Second Free Night in Portland, Oregon: Catching My Breath

Pretty much what's been going on the last couple days; extremely chill, enjoying the big, weird, wonderful city that is Portland. Seeing old, and some very old, friends (does 11 years make them very old friends? All relative, all contextual I suppose). It's been fairly rainy and cloudy, not a surprise, it being early April in the Pacific Northwest. I have had good and bad luck with weather in this city, that is for sure. Nonetheless good. Eating amazing food, a long (4 1/2 mile) stroll uphill to some mansion whose name I forget, and am not that concerned about remembering; the important fact being, it sits atop one of the highest hills in Portland, and meant I got to do a lot of walking uphill. The last mile or so was through rainforest; fantastic. After I'd emerged into the fairly swanky neighborhood through which I'd walked to get to the top, initially, I came upon a corner around which loud classical music was being played. Upon rounding the corner, there stood an old guy with a highball in his hand, enjoying the cloudy, but not rainy, evening (it was pushing 6:45 by this time), who informed me that the music sounded better from a distance. Strauss, it was. He, a tax lawyer in Portland, named Leo, had worked in town for over 50 years; just chilling in front of his house, smoking a cigarette, and listening to music.

Down the hill in time to pick up my friend Emmy, to go see a one-act play at my friend Annie's coffee shop. The play proved to be pretty bad (the synopsis will be omitted to protect the innocent), but mercifully short, after which, Emmy and I were able to exit pretty gracefully, whereupon I realized I was hungry; on to a former elementary school, turned multiple restaurant/bar, movie theater, hot-tub, gymnasium, hotel, with crazy interesting art all over the walls, everywhere you went. No joke; Portland does is like no place else. A giant chiminea in the courtyard, completely monopolized by a semi-circle of yuppies, talking too loud about nothing at all. We ate fish & chips, which was delicious, and worth every penny of the $14 it cost. Gotta live it up while you can.

The show at the Gotham the night before went extremely well; Annie sounded great, as always, and John (aka Right On John) played a couple of tunes - which ended up netting him a gig there, as well. Go Annie; way to motivate and facilitate. I did well looping this time, seemed to successfully get the timing down on just about everything. Played as well on the flute as i ever have; and used the loop pedal pretty successfully in terms of making several loops for the various parts, and playing over them as well. Rather cool. The people who ran the place, Barry (owner/chef) and Julie were both highly complimentary, and made it quite clear I could play again next time I came to town. Sold several CDs, always nice.

The drive up was fairly gruelling; just shy of 6 hours, cruising at 80 the whole way. But it meant I arrived in time to make a cup of coffee, and chat with Wendy for a bit - a friend from ten years ago in Flagstaff, who had turned up at my gig in Portland a year ago, and who has since hosted me when I've been in town. Coincidentally and conveniently, the extra room in her house has been roomate-less the last couple times I've been there.

The previous night's gig in Mt Shasta was a success, from the standpoint of playing well, and doing my job. The owners of the Wayside Grill were enthusiastic as well, and made it clear they'd be happy to have me back. Terry and Denise, both really nice people; he or they (can't recall if she was part of the music work as well) had had several songs in TV shows and advertisements, I believe; in any case, he gave me a CD to check out, rather cool of him. The walls next to the little corner stage were full of signed pictures of celebrities; tons of them, rather amazing really. They had originally double-booked the gig, and Terry had first said he'd just mail me a check & just not have me play; I talked him out of that, saying i'd feel badly if he did that, and then eventually it fell out that I'd play from 7 to 8:30 for the same fee, while the other guy would take over then & play the rest of the night. Worked out well for all concerned, really, as I got to finish earlier than anticipated, and head out for Portland much better rested.

There was tons of snow on the ground when I arrived in Shasta; a pretty cool contrast, given that in Chico it had been 80 degrees and sunny, awesome after all the rain in San Francisco.

Too much ground to recover now; in brief: Chico = sunny, beautiful, a walk around town, a visit to the yo-yo museum (who knew?), some cycling, a fun show at a volunteer-run art gallery/venue, and a surprisingly large crowd for such a circumstance. Looping didn't go well; timing off on everything, which makes the loop sound like ass.

And so, more or less caught up. Well, to the point when i started writing this post; now I will write another, to include my time in Bend, Oregon. Or perhaps I'll wait til Boise.

Long Away from the Blogosphere; and Rightly So

It's important to remind ourselves that we need not be enslaved by the technology which we would have purports to serve us. One manifestation of this idea: I have not blogged since October 9th of last year, and I am really pretty content with that.

So: five and 1/2 months later. Book shows, book shows, Nicaragua, book book book book hike quit mia's open mic book book book tour.

Tonight I played as part of the family folk explosion; this is an event that takes place on Sundays at the Revolution Cafe in the Mission district, San Francisco. I dragged Amy Bathen down (who is my host at the moment), and got her in to play a couple songs, and to meet the folks who were playing. She got phone numbers, and will be putting on house shows with them at some future date. Lin (a dude), Aaron (piano) and me, jamming together. Taking turns leading songs, I played a lot of flute, actually. Sang about five or six tunes, mostly fairly accessible to the regular listener; I guess it would have been six of them: Let Those Axes Fall, You Tell Me, Inside Out, Little Numbers, Cruel Water, Somebody Else's Problems. (I like the idea of listing set lists here, maybe that'll happen again.) The bartender was Joe, the guy who used to run Bluesix, an illegal, underground venue that I played at last time I played in the Bay area, and which had subsequently been shut down (in June after I was there, which was in April) was tending bar, and recognized me; he had grown a grizzly Adamsian beard, hair longer, demeanor rather more grim. He was like, "from Arizona, right?" I later told him I thought that meant I owed him something, which proved to be a pretty funny joke from his perspective; humor as a way to analyze people, what kinds of things do they find funny being a window into the soul as clear and as unblemished as any could be. Lin, the guy running the night (which is to say, he hauled the gear down there to make it happen) was rather high, and kind of out of it, but very cool. Played great songs, to which I played flute, mostly. That was pretty fuckin fun. I've been playing guitar more like a horn lately, as well; holding notes longer, playing simple melody lines, repeated, for emphasis and tastefulness. Great fun. A fun night, songs pretty well-received; some random people showed up to play a song or two at the end of the night, it seems to be becoming a thing for people to do and a place for people to meet. Great energy, some real music lovers there.

Shows, shows shows. Well, no shows for the next three nights, which I am rather looking forward to. Doing the tour this direction sucks! Having to play my first show the day after driving 560 miles, and finishing that at two in the morning. NO bueno. That gig proved to be pretty interesting, in many ways; not many people there, but some, and a good handful who were really into it. Family-owned; guy who hired me cooking, guy behind the bar his nephew, who used to sell cars to people. Said every person has their own thing that they're into, their own hotbutton issues about cars, that will make them buy. Ah, the transparent manipulation of the commercially successful. But I do the same, in some respects, in trying to find places that will hire me - emphasizing one aspect or another of the way I go about things, to present the most appropriate aspect for the venue at hand. Why what I do is right for you. But honestly; the guy who booked me at Tresetti's, sending me an email a week before the gig, ready to not hire me because he was concerned that I wouldn't "keep the party goin", making a comment about playing Sublime and that bullshit. Man, am I glad i didn't kowtow to that; I just told him I played a wide variety of songs; and have had few complaints; and also pointed out that I would not be able to book another gig at this late date. Guy answered, "fair enough; the 25th it is". I also mentioned that he could find the conversation in which he had booked me in the exchange of emails dated January 8th and 9th, or whatever it was. Nice to have an e-paper trail. At the end of the day, he was really stoked about what I had done there, and said what I did was perfect for his place; this involved me playing a ton of my own songs, and using a loop pedal (which was happening for the first time this tour; looping guitar, playing flute, is a great attention getting thing to do. Fun for me as well, though I still do a fair amount of soloing sans loop, just me and the guitar, which is different enough from soloing over a rhythm guitar track to really catch people's ear. Maybe I should do that in the opposite order; have to think on that one.

Sandwiched between Visalia and Modesto: Fresno, one of the more abysmal gigs I've played. Rain, rain rain; empty place. Misadvertised! As the Matt Millar [sic] Band. What???? Shorted; claimed she thought, in fact, that I was a band, although every flyer I've ever sent her said "Matt Miller Baritone Guitarist Songwriter Flagstaff AZ" on them. Nothing to be done, but to appeal to her sense of honor (translation: guilt guilt guilt!), and let it go.

House show at Amy's place was great; had a rather good time. A buncha good people, all pretty into the music, nice vibe. Gave one CD to someone who said he'd bring a donation by the house on Monday, we shall see, but who cares. Told stories, played songs, got some pretty good laughs out of the situation. A rather amusing moment when all the dudes in the room were conversing fairly loudly, and all the ladies present were silent and attentive. Ah, the male of the species - so transparent at times. Have we really no subtlety?

Today slept rather late; expect I will again tonight. Perhaps another blog will ensue; perhaps not. Who the fuck knows?

ciao tutti,

Matt