The day started off with a positive. RMJ had been walking around the city last night, and found a sketch of a dog on the sidewalk. It looked awesome in the pic, but even cooler in person. More on that later.
I met up with MW at the telecom ledges. They were sticky because of the humidity, and because they aren't really broken in yet, and have some sort of noneuclidean geometry, where the edge of the ledge is somehow sharper than 90 degrees and slices up wood and metal. Hvnsdmn soon arrived and sliced up his trucks and deck with what were undoubtedly the longest ******s ever done there. MW *********** them, a few times, and I eventually got some weaker things but inbetween, RMJ skated up and ********** them. It's a cool spot because the bricks are so well laid that although you get the sound of riding over bricks, you really get almost no vibration. Taiwanese craftsmanship at its best. The worst you can say is they could have put in a little bit better lighting - since the ledges are black, one of the pair is hard to see in the shadows. After a couple of hours, we headed up to the MRT so MW could get home. Someone had walked through a shin-deep fountain and aparrently into the bushes or up a wall. It wasn't creepy, because it wasn't ghost month.
There are some topnotch banks there on the way to the MRT, but security was already in the process of shutting us down before everyone had even done a kickturn. He sulked about it with crossed arms for a bit, and the remaining trio decided to head over to main station.
We hadn't factored in the time in between trains that late at night, so when we finally showed up, the spot had become a hobo hotel, and there was no vacancy left for the night. We crossed the street to a classic bank spot; rough grey and red tile floor with waist high pink marble bank. A couple of weeks ago, the city thoughtfully put in two marble benches on the way up to the bank. They were at once too close together and too far apart for any of us to do anything on both, but it's not a bad line to hit the bench, then the bank, then roll back down for the bench again. Hvnsdmn certainly would have, had he not been 8 hours into the session at that point (he had already had a full day by the time he came over to the telecom ledges to meet us. The dude is skate crazy). We talked for a while after the skating ended. He entertained RMJ and I with Taipei skate stories, mostly just of the main station spots. Legend. Hope to skate together again soon.
RMJ and I beered up on the short walk home. As we got near his place, he mentioned that we were near the place where he had found the dog sketch, and suggested we walk by. Alleys in Taipei are always awesome for me, because they are intensely foreign, if for no other reason. This one was pretty unremarkable, just another friendly single lane of birdcage windows and grey concrete and clothes hanging from the birdcage windows. I had never been down it before, even though it's right beside the house, but that's not really surprising, because residential areas in Taiwan are denser than anthills, and it's hard find all the nooks and crannies.
During a pause in the conversation, we walked into a psychedelic experience. It's really hard to say what it was that first seemed "off," but something was definitely wrong. I think we both could feel it. I can't remember if anyone said anything or not, but at the very least, I though, these black and white security cam photos look out of place. There were some crappy paintings and prints stacked against the wall by the trash, so I kind of thought that it was an advert for an art show. There were seven of them, mostly black, with a lot of colored and randomly capitalized writing. We stared for a bit (only one beer in, I swear) and for some reason, my mind just couldn't understand what I was looking at.
It was a man, looking like a mix of a werewolf and a vampire and a art thief, on the same corner that we were standing on at that moment. I keep thinking, this looks like a wanted poster. And I kept thinking, that art thief looks like my friend. Finally, after an amount of time could have seconds or could have been minutes, I realized it was him. At last, I had achieved one of my greatest goals in life: I had become friends with a real art thief. Albeit, one who "stole" the art from a pile of trash in a back alley, where it had been rained on for god knows how long (after we returned it, he told me he had spent 90 minutes cleaning the mold off of it).
Now that RMJ hasn't "[had] the police kicked in he door (sic)" and has "returned the valuable peice of art by **/**/*****," I feel more confused and entertained than afraid of police retribution. The weirdness of this event cannot be overstated. Maybe I will return with a mask on and steal it a second time. Maybe I will cut out a giant cardboard dick and leave it on their pile of garbage. Maybe I will make a sketch of my own and leave it there. I feel so inspired.
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