hoot!

Friday:

Oh boy. I slept in till noon after staying up till 5AM! Got a lot of good writing done. And when I looked up the formatting, I realized that the left margin, because my thesis will be bound, is 1.5". And that brought my paper length to 17 pages. When I was editing it and putting all the chapters on their each page and inserting illustrations, it came to a plush 19 pages. Perfect.

My meeting with Martin went well. We went over a rough outline for my thesis defense. I talked a lot about my experience with Joan's class. It was a beautiful brilliant sunny warm day. But I still went to yoga. Nice and relaxing and held poses. Out of yoga I spent a good two hours editing my paper and whipping it into shape. Printed that sucker out and plopped it in Joan's box. Talked to Daniel a bit. Went home. Had some pasta.

I thought the Odd Owl show started at 8:30 so I left at 7:45 to get there in time. I had never ridden up to Alberta street before. Across Broadway and onto Williams was easy. But then it was a long 20 or so block ride with lots of false "OH is THIS Alberta?" turns. But after a pretty tiring slightly uphill journey, I got to Alberta. And then I got to Alberta Street Public House. No one I knew, or Odd Owl, were there. So I grabbed a pint and settled in. After about 20 minutes Carmen, Phil (of Odd Owl, not printmaker Phil), and their manager Eric came. Yay! Hugs all around. I moved to the venue side of the place (which was a nice hall with movable seating and good acoustics I think) and chatted to them as they brought stuff in. Molly, who went to the Eugene show with me and will be a PNCA MFA student, and her boyfriend Todd arrived. A good crew. The first band had some good little diddies, though I didn't catch their name.

A good crowd came. I think going in the middle of a three band lineup is very much the best. You get the people who linger after the first show and those who come from the last band. It is the peak time.

Odd Owl hit the stage and they were amazing! I snapped pictures using Molly's camera. I boogied. They played new work and old work. I exclaimed "The Way Home!" between some of their songs and they said they would get to it. And when they got to it they said "this one is for Trillian" which made me very happy. That is the song that I did the short animation for. I boogied a little bit. They get better every single time. Just the songs and how they play them and stage presence and general aura of it all. So wonderful! Had a really great night. Had a few beers as well.

After Odd Owl's set Phil and I sat and talked on the other side of the pub (there was one bar section where you get drinks and can sit at tables, and then in another sort of room is the venue hall). Carmen joined us. Pretty soon it was time to pack up because the place was closing. Option one was to hug and part ways and option two was to load my bike in Molly's pick up truck and hang with the five cool people at her place. I went with that option. After some shuffling of people between cars and dropping one off in a lockable studio place we arrived at Molly's place. We popped open a couple more beers and chatted into the late hours. Another option was presented to me: ride home at 4am or sleep on the floor on a mat and in a sleeping bag. I went the the latter.

Friday's Portrait is: Stephen Fry.

Saturday:

Woke up early because people were shuffling about. The sleeping bag was surprisingly cozy and the ground wasn't all that bad to sleep on. I guess I spend a lot of time getting comfy on mats in yoga. Molly made tea and Carmen had some scones. Believe me when I say these were the best scones in existence. Fantastic. We went for a walk and enjoyed a bit of the bright beautiful day. Stopped in at a book store. Molly lives on Broadway and 20th or so, which is hella convenient for me. At noon we said goodbye to the awesome Odd Owl. I must visit Carmen in San Fransisco this summer. Take a week. I think that would be greaaat.

It was a perfect ride back. Not too hot, not too cold. And sunny. The shower I had when I returned home was marvelous.

I decided to allow Saturday to be a chill day. Take a breather. I did go down to the studios to try and catch Eva, but she wasn't available to be drawn. So I conversed with Mel instead. Then I went back home and prettied myself up. Rollyn picked me up at about 6:20 and we drove out to Tigard. His friend Aaron, who is also a director he works with frequently, bar tends at this Mediterranean restaurant. We sat at the bar, I had a kabob, and chatted with Aaron and his assistant director Caroline and other folks. It was a nice night. There was also a belly dancer that performed. I gave Caroline one of my posters. It's always awesome to meet super nice people. Chatted movies and stuff. Rollyn was a bit tipsy still, so I drove us to the theater to see Hanna. His Honda Fit has very sensitive breaks, and it is a small car like the Prius. And the roads out in Tigard are like those in Poulsbo and Bremerton. That is to say easy driving. None of the complex downtown stuff. It was fun to be behind the wheel again.

Hanna was a much better movie that I was expecting it to me. The great actors didn't outshine the main one. The soundtrack, which is by The Chemical Brothers, set the mood in a very pensive building manner. It wasn't standard action music which really gave the movie a special feel. The colors of the film were crisp and beautiful. The shot layouts were well conceived. And there were some impressive long shots. It was just really well made. Not the most original of plots by a long shot, but because it was so well made I ended up enjoying it a lot. That is how you do an action movie. Rollyn invited me to be an extra on a film shoot tomorrow, but I passed. Time to get back to printing!

Saturday's Portrait is: Bill Bailey.