Photo by Rich Oskin

As gas prices are rising local Portlanders are looking for alternate means of commuting around town. Bicycles are a number one as far as this city goes (we all know that!). But have you noticed more mopeds on the road? We’re talking small motorized engines with pedals here–not scooters! I certainly have.

According to founder and co-owner Patrick Fitzgibbons, local scooter shop P-Town Scooters has been selling new Tomos mopeds by the half dozen load every week. Portland Craigslist has been popping up quite a few vintage ones as well.

In my personal opinion, it’s a great thing that more people are hopping out of their cars and riding mopeds. They are efficient little machines that get about 100 miles per gallon. The vintage mopeds can be a bit of a pain with how much you have to repair the aging parts and mechanisms but so worth it once you get it running.

Now–for full disclosure–I am a part of the local moped gang Puddle Cutters, a part of the national Moped Army. Much like the local bicycle culture, we have our own scene. What is amazing beyond the transportation issue is that Portland produces such unique subcultures such as this one.

The Puddle cutters are having our annual rally this weekend, Hold My Beer, This is Going to be Awesome. We are raffling off a brand new Tomos moped with the generosity of P-Town Scooters. Raffle is this Sunday at Plan B, 5PM. Don’t miss out on the other events, rides, and parties either!

Happy Wednesday, kids. This week is already too much for me - dealing with the day job and the boyfriend being sick has left me no patience for dealing with the nutters on the MAX. Sure enough, there are copious amounts of visitors unfamiliar with our city to whom I am glad to be of service, but the screaming children running up and down a moving train, their parents gleefully ignoring them, is a bit nerve-wracking (especially directly after work). I’ll be taking some photos of the new ships on the Willamette in between a dentist appointment and the Timbers match against Minnesota tomorrow afternoon, so here’s to hoping the clowns won’t be getting in my way this time.

For those of you sick of or too good for the Rose Fest (specifically the Rose Floral Parade on Saturday), Dave from Dave Knows: Portland has some great tips on how to avoid the festivities (there’s also an amazing time-lapse video of the fireworks from last Friday, if you missed it). As this is my first (collective gasp) Rose Fest, I might get up early enough to become part of the throng downtown or at the very least, try to talk the crew at the Horse Brass into tuning in the broadcast while we’re enjoying morning brews and breakfast.

Once upon a time, way back when, the McMenamin’s movie chain showed movies worth watching. Art house stuff, cult movies, or movies that were just plain fun (like showing “The Creature From the Black Lagoon” on Halloween). For the past, oh decade or so, that’s changed. It’s now almost exclusively yawn-inducing big Hollywood second-run fare - stuff you’d see on an airplane. A look at this weeks listings shows crap like “Run, Fatboy Run” and “Fool’s Gold” (although I will give them points for showing the wonderfully dark “In Bruges”). Beer loving movie geeks like me can still count on the Laurelhurst to bust out something worth seeing on a fairly regular basis.

Thank God for Clinton Street Theater. Combining an art-house sensibility with a small brewery on the premises, the theater caters to those Portlanders who want to have a couple beers and see movies worth watching. Take a look at the current listings for an example. That’s more quality viewing than you’ll see at a place like the Baghdad all year. “Eraserhead”, a documentary about The Gits, the Portland Underground Film Festival, a freaking “Repo Man”/”Maximum Overdrive” double feature, for God’s sake!

That’s a whole lot of good stuff right there. Combine the movie with a couple of beers and a trip over to Dot’s for one of their awesome french fry concoctions, and you’ve got an awesome night out.

And McMenamin’s, I’m rough on you because I love you. You can do better. You know you can.

Tom Potter’s proposed budget would cut all city funding for the Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center (IFCC), a vibrant and unique center for the arts in North Portland.

This $80,000 funding cut represents a minuscule savings to the city, but would be devastating to IFCC. It represents 24% of the budget for the non-profit that operates a gallery and theatre and offers classes, shows and cultural outreach to the community.

This proposed cut was announced just as IFCC opened an exhibit showcasing the work of more than 70 North and Northeast Portland artists. The show, “Do North,” represents the unique way IFCC works to connect an extraordinarily diverse group of artists to the community.

“The conversation about diversity is deeply important to the successful growth of our City,” writes IFCC’s Creative Director Adrienne Flagg in a message to supporters. “I know you have experienced the conversation here — in the gallery, theatre, civic meetings, and classes. Please extend your support and let the Mayor and the City Commissioners know that you value IFCC’s mission to awaken cultural awareness by creating an environment for artists and audiences to explore, honor and celebrate diversity. Let them know that you recognize this vital connection to our City’s well-being.”

IFCC has been enjoying a period of stability under Flagg’s leadership, and this cut would mean significant cuts to IFCC’s ability to fulfill its mission.

Please contact your city leaders and urge them to continue their 25-year relationship with this remarkable program.

mayorpotter@ci.portland.or.us
commissionersam@ci.portland.or.us
randy@ci.portland.or.us
dsaltzman@ci.portland.or.us

The final hearing on the budget is tomorrow, May 8, 6:30-8:30 pm, at King Elementary School, 4906 NE 6th. Sign up for three-minute testimony on site.

This weekend I paid a visit to the laundromat - or washeteria to you Texans - in my North Portland neighborhood. This is an old school joint with machines that are no less than 10 years. I’m pretty sure they all have the funk. The toothless owner, a dear man who shuffles around in slippers and spends much of his time filling out crossword puzzles, keeps a broken down dryer full of snack size bags of potatoe chips and baggies of laundry detergent for idiots like myself who go to a laundromat without their own. Usually, I try to get in out of out of laundromats as fast as possible but on this particular day I was in no hurry so sat down to take in the ambiance. I scanned the room and took note of the three men standing in front of their dryers, methodically pulling clothes out and dropping them in their baskets. Aside from one other woman at the far end of the row of dryers, I realized that everyone else was male and late middle-age. It got me thinking about the various laundromats I’d visit when I lived in L.A. The type of patrons varied from neighborhood to neighborhood. Say I wanted to meet someone for reasons other than sharing spot removal secrets, I might visit the laundromat where the ratio of men to women was in my favor. It also required a neighborhood that was less family friendly and close to bars. Laundromats near Trader Joe’s were always a good call, as were the mats in Hollywood - on weekdays, no earlier than 11:00 am.
I remember the laundromat/cafe/bar craze. Does anyone else?
So Portland, I’m curious to know if there is a laundromat culture here. What are the most popular mats for socializing? Where are they? And of course, if anyone has made a love connection during the spin cycle, let’s hear about it.

We went to the Hollywood Theater to see Raiders last evening and had a ball. The event was sold out all weekend - 3 shows - and raised over $9200 for the Austin Miller Scholarship fund. Well done Portland! The filmmakers - Eric Zala and Chris Strompolis - were also in attendance, introduced the film, and answered questions after wards.

My favorite part of the movie was the truck scene. You may remember the famous scene where Indy is thrown through the windshield and is hanging off the front of the truck only to slide under the truck and on the ground to get back into the truck. Well, the boys (all between 15-16) recreated that scene. And they did it well with stunts. It was crazy to see a moving truck with Indy and the Nazis fighting and doing stunts, all on their own without much supervision or guidance from professionals. They even recreated the scene where the German soldier flies into the water.  After the movie, they discussed that scene saying they salvaged the truck from the swamp, removed the engine, and rigged a braking system. Yet all the stunts were done by them.  Remember, this started in 1981 when the kids were 12.

What an amazing accomplishment by these young guys 20 some odd years ago. And to have their VHS tape end up on Steven Spielberg’s desk in 2003 is just dumb luck. They even state that when they were contacted out of the blue by Hollywood, they thought it was a joke.

Thank you Mike from Bridge City Comics and Matt of Salty’s Dog Shoppe for organizing this event for Portland. It turned out to be an amazing time.

04 19 2008

Originally uploaded by dieselboi

OK for people who don’t know who Mark Kozelek is, I will enlighten you. He was a member of “Red House Painters” (in San Francisco). These days he alternates between with his “Sun Kill Moon” project and his solo work. But his work with the “Red House Painters” is the shit. It is folk music taken to another dimension and really worth checking out. Kozelek is touring in support of his new solo album and a re-release of his Sun Kill Moon album, which has been getting pretty decent reviews. The tickets are going to be $17 and the show starts at 8pm. I have never been to the Aladdin Theatre since most of the bands that come through are pretty shitty in my opinion but once in a while they do have good people coming through and Kozelek is a good example. Lets support Kozelek in hope that maybe Aladdin will get more artists like him coming through more frequently.

Aladdin Theatre
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave
Portland, OR - 97202

We all love free things don’t we. Well, how bout tickets to Raiders of the Lost Ark - The Adaptation playing this Saturday evening at the Hollywood Theater. Portland Metblogs is excited to join other Portland sponsors such as The Portland Mercury, Video Verite, and EasyStreet as a sponsor of the premiere of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation at the Hollywood Theater here in our fair city, April 18-19.

We have 2 free tickets to Saturday evening’s show @ 7pm. Just answer the following trivia question and we’ll get you on some list:

“In addition to Mustachiado Magnum hunk Tom Selleck, which other famous actor took only 48 hours to turn down the role of India Jones before it eventually went to Harrison Ford?”

Leave your answer in the comments.

UPDATED:  MikeVogel won the tickets.  Well done sir.  Geebee, as Matt stated, sorry, there aren’t any more free tickets available, but since you were only 4 minutes behind Mr. MikeVogel, Metblogs would will host you 2 tickts to Saturday evening’s show.  We’ll be in contact.  Thanks for playing!

So tonight is First Thursday in the Pearl - most likely the first big one of the season. Sure - the traditional galleries still do first Thursday openings throughout the winter months, but not until the Sun comes out and folks want to wander the streets - wine glass in hand - does it really become An Event.

Although there are two sites that ‘seem official‘ for First Thursday - neither seem to be very complete, and if you’re truly just wanting to get out and enjoy the weather and the experience of roaming the Pearl and the various galleries, it might be a better idea to just free form it. Or use this more complete map that covers the entire area that highlights pubs and restaurants as well as galleries and shops.

For example, the showroom at Poster Garden on NW 14th will be open - a place you might not initially think of for a First Thursday exhibit. That’s the cool part about First Thursday’s in Portland - it doesn’t have to be all about stuffy galleries and pretension. Anyone or anyplace can be a part of it.

I had my first patio happy hour of 2008 on Tuesday, and sitting out in that sun was fantastic. It’s blue skies today - but we know that it may not last - so enjoy!

Patton Oswalt was in town a couple of weeks ago for some shows and has since blogged about his visit:

Like the 1st Annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon.

It was last weekend. It was put together by comedy fans for comedy fans. I did a set on the evening of Saturday, March 8th. Two, really, in a fun, smelly rock club filled with resentful drunks wondering where the band was, and why these pasty drips with ironic T-shirts where on stage, whining about their love lives.

I love Portland…but. I love visiting there…but.

It’s Disneyland for the alternative scene. “I’ve never seen such a low testosterone level in a city,” said my wife, enchanted by Voodoo Donuts and the Chinese Gardens. “I know I shouldn’t say this, but it’s hard to imagine anyone ever being raped up here.”

Someone needs to set off an Ambition Bomb in front of Powell’s.

I met Brian Michael Bendis for dinner at Le Pigeon, where at least our taste buds were raped…with deliciousness!

(If the owners of Le Pigeon are reading this, feel free to put that on the message machine for your reservations).

I love that. An “Ambition Bomb?”

Thanks Jonash for the headsup.