Favorite Day ....Mark And Tressie's 11th Wedding Anniversary..

Yes. Happy. Together. Married in San Francisco June 13, 1997.
Friday the 13th.....
paraskevidekatriaphobia (fear of Friday the 13th) clearly, Not us.....

After a simple ceremony at City Hall, our honeymoon began in The Castro after eating a fantabulous dinner and drinking much champagne at Stars. This, sadly , or not so sadly, became our song.....Why? because I swear, every bar in the Castro had MTV playing on their TV....and this song was playing in every bar every time we walked in!!!
Mark said: "Those girls are so cute!" Jokes on him. We found out when we got back home.....those girls are brothers!!! It's HANSON....I still have no clue what they are saying, but for MmmmBop....

So enjoy a little Mmmm Bop...... the original video we were entranced by......

in this later video.....you can hear their voices are already changing.......


US !!!




Graduation day June 12, 2005

Lights Camera......Action....

What a yummy day it was ! the vintage shops in Tacoma were open, people were walking downtown from their offices, their condos and busing and driving in .......
'




Planted the box outside with pretty purple alyssum, petunias, salvia and nasturtiums...lychnis and a buddleia that simply frightened Dino since he is not a fan of Butterfly Bush.....Yes, true, they can be rangy and weedy.....oh, but don't you love the honey scented purple candles in midsummer...the butterflies do.....I will sit for hours this summer at Rampart.....and watch the urban butterflies and bees give a show of thanks for the buddleia........
and of course, you probably have many near you if you live or work downtown...they grow in the gutters at the Luzon....just to name one urban garden location....
Purple and Chartreuse paint for the outside is on the June agenda...



Tropical delight....


Lights...


Dress Up



Converse among your selves....

Nostalgic for a Farmer's Market...and downtown..

gooooodness.....I used to sell at the Gig Harbor Farmers Mkt back in the early 90s. I had a farm in Lakebay...an organic farm. I grew (from seed or cutting) 100's of heirloom fruits and vegetables, and billions of herbs, flowers and shrubs. I had to force Mortgage Lifter and Mr. Stripey on people ! Here take this one...and come back in August and tell me if you liked it !!!
Well, they did come back and they loved it...and the next spring I had people knocking on my door asking when the old tomatoes would be ready........


It was great fun and loads of work to produce produce ....the kind of garden bounty I grew up eating since my folks and my foster-folks were tremendous gardeners.
Everything I Knew About Gardening I Learned From My Elders.
I never sold at the Tacoma Mkt.....I wrote about it plenty, and shopped it all these years....(and the Dome district one last summer), and I'm really happy it's Thursday......
Yippee!!! I'm planting the bedraggled box in front of Rampart today.....
in honor of urban organic mini-farming......
Amocat will be open mostly, tho the big Grand Opening is later this month....
funkoma vintage is open (mostly). I have about 1/3 of what goes in, of my stock, with price tags all set up so far. (More pictures later today....)
Food, Friends, music, booze, merry-making....all the best things of life.......

In the beginning...there was a Building

now it's the home of a few vintage shops in Tacoma...

in Downtown Funkytown.......Tacoma 2 you...
it was a Chevrolet dealership built in 1911....
I think...it's real old...

Amocat Antique Market...
712 Broadway.....Antique Row...Theater District...
daily ....noon - 7 (ish) or whenever
the new home of funkoma vintage....
....But here is where it begins...
We'll paint the outside, plant flowers...
Walk in ...if the roll up door is up...Met Tacoma Urbanist...a law nerd...like me...Hi Erik...Lots of folks have been dropping by....Our soft opening will be Friday the 13th.....

Lots of white....




Here is where funkoma will be...


so empty !


I love the ceilings....39 feet tall or something...

Stupid Men clothes....What you won't find at funkoma in Tacoma

Stupid Clothes.....not stupid men.....(remember...I'm not a feminist)
From Susie Bubble.....Comes this post about Paris design students........and their fashion show....This stuff is fine if you going into stage design or circus fun....but really now, no sane person is gonna dress like this.......I'm not a big fan of DockersPoloBaseballHatNikes.....booooring.....and so unnecessary....but I applaud the creativity.....but uh, as fashion.....it's just dumb.




"....the whole jury including Mr Gaultier were highly impressed with the work they saw. Et moi? With such a selective class, I do feel this five year course at La Cambre hones the students in a way that is very unique in comparison to other schools and the resulting work is indicative with the thought processes behind it being quite highly evolved." This is Ann Bruggeman//'Mine' -


I stole these pics from Susie Bubble...who was a big fan of indiecult on ebay until indiecult disappeared one day....taking her uh, style with her.......

Oh Gentrification......Who's Turn To Watch It??

Portland in the Neeewwwssss....I love Portland, You know that.....but sometimes......progress is not so progressive. I think about this as I drive up McKinley to shop or to hit the PO....
All is not so well in P-Town.....gosh, white people are upset at white people. Welcome to my world !
This post from Things White People Love is soooo funnnnny
because Tacoma is trying so hard to be funkyurbanhipcool....and the gentrification must be done properly.
Here is a list of Comedy Topics.....

Things Mentioned

• Being Offended
• Awareness
• Gentrification
• Diversity
• Barack Obama
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Bicycles
• Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
• Indie Music
• Coffee
• Dogs (photo)
• Expensive Strollers (Book)
• Portland, OR (Book)
• Native Wisdom (Book)

That whole Take Back Frost Park..while colorful.....is just hilarious!!
You wanna take back a public park from uh, the public?
I double-dog dare ya to show up at 11:49 PM....on Saturday night.....and start chalking. Bring the kids! It's fun !!

Well, We're on the Move to Downtown Funkytown

Yes, finally.....me and my hooptie automobiles are packed to the headliners and we are moving to the Rampart bldg.
Aimee got the red Rampart letters, so that's so sweet, I want to cry. She spent most of her growing up years down there.
I'm so happy. I'm happy to be back. I'm off my head with Joy. It's bittersweet. Well, that's life isn't it?
As I'm standing around and staring at the ceilings, at the big white walls, the roll up garage doors....and I stand on the sidewalk...
I still expect to see Steve walk down the red stairs or walk across the street from the Mecca with his cigarettes.
But .....only in my mind.
I hate it when people I love die.........duh.
I hate that I got Rampart because my friend died.
I am very aware that I have to always be a good girl and be worthy!
Rampart has changed many times in recent memory.
Eric, Glen and I were reminiscing about the old days.
David was there, then he was down there. We were there, then we were over there.
Eric was down here, then up there. Glen was everywhere.
So our anarchist underground antique society of wholly off center semi-capitalists are moving in.
We'll paint the outside, and plant flowers.

Glen and his fabulous antiques in the front. Me in the back sharing with a friend or 2. New vendors will move in as the month progresses.

If we have a guiding light, it is partly David and Steve and what they created......a big-city vintage shopping experience in humble downtown funkytown.
This is my town. Despite my childhood home, Yountville, tattooed on my arm!
25+ years ago I came with my family. One of the first places I drove to from South Tacoma, was downtown to pay my energy deposits.

I fell in love with the movie-set miniature downtown. Tacoma has everything. And small enough to fit in your hand.
All of May as I negotiated my rent, I just kept repeating:
Be The Change You Wish To See.....
which was my Greener graduation class motto in 2005.
I've always loved that Gandhi thought...
It was the only valuable thing I got from Evergreen. Oh, that and 25,000. in debt.
So shop with me Early and Often!!!
I'll be open to give you a funkoma experience & take your money on Friday the 13th. (also, it's the Mark & Tressie wedding anniversary)
Glen will be open every time the garage doors are open.
So Hi, to my old loves.....Hello to my new neighbors.