Something about living in Portland for 18 months has taken a toll. Where once my complexion was pale at best, it is now translucent and bat-boy like. I am not the only one. The sun came out for a few days and the temperature reached the into the 80s. Portland freaked out. The parks, riverfronts, decks, yards and porches were suddenly mobbed with pasty white vitamin D deprived Pacific Northwesterners. But the sun went away again and will not likely be available again until sometime mid-June.
Big Ideas! So there's this guy who is like an anti-architect in that he doesn't want to solve problems, he wants to create more problems. Or at least raise the issue that there is a problem. This is what he says. Michael Rakowitz . Inspired by the design of Bedouin encampments in Jordan, he got the idea to make structures for urban homeless people out of plastic bags and tape. He calls them ParaSITES and they are fixed onto a hot air exhaust of a building. The structure is double-walled so the hot air [...]
I am pretty sure I'm going to see this band this weekend and I am pretty happy about it.
Though I have passed by it many times on my walk to work, I had yet to enter The Old Church over on Clay St. until tonight. And I saw a very lovely concert there. The building itself is unlike anything I've ever seen and something called Carpenter Gothic . It looks like a medium sized gothic church but instead of being made of stone or brick, it is all wooden. On the inside, there's a huge organ, and nary a crucifix in sight. Gladly instead, I got to see two great [...]
Esther Pearl Watson . And I'm arriving a little late to the party. But I bought a print of hers this week through tiny showcase and now I can't get enough of her paintings. I guess she's most famous for her zine . But I'm super interested in the paintings because they are about growing up in north Texas with an eccentric inventor parent who is trying to make a flying saucer. Beta Band - Space Beatle The Meat Purveyors [...]
There's an old hand painted sign on Alberta street above a carry out that says something about "Chicken and Jo Jos" and I thought it referred to a salty old couple who owned the store. Perhaps the mom was named Jojo and the pop liked to go as Chicken. Maybe on account of a limited career as a bantam weight boxer. Lo and behold, I found out from my lovely and talented legal assistant that Jojo is not a person, it is a food. A regional dish pictured here, which is a fried potato wedge. [...]
Someone at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry thought it would be funny to keep the place open until 10pm and pass out free shots of vodka. And hence a trample of grown ups crowded the Da Vinci exhibit and played all night with all the various toys and contraptions. I was there. I held little metal pie tins in one hand and a lady I did not know held my other hand, and she touched a silver globe and current passed through us and the plates flew out of my hand into the air. [...]
1. Brunch at the Renegade Dinner Club. Billy came to visit for the weekend and as luck would have it, Colleen was making brunch at her dinner club. It's a loft space in an artist warehouse down near the river in southeast. You have to have a code to get in, and you climb up stairs through hallways that look like the set of Blade Runner. She's behind one of the many doors cooking up a storm. This morning she served gruyere toasts, a green salad with this amazing pickled carrot and allspice dressing, and [...]
Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Crystal Ballroom on friday night. I was super psyched to get to see this band because they are notorious in Portland, in part because of the great rock documentary DiG! that came out a few years back. Anton Newcombe did not fight anyone during the show, and in fact he stood off to the side and didn't do much of the singing. Most of the singing was from the bass player, Matt Hollywood. Maybe all that hard living got the best of Anton, or at least that's the impression [...]
I hurt my ankle again . During my tennis lesson. It hurts.
No path. No stairs. No people. Mud under the fingernails and moss in the hair. My daring guide had the map and we pressed onward through a clear cut, and down a prodigious, slick creek bank. After climbing across slippery rocks and rotting green pine logs along the water, after I wrongly suggested that maybe we had gone far enough, we could hear a great whoosing sound around the next bend of the creek. And there in its glory was Abiqua Falls.
I got this text message from a friend that asked, "Are you going to the Iditarod?" and I was puzzled and replied, "In Alaska?" But he wasn't talking about that. He was talking about the Portland Urban Iditarod. Intrigued, I went over to where it was happening on Saturday morning. It goes something like this: a bunch of drunken costumed yahoos pulling shopping cart sleighs mushing from bar to bar and back and forth across the Willamette River. A lot of beer, screaming and traffic jams at major intersections. [...]
I no longer have to look at official portraits of Dick and George when I walk into the Federal Courthouse across the street.
I came across a musician I really like and it turns out she's from Kent, Ohio. I went and saw her show at the Doug Fir recently and her brothers played with her and she had a woman drummer who wore a little hat. I kind of can't stop listening even though it's a good bit more country-fied than what I've been into lately. I think she's going to be famous. We've Never Lied - Jessica Lea Mayfield (Woxy.com recording) Kiss Me Again - Jessica [...]
For whatever reason, I decided I wasn't feeling the Greece trip. It was Greek to me. And so I switched those tickets for 2 weeks around the Mediterranean, starting out in Milan and flying back home from Barcelona. As a bonus, friends are also going to be in Spain for part of that time. So I'm going to be cheerfully meandering with a back pack and sense of adventure coming up soon. If you have any thoughts on things I should see, do tell.
One of the great Northwestern mysteries is what in the heck ever happened to D.B. Cooper . I am generally interested in criminal folk heroes and have been acquainted with Mr. Cooper for quite a number of years. I remembered he was vaguely supposed to have manifested in this part of the country, but it wasn't until the recent Oregonian article on his continuing saga that I realized that the legend of D.B. Cooper is based right here in Portland. Here's the tale, roughly: In 1971, he hijacked a Boeing 727 [...]
I got to go to the Trailblazers game on Saturday night. Never been to an NBA game before and here's what I saw: tall guys, no black guys except for the people who worked there and the players on the court, cheerleaders, a "stun team" that jumped on trampolines during intermissions to make slam dunks, many children, break dancers, and the Blazers beating the Timberwolves 94 to 90 or something like that.
Early staff meeting today, and I'm still rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. A couple of things: 1. For all of you well wishers who want to know why I haven't been fast-tracked into becoming a federal judge, this Douglas Berman blog post put it about as well as anyone I've seen. I'm sure that's the only reason, right? I pay my taxes and surely the judiciary could benefit from the addition of an indie rock obsessive adventure nut. 2. Word on the street is that Sleater-Kinney really [...]
The United States Barista Championship is being held at the Oregon Convention Center March 5-8. They say: The USBC is an event designed to encourage and recognize professional achievement in the art of espresso beverage preparation and service. Competitors will prepare and service three coffee beverages - one espresso, one cappuccino, and one signature drink of their own creation - for four judges in a space of 15 minutes. The winner of the USBC goes on to represent the United States at the World Barista Championship. How caffinated can I get? Last [...]
Go West Young Tex
[LISTEN] Gotye (Passion Pit Remix)
Big Boi & Theophilus London (feat. TRE LUCE) - 'She Said OK'
