funkomavintage Archive Nov 2008

 --This post is an Archive from Nov 9, 2008, showing that shopping local is cool !! --
Buying Vintage....acquire locally.....you know, a Locashop.......

that's us! A huge shout out to our customers.....Thanks for buying local ! We have the Urban Village you bought a Condo for....we are the experience you wanted.....
You can furnish your home, buy gifts and clothe the family body...Right here, right now.
Well, we're open till 6 or 7 every day....we can't pull up downtown all by ourselves.....you gotta help us...

Buying vintage is THE GREENEST ! No need to buy something from another country...trust me folks.....we scrub and spank and search the West Coast to find you all the things you need for your home, your wardrobe and

Yes!! & for the HOLIDAYS !
a small sample of what's inside Amocat and funkoma vintage......







































from the News Trib.....
The downtown retail environment might well be better than it was even just two years ago – as an indication, a collection of shops has sprung up near the University of Washington Tacoma campus. The other end of Pacific offers a few retail stores. But more must be done to make it a vibrant shopping district, said Dominic Accetturo, associate vice president of the commercial real estate agency GVA Kidder Mathews in Tacoma.
....When he looks to sell in Tacoma, Accetturo talks about the qualities of running a shop downtown, including a good amount of foot traffic. But the problem is, barely any of that foot traffic happens after 5 p.m. or during the weekends, times that need to be busy for retailers to prosper.

“Some retailers have looked downtown, but they are frustrated that others aren’t open after 5 p.m.,” Accetturro said.

But there have been improvements, including some businesses and bars opening late and other businesses renovating. Tacoma has potential, and retailers and landlords need to work to realize it, he said. Until then, it’s hard to compete with other areas, and shops rely on the strengths they have.....

So a happy, helpful face behind the counter is not enough. Putting low prices together with service is how locally owned shops downtown hope to compete to get shoppers who are already planning to spend less.

Dragonfly’s Shellenberg recently returned from a trip to Shanghai and brought the question straight to her vendors half a world away.

“I went to the vendors, and they knew about the economy,” she said. “I asked, ‘I have 20 bucks, what will you sell me?’”

The answer is what her new store will be stocked with for the holidays: Asian jewelry for cheap, including $15 pearls.

Sun ? In Tacoma ?

Postcards in the style of linen texture are so colorful ! They have become an iconic image...those big block letters that curve across the front......the sweet and bright colors they're printed in on high-rag content cardstock. 
Look at how pretty Tacoma was....this was printed by C P Johnston and Co. Seattle Washington. "No other county in the nation boasts such varying altitude and climate---from 14,408 foot frozen heights  of the giant mountains to the quiet, warm bays of Puget Sound".
No way, Jose, are the waters here "warm". Ice cold ! even in August. Tacoma, you will not lure me and tempt me and fool any more. It's Over!

Get happy at the Farmer's Market...meet friends...

you've only seen on the computer screen!

It must be the smiling people, the real colors of nature, the mouth-watering food....You Know local grown food is gonna taste better....

I haven't had a real garden for almost 3 years! how sad is that? I've lived in places that didn't have a yard, so I gardened in pots and did some Guerilla Gardening. This year, moving to a home with a big yard was #1 priority. Of all the things I do, I love gardening the most, so the last 3 years have been torture I tell you !!
Do you love gardening? Or do you see it as a dirty chore? Yeah, but you get food and pretty flowers!

Heirloom tomatoes....these look like Brandywine...Yum !  Oh yes...Basil and homegrown tomatoes on a whole wheat sandwich with mayo and horseradish....now that tastes almost as good as a chocolate sundae!

There's more than garden produce at Tacoma's Farmers Market....fresh seafood grown in our local saltwater farms.....Razor clams, OYSTERS and Clams !! oh my.

And then....there are the craftiest crafters.....Even before I saw the humans, I knew exactly who this booth belonged to....
****yeah! It's Scott and Jacqui of Slide Sideways !
in their own words..." We started Slide Sideways because we have always loved working with our hands and making things. Even though graphic design is a creative field we wanted to get away from the computer for part of our day and create using more traditional methods. "

They make hand-screened cards and posters, and sew (on a Singer (me too)) little zippered pouches, tea towels and more more more. And they live in Tacoma. That cracks me up. Me too. Mark and Tressie and our little doggie live in Tacoma too.
Here's Scott and Jacqui's shop on etsy. They do the Farmers Mkt, and other shows & festies around the area too.

We also visited other friends in the downtown Tacoma area, and got new keys for my ukelele. No kidding, I'm gonna learn to play poorly. Whatev', eh!
Bye downtown Tacoma. See ya later!

Summer + Car Show + JP Patches = Tacoma

I don't much like traditional car shows...I like outlaw hot rods...if you're gonna use up the last of fossil fuels..don't Bore Me!

Tacoma has one of the badddest hot rod car shows ever........click this and feast yr eyes!!

and JPPatches...well, you just gotta see this for yerself....

Off we toddled to Fern Hill in south Tacoma to see Mr Patches. JP lived at the town dump, Gertrude wore a dress tho a man (even the kids knew that!) and well, for Mark, the rest is history...

So the Fern Hill car show was sweet... a few cars, some vendors...and JP PATCHES !! we couldn't get too close....he has many many fans! But we did wanna see him...he's quite old and may not be with us much longer...and he meant a lot to Mark, and I have grown to love him...JP And Mark (ha ha) in the years of growing moss here in PNW.
JP is a little hard to see...but he's next to the blue balloon.....just to the left of bald head man...

 

And again.........

Fern Hill is very cute.......Look there's Sonics Man...more of him later........

Mark, Tigger and a tiny little Berkeley car...

 Tressie's Dream Car......Yes it's True ! I wish I drove a suicide door mid 60s Lincoln Continental.....

 Hey, this car show was turning out to be pretty neat!


Sonics Man is real pissed off that Howard "Shithead" Schulz took the Sonics basketball team from Seattle to OklaFuckinHoma!

Sonics Man suggests we all boycott Starbucks to protest.....Sonics Man, consider it done! No M&T shall ever have a Starbucks beverage unless someone gives us one for free!

 Look at this awesome old bus !!

I took a picture of this little girl because she was really rocking that hat ! and she wasn't dressed like a 'ho...She looks adorable!! Totally  appropriate little girl clothes.....she's not a lame Vogue-reading bonehead...she's adorable and well dressed !!

And almost lastly, I took this picture of the Dreaded City Mangler approved Parking Meter...being loaded into a city car...I made the City crew laugh when I took a picture and asked them not to tell City Mangler that I was taking pictures to blog about this stupid meter thing...and say once again...Parking Meters in Tacoma is a Stupid Fucking Idea.

  
At Fern Hill elementary school is this darling art...It's Chicken Making Music with old locking hardware......What the heck does it mean?? I don't know, but I had a fun time walking thru the heavy chains, and playing with all the locks on the artwork........

Check it out. It's in Fern Hill at 90-something and Park Avenue in South Tacoma....Good luck finding it ...I always forget where it is and I've lived here for 30 years....It appears out of the mist as I'm just driving aimlessly around the n'hood....It appears by Magic just like Brigadoon.......but without Gene Kelly and tap dancing.....  

Hey Guess what...

Portland has that Tacoma doesn't?
more tattoos, more bicycles and more coffee shops?


Well that, maybe........Portland is a  city that values the arts.
If my idea of filling empty stores and buildings downtown with ART wasn't so obvious, I'd really take the credit.
ART is always what saves a town....and Tacoma, being a working class tough little bugger, needs more of that.






Fantastic artfests, music fests, hot rods for granpas, hot rods for hip chicks and dudes, Cones of hot ART... Proctor Art....6th Ave Art...and more farmer's markets are happening...what huge changes have happened here in our little burg in just 10 years...If we could blot out the big ugly condo projects that stick out of our sweet humble little town like a whore in church, or at least, a banker in church.




When I was a wee thing, I used to visit Millie's family up in Lake County.
Any storefront in along the main street was filled with something....drawings, pictures, posters, anything interesting! All a person had to do was contact the bldg. owner and ask to do a project. The bldg. owners being smart Californians, I guess, got the ball rolling there. The local newspaper office would print pictures for kids to color, and collect them, and then hang them in the store windows.That's where I got the idea that A) Grownups care about empty windows.

B) Republicans like art.
This is also where I learned to draw a Dog face....big time!


Oh what does Portland have that Tacoma doesn't??


Food Carts.


Take a look, via Design Sponge.

What do I mean "Saves a town"...if people give a crap about what things look like...and I don't just mean, manicured lawns and tasteful house paint colors....
if people give a crap, and get loud, and say Yes, and then No to the ugly....
we can make Tacoma look more like Portland, or San Francisco or VancouverBC...and a lot less like Stockton or Brawley or Hell.



and also...it makes people feel better, because if I see that you care, I'm less likely to drop my garbage*...If people feel Hopeful, they'll act nicer. They'll try harder. And they'll vote....for the kind of politicians that put people first, and let money take care of itself like it always does.....
.It's all About Culture and building a welcoming community that makes room for lots of different kinds of people, but under no circumstances, should there be any excuse for a PFChangs. that's just lazy and nasty.



*I don't ever drop garbage.EVER.

The Birthday Boy

First we had a breakfast at Dock Street Landing...now Rock the Dock. ...stupid name. Same dive with rearranged furniture. Ask for the veggie burger since it isn't listed on the menu.
We sat on the deck and had the most vegetarian things on the menu. Me, poppers, and Mark had a cocktail! Lucky him, since I volunteered to drive for the day I was sober until dinner time.

We watched the boats float by....someday that will be us sheeting and rigging....We saw 2 Oompa Loompas on one large sailboat.....so I figured it was the Willy Wonka cruise.

2 old folks sat on chairs at the stern, both wearing bright orange t-shirts while a dapper man pulled up the fenders and pointed out Thea Foss landmarks. I figured the dutiful son made Ma and Pa Midwestern wear the super-bright t-shirts in case they fell in they'd make good targets....I Jest!

The old folks were in life jackets. Bright Orange life jackets. Still.

Ooompa Loompa.

Just saying.....

Then we walked the docks and drooled on the boats. We walked to the tiny park and chatted up a guy with a canoe strapped to his 70s Volvo...and we thought "That Dude is Awesome!"

Canoe + old Volvo = Mark and Tressie ! therefore ...awesome! but that's Sunday.

Back home in the late afternoon to continue the party. We didn't have a party like in years past. Low volume right now. So, linen jacket and slacks, Brooks Brothers, as is the shirt. Vintage 50s bow tie....a real Bow tie. It's easy. Just tie a bow. Like in the movies!

Cocktails while dressing....and a tiny glimpse of the new living room...there will be some blogging about the new home and decor next week...

Plaid Sperry slip-ons...and a sweet shot of the most amazing mirror....

He decided to tuck the bow tie in his jacket pocket just before we took off for dinner at Harbor Lights...
We're often overdressed for Tacoma...we're ok with that...but it was a bit hot for the tie.

So off to Harbor Lights.....we love Harbor Lights....not just that they serve real alcohol in the drinks and that the food is good.....but we love it because it has a old-time warpiness there. It looks like time stopped in 1979. We like that.

The bar is "decorated" in Jim Beam bottles. Tacky boat and fish things. Lots of drunk lawyers and middle-aged ladies who still tease their hair in an updo and spray the crap outta it with AquaNet. They drive Cadillacs and wear high heels. They still smoke but not during dinner any more. 

The servers and bartenders are mostly professionals. There are some younger folks as wait staff and they still need to learn how to serve as a profession. We miss Joan who has retired, as has Rose, though Mary was still there to take our drink orders.

It does not escape my esteem that the wall in the foyer has framed and autographed pictures of the 2 greatest male actors of all time......

Bob Denver and Ray Walston!!

You may remember Ray Walston as this guy......

We arrived early and got a corner table right on the water! So beautiful...many sailboats gliding by and the parachute sail people were flying high!

We ordered clams and clams and drinks and clams and clams, and then some mussels.

Dinner done, I drove home and then we took off walking to 1022.  

 I love my multi-colored boat shoes!

One last pic before we head out the door.

Arrived, and waiting for the first cocktail of the evening. Mark drank copious amounts of brandy. It is wonderful to sit outside. I hope the fire pit comes back and we can sit outside come the rainy season.
We love it because we can bring our dog for a walk and have a drinkie and walk home. Isn't that what local is all about?

I had the basil vodka cocktail, the death cocktail, and finally, when Matt arrived it was dark and warm and the full moon was shining bright!

It was a glorious evening.......

Matt's sweet Volvo....and look!

He's got Double Rainbow decals on the back windows! All original OG 70s rainbows! He rules.

A few shots of the really big tree, the moon , the neighborhood.

Then we rode home with Matt in the Volvo since we only live about 7 blocks away from his house.

Dreamtime.

The next morn we loaded (the royal We) the canoe on top of the wagon and took off for its 2010 maiden voyage at Wapato park...

This park used to be so pretty....it looked like a resort of the 1920s back in the 80s when my kids were young. We used to go all the time to swim or just walk around. The City of Tacoma has allowed the lake to putrify into a toxic algae stew. No one can swim there anymore it is so toxic. Thanks Assholes!

But we launched anyway and paddled around for a bit. The patches held real well..yeah!

Since the day was getting real hot we headed for home and crashed. 

It was a low-key birthday, this one.

I think the song of the day was Bali Hai...That's the movie South Pacific where Ray Walston and Mitzi Gaynor are pictured in above.....(if you have never seen it...please do!)......our day was beautiful...another world...on the water....melancholy...but treasured all the same........