美術館 - Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum

September 21, 2007 - Self portrait. Or not. That's me behind the flash reflection. The Fine Arts Museum is the red brick in the back. I haven't gone in to see any exhibits yet. I actually haven't even been to the Taipei Fine Arts Museum! I don't know what's wrong with me. The admission is cheap enough. I have a feeling the museums in Kaohsiung are nothing to write home about. They all seem to be really small, or strange topic-wise. Sewage Museum. Film Archive Museum.


I'm pretty sure this is a lotus pond. I think I've been mistaking lily ponds for lotus ponds. Lotii are thrust in the air among dead and decaying leaves. I was leaning way over at the edge of the water to shoot this.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Mari In Love (The Pugs)
2. A Remark You Made (Weather Report)
3. Long Knives (live) (Rainer Maria)
4. Show Me The Way (live) (Peter Framptom)
5. My Adidas (Versus)
6. Riding the Scree (Genesis)
7. Mr. Walker (Renie) (Wes Montgomery)
8. Head South (Modest Mouse)
9. Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Smashing Pumpkins)
10. Obstacle 1 (Interpol)

Kaohsiung fotostroll

September 21, 2007 - This is not far from my cousin's apartment, in the area of the Museum of Fine Arts. I'm in Kaohsiung now, seriously considering moving down here. If I can find an apartment in this area in my price range, I might live in this area.


Outside the Fine Arts Museum. They made art out of shipping containers.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Symphony No. 9, III. Adagio Molto E Cantabile (Beethoven)
2. You've Got A Friend (Carole King)
3. Family Snapshot (Peter Gabriel)
4. Throwing It All Away (live) (Genesis)
5. Paths of Victory (Cat Power)
6. I Love To Cry At Weddings ("Sweet Charity")
7. Working for Vacation (Cibo Matto)
8. Hot Dog (Led Zeppelin)
9. Gigantic (The Pixies)
10. Don't Let Me Down (The Naked Beatles)

interior spaces

September 19, 2007 - 故宮博物院 The National Palace Museum. I swear it rains every time I go there. Well, it kinda rains whenever I do anything in Taipei. Actually the past year hasn't been that bad. It's been a while since I'd been here, and they had done some remodeling which helped put Chinese history into some organized perspective.

My sister-in-law's older sister was in town visiting with some of her Dutch friends (former colonizers, although not directly), so I went with them.


September 20, 2007 - 高鐵 And then the next day I travelled with them down south on the High Speed Rail. They went to Tainan where my sister-in-law's family is based (and where the Dutch primarily colonized, although not these particular Dutch folk), and I went to Kaohsiung. We were thinking of meeting up down there, but it wasn't to be and this was the last I saw of them.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Now Tonight (Sahara Hotnights)
2. Wabogi Wamimi Lagisaimu 在夜裡 (檳榔兄弟 - Taiwanese aboriginal music)
3. Secret Messages (Electric Light Orchestra)
4. I Think I'm a Mother (PJ Harvey)
5. Ao no Requiem (Chitose Hajime)
6. Money ("Cabaret")
7. Take Me Down (Smashing Pumpkins)
8. Check It Out Ch'all (Paris)
9. Dressing the Wound (Peter Gabriel - "Birdy")
10. Oh! (The Breeders)

Porta-A-Squatty!!

Along the riverside bikeways. Squat toilets are still found everywhere in Taiwan. I'm kinda glad I didn't take this in time to be in the commute essay, although it is one of the sights along the way. I don't know what they're called in Mandarin, but it cracks me up how the idea is so easily translatable into English!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Minna no Uta (Southern All-Stars)
2. Underachievers Fight and March Song (Archers of Loaf)
3. Evaporation (Shriekback)
4. Moonchild (Cibo Matto)
5. Tide of Fate (J Church)
6. Precious Things (Tori Amos)
7. King of the Kerb (Echobelly)
8. Gun Street Girl (live) (Tom Waits)
9. Two of Us (The Beatles)
10. Vajracchedika Prajna Paramita Sutra, pts. 13-14 (Imee Ooi)

September 13, 2007 - Car with windshield wipers up, and pink kerchiefs tied to all the doors. It's a Taipei mafia message. Sorta like "Luka Brazzi sleeps with the fishes", but it's more like "Luka Brazzi's car has it's windshield wipers left up and pink kerchiefs tied to the doors".

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Itsuka Kaze Ni Naru Hi (Chitose Hajime)
2. You Speak My Language (Morphine)
3. The Way A Leash Feels (764-HERO)
4. Fifteen Seconds (Idiot Box)
5. Surf (Sakura)
6. Heathen (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
7. Naked Eye (Luscious Jackson)
8. Lowest Common Denominator (Unwound)
9. Yesterday (The Beatles)
10. Annie-Dog (Smashing Pumpkins)

石碇

August 29, 2007 - I think this is a little town called Shiding, maybe about 10 miles east from where I live. It's definitely in Shiding township, which is an area larger than a town, but smaller than a county. I also think it may be a juncture and resting point for cyclists along Rte. 106乙. I loved those homes overlooking the stream below, but then the freeway, probably National Rte. 5, in the background.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Carpet Crawlers (Genesis)
2. Vroom Vroom (King Crimson)
3. You Were Right (Built to Spill)
4. 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. Danny's All-Star Joint (Rickie Lee Jones)
6. Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane)
7. Four Sticks (Led Zeppelin)
8. Pale and Precious (Dukes of Stratosphear)
9. Eyes to Me (Version #2) (Dreams Come True)
10. Don't Bring Me Down (David Bowie)

comparison shots of basically the same thing

August 16, 2007 - Advance frame of a new roll. This was my classroom last semester. It's also my classroom this semester, and I'm apparently sitting in the same seat! These are also my classmates from last semester, not the same as my classmates this semester. I liked them much better than my current classmates. I have to stop saying not nice things like that.


This is a long exposure, thus the blur of Santi from Thailand. The others are Danila from Russia and Yumi from Japan. Good folks.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. 安里屋 Yunta (Rimi Natsukawa)
2. Symphony No. 1, III. Menuetto (Allegro Molto E Vivace) (Beethoven)
3. In It For The Money (Supergrass)
4. Oh! Darling (The Beatles)
5. Troubadours (Rilo Kiley)
6. I Came As A Rat (Modest Mouse)
7. Script for a Jester's Tear (live) (Marillion)
8. The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young)
9. Overlap (live) (Ani DiFranco)
10. Koku Reibo (Judo Notomi)

boring lomos

August 29, 2007 - Yea, there are no words for how boring these images are compared to the experience. This was my first attempt at riding to Pinglin, something like 17 miles away on Rte. 9. I think this was right about mile 10, after 6 miles of straight climbing, easy climbing, but constant. It was just nice to reach the top of the climb and have the morning sun shining bright and this playground there.


And the road runs along this nice open view of waves on an ocean of mountains. Nice, but boring in fisheye.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Song Remains the Same (Led Zeppelin)
2. Stained (Kristin Hersh)
3. Down Upbeat (Casiopea)
4. Hey You (Pink Floyd)
5. Last Train to Satansville (Swervedriver)
6. Bensusan (Michael Hedges)
7. Flotsam and Jetsam (Peter Gabriel)
8. Flash (Queen)
9. Burnin' Love (Sing Like Talking)
10. Buri Buri Borderline (Southern All-Stars)

Taiwan Rock

August 27, 2007 - This is another reject from the commute essay. I'm standing on a temporary stage that was set up near the exit of the bikeways near Gongguan. The writing reads "Gongguan New World Riverside Pub, Water View Rock". It was every Saturday evening at 6:00 between July 14 and September 1st.

I didn't go most of the time, probably because of rain. I think it rained every day this Summer, but it was bearable for me, a person with acute, suicidal S.A.D., because it only rained in the late afternoon and stopped during the evening. I could deal with that. The one time I did go was OK. I can't say the quality of live rock music is that great here, but it was great that they had this kind of community event. It was funny, though, seeing families and old couples in the audience, digging the young kids rocking out.


The view from the stage. I didn't include these in the lomo essay because it was a temporary thing.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Close To The Edge (Yes)
2. Picture Book (The Kinks)
3. New Disco (Mission of Burma)
4. Spit & Fire (live) (Rainer Maria)
5. Yebo! (Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens)
6. Sit On My Hands (Frente)
7. Happy Together (The Turtles)
8. You're Gonna Get Yours (Public Enemy)
9. Joking (Indigo Girls)
10. Lonely Butterfly (Rebecca)

Commute Lomo Essay remnants

September 24, 2007 - This is a remnant from the commute lomo essay, the Taoist temple near Treasure Hill. I don't actually pass this close to the temple, so I didn't think it belonged in the essay.


Lion statue, same temple.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Chura Liya Hai Tumne ("Jo Jeeta Woh Sikandar" - Bollywood)
2. Who Is It? (Talking Heads)
3. Watching the Wheels (John Lennon)
4. Follow You, Follow Me (live) (Genesis)
5. Dreamer (Supertramp)
6. X Offender (Blondie)
7. I'm Leaving You (Commit A Crime) (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
8. Night (Bruce Springsteen)
9. Young Conservatives (The Kinks)
10. Out of Time (Blur)

Ibanez Soundgear GSR200

August 15, 2007 - I bought a cheap Ibanez bass, but now I'm wondering why and what am I doing with it, so I might sell it if I don't hit the shed and get my chops back up to speed and join a band soon.

At least I speak the lingo, that's a start.

Kids are lucky these days. They can buy a really cheap bass and the quality is pretty good. It's easily a gigable bass. The kind of basses at this price when I was a kid were far inferior. They were like second-hand beginner basses. It's definitely a step down from my basses back home, but it would serve my purposes here.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Something Else (764-HERO)
2. Scuttle Buttin' (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
3. Funky Li'l Party (Paris)
4. Birthday Party (Phase II Steel Orchestra)
5. The Thin Line (Blondie)
6. Ejercicio #16 (Kinky)
7. She's a Bad Mamma Jamma (Ohio Players)
8. Squonk (Genesis)
9. Generator (Elastica)
10. Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon)

2 shots out my window, consecutive frames, different days

August 1, 2007 - I think this is the day I returned from the U.S.. I got back in the morning and went to afternoon class, loser that I am. It was overcast and the light was low, so this is a long-exposure with streaks of traffic visible.


August 15, 2007 - Sunny morning rush hour traffic. Seeing this every morning is a wonderful reminder of what I never want to be - a commuter schlep in rush hour traffic. Although I guess I did do that in San Francisco on rainy days when I didn't ride my bike. Still, that was better than riding a motor-scooter in a toxic cloud of exhaust.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Made-Up Dream (Built to Spill)
2. Masoko Tanga (The Police)
3. Portrait (He Knew) (remix) (Kansas)
4. Respectable Street (XTC)
5. Never Say No ("The Fantasticks")
6. Kamakura Monogatari (Southern All-Stars)
7. Little Fury Bugs (Death Cab For Cutie)
8. A New Way to Fly (Marunouchi Sadistic) (Shiina Ringo)
9. Quite a Feeling (Sahara Hotnights)
10. 40 (U2)

Finally From New Jersey

July 27, 2007 - But I didn't sneeze! Fort Lee, NJ. Probably my favorite New Jersey lomo.


This is my elementary school! It's so little compared to how I remembered it, and not just because it's in fisheye. Oh, the rotten childhood memories. Never want to do that again. Never want to put anyone through that. I guess there were some good ones in there, too. I liked band. I played tromb-b-bone until I started playing bass, and then the music director formed a Stage Band to *ahem* accomodate me. It was probably more of an excuse for him to jam, but it was fun.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Even Better Than the Real Thing (U2)
2. Palladium (Weather Report)
3. White Ashes (Peter Gabriel - "OVO")
4. Jelly Belly (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. The Audience is Listening (Steve Vai)
6. Everything But Blue (Nokko)
7. Down And Out (Genesis)
8. Tradition (Stanley Clarke)
9. Dirt (live) (Mission of Burma)
10. Morning Glory (Versus)

New York in Reds

July 27, 2007 - New York City West Side. Piles and piles of salt, used for melting snow . . . in the middle of the Summer. OK, I have no idea what this is.


Hudson River - I think those are fire department related, used for fighting fires . . . in the middle of a river. OK, I have no idea what those are for.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Candy Everybody Wants (10,000 Maniacs)
2. Tomorrow ("Annie")
3. The Trial (live) (Pink Floyd)
4. Save the People ("Godspell")
5. Please! (Southern All-Stars)
6. Pardon My French (Unwound)
7. Symphony No. 40, I. Molto Allegro (Mozart)
8. Yoky (Fatala - "Passion" Sources)
9. Yamagoe (Katsuya Yokoyama - shakuhachi)
10. Sold! (Enon)