just some random shots

January 2, 2008 - Hackensack, NJ. Red-nosed VW in the parking lot of Target. I'm sure I could have found a better composition for this subject. You can barely see the antlers. Man, do people go nuts for Christmas.


January 4, 2008 - 175th Street station of the New York Subway system. This far north, I think only the "A" train comes to this station. It's where I go to/get off because it's where the George Washington Bridge is. I take a bus to cross the bridge, or sometimes walk. Why am I talking in the present tense?

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Trimmed and Burning (Built to Spill)
2. Vigil (Fish)
3. Pale (Kristin Hersh)
4. Creatures of Love (Talking Heads)
5. Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
6. Imamura Jane (Southern All-Stars)
7. Welcome to the Jungle (Guns 'N Roses)
8. Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
9. Dead End Job (The Police)
10. Trees (live) (Rush)

more Edgewater

January 10, 2008 - Probably around the same area as the previous post, but a couple days later, meaning I was probably down there watching movies. I remember "Sweeney Todd" came out about then. I forget what else I saw. I'm looking forward to the new "Batman". My co-worker already saw it to review it for the paper, although I didn't think we did movie reviews in house, we usually pull them from a U.S. wire. He said it was really good, mind-alteringly good. He said I'd really like it. It opens here a day earlier than in the U.S.. Strange.


Garbage can in the Hudson River, with the New York skyline bending with the horizon.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
2. Two Soldiers (David Byrne - "The Catherine Wheel")
3. Aeroflot (20 Minute Loop)
4. Koufukuron (Shiina Ringo)
5. Sweet Depression (Deadweight)
6. Macavity ("Cats")
7. Letter to a John/Tamburitza Lingua (live) (Ani DiFranco)
8. Bang! Bang! (Le Tigre)
9. Lazy (Suede)
10. I'll Be Back (demo) (The Beatles - Anthology)

Series shots

(1)

January 8, 2008 - Edgewater, NJ. Hudson River at sunset. New York City across the river.

(2)

A little further down the "pier".

(3)

Wake ripples, after a boat sailed past.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Difference Between Love and Hell (Sahara Hotnights)
2. Like a Lady (The Sounds)
3. Rock Me Now (Metric)
4. Assassing (live) (Marillion)
5. Hey Bulldog (The Beatles)
6. In the Rapids (live) (Genesis)
7. The Stars are Projectors (Modest Mouse)
8. Cello Suite No. 1, VI - Gigue (J.S. Bach - Yo-Yo Ma)
9. Say Hello to the World (Makihara Noriyuki)
10. Arabian Knights (Siouxsie & the Banshees)

Oh, and all Shiina Ringo muxtape. I think I'll upload a new muxtape every month or so. Wondering how that site will develop.

December 31, 2007 - Philadelphia church, same old theme, leaving Philly on New Year's Eve, car shot on the drive back to New Jersey below, blah blah blah, god, I gotta move on. Although you gotta admit that was pretty good light that day.

Well, I finally got a new roll developed today. I can't believe it took me half a year to finish a roll, that is seriously uninspired. So I'll blast through the rest of this roll and hope there's something worthy on the new roll.


This is probably still in Philly or in New Jersey before the Turnpike. It all looks the same.

I've had insomnia for a month, getting worse and worse. Now I'm either gonna cure it or accept it. I guess something's gotta change. It's weird. I'm not stressed, I don't have anything on my mind, I just can't sleep for more than 3 hours. But I did have this problem when I was working in San Francisco, so maybe the problem is work!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Risky (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
2. Ripple (The Grateful Dead)
3. Not for the Life of Me ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
4. I Never (Rilo Kiley)
5. Night On the Sun (Modest Mouse)
6. Driven to Tears (live) (The Police)
7. Fly on a Windshield (Genesis)
8. Other Side of the World (KT Tunstall)
9. Hey Ladies (The Beastie Boys)
10. El Flaco Funk (John Pena)

December 31, 2007 - Daytime tunnel. Car shots, train platform shots, it looks like some serious typography on this last roll of developed lomo shots I have. But it wasn't intentional. Ah, unintended typography, the final bastion for the uninspired. Along with photo essays.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna subject anyone to another photo essay, especially myself. I think this shot was right after crossing into New Jersey from Pennsylvania on route. . . whatever, I don't remember. I'm almost done finishing the one roll I've been working on since this roll. It's bound to be disappointing or pleasantly surprising.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Good Times, Bad Times (Led Zeppelin)
2. Your Dirty Answer (Kristin Hirsch)
3. Ionizes & Atomizes (Modest Mouse)
4. Soul to Squeeze (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
5. White Sun (Takeshi Yamaguchi)
6. Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
7. Obscured (Smashing Pumpkins)
8. I Don't Want U (Blonde Redhead)
9. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Van Halen)
10. Believo! (Enon)

January 8, 2008 - Edgewater, New Jersey. This must have been a dock on the Hudson River, across from New York City. Now apartments and condos and a multi-plex behind me.

I still don't have internet at home. I'm posting from a bagel shop that under Taipei Main Station that happens to get someone's wireless. Too bad this isn't near where I live. I still have to look for a place near where I live that gets free internet.

I totally love my new place and the neighborhood. I can't believe I had qualms about moving, everything is so much better, even the slightly longer distances to every where. At least there are places to go now. Here's a pic of my new place. It's a photostitch panorama, a nifty feature of my new Canon SD870 (I think, I mostly know it by its Asian model number).

I'm going to Kaohsiung next Friday for a few days. I should have internet down there for those few days. And I might crack any day now and have internet installed.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Who Needs Information? (Roger Waters)
2. Samukhela (Eyuphuro)
3. Goodbye Caroline (Aimee Mann)
4. Guhyasamaja Tantra, Chapter II (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
5. Straight (Deadweight)
6. Museum Song ("Barnum")
7. Who the Cap Fit (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
8. 真實 (A-Mei)
9. I Want Your (Hands On Me) (Sinead O'Connor)
10. People (King Crimson)

DWL

January 10, 2008 - Driving While Lomographing. River Road, Edgewater, New Jersey.

We actually had a sunny day in Taipei, and I still didn't make any headway on the roll that's currently in the 2.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Expresso Love (Dire Straits)
2. Funky Monks (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
3. Blow Wind Blow (Tom Waits)
4. Sora Yori Umi Yori (Puri Puri Samba '91) (Princess Princess)
5. Rider on the Stormy Sea (Mary Timony)
6. Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio No. 2, VI. Affectueuse (Claude Bolling/Jean-Pierre Rampal)
7. Let the Loser Melt (live) (Archers of Loaf)
8. Pick It Up, Lay It In the Cut (Sharon Jones & the Dapp Kings)
9. Rock and Roll With Me (David Bowie)
10. Time Stand Still (live) (Rush)

The Lonesome Crowded East

December 31, 2007 - New Jersey Turnpike, around Exit 13, approaching Newark Airport. I am so uninspired by this roll I have no idea what to do with it. I have a few more shots taken from the drive from Philadelphia to Englewood Cliffs, none the more inspired. But, there is an airplane in this shot!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. My Conviction ("Hair")
2. Hell In a Handbasket (20 Minute Loop)
3. Straight to the Top (Vegas) (Tom Waits)
4. Fuck and Run (Liz Phair)
5. Here's to the Atom Bomb (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Get This Party Started (Pink)
7. Neal and Jack and Me (King Crimson)
8. Breathing (Kate Bush)
9. The Continental Way (Casiopea)
10. Tidal Wave (The Sugarcubes)

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)

car vs. bike

July 30, 2007 - Driving on Route 4 East in Paramus on my last day in New Jersey before leaving for Taiwan that night. Weird being in one place at one time, suddenly you're in another at another time.


July 27, 2007 - New York City, West Side Riverside Bikeways, they have cute little bicycle streetlights that most people seem to ignore. They're more cautionary than mandate it seems. I try to obey them, seeing as they put so much effort into making all those cute little bicycles. They're really high, though, I was stretching my arm all the way up trying to get the bicycle in the shot.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Icarus (Borne On Wings of Steel) (Kansas)
2. Get 'Em Out By Friday (Genesis)
3. Again and Again and Again (Wings)
4. Add It Up (The Kinks)
5. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (Carole King)
6. Pussy Cat Dues (Charles Mingus)
7. Assassing (alternate) (Marillion)
8. Driven to Tears (The Police)
9. One After 909 (The Beatles)
10. Hayfoot Strawfoot (Duke Ellington)

view from my brother's apartment

July 25, 2007 - Fort Lee, New Jersey, the view from my brother's apartment looking north of the view-obstructing building, with the George Washington Bridge in view. . .


...and the view south of the view-obstructing building, looking across the Hudson River to New York City. The apartment is pretty cool. Whenever they drive into New York, they pull out the binoculars to check the traffic situation.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Reckoning (Ani DiFranco)
2. Ellen West (Throwing Muses)
3. Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
4. Symphony No. 2 "Romantic", IV. Allegro Vivace (Rachmaninov)
5. Sora Yori Umi Yori (Puri Puri Samba '91) (Princess Princess)
6. A Pile of Time (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
7. Beeswax (Nirvana)
8. Chloe (Song of the Swamp) (Duke Ellington)
9. Nobody Home (Pink Floyd)
10. The Wedding List (Kate Bush)

July 25, 2007 - Yea, right, so what? A building. A department store. But malls and shopping are a New Jersey characteristic. What else do we have? Mullets? Bruce Springsteen? Bon Jovi?!! I make no apologies for shooting this. This Kohl's Department Store is on Route 4 in Paramus.


July 30, 2007 - Garden State Plaza interior, Paramus, N.J., at the intersection of Route 4 and Route 17. Paramus probably has more shopping malls along these stretches of highway than anywhere else in New Jersey. Garden State Plaza is the one that has transformed and grown the most over the years. While I was growing up, it wasn't covered, and walking through it now, I still remember the outdoor thoroughfares in the same locations of the halls here now.

This is a long exposure and there are plenty of people walking through this shot, but since the Lomo Fisheyes don't capture low light levels well, none of them registered. I'm holding the 2 against a railing to keep it steady.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Worse Than Detroit (Robert Plant)
2. Stay Free (The Clash)
3. Live Wire (AC/DC)
4. Tremelo (live) (Mission of Burma)
5. I Can't Do It Alone ("Chicago")
6. Chinsagu no Hana (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
7. Quicksand (David Bowie)
8. Shinshi Raika (Chitose Hajime)
9. Thought I Was (live) (Rainer Maria)
10. D'yer Mak'er (Led Zeppelin)

Bud Weis Er

July 24, 2007 - Riding up River Road from Edgewater to Fort Lee, New Jersey. That's a Budweiser can. Occassionally, something catches my eye, regardless of which camera I'm carrying, and begs to be shot, even going out of my way to shoot it, like this shot. My bike is further on up the road and I actually walked back to this thing to shoot it. Nutty. A lot of times these instinct-type shots are worth it. But this is like "what the . . . ?"

iTunes soundtrack
1. INS (Archers of Loaf)
2. Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin)
3. Corcovado (Quiet Nights) (Cannonball Adderly & Sergio Mendes - ultralounge)
4. Smile (Pearl Jam)
5. My, My Metrocard (Le Tigre)
6. Pride (In the Name of Love) (U2)
7. Next! ("Pacific Overtures" - Sondheim)
8. Clones (We're All) (Smashing Pumpkins)
9. Sometime (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
10. Hot Rock (Sleater- Kinney)

Duck


Duck


Goose!

July 24, 2007 - Edgewater, New Jersey. These are the advance frames of a roll I started shooting while visiting family in New Jersey. It was really nice to be on my own bike while I was there. This is along the Hudson River, naturally, with New York City across the river.

Here's a normal shot of the scene with those women sitting down there.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. She's Always a Woman (Billy Joel)
2. Memory ("Cats")
3. Bang a Gong (Blondie)
4. Pictures of Success (Rilo Kiley)
5. The Cinema Show (remixed) (Genesis)
6. Friends (Rebecca)
7. Radar Follows You (Versus)
8. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Beatles)
9. Hide In Your Shell (live) (Supertramp)
10. Heaven (live) (Talking Heads)

New Jersey dreaming:

February 19, 2006 - Here's a shot of the Jones Road overpass, the opposite view of the first shot in a previous post from the overpass. New Jersey seems so far away now. It was disturbingly familiar being there for over seven months, but that's what happens when you grow up in a place. I've taken to changes rather well. Odd considering I was diagnosed with a so-called "adjustment disorder" when I was younger. I always considered it a flaky diagnosis, but apparently real.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Everybody Out (20 Minute Loop)
2. Walk This Way (Aerosmith)
3. Begin the Beguine (Artie Shaw & His Orchestra)
4. Tevye's Dream ("Fiddler on the Roof")
5. The Drop (Peter Gabriel)
6. Ukhulum' Izindaba (Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens)
7. I Am the Walrus (demo take) (The Beatles)
8. Lost, Dropped and Cancelled (Rainer Maria)
9. Sick of Me (Ani DiFranco)
10. Sulendro (Gender Wayang, Sukawati)

winter up the parkway

January 28, 2006 - Interstate ride taking me past my usual turn around point on Route 9W. Obviously this was during last month's warmest January on record or something or another. The curve in the road was catchy enough for me to stop and shoot it. Not much of a shoulder here, and a big coach bus came barreling down from behind as I fumbled for the fisheye.


I know this as Exit 4 off the Palisades Parkway, the last exit in New Jersey before it veers off and stops being parallel to 9W. 9W continues down into Nyack.


Oak Tree Road across the border in New York state goes over the Palisades Parkway. This is north.

Running across the road, this is south.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Rocks Off (The Rolling Stones)
2. With Arms Outstretched (Rilo Kiley)
3. Ask the Lonely (The Four Tops)
4. Party's Fall (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
5. Country Honk (The Rolling Stones)
6. Everybody's Gonna Be Happy (The Kinks)
7. A Pillow of Winds (Pink Floyd)
8. The Stalker (Urge Overkill)
9. It's Too Late (Carole King)
10. Oratorio - "The Seasonings" (P.D.Q. Bach)

Smorgasborg, bunch o' random pics

January 22, 2006 - New Jersey inspection sticker, good for two years! Sweet. I was thinking of a Peter Gabriel album cover for this. Or not.


My brother's building in Fort Lee. It was cold that day. We were going into the city for my sister-in-law's sister's "flat screen film festival".


January 24, 2006 - Walking across the George Washington Bridge to meet up with my sister-in-law's sister who signed a recommendation letter for me for a language program in Taiwan. She learned a lot about me and our relationship from that letter.


January 26, 2006 - When all else fails, take a lomo of your steering wheel. Route 4 West in Englewood, NJ.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I'm Not a Saint (Echobelly)
2. Shangri-La (The Kinks)
3. Saturday Night (Suede)
4. Isolation (Joy Division)
5. Coming Up (Ani DiFranco)
6. Sugar (Bikini Kill)
7. Sometimes I Make You Sad (Supergrass)
8. Fat (Archers of Loaf)
9. Next Exit (Unwound)
10. Sahuri Balukini (Himalayan/Nepalese music)

Interstate Ride

January 21, 2006 - As I mentioned, warm January meant more days riding than I would ever expect in January. So many riders were out that day that I actually caught up to a person and passed him. That's actually pretty hard to do. You need to be going significantly faster than someone to catch up and pass them. Unless you started close together, which, actually, I think was the case here. He had a headstart, not by much, and it still took a while to catch up to him and shoot him.


I wasn't able to do my 20 mile default ride because there was a rock slide on the Henry Hudson Drive, which was my return route, and it was completely closed off. Instead, I continued up Route 9W into Upstate New York and made my way back from there, extending the ride to 25-26 miles. This is a ride-by shot, so it's a bit blurry.

iTunes Soundtrack:
1. These Are the Days (10,000 Maniacs)
2. Perfect Kiss (Sakura)
3. Dropout (Urge Overkill)
4. Hillbillies from Outerspace (The Vaughan Brothers)
5. In the Cage (live) (Genesis)
6. Black Country Rock (David Bowie)
7. Troubled (Peter Gabriel)
8. You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
9. Los Endos (Genesis)
10. Bodies (Smashing Pumpkins)

Corner of Rock and Mauro

January 18, 2006 - dramatic clouds, shot out my window.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Vision (Victor Wooten)
2. Not Too Soon (Throwing Muses)
3. Starstruck (The Kinks)
4. Way Down in the Hole (Tom Waits)
5. Me & My Bass Guitar (Victor Wooten)
6. Insomniac (Echobelly)
7. Your Woman (White Town)
8. So Lonely (live) (The Police)
9. There's a Fine, Fine Line ("Avenue Q") - between love and a waste of time
10. Lord Is It Mine? (Supertramp)

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)