The delivery comes a few minutes into the show: green plant matter, stuffed into an old bread baggie. Finally, it seems, KBOO’s weekly Grateful Dead and Friends show is about to get truckin’.
Except the baggie contains garlic scapes, tender stalks trimmed so the pungent plants can put their power into building bigger bulbs. “They won’t turn you on,” jokes the woman who hands them to host Andrew Geller. Geller doesn’t seem to mind—he’s got his hands full, reading from a meticulously researched and liberally highlighted script as he explains the context of each track from a little-known Bay Area band called the Great Society.
Today I appeared on KBOO's Art Focus with host Eva Lake, Jane Kate Wood and Stephen Slappe. It's a continuation of the Hot Haus discussion and my developing Priming the Cultural Pump essay. It was interesting, similar yet different and a lot shorter... with some new talking points that developed in the wake of the first discussion. I'll be working on the essay for another few days then I plan to put the heuristic discussion to bed... so I can get back to the nitty gritty that is criticism. Overall, a good Summer discussion to have before the second half of the year begins in earnest like it does every year in August.
I was a guest on Eva Lake’s radio show on this morning. We talked about Portland’s strengths and weaknesses as an art community in light of the national and international attention the city has received in recent years. The conversation is less about aesthetics (esp. from my mic) and more concerned with fostering a supportive ecosystem— grants for alternative venues such as Appendix, Recess, and 12128, affordable close-in live/work spaces, group HEALTHCARE plan for freelancers of all stripes.
Photographer, Bobby Abrahamson, bought a house in St. Johns just over a year ago, but his making of portraits using 5×7 Polaroid film preceded his move into the neighbourhood. North Portland Polaroids is a gentle homage to the photographer’s immediate surroundings and supports the theory that one needn’t travel the earth to make interesting photography.
Portland Bureau of Emergency Management Director Carmen Merlo and Neighborhood Emergency Team leader Ethan Jewett recently appeared on the KBOO Bike Show to discuss the role bicycles play in emergency preparedness and response.
Elson was recently interviewed on KBOO Community Radio based in Portland, OR on the program “Healthwatch” to discuss the benefits of fasting, juice-cleansing, and other detoxifcation diets mentioned in The Detox Diet.