Division and 122nd Standard Time

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This is a clock tower at the southwest corner of SE 122nd Avenue and Division Street, as seen from Division, going east. The Division Center, a rubric with a sort of awkward poetry to it, refers to the shopping center it serves as a landmark for. 

The building was Payless ShoeSource for a long time before it was a cell phone store. In my fantasies, it's an art supply store run by me and my wife.

We have two clocktowers on SE 122nd Avenue. One is at the Mighty Mighty Midland Branch Library, the other, here. They have one thing in common. The correct time would not be that thing.

This photo was taken at about 8:20 PM, last Wednesday. That is not, as it can be seen, the time on the face of the clock. There is little doubt in my mind that, had we gone down 122nd and the library clock would have also been askew. Not the same way, of course; that would give away the conspiracy of ... something, somehow. 

See, Out 122nd Way, you can have accurate time, or cool clock towers.

You cannot, apparently, have both.

[Out122ndWay] The Divine Comedy of SE 122nd Ave, Part II: The Alpha and The Omega

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In the last post, I presented documentary evidence that the sensorama of human life is well and perfectly recapitulated on SE 122nd Avenue at Morrison Street. But if you need a metaphysical frame, you don't need to go far. Just go north of Stark Street about as far south as you were just then.

On SE 122nd between Ash and Pine Streets, there's the Omega Funeral Home. And, on SE 122nd, very next block, between Pine and Oak, is the Shepherd's Gate Church … the one that used to be a strip club.

Tell me there ain't no subtext there, campers!

A few blocks south of here, life poses questions and answers them in mortal ways. And, here, life's questions are bookended and debated on quite another level.

The Shepherd's Gate Church first appeard on this blog here: http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com/2015/05/out122ndway-122nd-and-stark-goodbye.html.

SE 122nd Avenue, from Ash to Morrison. It's more than just an interesting jumble of business punctuated by a Burgerville.

It's Portland's philosophical, existential highway.

And so it goes.

[Out122ndWay] The Divine Comedy of SE 122nd Ave, Part I: Existence

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There's a section of SE 122nd Avenue that recapitulates the sum total of human existence. It's all there … birth, death, and all in-between.

Peep this:

There's (going away from us), a dive bar, a porno shop, an auto parts store, a Volkswagen, and a public library. Everything here, but everything is necessary, including the street (the 12100 block of SE Morrison) which separates the auto parts store from the library.

Because … well, look. You have books for knowledge, dive bars for food, fun and companionship, the pornos for sexy sex that causes more people to happen (or so I've heard) and an auto parts store … because if auto repair isn't pain then, my friends, absolutely nothing is. Existential dread is best represented by the time spent waiting in the mechanic's waiting area to bring you the bill.

And Volkswagens are necessary. They just are. Don't question it.

If they don't have it in this stretch of SE 122nd, just south of Stark … you don't really need it.

But things go metaphysical just two blocks north of here. See next message.