Monday, April 27, 2009

"Bad" Playlist

I did a little experiment. I woke up in a bad mood, and I figured, every bad mood deserves a playlist. I typed in "bad" into my iTunes, and this is the playlist that came up. Pretty diverse. Not all bad-mood songs, actually. Appropriately enough, it equaled 13 total songs.

"Good" playlist to come soon

1. The World At Large -- 4:32 -- Modest Mouse -- Good News For People Who Love Bad News -- Rock
2. When It Hurts So Bad -- 5:42 -- Lauryn Hill -- The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill -- R&B
3. The View -- 4:10 -- Modest Mouse -- Good News For People Who Love Bad News -- Rock
4. Mediocre Bad Guys -- 3:02 -- Jack Johnson -- On & On -- Rock
5. Johnny Too Bad -- 3:17 -- Taj Mahal -- The Best Of Taj Mahal -- Blues
6. Good Foot on a Bad Door Step -- 2:25 -- Pela -- Anytown Graffiti
7. Going Down The Road Feeling Bad -- 3:01 -- Woody Guthrie -- This Land Is Your Land: The Asch Recordings Vol. 1 -- Folk
8. Feels Like Rain -- 4:36 -- Buddy Guy -- Buddy's Baddest: The Best of Buddy Guy -- Blues
9. Bad News -- 3:59 -- Kanye West -- 808s & Heartbreak -- R&B
10. Bad Dreams -- 4:17 -- M. Ward -- End Of Amnesia -- Alternative & Punk
11. A Bad Dream  -- 5:07 -- Keane -- Under The Iron Sea -- Alternative & Punk
12. Bad Bad Whiskey -- 4:15 -- Buddy Guy & Junior Wells -- Buddy Guy & Junior Wells Plays the Blues -- Blues
13. Another Spring -- 3:34 -- Nina Simone -- Essential Nina Simone Vol.2 -- Jazz

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Monday, April 20, 2009

Trouble on the tracks

max is stopped so all street cars stopped. Traffic backed up.

The economy

You can tell the economy is in the tanks when people use hot air balloons as resumes. 'marketing job wanted' it says

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Oh, Hot Damn

Oh hot damn, you try and tell me there's a city better than Portland in this kind of weather.

The sun is out and people are juiced.

Here in the wet, dark, and largely forgotten (at least during the rainy months) pocket of the west coast rests a city of splendors. I call it Portlandia: Land of Enchantment, Merriment, Enhancement and Amusement. (P-Town for short). When the sun finally breaks on our forgotten city streets, far be it from anyone, whether it be a homeless man begging for change, or a loaded dandy out for a new pair of Seven Jeans, to have a grim face.

Case in point one: My friend and I were out playing chess during this fine weekend and a man came and asked if he could play winner. 

"Surely," we boomed, "come, partake in our game of cunning." 

He sat down (quite a good player) and proceeded to twitch and tic. Periodically any one of three cracked-out women would come up and whisper something in his ear, their hands playfully fluttering on the crotch of his jeans.

"Come on," one pleaded, "just let me get at your cell phone for a second."

"You should have seen me this morning, girl," another said with no regard for the current course of the conversation pointing at the locating of said cell phone, "I had some TROUBLE at the doctor's today. I was like, uh-uh, you ain't gonna do me like that, so I got LOADED before I went in there, man, cause I'm not dealing with that."

He played throughout the game with a stoic silence to his face. I thought, maybe this is the fellow who has turned the dark shoulder to sunshine, but then, just as all might have been lost, he moved one bishop with brutal finality and dismantled a possible fork situation. A slow smile eased onto his face and his girls caught on.

"I got you on that one," he said, stocking cap askew.

The girls laughed long and hard for the joy of it, for the freedom of knowing the next moment would be happy.

And the sun shone on.

Case in point two: As I left my friend's apartment this morning the sidewalk was blocked. Hm, I thought, This is very weird. And I walked on. Not a block away I found another path to be blocked. Then another, and another, until I finally realized what it was -- the SUN.

You see, those blockages were people. Us Portlanders get so little sun during the week that when we finally feel it unthawing our frozen hipster cool, we collapse to the ground (in the sidewalk, the Laughing Planet parking lot, a street corner) in a warm puddle of humanity, and say silent prayers to keep the clouds away for just one more day.

Please oh please, I'll give up coffee and flannel and even my too-cool-for-school-regarding-indie-music-attitude for a week for more sun. I'll gladly pay tomorrow for the sun I have today.

So maybe places like Florida and Southern California have this bright, warm sensation all year round, and so what if we all turn into Zombies halfway through October when we know the no-end grey winter is on its way -- when the sun finally comes, it really shines through, and oh hot damn, I can't think of a better place to feel its rays.

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Batman?

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Showing the gorge to ally and steve. Beautiful day!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

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Places everyone!

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Car commercial filming in the pearl. Poz, you see this?

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Maxing it.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Lost in Suburbia

So moving back in the Rents has been interesting so far. First off, all houses in this neighborhood look exactly the same! I feel as though I am in a low-budget video game where the background is on a loop.
Two days ago I walked back from the Max station around 11 pm and couldn't find the place. I went in circles for close to an hour, passing by the same set of stone benches at least four times, cursing louder on each go-around.
So frustrating.
Then I finally got home and parked outside the place was an Oldsmobile Cutlass. As I walked by, I looked into the windows and saw an elderly couple just sitting there, staring straight ahead. It was midnight by this point, and it was odd.
I went up into the condo and peeped on the couple from a window a la Alfred Hitchcock and didn't see any move from either of them for a good twenty minutes until finally, without warning, the lady got out of the car and stormed off.
Then last night I was coming home at 1:20 am but the MAX stopped about four stations before my stop.
"This is all she wrote," the worker in his green vest said.
Luckily I had my bike, but still, I was lost. I meandered along side streets, trying to keep the MAX tracks in sight the entire time until finally, at 3:05 am I got home.
The commute is killing me.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April Fools

Happy April fools. Check out Gmail's contribution to the joke with Email Autopilot!