Friday, April 23, 2010

Stumbled on Voodoo Donuts while trying to find a western union. Later that afternoon, found the portlaned art gallery while trying to find the library. A few hours ago, found Powell’s Bookstore while looking fo rEmbers. All of these were places I wanted to go to eventually though, so it worked out. Tomorrow I’ll try to go to Stumptown and end up at the zoo.
From portland

Voodoo donuts is a tiny hole in the wall – the easiest way to find it is to look for a surprisingly long queue and the smell of frying sugar. They have dozens of different donuts with names like Old Dirty Bastard (broken oreos and peanut butter over a fritter) Gay Bar (vanilla glaze with fruit loops and rainbow sprinkles) and the infamous bacon and maple donut, which doesn’t need a catchy name. The walls inside are covered with graffiti and with framed obituaries of famous people . It is fantastic.
From portland
From portland

The art gallery was deceptively bigger than it looked from the outside. They have five floors, each with a different style or time period. They also have Monet’s Waterlilies, which is both much larger and more beautiful than pictures make it out to be. To balance this out, they also have a few pieces by some jackass which consist of a)a shiny black cube b) a shiny red rectangle and c)an aluminum circle that I thought was a light fixture until I saw the plaque. This is why people hate modern art.
It turns out the guy whose house I am ocuchsurfing at is only a few blocks from the hostel I stayed at last night. I’m currently in a tent on the third floor – the inside is mostly gutted bare wood, rooms are divided by sheets and tarps. There are about seven people living here, most of whom are in a band. The ground floor is packed with recording equipment, keyboards, and guitars. Right now they’re trying to record some demos – they’re pretty good. It’s a kind of drifting indie rock, no vocals that I”ve heard yet. There is a huge bunch of cilantro sitting in the kitchen, this is a good sign.

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