We sit around the railroad tracks and has the mostest fun

The next few posts (the only way I thought I could pull this off) are going to be from this train siding north of Powell. The best way to get there if you are curious would be to approach it from SE 13th place. I have notated the on the overhead as number 1. There is a place to park and a hole in the fence there. I am sure there are people living in this area due to the amount of lean-tos and sleeping bags on the side of the tracks. Be careful.

This is the rear wall of the building on Gideon marked 2 on the overhead above.

This is the side wall of a half quonset building on 15th street marked 3 on the overhead.

As I stated I will try to show you details of the buildings divided into categories. Stencils, Dudes and Words. I was pretty overwhelmed by this little graphic slice of heaven and I intend to go back and make a panoramic collage of both walls. I figure if I stand on the rail I should be able to stay the same distance from the wall to make a pretty good panorama of it all. Here's hoping for another sunny day soon.

Anyway I hope you like the show.

Oh yeah, Nascar Dad, this one is for you.

See what City projects are underway or planned for the future that could affect you.

Johnny and I also went to Lake Oswego. I wish there were some interesting photos to post from there but we drove in and out so fast the only pictures that I took I really needn't have gotten out of the car for. I will spare you the car side attraction though and post the only thing I found interesting about Lake 'No Negro'.

Not exactly sure what it is but I got out of the car so I think it's cool.

I guess this is what you would call the business end.

Same end just trying to get rid of the flash shadows.

Another view of the business end. I promised myself I would come back another day to take a picture when the sun was lower in the eastern sky so I would not have to use flash. You know what though, I don't think I want to go back to Lake Oswego. This was the only real cool thing about the place.

It's true I've dabbled at times with confident lines

My introduction to Oregon City. This was the first time I was to this place. I didn't even know it existed. You should all check it out if you haven't been there. Pretty neat.

7th Street and Railroad Avenue
Oregon City Municipal Elevator

The Oregon City Municipal elevator is the only municipal elevator in the United States and one of four municipal elevators in the world. It is also the only vertical street in North America.

It lifts people 100 feet up to the mid-level part of Oregon City. Basalt terraces divide the city into three levels. Before the first elevator was built here the preferred route up the basalt terrace was 722 steps from the base of the cliff to the top of the bluff.

This 751-ton plus concrete and steel elevator shaft is electric and replaced the original wooden water powered elevator in 1955.

Tunnel entrance.

Tunnel entrance.

To ride the 130 foot 15 second elevator, passengers must go through a 35-foot tunnel under the railroad tracks.

On the Bluff
Interior of Oregon City Municipal Elevator

Bronze plaque with Municipal Elevator story.

Mural with Oregon Trail 'End Of The Trail' depiction.

Another Mural depicting the original wooden water powered Municipal Elevator opened in 1915.

Looking straight down to Railroad Avenue.

A view of the Masonic Temple 709 Main Street.

A view west up 7th Street and the Oregon City Bridge. The bridge was opened in 1922 and crosses the Willamette River into West Linn Oregon.

An exterior view looking north from the park along the top of the bluff.

The dilemma of living in the past

Did you know that some email services store sent emails for quite some time? I was looking for a previous email to find an old friend's address and came across some sappy emails I sent some girl in 2000. I am amazed at the crap I wrote. I didn't think I ever felt this in love with someone but apparently I felt pretty strongly for this girl. Be forewarned, this is going to get all poetically sappy so be prepared, I was obviously insane. Shockingly embarrassing disclosure in 5, 4, 3, 2.......


Hello Squirrel Princess,

I'm glad I got to see you this morning. You always look real cute in the morning. Your hair is so nice, all sprayed about like a cloud of golden mist reflecting the early morning sun. Its angelic, like your halo. Your face always looks so fresh. I feel like kissing your lips for an eternity, sacrificing my breathing to sustain your life. I would soak up all that radiance and in turn would likely be able to walk on the clouds above. Luckily my heart has but the narrowest strings tied to yours. It allows me to float up but not away. I want to grab a star for you but fear of straining the tether keeps me from reach. Perhaps if you would allow yourself to float up with me we could steal a few and light the way for true love. I hope to see you tonight and look forward to talking to you real soon. I love you...haljon


I will now delete this because I have so publicly documented my insanity. I may even share a few more after I read through and make sure none of them are incriminating.

I See London, I See France…

On Thursday at work we had a "tanker day'. Tanker day is the day maybe twice a year when we get massive quantities of coconut and palm oil but that's not the point of this posting. You see I tore the ass out of my pants so I had to go shopping. I went to Target, bought 2 pair of jeans, three t-shirts and 4 pair of underwear. A few things struck me as funny as I shopped.

1. Why are the big and tall men's sized clothing on the bottom shelves? Right on the floor almost. We have the tough time bending to get it. I know crack a fat joke or two but seriously. Some taller men are bigger but not necessarily fat. They have to bend as well. I say let the little guys get the bottom shelves.


2. Why do underwear manufacturers insist on putting a striped print or red/powder blue/light grey pair of underwear between two black pairs in a pack of three? Okay this isn't always true but this day it was for my size at least. Medium: two blacks, one dark grey. Large: two blacks one dark navy. XXL: two dark navy one dark grey. XL: Two blacks one powder blue. In one case it was light blue, powder blue and pea green. Ugh! Haynes and Fruit of the Loom, both the same way. A single pair of black underwear from a designer brand $10. Three packs from the previous two brands $7.99 and $8.99 respectfully. It is not right!


3. Finally settled on Merona brand.


Two pack $10 dollars but both black. Here is the kicker. They came in a re-sealable package. Why? To maintain freshness? Can't you just eat them both at once or do you have to put one back in the drawer for later? Messy crumbs? Hmmm? I might understand if they were made of wool, or hydrogen even but must cotton underwear but packed in a zipper lock bag? Is this why they cost as much as three pair of any other brand?

Zipper Bag?

So before I posted this I did a little research and found this. underwear4men.com (caution: gay porn site). A forum for men about men's underwear. Weird but a funny. The really creepy thing to me is the fact they say the word undies far too many times for grown men.

Now there's no secret to toasting perfection there's a dial on the side and you make your selection

Ren & Stimpy...Yeah!

Pwdered Toast Man. That's right, you know the who does the Pope's voice.

Episode 2: Powdered Toastman Vs. Waffle Woman

The term déjà vu is French and means, literally, "already seen"

The Cure Live 18th July 1980 Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Kinda jinkie in spots but still an awesome set of clips. I had never seen this footage.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four.

Thank you Conan O'Brian.

Kiss doing "Detroit Rock City" on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special.

Bad metal band covers bad Genesis song. The bright side is Todd McFarlane animated the video.

Thou Shalt Not Pass This Up!

I am feeling like sharing. JT has been sharing the last few posts so it's only fair I do the same thing.

First things first, a link to an Avant Garde, Contemporary Classical, Ambient Soundscape and Free Improvisation agrigator called Modisti. Plenty of John Cage, Keith Rowe, La Monte Young and Takeshi Nakamura type goodness.






Next we have the opening sequence from the Anime show The Ping Pong Club. I have no idea what this show is about (nor will you after watching the clip) but it looks like it could give Scooby Doo or Sponge Bob Square Pants a run for their "Stoner" money.















Post-punk Junk has a post today for the musical soundtracks from the first two feature films made by David Cronenberg. Pretty cool. As a bonus the post also includes tracks from Bruce McCulloch's first solo album. Great score I would say.







I hope you enjoyed this enough to get you through your day.

Your favorite children's book characters come to life

Fell across this striking little vid today. Children's book illistrations come to life to tell a tale of greed. Click on picture to watch the movie.

There are many ways to destroy a work of art. The method one selects should serve the desired result.

On Tuesday, Drew Mikkelsen a reporter at KGW here in Portland left a comment at Things of the Spirit relating to the whereabouts of Nascar Dad (blog is down). I thought it was kinda funny but thought nothing more of it until last night. When I got home Nosmot had IM'ed me about a story the Oregonian had run about him. Apparently the police would like to talk to him about his efforts.

thank you MerlinsMan for the 'No Hope' Whitewash Pic.

She was wearing a different dress, but she was still unmistakably the jaw-dropping red-haired beauty

JT and I went to the Northside Saturday to do a little Nerd hunting. Along the way we bumped into a friend of mine Glitterstar Heaven, at Muddy's, and joined her for lunch. We chatted about B horror movies, Sufjan Stevens and her new painting among other things. As we approached completing our samiches it was decided we would go to Amnesia, have a drink and continue our chat.

Glitterstar

JT

Ale.

My Little Trophy.

Yes that is one sad Little Pony eye.

Now a word from our sponsor.

Decco art sticker. After shooting this sticker an older man mentioned how he loved all the graffiti and how he wanted to invite people over to do his house next.

Angry face sticker in orange.

Here is another bird sticker. These are all over the Mississippi neighborhood. Still cool.

Was it worth the hunt. YES!

I saw these two Nerds on the paper boxes on Friday night so I knew I would be able to get something for a post.

This one was the treat for the day. The bike rack in front of Mississippi Pizza is always crammed with bikes so it was cool to spot it without the bikes. There's my little friend.

High definition movie dumping

click on picture for Quicktime video.

I am so sorry to do this again but it must be movie dumping night here at Things of the Spirit. If you haven't seen the Gnarls Barkley video for their cover version of the Violent Femmes song "Gone Daddy Gone" you should. It's cute and very funny. Directed by Chris Milk.

Okay Minions, get off your tail feathers!

Twice Upon A Time

I revisited Vance Reeser's VRblog tonight after he corrected me on a post I made back in June. He has a pretty neat blog. His most recent post is a link to the 1983 animated movie Twice Upon A Time. Pretty cool flick about the heroes Ralph and Mumford and their mission to save the cosmos from Synonamess Botch and his barrage of nightmare bombs. Apart from the music it is really cool. Check it out here. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.

Thank you Vance.

I am not concerned with confusions possible as a result of the accidental composition

When I got home from work tonight I booted up the PC and selected a few tracks of modern classical music to listen to while surfing for a bit. For some reason my computer decided I needed to hear all five albums at once opening five media players and starting five tracks at the same time. To tell the truth I didn't hear anything unusual until about 1:15 seconds in. I went to check out the track that was playing and lo and behold there were five players in the background. I tell you, very cool. Here is a 1:23 sample mp3 of what I heard. The five composers were: Horatio Radulescu , George Crumb, Morton Subotnick, Tristan Murail and Karlheinz Stockhausen. I thought about adding others but stuck to the freak happening so you could get a feel for what I heard.

Thank yous to nosmot for hosting.

A coupla quartsa beer would fix it so the intonation would not offend yer ear

So John sends me an email tonight to point out a new ale Laganitas Brewing has released. I checked it out and now I am going to go and get me some. The label is the shiat just as John proclaimed. Thanks for the heads-up John. Thank you Frank.

The WHITE ZONE is for loading and unloading only. If you gotta load or unload, go to the WHITE ZONE. You'll love it...

Explosions will set off firestorms in the cities and surrounding forest areas

Another 'Pros And Cons Of Frozen Ponds' comic for your delight.

Justin told me once, "remember how farts were funny as shit when you were four, and they are still funny now? Well it's like that". He was right.

When the temperatures drop and the snow falls

Found a fun tool that is in the beta stage here and created my first 'The Pros And Cons Of Frozen Ponds' comic strip.

The Pros And Cons Of Frozen Ponds' was originally a name I had created to use for a magazine of art, film, literature and music when I ran the Cellar. The kids that worked for me all either wrote, made music, took pictures or other creative things and we always talked about how fun that would be.

Well, I am using it for a comic strip now. I hope you enjoy it. (I know it's gross.)