MusicFest NW is Rubbish - Willamette Week Cover

You never exactly know how it is going to go with celebrities.  Perhaps spending your life with people that never tell you no can have a warping effect. Thankfully this diva mentality was delightfully absent from Fred Armisen, of Portlandia fame.  I can never decide if that show is funny or not and if audiences from Mid-Western states would want to hug me or shoot if we were ever to meet. Fred showed up as his alter ego, 70s-era punk rocker Ian Rubbish, for the shoot.  At first I was afraid that he was going to talk in a British accent for the duration.  In which case I'm afraid I would have had a hard time keeping it together, persistent giggles making it difficult to push the shutter.  But no, though dressed as Ian, Fred played himself, a very sweet, laid back guy, who was game for whatever wacky things I could think of.

God bless us, each and every one.

So for the last two years I have been volunteering my services at the Downtown Chapel. They do lots of great stuff for the most marginalized members of society, i.e. the homeless, including the Portrait Project which started in 2007. It goes like this, over the course of four days in December their guests and volunteers are invited to get a portrait taken by moi or another fabulous shooter like Jason Kaplan who also organizes the whole thing. Then, a week before Christmas, the folks come back and get to pick up two 5"x7" color prints that they can give as gifts or keep for themselves. The Downtown Chapel even provides Christmas cards, stationary and postage for mailing portraits to family and friends. Cool right? Wanna feel even more warm and fuzzy? Check out their slideshow from last year. I have to say, this has become one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. I always go in there thinking, ok, here I am, doing my volunteer work, giving back, aren't I so virtuous, blah, blah, blah. But man if I don't feel like I got the gift at the end of it. I get to connect, make people laugh and hopefully give them a few minutes to feel seen and heard.

Cuz' everybody likes a little attention.

Especially around the holidays.