K and I had another dinner outing this evening, this time at Gustav's, a German restaurant and bar (attached to the Rheinlander restaurant, sort of a 'Deutschland duo') with Miranda & Brian, and Heidi & Andy (joined later by Brendle & Debbie). For dinner I had a delicious rotisserie turkey sandwich with munster cheese on a ciabatta roll, with a side of spicy sauerkraut (that's right, spicy… it had habanero in it, and it was good) and a couple steins of Spaten Munich. After dinner we went down the street to Moon & Sixpence for some beers (all but Heidi & Andy that is). We spent a few hours sipping beers and chatting away. Great evening all around.
Tonight K and I went to dinner at Gino's Restaurant & Bar in Sellwood for Snooks girlfriend L's birthday. We arrived just after 8pm, meeting up with Snooks, L, and our friend Miranda, and waited for a bit for our table to open up. The place itself is very nice (nicer than the outside led me to believe as we pulled up), with a really gorgeous wood bar that nearly reached the high ceiling. The atmosphere was cozy, with a comfortable murmur of happy patrons, and a very friendly and helpful staff. While waiting the owner came to where we were standing and helped the wine drinkers select a bottle of (reportedly) very good wine, and took beer orders from Snooks and I. I was pleasantly surprised they had not only Guinness on tap, but Greene King Abbot Ale. Once seated the hostess was very helpful in taking our orders. The menu, while slightly expensive, was filled with delicious sounding meals. I tried to avoid really high-calorie / heavy items, but just couldn't resist one item named Grandma Jean's, a tomato based sauce with pork ribs, pepperoni, and beef, over penne pasta. I held out on the caesar salad appetizer that Snooks ordered, and any other appetizers so I could eat the main dish without too much regret. The meal was frickin' delicious, and very filling. They don't skimp on portions at Gino's.
After dinner and Kelly and I joined Snooks & L at the Horse Brass for a beer before calling it a night. I was exhausted all evening, mostly from the insanity at work all week, but it also could have been attributed to the evening out I had last night with my brother and Snooks at Moon & Sixpence. Either way, I could hardly keep my eyes open (so much so that I was forced to order a coffee at Gino's for fear of falling asleep in my chair). Despite my exhaustion, it was a fun evening.
Read a review of Gino's here (Willamette Week).
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iPhone… part deux
Came across something on Digg this morning that relates to a previous post about the iPhone. Apparently there's an LG phone coming out that is very similar to the iPhone, and Digg linked to a YouTube video of two nerds arguing about whether they're similar. I stopped watching the video and did some digging of my own on Google. You can see side by side photos here, and a video here (the reviewer is a french person with a camcorder, so it's a bit of a rough demo, but enough that you get the idea of how it works). Interesting.
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Tolkien Day at Kennedy School
Tonight McMenamins Kennedy School held their annual Tolkien birthday bash, in celebration of the famous author's birthday (which was technically January 3rd). It's an all day event (from 11am to 7pm), with food specials (like Shire Stew, and My Precious Onion Rings), readings from Tolkien's work, people dressed in costume, and the theater playing all three Lord of the Rings films back to back. Because of my poor memory, if it wasn't for the email I'd gotten from Snooks I'd have forgotten about it completely (I'd forgotten to add it to my calendar, oops). Kelly was in school all day, and I had some errands to run, but I met Snooks and L there around 4:30pm, grabbed a beer, and then went exploring. The hallways contained a number of people dressed in costume, including a very impressive Ring Wraith and a girl in a beautiful Elven costume. I also wandered into the theater (which I'd never been into before) and caught about 5 minutes of Two Towers. Most of my time was spent hanging out in the Cypress Room with Snooks and L (and later Kelly, once she finished with her day of classes for school), learning to play rummy (and kicking ass for the few hands I played, heh). Fun evening. Had I showed up early enough I'd have loved to seen all three movies in the theater, but as it was, it was just fun hanging out, soaking in the Tolkien-esque atmosphere.
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Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
Tonight my friend Miranda and I went to see Emily Haines (singer/songwriter for Metric) perform at the Doug Fir. The evening started with a surprise cocktail party in the company break room; music cranked up, snacks, people playing cards, and even a waiter mixing martini's. The boss apparently decided that due to all the stress everybody's been under the past few weeks, that a party was well deserved. Pretty fun time, and it goes on the long list of reasons why I love working where I do. I'd have hung out longer if it weren't for the plans I'd made.
After leaving the office I met Miranda at the Shanghai Tunnel, where we had some drinks and a meal before heading to the Doug Fir for the show. Kelly had to miss out on the evening unfortunately, due to school. Miranda and I arrived at the Doug Fir about an 45 minutes before the show started. The main floor was arranged with rows of seating (something I've never seen at the Doug Fir), which given mood of the Emily Haines album Knives Don't Have Your Back seemed like the perfect way to do the show. We got in and took a couple seats a few rows from the stage at one end. The opening band, Tall Firs (yup, the Tall Firs played at the Doug Fir, heh), were an interesting and mellow trio, a drummer and two rhythm guitars players / singers (no bassist). The music sounded like it might be a good fit for driving over the mountain ranges on the way to the coast, very chill, not very exciting though.
After a very long intermission (the stage sat, completely set up and empty for over a half hour), Emily Haines and her band The Soft Skeleton took the stage. They immediately started playing, but after the first song or two, Emily paused to talk to the audience, where she seemed a little 'out of it'. She described having had a wreck of a day, something about a stalker freaking her out, and one of the members of the Tall Firs spending time backstage consoling her before she could go on stage (this, I presume, is the cause for the long intermission). She seemed genuinely freaked out, though while she was describing things there were this morons in the back of the place laughing… either they were cold, heartless bastards, or they thought she was being funny or ironic. I didn't detect any irony in Emily's tone, but she laughed along a bit, in something of a helpless / hopeless way and continued on. In between songs she kept sipping on cans of Guinness. As the show went on, she tried talking to the audience about songs but the constant and loud murmur of conversation at the bar was distracting / annoying her. Several times between songs she went on little tirades about it, eventually causing members of the crowd who were paying attention to yell back "shut the fuck up".
As the evening progressed, Emily was either losing hope, drunk, or was too drained (or all three, I couldn't quite tell) that she almost stopped playing completely, looking at the guitar player saying "man, I can't be bothered… should I continue?". I don't think she was drunk, though if she was, she continued to play piano and sing flawlessly. Either way, it was a surreal and very emotional show, one of the strangest I've ever seen. I get the impression that the material and the mood of this solo work is so personal and emotional for her, that she's a lot more vulnerable than while performing with Metric, with her tough, punk-chick persona. And while the show was an emotional roller-coaster (from tears welling up during certain songs, to anger at the morons being so rude, and everything between) it somehow worked. While distracting at times, it was still a good show. I hope that whatever this stalker business is gets resolved and Emily can continue the tour without the mess, and I also hope that she doesn't think of Portland as a city filled with insensitive jerks (and stalkers, if said person was from here).