I'm the only bee in your bonnet

While I'm embedding youtube vids, here's some They Might Be Giants videos that always put a stupid grin on my face. 15 years ago, we waited patiently late at night, watching MTV, just hoping they'd play one of these, without the knowledge that in the future we could simply "google" them and watch them at our leisure, and we were the fucking geeks! Just think what the rest of the world was thinking about...


Song lyrics that have become sort of a philosophy for me.
"No one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful.
Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful."



And this gem, the John's on MTV's 120 Minutes circa 1988 with an awesome performance of my favorite song ever written in 6/8.



Thanks for geeking out with me.

:(

Here's a little song called :( - -->->-@ (also known as 'cute') from a band called :( (also known as "colonopenbracket") that I've been hooked on ever since my friend Ricky (who's now a former Hoosier since moving to Seattle) posted a link to it on that myspace thing. They're from Aberdeen Scotland (the country, not the little Indiana town).
In my opinion, the coolest 8-bit "emoti-core" around right now. You can hear some more at their (sigh) myspace page.
There's some other cool stuff at their label's page, especially that cute little robot logo...
(Wow, that's the most parentheses per post in sellwoodstreet's history.)

Drunk Squirrel

Take your camera to work day

This is my last week as an auto commuter. G has a 4 pm class at Sylvania starting next week, and my work is much more accessible by other means than his class. My work really isn't that far, I could walk there in 45 minutes, I've just been lazy all winter.
I'm in the market for a $100 bike that looks cool and is dependable enough to get my ass to work in the Hollywood district every day.

Plenty of work...

Luckily I get to escape the shop and truck t-shirts around the city in the afternoon. Fresh air and diesel fumes.

Koin Tower, from beneath the Hawthorne bridge approach

My trusty steed. 14,000 lb of Japanese fury.

SE 2nd Ave

Railroad crossing sign that looks to be from the 30's. Curiously, said tracks haven't been used in years and are being removed as the street is dug up for the "BIG PIPE" project. I wander if they'll take this sign down?

Stuck in traffic on the way home. What else to do but stick my arm out the window and snap pictures as I creep onto I-5 at a walking pace.

I took this one for WetDog, also while stuck in traffic, about 5 feet farther up the ramp than that last picture.

This Weekend's Adventures

Sunday morning we went out to my favorite garden in the area. Sure, there's the Japanese Garden, the International Rose Test Garden, and the Classical Chinese Garden, but the Elk Rock Gardens of the Bishop's Close not only has the coolest name, but is the most peaceful, beautiful garden in all of PDX land. Its hidden just well enough that there's never the mob scene you'll find at the other above mentioned public gardens.
I don't even remember how I discovered this place, I think it might have been mentioned in Chuck Palahniuk's "Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon."
Six acres perched on a bluff above the Willamette, with a neat old house, lots of magnolias, rhododendrons, and various other flowering smelly good bushes. I think we visited a week late because it seemed to be just past its peak, but here's a few highlights...

Blogroll dilema

Do I list two sites from the same person? Do I point at one which might lead you to the other if you go to his site? Maybe I'll just put them both up since my "people I know" section is pretty slim.

Who are you in Scotland Indiana anyway? I saw that you found me via Ding's new blog. Drop me a comment sometime, I'm sure I know you, shit there's only 143 people on top of that hill.
Anyway, check out the new blog from one of my old friends, and check out some new pics he has at his photo blog while you're at it.

Spring sunset from the upstairs hall

Another post regarding John Inman

Some more rattling on about John Inman. This article from the Times Online makes a good point. Not long from now the "confirmed bachelor," the "he never marrieds," and even the Liberace that your Grandmother simply adored will be forgotten. The joke won't even be understood in another twenty years. With Inman's passing, we're one step closer to that time. I can't decide if that's for the better or not.

"I'm Free - And it's all Because of Men like John Inman" - Times Online

Peninsular Adventure

Half-masted Bass-boosted Sling-backed Fully-retractable

Coolest lamp ever.
G snagged this (on the up and up, I might add) from a storage closet at the hospital. Its a classic Hill-Rom lamp with night-light and fully adjustable bulb reflector. Perfect for reading, perfect for mood lighting, an all around great lamp. Its painted a color I can't really see with my color blindness issues. G says its a pinkish flesh tone color. It looks grey to me.



It needed a tweak here and there, a little tightening of screws and replacement bulbs, but the original 50's wiring has been replaced. I have a feeling its gonna light up my nights for years to come...

Hill-Rom is a curious company. I always knew about Batesville Casket Company, having friends from that area of Indiana, (if I remember correctly, the fake ID that fueled our underage passion for alcomohol had a Batesville, IN address) I didn't realize the same corporate empire owned both companies. They got ya from convalescence into the grave. What a business model. So warped, but it makes so much sense. Definitely something Hoosiers would come up with.

















But look at those fucking toggle switches! Look at them! "Flick me," they say, in that little voice in my head. "We're so well designed. Our click is so satisfying. They don't make switches like us anymore..."

Lower Greeley Adventure

The stairway I always notice as I'm driving out to Adidas for one thing or another. That's what brought me down here. Seems it leads to a manhole. Disappointing. Nothing to see...


Except for this view of NW and the UP Yards...


Message - A+, Spelling - Sigh...


This one's for Oregarus, keep chasing that dream.

Climbing up the hill brought the smell of spring in Overlook Park

A bleak hour of daylight

More on the flickr set.

Am I all grown up?

I've noticed my musical taste shifting a bit lately. Not changing a lot, but I'm discovering that I actually kinda like Fleetwood Mac, and Jackson Browne, and Billy Joel, what's up with that?
I've been listening exclusively to KINK at work lately. We all seem to agree on the AAA format. When KGON did their a to z of classic rock stunt we listened to that for a couple weeks just for the novelty.
Now KINK is celebrating 30 years on the air by playing three songs an hour chronologically from each month they've been on the air. Interesting enough to get me to listen, and the rest of the music they play is mellow, modern and classic rock, and I love it. Maybe because its been so hectic at work lately, and maybe I'm becoming a corporate radio zombie, but I've even signed up as a member of the KINK Community. Is this some sort of lite rock virus, or is just a normal part of growing up?

Pickle Surprise!

Yeah, I know, another post I lifted straight from boingboing. I even stole the image above. Maybe you saw it but were at work or something and couldn't enjoy these videos at the time and then forgot about it. I'm here to remind you to watch this!
I had to watch it again when I got home from work tonight, I'd been thinking about it and giggling inside all day. Everyone needs to see Tom Rubnitz's Pickle Surprise! and Strawberry Short Cut while you're at it. Yep, that's RuPaul, and LadyBunny of Wigstock fame. Its a veritable drag link-o-rama!

"I'm Free!"

As I was reading my daily news stops this morning, Towleroad's front page had the same picture of Mr. Humphries I used here a few days ago. It seems John Inman passed away this morning.
I've always thought of him as one of the first positive gay characters on television, pre-dating Ellen and Will & Grace by 25 years. Some folks have issues with his over the top camp, but to me it always seemed he was in on the joke, having a blast as Mr. Humphries.

What Now, Bitches?

Are you free?

"Are You Being Served?" has always been a favorite of mine. I feel like a total geek admitting that in Jr. High I'd stay up late to watch "Are You Being Served" and Fawlty Towers on WTIU.
I put it in my Netflix cue long ago, and it finally surfaced, with the first season arriving today.
So much double entendre, so many pussy jokes! I love everything about it. Its so fucking dirty and crude, and it shaped my adolescence perhaps more than it should have.
Taking an inside leg on a Scottsman in a kilt. Hilarious! Childish! Brilliant! Maybe the only other television show to influence me more was "The Kids in the Hall," or "The Simpsons."


The second episode of "Are You Being Served" has my favorite limerick ever. I'm sure it didn't originate from this 1970's britcom, but this is where I learned it from as a wee lad...


On the chest of a barmaid in Sale
Were tattooed the prices of ale.
And on her behind,
For the sake of the blind,
Was the same information in Braille.

"You've all done very well!"

I think I'll move "The Kids in the Hall" to the top of my queue...

You wanna see snakey?

Sunny Sellwood sidewalk summons snake



Faux Diner under the Broadway Bridge, part of the set for the film Untraceable