Portland - Day Three
It’s been a rainy Sunday and Jon had to fly back to the Bay area this afternoon… so there was little tiny bit of sadness…followed by fun broadcasting and Incident reportage.
The day began when Tim, Ross, and Laura from Dignity Village showed up, and explained a bit about how their tent city was founded and has continued to develop, serving the homeless of Portland. They each told a bit about how Dignity Village helped them and Laura read a piece she had written about how life was before she found the support of a community like Dignity Village (MP3).
Shortly after Tim, Ross and Laura left, we were joined by Portland resident Pumpkin who played some of his favorite music. Pumpkin talked to us about life in Portland, and what he thinks about the U.S. occupation of Iraq. (MP3).
When we first arrived at the Ghosttown Clothing Exchange and Welcoming Center we met Scott. He has helped co-ordinate volunteers for the Ghosttown project. On that first day Scott talked about wanting to do a music show about the musicality of language. Well on Sunday afternoon Scott played an hour’s worth of examples of this kind of music, featuring the likes of Parliament, Frank Zappa, and AC/DC. (MP3).
At 6:00 Harrel Fletcher arrived with his friend the Belgian artist On Daems. We had thought it might be fun to have Harrel converse with On on the air, but On wasn’t feeling very talkative. So, we chatted just with Harrel Fletcher about some of his work in the Bay Area and how that has changed as he’s relocated to Portland. We also mentioned that she would be lecturing tonight Monday, January 9th. (MP3).
We ended the evening with Sam Gould in conversation with alternative restauranteur Michael Hebb, who started the restaurant “Family Supper” in his own living room with his partner Naomi Pomeroy. They then went on to start ClarkLewis and other restaurants. We had a bite of one of his restaurants’ pork chops last night and it was ridiculously delicious and gianormous. (MP3)
After our broadcast we followed Khris Soden on a walk around town as he recounted an arrest, a crack smoking, and a mugging which happened within days of one another. It was a sad tale made entertaining by the perspective of a few years distance. This walk was part of an element of the Ghosttown project called the Incident Report. Sam and his friend Curtis Knapp gave an Incident Report the day before about a piano traded for a hat. On Monday we plan to talk to some of the reporters and play the report documentation.
If you’re in Portaland tune in to 88.9FM. If you’re not… keep checking back here for when we update the site with more pictures and sounds.