Author Archive for sharon

Summertime Portland in Song: A Retrospective

Published
by
sharon
on August 10, 2008
in culture and entertainment
. 1 Comment

Music is memories. And these songs are my summer memories in Portland from 1992-1998.

Staring out the window at the passing, warm city as me and Sarah and Jess drove around playing my Dharma Bums tape. Hanging with Kaia of Team Dresch on her porch playing acoustic guitar in S.E. around the corner from my new girlfriend’s house. Interviewing Hazel on the radio and loving Fred’s dancing. Being a tad intimidated at the drunk punks stumbling around the Satyricon, but excited about the loud rocking Wipers show; the drum reverb like an old friend. Biking home in the warm summer quiet evening, weaving around the rose garden circles in Ladd’s Addition, humming to myself a Spinanes song, the day after Rebecca totally hit on me at a show at Berbati’s. Seeing Elliott sitting quietly writing something in a notepad in the back of every S.E. coffeeshop I seemed to walk into. And of course my friend Ben, who I was close with for a time…and life meandered and I went on to do things and he went on to be Kind of Like Spitting.

Today I thought about about my youth, my musical youth, my electric youth. I made a little mixtape for y’all of the bands that meant the most to me during that period of my life. Bands and musicians that I loved, bought their music, possibly knew personally. Music that watched me grow up.


MixwitMixwit make a mixtapeMixwit mixtapes


Shout outs to those bands I didn’t include on the mix, but saw at shows around town.
In no particular order:
Hitting Birth, Calamity Jane, Kurtz Project
Nero’s Rome, Naked Lunch, Treefrogs
Drunk At Abi’s, Sweaty Nipples
Pond, Gravelpit, Thrillbilly
Henry Moon, Sylvia’s Ghost, On A Llama
Pete Mizer and the Five Fingers of Funk
Doris Daze, Jesus Presley, Skiploader
Richmond Fontaine, 17 Reasons Why
Carmina Piranha, Kerosene Dream
Everclear (Greg Eklund is a good guy)
McKinley (I actually did buy her CD; it was great.)

Pink Martini since I knew a guy who played bass for them, and they played at our crazy party when the tech company I worked for got bought out by Disney right before I moved away.

Kaitlyn Ni Donovan, still plays; I saw her a few months ago at a lovely wine bar evening show. And she has a special place in my heart for being the manager of the 1201, the bar which I basically lived at during my 20’s. Hi Phil!

And last but not least, Local’s Only, the little record shop that could (for a little while.)
I would go in there and get a new 7″ or zine or CD of some local band.

What are your 1990’s local musical memories? Where were they? Do you still listen to them?

My life as a Portland Tart

Published
by
sharon
on April 14, 2008
in portland is awesome
. 0 Comments

Portland is indeed awesome.

I say this mostly because of the communities I have become a part of here. I’ve lived in various cities around the world throughout my life, and I’ve never felt more at home and more a sense of community than I do here in Portland.

Portland; the binding glaze over my communities

I am involved in several communities; my analogy is that each community is a luscious fruit, which is glazed with the heart of Portland, which in turn makes me the tart I am today.

But let’s look at the places I’ve lived besides Portland.

Places I’ve lived, in order:

  • Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Bellingham, WA
  • Denver, CO
  • Boulder, CO
  • Reservation near Flagstaff, AZ
  • Ashland, OR
  • Eugene, OR
  • Lancaster, PA
  • Portland, OR
  • Seattle, WA
  • Portishead, England
  • Whitefish, MT
  • Rhododendron, OR
  • Portland, OR

I’ve had amazing offers for wonderful career paths outside of Portland since moving back in 2003, but I just can’t seem to take them and move away; I feel like I have found home here in Portland within my various communities.

My Communities.

Many of my communities overlap, and each of them tend to have their own medium of communication or central place of interaction. I would consider myself a part of a few communities (in no particular order):

  • Geek
  • Jewish
  • High School Friends
  • Neighborhood
  • Gay

The geek community I feel is those who have geekishness in their lives and talk about social networking web applications or tech companies or new hardware products or Red Dwarf on British television.

I love hanging with my Heebs. As g-d is an important part of my live, as is my cultural heritage, it’s great have my Jewy friends beside me either drinking at a bar, dancing in a club, playing dodgeball, or at shul.

My high school friends are my close inner circle of friends, my main set of homies; I love them, their spouses, their kids. From backyard bbq’s to working on each other’s houses to being there for each other emotional on the roller coaster of life, these friends in our little community mean the world to me.

Even though I have only lived in the S.E. neighborhood where I bought my home for two years now, I feel really connected to this community; I care about the businesses here and the schools and the crime, and I endeavor to help create a positive difference. (Can I get a ‘what, what?!’ for multi-block garage sales?)

I try to stay connected to knowing what’s going on in the queer community by either hanging at Crush, or reading Byron Beck, or supporting the Cascade Aids Project or reading Just Out every now and then or going to the PDX Lesbian and Gay Film Fest. While the community is not an integral part of my life, and tends to overlap into other communities (PICA, music scene, etc.) being a lesbian is integral to who I am (hello ladies!) and so, I am connected to the community.

How are you Tart-ish?

Now, one could say ‘You could have all of those communities in any other city. I hear there are Jews in New York and gays in Philly!” Thanks for the incredible insight, Snarky McSnarkerston. But see, here’s the thing:

None of these communities would be what they are without being a part of my overall Portland community.

Each of my communities have the wonderful Portland feel to them - they are painted lightly with a warm Portland tone, like a glaze upon a tart. A glaze which binds everything together, holds each entity together as one and puts a shine on my whole life.

What are some of your communities in Portland? Are they replicable elsewhere or are they Portland specific?

Next week: why Portland strip clubs are like submarine sandwiches.