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Appears that I’m one of those guys that get more of my videos from the library than from Netflicks or Redbox.  Or as I prefer to call library videos – SnailFlicks

I actually prefer the library.  I can reserve piles of them online, when they come in to the branch just up the street they notify me via email when it’s in.   Multnomah county’s library system has a particularly amazing collection of DVD’s – just released movies, almost all major TV shows seasons, Anime, etc.  And it’s completely free.  They’ve even moved to online video download for some titles you can check out from home and watch on your own PC.

http://consumerist.com/2010/07/more-people-getting-dvds-from-library-than-from-netflix-or-redbox.html

Due to a lot of my work with Project Offset, I’ve been flying a lot more lately.  I was late for catching a plane, but desperately needed to get some food in me.  I swung by a McDonalds and hit the drivethru.  I ordered a sausage sandwich, but when I go to the window, I realized they quoted me $2.50 or such and the board had read $1 something.  When I got to the pay window, and asked about it – and the guy said, “Yeah, sometimes those guys ring it up wrong”.  Huh?  Did you take my order?  No, he tells me that this McDonalds has its drive-up order taking boards hooked to call centers somewhere else some of the times – mostly in the mornings.

Long story short – the guy taking your order might be half-way around the country.  I don’t wonder if this was something that these call centers have turned to since the do-not-call list has really cut down their volume, but it’s an interesting development.

A friend of a friend recently acquired a baby pug dog, and the mutual acquaintance is on dog watching duty for a few days.  So last night, I got to spend some quality time with a precocious little pug:

Who even has his own blog and has done a photo shoot.  He was immensely fun to play with, perchance for onry-ness, and good to take on a long walk.  If you want to practice for kids – get a dog, or do some dog sitting to appreciate the life-changing events that surround having extra little feet in the house.

Attended an all-female circus on Friday night.  It was quite good.  The circus is actually put on by a school that teaches (believe any gender) folks how to do amazing acrobatic feats in a converted warehouse.   This particular show consisted only of women and girls who were of all skill levels.  Everything from musicians playing on stilts to amazingly acrobatic straps and trapeze.

Circus Artemis performers have trained with instructors from Cirque Du Soliel and the Ecole Nationale de Cirque in Montreal, taught at the renown San Francisco Circus Center, performed nationally and internationally – and keep Portland entertained while working locally with Do Jump! Extremely Physical Theater, A-WOL Dance Collective, The Nomadic Theater Company, Flamebuoyant Productions

www.a-woldance.org

  

Ugh – so many choices last night.  It’s dead most of the week, but last night there was no less than 4 great things happening at the exact same time in town:

1. Sarah Vowell reads from her new book.
2. KMFDM concert
3. Butthole Surfers Concert
4. Star Wars – live orchestral concert

I ended up choosing the Star Wars concert because it was earlier (and I was tired that day), and scored tickets at the last minute for super-cheap.  The show had a full orchestra playing the music, while scenes from all the movies was shown.  My friends did the Surfers concert and much fun was had there too.  The Star Wars show was live narrated by the character that did the acting and voice for C3P0.  Overally, very well done show and I was super-happy I went.  Was amazed at how many kids went and seemed to have a great time.  If I’d had kids, I would have loved to take them as well.  The foyer of the Rose Garden was full of original props from the movies: Original Darth Vader costume, Chewbaca, helmets, weapons, and an original score written and signed by John Williams.

Here were some (well, actually about 300) photos taken at the start of the event: http://www.streetlampphoto.com/santacon07/

 

This weekend was the annual Drunken Santa Rampage (aka SantaCon).  It is put on by the Portland Cacophony society (who also do a city-wide pillow fights, bridezilla rampages, mad-hatter croquet parties with bowling balls in the park, etc).  SantaCon is performed in other cities (I think SF was first), but Portland’s has been going strong for at least 10 years now. SantaCon is hundreds of folks that dress in Santa costumes then go on a 12-14 hour bender.  They wander around town hitting dive bars around downtown. Yes – that’s right 12-14 straight HOURS. They start on Saturday at noon and go all afternoon/night/next morning.

It is decidedly not kid-friendly. Oh boy is it not kid friendly. I caught sight of the revelers around 9pm in my neighborhood (image 100’s of people dressed like Santa – both men and women) staggering down the streets and bouncing off street signs and newspaper vending boxes.  Many folks carrying the requisite bad-Santa ‘brown paper bag with unknown bottle inside’ while singing modified versions of your favorite camp songs with key phrases interchanged with anatomical and reproductive references. There is even a printable PDF songbook on the site with such hits as “I’m dreaming of a White Russian” and that’s about the only one I could put on a public website (they are not safe for work reading).

Most of them seemed to be out for a night of some genuine fun, but there were some seriously sloshed folks in the crowd and debauchery of about every nature was definitely encouraged. Another friend of mine saw them later that night in the seedy part of town and mentioned that he saw Santas everywhere and in the worse possible shapes: passed out in alleyways, barfing in streets, and staggering in/out of bars and, shall we say, visiting “clothing optional dancers” clubs as far as the eye could see. I was hoping to get some pictures of this sad street parade but my 5D is in the shop getting a tune-up and cleaning after the fall shooting binge.  It’s probably better I didn’t in hind-sight.

Ah Portland, you do keep the festive spirits bright.

More Santa references:
On the bright note, I-5 got opened up again this weekend. Now we can get between Seattle and Portland again without an extra 2-3 hour detour. Lots of truck drivers got hosed as their companies wouldn’t pay the extra mileage, so they were stuck waiting till it opened. Coast is still a bit of a mess, but cleanup is coming along and all the roads are open – and most utilities are all back. It was dubbed the “HoHo Blow” of 07 by one local radio station.