This weekend we went to Portland, ME. Above is our view from the rooftop hotel bar, where we drank Stingahs, or, as they pronounce them outside of Boston, "Stingers." We had a great time, wandering, eating, drinking, and my most dangerous of pursuits - tipsy book-buying.
The Believer? I picked up the 50th anniversary issue, because it literally had a shiny cover and an interview with my hero Lydia Davis. I hate that magazine. Journal. Where snarkiness meets the New Sincerity, the practitioners of which are insufficiently in touch with their insincerities to be truly sincere. I should have examples here, but wouldn't that be just like something they'd do, back up their assertions with evidence.
Anyway, the postcards I sent to my family were about Old Orchard Beach and the winterly-ghosttowny oceanfront amusement park we passed on the train.
I love the quality of light in that photograph. So - yes. Portland ME = good weekend trip (esp. if you find Fading Grandeur Hotel on priceline.com for $64), but I think I'm more of an Ogunquit or Portsmouth NH kind of gal.
13 comments:
Were you surprised how small it was?
Speaking of pictures sprucing up a blog, it has been decided that there aren't nearly enough artistic/sexy butt shots over at Literary Outpost (my other blog). If anybody is interested in becoming the artistic/sexy butt shots editor, please let me know.
gikes: How to say yikes in Googlespeak.
Is a certain person on the About list of that blog who I think it is?
And I was a little surprised by the size. I think that part of what made it not work for me is that it felt like an underdeveloped city instead of a bustling village superpower.
I think that by this I mean "too "authentic" to be touristy and too touristy to be "authentic.""
Yes.
And you are right. It's like a cute version of Youngstown, OH or something like that
By the way, Kimpasse is a Portlandmanteau that I just made up today.
I really liked "Kimpasse." Also, of course, "Portlandmanteau." And did you see that you're my new auto-signature?
uvxlxx: (n.) the size for very ugly, very large people.
I did see that but I thought you were using that quote for your autosignature last week.
I think, now that a quote of mine is being used in somebody's autosignature, it is totally appropriate for me to sign my emails as "The" Mark ______ (last name inserted, of course).
Ore perhaps "The" Mark ______ without the last name would be even better as it would surely make people wonder.
The funny thing about the Kimpasse and the smallness of Portland is that I sometimes wonder if there are ever two strangers that pass each other on the street in Portland and one of them says to the other "Do you remember when those two people were here and they had that roving argument up and down such and such street."
What the hell, I posted a comment on here earlier today about the Kimpasse that actually happened in Portland. Did you delete it?
Basically she had to do a resume at the internet cafe. But it was too corporate for her so we had to walk down the street to the less corporate coffee shop and she was going to work on it there.
But then the non-corporate coffee shop was 'too crowded' for her and she told me to go back up the street. (Although this might have been due to the exceptionally cute barista and my line of sight).
Then she came up to the corporate internet cafe in tears because she didn't think she was qualified for the job anyway and so after three hours of waiting around for her to do this (which she told me would be done before we left Connecticut) I just fucking blew my top and then if I remember correctly she took off and disappeared and I went back down to the less corporate coffee shop and hung out for a while.
Then she came back and I took her to dinner instead of just giving her bus fair which is what I should have done and before the appetizers were on the table she was pissed at the waitress because she was possibly flirting with me - which I didn't even think was true.
bus *fare* (damn homonymns)
But bus fair should work to because it would have been only fair at that point if I had put her on a bus home.
dammit -- *too*
I just saw that I used 'ore' instead of or.
Can I just be excused of all improper homonym use in the future if I am having to type about Kimbalanced?
I think that part of what made it not work for me is that it felt like an underdeveloped city instead of a bustling village superpower.
I wonder what you'd think of Yeovil, which is even smaller -- I'm almost certain that it's the smallest largest city in the state in the States. I think it's more a condensed city.
It does have its flaws though; for instance I have just realized that (a) I am out of the things I ordinarily eat for breakfast (b) it is 5 degrees out.
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