the Moon (Aya Bossa Techno TV Version - "Neon Genesis Evangelion")
8. Face On Your Head (100 Watt Smile)
9. Welcome to the Machine (Pink Floyd)
10. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, I. Allegro (J.S. Bach)

commute photo essay - exit #2, Treasure Hill

Before continuing with the lomos, Typhoon Krosa hit Taipei this weekend and has left the riverside bikeways and parks, which are really a clever disguise for floodplains, a wreck. Which is a good thing! They did their job and kept Taipei from being flooded! I did go out and re-shoot some of the same things I shot for this photo essay.

I rode home today on the bikeways, and it was like riding on a beach because much of it is covered in mud from being completely submerged. A real mess.


Treasure Hill. This path leads from the bikeway to pretty close to where the first exit leads to. The advantage of this way is that it eliminates one street crossing, and there's only one short steep hill, instead of that long ramp leading up from the bikeway to the Fuhe Bridge. Unfortunately, this exit option is closed now for construction, and I don't know if they'll re-open it to public passage once they're done. The pipes shown here were probably for the construction. I don't know what those buildings are or why it's called Treasure Hill. I think they're residences, but they look damaged.


This might be a clue to why it's called Treasure Hill. That's a Taoist temple which has the word "寶" in it's name, which means "treasure". I dunno. That's the path on the left coming from the bikeway. The buildings from the first lomo can be seen through the trees.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Kuki (Shiina Ringo)
2. Intruder (Peter Gabriel)
3. My Generation (The Who)
4. Tune the Rainbow (Maaya Sakamoto - "RahXephon")
5. All Day and All of the Night (live) (The Kinks)
6. That Was My Love (Ani DiFranco)
7. The Waiting Room (live) (Genesis)
8. Because You're Young (David Bowie)
9. Master Blaster (Jammin') (Stevie Wonder)
10. Forgotten Sons (live) (Marillion)

commute photo essay - bikeway map

In the bottom lomo of the previous post you can see this map off to the left of the path. Maps, they don't love you like I love you. Sorry, Karen O, but you don't love me like I love maps. I can spend hours poring over maps.

You can see National Taiwan University, my destination, on the right of the map. The language school is all the way on the other side of campus. You can also see Daan Park at the upper right. I used live right across the street from it, on the southern edge. The river is the Hsindian River and it meets the Danshui River all the way at the upper left of the map. You can see where the tiny Jingmei River branches off to the lower right.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Meisai (Shiina Ringo)
2. In the Flesh? (live) (Pink Floyd)
3. Night of the Living Baseheads (Public Enemy)
4. Symphony No. 35, I. Allegro con spirito (Mozart)
5. Ribbons of You (Shannon Wright)
6. Dangerous! (Frente!)
7. Rumpus in Richmond (Duke Ellington)
8. Blue Overall (XTC)
9. Off With Your Head (Sleater-Kinney)
10. Nothing Achieving (The Police)

commute photo essay - exit #2

Continuing under the Fuhe Bridge and along the elevated freeway seen here, it's not long before reaching the second option I have to get to school. You can match the building against the hill on the right edge of the lomo with the one down below.


Currently this is not an option to get to school because it's blocked off and fenced up for construction. I don't know what they're constructing or whether this will be open to the public again when it's done. I've heard it called Treasure Hill, but I don't know why or what the history of this bit plot of land is.

This was the last frame on the roll, notice how closely the photo processor cut to the spool.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Heaven and Hell (live) (The Who)
2. Planetary (Rainer Maria)
3. Harold the Barrel (Genesis)
4. The Refugee (U2)
5. Me and You (Duke Ellington)
6. Whoop-Ass (Charlie Hunter Quintet)
7. Bottom Line (Rebecca)
8. Come Together (live) (Michael Hedges)
9. PDA (Interpol)
10. Wrapped in Grey (XTC)

commute photo essay - backtracking

Well OK, so that was the first option to get to the Taida campus from the bikeways, and it's the option I take most frequently now because it keeps me out of traffic, aside from crossing intersections. Backtracking to the bikeway, here's a shot I missed before while posting in sequence of where the ramp from the bikeway meets up with the Fuhe Bridge.


Back down on the bikeway (you can see a bit of the ramp on the left edge of the lomo), heading towards the second option to exit the bikeway. This bit of graffiti has been here from the first time I rode down this stretch of bikeway, and every time it gets painted over, it gets re-painted.

I always want to get some red paint and paint a comma between go and vegan, so instead of "go vegan!", it would read "go, vegan!". That way it becomes less of what might sound like a righteous suggestion, and more of an encouragement to existing vegans. But it's just not worth my time and effort just for me chuckle at my own joke.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Rocket From a Bottle (XTC)
2. Fill Your Heart (David Bowie)
3. Jackie (Sinead O'Connor)
4. Way of the World (Genesis)
5. Late in the Day (Supergrass)
6. Over Under Sideways Down (The Yardbirds)
7. Four Letter Word (Echobelly)
8. Let's Run (Le Tigre)
9. The Ballad of a Ladyman (Sleater-Kinney)
10. Studying Stones (Ani DiFranco)