maria_sputnik

I really need someone to write me a blurb like that for my next book.

it would make me pick it up.

that is fantastic

i know, it's sort of a paradox to write something that lovely about bad writing!

oh! I just read that, too

(:

--mza.

unrelatedly, i just read that david foster wallace killed himself and i'm finding it unexpectedly depressing. he wrote one of the five books you read, right?

... or alternately, that no one woulda hanged themself

Yes I talked to a friend on th telephonic device earlier tonight for a long time to fight th very strange sadness that that brought on

--mza.

it's weird, i was just talking about infinite jest to someone a couple of weeks ago. it's also weird because i sorta would have guessed the guy was suicide-proof. it seemed like he'd been there and checked it out in great detail.

someday i'm going to go back and reread that book with a fine-toothed comb.

fuk

dude if they don't like my livejournal they should just stop reading it

you made me LOL, stranger.

STALE BEAN SOUP

I wish we were friends in real life and started a book club together.

could still happen

Hey, I'm in your hometown! Any recommendations on e.g. where to get good coffee ?

There is a lot of good coffee in Portland!

Probably the most famous is Stumptown Coffee (four locations, but if you want beans you should go to the one on Belmont b/c they have a whole separate bean annex where you can sometimes do tastings-!-and the person behind the counter will very seriously tell you about the "cherry aftertaste" and "notes" and stuff in each beangroup, I personally am partial to a bean called "Nicaragua Los Delirios"). (Note: aside from the rad coffee, Stumptown is also notable for its hipster buildup. I used to call it "little Williamsburg.")

Across the street and slightly-around-the-corner from Powell's Books is the Half and Half cafe, which is charming and small with good coffee and nice pie and devilled eggs. I think their coffee is roasted by a micro-roaster who delivers by bicycle.

Inside Powell's on Hawthorne and up on Mississippi is a great cafe called the Fresh Pot but they just serve Stumptown Coffee sooo.

Also, for good coffee in intriguing places I recommend the Pied Cow (which has a beautiful night garden and will let you smoke a hookah) and the Rimsky Korsacoffeehouse (which has strong coffee, strong desserts, and noisy pianos).

How long are you here?

Portland is cooler than I ever suspected.

obviously you should go to powell's books on burnside. if you have a car you should also drive into the gorge (check out crown point, multnomah falls, bridal falls, the bonneville fish hatchery [herman the sturgeon!] and bonneville dam [epic salmon run this year]).

other recommendations: play pinball downtown at ground kontrol; go for a walk in forest park and/or the rose gardens; climb on mt. tabor; look @ comics at floating world, reading frenzy, and guapo; go see cheap movies while drinking beer and eating pizza at the laurelhurst theater; take a walk around the river @ the eastbank esplanade; ride ferris wheel at creepy old oaks park; study urban planning at PSU; ride the space-tram down the hill from OHSU; rent videos at movie madness; go see arty movies @ the hollywood theater; get weird late-night donuts and/or get married at voodoo donuts; look at velvet paintings @ the velveteria; browse records at exiled records and timbuktunes (hipster and international respectively, located a block from eachother on SE Hawthorne -- both the owners are happy to let you listen to everything and shoot the shit)

there is an italian restaurant on belmont named genoa which is supposed to be both expensive and sublime but i've only eaten there in my dreams; i like cuban food at pambiche; thai food at sweet basil thai on NE broadway; there is a thai restaurant on SE division named "pok pok" which serves a thai food totally unlike all the other thai food i know (both tasty and from a different region), and which arouses great enthusiasm in the populace

...

that's how i feel about john updike!