I have a new computer. I'd like to say that my old computer going on life support was the reason I haven't been posting here, but actually the state of my files and the editing program I use for them were not much affected by the transition. So again, just lazy. Laziness is bad, m'kay?

February 9, 2009 - Both of these lomos are from the southern bank of the recently re-opened Keelung Riverside Bikeway, before they were closed! In fact, I think this was shot before they built a pedestrian/bike ramp from where I'm standing to the catwalk of the bridge shown, allowing people to cross the river here. Bah, the photographic evidence of the shadow in the foreground clearly shows the ramp had already been built by the time I took this shot. Tres convenient. That tower across the river used to be the chimney for waste disposal (trash incineration), and now has a revolving restaurant on top of it. Go fig.

Neither shot was taken from a place that was closed, but to get to these areas from where I live was a pain because of the flower expo. Now that the whole thing is open again, it's a part of my regular 20-25 mile training rides, hopefully building up to extended rides outside of Taipei.

This shot is right about where the bikeway was closed for the flower expo. That's the Grand Hotel across the river. Above are MRT tracks of the Danshui Line, and the red towers aren't supporting a bridge, but what I can only gather is a water pipeline. Again, go fig.

Like the First Time (T-ara)

August 19, 2008 - The building fascade of the Indian Beer House on Bade Road, near Jianguo North Road.


August 26, 2008 - I've never been inside, but I hear the decor is also of dinosaur bones. Where to go for a brontosaurus burger.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. She's Lost Control (Joy Division)
2. King Porter Stomp (Benny Goodman)
3. Last Match (The Aislers Set)
4. Show Me the Way (Peter Frampton)
5. The Vision (Victor Wooten)
6. Cello Suite No. 2, II. Allemande (J.S. Bach)
7. Bag Lady (Eryka Badu)
8. Travis Walk (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
9. The Spider (Kansas)
10. Black and Grey (Deadweight)

December 8, 2008 - Taiwan High Court. It's a small island, and I sometimes forget that I'm in the capital city with the Presidential Office and the Supreme Court. For what that's worth. Aside from the Greek columns, I can't say it's a very distinguished building.


Not sure why I have two lomos of the building. It was the start of the roll, so maybe that's why.

I was in this area today, and I think I'm going to give up on learning Mandarin and any hope to become conversational. I'm going to continue studying the language, but just because I'm in Taiwan, have nothing better to do. I'll study it as an academic exercise, to learn the words and the grammar.

I was a block away from this building, waiting to meet up with my uncle, and a woman came up to me and asked me a question that she seemed to already know the answer to (the confidence of a lawyer maybe). I didn't understand right away, so I replied I didn't know. 5 seconds later it dawned on me that she was asking if the High Court 高法院 was this way.

Three words and I couldn't understand right away. That's just pathetic. It's kinda not in my programming to process language comprehension in a foreign language. I'll still work on undoing that programming, I think that's important, and impressive that so many other people can do it, but I'm keeping my standards way low.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Netori (Watazumi Doso Roshi - shakuhachi)
2. Bad (U2)
3. Lonely Wind/Piano Solo (live) (Kansas)
4. Aurora no Sora Kara Mitsumeteiru (Chitose Hajime)
5. Half Acre (Hem)
6. Celebration Day (live) (Led Zeppelin)
7. Come See About Me (The Supremes)
8. Your Dirty Answer (Kristin Hersh)
9. Summertime (The Sundays)
10. Tell Me Why (Echobelly)

July 19, 2008 - Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101. I always thought that Taipei City Hall was probably one of the ugliest city halls in all existence of god and man, but I recently realized there was a symbolic reason for its architecture. If you note the features in the lomo, you can see when I say that from looking at the building from above it looks like two plusses attached together: ++.

十 is ten in Chinese, so 十十 is ten-ten, which refers to October 10th, which is Taiwan's National Day. How 'bout that? Clever folks, them Chinese - even in Taiwanese form, at least here in Taipei. I'd better watch it, I'm going to be one of them in April, when I'm supposed to get my citizenship. Even though my family is from Kaohsiung and Taiwanese not of the sort who brought mainland culture with them several decades ago, I won't be considered anything like them, who always speak Taiwanese, and only speak in Mandarin when I inconvenience them enough to make them have to communicate with me.

Who am I kidding? Citizenship or not, I'm always going to be American, never to be confused with being Taiwanese, even if I did learn the language.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Seen and Not Seen (Talking Heads)
2. Corpse Pose (Unwound)
3. Fun World (Mission of Burma)
4. Soul Singer (live) (Rainer Maria)
5. Sulk (Radiohead)
6. An Everlasting Love (Andy Gibb)
7. M1A1 (Gorillaz)
8. Last Exit (live) (Pearl Jam)
9. Dig Me Out (Sleater-Kinney)
10. Pennyroyal Tea (Nirvana)

June 25, 2008 - Taipei's Fine Arts Museum in Yuanshan district, although Yuanshan is not officially a district. It's the area that straddles the Keelung River along Zhongshan North Road.


Plane about to land at Taipei's Songshan Airport. Shot through the MRT tracks near Yuanshan MRT station.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Down On the Corner (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
2. Sweet Black Angel (The Rolling Stones)
3. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman (The Kinks)
4. Silverfish (Belly)
5. There Shall Be No Night (Duke Ellington)
6. Caffeine (Kristin Hersh)
7. You Know My Name (Look Up the Number) (The Beatles - Anthology)
8. More Sweet Soul (Pretty Girls Make Graves)
9. Love Struck Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
10. The Moon (Cat Power)

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 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)

March 12, 2008 - Taipei, Taiwan. Aiguo West Road near Xiaonanmen. "Nanmen" meaning "south gate", this was probably originally part of the south wall fortification surrounding the original Taipei City, which was no more than the current western part of Zhongzheng District and a little north of Taipei Main Station. It's hard to imagine Taipei a hundred years ago.

This shot didn't work. I was trying to get that busted up motor scooter that get left by the gate. The gate is on an island in the middle of the road, with a roundabout going around it.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. You're My Best Friend (Queen)
2. Anata Dake o - Summer Heartbreak - (Southern All-Stars)
3. Paquita (Tabu Ley & Africando)
4. Mothership Connection (Star Child) (Parliament Funkadelic)
5. Long Painting (50 Foot Wave)
6. Stop Your Sobbing (The Pretenders)
7. Five O'Clock Drag (Duke Ellington)
8. Stone the Crows ("Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat")
9. Pencil Rain (They Might Be Giants)
10. Ugly (Smashing Pumpkins)

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)

redux

December 30, 2006 - National Palace Museum, same subject as in the previous post, different angle. I think better composition. Composition? This is lomo, we don't need no stinking composition.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Wild Packs of Family Dogs (Modest Mouse)
2. Jam (A Tribe Called Quest)
3. Kokoro no Ma Ma Ni (Kome Kome Club)
4. Free Trading (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
5. Calling Over Time (Edith Frost)
6. Lady Stardust (demo) (David Bowie)
7. I'm Not In Love (live) (Talking Heads)
8. Anti-Nigger Machine (Public Enemy)
9. OK/No Way (Mission of Burma)
10. Lamplight Symphony (excerpt) (live) (Kansas)

Taipei tourist landmarks

November 17, 2007 - Grand Hotel with entrance gate, in either the Shilin district or Yuanshan district, I'm a little unclear. I think I heard it was in the Yuanshan district, but it would then be separated from the rest of the Yuanshan district by what should be a natural border between Yuanshan and Shilin - the Keelung River. And actually I don't think Yuanshan is a district, it's the area south of the Keelung River and there's a MRT station named after it. So maybe it's in the Shilin district, but is also considered within the Yuanshan area.


December 4, 2007 - National Palace Museum. I dunno. I guess I've been uninspired lately. It took the longest time to finish this roll, I almost ran out of shots to post on the previous roll, and the shots are a hodge-podge of randomness. Or they're just off, like this one. Or both of these. The angle is all wrong in the first one, and in the second one I should have gone up a few more steps to not only get the writing on the window, but more of the museum building up there. Bleah.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I Get Wild/Wild Gravity (Talking Heads)
2. The Seven Sisters (Rainer Maria)
3. Kyoshui (KODO Drummers)
4. That Dirty Old Man ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" - Sondheim)
5. End of the Night (The Doors)
6. If He Really Knew Me ("They're Playing Our Song")
7. 42 (Sodaneva - Japanese underground)
8. Hitsuji no Dolly (Chitose Hajime)
9. A Different City (Modest Mouse)
10. Ruthie's Knocking (Throwing Muses)

infrastructure

November 15, 2007 - Wenshan District, the edge of it that abuts the riverside parks. I was taking my time riding to school and exploring a different route. It was a waste of time and I almost got rained on, but I still made it to class before anyone else. At this point, there was no easy way to get onto the bikeways without backtracking quite a bit. Although on a total stretch of two miles, there's not much of "bit" for there to be "quite a" of to complain about. It's all relative.


November 23, 2007 - Taipei MRT Main Station. The MRT is Taipei's subway system, and there are three levels seen here, the very bottom is where you can see tracks of the blue line if you look closely enough. This is a long exposure and those blurs on the second level are probably people walking. I was waiting to meet up with someone named Scully. I've tried some X-Files quotes on her, but they went over her head. She's kind of humorless. Go fig.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Radio W-OO-10 (Victor Wooten)
2. Stop (Joe Henry)
3. Uskadara (Campur DKI)
4. My One and Only Love (Chick Corea Akoustic Band)
5. Symphony No. 10, IV. Andante-Allegro (Shostakovich)
6. Everything is Fair (A Tribe Called Quest)
7. Boys Keep Swinging (David Bowie)
8. Concrete Seconds (Pinback)
9. Lizzie Sage (Throwing Muses)
10. Happy Boobooster '99 (The Pugs)

Grand Hotels, Taiwan

May 29, 2007 - Kaohsiung Grand Hotel. It's not as grand as the one in Taipei, but it's been around for a long time, and I think it was pretty darn grand when it was built. It's near Cheng Qing Lake in Kaohsiung.


November 17, 2007 - Taipei Grand Hotel. Its exterior was featured in the early Ang Lee movie "Eat Drink Man Woman" as supposedly where the father worked. See? Problem with my fishography thinking. I shot this thinking traditional composition, but in fisheye, I should have gone right up to it to really get the grandness. Ah, a project that I will have to pursue when I get back to Taipei. I haven't mentioned that I'm in New Jersey now, have I? I go back this Sunday.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Company (Fish)
2. Car (live) (Built to Spill)
3. Book of Saturday (King Crimson)
4. Up the Hill Backwards (David Bowie)
5. Don't Wanna Cry (Victor Wooten)
6. Walkin' Shoes (Chet Baker)
7. Sapphire Bullets of Love (They Might Be Giants)
8. What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted (The Funk Brothers w/Joan Osborne)
9. Once Upon a Daydream (The Police)
10. Oceanbound (764-HERO)

advancing frames

x frame - September 27, 2007 - Taipei 101


00 frame

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Clouds (Cibo Matto)
2. Take It On the Chin ("Me and My Girl")
3. Willful Suspension of Disbelief (Modest Mouse)
4. Loaded Painted Red (764-HERO)
5. Guide Vocal (Genesis)
6. Coming Up (Paul McCartney)
7. Cross-Eyed Mary (Jethro Tull)
8. White Russians (demo) (Marillion)
9. Every Day I Write the Book (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
10. Ignorance (Deadweight)

石碇

August 29, 2007 - I think this is a little town called Shiding, maybe about 10 miles east from where I live. It's definitely in Shiding township, which is an area larger than a town, but smaller than a county. I also think it may be a juncture and resting point for cyclists along Rte. 106乙. I loved those homes overlooking the stream below, but then the freeway, probably National Rte. 5, in the background.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Carpet Crawlers (Genesis)
2. Vroom Vroom (King Crimson)
3. You Were Right (Built to Spill)
4. 1979 (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. Danny's All-Star Joint (Rickie Lee Jones)
6. Mr. P.C. (John Coltrane)
7. Four Sticks (Led Zeppelin)
8. Pale and Precious (Dukes of Stratosphear)
9. Eyes to Me (Version #2) (Dreams Come True)
10. Don't Bring Me Down (David Bowie)

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)

Taida Main Library

July 10, 2007 - Taida Main Library central atrium, although doesn't an atrium require natural light? Anyway, not to be too critical about the architecture, this is a fantastic waste of prime indoor space. What's the point of this huge space right smack dab in the middle of the library main floor with nothing in it except people walking through? Sofas for a lounge area? Display cases? Piano bar? I vote piano bar.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Boating on Azure Waves (Gong Yi, Luo Shou-Cheng)
2. Till the End of the Day (live) (The Kinks)
3. Dig a Pony (The Beatles)
4. Richard III (Supergrass)
5. Manoir Des Mes Reves (Django Reinhardt)
6. Once I Had a Love (Blondie)
7. Miracles Out of Nowhere (Kansas)
8. Black Little Stray (Shannon Wright)
9. Underground (live) (Tom Waits)
10. Getsumen Butou (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)

新北投 II

June 30, 2007 - Xin Beitou Branch Public Library. It's brand new, opened this year. Very woodsy with a log cabin feel. In case you need to study after soaking in the hot springs.


The branch library even has an outdoor balcony. So if you want to steal books, you can just toss them from the balcony and go down to retrieve them. Just make sure to miss the brook. I read a chapter from a Harry Potter book while I was there. Good writing, but no different from many good books I read when I was a kid. She's no modern day Shakespeare, folks!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. 三天三夜 (A-Mei)
2. Anticipation (Blonde Redhead)
3. In Praise of Women ("A Little Night Music" - Sondheim)
4. Nindaran (Rinken Band)
5. If You Were Gay ("Avenue Q")
6. No Parachutes (Throwing Muses)
7. Rocks in My Bed (Duke Ellington)
8. Tell Me Why (Echobelly)
9. Cheap Day Return (Jethro Tull)
10. The Smartest Monkeys (XTC)

新北投 I

June 23, 2007 - Shuttle MRT to Xin Beitou in northern Taipei. Xin Beitou caters to Japanese tourists wanting to go to the hot springs that the area is famous for. Apparently they are well-known to Japanese tourists because during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895-1945), government administrators developed the area and frequented the hot springs because it reminded them of hot springs in Japan. Or something.

Anyway, now the Japanese tourists are so valuable to the area, they built a shuttle MRT branch line from Beitou station to Xin Beitou station, which is less than a mile long. If the shuttle MRT isn't at the platform at Beitou, I'll usually just leave the station at Beitou station and walk, and I'll often save time.


June 30, 2007 - Xin Beitou, Taipei, Taiwan. I thought the MRT lomo was going to be a one-off odd post, but on the next roll, I found I also went to Xin Beitou the next week. I think this is now a museum in the park there. And I think it has something to do with water, but I've never been inside. I think there's something notable about this red brick architecture and that maybe the Japanese built it. So it may have been some government administration building. *yawn*

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Cosmic Sunshine Baby (French Dub Mix) (Nokko)
2. Breakthru (Queen)
3. Walking On the Moon (The Police)
4. Lowest Common Denominator (Unwound)
5. Mind Power (A Tribe Called Quest)
6. I'm Not Down (The Clash)
7. Euphoria (Delerium)
8. I'm Not a Saint (Echobelly)
9. Thela Hun Ginjeet (King Crimson)
10. Room for the Life (Kate Bush)

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)