Musings and Wanderings

Laugh it up in the Windy City

2011-04-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

Chicago is one of my favorite cities in the US, as long as you don't have to go there in the winter. Unfortunately they were experiencing Portland like weather last week, sideways rain, but colder. Luckily, we spent the day inside attending meetings with one of our new clients at the famous Second City improv and comedy club. It was amazing to be in the room where so many famous comedians got their start. I won't try to list them all, because that would take too long, but basically everyone from the original cast of Saturday Night Live to Tina Fey honed their skills on this stage.

After spending all day at Second City, we decided to go see the show that night. We were lucky to get in, there were only a few tickets left for a Tuesday night show. You need to get there by 7:30 for the 8:00 pm show, as it is first come first serve on the seating. We got a decent seat in the back area, but be warned, it is a small venue and there are a lot of seats with obstructed views and tight seats.

The show itself was amazing and had a heavy Chicago influence. They had a few skits about exiting Mayor Daley and incoming Mayor Emanuel that were great. There are two scripted sessions that are about 45-50 minutes each. The sketches are all work-shopped improv and when they are happy with the idea, they script it for the show. The third act is a 20 minute improv session with all the actors on stage, taking topic ideas from the audience. If you don't want to get pulled up on stage, don't try to volunteer another person, they will always pick you. It was great to see these young actors at work, and I am sure at least a couple of them will be on SNL or some sitcom in the near future. They were all very talented.

If you are looking for dinner before the show, I have a couple of suggestions. Just down the street from Second City is a place called the 33 Club. They have a great bar and a huge dinning room. We were there a little early, so it was pretty empty, but it was still a warm and welcoming room. I started with a tuna tare tare that was great and for entree had the seafood spaghetti. The salads and salmon entree were also very good. This would be a good place for a large party or to watch a game in the bar. The prices are pretty reasonable for Chicago.

You'd have to catch the late show on Friday or Saturday to eat at Gibson's Steak House. This is a classic Chicago steak house. The waiters all wear white coats and they bring out the raw steaks so you can pick what cut you want. I went with the NY Strip which was great and the guy with me got the Chicago cut which was also very good. The steak comes with a soup or salad, I got the green pea soup which was tasty and the salad looked good too. As sides we got a twice baked potato and some asparagus with hollandaise sauce, both were excellent. You better come hungry as the portions are really big.

Second City
1616 N. Wells St.
Chicag, IL 60610

(312) 337-3992

33 Club
419 N. Wells St.
Chicago, IL 60610

312-664-1419

Gibson's Steak House
1028 N. Rush St.
Chicago, IL 60611
(312) 266-8999

The Big Uneasy

2011-04-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Was the flooding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina a natural disaster or a result of years of incredible human negligence? This is the question film maker Harry Shearer explores in his new documentary The Big Uneasy. You know Shearer better for his mockumentaries, Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, etc. but this time he is deadly serious.

Shearer does a great job of pulling together interviews and stories from the teams that went to New Orleans immediately after the flooding began to try to figure out what went wrong. What they found was so disturbing that the government, the people who funded them, and the Universities they worked for either squashed the results, or in the worst case fired them. If you are like me and you have a vested interest in the city of New Orleans, you will not be surprised by much of what you will see in the movie. We know the wetlands have been disappearing for year and that this makes hurricanes much more intense and much more likely to reach New Orleans at full force. We know that the Corps of Engineers made inferior levees, because we saw all the pictures of sand piles and we know you can't build levees on sand. We know the pumps that were supposed to move water down the canals failed. What I didn't know was that lots the people at the Corps of Engineers knew this and they knew it for a long time before Hurricane Katrina hit. After the hurricane, they decided that any study of what went wrong should, "focus on the future and not seek to place blame." As I am sure you can guess, if blame were to be placed it would all land at the feet of the Corps.

The sad part, is that it is not getting better. The people that caused all the problems in the first place are now charged with fixing them, but the problem is they are not fixing them. They are making things worse. You will hear crazy stuff like the fact that 90% of the levees in New Orleans have not been upgraded and are essentially the same as when they failed after Katrina.

So, next time New Orleans floods, you'll know it was not a natural disaster, but a man made disaster brought to you by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Museum City

2011-04-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

Houston is usually called Space City thanks to the Johnson Space Center, and this is a great place to visit if you are ever in Houston with some time on your hands, but I think you might be more impressed with all the museums. The fact is, there are a lot of rich people in Houston and they have given a lot of money to create or endow some of the best art collections in the country. The good news is all the museums are relatively close to each other in a very nice part of the city, and the Houston Museum District website lists all the shows and other info in one place.

I recommend starting with the Menil Collection. John de Menil, a successful businessman and diplomat, moved to Houston after he married the heir to the Schlumberger fortune, Dominique Schlumberger, and together they amassed over 17,000 works or art and artifacts. They built a beautiful building to show a small rotating portion of the art in 1971 and it still stands as one of the best museum spaces in the country. While we were there they had a small, but very powerful collection of civil rights photos from the 60's as one of about eight different exhibits. If you have a particular interest and you can convince them you are an art scholar, you can access any part of the larger collection stored in a separate warehouse.

Across from the Menil is my favorite place in Houston, the Rothko Chapel. In 1971 the Menil's commissioned an intimate sanctuary where people of every belief could go to meditate and be inspired by the mural canvases of Russian born American painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970), who incidentally grew up in Portland. At first the canvases seem like simple, although huge, black panels, but the more time you spend with them the more the subtleties are revealed. The building also has amazing natural light that can have a big effect on art and the mood of the room. In 2001 the Chapel was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and is a featured entry in National Geographic's book Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations. I would suggest spending a little time to allow the vibe of the place to settle in, you don't want to rush this visit.

When you come out of the Rothko Chapel, on the plaza, you will see Barnett Newman's sculpture, Broken Obelisk, which was created in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A short drive down the street is the Houston Museum of Fine arts, the Contemporary Arts Museum, the Center for Contemporary Craft, the Center for Photography, the Houston Zoo, The Children's Museum, the Museum of Natural Sciences and several other small gems.

One of the gems I wanted to visit was the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum, but it looked like it was closed so we went to the Holocaust Museum. For such a downer subject this is a really nice place. They have authentic film footage, artifacts, photographs and documents that depict life in pre-war Europe, the Nazi move toward the “Final Solution” and life after the Holocaust. The tour takes about an hour and a half if you go with one of the guides or you can get around in half an hour on your own.

The most striking part of the museum is the 1942 Holocaust-era rail car where you can stand inside and imagine yourself with 130 others, packed like sardines on the way to a German death camp. It is a chilling experience. On the positive side they also have a 1942 Danish rescue boat that ferried 7000 Jews out of Denmark to neutral Sweden. On the way out I was amazed to see the list of holocaust survivors in Houston, the list was easily over 200 people.

So next time you are Houston, don't complain that there is nothing to do.

Great Neighborhood Seafood Place

2011-03-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Cabezon is a great neighborhood seafood restaurant and fish market that opened in Portland's Hollywood district in December 2009. Owners, Chef David Farrell and sommelier Jackie Speck named it after a Pacific predatory coastal fish, but it is a very friendly place. In fact I wish this was in our neighborhood so I could walk to it regularly.

We started off our meal with the very generous house made paté with crostini, pickled pears, cornichons and red onions. The pate was delicious and the pickled pears had a very unique flavor, that was a great compliment. As a follow up, we shared the special smoked trout salad, with a heritage lemon vinaigrette dressing. Again this was an amazing dish, with a lot of flavor.

The menu changes daily, based on what fish is fresh, so you won't get bored eating here. I tried one of the main stay entrees, the Cioppino with white gulf shrimp, Dungeness crab, local fish, calamari, clams and mussels. This dish was a great spicy seafood stew that was plentiful and filling. We also had a pan seared fish that was from the sea bass family, on a bed of jambalaya. It was some of the best jambalaya I have tasted in a long time, and the fish was great too.

I hope you save room for desert, because I could have had one of everything on the menu. The carrot cake with Bellwether Farms crème fraiche lemon mousse was awesome and the Anjou pear crisp with house made vanilla ice cream and caramel was good too. The also have some great cocktails and a reasonably wine list.

Dinner served 5:30-9pm Monday-Thursday, 5:30- 9:30pm Fri-Sat. Outside dining available in warmer months. Happy hour 5-6 PM, Monday-Thursday.

Cabezon
5200 NE Sacramento St.
Portland, OR 97213
(503) 284-6617

Open Table iPhone App

2011-03-20T16:49:00.000-07:00

Open Table is one of the most useful apps I have come across this year. It allows you to find restaurants in your area that have open tables and make a reservation. I have used it so far in Houston and Portland and many of our favorite restaurants have been listed; they claim to have over 15,000 restaurants in the database. It's great for last minute reservations, but you can also make long-term plans as well. Don't know what you want to do for dinner, just start up Open Table and you'll have a list of all the restaurants within a few miles that have tables available.

After you eat, Open Table will prompt you to give feedback, which you can share with the restaurant owners. You can also get ratings and read reviews from other customers. It's a great app, that is free to download and easy to use.

New Orleans meets Spain in Portland

2011-03-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Tapalaya is a new Portland restaurant offering small plate versions of traditional Cajun/Creole dishes. As you can see from the name they have combined tapas and jambalaya; unfortunately we didn't get to try the jambalaya special as our waiter forgot to tell us the specials. In fact, lets get the bad stuff out of the way first. The waiter was terrible. He was always close by, but unfortunately he was talking to his friends at the table next to us and ignored us. I could dismiss this as one bad waiter, but the folks who dropped off the food were a little rude too, I felt like they were delivering food to prisoners.

The good news is that the food and drinks were pretty good and because of the portion sizes, you can try a lot of stuff. The first thing we got was the gumbo, which was the best dish on the menu. It had a nice rich base and lots of seafood, very tasty. The Tapalaya Jambalaya with chicken, shrimp and andouille. was good but not overly flavorful. The Crabby Mac, mac and cheese with lump blue crab was OK, kind of like crab au gratin, but it could have been cheesier in my opinion. The Buttermilk Fried Chicken with bourbon pecan syrup was disappointing. I was hoping for a breast, but it was an overcooked leg, that did not have a lot of flavor. If we come back, and that is in doubt at this point, I would like to try the Crawfish Fritters with Cajun aioli and the BBQ shrimp. They also had a good looking Muffaletta as well as several other Po’Boys.

The drinks were a mixed bad. The hurricane I had was delicious, but the sazerac was watery and disappointing. They do have a few New Orleans beers, but only in bottles, none on tap. Overall I would say Tapalaya was a disappointment, I had high hopes and they were not fulfilled.

Open Mon-Thu,Sat 4:30pm-9:30pm; Fri 4:30pm-10:30pm; Sun 4:30pm-9pm

Tapalaya
28 NE 28th Ave
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 232-6652

March Madness

2011-03-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

It's back, the most exciting sporting event of the year, The 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament or as it is more affectionately known, March Madness. As always I am posting my picks so you can track how I am doing and make fun of me when 50% of my teams loose in the first round (click on the bracket to expand).

One thing I am a little upset about is this trend among some pundits who are picking Texas to go out in the first round against Oakland. Luckily this doesn't seem to be too wide spread, as several experts on ESPN have them in their final four. I don't see UT getting past Duke, if they get that far, but as always I would gladly trade the $1000+ I would win in the pool to see UT win it all.

Go Horns!

Best breakfast in Portland

2011-03-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

Tasty n Sons has been around for a while and I have actually eaten there a couple of times, so why have I taken so long to write this review? I don't know, but all I can say is I am not perfect. Tasty n Sons however, is perfect. At least the food is. If you could somehow walk in at any time and get a table then it would be perfect, but that is not going to happen. On a weekend you should expect to wait at least an hour, and it even fills up during the week if you don't get there as the doors are opening.

Is it worth waiting an hour for breakfast on a Sunday? Probably not, but there doesn't seem to be much choice in Portland on a weekend or holiday. You can drive from place to place and everywhere is at least an hour. Seems like we could do with 20 more good places to eat breakfast in this town.

So if you are going to wait for an hour or more, you should wait for the best.

When you finally get seated, the trick is to have a few people to share with and order a lot of stuff (try not to drink too many Bloody Marys while you wait). The best thing on the menu is Auntie Paula's French Toast, hands down the best you will ever eat. Then you can bounce from sweet to savory with the Griddled Bacon Wrapped Dates, Sautéed Spinach with sunny side up egg, Morocan Chicken Hash and the Chocolate Potato Doughnut to name a few favorites.

Tasty n Sons is also open for lunch and reportedly has a great hamburger, but I can not imagine going there without getting the french toast. It is a big place, and the buzz is great when it is full. the service is quick and friendly and they also have great cocktails if you are a booze-hound who drinks at 10 AM.

Open daily for brunch and dinner: 9 to 10, Fri & Sat till 11 — Happy Hour: 2:30 pm to 5:30pm

Tasty n Sons
3808 N. Williams Avenue
Portland, OR 97227
(503) 621-1400

It's Oscar Time

2011-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

I can't say that I am a huge fan of the televised presentation of the Oscar Awards, it is usually boring and often cringe inducing. What I do love about the Oscars are the nominations and seeing which of my favorites made the list.

In my humble opinion, this was a pretty good year for films. I enjoyed almost all of the films nominated for best picture:

Inception - I am not100% sure this movie deserved a nod for best picture, but in the expanded 10 movie structure, visually compelling movies that do well at the box office, are going to sneak in. In fact that is the whole point of the expansion, to get some crowd pleasers in there. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page were great in this film and it did keep me on the edge of my seat. It also had just enough twists and turns that you could argue what was real and what was a dream, throwing the entire movie into question. A fun film, that was visually stunning and had a good plot, but not the best pic or 2010.

The Kids Are All Right - congratulations to Focus Features for propelling another good movie into the best film category. These guys are amazing at getting their films nominated for awards, whether they deserve them or not. This one did not. I thought it was a good film; Mark Ruffalo and Annette Bening's performances were good, but they did not stand out to me as best supporting actor and best actress nominees. It was a strong ensemble cast that kept this story together. The fact that it doesn't have a Hollywood ending is what saved it from the trash heap for me.

The King's Speech - Now we are getting to the real contenders. I love period pieces and this is the ultimate period film. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are most deserving of their nominations for best actor and supporting actor respectively. I see Firth running away with it and Rush in a dogfight with Christian Bale. I was disappointed that Helena Bonham Carter did not get a nomination, but you can't have everything. At the end of the day this is the film that will walk away with all the awards. Hollywood loves this kind of film and God bless them for it. It is a great story, well told. We can ask no more.

127 Hours - And now we take a giant step backwards. 127 Hours, really? I don't even want to watch this movie on cable. Interesting news story, should have stopped there.

The Social Network - This movie got a lot of Oscar buzz early in the year, but was soon overtaken by The Kings Speech and The Fighter. It is a great film and it deserves to be in the running but it's like being in a race with Michael Johnson, in any other year you would have won. I know there has been a lot of controversy around the amount of liberties the writers took with this story, but who cares, the drama is great and you know everyone is lying to some degree. I have heard people taking Zuckerberg's side as well as the Winklevoss orNarendra's so obviously the writers gave everyone something to argue about. Another thing that has become brutally evident is that we won't be waiting 50 years to tell our stories, the future is unfolding so fast, that the movie has to be made while it is still happening.

Toy Story 3 - By the time to you get to the third of anything you are usually past done, but this is not the case with the Toy Story franchise. The genises at Pixar are able to keep the story fresh and interesting. As with all Pixar stories you know what is going to happen, but it is still a great ride getting there. Although there are some other great choices in the category, I have no doubt this will win the Oscar for best animated feature.

Black Swan- Review forthcoming.

The Fighter - This is my other favorite movie of the year, and honestly I can't remember a year that had two equally great movies that were so different. The Fighter is the opposite of The King's Speech in almost every way except they are both based on a true story and they both took a lot of effort to get to the screen. Mark Wahlberg went through several directors and a maze of financing to get this film made. I am not sure what was harder, getting the film made or the training he went through to be a convincing boxer. I have heard him tell the story and I think that would be a great documentary in itself. Like the protagonist, Micky Ward, Wahlberg is also the youngest of nine kids. They came up in the same neighborhood and both their mom's dotted on older brothers. And like Ward, Wahlberg had to keep fighting to get his shot. It was well worth it. This is a raw and ruthless film.

True Grit - I love the Coen brothers and I will watch any film they make, but I feel like it has been a while since they made a big movie. A Serious Man and Burn After Reading were both interesting but they did not have the gravitas of True Grit. Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld both deserve nominations for best actor and actress, they are fantastic. This is one of the few movies that is worth seeing on the big screen. Again, I have to say, if this weren't the year of The King's Speech, this would be a legitimate contender.

Winter's Bone - This was not the feel good movie of the year and that is why I loved it. It is a very raw look at a family that is dealing with rural poverty and the devastation caused by meth. I know it got a lot of critical acclaim, but I don't think this movie had a very long run in the theater, so my guess is that this nomination will get a lot of people to check it out on Netflicks or DVD. That's fine as this movie is all about the story, you don't need to see it on the wide screen. Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes are both excellent and it was great to see the are nominated in the best actress and best supporting actor categories. This is my sleeper of the year nominee.

Great Mediterranean food in NE Portland

2011-02-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Tabla Mediterranean Bistro is the newest offering from the folks that brought you 10-01 in the Pearl. While that restaurant never caught on, Tabla feels much more suited for the Portland palate. They have a small, well thought out menu, full of local ingredients that"add a modern twist to authentic Mediterranean specialties from regions such as Spain, France, Northern Africa, and Italy."

There are some great choices on the menu, but the first decision you should make is to get the $24 three course meal that allows you to choose one selection each from the appetizer, pasta and entree choices. We started with an excellent winter soup and a very nice charcuterie board. The pastas were equally good and difficult to choose from. The waiter recommend, and we tried, the Tajarin with truffle butter and parmigiano reggiano, and the Tabla Ravioli (pictured) with chard, ricotta, poached farm egg and poppy seed butter. This is hand-made in the restaurant and tastes as amazing as it looks.

For the entree we made the mistake of getting the same thing, the Spanish Seafood Stew (pictured). This was not a mistake on my part, as I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Barbara was not as happy and had nothing to trade for. In the future we must remember to try different things.

To top it all off we had a great lemon desert and a couple of scoops of their hand made gelato.

The Tabla Bistro is a great addition to the Portland restaurant scene. It is a cozy space, with great service and an affordable wine list. I look forward to a return visit.

Tabla’s hours are Monday – Sunday from 5:30pm- close.

Tabla Mediterranean Bistro
200 NE 28th Ave.
Portland, OR 97232
503.238.3777

The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquart

2011-02-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Alistair Urquhart grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland and was enjoying a pretty good life until Hitler declared war on the British. As a 20 year-old he joined the local army regiment, the Gordon Highlanders. He was shipped out to Singapore, where he languished through a boring year shuffling papers and perfecting his ball room dancing.

Then everything changed and what ensued is one of the worst stories I have ever heard. He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 when they invaded Singapore. Forced into slave labor as a POW, he survived 750 days in the jungle working on the notorious “Death Railway” and building the bridge over the River Kwai. During this time over 100,000 men lost their lives and Urquart was very luck not to be among them. Things went from bad to worse when he was transported on a Japanese “hellship,” in a hold where you were unable to move because the men were packed in so tightly. Almost one in three of the POWs on these ships died in the hold. To make matters worse his ship was torpedoed, and nearly everyone on board died, but not Urquhart. He drifted on a make shift raft for five days in the South China Sea, and while others were rescued by the American submarine that sunk them, he was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship and returned to the enemy.

The misfortune does not end here, as he was taken to Japan and forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later, he was just ten miles from ground zero when an atomic bomb was dropped knocking him to the ground. In late August 1945, he was freed by the American Navy, and on the way to the boat he drove though radiated dust, which later lead to cancer. At this point the 5' 6" 135 lb Urquart had been reduced to 82 lbs and he looked like a living skeleton after three and a half years as a POW.

The greatest insult of all was that the British government never gave him any compensation nor did they provide medical help for his litany of maladies: cholera, beriberi, dysentery, malaria, and the subsequent cancer from radiation exposure and skin cancer from sun exposure. Despite the constant nightmares and never being able to eat anything but the simplest, blandest foods for the rest of his life, he married and had a happy family. He finally sat down to tell the world his story in 2010. At 91, he still lives in Dundee and spends his time teaching retired people how to use the computer and attends and teaches ballroom dancing.

After reading this book I don't think I can ever complain about anything, ever. He is truly part of the greatest generation.

Best Super Bowl spot

2011-02-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

W+K won the Super Bowl with this great new spot for the Chrysler 200.

The best records of 2010

2011-02-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

I know we are already into February, so this is a little late, but I still wanted to get my favorite records for 2010 out there. Some of them were late adds, so I m glad I got a little more time with them.

The nominees:

Brothers by The Black Keys
I love this record, it didn't win my record of the year, but it could have. One guy on drums and the other on guitar, what's not to love. They play stripped down rock and roll that is passionate and powerful. They also won the Colbert sell-out-athon with more songs in commercials than Vampire Weekend. You can hear the songs from this record on Cadillac, Subaru and about 25 other commercials. You know why? Because they are great songs. I have no problem with selling your song to a car company, you didn't create it for the commercial. You just made a great song that someone wants to pay you a lot of money to use, go for it.

Lucky Shiner by Gold Panda
What a beautiful record. If you just want to chill out and listen to something that will take you away to another world this is it. If I could make one record the sound track to my life this is it. I don't want to get into the exotica of electronic music and what is and isn't dubstep, I am too old for that. I just know this is awesome and I still can't stop listening to it.

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
I'll be honest, I did not want to like this record. When Carrie Brownstein named it her record of the year on NPR's All Songs Considered, I thought she was crazy. I only liked one song the first time I heard it, because Kanye sings, "this is for the douche bags" and I thought he was talking about himself. Well damn it, this record has grown on me so much that I love it now when one of the songs pops up on my iPod. Kanye you are a douche bag. You are famous for being famous. You are now writing songs about the downside of the fame you don't deserve, but turns out they are great songs.

Treats by Sleigh Bells
When Robin Hilton named this his record of the year on NPR's All Songs Considered, he got unmitigated sh*t. People turned on him like a pack of wolves. I think Sleigh Bells is a band that provokes that kind of emotion, you either love them or you hate them. As Hilton said in his review, when I hear these songs I want to punch someone in the face. For that, I love them. The energy on this record is unparalleled. The funny thing is, the song that was a big radio hit was the one softer song. Go figure.

Love And Its Opposite by Tracey Thorn
I reviewed this record earlier in the year and it stayed with me as one of my favorites. Tracy Thorn is one half of the band Everything But The Girl. This is her third and best solo record. The emotion and rawness of this record is amazing. It also heartening and brave to see a women put out an age appropriate record.

What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood by The Mynabirds
Another record I reviewed earlier this year that didn't seem to make into any of the top 10 lists I saw out there. Laura Burhenn is a beautiful reincarnation of Dusty Springfield with a little Cat Power thrown in. "Numbers Don't Lie" is a candidate for my favorite song of the year.

This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
This is a record that got a lot of attention from all the major critics. As I said in my review, I missed out on LCD's first record and was glad to get acquainted with him this year. This is my favorite dance record of the year. The beats are amazing, you can't stop moving when you hear them, and as a bonus he has a great sense of humor. "Drunk Girls" and "Dance Yrself Clean" two candidates for song of the year.

Come Around Sundown by Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon rock. Done. Buy this.

New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh by Erykah Badu
I didn't want to buy this record. Frankly New Amerykah Part One was a mess and I did not enjoy it. This record is much more analog in the instrumentation and much more emotional in the lyrics and song choices. I hate to say this, but she went old school and it works all day. This is why we love Erykah Badu.

(And the winner is...) Record of the year:

Good Things by Aloe Blacc
This record rose to the top because it has everything. A great single, "I Need a Dollar," that was used as the title song in the HBO show, How to Make it in America; a singer with a great voice and a bunch of really emotional, passionate and grooving songs. I feel like Aloe Blacc is the Marvin Gaye for the new generation. His words are political and thought provoking but they are sung so smoothly and beautifully that you somehow feel like it's going to be all right.

Single of the year:

"F*** You" by Cee Lo Green
I saw that Cee Lo Green was going to be on Saturday Night Live and all I could think was how can he play that song on TV, he says the F word like 100 times. Because I have stopped listening to the radio, I didn't realize there was a radio friendly version of the song, where he sings "Forget You." What a let down, that version sucks. So that raises the question, do I only like this song for the shock value. Maybe, but it's also a good tune and he has so much fun with it, that it's still the one song that I have to stop everything and sing along with when it comes on.

Don Younger, July 11 1941- January 31 2011

2011-02-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

Portland lost one of it's great citizens this week with the passing of Don Younger. He was the founder and longtime owner of our favorite local pub The Horse Brass. You might think it is strange to lament the loss of a publican in a town like Portland that is renowned for great pubs and great beer, but the truth is Portland wouldn't be all of those things if it weren't for Don Younger. He is hugely responsible for the Portland becoming Beervana. He was one of the first people in Oregon to support and promote the craft beer movement. The Widmer Brothers credit him with helping them get their brewery started and giving them the early support that helped get their beer on the map. He created Oregon Craft Beer Month and was a leading authority on all things beer.

The first time I met him was pretty intimidating. He was a tall man despite his hunchback, and he had long white hair and a shaggy beard. I was in his smoke filled office, across the street from the pub, to ask that he keep our client Henry Weinhard's beer on tap. Miller had bought the brand when Stroh's went out of business, but they did not want to buy and maintain the old brewery in the Pearl District. People in Portland were super pissed off that the brewery was closing and they blamed Miller. My point was that Miller had saved the brand and even though it was not being brewed here anymore, they were still making it in the Pacific Northwest up at the old Olympia Brewery. I knew it would be a hard sell and things got off to a bad start when Don opened the conversation with, "so you are the assholes that closed the brewery." He was having none of our appeal and told us he would never carry Henry's as long as it was brewed outside Oregon. I have to say, I left in total agreement with him. I was as sad as anyone that the brewery was closing, but I was also bummed that we would no longer be selling Henry's in his hugely influential pub.

The next time I encountered Don Younger was on a very busy Friday night as he sat at the end of his bar having a beer. The smoking ban had just been initiated and I knew he had been adamantly against it. He was a heavy smoker, and he had lobbied hard to stop the measure, going as far as saying it would hurt his business. I know I probably shouldn't have incited him, but I couldn't help myself. I made a quip about how full the bar was and that the smoking ban may actually be helping business. For the second time in my life, he growled at me, and told me to "f--- off." I wear it as a badge of honor.

He was a great man and he will be missed. If you are so inclined, you should visit The Horse Brass on SE Belmont, order a pint of Rouge Brewing's Younger's Special Bitter (named after his late brother) and toast one of the men that made us the beer capitol of the U.S.

What I Do

2011-01-11T10:25:00.001-08:00

An advertising agengy in Canada has put together an amazing case study that sums up what we do in advertising in a perfect two minute video.

Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America by Eugene Robinson

2010-12-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist for the Washington Post. I heard an interview with him on NPR's Fresh Air and I immediately went out and bought his new book, Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America.

I have to admit I didn't grow up knowing a lot of black Americans, and Portland, Oregon is not exactly a hot bed of racial diversity, so it was very interesting to read the insights of an expert. This is a very easy book to read and there are just enough personal stories scattered among the statistics and facts to keep the pages turning.

In a nutshell, Robinson proposes that there is no longer a unified black America, or any one person, ala Martin Luther King or Jesse Jackson that speaks for black people. He presents a very persuasive case that black America has splintered into four distinct entities. First, there are the transcendent elites such as Oprah, Vernon Jordon, Tiger Woods and the like who are among the most powerful people in the US. There is the fast growing middle class that are attaining the American dream, living in nice neighborhoods, running their own businesses, and sending their kids to good colleges. There are two groups of emerging populations, children of bi-racial marriages such as President Obama, who still see themselves as black, and a huge influx of African immigrants, who's children are going to ivy-league schools at a higher rate than white or Asians. Lastly there are the abandoned, or as my friend J White says, the folks left in the hood.

Robinson does a great job explaining how we got to this splintering, and what it might mean for the country in the long run, but the real tragedy and the area of biggest concern are the abandoned. Why are so many black Americans still stuck in poverty, when all around them others are advancing to the middle class and beyond? What can we do to make a difference? If these questions interest you, you will find this to be a great read.

Bamboo Sushi

2010-12-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

I am excited to say, there is great sushi on the east side.

Bamboo Sushi is the first certified, sustainable sushi restaurant in the world, which is pretty impressive. They also only use hormone free, organic, grass fed, American kobe grade beef. So you start to like this place as soon as you sit down and the good news is it only gets better. The food, the drinks and the service are all great.

Let's start with the drinks. Bamboo has an amazingly impressive sake list, but I would highly recommend you try the Shōchū. It is a distilled beverage native to Japan, most commonly distilled from barley, sweet potatoes, or rice. Usually it contains 25% alcohol by volume (weaker than whiskey or vodka but stronger than wine and sake), but I think theirs contained 35% alcohol. I got the sweet potato version and it was very smooth; I would suggest on the rocks.

Now to the important stuff, the sushi. The salmon and special trout nigiri were excellent. We also tried a couple of specialty house rolls. The highway 35 - red crab mixed with spicy sesame aioli, avocado, cucumber and asparagus, rolled and topped with sake poached pears, eel sauce, tempura crunchies and tobiko was amazing as was the California sunset- a California roll topped with spicy tuna, spicy mayonnaise, and tempura crunchies.

I can't say enough about how much we enjoyed our meal and how nice our server was. I only wish they took reservations, then it would be perfect.

Kings of Leon - Come Around Sundown

2010-12-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

As you already know, I am a huge Kings of Leon fan, so it should come as no surprise that I have been eagerly awaiting the release of their latest record Come Around Sundown. I have been listening to it for a while now and I just realized I have not posted a review.

Following up their smash hit record Only by the Night, would seem like a daunting task, but to hear the band tell it they were not concerned. “The funny thing is that Only by the Night was the first album we approached with the attitude of not trying to make a popular record. We just made the record we wanted to make and it ended up being our best-selling album. So for this new one, I don’t think any of us were thinking we had to make a record that would stand next to Only by the Night. We definitely didn't want to go in there and make a record out of fear that it wouldn't be as big.”

This record covers more ground than any of their records to date. The band explores everything from gospel to country to the big rock sound you would expect. It also brings back the garage rock sound that fans of their first studio records will remember, while songs like "The Face" will keep new fans comfortable.

The band began to record this new record in February 2010, only a few months after finishing a two year tour for Only By The Night. Their plan was to take a year off and do nothing, but..."we got bored. It was like, ‘You guys want to get together and rehearse some stuff in case we have a show?’ That always turns into new ideas and it only takes two or three to get us so excited that we think we could potentially start another record.”

Good thing they did, Come Around Sundown is a great contribution to the bands catalog and it would have sucked to have to wait another year or two for new music.

The Oregon Golfers

2010-12-07T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am posting this video again because it just won an "Excellence" award at the Portland Ad Show - The Rosies. Enjoy, and come spend your money in Oregon.

Monster Attack

2010-12-03T17:52:00.000-08:00

I saw this crazy car decoration today and I have to share. The dinosaur and action figures are glued to the car, not placed there by some kid.

Neighborhood Food Cart

2010-12-02T10:49:00.000-08:00

Most people have probably heard about the food cart craze here in Portland, but if you haven't check out this clip from the Food Channel.

I am not sure I can call this a restaurant review, but we finally stopped at the SE Belmont and 43rd food cart pod, which seems to be named after the sign outside that reads "Good Food Here." The sign speaks truth. We got an amazing pulled pork dinner from Namu, a stand that specializes in Hawaiian/Korean dishes. As with all the food carts, they have a very limited menu so what they do, they do well. The Pork and the cucumber salad were delicious and the servings were plentiful.

The pod has about eight to ten stands, serving everything from breakfast to burgers to a place called Creme de la Creme that only makes creme brulee. You could easily eat here every day for a week and be happy. They also have a tented area so you can eat in comfort in the Portland winter. Check out the link below for a full listing of all the stands, menus, hours, directions, etc.

Good Food Here
SE Belmont and 43rd

The Most Amazing Graph Ever

2010-12-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Planet Money produces a radio show for NPR that attempts to simplify economics for the non-econ majors among us, who are interested in understanding what a credit default swap is, why Ireland has gone broke, and how economic aid is or is not helping Haiti. They do a great job of taking complicated economic theories and making them understandable in an entertaining way. You can download their twice weekly podcast from NPR.com or listen for them on NPR news shows.

They also have a great blog that is updated regularly and it is there that I found the most amzing graph ever. This is a 4 minute video that tracks the world's countries economic growth versus their life expectancies. You can see the incredible increase in both since the 1890's, very positive stuff.

How Income Inequality Effects What We Eat

2010-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago I wrote a short post about income inequality and it seems to be a sticky issue. This week I was reading an article about the "food divide" when I found more evidence of how income differences are effecting us here in America.

Among the lowest quintile of American families, mean household income has held relatively steady between $10,000 and $13,000 for the past two decades; among the highest, income has jumped 20 percent to $170,800... Whole Foods—the upscale grocery chain recently reported a 58 percent increase in its quarterly profits—while the number of Americans on food stamps has surged by 58.5 percent over the last three years.

The article Divided we Eat, was in the 11/22 edition of Newsweek, and you can read it on their website. The story is quite compelling, and basically outlines how wealthier people can afford to eat better than poor people (and by better, I mean healthier).

While food prices overall rose about 25 percent, the most nutritious foods (red peppers, raw oysters, spinach, mustard greens, romaine lettuce) rose 29 percent, while the least nutritious foods (white sugar, hard candy, jelly beans, and cola) rose just 16 percent.

This is probably not a surprise, but what is a surprise is how government programs reinforce the problem. There are also some creative solutions out there that local governments are coming up with to help, like making your food stamps worth more if you use them at a farmers market. Another interesting finding is how Americans think of food versus other countries, most notably France. If you have ever been to France you know they have quite an incredible foodie culture, but did you also know they all tend to eat lunch at exactly the same time (and they see it as a time for social interaction, not a time to provide nutrition):

In surveys, (researchers) found no single time of day (or night) when Americans predictably sit together and eat. By contrast, 54 percent of the French dine at 12:30 each day. Only 9.5 percent of the French are obese.

In case you are wondering, more than 30% of Americans and 17% of American children are obese. And obesity is more prevalent among the poor than the rich. The USDA found that people on food stamps are more likely to be obese than those who are not. One of my favorite food writers, Michael Pollan puts it in succinct terms, “Essentially, we have a system where wealthy farmers feed the poor crap and poor farmers feed the wealthy high-quality food.”

So, I will leave you with the most startling paragraph in the article, and the reason I can't stop thinking about income inequality:

According to studies led by British epidemiologist Kate Pickett, obesity rates are highest in developed countries with the greatest income disparities. America is among the most obese of nations; Japan, with its relatively low income inequality, is the thinnest.

I am glad that is over

2010-11-29T11:48:00.000-08:00

If you are a University of Texas football fan, this has been a long and painful year. The misery ended with a well fought, but mistake prone loss to in-state rival Texas A+M. This game was a microcosm of the entire season. The Longhorns gave-away four turnovers, they had stupid penalties at the worst times, and the ball never seemed to bounce their way. The coup de grace came on the final play of the game. UT got the score to within seven and forced the Aggies to punt with a few seconds left. Instead of fielding the punt, they let it drop and the referees run the clock out as the players stood around wondering what was going on.

There seemed to be a lot of people standing around wondering what was going on this year. Coach Mac Brown did not have an explanation for the Longhorns reversal of fortune, going from the national championship game to 5-7 in one year. All the players on the team were highly recruited and all the coaches who put together a 13-1 season last year were still there.

So, what happened? There is no doubt the coaches attempt to become a running team was a bust. We didn't have the offensive line for it and the receivers not only didn't do a great job of blocking, they didn't master the fundamentals of catching either. There are a lot of opinions and I don't think anyone really wants to hear mine, but I have one theory that I have not heard elsewhere. The team and coaches never seemed to be focused on the opponent of the day. After the first two losses there was talk of still winning 10 games or still winning the Big 12 South. After a few more losses all the talk was of getting bowl eligible and getting the 13 extra practices. Don't get me wrong, we needed those 13 extra practices, but I don't think a bunch of teenage kids are motivated to win by the thought of more practice. I never heard the coaches talk about what they were going to do to beat OU or A+M. The years UT has done well, there was no looking ahead. The coaches only talked about the next game, they didn't talk about 10 wins, or national championships; they talked about what they had to do to beat Iowa State, even if they were a terrible team.

To get on back on track, the coaches need to spend the next nine months thinking about how they are going to beat Rice on Sept. 3rd, 2011, not how to get back to winning 10 games a year.

Wartorn 1861-2010

2010-11-26T14:40:00.000-08:00

Wartorn 1861-2010 documents America's battle with the mental injuries our soldiers have suffered from the Civil War, when it was called hysteria, to the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The official diagnosis is now Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but it was called shell shock in WWI and battle fatigue in WWII. The only consistency is how poorly the military and the US government have treated soldiers with mental injuries.

The film opens with the reading of a letter from a gung ho, young Union soldier to a friend back home, who calls the 100 or soldiers who are going home due to hysteria or melancholia, cowards. Over the course of the next couple of years, the letters from this same soldier, become more and more dark and it becomes obvious he is suffering deeply from what he has seen and done. After he is sent home, his friends are so concerned about him they won't allow him to go hunting with them. Unfortunately, they leave him alone with his gun and he takes his own life.

From here we see the pattern repeated over and over again. Parents, wives and other family members plead for help from the VA to save their returning soldiers from themselves. The stories are heartbreaking and infuriating. Executive Producer Jame Gadolfini does a great job interviewing current soldiers and the medical staff who are trying to change the protocall in the armed forces, making it easier to get help.

This is an extremely powerful film, and while it is not the feel good movie of the year, it is well worth your time.

Texas A+M vs. UT

2010-11-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

Texas A+M is an all male college located in Bryan/College Station, Texas, which are the worst two towns in Texas put together to make one even crappier city.

They have many strange traditions at TAMU, like having a small portion of the student body dress up as World War I reenactors every day and parade around the campus waving their swords. At TAMU you are supposed to greet other students by saying "Howdy." If you don't do this, they assume you are a visitor from the University of Texas and they beat the snot out of you for not being polite. They also build a large bonfire every year before their big football game against the University of Texas. This is the one thing they know how to build, but unfortunately it frequently falls down, sometimes with lethal consequences.

Another strange tradition is that their fight song is all about beating the University of Texas, and they sing it no matter who they are playing. This can be confusing to out of state visitors who are often heard saying, "maybe they would be playing better if they knew they were playing Ohio State and not UT." It's also strange that they are called aggies, but their mascot is a small sheltie dog. Maybe they are trying to deny their history and would be embarrassed to have the all-male cheerleaders dressed as auto mechanics (in case you didn't know the A+M stands for auto mechanics).

While they started as a school for auto mechanics, TAMU has also branched out into landscape services and animal husbandry. They also have a campus in Galveston, on the Texas coast, that trains people to clean aquariums and sell small fish. They don't call their alumni, graduates; they refer to them as "Former Students," this is probably due to the low graduation rate.

Over the years, aggies have been the but of many jokes, which is unfortunate that more abuse is piled on top of people that have already made a bad college choice. On top of being academically inferior they are also not very good at sports. TAMU's biggest football rivalry is with the University of Texas, but it seems to be a very one sided rivalry as UT leads the series 75-36-5. This year however, it looks like the tea-sips (this is how graduates of the University of Texas prefer the aggies refer to their academic and societal betters) are venerable. Usually a win against the "varsity" is enough to make an aggies year and save an embattled coach. This year it is the other way around, and it's the Longhorns that are desperate for a win to earn a bowl game and avoid a loosing season.

Unfortunately it is not looking good for the home team today, and it is very possible there might be a big crowd of future farm hands and auto mechanics out on 6th street in Austin tonight looking for women to celebrate their sporting achievement with.

Blinded by Science

2010-11-23T10:06:00.000-08:00

For years I have heard about the evils of the AMA from chiropractors and dietitians, and sometimes doctors have done themselves a disservice by barely listening in consultations and only offering up a drug or surgical solutions to problems. But I am not here to tell you to avoid doctors or not to use antibiotics when you need them. The advances in medicine over the last 100 years are mind boggling and almost all of us know someone who's life was saved by a great doctor. What I would like to advocate for is some balance from the AMA. Doctors can be a skeptical bunch (it took them years to believe that sterilizing their hands before surgery could stop infections) but they need to see that there may be alternatives other than drugs and surgery.

The NY Times article Epilepsy’s Big, Fat Miracle chronicles the story of a writer who's son has epilepsy. The child was experiencing as many as 130 seizures a day. These are not the kind of seizures where you fall to the ground and convulse, but they are very debilitating. The kid blacks out for a few seconds at a time, making it hard for him to learn to read, watch a movie, ride a bike, swim or do just about any other kid activity. The family tried almost every drug available, but the side effects were terrible and the seizures continued. Finally they heard about an alternative dietary treatment that made a huge difference. The idea is to put the body in ketosis, where you drastically reduce the amount of carbs you take in and the body begins to burn fat. Amazingly this has an antiepileptic effect and reduced the child's seizures by 80%. The problem is the diet is very hard to maintain. The mother in the family had quit her job so she can take care of her son full time. The hope is that after two years on this diet and a reduced drug regimen the child will be seizure free and able to return to a regular diet.

All this is to make a point. The doctors in this story were initially very resistant to look at diet as a course of treatment. I imagine it seemed too simple to them or not worthy of their scientific training, but now over 100 hospitals offer this treatment. The ironic thing is that dietary treatments are not even a new idea:

In the 1930s, three scientists won a Nobel Prize for discovering that a substance in raw liver cured pernicious anemia, a disease that was almost always fatal. Eight Nobels were awarded just for work related to vitamins. And, it turns out, the ketogenic diet was developed back in the early part of the last century, too, only to disappear from medical literature for two generations.

The article goes on to suggest there may be dietary regimens that can help in Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer, as tumors need glucose to grow and there is very little sugar in a keto diet. It is already reducing tumors in test mice. How ironic would it be it after all the ridicule he took in the 1990's if Dr. Atkins was right?

10th Annual Pie Contest

2010-11-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

If you are a regular reader, you know our boss Dan Wieden prefers pie to cake, so every year for the last 10 years we have had a pie making contest. There are seven categories and anyone in the agency can enter as many pies as they like. Judges pick the category winners which then go to the winners table where Dan picks the overall winner. One lucky baker wins a trip to NY for two, and gets bragging rights for a year. This year Michele Lefore, the head of the studio, won with her banana cream pie. Unfortunately I didn't get to taste it was gobbled up by the time I could find a plate and get to the table.

This year we had a new addition to the pie making contest, pie throwing. Several of the the big wigs at the agency, as well as an IT person, the girl who always bugs you for your time sheet, and a couple of others lined up to get a pie in the face from the highest bidder. We raised over $3500, which the agency matched, so we donated over $7000 to the mission for Thanksgiving dinners.

Found Watch

2010-11-19T15:25:00.000-08:00

Today I found a watch out on the street. At first I thought I had a real find, but I realized when I picked it up it was probably abandoned. I showed it to some of the girls at work and they described it as "a watch a women who works in a nail salon would wear." I don't think that is a compliment.

My friend Susan found a watch on the side of the road when she was a kid and it turns out is was a $10,000 Patek Phillippe (and that is 1980's prices). When I find a watch it's made in china and worth $15.

Spirit of '77

2010-11-18T14:49:00.000-08:00

Spirit of '77 is the latest offering from the folks who brought us Clyde Common and Olympic Provisions and it is what you would imagine these folks would do if they were challenged with creating a sports bar for a show on HGTV. Only, it's real. The name celebrates the Trailblazers national championship in 1977 and it is located just down the street from the Rose Garden, where the Blazers play.

It has all the trappings of a good sports bar, a really big TV screen, a coupe of big TVs, a great bar, pop-a-shot basketball and a Foosball table. The difference is that the beer offerings are a little more upscale and the food is a lot better than any other sports bar in town.

I was there with a large group and one of the owners, so we got to sample a lot of the menu. Must haves include, the fried baked potato in aioli, which are really good jo jo's, the mini ribs, the hush puppies with a killer jalapeno jam, and awesome boiled eggs with Russian dressing (deviled eggs). As an entree I had the chicken pot stew which was amazing. Other folks really enjoyed the fish sandwich, the patty melt and the chop chop salad. All the portions were very reasonable and not over sized.

After we ate we all had fun playing pop-a-shot (I came in second). I think this would be a great place to watch a game and I am looking forward to returning on a weekend. They are open 11 am- 12 am on weekdays and 9 am - 12 am on weekends when they have a breakfast menu 9 am - noon.

Spirit of '77
500 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Portland, OR 97232
(503) 232-9977

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

2010-11-17T11:01:00.000-08:00

David Sedaris is one of my favorite writers and it is always great to hear him reading one of his stories on NPR, but lately I have felt he was running out of things to talk about. He has pretty much strip-mined his early years and his family for all the good stories and the life of a middle aged gay couple living in France was starting to wear a little thin. Luckily he has now turned to animal stories. Stories that would be benign if told with human characters, but are seriously funny when played out with animals.

The illustrations by Ian Falconer are a great compliment to these short absurdest tales. I won't go into any of them in particular, but I will relay a joke that Sedaris told on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart that conveys the tone of the book.

A man answers the door and notices a snail on the stoop. The snail asks the man, "would you be interested in buy any life insurance?" The man reaches down, picks up the snail and flicks it out into the street. Two years later the man gets a knock on the door. When he answers he sees the snail, who looks up at him and says, "what the hell was that about?"

Gearhart Golf Links

2010-11-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend I played in a Nike Golf outing at the Gearhart Golf Links on the Oregon coast. Opened in 1892 as 3 holes across the sand dunes, it is the oldest course in the northwest and after Tokatee Golf Club in central Oregon, my favorite municipal course in the state.

In 1901, at the hands of Marshall Kinney, Gearhart was officially opened as a 9 hole course. In 1913-1915 Gearhart grew to 18 holes and began a long heritage as one of the state's premiere golf venues. Between1926 and 1935 the course underwent a series of changes including a redesign by Chandler Egan resulting in the layout which remains relatively unchanged.

It is a little tight on some of the fairways, so you have to be careful in the summer that you don't get hit by a wayward drive. Luckily there are not as many people out there in November, so I felt pretty safe. The course is short, playing 6218 yards from the back tees, with a 71.3 rating and a 134 slope, but we didn't get any roll with the amount of rain we have had lately. There are some challenging holes, number five demands a precise second shot to a very small green with water on the left and the 18th hole is 581 yards uphill with a small green tucked back in the corner, which makes it hard to reach in two, even for big hitters.

They also have a nice clubhouse called The Sandtrap which is run by McMenamins. It has been redesigned since they took it over, so it has the flavor of many of their other pubs. They have a great deck, which is the perfect place for a beer after your round in the summer. The food and beer is great, but as with all McMenamins the service is pretty slow.

I know it is a little out of the way, but this is a great course to include on your Oregon golf tour.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

2010-11-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

With a title like A Short History of Nearly Everything, you might think that Bill Bryson has bit off more than he can chew, but you will be pleasantly surprised how readable it is. Much of what Bryson covers are things you would have learned in a good undergraduate program, but have forgotten over the years.

The book covers general sciences topics such as chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics. Bryson explores time from the Big Bang to the discovery of quantum mechanics, via evolution and geology, to try to answer big questions like how old is the earth? Where did humans come from? And what are our chances of being around for a while?

Bryson is a great story teller who keeps you interested in some pretty dry topics by weaving in the stories of the people who made the discoveries, such as Edwin Hubble, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein. The biggest take away for me as I read this book was how little we actually know about the planet we live on, and how many mistakes we have made in trying to explain it over the years. Another interesting thing is how shaky some of our trusted theories are. For example, no one knows why Denver is a mile high. It has no tectonic plates under it, pushing it up like the mountains do. It is basically a mystery.

If this kind of thing interests you, you will love this book. For me it was a great opportunity to ponder all the things I really should have taken a little more time to think about in college.

The Millennium Series Movies

2010-11-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

The first two books of Stieg Larsson's Millennium series, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire are now out on DVD and On Demand. I am sure these films are already being remade with America actors, but I'll stick with the Swedish versions. I am not going to apologize for liking these books. I understand they are not great literature, but they were a lot of fun to read, and somehow I get a little bit of pleasure not seeing them Hollywoodized.

The Swedish films are dark and the casting is excellent. Lisbeth Salander is not a star, she is flat chested and a little scary looking. Mikael Blomkvist is rumpled and looks his age. In fact, almost everyone in these two movies looks like a real person not an actor. The two directors have also stayed very close to the story. Some elements have been simplified, but the storyline is all there.

Before I saw the film, I heard a review that made me laugh, but as I was watching the movie I couldn't believe how much it captured the difference between Hollywood and foreign films. At the end of the second book, Lisabeth Salander is in a fight for her life. Meanwhile Blomkvist has figured out where she is and has to make his way out into the countryside to save her. For the next several minutes, we see Salander getting shot, hitting her father over the head with an axe, and trying to kill her brother as Blomkvist puts on his seat belt, gets caught in traffic and all but stops at a drive-through Starbucks on his way to save her.

If you enjoyed the books, make sure you see the Swedish version of the films before Hollywood gets to them.

Income Inequality reaches all time highs

2010-11-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Do you worry about income inequality as much as I do? Probably not, because ultimately everyone wishes they were rich and they really don't care how much of the wealth is held by the richest Americans as long as they can one day be among them. I also know this topic is unlikely to gain much traction as income redistribution is a "socialist" concept to most Republicans. But just as it looked like all hope was lost, there is some new research that suggests that when the income gap between rich and poor becomes too large it can actually hurt the economy.

In an interesting op-ed piece in the NY Times, titled Our Banana Republic, Nicholas D. Kristof points out that the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana. As evidence: the richest 1% of Americans now take home almost 24% of income, up from almost 9% in 1976. If that doesn't surprise you, try this: from 1980 to 2005, more than 80% of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.

OK, so those are just some boring statistics that show the rich are getting much richer while the rest of us are treading water. What's the problem? The problem is that these mega-rich folks are buying bigger houses, fancier cars, and putting caviar on everything while the folks on the next rung down are going into serious debt trying to keep up. Credit card companies and mortgage brokers took advantage of this increasing need for credit and before you know it, we have a full blown financial crisis.

As we are now realizing, the average American has seen real income decrease over the last 20 years and like the government, we have been financing our flat screen TVs with the hope that our house prices would always go up and we'd some how never have to pay more than the minimum payment on our credit cards.

You can read the research by Robert H. Frank of Cornell University, Adam Seth Levine of Vanderbilt University, and Oege Dijk of the European University Institute at the Social Science Research Network. They looked at census data for the 50 states and the 100 most populous counties in America, and found that places where inequality increased the most also endured the greatest surges in bankruptcies and divorces.

Another disturbing statistic to close - the last time America saw such a large income inequality was in the years preceding the Great Depression. Something to think about as we debate extending the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans.

Flu Shot

2010-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

I got a flu shot today. I was hesitant to get it, because the last time I got a shot (over 10 years ago) I got the flu. Before that I never got the flu, so I was convinced that I got it due to the shot. Now after a lot of research, I see that I was wrong and that is virtually impossible to get the flu from the shot. So hopefully I will flu free this year and the pain I am feeling in my arm right now will be worth it.

Muirfield. Home of the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers

2010-11-08T11:08:00.001-08:00

One of the highlights of my trip to Scotland last month was getting to play golf at Muirfiled for the first time. Muirfield is one of the five oldest golf clubs in Scotland, founded in 1744 in Leith, and probably one of the most exclusive. It is home to the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers and lays claim to having written the original 13 rules of golf before turning over governance of the game to the R&A in St. Andrews.

Located just outside of Edinburgh in East Lothian, Muirfield runs along the same coast line as the great Gullane and Luffness Golf Courses. It has been home to the Open Championship fifteen times (and will host it again in 2013), as well as many amateur championships and the 1973 Ryder Cup. The course was originally laid out by Tom Morris in 1891. In 1923, 50 acres were purchased north of the course and course designer Harry Colt introduced 14 new holes. His design included two loops of nine holes, one played within the other in the opposite direction, so the direction of the wind changes on nearly every hole. Most of the changes since then have been to extend the tees back to account for the improvements in equipment to keep Muirfield on the Open rota. One recent change, that is very evident, is the lengthening of the tee on number nine. They actually had to knock down the wall that surrounds the course to move the tee 25-30 yards further back. They also added a new bunker to catch the pros, but all the members are hitting into it off their forward tees.

The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers prefer to play two-ball match play, or what we refer to as alternate shot here in the U.S. A morning round is easily completed in two or two and a half hours, followed by a large lunch and cocktails, then a second round of golf in the afternoon. As visitors we were allowed to play our own ball, which was a treat. You never know when you'll get to play there again, so it was great to get to see and play the entire course. And it is a great course. It is a classic links layout running along the coast with amazing views of Fife across the Firth of Fourth. The rough is very high and can make it very hard to find wayward shots. There are also a lot of bunkers that are extremely steep and almost always result in a stroke added to the scorecard. Good players are well rewarded for being long and straight off the tee.

Contrary to popular belief, women are allowed to play Muirfield as guests, but there are no lady members and no mixed facilities in the clubhouse. Dogs are also allowed on the course. Above is a picture of our playing companion Rocket.

After you play, you change into a jacket and tie and enjoy a large lunch. We had a two hour drive back to St. Andrews, so there was no drinking for us, but there is one famous story I can't resist repeating. Supposedly one of the members was pulled over on his way home one evening after being at the club and administered a breathalyzer. Much to his surprise he passed. He was surprised because he had just finished off several large drinks before getting in the car and by rights, knew he should be on his way to jail. He immediately headed back to the club and accused the bartender of watering down the drinks, which he indeed was doing, and was fired on the spot.

If you are a golf lover, you should make plans to play Muirfield on your next Scottish golf adventure. Luckily I played with a member, so it didn't cost me anything, but the course is open to visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays for £190 ($315) for one round and £240 ($400) for two rounds on the day.

Metrovino

2010-11-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

Last week I got an e-mail from Genoa, one of my favorite restaurants, and they suggested I vote for them for restaurant of the year. When I got to the choices, I was embarrassed to see that I had not been to a few of the other choices. This weekend, we started to rectify that.

Metrovino is a hot new place in the Pearl District, that is dedicated to pairing great wine with great food. They use an Enomatic wine system and a Perlage sparkling system, to keep over 80 wines and champagnes fresh for 30 days so they can serve them all by the taste, glass or bottle. We started with a great glass of champagne, the Dama del Rovere, which was very reasonably priced. I had the salmon tare tare to begin with, which was great, but strangely it was served with onion rings, which did not go together, but were great separately. Barbara had the escargot, which was good, but had a strange almond crust. We both opted for the rib eye for our entree which was a mistake. Both steaks were very fatty and a little chewy. The only savior was the amazing potato fingers in horse radish and the chantrelle mushrooms.

We paired the entree with "The Heavyweight" wine flight, tastes of an '04 Eyrie, DDO Laurene, and a Beaux Freres for $28. I have to say they were all amazing, but when we went to order a glass they were all over $30 a glass, so we opted for a less expensive Bordeaux, the Chateau Croix Mouton at $12.

Metrovino is a very nice space, the service is great, but I am sad to say it is way too expensive for the quality of food we had. If I were to go there again, I would try the bar menu, which is not served in the main restaurant.

Dinner 5:30 PM nightly.

Metrovino
1139 Northwest 11th Avenue
Portland, OR 97209-3469
(503) 517-7778

I'm Back

2010-11-06T19:59:00.000-07:00

Since we last talked I took a little vacation to Scotland, played a lot of golf and now that I've been back at work for a week, it's time to start blabbing again.

On a Break

2010-10-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

I am taking a short break. Hope to see you again soon.

Tiger Woos hits the camera again

2010-10-05T16:25:00.001-07:00

You may remember that we had Tiger Woods hit the camera in a TV commercial we made a few years back. It was an amazing feat in that he was easily 100 yards away from the camera and the lens was maybe 6" x 12". This time he did not do it on purpose. At the Ryder Cup last week he shanked a shot directly at a camera man, who got this great picture just before it hit the camera.

My favorite part of this picture is the guy on the right hand side with the big mustache and cigar. He has become a minor Internet celebrity.

The Social Network

2010-10-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

I just got back from seeing The Social Network, the new David Fincher movie about Facebook and the first thing I want to do is get off Facebook. It is an understatement to say that this movie does not paint any of the participants in a good light, and founder Mark Zuckerberg comes across as the biggest a-hole of them all.

The story is pretty simple. A young hacker named Mark Zuckerberg comes up with the idea of connecting people through a social network, basically linking college facebook pages to more and more people so you can share information and become friends. The problem is, it may not have been his idea and he may have screwed a few people along the way. The story is told in retrospect as Zuckerberg gives testimony in two lawsuits that have been filed against him. He is portrayed as a know-it-all jerk, who ironically can not maintain a friendship in real life, but there is no doubt he is a genius. Justin Timberlake takes a great turn as a-hole number two, or Sean Parker the inventor of Napster, who shows up as the slightly older guy who has been through it all before and wants to help Zuckerman succeed, or make sure Parker makes some money this time around.

If you are at all dialed into the 21st century this is a must see film. It is very well written by Aaron Sorkin and beautifully directed by David Fincher. It is much more than the facebook story, it is a great film.

Budgeting

2010-09-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

The number one reason small businesses go under is lack of budgeting. People put all their money into getting the business started and they have not put anything aside to keep the business running or to cover the costs if something goes wrong. Home owners do the same thing. They scape together everything they can to make the down payment on the house, then, to take an example that is close to home, they are in a terrible bind when the water heater goes out the month after they move in.

When I was in high school and then again in college, we all had to take a personal finance class. With the budget cuts and the focus on standardized tests, I have heard that most schools have eliminated these classes. This is a shame. I am always amazed that we hire people to manage millions of dollars worth of business and they can't even balance their own check book or they are FedExing their check to American Express to get it there on time. I have worked with a lot of really smart people over the years, much smarter than me, but many of them didn't understand that paying the minimum on their credit card will take 20 years to pay it off, or how much they could afford to pay for rent. I always feel really old when I do this, but if someone asks me a financial question, I like to get them to work out a simple budget and most of them are amazed to learn they are way over extended. Usually I can help them work out a plan to get them out of debit and saving some money within one year. Attached is my simple starter budget to see what your monthly costs are versus your income.

Once you've done this, you need to think about big one-time costs, like property taxes, etc. and make sure you are saving money to cover them. I also like to take out my weekly "allowance" in cash. If you take out a standard amount every Monday to cover lunch, coffee, drinks, etc., you'll know if you can get out on Saturday night or not by what's left in your pocket. A little discipline goes a long way.

Grocery Shopping

2010-09-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

I like grocery shopping. I like to make a list and go down all the aisles checking off the stuff I need. I have gone as far as creating a list of all the things we normally buy and put them in order for easier shopping. It took a couple of trial runs to get things in the right place, but now shopping is pretty easy. Some things are not in the place you might fist suspect. For instance Velveeta is not in the cheese aisle as it is a processed food, so you find it over by the mac and cheese. Another interesting one is sunflower seeds. I thought they would be by the nuts, but they are in the candy aisle. I also wonder why all the organic and "natural" stuff is together in one section versus having it out on the regular aisles. Maybe it's so the greenies can get everything they need and get out without being contaminated by the regular stuff.

The only problem with my list is if the grocery store moves something, then I have to realign my list. I also am kind of committed to the one Fred Meyer on Glisan that I have set up my list for as every store is a little different.

My Trip to Al-Qaeda

2010-09-24T11:56:00.000-07:00

My Trip to Al-Qaeda is a documentary based on Lawrence Wright's one man play of the same name. It chronicles fundamentalist Islam's rise to power and explores Wright's struggle to maintain his objectivity as a journalist writing about Islamic terror in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Looming Tower.

Lawrence lived for a time in the middle east and has extensive knowledge of the players in the world of radical Islam. He also wrote the screenplay for a movie called The Siege that came out in 1998. This is pertinent because it was a precursor to 9/11. In the story, the US government has abducted an Islamic religious leader, which leads to New York City becoming the target of escalating terrorist attacks. As the bombings continue, the US government responds by declaring martial law, and torturing captives. Sound familiar? Needless to say, it was not very popular among the Muslim community and a group of radicals blew up a Hard Rock cafe in South Africa in response to the movie trailer, because one of the stars, Bruce Willis, was a partner in the restaurant. A 12 year-old girl died as a result.

This is only one of the stories Lawrence tells in the movie. Another explores his relationship with the brother of Osama bin Laden, who became a source for Lawrence and was questionably linked to the 9/11 bombings through phone records. Before he could clear his name (or not) he was murdered.

This movie has been attacked from all sides. Muslims feel like they are unfairly portrayed as radicals. Conservatives will say Lawrence is an apologist and liberals will cringe at his admission of wanting to take out some of these people he was reporting on. Still it is an interesting insight into what the US is up against if we ever hope to end the fighting in the middle east.

Ankle One Week Later

2010-09-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

It has been just over a week since I fell an hurt my ankle in Ft. Worth. I have tried as much as possible to rest it and keep it wrapped with the Ace bandage. So far I have felt improvement every day and I even started back at yoga although I don't have very good range of motion yet. On Monday I started to see a lot of bruising, but that has gone away now.

On the way to lunch today, I had a set back. I tripped on the stairs at Nike and turned over my ankle. It hurt almost as badly as the first time although it was a pretty slight twist. I was able to walk again after sitting a few minutes, but it was a painful for the rest of the day.

I have noticed that the ankle is getting stiff from not working out, so I have begun to try to improve the range of motion by bending it more and lifting my toes when I am standing. Hopefully this will help avoid any long-term damage.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

2010-09-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

At one point in The Big Short, the author Michael Lewis reflects back on his first book about the financial industry, Lairs Poker, and thinks how innocent the deception seemed then versus what he was trying to get his arms around in 2007. It's a little like the trailer for the new Wall Street movie staring Michael Douglas, where he says, "someone once said, 'greed is good' now it's legal." The 1980's greed of Wall Street in Lairs Poker seems so innocent now, but it is also the genesis of everything that went wrong in the financial meltdown of 2007.

At the end of The Big Short, Lewis has lunch with his old boss at Soloman Brothers, this is the man who took the brokerage public. At one point he seems to admit this was the beginning of the end, when the brokerages stopped gambling their own money and started gambling with the shareholders money. Since they had a lot less to loose, the risks got completely out of control. This book is a little hard to follow if you don't understand the world of big finance. However, Lewis does a great job of walking you through what was happening and you quickly learn that most people who were involved had no clue what was going on either. Here is the bottom line. At some point in the 2000's it became way too easy to get a home loan. Sub-prime hit the basement with lairs loans, where you didn't have to provide any proof that you had a job, and as soon as you got your first loan you could take out the equity on the (raising) house value and buy a second investment property. The banks didn't care because they sold the loans to financial companies like Bear Sterns and Goldman Sacks who sold them off as bonds or the now infamous collateralize debt obligation (CDO). From here on it gets a little complicated, as no one really knows how to value the CDOs, and the ratings companies don't their jobs to protect the consumer, and the house of cards gets ever higher.

Despite the press reports, there are a few smart people that figured out what was going on, and while everyone one else was betting that house prices could only go up, they bet the other side. The best part about this book is that these few smart people are all interesting characters and their stories are amazing. I know this is hard to believe, but you will not want this book to end. It is truly a great read.

Little Big Burger

2010-09-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

Micah Camden, owner of Beast, Fats, Yakuza and DOC, has just opened Little Big Burger in the Pearl District and lines are already out the door and down the block. His burger at Yakuza (Kobe beef and goat cheese with fried, chile-spiked, truffle-scented potatoes) has been voted one of the best in Portland, so this shouldn't come as a surprise.

The Little Big Burger is a mini Yakuza burger, or what Camden calls a "mega slider." The formula includes Oregon's Highland Oak beef topped with your choice of cheese and chopped onions, on a Grand Central Bakery bun, for $3.75. The menu is limited to four items: the burger ($3.25), fries ($2.75), sodas ($1.57), and floats ($3.50). There is also a veggie burger ($3.50). I think they hope to add beer soon. The interior is a bright fast-food-inspired atmosphere with white and red colors, that fills up very fast at lunch.

The burgers are very tasty, you should plan on getting two if you are hungry, and the fries are great. Even though they were overwhelmed with people, the service was good and we didn't have to wait very long for our burger.

11 AM - close, 7 days a week.

Little Big Burger
122 NW 10th Ave.
Portland, OR 97209
503- 274-9009

New Drain

2010-09-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, we had a bad flood last spring. Water got under the house and flooded the water heater and did some pretty serious damage. When I tried to file a claim against the city, they called it an extraordinary aquatic event and did not accept any blame despite the fact that a city engineer found two drains blocked uphill from our house. My hope is that this will not happen again and today I think the city took a big step in helping out by putting a new drain outside our driveway where the majority of the water collects.

Purple Panthers 3, Hot Shots 4

2010-09-18T15:24:00.001-07:00

I took my niece Sophie to her soccer game today, but unfortunately I was not a good luck charm as they lost 3-4. Sophie played pretty well, but her team does not have a good goal keeper which makes a big difference. I thought the coaching was pretty bad, but then I realized it is hard to get second graders to listen for more than 10 seconds. The biggest problem was that they all run to the ball in a swarm, so the ball never really goes anywhere. One of the other teams coaches obviously understood this as he had one girl always stand on the other side of the goal from the swarm. The couple of times the ball squirted out she had a wide open shot on goal.

Ankle, day three

2010-09-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

The ankle is still sore, but I am walking better. I got an Ace bandage that is helping a lot. It also helps to keep it elevated.

Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana

2010-09-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Here's another great Ft. Worth restaurant recommendation for you, Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana on 7th street, out by the Montgomery Park building. This seems to be a happening area in Ft. Worth with a lot of nice places to eat, museums, etc. Lanny's is not the kind of place you'll find without a recommendation, as it is small and you have to be in the know to hear about it. Luckily one of my clients recommended it to us.

The have a small menu with tapas, soups and salads, and a half dozen entrees. We tried the civeche, the tamales and the scallops with lobster and mango salsa to start and they were all delicious. The cucumber and tomato salad was also very nice. The star of the entrees was the carne asada which came with bacon wrapped asparagus and risotto. The halibut, lamb and duck were also very good, but the salmon got a mediocre review. None of us were brave enough to order the kobe beef ribeye at $12 an ounce. We finished it off with some great deserts, I can highly recommend the key lime cheesecake made with goat cheese.

The service is fantastic at Lanny's and they have a great wine list that we needed some help with. We started out with a nice cava, Spanish champagne, and then moved on to a couple of Argentinian malbecks. The margaritas are also excellent.

Lanny's Alta Cocina
Place page
3405 W. 7th Street
Fort Worth, TX 76107
(817) 850-9996

Ankle, day two

2010-09-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Day two of RICE, but not so much rest as I have had to walk around a lot for work, some icing, compression from the Ace bandage, and a little elevation when I can sit down. It is still super swollen, but a lot better than yesterday.

Fall down, go boom.

2010-09-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was walking out of the hitting bay down in Ft. Worth and I somehow twisted my ankle and fell down some concrete stairs. I have been practicing RICE - rest, ice, compression and elevation. Elevation is the hardest one as I have been trying to sleep with my foot up.

Reata Restaurant

2010-09-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for steak in Ft. Worth, Reata is a great alternative to Del Frisco's which is super expensive. Reata is just expensive. I had an amazing chicken fried steak, and the rest of the crew were happy with with their steaks. They also had a very nice sea bass. None of us were brave enough to try the buffao steaks, but I will if I come back.

The service is great, all the waiters dress like cowboys and they have a nice wine list. Make sure you leave room for deserts, as they have an amazing tray to choose from. I can recommend the pecan pie with Bluebell ice cream and the banana pudding.

Reata Restaurant
310 Houston St,
Fort Worth, TX
(817) 336-1009

Rangers Game

2010-09-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went to see the Texas Rangers play the New York Yankees at The Ballpark in Arlington. It was a super hot evening, but luckily we got a seat in the shade. The overhang also helped us as it started to pour down rain in the fifth inning. GW Bush was there, but he let during the rain delay. The game got going again at 10:30 p.m., but then the Yankees started making pitching changes every batter and the game bogged down. We decide to leave in the seventh and unfortunately for us, we missed Mariano Rivera blowing a save in the ninth (a once in a lifetime event).

Sleeping on the Bus

2010-09-07T14:49:00.000-07:00

I guess this person had a busy long weekend. She did not seem very happy about going to work this morning. Personally I am too paranoid to fall asleep on the bus. One, you could touch your head, or worse your face, to something really gross; two, you might miss your stop; or three someone could think you are venerable and touch you or steal something from you. Not a good idea.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

2010-09-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

Edgar Wright is the director that brought us the amazing films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, so the question is, what happens when he gets Hollywood money to make a film? The answer is a really good movie that is over the top in an entirely different way.

The thing that hits you right away about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the graphics. The movie is based on a graphic novel by Bryan Lee O'Malley and many of those graphic elements are animated into the movie, so, the fight scenes have "thwacks!" and "Oooffs" and when people kiss animated hearts come out of their mouths. This would be disconcerting if I hadn't heard an interview with the director about how he wanted to take everything to the extreme. And he does take everything to the extreme.

The basic premise is that Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a 20-something looser living in a very small apartment with a roommate that owns everything in it. He falls in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and to keep her, he has to defeat her seven evil exes. These encounters become more and more perilous and Scott Pilgrim's life gets pretty complicated. The fight scenes are pure fantasy and can be jarring. Wright suggests we think of them as songs in a musical, but instead of breaking into song the characters break into video game like fight sequences.

Normally I wouldn't enjoy this kind of movie, but with a little warning of what I was getting into I was able to enjoy it a lot more. It is a funny and entertaining farce.

Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer

2010-09-05T14:55:00.000-07:00

Once again I have to thank my Dad for the book of the month thing he gave me several years ago. I still get books, not every month, but at least five to seven a year. This month I got Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer. It is a compilation of several stories that was also a very popular TV series on the BBC from 1975-1992. Unfortunately I had never heard of Rumpole before, but now I am hooked.

Rumpole is an aging barrister who specializes in criminal cases in London's Old Bailey. First it is important to know what a barrister is, because I didn't. In the Britain most lawyers are solicitors and they are much like what we think of as lawyers in the US. However, when you go to court in Britain, a barrister is the person who works with a solicitor to advocate for you in front of a judge and jury.

Rumpole is quite a colorful barrister who will take any case and who's motto is "never plead guilty." While he loves his wife, she is fondly referred to as "She who must be obeyed," he also spends a lot of time after work in the wine bar talking law. He has a lot of funny stories and has amassed a great history of cases over the years. He is a man of principles, but these principles are more likely to be appreciated by the murderers, safe-crackers and petty thieves he represents than the "learned gentlemen" he works with.

Rumpole of the Bailey is a great look back at the transition England went through in the 70's and 80's as the old upper crust fell gave way to hippies, punks, and yuppies.

Hurricane Katrina

2010-08-29T15:14:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately it seems to take an anniversary to bring attention back to big issues here in the US, and hurricane Katrina is no different. For the last two or three years we have not heard much from the media on the progress in New Orleans. After the Saints won the Super Bowl, it was like that took care of everything, redemption was given. However, a little scratching below the surface reveals that all is not right in the Crescent City and that there is still a lot of work to do.

There were a lot of news reports from New Orleans this week, but there are two shows that are must see:

Spike Lee has just put out a great follow up to his original documentary, When the Levees Broke, called, If God is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise. He revisits many of the people in the original film and also looks forward at how the BP oil spill could further hold back the recovery. This four hour epic may be a little too far reaching, but it is amazing who Lee got access to, most amazing was the interview with Michael "Brownie" Brown. To hear his side of the FEMA story alone was worth watching.

Some residents of New Orleans will be caring literal scars as well as the mental scars they endured during the flooding. No show brings this to life better than the August 25th edition of PBS's Frontline: Law and Disorder. Frontline, ProPublica and the New Orleans Times-Picayune investigate several questionable shootings by police in the days following Hurricane Katrina, raising new questions about the actions of some officers, and their command structure, during the aftermath of the storm. I walked away from this show thinking Governor Kathleen Blanco and Mayor Ray Nagan should be tried for murder, when they gave the order that looters could be shot.

Lucky

2010-08-28T15:44:00.000-07:00

Ever dream of winning the lottery? You may change your opinion after you see the new HBO documentary, Lucky.

Director Jeffery Blitz of Spellbound fame, takes us around America meeting several "lucky" winners and discovering how the money changed their life. This film follows the lives of several big money winners and one hopeful. We meet Quang, a Vietnamese immigrant who won $22 million as part of a eight way contingent at work. James, a down and out man who spent his last $3 on a Powerball ticket and won $5 million. Kristine and Steve, a nice middle-class American couple who won $110 million. Robert, a math professor who despite knowing the odds, still plays and wins $22 million. Buddy, a local hero who won $16 million. And finally Verna, who spends up to $100 a day playing the lotto and after 30 years has still not had a big payday.

What is the one thing that holds these people together? At some point in the movie, despite many great things that the money has brought them, they all say, "I wish I had never won." Some people do better than others in the long run, but no one gets away without their life charging significantly. the saddest story is Buddy, who's family literally tries to kill him to get his money.

Bridge Up

2010-08-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

In Portland we have 12 major bridges that get you from the west side of town over to the east side. Many of them are really beautiful, and a couple are kind of not. On any given day you can cross the bridge three or four times without thinking too much about it. Then of course there is the one time you are in a real hurry and the bridge is up causing traffic to come to a stand still. This is a small price to pay to have theses beautiful old bridges, but it is strange how it only happens when you are already late.

Greenberg

2010-08-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

In Greenberg, one of my, I'll watch any film he makes guys, Ben Stiller, takes on the role of Roger Greenberg, a 40-year-old man who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown and is now trying to "do nothing." He has returned to L.A., where he grew up to housesit for his rich brother, who is on a long vacation with his family in Vietnam. Greenberg meets his brother's assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig), and begins a bizarrely awkward romance with her. He also reconnects with his old band mates, who are still bitter about a record deal that Roger ruined 15 years ago. Rhys Ifans, is a scene stealer, playing Ivan, Roger's best fiend who despite Roger being a complete a-hole, still goes out of his way to help him. While trying not to start a relationship with Florence, Roger also attempts to date Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a divorced old girlfriend, but she laughingly rejects him.

While Roger is housesitting, his brother's dog becomes sick, forcing Roger to take responsibility for his care, but it is pretty obvious Roger is barely able to take care of himself. He is very neurotic and does not recognize any flaws in himself. This reaches a comic climax when his niece returns to the house and throws a wild party.

Super Sad True Love Story: A Novel by Gary Shteyngart

2010-08-23T14:09:00.000-07:00

You would think I would have learned by now that it is Terry Gross' job to make books sound good when she interviews the author on her show Fresh Air. As I was listening, I thought Super Sad True Love Story sounded a little too far fetched for me, but it did not stop me from picking it up at a recent trip to Powell's Books. I am glad I read it, but what others see as great satire, I thought was an author trying way too hard. The line between poignant and absurd is thin and I would rather stay in the side of poignant.

In Gary Shteyngart's futuristic New York, the dollar has been been replaced by the Chinese yuan as the currency of choice, American has been reduced to a one party police state that is always on high security alert, and people are constantly judged by their credit score and their hottness or f-ability rating. Lenny Abramov is the middle-aged protagonist with a good credit score, but an embarrassingly low Male Hotness rating. He has fallen in love with the very young Eunice Park, who's hottness score helps boost Lenny's just by standing next to him. Lenny works for the Post-Human Services division of the Staatling-Wapachung Corporation, selling people eternal life, and while he would also like to live for ever, his love for Eunice takes over his ambitions. Just as Lenny seems to be getting things together the US experiences a "rupture" and is taken over by the world's economic powers and split up Berlin style post WW II.

As I said earlier, the book is funny, but Shteyngart takes everything to the extreme. A little more subtlety would have made this book much more readable.

Montavilla farmers market

2010-08-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

As you all know Portland is famous for all the great farmers markets we have across the city and our neighborhood is no exception. The Montavilla farmers market is in the 7600 block of SE Stark between Mt. Tabor and 82nd street and is open on Sundays from 10-2, June 15th - October 31st. They have a great mix of produce, fruit, cheeses, flowers, etc. and ready to eat food. My two favorites are Wild Wild West BBQ and the Liquid Sunshine Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade stand. The guy at the BBQ stand is a little forgetful so you may have to tell him your order a few times, but it is worth the wait. The BBQ ribs at $8, are great and there are two equally good sandwiches, the shredded beef or pulled pork for $5. He also has sides and a few other BBQ specials as well as a hamburger that I have not tried yet. The lemonade stand has classic hand squeezed lemonade, limeade, strawberry lemonade and usually a couple of guest flavors, today it was mohito and last week it was jalapeno. The guy who runs it is also very friendly. There are a few other ready to eat places, including Hacienda which makes great tamales and Kebab-a-Rama that I have not tried. There is plenty of seating and sometimes there is live music.

After you eat lunch, you can get all the fruit and veggies you'll need for the week as well as some fresh flowers. Next Saturday there is a special event, the 3rd Annual Harvest Dinner. The Dinner is a five-course meal with matching paired wines and will begin at 5:30 pm. Tickets for the dinner are sixty dollars. All proceeds go to benefit the Montavilla Farmers Market’s efforts to improve food access and affordability in the Montavilla neighborhood.

Cheese Bar

2010-08-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Formally known as Steve's Cheese, Steve Jones has moved his cheese mecca to Mt. Tabor and renamed it Cheese Bar. Best news of all it is only a 10 minute walk there from our house. I thought it was just a sandwich place, but there is a lot more. They have a retail counter where you can buy all kinds of cheeses and meats, as well as fancy chocolate, vinegars, and other gourmet items. They have a half dozen tables inside as well as a few outside where you can order super delicious cheese and meat plates, as well as great sandwiches, soup, salads and on the day we were there a very nice blueberry bread pudding (make sure you add the sheepshead cheese). To top it all off they have a small bar with six local beers on tap, as well as a long list of bottled beers and wines.

This place should do well as the food is great and the staff is really nice, and if you love cheese you'll love talking to the owner Steve, he is quite the expert.

Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 11AM - 11 PM, Closed Monday

Cheese Bar

6031 SE Belmont Street
Portland, OR
(503) 222-6014

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott

2010-08-20T13:07:00.000-07:00

As the last book in the, 25 books you should read, I am going to give you an easy one. Easy as in you should be able to read this one sitting, but you'll really enjoy it and get a lot out of it. Here is a quick synopsis Of Flatland from the publisher:

The story is about a two-dimensional world referred to as Flatland which is occupied by geometric figures, line-segments (females) and regular polygons with various numbers of sides. The narrator is a humble Square, a member of the social caste of gentlemen and professionals in a society of geometric figures, who guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland) which is inhabited by "lustrous points." He attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch of a second dimension but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.

The narrator is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, which he cannot comprehend until he sees Spaceland for himself. This sphere, who remains nameless, visits Flatland at the turn of each millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the population of Flatland of the existence of Spaceland. From the safety of Spaceland, they are able to observe the leaders of Flatland secretly acknowledging the existence of the sphere and prescribing the silencing of anyone found preaching the truth of Spaceland and the third dimension. After this proclamation is made, many witnesses are massacred or imprisoned (according to caste).

The book is a satirical look at Victorian culture, but it is as relevent today as it was then. Another great factoid about this book, Albert Einstien used to read it every year.

If Muslims had Christmas

2010-08-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

If Muslims had Christmas, this guy would be a great Santa Claus.

2010 PGA Championship

2010-08-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

Usually the PGA Championship is the least interesting major of the year, but this year's tournament turned out to be the best of the year. As is becoming a standard story, there was an old guy making a resurgence. Forty seven year-old Steve Elkington, who had not won on tour in over ten years and last won a major in 1995, was in it until the last few holes when a near perfect shot at the difficult par 3 17th hole took one bounce too many and trickled down an embankment taking him out of contention. On the other end of the age spectrum, 21 year-old Rory McIlroy ended up tied for third, but he missed so many close putts it was heartbreaking.

Speaking of heartbreaking, this tournament will not be remembered for the great playoff where Martin Kaymer defeated Bubba Watson, but the sand bunker debacle. Dustin Johnson was making a great push to the top of the leader-board and had a one stroke lead going into 18. When he pushed his drive out to the right, I started to think back to his complete collapse at the US Open this year, when he shot an 82 on Sunday to blow a big lead. In this case it was not Johnson's swing that let him down, he hit a mediocre shot out of the rough, chipped it close and missed a seven foot put that got him into the playoff. Only it didn't. As he was walking off the course a PGA official pointed out that his second shot was not out of a waste area, but a bunker. Johnson had grounded his club in that bunker and it cost him a two stroke penalty and his place in the playoff. The tragedy is that the PGA had clearly posted a local rule that all bunkers, no matter where they are, in this case outside the ropes where the spectators had been standing, where still to be played as bunkers and Johnson had not read the rule, nor had his caddy. It was a mistake of monumental proportions, and I am sure it will be written about for years. I only hope Johnson has another comeback in him.

14th Annual PDX Adult Soapbox Derby

2010-08-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

It is officially called the 14th Annual PDX Adult Soapbox Derby, but for those of us that live on Mt. Tabor, it is the day the crazies take over the park. Every year it gets bigger and bigger, and unfortunately this has lead to the implementation of several new safety rules that have cut down on the excitement. Like NASCAR, the only reason to watch the Soapbox Derby is for the wrecks. In the old days, you'd see young guys pushing what is left of their soapbox racer back to their car, with a weeping road rash up an down one side of their bodies. It is still a lot of fun, but now it is more of a family event with structured races and new rules like, "Audience members will not be allowed to throw water balloons, or otherwise interfere with racers."

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

2010-08-13T11:00:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me that Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, was written in the late 1940's and won him the National Book Award in 1953. When I read it, I assumed it was written in the 1960's at the begining of the Black power movement. This book was way ahead of it's time, but seems to have been well received when it was first published. The unnamed narrarator is an African American man who sees himself as invisable to the white world. As a young man he witnesses harsh brutality towards blacks and his seniors contuinually selling-out to conform to white expectations. After college he moves to New York and becomes part of a militant group called the Brotherhood, which at first seems like a good thing, but takes several bad turns, leading the narrarator to long for invisibilty.

Ellison lived until 1994, but his second novel Juneteenth was not published until five years after his death.

Piazza Italia

2010-08-11T10:34:00.000-07:00

Last night I ate at one of my favorite places in the Pearl, that I realized I have never reviewed, so better late than never, dinner at Piazza Italia. The restaurant is in a small store front that you could easily pass by, except in the summer when they have some outside seating. Apart from the great food, the main draw is how over-the-top Italian the staff are. They all have strong accents, and the owner is liable to break out into song at any moment. I often suspect that at closing time, they all sit around chatting in non-discript Pacific Northwest accents. They also have soccer on the TV at all hours and Italian flags and scarfs draped around to make sure there is no mistake who they were supporting in the World Cup.

Back to the food. They mainstays here are the simple pasta dishes, they are numerous and the trick is to find a combination you like and go for it. The salads and the minestrone soup are a great way to get started, and if you have a crowd you should order some antipasto. Also leave room for desert, the tiramisu is excellent, and plan to linger a while over an espresso. This is the most authentic Italian restaurant we have in Portland, I think.

Mon-Sat 12-10pm, Sun 12-8pm

Piazza Italia
1129 NW Johnson St.
Portland, OR 97209
503-478-0619

Life During Wartime

2010-08-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Life During Wartime, a film by Todd Solondz, is a sequel to his 1998 film Happiness, although the characters are all played by different actors. This may have been off-putting if I had seen Happiness, but I had not, which if Life During Wartime is an indication, I am glad I didn't.

This is one of those films where we drop in on some people's lives for a moment with no reason why and no explanation of why we suddenly leave. The plot revolves around three sisters Trish (Allison Janney), Joy (Shirley Henderson), and Helen (Ally Sheedy), all of whom are totally screwed up. Trish has three kids, who she over-shares with, except for telling them their father is not really dead but in jail for molesting a child. Joy is married to an ex-con, who is struggling to change his ways, but also visited by a dead former boyfriend who has committed suicide. Although we only meet Helen for a short time, she seems to be the worst of all. She is a raging bitch and possibly the most self-absorbed person ever, it only takes a few seconds to start disliking her. Full minutes pass before we start disliking other characters in this movie, but eventually they all prove to be unlikable or worse uninteresting.

I would very much like to have the hour and a half I spent watching this movie back.

A German Requiem by Philip Kerr

2010-08-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

A German Requiem is the final novel in the Bernie Gunther mystery trilogy "Berlin Noir" by Philip Kerr. The three books were published from 1989 to 1991 and the author makes major strides in each book. In A German Requiem, it is 1947 and we find detective Bernie Gunther married and living in Berlin with his new wife, Kristen. Things are not going too well, as he suspects she is having sex with occupying American officers in exchanges for scarce supplies. Berlin is a mess, with people surviving on whatever they can make on the black market, or through prostitution, and the biggest concern is staying out of the way of the Russians.

Gunther is still making a living as a PI, barely, when he gets a case in Vienna investigating the arrest and imprisonment of an old police colleague, Becker, who was a corrupt cop, a ruthless SS man, and is now a smuggler who has been accused of murder. Becker has called on Gunther to help get him out of jail, but there are a hundred plot twists that come our way before that case is resolved. Turns out almost every Nazi except Hitler has faked his death and made their way to Vienna, and most of them are now spying on the Russians for the U.S. army. Gunther not only has to deal with them, but there is a Russian trying to kill him at almost every turn.

Once again Kerr gets our heads spinning with one plot twist after another, but, as in his other novels, it is history that is the most intriguing aspect of this book. Kerr paints an amazingly clear picture of the difficulty of life after the war. While they were defeated, the German people suffered for many years after the war was over, and some might say it was not over until the Berlin wall finally fell. The Russians are a brutal enemy and we can see Kerr begin to paint the path for Gunther to engage in the Cold War.

My Brother's Crawfish - 2010

2010-08-08T16:29:00.000-07:00

We first visited My Brother's Crawfish in July of 2008 when it had just opened. The good news is that it is still going strong and the food is as good as ever. We ordered a side of Chicken and Sausage Gumbo and a side of Crawfish Etoufee with some cornbread to get warmed up, and I had a fried shrimp po'boy as my entree. Everything we got was delicious, all I could have wished for was a larger group of people, so we could have sampled more of the entree choices. A couple of things to remind you of, one, the restaurant is in a crappy strip mall and does not look good from the outside. Two, the food is prepared by Vietnamese folks, not Louisiana natives. Neither of these things should deter, as the staff could not be nicer and apart from putting oregano in the crawfish boil, these guys know what they are doing.

They are open at 11:30 AM for lunch, Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, otherwise get dinner from 3- 10 PM. Go with a big crowd, order deep on the menu and enjoy a few Abita Amber beers.

My Brother's Crawfish
8220 SE Harrison St
Portland, OR 97216
(503) 774-3786

The Other Guys

2010-08-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

The Other Guys is the latest comedy starring Will Ferrell and as a huge fan, it pains me to say that this is not a great movie. I think part of the problem is that we expect a lot more these days when we make the effort to go to the theater, and this was a film I would have been happy to see on my own couch, but not happy to pay $20 plus the same again for popcorn and a soda. It starts with one of the most amazing over the top car chases featuring Samuel L. Jackson and the Rock, which made me wonder if I had walked into the wrong theater. Turns out they are only around for a short time and the rest of the movie has a cast of idiots trying to replace their "super cop" exploits. I may be giving this film too much credit, but I think it's supposed to be a farce, in the vein of the Pink Panther movies. Everyone is way over the top and too stupid or too out of it to make sense. Will Ferrell's character is a total looser, but he is married to the "plain" Eva Mendes, could be funny, but it's not. Even worse is Mark Wahlberg, as the one dimensional partner to Farrell. He is playing a dumber, more over-the-top version of many of his other cop characters and it's sad.

Writer/director Adam McKay has written a lot of funny stuff for SNL and Funny or Die, but this full length feature does not live up to Anchorman or Talladega Nights. Just because you have Will Ferrell in a movie doesn't mean you can call it in.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

2010-08-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

I was re-reading Lolita on an airplane a few years ago and an older lady leaned over and asked, "is that book still as controversial today as it was when it came out?" I told her that I was not alive in 1955, but that it was considered too racy to include in my high school English class in 1983 and I still felt like the subject matter was as taboo today as ever. Seducing an underage girl and abducting her after her mother dies is, thankfully, still thought to be reprehensible in 2010, unless, of course, you are Roman Polanski. While the narrator and rapist Humbert Humbert is a despicable person, his character still captivates us with humor and his admissions that what he is doing is wrong, offsetting the tragic plot. If it were not for this, the book would be unreadable instead of the classic it is today.

New Roof

2010-08-04T10:54:00.000-07:00

We had to break down and get a new roof on the house this year. We were hoping to make it through another winter, but we had a leak in the living room ceiling, so it was time. I got several bids, but I knew for sure I wanted to get a white roof to help reduce the heat in the house. The black torch-down roof we used to have generated a lot of heat, and the house could get up in the 90s in the late afternoon on a hot day. As soon as the old roof was taken off we saw an immediate 10-15 degree drop in temperature when we got home from work. The hard part of dealing with a flat roof is keeping it clean so the down spouts don't clog. The roofers did a great job of slanting the roof towards the front edges and taking off the lip so more water flows directly into the gutter. We also got a life-time guarantee on the roofing material which is a much better deal than the other folks were offering.

National Night Out

2010-08-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a neighborhood get-together in honor of National Night Out. The idea is to meet your neighbors and talk about crime prevention in your neighborhood; if you register a police officer will come out to talk to you about things you can do to be safer, etc. Unfortunately we didn't think to register, but we did have a good time talking to some of the neighbors we knew and meeting some new ones for the first time. We had lots of food and drinks, we set up a few tables for people to mingle, and had some stuff for the kids to play with. I even pulled out the old Weber BBQ and grilled up some dogs and sausage. It was a fun night and I am glad to say, we have some really great neighbors.

Reo's Ribs

2010-08-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

We had a belated birthday work lunch today at Reo's Ribs. These guys used to be out in Aloha about 10 miles from town, but they have recently moved to a nice storefront down on Mcadam, where their smoker has been making some enemies with the neighbors who don't like everything they own to smell like smoked brisket. They are also famous for being owned by Snoop Dogg's uncle.

Neither of these two things should stop you from going, as the food is fantastic. I got the lunch brisket plate and a side of slaw and I was full about half way through (but I didn't stop eating). We also tried the beef ribs, the pulled pork sandwich, grilled chicken, and the pork roast and all were deemed excellent. They have some great sides if you want to venture beyond the standard slaw and potato salad; there is yams, red beans and rice, gumbo, collard greens, fried okra, and hush puppies. And the best deal of all, for $1 extra you get a huge, buttery piece of corn bread. I am not a fan but they have sweet and regular tea, so people from Alabama and Texas will be happy.

Open everyday from 11 AM to 9 PM.

Reo's Ribs
6141 SW Macadam Ave
Portland OR

(503) 244-4195

Tracey Thorn - Love And Its Opposite

2010-08-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Tracey Thorn is one half of one of my favorite bands, Everything but the Girl. With her husband Ben Watt, they transitioned from a hip '80's jazz-pop band to dance floor '00's electronica. Along the way they have taken a couple of hiatus and both released solo records. In her third and latest solo effort, Thorn has created an amazingly raw and age appropriate record. I have to say, I was taken aback the first time I listened to it; it's like seeing Meg Ryan playing a forty-year-old versus clinging to her adolescence. Two songs in particular stand out to me "Oh, the Divorces!" and "Singles Bar," they both speak to real life problems - the kid exchange and the hours of getting ready to hide your age for a night out on the town. "Hormones," is another eye opener that chronicles the arguments between a mother and daughter. This is an amazing record; as well as writing great songs, Thorn should get credit for her bravery - middle age is a tough place for an artist to go.

Birthday

2010-07-31T11:18:00.000-07:00

Today was very productive. I started by cutting the grass and watering all the plants. Then we went to Cost Co and did some shopping. One of the things on my birthday list was a new audio receiver, but they didn't have a very good selection, so we stopped at Best Buy and picked one up there. After that, I took a yoga class with the new mat I got from my brother, then I cam home and undid the yoga class trying to set up the new receiver. In the end it was not too complicated, but I made some stupid mistakes that made the process a lot harder than it should have been. The productivity continued with washing both cars; and cleaning up the garage.

To enjoy the day more I opened my presents one at a time throughout the day, not all at once; this was a good strategy as I usually get depressed once the present opening is over. To round out the evening, we went over to Jenny and Al Campbell's house for the Iron Chef Hot Dog Throwdown. This was a cooking contest with the main ingredient being a hot dog. There were several categories including "Best Use of Secret Ingredient" and "Most Creative," and many amazing things happening with hot dogs, including hot dog infused vodka. We didn't stay to eat as we already had plans to have dinner at the always great Bombay Cricket Club.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

2010-07-30T14:57:00.000-07:00

I have long wished I could come up with a word or saying that would make its way into everyday lexicon, so I'm totally impressed that everyone in the world knows the title to Joseph Heller's great book, Catch 22 even though they don't know that it's a book. The catch 22 in this book becomes apparent in the Second World War, specifically 1943, when a bomber pilot realizes he can only get out of flying missions if he is crazy, but wanting to get out of flying bombing missions proves he is sane. This is the kind of weird and interesting humor you will experience throughout this book. It is told from several points of view and can seem a little disjointed at times, but it is worth sticking with it. When this book was published in 1961 it was polarizing, half the reviews loved it and half hated it. It has endured however, with The Modern Library ranking Catch-22 as number 7 (by review panel) and as number 12 (by the public) on its list of the greatest English language novels of the twentieth century.

Al-Amir Restaurant

2010-07-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Al-Amir is a great old Portland restaurant that we have not been to in years, but luckily we rediscovered it after a few beers at the Oregon Brewers Fest on Friday night. They have a great bar and I highly recommend the Lebanese Margarita to get you going. Then ask you waiter to start bringing you food, you don't have to look at the menu, it's all good stuff. You'll most likely get the Al-Amir Sampler, a platter of Hummus, Baba Ghannooj, Tabooli, Grape Leaves and Falafel. Then you can add an entree or two, I would go with the Shish Kabob, grilled cubes of lamb or beef marinated in Al-Amir's special spices and wine; and the Dajaj, grilled fillet of chicken breast marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon and herbs.

You'll have more fun if you go with a large group of people, it will allow you to get a wider breadth of the menu. You can also enjoy traditional belly dancing every Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM.

I also found this interesting info about the Bishop’s House, where Al-Amir is located: It was in fact the residence of the Archbishop. The Catholic Cathedral was around the corner and upstairs was a balcony where the Archbishop held prayer meetings and, on occasion, entertained guests with scared music sung by the Cathedral choir. Times changed and by the thirties, the balcony housed a band for the speak-easy that operated in the basement of the building. During the first major refit in the sixties, wires were discovered that ran from the the Bishop’s House to the Police Station. However, history does not relate who was bugging whom.

Al-Amir Restaurant
223 SW Stark Street
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 274-0010

This is Happening - LCD Soundsystem

2010-07-28T13:52:00.000-07:00

Somehow I missed out on LCD Soundsytem's previous work, including 45:33, which as the name suggests is a 45 minute download, commissioned by Nike and available on iTunes, as a download for runners. LCD Soundsytem is basically James Murphy and various guest musicians. Murphy started out playing in post-punk and hardcore bands, and was a well know producer before he got into one of my favorite genres - fun dance music with dark lyrics. This is Happening is his third full-length studio record. If you were a fan of the self titled debut or the critically acclaimed Sound of Silver, you will be very happy with this latest offering; there is no wholesale reinvention, just more of a very good thing. If you want great lyrics, you'll love "Drunk Girls," if you just want to dance, there is plenty for you on this record. LCD Soundsytem should be on your iPod, they are one of the best bands of the 2000's.

A Pale Criminal by Phillip Kerr

2010-07-27T13:29:00.000-07:00

I just finished the second book in the Berlin Noir series by Phillip Kerr, A Pale Criminal, and there is quite a maturing between it and March Violets, the first book in the series. Private Detective Bernie Gunther is back and he has taken on Bruno Stahlecker, another ex-police officer, as a partner. This is an unfortunate decision for Stahlecker, as he is murdered early in the book on a stake out for what seems like a cut and dry case. Of course with Kerr, nothing is cut and dry. In what turns out to be a huge, ever-escalating case, he is forced back into the Berlin police, and worse, is made a Kommisar in the state Security Service (or the dreaded SS, as they later became know). As Gunther tracks a serial sex murderer he interacts with many of the senior players in the Nazi party and Kerr gives us an amazing insight into life in Berlin as the Second World War is about to break out. Once again this novel is not only a good detective story, it is equally interesting as historical fiction.

Mad Men is Back

2010-07-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

The most anticipated TV show of the year, Mad Men, is back and better than ever. It's 1964, a year since we last saw the cast, and Don Draper is divorced and a partner in a re-formed advertising agency. Many of the old characters are back, but some real favorites - Sal I am thinking of you - have not resurfaced. Don's wife, Betty, is remarried, but she is yet to move out of the house she and Don shared with their two kids, which is a major stress point. Meanwhile Don has moved into a bachelor pad in Greenwich Village. He is finding dating is hard work and is satisfying he needs with a prostitute, that he likes to have slap him around a little.

The most intriguing element of the show is the rise of the creative advertising agency. As a partner in the new agency, Don has more say over the creatives role in running the agency and in one of the best scenes of the first show, he runs off a potential client for being too prude; as he leaves the room, he says, "now you've seen how a creative agency works, I hope you liked looking in the window." This is where Executive Producer Matthew Weiner does his best work, getting the details right. In most TV shows and movies, it is obvious the writer has no idea how an ad agency works. Weiner has nailed it. This was also a great time for advertising; they are moving out of the boring 1950's play it safe mode, to the more liberated 1960's, where creativity and risk taking really start to take off. We are also seeing the split between large, staid agencies like Y&R and upstart creative shops. What I love most is that they use real agency names and real clients that still exist.

But, as one of the founders of Wieden+Kennedy, David Kennedy, said to me when I recommend he watch the show, "this is not a show about advertising, it's a soap opera." He loved the details of the ad world, but like most of us it's the real world tensions that keep the show going. 1964 should be an interesting year.

23rd Annual Oregon Brewers Festival

2010-07-24T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's July, so it's time for one of the best events in Portland, the Oregon Brewers Fest. There are 80 different microbrews from all over the country being enjoyed by over 20,000 beer lovers of all stripe. We have sorority girls and girls with tattoos on their chest, we have young guys trying to meet girls and old guys trying to meet the perfect beer. This year we added a fun new game, you get to punch your friend every time you see a hated utility kilt.

Gone are the days that you can go down to the waterfront on Thursday or Friday afternoon to avoid the weekend lines. This event is getting too popular. You've got to get there at noon if you don't like crowds, because by 5:00 PM it'll be packed. Also, if you really want to fit in, wear some kind of beer t-shirt, like "Beer is Good Food" or "Beer, it's what's for breakfast."

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

2010-07-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

If you saw the movie, The Color Purple, I am sorry. This is one of the many examples of a great book, being made into a very bad movie. I have never heard Alice Walker talk about it, but I don't know how anyone thought they could take the amazing inner dialog that she created and turn it into a movie. Sometimes a great book should just stay a great book. The Color Purple is a hard read as the narrator is leading a difficult and painful life. It is an amazing ode to the human condition.

What ever happened to David Lee Roth?

2010-07-21T17:59:00.000-07:00

Turns out he is in Portland, riding the bus around in his cut off jeans. He looks great.

March Violets by Philip Kerr

2010-07-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

March Violets is Scottish writer Philip Kerr's first novel. It is a detective story set in Nazi Germany during the Olympic games of 1936. Much like Walter Mosley's detective stories, the setting is one of the main characters in this novel. Anti-Semitism is rampant and the SS and Gestapo are already the most feared groups in Germany. You can be sent to a concentration camp for being a Jew, a Gypsy, gay, or just about any other crime the National Socialist German Workers Party deemed you had committed, the only difference is Jews and Gypsy's never came back. Bernhard Gunther is a smart mouthed Private Detective, who is not a member of the Nazi party, but not above a little profiteering. Missing persons are his specialty and in Nazi Germany there are plenty of people disappearing, mostly Jews. While he has sympathy for his clients, he is walking a fine line between making money and being picked up by the SS. When gets hired by a rich industrialist to find out who killed his daughter and return some missing jewels, things get interesting.

March Violets is the name given to late comers in the Nazi party; people who joined after the passage of Hitler's Enabling Act (rendering him dictator) on March 23, 1933. In May, the Nazi Party froze membership. Kerr does a great job of painting a picture of life during this seriously tense time. He has clearly done his research from the Olympics to the street names to the officers ranks. He also has a rye style, with tension breaking wit and a good sense of mystery.

The Mynabirds - What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood

2010-07-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Myna birds are know as mimics, but it would unfair to call the debut record from The Mynabirds, What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood, anything but original. You may hear echos of Dusty Springfield or Cat Power, but Laura Burhenn has put together something fresh and original with her new band The Mynabirds. A veteran of the Washington DC music scene, this is the third or forth incarnation for Burhenn, and her best to date. This record is winning critical praise across the board due to it's easily likable melodies and Burhenn's strong vocals. Her sound ranges from New Orleans jazz to gospel to danceable pop. This is the best record of 2010 so far and well worth a listen.

A Single Man

2010-07-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

After hearing an interesting interview with Tom Ford and Colin Firth on NPR, I decided A Single Man might be worth watching. That was a mistake.

Before I started on this review, my wife sent me the review I should have written, by Dan Smith a photographer and editor in Virgina, where he basically has captured my thoughts exactly. The only good thing about this movie was the very cool, old Mercedes that Firth's character, George, drives.

Otherwise this is an overly art directed film about a bunch of boring people that I would never want to meet or spend time with. I do have to admit there is a very touching moment in the film were George receives a phone call from the family of his long time lover to let him know there has been an accident and his partner, Jim, is dead. As were the times in 1962, George is told the service is "family only," despite having been with Jim for 16 years. It made me feel we might have made some small amount of progress in gay rights in the last 50 years. This movie offered little else of interest. Julianne Moore's character Charlie was especially annoying and vapid. As far as I could see she was just a prop for Ford to dress in early 60's couture. I won't give away the ending, I'll just say it's predictable and trite.

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry

2010-07-16T22:10:00.000-07:00

Larry McMurtry is one of my all time favorite authors and most people only seem to know his work because they saw the Lonesome Dove mini-series or The Last Picture Show as a movie. That is a shame as he is an excellent and prolific writer. He has also won Oscars for adapting the screenplays for Hud, Terms of Endearment and Brokeback Mountain.

Published in 1966, The Last Picture Show is in fact a trilogy; the story continues with Texasville in 1987 and Duane's Depressed in 1999. The book is set in a small Texas town and delves into the lives of three high school students as they come of age. It shows the struggles they endure and the mistakes they make as they grow into young adulthood. Hopefully this is the book that will get you started on a long list of great McMurtry books.

Barbara's Birthday

2010-07-15T16:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Bastille Day in France and Barbara Baugnon's birthday in the United States. We celebrated both with a great dinner at Genoa, our favorite Portland restaurant. As you all know they have a five course dinner with two pasta choices and three entree choices. Per usual, the food was amazing and we also got a great wine recommendation, although I can't find it on their website menu list, so I'll have to get back to you on that. Below is the summer menu, which should be available for the next couple of months.

First Course
Scamorze allo spiedo - creamy scamorza cheese skewered onto rosemary stems, pan seared then served with marinated baby artichokes and Dulce’s Pickled Asparagus

Pasta Course
Farfalline con pisselli e fave - small hand-made pasta butterflies tossed in a savory San Marzano tomato sauce with tender Viridian Farms peas, fava beans, lemon zest and fresh sheeps milk ricotta

Salad Course
Scapece di salmone alla vastese - a salad of wild Oregon Sockeye salmon that has been marinated in champagne vinegar, white verjus, saffron and aromatic vegetables served over baby spinach, sweet basil and Yukon gold potatoes

Main Course
Dentice e calamari in purgatorio - Line caught pacific rockfish and calamari sautéed in a spicy sauce of onions, white wine, tomatoes and dried chiles. Served with roasted Gale’s Meadow farms broccoli or Lombatine pepate e fiamma - Grilled Pepper and herb crusted strip loin steak flamed with strega liquor and served with a saffron risotto stuffed pepper and a raw zucchini and mint salad. We skipped the mixed grill rabbit.

Dessert
Amaretto soufflé, and chocolate/espresso semifreddo

5:30pm – 9:30pm, Tuesday through Sunday

Genoa Restaurant
2832 SE Belmont St.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 238-1464

The Gieser Grand Hotel

2010-07-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Barbara Sidway is one of the very nice people I have met over the years in the Oregon tourism industry. Several years ago she and her husband saved the Gieser Grand Hotel from the wrecking ball. Originally built in the 1890's it had fallen into grave disrepair and the owner was trying to find a savior. Baker City had condemned the building, but neither the owner nor the city had the money to tear it down, so it sat as an eyesore for many years in downtown. Luckily Barbara had the vision to restore it to it's original glory and it is now one of my favorite hotels in Oregon. Not only are the rooms cozy and welcoming, with modern amenities, the food it great and they have one of the best bars in the area. the staff is also super helpful and will gladly steer you to all the great things you can see and do in the area.

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

2010-07-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

I was out in Eastern Oregon for a work meeting, and is often the case with these trips, we also got to see a part of Oregon I usually would not have seen.

About 10 miles outside Baker City is the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It is run by the Bureau of Land Management and they have some great displays that bring to life what life was like for a person making the trek out to Oregon in the 1800's. In a nutshell it was a hard trip. The vast migration took off in 1843 and lasted for over 25 years. The tip was over 2000 miles, with most people making 16-20 miles a day. Then when you got to the end, there was a sign pointing north to Oregon and south to GOLD. It's an interesting kind of person that choose north.

National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
22267 Oregon Highway 86
Baker City, OR 97814-0987
541-523-1843

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson

2010-07-12T23:11:00.000-07:00

I finally got to the last book in Stieg Larsson's trilogy, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest, which is the finale to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire. This is the one book that you have to have read the others to get the most out of it. It picks up right where The Girl Who Played with Fire left off with Lisbeth Salander in the hospital recovering from her gunshot wounds and all the bad guys still alive and kicking. Although she spends the majority of the book confined to a hospital bed, this book has more adventure and intrigue than any of the previous books. It is obvious Larsson is going for a big ending here as he ties up a lot of the loose ends.

I have chronicled Larsson's death and the fallout in a previous review, so I won't go into all that again. Suffice to say it is a shame that another book will not be forthcoming as there is still a lot more that could have been mined out of these characters.

Park Kitchen

2010-07-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we made our first trip to Park Kitchen in Portland's Pearl District. It must be getting a lot of good accolades in the press as both tables next to us were tourists who had heard it was one of the best restaurants in town. I am not sure I would put it in my top five, but the food was excellent.

We got a great table outside looking at the park blocks, which is always nice on a summer evening. The service was great, and our waitress made several good suggestions. We decided to stick with the small plates and a desert. We were very happy with our choices: pork belly with mashed potatoes, the salt cod fritters with malt vinegar, flank steak with blue cheese, parsley and sherried onion and an amazing salad. Four plates were enough for us, but we would have added the fried green beans and bacon, tarragon aioli if we had had the space. The large plates looked very good, but they were indeed large (and expensive) and probably better suited to cooler weather and heartier appetites.

Park Kitchen
422 NW 8th Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 223-7275

What is that smell?

2010-07-10T21:43:00.000-07:00

For a week I have been driving around with a terrible smell in my car. It got really bad as the temperature got up into the 90's, so sitting in stop and go traffic on the way back from Beaverton last week was no fun. As the smell continued to intensify, I decided to take the car apart until I found the source. My fear was that one of the mice that has been seen in the garage took the bait we put out and burrowed into my car and died. After pulling out and cleaning all the carpets, it became more and more obvious this was what happened. I dug around in every crevice the car has until I got to a tiny space in the very back of the trunk where I couldn't see anything, but the smell was very strong. Thankfully my shop vac did the ugly job of removing a small dead mouse from it's automotive grave. I then hit the space with a bottle of bleach and tried to air it out over the weekend.