KCDC duo NW Mini-Tour

Read.Eat.Listen: Art & Magic

The pursuit of truth and beauty through plumbing one's own line of particular inquiry is a road I trust, even if it's fairly unmarked. I've been neck deep in a bunch of projects this month, while planning a whole course on getting projects done, so I was pleased to be tagged on Facebook as part of an artist challenge earlier this week. The challenge is to post your work 5 days in a row and tag two other artists while you were at it. Already on day 5, I realized I've a lot more folks I want to tag! Oh my! 

In the meantime, I flew up to Portland for a few days, mainly to spend more time for my sweetie whose been traveling a lot, and also to enjoy that hyper-creative city. It was raining, and cold for most of my visit, but the trip started beautifully, with a view of a rainbow over the Willamette River, and ended sweetly with a big slice of gluten-free berry pie, with a good helping of quality time with my husband, yoga practice, good coffee, writing sessions and catching up with friends who live there. I got back in touch with a dear and brilliant artist, Kitty Wallis, who I knew years ago in Santa Cruz, while in town. She was already a master colorist when I first met her and I'm lucky to own a couple of her pieces. What a delight it was to see her current, just that much more realized work! If you're in Portland, look her up and seek her out. She's also continuing to teach her vivid and inspired approach to painting. 

Read: I've pretty much designed my life to be surrounded by creatives.  So I love coming upon this book:  Forty-One False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writers, by Janet Malcom. 
Eat: I ate out a lot this week, in Portland, at home, for Easter. I'm grateful for all the good food, and happy to see spring is busting out on menus in the form of an abundance of artichoke and asparagus based and laced dishes. Artichoke and asparagus on pizza, artichoke ragout under poached fish, artichoke grilled with x on top, asparagus on goat-cheese ravioli, asparagus lightly with brown butter...you get the idea. Go green I say!
Listen: With a name like,  Sister Sparrow & The Dirty Birds, how can I not want to listen? Love the sass and soul of this group. Check out Mama Knows: 

NW Mini-tour Postcard: Bend, Redmond & Ashland or Bust

Portland is cooler than ever: Here I'm waiting for the free piano seat on Alberta St. to open after enjoying the best gluten-free cinnamon roll from Back to Eden bakery and a fine coffee from Caffe Vita

I'm truly hooked on the open road, big skies, and opportunities to play songs for new people, which is why I set out on hours-long drives even when plans go awry, tech goes wonky and the temperature averages 95 degrees. Some snaps from the latest trip North and back

Big Sky on the way to Bend, Oregon. Bend is beautiful and boasts another good stage in Volcanic Theater Pub

The amazing Horse Tail Falls along the Columbia River. I didn't take a dip but wished I had later.

The dear Sue Quigley who shared the bill with us at the awesome listening room that is SoulFood Coffeehouse in Redmond, Washington

My trusty Desio Guitar awaiting its orders for the day

Portland: Go west, near east

It's no secret that one of the many great things about Mysore-Style Ashtanga Yoga is the global tribe of Ashtanga practitioners. Visit nearly any place in the world and you can likely scare up at least a couple Ashtangis with whom to share practice. I've found practice groups everywhere from living rooms in Santa Cruz found by word-of-mouth to the most bustling urban capitals. Portland is no different, with at least two established Mysore groups. When I visit Portland, I call up a local I met in India in 2008 to set me in the right direction. This go Karen graciously shepherded me to Near East Yoga, a Northeast Portland studio led by Casey Palmer, which has been going strong for a good number of years. On-point instruction, good vibe, friendly community...what else does an Ashtangi need?

Well... food. We found post practice eats at Bijou Cafe which knows how to make a kick-ass, authentically French omelet. Plus they'll serve with a salad.  Très bon. (Yogis know better than to enter the Voodoo Donuts outpost up the street from Bijou, but I can't tell you how many Portland residents told me about Voodo so I'd be remiss not to mention it. Voodoo is renowned both for wacky flavor combinations as well as anatomically correct donuts. The actual Voodo donut features a pretzel stick stake through it's doughy heart.) Back to Bijou, the cafe not only serves great food but hosts a weekly Supper Jazz series on Friday's. Next time...Visiting on the front end of a week, we missed a whole slew of Portland's musical scene (other than the visiting guitar in the hotel room). Fortunately, Jimmy Mak's Jazz Club, in the Pearl District, hosts an interesting program of resident and touring artists nearly every night of the week. We enjoyed an early show by a young Portland ensemble on Tuesday in its cozy dinner club listening room. Yes, life is good in Portland.

Portland: Commonality

One thing Portland really has down in a very on-their-sleeve kind of way is the concept that we're all in this together. The notion of "the commons" — shared space, figurative and elemental —is not just about the natural environment, but resounds in the names and practices of numerous, residents, restaurants and buildings. For coffee, there's Public Domain, for beer, the Commons Brewery, and for building there's the brothers Moon who are building their own 'commons,' a self-generating home that meets The Living Building Challenge ('projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements, including net zero energy, waste and water, over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy.') It's inspiring and highly congenial. Last night, we ate at one of Clyde Common restaurant's convivial community tables. Albeit Clyde Common is not the place to go if you're vegan — the menu has more meat liver based offerings than many I've seen and most of the vegetarian items feature dairy (though I've a feeling they'd work with vegans as needed).  What is on the menu is thoughtfully constructed in its open kitchen — the grapefruit in the beet salad is jellied; the greens adorning the broccoli soup, micro; the ice cream on the apple crisp flavored with scotch. Oh yea, it is a bar as much as a restaurant and the liquor list rivals the wine list (from Oregon, Washington and Europe but nada from Cali), complete with imaginatively named house drinks (Pancho & Lefty, Heavy Petting) and barrel aged cocktails. It's just that kind of Portland place, one where of course they want you to be happy because then everyone else will be that much happier.

Three Ps (& a D) in Portland

I'm not here for work or to play, rather I'm in Portland on a bit of a lark while my S.O. works. A wintry, rainy Northwestern city might not be the first choice to visit if you're feeling under the weather, but Portland is hardly a place with which to find fault. Portland really is cool, figuratively as well as literally. As we're staying downtown, I spent my first day in the area and The Pearl District, enjoying some R&R and literary inspiration.
Yoga Pearl: Located, fittingly, in Portland's Pearl District, Early morning Mysore Style Ashtanga class is followed in quick succession by led Hatha and Vinyasa classes with some Yin Yoga and Restorative classes for good measure. The serene studio also boasts a Wellness Center and one of the best smoothie & juice bars in town...

Prasad: I'll go to Pearl for Prasad alone. Veggie bowls, healing elixrs, an extensive juice and smoothie menu. If the Wellness Shot (ginger juice, lemon, cayenne & echinacia straight up) I took doesn't cure me, I don't know what will. Especially since I chased it with Blackberry Kiss smoothie made with Oregon's own Marionberries. Yum and OK, now, I could look at books.

Powell's City of Books: Lest anyone think that no one reads actual books anymore, Powell's City of Books spans a city block and  keeps its shelves stacked high with seemingly every tome known to humankind. The largest independent new and used bookstore in the world has color-coded rooms that help you locate your area of interest. There's also a downloadable app that guides you turn by turn through the stacks if you don't want to ask one of the stores friendly book loving staff. It's hardly my first visit, but...wow, I'll say again. I whiled away a couple of hours here, decided on my purchases while reading them over coffee — they let you bring up to 5 books to browse into the cafe — bought the latest Alice Munro collection and re-remembered about 10 titles I want to/need to read.


Ok, about that D. That would be for Ducks. As in Portland Ducks, who I have to say I haven't been following. Nonetheless, I met self-proclaimed 'the biggest Duck fan' on the planet, a gentleman who was flying back to PDX via AZ where the Portland Ducks took the Fiesta Bowl. The birder in me eclipsed the football 'fan' and had to ask what kind of duck is a Portland Duck? Not a wood or a mallard or a whistling duck but a 'Donald-type Duck' I was told. A Disney Duck, was the general conclusion. In any case, congrats to the Ducks!

Cold day questions

Some Questions on my mind today:

1. Why is it you often feel really GREAT just before you get sick?
2. How does anyone manage to get everything precious and wonderful out of the Vitamix after mixing something up?
3. What's with LinkedIn's new(ish) hyper-endorsement tool?

I know. Not so terribly deep, but I woke up with a sore throat and an urge to stay in bed all day after a kick-ass day of energy. I eat healthy, I stand on my head almost every day, what gives? Oh well. We're going to Portland tomorrow and being sick in a hotel for three days was and is not part of my plan. So my focus has narrowed considerably.  Tea. Water. Wellness formula. Juice. Blankets. Internet.  A super food  smoothie that's o-so-yummy (this one featured dates & almonds) though some of its precious drops remain in the bottom of the darn mixer. I'm keenly aware that I'm grateful to have this very minor conundrum.

In the meantime, a bit of sleuthing while I convalesce didn't turn up complete answers to my questions but did provide some interesting Answer-like fodder:

1. Really? Your Body Clock Can Determine When You Get Sick 
2. It's all about the spatula 
3. Said to make it easier to endorse folks with one click, I seem to be getting endorsed for some things I don't really do. Go figure.

And, speaking of Portland. As I was searching out things to do and shows to see while I'm there, I grew enamored with the Portland Cello Project, who alas, won't be in town when I am, but have made a wonderful record of Beck's 'Song Reader,' (which I'm now blasting).

NW x LA: Artichokes, Carmeggedon & Wine & Song

The Back Gate stage is a lovely room

Amid set-up at The Trip

Wine & Song in Pasadena

Kwame gets the light in PTown

It's been a busy month with little time at home: an unofficial West Coast Tour kind of ...occurred. The time in the Northwest was amazing. Lovely hosts in Eugene, Portland and Seattle; warm, fun gigs and general music making with friends and family all around, including a new discovery in the music community that is Artichoke Music. Lovers of acoustic songwriters take note of this one-two store and stage.  In between, there was some time for a bit of yoga and a bit of, yes, crabbing ...Now I'm in LA, where I've thus far experienced the bust (and benefits) of 'Carmeggedon,' talked with Swoops at Swoop's World Radio, revisited the friendly stage at Viento y Agua and enjoyed a day at the beach. And the week is young! Next official appearance is Wednesday in Pasadena as part of Brad Colerick's Wine & Song Series. I'm sharing the bill with the wonderful Aireene Espiritu. If you're in these parts, do say hello.

Wednesday, July 20th, 2011

Firefly Bistro

Brad Colerick's Wine & Song Series - 7pm

1009 El Centro Street
Pasadena California 910