Wed. May 21st

Today we discussed Tuesday's election results. First, we discussed the results as a class and then traveled over to Earl's (Barber Shop) to ask him how he felt. Last time we talked to him, he said he was rooting for Sho Duzono for Mayor. Interesting, he seemed to be okay with Adams winning, simply saying, "Well, You Know, that's the way it is." His client at the time jumped in and began telling us how he felt about the elections. Everyone there, including the class, seemed pretty happy with the Clinton-Obama results here in Oregon. The most interesting part of today was the chat with the barbers at Terrell Brandon's Barber Shop. A woman getting her hair done, was incredibly suprised that we (a large group of white people) voted for Obama over Hillary. And even more surprised that we (white women) would vote for Obama and not Hillary. I thought it was so interesting to see her totally surprised. The barber doing her hair said, "See! I told you!" They were really fun to chat with. Very personable and funny guys. They enjoyed talking with us as well. The one thing that was a little sad was when the woman said, " I don't vote. The person with the most money is the one who wins anyway." It's been awhile since I've seen a sort of "jaded" perception of the political process. I got used to the buzz and excitement that Barack Obama has infused in my surroundings on campus and around Portland. All in all, however, I learned that we can make assumption about our neighbors and through communication with them, learn that we were totally wrong and have much more in common than we may have once thought. It was a Good day.

Chit Chat with someone in the neighborhood

Wednesday May 14th, Graham and I went out to set up a meeting with Kara at Tumbleweed. Our assignment that day was to strike up a casual conversation with someone. As we were walking around, a man named Laolo was enjoying a cup of coffee outside a local coffee shop. He stopped Graham and began talking about Graham's shirt. Displaying art work from a San Francisco artist, R. Crumb. The man was really excited to see it and commented on how he new R. Crumb's brother when he lived in San Francisco. The interesting thing for me was to see this man become truly excited about the shirt. It was nice to see someone that happy over something that most consider totally unimportant.

Fun Stuff in the Yard

Walking past a small duplex on Alberta, we saw a wooden picture frame wired to a cyclone fence with a piece of cardboard attached that read "Portland". We had to ask. A young guy named Scott answered the door. Looking like he just woke up, messy hair and shirtless. We asked him about the frame and Portland Sign and he said his room mate had just moved to New York and put it there. Because they have a lot of random piles of stuff through out their place he didn't know the significance of the portland sign, but figured it was just something his roommate found before he left. The Frame itself, however, had been wired to the fence when they moved in.'



The first house that Graham and I found was down the street from the yard statue place. The yard was gardened with care but had a really eclectic assortment of plants and a metal sculpture. (See Grahams' Blog for photos) Gerard was the man's name who lived there. He was really nice and enjoyed chatting with us. His wife made the sculpture in College and the plants in the yard were all stuff that people gave them. The house numbers were really interesting. Handmade, colorful, and fun!

Wednesday 4.30.08

A NE Adventure in April.