BBC lists 100 things you didn't know like

panspermia is the belief that life on earth originated on another planet

camel's milk has ten times the iron that a cow's has.

thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.

and apparently the egg came first.

xmas card from a student

Ivo, 2 years and a day!

We took Ivo to the Taipei 'Astronomical' Museum in Shi Lin District on Saturday.

"Rocket to the Moon!" is one of Ivo's favorite phrases.

Jon Stewart says "Goodbye Rumsfeld" (video)

"Squid-type robot"

News - well, news to me - in robotics and underwater propulsion.

Japanese scientists have built the Squid Robot (video and pics)

Buzz Aldrin talks about Apollo 11 UFO sighting

Ivo Blackwell to be TWO next week

Thanks again to Charlie Taylor for venturing 'over the mountains' from Hualien to play at the Grooveyard Wednesday night. I had a blast!

I so rarely get out during the week anymore, but once I'd settled the family in for the night, I hit the road and got to Grooveyard by 9:30...

There was an experimental jazz trio playing when I got there so Charlie went on around eleven and played a solid set featuring Eternal Hangover in Hell, Women, Southern Comfort, Ain't No Hippie, Rockin in the R.O.C., the "you're a little bit fat but your face is pretty" song (I Want You?), a beautiful version of Turning Women Gay - the crowd really got into that one.

And a few new ones on me, Dear Santa for one and the encore which Charlie introduced as having been played only once before live and that this would probably be the last time he ever played it. Too bad, good song.

I can't recall the name now, but I thought it was an appropriate closer for the raucous crowd who had lined up to see Charlie in his only Taichung performance of the season...

Patty got the video, would love to see some of that rendered.

Roger played bass and high-hat.

Sorry to hear about .22's bassist Steve Taylor breaking his arm recently. Best wishes Steve, heal up quick!

Charlie said he's going to play a show in Hualien before he heads off to winter on the beaches of Koh Chang in Thailand...

Safe travels Charlie and see you in the Spring!

...more Charlie Taylor

Charlie sings "Women Are Just like People" at spring scream rooster, '05...

first part is a little shaky, the camera I mean...

Charlie Taylor Live...

...in Taichung tonight at the Grooveyard!

Welcome Charlie! Here's my favorite Charlie Taylor performance ever!

NPR's most important American music of the 20th century - complete with 8 to 12 minute conversations about each piece of music.

the Black Sabbath Show

Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas has never been out of print since its release in 1965.

We've been listening to it lately ay my house and I love it. Very Peanuts but very very jazzy...

hear some tracks here

Mars had water, 'recently'

as recently as in the last few years...it's all about those 'gullies' on the surface... they're changing shapes...some scientists think it may just be liquid CO2 though...

story

tech before its time...

from 80 BC, the Antikythera Mechanism

ROCKETGIRL REPRISE

from the depths of hell...the return of ROCKETGIRL?

I published this by way of Blip TV before. Dusting it off again 'cause I heard Leon is back on the island with that crazy drummer Rock Starkey in Taipei. Ran into Anthony dressed as a robot on the weekend too. Will they play again? Check out Charlie Taylor's blog for news of his first night back in Taiwan...

Reminded me of another show they played but this is the one I have readily available for now...

US to build moon base in 2020

...space shuttle flights to be scrapped by 2010... or so says Bush if you can believe that shit...

Full story link here

dylan interview on the simpsons

I doubt this is really bob but it's funny anyway

jj cale and eric clapton "the road to escondido"

an interview with cale and clapton. if you don't know, cale wrote "cocaine" and "after midnight", mainstays of clapton's set for years.

more good news about red wine

For years I've heard about how moderate consumption of red wine is good for your heart.

Chemicals called procyanidins are responsible and a new study reports that wines from south west France and Sardinia have the highest concentration...

Coincidentally I've been drinking more wine of late 'cause after the the ball tourney I'd had my fill of beer... making me fatter and stupider than I need to be.... anyway

here's the full report

"the 'uncommon sound' of left-handed guitarists"

from npr's weekend edition

Dynamite Club SS '05

Dynamite Club live at spring scream rooster. playin in the rain when suddenly the drummer drop kicks the guitarist right off the stage!

Taiwan Tees

I saw a t-shirt the other day that read -

Please do not

drop the bomb

on my little sister.

thank you!

Odd sayings or expressions on clothing are not at all uncommon here in Taiwan. I was struck by this one because everything was spelled correctly and the grammar was right too! Amazing!

"Official Dictatorship in America"

4 minute video from Halifaxion

*The Michael Richards apology on Letterman has been mostly removed from YouTube due to copyright complaints from CBS...

Here's Jon Stewart from mid November talking about roaches, the new congress and Bush.

New Tom Waits Collection

An interview with Tom Waits on NPR's All Things Considered

Richards apologizes on Letterman

Michael Richards sounds pretty broken up about what happened at the comedy club - talking to Dave and Jerry Seinfeld... video

Notice how the audience's tendency is to laugh at the situation in the beginning of the interview...

Michael Richards loses it on stage

The former Seinfeld star loses it on 2 black guys at a show... video

new look

Beta blogger has provided html idiots like myself waaay more options for customizing a blog... so far seems good, I like the most recent posts feature on this template...
This template style is called 'jellyfish' a cousin of the old template I was using on the vlogpond... I just got so damn sick of that orange bar... beta blogging and beyond!

Tourney Stats

leading hitters, best era, most rbi, most wins, innings pitched, runs scored, etc.

Cuba takes Cup

Here are the final standings to the tournament.

Cuba beat the Netherlands in the gold medal game 6 - 3 in 11 innings.

Chinese-Taipei beat Japan 4 - 0 to take the bronze.

Japan didn't score a run in the last 2 games. The Cubans seemed to play like mortal men during the last 3. The Dutch team almost came out of nowhere to take it all. Good fun!

Last day of Baseball Tourney

Cuba beat Chinese-Taipei last night 5-4. Another 1 run game... wow. What's with the Cubans? Or is the Taiwan squad just playing way over their heads? Cuba faces the Netherlands tonight for the gold medal. Tpe will go at Japan at 1pm for 3rd place...

Neanderthal DNA

Neanderthal DNA breakthrough

Baseball Today!

Japan vs. Netherlands at 1pm. The winner will play in the gold medal game tomorrow against the winner of the Cuba vs.Chinese-Taipei match up tonight at 6:30...

John Kuhel is going to be commanding his rag tag troop of Tainaners up to Taichung this afternoon... reports are they'll hit the parking lot for a tailgate party a couple of hours before the evening game starts... if you're going, get tickets as soon as you can 'cause I reckon it'll be a packed house tonight...

See y'all at the ballpark!

Dark Energy

Dark energy is kicking the universe's ass!

Chinese -Taipei defeats Cuba

WOW! I can't believe they won! 4-3 if you didn't watch it. Zhang Tai-shan clubbed a 2 run homer that turned out to be the difference. the cuban bats went to sleep for the last few innings...Netherlands beat the Aussies to finish 3rd.

so, for the medal round the top 4 are cuba, japan, netherlands and chinese-taipei...

japan vs. netherlands at 1pm tomorrow...

cuba vs. chinese-taipei at 6:30...

Final standings for round robin play

simpsons movie trailer, in theaters next summer.

fresh standings

cuba undefeated, taiwan drops tough one to the netherlands in 10...

australians outlast koreans 10-9...

baseball update

yesterday was an off day for the baseball tournament...

the standings after 4 games per team are cuba and japan at 4-0, chinese-taipei, australia and the netherlands at 2-2, korea and italy at 1-3 and the philippines at 0-4...

battle of the undefeated today at 1pm... cuba vs. japan..

cuba has outscored opponents 44-3, japan 13-7... japan is 3-0 in one run games...

you'll recall the japanese knocked off the cubans to win the wbc tournament earlier this year...

taiwan plays the netherlands today, the philippines tomorrrow and cuba on thursday...

they need to take at least 2 of 3 to get into a favorable spot in the medal round... they need to score more runs too, they've been outscored 26-19...

if you haven't seen it yet in the Compass, here's the

Intercontinental Cup Baseball Schedule

Iraq comment censored on The Simpsons...

Simpsons Treehouse of Horror..."You said we'd be greeted as lib-er-a-tors!"

A while back Stephen Colbert commented on Google's purchase of Youtube...

This is an old clip but I'd never seen it before. Seriously funny!

Stephen Colbert, George W Bush's words

.22 live @ bollywood II

the boys cover ween's 'piss up a rope'...

video by the sandstress.

The Deported Live in the Canal

The Deported played an inpromptu show down in the canal on Hua Mei St Oct 30th, 2004. Taichung cops broke it up pretty quickly, around the 2:30 mark.
The only song they got off was "Cannibal Cafe", once for sound check then once more until the whistles started blowing. This vid was been re-edited for length...

Happy Halloween everybody!

The Cremation of Sam McGee by Robert Service

I remember liking this poem a lot in high school.

As read by this old guy on youtube...

18 year old John Cool

John Cool in So Cal with Will Ferrell in the 80s... another nice one from Les Arthur...

more pics...

A couple of years ago a few of us went down to tainan to see a couple of games of the world university baseball championships... what a blast! there's nothing like an afternoon and then evening ball game complete with screaming multitudes, good friends and cold beer. looking forward to the taichung tourney...

here are a few pics from that day...

Taichung to host Intercontinental Cup

I got this email from John Cool last week, hope he doesn't mind me publishing it. Nobody read this stuff anyway... I notice it was sent to many others... sounds fun although I don't think the US or Mexico is coming... There's a new stadium in Taichung though!

howdy folks

next month in taichung there is

an international baseball touney

from Nov. 9th to the 20th

Mexico,Cuba,Japan,States,The Mighty Dutch, South korea,Taiwan

so on the 18th/19th

Im gonna try and

herd some of my baseball buddies

and some other Tainaners

and head north

to hang/watch baseball and laugh

id like to have a bbq/buffet/pot luck

in the afternoon then head to the game

in the evening

afterwards

maybe a game of cards

or i will try and get a hold of Mexican team

and see if they want to hit the town

looking for a host/hostess

bbq

.22 unplugged



those who live in the taichung

there will be some great baseball during the week

with nobody really rooting or going to see a mexico vs. s korea

cuba vs japan

it would be a great chance to go and chat with

players

and try get them to the Q

let me know,

ah fu

sideways water

Shrimp Running on Treadmill (video)

.22 live @ bollywood

.22 performs 'Huggy Bear' aka 'Dry Humpin'... Oct. 14th... Fresh video!!!

Invisibility Cloak Explained

(Video)

'Scientists create invisibility cloak'

Cool!

Double Curse in '86 Series?

Baseball and especially Mets and Red Sox fans remember the '86 Series for many reasons. The most common being Bill Buckner missing Mookie Wilson's grounder in the 10th to give the Mets the win... it's been 20 years since that fateful play- well, 20 years next week, the 25th to be exact... It's been beaten to death to say the least and Ol' Bill is no doubt sick of hearing about it.

However, Uni Watch reveals a startling bit of info...

Was Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner actually wearing a Chicago Cubs batting glove under his mitt? And if so, what the hell was he thinking?

Paul Lukas posits he never had a chance...

Trailer Park Boys:The Movie

Released last week. Nice review here.

Check out the trailer here. Looks funny. I'm pretty sure it'll never come to Taiwan.

Trailer Park Boys web site

Athletes who have died in plane crashes

Yankees pitcher Corey Lidle dies in plane crash

If you've been enjoying the demise of the Yanks this year, then this list is for you...

Top ten Yankee collapses.

Joe Kuhel

We were lucky enough to run into John Kuhel, grandson of major leaguer Joe Kuhel, the other day as he was passing through town. We talked about baseball. John's on a team in Tainan and is known to the locals as A-Fu. He says it's a blast.

We talked about the MLB playoffs. It's nice to see Wang Jian-min do well. Other than that we're not shedding any tears for the Yanks.
Watching those games you could just tell the Tigers wanted it more. Pitching is key in the playoffs and this year, the Yanks just didn't have it.
Too bad about the Dodgers, I thought they could have made more of a run.
The Mets are looking good offensively but I reckon their pitching will let 'em down in the end...
I'm calling Mets vs. Tigers in the Series. Tigers in 6.



John's grandfather played first base for the Washington Senators and Chicago White Sox from 1930 to 1947. A career .277 hitter, he played in over 2,000 major league games.

Here's a link to his career stats. John sent me his baseball card pic a while ago...

"Juuuuice!"

Ivo likes his juice in the morning.

this one's a little grainier... up early before breakfast...

Ivo

...got a new phone with a camera feature. this is the first one I took. Ivo went with me to pick it up.

ab-so-lute-ly!

from the fark wire, grab yer dame and throw on yer glad rags! it's slang from the 20's!

live action Simpsons intro...

These lists are arbitrary and debatable, but the stiffs at NPR put together a pretty decent one this time... the top 300 songs of the 20th century alphabetized...

Happy Teacher's Day...

The California Nebula

...or NGC 1499, 100 light years long...

Charlie Taylor "Ain't No Hippy" SS Monkey: Silhouette Version

Watch the video

Charlie opens his '04 morning set... spring scream monkey kenting taiwan..

update: change of gov't in NB

Liberals end Tory rule...

vintage Miracle Saru...

Spring Scream 2000 footage of Miracle Saru, courtesy timogan at youtube...

...here too at a different angle...

more Miracle Saru...

This one from Karen Lee, spring scream '06

Miracle Saru Spring Scream Rooster

The Lost Spaceman has been listing his top ten favourite rock shows of all time... coming in at #4 was Miracle Saru in Kenting last April...

Here's the first little bit of their set...

The Tank is 90 this week

They first appeared at the Battle of the Somme, deployed by the British against the Germans as a 'mobile machine gun destroyer'... first code named 'mobile water tanks for Mesopotamia'... the name stuck, well 'tank' did anyway... 31 of the first 49 delivered to the trenches broke down... 2 broke through German lines all the way and the tank's usefulness was realized... the French and Germans were both soon developing their own...

new Dylan video - When the Deal Goes Down

I'm a Dylan fan and I am thrilled he's still making quality music after all these years... I love the way this vid looks... starring Scarlett Johanson...mmmm... summer days, lazy days... I gotta get back to Namerica next summer...

WTF?

If this is true it's the dumbest thing I've ever heard... well so far this week anyhow...

Irwin fans 'in revenge attacks' on stingrays...

I want to read this book...

A friend of Sandy's brought back the Sunday New York Times from the states last week and as I was reading the Book Reviews...

this one caught my eye, Severance by Robert Olen Butler... he 'imagines the last thoughts of the decapitated' throughout history... and what was really interesting is that he posits the head actually remains fully conscious for a full minute and a half after separation from the body... click the link to read the review I read... I like the part where his original title for the book was 'Talking Heads', but was discouraged by his publisher who deemed it in poor taste... I really want read this book... I feel an Amazon order coming on....

The only thing I've read from Butler is his collection of stories about Vietnam, which apparently won a Pulitizer, called Good Scent From a Strange Mountain... read it before my trip to Vietnam back in '02... good read...

Tungurahua follow up...

Tungurahua means 'throat of fire'... here's how the people from the area are coping with the destruction of their farms...

Always remove your CD player face...

We got robbed yesterday. Someone smashed the glass out of the passenger side door of my car, climbed over my son's car seat and ripped my CD player out. The car seat is worth more than the damn CD player but I guess whoever did this doesn't have kids... Nothing else was taken. Not even CDs... the car was parked right in front of my house too and may or may not have happened in broad daylight...can't be sure... I think it may be due to the fact that the city has had the street lights shut off in my neighbourhood for more than 2 weeks now, making it dark as all hell...hence the video camera at the end of the alley was also powerless... my neighbour introduced me to the neighbourhood LI ZHANG and he assured me this was being taken care of and he would inform the police... Sandy called the foreign affairs police on Wen Xin and they refused to help. Refused! Refused to connect her with the local precinct despite having a smashed car and a sleeping toddler in the house.. A pox on those assholes is what I say! Anyway, Sandy knows this great family mechanic and he came over immediately and replaced the window for only 1500 NT... pretty sweet... just when you hate all things Taiwanese, someone shows you how kind most Taiwanese can be....

If you have a car in Taichung, always remove the face of your cd player when parked.

Top Ten Most Dangerous Animals

I'm sure this list is highly debatable... Personally I'd divide it up into two lists, one for poisonous creatures and one for those that just eviscerate you... According to Live Science the top ten most deadly animals are...

10. Poison dart frog... neurotoxins, baby, neurotoxins! One frog has enough to kill 10 humans...

9. Cape Buffalo... 1500 pounds of stampeding terror..

8. Polar Bear... amazingly strong... will eat you...

7. African elephant... Bart Simpson called his pet elephant 'Stampy"....

6. Australian Saltwater Crocodile.... huge and nasty...will eat you...

5. African lion... master hunter...will eat you dead or alive...

4. Great White Shark... most feared of they sea creatures, well the most famous...will eat you...

3. Australian Box Jellyfish... 15 foot tentacles... 5,000 stinging cells... enough toxins to kill 60 humans...

2. Asian Cobra... highly poisonous...

1. the Mosquito... responsible for 2 million deaths a year... malaria is still a big problem, obviously...

All about Stingrays....

Stingray defense explained... Serrated and venomous tipped spear at the end of the tail...

R.I.P. Croc Hunter

I just found out about this. Steve Irwin dead at 44. Killed by stingray, barb through the heart... I feel bad about this for some reason...

The Matter of the Bullet Cluster

I just love this title... mapping dark matter

NB calling

I'm from New Brunswick and am considering moving my family home for spell...

I have a kid and another on the way...

Provincial election Sept. 18th...

NB expats say 'show me the money' to premier Bernard Lord... Yes!!!

Atash

I posted a link to Les' Atash video some months ago... Here's a link to their site with some mp3s available for your listening pleasure...

Let's look at that video again... shot at John Kuhels' in-laws' place out in the country of either Nantou or Tainan... I love this song...

My Space Downloads...

If you've never seen or heard of these bands get a taste at My Space...

Point 22 or simply .22 have 4 songs available... "Pass It On", "Gun", "Peter and Jane" and "Up for It".... these guys are my favorite Taiwan band...

Here's a link to 3 Rocketgirl tunes...

I've never heard anyone do quite what Charlie Taylor does...

The Deported have a couple of songs up too... I'll re-post the canal video re-edited for Halloween...

The Daymakers are a twin fronted trio singing catchy pop songs in chinese though I met these guys at Spring Scream a couple of years ago and they said The Daymakers were now done...they were staying together but under a different name. Anyone know anything about their new incarnation? I've used their songs as translation exercises in my high school classes and we used "Yi Jian Zhong Qing"/"Love at first sight" as our wedding video song...

Taipei Zoo

It's 60 NT to get in, kids under 6 for free. If you're going on a Monday be warned that most of the indoor areas, that is to say, cool cool air conditioned areas are closed to the public. This we did not know.

This kind of messed with our grand plan of keeping the kids - both under two - from overheating 'cause it was scorchin' like August in Taiwan scorchin'. Cookin'. This, as far as I can figure, is not on the website and I saw no sign posted at the gate.

When we asked about it, to several people over the course of the day, the most common response we got was, "Yes, Inside closed on Mondays. Everybody knows that." How's that? Everybody? Yes, your friends should tell you this... ahhh forget it...

The nocturnal animal house was open and air conditioned so we spent an hour or more taking Ivo and Kaia around to see what they had to offer. Owls, a civet, lemurs, racoons, porcupines, lots of cats, a boa constrictor, two tree sloths, lots of fish, some electric eels, knife fish and on and on... by 2 the kids were sleeping so we left before we got to everything. There's a train that takes people around the park too... maybe next time. I'd go again but never in August...

Things I love about Taiwan...

I love the early morning here. On weekends it's best. From dawn til about 8 A.M. It's the quietest time of day. I'm lucky in that my neighbourhood is almost completely residential. The calm before the torrent of activity that defines the movement of humans about CENTRAL CITY makes me happy... with coffee of course. You gotta have coffee...

TUNGURAHUA

Here's a short clip of TUNGURAHUA erupting in Ecuador on August 16th 2006 spewing smoke and fire. Not the best volcano video I've ever seen but DAMN recent! The first part of the clip is at night, the second some daytime shots...

more on volcanoes

I've been kind of half paying attention to the progress of MAYON VOLCANO in the Philippines due to its proximity to us here in Taiwan. I remember some years ago when I was living in Changhua City, just south of here, we suffered through a couple of weeks of intense smoke pollution from the burning of fields and forests in Indonesia... I guess the winds have spared us in more recent years. Volcanic ash could also drift its way here I'm sure...

For more on current volcanic activity check out VOLCANO WORLD.

I can remember moving to Taiwan and asking about volcanic activity on the island and being assured that yes, though Taiwan is a part of the RING OF FIRE, all its' volcanoes are either extinct or massively dormant and I shouldn't worry so much... I wasn't really worried about them, only interested in possibly seeing a lava flow or something... It seems that was not entirely true as I've learned this morning about the Da Tun volcano group just north of Taipei city, some being active though not since the Pleistocene era... Also there's another group of 5 small volcanic islands off the North-East coast called Kuei Shan Tao...
There are also several unnamed submarine volcanoes, mostly located off the East coast... here's the list...

I've been looking for a decent volcano video on youtube...

PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS...

is the longest word in the English language and coincidentally is also the disease you get if you are unlucky enough to inhale finely particulate volcanic ash...

I attended a teacher's workshop on Monday after regular classes and this is how the guy started his presentation. He asked us what we thought the longest word was in the English language. I said SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS... he said WRONG that's not really a word it just comes from a movie...

A co-worker said ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM which rang in at # 3...

Number two? FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION... Meaning? MEANINGLESS in a nutshell... it's all meaningless....

Supervolcanoes

For the first time in my life I'm actually paying for cable TV. I've had it before but it was always there in that new apartment we moved into already hooked up and ... well... Who wouldn't take free cable? Right? Now you know how soft my moral underbelly really is, neh?

The last time this was the case was 2001 when we watched the trade towers come down live from NYC and in October of that year the Yanks lost the World Series to the D-Backs... Then the juice was shut off...darkness all around...the flicker of the set silenced... that's ok.... I don't need TV... it's all shit anyway... there's nothing on day to day I absolutely must see...

You end up taking pride in the fact that you don't watch TV. Like this somehow makes one appear smarter and more in touch with the more scholarly pursuits of reading and playing computer baseball... You say to your students, "Sorry, I don't watch TV. Just DVDs... No, I don't know that funny commercial you're talking about. Yeah, no, I missed the brawl in Legislative Yuan..." And I didn't miss it. Really. At all.

Enter the Sandstress. Earlier this year she suggested we get it for 3 reasons. A) It's good to hear Mandarin and it's even better for Ivo (20 months) to hear it. B) They show a lot of baseball games (though they are mostly Yankee games) and C) Don't you miss zoning out? And it's not like we're suddenly gonna stop reading...

Good points all. So I agreed to get it installed.... which brings me to the point of the post...finally...

I was watching one of the nature channels the other night and they had some vulcanologists not just investigating volcanoes but SUPERVOLCANOES. Lake Toba in Indonesia is one. So is Yellowstone in the States. As well as others scattered across the planet...When these things blow again - and we just don't know really when that'll be - the ash cloud and pyroclastic floes?/flows? should do a pretty good job of blotting out the sun for a couple of years, long enough to kill all plant life... Ambulatory corporeals like ourselves inside the blast zone would obviously be toast...those outside would become victims of a kind of ash inhalation that could only lead to death... there's a word for that... very bad news...The magic number they reckoned on was 75,000 years ago Toba went up and it's possible though not certain that it may have triggered the last ice age...

anyway here's a very comprehensive link on SUPERVOLCANOES...

Another cool video by Les

Les Arthur's Comic World Taiwan, just last weekend in Taipei...

Spring Scream 2000

Great Spring Scream video by Les Arthur from 2000, year of the Dragon, I think...

David Cross

Once you know who David Cross is, you see him everywhere. Check out his IMDB bio...

The Sandstress and I first became aware of him for his role as Dr. Tobias Funke on the excellent show ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. One of the funniest shows EVER made... bar none...

Chatting with a friend one day about that particular show he said that we should check out his stand up material... so we did. And I have a new favorite living comedian. No one other than Bill Hicks has ever made me laugh so hard...

I first heard his Comedy Central Presents... pissed my pants...

Then 1999's "The Pride is Back"... "It's Not Funny" and "Shut Up You Fucking Baby!" Follow the links to read the reviews...

AS Kevlar would say, "GOOD, DONE, SOLD!" I'm a fan, a fan indeed...

Old friend stops by...

My old friend Pete Mar swept into town Thursday night on the Taichung leg of his tour of East Asia. This is the second year in a row he's shown up. Not many people who don't live here actually take the time to return to the island once they've gotten a taste... especially in consecutive years...

We of course caught up a bit and Kevlar joined us for some beer and laughs. Pete and Kevlar actually met each other 14 yeras ago when Pete was studying in Halifax and Kevlar was in town visiting a mutual friend. They met for the second time during the summer of '04 in Woodstock, New Brunswick, as I was home visiting the family and Kevlar had made the trip up from Antigonish. (See KEVLAR THE KAYAKER - published earlier this year on this blog).
Pete was home to attend his father's funeral - RIP Dr. Margison - ... Long story short - I took Kevlar out to the bar to meet some of the guys and Pete said "I know that guy!" And the story was recalled... small world story of the day... my long time Taiwan friend and my old school buddy from my hometown knew each other long before I had even thought about coming to Taiwan.

Kevlar left midnightish while Pete and I stayed up til 4 am swapping stories, watching videos, listening to comedians.

Pete told me about this comedian, Dane Cook, who is absolutely hilarious. This is not new information though. Apparently this guy's been appearing on Letterman and the late night talk show circuit for years now... Ahhh the things you miss living in Asia...

No matter, his website has videos of his stand-up and TV appearances and I just about busted a gut watching this guy. Check him out...

Took Pete to the bus station last night. He was off to Tainan and then Green Islandthis morning. Hope he gets some nice weather. Next week he'll be in Hong Kong and then on to Vietnam before returning to his old stomping grounds in Halifax where he'll be relocating after some years in Calgary... Safe travels Pete!!

Thanks for the visit!!!

"...two years is a long time to be married."

Two years ago today we shoved the clutch and got hitched at a courthouse ceremony on Zi You Rd. in Taichung with 2 other couples. We had 7 friends attend. They attached beer cans to the back of my motorcycle which we proceeded to ride home. We threw a sweet party at our apt. til late, great beer, good food, happy people...

Largest Canyon in the Solar System

The Grand Canyon is the southwestern US is 800 km long, 30km across and 1.8 km deep.

Check out Valles Marineris on Mars. It's 3000km long, 600km across and 8km deep! It looks like a huge gash across the face of Mars. Like a scar after some ancient cosmic knife fight...

the Late Great Bill Hicks

Bill does Goatboy in London, 1991...

End July Days

The first day back to school. Summer school. Humidity. Shoes and socks for the first time in weeks. New students. Old faces. New staff. So far so friendly. Lost juniors. Complacent seniors. Shorter days. Full-on AC. Japanese lunch. Paid a bill. Cold beer now...

Justify Thyself!!! part 1

I: So what's this blog all about?

V: It was supposed to about ponds and places peaceful.

I: So it's not?

V: Have you seen anything remotely peaceful on the blog?

I: I'll ask the questions.

V: So go.

I: Why Vlogpond? What the hell is that?

V: It was to Frogpond but that name was taken so we figured that Vlogpond sounded pretty cool and we wanted to do lots of video so it just worked out that way.

I: Ah vlogging...

V: Yeah vlogging...

I: your vlog seems to be directionless and random. Any comment ?

V: It may seem to be random but there is a definite pattern.

I: I'm sorry I just don't see it.

V: The pattern lies in the posts. You'll notice that one follows another day by day month by month...

I: that's hardly groundbreaking. It's just linear time being marked in the only way things linear can be marked, in this universe anyhow...

V: Other universes do things their way, we do things in our own.

I: You've introduced a rather shady character known as DARK VAPOR... can you tell us some more about him?

V: DARK VAPOR is staying with me now...he appears or has appeared regularly on the KEVLAR blog...he likes KEVLAR and things KEVLAR...

I: Will he be making other appearances?

V: We don't know but he's been invited and I thought I made clear to him he always welcome...

I: You have friends coming?

V: From where?

I: Overseas?

V: A friend. One at a time is enough.

I: Who's that?

V: PETEMAR. He's travelin'. Hopefully light. DARK VAPOR's gonna have to stay with KEVLAR for a bit... There may be some guest bloggers in the future....

I: So the Vlogpond will continue to do what?

V: To highlight favorite videos from frogpond productions, a lot of live music. KEVLAR is sure to figure prominently in the mix. Comedy is important to the suits at the Vlogpond too. Pics. Things pleasurable. Yesss! That's it! Things pleasurable!!!
I think we worked it out for now! You're invited back!

Jellyfish Lake - Palau - '04

In August of '04 I went with Kevlar and Bread to Palau for a few days of scuba diving. Included in our dive shop package was this stop at Jellyfish Lake for some snorkeling.
The most out of the world place I've ever seen. The jellyfish are not poisonous because they're completely isolated. They have no predators, therefore they've evolved without the need for stingers. So cool! Thanks to Kevlar for the buying that underwater housing for his camera before we left!

Music by Medeski Martin and Wood, "Tsukemono" from "The Dropper"

Neil Young's "Let's Impeach the President"

Great song. Nice pic too.

Henry on the Er Hu - part II

The Milk Party SS '06

nasty guitar solo by red. we were all blown away...

weather update

It's hot now. It didn't just get hot. It's been hot for a little while. The rains really kept us cool and giggly thru spring... but that's done now.
I'm preparing myself for the full onslaught of the massive heat sphere about to melt the vlogpond off the screen and into dark vapor....

Will Ferrell as Bush

KEVLAR-HAR-HAR

KEVLAR-HAR-HAR

Watch the video

Kevlar missing balls at the batting cages. Hilarious!!!!

Henry on the Er Hu

A student in my junior I-5 class at Wei Dao, Zeng Yan Qiao, is the national champion for his age group in Taiwan. He was kind enough to play for us a couple of weeks ago...
This is part I...

Thanks Henry!

yeah so that was almost the same but reverse you see so we're back to where we were.

I tried to edit my template this am and was surprised to find it absolutely unrecognizable to me. No links, nothing I could understand. To boot the vlogpond's front page was largely cleaned off, save for some unintelligible (to me) cyber gibberish. Shit. What to do with my limited knowledge? Well, that's why we're on BLOGGER, right? Web page publishing for dummies. Technically, running a blog is like driving a car, you don't NEED to know the inner workings and ramblings, but it helps.
So in the end I simply chose a new template and that seemed to work things out. Fingers crossed. It's still orange! It's still orange! Link list to be updated soon.

somethng screwy is goin on

Phil in London

Woelv live at the WALL in Taipei

Genvieve. April '06

Thanks notfind2001

Mount Eerie

Phil and Genvieve were in Taiwan for a show in Taipei and one in Kending for Spring Scream. We made the SS shows. They were great. Phil's an old friend of Sandy's from Anacortes, WA so after they came up and spent a couple of days in Taichung.
Unfortunately we didn't get any video of them. Thanks youtube!!!

This is Phil in Bellingham in Nov '04 doing "I hold nothing". Thanks sultsult at youtube!

Kazz Part II

Early Saturday morning April 8th 'o6 Kending, Taiwan.

6-6-06

white violin from SS rooster

RG SS 'o5

ROCKETGIRL SS 'o5

LTK SS '05

Purple Yoda

CHICKEN RICE, SPRING SCREAM MONKEY

CHICKEN RICE, SPRING SCREAM MONKEY

Watch the video

This is a wee sample of Chicken Rice's set back in '04. I remember my brother was here visiting. We took the bus from Chao Ma and this guy was on it! Same outfit too. In '05 he had a full beard. I don't think they made it down this year. Taiwanese rockabilly at its best!

ATASH also by Les Arthur at John's in-laws' place out in the country...

STREET PONG by Les Arthur starring Uncle and John Cool.

THE ROCKETGIRL STORY

ROCKETGIRL TRIBUTE

ROCKETGIRL TRIBUTE

Watch the video

Balls to the wall sound masters ROCKETGIRL are not currently playing anymore. Perhaps one day they'll rise again like a dragon from a cave to spread their special brand of mayhem.

All video taken from the Spring Scream Monkey Show, 2004...

same show as yesterday

this is from spring scream 2005 (rooster)

dynamite club played a great show in the rain.

look for video later..

power struggle

There's been a war and Captain Whiteblog has been dethroned. Again more retooling. I was just not in love with that last template. This one seems a better fit. It feels like citrus peels.

Muggy

I just had to say something about May. And mark the spike in humidity here in central Taiwan. It's happened in the last 2-3 days and i think it's here to stay. Summer's just gettin' warmed up.

Late this year. Coolest April ever.

Kazz Part I

Kazz Part I

Watch the video

This is Kazz of Miracle Saru playing solo at Spring Scream Dog. It was late Friday night and Sandy, Ivo, Steve Taylor and I had left Taichung around 8pm and made it in enough time to see half of the Dynamite Club show and Kazz following. Taichung to Kenting 310 km, in case you're wondering. Kending town was a madhouse of people and traffic, but once you got out on the farm everything was dandy. Anyway, Kazz started this set by just drumming on his guitar, which he recorded and then looped and went on to this other instrument, some kind of traditional Japanese twanger played with the mouth,  doing the same thing recording and looping... fantastic stuff. Sandy actually owns one of these which  is why I started shooting in the first place. Kazz hails from Tokyo and his band Miracle Saru are absolutely amazing... I'll get some video of them up but  the live show has got to experienced in it's own right. Just sayin'.

videos coming soon... KAZZ and Miracle Saru, a ROCKETGIRL tribute and something about jellyfish....

.22 live in San Yi

.22 live in San Yi

Watch the video

This is my earliest video of the Taichung based trio .22. Filmed in the spring of 2003, way up the mountains of Miaoli county. Sandy and 69 Across also played this show as well as others. We've since seen and recorded .22 several times over the last few years, much to our delight. They have been and remain our favorite Taiwan band amid a wealth of musical talent here on the island. This early performance features left to right, Steve Taylor on bass, Pete Holmes on drums and Wade Davis on the little guitar. Wade would later move to regular sized electric guitar so this song really captures the flavour of early live .22. The song they are performing is called "Poisoned" and is reputedly about Steve's childhood. The song is a true crowd favorite. Just last week at Spring Scream Dog, I heard the lead singer of the Deported shouting his request for this tune.