Sellwood Street

lost in translation, or translated much too literally

2010-04-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

(A funny exchange with a work friend who's a native Spanish speaker)
In the break room, first thing this morning...
sometimes my co-worker's daughter rides in early with her dad, hangs out in the break room and reads for awhile, and then walks to her school nearby. She's usually already gone by the time I make it to the break room for my first cup of coffee (at work), but as I walked in there this morning, her things are on the table where she'd been studying and her dad is pacing around impatiently. He finally asks a female co-worker to go check on her in the ladies room. As I'm filling up my coffee cup, I make small talk, "is she running late? [for school]"
Without missing a beat, he answers, "No, she's bleeding."
My whole day was instantly filled with way too much information...

Goodbye to the corner of Burnside, Sandy, and 12th ave

2010-03-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

Since my first days in Portland, this intersection has been an unavoidable part of life. Three two-way streets and another one way street all come together in a glorious mess, and have done so in one configuration or another since East Portland was a wee city. I'm kinda sad to see it become so safe and uninteresting, but seriously, this is one nasty intersection that needed fixing 70 years ago. I drive my big ol' box truck through here nearly every day and always stress a little as I squeeze through those narrow lanes.
Soon I'll reminisce about this intersection just like I reminisce about 20th, Hawthorne, & Elliot, and how you used to have to swerve around a utility pole to continue south through this intersection. I will miss the old signage, there's quite a few old-school signs from the '60's that will be going away.
I haven't had a moment to get out and take the photos I want to lately, luckily there's this photographic evidence of the last days of the intersection collected over at the ZehnKatzen Times.

Where's the Airport?

2010-02-18T05:39:00.000-08:00

Back in December while traveling through the new Indy Airport, I hit up google maps just for a refresher on how to get to the new terminal. I noticed that Google maps was still giving directions to the old terminal (and it still does, even now, eight months after the new airport went online). This morning, I get this friendly little email from the Google team.

Hi j,

Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We'll update the map soon and email you when you can see the change.

Report history
Problem ID: A7FD-E0BE-1B3D-B302

Your report: There is a new Indianapolis International Airport. The airport is now accessed via I-70, the official address is 7800 Col. H. Weir Cook Memorial Drive Indianapolis, IN 46241 All searches for IND still lead to the old airport.

--
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

What's at the old terminal now anyway? Did they tear it down? Are there signs warning you that you're no longer heading towards the right airport? I keep imagining rolling up in front of the old terminal, grabbing my bag out of the trunk, waving goodbye as my ride drives away and then turning around to realize the airport is completely dark and deserted.
Seriously google maps, the place opened months ago, and we're not talking about a total backwater airport, its the 14th largest city in the country!

Cute Birds with Suggestive Names

2009-12-26T15:40:00.001-08:00

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Tufted Titmouse

Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Saab not quite dead yet.

2009-12-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

GM hasn't quite ran the brand completely into the ground, there's still hope. A last ditch effort to save SAAB is coming from Spyker, a tiny manufacturer in the Netherlands. Perhaps we'll be seeing more interesting cars again and less generic creations like the Saabaru. As a fan of Fuji Heavy Industries & Saab, that unholy combination is definitely a low point.
This fun Saab ad from Finland makes everything better for now.

Two random views of Mt Hood

2009-11-26T11:08:00.000-08:00

Late morning on the Fremont Bridge, moving vehicle

Sunrise on NE Brodway, from the steps of Thai Basil

DIY public art

2009-11-22T17:01:00.000-08:00

Some new guerrilla art is popping up around the neighborhood lately. I'm almost always biking around in the dark these days, spotting these things but not being able to get a decent picture. I just happened to make it out in the daylight with the camera today between storms.

Tire Dragon at the east end of the Failing Pedestrian Bridge.

Little signs with what seem like excerpts of a bigger story have been popping up around the 'hood lately. In this vacant lot on Tillamook St, the signs are placed as if in the rooms of the former house that stood here. Very cool.

TV full of art for sale. Leave cash? N. Williams Ave.

Frogs! Lots of frogs in the Port City parking lot.

A sunny day in the neighborhood

2009-11-22T16:39:00.000-08:00

Old school Dead End sign, Overlook neighborhood

Secret unofficial park on the bluff

The onion dome that becomes visible all over the neighborhood every winter

Its the law! Junked Tri-Met bus, off N. Williams Ave.

Stuck in the couch

2009-11-18T21:03:00.000-08:00

Olaf thought that corner of the couch right by the heater was great, until he melted down into the cushions and couldn't get out...

Pictures of the cat

2009-11-17T20:28:00.001-08:00

Olaf's favorite spot this winter is the corner of the couch, closest to the heater.

He only lays in this awkward position when the heat is running...

Tub Licker!

Random stuff

2009-11-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

Oregon State Capitol

You can never have too much Bovadine® brand Teat Dip.

Virginia Creeper fall color in the backyard.

This was the Virginia Creeper back in February.

Hurry up bus, the ocean's about to get you!

Pacific City, Oregon

2009-11-08T17:19:00.001-08:00

Morning in Pacific City, before the Pelican and the public access area are crawling with people.

Bunnies everywhere!

The hotel sells little bags of bunny chow for 50¢.

Sunset behind Haystack Rock and the Pelican Pub.

Howdy from Sellwood Street

2009-08-21T22:12:00.000-07:00

Still here, just having a weird summer.

Fremont Bridge

2009-05-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

Spray on tan legislation

2009-05-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Sigh. When any news story from Southern Indiana makes it to the west coast, its always for all the wrong reasons. Either a tornado wiped out a town, someone did something really stupid and got caught, or parents are freaking out about something vaguely sexual.
This story almost falls into two of those categories. Spray-on-Tan-Dude probably should've used better judgement and had a female staff member perform the spraying down of the naked teenage girl, but I like to give him the benefit of doubt, he was just doing his job, spraying fake tans on anyone who pays the money and assumes the position.
A side note for all you non-hoosiers, State Rep. Borders is an Elvis impersonator, and a pretty damn good one. When reading the article, his quotes are in an Elvis voice.

Highway 22

2009-05-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

I found this old sign in an unlikely place, on the wall by the bathrooms at McFadden's in Old town. Not a place I'd usually be, in fact on a Saturday night I'd probably stand in the rain to avoid going in.
After watching the Derby in the bar at Dan & Louie's, (one of my personal 'happy places') we got caught in a crazy thunderstorm, so like any normal Portlanders, we took shelter in the nearest open bar.
In the afternoon, McFadden's is a quiet pub with anything you want on the TV, $2 happy hour food from 4-6, and a decent beer selection. Sure, its a little sterile and unauthentic, but there's lots of worse places, and in a downpour it was a godsend, and I got to see this old-school Oregon route marker.

Today

2009-05-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

From the Portland Streets

2009-04-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

A couple specimens of American cars from back when they were still desirable...

A 1967 Olds Delta 88. I didn't really recognize this as an Oldsmobile at first look, especially with that mean pointy grille.

Even from the back I immediately thought it was some sort of Chrysler or something.

An adorable whale of a Packard from the early'50's.

Not in pristine condition, but someone loves it. It looks like a daily driver.

More old signage

2009-04-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

Another great Portland sign, dug up from an old post from 2007.

Speed 30 Miles

2009-04-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

About a year ago, I posted about my love of Oregon's speed limit (speed suggestion) signs. I finally managed to get a picture of this old soldier that still stands guard just five blocks from la casa. Not sure why I never managed to take a picture until recently, I've admired it for years. I love how awkward the wording is, "Speed 30 Miles." I've seen these signs in old pictures, but this is the only specimen I've discovered in the wild.
Our current "Oregon Speed" sign is peculiar enough, but this early version is even weirder. I've noticed even more of the US standard "Speed Limit" signs appearing on the freeways around the city in the past year.
Sadly that old rotting wooden Broadway Bridge directional that used to hang at Vancouver & Williams was replaced last year, and now I can't find a picture of it anywhere. That reminds me, I need to get down to Swan Island and take some pics of all those old button reflector signs that still populate the area.

A Very Goatse Logo

2009-04-16T21:29:00.001-07:00

Spotted on a box of T-shirts.

The neighborhood billboard of free speech

2009-04-12T19:59:00.000-07:00

I love this billboard assembly, traveling by car, its right as you come off the Fremont Bridge and plunge into the series of ridiculous stop-sign intersections that lead you from the freeway into the tiny streets of NE Portland.
Its a huge ass billboard, accessible from ground level, at a major intersection, ripe for vandalism. It somehow manages to attract awesome tags like the ones above instead of the silly lil' gangbanger bullshit that seems to permeate the city.
Here's a couple other shots of the same billboard during the summer of '08. These two stood side-by-side all summer long.
Pics borrowed from "The Impression That I Get's" photostream.

Update: Looking through old pictures, I found another one from the spring of '07.

"Adios Coliseum," or "My Change of Heart about Mayor Sam."

2009-04-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

Or, "My disjointed off the cuff reaction to news of the the plans to demolish Memorial Coliseum and build a Sports and Wine Disneyland."

Three years of Mayor Potter's silly tantrums and total lack of vision made me anxious for a regime change in Portland City Hall.
Anxious enough that I drove around the city one Sunday morning last year to put up your signs, but your disorganized campaign people sent us on a wild goose chase to houses that already had signs in the yard.
I was a little discouraged, but I really believed we were on the same page, it seemed we shared a lot of the same visions for the city. Even though I knew you had never done anything other than "politic" since before you entered the workforce, somehow I believed that you were above most of the bullshit and would stand up to the things I assumed you also found repulsive.
I rallied behind you when news of the "incident" broke. I defended you to co-workers and even tried real hard to convince my partner that you were still exactly what the city needed, and eventually everyone will realize that this "scandal" is overblown and ridiculous and city business will continue as usual after it all blows over.
Four months later, here we are, we've got a 12 lane bridge to funnel Vancouverites into the city and now my neighborhood is going to be a theme park for suburban sports fans.
Its now clear that I was mistaken about our shared vision for the city. I now find myself hoping that the current economic climate will slow growth enough that your fucked up visions for the city will never come to fruition. Are these really your ideas, or are you just unable to wield any real authority anymore?

More Street Blade Madness

2009-04-04T14:06:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago I posted about Portland's new street sign designs, tipped off by a fellow blogger who is also prone to geek out about things like road signs. I hadn't actually seen one of the new ones in person until Thursday when I had to go to drop off some t-shirts at Bridgeport Brewing. I didn't have the camera in tow at that moment, but just happened to pass through this area again today on a long walk around the city.

This has been an area of heavy construction for the past few years. Construction on the new high-rise condos are finally finished on this block, folks are moving in, and new street signs are going up.
It seems another street blade re-write is in order. You makin' a list ZehnKatzen?
In a perfect world, Portland's Alphabet District, so named because the east/west streets are named in alphabetical order from Ankeny to York*, should be relatively intuitive. Laid out in quadrants, Portland just makes sense, so it makes sense that the 1300 block of 12th ave should occur after crossing the street named after the 13th letter of the alphabet. The city sign shop even gets it.
However, in the real world, we do things differently. In Portland, we start counting at Burnside, not Ankeny, and we always have a block of two-digit addresses before we get into the 100's. I assume this is how this sign came to be. The real 1300 block is between Overton and Pettygrove Streets.
On a side note, if anyone from the city happens upon this post and is thinking, "hmm, maybe we should hire a fact-checker," I'm available nights and weekends, perhaps even full time if the price is right. Just sayin'.

*Roosevelt St. is a total cop out. Wasn't there at least one guy in town named Xavier to name this street after?

A minivan you can't refuse

2009-03-29T07:12:00.001-07:00

This thing is perpetually parked just north of Hawthorne on 16th. Not sure about the back story, but the van pretty much speaks for itself.

PDX Lost & Found

2009-03-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

No, not at the airport, Graham's blog.
Mostly Portland history, but he's only got a couple posts up so far, so we'll see where it goes.

From the Portland Streets

2009-03-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

On a long walk in SE last weekend, I spotted this first generation Plymouth Valiant. Built somewhere between '60-'62, this one still looks pretty pristine, considering it sports Alaska plates.

In the story I've made up about this car, its driven daily by one of the sisters from the nearby convent. In the top left of the picture is the front archway of the Sisters of Reparation of the Sacred Wounds of Jesus.

The rear is pretty interesting. The car definitely has a lot of personality. Those brake lights are like condescending eyes, and that tire cover...

Love this front grille emblem. That logo is more fitting for a pack of cigarettes, or maybe a brand of gum.

Made in Oregon

2009-03-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Via Matt Davis

D'oh!

2009-03-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

The City of Portland has recently been upgrading many street signs, especially out in the far east areas of the city. It seems to be a bit of a hasty job though, as per this pic from ZehnKatzen Times.

If you're a Portlander who pays attention, you'll immediately realize what's wrong with this sign. For the rest of you, Stark St. never enters NE Portland, as the NE 148th sign suggests. It just can't be! Anyone got a big green-out pen?

Sassy Jack's

2009-03-23T18:15:00.001-07:00

I finally made it back to my old "Cheers bar" over the weekend. I used to live three blocks from Sassy Jack's Pub in Montavilla, but moved out of the neighborhood about four years ago.
I started going there with my housemate soon after it opened, they took over a sketchy meth-den bar that I had only stepped foot in once. The new owners gave the place a lot of love and made it a quirky little bar with cheap beers and homemade mid-western food.
(SOS Monday, Hell yeah!)
I've only been back there a handful of times since then. Montavilla is off my usual path anymore, and the place was really smokey until the smoking ban. Now the place is all aired out and expanded with more pool tables and more room for dancing on weekend nights when they have a live band.

The mural of all the original regulars, with unfortunate flash blowout.

Oregarus and I still hold our positions in the upstairs windows.

From The Portland Streets

2009-03-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

A 1990-ish Dodge Monaco, a rebadged Eagle Premier, designed in France, built in Canada, sold in the US. I haven't seen one of these in years. Very few were ever sold in the first place, so stumbling upon one parked on the city streets is kinda rare.

Seems to have been abandoned here since January, or maybe they just keep the chains on, "just in case."

They only made these for a couple years in the early '90's. Seems I remember it being rated the most unreliable car sold in America at the time. Still, there's something I love about it.

Random phone pics

2009-03-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

Bathroom chalkboard at the Mash Tun, in praise of the Zombies. This picture was taken ages ago.

Bizarre fruit box. Grizzled prospector firing a gun that shoots oranges? wtf?

Drawn in the grime on the back of a truck making a delivery at work. Reminds me that I need to go toss a few, brush up my skills, and actually make a trip out to McIver soon.

Retro cereal boxes

2009-03-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

At Target, and perhaps a few other stores, General Mills have rolled out these reproduction cereal boxes. Pretty cool. Somehow that box makes me crave Lucky Charms, even though I hated them when I was a kid. What's up with that?

From the Portland Streets

2009-03-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

This poor little Sube met its fate parked along Williams Ave just up the street from la casa. Sad to see a smashed up Impreza, even if it is that horrible 1990's teal.

"As if"

2009-03-03T21:47:00.000-08:00

The Oregon Income Tax instruction booklet explains how the state recognizes your partnership for tax purposes.

Registered domestic partners (RDPs): To correctly
determine your Oregon tax liability, you must complete
a federal income tax return “as if” you were
married filing jointly or married filing separately. Use
the information you calculated on the “as if” federal
return to complete your Oregon income tax return,
unless otherwise indicated.

You have to figure out your federal taxes twice, one copy, the one where you file as single, you actually file to the IRS. The second copy (or as the Oregon Department of Revenue quite amusingly calls it, the "As if" copy) is the version where you get to pretend the federal government considers you a full citizen. You figure out how much you'd save by filing jointly, then use that information to fill out your state forms.

Domestic Partnerships are cool, I'm glad I'm in a place where there's that option. However taxes are just one of the instances where it becomes glaringly obvious that the whole idea is still a "separate but equal" compromise. That, and that handy list of "RDP's" that'll make it easier to round up the queers when the time comes. (Sorry, just a little conspiracy theory freakout.)
There's so many more issues that are so much more important to me, I really wish the polarizing push for "marriage" could just take a back seat for a little while while we fix the really big things, like equal legal protection for gays in that huge chunk of the country where one can still be fired or lose their apartment for being gay. Yeah, that would be a nice start...

Cat Kid

2009-02-24T18:35:00.000-08:00

24 February
Cat Kid Update:
I saw them spare changing on the corner of MLK and Broadway this afternoon. Near where I usually spot him walking, but I've never seen him with a sign before. Poor Cat Kid. I've never given anything to a "spanger" before, but now I really want to keep a can of tuna in the truck for the next time I see him. That fine beast needs to eat.

I've seen you twice now walking around NE with that awesome cat on your shoulder like a parrot or a ferret. The first time I spotted you I was on bike, and almost turned around to say "Hi" and pet your cat. Today, sitting in traffic at Broadway & Grand, I spotted you with enough time to whip out the phone and take blurry pictures.

These are the Churches in my Neighborhood

2009-02-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

This used to be St Paul Church Of God In Christ. It was for sale back in 2007 when I took this picture. It has since sold, but I'm not sure what's going on with it. All I know is they ditched a perfectly good piano over the weekend. Luckily, someone saved it.

Immaculate Heart, the pink church on the corner a block up the hill from la casa. The best paint job of all the neighborhood churches. Their steeple is the tallest thing in the neighborhood. You can see it from across the river.

This church is caddy-corner from the one in that first picture. Until recently, it was painted a perfectly respectable shabby white. (See the google street view image below) It was Mt Gillard Missionary Baptist‎, now we just refer to it as the "Paint Sale Church."

View Larger Map

Spring Fever

2009-02-23T21:59:00.000-08:00

These pictures are all from 12 March 2007. Just a reminder that spring is coming soon. A short three weeks from now we'll be breathing in the smell of plum trees and not too long after that, the cherry blossoms on the riverfront.

Spring has become my favorite season now that I reside in the Northwest. In Indiana, fall was always my favorite time of year, the colors, the smells, the changing weather. Spring here in Portland seems to have all of these traits.

There's something about the months of Portland gloom that make the spring colors especially pretty against a grey background. You know its still going to be grey and moist for another couple of months, but at least there are flowers and trees blooming.
Soon, very soon...

From the Portland Streets

2009-02-21T22:55:00.000-08:00

I spotted this cute Nash Metropolitan in the Kerns Neighborhood today. A car of the late 1950's future, it was designed in America, but completley built in England. It was the first captive import in automotive history, completely built overseas, but sold and serviced stateside by Nash.

The wheelbase is slightly shorter than a VW Beetle. There is a backseat, but adults are advised to not even try. Even the front seat is challenging for someone over six feet tall.

Welcome to Oregon, tiny bizarre old car. May road salt never touch your delicate incredibly rust-prone sheet metal, and may your electrics overcome the fact that they were made by the Brits.

Monster Jam

2009-02-17T18:16:00.000-08:00

Rose Garden Arena parking lot. Cleanup after Monster Jam. (You have to read the words "monster jam" in a "Sunday Sunday Sunday" voice.) Grave Digger won all three nights. Where's the sport? I just happened to walk by as they were removing the cars that didn't get too smashed to be loaded up and moved on to Spokane for next weekend's shows.
Lots of auto memories in this rainbow of '80's American steel. That Delta 88 is just like the one my Aunt used to have, only her's wasn't yellow. There was even a Chevy Celebrity in the white section that looked a lot like my old ride from high school.

We speculated about why they were color coded. Are the blue ones going onto a different truck than the yellow ones? Is it just because the forklift driver is anal about organizing things and couldn't stand the thought of them being all mixed up?

The Schnitz

2009-02-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

We were walking down Broadway yesterday, killing time until the taqueria I woke up craving opened for lunch, when we noticed there was a free tour of the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, the two building complex at Main & Broadway that houses most of Portland's big time theatre performances, touring shows and such.
The Newmark and the Winningstad are newer theatres in a newish building, and the tours were interesting to this old theatre geek, not sure how G liked it, but we were really on the tour to see the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

That picture above is the lobby with the usual diffused Portland sunlight. The place was built as a "movie palace" back in the day. Broadway was lined with them, all in various states of gildedness. This one spent the majority of her life as the Paramount, showing films until it closed in the early 1970's. It sat empty, owned by dubious entities who raped it of most of its charms while it sat vacant, and sold them to the highest bidder. Luckily, much of it remains intact despite every effort to destroy it. In the early 1980's it was saved and refurbished into the concert venue it is today.

This statue, entitled "Surprise" has stood here since the theatre first opened in 1927. Soon after the opening, in 1928, a bizarre robbery (by a disgruntled man who was an extra in the film being shown at the moment), resulted in her fingers being shot off in the melee that ensued. She remained fingerless until the 80's when her hand was restored.

A shot through the fancy ass lobby. It was awesome to be here with an empty house. Empty except for Diane Reeves rehearsing with the band for the evening's performance, we were treated to a private show of sorts, in the right place at the right time.

I'm a sucker for radiator grates. These line the interior of the lobby. Not the most exciting pattern, but still vintage and awesome.
The tour was quite a nice spontaneous diversion on a Saturday afternoon, and it made my wet burrito at Maya's Taqueria even tastier.
If you're in Portland on a Saturday and want to check it out, free tours start at 11 am and 12:30 pm from the lobby of the new building.

Building Oregon

2009-02-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

I stumbled onto this collection of photos from the University of Oregon Libraries a few days ago. G and I have both spent hours browsing through them, lots of pictures of architectural details and street scenes from Portland's past.

The Blitz Brewery and Jake's Crawfish. Jake's is the only thing on this corner that hasn't really changed a bit since this was taken in 1955.

This is the newly built Waterfront Park, looking towards the Morrison Bridge, just after Harbor Drive was converted to the grassy waterfront we have today.

The Steigerwald Dairy building in the Hollywood District, just around the corner from my work. About four years ago the 7-Up sign was replaced with a garish Budwiser sign that always seems to be malfunctioning. The weird tower is there because the building was originally shaped like a giant milk bottle.

Here's some other favorites from the collection-

Broadway & Taylor, 1970 something
2nd & Pine, mid 1960's
2nd & Pine, early 80's, as the original Old Spaghetti Factory
2nd & Taylor, May 19, 1973
The Curtis, and I-405 being dug through the middle of the city
1st & Yamhill, right before the building was restored
An upstairs room at the White Eagle, before restoration. Yikes!

There's also a google maps application that I just discovered, a much cooler way to search the pictures and get a better feel for where these buildings stood.

The Lady at the End of the Block

2009-02-08T22:19:00.001-08:00

There's this weird vacant lot that was probably vacated in anticipation of the "Going Freeway." Enclosed on two sides by sound walls, a handful of old trees remain. I saw this sign and had to see what it was all about.

Walk through the spongy grass lot all the way to the corner. Just when you think you've been had, you'll turn around and notice "the lady" in the tree.
Just when I'm sure that funky "old portland" I remember from all the way back in 2001 has gone the way of the condo tower, I stumble onto something like this and fall in love with my city again.
N. Going Ct. & Colonial Ave.

From the Portland Streets

2009-02-08T20:18:00.001-08:00

A nice looking specimen in the Overlook Neighborhood. I've loved these Saabs since I first rode in one that a high school friend had.
I specifically recall a sticky hot summer day. We were in summer band and had a lunch break, so we cruised on over to his folk's restaurant for lunch.
The Saab was rusty white, my ass was sweating against the Swedish vinyl. We were blasting "Dream On" by Aerosmith on a Discman that was somehow wired into the two speakers that probably weren't original.
A few months later he crashed the thing and walked away unscathed, like he would with many more Saabs to follow.

Its like a little aerodynamic tank that looks like it might be able to fly or float. I don't think I've ever seen one in powder blue before.

This one seems to have never seen a bad day, a little faded with basic wear and tear, but otherwise perfect.

Just a note: if you're ever trying to make a quick getaway in one of these, you got to put it in Reverse to make it start. Yeah, its weird, but that's just the way of the Saab.

"There are white folks, and then there are ignorant motherfuckers like you."

2009-02-07T08:16:00.000-08:00

An amusing by-product of the books-on-tape phenomenon, these sound files of our 44th president cursing like a sailor come courtesy of the audio version of his book "Dreams From My Father." Enjoy. (More backstory at the link.)

Zappa's PGE ad

2009-01-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

Seems to have been snagged from a French documentary, not sure when he made this, sometime late 70's early 80's but I hear from some old timers that it ran on Portland TV for a long time. (Sans subtitres)

Video Dump

2009-01-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

So many YouTube videos.

This one is an Oregon Lottery ad that only aired for a couple days before they pulled it. Weird.

I watched this one early this morning and have been giggling about it all day.

From the Portland Streets

2009-01-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

I scored a double on this quiet N Portland corner this weekend on the way to the grocery store.

This shiny red 1964-ish International pickup caught my eye enough to de-bike and dig out the camera. That grill is all round and cute, kinda like a cherub.

The back end of this machine is all business though. The bed is pretty much just a plain ol' box welded onto the back. This isn't exactly a pristine vehicle, but pretty nice for a 40 year old truck.

On the same corner is this lovely sample. (You can see the red truck across the street.) A sad third generation Mustang, somewhere around an 1981.

This is what the oil crisis did to the Mustang. That paintjob just drips of malaise. The graphic seems like an afterthought. "No really, its a Mustang. See, it says so on the door, in big letters."

An open letter to the media, regarding the Sam Adams sex scandal

2009-01-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

A petition that's floating around the Portland blog circles. I'll do my part and pass it on. Nearly 200 signatures as of this post.

excerpt-
"We are not unknown to you. We are your readers. We are also friends on Twitter; you link to our blogs; you seek us out for comments at events. Just as we benefit from your reporting and analysis, you benefit and profit from our work; we act as partners in many ways in covering Portland news. The next time a scandal shakes our city, we hope that you will remember we are here; and we hope you will not rush to express a judgment before you can possibly know whether it reflects our views. "

Read and sign it if you feel so inclined.

Get Back To Work

2009-01-23T22:28:00.000-08:00

My two crappy pictures of this evening's Pro Sam rally.

Rally Friday Night!

2009-01-22T14:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sure hardly anyone reading this is following along for developing Sam news, but just in case, there's a rally in support of Mayor Sam planned for 5:30 in front of City Hall.
Dan Savage is a confirmed speaker, and there are rumors of other fairly important folks that will probably be in attendance as well. Hopefully a little more exposure of the other side will calm these shrill knee-jerk calls for resignation and my fellow Portlanders will think a little more about the situation.

Funny, I've been following these developments all morning and didn't realize that it was all being organized by a friend.
Just another Big City/Small Town moment in Portland.

Thank you Thomas Lauderdale

2009-01-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

The "O" reports that Thomas Lauderdale of Pink Martini and Gus Van Sant are working on some sort of rally in support of Mayor Sam. Lauderdale's quotes in this story are the most sensible thing I've read in any of the local press.

""When it comes to sex, this country is just so crazy," Lauderdale said. "Ultimately, I think that what needs to happen is the city needs to calm down. The city needs to calm down and we need to concentrate on the heavy agenda, which is before us as a city. These sex scandals are a huge, colossal waste of time and resources."

The story continues -

"He said he's spoken with a lot of people who have supported the mayor. He's hoping Portlanders will come to the rally to encourage "the city to move on and move ahead and not behave rashly and irrationally."
"The thing is: people lie about sex. I mean it's the one thing that people lie about. He is not going to make this kind of mistake ever again in his life."
"I don't see this as a character problem. It was a huge lesson that unfortunately he had to learn in a very public way.""

I'm still with Sam

2009-01-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

And so are these folks. Here's the statement.

What We Believe

1. Consensual sex between adults does not impact one's ability to serve in public office;

2. The personal affairs of gay officials face a level of scrutiny that is not equal to that of their heterosexual counterparts;

3. We acknowledge Sam Adams's dishonesty in this matter and do not endorse it;

4. Sam Adams is the person we want to lead our city.

Kroger's Political Leanings?

2009-01-17T22:55:00.000-08:00

(Not the Oregon AG, John Kroger)
BuyBlue.org seems to be down right now, just when I'm curious about Kroger's political affiliations. One or our local arms of the Kroger empire, QFC (Quality Food Center), has this ad reminding us that inauguration day is coming up.
I'll have to check out Buy Blue tomorrow and see where Kroger stands. Are they really glad to promote inauguration day, or are they just cashing in on a regional trend?

Auditorium Park Public Restrooms

2009-01-17T20:21:00.000-08:00

Remember the giant heart model that you could walk through at the Museum of Science and Industry, or at OMSI, or at various other museums. This bizarre public bathroom reminds me of that. Red tile must've been on clearance sale back in 1969 when this parking garage public washroom was built.

G wouldn't go in. It did have potential to be bad news, but the few public restrooms around the city are pretty well maintained. Neither of us had ever noticed it before, even though collectively we've walked by here hundreds of times. Its right across Clay St. from the Ira Keller Fountain.

This is the part that really reminded me of walking through a heart valve.

There's not a square corner in the entire bathroom, but it was surprisingly clean and even smelled pleasant. G still wouldn't go in, even after I showed him the pictures.

The red tile really is quite overwhelming. I think the strategy here was to make the facilities so uncomfortable to spend much time in, so that even junkies wouldn't be able to bear the bright red curvy walls long enough to shoot up. Get in, get out!

Caught a trucker out of Philly, had a nice long toke.

2009-01-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

I love me some Bluegrass. At least a couple times a day, some old timey song plays in my head. Country and Gospel and Bluegrass music was everywhere around me growing up, and after a healthy period of rejection, I'm now even able to listen to commercial pop country radio.
An hour of that makes me thankful that there are plenty of folks still playing the Bluegrass, even out here in the NW, there's plenty of shows to go see. Tuesday night Jackstraw at the Laurelthirst is always a sure bet. Show up early to get a table, or you'll end up standing in an awkward location, eating your quesedilla standing up.

This charmingly bizarre video from Old Crow Medicine Show makes me happy. I've loved this song for years, but somehow have never encountered the video.

Sloan's Tavern

2009-01-14T21:30:00.000-08:00

If you've spent much time driving around Portland, you might have encountered Sloan's. You'd at least remember the West side of the building, its that place at Vancouver and Russell with a Freightliner Cab sticking out the side of the building.
I've lived within a stone's throw from it for a long time, but until tonight I'd only been there once.
I didn't discover it when I was still a cigarette smoker, and since I quit I really don't dig the smoky bars. I went there for the first time on a whim last year and thought it was an awesome neighborhood bar, but too smoky for my tastes, so it went somewhere near the top of my list of places to visit in 2009 now that Oregon's bars are smoke free.

Sloan's is the awesome low-key neighborhood bar with a perfect mix of grey haired old men, crusty skater punks, maybe a random table of queens, plenty of other neighborhood folks, and a bar full of interesting drunks and refugees.
I'm in love with Sloan's. I don't think G is completely sold yet. Someday that $4.99 chicken strip basket will make him a believer too.
The beer selection is the only troublesome spot. The only local beers are Widmer Hef on tap and Full Sail in bottles. I opted for PBR in a can, and then one on tap. The price was right, but I just don't really have the taste for shitty beer anymore. Maybe I'm a snob. I think next time I'll partake of their RC cola or maybe a Squirt, until they get a tastier local beer on tap.

The food at Sloan's is the main attraction. Full on old-school diner fare. Sandwiches rule the menu, Hot Ham & Cheese, a Reuben that I've read is awesome, the French Dip, the special ham & turkey on a french roll named the Emanual after the hospital across the street, and my special pleasure, the burgers are cooked just like in the Midwest diners of my youth, on the flat-top, steamed at the end so the cheese is all melty and perfect, and the toasted buttered bun was something I haven't encountered outside my own kitchen, or an Indiana diner. Oh, and everything comes with hand-cut fries! This place is the real fuckin' deal!
Oh, and the decor? Like a time capsule! An almost perfectly preserved 1975. Comfy booths, mirrored walls, cool carpet, and the bird themed wall hangings were something I'd forgotten about, but now I remember everyone had these in their house when I was a kid.
It seems like this place has been frequented by folks who respected it over the years, otherwise that mirror wall would've had someone thrown into it by now, and those booths wouldn't be perfectly intact. There are a few remnants of "Old Portland" still hanging on out there, and this is one of them. Check it out while you still can.

Oh, and the jukebox with the old timey animated band that plays along with the music makes it all worth while. If this place were to put even something like Mirror Pond on tap, I think I'd be there every night.

Bloomington's "News Hole" filled

2009-01-12T18:04:00.001-08:00

Bloomington has always felt to me kind of like a black hole for information. News of things that happen there don't seem to make it out unless its terrible. Its the same way with television in Bloomington. If you don't have cable or satellite, your one clear channel is the local PBS station, since the Indy stations aren't watchable with rabbit ears.
So it makes sense that hardly any local news from Bloomington is available to outsiders.
The big paper, the Herald Times, has a website that is still for subscribers only. I thought it was absurd 10 years ago, but they're still holding onto their own little thing...
The Indianapolis news doesn't really cover the news in Bloomington, only when something big happens.
There are a couple of independent outlets, Bloom Magazine is an awesome lifestyle food and dining publication, their online content is pretty informative, but geared more towards people visiting or living there, not expats like me who just want to know what's going on.
The Bloomington Independent is a good read too, their website usually has some interesting stories.
Today I found NewsMatters.org. Its WTIU's news website, and at first glance it seems to be just the Southern Indiana news souce I've been looking for. The daily Newsbreak video is available just after it airs every night. Stories on the website are stuff like stats and numbers stories about the city government budget and such, and news about IU, and weather, and all the boring daily stuff I expect to read about. If you're looking for B-town news, add it to your daily visits.

Daily Libations

2009-01-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

A new blog from a really old friend and fellow Bloomfidian.
Beer A Day chronicles Andy's daily beer.
He's allowed other adult beverages, but only one beer per day. Challenging.
Even more challenging, figuring out how I'm going to send him all the Portland beers that he must try in the name of this project.
Shipping alcohol to Mass. is pretty much forbidden. I just need to figure out how to package it...

"I don't go to your job and knock the dicks out of your mouth"

2009-01-05T19:49:00.000-08:00

I spent New Year's Eve away from cable TV, which was for the best. I'm sad that I missed this little jewel though.
I've loved Anderson Cooper ever since his days of drawing the short straw on Channel 1, (that Pepsi-co sponsored newscast that we were forced to watch in high school). He always got sent to Iraq or Bosnia or somewhere terrible. No wonder he's gone gray at 40.
Put him in front of the camera with fag-hag extraordinaire, Kathy Griffin, and you got some questionable dialogue sure to follow. They crack me up. Stick with it to the end for the payoff.

We're Live Downtown

2008-12-17T19:33:00.001-08:00

I'm loving this new ad campaign from the Downtown Portland Marketing Initiative. Created by local agency North. Five weird little 30 second spots highlighting different downtown businesses, and an especially quirky ad featuring Portland's bike culture. Watch them all, they're cute.

Residents of Midtown Houston, I found your street sign.

2008-12-02T19:05:00.001-08:00

Hey Houstonians, have you noticed the street sign missing from the corner of Bagby & Bremond in Midtown? Well, I found it. 2367 miles away at the corner of NE 7th & Tillamook here in Portland.
Don't worry, its in a nice place, a traffic circle with a tree and some shrubbery and a whole lot of leaves. So many stories are floating around my head about how it got here, who brought it here, has someone had it hanging around their garage for awhile and needed to get rid of it? Some elaborate prank? I've stolen a few street signs in my time, I know how it goes. It seems like such a fun idea until you're trying to figure out how to get rid of it...

So, what's up Houston? You guys have any idea what its doing here? You want it back?
On Google Street View, Bagby & Bremond looks like a nice corner. A couple of apartment buildings, some sort of industrial lot, a nice view of the skyline. Not too different from its current resting place. I can't seem to spot the sign in these shots, maybe its been missing for awhile...
There's a coffee shop a block down the street from the corner that would fit in here in Portland. If I'm ever in Houston other than George Bush Intercontinental Airport, (that is another post completely), this neighborhood is on the itinerary.

'70's Levi's ad

2008-11-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Check out this awesome very 70's ad for Levi's. For some reason, I just can't get enough 70's stuff lately, listening to lots of 70's music and watching lots of clips on YouTube.
There's a certain malaise feeling that was so prevalent in the '70's, I think that vibe should be due for a comeback soon...
This ad however, is still early enough to be fun and naive and cute.

Bloomfield in the Headlines

2008-11-19T17:50:00.000-08:00

I can't remember the last time my lil' hometown of Bloomfield, Indiana was mentioned in the national press. It was always exciting to read some news about Bloomfield in the Indy Star every now and then, and that was usually just about a tornado or a tragic trailer fire or something.
Lo and behold, this morning on Good Day Oregon comes a story that I first spotted Saturday morning on the Bloomfield Free Press. I happened to notice a fellow Bloomfidian online and I promptly sent him the link. After we had a good lol, and tried to remember if we knew any of them, he sent the story onto the Drudge Report. I like to believe that's how the story made its way to other places like the AP and more importantly, The Smoking Gun. Keep it classy, Bloomfield!
I do have to say, the Free Press had the best headline of all. "Dirty Half Dozen" is awesome. Why didn't anyone else use it?

it’s like meat with a pause button

2008-11-18T22:27:00.000-08:00

When the economy turns sour, folks turn to everyone's favorite salty sweet canned meat product, Spam. Sales are through the roof, the folks at the Spam factory are working overtime to keep our shelves filled with the "spiced ham" meat-like loaf.

Say what you will about it, my Grandma made a mean fried Spam-wich, even if she did use Treet sometimes. I've also had some tasty Spam infused Hawaiian dishes. After reading this article, I'm thinking about buying a can next time I'm at the store. I remember when I was a kid I used to love it fried, with pork & beans on the side. Maybe I can even make some SOS with spam instead of chipped beef, that sounds like comfort food at its saltiest best.

Indiana swings

2008-11-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

A typical Indiana front yard, festive scarecrow, some folksy sign that probably has the family's name, a Camaro in the driveway, the Stars and Bars, an Obama sign...
I hate to mention the location of this house because its in the whipping boy of po-dunk little racist enclaves all across Southern Indiana, Martinsville. I've always thought Martinsville was unfairly pigeonholed because its between Indianapolis and Bloomington, the two most liberal cities in the state. Does anyone know of the specific incidents that make it stand out as the racist hotspot everyone believes it to be?
For a state where 80 years ago over half of the elected state officials were Klansman, Indiana has come a long way.

The Vet Who Did Not Vet

2008-10-27T18:46:00.000-07:00

2008-10-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Around the city

2008-10-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

Are you there God?

2008-09-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

My favorite of the newest No Star designs.

Ball Buster

2008-09-28T20:24:00.000-07:00

One would think that in the early '70's when this game was marketed, enough people would've been wink wink nudge nudge enough that they would've changed the name.
And what's up with a 60 second commercial for family board games? Stick with it to the end, :54 is where it gets good...

Analog Retirement

2008-09-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

Cute tee from Busted

To my fellow "New Customers" of JP Morgan Chase

2008-09-26T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hood River

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

Some pics that I just got around to doing anything with, from an afternoon drive to Hood River over Labor Day Weekend.

Shawnee Theatre

2008-09-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

I spent what seems like almost all my free time in high school in this place. I actually hung that sign which covered over the more "rustic" old wooden sign. I think that was the summer of '95?
Glad that they're still going strong. Shawnee is such a weird yet awesome asset in a town of 2,500. Bloomfield is hardly a complete cultural wasteland, but summer stock ˈthē-ˌā-tər in Bloomfield? Who would've thunk?
John Belushi was here for the summer season in 1967, straight out of high school.
The popular story around town is that Belushi took his first toke in Bloomfield, "it was the beginning of the end," we always joked. "He was pretty square until he spent a summer in the sticks." After his time served in Greene County, he was off to other things, and then Second City in Chicago, and then that late night show he did in New York, but "if we hadn't introduced him to the marijuana in the first place, he might still be with us today..."

Parked on the Portland Streets

2008-09-02T19:43:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I noticed when I moved to Portland was the amount of weird old cars still on the road here. Things like Datsun 210's and 1976 Chevy trucks that have been mostly digested by rock salt back in Indiana are still plentiful here on the streets of the Rose City. Inspired by the Down on the Street photos on Jalopnik, this is my first post of some random neat old stuff parked around my 'hood.

This Ford dumptruck was parked on the street below my friend's apartment for months. I noticed the tow warning sticker and got a few pics of it before it went away to Impound Land.

I used to sit in the 3rd story window and daydream about all the things I could haul around in this awesome old dump truck.

This Buick Regal, possibly a '75? A Canadian specimen, with BC plates, captured at a trailhead in the Gorge. My grandparents had a red '74 that almost ended up in my hands. It looked almost like this one, only with a meaner, pointer grille. Now I'm kinda glad it didn't end up with me, but it would've been awesome when I was 20 and the price of gas was negligible.

This Powerwagon is still kickin' it as a daily driver, I even see it being used for things that you can only do with a pick-up truck quite often. She's kinda loud, but she gets the job done...

Logo

2008-08-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

I'm not the first to find a similarity between these two logos. The first time I saw John McCain's logo on one of his ads, I immediately thought "mmm... french fries."

The typeface used in the John McCain logo is Optima, Straightforward, plain, and just about as ho-hum middle of the road as it comes as far as text goes.
Not so coincidentally, this is the same typeface used on Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial. More discussion here.
I think I'd be more persuaded if they had used that cool retro McCain Frozen Foods font. That funky star that dots the "i" is like a future that will never be. Let's hope the same will come to be said about that other McCain star...

Surviving the New Depression

2008-08-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

Watch them all. Found at Schadenfreude

Surviving the New Depression: Tip #12 from Steve Delahoyde on Vimeo.

Surviving the New Depression: Tip #16 from Steve Delahoyde on Vimeo.

Dislocation

2008-08-20T18:55:00.000-07:00

Update - The video was promptly taken down from all the usual sources, but it is still available here.

Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai dislocates his elbow.
Use care, the video is pretty nasty, but still not as bad as this still image of the infamous "blown 'O' ring." (Use even more care with that picture. Don't click that link in mixed company, unless you really want to bother someone for the rest of the day, or risk losing your job.)

I love the officially branded "Beijing 2008 Nothing to See Here" shields that come out about ten seconds after he falls down. If you can't see the writhing, everything is alright...

Borgnine

2008-08-20T18:35:00.000-07:00

I believe this video shows the precise moment that a new euphemism for masturbation was born.
If only Borgnine wasn't such a funny word in the first place.

(Probably the only Fox News Video link you'll ever see here.)

Guilty Pleasure

2008-08-19T21:14:00.000-07:00

So it was Friday after work, 102 degrees, and I didn't want to cook. So I headed to Lloyd Center to wait out the heat of the day and get some mall food court dinner. Luckily the Lloyd Center has my second favorite fast food pleasure - Arbys.

And since it was payday, I sprung for the mozzarella stix as a special treat.

Lloyd Center is an especially awesome air conditioned oasis on a dreadfully hot day in a mostly un-conditioned city. You can catch a movie, browse Barnes & Noble, watch kids ice skate, slurp an Orange Julius, and just people-watch. Other than my regular Arby's cravings, hot ass summer days are about the only time I voluntarily head to the mall.

Smog = Pretty Sunset

2008-08-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

2008-08-13T22:17:00.000-07:00

Portland on a hazy day in 1960.

One of about a gazillion awesome photos in the Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection.
Search for your own city, and also search for New York. There's a whole lot of awesome color shots of the city from 1941. Like this one.

And this one of Indy, 1963.

Low Brow Crock Pot Roast

2008-08-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

Its hot. I'm struggling to keep the apartment under 80. It was supposed to be even warmer today but the predictions didn't pan out. I figured this was the perfect day to make a crock pot meal. It doesn't heat the house too much, and although a little heavier of a meal than I really needed to eat tonight, it was a success.
I almost lost my favorite crock pot roast recipe, it was written on a tiny piece of paper that was once tucked into a cookbook. It was no longer there.
I finally found it after taking all the cookbooks out of the cookbook cabinet, it was stuck to the back of the cupboard.
I decided to post the recipe here so I don't have to rely on my little piece of paper anymore.
Try it out sometime if you have a crock-pot. Perfect in the winter, tasty in the summer too.
I like it best with a big chunk of beef roast, but tonight I used pork shoulder because it was available on the cheap this week. The roast should be around 3-4 pounds, or pretty much fill the whole crock pot.
Mix all of the following together in the pot the night before and refrigerate it so all you have to do in the morning before you go to work is turn it on. The marinading isn't mandatory, its just convenient. You can throw it all together and start cooking straight away if you want and get the same results.

Here's the juice:
Mix up in the crock pot
1 Packet of brown gravy mix (Hain makes my favorite one) and
1/2 cup of water.
Stir it up with a whisk until all the powder dissolves.
Then add
1/4 cup of fine tomato ketchup
1/4 cup of "Three Buck Chuck" Shiraz (or your favorite inexpensive full-bodied red wine)
2 tbsp of dijon mustard
1 tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
1/8 tsp of garlic powder (or a couple cloves of crushed garlic if you feel so inclined)
Some little carrots and potatoes if you want

Salt and pepper the meat to your liking, remembering that there's quite a bit of sodium in that juice you're getting ready to dunk the meat into for the next few hours, so go easy on the salt. Refrigerate overnight if that works out best for you.
Cook on Low for 7-9 hours, or until you stick a fork into the meat and it all falls apart.

Enjoy.

*Not my crock pot by the way, just a picture borrowed from abmatic's photostream. However Mom still uses her green one that looks just like that one.

Diversity in the workplace

2008-08-06T21:27:00.001-07:00

If I were to write about my workplace, the subject line would have to be "The Indian, the Immigrant, the Queer, and the Old Dead-Head."

Olympic Fever - 1972

2008-08-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm really grooving on these posters and other promotional material from the 1972 Munich Olympics, designed by Otl Aicher. Especially the mascot, Waldi the Dachshund.
Check out this gallery.

Bike Rant

2008-08-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

For those of ya'll outside of our weird little experiment that is Portland, it seems we're in the throes of a bicycle vs. auto battle, at least as far as the local media is concerned. (I'm looking at you Oregonian).
Lately the Portland fuzz have been on an education mission, stopping irresponsible bikers who blow through stop signs at problem intersections around the city, issuing written warnings, and a few tickets for "egregious behavior," also known as "being a dick to a cop who has your best interest in mind."
Wow, who would've thought I'd ever be on the same side as the pigs. Having grown up with a good ol' boy police force so corrupt that even my Mom warns me about them every time I'm visiting the ol' homestead. I grew up, much like most of inner-city America, (even though we lived 100 miles from the nearest urban area, and were white) believing that the cops hardly ever have your best interest in mind. Little things like tickets for a burned out tail-light, and random beatings along the side of the highway have made me fear the police, even though I'm an educated white male who statically should have nothing to fear.

I digress, I've been biking to work now everyday for two months, and will be riding to work almost everyday for the next two years as G needs the car to make the trip to his classes at Sylvania everyday. I was already a road nazi as a driver. I don't consider myself as being "anal" about too many things, I don't mind a messy house, I'm OK with my nasty desk at work, but when it comes to the rules of the road, I'm a tyrant. There's a reason we have these rules/laws. Even back in my stomping grounds of super laid back Bloomington, I was a very high stress driver, not hesitating to honk and yell at folks doing stupid shit that endangered the lives of myself and others.
I ride NE Tillamook St. every day, one of Portland's designated "bike boulevards," designed to be inconvenient for cars and easy on cyclists. Taking cars mostly out of the picture makes me realize that a disproportionately high number of us cyclists are assholes and dickheads, or both.
I rarely encounter an issue with motor vehicles since the few folks who live and drive around Tillamook Street know that they live on a bike street and are generally courteous and mindful of everyone.
That dude that blows the 4-way at 30th & Tillamook, nearly t-boning me after I stop and assume that you're going to stop as well, or that dude on a bike that tried to zoom past me on the right while I was patiently waiting for that red light at Williams & Russell, you go to hell and you die!
Even non-confrontational me is fed up enough to try to discipline my fellow cyclists, at least in my special passive aggressive style of a stern throat clearing and a dirty look. It seems there are quite a few of us bikers for whom that self-preservation instinct has somehow been disabled.
I'm talking about the smart folks who ride on the streets that aren't already jammed with cars, who aren't trying to make some sort of point by endangering their lives, and sometimes the lives of their children in that little cart behind them, cruising down Burnside in rush hour traffic. That's another post complelety.

I begrudgingly post a link to Bike Free Portland, who despite crossing into the accusatory and kinda crazy tone that keeps the "real" media from taking bloggers seriously, makes enough valid points to be worthy of a read.

Nine Lives

2008-08-04T20:53:00.000-07:00

Seems Mortimer is getting a little attention in the cat blogging world...
Yep, there's other cat blogs. Who knew?

BBQ = Special Meat

2008-08-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

So its a commercial for Alka-Seltzer, but its awesomeness trumps the fact that its an ad, so I'll post it. Mainly for the amusement of Lizbone, note that they don't even really mention western NC BBQ, Appalachian TN is as as close as it comes. These guys know what's up.

"And when my life is through, bury me in BBQ,
but make sure it's vinegar based,
cause you know that slows decay,
and it's the style from our home state, North Carolina!"

Unfortunate Logos

2008-08-01T22:39:00.000-07:00

Via I love Bacon, check out the first four pics in this gallery, and check out some more bacon if you dare...

SmartServe Chicken

2008-07-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure most of us have eaten this stuff before. Maybe in that quick chicken sandwich at an airport with poor dining options (I'm looking at you George Bush Intercontinental) that you choke down just to get you through the next leg of your flight, or that fast food "fajita chicken salad," that you ate at the mall food court because it was the healthiest looking thing on the menu.
"Boneless, skinless, 100% chicken breast pieces shaped into natural breast fillets. Glazed flavoring. Unique 3-D technology gives you the look and texture of a solid muscle chicken breast, at a fraction of the cost"

The name Sysco has become somewhat of a restaurant joke amongst my friends and I. We eat out a lot, its a habit we're trying to get out of as food prices rise and incomes shrink and more bills gotta be paid, that said, we're always on the lookout for a new restaurant to check out.
Luckily, we live in a food paradise here in Portland, fresh and local ingredients are abundant, even in a lot of inexpensive local comfort food places. Hot Lips and Russell St. BBQ to name a couple of my favs using high quality mostly locally sourced ingredients. We're spoiled, plain and simple.
When I see that ubiquitous Sysco truck unloading outside a fancy Pearl District eatery, or a high end hotel lobby restaurant, the kind of place where one pays a premium for what is assumed to be a higher quality product, its always kind of a let down, even if they are only delivering napkins and dish-soap.
Here's an interesting Slate article about Sysco and their plans of world domination.

Kennedy for Me

2008-07-26T22:23:00.000-07:00

Baby's First Internet

2008-07-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Via The Morning News.

The Banfield

2008-07-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

Take the long way home

2008-07-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

A perfect summer evening in Portland, 70 degrees and sunny, no plans after work, so I leisurely biked home on a long serpentine path through NE Portland. Mainly on the surface streets running along the south side of the Banfield, through my favorite chunk of industrial neighborhood, the "Spinning Food District."

Blast from Pepsi's past.

Tom Black's Garage. NE 24th & Holladay. Building built 1912.

The cute Fire Alarm Telegraph building, now used as office space for Sunshine Dairy. A fixture since 1928 when it was an important part of the Portland Fire Bureau.

Spinning Milk wasn't spinning tonight. Bummer.

Spinning Bread was rotating in full force, with the aroma of cinnamon rolls and onion buns filling the air.

I stumbled onto Buckman Field via a curious looking gravel path next to the new Eastside Voodoo Doughnuts. This is a huge park with a track and baseball fields that I've never noticed, and somehow it didn't fit into my internal map of the city until tonight. Now it all makes sense. This awesome cola ad is on the back side of Portland Bottling Plant. That awesome bike is my trusty steed.

Poaching

2008-07-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Random shots taken from behind the wheel of the box truck yesterday afternoon. Slightly less dangerous and much more productive than talking on the phone while driving.

The Infamous Dockside Saloon and Restaurant. Home of the dumpster that became the downfall of Tonya Harding. I still haven't been, I hear they have an awesome happy hour and killer hashbrowns at breakfast.

A neat old trailer I drive by almost every day.

Go By Train

The Garden

2008-07-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

Fireman

2008-07-18T21:56:00.000-07:00

I'm just curious. It seems that I've extinguished at least one fire in every place I've ever worked, and once in a place I lived. Is this normal, or do I just have some sort of weird calling?
This evening was the company picnic that I skipped, I don't think there was booze and if there was I'd have to get my ass home from Oaks Park, so I decided to pass. So, I was the last one out of the building tonight, as I was locking up I noticed a smoky smell in the air and at first thought it must be a grass fire or someone burning yard debris. As I walked in from locking the gate, a big puff of smoke bellows out of the "outdoor break room," a fenced in area with patio tables, the ground covered with bark dust (also known as mulch in places eastward).
It was a patch in the corner, about 10 feet square smoldering. At first, I only saw the black patch, about the size of large western belt buckle. I ran inside and filled the liter pitcher that we use to maintain the forklift batteries. I dumped that on the black spot and quickly realized from the heat radiating through my shoes that the area on fire was much larger.
Mulch burns in an interesting way, I experienced it once before back in college at Collins, heading over to Cravens to chill with Chris and Josh or something...
The landscapers had just put down new mulch and a stray cigarette was flicked into the volatile substance. I tried to stomp it out, but quickly learned that it was in vain. I wish I would've grabbed one of the old school fire-hoses that were in the Cravens hallway, but instead I grabbed a fire extinguisher and discharged it all over the place. That happens sometimes...
Tonight only the hose was necessary. I gave the whole area a good drenching just in case it was a weird case of spontaneous combustion. I have a suspicion that it came from a cigarette.
Have any of ya'll extinguished fires before, or is it just me?

Feist on Sesame Street

2008-07-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Feist counts to four with a bunch of muppets. It almost makes the song palatable again after six months of it being drilled into my brain on the iPod ads.

Take a look at the original video while you're at it. I was a little obsessed with it the first few times I saw it. Here's previous discussion about it.

Fireworks

2008-07-07T22:03:00.000-07:00

Fireworks that are legal in Oregon, those ones that you buy in the Fred Meyer parking lot, they're lame.

"Those which produce only smoke, sparks or fire and which do not explode, eject balls of fire, fly into the air, or travel more than 6’ horizontally and/or 12” vertically from the point of ignition. (See Oregon Revised Statute 480.127)"

No roman candles, no bottle rockets, no neat little airplane thing that shoots out a paratrooper. Just things like "California Candles" and Snakes that ooze out onto the sidewalk like short turds.
There were some fun sparkly things, and smokey things, even boring fireworks are still fireworks, and fireworks = fucking awesome! Luckily, from our 4th of July vantage point near 82nd & Powell, plenty of folks had plenty of clearly illegal fireworks. Things launched from cannons. Things that rained glowing embers a little closer to us than we really cared for. From every direction, folks who had clearly visited The Res or crossed the Columbia for the good stuff were putting on a show for the neighborhood.

The fireworks that are legal to purchase in Washington are crazy cool. There's like no laws up there. They're just crazy about the fireworks. For years, the fireworks mega mart just across the state line in the 'Couv has been Blackjack. Now it seems there's a fireworks tent across the road from Blackjack, one where a portion of the proceeds fund the big Fort Vancouver fireworks, (billed as the largest West of the Mississippi).

Via Cabel, check the bizarre packaging on some of these explosives. From intense to cute to bizarre. Also see the video of the madness that ensues on the road up to the fireworks stands in the 'Couve.