BETH DITTO ON THE RIGHT, WITH KATE MOSS
I love the Guardian, and have been a daily reader since 9/11/01. Earlier this year, they featured Beth Ditto of "The Gossip,"
writing about Portland, my favorite city, in an article called "The friendliest big little city in America." I originally moved to Portland from Minnesota, prior to moving to Seattle for graduate school. Elliot Smith, Sleater-Kinney, the Dandy Warhols and the Shins have all been based in Portland.
I agree with Beth that Portland is a big little city, big enough to be interesting, little enough to be friendly. She is from rural Arkansas, but feels at home. As she says, it's relatively cheap: ".. you can buy a delicious lunch for $5; rent a three-bedroom house for $800 a month; and at least every other shop is a vintage or thrift store." Like Seattle, you're only maybe a half hour from wilderness - trails, mountains, including volcanoes, but like me, Beth Ditto hates snow. Unlike Seattle, Portland has a great transportation system (street cars, light rail, late-running busses) and is walkable. Beth reviewed the best in vintage, Thai restaurants (she is not the anorexic type), and bookstores. Here is her entry on the amazing Powell's Bookstore, which has to be seen to be believed.
"Powell's (1005 W Burnside, powells.com) is the kind of place where, honestly, I'd expect to get bored. I don't have a good attention span and can't spend long in record stores or video shops or games emporiums without getting grumpy. But Powell's, one of the biggest bookstores in the world, can keep my attention. I can spend an hour here, easy. There are so many good things about the place. One is that it shelves new and used versions of each book together, so there are different price options. (I usually get the old version, because books are so expensive.) And one of my favourite things is their room of rare books. Last time I went to Powell's I got really excited because they had a first edition, signed version of Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding for $3,500. I love Carson McCullers! They also have lots of great books about Portland's history. For a long time Portland was a super-blue collar, redneck town with a really sketchy reputation. For instance, there was tons of bootlegging during Prohibition. There were also trap doors around the city at one point, and if people got drunk these would swing open, they'd fall through, be kidnapped and then put out to sea."
She covers music spaces, like the many converted historic buildings and I see that NE Portland is getting the be the place to go, which is good because I just booked a room in one of McMenamin's properties - a converted schoolhouse. Beth's band is The Gossip and she talks about seeing Team Dresch, playing gig in Wonderland Ballroom.
"I saw Team Dresch play there and they were amazing. Team Dresch were one of the biggest queercore bands of the 1990s, and a huge inspiration among my friends. They broke up a few years back, so it was a reunion gig. It was wild - the audience was made up of a bunch of dykes from 18 to 40 pulling their hair out like they were teenagers at a Beatles gig. Amazing! I love playing the venue myself - the crowds in Portland are great, and it just feels like you're playing to everyone you know. I've got naked at quite a few gigs in my time, but not at the Wonder Ballroom ... it would be like getting naked in front of your family."
She also covers romantic places (like the Rose Garden) and record stores.
Here is her food review for a waffle from the Waffle Cart: .."not too sweet, very bready - folded in half, stuffed with pieces of vegan, veggie or real sausage, dripping in maple butter. And, amazingly, because of the way it's folded, it makes no mess. It makes me belch just thinking about it. I've belched a lot more since I had gall bladder surgery. I don't know why. Because the waffle cart is just a cart, there's nowhere to sit, but that doesn't matter. On a sunny day my friends and me hang out in the parking lot and eat our waffles, but it's just as enjoyable to eat them in the car on a rainy day. Delicious. In my day I've had some other waffles, some of them quite good, but those are by far the best."
BETH DITTO ROCKS THE HOUSE SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE (& now frequently pictured with Kelly Osbourne, Kate Moss and other glitterati)
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