August 27th, 2008
“Son of a bitch, you’re running up the meter!”27 comments
August 20th, 2008
"Hey bro, remember me? You wrote that story about me in the paper."3 comments
August 13th, 2008
“It’s the Californians, man, the Californians are the worst.”15 comments
August 6th, 2008
The middle-aged man I picked up at Vendetta is in a hyperactively verbose lather ...0 comments
July 23rd, 2008
When I step into the obese old woman's apartment5 comments
July 16th, 2008
The obese old woman at Fred Meyer has a bad hip and a wheelchair...8 comments
July 9th, 2008
“...I need to take a shower first and wash all of this blood off.”6 comments
July 2nd, 2008
“So I’ve got these two women in the back of my cab who just refuse to get out...”8 comments
June 25th, 2008
“My friend’s getting divorced, and he’s really drunk,” says the bartender...8 comments
June 18th, 2008
There’s nothing like a good Friday night, and I’m referring to the money.3 comments
[March 8th, 2006] "OK, so either Soundgarden or Alice in Chains," says my passenger when he gets in. "Nope," I respond, "but you're in the ballpark—it's the former singer from the Screaming Trees." He gets excited. "Oh cool, is this the album he did with the girl from Belle and Sebastian?"
Now I'm excited—he's actually heard about this?! "No, that's not out yet. This is from 1993, it's called Whiskey for the Holy Ghost." Which I personally think is one of the all-time great album titles. "I heard something from that new one on the radio in Seattle the other day, so I wondered if this was it," he says. I tell him Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell's upcoming Ballad of the Broken Seas has been getting killer reviews, and compared to the Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra albums of old. "God, I miss the '90s," he says. "I was going to school in Eugene, seeing all these great bands."
"I sort of do, too, I had just moved to Portland, and couldn't believe how many great local bands there were." I left a vibrant East Coast music scene and expected to miss it terribly when I came here, only to find one that was totally different but just as involving. We talk about that, about being involved, about feeling like we were witness to something special, as all the aesthetics and values we cared about suddenly took over the world. Prior to them being watered down and used to sell deodorant, of course. So much for nostalgia.
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