Music Blog

Growing up in Portland, there were two skating rinks I would go to. Usually it was the one near Beaverton Mall. And although I wasn’t the best skater, I loved going because rollerskating is one of the purest ways to experience recorded music (aside from vinyl on oversized headphones, late, late at night).

One Saturday, the girl I’d had an unconfessed crush on for two years was at the rink, flanked by her two girlfriends, as my parents dropped my friend and I off. They were popular and we weren’t, so social order dictated that every time I fell (which seemed to be a countless number of times), they would point, laugh and make fun. I vowed that day to learn to skate without falling, and spent several afternoons that school year practicing in my parents’ garage, with the old spare stereo tuner cranking out Cyndi Lauper, The Cars, and Ray Parker, Jr.

After a few months, I became steady on my skates, but never got to show off my skills to my crush. By the end of 5th grade, her family had moved across the country, the rink had closed down and reopened as a Ross’ Dress for Less, and I felt a twinge of sadness every time I heard Chicago’s “Hard Habit to Break,” both for my love and for my favorite place to go, where that song had been in heavy rotation.

But if Portland kids were to be left with only one skating rink, Oaks Park is the rightful heir of their hopes, dreams and pirouettes. While other rinks were pumping out whatever disposable hits were popular at the time, Oaks had a real organist at the Wurlitzer, still playing “Roll Out the Barrel.” And the architecture and setting are so distinct and steeped in Portland’s history that it would be impossible to replace with a big-box discount clothing store.

Portland musician and member of Small Sails Ethan Rose also realized the power of listening while skating, as well as the possibilities for new sounds from Oaks Park’s 1926 theater organ. He’s created a new album, simply titled Oaks, entirely from recorded and manipulated sounds from the rink’s Wurlitzer. His CD release show is 8:00 tonight, at the Oaks Skating Rink itself (map), appropriately presented by PICA, the people who bring us Time-Based Art.

OPB’s April Baer did a great story on Ethan’s project, you can listen here.

MP3: Ethan Rose – “On Wheels Rotating”
Ethan Rose: website | myspace
PICA event page
Oaks Park
 

Tagged: mp3