Two More of Mongkok

May 15, 2006 - Funky pastel coloured buildings lining a street market. I haven't figured out if Hong Kong refers only to the island of Hong Kong, or if it includes the greater Hong Kong area, including part of the Asian continent that borders mainland China. Mongkok is on that bit of land, which immediatly across from Hong Kong is called Kowloon. Don't quote me on that, though.


Pedestrian footbridge that covers an extensive part of street in Mongkok. Very useful for getting perspective.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. I Hope You're Happy Now (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
2. Just Like U Said It Would B (Sinead O'Connor)
3. For You Blue (The Beatles)
4. 4:37 A.M. (Arabs With Knives & West German Skies) (Roger Waters)
5. Take the Long Way Home (live) (Supertramp)
6. Pasibutbut (David Darling & the Wulu Bunun)
7. Bigtime Sensuality (Bjork)
8. Breakthru (Queen)
9. You Know What I Mean (Phil Collins)
10. Stratford-On-Guy (Liz Phair)

Two of Mongkok

Gah, so where was I? Oh yea, trip to Hong Kong.

May 15, 2006 - One of the main drags in the Mongkok section of Hong Kong, the one with all the camera shops. I was hoping to score a new digital, but without knowing the language, and not quite sure what the haggling expectations are, either in Hong Kong or Taiwan, I'm scared of paying too much for a camera. I don't want to pay the asking price and find out that haggling could have gotten me a better price, and some camera store clerk smirked me a sucker for paying the asking price. I don't want to be punk'd. Who does?

Anyway, the model I'm looking for, which isn't normally sold in the U.S. (it's not in B&H or J&R), is available through some online sites in the U.S. for surprisingly far less than either Hong Kong or Taiwan, so I'm going to wait till I visit the U.S. in August and hope those online prices remain and aren't a fluke.


A Mongkok intersection.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Skimbleshanks ("Cats")
2. Macilumah (David Darling & the Wulu Bunun)
3. Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel)
4. Maori Chant (The Neville Brothers)
5. Bea (Throwing Muses)
6. Black Coffee In Bed (Squeeze)
7. Drivin' on 9 (The Breeders)
8. John-G (Yuko Hara)
9. Pictures At An Exhibition, Prom.-Il Vecchio Castello (Mussorgsky)
10. Bernadette (The Kinks)

Hong Kong Visa Run

May 15, 2006 - Not sure what's going on here. Stepped out of the train station in Hong Kong and decided to shoot whatever was there? Looks like it.


The famous hills of Hong Kong? Is Hong Kong famous for its hills? I think the hills keep Hong Kong cramped up against the northern coast of the island. If so, Hong Kong is even smaller than what it looks like on the map. I do remember a Hong Kong film called "Life is Cheap, Toilet Paper is Expensive", which has a nauseating 10 minute foot chase seen, shot from the point of view of the chaser. It started up in the hills, came down to the urban area, down into the subway system, and then back up again to about street level (not sure if it was supposed to be metaphor). I had to watch the last few minutes of the chase out of the corner of my eye to keep from throwing up. Great movie, wish I could find it somewhere to rent.


Making my way to the visa office using internet downloaded maps. I love learning the layout of somewhere using a map, and then seeing it as it really is. It's always pleasantly disappointing. Buildings, people, traffic, but alive, long in existence before I got there, long after I leave.

It's not officially a visa office. I think it's actually called a travel agency because China doesn't recognize Taiwan, and China now owns Hong Kong. And they don't actually issue the visa in the Hong Kong office, maybe for the same reason. You get a little slip of paper that you take back to Taiwan, like a claim ticket, and at the airport, you go to one last counter and they issue the visa there on Taiwanese soil. Weird.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Little Earthquakes (live) (Tori Amos)
2. Man In a Suitcase (live) (The Police)
3. Prettiest Star (David Bowie)
4. Runaways (XTC)
5. The Weight of My Words (Four Tet Instrumental Remix)
6. Cheapskate (Supergrass)
7. Homeopathy (Rainer Maria)
8. Flute Concerto in G Major (Vivaldi)
9. Angels Rush In (Versus)
10. Cosmic Rays (Helium)

Train to Hong Kong

Bah! My internet at home is down again. That means I have to go to the public library again for my internet fix. This is unacceptable, right? Tell me that I should definitely leave at the end of my lease at the end of August and move to a place that has reliable internet.


May 15, 2006 - First lomo frame on the ground in Hong Kong, taking the express airport train to Hong Kong proper. It was beautiful landing in Hong Kong. The airport is kinda out there, and to get to Hong Kong forces you to travel through stunning tropical island landscape, lots of water and mountainous islands. Seeing it from a train window, I'm sure, doesn't do it justice.

Unfortunately, this was my first time in Hong Kong, I can't even remember a single word of Cantonese from any of the Hong Kong films I've seen, I was only going for a day to get a student visa back to Taiwan, and I was sleep deprived, having stayed overnight at the Taipei airport so that I could make sure I got there on time for the first flight out. That was brutal. And I had only done rudimentary research on what to do for the 4-5 hours I'd be waiting to get my visa.

I notice an aberrant peak in visits to this quiet site. Feel free to say "hi!", ya'll.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Polka Dots and Moonbeams (Wes Montgomery)
2. Das Neue Japanische Elekronische Volkslied (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
3. Sweet Virginia (The Rolling Stones)
4. Stay Up Late (Talking Heads)
5. Liquid Fire (Nokko)
6. Blown a Wish (My Bloody Valentine)
7. David Watts (live) (The Kinks)
8. Gotta Stay High (New Radicals)
9. That's All (Genesis)
10. Ain't Got No (reprise) ("Hair")

View above the clouds

May 15, 2006 - Even in lomospeak, this is the universal shot meaning flying off to a new destination. In this case, I was flying to Hong Kong on an infamous "visa run". Flight schedules allow it so that from Taiwan, people can fly in, get their passports stamped, and head right back to Taiwan at most in a couple hours.

I, however, actually had to go to Hong Kong to get a student visa in my U.S. passport, since I entered Taiwan on my Taiwanese visa. The Taiwanese passport is virtually useless. It basically amounts to a 3 month visa with the threat of being drafted into military service if I by accident stay for over 4 months. Taiwanese passport doesn't mean Taiwanese citizenship. Doesn't mean you can stay here. Me, Taiwanese? No, yo hablo espanol.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Get Back (The Beatles)
2. Speed of Life (live) (David Bowie)
3. Company ("Company" - Sondheim)
4. Farewell and Goodnight (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. One On One (Hall & Oates)
6. Home Again (Carole King)
7. Dhadkne Saansein Jawane ("Beta" - bollywood)
8. Love Struck Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
9. Chamber Symphony in C Minor, I. Largo (Shostakovich)
10. Mad Dog God Dam (Elastica)

May 1, 2006 - I vaguely remember this being one of the few sunny days after days and days of relentless rain. And even after the rain is gone, the umbrellas come out for the sun. Including while riding a bike! This is on Heping East Road. My apartment is on the left and Daan Park is on the right. I think I went to my bank that morning and was riding to school at this point...oh, May 1, I did go to my bank to get money, and was riding to my landlord's bank, on the way to school, to deposit rent money.

In more recent news, since these photos are now two months behind. The constant rain has stopped and appears to have been replaced by what appears to be monsoon rains, much more bearable. That just means every late afternoon there's a downpour. Also, my bike is on extended loan to a stranger. Apparently, I left my bike unlocked in front of my apartment, intending to go out again on it, but then left it like that overnight. So the P.O.S. Enterprise is no more. Yay! Seriously, that was no loss. Just a little inconvenient no that I have to learn the bus lines.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Welcome Back (Tara Jane O'Neil)
2. The Sun Has Got His Hat On ("Me and My Girl")
3. Avenue (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
4. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Van Halen)
5. Here Comes the Flood (Peter Gabriel)
6. You Wanna Bet ("Sweet Charity")
7. Snowball In Hell (They Might Be Giants)
8. #41 (Dave Matthews Band)
9. Let Me Go Home (Camera Obscura)
10. Everything is All (Echobelly)

Bikeway Bridges

April 22, 2006 - These are both bridges crossing the Key Lime River, which divides Taipei into the southern "Taipei proper" and the northern "suburbs", which aren't suburban at all, but have a looser, more relaxed feel. Actually, I have no idea, I don't spend much time north of the Key Lime River. I only go if I'm specifically going somewhere for some reason.

The first picture is the Dazhi Bridge, a very nice bridge, and is the only relatively easy way to cross the Key Lime River on bike, which also prevents me from exploring much north of the river. The second shot is more on the eastern side of the city and is pretty non-descript. Not sure why I shot it, aside from it looked neat while riding along the bikeway.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Waiting For the Girls Upstairs ("Follies" - Sondheim)
2. In the Cage (live medley) (Genesis)
3. Been A Son (Nirvana)
4. Sapphire Bullets of Love (They Might Be Giants)
5. At Last (Etta James)
6. With A Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles)
7. Toxic Girl (1963 Monte Carlo Version) (Kings of Convenience)
8. Lively Up Yourself (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
9. Almost Blue (Elvis Costello & the Attractions)
10. Thank You (live) (Led Zeppelin)

Hangin' Out at the Airport Watching Planes Take Off

April 22, 2006 - Songshan Airport. Several weeks before this, I had been riding around an area where the planes were passing pretty close overhead. That inspired me to see how close I could get to where planes were taking off and landing. Turns out there's this area where people regularly go to watch planes take off and land. It was kinda neat, but isn't watching planes take off and land more of a loner, bored thing to do with a six-pack or a bong? Not a place to take a date or your family for a barbeque. Well, no barbecue. The area was surrounded by auto repair shops and the few environmental standards in Taiwan apparently don't apply to auto repair shops. There were puddles I didn't want to ride my piece-of-shit bike through. And I imagine some of the airplane exhaust is in particulate form which comes down.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Epic Problem (Fugazi)
2. Thoroughly Modern Millie ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
3. How I Saved Roosevelt ("Assassins" - Sondheim)
4. No Language In Our Lungs (XTC)
5. Frank's Wild Years (Tom Waits)
6. Ein Deutches Requiem, V. Ihr habt nun Traurigkeit (Brahms)
7. Caffeine (Kristin Hersh)
8. Everyone a Puzzle Lover (10,000 Maniacs)
9. Don't Believe the Good News (Archers of Loaf)
10. Yebo! (Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens)

The Downstairs Cafe

Ah, the downstairs cafe. Not sure what to say about it. They got to know me and what I wanted, so I was able to stop asking. When they saw me, they would just confirm, "美式咖啡?" (Americano coffee - espresso with hot water), and I would nod or give them a thumbs up or do a little dance. That was last term when I had afternoon class and before I started making coffee at home. This term, I have morning classes and make coffee at home. But sometimes during breaks, if a former classmate asks me to go get coffee with her, I'll go, and they still know what I want.



iTunes soundtrack:
1. Manbi no G*Spot (Southern All-Stars)
2. Me and My Charms (Kristin Hersh)
3. The Joker (Sakura)
4. Heading For The Light (The Traveling Wilburys)
5. One World (Not Three)/Love is the Seventh Wave (live) (Sting)
6. Every Word (Belly)
7. Flores De Los Muertos (The National Joy Band)
8. Is This Love? (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
9. Strange Magic (Electric Light Orchestra)
10. Capri Pants (Bikini Kill)

perspective

April 19, 2006 - One of the main streets of the Shida night market. Interesting thing about the fisheye view is that normally, I don't notice anything above street level on the night market streets because there is so much going on and so much there and so many people at street level that it's probably hazardous to look up. So looking at this, I didn't recognize where it was until I just focused at the lower part of the shot.

The crunch of people at peak hours at some of the night markets is really insane, especially for people-avoidant people like me. I usually put on my "Hard Groove" playlist on my iPod and blast it. To get me through a crowd a people, nothing works like music that makes me want to plow right through them.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Abacab (Genesis)
2. Mahakala (Monks of the Gyütö Monastery)
3. Furious (Throwing Muses)
4. Lustra (Echobelly)
5. The Word (The Beatles)
6. Mona Lisa (Nat King Cole)
7. Far East Medley (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
8. Last Dance (Sarah McLachlan)
9. Hinomoto no Uta (The Boom)
10. Hold On ("Secret Garden")

Sun!

April 19, 2006 - Shida annex campus (across the street from the main campus) from the 9th floor of the language building.

After all my griping about gloom, clouds, and rain, here is photographic evidence that the sun has, in fact, come out during the past three and a half months that I've been in Taipei. It's hard to believe.

Sorry, I'm not impressed.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Domino (live) (Genesis)
2. You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates)
3. Sunday, Part II (Cibo Matto)
4. I'll Be Gone (Tom Waits)
5. A Bowler Hat ("Pacific Overtures" - Sondheim)
6. You Started Laughing (live) (Supertramp)
7. Who Cares (Unwound)
8. Artists Only (live) (Talking Heads)
9. Cello Suite No. 6, II. Allemande (Bach - Yo-Yo Ma)
10. Gospel Truth (764-HERO)

low light

Here are some examples of the poor performance of the lomo fisheye in low light.


April 19, 2006 - The MTC language lab. The tape players don't have speed control, which doesn't seem right for a language lab. It's just another item in a list of things that I find lacking in this school. But really, we're getting what we pay for, and tuition is pretty cheap - about $550 for a 3 month term. There's a better program at another nearby university, but it costs about $3000 for a 3 month term.


April 19, 2006 - Shooting into my previous classroom from outside the window that overlooks the central atrium.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Candyland (Kristin Hersh)
2. Gone! (The Cure)
3. Once I Had a Love (demo) (Blondie)
4. The Rhythm (XTC)
5. The Fruit That Ate Itself (Modest Mouse)
6. Security of the First World (Public Enemy)
7. Island of Woods (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
8. It Is Accomplished (Peter Gabriel - "Passion")
9. Symphony No. 10, III. Allegretto (Shostakovich)
10. Whipping (Pearl Jam)

clouds clouds clouds ...and flowers

April 19, 2006 - Flowers down a residential side street of Shida nightmarket. How do they bloom without any sun? Maybe they just don't know any better.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Show Business (A Tribe Called Quest)
2. Ima Doki no Otoko no Ko (O-Sensu Mix) (Nokko)
3. Safe European Home (The Clash)
4. Slippery People (live) (Talking Heads)
5. If You Cross (Three Mile Pilot)
6. Dollars & Cents (Radiohead)
7. Carbonation (Enon)
8. Midnight Sun (Ella Fitzgerald)
9. I Am the Audience (XTC)
10. Sale of the Century (Sleeper)

Three from Daan Park

As rainy and cloudy as Taipei has been (and if this is the norm, I ain't stayin'), it's hard to have days with good enough light to shoot or want to shoot. So it was a rare day on April 19, probably after a long stretch of rain every day, when I shot over 10 frames with Bebe.


This is kind of the middle of the park.


Someone was feeling unusually clever designing this phone kiosk. Seriously, this is the height of creativity I've seen in Taiwan in terms of public design.


Amphitheater. It's a nice amphitheater, but I haven't seen used once for an event. Maybe in the Summer. Maybe if it stops raining. I've seen it used a lot for group dancing lessons and tai chi.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Celluloid Heroes (live) (The Kinks)
2. Four Minutes (Roger Waters)
3. Blind (Talking Heads)
4. Goodbye, Darlin' (Dreams Come True)
5. Psalmodies (Music of the Himalays & Nepal)
6. Precious Things (Tori Amos)
7. Symphony No. 1, IV. Finale (Adagio, Allegro Molto E Vivace) (Beethoven)
8. Glass House (Ani DiFranco)
9. Doll Is Mine (Blonde Redhead)
10. Ghosts In the Radio (Pretty Girls Make Graves)

Daan Park footbridges

I didn't intend this to be a default shot (a scene I shoot repeatedly at different times), but there it was on April 12 (previous post), and it showed up twice on a roll I just got developed, so maybe it should be a default shot. Always the northeast corner.


April 19, 2006


May 1, 2006

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Distant Early Warning (live) (Rush)
2. Toxic (Britney Spears)
3. The Waiting Room (Rare Air)
4. (I Know) I'm Losing You (The Temptations)
5. The Hut on Hen's Legs (Baba Yaga)/The Great Gate of Kiev (Mussorgsky)
6. Pride and Joy (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
7. The Secret Life of Arabia (David Bowie)
8. Market Square Heroes (Marillion)
9. Does Your Mama Know About Me (Bobby Taylor)
10. Midtown (Tom Waits)

My favorite footbridge (again)

April 12, 2006 - Footbridge at the intersection of Heping East Road and Xinsheng South Road. I love how the fisheye makes it look like it's not a square. I've found other footbridges that link all four corners of an intersection. I have to make a mental note to shoot them. None of them have the character of this one.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Happiness Is A Warm Gun (The Beatles)
2. Séquelles (MC Solaar)
3. New York (U2)
4. Thought I Was (Rainer Maria)
5. Soul Mining (The The)
6. Havona (Weather Report)
7. You Make Loving Fun (Fleetwood Mac)
8. The Move (The Beastie Boys)
9. Sukiyaki (Selena)
10. Crazy Baldhead (Bob Marley & the Wailers)

Walking to Shida Street sequence

April 11, 2006 - A rare sunny day, crossing Heping East Road, the major street crossing for Shida University.


Hanging out with classmates, we were probably going for dessert - shaved ice if I know me. They all know that if they ask me along, we will inevitably end up going for shaved ice. This is kind of a reverse shot of the previous one. The D shaped building of the main library is in the background, and behind that is the Mandarin Training Center.


Weird probably street art thingie on top of the phone booth. I think you'd only find this sort of thing around universities in culturally conservative Taiwan. I'm still looking for the underground.


Longguan Street. It's actually the next street down from Shida St., but is the main drag of what becomes the Shida night market. So it's not Shida St. at all. Low light and expired film, I didn't expect this to come out. I was shooting for the light reflecting in the mirrors of the motor scooters, and that stands out at least.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Acid Queen (The Who)
2. (A) Face In the Crowd (The Kinks)
3. All You Need Is Love (The Beatles)
4. Mali (Charlie Hunter Quintet)
5. Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano Trio No. 2; VII. Intime (Bolling-Rampal)
6. Blown A Wish (My Bloody Valentine)
7. Give A Little Bit (Supertramp)
8. Song 2 (Blur)
9. Coastline (764-HERO)
10. Obsoléte (MC Solaar)

Back at the library

Bah! Internet is down at my apartment. Which was a good thing while I was in the final week of the term, studying for a final and stressing about a final project I didn't much care for. But now being relegated to going to the public library again for internet access is getting old. Timely, though, since this shot from an upper floor of the library came up.


Daan Park, southeast corner entrance.

So my term ended and I went to Kaohsiung in the south of Taiwan for a couple days to visit family, and I still don't have internet at home. I also didn't take a single lomo shot while I was down there curious. I'm almost done with the roll that's in the camera, though, But it's been through four airport scanners, so I'm not sure what kind of effect that will have on the film.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. And Through The Wire (Peter Gabriel)
2. Infidelity (Only You) (Skunk Anansie)
3. Me And You (Duke Ellington)
4. Sweet Black Angel (The Rolling Stones)
5. 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought Six (Tom Waits)
6. You're In A Bad Way (Saint Etienne)
7. She Fell Into My Arms (Ed Harcourt)
8. State of Love and Trust (Pearl Jam)
9. Many Too Many (Genesis)
10. Baseball Field (Kristin Hersh)

Buildings of Shida University

April 6, 2006 - I don't know what building this is. They put a big bow on it to celebrate something like a 50th Anniversary.


From a 9th floor balcony. Our current classroom doesn't have an outdoor balcony. I'm switching out of our current class next term to go to a slower class, because I'm like, slow, but I did suggest to the rest of them to put in a request for a class with a balcony. The teacher said they had nothing to lose and just might get it. Taiwan's a weird place.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Tamuke (Katsuya Yokoyama) shakuhachi
2. Perfect Indian (Sinead O'Connor)
3. Time (live) (Tom Waits)
4. Ghost Story (Versus)
5. Lavender (Marillion)
6. Hole In My Life (The Police)
7. The Way Back (Whysall Lane)
8. Dinosaur (David Byrne)
9. Future Legend (David Bowie)
10. The Path of Least Persistence (Figure II) (Shannon Wright)

Descent (into madness - last week of term)

April 5, 2006 - Planes landing at Songshan Airport. It was cool to be riding by and suddenly have these planes landing overhead. It might be not-so-cool to live in the area. This was pretty late in the day, and I was ready to head home. I did a later excursion, looking for a better vantage view of the take-offs and landings.



iTunes soundtrack:
1. Come Dancing (The Kinks)
2. Hang On To Yourself (David Bowie)
3. John Hardy's Wife (Duke Ellington) (not, mind you, John's Hardy Wife)
4. Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee ("Grease")
5. Always, Always You ("Carnival")
6. Ramble On Rose (The Grateful Dead)
7. Hikui Isu (Low Chair) (Saboten)
8. The Great Escape/The Last of You/Fallin' From the Moon (Marillion)
9. Sickbed (Rainer Maria)
10. Radio W-OO-Ten (Victor Wooten)