September 7, 2008 - Bad tattoo self-portrait. Makes it clear how hard it is to aim the fisheye. Most of the time it's just random pointing at whereever.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. 40 (live) (U2)
2. Sora Yori Umi Yori (Puri Puri Samba '91) (Princess Princess)
3. Blackout (David Bowie)
4. Who the Cap Fit (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
5. Down Upbeat (Casiopea)
6. Love's Recovery (Indigo Girls)
7. War/No More Trouble (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
8. Hashih ("Hair")
9. If You Had Lived (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
10. More Than This (10,000 Maniacs)

bikes and Taida campus

May 21, 2007 - Royal Palm Blvd. on the Taida Campus, riding towards the library. This is actually the kill roll frame, just using up the roll so I could get it developed.


May 9, 2007 - That's my bike, which is about to fall apart in too many ways to count. I keep wondering what it would be like if the rear suspension just detached, because that's what it feels like it's about to do. One of the brakes effectively doesn't work anymore, as I found out while trying to stop while having a camera in my other hand. The left crank also feels like it's about to fall off, even after a campus bike shop wrench tightened it to no avail. And the front tire is so worn that there are places where the rubber is completely gone.

I fancy that when the bike becomes unrideable, I'll just remove the locks and abandon it, but there are probably more responsible means of bike disposal that I should find out about. I think I've had this bike for almost a year now. My does time fly.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Sambita (Kinky)
2. Apeman (The Kinks)
3. Thru These Walls (Phil Collins)
4. Accretions (Shriekback)
5. Noogie (Versus)
6. Valentine (Skip Holiday)
7. Savoy Truffle (The Beatles)
8. Milk (Garbage)
9. Lotta Stuffis? (Victor Wooten)
10. BBTone (Pinback)

Player Rehearsal Studios

May 7, 2007 - Practice studio near my old school on Heping East Road. Pretty nice studios, half decent drum sets, some are even Yamahas - my favorite - albeit low end Yamaha Stage Customs. I'm not complaining - the U.S. doesn't have set ups like this anywhere. They have 4 small rooms just for drum practice, and they have rooms for other instruments, as well as several large rooms for band practice.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Prove My Love (Violent Femmes)
2. Miss Gradenko (The Police)
3. When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin)
4. Oh! Pretty Woman (Van Halen)
5. Mayonnaise (live acoustic) (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Seagulls Screaming Kiss Her, Kiss Her (XTC)
7. Too Much Heaven (The Bee Gees)
8. Down Yonder (Dejan's Olympia Brass Band)
9. It's Too Late (Carole King)
10. Jungle Princess (Princess Princess)

more from Nanyuan

April 20, 2007 - That guy was one of my classmates, from Mexico. Total player scamming on Asian women, but it was funny because he was pretty shameless about it. Came damn near to hitting on the teacher, haha!


Turns out those two people standing there are my classmates this term. The tall guy is Russian. The woman is Japanese.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. Full Disclosure (Fugazi)
2. Door (Shoukichi Kina)
3. Mercy Mercy Mercy (The Ecology) (Marvin Gaye)
4. Push Me, Pull Me (Pearl Jam)
5. 1970 (live) (Mission of Burma)
6. Long Knives (live) (Rainer Maria)
7. Happiness is a Warm Gun (The Breeders)
8. Willing to Fight (live) (Ani DiFranco)
9. Long Way from Home (The Vaughan Brothers)
10. Pencil Rain (They Might Be Giants)

Down from the Peak, Hong Kong

December 21, 2006 - After hanging out a while atop Victoria Peak, I decided to walk down the mountain instead of taking the tram. I'm pretty sure the logic had something to do with gravity. And mind you, with all my bitching about Taipei's horrible weather, Hong Kong was absolutely gorgeous this one day in December. And since I was there only one day, that still translates to 100% good weather in Hong Kong! Not bad! Taipei, with I estimate almost 50% of days being cloudy or rainy, can't compare.


Back down on the flat area of Hong Kong, I hopped on a double-decker trolley to see where it took me. But because of time, I actually didn't get much farther than where I started in the morning at the hostel, from which I walked to the Taiwan travel agency/make believe visa office. I think I actually walked a pretty good distance that morning.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Separation of Church and State (+/-)
2. Sugar (live) (Tori Amos)
3. Power (Princess Princess)
4. Flash (Queen)
5. Beautiful (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Silver Sun (Kristin Hersh)
7. Doll Is Mine (Blonde Redhead)
8. Father Ruler King Computer (Echobelly)
9. Indigo Chiheisen (Spitz)
10. Stretchin' Out (In a Rubber Band) (Bootsy Collins)

Self-portrait

June 22, 2006 - Just on the Shida Annex Campus, where the Mandarin Training Center (read: crap school) is.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Devotion (MC Solaar)
2. Frame By Frame (King Crimson)
3. Slowdive (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
4. Birthday (J Church)
5. Here Comes the Big Rush (Echobelly)
6. There Is a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute ("Barnum")
7. Goodnight Goodnight (Hot Hot Heat)
8. Texas Flood (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
9. Cello Suite No. 6, V. Gavotte (J.S. Bach)
10. Precious Love (Sakura)

self-portrait

December 1, 2005 - Remembering childhood suburban Autumns when we'd rake the leaves off the lawn and pile them at the side of the road for the municipality to pick them up. Walking home from school and plowing through other peoples' piles, ending up with sneakers filled with bits of leaf. And the always popular making huge piles to take running jumps into. That was the favorite, flailing around and burying ourselves in the smell and the rustle. Oh, and adults warning us that it was dangerous because cars might drive through the leaves and not see us.

Riding along in Englewood, I came across a road with particularly nice piles of leaves along the sides. I did what anyone would've done as long as no one was looking. I flopped back into a pile and took a self-portrait.


Then I got up and bemoaned having leaves all over my hair and in my jacket, and wondered if I had been smiling in the shot. What's the point of having a self-portrait in a pile of leaves if I don't look like I'm having a world of fun doing it? So I did it again.

Then I got up and again bemoaned having leaves all over my hair and in my jacket. Several passer-bys had gone by at this point.



iTunes shuffled:
1. Hang to Dry (Julie Plug)
2. Red (XTC)
3. Funny How Time Flies (When You're Having Fun) (Stanley Clark)
4. It's a Mistake (Men At Work)
5. The Vision (Victor Wooten)
6. Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)
7. I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye)
8. Chant of the Ever-Circling Skeletal Family (David Bowie)
9. Panic in Detroit (1979) (David Bowie)
10. Pictures of Success (Rilo Kiley)

not a ride lomo, but then...

October 24, 2005 - Self-portrait with Takamine #1. Yes, I have two Takamine's. Oy. This one I bought for $500 a long time ago, and it sounds better now than when I got it, so I don't want to let it go. My other Takamine I got for $800 used, and it has a very mellow sound. No one is impressed by how it sounds upon hearing it, but I've grown to love it.

Obligatory ride shots, consecutive frames from November 6:

Frame 3


Frame 4 - there were a lot of riders out that day because it was Sunday and relatively warm. I was trying to get a lomo of other riders, but even when they are close, Bebe makes them tiny.

current sounds:
1. Sunburned (Versus)
2. Two Step (Dave Matthews Band) - I don't care what people say, their first two albums were excellent.
3. Woman On the Bass (Neal and Massy Trinidad All-Stars) - steel orchestra
4. Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too (New Radicals)
5. Hammer To Fall (Queen)
6. Y (Spitz)
7. Mars, the Bringer of War (Holst)
8. Blu-Bop (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
9. American Without Tears (Twilight Version) (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
10. Helpless (live) (Neil Young)

I ride my bike

I take pictures while I'm riding.

October 5, 2005 - before it started raining. Hackensack, NJ. You know, the city Lex Luthor was going to blow up in the first Superman movie.

I was riding out to Route 17 that day.

New Jersey is car driving town. I'm probably the only person in this area who rides to the stores, at least at these distances. And it can be harrowing, worse than San Francisco or even Manhattan. It's because drivers in New Jersey are just like 'duh' about cyclists. It turns out riding to CompUSA and back is still less than my 19 mile default ride, but takes much more mental energy.

On my way back, I scored my first street sign. I've noticed the downed street sign for several weeks, but it was still attached to the pole, so I didn't think anything of it. This time, however, I noticed the signed separated from the pole. I think it took less than five seconds to decide to take it. If I left it, I knew it probably wouldn't be there for long. A pedestrian was walking towards me so I had to act quickly. And I was less than a half mile from my parents house, so I didn't have to go far with it. Perfect.

Palisade Avenue. I'd say it's a pretty important road around these parts. I'd say just about everyone around here knows it.