I can’t believe Bill O’Reilly is taking time out of his busy show to talk about Portland. But we’ll take any publicity we can:

I guess what struck me as funny is his portrayal of The O and it’s liberal coverage. Wow! Amy from the Mercury put it best over in comments on Blogtown:

Is he talking about the “committed left Oregonian” that endorsed Bush for President, and Republican Ron Saxton for governor?

I just sat back and laughed. This kind of behavior happens in every city and all over the world. It’s nothing new Bill. Oh and The O is far from a bastion of liberal press.

Just sitting in my office when my boss comes rolling in and directs me to look out the window. What’s so exciting? Apparently an ad hoc photo shoot on the nearby parking garage. Very, VERY artsy.

Nice heels…

That’s why you come to the Metblog, folks… All the latest in breaking news in P-Town…

Per The O’s “Behind the Blazer Beat Blog,” it appears that the Blazers will be announcing the promotion of Kevin Pritchard to the role of General Manager for the franchise. Sports Illustrated says it’s a five-year deal (thanks to Dave at Blazer’s Edge and Casey at The O’s Blazer Blog for the link).

It’s not a bad move, but I’m interested to know if the franchise pursued Geoff Petrie and explored the possibility of bringing him in to mentor Kevin in player contracts and that sort of thing. I think Pritchard is great in terms of evaluating and managing talent, but as we’ve discussed earlier that’s only part of the game. The SI article says the Blazers will be bringing in a contract guru to assist. I wonder who that will be. They’ll also bring in a president, which may be a good role for Petrie. It will be interesting to see what develops.

But in the end I like bringing some certainty into the off-season, making sure as it becomes time to explore trades (anyone think Zach will be here next year) that there’s a known party on our end of the phone when it starts ringing. And I love having Kevin here for the draft.

Congrats, KP! Best of luck.

Metro threw out some dollars so that Portland and Milwaukie could begin preliminary work on extending light rail from downtown to Milwaukie. Yeah baby! I used to work for a design firm back when Interstate light rail was in initial design and remember seeing options for a light rail bridge across the Willamette south of the Ross Island bridge. It would be so cool to see a new bridge come about in Portland. Others may want it to be a tunnel.

A planned MAX light rail alignment from downtown Portland to Milwaukie received $2 million in funding, again to pay for advanced design work. The overall project is expected to cost $880 million, with 60 percent of the overall funding flowing from the federal government.

“We’re in the environmental impact phase of the project right now,” Newman said. “When that’s done, we’ll seek approval from the feds to being preliminary engineering, which is what this money will pay for.

“Every step of the way, you have to follow their process. They don’t want a lot of projects moving forward that don’t have a realistic shot of getting funded.”

Looking forward to it peeps!

My favorite new tradition has been decorating easter eggs the Saturday afternoon before Easter, at JOQ’s tavern on Broadway. For the past two years I’ve been going, they’ve boiled a ton of eggs, put out cups of dye, pens, and other fun decorating stuff, and let us go at it. They had prize baskets with bonnets and other easter goodies for winners of the decorating contest. I won for “Gayest Eggs”, Liza Minnelli and David Gest. It’s a lot of fun, and I think they usually have jello shots. My favorite bartender Peaches is over at the Eagle now, but I think Lloyd is planning to keep the tradition going. I’ll definitely be there! Here’s a bad picture of my winning eggs. I think I was pretty toasted by the time I took the picture.

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More and more, I’m seeing people on the MAX whip out their laptops to type away and maybe grab some city wifi. I’m usually stunned by this — somehow it’s a more overt display of wealth than the now-ubiquitous ipods and phones that everybody’s got (and I wonder about the mental health of someone who can’t be away from their computer even on a relatively short ride home or to work)– and my mind immediately goes to a place where I think about how easy it would be to wait for a stop, snatch somebody’s computer and jump off the train. Or, if wanting to avoid the MAX line cameras, to wait for someone to get off and then mug them.

I’m not in any way advocating this, I’m just saying that’s where the small evil part of my mind goes. I don’t know about anyone else, but my life is on my computer. If somebody stole my ipod, yeah, I’d be pissed, but it wouldn’t affect my life all that much. But if somebody grabbed my computer, on which I receive e-mail, bill notification, have personal information, et cetera, I’d be in some serious trouble.

Easter Sunday is April 8th. That’s a little more than a week away and until this morning I hadn’t given it a thought. So what is there to do that day for us non church going types? Sure, you can sit at home in your unmentionables and munch down a bowl of toasty oh’s while you watch a slew of infomercials Sunday morning, but in Portland we have a whole host of other opportunities for that weekend:

Saturday April 7th the Oregon Zoo will be holding their Rabbit Romp. There are games and a petting zoo for all along with the candy “egg” hunts every 20 minutes for ages 2-10. Visitors will also have a chance to learn about the zoo’s conservation efforts to protect endangered pygmy rabbits. All activities are free with zoo admission.

Sunday April 8th the historic McMenamins locations are having Easter Brunch. All are welcome but reservations are required.

Sunday April 8th Portland Art Museum will conduct 2 Family Tours at 1pm. There’s also drop in family art making fun from 1-3pm (photo art). Leaving the little nippers at home? At 3pm they have a public tour. It’s all ages but not geared toward families with little ones.

Sunday April 8th Frogz “Imago’s famous Broadway production”. I’ve never seen this show myself but I’ve heard it is like no other. It has returned to Portland for a limited run. Sunday shows (including Easter) are at 1:30 pm.

Those are just a few of the scheduled events I found, there’s tons more too do if you just look around. Whether you find something new and fun to do, follow your own family tradition or sit around in your birthday suit reading a book, I hope you all have a great holiday weekend.

With Spring here and summer on its way, the sun will be out more and the afternoons/evenings longer. I have worked for plenty of companies where people take off earlier than normal once the sun comes out. Also, it seems Fridays become a de-facto 1/2 day for some. I remember watching a show about The Hamptons in NY and it seemed everyone took off Friday completely in order to have time to actually get to the Hamptons.
So, my question for you is this – do you take off early to mow the lawn, take advantage of the sun, or just to get away because everyone else is taking off? Do you, as an honest worker, mark this time against sick or vacation time? Or do you just take it off, justifying it as “summer time?” How do you work it in spring/summer?

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

I walk by this fountain off SW 5th every time I head down to the POD for lunch. It has always struck me as the inspiration for the movie Pitch Black starring Vin Diesel. The sculptures here remind me of the winged gargoyles who stalk the humans at night. Like I said, call me a geek, but I loved that movie. Anyone else see the resemblance?

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

I am angry. I am very angry right now. Today, I discovered something that made my blood boil. A week or so ago, after the “big” anti-war protest, a splinter group decided to co-opt the day and make the protest about themselves and how much they hate the police. According to reports, about 800 of them were across from the justice center throughout the afternoon, continuously confronting the police. The Mercury pointed out that a few of these individuals were some of the same street kids who were protesting the sit/lie ordnance. Most of the vitriol that day was anti-Portland Police.

Well, my anger is about the graffiti and vandalism of the war memorial in Lonsdale Square in the same area. This is a war memorial for WWI, listing names of Oregon soldiers who died in that war. All over the tall statue, it appears blue and orange spray paint had been used, along with black markers. Someone even had the temerity to write “Fuck the Police” with a swastika.

I don’t fucking care what your politics are. I don’t fucking care if you are a street kid or live in a Pearl loft. I don’t fucking care if you hate this current war or not. I don’t fucking care if you have been wronged by the police. Defacing a memorial to the dead is horrible. How would you feel if someone showed up at your parent’s grave and pissed on it? How would you feel if someone dug up your childhood pet and threw it in the trash? How would you feel if someone went to your best friend or former lover’s grave site and knocked over the tombstone?

Well, by tagging a memorial, whether it is for war or not, is like slapping someone’s mom in the face. The soldiers who fought and died in WWI are so far removed from today’s politics and crap, it just makes me wonder what kind of asshole thinks that tagging the memorial with anti-police slogans is actually accomplishing something.

I really hope there is a way to clean up the memorial as it is something Portland and Oregon should value and be proud of.

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