Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Mar 03 2003

I met some friends at the Tower Records in the Wes…

I met some friends at the Tower Records in the West Gate District on Sunday morning. In the car was a hefty older Polish guy named Jan who teaches people how to teach floristry here. I tried to chat but we ran out of conversational topics in a matter of minutes. Not long after that we met up with another carload of friends including Harry. Our destination on this beautiful day was the hot springs at Huayicun. Unfortunately for us and our schedule, the spring weather meant that everyone and his entire family would be heading up Yangmingshan to see the flowers. We took one shortcut but still ended up inching along the main route over the mountain. Traffic cleared up past the peak, though, and the hot springs weren’t that crowded. At first the other side of the mountain was shrouded in mist, but the sun came out while we were soaking in the pools. I spent a long time in the mud baths and almost fell asleep in the surprisingly boyant liquid while a couple of kids tried to collect all of the mud in a single bucket that turned out to be woefully inadequate for the task.

After the springs we got back in the cars (I chose the other car this time rather than face more awkward silences with Jan) and drove down to Jinshan, where we had seafood in a busy restaurant where you had to walk outside to the kitchen, which was located in another store, and pick up your food dish by dish. Thus surfeit with shrimp rolls and noodles, we drove up the coast as the clouds returned and the sun set. At one point we spotted an eerie glow along the coast which turned out to be about a dozen fishing boats with powerful lights pointed down into the water. It was a beautiful sight, and we got out to take pictures and video clips.

It was dark by the time we arrived in Danshui, but the bridge across the harbor is open now, so we got out to have a look. It’s quite beautiful now, all white and shiny, but I imagine it will become as grimy as everything else there in a matter of months. Still, Danshui’s made a good effort to make itself more tourist-friendly. More is to come I think. My friends decided I should run for Taipei County Magistrate just to see what happened when a “foreigner” dared run for office here. Although the concept of little trucks driving around blaring “A Vote for Poagao is a Vote for General Oddity” in neighborhoods from Banqiao to Tucheng, I simply do not have the monetary resources to mount such a campaign. And if I did I would no doubt spend them on something more conducive to filmmaking and enhancing my lifestyle in general. Now that I think about it, that’s pretty much what politicians do, aside from the filmmaking bit.

I started back at work at my old job today, and things went swimmingly. It was hot and sunny when I finished a delicious lunch at the Curry House with Dean and Mindcrime, but as I was talking with Tall Paul about visiting a filming location tomorrow he mentioned how horrible the weather was. When I glanced out the window, I found an amazing tranformation had occurred: it was raining hard, the wind was blowing and the temperature had dropped a good seven degrees. Even as I type this I can hear the wind and rain pounding on my air conditioning unit. In other words, typical spring weather in norther Taiwan. It will probably hail tomorrow, but to be honest we do need all the precipitation we can get at this point to avoid another drought.

After work I got an urge to sit in a large, dark room with lots of comfy chairs and curtains, so I bought a ticket to see Daredevil. I really wanted to like the film, and while I liked the story in general, I was left confused by the half-assed attempt to make the love interest into a sidekick and then killing her off. Bullseye was a lot of fun in an over-the-top kind of way, but Michael Clark Duncan had a hard time seeming Evil. We went too far with him to not see his character die, and the final ten minutes of the film seemed like a big rationalization/exposition to assuage any strange feelings of disappointment the audience might have. I find it odd that so many movies these days effectively ruin their chances of getting a sequel by so obviously providing for one in the story.

In other news, my publisher estimates that my book should be out at the beginning of April, and that I should hold off on any interviews until the last week of March. Formosa Television, however, isn’t willing to wait because they are afraid their interview might be misconstrued as an advertisement. I’m supposed to meet with the FTV crew the day after tomorrow. I still find it odd that they would want to interview me about something that happened so long ago, but I’m not one to turn down a chance to make an idiot of myself in a public forum. Hey, I do it on here practically every day.

Alert Reader Dawn sent me a link to Navajo Spaceships, Star Mountain and Rez Memories, the “Online Writing Journal, Prose & Poetry of John Rustywire, Navajo”. Lots of interesting stories. It’s Geocities, but read it anyway.

posted by Poagao at 3:03 pm  

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