dress shop/double decker bus

Hello again,

I should be putting my new work into frames but then I keep looking at my vacation pictures.

Did you know that a lovely woman has opened a dress shop in a double decker bus in Portland on North Williams almost across the street from beloved Lark Press?

Inside I not only found the perfect dress for my trip to Mexico City ($13) but I also met a handsome stranger named Joseph, from San Francisco, who let me take his picture and thus demonstrate the close quarters inside the bus, if you are tall.

   He bought a weather radio.

    Upstairs, shoes overlooking the Hub Building on North Williams.

Here's the view from the top of the stairs. The dressing room part is behind a curtain in the back. Due to the good lighting, it's a really great place to try on clothes. 

Here's the view coming down the windy stairs.

And here's dear Erin, the proprietress. 

home again or something like this

Happy New Year!

I hope it's everything you wish for as long as nobody gets hurt.

I should tell you that I've returned to Seattle after nearly three weeks away in three cities, or more honestly, two cities and a town.

I will be returning to Portland next weekend for the real opening of Sarah Landwehr's and my show at Ristretto Roasters of state-based work. The opening is Saturday, January 8th at 7pm on North Williams and promises to be a nice time. I hope to see you there.

I visited Mexico City last week with two dear old friends. I haven't been for three years and all the recent changes were like a gift. The photo above is from Paseo de la Reforma. It is closed to cars every Sunday! Had you suggested such a thing three years ago, I wouldn't have believed you. As much as I love to ride bikes in cities, Mexico City traffic has always terrified me, and yet this time, I couldn't resist going on a ride. There are new bike lanes. Already the hip Condesa neighborhood can boast having more bike racks than there are in downtown Seattle. Admittedly, Seattle desperately needs more bike parking downtown.

I won't deny that riding around in regular traffic was a little scary (okay more than a little scary, cars don't stop for people) but it gave me so much hope. Mexico City has a fantastic climate where it is about 70 degrees every day and it's flat. With twenty million inhabitants, a good bike infrastructure could turn one of the world's biggest and most polluted cities into a healthy place to live, a paradise even, if only the economic disparities weren't so great but that is another issue.

This is an ecobici kiosk in La Condesa. For 300 pesos or about $25 a year, citizens can borrow ecobicis from different kiosks across the city and then drop them off later at a different kiosk, just like in many european cities. Awesome. I wish Seattle, San Francisco or Portland had ecobici, it would be a gateway drug for so many aspiring bike commuters. 

This is another picture from Sunday morning, on another street closed to automobile traffic. Look what happened! 

Tourists and just about anyone with identification can borrow beat up mountain bikes from different kiosks downtown. As weird as it felt to hand over my passport, as collateral, to a teenager working outside, I did it and got to ride around for three hours. 

Both Mateos on one bike from the Prestamo Gratuito de Bicicletas kiosk

I really need to show you these beautiful butcher blocks from one of the many markets where we ate. 

Such a sturdy design. I was ecstatic to see some of these at my new favorite bar, La Bipo, in Coyoacán.

I loved this place. Refranes are hand painted on the walls.

"In a long distance relationship, all four are happy"

"Everything good in this life kills, makes you fat or pregnant"

The menu is like an old Lucha Libre poster. This is a terrible picture but you to get the idea.

Oh and ladies, there are two unisex bathrooms and one bathroom for us, damas. Perhaps this is how bathrooms are in a fantasy country I've never visited. It's such a simple and ingenious design solution, how come it's not like this everywhere?

Sorry for the poor quality of my picture skills. With any luck I'll finally have the four-week camera course starting this Friday.  School starts on Tuesday and now that I've had some sun and some time away, I feel so much better. 

If you're lucky,  I'll soon post the pictures of Matthew Iba's birthday wish that the three of us be electrocuted together, holding hands, in one of the cantinas off the plaza Garibaldi. Don't worry, it's not a scary as it sounds. 

going places and making things

hi,

I should go to sleep but I thought I'd say hello first. Tonight I met with my new friend, Bill Brown, the illustrator. If you want to see what I mean, go to the http://billbrown500.com/  His work is fantastic.
In the process of making a photo essay about him for one of my classes, he showed me some  collages he's made out of the cut up pieces of his black and white pen drawings. The collages are amazing, tonight I talked to him about printing some of them on the letterpress in limited editions. I'm excited and I can't wait to show you the results, in january, when I get back from going places and getting away.

This is one I really like http://billbrown500.com/wedding_cake.html

In other news, I was getting really anxious about the holidays. Then this afternoon I bought a plane ticket. Finally I can focus on the important stuff like a reunion with flor de calabaza quesadillas and cokes in glass bottles sold on the street in the entryway of the hotel buenos aires in a certain city.

bitters

how + why

    

free

another world + upcoming events

Hello November,

I can now officially write that I live in Seattle. I sold my house and moved away.

This is an assignment. After allowing this page to sit unattended for a spell, I have returned. I will be writing you more often.

In the kitchen of my dear friend, Sarah, the words "There is another world and it is in this one," are tacked on the wall. It's true. There seem to be at least as many worlds as there are people and by leaving my world of Portland, Oregon, I've stumbled into another life. Yes, I am still me. I still have dinner parties, drink fantasy lattes at the Stumptowns (and now the Victrolas) and talk to strangers, but my life has a new geography and different faces. It's a tiny bit colder here but the coffee is still good and who doesn't enjoy a bit of anonymity from time to time. Yes, it's funny to leave a place after fifteen years of getting to know what sometimes felt like everyone, but it's also nice to make friends with a new city.

Lark Press and Print Club are further away but I can still visit. And I will be visiting. In December, Print Club, also know as Jean Sammis, Sarah Landwehr and I, are having a show of new prints at Ristretto Roasters on North Williams. The opening will be Saturday, December 5th. If you live anywhere near Portland, write down the date. The snacks alone will be fantastic. The theme is states. I'll tell you more as the date nears.

I am here in Seattle to study design and illustration. Every day I get up early and walk to school. My new life has a singular focus, all conveniently located within walking distance. There are eighteen of us in one studio, together all week long. Quickly, we are becoming a mismatched family, helping each other out and getting along better than I ever imagined.