Lomo shooting had become so sparse that I couldn't even keep track of when I was shooting the same subject matter. These two are a month apart, but only two frames apart on the roll. Riding to work, I often passed in front of Taipei's old airport - Songshan Airport, which now covers shorter haul flights. Most international flights now fly in and out of Taoyuan International Airport in Taoyuan County, about 40 minutes away from Taipei.

view 1

May 18, 2008

view 2

June 22, 2008

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Hana (花) (A Flower in Every Heart) (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
2. Seven Spanish Angels (Ray Charles w/Willie Nelson)
3. Down (Suede)
4. Mary Anne With the Shaky Hands (The Who)
5. Tu Eres Mentirosa (Sukay - Andean pan flute)
6. The Girls Want to Be With the Girls (live) (Talking Heads)
7. I Heard It Through The Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
8. Yatara-chan's Annoying Noise (Katra Turana - Japanese underground)
9. Blow Wind Blow (Tom Waits)
10. For Crying Out Loud (Meat Loaf)

August 5, 2008 - And here's a close up of where I live, taken several months later. Yes, I've devoted my life to the service of God. Jesus is my Master and I am His slave. Actually, I live in the green building on the left, and I chose the room that doesn't look out over the church (it was the smaller room).

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Mean Mr. Mustard (The Beatles - Anthology)
2. Complicated Life (The Kinks)
3. Someday We'll Know (New Radicals) (the drummer in this video is playing blueberry Yamaha Beech Customs, the exact same drums I have!)
4. Shrug (live) (Ani DiFranco)
5. All That Jazz ("Chicago")
6. Your Mother Should Know (The Beatles)
7. Tension Living With Muscle (Rebecca)
8. London Boy (Rebecca)
9. Fly Me to the Moon ("Neon Genesis Evangelion")
10. Sunday in the Park With George ("Sunday in the Park With George" - Sondheim)

May 18, 2008 - Taipei, Taiwan. Songshan District. The lane where I live. It's a nice neighborhood, lots of stray cats, which is a lot nicer than the rampant stray dog problem in most other parts of Taipei.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Eastern Wave (Three Mile Pilot)
2. O My God (live) (The Police)
3. Lately (live) (Tegan & Sara)
4. Opening Theme (Camper Van Beethoven)
5. In the Cage (Genesis)
6. If You Cross (Three Mile Pilot)
7. Sodomy ("Hair")
8. The Days of Old (Paris)
9. Your Eyes (The Sundays)
10. Your Arse My Place (Elastica)

May 16, 2008 - Intersection of Xinyi and Keelung roads, looking east at Taipei 101, the 2nd highest building in the world. Somehow that doesn't have the same impressiveness as saying "the tallest building in the world". Oh well.

It's been raining for more than 24 hours straight. It may have let up for short periods of less than an hour, but I think it's been pretty much constant since yesterday morning. I think it's from a typhoon to the southwest that isn't predicted to come near us, but the rain is dumping down on us.

So I couldn't do any riding yesterday, on my rare day off with no work and no rehearsal/gig, but I'm quitting my job next week, going in for weekends for maybe a month longer, so I'll have a lot more time soon. Although I'm supposed to be using the time to really try to nail down the language before I leave.

I was hoping to ride out to Taiwan's east coast. I'm doing more day riding now that the Summer heat is gone. It's still hotter than San Francisco ever gets, except during their laughable "heat waves", which to me is just comfortable, but it's all relative.

The other day, I found a road from Xizhi (汐止), just east of Taipei, that goes south to Pingxi (平溪), that I did during the daytime. Day riding still sucks because of the traffic and pollution, and Route 5 out of Taipei wasn't exactly pleasant, but once I got off that main road onto 北31 to Pingxi, it turned out to be a great ride. The climb went up to 655 meters (over 2000') before descending down to Pingxi.

And strangely, I was worried when I started out before noon that it would be uncomfortably hot, since the sun was shining and it was already probably in the low 80s. But as I got out of Taipei and headed up the mountain, it clouded over and the temperature came down, and it was a pleasant climb. I was even worried about rain.

But as soon as I started descending, the clouds disappeared and the rest of the ride was all in sunlight. As good as it gets.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Ai Suru Hito Yo (Sakura)
2. Samurai Showdown (RZA - "Ghost Dog")
3. Cracked Actor (live) (David Bowie)
4. Yume no Tamago (Ichiko Hashimoto - "RahXephon")
5. Chan Chan (Eliades Ochoa - "Buena Vista Social Club")
6. Wonder (Natalie Merchant)
7. Walking in Space ("Hair")
8. Giant Steps (John Coltrane)
9. I'll Be Back (The Beatles)
10. Got To Get You Into My Life (The Beatles - Anthology)