Travelling without a laptop forces one to be creative as to where and when uploads and posts can occur. I have pictures and video to upload. However, finding the time and the proper ports to use can be challenging. So be patient and pictures and video will come soon. For now, here is a preview of the venue I play tomorrow night. If you’re in Portland, come on by… You know me, It’s free!
The Globe is located aty:
2045 SE Belmont St.
The Globe BarCafe:
To sum up Portland, Oregon in an unassuming and plainly profound way one can do it in one word: “Community.” Long since heeding the unspoken mantra, “Community not Competition” Portland Oregon’s foodie, drinkie, and music scene have all been nurtured and flourished by a populace that understands it’s food, loves it’s music, and welcomes new ideas.
The torch is passed gracefully in this town from the die-hard old-school restaurants and pubs to the new youthfully exuberant restaurant concepts staffed with young talent behind the stick, or in the kitchen. There is enough room for everyone in this town, and Portlanders decide if you get to stay and play. They raise their expectations and proprieters deliver. If not, it’s back to the other side of the bar, Chef-fy.
On SE Belmont, my friend and chef Marc Brazeau and his team are in their first year of staking their claim in the infinite frontier of The Portland Oregon Scene. The deed has been written and The Globe BarCafe is fervently supported by this little neighborhood in SouthEast they call home.
Following the cycle of the day The Globe BarCafe evolves. At Sunrise, a place to get a hot cup of coffee and read, By the Mid-day Sun – a quick-serve lunch counter, At Dusk a dinner-spot, In the witching hours – a Bar. Not to get all linen-shirted and Guru about it, but I forsee many sunrises on The Globe BarCafe.
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move. - Robert Louis Stevenson
Before it was utilized as a marketing slogan by InBev, this is the point where I would say something like, “Here We Go.” It is the first day of Northwesticles: A Public Transit Tour. The longest and biggest tour I have yet undertaken, so, a more complex statement is in order. “Joy is the fruition of a journey rooted in the heart”. I fain trust that will not end up in a beer commercial anytime soon.
Little Rock
This little painted rock in my hand was given to me by an old friend. Not directly however. Victoria, an acquaintance of mine from The Unlikely Theater Company makes these. I hadn’t seen her in many years and I stumbled across her booth at an art festival on Grand Avenue. There she was surrounded by a host of items she has made by hand. Things like the artist: Simple, quirky, fun. There is no other way I would have happened upon an artist like Vickey when I hadn’t seen her in years. You don’t bump into people like Victoria at the grocery store. You don’t realize suddenly that you are standing behind her in a record shop. Not that she doesn’t go to those places. But, when you have worked as an artist with other artists, you tend to find them again as they were when you knew them. You see them when they are creating. Because a true artist is always creating. Victoria Safriet is a true artist. I bought this little rock from Vickey, we chatted, and occasionally her and her guy have come to see some Quixote shows. We know each other through our art.
As we were, we are. Creating. Doing. And just being. Somewhere in every city there are those hunkered down putting their hands and hearts to make something from nothing. To take something and change it. To touch the world. To leave that indellible print. The following twelve days will be me doing just that, and just doing that.
Zero Hour 7:30 AM
Today I climb into that rocket tube and they fire it off with the trajectory and intention of landing in Eugene, Oregon in a few short hours. Tonight at Luckey’s I strike the first note on the Northwesticles Tour. Noone knows what will happen when those wheels touch the ground in Eugene, but I am sure of one thing: “I’m gonna YouTube the s#@% out of this thing.”
So, borrowing the now trademarked words of everyone’s ‘favorite’ American Beverage, “Here We Go!”
Luckey, Luckey, Luckey, Lucky me again.
The first club I play on this tour has got history.
Luckey’s Club Cigar Store was purchased in 1911 by Tad Luckey, Sr., the son of Irish immigrants and an early Eugene pioneer. It is the oldest retailbusiness in downtown Eugene, and one of the oldest bars in Oregon. In its 95 year history, it has survived both the Great Depression and Prohibition.
The “Club Cigar,” as it was called in the late 1800s did not allow women patrons. It was a place for men only. A man could go to Luckey’s to shop for a cigar, shoot some pool, get a shoeshine, haircut and shave, and order a sandwich at the cafe in the back. Over the years, it evolved into a place for older men.
Yes, that’s right. While the young lads were out chasing skirts and scaring up some tail, the Older Gents were sitting around smoking cigars all the while blissfully ignorant of the sheer breath of life and excitement a woman can bring when she’s hollering and whooping it up in a barroom. Which leads me to ask, “What were those old bastards thinking?”
Eugene, Oregon was a dry town before the end of Prohibition, therefore Luckey’s with it’s all-under-one-roof approach, was able to survive the nationwide ban on liquor fairly easily compared to the drinking establishments in neighboring Springfield. After Prohibition ended in 1933, Luckey’s became the first establishment in Lane County licensed by the newly formed Oregon Liquor Control Commission.
In 1934, in the height of the Great Depression, Tad Luckey, Sr. paid the relatively enormous sum of $300 for a horseshoe-shaped custom neon outdoor sign. At the time, most businesses rented their neon signs, and this is one of the few that survived. In fact, it is the oldest neon sign known to exist in Eugene.
SuperNormal Records is presenting “Northwesticles: a Public Transit Tour” August 5th – August 17th, 2010. Cities on this tour are: EUGENE, PORTLAND, SEATTLE, and SPOKANE.
A public transit tour is a unique promotional tour to promote an artist and record label while simultaneously promoting the use of public transit. The Artist must travel via public
transit to all of the cities and venues.
By Rail, By Bus, By Flip-flop, Tyler Christensen will be v-logging and blogging about his travels and shows/venues as he goes. Follow the Tour at: www.Northwesticles.com(or) www.SuperNormalRecords.com
Tyler Christensen is the singer/guitarist for Quixote (iTunes: “The Hills of Ubeda”)
and has participated in three (3) Public Transit Tours in the past.
“Travelling and touring like this presents a unique challenge. This is gonna take some fortitude, this is gonna take some balls, this is gonna take Northwesticles.”
- Tyler Christensen
SuperNormal Records is presenting “Northwesticles: a Public Transit Tour” August 5th – August 17th, 2010. Cities on this tour are: EUGENE, PORTLAND, SEATTLE, and SPOKANE.
A public transit tour is a unique promotional tour to promote an artist and record label while simultaneously promoting the use of public transit. The Artist must travel via public
transit to all of the cities and venues.
By Rail, By Bus, By Flip-flop, Tyler Christensen will be v-logging and blogging about his travels and shows/venues as he goes. Follow the Tour at: www.Northwesticles.com(or) www.SuperNormalRecords.com
Tyler Christensen is the singer/guitarist for Quixote (iTunes: “The Hills of Ubeda”)
and has participated in three (3) Public Transit Tours in the past.
“Travelling and touring like this presents a unique challenge. This is gonna take some fortitude, this is gonna take some balls, this is gonna take Northwesticles.”
- Tyler Christensen
An overall amazing tour came to an ubrupt end when a bank informed our dear Hobo-Traveller that some one in a distant state was having their way with Tyler’s bank balance.
Tyler arrived at 6:45 am in Phoenix, Arizona today safe and stinky and immediately hobo-hoofed it to the lightrail in the pouring rain and on back to the fringes of the desert to soap-it-down and head back into this illustriuos city he calls home. H-O-M-E!
The Hobo-Traveller shape-shifted into Wine Steward and taught a wine class at Noon today, and real-life has resumed. Back to the grind – Thank God.
Dear Arizona,
M, L, R, & T
I love you - I will never leave you. I missed you like a limb, you’ve helped me stand for so long and showed me how to walk. You gave me a pencil. I learned to walk while holding one, and In time, I learned to write. You have read what I have written and helped me understand what it means. I would fain trust myself to speak these words to you due to another gift I have inherited, over-active tearducts.
To my dear family who is my home, no matter where my journeys take me: You have given me everything and you have saved me. Not just this time but my whole life. You are why I am me and I love that about myself. I can’t wait to see you all, and a thousand apologies if this soul-searching caused you alarm. I know where home is and I know my dreams are safe in the company of those who support me.
Lastly, it is my nature to live perched precariously on the fringes of my dreams and push them like a child would push an elephant. But, I’m developing tools and the means to move mountains with the help of my biggest fans and supporters. There is only four in this earth that take that cookie, and I extend this as well to all of those whom they have chosen to bring with them. I would do nothing if it were not for you.
SuperNormalRecords.com is proud to announce that we have just surpassed 100 absolute unique visitors to this site since the beginning of the “April’s Fool Tour”. Looks like Tyler Christensen ”The Hobo-Traveller” is interesting after all. Thank you to all of our visitors who made this milestone possible.
Keep coming back again and again as new content is uploaded twice daily!!
Leaving Phoenix proved to be a little more challenging than the itinerary on my Southwest Airlines Ticket-less Travel Confirmation print out had claimed. The pilot exited the cockpit and rocked the mic informing the passengers in esoteric terminology that there was a computer failure and we would be delayed 20 minutes while they repaired the navigation system. This comforted me, oddly enough, due to the fact that at the last turn down the walkway – you know the one where you take that final step of faith into the aircraft and you can see the outside of the fuselage and hear the engines just outside the little accordion thingy, I saw something disconcerting.
The pilots announcement comforted me because as I was taking that step-of-faith I spied a maintenance worker writing a work-order and I peeped over his shoulder and there were the pilots comments written on the sheet. All I could make out before I stepped onto the plane was the word computer and FAIL!
Trusting in the diligence of Southwest Airlines and all their crew was a wise decision I found my seat and settled in. The pilot informed us promptly and we waited patiently. Eventually we taxied down the tarmac to the end of the runway. The plane made that fateful turn and where there is usually an un-earthly whoosh of the engines and a incredible amount of G-force there was solely a click and the pilot’s voice.
“As you may have noticed we made a wrong turn. That was intentional. Apparently, the problem is not fixed so we are heading back to the gate. Thank you for your infinite patience.”
We ended up de-planing and walking a circle back through terminal 4 at Sky Harbor International Airport. The pilot had informed us that we would board a spare plane. I thought, “wow, a spare plane who knew there were just extra planes hanging around?” We departed about an hour late and people were complaining and whining about their appointments. Perhaps they would rather descend into the inevitable cloud cover of Portland, Oregon without a Navi? Best we live fellow travellers… Best we live and be late.
Max Busted
Portland Oregon is world renowned for it’s public transit. They have a light-rail system they call The Max, which I mentioned in the previous post, takes travellers directly from the airport to city center in no-time. When I exited the Portland International Airport (PDX) there were Tri-met employees in official garb directing travellers to shuttle buses that were running the Max Red-Line route to the city. The Max was down for repairs. I realized that this trip was to be an improvisation of transit and all things moving. Just like the theme of this tour – it’s a shoot from the hip shot-in-the-dark good-timin’ kinda thing.
Hawthorne Traveller’s Hostel
Hawthorne Langhorn
Ya see-ya see, I stay in the Hawthorne Travellers Hostel in a district of Portland, Oregon called Hawthorne. Named for the Boulevard that is the epicenter of this bohemian mecca. The original resident of Hawthorne Boulevard was an insane asylum and wackiness still prevails in all things along this stretch of asphalt. Over 300 local independent shops/restaurants/bars line the boulevard and some of the best reasons to visit Portland are on Hawthorne Boulevard. If you hit this city and miss Hawthorne you missed the point, Journeymen. The Hawthorne Hostel is an embodiment of a sensibility that is pervasive in the hearts and minds of Oregonians in general. The hostel has an ecoroof. The rooftop is covered in plant-life to limit the structures impact on the environment. Also, new this year is the hostel’s newly-installed water reclamation system. Rainwater is collected from the roof of the hostel and conditioned and used as a non-potable water source. The toilets flush with rainwater, wa-wa from the roof for the pee-pee in the turlet. A bit of ingenuity that utilizes the frequent rainfall in this part of the country. Now, if we could just get Arizonans to use solar panels, perhaps we could make an impact similar to that of the Hawthorne Hostel.
Alberta Street Public House
After checking in and stowing my belongings I grabbed the guitar case and jumped on the 14 Hawthorne bus to MLK transferred to the 6 and then to the 72 and it dropped me on the front door of the pub where I was to strike the first note in this unorthodox tour: The April’s Fool Tour. How’d it go? I was lucky enough to capture some video of one song, so here it is:
Post-show the rain was kind enough to only creep up from the street via my jeans to about mid-leg before I arrived home. I went to bed at 1 am early for this town, but, the full day of travel followed by a rock show took it’s toll on my 30 year old frame and I climbed up on my bunk and was out in a jiff. Interesting side note: when I was checking in yesterday, Hillary behind the desk said
“You will be in the St. Helen’s room which is downstairs and-”
“Don’t tell me it’s St. Helen’s 2?”, I replied.
“How could you guess that?”, she said.
“That’s the same bunk I had last year!”
“Wow! Here’s to serendipity, looks like it’ll be a great trip.”, she said as she handed me my linens and I headed downstairs.
Things like that tend to happen to me when I travel. For instance, at the Fat Straw (an Internet coffee shop where I do my uploads and write blogs) I went to YouTube and signed in still was a moniker that I used to use to write fake reviews of my music years ago before I decided not to fake it and just be legit. I won’t give you the name to protect the account holder. I promptly logged out after I said, “Noooo way!” But it blew my freaking mind.
Video a go-go
On this tour I am supplementing my text and photo based blogs with video. I am currently staring at the screen waiting for the uploads to complete. When YouTube does it’s trick I’ll post a little ‘walking tour’ of P-land for your work-averting pleasure.
What’s next? How’s about a little Stumptown Stroll?
View the next post for the video debut of “Stumptown Stroll: Tyler’s walking tour of Portland, Oregon”
Tune in tomorrow for “Stumptown Stroll: Hawthorne Boulevard”
The day began with a screeching alarm at 4:30 am. Then the sudden realization that I was late for something, immediately followed by the sweet discovery that today is April 1st. April Fools Day and the beginning of what will be called the April’s Fool Tour. I’m late for nothing. In fact, in the world of Rock n Roll, I’m early. Way early. My flight leaves Phoenix at 9 am and I’ve got a few more hours to tie up loose ends and grab the satchel and skedaddle. The next few days belong to me and the Muse. Portland Oregon and my music. And I’m sure I’ll work in a fair amount of malted barley and choice hops. Perhaps even sample a little Northwestern vinification. There’s something waiting for me at the bottom of a bottle of whatever-you-got; An Idea, a song, a laugh, or a new friend.
Time-Warp
Before bed last night I packed my bag, put the guitar and camera’s in their proper place and prepped the coffee for an easy fire-up in the AM. I’ve done this before but the pre-departure is always like a fuzzy dream. It’s usually done through one blood-shot eye at some freakishly early hour in the day. Therefore, the late-night pre-trip preparations were a great idea. I’m glad I thought of that. Because all of what I take must be carried on my back, or in my hands, I pack light. I’m no Thurston Howell the Third. I need not accompanying accoutrement’s. I got my shirt, them jeans, my shoes, a git-fiddle and my soul. I’m ready to roll.
Hobo-Travel
Years ago, I gave up the luxury of driving. To me, it is just that: a luxury. I’ve been untethered from a car for 6 years and I find a way to make it work in a city that is quite inhospitable to the non-driver. So dear friends, here is an introduction to what I have termed Hobo-Travel.
I live on the fringe of the Indian Reservation and about a half-mile off of the public transit routes in my city (Phoenix, AZ). So, my morning walk consists of a half-mile stroll to Granite Reef and McDowell to catch Route 17. This will carry me West all the way to 44th Street where I’ll transfer buses and Route 44 will jettison me South right to the heart of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX).
Graffiti I can agree with. To the AZ authorities: “I am not the bus-stop blogger.”
Then, I’ll hop a big freedom bird and set flames to ancient dinosaur graves and burn a streak in the sky all the way to Portland, Oregon. Upon arrival, I’ll gather bag, and shag-ass out the door of PDX airport and onto the Max Train.
Portland International Airport (PDX), and the city of Portland collectively say, “f the car.” You can move in a town like this without your own dedicated foursome of rims. Who needs a gas card in this town? Call me a happy Hobo, here I come Portland. All apologies OPEC.
The Max Train just outside the door of PDX airport.
I should be on the ground around 6pm Local PDX Time, which happens to be local AZ time as well. So, I’ll hit you with an update and post some more pictures and video of the journey thus far, then it is off to the Alberta Street Public House to strike the first note on the April’s Fool Tour.
Doing Something SuperNormal
Through the creation of this little record label and standing at the precipice of the second official SuperNormal Records Tour, one thing has remained my constant. A philosophy upon which this tiny dream of mine is perched. We need not be great, we should not just be normal either. All we need to strive for is to be a bit above normal = SuperNormal. We all have our dreams and passions, these are mine and thank you for joining me on this little ride we call life.
“Das Rock-n-Roll!” - Tyler Christensen
Please click on the links below and leave a comment. I read these daily, it’s kinda like fuel. Be my OPEC. (Organization of People Entertained and/or Concerned).
Tyler will be on tour in Portland, Oregon April 1st through April 4th. Show dates listed below. Much like the Public Transit Tour in 2008 Tyler will be doing this tour ‘hobo-traveller-style” utilizing public transit and the heel-toe express to get to the show’s. Come out and see the greenest mofo on the planet rock your junk.
“My god dear Portland, how I have missed you. To all my Stumptown friends cancel your plans and meet me in the city. THE CITY. Portland, I’ll be your fool this April.”
- Tyler
Read the blog from the tour:
Tyler will be blogging and v-logging sharing pictures and stories from the road. For those of you who viewed the previous Public Transit Tour blogs last year, get ready for another slew of Bourdain-esque whiskey-tinged communiques from the gutters of Portland, Oregon. That’s Rock and Roll. That’s SuperNormal-just a bit above normal
