2010 Rose City Used Book Fair

This unpretentious book fair is sponsored by the Portland Area Used Booksellers’ Association, and features thousands of books from independent booksellers from Portland and beyond. Over thirty exhibitors will be displaying and selling used books, bargain books, collectible books, prints, and ephemera. In addition experts will be on hand for appraisals, several seminars are scheduled, and there will be door prizes. [more]

Saturday

USA vs. England World Cup Match, Timbers MLS Crest Unveiling

The World Cup match will be shown on one of those big ass truck-portable TVs used for these sorts of events, there will be a beer garden and at halftime the Timbers will reveal the new Timbers MLS logo (view the video clues on the TimberFC YouTube channel). [more]

Cirque du Cycling

As if there wasn’t already enough to do on Saturday, June 12th, the 2010 Cirque du Cycling takes place on North Mississippi Avenue, from 11am until 7pm.

The Cirque is a street festival, a circus, a bike race and a parade – and a benefit for Albina Youth Opportunity School. [more]

Sunday

2010 Milk Carton Boat Races

My favorite Rose Festival affiliated event, the Milk Carton Boat Races, takes place this Sunday, June 13th at the casting pond in Westmoreland Park. Races begin at 11am.

Heather and I, with our friends Katie and Justin, attended last year’s event. I was disappointed there was no beer garden, but the event sponsors, the Dairy Farmers of Oregon, did hand out a bunch of freebies, including root beer floats! [more]

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3. Review: Milk Carton Boat Races 2010

This unpretentious book fair is sponsored by the Portland Area Used Booksellers’ Association, and features thousands of books from independent booksellers from Portland and beyond. Over thirty exhibitors will be displaying and selling used books, bargain books, collectible books, prints, and ephemera. In addition experts will be on hand for appraisals, several seminars are scheduled, and there will be door prizes. The event schedule is below:

Friday

• Collecting Railroad Books and Ephemera with Robert Gavora, 3pm
• Appraisals by John Henley, 4-5pm

Saturday:

• Collecting Little Golden Books by Pam Parnell, 11am
• For What It’s Worth (A discussion of how to determine book values) by John Henley, 1pm
• A Study in Scarlet: Adventures in Collecting Sherlock Holmes with Jerry Margolin, 2pm

Visit the fair website for more details, including a map and list of exhibitors.

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1. June 11-13: Used Books Fair, Cirque du Cycling, Soccer, and Milk Carton Boat Races
2. October 9-12: Wordstock Book Fair and the Friends of the Multnomah County Library 36th Annual Fall Book Sale
3. May 28-31: Fireworks, Rose Fest, County Fair, History Pub and the Timbers

At eighteen, Jillian Lauren was an NYU theater school dropout with a tip about an upcoming audition. The “casting director” told her that a rich businessman in Singapore would pay pretty American girls $20,000 if they stayed for two weeks to spice up his parties. Soon, Jillian found herself on a plane to Borneo, where she would spend the next eighteen months in the harem of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the Sultan of Brunei. Leaving behind her gritty East Village apartment for an opulent palace where she walked on rugs laced with gold, Jillian traded her band of artist friends for a coterie of backstabbing beauties.

Her memoir, Some Girls: My Life in a Harem, was published in April, and she is currently on the book tour. One of her stops is in Portland, Oregon, where she will be telling her story at the May 19th Back Fence PDX, and appearing at Powells on Thursday, the 20th to read from her book. She has also written a novel, Pretty, that will be released next spring. Her writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Flaunt Magazine, Pindeldyboz Magazine, Opium Magazine, Society, and in the anthologies Pale House: A Collective and My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories, among others. She is married to Scott Shriner, bass guitarist for the band Weezer. They live with their son in Los Angeles.

Recently Heather and I had the privilege of interviewing her for Dave Know Portland, in anticipation of her Portland, and Back Fence PDX visit.

At the Back Fence PDX event do you know what story you’ll be telling, or will you wing it? Or will you share several stories? Do you know there are fantastic cupcakes [from Saint Cupcake!] handed out at intermission?

Live storytelling is new to me, so I’ll have something planned! But it will be something outside of the content of the book – kind of like the director’s cut. I didn’t know about the cupcakes, but I’m a cupcake fanatic. So that’s a real bonus.

Would you consider Some Girls an adventure story? A moralistic tale? Something else?

It’s a literary coming-of-age memoir. I think the word “harem” throws people off and they think it’s a romance novel or a cautionary tale. It’s neither of those things. I’ve had people ask me what the message of the book is, and I don’t have an answer for that. I did my best to tell an honest story and the message is really up to the reader.

Have you been to Portland before? Will you get to spend much time in Portland? (Powells Books, where you are scheduled to read the night after Back Fence PDX, is Portland’s Eiffel Tower!)

I’ve been to Portland many times and I adore it. My closest friend from LA moved to Portland a few years ago and I was pissed at her until I realized that it means I get to visit fairly often. I’ll be staying with her in her new house. I think I might be sleeping on a few boxes pushed together.

What was the most significant thing you learned about yourself in your 18 months in the harem? You entered as a teenager, did you age more than a year and a half in that time?

The real lessons for me were learned as I looked back and reflected. I was able to discover a different level of compassion for both myself and for the other people who shared my story. I looked at pictures of myself from that time and I said, What was so wrong with me? Why did I hate myself so much? I was beautiful. I was hopeful. I was brave. I was adorable. I can see it now clear as day, but I couldn’t see it then. The story is about struggling to love yourself and learning to forgive yourself.

Your life now is hardly conventional, you’re married to a rock star, you’ve adopted a child from Ethiopia, you’ve written a memoir, and now you are on a book tour. Was this the sort of life you wished for or expected growing up?

Actually, my life is pretty boring now, and I mean that in the best way. I write; I take care of my family; I go to yoga. It was precisely this stability that allowed me to write about some of the darker times in my life. In some ways I’ve gotten everything I dreamed of, it just hasn’t taken the form I thought it would. I always yearned for extraordinary experiences and wild adventures. I think it was partially that craving for extremes that led me into my unwise endeavors. So leading a normal life is never what I pictured, but I did finally get the sense of fulfillment that eluded me when my life was wilder.

What’s your favorite Weezer song?

I’m partial to “Good Life,” but my son singing along with “Island in the Sun” is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. He’s totally obsessed with Weezer.

Visit Jillian Lauren’s website, JillianLauren.com, for more information about her writings and book tour. If you’re curious about the book, I recommend Melissa Lion’s review of Some Girls. And you can follow along on Jillian Lauren’s book tour adventures on her blog.

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So how exactly does this work? It’s like this:

Our Back Fence Storytelling event is the kissing cousin to San Francisco’s Porchlight Storytelling Series. It is an evening with seven people telling true, unmemorized ten-minute stories based on the month’s theme. The stories must not have been performed publicly prior to their Back Fence PDX telling.

At Your Service is the theme of the May show, and story tellers include Steve Almond, author of Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life; Eric Spitznagel, whose writing has appeared in Vanity Fair and Playboy; and Jillian Lauren, author of Some Girls: My Life in a Harem (who I had the privilege of interviewing for this blog).

Reservations are highly recommended. Doors open at 6pm for food and drink, show starts at 7:30. For more details visit the Back Fence PDX website.

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You recently moved to Portland. Was there something about Portland that met your minimalist aspirations better than elsewhere?

We’ve always loved the Northwest and knew we wanted to move here eventually. The people are incredibly friendly, the biking infrastructure is amazing and I absolutely love the parks. Also, the temperate climate is incredible. The Sacramento valley is incredibly hot in the summer. So I’m looking forward to cool summers.

Portland makes this lifestyle choice very effortless. For instance, we moved into a neighborhood that is close to grocery stores, the library, fantastic small businesses and beautiful parks. These things meet our needs without having to own something outright. Plus, the cost of living is fairly low and the infrastructure for biking and public transit make it really easy to get around.

Tell me about your interest in tiny houses. (I’m fascinated by them myself. I live a few blocks from these babies, and have to stop myself from climbing the steps and peeking in the windows!)

I had no idea that the Small House Movement existed until I stumbled across a Youtube video featuring Dee Williams’ tiny house. It was New Year’s Eve of 2008 and hearing Dee’s story inspired us to go small and downscale.

[Read more of Tammy's reasoning at her blog: 10 Reasons to Go Small]

To most people (who already have and depend upon cars), going car free can seem impossible. Can you share with us any tips you’ve learned from being car free in Portland?

I would encourage folks to push past their fears and give two wheels a try. Start off by doing a test run. For example, you might consider doing all your grocery shopping by bike or NOT driving within a 5 mile radius of your home.

I feel incredibly lucky to live in Portland. The biking infrastructure is incredible, plus there is good public transit. It’s so easy to get around by bike. And a lot of fun!

You’re an advocate for simple living, downscaling, tiny homes, decluttering, and carfree living. What is your first advice to someone contemplating pursuing one or all of these goals?

It’s amazing to think we started the downscaling process only 3 years ago. At that time, we lived in a huge 2 bedroom apartment, with 2 cars, overflowing closets and a kitchen stuffed with 3 sets of dishes and silverware. It was absolutely ridiculous. Learning to live with less didn’t happen over night. It’s been a long process.

I think it’s important to start small, say no to recreational shopping, and unplug your TV. For example, if you want to start de-cluttering give away 10 things a week. Or you could try the 100 Things Challenge. If you’re thinking about going car-free, start taking bike rides, walking or using public transportation for all your errands less than 3-5 miles. By focusing on one thing a day, you can make drastic changes in your lifestyle over the long-term.

What is the most challenging?

The most challenging part of downsizing was dealing with minimalist/simple living naysayers. We’ve all dealt with naysayers in our lives. Naysayers might be friends or family members. People who give you odd looks when you tell them about your minimalist lifestyle or alternative career choices.

[For more see: Less Really is More]

You’ve written a couple books, Simply Car Free and Minimalist Health. Can you tell us about them?

I wrote Simply Car Free to help people achieve their goals of saving money, improving their health, and living a simpler lifestyle. Cars are not a necessity for most of us and by reducing our dependence on cars it can clarify our priorities and show us that anything is possible. By selling both of our cars we were able to pay off our debt quickly and actually save money! As a result I was able to leave my day job and start my own small business.

To answer these questions, I decided to write my first free e-book: Minimalist Health. The book is 20 pages and covers a variety of topics including: emotional and physical health, addictions, rethinking work and more.

You may have explained this somewhere, but after a pretty thorough search of your site, I can’t find it: RowdyKittens: what inspired this blog name?

I started this blog about two years ago and wanted to go with a blog name that was memorable, represented my personality, and would make my readers smile. There is so much bad news in the world and I wanted a fun blog name to combat all the negativity.

My main goal with RowdyKittens is to help people live simpler, calmer lives, kind of like kittens.

Tammy Strobel blogs at RowdyKittens, runs her own business, and can be found on Twitter @RowdyKittens.

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Constructed with living plants and simulating the processes that occur in nature, eco-roofs absorb rain water like a meadow in a natural setting.

Last January, the library began offering scheduled public tours. I wanted to check the roof out for myself, but every tour I attempted to sign up for was booked solid for weeks into the future, and eventually I just forgot about it.

I stumbled upon the library’s Eco-Roof tour page again recently, however, and as luck would have it there were a couple spots available (there are only 12 spaces available for each tour) for last Saturday’s morning tour.

The tour begins at the Welcome Desk in the foyer. We were late by a couple minutes so the security guard graciously took us up to the fifth floor in a service elevator where the rest of the tour group was already assembled. As the guide answered questions and expounded on the benefits of the eco-roof (much of the spiel is on this webpage), we snapped a few photos and enjoyed the views (Saturday was a beautiful day!)

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Normally hardback novels and nonfiction start at $2 (Some items start at $.25), but on the 20th you can fill a paper grocery bag with books from the store for only $10, until they run out of books!

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3. Shots of Portland, the book

I’ve tried several wines featured in the the book and have not been disappointed. But I have not been able to find about half the wines (from both the 2009 and 2010 editions of the book), which has been frustrating. So I thought it might be interesting, and useful, to host my own blind tasting, a la The Wine Trials, with locally available wines.

For our [not so] rigorous blind tastings, we thought about trying just Oregon wines, or just one variety of wine. But ultimately we went with what we randomly found at Trader Joe’s. We know the price is pretty good, and we also know that we would be able to find these wines again, if we wanted to. The price range of the wines we selected was $7.99-13.99 (which at Trader Joe’s is almost high end).

Here’s the lineup:

As you can see, our wine selection contains a mix of styles. It may have been more useful to stick to heavy or light red wines, but I, for one, don’t always know if a wine is heavy or light based on its label. And interestingly, none of these wines made the 2010 edition of The Wine Trials, though we don’t know if that’s because they weren’t included in the trials, or if they were but didn’t perform well in the tastings. In any case, we expected our home version of the Wine Trials would be educational and fun, and hoped we might discover a couple tasty wines.

We invited a bunch of friends over, made a bunch of snacks, and wrapped each bottle in foil and attached a number.

For the blind tasting we gave each of our guests one of the official Wine Trials tasting tasting forms (pdf), and set them to it. The only ground rules were no talking about the wines while tasting, and we recommended each taster start with a different wine, rather than going from 1 through 6 in order.

Below are the winners, as decided by our tasters, ranked from 1-6. The top two places ended up a virtual tie, both wines received the same number of 1st (4), 2nd (2), and 3rd (2) place votes. But wine number one also received a fourth place vote, whereas number 2 received a single 5th place vote. In the list below we’ve also included a few quotes from notes made by our guests on the tasting forms.

1. Barnard Griffin Columbia Valley Syrah 2008 – $12.99 “Yummy” “Not bad, velvety, big wine”
2. Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2007 9.99 “Nice deep color, some vanilla” “Soft, smooth, oak, velvety”
3. Marqués de Cáceres Crianza Rioja 2005 – 11.99 “Pleasant, a little light for me” “Starts off fine but finishes with a nauseous tone”
4. Eola Hills Oregon Pinot Noir 2008 – 13.95 “Charles Shaw?” “Watery”
5. Red Door Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2007 (pdf) 13.99 “A little light on the finish, tastes like a pinot”
6. Blason de Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2008 – 7.99 “Tastes like a weak pinot” “Reminds me of my childhood, can you say altar wine?”

As you can see the Pinot Noirs did not do very well. Whether this is due to our tasters not liking the variety, or the particular Pinots we selected being of low (cheap) quality, I cannot say. We did have a few self-proclaimed Pinot fans amongst the tasters.

Visit The Wine Trials website for more information about the book, which is available, of course, at Powell’s.

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From the Kenny and Zuke’s newsletter:

Come meet David Sax, author of “Save the Deli”, while you stuff yourself on pastrami, bagels, and other nosh at Kenny & Zuke’s on Tuesday, February 2nd at 6pm. David spotlighted Kenny & Zuke’s in Gourmet Magazine as one of two shops that represent the future of delicatessen. He also named Kenny & Zuke’s as one of the top 10 delicatessens in North America.

Follow David Sax as he blog his book tour on his website: Save the Deli. I’ve written about David Sax and his affinity for Kenny and Zuke’s before: Kenny and Zuke Save The Deli.

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An old-fashioned fair, like 4-H but with books instead of livestock. See the best new books, mags, and printed matter from your favorite PDX printers, publishers, and publication vendors. Enjoy our popcorn balls and hot cider. Take part in free public info sessions about the ins and outs of future publication. Buy great books!

Vendors and participants include:

Octopus Books
Peaches and Bats
Ooligan Press
Stand Up Comedy
Veneer Magazine
Marriage Publishing House
Reading Frenzy
Plazm
Cooley Gallery
Fourteen30 Contemporary
PICA
Ampersand
Red76
Dill Pickle Club
IPRC
Hawthorne Books
Mark Searcy
Sarah Meadows
Pinball Publishing
Container Corps
Publication Studio

Entrance if free. For more information visit the Publication Studio.

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