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More Commonplace Trivia
Nov. 7th, 2006 06:42 amI wasn't going to post anything this morning, as I need to get to sleep so I'll be well rested for my afternoon head yanking appointment, but I'm waiting for a 4.1MB PDF file to download so I've got an extra twenty minutes to kill (stupid dial-up.) The PDF is an article on the works of architect Walter W. Ahlschlager published in a 1921 issue of American Builder Magazine. Ahlschlager did most of his work in Chicago and its hinterlands, and lived during that era when the city's (and the nation's) architecture was at its most extravagant. His career extended well after 1921, but did some very interesting things before then. Then, when that's done, I'm going to nab another item they have at the same site, which is a PDF file of the Chicago Uptown Theatre Opening issue of the magazine once published by the Balaban and Katz Theatre Circuit. Why do I always run across this stuff ten minutes before I want to go to sleep?
Also, oh, look! Here I am, linking to a MySpace page! It's the MySpace page of an Internet cafe called i Browse (oh, dear!) The reason I link to it is because it is located right down the street from the apartment in which I lived for a while when I was 19. The neighborhood was nothing remotely resembling trendy in those days, but it apparently is now. I'm trying to remember what was in that storefront when I lived down the street.
I think it was one of those places that always had "Going out of Business" signs papered over its windows and sold overstocked crap, such as holiday decorations out of season. These places would be around for years, never keeping their promise to go out of business, and were the despair of every marginal suburban business district around L.A. in the years when shopping malls were beginning to drain away their custom. These days, crap of the sort they used to vend in those stores is usually sold in those places commonly called dollar stores (the dollar stores don't pretend to be going out of business, though.) But that's the sort of neighborhood it was when I lived there-- dull and a bit down at the heels. When I was 19, I'd probably have preferred the neighborhood the way it is now. Now that I've grown dull and a bit down at the heels myself, I think I'd prefer it the way it was then.
Also, oh, look! Here I am, linking to a MySpace page! It's the MySpace page of an Internet cafe called i Browse (oh, dear!) The reason I link to it is because it is located right down the street from the apartment in which I lived for a while when I was 19. The neighborhood was nothing remotely resembling trendy in those days, but it apparently is now. I'm trying to remember what was in that storefront when I lived down the street.
I think it was one of those places that always had "Going out of Business" signs papered over its windows and sold overstocked crap, such as holiday decorations out of season. These places would be around for years, never keeping their promise to go out of business, and were the despair of every marginal suburban business district around L.A. in the years when shopping malls were beginning to drain away their custom. These days, crap of the sort they used to vend in those stores is usually sold in those places commonly called dollar stores (the dollar stores don't pretend to be going out of business, though.) But that's the sort of neighborhood it was when I lived there-- dull and a bit down at the heels. When I was 19, I'd probably have preferred the neighborhood the way it is now. Now that I've grown dull and a bit down at the heels myself, I think I'd prefer it the way it was then.
