Aesthetically, the temple is beautiful. Check out the detail on one of the dragons that adorn the roof:

But the most interesting thing about the temple was the people that came to worship. My knowledge on the theology/cosmology of Longshan and other Taiwanese temples is a bit thin–according to Wikipedia, “the Temple worships a mixture of Buddhist, Taoist, and folk deities such as Matsu”–but whoever these folks were praying to, they were taking it pretty seriously:

Here’s some video of the action. Be sure to have your sound on; the effect of the droning, unison chanting of thousands of worshippers is truly other-worldly:

Imagine, if you will, a densely packed outdoor market where you can buy clothes, electronics, accessories…and the craziest fried Chinese food in the world. Like corn dogs stuffed with french fries:

Welcome to a Taipei night market. My pictures won’t be able to capture the energy, the tastes…or the smells…of these vibrant scenes, so do yourself a favor and go to Taipei to see them for yourself.

I had never been in the presence of so many…novel…food products in my life. These are Chinese burritos, for lack of a better description:

These are flaky buns stuffed with peppered beef and scallions:

These guys? Chicken butts:

Fried bread, wrapped in a thin flatbread. I call it Chinese meta-bread:

And as if there weren’t enough open flames among the food vendors, the merchandise vendors were happy to add their own:

And as if you didn’t need any more reminders that this is a place very different from the United States, I leave you with this image of some very young night market workers. I suppose child labor isn’t as taboo and/or regulated in Taipei as it is in the West:

I don’t mean to end on a down note. The night markets are fantastic. They’re just very different from our more orderly, less chaotic lives in the West. And that’s far from a bad thing. As long as these kids still have time for their homework.

First, here’s a typical Taipei streetscape:

Yup, lots of drab, utilitarian concrete buildings. This is what happens to architecture when buildings need to go up cheaply and quickly in a rapidly modernizing and growing city. No time for the picturesque brownstones we’re spoiled by in New York City.

Next, here’s a typical Taipei roadway:

No, it’s not some sort of scooter race, it’s just the the way a large portion of commuters chose to move about the city.

The drab building and scooters that are so prevalent in Taipei give the city a bit of a third world quality, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Taipei has a booming electronics and manufacturing industry and is home to one of the tallest building in the world, Taipei 101:

This beautiful structure anchors a chic commercial district that would be at home in any major world city.

Lastly, lest you think that the Asian aesthetic is absent in the modern Taipei landscape, let me end this first post with a picture of the National Palace Museum, a great example of traditional Chinese architecture brought into the 20th century:

This museum is a fascinating blend of the old and new: it was built fairly recently (in the mid-1960′s) to house artifacts from 2,000 years of Chinese history that were spirited out of the country by the Nationalists in advance of the Communist takeover of Beijing in 1948. The history is long, complex, and fascinating, so rather than try to summarize it here, I’ll do you a favor and point you to the Wikipedia article on the museum.

Coming up in future installments: Taipei’s famous night markets, Longshan temple pray-a-thon, and the ghosts of Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek…

After some technical difficulties, the website is back. Merely coincidence that the rest of the web is going dark in protest of SOPA/PIPA today. More content coming soon!

First stop was San Francisco, a city I visited for the first time last summer and am now quite taken with. In one long day of walking, I managed to go from The Mission…

To The Castro…

…all the way to the top of Twin Peaks!

Anyone who’s been to Twin Peaks will tell you that walking all the way up would be difficult at best, foolish at worst. Oh, well. Once I’d realized what I’d gotten myself into, I was way too far up the hill to turn back.

After making it back down, I did the sensible thing and took a bus ride to my next stops, the Presidio with its breathtaking views of the Golden Gate Bridge…

 …and the nearby Palace of Fine Arts, a breathtaking remnant of the  1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition:

The other major sightseeing day in the Bay Area was spent at Muir Woods, home of majestic redwood trees and refuge of renegade chimpanzees in the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes movie:

I found it difficult to effectively communicate the scale of these trees in pictures, but hopefully the combination of these two gives you a sense of both their height and width:

Note the sweaters. The locals were complaining of the chilly weather, but I welcomed the break from the brutal humidity and heat of the New York summer!

After San Francisco, we hopped over to Golden, CO, home of my sister, my brother-in-law, and my too-cute-for-words 20 month old niece. Here she is with her mom and uncle in the Denver Botanic Garden:

The Gardens were also home to huge lily pads, which probably could have supported a small child’s weight.

Note: we did not get the chance to put this theory to test.

Of course, no visit to Golden is complete without a trip to Red Rocks, the aptly named concert venue and park. I’ve been several times, but this is the first time I was able to use an iPhone HDR app to try to capture the intense range of colors in this view:

 The last stop on the trip was a gathering of college friends by a lake in Northern Connecticut, Don’t let this tranquil scene fool you; for us, this lake is mostly associated with white-knuckle, high-speed motorboat tubing action.

OK, fine. Also barbecues, charades, and reading of magazines and novels in the sun.

All told, it was a great summer vacation. I saw the sights, visited with friends and family, played in the water, and most importantly, just relaxed. It’s all in the past now, but fortunately, Memorial Day 2012 is only nine short months away.

Years ago, I had assembled a video portfolio website for him, but as this was before online video had taken off, all of the videos were in old proprietary formats and players not conducive to easy sharing.

The new site takes video directly from YouTube, Vimeo, and other online video sources. On the backend, the site automatically extracts thumbnails from the videos and dynamically resizes them for different parts of the site. On the frontend, each video gets its own attractive presentation as well as a dynamically populated list of related videos.

Like what you see here? Check out the other websites in my portfolio. And if you or your organization needs a simple, attractive website that’s easy to update and maintain, yes, I am officially taking on new clients. I’d love to hear from you and discuss your needs further.

Although I didn’t land any spots in documentaries on the subject as I did last year, I did manage to get a decent recording of myself playing on one of the pianos:

This one was right on the East River in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

And if you liked what I played, then you’ll love this guy, who was jamming before and I after I stepped up to the plate: