I Heart Art: Portland's latest Mixer Match event was last month. This was the first Mixer Match I participated in as a member of the Leadership Council. I helped organize the event with Jen Neitzel and Deenie Wallace. I had a great time and learned so much.
The night of the event, I worked the check in table with my sis. We did this at the last Mixer Match too. I did most of the email correspondence with folks about the event, so it was easy to check people in. It was great matching faces to names and meeting lots of new people.
The event was at the very cool Design Within Reach. This is such the perfect venue for our event and the folks at DWR are so gracious and nice. We had a great spread of food and I made 120 mini cupcakes.
This is most of the Leadership Council. It's such a great group of people and I'm really honored to be apart of this incredible organization. Our next Mixer Match even will be in July. I can't wait!
For my Birthday, my sis took me to see OVO by Cirque du Soleil. This was my 3rd Cirque show, but my first in their yellow and blue tent. We had second row seats and they were incredible! I had no idea what the show was about before seeing it. I just loved everything about it. The talent these folks have is just incredible. There many breath taking moments and overall it was just spectacular.
These ants girls were my favorite. It was great to see them so close up. I could see the small adjusts they made with their feet and also hear the head ant girl call cues to the group. Seeing the girls being flipped back and forth so effortlessly was just extraordinary.
This is the official trailer for the show. Definitely see this production if you get the chance.
Before OVO we went to Interuban for lunch. At the Expo center there were these huge wind chimes. I would love to have one for my house. The entire day was great fun and I'm so glad I got to spend it with my sis.
Record Store Day is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays. Founded in 2007 as a way for independent record stores and artists to celebrate their love of music. It has grown each year and this year it was huge with over 300 Record Store Day special releases. We bought more vinyl this year than any other.
This year we started early since Music Millennium opened at 8am. When we arrived about 9am, the line to buy music snaked through the entire store. I'd never seen anything like it. People were buying hundreds of dollars of vinyl. It was incredible.
Our second stop was Jackpot which had another very long line.
Our third stop was at CD Game Exchange. I love to look through their dollar bins.
Stop four was at Exhiled.
Then we took a break to refuel.
Our last stop was to Everyday Music. We spent a long time in this huge store.
Voodoo doughnuts are a must after a long hard day of record shopping.
We took our doughnuts to Bushwackers Cider and relaxed with a pint. It was such a fun day. I always enjoy spending time with my mom-in-law and this year, my brother-in-law came too. I can't wait for next year!
It's been almost exactly a month since TEDxConcordiaUPortland's event this year. It's really taken me this long to fully process that extraordinary day. For the entire week after the event, I floated on a TEDx high. So many inspiring people with so many inspiring ideas kept swirling through my brain and the positiveness of it all just felt good. Now the videos have been posted and I've re-watched them all and a few I've seen many times. It's really wonderful to have the talks accessible online to re-hear and re-learn at anytime. I'm so honored and proud that I was on the planning team that created such an amazing event.
I'm a huge fan of The Circus Project. I was at their big performance held at the Portland Art Museum last December and highlighted in the short video that is shown during Jenn Cohen's talk. The aerialist who performed at TEDxConcordiaUPortland was truly extraordinary and received a well deserved standing ovation.
The only other standing ovation of the day went to Governor Barbara Roberts. I was so grateful to hear her speak. She became Oregon's first female Governor when I was a junior in high school. She has always been a big inspiration to me. It was great to hear her talk about how she overcame incredible odds to better the life of her autistic son and then to go on to become Governor.
Goodnight Billygoat's stop motion movie accompanied by live music was another highlight for me. Each minute of video takes about 1 month to create. Their dedication to their art is so incredible.
One of the funnier talks was Colleen Wainwright. I had met her last year at the World Domination Summit and she is such a hoot! She went from a self-proclaimed selfish asshole to raising over 100 thousand dollars for WriteGirl to celebrate her 50th birthday.
Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls is such a great organization. My good friend participated in Ladies Rock Camp and loved it so much that she is going to do it again. It was great hearing more about this organziation and seeing one band perform. The singer has a crazy good voice.
Mark Frohnmayer's talk about the future of the automobile and the crazy cool cars his company is creating definitely got my husband and I thinking. We've always said that the next car we buy will be electric. Now we are thinking about getting a car from Arcimoto, his company located in Eugene, OR.
There were many, many more wonderful talks that occured at our event that you can access here on YouTube. I hope you get the chance to watch them all.
I took this picture at the TEDxConcordiaUPortland rehearsal, the night before the big event. Sitting in this near empty room, surrounded by planning team members finishing up last minute details such as putting name tags on lanyards, I was overwhelmed by all the greatness. Attending meetings or working on projects at my house is one thing, but to realize that I am one part of this incredible event which is so much larger than the sum of its parts is extraordinary.
Photo credit: Armosa Studios
My main contribution was coordinating the gift bags. I took this on, because I thought that was one area that I could do well. I also completed three big projects for the gift bags that you can see here, here, and here.
I was blown away to see this picture up on the two very large projection screens during the event. I tried to take a picture of my picture, but I was too shocked to get my camera out in time. The thank you card activity was a big success and it was fun to collect many of the cards people had filled out at the end of the day.
Eugene Lee is a medical student at my school. I encouraged him to submit a design for the promotional material. The team loved his fish paintings and a mascot was born. Bubba is the orange fish and an example of how the ordinary always has the potential of becoming extraordinary. Eugene's work was used on the posters, programs, t-shirts, and elsewhere.
Kin Trio, Eugene's band, was our house band and played at the beginning and end of each of the 4 sessions. Concordia's Library had an exhibit of Eugene's paintings in their gallery.
Photo credit: Egg Press
A few weeks before the event, the company who was going to print our program covers fell through. I helped arrange for Egg Press (who also donated 100 thank you cards) to letterpress the covers. They generously donated their time and money to us. They are amazing people! The program covers are gorgeous.
I collected thousands and thousands of Acupuncture needle tubes for the stage art installation. The concept sounded really cool, but I had trouble picturing it in my mind's eye.
It's stunningly beautiful in real life. At rehearsal, the lighting guys took the time to coordinated the colors to every speaker's clothing. The end result was spectacular. Note how good it looks in every talk you watch. Crystal Shenk's talk on why she created the Aurora is so moving. Also after hearing her talk, her choice of using Acupuncture needle tubes made perfect sense.
During Joe Smith's rehearsal, it was realized that he needed a garbage can for his talk. Michelle Jones, Organizer Extraordinaire, called out to me and asked if I could get a garbage can. Sure thing! Definitely watch this short talk. It's a very simple idea, but presented in such an entertaining way it has definitely stuck with me. I now Shake and Fold everytime I wash my hands and everyone I know who was at TEDx still does too. Joe's talk was the TED.com talk of the day, today. It's kind of cool to think that people all over the world might see my garbage can.
Photo credit: Armosa Studios
The day of the event, I manned the registration table. After the initial check in, I was able to see every part of this extraordinary event. I left with a sense that I was part of something greater than myself and that is such a magnificent feeling that I will always be grateful for.
This is the last big project I did for the TEDxConcordiaUPortland gift bags! I wanted to contribute something to the gift bags, since I was in charge of coordinating them. After much brainstorming, I settled on making buttons!
I arranged for I Heart Art: Portland (Thank you!!) to sponsor the buttons. At first I was going to borrow their button maker, but I've wanted a button maker for years and this seemed to be the perfect excuse to acquire a new tool. I bought mine from Buttonmakers.net in Seattle. I am super impressed by their service and their site is filled with videos that I found very handy.
With much help from my husband, I made 1800 buttons! Each gift bag will contain 3 different buttons. Bubba is the orange fish. He is the mascot of our event and you will see Bubba in many places around Concordia. He represents how everyone has the potential of becoming extraordinary. I'm really happy with how this project turned out. I'm also glad that I was able to make something for the gift bags.
Our event is just a little over a week a way! You can still buy tickets here. Tickets will be on sale until Monday, March 26th. I do hope you can attend the event. Seeing all of the behind the scenes greatness going on, it's going to be such an incredible day. I can barely contain my excitement!
I'm super excited to share this project that I helped put together for the TEDxConcordiaUPortland event on March 31st, 2012. When the planning team was brainstorming on what we wanted to put in the gift bags, we came up with the idea of having a thank you card in each bag.
We thought this would be a great way for the attendees to participate in the day's event by writing a thank you card to the person who moved them the most that day. It would also be a way to engage the audience and get them conscious of all the greatness around them since they had to focus on the one thing that inspired them the most.
Now it was my job to make this project happen. We definitely wanted to have thank you cards from artists in the community, but asking a small business for 600 cards seemed to be too much of a hardship. So instead, I asked 6 local artists to each donate 100 cards.
Deciding who to ask was hard. There are so many amazing artists in town and my initial list was long. After I sent out a first round of asks, I was really surprised and grateful that so many folks said yes! And the folks that declined were so nice to let me know soon. I'm continually amazed at how wonderful artists in Portland are. Their generosity is inspiring.
This whole project couldn't have happened without the help of these artists. All were so great at staying in touch and letting me know when I could pick up cards. I have to admit when I first took this adventure on, I was a bit worried about pulling this off. What if nobody would donate? What if someone flaked out and we only had 500 cards? It was enough to keep me anxious for a month or two, but slowly all my fears just disappeared after working with these artists. I knew we could make this happen and it would be amazing.
Maria, the owner of Collage, was also a huge help! She generously offered to donate cello bags for many of the cards. This really saved the day, because these bags would help protect the cards from getting squished. I also wanted to include instructions for the attendees, so they would know what to do with the cards.
Figuring out the instructions was the next big task of this project. Besides what to say, I needed to decide what they would look like. I wanted the directions to be cute, but not distract from the actual cards. I also needed something simple to replicate 600 times.
I used my Sizzix Big Kick to create a nice edge to the instructions. It was super easy to cut all 600 out in a few short hours. I originally bought my Big Kick to create my sister's felt flower wedding bouquet and I've used it so much since. It really is a handy tool
I'm so happy with how this turned out! It was important to me to have a handmade touch to these gift bags. I really hope the TEDxConcordiaUPortland attendees enjoy this activity. I can't wait to see who inspires me the most.
At the end of last year, I joined two committees. I decided that since I wasn't going to sell in 2012, volunteering for organizations that I love would be a great way to stay connected to my community. Now I'm on the planning team for TEDxConcordiaUPortland! I'm thrilled to be helping them this year. I attended their inaugural event last year and I was so impressed with everything. From the speakers to the organization of the day, everything exceeded my expectations.
I opted to help with the gift bags this year, because I figured that would be the best place where I could lend a crafty hand. One of my friends works for Tazo Tea and helped me get a donation. They graciously donated enough tea to create a 4 teabag sampler. I broke down all the individual boxes of tea to create the samplers by wrapping them with hemp twine. I liked the minimal packaging and the whole 600 tea samplers were pretty fast to make. I became super adept at tying bows.
Registration for the event is still open! I really hope you get a chance to attend this year. This year's theme is Becoming Extraordinary and our speaker line up is very impressive. There will also be much more goodness in the gift bags.
I love living in the Brooklyn Neighborhood. It's one of the oldest neighborhoods in Portland and it was the downtown city center until the Ross Island Bridge was built. The additions of the Powell Blvd and McLaughlin Blvd caused our neighborhood to became boxed in by these very busy streets. Add the Brooklyn Yard to the mix and our neighborhood is sort of stuck like a weird island with not the best access to the neighborhoods next to us.
That is all going to change soon! It feels like I've been waiting for the Milwaukie Max Line forever! We are finally to the point where construction is gearing up to start. This 7.3 mile track will transform SE Portland. This new line will start at Portland State University, stop at OHSU in South Waterfront, cross over the brand new bridge (which is being built now), stop at OMSI and the Spring Water corridor, travel down 17th Ave, stop at Bybee (West Moreland), another stop along the Spring Water corridor, stop in downtown Milwaukie and eventually end in Clackamus. How amazing is that? Brooklyn will go from almost no access to extreme access and livability. The new MAX line will also create much better bike and pedestrian paths along the line.
This line will be completed in September 2015 and it will completely change the way I live my life. I can't wait! Watch these two short movies that explain where all the stops will be and the improvements that will happen. I will have a MAX stop 5 blocks from my house It's an exciting time!
This Friday and Saturday, my sis and I will be sharing a booth at the Capitol Hill Holiday Market. This is the first year that Capitol Hill school has held a craft fair and my sis is one of the organizers. This craft fair will be much smaller than Crafty Wonderland (which was fab and I hope to blog about it soon!) which I think will be nice change of pace. This the last craft fair of the season that I will be participating in. I hope you get a chance to check it out and help support Capitol Hill school.
I can't believe Christmas is in 10 days! Are you ready? I'm about 75% ready. :)
Tomorrow is the big show and I think I'm ready! I got up first thing this morning and made a list of the last minute things I still need to do. Luckily, it's not a very long list. One of the nice things about being a bit (ok, a lot) panicked is that I'm definitely prepared. My stuff has been packed for a week.
I've also finished researching the vendors. I've have a list off 33 vendors with their website, the item I'm interested in, the price, and who I'm buying that item for. Granted, at this time, it's a broad list which will be narrowed down when I'm making my purchases. I'm leaving ample room for the items I found online not being at the fair as well as new items that I haven't seen yet. I like having a bit of spontaneity while making my purchases, but having a list ahead of time lets me focus and takes some of the guesswork/indecisiveness out of the mix.
I'll be in booth 35 this weekend! Come say 'Hi' if you get the chance!
My craft bucket list is a mile long, but this weekend I get to check a huge item off of this list. I will be selling my felt flower rings, barrettes, and earrings this weekend at Crafty Wonderland!
Ever since the very first Crafty Wonderland in the basement of The Doug Fir, I have wanted to participate in this amazing event. I've applied many times and this year I was finally accepted! They receive so many applications from amazing artists that I am truly grateful that I was selected this year. In fact, I was so prepared to not be accepted that I was pretty much in shock for a few weeks after getting the acceptance email.
That shock has now worn off and now I'm walking that fine line of utter excitement and sheer panic. I know I'm ready. I know I've done everything I can to prepare. I know that I will have an amazing time this weekend.
I do hope you get a chance to attend this weekend at the convention center. Stop by and say Hi. The first 150 people in the door each day will receive a great goodie bag. It's also an easy way to get all of your holiday shopping done. I will be looking up each vendor this week and making a plan of what presents I want to buy for friends and family. I've found that doing this research ahead of time really helps me. In the moment of the huge sale with thousands of others around, it's hard to make decisions. Especially if you are as indecisive as I am. But having a game plan, I find I actually buy more things and get more checked off my list.
I've always had a strong love for the National Book Award. Being an English major, I try to read award winning literature as much as I can. While I've had some luck with the Pulitzer, Man Booker, etc winners I find, more often than not, that I'm disappointed with those books. The National Book Award winners almost never let me down.
I made a personal goal a few years ago to read every National Book Award for Fiction winners and finalists. I keep a spreadsheet of these books in my purse and I'm constantly on the hunt when I'm at Goodwill. I get a small jolt of excitement when I stumble across their emblem.
Once again, I found myself downtown for the Portland Marathon. My mom-in-law decided, after completing the Eugene half marathon last May, that she'd like to run/walk the Portland Marathon. She convinced my husband to join her and she diligently trained for this competition.
This is the 3rd year in a row that I've helped friends and/or family with the marathon. There is something so exciting about being downtown in the early morning with thousands of people preparing to race. The energy is contagious and for one split second, at the start of the race, I was sad that I wasn't joining my mom-in-law.
That moment quickly passed as I made my way down to Naito Parkway and saw runners already looping back to downtown knowing they still had about 20 miles to go. It was great to cheer people on; I loved seeing all the signs of support.
I was able to see my mom-in-law and husband pass by when I was on the Hawthorne bridge making my way back to my car. Since they were run/walking the race, I had time to return home and get a couple hours of precious sleep while they raced.
I met my sis-in-law and her kids on my way back downtown. My mom-in-law was using her RunKeeper app during the race and I had the luxury of watching her progress in real time. This made the marathon much easier on us, spectators. We could gauge how quickly we needed to be at the finish line. Once there, we didn't have to be watching the finish line intently hoping we didn't miss them crossing. I knew exactly when they would be turning onto 3rd Ave about 4 blocks from the finish line. This gave us the freedom to hang out with the kids and I even took some self-portraits.
I was a bit worried knowing that the Occupy Portland folks were camped right at the finish line. They had come to an agreement with the city and marathon organizers. I really appreciated the cooperation on everyone part. I'm glad that folks, like my mom-in-law, who had trained and prepared for almost a year didn't have any problems on race day.
Here is my mom-in-law receiving her medal for finishing the race. I'm so proud of her! She worked so hard to achieve this goal and I know it's something that I could never do. Her dedication to racing is what has motivated me to complete the Eugene Half last May and I'm already signed up for the Rock and Roll Half next May. She is such a huge inspiration to me.
Saturday was the Hello Etsy: Portland conference focused on small business and sustainability. I was so glad for this day to finally be here!
As you know, I put all of the program journals kits together for this event. I didn't sleep at all the night before the conference, because I was so worried something unexpected would go wrong and the journals would be a disaster. Thankfully, this was not the case. I was happy to put them out on a table and to let go of this project.
During the opening hour where folks ate food, mingled, and made journals, I helped folks thread their needles and steered them in the right binding direction. Collage had another table set up with pens and rubber stamps, so folks could personalize their journals. People loved this craft! Even the non-crafty folks jumped right in and enjoyed this DIY project.
During the opening comments, Jen Neitzel, co-chair of Hello Etsy, talked about gratitude. I got so much from her insights. It helped to put into perspective what I was doing here and what I wanted to get from this day. Jenna from Modish led the sold out crowd in a breathing exercise to help clear our minds and to get ready for the long day ahead. While these things might sound out of place at a conference about small businesses; it really helped pave the way for an amazing day.
Right before lunch, we heard from keynote speakers Rebecca Pearcy of Queen Bee Creations and Duane Sorenson of Stumptown Coffee. This talk, moderated by Sister Diane, was fascinating. First, Duane was very funny which kept the topic light and friendly. When asked if he could time warp back to the past, keeping his present knowledge, what would he do differently, Duane answered, "I would have gotten a perm". On a more serious note, he is extremely passionate about his employees and creating a better life for them is his main driving force to keep expanding Stumptown. I could relate to Rebecca more, simply because she makes things and I make things. It was interesting to learn how her business has grown and how it has changed her life. After their talk, we went outside to get lunch from Koi Fusion, one of the food carts on-site for the conference. Each attendee received a $5 voucher towards lunch.
There were 3 break out sessions with 3-4 different instructors to choose from during each session. I must say, it was really hard deciding what to check out. All topics were very relevant and top notch. My sis was also attending the conference, so we split up during each break out session, so that we could get the most information we could. We will sit down soon and discuss what each of us learned. While all of the presentations I saw were excellent, my favorite of the day was Jackie B. Peterson's talk on Better, Smarter, Richer: Seven Business Principles for Solo and Creative Entrepreneurs. Her no nonsense approach was a great wake up call for me. I have some work to do! I think one small thing I'm going to start soon is tracking my time for at least 2 weeks. I think seeing how I spend (and waste) my time will be a great exercise to find ways where I can be more productive.
After the conference, all attendees were invited to Hobo's for an after party. Hello Etsy even paid for the first round! This and the lunch voucher made the $20 conference fee very affordable. It was so nice not to have to worry about where to eat lunch and they really made socializing and networking a big part of the day. It was great to reconnect with my crafty friends. By the end of the night, I was exhausted in a completely joyful way.
I will definitely need a few weeks to absorb everything I learned. I will use many things I learned in my future business endeavors and also in my life in general. I'm so grateful to Hello Etsy and to I Heart Art: Portland for creating this event. Videos of most sessions will be on I Heart Art's website. I can't wait to see all of the presentations that I didn't get to see and to learn even more wonderful things.
Hello Etsy: Portland is tomorrow! I've been so excited to attend this sold out conference geared towards the small business owner - not just crafters. The schedule of speakers is top notch and I know I'm going to learn so much.
A few months back, my good friend Jen Neitzel (co-chair of Hello Etsy) asked if I would be willing to prepare all the materials for the “make your own conference program journal”. These journal kits will be given to each attendee and they will bind and decorate them. Once complete, folks will have a personalized journal for taking copious notes during the day. I was so happy to help and I'm glad I could give back to such a worth organization as I Heart Art: Portland.
Saturday, we found ourselves again at the Crystal Ballroom. We first had sushi in the Pearl and then walked over to stand in line to get in. The line was around the block, but when the doors were about to open, I walked up to see if folks with wristbands had to wait in that line. Nope! There was a second line for people with wristbands and I was the first in that line. Fun! This night, I smartened up some, because I knew it would be a furnace inside. I brought an empty water bottle to be filled inside. The Crystal supplies large jugs of water, but on Wednesday at the end of the night there was no water to be had. I didn't want that to happen again. I also brought a hand towel with me to mop my brow because I knew it would be another insanely sweaty night. This night, we opted to grab seats on the benches along the ballroom floor because the balcony was just too hot. We also parked near a large fan, so we could easily stand in front of it if we needed to cool off - which we did, quite often. The heat was oppressive.
Black Prairie was the first band of the night. I had previously stumbled upon them during an in-store performance at Music Millennium on Record Store Day. This bluegrass band is comprised of 3 members of The Decemberists, the lead singer of Bearfoot and also The Woolwines and the guitarist from Dolorean. Yeah, that's pretty much a super group. It was great to see Jennifer Conlee rocking a pink wig; we wish her well. It wasn't very crowded when they played, so I got to see them pretty close up. Their tango was one of my favorites. For their last song, they came down into the audience with their instruments and played.
Next up was Alela Diane. Everyone in my party is madly in love with her. We had seen her at the Doug Fir earlier in the year. Her voice is just incredible. She always reminds me of John Denver, because like him, she has a knack of singing about nature with descriptions so detailed that you can almost feel the scene. I really could listen to her sing all day long.
The third band from San Diego was pretty terrible (one reviewer called them dismal). I don't know how they were able to get third billing, especially since the other 3 bands are local darlings. Their 40 minute set felt like hours. I couldn't wait for them to finish.
Blind Pilot finished off the night with their record release party for their new album We Are the Tide. I've been waiting ages for their new album. 3 Rounds and a Sound is definitely in my top 20 favorite albums of all time. The room was packed to see them and I was glad I had a bench to stand on to have an unobstructed view. They put on an amazing show and the crowd was loud! I think they were pretty much in awe of playing a packed house at the Crystal; they kept thanking us for being there and marveling about being on stage. They were very humble. The definite highlight of the night for me was when they played a cover of Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel complete with an amazing xylophone solo. The entire room clapped and sang along. I was singing at the top of my lungs and loving every second.
Blind Pilot was our finale of MFNW 2011. Concerts continued most of the day Sunday, but there was nobody we were dying to see and after 4 days living the rock star life, we were all exhausted and needed sleep.
In 4 days of the festival I saw 16 bands (3 must sees), spent 24 hours in 4 very different and distinct music venues and slept about 12 hours. I haven't had that much fun in ages.
We used mass transit on day 3 of MFNW. I felt bad for not busing to the Crystal or Doug Fir, but quite frankly it's a very super quick drive to both of those for me. Busing would have required at least 2 buses and in the 95 degree weather, I just didn't have tolerance for a lengthy commute. But this night we were headed to see Iron & Wine at Pioneer Courthouse Square which made busing a breeze.
We arrived in time to catch the last of Marketa Irglová's set. We spent most of that time in the honkin' huge line to get a honkin' huge burrito for dinner. Trust me, get the small - it's still massive. The movie Once is an amazing movie and I was excited to see Marketa Irglová and had a small hope that she would play songs from that soundtrack, nonetheless all of her songs were beautiful. I was bummed that I missed Sallie Ford and the Sound Outside, the opening act. She had recently played a show and all of my friends raved about how great the concert was.
We stood in a decent spot about halfway back. There was plenty of time to wait during set up, so I experimented with my 360panorama app. I wished I had done more, but it was kind of weird taking the time needed to record the photo in the middle of a crowd.
The place was packed and it was fun to see folks on the balcony at Departure taking in the event. Lots of folks also listened for free outside of the gates. It really felt like we were in Portland's living room.
Iron & Wine is a concert that was very high up on my list of must sees. I happily paid the extra fee to guarentee we'd be able to see the show. It was great. I really enjoyed being in the open air listening to such amazing music. I'm a big fan. The songs felt slower and jazzier than on the album which is great (we can all listen to the album), but I wished they choose to speed up the set to increase the dance-ability of the songs. Marketa Irglová sang back up which was very cool.
After Iron & Wine ended, we walked a block and jumped on the #4 Fessenden to Mississippi Studios. I had plotted the route earlier in the day and had programed in the bus stop IDs in my pdx bus app (I use this app everyday and I love it. It's never wrong), so that I could check bus arrivals in a matter of seconds. I was nervous to get to Mississippi Studios late. I was very excited about the bands we were going to see and Mississippi Studios is a super tiny venue.
First up at 10pm was Fernando. He was a must see for me. I have been a fan of his for well over a decade. He is also the nicest man. He used to come into the coffee shop I used to manage for coffee. I can't believe that I've never seen him perform in all these years. I really didn't want to miss him this time around and he definitely didn't disappoint. I finally got to really dance. He also played 'Angelyne' which is one of my very favorite songs of his.
At 11pm was Dan Mangan from Canada. His album 'Nice, Nice, Very Nice' has been a staple on my playlist for most of this year. Every song is catchy and he's got a great voice. It was just him and his guitar which gave him freedom to change things up and he even chided an audience member for talking during the set. I really enjoyed hearing the back stories to many of his songs. The best thing about this concert was that we got to sing! The whole audience joined him in many songs and we were quite loud during 'Robots'. Dan walked into the audience and we had a communal singing moment. It was just great fun. Check out this picture taken from his set. I'm the only one who seems to be moving, although I can't really make out what I'm actually doing.
Rhett Miller performed at 12am. We hadn't planned to stay for his set since it was another late night and we didn't know too much about him. I'm so glad we stayed. He was so energetic and had the whole crowd (which was pretty packed by this time) dancing. I had a great time.
At the end of the night, we opted to take a cab home. We did stop for substance at the 24 hour pancake house. Eating hashbrowns at 2am is something I haven't done in at least 10 years. This was definitely my favorite day out of the festival. From the grandness of Iron & Wine to the down home sounds of Fernando, I couldn't have asked for more.
We headed to Doug Fir for day two. We arrived early to eat dinner first. This allowed us to keep an eye on the door to gauge how long the line for the concert would get. We knew that this show would most likely sell out and the only band we set out to see was going on at 12am. Doug Fir doesn't have many seating options, so it was a priority for us to get there early so we could camp out and save our energy for later.
After dinner we stood in line in the heat again to gain entrance to the concert stage in the basement. Luckily since we alread had our wristbands already, we were able to jump this line and enter right when the doors opened. This gave us our choice among the wall benches and we strategically sat next to one of the only two tables there so we could have a surface to set drinks on. The A/C at the Doug Fir was phenomenal. We were almost cold at times. It was night and days from last night's show.
Local band, Brainstorm, opened the night's festivities. I really liked them a lot. Who can resist the tuba? I'll definitely be on the look out for their album.
Purity Ring was the 2nd act and they blew us away. It was almost more performance art than a concert. So original, complete with a instrument made out of pipes that lit up when played. I loved how such care was taken in the appearance of the stage. All kinds of objects lit up including a big bass drum. These crazy concoctions made for a very dark show. They used no stage lights. It took effort to get a semi decent picture because the lights flashed on and off pretty rapidly.
The third band called White Arrows and they felt pretty out of place during this very avant garde night. I didn't particularly care for them.
Finally Phantogram, from New York, took the stage. This was a must see band for our friend. I had never heard of them before. The bench seats were great to stand on and we had an unobstructed view of the stage. The place was so packed that if I was down on the floor, I wouldn't have been able to see and I'm not a fan of being jostled around. I was still able to dance and had a great time. It was perfect.
Another year of Musicfest Northwest has come and gone. I spent last Wednesday through Saturday attending concerts at different venues across town. I was planning on a one post re-cap, but I'm going to break it out into days because I experienced too much fun stuff to cram it into a single post.
I made a conscious decision to only use my iphone for pictures. My focus was to have a great experience and to get lost in the music. I also didn't want to worry about spilled beer or any other million things that spells disaster for a camera. Besides, I can always live vicariously through Inger Klekacz, a good friend, who was shooting the festival for local publications. Check out her Flickr set. She is amazing.
On Wednesday, our first day, we (my husband, our good friend and I) headed up to the Crystal Ballroom. We arrived before the doors opened at 8pm and stood in line in the heat. Portland was sweltering that week and the day's high was 95 degrees. Please note that the week before, we were having highs in the low 70's. The temperature in the ballroom must have been well over 90 degrees. That place was a furnace! I had never experienced anything like it. Luckily, we were able to get seats in the balcony (where it was even hotter), so we didn't have to stand through the first two acts. Mini Mansions opened the night. I really enjoyed them. Their cover of Heart of Glass (video above) was the highlight of their set.
Eleanor Friedberger was the middle act. I was really looking forward to seeing her because I'm a big fan of Fiery Furnaces. I must admit I didn't get too into her solo stuff. I wanted songs that were a bit weirder which she does so very well.
For The Kills, we ventured down into the mob. The place was packed and the crowd was excited. Allison Mosshart greeted the screaming crowd by saying "Portland, we are going to sweat together tonight". Boy was she right. Besides the heat, it was such an energetic intense show. I loved jumping up and down on the Crystal's wooden floating ballroom. It was crazy hard to get any picture in focus since that floor was moving all over the place. We left that night around 1:30am so completely drenched in sweat, but on a total high. It was really a great night. Although getting up at 6am for work the next day was pretty darn painful.
