Portland, Oregon [1/365]

ABSENT-MINDED
Portland, Oregon is so nice, I forgot to post yesterday. Yay? It’s cool. I don’t mind starting over, especially on Groundhog Day, or should I say, Bill Murray Day? Either way, I’m glad I forgot a month in and not three or nine.

SUNDAY: HELLO, PORTLAND
I arrived in Portland via Greyhound from Spokane around 6pm. On the bus I ate a handful from a bag of really shitty knock-off brand of Chex Mix. Tasted horrible. Like someone took a bag of Chex Mix, let it sit out in the Port Authority bathroom, coated it in knock-off brand mac & cheese powder, then sold it to me. I was still hungry.

Eirean Bradley met me in front of the depot and we headed to his place a couple blocks away. We stopped and met his roommate Davey and Keats, Davey’s sweet, sweet dog. We left, Davey planned to meet us at Backspace.

We headed to the venue and Eirean was in slammaster/host mode for the rest of the night. I don’t know what the Portland Poetry Slam was like prior to Eirean’s arrival and take-over, but he’s really got it under control. A fantastic host and one helluvan organizer, I think Eirean could really help bring Portland back to the National Poetry Slam and keep it stable. The one thing that kept me away from this city when I first started touring was the lack of any real cohesive, organized poetry slam. I’d really only come through when visiting friends and gigs with The Revival. Lewis & Clark College shows, and our Reed College show last year were extraordinary. I’d performed in Eugene and Corvallis over the years, and a few solo spots at colleges, but Portland was always just a refueling point. Hang out with Anis, enjoy some micro-brew, hug a tree, kick a hipster. Portlandy stuff.

Several friends not usually connected to the Portland Poetry Slam told me they’d be coming. Everyone of them who said they’d attend the slam did. I don’t know that I’ve ever had 100% friend follow-through for a slam. Pretty sweet. My cousin Katie came with a couple of her friends. She requested “Dirty Dimes” and so I added it to my set. The crowd was big, but I didn’t get a head count, looked like 80-plus. They were absolutely attentive and responsive to everything that went on on stage. Fellow Write Bloody authors Michael Roberts and Paul Maziar say with my cousin and I. They read in the open mic, I followed with my feature, a break and then a two round poetry slam. Davey won. He’s good. Very polished. A young woman approached me, visibly shaken, and asked if she could give me a hug. She said it was due to my poem “Lullaby,” which I’ve really only been performing in the last 8 months to music. I wrote it to music written by my long-time collaborator, Bryce Dumont. We formed Monotwin in 1999 and have been recording poetry and lyrics to music since 1997. We’re kinda old school. Bryce lives in England and sent me the track a year and a half ago. It triggered a new poem and we recorded it lat summer when I went to visit him. It feels great every time I perform it live. This young lady seemed to need to hear it last night. She squeezed me tight. I hope she knows she’s loved.

Bryna, an old friend from the Bay Area joined us after my feature. She had sat in the back until I was done. She bought me a beer, which Brian the bartender discounted, then asked if I had any books left. I sold him one. Nice guy. Bryna held her glass up to mine and said, “To Gabrielle,” never having met her, but having kept up online with the friends who did. This is why I love Bryna.

Backspace is your standard, giant Portland café with lots of tables and a huge stage, but warm and comfortable. It probably wouldn’t The coffee and booze bar is split: business in the front, party in the back. At the front, to the right of the stage is a small quad of couches and a coffee table. The comfy spot. I’m sure there were afghans on the couches, but if there weren’t, I’m sure customers could bring their own and cozy up with a book/laptop and some tea. My kind of joint.

Eirean, ever more the working stiff, retired to bed immediately after the slam. I always enjoy being around that man. I introduced Bryna, Paul, Michael and Katie to each other. We all hung out for a bit, then jaunted off to the Baghdad for some late night eats. It was a truly lovely evening. Everything I’d hoped the night would be was.

Bryna dropped Michael and I off at Anis’s house. Anis is in Austin, Texas and Michael is subletting his room while he’s away. I miss Mojgani, but it’s great to hang out with Michael and Anis’s roommates. They are all awesome people.

I am looking to set up a small Write Bloody tour with Maziar, Roberts and Brian S. Ellis this year. I think it would be a good combo.

Before falling asleep on the couch, I decided I would make Chex Mix in the morning.

MONDAY: WORLD’S GREATEST CHEX MIX
I woke up around 8:00am, showered and left the house to acquire coffee and Chex Mix ingredients. I asked my Facebook status update for ideas on this. 30+ responses provided me with a ingredients so odd and wonderful that I made a recipe out of it. If anyone was to ever actually make this recipe, I think it may ruin their oven, appetite and friendships with roommates. Thanks to everyone on Facebook who responded with recommendations. It was a good laugh.

INGREDIENTS
2 sticks of butter, melted
3 cups of Wheat Chex
3 cups of Corn Chex
2 cups of Cheerios
1 can of Sardines
1 can of Anchovies
1 can of Spam, diced
handful of Butterscotch pieces
1 bag of Cheetos
1 cup of Pecans
1 cup of Dried cranberries
handful of Brown, orange and yellow Reese’s Pieces
1 cup of Pretzels
handful of Yogurt clusters
1 cup of Chocolate chips
handful of Coconut
1 cup of Banana chips
1 cup of Pumpernickel bread crunchies
handful of Marshmallow
1 cup of Almonds
1 cup of Raisins
1 Ham
1 cup of Cashews
1 cup of Barbecue peanuts
1 cup of Wasabi peas
handful of M&Ms
1 cup of Cheez-Its
1 cup of Rice crackers
handful of Sunflower seeds
1 bag of Pork rinds

SEASONING
3 tbl of Worcestershire sauce
Brad Pitt’s secret soup ingredient from Fight Club, to taste
Spanish fly, to taste
1 tbl Cayenne pepper
1 tbl Sea salt
1 tbl Ground pepper
1/2 cup of bacon grease
Skoal, sprinkle to taste

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Place mixture in a shallow baking pan with sides. Bake for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

I ended up making two batches of mix, one spicy (cayenne) and one regular. It consisted of Wheat and Corn Chex, Honey Nut Cheerios (all off-brand), cheddar Goldfish, Craisins, almond slivers, crushed macadamias, and cashews.

In order to visually differentiate the spicy from the regular, I added one of those very tiny bags of Fritos to the cayenne mix. I can eat spicy all day, everyday, but the housemates here may not handle it the way Michael Roberts and I do. I wanted to be considerate.

I washed clothes as the mixes baked. Roberts woke up and left on a coffee adventure. My hometown friend Maxwell Aloysius Borkenhagen called me looking to make hang. He’s a student at Lewis & Clark college and lives two blocks aways from Anis’s house. He came by a while later and I introduced him to Roberts. We ventured out to Bread & Ink for their happy hour lunch special. I ate an awesome $3.00 house salad with a sherry vinaigrette and a cup of black bean chili. I washed it down with a $2.50 pint of Laurelwood Tree Hugger porter. DEE-lish!

On the way back to the house we saw a city-commissioned, adobe-ish gazebo at the corner of an international hostel. I immediately felt that we needed to sit in it for a little while. Maxwell called the actual material cob, which I had never heard of. There’s been a pretty constant and annoying drizzle since I got here and probably since I left here in November. The cob gazebo, looking out onto the intersection, was just what I needed. Just as we sat, a woman was crossing the street toward us, lead by her small pug who then joined us in the gazebo. We all took turns petting and scratching the dog, Wasabi. We all introduced ourselves. Wasabi’s owner’s name was Rachael. I remember her saying it was the Hebrew spelling and that it means mother. She was on her way home to make dinner for her girlfriend. She had picked up some very beautiful flowers for her love and ingredients to make a traditional Hawaiian dish. Her girlfriend is half Irish, half Hawaiian, and hasn’t been able to find good Hawaiian food in Portland.

Wasabi and Rachael made my day. Maybe even made the day for all three of us boys. Had we not sat in that cob, we wouldn’t have met them then. We returned home, ate some Chex Mix and thoroughly enjoyed Royal Tenenbaums again. Paul came by and Roberts tried to get me to watch Darjeeling Limited, but I got sleepy and napped.

I woke at one am to the DVD menu playing over and over and no Paul or Roberts. I figured they went out. I regret sleeping so long, but hey, whatevs. It was a good day.
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Word to the nerd.

This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 2 February, 2010 at 8:00 AM, filed under Personal Updates, Randomness and tagged borkenhagen, chex mix, eirean bradley, food, hanging out, michael roberts, oregon, paul maziar, portland, portland poetry slam. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.