early august happenings

had a surprise family visit this weekend. matt's brother christopher, his partner rob and their son oscar came back through portland on their way home from a 2 week road trip. we decided to hit oaks park, first because we know 4 year old oscar is pretty obsessed with rides and also because we've been wanting to check it out after cycling by it on the awesome springwater corridor trail. it was a bit trashy, but old school amusement fun. we even rode the "lewis and clark adventure ride" where you get in this rickety old car that's on a track and it takes you through these cheesy murals mimicking lewis and clark's journey through the old missouri. my brother in law rob observed "lewis and clark look like a couple of homos" depicted in smiley cartoony style in the ride. next time we'll probably hit the roller skating and maybe even the roller coaster.

next it's all about the hollywood theatre this week!

we caught the very tail end of the home movie day on sunday. it's a cool event where they invite the public to bring in their old super 8, 8mm and 16mm home movies to be cleaned and screened on the big screen. they'll be doing more screenings in upcoming months so i hope to bring in some of my own old films and watch others. actually one of matt and my earliest dates was at the home movie day in sf a few years back and was a good sign that my guy was adventurous and arty.

we're also planning to check out another film at the hollywood, the real dirt on farmer john playing this week. the filmmaker taggart siegel (who lives and works out of his se pdx home) and farmer john have been in attendance at some of the screenings this weekend. the film has gotten great feedback and follows a 25 yr long friendship between taggart and john - "Along the way, Siegel charts Farmer John’s astonishing journey from farm boy to counter-culture rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement."

one more thing i'm planning to check out this week - 48 hour film project screenings. the films are being completed as i write this and will include a ballon as a prop and "do you smell what i smell" as a line of dialogue. the screenings are wednesday and thursday the week, yes at the hollywood.