ONE YEAR OLD: Though one year is the paper anniversary to some - here in our collective, paperless blogosphere we have all but spared even the soy ink to bring you a wishing well of endless tedium and other treats. This particular (un)blog, as you can see, now has a two headed mascot (better than one?). Is it because this is the official one year anniversary of this personal blog of culture (and blah-blah-blah)? Well, yeah. And is it because there is something special coming soon to the blog world near you. Yeah, yeah. Is it also because I like to futz with things ’til the cows come home? Make that a triple. More soon on this.

FAQ: Why change the name to ‘unblogged’?

Simon Says: Why not? Though probably just another ‘ism’ it’s a misfit cross between the essence of being “unplugged” and the sensation your pipes get when you fill em up with Drain-O.

In the meantime, I just received a package from Bremen. My friends Glit[s]ch & Baraka[h] (otherwise known as Troum) sent me a kit of new sounds they are stirring. If you are unfamiliar, but love drone as much as I do, please don’t hesitate to bring one of theirs home. You could probably find something by them (or their former selves as Maeror Tri) at your local specialty music shop (though they are few and far these days). A few years ago I shot a varied series of composite images in industrial Portland. And though I have created artwork for a handful of commercially available CD projects, these gents are using one of my diptychs for an upcoming vinyl release as the entire inner sleeve fold-out! Since I’m often much more involved in the community of experimental music than anything else, this feels like a real homecoming achievement to me. More info will be forthcoming.

This was also ‘old home week’ as the moon must be drawing from the past. In less than three days I heard from or saw four old friends who I haven’t connected with for up to 2.5 years! Having a birthday gets you on people’s radar somehow magically. Kent and his partner brought me a pbn’j sandwich one day while I was working, Antonio and I went up to 82nd and ventured for Malaysian food in the new Chinatown - the tamarind fish was delicious. My buddy Todd from Happy Valley called me out of the blue from his farm and wants to get together to catch up. And today I saw my former squeeze Stan who pretty much costumed me for my appearence as MC Miss Ann Thrope at the Halloween Pageant (and Zydefunk Night) at Mississippi Pizza! You heard that right, and if you want to see me make an absolute fool of myself I welcome you to join in the festivities. There will be prizes for the best costume. The theme is “Disney Spin-off Characters We’d Like To See” (I would take that as liberally as you wish). I could use a pair of mouse ears for my costume - though it already has about sixteen parts - so maybe I shouldn’t push it. Anyway - Stan is dear and his garden and yard, which he built by hand is packed with herbs and a huge arbor, a sunken patio in stone and a hot tub. He gets plenty of sun, and much growth. The lemon verbana was out and pungent!

Oh, and this weekend, jeeeshers, I spent most of Saturday working with my studio colleagues John Brodie, MK Guth, Sean Healy, Stephen Hayes, Blair Saxton-Hill, Angelle and Phil as well as Philip Iosca who lent a hand to help us paint (and paint and paint). Yes, it was that time of the year - we painted nearly the entire common area of Today Art Studios! It was work, muscle, sweat and lots of coverage. But for some reason it seemed to go quite smoothly and everyone seemed to really work as a team - this was the first such group activity since we moved in nearly a year ago. Well worth it with a visit from PAM very soon as well as Prints4PICA coming in December…..Right on team.

After that I dashed out to pick up my copy of Scott’s totally fun in-joke project of the season, The Portland Art Coloring Book. And I think it’s just freaking funny and simple and clever and stupid and all sortsa good things. For $10 those who appear in it can nab a copy (and though we are colleagues, I had no idea about this until the night before he released this). It’s about an inch and a half thick too, so though its low-tech and pretty zine-esque I think it’s a nice “first volume” tribute to a shiteload of contributors to the scene right now (and a few from years past, like Mark Rothko!).

Um, the rest of the weekend was pretty damn sleepless and included a party at Rose’s place. Moreso a brisk and misty night by the firepit with heaping portions of bbq meats, mutts, biker memorabilia - all to the repetitious spinning of The Doors on an antique Silvertone. There was also garlic peanut tofu over glass noodles and Ty in his hoodie, seemingly inseparable from his lil’ Nokia. Yes, it was a night of mythic ambiguity. Then came Saturday evening and Dude’s Night Out Carport Party at Jesse Hayward’s place. For an ‘illustrious cast of invited characters’ I must say it was more low key than I would have expected, which was exactly what I needed. Chilled with some mint whiskey punch and some of the best homemade cc cookies I’ve had in years. Nice lengthy chats with a few folks about what they are up to, hanging by the fire. It felt solid, the group dynamic, the camaraderie. Seemed like a cohesive, respectful scene and give Portland so much credit for playing host to many talented folks who can engage in the larger conversation.

I HATE YOU, YEAH YEAH YEAH: The rest of the weekend was spent battling the elders…the Boxelders that is. Our lil’ treehouse is crazy infested by these stinky (when squished) red underbelly striped bugs. I have become the vacuum master in the process (which was just instinct, but it’s actually recommended). They are trying to make my home theirs, but there will be no vacancies at the inn this season.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007 at 6:26 am and is filed under Wired. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.