Looking For a Frosty?

Try the Hancock Tavern in Wollaston.  Happy Monochrome Monday!

Hair Pyrates

This photo doesn't tell you everything you need to know about Altadena, but it tells you a lot.

One thing it leaves out is the mansions. You would never guess mansions from this photo. Pasadena has mansions, too, but I don't know of a long hair shoppe.

Often, when I drop Boz off at his play date (at Sprocket's) I take side streets to come home. That gives me time to marvel at how lovely Altadena is, and then, once the border is crossed, Pasadena too. Pasadena may have shorter hair, but it's still good lookin'.


Hair Pyrates info (thank you, Katie).

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Entries are pouring in (well, they're arriving) for the Camelot Where You Are photo contest! I hope you'll enter! Its easy. Take a photo of Camelot Where You Are and email it to me. I'll post it, and at the end of each week we'll all vote on a winner (I'll recuse myself from the voting). Each weekly winner gets a copy of Camelot & Vine as soon as it's released (I'm shooting for early October). The contest will continue until the date of publication or until I run out of entries, whichever comes sooner. Contest rules are here.

Look around you. You'll see it. There's Camelot where you are.

Should've Checked the Love Meter

It had gotten to the point where I was embarrassed to be seen in my darling car.

I don't have a preference when it comes to car washes in Pasadena. Do you? If so, let me know. I've only tried a couple and I tend to stick with convenience and price.

The Walnut-Hill Car Wash (on Walnut at Hill) doesn't get a whole lot of stars on Yelp but I've never had a problem there. They have this Something Wicked This Way Comes arcade that captures my fancy, if not my quarters.

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City Daily Photo Bloggers: the portal is not coming back any time soon. Join the City Daily Photo Facebook group to stay current on theme days, new blogs and old friends. The September theme might end up being "people watching" unless you vote!

Bag Ban Theory

Just as in many other California communities, a ban on single-use plastic bags has recently gone into effect in Pasadena. Those bags are big polluters so I think the ban is a good idea. The ban doesn't cover all stores, but I can't keep track of which stores it's in and which it isn't, so I carry my canvas bags everywhere. I've been doing it for a while and I have a collection in the back of the car.

You play your cards right and folks give 'em to you for free, if you don't mind a logo. I've got one from the City of Pasadena, one from Whole Foods, one from some book fair a hundred years ago, several from Bell Sound and about a hundred Trader Joe's paper bags that just won't quit.

What logos have you collected so far?

Talbott Electric

One of our lamps stopped working.

We stuck it in the garage and figured we'd do something about it sooner or later.

Then another lamp stopped working.

John knows how to fix a socket but it turns out these things were not normal. They were newfangled. They cost many bucks, on sale, warranty long gone.

I know what to do! Buy new lamps!

(or)

stop by Talbott Electric and find out if the lamps can be fixed.

Talbott is the place on Washington Blvd. with the vintage neon sign. (I'll post a photo of that sign one of these days.) They've been a Pasadena institution since 1924. Besides fixing lamps they offer complete electrical services. In the store, they also have some charming Craftsman-type fixtures. None of that Lamps Plus homogeneity.

The display cases inside the front door are my favorite part. They're loaded with strange antique fixtures, switches and oddments. Note "nurses room" and "nurses closet" on the typed sheet. Time travel.

Despite their oldfangled collection, Talbott fixed my newfangled lamps for less than 5% of what it would have cost to buy new ones.

Knead A Massage?

Over the last year or so I have noticed a preponderance of massage parlors popping up in the Wollaston Center area.  Either "Wolly" women are well pampered and ache-free or we have market saturation or perhaps something else.  I have had my "spies" looking into this and the interesting thing is that we hardly ever see anyone frequenting many of these massage establishments which leads me to think that there isn't a need for 8 of them.   Wouldn't you think that if there wasn't a customer base then the business would close after a time?

Grid Work

I treated this image of a State Street Office building in North Quincy, to some post processing to add some visual interest.

Game On

Local supermarkets are stocked with Superbowl party foods. Go Patriots!

New Look

The first Dunkin Donut shop opened here on the Southern Artery 62 years ago. It recently received some a facelift and added some needed memorabilia. Here is one of my earlier posts on this Quincy landmark. There are now some 5,000 Dunkin Donuts in the U.S. with plans to open 10,000 more by 2020!
Do you drink coffee with your donuts? What is your favorite kind of donut? I like vanilla coffee and cocunut donuts.

Twas The Week Before Christmas

I like to go and support my local bookstore this time every year. Quincy doesn't have a general bookstore and it concerns me that Barnes & Noble is the only remaining bookstore close by.

Say Cheese!

Plenty of provolone being cut loose at this small cheese store.

Tangles and Locks

Tangles and Locks barbershop, at 2025 N. Lake Avenue, has been an Altadena business for over 23 years. I've been meaning to stop by for a long time--not 23 years but a while, nonetheless--because I wanted to take a picture of the suit of armor standing in the back corner.

Yesterday I was in the neighborhood, I had the time and I had my camera. So I stepped inside and asked.

The owner introduced himself as D.L. He said, sure, I could take a picture. He even moved a few things out of the way of the suit of armor, and I took some pictures of it. But I quickly realized what I really wanted was pictures of the people and the shop.

I'm uncomfortable asking, but it helped that one of the guys there was a photographer. We got to talking and he showed me some of his photos via his flickr page on his iPhone. The shots were outstanding, and many were of people. I asked if he was comfortable asking people to pose. He said you basically get back what you put out there. In other words, if you're comfortable and friendly about it, people will react that way to you.

So I asked the men in the shop if I could take pictures while business went on as usual. I don't know why I find it so hard to ask. Everyone was fine with it.

D.L. also owns one of those gorgeous red cars you often see parked at the vintage gas station across the street. I'll show you those tomorrow.

My pictures of the suit of armor turned out fine. The shop has a medieval armor motif, and D.L. told me he created many of the decorative pieces himself. But despite its technical imperfections, this is my favorite shot of the day. That's D.L. on the left.

Plenty of Puddles & Parking

We're experiencing a Nor'easter which brings some welcomed rain. This is the rooftop of the former Paperama and to be really nostalgic, Raymond's Department Store.

How Much is That Doggie . . .

How much is his waggly tail? This cute puppy is getting some one on one attention at Fin, Fur and Feather, a favorite local pet store.

Small Town Masters

I'm attracted by the weather-beaten sign at Masters Building Supply on Woodbury Road in Altadena. This is another of those places that doesn't have a web presence--unless you count Ace Hardware's website, which I don't. Masters may be an Ace affiliate, but it looks like a hometown Altadena business to me.

I don't mind a place that doesn't have a web presence. That says "small town" to me, and Altadena is a small town. (It's officially not even a town.) Parts of Pasadena have that feel, too. That's one of the reasons I like it here.

Have you been to Masters? What's your review? I found one five-star review of Masters on line, but there are two problems with it: one is that from the description I don't think the reviewer meant to give it five stars, and the other is that I'm not going to base my opinion on a single review.

Where do you go in the Pasadena area for hardware?

Old Pasadena Vintage

Peering out from under the awning at the Pasadena Christian Center (yesterday's post), take a look across the street. There's a cute, little old building that houses the Old Pasadena Vintage Lighting Company at 2569 Colorado Blvd.

The "about us" link on their site doesn't work but the other links do. They get good reviews on Yahoo. I can tell you a few things about them because I've browsed through the store and even taken photos, though for some reason (certainly not human error) none were good enough to post.

The coolest thing about the business is that Jason can custom make just about any kind of vintage lighting you want. He's been at it for a while, and he's created reproductions for some of Pasadena's well-known structures. And yet the prices are reasonable.

Plus they have unique antiques.
Plus they're nice.
Plus last time I was there a charming little dog was guarding the place with all the ferocity of a bonbon.

...

I'm sooo looking forward to the end of the recession. I hope I don't have to wait that long to order my custom light fixtures. But I doubt that median will be re-landscaped before then.

Zen Monday: #80

Zen Monday is the day you experience the photo and give us your thoughts rather than me telling you what I think the photo's about. There's no right or wrong. It means what you think it means, or what you want it to mean.

I look for a photo worth contemplating or, failing that, something odd or silly. And I stay out of the comments box for most of the day to avoid influencing the intellectual path of the (usually highly erudite) discussion.

As I post each new Zen Monday photo I add a label to last week's to identify it if necessary.

Inspiration for today's photo: Susan C.

Nick's

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Got a hankering for Greek-style pizza, salad, gyro or a sub? Nick's, on Granite Street, might fill the bill. I like looking at the murals of Quincy street scenes from yesteryear (enlarge to see) while consuming a gyros or Greek salad.

Pub Stop

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This "authentic" Irish Pub is located on Billings Road in North Quincy and might be a great place to stop for some Guinness stew if the weather turns raw and rainy. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Skywatch Friday

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beni is one of Quincy's stylish sushi bars located in North Quincy in a section that used to be known as Norfolk Downs. Twilight is such a great time of day to photograph and this one is my entry into Skywatch Friday. Click here for more sky pictures from around the world.