i'm sitting here at home, listening to my friend paula sub divaville for me. it's weird listening to someone else do the show. it's my baby! give it back! :)
i asked her to sub so i could go see another of the reel music films. i can call this one divaville research... that's why i felt justified in skipping out this week. it's a film about slim gaillard.
i had my first mammogram today. it wasn't as bad as i feared. in fact, it was only minorly uncomfortable. no big deal. no results yet; i'll find out in a week or so.
ok, i've gotta run to the movie. i'm thinking of going to see the quadraphonnes afterwards, but i don't know if i'll have the energy. i was up late last night, finishing off a bottle of really nice scotch with a friend. single malt scotch is my new favorite drink.
thursday night i went to mississippi pizza to see coney island cartel. old-timey americana, with ukelele, clarinet, and washboard. the ukelele player's name is "squish". i loved them.
friday night i went to tony starlight's to see his neil diamond birthday tribute show. oh my god, this man can do anything. i posted before about his uncanny ability to inhabit people like dean martin & bing crosby -- he's a great impressionist. he was an amazing neil diamond, too. raspy voice, tight slacks, and all. i had a great time.
oh, and here's a testament to how my life is so incredibly different here than it was in NC: i walked into tony starlight's last night and told the hostess i had a reservation. i gave her my name, and she about peed her pants. "i love your radio show! both of them!!" she went on and on, and then let me in for free. "you're my comp tonight! it's so great to meet you!"
on top of that, tony starlight himself wants to partner with divaville. (ooh, btw, there's a new divaville myspace page, if you'd like to be my friend.) he suggested i do divaville live from his club once a month. and it's actually a possibility that this could come to fruition, if he's willing to foot the cost of getting an ISDN line installed.
today i went to a clothing swap. i got rid of a lot of stuff, and did not bring anything back with me. which is fine. it's nice to have empty hangers in the closet. most of the women at this swap were of widely varying sizes, and quite a few had questionable fashion sense... which is why i didn't leave with any new clothes.
tomorrow i'm trying out my first ever book club. the book is eat pray love. you know how sometimes you read the right book at the right time in your life? this was that book for me. i'm really looking forward to discussing it with people tomorrow. (a group of strangers, by and large.)
hey, guess what? today was my 6-month anniversary at this new job. 6 months! time flies.
i went to my new gynecologist today. i like her MUCH better than my north carolina gynecologist. though, honestly, this one could be a fire-breathing, 8-legged toad and i'd still like her better than my north carolina gynecologist.
anyway, she tells me i need to get a baseline mammogram. eh!?! no way! i'm only 38! i guess the new school of thought is to not wait until 40, but to get a baseline between the ages of 35-40, while the breast tissue is still young and healthy.
so i've got an appointment for a boob-squishing a week from today. whee.
and speaking of age, i turn 39 at the end of february, and i'm finding it so incredibly sad that i won't be having my traditional big birthday bash this year. for starters my apartment holds, like, 3 people. so no party here. i might be able to convince someone to throw a party for me, but that seems kind of pathetic.
so i don't know what i'll do for my birthday. i'm thinking the loverboy concert at the coast is not exactly what i want to do, though. i think i want to be around a lot of people. some kind of celebration of the fact that i *do* have friends here.
saturday night i saw a film about the brazilian musician tom ze. tom ze's records were released domestically on luaka bop, david byrne's old label. david appeared in the film, and is the only english-speaker in this trailer:
sunday i went to the oregon symphony. one half was comprised of a work by James MacMillan called "The Confession Of Isabel Gowdie", about a woman accused of being a witch, who was subsequently strangled and burned at the stake. heavy stuff. the second half was the complete incidental music to mendelssohn's "a midsummer night's dream", complete with women's chorus and actors.
and tonight i saw pianist valentina lisitsa. i could have listened to this woman all night long. i was blown away. the entire audience was blown away; she did FIVE encores. she looks like a delicate flower, with gwyneth-like features. but she's a fucking powerhouse at the keyboard:
every week i get dozens of phone calls during the show, and email out the wazoo. one listener proposed marriage (though he refuses to set the date before i "get over my wayne newton thing") and another sent me a bunch of CDs in the mail. tony starlight wants to partner with me somehow, and i've met several rabid betty hutton fans. (who knew there were others??)
wednesday nights are fun. exhausting, but really really fun. on wednesday nights, i really feel like i belong in this town.
i may have mentioned this before: my radio station organizes two big fund-raising tours each year. a host and a staff person go overseas with listeners on a cultural tour. last summer they went to russia. this spring it's spain.
my turn comes this fall, and the agenda was just decided upon: venice, vienna & dubrovnik, croatia!
i've been sick since thursday night. a head cold... a radio announcer's worst nightmare. the voice was scratchy enough that i called in sick on friday (first time since i moved here, almost 6 months ago). i spent the weekend pretty much holed up, watching the entire season 6 of the sopranos.
i did venture out a couple of times to participate in some meetup groups i'd signed up for. (risking my health for the potential to meet new people.) one group was "portland women meeting for friendship"; about 6 of us met for dinner in a cozy italian restaurant nearby. that went really well. and i also met with a women's "foodie" group at a coffee shop saturday afternoon... these women in particular are fantastic, and i'm looking forward to exploring the portland dining scene with them.
then tonight, feeling near-healthy, i went to a screening of the reel music film festival. amazingly, this festival is celebrating it's 25th anniversary, and i couldn't be more tickled over the array of films. tonight my friend paula and i saw one about anita o'day, a vocalist who makes frequent appearances on divaville. i'm going back on tuesday to see a film about stax records. and then the next will be about tom petty on saturday, and one about tom ze on saturday, too. good stuff!
oh, paula & i had dinner before the show at a fancy shmancy little place called higgins. i've eaten there before, but the food i had this time blew me away... it was a hanger steak served over a *savory* bread pudding. i *love love love* bread pudding (actually had some for dessert at the little italian joint the other night) but have never heard of a savory bread pudding. i was in heaven... it had garlic and herbs and was fluffy and amazing. better than mashed potatoes!
I was walking through the mall today and noticed the Evergreen Curling Club was giving an open house down on the ice rink. Well over a hundred people had shown up to learn the basics of the sport. I stood and watched for a while. One group of students in particular was having a lot of fun, hooting and hollering with each new skill they learned. (They particularly loved the sweeping.)
last month, at a met opera HD movie broadcast, i met a woman named valerie day. really nice, pretty lady. she seemed interested to learn that i was also a DJ at the jazz station in town. it was a brief conversation; i actually spoke more with her mom, a former opera singer.
it wasn't until i got back to the station a few days later that i was told about valerie's celebrity. she is one half of "nu shooz", a band who had a number one hit back in the 1980s:
after a little investigation i found out that the band had reformed within the last couple of years as the "nu shooz orchestra", and they were actually performing last night at the coolest jazz club in town, jimmy mak's. i asked around, and most people told me that i should definitely go; nu shooz are legendary in the portland area. so i went.
their current sound is a mix of white-boy jazz, funk and, uh, a little 'mission impossible'. (seriously, that's what they played as valerie introduced the band.) i found myself alternately horrified, wanting to run away, and fascinated. the music just wasn't really my thing, not the kind of jazz i tend towards. listen to how they're performing their big hit these days. they did a great arrangement of mancini's "charade" and a very uptempo version of "spring can really hang you up the most," but the bulk of the evening was just stuff that didn't strike my fancy at all.
the reason i stayed as long as i did (the whole show!) was because of one of the cello players. (there were 10 people on stage, including a flute, trumpet & trombone.) this guy, skip von kuske, is seemingly everywhere at once. he's in the portland cello project, the vagabond opera, classical revolution, and now this. i'm not sure he ever sleeps.
also, he was far and away the hippest looking person in the club. i guess the risk of showing up at a show put on by a band famous in the 1980s is that you get a lot of middle-aged boobs in the audience. (i got hit on by one cable-knit-sweater-wearing one.) i pretty much entertained myself the whole night watching skip. and the brass players, who were having fun telling jokes to each other on stage while they weren't playing. after the show, in fact, i walked up to skip and introduced myself. "i think you're following me around," i said, and told him who i was.
that was the highlight of the night. still, i'm glad i went. that club is *so* great. i took my mom there back in september, and i enjoy the vibe a lot.
the boy and i went out to dinner thursday night to a place called il piatto. because i learned very few vocabulary words while i was in sicily, i didn't know until just now (google) that "il piatto" is italian for "the plate". now i know.
the restaurant was really cozy, and the menu was very italian. oh, and the waiters were very (very very very) hot. good lord. even the boy commented on it. there were two of them and they looked like they might be related. dark complexion, dark hair, thick italian accents. one, in fact, seemed as if he were struggling with his english. so cute! :) this same waiter said, "prego!" whenever he brought us food, refilled our wine, or just wanted to acknowledge our order. it was just like being in sicily again. prego this, prego that. prego prego prego!
the food was damn fine. the boy had the "polla ala griglia": chicken, pears, walnuts in a gorgonzola cream sauce over fettuccini. i had the "stufato di agnello": lamb stew braised in red wine with organic plums, served with goat cheese over fettuccini. these were $16 pasta dishes, which seemed pretty steep at the time, but both were full of amazing flavor and totally worth it.
i mean, really... i probably would have paid that much just to be in the presence of those waiters.
if you know me, you know i've never been a fan of new year's celebrations. i always call it "amateur night at the bars." ridiculous people drinking ridiculous amounts of liquor.
but last night, in a concerted effort to socialize, i went out. first, a dozen of us went to a minor-league hockey game. we lost, but it was still a fun time. afterwards 6 of us went on to north portland to a dive bar called the kenton club. i brought out my camera and scott took some freaky photos while a cheesy country-rock-cover-band (called "point zero eight", har har) blasted tunes we all sang at the top of our lungs. much booze was consumed and i had a really great time.
after that, scott and i headed up to a party hosted by the artistic director of one of the local weekly papers, the willamette week. that's where i rang in the new year. i met a couple of really really great women, and got phone numbers for both of them; i hope that i'll have some new friends as a result. i also danced to talking heads songs with strange boys and drank too much champagne. consequently, i was in bed, recovering, until almost 2pm today; i missed this morning's met opera HD broadcast entirely. which is just fine by me... this was one of the best new year's eves i've ever had.
i'm purposefully omitting the most embarrassing details of my night out, however. all i'll say is that the evening included drunken wandering along the streets of north portland, and a heroic rescue by scott... for which he deserves incredible kudos.
