Month: August 2024

Low Bar Chorale at Mississippi

I attended the holiday edition of the Low Bar Chorale in December. Tonight was my first time at their regular gig.

We sang “What’s Up?” by 4 Non Blonds, “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac, “You Were Meant for Me” by Jewel, and finished up with “Faith” by George Michael.

I learned that I can sing the harmony parts when I’ve got a strong singer next to me. And not so much when I don’t.

It was a fun night.

8106 N Interstate Avenue

I’ve written about the tree on this property here. And probably somewhere else about the house itself, though I can’t find the post.

When the Habitat for Humanity houses were built, this lot got much smaller to accommodate them. But the house remained, so I wondered if it would continue to exist.

But the dumpsters have appeared. While it could mean a rehab, that’s not usually the pattern.

This is a duplex built in 1908. It’s 2084 square feet, according to Portland Maps. I heard years ago that the landlord had died. Someone suggested the house was stuck in probate. It is now owned by 8106 N Interstate Avenue LLC and the owner’s address is in NE Portland. It sold this May for $380,000, a bargain for the neighborhood and house size, but probably an appropriate amount given it has been unoccupied for many years and squatters have been removed twice.

It was sold in 2018 for $495,000, so has had quite a comedown. The earliest assessor detail is from 1988 when it sold for $29,000.

My favorite website that gives me insight into permits hasn’t been updated since 2023, so no info there. For now, there are photos on this website. The interior is pretty grim.

We shall see what comes next. I wonder if the tree will get to stay.

Massive Podcast Catch-Up Complete

I discovered You’re Wrong About through one of my workmates, Shannon. She listened to an episode about crack babies and really liked it, so I gave it a try. I chose the Shannon Faulkner episode for my first listen, as the plight of the first female to enroll in the Citadel was something I followed closely.

I really liked the conviviality and research skills of the hosts, Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbs, as well as their Pacific Northwest roots. I found them around the time that Michael Hobbs went off to do other podcasts (“Mike Lives in a Downtown Hotel,” October 11, 2021, but I scrolled back and started at the beginning, so I had a lot of podcasts to catch up with. They started podcasting in 2018. The badge of episodes remaining was at 99—the maximum displayed—for a very long time.

You’re Wrong About likes to debunk “common knowledge” about big events. Mike and Sarah met because Sarah wrote a complementary and nuanced essay about Tonya Harding. One of their taglines is “Revisiting the stories of maligned women of the ’90s,” of which Shannon Falkner is just one.

They also had book club episodes during the pandemic. Not where the audience read books, but where the hosts talked us through what happened in different books.

You’re Wrong About led me to Maintenance Phase with Michael Hobbs and Aubrey Gordon. Their title refers to the part of the diet where you cease dieting and go into the “maintenance phase” where you supposedly begin eating normally again while not gaining any weight. Their tagline is, “Wellness and weight loss,
debunked and decoded.”

There weren’t as many episodes of Maintenance Phase, but I also became a Pateron supporter, so that added to the podcast backlog.

Finally, Michael Hobbs also led me to If Books Could Kill, where Hobbs and Peter Shamshiri analyze, “The airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds.” That added to the backlog.

But what a fun backlog! Over the nearly three years I’ve been catching up, I’ve learned so many things from these podcasts. And also had a lot of fun along the way. Now I can look forward to keeping up with them in real time.

7611: Mother of the Bride Dress

My grandmother got to be a mother of the bride exactly once (her mother, by contrast, got to be mother of the bride at least 15 times). This was the dress she made to wear for the ceremony.

I. Love. It. I love the pattern, the simple sheath dress, and that it has a vest and a fun scarf or tie to go with it.

She tucked it away in the cedar chest, probably after wearing it the one time. So it’s in very good condition.

Mail from a Future Friend

Mail came today addressed to a future friend. Though I can see that it was sent from Dallas, this friend did not include a return address. How will I find my future friend?

Ah, but it’s just proselytizing. I think my future friend won’t want to be my friend if I don’t come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

What do you want to bet the “false religion” the mother was practicing was Catholicism?

I do love a friendly letter that ends in a scary quote from Revelation.

But! I love these booklets. I used to come across them on a fairly regular basis at bus stops and the like, but it’s been some times since I’ve gotten to read one.