Local Angles
I chose to take a walk around Ballard after lunch.
It’s got two main streets, one more turn of the century, the other more ‘50’s type of single row storefronts. Ballard represents the Seattle many of us know and love from years past. Seattle has always had a love affair with thrift stores. This was evident when the so-called ‘grunge’ scene made it big here. Back in the late ‘80’s the local rockers were just normal folks, playing their music mostly for the benefit of their friends, not getting a wide audience, and dressing in the best that thrift stores had to offer. They in no way wanted to look like the popular L.A. hair bands of the time.
Another nice thing about this area is the amount of local artists doing their thing here. I try to support the locals whenever I get the chance. These older buildings have really allowed Ballard to blossom, as many artists are getting priced out of Seattle and other popular neighborhoods.
This triangular building has a great guitar façade indicating the wares inside. This guitar shop is very well known for their custom acoustic guitars:
Some stores are taller than they are wide:
There’s a wonderful second hand outdoor equipment store called 2nd Ascent here as well. The Black Friday atmosphere is evidently a bit more relaxed.
Vinyl records are alive and well in Seattle. Thanks to Bop Street Records, with over 600,000 albums in stock, 450,000 of those in the basement.
Where else would you find a Battlestar Gallactica album? That’s not even getting close to the esoteric stuff they’ve got stored here.
I guess when you lose your license, but still have to ride your chopper to the pub, then this is the result:
And yes, you may have noticed it has not stopped raining all day! At least it’s not very windy out.