Webvisions 2006 – Everything Else
July 24th, 2006I don’t remember who, but someone told me this prior to my going to Portland ? there are a lot of transexuals in the city. Now I didn’t really pay this much attention at the time, but it did occur to me that it was a strange thing to say about a city. I also didn’t pay it much attention at the time because I don’t have anything against transexuals. I mean, I think it would be a tough lot in life to feel that you were born in the wrong body. When growing up in Iowa I frequently felt that I had been born in the wrong part of the country, but remedying that was a simple measure ? I moved. It didn’t require painful surgery, and I didn’t have to take a series of pills that would change my body to make the necessary adjustments. Anyways, long story short ? I think transexuals are a brave lot.
So when I stopped for directions at a local coffee shop and noticed that the woman I was speaking to had dense, dark hair on her knuckles ? I was simultaneously surprised and not surprised. The thing I noticed about my reaction was that I didn’t know whether to relate to her as a man or a woman. The social cues were all mixed up, and one moment she came off as a mothering figure drawing a map to my destination, and the next she was stroking her stubble trying to remember the name of the street I was to take a left at. Confusing.
Marginally disoriented, I decided to skip my original destination and head back to the hotel. The tricky thing about walking in an unfamiliar area is that you have no idea where the good and bad blocks are. I suspected I was beginning to walk through a rougher part of town when the bars looked like they also might have been strip clubs. I stopped in at a convenient store to get a Coke and a bag of peanut M&Ms when I noticed a familiar smell in the neighborhood. A combination of incense, marijuana, and plastic. I scanned the area and found the source of the familar scent ? there was a CD store across the street.
Ozone Records is a nice CD store on Burnside and 7th Ave. They have a great collection of indie and electronic music, as well as a decent selection of used CDs and music DVDs. I picked up a copy of Cobra Killer’s “76/77″, Manyfingers’ “Our Worn Shadow”, Burnt Friedman’s “Secret Rhythms 1″ and a bootleg DVD of Tom Wait’s “Big Time”.
After leaving the CD store, I decided to pop into a chinese restaurant for dinner. On entry, I quickly gathered that this place was not known for it’s fine cuisine. There were only two other people in the place, and one of them was singing kareoke. I decided to play it safe and order their chicken fried rice. I had eated about half of my dinner when a restaurant patron launched into a truly tragic rendition of a popular Fleetwood Mac song. Personally, I think Fleetwood Mac is unlistenable in it’s original form ? and this person wasn’t doing the song any favors. I quickly paid my bill and retreated back to my hotel room to catch up on my email and get some sleep for day 2 of Webvisions 2006.