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Happy Early Halloween

Junky

A few junk shots taken recently...

Tires 

Fridge

Dig Safe, Lucas

And a non-junk shot that was picked from flickr to be used on consumerist.com (owned by consumer reports) yesterday:

Landmarks

Firstly, in regards to my post from yesterday, the Press Herald published some relevant local news concerning the Time & Temp Building's electronic display. They report that it was off due to a technical problem and should be back on sometime today. Good news.

Near the Time and Temp Building, I like the sky in this shot:

Another Portland landmark gets a new coat of paint:

No Time and Temp?

The Time & Temperature Building's electronic display has been off for a few days. Anyone know about this? I hadn't heard about any plans to turn it off so I assume they may be doing repairs or something.

Picture of  a brick wall from the same vantage point as the above picture:

Retail Watch

In addition to my random rumor that a roller rink will be moving into the old L.L.Bean outlet location on Congress Street, I would like to hypothesize that a Macy's location will be opening in the space for the holiday shopping season. This morning I spotted a Macy's truck parking a mere 100 feet from the empty retail space. What else would a Macy's truck be doing downtown? And I think Portland could use a few downtown department stores like there used to be long before I was born. 

In other retail news, Trader Joe's is opening October 29th per Munjoy Hill News.

Second Friday

The old portion of Maine Medical Center up on the West End:

Happy Teriyaki has a new name: Korea House. I always liked the adjective in the prior name, I think they should call it Happy Korea House. According to Portland Food Map, it is Portland's only restaurant to serve a full Korean menu.

A couple events of note:

• The annual Black Frame Art Sale, benefiting the Bayside Neighborhood Association, is today at the Merrill Auditorium rehearsal hall. Preview starts at 3pm and the sale is from 5-8.

• The Portland Fire Museum, 157 Spring Street, will be having an open house on Saturday from 10-3. Go here for some more info. I visited the place for the first time recently and recommend you do the same.

Signs, Large & Small

A sign outside of the Museum of Art advertising the current exhibition, which is related to photography. I plan to check it out before they back it up in December. Did you know that the museum is free not only during First Fridays, but also every Friday from 5-9pm? 

And this is a small sign at Bull Moose, advertising a show at the State Theater which is opening up again soon. I give this advertisement a thumbs-up. Not sure who is doing their marketing or if it's in-house but I like the look of the ad.

Present and Future

Pictured above, the former L.L. Bean space on Congress Street. There are no solid plans that I know of for a new tenant (or tenants) as the space has only been vacant since the end of September. There is an Olympia Sports store directly to the right of where L.L. Bean was that may or may not be staying there for the long term now that the main tenant is gone.  I would like to see the building spruced-up by whoever it is that currently owns the buildings. I think they could even add a floor or two to the building.to bring in some more income.

As far as future uses for the ground floor space, I would like to start the random rumor that a roller rink will be moving in. Based on the success of Bayside Bowl, I think a roller rink may fit in here. It will include a bar, restaurant, concert stage, and arcade room. Every Friday will be roller disco night.

Below, a street scene nearby on Free Street:

Tracing the Fore No More

I wanted to get a shot of this Tracing the Fore art installation before it is taken out. There has been discussion over the last few years about this being the least-liked public art in Portland. The artist that created it will be coming back to town in a few weeks, according to this article, to discuss possible changes to the piece. I'm not a fan of it personally, but I'm not sure what would work best here. It will remain a median strip between a (nice cobblestone) road, which limits its use a bit. Any ideas, readers?

And a somewhat panoramic view of yesterday's photo, I think you can click it for a larger version.

On the Fence

Looking over a fence:

Boat: 

Welcome to Bramhall

Welcome to Bramhall Station. This page on the city website has a ton of information about this particular fire department station.  For example, did you know that this station's Engine Company 6 was started in 1794?

Bramhall Hill sign:

Just down the street from the fire station, good advertising for this driver education company: