Portland (part 1, Arrival and Oblation)

My time in Portland with Richard Polt has already been well-documented on his blog, but here are some different pictures and story from my and W's 2.5 days in Portland.

In Tacoma, we took the Link (light rail) to the Amtrak station (501 Cascades train), as this trip was going to be entirely free from personal motor transportation. And you really don't need a car to get around Portland or downtown Tacoma. Portland has a really nice train station.

We arrived before lunch, found our hotel, dropped our things there, and rode into the city center on the Max (yellow line). Portland has a very comprehensive public transportation system, if rather unreliable when it comes to keeping a schedule.

We stopped in at Powell's, the famous used bookstore, which was enjoyable but overpriced and too commercialized for my taste. My local Tacoma Book Center is a used bookstore in what I think of as the traditional sense—a building that looks bigger on the inside, crammed to the ceiling with books spilling over into hallways all with price tags I can afford. I did find two interesting maps there, though.

I saw a Dick Blick on the way to Oblation Papers and Press so we stopped in and I got some Nature Print paper, which is cool stuff. I haven't had a sunny day that wasn't busy yet to use it, but I will soon.

Then we met Richard at Oblation and typed a bit on the typing station outside. I regret that I said nothing of consequence and nearly pounded out a couple sentences for the sake of a photo op. For shame.

Inside, our ever admirable typewriter revolution leader coerced the staff to let us get a tour round the back. Actually, they said they did tours and he asked if we could have one and they said yes. This tour was the highlight of the day for me.

We got to see how their paper is made from cotton pulp, which they get in sheets and soak in water.

They make paper in a way that is remarkably identical to how it was done in Gutenberg's time, it was almost like watching a documentary about the dawn of the printing press!

They make normal rectangular sheets of white paper as well as different colors and different shapes.

Unlike Gutenberg, they do not typically use moveable type. Most design is done on the computer and then resin plates are created in a process similar to printing a circuit board.

If they need to cut the paper down to a different size, they have many forms. Including one specially made for Al Gore's presidential campaign!

The pressses are, however, all quite old (the newest is from the 1950s and the oldest is from the late 1800s)

 
Two presses were running, and they were mesmerizing to watch. I was reminded of my own desire to have a small printing press of my own—if only they weren't so expensive if you want one complete and in working condition.

After Oblation, we travelled back up to my and W's hotel and got pizza and talked typewriters for a couple hours. I got to use his Junior Mod. 58 which is really the coolest little typewriter. The touch is really solid and it's better than many machines larger than it. I wish I'd thought to type on it more before we left!

Sound of the Tbilisi Metro

Here are a few more photos I took of the Tbilisi Metro. This is the Freedom Square station, serving Parliament and one of the more touristish areas of the city. This is the stop we got off at to go to the Dry Bridge Market. The following pictures are of the blue metro train. Most of them are painted up in Georgian colors, but at least one, possibly two, are painted blue.

I made an audio recording of riding the Metro which can be downloaded if the embedded player doesn't work. Initially, the listener finds themself waiting in a busy station waiting for the metro to arrive. Then it does and the listener boards and rides to the next stop. This brings back a lot of memories for me! After a month I still found riding the Metro to be fun.

Learning Russian / Tbilisi at Night / Metro

I've also decided to show some photos of my favorite Metro stations to supplement the previous post. Rustaveli station definitely has the nicest exterior with its concrete mural. There is always one and only one door open in each direction at every Metro station and you must always go through that open door and never open any other. Apparently that's an unwritten Georgian law.

The Technical Institute station has the nicest interior design, I think, and is better-lit than most stations. It is all grey, but the ceiling provides its own contrast. It also directs attention to the mosaic-mural.

Finally, Tsarateli station certainly has the most vivid use of color. It's darker inside than my photos indicate, but I felt like editing them to show how it would look if properly lit. Many of the other stations are less interesting and even more poorly lit, but these show off the best of Tbilisi Metro. The best-designed stations seem to have been built in the 1970s.

A side note about police in Georgia. Apparently this country used to be pretty unsafe and the police were unreliable and generally useless. Now the nicest buildings in all of the small towns are police stations, and in Tbilisi they get quite grandiose. It is said that the all-glass walls symbolizes police transparency, but you might notice that half of the panels have walls behind them. XD

Sent from my Olivetti Lettera 22

Tbilisi Metro

A train enters the station

The arch creates a strong roof for the deep stations

Some stations still sport Soviet-era signage in Russian, such as Delisi

Delisi station

The front has been upgraded but the train is old

Redecorated in Georgian colours

The old traincar numbers are beautiful

Inside an empty late-night traincar

Inside Station Square

Waiting to board the next train in Station Square

Each stop has its own unique style

Escalators are often provided to save climbing hundreds of steps

The Metro can be entered through underground crosswalks such as these (English graffiti here can get quite silly!)

Usually with the "M" sign but sometimes missing

Or at ground-level entrances such as this

I've started a tumblr blog entitled "мы из будущего", or, "we are from the future" inspired by the name of the Soviet Russian television programme named as such (not the modern film). In it I post various photos and scans of items of interest from the USSR. Some of these will be shown on Philosophothought, but much won't make it this far. This accompanies my other tumblr blog X Over It (and similarly named youtube channel, still with only one video though) which is about typewriters and mostly duplicates information from Philosophothought.

Sent from my Olivetti Lettera 22