Man Made Lake

Adult Contemporary Seattle

'Spent the weekend in Seattle visiting Emily and WeWah. Bike rides through boutique villages. Picnics on Lake Washington. Rug shopping in the suburbs. The adult contemporary Emerald City.

In the next few months I see myself transitioning from a hip frugal college student to a full blown yuppie. That's right. Polo shirts and $30 cocktails. "Yuppie," at one point, standed for young urban professionals. But I don't think anybody associates the word "yuppie" with any particular age group anymore. I just think of disposable income coupled with bad taste. So I don't want to be described as a yuppie. It's not that I don't (or don't plan to) have bad taste. It's the age thing. And "yuppie" is just an insult these days.

I'm starting to lean towards "adult contemporary." According to wikipedia, "adult contemporary" came about as a way to describe radio stations in the mid 80s that played top 40 minus hip hop and "hard rock." In other words, music for total fucking muppets. Mindless mass media, rated PG. And that's gonna be me. I'm already starting to drink better wine and shave occasionally. What's next? I'll fucking tell you: vacations in the Caribbean, personal trainers, and pure bred dogs.

In the mean time I'm still an inquisitive young lad with his whole life ahead of him. Full of enthusiasm and misguided idealism, still voting democrat, I'm just the kind of self-deluded moron to post photos of Seattle's Howe Street steps on a blog that nobody gives a shit about. Enjoy me while I last.

Linnton, Portland

Linnton is probably Portland's most eccentric neighborhood. This disconnected outpost lies eight miles from downtown and over two miles from the nearest residential neighborhood. With dense forest to the south and west, the farms of Sauvie Island to the north and the Willamette River to the east, Linnton is effectively in the middle of nowhere. It's residents shop on busy Highway 30, a 7-mile heavy industrial sanctuary complete with tank farms, quay cranes and terrible air quality. The neighborhood itself, however, rests on the steep slopes of the Tualatin Mountains. Single lane streets switchback the impossible grades but the most direct route up the hill is on one of Linnton’s several public staircases that take you right between front porches and backyards. The state of the housing stock varies wildly, almost as much as Yankton Valley. When I made it to the top, well past the staircases reach, I came across a huge property with llamas, sheep and a seriously decrepit barn. I even got chased out by dogs! Portland can be fucking rustic all right.

According to this page: "Linnton, another town named for Senator Linn, was laid out in 1843 by Peter Burnett of Champoeg and Morton M. McCarver of Oregon City. Burnett stated, 'I have no doubt that this place will be the great commercial town of the territory.' Hoping to tap trade with the Tualatin Valley, a road graded up Cornelius Pass proved impassable and their venture failed."

Today Cornelius Pass is a popular connector between Highway 30 and US 26 to Seaside. Portland annexed Linnton in 1915.

Portland Stairwalk 2

This one is my favorite. See the route here.

Anyways, back to my AAVE fetish:
On wikipedia's AAVE page, I found the following 2 grammatical idiosyncrasies particularly puzzling:

The word it denotes the existence of something, equivalent to Standard English there in "there is", or "there are". This usage is also found in the English of the US South. Examples It's a doughnut in the cab'nit ("There's a doughnut in the cabinet") and It ain't no spoon ("There isn't a spoon").

Use of say to introduce quotations, actual or otherwise. For example, "I thought, say, 'Why don't he just rap wit' her?'" (I thought, 'Why doesn't he just speak with her?'") Say is also used to introduce sounds where a SAE speaker might use go: He say, boom! ("It went, boom!").

And check this out: "He workin'" means "He is working right now," but "He be workin'" means "He works frequently or habitually."

Portland Stairwalk 1

As I add content to the stairwalks section of my Portland guide I'll blog accordingly.

The approximate route can be found here.

In other news, I found a great quote from the Vice Magazine issue on gangs. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) fascinates the shite out of me and a Houston Crip had this to say:

"A lot of gorillas running around, straight silverback. I’m telling you, if I ain’t locking them up, they doin’ something. But we’re running the race—real talk. We done got rid of all the roaches, everything sprayed. I done killed this block off. It’s a blessing. Lord gave me a sign, and I ain’t get too many signs cause it’s hardball. I’m gonna play my cards right and I ain’t gonna give up. I’m gonna make it up out this motherfucker."

You can read the article here.

in a minute

Lyon Street Steps

Last Friday I stumbled onto some beautiful stairs on Lyon Street between Broadway and Green, Pacific Heights, San Francisco. The landing in the middle has an impressive garden and the staircases themselves have different aesthetics on either side of it. At the bottom, Lyon has a heavily landscaped median up to the dead end. Why can't public stairs in Portland be half as beautiful as those in San Francisco?

If you're ever there, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of Stairway Walks In San Francisco by Adah Bakalinsky.