John Lee Hooker

As soon as the saccharine and damnable Rose Festival clears out downtown, workers can begin to clean up and bring in the gardeners to refurbish things--in time for Portland's best summer event, the Waterfront Blues Festival, a tradition since 1987.

Sponsored by a few very large businesses now, the festival has lost some of its rebel charm, but you can still find great acts in every year's lineup.

And, importantly, the food gathered at the festival feeds thousands of hungry people in Oregon.

If you're in Oregon on the weekend of 4 July, be there.

The picture is of John Lee Hooker (1917 -2001). He headlined the first blues festival in 1987. Seventy years-old at the time, the master had the energy of a kid. I took my four year-old daughter, sat her on my shoulders above the huge crowd. Stood there, mesmerized.

To this day my daughter remembers John Lee and listens to him all the time.


TS