things are looking up

Looking straight up, that is:

December 20, 2008 - This roll is the first roll in my 2009 folder, but I started shooting it in 2008. I'm not sure what this is, I should've taken another shot from another perspective and probably will. It's some kind of sculpture with possible Taiwan indigenous tribe influences, and it's pointing east, so I think it may have some significance with sunrises. I dunno, when I saw it, I thought of it as some kind of sun sail.


January 18, 2009 - Just about every neighborhood in Taipei has a small neighborhood park. This isn't my neighborhood park, but it's not too far from me. And it was apparently a nice day in January for me to be sitting out in a park. Wow, this is old. It's a full year before I quit/took a break from my job, and I feel like I haven't been working for quite some time. Hm, it may be time to print up some more money.

Don't forget to back up your digital files:
Back It Up (Jewelry)
I (obviously) feel no need to defend my music cred on this blog, thus the shameless links to K-pop. I'm still waiting for the day that I'll look back and be mortified and embarrassed that I was listening to this pop drivel. It's just so damn catchy.

June 25, 2008 - Couple of sneaked shots inside the Fine Arts Museum. Pretty institutional. I should've sneaked shots in the galleries. I mean, if you're going to sneak shots where photography is prohibited, then go all-out, you know? None of this trying-to-be-respectful crap!



I'm not doing well with getting a fourth roll shot before the end of the year. Even though I'm only working weekends, I'm still having trouble switching my sleeping hours back to something resembling "normal". I'm also still sleeping a lot more than I'm used to - some lingering cold maybe. I'm not getting out nearly enough or early enough to shoot.

The band suggested taking a break in January and just concentrating on learning new songs. I'm going to come out against the idea. A month of just rehearsal with no gigs/pay sounds excruciating to me. I also don't know when I'll be moving to Kaohsiung, but I'm thinking I definitely will be moving there next year. So it would be better for all parties concerned that they take the break at the same time they find a new drummer. It just makes sense.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. No. 13 Baby (The Pixies)
2. Sanya (Kohachiro Miyata - shakuhachi)
3. 讚仰三寶之歌 (郭孟雍)
4. 真夜中は純潔 (Mayonaka wa Junketsu) (Shiina Ringo)
5. Private Idaho (B-52s)
6. Everything's Just Wonderful (Lily Allen)
7. Too Drunk to Fuck (Dead Kennedys)
8. The King of the Mosh Pit (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)
9. Scissor Man (Primus)
10. Symphony No. 4, III. Allegro vivace (Beethoven)

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)

May 18, 2008 - Minzu East Road, shooting north at the Fine Arts Museum park.

Wow, this year's almost over and I'm still posting lomos from the first roll I completed this year. I just finished shooting the third, and I'm making it a goal to shoot a full roll over the month of December. For the past 2 years I've been shooting 11 rolls per year!

At least I did quit my job for most part. I'll still go in on weekends, but I'm hoping to phase that out soon, too. And I'm just getting over a nasty cold, so I'm feeling this sense of renewal. I just spent 3 solid days in bed watching TV. Yay! Well, plus movies and DVDs.

I'm probably also gonna quit the band next year, too. Which means I'll have nothing to do in Taipei, so I'll probably move to Kaohsiung soon after that happens.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Given to Fly (live) (Pearl Jam)
2. Penelope (live) (Pinback)
3. Absentee (Shannon Wright)
4. Groovin' High (Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra)
5. One of the Few (Pink Floyd)
6. Public Enemy No. 1 (Public Enemy)
7. Shigatsu no Ame (Dreams Come True)
8. Who's the Thief? ("Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat")
9. Tapestry (Carole King)
10. On the Other Side of Paradise (The Neville Brothers)

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)

interior spaces

September 19, 2007 - 故宮博物院 The National Palace Museum. I swear it rains every time I go there. Well, it kinda rains whenever I do anything in Taipei. Actually the past year hasn't been that bad. It's been a while since I'd been here, and they had done some remodeling which helped put Chinese history into some organized perspective.

My sister-in-law's older sister was in town visiting with some of her Dutch friends (former colonizers, although not directly), so I went with them.


September 20, 2007 - 高鐵 And then the next day I travelled with them down south on the High Speed Rail. They went to Tainan where my sister-in-law's family is based (and where the Dutch primarily colonized, although not these particular Dutch folk), and I went to Kaohsiung. We were thinking of meeting up down there, but it wasn't to be and this was the last I saw of them.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Now Tonight (Sahara Hotnights)
2. Wabogi Wamimi Lagisaimu 在夜裡 (檳榔兄弟 - Taiwanese aboriginal music)
3. Secret Messages (Electric Light Orchestra)
4. I Think I'm a Mother (PJ Harvey)
5. Ao no Requiem (Chitose Hajime)
6. Money ("Cabaret")
7. Take Me Down (Smashing Pumpkins)
8. Check It Out Ch'all (Paris)
9. Dressing the Wound (Peter Gabriel - "Birdy")
10. Oh! (The Breeders)

Three (3) blurry indoor lomos

July 13, 2007 - Taiwan Storyland, a concept museum in Taipei, next door to the Shin Mitsukoshi department store near the Main Station. It's a museum of a period of time, depicting Taipei in the 60's, so the entire space is a recreation of streets and stores and merchandise of the time.


I was with classmates who are fantastic photographers, and there I was with my toy Fisheye 2.


There are more people in this lomo, but they were moving too fast to be captured in long exposure.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Within You, Without You (Instrumental) (The Beatles - Anthology)
2. Rest Of My Life (Rilo Kiley)
3. Where Is My Mind? (The Pixies)
4. Intuition (Leslie Feist)
5. Be My Girl - Sally (The Police)
6. Blind Love (Tom Waits)
7. Nihon Ichi Iikina Love Song (Bakufu Slump)
8. Hey! TAX (The Bubble Gum Brothers)
9. Soul Soldier (Throwing Muses)
10. Mandolinita (Sukay - Andean pan flute)

National Palace Museum, pt. 2

December 30, 2006 - Yea, so remember the lomo in my last post depicting a wonderfully partly cloudy day with sun shining bright and plenty of blue peeking through white fluffy clouds? This is the same day a few hours later. Will somebody just shoot me already?

This is at the National Palace Museum, and I was afraid of a repeat of the last time I went to that museum, when it started raining and I had to abandon my bike at the Shilin MRT station to be retrieved several days later. I hate riding in the rain (think wet cat). If it had happened again on this day, I would've taken it as a sign from GOD to get out of Taipei and head back to the U.S.


National Palace Museum main gate. Another visit is in the cards as I hear it has recently been re-opened after an expansion.


Interior long exposure of the museum.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Stop (Pink Floyd)
2. The Crunge (Led Zeppelin)
3. Confusion (Electric Light Orchestra)
4. Animals (Talking Heads)
5. Symphony No. 5, II. Andante Con Moto (Beethoven)
6. Two Ladies ("Cabaret")
7. You're the Wish You Are I Had (XTC)
8. John, I'm Only Dancing (David Bowie)
9. Kali Kali Zulfon Ke Phande Nah Dalo (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
10. Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing (Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell)

十三行博物館

December 23, 2006 - So the reason I was crossing the Danshuei River to Bali was to get to this museum. It's a museum documenting the archeological dig of the remains of the Shisanhang (十三行) Taiwanese aboriginal culture which was discovered in the 20th century. The museum was built pretty much on the site of the dig, so that was pretty nifty. You go through the museum and learn about the culture, and then you step outside and you're exactly where this culture existed.

This shot includes the entrance and exit of the museum. When you first walk into the exhibit areas, you're down at the bottom of this shaft. After you go through the exhibits, you exit by climbing the stairs which includes a timeline of sorts to the bridge in the upper left, which also has some information, I forget what. Then a set of stairs where I took this shot leads out to the exit.

Here's a close-up of the grid to the right of that umbrella: http://www.fotolog.com/digital_koji/19040407


Looking out the window near the exit of the museum. Got some strangers in the shot, thanks to fisheye.


Oh, so the previous shots were taken inside that brick structure on the right. This is a deck on the roof of the museum which includes a cafe at the far end. Unusual place to put it since it is so far removed from the museum and not readily accessible. Can't be good for business. If I had designed this building, I would have made this area accessible from that brick structure, instead of having the exit on the opposite side, necessitating coming all around the building to get here.

I try to avoid getting my shadow in shots, but sometimes it's impossible. Note the "Power Lomo" pose. Part Wonder Twins activate, part Sailor Moon. OK, I'm on drugs. Or need to be.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Thank You (Dreams Come True)
2. Keep It Clean (Camera Obscura)
3. You Really Got Me (live) (The Kinks)
4. Vroom Vroom Coda (King Crimson)
5. Money (Pink Floyd)
6. Off This Century (Unwound)
7. Insomnia (Versus)
8. Stockton Gala Days (10,000 Maniacs)
9. Incident at 66.6 FM (Public Enemy)
10. Silver Strings (Helium)

Taipei Fine Arts Museum

November 5, 2006 - This is actually the backside of the museum. The front side looks like sewage tunnels, like the Justin Herman Plaza sculpture in San Francisco. Not sure that's the best motif for fine arts, but Taipei isn't known for its arts. At least I haven't heard the greatest things about its arts museums, but I guess I should go in and see for myself. Taipei has other, more objective-type museums that are quite good.

Of course, there's the National Palace Museum, which is often a must-see for visitors. It's more of a Chinese historical/cultural museum, if you like that kind of stuff. I've been to it twice because their collection is so large they rotate it very often. The first time I went, which I posted about earlier this month, was a real yawner. If the exhibits on display interest me less than going to peoples' houses and looking through their cupboards, I have better uses for my time. The second time I went, they had a mind-blowing special exhibit on Sung Dynasty art and calligraphy. Oh, that was today.

I've also been to the Museum of World Religions which is pretty cool, except for getting hit by a car on the way there, unless you consider that sort of thing a religious experience. And way up at the far northern end of the MRT line and a ferry trip across the Danshuei River and then either a 3.5 km walk or a short bus ride is the Shisanhang Museum of Archeology, which is more a museum of the archeological discovery of the remains of a very unique aboriginal tribe that lived in that area. That was a pretty neat museum, especially since it's right on the site where they found the remains - right on the beach on the Taiwan Straits.


There's a park next to the Fine Arts Museum, I think it's called the Arts Park or something. A very nice environment for a museum. Sort of what Yerba Buena Gardens did for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. We Are What We Are ("La Cage Aux Folles")
2. Awaiting On You All (George Harrison)
3. Let It Be (The Beatles - Anthology)
4. Corcovado (Quiet Nights) (Cannonball Adderly & Sergio Mendes - ultralounge)
5. Talby (Pinback)
6. I Am One (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. My Heart Would Know (The The)
8. Bron-Yr-Aur (Led Zeppelin)
9. Stay (Pink Floyd)
10. You Won't Be An Orphan For Long ("Annie")

National Palace Museum

September 23, 2006 - National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院). I gather this is Taiwan's most important museum, with a fascinating history.

Through much of China's history, Emperors would have art brought to the capital from all over China. The accumulation was a huge collection of art, closed to the public until the last emperor was overthrown and the Nationalists took power in the early 20th Century. They established the National Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

When war broke out, the entire collection was wrapped up and moved around to make sure it didn't fall into Japanese hands. Then the Japanese were defeated and the Communists rose to power and chased the Nationalists around China and off the mainland onto Taiwan. The Nationalists managed to take the entire collection with them, fully intact!

After many decades, when it became clear that the Nationalists weren't going to take back China any time soon, they established the National Palace Museum in Taipei. The collection is so large that there is a frequent turnover of exhibits. Which is good, because when I went, I thought it was pretty boring.

I dunno. Collected stuff through the ages - vases, spoons, rocks that look like meat, - don't interest me or necessarily qualify as "art" (I do note that "art" is no where in the title of the museum). I think looking through someone's living room is just as interesting.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Killing Me With Your Voice (Rebecca)
2. Mr. Wiggles (Parliament)
3. Tear (Smashing Pumpkins)
4. Dear Madame Barnum (XTC)
5. Mother (Pink Floyd)
6. Chevrolet (Taj Mahal)
7. Revelation (Mother Earth) (Ozzy Osbourne)
8. Achilles Last Stand (Led Zeppelin)
9. One Vision (Queen)
10. Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers... (Genesis)