Musical black hole

Losing Paul deLay and Dr. Jazz in the same week leaves a musical black hole in the Portland scene. I don't venture out to clubs much any more but when I did, the first thing I did was look to see if Paul was playing somewhere. And Saturday and Sunday mornings won't be the same without Dr. Jazz's dixieland and warm reminders, "third call to breakfast...fourth call to breakfast." Still unable to kick this virus, I feel half-dead myself, which doesn't add any silver lining to the week.

Maybe March Madness can cheer me up. The brackets were announced today for the men and the big news here is Oregon got a #3 seed. They deserve it -- and if they continue playing like they did the past week, they will be a team dangerous against anyone. But they've been inconsistent through the season, so we'll have to wait and see. In the women's brackets, here is an amazing first round game: Tennessee against Harvard! I didn't even know Harvard had a women's basketball team. I wonder how many points I could get with Harvard. I'd take 75. I think. Well, Pat Summit is a nice lady, she wouldn't run up the score. After a 30 pt. lead, she'll probably clear the bench.

I am feeling better today than yesterday, so I keep hoping I'm over the summit on this thing. I've been blessed with good health all my life but my zero-sum universe theory may come back to haunt me in the end. Hack, hack.

Otherwise, still planning on taking it easy tomorrow since I am scheduled to do a two-hour lecture Tuesday. Thursday will be a snap, showing a documentary, and then the term is over except for finals -- but Tuesday could be a challenge. Behind on everything, of course, including editing the new issue of the journal but I hope to catch up during term break.

Portland becomes less like the Portland I loved so much in the 80s with each loss. I'm still shocked that no one in my class knew who deLay was. There was a kind of magic in Portland in the 60s-80s that disappeared once the big money came in to gentrify all the neighborhoods. The theater scene in the days of Storefront and New Rose was extraordinary. Well, I've been through all that before. I was lucky to be here then. I don't feel so lucky to be here now. In fact, except for the university, I'd say I feel stuck. The university saves Pdx for me because I love my work there.

Well, I have more energy to write here than I thought. Hope it's a good sign.