My trip to Portland, an arts vacay

Hey,

So for my Arts Thursday, I wanted to blog about my trip to Portland, and the arts pilgrimage it's turning out to be.

First off, I'm going to visit my fellow GALA Chorine, Ricky, whom I met at this year's GALA Choruses Festival in Denver. He sings with the Portland Gay Men's Chorus and invited me to come visit, so I took him up on it.

And to do some homework, I watched episodes of Portlandia. Members of PGMC make an appearance, see if you can spot 'em.

Ricky surprised me (and initiated this artistic theme) by saying he had scored us an invite to watch a Polaris Dance Theatre rehearsal. If I was up for it, and they were in a generative place, he said the Artistic Director even said I could join if I wanted to. So we'll be visiting Friday or Monday.

And this definitely was appealing to me as I was a Dance major in college, and consider dance to be an essential part of my own life, particularly this upcoming semester. But more on that later.

So the building I live in is just one of many Artspace has all over the country...and there's one in Portland, the Everett Stations Lofts. So I got in touch with their building manager, and he got back to me and set up a meeting with me and some of their residents for Sunday afternoon.

The arts bonanza even starts when I get in (after I Skype in to a board meeting in DC). Although I'll be leaving just two days before First Thursday, a gallery walk, I get in just in time for Last Thursday!! To which Ricky had this to tweet:

@awayoflife0 0.143 wks #DCtoPDX & #LastThursday will be a perfect #Portlandia introduction. Hope you like patchouli & kombucha.
— Ricky Armendariz (@theMrAtoZ) August 29, 2012

On a whim, I also searched my FB friends for anyone who might be in Portland, and came across several. Two of whom I knew from DC's electronic music scene, one I know from performing with on stage, and then another whom I saw perform when he toured through the area.

And the latter is with a karaoke bar called Voice Box, just the perfect way to round-out my scheduled agenda to visit friends with another LGBT chorus!!

So while I might not be blogging too much while I'm there, I will definitely have plenty to share for weeks to come when I get back. In the meantime, follow my Twitter for some on-the-scene mirco-blogging,

- JR