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)

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)

Ride-by Shooting: Englewood Cliffs, NJ

Well, there's not much to shoot in this town. Once I drive up Palisade Ave., I turn right on Summit St. If you look closely at the end of the road, it just sort of disappears. That's because it drops off into a nice downhill.


Well, you can't really tell from a lomo that this is downhill. Sorta, maybe. You can see it level off at the bottom. It was recently paved and I end my bike rides going down this hill. Nothing grander than zipping down a hill on a newly paved road. But it's not that steep and not that long and the fastest I've been able to reach is maybe 39 mph, pedaling hard.

current soundtrack:
1. Go For It! (Dreams Come True)
2. Shine-O-Myte (Rag Popping) (Bootsy Collins)
3. An Ode to No One (Smashing Pumpkins)
4. Few and Far Between (10,000 Maniacs)
5. Mending King (Three Mile Pilot)
6. Slippery People (live) (Talking Heads)
7. Come Into (Enon)
8. Ladybird (XTC)
9. Julia (The Beatles)
10. Pushing the Buttons (Modest Mouse)

Season check

December 4, 2005 - Shooting outside my window. Winter came early this year. It's not unusual for it to snow this early, but it is unusual for it to stay as long as it did - full coverage for about two weeks in unseasonably cold temperatures until it rained. And the rain didn't even wash it all away, which it should have. Even now there are still isolated mounds of dirty snow on street sides and parking lots, reminiscent of early Spring. But it's not early Spring with warm weather just around the corner, we're just heading into Winter.


December 1, 2005 - A few days before the snow we were in full-on Autumn. That's my high school. Corner of South Woodland and Palisades Avenue.


December 15, 2005 - The day before the big rain was forecast, I went out to shoot some winter and went to the Alpine Lookout off the Palisades Parkway. That road down there is the Hudson River Drive, on which many of my ride lomos were shot. Rte. 9W is up at this altitude, running parallel to the parkway.

current soundtrack:
1. Where Your Eyes Don't Go (They Might Be Giants)
2. Big Brother (live) (David Bowie)
3. Wait (The Beatles)
4. Tired of Waiting for You (The Kinks)
5. Lonely Butterfly (Rebecca) 80s j-pop band
6. Storm the Gates (Enon)
7. Voodoo Child (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
8. Little Mascara (The Replacements)
9. Supper's Ready (Genesis)
10. Evidence of Autumn (Genesis)

Nouveau Riche

November 16, 2005 - I stuck Bebe out the window of my room at my parents house for this one. They just completed building the house across the street on the left. The person who lived in the house that used to be there died a couple of years ago. I never met him or knew him, but apparently he was a dentist or something. All last year, I saw his relatives and/or executors coming in and out, and apparently part of what was going on was the sale of the property. During my time at the monastery, the old house came down and construction of this house began.

This architecture can be seen all through this town. They are called "mini mansions", but I prefer calling it "Nouveau Riche" architecture. Opulent monstrosities that would look good on a bigger piece of property, but not on the size of properties that were carved out decades ago, intended for the rising upper middle class in harder, if not hard, economic times. All of the other houses in this shot are the older style. Nice affordable private homes, architecturally practical and boring, but inoffensive, with nice lawns for children to play on.

The trend now is towards this new architecture. As the older generation dies off or moves on, their properties are being sold to these developers who readily tear down what was there to put these up. All the houses look the same, no lawns, unfriendly to children playing outside, but friendly to children watching flat-screen TVs inside and playing video games after school until their dual income parents get home. They all say "we've got money (even though we can't afford a larger property in Alpine a couple towns north)". I prefer the older houses that say "this is a home".

current sounds: last 10 songs shuffled on iTunes:
1. Arbor Day (10,000 Maniacs)
2. Rhinoceros (Smashing Pumpkins)
3. New Genious (Brother) (Gorillaz)
4. Bullpen (The Pugs)
5. She's So Lost (James) (Versus - Drawn and Quartered)
6. Twisted (Everyday Hurts) (Skunk Anansie)
7. Answers (Steve Vai)
8. Sketch Pad with Trumpet and Voice (Peter Gabriel)
9. Action (St. Etienne)
10. Flute Talk (Travis Terry) native American flute

Lomo Suburbia

November 6, 2005 - This is the very northern end of Johnson Avenue on the north side of town. It's as big and busy as a residential road gets in this town. It doesn't go anywhere, it just loops around to other roads, comprising what my high school track/cross-country teams called the "Johnson loop". I ride this loop sometimes to extend my rides, and I must say it is easily the most boring portion of any ride I've ever done. The words "soul-sucking suburban wasteland" comes to mind.


November 10, 2005 - This is Cambridge Place, the street I grew up on. I stopped to shoot because the light was so pleasant. The entire street is not a half mile long. This is looking south towards the southern end.

Then I turned around and shot north:

This is the block I grew up on, although you can't see my old house in this shot. If you enlarge it, on the right hand side of the road you can see the sun reflecting off a house. That was our neighbor, our house was the next one down. The fisheye makes it look farther away than it is.

On this stretch of road:
- In Autumn, we raked leaves and piled them on the roadside. Before they got sucked up in trucks, we would play in the leaves, wade through the leaves, take running jumps into the pile of leaves.

- In Winter, snow plows would push snow into huge piles along the side of the road (well, huge for a kid), and after shoveling snow from the driveway, we would play and dig tunnels through the piles until we could feel our socks getting wet. Then we would go into the warmth of the house, leaving our boots and gloves on a mat to let the snow melt off and dry.

They got the mothers worked into a panic
Sledding down hills into oncoming traffic
And parents layered clothes until the children couldn't move
And left them outside until their noses were blue
And I got left there, too
- I Was a Kaleidoscope (Death Cab for Cutie)

- In Summer, we had this game where some kids would ride back and forth along the street, while others standing along the sides would try to skip a frisbee between the wheels of the moving bikes. If the person got hit with a frisbee, too bad. I don't think there was any point to the game.

- In Spring, Daylight Savings brought expansive evenings with glorious twilight sunsets, streetlamps turning on, and catching fireflies with our bare hands.

current sounds (last 10 songs shuffled on iTunes):
1. Dead End Street (live) (The Kinks)
2. Young Americans (David Bowie)
3. Moonchild (Cibo Matto)
4. Stutter Steps (764-HERO)
5. Romance (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
6. The Rhythm Method (drum solo) (Rush)
7. #1 Must Have (Sleater-Kinney)
8. Nothing As It Seems (Pearl Jam)
9. Goodbye Cruel World (live) (Pink Floyd)
10. Low Light (Peter Gabriel)

Shots from November 10

I had to get photos for a new Taiwanese passport several weeks ago. I rode my bike since that's been my main form of transportation for so long, but this is the first Winter I'm riding into. Don't know how long it will last. That day was the first getting cold day, so it was sort of a test. It was still OK that day, but I had too many layers and was sweating uncomfortably by the time I got back.

Suburbia:

Castle Drive, just down the road from my parents' house.


New Jersey being so bike-unfriendly, I use the backroads to get to Fort Lee. This really isn't a Dead End, the road goes through. Remember, this is New Jersey. When I drive through here with other people in the car, I say, "aw, nuts! it's a dead end" and then just drive through. Even if we've been through there a hundred times. Don't ask about the shopping cart. Remember, this is New Jersey.


Crossing the highway approach to the George Washington Bridge.

The passport photos took 10 minutes to process, so I stepped out for some light shooting:



That was supposed to be a cold day. Today was the first day that I deemed too cold to go on my 20 mile default ride. Artic blast coming in over the next few days. I might not be able to do that ride again until Saturday, when temps get back into the 40s.

current sounds:
1. Rastaman Chant (The Wailers)
2. Now (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
3. Tali Lama (Victor Wooten)
4. Raining (Skip Holiday)
5. Line Up (Elastica)
6. Worms and Angels (Echobelly)
7. Pompeii (Sleater-Kinney)
8. Sabbath Prayer ("Fiddler On the Roof")
9. Vera (Pink Floyd)
10. Tripping Billies (Dave Matthews Band)

Pre-peak

Is it not all about Autumn colors these days?

This is the town water tower that I pass on my ride on the north side of town. It's right near the ball fields where Little League is played. I never understood how these water towers work. This is a town of good little girls and boys, so I've never heard of or been involved in any stories involving sneaking in and climbing this tower. But now that I think of it... It's not too late to be a juvenile delinquent, is it?

Even though it's all about color these days, these shots are from just before peak started. Whatever that means. Definite color, but still plenty of green as of last Friday:

October 28, 2005 - Riding up Route 9W.

current sounds (last 10 songs on iTunes):
1. One (U2)
2. Far From the Home I Love (Fiddler on the Roof)
3. Red (Mission of Burma)
4. IV. Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen (Brahms Requiem)
5. Force Ten (Rush)
6. Haole Redux (Seam)
7. Signal to Noise (Peter Gabriel)
8. Downer (Nirvana)
9. The Old Gumbie Cat (Cats)
10. Blue Angel (Marillion)

I knew there was risk in doing this - revealing the embarassing things I have in iTunes. Like Lloyd-Weber's awful stuff.

Autumn

Hometown shot. Route 9W is the big road that takes you through this town north-south. It's the only big road in this town and it's designed to just get you through it as quick as possible.


The leaves started turning a couple weeks ago and we're just getting into peak now. I had forgotten what the leaves smelled like. Nostalgic. Except after a couple weeks they start to rot and smell like crap.


The colors make my default 19 mile ride more pretty.


Hudson River Drive. Mile 9.44 on my 19 mile ride.

The weather has been iffy, so more shots of Autumn color at peak have been sparse. What sucks most is when peak hits and we have a bunch of cloudy days, and by the time the sun comes out, all the leaves have fallen.

It's that time of year, though. Daylight savings ends this weekend.

red

Look how nice a cherry red Porsche looks in the rain:

October 14, 2005 - it's dead in the driveway in need of a new water pump. I go out and turn it on every week to keep the battery from dying.

That's a new brick house they're building across the street. It's replacing this.

About as nice as a cherry red lighthouse looks in the sun:

October 17, 2005 - Little Red Lighthouse, New York side of the George Washington Bridge. Lomo not flipped.

My brother still has the the book shown on that website link. It was ours when we were kids in the 70s. He has it on his windowsill in his apartment in Fort Lee, from where you can easily see the lighthouse. In fact, that's his building on the lower left. I'm pretty sure it is.

Rainy Days Retrospective

Ah, the gloom of 8 days straight of rain are over:

October 8, 2005 - second day of rain, view outside the front door, kinda the reverse of this.

I documented some of what I did this past week with my lomo. Early on, before we knew it would be 8 days without sun, I visited my brother in Fort Lee:

October 9, 2005 - He lives on the 22nd floor and, as you can see, has quite a nice view. This view is reversed, as his building is south of the bridge, not north.

We had brunch with my sister-in-law's sister and parents:

October 9, 2005 - it was a pretty friggin' amazing brunch. my sister-in-law rocks. She's the one in maroon. Her older sister, Peggy, is at the head of the table. She's pretty cool, too, she used to prosecute war criminals at the Hague. There's not much sexier than prosecuting war criminals at the Hague.

Afterwards, I took a walk and found that two roads diverged in a wood, and I have no idea which one I eventually took (especially since I can't tell if this shot is flipped or not), and that hasn't made any difference in anything whatsoever (sorry, Robert):

Welcome to My Lomo Diaria

So I've been twiddling my thumbs over how to configure this blog. As a diary, conceptually it should be done in a "real time" sort of way. But as a LOMO diary, that's impossible, as lomo is film, requiring rolls to get finished and then processed. Lomos being posted might ultimately be almost a month after the day it is diary-ing.

What a conundrum. Only I should have problems like these. Should I backdate the posts so that the date stamps reflect the actual date of the shot? Or should the date stamp not matter and the actual date be in the body of the post? Which is more confusing? Which is more eye-catching? If I backdate posts, the front page will never seem current. What sort of lag should there be between publishing backdated posts, since when I get a roll processed, right there I will have a backlog of days to weeks worth of posts!

On the other hand, what is a diary but an ongoing story, a confession, an exposé? The story should not be stymied by technical considerations. As a diary-ist, what I'm telling you is most important, and the lomos, albeit the subject matter of any post, are just illustration. Is that even right?

I guess part of the fun will be figuring it out as I go along.

For instance, I got my lomo last week, and since then I shot a roll of Tri-X and got it developed. I got it back today. I'm posting this in real time. I've loaded a color roll into the lomo and I'm shooting about one picture a day, holding to the diary concept. In the meantime, I have 36 shots I can post.

You know what? Fuck the time stamp. I could just erase this entire post, but this is my thought process whatever. My excruciating and tortured thought process. It's a wonder I can get anything done (and I really can't).

That said, let me introduce you to my small town in New Jersey, two miles north of the George Washington Bridge. Population: rich people.