let the games begin: ken's vs. scholls

blistered, ken's artisan

margherita, ken's artisan

i'm sorry. the screen on my camera's broken, so i had no idea the photo was this awful when i took it at apizza scholls

chaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!, apizza scholls

in the past two years i've gone from pizza rich (scrooge-mcduck-swimming-in-a-tower-of-pizza rich) in brooklyn to pizza lower-middle class in new zealand up to pizza middle-class in the dc-metro area, and back down to pizza poor in new orleans. and now i'm in pizza portland, that as yet largely unexplored region in our nation's upper west side.

my search for pizza glory is not unlike an olympic athlete's search for the gold medallion. it requires dedication, high standards, and traveling great distances. however, unlike the upcoming summer games, there are no human rights controversies surrounding pizza (unless you count people being subjected to undercooked pies made with inferior ingredients as a human rights violation). there are however wheat controversies. the price of grain is up and so follows the prices of a slice. Di Fara back in brooklyn is now infamously charging $4 a slice. According to slice.seriouseats.com, the price jumped a whole dollar in one day from $3 on Feb. 5th to the cuatro on the 6th. judging by the waits at two portland pizza purveyors, the price hike hasn't appeared to slow pizza fans from chowing down on their favorite pies.

so far in two weeks of portlanding, i've found two quality contenders for pizza gold in Ken's Artisan Pizza and Apizza Scholls (Apizza, as i learned recently, is pronounced A-beetz). the former being a neapolitan-styled spin-off of the popular Ken's Artisan Bakery and the latter being a new haven inspired thin-crust slinger. both of these places provide nicely charred thin crusts, fresh basil, and root beer, but that is where the similarities end.

the first thing you notice when walking into Ken's, besides the hordes of people waiting up to two hours (as we unfortunately found out) for a table, is the magnificent looking wood-burning oven. shortly after that is disgruntled-looking pizzaiolos stretching, spreading, and sprinkling dough, sauce, and cheese at a clipped pace. the pizza's coming out of the oven are beautiful 13-inch specimens dotted with charring, the edges nicely puffed, and spots of creamy mozzerella on a bright orange-red water bed of tomato sauce. i tried their margherita and pepperoni-style sausage pie. the first was perfectly cooked, though under-sauced, a problem that seemed prevalent on all their pizzas. the uber-thin crust held up well though. and the sauce, when its flavor peeked out over the cheese, crust, and basil, had some zing—spice!—and tang saddled up next to some sweetness. the crust, while beautiful to look at, and that hard-to-find crisp-yet-pliant balance, was a little bland. the sausage pie displayed many of the same qualities but with the added smokiness and spice that one would expect from pepperoni. arbitrary scoring: 8 giant pandas out of 11.

Scholls' dishes out the 18-inchers normally, but i was able to get a 14" special (for the same price). the margherita with half pepperoni and extra basil burned the hell out of my mouth (in the classic pizza way, right behind the top front teeth) on the first bite. always a good sign: a seriously burned mouth often means a hot oven--not that i recommend others using this method as a test, but it yields results. luckily the tongue and its trusty sidekick, the nose, were intact. the sauce-cheese balance was spot on, with the sauce containing a bitterness not uncommon from canning, while the cheese seemed to be a blend of fresh and aged mozz. a well done crust allowed for a satisfying crunch that gave way to a pleasant chewiness. arbitrary scoring: a pair of short pants, a striped sock, and an american apparel t-shirt on a fully-clothed hipster.

infrastructure

so i'm finally here. here being portland. portland, oregon, not maine. it's been almost exactly a week since my arrival and things are going swimmingly--and that's not because of copious amounts of rain. (oh, i'm sorry. did that pun hurt? well, walk it off you weak-kneed monkey butt.) list of accomplishments so far: signed a lease for a house; sent out two job applications; played one game of soccer; went rollerskating (i did not fall down); attended the stumptown comics fest; ate pizza (photos forthcoming).

first impressions are good. there are home gardens spilling over onto sidewalks everywhere with blooming tulips and fat rosemary bushes. streets are lined with cherry blossom trees, which are now liberally distributing their pink petals all over the city. businesses have a habit of being small and locally owned, including a glut of chocolatiers. and there are a number of second run movie houses dotting the landscape.

i'll soon send an email out with my address, &c.

for now, please enjoy this photo by Ryan McGinley (via ffffound.com):

nostalgic already

nola photos.

"these aren't the droids we're looking for"

the journey continues onwards and a little to the left. 9 days in ithaca dark city, which actually churned out a little sunlight while i was there. sarah is americorp-ing in law offices, working to help people get disability aid from the government. the great catsby is adjusting to life outside of small apartments in the big city, cautiously exploring the new pet-filled landscape, being a bit of bitch to sarah's other cats and trying to reclaim her girlish figure, which had ballooned in sarah's absence (the theory is comfort eating). anna and susanne say, 'hi,' and 'i wish you were here.' ...please call them--they would love to hear from you.

4 days in nyc. poorly organized on my part. no one really knew i was coming. i just kind of showed up, but i've managed to see quite a few people anyway. had some pizza at patsy's on 11th and university, chilled out at the old office complex, watched an episode of the wire with carrie hanksering-for-a-chilicrowtherfabercheese dog, &c.

had my first experience at b&h, the magical gadget wonderland. it's what i imagine an international space station will be like in the year 2073. lots of hustle and bustle, many queues of people surrounding islands of gadgetry, with lots of signage everywhere. they conveyor-belt all the gadgets from the customer service agent who answers all of your questions to the cashier/merchandise pick-up area. these people are often on different floors. you get tickets from one agent to give to another. you wait until the next available agent's numbered light blinks. these sorts of things. and then when you're done with your purchase, after picking up your bag from bag-check, there's a little decompression chamber that allows you to sort through your new gadgetry while comfortably sitting down. in my case it wasn't really gadgetry that i sorted through, but rather a lens-cap and a battery for the minolta i found in cgr's distro building. for those curious, the battery doesn't seem to make the light meter thing run. also, minolta no longer exists. it seems it was purchased by sony. or konica. or both. also: carrie curlycheesefries gave me another lens. i have a collection of two now. film is the new plaid.

more of before

print materials and t-shirt ideas for replant new orleans' earth day tree planting extravaganza.

posters, etc.

some of the posters and flyers i've put together for common ground relief.

photos from meg's garden

this is the crowning achievement of common ground's meg perry healthy soil project. a large portion of it is being turned into a CSA while another section will be a general community garden and a few beds will be overseen by common ground. there's some concern about the original owner paying back-taxes and reclaiming the property. but there's action being taken that will hopefully preserve its place in the community.

brad pitt 4 u

just met brad pitt and bill clinton. i'm encasing my shaking-hand in bronze. brad said, "hi," and "thanks for all your work." to which i replied, "no, thank you!" We are so close, we're like conjoined twins now. and bill really liked my shirt. he said, "heh heh... vampire. that's good."

two of a set of commongroundus mascotus kittenus

ki(10)z!¡¡!¡!!

Tyler and his bikes; Nutmeg is sunshine; Tallie McOneball looks over his broken bike with Tyler

a kiln at the kiln and pottery expo

Chicken Box don't lie

People overlooking the levee at the kiln and pottery expo by the Industrial Canal

today, i found an old minolta camera with a telephoto lens in the old distribution house. i have no idea if it has film in it or if it even works at all, but i've been pretending like it does. i also found a canon eos, but it needs a battery or two, which i don't have in my possession. if i can find a place that actually sells batteries and film (whatever that is...) maybe i'll try using a real camera for once. i've gotta figure out how to open up that minolta first though.

apparently built to spill played a benefit gig for common ground last night. i mean, i know they did--i was there--but no one seemed to know about it until like the day before. the set was mediocre... like day old bread. they did play the longest, and possibly worst, encore ever. 20 minutes of white noise.

business at CGR keeps bouncing along ever so uncontrollably. yesterday there was massive confusion about how many volunteers were to be apportioned for each project, and Zeke (the co-head of the megan perry healthy soil project) got the fantods.

i've managed to pretty much stay away from the spring break-y bullshit and have been trying to garner my own pet projects. over the following couple of weeks i oughtta be building a couple of desks and helping set up the LAN in the new office suites along with my general helping hand to the bioremediation and gardening projects. Additional avoidance of spring breakness included moving out of the short-term volunteer housing and into "yellow brick," the house reserved for long-termers. we've got a room with extra-long bunks designated specifically for tall volunteers. you must be at least six feet tall to ride that ride. the morning was spent raising the top bunks higher so the people on the bottom bunks wouldn't wack their noggins so often. it seems like everyone can now sit up in bed. the real upside to the move is that we only have four people in our room as opposed to six. the downside is that we no longer have enough mattresses to go around, so i'm now sleeping on my camping mat. the upside to that is that my camping mat is actually pretty comfortable.

oh yeah, and we have bicycles now.

second line

it's a tradition here that when an established musician dies the
members of his band lead a parade in his honor and the crowd follows
behind.

i'm fairly certain when my mom told me not to ruin my dinner she
meant, "do not eat a pint of cherry garcia in a 10 minute span." i
will confirm this when dinner is served.

my favorite slasher porno

morning brought a meeting with theo, a woman heading up an organization called replant new orleans, which is doing exactly what the name describes--planting trees and creating a system of compost remediation to help clean up the city's soil. another common grounder and i will help her out for an earth day event that will involve planting up to 525 trees. winn dixie, the regional super market chain, is sponsoring the event and we'll get all the publicity that goes along with it as they try and establish themselves and an environmentally friendly corporation.

after lunch i got sent on an emergency mission to an alternative media convention, the theory being that it would be about media trends and strategies for independent media outlets. while it was an alternative media convention, it was alternative in the dyed-hair and nose-piercing sense and the media included comics, films, and arts and crafts. there was a showing of goregasm, a slasher porn movie featuring everyone's favorite serial murderer, penis-face. the two of us who went there bailed and headed to cafe du monde for some free beignets and coffee (free if you table them).

tomorrow may bring some soil testing.

keepin' it weird.

onwards, to austin!

"This is the most magnificent discarded living room set I have ever seen"

Sunday is an idle day here at Common Ground, which I believe is welcomed by many after a week of some strenuous manual labor and some psychological battles (some of which are ongoing--and it should be noted that these are not my battles), and of course, Mardi Gras, that day of overblown hedonistic festivity that couldn't possibly live up to its reputation and yet somehow in the lack of recollection of so many, can't not be as amazing it's supposed to be. Work did stop for Mardi Gras, and virtually everyone at Common Ground went out to the parades--the Zulu parade seemed to be the biggest draw, featuring not just your standard beads and plastic cups being artlessly strewn about, but also coconuts. What made the parade truly memorable to me was that about half of the participants were in black face. All that revelry with a legacy of racism staring us in the face. These were black people in black face too. I'm unsure what to make of it all.

My past two days were largely spent working on a powerpoint presentation for VIP-types who came for the grand opening of 1800 Deslonde Street (what will be offices for Common Ground's legal, tech, and bioremediation services) and then also helping break soil in preparation for a rose garden outside of 1800. The whole event was put together in two days, which is a remarkably short time considering it featured multiple musical acts and free food for a crowd of about 100. It was minor miracle. I was approached to create a flyer for it on Wednesday evening, we had it printed and ready to be distributed by late Thursday morning. Until I started work on the flyer the administrative director didn't know the party was happening. Organizational troubles persist.

To keep things light, games of chess are abundant and there were a couple evening viewings of Ratatouille and Juno.

you're shorter than you think you are

lined up for the zulu parade

foxy throws rocks at the cameraman

sunset obscured

where deslonde street runs into the north claiborne bridge

NOLA photos

Walgreens, Canal Street

Absinthe poster by Ron English

Café Du Monde serves up the beignets

eviscerated shops support Georges for Gov'na!

Claiborne Avenue Bridge, Day

Keith Calhoun


the neighborhood


Claiborne Avenue Bridge, Sunset


Levee, Lower 9th Ward

after the tornado warnings

today the sun was shining and the wind was blowing down on deslonde street. woken by a fellow bunker's early morning calisthenics, i lazed about on the mattress (luxury!) in the top bunk of a bed in a house that will eventually hold offices for common ground's bioremediation project, free legal advice for residents dicked over by contractors, and other useful community programs. after about a half hour, i managed to peel myself out of bed and jogged down to the kitchen house to get started on my dish washing duties for the morning. around 8:30 we had our morning meeting and then split off into our different work groups. today i was with zeke and nutmeg doing some gardening work. we prepped a spot for for the pink project to come in and plant some roses next to 1800 deslonde and then headed off to meg's garden where we set up some beds and planted some broccoli, carrots, leeks, turnips, and sunflowers among a couple other plant-y items.

the afternoon was less busy, but i managed to drop a bunch of doughnuts off at lowernine.org. some woman apparently brings a large box full of sugary baked goods to common ground every few days. our capacity to consume them is outweighed by their numbers. maybe one day lowernine will bring common ground something.