Saturday, March 7, 2015

Portland, O' Portland.


The only Portland I’ve ever spent any time in is over 3000 miles from the Portland I’m headed to next Wednesday.  Though I can’t say I remember much about the former, as I last was in Maine fifty years ago, and no doubt whatever I do remember is long gone.  Not the memory, the places in the town.
The Maine Portland
Yes, I’m headed to Oregon for Left Coast Crime, a conference I love, and not just because it honored Lisa and me last year as nominees for Best Mystery in a Foreign Setting.  As an aside, when you’re nominated in the same category as Louise Penny (or William Kent Krueger) you soon learn to appreciate just the honor of the nomination. :)


Left Coast Crime simply is one of those gems of a conference that always seems to pick just the right place to be.  Last year it was in Monterey (honoring our Cara Black as a Guest of Honor) and next year it’s in Phoenix.  But this year, LCC is in Portland—the City of Roses—honoring our very own rose, Tim Hallinan, as its Guest of Honor.

Guest of Honor Tim Hallinan
Bottom line: how can you not love a conference that has such terrific taste in guests of honor?  By the way, each year’s LCC picks a catchy name for itself, and Portland’s is “Crimelandia.”  For the television savvy among you, no doubt you’ve picked up on the tie-in to the wildly successful TV series PORTLANDIA—though there’s also a sculpture of the same name in the city’s downtown. 


But yours truly is oblivious to such pop culture icons, and I’d missed the connection entirely until someone told me I should watch the show. Instead, I Googled it; little realizing how by doing so I’d come face to face with a déjà vu “Oh my God I’ve done it again” moment.

You see, twenty years or so ago, I represented a major Seattle-based corporation and was chatting with my good friend in its legal department about our respective children.  He said that one of his daughters had formed a band, released an album, and was hoping “something” would come of it.

That band turned out to be Sleater-Kinney, the all-woman rock band, praised as one of the essential rock bands of the late 1990s and early 2000s.


Fast-forward a bit more than a dozen years.  I’m in Seattle doing my first book tour there, and who should show up but that same buddy.  He’d driven two hours just to surprise me.  He’d always been that sort of a nice guy.  We spent the time catching up (far more interesting than my book pitch) on how we’d both left the law (me for writing, he to be a restaurateur) and how our children were doing.  When I asked how his Sleater-Kinney daughter was, he said she was trying to do “something” for TV.

Yep, you guessed it: she created and stars in Portlandia.  If I should happen to bump into Ken on this trip, and he says his daughter is doing “something” for the UN, can world peace be far behind?

Let’s hope so, for with everything going on in the world these days, I can just hear our planet yelling, “Dig Me Out.” 

Pause for groaning to subside.
Yes, that was a pun tied into the title of Sleater-Kinney’s third album, a production ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as among the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

But then, they didn’t have to compete against Louise Penny. :) 

Hope to see many of you in Portland.  Oregon.


Jeff—Saturday

13 comments:

  1. I'm very much looking forward to meeting Tim Hallinan (again) and (for the first time) Annamaria Alfieri, Lisa Brackmann, and your own lawyerly self, Jeff Siger (and who knows how many other fine folks?)

    Sharon and I will be showing up sometime Thursday morning. Tim and I are hoping to get together sometime for lunch or something, although we're not sure when yet, as he's not entirely sure of his itinerary yet, but we're hoping to squeeze some of the rest of you around the table, too. Will you be tracking your email whilst at LCC? Or if you want to email me your cell#, I can let you know when/where when I know when/where. (everett@kaser.com)

    Also, I'll be happy to coordinate a day-trip across the river to Powell's Bookstore (I can even provide "taxi service" for up to three bodies... as long as they're mutually friendly). Should I bring a bottle of home-made wine for sampling? I can't promise satisfaction, but I can promise adventure.

    Also, while most of the country has been suffering sub-zero temps and snow, we've been enjoying a VERY unseasonable 3 weeks of 55-60 temps and sunshine. Unfortunately, that's forecast to end Tuesday night, with rain likely on Wednesday and a chance of rain on Thursday. However, Friday is currently showing sunny, high near 66, so let's keep our fingers crossed for next weekend!

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    1. You're making me cry, EvKa. :((. At the very last minute...after writing and posting this piece...I had to cancel. Sister Annamaria or Brother Tim can give you all the bloody, heartless details, but no one is sadder than I. Though it does make the body count in your car far more comfy. So sorry, my friend. Enjoy!

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    2. Oh, no! Now you're making ME cry.

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    3. Only a happy pause in the story after a dramatic "never saw it coming" plot twist, with many chapters yet to write. Alas, Portland would have provided the perfect setting for one of them...

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  2. Oh, no! I'm going to miss you in Portland.

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    1. Thank you, Jim. I'll miss you too. It's always great spending time with you. Hopefully at Bouchercon in Raleigh!

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  3. We're so sorry you won't be there, Jeff, but happy the story ended as well as it did. You'll leave a big hole where a great guy was supposed to be.

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    1. Thank you, and blush blush. I must say it's a hole I'm always happy to share with you, big guy, and when we do you always seem to fill it so much more effortlessly than I. :)

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  4. I think it was Swift who said that when misfortune strikes us, it is our friends not our enemies who rejoice. I am not like that but when I had to cancel LCC, not seeing you and Barbara was high on my list of regrets. Now I can cross that one off.:)) Seriously, though, you will be missed in Portland, I know. And whatever he story, I too am glad it ended well.

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    1. See, there's a silver lining to everything, Barbara. :) As for Swift, I think his friends must have been very small people. barumphump.

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  5. I'm so sorry I won't be there with you in Portland!! There's a big library charity event here in Sacramento next weekend, and I'd promised to appear before I realized the conflict. I'll definitely see you next year in Arizona!

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  6. And hopefully at Bouchercon in Raleigh!

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