mountain goating

Last night was probably my first real night of "I'm too old for this."

Andrew and I went to see the Mountain Goats which was fun. It didn't change my life but it was entertaining. The main guy was impressive, especially his solo stuff. However, during one of the songs that I was hoping they would do, Up the Wolves, I realized I was done. I hadn't had too much to drink but I started to ache and feel dizzy. My tailbone hurt. I was standing. How the hell does that happen? Anyway, we left early. I don't think I've ever skipped out early on a show that I've paid for but I just knew I couldn't last. This was also my first show with Andrew unless you could Cirque Du Solelil. I was hoping to stick it out but fortunately, he was fine with leaving when I was.

Oh well, I can say I saw them and next time, I'll just know to get there early enough to get a seat.

What else?

I don't have any excuse as to why I haven't at least kept up-to-date via twitter but on Thursday, we double-dated with our former real estate agent and his boyfriend. It was nice and I typically don't like meeting new people but I enjoyed this.

On Friday, I tried the beverage above which is as refreshing and wonderful as it looks.

Oh, and regarding Tuesday's post, I heard back! She thanked me for my rational, thought-out, and personal email and said that it's given her something to think about. Let's hear it for open communication!

バーベキューパーティーやゴムバンド

Tonight I got to see Shonen Knife again. I am so thankful that I get to see them annually now. They're so awesome! Who else can wow the crowd with a song about rubber bands?

I was a tad disappointed with my lack of good pictures this year but I'll get over it. There was this gigantor in front of me throughout the whole show who rarely but down his camera. Everytime the band would do something awesome, I would go to take a picture but I would be shot-blocked by this guy. Still, it gave me some perspective. I was so infuriated by him that I refused to be him and tried to show some restraint by not taking so many pictures. This left with with the opportunity to just enjoy the show which I did.

What else?
Before we went, I met Jessica and her friends at the Victory Bar for the first time. It was okay but I wasn't prepared to even attempt to enjoy it since it used to be Laughing Horse Bookstore before the area became even more gentrified.

lounge acts

MLE and Bastard performed today at the Jade Lounge so Andrew and I went to watch them. It was my first time at the Lounge. It's a very comfortable, beautifully green place. It was a fun performance too and a good night filled with a lot of card playing, too many drinks and great music.

Below is a video of MLE and Bastard performing my favorite Bastard's song, Cannibal Family.

alternative states of mind

 

This year, Fair has been just fair. Last year, when I was getting ready to leave, I fought against the idea of reintegrating into outside society. Fair was just too fabulous. So far, this year's fair has been fun but not extraordinary. However, today made it all worth it.

I did my morning shift, found Tim who was visiting again with his friend and then went and watched a circus act. I haven't sat through a lot of the acts this year and today I was determined to see at least one. I ended up getting there early and catching the end of the Dr Atomic Medicine Show which is pretty radical. Then I watched the Eccentric something-or-other circus thing. It was a funny act with some decent stunts and a good break-dancer. Right afterwards, I was walking out of the show and the parade dragon came by so I jumped in and paraded into the Chaela Maela Meadow and danced in the sun. After that, I found a beat-boxer performing under the tent. I strolled for a bit when that was done and happened upon the Risk of Change group. I paraded with them for a while and stumbled upon Ashes, Victory and Tomas.

It was just a great several moments where I really felt like I was a part of the fair and so was everyone else and it was all beautiful. I realized that this is how fun and wonderful humans are capable of being. I'm a misanthrope in the outside world but it's easy to be a philanthrope...at least temporarily. Still, I would like to bring some of that out of Fair when I leave and into the outside world. Yeah, we're a plague on the earth as a species but we're not all bad individually and we can do some good.

What else?

After hanging out at the camp for most of the late afternoon and evening, we headed into the Fair at dark. Victory and I went to see Chris Chandler perform a late night show in the library. It wasn't as solemn as Jason Webley's late show last year but it was still entertaining. Fair wouldn't be fair without seeing Chris Chandler a few times.

let's get radical

The OCF is typically (and incorrectly) thought of as a bunch of hippies in the woods. While there are a lot of hippies and more tie-dye than you'd care to imagine, there's a lot else going on at the Fair. However, today was probably the most radical speaking engagement I've ever seen there. In the picture above (from R to L) is Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers from the Weather Underground movement and Jeff Jones from SDS.

I've read Prairie Fire, the anthology/statement of the WU so it was awesome to be able to see and listen to two of the people that had a hand in writing it. People have given Ayers and Dohrn crap for turning liberal instead of radical based upon how the media aligned them with Obama. However, in listening to them speak and hearing about their experience with the campaign mishaps, it seems like they were still as radical as ever but just a little more seasoned now.
What else?

More pictures and Friday's outfit. It was a fun day although I think I spent most of it wandering around aimlessly after the Dohrn/Ayers event. At night, I went down to the gate and helped the security crew shuffle people back in after the fire show just outside the fair. Maria, a traffic person, gave me a fun light to use which helped. I strolled back into the fair later and happened upon a few music performances, one of which was Jaya Lakshmi, a new age yogi person who was singing beautifully while a DJ put a fun bass beat behind her. It made for fun dancing in the dark.

candy ass

Fair only lasts for three days (Fri-Sun) but Thursday always feels like a fair day because the vendors open up around noon (or earlier it seems) and I like to dress up on Thursday. In looking at my outfits, I basically just re-formatted each of last years four outfits with slight alterations. However, I added my coy fish socks and my fuzzy vest, each of which got a lot of compliments. As I've said before, that's one of my favorite parts of Fair!

Another favorite part is the fairy name. I have a fair (ha ha) amount of aliases but I like to be creative with my name here because it will only last for 4-5 days. Andrew lovingly refers to me as a candy ass when it comes to my taste in drinks (amaretto, anyone?) so I presented that as one of my potential choices to Raven and Mercury. In unison, they quickly responded that I should go with Candy Ass. In the outside world, I wouldn't want strangers calling me Candy Ass. However, having fair family say it (and even sing it like the bridge security lady does) is just fine with me.

What else?

Speaking of singing, Victory and I were treated to this little child singing while we were setting up our booth in Community Village. Her mother works in the Wild Edibles booth next door so she just sat on a bench, singing a number of songs but mostly focusing on ABCs and some song about ponies. She did manage to sing a few lines from Taio Cruz's Dynamite though which I thought was awesome. Fortunately, Victory had some change so I was able to tip her

I actually felt useful setting up the booth this year. I sanded the steps of our ladder in back and hung the curtain between our booth and Wild Edibles. I can't wait for tomorrow!

trying to play the cool uncle

In 1994, a group of us from high school went to Lincoln for a state convention. In the evening, our sponsors would usually let us go to a movie independently which also gave them a break. For one Lincoln trip, we all decided to go see Threesome. From the advertisements, it looked like it was going to be along the lines of Reality Bites. However, it was a lot more risque. Mary, a junior who was by far the most religious out of us, was shocked. Still, I think that it was an eye-opening experience for her. Whether it ended up being good or bad though, I don't know.

Yesterday, while we were taking my niece out to dinner for her 16th birthday, she said that she wanted to go see Magic Mike. Her friends had already seen it with their mothers and they all loved it. So, being the good uncle that I am, I figured it was my job to offer to take her to see it. It's about male strippers so it couldn't be all that bad. From the advertisements I've seen, I was expecting something more like Coyote Ugly but with guys. Instead, it was more like Boogie Nights but stripping instead of porn.

I think the first minute or two really shocked Hayleigh and it just kept coming. The stripping/dance sequences were fun but overall the movie was just lackluster and relied too much on vices without a lot of redeeming moments for the characters. Anyway, it really reminded me of watching Mary watch Threesome except I was supposed to be the adult in this situation. Knowing that her friends' mothers sat thru the movie was one of the only things that kept me from telling her we should leave after the second scene.

What else?

Before the movie, Hayleigh and I watched this children's performance group from Africa. It was a cute group of kids raising money for assistance in Africa. Very sweet and pretty talented.

Also, Dean met his cousin Oliver for the first time. There's a considerable age difference between them. Fortunately, Dean's tolerant enough to put up with Oliver jumping at his face to lick him. They're pretty cute together.

too much variety with too little show

Scott, a co-worker of mine, and his band hosted a variety show tonight at the Mt Tabor theater. It was fun and it definitely delivered on the variety. He put out a Craigslist ad for acts to perform and left it really open to interpretation as to what a "performance" would entail. Some acts were dreadfully bad. Some, however, were spectacular. Molly Bang was fun and good as they have been in the past when I've seen them. There was one stand-up comedian who was pretty funny but my favorite act of the night was a poet called Mike McGee. He commanded attention and lived up to his end of the deal by bringing a wonderfully funny and passionate performance.

Another co-worker Tyler was supposed to go on later but ended up getting pushed to the end of the night at which point he just wanted to get it over with. I hope I can see him sometime later when he's more jazzed for his performance. At any rate, tonight was entertaining if not a bit too long.

What else?
Sophia gave me some instruction on how to change a bike tire today. I had a flat last night so today we stopped at Seven Corners to get a tube. I'm so slow at changing tires but I typically don't do it properly with tire levers. I think I understand it a little better now. However, the patch I put on didn't work because after the show, the tire was flat again. I'm a bit nervous too because tomorrow is the Tweed Ride and tire problems always come in sets of three for me. 

shonen knife!

Shonen Knife has got to be my favorite band to see live! They are so much fun that I went to Dante's tonight to so see them. Normally, I would never be in Dante's on a Saturday night for a punk show but I love this band. Last year, I didn't know who they were when I went to their show. Since then, I have got a lot of their CDs and listen to them a LOT. So this was special to see them, know their songs, and know that they were going to be awesome!

For Dante's, I was surprised by the crowd. There was a mix of young and old. I was definitely not the oldest person there. When the band started, they opened with Capybara which is a delightful song to pogo dance to. This led to continued dancing which meant a bunch of us were shoving each other and we danced together. After a couple songs, the dude directly in front of me stopped dancing suddenly, goes over to his girlfriend, motions at me and reaches over and shoves me. I just went on to enjoy the show. The dude later comes back to dance and ends up tossing a beer back which hits the four or five of us directly behind him. Props to the bouncer who then put the guy in a headlock and threw him out. Despite that, it was an awesome show!

What else?
Five of us went to A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas which was stupid fun and probably the best 3D I've seen. Right afterwards, we went to Horse's Brass where I had the veggie pasty for the first time.

After Shonen Knife, Jessica dropped me off at Mattachine, a dance party at Branx named after the Mattachine Society. John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig) was supposed to be DJ'ing but I didn't see him. I did see someone wearing a fur, complete with the animal's head and feet still attached. I was so disgusted that I left and walked home. Still, I maintain that it was a good night.

summary of september

Alright, I give up. I am not going to catch up by posting a whole lot of individual posts. So, rather than try to catch up or skip it (like I did with my May posts which I said I would retro-post but never got around to), I've decided to do a quick summary post. So here we go:

On Sunday, September 18th, I saw the Portland Gay Men's Chorus perform for the first time after Sophia and I watched a performance by Tim at the Portland Gay in the Square Fair thing. The GMC was beautiful but I have been watching too much Glee and I wanted them to break out into an Usher number. :)

On Monday, September 19th, I bought Warm Bodies, a zombie romance book. It's my first romance book but it's about zombies so it's okay.

On Tuesday, September 20th, I went to Country Cat Dinnerhouse. It was okay but I was hoping for more vegetarian options. Also, I had my most dreaded meeting with a transgendered clients parents who were reportedly homophobic. I have heard that they've said some pretty awful stuff at meetings before but I could see them making an effort this time and I really think they're not so bad. Transgendered issues aside, their adult child has put them through a hell of a lot and they still love her enough to have her visit and come to her meetings when they don't have to.

On Wednesday, September  21st, I walked Dean to Long Haus from Muffin HQ for a Timbers game for the first time and checked out a Zipcar to take him back. It's only about 2.5 miles but 5 miles round-trip would have been too much for him. It was cute because Ashes was playing soccer at the park on the way so I let Dean off-leash to run up to him. Dean got to him before I made it there and made Ashes wonder where the hell he came from.

On Thursday, September 22nd, my allergies came back and kicked my ass. For comfort, I turned to Mira's Ladle for the first time. It's a soup cart on Hawthorne that I've walked by a lot. I loved it and I'll definitely come back for more. Mmmmm, vegan chili.

On Saturday, September 24th, I BlowPony'd! I went dancing with Erin again and her friend, other Lindsey for the first time. Ashes, Victory and Melissa were also there. Our friend Nikki was dancing on stage (pictured in the far left above crouched down). It was so great. I LOVE dancing and nothing feels better to me. I had a few drinks but I don't think I got stupid. I was hungry by the time I left though so I grabbed a late nite snack at Zach's. I love that place. It was a great night!

On Sunday, September 25th, we had another comic book/mimosa day. I LOVE these days. Also, I tried Darling Violetta's black bean burger for the first time. It was okay but not as good as their fries.

On Monday, September 26th, I went into Clever Cycles for the first time, looking for bicycling chaps. They don't carry them but I may end up coming back sometime down the road to look for a good cargo bike in which I can haul Dean. Sophia and I also went to the Sweet Hereafter where the food is awesome and the staff is all hot, tattooed guys! Love it!

On Tuesday, September 27th, some random dudes yelled "Queer" at me on Belmont. I wasn't queered up but I think they were just using it as a slang against cyclists. Anyway, it still sucked so I indulged in vegan gelato, a mimosa and Glee to make me feel better.

On Wednesday, September 28th, I had my first class of this school year. I'm only taking one night class and it's on Social Work with Frail Older Adults. It definitely applies to the population I work with as some of the clients are over retirement age and several of them qualify as frail. The teacher seems very knowledgeable and quite funny which will be good since it's not exactly light material. Also I got my haircut at Bishops by a new person. I like to add that in so it will be easy for me to see when I got my last haircut by just doing a blog search for Bishops.

On Thursday, September 29th, I threatened to quit my job. I don't think I've done it in a serious manner like this before. I threaten to quit all of the time, like when the cafeteria goes two days in a row without having a vegetarian soup. However, this time I was serious. The co-worker who replaced my friend started asking me about one of their clients, G, who is one of my favorite people to work with. Her line of questioning led me to believe that she was building a case to exit this guy. I told her if he gets exited, I'll quit. She assured me that she wasn't considering exiting him but I still left my threat out there. At this point, school has begun again and it'll be a lot of reading. Work is overwhelming because I'm having to cover for someone on medical leave so I'm doing a lot of bathroom breaks. I'm just looking for a reason to quit but really, I can't lose anyone else I care about at work. Also, I had a date with Andrew in the evening.

On Friday, September 30th, I went to Alessio Italian Bakery which is right near Cellar Door Coffee by my work. It's cheap and I'll probably go back soon. I also had the Vegan Curry Plate at Bonfire with Jessica for the first time. Yum! I've found a reason to renew my love of Bonfire! However, my night didn't stop there. I rode NE to Alberta with Ashes and Victory in his new car and Jesse, Sophia, Ashes, Victory and I all went for a drink at the Horse's Brass which should be my neighborhood bar but I never go there.

Anyway, that's my September in a long nutshell. I use this blog as a journal for myself so I do want to keep it up but I'll try to make my posts more interesting to read in the future. Even with school starting, I need to allow myself to creatively write and not just recap my days. I'll try to do better next month

seein sia

As you may recall, a few months ago I finished Six Feet Under and wrote that I cried during the last six minutes. I give a lot of credit for those tears to Sia and her beautiful song, Breathe Me. Shortly afterwards, Martin sent out a message, saying Sia was going to be in town and I committed to going. I can't say that I was a big Sia fan before the show. I love the song Breathe Me and, a few days before the show, I started listening to her music more on Pandora and Jango. However, I knew in my heart that I was going just to see Breathe Me. Therefore, it figures that she wouldn't sing that song until her encore and even then as the last song. I also had to see two opening bands before she even started to perform. Really though, I think I enjoyed one of the opening bands, Oh Land, just as much if not more than Sia.

First up was Ximena, the artist in the third picture from the top. She was sweet but there really wasn't a lot of instrumentation in her sound. Oh Land, the second picture from the top, was awesome. She reminded me of Goldfrapp but was consistently dancey. She also pandered to the crowd a lot more than Goldfrapp did when I saw her so long ago. I could swear that she also pointed directly at me in one of her songs when she said something about rainbows. I was wearing my rainbow shirt at the time so it made sense and I was definitely visable from the stage. Afterwards, I bought her album and she just happened to come up to the merch counter then so she offered to sign it for me. It's the first thing that I've had signed that's not a book, I believe.

Sia was awesome and fun too though. I found myself surprisingly familiar with her songs and she also covered Madonna's Oh Father which is one of my favorite Madonna songs. Plus Breathe Me was pretty damn awesome, although I didn't cry this time.

fair thee well

 

Today was wonderful. Going into fair, I was planning on wearing my pink clothes on Thursday because I wasn't that excited about the outfit. Then I discovered these hotpants! Whenever I stopped to have someone take a picture of me with my cell-phone so I could update my facebook, I had other random people snap shots of me. I was also walking down through the fair with friends when the dragon came parading by. A hot guy in a kilt told me that I was definitely wearing a parade outfit so I needed to join them. I danced along with the parade and absolutely loved it.

Sunday is typically a fun day because it's the day that we get visitor passes so our friends show up. This year, Jesse, Gail and Tim all came down. They seemed to enjoy it and I loved taking them around. I love seeing Jason Webley on Sunday too. Today, he did a cover of Piano Man called "Accordian Man." He pulled up people to represent each of the characters in the song. My favorite was "John at the bar" who's quick with a joke. His joke was, "So, this baby seal walks into a club..."  He later on inspired a parade of accordian players and enthusiasts to take over the drum tower!

Later on, Victory and I went to Webley's 11pm show at Shady Grove. It was my first show in the 8 at night. Webley is an awesome storyteller but he's had a rough year and is taking time off from touring. He says at least a year. It'll be sad not to have him at the fair tomorrow but it was beautiful to be able to attend his late night show at OCF.