Strippers, Oysters, Doughnuts, and Dancing

Beautiful day. Wandered over to Pioneer Square after a jolt of great coffee from the new "Public Domain" coffee shop (today's selection: Prometheus, one of their trademarked blends, from the god who stole fire from Zeus and was treated rather badly for it; which reminds me there is a place in town that prepares flaming coffee at your table, but I digress).

Georgia was enthralled of course with the mythology lecture, yet was somehow snared by the tractor beam of a boutique shoe store across the street. When I joined her toting my pricey firewater, I chatted the young lady minding the store about what a fun place this city is. Reaction: "... If you can get past the weather. I hear it will finally be warm and sunny and dry for a week and I am leaving town!". Yes, sometimes timing is everything. Beware "This is a great place. Let's move here." Austin in March. Chicago in April. Add one to the list.

We strolled through Pioneer Square and were pleased to find live music and a stripper, well sort of, no X rating here and pretty entertaining. Chatted with the young piano player who was doing fine stuff from music sheets of only melody and chords. Dang, I wanna do that. A fine start indeed for Day 2.

Back at the hotel my cellphone rings, and YES I can grab two of the last tickets for tonight's Blues Cruise, 10:30pm until 1:15am on a boat with 3 bands and 3 bars. The day is now nicely framed, except for anything resembling sleep. The Plan: stop at the blues festival early afternoon (we have 5day tickets to everything), then come back to hotel for a nap before evening revelry leading up to the Grand Boat Finale.

The Reality: after a healthy moderate lunch (pacing is everything too), and a quick tour of festival grounds to find not much exciting happnin, we returned to The Monaco for recharge. Well, Georgia got a nap, I was to wired thanks to Prometheus and spent the time obsessing over Portland restaurant reviews.

Research product: after Georgia revived, we headed off to Dan and Louis Oyster Bar. On the way, noticed the Keep Portland Wierd Wall, and this long line of very young kids wrapping around the corner from a donut shop, how crazy is that. Voodoo donuts, open 24 hours, they say there is a line at all hours, go figure.

Anyway, Freshly shucked oysters to order, good selection of local draft beers, Alameda Black Bear Stout is a winner for anyone that likes Guinness.
Tried half dozen Oyster selection, clockwise from bottom left by index, I liked the Kamamoto best, almost s sweet taste.













Back to the festival, stumbled upon these two guys i liked a lot playing together at the small "workshop" stage. ("... What's with this workshop thing, Michael? I dunno how to build no guitar...")

Michael Burks and Lucky Peterson
http://www.michaelburks.com/
http://www.myspace.com/luckypetersonmusic

Off to stand in line for The Boat! Well, we weren't the last in line, but pretty close. Picture from the I wonder whether we'll make it on board section:




Three levels, each with a band, bar, and dancefloor, how great is that? Pleasant surprise, no rude drunks, ourselves excepted, instead some kind of dancing club of young folks that are incredibly good at it, especially to 20s/30s/40s jazz, swing, charleston, etc. All good but IMHO best band, and sporting a great website:

http://bridgetownsextet.wordpress.com/

Donuts? Ah, at 1:30am I had to find out. Waltzed in with no line and snagged a bacon maple donut, plus an apple fritter that would feed 6. Walking out there was a line again, because I guess the bars were closing. Check out the amazing donut menu at:
http://voodoodoughnut.com/


Long Day.

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Location:SW 5th Ave,Portland,United States

Portland Intro

We arrived in Portland, Oregon last night for the blues festival and for exploring what is said to be an fun urban experience, food, music, easy to get around, etc. We walked off the plane and onto the light rail train, took us to within 2-3 blocks of our hotel. Good start!

Did some blues fest stuff first evening. John Mayall on harmonica with great bass player, doing challenge and answer stuff, real fun. Taj Mahal with his trio ok but not exciting, wandered off to small stage with Porter Davis, blues band trio from Austin, none of whom are named Porter or Davis, percussion, harmonica and slide guitar. Percussion guy interesting, he sat on a chair over top of the bass drum beating it with this and that and hitting other stuff with feet. however, real interesting part was "Blues Dancing", some terrific dancers on the grass in front of the stage, doing what apparently is a craze in this part of the woods, sort of modern dance swing, fascinating to watch. Check it out on YouTube. Knocked Georgia's socks clean off, but then she wasn't wearing any.

After hours jam in nearby hotel was Trombone Shorty and his band, if you are not familiar check him out, this was a must-see on my list. New Orleans Jazz/funk/blues fusion? He did not disappoint, although room was packed with enthusiastic drunks, some quite rude, but hey, goes with the territory. Shorty played trombone and trumpet and did vocals, band had lead guitar and bass, both electric, plus tenor and baritone sax, AND two percussionists, one with traditional trap set and another on congas. Some times the conga man would wander over to the trap set and they would both do stuff with same gear, very entertaining.

Food: instead of standup festival food, we opted for a pre-revelry meal at Jake's Famous Crawfish, indeed famous and therefore pricey but indeed good. I posted a yelp review. Would like to try their happy hour bar food, everyone says it is a wonderful deal. Have targeted an oyster bar nearby that sounds great. Lots of food, so little time.

Weather: cool and rainy when we arrived last night, but rain had stopped, now we are on warming trend for remainder of week with no rain in site!


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