Hear/Say » taiwan

Tai-Ventures

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:07:20 +0000

Spent the entire day walking, shopping, wandering. Listened to bouncy music like Lady Gaga. Santogold. Some Bonita Applebaum by A Tribe Called Quest. Decided I would call my cat Bonita Applebaum just so it could have a song to call home. As I typed that I also decided that it sounded dumb, and will probably never own a cat until it’s too late when I like things named “molly” or “chris” or end up calling it something stupid someone else chooses, like “coral”. A girl I know named her cat “harriet tubman” because it was black and thought it was funny. Most of us thought it was way too racist/weird but quite perfect when her cat ran away and ‘joined the Underground railroad’. Interesting because the person is white the whole thing became charged with more political meaning. Interesting that it was so uncomfortable but no one really told her so. I assume she doesn’t read my blog. I could be wrong. The whole episode was very limbo-like, as I recall it was sort of difficult to react to.

Taipei has a lot of cats. I’ve seen one up close, but I knew I wasn’t going to pet it when it looked at me with rabid, yellowed eyes. All the feral city cats look mean and lean. They shouldn’t be though, there are plenty of rats and cockroaches to go around. I saw a really fat rat today at a night market. It looked like the ones in Petco, except 4.5 times bigger/fatter.

Sw33t, metro city-scape.

Oh cool, community raincoat rack.

Yay, creeping inside the telephone booth.

Rad, KTV. Usually a private booth booked with friends + access to all you can eat buffet.

Sw33t, Butyshop.

Awesome, red bean and cream cakes.

Cool, three great danes are greater than one.

A glass ceiling I may one day break. Sw33t.

Rad, these kids are so happy.

Hip new way to tie your shoes, cool.

Hip monk shoes, cool.

Peds pwning traffic, awesome!

Sw33t, scalp spermination. So rad.

Owl see u @ Raohe St. Night Market. Radness!

Ew, stinky tofu. Cool!

Sw33t, asian lanterns!

Temple! Culturally groovy!

Sw33t travels!

Snaps

admin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:42:52 +0000

Went to a book expo today– we got overwhelmed when people started crowding about for this famous monk to come in for a book signing, so we left. There were a serious number of shaved heads bobbing throughout the crowd. I have an urge to slap the freshly bic’d surfaces, but I am sure God, Allah, Buddha, or maybe all three would shaft me with a lightening bolt as soon as I indulged this guilty pleasure.

Chinese New Year has been a good experience. My father isn’t one for glorious parades, ‘ceremony’, or participating in prescribed ‘fun’ unless it involves computers or cooking, so it’s not like we went and watched some intense martial drumming or a herd of people in dragon costumes. Instead, we had a pretty lame dinner with my third aunt and uncle to appease my aunt’s nagging expectations of lavishing relations with riches you’ve earned where I sat there with some kind of stomach virus that made me want to vomit all over her fake velvet ill-fitting mandarin dress. She wore these pants– they look like ski pants– under it because Taiwanese people feel cold in 70 degree weather. Her face was unusually oily that evening. I could almost see my reflection on her t-zone. Everything after that got better.

That night I had a fever and there was a nonstop riot of fireworks and firecrackers from midnight to the late A.M. The following day we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet, and I swallowed smoked salmon rolls by the dish.

Nightmarkets are crowded and usually more so because the old have hobbled out of their homes and into streets, along with fussy women with their babies and their baby carriages, or dogs in faux-baby-carriages that are meant for dogs. Despite this, everyone is in high spirits, and my dad gets out of a traffic ticket by wishing the cop a happy new year. We save 20 US dollars.

Enough. Here are some pictures I have taken in Taipei. Enjoy, or else.

This is the skin/meat off of a pig’s face. Found in a southern Taipei market for new year delicacies and cuisine of northern China.

A giant piece of dried fish three.25 X the size of my face.

That dark pile of horror is fried hearts. Probably of pig. I don’t know. I don’t know.

A temple, decked out with lanterns. My dad and his “skater” hat, which incidentally also features misc. argyle patterns and scrawled shapes of diamonds.

A street in Luzhou, a city right outside the actual city of Taipei. It’s in “NEW TAIPEI” County.

This is where all the good guns go when they die. Gun heaven. No pearly gates.

A view from my terrace. Sunset lighting, with my mini eiffel towers.

A scary, big, black deity. This is a larger than life puppet; someone is meant to go into it (you see the hole) and walk around, scaring the shit out of everyone.

This is a giant parking lot. You don’t drive into it, though: they have three or four mini ferris wheel sort of things that place your parked car on a shelf at the bottom and rotate to the next ‘parking shelf’ for the next car.

A wrecked building, sweet!

The ground, scorched from firecrackers

Sux.

This is a picture of a car, graffiti’d and left on the street. I thought: wow. this is sumthin’ else.

As Arthur would say/sing: Having fun isn’t hard/ If you’ve got a library card!

E… voile.

WHITE PANTHER

admin — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:35:07 +0000

A new music video starring * TAIPEI * and Nine Little Indians with their rad song “White Panther”

Check it.

Taipei from Grace Yang on Vimeo.

mankindS

admin — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 10:56:27 +0000

mankindS from grace yang on Vimeo.

A new vid! with randomly captured imagery, of Taipei, Hong Kong, China.

Grace

Escapades

admin — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 10:08:16 +0000

Photo-catch-up.

Today I had pho, and the pho had msg. I could tell because I felt like a balloon was squeezed into my esophagus and an invisible octupus had suckered itself to the base of my neck. It wasn’t so bad where my face felt like it was trapped in a vise, but it wasn’t pleasant.

Come on, people. Quality control.

This has nothing to do with the rest of my meandering in the city:

“Mudge smelled like oatmeal”

Tina and I passed an English school in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Taipei, where we found and read some amusing short, page-long stories…

So beautiful.

“Just married” sketchy kewpie dolls tied to a bumper… luxury

Squid ink bread!

Doggone Denim

The most flattering picture of me

I suppose this isn’t really part of the city…

Near Ximen…

Some scholars

And my favorite….

Oh, Taipei Taiwan.

Strolls

admin — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 04:20:14 +0000

Made a video of textures I experienced walking through Taipei!

Stroll from grace yang on Vimeo.

Todayze

admin — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 16:26:43 +0000

was pretty great.

Woke up to a full-blown sunny day– hot, hot hot! it had to reach the upper 70′s *at least*. Visited the Design Expo down GuangFu Rd., it was pretty rad!

Taiwan’s all about hearts. Recently, the Comme De Garcon’s heart-with-eyes shirts were the new fad; but it’s regularly celebrated as hip and hot. Versus America, where it’s still popular but for a kitsch crowd.

A Louis Vuitton cutting board keeps unwanted juices from pooling on the board itself; although I’m pretty sure these fancy perforations would cause other problems. I.e. in the cutting department. But people who would by this probably wouldn’t be doing their own cooking anyway, rizight?

I was really impressed with how well-thought-out the layout of the expo was. The building space was fantastic, though– huge rooms, huge windows for lots of natural light, and the courtyard in the middle was a nice place to chill out from all this sustainability stress. That has more to do with the building, though– anyway, their creative use of space was definitely part of the design expo experience– clean, planned, and spot on (even if someone forgot to proofread some of the English translations… forgiven).

“Theme” pavilion had a two-room installation set up– these paper tubes were tangled together to create flow, becoming the gallery’s maze of walls.

Technology also apparent. Many of the designs were also of products already on the market– packaging or technological appreciations for computers, phones, speakers… etc. The typical ergonomic lamp with bamboo finish was there, but there were also cool things to buy like bauble waterbottles, stackable mugs, and… whatever else had great design. There was also a section for aboriginal art and design; pretty cool to have such a wide appreciative range of art and design on display and available.

Toyota bought their um… human vehicles? out for people to take on a four foot joy ride. There are two joysticks that fit into your hand where they rest; this obviously controls movement; note the giant overhead shield. I wish I could have found out whether or not this is for outdoor use… it would be, right? Haha I mean you wouldn’t ride this from the kitchen to your bathroom…

I would.

One of the more fashionable items (you know how sick eco-chic looks)– er, colorful. All the other plastic/rope/hemp made stuff is usually a bland beige (i.e. rope, hemp, plastic colored) but this was fantastic– dyes, beaded, oversized ornaments… giant flowers in the back.

This is a bike…?

Impressive inventions– I saw a blow-up umbrella, some sleekly designed furnitures, accordion rubber boots… a paper lamp (sounds like a fire hazard), a collapsible record-horn… and more. This one opens doors with feet; but why don’t they just create a foot mechanism rather than rely on this awkward techy tangle?

….and let me quit with a really expensive toilet scrub. it’s 69999999 $. Beat that.

Sort of reminds me of Forever 21. As a toilet accessory. Which is sort of appropriate, if you want to make a snide comment about Forever 21. They can’t touch a design expo though. They rip everyone else’s designs off– and badly, too.

It’ll be interesting to see the International Floral Expo which is being held all over Taipei! Crazy plants, right?

Finale

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:54:37 +0000

VISUAL DIARRRYYYYY YAHHHH

Just kidding, puns about poop are committed in bad taste.

I’m leaving tonight at 11 PM local time, so it’s really too bad that I’m missing 99 cent Mondays at Value Village. The world tries my patience once more. It’s probably a good thing: my clothes are too bountiful, and my closet is no fatty. Which means a purging is a comin’, and I’m going to use scraps to practice how to SEW my own clothes. This is an investment in a skill I’m convinced will assist me in any walk of life. Sewing class in home economics at Glen Crest Middle school consisted of those stupid required locker caddies and a stuffed guitar, so hopefully I will manage.

It will also keep me from spending money. I will be a productive unemployed creature. I will be philosophical, profound, life-changing, and unemployed. Until my final vaca-trip. I just want to eat up my last summer and let it dribble down my (proverbial) chin.

Back to the last few pictures I caught yesterday:

Hello McDonalds:

Poseur strutting the escalator landing, note popped collar and slightly flared khakis

Lady in Pink, from head to toes

Xiao Long bao wizards

Steam room! For buns, shu mai, and xiao long baos

Hurr they are

Hot n Sour ZOUP!

View from Sogo Fuxing

Waiting for the Metro

Cos Michael cares:

Neon radioactive ELMO…

… complete with matching dress

Gang of Azn hipstas

Breasts nicely displayed and framed by vigilant hands

I’M A PROFESSIONAL DESIGNER (studded apostrophe indicates real dedication)

SURF your SANDALS

DR. NICE

One scoop of Puppy in CONE

DO YOU LOVE MILK?

Freeze dried milk = backwards milk = KLIM

Classy Trashy

TO COMPLETE THE LOOK & FOR CASUAL SEX ONLY:

“TAKE CARE OF YOUR LIFE”

Cutest electric bike ev.ar.

Gotta go, gotta go eat some final meals.

Graceee

Today

admin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:24:02 +0000

Went shopping at Sogo department stores
Death by Marc by Marc ensued,
Saw the hello kitty Mickey D’s bryanboy posted about on his trip here,
(guiltily craved some fat hot fries)
Saw a bunch of hipsters and scarily skinny girls,
Ate at Din Tai Fung, the famous xiao long bao (think steamed mini buns) place below Sogo Fuxing,
Lurked nine stories up and watched chihuahuas hump while two sexually active teenagers sucked face in the dim dark wicked corner,
Walked more than a dozen blocks home,
Almost stepped on a cockroach in my shoe, then screamed bloody murder,
And slowly got over the death of my dealing hard drive.
Also rediscovered and revived my love for Gaga,
And delighted in the raunchy seriousness of jeremih’s “Birthday Sex”. Unfortunately, mother yang did not approve.

Side note: never ever did I say these were in order.

Side note: may be overwhelmed with shapely eyebrows and fake eyelashes.

Side note: blue contacts on brown eyes look repulsive, not only because of the flat, muddy color but also because of yellow skin tone.

SIDE NOTE: I’m flying home tomorrow, and will viciously reverse sneeze sweet Seattle air into my homesick lungs.

Love,
Graceee

Taipz 2

admin — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 16:58:11 +0000

Another visual diary to sum up the day! I watched Chungking Express and Harold and Maude today; quite the alternative love story collection… oh, and Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams. Which I might post on later.

We visited the shadier part of Taipei today; it used to be a hub of a port back in the day (try a century ago), but now excels in cheap rent, cheap drink, cheap hos, and cheap people. Bums and bored poor old folk play chess around the metro station. There is a well-known ancient temple here; I’ve seen many Japanese tour buses stop by. The infamous Hwasi Night Market is also located here– “Snake market”– as it used to be prolific in restaurants serving fresh snake soup, among other delicacies. Now I only see three or four,with their cages of snakes and poor mice on display for gasping tourists and indifferent locals alike. You’re not actually allowed to take pictures, but I did anyway, and got called out.

What; you haven’t been to the IDEAL SHOP before?

Snakes lurk in the steel mesh cages and the glass cases

The rats to be eaten; when there’s enough of a crowd, they feed the snakes with the poor little schmucks– in one cage, there were a bunch of naked baby rats, blind and doomed! BLIND AND DOOMED!

This is a wooden penis I spied at a random store. It has nothing to do with snakes.

And true to the Asian value of freshness, your pick of the litter will be your dinner… I believe those are eels, but I will not pretend to know what the window suckers are…

On to more savory visuals…

Literally translated, “gourd and meat soup”– I guess that is the general idea, but it tastes much better– and less weirder– than it sounds.

Mochi/muaji: Sticky rice ball in sweet peanut powder

Sweet red bean soup with peanuts, tapioca balls, and mini sticky rice balls

Shaved ice dessert! Topped with: peanuts, green bean, red bean… and other stuff. You can also get it with fruity flair, like mango slices, passion fruit sauce, and fruity jello bits but my parents are traditionals. This place has been open for eighty years.

A street vendor/food stand

Agar seed jello and juice… the jello is lemony, and the juice you drink it in is sweet and slightly citrusy.

Lost white people. I admire his fanny pack.

Asia is cheap toyland

Barbies are a dollar USD and come in clear body bags

Fake baby mario

I’ve been unlucky? lucky? enough to miss typhoons this season. It doesn’t happen often– in fact, the norm is several typhoons from July to August, but this year the weather has been relatively lame and non-kick-ass. I always like typhoon weather. I feel like it kills mosquitoes.

Graceee