A New Kind of "Weather"

I didn't skate tonight because of what some Taiwanese euphemistically refer to as a "weather phenomenon." The day started with a crisp blue sky. My work is in a basement, so I was a little dismissive when a friend messaged me about the weather apocalypse, but when I stepped outside, I realized what he hadn't been exaggerating. The air smelled like burning grocery bags, and a thick white fog was hanging between the street lights. When I checked the air quality, it was only 15x the safe level. I had really been expecting worse. People here love to blame China: whenever air pollution comes up, I invariably get told that it blew over from somewhere else. Almost always, this is utter bullshit. Taiwan's air pollution comes Taiwan's factories and vehicles. However, tonight was an exception. Instead of the usual point source clouds of death that hang out in factory or high population areas, tonight's pollution came in suddenly and all across the west coast. The strangest part was that by 02:35, it's all gone again. It was a tidal wave of foul poison coming from the west, and now it's already washed away and gone. Heart attacks and strokes will spike for the next 96 hours though.

second half

I went to the bridge but it gets shut down super early now. I skated and downed a beer. It was pretty fun, but I didn't know anyone there. It feels like I've been gone for a long time. There was an super cool dance crew at the entrance that weren't blocking anyone, and a super annoying one towards the back blocking part of the skate spots. Some one also blocked the route around one of hte pillars with some, uh, street art. now anyone who wants to skate the spot is forced through the traffic of other skaters to get to the starting point. I have a feeling that this particular pretend graffiti won't last very long.

like ships passing at sea

Skated to work again. It sucked. Work, that is. The cruise was fun. The cruise home was better. Someone behind me was shouting "********!!!! ********!!". I turned and it was the kofia. He was biking home with shit ton of groceries or something. I was too tired from pushing across the city to land the ********. Sorry mane.

Then I got pissed off and a landed lot of them on the rest of the way home. Now it's time to go back out and explore. I won't go east, or north, since I cruised both of those lately. Maybe I'll start at the bridge and go from there. 29 min til lights out.

antisocial skate spots

Unfit for human interaction, there is only one place to go in Taipei. That's Yuanshan. Of course, it's still overflowing with people, but they're mostly exercizing. Consequently, very little actual eye contact needs to be made.
However, when I woke up, well into the afternoon, it looked stormy and my phone said the chance of rain was 60%. Tightening the bolts down on my new setup did give me a flicker of happiness. The graphic is flat black, and the griptape is an abstract painting. I think it's the best looking set up I've ever had.
I didn't want to be anywhere at all, and Yuanshan in particular wasn't appealing, since it takes about 45 min to skate up there and I'm too poor to ride the MRT. I piddled around a bit, feeling absolutely zero motivation to do anything, but I twisted my own arm, and promised myself a cup of coffee if I just went outside.
The deck felt good from the gitgreen. It's the exact same shape and size as the last one, and when I popped a few little ******s, I was kind of surprised how much fresher it really felt. The sky looked clear to the north, so I cursed the distance but started heading that way.
The cruise north was a lot shorter than I expected, even pushing along slowly with a cup of hot coffee. It was still too hot to drink by the time I got to the main bridge. It was like a nascar race of second graders on rollerblades, circling around and around in the best skate area, which is still just flatground. I saw someone had stacked some orange cones in the pebble area nearby, so I warmed up there and ** ******d the biggest stack of trash I've ever managed. I worked through every flatground trick, except ********s for some reason, which I just couldnt get a single one of.
I had to decide if I was going home or further down the river park, because the levee keeps you from easily getting back. There are good spots out there, but it adds another half hour to the pushing. I went for it, starting at the 40 ft wooden manny pad. It has a really rough run up and landing, but that makes it so much more gratifying to skate, since most people wouldn't bother. It's the first time I've actually been able to get onto it.
Next up was the ampitheater. A man was standing at the top of it, staring at the river and the mountains. I don't think he was on drugs, but I stayed there at least 90 minutes and he never flinched. A black dog hear my wheels on the pebble dashery and decided to chase after me, closer and closer, until it nipped the back of my ankle. I tried to kick it, but it got away. I got my standard line of tricks for the spot, with the best and longest ** **** I've ever done there, and went to the wharf.
I got my best and longest **** on the secret granite bench, and was able to come out everyway I coule think of. I started to get some good marks on the bottom of my board, and it looks better than ever. Making what you skate is intensely satisfying. I recommend it.
I cruised home, first to the yellow and black slappy curbs, where I went long and smooth, and then down the sidewalks to home. On the way, a geriatric whore tried to kill me by running a redlight on her scooter with no light on, so I had no idea she was barreling up the alley until she had sliced by me, maybe two feet away.

Rmj saves the day

It was drizzling the spittle so after a full day of adult bullshit i went to a long granite curb spot under a bridge and snapped my board in about a dozen tricks. Then I carried it back home through the rain like it was a fallen soldier and set up the new one; flat black, except for the wooden grain nose, with some paint on the grip tape. it was still pouring, so i met rmj with some change in my pocket because thats all i've got til my next pay check, and he spotted me beers and we walked around the city and talked about things and it was glorious. we walked up to a spot that is long long long marble ledges with 4x4 inch silver metal coping, and a security guard came out to make sure we weren't trying to steal the metal to recycle it. we all had a laugh about that, but i wonder what the fuck he really thought we were doing; two foreigners intensely inspecting the silver angle iron in the driving rain, after midnight, in a sleepy neighborhood.

never skate a covered skatepark because its raining. its more rewarding to just walk around and look at spots and drink beers and talk. thanks for the beers man.

some skating, mostly sulking

I skated to my job and I hated my job. I skated home from my job and still didn't feel better.  Lzyk went with me to a divey korean restaurant, which wasn't bad, and then she had to do a con call to Americans, so I took a chance and went for a little skate. The stairs at the three stair park grinded nicely, but puddles were all around, and since it's a slate floor, the potential for accidents was high. I left before I paid the slam dues. Then I tried to ****** a gnarly little spot in another nearby park, and I just couldn't make my feet do it. It was sprinkly, so I skated the black and yellow rails there for a second, until it got too wet. I hate everything, but less so than before.

Terminal Verbosity

One of the most joyful things a man can experience is a series of rainy days, broken by a day of clear and good weather. Naturally, anyone of hale countenance would be inclined to skate to work on such a day. I did. It was cool enough to not get sweaty on the way, and I spent the better part of a half hour on that way. I wandered through traffic, around scooters, and luckily, never under taxis. The surface went from mirror smooth to rude, and worse; a series of unsettled square tiles ran down the length of a sun lit road. Many were broken broken, necessitating hitting them at an angle by weaving to and fro across the sidewalk. Minsen hood is brimming with old rich folk, who regrettably spent their time panicking as I approached them. I am unaware of their behavior after my passage. Upon my arrival, I concealed my skateboard under the stairs, so that children might not discover it and frolic upon it without permission. Howsoever, I deeply hope that some day, it shall be discovered. Having suffered through the penance that is the earning of wages, I retrieved my skateboard from under the stairs whence it had been hidden, and the pair of us cruised down the now darkened streets through the gloaming. Little ebulient ollies carried me over curb and dale, crack and trashbag. Cheeky short manuals scraped the tail without care, across cross walks and through semi distraught pedestrians. I felt neither shame nor remorse as phone gazers jumped ever so slightly as they became aware of our transit. Our reference frames drifted apart and together, and I diverted into the bus lane and back up the curb ot the sidewalk as the rough deteriorated or ameliorated.
There is a profound satisfaction to be gained by treating your skateboard as a means of transportation. The city is transmuted into a technological anthropic anthill, teaming with species of works and soldiers and transporters and buyers and sellers and the self as a unique exister; as something that cannot be duplicated or produced in fascimile. No one reads this, but if anyone does in the distance future, I urge you to skate your city and get to know it on the most intimate and direct and abstract level. There are greater joys in life, but they are few and far between.

Started at the bridge now I'm at the bridge

I have the dreaded split schedule of teaching; wake up early, have several hours free, and work late. For the first few weeks, I've been too tired and also sick (children are biological weapons) to do anything with my free time, but today I finally made it to the bridge. It was cool and damp, and rained on my on the skate home. It had been so long that some of the graffiti have changed. It was fun though, even though I lost a few tricks. Saw some friends. Drank some water. Not much else happens at the bridge these days.

sometimes, its not about the skating.

i left going, bearing towards linsen park, to warm up on the flatground. on the way, i passed a half dozen westerners going the other way, none of whom i recognized. they weren't friendly, but one of them turned to stare at me. i presume they are getting paid. godspeed, but dont fuck up my spots.

rmj and i warmed up at the flatground + unslidable curbs, and to my delight, fm showed up too. we skated the marble benches while a taiwanese jimi hendrix wailed the most off key 90 minute guitar work i've ever heard. it was performance art.

we skated the gx1000 boulders and then the tiny linsen bank to granite curb, fully in front of a team of cops, who watched, debated, adn did nothing. then fm had to go home, and the remaining pair of us could only manage one more spot anyway. it was the z-shan tiny hubba, and we went full bore, until we went half bore. we chatted on the steps and a black dog walked by, which rmj called a 'little angel", because it looked us right into the eyes, with a happy soul. we skated a bit more,  until the conversation became more interesting than the session, so we beered up and walk/skated back home and beered up some more in teh park by my house. during the discussion, a baby huntsman  spider dashed up us; its only the second time i've seen one in taiwan. it was the size of my palm, and when i spit on it, it dashed away like it could strike people with lightening. he told me about how his neighbor knocked on his door late at night a couple of weeks ago, because a full sized hunstman was in her house, and he went in, cowboy style, poison spraying, and it reared up and shot webbing at him. it was too big to think about without going insane. its scarier than cattle mutilation. i made it home before four, but lzyk still wasnt satisfied with that.

dont film

the reason that filming is so hateful of an idea for me is that no art should be eternal, and im afraid that we might hit the singularity, and that every shitty little of bit of what we're recording is going to last forever somehow, in the subconciounce of a computer that can imagine better than we can. paint it on sand. everytime music is recorded in a studio, it loses a little bit of its soul, but everytime it's heard in a recording, music loses a lot of its soul. nothing is made valuable because it managed to last a long time.

stackin wood

little ollies, knee pain. little sweaty, little breeze. pushed up to the temple, got all my ledge tricks there and warmed up on the slightly wet flat granite. security came out to watch and did nothing except smoke a cigarette. Can't remember if i used to could ** **** on the tall side of the ledge or not. either way, i did it this time. cruised down the road to the pink dolphin bumps. It's a series of three pink tile bumps, too steep to be comfortable, too small to be useful, but a unique spot, so I pissed off the neighborhood by skating it for a minute. 

Onwards to the brownline. Down to the 4x cement "rail" spot. They're under teh bride, in the crosswalk, and you gotta wait for the light to get a try. Then you have 26 seconds. They aren't high or special or anything someone else would look twice at, but i'm in love with them. They're about five inches wide, and flat, but a very rough top. Cement spots have so much personality. you never know how it's gonna go til you try and get it going. For example, this four appear to be identical, but each one has bumps and rough spots in weird places. one is chunked out on the end. Were they stone or metal, they would still be a spot to go to, but they'd be kind of boring, since everything in taipei is stone and metal. i got into a little skirmish to get the newest one going, but it finally went.

here's a tip for rough cement ledges: on a hot day, when your gulfwax is bendable, hide a couple of coins up in there. make sure they're shallow, and on the same side. That way, you can grind down the rough spots and wax it at the same time. i got a ******** on each of the three that slide, and cruised home.  iskated the park by the backdoor, even though it was late and i got some more species of *********s on the yellow and black rails there. I earned my beer. 

well yeehaw, i met another atlien

I aint seen sss since I dont know when. it was a rainin' so we went out to dingxi, cause its dingy, and afz came too. I piled up a couple a cones and dragged out one of them benches and we skated it fer a bit. It was wet and all metal and grabby green concrete and it werent really all that fun. then them boys took me to shang grilla. its a spot that i haten found since i been here; its all green seamint pyramids, laid in at madcap angles, where none of the geometry lines up right, like an alien house in hp lovecraft. it aint well lit, and tonight it was surrounded by moats of water, which caught all of skateboards at least once each. then we walked back across the city, sorry sss, i know you didnt wanna walk that far, but it was a good conversation for a couple of hours, makin stops at the seven and the ok and so on. anyways, small world sometimes, and it was nice to shake the hand of hte man that did the assface at the bridge where i used to work. i hated taiwan back then, when i first came, and vandalism lifted my spirits. still does. thanks man. sorry you been jumped at 101. too bad the cameras were turnt off.

up against the wall, redneck mother

I threw down earlier than usual, with the tentative plan of meeting ogfm in the old hood, if it didn't rain. it rained up in his his area, out by hte ocean, and so he didn't feel like the wet cold scooter ride into the city, even if it was dry here. I can't say i blame him. But he missed out. About a dozen pushes up the road, I was in the taxi lane and weaving through parked cars. someone behind me was shouting hey hey hello hey, and I assumed it would be some asshole on a scooter that was offended the terrible pollution i was making with my skateboard. but instead, when i swiveled my head, i saw a kid a few pushes behind me on a longboard. normally, i dont have much good to say about longboards, and i guess i still don't, but i liked the guy, because he was skating in the street. so in my mind, he's sort of equally cool as someone on a real skateboard, who only skates in skateparks.
we did the fist bump thing in traffic without slowing down, and when i shouted over the roar of traffic to ask where he was heading, he said the next station east. we rounded the corner and he followed me down the still crowded sidewalks. I think he was surprised that skateboards can leap off the ground. each little thing up or down a curb made him cry out, and he started shouting 'again, again' in english when we approached a new curb. we got to a section with bright yellow metal grate ramps, which are really loud when you land on them as you blast past. because i supposed i wanted to impress him (he kept laughing with delight when I ollied up something), i kept going until my legs didn't work anymore, and rolled off a little fall, as my back truck caught on a metal grate. he stopped and got my board for me, and said "you are crazy" in english. it's the two best compliments i've had in skating, that i can do a trick that can make someone laugh, and that someone thinks i'm crazy for how i skate.
we split ways, and i wandered south, a little slower, but warmed up. i went cruising cruising cruising down to the Perfect Hip, but traffic was still too heavy to skate it. Right around the corner was an old bank spot that I've forgotten about. It's pebble dash and doesn't grind on top, but you can get up there without too much effort. The air was wet with humidity, and i thought of somewhere i wanted to go, so i went on without putting much effort into the banks. on day though, i m going to wax the spine down the end of it.
I pushed on to Daan Park, where there is a big ole roller rink that's well light for flat ground. It has been resurfaced recently, in the same pebble polished material they used at the bridge, about 40 years earlier.
It was so slick that I think they might have put some kind of plastic coating on it. It was as though it was covered in teflon. I could powerslide without actually losing any speed. well, maybe a little speed, but only as much as you would lose on a **********. It was pretty unnerving. Some other kids were there, learning how to push. Their leader was trying ********s, and after a few minutes, we made friends. My countenance shown brightly upon him, and he landed it, several times in a row. Back in my day, he would have been pinned for a future pro, to land some many perfect ones on his first day to get one. I'm so jealous of anyone who can land a trick a few times and then have it perfectly everytime. After many high fives and powerslides, I parted ways with my second new skate friends on the night. Then I went towards the goal of the night; the telecom ledges.
It's a charming spot. It has quaint red bricks, laid at 45 degrees angles to the ledges. The ledges themselves arent all that well light, especially for such a black stone. In fact, i'm not sure what species of stone this is, but it's blacker, and harder, than anything I've ever skated. It looks like black marble, but it's harder than granite. The angle on it is as sharp as steel. It's hard to get it going, even though we've hit it pretty hard. Each new time takes a pretty hefty coating of wax. Even with that, the edge is so sharp taht on a ******* grind, your front truck will have deep groove in about three tries, and the nose will be sliced on an angle like you stuck it in a salami slicer.
The next hour or so was spent running through my short list of tricks, and failing to get any decent grinds, but the angle just kept grabbing my trucks in exactly the opposite way that the surface at Daan didn't grab the wheels. I put some work into, and got the two most difficult tricks in succession after 60+ minutes of trying. It immediately started dribbling rain. My knee hurt from the big fall a few weeks ago. I still can't ollie right. I wandered north for a while, hoping for the best regarding not getting lost in the rain on a worknight. Suddenly, I was at the bridge. It had all worked out.

Happy birthday lzyk. enjoy the cake.

the most underrated album of my adolescence

sparkle and fade

oh wait, maybe it was

where have all the merry makers gone?

nope definitely moon and anartcica

who gives a fuck when you found about something? if it was good then, then it's still good. if it's not good now, then it was never good.

it has to be the films. I think they only made one record. no wait, it's horse force. that was as good as it gets.

EZ Breezy

Sunday nights are the new friday nights. I warmed up at the three stair, and since noone wanted to come along, I cruised east through the brisk and blustery night towards a legendary day spot. I had heard it was all marble everywhere, with manny pads and ledges and stairs and hubbas and more manny pads. I felt sluggish but slappied some thangs, and slappied some more thangs, and came up on an old spot.
It's a complex place. There's a two stair into the road, then a six stair on the other side of the road, with a two stair that gets to be the size of a six, with a lamppost inbetween, and a normal two on the other side. On that side (I know none of this makes sense without a diagram, but part of the point of this blog is never using anything but words) is a double sided low pink marble ledge, with a column at the end of it, going away from the stairs. The ground around the marble had been pocketed like surrey during the blitz, and completely unskateable. Now, it's perfect. I started off tentatively, with some ** *********s; always my lowspeed go to at a new fs ledge. That went well, so I did some more bs. Amazingly, I slide them for a decently long ways. Then I put too much wax on it. I didn't mean. I usually lightly wax things, but this just didnt need as much as I thought. Overwaxing coincided with a slowly building crowd, who saw me ***** down the stairs as slowly as I could, so that I wouldnt be going too fast for the ledge. I got into a battle on that, but after I made it, tricks came fast and thick. Next up was **-**, until I grinded the length of it to the column, then the same trick, coming out everyway I know how. Then I started trying tricks up it, which is a little uphill, but only slightly. Most onlookers had left, but then I managed a **_*****, which is maybe the first time I've done that in the street. I literally had nothing left for that spot, and continued east in an ebullient mood.
I arrived at the target spot and it was so dark that even I didn't want to skate it. Part of that is fear, after suffering through the big one (my arm still cracks and bleeds if I move it too quickly for the scabs). The other reason it's no good is 24/hr security. Maybe that's why there's no wax on all those sexy virgin granite ledges. I did one ***** just because, but it took a lot of tries, because of the dark and the pressure of the security guard looking at me, but not kickign me out. I went back towards home and ended up at the brown line double cement ledges.
It's a special skating ecosystem, very rare in these parts. It's a pair of a pair of cement flatbars, in the middle of a huge road. I've been slowly waxing them in, and htey're also not great if you don't like about 16 lanes of traffic watching you skate. They're in the middle of the crosswalk, so you have to wait for the green crossing; it's possible to get two tries in one light cycle, but you have to hustle, and you probably look goofy doing it. I don't know, because I'm proudly the only person who has ever skated it. I know, because I remember how the wax looked last time I was there. I waxed it up on the opposite side this (it's now 1/2 waxed in total) and gashed my board up trying to get it going. I did, but only for a short distance. It's a long term project. At this rate, I'll have all of them sliding in about 28 more visits.
I beered up and considered myself on the home stretch, but rounded a corner and ended up at gold's gym. It's another big marble spot, with two strangely proportioned marble ledges; on one side is a two stair high ledge, and the other side is a bottom rib high ledge. I'm not exactly short, so it takes some spring in your tail to get up there. To date, it's never been done. It's not impossible, but noone with the ability has ever found it. If they do, there's a flat stretch and then a flat rail to street right after. I fucked around on the low part for a bit, and then moseyed on back home through the streets. 10/10. would skate agian.

little one gotta heed my warning

devil is kind

Injury season continues into november

I wasn't feeling tiptop but I heard about a friendly crew in 西門 that skate street on Thursday nights, so I  swung by with MC to introduce me. I got there are little early and warmed up at the bullring. When it's not crowded, it's actually pretty fun to skate. I wrenched by still sore wrist though, falling on the first **-**, and then MC showed up we went to the nice shop. It's just about everything  I think a skateshop should be. I'm glad I finally made it over there. However, it was just the two of us, so I rode pillion on the scooter for about half an hour, out to a new spot in 三重. I've been a little skeptical of scootering around to skatespots in the past, but I have ot admit that it really opens up the city for exploration. The spot we went to is about half a mile long, with rectangular and uneven tiles. It's also very dark at night, but it makes up for that by being a series of giant wavy banks. The cement is so perfectly smooth, it could have only been poured in Taiwan. I digress, but pouring cement here is like a national artform. Taiwanese love to pour cement. Every flat surface on the island is cemented. They're really good at it. This wavy bank spot has a kind of flowing watery 風水   quality such that you can ride up with and stay up there way longer than you might expect. I write that without a hint of sarcasm. Landscaping here is taken seriously, even when it's a giant cement modern art sculpture that might was well have been designed for 70s style skateboarding. HM met up with us there, and we went exploring.
Nearby are many more spots. Next in the line down the halfmile row of spots was a series of very steep pyramids, that we just skipped over because although they aren't wallride steep, they're getting up there. Somebody needs to wax the spine and tops and get that going. After that is a complex large three stair with manny pads coming off each stair.
Lastly, we went to a cement platform, about two stairs tall, with fishes painted all over the top of it. It's pretty cute, to have that kind of art in the middle of an abandoned/pre-construction area. The stairs have metal coping, so they slappy pretty nice. HM waxed up the ledge, and I looked over just in time to see MC ollie into it and stick. Blood was everywhere before he even hit the ground. The problem is that while the top is mirror slick cement, the side is really rough, so if your truck touches it, well, you end up grinding your shin instead of your truck. Within a minute, it looked like a murder scene. He managed to get it stopped after half an hour or so, but that took the piss out of my skating for the night. I skated down to the MRT and went home.