The socks go on before the shoes

By Phil Stanford

The Portland Tribune, Oct 8, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

My friend Greg Tozian says he saw a big sign in the Washington Square Nordstrom last weekend advertising a forthcoming “Packing Seminar.” “What’s next?” he asks. “Getting dressed in the morning? How to button your shirt and tie your shoes?” Actually, they seem like excellent ideas to me. É Spotted by Bob Butler on the bumper of a black Lexus: “Don’t Get Kerried Away.” É Yes, yes, I know: equal time for everyone. But whatever it is must also be equally civil. Don’t know when there’s been a campaign with this level of nastiness. É Not that everyone involved doesn’t deserve it, of course. É The current issue of Runner’s World has a cover story on politicians who like to run Ñ including, naturally, P-town’s very own Earl Blumenauer.Apparently, he even dictates speeches into a little tape recorder while on the hoof. É “The tapes are full of him talking and heavy breathing,” says press secretary Kathy Eastman, who goes on to describe them as “sort of an initiation” for the interns who must then transcribe them. Now I ask you, Kathy: In these post-Clinton times, is this the sort of message we want to give the little nippers?

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Man about town Robert Volz ran into Christo Ñ you know, the famous artist who drapes cloth over large natural objects like islands and bridges Ñ at the P-town Art Museum last week. And, of course, Robert asked him if he was familiar with the 211,000 square feet of rubber sheeting the Water Bureau’s trying to get rid of. É Robert says he got about as far as the word “reservoir” before Christo cut him off. É “I think every single person in Portland has asked me that question,” sniffed the great one. “That’s not the sort of thing I work with.” Well, if it’s any comfort, that’s not the sort of thing we work with, either Ñ and I guess that’s the problem. É Former city Commissioner Dick Bogle was properly incensed to learn that the Portland Oregon Visitors Association may have been encouraging accused mobster John Gotti Jr. to move out this way from New Yawk. “What are those idiots at POVA thinking, anyway? I mean, don’t we have enough of our own?”

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They call it the Losers Club, and it meets every Tuesday night at Blaze Jose’s, the funky restaurant and lounge out on Northeast Halsey: just a bunch of road musicians, a little long in the tooth, perhaps, getting together to down a few beers and trade war stories. É Local guitar legends Jim Mesi and Steve Bradley star in the charming OPB documentary film of the same name, produced and directed by Pierre Ouellette. É “In every city,” reads the film’s final title, “a handful of Steve Bradleys and Jim Mesis play on brilliantly at the far edge of the national spotlight. They form the very heart and soul of American popular culture.” Ain’t that the truth. É Friends of the Reservoir, those gallant, public-spirited souls who put a stop to the Water Bureau’s plan to cover the city’s reservoirs, will hold a victory party from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Mount Tabor Park Ñ with free Reservoir Root Beer Floats for everyone. É And what, you might ask, is a Reservoir Root Beer Float? Why, one without a lid, of course.

Contact Phil Stanford by phone at 503-546-5166 or by e-mail atphilstanford@portlandtribune.com.

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