I like the view from Fred Base One when a storm rolls in.

 

 

Most of the day was sunny and mild. I was busy all day and accomplished almost nothing. Which is exhausting! Time for a nap.

I'm serious - there wasn't an idle moment all day, in the sense of staring at the wall or just scrolling websites while an hour passes. I have to do something. Morning web editing work, dog walk, more morning website work, poop walk, phone call with Zork Storage. The day's just jammed

But at noon, I thought, what have I done, really?

Then: Do I really need to do something today?

The answer to that always has to be yes. The end of the day total, then, aside from this, was nine additions to the comic site, four motel postcards "researched" and written, one Clippings written for 04/27, one Main Street clipped, resized, cleaned up and written for 08/27, personal movie for 05/26 finished and archived, and a column written for tomorrow's Substack. Photos taken and sorted, including the remarkable sunset after the storm:

 

 

That'll do, but I wish it was more. There are so many things I need to start.

While coming up in the elevator I saw a little girl, eight, nine, ten, staring at my shirt. "That's two famous paintings," she said. I said she was right! And you know what? My daughter made this painting!" She lit up, perhaps thinking of herself one day making a shirt.

Oh, but there's more you can do, child, if you follow my daughter's example. She's not named in the piece - that's not how these things work - but, well, let's just say that Dad is, as usual, so very, very proud.

Who? Oh, we know who.

 

 

I found the picture below in an ArchRec mag, and I hope they don't mind. It's been 40 years. And I should give them a plug: decades of mags available, right here.

Horton Plaza, San Diego.

 

 

At Reddit, the former GM of the mall said:

Horton Plaza was a unique architectural design during the heyday of malls when people were happy to stroll around, window shop, and were less inclined to "get in and get out." It has a slow decline as shopping patterns changed and online shopping grew - as many malls in the US had.

Additionally, what made Horton beloved at first started to work against it. As Gaslamp grew in popularity and downtown got cleaned up, the way it was built as a fortress with everything facing in, closed off to passerby's, didn't align with the popularity of lifestyle centers that draw people in.

In a way, a better form of urbanism killed it. But I still have to mourn it, and not just because hey it's 80s we love the 80s the 80s were awesome and such.

Google Maps / Street view has some deserted remainders of the mad exuberant dazzle:

 

 

 


This may look like ridiculous inflated po-mo nonsense, and I'd say: sure, and what's wrong with that? What sort of crazy fun architecture do we have today?

Something else I found in the 80s folder: a TV commercial from 1986. It's unlike any ad you'd see today. Not for its style or its technical brilliance or bygone product claims, or any of that. It's the mood. I think it would be surprising to someone born in 2000 to believe this was absolutely ordinary.

 

 

 

 

They'd use the same tone to sell lawn mowers or serving dishes. BECAUSE IT WAS THE 80s.

 

 

 

  
   

 

 

I had rented a small little room in a tall apartment building, so I could have a place to write. I went there one day late in the day to work and then just didn’t manage to get home, partially because I knew I was in trouble at home, so I stayed there all night with the dog. When I woke up in the morning, I was slightly panicked that I’ve done something wrong, and it was raining, and I was on the balcony of the apartment. I managed to get home where there were a lot of people and my wife, who was professionally dressed as if for court, and she said we need to have a talk about our finances in front of everyone and get their opinion on what we should do with our lives. I said I didn’t want that to happen, but I didn’t have a choice, so she sat down and she talked with two professional people. One of them tried to sell me a condo in the Bahamas.

 

 

 

 

A Supergroup! The guys think "we can make it big if we form our own group and sell out."

 
 

Wikipedia:

KBC Band (also sometimes referred to as The Kantner Balin Casady Band was formed in 1985 by former Jefferson Airplane (later Jefferson Starship) members Paul Kantner (guitar and vocals), Marty Balin (vocals and guitar) and Jack Casady (bass).

The band performed supporting tours from 1985 to 1987 before Kantner left for Nicaragua to investigate the Sandinista situation.

Snort. Airplane or Starship, I never liked either of them.

 

 

That will do. Lucre awaits. Hope you didn't mind the minor interface tweaks here. Had to make a break with the old paradigm. You did notice didn't you