Who do you admire? Clamz edition.

Philip Guston: the year he died! his shirt, his face, and his hands looks like his paintings!

Dan Bejar: so gypsy chic! but I sing British blues music!

Joan Mitchell: I can fit in with all of those masculine drunks! and I love my dogz!

Bad on bad on bad

Bad news, that is! Three of my favorite places in Raleigh are going to be gone within 2 months (max). I'm sad and mad about this.

1. Rockford. Closed suddenly yesterday! Rob and I had dinner there just on Saturday and it was great. I was so thankful for the cozy little second-story space and unpretentious servers and cheap sandwiches and drinks. So thankful, but I guess not thankful enough! CLOSED.

2. Jackpot. I had mixed feelings about this place and occasionally would hem and haw about going there; but like many fun things, I quit my complaining when I got there and would usually stay until closing time. Especially after the smoking ban! Lots of complaints about "hipsters," blah blah, but it was cheap there and you'd always run into someone you knew. And the music was good most of the time. And IHOP is right across the gravel parking lot! Closing "imminently."

3. Get Dressed! If you know Greensboro, it was a little like Design Archives but not as pricey and right across the street from the bead store, Ornamentea...aka perfect! I bought a lot of things there that I now wear weekly or even daily, like my favorite little silver-feathers ring. I hate that this place is closing. It's happening next month though, so there's still time to go. I bet the final sales will be amazing.

This is all sad partly because I enjoyed these places and partly because they gave Raleigh some needed character and community. Community is a "buzzword" these days but I don't know what else to call walking into a bar and knowing everyone in it.

One commenter on the blog where I read all my bad news lately, New Raleigh, wrote this and I have to agree. Well said, "Synaesthesiac":

It is ironic that many of the qualities that make a city a popular new area for growth get bulldozed to support that growth. It occurs because of a major disconnect between developers and the street level of culture. Rarely a developer like Empire bridges the gap. It is the cultural elements that help make the headlines, attracting both good growth as well as soulless capitalists. I always wondered what is the fundamental difference between the Glenwood South scene, Jackpot, and Fayetteville St. scenes. Some casual interviews revealed that the Glenwood South crowd is dominated by very recent relocees, often northerners, whereas the other spots are mostly North Carolinians. The out of towners move here because of the headlines, but aren’t properly sensitized to understand the culture once they arrive. They have no sentimentality about a place like Jackpot, and will pay to move in to some new condo without a wince. It is a sad but inevitable process.

L.L. Bean Signature

It's Spring? Almost? Except for the 35 degree morning, I'm looking to invest in some new spring clothes in the near future. I haven't been out to actually see what's in stores yet, but I've been surfin' the web. I just found L.L. Bean Signature - maybe it's been out for awhile? The collection does resemble Gap basics, and it seems a bit pricey from that viewpoint. Here were some basics that caught my eye:

Dealz, Dealz, Dealz!!

In an economy like this, its all about the "steals and deals", isn't it? I have always been a fan of good stuff for cheap--and since my rent has gone up in the past year, I have really kicked it into high gear.

You gotta love the discount stores--I'm talking Big Lots, and if you live a little bit more up north, Ollie's (the BOMB for books) and Ocean State Job Lot, which my sister is a huge fan of. Yes, it looks like something exploded when you first walk in, like your brain can't take in that much data. But imagine what you can find!!! And you always end up finding it. Like a DVD of Stand By Me for one dollar. At a Big Lots in Virginia I bought a kajillion Vitamin Water 10's (a discontinued flavor) for 35 cents each!!!

Lately I've been turned on to Coupon Kim. Yes, I always wondered how you can go to Harris Teeter and get six cans of soup, four rolls of toilet paper, two boxes of cereal, yogurt, and frozen broccoli for 32 cents. Its a little something called coupon websites and super deals week where they double your coupons.

Clothes...I'm almost done going to regular stores at this point. I like clothes CHEAP. Sometimes I think even the thrift store is trying to rip me off. For me its all about finding decent stuff from Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, and J. Crew at Rugged Wearhouse. I'm not trying to brag, but this is done frequently by me. I'm saying I want a t-shirt for three dollars and a dress for under ten. And a good thrift store (especially in a rural area) is like finding a gold mine sometimes, isn't it? You have to be willing to frequent these places regularly though. I'm not going to lie, a few shots of espresso help before going into any discount stores. You definitely have your tactics and rules figured out for tackling places like these.

Now, I'm not saying I never buy anything kind of expensive, and I like quality. Shoes, for example, are hard to find fashionable, high in quality, AND cheap. You just have to cave sometimes. But with all the money you've saved, its not a big deal!