Ladybug

In the coffeehouse, she was acting shy before the camera, and I said, "If you don't want attention, why are you dressed up?" 

Later this evening, we only had five trick-or-treaters. I spell that: more M & M's for me.

Oh, to be a statue...

...and get a daily guano bath.

Dave Bass, the noted lawyer and jazz pianist....

...looks great in a hat. He looks like he should be hanging with de Kooning and Rothko in 1940s Manhattan.

For you completists...

Portland trip 10-2008

...who want to see every picture I took in Portland, click on the thumbnail above.

Powell's museum of computers

The Powell's technical annex bookstore in Portland has a wall of old computers, including this classic tombstone Mac.

Rimsky Corsa Coffee

Last night Marty and Peter took me to Rimsky Corsa Coffee, a coffeehouse in Portland. It's in an old Victorian and has no sign on the outside to indicate it's anything but a private house. But
inside it's a prime example of life, or in this case business, as art. The table above rotates clockwise so slowly that you don't notice until you reach for your cup and find that it's moved.

View from the upper tram station

Coffee time

Wonderful day today -- rode the aerial tram, visited the Japanese and Chinese gardens, and went to this great coffeehouse called Coffee Time. Sells hardly anything but has three cozy back rooms, including this one. It's also a great chess hangout. While I was there I saw three games going on outside featuring game clocks and chain-smoking.

A nice mural at Rocco's Pizza, Portland

The carousel at Voodoo Doughnut

Voodoo Doughnut...

...is a Portland bakery famous for doughnuts in odd shapes (like genitalia) and toppings (like Cap'n Crunch cereal and bacon.) 

The Gobama show

This uber-hip Internet cafe is called Backspace, but for this month they have been renamed Barackspace and they are hosting the Gobama Show, an exhibition of paintings of Obama by many different artists.

Required reading

I saw this book at the Portland airport. Want to know how awesome it is? The sole review quoted on the back cover comes from the Sacramento News & Review.

Large ball of rubber bands

Mystery stickers

...on the piano at the Lambda Playhouse. What do they mean?

Cy's blackboard

This blackboard (homemade!) reminds me of a Cy Twombly painting.

Convenient feature

We had dinner at the Tower Cafe. Our table had a little knothole in it which some previous patron had thoughtfully filled with salt. 

Advanced topics in TPing

Someone not only threw toilet paper over the bushes and trees at this house but also put hundreds of little sticks in the lawn (plastic forks? tongue depressors?) It actually begins to feel like an site-specific sculpture.

This business is Toast

I played at the restaurant Toast with Margie Ruiz, who I played with once before — at a wine bar in Old Sac during the Jazz Jubilee. She is moving soon to Oklahoma City so I probably won't see her again. Nice singer.

I played a Mormon wedding today...

...at the Hyatt with Ron Davis. He has a versatile presentation: he DJ's with a laptop and a small mixer, and also plays trumpet, trombone, and saxaphone live with recorded tracks. There was also the band with drums, bass, guitar, me (piano), and singer, but we played very little — less than an hour all told. Mostly we waited in a back room and traded stories.

This colleague of Joe the Plumber...

...has affixed bottle caps to his truck to express his patriotism.

For you Amy Aquino fans...

...she'll be on Grey's Anatomy tomorrow (Thursday).

[she wrote]
9PM on ABC. Was fun having McDreamy flirting with me between takes...

Upcoming, also have 2 CSI's (Las Vegas), the first on 11/20 and the 2nd presumably 2 weeks later.
and a few ER's, though not sure of the dates yet.
So there you are - no pressure, just the info.
be well
xo
me

Chris Harvey

I recently looked at the website for my 7th-grade lab partner and college roommate Chris Harvey. He's done animation, print, and gallery art and has a crazy amount of talent. See it here.

It's funny that he's become a master of animation. I remember in junior high school he and I used to make flip book animations drawn in the margin of paperback books.

Have some B-3

This is next to a piano I was tuning today. It's the classic Hammond B-3. I've been practicing for The Color Purple, in which I'll be playing some synthesized B-3. I love that sound in pop music.

One of my cartoons in another blog

http://www.raggett.net/wordpress/2008/05/30/pc-vs-mac

Like a warm bath of words

We recently cancelled home delivery of the Sacramento Bee and started getting the New York Times instead. It's a little expensive, but I love it. And I don't gamble, order cocktails, buy Kings tickets, or own a boat; I can afford this little luxury.

Peso bookmark

My friend Faith gave me a copy of When the Elephants Dance, a novel that takes place during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and included a Filipino 20-peso bill.

Knife in the head

At a party today I saw this knife holder.

Face in the toilet

This urinal has a face on it that reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

Today at Fairy Tale Town...

...they were giving away the smallest hamburgers ever.

Nice knocker

I noticed that my customer had this (yes, kitschy) bagpiper knocker on her front door. When  I told her, "I have a friend who plays bagpipes. She would love to see this." She replied, "You want it?", removed it from her door, and gave it to me. She isn't Scottish herself, but the previous owners were.

If you get hair on your computer...

...use a vacuum with a crevice tool. Or tweezers. But don't go to this place. It's a complete scam.

Signed copy

I was picking up some Thai takeout and had ten minutes to kill so I popped into the bookstore next door to get a Chronicle. I saw copies of Garrison Keillor's new book Pontoon so I decided to buy that too. It turns out that it was signed — from a show that G.K. did at the Crest Theatre recently.

If you're ever in Iowa...

...please buy your Ford from Stivers Ford.

A giant of design

Robin and I went to a lecture at CSUS by Kit Hinrichs, one of the great designers of our time. I got one of these posters but have nowhere to put it.

Cheri Murphy

This card is from Cheri Murphy's CD release party in 2003. She was already pretty old by then; the photo is probably fromt the 1950s. What a babe! In 1985 I briefly studied jazz piano with her husband Jerry, who was a legendary pianist and president of the musicians union for years. Their son now dates the woman who cuts my hair. 

Steve Coolidge's recital

Steve played a piano recital today — his first in ten years. He played Brahms, Bach, Ravel, Chopin, and five of his own short pieces. Wonderful job. It was at the 24th Street Theatre, where I once played Gilbert & Sullivan, and he filled it... about 200 people came. He looked great in his new tuxedo.

A painting by one of Paul Basye's students...

...on the wall at Espresso Metro.

This house had six pets...

...three dogs and three cats. They all sat quietly around me waiting for me to pay attention to them.

We saw Drowsy Chaperone tonight... brilliant show! Smart and funny with great orchestrations. The funniest show I've seen in years.

My customer has his own winery...

...it's a hobby.

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpies

http://www.heraldleaderphoto.com/2008/09/18/man-decorates-basement-with-10-worth-of-sharpie/

Delia Garrison, who I know from Best of Broadway...

...sang with the Ron Davis band tonight.

I played with the Ron Davis band...

...for the first time in two months. More cowbell!

My customer's brother...

...is a painter who did this diptch of recent Republican Presidents and their wives.