Burning Man, seesaws, blueberry martinis

Saturday in the Nevada desert at 10pm the wooden effigy symbolizing the community-powered event called "Burning Man" was ignited and consumed by flames (for the second time that week). The same Saturday, many miles west of Nevada, in the sleepy college town of Palo Alto, an event also took place in the same spirit.

That event was in all respects a private party, at a private residence, where we drank beer, snacks, and drinks purchased from capitalistic grocery outlets. So I suppose, on the surface, the party lacked a lot of what the real Burning Man is about. However, at the same time there existed promising and convincing signs: there were people dressed in strange fur and horns, there was a geodesic dome tent swathered in many yards of hot pink fabric, and don't forget the hookah. Anyone with even the slightest amount of imagination could fathom its relation to the desert party some 279 miles east of us.

A highlight for the Palo Alto partygoers was the adult-scaled teeter totter (or see-saw) in the backyard. I've never seen such a large and dangerous looking teeter totter before. A couple people challenged each other to a knock off and it was very amusing to watch and participate.

Delicious drinks fabricated using Trader Joe's Blueberry juice rounded out the evening that had included some light, recreational drug use. I was very pleased, although the martinis would have been even more out of this world with a fresh mint and blueberry garnish.

The evening did not end with our burning down of any kind of human shaped wooden doll. Earlier in the evening, someone entertained the idea of fashioning a miniature one out of loose popsicle sticks, but that idea barely made it past the shelter of our geodesic dome.

Sundaze

Am listening:

St. Vincent, Marry Me


Okkervil River, The Stage Names

Will be listening:

Animal Collective, Strawberry Jam

Shows to goes:

1. Animal Collective, Sept 17, Fillmore
2. Treasure Island Music Festival, Treasure Island, Sept 15 & 16 (go Sunday)
3. The Clientele, with Peter Bjorn and John, Sept 18, Warfield



Random photoscapes: Angel Island, Quercus agrifolia grove.

Friday night office work

It's Friday night. The Bay Bridge is closed and there is no school this Monday. There is a big football game tomorrow. All signals point to going out, enjoying oneself, and taking it easy. My roommates took off to go camping tonight. Everyone is feeling the vibe.

Everyone 'cept me, that is.

Tonight I spent one hour running. I came home and spent another 2-3 hours filing all my paperwork that has accumulated in piles since late May. But it's DONE. All that crap is filed (well, my receipts aren't filed, but they are organized in a folder). I consider it an evening well spent. After all, before I did all this all that junk occupied a very large spot on my bed. Night after night, I would sleep next to flyaway papers and invoices, bill stubs, carbon copy receipts, and bank statements. But now the bed is clear. Sleep time no longer must be confined to an area 5 feet long by 30 inches wide. I could even have a sleepover. It's rather amazing.

Tomorrow there are many things to do. Seeing that there is a football game, I may want to avoid campus. Let's see what can be done.

I've been enjoying the radio coverage of the Larry Craig fiasco. What a douchebag.

Public service

Today I must report at 8:30 am to the Rene Davidson Courthouse in Oakland, CA. Lord, I just performed jury service last August.

In other news, a DCRP alum, TC, recently made the news in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

List of to-dos

This week many amazing things were accomplished. This week is a record breaking one in terms of the rubber hitting the road:

Car-related:
1. Car emissions tested. Car passed with flying colors.
2. Car registration renewed.
3. Berkeley annual parking pass procured.
4. New bumper sticker affixed.

Activity-related:
1. Ascended the summit of Mt. Livermore (that's on Angel Island)(Sat)

2. Walked-ran Strawberry Canyon Fire Trail (Fri)
3. Climbed Claremont Canyon Hill. (Wed)

Residence-related:
1. Carpets steam cleaned in dining, hallway, living room and my room.
2. Fridge and freezer cleaned and disinfected.
3. Shower curtain replaced.
4. Diseased and gross geraniums disposed of and replaced with California natives that require little water (update: only one of these new plants is dying since being repotted). My balcony will hopefully be an urban jungle by next summer.
5. New pictures hung in the apartment.

Financial-things:
1. Called student loan hotline to confirm a few things....and got the help I needed.
2. Paid part of my fees.

Other:
1. Cute next-door dog, Lilly:

Adieu. Farewell.

I will miss Portland. The last couple months living here have been awesome. Most of all I will miss my sister. We had family portraits taken yesterday.

Thirty

Gasworks Park by Richard Haig


Pipes are fun.


I sneaked in the fenced area to get this one...


Seattle skyline


Golden Retrievers at Marymoor Park

Best years to come

I am turning 30 tomorrow. Aye! What has the world come to? How did I start grad school at 26 (the young, vibrant mid-twenties) reach 30, and still find myself in essentially the same place as I was in 2004? It is really a mystery. (Drugs were not involved)

Last year I thought I would be celebrating this milestone in Spain. Lack of planning and buy-in from the potential financier of this journey (Mom) resulted in a downsizing of those plans. In early June we had thought Vancouver, BC would be a nice destination, and a decent compromise: still out of the US, supposed to be beautiful, etc. Again, lack of early planning made even those dreams fizzle by early July. Since then we have decided to still venture north, but our final destination is now Seattle, just a 3 hour drive from Stumptown.

These plans seemed solid and unbreakable (good hotel, good dinner reservation, good weather forecast, general excitement within the travel group) until Wednesday when I read in the paper that we are to expect many delays up the I-5 freeway. Apparently WDOT decided to close half of the lanes going through Seattle on my birthday weekend. Go figure.

We have a strategy though...forgo I-5 and head west to Bainbridge Island 50 miles south of Seattle. We will take the sunset ferry from the island to Seattle's Pier 52, thereby going around the bottleneck and delivering us only 4 blocks from our hotel accomodations. Yes, water travel can still trump car travel in times of construction.

So far, turning 30 has involved deflated expectations and logistical strategizing. And I am not even running for office. However, I remain positive. These are, afterall, supposed to be your most remarkable and productive years.

Update: The Fox is getting new spark plugs this weekend and perhaps a replacement to the fuse that lights up the AC and heat controls inside the car.

Fun with the Chipper

Have you ever come home to the ear-wrenching buzz of a wood chipper? My brother rented one last night. I couldn't help but think about that scene in Fargo.

Multnomah Falls, Oregon landmark




Hood River, Oregon. John Kerry came to windsurf here on the Columbia River during the '04 campaign.

Coolest thing all summer

This morning in the park around 6:00am near my home I witnessed a physical battle between these two animals:


Common urban crow. See also, nuisance.


Some exotic falcon or hawk, species unknown.

When I arrived in the park after a run around the neighborhood, I noticed a particularly rowdy mob of crows. Usually, after the weekend picnics and barbecues that happen here, the crows are really obnoxious, jumping around each other, tearing garbage out of the bins, and basically making me want to kill them. This morning they were especially annoying. There must have been twenty of them fighting over a McDonald's 1/4 Pounder with Cheese wrapper. I found an old tennis ball under a tree and decided the moment was ripe for crow harassment. I kicked it at them and then proceeded to charge the moxley bunch, running full speed through them. They got all in an uproar and swooped around, screaming and flapping around like idiots. I continued to chase them around and picked up the trash they'd dragged out into 38th Street (a Dairy Queen bag with fries in it). At that point, I decided I'd had enough of them and started walking back through the park toward my house.

I noticed a non-crow bird in the park on the way past the play equipment. I stopped and decided to watch it for a minute. Non-crows are very unusual in Wilshire Park. Crows here seem to have taken over habitat of all native birds - no warblers, finches, or sparrows. You MIGHT see a robin once in a while but it is rare. In fact, you rarely see anything flying around this area of town that isn't a crow. It's really sad. So when I realized that this non-crow was actually a hawk, I was mesmerized. I looked at it for a while and was wondering what the hawk thought about all these bastard crows. It saw me, but it's attention was elsewhere. I assumed it was eyeing the 3-4 fat little squirrels running around nearby. But I was wrong.

Just like me, that hawk had its heart set on a little crow harassment! It let out one of those cool piercing hawk calls, and then swooped down and attacked a passing crow in mid-air. The crows went crazy. They didn't go after the hawk though, they just went back to their garbage.



I was so proud of the hawk. Maybe it saw me bothering them and got inspired, I don't know. For the next 5 minutes I watched that hawk dive-bomb those crows with a snarling vengeance. It was pissed. It kept letting out these great hawk calls everytime it attacked.

I left the park feeling upbeat but a little worried about the hawk, given that it was outnumbered easily 1:50 out there.

I am not sure exactly what kind of hawk it was, but it kind of looked like something called a Cooper's Hawk.

Sold

I usually sell about one item per year on Ebay. This year it was my sister's Blackberry 8703e device. That thing was snatched up in no less than one hour into the auction. I wonder if I priced it too low? Anyway, $175 has been transferred into my Paypal account and all I gots to do is wrap up the sucker and mail it off. The guy who bought it is named Hussein and he lives in Philadelphia. The ad cost me less than $4 to post, but I had a credit with Ebay.

Today is an exceptionally beautiful Friday. It is about 85F and sunny outside. By 6pm, temperatures will have dropped to a comfortable 77F. My sister and I are planning to bar hop on bikes. I am supposed to meet her at Thatch. From there we go to Vendetta. I am still brainstorming for the final destination.

Death on Grove Street

A woman died in some terrible shooting only about 2-3 blocks from my house in Berkeley. Here's the coverage in the Chronicle. I haven't ever had a tangle with danger although the area has its share of corner liquor stores and questionable street activity. During the busy part of the year, I walk home from campus at 2-3am more often than I should allow myself.

Berry laden

My sister offered to give me her old blackberry (she bought it 7 mo. ago) in exchange for the phone I currently have (standard issue Verizon phone). Seems like a good deal on my end, but I am concerned about the monthly carriage fee. I will have to talk to the Verizon people (ech).

Currently I fork over about $50 including tax for my basic program. I would do the Blackberry if it cost no more than $20 more a month. Something tells me it would be more...

Doings

Bought:
Peter Bjorn and John, Writer's Block
Spoon, Gagagagaga

Consumed:
Everett Street Bistro

Died:
Tammy Faye Messner

Viewed:
Once

Drum roll

Make a mistake, pay the price.

Ray messes up again this week...

This past weekend I was in San Francisco. What a nice break to take. Although my time in Portland so far has been awful swell, I kind of missed some friends and the familiar territory of the Bay Area. I spent most of my time in San Francisco. Saturday a series of missteps caused Jason and I to miss out on tickets to the Spoon show at Cafe du Nord (no hard feelings, Woody). However, we did hear the band warming up downstairs from the street around 6pm, so I figure that's fair.

Later, fresh from our bad luck, we met up with another comrade, Mr. Lee, who drank many bourbons in our company. I am always hot on recruiting new bourbon swilling buddies! Something about that Kentucky limestone produces a great beverage. And then some.



Sunday I continued damage control measures on the apartment and managed to make it back into the city around 6pm. I met Christina in Dolores Park with some tall boys and we proceeded to enjoy the urban scenery. After the beers were expired, we headed to Range where a very delicious meal was enjoyed.

I took the 6:30am flight out of Oakland, back in my work seat in Vancouver, WA by 8:51am.

American Wedding

Have you ever been to American wedding?
Where is the vodka, where's marinated herring?
Where is the supply that gonna last three days?
Where is the musicians that got the taste?

-Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks

Skate or die

This video was found today by our staff on YouTube. The skate park is a project in construction that the Vancouver Clark Parks and Recreation Dept. is building in east Vancouver. The place is closed because construction is still going on, but skateboarders have been sneaking into the place for the last few weeks after the crews leave.

As you will see, this skate park is going to be extremely popular. The subcontractor, Grindline, is a crew of experienced skaters who now design and build these skateparks in the Pacific Northwest. This skate park cost a pretty penny.

I return

I return to the Bay Area this weekend for some much-deserved socializing and escape from the blistering weather of the Pacific NW. It's been in the 100s here. It reached 104 in Vancouver, WA, where I work, although I didn't notice it too much because I spent all day inside a refrigerator-esque office most of the day.

Later, I ventured up to Brush Prairie, WA to help with a public meeting to discuss with the community a regional trail project we are planning to build through a ton of people's backyards. It went surprisingly well, given that it's a property issue and it was the first time many people had heard it was going to happen.

Today, we hold the same meeting in the rural hamlet of Yacolt, WA. I am prepared to run into many cowboys, truck drivers, and other folks who have been deprived of an urban upbringing.

As for this weekend, it is fully booked. I simply hope no one cancels on me. That would mean spending time wandering around by myself, and I do that too much here in Portland as it is.