Mount Angel

No matter what anybody here tells you, Portland is not a great town for architecture. Yes, there’s the Portland Building, but that’s just famous, not good. (In fact, it’s famously bad.) Really, there are very few buildings worth mentioning, which is what makes it all the more remarkable that we have a design by the celebrated Finnish architect Alvar Aalto so close by.

The town of Mount Angel is just a short trip south of Portland, and there’s a Benedictine monastery on a tall hill nearby. In the early sixties, they sought out Aalto to design a library. Though already world-renowned, he agreed to accept the modest commission, and the building was completed in 1970.

Though in many ways just a typical Modernist design, with all of the rhythmic interior forms and light-filled spaces you would expect, as well as the blocky, uninspiring exterior, the Mount Angel Abbey Library is unusual for the Portland area and worth a visit for that reason alone. For any architecture geek, however, it’s a must-see destination. Aalto was near the end of his career, and he was working in his own fully developed style.

Mount Angel Abbey Library from a Portland Architecture blog

Yesterday, while poking around on the web, I came across a “Portland Architecture” blog with very nice photos of the library. It’s difficult to find picutes that really capture the space, and these do. That’s what inspired me to write this post, just to share the link.

Here’s the official library website.

My own little pilgrimage

Back in late 2002, just months after I moved to Portland, I drove out to Mount Angel with a new friend, also named John. The library itself was diverting enough, especially the slightly surreal vision of actual robed monks. But the collection of Aalto-designed furniture was far more interesting.

There was a “books for sale” section, and I bought one, “Color in our World,” as a souvenir, mainly for the cover.

Body Hacking

I read a new term the other day, “body hacking,” which to my mind suggests something like, say, using a deep knowledge to unlock the secret code for life extension or to find a brilliant shortcut to metamorphosis. Unfortunately, I think it was actually used in a self-congratulatory way to describe everyday body altering activities, like dieting or fasting or surgery, maybe even just decoration.

By that standard, Michael, my roommate, was body hacking me all afternoon. He gave me my second tattoo. It’s some Northwest Native inspired thingy. SInce I always swore I wouldn’t be one of those people who’re always talking about their tattoos and showing them to everybody, I’m not going to post a picture. But don’t let me stop you from getting a look at it on his blog, called Ink Spot.

B&W photos at Flickr

St Philip Neri, Portland, Oregon

I posted a few old black & white photos I took with my Yashika 120 camera over at my Flickr account.

Happy Monday

So after deciding to post photos of guys smiling every Monday, I went looking for a few on the web. You’d be surprised at just how difficult it can be to find pictures of someone with a nice, wide-open smile. Everyone’s so guarded.

However, I think I’ve found the secrets to unabashed male happiness: Alcohol and sports. Now if only I could sell that somehow.

Guys smiling in a beer garden

German World Cup Teammembers Michael Ballack & Lukas Podolski

Originally uploaded to Flickr by JohnWilmot.

Paris aujour d’hui

SInce Andy will soon be in Paris, I’ve been looking around for cool stuff about the city to mention here. One of the best things I’ve found is (surprise) a blog, prosaically named “The Paris Blog.”

Rather than a personal project, there are numerous contributing writers and a couple of editors who wrangle them. It looks nice and has plenty of short, interesting stories. The subjects run the gamut, from the usual tourist attractions to “Paris Broke My Gaydar.”

I can’t help noticing that there are exactly the same number of entries (46) in the “French Traditions” category as in “Sex & Dating.” Mere coincedence?

Noir Kennedy
I found The Paris Blog while searching for more info about Noir Kennedy, a pricey boutique for rock stars and Rockabilly poseurs. To give you a feel for the place, they’re well known as the shop with dead rats in their window, which are there to “keep away the B-boys.”

Noir Kennedy, Paris, and their dead rats.

April 77
The shop is also ground zero for skinny skinny jeans. I’m sorry; I meant skinny skinny skinny jeans — three “skinny”s — like those from the locally-based atelier April 77. Fashionistas report that Paris is the epicenter of the ultra-tight jeans resurgence, though anyone familiar with the hipsters in Portland might disagree. The photo below could easily have been taken anywhere along Mississippi Avenue, n’est-ce pas?

Left: Some rock band in April 77 jeans.
Right: Camile from April 77. Original caption: “Life is tough, you know.”

La Boutique
From photos alone, a more pleasant place to buy the same merchandise would be La Boutique. Not sure which one, but the fella in the chair is, mais bien sur, in some band.

L’ennui dan La Boutique

Surface to Air
Another more globally fabulous option, with branches in Paris, Tokyo, New York, and São Paulo, is Surface to Air. Looks painful, but then, it’s fashion.

Surface to Air, so tiny it requires a fish-eye lens

I found Surface to Air at HintMag, but here’s a much better article at a nice little Japanese design / art / craft blog called PingMag. Anyway, it’s really the image below that made me interested in the first place.

Ad for Surface to Air Tokyo branch. See it bigger at Flickr.

Les Grands Magasins
A Grand Magasin is a department store, and there are a couple right in the central tourist areas of Paris. BHV is very close to the Louvre on Rue de Rivoli. Another nearby option on Rivoli is the English chain Marks & Spencer, whose basement cafeteria is a great place to get some good cheap food. A low-stress spot to get bread too.

Who cares if they’re the J.C. Penny’s of France and Britain? Just buy some tube socks and tell people you got them in Pay-ree.

Les Infos
Really, I’m just posting these suggestions for the fun of looking at pretty pictures on the web. But cool places tend to hang around with each other; so there are probably other interesting shops on the same street near the places mentioned.

Noir Kennedy
Adresse: 22, rue du Roi de Sicile 75004
Métro: Saint Paul, Ligne 1
Horaires: De mardi à samedi: de 11h à 20h / le dimanche: de 14h à 20h / le lundi: de 13h à 20h

La Boutique
Adresse: 4 rue française
Métro: Etienne Marcel
Horaires: ?

Surface to Air
Adresse: 46 Rue de L’Arbre Sec
Métro: ?
Horaires: MTWTFS 12H30 TO 19H30

BHV Rivoli
Adresse: 52/64, rue de Rivoli
Horaires: Lundi, Mardi, Jeudi, Vendredi, Samedi 9h30 – 19h30, Mercredi 9h30 – 21h00

Place Vendôme

I took my first trip to Europe in April of 1981, almost twenty-six years ago. My boyfriend Andy is on his way to France right now on his first trip. He’s twenty-six.

While in Paris on that first visit, I snapped this photo of the column in Place Vendôme. From the cars alone, you can tell it belongs to a bygone era.

See a larger version of this photo at my Flickr account.