L2P-USA

I'm in Portland this morning, eating black cherry pie and drinking pear soda in the famous Backspace net cafe. I'm going to Darkhorse Comics this morning to visit some funky gamer chick I met last night at Vendetta. I also met the brother of the head of Magic Creative Dev! He's working the coffee machine behind me right now. Then I better go back to Powell's (the largest new and used book store in the world spanning an entire city block!) to pay for the books I grabbed yesterday. I found some vintage Frazetta, the best of H.P. Lovecraft (for $8) and a gorgeous Italian book about satanic erotic art. It'd make a great present for a heap of people but I want it for myself. If you need something, chances are that's the place to find it! Around the corner is Ground Kontrol where I played some oldschool games last night. My favourite so far is Star Wars where you get to used the force and blow up as many Death Stars as you want. They blast videogame sounds from outdoor speakers to lure customers and deter the homeless (which, due to the temperate climate and the pro-homeless laws, there are heaps of*) and everything about the 'barcade' is pretty amazing. They had 100+ people last night with Rock Band karaoke!

We also attended trivia run by 'real' pirates, the guys who started Talk Like a pirate day etc. They carry loaded flintlocks, fuck! Basically assholes that never grew up but I love that they can get away with it in Portland. Then hung out at Ground Kontrol some more, went to Voodoo Doughnut, Town square and finally a genuine Suicide Girls strip club. One of the girls spent a lot of time with us 'cause she's an oldschool gamer from the Atari era. She gave me her card so we can hang out at PAX. I feel there's a great interview right there. Perfect after spending the afternoon discussing girls growing involvement in the culture. When I have more time I'll go into some detail on that subject.

Portland is my favorite city thus far; when people decide to do something, everyone goes along with it. Rent is very low, cute girls hang out at arcades and you can get married by a robotic Elvis head for a quarter. Music is everywhere and everyone is cool. It's like what Seattle was supposed to be in the 90s.