Eco Fashion, Eco Sports, Eco Film, Eco EXCELLENT

Here is a photograph of me and a giant Salmon at this past weekend's (including Friday, when I went) Better Living Show. I had thought I'd also snapped a beautiful portrait with Woodsy Owl, icon of the US Forest Service, though i guess i just imagined how awesome it would have been and then made that imagination a reality in my mind. Looking at the actual photographs i have saved on the camera, there is no owl-mascot-with-Yours-Truly specimen to be found, sadly. I did get a Woodsy button though, which i plan to sport proudly in the near future as apt occasions arise.



Shockingly, i could not convince Kirsten at any point to join me for one of several Eco-fashion shows they held at the event, though i offered multiple times. (Ladies, when was the last time YOUR man asked you on a date to a fashion show?!?)

Also, though i wanted to badly, i was unable to meet the 2nd most green athlete in the US (?) who also happens to be the #1 most eco-friendly athlete in the NFL, at least according to some(one). Travis? Dad? Others? You heard of him before? That's your team, right?!

The films Deep Green & Bag It were also shown, which i caught good portions of. I got to meet the director/producer of the former (he added the title "janitor" in referencing himself :o) and i was impressed by both productions, though the latter is rather irreverent. Hopefully i'll get a copy of the former soon, though.

Lots of exciting stuff coming up in the coming weeks/months, so hopefully i'll have more good content to report!

Urban (Mega)fauna

I found out where at least some of them are hiding out. Sasquatch is of course still as blurry as ever.

ME GUSTA BROOKLYN STREET

It's been raining a lot lately

but it hasn't stopped this guy* from enjoying his shower:



He's part of a cool rain catchment/bioswale system* at the Seven Corners New Seasons on SE Division. I actually went to the store at that particular location with a certain A. Humphrey on one of my earlier trips to Portland just before we moved here. In fact, we ate there right after he took me to an interview I had which eventually landed me my first job in Oregon (not counting tour guide/roadie extraordinaire during the Winter of 2004) Here is a potentially more zazzling shot of our showering friend:





(*As of publication time: unknown artist(s), bioswale designer(s), title)

"What more can you ask for in the Rose City?"

Thus spake the Green Line MAX operator this morning on my one stop stretch between City Hall and the University up the little hill to campus. The question was preceded by the observations: ~ "It's sunny out [which it actually wasn't at the time he said this, though it had been sunny earlier in the morning] and the high today is 47 degrees."

Anyway, his mirthage/jollity was one blessing among many on the way to school this morning.

It also got me thinking: What more CAN we ask for in the Rose City? What more can we find? What more can we hope for? (Oh yeah, and note to self: be thankful for what you got!)

The Aaron Choate Collection

This was an art exhibit in Portland in which some of my books and such were displayed (thanks, Grandma, for the Nixon era Presidential Poster!). A personal experience of the boundary (or lack thereof) between art and life, 'twas. Perhaps an alternate title could be "My Shelflife"! The project is explained by the text in the last photograph. It ran from March 1-7th at the Field Work gallery (www.fieldworkspace.org). There also exist some set up photos and other information. Here is an in progress link, which also includes my box o' stuff as well as someone else's "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein. Kirsten's blue birthday mug makes a guest appearance (i snuck it into the display for the photograph), and i had to wait to publish this until now 'cause it wasn't her birthday yet and thus i still hadn't given it to her!

Recently i sat in on a German philosophy course in which the professor outlined how existence (la exsitencia, Existenz, etc.) comes from the Greek "Ekstatika" (ουσ. ύπαρξη? Sorry, not sure if that's right - "it's all Greek to me!" :o), but anyway, it basically means "to see oneself outside of one's own body". Nice! I used this concept recently in my German class by taking photographs of students and then displaying them immediately as a slide show with the projector. A sort of out of body experience, and it was a success i think. Hopefully i'll have more chances like this to do art-type things in the near future!

Hippo Hardware

Hippo Hardware is a difficult concept to explain. The best way for you to understand would be for you to just come to Portland and see it. Which i hope you do so i can have an excuse to go there more often and show it off. I tend to explain it to people as a smaller, more eclectic version of The Rebuilding Center, except with a behind-the-scenes modern, new inventory in addition to antique fixtures and such. ...but then one has to know what The Rebuilding Center is, another Portland phenomenon, and so i just end up explaining the concept as a whole anyway. In short: reusable and reclaimed materials, often antique or vintage. Hippo Hardware has a large collection of Hippo paraphernalia, which i'm assuming has grown over the years due to donations or at least the owners/associates bringing in or donating hippo gear. I would love to go on a hippo hunt with you, not of the sort of hunt where hippopotami are in fact slain, but rather a scavenger hunt to see who can find the hippo in the store that is the most __________ (80s, sustainable, huge, toothy, crocheted, stuffed, useful, etc.). I went alone this time to Hippo Hardware in search of a replacement cartridge for the faucet in our bathroom which had been leaking (now fixed mostly: yay!) though Ed sort of accompanied me in a way. Actually he was present right before i showed up at HH for a longer period of time (via cellular telephone) on a visit to the Multnomah County Central Library, and was the beneficiary of many inane comments regarding that structure and related literary homage. By the time i ended up at Hippo Hardware it was time for him to eat breakfast and then watch the Super Bowl and time for me to stop yakking so much and fix a leak.

Here is a mural on one of the doors which either may not work anymore or only is in use during the summer. I did not examine the situation carefully enough to say one way or the other.


Note tattoo on first hippo in foreground's left arm:


Bike there!


Walk there!





Bike there while being a hippo!


Young love.


More hippos on bikes--including one with a child carrier seat much like ours:


Photo from last February for comparison (nearly a year ago now, wow):

There was even a place where my disciplines intersected: German, true love, hippopotamusology, and plumbing. Oh yes, Happy Valentine's Day! (just HOURS till midnight--can you even wait?!)