The Sign at the Village Square

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Village Square is a shopping center at the corner of SE 162nd and Stark, where Portland meets Gresham. It was probably built some time in the 1960s, judging by the architecture; the original tenants, whomever they were, have moved on, the current tenants being somewhat typical of the area: the centerpiece is a Latino supermercado, Su Casa; there's a church on one end, and the other end has a smoke shop, a social-service non-profit, and a tavern.

The sign is still vintage and proud of it. 

It does kind of show its age though. This is the side facing east, which I chose because it still has all the vintage letterforms. Several are missing from the western face.

The Very Last Day Of A Very Good Library (Well, This Version Of It, Anway)

4080

This is, as Jerry Clower once said, a momentum occiasion.

I've got a couple of photos to share with you all, as I usually do. They come with a story, as they usually do. It's better sweet.

This is the interior of the Mighty Mighty Midland Branch of the Multnomah County Library as I took mere minutes ago. This is the last time I'll ever see it, at least this way.

The Multnomah County Library is going on a buildng initiative. This will include making the Gresham branch the east side flagship and updating neighborhood branches into something resembling true community centers.

First two up are Holgate and Midland. This means that Midland will be closed for the next year and a half while the revisions are being made and, so, I'm pretty torn about this. Firstly, I've seen the diagrams and artist's conceptions of what Midland will look like as of the middle of 2024, and it's going to be a library user's paradise, straight up. Big wide areas for sitting and meeting, a big patio extension so you can enjoy the library outside when the weather is fine, big meeting areas. Really lovely. But we have grown so very accustomed to Midland-the-way-it-is, the comfort and familiarity, that we are feeling like a cornerstone of our lives is being taken away.

I mean, this building itself is scarcely 25 years old. Hardly even broken in, as buildings go. And it has the most lovely them, that of "Talking Leaves" ... there are leaves in the ceiling, as one can see. That was part of the design. The delightful and huge painting anchoring the east end, near the main entry is a landmark of life. 

The work itself is called Talking Leaves. I don't know the name of the artist but I'll have it before I leave the building. 

There's poetry on the outside of the building and I imagine it'll go. I do hope the painting is in the next edition of this building.

We want to honor the memory of Midland-that-was. We have had more than 15 happy years coming and going from here, and I'm sure we'll have a number happy years after the new version opens, but the interregnum will be a bit of an ordeal. We'll probably be visting Rockwood, or Gresham if Rockwood's too busy. Rockwood is definitely where we're going to be picking up our holds. It's on the way to things, in this new life.

Abysinnia, Midland-that-was. 

I'll miss the clock tower. 

March, 2020 and Snow in Portland

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You just can't scrute the Gods of Cascadian weather these days.

Going into the weekend we heard of a chance (as uttered by our properly-reticent Portland weather people, who know when not to take a chance on such things) of snow. Global warming notwithstanding, it does rarely happen in Oregon and the Northwest; I even remember a freak April snow when I was but a neat thing in Silverton.

But that was then and this is now, and we all figured that a chance, around here, was as good as nothing. And then, on Saturday morning, this:

Say hello to Olivia, who's back in service, gadding me about as I need. Yes, it feels as good as I figured it would.

Here's NE 122nd near Sacramento:

... and here's Gethsemane Lutheran Church, near the Chez, corner 117th and SE Market. Mod design on it. Looks like a pyramid from this angle, which is a strange Christian aesthetic, but there's no accounting for interpretive style.

This makes for a true change in regime, climate-wise. Because when I was a kid, snow happened in the mountains and everywhere else but the Willamette Valley. Winters were gray. But now, just about every winter for the last several, there's been a chance of snow that's manifested itself in a storm (sometimes, remarkably so).

Music, Food, and Dancing in East Portland: Portlanders Stand With Immigrants and Refugees

3529A.

[Update, 19 Mar 2017: I have names to put to the Afghani dancer now and also the lady leading the Peruvian trio, for which thanks go to the lovely Sitara Razaqi Lones, who indeed happens to be the Afghani dancer. TA MUCHLY!]
[Update, 20 Mar 2017] Thanks also to Claudia Cuentas Oviedo, who shared the name of the other two thirds of her trio (see below)

Statistics show, or so I've heard, that my area of Portland, DavidDouglasLandia, Out 122nd Way, Portland's Heavy Eastside and That Part Of Portland East Of I-205, is the most diverse area of, probably, the whole state.

I think it likely. Of the places I have lived in Oregon, one seems more likely to see east Africans, Asians (eastern and western), than anywhere else. It's a real rainbow out here, and I'm pleased with this every day.

It's perhaps the ideal thing, then, that an evening celebration promoted by the City of Portland called Portland Stands with Immigrants and Refugees happened out here, at the East Portland Community Center, which stands just off SE Washington St on SE 106th Avenue. It was a simple thing, really: some great authentic food, dancing and singing by immigrant groups, and plays. It ran from 6PM to 9PM on Friday, and with only three hours there was a lot to cram in there. We didn't see everything but what we did see was delightful.

We enjoyed the food there (the wife had a chicken shawarma wrap and I had a beef burrito and both were immaculate) but there was a wait, but we couldn't be too sore; I knew the event was probably going to be popular but I had no idea it would be thronged.

The strawberry horchata? Superb.

The main event for us was the signing and dancing in the gym. I was at the end of a long day myself, but there was much happy energy and it kept me interested. Me and The Wife™ were both enchanted.

The first performer we saw was a lovely Afghani woman, Sitara Razaqi Lones, who did a passionate folk dance.

As the dance progressed she really got into the zone. The costume only added to the positive energy.

After that, a trio, led by Claudia Cuentas Oviedo, played Peruvian music, accompanied by Tanya Abernathy and Otto Gygax. The support system, a Mac laptop, was reluctant to come on board (at least that's what it looked like), so, when you're a creative performer, what do you do?

You get out the pretty flute and play. It worked.

But when they got underway, they were on. 

After that, we were treated to some really energizing Bollywood style dance. I was remiss in that, due to acoustics, I couldn't get a clear idea of who the other performers were, but thanks to the book of Face, I was able to figure that the dancers were led by Prashant Kakad, supported by dancers including Blake Schrein, Brittany Newton, Jasmine Jaramillo, and Kathy Nordskog.

Prashant is that stylish fellow in the ballcap in the middle. They had an energy that was infectious, and I can only speak for myself here, but watching a group of dancers like that doing such enthusiastic moves in such great synchronization is infectious, inflecting the spirit with happiness and causing even the most weary spectator to at least, at least, tap the foot and move while seated.

They looked great, they made one feel great, and when they got the crowd involved ...

... they really got involved. Everyone on the floor, regardless of who they were or what they looked like, looked good, looked beautiful. Art really connects.

And when they finish on a high note, everyone else gets to be there with them. I couldn't not feel glad I was there.

Red-Tinged Sunrise, 122nd and Stark

3527A.

On the 13th, I was on the way home from working overnight as I do.

The sunrise was particularly wonderful. There were clouds, and they were catching the long rays of the rising sun in that way that never fails to get my attention.

That's looking east down Stark, of course. The next one, looking south down 122nd, up the rise just before the Library.

The first photo was unretouched. I bumped the color on the second one.

Patron Saints of Art: The Current Pantheon

3515A.

The lapel of my rather-battered jacket tells a story, or at least I try to have it entertain all comers.

Right now, it's got merely five autos-da-fe. They are, as follows:

Saint Thomas Pynchon. The quitessential Great American Novelist, wrote towering books mapping the angst and banality of male American life of the 2nd half of the 20th century into a odd world that exists on the edge of reality but can still be plainly seen. It's in your face but it isn't really there; it's the glimpse of reality you get in the flash of a atomic explosion that dazzles your eyes then fades away.

Saint Patrick McGoohan. Individuality as freedom and prison all at the same time: six degrees of freedom is also six degrees of imprisonment. And we all have our reasons for wanting to break free, and maybe you believe them or maybe you don't. It takes a Village, as they say.

Saint Andrew Warhola. You might be the brightest star in the firmament, son, but your time will be oh, so, fleeting. You will then be absorbed into the MCP of pop culture, program ... but only if you do it right.

San Salvador Dali. He not only did art, he was art. Last, year, to settle a paternity case by someone claiming to be an heir, his body was exhumed. His mustache was as perfect as it was when he was interred. He not only has immortality through his art, he has immortality as his art. If he were alive, he would definitely approved.

Saint Jake Richmond. Tells the story of an outsider not of their own doing, does the hard work, every day, work of the hands head and heart. He's not the only web comicker I admire, but he is Portland's.

Last night, when going to werk, I got Olivia a drink at the Chevron station, she was parched and wasn't going to carry me much farther. The pump jock asked me about my buttons and I told him about my current patron saints and told him about The Prisoner and reading Pynchon and he thought that he might try some of that out.

"Are you a teacher," he asked?

"No," I said, "I just like smart shit."

And so it goes.

NE 122nd Avenue, North and South

3538.

There is, just about twenty-five feet north of the intersection of NE 122nd Avenue and Sacramento Street, a pedestrian overpass.

Big 122 is wide. And there isn't a crossing signal north of NE San Rafael* St (which is the 2000 block north of Burnside) until the light at the onramp to I-84 eastbound, which is just south of NE Fremont St, which is close enough to three-fourths of a mile as to make no difference. So a pedestrian overpass is a necessity there.

Originally I was hoping to get an alternative viewpoint for future photos of Wy'east. No success there; too many trees to the east and southeast.

Eventually, Agent Cooper, one takes them for granted. It's the Cascadian way.

Speaking of ways, by the way, anyway: I didn't get a new look at Wy'east, but I did get a cool viewpoint just to peep the best street in the world.

This is NE 122nd Avenue looking north:

Big traffic-friendly swath straight-arrowing its way through a suburban residential district. And all those trees!

That yellow VW? Yep. Olivia.

The zoom-in is interesting as such:

Those hills in the near-distance, beyond the brownish tree groves that seem to be at the bottom of the dell beyond the brow of the hill are in Vancouver, Washington. That's how close another land is to me. I literally spend every living moment I can within the city boundary of Portland, but adventure for me is only a bridge-crossing away.

That traffic signal in the distance is at the onramp to I-84 eastbound. A curious creature that: That's the only eastbound exit/return between the I-205 mixup and 181st. Going westward, there's no street-level access from I-84 from 181st until the Hollywood district, an off-ramp at 42nd Avenue. That's a long way to go in a major city without a way off the freeway, folks.

The dim hills in the far distance are even more Washington than that, and the rosy color is, of course, from the destruction of Seattle by aliens. Or it could be the sunrise. Go with what promises more adventure.

This is Big 122 looking south from the Sacramento St Ped Overpass:

It's actually a little more commercial than you'd thing from this angle; the fringe of the neighborhood hides the ECR recycling yard (behind that tall tree there, you can see the low wall providing a visual barrier there going away from it), and the NE 122nd WinCo is visible behind tree (it's the cream-colored wall with the dark stripe). Some details are more visible in closeup:

You can glimpse the WinCo sign there on the right. That first signal there is NE San Rafael* St: there's a Taco Bell on that corner, and a Shari's just down the street fram that. The very next light beyond that is NE Halsey St; on the right hand side there an ARCO-AM/PM station's sign peeks out. Just behind that, and out of sight due to the angle, is Courtesy Ford, which was Marv Tonkin Ford back in the day; across from that, Russom's Nissan of Portland, which was once a Ron Tonkin dealership.

If there ever was a royal family of Big 122, I guess it would be the Tonkins.

And this is life one cold morning on the doorstep of winter in Oregon, Out 122nd Way.

* In Portland, "San Rafael" is pronounced "san-ruff-EL", not "san-raf-AY-el", as you'd expect. That's just Portland for you.

[Wy'East] Two Dawns Over Wy'East

3516.

The Mountain was in beauteous form today. Also a few days back. As circumstance would have it, I happened to be on Big 122 at the viewpoint just as the sun was coming up.

The first time, about two days back, I couldn't get to the corner soon enough to catch the sunrise without intervening human artifice. Such is life. I get the shot, and I don't know about anyone else, I see the composite beauty within. The marks of civilization in front of me just make it that much more interesting.

This involved parking Olivia on Shaver Street just west of 122nd in the first legal parking area (the first sign back from 122, and just across the street from the driveway to Parkrose High School) and walking over.

The parking on 122nd from Shaver all the way up the hill to Fremont has been eliminated in favor of a bike lane. It's a pretty nice looking bike lane. And ain't no thing as I need the movement.

Back there today, it was rather dark. I got out of work a little early because things that happen. Most of the wait for dawn was very poetically dusk:

Up there n the upper right, there's a single star struggling against the encroaching dawn. I admired its audacity.

This, though, was the big show:

The shadow being thrown by Wy'east in the direction of Larch Mountain was just a bonus. I didn't count on that. One can see the steady southward track of the Sun, made manifest by the difference in the positions of the bright spots. There's a clear difference between this and the first.

And the entrance.

Pretty nice reveal.

The last few entries has been nothing but Wy'east, and if you're anything like me (and you might be), its during times of great dexterity that one narrows ones focus on what nourishes one. Wy'east is a heartening thing for me, so I seek it out more right now than normally.

I anticipate the waters calming soon, though, there's one major thing I need to get through. And I will. It's not a sinking boat, more like choppy waters, but one must keep one's hand on the tiller. So, bear with.

And so it goes.

[Wy'East] The Mountain In the Bright Sunshine

3515.

Not much to say today, so I'll leave this here:

Bright sunshine, peak gleaming with the first snows of autumn. We haven't heard about any ski-resort openings, but surely, they can't be that far off.

[Out122ndWay] Fall In The Rossi Farms Flower Bed

3513.

In the big field east of NE 122nd, across from the Rossi Farms barn, they grow veggies usually. I've seen corn, cabbages, kale, things of that nature.

The patch of ground going east from Big 122 on Skidmore, south side of the street, just before you get to Parkrose High, is given over to flowers.

The following pictures are big'uns.

Still a small spot of country in the city. Can anyone from these parts anymore imagine what it must have looked like when all of Portland east of Mount Tabor, all the way to Gresham, was like this? Swathed in farms?

It does give one excuse to go wild with saturating them colors, though. That ain't no bad thing.

[pdx] The Jade District: JAMS at 82nd and Division

3499.

Referred to in the last missive, the JAMS building at 82nd and Division, in the Jade, is a event venue and community center that caters to the community groups and people that constitute the population of the Jade District, which is quite diverse and features a great number of people of eastern Asian heritage. Judging by the signs on the businesses in that area, it's principally Vietnamese, Chines, Thai, Laotian, and Pacific Islander.

The 82nd Avenue front to the JAMS center.

The side of the building that fronts to SE 82nd Avenue still features the old neon and exterior from when it was Banner Furniture, and part of the old painted-on logo of the furniture spot can be seen there on the left, which is the south wall.

As Michael Long said, this was once a Piggly-Wiggly. The artchtecture of the building looks like one of those old-school grocery stores, sure enough.

Another feature of this sideof the building is the big windows. Behind the windows on this side, the old furniture showroom has been made into an event hall. Not only do they have the posters with artistic maps of the growth of Portland in the upper tier, there's whimsical collage posters with current businesses of the area combined with vintage photos.

The building extends to the west, with a wing that stretches nearly to SE 80th Avenue, containing community rooms and office space.

The address of the building, 8114, can be seen on the roofline there just before the building angles and the words "Discount FURNITURE". The neon, as shown on APANO's page for JAMS (see link above) still functions.

The building, as the use-statement illustrates, is a station-point. APANO leases it at the present time, and it's not seen as the final answer to the needs of having a permanent community center in the 82nd Avenue/Jade District area. It's a waypoint.

[Wy'East] The Second Mount-Hood-From-Rossi-Farms Picture This Week. And A Sunrise

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Today I was bound for home a little earlier than usual due to forces beyond my comprehension. The conditions weren't good for a stunning picture of Mount Hood but there she was ... visible. It's been a long time since there were two opportunities in a week, what with the atmosphere being what it's been, so that alone was worth pulling over.

This is NE Shaver Street just east of NE 122nd Avenue, and that's the sunrise, and the red color is undoubtedly because in the direction just out-of-frame on the left is the general location of the Eagle Ridge Fire, and there's still a great deal of smoke in the air that way even if it isn't evident from Portland's newly-clearer sky.

The mountain itself is just visible over the sheds and barns in the middle of the right half of the picture.

... and there it is, mighty Wy'east, in a robe of muted red and indigo. I love clear shots, but there's something to find in every picture, and the mood this casts is why I took it. Deep and resonant.

I did have a little fun in GIMP with this I did a sloppy lasso-select and the way the un-altered areas along the treeline stick out reminds me of a collage, taking two different exposures and pasting them together. The effect is a little chaotic and rather antic.

Just as I was taking these pictures, the sun was rising out of the turbulent, distant weather created by the Eagle Creek fire. The quality of the light was almost that of late afternoon or early evening than it was sunrise.

And, it's a reminder that the fire, even though it's not threatening us here in Portland and isn't polluting our air as much as it had been (it still is) and the Level-1 evac alert has been lifted for Troutdale, it's still a thing to be contended with, I-84 is still closed through the Gorge, and areas of Hood River County are now under Level-1 and Level-2 evacuation alerts ... some of which were closer to built areas of the City of Hood River than the Troutdale evacuation zone was to me here in the Hazelwood-Powellhurst area.

On a lighter note, the Canon S-100's 'Vivid Color' setting always is good for some great eye-candy. As please observe:

[WyEast] The First View Of Mount Hood We've Had For Quite A While

3496.

It's nice to have an old friend back, even if she's hard to see because of the morning air. But here she is.

The mist in the far distance may or may not be influenced by the Eagle Creek fire - which we must remind, is still burning as of this time - or the cooler morning. Possibly both.

The bright sun diffusing into all that mist made the peak visible but not stand-out-visible. Running this above though the auto-equalize filter in the GIMP made it stand out but made the  buildings and landscape in the foreground as though it were a photographic negative, somewhat surreal. No matter. The profile of my favorite mountain is as beautiful as ever.

Welcome back to 122nd, Wy'east.

[liff] We The People Of 122nd Avenue

3491.

Caught this as we were leaving the Midland Branch of the mighty Multnomah County Library yesterday:

I have, in the past, done calligraphy. This person's black-letter, done rough, in white sidewalk-chalk on a gridded surface for cryin' out loud, is so damned on-fleek, I can't even.

Feet away, though, this:

This is why I love outer-east Portland. It still, even in these times of civic dexterity, feels real. People come in all shapes and colors and despite Oregon's bizarre and regrettable history of racist laws (remember, the original state told all black people to GTFO) we have some really great communities here made up of more than your basic rando white people. That is the beauty of living Out 122nd Way. YOU see those people here. Of course, you see those people here because the rest of the city has pushed them out over a period of years ... it's complicated.

Therefore, I present to you my dyptich. Life Out 122nd Way. This is us. We The Eastside People. 

[EagleCreekFire] 122nd And Stark: During The Smoke And After The Smoke

3490.

To give some sort of personal perspective, here again is the view from 122nd and Stark, looking south on 122nd. On the left, 122nd three days ago. On the right, 122nd this morning.

The most prominent difference - the ridge on the horizon, the shoulder of a local hill called Mount Scott, is much more clearly visible. The greens of the trees are more noticeable, more obvious. The air, clearer. the day, more vibrant (and busier ... but I was there about three hours later on the 2nd day.

We understand that the Eagle Creek Fire, while a long way from being contained, is being actively battled and some progress is being made. We are grateful to whatever human powers have been brought to bear. 

[liff] Don't Panic, Oregonian. They Call It "The Sky".

3489.

Those of you up and out this fine day in the Portland Metropolitan Area may notice a decided change in the environment. The air seems ... brighter, cheerier, more beneficent. There's a luminosity that may seem unfamiliar to you. You may even find yourself expanding and contracting your chest more fully than you did.

DON'T PANIC. What you are seeing isn't some supernatural apparition brought on by the immanentization of the eschaton. It's something we used to have around here in abundance, something they used to call ... sky.

Strange word, sky, isn't it. When you say the word, it's over so quickly that you almost aren't sure you said it at all, but yet, it says so much. Sky. Roll it around the mouthal cavity. It's crisply edged yet rounded and soft at the same time. Sky. But what is this sky, exactly? Well, sit tight, Oregonian, prepare to get your mind blown, in the good way (by the way, that soft blowy stuff is called wind. We'll save that for lesson number two.

Now ... are you sitting down? Good. This may overwhelm you, but look:

No, no, don't panic! Don't cry! Get a grip, friend. Here, put your head under my arm ... okay, better now? Calm down. This is the way things were before. That is called sky. You see, sky is made of white things floating through that delightful color.

Oh ... color. Sorry, I get ahead of myself. Now those white things that look like lint? Those are something called clouds, and they're delightful cool collections of mist made out of water. And that thing the clouds are up in something called blue, and that's a color. 

I know. it's a lot to take in all at once, but you used to do it all the time. Freaks me out too that the air isn't a consistent murky mustard-yellow color (mustard-yellow is another color, and one we don't like so much any more) but remember, this is the way things were all the time not so long ago.

Blue. As a word, it has a lilt to it almost like sky. We like it a lot, now that we're seeing it again.

Now, you're ready for more. Look at this:

Okay, Oregonian, I hear you hyperventilating. Now you're doing it out of mild panic, instead of before, when you were doing it because you couldn't get enough oxygen to breathe. It's okay. You're doing better. I believe in you, okay? Now, there is more cloud and more blue. In the distance you'll see a high mound. We call that a hill. Before, when you were walking and you began huffing and puffing and the ground slanted up but you couldn't quite see why? That was hill before you could see them from a distance. This is what they look like.

The tall green fuzzy things are called trees. Trees kind of help sky by keeping it fresh, when things are like this. Trees like you, they just have a hard time showing it. Be nice to them. They're nice to sit under, now that you can see them.

Once again, tree against sky. This is what majesty looks like, now that you can see it.

Now that you can see them, and you can see they mean you no harm, aren't they nice? You feel the familiarity come back now; I can see you finding your Oregon foot again. It's good to see. Go out. breath the air, enjoy the blue, love the sky, make friends with the trees again.

You're gonna be okay, now things are heading back to the way they were in The Before. 

[EagleCreekFire] Smoke From A Not-Too-Distant Fire at 122nd and Stark

3487.

This was the scene on SE 122nd Avenue looking south from Stark at approximately 7:30 AM today:

Attenuated colors, gloomy; trees hazing out on the near distance. And, in the far distance, the flank of a local butte called Mount Scott, usually seen in the gap between the trees at the top of that rise, is only visible if you know how to look for it (it's slightly darker than the gray haze of the sky).

This is the way it is right now, morning, afternoon, and evening. The night is actually something of a mercy, as it's all hidden from view.