Five Quadrant Consumerist Bacchanal

It is a treat when friends come to visit from other cities and I can really put on the Portland show. There's an awful lot to see and do here, even on this rump of a holiday weekend, even if lots of things are closed or on vacation. And so on Saturday, Kara and I hit Portland commerce, one kickin neighborhood at a time. We had breakfast at this very charming Scandinavian restaurant in SE called Broder. The owner was there and asked me how I liked my eggs. My favorite thing was the lingonberry sauce. There's a great little record store next door with a good zine collection called Q is for Choir.

Next, we went over to the lower Burnside area and found the coolest jewelry and accessory store called Redux. Lots of recycled materials. I particularly liked the pendants by LeeAnn Herreid that integrated a carpenter's level. Next door were a couple of other more gallery-type shops, Grass Hut and Sword & Fern. Uber hipster. After that, we stumbled upon the store with all the Marimekko stuff in Northwest. And I went next door to the new Cork location and picked up a few inexpensive bottles of wine and one nice one.
And we pressed on! To Mississippi, where we visited the terrariums at Pistils and the sportswear at Blue. We also strolled up to the coolest record store in Portland, at least in terms of the ambiance, Mississippi Records. It's almost all vinyl. Now I would not dare mislead you and suggest that I am bad ass enough to be a vinyl person. Records are heavy and delicate and not my thing. But I did see an old record there from my childhood that gave me a chill instead of a thrill.

Perhaps to establish some feminist equilibrium (and to shake off Marcy), we went to the women's bookstore, In Other Words, where I picked up a Susan Sontag novel. I read an article about her journals recently and am curious. Edified, yet a little hungry, our next stop was in the NE at Random Order on Alberta for a peanut butter sandwich. Then we stopped by Ampersand to say hello to Miles and next door to Pie where they have lots of vegan shoes. I suppose I should have known there was such a thing but it hadn't occurred to me. Down the way at Foundation Garments they are always so nice and the music is always good. They sell all sweatshop free stuff there, made by small designers in the U.S. and Canada. I bought a little purse for a relative's birthday. Hope she likes it.
So that about covers our exciting five quadrant spin through town. I guess we didn't technically go shopping in SW, but I did get a voodoo donut late the night before. And so we have consumerist completion.

Everybody Knows this is Nowhere - Neil Young