Good friend Logan Porter is currently on a bike touring trip from Des Moines to Seattle. He is documenting the whole experience on his blog called Road Thrill. Definitely worth checking out and following along. (He also might head down to Portland after Seattle, so he might need a backyard to camp for a night.)
This is an amazing video. Hopefully after seeing this, one of the tool manufacturers will send this guy something safe to use. I really hope his daughter isn’t behind the blade’s path – looks like he’s crosscutting with the wood right against the fence, a great place to pinch it and have it kick back.
The past couple of months I have been working on another movie set. It was a wild ride! Many long hours and short deadlines but I was amazed at what our construction crew was able to pull off. Probably the most interesting that we built was a multi level set in one of the giant barns at Living History Farms. I worked with the production designer and he described how he wanted the set to be built. Then he asked me to make a model out of cardboard and I said it would be just as easy for me to make it out of wood.
There was an important action sequence that took place on this set. Ray Liotta and Billy Burke are fighting and rolling around on the different levels. They bust through railings, fall into the grain bin and break through the floor. The model was helpful for the stunt coordinator and director to visualize how the scene would play out.
I will post pictures of the actual set once the movie comes out. Josh Carlson and the Garcia bros. cranked it out in a mere 3 days!
On the advice of my barber a few weeks ago, I added the film “In the Realms of the Unreal” to my Netflix queue, and it arrived a few days ago. I popped it in tonight, prepared for something unique, and that’s exactly what I got.
The film is essentially a documentary about artist and recluse Henry Darger, who gained posthumous notoriety for his maniacally rich drawings and paintings that illustrated his 15,000 page manuscript, titled similarly briefly, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. I say “essentially,” because Darger’s diaries and novel are brought to life by actors, and the narrator is child actress Dakota Fanning, an interesting choice given Darger’s fascination with young girls. I won’t elaborate on that except to say, it’s not what you’re thinking – Darger’s obsession is much more complicated than simple pedophilia, and not nearly as evil. Watch the film and see for yourself.
Darger’s work was intensely personal, drawing on his life as a devout Catholic, upbringing in an orphanage, and characters based on people he encountered in his real life. He was untrained as an artist, and used tracings and photographic reproductions to create huge watercolor paintings that illustrated his story about the battle for good and evil in an other world – this realm of the unreal.
A very interesting portrait, sad and beautiful at the same time, magically animated by talented filmmaker Jessica Yu. Well worth watching.
Darger’s paintings are now for sale by Chicago’s Hammer Gallery.
This month, Sarah and I decided to try a little experiment – watch no televison for the entire month of November. No “Office,” no PBS, not even “Frontline.” Personally, I’d noticed that the TV was becoming a default activity. Sarah’s not so bad, but when I had a few free moments, I’d flip it on, and catch up on the DVR backlog. Most of my television tastes run to the educational, but the black box was still more of a time sink than I thought was good for me – it happened frequently that I’d sit down for a few minutes, only to find out that I’d watched four episodes in a row of “Ice Road Truckers,” (which most people probably wouldn’t consider educational, but several of my clients at work are trucking-related).
At any rate, we’ve decided to opt out this month. No television in November. NO-vember. Get it? My boss is calling it “atheist lent.”
Some extra time to do more cooking, and catch up on the pile of reading material by the bed. To write (hey, I’m posting!), to talk, and create. None of these things are really a goal in themselves, or a specific void I feel needs filling – rather, I feel I will do more of the things I value if I do less of something I don’t.
Day 1: Thursday, November 1st. Tonight is darts, so I spent the evening with my team-mates at the Horse Brass, one of my favorite pubs. I got home at 10:30, and instead of flipping on “The Office,” I chatted with Sarah about the game, talked weekend plans, and munched on some popcorn. No problem.
Day 2: Being Friday, Sarah and I would typically watch a movie at home and eat dinner of some kind. Lately, it’s been a lot of burritos, but tonight, we made home-made pasta with brown sage butter sauce. Delicious. Next time, I’d roll the pasta a little thinner, though – it swells to about double-size once cooked.
Day 3: Sarah had a work meeting, even though it was Saturday, so I got up early with her and fired up the smoker, in preparation for finishing up another batch of home-made bacon. Did some fall yard work, getting the raised beds ready for spring again. In the afternoon, went to a cool beer-tasting event at Woodstock Wine and Deli, where they poured six vintages of Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale. Later, went over to Dan and Emily’s to make sausage and hang out with young Will. I slipped. While Dan put Will to bed, I watched Thursday’s episode of “The Office” on his television. Feels a little like sneaking a cigarette.
Day 4: More meat smoking, this time the andouille sausage Dan and I made last night. My rustic bent is taking over – I spent a couple hours splitting firewood with a wedge and sledge while the sausage cooked. Gumbo for dinner – great.
Day 10: Where did the days go? We’ve settled into a nice routine coming home after work and reading in the living room – I’m guessing that’s what we’ve been up to. Went to see a movie at the Hollywood Theater tonight – Into the Wild. I read the book
Day 16, 17, 18: Sarah and I take Jasper to the coast for a long weekend. We rent a little cottage in Manzanita that doesn’t even have a television, just a small wood stove and tiny kitchen. So tiny, I’ve seen RVs with better. Typically when we go to places like this, we watch a few movies on a crappy TV, but we spend the weekend walking the dog up and down the beach with breaks to warm up and read and play cards. We cook wild salmon and mustard mashed potatoes for dinner. Very relaxing to be away from the internet for a few days, too.
Day 20, 21, 22: After a short work week, it’s Thanksgiving prep. time. To the grocery store for recipe supplies, Dan and Emily’s to pick up a Turkey to brine, make pumpkin pie and apple pies from scratch (no cans involved). We even made homemade butter to go with my signature beer bread. Thanksgiving is spent at the Painters. There’s a football game or two on, but I’ve never been a big fan, and the rotisserie turkey and home-brewed cider is much more interesting. After quite a few ciders and a lot of food, though, I do settle in to watch “Christmas Vacation” with everyone else, one of my favorite holiday movies.
Day 23: Friday after Thanksgiving. Sarah says she wishes we could watch a movie at home – feels like that kind of night with the cold weather we’ve been having and a cider hangover on standby. I feel like caving, but rather than replying, I keep my mouth shut instead of speaking, since if I did, I’d agree.
Day 24: The second movie of the month: The Bourne Ultimatum at one of our local “cheap theaters,” one which serves beer and hot delicious pizza. Our living room has beer, but not the pizza. After the movie, we’re tempted to turn around and see another one at 9:00, but head home instead. When we get there, it feels like movie time still, but instead, we play cards in front of a fire. Not too shabby.
Day 25: Spent almost entirely in the shop – haven’t done that for awhile. Working on finishing up the cutting board I started yesterday afternoon.
Day 26: Got home from work, ate some turkey pot pie, and headed out to the shop. I finished up a failed attempt at a cutting board in a herringbone pattern, cleaned up a bit, and picked up a carving I’d been neglecting for a long time. Feels good to work the carving muscles a bit. Think I might repeat tomorrow.
Sarah and I have started discussing what we’re going to do in a few days when the self-imposed hiatus is off. We both miss certain shows – the Office is a nice Thursday ritual – and not watching movies has been hard. If anything, I think we’ll be a lot more choosy about what we do watch. We’ve both enjoyed listening to music, cooking and talking more. And I’ve been having more vivid dreams, which I almost never do! Explain that one …
I’ve also read a ton of books this month: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
I have toyed with the idea of canceling cable and sticking to the networks and PBS, which is most of what we watch anyway. Or perhaps being ruthless in what we record on the DVR – you can rack up a full recorder pretty quickly, and generate quite a bit of digital guilt (try erasing a Holocaust documentary, and you’ll know what I mean). Any ideas?
Last weekend, Sarah and I embarked on a long-overdue reacquaintance with Portland’s organized art scene, taking in the Portland Art Museum, Art in the Pearl, and lastly, the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in its new home in Portland’s North Park Blocks.
Bridging the divide between Portland’s Old Town and swanky Pearl District, Labor Day Weekend found the park crawling with artists and not-so-art-snobs. Art in the Pearl is a typical urban arts fair, drawing regional photographers, Marriot-quality paintings, and more recycled and rusty bits remade in chair, bench and clock form than you can shake a whittled stick at. You have to appreciate these artisans’ dedication – it can’t be easy to truck your work around from week to week, living under a white folding tent in unpredictable weather. But I am often turned off by their same-ness. I’ve seen these kinds of travelling shows in several cities, and the goods don’t change with the geo-coordinates. If, by stroke of luck, you see an original idea being shown/sold, you can bet that you will see three tents containing that idea the next year, and nine more the year after. At times, you get the sense that the vendors could be selling paintings or pork pies (whatever those are). The work lacks passion, and finesse.
So it was with extreme pleasure that Sarah and I found the “Craft in America” show at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. The first thing I saw when I walked in the door was a beautiful Nakashima bench, all live-edge walnut with dovetail mending a naturally-occurring check in the end grain. Straight maple spindles reach up out of the slab forming a back that just looks comfortable and yielding. A design so pure, so simple, that it would be impossible to recreate or commodify.
Turning my head, a Sam Maloof rocker whose entire form contained not a single straight line, all bandsawn curves smoothed to a buttery sheen from hours of rubbed oil. Unlike the Nakashima bench, the rocker looks complicated, a form that you can sense has been perfected over endless iterations, and a lifetime of dedication. But it looks right. No gaps, no rough spots from too-quick sanding. Incredible.
And that was just the woodwork.
Lovers of jewelry, pottery, and textiles will be picking their jaws up, too. The show, organized by a non-profit called “Craft in America, LLC” also includes a book
Craft in America ends its Portland run at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts on September 23. The Museum is FREE to the public and not so large that it couldn’t be seen over a long Friday lunch, or savored on a Saturday afternoon.
Museum of Contemporary Crafts
724 NW Davis Street
Portland, Oregon
(503) 223.2654
Open Tuesday–Sunday 11 AM to 6 PM, Thursday 11 AM to 8 PM