It was three years ago yesterday that @saralibby.bsky.social and I attended the world track & field championships in Eugene, getting to see early heats involving greats like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Noah Lyles, plus the men's 1500 final. Such a cool memory, and a great 50th birthday present.

Any Cibo Matto fans left out there? I revisited this second album on a recent car trip and since then have been replaying it often. Always a bit surprised that I reach for this over their debut, produced by the great Mitchell Froom and also excellent. But Stereo Type A just has a fun bounce to it.

The price of my Oregonian subscription is going up, but at least there is some great journa…

I think I will have read this book in two sittings. And I can’t wait to watch this stone-cold masterpiece of a movie again. I can already hear the rhythm of Lee Marvin’s determined, angry footsteps as he marches down the hallway.

I love this photo (encountered for the first time today) of 1890s Portland. That's the swing-style Madison Street Bridge (later replaced by the Hawthorne Bridge) and the Willamette River.

A time-lapse from the final evening of last week's vacation, at our favorite cabin.

@iammilliam.bsky.social It’s a long way off, but I saw this ad and thought of you. Vlautin and Eitzel in one bill!

A panoramic photo of the view from the edge of the five-acre property we stayed at in Terrebonne, Oregon this week, looking toward the Crooked River Canyon with Black Butte and Mt. Jefferson in the background. Staying here for the ninth time, it was still a thrill to stand here and take it all in.

Time-lapse of last evening’s sunset from the Terrebonne, Oregon cabin where we’re staying…for the ninth time in 10 years.

This book is so great. The Wrong Son is about overcoming childhood trauma, partly through a love of literature, and it’s quite readable because the book is so lucid, it’s informative about psychology, and especially because it’s beautifully written. Neil is a friend so I’m biased, but holy wow.

The look in this woman’s eyes really spooks me. I feel like I see a version of it here.

Perhaps it’s corny of me to say it this way, but it’s so moving what people will risk sometimes in an authoritarian society to make art from their own perspective. And in 2026 America, we can’t assume we won’t lose that privilege.

A really compelling profile and portfolio in Aperture magazine featuring Li Zhensheng’s photographs taken during the Cultural Revolution.

All my favorite movies are ones where you can pause the screen at almost any moment and have a beautiful image. I did so here while watching Powell & Pressburger’s A Canterbury Tale (with Sheila Sim).

I've surely posted these before, but every time I come across these Art Hupy photographs of Portland's Memorial Coliseum in 1960, as I did today, I stop and swoon. America's greatest midcentury architectural photographer, Julius Shulman, also photographed the Coliseum, but I like these best.

A most satisfying rewatch. Such incredible chemistry. Such great dialogue and cinematography. Although The Maltese Falcon is itself a masterpiece, and a tighter film, I think I’ll still take The Big Sleep.

This episode has editing and cinematography unlike any other Columbo episode, no doubt because guest star Patrick McGoohan is also the director.

This is not AJ Henderson.

I could almost just keep watching this particular Columbo episode every week.

I'm still enjoying perusing photos from my visit earlier this week to the new East County Library in Gresham. It's so full of beautiful timber and natural light, as well as a strong sense of compression and release continually happening between one and two-story interior spaces.

And here is the June 6, 1977 newspaper on my wall.

Today is the 49th anniversary of the Portland Trail Blazers winning the NBA championship. I have the following day's newspaper framed, but until today I had never seen the June 5 edition. I love that it simply says at the top, "WE'LL WIN IT TODAY!" All these years later, I'm still in near-disbelief.

Saddened to learn that Greenwich Village's Cozy Soup 'n' Burger is closing: one of the last vestiges of my college years in New York. Love that place! (Everything but the Sanka.) abc7ny.com/post/cozy-so...

I absolutely love the new East County Library in Portland's eastern suburb of Gresham, officially designed by Holst Architecture but originally co-designed by British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye. It's the best work of local architecture since the Portland International Airport terminal.

I mean…

This book is kind of blowing my mind. It’s some of the best writing on film I’ve encountered, or at least the most insightful. Thank you @sightsoundmag.bsky.social and @mariephillips.bsky.social for the recommendation!

Famous Ray’s Pizza of Greenwich Village, at Sixth Avenue and 11th Street in Manhattan. Just sublime. Where I learned to appreciate a simple cheese slice.

Loved seeing these posters for My Own Private Idaho on a wall in downtown Portland this evening (advertising the upcoming Criterion Mobile Closet visit to the city).

I'm excited that today is the publication date for The Wrong Son, a memoir by our friend of 30-plus years, Neil Griffiths. He's a novelist and the co-founder of both the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize as well as Weatherglass Books. The excerpts I read were amazing. Can't wait to read more.

With many paying tribute to Sonny Rollins upon his death this week, I love the consensus that his most beloved performance is actually his practice sessions, on the Williamsburg Bridge. However, my favorite album Rollins plays on is Milestone Jazzstars In Concert, with Ron Carter and McCoy Tyner.