Monday, December 18, 2006

cold day at tanner springs

tanner_ice3

Winter at Tanner Springs Park, deep in the Pearl District where the shadows lie. This is always fun to see, since 9 out of 10 Pearlies are rich Californians who've never seen weather this "severe" before, and it scares the bejeezus out of 'em. Until this morning, they'd had no clue that ice occurs in nature outside of a highball glass. While I was at the park taking a few photos, it was nothing but one rich twit after another walking past, all bundled up in designer mountaineering gear, strutting along with their darling pugs (in matching designer mountaineering gear, of course), all serious and determined like they're running the freakin' Iditarod. With pugs. How much sense does that make?

ice, tanner springs


I'm probably supposed to make some comments about how calm and contemplative and "Zenlike" it was at the park, since (as always) nobody else was there. Plenty of busy passersby, sure, but nobody stopped to soak up the purity and inner calm the design-junkie crowd keeps lecturing us about and telling us we need. Never mind the fact that if a.) we need inner calm, and b.) it can be provided at taxpayer expense, the park ought to be located somewhere in outer SE portland, not here. If we're going to prioritize who's in the greatest need of some serenity and inner calm, I'm not convinced that the richest 1% of the population are the people who need it most. Do something to relieve the constant stress of low wages and economic insecurity for everyone else, and then let's talk about the idle rich and their designer yoga mats. Do we have a deal?


tanner_ice2

All that said, I do tend to come away with reasonably interesting photos of the place. I rather like the cobblestone one at the top. For contrast, here are some earlier photos of mine from back in August and September, and an earlier rant about the place (and a few other places) from last January.

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