More notes from a trip north:

12/12 10:12 am, Portland airport

Finally, some down time, but only because the flight that I got up so early this morning to catch was cancelled due to some sort of mechanical problem. Oh well, it's better than having a problem manifest itself in mid-flight.
Besides this, everything went pretty well this weekend, at least on our end. There was a little bit of difficulty in gathering up people at train stations in Seattle on Friday. Sound manipulator Colin Potter arrived by train at about the same time his daughter was supposed to show up, but one of the train station addresses given was in fact a pier. This caused some confusion, but was resolved after some transatlantic phone calls. Later, at Electric Heavyland, where he was also supposed to perform, he didn't have time for a proper soundcheck, but his set, mainly utilizing a laptop and effects, sounded great to everybody anyway. People were still filtering in as he finished due to the fact that even though Seattle residents are very used to rain, many of them have no idea how to drive in it. For example, Brad from Flesh Eating Ants records arrived four hours later than he planned because the bus he had taken down from Vancouver got into an accident.
By the time we started, the store was pretty packed and all the windows were steamed up. things went pretty well, with the expected minor glitches that we probably noticed more than the audience did. We met some cool people and got a lot of compliments before heading out to eat at Elysium Brewery, which featured a range of comforting vegetarian food and bottomless glasses of brewed-on-site ginger beer.
Then we went back to William and Leslie's and stayed up too late making lots of little Nurse With Wound buttons to bring down to Portland. The next morning we headed over to Anomalous Eric's for a home cooked breakfast spread of tofu vegetables, tempeh, and toast. Afterwards, we crammed into Eric's and William's vehicles, gathered our stuff and headed south for Portland.
As we left, the sun was shining for the first time during our stay.
In Portland, there was a bit of tension due to the fact that Steve's flight was due to touch down about an hour or so before the event at the Doug Fir Lounge. One missed connection or delayed flight (such as I am experiencing right now) would mean he wouldn't arrive on time. Since he was the main attraction, his absence would cause trouble. In addition to this, the art for Sunday's (today's) art show was still in transit somewhere between Ireland and Portland.
Chris and Heather from Beta Lactam Ring, despite the stress level, were great hosts. We gathered for a little while at their house, had coffee and bagels, and then headed over to the Doug Fir Lounge - a newish venue that has the appearance of a rather posh yet rustic restaurant and bar complete with interior decor that outdoes the wood-paneled look by using whole logs instead. Log paneled, I guess. More than one person compared it to something one might see on Twin Peaks. Nicely lit too, with a good sized stage and attendant sound man. Oh, and a grubby little "dressing room" with nachos, fresh fruit, water, and beer.
As we set up our equipment, the sound guy commented that it looked like we were having a garage sale. Fair enough, I guess. Instruments included things like a mini-vac (which we forgot to use), rulers, pepper grinders, and other odds and ends.
We got everything ready, hung around for a bit and socialized, nervously rechecked things (with one moment of panic - later resolved - when a backing cd refused to work).
Chris drove off to pick up Steve at the airport and arrived back with him while we were eating in the upstairs restaurant. Steve had basically come straight from a vacation in the Canary Islands, with very little sleep in between, but was ready for the evening anyway.
The place was really crowded at this point and we started seeing familiar faces from past shows. People had come from various far flung places - Dallas, Minnesota, London, Japan, and probably others I'm forgetting or never knew about. Lots of people came from Seattle and Eugene. And Moe! came up from San Francisco. Way to go Moe!
Colin played first - a completely different set from the previous night. He utilized a lot of Nurse With Wound sound sources, manipulated via laptop, mixing board, and some theremin-like device. Very nice, despite the loquacious hipsters and barflies in the audience.
Our set went well too, with a few minor feedback problems (William later said that they didn't detract from the show, which is good). The people near the stage looked attentive, but there was a lot of bar noise filtering through. We ignored it.
At the end of the set, we got Steve and Colin onstage for a virtually unrecognizable version of Nurse With Wound's Coloorta Moon - Steve on slide whistle and Colin on Dr. Suess drum. This was the segue leading into Steve's DJ set, which succeeded very well in holding the audience's attention for the next hour or so. There were even a bunch of people dancing.




Afterwards, lots of people claimed to enjoy the proceedings. We wandered around and talked for a good while before finally being driven out by the thumping dance party that took over the lounge into the wee hours. We got back to Chris and Heather's place well after midnight and stayed up talking until 3 am or so - At least that's when G and I went to bed. A few of the others stayed up even later. I would have too, but I thought I had a 9:45 am flight to catch.
So here I sit, writing this all down while waiting for my 1:15 pm flight.




Later, in the air, more photos were taken...







Jen and all of the kids met me at the airport. Slightly before this, The Dickens had managed to slide down a slide and splash down into a puddle of some other kid's puke. Home sweet home.
They were glad to see me. I was glad to see them. This is the longest I've ever been away from Willow.

Tomorrow: my week as a janitor.