Beach Front

The drive from Milwaukie, where we are staying, out to the beach was incredible. Lots of hills, forest, and scenery. We stopped at Cannon Beach to walk around Haystack Rock and the beach a bit. We lucked out with another beautiful day.

We headed to Manzanita for a seafood lunch and stopped at this stunning over look. The ocean spread out for miles.

We spent most of the afternoon at Ecola State Park. A relatively secluded and serene little section of forest and beach. Being by the ocean there is such a rich sense of comfort and calm. The world in all its hugeness is right there in front of you.

Magazine cover photo.

We fly back tomorrow, its been an action packed, alternatively relaxing and exhausting visit. They have some beautiful country out here.

Gorge Hike

We got up reasonably early today to head out to the Columbia River Gorge to go hiking. Per the recommendation of some of my relatives we did the Eagle Creek Trail. A beautiful hike past a couple waterfalls to the Punchbowl which is a pond in a hollow with a waterfall on one end. The day was gorgeous and the hiking was just rigorous enough. Wonderful.

Winter weather had damaged a bridge so we had to ford the creek.

The Punchbowl.

After the hike we stopped by Multnomah Falls. Majestic but packed with tourists.

A little ways down the road we randomly pulled off at Rooster Rock State Park. Home of a basalt obelisk dubbed "cock rock" by Lewis & Clark and also home to one of two of Oregon's clothing optional beaches. There wasn't much to it and it was mostly abandoned(presumably everyone heads straight to the nude beach section) but it was very striking and surreal to walk along the river, quiet and alone relatively close to a major highway.

On the way back we got dinner in Portland and got ice cream at the justly lauded Salt & Straw. A fun and exhausting day.

Stumptown

Nicole and I are on vacation in Portland until Saturday. We took today to walk around the city and see the sights. We went to Blue Star Donuts for breakfast, then Powell's, then just walked around the city. We had lunch at this wonderful place Veritable Quandary and ended the day at the Japanese and Rose Gardens.

Port of Portland

Each city over a certain population
has pretension
and that is just
as pride can be a virtue when
plied with reason
but Rome fell
and London burned
and Chicago burned
and Alexandria was sacked
and New York sinks
O' Babylon...

Just something to keep in mind
when greeting tourists.

Deep Schwa 20th

Tonight was the 20th anniversary show for Deep Schwa the improv team I perform with at iO. The team started in 1996 and has been performing, almost, weekly since then. The past 17 years the team has held the 8 o'clock Sunday slot. Past teammates came in from all around the country to play and celebrate.

I started taking classes at iO in 2007 and my level one teacher at the time told our class to go see Deep Schwa. I did and I immediately fell in love. It was the hardest I had ever laughed. The team displayed an antagonistic playfulness, a facility for group work, and a knack for messing with each other and an infectiously delightful way. I became a super fan and rarely missed a Sunday show over the next four and a half years. I would periodically do lights for the team which was always a real treat for me to be able to part of the show in some small way. In 2012 I was asked to join the team and it was a dream come true. To be a part of this amazing team and, in my mind at least, improv history. Although the team roster has changed over the years, and improv itself has evolved, I think the integrity and spirit of the team has remained.

Since my time on the team a couple old team members have come back to play and it was always a real joy to play with those people I use to watch and be inspired by. Tonight the history of Schwa was on display and I was so happy and proud to be a part of this real cool and talented team. Some members I hadn't played with before and that was a real pleasure.

It was also the last show for Danny who is moving to LA. He's one of the greatest collaborators I've ever gotten to perform with. He has this kind of indescribable quality that makes him always compelling whenever he's on stage. He can roll with anything, you can put him in any situation, and he shines. He's versatile but always charming. Malleable but always dynamic. I've learned a lot from him and he will be sorely missed on Schwa.

The night felt really special. As far as I know no team has lasted as long as Schwa and none have progressed like we have, with members leaving and incorporating new ones. It was cool to see the three different era's of Schwa and the various improv styles and how they've evolved over time. Especially cool for me to see the second era of Schwa which was, essentially, the team I watched as a student which fueled my love of the art form.

I'm grateful to be part of such a unique, long-standing, and quality team. It's a joy and an honor to play with them each week. Long live Schwa.

'The Light Between Oceans' A Review

The Light Between Oceans is a period drama about a British WWI veteran, Tom(Michael Fassbender), who takes a job as a lighthouse keeper in Australia and falls in love with a local woman Isabel(Alicia Vikander). The two have a happy isolated life but after Isabel has two miscarriages a baby washes up in a boat with a dead man and the two begin to raise her as their own. Tom is wracked with guilt by the decision and the two have to contend with their choice after they discover the widow of the child in town.

The cast is filled with incredible actors and they all give serviceable performances but are prevented from soaring by the predictable melodramatic plotting. Weisz as Hannah the biological mother of the foundling especially suffers from illogical emotional hoops she is required to jump through. A real waste for such a dynamic talent. Vikander and Fassbender have magnetic chemistry and give such transportive turns(as they always do) it makes you wish the film was simply their lives at the lighthouse devoid of artificial action. The first third of the film is wonderful.

Visually the film is stunning, with rich landscapes and vivid imagery. The orchestral score evokes the period and the beauty of the alien coastal crags. But all the meticulous production fail to elevate the forced machinations of the narrative.

Adapted from a novel of the same name it seems too much attention was paid to maintaining the integrity of the story without creative license being taken with the transition to screen. The film reflects the sprawling nature of the novel and is worse for it. Character motivations which can be given depth in text are rushed and feel artificial and sometimes pointless.

Beautiful cinematography and amazing actors fail to bring to life the critically lauded melodrama.

Don't See It.

My Other Life

Not to degrade the caterpillar
but there was a time I was insectoid
segmented, many-legged, slinking
only valued for my arrested potential.
We shared the same voracious appetite
he for leaves and me- the brown stuff
and each ignoble in the pursuit of need
(although, granted, there were sporadic times of joy).
But then a change.
Hibernation then transformation.
Perhaps more apt a transfiguration.
Now I would never consider myself a butterfly
(more a moth)
But now I have a chance at grace
and can mark the road of honesty
to potential happiness,
and that man I was seems a stranger.
A different person all together.