Sunday, September 11, 2005: Mr. McClure Goes to Portland

First real trip out of Olympia today.  Bruce McClure is showing films Sat/Sun/Mon at the NW Film Center in Portland via Cinema Project.  Devon Damonte came by at 1 and Carrie a few minutes later.  Coincidentally, Devon took over his job of the last two years (caring for an elderly (95 yrs) doctor) immediately after Carrie left it.  Sounds like quite a character.  Bridget was supposed to come too, but had to work.  Anyway, here’s Devon and Carrie at the theater.

And here’s Bruce, pre-show, looking as cheerful as ever.  The film/performance was great, a four-projector bit, in three parts with a preamble.  The image just about leapt of the screen at times, pulsating and spinning.  It’s impossible to tell which colors you’re actually seeing, and which are only in your head.  The first half was especially impressive, leaving an intense impression of three-dimensionality.  And in the second half, the overlapping screens in the gate of each projector created what looked like brownian-motion of colored molecules, rolling over one another.  Carrie walked out impressed (I think) and rubbing her eyes.  Likewise.  Bruce’s programs are always overwhelming.  Clocking in at 80+ minutes, this one especially so.

Here you see Matt McCormick discussing the program with Bruce.

And here’s Robin (Bruce’s girlfriend) documenting the entire event.  With a much fancier camera than my own.

Pam Minty and Alain Letourneau were there too.  Here they are before the show.  I’ve known Alain for going on 12 years now, ever since I met him in on a long night in Portland, after a P.J. Harvey show.  I’ll be doing a show at their place – 40 Frames – in November.  Alain was lucky to get off work.  He didn’t think he’d make it.  And he had to leave right after the program.

Which was a shame, because we went out for Japanese food at a great, really cheap place.  It used a conveyor belt to move color-coded plates past the customers, a kind of stripped-down version of the little boats that became popular in San Francisco awhile back.  Carrie had never seen anything like it, and got really excited.  We managed to stuff ourselves on less than $20 worth of food, which is pretty damn reasonable.  Here, she’s fumbling with her chopsticks.  Keeping the sushi in one piece was a bit of a challenge at times.

Here Matt poses with the mess of plates we made, stacked as conveniently as possible for the waitress.

And Devon poses with the conveyor belt.  I believe that’s egg sushi in the foreground.

And here you see the fiery trail of the 8 year old Human Torch impersonator from the next booth.  Among the more elaborate tacky kid costumes I’ve seen in quite awhile.  He looked like an extra from a Guy Maddin film, actually, as the costume had a creepy malformed-person quality to it.  Flames?  Not so much.

After dinner, we went back to see Matt’s place, a converted old fireboat-house on the river (Willamette, I think?).  Here, Matt is displaying photos of what the place once looked like, in its heyday. 

And here Carrie sits in movie-theater seats on Matt’s porch and looks out across the river, as a container ship dumps ballast water in the river.

Matt’s taken up urban gardening in his “old age,” and displays his remarkably impressive horticultural efforts on the porch.  Here he models an exceptionally odd looking plant, the name of which escapes me.  Carrie warned us to be careful with yucca plants like the one on the railing in the background, as it’s burning wood is deadly poisonous.  A useful bit of knowledge she picked up while living in Phoenix while working for an organization that assisted homeless people.

Matt runs Peripheral Produce, his video-distribution company, out of his house.  Here you see part of his inventory.  My tape, Waste-Book #1 (with a letterpress cover by Greg Pierce & Alisa Dix of Orgone) is on the bottom left.  Sales are ... slow.  Unsurprisingly.  But Matt said he sold them to institutions at a premium quite regularly.  Ouch.  An artifact already.  And not yet 31.  Though I guess I’m fine with that, as long as it nets him more money.

Then we went out for drinks at the White something-or-other, a place where the Holy Modal Rounders used to play.  Really awful hippie music from the people on the back stage, but it was still fun.  Decent beer.  Though I understand it's part of a NW chain of quasi-historic saloons.  McMenamins.  Never heard of it before.  Here’s Matt and Devon, waving the obligatory atmospheric candle.

And me and Carrie as well.  We left about 11pm.  Carrie immediately went to sleep in the backseat.  About 20 miles into Washington, Devon noticed the engine smoking.  And pretty soon we looked like a tagged zero.  And pulled off I-5 immediately.  Devon and I struggled with the hood for several minutes, until Carrie showed us how to open it.  Nothing like a girl from Detroit to show you what to do with a car.  Somehow, the hose to the radiator had come off, and the thing was bone-dry.  A nice young surfer kid showed us where the gas station was, we poured in a couple gallons of distilled water.  On sale, even!  The rest of the drive back was uneventful, if a little tense until we were sure that nothing else was going to break.  With the window-motor that broke earlier in the day, the bill came to a good $700.  Welcome back to the wonderful world of driving, I guess...