Keep Astoria Safe – AVA hosts an Anti-LNG art show

I am going to have a brand new piece for sale at the upcoming “Keep Oregon Free of LNG” show at the AVA gallery which will be a Art Show and Fund Raiser for the Columbia Riverkeeper

The show runs March 20 - 23 with featured artist Lori Durheim. 100% of sales will benifit the Columbia Rieverkeeper – an organization that has been working to keep the Columbia River safe since the 80’s.

If you hate the ideer of LNG, come buy some art and support the opposition.

The artists’ reception is on Friday, March 21st from 6-9 p.m. at the AVA Center, 435-A 11th St, Astoria, Oregon

Call 503-325-4589 for more info.

Back to Work.

Stand by your Man?

The look on his face pretty much says it all.

Is someone holding a gun to this womans back?

What is up with all of the politicians who cheat/

go gay/chat up young assistants apologizing with

their wives at their sides?

Why do the wives stand there?

I wouldn’t stand there. ”I’d say, no hon…you go…I’ll watch.”

I understand they have two or three daughters together.

I still wouldn’t stand up there. Why are they there?

Stop the madness. Sit in the audience.

This is why I won’t vote Clinton as well.

It’s just getting old. I think it’s old fashioned.

If Elliot Sptizer and his big ears were my husband,

and he was busted by federal wiretapping for partaking

in an international prostitution ring that catered to high

rollers and public figures, I’d be in the audience throwing

tomatoes. You can bet your bottom dollar. Throwing tomatoes

and heckling.

Just a thought.

UPDATE: Yesterday the couple in crisis made another appearance,

This time for Spitzers resignation and Silda wore this nice scarf:

Similar to the scarf worn by mistresses in the movie Le Divorce.

Coincidence? Perhaps she’s telling us that she too is guilty of some

infidelity. Perhaps that’s why she stands up next to him. A few new

details emerged again today, namely, more info on the prositute, who

will most likely have a record contract in another month or so. And,

the alleged tryst between Spitzer and “Kristen” occured…the day

BEFORE Valentines Day. Ugh, let’s all sigh a collective sigh….

Is there a jerk of the year award he was trying to win that we don’t

know about? Ugh,

Best,

La

What would you do if Spitzer was your man?

A quick review of Bridgewater Bistro

While the Bridgewater Bistro didn’t make me the best dinner I’ve ever had, they made

the best dinner I’ve ever had in Astoria.

Dinner started off with the best salad I think I’ve ever had. It had peanuts and pea shoots on it and

I could eat it everyday for a long time before I would get sick of it.

The ”famous” clam and mussel chowder also very good and I was pleased to see something different

from the traditional white cream chowder, living around here, it’s easy to get sick of chowder. Theirs was

rich and tomatoey, the soup had been pureed and it was a three star sort of deal. I was expecting a prix-fix menu,

that was not the case. The menu is ala carte. I wanted a replay of my dinner at the hands of Walter Manzke at L’Auberge in Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA and I did

not get that. That dinner was truly special…(Manzke is no longer at L’Auberge, his sous chef was appointed executive chef in 2007 – his name is Timothy Mosblech.

This is by far, the best restaurant at this time in Astoria.

We had the chili-lime prawns off of the small bites menu which were not that great or exciting, but edible.

We had the ”crabscargot” which was yummy probably because there was a whole hell of a lot of melted butter on it and

toasted hazelnuts. Very rich. However, the presentation of this dish was stupid. Look at the picture. Lame. A big

waste of cilantro and I love cilantro. I don’t know.

I ordered the Coquille St. Jacques, which was good

Will’s salmon with chorizo was spicy and warm and he liked it.

Our waitress was kind. Its a beautiful space and its nice we all have somewhere

new and upscale to go to in town. But what I would like to see in Astoria (besides a

Trader Joe’s, more galleries, rennovations at the college, a better library,

and better nightlife) is a true fine dining experience.

Art for sale

Tonight is the big Second Saturday – Arts Night Out Art Walk in Astoria so there’s a ton of stuff happening around town tonight.

If you are interested, I have a piece you can bid on at the AVA Found art show opening tonight.  It looks sort of like this, but now it has red curtains

on either side. It’s titled ”opening night”

This is a picture of it before I decided to add the curtains:

Thanks for all of the people who called or wrote to wish me a happy

birthday! I had a great time. My parents took us all out to dinner and

they bought me a beer and art supplies. It was a great day all around.

Tonight we are dining at the Bridgewater Bistro and you can expect

an in-depth review tomorrow of that and the Second Saturday Art Walk.

Cheers and best,

LA

You say, it’s your birthday!?!

I found this by typing in “happy birthday”

on youtube. Perfect. It is awesome.

Someone took Fritz Lang’s silent movie ”Metropolis” and set it to the Beatle’s music.

I guess they have a lot of time for this. I don’t know.

Too much time on their hands. But it is really cool.

Also, I was hanging out in the basement with Will last night and I looked down

on the floor where I was standing and I saw this:

Now, I thought that was pretty cool. And I wanted to tell you that I didn’t do

ANYTHING to touch up or alter this picture. I resized it and I rotated it, but

that is all. Now….Look closely at the picture. Above the heart, there is a black

spot and if you look closely….(squint)…I think it looks like a hand making a peace

sign. All you need is peace and love. That’s all I want for my birthday. And I got

it written to me from my very own basement floor. The heart is a naturally occuring

part of the wood floor boards, it wasn’t carved by anyone to look this way.

How cool is that????

Peace and love,

La

Hope your day is wonderful as well

Working hard, but pausing…

It is six a.m. which is sleeping in for me. Will is still sleeping, the puppy is still sleeping, I’m getting ready to jam out with my headphones on…and my parents are probably drinking coffee at the Holiday Inn wondering if I’m awake…they are visiting from Pittsburgh for my birthday which is tomorrow. My father was busy this past leap year – he delivered three babies on leap day! A record for him, I think.

Congrats, daddy-o.

So I’ve been working hard on that coffee table, I also had a collage which I intended

to show at the AVA’s found art show,

however, yesterday I used epoxy resin on it and it was not dry in time to

have it hung at the show, perhaps if there’s still

space and it’s dry, they will let me hang it up today.

I think I may have screwed up the resin bit, though, I’m not sure I

mixed it enough and perhaps it will never dry. That would be sad.

I took lots more pictures of my art work which I’m

hoping to post soon. Here’s a sneak peak – Gerbera daisy circa 2004

UPDATE: My collage called ”opening night” is for sale and up on the

gallery walls at the AVA if you are at all interested or if you are going

to be perusing the streets of Astoria for the Second Saturday

Arts Night Out 3/8/08. Also, I got a chance to speak to Scott Docherty

of the new red hare gallery and music venue on 10th Street. He also does web design

and I’m v. excited for the opening of this truly unique space.

 

Have a laugh, watch this

What’s up gentry?

Do you fancy a tip?

So I have a routine, a lot of creative people have routines that let them know when they should begin creating, these things ideally become routine and creating becomes easier. I’m not sure who I first learned this from, but I know Twyla Tharp has a routine which involves getting in a taxi and going to the gym, and Stephen King has one which involves a toy figurine representative of Bullwinkle.

My routine is less cool, less exciting but I enjoy it.

I wake up, make coffee, and sit at my desk, and then I go to my Itunes player and turn on music.

I used to listen to my own music, but now I’ve been listening to the same thing for many, many months. I listen to Fresh Air, a college radio station from the University of Edinburgh, Scottland.

Assuming that you care, I’m telling you this because it’s great music, in my opinion.

I love the language:

golly, indeed, quite so, charming, fancy, right-so, etc.

It makes me laugh.

The music is consistently listenable for long periods of time and it’s basically the best radio station I’ve ever heard. It’s not for everyone. That being said, I have a big passion for radio and music so you should listen to me. You can listen to the station here and make up your mind for yourself.

Maybe it’s just because I’m coming up on a birthday and I always become very reflective before birthdays. This song which was played as a semi-joke this morning, really made me smile. Here’s video of Ireland’s version of “Tom Jones” his name is Joe Dolan and, he is positively dreamy, check him out:

They also played this jem this morning which I loved. It’s the Monks from 1960 doing the Monk Chant in Germany. Right on!

So….Do you have a routine that starts your morning that is perhaps slightly strange? Feel free to comment below.

Craves: Membership

 

Membership. We all want to just belong. When I was growing up, if you didn’t belong to the Rose

Garden Pool Association, then you were lame. The pool pictured here is not that pool.

A few months ago I was talking to a friend of mine, who is a professional

writer and I was telling her that I thought it was time that I join some professional associations. I asked her if

she belonged to any, and she said ”No., I’ve thought about it but they’re too expensive, too time consuming, blah,

blah, blah.”

I come to find out today that she has in the interim built a website and joined like four professional associations! I feel outdone.

As I am not one to be outdone,  I have started joining a few places and I’ve decided to start local.

So yesterday I joined the AVA (Astoria

Visual Arts) and I also submitted a request to join Astoria Fog (Friends of the Arts). I feel a lot better now.

The above picture was taken while cruising the back roads of Pennsylvania. Circa 2000.

If you have any suggestions about memberships I should join, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Lum’s – A review

For those of you that don’t know, Lum’s is a car dealership in

town and Rod’s is a local garage (Rod’s auto and marine electric)

I’ve been having some serious car trouble lately. It started about a

month ago.

This is my story.

My car kept stalling and eventually wouldn’t start.

Because I have a honda and there is no honda

dealership nearby, I decided to take the recommendation

of a gas station attendant (not recommended)

and take my car to Lum’s. Now, I KNOW that dealerships

are the place where stupid people take

their cars to be fixed, but because the problem was serious this is where

I decided to go. Big mistake. Huge. Major.

The people at Lum’s were very nice and

they charged an arm and a leg to replace a wire leading to my battery

which they said was corroded and needed replaced.

Fine. Done. I pay and pick the car up and immediately it stalls.

So what would a smart woman do?

Well, I don’t know because apparently I was in denial

and instead of immediately going back inside to complain,

I got the car to work and drove it to the grocery store.

Where it died in the parkinglot. So I call Lum’s on my

cellphone and…and…well, I cussed them out.

So they send someone to jump me

(turned out to be my neighbor- awkward) and bring me back to the garage

promising they are REALLY going to fix my car this time.

Ok. What would a smart woman do? Yeah, I didn’t do that either….

Fast forward a day, they don’t call me ALL DAY LONG. I call them,

they say they will have the car right out ASAP. TWO HOURS later,

my neighbor (who is really nice) shows up with my car and a bill

for a new battery. A very expensive battery. I pay the bill (no labor)

and the car works for a month, then four days ago – it dies on Hwy 101 while I’m

driving it. I manage to pull over and I get it towed, call a cab, etc.

Thank GOD my baby wasn’t with me.  THANK GOD.

This time I take my car to Rod’s Auto and Marine Electric.

They fix my car (FYI Lum’s: It needed a new alternator!)

it was reasonable, they were nice, and they were fast.

Don’t go to Lum’s - go to Rod’s

Lum’s doesn’t know what they are doing. They sell NEW cars.

Thoughts from locals?

Best,

L.A.

What’s your fudge factor, Yo??

To find out what I have to say about local fudge makers

pick up a copy of the new issue of Oregon Coast magazine