this is a picture of the burnt bread boy(i think that's what he is called in english) shop that used to be in hsimenting. i wasn't certain it was really gone, but today i saw where it used to be and that the sign had been taken down, so alas, another shop closes.

while in hsinmenting i went to impo. i was suprised to see other foreigners in there. by the way they talked, they sounded new to taiwan. i ended up picking up return of the roughnecks the best of the chameleons i have a good deal of what is on here, but it contains a bonus disc with the tony fletcher walked on water ep. this was the last thing recorded before they split up way back when. i think somewhere i have demo versions of these songs on tape. so i'm looking forward to hearing these songs again.

before going to hsimenting i stopped by another cd shop and picked up one of those japanese mini vinyl reissues. this one is place vendome by the swingle singers with the modern jazz quartet. the swingle singers were a 60s accapella group. mainly they do classical music accapella which is rather cool. i have downloaded them doing things like the james bond theme, star wars theme, etc. but i have no idea where those things came from. i keep hoping those more pop songs they have done will be reissued on cd, but so far i haven't seen it.

i found this interview with a man who has written a book on the smiths via the idle thoughts of fat buddha. reading the interview makes me want to pull out the smiths again. they, along with everything but the girl, were one of the main soundtracks to my life in my teen years. there was even a point where i would listen to their first album at least once a day, often even more than that. surprisingly, i'm still not burned out on them.

i've been watching those thunderbirds dvds i got for christmas. i still find the puppets a little disturbing on occasion. something about the hands, sometimes they use puppet hands and sometimes they use real hands. there seems to be some connection between this and my love for the films of jan svankmajer and the brothers quay, even some connection to my fascination with shinya tsukamoto. but i think there may be a connection earlier than this and that would be some of the short films on sesame street. i remember specifically this one about a ball rolling around on a track similiar to a roller coaster, but in the end the ball gets all ground up. i've been trying to figure out what this film may be, but all searches on sesame street short films or films used on sesame street come up with just endless sites about sesame street but covering only the most surface information about the show. no real background or techincal information. anyway, i think this short film used on sesame street as well as some of the films i was shown in elementary school may of planted the seeds that led to my love of experimental film. now if i could only find out what those early films were called.

one week ago today, my students in my group class told me that this would be the last class, as there were not enough students to keep the class open according to the schools new rules. i wasn't happy about this, plus it seemed weird that i had to hear about this from my students. couldn't the secretaries be on top of things and let me know this in advance? well, later in the week i had one of my supervisors find out if it was true and it was. well, today i get a call from that branch saying "don't you have your final class today?". i was not happy about this, and let it her know i wasn't happy that they had messed up again. the secretary said she'd call me back when she found out the details, but no one has. so maybe i'll have that class next week, maybe not. i've no idea.

this evening peter and i went to see the two towers. i wasn't sure what to expect. i ended up really liking it. and the special effects for gollum were really done well(not going to say all the digital effects were great, but gollum was), much better than the effects in harry potter or those dreadful new star wars movies. i've read that the film takes quite a few liberties with the tolkien novel, but as i haven't read the books in around 20 years i'm not sure what was changed. peter's sister and her girlfriend didn't like it much till the big battle at the end. but peter liked it better than the first one. i know a lot of people like stadium seating in movie theaters. i'm not one of them. hearing inane conversations as if the person is talking directly in my ear is not why i pay to see a movie. which of course was what happened today. but once the movie started i shushed them loudly and it seemed to do the trick. the sound in the theater was loud enough to drown out most of the cell phone calls, however, that didn't stop the man next to me from answering his phone during the movie. i saw peter giving him a disgusted look, and i loudly shushed him a few times. hoping either he or the caller would get the message and shut up quickly. the man did speak quieter after i shushed him and then finally hung up. but still, i shouldn't of been put in a position where i had to do that in the first place. is it really so hard to switch off your phone while you watch a movie?

earlier today i was reading on go to your room some ideas about how people concentrate too much on the negative and not enough on the positive. eventhough i think she is probably right, here i am again complaining. and it seems like a lot of blogs are that way. are blogs really just one big whiner convention?

i wish this was coming here. it looks really cool. a travelling show of a giant colon you can crawl through. this might even be better than the tactile dome i got to climb through years ago at a science museum in san francisco. via die puny humans.

was santa good to you? he was incredibly good to me. highlights include:

• a banana splits calendar


• two dvds by atom egoyan(calendar and exotica)


• thunderbirds dvd(volume 11 and 12)


• two legendary pink dots cds(synesthesia and all the king's men)


• two hugo montenegro cds(lady in cement ost and come spy with me)


• luke vibert's further nuggets cd(another library music compilation)


• the melancholy death of oyster boy & other stories by tim burton

i haven't been able to really take in the cds or dvds yet. and the fact that there is construction going on near here doesn't help.

other than material goods, the best thing by far about christmas was that i called my family and got to talk to my parents, my sisters and my brother. i even got to talk to one of my nieces and one of my nephews. so that was great. i hadn't actually heard any of their voices in about a year. so that was really nice and made me just feel wonderful. after talking to my family i called a few of my friends(and now i'm thinking i should of tried to call more of my friends but oh well), but was only able to reach my friend cat. she asked me, are you really in taiwan, you aren't really just around the corner are you? it would be just like me to pull such a stunt too. but indeed i was on the otherside of the planet. apparently, this one company here has this really cheap deal for calling overseas. so these calls were a test to see if it is really true. i'll know once the next phone bill comes.

this was the first christmas where i had to work. it wasn't quite as bad as i feared it might of been. i think i was just in denial it was really christmas, as it doesn't ever really feel like christmas to me here. the weather and the mood just don't match my vision of christmas. but regardless of how much it doesn't feel like christmas, you still know it is christmas. i had three classes on christmas day. one was a class i was substituting for. the class is in the afternoon so i was wondering, who are these people that can take classes in the daytime? housewives? it turns out they are students, or people who don't have to work, or people with flexible work hours. sometimes being a substitute can be hell, but this class was great! i really enjoyed it and liked the students. after that i had a new private student who i already like alot and then one of my regular students. it's always nice when you like your students and they are somewhat interesting. nothing worse than a really boring uninteresting student.

merry christmas! this will be the first year i will have to work on christmas. in the past it was a holiday here(constitution day) but the government has eliminated a lot of holidays when they switched to the 5 day work week, and this was one of them. on top of my regular classes, i've volunteered to substitute a class as i've had a lot of classes close lately, and could use the money. when i get home tonight peter and i will open the presents we've gotten. it looks like my parents have really spoiled me this year judging by the number of dvds sitting under our pathetic little tree.

as a nice little christmas surprise i discovered someone wrote up a little review of my blog on eatonweb. it says:

Very cool. I like this very much. Good speak and lot's of pretty pictures too. Anything with monkeys is good.

i like that. now if only my ranking would go up higher than 3...

joe strummer has died. it seems like just last week it was mary hansen who had died, and now joe strummer. makes me wonder if we will be able to make it through the next week without someone else dying. why is it that the people i would like to see die, don't, and the people who i don't want to see die do?

something for the star wars geek who has just about everything. the star wars holiday special. a musical, variety show extravaganza apparently. ah, the 70s, when anything was possible(found via out of focus).

tom jones preacher man. yes, a preacher who utilizes the music of tom jones in his services (via destiny-land).

well, the school christmas party i had been dreading was tonight. why do i let myself be talked into attending these things? i left for the venue very late so didn't end up at the disco it was being held at till just after midnight. as soon as i walked into the place i knew i would of been much happier had i not gone at all. i did get to see some of my co-workers giving out presents on the stage, and then some of the taiwanese staff do a special dance on stage which was really quite good. two women and a half naked man. i was impressed, but after that ended and the dj came on i just left. i only ran into a few people i knew as the event was a joint venture with some of the branches in taipei county so out of the 500 or so people that were supposed to go, maybe i knew 20 if even that. i don't know what i was thinking. i can barely stand going to small get togethers where i know most of the people, but to go to an event like this?

then the taxi driver on the way home seemed to be falling asleep while driving! the car started to slow down, and it looked like his eyes were closing. a bit unnerving. i was happy once i was out of that cab.

my friend paul has started his own blog here. from his blog i discovered this nifty site on the history of christmas lights.

i finally broke down and bought the special edtion dvd for moulin rouge. i watched the movie last night, but haven't watched all the extras on the second disc yet. i'd forgotten how much i really like this movie. though i'm certain a good many of the jokes went straight over the heads of most of the people who saw this. while watching it again, i noticed how much the actor who plays the duke(richard roxburgh) reminds me of paul lynde in certain scenes. and of course baz luhrmann seems to be channeling busby berkeley quite a bit. makes me wonder if any of the busby films have been released on dvd? i know they really need to be seen on the big screen for their full effect, but its not an option i have here.

a good article here using the riaa's own numbers to illustrate the lies they are trying to sell to the general public about the damage of downloading music and supposed sales losses caused by this. if you release less product doesn't it make sense that sales will be down?

well, it looks like i've been roped into going to the company christmas party on saturday. one of the teachers i work with will be leaving taiwan shortly, so this will be the last time i have a chance to see him. it looks like the school has rented out some disco for the event, staff gets to go free. if you are a student tickets are expensive. 500 nt(about 15 u.s.) in advance or 1000 nt( 30 u.s.) at the door. if i was paying that much money, i'd expect the place to be out of this world. somehow i doubt it will be so wonderful. i'm wondering what the music will be like? i suspect it will be bad techno music that was out of fashion ten years ago or wailing bimbos like mariah carey.

i think every seven year old should be encoraged to sing "i'm a sweet transvestite"(look under dec. 11th of the link).

tonight when i came back into the office after one of my company private clases, one of my co-workers said to me "smile" and i gave her a halfhearted attempt at a smile. she said "what's wrong? you look like you're about to kill someone". funny thing is i didn't feel particular angry, a little tired, but not unusually angry. i don't think this is a good thing. what if i am angry and don't even realize it? maybe the inner hulk in me is appearing without me realizing it? scary thought.

the 20 things charity auction has begun. of course i can't afford to buy any of the pieces, but if some kind soul wants to buy me the piece pictured above, i wouldn't say no.

advertising taiwan style. this is just down the street from our apartment. the santas are advertising apartments for sale in this building they are building near here. peter looked into buying one of these places, but they are super small and too expensive. story of our life it seems. last weekend it was really cold, and the santas were wearing jackets, but still had on skirts. brrr.

two more monkeys. once again i'm supposed to be christmas shopping for other people and i end up picking up things for myself. i've been eyeing these monkeys for a long time, but they are usually priced around 25-30 u.s. dollars. well, they are from japan, but still, i can't afford that. but then i saw these for a few dollars. i think they are seconds or cheap chinese knock offs as they appear to have minor flaws, and the japanese ones usually come in a box. i think the japanese ones are called milo but i'm not sure. either way i'm quite happy to finally have them.

mary hansen of stereolab has been killed in some sort of cycling accident. i haven't really listened to stereolab in years, but at one time they were my favourite band. they along with pizzicato five, gave me hope for pop music. there was a time in the early 90s when i just felt music was going nowhere and maybe i'd just give up on pop music altogether. (this probably had more to do with radio(yes, even college radio) sucking so bad in seattle at the time. the record stores sucked at this time as well, and i've seen no evidence that that has improved at all on trips back to seattle.) anway, seeing stereolab live changed all that. they were so fun, and you could tell they were having a good time. it wasn't that they were perfect live, but you could see how much mary and the other members were enjoying themselves.

yesterday, while i was picking up my brother's christmas gift, i picked myself up fred astaire vol. 1: fascinating rhythm. these are recordings from 1923-1930. it's funny cause i always associate fred astaire with dancing, but not with singing at all. but i quite like a lot of the songs on here. especially the tracks with adele astaire as i love her sassy attitude.

i've been running all over taipei, trying to get my christmas shopping done. the problem with living on the otherside of the planet from most of your friends and family is if you don't get things done early, they end up arriving late. i managed to get some things bought early, but i'm still running around trying to get something for the remaining people on my list. yesterday i found myself in hsiminting trying to find something for my friend cat. traditionally i get her something snoopy related. this year i was thinking of breaking with tradition. i won't mention what i did get her, on the offchance she is actually reading this. while i was looking for things for her, i couldn't help picking up something for myself. i picked up the two monkeys pictured above. they were the only ones they had, and not too expensive to boot.

i once heard about a teacher who asked her class what the meaning of infinity was. a boy raised his hand and said it was a box of wheaties.the teacher didn't understand. this may not be a box of wheaties, but it illustrates the boy's point quite well.(via portage).

what's the next best thing to seeing a bollywood extravaganza or listening to the soundtracks? the archive of bollywood vinyl lp covers of course! via dublog.

the taipei international documentary film festival has started here. i tend to hear about these things when they have already begun. i'm not sure if i'm going to make it to any of the films or not. i was hoping they'd have more experimental films, but it looks like a lot of them are more of a political nature. i feel like i should try to see some locally produced documentaries, but the one i find myself most interested in seeing is the one on maya deren. which of course isn't local at all.

i got an email from erin today telling me the wrapped gifts in that package are indeed birthday gifts and not christmas presents and she commanded me to open them NOW. so i did. she gave me this wonderful jesus action figure(the picture above is not so great, but oh well), and jah wobble presents the inspiration of william blake. a few years ago they were playing this in a cd shop and i really liked it and wanted to get it, but never got around to it. so i'm really happy to have it now.

yesterday impo called to let me know that the new maki nomiya disc had arrived. so i went and picked it up. maki nomiya was the lead singer for pizzicato five. i've only listened to the disc a few times, but i'm not loving it. i mean it's ok, but i can't help thinking it's missing something. i find myself wondering if it wasn't maki nomiya would i like this? and that seems like a bad sign. it seems like most of the old shibuya-kei bands just aren't what they used to be.

it's election time in taiwan now. i'm not sure when the actual election is, but you can always tell when election time is as the level of noise pollution goes through the roof. here, one of the main ways to get your message out is to drive slow moving vehicles through the streets with speakers blaring out propaganda. i've been trying to get a picture of the vehicles doing this, but haven't been trying hard enough to get a decent shot of it. so basically anytime from 9 am to 10 pm you can be assaulted with this noise. sometimes the propaganda will be accompanied by firecrackers going off, or sometimes the propaganda will take the form of the canidate or their supporters singing some song karaoke style(blared out the speakers through the streets). it's not a pretty sound let me tell you. another sign that it is election time is that all of a sudden the streets get paved or new road work gets done. this way the politicians that have completely ignored their constituents can act like they've actually cared about you since the last election. quite a few of my friends and students have told me they won't vote as regardless of who is in office, it'll just be more lies and inaction.

in the mail today i got a package from my friends erin and david. it contains a combination of birthday and christmas gifts i believe. some were wrapped and some were not. what is wrapped appears to be a cd and a toy, but i'm waiting till christmas to open them. the unwrapped were: two boxes of whitman's valentine's candy. in heart shaped boxes with the peanuts on the cover. i wonder if the candy is still good? a tape of david's band's demos i think. reminds me of the residents, velvet underground and spacemen 3. not bad at all. a thunderbirds videotape for the episode trapped in the sky. i don't even think we have a vcr any longer, but i'll see if one of my old students can transfer it to vcd for me. even if i can't transfer it, it can go with my small thunderbirds collection. two books. one a children's book called a tale of two williams and the other the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky. both look to be really good. i may even read the chbosky book ahead of all those books i got from my co-worker. it looks like i won't be able to put it down once i start reading it. erin also sent me some nice pictures she'd taken. i told her she should start a photoblog, but i don't think she has.

well, i knew it had to happen one of these days, and today was the day. my glasses snapped in half. so today i got to wander around with fuzzy vision(they snapped in half on the way to work). i'm nearsighted, so the closer something is the more in focus it is. i've stopped by a few glasses shops, but so far i've not found any glasses i like. i'm really bad at buying new glasses, as i become super picky. not to mention i'm a huge cheapskate as well. but for now i'm channeling corey hart and wearing my sunglasses at night.

apparenlty if you do a search on google for does music influnce people decisions robot action boy comes up as number one. as sad as it is, i didn't even realize i had mispelt influence until i saw this search. why couldn't i be number one on a search that doesn't reveal my spelling error?

just sent off another contribution to the lab mail art call. it feels good to do mail art again, though i'm trying only to do a few shows here and there, as i don't want it to become something i feel like i have to do or something that i have to keep on top of. just something i like to do every once in awhile. last week i sent off my first set of artist trading cards to the atc. so i guess eventually, i'll get a set in return. i'm curious as to what that set will be like. some of the cards i've seen on various sites have been really cool, others not really what i'm into. i still like the concept though.

apparently if you do a search on yahoo for gay taiwanese boy robot action boy comes up as number 25. i suspect whoever did this search, would be a bit disappointed upon finding my site though.

today in the mail came a nice package of dvds i had ordered.

• guy maddin's twilight of the ice nymphs/archangel
  
• atom egoyan's family viewing/next of kin
  
• the world of sid and marty krofft
  
• battle of the worlds
  

i bought these mainly with birthday money, but i'd been wanting most of them for awhile. i watched archangel today, which is one of the guy maddin full length films i had not seen. i haven't had the chance to watch the others yet. i remember hearing a film critic say that with guy maddin films it's impossible to suspend your disbelief that you are watching a movie, as everything in the film reminds you that you are watching a film. i think this could be said of the acting in his films as well, the actors and characters often are too self conscious to ever feel truly natural. i think this just adds to the dreamlike quality a lot of his films have. the atom egoyan discs contain a few shorts that i have not seen before. there actually used to be a tv station here that showed atom egoyan films from time to time. but it is no more sadly. the sid and marty collection contains episodes from each of their series, not released on dvd before. i'm looking forward to wandering down memory lane with dr. shrinker. battle of the worlds i bought on a whim, as someone had reccomended it to me. looks to be way over the top and fun. just the kind of sci-fi i love.

via mirabilis i give you recommended reading. punch in the url of a blog and it brings up a list of other blogs you may be interested in reading based on what that blog links to. this is what it reccomended for robot action boy.

this afternoon i dragged peter to fnac so he could help me find out the details about their membership card. well, it turns out the membership card is 900 nt(almost 30 u.s. dollars) and with that you don't even get a flat discount on all cds. you are only eligible for a discount for the cds they decide to offer a discount on. what good is that? i've seen what they offer on special, and most of the time it is stuff i have no interest in at all, or if i'm interested in it, i can find it elsewhere cheaper even with their discount. needless to say we just left and i gave up on getting a discount card there.

we then went to eslite where i already have a discount card. earlier i had spied some compilations of french music from the 60s there, but they were gone when we went back for them today. of course i couldn't leave the place without buying anything, and came away with betty page jungle girl and the new ryuichi sakamoto which is a tribute of sorts to antonio carlos jobim. the betty page disc really has little to do with betty page, maybe the music was used in some of her films, i'm not sure. but the music is library music. library music is music that was recorded to be used in films and television but not scored for a specific film or show. roger roger, one of the most well known composers of library music is on here among others.

have i mentioned how cool my sister is? about a month ago i asked her if she could find the collection of shorts by the brothers quay on dvd for me. i'd read that it was out of print. i intended for her to find it and buy it and i'd reimburse her for it. but after she found it she said not to worry about reimbursing her for it. it's great to see these shorts again. i haven't seen them for over 5 years. when i lived in seattle, i'd go to see the shorts whenever they played(which was quite frequently luckily, every few months usually). peter's brother watched some of them with me, but i'm not sure what he thought of it. he later told peter that he didn't know americans liked such things or something like that. but i guess i'm not your typical american either. at least as far as some of the things i'm interested in goes. when i watch the brothers quay films it makes me want to make films again, or do something creative at the very least. i wish there was a place here where i could see experimental cinema, but as far as i know such a place does not exist here.

peter's brother moved into our spare room not long ago as he got a job not far from here. and yesterday ah-fu welcomed him to the apartment in a way only ah-fu can. yes, he peed all over the bed. last night when i was about to go to bed, peter's brother was having a nice little heart to heart with ah-fu about how it really shouldn't pee all over his bed when he isn't home. i suspect peter's brother won't be forgetting to close his door from now on though.