What I’ve been reading, watching, and thinking about lately, inside and outside the world of urbanism.
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Routine Breakup
Remembering what it was like to have time to explore the city. Enjoyed a break from the kids and the
Skyline from the East Bank of the Willamette
A Very Portland Weekend
The boy and I went to OMSI on Saturday while the girls did some crafts and made Christmas presents with
Watched: Jumanji, 1995
★★★½
Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) was showing this in celebration of its 30th Anniversary. It’s not a
Toured Providence Park, home of the Portland Timbers and Thorns
One of the biggest perks of working in my field is getting to go behind the scenes in all sorts
Watched: Weapons, 2025
★★★★
A creatively twisted ride that keeps you off-balance. The plot hits just about the right notes of weirdness, and the
Love Kraft (20th Anniversary Edition)
Super Furry Animals
Authoritarianism, but Make It Look Normal
On The Media, WNYC
Forever Is A Feeling: The Archives
Lucy Dacus
The Last Frontier S1E1
Follows Frank Remnick, a U.S. Marshal in charge of the quiet and weathered barrens of Alaska, as he needs to deal with a prison transport plane crash full of violent inmates inside his jurisdiction.
Björk: Cornucopia
A visually spectacular landscape of lush colours, futuristic screens and wild images of nature that comes alive with Björk's wondrous music, as she performs live alongside musicians and choirs of flutes and voices.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Interweaves story and dream, past and present, and philosophy and poetry in a sardonic and erotic tale of two couples--Tomas and Teresa, and Sabina and her Swiss lover, Gerhart.
White Lotus S3
The exploits of various guests and employees of a luxury resort over the span of a week.
Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns
Written by two accomplished architects and urban designers, this user-friendly street design manual shows both how to design new streets and enhance existing ones.
The Power Broker
Robert Caro’s The Power Broker traces how Robert Moses reshaped New York through unelected power—building bridges, highways, and parks that transformed the city while destroying neighborhoods. A Pulitzer-winning portrait of ambition, control, and the cost of progress.
Remembering what it was like to have time to explore the city. Enjoyed a break from the kids and the rain, with really nice weather for mid-November in the Northwest.
The view from Cornell overlooking NW Portland and Mt. Hood
I took Zoey the dog with me and walked along some wonderful neighborhoods daydreaming. It has a beautiful fall day. People were hanging out at Chapman Elementary and parents watched as their kids scootered down quiet blocks into piles of leaves. NW Portland is something special.
Obsolete infrastructure or not, I’m a fan of the views from the Columbia River Crossing.
The boy and I went to OMSI on Saturday while the girls did some crafts and made Christmas presents with a coworker. They have an exhibit called Monsters of the Abyss: Aquatic predators Past + Present. From the website:
Meet massive mosasaurs, a spine-chilling Spinosaurus, and bizarre creatures as you travel through millions of years, witnessing the rise and fall of Earth’s most awe-inspiring aquatic creatures as well as their present-day descendants. Highlighted by amazing fossils, daily educational programming, and some unbelievable live animals, this exhibit brings guests face-to-face with the real-life monsters who defy imagination and have inspired myths and legends.
Since they're working on updating the upstairs exhibit space, only the smaller downstairs area had programming, so this made for a quicker than usual run-through.
We ended up watching the 30th Anniversary showing of Jumanji on the really big screen. I probably hadn't seen it in a few decades. The graphics were cornier than I remembered, but it was still nice to see a show I didn't have to think too much about. I think my son had a good time as well.
Today my wife and I celebrated 10 years since our first date, which was at a now-closed bar called Kask, which was a few blocks from my old apartment in the West End. Today we went to a Sri Lankan restarant called Mirisata. We shared their special, which consisted of Pumpkin Curry, Deviled Potatoes, Tempered Okra, and green Bean Mallum. I added on the Jaggery "Beef" Curry and she had a spiced cider. Everything was very good, but we both agreed that the vegan beef curry was the best.
Afterward, we went for a couple mile stroll around Belmont, Stark and Kerns. We frequently find ourselves in cemeteries, and today took us to Lone Fir. It was a beautiful day. Dry and warm enough for mid-November. Things seamed pretty quiet for such a nice day and we both agreed that people must be taking advantage of it and heading out to be in nature.
We found ourselves in Kerns again and had some soft serve at the same place we brought the kids over Pride weekend.
We wrapped things up at Creo Chocolate, where we got an education in the manufacture and distribution of the stuff. While not at all what I was expecting, it was a nice experience. The owner, who was certainly a character, talked about how he and his wife got into the business 12 years ago and taught us about the various types of chocolate they manufacture. If you ever end up checking it out, bring water. Lots of samples!
Oregon Museum of Science & Industry (OMSI) was showing this in celebration of its 30th Anniversary. It’s not a great film, but it was kind of fun to see it on the big screen for the first time with my 6-year-old.
One of the biggest perks of working in my field is getting to go behind the scenes in all sorts of cool places. Today I had a lot of fun touring and learning about Providence Park. Being down on the field felt pretty special. It’s nothing short of incredible how much manpower and thoughtful management goes into running a place like this.
A creatively twisted ride that keeps you off-balance. The plot hits just about the right notes of weirdness, and the acting is uniformly excellent. Leans weird more than conventional.
Super Furry Animals was one of my favorite bands in the early 00s. I remember coming across their album Rings Around the World (2001) at New Moon Records in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan completely randomly and taking a chance on it. It was probably one of the last CDs I ever purchased and I can still recite many of the lyrics to that double album.
While they had been out for a while at that point, my mind was blown as a 20-year-old from small town Michigan. I had no baseline for Welsch surrealism the likes of No Sympathy, where Crosby Stills & Nash-style harmonies quickly bake into comic country before finally melting your face off with 200 bpm electronica. More, please!
Love Kraft is a great album as well. Still genre bending, it felt a bit more contained. While I had moved on from carrying an enormous book of CDs to pocketing an iPod by then (2004), a few of this albums songs were on heavy rotation. One of my favorites was Cloudberries, which often suited me as a moody bitch. Likewise, Cabin Fever and Oi Frango also spoke to me. Walk You Home sounds like Wilco's Sky Blue Sky – sixyears before it came out.
Seeing the 20th Anniversary Edition pop up in my feed sent me back to those strange and socially awkward college years.
Stunning work. It feels a bit like flipping through old photos and realizing you’ve finally made peace with the person in them. It’s warm, sad, and kind of perfect for this season. Plenty of material here to keep my mind busy for the next couple of weeks.
Follows Frank Remnick, a U.S. Marshal in charge of the quiet and weathered barrens of Alaska, as he needs to deal with a prison transport plane crash full of violent inmates inside his jurisdiction.
Just started this series on Apple TV tonight and I'm into it. The only beef I have with Apple TV at this point is how long it takes for new seasons of anything to come out. I didn't just lose interest in Invasion, See, or Foundation by the time subsequent seasons were released. I forgot most of the plotlines and characters.
A visually spectacular landscape of lush colours, futuristic screens and wild images of nature that comes alive with Björk's wondrous music, as she performs live alongside musicians and choirs of flutes and voices.
My kids had all sorts of questions when they came down for their after-put-to-bed snack.
Interweaves story and dream, past and present, and philosophy and poetry in a sardonic and erotic tale of two couples--Tomas and Teresa, and Sabina and her Swiss lover, Gerhart.
Finished S3 of White Lotus. Sort of hilarious how it satirizes the Western pursuit of enlightenment through luxury wellness experiences, but hell if I couldn’t use a vacation like that.
Written by two accomplished architects and urban designers, this user-friendly street design manual shows both how to design new streets and enhance existing ones.
Street Design: The Secret to Great Cities and Towns
Robert Caro’s The Power Broker traces how Robert Moses reshaped New York through unelected power—building bridges, highways, and parks that transformed the city while destroying neighborhoods. A Pulitzer-winning portrait of ambition, control, and the cost of progress.
