I finally hit the west coast. Just flew in to Seattle from Portland on a tiny little plane. I almost missed my flight tonight, after chatting with all the lovely Portland peeps for a little too long! I had the most marvelous welcome—when I first stepped off the plane, I came face-to-face with a copy of Generation T in the airport Powell’s Bookstore!
And then—how awesome—more than 50 people showed up to rock it out at Powell’s proper (on Hawthorne) that night! (Including my friend, Gary—so nice to see a familiar face!) Unfortunately, my camera’s juice ran out, so I have no photos from the actual event to share. Sad. Portland was a special stop not only because it was my first trip to the great city, but because my favorite member of my favorite band happened to be touring through my new favorite Northwestern city. Give up? He also happens to be my favorite brother. That’s right, folks, the World/Inferno Friendship Society (and my big bro Franz) are touring down the west coast at the same time I am! Driving around with my media escort, Marilyn, I looked up to see this lovely omen of my strange west coast family reunion, this rotating bread loaf in the sky:
Turns out, “Franz” is the name of a local family of breadmaker. Marilyn pulled a U-turn, and we drove up next to the “Franz Bakery Outlet” (who knew bakeries had outlets?). Well, this one does, and after I took pictures of everything in the store, they even gave me a couple of mini-loaves as a token of my visit. Sweet. I love free stuff. Plus, my brother usually doesn’t get enough food when he’s on the road, so it’ll be a nice snack. He and I should be overlapping again in San Francisco. So how’s this for a plan: Refashion a T-shirt during the evening and wear it out on the town that night. Good, I’m glad you’re in. Another fun stop today was the big Powell’s bookstore—the original—it’s both incredible and incredibly huge. Check out the great titles on their staff pick list. Here’s a book by Jeffrey Yamaguchi, a cool Brooklynite who likes to get his creative on, too.
[ Posted on March 27th, 2006 ]
