Category: Featured

The Waterfront Blues Festival

It’s all been happening here in Portland and the summer’s only just started!  I truly love summers here; they’re always a lot going on for both children and adults.  A few weeks ago we had the Waterfront Blues Festival at Tom McCall Park. What I loved about it was that there was something for everyone.  Daniel told me it’s the 25th time they’ve done it, on a yearly basis!   It first began as the Rose City Blues Festival, as a tribute to the homeless.  It still has that theme, as it has a mission: to eliminate hunger for all.  So it’s a great fundraiser (which is important to teach the kids, that while we’re doing something fun we should think about others less fortunate than ourselves), by donating $10 for entrance as well as at least two cans of food. What’s great is that all donations go straight to Oregon’s Food Bank.

For me personally, I loved the Steve Miller Band and James Hunter.  But what was great also is that it was very kid-friendly too with all the fireworks, kids’ dance classes, Blues Guitar Workshop and more.  What a blast.  So everyone in the family enjoyed it.  Can’t wait to go back again next year!

Eater’s First Pizza Week

I am not such a huge fan of pizza, but Daniel and the boys just love it.  So they were really happy to hear about Eater PDX first-ever Pizza week in Portland.  What this means is that for all the restaurants in the region that have never served pizza, they now have a chance to concoct and serve up a special Eater Pizza to be accessible to restaurant-goers for that entire week.  Every day for a week, a new item will be highlighted and reviewed at Eater PDX, with the first one being Greg Perrault’s June restaurant at 2215 East Burnside Street. 

Our friends checked it out.  They were thrilled with the entire flatbread concept of a clam pizza.  We asked them if they knew how it was made.  So apparently, it’s all down to Perrault’s techniques.  His dough is where it’s at – the ingredients include: whole-wheat flour locally milled from Greenwillow Farms; and sprouted radish seeds.  Then, he does something quite unusual with it. Instead of baking, he actually grills the dough on a medium heat. The dough is sautéed and then flipped on its other side.  Perrault put on the leaves, cheese, clams pickled ramp steams and coppa in layers and then the whole thing goes on a rack in a hot oven until the clams pop open.  At that point, Perrault drizzles the dish with a cream flavored anise seed.

Portland Loo Up for Grabs?

Portland is famous for a whole lot of things and I guess its bathroom facilities are probably quite high on the list.  However, when you start comparing the public facilities to others throughout the nation, the Portland Loo doesn’t have all that much competition.  So now it seems the city might be cashing in on its invention.

I always remember my mom complaining that there were no facilities along the road when she was pregnant with my siblings.  It drove her – and my poor father who was trying to take us on a road trip – nuts.  So when I got to Portland discovered the Portland Loo, I remember telling my mom all about it.  “Oh,” she said, “things still haven’t changed all that much here back in Cincinnati,” she bemoaned. 

Even if one can find such a facility, they often smell worse than where a vagabond has been sleeping for more than a night or two.  And the vandalism is insane. So unless you happen to be close to a popular restaurant chain, then you’re pretty stuck.  And it sure isn’t fun when you’re pregnant, as when you have to go, you really have to go.

It seems though that now the country’s big cities are trying to do something similar, which is ending up to be a costly – and not so effective – poor alternative. Large cities around the nation are purchasing very high-tech self-cleaning automatic loos that aren’t quite doing the job.  Like in Seattle, five were installed, costing the city a staggering $5million but due to them being used for drugs and prostitution, they were sold on eBay in 2008!

Clearly the Portland Loo is the way to go.  I mean, if it anyway already has its own FB page and more than 200 Twitter followers, what more can one ask for?

Charity Begins at Home with Portland’s ‘Super Bowl’

So of course Daniel had to watch the Super Bowl, even though the Steelers weren’t in it (did I mention that he spent the first two years of his life in Pittsburgh?) and I’m not even sure he enjoyed it so much but still, he’s American and the Super Bowl is as much tradition to American men as pie is really.  I didn’t watch it and nor did the kids (although he did get Jayden to watch a bit of it – with a bribe of getting a new playmobil character!

Anyway I got involved in something so much truer to my heart but with a “Super Bowl” theme.  The Souper Bowl of Caring – a charity that began over two decades ago – set up to feed the hungry. I had never even heard of this until this year when I read an article about its humble beginnings when seminary intern Brad Smith said a prayer at a Presbyterian Church in Columbia: “Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat.”

It’s come a long way since then.  So many people are involved in its cause; it’s a real equalizer. But how does it connect to Portland?  Well, a guy called Brad Larsen (an ex-Weber State sports information director) started collecting cash for the Utah Food Bank last week at the Weber State-Portland State men’s basketball game, raising over $300, as part of this project.

So I’m wondering what we can do too.  Jayden and I started making cupcakes that he wants to give out to anyone on the street who’s walking by (which I just thought was cute) and I just wrote a check to Souper Bowl of Caring – for $201.2! Get it, for 2012!  Next year maybe I’ll get my act together and do something a bit more hands-on, but for now, this is good.

Portlandia and American Idol

Wow, it seems like Portland really is the place to be vis-à-vis the filming of TV shows.  First Portlandia, then Superheroes and now American Idol!  Last week saw the show come to Portland for the first time ever!  So I wanted to know, who could I maybe spot in our local supermarket who would be appearing on the show? 

There was Brittany Zika.  She was the one who sang with Sara Bareilles onstage (that was the one who made me laugh as she tripped trying to get up to her metal cylinder of doom).  Anyway back to Zika – she had a stunning voice – everyone thought so, as she sang Brandi Carlile’s “The Story.”  

So you never know, I might actually get to see her around town!