Friday, August 20, 2010

Pints of Tea

It was about 1 or 2 when I finally made it out yesterday. I was stuck in the hostels lounge watching vegans smoke cigarettes and a meditation elaborate on the history of hemp seeds. Since Ian had driven up from San Diego he was able to drive around the city. Ian's car is awesome. It's a 1980's giant sedan that cost him $500. The passenger door doesn't open, the stereo is a set of pc speakers and there is rust covering the hood. We drove through Hawthorne and other hip neighbourhoods listening to Alice in Chains on our way to Mt Tabor.

Mt Tabor is an extinct volcano that shadows half of the city. It's full of the trees that seem to blanket the whole state of Oregon. After going for a quick walk Ian revealed that he was going to quit drinking after tonight, and that he wanted to go out with a bang. My liver shrivelled in anticipation.

After some guitar duelling and clothes washing (a necessary evil), Ian, Dean and I grabbed some beers from the corner store. We were joined by a whole manor of people from the hostel as we drank from cups that concealed our beer. Joe, a half Polish, guido/bro,from Florida joined in. He lived above an apothecary and was out celebrating his new job at a bar. He was initially recruiting musicians to play at his bar, but quickly changed his focus to bumming cigarettes and drinking other peoples beer. After a few hours of not getting our shit together, a small group of us led by Joe went out barhopping. Within 5 minutes we managed to ditch Joe, whom many had grown suspicious. We stopped by a small American bar (like Cheers, but not funny) and had a few Pabst Blue Ribbons (PBR).

We soon realised that this bar was a dive and headed across the road to a place that was a restaurant a few hours before. The bar was more pumping, the beer was cheaper and I was already losing coherency. I started talking to people at the bar and met Chris, who's favourite line was "hey, I'm just fucking with you". After a few $2 PBRs the hostel crowd left the bar to go to bed. I stuck around talking to Chris and his mate (who made this video). We hung out at the bar and before I knew it, it was 3AM and pretty cold outside. I stumbled back to the hostel and upon reaching the front door, was greeted by someone asleep on the porch, bag and all. In the end, Ian had a good last night on beer. I was happy to see a different side of Portland, opting out of the downtown areas.


****Song
I forgot the song yesterday. But tonight I'm going to see The Hold Steady. So enjoy Hurricane J, it's a brilliant little ditty.

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