Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Quotation of the Day
"Take it easy on Goldschmidt -- he's done a lot for this city and the state." -- Jim Francesconi to Vicki Walker, last January, according to Walker.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Golly
A reader writes:
You know, your retirement or sabbatical reminds me of an episode of "Leave it to Beaver," where the Beaver lies to friends that he's moving. He gets all kinds of going-away presents, all of which he must sheepishly return later when it comes out that he isn't moving at all.
150K
Visit no. 150,000 took place here today around noontime. That's 46 days after no. 125,000 occurred. The traffic's slowed down just a bit lately, but it still amazes me that so many folks pass this way. Thanks for visiting.
Banned from the Portland zoo
Photo © 2004 by Jane Lightfoot. All rights reserved.
I had the great privilege of seeing Steve Earle and the Bluegrass Dukes up close at the Aladdin Theater in Portland last night. Singer-songwriter Earle was in fine voice, and he and his bluegrass chums ran through an excellent program for an enthusiastic, sellout crowd.
The show was done in the traditional style -- one mike, all five band members sharing it -- and the sounds were high, sweet, and lonesome. The songs were mostly all Earle's, with a couple of Gram Parsons-Chris Hillman numbers (including "Willin'") thrown in. The band -- Tim O'Brien on mandolin, Casey Driessen on fiddle, Dennis Crouch on bass, and Darrell Scott on banjo and dobro -- was extremely tight and smooth, sometimes running literally like clockwork, as the players weaved around the mike to "mix" the sound. O'Brien in particular is a master of the mandolin, and Scott coaxed some unfamiliar licks out of the banjo that didn't seem physically possible.
Earle, as many readers know, is a very political man these days. He performed a few of his more controversial numbers, which were very convincing when you're 15 feet away. He's got a highly political rock-band album coming out toward the end of August that will likely make a splash, and he's planning to spend a lot of time thereafter in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other battleground states stumping for Kerry. "This is the most important election of my lifetime," he said, and you could tell he meant it.
Earle proudly told the story of how he has been "banned from the Portland zoo." The last time he did a bluegrass show in town, up at that outdoor venue, he found out that the concert series was sponsored by a certain California-based bank. He proceeded to spend a good chunk of time on stage discussing with the audience how that particular bank specializes in bankrolling companies when they take over union shops and try to run the union out. Representatives of the bank were on hand to hear it all, and they threatened to pull the plug on the show right there. They reconsidered and let the Dukes finish, but Steve won't be invited back.
Good for him. As he said at one juncture last night, some people are criticizing artists these days for making political statements about what they see going on around them. "Hell, I thought that was our f*ckin' job," he said. Quoting from Pete Seeger, he reminded the audience that every song is political. "A lullaby is political -- to a baby."
Whatever you might think of his politics, Steve Earle is one of the very greatest artists working today. To hear his stories, told by the author himself in this compelling, uniquely American musical style, was balm for the soul. If he's coming to your town, run, don't walk, and get a ticket.
Monday, June 28, 2004
How to eliminate a hornet's nest
As demonstrated by a young Orkin guy earlier today:
1. Park truck 100 feet away from tree containing nest.
2. Spray nest with nasty poison.
3. Run back to truck.
4. Whack nest with long stick, knocking it to ground.
5. Run back to truck.
6. Smoke break.
7. Spray broken remnants of nest with more nasty poison.
8. Leave poisoned nest on ground for other hornets to return to.
9. Send videotape to Al Orkineera for broadcast to surviving hornet population.
The way we were
If you're like me, and you like old photos of Portland, head on over to this site and click around. A fellow by the name of Thomas Robinson has got some interesting images, like the one above, looking north along the Willamette River waterfront from well south of the Morrison Bridge.
I think the photo was meant to show that there was a flood, but check out what Naito Parkway (Front Avenue) looked like before it was ripped out for Tom McCall Park!
Questions
Now that it's become clear that the preferred way of executing Western hostages is beheading, is it news any more?
Does the Western media help the safety of Westerners in the Middle East by continuing to show images of blindfolded hostages and their captors?
If you were George Bush, why wouldn't you just bomb Al Jazeera off the air for good?
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Blogroll add
Looks like Raging Red's gotten way into the blogging thing. As they say on Letterman, I hope she's not neglecting her studies!
Anyway, she's off to a great start.
Keeping busy
Across the street from our house, hanging from a branch in the big tree that the neighbor kids love to climb, is the largest freestanding beehive I've ever seen. I've seen bees build their homes under eaves and along roofs, and of course I've seen the big boxes that professional beekeepers provide for them. But to see how it's done out in the wild is pretty impressive. The thing is straight out of "Winnie the Pooh," only real.
Here's a photo, which doesn't really do it justice. You'll forgive me for not getting closer. There's no way I wanted to disturb these little guys:
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Kerry is like Hitler
It's been years since the internet first taught me that when you play the Hitler card in a debate, you reveal that your position has little real merit. Once you make reference to the Holocaust in discussing your adversary, you're revealing that you want to shut down all rational discussion.
As in the Bush administration's new video, "Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party."
If we re-elect these people, we deserve whatever sh*t we get over the next four years.
Ain't it funny?
We have millions of dollars to run a new streetcar to the vacant apartments at the RiverPlace.
We have tens of millions for a new aerial tram from OHSU to a new development in "South Waterfront."
But the Sellwood Bridge? It's falling apart, and we haven't got a clue what we're going to do about it, or when. In the meantime, people who take mass transit can forget about crossing it for many years.
I propose that the county immediately sell the Sellwood Bridge to Homer Williams for $1. Then I'm sure we'd quickly find the tens of millions to fix it -- plus, build 10 stories of "luxury" lofts above.
Friday, June 25, 2004
Friends don't let friends vote for Nader
You want to protest? Chain yourself to a fence somewhere. Put a hood over your face and head over to Starbucks. Camp out in front of governmment buildings singing Joan Baez songs with Tre Arrow's close personal friends.
But kids, please, please, please don't do anything to support Ralph Nader's so-called campaign for the Presidency. Voting for him is political masturbation at best, and a vote for Bush at worst.
Don't think so? Come on. Look at this.
Thursday, June 24, 2004
New GOP slogan
Dick Cheney just tried it out on Pat Leahy. He told him the same thing W. has been telling the rest of the world for about three years now. (Via AboutItAll, Chuck Currie, etc., etc.)
Cher, Prince, the Who, and me
In the two days since I announced my retirement from blogging, I've received the nicest wishes from many quarters. A number of bloggers have even commented about my imminent departure on their own blogs.
Thank you all for these expressions of appreciation and support.
I've especially taken to heart the suggestion that I make the upcoming downtime a "hiatus" or "sabbatical," rather than a permanent termination of the blog. That's an idea worth considering.
So let me be as upfront as I can about this -- I don't want to be one of those performers who puts on six or eight "farewell tours" -- and say that I've revised my plan. On July 6, this blog will go dark -- no new posts -- for a month. During that time, we'll evaluate where we stand. In August, I will either bow out for good, or unveil some new guidelines designed to facilitate life's great juggling act while keeping blogging in the mix.
Apologies for the inconvenience. Thanks again for the kind words.
Tech fun
Cousin Jim selects a "ringer type" for his cell phone. I'd suggest that he download "Moon Dawg," but that whole process would probably make his hair hurt.
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Go, Ducks!
We've made the big time!
This place feels more like a cold, drizzly version of Alabama every day.
At least he moved in with her
After he serves his time, I'll bet he's thinking of getting into politics.
Not work safe
If you're reading this at work, don't click here. This image has been accused of creating a "hostile work environment" for female employees.
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Revised official statement
O.k., now that they're out-ing me, let me give you the straight skinny. The real reason I'm pulling the plug on this blog is not to spend more time with my family. It's not to get more paying work done, nor to start getting some sleep at night.
No, I'll shamefully admit that the real reason I'm stepping down is because, in the late 1970s, I had sex with a Republican. Multiple times.
It screwed up her life. She voted Democratic for a while, then started calling my office, screaming, "I went to a rally for Walter Mondale, you bastard! You owe me!"
She was a very progressive Republican, but I should have known better. And I've lived with the secret guilt and shame all these years.
Gagging on Gragg
What is the deal with this Randy Gragg guy, and what are he and his developer buddies doing to Portland?
A while back, I hurled some brickbats at Gragg, The Oregonian's "architecture critic." Or whatever he is. And his defenders came out from behind the woodwork to tell me how wrong I was. He's just doing his job writing about architecture, they told me.
Hey, look at this column. Is this about architecture? Or is this just some hip guy in a beret and a turtleneck playing the apologist for the ugliness that has become Portland development?
Well, now that Neil's gone for a while, I guess somebody has to do it.
Look at what's going up all over Portland right now, while the city sits mired in an economic slump. The taxpayers are effectively paying people to put up big, boxy, unimaginative, out-of-place, ugly cr*p. The accompanying sales job is that we need all these multi-story "luxury" apartment and condo towers so that we don't exceed the urban growth boundary. Boy, if that isn't a Goldschmidt speech -- and accordingly, a steaming load of shinola. You could build two or three stories high from here to the furthest ends of Hillsboro, Tualatin and Gresham, and have way more housing than Portland will ever need in the next century. You don't have to wreck the small-town feel of our city with this appalling collection of grotesque, New York-style six- and eight- and 10- and 15-story boxes.
In 20 years, people will look on those buildings the way we look at the Marquam Bridge and the eastside freeway now -- a gigantic mistake that somebody must have gotten rich off of. And wait 'til you see how rundown Portland's older apartment stock, in Northwest and Southeast, gets as the vacancy rates in those neighborhoods go up. We're overbuilding, folks, and when you do that, some places have to go vacant. And then the owners run them into the ground, wait and see.
Whatever the appropriate size is for a building, double it, or triple it in some cases, and that's what the developers are getting away with in Portland now. Look at what they're doing to Hawthorne. Look at what they're doing to Beaumont. Look at what they're doing on NE Weidler. Look what they're about to do next at the Uptown Shopping Center. Luxury apartment tower at MLK and Multnomah? Surely you jest. And in the classic residential neighborhoods, old single-family homes are being ripped out for 15-foot-wide "luxury" particle-board duplex townhouses.
Packing it in
July 6 will be the second anniversary of this blog.
It will also be the last day of this blog, at least for a good long while.
The reasons for pulling the plug are as complex as the reasons for starting were. Over the past two years, the role of this hobby in my life, and my relationship to the people who read these pages, have changed. With a few hundred people a day coming here now, there's an essential rhythm that should be kept up. And though the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak.
There are other aspects of life that need my attention right now. For example, I've converted to Judaism and changed my name to Esther. Oy! But seriously, there are only so many hours in the day, and some other very important things that I need to work on.
I think I've accomplished much of what I set out to do with this site. Granted, some blog-related dreams and ambitions haven't panned out, at least not at this writing. I don't see myself getting that nice-paying summertime talk radio gig I fantasized about out of this, nor are the literary agents calling to clamor for the hard-copy, book-length version. But I've met a lot of nice folks, I've learned a lot, and occasionally I've struck a chord with some of you.
Maybe I'll continue in some other format at some point. I'd like to do a book about something other than tax law someday. But the days are numbered for a daily-post, sidebar-of-links, multiple-topic weblog.
This is going to be a hard habit to break -- there's a power in it that's very seductive -- but I have to.
In the two weeks we've got left, let's have some fun. Go out in style, like Johnny Carson did. And if I think of anything more profound to say about the ending of this project, you know I'll post it.
UPDATE, 6/24, 9:12 a.m.: I've downgraded my retirement plan to a sabbatical, at least for now.
Attention: Northeast Portland neighbors
Are you the proud owner of a new-looking green or yellow Volkswagen Beetle, Oregon license number 329-BCR (or maybe it's 329-8CR)? Or a different model dark Volkswagen vehicle, license number YAA-642?
Did you know that at hours like 12:45 a.m., groups of teenage boys regularly park those cars at the corner of NE 23rd Avenue and Klickitat Street in Portland, sit inside them, drink (and who knows what else), and then drive off, often leaving their empty bottles behind?
Does your auto insurance carrier know?
This has been a public service of Jack Bog's Blog.
