15th Leg: Albina to North Portland

Date of run: April 11, 2014
Time: 3:00 pm
Temp: 66 degrees F (feels like 64)
Conditions: Mostly sunny, wind 5 mph
Distance: 1.9 miles out, 2.0 miles back (3.9 miles total)

Another nice short run, with the obligatory flower gardens spotted early on:





I soon headed west on Failing Street (named after Henry Failing, who was ironically quite successful in life). And I saw a lot of Failing things, including...

A Failing stop sign:



A Failing sidewalk:



A Failing church:



A Failing house:



A Failing bike repair business:



And some Failing graffiti:



But enough of this; it was time to get Going (north on Vancouver Ave), here comes Sumner!





Arriving at the North Portland branch, I admired the nice brick work and lamps of the outside, and inside old-school architectural features such as an ornate ceiling with large hanging lights.





Found two CDs of interest, as usual from the eye-catching cover artwork. This time, two albums by the same band, released five years apart. A chance to track growth by an artist over time.



Leaving the library, I headed east on Killingsworth and observed a cool tall sign (McMenamins), a coffee shop with a questionable name (not sure what's in those brownies on the counter), and a community center (which I think was the inpiration for both Portlandia's "feminist book shop" and the phrase "Put a bird on it").







Killingsworth is also home to at least one very old, defunct gas station (check that price per gallon!), as well as some political signs (though I think this should have read "Rainin' water bills!").





My favorite part of this run though? Easily this: a painting on the side of a house that took three pictures to capture (including a fourth for the signature). Creative and beautiful:









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LAST WEEK'S MUSIC

Little Dragon, Machine Dreams (2009)

"Icy electro-pop?" Not always. Especially on this song, which exudes depth and feeling. Not my "new favorite band" but I like it, a lot:




Wild Beasts, Smother (2011)

This band summary on Allmusic really lured me in: "Afrobeat and rockabilly infused '00s post-punk lent circus surrealism by Hayden Thorpe's rich falsetto and arcane lyrics." Unfortunately, I didn't find the music on this album anywhere near this description. And I'm afraid I fall on the latter side of "love/hate" regarding the falsetto style vocals, though the music is of high quality and well played: