10 Questions About…

I’m condensing a few days in Portland to one post but starting with the highlight – Lily’s zine reading. Lily’s zine reading. Lily O’Donnell has been in a Portfolio Program at The Independent Publishing Resource Center (IPRC). It’s part creative writing course and part print-making program. She has been picking up skills with things like riso printers and working with an awesome cohort of other artists. I got to meet them all yesterday at a zine reading. The center is an interesting building. The students are bright, creative and motivated. It was fun to see how much they lift each other up and have a genuine respect for each other’s work.

I am really proud of her work and her reading. I had permission to video some of it.

The event was hosted at IPRC but the students did all of the work – and the turnout was impressive. People from as far away as St Paul. There were 75-100 people in the room.

We went out at night. The first night, I went to Lily’s Cinema 21 and watched Friendship. (It’s a weird art house movie that’s been selling out. Or maybe I just don’t get it.) It was fun to meet Lily’s coworkers. They are super friendly and know a ton about movies. And music.

We saw some music including an Enya Tribute night at the Swan Dive. We talked each other into thinking we were big fans because we know where her house is in Dublin, but we didn’t know many songs. I recognized one. We somehow managed to miss Sail Away. We briefly saw Sharon Van Etten too. We went to trivia night as part of a birthday celebration for Lily’s roommate Sav. But we were there too late for anyone to sing their songs. Lily has clearly picked up a lot of good friends in Portland from work, her zine program and just being out in the community.  They all had such nice things to say about Lily. (Not surprised.)

Poor Lily got in a lot more walking than I think she would usually like to do. As I’m typing, we have already walked more than 10 miles today. The day I arrived (13 hours late), we walked around Lily’s neighborhood and had lunch a Sweedeedee’s – named for a Micheal Hurly song. Lily is/was apparently a big fan and even met him in the neighborhood not long ago. Also, we checked out the museum art and taxidermy. Day two, we walked around the gorgeous Laurelhurst Park; it’s gorgeous. It’s amazing just how tall the trees are. Very different from the Superior Forest in Northern Minnesota. We also walked around park near Belmont and Hawthorne streets. We had some yummy Thai food and did some shopping in book and secondhand stores.

Today we trekked from downtown to Washington Park and all around. We saw the rose gardens, the Japanese gardens (Lily got us in for cheap), the Holocaust Memorial and more. The whole area is beautiful. It’s on top of a hill so you can see mountains in the distance and the higher you get into the park, the more you can look down at the various parts of it. Again, the trees are incredible. They make even something like a Japanese Garden seem more magical. And the air and moisture they give off is healing. (Also makes my hair look good!) There was a waterfall and those of us who live near the Minnehaha Falls are always suckers for a waterfall. I was taking a video as Lily walked toward it and you can hear her excitement when we spied the giant koi fish in the water.

And intermixed with each day – and night – was some amazing street art – mostly graffiti, but some fun public art as well!