Day 5: Portland

The quote of the week: say what? Free drinks at the reception!

 

Former Warrior: larger than life for Blazers...and hasn't played one minute for them this year due to injuries

Weather: Cold, cool, overcast, raining by 6:15pm (gosh, almost a day without rain)

Quote of the Day:  Mucca? Where's that?

Department of Walking Around:

Where the Thai food at last night's eat-in dinner came from

On the way to the convention center:

White blossoms in full bloom, pink still a few days away 

THB does the 7 minutes workout, helps finishes up Pearl Bakery pastries, has small bowl of Grape Nuts and then DB, SA and THB walk over to the convention center in what seems like 45 degree weather (especially as we walk over the breezy Columbia River).

 

Jerry Saltz, art critic, NY Magazine

Instant controversy

We’re there for a round table discussion, highlighted by directing questioners to ask questions, not make statements. That perks up the audience!

Linda Lopez, big above and small below

Dylan Beck

Michael Sherrill's business side

Kevin Snipes painting on the exhibition floor

Tour the exhibitions in the convention center, look briefly at the booths offering kilns and clay and glazes, and then saunter over to the Pearl and pick up the NCECA exhibits at local galleries and museums.

Veggie burger which THB spices up with lots of mustard

DA joins us for lunch at Little Big Burger: THB goes veggie, the other three have regular burgers with cheese, two orders of fries, drinks, and SA picks up the tab.

Chase Grover

Bennett Bean; Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft closed recently and some works from the museum are now on display at Pacific Northwest College of Art

A 3D printer piece 

Susan Beiner; her work was not in the Evocative Garden show...not sure why because she's well known and her work sure reads "garden"

Linda Lopez: fabric!

DA heads off again, and THB, DB, and SA continue to churn through all the local galleries, ending back at the condo around 2:45, having put in more than 15K steps (round up…20K?).

Matt Wedel

Brett Freund

Patti Warashina

Connie Kiener

JD Perkin

After a short rest, THB and DB uber to the convention center to hear the memorials for four well known ceramicists including Akio Takimori (THB and DB own 4 pieces by Akio, one a special commission bento box).  

Peter Held of ASU, going slowly

One of the faithful followers knows Stan Welsh via marriage and here he pops up in Akio's memorial

Two of the memorials run way over the allotted 15 minutes and after an hour and a half DB and THB leave to catch a taxi to dinner.

Yes, the old-fashioned cab. How are cabs competing with Uber? THB is here to tell you: the cabbie wouldn’t look up the address of the restaurant; the cabbie didn’t know where one of the more popular downtown restaurants was located; the cabbie charged double the going Uber rates; the cabbie tried to interrupt the conversation of the clients. Very competitive, this cabbie.

 

upstairs at Mucca

Time to meet up with our Claremont/Jack London Square buddies, B&F. They are in town for the short self-guided version of NCECA.  Dinner at Mucca. THB has salmon, DB carbonara, share a salad, one wine, one ice tea, $90.

Double dark chocolate for THB (maybe only 1.5 times chocolate, not double)

B enjoying the top scoop

Small ice creams at Ruby Jewel, THB is the big spender and picks up the $10 tab. After getting Band-Aids at Whole Foods for DB (we’re getting close to the 20K step mark today), we walk back in the rain (triple steps!!) to the condo. 

Window washing at the condo: