Boring nothing shot

June 25, 2008 - Taipei, Taiwan, Minzu E. Road and Xinsheng N. Road, Sec. 3, with the Xinsheng Expressway overhead, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was the Xinsheng canal. Canals aren't anything in Taipei, unlike Bangkok where they are extensive and used for transportation. Here they're dank and smelly, basically uncovered sewage lines leading to the rivers.

So now I'm on a new roll, a roll that took almost half a year to shoot. Uninspired, unmotivated, insomnial, and working. To emphasize it all, this kind of shot is what I fear is the best I can do. Boring shot of basically nothing. It's not without merit, but lord it ain't a good shot. Fortunately, it's among the worst on the roll. Meaning others are better. Maybe. I hope.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. War Pigs (Black Sabbath)
2. Gone (U2)
3. Hear My Heart (Edith Frost)
4. Adam and Eve (live) (Ani DiFranco)
5. The Lamia (live) (Genesis)
6. I Will Catch U (Nokko)
7. Symphony No. 41, III. Menuetto (Allegretto) (Mozart)
8. The Angels Hung Around (Rilo Kiley)
9. Oh! Darling (The Beatles)
10. Here Come the Bastards (Primus)

just some random shots

January 2, 2008 - Hackensack, NJ. Red-nosed VW in the parking lot of Target. I'm sure I could have found a better composition for this subject. You can barely see the antlers. Man, do people go nuts for Christmas.


January 4, 2008 - 175th Street station of the New York Subway system. This far north, I think only the "A" train comes to this station. It's where I go to/get off because it's where the George Washington Bridge is. I take a bus to cross the bridge, or sometimes walk. Why am I talking in the present tense?

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Trimmed and Burning (Built to Spill)
2. Vigil (Fish)
3. Pale (Kristin Hersh)
4. Creatures of Love (Talking Heads)
5. Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles)
6. Imamura Jane (Southern All-Stars)
7. Welcome to the Jungle (Guns 'N Roses)
8. Cracked Actor (David Bowie)
9. Dead End Job (The Police)
10. Trees (live) (Rush)

more Edgewater

January 10, 2008 - Probably around the same area as the previous post, but a couple days later, meaning I was probably down there watching movies. I remember "Sweeney Todd" came out about then. I forget what else I saw. I'm looking forward to the new "Batman". My co-worker already saw it to review it for the paper, although I didn't think we did movie reviews in house, we usually pull them from a U.S. wire. He said it was really good, mind-alteringly good. He said I'd really like it. It opens here a day earlier than in the U.S.. Strange.


Garbage can in the Hudson River, with the New York skyline bending with the horizon.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
2. Two Soldiers (David Byrne - "The Catherine Wheel")
3. Aeroflot (20 Minute Loop)
4. Koufukuron (Shiina Ringo)
5. Sweet Depression (Deadweight)
6. Macavity ("Cats")
7. Letter to a John/Tamburitza Lingua (live) (Ani DiFranco)
8. Bang! Bang! (Le Tigre)
9. Lazy (Suede)
10. I'll Be Back (demo) (The Beatles - Anthology)

Series shots

(1)

January 8, 2008 - Edgewater, NJ. Hudson River at sunset. New York City across the river.

(2)

A little further down the "pier".

(3)

Wake ripples, after a boat sailed past.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Difference Between Love and Hell (Sahara Hotnights)
2. Like a Lady (The Sounds)
3. Rock Me Now (Metric)
4. Assassing (live) (Marillion)
5. Hey Bulldog (The Beatles)
6. In the Rapids (live) (Genesis)
7. The Stars are Projectors (Modest Mouse)
8. Cello Suite No. 1, VI - Gigue (J.S. Bach - Yo-Yo Ma)
9. Say Hello to the World (Makihara Noriyuki)
10. Arabian Knights (Siouxsie & the Banshees)

Oh, and all Shiina Ringo muxtape. I think I'll upload a new muxtape every month or so. Wondering how that site will develop.

December 31, 2007 - Philadelphia church, same old theme, leaving Philly on New Year's Eve, car shot on the drive back to New Jersey below, blah blah blah, god, I gotta move on. Although you gotta admit that was pretty good light that day.

Well, I finally got a new roll developed today. I can't believe it took me half a year to finish a roll, that is seriously uninspired. So I'll blast through the rest of this roll and hope there's something worthy on the new roll.


This is probably still in Philly or in New Jersey before the Turnpike. It all looks the same.

I've had insomnia for a month, getting worse and worse. Now I'm either gonna cure it or accept it. I guess something's gotta change. It's weird. I'm not stressed, I don't have anything on my mind, I just can't sleep for more than 3 hours. But I did have this problem when I was working in San Francisco, so maybe the problem is work!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Risky (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
2. Ripple (The Grateful Dead)
3. Not for the Life of Me ("Thoroughly Modern Millie")
4. I Never (Rilo Kiley)
5. Night On the Sun (Modest Mouse)
6. Driven to Tears (live) (The Police)
7. Fly on a Windshield (Genesis)
8. Other Side of the World (KT Tunstall)
9. Hey Ladies (The Beastie Boys)
10. El Flaco Funk (John Pena)

December 31, 2007 - Daytime tunnel. Car shots, train platform shots, it looks like some serious typography on this last roll of developed lomo shots I have. But it wasn't intentional. Ah, unintended typography, the final bastion for the uninspired. Along with photo essays.

Don't worry, I'm not gonna subject anyone to another photo essay, especially myself. I think this shot was right after crossing into New Jersey from Pennsylvania on route. . . whatever, I don't remember. I'm almost done finishing the one roll I've been working on since this roll. It's bound to be disappointing or pleasantly surprising.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Good Times, Bad Times (Led Zeppelin)
2. Your Dirty Answer (Kristin Hirsch)
3. Ionizes & Atomizes (Modest Mouse)
4. Soul to Squeeze (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
5. White Sun (Takeshi Yamaguchi)
6. Blister in the Sun (Violent Femmes)
7. Obscured (Smashing Pumpkins)
8. I Don't Want U (Blonde Redhead)
9. Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love (Van Halen)
10. Believo! (Enon)

December 31, 2007 - Leaving Philadelphia on New Year's Eve. Urban skylines. Winter blue skies. Contrast to the sub-tropical Taipei drear, but it's all wonderful. What a great planet we have. Hope we can take care of it.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Symphony No. 8, II. Tempo di menuetto (Beethoven)
2. Five to One (The Doors)
3. Thinking of No One But Me ("My and My Girl")
4. Bodies (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. Sin in My Heart (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
6. Kathy's Waltz (The Dave Brubeck Quartet)
7. Listen to What the Man Said (Wings)
8. Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
9. Disarm (live, English TV 1993) (Smashing Pumpkins)
10. Them Heavy People (Kate Bush)

December 20, 2007 - 42nd Street station, 8th Avenue line, New York City. I take the "A" train in New York. But not because I'm going to Harlem, which is what I assume is the significance in the Duke Ellington song, but because I come from much lamer New Jersey. My, but this lomo makes New York subways look clean. They're not.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. And God Created Whales (Hovhaness)
2. You're Gonna Get Yours (Public Enemy)
3. Melt the Guns (XTC)
4. Driver 8 (R.E.M.)
5. Story from a Thin Wall (Marillion)
6. Raga Parmeshwari (Ravi Shankar & Ustad Alla Rakha)
7. Desafinado (George Michael & Astrud Gilberto)
8. Room for the Life (Kate Bush)
9. Indoor Fireworks (The Costello Show feat. the Attractions)
10. Only Us (Peter Gabriel)

Not sure how to blow the dust off this blog. I went to my Lomo 2008 folder to continue posting, and there was nothing there. The latest roll was in the 2007 folder. I haven't finished a single roll in 2008! A sure sign something needs to change and be shooken up.


December 4, 2007 - MRT station, either Shilin or Jiantan on the red line.

I think it might be safe to come back here. There was a family breach of this blog, but I haven't seen any return since then. Not that I've been shooting any.

December 31, 2007 - Sunny, New Years Eve morning, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Victoria (live) (The Kinks)
2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts I-V) (Pink Floyd)
3. Dumbells (live) (Mission of Burma)
4. Love Love Love (Dreams Come True)
5. Custom Concern (Modest Mouse)
6. Where Am I Going? ("Sweet Charity" 1986)
7. Tremor Christ (Pearl Jam)
8. Pump (The Sugarcubes)
9. Burnin' Love (Sing Like Talking)
10. The Power of Crappy Music (A-Mei)

January 6, 2008 - AIX Bistro on the Upper West Side, New York City. There's a jazz combo playing in this long exposure.

I'm down in Kaohsiung now, where I have legitimate internet and "The Sopranos" on a functioning cable line. Makes me think I'll get TV and internet once I get back to Taipei. It was nice not having them, but let's get real, yo'm sayn? Come on, I missed two episodes of "The Sopranos". That just won't do.

Tomorrow's the Presidential election here. Should be interesting to say the least.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Social Studies (David Byrne - "Music for the 'Knee Plays'")
2. Ain't Nobody Home (B.B. King)
3. Amy's Theme (Martin Denny - ultralounge)
4. The Boy (Smashing Pumpkins)
5. Arlington Girl (Shivaree)
6. Ol' 55 (Tom Waits)
7. Freddie Freeloader (Miles Davis)
8. Shatter (Liz Phair)
9. Torch Song (Marillion)
10. The Bewlay Brothers (David Bowie)

January 8, 2008 - Edgewater, New Jersey. This must have been a dock on the Hudson River, across from New York City. Now apartments and condos and a multi-plex behind me.

I still don't have internet at home. I'm posting from a bagel shop that under Taipei Main Station that happens to get someone's wireless. Too bad this isn't near where I live. I still have to look for a place near where I live that gets free internet.

I totally love my new place and the neighborhood. I can't believe I had qualms about moving, everything is so much better, even the slightly longer distances to every where. At least there are places to go now. Here's a pic of my new place. It's a photostitch panorama, a nifty feature of my new Canon SD870 (I think, I mostly know it by its Asian model number).

I'm going to Kaohsiung next Friday for a few days. I should have internet down there for those few days. And I might crack any day now and have internet installed.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Who Needs Information? (Roger Waters)
2. Samukhela (Eyuphuro)
3. Goodbye Caroline (Aimee Mann)
4. Guhyasamaja Tantra, Chapter II (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
5. Straight (Deadweight)
6. Museum Song ("Barnum")
7. Who the Cap Fit (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
8. 真實 (A-Mei)
9. I Want Your (Hands On Me) (Sinead O'Connor)
10. People (King Crimson)

No internet at my new place. It may be a while before I'm uploading again. Either I have to find a cafe with free WiFi nearby, or I have to get internet installed. As if a sign from God, I read an article today (in Chinese!) that ADSL prices are dropping on April 1st. Too many people complaining that it is too expensive.

But I have to say that I'm really enjoying not having internet distracting and polluting my atmosphere. Maybe "enjoying" is too strong of a word.

December 9, 2007 - Central Taiwan. A resort constructed to be reminiscent of Europe.

I'm still not shooting anything new. I think I'm bored, but fortunately I'm moving on Sunday. So hopefully my new environment will have me shooting again. I wasn't planning on moving again until I left Taipei, but my cousin's aunt had a place I could move into. The pros and cons of the new place and my current place balance out, which should mean staying put, according to the laws of entropy, but I guess it's time for a change. Somethings always have to change. Or not.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Fire on Babylon (Sinead O'Conner)
2. Indian Summer Sky (U2)
3. So Serious (Electric Light Orchestra)
4. San Juan (Sukay - Andean pan flute)
5. I Saw the Light (The The)
6. Hoshi no Umareru Hi (Cocco)
7. Typical Situation (Dave Matthews Band)
8. Time (Rebecca)
9. Animals (Talking Heads)
10. C'mon Billy (PJ Harvey)

DWL

January 10, 2008 - Driving While Lomographing. River Road, Edgewater, New Jersey.

We actually had a sunny day in Taipei, and I still didn't make any headway on the roll that's currently in the 2.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Expresso Love (Dire Straits)
2. Funky Monks (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
3. Blow Wind Blow (Tom Waits)
4. Sora Yori Umi Yori (Puri Puri Samba '91) (Princess Princess)
5. Rider on the Stormy Sea (Mary Timony)
6. Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio No. 2, VI. Affectueuse (Claude Bolling/Jean-Pierre Rampal)
7. Let the Loser Melt (live) (Archers of Loaf)
8. Pick It Up, Lay It In the Cut (Sharon Jones & the Dapp Kings)
9. Rock and Roll With Me (David Bowie)
10. Time Stand Still (live) (Rush)

shadows and tall trees

December 31, 2007 - Philadelphia, PA. Random posts of random lomos. Furthermore I'm not shooting anything new. I might run out of shots to post, but actually I think I have a roll of black and white from last year that I never posted here.

I visited my brother, arriving the day before, and thought he had New Years Eve off, but alas he had to work so I didn't get to spend time with him before I headed back to New Jersey. I walked a bit around his neighborhood before taking off. I saw this shot as I walked up to it, and knew I was going to have a problem with the sun behind me, so, well, that's my shadow at the bottom of the tree. I stood behind the tree and wrapped my arms around the tree and shot, trying to be inconspicuous.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Call Me (Throwing Muses)
2. Milk It (Nirvana)
3. Mending King (Three Mile Pilot)
4. Tag Team (Noriyuki Makihara)
5. (Meet) The Flintstones (Dirty Dozen Brass Band)
6. Candle (Matisyahu)
7. Lola (live) (The Kinks)
8. Everybody's Got the Right ("Assassins" - Sondheim)
9. Another Nail in My Heart (Squeeze)
10. I Know a Girl ("Chicago")

December 20, 2007 - Bryant Park skating rink, New York City. It feels like about this cold in Taipei now, but really it's only 56 degrees. Inside! I'm pretty sure this is unusually cold in Taipei, even for Winter, and it's as cold as I've felt here. At the store today I saw a lot of people buying ceramic space heaters. I was buying Scotch. Someone left a space heater in my apartment, so I have one, but I already have a dehumidifier running most of the time to keep the ceiling from dripping. I only want to imagine what a space heater would do to my utility bill.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Funky Li'l Party (Paris)
2. Face On Your Head (100 Watt Smile)
3. What's Ya Take On Cassavettes (Le Tigre)
4. Koi wa I MY ME MINE (Bubble Gum Brothers)
5. Three Hopeful Thoughts (Rilo Kiley)
6. Flying Saucer Dudes (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
7. D.J. (David Bowie)
8. Jet Airliner (Paul Pena)
9. Kiseki no Wedding March (Blow Up Mix) (Nokko)
10. The Sinister Minister (live) (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)

December 7, 2007 - More of the sheep farm in the mountains of central Taiwan. Not bad.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. If Only We Could (Shannon Wright)
2. Live During Wartime (live) (Talking Heads)
3. Why I Stay (The Black Heart Procession)
4. Message in a Bottle (live) (The Police)
5. The Cold Part (Modest Mouse)
6. All Things Must Pass (The Beatles - Anthology)
7. Coming Up (Ani DiFranco)
8. Ghost of a Dog (Edie Brickell & New Bohemians)
9. Earn Enough For Us (XTC)
10. West Coast Blues (Wes Montgomery)

November 7, 2007 - Thar be sheep in Taiwan. I think some Australian guy brought these sheep to the mountains of central Taiwan. I guess his passion is sheep. And Taiwanese girls since I think his wife is Taiwanese. Anyway, it's a sheep farm for tourists. Tricky creatures these, I had to sneak up with the 2 and snap this quick or else who knows what he would've done. I wasn't about to hand him my shakuhachi, either.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Holloway Jail (The Kinks)
2. Star (live) (David Bowie)
3. Who Is It? (Talking Heads)
4. Warszawa (David Bowie)
5. PDA (Interpol)
6. Sista Sista (Sakura)
7. Soon Forget (Pearl Jam)
8. Misty Mountain Hop (Led Zeppelin)
9. Man in a Suitcase (live) (The Police)
10. Jackie (Sinead O'Connor)