I really do try and not go on too much about the city I live in, on the other hand - it's spring, and love is in the air. Please visit, but don't stay - is how most Oregonians want it. We'd rather not have a traffic problem like big cities often do. The weather, despite rainy days (you do grow to love them) is really quite pure Pacific Northwest: refreshing, temperate, clean.
The residents are not the most diverse of people, but they are laid back and yet passionate about political, social, and environmental issues, you know - those topics that if you have kids, you become passionate about. The geography is extremely lovely with the Cascade range in the background, the valleys with their rivers and wineries, and a nearby ocean chock full of seafood. It's hard not to be in love.
And then, if I could feel for a place anymore, there is the food. The FOOD - oh, if there was any a place to make you drool like a Pavlovian experiment - it's the words "Portland" and "food" in the same sentance.
If you like to cook, there are numerous neighborhood farmer's markets bountiful with organic produce and fun food hunts where you can learn when to pick the biggest chanterelles or go digging on the coast for clams. You can grow vegetables year round since the climate is mild. How are your beans? is an acceptable topic at any party. If you are a "foodie", the Pacific Northwest is home to, as Tony Bourdain says, cook's cooks. Where easy going chefs obsess over the finest ingredients Oregon has to offer.
Portland has lately become is obsessed with affordable street cuisine. Just stop at any of the infamous neighborhood food carts which have been steadily popping up all over the city where you can the finest street food from around the world all made right here, with again - many organic and locally grown ingredients. There are a few charmers like Whole Bowl and Pok-Pok who have taken street food to the dine-in level.
Yesterday, I decided to try out a take-home-and-bake place, you know like Papa Murphy's, but WAY better. While I'm not a bad cook, my passion lies more with savoring meals placed in front of me, rather than the preparing and cooking portion of the process. Much to my joy, my friend Kell (who did teach me how to make a four day marinara sauce) turned me onto a place where you can go and buy premade, uncooked dishes pretty much straight from the purest Italian kitchen Portland has to offer. My latest love is called Taste Unique. For $20, you can easily feed four people. I decided to go simple and order their Traditional Lasagna: We make it like 50 years ago with home made pasta, béchamel, Parmigiano, mozzarella and the best, local grass-fed beef ragu.
So good, I ate it for breakfast the next day.
Located on Division between 21st and 22nd, Chef Stefania Toscano cooks Fresh Pasta, Ravioli, Lasagnas, Cannelloni, Sauces, Cream Pastries and Tiramisu which you can pick up in a matter of minutes, take home and pretend to your husband you slaved all day making. Salty Roman focaccia is baked every hour and all made from scratch using the very best local ingredients and there is something new everyday.
Fresh Cannelloni with Ricotta, Parmigiano and Shitake mushrooms.
Cascade Natural Peppered Roast Beef with Blueberry & Balsamic Vinegar Sauce
While the east coast slowly begins to melt, the west is starting to take it's annual leave of ol' man winter. Much to the chagrin of the Olympic planning committee, who is thawing out too. Pictured above are roses just begining to leaf in my backyard, a flower of which Portland is so renown for.
There is a bit of which-is-better rivalry of east vs west with each of the sides claiming they don't really care who is better since their side clearly is. Every year, I always mention to them that come February, spring is here - and they pooh pooh me with a yeah, it's sunny and GORGEOUS here too. But as I hear the groans of my family dealing with the massive meltdown and bad traffic conditions in Baltimore, it can't be more apparent where 'd like to be. In June when it's rained for a solid month, I may feel different, but today as the day is blue and fresh and clear, I can't help but be very happy to live where I do.
"Imagine a club house (or hut) made of beards, fluorescent paint, driftwood, plastic toys, beat up skateboards, swimming suits, colorful string and bottle caps. That’s Grass Hut"
Along the same vein as zine/gallery shop as Portland's Reading Frenzy, Grass Hut is the brainchild of artist Bwana Spoons who invited some friends to be in an art show a few years back. Fellow beardos, Scrappers, Le Merde, Martin Ontiveros, and Apak took it and turned it more into a colorful wildfire of creativity that has spread connecting artists from around the world. They're now curating group shows, teaching each other how to make toys, making websites for each other, painting murals, working the shop counter, and making each other laugh with fart jokes.
Grass Hut is also home to the finest indie-published zines, crafts, goofy toys, limited edition prints and random other stuff. It's now grown into it’s extended family: Tm Biskup, Arbito, Snaggs, Shawn Wolfe, Gargamel, David Horvath, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, John Black and You. Currently, the Staying Put show will be donating funds to Art Loves Haiti. New shows open every first Friday of the month. Most artwork can be purchased online as well, so even if you can't run over there, do check them out.
Grass Hut is located at 811 E Burnside. Wednesday - Sunday 12-7pm
It only takes the first "Ba dada da da dum" of the staccato horns sounding the famous Olympic theme song and you'll find me giddy and glued to the tevee at all hours of the day for the two weeks it takes to cover the athletic festivities. Superbowl, world cup, world series - I could care less. But the Olympics - how grand! There's something good about the world coming together peacefully if only to kick each other's butt in sport. I'm especially fond of everything skating (speed and figure) but also looking forward to the crazy stunt skiing and some hard core half pipe.
Besides the amazing skills these fearless people execute, it's their individual stories that are so fascinating. There's always the tale of poor single parents who've driven their kids 200 miles twice a week for fifteen years to attend practice. But then take the Indian luger Shiva Keshavan's story, for instance. He arrived without a suit and his sled was held together with tape. On Friday, there was the story of the death of the Georgian luger, which broke everyone's heart.
Besides the skills of the athletes, every two years, designers and artistic directors choreograph amazing opening ceremonies and graphics the entire world sees. While controversy is always present at the Olympics, the branding for this year is one of the best. I love the movement and the colors of what the Pacific Northwest is about, all greens and blues, pattern on pattern, yet not too busy. The imagery of the athletes is a little too much like stock illustration, but it's hard to please everyone. Overall, it's a great job.
I also love their use of the Inukshuk, totems and the native symbols which make the Pacific Northwest so unique.
One of the best Olympic brands, the 1972 Munich Olympics (which also hold a terrible story).
Pacific Northwesterners: Come to Reading Frenzy in Portland, Oregon for the 11th Annual Valentine's Invitational at 6pm to bid on Kapuanani artwork. Dozens of artists contribute Valentine themed artwork to benefit a local non-profit. This readyear's recipient in the Special Education PTA of Portland (SEPTAP). Bidding starts at 6pm. 921 SW Oak st. Portand Oregon 97205
It's been on my mind of course, more this month than any of the others. The picture above was taken by Mary, my stepmom. It was my birthday the day this photo was taken, and we'd all dressed up and gone out to see those Chinese acrobats who spin plates on sticks and bend their bodies like pretzels while balanced on tiny platforms. It was a great night. My sister Momi, who is on the right, was making fancy purses at the time and we were trying out a few. My dad was a character, a friend to many, and he had a great sense of humor that came and went and came and went.
Today I found a note from 1999 I'd left myself where I wrote four words that descibed each of my family members. Seven years prior to my dad passing away from a sudden stroke - I'd listed these words: Surprising. Financially Dependable. Funny. True. I did not list him as: Strong, Maddening or Grouchy - all words which would have been accurate. Sadly, I did not list him either as: Inspiring, Emotionally Dependable, or a Hero - all which any kid would want to list in describing their father.
After he died, it took me a while to go through his belongings. Many things I still need to go through, but have left them in our house in Halawa because I don't want to categorize him away. I find a small comfort in knowing his things are there at the address where he lived for almost forty years. In going through the deluge of papers in his termite eaten roll top desk, there were things about my dad that I learned which surprised me. Like court records and letters to the judge showing to me his heartbreaking struggle (and his anger) at losing my sister and I to our mother after the divorce when we were 4 and 9. Also found were ALL of the cards, drawings and letters my sister and I had EVER sent him in the thirty odd years while Momi and I were shuttling back and forth between two parents.
There was always a mystery about him and I accused him of being an alien when I was a teenager. When he was left by his girlfriend of ten years, he just stopped talking about her and I was left to figure it out. He also remarried and didn't tell my sister or me, a big no-no for all you parents out there. My dad wasn't very good at remembering or celebrating birthdays either and once I got a birthday box filled with a used frying pan and some old mail. I took it as at least he was thinking of me and so I appreciated the effort. He really wanted me to become a detective or a lawyer or something other than whatever I was (a graphic designer) and even gave my number to an FBI recruiter who called me at work one day.
The year before he died, when I was established in my career and he had been positively affected by his outgoing second wife, he became a joy. He was still grouchy and forgetful at times, but he was slowly becoming those words I'd neglected to describe him as. Like in any Shakespearean tragedy, it was just before the death - the personal connection finally made which in turn makes the loss SO much harder. I can only guess now that he'd be proud and happy for my sister and I as we move into new territories of our lives. He could be the inspiring, emotionally dependable dad to us and our children (who don't yet exist) and maybe even a little bit of a hero too. I'd take anything at this point.
I miss him so.
Aloha!
I just finished putting together a working site for Ke Kukui Foundation, a Hawaiian Cultural non-profit group based in the Pacific Northwest. A super group, please consider donating or volunteering - they offer tons back to the community.
Brisk walk...RUN....
Go outside everyday, during the daytime.
Work on improving handwriting
Simplify or Organize
Keep work surfaces clean
Take proper steps to realize dreams
Support friend’s and family’s dreams
Smile when I talk to strangers
Try to be fast asleep by 1am
Clean bunny cage more often
Stay on schedule with new designs
Understand everyone is doing the best they can
Write things down immediately on the Calendar
Honor birthdays
Stand up straight – stop slouching
Eat more greens Email back sooner than later
Hello there.
In celebration of LOVE, I'm participating in this year's Reading Frenzy Valentine Auction with two framed Valentine prints. The prints are based on a trip I took to Miami where I was reminded about how freakin' cute manatees are. I was horrified to see them huddling together in the warm waters of the local powerplant over the cold spell the lower states had, but I think theyare for the most part, o.k. The event is a charity auction so come, buy, bid and celebrate the gushy, happy mush feeling that is love! In case you don't know, Reading Frenzy is a uniquely special place on the front line of the zine revolution, crafted items and amazing artwork and prints by local and national artists. It's located beneath to the Independent Publishing Resource Center, and CounterMedia, and if you can't get enough subculture, just down the street from Powell's Books.
This year's recipient of all funds is the Special Education PTA of Portland* (SEPTAP). SEPTAP is a network of parents, educators and community members working together to improve the education and well being of students with disabilities in their schools, homes and communities.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Bidding begins at 6PM
Reading Frenzy
921 SW Oak St. Portland, OR 97205
I've set up a page to easily donate to Mercy Corps. I hope you can find it in your heart to contribute to the care of the people of Haiti. Click here to support the cause.
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is a team of 3700 professionals helping turn crisis into opportunity for millions around the world. By trade, we are engineers, financial analysts, drivers, community organizers, project managers, public health experts, administrators, social entrepreneurs and logisticians. In spirit, we are activists, optimists, innovators and proud partners of the people we serve.