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Wordstock – When Reading is A Party
Portland is one of the most literate cities in the country and so when we throw a book festival, it's a big deal. Every year I make sure to make my way down to the sea of literature that is Wordstock. This Book-A-Palooza is a cornucopia of books, authors, readings, workshops and signings. The festival runs Thursday through Sunday with the main focus being The Book Fair at the Convention Center Saturday and Sunday 9am – 6pm.
The list of authors participating is completely overwhelming so here are the ones that caught my eye:
John Hodgman- You might recognize John Hodgman from The Daily Show on Comedy Central, but if not you've seen him play "PC" on many of the recent Mac commercials on TV. Despite the fact that people often say I look like Hodgman (I don't damn it), he's my top pick for Wordstock. Hodgman is as smart as he is funny, and it would be a mistake to miss him.
Heather Vogel Frederick - A true luminary in the youth lit category, Heather Frederick has penned a wide range of award winning books including: The Mother-Daughter Book Club, Much Ado About Anne, The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed and Spy Mice: For Your Paws Only. If you've got kids, make sure you don't miss Heather Frederick.
Monica Drake - Put simply, Monica Drake is fucking amazing. Her book Clown Girl is inventive, original and extremely entertaining. Everyone knows that Chuck Palahniuk comes from Portland, and someday soon they'll know Monica Drake. Catch her now so you can say "I knew her when…"
Jamie S. Rich and Joelle Jones – like peanut butter and jelly these two prominent Portland comic book creators are as complimentary to each other as you can get. Jamie Rich's latest Have You Seen The Horizon Lately is one of the best undiscovered books of the year and Joelle Jones's doodles are better than 75% of all the artists out there. Joelle is also a hot rising star with a new book out with DC.
In addition to the festival, Saturday night is the Text Ball at the Left Bank Project. I'm a huge fan of this venue which continues to develop as one of THE places in Portland to throw a bash!
The Text Ball is an opportunity for Portland's rich literary arts scene to celebrate itself while supporting one of its most beloved organizations, the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Attendees are invited to come "dressed as text" and compete for prizes for the most grammatically-correct costumes. The theme this year is FIGURES OF SPEECH.
The Text Ball takes place Saturday from 6-11 at Left Bank Project 240 N Broadway.
The Wordstock web site sucks (Widen & Kennedy did a crappy ass job on it) but the physical booklet with the schedule is actually usable. So for the complete guide your best bet is to drop by Powells and snag a copy or pick one up at the show itself.
Apple Tasting at The Portland Nursery
Over Thirty Types of Apples
We've lived in Portland now for 15 years, and for some reason we've never managed to make it out to Portland Nursery's Apple Tasting Event. Since we now live in Laurelhurst (after moving from the west side) we swore that we would not miss this popular Portland event.
So this weekend, with the perfect fall weather, we walked down to the Portland Nursery for some apple tasting. I was surprised at just how many people come out for this event (I saw almost half the people who live on our block there).
The whole family loved having the opportunity to taste over 30 different varieties of apples and pears. Our favorites:
- Elstar - Tart eating apple developed for European markets. Excellent for sauces or pies.
- Cox's Orange Pippin – An Old English variety origination about 1830. Firm, juicy and aromatic apple. Wonderful for dessert.
- Honey Crisp – Macoun x Honeygold. Crisp and juicy apple rated superior to McIntosh and Delicious for fresh eating and keeps up to five months in common storage.
- Jonatha – Originated in 1826 as an open-pollinated chance seedling of Esopus Spintzenberg. This Apple has crisp, juicy, tart flesh. Goof for dessert and all other culinary Uses.
- Liberty – Origin New York Fruit Experiment Station. Fruit is almost enturely red-skinned with sweet juicy flesh.
After we picked our favorites from the bunch we were able to buy them from huge tubs of apples in the middle of the nursery. If you missed out the apple tasting this weekend, fear not… the Portland Nursery is doing it again next weekend: October 17, 18, 19, 2008 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Above apple descriptions courtesy of The Portland Nursery).
Mythbusters – Live
Mythbusters Adam and Jamie with Rich Emerson
Let me get this out right from the start, in their live appearance the Mythbusters DO NOT Blow stuff up. Sitting in the sold out crowd at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall you could feel the collective hope that all the warnings and disclaimers about the show NOT containing explosions were false.
The two science geeks who host the popular Discovery channel show had a huge task ahead of them, how to entertain a group of people who would rather see you blowing crap up than talking about it. I'm happy to report that Adam and Jamie (prompted by Host Rick Emerson) did a fantastic job of engaging and entertaining the audience for an hour and forty five minutes.
Billed as a 'Behind The Scenes / Inside The Actor's Studio for Science Geeks" the interactive talk gave an experience with Adam and Jamie that you just couldn't get in an audio commentary on a DVD or in a behind the scenes snippet. Shooting entirely from the hip both Mythbusters showed just how immensely entertaining they are, even in their every day life.
Peppered with video clips (which I wish they had more), the talk did have a few slow points, but Emerson did a solid job of moving things right along. The show reached its high point when members of the audience got to ask the Mythbusters their own questions.
Some of the nuggets of info gleaned from the talk:
- In their spare time they do the kind of experiments that Discovery Channel won't let them do on TV.
- Upcoming episodes include 'How to Polish A Turd" and "Slipping on a Banana Peel"
- Discovery Channel nixed "How Many Licks Does it Take to Get To The Center of A Tootsie Roll Pop"
- Jamie owns and runs his own company which does work for the private industry and the government
- An Airplane will take off on a conveyor belt runway…damn it (so stop sending emails)
- None should ever mess with Jamie's béret
- Their absolute favorite episode is "Lead Balloon"
- The exploding water heater actually went up 750 feet in the air (with a 15 second hang time)
The finale of the show was a blooper reel and clip reel of some of their best explosions which they called "Explosion Porn" including a lot of footage from a high speed camera which was an absolute hit with the crowd.
The Mythbusters could have done a kitchy stadium style show for 'the kids' filled with explosions and pyrotechnics but they opted for a much more honest and informal chat. I really enjoyed it but I think my sevenyear old son sill wanted to see explosions.
Musicfest North West and Time Based Art Festival – TBA '08
Time Based Art at The Left Bank Project
Tonight two major arts and entertainment festivals had their kick-off events. Both showed that Portland is big enough to support two huge festivals, even when they run at the same time.
I started the evening at MusicFest NW, their kick off party was an outdoor cocktail party in the lot next to the Wonder Ballroom. Less of a scene than a gathering, the party was most notable for the extremely long line for the open bar. The bar line was almost as long as the line of people waiting to get in to see the bands. Did I really wait fifteen minutes for a shot of Soco?!?
I caught the Battles whose set was well received. As I listened to their mostly instrumental music, I couldn't help but think "Music Geeks". The Battles play with passion and energy but their music often is over-thought and muddled. I enjoyed some of their songs but wasn't ever pulled out of my 'hey I'm watching a music show' space and so my aside from some toe tapping and light head bobbing the set left me a little cold. I was surprised at how many people brought kids to the show. Maybe mathrock is something that appeals to kids.
Just a hop skip and jump away at the new Left Bank Building PICA launched their Time Based Art festival with a warm and welcoming party. The party was open to anyone and everyone and the scene was a nice mix of people. The Left Bank Project (which is dubbed 'The Works' for the TBA Festival) is a very cool venue with so much space that there were tons of nook's and crannies to explore. One area's tenant was a version of Backspace Cafe just for the fest. Also a nice patio area featured a work in progress by Justin Gorman whose large format graphic painting was fantastic to see in progress.
Some of the other art, including Big Skin by Lizzie Fitch, Anna Halprin's Blank Placard Happening and the Flash Choir were solid misses. (Perhaps the Flash Choir would have done better performing in the outdoor space).
A solid start though to two landmark Portland festivals
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