Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Aug 12 2003

I’m back at the Ogilvy office at the moment, back …

I’m back at the Ogilvy office at the moment, back in the world of endlessly ringing, unattended phones, giggling ad execs, intercom announcements, and people running around using that odd office jog where you sort of jump high with each step but don’t actually move any faster than if you were just walking normally. In short, everyone here looks really, really busy and productive, but it’s not to see why this company hasn’t won any awards lately. They’ve become the Nike Women’s Company, and anything that doesn’t have to do with that has fallen by the wayside. Except perhaps for instant noodles.

Taipei’s been inundated by huge thundershowers for the past couple of days. Huge drops are pelting the office windows as I write this, and everything is shrouded by the rain. Even my supposedly water-resistant shoes were soaked inside and out after walking home yesterday. Granted, they are a year and a half old, which is about 87 in Sneaker Years. The weather bureau still insists that we’re in the middle of a drought, of course.

There was an earthquake last night right as I had gotten in bed. I was reading Jimmy’s latest book, “Mr. Wing”, and suddenly my room bumped up and down, as if a giant had stomped on the ground next door. I got up and looked downstairs at the people sitting around in the square, but nobody seemed to have noticed. Turns out it was a 5 in Hualian, and only a 3 here.

Today is the 15th day of the 7th lunar month, which means it’s Zhongyuan Day, the middle of Ghost Month, and everyone has set up tables full of fatty snack cookies, all with incense sticking out of them, as well as huge vats of burning ghost money, so that everyone’s dear departed ancestors can be rich and full of heavenly cholestoral, while we among living get the dubious pleasure of inhaling the resulting smoke.

I knew Zhongyuan was coming last night when I saw the huge yellow moon rising from behind the hills in Xindian. I was walking along the edge of the river down there looking at the lights and the swaths of clouds laying across the mountains. It was relatively cool after the storms, but I was still sweating.

Tomorrow is our second day of shooting the commercial. Employees will be in the office and we will probably be in their way, but such is filmmaking I guess. Some of the shots are going to be fairly challenging to do without expensive equipment, but we’ll figure something out. We always do.

posted by Poagao at 7:58 am  

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