The Reader

It is hard to say if this movie is a coming of age story, a soft core porn flick or a a crime drama. The truth is it's a little of each. The movie opens in 1955 Berlin with a 15 year-old Michael Berg (David Kross) throwing up and being helped home by 36 year-old Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet). He is diagnosed with scarlet fever and spends the next few months in bed recovering. When he goes back to thank Hanna for her help, they begin an affair that lasts the summer, then she abruptly leaves him. Eight years later Berg attends a Nazi trial as part of a law school seminar where Hanna is accused of being a SS guard responsible for the deaths of over 300 Jews. As the trail plays out Berg realizes he has information that could influence the outcome, but refuses to reveal it. The story continues with the adult Berg's (Ralph Fiennes) relationship with Hanna and how it effects his life moving forward.

Many people were very surprised that Kate Winslet did not win the Academy award for this performance, and I agree she is amazing and it does seem like a major slight. Her character is complicated, you never really like her, but she is very interesting. You want things to work out for her, but then you are forced to remember she is a murderer, even if she was just following orders. After 50 years, it is impressive that this movie can still bring back the angst that Nazi trails generated and how the younger generation related to their elders who clearly were there. It brings up the still unanswered questions of what they saw and why they didn't do more.

Charlie Parker - Bird and Diz

Charlie Paker, or Bird as he was widely know, changed jazz like no other musician. The transformation from swing to bebop in the early '40's was basically his doing. He played faster and with more improvisational skill than anyone had before, revolutionizing jazz. Along with Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk he put out some of the most innovative music of the late 40's and the early 50's. While Parker's catalog is not as extensive as some of the other jazz greats, he does have a lot of reissues and prepacked compilations out there. One of the better ones is the remaster of Bird and Diz, which is a recording in 1950 with Monk on piano and Buddy Rich on drums (how much better would this have been with Max Roach!). Parker and Gillespie played together on many of their major recordings and this captures their skills and interplay perfectly. Sadly Parker was a heroin addict from an early age and it took a savage toll on his life, with stints in the mental hospital and finally losing his cabaret license in NY in 1953, making it nearly impossible for him to get a gig. He died in 1955 at the age of 34.

Kennedy Turns 70

Today one of our founders, David Kennedy turned 70 years old. Kennedy is one of the coolest people I have ever met, he is smart, has a wicked sense of humor, but is also very kind hearted. Unfortunately he retired just before I started working at W+K, so I have never worked with him, but he is still very involved with the pro bono work we do for the American Indian College Fund. The College Fund raises money to send Native Americans to tribal colleges that are on or near reservations, so they can not only get a degree but also keep tribal cultural and tradition at the core of their learning. Over the 18 years we have worked with them, Kennedy has been the creative director on every campaign. He grew up in Oklahoma and has a great love for Native American culture. For his birthday a tribal chief came and bestowed him with his final Indian name. As he explained it you get a name when you are born, another when you become a warrior and if you are lucky enough another if you become a chief. David's final name is totally unpronounceable to me, but I can tell you it means, one who has completed life's tasks. He was bestowed with a special blanket and a blessing, there was also a drum circle and traditional dancing. As a gift from the agency the charitable committee established a $50,000 endowed scholarship in Kennedy's name. With the average tuition around $900, that will help send a lot of people to school.

There's Ink Under that Sweater Set

In Portland you see normal looking girls, dressed in professional clothes like they are headed to work or in a sun dress headed off to class just like you would in any other city, except in Portland you realize that is not a print on their shirt sleeve it's an arm full of ink. It is amazing to me how many young women have tattoos, and I am not just talking about an ankle tat or one on the lower back. I am talking all up and down the arms and legs, while everything else about them looks like the girl next door. In the old days you expected this look from biker chicks or girls with purple hair, not your nurse practitioner. I bet it would be impossible to find a women in Portland between the ages of 20 and 35 that does not have some kind of tattoo.

The World As You Dream It - John Perkins

The World As You Dream It is not a book I would ordinarily pick up off the shelf. I read it because it was on the reading list for the trip to Ecuador and I enjoyed the author's earlier book Confessions of an Economic Hitman. This book is very different. It details the time Perkins spent living with the Shuar tribe in Ecuador. He explores the dream culture of the native people and how they live in harmony with their environment. Many of the customs of sacred rituals, healing ceremonies and other ancient arts are quite similar to what I experienced with the Ashuar on my trip.

Perkins has become very involved with the old world ways of healing and living in harmony with your environment because he was partly responsible for the damage many of the indigenous people in this part of the world have suffered. In his past life he was part of a large US company that exploited government contracts to strip the land and indenture the people of countries across the world in the name of economic progress. Whether you agree with his point of view or not, this book is still a compelling look into the lives of people that are very different from us. Perkins can be overly dramatic in his descriptions of some of the ceremonies, especially anything that involves a hallucinogenic plant, but he is a true believer and gets as close as any white person to the truth of how these people live. There is no doubt we could learn a lot from what most people in the north would call weird at best and "witch doctoring" at worst.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

It is hard to imagine jazz without Miles Davis and it is hard to imagine owning just one Miles Davis record. As Miles went, so went jazz. He started out as a devote of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie paying the emerging hard jazz sound called bebop. For several years he played as part of Bird's band before becoming a front man. During his early days he invented and popularized cool jazz, releasing his first record, the must own Birth of Cool. A recording contract with Columbia records spawned the must haves 'Round About Midnight and Miles Ahead. Following this, Davis began to experiment with modal playing, basing his improvisations on scales rather than chord changes. This led to his biggest recording, Kind of Blue, in 1959, a record that became a landmark in modern jazz and the most popular of Davis' career, selling over two million copies, unheard of for a jazz record. The last on the must have list is Bitches Brew, with this record Davis turned more overtly to a jazz-rock style. Though not conventional rock music, Davis' electrified sound attracted a non-jazz audience while putting off traditional jazz fans. Released in March 1970, it reached the pop Top 40 and became Davis' first certified gold record. Not bad for a heroin addict and the one of the angriest men to ever live.

Travel Day

Wednesday was a long day. We got up at 4:00 a.m. central time to catch a 6:45 a.m. flight to Houston. We got to the airport early in case there were long lines, but of course we flew right through and ended up waiting forever in the lounge. It's a five hour flight to Houston from Quito and they showed a couple of movies, Marley and Me and Yes Man. Neither of them were great movies, but at least Marley was a cute dog, Jim Carrey was just a dog. After Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I have come to expect a lot more of him than falling down and stupid faces. The one bright spot in Yes Man was Zooey Deschanel, who is too cute and funny to fall for Carey's lame character. When we got to Houston we had a four hour layover that was partially consumed with a trip to Pappadeux's restaurant for great gumbo and Cajun food. This has got to be some of the best airport food around. On the four and half hour flight from Houston to Portland we had satellite TV which was great, I watched the first half of the Cavs game and if I had been smart I could have found out who won American Idol on the east coast broadcast.

When I got back to Portland I couldn't help but feel that my trip to Ecuador had flown by. It was like I had bungee jumped into the rain forest; as soon as we got there and got used to the noises and the slower pace, we were snapped back to reality. That said, I think I learned a lot and there is no doubt that the Ashaur have as much, if not more, to teach us about how to live harmoniously with our surroundings as we have to teach them about running an Eco-lodge.