camera set to auto defrost

place: Luu's Appliances, 2615 Hastings St E (CAN)
mood: nostalgic

On the 2400 - 2700 block of East Hastings Street stretches a multitude of independently owned businesses: Italian deli's, Chinese bakeries, laundry mats, and mini casinos they call convenience stores. And you know the neighbourhood is up and coming when not one, but two of the green mermaids attempt to perk you up with their brew.

Luu's Appliances on the 2600 block offers no exceptions to the bretheren of Sunrise Area merchants: a family-run business with an undeniable mess of a storefront that is a tangible showcase for one of my life philosophies: ordered chaos.

Amongst the lightbulbs for sale, the aluminum tubing, and the precariously stacked plastic containers is an underlying sense of unity, as suggested by the repetition of white and light blue or cyan containers that appear to be designed for holding cutlery or other handy dandy tools. So despite the haphazardness, the simple two colour scheme ties the plastic mountain together as a whole.

That is, until the yellowish-green container at the bottom of the pile catches your eye. This break in the colour repetition provides an unexpected mellow burst of contrast, and throws back to the subtractive primaries of cyan of the plastic containers and the yellow of the cardboard box that sits in the 'Lightbulbs for APPLIANCES' basket.

The left and the right sides of the photograph mirror, yet compete with each other. The pairing of the vivid yellow and the bright blue cardboard boxes are attention-grabbing, and what they lack in number in comparison to the massive heap of white, cyan, and singular lime green, they certainly make up for in intensity of colour.

In elementary school, I used to be really good friends with the store owner's daughter, and we spent many afternoons just hanging out at the back of the store. This photograph reminded me of those carefree times. Looks like my memories were not forgotten, just frozen.