I’ve always wondered about ways to earn additional points for my Regal Crown Club membership. That’s the free points program you can join at Regal Cinemas so that you eventually earn free movie tickets and the like. Wandering around the Regal Crown Club Web site brought me to a page in which I can be a movie theatre monitor and earn points at the same time. Sweet – power and points all wrapped up in one little package!

Here’s how it works – you visit one of the local theatres listed below:
(more…)

With summer winding down, many in Portland are witnessing the closing of an icon – Music Millennium on NW 23rd. This bastion of music goodness from the old days has succumbed to the market and is being forced to close their NW 23rd location. The last day is August 31 and they plan on going out with a bang. Beginning today @ 5pm, Thursday @ 7:30 and Friday at 1pm, there will be live performances by some great bands including Stars of Track and Field and Floater (schedule after the break.) Also, they are pricing everything left to sell – 40% off all cd’s, dvd’s, cassettes and vinyl. Wow. This may be the time to stock up on cassette tapes. You know they are coming back.

It is sad to see them go. They are victims of a changing music culture in America. I’m glad that the east Burnside location is still there as they had some choice vinyl last time we visited. Farewell NW 23rd Millennium.
(more…)

I almost forgot about the annual free concert by the Oregon Symphony at Waterfront Park – I’ve been once – several years ago – but it’s one of those things I never remember in time to go.

But I just looked out my window and saw ‘something’ being erected down in the south bowl at Waterfront Park and had an AHA moment!

Tomorrow evening the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the Oregon Symphony will play a free concert which closes – as it does every year – with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture complete with cannons and fireworks!

Portland Youth Philharmonic Program – starts at 5 PM
Oregon Symphony Program – starts at 7 PM

I posted recently about Sienna Architecture working with New Hope Church, a player in the anti-gay movement. I posed the question of whether Sienna also supports the same agenda.

Well, now I am asking the same question about OPB. Yep, Oregon Public Broadcasting. Over on Lelo’s blog, she puts up a great piece on the upcoming Ira Glass visit and how OPB booked it at anti-gay New Hope Church, claiming there were no other places around. Further, OPB gave New Hope money in the form of a grant rental fee for the event. (corrected)

Check out Lelo’s post. She has posted ways to maybe get either Ira Glass to change the venue or OPB. Oh, and it looks like Amy at the Merc is also on the story according to the comments. Way to go ladies!

How do we know the last days of summer are upon us? A stream of cars heading south out of Portland to scope out the Oregon State Fair – that’s how! Well, maybe not a stream of cars – do a lot of Portlanders visit Salem for the fair?

My wife and I headed down yesterday with a friend for a half day of Oregon State Fair pleasures. We started with the animals being handled by FFA members and other farmers/livestock owners. I found it particularly amusing (and perhaps a little twisted) to see one of the barns where cattle were being showed off labeled as the “Beef Barn.” I guess it at least calls it like it is.
(more…)

Photo_082807_001

Originally uploaded by dieselboi.

Help me out here. There is a large bus cruising around downtown these days that acts as a shuttle between downtown and the Woodburn factory stores. I see it often and it never appears to have anyone on board. Further, it seems to circle the block a lot as if it doesn’t have a place to park.

I am in a quandary here. While I don’t like the big bus rolling around downtown impacting noise levels, pollution levels and traffic levels just to get people to a shopping center, I would rather see 1 bus than 30 cars heading to Woodburn. Then again, who is using this service at $20 a person? People who wouldn’t drive there anyway? Oy, the things I think about on Tuesdays.

The above quote is just one of the many fantastic things Rick Rogers, president of NW-based company (PDX and Seattle), MyRocketBook.com said to me the other day on the phone. Pretty much, speaking with Rick, was writing down next year’s potable quotables.

Alex, give the man a call. Unlike Anton, I do believe this man could sneeze and hits will come out.

Example:

Example 2: “If you can’t get into it, you are going to dismiss it.”

Ok, where am I going with this (besides some type of man-crush)?
(more…)

We’ve sort of picked a “Last Days of Summer” theme this week so here’s my contribution. For me the last days of summer kick me in the butt to start getting some work done for Fright Town. I have been dragging my feet all summer and only have one corpse done with the other skeleton hanging in the back ready to become rotten.

Now that it’s starting to get chilly at night, the light is shifting, and the leaves are changing color, I start to get motivated. I guess I’m still on the school schedule, whether it was college or my son being on summer break, where summer is sort of your slacker time. It seems sort of silly to be sitting inside sculpting when it’s gorgeous outside and there’s so many other things going on. Plus it’s Portland, so you have to grab the opportunity to enjoy the brief window of nice weather we get for a couple of months.

I am really looking forward to another Fall in Portland. This town was made for the season, especially with all the old trees lining the streets. I love driving down McLoughlin Boulevard by Eastmoreland when the leaves have changed color and the wind is blowing them all around. It get’s me psyched to make things to scare people. I can’t help it, I’m a horror and Halloween uber-nerd. So this Labor Day weekend is time to get my art supplies organized, clean out my airbrush, and start on the projects who’ve been staring at me all summer. I like the nice weather but I really like the rain and the smell of decaying leaves much better. I guess that’s why I live here.

Do you love you some Ground Kontrol? Of course you do. What’s not to love? Beer + Burgertime = CRAZY DELICIOUS!

Well if the old school arcade game is your thing, then you do NOT wanna miss this. I am late to the party I admit, but Cinema 21 is playing The King Of Kong, a documentary about a couple of guys and their quest for a Donkey Kong-based Guinness World Record. I want to see it for this reason alone:

Eugene Novikov of Film Blather believes that the film plays like “a real-life version of a Christopher Guest mockumentary.”

How can it be bad? You can check out the trailer and the official site for more info. I always their subtitle (A Fistful Of Quarters) would be a good title for a film, so I’m bummed they beat me to it, but this looks like a great flick. Have you seen it? What did you think?

According to the calendar we have less than a week left of summer then it’s all over. Next Monday is the last big Hurrah! … then the barbeque’s get put away, no more drinks on sunny patios, no more vacation, the drudgery beings again.

This was the conversation at my sister-in-laws for dinner last week – she’s a teacher and has two school age kids.
This was the conversation at my church on Sunday as they recognized the teachers and those kids making ‘milestone moves’ into kindergarten, middle school, high school.
This was the conversation I had on the phone with mother who asked if we had any big plans for our last weekend of summer.

So to those of you who haven’t been at work/school all summer and now have to go back – I say…Whaaaa.

To me, the Labor Day holiday doesn’t signify anything other than a day off of work that doesn’t have any familial obligations like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Sure, the BBQ will be out this weekend, but it won’t be put away anytime soon after that. We’ll be having drinks on sunny patios well into October or even November if we get a good day here or there, and as for vacation – I get my three weeks whenever I want them – and I usually try to avoid taking much time off in the summer because places are too crowded full of families.

So for me – and the large number of people who have no connection to a school schedule – heck no.
Summer.
Is.
Not.
Over.
September is typically one of Oregon’s best months for weather…it has only just begun!