The KatBox

Salvador P. Kitten, May 20,1992 - June 4, 2010

2010-06-04T20:11:00.000-07:00

We lost our Salvador Tabby Boy today. He left us at about six in the evening, peacefully, with my veterinarian friend Kathryn's kind assistance. He passed hearing his story told, as I stroked his fur and held his paws. He liked that. Not all cats do like to have their feet held or messed with. He tried to rally earlier in the day, even getting up to lick some gravy off a dish of chicken Fancy Feast and slurp some chicken broth, but I kind of knew he was putting on a brave face as I bundled him up into his carrier.

"How did your legs get so long and gangly? When did you get to be so light? I know you don't really want to get in the carrier. I'm sorry, little dude. I don't want to do this, but I really don't want to see you get worse."

Kathryn evaluated him - I wondered if perhaps if he got some fluids maybe he'd come 'round. Hoped I wasn't doing this too soon. Really didn't want to be in the position of him in pain in the middle of the night and have to go to the emergency clinic. And so the decision is made and a life surrendered.

He was born to my friend Lynn's kitten (she was really too young to be a mommy) Flora who must have met up with a big 'ole barn tomcat out at the farm where Lynn rented a converted shed. It was a duplex and she had both sides because it was cheap and she liked the privacy. Turned out to be a good thing when the kittens came. They had their own side. It was a weekend when they were born and Lynn called 'come see the kittens' so I met Salvador when he was but hours old, eyes closed, and so small. He had little horizontal black lines under his nose, like a moustache and reminded me of Salvador Dali's (on a more modest scale) so he got his name. "P. Kitten" is a family name. His "uncle" Allen P. Kitten gave it to the litter. The "P." doesn't stand for anything - it's just a middle initial.

As the kittens, Bella, DaVinci and Louis (named for St. Louis Road where the farm was, but soon dubbed "Shrimp Louis" because he was the runt) grew they had the run of 'their' duplex. The place was paneled in tongue and groove rough cedar planks so the kittens would literally climb the walls. You'd just go peel one off when you wanted one.

He howled in the backseat - I don't know now why I put his basket in the backseat - all the way from Woodburn up to SW Portland where I lived then. He met his big 'brother' Natsu. We had lost Natsu's big brother Aki not long before so Natsu took to the new little guy right away and they were the best of friends all Natsu's life. And Salvador grew...

Huge. He was 16 solid pounds in his prime, but always such a shy kitty and a real momma's boy. He'd hide in the kitchen cupboards if anybody came to visit. Kittysitters had to feed him in the cupboard - they were afraid he wouldn't come out until I got home.

I didn't realize it until now, but he began to lose weight gradually after we lost Natsu. Plump Salvador is from February 2006. Natsu passed in June 2006. The pictures I found from Christmas 2008 showed Salvador already much slimmed down and today he weighed only 7lbs.

Maybe cats grieve. Maybe it was simply old age and declining health. He was after all 18 years and two weeks old.

I took a few pictures today, but I like this one from a few weeks ago. He spent a lot of time snoozing in my bed. I can tell myself he's only sleeping. I hope Natsu welcomed him wherever it is kitties go when they leave us here and they're up late now catching up and remembering old times.

An Errant Blogger Reclaims Her Space

2009-12-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-08-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

Summer still by the

Calendar but one by one

Leaves fall softly down

Baby You Can Drive My Car

2009-06-14T20:08:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

Mosaic Peggy Guggenheim

2009-05-31T16:33:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-25T17:00:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-10T10:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T18:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Normal was in love (with you)

Clouds Daffodils Sod it all

Wander lonely as you like

...and then there's always South Park

2009-04-23T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ah, the wonders of the internets!

I think I might love this man

2009-04-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

Taking in the Tulips

2009-04-19T20:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-14T20:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-12T15:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T19:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-05T09:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-01T23:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-29T21:50:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-22T14:21:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-10T19:41:00.001-07:00

Meyer Lemon!

Soundtrack to Life #2 So What?

2009-03-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-01T08:16:00.001-08:00

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?

2009-02-28T09:56:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-19T23:15:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-02-11T07:29:00.001-08:00

Salvador once

...and twice.

Indulging My Inner Italian

2009-01-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T11:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-20T06:21:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-18T10:08:00.000-08:00

Wild Beauty

2009-01-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-02T10:16:00.000-08:00

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!

Boxing Day mixed bag

2008-12-26T11:19:00.000-08:00

Dad drove (AWD Subarus get through anything) us down to Eugene to my brother's house yesterday. My street was the worst of it both coming and going. I-5 was pretty much clear. Berms of frozen-over slush between the lanes and in some places the outer lanes were part covered by ice. On the way home when we got to my street the frozen ruts were so aggressive that we went skittering all over the place. Managed to miss the parked cars. I stood in the road and watched Dad drive away to be sure he got back out okay too.

Today it is warming up - 37 at the airport - and supposed to rain. It's sun behind clouds right now. That's great coz I have to go out and take the bus (Miz Pea still has a pile of snow behind her - plus our street is still messy) to get more cat food and litter before there's a general strike here.

The radio controlled Tarantula I got my 7 nearly 8 year old nephew was a huge hit. They chased my niece's Mini Pinscher/Chihuahua puppy around with it. She didn't like it very much - hopefully she won't take a big bite out of it when nobody's looking.

Got to spend a little time holding my great-niece Isabelle while her mommy opened presents. She's a beautiful baby. No, I'm not biased, she really is. I found her a cute little outfit with a leopard print mini skirt, matching shirt and little leopard print plastic cat-eye shaped sunglasses. Those were a little big. I wish someone had snapped a picture when my sister in law plopped them on her little face.

I got cash from Dad (he doesn't like to shop) and a gift card to Borders from my brother (Hey! I thought we weren't doing gifts?) so if the weather holds, I'll head downtown on the bus as well. I wonder if they have the Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians box set I haven't picked up yet? I'll have to see how much of it is new to me material vs how much I already own coz it's spendy.

Beth posted the Mariah Carey version of this song today. I like the version from the film Love, Actually (Which I should watch today - I've got the dvd - they keep playing a sanitized version on Oxygen and Bravo and it's just not quite as funny without the naughty bits.) so here's that cute kid from the film.

Hope you all have the day off and are having a great extended Christmas holiday with your friends and relatives!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T00:49:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Christmas Songs.

Come January 20, 2009 I am hopeful that our country will be henceforth in the business of ending war rather than making war.

The proper attitude to take in these situations...

2008-12-21T10:18:00.001-08:00

Happy Solstice!!!

2008-12-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

At last - the shortest day of the year and the longest night. From here on out, little by little, the days get longer! I am such modern day wuss. It's not like I've been living in total darkness, lit only by firelight or candlelight like the ancients endured. But still, we seem to be hardwired to welcome this day and the annual return of the light. I know I do!

21 F out there right now. I stepped outside in nightshirt and flipflops (only as far as the porch) to take some photos of the trees that are now frosted in white. So pretty!

The Japanese Snowbell Tree in front of my house.

A detail of the lights in the Japanese Maple.

One of the Hawthornes in the neighbor's tree belt.

They're still saying we'll get freezing rain on top of this, but if it holds off long enough I really want to go out and build a snow cat!

Okay - that was just practice snow

2008-12-20T15:30:00.000-08:00

Now we've got the real thing! It's been snowing since last night and we've got about 4" here in the city. Much more up in the West Hills.

My little Japanese Maple decked out in Christmas lights.

The back yard.

The snow is still coming down!

It might even keep snowing until Christmas! My Nephew in Law missed his flight from Atlanta this morning and is now stuck in Dallas. Trying to get him onto a flight to Eugene (probably via San Francisco or L.A. - there's almost no flights direct to Eugene) instead of Portland so that he doesn't have to get there from here. It's just rain in Eugene - 110 miles south.

Snow!!!

2008-12-14T17:16:00.001-08:00

We got our snow!!!

They're not the usual sploshy wet flakes we get here in Portland. They were teeny little things when I woke up at 7ish, gradually getting bigger and accumulating a little more than a 'dusting' and less than an inch. The tops of the grass still stick out. Fairly easy to sweep off of the porch - which I did twice - too cold out there now. 26 degrees and still windy.

I ran out to take pictures an our or so ago. There was a robin sitting on the sidewalk. Thought she was ill or too cold to fly so I went in to get a small towel to pick her up in but she flew away when I came back out. I hope she's okay. I didn't think to get birdfood when I was out grocery shopping yesterday in anticipation of the snow. I'm leery of putting out food anyways. There's rodents and raccoons out there. And squirrels. They've totally destroyed my birdfeeder. And don't robins eat bugs, anyway? I suppose I could put suet out. Squirrels won't eat that, will they?

Raccoons came through the yard early this morning. Tried to get a picture of them. They were so businesslike as they moseyed out of the across the street neighbor's fenced patio, down her drive, up across my front lawn to the chain link fence and over it to the neighbor behind. I tapped on the glass to get one's attention and it just looked at me like "Whut?" and I swear posed for the picture. Too bad it came out totally blurred. Maybe it was simply hoping I'd open the window and toss some food out.

Waiting for Snow

2008-12-13T19:29:00.000-08:00

Supposed to wake up to 1-3" of the white stuff tomorrow morning! Was out in showery cold today to put lights on my bare Japanese maple. Was going to do blue lights. Kelly said no, white. So white they are. All we need now is snow.

Stiggy Stocking Stuffers

2008-11-27T08:57:00.000-08:00

Grrrrr...

The Top Gear UK site has great Stig key rings for a very modest GBP2.50 (actually only GBP2. if you buy three of them) but they won't ship to the United States. Or they won't ship that item to the US. A very nice customer service rep named Neil had just assured me that Marks & Spencer (who handle this part of the Top Gear merch ) will ship to the US. So I set up my online Marks & Sparks account, picked out my merchandise - 2 key rings and Stig bubble bath! - and went to check out and pay and in big RED letters it said 'we're sorry but these items cannot be shipped to your country" or something similar.

I e-mailed that to Neil and am waiting to hear what he says.

Meanwhile I am bidding on a toy car boat - James' Triumph Herald sailboat - on eBay UK, but that just went over GBP5.50 - US$13.75 before postage - and I'm sure there's somebody out there with an automatic bidding program bidding against me.

Is this not cute? & of course it was James' which makes it the best by default.

Dang! I just lost that auction - it went for GBP7. There's another one up there - gotta go bid on it!

Seemingly disparate things...

2008-11-23T13:31:00.000-08:00

Lou Reed singing Sweet Jane. Had this song stuck in my head for days last week. This vid from NYC in 1998.

One of my Mom's favorite songs when I was a kid was his Walk on the Wild Side. Until she really heard the lyrics. Until then she liked the part: "...and the colored girls sing doo doo doo...".

So while I'm stuck on childhood memories, over on Livejournal there's a poll of what character from a children's book would you be? And Malcolm the kitten with the blue trumpet pops into my head. Seriously. I hadn't thought of that book for years. Probably hadn't thought of it since the last time I sat in the Ellis Parker Elementary School library reading it. I even thought I might have dreamt it into reality because I couldn't find anything about it up on Wikipedia and precious little (after a HUGE search) on the web at all. But I found a couple copies on eBay and bought a near mint copy of Malcolm Softpaws, copyright 1958 by Joe Bascom.

This was the first "Malcolm" book! This tells the story of how he got his blue trumpet. The one I remembered was Malcolm's Job - where he played at Coney Island for the tourists. There's a couple copies of that one floating around eBay and Amazon too, but they want $30.00 for them! Yikes! Revisiting childhood can be expensive.

Hee! "Toot toot purr..."

When it came in the mail yesterday, I was surprised at how small the book is. I swear it was a LOT bigger when I was 6! I wonder if the author is the same Joe Bascom who is an artist known for crumpled paper bag paintings? Anybody know? Who would you be if you could be any character from a book you liked as a kid?

On a more serious note, this week also marked the 45th anniversary of the day that President Kennedy was assassinated. His funeral is the first thing that I really remember watching on t.v. That or perhaps Astro Boy cartoons in black and white.

Some say that scent is the thing that will immediately transport one to places in the past. For those of us born as late baby boomers or in subsequent generations media is going to turn out to be the mode of transportation back to our childhoods.

Cats & IKEA Frogs & Mice

2008-11-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Warning! Cute overload pic coming up:

The Tabby Boys have taken to napping in my laundry basket. I've got two things to say about that: Thank heavens it's the dirty laundry and OMG we've got fleas!!!

So no more 'outside' privileges for Spencer & he got a dose of over the counter "Advantage" flea repellent. Been combing out and drowning fleas found on Salvador. He's 17 and 1/2 years old and much too old to be dosing with insecticides. Gotta wash everything they've been on lately - cushion covers, throws, my bedding, their bedding. Already washed all the laundry in the basket.

About to post these off to my new grand-niece. Hell! I knew I was a "great aunt" but I gave my little brother all kinds of sh*t for becoming a grandpa - now I find out I have a grand-niece. I feel so old all of a sudden.

Isabelle - born on October 6th.

IKEA baby stuff!!! I wish I'd bought more of the mice. They're so cute! & they were only a buck fifty each! Could get a room-full of them for not very much money at all.

Here's Spencer trying to ignore three mice hanging out on his cushion.

NOT confiscated by Customs after all...

2008-11-13T19:59:00.001-08:00

So I finally had to know and e-mailed James May's agent, a very nice lady named Fiona, who e-mailed back and said that yes indeed the Catnip Wrench (insert copywright symbol here) made it to England and has been handed off to Mr. May for his cat, Fusker.

...I know he's incredibly busy and gets tons of fan mail he can't possibly answer, but I would be over the moon if I had a picture of him with Fusker and his wrench.

Birds, The Byrds, The Beatles & Hitchcock

2008-11-05T19:52:00.000-08:00

Dang! Spaced out the logo...

Okay so these aren't your usual 6 degrees sort of links. They're a little oblique and undulating. The KatBox contribution, at Beth's invitation, to The Six Degrees of the GMMP

Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians' 1991 Perspex Island, "Birds in Perspex" for the pretty Byrds-like guitar bits (I almost wanted to invoke "Turn, Turn, Turn" but it sounded stodgy and dated after all these years) played by Robyn himself with Andy Metcalf (an original Soft Boy) on acoustic - Peter Buck was (is?) an Egyptian, but he doesn't play on this track.

So, birds? Pretty guitar bits? Credited to Lennon & McCartney, "And Your Bird Can Sing", from Revolver, 1966 by the Fab Four was really John's songwriting credit alone and of course he sings the lead. I love the interplay of George's and John's guitars - sweet little riff - more than you really wanted to know about it here. I could have flipped these two songs -it's Robyn who sometimes channels Lennon, not the other way around - but I liked the way they sounded in the playlist with Robyn's first.

Cascading guitar runs and this time it IS Peter Buck. R.E.M.'s "Pretty Persuasion" from 1984's Reckoning - right in the thick of their jangle pop period - love that chiming Rickenbacker and Bill Berry's driving, urgent beat - this sounds as if it could get away from them - but it doesn't quite and that just makes me love this song all the more. Minor key changes, obscure lyrics, this is possibly my favorite single R.E.M. song (even if New Adventures in High Fi is still my favorite album).

It's on 2004's In Rock, The Minus 5 covering "The Little Black Egg", The Nightcrawlers' mid 60's hit - I sure don't remember them, but then I was 6 in the mid 60's. Links? Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin - one official and two 'additional musician' members of R.E.M. who moonlight as The Venus 3 to back Robyn Hitchcock. Musical links? Another great jangly guitar pop song, but this time it's Scott and former Model Rocket, current Tripwire lead singer John Ramberg playing the riffs. I wish I had a pony for every time I've heard them sing this live. Actually. No. I don't. But I still love this song.

More Lennon, but I was really thinking of Hunt Sales' drum intro and machine gun outro of Tin Machine's 1988 cover of his "Working Class Hero" on their eponymous first album. The song as John Lennon sang it is quietly outraged, powerful. This version gives it (bigger) balls and Bowie.

More driving drums (Bill Rieflin this time) and a Beatle-esque Robyn sounding very Lennon (especially the line "...that'll do nicely, step this way sir, after you") "The Authority Box" from Ole Tarantula, 2006, Robyn Hitchcock and afore-mentioned Venus 3. The song also contains one of the strangest/best lines in rock "F*ck me baby, I'm a trolleybus!" This is contemporary Hitchcock at its most wry and fun, but it wouldn't sound out of place on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Barack Obama is the President Elect of The United States of America

2008-11-04T21:24:00.000-08:00

YES WE CAN!

This is AWESOME!

2008-11-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

& damn she's good! Doing better than Madonna did on this tune (but Antonio Banderas as Che was an inspired piece of casting IMHO) Actually. That's not fair. I really did like Madonna in Evita.

Work in Progress

2008-11-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

...kilnformed glass can start out more like an exercise in collage. Given the challenge of coming up with a 'demo' piece for my company's website featuring some new products, I first grabbed a bunch of random sized and colored circles of Uroboros System 96 thin transparent glass* and attached them to a square foot of 12-56-96 Black Streamer Bits on Clear (also Uroboros System 96 Fusible) in a pleasing pattern. Note - the piece is upside down at this point. I attached the clear 1.8mm thick circles to the 'bottom' of the Black/Clear because I want the depth of the clear on top. I'll flip it to fire it. Also. I'm not. Done. Yet.

The entire 1 square foot piece.

A detail shot.

Hot glue works great for temporary attaching of elements to be fused. It's sturdy enough to withstand some schlepping around of the piece - as long as you are reasonably careful. I don't know if it's visible in the detail (it does enlarge if you click on it) but the glue is applied like sewn stitching of the circles onto the base glass.

In the next picture, I have 'flipped' the glass an am now working on the 'top' surface. I have so far assembled (but not glued yet) "Noodles" and "Stringer" of glass in mostly clear as another layer of the piece. I'm thinking of a textile-like final appearance. So I'm not done yet. These will be attached on one side only with the hot glue gun and then I'll see if I can 'weave' another layer at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal lines. 'cept I seem to have run out of clear Noodles...

The entire piece with first 'top' layer laid out.

& a detail of that.

Got a little gluing project ahead of me, but first I've gotta get outside to take care of the leaves in the yard before it starts raining again.

*random sized circles don't just 'appear' of course - others are also working on demos and had cut some out & I cut some more too. I'm all about the mini circle cutting tool!

Not exactly like being there

2008-10-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

But nice to be able to view/hear in real time!

R.E.M. at the Voodoo Festival, New Orleans, LA! Streamed on teh internets...

Setlist

Living Well is the Best Revenge

Kenneth

Drive

Fall on Me

Man Sized Wreath

Ignoreland

Houston

Electrolite

Walk Unafraid

Don't Go Back to Rockville - with Peter and Scott sharing a mic on the chorus :)

West of the Fields

One I Love - Michael out in the crowd

She Just Wants to Be

Let Me In

Horse to Water

Bad Day

Orange Crush

It's the End of the World...

Encore

Supernatural

Losing My Religion

Driver 8

Seven Chinese Brothers

Man on the Moon

Kinda missed that they didn't do the big end of show bow with Scott and Bill included - what's up with (not doing) that?

The Power of the Set List

2008-10-19T14:25:00.001-07:00

From Friday's Minus 5 show at the Mission Theater in Portland, Oregon. Hee! I've never gotten one with chord changes on it before...wonder whose this was? I didn't actually grab it off the stage myself. Had it handed to me.

Was a fun show! I missed Weinland's opener - thought the deal was doors at 8 but it really was show at 8. I made it just about 9 just before the Minus 5 went on. Minus 5 lineup was: Scott McCaughey, Peter Buck on bass (the lovely Blue Rickenbacker this time out), John Ramberg on guitar and Ezra Holbrook on drums. Additional vocal support by Little Sue, The Shee Bee Gees and Jane McDonald (on sleighbells as well...)

Hee! Scott wrote the setlist on the back of the flyer for the Backyard Bird Shop!

The Power of the Ballot

2008-10-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

I've just cast my vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States of America.

Oregon is a vote by mail state - the first in the nation to be exclusively by mail - and my ballot arrived Saturday afternoon. I should have it back in the mail to Multnomah County Elections by Monday. Tuesday latest. Once I wade through all of the ballot measures and local candidates and measures...

Done! Mailed it out Monday!

Now That's a Hairball

2008-10-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

Damn cold. It's been a full week and a day now. Missed two days of work - not consecutive days - had a relapse after trying to be well.

Spencer's giving me the funniest sympathetic looks as I hack and choke and come up with only nasty green mucus. I think he's expecting the Biggest. Hairball. Evah.

Chinese Garden in the Rain

2008-10-05T20:18:00.001-07:00

Today was a 'free' day at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden

It's a complete world in a square city block. Only if you look up does the rest of the city exist.

The Steel Bridge over an office building (whose? ... I never go down third on that block. The gas company is on the next block over) across the street.

The US Bancorp Tower (a.k.a. "Big Pink") strangely small in proportion to the Moon-Locking Pavilion (so called because it is situated to catch the reflection of the full moon in the pond). I worked on the 19th floor of that tower for 8 years...

But the magic of the place is found in the details and private spaces the walls enclose.

Decorative tiles on the eaves of the roofs with vines entangled in them.

The geometry of the roof tiles.

A potted pomegranate tree in a pebble tiled courtyard.

A long needled pine tree glistening with raindrop jewels.

At least half of the space is water. Waterlily leaves and pods.

Pink waterlilies...

and white

trailing through the water in a graceful "S" curve

up to the sculptural rocks and the teahouse steps.

It's been a whole week now

2008-10-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

...without Paul Newman in the world. Damn. Another of the Really Good Guys gone. Even a week after his passing it seems everyone has a special Paul Newman moment or story to share - for the good of all of us. Frank Deford on Morning Edition the other day had me in tears with his tribute. Gwen Ifill replayed a spot he'd done in support of Washington Week at the end of Friday's show. There's no separate vid of that, but there's a podcast of the entire show at their site.

A good friend of mine went to school with one of his daughters - Stephanie, I think, given my friend's age - and knew the family a little. She had a funny story about nearly running him down on a cross country ski run. By accident, of course. She said Joanne Woodward was amazing and really nice. I think I'd just take that for granted.

I never met the man myself, despite the fact of his having spent quite a lot of time in Portland out at PIR (Portland International Raceway) over the years. You'd hear stories around town about him popping up in random Portland locations when he was here with the races. And what a nice guy he was.

I suppose the first film I noticed him in must have been The Sting. I was 13 when that came out. I remember asking my mom to buy us some Coors beer (Newman's drink at that time) which she did. I didn't like it. I think I rinsed my hair with it - one of those '70's beauty myths. (& it's not that my mom encouraged underage drinking. We grew up with a healthy attitude towards alcohol because it wasn't a mystery and wasn't banned completely.)

The best thing? That was when I found out that I shared a birthday with Paul Newman. Yeah, he was already 35 when I was born, but every year since 13 I've wished him a Happy Birthday on our special day. Not in writing. Just a wish sent out.

Next January 26th is going to be a bit lonely.

Accidentally Coolly Cropped Cat Eye

2008-09-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Guitar Karma is Real

2008-09-24T08:59:00.000-07:00

The inherent goodness of the human spirit prevails! Peter got his Rick back!!!

Actually, he got it back a couple days ago while I was looking the other way. Probably at Captain Slow...

Now, to the person who is hanging onto Robyn's pretty blue Telecaster - wouldn't you like to clean up your karma?

It Was Like Being in a Snow Globe

2008-09-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

...except the 'snow' was black and was really thousands of very fast little birds.

I've been meaning to go check out the Vaux's Swifts roosting at Chapman Elementary School for years now and finally got over there Saturday night to see it for myself. According to the school's website, "The world's largest population of Vaux's Swifts makes its home in the Chapman chimney every year in late August and early September."

This is the chimney that they all fly into at dusk. It's no longer actually functioning as a chimney - the school was converted to gas using a different chimney - they left this one up for the birds to use.

The crowd early on. By the time the birds turned in for the night, the entire hillside and much of the soccer field were full of swift watchers of all ages and kids sliding down the hill on cardboard. The air was full of (no, not bird shit - though I imagine there must have been some) the aroma of pepperoni pizza which seemed to be a popular picnic item.

Lots of folks there with tripods and very professional looking cameras with very big lenses. Shooting from the top of the hill with my trusty Nikon Coolpix 4600 all I got were blurry snow globe images. There seemed to be fewer birds than I'd expected and they rather took their time heading in that night. There wasn't a sudden swoop of all the birds at once down the chimney. They sort of did it in stages. There was a moment of drama when one of the peregrine falcons swooped in - I think he/she might have gotten a swift. The falcon didn't make a second pass, but headed off towards the river.

There is a documentary film, On The Wing, coming out soon. It might be too late already to get tix for the premiere, but I'll have to go see it. Here's the trailer

Okay. Go ahead and mock me.

2008-09-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

But I went to a great show Sunday night. 'Twas Al Stewart - he of The Year of the Cat fame - sans the Alan Parsons arrangements, saxophones and with only two guitars and intermittent electric keyboard.

Couldn't interest any of my circle of friends to come along for the fun - oh well, their loss. Nearly sold out show, but very few folks younger than me in attendance (and lots a bit older).

He's one of those guys that keeps turning out good music even though his glory days of the late 70s are past. Kind of flying under the radar far as I was concerned though Year of the Cat and On the Border are probably two of my all time favorite songs. Love the poetry, imagery of YotC. He did both - OtB was the better of the two - with the Hobbit-y looking guitarist in the vid below (Dave Nachmanoff).

I don't think Al was ever a real 'looker' maybe to some, back in the day. He looks a bit like Wallace of Wallace and Gromit now...

Maybe a little more hair. His voice is still as beautiful as ever- hasn't lost much of the airy, nonchalant but lilting quality he had/has. He sounded really good.

He's got a new album out and did a few from it - was a huge line to get said cd signed - I didn't stick around. I'll have to go get the cd though. Perhaps.

His opening act was a young woman named Gabby Young with Stephen Ellis who was simply amazing - and very right for Portland. What with our local acts like Pink Martini and Three Leg Torso and penchant for other "not rock, not pop, not jazz - not quite easy to categorize" acts - though Gabby's not really like either of these two bands I'd go see her if she came back around without Al.

Lower Than a Snake's Belly

2008-09-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

It's all over the internets, true, but I'm gonna write about it too - it's that despicable. Someone has stolen Peter Buck's iconic Rickenbacker 360 Jetglo. Yes. The one with the Trucker Girl sticker on it. The one he's had for 26 years and that has been played on every album since Chronic Town and taken around the world many, many times.

The guitar you heard the first time you heard the R.E.M. song that made you a fan.

The one that's got Peter's DNA permanently embedded in it.

Here's Peter playing it in May in Vancouver BC - the first night of the Accelerate Tour.

And again in March 2006 at the Crocodile with Robyn Hitchcock. The insane thing? That pretty blue Telecaster of Robyn's - also an iconic guitar - certainly the one I most often have seen him with, was stolen last November in Toronto and not yet returned so far as I know...

What? Do you think you can be Robyn or Peter if only you've got their axe?

Is it for the money?

Why steal something that can never see the light of day and cannot give the world its gift of the voice of the musician whose soul is bound up in it?

Here's Robyn playing Peter's Rick - April 2007 again at the Crocodile. He'd only busted a string on the Telecaster and Peter handed him his to finish the gig. Both guitars went home with their owners that night.

Please let them somehow find their way back again.

Not a Jersey Girl

2008-09-09T17:03:00.001-07:00

Home from the customer event weekend in time to catch the last couple of hours of Top Gear. Missed the Iceland challenge thing with the roadsters. Oh well. They'll repeat it - probably many times - if previous experience of BBC America's programming tendencies is any indication. I fell asleep about halfway through the second hour anyway.

I landed in Newark just in time to catch the monsoons that Hanna brought up the coast. Was incredibly humid. 76 degrees and pouring.

Had a rather snarky Hertz rental car dude "helping" me. Kept trying to get me to rent the Chevy after I'd asked six times for either a Mazda 3, a Mazda 6, a Mazda Miata (yeah, not in Jersey - and awful with the top up in the rain anyway) a Toyota Corolla or the compact level Kia whose cutesy name I had forgotten. I trooped out to the lot to find a Chevy Tahoe parked where a Nissan Versa was supposed to have been; again to try out a Subaru Imprezza (too big for me), found the Versa - stall 114 dude, not 214 - and it also did not do. Hair totally frizzed out from the humidity now, I stalked back in to ask why I couldn't have the red Mazda 6? Sitting. Right. There. But he'd managed to come up with a Corolla so I took it to get out of there.

Made it out onto the 1 & 9 to 78 to the Garden State Parkway and thought I'd done it right but somehow had managed to go North rather than South on the Parkway. It's monsooning like crazy out there, visibility just about nil, so I pull off thinking I'll find the ramp to go South and all will be well. 'Cept I forgot that Northern Jersey doesn't work like that. I could see the freakin' Parkway but couldn't get turned around the right way to get on the South lanes. Toured some really choice neighborhoods and went through a puddle that I thought might swamp the car (didn't - whew!) before finally finding the South onramp. But I was still nervous I'd done it wrong after about 10 miles or so. Where were the little round green signs with the Parkway logo? I pulled into the first services exit I found and asked the bemused Indian guys at the counter (this is going to be a very 'stupid' question) "what highway is this that I'm on anyway?" Turned out it was indeed the Garden State Parkway South and they had no idea what happened to the signs either.

Slogged it on to my hotel in the lovely wide spot in the road known as Neptune. Checked in teased by the tantalizing aroma of the Indian clerk's dinner and with mouth watering for saag paneer and tandori chicken asked if there was a good Indian restaurant around. There was, but it was a half hour away. If the weather had been nicer it might have been worth the trip but I didn't want to chance getting lost out there in the dark and rain. Got out the phonebook looking for something edible that could be delivered (!) but the Chinese restaurant whose menu looked appetizing and had delivery also had a disconnected phone number. Yellow pages were from 2006. That and my cell service was sketchy. In some sort of a TMobile dead zone. I got in the car and found a strip mall Chinese take away place and got hot and sour soup, twice cooked pork and some broccolli dish - all perfectly awful. I picked the meat out of the pork, ate a couple pieces of broccolli and put the rest in the trash.

The next morning dawned sunny and clear - and cool - next to no humidity! I lucked out and had a perfect spot next to an open door with a beautiful breeze at the customer event, got to go walk on the beach at someplace between Brielle and Sea Girt after the event was over, and the entire rest of the trip was graced with perfect sunny and dry late summer weather. Too bad I'd already decided to fly home Monday instead of taking the week to hang out in the city. NYC would have been at its best

24 Hour Fitness

2008-09-02T01:02:00.000-07:00

They've got a nice pool. Not too crowded and it's got some sort of saline sanitary system so no chlorine. The entire pool room reeks of chlorine, but I guess it's coming from the jacuzzi. Note to self: stick to the sauna.

I managed 700 or 800 meters. Not much. Mostly kicking with fins. Freaked myself out swimming freestyle and forgetting how to breathe - was still a third of the way to the wall. It's going to take a while to get up to speed. I can't believe I used to be good at this!

No swimsuit spin-dryer, no blow driers for your hair, gotta bring your own towel - the Metro Y had all of those things provided. But their pool was 50% chlorine and ate suits, hair and skin. $35.00/month plus initiation. I wonder if I'll ever even use the machines upstairs?

Nice sauna - coed though, gotta wear a suit - I prefer sauna-ing sans suit.

I wonder how many weeks I can go 'test driving' health clubs on free passes?

The Search for John Gissing

2008-08-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Now I remember why I cancelled the NetFlix membership the first time around. Aside from the fact that my tv died. They make out like bandits if you hang onto the movies for two weeks before you watch them. I finally found the time to plop this one into the dvd player last night.

Cute little film. I can't see what the big fuss was about it - why it took so long to release it to dvd, as they did, why no distributors picked it up, which they didn't. I'm not sure if the NetFlix dvd version was with or without the changes that Jack Binder wanted to make to the film pre-release.

It was funny! Some parts a bit overworked. Stereotypical characters, i.e. the low class slightly thuggish cousin from Yorkshire; the crazy older German Lady (reminded me of Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein just a little bit); the fussy French C.E.O.; the helpful but opportunistic London cabby. But somehow it all works. It's a nice piece of ensemble acting.

Some standouts. Janeane Garofolo is a babe. She was absolutely hot while still being bitingly funny. The actor who played the cleaning guy was hilarious with his various choices of music to clean by while taking bribes for access to various offices. Rickman - as usual - is amazing. Too bad this little gem of a performance probably won't get the attention it deserves but he is such a good comic actor. He was over the top when called for and delightfully underplayed and subtle at the same time. That and he fills out a pinstriped suit quite nicely.

Enjoy the end credits sequence - the entire cast tap dancing - you'll have to rent the film to find out why!

Wreckless Eric!!!

2008-08-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Gotta love it when you get a text at 6-something p.m. telling you that Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby will be playing locally at 8! Complete surprise. I had no idea they were coming. Sure glad I didn't miss out!

They were awesome - dodgy keyboard set up and all! It had just gotten to Portland, to my friend's work, from eBay and Amy hadn't even gotten to play it before Thursday. Worked out fine. She's possibly more awesome even than Eric himself. They're both all kinds of 'wow' (which is what I said 'bout Obama's acceptance speech when we were all having drinks earlier and cracked everybody up) hee!

See for yourself!

She didn't do that one this time, but did the last time she and Eric were through - last winter.

Here's Amy & Eric together

I'm sure glad someone did "Nail them Together" They really are all kinds of 'wow'.

...even better - they're playing for kids! That's in a library. My love for these two just grew 10 times - though I gotta know how Eric made it through the entire show without a single 'f*ck!" :)

If you're a Seattleite or heading there for Bumbershoot they're playing up there today-Saturday August 30 - 6:45 PM - 7:45 PM @ Wells Fargo Stage.

Please Ralph Give Me A Spanner...

2008-08-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

'cause that's what I want

Robyn Hitchsock modeling one of the Catnip Wrenches (insert copyright symbol here - where the hell are the special characters in blogger?) I made this week. Cat toys for Gear Head Cats. Or for Gear Heads who have cats. Take your pick!

Just the wrench. Filled with catnip!

Bottle Shock morphs into Top Gear via Citroen

2008-08-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just what my August Dog Days lethargy needed, Cynthia and I caught a showing of the new Alan Rickman film, Bottle Shock, about the 1976 Paris blind wine tasting where the Californians whooped the asses of the French and set in motion the changes that have led to the current success of wine producing regions from all over the world. I didn't realize that Cynthia actually grew up in Fresno and had a much more personal connection to the story than I did. Her review is brilliant and very informative. I'm going to talk about other things.

Cars. The Citroen DS. The film was full of them! Wonderful vintage* "Clam" Cars! Or so we called them in my circle of friends. I hung out with the 'faculty brat' crowd despite my family's very blue collar background. All of my best pals were the kids of U of O professors or administrative staff and had spent years of their lives - on sabbatical - in exotic places like Paris and London and knew about these foreign things. Beckie's dad drove (and may still drive - he was religious about oil changes and maintenance) a toothpaste-bluegreen 1967 Peugeot station wagon. That and there were a couple Citroen DSs on the road in Eugene Oregon in the 1970s. We thought they were the epitome of cool even though none of us had driven or even sat in one. Many years later when I finally made it to Paris myself, I got the hairy eyeball from a French businessman who thought I was inspecting his parked beautiful bronze-brown metallic coated DS just a little too closely.

Captain Slow agrees:

I didn't realize that all those things were done by Citroen first.

You know, back in 1988 when I bought my first VW Jetta, a 1989 GL, Black, which I knew was the car of my dreams I did take a look at two other cars. They were a 1989 Peugeot 505 STI that came absolutely loaded for about $26K and a Saab 900 S that was in the same ballpark. Peugeot has pretty much pulled out of the US now so for practical reasons maybe it was a good thing I couldn't really afford it at the time. The Jetta was half the price and she (Gretta) served me well for 14 years. In fact all this week I've been kind of nostalgic for Gretta - to the point of looking in cars.com to see if any worthy 1989s are available now - and kinda wish I hadn't sold her. I wonder how well the Peugeot would have fared? It's too bad that we Americans are so limited, car-wise. Especially where French cars are concerned. Anybody remember "Le Car"?

One Bottle Shock point that Cynthia didn't make: Alan Rickman driving a beater AMC Gremlin is very funny. Another: Dennis Farina can actually steal scenes from The Master, Rickman himself. Kevin Costner finally got paybacks for Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.

The Search For John Gissing came Saturday in the mail from NetFlix. I'm having myself a Mini Rickman Filmfest this weekend!

*They weren't vintage cars at the time the film is set; they were in production until 1976.

Date My Dad!

2008-08-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

I know he'll never read my blog, so (devious laugh) it's time to see if we can't find my Dad a nice Lady (that part IS important) to spend time with.

The particulars:

He's 72 years old and his hair is still mostly the dark brown he started with. A little bit missing on the top. He's got pretty blue eyes (I got mine from him) and good teeth - all his own, thank you very much! He works out every day - walking and a cardio session - and is in better shape than I am. He's not a big guy - about 5'5" and around 150lbs. He's a Cancer by astrological sign, so he's a little bit sensitive and moody, but he has a great sense of humor, too, and can be very quietly funny.

He's a morning person. You don't have to be (he's made allowances for me) but it would help if you like the hours of 5 a.m. to about 10 p.m. best.

He's traditional and conservative in his views. Sometimes this can be a bit annoying (to me) but he enjoys a good debate and can argue his side. Well. Again, he's made allowances for my much more liberal views.

He's very protective of those who he cares for and sends the mushiest birthday cards - awww, cute!

He likes his 2000 Jaguar S-Type but has a travel trailer (a caravan if any Brits or Top Gear fans are paying attention) and a truck to tow it as well. He's sensible, though, and the Jag's his 'good' car. He drives a Subaru Outback most of the time. Both the Jag and the Subaru bought used.

He enjoys good Scotch, red wine and a nice meal - Jake's, The Ringside or McCormick's in Portland are some of his favorites, but I usually get together with him for breakfast on weekend mornings and he likes Mc Menamins' Kennedy School a lot. And Old Wives' Tales - that one has me puzzled 'cause it's really East Side Portland Funky Hippie-Alternative - but hey, the food is good! They have the best Hungarian Mushroom Soup on the planet, not that we eat it for breakfast. All restaurants are local to the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area.

He doesn't really care that much for sweets - not even chocolate - I must have gotten my addiction from my Mom.

He tends to read books about real people and history rather than fiction.

He's not so into pets. We had a dog when I was a kid, but Dad would prefer a pet-free lifestyle. He's resigned himself to having Tabby Boys as grandkids on my part by pretty much ignoring them. Thank goodness my other siblings have the human grandkid (and great grandkid) thing well taken care of.

He can make anything out of wood or metal and has built houses, fine furniture (he likes Shaker inspired design - he made me a beautifully proportioned console table with two drawers out of cherry wood that is my most prized furniture possession) and an airplane and a sailboat.

The kind of woman that would do best with my Dad will be somewhat traditional herself, straight but not narrow perhaps, have opinions of her own and be able to support them articulately. She should be retired and free to travel and roughly the same age or a little younger than 72. She should be moderately active as he would like to have someone to take those early morning walks with. She should be petite - he doesn't think that tall women like short guys - but he's not one of those little guys who like tall blondes either. At least not so far.

Any interested parties please post a comment to this blog explaining a bit about yourself and why you think my Dad might be the right guy for you.

..but Bugatti IS Volkswagen now, right?

2008-08-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

The first 'guy' I remember really noticing (my first grade 'boyfriend' didn't really count after all...) was a very dapper young Englishman who attended the same parish we did from when I was about 12 to 14 or so years of age. I think his name was Frederick. He was small, maybe 5'6"* with longish brown hair, tidy sideburns and he always wore nice pants - cords - a button down shirt and a sport jacket. True, I always saw him at mass so he was dressed up. I'm sure he was a grad student. Parish members who wished to took turns reading the scripture that the priest had selected for the mass and Frederick often read. Mom and I were both secretly in love with his British accent and his friendly but reserved manner. We never saw him outside of church. I don't remember him taking part in after-mass white powder donuts and coffee in the parish basement.

Our parish was the U of O campus Newman Center. We had a very hip pastor who wore Hawaiian shirts and sandals under his vestments and always had a dog named for a saint. Genevieve and Jeremiah, successively, were the ones in residence when we knew him. The church was usually full to standing room, so the back doors were open in good weather (there was a huge overhanging porch of sorts so even if it rained it wasn' t too bad) and if a neighborhood cat came in it was allowed to stay or leave as it pleased. The room was very modern; cedar shake covered walls angled inwards making a trapezoidal space, hung with banners for each liturgical season; the stations of the cross were wood relief carvings in an expressionist style and the altar was a simple but beautiful slab of natural stone. The chalis and other serving pieces for the mass were hand-thrown pottery. Simple, elegant and spare. The only detracting feature were the plain metal folding chairs in place of wooden pews.

We never saw Frederick drive away but we figured he must have a cool car. Mom had only recently traded in and was missing the Dark Green 1966 Ford Galaxie 500XL (two enormous doors and a huge 428 cubic inch engine that had you going scary fast before you even realized it) on a Blue Pinto Station wagon with faux woodgrain sides. It was the 70's and the first oil crisis and the Galaxie drank too much and went through mufflers at an alarming rate, so the Pinto was a necessity. There were a number of old MGs on the road in Eugene in those days and we figured one of them had to be Frederick's, even if we never actually saw him behind the wheel. Realistically, he probably was a grad student and too poor to own a car. Or maybe he had a beater VW. Or a Chevy. We never found out.

So therein lie the foundations of what has come to represent the perfect man for me. A cool accent, preferably British, and a cool car. True, a lot of years have passed since the Frederick infatuation, but channel flipping through my new cable selections landed me accidentally on BBC America on a Monday night and I encountered Top Gear for the first time. A car show for those who don't really get off on car shows strictly speaking (they play soccer with teams of Toyota Aygos and VW Foxes!) with three distinctly different but Funny Regular Bloke journalist/presenters: Jeremy Clarkson big and imposing, very opinionated and the ringleader; Richard Hammond a.k.a. "Hamster", almost too precious and cute - all 5'6'' of him with carefully gelled hair and very white teeth (you'd think he'd be the one I'd fall for). But no. The latest object of my fangirly affection is none other than James May, known as "Captain Slow" for his penchant for big luxurious cars, finding the most esoteric solution to any problem at hand and getting lost. Except that he's the one who drove the Bugatti Veyron at 250 MPH - go figure.

Bugatti Veyron On Top Gear - The most amazing home videos are here

He's the only bachelor of the three (he's got a long time girlfriend) who lives with his cat, Fusker, and a lot of cool cars and motorbikes; uses a Mac and a fountain pen; has a degree in music, messy long hair and a small plane license; does a wine show when he's not doing Top Gear; writes an entertaining weekly column in the Telegraph - online- and is overall inexplicably cool while being a complete OCD nerd at the same time. That and he doesn't like VW Beetles. I can overlook that minor flaw. He's - perfect!

I stumbled upon his booking agency while I was scouting eBay UK for collectables that our eBay might not have. Found lots of "Mrs. James May" key rings and pillow cases, evidently he's the latest British Thinking Woman's Secret Crush.

I really wanted to find a good shot of him in one of his loud rugby striped sweaters, the pink and purple one is especially choice, but this picture with his Boxter S** is just, well, look...

**& an Edit. After finally locating a full size version of the cropped image above (cropped for the best part, of course) that ain't no Boxter S but a 911 997 Carerra S.

Hmmm... Oregon has a thriving and fairly exclusive wine industry. Perhaps I could entice him to come scout the Yamhill Valley wineries for a future installment of his wine program? I'm already envisioning picking him up at the airport in my Cyber Green Turbo GLX New Beetle. We'll head out 99 West to taste Pinot Noir and keep going to the coast. Hwy 18 has the Van Duzer Forest Corridor - beautiful on a moonlit night - or Hwy 6 follows the Wilson River and is a fun curvy road. Maybe I'd even let him drive...

*Not a bad thing. The world could use more handsome men in the 5'6" or so range.

Taming the Backyard Jungle

2008-08-07T15:28:00.000-07:00

Spent three and a half hours whacking back the very overgrown lilac and forsythia bushes in my backyard. Got three bags of yard refuse to show for it. Alas, that is only the beginning. I've got grass going to seed in the middle of the thyme that grew over the stones I put down after covering the entire space with landscape cloth. Thought that was 'sposed to stop the weeds? Ha! The weeds just sneer at it.

The forsythia was completely covering the chair when I started this morning. The akebia on the fence is growing up a squirrel-planted tree (growing between my fence and the neighbor's fence - how the hell am I 'sposed to get at that?) at least there's less of the forsythia for it to grab onto now. There's still passionflower vines in the top of the forsythia and in the neighboring spirea that I haven't started in on yet, but they're kind of pretty blooming out of the green.

And the lilac had reached over and crowded the potted maple. Now it has a little room to breathe. Leaving the volunteer violets under the maple be.

Haven't gotten to the stuff on the left behind the table and chairs. Somewhere in the middle of those dandelions are lavenders and against the fence line are three quince. You can't see around the corner, but there's blackberries and nightshade and another squirrel-planted tree of some sort that all need to come out.

Yet more viney things tangled in bushes. Got star jasmine all tangled in the camelia and growing on the side of the garage over the hydrangea.

The bags of trimmings in the garage. Note the fire engine red doors (to the kitchen and my bedroom closet) that were on the list to be stripped and repainted white and off white respectively. Somehow I don't think I'm going to get to them this week.

Captain Slow is my new hero!

2008-07-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yikes! What am I doing up here on teh internets when Top Gear is on?!?

too bad they're not lovin' the Beetle...maybe if they'd chosen the Turbo hardtop model. Like the Pea! Who is now a paid for Pea! Mine, mine, mine!!!

Yippee Kai Yay (read my lips), Motherf*cker!

2008-07-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

Flipping channels late at night, after the Masterpiece Theatre Foyle's War repeat on public t.v., what do I come across but the Fifth Baddest Film Baddie Ever!!!

It was Alan Rickman's impeccably dressed, tidily bearded and completely swoon-worthy Hans Gruber in Die Hard.

'cept it was on A&E so all of the bad words just weren't spoken.

Characters' mouths moved but nothing came out!

...made the memorable line spoken by Bruce Willis' John McClane early in the film and Rickman's Gruber at the end "Yi Pee Kai Yay, MotherF*cker!" (sans F*cker) just a little bit lame.

Thankfully, there's You Tube

& I'm not sure if I imagined it or they missed a "f*ck!" spoken by McClane late in the film. Considering every other word said in that film seemed to have "f*ck" as at least part of it, it's a wonder they only missed one. Hee!

It was a Marc Chagall kind of evening

2008-07-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

Had an errand to deliver a box - a gift - from one set of friends to a mutual friend, Cynthia so we decided to hand it off over dinner at Pok Pok - a delightful Thai restaurant on SE Division Street here in Portland. It's one of my favorite restaurants. You sit outside in all weather. In winter there are plastic curtains around the tables and a propane heater on each. Quite cozy really. Barbara and Brian took me there on my birthday on a rainy night in January.

Cynthia is an even more adventuresome foodie than I am - she tried and liked the drinking vinegars. Plum. It was interesting mixed with soda over ice. Kind of sweet and plummy but definitely vinegar. I stuck to my usual Campari and soda with lime. We shared boar collar meat rubbed with garlic, coriander root and black pepper grilled and spiced with a chili-lime-garlic sauce. Chinese mustard greens came on the side, chilled under crushed ice and a roasted game hen salad - the restaurant's signature game hen (leftovers perhaps) with long beans, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes with a chili-lime-garlic dressing. Yum! Chili peanuts on the side. Sticky rice for Cynthia. We were too stuffed to do dessert.

We got talking about our blogs and though I'd read Cynthia's posts about glass I hadn't known about her past writing as a restaurant critic or the posts about her colorful neighborhood out in the burbs of Southwest Portland. She told me about Yuri the supposed house painter, whose wife sported couture clothes and a gigantic diamond ring. They put their house up for sale and bought a condo in the Pearl.

Cynthia went to check the house out when the realtor had it open. The decor was so dramatic - bold colors on the walls, red and black tile in the kitchen that didn't go with anything else in the room, red shag carpet with brown spots (maybe the furniture covered them when the house was occupied?) it was not an easy to sell house. It was empty save a samovar and a painting bolted to the wall over the stairway, which upon inspection appeared to be a Chagall! One of the horse and circus themed paintings. But it couldn't be. Normal folks out in Beaverton don't own paintings worth millions that should be in museums. Cynthia thought perhaps she'd misunderstood Yuri and he wasn't a house painter but a talented artist. Why then was he channeling Chagall? She remembers the painting exactly today - years later - spent a long time trying to find a reference to it amongst catalogues of Chagall's work.

Yuri's house never sold so he had to sell the condo and move back. Other neighbors confirmed that Yuri was indeed a house painter - and he'd done a terrible job painting theirs. Spilled paint all over the carpets. A mess. Not exactly a skilled craftsman. Perhaps the job was a cover? They say that you can tell the ex-KGB agents from the Rolexes they wear. Maybe Yuri chose a Chagall over the watch?

Cynthia had to go to make molds for a pate de verre demo this weekend so I went down to Holocene for Three Leg Torso by myself. Great show! The band hung out in the bar beforehand and I saw Courtney but he was talking with others and I was too shy to try to talk to him. They played a brilliant set and the crowd wanted one more. Courtney's mic hadn't worked the entire show - was funny he was giving his between song patter to Bela one line at a time to tell to us in his mic. He found a functioning one to introduce the last song about his dog, Chagall, who had gone missing a day or two before. It was a quiet, introspective tune - much in contrast with the exuberant set we'd just heard - and we were to be very quiet in case Chagall was outside looking for Courtney and could hear.

Marc Chagall was born on July 7th 121 years ago. Perhaps July 7, 2008 was the day Courtney's dog went missing?

This is my favorite Chagall painting "Paris Through The Window" from 1913. I have a poster of it that I carefully hauled back from Paris 14 years ago (odd of itself - 'cause the painting is in the collection of the Guggenheim in NY). It's still in its tube, unframed. I should get it out frame it and put it up. Maybe Chagall the dog will come by?

Doll Test, The Tripwires, Model Rockets and Jonathan Richman

2008-07-06T14:43:00.000-07:00

In a continuing effort to see/hear as much live music as possible, we trekked to beautiful Ballard, Washington (Seattle neighborhood immortalized in the Robyn Hitchcock song, "Viva Sea Tac") to the Tractor Tavern to hear Doll Test and John Ramberg's two bands The Tripwires and The Model Rockets - the last a reunion show. Great fun! I'd never heard The Model Rockets live or Doll Test at all before. Both were awesome! See/hear for yourself!

That's what I should have been doing for last New Year's...

& Here's Doll Test

They were handing out cds Friday night - got the one named for and containing that song. I rather like them.

Apologies - I can't seem to find any Model Rockets videos. They all seem to be about 'real' model rockets for some inexplicable reason. Hmmpf!

We made it back to Portland as dawn was breaking, oh 5-ish a.m. Caught a few hours sleep, waking in time to get Salvador to his doctor's (veterinary) appointment. My little old man. He's on high blood pressure meds now. The doc said he was doing better - blood pressure looking good - yay! 17 is getting up there for a Tabby Boy.

Decided late in the afternoon to go out to Jonathan Richman's Aladdin Theater show - luckily not sold out! Was my first time to hear him live - knew him mostly by reputation and from hearing others do his songs ("Pablo Picasso" done by Bowie on the Reality album...) Barbara had been a big Modern Lovers fan back in the day.

He didn't do Pablo Picasso, but he did this

and had everyone singing the chorus with him in Portland, too.

Got Three Leg Torso at Holocene on Wednesday to look forward to. Haven't heard those guys in a long time. A friend of mine was Bela Balogh's girlfriend's house mate years ago so all of the barbeques at their place ended up Three Leg Torso gigs - nice! Ran into Courtney a while back at a show - either Richard Thompson or Nick Lowe, I can't remember which. Wait... it was longer ago than that - it was Bill Rieflin's Slow Music project. The show where Peter Buck was playing his Rickenbacker with a butter knife.

Here's a preview

On the Portland Streetcar - how very (weird) and Portland! Pirates (finally made it to the Pirate store in the Lloyd center today) and Gypsy music, what more could you want?

Perfection

2008-06-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

Billy Bragg was through town a few weeks back as part of PNCA's (Pacific Northwest College of Art) Idea Studio. Interview/conversation then a concert format. Completely sold out before I made up my mind to buy tix, but Barbara convinced me to come down early and see what might happen. Turned out there were lots of unsold tickets and getting in was no problem at all.

I hadn't been a big Billy Bragg fan, though Barbara is. To the extent that she's offered him up a place to stay when he's been here before - didn't turn out that he took her up on the offer - but she did have the experience of her Brit husband Brian nonchalantly tossing out the message "Billy Bragg called". She returned the call of course. But we didn't hang out with him post show.

I've always categorized him in reference to his protest songs and wasn't really familiar with the other side of him, the one that deals with human relationships. And out of the blue comes this song

Something Happened

Do you know what love is?

Love is when you willingly

Place someone else's priorities

Above your own.

Do you know what lust is?

Lust is when you actively

Force your own priorities

On someone else.

And I'm completely blown away. So spare, whittled down to the essential thought, two questions and two answers, paired to his hauntingly beautiful guitar. The "solo" version is much more evocative than the "band" version. The cd - Mr. Love and Justice - has been in my car changer since the show and it isn't coming out anytime soon.

Under Construction

2008-06-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about moving the KatBox over here from Livejournal for some time. Subscription there is up as of July one. So watch this space...