NEWSFLASH! Home Depot Expo is going going gone.

Home Depot just announced that it is closing its remaining 34 Expo Centers. From Marketwatch:

Before the opening bell, Home Depot (HD:23.02, +1.30, +6.0%) said that Expo has "not performed well financially and is not expected to anytime soon. Even during the recent housing boom, it was not a strong business."

And, it has "weakened significantly as the demand for big-ticket design and decor projects has declined in the current economic environment."

Over the next two months, the company will close 34 Expo Design Center stores, five YardBIRDS stores, two Design Center stores and a bath remodeling business known as HD Bath, with seven locations. All told, that will result in the loss of about 5,000 jobs. "Streamlining" some support functions will cost another 2,000 positions for a total of about 2% of the company's workforce.

This is a pretty big deal. I never felt particularly threatened by them, not did I think those stores stocked anything that couldn't be bought less expensively from a professional expert in design. But still, that's a lot of people thrown into the bread lines. Times is hard gang, times is hard indeed.

More 2009 colors from Sherwin Williams

Another palette Sherwin Williams has come up with for 2009 is something they're calling Conscious Luxury. Hmmmm. Is that opposed to unconscious luxury? Aside from all of the soft-headed hoo hah that surrounds these palettes, they're important because they have a strong influence over the stuff available to you. Whether it's paper plates from Target or a sofa from Macy's, these color combinations show up all over the place.

Steamed Milk

Celestial

Plummy

Plum Dandy

Constant Coral

Insightful Rose

Gung hey fat choy!

Happy year of the ox and welcome 4707, I thought you'd never get here.

Colors for 2009

Way back in September, I ran a series of 2009 color predictions from Sherwin Williams. Well, now that it's 2009, these things are no longer predictions and have settled into their roles as color descriptions. I tend to take these things with a grain of salt, but there is no denying that this stuff trickles down pretty quickly and ends up showing up all over place. See if you recognize any of these color combinations.

First up, here's a collection Sherwin Williams is calling Global Tapestry and it consists of:

Enticing Red

Gambol Gold

Basket Beige

Alexandrite

Tigereye

Umber

Now let me state for the record that I dislike this palette. There are a couple of colors in here worth looking at, Umber and Gambol Gold in particular, but as a group they leave me rather cold. Alexandrite is a green that can't go away fast enough. Ugh! But SW did better on their remaining three palettes and I'll show them to you through the early part of this week.

Positano daydreams

So since last Sunday's run through Ravello was such a boon, here are some shots I took of Positano. Positano is another little town along the Amalfi Coast and in a region of the world filled with so many one-of-a-kind places, Positano looms large despite its small size.

I'm not the first to have fallen for this slice of heaven's charms. The names of former frequenters of Positano reads like a who's who of the greatest minds of the last few centuries. My hero John Steinbeck wrote a short story about the place in 1953 and he captures its many charms perfectly. Positano by John Steinbeck

Positano is a town of about 4000 souls who cling to the cliffs that rise out of the Mediterranean. It's a town nearly devoid of roads, everything's connected by walkways and staircases instead. When it comes to photography, I'm usually the micro guy. I like to take photos of smaller details. When I look back at my shots from Positano however, nearly all of them are panoramics and nearly all of them are shot looking up at the impossibility of the town.

Here's Positano. Every one of those homes is connected to its neighbors and the town seems to creep up the cliffs. It's mind-bending.

This is Pippo, the town dog. He's sleeping on a bench covered in beach towels and t-shirts that are for sale. If you want to buy something from this shop keeper you have to wake Pippo up and get him to move. Warning: he's pretty cranky when he first gets up.

This region of Italy is renowned for its majolica tile and flourishes of it are everywhere. This shot is a detail of a garden wall and what a cool pattern this is.

Another view looking up from the waterfront.

One of Positano's few roads is in the foreground in this shot.

This narrow passageway is more typical means of getting around Positano. The sheer verticality of this town and the amount of stair climbing involved in getting from point A to point B keep the Positanans (and their visitors) in great shape.

This is the 11th century cupola of the church of S. Maria Assunta. The exterior of that church looks the same today as it did when it was built nearly a thousand years ago.

The iron work on this balcony impressed me and its state of near-decay makes it all the more interesting.

John Steinbeck wrote "Positano bites deep. It is a dream place that isn't quite real when you are there and becomes beckoningly real after you have gone."

This is what I call my money shot. Of the thousands of photos I've taken over the years, this one stands out as my hands-down favorite. This copper statue was in an antique store and I borrowed it for a second, sat it on a wall and took the shot. It was a complete seat of the pants thing and for me, it sums up the incredible town of Positano perfectly. As in this photo, the place is a perfect mixture of art, mythology and scenery. I still can't believe I was there sometimes yet at the same time, it haunts me still. John Steinbeck was right. I don't think I'll ever be satisfied until I go back again.

The Positanans have embraced the 20th century slowly and begrudgingly and I was surprised to see that they've set up a live webcam that looks down at their water front. Clicking on the link to that Positano webcam has become my new mini-vacation. Check it out.