Down in the Willamette...
We found the greatest store ever.
It was full of the kind of stuff I love to photograph. Fortunately the camera batteries died before I could drive Olaiya totally nuts.
Labels: Art Projects
posted by John @ 12:29 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Johnboi that store looks like something out of the Laura Ingalls Wilder “Little House” books. It has a rustic charm whittled out of weathered time and tempered in simplicity. I'm not a nostalgic sort but it definitely has an earthy feel that connects with a part of me that longs for a slower version of this present life. All of your shots are fantastic because they’re unassuming and capture a quaint humility I can only associate with quiet country life. I apologize for this moment of softness, but perhaps I’m waxing so sentimentally because I’ve become somewhat disillusioned by city living and how fast things move. It’s easy to lose track of what life can mean in the bustle of commuter traffic and amid the deafening indifference of the average city dweller. More often than not I’m awakened to this loud reality with the clashing of trains outside of Emily’s and my Magnolia flat. What scares me the most is that I’ve become so accustomed to them that they sound like a normal part of our surroundings.
When I moved to Seattle I thought I would find a culture and sophistication that was lacking in the suburbs of Tacoma. But the more time I spend here the more I realize that life is more powerful when it’s taken at face value. That everything I thought I would become is equally as possible in the unpretentious kingdoms outside of the city limits.
“I suppose the pleasure of country life lies really in the eternally renewed evidences of the determination to live.”
~Vita Sackville-West, Country Notes~
Clay – A new age gangsta just tryin ta thug
Thank you both. Clay, that's exactly how I felt the whole time I was there. Olaiya and I spent this afternoon sipping a post-tennis game drink and talking about how to get people to move down to Portland. We could start a community farm and renovate a ranch house to accomodate a restaurant (which would use the farm produce.) Any takers?
My bags are already packed bro, metaphorically speaking. This isn’t an idea I plan to bandy about for the sake of mirth and good conversation. The city to me is a massive engine run on the souls of its citizens and it’s not a question “if” I’m going to get the fuck out but when. I’m bored to death of the same old same, the dull eyed resignation of this culture of haste, waiting impatiently for red lights to turn green. The illusion of enlightenment stretched thin over the carcass of glutted materialism. Fuck that.
Maybe one day people will see it’s not about the concrete, mortar, and steel but it’s about being able to honestly connect with people that will hold society together. I don’t feel like I can do that over noise progress.
I actually want to get the fuck out, do you?
“Cities force growth, and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~
Clay – The hesitation before the final countdown to Armageddon
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