The Rite Aid Mural: Another Great Example of South Pasadena Public Art

Walking into Rite Aid is great.  For the last few years, patrons of the drug store have been greeted with this gorgeous mural painted by Carolee Merrill.

I still remember when the dark walkway felt distinctly more noir:

Ordinary Place

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

--Elliot Erwitt

Hazy Days of Summer

Who else feels like they've been rushing around in a haze lately? I would write more about it, but I'm rushing around in a haze...

Kitsch as Kitsch Can...

It might not be as charming as this or as historic as this or this, but the weird 70s gazebo outside of Rite Aid is definitely an iconic South Pas structure. And this post is for the readers who emailed me asking if it was still there. Yup! Love it or hate it, it's certainly part of the downtown landscape. (Sometimes, it even makes a fairly decent artist's model...)

After Dark

Why do I love prowling around South Pasadena at night with a camera? Because even the Rite Aid parking lot looks pretty when lit by dappled moonlight and streetlamps...

"Streets that follow like a tedious argument..."

Don't ask me why, but T.S. Eliot's Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock came to mind when I was taking this picture. These lines, actually:

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question ...
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”

Devoted

It takes a lot of commitment to stand in front of Rite Aid with a donation bucket in 100 degrees...

Walk Softly, Stranger

Maneuvering the dark corridor from Rite Aid to the parking lot is normally an uneventful experience. But in late afternoon on a long summer day? It's a film noir moment.

Rite Aid Abstract

The Rite Aid drugstore on Fair Oaks is just like every other Rite Aid drugstore in Southern California ... with the exception of the weird wooden gazebo out front. It's unexpected, rather ponderous and clearly a fern bar-inspired design leftover from the 1970s. By day you might walk right past it.

But doesn't it make a cool study at night?