Decided that home was the last place I wanted to be today, so struck out across the neighborhood today with no serious agenda outside of wandering and maybe finding a place to hole up and write. It?s fun to be out walking on a Saturday morning when folks are picking up groceries from the farmer?s market, getting coffee, and running errands. You get to see all the little stuff you miss when you drive by insulated in your car with climate control on and the radio going full blast.
I wound up at the Hollywood Library, where Personal Telco is supposed to have a free Wi-Fi node. Since I had the iBook stashed in my satchel I thought I would check my mail and blog a little about my morning.
Tried sitting in all the different areas, but I wasn?t able to pick up a signal. I felt sort of silly putting it on sleep, setting up at the next table over, then putting it to sleep again when I couldn?t detect a signal. Think I need to invest in one of those little Wi-Fi divining rods so you can find a signal without wandering aimlessly in a building with an open laptop in your arms, watching the signal meter for any sign of life.
Maybe Personal Telco isn?t providing service to this location anymore. I checked out my books and asked the clerk about the availability of Wi-Fi, and they weren?t sure if it was still available, but to check at the reference desk.
At the reference desk, a guy about my age told me that people usually have good luck on the benches by the windows, and he was able to get on there this morning. I tried it, but again, no luck.
I?ve heard a rumor that there?s something about the iBook that interferes with the reception on the AirPort card, and I?m starting to believe it might be true because I?ve had connection issues in certain areas of Backspace as well.
The ever industrious president of my company also owns a couple of vineyards, so whenever we wine and dine out-of-town clients it takes place at a restaurant where his wine is served, such as Higgins Restaurant in downtown Portland. The clients were impressed with the meal as well as asking for bottles of the wine to take home with them, so I would definitely count the evening as a success.
I enjoyed peppered halibut cheeks with a chile polenta and succotash with bacon. This was my first taste of halibut cheeks, which are more dense and a bit sweeter than the rest of the fish. Definitely something I would order again. My dining companions also seemed pleased with their meals, which ranged from seared Oregon Albacore tuna to a honey & chili-glazed loin of pork.
Dessert was just as tasty, consisting of a blackberry tart paired with basil ice cream and a fruit glaze. I ordered it because I was curious about the basil ice cream, and it complemented the locally grown blackberries marvelously.
When I dine with clients, I’m always a bit self-conscious about my knowledge of etiquette. I took a crash course class in dining etiquette during college, and I remember the usual things like “napkin goes in the lap” and “utensils in the top right corner of the plate when you are done eating” but I think I’ve forgotten a lot of the finer points. It would be wonderful to take a refresher course, and judging from where a few of my companions placed their cutlery, I’m probably not the only person in Portland who would benefit from it.
I found a class offered by Wine Press Northwest in Seattle on Sept. 13, but a class here in Portland would be more preferable. Does anyone know of a local business that caters to the “missed finishing school, but still interested in becoming couth” crowd? Or a local class being offered? I’m sure some of the universities offer classes, but I would imagine they limit enrollment to current students. Maybe I need to check into that.
Finally tracked down a copy of Hanging with the Balls today. Storm is absolutely amazing! The CD is powerfully overwhelming, and the scary part is that it barely holds a candle to hearing her perform live. I’ve always had a weakness for out-of-the-ordinary cover tunes, and Storm exploits that weakness to the highest degree. If you don’t know who she is, there’s a good chance you saw her on the cover of Willamette Week a few weeks ago for the Best of Portland 2004 or on Oregon ArtBeat last week. (If you missed the broadcast, you can also see it here.) Storm Large and The Balls have a regular gig at Dante’s every Wednesday night, but only through early September. Must see! Must hear!
Just as cool as finally getting my hands on the CD is the great experience I had with CDbaby getting it. They’re locally based here in Portland, and focus exclusively on selling CDs by independent artists. I placed the order, then once I got my confirmation email realized that their warehouse was so close it seemed silly to pay to have it shipped. (That, and I am all about as-close-to-instant gratification as possible — I wanted it NOW!) Emailed them back and asked if I could pick it up, fully expecting to get turned down. To my surprise they agreed, so after work I visted the non-descript warehouse in Northeast Portland that houses CDbaby. The inside of the warehouse is the complete opposite of non-descript… album posters and random bits of ephemera on every wall, and shelves filled with CDs as far as the eyes could see. Daniel (aka Count Warehouse) was very friendly, very accomodating, and within minutes I was on my way with my CDs. Hooray! Mad props to CDbaby for providing my Storm fix in short order.
The rather popular antique appraisal show winged its way through Portland today, and I had a front row seat. Rather, I was on a production crew and spent twelve hours on my feet helping to document family heirlooms and lucky thrift store finds. Somewhere between five and six thousand people made it through the gauntlet at the Oregon Convention Center today, and through some pretty remarkable event coordination (and nearly a hundred volunteers!) it went off without a hitch.
When you watch the show, you have absolutely no idea what a zoo it is on the set. We were setting up shots with guests to show their treasures to appraisers wherever we could carve out space, and I helped to herd people afflicted with “Deer in the Headlights” syndrome out of the way as necessary. Even when the crowd got starstruck when one of the appraisal twins went by, my producer would rally with, “This is reality television, folks!” and we would press on. From clocks to firearms, garden gnomes to apple peeling machines, we covered it all.
I’ve never seen so many men wearing hawaiian shirts in one place since the last luau I attended. It was amazing at what people brought in, and even more impressive how they brought it in. Large paintings maneuvered on wheeled contraptions, dime store wooden Indian statues on dollys, little red wagons filled with vintage toys, and giant blown art glass containers bravely carried by hand. Towards the end of the afternoon the sound of a dropped glass object reverberated through the auditorium, and all went silent for split-second before hundreds of people drew their breath collectively in horror.
There was an amusing point where I was running interference for my photog to give him room to manuever, and the gentleman conversing with the appraiser who shared the table we were shooting at started getting pissy with me because I was trying to keep him out of the shot.
“Do you mind? I’m trying to get my item appraised here!”
The crowd was a mix of people who just wanted to get their items appraised for free, others who hoped to get on the show, and a band of weary spouses dragged to the event by their significant others. At one point emergency struck and a call went out over the headsets.
“Can we get some chocolate over to an appraisal table STAT? They have run out of candy!”
A page was sent scurrying and soon returned with an assortment of snack sized chocolate bars, placating the talent and allowing things to move on.
Which local items made the cut to be on the show? You’ll just have to tune in for the new season beginning January 2005 to find out.
We’ve all heard that “every little bit helps,” but for a retired couple from Battle Ground, every little bit did help. Last week Modest Needs sent an email to their subscribers about a family in Washington who had to make the difficult decision between their health and their mortgage payment.
This couple made they only choice they could make. They chose their health. And as a result, on 15 August, the couple’s lifetime investment – their home – was going to be sold at auction.
This couple had written by mail (they have no computer) to ask for our help in saving their home. They needed $1200. I felt strongly that it was our moral imperative help this family, but because the amount necessary to save their home exceeded Modest Needs’ maximum grant, I left it to all of you – the active members of Modest Needs – to decide whether we helped this family or not.
Their request hit close to home because I remember how difficult it was to make my mortgage payments after I had been laid off. With a couple of clicks, I increased my monthly Modest Needs contribution.
276 other people also “put their money where their mouse was.”
End result? For an average donation of $13 per person, the couple’s home was saved from the auction block. There was also enough additional funding to pay a rent deposit for a family in Michigan whose house was sold out from under them, to transfer a cosmetology license for a woman in Ohio so she could work and care for her children, and to provide medical treatment for a two year old girl in Rhode Island whose legs were born twisted. (Details in this month’s editorial)
The beauty of Modest Needs is that it helps with the little things — when a small amount of money can make all the difference in the world. This week has proven that when many individuals help with just a nominal amount, some pretty amazing things can happen.
Friday night marked the second time in a year that I’ve gone to hear Wil Wheaton read, which is a bit odd since I enjoy his writing, but I don’t follow his blog and am not a rabid fan of either TNG or Stand By Me. Some of my friends, on the other hand, are a different story.
Wil was in town to pimp his latest opus, Just a Geek, so I joined Aaron & Nerdy Girl to hear the reading at Powell’s Technical. I arrived a bit late, but was able to secure a chair in the stacks where I could still hear pretty well. It didn’t seem quite as crowded as it did last year at the Beaverton Powell’s, but it was still pretty amazing the way the crowd hung on his every word. Since he got ripped by a couple of fans last year for not opening the floor up for questions, he did so this year. I can’t remember what anyone asked, except that one had to do with his family, which sent him into a sweet gushy tizzy about how wonderful his wife and kids are. Since the store closed at 9, he only allowed a few questions.
As soon as he said the magic words, “Okay, I would love to sign your books now” the crowd shifted into motion, desperate to get a few words and an autograph in with the geeky one before closing. An employee directed them towards the area marked off for the line, but since Wil’s fans are a pretty intelligent lot, most of them had positioned themselves to be able to go directly into the line once the reading was completed, so the line was already forming neatly before the employee said a word.
Nerdy Girl agonized over whether or not to get the book and wait in the rather long line that had formed, so she settled for sitting in the audience area watching him sign books. At this point we started goofing off with the camera and getting pictures of her in the foreground, him in the background, and debating the merits of her running behind the signing desk just long enough for me to snap a picture of her and Wil together.
It was fun to watch the signing because Wil became giddier the more fans came through the line — obviously a huge ego stroke for him. I think it’s great that he’s one of those people who is open about appreciating his fans and recognizing that they helped to get him to where he is.
Our party of three moved outside, still watching Wil + fans through the windows. A couple of other fans came out, and one guy noticed Aaron’s Bigger Than Jesus shirt, and did a double-take.
“Are you Aaron?”
Aaron nodded, and the guy didn’t explain himself as expected. After a bit of questioning we learned that this guy is a fan of the show, had heard Aaron’s call-in’s, but hadn’t been to see BTJ. It was a bit creepy, actually.
Nerdy Girl kept looking wistfully through the window, so we got one more shot of her and Wil and called it a night.