Lynn Twiss

Tonight, I was laying in bed at midnight and I decided I should get out for a bit. I walked down to Backspace and ordered a coffee. I then headed around the corner and went into Ground Kontrol; ordered a beer – talked to the cute door girl and played some Star Wars. I walked up to the front Centipede game and all of a sudden, over the sound of music there was a rapid succession of popping sounds from outside. I looked out the windows and the streets erupted with crowds running and screaming away from the back parking lot (In front of Lush).

I stood there with the door girl as people – huge crowds – rushed by, people looking back over their shoulders as they ran; it was crazy. Then a cop ran across the street with a shotgun. Followed by more popping sounds. More crowds ran by. I just stood there at the window and watched. Soon more cop cars arrived and three horses (MPUs) and a plethora of police officers running around with flashlights. They started pushing crowds back. The bartender of Ground Kontrol (who later I came to know was Mark Mahoney @bandcandymark, one of Portland’s best fucking interface developers. This was before he got a position at opus:creative’s Innovation arm.) locked the front door and we stood there more. I couldn’t believe how many people there were. Many were yelling into their cellphones; yelling at the cops who were trying to contain the crowds of people. The police continued to push them back. Soon the street in front of Ground Kontrol was empty. The door girl said that now was the time to leave because the entire block was being corded off.

I headed out the door and at every corner were horses and police setting up yellow ribbons. A tall police woman came up and asked which direction I was heading. I told her and she said I had to go all the way to Burnside, then west to Broadway in order to get home.

All the way I walked the police had every street blocked all the way to Flanders.

Insane.