Yard Birds
As you may know, Portland's a beaut for many reasons. One reason in particular—its bangin' backyard skate scene. I'm talking backyard bowls, quarter pipes, curbs, mini ramps ... especially mini ramps. They're my favorite. Try out a new one? I'm always down. Mini ramps tested in the name of science!
See, people here appreciate the value of a backyard. Come summer, life happens in the backyard. And ain't it sweet that that even means skateboarding?
Think about it: No precious hours wasted in the car on a rare sunny day. No waging war with skatepark undesirables. Just friends and skateboard-orientated fun. You leave a happening like that feeling dog tired and happy. Maybe sunburnt. You got to see all your pals. You got to snack on shit and drink shit and talk shit. You got to skate until exhaustion!
Simple folk like myself could not ask for more.
Hudson's on the 4th of July. Sun-dappled yard, dogs, food, and friends—quintessential summer stuff!
A new backyard bowl over at Chris's house—a kind of giant garden sculpture. Magnificent use of space, non?
Bracewell residence training facility. Many miles logged here.
A tiny skatepark, in a backyard, right off Hawthorne. Ain't this city grand??!!
Only Lovers Left Alive
Guys, this movie!!!
Unlike some people, maybe, I don't engage in every vampire flic I encounter. But this one's a Jim Jarmusch vampire flic. Love you, Jim!!
Now, Jarmusch films are slow—ain't no getting around it. His story lines? They're the kind of shit that unfolds slowly, like a flower opening. You have to be patient, but your patience is rewarded with this wonderfully languid humor of happenstance. I'm excited, then, to see what he does with the matters of love, mortality, and a marriage that lasts—literally—an eternity.
Favorites 3.17.14
The last 3 minutes of every True Detective episode. A remarkable show that's very much repping dark, heady shit like Twin Peaks and Nietzsche. But the last few scenes of each episode—crikey! They wind down by winding you up with the haunting-est poetry of voiceover, soundtrack, and direction of photography. Not uplifting—but definitely captivating.
Grating and roasting your cauliflower. Discovered recently! When cauliflower encounters a cheese grater, it crumbles into a texture perfect for salting, olive oiling, and roasting on a cookie sheet until all its ragged little corners are brown and crispy. Then you can make all manor of things with it (fake rice bowl, fake pizza crust, fake hamburger meat)—or you can just, you know, eat it.
Doing whatever you want on a Saturday. Yes, yes, Sunday you'll do all that crap on your list. But Saturday, lovely sun-washed Saturday—it's the cool-down day after a hard week, made for doing exactly what you feel like with no underlying agenda. Like, parks and dogs and skateboarding and friends and long lunches at picnic tables with cups of wine and stuff.
"How to make courtesan au chocolat" via Wes Anderson and Mendl's: One is inspired to place dollops of frosting on everything.
What To Do Right Now
I heard something about "springing forward" when I was really tired and I couldn't comprehend what exactly that meant for me and my three bedroom clocks—none of which tell time quite right. Then the sun came out and all the dogwood blossoms popped overnight. Bless your heart, Portland.
I was wondering if you ever think about growing peas or kale? Lettuce, maybe? The reason I ask is because if so, then you should plant them NOW. It's simple. You barely need to lift a finger, much less a shovel. Requirements entail a couple seed packets and a plot of land. Some rich mushroom compost to swirl into the soil. Some rain. And some time.
These cool-season green crops are the easiest of the easy when it comes to yard gardening, and so you could very possibly be blowing it if you're not tending to at least a container or two of them. Also? Green stuff is good for you, and if you grow it, you will eat it. Funny how that works. See, I never buy lettuce because I forget about it until it turns into a brown mass in the bottom of my crisper. But if you grow your salad in a tidy row, you will be inspired to wander out and pull a few sprigs to put on your cheese sandwich or whatever. The rest will stay in the ground where it belongs, just, you know, photosynthesizing.
Seed packets? $1.50. No excuses. Buy and plant now, before it's too late!
My lettuce seedlings require the protection of chicken wire on account of the neighborhood cats mistaking the garden bed for a giant luscious litter box. I suspect the cats in your neighborhood will be equally as confused on this topic, just FYI.
I save my egg shells, crush them, and sprinkle them in the garden beds because they are filled with rich calcium goodness.
Adventures In Foot Pain
Due to an acutely lame foot injury, I'm hot off acupuncture this morning and currently walking around in $120 running shoes.
Now, there are injuries that happen because one has a grand, explosive mishap, and then there are those that happen because one is careless and lazy and getting old. My plantar fasciitis is the latter—due to a lifetime of running, not stretching, and jumping up and down on my skateboard. Cool!
I woke up this morning and realized that SUMMER IS COMING (it was a smell drifting in the window—dirt and green things), and so I've decided to get very serious about my recovery—because I plan on spending all summer running, not stretching, and jumping up and down on my skateboard.
As mentioned, I had acupuncture earlier. My friend Hudson plunked a needle straight into ground zero of where my plantar fascia connects to my heel—and then sprinkled some more into various other parts of my body. If you've never had acupuncture, I feel I must shun you into doing so immediately. What's wrong with you?! Don't you WANT to feel good? To feel every muscle relax? To feel the needles twitching and throbbing as they tap into deep mysterious energies inside your body? And finally, to leave the office floating on a fluffy cloud of self-induced quaaludes?
If you don't want this stuff then I can't relate to you at all.
