Hello again. I am glad that this moment finds you well, and prosperous in your affairs in the fair republic of Galflandria. I was fascinated to learn that your capital city, commonly known as Jandar, actually has several names, and that its full and true name is something akin to a Spanish surname in length and complexity. This brings me to a very similiar point about the names of our cities here on the north and western coastal region of the continent usually called America. To most people these cities have only one name, for example Portland, Seattle, or Juneau. In fact they all have true names which are entirely different, and of which most of the inhabitants are ignorant except in their lucid dreams and the auto-amnesiac periods which occur for approximately one week per month. These periods are a topic unto themselves, although if you are familiar with the history of your own country you will know what they are and how, in your own society's development, you transcended and integrated them.
But few of us are currently aware of them, and of the true names of our cities. Portland is Yakwahtin, Seattle is Leschi, etc. Tacoma actually is Tacoma, and is the secret capital of the Province some now call Cascadia. These names, as you may have guessed, are Native American in origin, but it is not as simple as to say that there were villages with those names before the European invasion. It is a complex story. Portland's name, Yakwahtin, means "entrails." This has several levels of meaning. My time is short today, so I will bid you farewell for now, and with luck our coorespondence shall continue.
Hello. How are you? I am fine. How is the weather in Galflandria? Here it is very sunny and warm, though usually at this time of year one would expect it to be cooler and showery. The climate here might be described as a composite of North Coastal wet-temperate and South Coastal mediterranean. In fact the climate of the west coast of this continent describes a fairly smooth gradient of wet/dry ratio from north to south, viz. Kodiak Island, 11.5 months wet, .5 month dry/sunny; Juneau, 11 months wet, 1 dry; Seattle/Portland 9 months wet, 3 dry; Eureka, 7 months wet, 5 dry; San Francisco, 6 months wet, 6 dry (also frequent fog;) Monterey, 5 months wet, 7 dry; Lompoc, 4 months wet, 8 dry; Los Angeles, 3 months wet, 9 dry; San Diego, 1 month wet, 11 dry; Central Baja California, .5 month wet, 11.5 dry.
This gradient being the result of the seasonal preponderance of one of two major weather patterns: a large area of high pressure centered over the eastern Pacific, which deflects storms to the north and brings fair skies to the western coast; or the lack of this system and a regime of vigorous low pressure troughs originating either in the sub-tropics (mild wet southwesterly storms, e.g. the "Pineapple Express", ) or the Aleutians (cold wet storms.)
This interplay is occasionally punctuated in winter by easterly in-rushings of bitter cold air from the continental interior, and in summer by furnace blasts from the baking intermountain interior or California's Central Valley.
Well, I hope this finds you well. I must rush off now on various errands. I look forward to your next dispatch from the busy shores of Galflandria.
Thursday I was glancing idly through the club listings in the Mercury when my eye caught the name Chris Corbell, playing that night at Acme. My junior year in high school in Manitou Springs, Colorado I had a friend by that name, in particular we kept each other entertained through a year of slogging through Madamoiselle Kelting's French class. He moved to Nashville that summer (1984) and all I knew was that he was pursuing being a guitar player in Nashville. He was a good player. I remember the one time he visited back to Colorado in 1985, him knocking out some fancy Rush solos. (Don't deny it Chris!)
So I said what the heck, I better check out this show, see if its him. Lo and behold it was. I have not seen anyone I knew from high school in over 20 years. He's been in Portland about 6 years. He was playing with a keyboardist and bass player, intense sort of songs with fine guitar playing. http://www.myspace.com/corbell. His list of influences on his myspace sight is very close to what my list would be. I note also that we both have songs entitled "Medicine."
Anyway, it was fun to run into someone after 22 years. A bit of a mind-bender.
Indeed it was a very busy bikey weekend. Despite a fair amount of rain (and hail, and temps so chilly I'm almost surprised it didn't snow) it all went off beautifully. Filmed by Bike was a resounding success, selling out both shows. The Mystery Ride had about 60 people and ended up at a spot on my route home, which was nice. The bike move Saturday went perfectly, the rain letting up for just the right window of time and the winds blowing us north from SE Brooklyn St. to NW Kearney. And the bunny ride was perfection. Eli, Amy Stork and I, joined by Bethany once we got to the meeting point, entertained with assembled bunnies (120 or so) with several bunny cheers that i made up and that we invented the choreography to just before the ride. Timo and Wes played songs, including one that Wes made up for the occasion that manages to include every single animal/critter that Carye has created for her hand-made postcard series (the first of which was the inspiration for the event, Bunny On A Bike.) After the ride about 15 of us, still wearing our bunny-eared helmets and other attire, went to the fancy-schmancy Portland Grill on the 30th floor of the Portland Building.
This coming weekend has so much Bike Fun packed into it as to be almost a mini-Pedalpalooza in itself. Filmed By Bike is Friday night at the Clinton Street Theater (at which I will dress crazy and sell raffle tickets, plus I will appear in a couple of the film shorts.) Immediately following is the Midnight Mystery Ride, led this month by Shawn Granton. Then Saturday there's another Bike Move, Shawn's Eastside Theater History Bike Tour, and a Karaoke ride ending at the Kenton Club. However I am working that evening so will have to miss a thing or two. Then Sunday the Bunny on a Bike RIde, 3rd annual, at which I will help provide some entertainment in the form of a Bunny Cheer that several of us will do. The bummer is that it is supposed to rain for much of the weekend. So if it ends up being those of the True Faith out there, well, that's still a lot of people in this town.
I don't doubt that what Seymour Hersch has written in the latest New Yorker (that the Bush Admin. has specific plans to bomb, and possibly even nuke, Iran) is true. But it is really depressing. Even more so than the usual bad news. Well, if it comes to pass, that'll be REALLY bad news. This mad hubristic imperial warmongering has already irreparably tarnished the identity (not just the reputation but the actual identity) of the United States as a nation among nations. If we bomb Iran, well, listen... I predict the end result , resulting from general worldwide outrage and increasing tensions with the other, now hostile to the U.S., major powers (Russia, China, and heck, even the E.U.) will be a nuclear exchange of the sort we all grew up having nightmares about, resulting in the total annihilation of civilization.
Or can we impeach and depose the unhinged one before it is too late?
Today my good friends Bruce Orr and Carla Forte moved to their new house in St. Johns, and it was the "Puppet Powered" Bike Move. It was the longest bike move yet (at something like 8 miles) but the turnout was large, the weather was perfect (clouds and sun but no rain), the puppets were mostly well behaved, and it was a great fun time all around. It was probably the most photographed bike move yet, including reporters from both the Oregonian and the St. Johns Sentinel. I don't have any means at the moment of of posting photos, sorry. Go to www.bikeportland.org, I'm pretty sure Jonathan Maus will be posting photos of the move there.
Only 5 more days 'til Filmed By Bike! At the Clinton Street Theater next Friday 4/14 with showings at 7 and 9pm. I will be selling raffle tickets along with Joanna Dyer before the 9pm showing. Afterwards Shawn Granton is leading the Midnight Mystery Ride, which will have TWO meeting places (a first), the pubs on either side of the theater.
Well, I guess the previous entry was too plausible sounding to be a proper April Fool's spoof. Or maybe it succeeded perfectly. At any rate, numerous of my friends and family really did think that i had jetted off to Costa Rica at a moment's notice for a jungle-lodge conference on sidereal astrology. I'll take it as a compliment that such a thing seemed within the realm of normal as something i might do. A good April Fool's spoof however should clearly, at some point, enter the realm of recognizably ridiculous. At the moment that I wrote it I figured people would notice the date of the entry, and along with the opening line "how did I end up [today] in Costa Rica?" that would be enough of a tip-off. Anyway, I promise I will do no more fake travel entries EXCEPT possibly on April 1. And if such a thing as a spontaneous overseas trip *should* happen to happen on April 1, your sign that it is really real is that I will say "for really real. For really really real."
I sure do have an urge to travel overseas though. It has been many ages. I want to go to South America, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, all of it. Soon enough I shall.
Well, what a day. I got up thinking I'd mainly just practice my songs for the little house concert/potluck I'm participating in tomorrow at my friends' Pam and Jamie's house. Then go to work later. So how did I end up in Costa Rica at a seminar on sidereal astrology? It started with an unexpected phone call from my old friend Jules, who i havn't been in contact with much recently but knew was intensively studying astrology from her home in Seattle. Seems she was registered for this workshop, and at the last minute as she was printing out her e-ticket from the airline website, bells and lights went off (so to speak) and it told her she was eligible (due to having racked up a zillion frequent flyer miles) for a free quick-reedem companion fare to the same destination (in this case Costa Rica from SeaTac.) She knew I had a budding interest in astrology, particularly its relation to human symbol systems and cultural memetics, so on a whim she called me up and said "Dan, do you have a passport and what do you think of sitting in on a conference at an eco-tourist lodge in the Costa Rican jungle?" After lifting my jaw off the floor I said, heck yes, why not? I've got 2 weeks of sick days racked up at work. And tomorrow's show can go on without me. So here I am. The lodge is very "rustic", and if you are single they will often put you in a double room with a total stranger. Thus I am lodging with a wild eyed Australian who offers up a "crikey!" every time one of the 3 inch long roaches scurries across the bamboo floor.
Well, all for now, as I'm writing from the only public computer at the lodge. There's a cocktail get-together with the 65 other astrologers, then a full day of talks and seminars tomorrow.