Kailua Lanikai Family Photography

Quick Takes

It's the end of another month -- my fourth as a blogger -- and time for another round of Quick Takes.

1. After much anticipation, I get to see Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Buddy Miller tonight in concert at Oaks Park. They're touring as Three Girls and Their Buddy. I saw Emmylou long, long ago at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene. I've been waiting forever to see Patty.

2. After much anticipation of a different sort, I was gratified to read the news that we're finally beginning to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Obviously, whether Jordan winds up serving in Afghanistan or Iraq or is something that weighs heavily on my mind as we prepare to fly out to Ft. Benning tomorrow morning.

As The Washington Post's Marie Cocco points out:

But there is a reason the Bush administration was unable to get out of Iraq quickly, and it is found in the regional, ethnic and sectarian divides that persist: "The problem with Iraq is that there really is no state. Iraqis can reach agreement but they can't make it stick," [a Middle East expert, Joost Hiltermann] says. "There are all these fractures. The Americans will have to provide that glue, still.

3. I finally -- finally! -- got around to reading The New York Times Magazine article, "The Mellowing of William Jefferson Clinton." It's an excellent piece by Peter Baker, in which he writes that Clinton, 62, and now out of the White House longer than he served in it, can now cede the spotlight, doesn't need to shake every hand and, finally, can let go. Here's a snippet from the May 31 article:

Two sides of Clinton's persona have longed warred with each other, sunny optimism versus angry grievance. Clinton succeeded in politics largely because he projected the former; his worst moments usually came when he gave in to the latter. Both sides are genuine reflections of who he is.

Twelve years after his last campaign for office, he found it harder to control his resentments when he returned to the trail on his wife's behalf. In his view, the news media and the political world held her to a different standard, while practically anointing Obama. And when he says her, he also means, in the back of his mind, himself.

Two things I didn't realize about Clinton: He wears a hearing aid. He doesn't use a computer.

The man who ushered in the Internet age still does not use a computer, much less a BlackBerry, but keeps up with blogs and sites like The Huffington Post through clips printed out by aides.

Photo of Clinton by Ruven Afanador for The New York Times

The Hush Before The Silence

"Teardrops turn to children - who've never had the time

To commit the sins they pay for through - anothers evil mind

The love after the hate

The love we leave too late

I wish we'd wake up one day - and everyone feel moved

But we're caught up in the dailies and an ever changing mood"

(The Style Council)

One That Won't Make My Mouth Too Dry

It has finally happened...The ugly world of "Doping" has made it's way to the suburban group-ride circuit.

Our very own Alp d'Huez-Mike has emerged from the peloton to dominate the last two Hammerfests. I missed his performance last week, but I heard whispers, and tonight I saw the Landis-like effort with my own eyes.

Once a solid middle o' the packer, ADM has skyrocketed to the front end of the main field in meteoric fashion...Coincidence or Panamanian doctor?

Having Fun Is Fun

Mongo took his new Tao to the 23/2300 Hammerfest this evening and had not only a strong ride, but also a good time.

Attacking on the descents even though I knew I'd be swallowed up on the next climb...Leading out the Sprint even though I knew I'd be caught...Trying different gear combinations on the big climbs even though it hurt my speed...It was fun!

Enjoyment based on effort is a great deal more satisfying than enjoyment based on results.

New Oregon Interview Series

In April, I wrote about an after-work function in our neighborhood where I met a couple of women, Nora Robertson and Tiffany Lee Brown, who were then publicizing a series of live interviews with local artists that would start in late June.

Last week, I attended the first one -- and I'm glad I did. I've often thought of myself as having something of a cultural blind spot when it comes to first-hand knowledge of what Portland's creative class has to offer the city.

Sure, I understand it intellectually. Lots of people in their 20s and 30s who've moved here in the past 10 to 15 years -- typically college-educated, working one or more day jobs so they can make art -- and who've collectively helped transform the city's cultural life through their numbers and D.I.Y. approach toward work and the creative arts.

But until I spent a couple hours last Wednesday at a local coffeehouse, as part of a small but supportive audience there for the kickoff of The New Oregon Interview Series, I hadn't really come face to face with it. (Guess I've been spending too much time focused on politics, race, class, the economy and other topics.)

Nora moderated a program on music, interviewing Slim Moon, a band manager/spoken word artist, who got his start performing at punk rock venues in Olympia; Alicia Rose (above), a music club owner, occasional accordion player and self-described "gatekeeper," who's originally from L.A.; and Mic Crenshaw, a hip-hop artist from Chicago's South Side who moved here after a stint in equally white Minneapolis.

My colleague, Barry Johnson, wrote his weekly arts column about the debut program. I defer to his take, since he was able to sit through the entire program, including a group discussion, whereas I had to leave after just the individual interviews.

The series continues through February, with additional topics touching on film, books, performance, food, visual arts, fashion and urban planning. I hope to hit the next one in July.

Photo by Motoya Nakamura, The Oregonian

Rip Ping

"The Man"

Schadenfreude

Colors Haiku

Greater than yourself

Represented by the cloth

Taking one for all

Things That Make You Go Hmm

As I rolled up to a particular intersection on my bike, once this past Friday evening and once the following Saturday morning, a fire engine passed right in front of me...the exact same way...at the exact same moment I arrived. I really hope it's not some sort of ironic premonition.

Screen on the Green at Chateau Gahan

Last night Chateau Gahan hosted the high school youth of our church for an outdoor movie night. We had 20+ kids who spread out on blankets under the stars, surrounded by the sweet intermittent glow of lightening bugs. Once the movie was over, I stoked up the chiminea and the crew got to making s'mores.

NOTE: If you've ever thought about getting a chiminea, treat yourself. One of the best things about my patio. We use it all year round. Since I love being host to Harleigh and her friends, it's an instant source of relaxation and good chat time for teens. Who doesn't love staring at a crackling fire?

I used pillows and oil lamps from last weekend's shower. Popped a bunch of popcorn, loaded big metal tubs with ice and sodas. Harleigh even re-purposed the sarees and outdoor rugs from the shower to decorate the treehouse.

I've done zero plantings this Spring and Summer because I've been so absorbed with house fiascos, so this event jump-started a little gardening just to make the porches and yard look nice.

Headed to Georgia

One of the best things about Portland is the annual Waterfront Blues Festival, a multi-day bash on the Willamette River that also serves as the Oregon Food Bank's largest fundraiser of the year. It's always a great mix of music, food and weather, with ponytailed, tie-dyed hippies dancing deliriously alongside folks half their age on the grassy knoll south of the Hawthorne Bridge.

I was really looking forward to this year's line-up: Etta James, Robben Ford, Johnny Winter, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and many more. (Turns out Keb' Mo' will fill in as headliner for Etta James, who's canceling because of illness.) Alas, I'm going to miss them all...but for the best of reasons.

We fly out Wednesday morning to see Jordan graduate from basic training at the Army's infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia. Hard to say who's looking forward to it more: him, us or his girlfriend, Jamie (pictured above with our favorite lucha libre wrestler).

We haven't seen him since March 19. We've talked to him a few times, as his schedule has permitted, and visualized the transformation of an eager but innocent young recruit to a confident and capable young man. There were times when, hearing his voice, we sympathized for what he was going through. We could detect weariness and loneliness at times, but always a resoluteness to push through.

The last couple of times we spoke, it was a series of rattling coughs. He'd been diagnosed with pneumonia. Fortunately, the antibiotics kicked in and he sounded much better yesterday. He and his buddies were attending an alcohol-free Fourth of July picnic on the base -- some deserved down time from their daily routine in the Georgia heat. (He says as he steps out of the air-conditioned barracks at 5:45 each morning, the humidity smacks him in the face and he starts sweating. It was 102 degrees the other day.)

So...we fly into Atlanta and spend one night there. We rise early Thursday to drive to Columbus, about 2 hours away on the Alabama border, for some orientation activities on the base and then watch the graduation ceremony on Friday. Assuming Jordan is given a medical OK, he'll begin his leave and can join us in traveling back to Atlanta on Saturday before we all fly home on Sunday.

The one thing I want to do for sure off-base is visit the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta. I've seen it once before, along with the Ebenezer Baptist Church, below, where Dr. King regularly preached, and it remains one of the most moving experiences of my life.

Seems entirely appropriate to begin the visit honoring Jordan and his fellow soldiers, who've committed to doing a job that entails great risk in the name of freedom, and end it by honoring Dr. King and thousands of ordinary heroes, who also took on great risk for the cause of civil rights.

Shower Details

A few details from the shower.

If you do any kind of entertaining, cake stands are the perfect staples. They add height to a table, whether they're displaying a cake, a dip or a salad bowl. This one is glass (and has a dome that I rarely use); I've hot-glued all kinds of trim to the rim, from pink rick rack for a baby shower to this Moroccan-like trim I found at the fabric store. When your event is over, simply pull off the trim (which remains in its usable state) and peel off the glue.
I couldn't find gold utensils that looked like I wanted them to, so I bought clear ones, covered the eating part of the utensil, and spray-painted each one individually. They came out looking shiny and pretty, just like I wanted. Then I glued on the jewels.
I made 60+napkins by finding fabric on sale and ripping 10" x 10" squares. No need to hem them. The unfinished edge worked just fine. By folding and ironing them into "pockets," they made sweet little utensil holders.
For this shower, I knew that Courtney would do amazing flower arrangements, and so I wanted vessels that would compliment but not overpower the arrangements. A trip to the local Indian market produced canned goods and these lovely bottles.

Another one for the reading list

While the world's attention was focused on the death of superstar/superfreak Michael Jackson, Lori and I were experiencing a quintessential evening in Northeast Portland -- a casual sushi dinner, followed by a book reading by a Northwest author at the independent bookstore two doors down from Lori's studio.

And not just any Northwest author.

This was Jim Lynch, a veteran journalist who worked at The Oregonian and other newspapers before making the leap into writing fiction. If you're familiar with Jim's first book, the widely acclaimed "The Highest Tide" -- a beautifully written novel about a 13-year-old beachcomber named Miles O'Malley, set on the shores of Puget Sound -- then you'll be just as eager as I am to dive into his second book, "Border Songs."

Jim is a classic case of good things happening to good people. Evident from his reading last night, he is the same witty and humble guy who has succeeded through a combination of dogged reporting skills and amazing discipline as a writer, one who works and reworks and reworks a sentence until it's just right.

There were six of us current or former Oregonian staffers among the approximately 50 people who crammed into a corner at Broadway Books to hear Jim describe how he got the idea for his newest book (a colleague suggested he might find a good story if he spent some time at the Canadian border), as well as how he writes (in spurts, while listening to Miles and Coltrane).

Even before he read from it, we laughed along with him as he described his trepidation at appearing on Canada's equivalent of "Good Morning, America" to kick off a tour in support of the book. Imagine enduring layers of orange makeup under the bright TV lights and trying to keep your wits about you while a stereotypical blow-dried interviewer -- someone who's wearing even more orange makeup than you -- asks about your new book. It all turned out well, Jim said. He fought off the urge to vomit and the interviewer asked surprisingly good questions.

Anyway, according to a publisher's synopsis, "Border Songs" is about:

An extremely tall dyslexic [who] is pushed away from his family's Washington dairy farm to join the Border Patrol, where he indulges his obsessions with birds and art while occasionally catching smugglers and illegal immigrants on the British Columbian border.

Jim says Brandon Vanderkool, the 6-foot-8 Border Patrol agent, is just one of several quirky characters in the book. If he's as entertaining as Miles, I'm sure I'll be in for a treat.

Jim will be back in the Portland area next month, so I recommend you catch him:

Thursday, July 23 (7:30 pm)
Annie Bloom’s Books
7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland

Friday, July 24 (7 pm)
Tigard Public Library, 13500 SW Hall Blvd.

In the meantime, check out Jeff Baker's piece on Jim that appeared in The Oregonian. http://www.oregonlive.com/O/index.ssf/2009/06/northwest_novelist_jim_lynch_p.html

Mid-Pacific Country Club Wedding: Robert & Debbie

This wedding was all about celebrating with family and golfing buddies at the beautiful Mid-Pacific Country Club in Lanikai. Laura and Maile, the fab event managers at Mid-Pac CC, did a great job coordinating this wedding. Debbie and Bob kept it local by using several vendors from Kailua. Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple.
Rev. Boyd Luna

Cake: Sweet Stop
Flowers: Picket Fence Florist

DJ: Rick Peralta, Music Express Productions

When The Moon Is In The Seventh House

"Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh."

(Henry David Thoreau)

What's In The Purse Grandma?

Really!?

How is it that a fifty year old woman has continued to dominate French cycling for, like, thirty years?

Superstar cyclist, Jeannie Longo(cough, cough, doper, cough, cough!), wearing the house-dress style National Champion jersey, wins the TT Championship over David Brenner and Mongo's new girlfriend, Marina Juanatre.

(Photo:VeloNews)

Shower Pictures

Thank you thank you thank you to Ali Harper for photographing Jenn and Jason's shower this past Saturday. She captured it perfectly. The evening was hot as all get out, which added to the exotic Moroccan feel. A slight summer breeze made the sarees dance in the setting sunlight. The food, lovingly made, was just as pretty to look at as it was tasty to eat. Courtney's floral arrangements were perfect. Candlelight set a romantic tone as the evening grew dark. There was a stellar selection of wine and beer. Laura made the fans for me and they were so beautiful. Courtney painted the Moroccan "tea glasses" (a real hit of the party). And playing cornhole was a blast. (This was Harleigh's first company event as a "young adult" and she didn't want to leave; you'll see pix of her sprinkled throughout — she looked stunning.)

I so enjoyed doing this shower. I felt like I kicked it up a notch in terms of coming up with a theme and all its decor AND creating a mood. Hope you enjoy . . .