Empty Bus

As frequent readers will remember, I ride the bus to work, and every so often there is a post called "Today on the Bus." Usually this is where I write about some of the more colorful Portlanders I have met over the years, or more accurately I try not to meet. Today something happened that is very rare, I was the only person on the bus. This has happened before for a stop or two, but today I was the only person on the bus for almost half the ride and when I got off the bus driver was all alone. I felt a little sad for him.

Spring Cleaning

An unfortunate result of all the rain and trees in our neighborhood is green slime and mold on our decks. Every year or two you have to get out there and freshen it up, so I spent the long weekend pressure washing and staining the wood to make it look a little better. The easy part is the floor of the deck, the mold comes off pretty easily and it's also easy to roll the stain on. The challenge is all the vertical parts. It's time consuming and back pain inducing to reach all the nooks and crannies. It is also a challenge trying to paint anything outdoors in Oregon, you never know when it will start raining. Luckily, the deck had most of the day to dry before the down pour started on Saturday night.

Mariners Game

The Nike Golf team took a trip to Seattle for the day to see the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-3. It was a fun game, and we had great seats. We were able to walk up and get seats behind home plate half an hour before the game started, poor Mariners. SafeCo is a great stadium, with lots of great food options. I can highly recommend the cheesesteak sandwich by section 127. Also, I can highly recommend Bolt Bus as a easy way to get up to Seattle. They have a bus that leaves Portland at 8:30 AM and returns at 6:00 PM, for $26 round trip.

Record Disaster

This Saturday afternoon started with excitement and anticipation, as I finally found a record player that fit my expectations and budget. I had been looking for several weeks and had decided I could not justify paying $500 for a new audiophile turntable as I only had a few records left and I probably wasn't going to spend hours listening to them like I did in the old days. Also, the iPod has made us so lazy that flipping over a record every 20 minutes seems like a lot of work.

I set my budget at $200 and started scouring record and audio equipment stores for a good used record player. There are a lot of good places out there, Echo Audio on SW Washington in downtown is very helpful. They have all the best new stuff as well as a good section of used equipment. Fred's Sound of Music on SE Hawthorne is also a very interesting place. It looks like a pawn shop from the outside, but they have a lot of high end stuff. Unfortunately I think the prices are a little on the high side. I ended up finding a great 90's model Denon player at Clinton Street Record & Stereo. The guys there are a little quite, but they obviously enjoy buying old players and fixing them up, and their prices are great.

So, I get my new (to me) record player home set it up and start playing Never Mind the Bullocks by the Sex Pistols, which I got with the player, and it sounds pretty good. Here is where things start to go horribly wrong. Barbara comes down to pick out one of her records to play and it's pretty badly warped. This is upsetting, so she picks out another and another and so on until we go through all 50 some records and only three are playable. Needless to say this is a sad day. At one time I had several thousand records, but I got sick of carrying them from move to move so I sold them all of in a big garage sale when we left LA. When I was loading up the moving truck I found a few records that did not make it into the sale and Barbara's collection. I thought they had been sitting safely in a closet for the last 17 years, but it turns out there was some water damage, or heat damage somewhere along the way and we are now down to three.

Alan Mac's 50th in Montreal

I hadn't been to Montreal in almost 20 years, so it was great to get back for my cousin Alan MacIntosh's 50th birthday. It was a surprise so we spent the day on Friday walking around the city. It is a great place and you can see quite a bit in a day. We stayed at the Sofitel on the Golden Mile which was very nice. This is the part of town that was first settled by rich Scottish folks and has many beautiful homes and buildings, as well as McGill University, Canada's Harvard.

From the hotel we walked downtown, through old Montreal all the way to the port. But first we stopped for a little breakfast and I can highly recommend the Universel Déjeuners et Grillades, 2055 rue Peel.

There are several amazing historical buildings in old Montreal you have to see, but the one must see is the Notre Dame Basilica. Finished in the 1850's, it is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. This iPhone photo does not do it justice. Unfortunately we unable to see it, but they have an amazing light show they put on several times a week.

Right next to the Notre Dame Basilica is the oldest building in Montreal, the Old Sulpician Seminary, designed by Francois Dollier de Casson in 1684.

If you keep walking through Old Montreal, you hit the Latin Quarter, home to more historical buildings and some great new restaurants. A great place to stop for lunch at one of the open cafes. If you keep heading towards the river, you will get to the Quays which serve as the port along the St. Lawrence river. Most are not in operation any more and now serve as the home to pleasure boat docks, tour cruises, restaurants and most importantly Cirque du Soleil, where we took in the new shw Ama Luna on our last night.

   

Of course the main reason we were all in Montreal was to celebrate Alan Mac's 50th. Here are my mom and dad greeting their nephew at the surprise party. Alan's wife Manon had done a masterful job setting up the party as well as other weekend events for all of us, without Alan suspecting anything.

Alan has done a lot of great things over the years, but nothing better than raising three amazing kids. This is Eloise, Clara and my godson Christophe.

We ate a lot of great food while we were in Montreal, but you know how I love to go low brow. Here is the crew, Alan, Peter, dad, Christophe and me at Lester's deli eating a Montreal classic smoked meat sandwiches. The meat is very salty, like corned beef or pastrami and Lester's is the place to go to get it.

After lunch, we made our way over to Olympic Stadium to watch the Montreal Impact vs. the LA Galaxy. David Beckham was playing for LA, so the stadium was packed out with 60, 000+ the largest crowd ever to see a soccer game in Canada. The game ended up a 1-1 tie, but it was a lot of fun.

 

Don't leave Montreal without going up to the top of the park, so you can get a great panoramic view of the city.

Songs We All Love

NPR's All Songs Considered is doing something super cool, they are trying to find songs we all agree on, songs that you can play in a room full of people and almost everyone is going to like them and know all the words.  They kicked it off with 11 songs, and I found myself singing along to all of them: Graceland from Paul Simon, Rockaway Beach by the Ramones, and Back in Black from AC/DC to name three. The idea is not to find bland, vanilla songs that everyone will agree on, but the really great ones we all love.

Here is the fun part, you can post songs you want to be included and vote on the ones you like. I am thinking of adding 1999 by Prince, Train in Vain by the Clash, I am still in Love With You by Al green. Go check out the latest show and add your favorites.

East India Grill

I love Indian food and for several years I have walked by the East India Grill in downtown Portland on my way home and thought, that place smells really good, we should eat there some time.  Last night we finally made it in the door, and that's where the hiccups began. I had made a reservation for two, but the computer said three. This seemed to throw the hostess off her game and she spent several minutes dealing with the computer before we got a seat in a relatively empty restaurant.

After we were seated the wait staff was very nice and helpful. We got a couple of tasty and strong cocktails to start, then some popadom. For our entrees we had the Chicken Tikka Masala ($18) – Chicken marinated in spices and yogurt, baked in a tandoor oven and served in a masala sauce – which was very good, as was the Chicken Korma Curry ($17) - a characteristic Indian dish based on a mixture of spices along with cashewnuts, fresh ginger, green chillies and cream. Everything comes with rice and of course you have to add naan bread.

East India Grill is a perfectly serviceable restaurant, the room was nice, the staff were helpful and the food was pretty good, but it does not live up to it's self designation as, "the best Indian food in Portland." I would much rather eat at the Bombay Cricket Club, or if I was in this neighborhood, I would make the short walk to the India Grill where there is always an inexpensive and delicious buffet on offer.

East India Grill 

821 SW 11th Avenue

Portland, OR 97205

503-227-8815

info@eastindiacopdx.com

OPEN MON-SAT, CLOSED SUNDAYS

Lunch: 11:30am - 2:00 pm

Happy Hour: 5:00 pm- 7:00 pm

Dinner: 5:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Blunderbuss by Jack White

If like me, you are a huge White Stripes fan, you have been waiting on the edge of your seat for this record for a some time now. So here it is, Jack White's first solo record, Blunderbuss.  First off, thank you Mr. White, you have given all your fans a very accessible record, that is comfortable in the right places and pushes us a little too. I also have an early contender for single of the year with "Sixteen Saltines." This song totally rocks out, and while it is an outlier on the record, it is like a special gift.

I really don't feel like going off on Mr. White's musical genius and how he seems to be the only one having any fun in the music business right now with his record company Third Man, putting out some of the most unique stuff out there, I'll just say, buy this record, listen to it about five times and enjoy.