A few of my October Taipei pictures were taken at Treasure Hill, which began as a squatter village in the 1950s and over the years has become a strange hybrid of poor elderly-community and artists’ commune. (It is threatened with demolition about once a month, but is still kicking at the moment.) We were there for the bluegrass-heavy Daniel Pearl Day of Music organized by my friend Sean (who also runs the Urban Nomad Film Festival, more on that later), and we ran into Patrick’s friend Mina, an artist who was in the midst of renovating an old, decrepid structure into a cafe. (That’s P squatting on the then-dangerously-rickety second-floor in the above photo.)
“Patrick, you have discovered my secret!” she shouted, laughing, when we stumbled across the space– apparently she had been keeping it under wraps for some time. But it’s a secret no longer–today I got a message from Pat that Mina’s “Treasure Hive” is open for business, and even has a blog. A Taipei Times article provides more information, and makes me want to check out the Hive as soon as possible…
More back-logging, here from the GZ conference in November and the opening of the GZ Triennial… Check out our sweet headbands (provided by Kelly and Diana), and Xu Tong’s off-the-hook giant red-white-blue-bag-turned-karaoke-parlor out in front of the Guangdong Museum.
GZ pix
Now that I’m finally getting my Flickr act together, here is the massive gallery of pictures I took at the Reunification Palace in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) back in August… An amazing time-capsule, and my dream 60s movie-set. In case you didn’t know, this pristinely modernist structure was once the presidential palace of Ngo Dihn Diem (the U.S.-backed South Vietnamese leader) until tanks broke through the front gates 1975 as Saigon fell to the North. The president escaped via rooftop helicopter (I’m posing near the helipad in one balcony picture), and practically nothing in the building has been touched since. Someone had told me that the beds were still unmade in the residential quarters, which is untrue– the beds are stripped, but everything else feels like everybody left just about five minutes ago.
The full set is here
So many puns, so little time. Anyhow, went to Korea for the weekend, where it was awesome but cold (ten below zero the whole time I was there). Reminded me a lot of Japan but also Los Angeles in a strange way (that may have something to do with the fact that my high school was in Koreatown, thus a lot of my formative years were spent around mini-Seoul). Saw some art, did some shopping, met some friends-of-friends, ate bibimbap in its homeland… most of the time wearing this ridiculous dog hat I bought on the street for warmth. It won me lots of friends among little children, schoolgirls and old people (toddlers gave me candy on the subway, I swear). See rest of gallery here.
From another super-short trip, this one in mid-October to Taipei. The weather was beautiful (no typhoons like last year), the dumplings were plentiful, and the standing-room-only minibuses headed up twisting cliffs towards mountain hot springs were nausea-inducing. A small gallery of more pictures, as well as our gallant host Patrick’s Flickr page for some of our Shih Da midnight swim club.
Back for a schizophrenically short trip, just Saturday afternoon through Monday evening, on assignment for The Faderto interview the fantastic folk/acoustic singer Mari Nakamura. Stayed with Sarah in her new, non-shoebox apartment in Gakugei-Daigaku, ran into some old friends, took some purikura, and, most importantly, visited the Nekobukuro at last. For those who are not aware, Nekobukuro is basically a cat brothel– on the top floor of Tokyu Hands Ikebukuro, you can pay 600 yen to wander around a bizarre set of rooms and dioramas with dozens of cats splayed out (and most likely drugged) for you to pet and take pictures with. See pictures of the exploitative cuteness (and the rest of my two days) here
(Shift, Dec 2005)
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(The Fader, Dec 2005)
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