Spring '24 playlist

Heavy on the Colombian stuff this time, plus more indie rock than usual:

SoCal trip July 2024

As mentioned previously, I went down to southern California for M & M's wedding. It was great. Things I loved:

The whole transportation scene, from riding my bike to the airport to taking Metrolink. Turns out SoCal is a lot nicer when seen from the back side - train tracks, bus lines - than it is from the freeway. 100% would do again.

Ojai, which I had no clue about when I was living there. The warmth, the food and wine scenes. To be fair, it would be a lot less fun on a ramen budget.

Sampling infinite amounts of wine, the nonstop fusillade of wine and talk about wine. Good wine. Hearing the Wine Weirdos go on about wine. Having a picnic under an oak tree by the vineyard at Ampelos. Watching people licking wine off the sandstone poolside and talking about "minerality."

The beautiful wedding. Beautiful sets by Kiss Hello and Shannon Lay, quiet reverence and revelation. The sun going down slowly. Shannon's lovely LPs Geist and August are on sale at Sub Pop and I just grabbed them.

Baby L. 15 months old and curious about everything.

Walking in Oxnard. Palm trees against a radiant sunset, oranges casually smashed on the pavement, unfamiliar flowers, famliar eucalyptus smells, a handwritten street sign CUARTO DE RENTA PARA MUJER. 

 Walking at night through the park, dodging sprinklers. I spent $2.64 at W*lm*rt.

Ventura on a Sunday morning. The mission open wide and organ music wafting out. I walked as far up into the Botanical Garden hills as the paths would let me. The otherworldly scents from the Chilean plants heating up. Getting my feet wet in the ocean but not going too far - no room in my backpack for a towel or spare shorts.

Train to Burbank. Walking around by the airport. A decrepit former Fry's Electronics covered in weeds but still completely recognizable. A park, butterflies chasing each other, pickleball thwacks, a man sleeping in the back of his pickup in the shade.

Flying home and riding off into the last bit of Portland evening light, my legs somehow still working, my motor inside. Catching the train just as it pulled into Gateway TC and gratefully jumping on.

Picks to click July 2024

• Sole Otero's graphic novels - apparently the epic Naftalina is coming out on Fantagraphics translated as Mothballs, so I thought I'd beat the rush and check out the Spanish version from the library. Intensa is also pretty over the top.
• How did I not know that there was a video for Nilsson's beautiful"All I Think About Is You"? And of course it is super weird.
  
• My dad was a big Nilsson fan and it explains a lot about both him and me.
• Riding the cargo bike up the hill on SE Bell Ave and having people tell me "you can do it!" This has happened multiple times. Do I look like I'm struggling? I probably do. That thing is massive.
• The horrifying and perfectly told title essay in Myriam Gurba's Creep. Plus I'm very fond of her take on going to Iowa, "Waterloo," featuring an all-too-familiar story of ordering a salad at a Pizza Ranch.
  
• Finally breaking down and buying a cheap Swytch with Aminal Krossing pre-installed, playing it in the hammock with my boy, both of us laughing and laughing.
• That and Untitled Goose Game, even funnier.
• Trying to figure out some cover songs for a pool party at Mike L.'s wedding. I haven't played a solo set in front of other people in forever. 
• Also looking at an epic journey by five different modalities from Clackamas to Ojai - bike to airport, fly to Burbank, train to Oxnard, walk to the place where I'm staying, take a couple different buses to Ojai the next day. Now that I'm writing it out it's a little crazy.