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.