Just got back yesterday from a Cruise to Nowhere. It’s windy up here in my apartment, a perfect day outside, just the right temperature and refreshingly dry, but the wind resulting from opening my windows has created an even bigger mess than previously existed in here. I’ll wait until it rains to clean it up. Unfortunately, I can’t just take off on a bicycle or motorcycle to enjoy the weather, as I have to go to work. Later, though.

Yesterday I ran into Sandman just as I was returning from the cruise. He was going down to take pictures of the Dragonboat heats going on at Bitan, so I went up, put my things away, and then came back down to join him and Jojo. We also ran into some of their friends as well as Liz, a woman with whom Dean and I did a play many years ago, and her daughter.

The suspension bridge was loaded with onlookers and would sway alarmingly when the boats went underneath and everyone went from one side to the other. We got some shots from above and then proceeded down to the bank to take some more after some berk went and stole Sandman’s bright red umbrella.

For my money, the Fu-ren University Team was by far the best looking team, something which may have had something to do with their winning their heat. They were dressed in red half-shirts, their rowing arms left bare. While the other teams were composed of just regular guys, the Fu-ren team seemed to all be bodybuilders or something. We still have a few weeks until the actual Dragonboat Festival itself, so I should be able to get some more pictures in the meantime.

After going shopping at RT Mart, where Sandman went crazy and bought half the wine section (actually he didn’t, but we did run into a foreign guy who did), we retired to the Sandcastle for drinking and cat-on-lap chatting action. It was then I noticed the sound of cicadas, the first I’ve noticed this year. I heard it again this morning when I got up. It’s a wonderful sound to me, the sound of everything good I remember from childhood summers.

After rushing to get all our daily work done early on Friday, Dean and I walked over to the train station to meet Maurice in the big hall where you buy tickets. We got three to Keelung, went downstairs and set off for the port city as dusk fell. April was supposed to get on at Nangang, and she did, but we didn’t see her for a while because we told her the wrong car. The train was packed with commuters as it was rush hour, but by the time we got past Nangang and Xhizhi a good portion of them had gotten off.

The SuperStar Gemini was docked just across the narrow harbor from Keelung Train Station. The last time Dean and I took the “Cruise to Nowhere”, the food was not only scarce, but not that good either, so I bought some cookies at 7-Eleven in case dinner turned out to be another disappointment.

Loaded down as we were with equipment, we decided to take a taxi over instead of walking. We were supposed to be there before 8:30pm, but it was early, so we took some shots from the dock, just in case, while a guy on a bicycle tried to insinuate himself in the movie.

By the time we got to the customs and immigration, it was empty except for a few “greeters” hanging around and chatting with each other, all largely ignoring us. All except for the man in the large uniformed penguin suit. Apparently part of the price of the cruise is being accosted by the Disneyesque appartition and having your picture taken with it for blackmail purposes.

There were about a dozen lines, all empty, waited. Only one was for foreigners, so Dean, Maurice and April lined up, while I went to one of the “Chinese Only” lines, and then chatted with one of the crew, a guy from China, while I waited for the others to be processed. He told me that there were over 600 passengers and just as many crew.

Then it was time to board. I was making Pac-man noises as we were led through a maze-like series of hallways to our cabin, which I had assumed, based on the relative cheapness of the price, to be located in the bowels of the ship. We were fairly high up, however; it just didn’t have any portals; otherwise it was quite nicely appointed. They even had Star World on TV.

Dinner was wrapping up, so we hurried aft to the restaurant, where we were pleasantly surprised to find a really nice buffet spread. Maurice, of course, ordered wine. Afterwards we went up on deck to watch Keelung Harbor slip by as the ship went to sea, the vessel beginning to sway and roll in the ocean waves in a pleasant fashion.

To celebrate this and counter the swaying, we went below to the bar and had some drinks among the many gangsterish types before they all disappeared into the casinoes, which could only open when we were in international waters. This was the main reason most of the passengers had come. Throughout the cruise, we only saw a handful of other passengers, but this was perfect for us, as we didn’t want to attract a lot of attention with the filming. In the bar we ran through lines and worked on timing while an Indonesian mariachi band did Phil Collins covers.

The next morning I woke up early, around 7, as we had agreed the night before. The others, however, were reluctant to rise to soon. Truth be told, I sleep very well on board a rocking ship, so I could understand. But I was a little worried that the weather, which was spotty thus far, wouldn’t hold, so I wanted to get the filming done as soon as possible while it wasn’t squalling outside.

After a great breakfast of mostly pastries, we set up on the upper aft deck and ran through the scene from several angles. The light was quite nice, actually, but the contrast was difficult to deal with without any lights or reflectors. By this time we had reached the Japanese island of Yonaguni. The ship was turning around, so the islands were going in and out of shots the whole time, necessitating many repeats. At one point a South African couple strolled up and engaged Dean in conversation halfway through a take. Maurice arrived later and we did his dialogue with Dean.

I got several different angles that I liked, and then we went forward to the bow of the ship. I suspected this might be a problem because it was right below the bridge, and we’d even worked out an elaborate story in which Dean and April were newlyweds on their honeymoon re-enacting the moment they met for the camera, but nobody ever even asked us what we were doing. Hardly anyone was even there. The angles were a bit problematic at first because to avoid crossing the line of action I should theoretically have been suspended from a Boatswain’s chair above the ocean, but I figured out a cheat that should work nicely.

The shooting over, we retired to our tiny cabin to watch the footage and laugh at the footage of April struggling to keep the wind from blowing her dress up. Satisfied everything was more or less covered, we put away our stuff, changed into more comfortable clothes, and went to lunch with high expectations.

Lunch was great, of course, though it started to squall halfway through it. It was good we’d gotten the filming done. The ocean in that area was dotted with sunlight, alternating with dark storm clouds, creating a nice effect. After lunch I went around taking pictures of the ship, while the others went off on their own. Later I found Maurice sloshing around in the rocking, swaying swimming pool, and April tried to catch some sun on the deck above the bridge. The ship seemed empty, which was nice. The only other passengers around were the wives and children of the gamblers, as well as some of the gamblers themselves when they wanted to take a break.

We took in the last part of a show that night. The show involved a Brazilian theme, apparently due to a dark guy in red who would rush over and stare at certain members of the audience, but it also included a group of talented acrobats from Shandong Province. They were very talented at acrobatics, but maybe not so talented at keeping their rainbow-colored wigs on during the actobatics. Just before the show finished, a very small person, not much larger than a barbie doll, ran out on stage and freaked us all out a little.

After dinner, Maurice, who was feeling a little seasick and freaked out by the barbie-doll person, returned to the cabin while April and I took a turn in the jacuzzi. After that I was feeling energized and wanted to celebrate the completion of the scene, so Dean and I went back to the bar and drank (I still can’t believe they don’t have CC rye on that ship), chatting about the film and, somewhat deliriously, comparing ourselves to Cubby Broccoli and his gang making the early Bond films on shoestring budgets.

After another great sleep and even more pastries the next morning, we approached Keelung again, looking dark and dismal and close after the distant sea horizons. The ship seemed even more deserted as the Taiwanese passengers lined up early below, eager to depart. We stayed up on deck and watched the city slide by once again, right up to when they turned the ship around and docked. The entertainment section of the crew was lined up to see us off the ship, but the giant penguin was nowhere to be seen.

We took the train back to our respective destinations, April to Nangang, Dean to Songshan, me to Taipei Main Station to catch the MRT to Xindian, and Maurice the last to get off, as he lives in Banqiao. The trip was a real success; rarely do we have such relaxing, trouble-free shoots.

前幾天看到了星際大戰三部曲, 覺得滿好看. 有些小小意見, 但是但部份來說是個滿不錯的結局.

我們的藍調樂團這兩個月會跟另一個當地樂團, 生祥與瓦窯坑3, 一起表演. 看他們
的網站或我們的網站, 都有時間表. 我上次一起表演的那天晚上有賣他們的CD, 確是十分好聽.

今天晚上, 下班後, 我們幾位拍片朋友要上船出海去! 這次不但是為了換個環境, 而同時可以在那裡拍幾個需要的鏡

I turned on the radio when I woke up this morning to hear the following commercial on 99.7:

“Darn it! What is this on my TV? It’s just a large dark mass on the screen!”

“Hey, check out my new LG TV! Here…now, what do you see?”

“Wa-ow! It’s Black people beating crows in the middle of the night!”

“Yes! Since LG uses ‘instalight cannon’ picture tube technology, even the blackest scenes are crisp and clear! Even Black people beating crows in the middle of the night are no problem!”

I swear I’m not making this up.

At least it seems relatively sunny out today. Today after work, Dean, Maurice, April and I are all heading out to Keelung to board the Star Virgo “Cruise To Nowhere” on the Superstar Gemini (or possibly the Virgo; I’m not sure) for three days. It will be exciting and new. We’ll come aboard; they’re expecting us…but I don’t think they’ll be expecting us to be shooting part of a film. We’ll have to keep that on the DL and hope they think we’re just tourists having fun. Which we will be.

In other news, David’s got the official Muddy Basin Ramblers website up, for the most part. There’s still a few empty bits, but we’ll fill it in soon enough with more content, i.e. pictures, recording, and miscellaneous stuff. Unless, of course, we can’t get the stuff no more. I’ve adjusted all my links to the official site, but left my original page up just in case there are some remaining links out there, so I can point them to the new site.

The other night, while I was waiting around to see Star Wars, I went to the nearby Mister Donut for some treats. The short line went in the door, with exiting customers coming out the other double door. Due to the swarms of flying termites that plague us along with the plum rains every year about this time, they closed the doors.

This completely flummoxed one woman who, after her purchase, simply couldn’t find the exit. She looked at the line in, took a step towards the exit door, which was closed, and stopped, a puzzled look on her face. She then went over to the back of the store to the cordioned off bit, stopped, and looked around. She checked all the windows, running around the room bumping into corners, customers and other obstacles like some kind of crazed Roomba, before finally charging through the people waiting to be served, pushing her way through us to break out of her perceived imposed confinement and out what she saw to be the only exit. I felt like I was watching a mental experiment on the Discovery Channel or something.

Just got back from seeing the final Star Wars movie. Yes, I’m surprised I took this long to see it, too. Anyway, my thoughts (spoilers follow):

On the whole I liked it. The movie was generally as good or better than Episode II, with more action and less whining, or at least less angsty whining, from Anakin. But it also felt clumsy in parts. The writing made me groan in places, as usual. The cg environments and ship chases were awe-inspiring, and the camera seemed to know where to end up in every shot.

George Lucas doesn’t seem to trust his audience very much. At the end, we had to be pounded over the head with the same shots from the old episodes, rather than something that would lead to them. The frame of the Death Star is almost completed? So it took like 20 years to finish? How much better would it have been to have Darth Vader and the Emperor standing on the deck of a star destroyer that looked like a more primitive version of the ones in the old film, with officers in a recognizable but not identical uniforms, looking on as a large, curved piece of metal, barely recognizable, is hauled past them to a field filled with similar pieces? The shot the way it is feels rushed and brushed over.

Obi-wan’s realization of Anakin’s treachery is likewise brushed over rather quickly. Would a slow dolly in be too much to ask? Or maybe just a linger on a close-up? People say Anakin’s turning to the dark side seemed rushed, but I didn’t feel that part was too bad. It could have been portrayed better, but the timing was about right; otherwise it would have turned into more whining, which I don’t need to see.

Speaking of whining I didn’t need to see, it would have been far more powerful if, upon hearing of Padme’s death, Darth Vader had just stood there, pipes crunching and falling apart around him. Then, a beat of silence, or maybe show him turning away. The “Noooo!” was too much and inappropriate. A greater effect would have been achieved, but who am I kidding? It’s Star Wars.

All in all, I was happy with the film. I would have done some things differently, but then again I’m just a punk indie filmmaker with hardly any credit, so what do I know?

Apart from what I thought of the movie, it was momentous, in that it is likely that it was the last time I will ever sit in a theater and watch a Star Wars movie for the first time. Six times I’ve done this in the nearly three decades since 1977, and this was the last. That, coupled with the end of Star Trek, makes it feel like the end of an era, though in truth perhaps that era ended a long time ago.

The last shoot was difficult; this one would be even worse, logistically. Dean had to arrange everyone’s schedules just so we could get dozens of people to converge in a smallish laboratory on the NTU campus the weekend before last. Pleas were made. Deals were stuck. In the end everyone stepped up. I’m usually impressed by the fact that everyone is so enthusiastic about helping us out, but I was reminded anew of just how fortunate we are to have the friends we have on this shoot, which we wouldn’t have been able to pull off without the help of a great many people.

“Norman Szabo” had secured a lab on the fourth floor of the building (the “fourigner floor”, as some call it in Taiwan due to the fact that Westerners don’t have the same superstitions concerning that particular number as Chinese people do, resulting in many foreigners living on that floor). The place was a mess when we got there; it’s hard to believe people actually conducted experiments. It wasn’t at all like the labs you see on TV or in the movies.

We had to make it look something like that, however. We moved boxes and crates into the back room, wondering all the while if we were destroying valuable experiments. A pair of red trashcans were pull of piping, the contents boiling vigorously, so we left those alone. I tore down the “Don’t touch this! Toxic!” signs from a couple of places, and hoped nobody would take the red mixture in the fridge for Kool-aid.

Actors began showing up, as well as our commando team, all set to infiltrate our lab, which was shaping up. I’d borrowed some gels from Da Shan so we could simulate an alarm situation, as well as the eerie green effect of the Gozen engine. Dean had brought some revolving lights, the kind you see at construction sites. I put the camera on a lab table, took out a couple of ceiling tiles and stuck it up there to get a nice wide angle while Peter, no doubt nervous as his wife was about to give birth to a baby girl at any minute, went through his fight moves with Shirzi before getting into it with Dean and the commandos.

We went through the invasion several times. At one point Dean used a sparkler to simulate another door-breaking-through. By the time I yelled cut the door was on fire. We chipped away the burned parts and sanded it down so that (hopefully) nobody would notice.

Keith and Dave, our guards, were real sports, doing their death scenes over and over for the camera, and helping us move things about in the meantime. Joshua, April and Emily also did their fair share of running around. For one shot we needed Josh being shot at, so Shirzi sat on top of the lab table and threw firecrackers at him as he reached for a dead guard’s gun. I also got a shot of April running for cover and one of Emily hiding.

We needed some other scientists for the lab, and since Gordon Freeman wasn’t available, we got Dean’s classmate Lisa and Shirzi’s friend Gina to put on the white coats and try to look serious about whatever was under the microscope. Lisa turned out to be an expert seeker of cover. She ducked-and-covered like a pro.

When the commandos were done in the lab and Maurice had arrived, Darrell took them, Joshua, April and Dean up to the roof to get the shots we needed up there, as well as in the stairways. As usual, the commandos looked great, even up close and personal. The major actors looked great as well.

It was a relief to be able to leave all our gear in the lab on Saturday night. Sunday we left for dialogue, some effects, and the final squib shot.

Dialogue took longer than expected on Sunday, however. I got some cool shots of Dean’s robotic hand, powered by cigarette smoke, as well as some shooting and reaction shots, while Darrell shot empty lab bits we could use to destroy 3D objects in later. Dean also lit off a firecracker on his hand to simulate being shot at. By the time we’d set up the squib shot, it was already dark outside. We did it anyway, and sprayed the walls with fake blood after a couple of false starts. Between the burned door and the blood everywhere, it was a good thing nobody was keeping too close an eye on us.

I looked at the footage and decided we’d better get the squib shot with light outside the windows, so we went back the next weekend for another try. This time, after several false starts, much cursing, and an alarming amount of staggering on Paul’s part, the squib finally worked.

And how. The blood went everywhere, covering the camera and tripod, me, Dean, the floor, the ceiling, and walls. It took me half and hour just to clean the camera up. Darrell, wisely, covered his with a 7-Eleven rain poncho. We did the shot twice, so the place was covered in sticky fake blood, but we got the shots we needed.

This was a major sequence, and I’m glad we have it behind us. After we get a few more shots, I think we’ll be about halfway through with principle photography, surely a giant step. Next weekend April, Dean, Maurice and I will be shooting on a cruiseship, which should be a welcome break.

This last weekend was a busy one. We had to do a pick-up shot at a lab on NTU campus on Saturday (more about this stuff on the production journal), after which I had to rush home to Bitan with my camera equipment, look longingly at the newly opened swimming pool downstairs, change clothes and take my trumpet and the bass back over the bridge to the MRT station and take the train to Gongguan, where the Ramblers were set to kick off the first of several performances with Sheng Xiang and Water3 at the Riverside.

I got there first, and the place was empty except for the sound people setting up the stage. They must have just cleaned, as the air had an antisceptic odor. I put down my stuff and went back outside, though it was muggy and hot, to wait for the others, who soon arrived. They had spent the afternoon lounging around at Bongos. Sandman bought me a tasty sandwich as the Riverside has no food worth mentioning, and I was starved.

Sheng Xiang and Water3 arrived and started their soundcheck while we went upstairs to the courtyard next to the Taipower Building to warm up. A couple of kids ran around laughing and bumping into us as we played, though Sandman chased them off a few times.

We were opening for Sheng Xiang, and this was the first time since I joined the band that we’d played for such a thoroughly Taiwanese audience. They seemed to like the music, though we didn’t have a lot of time on stage. Mark, the other band’s harmonica player, jumped up and played with us on one of our songs.

Then it was Sheng Xiang’s turn. Sheng Xiang himself is a nerdy guy with a high voice, but boy, can he sing. He was accompanied by Mark, Xiao Liu (Little Six) on a beatiful black fretless bass, and Yufeng, a girl who played a whole range of traditional Chinese instruments. They played Hakka and Minnan songs, mostly with a Japanese flavor to them, in a tight, expert fashion. Conor went up and blew us away accompanying one song, and David did another. Later on we all went up and played together, though one of the songs was in E, a difficult key (f sharp) for trumpet, but I eventually started to get the hang of it.

Thumper took Slim, Sandman and I home, stopping in a park on the way to chat for a while. It was a lot of fun; I look forward to the rest of our shows with Sheng Xiang. The next one, in two weeks I think, is at Witch House on June 4th. See the schedule here under “concerts”.

Sunday morning I showed up bright and early at the Sandcastle so that we could get a headstart on our trip down to Longtan for the Hoping for Hoping Peace Festival. It was hot and shiny, so we went casual. David and Robyn showed up, rousing me from Sandman’s couch where I was recovering from the night before, and we set off in Sandman’s Nissan down Ankeng Road. Everyone was in good spirits. “I just love this tunnel!” Robyn exclaimed, not something you usually hear from common commuters. It was, in fact, a beautiful drive. About an hour later we found the place with no problem thanks to excellent instructions provided by “MJB” on Forumosa. I sat in the passenger seat reading the printout while Sandy drove.

The festival was at a place called Kunlun Gardens, a camping grounds in the mountain valley situated around a kind of temple. The road up the mountain was narrow, rocky and steep, but at least we weren’t on foot.

Our destination turned out to be a big grassy area, spotted with small pine trees and abandoned playground equipment including a small helicopter that looked like it might have been flown and crashed by little people in the 1970s. Young shirtless white guys, mostly with beer guts, played frisbee, and a man dressed in a long white gown was on the stage introducing a rock group. Tents were everywhere. It felt like an attempt by young foreigners in Taiwan to rehash Woodstock, a kind of hippie central. Strange at first, but comfortable after a while.

We found the stall where Robyn set out necklaces and bracelets for sale for the Garden of Hope Foundation. Food was available from stalls nearby. The music coming from the gigantic speakers was tinny and booming at the same time. We went down the road a bit into the forest to do some practicing. Sandman said that later on there would be a lot of fireflies out.

We were on after an African drum group, Papa Alex & the Pan Afrika, which featured several African men, some shirtless and all very sweaty, dancing, playing and singing traditional tunes. Half of the crowd was dancing right in front of the stage, while the other sat a ways off in the shade of the small pine trees. Occasionally a small group of hikers would show up and realize that the quiet hamlet they were expecting was nowhere to be found.

Our show went well, if a bit rushed due to time constraints. We sat around playing with other musicians afterwards for a while as big trucks lumbered around dissembling the stage and the stalls. Alita Rickards found a baby somewhere and brought it over for drum lessons. I was kind of hoping to see some fireflies, but everyone was quite tired and wanted to get back to Bitan for some of Athula’s famous rhoti. It was good to have a couple of days out in the sun; rain is forecast for the rest of the week.

In other news, Yahoo! got back to me and let me in again, though they keep sending me emails to verify my email address while giving me codes that don’t work. Also, somehow I’ve ended up in Yahoo! Canada’s email, for some reason. Still no answer on how this keeps happening or what my password is being changed to. I suspect it will happen again, so I’ve changed all of my important email notification settings from the yahoo account. I wonder if they’re even curious about this case, if they’re not telling me something, or if the bureaucracy is simply set up to “fix and ignore” problems like this. Ernie tells me I’m the only such case they’ve come across as far as he knows. I suspect it might have something to do with having a non-.tw email address while being physically located in Taiwan. Perhaps we’ll never know.

We started filming the laboratory attack scene on Sunday. On Saturday night I had rented a grey VW “urban assault” van from a man on a street corner in one of the shadier parts of the city and drove back to Xindian, spending the better part of an hour trying to fit the behemoth into a tiny parking space near Taiping Temple.

It took far less time the next morning to get out of the space than it took to get into it, and I was able to meet Darrell near his place in Jingmei before driving into the city to the gun shop where we met our commando team, including James. We did some helicopter gunship shots, and Rowan showed up for his first shoot on this project, stealing the show with his maniacal laugh.

After some anxiety over whether Paul’s car would start or not, we loaded up the van, formed a convoy and made our way out to Muzha to Dean’s university, where we hoped to gain entrance to a parking garage for an important scene. We were turned back from the side gate where we’d originally planned to slip past security, and were directed to the main gate, where we were stopped and interrogated. “We just need to drop some things off,” I explained to the guard with an innocent and trustworthy expression on my face to counter the fact that we had several heavily armed, uniformed persons in the vehicle with us. The guard looked a bit confused, but evidently decided asking questions would be more trouble than it was worth and let us through. The commandos in the back hooted in triumph as we drove onto campus.

The first thing we did was to shoot Darrell being shot at the gate. After I rolled camera the first time he removed his glasses, went over and made a little pile of foliage to fall on after being shot. Then the gun of the driver didn’t work, a problem he compounded by leaning his head out of the window and saying “Sorry!” Eventually we got a couple of good takes, though. Darrell fell so convincingly that I thought he’d fallen for real.

The next thing was to gain access to the parkade. Dean and I went to the security booth on the first floor and got the guy to let us in “for an hour or two”. Inside, James and the other commandos set up what they were going to do and went through it several times, while I got shots on our home-made glidecam.

The guys were fantastic. They took it as a real exercise, doing it the way they would for real. After I knew what they were doing I could get the angles I wanted and stay out of their way. Other cast members, including Graham, Jerome, Shirzi and his friend Joey, began to show up as we practiced.

Finally, when we were ready to do the entire, long shot. Jerome drove the van to a mark, commandos poured out, reconned the area, accompanying Dean to his spot in front of the door. It looks great. Well, except for that one time when the back door got stuck, trapping half of the guys inside while Dean looks incredulously at the camera.

After nearly tripping while walking backwards down the adjacent hallway, where we filmed the group walking, etc., we filmed the door-breaking, which involved Dean’s space-age mini jet-engine lighter and a sparkler for the effect of a tiny blow torch.

That done, we proceeded upstairs to the 12th floor, where we did more sneaking, recon, alarm, attacking, shooting and stealth shots. I shot James and Joey as X Directorate guards doing their thing while Dean went on a McDonald’s run. The place was deserted. Dean had just gotten back when I heard Shirzi saying, “Who did that think he was? He was all like, ‘this is a campus, not a film studio’…”

Uh-oh. I didn’t know who Shirzi had been talking to, but it sounded like the guy might become a problem. We kept filming the commandos, trying to get all their stuff done at least so they could go home. They did, and we started with the other actors. At one point a woman who looked like a cleaning lady walked by. “Ni hao?” said Jerome as he rehearsed some lines. But the woman only made a “pshhhh” sound and shook her head in obvious disgust.

We’d gotten about three quarters of the stuff we needed done when the original security guy from downstairs came up and said we’d have to stop. We’d been reported by the indignant guy and/or the lady. They were threatening to call the cops. We tried to explain, but it was no use. After the guy went away we got a couple of quick action shots, but that was it.

Jerome, Graham, Dean and I took James back to the gun shop, and then went to Paul’s building at NTU to see if we could match the set with Graham and Jerome. We tried, but I’m still not sure if it will work. We got good stuff, good enough for now anyway.

The van had to be back in its owner’s hands by nine, so Dean and I drove it back up as it started to rain again. Dean cleaned up everything in the back so that the guy wouldn’t freak out to see us hauling weapons out of his vehicle. After returning to me the NT$500,000 check he made me sign as collateral, he took off, leaving us fending off rats from our luggage next to the corner convenience store.

It was a long, hard day, and my arms ache from all the glidecam work, but we got some really good stuff. Next weekend: the lab itself. That should be a doozy.

When I turned on my computer yesterday, my usual Yahoo! page didn’t come up, telling me to login again. I did so, and it told me my password was incorrect.

Not again!

Yep, it’s true. I went through their password request form, only to be told by many different “customer care representatives” that my personal information, again, did not match their records. What I thought was a freak glitch in their system in January is obviously either a real and persisting problem in their system, or else someone, possibly within Yahoo itself, has access to my information and the authority to change it at will. I never got a satisfactory answer from them the last time this happened; they just fixed it and didn’t say how it had happened.

You’d think they’d have records that went back more than four months and could see that this is a recurring problem without me having to point it out.

They tell me that this is for my protection, because if they let just anyone email them and tell them that they’re me, someone could go in and, oh, I dunno, change my password. They may be right, but that tactic doesn’t seem to be working very well as someone’s doing exactly that anyway.

Saturday was brilliant. After doing some therapy for my knee at Chang-kung Hospital, I walked down Dunhua North Road to a coffee shop to have some lunch and do storyboarding. I love Dunhua because it’s full of trees, just like Ren-ai Road. The reason for this is supposedly that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to impress foreign dignitaries, who would arrive at Songshan Airport, drive down Dunhua and make a right onto Ren-ai to the Presidential Office. Those were basically their first impressions, so CKS wanted it to be of broad, tree-lined avenues.

Later that afternoon, after stopping over at Dean’s to talk about the film, I was on my way to the huge Mitsukoshi Industri0military Complex when I heard what sounded like a crowd roaring in the distance. As I walked, I realized it was the sound of tires squealing. Hyundai was holding some kind of promotion in the department store parking lot, with little four-door hatchbacks, just like the kind my friend Daniel recently bought, trying to get around a series of orange cones as fast as they could. The air was filled with the sound of hot rubber as the little underpowered cars were thrown around rather mercilessly. A big red timer showed times under a tent.

I asked a guy what was going on, and it turned out anyone could take a car out and do just about whatever you liked with it, within the confines of the parking lot. Some people drove cautiously around a bit, but you know the boy racers in the crowd were going to wring everything they could from the vehicles, which were decorated with racing checkers. Fake acceleration sounds were being broadcast over speakers, as the little Hyundai engines were obviously incapable of such sounds.

They were about to close up, so I asked if I could have a go. After a few minutes’ wait, I found myself behind the wheel of one of the little cars. It was an automatic, and it took me a second to find the parking brake to add to the spinning action. The car was really underpowered, and the steering required too many turns lock-to-lock. Initial oversteer would quickly become serious understeer, and I’m surprised nobody had run through the flimsy barrier separating the “track” from the rest of the parking lot. I wondered how many little tires they’d gone through that night.

Still, it was fun to try and make the car do doughnuts (mixed results at best). The slalom was fun. I tried to pull a Rockford and didn’t quite make it. I really don’t like front-wheel-drive. The rear end would hop violently with the parking brake on. I think if I’d had more time with the car I could have learned more about how it drove under violent maneuvers.

That night was friend Jez’s last performance in Taiwan before he leaves for the Big City. Which Big City he’s departing for I don’t know, but I’m fairly sure it’s New York or London or someplace like that. The gig was at Peshawar, and after some Japanese fare celebrating Gordon (another friend)’s birthday with Sandman, Jojo and Ray, we piled into Gordon’s huge Saab 9000 and wafted up Roosevelt.

Peshawar was packed, even more packed than usual, which is pretty damn packed. Jez and Friends put on a great show, as usual. Sandman brought his ‘bitty sax, sang along with Will, and Zoe fiddled up a storm. I also got to talk more with the stand-up bass player. The bass was incredible. I am attracted to it ’cause I’d like to learn it, but all of those strings frighten me. Also, it’s huge, expensive and unwieldy. And I can get nearly the same effect on the tub for much less in the way of transportation and chiropractor’s bills.

Sunday was amazing, weather-wise. Rumors have been spreading of rain lasting for weeks or even months on its way, so I dusted off Gendoyun and rode up into the mountains. I blew past some (obviously useless) security gates and cruised around the mountaintops looking at the huge gated communities that are spread out on the hillsides there. From a distance they look fantastic, though I wouldn’t know how to find my house when every other one looks almost exactly like it. Up close, however, they revealed themselves to be typical Taiwanese construction, i.e. solid, thick concrete, with small, heavy windows filled with boxes and other detrius. It’s amazing; someone paid top dollar, more than they would for an equivalent one downtown (I checked) for a house out in the middle of nowhere, supposedly for the environment, and they buy a Benz so they can spend all their time downtown shopping for crap they can use to fill up their windows and block the views.

Ranting aside, I really enjoyed getting back out on mountain roads on my motorcycle on a nice day. I stopped to rest at the Donghua Temple, where pidgeons strutted around the doorstep and old people sipped tea under old yellow lanterns. I chatted with one guy who was apparently supposed to be working on something. Periodically a woman would come over and nag him about it. “It’s only going to take five minutes. Relax!” he told her.

It was pretty hot; I would have found a swimming hole somewhere, but I had to meet Harry later to get some DVDs back from him. Later that night we met up with some other friends in the Xinyi District for dinner. Afterwards, when we emerged from the funhouse decor of Taipei 101’s parkade, we found ourselves in the middle of a heavy downpour. The rain had started.