Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

I turned 35 yesterday! Scary, huh? Here's Christine and me enjoying our joint Valentine's Day/birthday dinner at the wonderful Lovely Hula Hands on Mississippi Ave last night. The food was gorgeous, one of the best meals we have had together. Afterwards, we met up with all of our friends and headed off to the Doug Fir Lounge to see The Gourds, a great all-American party band if there ever was one. Needless to say, I had quite a few drinks bought for me and I'm feeling a little under the weather today... maybe I'm gettin' too old for all this nightlife!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, party time, portland, shows on February 16, 2008 at at 1:54:00 PM 1 comments    

... is what a fellow concert-goer called out as The Decemberists prepared to launch their nautical epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song" last night at the Crystal Ballroom. I've talked about these guys before as one of the shining lights of Portland's musical scene, but last night was the first time either Christine or I have seen them live. And they didn't disappoint, belting out their eclectic mix of sea-shanties, dirges, murder songs and strangely poppy gems with much aplomb. Front man Colin Meloy has to be one of the wittiest, most literate singers ever, entertaining the crowd effortlessly with his banter and mocking rock'n'roll posturing. The night had it all: great music, re-enactments of shanghaing in 1870's Portland and a full house screaming in agony as they were all swallowed by a giant whale.

The support act was also excellent, another Portland band called Pseudosix. We'll keep an eye on them in the future!

Last night was also interesting, because we met a guy in the crowd who was recording the show for his own personal use. Not with a mobile phone or a smuggled tape deck or iPod, but with fully professional-looking microphones mounted on a huge pole! We got to talking and he simply said that neither the venue or the band minds, and in fact, he often gets to patch into the sound desk as well! I'm more used to venues that throw you out if you try to take a picture using any kind of camera or if you attempt to record the show, so this was all a bit new. Anyway, we have his contact details and juicy MP3s of the show will be coming our way soon!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, portland, shows on January 24, 2008 at at 5:19:00 PM 0 comments    

Don't believe it when people tell you the Pacific North West is always cold and damp. Today was my first, bona fide, 100°F day (40°C) in America. Luckily, there was a bit of a breeze in the morning, but the afternoon was still and stinking hot. Not as humid as Sydney heat, but still quite warm enough, thank you very much!

So Christine, Kim, Kevin and I went to see Body Worlds 3 down at OMSI - the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. I don't think this type of exhibition has made it down to Australia yet (although there are a lot of imitators and similar exhibitions, so I could be wrong), and it certainly is an eye opener. Plastinated (super super preserved, basically) human bodies arranged in action poses. Muscles, nerves, organs and brains are all on display in all sorts of creative and slightly nausea-inducing ways, but it really is fascinating. The exhibit goes to great pains to note that all the bodies are those of donors, and there's even a form for you to take home if you decide you would like to further science by having your cadaver shown kicking a soccer ball for the edification of future generations. Art, science or showmanship? I'm still not sure, but the sight of a plastinated bactrian camel was something to behold!

Posted in: chaosboy, portland, shows on July 10, 2007 at at 10:07:00 PM 1 comments    

Drats Are In Your Living Room!
Originally uploaded by Senex Prime.

So Christine and I have finally got out of our new little house to go and see what's up with Portland entertaiment-wise. On Tuesday night, we headed to the Crystal Ballroom to catch the mighty John Butler Trio (an Aussie band is the first gig I see in America, how ironic!). Christine had scored free tix because she helped the guys from the band buy themselves new MacBook Pros and iPods the day before. Sweet!

Now, I've always been aware of the John Butler Trio, but I don't think you could say I was a huge fan. Some good songs, but not great was my opinion. If we hadn't got freebies, it's not a show I would have paid to go to. Wow, would I have missed out! They are definitely a band that grow an extra leg live... they rocked all night and had the crowd (the venue was sold out, probably about 2,500 people there) screaming for more at the end. The night ended with a huge 10 minute drum solo (which was NOT boring!) and even the jaded event security guy we talked to at the end - who had never heard of the band before - was mightily impressed.

Then last night, we headed off to take in a Portland institution - "Last Thursday". On the last Thursday of each month (strange, that!), Alberta Street in NE Portland is lined with art, craft, performance artists, buskers and food and everyone in town comes along to soak up the atmosphere. Unfortunately, it was raining last night, so we spent most of our time indoors at The Porch, a live music venue that is normally the front porch of a house, but which was the living room last night because of the rain! The band that was playing was Drats (pictured), who Christine and Kim have both told me about and they were excellent! Certainly not easy to pigeonhole into any one genre, but definitely high energy and very entertaining!

Posted in: chaosboy, music, portland, shows on June 29, 2007 at at 11:31:00 AM 0 comments    

Recovered this older video of a fashion show I helped co-ordinate with Melanie Adcock in Chicago 2003. It's low quality but entertaining in the least! We had gathered over 20 artists from around the country to come together and show us what they could do within the means of "wearable art." The space was also a gallery of the artists' other strange installations but when the show started there were 3 times as many people packed in than what the space originally allowed! I helped out with this project as a free internship to start and was pretty successful even due to the fact that we had no money, it rained, and the artists nearly walked out before the show!

Posted in: chaosgurl, shows on February 11, 2007 at at 8:57:00 AM 0 comments    

CG: So I went to a rockin fashion show called Doom Town and it was rather low budget but entertaining in the least! I was hoping to get some wedding dress ideas of sorts when i dropped my camera in the crowd. With a drink in my other hand, I managed to collect the memory card and battery that fell out. When reassembled, it didn't turn on. Then the event started. The styles were made of cheap fabrics and second hand clothing, but some of the ideas gave me inspiration to draw some things later on...

In the meantime there is a rockin' boutique in Newtown, a million miles away, that has incredibly stylin' and inspiring designs!! I am aiming for this lovely green number with the feathers. I have my own mods planned for it in my head.

As for my camera, it dried up after falling in someones drink on the floor I believe, and it works now. It had better! I've had this camera for years! At least 4! Kodak needs to recieve some sort of award for that!

Posted in: chaosgurl, portland, shows, wedding on February 9, 2007 at at 11:35:00 PM 0 comments    

CG: So a lesbian named Jen gave me her cell number, her work number and her email yesterday at work. I had helped her resolve an issue of transferring information from her computer to a hard drive after all the guys had givein up on her manic craziness. She also wanted me to trade my 12" powerbook for her scooter. Needless to say, I might have lost that piece of paper she gave me...

In other news, I'm going to a show tonight and Ticketmaster hasn't sent me my tickets. What does one do in this situation? Do I pay AGAIN to get in after already purchasing 2 tickets? Should I lay around at home and write a soppy blog about it? Ticketmaster has been called, we will see what happens. The place I'm going is the Crystal Ballroom owned by McMenamins. It's one of the few places in the world that has an original "rolling floor" – awesome for dancing, hard for walking in heels. And I want to take pictures dammit!!

Posted in: chaosgurl, portland, shows on at at 6:04:00 AM 0 comments