...because it doesn't really exist here.
Today, I was waiting for a bus, and a woman in a wheelchair came to the bus stop. The bus came, and I thought, "hm, maybe someone is coming to help?" but when I got on the bus, and thought about it, I quickly came to the realization that none of the bus entrances were remotely accessible. I'm not sure if she was actually waiting for the bus, but if she was, I don't know how she could have gotten on.
Because of my museum geekitude, I thought back to yesterday, when I went to the Šarišská Galéria. No elevator down to the pivnica (basement) or up to the first floor, or even to most of the ground floor because the gallery is in a 17th or 18th century building. Any renovations that may have been done don't include ramps or elevators at all. Nor were the labels large enough for someone with visual impairments.
Most sidewalks have ramps, but I think most of Europe has a long way to go on this issue.
06 September 2008
04 September 2008
Some things about Slovakia I may never get used to
a list I may keep adding to
- The near-ubiquitous use of nylons amongst women of all ages. I mean, I didn't wear nylons to the three proms I went to! Perhaps my aversion to nylons is truly post-feminist American female; remember these girls?
- The near-ubiquitous use of nylons amongst women of all ages with the addition of wearing sandals. I try so hard to be so euro, but socks + sandals is something I just can't do.
- Units of measurement, specifically with regard to weight. This was a problem for me in Italy, too. Here you use deka (deca?), which I don't even know is for grams or kilo grams. All I know is that 15 deca is .15 of a kilogram, and 1 kilogram is 2.2 pounds. My conversion widget tells me this is about 1/3 of a pound, but I don't have my laptop with me at the salami counter, obviously.
- The Speakers. This is like a Socialist-era hangover, and it really makes me feel kind of funny. Maybe looking further back, it's the electrical age-equivalent of a town crier. But seriously, I can't get used to it. In Petra's village, they play a different song depending on the reason for the announcement, which usually is about the week's soccer match -- so there's a special soccer song. Yesterday afternoon in Ružomberok, there was a nice jazzy song playing all of a sudden, which sounded like a really loud car radio. Then The Voice came on. It's really very strange. Then they play out The Voice with the song again. Evidently there are a lot of jokes about this speaker system -- maybe along the lines of "Dear Fellow Community Members, today nothing happened."
On riding the train
- Going between Prešov and Ružomberok on the train is a beautiful way to spend 2 and a half hours.
- A few days ago, I came across this website: Passing by
- Soon, I'm going to add my own videos to it.
View Larger Map
The train goes all through the Low Tatras and by the High Tatras. The High Tatras never cease to be dramatic, as they rise up from a plain and are visible for miles because nothing blocks the view of them. I remember the first time I came to Slovakia in 1992, and we landed at the Poprad airport with all of these (dare I say it?) majestic mountains all around. It was the best introduction possible to Slovakia.
The route takes about 2.5-3 hours, depending on whether or not it is necessary to transfer in Kysak or not. On Friday afternoons and Sunday afternoons, there is a direct train from Bratislava-Humenné via Prešov in order to accommodate the vast numbers of students who are coming home from uni. I can take the train on Sundays, but when I'm going back to the east on Wednesdays it takes a bit longer because I have to transfer.
The trains are mostly Intercity, and are divided into compartments. There is a bit of etiquette involved, maybe similar to the urinal code (though of course I can only imagine). When you find a compartment with people sitting in the correct arrangment, meaning at least one corner is free for you to be able to sit at, with the windows filling up first, you enter the compartment and say, "Je voľno to mesto?" - "Is this seat free?" even though it's already rather obvious that it is. Then when you get up to leave, you say "dovidenia" which is just super nice, kind of like how before you start eating, it's really important to say "dobru chut" - "buon appetito." This is what good manners are all about, for real.
Change and Progress
I've been thinking a lot about this since I got here and then went to the new Max place that's like an American-style mall. I think, in the whole scheme of things, it's actually very cool to have so many obvious dichotomies present in a societal sort of situation -- and maybe that's one of the points of the film Iné Svety, which is about this region.
For example, when walking on the street, one sees young people in jeans and t-shirts, obviously looking skater, goth or hipster, and then at the other end of the spectrum, older ladies dressed pretty traditionally. Since I didn't want to/couldn't whip out my camera to take pictures, I drew one instead:
The colors may vary, and most of the blouses and skirts have a pattern in them but like woven into the fabric, not a different color. The goal does not seem to be to dress in complementary colors, either. On one hand, hardly anyone dresses like this, and on the other hand, enough older ladies do to merit discussion. By the outward sign of dressing this way, these women tend to represent one part of all of these drastic changes that have happened here over the last 15 or so years. It's almost like a physical manifestation of their memories.
For example, when walking on the street, one sees young people in jeans and t-shirts, obviously looking skater, goth or hipster, and then at the other end of the spectrum, older ladies dressed pretty traditionally. Since I didn't want to/couldn't whip out my camera to take pictures, I drew one instead:
The colors may vary, and most of the blouses and skirts have a pattern in them but like woven into the fabric, not a different color. The goal does not seem to be to dress in complementary colors, either. On one hand, hardly anyone dresses like this, and on the other hand, enough older ladies do to merit discussion. By the outward sign of dressing this way, these women tend to represent one part of all of these drastic changes that have happened here over the last 15 or so years. It's almost like a physical manifestation of their memories.
Slovenské jedlá
probably the first of many posts on this theme
Since I've been here, I've been eating very well. Breakfast is, of course,
a salami sandwich -- on which I also put soft cheese. Or, at the convent, butter and homemade jam on Slovak bread, which is a highly pleasurable way to start the day. To drink, coffee or tea and some mineral water. Generally, I eat something similar in the evening.The big meal of the day is around lunchtime. This means soup and then meat and a side, with finally maybe a piece of fruit. It's perfect, because all day I feel like I've eaten, and you don't go to sleep on a full stomach.
I bought some frozen spinach to make my favorite frittata, and came upon so
me European ingenuity. Of course, these are the same people who built the Leaning Tower and the Atomium, so we should not be too surprised. The spinach came in a bag, and there were these weird pictures on the front of the bag, which I only noticed when I opened it. It turns out, the spinach is frozen in pellets!! -- That is, instead of an unwieldly frozen brick, so the spinach cooks much faster.Adding to the benefit, you can buy red pepper and salt together in a grinder!
And finally, a comment on Kofola. This is something I was very excited to try, because my Slovak teacher Martin told us about it this summer. It ranks up there with Almdudler in the category of country/regionally specific soft drinks that are also much better for you than Coca-Cola if you are going to be drinking a soft drink in the first place. It's got a really complex taste, like rootbeer and apple juice together but not quite. But the one thing that is most obvious while walking down the street is that this country is in a serious relationship with ice cream -- zmrzlina. It costs only 8ks (38¢ by today's rate) for a one scoop cone, and it totally hits the spot. People start eating ice cream well before noon, and it continues all day. I think it would be considered the hilt of bad manners to eat a sandwich while walking down the street, but it is totally socially acceptable to eat ice cream while walking down the street, which is a really nice thing to do.
30 August 2008
Finally in Slovakia
The trip was happily uneventful – I had some food at Dulles, got on the plane and lucked out that the middle seat in my row was empty, and then had a layover in Vienna for about 5 hours and then finally got to Košice around 3pm I think. I took a taxi to Prešov and met Vlasta at the apartment.
On the plane, I watched Dan in Real Life and Love in the Time of Cholera. Just before I left, I saw the new Woody Allen film Vicky Christina Barcelona, so there’s been a lot of Javier Bardem in my pop culture consciousness lately, and I must say, I like it that way! Love in the Time of Cholera was so, so wonderful and almost a tear-jerker, which for me is saying a lot.
Watching movies was nice after the relative stress that occurred in Pittsburgh when I checked in. My ticket was obviously for more than a 90-day stay, and so the United agent asked me where my visa was. I explained to her my whole situation, which didn’t help as I had to pay a substantial fee to change my ticket date so that the airline wouldn’t be liable, and I’ll have to pay it again to change it back to the date that I want to come home. Eventually, I’ll write the whole epic visa story, because not only is it interesting, I know other people can benefit from knowing how the process worked for me. At this point, it’s far from over.
Last night, Vlasta said, sleep until noon or 1 if you have to -- and I thought, there's no way I will! But I woke up in the middle of the night and sent some e-mails and wrote a bit, and then did in fact sleep until about noon! Today she took me to the bus station and train station and showed me how to use the trolleybuses from the apartment to the center, which was really super helpful.
Then on the way back, we went to this place right by here called Max, which is this really big brand-new (less than a year old) American-style mall. Whichever way I look at it, it's development and is not necessarily a bad thing. We got some pizza there, which was really excellent -- ham, mushrooms and corn on one half and 4 cheeses on the other -- one of the cheeses was like brie maybe and maybe mozzarella, and I don't know what the other 2 may have been. I love local iterations of pizza -- there's the home of pizza in Naples, and then the world's interpretations.
I'm going to Ružomberok on Monday.
On the plane, I watched Dan in Real Life and Love in the Time of Cholera. Just before I left, I saw the new Woody Allen film Vicky Christina Barcelona, so there’s been a lot of Javier Bardem in my pop culture consciousness lately, and I must say, I like it that way! Love in the Time of Cholera was so, so wonderful and almost a tear-jerker, which for me is saying a lot.
Watching movies was nice after the relative stress that occurred in Pittsburgh when I checked in. My ticket was obviously for more than a 90-day stay, and so the United agent asked me where my visa was. I explained to her my whole situation, which didn’t help as I had to pay a substantial fee to change my ticket date so that the airline wouldn’t be liable, and I’ll have to pay it again to change it back to the date that I want to come home. Eventually, I’ll write the whole epic visa story, because not only is it interesting, I know other people can benefit from knowing how the process worked for me. At this point, it’s far from over.
Last night, Vlasta said, sleep until noon or 1 if you have to -- and I thought, there's no way I will! But I woke up in the middle of the night and sent some e-mails and wrote a bit, and then did in fact sleep until about noon! Today she took me to the bus station and train station and showed me how to use the trolleybuses from the apartment to the center, which was really super helpful.
Then on the way back, we went to this place right by here called Max, which is this really big brand-new (less than a year old) American-style mall. Whichever way I look at it, it's development and is not necessarily a bad thing. We got some pizza there, which was really excellent -- ham, mushrooms and corn on one half and 4 cheeses on the other -- one of the cheeses was like brie maybe and maybe mozzarella, and I don't know what the other 2 may have been. I love local iterations of pizza -- there's the home of pizza in Naples, and then the world's interpretations.
I'm going to Ružomberok on Monday.
13 August 2008
Adirondacks
This year's camping was excellent, though rainy. I want to post some pictures, but until I do, here's a map of the route Peggy and I paddled from our site to the launch. As the crow flies, it's 3.8 miles, but the route we took was definitely more like 4 miles.
View Larger Map
View Larger Map
28 June 2008
Johnstown, PA - Cambria City, represent!
Confidential to Christina -- I swear I was going to do a post about this!
I've been doing things Rusyn for quite a long time, mostly as part of an organized group doing some public program to promote things Rusyn -- but this post shows a progression of Rusyn culture in America. Why? Because this event of Rusyns was developed organically, thematically and anarchistically. A bunch of Rusyns got together to do something highly related to being Rusyn, almost spontaneously though also very planned. It was a great time, and something that I hope happens elsewhere, because it is culture-building.
The day started with visits to the main places of the American Carpatho-Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church -- we went to liturgy, to the chancery, to the seminary. After that, a great lunch at a Johnstown restaurant, and finally what was for me the main attraction -- the Heritage Discovery Center.
It's relatively new, and so the museology is new. Like at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, you are given a person to follow through the museum -- I think they had 8 or 10 people to choose from in Johnstown. I was a young female immigrant from Calabria who came to America to get married -- but being the museum geek that I am, I also waited around every kiosk where you scan your card so that I could see what the other ones were like also. They definitely represent a cross-section of the diverse groups who came to Johnstown.
We had a rather lengthy introduction at the ticket desk, which contextualized the mass immigration to the US between 1870-1920ish as the result of mass depopulation after the Civil War -- maybe that's one reason, but I think that the whole situation is much more nuanced than just that. Then, the only negative sort of thing that happened there: at the end of his talk, the introducer mentioned that at the end, we would be asked at a kiosk "Should we allow more immigrants into the United States?" and that we should answer yes, because then we would find out what really happened to the person we had gone with through the museum. I don't know how often this guy works, and I was happy to see that people overwhelmingly said yes, but it wasn't really good of him to give us that information and I definitely think the results are skewed, as much as I'd like to think that visiting the Heritage Discovery Center helps people to remember that they are descendants of (often illiterate, non Anglophone) immigrants so that they change their stance on people who immigrate to the US today.
The visit is a well-organized forced-path experiential-learning extravaganza:
(click to enlarge photos)
First, you arrive at Ellis Island, where the train ticket agent calls you a unwashed idiot or something xenophobic, and then you sit in the train station in Johnstown watching trains arrive and people meet their friends and relatives who have just arrived in America (above).
At various points throughout the exhibition, you can listen to actors reading first-hand accounts of immigration narratives. I tend to have a problem with faux accents in museum settings -- this is a trick also used at another great museum about immigration, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum -- I don't think that the device really helps explain the situation, and it comes off as cheesy, crude and gimmicky. Here though, I really liked this diorama/sound bank. It looked great and served its purpose really well -- you can see how well designed the HDC is.
The interactives were fun for everyone. One was about separating coal from rocks on a moving conveyor belt, which was also really fun and showed how labor-intensive industry was at that time. They also really make it clear that they (established WASP boss people) felt that these dangerous jobs were unskilled labor, which I think is far from the truth.
Personally, I would have loved to have learned more about labor organizing, but I also know that a lot of immigrants, especially from eastern Europe, were not interested in being organized. It's really enough of a topic for a stand-alone exhibit. Again, amazing design with a standard style that just really worked throughout the galleries.
Not content to see just one museum in Johnstown, we also went over to the Johnstown Flood Museum.
Mostly I hissed at the arrogance of the wealthy who caused the flood, and wished that Alexander Berkman had succeeded. The museum is small, but also really well done, and brings the situation to the present with a photo gallery of contemporary Johnstown -- how far things have come... Pennsylvanians really get off on lighted 3D map displays in museums (cf. Gettysburg), but they're so cool because they really are helpful and it's nice to not be looking at some computer-generated thing.
Our day ended with a trip up and down the world's steepest inclined plane that can also hold 3 cars:
We got drinks at the top. / It was vertigo-inducing.
I've been doing things Rusyn for quite a long time, mostly as part of an organized group doing some public program to promote things Rusyn -- but this post shows a progression of Rusyn culture in America. Why? Because this event of Rusyns was developed organically, thematically and anarchistically. A bunch of Rusyns got together to do something highly related to being Rusyn, almost spontaneously though also very planned. It was a great time, and something that I hope happens elsewhere, because it is culture-building.
The day started with visits to the main places of the American Carpatho-Russian Greek Catholic Orthodox Church -- we went to liturgy, to the chancery, to the seminary. After that, a great lunch at a Johnstown restaurant, and finally what was for me the main attraction -- the Heritage Discovery Center.
It's relatively new, and so the museology is new. Like at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, you are given a person to follow through the museum -- I think they had 8 or 10 people to choose from in Johnstown. I was a young female immigrant from Calabria who came to America to get married -- but being the museum geek that I am, I also waited around every kiosk where you scan your card so that I could see what the other ones were like also. They definitely represent a cross-section of the diverse groups who came to Johnstown.
We had a rather lengthy introduction at the ticket desk, which contextualized the mass immigration to the US between 1870-1920ish as the result of mass depopulation after the Civil War -- maybe that's one reason, but I think that the whole situation is much more nuanced than just that. Then, the only negative sort of thing that happened there: at the end of his talk, the introducer mentioned that at the end, we would be asked at a kiosk "Should we allow more immigrants into the United States?" and that we should answer yes, because then we would find out what really happened to the person we had gone with through the museum. I don't know how often this guy works, and I was happy to see that people overwhelmingly said yes, but it wasn't really good of him to give us that information and I definitely think the results are skewed, as much as I'd like to think that visiting the Heritage Discovery Center helps people to remember that they are descendants of (often illiterate, non Anglophone) immigrants so that they change their stance on people who immigrate to the US today.
The visit is a well-organized forced-path experiential-learning extravaganza:
(click to enlarge photos)
First, you arrive at Ellis Island, where the train ticket agent calls you a unwashed idiot or something xenophobic, and then you sit in the train station in Johnstown watching trains arrive and people meet their friends and relatives who have just arrived in America (above).
At various points throughout the exhibition, you can listen to actors reading first-hand accounts of immigration narratives. I tend to have a problem with faux accents in museum settings -- this is a trick also used at another great museum about immigration, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum -- I don't think that the device really helps explain the situation, and it comes off as cheesy, crude and gimmicky. Here though, I really liked this diorama/sound bank. It looked great and served its purpose really well -- you can see how well designed the HDC is.
The interactives were fun for everyone. One was about separating coal from rocks on a moving conveyor belt, which was also really fun and showed how labor-intensive industry was at that time. They also really make it clear that they (established WASP boss people) felt that these dangerous jobs were unskilled labor, which I think is far from the truth.
Personally, I would have loved to have learned more about labor organizing, but I also know that a lot of immigrants, especially from eastern Europe, were not interested in being organized. It's really enough of a topic for a stand-alone exhibit. Again, amazing design with a standard style that just really worked throughout the galleries.Not content to see just one museum in Johnstown, we also went over to the Johnstown Flood Museum.
Mostly I hissed at the arrogance of the wealthy who caused the flood, and wished that Alexander Berkman had succeeded. The museum is small, but also really well done, and brings the situation to the present with a photo gallery of contemporary Johnstown -- how far things have come... Pennsylvanians really get off on lighted 3D map displays in museums (cf. Gettysburg), but they're so cool because they really are helpful and it's nice to not be looking at some computer-generated thing.Our day ended with a trip up and down the world's steepest inclined plane that can also hold 3 cars:
We got drinks at the top. / It was vertigo-inducing.
24 June 2008
Bahamas
What an excellent break this was!
Alas, I had no idea what to expect, but I didn't expect that the Bahamas would be so American. However, we were able to find quite a lot of 'authenticity' there, which made it pretty cool. It was great to walk on the beach and lay on the beach and swim, which was delightfully relaxing. Happy wishes to Chris and Amy, whose wedding we attended while we were there!
These were some Versailles-esque gardens installed by the first developer of Paradise Island, Huntingdon Hartford. It was a bit strange, with a replica Farnese Hercules and some other medieval French, 19th century and Modern sculptures, all of which were unfortunately badly weatherbeaten and not in good condition at all. At the top is a 14th century cloister that was bought from William Randolph Hearst -- also not in particularly good shape. The result is the gauche taste of American industrialists that now appear to have an Ozymandias complex.
The trained flamingos at Ardastra Gardens were such a hoot!!! Even cooler was that before the show, we were able to mingle with them without a fence between us. There were also free range peacocks, which I now have learned (from an evolutionary anthropologist) engage in costly signaling similar to the way humans do.
We had a really great Bahamian meal on Arawak Cay right before going to Ardastra Gardens. Then, while walking through the straw market, I noticed that the ladies working there had this really great looking food, and I wondered where it came from since it didn't seem like they had brought it. I was trying to get out of the straw market anyway because it was stuffy and overwhelming and I didn't really want to buy anything. When I got out, I saw a lady selling food out of the back of her minivan -- $7 for the above, which is a great deal for the Bahamas as far as food is concerned! I got turkey, rice, lasagna (with a cheddar-ish cheese) and potato salad. There were other options available as well, like chicken plus this amazing local bread. I know I got something that the locals eat and I really enjoyed it.
This is a local ice company, and I find the entendre to be hysterical. I'll leave it at that.
Arrrrgh! Being a Japanese tourist in Nassau -- NB my Kalik Gold in a bag.
This bungalow is very cute but very fake and has something to do with the James Bond movies, though I forget which one. It's probably either Thunderball or Casino Royale, but I'm really not sure. Probably Casino Royale. Elsewhere in Nassau there are places with further connection to Thunderball, and we stayed one compound away from where parts of Casino Royale was filmed. The behemoth Atlantis is in view behind it.
Alas, I had no idea what to expect, but I didn't expect that the Bahamas would be so American. However, we were able to find quite a lot of 'authenticity' there, which made it pretty cool. It was great to walk on the beach and lay on the beach and swim, which was delightfully relaxing. Happy wishes to Chris and Amy, whose wedding we attended while we were there!
These were some Versailles-esque gardens installed by the first developer of Paradise Island, Huntingdon Hartford. It was a bit strange, with a replica Farnese Hercules and some other medieval French, 19th century and Modern sculptures, all of which were unfortunately badly weatherbeaten and not in good condition at all. At the top is a 14th century cloister that was bought from William Randolph Hearst -- also not in particularly good shape. The result is the gauche taste of American industrialists that now appear to have an Ozymandias complex.
The trained flamingos at Ardastra Gardens were such a hoot!!! Even cooler was that before the show, we were able to mingle with them without a fence between us. There were also free range peacocks, which I now have learned (from an evolutionary anthropologist) engage in costly signaling similar to the way humans do.
We had a really great Bahamian meal on Arawak Cay right before going to Ardastra Gardens. Then, while walking through the straw market, I noticed that the ladies working there had this really great looking food, and I wondered where it came from since it didn't seem like they had brought it. I was trying to get out of the straw market anyway because it was stuffy and overwhelming and I didn't really want to buy anything. When I got out, I saw a lady selling food out of the back of her minivan -- $7 for the above, which is a great deal for the Bahamas as far as food is concerned! I got turkey, rice, lasagna (with a cheddar-ish cheese) and potato salad. There were other options available as well, like chicken plus this amazing local bread. I know I got something that the locals eat and I really enjoyed it.
This is a local ice company, and I find the entendre to be hysterical. I'll leave it at that.
Arrrrgh! Being a Japanese tourist in Nassau -- NB my Kalik Gold in a bag.
This bungalow is very cute but very fake and has something to do with the James Bond movies, though I forget which one. It's probably either Thunderball or Casino Royale, but I'm really not sure. Probably Casino Royale. Elsewhere in Nassau there are places with further connection to Thunderball, and we stayed one compound away from where parts of Casino Royale was filmed. The behemoth Atlantis is in view behind it.
29 March 2008
Portland
What an excellent Spring Break!
After a late arrival Monday night, we (Anna, Marko, me) got up Tuesday and headed to the Portland Japanese Garden for their annual free day. We also had some pizza at Rocco's and went to the vast, overwhelming Powell's Books main location. We also drove up Mount Tabor -- it was excellent that we spent a large chunk of the day outdoors. That evening, Anna and I went to see Girls Rock: The Movie, a documentary about the Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, an annual camp that "builds girls self-esteem through music creation and performance." The movie was super cute, and highly enjoyable, though there were some issues that came up as Anna and I discussed it afterwards. Here's the trailer:
After the film, we went and picked up Marko and then met some friends (hi Gessi and Phil!) at the Horse Brass, where I enjoyed the super special treat of Widmer Hefeweizen on tap. There are many things about Portland that it seems it's easy for locals to take for granted, and one of the top things on my list would be Widmer on tap. I also had some Lompoc C-Note IPA that was really good. IPAs are really hot right now, hops to the maxx. Another very appealing thing about the establishment were their sausage dishes: english sausage wrapped in a pastry roll and this really amazing thing which is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and then deep fried. Amazing.
So then Wednesday, Anna volunteers at In Other Words, the last Feminist non-profit bookstore in the country. I hung out there with her and caught up on zines. After that, we headed downtown to grab some Voodoo Doughnuts. I had a Bavarian cream-filled (similar to my old Boston Creme standby) and a vegan doughnut -- to see what all the fuss was about. It was a cake doughnut with icing and topped with the inside of Butterfinger chocolate bars. Supersweet and both were super great. We kicked it around downtown some more, walked through Pioneer Square and went to get the car to park it downtown.
That night, we dropped by a party Gessi was having, but Anna and I had to go so we could go see Brass Menažeri and Vagabond Opera at Someday Lounge. Brass Menažeri had a woman tapan player who absolutely kicked ass. After their set, I talked to her for a few minutes, and complimented her, and she said it was interesting how women always came up to her to compliment her on her playing. I told her I'd been listening and dancing to this sort of music for ages and had never seen a woman doing it. She was great, and also a great vocalist. They brought their own dance instigator with them, and so it was great to dance ala Balkan for most of the set, which I hadn't done in ages. They were a bit more traditional, and Vagabond Opera was more postmodern, but still absolutely stunning. They had a neo-bohemian cabaret thing going on, which was so incredibly fun. Their awesome band member Lesley was a wonderful singer and musician but also coaxed some gorgeous music out of the saw, which takes some major skill. VO ended with some flame dancing -- there was some flame eating and throwing earlier on -- which ended with a bang and not a whimper. Anna said it was the best show she'd been to since she'd been in Portland, and I'd definitely agree it was quite possibly one of the best shows I've been to. Here's a video I made from my cellphone video camera -- not very good quality but it gives some of the feeling:
On Thursday, we met up with my friend Laura and her husband Jim and new baby Luca! Jim's daughter also joined us for lunch and we had a really pleasant afternoon. We met at the Tao of Tea (Anna, being a diligent student of Chinese, decided the most proper pronunciation was the dao of dea)and then we went and got us some really amazing Lebanese food at Hoda's on Belmont Street. After that, we had to get back so we could head down to Last Thursday on Alberta Street for some gallery openings. It was cool to see what sorts of art is going on out there. My favorite art was at the Bitch Magazine headquarters -- not because it was overt, but because it was sophisticatedly evocative. We went over to IOW to meet Marko for That Time of the Month: Borders, Citizenship and Language: The Attack on Immigrants and the Crisis for Humanity. It was great to listen to some local activists discussing tactics and strategies for overcoming the racism that is so ubiquitous in this country right now.
As if it couldn't get any better, more live music. This time, Chervona (MySpace) and Polka Madre at the Alberta Street Pub. The great asset to both of these bands were their clarinet players. We danced the whole time to Chervona, I enjoyed my fill of New Belgium Sunshine Wheat. Polka Madre took a while to get cranking, but then they turned out to be fun to dance to as well. They came off as really cerebral (as opposed to soulful), and had an Exploding Plastic Inevitable projection thing going on which made things somewhat intense. Polka Madre is best described as post-ska, and the kids who were dancing to Chervona were not really the kids dancing to Polka Madre -- as evidenced by dance style. Another great time.
Friday, Anna had to work, and Marko and I went to a place where he wanted to meet with someone for some funding. Turned out she wasn't there, and so after, we almost gassed up the car and drove to the beach or Mount Hood, but the weather was bad and there wasn't quite enough time. We went to the Laughing Horse Radical Bookstore Collective, helped Meghan clear out her place, and had some very good Thai food with some of the strangest waitstaff I think any of us had ever experienced. We picked up Anna at work and then hung out for a bit and got me to the airport. It sucked to have to leave. There's already a ton more things I'd like to do and see, and I was so happy and excited to meet Anna's crew out there, and talk and dance with all of them!
The plane ride home was good and bad. I had made reservations for a window seat, to be able to sleep a bit more effectively, but two women with 2 small kids asked if me and the other guy in my row would move so they could sit together. I then got an aisle seat, with these 2 little kids and a group of hormonal young teen school kids behind me. They carried on the entire flight, taking flash photos on a dark plane. I slept a bit. Changing seats had some silver lining, as my row was a hot Austrian Nike intern and an opera singer. :)
Got my Dunkin Donuts coffee on the plane (love you, JetBlue) and headed back to NJ.
Back in the grind.
See you soon, Portland.
After a late arrival Monday night, we (Anna, Marko, me) got up Tuesday and headed to the Portland Japanese Garden for their annual free day. We also had some pizza at Rocco's and went to the vast, overwhelming Powell's Books main location. We also drove up Mount Tabor -- it was excellent that we spent a large chunk of the day outdoors. That evening, Anna and I went to see Girls Rock: The Movie, a documentary about the Rock n' Roll Camp for Girls, an annual camp that "builds girls self-esteem through music creation and performance." The movie was super cute, and highly enjoyable, though there were some issues that came up as Anna and I discussed it afterwards. Here's the trailer:
After the film, we went and picked up Marko and then met some friends (hi Gessi and Phil!) at the Horse Brass, where I enjoyed the super special treat of Widmer Hefeweizen on tap. There are many things about Portland that it seems it's easy for locals to take for granted, and one of the top things on my list would be Widmer on tap. I also had some Lompoc C-Note IPA that was really good. IPAs are really hot right now, hops to the maxx. Another very appealing thing about the establishment were their sausage dishes: english sausage wrapped in a pastry roll and this really amazing thing which is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and then deep fried. Amazing.
So then Wednesday, Anna volunteers at In Other Words, the last Feminist non-profit bookstore in the country. I hung out there with her and caught up on zines. After that, we headed downtown to grab some Voodoo Doughnuts. I had a Bavarian cream-filled (similar to my old Boston Creme standby) and a vegan doughnut -- to see what all the fuss was about. It was a cake doughnut with icing and topped with the inside of Butterfinger chocolate bars. Supersweet and both were super great. We kicked it around downtown some more, walked through Pioneer Square and went to get the car to park it downtown.
That night, we dropped by a party Gessi was having, but Anna and I had to go so we could go see Brass Menažeri and Vagabond Opera at Someday Lounge. Brass Menažeri had a woman tapan player who absolutely kicked ass. After their set, I talked to her for a few minutes, and complimented her, and she said it was interesting how women always came up to her to compliment her on her playing. I told her I'd been listening and dancing to this sort of music for ages and had never seen a woman doing it. She was great, and also a great vocalist. They brought their own dance instigator with them, and so it was great to dance ala Balkan for most of the set, which I hadn't done in ages. They were a bit more traditional, and Vagabond Opera was more postmodern, but still absolutely stunning. They had a neo-bohemian cabaret thing going on, which was so incredibly fun. Their awesome band member Lesley was a wonderful singer and musician but also coaxed some gorgeous music out of the saw, which takes some major skill. VO ended with some flame dancing -- there was some flame eating and throwing earlier on -- which ended with a bang and not a whimper. Anna said it was the best show she'd been to since she'd been in Portland, and I'd definitely agree it was quite possibly one of the best shows I've been to. Here's a video I made from my cellphone video camera -- not very good quality but it gives some of the feeling:
On Thursday, we met up with my friend Laura and her husband Jim and new baby Luca! Jim's daughter also joined us for lunch and we had a really pleasant afternoon. We met at the Tao of Tea (Anna, being a diligent student of Chinese, decided the most proper pronunciation was the dao of dea)and then we went and got us some really amazing Lebanese food at Hoda's on Belmont Street. After that, we had to get back so we could head down to Last Thursday on Alberta Street for some gallery openings. It was cool to see what sorts of art is going on out there. My favorite art was at the Bitch Magazine headquarters -- not because it was overt, but because it was sophisticatedly evocative. We went over to IOW to meet Marko for That Time of the Month: Borders, Citizenship and Language: The Attack on Immigrants and the Crisis for Humanity. It was great to listen to some local activists discussing tactics and strategies for overcoming the racism that is so ubiquitous in this country right now.
As if it couldn't get any better, more live music. This time, Chervona (MySpace) and Polka Madre at the Alberta Street Pub. The great asset to both of these bands were their clarinet players. We danced the whole time to Chervona, I enjoyed my fill of New Belgium Sunshine Wheat. Polka Madre took a while to get cranking, but then they turned out to be fun to dance to as well. They came off as really cerebral (as opposed to soulful), and had an Exploding Plastic Inevitable projection thing going on which made things somewhat intense. Polka Madre is best described as post-ska, and the kids who were dancing to Chervona were not really the kids dancing to Polka Madre -- as evidenced by dance style. Another great time.
Friday, Anna had to work, and Marko and I went to a place where he wanted to meet with someone for some funding. Turned out she wasn't there, and so after, we almost gassed up the car and drove to the beach or Mount Hood, but the weather was bad and there wasn't quite enough time. We went to the Laughing Horse Radical Bookstore Collective, helped Meghan clear out her place, and had some very good Thai food with some of the strangest waitstaff I think any of us had ever experienced. We picked up Anna at work and then hung out for a bit and got me to the airport. It sucked to have to leave. There's already a ton more things I'd like to do and see, and I was so happy and excited to meet Anna's crew out there, and talk and dance with all of them!
The plane ride home was good and bad. I had made reservations for a window seat, to be able to sleep a bit more effectively, but two women with 2 small kids asked if me and the other guy in my row would move so they could sit together. I then got an aisle seat, with these 2 little kids and a group of hormonal young teen school kids behind me. They carried on the entire flight, taking flash photos on a dark plane. I slept a bit. Changing seats had some silver lining, as my row was a hot Austrian Nike intern and an opera singer. :)
Got my Dunkin Donuts coffee on the plane (love you, JetBlue) and headed back to NJ.
Back in the grind.
See you soon, Portland.
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