Thursday, April 27, 2006

Last Thursday

Very Cool! And what a coincidence!

Zac and I went out to run some errands this evening--buy John McCutcheon tickets (we figured we'd better make sure and have tickets after I just told everyone else not to miss him!), make a deposit, and return a DVD at Videorama on Alberta. But when I turned on Alberta, the whole street was alive! There were street musicians, art for display, jewelery, juggling, those tall, tall bikes that we usually see just sitting in one of the yards but tonight people were riding them and being clowns. I called Hibi and told her to come out and get in the car when I got there, and we all went back to Alberta! When I went into Videorama, our first stop, I asked "what's going on?" He said "Last Thursday of the month!" I said, "You do this every last Thursday of the month?" He clarified that they do it through the winter, but it's much smaller then. The first minute it gets warm, he said, it becomes a huge thing. And it was huge! We had to park some 3 or 4 blocks off Alberta. Just about the first vendor we saw before we walked into Videorama even was a table FULL of those same recycled journals I just blogged about before! And later, when we were looking more, the guy that makes them asked me to man the table while he ran across the street to use the bathroom. In return, he gave us a free journal! I felt bad about taking one just for helping for 5 minutes, but again, Hibi didn't. :-) She took one of an old Guinness Book of World Records. Cool!

I think the thing I enjoyed the most was a trio of latin musicians singing and playing their heart out....Zac was in awe that they could play the guitar that fast. They were really good.

If I could live in the Alberta Arts district, I would....I'd like to be able to walk there from our house on the last Thursdays of the month, and other times as well....it's just such a cool place. I just love community places like this, places where neighbors can meet each other and have fun together.

5 comments:

Susan said...

Ive never heard of that! Course its been about 30 years since we left Portland for Vancouver.
The Alberta neighborhood is undergoing a huge revitalization. Sounds like its working:)
We will have to come sometime.
Nothing like a newcomer to the city finding all the cool spots and letting us old times know!!!
Susan

Mimi said...

That sounds so cool! It's Arts Walk here this weekend. Enjoy!

knittingwoman said...

There is a local company right here in my east coast canadian city that makes that kind of recycled journal too. I like them a lot!!!
Portland sounds so absolutely wonderful.
I hope to visit there one day.
This is my first time reading your blog but i'll be back now that I know about it.

Elizabeth said...

knittingwoman--are you Susanna from Home-Ed? I'd love to meet you (at least if it is Susanna!) if you make it to Portland. And yeah, it is wonderful!

Denise Norman said...

I've only visited Portland once, for business, after having lived in the SF area for 18 years. I miss both so much, now that I live in the deep south. Reading your blog makes me want to move to Portland!