two stories about john hughes:

1. after graduating from grinnell, i lived at home with my parents for 6 months or so. i grew up in lake bluff, illinois, a suburb not unlike the nameless suburbs of john hughes’ films (although anyone from the north shore will tell you that kenilworth and willmette feature prominently in his films). during this time, i worked four jobs and saved money so i could buy an electric guitar and a really loud amplifier. one of the jobs was delivering pizzas, or as i called it, slingin’ pies. i would sling pies all over lake bluff and the next town over, lake forest, which is where john hughes lived. at the pizza joint where i worked, us drivers would hang in the back around a computer waiting for addresses to pop up on the screen and then bam we would be out with the delivery, usually on first come first serve basis. all the drivers memorized john hughes’ address so they could jockey for his delivery when it came up; he was one of those guys that no matter how small the order would give you a fat tip. i’m talkin’ 40 maybe 50 bones cold hard cash. you would drive maybe a mile and half, show up at this enormous mansion, and then he would come to the door all smiles, grab his pies, and you would walk out a richer man. what a guy.

2. my friend’s older brother used to be in a band with john hughes’ son. they were just a buncha scrappy high schoolers but they were pretty sweet. they would practice at john hughes’ house and one time my friend went over there to see his older brother’s band play. so he walks up to the door, rings the bell, and john candy answers the door. john fuckin’ candy. and then john hughes walks up behind him and says, “hey greg, i’d like you to meet uncle john”. uncle john. priceless.

john hughes r.i.p.

on my ride home from work a few days back, i chanced upon a garage sale where i happily bought a beautiful painting of a bunny standing erect in a bed of yellow flowers. in so many ways, that painting sums up quite possibly everything that is going on in my life at the moment. with grad school currently out of the picture, i have focused all my energies on my job, which, needless to say, is incredibly baller. i can already tell this month will be busier–at least for me–than any month in the past. dave’s killer bread is sponsoring the portland waterfront blues fest and a litany of other noteworthy and rad events, which means i have so much shit on my plate sometimes i sit at the computer screen and just blank out not in a peter gibbons office space style but more of a my brain is having trouble computing everything and multi-tasking and for a few seconds i just kinda go into slow mode. the problem with all this work, even though it is very fulfilling, is oregon is wasting no time completely melting my face with this onslaught of beautiful weather. all i want to do is fish and camp, in that order. but there is relief on the horizon. once again, i will be venturing north to northwest-scenester-hippie fest aka what the heck? fest to see such illustrious bands as wolves in the throne room (whose new record absolutely shreds, btw), earth, calvin johnson, mt. eerie, and a bunch of other k recs bands blah blah blah. i greatly look forward to camping at deception pass state park, swimming in cranberry lake, drinking high proof grain alcohol with my long lost, estranged hetero life mate robert dewhurst, and watching julie take in all the greatness of what the heck? fest aka weird-class-reunion-vibe but-still-a-pretty-alright-time-for-outsiders fest. after that, i am determined to camp for 4 days in sisters, oregon, where i will contemplate the true meaning of ursula k. le guin’s earthsea cycle whilst fishing for rainbow trout.

om = i felt my internal organs vibrate. the former sleep bassist plays through literally a mountain of electric amps. i mean, we’re talkin’ some fuckin’ muscle here. the new drummer–i guess he is a portland native–brings a lot of neil peart flashiness to om’s extremely sabbathy drones. lots of digga-dug-digga-duh rototom masturbatory greatness. he is kinda the exact opposite of the sleep drummer, but still sweet. picture the entire audience all nodding their heads in unison. they opened with a new song, “meditation is a practice of death.” i about pissed my pants, it was fuckin’ great.

some photos from recent trip to italy. most are taken in the val d’aosta, right near the mont blanc. the bottom photograph is taken in the town of stresa, the in the lakes region north of milan.

julie and i went roller skating at oaks park aka the place that time forgot. thursday night is “adult night,” complete with regal looking old couples in matching outfits absolutely tearing up the roller rink like brian boitano, or, at the very least, scott hamilton. and yes, i can shoot the duck, thank you very much.

shoot the duck

well, its been a good long while since i have tended to this blog. originally, i envisioned this blog to be a gallery of sorts for photos i had taken. but as i have yet to scan even one photo to upload here, it might be a minute before my vision becomes a reality. the summer has gone and the rainy season has arrived in portland. currently, i am obsessed with making soup, watching the blazers, and horror movies (layover from halloween). as for highlights from the summer, they include:

1. seeing polvo, trans am, mission of burma, what the heck fest?, calvin johnson, mastodon, at the gates, municipal waste, and a host of other incredible bands

2. eating a lot of pesto and deviled eggs

3. crater lake (this should really be number one) and in general, drinking whiskey around a campfire

the other day, i took julie fly fishing on the muddy river, right around the north fork of the lewis, in the gifford pinchot national forest. i caught a couple of nice lookin rainbows–and saw a giant bull trout that was well near 3 feet in length. i almost wet my waders. as for julie, she’s a natural, and picked up casting in a pinch.

the future looks promising. i am applying to lewis and clark college to earn a masters in teaching in the hopes of becoming a high school social studies teacher. as a teacher, my mantra will be “YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO TO WAR WITH ME!” and “MESS WITH THE BULL, GET THE HORN!”. damn kids. other than that, i am really excited about eating a homemade tur-duc-hen for thanksgiving and going to some hot springs sometime in the next few weeks.

CRATER LAKE

so, this past weekend was spent in the beautiful city of anacortes, wa with my dear friend and former cohabitant robert “robbie” dewhurst. the city of anacortes provided the setting for the 7th annual “what the heck! fest”, a music festival of sorts featuring all the heavy-hitters on k records, such as phil elvrum (mt. eerie), kimya dawson, mirah, calvin johnson, etc. what follows is a short list of highlights.

1. swimming in cranberry lake with khaela from the blow. well, not really with her, i mean, she was there swimming and we were there swimming so it was like, i mean, we were there together. right? she is my rushmore.

2. seeing phil elvrum and calvin johnson at every possible turn. peeing next to phil elvrum. seeing him freak out when his delay pedal ran out of batteries.

3. $4 fish and chips at the watertown pub, where …WORMS played and, unfortunately, the mools did not. fish and chips for every meal = it feels so good to feel like i am dying.

4. fest kick-off dinner, complete with delicious meal and an interesting musical performance from D+. the dude greg from the band (i think he runs “know your own” records) speaks in a very strange manner, slowly enunciating his words in his low baritone, almost as if he had just wrestled with a couple of big bear 40 ouncers and came out just barely on top. barely.

5. kimya dawson’s baby songs. so good.

before i forget, in spite of the general awesomeness of this past weekend, what the heck! fest sort of reminded me why some of the people i went to school with are such incredible jokers, such worthless, vapid, pretentious, and generally uninteresting hipster scenesters with absolutely nothing new to bring to the table other than maybe a sort of cool pair of sunglasses found at goodwill. robbie and i ran into a few so-called friendly faces from our storied alma mater who turned out to be very unfriendly and stupid. moral of the story: grinnell sucked, but the friends made there are friends to keep. and any friend of my friend is a friend of mine, know what i mean?. so if you see someone you might know, be nice and let them sleep in your backyard. or at the very least, let them sleep in the same backyard where calvin johnson is sleeping.

LOST WISDOM

OH, MIKAELA, YOU HAVE BURNED ME

oh boy, it has been so long since i updated this thing. suffice to say, everything is coming up milhouse in a number of big ways. a few noteworthy events in the past however long its been:

1. i attended a seriously “underground” wrestling event out near gresham a few weeks back. it was everything i thought it would be and more. i was at the nerve center of america. i saw its heart; i felt its beating pulse. my eyes have been opened.

2. i went to see mastodon play at the roseland theater on thursday night with my friend, andrew, who is best buds with brent hinds, the lead guitarist for mastodon. which meant that, yes, i got in for free and, yes, i went backstage and met the band and, yes, i had a bunch of beers with the dudes from mastodon and, yes, they are really nice, down to earth guys and, yes, they totally killed it.

3. last week i went camping on the coast with my friend, julie. we spent the first night sleeping on someone’s private beach in arch cape. i mean, the house was clearly empty, so, why not? the stars were amazing. plus, i managed to build a raging fire despite the gale force winds howling in my ears. the next day was spent on the beach catching some vitamin d and eating cucumber sandwiches. we camped that night on saddle mountain, in a grove of birch trees. to say that my face was melted by the entire camping experience would be a most feeble attempt at truly conveying just how amazing it was.

4. i am going to what the heck! fest with robbie next weekend. i am very much looking forward to seeing robbie, seeing mt. eerie and further intensifying my man crush on phil elvrum, being transfixed by the otherwordly weirdness of calvin johnson, seeing khaela from the blow (give it back, give it back, i want my own wind… i love you), drinking whiskey, swimming in lakes, camping in forests, seeing …worms, and just maxin’ out in general.

so, that pretty much does it for me. its time to take out the trash. and by take out the trash, i mean drink a pbr 40 on my porch while listening to r. kelly.

so, i was riding my bicycle home from work with the other day with my esteemed co-worker, stephanie, when out of the blue a small brown bunny hopped out of the bushes and proceeded to run alongside our bikes for about thirty feet. needless to say, it was amazing. i’m not gonna lie; at times, i came pretty close to nailing the little fella. imagine that! it would be the cutest unfortunate accident/roadkill ever. other than that, things are sort of on the up and up with this guy right here. my best friend, kory, is in town from nola, which is amazing. he is a man among men, a beacon of light, a knight in shining armor. in summation, he is my rushmore. i have managed to watch all of the celtics-lakers basketball games, and let me say, they have been incredible! especially tonight. seriously, paul pierce = baller, any which way you slice it. work has been tiring but good. and finally, i have been spending a good bit of time getting to know a lady, which is always something to be excited about. allah akbar! on saturday, i will be attending a home-grown backyards-esque wrestling event out in gresham with some dudes from work. if everything goes according to plan, there will be a lot of yelling and a lot of drinking. quite possibly at the same time. i just hope i dont die. but if i’m gonna die, i might as well die with my boots on. in gresham.

christ, last night was a night for the books. definitely one to simultaneously remember and forget. there are a lot of ins and outs, you know, grey areas, etc., but suffice to say, some bad decisions were made. nothing like making a few bad decisions to make you feel alive/terrible. i was in the very deepest of a deep red this morning when i woke up. somehow i managed to ride my bicycle to work, which was probably a good thing in terms of getting some fresh air in my lungs/sweating out some of the many toxins that had been swilling around in my belly for upwards of twelve hours. without going into great detail with regard to the night’s exploits, i would like to give a few shout outs to some of the individuals who, for better or worse, made the night interesting. first, i would like to thank robbie for greasing the wheels, so to speak. with friends like these, who needs friends? if it weren’t for him, i might still have my pants. second, i would like to give an opposite shout out to deanna, shola’s roommate, who normally is one to man up, but who decided last night, the night of robbie’s going away party, to “stay in because she was tired from studying”. big thumbs down from me. third, matthias, caitlin’s teutonic warlord boyfriend = such my boy. he is beautiful. fourth, chairman gets a big thumbs up from me for maintaining a very high level of authenticity throughout the night. and finally, biggups to howie for just being real.

but most importantly, last night was the triumphant conclusion of the whirlwind romance that was living with my great friend, robbie. without a doubt, he is ireplaceable. shalom, robbie. peace be with you.