Archive for July, 2010

I’ve Been Here All Along and I’m Getting Tired

I spent the 4th through 6th grades with Mrs Schmidt at the Sacramento Waldorf school, which probably saved me from a life of delinquency.  She was German, and maybe that had nothing to do with it, but she was both very kind and very strict.  I was kind of a mess in the fourth grade.  I couldn’t pay attention and read under the desk constantly.  I never turned in homework and my handwriting was almost illegible.  My parents had just got divorced and my dad was back in Eugene, Oregon.  I missed him and everything else.  Mrs. Schmidt was somehow able to keep me on a tight leash.  Dear Mrs. Schmidt, you probably didn’t guess that when you let me into your classroom with the rounded wooden door handles that you’d be breaking up a fight between two girls in organic sweaters and me with the copper rod from eurythmics class.  But I’m all good now, I promise.  If I am, it’s probably due to you.  Here’s one of those times I tried your patience.

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The Body Show Benefit + shoot at home of Bad Monkey Productions

Very excited to announce that video artist Jason Bahling and myself are in the planning stages for our benefit screening and cabaret of our short film The Body Show adapted from my 2007 Pushcart Prize-nominated poem “How to Boil an Egg,” to be held at the Someday Lounge November 3rd. The film’s premise is a cooking show gone awry with a Julia Childs meets David Lynch sensibility.  Themes: food, sex and identity.  (more…)

Body Making Cookery LIVE in 2005

About five years ago I appeared in a line-up at Borders downtown and read from my then-new collection Body-Making Cookery which is still in progress (cue internal groan). The collection is all recipe poems and explores the associations food has for us, that food is almost never just a way to keep our bodies going, that it reminds us of other things like family, personal biography, history, body image, desire, mythology, religion. When we eat, it’s my belief that we don’t just take the food into our bodies, but all of these associations into the body of our self. I was experimenting with a persona, the housewife, which later morphed into cooking show host gone awry as explored in the short film The Body Show, a collaboration with video artist Jason Bahling to be released in November 2010. Here’s some footage of that evening those long years ago. I believe there was Huber’s and Spanish coffees after.

Body Making Cookery LIVE 2005 from Nora Robertson on Vimeo.

NEW OREGON INTERVIEW SERIES BOOK NIGHT

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AN EVENING OF CONVERSATION WITH THREE PORTLAND WRITERS HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH JON RAYMOND, BEN MOORAD AND MONICA DRAKE

The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent Portland literary figures together for an evening of intimate conversation. Fiction and screen writer Jon Raymond, Write Around Portland co-founder Ben Moorad and novelist Monica Drake sat down to discuss their work and how our book culture is evolving on August 26th at Urban Grind East. An editor at Plazm Magazine whose writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications, Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. A recent MacDowell Colony Fellow in support of his current nonfiction project, The Envelope of Suicides, Ben Moorad is a poet, interdisciplinary artist and co-founder of the nonprofit Write Around Portland, which has helped over 3000 local youth and adults overcome barriers to build community through writing. An essayist and the author of the novel Clown Girl, Monica Drake’s work has appeared in Portland Noir and The Sun among others, and she teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” The Oregonian’s Barry Johnson remarked “at this point, we don’t know whether we’re headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we’re going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series.”

The New Oregon Interview Series is presented by New Oregon Arts and Letters, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as 2GQ, the publishers of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly. More information can be found online at neworegon.org.  Photo credits: Steve Fritz.

LISTEN FOR YOURSELF

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Jon Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. He’s an editor at Plazm Magazine and his writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications.

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In 1999, Ben Moorad started Write Around Portland with his friend Liza Halley. In the years since, this nonprofit has helped almost 3,000 adults and youth overcome various barriers to build community through writing. Ben has received three grants from the Regional Arts and Culture Council for his poetry projects that incorporate performance and collaborations with book artists; and he is a recent Fellow of the MacDowell Colony in support of his current nonfiction project, The Envelope of Suicides.

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Monica Drake is the author of the novel, Clown Girl (Hawthorne Books). Her essays and stories have been published in The Northwest Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Threepenny Review and other magazines. Work is forthcoming in The Sun. She has an MFA from the University of Arizona and teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

NEW OREGON INTERVIEW SERIES FILM NIGHT

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AN EVENING OF CONVERSATION WITH THREE PORTLAND FILMMAKERS

HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH ARTHUR BRADFORD, ALISSA NICOLE CREAMER AND ANDY BLUBAUGH

The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent filmmakers together for an evening of intimate conversation. MTV’s How’s Your News? creator Arthur Bradford, experimental filmmaker Andy Blubaugh and cultural/human interest documentary-maker Alissa Nicole Creamer sat down to discuss their work and how our film culture is evolving on July 29th at Urban Grind East. A director and Sundance alumnus, Blubaugh’s experimental short films have screened at over a hundred film festivals worldwide and he was named as one of Filmmaker magazine’s 2007 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Debuting her first feature, NEVER TO CRY, with Barcelona’s TV3-Catalunya, Alissa Nicole Creamer has made numerous short-format documentary projects for NGOs in the U.S., Africa, Europe, and South America. Author of Dogwalker and an O. Henry Award recipient, Arthur Bradford’s feature film How’s Your News? about adults with disabilities conducting man-on-the-street interviews was broadcast on HBO, PBS, and the British Channel 4 before an MTV series based on the documentary aired in 2009.The Oregonian’s Barry Johnson remarked in Portland Art Watch “at this point, we don’t know whether we’re headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we’re going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series.”

Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.”

LISTEN FOR YOURSELF

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Arthur Bradford’s feature film How’s Your News? about adults with disabilities conducting man-on-the-street interviews was broadcast on HBO, PBS, and British channel, Channel 4 before an MTV series based on the documentary aired in 2009. Since 2006, he has served as director of Camp Jabberwocky, the longest running sleepover camp for adults with disabilities in the United States. He also is the author of a short story collection Dogwalker and a contributor to McSweeney’s Future Dictionary of America. His fiction has appeared in McSweeney’s, Esquire, Zoetrope, Dazed And Confused magazine, and BOMB, and The O. Henry Awards Anthology.

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Alissa Nicole Creamer has been recording images with a camera since age 5. Motivated by exploring creative methods to address cultural and humanitarian themes, Alissa began working with video in 2001. After graduating as valedictorian from UCLA School of Arts and Architecture in 2003, she completed her MA in Documentary Film in Barcelona, Spain with the support of a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship. Alissa has received funding to shoot international still photography and short-format documentary projects for NGOs in the U.S., Africa, Europe, and South America. Filmed in Angola and Spain, NEVER TO CRY, a co-production with TV3-Catalunya, marked her debut as a feature film director. She is currently at work on a documentary tentatively titled DANCE INDIA, her second broadcast production and a recipient of a Regional Arts and Culture Council project grant.


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Andy Blubaugh is a filmmaker and performer whose work has been exploring the connections between his own life and the greater human experience for ten years. His work has screened over one hundred film festivals worldwide, including the Sundance, Ann Arbor, and Seattle International Film Festivals, as well as the Time Based Art Festival, and the American Museum of Natural History. He has served as the associate director of the Portland Documentary and Experimental Film Festival and as Coordinator of the Northwest Film & Video Festival. He was identified as one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker magazine in 2007. He’s currently at work on a feature-length film, The Adults in the Room.

Plotting the future of the creative economy in Portland, The Oregonian

The New Oregon Interview Series explores Portland’s evolving creative culture through interviewing the artists and makers themselves.  May 2009 through February 21010, the series held eight live evenings of conversation in the Urban Grind East coffeehouse, bringing together musicians, filmmakers, writers, fashion designers, visual artists, chefs, architects and Mayor Sam Adams, among others.  This was Barry Johnson writing on the series as it launched for the Oregonian’s blog, Oregon Live.  Read more here at Plotting the future of the creative economy in Portland | OregonLive.com .

NEW OREGON INTERVIEW SERIES MUSIC NIGHT

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AN EVENING OF CONVERSATION WITH THREE PORTLAND MUSIC-MAKERS

HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH SLIM MOON, ALICIA ROSE AND MIC CRENSHAW

The New Oregon Interview Series brought three influential Portland music-makers together for an evening of intimate conversation. Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon, Mississippi Studios co-owner Alicia Rose, and rap artist Mic Crenshaw sat down to discuss their work and how our music culture is evolving on June 24 at Urban Grind East. Said print interviewee DJ Anjali, “It’s still like the Wild West here. People are coming from other parts of the country to live here because they might be able to do what they want to do.”

An influential punk musician, Moon has toured with Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill, and under his direction, Kill Rock Stars released such artists as Elliott Smith, the Decemberists, and Sleater-Kinney.  Dubbed “one of the best hiphop artists in PDX” by the Portland Mercury, Crenshaw has shared stages with the Fugees and the Wu-Tang Clan and his recent release hit number four on the college radio hiphop charts. Rose was the talent buyer for the Doug Fir before she partnered with Jim Brunberg to transform Mississippi Studios into a driving music venue, and is well-known for photographing local performers.

Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.”

LISTEN FOR YOURSELF

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Barry Johnson of the Oregonian wrote for Portland Art Watch that “the best way to plot the future of local popular music is to start with the present. The panelists agreed that Portland is “rapidly becoming a major music center, if it wasn’t already there. We’ve never had this many bands that are this good.”

_MG_6319 Alicia J. Rose has led an independent minded and diverse career in the music and entertainment industry for over 20 years. She is currently co-owner and talent buyer of Mississippi Studios in Portland, Oregon.  Most recently she spent 4.5 years as talent buyer at critically acclaimed Portland, OR music venue Doug Fir Lounge, the premier venue of its size in the Pacific Northwest. She also spent 9 years as President &  Director of Sales & Marketing for NW independent music distributor NAIL Distribution, Before her move to Portland in 1995, she was head booker at the infamous Chameleon in San Francisco’s Mission District, as well as holding down the fort at other bay area venues over the 90′s (The Covered Wagon, The Thirsty Swede, The Nightbreak and others) and served as a talent scout for Capitol Records, label manager for Pink Martini/Heinz Records. She is also an award-winning professional photographer responsible for unique and memorable portraits of musicians (Decemberists, Viva Voce, Menomena, Nada Surf) and interesting people alike. Her skill set has recently expanded into directing, and original music videos for both Viva Voce and Loch Lomond have met with critical acclaim. She also doubles as avant garde accordionist- Miss Murgatroid, most recently releasing “Hearts & Daggers” in 2008 with noted violinist/vocalist Petra Haden.

Miccrenshaw-5 Born and raised on the southside of Chicago, Mic Crenshaw is one of the most respected MCs in the Northwest.  After gaining a number of fans as part of Suckapunch, Cleveland Steamers (Line of Fire) and Hungry Mob, Crenshaw is releasing his first solo album, Thinking Out Loud, featuring Stic Man from Dead Prez, Nightclubber Lang of Boom Bap Project, and Gen Erik from Animal Farm, among others.  Released in 2009, Thinking Out Loud peaked at #4 on the CMJ College Radio hip-hop charts.  The Portland Mercury called Crenshaw and the Lifesavas “two of the very best hiphop artists in PDX.”  Crenshaw has also shared stages with the legendary Fugees, Ice Cube, Outkast, Wu-Tang Clan, and many others, and is well-known as a Portland, ORegon Poetry slam champion and national finalist.  He was recently featured by URB Magazine, who included him in their Next 1000 column.  He also has been featured in XLR8R Magazine, on Myx.tv, hiphoppdx.com, okayplayer.com, itunes,com, sonicbids.com and a number of other music websites.  Crenshaw is also well known as a community activist, and is a founding member of Anti-Racist Action, and the famed Minneapolis anti-racist skinhead crew, The Baldies.  He is the co-founder of Global Fam, a non-profit which has set up computer centers in Amman, Jordan for Iraqi refugees displaced by the current war, and for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, central Africa.  Crenshaw’s work is a testament to his experiences helping people throughout the world and his concern for international social and political issues.

DSC00275 Slim Moon still thinks of himself as a punk rocker, after all these years.  Starting with “spoken word as a performance art” at 16 opening for Steven Jesse Bernstein, and moving on to 20+ years of experimental and confrontational “musical” performance projects disguised as bands such as Nisqually Delta Podunk Nightmare, Lush, The Punks, Slim Moon and What Army and Parrish Moon, as well as Witchypoo, which appeared with Kathleen Hanna and Bikini Kill.  Moon was the founder of the independent music label, Kill Rock Stars — releasing such artists as Unwound, Elliott Smith, the Decemberists, Deerhoof, and Sleater-Kinney —  which he ran for 15 years.  He is now a manager for bands and solo artists such as the Portland Cello Project and Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh), and lives in Battle Ground, Washington.

NEW OREGON INTERVIEW SERIES – Independent Fashion: The Seaplane Interview with Kate Towers and Holly Stalder

Originally published in New Oregon Arts & Letters, this interview profiles two of Portland’s seminal independent fashion designers, Kate Towers and Holly Stalder.  Click here to read more about INDEPENDENT FASHION .

Soufflé of Engorged, of Long-Suffering Flesh

By Nora Robertson

1.  Mousse makes me think of frozen desire.  Whip a pint of heavy cream into a frenzy of stiff peaks.  A soufflé would be lighter, more prone to deflation.  In a shop window this afternoon, I saw the whispering dress, Marilyn Monroe shoulders and a layered cotton skirt cinched in tight.  Tonight you told me you wanted me to masturbate in front of a room full of people, on a couch or a stage, and our hips buckled together, swollen spots rubbed raw.

2.  In a double boiler, melt splinters of chocolate, half a pound, the darker the better.  The dress fit me perfectly, size 6 though I am not a size 6.  I am not what I’m supposed to be.  I was not supposed to want a gypsy rose skirt too, same layers of black tulle flaring off the hip like castanets are clacking in each of my palms.  Baby, I’ll do anything you want me to.  The rest of the day, a tug in my groin suggested esparadilles, a sangria top, accessories.  I flipped over on top.  I’m your slut, your slit, your bitch.  He reached up to tuck my hair behind my ear, brushing waves back behind my shoulders so he can see me better.  Stir in orange flower water to taste, vanilla and for piquancy, for a little fight, a pinch of chile.

3.  Working quickly, fold the chocolate into the hard tufts of cream.  Use a light hand or the peaks will begin to disintegrate.  Running back to the shop, I slid the plastic card across the glass of the register and hoarsely whispered, I’ll take them both.   The shop woman seemed mildly surprised.  If I don’t, I told her, I won’t be able to stop thinking about it.

4.  Spoon the mousse into individual ramekins, ½ cup each, and chill.  The mixture will become sturdy.   Afterwards, I couldn’t sleep.  The sky outside grew steeped in weak light.  I’m a lifelong masturbator.  Now all I can do is masturbate, an insomnia of flesh shivering for release, next to your supine body.  Set one serving in front of each diner, a soupçon of crème anglaise, a basil leaf, exactly one portion per person, enough.

Originally published in Monkeybicycle, and podcast online.

Pork is the Last Frontier

By Nora Robertson

1.  Back in the day, there was no such thing as pre-packaged breadcrumbs.  There was no Lipton’s instant iced tea or minute gumbo.  Take a cardboard can of Stouffer’s breading mix off the shelf and notice its slight chemical smell.  Grandma tells me that in Texas, they chicken-fried everything.  Chicken-fried pork-chops, chicken-fried okra, chicken-fried chicken.  My mom doesn’t let me eat sugar. She says it ruins your stomach.  Grandma learned to make chicken-fried at the age of eight because her mom was widowed with nine kids and boarders put bacon on the table. Mom doesn’t cook pork either.  She says pork is the last frontier of Judaism, which makes me think of rolls of barbed wire ringing a yard like in Sophie’s Choice.

2.  Rinse four pork chops, pale beige like bandages, and towel-dry.  Heat ½ in. pure white lard in a pair of cast-iron skillets, surfaces oily like engines.  The oil will vaporize and hang heavily in the air tinted with pig.  Grandma met Grandpa at a baseball game in Springfield.  We don’t keep kosher in my house.  I’m not even sure what kosher is.  Grandma had just graduated from book-keeping at junior college and moved here with her whole family to take an accounting job at the bread factory.  My LA grandma thinks bay shrimp salad is lovely and won’t eat the rendered fat of anything, not even chickens as she grew up doing, but still doesn’t eat pork.

3.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and a little chili powder into a cup of flour on a plate.  The color will grow subtly complex.  Whisk an egg in a bowl and cover over the  bleached steak face of each chop with egg and then flour before frying.  A tousle-haired, lanky man just back from dropping bombs on the Nazis kept looking over at her, a trim blonde with a soft drawl, at her, the fatherless girl with eight younger sisters.  He proposed to her in front of a fireplace by Christmas, circle skirt flaring around her on the bear rug.  She thought it was her chance.  She didn’t know about the cabin trips and six packs of green death, the dour father and the dog-kicking.  Didn’t know her eldest son would learn to box his brother’s face dancing just outside the little boy’s arm reach,  that she would learn to search the aisles for Frito Lay and Dr. Pepper.

4.  Let it fry up until the coating sticks real good, until it smells like only heat.  Mom says kosher is obsolete anyway.  She’s more worried about preservatives.  Grandma slides a chop on our plates.  Grandpa is halfway through his before us sisters have poked a fork into the crust.  She tells us, try it.  This is what things taste like where you come from.

Originally published in Alimentum.