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Pardon the Dust, or Eat it

Howdy Folks! Things will be changing a bit around here, because I hightailed it out of PDX for the new challenge that is Shanghai, China. I’ll be here for a while with girlie, and I’ll be blogging as best I can, you can buhleeee’ dat.

I’ve already seen some amazing feats of architecture, had a cabbie fall asleep at the wheel, eaten my first dumplings and joined up with the Shanghai twitterverse. We’re in temporary housing and it’s much colder than I anticipated (the housing AND the weather). Our bastard international movers packed all our guidebooks and phrasebooks when we weren’t looking, so our first weekend has been dedicated to replacing them, which is a bit like trying to cook one-handed (I have some experience with that).

And PDXers, don’t believe for a minute I won’t be watching: I still hope to watch and blog all the Timbers matches via USLLive, and we hope to visit at least once or twice this year.

For a little plumbing, all posts regarding Portland will be added to the Stumptown category, and the new Shanghai category will hold all the new stuff I write about here, until I rename it for a cheeky nickname, as that would be needless but funny.

In closing, Shanghai people, Howdy! There’s a new gunslinger in town, hat and bolo tie at the ready. I will eat my way through this city with vigor and aplomb. I eagerly accept recommendations. I will root for your football team and learn Mandarin as fast as I can.

To PDX peeps, keep my seat warm, and do your part to drink my share of the beer. Keep Obama honest and don’t let any of my favorite restaurants close. I’ll be seeing y’all later, bitches.

Whodathunkit? Bill Simmons vs. Mick Foley

Dec 25th, 2008

by Mark.

2 comments

Bill Simmons is a douchey yet extraordinarily popular writer for ESPN.com‘s Page 2, and has a short column in ESPN the Magazine. Mick Foley killed himself night in and night out in the ring for 20 years as Cactus Jack and many other characters, and was one of the focuses of a Pro Wrestling documentary, Beyond the Mat.

They both weighed in on Mickey Rourke’s new movie The Wrestler: Simmons loves it, and writes too much. Mick Foley, who apparently has written several novels and a children’s book, weighed in on Slate.

This is clearly a movie to see, but the surprise to me is that Foley is so much better spoken than Simmons. Further proof that the jump from unknown blogger to famous blogger is easier than professional wrestler to novelist. Both articles made me want to see the movie, for sure, but Foley’s calm and insightful article is a better evaluation, and a better read.

Portland Chickens in the Atlantic

Dec 8th, 2008

by Mark.

2 comments

Borrowed from Flickr user a href=http://flickr.com/photos/thomashawkThomasHawk/a

Borrowed from Flickr user ThomasHawk

Urban Chickens

There is another option for Portland’s roosters on the run: about 40 minutes from downtown, just off the Mount Hood Highway in the town of Boring, sits Geren’s Farm Supply. The feed store has long operated a small, low-ceilinged shed called the Critter Korner, where farmers bring unwanted livestock. Geren’s then sells the animals. In recent years, however, city people have turned Geren’s into a kind of relocation center for banished roosters, according to Roz Rushing, the daughter of Geren’s owners. “I’ve had grown men in tears because they raised them as babies and they live in the city and can’t have a rooster,” Rushing says from behind the feed-store counter, where a dry-erase board keeps a running tally of Critter Korner’s population, and an orange cat named Mr. Dunn naps amid the day’s paperwork. “Then there’s some people, they’ve been spurred by their roosters, and they can’t wait to get rid of ’em. They say, ‘Take it away now. I never want to see it again.’”

I identify with these poor Chickens of the wrong gender. I also am far too loud for the neighbors and if my Girlfriend had her way, I’d be left at a Feed Supply Store waiting for a lonely trucker to take pity on me.

Election Night Parties!

Oct 30th, 2008

by Mark.

11 comments

Portland likes its lefty politics, beer, and parties. Therefore, this Election Night will cause some heavy drinking, though I think I speak for most every sane person on the planet when I say it better be in celebration, not bitter disappointment and sadness.

All of the events I could find, in no particular order, after the jump:

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Fear the Birds! – Nature has no love for cuteness

Oct 3rd, 2008

by Mark.

Comments are off for this post

I’m borrowing a picture montage from the Mail News on Sunday (UK) and bringing it here, because my mother always loved Herons, and after many canoe trips and lake trips and trips involving herons that I did or (often) didn’t want to attend, I’ve learned why. My mom is secretly the world’s best interrogator, and that she was teaching us a lesson. Herons are Nature’s CIA interrogators. Witness a Grey Heron catching a rabbit by the ear, drowning it and swallowing it whole.