Live from Neko Case

Originally uploaded by dieselboii.

I have to say, coming into this, I wasn’t sure about Neko, but now….baby, she’s amazing. The Crystal is a bit warm and dieselboi is sweating in his diesels, but this is one amazing woman. I think I’ll give her a second listen on the ipod. Anyone who adds a banjo and standup bass into the mix is fine by me.

Yay Neko Case!

There’s nothing on earth longer than a Friday afternoon before a four-day holiday (kids probably feel the same way about Christmas Eve, of course.) Until I got the mid-afternoon phone call.

“I’m at your house – what time do you get out of work again? See, we’re putting together an outdoor barbecue cocktail trampoline party at L’s house (she’s got a 15-foot trampoline in her backyard, you see.) Wanna come and bring the kids?”

Outdoor? Barbecue? Cocktails? (I’ll skip the trampoline, thankyouverymuch – but the kids are way psyched, of course.) Sure, I’m in! So after instructing the guy to raid my liquor cabinet, promising to bring the Magic Bullet, and scrambling to get out the door at the office – well, we’re now waiting for our ride. I’ve got the mint simple syrup and limes. I’ve got the Magic Bullet. I’ve got plastic cups and soda water. We’lll be stopping for ice on the way.

I can’t think of a better impromptu kickoff to what promises to be a gorgeous holiday weekend (full of blues festival going and farmers market trips and a pool excursion or two, I’m sure) – can you?

If you, like me, are staying put in PDX this weekend – what’s going on in your world?

SOS_500x318

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

So, a group of local designers are getting together at Disjecta tomorrow (Saturday) to have a blowout sample sale. My buddy from SameUnderneath will be there and I’m excited to pick me up some cool new shirts. Also, I’ve always been intrigued by Brown Sound, so I look forward to seeing what they bring. It’s $2 to get in, but that gets you free drinks and a dj spinning tunes.

Check it.
Sample Sale @ Disjecta
230 E. Burnside (enter SE 3rd, park under the Burnside Bridge)
11am – 4pm

“There is a power outage on the west side, so RED line trains are not running downtown. You can take the YELLOW to Rose Quarter and catch the RED line there.” said the Yellow line conductor….
sent from space while monitoring your personal phone calls

I just stopped into one of my neighborhood bars for a cheap afternoon beer and Robert, a regular at the bar, bought my beer. I thought that free beer sounded good but in the ten minutes it took to drink my beer I found out Robert was an expert at selling cars, glam-rock videos, baseball, football, soccer, tennis, dominos, hairdressing, dinosaurs, water conservation, gas mileage, making the perfect omelet, who should run the country, the price of beef, porn, sewing, big noses, aliens, tepee making and French kissing.

As I was leaving the bartender apologized and said, “That’s why Robert sits at the bar alone.”

I guess a free beer isn’t always a great deal.

(Names were changed to protect the guilty.)

nekosoldout
Originally uploaded by jonashpdx.

I headed over to the Crystal Ballroom a few minutes ago to take a picture (and grab an extra ticket to tonight’s show) so that I could harangue you all to go see Ms. Case tonight, but instead was greeted with the message you see here.
For those of you lucky enough to have tix to the show, you’re in for a treat– hearing Neko on record is formidable in its own right, but seeing her on-stage, bellowing in that grand voice of hers is another matter altogether. for those of you unfamiliar with the Neko, think a good mix of Patsy Cline, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, and maybe a smidgen of Elvis and you might be getting close to the sound she creates, with a distinctly Northwest edge (she sings songs about Tacoma and Spanaway, for chrissakes!). Or you could just go here and watch the video. or listen to “hold on, hold on” and “star witness” here.

There’s a huge Jehovah’s WItness convention in town at Memorial Coliseum. This according to the group of very friendly out-of-towners trying to get to the Coliseum from their hotel via my bus this morning.

They had TriMet Trip Planner directions printed out – but kept getting confused about just where they were going – the Convention Center! No, the Coliseum! And their Trip Planner directions weren’t exactly helpful – I had to stop them from waiting ten minutes at the Rose Quarter Transit Center to board another bus that would have taken them all of one block north.

They were very grateful for my help, of course. Handed me a large four-color pamphlet. And invited me to drop on by – “we’ll be here for the next three days!”

Instead, I’m warning you all instead. See, that four-color pamphlet came from what looked like a huge stack. They’re prepping to invade all of PDX with their good word, it seems.

Either that or there’s going to be an interesting mashup of sorts at this afternoon’s Blues Festival…!

According to The Merc, Sgt Brian Schmautz has returned to his “Official Spokesperson” post from the land of Vice. Paul Dolbey, the detective who (was keeping the seat warm) was holding the position has gone back to detective work, so I can’t tell if they are short a position or not (I guess it depends on where Dolbey went).

I couldn’t find anything on the Portland Police website to confirm this, but hey, I read it on the Internets so it must be true…

Hopefully you will have sufficiently recovered by next Friday, for in one SHORT week The Early Show will be in Portland.

Now the site is a little short on details, but I’m guessing they’ll be someplace “good” like Pioneer Square so there’s lotsa foot traffic and folks wanting to wave on national television. Plus they are giving away a vacation, maybe the free trip will go to you! (It won’t go to me, I may not even make it down there…I don’t know how hard I’ll try for CBS, I’ve been a Today watcher for like my whole life.)

We all know that Portland enjoys a great technology community, but as a Washington resident I’m proud to see that Governor Chris Gregoire has proclaimed today and tomorrow as “RSS Days“, officially recognized by the state in honor of the Gnomedex conference currently being held in Seattle.

Top that, Ted :)