the varsity

the varsity
Originally uploaded by equusignis.

it had been a while since i've strolled down university avenue in the evening.

my friend dan and i walked around last night and i kept having flashes in my mind and memory of what the street was like when i was a kid. i had visions of the promenade when it was still crowded with little boutiques, restaurants and mom 'n pop shops before the zip code 94301 became "the place to be" in the mid to late 80's.

slowly but inavoidably it seems, the quaint downtown strip bit by bit mutated into a ripe petri dish for franchises.

by the dotcom era, many of the little eateries and other small businesses went in the way of the snowy egret. today, restoration hardware, apple, borders moved in.

anyway, my original thought for this photo was to photoshop something underneath the borders sign to make a funny commentary but haven't decided on something sufficiently irreverant yet. perhaps leaving it the way it is for those who remember what it previously was like and triggering some sort of reflection is enough of a commentary as it is.

however, suggestions are welcomed. it is always fun to see photoshop employed for something other than bad, distasteful, and inaccurate manipulation of reflections on poorly designed automobile ads. ;-p but that is another post...