NW: Notes

Part 3 of 4

Aug. 10-12: Portland, OR

Eli greeted us at the airport in his biodiesel fueled car. The two days we spent at Eli's cozy home in Portland encouraged me to reevaluate a few things about my life. I must first preface this by explaining that it was at Eli's house in the summer of 2002 that I first encountered the term DIY. The fact that "do it yourself" was a widely and actively practiced ethos stunned me. I had tossed about words like "free-thinking" and "independent" all my life but I had never thought in terms of action and practice. I realized that simply imagining myself as a major agent of my daily life didn't make me one. I can't say that I've made radical improvements: I still purchase most of what I own. Anyhow, at Eli's I decided to give organic cleaning agents a try and to join a food coop.

We also had a great conversation on apocalyptic novels. On the Beach, The Stand, and He, She, and It were some of the titles that came up. Listening to Eli describe Marge Piercy novels I was struck with that warm feeling that you get when someone surprises you.

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Notes: NW

Part 2 of 4

Aug. 7-8: Paradise, CA

David arrives in the evening after a week in San Francisco. Just an hour before he arrives I detect a gas leak in my father's house. The gas technician confirms the presence of a massive leak that "under the right conditions" could have blown us into smithereens. We rest easy that night after a yummy vegan curry meal.

The next day David and I explore a bit of Paradise in a huge Jeep. We find the bike trail near Willow Rd. and attempt a "run-walk" despite the heat and the absence of shade. Two hours later we enjoy some tacos at El Mariachi, a mobile food stand. We follow our meal with tea and coffee at a local café, and David teaches me how to play chess. Large paintings of sunflowers cover the walls. I contemplate yet again my brilliant idea of amassing "coffee shop" art which I predict will sell in fifty years for millions of dollars. I don't share this idea with David until we get to Portland. It quickly becomes controversial. I had just read an article in the Paradise Post about artists commissioned by the Corcoran Museum of Art to create chalk reproductions of famous paintings on sidewalks. I liked the following quote:

If a sidewalk drawing can be a masterpiece, then maybe anything—an expense report, a grocery list, a doodle—can be one, too. In that case, everyday life provides countless opportunities for individual greatness. Walk the dog like Baryshnikov. Or mow the lawn like Frederick Law Olmstead. (Rebecca Dana, "High Art Gets Down")

I often feel that artists who exhibit in coffee shop spaces consign their work to ephemerality. The café exhibit is by nature transitory, concise and often anonymous, in part because the relationship between the observer and the work of art competes unsuccessfully with the conversation between an individual and their latte. I tend to pay close attention to café art and have a collection of business cards and fliers from the various exhibits I have "attended." These works fill me with melancholy. Don't laugh, read Benjamin.

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Notes: NW

Part 1 of 3

Between July 31 and August 17 I traveled through Northern California, Oregon and Washington State.

I left my journal at home and used its absence as an opportunity to employ alternate methods of narrative construction. In addition to scribbling notes on napkins, I amassed an eclectic confection of fliers, business cards, receipts, travel stubs, etc. and from these rewrote a version of my experiences. I also relied on memory. I advance no theory of travel or sweeping generalizations on the Northwest but, in the spirit of travel writing, I occasionally I find myself slipping into a cozy tangent. To paraphrase Benjamin Disraeli, in writing this post I remembered more than I had seen.

To those who find reading this post tedious, I recommend the following keyword search: vanity, gas leak, sidewalk, shack, tofu, green gables, twin peaks and anal.

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Two Headlines

1. Novel Designed for Text Messaging Service (via AP)

2. Engineer Crunches Literary Data to Seek Truth about Fiction (via Princeton Weekly Bulletin)