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Category: Entertainment
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Decemberists (with a demon)
Tonight my good friend Miranda and I went to McMenamins Crystal Ballroom to see The Demberists perform, on the first night of their tour supporting their latest album The Crane Wife. It was a really good show. I have no photos because I was cautious and didn't bring my camera (figuring it wouldn't be allowed) and, of course, I could have. Sheesh!
The opening band, Lavender Diamond, was quite odd. The female singer was very cute, though quite quirky and Miranda and I suspected she was either drunk, high, or little insane. But cute. Musically it wasn't anything I'd write home about (well, I guess I am blogging about it), it might be nice background music. Between songs the singer would congratulate the audience for world peace, talk about holograms, and romance. "Romance, peace, and particles! Yay!" (uhh)
Decemberists played an excellent show, naturally weighted strongly towards the songs from their latest album, though they did play a lot of tracks from their earlier albums. Most notably was an excellent performance of Military Wives. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play a few songs though (such as The Mariner's Revenge Song, and Eli, The Barrow Boy) but, it was a great show.
Regarding my subject line (related to an earlier post) Lisa Molinaro was fantastic, and it was a joy to see her perform with Decemberists. Most notable was her versatility. Unlike her work with Talkdemonic where she plays violin almost exclusively, tonight she also played guitar, banjo, keyboards, xylophone, accordion, and sang (all of the backup and harmony vocals). She was fantastic, and it was great to see her shine. Colin Meloy (lead singer of The Decemberists) was very gracious and introduced her and congratulated her several times. Fantastic! Go Lisa! And have a great tour! 🙂
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Well darn it anyway
Yeah, I know, two posts in one night. Well, there's a good reason. Just after I finished writing the last post, I get a call from K. As part of her job at CompuHyperGlobalMegaNet (as GhostDog would say, and yeah, same place) she was invited to a VIP event tonight to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The reason being, her employer is a sponsor of a very cool exhibit, Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination… where they have all sorts of Star Wars things on display, fun games, etc, all related to the real-life science in science-fiction.
She had called me at my work at about 4:30pm as she was on her way, saying how she'd just learned that spouses / significant others were invited to this private event (food and drink supplied). Since I'd learned this so late in the day (and had my heart set on getting some of the previously mentioned painting done) I declined and told her to have fun. Also, we'd already planned to go about a month from now, when the event would be open to the public, so I thought "eh, sounds kind of boring".
Well, I just got a call from her, she said she was having a blast, that there were all sorts of people in costume, and to check my email. I got the photo to the left from a coworker's camera-phone. Dammit! And here I was, painting the stupid fence. Argh!
Boy, what a day! A few days back, Ghost Dog's better half discovered that on Saturday, September 30th, actor, writer, and all-around wise guy Bruce Campbell would be in town, at the McMenamin's Bagdad Theater doing a book signing for Make Love! (The Bruce Campbell Way). Naturally, Ghost Dog and I were eager to attend.
The three of us arrived just after the doors opened at 4pm, narrowly missing a very long line (and seeing Miranda on the way, who works just across the street). Once inside, we waited patiently for the 5pm arrival of the man. I'd never been in the theater before, but I'd love to go back to see a movie, have some beers, and eat some pizza.
When Mr. Campbell arrived, there was thunderous applause from the full theater. After taking the stage, he spoke for a short time, and then said that since he didn't have anything planned, he opened things up to a Q&A session, which was hilarious (see Ghost Dog's write-up for more details). As you would expect, he's as snarky and witty in person as the characters he plays.
After the Q&A session, Bruce left the stage and went back to the lobby to start signing, and the waiting began. It took about an hour and a half to get our numbers called to get into line, and another 30 minutes in the line, before finally, I got to meet the man. As I walked up to the table he was sitting at, he said "Hello Sir!" While I handed him my books he asked what I did for a living. I told him "A web designer and developer" to which he responded "That sounds like a very sensible job in this modern age." Perhaps. 🙂 After I thanked him, I stood back and took a couple photos of Mr. & Mrs. Ghost Dog getting their book signed, and then we left. How totally cool!
After we left we went to the Horse Brass for dinner and beers, and then to Moon & Sixpence for more beers. What a kiler evening! To the right is one of the two books I got autographed. For the other, I'd chosen to use just my last name, which for any of you who know it, know is rather long. Bruce looked at it and went "[slowly reads last name] eh? That's one heck-of-a name." and proceeded to write it out seperately, one line for each syllable. Sweet! 🙂
(Post-dated, originally written on October 3rd, because I'm a slacker. :))
Today, Ghost Dog and I hit two festivals in the area, The Portland Pirate Festival, and the Portland Polish Festival. K couldn't go, unfortunately, because she had to spend the day studying.
The Pirate Festival (held at Cathedral Park in the St. Johns neighborhood of Portland) was pretty fun. It's a very family-friendly event, with inflatable pirate ships for the kiddies, food, tents selling all manner of pirate swag, family friendly pirate rock bands, and a beer garden for the adults (or shall I say, scurvy dogs and bawdy wenches). I'd never been to Cathedral Park before, which is a really beautiful park located under the eastern end of the St. Johns bridge along the Willamette river. The weather (after having been grey and rainy all week) was excellent (upper 70's and clear skies) and everybody seemed in a festive mood. There were loads of people dressed up in costume, some of which were very elaborate (and quite expensive I'd imagine), ranging from all manner of pirate outfit, to period English naval crew and admiralty, to women in very snug-fitting bodices.
When Ghost Dog and I first arrived, the group Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries (B.O.O.M) were going 'boom' with a performance along the shore of the river, firing cannons and guns at the English navy (who were firing back). Pretty fun stuff (and very loud). Later, the pirate rock band Captain Bogg & Salty took to the stage (featuring two members of the apparently now-defunct Pirate Jenny) with their fun blend of rock and pirate sea shanty. After a beer in the beer garden, we wandered through the 'Marauder's Market' to look at the wares (including some pretty fun pirate clothing), 
over to get some yummy food (er, grub) from the Salvadore Molly's tent, and then back to the beer tent for another pint o' ale. After that, we went to check out the replica 1812 privateer schooner, only to discover that the $15 ticket to get into the festival didn't cover entrance into the ship, so we bagged it and left.
Oh, as a result of a conversation GD and I had while there, here's what scurvy is. Just so you know. 🙂
On the way back from St. Johns, we checked out the Portland Polish Festival, which was a lot of fun. On the way in (we entered from the parking lot, just off of Interstate Avenue), there were a few tents selling jewlery, art, clothing etc, followed by a large tent and a stage with a polka band. Beyond that was the food and beer tents, both of which had very long lines. Long lines seemed to be the theme between both festivals. 🙂 The atmosphere was very friendly, the food looked and smelled delicious The couple beers I sampled (the Okocim and Okocim Porter) were really really good. It was a fun event, and I was pleasantly surprised at how large of a Polish community the Portland area has. It was a lot of fun getting a little taste for Polish culture, something to which I admittedly know very little about.
Overall it was a very fun day. The Portland Polish Festival runs again tomorrow (sunday) so for those of you live in the area, and feel like getting some polka, kielbasa, and beer, I suggest you check it out.