shangri-la

today i found the good art shop.
in my wanderings back and forth across the island i have sought it in vain, finding many stationers and the small and inadequate rua de roma art shop.
It was like the elephant graveyard of art shops, a history of art materials and art books from the mid 70's to now, lots of great books of 70's fantasy art and comic illustration and books of ornament illustration, but also interesting new art and design books. many of the older books have been reduced to $30-40 mop ($5-6 aud) there are cabinets packed with assorted art materials of equally varied vintage, all arranged in a pleasingly chaotic order. the owners of the shop speak english very well.

I bought a child-size lay-figure wooden hand, a set of tiny loop tools for detailed work in hard cement, some large loop tools for fixing terrible mistakes, and some brushes.
poorer, but happier.

on my way to dumplingtown i came across a whole street of more expensive but much more interesting clothes shops. ultimately disappointing but fun;
me- do you have this... in a larger size?
them- hehehe... sorry, no; only one.
I saw three macao goths and then found their shop. there were some cute reversible skull and X bone beanies and scarves. met a girl from melbourne working in the sock shop.
listened to more music at pin-to. resolved to be more frugal (ish).
anticipating failure.