Patti Smith West: A Little Gem on 42nd

I discovered a little shop on NE 42nd in Portland last Friday when Howard and I were just driving around my old childhood neighborhood. I had passed this shop once before and made a mental note that I needed to stop one day. My memory was jogged as we were driving by and I yelled to Howard: Pull over. I'm so glad we did.

The owner, Patti Smith, has had the shop for about a year and a half. She is a little red-headed spitfire. We were yakking so much, I had trouble concentrating on taking photographs much less shopping. But I managed to do both, skilled multitasker that I am. Here's a quick little whirlwind tour of her shop (vintage clothing is in the back - I didn't even get a shot back there!). You can find Patti's Facebook page by going to www.facebook.com/pattismithwest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out and About in Portland

I've been staying on board our boat, Rapture, at the Portland Waterfront since June 10th, waiting waiting waiting for the Waterfront Blues Festival to begin. It begins tomorrow, so I thought it appropriate to post some of the photos I've snapped during the past three weeks on my meanderings around downtown Portland.

Magical Downtown Portland

On Saturday, we spent the day in downtown Portland enjoying a play day without much of a to do list. A highlight was meeting up with long time friends Dave and Vicki (and by long time, I mean close to 40 years long!). We started our meandering day at the Portland Art Museum.





Howard bought an art book at the museum store and demonstrated how to properly break open a new book (his mother was a high school librarian).


A highlight of the day was imbibing in drinking chocolate at Cacao. We were trying to decide which of three choices to order, when we saw they offered a flight of three -- one of each flavor: Rivoli, cinnamon, and spicy. We all agreed that we liked the deep, dark, pure chocolate of Rivoli. So much so, that Howard got one to go.



While Howard looked a little jacked up on the chocolate, Dave looked a bit chocolate drunk.


A trip to downtown Portland would not be complete without a stop at Pioneer Courthouse Square, Portland's living room.



We also got to see some of the renegade Santas heading to SantaCon, carolers at Pioneer Place mall, live music at an immigration demonstration, and endured the longest line ever at a downtown Starbucks!

Day of the Dead: Portland Style

Last night was the opening of the Day of the Dead show at Guardino Gallery, all part of the Last Thursday Art Walk on Alberta. Lots of my artist friends contributed to the show and Stephanie Brockway was the curator extraordinaire!

The altars . . .



The curator . . .



The musicians. . . .


Some of the people . . .










Some of the art . . .












Overall, it was a campy, high energy opening reception. I'll leave you with a parting shot of a guy dressed up as a female ghoul looking longingly into the gallery.