hey folks. i'm back from my trip up north... i'd've posted from up there, but as you all well know, the internet, along with electricity and the wheel, haven't made it up there just yet, so i was unable.
anyway. portland... i don't know exactly what i was expecting, but i think the town came in slightly below my expectations. I feel like the northwest is a little bit like a lost chunk of the southeast, in that there are a lot of rural accents, and not a small amount of white trash. i know, that sounds harsh. but, on the train into the city from the airport, i heard no more than three people talking about court dates, appointments with parole officers, and other police troubles. maybe i'm old fashioned. or just sheltered. but damn.
the city itself is nice enough, though walking around the downtown area feels kind of like walking through one of those old buildings renovated into an armani store. in fact, that's exactly what it was: most of the old buildings, which were pretty enough, had been renovated to house department stores, corporate chains, and other depressing yet pervasive institutions. it may have been just me, and it may have been the heat, or the lack of time, or who knows what, but i felt like i couldn't zero in on portland's character. there was a slight sensation of earthiness, but only slight. of course, that city is a lot younger than san francisco or new york; one historical plaque informed my dad and i that the city was named by a coin toss between two guys, one from portland, maine and one from boston. go figure.
so, enough of my complaining already. i had a really good time. first of all, hanging out with my dad is always fun. i'm not going to wax nostalgic about how great my dad is, so let's just agree on that point. dad: you're great. there was lots of joking, most stupid, but all fun. the first whole day there, we drove up to mount hood, where there was still snow (although apparently significantly less snow than there had been historically) and people were still going up to snowboard... in july. what? after that we drove down into the columbia river valley gorge (or some combination of those words) which was absolutely stunning. looking over into southern washington, you can almost pretend to see what it must have looked like when lewis and clark sailed down it for the first time, which i think is pretty sweet. my dad and i stopped at a few wineries, had some lovely oregonian wines. saw multanomah falls, very cool. made it back to portland in time for him to go give a talk on mozart and shostakovitch, which was why he was there in the first place.
the next day, the forecasters were predicting record heat (105°f) so we decided to flee town and head for the coast. we took a scenic route through the mountains, with some absolutely stunning views. it reminded me somewhat of the cross-country trip i took with alexis and mo before our sophomore years... we'd gone to pick up alexis, who was just finishing a week with her family at a cabin in the sierra, and we took california route 4 all the way through the mountains to nevada. it was this crazy windy road, and for the first half hour or so we were constantly surrounded by trees on both sides, but then, and one point, we turn a corner, and we're on the side of a mountian; one side of trees just falls away, and we're looking out at wall of trees on the mountain next to us... it was amazing. of course, there was no guard rail, so it was simultaneously terrifying, but anyway.
the oregon coast was a little strange... not entirely unlike the chunk of oregon coast i saw on my last visit to the state, as a part of spring break '05 with julia. we met the coast near tillamook, oregon, home of the famous cheese. apparently, there are postcards for purchase in tillamook which have a picture of a cow's ass, and say "come smell the dairy-air." that about sums it up; the place stinks of cow and its flooded with rednecks... very high mullet percentages.
then we continued on towards manzanita, a little beach town friends of my dad's had said was sweet and would be a nice place to eat. along the way, my dad stopped at antique shops, and i decided that it was as good a time as any to follow up on my letters asking for a writer's traineeship. talk about a bust: one show after another simply told me that they don't participate in the writer's training program, which begs the question: why does the wga have it? anyway, i tried not to get too down; we had a good lunch and a pleasant enough drive home, replete with a pit-stop at a pit stop at a dairy queen, because no road trip is complete without a stop at a fast food chain.
anyway, i've gone on long enough. suffice to say, the rest of the trip was just as good as this... i'll have to fill the rest in later. i'm going to new york this week, though, so we all know it's never going to happen.
best to all.
anyway. portland... i don't know exactly what i was expecting, but i think the town came in slightly below my expectations. I feel like the northwest is a little bit like a lost chunk of the southeast, in that there are a lot of rural accents, and not a small amount of white trash. i know, that sounds harsh. but, on the train into the city from the airport, i heard no more than three people talking about court dates, appointments with parole officers, and other police troubles. maybe i'm old fashioned. or just sheltered. but damn.
the city itself is nice enough, though walking around the downtown area feels kind of like walking through one of those old buildings renovated into an armani store. in fact, that's exactly what it was: most of the old buildings, which were pretty enough, had been renovated to house department stores, corporate chains, and other depressing yet pervasive institutions. it may have been just me, and it may have been the heat, or the lack of time, or who knows what, but i felt like i couldn't zero in on portland's character. there was a slight sensation of earthiness, but only slight. of course, that city is a lot younger than san francisco or new york; one historical plaque informed my dad and i that the city was named by a coin toss between two guys, one from portland, maine and one from boston. go figure.
so, enough of my complaining already. i had a really good time. first of all, hanging out with my dad is always fun. i'm not going to wax nostalgic about how great my dad is, so let's just agree on that point. dad: you're great. there was lots of joking, most stupid, but all fun. the first whole day there, we drove up to mount hood, where there was still snow (although apparently significantly less snow than there had been historically) and people were still going up to snowboard... in july. what? after that we drove down into the columbia river valley gorge (or some combination of those words) which was absolutely stunning. looking over into southern washington, you can almost pretend to see what it must have looked like when lewis and clark sailed down it for the first time, which i think is pretty sweet. my dad and i stopped at a few wineries, had some lovely oregonian wines. saw multanomah falls, very cool. made it back to portland in time for him to go give a talk on mozart and shostakovitch, which was why he was there in the first place.
the next day, the forecasters were predicting record heat (105°f) so we decided to flee town and head for the coast. we took a scenic route through the mountains, with some absolutely stunning views. it reminded me somewhat of the cross-country trip i took with alexis and mo before our sophomore years... we'd gone to pick up alexis, who was just finishing a week with her family at a cabin in the sierra, and we took california route 4 all the way through the mountains to nevada. it was this crazy windy road, and for the first half hour or so we were constantly surrounded by trees on both sides, but then, and one point, we turn a corner, and we're on the side of a mountian; one side of trees just falls away, and we're looking out at wall of trees on the mountain next to us... it was amazing. of course, there was no guard rail, so it was simultaneously terrifying, but anyway.
the oregon coast was a little strange... not entirely unlike the chunk of oregon coast i saw on my last visit to the state, as a part of spring break '05 with julia. we met the coast near tillamook, oregon, home of the famous cheese. apparently, there are postcards for purchase in tillamook which have a picture of a cow's ass, and say "come smell the dairy-air." that about sums it up; the place stinks of cow and its flooded with rednecks... very high mullet percentages.
then we continued on towards manzanita, a little beach town friends of my dad's had said was sweet and would be a nice place to eat. along the way, my dad stopped at antique shops, and i decided that it was as good a time as any to follow up on my letters asking for a writer's traineeship. talk about a bust: one show after another simply told me that they don't participate in the writer's training program, which begs the question: why does the wga have it? anyway, i tried not to get too down; we had a good lunch and a pleasant enough drive home, replete with a pit-stop at a pit stop at a dairy queen, because no road trip is complete without a stop at a fast food chain.
anyway, i've gone on long enough. suffice to say, the rest of the trip was just as good as this... i'll have to fill the rest in later. i'm going to new york this week, though, so we all know it's never going to happen.
best to all.
posted by Charlie Beckerman at 23:01
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