I Moved Again!

Well sort of, it's the same building, same landlady.

During the last big rain last week, the leak in my ceiling got worse (it leaked to a manageable extent in early March), and I started freaking out. By freaking out, that means my emails to the landlady were on the verge of becoming not-so-cordial.

It just so happened that an apartment on the 6th floor just became available. She said I could sleep up there until the leak was fixed since the leak was right over the sleeping area. When she came by to give me the keys, she said I could move into the apartment if I wanted to, too. Playing it cool, I told her I would think about it and let her know as soon as possible. In my mind, I jumped at the opportunity and decided to wait until the next morning to tell her, yes, I wanted to move.

The selling point was that it has windows with views:

April 11, 2007 - It's smaller and more worn than the downstairs apartment. It's also bound to be hotter in the Summer months and it's much more noisier (read: previous apartment was newer, cooler, and quieter). However, I don't need a lot of room, I don't have a lot of stuff and would be happy to get rid of some of what I have; I love the heat and practically thrive in it; and the noise doesn't bother me, it makes me feel like I'm living in a city.

It's also much more private. Downstairs I could clearly hear my neighbor sneeze and cough because of some hole in the wall above the false ceiling. Also sounds from other apartments with windows in the alley my window faced made me feel like I was living in slums. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, it was actually quite homey in a community-feel sort of way.

In my new apartment, I'm comfortable making any amount of noise, I only have one hall neighbor and it seems he's not around much anyway. When I open my windows, the traffic noise is so loud I feel perfectly comfortable whipping out my guitar and wailing away a few bars of "Hey Joe". Or not.

The view out my new window:

I feel much more part of the city. Actually a parade of emergency vehicles just went wailing by, and whereas before I could just hear them, I could see them now. I've never seen so many emergency vehicles negotiating typical Taiwan traffic that has no concept of pulling to the side when emergency vehicles are riding up their asses. You know, people, someday it's going to be one of your grandparents or your house on fire, and you'll want people getting out of the way of fire trucks and ambulances.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Artificial Man (The Kinks)
2. Let 'Em In (Wings)
3. Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)
4. Sent For You Yesterday and Here You Come Today (Count Basie)
5. Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.)
6. Love Song (Nokko)
7. The Blue Bus Blues (Bakufu Slump)
8. Napoleon (live) (Ani DiFranco)
9. Silverfuck (Smashing Pumpkins)
10. Father Ruler King Computer (Echobelly)

Kaohsiung fotostroll

February 17, 2007 - So that travellin' by train, high on cocaine was to Kaohsiung for the New Year. I wasn't thrilled about going and all that family stuff that I'm kinda separate from. So on New Years Eve, I split and went on an extended fotostroll. Hm, blur, must've been holding the shutter open on the 2.


Kaohsiung former City Hall, next to the Love River. I think they turned it into a museum of some sort.


The Love River. Kaohsiung doesn't have much of a skyline and just a few tall buildings that are somewhat distinct. Those buildings on the left are one of the distinct ones, but probably only because they are right on the Love River, which is a model of civic betterment and has become a "place to go" when in Kaohsiung. The river used to be gross and stink to high hell.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. L'Nmiaccd'htck72kpdp (MC Solaar)
2. Five Years (David Bowie)
3. Our Time ("Merrily We Roll Along" - Sondheim)
4. Bad Light (Built to Spill)
5. Lola (live) (The Kinks)
6. Zenergy (Victor Wooten)
7. Newly Fast (764-HERO)
8. Sukiyaki (Misora Hibari)
9. Lounge (Closing Time) (Modest Mouse)
10. Twilight (Electric Light Orchestra)

travellin' by train, high on cocaine...

February 15, 2007 - In front of 台北車站, Taipei Main Station. I managed to book a train ticket to Kaohsiung for New Years that day. I wisely travelled on Thursday. If I tried on Friday, I'm sure the train would have been full. Train tickets seem to sell out all the time, I wonder why they don't try to meet the demand.


The train platform. I like trains, so I like travelling by train. The problem is getting an available seat. Bus is cheaper, though. The bus trip is less than $15, while the train costs more than $20. And then there's the new High Speed Rail, Taiwan's newly inaugurated Bullet train, but that's going to have to wait for a future post.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Two Suns in the Sunset (Pink Floyd)
2. Sugar Mice in the Rain (demo) (Marillion)
3. Agarizachi (live) (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
4. I'm Alive (Throwing Muses)
5. Scratch-n-Sniff (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
6. With This Love (Choir) (Peter Gabriel - "The Last Temptation of Christ")
7. How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon)
8. Up To Me (Jethro Tull)
9. Downer (Nirvana)
10. Cross Bones Style (Cat Power)

Xindian

February 13, 2007 - Xindian, Taiwan. Footbridge crossing over the Xindian River in the Xindian recreational area near the Xindian MRT station.


Xindian River paddle boats with the Bitan Bridge in the background.


Riding home along the Xindian riverside bikeway.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Avenue (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
2. I Can't Get You Off Of My Mind (The The)
3. Sparks of the Tempest (Kansas)
4. Dollars & Cents (Radiohead)
5. Golden Tiger (Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra)
6. Downer (Nirvana)
7. Ajisai Dori (Spitz)
8. Pan in "A" Minor (Amoco Renegades Steel Orchestra)
9. Add It Up (The Kinks)
10. Because It's There (Michael Hedges)

light leak

February 13, 2007 - Beginning of the roll. It happens sometimes that light seeps in and exposes the film at the very beginning.


Xindian, Taiwan, in the neighborhood around the Xindian MRT station, the farthest south station on the MRT system. These two shots are roughly two sides of the same row of buildings. The buildings on the left in the bottom shot are in the same row as the buildings on the left on the top shot. The bottom shot is looking south, the top shot is looking north. Off to the right of the lower shot is the Hsindian River.

The top shot is a quiet residential street. Off to the right in the bottom shot is a public recreation area with booths, food, games, and ample pedal boats, almost boardwalk-y.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. White Russians (demo) (Marillion)
2. Pictures at an Exhibition, Promenade-The Market at Limoges-Catacombs (Mussorgsky)
3. Hide and Seek (Dreams Come True)
4. Unquiet Slumber for the Sleepers... (Genesis)
5. Bunun Tuza (David Darling & the Wulu Bunun)
6. Status Quo (Throwing Muses)
7. D/FW (The Vaughan Brothers)
8. Re-Enact the Crime (Unwound)
9. Mushaboom (demo) (Leslie Feist)
10. The Pan in Me (Amoco Renegades Steel Orchestra)

Hsindian River

February 13, 2007 - A few days after I officially moved to Hsindian, south of Taipei, I took off on my bike even further souther, south of Hsindian. The roads led to fantastic scenery and
much more of a "Taiwan feel". It made me feel that Taipei is exactly what the Taiwanese international sports teams are referred to as: Chinese Taipei. Taipei feels like it's occupied by (mainland) Chinese people and Chinese culture. I'm feeling that Taipei is not Taiwanese culture.

Not that this is good or bad. I came to Taiwan thinking I was pretty green - pro-Taiwan independence - probably greener than the rest of my family, because I believe in self-determination and human rights. Now I'm just pro-peace and reconciliation, although I don't think that is possible until the mainland Chinese government changes. That's the international matter.

Domestically, I've come to feel that Taiwan is rightfully a part of China. Taiwan, as a province, is no different from any other Chinese province. That is, it has its own culture and language, but it's still Chinese. Taiwan, as separate from China, is a Cold War relic. I may have my history wrong, I should probably look this up, but if it wasn't for the U.S., Mao Tse-tung would have chased Chiank Kai-shek to Taiwan and wiped out the Nationalists once and for all. Seriously, what else would have stopped him?

I think a viable Taiwanese attitude might be, "Fine, we're Chinese, we're part of China, we don't want to be independent, but we want to be part of democratic government that respects human and state rights. We'll wait until the climate changes, and then we'll reunite". And I do think the Communist government will change or fall eventually, just like any other Chinese dynasty. It'll be the 共產朝 - the Communist Dynasty.

Oh, whoops. I forgot I'm on blog. This is a road that runs along the Hsindian River heading to Wulai. I have no idea what the huge structure is, or what it does, but it looked like they were still building something on it or around it.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Nathan Jones (The Supremes)
2. Bounce ("Bounce" - Sondheim)
3. I Can See for Kilometers (The Who)
4. See Emily Play (Pink Floyd)
5. Failure (Kings of Convenience)
6. On the Air (Peter Gabriel)
7. Radar Follows You (Versus)
8. Female of the Species Chase ("Barnum")
9. I'm a Brass Band ("Sweet Charity")
10. Blank Page (Smashing Pumpkins)

rooftop deck

February 13, 2007 - View from my rooftop deck looking southeast over Hsindian. That building on the left was previously scene in this prior entry. The Jingmei River is to the left of this shot. The road right here in front is Fuxing Road, and if you follow it just to the end of this shot, you hit a bridge that puts you back in Taipei. Likewise if you take the cross street right here and go left, you almost immediately hit a bridge that goes back into Taipei. So Taipei still is definitely my reference, but the unfortunate reality is that I now live in Hsindian, making me inferior.


Turn around from the previous shot and this is the rooftop deck.


Walk forward in the previous shot and shoot down the alley on the right, and you can see a sliver of the Jingmei River and Taipei beyond.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. All Day and All of the Night (live) (The Kinks)
2. Nothing Achieving (The Police)
3. Iro Iro no Ba (Yuko Hara)
4. Cheeseballs in Cowtown (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
5. I'm Nothing Without You ("City of Angels")
6. What's the Frequency, Kenneth? (R.E.M.)
7. See the Positive (The Maupin/Williams Project)
8. Symphony No. 41, I. Allegro vivace (Mozart)
9. The Advantages of Floating in the Middle of the Sea ("Pacific Overtures" - Sondheim)
10. Oh (Fugazi)

Daan Forest Park Amphitheater

February 12, 2007 - Shot from the top of the hill. There's a nice sunset glow on the stage, pleasant in the Winter, but explains why there are so few performances here in the Summer. That stage must get awfully hot! It's a nice design with the bleacher area and then the lawn area.


Empty stage from the stage left "wings".

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Ant's Dance (Mary Timony)
2. Tenchi no Love Song (Nokko)
3. The Best of Times ("La Cage Aux Folles")
4. Torokel Lady (The Bubble Gum Brothers)
5. People Are Expensive (Echobelly)
6. Hinomoto no Uta (The Boom)
7. Flowers for the Dead (National Joy Band)
8. Anesthesia (Deadweight)
9. All the Love (Kate Bush)
10. Who Will Buy? ("Oliver!")

Tu Zi Ting Yin Yue

February 12, 2007 - Daan District, Taipei, Taiwan. Not far from Yongkang Street is my favorite name for a restaurant. 兔子(Rabbit)廳(Listens)音樂(Music), or Bunny Listens to the Music. I've never been inside, though. I hear it's a little weird, that it looks like it's trying to be a child-friendly place, but is totally not, and so it doesn't know what it's trying to be.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Pinocchio Theory (Bootsy Collins)
2. Ghost World (acoustic) (Aimee Mann)
3. Evacuation (Pearl Jam)
4. You're My Drug (Dukes of Stratosphear)
5. Grandfather and Tonka Talks (Travis Terry)
6. One Lick Less (Unwound)
7. All Blues (Rebirth Marching Jazz Band)
8. Jellicle Songs for Jellicle Cats ("Cats")
9. Melody for Mahakala (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
10. Funk Pop a Roll (XTC)

in with the new...

February 12, 2007 - My new apartment, not too much of a departure from my old apartment. I guess I've gotten as much used to it as I will at this point. Which is to say I have a comfortable existence, but wouldn't stay if an opportunity to leave came up. Still, I wouldn't go back to my old apartment, either. The improvements in this apartment clearly outweigh misgivings about moving.


February 13, 2007 - Xindian Riverside bikeway. I take this to school everyday. I get on the bikeway system on the Jingmei River, but it meets the Xindian River pretty soon. I ride no more than 3 km before I get off at the Gongguan entry way, then it's probably another kilometer to get to campus, and then maybe another kilometer to get to the language building. Big campus.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Pictures at an Exhibition, Promenade-Il Vecchio Castello (Mussorgsky)
2. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Any Mo') (Taj Mahal)
3. Black Mountain Side (Led Zeppelin)
4. Neighborhood (Space)
5. Lyrics To Go (A Tribe Called Quest)
6. Horses (Tori Amos)
7. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone (David Bowie)
8. Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel) (live) (Kansas)
9. Willing to Fight (live) (Ani DiFranco)
10. It Don't Matter to Me (Phil Collins)

Buildings

February 3, 2007 - Daan Park footbridge. I always liked that building on the southwest corner at the Heping East Road-Xinsheng South Road intersection. The windows are a colorful patchwork of, I dunno . . . different shit - hey, I never said I was a poet!

This was in the last days before I moved. I miss that neighborhood. I'm sure my new neighborhood has hidden appreciations that would come out if I suddenly moved again.


February 5, 2007 - Taipei 101 at night. I think I held the 2 on my lap and opened up the shutter for a really long time, and it looks like I did a half decent job of holding it really, really still. I was probably holding my breath. Fortunately I can hold my breath longer than it took to get this exposure.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Quiet (Smashing Pumpkins)
2. Motorway (The Kinks)
3. Leaving Here (Eddie Holland - Motown)
4. Sale of the Century (Sleeper)
5. Natural Disasters (Enon)
6. Punk (Gorillaz)
7. Knives Out (Radiohead)
8. Invisible Sun (The Police)
9. Gettin' Jiggy Wit It (Will Smith)
10. Jigsaw Youth (Bikini Kill)

low light flash shots

January 28, 2007 - Across the street from the northeast corner of Daan Forest Park on weekends are the Jianguo Holiday (Weekend) Jade Market and Flower Market. During the weekdays they're all car parks underneath the Jianguo Expressway. They run for several very long blocks, maybe about half a kilometer total. They're great for people watching if you can stand the crowds constantly nudging, rubbernecking, and bumping into you. Which I often can't.


Irises at the flower market.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Sexy S (Belly)
2. Giant Steps (Gary Willis)
3. I'm Still Here ("Follies" - Sondheim)
4. Grendel (Marillion)
5. Mother (Pink Floyd)
6. The Professional (Sleater-Kinney)
7. Tea in the Sahara (live) (The Police)
8. Talby (more or less live) (Pinback)
9. Pueblo Nuevo (Ruben Gonzalez - "Buena Vista Social Club")
10. Ice (Sarah McLachlan)

Still in Daan Forest Park

January 28, 2007 - This is the northeast corner entrance of Daan Forest Park, where Jian Guo South Road and Xinyi East Road intersect. It is apparently the spiritual nexus of Taipei, where religious groups gather and meditate and hand out propaganda. Lot of Buddhist monks of various sects and schools, and Falun Gong.

As far as accepting alms, I think this monk has the concept right. At least I like his MO. Stay out of peoples' way and continue practicing.


The version of the vibraphone ensemble without showing my shadow doing the Power Rangers pose.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Powerhouse at the Foot of the Mountain (Peter Gabriel - "Birdy")
2. Charity's Theme ("Sweet Charity")
3. Starcrazy (Suede)
4. Uwaki-Bush (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
5. You've Got a Friend (Carole King)
6. Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee ("Grease")
7. Save Me (Queen)
8. Electioneering (Radiohead)
9. No Backrub (Bikini Kill)
10. Counting Backwards (Throwing Muses)

Daan Park playground

January 28, 2007 - I guess these pretty much speak for themselves. It was a crowded pre-New Years Sunday in the park, and by the way I bitch about the weather here, it was probably the rare sunny day that drove people out with their kids in, um, droves.



iTunes soundtrack:
1. Hot Type (Michael Hedges)
2. Bliss (Tori Amos)
3. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) (Marvin Gaye)
4. Hyoutan Karakoma (Southern All-Stars)
5. Capacity (Deadweight)
6. Sexy Sadie (The Beatles - Anthology)
7. Kimi wo Omou (Chitose Hajime)
8. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (live) (The Police)
9. Nobody's Home (Kansas)
10. Only You (J-Walk)

A Walk in the Park

Old:

January 28, 2007 - I wonder what allows me to be so jaded to say that I never want to be in a wheelchair, with something stuck up my nose attached to a tank, being pushed around a park by a caretaker from another country or a child, grandchild, or other relative, trying to get as comfortable as my ailing physical manifestation will let me. Not to say anything about people who do, as far as I know, it's part of the life choice they made.

I'm not sure why, but I get a lot more blurry shots from the 2 than I did with Bebe. It's the same shutter mechanism, and I'm shooting the same way.

Young:

The northeast corner of Daan Forest Park. There's a playground, a sandbox and nice outdoor kiddie stage, so this section of park was obviously meant for families with children.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Flavor of the Month (Black Sheep)
2. It Couldn't Please Me More ("Cabaret")
3. I Won (The Sundays)
4. Excerpt from 'Lamplight Symphony' (live) (Kansas)
5. Rain Dogs (Tom Waits)
6. Celebration (Matsuri) (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
7. My I.Q. (live) (Ani DiFranco)
8. She's the One (Bruce Springsteen)
9. I Cannot Believe It's True (Phil Collins)
10. Kohaku no Tsuki (Dreams Come True)

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)

The Sailor Moon pose

January 25, 2007 - Taida campus outside one of the commissaries. That building was about to be demolished, and it is currently a diminishing pile of rubble.


January 28, 2007 - Daan Forest Park Amphitheater with a vibraphone ensemble onstage. I hate getting my shadow in shots and try not to shoot with the sun anywhere behind me. It's like, you know, breaking down the third wall or something.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. We Will Rock You (Queen)
2. Fallow (Versus)
3. Excuse Me (Peter Gabriel)
4. Diamond Dogs (live) (David Bowie)
5. Echo (Sweet Honey in the Rock)
6. Pass the 40 (Black Sheep)
7. Jailbreak (AC/DC)
8. Mother (Puffy)
9. Providence (Sonic Youth)
10. Rain (Princess Princess)

Ximending

January 16, 2007 - And yet another night lomo in Ximending (there were, like, 3 earlier!), and now I'm confused. I think this, and not the earlier night, was the night I met someone for a language exchange, and the other time was when my uncle got me drunk at dinner and I went to Starbucks to sober up before riding home. My notes are detailed, but not that detailed.

Anyway, if I haven't mentioned it before, Ximending is kind of a hip happening place where young people go to hang out and be hip. I think it tries to be Shibuya, but. . . no. No.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Rhythm of Life (Sammy Davis, Jr.)
2. Sway (Shriekback)
3. Somebody (Amoco Renegades Steel Orchestra)
4. A Love Song (Travis Terry - Native American flute)
5. Wild Wild Life (Talking Heads)
6. Let's Go Crazy (Prince)
7. Love Secrets (Steve Vai)
8. Ba-ba (Princess Princess)
9. In My Life (The Beatles)
10. Wrapped Around Your Finger (The Police)

Taida Pot Farm

January 3, 2007 - This is on the Taida campus. They're growing stuff in a field on the Taida campus. That's pretty impressive. I wonder what department it's associated with. Botany? Agriculture? Genetics? Food Service? Pot?

When it rains and I can't ride my bike, the way it has been raining for the last three days straight since the semester began, one of my options to get to school is taking a bus that drops me off on Keelung Road, and then I walk along the road at the left. It's a shorter walk than from the MRT station, which is about a mile! Big campus.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Robbery, Assault & Battery (Genesis)
2. New Disco (live) (Mission of Burma)
3. Flight of the Cosmic Hippo (live) (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
4. Teen Age Riot (Sonic Youth)
5. Credit In the Straight World (Hole)
6. Ozone Baby (Led Zeppelin)
7. Temptation of Egg (Giant Sand)
8. Big Wave (Southern All-Stars)
9. My Name is Mud (Primus)
10. The Spring of Next Year ("Dear World")

bike related shots

January 15, 2007 - Sitting outside the Taida library with my bike, probably before class.


About to ride through one of two tunnels on Hsinhai Road after class. Oh, I was looking for a new apartment because of allergies in my old apartment, and I was lucky to get a sunny day to ride through my new potential neighborhoods. One of the apartments would have taken me through this tunnel everyday to go to school, and quite honestly, I do think increased frequency with which one travels through these tunnels on bikes, increases the likelihood of getting hit, more so than riding just on ordinary streets, which is pretty dangerous in itself. Riding through the tunnels, you're a sitting duck, with no leeway to do anything to prevent getting hit. You ride, you pray.

The apartment I chose, although not as nice and with paper thin walls, allows me to get to school using mostly the safe, flat, and getting boring riverside bikeways.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Tribute to Johnny (Smashing Pumpkins)
2. Ravine (Genesis)
3. Bush Killa (Paris)
4. Nisei Fight Song (Seam)
5. Rock in This Pocket (Song of David) (Suzanne Vega)
6. Canary in a Coalmine (The Police)
7. What You Want (My Bloody Valentine)
8. Demure (Engine Down)
9. Gone Daddy Gone (Violent Femmes)
10. Sorry-Grateful ("Company" - Sondheim)

New Years Day

January 1, 2007 - For New Years Day, Solar New Years Day, I took the MRT all the way north to Danshuei Station, and then a bus to the mouth of the Danshuei River where there's a "Fisherman's Wharf" and a beach on the Taiwan Straits. They built a bridge to the Fisherman's Wharf area, but if you consider the topography, this bridge is totally superfluous, as Fisherman's Wharf is connected to land just a short ways away. They built a bridge just for the sake of building a bridge.

I wonder where the name "Fisherman's Wharf" came from. I thought it was a San Francisco thing, but there's also a "Fisherman's Wharf" in Kaohsiung, a newly refurbished, hip, waterfront area. At least they're trying to make it hip.

I had a t-shirt idea for Fisherman's Wharf with Worf from "Star Trek" sitting in a tiny rowboat dressed in fishing gear with a fishing line in the water. I thought it'd be cute.


On the beach.


The mouth of the Danshuei River from Fisherman's Wharf. I think the Fisheye 2 has a higher occurrence of blurry lomos than Bebe did, but OK. It's annoying but I kinda like it, too.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. It's Enough (Sleater-Kinney)
2. Help! (The Beatles)
3. I Never (Rilo Kiley)
4. Love (John Lennon)
5. Black Dove (January) (Tori Amos)
6. Stir It Up (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
7. Hanadairou (Chitose Hajime)
8. The Kill (Fugazi)
9. Driving the Last Spike (live) (Genesis)
10. Give It Away (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

New Years street shooting

January 1, 2007 - I think these were shot in the same spirit that I mentioned earlier - riding around with the 2 out and shooting while riding. This is at an intersection on Roosevelt Road, a major north-south thoroughfare, but the green light suggests that this was shot while moving.

Why this street is named "Roosevelt" is beyond me. I think it's the only road in Taipei with a Western name, and even that is butchered when transcribed into Chinese. They pronounce it "Luo Su Fu". Does that resemble "Roosevelt" in any way? OK, in any way, maybe. But in any reasonable way? No.

In Japanese when Western words are transcribed, as funny sounding as they may be at the beginning, at least you can make sense of it. Whoops, I'm ranting.


Also at an intersection on Roosevelt Road, but obviously stopped.


The intersection of Roosevelt Road and Ai Guo Road, as evidenced by the National Concert Hall there. There was very little traffic that morning, it being Solar New Years Day and in rare deference to Western mores, it was a holiday. It was great riding around Taipei on a rare sunny day with so little traffic.


The Presidential Palace. There was so little traffic that I rode a big circle in the middle of this thoroughfare to get this straight-on shot of the Presidential Palace. There's always military stationed in front to protect it, but I guess that's the same in the U.S., isn't it?

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Contact (The Police)
2. 16 Shells from a Thirty-Ought Six (Tom Waits)
3. Undertow (remixed) (Genesis)
4. The Moth (Aimee Mann)
5. Mind Terrorist (Public Enemy)
6. Tea For One (Led Zeppelin)
7. Slow Dog (Belly)
8. Sunny Afternoon (live) (The Kinks)
9. Tame (The Pixies)
10. Trouble (Kristin Hersh)

juxtaposing starbucks

December 26, 2006 - Ximending Starbucks. I think this is after I met someone for language exchange, which turned out less to be an exchange, since as soon as we quickly switched to English, it was all English.

My running joke about studying Mandarin is that everyone around me's English is getting a lot better. OK, it's not a funny joke, but it definitely is a joke.


February 8, 2007 - Gongguan Starbucks, studying before the final exam. It was really hard to study in the final weeks because the rest of Taida University completed their semester and were on break. The campus feel was too relaxed to study. It was great.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Radio I (King Crimson)
2. Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd)
3. Symphony No. 40, II. Andante (Mozart)
4. Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp)
5. I Need You (The Beatles)
6. Black and Grey (Deadweight)
7. Hikui Isu (Low Chair) (Saboten)
8. Pink India (Stephen Malkmus)
9. Scream Like a Baby (David Bowie)
10. Pablo Picasso (The Modern Lovers)

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)