roro-a-gogo

Action News!

2009-02-08T02:01:00.000-08:00

Well, hello from the Northwest! This is roro-a-gogo reporting live from Oregon. A request went out from a friend for me to report a little on some local attractions she mentioned in her blog, Licking Calcutta (check it out).

Though I have yet to visit one of her requests, Salvador Molly's, it's going on my list of places to visit. I will also visit Stepping Stone Cafe as soon as I can. I have been to Voodoo Doughnuts though....amazing. Though the staff there was a little too cool for life, they do make one heck of a doughnut. I decided to go for the specimen the guy from the travel channel tried (I saw the same program!) That's right, I ate a maple frosted doughnut that had two carefully placed strips of bacon atop it. Though this may sound like the worst thing since earwax it was actually good. Quite good. Every bite was like breakfast heaven. On a doughnut. At 2:30am. Super yum.

As far as the many McMenamins go I have visited a couple so far. The Ram's Head, which is located on the very posh NW 23rd, was once a hotel and now has a bar/restaurant. It was awesome and smelled like my Aunt and Uncle's wonderful old home and brought tears to my eyes because of that fact. The Bagdad is a McMenamins theatre that serves food and beverages during movies. The best though is called Backstage. It is attached to the back of the Bagdad theatre and is a narrow, yet VERY tall room with painted canvases scaling the 60 foot walls. Pool tables, cool booths, and if you go up the stairs there are little rooms on different levels. You can even sit up in the "attic". Very cool joint.

A more outdoorzie (sp?) activity is going to visit Multnomah Falls. It's about 20 minutes outside Portland and is a beautiful drive on a clear day. I actually visited this historical site last weekend with my good friend Ben, who came for a visit of the Northwest.

Goodbye Superior and Thanks to My Friends

2009-01-28T10:31:00.000-08:00

Well, the craptacular economy has hit my world now. And by hit my world I mean I was laid off on Monday. Or maybe my "position was eliminated". Not sure how they put it, but either way I no longer have steady work. I'll be spending the next week or so finishing up some projects for them, so that's good. I'm spending every extra second recreating my portfolio, creating a digital portfolio, and applying for jobs. I'll take anything at this point as long as it pays the bills. This is no time to be picky.

On the plus side I really don't feel too bummed out about this. I'll pull through. My friends here in Oregon are amazing and have really helped out the last couple days. Sam was there for the news and hugged me while I cried (and yelled), my friend Cam took me out to a nice dinner and had more hugs for me, and my roommate Rachel brought home margarita fixins last night. I have fantastic friends!

Thanks to my family too for all the encouraging words. Especially my Uncle John. We're both going to find jobs really fast! I just know it! Internet hugs!

Updates

2009-01-21T22:44:00.000-08:00

Well, this week has been interesting. Been a bit busy socially, but we've managed to find time to audition a really great drummer. His name is Sam and he's really amazing and seems like he'd get along very well with us. :) Alright!

We've also decided that our sound definitely is in need of some piano/organ/synth stuff so my new friend Akila will be practicing with us and working up a few things for some of our music. The band is really starting to shape up. We'll still need a bass player, but they are not as hard to find as drummers!

Hopefully we'll all be able to get together this weekend and get in a practice before the next open mic on Monday. Once we've got our bass player and about ten songs down and ready to go we'll be able to start booking some gigs. YEA! Oh yeah. We need equipment. Ugg. Is it possible that money could just fall from the sky?

Open Mic Solo

2009-01-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I found out before the open mic that I was going to have to go solo, without Jon (the other half of Hamilton). Eek. Got to the Goodfoot open mic a little later than last week, because no one was there for the first half hour last week. Well, I guess I was too late because when I walked in they said it was too late to get on the list. DARN!

Well, my friends were coming to watch me and we ended up just enjoying the show anyway. Halfway through the night the MC came over and asked why I didn't put myself on the overflow list cause he had a spot and wanted me to play! :) Yes! I got to get up there and play one of my songs and a cover of Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. It went over pretty good too! Glad my friends were there to cheer me on.

Also, one of these friends is a house piano player for a jazz club in Portland. He really enjoyed what he heard and wants to play with us! Yes!

Band update: We're still looking for a bass player, drummer, and maybe another guitar player. We're holding auidtions this week and next week and should be able to put together the whole band soon. Yea!

Why Hamilton?

2009-01-09T14:15:00.001-08:00

Well, first of all it's short and sweet. Doesn't really imply anything about us. That's why we ended up picking it. Why did it come up though? Well, when brainstorming for our band name I wanted it to be something that meant something to us at least a little bit.

So I started thinking about some of my favorite things. Green Tabasco sauce on everything (it's true, ask Rachel), travel, shopping, anything new, surprises, music, art, movies. One of my favorite movies ever is the Wizard of Oz. Love it! Always have. All the colors, the shoes, the characters, and the witches! My favorite character ended up being the wicked witch. So cool to watch the actress that played her. The actress' name was....drum roll please...Margaret Hamilton. :)

And thus Hamilton was born!

Hamilton

2009-01-09T13:57:00.000-08:00

Well, Jon and I (my new musical partner in crime) have been playing for a couple weeks now. We've been working mainly on stuff I've written, music and lyrics, and then Jon takes the music part and really runs with it. It's all sounding really fantastic to me. I love it. We played a ten minute spot at a popular open mic in Portland last week with a pretty great response. Yes, I will admit half the audience was invited by myself and Jon, but still! :)

While at the open mic we met another band called the Augmentors. A really cool group of musicians. They said as soon as we got an entire set together they wanted to try to book some shows with us. So awesome! So friendly! So Portland!

We'll be playing the open mic again Monday, trying to scoop up some more talent. We currently need a bass player and a drummer. And what a treat it would be if they had some sound equipment. *Le sigh*

PS: Oh yeah our name is Hamilton. Tada! I'll explain that in another post! ;)

Habby Bew Deers!

2009-01-02T14:49:00.000-08:00

Or...in non-weirdo speak, Happy New Year's! Hey everybody hope your new year's eve was fun, cause mine rocked! My good friend Sam came up from Corvalis to visit and we went out with my roommates Rachel and Michelle and a new friend Erin. So much fun! Probably the most fun I've ever had on a NYE. So much fun in fact not a single one of us thought about the fact that we were all single and had no one to smooch at midnight. Too busy dancing and having fun to even care! :) Thanks ladies!

Here are a couple pictures of us downtown at a bar called Dixie (bar dancing and bras on the wall kind of joint) and some of us at Pioneer Square for midnight. Wow I wish we would have taken some videos. There were plenty of sound bites that would have been very amusing. Everything from singing "Off to See the Wizard" to "HHHHHHHAAAAAAPPY New Year" at every MAX stop.

On to the Next!

2008-12-31T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well, as a few of you were told (I kept it under wraps because of this very reason) I started playing with a new band a couple weeks ago. They all seemed very cool and extremely talented, but this was a new band and we had yet to find a drummer. The three musicians I was working with were very talented, but I was not feeling it for some reason. There were a lot of plans, but not a lot of push. So, I've let them know I will not be playing with them. Oh, well.

On the very bright side I've found another fellow to work with. He's from Vancouver, WA (15-20min away from me) and is a very talented, multi-instrument guy. Had one get together with him, showed him some of my stuff, and it feels right. He's really creative and fantastic at coming up with the music half of songs. Something that I can do, but without formal training can be made too simple by myself. He doesn't write lyrics though, which is perfect because I've got enough lyric/song ideas for all of us! :)

So hopefully we can put something together that is really great! We'll be playing a ten minute spot at a very popular open mic in the SE on Monday (Goodfoot on Stark, starts at 8pm). Should be good exposure and a good way to meet and maybe find a couple other musicians to fill in the rest of the sound. Still need a drummer (tough to come by around here) and probably another multi-instrument person. Hopefully soon I'll be back on stage!

Rose performing with Kill Jones in August of 2008

Sam Moves Back to Oregon and Christmas

2008-12-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody! What an awesome week this will be! My good friend Sam is moving back to Oregon to chill with her Mom and grandparents for awhile. She just graduated college and will be living about an hour and a half away from me in OR. It will be soooo great to see her today! It's been 18 days...far to long for us to be apart.

I will also be traveling to her Mom's house for Christmas. They've decided to take in a stray for the holiday, which is so nice! If Sam wouldn't have invited me to her family festivities I would been sitting at my house...alone...with wine. Just kidding, kind of!

Have a great holiday everyone!

Snow and an Update

2008-12-21T18:42:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile, but I'm back. I've been busy, working, meeting new awesome people, getting to know my fantastic roommates, and avoiding going out in the snow.

I've had many firsts within my first two weeks in Portland. My first Blazers game, my first pro sports event ever, my first Voodoo doughnut, my first time watching Monte Python's Holy Grail, and first time having to buy chains for my car. It's awesome!

What is not awesome is that the sky will not stop spitting snow and ice all over Oregon. Nine inches of snow in the last 24 hours...what? It hasn't done this in Portland for the last twenty years (don't quote me on that) or something like that. Of course it would start when the Minnesota girl gets here!

Thanks for the pic Rachel. I stole it! :)

Eek! Soooo much to do!

2008-12-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

Look at this picture!!! So much to do. Having a teeny-tiny panic about the amount of unpacking and places that needs to happen before it feels completely like home. This may take awhile. :(

Needed a break from unpacking so I decided to blog a bit. I also needed a break from getting songs ready for a second audition I'm not allowing myself to talk about. It's tomorrow and I'm not nervous at all.*

Side note. I finally got a new camera cord so pics have been added to the old posts. Take a look!

Talk again soon. Hopefully I'll post a picture of a more put together room soon. Later!

From Settling In

*That's a lie!

Settling In

2008-12-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Well, made it in one piece to Portland! Three interesting things/notes about yesterdays travels from Missoula, MT to here:

1. The mountain "passes" (we had no clue what a mountain pass was until yesterday) weren't as bad as the lady at the hotel in Missoula said they would be. She was so ominous about explaining them -

US: So what's this mountain pass we hear about?

HOTEL LADY: Oh! There's two of them darlin'!

US: Well, what are they?

HOTEL LADY: You'll find out! You'll find out....(insert Deliverance theme song)

So, lame! We were all stressed out just to find out that these mountains passes were just the really curvy (not even that curvy) parts of the highway that happened to be high up on the mountain. Death defying...no. Annoying...yes!

2. The East side of Washington looks a lot like North Dakota...reference the last post. Fun times.

3. The highway that travels next to the Columbia River in Oregon is BEAUTIFUL! I'll post pictures as soon as I get a new camera cord. :)

Better jet! I've got shopping to do, things to put away, and a fish to buy!

PS: My audition went so well I have another one that I need to bring all my originals to...don't want to jinx it, but awesome!

North Dakota is dead...just thought I'd let everyone know.

2008-12-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

Yup, it's true. Go check for yourself. I dare you! North Dakota died appartently and has left behind a shell of a state. A place so dry and bare it makes you thristy just looking at it!

Anyway! Kayla and I left Minnesota this morning at 5am, got through what used to be a land called "North Dakota", and pushed all the way through Montana to Missoula. Where we are staying for the night. 14 hours of driving! Ugg. Not the funnest thing ever, but Kayla made it a hoot! I just said hoot. I'm working on not using any oooo words to mask my Minnesota speak. Sooooo anyway, I'll have to post pictures of the trip later. I've lost my camera cord. Awesome!

The last leg of the trip is tomorrow and the morning may be iffy with some passes being closed and/or slow. We'll see! Either way I'm getting to Portland TOMORROW!!! Whether I have to grow wings and fly there or not! :)

Going Away

2008-12-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, hello all...and by all I mean my Aunt and maybe my Mom. This is my first post and though I don't have much for entertaining thoughts right now, mostly just random pings about what I have to do before I leave, I'll say hello.

I'm currently in the process of gathering up all my things, making sure I have enough room in my car, changing my address EVERYWHERE, and a hundred other tasks before the big move to Portland on Friday. For the very few random people popping by to read this I'm moving to Portland, OR and this blog will log my experience. Follow along, it may get interesting!

I'll also use this chance to post a few pics of my going away parties/events. Really fun friends and family. I'll miss you guys!