Tuesday, June 13, 2017
I'm not divorced from the bridge, but seeing other spots has been going well
I wasn't going to skate, but ss invited me to 板橋. I dragged myself out to the train and rode over. It had been storming all day. The spot was still half wet on arrival, and two dozen people were trying ot skate it. It's got to be one of the most heavily skated spots in Taiwan. For the time I was there, there wasn't a split second that someone wasn't rolling up to it. Under the bridge, this kind of crowding would mean hurt feelings and wadded panties, because someone frequently has to wait their turn to avoid collision. but this crew is devoid of douches, so there was only encouragement from the skaters as they abandoned their own run, turning to look over their shoulders to see what their friends could make, because of their own small sacrifice. it was also hot and humid as balls. zw was there, and some others i sort of know by sight. so were two snails, the size of children's fists. they wandered across the marble, doing snail things. my favorite moment of the chaos was when one of the homies climbed up high to film the session; session footage is what i want to watch, from skatespots around teh world. when i want to watch skatevideos now, it's mostly 'session from sofia, 7/4/2013' kind of things. i went home early, and regretted it, so i got off of the train a few stations away and skated the rest of the way.
A lesser session
A typhoon is nearby. near enough to make it storm everyday. because i had old man syndrome, i couldn't ollie, but i wanted to skate, and it was wet everywhere, so i went up to the dog piss curbs on zhongshan. they are low granite curbs that i've been slowly waxing for a bit. they are about 2.4 % waxed. they grind the right spots, if you know where to look (directly under the lights). rmj was good enough to meet me there, and we went for a couple of hours. he won the Medal for Creativity in Spot Modification Award, by finding and then stacking a tall tall cement curbing peice on the edge of the granite curb, and proceeded to skate its rain-slime off with a variety of curb tango style variations. I didn't do a single trick worth mentioning but at least I skated.
Banking on the Value of Street Art in Taipei
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.
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.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
accidentally awesome night
i bought some nightmarket counterfeit thrasher shirts, and delivered one to zw in banciao tonight. we all went at the ledge with a little more effort than I usually put into life, and I was rewarded with a couple of longer, better versions of tricks ik now, and those dudes landing new things I didnt know they could do. a couple of bridge trolls left that spot to meet up and skate at b'ciao, (they are the opposite of bridge trolls, it's why I mentino it, as a hoke, ahah yes ) anwyya; my 2 hour planned sesison became four, adn then six, and then i went linsen bei and had pig parts and grilled things and lots of beers and turned down many cigarettes. it's hard to not smoek here. then I home felt like a cool down session at the three stair park, which went well, so i felt like grabbing a couple of beers and hit the bridge in the dark alone. this wasn't really productive, and I've betrayed this deck by skatoing there, but at least no one saw it.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Don't check your phone til you get home
Pushed alone north. All the way to the river. Then all the way to the granite benches. People were sitting all up on them, but not on the best one. However, its' light was off. I skated it in the dark. It seemed lower than ever, like it had shrunk over the winter. The heat was at maximum sweat, but even when the city proper is stewing without a breeze, this spot has a puff of wind. It got me through. I brought a 2L of frozen water. It melted in 90 minutes. The spot was hard to get used to again. It's on a slight downhill slope, so one direction is noticably more difficult than the other. It's hard to skate alone for long. There are no breaks, so you get tired quickly, and in this case, your pants rip apart on the ass seem.
I was out of water anyway, so I rolled home. I foudn linsen bei by instinct and found the pig parts dude. His stall is the best roadside food in Taiwan. It's every part of a pig that you can't buy in America. Actual freedom is awesome. However, he wasn't open yet, even though it was almost midnight, so I drank a beer and watched a fistfight. Then I watched the cops enforce. Finally, homeboy turned on the lights of his stall, and I ate pig heart with ginger, and pig liver, also with ginger.
Linsen bei is like an outdoor strip club with a road of frantic traffic going down the middle of it. Also, on the sidewalks, you can buy cheap beer and the best pig parts ever. Also also, as I waded into the maelstorm of sluts and drunk dudes and fried foods, some japanese guys shouted at me about "sukeito." I doubled back upstream, and they gave me some shrimp and some beers.
I rolled home across the little middle of the city, and got a couple of park beers. Then I checked my phone. Then I saw a stranger had asked me question about John, who died about a decade ago. It's why I quite skating for good, back then, or so I thought. Suddenly, I was sober, and still am. I haven't gotten past that. I wish he could see this city.
I was out of water anyway, so I rolled home. I foudn linsen bei by instinct and found the pig parts dude. His stall is the best roadside food in Taiwan. It's every part of a pig that you can't buy in America. Actual freedom is awesome. However, he wasn't open yet, even though it was almost midnight, so I drank a beer and watched a fistfight. Then I watched the cops enforce. Finally, homeboy turned on the lights of his stall, and I ate pig heart with ginger, and pig liver, also with ginger.
Linsen bei is like an outdoor strip club with a road of frantic traffic going down the middle of it. Also, on the sidewalks, you can buy cheap beer and the best pig parts ever. Also also, as I waded into the maelstorm of sluts and drunk dudes and fried foods, some japanese guys shouted at me about "sukeito." I doubled back upstream, and they gave me some shrimp and some beers.
I rolled home across the little middle of the city, and got a couple of park beers. Then I checked my phone. Then I saw a stranger had asked me question about John, who died about a decade ago. It's why I quite skating for good, back then, or so I thought. Suddenly, I was sober, and still am. I haven't gotten past that. I wish he could see this city.
Monday, June 5, 2017
my new favorite curb
My cough of death is back and I have to work early in the morning, so I nearly cancelled the skate session. Ultimately, sitting around teh house watching videos while lzyk plays her balloon game on her phone sounded boring enough that I risked my health and met up with rmj at the little three stair park. Within 20 tricks, or at least attempts at tricks, I was pouring sweat. The air was as still as a tomb, and the humidity was turned up to maximum. Last I checked, it wasn't really that hot though, but the combination made it almost unbearable. It's a hard spot to skate; the stairs aren't waxed enough to grind well yet (for a year, I was worried about making enemies with my neighbors, but now I don't care) and there are big 3ft by 3ft slabs of granite, set unevenly. Some are flush, others have big gaps. It takes a little local knowledge to keep from eating shit just pushing around. Also, the ground is engraved in some places with things I haven't taken the time to read (my reading is less accurate than google translate if you have to write the characters yourself). It's the new warm up spot, because it's outside the front door. It leaves a few things to be desired.
We cruised a couple of blocks east to a micro spot. It had a long, curb high manny pad, which I spend the most time on, with a kicker going the other way. It also had the ubiquitous marble curbs, but the kind we would usually ignore, since the bottom surface is grey square clackity tile. This time we got mesmerized by the spot and kept going about 45 minutes.
Somewhere nearby, we ducked in a sidealley and rmj found a pair of curbed pink marble ledges, which he *********** in short order. Unbelievable, no one kicked us out, or even turned on their lights.
We pushed further east and made it to what might be my favorite stairs/curb spot. Each stair is capped with super strong bronze and slide like no tomorrow. The challenging bit is there is a brick wall on either end, so you don't have much time to fuck around in the middle. The metal cap doesn't dent, even though it's a sharp angle, so it's easy to lock in and offers so little friction that a **-** feels like just rolling on top of the ledge. The crowning glory was the accessibility of lots of empty bicycle holding racks on the sidewalk, which can be **** ******, and rmj did it both up and down. While we were skating the spot, a lot of scooters stopped at teh red light right beside us. They starred silently, mostly, but one of them cheered and clapped when I failed to land a ************ and rmj tried and missed a **** ***. At least he eventually got his. I want to find out where to buy that bronze stair coping, it's the best grind I've ever felt.
I was about to insist we turn around because I could feel myself getting sicker but we were already right across from the arena. It's a super modern spot with lots of ground lights and various species of stone and black marble ledges taht go from the ground to about waist height. The last time I was there, they were sliding pretty good, but this time, they wouldn't grind at all. I think some vandals cleaned the wax off of them. Normally, I would repair the damage, but I was so tired I insisted we turn back. Sorry rmj.
On the back side of the arena is the only hill in taipei. He bombed it.
On the way back, some drunks at one of the late night restaurants stopped us to let us know how good looking and cool we are. I had already gone by, and I mistakenly thought they were giving rmj shit for skating by their store entrance (which means through their customers' tables) but it turned out they just really wanted to let us know we are foreigners. I think they were pretty drunk. Much love.
We ended the night with our own beers at the three stair park. I came home and threw another day's filthy skate clothes in the washing machine, on top of the last ones. The smell was so bad that I decided it all had to be washed. This was a mistake. Lzyk was downstairs screaming at me for waking her up faster than hornets attacking when you throw rocks at their nest. Sorry Lzyk, I honestly thought you'd rather have to listen to clothes being washed than smell clothes being dirty. It smells like wild animals are bivouacing in my living room.
We cruised a couple of blocks east to a micro spot. It had a long, curb high manny pad, which I spend the most time on, with a kicker going the other way. It also had the ubiquitous marble curbs, but the kind we would usually ignore, since the bottom surface is grey square clackity tile. This time we got mesmerized by the spot and kept going about 45 minutes.
Somewhere nearby, we ducked in a sidealley and rmj found a pair of curbed pink marble ledges, which he *********** in short order. Unbelievable, no one kicked us out, or even turned on their lights.
We pushed further east and made it to what might be my favorite stairs/curb spot. Each stair is capped with super strong bronze and slide like no tomorrow. The challenging bit is there is a brick wall on either end, so you don't have much time to fuck around in the middle. The metal cap doesn't dent, even though it's a sharp angle, so it's easy to lock in and offers so little friction that a **-** feels like just rolling on top of the ledge. The crowning glory was the accessibility of lots of empty bicycle holding racks on the sidewalk, which can be **** ******, and rmj did it both up and down. While we were skating the spot, a lot of scooters stopped at teh red light right beside us. They starred silently, mostly, but one of them cheered and clapped when I failed to land a ************ and rmj tried and missed a **** ***. At least he eventually got his. I want to find out where to buy that bronze stair coping, it's the best grind I've ever felt.
I was about to insist we turn around because I could feel myself getting sicker but we were already right across from the arena. It's a super modern spot with lots of ground lights and various species of stone and black marble ledges taht go from the ground to about waist height. The last time I was there, they were sliding pretty good, but this time, they wouldn't grind at all. I think some vandals cleaned the wax off of them. Normally, I would repair the damage, but I was so tired I insisted we turn back. Sorry rmj.
On the back side of the arena is the only hill in taipei. He bombed it.
On the way back, some drunks at one of the late night restaurants stopped us to let us know how good looking and cool we are. I had already gone by, and I mistakenly thought they were giving rmj shit for skating by their store entrance (which means through their customers' tables) but it turned out they just really wanted to let us know we are foreigners. I think they were pretty drunk. Much love.
We ended the night with our own beers at the three stair park. I came home and threw another day's filthy skate clothes in the washing machine, on top of the last ones. The smell was so bad that I decided it all had to be washed. This was a mistake. Lzyk was downstairs screaming at me for waking her up faster than hornets attacking when you throw rocks at their nest. Sorry Lzyk, I honestly thought you'd rather have to listen to clothes being washed than smell clothes being dirty. It smells like wild animals are bivouacing in my living room.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Tech conference
Dog piss curbs. More like taxi piss. Hard and fast 120 min. Every 180 to grind I can think if. Rmj and too many beers. Hangover from hell. Work, then linsenbei for yakitori with gangsters.
Woke up, Lzyk was put off, went to dig piss curbs nd they're fucking wet . Grey granite, hard to get started, grinds long and loud once they're broken in.
Elementary school unlike curbs. Only dry spot in Taipei. Rivers up 6m. This curb only grinds two boards. Hectic traffic, especially with the rain. Soaked to asshole.
Tropical storm gonna rain for 4 more more days. City is flooded.
Tech week. Every trick is a curb trick
Edit : skated home on the shinty wet streets I. Some murder taxi traffic. I'm glad I'm getting a new set up shortly. It saved some time on the way home.
Edit : skated home on the shinty wet streets I. Some murder taxi traffic. I'm glad I'm getting a new set up shortly. It saved some time on the way home.
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