clumsygirl: art + craft + tomfoolery

Good lord, this was a busy weekend. I didn't expect it to get as busy as it did. We had originally simply purchased tickets to see Anthony Bourdain speak at the Keller Auditorium. But, then there were also tickets to Cinematic Titanic available. So, of course, we had to get those as well. Then, it turned out this would be the same weekend that my friend, Lish, would be coming to ptown. Whee!

So, Anthony was pretty rad. He tried an experimental format with us... that didn't really work out as well as he wanted. He explained that he wanted us to call bullshit on him whenever necessary. He ranted about a few subjects (Alice Waters, Vegetarians, etc.) and was, I think, expecting us to pop up and call bullshit on him. While Portlanders feel fairly strongly about many a subject, we are also extremely polite. I think, perhaps, he picked the wrong city to attempt this with. He didn't get as many arguments as he wanted, and instead it sparked a lot of bullshit-calling on other commenters and such. A little odd. Also, the Q&A lasted a little too long, and people seriously need to get their shit signed after the show... not while he's answering their questions. So pushy.

Cinematic Titanic was awesome. Of course, we had forgotten that the Starlight freaking Parade was on the same night. We were a half hour late to the show... but still made it in time to see the movie part (Danger on Tiki Island), which was terrible and terribly funny.

It was awesome to see Lish. I hadn't see her since her kiddo, Gryphon, was barely a year old or so. He's now five, and very into Star Wars. She was here with Jromy & Jen, who are moving in from DC and were scouting for houses. I think they found a few nice options (although I hinted heavily that the apt between Hawthorne and Belmont on 29th would be rad.). Since we were busy in the evenings, we were only able to give them a place to stay and take them out to Bar Carlo for breakfast. They, of course, visited Powells, got some Stumptown and some Voodoo Donuts on their way out of town.

Lish is one of the peeps I met in Seattle while working at the bookstore up there. She moved from Seattle to New Orleans for grad school exactly one week prior to Hurricane Katrina. She spent a long time living in crappy temporary housing in rural Mississippi (which she doesn't recommend.). Jromy had been living with her at the time, so they had lots of stories about what life was like in the south, post-Katrina (eep!). She has since graduated, written a novel (awesome!), sold a novel, and is writing a second book.

I can't wait for Jen & Jromy to move here in July. They will be a welcome addition (and I will possibly see Lish more often?).