Ballard

Vantana Row on 14th /  by Akira Ohiso

I spotted the Vantana Row touring van parked on 14th Ave. NW behind Ballard Market (Town & Country) this morning. I will never call it Town & Country because it’s deeply wired in my 54-year old noggin and you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Plus, a rebrand is always a sell out. 🤘

They played a show on Sunday, June 30th, at Add-A-Ball in Fremont, along with Fresh Produce, Fuuls, and I’ve Never Been Here Before. Their music sounds like a drum set fell out of the back of the van, along with the love child of Stormtroopers of Death and Big Stick, in a good way.

According to SF Weekly, the van is their home/studio/concert venue, and they are known to play inside and broadcast the show on live TV for passersby. It was before noon when I snapped this pic, so my guess is they were sleeping.

“People Have Cats” is dope. I have two. 🐈‍⬛🐈

Market Off Market /  by Akira Ohiso

Anker Ballard Flats has a new business coming into their ground-floor retail space. A new sign says, Market Off Market. I have not found any additional information about this business. Is it another brewery, a mini grocery store (15-minute neighborhood energy), a restaurant, or something else? There is a new retirement community across the street, which might support a local milk-and-eggs market.

The location is also across from Gilman Playground, a community gathering space for dog lovers (illegal), sports leagues, families with young kids, summer camps, high school kids smoking doobies on the bleachers, and pickleball enthusiasts. A general store would do steady business.

Frozen Tire Ruts /  by Akira Ohiso

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I didn’t venture far from the apartment.   Roads and sidewalks are icy, so you look for sure-footing on crunchy snow where dogs defectate.   I took the kids to the nearby playground at St. Alphonsus Church.  It’s a destination we frequent year-round.  To walk familiar routes over and over again may seem monotonous, but there is always the chance to find novelty if you are attuned to it.  Xavier de Maistre journeyed around his room feeling that staying put was far more convenient than the hassles of travel.  As Alain de Botton said in The Art of Travel, “The sole cause of a man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”

The kids enjoy walking in frozen tire ruts and seeing the water move underneath.  Their masterful ability to be present is what we lose as adults.  Adults search, spend money, attend retreats, become addictive and clingy in order to experience fleeting presence.

I am in my head a lot these days.  I seek action to avoid silence, opinions to comfort uncertainty.  Yet these are delusional tactics to avoid my 48-year old self.  To find nothing in the silence is terrifying to me.  Is there a difference between “nothing” and “nothingness?” The former may be about a deficit, the latter about abundance.