Go on ahead Mr. Citywide hypnotized

The weather was so nice today. I went for a walk up Hawthorne with the intent to take photos of the Nerd, Amoeba and Flying Pill graffiti I saw on various drives to work. Overall I didn't find that much other art on upper Hawthorne but I will share the few pieces I did find.

A Buddha on the pole of the 7-11 sign.

I don't know.

Cool faded letter sticker. I.C..

Skull stencil on the sidewalk.

Cute little bear sticker reminds me of a Radiohead song for some reason.

"So knives out. Cook him up. Squash his head. Put him in the pot."

The amoeba making a big overhead statement on a wall above the tattoo studio.

Stop Smoking!

Not really a winged pill but definitely the same artist.

Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A statement on war stenciled onto the new record store on Hawthorne.

And what would an art walk be without a Nerd or two.
Here is the one I found on a drive to work. It is on the back of a sign on the hill on Belmont in front of Glenco elementary school.
'04

...and an '06 on a signpost in front of the 7-11. The first one in pink I think.

Additionally here is the other pic I liked from today's walk.

Two weeks into school and at least 6 balls on the roof. There are more just out of site to the right of this view. I recall my grade school being too far away from the playground to get a ball up on it without putting a leg into it. Why don't they design schools with slanted roofs so this kind of thing doesn't happen?

I got the creeps all over my body Like I wanna dance, dance, dance

There was a party at the house this weekend to help Amanda Richards sell tickets for her show at the Aladdin Theater Saturday, October 21, 2006.

The Beautiful Ghostly Amanda Richards.

Vertical stripes were all the rage.

The recipient of the evening's acclaim shares a reminiscence at the keg to cap the evening.

Awesome Penmanship

JT...you should check this shit out.

*Click Picture for Youtube Goodies*

If you ever needed proof that standing in front of a stampeding horse is bad news, this is it.

Accidents will happen.

I was goofing around with the macro setting on the camera (which I only recently realized was there) and took this shot by mistake. It is an image of the top of a glass of red wine from about three inches away. The glowing finger trick is merely my finger over the flash. Pretty cool huh?

This is the same type thing only this time it was premeditated. I was explaining the wine shot and took a picture of my Pabst at the bar as an example. Obviously the Pabst is not opaque enough to reflect the right amount of color back but it still had a neat effect. You can see clear to the wood grained bar top.

I've Got Ten Friends And A Crow Bar That Says You Ain't Gonna Do Jack

Well, post number four for the day and it seems, for obvious reasons, I will have to start it out with a little bathroom tagging. I have posted pictures from this bathroom before if you think you recognize that awful drab olive paint.

Shutter half closed bird on a door. This appears to be the front of the two bathrooms.

A Hood Rat on the storage closet door in the back of the two bathrooms.

Hey! Our penis friend rears its head so to speak.

Beaver? The nose is the hole that repeatedly gets punched into the wall above the toilet. I have never understood why one punches holes in public bathroom walls.

The last three shots were me farting around with the camera while my attention was waning at the end of the night. I was messing around with longer exposures and different apertures. I know how that stuff works but with a digital camera it is so much cheaper to experiment. Mixed results and here are the three I liked.

4 second exposure. 4.5 f-stop. I love this shot but wish the dude's ass wasn't the main focus. The lights from the pool table are just a little too bright also.

Same f-stop with a longer exposure facing the opposite direction. You can see the railing from which I set the camera down on because I shake far too much to do this kind of thing otherwise. Shot was taken from the same place the dude with the ass was standing.

Same position at the bar but facing the door. 8 second exposure 2.6 f-stop. Surprisingly motionless people all around. I took shots after moving the candle and glasses but by that time people saw me shooting pictures and started to react to it by staring or just moving out of the way in general. Not very spontaneous.

The clues are there, you simply have to be patient in finding them.

A Lonely tree in a hidden courtyard behind some condos on the Max line in the Rose Quarter. Intriguing. I want to live in that building just so I can have clandestine parties under that tree.

There are three plaques on the front of this same condo building. All three represent the mountains around the Metro area.

Parking lot payment box. Simple and cool, I think.

Detail of relief sculpture adorning the front of a parking garage in the Rose Quarter.

I did not catch what this building was but I like the way the stairs go off in different directions at different levels. There is another set of stairs to the top of the left set that also goes off in another direction but the way the sun was shining and the white of the building made the pictures blown out. The birch tree in the ivy on the bank had a ton of detail to it and I will surely use it in the future for a heading to Things of the Spirit Blog.

Heavy copper grounding wire on a phone/power pole somewhere in the Rose Quarter. There were four 4" diameter pipes running up the pole and they were all connected by the single copper ground. Thought it looked interesting.

Inspired by Graham's shots of building reflections.

This is not in the Rose Quarter but since it is a detail shot I thought I might tack it on to this post. A fading warning on the back of a Wonder Bread truck through the barbed-wire fence. Check out how beefy those VW tires are.

You drive past the Hostess warehouse on Williams so fast. I never realized how vintage that sign looks.

No Nerds on this sign but the shadow knows...

I told you I had too much fun on Saturday. I took nearly 200 pictures and really am having a hard being discretionary. I want to share them all but will pick a few. At least I am done with the art(?) for now.

Just simple shots from around the Rose Quarter an area I have never really checked out and will return again. I had 45 minutes on the meter and got back before time ran out so you can imagine what I missed.

The last three were form John's Hood.

One man's treasure is another man's trash.

This is the post with almost all the rest of the gems from Saturday.

This little sticker is on the phone booth by the LB Market right up the street from my house. "and Jesus barfed", brilliant.

There are pop music references on the stop signs all around north Portland. I showed this to a friend and he reminded me of the "collaborate and Listen" sign off of Skidmore. I like the light-hearted sense of humor.

This is the appealing element of a Bate tag over in the Rose Quarter. I think this is on the east side of the Land Rover dealership.

THOU ART WHOLE. A sticker on a power box at an intersection on the Max mall in the Rose Quarter.

Cute sparkle unicorn on the paper box in front of the Crow Bar. The last shot of the day.

Kinda cool sticker, not so cool photography. (*My opinion)

Rich's Delicates. I love this building and want to have it for my own. It almost appears that this bus was painted the length of the building and they only covered it up 'til this point. I like the way it incorporated the window. Cute.

This is my favorite from the whole day. Huh, trash.

This is on the walk across from the Rose Garden. It said Think in chalk after it but I thought it resonated well enough alone.

I know I have said over and over again that the art scene in Portland is clickey, but this is the thing that makes me enjoy art. I don't have to go to a coffee house, art studio/space or campus to see art with a bunch of people I wouldn't talk to.

Injection molded expanding spray foam insulation bird house. Very innovative.

Heh! Very cute sticker.

I love this one. Wood block (styled?) printed sticker.

This is on the same electric box as the two men on the sticker above. I really wonder how they looked before they were scraped. They definitely look cool after.