September 26, 2008 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan - Bike path near the Pier 2 arts center between Fisherman's Wharf and the mouth of the Love River.


Western sun explosion behind a freighter in the harbor. I haven't been shooting much of anything these days. I'm wondering if it's a total loss of inspiration, but I'm just not seeing photographs anymore. It's tough, because I know they're out there, it's just a matter of looking and being in tune with finding something.

I'm back in the U.S. now for three weeks to recharge my batteries, get Taiwan out of my system and see how I feel about staying there once I go back. Of course, I don't know what I'd do here if I came back, so as long as I have a job there, I'll just cruise along.

I'm actually appreciating suburbia this time back. My brother bought a house since I was last here, and I've been coming over everyday . . . since my parents don't have Internet at their house. They live less than a mile away from each other.

Most important is getting my fix of American food. SF Mission District burritos - check; Fort Lee pizzeria pizza and lasagna - check; mac & cheese - check.

Also it turns out my brother is some sort of computer whiz and he switched out my dying, 4-year-old, 60GB hard drive for a new 250GB one, and it's almost like I have a new computer; that's how close to death it was before. It was soooo slow, and I couldn't play audio or visual files, and all my music files were on an external hard drive. Now everything's back up to speed and music files are back on my computer. I'm just still getting all the programs I was using before back up. But I'm happy, laptop's happy, who can ask for more?

I guess it shouldn't be any surprise that my brother is a computer whiz. He ended up becoming a doctor, but he was the OG version of computer geek - an OCG. He was among the first modem users, posting on local "bulletin boards" - I remember everyone wanting to make phone calls and picking up the phone and getting that high squeal of modems talking to each other.

He's got a set up now that I can't even get my head around. He's got it set up so that he can control computers at his home from his office. That may be child's play for big corporations with network engineers and such, but that he set this up more or less himself is pretty impressive. I know he had to call in software engineers whenever code was involved, but he maintains the hardware himself. G'dam.

September 24, 2008 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Odd sign at Kaohsiung Harbor, because this is not a major entry point into Taiwan, and the people who use this entry point don't speak English.


Dome of Light at the Formosa Boulevard KMRT station.

I'm just streaming along at work. For a while there it looked like they were going to cut my hours, and if that happened I was going to give notice on the spot. I don't know if my threat made it to my boss, who I never talk to anyway, or if my co-worker who handles scheduling took a more diplomatic tack to make that not happen so far.

Anyway, since there's no communication between in my boss, I was going to interpret a cut in hours as dissatisfaction with my work, and if I'm not doing a job satisfactorily, I don't want to do it at all. And if no one is noticing that newspapers I work on have less major/facial mistakes than papers on days I don't work, then I don't want to work at a place where my efforts aren't recognized.

When I mentioned that to someone, he actually said the boss wanted me to work more hours, full time instead of the 80% that I'm working now, but after thinking about that, I decided that makes no sense. If he wants me to work more hours, cutting my hours is not the way to go about doing it. So if I get back from vacation, and my hours get cut, I'll still quit.

I wonder if any of this has to do with the fact that I'm going on vacation for 3 weeks starting next Tuesday! Yay! It is strange for a worker to take 3 weeks off, but I argued that this trip was long in the planning before I was re-activated, and I couldn't take it earlier because I was waiting to get my citizenship and was still fulfilling the residency requirement. And it was non-negotiable, it was a condition of my accepting re-activation. The new editor-in-chief said OK, but it may have still stuck with him as uncool.

I don't know if I'm excited to go. Traveling is such a nuisance now with swine flu and security checks, and I flying on my father's miles, so the flights there and back are broken into 3 legs and multiple airlines. I definitely want to go, but why can't have someone invented a transporter like on 'Star Trek' yet.

I don't have any plans of what to do there. Think I'll just chill.

September 24, 2008 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Not a very interesting shot of the main bridge at the Heart of Love River. I'm not sure what the Heart of Love River is. Maybe it's supposed to represent some center of Kaohsiung. Or not. It's an extra developed area along the Love River bikeways and is pretty at night. But there's nothing to do there. It's just there.


A not very interesting shot of muddy-looking waters of the Love River, also by the Heart of Love River. I think I was particularly uninspired shooting this roll. Even now. I haven't loaded a new roll since I finished the last one several weeks ago.

September 17, 2008 - Taipei Main Station with its grand looking interior. I should've aimed a little more up. Whenever I look up there, I think what a waste of space, they could've done something with that. Taipei Main Station is a hub that includes regular trains, the transfer station of the two major MRT lines, and the High Speed Rail. On the second floor, where I'm standing, is a mega foodcourt that goes all around this space. Just across the street to the north, they are putting the finishing touches on a centralized bus depot, which I assume will house all the long-haul tour bus companies in one place. It will also be a shopping center, multiplex, office space, and luxury residences.


September 24, 2008 - Kaohsiung MRT Formosa Boulevard Station. Not exactly the equivalent of Taipei Main Station, but as close as Kaohsiung can get to it. Kaohsiung's main train station is just a train station, even though there is a KMRT station attached to it now. It's an old, dingy, no nonsense, get-people-to-their-trains station. But Formosa Boulevard Station is the transfer station for the two lines of the KMRT, and so it's the dolled up, flagship, pride-of-the-KMRT station.

I'm in Kaohsiung now, and I passed right by this impressive public art piece called "Dome of Light" this morning. I took the overnight bus after I got off of work, arriving after 5:30 in the morning.

I'm here because today is the first day of eligibility to apply for getting my Taiwanese citizen ID card, after more than a year of waiting and unable to leave the country.

I had to apply for my ID card back then, and now I had to apply to get it. Go fig. They say I'll get it in 2 weeks, at which point I have to apply for a Taiwanese passport (despite the fact that I already have one), which will take another week. So I've already booked a flight to go to the U.S. in June for 3 weeks.

That's going to put things at work in a real mess, but I've been stuck here since January 2008, and the newspaper gave me the serious shaft for about six months, and even though that was under my old boss, who retired, I'm still holding it against the paper in that I'm not going to go any extra miles for them, and I have no loyalty to them; although I will continue to do the best job I can, just because that's my work ethic, I think, and support the new boss and his changes (one of which included bringing me back full-time, but on my terms, which is 4 days a week), and make the position I'm in as professional as possible - which it hasn't been.

Anyway, we need to hire new people for the position, and the situation in June is turning out to make it absolutely urgent to get trainees in very, very soon, or it will really suck for someone. Not me. I'll be eating the best pizza and lasagna in the world.

Visit down south

February 6, 2008 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Grandparents' gravesite. I know I've shot this many times already, but just documenting going there again. I asked my cousin what it said, and he wasn't really sure. Apparently what gets written on gravesites is a complicated matter.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Sickfile (Archers of Loaf)
2. Chikai (Ayaka Hirahara)
3. The Other Way of Stopping (The Police)
4. It's a Hit (Rilo Kiley)
5. Pink India (Stephen Malkmus)
6. Into the Heart (U2)
7. Rumpofsteelskin (Parliament Funkadelic)
8. I Can't Escape From You (The The)
9. I Gotta Move (The Kinks)
10. 查某人 (林強)

From on high

November 28, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. From the, er, 7th floor of my uncle's building. It used to be the 8th floor. The building was built in a time that was more superstitious and many buildings didn't have a 4th floor. The Chinese word for 4 is a homonym with the word for death. Oh, I guess it's the same in some Western cultures that believe the number 13 is unlucky. They often don't have 13th floors.

Down that street down there they're building a station for the Kaohsiung MRT subway line. They've been at it for over three years, and they look no where near done.


December 17, 2007 - Taipei, Taiwan, from an upper floor of the new Sogo Department Store. The original Sogo is the white building at the upper right and remains open. The intersection down there is Zhongxiao East Road and Fuxing North Road, and that's an MRT line along Fuxing North Road.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Mr. Soul (Neil Young)
2. Can't Stand Losing You (live) (The Police)
3. I Remember the Sun (XTC)
4. I Would Hurt a Fly (Built to Spill)
5. Seen and Not Seen (Talking Heads)
6. You're the Wish You Are I Had (XTC)
7. No No Birdy (Southern All-Stars)
8. 也許明天 (A-Mei)
9. Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats (Genesis)
10. Aero Zeppelin (Nirvana)

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)

Finishing up Kaohsiung May 2007

May 29, 2007 - I actually have a couple more from Kaohsiung, but I think I can tie them up with other lomos in the future. These are from the pagoda at Cheng Ching Lake in Kaohsiung. My cousin took me there. Neither of us had been there in a long, long time. This shot is looking southwest-ish towards Kaohsiung proper.


And there's the lake. The whole area is a park, requiring admission since we were on a motor-scooter. I brought back some paper photographs from my recent visit to the U.S. of when I was here when I was little. I thought my relatives might get a kick out of it. One is a group picture taken by the lake with this pagoda in the background. I was 11. Helluv cute, too, I should say so, since I've grown up to look all troll-like.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Gunner's Dream (Pink Floyd)
2. Sweet Sixteen (B.B. King)
3. Whip-Smart (Liz Phair)
4. Thank You (Dreams Come True)
5. The Spell You're Under (Versus)
6. Workin' on Leavin' the Livin' (Modest Mouse)
7. Wash of Water (Edith Frost)
8. With This Love (Peter Gabriel - "The Last Temptation of Christ")
9. Who Is It? (live) (Talking Heads)
10. (Meet) The Flintstones (Dirty Dozen Brass Band)

Kaohsiung fotoroll continued

May 27, 2007 - The glassy water of Kaohsiung Harbor, later that day in the steaming hot afternoon. Actually, the water doesn't look like that, this just came out particularly well. Oh, and there's the Kaohsiung robot building in the background.


May 28, 2007 - This is the Confucius Temple at Kaohsiung, in case you forget what city you're in. Man, that English signage is tacky. I'm sure Confucius would be proud. It's by Lotus Lake in the northwestern section of the city. I got caught in the rain that day and ended up in a bubble tea shop to wait for the pouring rain to stop.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Kaze (Shoukichi Kina)
2. Gone B4 Yr Home (Le Tigre)
3. Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs)
4. Lately (Skunk Anansie)
5. Crosseyed and Painless (live) (Talking Heads)
6. Me and Sarah Jane (Genesis)
7. She's the One (Bruce Springsteen)
8. Mayonnaise (Smashing Pumpkins)
9. Eat the Menu (The Sugarcubes)
10. Affirmation (George Benson)

Sun Yat-Sen University

May 27, 2007 - Sun Yat-Sen University campus, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.


Sun Yat-Sen University is right on the beach, so the waterfront is right there. And where there is waterfront, you have these giant concrete jacks, which I think is a Japanese idea.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Signs of LOVE (Dreams Come True)
2. Lord Is It Mine? (Supertramp)
3. Sensation (The Who)
4. The Long Arm of the Law (764-HERO)
5. The River (Throwing Muses)
6. Josh Song (Deadweight)
7. Thoroughly Modern Millie ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
8. Top of the Pops (The Kinks)
9. Cartoons (Kristin Hersh)
10. Insignificance (Pearl Jam)

Kaohsiung potpouri

Can you believe it? Can you even imagine? I'm in New Jersey with no internet (only at my brother's apartment for brief periods that it's OK to be anti-social). Now I'm glad I made my trip shorter, rather than longer. Ohmigod, how sad is that, when the quality of a visit to the family homestead is a function of internet access. I say revolution, man, bring down the internet! What do we want? Revolution! When do we want it? When we're done downloading!


May 26, 2007 - Back to the Kaoshiung lomostroll. Taoist temple. I'm so glad the gaudiness of Chinese tastes never made it to Japan. Or at least never overpowered the Japanese aesthetic. Sure, this is colorful, but spiritually tacky!


So this is a story too long to tell. Actually, a reason I went to Kaohsiung this time was to attend the Taiwan side of a wedding reception of a cousin on my father's side who now lives in the U.S.. The last time I saw her, she was a baby, maybe not even a year old. In fact, I know next to no one on my father's side, and apparently the majority of this crowd are relatives on my father's side. There's sure a lot of them not to know.

Can't see much here, but it was the entrance of the wedding party. I held the shutter open for a long exposure and then the flash triggered at the end of the exposure.


May 27, 2007 - Another low-light long-exposure in a tunnel which is a shortcut to Sun Yat-sen University on the beach in Kaohsiung.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Sing a Simple Song (Sly & the Family Stone)
2. Swordfishtrombone (Tom Waits)
3. Clay Feet (Kristin Hersh)
4. Adia (Sarah McLachlan)
5. Once a Thief (The Kinks)
6. Hanadairou (Hajime Chitose)
7. Kessen wa Kinyoubi (Dreams Come True)
8. Fifteen Seconds (Idiot Box)
9. Get Higher (Seam)
10. Pride & Joy (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)

Kaohsiung Harbor

May 26, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I guess this is still part of the harbor. It's a mixed use area of the harbor near its mouth. There's a lot of new development going on in this area, bringing in a more diversified crowd. I doubt photos can convey how searing hot it is in Kaohsiung at midday. Those trees with the red flowers on top apparently bloom in this kinda of weather.


On the other side of the mountain in the back is Shiziwan Bay and Sun Yat-Sen University, so there are a lot of students that hang out in this area. Behind me are shaved ice shops with shaved ice bigger than my head. Um, literally, not figuratively. Usually groups of people order those, so although I wouldn't have minded diving into a bowl of shaved ice that size, I would be a bit too embarassed to. Besides, those shops are always packed to the rafters. Alas, I yap and yap about it, but have no shots of it. Lame.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Sweet Pea (Seam)
2. Stagnation (Genesis)
3. Mayonaka wa Junketsu (Shiina Ringo)
4. Doo Wop (That Thing) (Lauryn Hill)
5. Speed is the Key (The Sugarcubes)
6. Vic (Throwing Muses)
7. Harlem 125 (The Bubble Gum Brothers)
8. Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) (Martha Reeves & the Vandellas)
9. Hang Onto Yourself (David Bowie)
10. If I Were Your Woman (Gladys Knight & the Pips)

Kaohsiung fotoroll

May 26, 2007 - Just riding around Kaohsiung on a bike that my uncle got from his bank, for, like, opening an account. That sort of thing. The bike expanded my range in getting around, but one of the pedals broke off a few days later. Made in China.


Southwest Kaohsiung, towards Shiziwan Bay and Sun Yat-sen University. I took this lomo at 2:07 P.M., almost 2:08.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. She's an Angel (They Might Be Giants)
2. Kyoso (KODO Drummers)
3. Chop 'Em Down (Matisyahu)
4. Kouzou no Koushin (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)
5. Nit Khair Mansan Sohnia Main Teri (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
6. Showdown (Electric Light Orchestra)
7. Give the People What They Want (The Kinks)
8. Nathan Jones (The Supremes)
9. Shiori no Theme (Southern All-Stars)
10. N.J.S. (National Joy Band)

fruits!

May 26, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Mango shaved ice is pretty much the same all over the island, but with local variations. Local variations aside, it's always good. A block away from my uncle's building are 3 famous shaved ice shops, all belonging to the same family, and all in competition with each other. That is to say, relations between the family members has not always been very good. The in-fighting has taken on proportions that make the local news.


Durian is more prevalent in the south of Taiwan. I've kind of gotten used to the smell, which is to say I don't have a physical reaction to it any more, usually darting away and banging my head against the nearest wall to get the smell out of my nose, but I still won't eat it. But the durian imported to Taiwan doesn't smell as strong as the durian I remember from Thailand, which was not allowed on most public buses because of the smell.

It never ceases to make me wonder who was the first person to come across durian to think, "Oh my God, this stuff smells awful! Let's see what it tastes like . . . mm, good!"

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Firth of Fifth (Genesis)
2. I've Been Mistreated (The Aislers Set)
3. A Soapbox Opera (Supertramp)
4. Drain You (Nirvana)
5. Tremelo (live) (Mission of Burma)
6. Evening of the Day (Supergrass)
7. Do Ya (Electric Light Orchestra)
8. Pug (Smashing Pumpkins)
9. X-Ray Man (Liz Phair)
10. Amurita (Chitose Hajime)

the family home

May 26, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Visiting family between semesters. This is my uncle's building in the south western portion of the city, not far from Shiziwan Bay. I think my family owns the building. My uncle lives on the 9th floor, and I stay on the 8th floor when I visit. I'm not going to ask anyone to count how many floors there are, so I'll just say that there aren't 9 floors in this building.

There is no floor that they call the 4th floor because the Chinese word for 4 is a homonym for the word for the death. Which makes no sense to me because the tones for the two words are different, and I'm told that words with different tones are considered to Chinese ears to be totally, completely, uncompromisingly different words. So "si" in the second tone and "si" in the third tone, although they sound the same to normal people, Chinese people hear them as differently as "alligator" and "Mombasa". Further not making sense is that with only about 16 sounds in Mandarin, there are about fifty zillion homonyms for 4.

Wu-fu 4th Road goes down the left side of the shot, and they're building a KMRT subway station right in front of the building. That should make getting around the city more convenient when the subway system opens in 2067. It's scheduled to be fully operational by, I think, 2009, so I think 2067 is a fair estimate for actual completion.

One of these days I need to get around to stop making fun of Taiwan and Chinese culture.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Mothership Connection (Star Child) (Parliament-Funkadelic)
2. Only Us (Peter Gabriel)
3. Acrobat (U2)
4. Ride Natty Ride (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
5. Symphony No. 4, II. Adagio (Beethoven)
6. Giant Steps (John Coltrane)
7. Death of a Clown (The Kinks)
8. Seaweed Rising (Versus)
9. Panama (J Church)
10. Oceanbound (764-HERO)

Finishing up Kaohsiung April 2007

I passed on going to Kaohsiung for the 端午節 holiday.

April 6, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Kaohsiung's version of a "central park". More example of their noble attempts at civic improvement. I'm pretty sure there used to be pretty much nothing here before, so anything's an improvement. It doesn't compare to Taipei's Daan Park, which I used to live across from and vaguely miss - but that's probably the only thing I miss about my old apartment. Again I have to say, Kaohsiung is too hot to enjoy these outdoor spaces. And at night, too many mosquitos. But maybe it would be different if I lived there. And if I had friends.


April 7, 2007 - Creepy realistic dog statue on Wu-fu Road along the Central Park.


Xin Guang Wharf by the famous robot building. Taiwanese are fond of naming their buildings by how many floors they have, making this the 85 building. I think it looks like a robot with 85 floors.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Alabama Song (live) (David Bowie)
2. Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane)
3. Road to Madrid (Seam)
4. Light of the World ("Godspell")
5. Jesus He Knows Me (Genesis)
6. Jockey Full of Bourbon (Tom Waits)
7. Bring the Boys Back Home (Pink Floyd)
8. Trem Two (live) (Mission of Burma)
9. Smile (Pearl Jam)
10. Super-Connected (Belly)

Dream Epoch Mall

April 7, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. One of the atriums of the new Dream Era/Epoch Mall, I forget which is the official translation, they both sound fine and mean basically the same thing. I went to see the architecture and to see what people are investing in these days.

When I was growing up in the Land of Malls (a.k.a., New Jersey), malls were just malls. Commercial outlets run by businessmen who dictated their own whims in terms of design and usage, which usually meant bottom line. Now I feel that if people are putting time, energy, and money into an endeavor, it has to mean something more than the bottom line. They have to think about the environment, public enjoyment, and design and aesthetics.

The Dream E/E Mall was very good architecturally, pretty interesting. But I guess I was being weird, because in the end it's just a mall. I'll have to get more pictures the next time I go down. Which might be this weekend since I was just reminded that it's the 端午節 holiday. I'm too lazy to look up what that translates to, but it's the Dragon Boat Races. It's a little short notice to go down today, or even tonight, but I have to find out how many days we have off next week. If we have both Monday and Tuesday off, I'll probably go.


Ferris Wheel on the roof of the mall.

sometimes weird coincidences come up in shuffle play:
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Spirits In the Material World (live) (The Police)
2. Pull Out the Pin (Kate Bush)
3. Watch That Man (David Bowie)
4. Atom (Echobelly)
5. Risky (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
6. Love Rollercoaster (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
7. Working for the Man (PJ Harvey)
8. Caught a Lite Sneeze (Tori Amos)
9. Pavlov's Bell (Aimee Mann)
10. I'm Not the Man (10,000 Maniacs)

Lara Croft: Tomb Sweeper, pt. 2

April 5, 2007 - Centerpiece of the gravesite. It was pretty clean, no sweeping to be done.


Lighting incense, making offerings, reciting prayers, shooting lomos. . .

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Animal (live) (The Kinks)
2. If You Intend (10,000 Maniacs)
3. Stories to Tell (Stanley Clarke)
4. Blue Cloud (Bakufu Slump)
5. Prove It All Night (Bruce Springsteen)
6. Ajisai no Uta (Yuko Hara)
7. In Too Deep (Genesis)
8. Take This Town (XTC)
9. The Magnificent Seven (The Clash)
10. Something Hot in a Cold Country (Echobelly)

Lara Croft: Tomb Sweeper, pt. 1

April 5, 2007 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan - My grandparents' gravesite. It's not in a cemetery, this is their own plot of land because my grandfather was some kind of big shot. He was the founder and president of a bus company sometime after the war, and I fathom that is where, partly to my horror, sympathies towards the KMT in parts of my family originate.

The KMT government (which became a political party after democratization) was headed by the part-time butcher, part-time dictator Chiang Kai-Shek, and I imagine it was very difficult for native Taiwanese to mount such a large business enterprise without connections to the KMT.

I'm not sure if there were any reprisals by Taiwanese, I've never heard of any, as Kaohsiung and much of southern Taiwan was fiercely anti-KMT, but I get the sense that my grandfather was well-liked and well-respected. I've met him, and he seemed like the kind of person you can like and respect.


Rainbaby Gracie! One of my cousins's daughter. I was already referring to her as the Original Rainbaby, but not-so-funny I had just read that week that one early indicator of future autism is that when you call their name, they don't respond, they don't even look. And Gracie is totally like that. I mentioned it to her nanny (indistinguishable at the far right of this fisheye), and she tried it out and, right on cue, no response.

So Faye told Gracie that when she called her name, she had to respond, "Wei!", and they practiced a few times, but the last I heard, Gracie's gone back to not responding. It makes sense. Once a baby can recognize their name, if they hear it called, it's an almost automatic, conditioned response to turn and look. Two years old is too young to be copping attitude!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Cities In Dust (extended) (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
2. Journey from Mariabronn (Kansas)
3. Sarafurimun (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
4. Everything is Fair (A Tribe Called Quest)
5. Ellen West (Throwing Muses)
6. Los Tres Deliquentes (Delinquent Habits)
7. A Map Is Not The Territory (edit) (Echobelly)
8. Symphony No. 4, III. Allegro Vivace (Beethoven)
9. Another One Bits the Dust (Queen)
10. 1985 (Archers of Loaf)