September 18, 2008 - Singer of the band, Andy. I shot this specifically because he told me he found some of my sites. So in shooting this I was kind of saying, "yea, so what? you found my site, I'll shoot you, I'll post you". He was down with that. Note the Avril shirt. That was kind of a joke. I hope.

So we ran the news that Justice Souter is stepping down from the U.S. Supreme Court. Coming from a law background, that was of interest to me. What was Bush 1 thinking? Who knows?

When Souter was being considered for the Supreme Court position, liberals were up in arms, suspicious about anyone Bush 1 would consider. I remember Souter being referred to by some liberals as the "stealth nominee", because no one could peg him, but he couldn't be a good thing.

However, despite being selected by Bush 1, Souter ended up voting left of center and issued some incredibly thoughtful, but decidedly liberal opinions. In any case, I applaud Bush 1 for not choosing politically, but by legal merit. Souter was so liberal that I can only think that Bush 1 was intentionally trying not to be political in choosing a nominee.

But then there's Uncle Tom Clarence Thomas, and I've read his opinions and what an idiot he turned out to be. Seriously. I have a lot of respect for the Supreme Court, even when they publicly seem to be doing something cowardly, there's actually a good and wise reason for doing it. Like dodging an issue because it's not time to come down on it. Justice isn't blind and shouldn't be, according to the Supreme Court. They have to take the temperature of the social climate and respond to reality, not just be guided by blind judicial principle.

I hope Obama chooses a Supreme Court nominee wisely and based on merits, not on political bent. Of course, I'm happy about the way Souter turned out, but if Obama chooses a nominee who turns out to lean to the right, I hope, at least, I can read that person's opinion and be swayed enough by the legal logic to accept it. There were plenty of conservative justices whose opinions I read and was daunted and respected their analysis, even if I wasn't happy with the outcome.

May 11, 2008 - La Mer, back porch, just before we started playing. Those are our "peeps" at the table in front. That's the guitarist on the left, bassist on the right, Andy crouching in front. I don't miss the trek going up to Sanzhi to play, even though it was nice getting out of Taipei and basking in the beach culture that surrounds Taiwan all along its coasts. Really chill vibe. I wouldn't mind living out on the coast somewhere in Taiwan.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Symphony No. 2 "Romantic", III. Allegro con brio (Howard Hanson)
2. Lie Detector (Sleeper)
3. Namida ga Kirari (Spitz)
4. Big Spender ("Sweet Charity" - 1986 revival)
5. Marching Bands of Manhattan (Death Cab for Cutie)
6. King of the Kerb (live) (Echobelly)
7. Fascination (David Bowie)
8. Spirits Having Flown (The Bee Gees)
9. Hard As Love (Marillion)
10. Mr. Zebra (live) (Tori Amos)

July 5, 2008 - This should round up that night, which was in fact just beginning. I won't say anything else about this lomo or that night lest the wrong information is found out about the wrong people who misinterpret or are unable to interpret things in the proper light, regarding any number of possible topics.

Which is, I suppose, an odd thing to be concerned about considering the intentional misleading nature of the previous posts.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Union Square (Tom Waits)
2. Flute Concerto in G Major (Vivaldi)
3. I Me Mine (The Beatles - Anthology)
4. I Would Hurt A Fly (live) (Built to Spill)
5. Walking Through the Darkness (Tekitha - "Ghost Dog")
6. Not for the Life of Me (reprise) ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
7. Reviewing the Situation ("Oliver!")
8. Future Legend/Diamond Dogs (David Bowie)
9. New York State of Mind (Billy Joel)
10. Baby I Love Your Way (Big Mountain)

July 5, 2008 - OK, so Alex was friendly with everyone that night. Here, she has a thing with Nina. My god, Nina has a better chance than I do! (this is all a joke, mind you, just seeing if Andy comes here, but I think he doesn't. he didn't punch my lights out at our gig last night).

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Kimi to Iru Jikan no Naka de (Ayaka Hirahara)
2. Raise the Roof (Public Enemy)
3. Soul Daiji (Bubble Gum Brothers)
4. Maggie's Farm (Bob Dylan)
5. It's a Hard-Knock Life ("Annie")
6. Faithful (Pearl Jam)
7. Toast (Archers of Loaf)
8. Natural Animal (Echobelly)
9. Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover (live) (Simon & Garfunkel)
10. You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night) (Meat Loaf)

July 5, 2008 - I'm gonna steal his girlfriend! Let's see if Andy, the band's singer, is really coming to this blog. See? His girlfriend's all over me at this birthday celebration of hers' near the peak of my insomnia days. Note the look on my face, though: "Git yer hands offa me, woman, ya tryn'a get me lynched?"


Besides (that's Andy standing), look at all the fly ladies he's always surrounded with! Well, maybe not the ugly guy in the middle, but look how adoringly the woman on the right is gazing at him.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Long As I'm Here With You ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
2. Tres (Pinback)
3. Sunday (Helium)
4. Passing Strangers (Marillion)
5. My Life (Billy Joel)
6. By the Way (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
7. Ghost World (acoustic) (Aimee Mann)
8. Papillon (Rilo Kiley)
9. Army Dreamers (Kate Bush)
10. Magic Bus (live) (The Who)

May 11, 2008 - Sanzhi, Taiwan north coast. With time before playing, we could walk out on the beach and relax. That's Alex and Nikki walking back along the jetty. Or is it a quay? Or a breakwater? Who knows. Alex is the band's singer's girlfriend. He recently found this blog, so now he knows that I'm out to steal his girlfriend. They're also moving next month to a place with extra rooms, so they asked me if I wanted to move in with them. Naturally, that'll make it much easier for me to put my moves on, little does he know.


As they walked back, I continued walking out. It's farther than it looks.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Walk Through the Fire (Peter Gabriel)
2. I'm Looking Through You (The Beatles)
3. Below the Salt (Unwound)
4. Wandering in the Street (Blackhand Nakasi Workers Band)
5. Babe (Styx)
6. Two Is Enough (Seam)
7. Yassassin (David Bowie)
8. The Goldberg Variations, #26 (J.S. Bach)
9. Toki ga Bousou Suru (Shiina Ringo)
10. When I'm Sixty-Four (The Beatles)

February 10, 2008 - This is so long ago, it's distant in my memory. It was a Lunar New Year family outing, but it was distant family to me, so it's all appropriate - my cousin's wife's family, and I got invited along because I happened to run into my cousin's wife on the street the day before.

That mound is a stone oven we built. This is a family activity that's more for kids, so it was dirty and interesting. It developed from a real kids' activity in Taiwan a long time ago. Some in the older generation remember making these ovens in the neighborhood and barbecuing food. Now it's organized in these special parks that provide the oven base, there are rocks that need to be collected to build the oven, and the park provides the food, too, as part of the fee.


I forget exactly where the park was, about a 25 minute drive out of Kaohsiung, towards Tainan, I think. These are my cousin's wife's family members, they were very nice and I had fun there.


Later in the day after the fires died down and the food got eaten - not very good cooked that way, but the point of the activity was to have fun with the kids, not to feast on good food necessarily, so it was still successful. And with kids, playing in the dirt becomes primo.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Here We Go! (J-Walk)
2. Loved Despite Great Faults (Blonde Redhead)
3. Give a Little Love (Rilo Kiley)
4. Clones (We're All) (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. Uptight (Everything's Alright) (Stevie Wonder)
6. Message to Prez (The Maupin/Williams Project)
7. Offline PK (live-ish) (Pinback)
8. One Flower (Guo Brothers & Shung Tian)
9. Colored Spade ("Hair")
10. Not A Day Goes By ("Merrily We Roll Along" - Sondheim)

comparison shots of basically the same thing

August 16, 2007 - Advance frame of a new roll. This was my classroom last semester. It's also my classroom this semester, and I'm apparently sitting in the same seat! These are also my classmates from last semester, not the same as my classmates this semester. I liked them much better than my current classmates. I have to stop saying not nice things like that.


This is a long exposure, thus the blur of Santi from Thailand. The others are Danila from Russia and Yumi from Japan. Good folks.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. 安里屋 Yunta (Rimi Natsukawa)
2. Symphony No. 1, III. Menuetto (Allegro Molto E Vivace) (Beethoven)
3. In It For The Money (Supergrass)
4. Oh! Darling (The Beatles)
5. Troubadours (Rilo Kiley)
6. I Came As A Rat (Modest Mouse)
7. Script for a Jester's Tear (live) (Marillion)
8. The Old Laughing Lady (Neil Young)
9. Overlap (live) (Ani DiFranco)
10. Koku Reibo (Judo Notomi)

recent classmates

July 2, 2007 - Well, the last day of the semester is tomorrow, but here are the classmates I've hung out occasionally with this semester. This is in front of the main library with the sun setting behind palm trees. Santi, from Thailand, is on the left. We might stay in contact. On the right is Yumi, from Japan. I wouldn't mind staying in contact, but my sense is probably not.


July 4, 2007 - At a Dante's coffeehouse on the Taida campus. I took two shots of this scene. The multiple exposure shot didn't come out. This is the long exposure shot with me holding the 2 pretty still and Yumi not moving at all. I think she's good at that. I have other low light shots of her in perfect focus because she wasn't moving. Danila, from Russia, already went back to his country earlier this week. He had to go finish college. Oy!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Strings of Love (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
2. Romance in New York (Takeshi Yamaguchi)
3. White Pepper Ice Cream (Cibo Matto)
4. Strangled By the Stereo Wire (live) (Archers of Loaf)
5. Electioneering (Radiohead)
6. If I Could Talk I'd Tell You (The Lemonheads)
7. Three Hopeful Thoughts (Rilo Kiley)
8. Gold Rush Brides (10,000 Maniacs)
9. Cantata: Iphigenia in Brooklyn (P.D.Q. Bach)
10. Meeting Across the River (Bruce Springsteen)

winding down last semester

January 25, 2007 - The Taida campus has balls.


Etsuko, my classmate last semester. She was my only classmate last semester. It was weird having such a small class. It was even weirder that we had such a small class, yet didn't have much conversation practice. Fortunately, my current teacher is good about having us/making us speak.

Etsuko doesn't like having her picture taken. I snuck this shot. Afterwards I asked her if it was alright, and she said, "as long as you don't show it to anyone". I didn't respond, making no promise. We're not staying in touch now, so I figure all's fair.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love) (Junior Walker & the All Stars)
2. Shangri-La (Nomad)
3. Apache Moon (Nokko)
4. Hachimitsu (Spitz)
5. What's Going On? (Marvin Gaye)
6. Cello Concerto No. 1, IV. Allegro con Moto (Shostakovich - Yo-Yo Ma)
7. secret song (Nirvana)
8. Hole in the Sky (Black Sabbath)
9. The Way You Do the Things You Do (The Temptation)
10. Mama Help Me (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)

more classmates...

November 17, 2006 - The previous lomo of my classmates was a sneak shot, but I'm not super tight with these people, and to just sneak a shot is a bit rude, so out of courtesy I showed them Bebe and let them shoot. Koike took this one of Kyoko, whose English was decent, and a helluv annoying American guy. What is it about annoying Americans coming here and embarassing the rest of us? He was a loser idiot. Yankee go home! But the Taiwanese love the Yankees because one of their pitchers is a Yankee. I wear my Mets hat here, but that's probably too subtle a signal that I'm American (any Taiwanese here wearing a New York hat would be wearing a Yankee hat, so wearing a Mets hat should tell people I'm not Taiwanese. too subtle).


Koike. I really liked her for some reason, even though she didn't speak English.


And Kyoko took this one. My hand is wrapped because I had a fractured wrist from getting hit by an idiot Taiwanese motorist. It was very slow speed, so I got away with just a fracture from the fall. My bike was completely undamaged. There's something to say about cheap mountain bikes that are built like tanks on two wheels.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Heart-Shaped Box (live) (Nirvana)
2. Sister (Steve Vai)
3. Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
4. Close...But (Echobelly)
5. Suberidai (live) (Shiina Ringo)
6. Welcome to the Machine (Pink Floyd)
7. Alleluia & Fugue (Hovhaness)
8. Jesus He Knows Me (live) (Genesis)
9. Hachimitsu (Spitz)
10. Nirujarini (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)

going down

November 9, 2006 - No more my school. This is the main gate of the Shida Annex Campus, with the main library on the left and the language school behind it. Can't say I miss anything about it. The Shida Mandarin Training Center classrooms are mostly on the 8th and 9th floors, and the elevator situation trying to go up or down between classes was a nightmare, contributing to my daily hostility. So much so that I opted to take the stairs.

People trying to go down the elevators during these times got smart and would hop on the elevators going up. Sure you have to go up several floors before going down, but you save time because if you wait for the down elevator, all of them (4) would always be full. And slow going it was, because all the down buttons have already been pushed so you stop at every floor anyway.


November 17, 2006 - And here we are inside my previous classroom on the 8th floor. Those are two of my Japanese classmates. I liked them well enough, this was our second semester in a class together. This was after our teacher had left for vacation for the semester. She informed us less than a week before she left that she was going on vacation. It was head shakingly lame. I mean, how does a teacher get approval for that anyway?

She goes to the administration and tells them she's going on vacation for the last week and a half. The administration says, "What about your students? Won't this disrupt their education? They are, after all, paying students, and to force them to adjust to a new teacher at the end of the semester isn't really fair."

"That's OK, I'll tell the substitute at the last minute so she won't be able to prepare anything. The students will at least be happy they won't have any more tests or a final exam."

"Aren't tests a good thing that forces students to review the material and gain competent knowledge of it?"

"Those glazy-eyed slackers?! I have nightmares about those hollow, vacant stares. They don't say anything in class, I end up speaking almost the whole time! They're so slow I end up having to complete most of their sentences for them!"

"Very well, off you go!"

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Love Struck Baby (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
2. A.B.C. (The Jackson Five)
3. Priere de "Bon Augure" (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
4. Up the Hill Backwards (David Bowie)
5. Bleed (Echobelly)
6. The Body Electric (Rush)
7. Floors (Rainer Maria)
8. Symphony No. 5, IV. Allegro (Beethoven)
9. Winter (David Byrne - "Music for the Knee Plays")
10. You Can Always Count On Me ("City of Angels")

台北101附近

September 15, 2006 - Trying to shoot Taipei 101 on a rainy day. Still not sure how to capture the enormity of the building with a fisheye.


Hyun Ae and the poor performance of the lomo fisheye in low light. I think we were there on a Friday afternoon to catch the latest Zhang Ziyi film, which was subtitled, fortunately for both of us. Even with her advanced Mandarin abilities, she admitted she wouldn't have been able to follow the film with them.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Symphony No. 2, III. Adagio (Rachmaninov)
2. Sleepwalkers (100 Watt Smile)
3. Getting Married Today ("Company" - Sondheim)
4. The Spring of Next Year ("Dear World")
5. Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano No. 2, VII. Intime (Bolling)
6. Shotgun (Jr. Walker & the All-Stars)
7. The Tide is Turning (After Live Aid) (Roger Waters)
8. 等無限時批 (陳昇)
9. Prière De "Bon Augure" (Monks of the Gyütö Monastery)
10. In That Quiet Earth (remixed) (Genesis)

Southland II

August 27, 2006 - The lovely Hyun Ae at the Tainan train station, waiting to catch the train back to Kaohsiung before the rain started coming down.


August 29, 2006 - Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Folk in Kaohsiung, Taiwan's second largest city, are . . . well, I don't want to stereotype them by calling them provincial yokels, but they aren't that into panoramic views. When they build tall buildings, and there aren't that many, they don't make a point of reserving an upper floor for an observation deck.

This was the best my uncle could do, in a restaurant in the upper floors of a hotel where my uncle goes to sauna. Not bad. Kaohsiung is pretty non-descript, I can't even tell which direction this is, and I'm geeky about stuff like that. There is just nothing here worth mentioning!

I have to stop writing and publish this. The internet at my house is down and I'm at the public library and the guy sitting across from me is stinking to high hell.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Marriage Tree (Throwing Muses)
2. Ade (David Byrne - "The Catherine Wheel")
3. Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice, Alright (Modest Mouse)
4. Xanadu (Electric Light Orchestra w/Olivia Newton-John)
5. Zooropa (U2)
6. Blow Away (for Bill) (Kate Bush)
7. Symphony No. 8, II. Allegreto Scherzando (Beethoven)
8. Anywhere I Lay My Head (Tom Waits)
9. Gimme Gimme ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
10. Left-Hand Suzuki Method (Gorillaz)

classmate flashback

July 28, 2006 - Ah, Summer term. I hated that term. Why I continued hanging out with those people, I don't know. Well, yea, I do, and she's in this lomo. Fortunately, she's the only person I'm hanging out with this Fall term, but I'm thinking that's gotta end, too. Don't want the attachment, don't like the emotional pull and push.

This is at a Japanese restaurant on Yangkong Street, a quick shot that took Hyun Ae by surprise, as she didn't have time to put her fingers up in a V. I guess Naoya, across from her, was pretty cool, too. Just no connection.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Father Ruler King Computer (Echobelly)
2. It's Too Late (Carole King)
3. Helden (David Bowie)
4. Holiday (Madonna)
5. Heroes (live) (David Bowie)
6. Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. Happy Together (The Turtles)
8. Can't Get It Out of My Head (Electric Light Orchestra)
9. High Society (Enon)
10. Los Endos (live) (Genesis)

3 Inside

June 23, 2006 - Shida Mandarin Training Center. Hanging out after class on the 7th floor, waiting to go to lunch. Left to right is Pierre, Naoya, Takako, JC, and EMma.


June 2006 - The 7th floor atrium from the 8th floor. Not bad architecture, not a very good language school. It's not just me being negative, I hear from various English-speaking people how frustrated they are with the administration, policies, teaching quality, and the elevators at this school. I even got a tutor this term, hoping that one-to-one attention will improve my listening ability and sentence generation. Nope. If you have bad teachers, and you make them into tutors, it just means you get a bad tutor.


June 9, 2006 - Same place on the 7th floor as the first lomo. From left to right, Naoya, Takako, and Matsubara-san.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
2. Innocent When You Dream (78) (Tom Waits)
3. Bitter Suite (live) (Marillion)
4. Abacab (remixed) (Genesis)
5. Tales of a Scorched Earth (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Bee-Beep (Puri Puri Summit) (Princess Princess)
7. Candle (Sonic Youth)
8. My Mummy's Dead (John Lennon)
9. You Started Laughing (live) (Supertramp)
10. The Voyeur (I Like to Watch) (Fish)

Going to Yangkong St.

July 6, 2006 - Finally! People I all, more or less, like. Pierre, JC, Naoya, Hyun Ae, and Takako. All of them previous classmates except for Naoya, who is the only new classmate of theirs that I genuinely liked. It helped that he's a musician and we could talk music. Not everyone was as enthralled with him, as his personability was a bit specific, focused. And everything about him is focused. After six months of Chinese language study, he is pretty much fluent and can hold his own in complex conversations, and he's begun learning Taiwanese. He can even sing songs in Chinese at karaoke. After six months, he took a Chinese proficiency test, which indicated that he could jump 15 lessons in the textbook!

We were walking to Yangkong "snack" Street for lunch, which despite its nickname isn't the delectable foodie paradise it suggests. I had fallen back to take some digital shot, and as these are people I all like, they waited up for me when they noticed I wasn't with them. Suckers. As I approached I got Bebe ready in my backpack and whipped it out and shot this.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Said Too Much (Versus)
2. Forest Fire (Versus)
3. Santa Maria (Versus)
4. What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted (The Funk Brothers w/Joan Osborne)
5. Sweet Black Angel (The Rolling Stones)
6. The Ballad of Ladyman (Sleater-Kinney)
7. Ai no Shiru Shi (Puffy)
8. Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas)
9. Jubilation (20 Minute Loop)
10. Tamuke (Katsuya Yokoyama)

surprise!

June 21, 2006 - Former classmates class. I passed their class every day on my way to my class. On this morning. I was able to see into the class from the area outside the window in the back to see who was there. Then as I walked around, I took out Bebe and charged the battery for the flash which I knew I needed for an indoor shot. Then when I got to the door, I pointed the camera, probably made some noise to get their attention, shot, and continued on my way to the sound of Takako laughing. From left to right, Pierre, Hyun Ae, Spaniard, Naoya, and Takako.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Blood Tree (Mary Timony)
2. Gratitude (The Maupin/Williams Project)
3. Julia (The Beatles)
4. Marry Me a Little ("Company" - Sondheim)
5. Made-Up Dream (Built to Spill)
6. Give Up Your Love (Edith Frost)
7. Reason the Night is So Long (Rainer Maria)
8. Forgotten Sons (live) (Marillion)
9. The Bravery of Being Out of Range (Roger Waters)
10. Words and Guitar (Sleater-Kinney)

such a hater...

June 2006 - Hyun Ae with a line of her new classmates that I never got to liking. Actually, at the end is an Austrian guy who wasn't one of her new classmates, but was associated with them. I only didn't like him because of Falco. Next to her is a German guy whose voice didn't have a volume control. Next to him is a self-absorbed Swedish woman who acted like a princess and never shut up. Her whiny voice eventually became unbearable and I refused to stick around if she was present.

This was at our favorite Korean restaurant where Hyun Ae would often take over, and when the food was mostly done, she would do a Korean thing that the Korean proprietors also knew about, but most Taiwanese don't, and ask for fresh rice, laver, and kimchi and do a second cooking. It was like a second meal.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I Just Want to See His Face (The Rolling Stones)
2. Woman (Sakura)
3. Sea Girl (Versus)
4. Sara Smile (Hall & Oates)
5. The Walk (The Aislers Set)
6. Lover Lay Down (Dave Matthews Band)
7. Dazzle (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
8. Jukebox (Ani DiFranco)
9. I Don't Need Anything But You ("Annie")
10. The Real Me (The Who)

more classmates...

June 2006 - Hyun Ae, Pierre, and JC, all classmates first term. Second term, we almost always went to lunch together, and at the beginning, I often tried to get them to go with me to get dessert. I didn't have to twist their arms much until they started worrying about losing their girlish figures. See what I mean about Hyun Ae being quick with the V? While Pierre and JC are just starting to realize their picture is about to be taken, Hyun Ae is way ahead of me.

As much as I bitch about the community college quality of the Shida Mandarin Training Center, I haven't found any place better for shaved ice on a daily basis than the Shida night market area. I have four places to choose from in that area. The Rao He Tourist Night Market is better, but it's also way crowded, and maybe 45 minutes away on bike.

This place is called Orange, and it's right on Shida Road. It was Pierre's favorite place and it had this nice upstairs area that never got crowded in the afternoon. For me, sometimes they cranked the air conditioner on too high.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Trial (live) (Pink Floyd)
2. Lullaby of the Moths (Helium)
3. Pneuma (50 Foot Wave)
4. Rocky Racoon (The Beatles)
5. Cherry (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones)
7. Strobelite Honey (Black Sheep)
8. Grandmother's Love (Travis Terry)
9. Fierce Flawless (Ani DiFranco)
10. As Long As He Needs Me ("Oliver!")