Detour du Monde: Pink Martini and Portland

What good is a Tour du Monde without detours? Yes, we’re on a tight schedule, our itinerary cram-packed with things to do and see, but as I’ve come to understand since first hooking up with DEDON, there’s always room for more. And so it is that I find myself sitting in an airplane beside DEDON founder Bobby Dekeyser, his son Yannick and Dekeyser&Friends foundation CEO Florian Hoffman, barreling across country on an improvised, overnight sojourn, DEDON style. 

Our destination — for all of 18 hours — is Portland, Oregon, the artsy, alternative-living city that has become a Mecca for cool kids from across the country. Our primary mission here is to discuss a collaboration with Thomas Lauderdale and the Portland-based big band, Pink Martini. Our secondary mission, not unrelated to the first, is to experience as much of the unique spirit and culture of Portland as possible before heading back to New York and our busy Tour du Monde schedule. 

The weather is predictably wet as we head into town, but not wet enough to dampen our spirits. Our first stop the Ace Hotel. The Ace was my base for more than 40 days last year as I worked with Thomas, singer China Forbes and the rest of Pink Martini on their latest album, Splendor in the Grass. Walking into the hotel, already famed around the US and beyond for its great local style and staff, feels like coming home. Bobby, Yannick and Florian instantly get the vibe. 

We grab some seats at a communal table at Clyde Commons, the restaurant adjoining the Ace, and wait for Thomas to arrive. Portland has earned a reputation for itself as one of America’s best food cities, as no shortage of attention from the New York Times attests, and the Clyde is one of the many good reasons why. As we’re settling into our meal, Thomas calls to say he’s on his way and asks us to get him a green-pea pesto and grilled cheese sandwich. With typically perfect timing, he whirls up to the Clyde in his silver convertible and hops out — accompanied by Pink Martini’ press guy, the wonderful Peter Murray — just as his food arrives. 

In no time at all, Bobby, Yannick, Florian and Thomas are hitting it off. Thomas wolfs down his meal, we get a boost of caffeine from Stumptown, possibly America’s best coffee (and handily adjoining the Ace on the other side from Clyde), and we’re off on the kind of Portland adventure only Thomas can provide. There are too many twists and turns to follow them all, but highlights include a tour through Wieden and Kennedy’s stunning headquarters, a seven-person ride through downtown Portland in a compact 1976 BMW 2002 and an unforgettable performance by rocker, reality-TV personality and local superstar Storm Large.

The performance, which takes place on the bottom floor of Thomas’s three-story loft building downtown, is part of a fundraiser for Portland’s Cascade AIDS Project. Storm, accompanied at the piano by Thomas, has the audience in hysterics with her raunchy banter. Just when you think it can’t get any cruder, it does — and then she cuts into a classic number (‘Material Girl’, for example, sung to the tune of ‘Oh, Holy Night’), her golden voice lulling you up to the rafters of Thomas’ 19th Century loft-cum-performance space. 

The crowd, which seems to span several generations, stays on after the performance concludes, and the antics continue all evening, culminating in the screening of a 3-D classic from Thomas’s vintage 16mm film collection. Then Bobby, Yannick, Florian and I, plus Thomas, his boyfriend Philip, our friend Nate Overmeyer, and others all pile into cars and head back to the Ace, just in time to order room service from the Clyde.

Someone — it’s not quite clear who — brings back a box of local beer, and the improvised Portland celebration carries on deep into the night. Bobby and Thomas have a chance to discuss DEDON Island in the Philippines, set to open early next year, and Bobby asks Thomas to be part of the island’s initial wave of guests — the same invitation he extended to Bruce Weber only days before in New York. A DEDON song and other aspects of a long-term collaboration also come up. In short, there’s much to be done.

With just a few hours left before we have to head to the airport again, our guests leave and we try to catch some sleep. On the flight back to New York, our Portland sojourn — or what I can remember of it — seems like a dream, and a very pleasant one at that. It’s clear that Thomas and the band share the same spirit as Bobby and DEDON. Now it’s just a matter of organizing everyone’s busy schedules in order to make great things happen. Hopefully, this will entail another, longer visit to Portland soon — 18 hours isn’t enough even to scratch the surface of this great American town.