A long walk around the city

Was that really five years?

Just a little under five years ago my friends S & A came over a few days after my birthday with a gift. They brought over the cage and all the accouterments, we went out later that night and got the little guinea pig they'd spotted at the shop. I always thought he was grey, but to the non-colorblind eye he was a really a reddish color. He was tiny and scared when we first brought him home, he was probably only a few weeks old. Before long, his demanding squeak was heard whenever someone opened the crisper drawer, and he was tame enough to just hang out on my lap as I watched TV or sat at the computer. In five years, I moved him around town three times, neglected him a bit more than I probably should have when we lived at the drafty, drunken Shaver house. After I moved in with G, even though he was desperately allergic to the little guy, he took him in and gave him more attention than I ever did. The last two years were the best a little pig could ask for, all kinds of fresh produce, a new enlarged habitat, and a prime spot in the living room instead of tucked away in a room where no one ever goes. We had a good five years Cedric. Thanks for being so damn cute. Thanks for giving me something to focus on, another living thing that was in my charge. The silence was deafening this morning as I got out of bed and went about my morning routine without your squeaks for parsley. You were just a little critter, but you were a huge part of our lives.

A stoner's travel guide

Quite possibly the most useful website ever.
WeBeHigh.com
Its interesting to compare reviews from their extensive list of 834 cities. Portland's review makes me smile and reminds me why I'm staying in the West.

End Petlessness

Cute new ad campaign for the Oregon Humane Society.



The song is "Hands in Pockets" by Laura Gibson.

Here come the cat pics

This is Mortimer. We got him from the Cat Adoption Team in Sherwood. We brought him home, let him out of his carrier, and he made himself at home. He's only been here four days, but so far he's the coolest cat I've met.
I'm going to try hard not to turn this into a cat picture blog. But, he's like a new toy. Here's some pics...

Tuesday

A show choir wet dream

That's the best description I've been able to come up with for the Feist 1234 video.
I've been hearing this song everywhere all summer in commercials and on the radio, and I haven't grown annoyed by it yet. I turned on MTV the other morning and I saw this video for the first time (yep, they play videos before 8am...So does VH1. Who knew?) and my uncontrollable laughter woke G up in the other room.
Just from the exuberance of the dancers, this looks like the funnest video shoot ever. They're all having a blast! The stupid grin on Leslie's face around 1:45 as she's crowd surfing makes me love her even more. She's my new favorite rock star...

I especially dig the sounds of the empty warehouse, the way the hand claps, finger snaps, and dancers singing and yelling reverberates. This didn't stand out so much when I watched it on MTV, maybe my laptop speakers add some special lo-fi-ness to it, but it makes me love it even more.

In Russia blank blanks you!

Somehow that joke has become as annoying and cliche as "blank is the new black," or "best blank evars!"

But here's some good stuff from English Russia. "Just because something cool happens daily on 1/6 of the Earth's surface"

The sign reads, " Be careful with fire in woods, or you will be punished."

Russian doorstep

Hot water heater

Beater Review

"Buying new is for suckers."

These guys review almost every car I've ever spent much time with. No Hyundai Excel, the hands-down favorite of all my past rides, but there's Mom's Chevy Corsica that always ran hot when you got stuck in traffic for more than two minutes, but had the best manual adjustable driver's seat of any shitbox 'merican car in the '90's. Then there's Dad's S-10 pickup that somehow managed to go well over 100 mph through Mineral that one time, and didn't even bust anything that one time we ramped off one of the hills out by Tulip.
My current ride, G's Sube is even represented. The all wheel drive Impreza, even the stock 1.9L version we have is a great car. It handles nicely on gravel and snow and slick, wet Portland streets. Its only left us stranded once when the radiator blew somewhere just below the summit of the Coast Range in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain.

Beater Review posts a new review every Monday. You can even submit your own suggestions.

Midlake

Since I started my current job, I've been listening to a lot of corporate radio. 8 hours a day. It starts with Mark & Brian in the mornings, who I've grown to love and find their show a rather "classy" alternative to all the other morning talk shows. They're smart, witty, and crass at the same time, much like I strive to be.
After 10am, I try to switch it up. The dude I share my workspace with loves to listen to the Buzz, the straight up teeny-bopper pop station, even though he's a forty-something former Deadhead.
I do love Daria & Mitch in the afternoons, and all the other personalities on the station seem to be self-aware enough to poke fun at the music they have to play, but just enough to keep Entercom powers that be off their back.
Some days we listen to KINK. I've written about my love-hate relationship with KINK before. They love Feist, they love Ryan Adams, and they had Spoon in their "Live Performance Lounge" the other day. I can get behind that.
Anyway, all this rambling about my radio listening habits comes to this point. With Oregarus no longer in my daily work life, I'm without a great source for new music, and when we happen to meet up at the pub to catch up on life, we never manage to exchange music like we used to. I haven't really been keyed into any new bands as of late. I've been listening to a lot of the same ol' stuff I've loved for years.
On my recent long weekend in Seattle, a buddy introduced me to Midlake, a band from Denton, TX. Their latest album has been in heavy heavy rotation for the last couple weeks. Heavy rotation as in I haven't really listened to anything else. Its the perfect music for the end of summer melancholy that always sets in around this time. They sound a little like Fleetwood Mac, and I've come to grips with the fact that I kinda like Fleetwood Mac...

I hate music videos. Even good ones always remind me of cheesy karaoke videos, but youtube is the easiest way to share music I really dig on my blog. Here's a few of my favorite songs from Midlake.

"Head Home"



"Young Bride"



"We Gathered in Spring"


And a snippet from a live performance of "Branches," another song that keeps repeating in my head all day long until I listen to the album again.

Restore America - a whole new level of assholery

I'm never one to wax political. I'm almost never prone to self-righteous indignation, I just don't have it in me. I usually cower away from disagreement and try to socialize with folks who I know share at least a few beliefs with me. This is my first even half-way political post on Sellwood Street.

A little background for those two of ya'll who aren't Oregonians or just haven't followed the news lately. Various hater groups masquerading as Christians are circulating petitions around the state to try to overturn the domestic partnership or "Oregon Family Fairness Act" (which is a half-assed comprise in the first place.) Equal rights organizations are filing complaints against the bigots because many of them aren't following the proper legal channels, or are just telling bare-faced lies to get people to unwittingly sign their petitions...

This email hit inboxes across Oregon today, from the self proclaimed "christian" organization Restore America...

"Oregon faces a less obvious September Day of Infamy, an attack from within our borders by those who seek to change Oregonians view of marriage and morality, no matter what we say or how we VOTE, and whether we like it or not."

I feel dirty linking to their site...
How have I spent these last few years not realizing that my relationship with the guy I love is exactly like the killing of 3000+ [mostly] innocent folks in a a fiery unprecedented terrorist attack?
I don't even know what to say. I've written more about this already that I thought I had in me. Here's what some other folks around town are blogging...
Amy, at Blogtown, PDX
B!X, at Furious Nads
Divebarwife at Portland Metbogs

This or That

Stumbled onto this from watching TV. Who who'd have thunk?
The host was on an episode of "Monster Garage."
The show is "This or That" America's Favorite Burlesque Gameshow.
Some favorites so far; Sex Trivia, Rosie the Riveter, and Shampoo & Trivia Quiz.
At times its like an even more sexed up Sabado Gigante crossed with a little Let's Make a Deal, with a whole lot of good 'ol cabaret style entertainment.

Forest to Faucet

I swear, I'm not in any way an employee or contractor for the Portland Water Bureau. But Portland's water system is an endless source of fascination for me, as has become apparent here, here, here, and most recently here.
A couple days ago my favorite water bureau blog posted an awesome history of Portland's early water system. Running water in 1857?
Shit! I'm the first generation of my family to have been born into indoor plumbing. Growing up, Mom had a cistern for their water supply that a truck came and filled every so often, and Papaw E was a miser of amazing tightness. They dug an outhouse "across the branch" when they built their house in 1952, that they used, weather permitting, well into the 1950's, even though they had indoor plumbing.
Dad's folks had a fucking telephone a good five years before they put in a bathroom, in 1968. When Dad got drafted, the barracks bathroom was the first indoor plumbing he'd ever lived with. The outhouse at the old homeplace was still in service when we sold the house in the early 90's after Mamaw D died. Thanks to absolutely no zoning, (even now in the 21st century) in Martin County, we didn't have to fill it in. We could've called it the "guest bathroom."
Is this why I love Portland's beautifully simple water system so much?