i didn’t know about avocado ice cream until i was in my twenties, but upon introduction it became a special summer treat of mine. especially special because you have to go out of your way to find it. (and get it home before it melts).

recently, i visited the little filipino grocery store near my house and asked the kindly proprietor if he could order some avocado ice cream for me. i haven’t had avocado ice cream since i’ve been living in portland. today, i was delighted to find a full stock of it in their freezer. ah yes, ain’t nothing like a few scoops of the electric green in the deep of august.

we’ve been doing lots of home stuff lately, stuff that is way overdue. josh has been obsessively tending to the yardwork, which is fine by me because i tend to kill plants. i haven’t killed one since i moved out here, which is good, but i’m still quite the gardening novice. heck, i still marvel at the fact that i can lie on a hammock in my own backyard. i need to take some photos of the new vegetable garden and monitor the progress throughout the summer. we’ve got lettuce, tomatoes, and herbs. so far the lettuce is winning the race.

i’ve been buying items for the home. to make it feel more welcoming. we still need tons of artwork for the walls, and i need to fix up the music room so it feels fun and not just a junkyard of clutter. yesterday i bought a much-needed doormat for the side door. of course, our rainy season just ended like five days ago, so yes that one was way overdue. but i couldn’t help it - i saw this one and it was only 10 bucks, i like the faux wrought-iron and the non-english. perhaps it was a subconscious no-brainer because “bienvenido” was my grandfather’s name. if he was alive today, i could just imagine him walking around the country in search of my house, and finding it thanks to the welcome sign.

my bus ride to work is a good 25 minutes at minimum. i actually don’t mind that so much, because it allows me time to relax and meditate before heading into the day. i typically listen to my ipod during the commute. i leave it on shuffle but i am picky, and sometimes skip a good twenty tracks before landing on one i want to hear.

walking to the 10, 8am

from my window seat on the bus, i can’t help but stare out at the streets, everyday, every ride. it’s the same route but i don’t tire of it. i always have a book with me, but i only get through 7 pages or so because i can’t pass up the views of quirky houses, the shady corridors of ladd’s, and the Willamette River. nowadays i look in cars - i like to observe stick shift drivers to see when they shift, how they shift. who they are. older? younger? male ? female? at the intersection of grand and morrison, i love the lineup of bicycles awaiting the light. slow though i might be on my chocolate raleigh, i remember from past experience it is a good feeling to zip towards the bridge with the crew.

in the morning, i listen to echobelly, broadcast, the radio dept, the cure, guitar, my bloody valentine, among others. sometimes i think to myself, am i the only one on the WORLD listening to spoonfed hybrid right now? what are the odds? today i was on romulus & venus by the teargarden, an old old favorite song, and who knows if anyone else on the planet cares about that song anymore. i don’t tire of songs either. songs and the earth: worth meditating upon during a morning commute.

i guess i’m a sucker for those itunes commercials—i usually end up liking the songs that are featured. whatever they’re doing works on me. i’m no coldplay fan, but i just purchased that song viva la vida and did the typical wikipedia research first on coldplay, then chris martin, and gwyneth… anyway, about coldplay. i know they’re a more recent mega band, up there with radiohead and perhaps taking notes from U2. josh & i decided though that chris martin’s voice is that thick husky type, too similar in timbre to dave matthews’ (who we really can’t stand). i’m by no means comparing coldplay to the dmb though. in fact, i do like some coldplay songs, like that one in Garden State. but i do really like this new one. there’s something kinda startling in a cool way to hear “roman catholic choirs” and “jerusalem bells” in a modern song.

this week, around the nation, little shoegazers were dropping their jaws and texting their little thumbs away with the news that My Bloody Valentine was bringing their reunion presence to an amazing event in the US of A. would i be questioning the financials if i was an east coaster? it seems the new york minds are shying away from the ticket price. and yet, west coasters such as myself are jumping at the bit. i was at the ready on friday morning, 7am, laptop and credit card beside the bed.

it’s been cited that MBV plans to play at least 8 additional US shows. which means i probably didn’t need to shell out like i did. but, i couldn’t not do it. it’s the only musical event i could imagine doing this for, and i am beside myself with excitement. i feel like those guys at sporting events who paint their faces with team colors. i want to have a dress made for the occasion.

it was summer for a day on saturday, and i think i got a little pink-faced from lounging in mount tabor park. i forgot how hot it can get when you’re under the sun in dry climes. but it was much needed; we’ve been starved for vitamin D.

portland’s a small enough town that depeche mode didn’t come here on their last two tours. it was a sad realization when i moved here in october 2005 that my only option to see them play that fall was to trek to seattle. seeing as no one really wanted to join me for that, i didn’t go. ah well. maybe if martin gore ever djs in santa barbara again (he’s a californian now), i can convince maureen to rendez-vous with me for that.

i’ve been meaning to catch up on my depeche mode fandom which i’d been slacking on for some time, and today i made a pitstop at best buy (er, i didn’t know what other brick and mortar sells these sort of things these days) and snatched the black celebration remaster: remastered album, new liner notes, and best of all, dvd featuring a new documentary about the mode, circa ‘85-’86. (actually, all of the albums previous to the last one have been re-released as part of the Remasters series. i’ve got quite a few more to collect…)

the majority of my exposure to depeche mode over the last 21 years has been one-dimensional: you hear the music, see posters, videos, promotional interviews with the band. even 101 was sort of about the band as stars and all the people who helped keep their image glamorous. but the documentaries in these Remasters reveal other layers. black celebration will always be my favorite of their albums, epitomizing (and perhaps instigating) the era of the black clothes-wearing new wave synthpop fiend.

spring in portland is illusory - heavy, grey-blue clouds on one side of the sky and blinding sunlight coming from behind you. sometimes it will pour, but it might be sunny at the same time. spring has been here for a good few weeks, solidly. the cherry blossoms have been appearing in shifts; i saw some in NW two weeks ago, and only have the SE ones awoken within the past week. i swear, the ones in my neighborhood were closed as i went for a run on saturday and had opened by the time i’d come back.

their shades vary, from candy pink to a very pale pinkish white. against a dark daytime sky it’s a nice sight to observe while riding the bus home.

there is no scarcity of charming movie theaters that show second-runs or arthouse flicks or local films at a few bucks a pop. for that price you usually get an old building with original interior, something sort of rickety-regal, or vintagey. typically, you also get the option to have some wine, or pizza, or a pitcher of beer.

these theaters are great. i love ‘em. thing is, they’re hardly ever filled. i swear, they’re more often than not nearly empty. the other night, a friend and i went to see heima, that sigur ros film, over at the clinton street theater; it was only showing for a couple of days - and twice a night, too. but there was hardly a soul in the theater. maybe there were too many seats? it was the type of film i wanted to see on the big screen, what with sigur ros’ grand sounds as well as the sweeping scapes of iceland. i’m glad to never have to rush anywhere for tickets, but it’s kind of sad to inhabit these empty cinemas all the time.

meanwhile, aren’t they still waiting for a theater to open up in williamsburg? funny how these things go.

if i still lived in nyc, i might have already booked a ticket to the UK for one or more of mbv’s ever-expanding list of live dates. i was actually considering the 10-hour trek when the first 3 dates were announced, but that felt too fanatical.

because they keep adding dates, i am banking on the hope that they’ll per chance play some US shows. flying to NYC for mbv would seem far more reasonable.

yes i miss the short transatlantic journey to europa from the east coast. but really, i didn’t take advantage of it enough while i was over there.