Tag: Portland

Sand in the City

I joined Mom and Aunt Carol for breakfast at Mother’s and then we headed over to check out Sand in the City.  It was, frankly, underwhelming.  There were nine sand sculptures, a paltry amount, I thought, and I was not impressed by most of the scupture.  Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high?

Here’s an example.  The slogan is “branching out to help others” but the branches are not going out, they are going in.  It just didn’t work for me.
 

Kid’s on the block being sculpted into a block?  Eh.
 
I enjoyed the pun here, but look at all the blank space.
 
And this didn’t even look fully formed.
 
There was a Voodoo Donut on the Octopus, which I appreciated.
 
This display had the best detail from shrimp on the barbie to…
 
…an intricately sculpted welcome mat.

At this point my camera warned me I was running out of battery and as we had Sunday Parkways yet to do, I decided to stop taking pictures of mostly unimpressive sand sculpture.

The line!

Not wanting to pay expensive movie theater prices and wanting to support one of my favorite local theater  showing new releases, I took the #75 to St. Johns and headed toward the St. John’s Theater to see the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises.  And holy cow, there was a line!  I’ve never seen a line longer than 10 people at St. John’s, and this one stretched around the corner.  I was surprised this many people were out at 4:00 on a Friday, but there they all were.  Next time I will arrive a bit earlier on opening night.
 

Overheard conversation that makes me smile.

This morning* on the Max train:

Person:  Hey Kevin! How are you?
Other person:  Good man, good to see you.  How have you been?
Person:  Great!  I’m 110 days sober.
Other person:  That’s great!

*This conversation happened at some point in May. But blogger moved this to June and I can’t remember now when it happened it May.  So here it is in the June posts.

One of my favorite “Hidden in plain sight, Portland.”

Every spring I’m delighted to walk by this parking lot at the corner of Burnside and SW 6th Ave.  At some point, someone planted these yellow roses around the perimeter of the lot.  Despite the fact that no one cares for them and they are surrounded by a busy street, a transit mall and asphalt as far as the eye can see, they bloom every year and smell fantastic.
 
Cars surround them, both moving and unmoving.
 
I’ve never taken cuttings of any plant to propagate, but these roses might just make me learn how to do that.
 

Sam Adams Political Cartoon

Just as the election of Bill Clinton my Senior year of high school (he was the first president I voted for!) and the eight years of politics that followed shaped me, so did the election of Sam Adams.  Before Sam Adams was elected I described him as “a politician for the right reasons.”  Not long after he was sworn in I, along with the rest of Portland, found out that I was wrong and that Sam Adams was a politician to feed his ego more than anything else.  Four years of a mayor with no political clout followed, which was a great disappointment, not to mention a complete waste of time.  This political cartoon by Jack Ohman will probably not be funny to anyone not familiar with Adam’s political career, but it manages to sum up the last four years in a nutshell.  I laughed reading it, but it was a laugh full of dark humor.
 
 
 
 

Update Satyricon space

So back in July 2011, I posted about the demolition of the building which was the home to Satyricon.  I’ve been watching the progress of the new building and today  it struck me as a very building-like, embryonic building, so I took a picture.  There were two guys in the top floor window, second from left, but one had wandered off by the time I got out my camera.

 

Structure.

This has been an empty lot for all five years I’ve lived in North Portland.  For awhile there was a “gorgeous Town Homes coming in 2009” (or something) sign posted on the site, but the picture eventually fell off and the sign disappeared.  However, something is coming now.  I feel a bit sorry for the house next door who is suddenly living very close to a massive structure, but that’s life in the big city.