Lascher at Large » Movement

Along for the Ride: Line 14

Bill — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:37:42 +0000

Sights | Tweets

Listen: [Audio clip: view full post to listen]

For my latest edition of the Along for the Ride series of transit chronicles I rode Line 14 from Downtown Portland to Lents, and back again. Along the way I stopped for lunch at a taqueria I’d once [...]

Along for the Ride: Streetcar Music Festival

Bill — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:17:01 +0000

Guitars, cellos, saxophones, toy pianos and more, the Streetcar Mobile Music Fest featured musicians performing aboard various streetcars throughout the night. Click the link to listen to and see what it was like when I went along for the ride. [...]

Along for the Ride: Max Blue Line 1 — Hillsboro

Bill — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:03:11 +0000

This week's installment of Along for the Ride, my series of weekly chronicles of Portland, OR-area transit lines. is an audio postcard from a rush hour trip aboard the MAX Blue Line to Hillsboro. In a future edition, I'll explore the rest of the line, from Downtown Portland, East to Gresham. [...]

Along for the Ride: Island Time Aboard the 85

Bill — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:03:07 +0000

Welcome to the second week of Along for the Ride, my series of weekly chronicles of Portland, OR-area transit lines. If you haven’t already, check out the first edition and if you like the series, please spread the word, or even cover my bus fare.

This week, I woke early Wednesday morning intending to [...]

Along for the Ride: Going Live on the 75

Bill — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:37:31 +0000

Today marks the public launch of “Along for the ride,”* a new series of mass transit adventure chronicles on Lascher at Large.

Watch an Audio Slideshow | Explore the Map | See the Photo Gallery

The concept: explore Portland as seen from the metropolitan region’s transit lines. Each week, through a highly [...]

Roads traveled, stories unraveled

Bill — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:24:22 +0000

For the next week or so, each day I'll recount some element of my October trip to and from the 2010 Society of Environmental Journalists conference. I'll combine my recollection of what I saw, experienced or learned, tweets I made at the time, photographs and links to some of the cool things I learned. Check back each day for new reflections, tales and reports. At the end of my updates I'll post a link to read the story as one narrative (and post a complete photo album as well). Be prepared. This series will include a mix of storytelling styles -- don't expect straight journalism, or complete creativity. In fact, don't expect anything but a journey. More than two months after I've returned from one journey, though, I've yet to trace its path. I still haven't traced my trip from Portland to Missoula and back, and I can't quite express why not. Perhaps I don't feel like the trip's over, like I've truly returned. Perhaps I can't record it until I've described it, until I've wrapped the journey in words and pictures and recollections that I realize are fading with each day. Some of you might not be interested in such ponderings. “Get to the point,” you'll say. “Tell me about the conference. Tell me what you learned, what you saw along the way, what the latest news is. I only have so much time. Don't you know attention spans are ever so slight? Haven't you ever heard of an editor?" Indeed I do, and I have. As I've noted elsewhere, as so many have noted before, though, to truly travel you can't simply move from Point A to Point B. You can't experience this world's multiplicity of dimensions through a straight line. The truth is, of course, I did wait to write this down. I let the story fester. I let it fall away and apart. Like anyone might, I've been making excuses for months now for not chronicling my trip. My terrible cold on the road. Assignments due just upon my return. Job applications. Novel Writing. Story development. Other conferences to attend as a reporter. Holidays. I could think of any number of reasons why you're reading this now, today, this very second, and only now, but this is the moment, this is when these words take shape. [...]

One Year Ago: Mastering the Bus

Bill — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:00:08 +0000

May 15, 2009.

I quit a job, spent a year of my life and paid thousands of dollars to get this shot.

In Transit

Bill — Tue, 04 May 2010 06:59:17 +0000

Last Spring, I wrote a commentary about my personal experiences with transit in Los Angeles. An assignment for a class, it was something of a companion to the reporting I’d done for my master’s project, the work that became “R We There Yet.” I was proud of the final piece that emerged, as I [...]

Writing (and driving) gone wild

Bill — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:52:53 +0000

Today I leave Los Angeles for Portland, Oregon. As I do, I look forward to taking an as-yet determined path to my new home hundreds of miles north. I don't know how exactly I'll get to Portland, though I've set a few ground rules. I won't set a firm date to get there. Though the trip could easily take as little as a day and a half, I don't want to constrain myself to any schedule, lest I miss the world I pass through (you can help me get there, too). I may backtrack. I may make detours. I may decide to linger in one spot staring at the sky for hours. I may rush. I may wander. Which brings me to rule #2, perhaps the most exciting and most questionable part of my plans. To best experience the journey I plan to completely avoid freeways and even divided highways. Getting to Oregon from Southern California in January makes this a rather daunting task, particularly because I also plan to steer clear of the coast. As stunning as the coast is, I've seen much of it and hunger for a new path, at least this time around. [...]

What it’s like – In transit through L.A.

Bill — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:15:33 +0000

A brief note: if you haven’t looked around the site lately please take some time to look at my updated, categorized portfolio page. More updates to come soon.

After an evening in Pasadena I board the Gold line at Fillmore Station. I complete a phone call as the train heads southwest, [...]