Ice Cream and Art

Olive Rootbeer took me on a date to an ice cream place. She wanted to cheer me up. 
I was very upset to lose our camera. I suction cupped it to our car bumper, went a few blocks, learned it had fallen off and when we went back, it was gone. I was crestfallen. 
She needed me to feel better (and she had a coupon) so ice cream it is.
The gopro only cost us a hundie. 
It's the 3 hours work of music video material that I was really mourning. 
The only thing I'm materialistic about is our own personal entertainment material. lol 
We did find a lovely donation of art materials on our doorstep, that was uplifting. lol Mystery goodies!

So she bought me a rocky road cone as big as my head. 
I do feel a lot better...mostly from the date part. 

Olive is kind and hot as a firecracker. I'm glad she didn't melt my cone. 
As we left on our tall bikes everyone cheered loudly for us. Odd timing since they saw us arrive, stood in a long line with us and we all ate together. Nobody said a word to us. Not complaining just observing some delicious human nature. We could still get the gopro or SD card back.

 I'm eager to see how that experiment works out.

This just in.....

Good afternoon,

Are you by any chance missing a gopro? I found one one my walk home. I though...oh gee my lucky day. Got home and found you both on its sd card. If it is yours I would love very much to return it to you.

WE ARE STOKED!!!!

Psst, hey, yeah you. Wanna help prop up our little Popsicle stand? Are you in a place to be hookin clowns up with some moneys for guitar strings and other things?

We appreciate cha Tiger, thanks a lot. We promise to give this thing everything we got. :)

  visit us at

 oliveanddingo.com/donation

...we are pretty punk rock for a kid show.

Gotta be fierce to compete with the roar of the cafes. 

http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

We got our yard done did.

The Innkeeper hired a nice fellow who spent the day sprucing up the yard. I knew just enough Spanish to disappoint him on how little Spanish I knew. What I do know, I pronounce perfectly. 
We really enjoyed his company. Olive was her usual gracious self. She made him a huge lunch and we sat together talking in broken English and broken Spanish. 
He really appreciated the Innkeeper for over paying him and Olive's kindness went a long way. 
He told us he has had a bad week of people underbidding him, speaking down to him and whatever "Truckka de Donal Trump" is. 
The day before a "trukka de Donal trump" was passing many times yelling at him to go back to his home country (Republic of Bakersfield Ca.?)
We had a lovely lunch and he told us all about his kids and grand kids. 
At first I was grumpy that he was coming. I'm a worker-bee too and I don't like missing hustles. 
It worked out, we made a friend, and it was impressive watching the 60+ year old man working like a young buck all day and carrying huge loads. 
If ya wanna hire Jose (and not lowball him) drop us a line, we will pass on his card.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

meanwhile. ... We don't make much money but it is really easy to scare up a meal in PDX.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

A visit from Florida

Wow. Miami Mama in the house.
She is here for a funeral but it must not be too broken up because she is having a blast with us. It's one of those things where we meet and instantly are in each other's heads.
We were loading the balloon bag after she had settled into her room.
As we traded life stories, she dug right in loading the bag with us.
She told us about her life as a SE USA Latina Lady.
I love her power and confidence. She saunters like Olive does and somehow her presence makes the house seem more secure.
We were looking forward to having more encounters with her but it wasn't in the cards.
After a few days the owner of the house told us the lady left her a list of things that could be improved on.
We had a good laugh, yeah none of that is gonna happen.
This place is dialed in just fine.

filthy

Yesterday a woman spent 20 min in her room and then stormed out. 
She was complaining that the house was filthy. 
At any other point in my life she would have been right, but these days our crib is spotless. 

Her room and our house are gorgeous as always. 

The house owner inspected right away (she lives in the basement). 
We were relieved that she wasn't sore at us. "Looks like we lucked out, we wouldn't have liked living with her anyways" lol. 
So here is my theory: 
She must be having an affair and chickened out. 
People book these rooms way in advance.
Maybe she was planning an extramarital adventure for weeks but aborted after she was racked with guilt. As the days clicked by her excitement dulled to anxiety and then eventually terror. 
The time came. 
Maybe she lives in a nearby town. 
She takes the long drive to Portland listening to songs from her youth through tears. 
Then she gets here. 
She avoids everyone. 
Looks at the bed she plans to betray her partner with. 
Suddenly she gets a text from the partner, then the lover. She lies to both and then loses it. 
She stomps out complaining the house is dirty and smells like too many cats. 
We don't have any cats... just clowns with a conspiracy theory or two.

I was washing dishes when a young woman walks into the kitchen and timidly says hi.

I was washing dishes when a young woman walks into the kitchen and timidly says "hi."
She told me she loved the room and asked if I was the host (no).
She introduced herself and shyly asked that the heat be turned up. 
I'm all alone and I still haven't taken any clown drag off. 
I tell her I'm just one of the clowns that live in the attic but I'm also helpful to travelers as a condition of my clown order. 
I turn the heat up. 
I ask her where she is from. She says Korea. I greet her in Korean. 
That moment changed the mood. 
Her face lights right up. She smiles big, snaps her heels and hands together and rocks a proper bow (like in the movies). I made it clear that I didn't know her language by my body language and it worked a charm. 
She clearly still dug the effort. 
I will be asking her for other phrases if she hangs around awhile. 
I went back to dish washing and then soon, she surprised me by coming back. 
She had a wine bottle and two glasses. 
Would you like to drink some wine?" 
I was like "Um, I'm not on vacation, I don't drink alcohol, and my wife is miles away so I'm gonna take a pass, but thanks!" I bid her good evening and then tended to the clogged drain I just created so I could be doing anything but that. Good times... lol

Actor in the hallway.

The guy staying in one of the rooms flies in from LA to catch his kid's HS sports matches (being vague for his privacy).
We wondered, who can afford such expensive commuting. So getting home today we met him.
 I recognized him right away as an actor from the TV. 
I don't watch TV so if I recognized him that is a clue to how he can afford the travel.
 Super cool dude, so glad he uses his money to support his kid. 
We talked about Belgian beers and kid raising but it soon evolved into an hour in the kitchen talking about camera shots, his directing career, editing tricks, acting motivations etc. 
All this is in our wheelhouse as well so we were riveted. 
It felt like it should have been an acting podcast. 
I'm not a sports fan but i do like any school sports. Maybe we can talk him into letting us go to his kids game. If so I will be in the clear to take a selfie and you can decide if and where you seen this cool cat before.
Our actor guest never made it home last night. 

Not surprised he is a really hansom charming fellow.

I met a handsome doctor last night ooooh!

 LOL ok we already met. He is staying in one of the rooms that rent in our place. Last night Olive was out of town. Steven is a mid-30-something Doc from New Zealand. 
He was visiting Corvallis tracking down distant relatives and decided to take a few days on Puddletown. 
We traded life stories last night as he watched me eat a plate of bacon. He said he has been trying to do at least one ink drawing per day. I asked him if he wanted to do some art with me by way of video taping a bike ride. 
He was all over it. There is avid cycling in NZ but nothing to the scale of Portland. 
I lent him a beach cruiser and we took off. I asked him what he wanted to see and he mentioned the big mural by the tracks with plants growing out of it. 
He noticed it from the bus and wanted a better look. I was glad that he was narrating into the gopro with that amazing accent. 

When we got there we noticed how cool the mural was and also noticed I neglected to bring SD cards for both gopros (like a ditz). No footage night, bummer. 
So we lit out exploring 11pm Portland. 
We rolled downtown and over the Tillicum bridge twice. He kept looking at the infrastructure and saying "Wow, so fancy." I enjoyed rolling with him and discovered it's really easy to get medical advice from a doc when you are asking about an ailment you don't have. 
I got him telling me all about dysentery and child birth. I learned a lot. 
We discussed so much, it really should have been a podcast. He had heaps of questions about clowning, our life and of course Patch Adams. It's a bit of a struggle rolling with folks who aren't conditioned to ride fast for hours like us. He did well and immediately passed out in his room when we got back. That''s what's up Doc.
Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/


Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

Contraband Canadian food.

We were paling around with a couple of young women from Victoria Canada. 
They gifted us some crazy Canada food that they accidentally brought over the border.
 I wanted to not like the Ketchup flavored chips but they were great. 
lol We are making great friends. 
Normally we don't have time of headspace for strong friendships but we make great single serving friends.
 I like being the first and last Portlanders a lot of people meet.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

We don't work here but we still get gifts from guests

We don't work here but we still get gifts from guests. Our latest "single serving" friends left us some goodies before they left. The came from an exotic country called "Dallas Texas". 

Single serving friends work great for us because longterm friendships tend to break our stride.

We must look like such snobs for always turning down dinner parties and social gatherings. Sorry. 

We can still be hermits around single serving friends because we know there is a finish line. 

This time there was a prize at the end. 

I understand why the Texans left the pot food behind but why didn't they bring those fantastic beers and the mug from the Drag club? 

Thanks Texans! Maybe someday I will visit your country and leave a bunch or pot and beer behind. I better learn the language first.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

two mom type women from Tucson and a couple from Berlin

 Tonight we have two mom type women from Tucson and a couple from Berlin doing the "employees with benefits" thing.
The latter are having a working vacation in the USA.
 The Moms were a riot! They couldn't wait to hit the nightlife for some booty shaking once their friend's wedding concluded. We are very empathetic so they got us way jazzed. We wanted to congaline with them lol.
The Germans were grumpy that nobody was grumpy. They are perplexed with the Ptown culture so they ended up spending most of the week in their room presumably workshagging to techno. 
While exploring Portland they had encountered lots of grinning people engaging in half conversations with them and asking how they were doing all day. Yeah that freaked them out. 
I sat at the diningroom table with them asking about German culture.
"Germans don't normally share greetings and philosophical observations with strangers" 
I told them to act like the whole city is a huge cocktail party. 
I tried to inform them that it's ok to go out there and be friendly. 
"No such thing as friendly, in Germany it's called "smiling with no reason". 

I can't wait to find out what trouble those Moms got into.
They had no problemo having a friendly time.

Wow this dude really likes pizza.

I just showed my new homie from Japan how to make a pizza from scratch.
He is returning to Japan unemployed and mentioned he wanted to get into the pizza game.
They are leaving tomorrow.
We will miss our newest single serving friends. Tonight i took dude on a tallbike night mission. Olive was sewing with his lady.
I asked him to come with me on a mission to deliver some food to a preggers lady. He doesn't really speak English so all I had to do was point to our contented hens and say "Wanna ride bicycle?"
I loaded my hoopty, squared him away with a bike light and we took off.
He hadn't realized how fast we roll.
I took off and eventually hear him screaming behind me "Soo sorry, I'm coming."
I slowed down and soon we found our pace together.
I admire this dude. For not knowing English he is killing it with the communication.
This wouldn't work if we all weren't really expressive anyway. We got to where we were going and he got to see a very grateful pregnant woman and shortly after that a pot tree.
He was apprehensive but curious because it's highly illegal in his town.
We took off. On the road he got to experience how people cheer for us as we go by. He was smiling ear to ear. When I got home I was baffled by the convo Olive was having with the other guest.
She was telling the lady "so I told her, I'm a grown ass woman and I'm not about to be hearing what she is saying." I wasn't aware that Olive ever said anything like that. I am aware that her Japanese counterpart had NO idea what she was saying at that point.
Other than that the language barrier, was no barrier to her friendship with her new friend.
They are tight. and have a lot in common.
Me hanging out with the dude was a little different.
language isn't so big a deal because we dudes don't mind sitting around not saying anything.
When we were on the road however, folks cheered at us and I could hear my friend cheering back in the thickest Japanese accent ever. "AAaaaAah"
I'm gonna miss this bloke.lol
They thanked us for being such good hosts. We said "We aren't hosts, we don't work here, we are just the clown who live in the attic. :)

i found out what Olive was talking about. She was telling her new friend what to say, not what she said. Our friends had shared a cab with some drunk, pregnant, obnoxious women.They were being condescending and Olive was giving her some tough language to fend off the dumdums. They were very taken with the friendliness of Ptown don't get me wrong.They were delighted at how many strangers on the street said hi as they passed. They also noticed the temperament we have around light rail. "In Japan when train late everyone very angry, in Portland when train late they go have beer."

a great way to impress me is to ride my bike.

nailed it.

We did a little rock show for them in the living room and then made balloons last night. After that we found out my Man had a trick up his sleeve. Turns out he in one of the few dudes in his world who still rock fundochi (traditional underwear). The couple met when they were volunteering at a festival honoring ancestors.

G'bye Friends Good luck!

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

Japanese folks and our tallbikes

By some interesting coincidence, last night both rooms were rented by early 30 somethings from The land of the rising sun. Japan.

It was our great honor to show them our life and ask about theirs.

We all had a lovely morning together.  After a round of strong coffee we showed them how to ride our tallbikes. 

Oops layed it down.

This dude was a natural.

Nice day for a ride.

My bike takes a pic every 5 seconds so I got a lot of pics. This post is for them to choose what pics they want.

That was fun. Now to show them my office.

yes, my office is a cardboard box. They thought that was a riot.

He is asking "Is...that Marijuana?"

Calls his lady and friend.

They watched me roll a doobie. They politley applauded when I was done. I said "American origami"

I never mention people's names when I talk about them. If anything they do in our country gets them into trouble in their country, I don't want it to be because I gave up their names. "Security culture" is international.

They didn't want any but they were facinated watching and photographing me smoke a joint by myself. That works for me.

We will miss these nice folks. I wish we all lived closer.

If this guy lived here I would want to ride with him all the time. He was good and confident.

Good times. 

We collected more Japanese language and three new friends this morning.  

That was great. It's so sad to see one of them go. 

We get to keep the other two a few more days. I hope they are having a great honeymoon here in the states.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/

Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

Turns out a good breakfast over in Tokyotown is rice,Miso, tufu and veggies.

Hanging out with this hip couple from Japan who are staying at our house.
 We had some of our family over tonight and all of us sat around with the babblephones out trying to communicate with our new friends. 
We never had time to take our clown stuff off after gigs today so this couple are very brave to spend so much time talking to clowns. 
They had no idea we would be here.  They may not know what we even are. But we are getting along swimmingly though. 
The couple looked at me puzzled when I complimented their English. 
I said compared to my Japanese language skills, you two are an English professors.
Now our family has left and we are still at it with the cultural exchange.
 I'm asking a lot of Japanese words and forgetting them as soon as I hear them, yeah, I'm sexy like that. Hopefully some of it sticks. 
Clowns need to know how to talk to everybody. It's tedious but well worth struggling through the language barrier to communicate and enjoy our latest "single serving friends". They got married 9 months ago and just now found time for the Honeymoon. 
We all have loads of questions for each other about water, life, language and culture. There is a Japanese guest in the other room as well strangely enough. She asked that we teach her how we make a traditional American breakfast. 
My traditional Sunday breakfast is the "racecar no driver" (Cannabis and coffee till lunchtime, roastin bowls and sippin joe.) so I wouldn't suggest my no gig day Bfast fave. 
Looks like we will be Americaning breakfast for three Japanese single serving friends in the morning.
 I hope we can come up with something to properly rep our hunk of Erff.
 I don't want to make them greasy fat bombs.
 I asked what they like for the first meal of the day in Japan. 
Turns out a good breakfast over in Tokyotown is rice,Miso, tufu and veggies. 
We are thinking pancakes, yogurt and fruit?

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/


Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

meanwhile...we rocked out for the kiddos everyday.

I thought we were all about Canadian Hippies last night, I was wrong.

 When i got home from clowning, i met some shaggy Canadians with guitars returning from Pickathon. Great folks.
I thought we were all about Canadian Hippies last night, I was wrong. 
Late at night I was in the back yard and heard our side door open. When I went to investigate I found nothing out of place but there were several yahoos across the street talking at me, I ignored them. I went to the front door and started punching in the code. 
I didn't have my glasses so I fumbled many times. 
Then the door opened from within. 
Inside our very dark living-room was a bald, gorgeous, black man in his tighty whities who was almost as tall as the ceiling. He let me in and put a finger to his lips (for me to be quiet) then pointed the finger out the window at the men across the street who were now approaching our pad. 
After that, he turned around and went into one of the rooms without a word. I guess he had been watching them in the darkness. 
They knocked, I answered and at 3 am or so 5 drunk dudes walked in loudly asking for beers, women and asking if I wanted LSD. 
It took me a moment to realize they were not at all affiliated with anyone staying with us. I was smiling but I was also loudly saying "Turn around dudes, you are in the wrong spot Yo. Get the Mcfuc out!" 
I shepherded them out of our place and watched them to make sure they kept going. Three of them started complaining that I was giving the boot but two of them mentioned how cool I was being under the circumstances. That was pleasant of them. 
I woke up next morning and couldn't ask any questions because now the rooms are full of lovely Ballet dancers from Seattle.  
They knew nothing about what I just told you. 
 how it goes. Thanks mysterious stranger for letting me in last night. That was clutch that he knew the difference between me and some drunk yahoos.

Hope ya got some laughs from this blog
Like what we do?
We live out of a tip jar (sometimes chicken sometimes feathers) if you are in a place to keep our sunny side up and rubber side down then feel free to drop off a donation at our website.
http://oliveanddingo.com/donate/


Thanks! It's a great town to be a clown.

Nice! The English guy likes that we have huge tea mugs in our house.

Nice! The English guy likes that we have huge tea mugs in our house. I been calling them coffee cups but what the hell do I know right? 
His people invented the language so It's on him to call it.