the monkey is always watching

Ohio, June 2008

2008-09-10T01:20:00.000-07:00

I went to Ohio last June.

My Uncle Bob is still making it as an independent farmer.

We visited the farmhouse where I got snowed in as a 5-year-old during the blizzard of '78. The farmhouse is going to be torn down.

Then I went to Columbus. My father and sister and I went to a bar where my grandfather used to drink. We got stranded there by a tornado.

xcalak, mexico

2008-03-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

cenote azul, near playa del carmen, mexico

2008-01-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

there are, apparently, two cenotes called Cenote Azul... the big one is down near Chetumal. this is the little one, near Cenote Jardin del Eden outside of Playa del Carmen.

miami international airport

2008-01-15T19:51:00.000-08:00

cozumel, mexico - san gervasio ruins and east coast

2008-01-01T16:56:00.000-08:00

the east side of the island is rough and pretty, and apparently also has pigs.

in the middle of the island are the ruins at San Gervasio.

san miguel cemetery, cozumel, mexico

2007-12-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

san miguel, cozumel, mexico

2007-12-16T19:37:00.000-08:00

landed

2007-12-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

I was out of town for a couple of weeks, but I've landed.

berkeley, ca

2007-11-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

minneapolis, mn

2007-11-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Golden Gate National Recreation Area

2007-09-27T21:52:00.000-07:00

Chiang Mai, Thailand

2007-07-24T22:33:00.000-07:00

Portland, Oregon

2007-07-17T18:31:00.001-07:00

I was in Portland over the weekend. We went to eat bacon near the mountains. Then we drove around and saw:

a waterfall

children appearing as if they had been dropped from a great height although they had not

some trees

this dude

the monkey wakes up

2007-05-24T12:26:00.001-07:00

CJ Ware is sick of this blog being dormant.

Thanks to google images, this blog is getting a healthy number of visitors, despite being putatively mothballed. So, I'll start cross-posting my image posts to both blogs, for the benefit of all those google drive-by visitors. (Hi,everybody.)

I'm a pretty intermittent (<- nice word for lazy) blogger these days, but new things will appear from time to time.

taipei street art

2007-05-24T12:02:00.000-07:00

(this is a repost from everything comes together at 2 a.m.)

follow the monkey

2006-07-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

this blog is going dormant for a while, but I am still taking and posting photos. they will appear on my other blog, everything comes together at 2 a.m. please reroute your blog-reading algorithms appropriately.

below is a compilation of some of my favorite images from this blog's run; each one links to more from the same set.

kauai, hawaii

oahu, hawaii

house on the rock, wisconsin

yucatan, mexico

kyoto, japan

merida, mexico

el cerrito, california

playa del carmen, mexico

isla mujeres, mexico

naoshima, japan

monroe, wisconsin

madison, wisconsin

oakland, california

takayama, japan

marin headlands, california

somewhere in ohio

costa rica

san francisco, california

matsumoto, japan

tokyo, japan

osaka aquarium, japan

tokyo fish market

monkey onsen, japan

thanks for stopping by. please visit everything comes together at 2 a.m. to see my new stuff.

oakland zoo - some kind of monkey

2006-07-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

kauai, hawaii panoramas

2006-07-07T00:54:00.000-07:00

kauai, hawaii: cars

2006-07-01T23:54:00.000-07:00

'bye Jenn.

2006-06-26T15:16:00.000-07:00

Jenn See died. She was 26.

(this is a picture she took around a year ago.)

oahu, hawaii: the trail to manoa falls

2006-06-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: waikiki. please, do not touch.

2006-06-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

marilyn monroe

where the surfboards sleep

oahu, hawaii: downtown honolulu

2006-06-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: east coast

2006-06-12T17:43:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: east coast

2006-06-05T17:34:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: honolulu

2006-06-02T00:43:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: east coast beach and mountains

2006-05-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: down the hill from diamond head

2006-05-21T22:51:00.000-07:00

took a trail down to the beach from an overlook on the road.

oahu, hawaii: kapiolani park

2006-05-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

this is the park you get to after you walk past all the white people turning themselves pink on waikiki beach.

there was space for 20 or 30 concurrent soccer games. it was a nice day.

oahu, hawaii: the boat. tuna. spinner dolphins. flying fish.

2006-05-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

there was a whale, too, but all the pictures came out like black lumps in the water.

flying fish are weird looking. they are also very fast and therefore hard to photograph.

if you look carefully, you can see the small silver fish that was leaping out of the water trying to escape this yellowfin tuna. I do not know how the story ended.

the reason we were on this boat in the first place was to see these spinner dolphins:

Ros: Do you think death could possibly be a boat?
Guil: No, no, no... Death is... not. Death isn't. You take my meaning. Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not-be on a boat.
Ros: I've frequently not been on boats.
Guil: No, no, no--what you've been is not on boats.

oahu, hawaii: hanauma bay

2006-05-12T21:29:00.000-07:00

oahu, hawaii: fear god power lifting team

2006-05-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

these are photos of a road-side restaurant on the east side of Oahu:

the menu was titled: "KEN's Plate Lunch + CHURCH Gym"

Rev 20: 11-15
AND I SAW A GREAT WHITE THRONE and him who sat upon it from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. and I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. and death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. this is the second death: the lake of fire. and if anyone's name was not found written in the bok of life; he was thrown into the lake of fire.

the shaved ice was delicious.

halfway home

2006-05-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

back home but not awake yet... watch this space.

travelmonkey

2006-04-28T20:38:00.000-07:00

gotta go. be back the second week in May. with pictures.

escape from the house on the rock

2006-04-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

we made it out.

the house on the rock pt 4: satan

2006-04-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

downstairs, at the world's largest indoor carousel, the figures going around were a little strange.

however, they had nothing on the top tier of the carousel of the dolls. the figures there are roughly life-sized.

the house on the rock pt 3: the carousel of the dolls

2006-04-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

Q: WTF?
A: It was a three-story indoor carousel with ten or so tiers of dolls.

Q: Dolls?
A: Dolls. Hundreds.

Q: Is that a giant carved kangaroo holding that one doll?
A: More life-sized than giant. But giant compared to the dolls, yes.

Q: And is that a goat with all those dolls lounging on it?
A: Yes.

Q: It looks kind of... I don't know. That's not a happy frolic-and-make cheese goat. It looks more like... Satan.
A: You have not seen anything yet. Next post, I'll show you the top tier of the carousel.

the house on the rock pt 2

2006-04-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

the house on the rock pt 1

2006-04-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

prepare yourselves.

2006-04-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

the tunnel at the end of the light

2006-03-28T19:35:00.000-08:00

I was back in Wisconsin this weekend. That's my brother, sister, and father up ahead (from left to right). My nephew Ian was sick of the tunnel and already outside.

oakland

2006-03-23T20:34:00.000-08:00

got a new camera, small enough that I can carry it around with me. today I took some pictures on the way to lunch.

plants

2006-03-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

wild turkey

2006-03-18T14:19:00.000-08:00

the dog (see previous post) is useful for detecting wildlife in the backyard.

forbidden love

2006-03-14T21:15:00.000-08:00

katya

2006-03-13T22:27:00.000-08:00

God reveals Himself

2006-03-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

downtown oakland

2006-03-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

it's been raining a lot.

yucatan, mexico: the slow road pt. 3

2006-02-26T23:21:00.000-08:00

the last set taken driving from Merida to Playa del Carmen.

yucatan, mexico: cenote dzitnup

2006-02-23T23:14:00.000-08:00

you should go there and swim in it. bats dart overhead, and dark fish below. I left the inner tube in frame for scale.

yucatan, Mexico: surfaces

2006-02-21T23:17:00.000-08:00

building surfaces on the slow road from Merida to Playa del Carmen

yucatan, mexico: the slow road from Merida to Playa del Carmen

2006-02-13T22:41:00.000-08:00

going the slow road, we passed through small towns with indescribably delcious roast chicken. and churches.

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ohio: hocking hills

2006-01-30T17:35:00.000-08:00

while I was in Ohio last November we drove down into the hills south of Columbus.

yucatan: merida cemetery 2

2006-01-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

please note the small red lock:

kyoto: the last of the lost pictures

2006-01-17T23:13:00.000-08:00

these are the last of the prodigal kyoto photos.

thanksgiving in columbus, ohio

2006-01-08T13:35:00.000-08:00

I went to Columbus for Thanksgiving back in '05.

starting early

2005-12-24T13:10:00.000-08:00

the monkey with the ribbon on his head is John-John. azuremonkey gave him to me and ever since he came home he hasn't been more than five feet from the bar.

he's hanging from the typhoon fifth of sake that Uncle Butch gave us, but we won't let him open it. around his neck is the cross-stitched christmas ornament given to me by my sister, who comments sometimes on these blogs as "blizzard". she said she gave it to me because of Emmanuelle.

kyoto cemetery: the lost pictures

2005-12-21T23:07:00.000-08:00

these pictures, taken last April, were thought lost, then found again.

wildcat canyon sunrise

2005-12-19T22:41:00.000-08:00

something about coming home from vacation makes me want to take pictures where I live. I woke up early the morning after getting back from Mexico, and went out back.

mexico: merida, yucatan - museum

2005-12-09T23:51:00.000-08:00

mexico: merida, yucatan - inside

2005-12-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

mexico: merida, yucatan - outside

2005-12-05T23:44:00.000-08:00

merida, yucatan: typical mexican dogs

2005-11-30T12:14:00.000-08:00

two dogs were playing on the sidewalk next to an outdoor food court. I snapped a couple of pictures, and one of the men lounging after lunch pointed with the air of a helpful and patient tour guide, and explained: "those are typical Mexican dogs."

mexico: merida, yucatan public market

2005-11-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

kyoto - sometimes you do get a second chance

2005-11-22T01:49:00.000-08:00

I clumsily deleted fifty pictures from Kyoto back when I was in Japan; a friend sector-copied the cf card to try and restore them, but that file, too, was lost. Until the day before yesterday, when he found the image of the drive, and was able to reconstruct most of the images. So, while I still had a few images from Japan yet to post, I now have a few more. This is one of them.

yucatan: merida cemetery - out

2005-11-16T09:08:00.000-08:00

yucatan: merida cemetery surfaces

2005-11-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

yucatan: merida cemetery angel

2005-11-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

yucatan: merida cemetery

2005-11-05T08:56:00.000-08:00

tropical storm Stan had just passed overhead.

yucatan - galeria trinidad hotel, merida

2005-11-03T23:45:00.000-08:00

growing on a tree by the pool

chemical billy unmasked

2005-10-30T02:16:00.000-08:00

today I had the opportunity to take a few shots of Chemical Billy in her Halloween get-up.

also present was her cat, Blanche.

never kiss a girl with bat wings

2005-10-30T01:55:00.000-08:00

monkey 0 found out the hard way.

[udpate - for those of you with low-contrast monitors, click here for a detail. I woke up with a hell of a hangover, and one of those little bracelets that says "I gave blood!" and warns you not to operate heavy machinery...]

mexico: playa del carmen, quintana roo

2005-10-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

when I was there, Playa del Carmen was an extremely pleasant place

where I did not take many pictures because I was wandering around sampling the invariably-superb margaritas and eating the world's best tacos at the Taqueria Gomez

(and yes I said "world's best" and yes I mean it and yes I'll go to the mat for that one, so if you have a problem with that I suggest you step up and say something).

the sea was a little ominous for much of the time we were there, what with tropical storm Stan blowing overhead (it wasn't a hurricane yet)

I'm afraid things are a little different now (AP photo, not mine):

vaya con dios, yucatan...

2005-10-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

good luck everybody.

mexico: merida, yucatan - hotel trinidad galeria

2005-10-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

the Hotel Trinidad Galeria in Merida:

mexico: merida, yucatan

2005-10-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

best of

2005-10-14T17:36:00.000-07:00

[here or elsewhere, please nominate pictures you feel belong in the best-of gallery, so visitors just wandering by for the first time can see a little bit of our history at a glance.]

Anne's favorites are:
from the trail to Manoa Falls in Oahu.
from the Jigokudani monkey onsen
from Isla Mujeres
from Osaka
from Takayama
from Harajuku revisited
from Costa Rica
from the trumpets of gayness
from Monroe, Wisconsin (she even wrote a story)
from the price of freedm
from the Tokyo subway

Dee likes:
from the Oakland zoo
the fish at the Osaka aquarium (luckier and happier than the fish at the tokyo fish market.)

Suzanna's favorites:
from kyoto
taken here at home in El Cerrito.

shiny. so shiny.

2005-10-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

help me choose.

I want to create a page with the viewer favorites from this site. If you can think of any pictures from the past that you feel should be included, please say so. You don't need to find them, just describe them, and I'll dig them out of the archives.

And, now and forevermore, when you see a picture you think belongs in the most-shiny page, please indicate as much.

Yours faithfully, in simian compulsion to take your stuff and eat it or break it,
-monkey 0

mexico: valladolid

2005-10-11T23:13:00.000-07:00

mexico: isla mujeres day 2

2005-10-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

mexico: isla mujeres

2005-10-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

you will, I hope, forgive me if I go a bit overboard on this post.

mexico: puerto juarez, quintana roo

2005-10-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

shuttered monkey

2005-09-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

the monky will be a.f.k. for a week and a half or so... I'm off to visit some real monkeys in the Yucatan. today or tomorrow I hope to post the next installment over at everything comes together at 2 a.m., but then both blogs will be idle until I've gone and come back.

there is some slight possibility I might take a picture or two while I'm down there, so watch this space.

naoshima

2005-09-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

n.a.g.p.b.y.w.b.m.o.: active violence shop

2005-09-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

[updated 9/19]
I wanted to bring this one up from the archives, because concerned-netizen Kwikdraw has resolved the mystery. That storefront is the premier custom airgun shop in Japan, and possibly the world. Rock!
-------------------------------
June 08

this is in Shibuya. I tried to go down to the shop. a spiral staircase led down to a locked metal door with no signage and no handle. perhaps that's just as well.

naoshima ferry

2005-09-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

kyoto haunted house: detail

2005-09-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

kyoto haunted house

2005-09-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

monroe, wisconsin pt 3 of 3

2005-09-13T21:43:00.000-07:00

wisconsin panoramas pt 5 of 5

2005-09-13T21:05:00.000-07:00

coyote-chan

2005-09-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

the dog was out on the back deck growling at something. I went out to see what it was.

exotic ashby BART

2005-09-07T03:34:00.000-07:00

reducing adults to cooing idiots pt 2.

2005-09-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

that's right, it's a no-holds-barred cute-off... who will be the victor?

reducing adults to cooing idiots

2005-08-31T15:51:00.000-07:00

oakland zoo

2005-08-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

fishing in takayama

2005-08-27T01:23:00.000-07:00

don't feed the birds

2005-08-22T02:18:00.000-07:00

wedding pictures soon

2005-08-22T01:56:00.000-07:00

(family: the wedding pictures will be up soon. I promise.)

(meanwhile, to tide you over, here's a picture of Stanley.)

my brother

2005-08-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

(he has just retrieved his ninja throwing star)

monroe, wisconsin pt 2

2005-08-18T21:17:00.000-07:00