Hey all, did ya get your taxes done?  Need a break later for some sustenance?  Fire on the Mountain is offering 25c wings today from 5-10pm at both of their Portland locations.  From their newsletter:

25 cent wing nights get very busy so bring your patience and your beer drinking hats. Sara will be serving wings at the Burnside location in a full body spandex outfit to help expedite the process.

Head on out for the best wings in town tonight to celebrate either getting your taxes done or putting them off for yet another 6 months….

 Fire on the Mountain
2 locations – N Interstate/Skidmore and E Burnside/17th

Okay, so maybe not now, but it will be soon! In order to plan properly for the soon-future, here are some incredibly important events coming up this week that all you dear Portlanders should be planning on attending –

The Portland Timbers open the season by hosting the Puerto Rico appropriately-named Islanders this Thursday at PGE Park. Last season was the Timbers’ best yet, with record draw, especially on the previously called “Thirsty Thursdays.” The Park is now partially sponsored by Miller Lite, so the “Thirsty” part of Thursday has been changed to reflect that sponsorship (what happened to the Widmer sponsorship?). This is not only the first match of the proper season, but this will be the last time we’ll be entertained (publicly) by our Timber Jim, beloved Timbers mascot since the great reformation of 2001 (and before). Get there early, and you get a free magnet and a “Timber Jim Farewell” t-shirt. You can get tickets on TicketMaster, or skip the fees (which add up to more than 50% of the ticket face price, if you’re in GA) and pick one up at the PGE Park box office on SW 20th and Morrison.

This Wednesday will hopefully be our last springtime indoor meetup at the Green Dragon. I don’t actually have that much to say about this one, as I’ve never actually been to a Portland Metblogs meetup, nor to the Green Dragon, but you should come! We (including me, yes) will be there around 5.30, and I plan on drinking beer. Maybe a lot of beer. We know you like beer, and free food. So there’s really no reason not to come. Stop making excuses.

Something you may not need to prepare for is my mom. That’s right, she’s coming to town this weekend, and I need to find the most expensive restaurant I can safely take her so she can buy me and the bf dinner. You tell me – what’s the best place one can take a loudmouth redhead to? It’s not that she’s uncouth, but she’s my mom, so it’s very likely she’ll do something embarrassing. She will also likely not bring any dressy clothes, so ix-snay on the established fancy places. Any ideas will be picked apart and pored over – only one will be chosen (unless I can talk her into dinner out twice!). Preference given to places with websites that actually contain information besides hours (sorry, Green Dragon).

As you know, Portland Metblogs is one of the sponsors bringing Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Adaptation to the Hollywood Theater.  I know I’m getting excited as I was a huge fan of Indy back in the day and this movie these boys made will remind me of how much fun we had role playing when we were kids.   There was a great article in Vanity Fair recently about the boys who made the movie.  The article provides a wonderful backstory to both the young filmmakers themselves as well as the making of the movie.  It also mentions how the movie was rediscovered by Eli Roth and Steven Spielberk which has led to a Paramount biopic on their lives making the The Adaptation.  Check out the article here.

Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Adaptaion will be playing at Hollywood Theater April 18-19 as a fundraiser for the Austin Miller Scholarship Fund.

Cash-strapped Clinton fails to pay bills

From the article:

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cash-strapped presidential campaign has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.

A pair of Ohio companies owed more than $25,000 by Clinton for staging events for her campaign are warning others in the tight-knit event production community — and anyone else who will listen — to get their cash upfront when doing business with her. Her campaign, say representatives of the two companies, has stopped returning phone calls and e-mails seeking payment of outstanding invoices. One even got no response from a certified letter.

Remember how some Oregon small businesses got dinged when Paul Allen dragged the Rose Quarter into bankruptcy? Don’t let it happen again…

From the “say it ain’t so” dept, WWeek is reporting that the Belgian Embassy has gone toes up. That is an absolute shame. It’s true that we live in a town that is awash in beer, but the Belgian Embassy was, to the best of my knowledge, the only dedicated Belgian bar in town. As a guy who has spent some time in Belgium, I can attest to its authenticity. The food, beer selection, and vibe was an amazing recreation of the kind of place you spend some time in when you visit a town like Bruge. It was an awesome place, and it came and went all too soon.

The article states that the Belgian Embassy will be replaced with a new joint that will serve “homestyle healthy” food, “classic cocktails”, and live music. Yeah. Portland needs another one of those.

Goodbye, Belgian Embassy. We hardly knew ye.

Greetings Portlanders and wish-you-were Portlanders (I know you’re out there, I was once one of you.)

My name is Derrick and I’m new here. I’m an east coast transplant on year 3 in PDX. That’s out of the way now, good.

I like beer, wine, food and the occasional spirit and will probably write about those things a good deal. I also dig sports and faux sports (I’m looking at you, ultimate fribsee). I have some interest in civics and development and I’m intrigued by the sweeping impact of the sustainability/green trend. I profess expertise in none of these things.

So that this post has some use to you, let me pass along a few events I’m geeked about.

First, if you like beer and aren’t a complete and utter hermit, you probably know that Deschutes Brewery, the impeccable central Oregon brewery that’s a master of classic NW style ales, is opening a new public house in the Pearl (NW Davis and 11th). But what you may not know is that there’s an opportunity to get in the door before the masses. Oregon Trout and Deschutes are hosting a pre-opening extravaganza on April 26 from 7-10 p.m. $50 gets you in the door, two brews, food and entertainment. For more info, visit www.oregontrout.org/db/. Not having to drive to Bend to get public-house-only-small-batch-brews from one of the best breweries in the nation? … count me in.

Deschutes will have some competition in the Pearl on the weekend of May 2, as the annual Portland Independent Wine Festival will be running May 2-4 from 3 – 6 p.m., each day. This is a great chance to meet the winemakers at over 30 small craft wineries throughout Oregon and drink their splendid wine. There will also be classes and tastings. Check www.indiewinefestival.com for more info.

Speaking of independent wine makers, I’ve got one more event for you. Anne Amie Vineyards in Carleton will be hosting a tasting of estate pinot noirs from the Yahmill Carleton AVA on April 26. Sixteen wineries, many without there own tasting rooms, will be participating. I was at Anne Amie Saturday … bright, clean whites and some damn tasty pinots, to go with top notch service. $10 gets you in the door. check www.anneamie.com/news.

So, there’s a little about me and a few events to get you started. Now I want to know, what do YOU want to know about? Why do you come here? What do you want to read about? Events? Openings? Tech happenings? Music? Hit up the comments and give the new guy some initiative to go forth and gather.

So normally riding in the elevator is either chit chat with co-workers, maybe a bit of small talk with someone you recognize from the building, or that “let’s all stare at the floor” elevator silence. But today, a man got in a few floors down from me. There were two of us already in the elevator – doing the “let’s stare at the floor” thing, and the new guy that gets in is chewing on a mint or hard candy or something. And in that elevator silence – it was really really loud. I had to stifle my 12-year-old giggle – and then comment to my fellow rider after the chewer got off… “I wonder why they don’t have elevator music anymore?”

So Muzak has offices here in Portland – I used to work near them out by the airport. And not that I’m dying to hear an orchestral version of American Idiot, but I wonder why elevators don’t have elevator music anymore?

Not sure if you saw the article in the O this past weekend, but the Packy Mural down on the Skidmore building in Old Town is being removed as part of the renovation of the building. Mercy Corps was “granted” the building by the PDC and will be remodeling it for their headquarters. Interesting. So, let me understand this correctly, the PDC gave the Mercy Corp the Skidmore Fountain Building in exchange for them remodeling? That is a sweet deal knowing that eventhough Mercy Corp is a non-profit, they still make tons of money for their investors.

The mural was painted in 1990 by North Pacific Sign & Design and has welcomed visitors to Portland’s Saturday Market for the past 17 years. When you drive across the Burnside Bridge into downtown, it is the first thing to welcome you.

I have seen some of the artists designs for the changes to the building and honestly am a little concerned the historic building’s old architecture will be compromised for a more modern look. I may be wrong as I haven’t seen the plans, only artist’s renditions. Still, the Skidmore building has been a destination spot for many Portlanders who went down to Saturday market. I wonder where the Australian import store went? Where will Portlanders get their oilcoats from now on?

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi

Brewcaster, one of our former writers, alerted me to bike/car bike accident at OHSU about 1/2 hr ago.  I looked around the internets, but am unable to find anymore information.  Brewcaster is on the scene and reports serious injuries and police involvement.  Thanks Brewcaster.  We’ll keep you posted.

Updated 10:49: Brewcaster left comments that it was a bike accident only.  Hope the rider is ok.

I walked over the Steel bridge the other evening and came up towards the Rose Quarter and saw that this hillside overlooking the train tracks had seen some severe pruning. A bunch of small established trees had been cut down and left along with some brush. Upon closer investigation, I realized only trees that would block a perfect photo opportunity for the city of Portland were trimmed down.

I remember a story about 15 years ago about some large trees in the west hills down off I5 that were topped grossly and the only explanation was that homeowners wanted a better view of the east side. Is this the case here or is this planned pruning? Anyone know? If you are looking for a great photo opp, now you have it.

This is taken right to the east of the big peace symbol looking over the train tracks south of the Steel bridge.

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Originally uploaded by dieselboi