Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth Gilbert

My dad bought us a great gift a while back of leather bound, autographed books from great current authors. So far we have probably gotten about 60 of these books and the vast majority of them have been awesome. Every now and then a book that I wouldn't normally read comes our way. This is one of them. If I had picked this up on the book shelf and read the synopsis, I would have put it back down; I feel certain it was an Oprah book club selection. But that is the beauty of books coming randomly to your door, it helps you get out of your comfort zone.

Eat, Pray, Love chronicles author/journalist Elizabeth Gilbert's breakdown and recovery from a bitter divorce and a subsequent ill-fated affair. Gilbert is a successful thirty-something with a big house, a husband and all the trappings of a successful New Yorker. Instead of living the American dream, she finds herself awake and crying all night and unable to function during the day. After a protracted and mean divorce she decides to take a year off to recover. She takes whatever she has left from the divorce, puts it in storage and takes out on the journey that, as the title suggests, is divided into three parts.

She begins in Italy where, as you might guess, the eating part of the book is covered. In addition to gaining back the 25 pounds she lost during her divorce proceedings, she also fulfills a life-long dream to learn Italian. After a few months we move on to India for the prayer portion of the book. Here is where we find out Gilbert is quite the yoga and meditation devotee. She was planning to get her spiritual life back in order for a month, then spend the rest of the time seeing India as a tourist. However, she turns out to be more of a mess than she could imagine and spends the entire time at an ashram meditating and getting her head right.

Finally she heads to Bali to meet an elderly medicine man who predicted several years before that she would return to live and study with him. This part of the book ups the adventure level a little as she does not know where he lives or how to find him. And as the last part of the title suggests, love enters the picture.

Overall I thought the book was incredibly self indulgent. I really didn't feel much empathy for Ms. Gilbert, but I can see why the Oprah crowd would love this book. I have to admit there were parts I found interesting. To see a person be that open with her feelings and pain did suck you in at times. Also, many of the things she did sounded like fun and things I would very much like to do myself. I just couldn't get over the poor, rich, white woman from New York has a melt down and gets to travel the world for a year while people are losing their jobs, their homes or worse.

The Amazing Pink Lady

I have to say that if I saw this person in Los Angeles I would not have thought twice about it, but a big lady in a bright pink track suit really stands out on a gloomy overcast day on a Portland bus. She had on these amazing glasses, that were something Elvis or Liberace would wear. Her hair was frosted and looked like she had just come from the hairdresser, where the stylist really loves the blow dryer. She was also very chatty, and not afraid to give directions to a man who seemed a little confused about what stop to get off at. I used to see women like this all the time in LA and Miami, which makes me wonder, is Portland the new Boca?

Interesting Bumper Stickers

You don't have to walk very far to see interesting bumper stickers in this town. Here are three that caught my eye on the way home yesterday. If you don't get the "Keep Portland Weird" stickers, these guys got a lot more literal with "Keep Portland Local." My first thought when I saw this was, where are people thinking of moving Portland to? Is there a group of people trying to uproot Portland and move it to Fiji?

Here is a classic Portland sticker, I am so green that, "My Other Bike Is A Bike." Nice play on the materialistic stickers of the 90's, like "My Other Car Is A Porsche." Which transformed into, "My Other Car Is A Broom" and "My Other Car Was Repossessed."

This is my favorite one so far, "Come to the dark side, we have cookies." Not sure there is anything I can add to that.

Pachamama Alliance

"If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together."

These are the words of an aboriginal leader in Australia and they reflect the attitude of the Pachamama Alliance, our newest pro bono client. They work with native peoples in the rain forest of Ecuador and Peru to help protect their native lands from being destroyed by oil companies and other intruders that are threatening not only their ecosystem, but an entire way of life. I think this quote is amazing. The idea that the native people are not the ones that need help is revolutionary to me. It turns all the assumptions of how we see "under developed" countries on its head and says, we might be the ones that are messed up and need to change.

The Pachamama Alliance is not only working in South America to help protect the rain forest, they also put on a three to five hour symposium in the US, Europe and Australia that highlights what you can do to help and how you can get involved. We participated in the symposium today and it was very interesting and empowering. I am looking forward to working with these folks to help them with their communications, and hopefully I will learn a lot along the way.

Rachel and Chad's Wedding

Rachel and Chad got married in Austin on April 25th, 2009. Rachel is my wife's niece and one of Christie and Ray Szempruch's five kids. I find it interesting that they got married in Austin as Rachel is an Aggie and Austin is the last place Aggies like to hang out, but I guess a lot of Chad's family live in the area. Speaking of Chad's family, it was an interesting crew. I would say they represented about 75% of the attendees and a lot of jeans and cowboy boots. Didn't Uncle Golden manage to get a suit on for our wedding? Granted it was a western cut suit with a big eagle on the back, but he made the effort.

We started out on Thursday night with a fun get together at my brother-in-law John's house in Ceder Park, about 30 minutes outside of Austin. His wife Gail made some great red beans and rice and jambalaya. It was nice to see all the Baugnon family there. Friday we took a walk around the UT campus and visited some of the old haunts, including Texadelphia for a cheesesteak sandwich. That night the rehearsal dinner was at a nice Mexican food restaurant called Serrano's. It was my first time to eat there, and the fajitas were great. We also got to meet Chad's family and make a few toasts. Later that night a few of the wedding party took advantage of the SMU FIJI keg party at the hotel.

Saturday morning I drove around Austin a little to catch up on the places I hadn't seen for a while. Mean time the wedding party was turning a beer hall next to Scholz Beer Garden (the oldest bar in Texas) into a wedding reception. I have to say they did a great job decorating as the room was transformed when I came by later that day. The reward for the workers was a lunch at Green Mesquite, my favorite BBQ place in Austin (the Salt Lick is not in Austin). We all got heaping plates of brisket, pulled pork, and smoked sausage. A nice bonus, the weather was great so we were able to sit outside on the patio.

Saturday afternoon we all made it over to Our Lady of Guadalupe church in East Austin for a nice (and quick) ceremony followed by the reception back at Saengerrunde Hall. The reception was very nice and the hard work on the decorations paid off. They were pretty much able to cover up most of the scary elements. The food was good and I have to say that was one of the better wedding cakes I have had. There was lots of dancing as the DJ swung back and forth from country to 70's disco with abandon. We blew out of there at around 10 PM to head down to Austin's infamous 6th Street, but several hearty souls stayed to help take all the decorations down. While they worked away we continued the party on the roof patio of Maggie May's, the only bar I recognized from when I was at UT in the 80's. It was nice to be back in Austin having a good time, but I also realized a lot of time has passed.

Swamp Blues - Various

I really enjoy listening to American Roots on National Public Radio. As the names suggest they explore the origins of American music, from rock and roll to Blues to Jazz. Almost every show I hear an artist I have never heard of and end up buying one of their CDs. One of those artists was Moses "Whispering" Smith who played a style of music they called Swamp Blues. I looked it up and this is the definition I found:

Swamp Blues, the looser, more rhythmic variation of the standard Louisiana sound, also brings more contemporary elements of New Orleans, zydeco, soul music, and Cajun to bear on its style. The guitar work is simple but effective, and is heavily influenced by the boogie patterns used on Jimmy Reed records, with liberal doses of Lightnin' Hopkins and Muddy Waters. Unlike the heavy backbeat of the more popular urban styles, its rhythm can be best described as laid-back, making even its most uptempo offerings share the same mood and ambience of the most desultory of slow blues.

If you would like to hear 24 amazing examples of this genre check out the aptly named Swamp Blues from Ace records. It was recorded in 1970 and released in 1996. Prepare to be sad and want to dance at the same time.

Little League Baseball

I have attended three little league baseball games this week. Two for my nephew Gregor and one for my nephew Colin. I was 2-1 for the games I attended, with the loss coming in a close game that was decided on a controversial call. With two outs and bases loaded, one of Gregor's teammates hit a foul ball that supposedly hit him in fair territory and he was called out. No runs, game over. Needless to say the parents were going crazy and the high school stoner who was umpiring the game looked a little more dazed than normal. Overall I have to say the parents were pretty well behaved, but some of the coaches were a little intense. I saw an old friend, David Funderburk, at one of the games; he was coaching his kids. We played on a team together back in junior high. We were talking about how some of the coaches were arguing and being general a-holes. He said he told them to chill out or all the kids would remember them as a-holes years from now, like we both remembered Coach Stubbing. Coach Stubbing is actually kind of a funny memory, because I think he was drunk most of the time and wasn't that bad of a coach. He was very aggressive on the bases. He didn't have signals, he just yelled, "run," "take off," or "dig for home."

Colin and Gregor are very different types of players. Greg is small for his age (7) but he hustles well and keeps his head in the game. He seemed to get a hit every time I saw him at bat, even though he is not going to hit it out of the infield too many times. He also pays attention well so he runs the bases well and usually scores. Kids at this level have a hard time getting the ball back to the pitcher to freeze the runners with a lot of accuracy, so anything hit to the outfield is usually a double or triple. Luckily there is a five run limit per inning and an 11 run mercy rule, so the games don't go on for ever. Colin is a good athlete and he makes great contact with the ball, I am sure he will hit the ball out of the park this season. He is also a good fielder, but like most kids his age (8) he could pay attention more. I hope they both keep playing, they could be good high school athletes.

Airline Travel is Getting Worse

Although I did not think it was possible, airline travel is getting worse. Today when we went to check in, the line was a mile long as all the flights from the previous day had been cancelled on Continental Airlines to Houston, their main hub. The gate agents were working hard to rebook people, but it means people like us who are good to go on flights that day, had to wait a long time to get checked in, or in our case, to get bag tags. Once we finally got on the plane, it left an hour and a half late. Again a hold over from the weather hazards, so all the flight attendants got to say, "its not our fault, it's the weather." Nice. Then just when you think you are in the final stretch, we had to wait an hour and a half more for a gate to open once we were on the ground. Of course, all the people around me were stressing about missing their connecting flights and no one was giving them information. The pilot even had a hard time getting info on when the gate would open up. I started looking up connecting flight info on my iPhone and letting all the folks around me know if their flight was gone or if they could still make it. It seems crazy to me that I had more information than the flight attendants, the pilot and the people at the gate who were standing there with outdated print outs. Seems like the airlines should all make a big investment in PDAs.

Townes Van Zant - High, Low and In-Between

Townes Van Zant is one of my all time favorite songwriters. He influenced so many great singer songwriters that came later, it would take another blog to go through them all. Most importantly to me, Lyle Lovett covered a few of his songs and sites him as a huge influence. TVZ never had any hits songs to his own name, but a couple of songs he wrote, most notably "Pancho and Lefty" were hits for other singers, in this case a number one hit for Willie Nelson. TVZ got his start in the mid-60's singing a mix of folk and country songs. As he got older his voice sounded more ragged and moved to a lower register. He was know to be a heavy drinker and spent most of his life on the road. He died relatively young, but left a lot of great music behind. High, Low and In-Between captures twenty two of his best studio recordings and is a good place to start your love affair with Townes Van Zant.

Is this helping race realtions?

Is it just me or does it look like the African American guy in this mural is grabbing himself? And I have to say the white woman does not look very happy to be standing next to him. This mural looks more like an old fashioned hostage situation, than a positive statement on race relations. I see this every day on the way to work and it made me want to find out who did it and why, but unfortunately I have not been able to get any info. The park however has an interesting history.

This mural is in the O'Bryant Square park at SW Park Ave & Washington St. This site is supposedly near the clearing where W.C. Overton and Asa Lovejoy agreed to found a town in November 1843. The square itself is named for Hugh Donaldson O'Bryant, a pioneer who migrated to Oregon from Georgia in 1843. O'Bryant was a carpenter who founded Portland's first public library in 1850. He was elected as Portland's first mayor in the city's first election on April 7, 1851, by receiving 104 of the 222 votes cast.


The park is pretty sad and grungy and is also referred to as Paranoid Park due to its near-exclusive frequenting by street kids and homeless people in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. One of the funnier descriptions of the park: "If Pioneer Courthouse Square is Portland’s living room, O’Bryant Square is its dimly lit back porch."

Prehistoric Work Conditions

This is not a picture of an Iraqi interrogation room, it is the inside of a radiator repair shop on NW Everett and 15th. When we first moved into the Pearl District this place looked kind of strange and outdated. Now that we have all these upscale shops and restaurants here it looks downright prehistoric. They have several open flames going at any one time and I feel like something is going to blow up every time I go by there. Also, the guys that work there look really tough looking and I get the impression from the way they look at you when you walk by, that they are not happy with the changes in the neighborhood. It is a pretty cool reminder of the fact that this area used to be much more industrial, but I wonder how much longer they will be around?

Meier & Frank

It is very strange to walk by this sign. When we first moved to Portland, Meier & Frank was the premier department store in town. We registered there for our wedding gifts. People who grew up in Portland and the surrounding area talk about coming into town to buy their school clothes there or doing their Christmas shopping. There was a great restaurant up on the top floor where you could dine in style with all the blue haired old ladies of Portland. In short M&F was an institution. But institutions die. Meier & Frank slowly slid into decline and at the end was pretty dingy. It has been bought out by Macy's and the higher floors of the building have been turned into a deluxe hotel. I also heard the restaurant on the top floor has been redone and is better than ever. That said, it is still sad to see this little reminder of Portland at what used to be a M&F storage building over in the Pearl District. I am sure this building will soon be turned into apartments or nice lofts and the last vestiges of Meier & Frank will be gone.

More Knitting

I hate to keep harping on this, but this knitting thing is crazy hot. You have to wonder if Pendelton is going to be going out of business next as everyone is making their own sweaters and hats. We'll know when they start asking for a federal bailout. Maybe instead of giving them money to revive their business we can just outlaw knitting on the bus.

Van Morrison - Moondance

It is hard to pick one Van Morrison record, as he has over 20 records to his credit, but I think Moondance just sneaks ahead of Astral Weeks. Most critics would disagree with this as Astral Weeks is in almost every top 100 list, but I don't think Moondance's commercial success should be held against it.

Moondance features the great title cut as well as "Crazy Love" and one of my all time favorites "Into the Mystic," pretty hard to beat. Of course you could take the easy way out and go for one of the greatest hits records, but you'll miss out on the deeper cuts "And It Stoned Me" and "These Dreams of You," a couple of gems.

The Blind Leading the Blind

I know this is going to sound bad, but today I literally saw, "the blind leading the blind." It made me laugh a little because my Mom and Grandmothers always used to say this when I was trying to show my brother how to do something and neither one of us knew what we were doing. I thought this saying came from the bible and sure enough I looked it up and Matthew 15:14 says, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." But there was also an older quote listed from the Hindu treatises, which suggests Matthew may have not originated the thought, "Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither, like blind led by the blind."

So back to the bus. Two blind guys get on, one with a dog and one with just a cane and I have to tell you neither seemed like they knew what they were doing. There are a lot of blind people that ride the bus and the few that I see regularly seem super confident. They come right on the bus and immediately take the first seat so the bus driver can call out their stop. One time a bus driver forgot to tell a blind guy about his stop and when he finally realised it, we were way passed the stop, that was one pissed off blind guy. Anyway, these guys were really struggling to find a seat and were bouncing around a lot. The guy with the dog was trying to help the other guy, but it was not going too well. When they got off I was not confident that they knew were they were going, but the quickest way to piss off a blind person is to try to help them with directions, so I let the blind lead the blind.

Baby Guy Update

I know I have talked about this guy before, but today I got a closer look at him and his "baby." To refresh your memory that is not a real baby he is carrying around, it is a strange, life size doll that he drapes over his shoulder everywhere he goes. Today was the first time I actually saw him talking to it. I also got a closer look at the baby and it's pretty gross, it doesn't look like its been cleaned for a few years. So the update is, he doesn't just carry this thing around as a security blanket, we now know he communicates with it.

One Shinning Moment

If you are at all familiar with the NCAA men's basketball championship, you know that they have a footage montage at the end of the final game set to the sappy song, "One Shinning Moment." It features all the best plays and buzzer beating shots of the tournament as well as the winning team cutting down the nets. I have never thought it was worth waiting through all the commercials to watch, but it is funny to think that some poor guy is trying to put the finishing touches on this thing in about 15 minutes. I suppose if Baylor or UT ever wins the tournament I will feel some real love and sing along. This year UT went out in the second round and despite a great run Baylor didn't even make the tourney, although they did make it to the championship round of the NIT. So despite the teams close to my heart not doing well, I did have a shinning moment this year. I won the office pool! I know I said I was out of it last week, but it turns out I was wrong. Michigan State getting to the final knocked enough people out that I was back on top if UNC beat them and they did handily. In fact it was a cake walk for UNC the entire way. They only trailed for a few minutes in any one game and they won all of them by double digits. I ended up winning 50 out of a possible 63 games in all my brackets. I also ended up in the top 3% of the brackets on ESPN's Tournament Challenge, number 142,643 out of 5 million. Now the hard part, I have to actually collect the money.

Bombay Cricket Club

The Bombay Cricket Club is one of our favorite restaurants and the best Indian restaurant in Portland. We have been going there for several years now and it has up and down over that time, but it is up again now. Located on lower SE Hawthorne Blvd., it is a small space with two TVs playing non-stop cricket highlights. The owner Karim is usually there to greet you when you walk in and get you started with a must have mango margarita. You should also get an order of poppadoms while you check out the menu. There are a lot of great curries and Indian favorites as well as some Middle Eastern dishes that I have not tried. Our favorite entrees are the Buttered Chicken Curry and the Coconut Prawn Curry. There are also several amazing vegetarian options. Of course you have to add an order of garlic nan bread to suck up all the great sauces. Usually medium is pretty spicy, but last night we thought it was more like a mild. If you still have room, the mango cheesecake is a great way to finish off the meal. There are a lot of mediocre (or worse) Indian restaurants in Portland, if you want to try a really great one, I would highly recommend the Bombay Cricket Club.

The Bombay Cricket Club
1925 SE Hawthorne Blvd

Portland, OR 97214

(503) 231-0740

Rolling Stones - Some Girls

I know I have tried to steer clear of the obvious records, but every now and then you just have to admit that the biggest bands in the world got there because they made some good records. And we all know there is no band bigger than The Rolling Stones. So which record to choose, Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers? I am going to go with Some Girls. I hate to say this, but this is the last good record the Stones made and it is still my favorite. I remember buying this record and playing it over and over. Then one day I was in the record store and there was there was a strange new cover on Some Girls that said, "this record is under construction." Turns out they were getting sued for a crude sexual reference they made about African American girls. So of course I had to buy that version too.

Apart from the great title track this record also include "Beast of Burden," "When the Whip Comes Down," "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and the strange countyeske "Far Away Eyes." Song for song, I would put this up against any Stones record.

Jesse rocks Founders Day

Wieden+Kennedy was founded on April Fool's day 27 years ago. So, every year on April 1st, we close down for the afternoon and have an employee only party. This year we brought back the talent show. There were some great performances and some not so great. My man, Jesse Johnson took sixth place with his awesome rendition of "I'm a player" that brought the house down. I think he deserved better, but he won a $20 gift certificate for Burgerville. A girl I had never met before did an amazing version of the dance scene from Little Miss Sunshine, one of the funniest things I have ever seen. After the show, the party moved over to a night club on the east side with a live band and DJ. I cut out early, but I heard the band wasn't too good so most people retreated to the basement for karaoke. The highlight of the basement was watching one guy trying to cook hamburgers for 250 people.