I sometimes tell people that Astoria is strange because it started out as pure capitalist endeavor by America’s first millionaire John Jacob Astor and then soon morphed into a hot bed of Finnish socialist activity.1 Then at some point in the late 60’s and 70’s, hippies invaded Astoria and sort of froze it in time [...]
Watching the stumble bums ride their bikes is an exercise in disorientation. Interspersed among the touristing nuclear families, they stand out with their “grizzly adams” and leather boots.
My first impression of the Northwest was marveling that everyone seemed to ride a bike until certain logics took hold: Astoria is a lousy place to bike unless [...]
We headed out early this morning to Oswald West State Park.
By the time we ended parking around 9am, the parking lot was full. I had forgotten there was a surfer culture here, much more nomadic than the southerly surfer species. Mostly suburu hatchbacks, VW hippie-vans and crusty looking Datsuns1 with plates from Idaho, [...]
Like, whoa.1
I don’t know about you, but these past few weeks, months has slowly seen my cash diverted from books, music, and fine art to more and more caffeine by way of RockStar, RedBull and DietCoke, to compensate for how unmercifully gray the days have continued, unceasingly, to be.
You would now believe how long [...]
HelmetJohnPDF
May 31st, 2008 ~4:23pm
Every once in a while, this town can still collapse the socio-economic strata into a mishmash. I was going to say “of a bygone era” but I know that was never true. One of the things that first impressed me about the town was the level of integration between most of the [...]
