Highly Recommended Music: Y La Bamba

 

There's an NPR First Listen of Y La Bamba's new album Court the Storm, which will be released Feb. 28th. We've first listened to it twice already tonight and it was so nice to hear many of the songs we've heard them perform live around town. We've managed to see them at various venues three times so far, and I still think we need to see them several more times. Luz Elena Mendoza's voice is amazing, and I'm not entirely sure the power of that can be captured in a recording studio (though the albums are great!) To help with that I recommend watching their NPR Tiny Desk Concert and/or this really sweet performance in the aerial tram! They've been one of our favorite local bands we've seen since moved to Portland and I look forward to seeing them live again soon. 

Pictures above are from one of the EcoTrust Concerts last summer. Back when we had sunshine. It will come back someday, I'm sure.

Music of 2011

One last recap of 2011 before I am ready for the new year. (Yeah, that always takes me several weeks!) Music! I always enjoy putting together posts about music I listened to over the last year, but it is a big task to pull together, so I've been procrastinating a little. (Once I wrap this up I can recap my Christmas trip to Chicago and the last few knitting projects I've finished!) This year I thought I'd do it by selecting a few categories: Portland - so much good stuff here; My Usual Favorites - their new albums are so good;  New Favorites - More in this category than the others; To Check Out - Stuff that's high up on my list that I haven't really listened to the full album yet; and lastly Spillover - albums that didn't come out last year, but I started listening to, and stuff I'm still listening to from last year.

Portland

AgesandAges - Alright you Restless
This is just one of those albums that I have to put on when I need cheering up. So many people singing together I think is what has that effect on me, but also I like the lyrics. I knew I'd have to check them out when I heard Kevin Robinson from Viva Voce produced the album.

Viva Voce - The Future Will Kill Us
I'm sad I haven't actually since them live again since we've been back in the northwest! They are so much fun to see play, I highly recommend it. The Analog Woodland Song is so good.

Wild Flag - Wild Flag
Very cool to see this on a lot of the best of 2011 lists for the year. I got to see them play a free in-store show, but unfortunately didn't act quick enough to get tickets for a real show. Ah well, hopefully since they are Portland based I'll have more opportunities this year.

My Usual Favorites

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
Both of these are so good. I think they'll take me a while longer to fully absorb.

New Favorites

tUnE-yArDs - w h o k i l l
Fascinating to listen, seems like she has such a diverse range of influences. I just found they did a Tiny Desk concert, which I will be checking out right after I finish this post.

Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
Both Eleanor & Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces came out with solo albums this year. We saw her open for The Kills at a MusicFestNW show and several songs stuck out and convinced me I needed to get the album.

Say Hi - Um, Uh Oh
Another album to put on to make me happy. I love the video above because it's filmed in Seattle and many of the shots are outside a school-turned-condo building very close to where we used to live.

Jessica Lea Mayfield - Tell Me
She's from Ohio! And not all that old and very impressive. I first heard her on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic. 

Thao & Mirah - Thao & Mirah
I already liked them both quite a bit, so this is such a good pairing. Here they are covering Salt'n'Peppa with Carrie & Fred on the Portlandia tour. Too fun!

To Check Out

Beyonce - 4
Seems to be getting especially good reviews this year, and I've been mildly obsessed with the videos for Countdown and Run the World (Girls)

TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
I've been meaning to check them out more intently for a while. I enjoyed their performance with Tinariwen on the Colbert Report. Also I think there's a song about caffeine? I actually got this album off of emusic, we just need to get the files moved off my computer and into the right place for listening...

Charles Bradley - No Time for Dreaming
Same deal with this one, it's time to start listening! We saw him this year as part of MusicFestNW, and he was just so good. It felt perhaps like the closest you can get to seeing James Brown.

Spillover

Y La Bamba - Lupon
We have seen them live a bunch of times since we moved here and bought their album last time we saw them, so even though it was released in 2010, we listened to it a lot in 2011. In addtion to the video above I highly recommend their Tiny Desk Concert on NPR.

Bhi Bhiman - The Cookbook
Introduced to his music when we saw him open for Joan As Police Woman at Mississippi Studios mid-year.  We were impressed. The video for a song from his new album (coming in 2012) is pretty cool, using stop motion to create a moving collage.

Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central
This made my list for 2010, but I've still been listening to it a lot in 2011. We saw them at the workshop barn stage at Pickathon this year, where they talked about their songwriting, and played some songs of course.

I'm feeling like it was an especially good music year this year, so I maybe adding quite a few things to my "to check out" list in the near future. Here's a few best of lists I'll be referencing:

Pitchfork's Best Albums of 2011
KEXP DJ's top 10 lists for 2011
KCRW DJ's top 10 lists for 2011
Willamette Weeks's Best New PDX Band 2011

Portland Walks: Washington Park Flowers & Leaves

We took such a pretty walk in Washington Park over the weekend, and I managed to get some very nice pictures (if I do say so myself!) of flowers and autumn leaves. A walk up in Washington Park is always satisfying and we should really do it more often. 

 

Oh and the new Tom Waits Album, Bad As Me, is out and it's so good. The track that features Keith Richards is called The Last Leaf. I listened to the fresh air interview with Tom Waits this week, and I loved hearing him talk about the inspiration for the song, one last leaf that if it hangs on can maybe make it through the season. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the leaf above! 

We also strolled through the Rose Garden again, and there are still many roses in bloom. More pictures here. I wish I could remember some the names of the varieties so I could label the rosesbetter, but there are so many. I know at least one of the ones I photographed was the Julia Child hybrid.

 

And I don't know what these berries are, but they are pretty. Most of them were mostly white, but I really liked the gradient on several of the larger bundles. And another Hydrangea picture, at one time they were my favorite flower. But now I have many favorites! 

Music on Monday: PJ Harvey is Awesome

I am currently obsessing over the video (and of course the song) for PJ Harvey's The Words that Maketh Murder from her new album Let England Shake. I love the way it drops in and out of the produced version of the song to give you a feel of being there with PJ Harvey when she's writing the song. It gives me chills. 

The video for Let England shake has a similar mood:

PJ Harvey is at the top of my list of people I must see live and has been for a while now...

Music Videos: Loch Lomond, Say Hi, The Living Sisters & Yelle

I love music videos!


This was one of the tracks featured on the Best Ever Mixtape they passed out at the Google concerts, and I already marked it as on of my favorites the first time I listened to the tape. The video is just great, directed by Seattle Based photographer Hayley Young.


I recently downloaded Say Hi's latest album Um, Uh Oh from emusic and I've been listening to it a bunch. I didn't know much of anything about the band but have since found out they used to be called "Say Hi to Your Mom". It's mostly one guy, Eric Elbogen, and they're (he's) based in Seattle. The video uses Seattle locations, including the Queen Anne Public School turned condos, which we used to live very close to. I found one pic of it in my old flickr sets, though it's not of the main entrance used in the video.


Michel Gondry directed this music video for The Living Sisters. I'm a big fan of Michel Gondry (although I haven't seen The Green Hornet yet...) and this split-screen story telling reminds me of the Cibo Matto video for Sugar Water, one of my favorites. Plus the subject matter is especially appropriate for me this month since someone I know is expecting!


I also really liked this double video from Yelle, but it's over 8 minutes long. It even has a sort of small intermission, which might be my favorite part.

Last Best Ever: Music in a Church!

Yay! We manged to get tickets for and go to all three of the free "Best Ever" events put on by Google as a promotion for HotPot in Portland. Last night was the last, featuring Y La Bamba, Typhoon & The Dandy Warhols, took place at University Chapel, pictured above.

Y La Bamba: right up my alley. Dramatic vocals from the lead singer, an accordion, castanets, a ukulele at one point, yay! Plus take a look at the neat Vintage Tiger Sweater, which she later took off, I'm sure it was hot on the stage in all those lights.

Typhoon: Lots & lots of people on stage at once! Which meant they had a very big sound. Violin, Cello, two trumpets, 3 guitars, 3 people on percussion...or something close to that. 

 

The Dandy Warhols: Light Show! Whoa. My personal favorite was the Moire Pattern pictured above on the right. It seemed like a big concert in a small space, which is a good thing in my opinion. 

Can't help but be a little sad it's over, it was such a fun way to do some very cool things in Portland. Skating, taking the Portland Spirit down the Willamette River, and lastly just getting to go to a music event in a cool space. YAY Portland Music!

Music & Skates!!!

I got to go roller skating last night!!! It's been too many years. I'm not even entirely sure when the last time I got to go skating was. I remember making Chuck and some friends try ice skating years ago when we still lived in Ohio...so that was 6 years ago at least...and for the first few laps I was not very sure of myself, but I think it came back to me alright, as long as I didn't really need to stop very quickly. I promise I was going faster than this picture would have you believe. I just slowed to say hi to Chuck, who was not skating (although I tried to convince him):

 

There was also live music from Lifesavas and The Thermals. Not to mention the live organ music played before and in between sets, there's a Wurlitzer suspended from the ceiling in the middle of the rink, with a glass booth for the player on the side of the rink. While we didn't get any great pictures of the band, there is a nice set from the event over on Oregon Music News and here is one from Google. This event was all thanks to Google, they are using Portland as a test city for a new service: HotPot and are having a series of events to promote it. I picked up my wristband for the next show, on the boat Portland Spirit, earlier today!

They also gave us a a cute booklet with a link to the "Best Ever Mixtape: Portland" with lots of local music, which seems to be available streaming at besteverpdx.com

Update: Google added a video from the event to their post and I found myself in it! I'm at about 0:13 to 0:14 from a little left of the middle to offscreen on the left. I couldn't find chuck though, probably cause he wasn't skating!

Music: A Portland Music Video, Emusic Finds & More

This new Portland band AgesandAges released an album last week. I don't have it yet, but I'm excited about it! It's produced by Kevin Robinson from Viva Voce and Blue Giant. And this video was filmed in the St. Johns Neighborhood, with the gorgeous St Johns Bridge (in Cathedral Park) featured heavily at the end:

AgesandAges "Navy Parade" HD from Alicia J. Rose on Vimeo.

In other music news, I think my emusic download this month is going to be "Um, Uh Oh" by Say Hi. You can listen to an Exclusive Stream on Paste (a short commercial you seem to be able to skip is first though) I just discovered them by browsing around on emusic, and I really don't know much about them yet but I like what I'm hearing, especially the second track, "Devils."

Of course I went to look at emusic to try and make up my mind about my downloads before the month is through and got distracted by an interview with the band Tennis. (btw, still not adjusted to emusic's switch from credits to dollars...you'd think it would be a good switch, but I had a good system in place for figuring out how to use all my credits, and I don't seem to be doing as well with the dollar balance.) They talk about meeting as philosophy students and being inspired by an 8 month boat trip they took. Just the sorts of things I love finding out about before I listen to new music. I found this link to a stream of the latest album, .

And lastly, Lucinda Williams is on my list of awesome musicians I really really (really) still need to see perform live. Up until the release date of her new album, which is March 1st, you can listen to it on NPR's First Listen.

Update: AgesandAges should have no spaces, good to know.

Jack White and First Listens

So last week The White Stripes broke up. It's not a huge surprise since it's been years since their last album, Meg had some anxiety issues during the last tour, and Jack had at least 3 side project + producing work. So no surprise, but it seemed like a little bit of a big deal to me that they officially announced it. Anyway, I tweeted something like "s'okay with me so long as there's another project like the Jack White produced Loretta Lynn album." Van Lear Rose is still one of my favorites. Anyway, apparently I am not doing such a great job keeping up with Jack White, even though I try, cause:

It's a cover of the Bob Dylan stream of consciousness track "Thunder on Mountain" from the 2006 album Modern Times (so fair warning if you're not really into that sort of thing, it is a bit long.) I think it's worth at least a partial viewing because I'm loving the coordinating outfits. And they look like they are having lots of fun.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the album, but apparently I missed the free preview last week over on NPR's First Listen. So I've vowed to pay a bit more attention to that. This week we've listened to a few of these sorts of album previews to make up for lost time, and I thought I'd share a few links here. We recently listened to each of these:

• PJ Harvey - Let England Shake Pretty much always like her stuff.
• Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean   Oh, I guess this one expired already! Enjoyed it recently though, it's more upbeat than their previous stuff. They were, however, recently on KCRW's Morning Becomes Ecclectic (MBE) for a set promoting this album.
• Bright Eyes - The People's Key As I tweeted I think their 2005 album I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning is still my favorite, but I might give this another listen or so.
• Jesca Hoop on MBE - first heard about her on MBE, apparently she was Tom Waits's Nanny at one point.

Still on my list to listen to:
Adele - 21
Cold War Kids on MBE
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die But You Will

What I listened to in 2010, Part Two: Old

  

Lhasa (also known as Lhasa de Sela) - The Living Road (from 2003) Website
I started out last year re-listening album because of the unfortunate news that Lhasa died of breast cancer on New Years day last year. It's a fantastic album, one my Aunt initially loaned me a copy of, and I never get tired of it. I wish I had managed to see her sold out show at the Triple Door when we lived in Seattle, but I didn't manage to get tickets. It was really sad to hear of her passing.

Au Revoir Simone - The Bird of Music (from 2007) Website*
*be warned their website does start to play music without prompting.
I also wanted to mention this album because I was asked to pick out music for the wedding in SC this fall. So for some time, I was happily listening to any and everything in our collection with any hint of being appropriate. I mentioned that the first track from this album, "The Lucky One" would be cute processional song, but not really knowing if Matt & Janie had a plan for something else; I wasn't expecting them to agree to it. They really loved it, and it worked out perfectly for the big day. Now that I'm posting this I'm noticing that the cover even looks like the setting from the lake, even more reason this album is probably going to me get a little teary-eyed from here on out!

The rest of this post focuses on "old" artists that released new albums this year. I suspect that this means that I won't be able to find as many links to streaming audio for this post, since these artists are already established, but I'll try.

 

Belle and Sebastian - Write about Love Website Stream Album
Antony and the Johnsons - Swanlights Website Appearance on WNYC's Soundcheck
These both came out fairly recently, in the fall, so I'm still getting into them, but on the whole I think I'm enjoying these both more than I thought I would. Belle & Sebastian have consistent sound that I like, so I was expecting it to be pretty good, but I think I'm into this album a little more than I am usually into their music. I am Antony and the Johnsons fan of our household, it's not really Chuck's type of thing. He does have an unusual voice and it's probably not for everyone. This album features a duet with Bjork, perhaps returning the favor for Antony's appearance on her 2007 album, Volta. It's the 8th release from Belle & Sebastian, the 4th for Antony and the Johnsons.

 

The Gossip - Music for Men (rel. 2009) Stream
Thank goodness for Beth Ditto of the Gossip. She's so awesome. This release is from 2009, but I was still listening to it all year this year. Heck I'm still listening to all their other albums too. Just thinking of the video for Long Distance Love makes me want to be at a roller rink right now.

Stereo Total - Baby Ouh! Website
The cover might give you some idea of the feel of this album. 2007's Paris-Berlin remains my favorite album from them, but the fact there is a song about Andy Warhol fits so well with their overall aesthetic, and as usual it features many blips and beeps that get stuck in my head well after listening.

 

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening Website

M.I.A. - /\/\/\Y/\ Website*

*yes, this one autoplays too. You also get to watch a video of the track "born free"

This is the third release from both of these artists, and I'm noticing they've been releasing their albums on the same schedule, 2005, 2007 and 2010. That might make some sense, we saw them together at the Showbox in Seattle in 2005. If you've been a fan of MIA on twitter of facebook, it's been an interesting year.

 

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings - I Learned the Hard Way Website*
*auto-plays music. Their christmas track "ain't no chimneys in the projects" actually
I first heard Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings from Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW, and this is their 4th release. Sharon Jones once worked as a corrections officer at Rikers Island, but now she's making great Funk/Soul music with the fabulous Dap Kings (who were featured on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black.) Their music is consistently great.

She & Him - Volume Two Website (player in upper left)
Zooey is pretty cute. We got to see these two live together at the Pritzker Pavillion this year and they had a great chemistry on stage. Sure M. Ward wore his sunglasses the whole time, but he looked very cool doing it. For some reason I still feel partial to Volume One (maybe it was the cover of "You've Really Got a Hold On Me") but Volume Two is growing on me, and I usually get more excited about songs after seeing them performed live.

What I listened to in 2010, Part One: New

I usually spend the first few weeks of the new year every year toying with the idea of doing a post about the music of the last year. And I usually end up giving it up because I start to realize some of my favorite albums that I listened to over the year were actually, technically, from the year before and that all these end of the year lists (on sites like emusic and Pitchfork) have a bunch of stuff on them that I haven't had a chance to listen to yet. But this year I'm thinking Why not? I'll just post about some of my favorites from my listening this year regardless of their actual release dates. Part One focuses on artists that were pretty much new to me this year, in no particular order. I tried to find links to online streams of the full album where I could, though I don't know how long those will be available, so listen soon! If I couldn't find that I have a link to the band's site instead where you should at least be able to find some samples of their music.

 

Breathe Owl Breathe - Magic Central  Stream Here

Last time I saw my aunt she was talking about enjoying Breathe Owl Breathe live, and mentioned their campaign over on kickstarter. We have their EP Ghost Glacier, so I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with them, but I really got into them with this album. It appeals to me for the same reasons I am a big fan of Bill Callahan/Smog.

Karaocake - Rows & Stitches Stream Here

I was convinced by an interview on e-music, the cover art and the title, seemingly very crafty-ish.  Also helpful was the suggestion that they were similar to Au Revoir Simone and the fact that they are from Paris, France.

  

Blue Giant - Blue Giant Stream Here
When I heard Portland locals Kevin Robinson and Anita Robinson of Viva Voce had a new project, right around the time we moved here, I looked into to it as soon as I could! We saw those two live at least twice when we lived in Seattle and just like their music, they are a lot of fun.

Lykke Li - Youth Novels Website (there is a pop out audio player on the upper right)
I take it this actually came out all the way back in 2008, but I only got around to listening to it last year. Well...I don't have all that long to wait then for the next album from her, which should be coming out this March.

 

The xx - xx Website (a player at the bottom of the page)
I'm actually not sure there was anything in particular that prompted me to make this one of my emusic downloads other than the fact that it was showing up high in their charts and I liked the previews. It's one of my favorites now though, though technically released in 2009. I guess they won the Mercury prize this year, which as I recall Antony & the Johnsons won right around when I was first hearing their music.

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here Stream Here
The title comes from a cover of on of Bill Callahan/Smog's songs...and even though the original is also very close to spoken word, something about Heron's presentation makes me think about the meaning differently. But even excluding that track, this album from the Chicago poet/musician is definitely worth several listens.

 

The Mynabirds - What We Lose in the Fire We Gain in the Flood 

Website (the music section has a few tracks & videos)

Karen Elson - The Ghost Who Walks Stream Here

These two albums are a little similar in my mind, perhaps a slight vintage feel. On Karen Elson's Album you get the distinct Jack White sound since she's his wife. She does draw in some cabaret influences (she had a cabaret group in NYC) and was much better than I expected. 

 

Veviter - Tight Knit Stream Here
This is from 2009, but we listened to it a lot early this year. We saw Devandra Banhart for my birthday in 2009 and a few of the songs from this album were performed at that show. And again with the crafty title. I think it got a few extra listens just for that. No, it's a good album, and I like it more because that show was a particularly good one.

Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now Website (see LISTEN in the upper left)
I was looking forward to this because I really like Jenny Lewis, but I'm not quite as crazy about it as I hoped I would be. It's alright, but can't help but wishing for more Jenny and less Johnny every time we listen to it.

 

Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid Stream Here
I've read about some shows she did in Chicago this year, and I heard she's great live, I would like to see here. As I recall there was a comparison of her performance to Grace Jones, David Bowie and a few other really great people. Every photo I see of Janeele Monáe, her style clothing, hair, etc. is just so cool. I'm still enamoured of everything about the video for Tightrope, love the dance moves. But I also really love the fact that her tuxedo pants and black and white shoes remind me of some clothing I had as a kid.

The Living Sisters - Love to Live Website on facebook (a few tracks, scroll down, see left)
3 musicians I already liked: Inara George of The Bird & The Bee, Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond and singer Eleni Mandell sing harmony on this album. I have to admit I haven't actually given the album itself a listen yet, but I was quite charmed by their performance on Morning Becomes Eclectic (a program from L.A.'s KCRW which I've been listening to online while I work since 2002.) and I've given it a few listens.

Tomorrow I was planning on posting about some the albums that came out in 2010 from artists I already knew and like quite a bit, but I don't think it will be quite as extensive as this post was! Whew!

Our Chirstmas Tree is Up!

 

This weekend we spent an evening putting up our tree. Chuck thought it was early, I guess in his family it goes up a few days before and goes down a few days after Christmas. I seemed to recall one year when he stayed home for the holidays, it was already down by the time I got back from visiting my family, only a few days after Christmas! In my mind it's supposed to go up shortly after Thanksgiving and down shortly after New Year's. 

We don't have a large tree or a ton of ornaments. When we moved out to Seattle in 2004 I didn't take family Christmas decorations with me, although my parents offered. As a result they have a ton of ornaments to deal with every year, so I feel a little bad about that, but I like going home and seeing them all together.  I wanted to start my own collection, and this year I realized even in just a few years they can still bring up plenty of good memories. 

 

We have a fake, apartment sized Martha Stewart Tree, with integrated lights. Back in 2004 I bought some simple (Martha again) blue & silver ornaments to fill it out. I still like and use those to give it an overall consistency. Now there's a variety of ornaments, some store-bought (I had to have those weird cocktail party kitties, I think they are awesome. They were from Fireworks in Seattle. I like them so much that when I broke one of their spindly legs the first year I had to go back out to replace it. Now I'm always extra careful with them.) Some were gifts from family, some are handmade by me, and I have two from an EtsyRain ornament exchange that always make me smile! (by Norik and WovenChains, pictured on the right above)  I could still use a tree topper (it's pretty hard to find a good one for a smaller tree like this, I've found) and a skirt. I have the idea that I might make myself an owl tree topper this year, but I haven't figured out how I want to do it yet. I'll be sure to post pictures if I figure it out.

Anyway, while we were putting up the tree I put on my free flashy pin from the tree lighting ceremony, we had some Obsidian Stout, and I put on the Sufjan Stevens Christmas Album. That and the Squirel Nut Zippers Christmas album are my favorites. It made for a fun evening! And I think the cat is pretty indifferent to the tree this year.

Oregon Symphony in Waterfront Park

I have a tendency to start yelping again when we move to a new city. I started reviewing some of the first places we visited in Chicago, and I seem to be doing it again here in Portland. You'll notice the last clump of reviews is from fall of 2008 in Chicago, just after we moved there. I wouldn't be surprised if my yelping habits drop off again in the coming months, but for now I am glad I was doing it. Otherwise I wouldn't have found out that the Oregon Symphony was having an outdoor event last night at Waterfront Park!

We showed up after the first portion (a performance from the Portland Youth Philharmonic) which meant our seats were pretty far back. But that was fine, it turns out the park can hold a lot of people and we had a very nice view of the Hawthorne bridge and the mountain, with a nice sunset to watch too. I knit, of course, and so did a woman who was sitting in front of us, her project was bright pink. Really, this event seemed to have it all: puppets, ballet, fireworks and cannons. There was even a sing-along of "New York, New York" in honor of the upcoming Oregon Symphony performance at Carnegie hall this year. Although, Portland seemed a little hesitant to get into that. (Perhaps it was just this crowd, or the fact that we were so far back.) 

  

One of the most amusing highlights of the evening was the group of little girls on the next blanket over. Before the show started I overheard one of the girls proclaiming "I could imagine eating a banana slug!" Throughout the 1812 Overture they covered their ears for long stretches in anticipation of the cannons. They definitely seemed to be having a lot of fun!

To top off the evening we went to home to our recovering Lucy who finally seems to be acting like herself! I've missed her!

First week in Portland

It's been well over a week now since we landed! This first week involved a lot of exploring and a lot of unpacking, of course. We took several walks around our area and I took my camera along each time so there are already a ton of pictures in my Portland collection on Flickr.

On one of our first walks last week was to the waterfront. I guess there is some significant grade change here, even if it looks like less than downtown Seattle, because I was surprisingly sore the next day. It was worth it because it was a lovely sunny day but we also watched a family of swallows hanging out. I don't think I've ever run into swallows just hanging out before. Usually they are flying around quickly making it very difficult to capture them in photos. But these guys weren't busy at all, and weren't too bothered by our presence. It wasn't until after watching these guys for a while that I noticed our spot had a pretty nice, leaf and bridge framed view of the Mountain.

Another excursion started with my suggestion that we go straight back on the park blocks to see where they end. We did that and kept walking, crossing the highway and heading to the bottom of the southwest hills. We came across a wooden stair and decided to find out where it went. (I also wanted to have a better reason to be sore, but surprisingly this climbing didn't seem to make me feel any worse.) It went up. A lot. Into a lot of greenery and a residential area with a range of architectural styles all designed around the amazing views. We climbed as far as we could and our adventure ended on a newly constructed road with several "lots" for sale. These lots are very steep and the homes we saw on this trek required significant supporting framework. On our way back down we saw a flock of tiny birds, about the size of hummingbirds, that we are still wondering what they were. The group was too fast to get any decent pictures. Also berries and two cute dogs. Well worth the effort!

Exploring downtown this week has also meant a lot of great vegan food from food carts, a phenomenon Portland is becoming known for. And finding vegan options isn't really a problem. Just check out that crazy waffle thing pictured above! Vegan sausage with maple icing in sandwich-ish form. It was good! Another food cart Chuck had a nice vegan burrito and a Mexican (cane sugar instead of corn syrup) coke for cheap, and I had a tempeh stir fry. I'm getting very hungry just thinking about the food carts....

And then there are also the Farmers Markets. There seem to be at least 3 markets that happen fairly close to our apartment. There's one going on right now as a matter of fact, but I think we have enough vegetables at the moment...at least enough to get us through to Wednesday, when there is another. Of course the Saturday market was the largest of the three. We bought our veggies there, I picked up a bouquet of flowers ($8!) and we had breakfast and lunch. And there was so much music! I saw a trombone, trumpet, cello, and violins, and that's not even considering the designated music tents! Exploring this city is going to be so much fun.