I got a visit from Amway this morning. I'd bought a product of theirs on the recommendation of my friend the bwg. Afterwards, I got The Schpiel, which was actually quite entertaining. After the Amway rep had finished cleaning several small spots of my kitchen with the Amway Everything Cleaner, we progressed to the Tooth Care section of the program. This involved rubbing toothpaste onto a piece of cardboard. "See, our brand is better than Darlie!" the girl said. Ah-HA, I thought, Darlie SUCKS! So I brought out my brand (Colgate), which managed to pass the test of sticking on her finger, but still took some of the paint off the cardboard, which is apparently not a good thing.

My dishwashing liquid, however, failed miserably. The shame! Still, all was not lost, as there are several two-inch patches of my countertop and toaster oven that will not need cleaning for several weeks.

The Amway rep finished by showing me pictures of her co-workers on (free!) vacations in Alaska wearing shiny necklaces and holding champagne on a cruise ship, mentioning that they made twice my salary.

"Sounds horrible," I said. I was expecting a laugh or at least puzzlement, but she just kept going. At least, when she wasn't being interrupted by the nearly constant ring of her cellphone.

The price of a glamorous Amway lifestyle, I guess.
etched by at 4:09 PM

The radio show on Sunday went off without too many hitches. We were rather rushed getting ready -my fault as the film shoot went later than I had expected. From the end of the shoot to the beginning of the radio show it was a mad rush putting film stuff away and getting radio show stuff out and arranged. Still, we managed to start on time, more or less. The music went ok, the actors were great and, with the exception of my completely forgetting to make the phone ring sound when I was supposed to, the sound effects were perfect. Will really did a good job as the announcer. Sandy was positively bubbling with excitement and eagerness to do another show, soon. I also think it would be cool to do more shows.

Afterwards we sat and listened to Zoe, Duncan and another guy whose name escapes me at the moment play really cool trio music, including "Heartbreak Hill", "Jerusalem's Ridge" and "Gypsy Dance". By the way, I can find none of these songs anywhere online.

After that, Jez took us on a walking tour of the area around Wenzhou St. and Lane 76 which was actually a search for Bongo's Restaurant, supposedly the home of exceptional fish and chips as well as good burgers. Eventually, after much griping about how cellphones, in this day and age, remain without map-generating GPS technology, we found it. Although the wait was cruel and long, the fish and chips were extraordinarily good. I had thought that the now-defunct Mr. Fish had good fish and chips. They did, but now I know where to find even better stuff, with putine on the side. Unfortunately it was too late by then to do any jamming, so we just scoffed at the people who are still lining up at Mister Donuts, a full month after the place opened. I told Jez I really wanted to go up there and get people on camera saying exactly why they were willing to wait 4 or 5 hours for donuts. I'd also like to ask the people who run the store why they're not doing something about the situation, and whether they realize that as soon as the fashion fades, they'll have lost not only the teeny bopper market, but also the people who might have actually gone there for donuts on a daily basis. Somehow, I doubt they do.

In other culinary news, it was a beautiful day today and I happened to be in the area, so I decided to try out the hot dogs at the much-acclaimed Gusto, near Da-an Park. Unfortunately it was closed, but while I was in the area I did happen to run into my old landlord, from back when I was living in the Sogo Locker.
etched by at 11:13 PM

It's late so I'll be brief.

Oh, who am I kidding?

Last weekend was the Migration Music Festival, and I went to see the first two nights of performances, along with several friends including the rest of the Muddy Basin Ramblers, who played there last year. We sat out on the grass along with what seemed like several hundred other people. The first night I saw a gypsy band called Taraf de Haidouks. They were incredible, their music so fast and their enthusiasm so infectious that they soon had the crowd dancing in the aisles and, towards the end, even on stage.

The next night, Saturday, I trudged up the hill in Da-an Park once again, but found a very much more subdued crowd. On the stage a heavyset blonde fellow made strange jerking motions to the sound of an electronic beat and a violin. They were Norwegian and rather ineffective. But the crowd suffered through it because we knew what was coming afterwards: Soul Flower Mononoke Summit!

SLMS used to be a punk band, but after the 95 quake in Kobe they found themselves performing to entertain quake victims without electricity, so they traded in their electric instruments for traditional Japanese ones. They rocked just as hard, and each song was enthusiastically welcomed by the Taiwanese crowd in spite of the pouring rain. "Kawaii!" the lead singer said as the crowd reacted to his every gesture. We walked down front to get a better look before it was over. Sandy and Jojo had to tear me away from gawking at a certain cameraman so they could go get some food at a SE Asian restaurant near Yongkang Street.

On Sunday, which is Halloween, we're putting on the radio play at Peshawar. It should start around 4 in the afternoon. That morning we're going to shoot a scene for the movie there, so it's going to be a busy day. Saturday won't be a breeze either, as we have rehearsal, and I will need to bring half the equipment for the shoot, since I can't carry it all by myself. Funny how these things always seem to coincide. That's what working on weekends'll do to you, I guess.

Several people have come to look at my apartment, and one couple even wanted a second look. So far no buyers, but I'm not optimistic that I'll get to stay here much longer. It's really annoying having complete strangers waltzing through your house every so often. They could at least trapse through like normal people.

Elections are coming up, first the presidential poll in the US and then Legislative elections here in December. I'll be glad when they're over, though I doubt I'll be happy with either result. I'm just sick of everything being forced into a partisan black-and-white context. There's so much intense debate over everything that there is no real debate. It's all posturing; reason and logic have long since departed. Hopefully after the dust settles I can look forward to actual discourse resuming on meaningful subjects.

So much for brief, or getting up at a decent morning hour tomorrow. Oh well.
etched by at 3:07 AM

I've got a few things I'm getting rid of:

Nikon FM2, black: NT$10,500

f1.4 50mm Nikkor lens: NT$8,000

f3.5-4.2 35-210mm Tamrom SP Macro: NT$8,000


All well cared for and in excellent condition, for sale cheaper as a kit (all together with bag and flash, filters), or individually at or around the prices listed above. These are the camera and lenses I used to take many of the pictures lower down on my photography page.

Also, I've got a few gmail invitations if anyone is interested.

Last night I finally got my new DVD burner to work, after downloading a new version of Nero. Unfortunately (and, considering this is Windows, not unexpectedly), this had the effect of removing all the programs in my bottom toolbox, emasculating my Norton firewall, and making gmail inaccessible from my home computer. Right clicks still take 30 seconds to respond, as always.

Damn I hate Windows. I hate the fact that hundreds of people were paid fabulous salaries to come up with systems that collapse like a house of cards whenever anything new is introduced, and I hate the fact that most of these problems can be fixed only by taking measures any normal person would never, ever think of.

In other news, a nearby typhoon is making it a very damp, somber day, though the weather bureau expects it will, as almost every single other storm has, turn northward and hit Japan instead of us. Before that, we had wonderful weather, temperatures just right, sunny and incredibly pleasant.

In still more, fucked up news you won't believe, my new landlady is selling my apartment, a mere two months after she bought it. What does this mean for me? More of the same shit I'd been dealing with before, including the realtor asking me to stay home all the time in case someone wants to see the place, watching strangers trapse through my home, being warned not to let any potential buyers know that the seller just bought the place, generally not knowing if I'll be staying here much longer and not being able to really look for a new place due to the possibility of the new owners being willing to keep renting the place out to me.
etched by at 3:02 PM

Yesterday was a very long yet satisfying day. It started when I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 a.m., not an easy thing after getting very little sleep recently, as well as staying up late the night before getting ready for the beach shoot. Yes, once again we were hoping against hope that the weatherman would be wrong and that we'd get the sunny day we needed. We got it, in spades; I'll be writing about that in the production journal, so I won't go into it here.

Needless to say, I was bushed by the time we finished in the late afternoon, but my day wasn't over yet; the Ramblers were scheduled to play at the Daniel Pearl Day of Music at the Taipei Artist Village. The event started at 6, but after taking the train from Keelung and the subway home, catching a quick shower, grabbing my horn and fedora and getting back on the subway, it was after 7 before I arrived to find a small crowd of people sitting around eating and chatting while a small group of guitarists played quietly on the wooden deck stage under the trees.

The good news was that the Ramblers were scheduled to play last, at around 9. The bad news, it seemed, was the someone had accidentally plugged the amp system into a 220-volt plug and shorted out the whole system. This explained the quiet guitars, which I could barely hear, as well as the chatting.

I grabbed a couple of spiced burgers supposedly donated by Jason's Market. They were far too big for the tiny buns, and I didn't really appreciate the taste, but they were the first thing I'd had to eat since some fruit on the beach, so they were welcome at that point.

Several groups performed, but not many people really paid any attention, to our growing dismay. Dave, Sandy, Will, Tim and I discussed how we could adapt to the situation, and Dave came up with a plan he felt would work.

Just after nine, following some pseudo-Shakespeare and some speeches by Sean Scanlan et al, we marched out into the crowd playing variations in D minor (in other words, whatever came to mind), over to the area where the beer was being served, or had been before they ran out of beer. This was the epicenter of the chatting, and Dave had decided to take the band to the audience rather than expecting them to come to us. We stood in a circle and played with much more enthusiasm than we probably would have in an amplified state. I loved it because not only could I hear myself, I could hear everyone else quite clearly as everything was wonderfully balanced. Dave's enthusiasm was infectious; that man sure can work a crowd.

Over the course of the performance we shifted position a couple of times, each time going to where people were gathered. Will got up on the wooden deck and tapped up a storm, and a few people came and joined in on their own instruments. At one point a small child was taking pictures of us, and I noticed that he or she was using a new Canon 20D, the very camera I've had my eye on recently. Lucky little bastard.

We had to stop playing at some time after ten, but I think we made a fairly good impression. I also think that we're going to try to recreate that setup with a single microphone to play around at future performances.

After the shooting and the playing, I was really tired, but I stayed and chatted with a few people afterwards. A pleasant-looking fellow introduced himself as the infamous "Wolf Reinhold" of Forumosa fame. Then Sandy, Jojo, a couple of their friends and I took the subway back to Xindian where, in spite of the fact that I was getting really tired, we partook of some delicious rhotis while sitting out on the street next to Athula's rhoti stand, where I listened to Sandy and Jojo talk about their upcoming trip to Penghu, where they plan to search for a mythical vacation resort designed by Mike Brady.

It was after 2 a.m. before I collapsed into bed. And, of course, was awakened early this beautiful Sunday morning by the sound of jackhammers next door.
etched by at 11:43 PM

Note to self: Stop signing all these crap-request forms.

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