The first week of July

I got back from Georgia last night. There's so much to tell about that trip that it can't possibly fit in a single post. In the meantime, I needed to come up with a catch-all headline for a few other things that I want to take note of.

In no particular order...

1. Eat a cupcake and help The Dougy Center at the same time. Tomorrow, July 7, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Cupcake Jones, a locally owned bakery in the Pearl District (307 N.W. 10th Avenue), will be donating 5 percent of its proceeds to The Dougy Center.

Last month, I wrote about the "suspicious fire" that destroyed the center in Southeast Portland. No arrests have been made, but friends and clients of the center, along with board members and staff, are pitching in to help raise funds so we can rebuild on the site.

At the most recent board meeting, June 29, the staff briefed us on plans to move forward without missing a beat as it pertains to group counseling sessions for children and family members who've experienced recent deaths. Afterward, it was an uplifting experience to see new playground equipment (already installed before the fire) dedicated in the name of a longtime volunteer. Read The Oregonian's story here: "Dougy Center, determined to rise from the ashes, dedicates playground"

2. The "Three Girls and Their Buddy" concert at Oaks Park was a wonderful way to chill before rising early the next morning to fly to Georgia. It was a warm, comfortable evening, with the performers seated on stage beneath towering trees and a near-full moon. They sang the first song together, then did five rounds where each artist took a turn singing her or his own song individually, before finishing with another group song and an encore.

Shawn Colvin sounded wonderful, better than Emmylou Harris in my book, but Patty Griffin rose above them both, earning the evening's only standing ovation for "Heavenly Day."

3. I've also written previously about Oregon's creative class and The New Oregon Interview Series.

This past weekend, in The Oregonian's Sunday Opinion section, we published a piece by Tiffany Lee Brown, director of the nonprofit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters, and a multidisciplinary artist. Tiffany's essay, "Riding out the recession," offers a valuable perspective on the challenges and rewards of making a living from art in contemporary Portland. An excerpt:

As an artist, freelance writer and newly minted adjunct college faculty, I'm struggling hard to make ends meet. Bitterness descends along with anxiety when I watch phenomenally inventive, talented people draw tiny audiences or lose money making their art. Even our more traditional institutions, like the Oregon Ballet Theatre, have barely escaped going under. We're broke, and we deserve better than this. I've been homeless before, I think darkly. I don't want to do it again.

Then I watch my creative community coalesce. The tiny group of people who support the more unusual aspects of my artwork step up with volunteer help, artistic participation and the kind of feedback that nurtures the soul. Friends and strangers alike put in long hours to help me curate a benefit event for a nonprofit group ...

It reminded me why I stay in this city ... I stay here for the people, our instinct to help rather than compete with each other. I stay here for the so-called livability and the precious sensation of freedom we still possess -- despite our higher profile in the world and the gentrification of our neighborhoods.

I commend her piece as a breath of fresh air, compared to the steady diet of columns and analyses on politics and macroeconomics that we tend to gravitate to.