My 1982-83 articles in The Neighbor

While living in Northwest Portland in 1982, I supported myself by painting apartments for a friend's company and writing freelance articles for a local monthly newspaper called The Neighbor. The editor of the paper was a super nice guy named Mike Ryerson, and the publisher a colorful character named Bud Clark, who four years later would be elected mayor of Portland. Ryerson and Clark were also the masterminds behind the bestselling poster, "expose yourself to art," which is yet another story.

Bud Clark "flashes" a sculpture in downtown
Portland. (Photo and poster by Mike Ryerson)

One of the articles I wrote for the paper was a review of a performance by a Portland comedy quartet called BAMM!, which consisted of former Laugh-In comedian Brian Bressler, Gary Adams, John Morrison, and Michele Mariana. Mariana, a friend from my years with Will Vinton Productions (for whom she had voiced several Claymation characters, including The Little Prince), had given me free tickets to the show, during which I hastily—and almost illegibly, in the semi-dark—scribbled notes for my review.

This two-page article, photographed with my iPhone because it was too big for my scanner, is the result. (Apologies for the fold and the skewed angles.)

Another article I wrote was about an 81-year-old former showgirl named Fern Jones, whose apartment I was painting when she started telling me a few of her rather amazing life stories. I got out my tape recorder and recorded our conversation while I was painting, and later submitted my article to The Neighbor. Here's the three-page article (again, apologies for the fold and the skewed angles).

And finally, here's a short review I wrote for The Neighbor on the Storefront Actors' Theatre play "Emergency Room"—which I confess I never saw. I'm not quite sure how I was able to write a review of it, having never seen the play, but no one seemed to notice...