I spent the summer wastin'

I don't have any grand proclamations or interesting stories right now. What, with summer under way, I just haven't been much in the mood for blogging. I did go to Sun River this weekend which was just okay. It is in a pretty area (see above) but too wholesome-family-fun-resortish for my tastes. But it was a great place to see a triathlon. Stay tuned for more thrills.

Game of Pricks

This has been a soggy intense week that culminated with my first argument live and in person before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. I am very happy with how it went and while it is always tough to win a case there for my clients, I can say that I optimized the situation. And so it goes. I worked a gazillion hours getting ready and am so glad it is over.

And as my reward, I found this hilarious video of Owen Pallett (Canadian Final Fantasy guy) covering the venerable indie rockers, Guided by Voices. He says he used to really like them but seeing them live was scary! I miss/don't miss being in the midwest for this reason. Because rock shows out of Dayton Ohio are rowdy and you never know when meathead guy is going to flip out and start hurling beers at the band. This has not happened in Portland on my watch.


Owen Pallett covers Guided By Voices

The hat tip for finding this goes to End Hits, which has an equally hilarious post about whether the Jimmy Eat World cover of this song is better than the original. Such a quandary.

Weather Report

Sasquatch 2010

I drove over 500 miles, slept on the ground for three days, and ate out of a cooler from items purchased at a Walmart because I have to rock! And that is just what happened at Sasquatch. After a lot of sun and wind, and not a lot of rest over the past several days, I will leave the detailed reviews of the shows to another writer. Imagine me, like a real sasquatch, pointing in the air and grunting the names of favorite shows from the weekend while jumping up and down: LCD Soundsystem!, Tune-Yards!, Nada Surf! Pavement! Avi Buffalo! And I was knocked out by the Vampire Weekend set and especially, most especially The New Pornographers. There is a deeply good thing that happens to my mind and body when I stand in front of the New Pornographers and they all sing The Bleeding Heart Show all at once in a loud and textured harmony.

The New Pornographers - My Rights versus Yours

I'm not going to tell you that camping for days with thousands of twenty-somethings is glamorous. But the music was great, and my brother and his wife came out from Texas, and we had a jolly excellent time and I dare say I would do it again.

Attention

I don't complain until May

But here we are in May, and the Portland weather can't manage to get above 60 and it rained every day this week. And most of last week. And it is supposed to rain next week. And be cold. No warm spring breezes. Lots of hail. The story goes that you can't count on the weather to be decent until Rose Parade, and then even then, not really reliably until the Fourth of July. The good news is that it doesn't start raining again until the beginning of October.




Black Rain, Black Rain - A.A. Bondy

When foodie passion attacks

If it were April Fool's day, I would be rolling on the floor, but here we are in May. This weekend, Portland hosted a prestigious annual food event, the Cochon 555. I did not get to go, though every year I sort of want to. It is for charity, but it is spendy. It goes like this: 5 pigs, 5 chefs, 5 winemakers. There's a contest to see who made the best dinner. Everyone gets to taste. All the money goes to a hunger relief charity.

But the whole party got way out of hand and turned into a melee because a non-participating local chef went berserk. While ranting about "the need to support local farmers" and use local ingredients, he started head butting people. In a very Portland fashion, he was escorted out and directed to cool off in the strip club Magic Gardens, a few blocks away. But he was still so very very angry! You see, the Prince of Porc award had been given to Jason Barwikowski of Olympic Provisions and his pig was from IOWA! INJUSTICE! FLASH RIOT! With three of the five pigs originating from Oregon, the angry young chef was inconsolable- how could any pig other than a local Oregon pig have won the contest. It is an abomination!

And so, while still screaming about locally sourced food, he found the 555 event organizer at the Magic Gardens, broke his leg and gave him a concussion. As he attacked the organizer, he was reported to have yelled, "Food doesn't come from San Francisco, food comes from Portland!"

I am not making this up. Everyone can make fun of Portland foodie ways for as long as they want starting NOW.