We'll have problems yeah, then we'll have bigger ones

When it rains, it pours. The memories of this one are going to be kind of hazy because my computer wouldn't boot for several days. JA has been missing in action for more than a year. We met up at the yellow curb at yuanshan to find that a countless multitude of rollerbladers were milling all over. A drumming crew were there, but instead of skating the curb, we went ot the ampitheater. Soon, IS arrived, but the energy was almost below zero. At first, I thought it had been my unique interpretation, but everyone was complaining about it. Things got a little better when ng showed up, although she slammed on the approach. Exhausted from the pebbledash surface, we eventually made our way back ot the bridge spot vacated by the rollerbladers. Instead, a little crew of skaters were there. We started off a little frosty, because of my mood probably, but conversations grew as we waited in line at either end of the spot. They said they'll be skating there more often.

wet cold cold wet (pure evening)

Having finished the workweek, until saturday morning, and suffering lots of rain, I went to the bridge midafternoon because I thought that I could at least avoid rush hour. I couldn't. Two dozen skaters were there already, I could make a list of silly names I have for them but it's easier to just say they were there and went on a charge, pillaging the bridge until the entire village was left with burning thatch roofs. It rained the whole time. It got cold so I told awco that I had ot go home for a change of clothes (winter arrived in about 45 minutes). A japanese guy whose particular talent is **** ****ing was there, and he kept doing them with this little bounce in the middle, like ***** off the actual wall. He complained later that he can't ********, but fuck, anyone would be proud to skate with that kind of style. You got it or you don't. He does. It ain't what tricks you do, it's how you skate your city.

The entire city was soaked, and so was I after I went back for thicker clothes, so I chated with awco after I got back and drank beer and watched the rest of the session. Across the street, a whiskey sales advert was still screetching. lyzk called me up so we would go eat bbq and stare at the side of a very low meat flume and pretend like it's friday night. They played terrible asian psuedo hiphop, interspersed with a single placebo song. I cant think how the fuck they found that song or decided it fit in with the rest. Days dawning, skins crawlin.

Taiwan is a Large Small Island

I started out as a teacher here, because it's the job that all english speaking immigrants take. I still teach 5 year olds a couple of times a week because it satisfies my emotional requirement of unconditional love from my employees. These particular employees mostly make macaroni plates and color bits of paper that they glue to other bits of paper, some of which is folded, and some of which is glittered or has sequins glued on. They usually do cute things like tell me they're getting married, or gross things, like wipe their buggers on any available surface. Sometimes they unashamedly play with their genitals or dig their asshole in class. I make them disinfect their hands and teach them to say things in English, like "no, I don't want that," or "no, I won't do that," because I want to ruin their parents lives. Next week is "why?" Today, I taught a slew of them the names for celestial bodies in english. We got to Earth, and I showed them a picture, and they shouted out in unison "Taiwan!!!!" I tried to correct them, but they were really insistent. Island people are extremely insular, even the five year olds. We made little paper rockets that you can launch by blowing through a straw. It's a refreshing break from the adult world.

Wet Wet Wet

It was moist without being wet, at least when I left the house. Work and cleaning and even eating had to wait. The little flatbar and manny pad at the back of the bridge had dancers camped out all over it, but I politely encouraged them not to sit on the the rail so that I would skate it. Twice, someone came over and sat down on it anyway, and once, I accidentally elbowed someone in the back who wandered in front. There is a sort total lack of situational awareness that I've only encountered in Taiwan. They weren't actually trying to even be rude; they were so astonishingly selfish that they didn't notice another human being was doing something on a place where they'd like to sit. Good thing I never complain. I would have a lot to say about how rude Taiwanese people are.

I did at least get some ** *********s back, and then moved on to the pyramid, where I got a pathetic little *****, but progress is progress. IS and a friend showed up, then CL and SC and PJ and some other guys I know but not very well. It was cozy until it started raining, then it got cozier, because the bridge is still dusty and the moisture made the ground more than a bit slick. SC wanted to walk north after lights out, so I accompanied him past a parking garage with what smelled like a burning car in it. We hacked for about a block.

A Happy Update on the Bridge (Fifty Two Factorial)

It was like a family reunion. The first report that the bridge had unexpectedly reopened came from mw. The rumour grew. Seemingly too good to be true, I let the reports collect, from various field agents. Having finished work at a reasonable 15:00, I got off the MRT a stop early and walked by with a suit and briefcase. The gates of heaven had indeed reopened. No explanation needed. I was there within 15 minutes. The family reunion grew and grew until the bridge was so thick with skaters that it was impossible to actually skate. A new flemish guy and AC (maybe the best style I've ever seen) were there, but so were dozens of old friends. The AWCO came, with IS and gnarlyt. The prince and his friend showed up too. The session was good for me, on one hand, because I got 52! which is a very large number. I also got more of my old tricks there, but ** **** wasnt happening and my back is going to regret the slams that I put into it trying. A slew of people I didn't know were also there. And then even more people. and more people. It was like a skate moshpit.

I'm rarely mesmerized by someone else's skating. I just like to watch people I care about pushing themselves. But I didnt know AC before. He had a floaty kind of effortless style that you can fake with any kind of poses after landing the trick or whatnot. He didn't skate particularly fast, or do particularly technical tricks (although he was head and shoudlers above the skating I've seen in person here). I showed him IronMike's hometown spot, and he knew where it was, because they're from the same country.

Anyway, the lights went out and we went to bargur king. Well, they did. I beered up. Then the visitors from china complained about how horrible china is. Then I lost my patience and pushed off into the night and was happy to see that at least IS had coem along, but it turned out a whole crew had taken the plunge. I was just the first lemming.

We went north to the pink volcano. It's a fucking hard spot to skate because the tiling. We charged up the sidewalk to it, and gt had his greatest moments that I've seen him skate, excepting maybe the gap at yuanshan. IS skated the volcano a totally different  way, and then p got all japanesey about it, until he had a lil slam. At the core, this is why I love skating street. A whole crew of people at various levels of skill but who all approach the spot in a competely different way. Some rode ubikes to the next spot because they are of weak moral fiber, but the rest of us skated. At the north end of the orange line is a sharp left hook with a flat and some grindy curbs and a manny pad. We got one beer into the spot and security came out, a first in four years of skating there.

He was an old man, probably accustomed to chasing off hobos pissing in bushes. We surrounded him, skateboards in hand. He put his hands together and laughlingly asked us to please reconsider skating the manny pad, and could we maybe think about just grinding the granite stairs instead? We appologized for teh inconvenience and headed towards home. They all ducked into the mrt and I beered up and eventually ended up home.

A Sad Update on the Bridge

The Bridge is the spiritual epicenter of street skating in Taipei. First, the city fenced it off for a year, but let us skate in it during controlled hours. Then, a month ago, they shut it down for "plumbing repairs." It was scheduled to reopen on October 1st, but now it's been delayed at least another month. Nothing seems to have happened at the site. Taking the Bridge away from us has been a bit like kicking out the homeless people from Main Station; tossing their boxes and posessions without warning adn sending them alone out into the streets. We didn't have much here, or ask for it, just a place to be.  We (not me, other, more devoted people) payed for it and built it and maintained it. OK, I bought some cement bags and tried to patch some shit, but I'm tooting my own feeble horn. Truth is, a core of devoted life long skaters built and maintained a DIY in the middle of hte city and it became a haven, a kabaa, for skating, and now I'm starting the think the city is slyly trying to take it away, delay by delay. There is no reason we couldn't have been skating there for the last month. Or any reason to fence it all off to start with. At first, we just shrugged it off, and laughed. More street sessions for us. But the truth is, Taipei skating needs the Bridge. There is are two parks here, inaccessible for most, and filled to the brim with 4 year olds on push bikes, but even if they were skate only, they'd still be terribly designed and built even worse. If the Bridge really doesnt work for the city, I hope we can all find a suitable solution somewhere else. Otherwise, skateboarding is giong to spread out across the city like a metasticizing cancer and kill the whole thing.

fiftyone and done.

Although the air is filled with burning garbage so think that the details of 101 were smudged out, the weather was otherwise pleasantly blustery and sunny. IS and I hit up the secret ledge for an afternoon session. Someone had been there lately. The heavy marble stools and tables had been moved around, and the ledge was slightly faster. He got some new ***** lines around the place (there's a rounded curb up above the main ledge) and I got some slightly faster and longer *****s than previously. The mobile chodofu vendor rode around on the other side of the levee and filled the air with even worse pollution than smog. An old man bicycled up and parked almost literally on the ledge we were acttively skating. We did our best to skate around him, and after a dozen tries, he tottered off down the road. Where else on earth will someone park in the middle of a skate session? I don't know, I haven't traveled much.

We cruised down the smooth bike path past all the graffitti to the big three. The air quality got a lot worse. Our clothes stank from the smoke. There must have been a ground fire nearby, because even with the strong breeze, we couldn't escape it. As teh day faded, I looked over just in time to see IS ***** up, and ******** down the upper part of hte spot. I tapped out at 51 of the same. It was almost cold as I skated back home across the city.