Amy's birthday bash

I almost forgot to do a post on a get together of Portland Photographic Adventures that we had last week. It was Amy's birthday, a sunny perfect day, and a few of us had cupcakes and tromped around downtown. I always have a blast with these girls, they are all easy to relate to. The above photos are mine and a few of the other girls posted some of their photos here. You can tell Summer in the pink dress was the only one that really dressed up for the occassion, hence the amount of feet photos!

getting annoyed with poladroid

So a lot of people out there are abusing this hot program called Poladroid. Especially bloggers, using it so all of their photos look cool. In this desktop program you just drag and drop your photo onto it and after a 2 minute wait or so (they have to make it realistic!) slowly fades in your image with a few old Polariod effects and the trademark white framing. It's often not done well though, call me crazy but it should be treated like any other artistic process to be used appropriately. My friend Cameron was the one that introduced me to this program. I think her images are really great and even though it is kinda cheating, she does it well so who cares. I think what she does that makes it work so great is that she is taking the original photos with her camera phone. The camera phone has a small aperture and low resolution and matches well with the lack of depth of field that the original Polariod has. Using the camera phone also matches the spontaneous feel of Polariods. The awesome photos above are all images of Cameron Jones.

as good as it gets

I thought this week felt uneventful but in retrospect it was pretty interesting after all. Tuesday was Roller-Disco at Oaks Park, and yes, after years of not being on skates I can still skate backwards. I held Josephs hand during couples skating and I felt 13 again. Friday I got a freakin' awesome new dog. It was a cinematic moment, after I fell in love with the dog a day before I found out that someone else was already lined up to adopt him, I was heart-broken. They told me to come in the next day to do an interview anyway because there was a chance they wouldn't follow through or there would be problems with the application process. I did go in and had an interview, I was about ready to leave dogless when someone popped their head in and said that the person that was first in line to adopt the dog called and said that their landlord wouldn't let them have a dog. I was in utter shock with butterflies in my stomach. We now have a dog named Balls Barkely. He's just going to go by Barkley though, especially in public. Can you imagine "Here Balls...Come!" Our other dog Arf is adjusting slowly, liking the little guy a little more each day, their starting to wrestle a bit so I think it's going to work out great. Friday night my friend Sharon came over and we drank and watched Ghost Hunters International episodes. If you didn't know I was a nerd before, you know now. Saturday we had people over to listen to the Flaming Lips "Zairekka" Album. For those who are not in the know this is an album with 4 different discs intended to be played on 4 different stereos simultaneously. We had some pretty great "systems" set up and it was amazing. Panning, echoes, traveling voices, call and response of voices and instruments amongst the 4 stereos, we were surrounded by a sea of sound. Sunday we climbed the mountain we call Mt. Tabor.

breakin'

I was supposed to start my first break dancing class tonight but the instructor was sick. So instead me and my friend Sharon went for a few drinks then I came home to diligently start studying some moves in preparation for next week...

spring summer sunday crafternoon

What a crazy-awesome Sunday. It started off easy enough with a amazing brunch at Vita Cafe. Next we planned on going to this "bathhouse" where indeed we read on their website that clothing was optional. An option we though most would be taking. I came with swimsuit in tow but came to realize it would not be necessary. Everyone was goin nudie-style. We didn't want to offend or make people feel self-conscious so we took the plunge. It was less scary than I expected, I just hid under the bubblie water most the time. The best part was when it started to sprinkle while in the outdoor hot tub.




Next was a crafternoon at Summers house. We glued, we drew, we ate red-velvet cupcakes. It was nice to hang with some like-minded ladies. She had an amazingly colorful kitchy house that made me ready to buy one even more than ever.


I came home to Joseph in the basement circuit-bending an elmo talking kiddie toy to do his musical bidding.

I'm floating to the moon

Last week I really needed a break and needed to push my reset button (I'm imagining the gray and red button on the original Nintendo here) so I spent the day at Common Ground spa having a "float" steam and sauna. The floatation tanks or sensory deprivation tanks eliminate light, sound, gravity, and temperature. Everything our body uses to perceive the world is for the most part eliminated and the mind is free to relax. With 800 lbs of epsom salts in 200 gallons of water you don't have to worry about sinking, maybe just salt to the eye. After that, plus the steam and sauna (wet heat then dry heat is really supposed to detox you or something), I kind of felt like the blobfish I blogged about. Afterwards I wandered the streets of Portland with crazy salt hair, got some vegan gelato, bought my first Sci-Fi novel, and told a vintage shop owner about the world of floating. She said I looked really relaxed.

a flippin speakeasy

A little while back me and my boyfriend got a call from a friend "Come meet me, I'm at a freakin' speakeasy". Of course we went. Our friend met us at a street corner and lead us into the back door of a nearby house into a basement. At a handcrafted bar by the people sitting at it there was an amazing crew of people, everyone wanted to know how you found out about the place and where you were from. The beer on tap was brewed there in the basement, and then people just brought in exotic beers from all over the world to pass around. It was one of the patrons birthday, the wife of the owner brought down a cake she just made upstairs. Dean had been running the place for 6 years he said. You put a donation in a box for your drinks, maybe that's how they keep out of too much trouble. Everyone wanted to be your friend especially the wild irishman - amazing time.