Spawn to Be Wild

I miss the Northwest.

One of my favorite memories of living in a small logging community in the Coast Range mountains was the annual fall salmon run. Hundreds of huge fish, exhausted from their long fight from the Pacific would thrash their way up the stream in my family's backyard. Some would mate, all would die.

I was in awe.

KATU shares this video of "salmonic" tenacity.

Zoobombing the BBC

Bike Pile!

The BBC recently highlighted Portland in their "Close Up" series. What got their attention? The robust and wild local tradition of ZOOBOMBING. Participants careen down the West Hills, at night, on souped up children's bikes that they store in the bike pile seen above, outside Rocco's pizza on 10th Ave.

What about this seems like a good idea? EVERYTHING.

Full video after the jump on the BBC's website.

Photo Credit

Mobile Chapel of Love (Video)

My friend (ex-coworker and member of infamous rogue yarn group The Crotcheteers) Mary S. is highlighted in this video by OregonLive.

Mary runs the Mobile Chapel of Love, a Portland icon of... well, love. The bike powered chapel performs both legally recognized and above-the-law weddings, to anyone or anything you'd like.
Or rather, that you'd love... be that a bike, a Voodoo Donut, or the City of Portland.

Our marriage culture is more polarized than ever in America. As we (at the best of times) humbly discuss, and (worst of times) rant vitriolically about what marriage is and what makes it holy, let's take a minute to enjoy this. Whatever your views, it's a unique visual representation of something every husband or wife knows: much of your marriage is made of what you bring to it. 

Rocktober Alphabet: P is for The Pixies

Alt rock at its apogee, I can never get enough of the ubiquitous Pixies. Pioneering the soft/loud dynamics later heard in Nirvana's grunge, and much of indie rock, they are quirky, endearing, harsh, ferocious.

Much more popular in the UK and Europe than in the states, my first exposure to their music came from a returning traveler  from a European tour.

Black Francis' lyrics are an often bizarre stream of consciousness extravaganza, encompassing sea life, mind numbing parties, and biblical violence.

Rocktober Alphabet: O is for Of Montreal

Lamp those skeletons, Kevin.

 Dissonant art rockers, pan-sexual flowering of loud, Of Montreal is simultaneously danceable,  frightening, comforting.

Really just a platform for frontman Kevin Barnes and his alter ego Georgie Fruit, the band's evolution from the odd scales and tempos of their early psychedelic nursery rhymes to the shimmering afro-euro-beat of their recent albums (Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer?; Skeletal Lamping; False Priest) is an odd journey in itself.

Lunch Link: The Lovely, Odd World of Tom DesLongchamp

The good friend of a childhood buddy, Tom Deslongchamp's art, animation and bizzarely original creativity has kept me captivated since middle school.

So, dear readers of Threeow, I thought I'd share the proverbial love.

Tom's world of  kids, creatures, music, and talking hot dogs operates by a rigorous internal logic that is obviously there, somewhere, but terribly difficult to articulate.
His art by turns inspires, entertains and disturbs - often all at once. If you get it, you'll love it.

Thoroughly explore the archives -going back to '99- at his website.

Here's a live film "About Dogs":

About Dogs from Tom DesLongchamp on Vimeo.


And a personal favorite:

Earl Boone Is Alive from Tom DesLongchamp on Vimeo.

Also make sure to check out Tom's recent webcomic The Nose.

I hope you smile with me at a bright, strange mind.
Keep it up Tom.

Rocktober Alphabet: A is for Autry!

Autry! Rawks!

It's the 1st of Rocktober. As we kick off our Rocktoberfest, let's start close to home.

As in Portland.

As in my RAWKING COUSIN...

Growing up with Autry (she was like a second little sister through elementary school) was awesome, and I can't think of a better A to kick off Threeow's Rocktober Alphabet. She's local, talented, and tastefully over the top.

Rob Cullivan over at the Tribune summed it up well:

If Cyndi Lauper hadn’t acted so ditzy and Ani DiFranco joked a lot more, either woman might’ve been Autry, a Portland punk-meets-the Roaring ’20s singer-songwriter who’s so clearly out of her mind she just might be the sanest of us all. Not to mention she’s got a heckuva set of pipes and could hold her own against a lot of blues shouters if she so chose.

  
Here's an old version of one of her more out there tunes - "Bug". Enjoy. Find more at her myspace.

LET THE ROCKTOBERFESTIVITIES BEGIN.