Ian profile picture

Ian

An artist should be a little crazy; an architect should be very careful

About Me

I'm where I need to be. Good friends, a beautiful city, and endless opportunity.

Some old music: here

Photos, Architectural stuff, Graphic Designish stuff: here

"I admire anone who can come up with something original. But not originality alone, because there can be originality in stupidity, with no musical description of any emotion or any beauty the man has seen, or any kind of life he has lived." - Charles Mingus

My Interests

Architecture, preservation, restoration, adaptive reuse, urbanism, local history (anywhere, here), transit, walking, smooching, working, music, music, music, Indian food, vegan soul food, grey & green, hopefully becoming a better person, passionate but not so serious.

I'd like to meet:

Portlanders, urbanists, park-readers, rain-walkers, architectural firms looking to hire dedicated traditionalists, record hoarders, friends.

Music:

In no order: Charles Mingus, Can, This Heat, Scritti Politti (early), Brian Eno, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Pere Ubu, Arthur Russell, Os Mutantes, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, Steven Reich, Wire, Bjork, Raincoats, Saka Acquaye, Bill Evans, Jimi Hendrix, Kraftwerk, Minutemen, Galaxie 500, Noizz Boys, Beach Boys, 23 Skidoo, Modern Jazz Quartet, Suicide, Pearls Before Swine, Alex Chilton, Public Image Ltd. (early), Front 242, Sonic Youth, Mnemonists, Blue Nile, 8 Eyed Spy, Liquid Liquid, Pigbag, Colin Blunstone, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Red Krayola, Erykah Badu, British Electronic Foundation, Sam Phillips, David Thomas, Low, Syd Barrett, Flamin Groovies, Meat Puppets, Shaggs, Silver Apples, Y Pants, ESG, Birthday Party, A Tribe Called Quest, Leonard Cohen, Faust, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Los Microwaves, Tom Tom Club, John Foxx, Harmonia, Skip James, Comsat Angels, Yello, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Blue Orchids, Tyrannosaurus Rex/T.Rex, Soft Machine, MX-80 Sound, Flying Lizards, Fun Boy 3, Velvet Underground, Residents, Rain Parade, Pylon, Mission of Burma, Boredoms, Orange Juice, Beekeeper, Swell Maps, Human League, Frank Zappa, The Slits, Pavement, Marine Girls, Modern Lovers, Laurie Anderson, Flying Burrito Bros., KUKL, 49 Americans, Terry Riley, Big Star, The Carter Family, Teardrop Explodes, Roberta Flack, Gary Numan, Belle & Sebastian, Weekend, Ludus, Young Marble Giants, Booker T & the MGs, Trio, LAFMS, Roxy Music, Buzzcocks, Moondog, Jeremy Enigk, New Musik, Fire Engines, Glenn Branca, John Coltrane, B-52s, No Night Sweats, Voigt/465, Plastics, Neu, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Nico, Television, The Chills, David Byrne, Psychedelic Furs, Sly & The Family Stone, Essendon Airport, Slowdive, Toumani Diabate, Prince, New Order, Lizzy Mercier-Descloux, The Sugarhill Gang, Zoomers, Magazine, Colin Newman, Devo, Dave Brubeck, Cat Power, Bow Wow Wow, Captain Beefheart (late), LIaisons Dangeruses, John Lennon, Sugarcubes, Mars, A Certain Ratio, Benny Goodman, The Feelies, The Sound, Mad Wookiees, Massacre, Stone Roses, Beck, Au Pairs, Adam & The Ants (early), Japan, Bauhaus, Aretha Franklin, Suburbs, Gang of Four, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Radiohead, The Cramps, The Fall, Pete Seeger, King Tubby, DNA, De La Soul, Thick Pigeon, Gil Scott-Heron, The Jayhawks, The Embarrassement, James Chance, Stereolab, The Gordons, Gun Club, The Byrds, Ultravox, Crass, Leadbelly, Go-Betweens, Charlie Parker, His Name is Alive, Mark Kozelek, Brand Nubian, Antena, Woody Guthrie, Eddie Bo, Half Japanese (early), The For Carnation, Eric B & Rakim, Art Bears, The Ex, Stan Getz, Last Poets, Fela Kuti, Johnny Cash, Holger Czuckay, Funkadelic, Blur, Ray Charles, D.A.F., Soophie Nun Sqaud, James P. Johnson, Honeymoon Killers, Dog Faced Hermans, Bob Marley, Thomas Dolby, Innocence Mission, Miles Davis, Joy Division, 9th Scientist, Flaming Lips, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Neon Judgement, Disco Inferno, ET Mensah, Outkast, The Homosexuals, Stina Nordenstam, Jonathan Richman, REM, Songs:Ohia, Talk Talk, James Brown, Mick Karn, Dome, Ornette Coleman, The Cure, Ultramagnetic MCs, Killing Joke, Howlin Wolf, Duke Ellington, Heaven 17, The Specials, Robert Wyatt, Neil Young, John Willis, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Mirah, Heavenly, Bob Dylan (early), Einstruzende Neubauten, Isaac Hayes, Uncle Tupelo, Durutti Column, Dif Juz, Sun Ra, Charlie Patton, Nick Drake, Pixies, Zombies, Memphis Minnie, Beatles, Love, Neutral Milk Hotel, Marvin Gaye, Cocteau Twins, XTC, Rufus Wainwright, Fats Domino, Paul Simon, Built to Spill, Leo Kotke, Richie Havens, Sam Prekop, Yo La Tengo, The Meters, Gamelan Orchestras, Nina Simone, The Creatures, Cybotron. Contemporary things I'm liking: Junior Boys, The Knife, Feist, Burial, Dengue Fever, Gnarls Barkley, Talkdemonic, Per Se

Movies:

Jeunet, Kieslowski, Chaplin, Coens, Welles, Anderson (Wes), Lang, Gilliam, Burton, Keaton, Allen, et al. I'm pretty predictable, here. I finally bought the whole Kino 'Art of Buster Keaton' set, been watching all the stuff I hadn't seen all weekend. So great. Just got the Harold Lloyd box, too.

Books:

Wolf, Shakespeare, Ellison, Faulkner, Rushdie, Chris Ware, 1920s-1940s

Heroes:

My Dad, Mom, sisters, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts. Portland Metro planning. All the anonymous, forgotten architects who designed the beautiful cities and towns that we then systematically dismantled from the 50s onward. Unheroes: the bastard fuckers who systematically dismantled our cities, and the soulless "architects" who aided them to sate their egos, esp. Corbusier and Wright.

My Blog

Portland People--Need Your Help Finding an Apartment!

This blog is especially aimed at my Portland friends. . . Just putting the word out there that I am looking to move fairly soon from my current place after a wonderful half a year, and I figure a few...
Posted by Ian on Mon, 14 May 2007 03:29:00 PST

Great historical/cultural free music finds

Just a quick mention of some recent discoveries (plus one I've been pillaging for a couple years):700 Lomax field recordings from the U.S. South in 1939:Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 S...
Posted by Ian on Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:58:00 PST

Michel Gondry: Lost & Found

Inspired by the release this week of 'The Science of Sleep' on DVD; recent re-watching of the Bjork videos DVD and the 'Directors Series' DVD; and my ongoing, years-old art-crush on Michel Gondry, I d...
Posted by Ian on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:41:00 PST

Various - '1971' (1971) [80:00]

Various - '1971' (1971) [80:00] Download at this link (Tracklist in approximate sequence. Tracks are often segued/overlapped) 01 Kraftwerk - Ruckzuck 02 Yoko Ono - Mindtrain 03 Curtis Mayfield ...
Posted by Ian on Tue, 30 Jan 2007 04:21:00 PST

"new" "song" up at my "music" profile

I put up a new deconstruction track at my music profile a little while back, called it "Sketch for Amanda" because a nice kid named Amanda asked me why I didn't make music anymore.  It's de/recon...
Posted by Ian on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 10:17:00 PST

Miscellany

The trip "home" brought a lot of warm feelings of friends and family and coworkers; and yet it confirmed for me that my home now is indeed Portland.  I was homesick for my new town, where I've be...
Posted by Ian on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 01:22:00 PST

Recent photos up

New photos up, mostly of my friends/housemates The Subcons, aka Richard B. and Fletcher F.; and of the Portland Tram, an aerial tram that ascends about 500ft (I think) from the south waterfront of the...
Posted by Ian on Tue, 19 Dec 2006 10:21:00 PST

Various - 'Electromance' (1969-2006) [77:10]

This compilation is partially mixed/segued, so it may sound better if you burn it as a disc with no breaks between tracks. Or, if anyone wants it, I can upload the mix as a single unbroken mp3. Roma...
Posted by Ian on Thu, 30 Nov 2006 06:57:00 PST

Various - Autumn Leaves (1965-2006)

Another compilation of tiny songs--all under 2:00, 41 songs in 66 minutes. A generally subdued, autumnal flavor to these tracks (a spikey poppy weirdo one is coming next). Hope you enjoy. Various -...
Posted by Ian on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 02:10:00 PST

Work Photos, Renderings, Sketches

I've posted some photos, renderings, sketches and a few drawings from my work at my flickr account here. This is just what I have in JPGs format.  I'll add better renderings and drawings as I cr...
Posted by Ian on Tue, 14 Nov 2006 06:59:00 PST