May 11, 2008 - Sanzhi, Taiwan north coast. With time before playing, we could walk out on the beach and relax. That's Alex and Nikki walking back along the jetty. Or is it a quay? Or a breakwater? Who knows. Alex is the band's singer's girlfriend. He recently found this blog, so now he knows that I'm out to steal his girlfriend. They're also moving next month to a place with extra rooms, so they asked me if I wanted to move in with them. Naturally, that'll make it much easier for me to put my moves on, little does he know.


As they walked back, I continued walking out. It's farther than it looks.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Walk Through the Fire (Peter Gabriel)
2. I'm Looking Through You (The Beatles)
3. Below the Salt (Unwound)
4. Wandering in the Street (Blackhand Nakasi Workers Band)
5. Babe (Styx)
6. Two Is Enough (Seam)
7. Yassassin (David Bowie)
8. The Goldberg Variations, #26 (J.S. Bach)
9. Toki ga Bousou Suru (Shiina Ringo)
10. When I'm Sixty-Four (The Beatles)

May 11, 2008 - Sanzhi, on the north coast of Taiwan. The band used to play up there couple times a month at a restaurant/cafe called La Mer. We played on the back porch, just steps away from the beach. Not bad, eh? It was just far from Taipei and a pain to get to. We stopped playing up there after we got our own place to play in Taipei. And since the person who booked us was . . . well, murdered.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. OSCA (Tokyo Jihen)
2. Ein Deutsches Requiem, V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Brahms)
3. Rude Mood (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
4. Deep Wilson (Kristin Hersh)
5. Israel (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
6. We Know Better (Echobelly)
7. Egypt (Kate Bush)
8. Kougousei (Shiina Ringo)
9. The Way Things Go (The Octopus Project)
10. Go Fun Burn Man (live) (Mission of Burma)

May 9, 2008 - Bend in the Keelung River, Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. This is about half a mile from where I live. It's a pretty nice riverside area. We just had a typhoon blow through, and they closed all the floodgates, but the river is quite large and although the river level noticeably rose, there was no sign of damage, like on the Xindian or Jingmei rivers in last year's big typhoon.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Falling Down (Tom Waits)
2. Neon Lights (Sahara Hotnights)
3. Perfect Time (Archers of Loaf)
4. Fool In the Rain (Led Zeppelin)
5. Melody (Sakura)
6. Coming Up (Paul McCartney)
7. Without Fire (764-HERO)
8. Far East Medley (live) (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
9. Growing Up (Peter Gabriel)
10. Gut Pageant (Kristin Hersh)

May 9, 2008 - Nanjing East Road, Section 5; one of the major east-west boulevards going across Taipei. They're building an MRT line under it, which is that construction going on in the middle of the road. I'm not making any predictions, but I can't imagine still living here by the time they complete it. Which is like. . . 5 years from now.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Grasshoppers (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
2. Pull Up the Roots (Talking Heads)
3. Who Do You Dance For? (Sahara Hotnights)
4. Try to Remember (reprise) ("The Fantasticks")
5. December (Unwound)
6. A Sword and a Rose and a Cape ("Carnival")
7. Home (Kristin Hersh)
8. Black Country Woman (Led Zeppelin)
9. Five O'Clock Whistle (Duke Ellington)
10. Whatever (Ani DiFranco)

April 18, 2008 - Bike parking next to the Taida library. Bike parking is never an issue on campus, unless you try to park close to where you want to go. That's a general rule. Then you're either jamming someone else's bike in, or they're jamming in yours, and good luck trying to get your bike out. I think I avoided going to the library when I knew it would be crowded, so I never had a problem. Also because the library doesn't have enough seating, and it's hard to find a seat during peak hours. This is Taiwan's best university, mind you.

I had started working in April, but I still had a valid Taida ID until the end of June (the person stamping my ID a semester earlier made a mistake), so I still went down there on occasion.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I'm Only Sleeping (take 1) (The Beatles - Anthology)
2. Yeah! Nen Matsu (Bakufu Slump)
3. Mystic Rhythms (live) (Rush)
4. Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing (Stevie Wonder)
5. Itoshi no Happy Days (Dreams Come True)
6. Do You Think It's Alright? (The Who)
7. Black and White ("Barnum")
8. Knuckle Down (XTC)
9. Goodbye Caroline (Aimee Mann)
10. Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 10 (J.S. Bach)

April 12, 2008 - Taipei, Taiwan. Songshan District. Above ground trains run out of eastern Taipei from Songshan train station, serving eastern Taiwan. West of Taipei, they emerge from underground in Taipei County.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, I. Allegro (J.S. Bach)
2. What Am I Here For? (Duke Ellington)
3. People (King Crimson)
4. Syeeda's Flute Song (John Coltrane)
5. Argument (Fugazi)
6. Whatall Is Nice (Ani DiFranco)
7. Hi Fu Mi Hachi Kaeshi (Katsuya Yokoyama - shakuhachi)
8. Sledgehammer (Peter Gabriel)
9. One (Sakura)
10. The Bed ("Hair")

April 12, 2008 - Wow, this is the next consecutive frame from the previous post. A whole month between shots. That's so sad. And I didn't even start work until the beginning of April. What was I even doing then? I'm still working on the second roll of this year. That's even sadder. I didn't even stop sleeping until the end of May.

East side of the Raohe Night Market street in Songshan District, where there's an apparently popular Taoist temple.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Drain You (Nevermind)
2. La Guerre Est Finie (Pizzicato Five)
3. The Goldberg Variations, #17 (J.S. Bach)
4. Democratic Circus (Talking Heads)
5. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! (Take 7) (The Beatles - Anthology)
6. Panama (Van Halen)
7. Morning Sprite (Chick Corea Akoustic Band)
8. Caught A Lite Sneeze (Tori Amos)
9. Harbor Wind (Keiko Matsui)
10. Woman (John Lennon)