Robot Action Boy

today i got a rather late birthday/christmas package from my friend erin. it was definately worth the wait. she sent me some peanuts books, a toy robot(!), an autographed comic book by ellen forney, chocolate(which won’t last long at all), and these cool 70s hallmark stickers. i’d never heard of ellen forney before, but i’m loving the book of comics.

this is possibly the greatest response to homophobia i’ve ever seen. way to go george takei. via milk and cookies. quiddity posted a youtube link to the same thing. interestingly, the milk and cookies version cuts off the intro before the psa starts, but the you tube versions clips off the very end.

for those that have always wanted to see the early todd haynes film superstar: the karen carpenter story well, now’s your chance. i was lucky enough to see it in college but as far as i know it still has not been officially released(or re-released) due to objections of the carpenter estate. is it the use of barbie dolls to depict the carpenters that has the estate upset or would they rather karen’s eating disorders not be addressed? via quiddity.

this week’s audioscrobbler chart. that patti smith appearance on kids are people too put me in the mood for more patti smith. also while working on the mix tape project i pulled out some old favourites. i think the plasma twins may be one of the greatest pop songs ever written. besides, how many songs can you think of about plasma?

sorry for the lack of updates around here. this last week has been the lunar new year holidays. so for part of it peter and i went up to taipei. we took the highspeed rail up there(under two hours from tainan to taipei compared to the 4-5 hours by bus). the train isn’t very convenient from where we live(the station being way outside tainan city), but i may take it again.

while in taipei i went on a small cd binge:

a few of these i picked up because they were in the discount bin. the selection of cds up in taipei is different from down here so i couldn’t resist a few of these. the chinese cd(won fu) came with 100 nt inside! apparently some of the cds had money inside. i guess i was lucky. i’ll probably just keep the money inside as part of the packaging.

while in taipei i got to spend some time with my friends james and sarah. they were wonderful hosts and even had a bbq with most of my favourite colleagues from when i worked up in taipei. most of these people i hadn’t seen in close to six months. an innocent comment about a bowlcut ended up in a mild transformation of one of my colleagues into ed asner/danny devito. well, that’s how i see at any rate.

after taipei, peter and i went to taichung county to visit one of his sisters. they live out in the country surrounded by guava and mango fields. we spent the night and lunch the next day ended up being a big deal. the entire extended family came for a catered meal. there were round banquet tables set up and people went around toasting people at the differnt tables just like at a chinese wedding. as a result peter’s sister’s husband was a bit too drunk to drive us to the bus station so we didn’t get back to tainan as early as we would have liked to.

a week or so ago i got issue five of lightleaks magazine. my first since subscribing(also i think the first offered to be able to get via a subscription). it’s a bit sad seeing this issue as i had a shot accepted for this issue, and then screwed up and missed the deadline. looks like i’m not the only one either judging by a statement in the magazine. despite that there is some cool stuff in here. an interview with a pinhole photographer, an article on doing tintypes(which i found a little hard to follow as it’s not a straight forward how to article) and other goodies.

the reader’s gallery was one of the best i’ve seen, but the showcase section(where one photographer showcases some of their work) seemed a bit on the weak side. i have a feeling part of this may be due to the size of the images being too small(some images work well small – others do not) or just work that doesn’t appeal to me. there was at least one image that looked like it was just taken of a poster/advertising and another shot of a picture hanging on a wall – both of which felt rather flat and uninteresting. some of this problem(especially the colour/flatness) could be the result of going from rgb to cmyk, but i’d still have liked to see stronger work.

my sister just told me about this:

i had no idea this even existed. patti smith on kids are people too singing you light up my life? does life get much better than this? i think not.

oh, and we’re having some server issues so if you aren’t seeing images that is why.

today peter and i went to one of the matsu temples in the area. this is the largest temple in taiwan. when we got there peter commented it was the size of a shopping mall. well, maybe not that big, but still pretty big. we both took a ton of pictures and i shot this crappy camphone stuff from the top of the temple. it gives you a slight idea of how big it is.

right next to the temple was this small abandoned waterpark. it was all fenced in or we’d have been inside taking pictures. as it was i took more crappy camphone from the top of the temple.

this week’s audioscrobbler chart. pulled out some syd barrett. read a post about him somewhere that made me feel like listening to him again. there’s been some changes over at audioscrobbler again. the first one was a change from quite awhile back, mainly that now they show how far an artist/track/album has moved up or down compared to the week before. more recently it looks like you have play buttons that i think will allow you to listen to tracks on demand. i’ve not really explored the buttons, but apparently a gold button means you can listen to the entire track, whereas a blue button just gives you a sample of the track.

how to make a plastic bag eating giraffe. just what every town needs. more plastic bag eating giraffes. i know i’d be insanely happy if i was walking down the street and ran into one of these. via everlasting blort.