Sauvie Island is pretty.

clarklewis is at the left end of the building

We had dinner tonight at a pretty new restaurant here in Portland: clarklewis. I would describe it as creative Italian using local ingredients. Our meal:

“Peasant Salad” – chicory, radicchio, and other greens with balsamic vinegar, house-cured pancetta, walnuts, and grated cheese (Pecorino? not sure)

“Arrabiata” – spicy grilled Monterey Bay calamari with arrugula

[above with Prosecco]

Spelt pasta with house-cured anchovies, fennel pollen and fronds, and red pepper – one of the best pastas I have ever had in my life, including in Italy

[Oregon Pinot Bianco (sorry didn’t write down maker) and Arneis from Ponzi]

Roasted Squab with plums, plus wax beans with braised tomatoes

[a Chianti Classico, plus a Barbera, then a red from Calabria and one from Bolzano]

Frozen almond torta with a peach semifreddo-like filling, and strawberry moscato granita (two separate desserts)

I was really dazzled by the food. The atmosphere is a little annoying, with very dim lighting and lots of noise. The food made up for it however.

Freeman Dyson, Tim O’Reilly, and George Dyson

I saw Freeman Dyson and his son George, along with Tim O’Reilly as moderator, at this morning’s keynote at OSCON. It was wonderful to hear such people talk about technology and the future. Esther (Freeman’s daughter) was supposed to attend too, but she was stuck at the airport in Dallas. As Tim O’Reilly put it, she was stuck in Texas, like our whole country at the moment.

On vacation (barely). The conference is a lot of time and mental work. The food here is excellent. Favorite restaurants so far:

Carafe – more elegant setting for Florent-like food. We’ve eaten lunch there every day so far.

Veritable Quandary – great bar menu, had scallops wrapped in bacon on top of corn (me) and grilled pizza with heirloom tomatoes (James) for dinner the first night. We had great wild salmon there last night for dinner.

Park Kitchen – sort of like Savoy’s food. Fresh ingredients, brilliant execution. We had a chilled cucumber and almond soup with bits of house-cured salmon on top. It was one of the best soups I have ever eaten.

The raw ingredients chefs have to work here are excellent: heirloom tomatoes, corn, cucumbers, mushrooms, lamb, etc.

Great wines we’ve had: Jezebel white (a blend of Pinot Gris and others), Pinot Noir from Argyle, Belles Soeurs and Brick House, late harvest Gewurtztraminer (dessert wine) from Andrew Rich.

Have you heard? Margaret Cho got kicked out of a gay event (she was supposed to be the headliner) during the Democratic convention in Boston because they were afraid she might offend some Republicans.

It reminds me of a scene in a Madeline Olnek play I mentioned earlier on bloggy.

See this post from Joy Garnett on what Schroeder Romero is presenting in honor of the RNC convention. It looks like a great show!

We finally met Joy in person tonight at Foxy Production‘s opening for the Infinite Fill show. It was a bit crowded and hot to appreciate everything there, but the show looked wonderful. It works as a big black and white installation quite effectively. As James said, like almost everything the very generous Cory Arcangel arranges, it’s more about other people than himself.

While we’re on the subject of art, don’t miss the White Box show of work by Julia Scher that James wrote about last night,

I just added Mark Dixon’s sketchbook blog to my list of links.

I like the fact that he puts up images of works, in progress and finished.

We visited three worthy groups shows in Chelsea at their openings last Thursday. Go see them — not all art is mindless in the summer!

Capsule has a big group show titled And one for Grandma. It was about 100 degrees inside at the opening, but we saw enough to notice several things, including a wall painting by [can’t remember, nothing on the site], the photograph on the invitation by Christine Callahan, and some great drawings by Andrew Guenther. I like his work, especially the fact that there is a big variety of work ranging from sculpture to drawings to installations.

Florence Lynch has a show, minimalpop, curated by Petra Bungert of CCNOA (Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art) Brussels. It includes sculpture by John Beech, whom we finally met at the opening. We have one of his rotating paintings.

My favorite work in the show titled The day after I destroyed the women, I wished I had not destroyed them at Oliver Kamm 5BE (curated by Lital Mehr) doesn’t photograph well, so I won’t put it up. It’s The Birds and The Bees by Aaron Wexler. It’s an amazing painting-like work created from cut paper mounted on wood. Go by and see it, and ask to see his other works in the back. Other work includes sculpture and installation by Agata Oleksiak (with dancers wearing some at the opening) and paintings by Tom Meacham. Tom is also in the current group show at Nicole Klagsbrun.

Also, don’t forget that White Box has a new show (and opening) beginning each Wednesday, 6-8pm, through September 1.

—

UPDATED: In the comments, Jeffrey Chiedo from Capsule tells me the wall drawing was by Jen Kim.

Check out Matt Stoller‘s brief essay up right now in the right column of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee homepage. It’s good.

Yes, you thought I was talking about Saddam Hussein. I’m talking about Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq.

Iyad Allawi, the new Prime Minister of Iraq, pulled a pistol and executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station, just days before Washington handed control of the country to his interim government, according to two people who allege they witnessed the killings.

They say the prisoners – handcuffed and blindfolded – were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city’s south-western suburbs.

…

One of the witnesses claimed that before killing the prisoners Dr Allawi had told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents.

Of course, we have to rely on a newspaper in Australia to tell us these things. As John Stewart said on Larry King, the U.S. media and the government are a single organism.

[Via Eschaton and Blogging of the President]