An Errant Blogger Reclaims Her Space

With the lamest of posts (but a very sincere wish)

Happy Holidays - whichever you celebrate with your nearest and dearest - best wishes for a Peaceful, Prosperous and Happy New Year 2010!

Is it really August already?

Summer still by the

Calendar but one by one

Leaves fall softly down

Baby You Can Drive My Car

I swear The Pea is smiling! We went Autocross racing today!

I only rode shotgun - you don't really need a co-driver for AutoX - Merrilee drove. I'm still a little chicken and had already earmarked the cash the entry fee would have required for The Young Fresh Fellows show coming up later this week instead. I was happy to help navigate the course, hang onto the suicide strap and let Mer handle the power sliding 'round the turns.

Traction control very much off (as they say on Top Gear) it was a little damp when we ran and she actually got a couple controlled slides out of my front wheel drive, automatic transmission (but turbo charged) New Beetle.

Our number was 976!

No, I am not washing the car until at least one person asks about it!

Our sticker to show we passed the tech inspection and

yellow paint dots, one for each of four runs!

The race is put on by The Willamette Motor Club and is completely volunteer run, so if you race you have to work a shift chasing cones and spotting missed gates. That was almost as much fun as driving, plus we were placed by the most technical part of the course, so dammit, if money wasn't tight, I would have run in the afternoon Novice class! I got a good schooling on right and wrong lines, which gates were easy to miss, much easier to see what was what when not hanging on for dear life.

We critiqued all the cars and decided our favorite of the day was a black VW Corrado. Pretty. And fast! The ugliest car (in our humble opinion) was a Mad Max inspired 80's vintage Celica Supra in brown with black trim. Pretty gruesome. There was an early 90's Jetta GLI we dubbed "Skippy" coz she had a rear wheel in the air 'round every turn! Waiting in the parking lot to run the afternoon session were five Ford Fiestas all in a row.

There's more AutoX coming up. The Summer's only just begun! I will be racing - in the driver's seat - soon!

Soundtrack to Life #11

Bruce! Born to Run. But not the album version.

Mosaic Peggy Guggenheim

 

If I could be any historical figure, living or dead, instead of myself, Peggy Guggenheim just might be the one I'd choose.  

She was born on the poorer side of a family with great wealth. Lost her father in the sinking of the Titanic.  Worked in her cousin's bookshop as a young woman - for independence, not the money - then turned her back on it all to live a Bohemian life in Europe in the 20s after marrying Dadaist artist Laurence Vail  - meeting everyone who was anyone in the world of literature, art and culture.

She befriended artists Max Ernst (she was married to Ernst for a time), Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp and many in their circle, then rescued some of them and many works of art from the Nazis first with her gallery Guggenheim Jeune in London then in New York with Art of This Century, one of the first galleries to show modern European art in the US.  She went on to become the patron of promising post WWII American artists - notably Jackson Pollock - then packed up once again in 1949 and moved her formidable collection to Venice to her palazzo on the Grand Canal where she lived until her death in 1979.  

The palazzo is now the Peggy Guggenheim Collection museum and is one of my very  favorite places on earth.

Out of This Century is her own memoir and is an entertaining read and glimpse into the private life of this very extraordinary human being.

You Don't Have to Water Plasticine Flowers

  I've mentioned before my fangirly devotion to Top Gear presenter James May and he's just given me yet another reason to spread the love.  And yes I started this post a while ago.  It's been a week.  Facebook is just so much more facile for getting these things out quickly.  Without effort.  Hell.  At least it's not Twitter!

Anyway...  he won a special plasticine medal for his completely plasticine garden presented at the Chelsea Flower Show.  And presented Stephen Fry with a plasticine nosegay.  How very 'twee'!

I wish the plasticine Porsche competition had been open to non-Brits.  I could so get into that! I'd have at least come up with a plasticine Beetle.  Green, of course!

Soundtrack to Life #10

My Mom loved Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side - especially the part "and the colored girls go doot do doot do doot..." - until she really heard the lyrics for the first time.  After that she never mentioned it, but I think she still liked the song.  

Mom also liked Elvis Presley and a lot of cowboy singers from the 50's, her era.   She graduated Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1956 then married my Dad two years later in an Italian wedding straight out of The Godfather.  (Minus the scene with Sonny and Lucy, I imagine.)  Even though my Grandparents weren't wealthy.  Even though she married someone from far away and not Italian.  Or Irish.  Or even Catholic until he converted.  Which was required to marry Mom.  No, they were very working class.  People did that in those days - big weddings.  

Mom got down to the business of being a wife and a mom and didn't really have a lot of time for music.  She brought the box of singles with her to Oregon.  We giggled at them in the 70's when they became uncool.  She got annoyed with us and put them away again.  They're probably worth a small fortune now.  Wherever they are.

We had odd albums in the house - Dominique by The Singing Nun; the soundtracks to The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins (which launched me into full on Julie Andrews fandom), the original cast recording of Hair, of all things, which came about when I asked for "Hair" from my other Grandma for a birthday present, meaning The Cowsills' hit version which I'd heard on a 45 while visiting my Mom's mom and her little brothers, my Uncles.   Grandma, not being used to buying singles, picked up the album.   Looking back on that, I'm really surprised Mom let me listen to it.   She didn't know that I looked up the word "sodomy" - the title to perhaps the most questionable song.  I looked up everything else quoted in the song as well.  And filed it away for later.

When the Uncles got old enough to road trip by themselves they came out and brought The Beatles, Cream, Santana and Iron Butterfly out with them - on 8 track tapes - and added to the musical soup that we'd brewed up on our own.  Mom liked Neil Diamond by then.  And Cat Stevens (though I was the one who owned the albums) and The Irish Rovers.  The Uncles stayed and added Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Pink Floyd and Seals and Crofts.

My brother and I were old enough to be adding our own collections to the mix - all of the popular 70's artists - and Mom had met and married a guy who brought along George Carlin albums so we learned the seven words you cannot say on television.  They were played openly at our house.

So it came as a small surprise when Mom stuck her head into John's door in protest at Frank Zappa's Catholic Girls, from Joe's Garage, streaming from his teenage bedroom.  Perhaps those lyrics were just a bit too much?  My brother, to his credit, did turn it down.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I miss you.  We turned out okay in spite of everything and I know you're proud of us.  I hope the music never stops where you are now and they play all of your favorites.

Soundtrack to Life #9

The Shins.  I love this song.  Their sound alternates between jangly pop-py cheerful things with high (male) harmonies alternating with beautiful minor key guitar lines tied to quirky poetic lyrics.  My kind of band!  

They're playing tonight at the Crystal Ballroom (2nd night in a row) and I'm too broke to go. 

Tried the Craigslist thing.   Here's my ad from this morning:

"It's late, true, and tonight's the last show and to top it all off I'm completely broke! But I so want to go! Is there anyone out there who would like the company of an engaging, short but cute, blonde Shins fan who could lie to you and say she's 39 (and you'd never know) but believes in honesty and will be glad to reciprocate with coffee, a show or ?? later, when the money's looking better, if the chemistry is right."

And I have to say I've gotten some interesting replies.  (This was posted to "Strictly Platonic", mind you...)

But the show is sold out and only one of the responders actually has tickets in hand. And he's got me completely intimidated coz he puts out such an aura of "I'm too hot for the likes of you" that he just might have to take the "lame co-worker" he referred to in his post advertising his availability.  Unless he manages to find someone bolder than I am.  He might. 

That's okay.  I'm home now and staying put for the night.  

Soundtrack to Life #8

Gawd.  This is what was happening in Vancouver BC while I was leading a fairly sheltered 16 year old life in Eugene Oregon.

The Bowie song I've really had in my head today is Star from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars  ("... just watch me now") but there isn't a decent vid of that to be found anywhere on teh internets right now.  

That and the best video of Jean Genie has the embedding "disabled by request".  This one is an interesting bit of history for sure.

Odd aside #1  Soundtrack to Life Post #8 = legs on a spider.

Odd aside #2  Lynne Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table on APR just played the riff from R.E.M.'s Bang and Blame!  And now they're playing out that segment with Hollow Man.  Nice!  

I should go see if the episode is online and see what it was all about...

Ah!  It is!

Haiku Therapy

Normal was in love (with you)

Clouds  Daffodils  Sod it all

Wander lonely as you like

...and then there's always South Park

Ah, the wonders of the internets!

I think I might love this man

Taking in the Tulips

Up early on this beautiful spring sunny day, plans to get out of Dodge. Somewhere. Not too strenuous. Cynthia had never been out to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm outside of the town of Woodburn an hour South of Portland if one takes the more scenic Hwy 99 East route.  We did.

I've been going out to this tulip field for years, on and off since the 80's.  It used to be just a tulip (and daffodil) farm.  They sold bulbs by mail order - and now on the internet - and let folks into their fields to enjoy the blooms while in season.  Now it's a complete festival with rides for the kiddies, craft and food booths and this weekend a wine tasting festival in the display garden.  A real money making enterprise with corporate sponsors and you can't blame 'em for turning a profit. Luckily we got there before the road in was completely jammed, but the parking lot was already pretty full at 10:30 on a Sunday.

Back in the day, if you went during the week you could have the place pretty much to yourself. Especially if it was a typical Northwest Spring Day (cloudy to rainy) which were actually my favorite days because of the way the tulip colors 'popped' against the moody gray sky and the puddles reflected the image back to you if the sun did happen to come out.  Electric chartreuse of the new foliage on the trees made you feel like you'd taken drugs and if you were really lucky you'd get a thundershower and have threatening purple-y green skies for atmosphere as well.  

The insides of a most beautiful magenta pink tulip.

An orange one.

And a yellow one.

It was far from cloudy this time out and getting plenty warm - and more crowded - by the time we'd rounded the entire field taking photos.  Cynthia was hauling around a serious camera and tripod taking as many pictures of the people as of the flowers.  We headed back to town stopping for "Full Scottish Breakfast" - at 1:30 in the afternoon - at the Highland Still House overlooking Willamette Falls.  Sat out on the deck to enjoy the day.  Wafting fragrance of paper mill and a speaker cleverly disguised as a rock on the cliff past the deck rail playing the same Irish fiddle tune over and over again though Cyn swears that all Irish fiddle tunes sound the same...  The chips were amazing and the toast cold and dry.

Soundtrack to Life #7 - C'etait Toi

Okay.  I'm a total nerd.  I got myself into a tight spot mocking ABBA to someone who likes ABBA.  A lot.  And I like said person.  A lot.  So I 'fessed up to being reduced to mush by this completely mockable Billy Joel song.  

And here it is all wrapped up in Dr. Who.  

No. 9

Most definitely.

(Though I have friends who prefer No. 10)

Waterfall Therapy - Latourell Early April

Ventured out in need of some mind-quieting exertion and negative ions.   Latourell Falls is one of the easier hikes in the Columbia River Gorge - a two mile-ish loop that takes you up to the upper falls where this picture was taken from a slightly precarious perch not quite out of the spray.   One can actually step behind the falls for a more thrilling - and wet - experience.  April is a bit cold for that however.

As my very unquiet state of mind was caused by one of the male persuasion, this very suggestive tree root made me smile for a moment.  Came across it very near the trailhead, after only a few switchbacks above the paved path to the viewpoint.  My mood started to lift ever so gradually.  Hard to be pissed off and angsty when out of breath from the steep pitch of the trail and when Nature Herself is throwing such nice visual jokes in one's path.

The trillium were out in force with only a few still tightly furled.  Not this one...

Pausing just before reaching the upper falls to allow the folks ahead their space.   Even more than walking on a beach with the waves crashing, standing in the presence of a waterfall blots out everything else but itself.  The pool below is meditative and you can flow away with it in your mind's eye but the falls themselves take you outside of yourself.  Like good sex takes you outside yourself at the moment of orgasm.   This metaphor is particularly apt at Latourell as one starts down the return path away from the falls.  As the trail climbs and dips to and away from the stream, the sound of the water ebbs and flows like the waves of sensation as one recovers oneself and one's surroundings, slowly, post climax.

Nature answered and affirmed me with an image of the feminine and I made my way back down to the parking lot and back to the city in a much calmer state of mind.

Riding Shotgun Around a Dirt Track in a Fast Car

What a blast!  

I'm glad a) I wasn't driving (wouldn't have been nearly so fast - those guys are good!)  and 

b) I don't have to wash the car.  

Photo is 'after'.  Four times around with two different drivers.  It's okay for more than one driver to use the same car in RallyX  (Rallycross).  You get your own card and rack up your own points.  That's Scott, who owns this very FAST Mitsubishi Evo VIII, giving the thumbs up to Merrilee who's taking the picture. She didn't tell me that I'd get to ride in the fastest car on the track.   

 

Lucky for me and Miz Pea, there's also AutoX (yeah, you guessed right: Autocross) that's done on a parking lot and doesn't involve mud.  I'm so there!

Soundtrack to Life #6

How appropriate! 6 = number of legs on an ant.

This is the only Adam Ant song I really got hooked on. Miz Harmony on the other hand fell hard for Mr. Ant - I think she kissed him - but only Harmony (and the Ant) know for sure...




Still stuck in the 80's. Must be the tv I've been watching lately. BBC America Ashes to Ashes Hmmm...link is to the UK site. New Series coming! Woot! That means we'll see it in about a year and a half over here.

DCI Gene Hunt is quite delectable! Maybe more so coz he reminds me of someone...

Soundtrack to Life #5

Wow.  I didn't realize there was a live version of this!  

Funny coz the guys downstairs at work had it on the radio the other day and I had to stop and listen/enjoy.  Hell they'd even synchronized the radios in Fritland and in the at the orderdesk to play the same station. 

Stereo! 

Yep.  The 80's

Someone just shoot me if I decide I need a Smurf blue leather pencil skirt and matching 3" high pumps.  I had both back in the day...

Soundtrack to Life #4

Went looking for the Robyn Hitchcock, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe vid - found it - but this one was even more fun! The Lowe Beats! One of Scott McCaughey's myriad side projects - featuring Jimmy Sangster and John Ramberg. I can't remember why I missed the Portland show.   This was from Seattle (Ballard, really) the Tractor Tavern.

I love the sound of breaking glass.

Really.  

Goodnight Oslo

Just back from an overnighter to Seattle for Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 touring in support of their newest Goodnight Oslo. New (to us) venue, The Triple Door, Robyn's played there at least once before.   Very posh and pretty club but very odd to be seated and eating dinner - drinks and assorted starters in our case - while at a rock and roll show.  This was at its most bizarre moments during the Young Fresh Fellows very energetic and engaging opener. They have a new album coming out on July 7th and played a lot of new songs from it - along with some old favorites. Alas, they did not play my favorite "Rock and Roll Pest Control".



They DID play it at the last Fellows show I was at (this one! but that's not my vid) at The Tractor Tavern in Ballard. There was no dancing at The Triple Door.  So NOT the case at The Tractor!

I'm surprised that this is fuzzy in my memory already as it was only last night, but Robyn's set opened with "What You Is", which also opens the album, containing the brilliant line:  "It doesn't matter what you was it's what you is and what you is is what you are..."  If that isn't the best lyric in rock yet this year, I don't know what is.  They also did "Saturday Groovers" (the 'poppiest' track on the cd - radio ready  - if only he got more radio play) "Up to Our Nex".  "Hurry for the Sky" (that one IS my favorite track on the cd).  I think they did "Intricate Thing" - cool, intricate, guitar interplay between Robyn and Peter Buck on that one.  The song is about relationships - on a musical as well as a lyrical level.

Peter's been quoted as saying when he plays with Robyn that it is "...as if he is an extra set of hands and guitar, an extension of Robyn" (paraphrased a bit there) and that is really true.  Listening to the cd you might think you're hearing Peter, but Robyn takes as many leads and solos as Peter does and is every bit as good a guitar player.  Together these two are brilliant. The way they play off of each other is simply wonderful.  It's not competitive at all.  Rather it is collaborative and playful.  They weave a web of pure sonic bliss with their shimmering arpeggiated chords.  Robyn had more pedal effects at this outing than I've ever seen him utilize before.   His melodic lines are visual to me.  You can almost see those beautiful lines whirling around them as they play.  

A couple from their last outing Ole Tarantula:  "The Authority Box" (containing 2006's best line in rock:  "F*ck me baby, I'm a trolleybus!")  and "NY Doll" about the late Arthur Kane.  Some older gems:  "Jewels for Sophia" and another personal favorite of mine "Madonna of the Wasps".  Love the meandering,  psychedelic/discordant guitar intro before Bill Rieflin's drums build into Robyn's vocal. They do this song every time out and I, for one, will never tire of it.

A couple acoustic ones began the encore:  "Ghost Ship" and "The Wreck of the Arthur Lee". The Venus 3 - and Sean Nelson - rejoined Robyn on stage for a few more and they closed out with the title track "Goodnight Oslo".   

A very satisfying night of great new music from the very talented Mr. Hitchcock!

   

Soundtrack to Life #3

Genesis?  

By accident. Yes. I stopped into Starbux for a coffee while picking up catfood out at Target and wandered into the attached Barnes and Noble looking to see if Audrey Niffenegger's new book is out yet (isn't) and they were playing this. Took me a few bars of the intro to remember what the hell it was.

Ah. The 80's

Maybe this is more like Splotchy's "What Tune Can't I Get Outta My Head" sidebar.

Nothing's Sadder Than The Last Cupcake

Meyer Lemon!

Soundtrack to Life #2 So What?

I meant to write something about the 50th anniversary of the recording session that became Miles Davis' legendary album Kind of Blue on the actual date - March 2 - but it was also the 50th anniversary of the birth of an old friend who I've lost track of but who was on my mind. Found him up on Facebook - which led to entirely new diversions. Ah well...

This is the album that even non-jazz fans are most likely to own. I never had it on vinyl, wore out a cassette and now have it on cd and on my iPod. 

This is my favorite track.

Soundtrack to Life #1

Got Spottiswoode & His Enemies' cd That's What I Like for my birthday a while back.  Been enjoying it immensely - very cinematic toned songs that have insinuated themselves completely into my mind.  Like I'm walking through my own film noir in my dreams.

This version from a house concert and the sound's not great, but you get the idea...

stesso di esso era mai

I was telling Barbara the other day that I once had an Italian professor who gave us Talking Heads lyrics to translate on his quizzes and this just wouldn't stop playing in my mind.

That being said, I don't think Ligabue ever took on a Talking Heads song.

...I could be wrong, though.

A Che Ora e La Fine del Mondo?

As much as I love R.E.M. this version always makes me smile.

I first heard Luciano Ligabue by complete accident after purchasing a random cd at an Autostrada rest stop while on a group tour (yeah, I was chicken to do Italy solo the first time) in 1994. It was his first cd and the song that intrigued me was Angelo della Nebbia (Angel in the Fog) which might be a reference to Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, but I can't remember. The cd was actually pretty good.

I found out much later that Ligabue's kind of the "Bruce Springsteen" of Italy.  

When I returned to Italy in 1996 to see Chihuly's Chihuly Over Venice installation I bought another handful of Ligabue cds.  Caught myself up to Buon Compleanno, Elvis (Happy Birthday Elvis) his latest at the time and probably the one I play most.  A Che Ora e la Fine del Mondo? (When is the End Of The World?, or more literally, at what time is the end of the world?)  was one of them.

Crazy stuff, eh?  Tutto pazzo!

Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet White

She comes in colors everywhere

She's like a rainbow

(The Rolling Stones)

A Skull, A Suitcase and a Long Red Bottle of Wine 

Robyn Hitchcock 

(Black Snake Diamond Role)

"...and when you're gone there won't be anything behind

Except a skull

 A suitcase,

 And a long red bottle of wine"

Orange Crush 

R.E.M. (Green)

"Follow me

Don't follow me

I've got my spine

I've got my Orange Crush"

A band that not known for your typical rock anthem

But whose fans at live shows turn the most unlikely songs

 Into defacto anthems 

By singing along

As loud as the band.   

This song perhaps is that anthem. 

Yellow Submarine 

The Beatles (Revolver)

The film had

Cheery Peter Max-like animation art 

It wasn't Peter Max 

It was Heinz Edelman and Milton Glaser 

(of the "I heart NY" logo) 

Who were the art directors  

Ya just gotta sing along

 Furry Green Atom Bowl 

Robyn Hitchcock (I Often Dream of Trains)  

"There's roots in the earth and bones in the body

and that's the way it stays"

You really cannot add anything to a Robyn Hitchcock lyric

 Bitterblue 

 Cat Stevens (Teaser and The Firecat)

"I gave my last chance to you

Don't hand it back to me bitterblue 

No bitterblue"

A rocker from the Cat.  

This was continually playing on my teenage turntable

Though I liked the sad songs best

 (still do)

   This was in the heyday of the record album

 Which had album art

  And photographs

  Like this one

Which was in full color

 And took up an entire side

Of the album jacket

 Quite kissable, really

  I'd listen 

and wish for a Cat of my own

Purple Haze 

 Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced)

"Scuze me while I kiss the sky" 

Chunky guitar riff

  I didn't realize until fairly recently

 That he played left hand

 And everything was upside down

   In my defense

 I was in the first grade

 When this song topped the charts

Into White 

Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman)

"I build my house from barley rice

 Green pepper walls 

And water ice

Tables of paper-wood

Windows of light

And everything emptying 

Into white"

This song's

so beautiful

It almost hurts

Even now

30-odd years later

Coraline

We meant to go see George Plympton's Angels & Idiots, part of PIFF (the Portland International Film Festival) but I got there too late and even though Cynthia actually got a ticket, all the seats left were right down in front.   

Quick confab after her ticket was refunded - wanna go see Coraline?   To be fair, I'd already seen it and thought that Cynthia had as well.  But she hadn't.  I was having mild doubts about seeing it for a second time with someone who hadn't seen it yet - despite her e-mail:  "Wait. WAIT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Coraline is OUT!!!?" (direct quote).  I shouldn't have worried.  Though I do feel a tad bit guilty that trying to get a drink and a snack before the film down the street from the cinema caused us to miss the brilliant opening title sequence and about the first 10 minutes.  Sorry, Cyn!  

The film actually needs a second viewing (and maybe a third & fourth) because it is simply so dense with detail that it is impossible to take everything in with just one.  I think good animation is naturally subject to this phenomena.  Take any Wallace and Gromit short or their Revenge of the Were Rabbit,  and you've got the same situation.  There's always something you didn't see (or didn't remember) 'last time' you saw it.  

For me the second time freed me of the surprise of the (necessary) plot changes from the book let me focus on the sheer complexity of the imagery.  Stop movement animation requires every shot to be set up by humans manipulating tiny clay and wire figurines with removable parts for their faces to make up their every eye twitch, blink, smile, eyebrow lift or mouth movement to speak.  Coraline herself had hundreds of facial options. Not movements, options - reconfigurations of her facial features.  The movements possible with the myriad options were infinite.  Multiply that on at least some degree by every character and critter in the story and you begin to see how amazing it all is.  

That doesn't even begin to address the teensy clothing that Coraline wears. 

 Micro-knit sweaters and stripey gloves; little shoes made from Victorian gloves; the way her hair moves and the cat's tail is poetically just like a real cat's tail but made of fur-covered wire and hand-arranged to express every nuance of his personality.   This is a labor of love that took years to make.

The 3D is simply amazing.  It doesn't seem a nifty 'let's throw everything in and see what we get' add on.  The mouse tails come out and wrap you in.  The contrast between the 3D and the graphic 'pixelation' to blank white at the edges of the Other Mother's world as Coraline begins to conquer it/her are perfect.  This is creepy in a very tangible way and perfectly honors the spirit and core of Gaiman's story while utilizing all the (sorry for the cliche) Magic that is possible when unleashed from the minds of a team of accomplished and creative animators. 

LAIKA's first born is a winner.

See it!  Do stay for all of the end-credits. Kelly and I didn't on the first viewing, but Cynthia and I did.  There's more little animated surprises - and we picked out the names of some folks we know in the credits.

Colorful Synchronicity

If I'd been paying better attention earlier in the week, I would have made it to the Sing Along Harold and Maude at the Hollywood Theater last Thursday night.   Unfortunately I learned about it at 6:30 p.m. the day of the show with screenings at 7 and 9 p.m.  I was a bit too tired to make it through the 9:00 show and still struggle to work on time the next morning.

At the same time, Splotchy put up the next Green Monkey Music Project challenge:  ROYGBIV & of course I wanna play and nimbly come up with a handful of Robyn Hitchcock and R.E.M. songs with the appropriate colors in their titles, completely spacing out all the Cat Stevens "color" song titles.

Splotchy, I'm trading out Dylan for Cat's Bitter Blue.   Still looking for Indigo and Violet.  

Meanwhile, enjoy some 70's nostalgia. Cat Stevens before he got weird.  While he was still dreamily handsome (the inside cover of Teaser and the Firecat was always on view in my teenage bedroom).  Damn he wrote and sang some good tunes!  Does he hold up?

He messes up at the end of Bitter Blue.  Hee!

Say What?

Salvador once

...and twice.

Indulging My Inner Italian

So Dad gave me birthday money a day early and I think I've already got it spent (and then some). Check out the boots!

These beauties are coming 'on approval' - meaning they're on a credit card and can be returned if they don't fit - from Zappos.  I've entered The Oregonian's contest to win a pair of tickets to the Red Carpet Premiere of Coraline on February 5th.  It's the Portland International Film Festival opener.  Neil Gaiman will be here!   These would be the perfect shoes for the occasion.

If I were to be so lucky as to win.  Fingers and toes crossed!

Then I found these on eBay.  I've wanted a pair of girly harness boots (with a bit of a heel, right?) for a long time.  That's a bitch of a thing to try to find in size 5.  I wasn't so keen on the red flames at first, but ya know?  They're kind of growing on me.  So I'm 'in' for up to $35.00 and they'll cost another $11 or $12 to ship.  

I really am 1/4 Italian.  I've got the shoe lust to show for it.

Snow, Kid-Friendly Restaurants, X & Something For Dale

Whoohoo!  I almost got my wish.  Woke up to snow on the ground this morning, one day before my birthday :)  I always wish for snow on my birthday.  It is most definitely the birthday present of choice.  As a kid, it was the one good thing that you could get for your special day if it happened to fall in the middle of the freakin' winter.  Pool parties, picnics and such being sort of out of the question.  

There was one winter that actually stopped me from wishing for it for a few years afterwards.  My 9th birthday.  It started snowing like crazy on Saturday the 25th.  I had a party that afternoon.  We lived on a big hill then.*  By the time everybody was ready to go home, a couple of dads with four wheel drive vehicles (much rarer then in the late 60's than now) had to take everyone home.  I watched my dad and little brother slide down the hill past our driveway twice before they managed to turn into our drive to park.  Woke up my birthday morning to three feet of white!  It took us all day to tunnel across the street to my friend's house.  We got a full week off of school before it warmed up and melted away.  

Today's snow is already melting away.  They're saying it will get cold tonight and that ice on the roads is going to be a problem.  They're kind of wet now.   Maybe a little snow will stick around and be preserved by the cold tonight.  Not supposed to be getting any more.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and cold and I don't have to work! 

Little Brother is coming up from Eugene today to pick up my sister in law at the airport.  We'll all meet up at a kid-friendly restaurant, Red Robin this time, as there is one out by the airport and he'll have my nearly 8 year old nephew with him.   Dad's coming over from Vancouver as well.  Should be fun and I was thinking about heading out to IKEA anyways.  It's right there too.

Already celebrated my birthday earlier in the week with friends.  The Knitters played Dante's last Wednesday.  Great show!  Was the first time I'd heard them live.  The 4th John Doe related gig I'd been to here in the last year and 1/2.  Heard him live at Dante's solo (with all the hipsters talking through his set - grrrrr), then X had a sold out all ages show at The Crystal Ballroom (glad we were high up in the balcony with good sight lines and out of the mosh pit for that one), then John Doe and Kathleen Edwards at The Aladdin in November (OMG!  their final encore was off-mic standing on the very lip of the stage doing "When Will I Be Loved?"  Freakin' awesome!) and last Wednesday's show from the very front, right under DJ's snare and washkettle kickdrum and mere feet away from Exene rockin' the country girl look in black and white gingham, red tights, a beaded black vintage sweater and two gauzy nylon aprons, one signed by Eddie Vedder and someone else who I couldn't quite make out.  I wish now that I had taken a picture.  She'll be 53 in a week (a fellow Aquarian) and you can see the years on her but she still kicks ass!  And I just bought tickets for X at The Crystal again on April 9th!!!  

Note to Dale:

Robin Williams came first.  And he's still the hairiest.  Bono's.  Just.  What?  I have no idea.

   

*our hill was one of the 10 sledding hills.

Inauguration Day at last!

I woke up at 4:30.  Couldn't sleep.  Hung out under the covers listening to the coverage on NPR for a bit but gave in and just got up!  

It must be amazing to be in Washington on this day.   Americans reinvent themselves all the time.  We're known for our resilience, inventiveness and persistence.  Every four years we get to reinvent ourselves on a grand scale with the peaceful transition of government from one presidential administration to the next.  

Every new president brings the promise of new direction,  a better economy, better understanding among ourselves and our allies and with those governments with whom we have a more challenging relationship.   It's just that this time we've outdone ourselves and elected a president who will be one of the handful of truly great presidents - and at the same time we've changed forever the face of the President of the United States of America.  Have we lived up to the words of  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?  Have we learned to judge for the content of character and not the color of skin?  The election and inauguration of Barack Obama says:  Yes we have.

NPR reported that there is a tradition that every outgoing president leaves a note in the desk of the Oval Office to his/her (someday that barrier too will fall) successor.  The contents of the note are known only to the two presidents involved.  I wonder what George W. Bush will say to Barack Obama?  "I'm sorry I left you such a mess?"  One can hope.  I wonder what Barack Obama's will say to his successor in eight years' time?  "I hope I've left things better than I found them.  We're at peace.  Our economy is growing.  We've made inroads into developing sustainable energy to run our utilities and our transportation.  We have found a way to make sure that all of our people have access to health care.  Please pick up where I've left off and take us further."  One can hope!  

Rockin' Out and Making Soup to Swap

My house is perfumed with the smell of Casablanca Stew (lamb, mushrooms, walnuts, raisins and veggies and chickpeas in a curry/tomato/white wine stew broth) being simmered for a soup swap next Friday.  Not the one in Gresham - this one's out on the West Side.   I've never doubled this recipe before and usually do it slowly in the croc pot.   It seems to taste all right though.  Now I've got to cool it and put it into quart plastic containers and freeze it.  

I don't have a printer so I'll have to figure out fancy labels tomorrow at work.  Or here now and pdf them to myself at work so I can print them out.  I should attach baggies of cous cous with this 'soup'.  It's meant to be served over cous cous.  

Even though I was listening to U-2, Bruce! and was that really Garth Brooks doing American Pie?  Hmmm...

I had Jamie Oliver's Lamb Curry song going through my head along side what was going in my ears

Damn.  I wish I could julienne ginger like that!

The Presidents of the United States of America salute the soon to be President of the United States of America

Wild Beauty

Has it really been 13 days since I've posted anything up here?  (Checking calendar...yup!)  

I've been busy!  Working, of course, but I found time to get to the very last weekend of the Wild Beauty exhibition of historic photographs of the Columbia River Gorge at the Portland Art Museum.  The show spanned the distance from large format 20x22" prints made from glass plates with a very large camera by Carleton Watkins in 1867 and again in 1882-5 to Kodachrome prints by Ray Atkeson in the 1950's - from the earliest railroad and commerce in the Gorge up to the completion of The Dalles Dam that flooded the ancestral fishing grounds of all of the Native Peoples of the Gorge (and beyond) at Celilo Falls.  I went by myself and took two hours to take it in on Saturday and ended up going again on Sunday with my Dad.  He actually saw Celilo before it was gone when he was a kid in 1950.   

I liked the hand colored silver prints made by the Kiser brothers.  They lived on the Oregon side opposite Beacon Rock in the early 1900's and had the advantage of being able to photograph the light in the Gorge in all kinds of weather and moods.   I love the look of hand colored photographs.    

The work of Lily White and Sarah Hall Ladd, both wives of the descendants of some of the first pioneers in the area who had become society wives when the pioneers became successful and the city of Portland's founding fathers, were also made over time spent living in the Gorge - they had a very well outfitted houseboat, the Raysark, that they anchored at various places on the river and took a smaller boat out to get to the viewpoints, waterfalls and other landscape features that they wanted to photograph.  They had complete darkroom facilities on the Raysark.  Their work also captures a sense of time and the changing moods of the river - as well as being beautifully composed and executed as capital "A" Art.

The Gorge is rather a Portlander's backyard.  A mere half hour away from your desk at work are hiking trails, waterfalls and amazing scenery.   You can see Multnomah Falls quickly from the lodge and the viewpoint at the bottom or you can hike the trail up to the top and from there take off on the Larch Mountain Trail for days if you wanted to.  I used to go do the trail up the falls as a stress buster and see if I could pass everyone on the way up.  It's all switchbacks and very steep.  Just about every hike in the Gorge has a 2,000 foot or better elevation gain.    But there are places you can drive to and simply park the car, get out and enjoy the view.  The Vista House at Crown Point is like that.  Or you can hike Angel's Rest and look down on Crown Point.

All I can say is this exhibition made me want to get out and go hiking!  It would be a bit snowy and cold right now.  Or muddy at lower elevation.  It has gotten warmer since our holiday snowstorm adventure.  We've had weather in the 50's and sunny this week.  After it warmed up too quickly and flooded all around - not in Portland itself really - the area last week.  Closed I-5 at Chehalis for a couple days.  You couldn't get to Seattle unless you flew.

If they didn't want $75.00 for the catalogue - well worth it, but a bit steep for me right now, even with a 10% member discount - I'd be perusing it right now. 

2009 already?

Boy 2008 went fast!  Probably not a bad thing, considering.

We - my friend Barbara and her husband Brian - rang it out in good company at the Laurelthirst pub with Laura "Two Beers" Veirs supported by assorted Decemberists, Casey Neil minus most of the Norway Rats, Little Sue, Scott McCaughey, a veritable who's who of Portland musicians doing their own songs or assorted covers - just out having fun on New Year's Eve.    The place was packed to beyond "standing room only" & it's not a big place to begin with.  Bar down the right-hand side, booths and tables down the left.  They took out the middle tables.  Every spare inch had someone standing in it.  

Laura literally flew in from Nashville just in time to take the stage at about 11:30 p.m.  Here's a little clip someone posted - think this was pretty late - we left soon after midnight so as not to turn into pumpkins.  Or just coz we're not as young as we once were.

We were still there for Wildwood Flower.  

Earlier in the evening - after securing our wristbands for the music - we enjoyed a wonderful Cuban meal down the street at Pambiche

Click on that link and you'll be treated to some nice Cuban music - sorry for the abrupt style change!   But check it out (Pambiche) if you're in Portland.  It was packed (seemed to be the theme of the evening) but so worth the wait and everyone was patient and nice in line.  It's covered and the propane heaters over the tables help heat up the folks waiting for a seat.  Check out the menus!  Barbara and I both went traditional and had the Plato Cubano (Roast Pork, Beans and Rice - and Yuca)  I skipped the rice and only nibbled the yummy fried yuca.  Brian had the Plato Comunista as he's eating vegan these days - and finished my yuca.  Cocktails all looked enticing but we "just" had coffee.  Brian had a beer.  Negro Modelo, if I remember correctly.  Got a two-fer breakfast coupon to use before mid-February!

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!  (someone please tell me where teh accents live in Blogger)  Happy New Year!