Roadtrip: Portland (1 of 5)

I recently went on a roadtrip with my buddy Rob.  I'm going to throw a bunch of thoughts and photos together to sort of summarize it!

Day 1: October 23, 2014

The first day of the trip we tried out Portland's public transport system.  I ate lunch at a small Greek food cart.  I ordered a gyro which was good though it had cucumbers which led me to eventually  hand it off to Rob.  Afterwards we checked out a video game spot called Ground Kontrol, where I desperately was able to find a wall plug to charge my phone's battery.

We continued exploring Portland...

From my research before the trip, the main cathedral that I was interested in checking out was the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  We weren't able to get inside throughout the entire trip, but the first night we visited you could hear someone playing the organ in the dark.  Which happens to be one of my biggest fantasies.  I can't imagine having a cathedral to myself to explore with my voice or play an organ.  I think it would be an incredible rush.  (This concept will be visited again in the near future)  :)

Meanwhile, here's the first church of the trip...

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral

The church had a nice courtyard area, as you can see.  After snapping some shots, we continued our way to World Cup Coffee.  I got my signature hot chocolate and beat Rob in checkers.  He didn't really know how to play, but got it towards the end.  For the first time in my life there is something that I can say I beat him at that he's never beaten me at.  I think I'll retire at that.

McMenamins Mission Theatre

Next up we walked down to the charming McMenamins Mission Theatre to witness  Björk's new film "Biophilia Live".  I've been waiting for months to see this film, and it turned out to be the biggest highlight of the day for me.  The theatre was gorgeous and the film was unbelievable.  The footage is of the last live concert of her previous tour.  There was an amazing selection of gorgeous video footage to accompany the show.  It was an extremely emotional and passionate experience for me.

Two of the most intense moments for me were when she played an old song "One Day" from her first album 'Debut'.  The other one was "Virus", off her last album 'Biophilia'.  In each song she had an instrumentalist that played a large, metal purcussive ball.  I don't know how else to describe it.  While it was used as a percussive instrument it was also very musical.  Some of the songs performed in this concert were stripped down and just incredibly intimate.

I hope that when I am her age that I will be able to do many similar, innovative things as what she is doing in her career right now.  There were many instruments invented for her last album and being able to see them played was awesome!

There was a character in the audiance who was rocking out during half of the show.  At times the ground would shake, it was hilarious.  Afterwards he was talking to some people in front of the theatre.  Turns out, he's a science teacher for 4th graders.  It was great to be able to talk with him.  He's an older man, so he has lived through the early days of Björk well as some other musician's that I have been getting into over the past few years.  He talked of when he had met her early in her career and the quick conversation they had.

Over the past while I've been wanting to meet people who lived through some of the 90's.  When I was a kid in the 90's I only knew about the shit that was on the radio.  I didn't have any concept of what music was about or some of the great artists that were in bloom.  It wasn't until later that I got caught up and realized some of the awesome music that was coming out.

I've been wanting to meet people who have seen those artists.  It's like I want to find a connection to them.  There are lots of elements that a lot of my hero's possessed that are almost impossible to find now'a days.  It's hard to even find anyone who remembers them.

I'm like a child around the living room fire, asking "What was it like when Jeff Buckley played Sin-é?"

Day 2: October 24, 2014

-International Rose Garden

-City Views

-Nice houses on hills

-St. Mary's Cathedral

-City art

-First Presyterian Church

-Everyday Music

-Bridge

  

The next day I was excited to ditch the public transport system and drive into town.  Rob had a meeting, we'll say.  (Hence the classy suit.)

We came into Portland from what felt like the west side, but without my mountains I have no idea which direction I'm going so it could have been south for all I know.  None the less, it was a nice area.

The sock that always fell off...

After visiting the garden, we drove to a hill nearby for some city views.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (pt 2)

I'd been hoping to be able to come back during the day to tour this building, but it wasn't available.  Here are some day shots though.

St. Mary's Cathedral

More exploring...

First Presbyterian Church (More to come...)

This church turned out to be my favorite of the trip!  It sort of came up as a surprise, as it didn't stand out in my research of where I wanted to go before the trip.

Walking around downtown we came across a record store called "Everyday Music".  I was blown away by their selection.  I spent close to $37 adding all sort of albums to my collection.  I loved the place so much that we ended up going to Seattle's later in the trip.  At the Portland location though, I was able to pick up "Dirt Floor" by Chris Whitley.  I've mentioned that album in a previous blog, but it's a very hard album to come across a physical copy of.  I also started working on Björk singles and grabbed Pat Metheny/John Scofield's "I Can See Your House From Here". (Two awesome jazz guitarists who made an album together in the nineties.)

We spent about 2 hours at Powell's Books... all in one tiny section of the store.  There's an artist who draws pictures of soffisticated animals that I've been trying to find for a couple of years.  I'm not sure if I found that artist, but here was one that was close!

Here is Rob consuming an unnecessarily large donut from Voodoo Donuts.