Providential adventure
Sep. 7th, 2012 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidYesterday I went to Providence to help doing merch for ENSMB. I got a ride, which meant getting there very early, so there was time for me to go walkabout before the show. Though the area right around the club is a bit sketchy, I found some interesting things.
As always, I'm fascinated by small differences (editor, anyone?), so this street was interesting. I don't know whether the in-street plantings are to delineate parking spaces or for a more subtle effect (maybe slower traffic on a visually more narrow road?), but my first thought was that it must be hell in winter, unplowable and possibly plowed in.
Close up on the street sign.
Though there are still many of the green-background street signs I'm used to, there are a lot of these newer signs, which are larger, and have the neighborhood as well, which I thought was great (and that colored part of the sign is color-coded by neighborhood; Olneyville, for instance, was a kind of olive green).
A bike sign, and whatever else. Not sure why this appealed to me so; it just did.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of this street sign. Um, yeah. (This would have read "Speed Bump" at home.)
Being me, I managed to find a farmers' market in a lovely park. It was like many of the Boston ones, but there were a number of food trucks lined up as well, which I thought made sense. And there were a couple of places that had vegetables I didn't even recognize (mouse melons? some other small bitter thing?). And these tomatoes, which were just gorgeous. (I bought one, and it was perfectly nice, but nothing to write home about.) Interestingly, the stall that had these were a cooperative of five farmers' wares, all grown in small areas around the city, some less than a mile from the market itself.
The park wasn't large, but in addition to the farmers' market, there was a fenced dog area, a playground (very much in use), and some places for sports. I saw men working with bags of concrete, making what looked to be rectangular insets on a path, but might be supports for these pieces of a new installation. These (and a number of other pieces with more parts of the quote) were apparently going to be part of an outdoor classroom.
There were a lot of pretty houses around the park. One had this lovely carved pediment (I didn't see the date until the third time I looked at the photo, and had completely missed it in person).
And there were a number of 'painted ladies' such as this one.
This is the front entrance of another painted lady, complete with cat.
And the top point of the roof of that painted lady; I thought the color was impressive (though the light sucked).
And one side of the park was dominated by a huge yellow brick castle! It was too big to get a good photo, so I focused on the castle battlements, including faces at the bottom of each corner minaret-ish part.
I found some quirky art, such as this use for a half a bike (perhaps it's named Eric?).
It was interesting to see how the neighborhoods differed. On average, it felt like there was more litter around on the streets and sidewalks. I didn't always speak the language (Spanish in one area, some Asian language(s) in others). And I was looked at incredibly suspiciously by a librarian when I went in to check out a tiny branch library (a sign on the door let people know that due to budget cuts, the libraries will be closed all next week, which has to suck not only for the librarians and other employees, but for students who may need the library to do their schoolwork).
The club was a beautiful space, including a bunch of these fascinating lights. (There were also a pair of interesting possibly-table-ish things: poles with ironwork sort-of umbrella spines curving out of the top, each with a light that changed color at the end. The pole had a bunch of little flat surfaces coming out at different heights. None of the photos I took of them came out well, unfortunately, so all I'm sharing is this light.)
As always, I'm fascinated by small differences (editor, anyone?), so this street was interesting. I don't know whether the in-street plantings are to delineate parking spaces or for a more subtle effect (maybe slower traffic on a visually more narrow road?), but my first thought was that it must be hell in winter, unplowable and possibly plowed in.
Close up on the street sign.
Though there are still many of the green-background street signs I'm used to, there are a lot of these newer signs, which are larger, and have the neighborhood as well, which I thought was great (and that colored part of the sign is color-coded by neighborhood; Olneyville, for instance, was a kind of olive green).
A bike sign, and whatever else. Not sure why this appealed to me so; it just did.
I couldn't resist taking a picture of this street sign. Um, yeah. (This would have read "Speed Bump" at home.)
Being me, I managed to find a farmers' market in a lovely park. It was like many of the Boston ones, but there were a number of food trucks lined up as well, which I thought made sense. And there were a couple of places that had vegetables I didn't even recognize (mouse melons? some other small bitter thing?). And these tomatoes, which were just gorgeous. (I bought one, and it was perfectly nice, but nothing to write home about.) Interestingly, the stall that had these were a cooperative of five farmers' wares, all grown in small areas around the city, some less than a mile from the market itself.
The park wasn't large, but in addition to the farmers' market, there was a fenced dog area, a playground (very much in use), and some places for sports. I saw men working with bags of concrete, making what looked to be rectangular insets on a path, but might be supports for these pieces of a new installation. These (and a number of other pieces with more parts of the quote) were apparently going to be part of an outdoor classroom.
There were a lot of pretty houses around the park. One had this lovely carved pediment (I didn't see the date until the third time I looked at the photo, and had completely missed it in person).
And there were a number of 'painted ladies' such as this one.
This is the front entrance of another painted lady, complete with cat.
And the top point of the roof of that painted lady; I thought the color was impressive (though the light sucked).
And one side of the park was dominated by a huge yellow brick castle! It was too big to get a good photo, so I focused on the castle battlements, including faces at the bottom of each corner minaret-ish part.
I found some quirky art, such as this use for a half a bike (perhaps it's named Eric?).
It was interesting to see how the neighborhoods differed. On average, it felt like there was more litter around on the streets and sidewalks. I didn't always speak the language (Spanish in one area, some Asian language(s) in others). And I was looked at incredibly suspiciously by a librarian when I went in to check out a tiny branch library (a sign on the door let people know that due to budget cuts, the libraries will be closed all next week, which has to suck not only for the librarians and other employees, but for students who may need the library to do their schoolwork).
The club was a beautiful space, including a bunch of these fascinating lights. (There were also a pair of interesting possibly-table-ish things: poles with ironwork sort-of umbrella spines curving out of the top, each with a light that changed color at the end. The pole had a bunch of little flat surfaces coming out at different heights. None of the photos I took of them came out well, unfortunately, so all I'm sharing is this light.)