3/11/2008 - mini update/tangent (xanadu, 2ndhand rose, flashback)

[edit: just decided to abandon the whole idea of fixing the columns and started preshrinking my pictures before i upload them. apologies for the attendant loss in clarity but until someone helps me develop another solution this is going to have to do.]

so i've decided this will probably be a once-weekly endeavor, seeing as i only have two days off from work per week and i need some time to attend to other stuff too (really interesting sh*t like laundry and sorting through my book collection, you know) but we actually went out this afternoon to a few fascinating local places, and i got some pictures, so i'll just throw this in here since i already did most of the work:

central ave is a weird little stretch of road. is it midtown, is it cooper young, is it something else entirely? there's quite a lot of interesting stuff, but not much foot traffic, so i don't really know how to peg it. anyway we went walking through there today, and we stopped into three places i'd been meaning to visit since we hit town.



xanadu guitars and books, located at 2200 Central Ave (274-9885) is really unlike anything i've ever seen. run in a converted house with minimal signage and the cramped, wonderfully disorganized atmosphere that always accompanies small businesses that are labors of love, the copious quantities of books (really really great selection, about a dozen bukowskis, easy way to impress yours truly) and vintage amps and recording gear (pictures below) take a back seat to the real stars of the show - the "diddley bows" that the owner, john lowe builds from scratch and proudly displays in the front room. i have been all over the damn place and seen all kinds of weird instruments but for construction, visual appeal and flat out weirdness these god damned things take the cake. apparently they sound f*ckall good too. i wanted to try one out but wifetron 5000 (the latest advancement in wifely technology) was getting kind of bored so it would have to wait for another day.







proceeding in a westerly direction down the street we hit secondhand rose. secondhand rose is apparently repainting or refinishing or redoing the whole freaking interior so everything was just kind of piled up weird. looked cool, if a little on the "insanely expensive antique store" tip. one picture follows.



last on the block was flashback, the "vintage department store" that i was really skeptical about. it did not disappoint though, it was really f*cking amazing and definitely worth a spin through, if you've never been, even just to browse and wander out like we did.



SO much cool sh*t.





SO much.

didn't buy anything any of the places we went, however, and since none of them were thrift stores proper, i can't really see my way clear to adding them to the map, since if i start throwing every antique/boutique/weird little homemade guitar store in there the whole thing will get muddied beyond comprehension. anyway just thought i'd throw these pictures up and some observations, for the locals if you haven't been to any of these places yet definitely pop in and check them out, from an (up until recently) outsider's perspective they're some of the things that make this town unique and weird and great.

SO. back next week with some more PROPER thrift stores, more additions to the map, more pictures of giant suitcases and my wife holding up shoes...i know, the wait is going to kill me too.

good night and godspeed

d