We’re shooting the second commercial for the computer company tomorrow. It’s a rush job, and I have serious reservations about our lack of preparation in certain areas, but there’s nothing for it but to go ahead and see what happens. I suppose it’s all a learning process, and we’re on Lesson 23: Working With Unknown Actors. And by unknown I don’t mean just unknown by the entertainment industry, but unknown to everyone working on this thing. We’ve never seen most of them, much less talked to them.

Last night I went out onto the kitchen balcony to turn on the gas so I could take a shower, but sitting on the handle of the gas cannister was a huge brown spider. Suddenly it seemed rather warm for a hot shower, so I settled for a nice, refreshing, spider-free cold shower. I know from experience that those eight-legged bastards are easy to kill if you hit them, but they are also hard to catch, and I didn’t want to chase it inside. Comes from living so close to the mountains, I guess. Perhaps one day I’ll open up a cabinet to find a Formosan Black Bear eating my Cream of Wheat. That would be most awkward, especially since I don’t have enough cutlery.

I visited Maoman up at The Village yesterday and saw his new puppy, a chocolate lab named Gustav. He’s big for his age, I guess, and very well behaved. Later we saw Gangs of New York, which was ok if a bit long at three hours. I’m not a big Scorcese fan, but it was interesting in the historical context. Daniel Day-lewis was exceptional.

There were marches over the weekend for various factions. The biggest was the “Change the name of the Republic of China to just ‘Taiwan'” on Saturday, and on Sunday there was an anti-Taiwanese Independence march. All these demonstrations show is that yes, we still have pretty much the same factions we’ve had for a while now. What irks me most about these things is the large number of overseas Taiwanese who fly in from abroad to take part in these things. Whatever your opinion or stand is, I’ll respect it a lot more if you’re ready to face the consequences. It seems like every day the Taipei Times is full of letters from raving Taiwanese Independence supporters who all live in places like Akron, Paris or Tokyo. Most foreigners here seem to be pro-independence as well. Of course it’s only practical to have an easy escape route if you’re going to advocate actions which may change the course of shit in the direction of nearby fans. Just don’t expect me to take you or your opinions seriously.

It’s a brilliant day out today, thanks to the little pocket of time after a typhoon cleans up all the pollution and before all the scooters, ghost-money and garbage burners re-pollute everything. The sun is hot during the day, but everything is clear, and the sunsets are unusually vivid.

My good friend Boogie finally left Taiwan a few days ago. He called me up the night before, as I was doing Lady X music with Darrell, to tell me he was leaving the island for the US early the next morning. Boogie and I studied Chinese together in college, lived in the same dorm, and were even in a small jazz band for a while. We came to Taiwan together, on the same flight in fact. We both played bit parts in Mah-jong (along with a much younger and long-haired Maoman). You may have seen Boogie on TV here in Taiwan, since he’s acted in some commercials and shows. His wife, Amanda, has become a US citizen and has lived in the states for several years now. Boogie’s been making noises about leaving for several years now, and now he’s finally done it.

I walked down near the train station to the YMCA, which will always be the ground zero of my Taiwan experience. After Boogie and I got off the Delta flight from the land of college, fast food and R.E.M., we took a bus downtown. I was only focused on hauling my suitcase up and down pedestrian bridges until we got to the Y. Then I put my stuff down, looked out the 5th-floor window at the crowds and flashing neon, and I realized where I was.

But that was a long time ago. The area’s changed a lot, with the addition of the huge new train station, the MRT stations, and lots of older buildings torn down. Even the Y itself has been rennovated, with the old reception area moved up to the front and a new restaurant installed in the front, but every time I pass by there I remember that hot June night when Boogie and I first arrived here.

新家慢慢的在整理。 現在還缺一些家具, 像餐桌, 椅子, 地毯, 窗簾, 衣櫃, 等等. 我買了許多二手的東西。 二手店通通都不接受信用卡, 所以一切都要現金。只好等八號發薪水。 心地方附近沒有甚麼好吃的餐廳, 但聽說過了碧潭僑有些不錯的北平烤鴨。晚上跟白天聽得到大自然的聲音. 新地方在房子的角落位置, 所以打開窗戶可以吹自然風. 還有三個半陽台。

我拿ladyx從新剪接的短篇去

The Hinet guy came around on Saturday and got my adsl up and running in about five minutes. Meanwhile, another guy was busy all morning installing a new toilet, replacing bad electrical outlets and leaving a trail of lightbulbs wherever he went. Thankfully the landlord is paying for all of this. The place is still a mess, but it’s gradually becoming more livable. I’m very happy with it. The commute isn’t much trouble; I always get a seat on the MRT, and I usually spend the time reading. The little alley that leads to my building is lined on one side with old one-story houses behind pleasant, tree-filled yards, and since the alley’s too narrow no cars can get in. Ordinarily this would be bad news if there’s a fire or something, but my apartment is located in the back of the building, facing the mountainside, while the master bedroom faces another alley that cars can get into. One odd thing: while the place is on the second floor in the front, it’s four stories off the ground in the back, since the entire building seems to be constructed atop a large slab of rock. I haven’t found too much to eat in the vicinity, apart from stuff I get from the little hole-in-the-wall places near Bitan Bridge. I hear there’s better cuisine to be found on the other side of the river. I need to start cooking more as well, especially since I have a full kitchen now. Cleaning it took half a day, and I still have over half of the place to clean. Taking out all all of the garbage generated by the move is a chore I’m not looking forward to, either.

It’s usually quiet there, except for ordinary neighborhood noises like garbage trucks, pianos, dogs, mah-jong games, shouting, and the occasional scooter in the back alley, but these noises don’t bother me nearly as much as the noises in my last place. I can also hear cicadas, crickets and other vocal insects. Rain pelts noisily on the plastic covering of the apartment below me, but it’s a constant, almost pleasant noise.

There’s been a lot of rain lately, thanks to passing Typhoon Dujuan, which is now making a beeline for the bwg in Hong Kong. Taipei only experienced the fringes of the storm, but that was still enough to knock over scooters, small trees and signs. I didn’t tape any of the windows, since they are all the traditional non-see-through variety, the glass engraved with a generic yet intricate design that can be found in houses all over the island; I wouldn’t mind getting some transparent glass in there. Dujuan didn’t come close enough for that sort of thing, though I imagine the glass-makers will be doing a brisk business in Hong Kong by this time tomorrow.

Da Shan and I are going to the computer company tomorrow morning to see if their gym is suitable for a shoot we might want to do there later this month. Apparently they liked the first commercial Paul showed them and want us to do another. In other news, I submitted the re-edited version of the Lady X episodes for consideration in the Digital Shorts category of the Golden Horse Film Festival. The two episodes, re-edited, plus the scene we didn’t have time for before, make it about 18 minutes long. Darrell composed some really nice music for the extra bits as well as the new versions of the original scenes. The people at GHFF said that they will announce their selections on October 1st. The guidelines don’t specify what kind of films they’re looking for; I know that film festivals tend to go for so-called “deep” films, and Lady X is definitely not that, but hopefully they’ll find it entertaining enough to consider despite it’s lack of slow, purposefully out-of-focus black-and-white shots of sad women staring up from the tops of traffic-laden bridges.