Buying Portland – Black Star Bags

Posted on 2012-05-12 by Ken

My old North Face backpack is looking pretty ratty after carrying my books through several years of schooling, and it has a few design issues that have only annoyed me more the longer I own it. I’ve also found myself wanting to buy local, to the extent possible, which rules out North Face for replacements. I also decided I’d like to give the messenger bag thing a try.

I shopped both Timbuk2 and Chrome offerings, but the fact that both companies have offshored production of some of their newest models left a bad taste in my mouth. In the case of Timbuk2, the stores I checked (REI and Powell’s) didn’t seem to carry the US made models. I came very close to buying a Chrome bag made in California from the PSU Bicycle co-op, but remembered I still had an option that was even closer to home.

I’d heard about Black Star Bags a couple years back and have had their web site bookmarked but never paid their store in southeast a visit until last week. The location tucked into the building next to the Cinemagic theater on Hawthorne is pretty small, the showroom a tiny sliver of the space with the lion’s share of the room dominated by materials and sewing equipment. When I stepped through the door Dave greeted me and asked me if I was looking for anything in particular. I said I was interested in one of the medium messenger bags and he launched into an animated rundown of the features designed into the bags and helped me find the configuration and color I was after.

$150 later I was the happy owner of a bright orange stock model (the very reasonably priced customization options were tempting though). I was surprised to find the pricing to be competitive with what the bigger players were charging for their US made products. I got to keep my money in Portland and it didn’t even cost me extra!

I’m only a couple days into my ownership but I’m extremely impressed so far. I keep finding new touches that improve the useability of the bag and it’s super comfortable even with a quite hefty load (17″ laptop, some notebooks, cables, tools, and random other stuff). Having handled Black Star, Chrome, and Timbuk2 bags I think even if the Black Star bag was more expensive I still would have made the purchase, both for the appeal of buying Portland, and because of the tangible difference in quality of materials, workmanship, and customer service.

On the road in Portland

Posted on 2012-03-09 by Ken

I’m far from an advocate of the automobile as a primary mode of transportation, but I still love me some vintage cars. Here’s some neat ones I’ve spotted in the wild.

T3 Volkswagen bus with a woody kit… As far as I know there wasn’t any kind of option for this (though you could get factory woody kits on American cars up into the 80s; there’s a factory turbocharged, woody kit, K-car wagon in one of the Portland Pick-n-pull lots). Someone put a lot of effort into this thing.

1951(pretty sure anyway) Chevrolet pickup with a utility bed. Digging the vintage visor.

Kinda doubt the bed is as old as the rest of the truck but the period tail lights are a nice touch.

Up in Smoke – The Fairview Training Center in Salem, OR

Posted on 2012-02-26 by Ken

While I was looking through old photo sets to choose the next one to upload I was re-reading background info on various sites. I found some more recent articles about one, and unfortunately it has joined many of its kind as a victim of arson.

The Pierce cottage was part of the Fairview Training Center, a former psychiatric hospital in Salem, Oregon. After standing for nearly ninety years, it was burned down by people who “…said they thought it might be humorous to imply a “ghost” had something to do with the fire, amid stories of hauntings in the building, investigators said.” The place was due to be deconstructed and recycled, so it isn’t as big a loss as a building that had potential for reuse in situ, or preservation, but it is still disappointing to see anything destroyed so flippantly.

I won’t try to explain the whole history of the campus, others do a better job than I could hope to. If you’re interested in learning more about its history the Wikipedia article is not a bad place to start.

Despite having been largely gutted and partially demolished when I checked it out, it was an impressive and interesting place to explore. A lot of the history of the buildings still showed through in the notes on the walls, small personal items scattered about, and in the way the buildings were laid out.

An extensive network of tunnels carried utility lines from where the main plant used to stand to each of the buildings on the campus. It also provided convenient passage between the buildings, out of sight of worried neighbors and the rumored security guard. And of course, they also had that delicious quality steam tunnels do of making you feel simultaneously like a secret agent infiltrating some forbidden place, and a character in a horror movie who is going to be messily devoured by whatever is waiting around the bend.

Here’s the rest of the set: