When i startedthis blog 3 years ago very few people had a blog. Now everyone does. Are we all going to just read each other's blogs every day? Brings to mind a precient bit of writing my Milan Kundera about the (then) future proliferation of what he called "graphomania", when everyone aspires to and becomes a writer. I'll quote it at length some time.
I caught cold a few days ago but was determined to beat it before it grew into anything. Problem was, I was en route (Friday evening) to the coast for a weekend gathering at a friend's beach house in Manzanita. I rode out there with Chris and Jan, who were kind enough to pick me up at my doorstep. Saturday i felt worse but with Chris, Jan, Karla, and Matt, participated in the annual Spring Beach Clean-up. It felt good, but was frustrating to realize that small pieces of broken plastic are a not insignificant component of the the beach itself.
That afternoon I decided to "sweat it out" with vigorous excercise, so Jan and I hiked the Coast Trail up and over Neahkanie Mountain (where Spanish treasure may still lie hidden) and down and over to Short Sand Beach where the others went surfing. The hike was beautiful but just about wiped me out. However I wasn't too far gone to play a few rounds of Boggle and a game of word comparisons called Apples to Apples with the now enlarged group of folks back at the beach house (actually a block back from the beach, but close enough.)
Sunday morning after a fine breakfast of crepes and fritattas, Lee Pembleton picked me up in his rental car enroute from a visit to his Ma (Sue Sparks) in Lincoln City (Lee of course lives in San Fran.) On the way back to Portland we stopped for lunch at "Oney's" on Highway 26. I wouldn't have chosen to, I admit, but Lee wanted some authentic local flavor. In truth they were pretty decent in a very old-school kind of way.
I called in sick Monday, something I rarely do. It was a welcome break. Tuesday I was revived enough to take a nice hike on Newton Road in Forest Park. Although the cold did fully manifest, it has also been extremely short lived. I pounded down lots and lots of vitamin C too.
Last night I had the pleasure of attending the first rally of something called Crosswalk America. My old childhood friend Jeff Coleman of Seattle is participating in it by biking with a group from Seattle to Phoenix, where another group will embark on a walk across the entire country to Washington DC, all in the name of promoting progressive/liberal religous values. Basically, they are people who consider themselves Christian progressives and who are appalled at the rightwing/fundamentalist/theocratic people who claim to represent the term Christian. Specifically they are in favor of total inclusiveness, gay rights, tolerance of other's beliefs, strict separation of church and state, etc, all from a specifically religous standpoint. I think it is really great what they are doing. I mean, imagine *walking* through the *bible-belt* specifically seeking to have conversations about this stuff. That's some courage, but we really need it. They have a list of what they call the "Phoenix Affirmations" (for the city where they came up with them) which address the salient points.
I'll probably return to the subject, but you can find out more about it at http://www.crosswalkamerica.org.
Yesterday I marched in the big peace rally in downtown Portland. I rode down with Bruce and Carla and we pretty much kept together. We each wore white jump suits, mine was my homemade satirical Department of Homeland Security, Citizens' Security Service uniform. With it I wore a creepy white mask that I made. The faceless watcher. Bruce made a brilliant shiny peace bird with moveable wings, and wore a fun scary mask. He played his bucket drum and Carla carried the bird. At the beginning (before the march started) we met up with members of the quite famous Bread and Puppets Puppet Theatre collective from Vermont, in Portland for a series of shows. One of them, a very nice fellow, had stayed for a couple of nights with Bruce and Carla. At the march gathering-spot one of them recruited Bruce and I to play drums in their little drum corps that accompanies their masked puppet-head troupe. So I strapped on their extra snare drum (Bruce had his bucket drum.) We were all ready to set out when, lo, a conversation off to the side among several of them. It seems they wanted "uniformity" in their presentation, so could Bruce and I please take our masks off: their drummers were not wearing masks, only their masked performers were wearing masks, approved "trademark" Bread and Puppets style masks. I won't brag about the quality of my own, but Bruce's was a better and more imaginative mask than any of theirs. Anyway, it was weird. These people are anarchist freak puppeteers and they want "uniformity" as they march along with the other ten thousand people? It's called brand maintenance I guess, not that anyone knew who they were. So I gave them their drum back and we went off on our own, which was better anyway because we ended up alongside the March Fourth Marching Band, who, although they also have a trademark look, have no problem (when they play these kinds of public marches) with anyone who wishes playing, drumming, or dancing along with them.
My fellow "Commonsers" Eli and Kathleen (also Kristen Saxton, Theresa Hunstsinger, and several others) performed as the Radical Cheerleaders. What can I say about the radical cheerleaders except that they ROCK, they're sexy, clever, and I and everyone else who sees them perform pretty much falls in love with all of them on the spot. In fact the first time I saw them, 3 years ago at the rally just before the start of the Iraq war when I was only just acquainted with a couple of them, it happened that I was at a restaurant dinner table with several of them after the march (due to mutual connections,) and I was tongue tied. Like a damn 7th grader.
Today was another big bike-move, it was Debbie DeRose moving from the Periwinkle Palace at Haight and Failing to her new (as yet unnamed) digs in Kenton. The floors were just completed and the toilet installed, so it is ready to live in. I've worked for her a bunch recently on painting, plastering, and finally refinishing the floors. That latter is tough work, especially with old rough fir like that and the sheer amount of old paint and gummy junk that was on it. Many of the boards themselves were slightly uneven so I had to take the edger to them when the upright drum sander didn't get the stuff off. The edger weighs about 50 pounds and has a madly spinning disk of sandpaper. You have to bend over it, lifting it slightly at all times, to keep it from careening across the floor.
The move was awesome, as all bike-moves are. There were about 14 people and we got most of what needed to go including the big old gas range. The cats came later via auto.
I cannot believe it is the 7th of March already. It was just February. It still feels like winter (cold and showery) but the daylight is lasting refreshingly longer. Astronomical winter is almost over. Climatological one will stick around until July. Oh well. But it is spring too. They all meld together. Spring in the Northwest is the best spring anywhere. So long and multifariously flowering. The Cherries are starting to bloom a week ago, which really seems way too soon, its gotta be global warming. I used to remember them starting to bloom a month later than this in Seattle. And I saw a Trillium opening up in the woods at Angel's Rest last Friday. Also early.
I just booked my next show, actually I havn't quite decided on the date but it will be at Concordia Coffee House on Alberta on either April 15 or April 1 (both Saturday) from 7 to 9 PM. I intend to find another musician or band to play also. I'm leaning toward the 15th, although it is a busy weekend. Easter is the next day (and includes the Bunny on a Bike Ride) and Friday night is the Filmed By Bike showing *and* the Midnight Mystery Ride. Oh Portland, you crazy, crazy bikey town.
Just came off ten days in a row of working my TriMet job (an unusual thing), plus I'm doing more housepainting on the side, it gets to be too much. Can't complain though. Played my second gig at Acme in 3 weeks last night. Went well. I went on a bit after 9:00 PM, before the bands MILK and Johnny Punchclock. I originally set the show up mainly as a way to A. have another show and B. see Johnny Punchclock play again. They are lots of fun, both on and offstage. I first met a couple of them at Ayleen's birthday party on Government Island last June. That was a crazy hoot.
My set was a bit sloppy but well received. I have so many songs (50? 80? I lose track), i've decided that i have sat on them too much for too long. Singing one or two of them publicly every couple of months is not enough. I have them, I might as well play them to people more regularly. They may not be EVERYone's cuppa tea, but a lot of folks seem to really like them. Setting up shows has not been my strong point. I have tended to do it, then stop, or change my stage name too many times for people to get a recurring sense of who I am. Mortimer Fleck, Miller Daniels, Enrique Bronkowski, Danny Columbo, etc.
But I do plan to book another show for maybe early to mid April. Not sure where yet. I think a house concert with 2 or 3 other musicians would be a good idea too. What I really need is an agent. Anybody want to do it?