Been back for three weeks, will post these few more journal entries, and then onward... westward....
1/27/09, 11:15am
Writing now with good feelings... we bought standing-room-only tickets for the train to Hualien, but have been able to sit the whole time... gorgeous views of the mountains and sea... temples everywhere, rice paddies under water like swimming pools divided by low grass walls... constantly sharing food and drink... if one gets sick, we all do, but it doesn't really matter....
1/31/09, 5:25pm
Tainan in the morning was lovely: we hit some cool temples and finished our walking tour. I had a slight hangover, but the warm temperature and cool breeze set me right. Took the high-speed train back to Taoyuan, and was dead tired for much of the day. Dan, Aaron, and I bought betel nut from a "betel nut beauty" down the street (an interesting phenomenon probably worth Googling), got noodles, and had a nice walk around town. Then to Taipei, the hostel, and out for a good dinner, Aaron and Mom shopping, and Dan and I sitting down in front of shops, people-watching. Back to the hostel around 11, laundry, and back out, to the Jurassic Beer Bar and Restaurant. Only one other family was there, on a Friday night at midnight, but it was great - gigantic dinosaur skeletons everywhere, the cavernous interior, jungle walls, and jurassic-style restrooms. We got jumbo San Miguels (about a liter each - huge!), and had a good time.
2/2/09, 9:35pm
I have been getting hungry (or wanting to eat) a lot this trip, maybe more than everyone else. Aaron said he thinks I have tapeworm. I said, if this is what tapeworm feels like, I wouldn't wish for anything else. So much great food, and I will devour it all.
Saturday evening we went to dinner with Aaron's girlfriend Jennifer - another great one (dinner, I mean; but Jennifer too) - at a Beiping place. Lots of dishes - kung pao chicken, garlic tofu, beef, something like naan, something resembling a porridge, etc., etc. Then shopping in an endlessly circular and crowded market with all sorts of funny English T-shirts and people everywhere. Too much for Dan and I. We all went back to the hostel and drank beer, like being in college.
Aaron and Dan and I went back out around 12 to look for Le Ble D'Or (perhaps Taipei's only brewpub). Aaron tried to ask the guard at Asia World, who sent us up to the 8th floor, where we were greeted by beautiful girls in exotic dresses, holding menus (with women emblazoned on the front), who told us we were at a "hotel." We explained to the guard that it wasn't quite what we were looking for. Then we went to look for a bar called Apocalypse Now, and on the way, met an old man with a cane who directed us to "the monkey restaurant" (in English). We grabbed beers at 7-11, found Apocalypse Now was closed for good, and met Jennifer again. The old man turned out to be prophetic: we next went to a bar called Brass Monkey. Took a cab to Wax, an all-you-can-drink dance club, where we drank lots of cocktails and danced. Things started to quiet down around 4, so we went over to Vibe, where things were just getting started. Aaron and Jennifer left around 6, and Dan and I ran into some Cambodian girls and ended up staying till the club closed, at 7:30. It's a wonderful thing to emerge from a downstairs night club, directly into the healing rays of a bright Sunday morning sun. Better than breakfast.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Bestest Buy
The focus for my resistance to capitalism isn't on the products it creates. Many of the products can be helpful in any form of society: for example, washing machines free up time for creative endeavors. My resistance focuses against the desire capitalism creates for these products, because it's the desire for the washing machine, fueled perhaps by a commercial or a friend's glowing recommendation, that makes the consumer want to go to the store to buy one. The desire for the washing machine dictates the need to spend money - what capitalism runs on - and that is the breaking point in the consumer's freedom. The need to spend money on a washing machine then becomes the desire to accumulate money, and that is the point at which the consumer loses control to Capital. The goal of having free creative time has transformed into the desire for money, the symbol of exchange.
Products aren't inherently evil. Here's to invention and production (science and industry) in the service of humanity, not in the service of Capital.
Products aren't inherently evil. Here's to invention and production (science and industry) in the service of humanity, not in the service of Capital.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Taiwan Part 1
Starting this blog, recently got back from Taiwan, so I will post a few of my journal entries:
1/23/09, 5:30pm
Sitting here in my hostel bed - thin pillow against the bed-board, back against the pillow - and thinking of a relatively intense level of comfort. Yes, you have some typical hostel discomforts to encounter and conquer: wet bathroom floors, lack of personal space, looking for toilet paper, etc. But then out for a day of exploring with Mom and Dan - a wonderful afternoon: coffee, snacks at 7-11 (they are everywhere here), wandering the exciting green city with trees everywhere and cool buildings supplanted here and there between mini-marts, markets, and banks; and then the fantastic Da'an Park, modern art mingling with exotic flowers, funny signs, open-air bathrooms, beauty everywhere; more wandering, more trees, more snacks; and back to the hostel to sit around our room over sushi and beer, discussing the customs and culture of a city really quite different from anything we've experienced before.
1/25/09, 7:20pm
I just saw three adults piled onto a scooter and could not stop laughing. Bikes aren't meant for three, and it's comical. We're in Taoyuan, had a wonderful meal of hot pot and kung pao chicken and shrimp fried rice at a coffee house (meals just keep getting better), and now there are fireworks going off everywhere and I feel at home (like Ocean Park, Maine on the 4th of July). After a near-scare earlier when our bags got locked in the trunk of a taxi (Aaron and the driver drove around and eventually found a locksmith), things are feeling pretty good. Had a great simple breakfast (baozi on the walk) and a long conversation at Dante Coffee. At ease.
1/26/09, 1:55am
We drank beer and watched To Hell With It, which was fun. Then the train ride to the Lehwa night market, which was great. Dong Mountain Duck Head, and other fried foods, fireworks going off everywhere, people of all ages all over, scooters (and cars) motoring through the narrow walkways, and everyone in good spirits and without worries. In Taipei, versus a U.S. city, the streets are cleaner, there's less violence and theft, people are friendlier, and there are less cops around. Perhaps there is a direct correlation between these conditions and the fact that people don't worry about fireworks blowing their fingers off or scooters running them over on the sidewalks. I don't know. But I also think it's great that you don't say "excuse me" when you bump into someone or try to get through. You don't have to say anything.
1/23/09, 5:30pm
Sitting here in my hostel bed - thin pillow against the bed-board, back against the pillow - and thinking of a relatively intense level of comfort. Yes, you have some typical hostel discomforts to encounter and conquer: wet bathroom floors, lack of personal space, looking for toilet paper, etc. But then out for a day of exploring with Mom and Dan - a wonderful afternoon: coffee, snacks at 7-11 (they are everywhere here), wandering the exciting green city with trees everywhere and cool buildings supplanted here and there between mini-marts, markets, and banks; and then the fantastic Da'an Park, modern art mingling with exotic flowers, funny signs, open-air bathrooms, beauty everywhere; more wandering, more trees, more snacks; and back to the hostel to sit around our room over sushi and beer, discussing the customs and culture of a city really quite different from anything we've experienced before.
1/25/09, 7:20pm
I just saw three adults piled onto a scooter and could not stop laughing. Bikes aren't meant for three, and it's comical. We're in Taoyuan, had a wonderful meal of hot pot and kung pao chicken and shrimp fried rice at a coffee house (meals just keep getting better), and now there are fireworks going off everywhere and I feel at home (like Ocean Park, Maine on the 4th of July). After a near-scare earlier when our bags got locked in the trunk of a taxi (Aaron and the driver drove around and eventually found a locksmith), things are feeling pretty good. Had a great simple breakfast (baozi on the walk) and a long conversation at Dante Coffee. At ease.
1/26/09, 1:55am
We drank beer and watched To Hell With It, which was fun. Then the train ride to the Lehwa night market, which was great. Dong Mountain Duck Head, and other fried foods, fireworks going off everywhere, people of all ages all over, scooters (and cars) motoring through the narrow walkways, and everyone in good spirits and without worries. In Taipei, versus a U.S. city, the streets are cleaner, there's less violence and theft, people are friendlier, and there are less cops around. Perhaps there is a direct correlation between these conditions and the fact that people don't worry about fireworks blowing their fingers off or scooters running them over on the sidewalks. I don't know. But I also think it's great that you don't say "excuse me" when you bump into someone or try to get through. You don't have to say anything.
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