The Best Sad Song Compilation Ever

So, it's a hard moment in the life of Sarah Schaack today. I am trying to keep my chin up, but I really want to hang my head down low. One of my favorite activities, whether I am happy or sad, is to listen to really sad songs, a mix of which my friend Darron gave me a couple of months ago for moments (days, weeks, ...) like this. The Everybodyfields-- a band that made it on the mix, but has since broken up (the couple, and the band) epitomized how I feel when listening to awesomely sad songs with the album art from their last release, Nothing Is Okay.
I feel like it is my duty to share this mix with the world because it is so good. I don't know how to do that legally via this blog, so I am just posting the list. Two of the songs happen to among the selected tracks on one of the artist's webpages (because he's dead; I told you-- this is all sadness, all the time). In that case, I posted the link and since they are arguably two of the best songs on here, you should be happy he is dead so you can hear them. See how sad songs have happiness inextricably woven into them? This, I think, is the key to survival.
The whole mix, however, is so good that I encourage you to track them all down. You can do that in one of two ways: 1) almost any song can be listened to online in its entirety by looking it up on a site called Hypemachine. 2) You can email me, and I would send any interested soul a CD with these 17 songs as my philanthropic contribution to the universe for September 2010. It is my own personal soundtrack, at least for right now.

Your Sweet Voice, Reindeer Section
Goddamn Lonely, Love Drive-By Truckers
Wasted Time, The Everybodyfields
Lost Cause, Beck
Dear Chicago, Ryan Adams
A Good Year For The Roses, Counting Crows
Adelaide, Old 97's
Standing In The Doorway, Bob Dylan
Waco Moon, Todd Snider
Hurricanes & Hand Grenades, Jason Isbel
Write a Letter Home, Jackie Greene
Sauget Wind, Uncle Tupelo
Land Locked Blues, Bright Eyes
Hallelujah, Jeff Buckley
River, Joni Mitchell
Lover, You Should Have Come Over, Jeff Buckley
Life By The Drop, Stevie Ray Vaughn

A Weekend of Gatherings

My sister, Gen Schaack: painter, writer, and photographer

This past weekend was a mixture of wonderful and difficult. The wonderful included attending my sister's first art opening down in Eugene. It was awesome-- she hung a combination of photos and paintings at a great pub called Sam Bonds and a whole gaggle of people came to see and support her and it made my heart swell to be there. More specifically, to be there and have it be easy (logistically, emotionally, familial-ly). This whole living-close-to-each-other business is new territory for our family and I am so happy to find out it is really, really great. I had hoped it would be really great, but it is another thing entirely to have actually be really great. I am so proud of her for putting on the show and putting her creative endeavors out there for public enjoyment. Here she is in front of some of her catalog (above), and then a painting she made of zombie cats eating a severed leg. The bar was abuzz with the question of the evening: who wouldn't want that in their living room?

On Sunday on my way back to Portland, I stopped in a nearby town of McMinnville to honor a man I had never met. Jack Muldoon was my friend Ariel's father and he passed away two weeks ago unexpectedly. Jack, by trade, was a horticulturist and curator of rare plants. He invented a new grafting technique, ran a business selling plants from all over the world to collector's, and was a prominent figure at the Salem farmer's market and in the lives of his family and friends. I had heard about Jack many times because it sounded as if he was the kind of man you could ask about anything. Building a barn? Ask Jack, he knows how. Raising an orphaned gosling? Jack'll know what to do. Picking which apples to plant? Don't decide anything until you talk to Jack first. I am pretty certain Jack worked out cold fusion in his greenhouse back in the 70's, but since no one asked him how to do it, the trick will continue to elude science for decades to come.... Everything I had ever heard about him suggested he was one of the most knowledgeable, selfless, and hardworking men on earth, but at the memorial I found out exactly to what extent. There were numerous people there who had learned their trade or their passion from Jack Muldoon, and just as many others whose houses and gardens are filled with living reminders of his suggestions and expertise in the form of house plants, arbors, orchards, and attached greenhouses. After all his horticulture friends had their say, other people started to speak up about what they had learned from Jack, despite his taciturn demeanor and very quiet (but excellent) humor. Among them, his former brother-in-law stood up and talked about the time he had bought chickens to raise at his house-- broilers that he had built a little coop for but largely had just running around. He had noticed that the chickens weren't really putting on weight quickly and seemed to not be growing very fast. One day when Jack was over at his house, he invited him outside and asked him if he had any idea what might be wrong. Jack watched the chickens for a few minutes, and picked one up and looked at it and said, "Pete, I think you've got gay chickens." Pete said "What? What do you mean gay chickens?" (Not that Pete wouldn't be happy about having gay chickens, he was just confused as to what exactly that meant). It turned out that, as Jack had suspected, Pete had bought Lay Mash from the feed store-- chicken food loaded with hormones to promote egg-laying in hens and NOT for feeding to broilers. This, of course, explained the unexpected growth patterns and behavior (or as Jack put it, the gay chickens). I would be surprised if a card-carrying animal behaviorist would have picked up on the cause and effect pattern as quickly as Jack Muldoon did that afternoon. Just one of many stories told that revealed the beautiful combination of knowledge, experience, and humor that made this man stand out among men.
Ariel, thanks for letting me join the celebration of Jack's life and all of those in it-- it was an honor to be there and learn about your Pop. To both you and Dan, I am so happy to be his friend once-removed and to be your friend the old fashioned way.

Update from Portlandia

For the millions of you out there wondering-- did she keep the bike, the answer is YES! I love it. It loves me, I am pretty sure. We can do anything together. And, happily, I will rarely have to drive in Portland again.... I am pretty much open for business now that I have the lay of the land and a way to traverse it. To mark my unofficial resident status, I had my first visitor this weekend! Making her official debut in the Schaackmobile Hall of Fame is none other than Penny Schaack!!! And like other skeptics before her (Betsy), she went quickly graduated from fear to love with regards to sleeping in the T@b and now can barely imagine trying to return to her former life of sleeping in real beds in real houses. Too bourgeois. Anyway, Penny's visit also included some poking around the Saturday market, some delicious Portland cuisine, and a trip to Lewis and Clark (here she is paying homage to Sacagawea). I promise all this and more to any others who make the long trek! I am enjoying this city immensely so far, but I am a bit lonesome-- so come if you can! Speaking of this great city, Carrie Brownstein (the famous music critic that Chris Moore is in love with) and another guy are making a tv show called Portlandia (like the sculpture of the same name, shown here) that may prove to be very funny about life in this town. The first 6 episodes are supposed to air sometime in early 2011. I find it funny, but the newspapers are full of nervous chatter about how Portlanders will be portrayed (too earth conscious? too non-judgmental?) If it is funny, I will point you towards it in the spring. I'd love to be an extra! I can picture it now-- naive midwesterner trying to come to terms with the social, political, and climatological aesthetic of the northwest while clinging to her love of sunshine and blissful ignorance about genetically modified crops-- she traipses around the city in search of a tasty vegan alternative to the Voodoo Donuts maple bacon bar she has come to know and love so dearly.

Miss Almira Gulch

Today was my maiden voyage with the new bicycle, which I am thinking of naming Miss Almira Gulch if I keep it since I feel just like the Wicked Witch of the West's doppelganger when I cruise around on this thing. Plus, I have lots in common with Almira-- people think I am mean when I am not, I don't particularly like little dogs, and I have a penchant for flying monkeys. Anyway, that's an aside, what you want to know is-- how was the ride??? The answer is-- it was GREAT!!! With typical Schaack optimism, by the time I had ridden through the southeast side of Portland, along the river, and over the bridge, I was thinking-- "I don't think I need an electric bike! This is easy!!!" Then I turned into the cemetery and started the long climb up the mountain. The cemetery is beautiful, quiet, and there are no cars. The road switches back and forth up and up and up, until you are deposited on top of the mountain and right in a neighborhood next to the Lewis and Clark campus. The whole ride took me 48 minutes today, but that was not-really-knowing-where-I-was-going speed. I think it would be easy to shave it down to 40 minutes, and might even be possible to get it down to 30 on the way home because of the downhill. Very exciting!!! So far, I am extremely happy with it!!!! However, I have to admit that I rode it around last night for about an hour right when I first got it, and I can tell you my booty is going to definitely be sore for a while if I stick with this. You would think I would have plenty of natural cushioning, wouldn't you? Alas.

Here is Almira right after she was delivered outside my new digs.

A New Experiment: The Tasman(ian Devil)

So, here I am in Portland-- I have partaken of many of the required inaugural Portland activities. Drink a microbrew, check. Eat organically grown vegetables, check. Get heavily rained on, check. The only thing that is really left is to buy a bike. Everyone in Portland seems to ride a bike. There are bike lanes everywhere, and everyone commutes by bike if they can. Okay, that is a slight exaggeration-- only 6.4% of the populace commutes (that's one out of 16 for all you stats lovers out there), but that is the highest of any major city in the U.S. so you can imagine that it feels like a lot when you are here. So, given that I found a great place to live (pictures of my posh new driveway and delightful property-mate forthcoming), I have been agonizing all week on how to deal with my commute (photo at right by Steve Nehl illustrates the situation here nicely). When I drive, it is 9 miles and takes about 25 minutes. If I were to bike, I get to take a shortcut, cutting it down to about 7 miles, but unavoidably involving a climb up a very steep hill (I'd call it a mountain, but people here call it a hill) for the last 2 miles. Seven miles (plus hill) is not a trivial commute for someone who doesn't have a shower in their Schaackmobile. And so I am performing an experiment: today I plunked down A LOT of cash for an extremely fancy ebike. Ebikes are a new category of commuter bike gaining popularity in places where bikes are heavily relied upon for transit (Europe, China, Portland). It requires pedaling (so stop laughing at me too too hard), but has a motor to assist with the pedaling to allow you to go faster, especially uphill, and arrive sweat-free (or sweat-minimal) after a cross-town commute. The pros: I can use bike lanes and short cuts not available to cars in order to circumvent Portland traffic, which is kind of bad. Plus, I don't have to pay for gas, or to park, or to upgrade my insurance to reflect a switch from non-commuter to commuter. Plus, I get SOME exercise (but not too much). The cons: It is NOT cheap. The battery isn't immortal, so it continues to not be cheap in the future. And I will get rained on. A lot. What do you think? As with all other important decisions in my life (for example, t-shirt color for the tour), I want to know what everyone else thinks. Since everyone doesn't read my blog, that might be hard, but if you are reading, please feel free to weigh in on this agonizing issue. To run the experiment, I bought one and it will be delivered to my house tomorrow. I have 7 days to make up my mind, after which point I can no longer return it to receive a full refund. I will be blogging about the experience and posting pictures! To start, this is the one I bought... The Tasman by Kalkhoff. Das right. I have one word on the matter-- eeeeeekkkkkk.

Epic Journey Diorama

I have been in Portland for a few days now and finally have my wits about me. I made a little collage of pictures from the trip (Jesse made me promise not to use any of him, but he is there in spirit) showing a few highlights (including state border crossings, nights spent at the beach, redwoods, and arriving at my sister's place at long last). The trip started off rocky-- it took Jesse and I about 24 hours to drive the first 100 miles (delays in Arlington, a faulty taillight, traffic, a tire blowout, .... you know, the usual). At one point, it seemed like perhaps the metroplex would hold us in its clutches forever. We ended up fixing everything and getting back on the road in earnest Sunday afternoon, and pretty much hauled (averaging about 50 miles per hour with the slow-going and frequent gas stops) for the next two days to get to the west coast. Once we were through LA (which is vast), we slowed down to enjoy the drive up the coast on Hwy 1. We camped at a beach in Santa Barbara and leisurely rolled into San Francisco to unite with Idelle, who was already there visiting Char and Jun (her sister and brother-in-law), all of whom are remarkable and warm and fun and interesting. That night, my old friend Sonia and her gold fleck-filled heart bearing husband Andrew came across the bay to join us for dinner. It was a fleeting stop, so I wasn't able to see ALL my favorite people in the bay area, but it was a lovely glimpse of what is in store living on the west coast. Jesse flew home from Oakland in order to make it back to Arlington to teach the next day, which was extremely sad and marked the failure of Operation Kidnap Jesse despite early hopes it would work. Idelle did her best to buoy my spirits and revitalize the mission northward. We drove from Berkeley up to Eureka via the Avenue of the Giants which was spectacular-- I highly recommend it if you ever have the chance-- and popped out onto the California coast again in order to make our way to Oregon avoiding the mountain passes of I-5. It was beautiful-- no cell phone camera could do it justice. We enjoyed the coastal drive (ocean on the left, forest and mountains on the right) for another day and a half before cutting east to get to the valley where my mom lives. We rolled into Cottage Grove in the mid-afternoon and hung out with my mom before heading up to Eugene to convene with my sister, Britt, Mike, Lin, Julie, and Lee (lots of people, lots of backstories for each one) to go see a Prairie Home Companion performed live. It was bliss! Beautiful night, delicious picnic, good company, great entertainment, and fun cackling after the show. Unfortunately, I was so tired by the time we got home, I stupidly forgot to bring my purse inside the trailer and, surprise, surprise, it was gone in the morning when I woke up. This didn't stop us from looking for it-- oh no, double-wide optimism has its stubborn streak. But after many hours of searching, unpacking, re-packing, and hair-pulling out, we finally gave up and accepted my idiocy as fact. Not great timing to lose one's ID, money, and credit cards, but it could have been worse.

clockwise from upper left: me in Arlington saying goodbye to the patio that served me so well, from the road leaving texas and entering the land of enchantment, idelle picnicking on the beach in OR, mileage posting in AZ with 100+ degree temps testing the limits of humanity, parked in fron of my sister's house in eugene, the rig in the middle of the redwood forest (yes, we sang the song), and our official trip logo

We left Eugene Sunday morning after a delectable and fun brunch with my sister (mental note: must exercise more to offset all the deliciousness out here) and headed up to Dallas, OR to pop in on the farm. My old friends Dan and Ariel have a homestead up in Dallas (couldn't be much further from Dallas, TX in concept) and they were making jam when we arrived-- perfect timing! We had a nice, quick visit (the first of many, now that I live only an hour away) and then finished off the trek to Portland. I went to one of the two spots I had heard about for places to park, and it was perfect, so I just stayed there. And now that's where I am. Still recovering a bit from the 2-week jaunt, but happy overall to have landed someplace so peaceful. I still am trying to figure out how to get to and from school in a reasonable amount of time, without a car, and I haven't gone to the grocery store yet, but I have the lay of the land (on campus, and throughout the city) and I am looking forward to exploring. The more I know, the better host I will be! It's practically my duty to learn about enjoying this city. Future SHoF members, I will not let you down. More soon.......