Announcements
1) I have Signal In the Sky (Let's Go!) from the Powerpuff Girls Heroes and Villains soundtrack stuck in my head. It could be worse, but people do look at you funny if you are muttering power super, super power/power super, super POWER under your breath all day. At least that has been my recent experience.
2) I picked up Talk To Me on a whim at the library and enjoyed it quite a bit! I think Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor were both in fine form and I loved Taraji Hensen as Vernell. Martin Sheen was also having fun -- what the blue blazes, indeed. Plus... THE CLOTHES. ha ha ha! You know, it seems like people used to have more fun getting dressed than we do now. I am putting "have fun getting dressed" back on my to-do list. Fun is underestimated in wardrobe choices, I think. (I have a very broad definition of fun, which makes it easier.)
3) I am in another time-warp. Not the kind where I suddenly wake up and think "I need to dress like it's 1973," but the kind where I think "oh my god! that was 1000 years ago!" only to realize that whatever it was happened just on Monday of THIS WEEK, which was only two days ago. sigh. I don't know what causes this weird temporal displacement, but it happens every so often. Time just goes bonkers.
Random Photos:
I realize that most pictures I post of Portland are of trees or flowers, which isn't very indicative of the city at all. (well, there are LOTS of trees and flowers, but that's not all.) This photo features power lines, traffic and ugly buildings! But the sky was so beautiful -- it had been raining and sunny and rainbowriffic just an hour earlier. Plus you can see the fremont bridge, which I think is rather attractive. (it crosses the Willamette (rhymes with dammit) river, which divides the city east/west. This was on the west side on my way home from work today.) The sky was BEAUTIFUL and got increasingly more so as the sunset progressed, but I was driving a standard transmission and had to change many lanes of traffic on the bridge, so I didn't get a lot of pictures.
Here's Fullers in the pearl district, except of course when Fullers was originally established the area wasn't anything so precious as "the pearl," it was all gritty and grotty with lots of warehouses, junkies and funny smells. The area has gentrified a LOT in the past 15 years, but Fullers remains. They make really good milkshakes! It is Classic Greasy Spoon dining all the way. "what do you have in the way of reconstituted potatoes?"
the neon really lights up the whole place at night. I was in the neighborhood on Monday to go to a reading at Powells (just a couple of blocks away). Well, it was a quasi-reading. It was more of a panel discussion on the state of book reviews/criticism, and if there is really a market for them anymore. It was interesting -- I will have to get my notes out and see if I can reconstruct the basic points (later). but here are a couple of things: I learned that independent book stores only account for about 9% of all book sales, and that a space purchased on a table at Barnes & Noble (did you know that publishers pay for all those books to be there?) will result in more sales than even a glowing review in a national publication. I know it's just doing business, but it makes me a little sad that it's so quantified. I think it's because reading is so personal; I want to think of books finding their way to me in some ineffable fashion, not because a publisher paid X dollars for a face-out display. Silly of me, I know.
1) I have Signal In the Sky (Let's Go!) from the Powerpuff Girls Heroes and Villains soundtrack stuck in my head. It could be worse, but people do look at you funny if you are muttering power super, super power/power super, super POWER under your breath all day. At least that has been my recent experience.
2) I picked up Talk To Me on a whim at the library and enjoyed it quite a bit! I think Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor were both in fine form and I loved Taraji Hensen as Vernell. Martin Sheen was also having fun -- what the blue blazes, indeed. Plus... THE CLOTHES. ha ha ha! You know, it seems like people used to have more fun getting dressed than we do now. I am putting "have fun getting dressed" back on my to-do list. Fun is underestimated in wardrobe choices, I think. (I have a very broad definition of fun, which makes it easier.)
3) I am in another time-warp. Not the kind where I suddenly wake up and think "I need to dress like it's 1973," but the kind where I think "oh my god! that was 1000 years ago!" only to realize that whatever it was happened just on Monday of THIS WEEK, which was only two days ago. sigh. I don't know what causes this weird temporal displacement, but it happens every so often. Time just goes bonkers.
Random Photos:
I realize that most pictures I post of Portland are of trees or flowers, which isn't very indicative of the city at all. (well, there are LOTS of trees and flowers, but that's not all.) This photo features power lines, traffic and ugly buildings! But the sky was so beautiful -- it had been raining and sunny and rainbowriffic just an hour earlier. Plus you can see the fremont bridge, which I think is rather attractive. (it crosses the Willamette (rhymes with dammit) river, which divides the city east/west. This was on the west side on my way home from work today.) The sky was BEAUTIFUL and got increasingly more so as the sunset progressed, but I was driving a standard transmission and had to change many lanes of traffic on the bridge, so I didn't get a lot of pictures.
Here's Fullers in the pearl district, except of course when Fullers was originally established the area wasn't anything so precious as "the pearl," it was all gritty and grotty with lots of warehouses, junkies and funny smells. The area has gentrified a LOT in the past 15 years, but Fullers remains. They make really good milkshakes! It is Classic Greasy Spoon dining all the way. "what do you have in the way of reconstituted potatoes?"
the neon really lights up the whole place at night. I was in the neighborhood on Monday to go to a reading at Powells (just a couple of blocks away). Well, it was a quasi-reading. It was more of a panel discussion on the state of book reviews/criticism, and if there is really a market for them anymore. It was interesting -- I will have to get my notes out and see if I can reconstruct the basic points (later). but here are a couple of things: I learned that independent book stores only account for about 9% of all book sales, and that a space purchased on a table at Barnes & Noble (did you know that publishers pay for all those books to be there?) will result in more sales than even a glowing review in a national publication. I know it's just doing business, but it makes me a little sad that it's so quantified. I think it's because reading is so personal; I want to think of books finding their way to me in some ineffable fashion, not because a publisher paid X dollars for a face-out display. Silly of me, I know.
Fullers is a place that I have never been but it has always been on my imaginary list of places to visit. I should do that before "we are closing forever due to the evil_____" happens. I like industrialish photos with nature in them. You have quite the eye.
ReplyDeleteLet's go! it cracks me up because it is now wedged between super fancy dining establishments and, like, a yoga haberdashery or something like that.
ReplyDeleteYes. Let us make plans to visit this place. I would hate to have another place close before I get to visit.
ReplyDelete