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Your Cashew Cheese And Eat It Too

February 29, 2008 6:23 pm

by Mike Burnett

A few weeks ago a friend and I went to try the vegan restaurant Blossoming Lotus in the Pearl District. Our server summed the restaurant up in a non sequitur, saying “Everything on the menu is vegan, including your server.” I had the pho which was good, although I would have liked to see some raw food versions of the traditional condiments. Instead all I was offered were some dried red pepper flakes. While I was making due, my dining companion gleefully devoured his bbq tempeh sandwich.

We also shared the “live nachos”, which were delicious. They were generously covered with a cashew cheese that I’ve been meaning to approximate in my own kitchen ever since.

I figured I’d do a little web search before heading to New Seasons tonight to pick up some cashews. Sometimes the internet is ludicrous.

What’s that? You’d like to learn how to make raw cashew cheese? Okay, I’m going to show you how to make the cheese, and because I’m feeling good about Spring and such, I’m gonna have you learn it from an adorable French woman.

So long, William F. Buckley Jr. We barely knew you.

February 27, 2008 9:20 pm

by Mike Burnett

Dengue Fever at Wonder Ballroom March 21, 2008

February 26, 2008 7:23 pm

by Mike Burnett

Describe The Ruckus also highly recommends catching the upcoming Dengue Fever show at the Wonder Ballroom. Their show at Holocene a couple months back was one of my favorite live music experiences since moving to PDX. The band features an LA-based cast of indie all-stars performing Cambodian pop hits and originals. Sounds dubious until you hear the whole story, including the part where they recruited legitimate Cambodian pop star Chhom Nimol to sing lead vocals.

The live show is tight and driving underneath Nimol’s plaintive voice, which at times seems to have the range and dynamics of a stringed instrument. It’s alien, familiar, and it all seems so lovingly crafted that it works.

Dengue Fever has a new video for their song Seeing Hands available exclusively at Rhapsody.com.

Daniel Johnston at Wonder Ballroom 4/18/2008

February 25, 2008 5:55 pm

by Mike Burnett

I just got my tickets to see Daniel Johnston play here on April 18th. It’ll be my second time seeing him. The first was in Seattle at Bumbershoot in 2001 where I was struck by how collected and intelligent he seemed and how in contrast that was to the story I was fed when introduced to his music. Of course, Johnston’s illness is well-documented in the 2005 film The Devil and Daniel Johnston. It’s an incredible glimpse into the psyche of an anti-genius, regardless of whether you’re acquainted with Johnston’s haunted, innocent songwriting.

Here’s a photo of Johnston performing earlier this month from Pitchforkmedia.com:

Sample some of Johnston’s music at Emusic.com or Pandora.com.

Baltimore Is The New Portland

February 22, 2008 12:47 am

by Mike Burnett

Watching HBO’s The Wire has been one of those rare experiences when part of me wishes I’d seen the show earlier but still a bigger part of me is ecstatic that I have so much more to look forward too. I’m currently halfway through season 2 and completely addicted.

The program first placed on my must-see list after The Believer published a rich interview by Nick Hornby with The Wire‘s co-creator David Simon. They cover everything from the multi-perspective arc to the oddness of a story set in Baltimore.

I finally broke down and decided to watch the show after reading an interview with Barack Obama in which he said it was his favorite show on television and his favorite character was Omar, a gay man who robs drug dealers for a living. He qualified, saying “That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character.”

All this came to an amusing head tonight as I’d been procrastinating my homework, watching a couple episodes of season 2, when I took a meta-break and Googled upon local collective Periscope Studio. Sure enough, on their front page was a Simpson’s-Wire mashup so geeky that it’ll make you blush.

McNulty and Bunk taking the A-train by Steve Lieber
Click the image for more.

Periscope Studio is “a collective of cartoonists, illustrators, writers, concept designers, graphic novelists, and storyboard artists based in Portland, Oregon.”

Two Minute Movies

February 20, 2008 2:41 am

by Mike Burnett

Two-Minute Media makes two-minute long interpretive videos about local bands. So far they’ve got shorts on Cafeteria Dance Fever, Hey Lover, Nire, Bastardgeist, and The Bugs.

The Bugs

February 16, 2008 2:54 am

by Mike Burnett

I just went to one of my favorite Portland bands, The Bugs‘, Myspace page to see what they were up to, and lo and behold they’re touring Europe. Now they’re in Lyon or on their way to Verona, and they end up in Paris on March 5th.

Les Bugs du Portland

The Bugs – Hail Sister Bottle:

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Eatcho on Mercury Cover

1:53 am

by Mike Burnett

My friend Eatcho had a drawing on the cover of the Portland Mercury last month. Somehow I didn’t recognize it as his work when the issue first came out, even though he’d shown me a series of sketches he called “The Adventures of Balding Men” that were in the same style as his drawing on the Mercury cover. I noticed the old issue sitting on our kitchen table tonight and it clicked. I love this cover.

Visit eatcho.com for more of his work in various media.

I Want One

February 14, 2008 10:52 pm

by Mike Burnett

Riding East over the Broadway bridge on my way home tonight, I noticed a reflective sign flickering at the end of the the bridge. At first I checked my headlight which has been switching settings randomly since gathering a good deal of internal moisture. It was set as I prefer it to a steady beam. I chalked it up to the headlights of commuter traffic passing intermittently through the bridge trusses.

But as I approached Williams every street sign in the intersection started flickering like the one at the end of the bridge. I thought it might be an ambulance, but there was no siren and no especially loud engine noise. Then another bicyclist passed me with the brightest blinking light I’d ever seen on a bike. It seemed more luminescent than the car headlights around us. I stopped behind him at the next red light and asked what sort of light he had. “It’s called a Knight Rider” he said. “The cool thing is you charge it with a wall charger.”

“It’s the brightest bike light I’ve ever seen” I said.

Continue… »

Killing Me Softly With His Song

3:00 am

by Mike Burnett

Our good friend Jimmy Kaufmann has taken us to task for spelling “theatre” thusly. Chaos broke loose on his band Delightful Young Man’s blog, but it stopped just short of me calling him an American grammar Nazi.

Just short. For now.