November snapshots

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 3:08 p.m. - Xinyi District. The building to the left of Taipei 101 is the new building in the skyline, opened this year. I love how from this angle there are two impressions of 101 on it; one the direct shadow, the other a reflection.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 11:40 a.m. - Right angles. Songjiang-Nanjing area.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 4:22 p.m. - Curves. The Living Mall, about to die. It will close its doors at the end of the month. Quite honestly it was a death a long time coming.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 9:00 a.m. - Alter. Laying groundwork for transformations.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 3:20 p.m. - I took a bunch of shots in this area, but immediately after shooting this I put away my camera thinking, "I got my shot", and rode away. Catching the sunlight off the flanges on 101 may be new for me.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2:10 p.m. - Plane taking off from Songshan Airport.

2:18 p.m. - Softball diamonds, riverside park, Neihu District.

2:30 p.m. - Minquan Rd. Bridge, Neihu District. I didn't notice they're both looking right at the camera!

2:46 p.m. - So I was at this little hole in the wall, and . . . 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2:35 p.m. - Abandoned building looks surprised at being abandoned. West of Taipei Main Station.

2:39 p.m. - West of Taipei Main Station, along Zhongxiao W. Rd.

2:45 p.m. - Traditional characters. None of that simplified character shit those simpletons use in mainland China.

2:50-2:53 p.m. - West of Taipei Main Station. This area of several blocks, I think, used to be housing historically for military veterans of the Chinese Civil War and dependents. In my time here, people still lived in the area but it's now undergoing some sort of . . . reckoning. The top picture is a recent construction, I shouldn't wonder, and old houses had to be razed for this . . . beautification? The bottom pic is shot blind over the fence, and the government may be undecided whether to preserve, refurbish or raze the rest of what are basically ruins. Personally, I think something should be preserved to let people know of the history, while also doing something about the dilapidated nature of the ruins.

2:58 p.m. - Same area along Civic Blvd.

4:29 p.m. - Taipei Main Station.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2:31 p.m. - Taiwan-style graffiti, riverside bikeway. It will be white-washed over in a few weeks or months.

2:52 p.m. - New riverside park created over the summer when I wasn't riding in this area. This used to be a fenced-off area along the bikeway that seemed to be a combination of industrial wasteland of an adjacent factory and wild land that feral animals inhabited.

2:57 p.m. - The new park re-routes the bikeway. It used to run closer to the Keelung River along that fence at the bottom right of the pic. The suspension tower is the ruin of, I'm guessing, a bridge that crossed the Keelung River in the early part of the 20th century during the Japanese colonial period. From the old bikeway, it was visible but I never found an aesthetic way to shoot it. They kept it when they created the park, but now everyone is going to shoot it to death on their telephones, so I decided I didn't want to. Until that crane (egret?) landed on it.

3:14 p.m. - The giant cloud-striding spider descended the cloud bank that had lowered enough for it reach Taipei 101, down which it was able to reach terra firma, wreaking havoc and devouring tourists and locals alike. Death does not discriminate. It never rarely sometimes has . . . it does when humans are involved, but not giant spiders.

3:16 p.m. - Or not. The new park has a hill to climb. This is at the top.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1:38 p.m - Civic Blvd. elevated freeway and Eslite Spectrum. There used to be railroad here that led to the old Taiwan Railroad Administration workshop (unseen just left of center). The rails and buildings of the workshop still exist and I hear they're trying to create a historical museum and park to open to the public. 

3:24 p.m. - The new building in the Xinyi District skyline.

4:22 p.m. - Marshmallow sky, someone called it.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2:09 p.m. - Large-format advertising. Dunhua N. Rd.

2:19-2:20 p.m. - Street shooting. I'da preferred these in black & white. Most of these actually.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1:43 p.m. - Same subject as a few days before, I was taken by the removed rails, wondering what they were going to do with this area. The dying Living Mall is off to the left of this pic across Civic Blvd. a bit further down.

1:56 p.m. - Off Xinyi Rd.

4:35 p.m. - Plaza outside Songshan Eslite Spectrum.