Saturday, December 15, 2007
PDX


I'm up in Oregon for the moment, working on a new project, enjoying the gloom and feeding the dog when I can remember. (Just kidding, the dog loves me, she eats half of all my sandwiches.) When I first got here there was a windstorm, then it was freezing, now it is just raining like its supposed to. We live in a forest, so there's lots of firewood but since everything is soaking wet, even when you can make a fire the soggy wood just sputters and fizzles and hisses at you.

Favorite things to do in Portland: Go to Powell's (only tourists like myself do this, the locals disdain Powells I have found). Check the thriftstores and look up old friends. Work on one of the many Jigsaw Puzzles I have set up around the house. Listen to Jack Kerouac on audio books. Of course the local libraries are amazing and have WIFI and any book or movie you want, so there is no shortage of entertainment. My parents house in Portland is where I've written many of my best books. One table in their living room has yielded: GIRL, NEW RULES OF HIGH SCHOOL, ROCKSTAR SUPERSTAR, PROM ANONYMOUS, parts of THEY CAME FROM BELOW and now this new thing that may or may not be any good. So that's a good record. And the dog likes having me around.



KEROUAC AND THE HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETE


One thing I always do when I'm in Portland is go to some high school basketball games. The drama is really unbelievable. Even if you're just sitting there with the Patagonia wearing parents, you end up jumping around and screaming when the guy wins the game with the last shot. This last week, I saw a triple overtime game between the unranked Beaverton Beavers and the mighty Benson Techmen. It had that classic American weirdness: one team was all black guys, the other was all crew-cutted white kids. It was a great game though. Benson was supposed to cruise but the Beavers gave them quite a game. I always think of Jack Kerouac when I am at such events. The sadness of ordinary America is palpable in these places. The weird emptiness of everything. And yet, there's some cool kid, trying to win the game for his school, being more heroic than he will probably ever be again in his entire life . . .



ELECTRO-CLASH


Went to see this Portland band last week. They are called FLESHTONE and they are a kind of disco, dance band, Electro-Clash, Scissor Sister type thing. they put on a great show and I had fun, especially when I ran into some people from the PARANOID PARK movie. Brad who plays one of skate kids was there, and Nicole who was a PA and explained that she didn't actually read any of my books but she once got a library fine from "renting" GIRL. A couple of PARANOID's producers were in town working on a film called "The Street" which is a love story about street kids. Lots going on in Portland Film these days . . .



THE BLOW



This is Khaela M. otherwise known as The Blow, or possibly just Blow, that's how out of the loop I am at the moment. I don't even know if it's The Ramones or just Ramones. But being in Portland, you always catch up pretty fast on what's going on. I love the Portland music scene which tends to be a world unto itself. Khaela, according to a friend of mine, arrived on the scene as a Miranda July-like conceptual artist. Her album did so well though, she is now a bona fide indie rock star. I haven't heard it but I'm very curious.

One thing I love about Portland is the distance from bedroom to superstar is so very short. Strange new people pop up, rise instantly through the ranks, become huge and then pass into local legend. That's sort of what my book ROCKSTAR SUPERSTAR is about. Anyway, The Blow is big all over the world, and so not really what I'm talking about. But I love that feeling you get when someone gets all excited and tells you about some new person who's burst onto the scene. Everybody loves them. Everyone hates them. Buzz buzz buzz. How dreamy and glamorous it all is.