|
|
|
The idea today was to leave off where I ended yesterday, and I started riding by going up to the Dazhi Bridge and continuing along the bikeways. It was another nice sunny day with Simpson-like clouds and blue skies, so I finished the current roll with a red filter on a crappy 28-80mm zoom lens that I got for less than $20. I think the red filter cost almost as much as the lens.
Unfortunately, I headed out at about 12:30, which put me riding in exactly the wrong time to be riding. I did put on sunblock to prevent further burning, but today’s sun on yesterday’s burn was still not very comfortable. And to compound it, one of my knees started acting up during the ride, and the wind picked up in the wrong direction, making most of the second half of the ride particularly uncomfortable. Eventually, some ominous high clouds, typical in the late afternoon, eased the sun, but the wind and my knee had me limping home after I got off the bikeways
There was more that I could have shot today, but it became a matter of value. In some circumstances, it’s just too hot or sunny to stop and pull a camera out. I think about it, and then I think, “no way”. The shot wouldn’t be worth losing the momentum and the extra minutes in the sun before getting to the next shady respite.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, July 29th, 2006
|
|
|
So it was a month that I didn’t have a bike. With the new bike, and a much better one, I felt a need to test its range and take it farther than I would’ve taken the P.O.S. Enterprise. I went as far east on my map as looked good, going past the Taipei 101 building, then made my way north to the riverside bikeway along the Keelung River to see how far it went east. I think I went pretty much to the end before it became construction. Sections of the bikeways are still being built.
I was planning to return back along the Keelung River to at least the Dazhi Bridge, so I thought it would be a good idea to take a break in Dazhi, so I called Hsien Ai to see if she was in the area and available. I woke her up at 2 in the afternoon, and told her I’d be in her neighborhood in about an hour, and she said she could meet me.
I’m finding between one and four and the afternoon is the worst time to be on a bike in Taiwan. At some point along the river, heading to Dazhi, I realized I was starting to burn and dehydrate. I don’t burn that easily, so I often neglect to put on sunblock in the most obvious situations. At one point, I even tried pulling out my umbrella (in Taiwan, I’ve found it wise to always have an umbrella) in desperation, but the wind was too strong.
In that situation, the best idea is to get off the bikeways and find a convenient store. Unfortunately, thanks to brilliant Taiwanese ingenuity, it’s as difficult to get off the bikeways as it is to get on them.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
|
|
|
I replaced my piece of crap $700 bike with a pretty decent $300 bike. The person selling it was in a rush to sell it, which partly may account for the ultra low price. Maybe she didn't want any question in the mind of a potential buyer. Well, it worked. I think she could have easily gotten $1000 for it, but she did say she only bought it for $1500, so, you know, like, whatever.
The thing was the bike was all the way out in Neihu District. Coincidentally, that is precisely where I took a bus to a while ago to go exploring! So I knew exactly what buses go there from in front of my building, and how long it takes to get there. And more importantly, I had an idea how to get back on bike. And the low price guaranteed that I was going to buy it. It could have been in crappier condition by several orders, but there was no way that I was going to ride a bus an hour out to Neihu, and not buy a $10 bike. I would have bought my previous p.o.s. bike at that price, rode it home, gotten some mileage out of it, and then ditched it when it got too mafan to keep, but I was going to buy this bike.
Fortunately, compared to the P.O.S. Enterprise, this bike is a performer. Emphasis on compared to. It's a mountain bike with dual suspension, although that doesn't mean a whole lot in this price range. Basically, just whistles and bells - the front suspension is a whistle, and the rear suspension is a bell. It's one or two sizes smaller than what would be right for me, but that didn't stop me from having fun getting home, navigating the insane traffic, jumping from sidewalk to street as convenient for me. I've even been emboldened by what I've seen in this city and rode across a bridge in the motorbike lane. No one gave me a second glance.
The "range" of this bike will definitely be significantly farther than the P.O.S. Enterprise, which I felt could fall apart at any moment, so I'm hoping to get back to exploring this city's further outs. I do have to worry more about this bike being stolen. Even though it was cheap new, it still looks like a target, so I think a better lock is in order.
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, July 22nd, 2006
|
|
|
|
The surprises keep coming with Hsien Ai, as they have every day this past week, as I thought our bike research was done. Should have been done a week ago. Today we hit some bike shops in Tienmu. Those Koreans she's gathering all this information for better offer her a job for her efforts. Or give her one of the bikes they're planning on buying for resale in Korea. Of course, she doesn't really know how to ride a bike, so it would reasonably go to, um, me. What I'm not sure I understand is how through this research I've been losing hours and hours of study time. And today an entire Saturday. There is just something not right, not making sense, not adding up that is starting to bother me and I'm not liking.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Wow, I've had this roll of film in Bebe for over two months! I think I need to make some changes in my life/lifestyle, as I'm probably getting bored with my current subject matter. The loss of the P.O.S. Enterprise also probably has something to do with it, although I do wonder how much riding around I'd be doing as Summer heat might make that risky. But I'm almost done with this roll, and I'll probably kill it off this weekend. After long stretches of time of not shooting anything (but still carrying the damn camera around), I'll take a shot, like this morning out of the second story window of the corner Starbucks, and wonder why I'm not shooting more. If I've run out of subject matter, find more!
I also took a flash lomo of the 6th floor registration office. We call it the "place of evil", and we refer to the workers there as "our friends on the 6th floor". Seriously, the entire 6th floor staff, with the ironic sole exception of the American working there, needs to be fired, sent to cultural sensitivity training as they are, in their positions, international representatives, or hung upside down and have fire ants funneled down their noses. I would choose the latter.
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
The "typhoon" is moving off-shore into China, but the trailing clouds are still lingering over Taiwan, bringing rain. Yesterday rained whenever I was out with Hsien Ai as we wandered from bike shop to bike shop. She's Korean, so when she's asked by a sort-of friend in Korea on behalf of a person Hsien Ai doesn't even know to research bike stuff in Taiwan, she has to drop her studies and social life and create a power point inventory on all aspects of the Taiwanese retail mountain bike market. Never mind that she herself barely knows how to ride a bike, and she would choose riding a llama or a Japanese salaryman in bondage leather over a bike to escape a horde of hungry pygmies. I know I've said it before, but I would make a terrible Korean. Apparently it's not socially acceptable under those circumstances to tell someone to go stick it.
So that took my whole day yesterday as Hsien Ai insisted on taking me out to dinner for my efforts, although social anxiety aside, hanging out with Hsien Ai is one of the few things I enthusiastically enjoy here. So my yesterday plans went today. I came home today to a working internet, but it's been down all week, and that is simply unacceptable. I went out today exploring neighborhoods where I might want to move to after my lease is up at the end of August. I wandered around the Shilin area, home of the biggest and oldest night market. It's north of the Key Lime River and a bit of a trek to school compared to where I live now, but I realized last week that if I lived up there, I would probably own a real bike by now, something I've been thinking about since I got here. And no, moving north of the Key Lime River has nothing to do with the fact that Hsien Ai recently moved to Dazhi, also north of the Key Lime. She moved to Dazhi to be closer to her boyfriend.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Portrait (He Knew) (remix) (Kansas)
2. A Kind of Loving (The Police)
3. Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (Marvin Gaye)
4. Sister Havana (Urge Overkill)
5. The Visitor (The Black Heart Procession)
6. The World At Large (Modest Mouse)
7. Kiss Off (Violent Femmes)
8. Freaks (Marillion)
9. My Best Friends Girl (The Cars)
10. You Wonder How These Things Begin ("The Fantasticks")
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Sans bike for a few months while I decide whether or not to stay in Taiwan, relocate to New York, or definitively ordain at the monastery, I'm trying out a new M.O. for exploring Taipei. I get on a random bus, head off until I'm somewhere just beyond the range of familiarity, get off and walk around and shoot, and try not to get lost, i.e., be able to backtrack to the return bus stop.
Today I got on a bus headed for Donghu (East Lake). I was hoping to get to Donghu in hopes that there would actually be a lake there, but after more than an hour and starting to get antsy, and clearly beyond my "range of familiarity", I got off at a place called Dahu (Big Lake). And there was a lake! Just not a very big one, smaller than Lake Merced in San Francisco, I shouldn't wonder.
I don't know if my time there was worth the more than hour getting there and the more than hour getting back in order to meet up with people to watch the World Cup - someone's boneheaded idea that I got caught up in, considering the World Cup was screening at 2 in the morning here. As I put it, "Why are we taking a bus an hour to someone's house, to watch a game we don't care about, playing a match we don't care about?" You'd think by my age one would stop doing stupid things for crushes. Especially when said crushee is unavailable. Especially when said crusher is not really interested. Go fig.
Anyway, I took more than 10 frames on the Dahu excursion, hiking up a minor mountain, a scaring myself cross-eyed by staring at the numerous wild spiders the size of my hand (including legs) hanging peacefully, but ominously overhead *shudder*. Like an idiot I took pictures so I can creep myself out anytime I want! It's a fear facing meditation. Go fig.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Shake (Kristin Hersh)
2. Glass Onion (The Beatles)
3. Ghost (Indigo Girls)
4. Subdivisions (Rush)
5. Cheap Day Return (Jethro Tull)
6. Quiet (live) (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. Carnival (Bikini Kill)
8. Life On Mars? (David Bowie)
9. How He Wrote Elastica Man (Elastica)
10. Cities In Dust (Siouxsie & the Banshees)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
There's been a bunch of lomo frames on this roll that weren't documented because of what I said before. If left to jotting things down in my appt. book, I get lazy and forget. If I'm posting them here, I tend to be more mindful of it.
I still go to lunch every day with my former classmates because our classes are at the same time. Mine just ends an hour earlier and I use that time to go to the language lab or library until they get out of class. I just wish lunch didn't have to be such a drama. The circumstances have made it so that there's always the possibility of the annoying large group thing, and there's this one person we really don't like going to lunch with, but she's clueless that she annoys so many people. Really, the ideal group is the core group from last term, and maybe one or two of their new classmates this term. We've been lucky the past few days. Today, we managed it by instead of going to the usual Shida night market area, we went the opposite direction to the Yangkong snack street area.
However, the best places for shaved ice are our usual places in the Shida night market area, and generally when I'm present, we will go for shaved ice after lunch, often parting ways at around 3 o'clock.
I went to the Taipei main police station for the third time this week to try to renew my visa. I can't tell you how lame the Taiwanese bureaucratic sense is. The frustration often involved makes me wonder why I should care if Taiwan is independent from China or not. The answer is always, "oh yea, the Chinese government really sucks ass, the Taiwanese are just incompetent and backwards". But I finally did get my visa extended, leading me to wonder for myself, "why?"
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Ticket to Ride (The Beatles)
2. How Many More Times? (live) (Led Zeppelin)
3. I'm Not Moving (Phil Collins)
4. Here We Go! (J-Walk)
5. Too Many Cooks In the Kitchen (XTC)
6. Silent Sorrow In Empty Boats (Genesis)
7. Slipstream (Jethro Tull)
8. Man In a Suitcase (The Police)
9. O (Echobelly)
10. Pulse (Ani DiFranco)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Keeping an online shoot journal is a good idea. I stopped because we had an internet meltdown that lasted several weeks, and I started keeping track by jotting notes in my appointment book (which runs out on July because it's an "academic planner". I won't go back to the U.S. until late August for, obviously, the sole reason of getting a new one. Not sure what to do for those three weeks. You wish you had my problems).
Anyway, I just got back a roll of film, and I'm not sure how accurately I've kept track of shooting. It feels like not very well, but I'm hoping I just didn't shoot that much. And if I remember correctly, I didn't. I didn't "go shooting" much, and I think a lot of this roll was just random frames on days that I decided to take my SLR along. Scanning tonight, but only after I finish my homework. God, that sounds lame at my age. Everyone here thinks I'm at least 10 years younger than I am.
I guess I don't have to write about how I went out yesterday, not necessarily to shoot, but not not necessarily shoot. And it would have turned out to have been to shoot, the light was great, decent seeing, if I hadn't taken only my SLR with five frames left on the roll. No fisheye, no digital. I did take an extra roll of film but it was straight out of the refrigerator. Brillig.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Pilcher's Squad (Primus)
2. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans (Smashing Pumpkins)
3. Who Needs Information? (Roger Waters)
4. Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream (King Crimson)
5. Berlitz (Seam)
6. Fame (David Bowie)
7. Killer Queen (Queen)
8. The Candy Man (Cibo Matto)
9. Who Dunnit? (Genesis)
10. Cemetery Polka (Tom Waits)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I'm not sure how I feel about what I've been documenting with the fisheye. The last roll I shot took a long time to finish (a month and a half), and I think it was because I wasn't thrilled with the results from the previous roll, which was shot on expired film. I'm pretty happy with the results of this last roll, and that makes me want to shoot more. So the moral of the story is that I'm just not artsy enough to use expired film. If I'm shooting color, I'm all about the color, blowing them out gaudy and garish.
New term started at school and my new schedule gets me out of class at noon. My old classmates get out at 1:10, so I usually study or go to the language lab until they get out of class, and then we go to lunch. There's no problem with habitually going out to lunch everyday, because we all have to eat, and after morning class, we're all pretty hungry. I'm going to start using these occasions to start getting more people shots and more food shots. Unfortunately, that usually requires flash, and the flash on the fisheye is hit or miss.
Weird how our class had such good camaraderie that I'm continuing to hang out with them even after leaving. There are no native English speakers in my new class, which is good I suppose. One nutso Mongolian guy who has a strange mix of ADD and tourettes, although not to suggest he's unintelligent. Otherwise, there are Spanish speaking people and Japanese speaking people. Three Japanese women. Can't complain.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. I Burn for You (The Police)
2. The World Is Flat (Echobelly)
3. Save the People ("Godspell")
4. Subterranean Homesick Alien (Radiohead)
5. The Ocean (Led Zeppelin)
6. Leave This Off Your Fuckin' Charts (Public Enemy)
7. Where Do the Children Play? (Cat Stevens)
8. It Would Have Been Wonderful ("A Little Night Music" - Sondheim)
9. Fabricoh (Archers of Loaf)
10. This Is the Day (The The)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I went to visit family in Kaohsiung and loaded a new roll, but didn't shoot much. Just a few frames. This was my first visit to Kaohsiung this time, so I didn't get away from family much to shoot. Kaohsiung was great after the bustle and squalor of Taipei. I think Kaohsiung is more my size of city, but man was it hot. At least the sun was out, definitely more than can be said about Taipei. I hope my new schedule next term might allow me to go to Kaohsiung more often on weekends, taking the train down on Friday afternoons and coming back Sunday nights.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. A Little Bit of Abuse (The Kinks)
2. Tux On (Marillion)
3. Walkin' My Baby Back Home (Nat King Cole)
4. Bambie Boo (The Pugs)
5. In the Flesh? (live) (Pink Floyd)
6. To Sheila (Smashing Pumpkins)
7. Fall On Me (R.E.M.)
8. Mean Mr. Mustard (The Beatles)
9. Them Belly Full (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
10. Punk (Gorillaz)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
Term ended. That really sucked, but oh how quickly we forget our suffering just so that we can go for another round. Classes start again next week, but I'll be switching classes, hopefully to one that is more at my pace and (low) ability.
Today was the first day of Dragon Boat Racing on the Key Lime River, and as one of my classmates was on the school team, we all went and got sunburned. I don't know how much I'll be hanging around with them after I switch classes, but all of our time and acquaintance here is limited, so no point in getting attached. Gotta move on.
I think this roll of film only has two days of shooting on it. Hong Kong and today. I think most of the roll was shot at 800, using faster shutter speeds in the bright daylight, but I did shoot a few frames at 400. I got my previous roll developed and some frames have splotch marks which I'm wondering if they're from airport scanners, especially since the rolls went through twice because it was just a daytrip. Hm.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Crack in the Union Jack (Suede)
2. Far From Now (Engine Down)
3. Let Me Love You Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
4. The Last Beat of My Heart (live) (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
5. Take (Throwing Muses)
6. The Voyeur (I Like to Watch) (Fish)
7. Spirits In the Material World (The Police)
8. Mofo (U2)
9. Mystic Rhythms (live) (Rush)
10. I've Got My Mind Set On You (George Harrison)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I made a day trip to Hong Kong to get a fresh visa to stay in Taiwan. I was gone for 23 hours, and it was more of an ordeal than it should have been, if I had known things I know now. First of all, I wouldn't have booked the first flight of the day, necessitating going to the airport the night before to make sure I was there on time. The second flight of the day would have been just fine to get me to the Hong Kong visa office in time, and the first bus of the day would get me there in plenty of time for the second plane. Second, I didn't know that days start counting on a visa the day after you arrive, which meant my visa would have expired on the 24th, not the 23rd. Classes officially end on the 24th, but I think all work is done by the 23rd, so instead of losing a day of class and studying, which might not help anyway since I'm pretty burnt out, I would have planned to have gone on the 24th.
Hong Kong was great. Granted I was there in an extremely sleep deprived state, having not been sleeping well for the past week, and especially this past weekend, but there was something vibrant about it. Not warm or friendly, not hella cool like in movies, but a huge sense of history and character and confidence. Hearing Cantonese was pretty cool, too, in a native context. Hearing Cantonese in Chinatowns, in contrast, still sounds foreign. I didn't have a plan for Hong Kong, and I should have looked into something. If I go again, I'll look more into where there is to go.
I finished a roll at ISO 800, and started a roll at 400, so I can compare results.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Chamber of 32 Doors (live) (Genesis)
2. Youth Decay (Sleater-Kinney)
3. Perfect Time (Archers of Loaf)
4. Another One Bites the Dust (Queen)
5. I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You (Tom Waits)
6. You Know So Much (20 Minute Loop)
7. Be Back Soon ("Oliver!")
8. Ohio (Modest Mouse)
9. That Girl's Gone (Versus)
10. Drive-In Saturday (David Bowie)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
End of term coming up, no time to think of camera. It was about a week ago that all joy left attending class, and now I'm just chewing on my forearms to finish the term. Next term I'm switching to a slower class, because lord knows I suck at this language thing.
On Monday I'm going to Hong Kong for a day just to take care of visa stuff. I want to enter Taiwan on my U.S. passport, since being here on my Taiwanese passport is of no real benefit. Detriment even, since if I'm in this country for a day over four months on that passport, I can be drafted into the army!
I might get a new digital camera while I'm there if the price is right, because the pace of our modern corporation-driven lives has convinced me that my Cybershot just isn't adequate anymore. And after years of the battering I've given it, it is ready to retire, or the next person I meet who doesn't have a digital camera can have it. Actually I've been shooting more digital recently since I opened a digital fotolog, since my regular fotolog has become stuck in a groove of being exclusively black and white film.
Anyway, with this HK run and my general angst, I don't care about class at this point. I went out shooting on my bike, shooting mostly at 800, but taking a couple of the 101 building at 400. I roamed around a night market, finding out that during the day it's a . . . day market, and otherwise didn't do anything special. A loop ending up at the weekend jade and flower market.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Four Letter Word (Echobelly)
2. One for the Vine (live) (Genesis)
3. School (Nirvana)
4. Zooropa (U2)
5. Distinct Complicity (Bikini Kill)
6. Down By the River (Neil Young & Crazy Horse)
7. Hang On St. Christopher (Tom Waits)
8. Scuttlebutt (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
9. San-Ya (Katsuya Yokoyama)
10. Only a Northern Song (The Beatles)
|
|
Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I think the incessant rains are coming to an end. Away go the umbrellas. Instead, May 1st, and the first fiery blast of Summer was felt. Out come the umbrellas. I much prefer the umbrellas coming out for the merciless sun than for incessant rain. Let's see what tune I'm singing in the middle of August.
The difference is I can't shoot people riding their bikes with umbrellas in the rain because there's usually not enough light for the lomo fisheye. In the sun, they still ride their bikes with umbrellas and are fair game. As ridiculous as it sounds, I was forced to do it caught in a rain out by Taipei 101 last week, and it was recognizably practical. The choice was either get wet anyway on the hour home walking the bike, or feel silly riding with an umbrella. Feeling silly lost. As it usually should.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Back In N.Y.C. (Genesis)
2. Bright Yellow Gun (Throwing Muses)
3. Underdogs of Nipomo (Archers of Loaf)
4. Wait Until Five (764-HERO)
5. Still In Love (Cat Power)
6. Dead End Street (live) (The Kinks)
7. Listen To What the Man Said (Wings)
8. So Much Things to Say (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
9. Harvest (Neil Young)
10. Kayleigh (Marillion)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Wednesday, April 19th, 2006
|
|
|
Loaded a new roll of color into Bebe after several days of leaving her empty after the last roll. Days are slowly getting warmer and the sun is coming out a little more, even though I'm hard pressed to see the dang thing on any given day. Before the days of crushing humidity arrive, I'm glad for days like today when it's just nice and pleasant to shoot around the neighborhood because the light is finally good enough. I think I shot over 10 frames between Daan Park, school, and Shida night market. Well, not the night market, since it was in the day, but where the night market is. Good evening light today.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Love, I Hear ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" - Sondheim)
2. Magic Fingers (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
3. Always Crashing in the Same Car (David Bowie)
4. State of Mind (Fish)
5. Don't Forget to Dance (The Kinks)
6. Gypsy (Fleetwood Mac)
7. Sir Psycho Sexy (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
8. Lady Madonna (outtake) (The Beatles)
9. See/Believe (Frente!)
10. Better Things (The Kinks)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Tuesday, April 11th, 2006
|
|
|
I'm finally online at home. Now begins the struggle to manage my time so I'm not on the internet all the time. Even worse, I've been engaging in social interaction with some classmates, struggling to maintain my awareness in the moment, which is difficult, mind you, when struggling with a foreign tongue. And even more confusing (mainly for them) because some of them speak Japanese, and my theory is that it is better for me to get something out of my mouth as long as it's in the general correct Chinese syntax, I liberally use Japanese vocabulary and stick it in a Chinese sentence when I don't know the Chinese word. I'm getting a lot of "that look" from them. I'm not sure why it should be an issue, when I hear it done with English words, I can figure out what they're trying to say easily enough.
Tonight was a taste of what fun there was to be had 15 years ago, and I'm sure I had it then, and I'm lucky as hell to touch it again as long as I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. But I'm clear about my role about it now, that I'm not participating in it, I'm not engaged in it. I'm observing it. But then I ask, what else? Whither what else.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Plumbline (Archers of Loaf)
2. Time Stand Still (Rush)
3. Abacab (Genesis)
4. Death in the Park (Archers of Loaf)
5. Little Lighthouse (Dukes of Stratosphear)
6. Little Babies (Sleater-Kinney)
7. Lavender Blue (Marillion)
8. Thank You for Sending Me an Angel (Talking Heads)
9. Fall Dog Bombs the Moon (David Bowie)
10. Natural Disasters (Enon)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
Saturday, April 1st, 2006
|
|
|
First day of the five day weekend, I didn't study at all. I wasted time online in the library, and then rode out on my bike to the east side of Taipei where I noticed some hiking trails on the map. I did a short loop hike up one of the "four beast" mountains. Chinese tend to have overactive imaginations when it comes to nature, and they see four distinct mountains in what I see as a pretty indistinct range, and they see animals in each one - elephant, panther, tiger, and...I dunno, probably a dragon, they see dragons everywhere. Oh, I think the last one is a lion. And that they can distinguish a panther and a tiger in a land formation is pretty impressive. I just see rocks and trees. I went up and down Elephant Mountain, but enjoyed it enough to plan to go again at an earlier time and with more provisions and do more of the trails.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Poor Baby ("Company" - Sondheim)
2. Crack in the Union Jack (Suede)
3. Take the Long Way Home (Supertramp)
4. Click...Off...Gone (Sleeper)
5. What Went Wrong (In Your Head) (Supergrass)
6. Summer Skin (Death Cab For Cutie)
7. White Trash Heroes (live) (Archers of Loaf)
8. Millions (XTC)
9. Blind Love (Tom Waits)
10. Grandmother's Love (Travis Terry - native American flute)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
I took my SLR with me today for a change, leaving my digital and Bebe at home. In these days of ultra compact digital cameras, film SLRs kinda stick out. Even DSLRs don't because I don't see many people casually carrying around DSLRs - too big or too precious to not be in a case. I didn't expect (nor like) the attention it drew in class, but it did bring out the photographic interest in some that I would not have otherwise known about. The French guy in my class owns a Nikon D50 DSLR. After class, the start of a five day weekend, a few of us went out for pizza and beer. Well, no beer for them. What the hell is wrong with me that I'm always surrounded by a bunch of friggin' teetotalers, aside from my uncle? Sorry, no offense to all you friggin' teetotalers. We went close enough to French guy's apartment for him to grab his D50.
DSLRs are no doubt nice. I wonder what it would be that prevented me from getting one if something happened to my Pentax. My anti-jumping-on-any-bandwagon impulse? Allegiance to the appreciation of film? No money? Probably no money, and the fact that I still have a functioning Pentax K2 in New Jersey. Since I use my ZX-5n in full manual mode anyway, it wouldn't be a huge adjustment to go back to the K2.
The French guy was all about extolling the virtues of digital, and people doing that always brings out the film purist in me, which otherwise doesn't exist. I even go back through my black and white negatives and I see how many negatives are flawed either through exposure or processing, but sometimes it's the flaws that I like. But I'm not about to start extolling the virtues of film, which would no doubt bring out the digital enthusiast in me, which otherwise doesn't exist. How many more really satisfying shots would I have in my archives if I had the flexibility of digital, and not limited by limitations of film? So my philosophy of "work with what you get" kicks in and we're all happy.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Melody (Sakura)
2. Ant's Dance (Mary Timony)
3. Ukigomo (Watazumido)
4. Cello Suite No. 2, VI - Gigue (J.S. Bach)
5. The Yee-Haw Factor (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
6. Fabby Dabby (Casiopea)
7. Thousand Knives (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
8. Goodnight Moon (Shivaree)
9. Tribal Rites (Rare Air)
10. It Would Have Been Wonderful ("A Little Night Music")
|
|
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
|
|
|
On this rainy day, I found the wireless hotspot at the Taipei Public library after a morning of failed connection at the Starbucks on the corner. I really scored with the location of my apartment. It turns out the library is also across the street from the park I live across the street from. It's even closer than school is, but in the opposite direction. And why the library is in this location, I don't know. There's nothing around here that would draw attention to it as a public facility, no civic center, no city hall, no town center. The view of the park is great from the upper floors, and when the sun comes out again, if it ever comes out again, I'll get some more shots.
Last Sunday, I met a group of people in the park who were drumming - marching style, just snare drums. I ended up joining them, giving my traditional grip and paltry reading skills (that I didn't even know I had - I never learned to read drum music) a work out. Unfortunately, they turned out to be part of a political party - one that I don't like. They invited me to join them at a protest rally today and I ended up saying yes, but when I got there, I just couldn't do it. It was the equivalent of ending up in the middle of a Republican or pro-life rally in the U.S. So I just left. I'll play with them in the park, but no politics. I'll tell them my family told me to stay away from Taiwan politics, which isn't far from the truth. My sister-in-law's family told me I was banned from going to the rally.
The good that came out of it was that after I left, I went on a photostroll and came across a music shop with rehearsal rooms with drums set up that you can rent for less than two bucks an hour. You just have to call a day in advance and reserve a room.
iTunes soundtrack:
1. Waydown (Modest Mouse)
2. Runaway (Marillion)
3. Here Comes the Supernatural Anaesthetist (live) (Genesis)
4. Land of Confusion (live) (Genesis)
5. A Soapbox Opera (live) (Supertramp)
6. Symphony No. 39, II. Andante con moto (Mozart)
7. The Negotiation Limerick File (The Beastie Boys)
8. Miss Gradenko (The Police)
9. Lifted Bells (June of 44)
10. Wrong (Archers of Loaf)
|
|
Comments: Add Your Own.
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
kogee's journal