Gallery – AlbinoTree.Net: Whisky (and book) reviews

Motorcycles from around the world

I like motorcycles, especially bikes that have some customization. Even if it’s rudimentary and work-a-day, seeing what folks do with bikes, how they spiff them up or trick them out is cool. Here is a selection from my travels.

Jerusalem 2012

Scooter, Rome 2008

Scooter, Pisa, 2008

Ducati, Florence, 2008

Enfield, Portland, OR

Tokyo, 2010

Enfield, Paris, 2006

Cycle, Beijing, 2003

Cool cyclist outside Beijing, 2003

Chopper, Seoul, 2005

Scooter, Seoul 2005

Heavy lifting in Seoul, 2005

VMAX in Japan

Beijing 2003, chopper

At Great Wall, 2006

Coolest bike in Tokyo, mid-2000s.

Ural in Portland, OR 2015

Ural, PDX

Old BMW, Portland, OR

Heavy lifting in Seoul, 2005

Nifty scooter, Seoul, 2005. NYC plates

New York City via Cell Cam

New York City shot with HTC One M9

I visited NYC (mainly Manhattan) with my wife this summer. I have always traveled with a camera. This time I did not want to be weighed down, and shot all my photos with my cell camera – an HTC One M9. Most of these have not been retouched or edited.

The Hawthorne: Epicenter of funk

The Belmont/Hawthorne area is what I stumbled on to my first day scouting Portland. We’d been though the town years before on our way to the gorge, but this trip was just to case the place, see if it was the kind of burg we could swallow after hanging onto our sanity after five years on the 495 belt outside of Boston. I came down the slopes of Mt. Tabor onto Hawthorne Blvd and said to myself, yes, this is more like it. Stopped at a likely looking restaurant, the Cup & Saucer, and had a great breakfast of scrambled eggs, cream cheese and jalapenos. After the smoke-smuggered dives we’d put up with for the previous half-decade, that was heaven. I reported back positively to the mother ship that night and a few months later we were ensconced, never to leave.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sticker Shock! Slap-on art in PDX: Northeast

I love the funk that grows into Portland’s cracks like the winter moss — filling the voids with the visual language of a big city. Graffiti and murals get more attention, but the humble sticker gets its due. Slapped onto the back of traffic signs, signposts of any kind, and especially electrical boxes, you’ll find promos for bands, ads for thrift shops, and unfathomable expressions of outrage and angst. These are samples from Northeast – around Kerns, Laurelhurst, the Hollywood.

grrrr

Click me!

Photos – Portland

Albino Tree is located in one of the most visually interesting cities on the West Coast: Portland, OR. We have fairly good depth in architecture, for an American city and we have many residents who interact with their environment in a visceral way.

I like how Portlanders spice up their food, visually as well as tastefully,

Businesses are not afraid to amp it up. This shot of the Hollywood Burger Bar reminds me of a Little Golden Book I read as a kd. Donald Duck painted his house yellow with purple polka dots. And the neighbors (Mickey) got mad. I was thinking, WTH? Donald’s house is cool!

People dress up their houses, too. We’ve got a number of Victorians which are lovingly painted, the details picked out in contrasting colors. Donald would have liked Northeast PDX.

Not everything is beautiful, but the commonplace attracts me. Every scuff and scrape tells a story

Hardhat on loading dock, Southeast industrial district.