Cycling Sojourner Book Guides Riders Through Oregon

Cycling Sojourner, a new addition to our growing book offerings, provides compre­hensive, up-to-date nuts and bolts informa­tion on eight self-supported bicycle tours across Oregon. Tours vary in difficulty and length and include the coast, central Oregon, wine country near Portland and the stunning Steens mountains. The book should prove useful to beginners and experienced riders alike.

Portlander Ellee Thalheimer (pictured above) — an experienced guide and guidebook author — writes in a conversational tone that’s easy to digest. Her tips on preparing for, and maintaining a happy tour are good primers for beginners and reminders for experienced cycle tourists. Advice on gear, choosing a touring partner very carefully, and consuming enough calories to avoid getting “hangry” are great common sense reminders for all riders. There’s plenty of “you can do it” motivational assurances for new tourists, such as the assurance that you can tour on many different types of bikes and equipment setups. Her detailed information and recommendations about each of the tours shows she has done these tours and knows how to plan and enjoy a tour comfortably and safely.

The guide leads sojourners through Oregon experiences of “micro-brew, yoga, coffee, outdoor festivals, culinary experiences, hik­ing, fishing, cowboys, wine, old growth forests, and of course lots of other beautiful Oregon scenery and experiences. The tours take travelers over ranges of snow-capped extinct volcanoes, through river valleys laced with vineyards, along wild rivers teeming with salmon, and past cities with some of the best cycling cul­ture and infrastructure in the country.”

Cycle Oregon, a non-profit dedicated to im­proving Oregon’s economy through cycling, and Travel Oregon, the state’s tourism orga­nization, are enthusiastically sponsoring this guide.

Cycling Sojourner Features

-Complete cue sheets, maps, and elevation profiles so you can grab your bike and go.

-Pages perforated along the inside edge so you can easily tear out maps (cue sheets on the back) for your map holder.

-Listings for every budget, from swanky mountain lodges to budget-savvy campgrounds and upscale restaurants to grocery stores.

-Tours for every species of cyclist, from beginners to old pros.

-A variety of tours representing the best cycling in Oregon, from cowboy country to Cascadian passes.

-Insider information researched meticulously from the saddle, including wisdom from locals.

-Unadulterated opinions and sass minus the word “stunning” but with the word “gravelicious.”

About the author

Ellee Thalheimer is an accomplished free­lance travel writer and cycle tourist who be­lieves that there are few better ways to travel and learn than by bike. Co-founder of the non-profit business alliance Portland Society, zealous Oregonian, yogini, author of Lonely Planets’ Cycling Italy and drinker of yerba mate, Ellee rarely turns down a adven­ture.

Check out the author’s website: cycletouringoregon.com

The book is on special during the month of July. Get the book in the online shop or call us today at 503-226-0696.

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We Sent a Sixth Grader To Camp!

When not offering our customers awesome pricing on awesome bicycle parts and accessories, we try to do other awesome things – like sending sixth graders to camp!

Meet Austin (that’s him above), a sixth grader at Carus Elementary in Oregon. Each year, for the past 30 years, Carus takes students to the Outdoor School at Camp Hancock in Fossil, Oregon. The camp is run by OMSI, (the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) which means it’s really awesome and educational and stuff.  Students have to contribute some of the cost it takes to go, and Austin’s family couldn’t afford to send him, so we helped out.

Here’s the incredibly awesome thank-you note he wrote us:

“It meant a lot for me to be able to go to Outdoor School.  I thought I might not be able to make it and when I was there I was super excited!  I really liked the 5 hour, uphill hikes.  I saw a rattlesnake up close and we climbed down a waterfall.  My favorite Interest Group was Aboriginal Skills, where I threw a staff to represent throwing a spear and I even beat the instructor’s (Astro Dan’s) distance record of throwing it.  I also had a lot of fun with my friends, especially at night in the cabin when we played poker.  The thing I remember learning the most was at the rock climbing wall, where we learned to set goals for ourselves and to push ourselves to the limit!”

Way to go beating Astro Dan, Austin! We really admire the grit of anyone who likes (and can even do) 5 hour uphill hikes. Camp sure sounds like a lot of fun, especially hanging out at the cabin playing … wait, poker?!? We’re not sure about this sixth great poker playing thing, but we assume they were betting with Doritos and Pokemon cards, so it’s probably cool. We wish Austin the best in his future endeavors as a spear thrower, rock climber and poker player (as long as you only bet with Doritos). Keep pushing yourself to the limit buddy!

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The PDW Dios Thronous Saddle – We Shall Have Dry Backsides!

No more plastic bags!

Our friends at Portland Design Works gave us an early sneak peek at their new Dios Thronous saddle. This EVA foam saddle is reportedly waterproof and will keep your backside dry on those rainy rides we love so much here in the Northwest. Not being too familiar with EVA foam, we looked it up. According to wikipedia, ethylene-vinyl acetate is a versatile polymer sometimes known as foam rubber and used in lots of sports equipment like ski-boots, fishing rods and  the Adidas Jabulani soccer ball (one of our favorite balls). It’s also used in fire-safe cigarettes (there’s one more reason not to smoke), and in some body bags.

 

Apparently these saddles aren’t your average slab of foam rubber because they were actually created by supernatural beings. From the box: “And so it came to pass that the Deities of the Daily Ride created a saddle of EVA foam that was both waterproof and scuffproof and they dubbed this saddle Dios Thronous. And the people rejoiced that their backsides would be both comfortable and dry until the end of Time.” You heard it here first. When the Deities of the Daily Ride make a proclamation, take heed!

The samples we felt were nice and soft, and fairly light for a commuter saddle. Water rolled right off of them like they were made from a duck’s back. We didn’t try and scuff them too heavily to test their claimed scuffproofness, but they passed the old finger-nail push test and general office abuses (like Matt Case jumping around with it) so it seems like they would hold up well to basic use and abuse short of a knife attack.

Look for these new saddles (also in green and red) to be available in August with an MSRP of $38.00.

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One of the best ways to gain an appreciation for good craft beer is to experience where its ingredients come from. Hood River, Oregon’s Full Sail Brewing has always used locally sourced ingredients, and on Monday they bussed a few dozen lucky folks out to Sodbuster Farms near Salem, Oregon to see — and smell — the annual hop harvest for ourselves. A visit to a hops farm is like walking into hop heaven. From the minute we got off the bus, we were surrounded by hops in their various stages of processing – from bines in the field to the flavor, aroma, and mouthfeel of the freshly poured finished product in Full Sail’s Hopfenfrisch (Fresh Hop) Pilsner.

Upon arrival we first saw truckloads of freshly harvested bines being trucked into a warehouse where the nuggets were removed from the bine with the help of a large processing machine. We followed the conveyer belt of these strobiles to the drying platforms, down to storage where the mostly dried hops were moved to a bagging room, then bagged and put into cold storage.

We then drove to the fields where we were dwarfed beneath 30 foot tall hop bines towering above us while ripe, juicy humulus lupulus cones hung all around, ripe for the picking. It is harvest time though, so what momentary hopland serenity was to be had was necessarily disrupted by the sounds of the harvest. We stood close at hand while a huge harvesting machine cut the bines from thier supports and workers helped guide them into a truck to begin their journey from bine to brew. These massive seas of pretty green are beautiful, but what really sticks with you, quite literally, is that powerful floral hop aroma many of us hoppy beer lovers have come to crave. It’s hard to describe the power of this smell unless you’ve actually been near this quantity of aromatic varietals. Deliciously citrusy dank and green, all-consuming, breathtaking and mouthwatering.

All the hop action made us thirsty, so fortunately Full Sail provided their excellent new LTD 06 dark lager and samples of  fresh hop Pilsner, Hopfenfrisch, pulled fresh from the zwickel. This beer will be at the upcoming fresh hop tastivals and we got to try it in its early unfinished, non-carbonated form. It’s crisp, clean bitterness and fresh hop bite to our pallates that complemtned our resin crusted hands and fresh hop aroma all around us.

While those fragrant little nuggets were the stars of the day, it was meeting the people behind the process, behind the beer and the people who serve and distribute it that really make a lasting impression. We spoke to the farmers and Full Sail staff about both of their crafts and one thing that cemented itself in my mind is both the farmers love of what they do and Full Sail’s passion for their craft. We heard executive brewmaster Jamie Emerson talking about the fresh hop Pilsner made with hops picked three weeks earlier and I had an opportunity to have a nice talk with Full Sail CEO Irene Firmat. Her passion for what they do and for beer in general was contagious and inspiring. She talked about the familial spirit and camaraderie in the community. With leadership like hers, it’s no wonder that this company has such a great staff and puts out a consistently formidable product. Full Sail generously says thanks to their supporters and customers with a fun day on the farm. This really is a group that – as the bottle says – is “stoked to brew.” They’re stoked about the brews and what they do, and really stoked to get us stoked about them too. By the end of the day, as the tired lot of us left hop heaven and rolled back to Portland – we were all pretty stoked about their brews too.

Big shout outs to the many people I caught up with or met for the first time: the Roscoe’s guys, AJ from Uptown Market (who gives great boat rides), the New School crew, the Montage servers who “sell a shitload of Session,” and the Columbia Distribution folks – who get those loads of Full Sail to us, and the many many others. Cheers!

I will be spinning some music this Friday, Oct 7, at the Press Club on SE 26th and Clinton in Portland. It will be a First Friday art show opening for Chris Haberman. I like Chris’s fun, street, illustration, almost comic inspired art that can certainly have  a dark edge to it as well. He often uses a lot of recycled, found objects as canvas and uses unconventional, interesting materials for paint. Or that’s my recollection at least. I met Chris when he was also involved in the Foster Street fair a few years back and have seen his art up around town in many galleries and venues. For a couple years, it seems like he was in more places and talked about more than any other artists – he was everywhere. I look forward to seeing what he’ll be showing tonight. He also has an exhibition up at the Littman Gallery

In the project cue at the moment are two e-commerce sites. One will be using Big Cartel and the other will probably stay in WordPress using the WP ecommerce plugin. I have had some difficulties with that plugin in the past, so depending on how this Big Cartel theme skinning goes, I may do them both in Big Cartel. I’ll share the results and any insights as things progress.

Also working on an e-newsletter using MailChimp, which will be a first. I have used Constant Contact and Mail Dog (or dog something or other), but I’m liking what I see with MailChimp now.

Brewpublic is gearing up for the three year anniversary and Killer Beer Week 3.0. I’m getting started on some posters, web graphics and a hat design. I love hats! Looking forward to all that goodness.

A warning about spiders: If you don’t clean the spider webs and nests off your porch-light area, it will turn into a spider hotel block party with all kinds of insects in various states of life and death that fall on your head while the spiders – and I swear this is true – laugh at you from their little hiding places that you can’t quite get to. Oh, and those little white pouches? They are filled with SPIDER BABIES. Lots and lots of spider babies!!

Welcome to Clever Dunnes Irish House!

Clever Dunne’s is an Irish-style public house located on Seattle’s Capital Hill. Like the Irish public houses frequented by our Irish namesake, Patrick “Clever” Dunne’s, we provide an unpretentious, laid-back atmosphere and plenty of good old Irish hospitality. Our recently remodeled space provides an open and airy atmosphere to kick back and have a few drinks with old friends and meet new ones. We have Irish and domestic beers on draft and in bottles, and a full bar. Want games with your Guinness? Play some pool and darts, or watch a game on our TVs. Like Mr. Dunne’s favorite pubs in Ireland, Clever Dunne’s has acquired a loyal group of regulars who help keep the place lively and interesting. Come by and enjoy our Irish hospitality, you may have so much fun, you’ll become a regular yourself!

“If it’s your kind of place, you’ll love it, down to the saucy Irish barmaid and Bono wailing on the sound system. If it’s not your kind of place … well, you probably wouldn’t like Ireland either.”

– The Seattle Times

Irish Pubs and Clever Dunnes

Where everybody knows your name

Irish public houses all over the world provide a social and community gathering place for the local citizenry. This is especially true in Ireland, where someone’s nearby pub, or “local,” is a home away from home. It’s a place to eat, drink, and be merry with your friends and neighbors. Most of the regular customers know each other all too well, and there’s usually an informal, unique relationship between the regular customers and bar staff.

Along with great beer, whiskey and St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish public house may be Ireland’s greatest export. There’s usually at least one in every major North American city, and hundreds throughout the US, with many dating back to the 1800’s. In Seattle, there’s at least a dozen Irish and Irish-inspired pubs. Like all Irish pubs in the US, Seattle’s Irish public houses each offer a unique representation of the rich tradition.

The Craic

There a many reasons why Irish pubs are extremely successful in the US. Much of their success can be summed up in one word: their good “craic.” Craic, (pronounced “crack”), is easier to experience than define in print. It refers to the atmosphere, good times and sense of community that you experience at your local public house. Sharing a pronunciation with an illicit substance can lead to some humorous confusion (“You want to go down to the pub for some good what?”) which may explain why the term hasn’t caught on as strongly outside Ireland. Despite any potential confusion, on a busy Saturday night in Ireland, you may hear a cry of “Let’s go have some craic.” Or you may hear the popular tune “The craic was ninety on the Isle of Man,” being sung or played on the juke. It goes to show that Irish pubs inspire such a unique good time, that they needed a word for it. Irish public houses provide a place for regulars, old friends and new, to get together over drink, song and story, and forget about the troubles of the day. Now that’s some good craic.

Your Local Irish Public House

Clever Dunne’s is an Irish owned public house modeled after the traditional neighborhood public houses of Ireland. The name is an homage to our owner’s Irish grandfather Patrick “Clever” Dunne, who also liked to frequent his local public house. We’re proud to be one of the Capital Hill neighborhoods traditional Irish Houses. Like all Irish pubs, Clever Dunne’s is known for its loyal regulars, atmosphere, and good craic. We keep things simple at Clever Dunne’s and our bartenders strive to provide an unpretentious, laid-back atmosphere filled with Irish hospitality. After we pour you a stiff drink, or a cold pint, you’ll probably still have enough money left in your wallet to have another. Come on down, meet the regulars and experience the craic. You may feel so at home, you’ll become a regular too.

This brightened my spirits watching it, and I think maybe made some of the passerby and participants in this unique social experiment spirits brighter too.

August 12 – The Agenda - 2366 Southeast 82nd Ave. (which I like to call by it’s pretty name, The Avenue of Roses) at Division St.  I’ll be with Brewpublic’s Angelo, aka, DJ DeBeers the Diamond Kutta (nice name eh?). Since the Agenda’s normally a live music rock club, and just for the heck of it, I’ll be putting aside the funky global and soul grooves a bit for the night. Instead playing some old 60′s psych, garage, and other slightly more rockin tunes. Unless of course I change it up in the moment, which can happen. We secretly dream of doing a raucous tour of the Ave. of Roses, but that’s a story for another day.

August 13 – Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel - 303 S.W. 12th Ave, downtown Portland. Al’s Den is in the basement, connected to Ringlers Annex basement. This is my fourth and maybe final night here (they may stop doing DJ’s in September, it’s up in the air as far as I know). I’ll be doing my funky good timey mix. Beats that blend from the funkier traditions and around the globe, and maybe something else.

Simple is often better. There’s been plenty of jaw-dropping and complex street art in the past couple decades, as well as a bit of decent outdoor advertising. It’s an understatement to say that our public spaces are certainly filled with plenty of visual stimulus. The European network of artists TO SAY IT (tosay.it) grab attention with text-only posters that touch on art and philosophy. The super simple black text on white background are almost as noticeable for  their simplicity as for their messages. At first I thought maybe they would be more effective or enjoyable if they weren’t so simple, maybe an image to go with text. But I think what’s happening so well here, is that these messages are so much starker than all the public clutter — awesome street art included — that they captivate better than their busy complex counterparts.

Messages such as: “Color of equality is the color we’ve never ever seen,” “All of your actions will certainly create our future,” the Marshall McLuhan classic, “The medium is the message” and my favorite: “Every new moment disappears forever,” can certainly make a passerby take pause. They write that: “The main idea of the project is to explore text, streets & internet as an artistic medium, to broadcast actual ideas that are usually ignored by mass media, or to comment on the issues that seem important to put up by the author of the text.”

tosay.it

“There is a pernicious assumption among beer fans that in order to bristle with flavor, a beer must be strong.  The notion has led to rampant escalation in alcohol content—the steroid era of good beers.  But it doesn’t have to be so.  Throughout history, brewers have regularly packed intense flavors into small beers.  To show just how lush and varied a small beer can be, Jeff Alworth of Beervana and Coalition Brewing are hosting the first annual Mighty Mites fest—a celebration of little beers with big flavors.  All the beers are below 4.5% ABF, and many are below 4%.
The fest is a part of the line-up of the first annual Portland Beer Week, a celebration of the best beer city in America.

Press Release:

Celebrate Oregon Craft Beer Month’s Most Drinkable Brews at Blitz Summer Session

Taste over 20 craft session brews at Blitz Ladd’s celebration of discernibly drinkable, low-alcohol craft beers.

Blitz Summer Session
Saturday July 30, 1pm – 10pm
Admission is $5, or free with an Oregon Brewers Festival, or other festival or personal cup.
Tasting tickets are $1. 3 tickets for full cup.
Ages 21 and over.

Blitz Ladd Sports Bar Back Lot
2239 SE 11th Ave. Portland, OR 97214.
503-236-3592

Summer is the perfect season to session. Warmer, longer days pair perfectly with lighter “session” beers.  Many people, from the novice beer ponger to the uber beer geek, can appreciate great beer and are now discerning between lighter craft session beers and macro beer. While many of these fine brews are light in color and lower in alcohol, they represent a vast spectrum of ingredients and flavor unlike many of the macro brands.

Blitz-Ladd’s Summer Session is designed to bridge the gap between drinkability and complexity. At this unique event, Portland’s premier sports bar is showcasing twenty of the region’s best session beers. Blitz Ladd Sports Bar offers a perfect venue for soaking in the summer sun while enjoying the tail-end of Oregon Craft Beer Month. Their outdoor patio will be transformed into a festival atmosphere where beer lovers can taste 20 lagers, pilsners, kolschs, pales and other light “session” beers that may be lighter in color and lower in alcohol, but offer huge flavor and thirst quenching drinkability.

Session beer
n.

Any beer that contains no higher than 5 percent ABV, featuring a balance between malt and hop characters (ingredients) and, typically, a clean finish – a combination of which creates a beer with high drinkability. The purpose of a session beer is to allow a beer drinker to have multiple beers, within a reasonable time period or session, without overwhelming the senses or reaching inappropriate levels of intoxication.

- BeerAdvocate

About Blitz Ladd
Blitz Ladd Sports Bar is the region’s premier sports bar and entertainment experience. Featuring shuffleboard, billiards, ping pong, and multiple flat screen TVs with all the big games, Blitz Ladd is a spacious sports and beer lovers mecca offering 26 taps of craft beer as well as a full food menu and a clean, inviting environment.

About Oregon Craft Beer Month
Each July, Oregonian’s celebrate a month long toast to craft beer. Oregon is at the forefront of the nation’s craft beer movements and inspired by legendary publican Don Younger of the Horse Brass and orchestrated in part by the Oregon Brewers Guild, Oregon Craft Beer Month celebrates its sixth year of great regional brew.

It was announced in late June 2011, that Oregon’s breweries crafted 1,085,000 barrels (or roughly 270 million pints) of beer during 2010, a 3.5 percent increase from the previous year. Roughly 14.4 percent of the 2.7 million barrels of all beer – both bottled and draft – consumed in the state were made in Oregon. This is the highest for any state in the United States and was a 16 percent increase from 2009.

“Our industry made impressive gains in 2010 – especially in the amount of beer made in Oregon that was consumed in Oregon,” said Brian Butenschoen, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild. “The economic impact of the brewing industry is felt beyond just the breweries. A strong production year supports local businesses supplying the industry, including barley growers, hop farmers, yeast ranchers and glass producers.”

In addition, Oregon’s 81 brewing companies donated product and money equal to more than $1.23 million to local non-profits in 2010. Retail sales of Oregon-made beer sold in the state totaled approximately $235 million in 2010. In total, the brewing industry contributes $2.44 billion to the state’s economy. Despite overall weak employment figures for the year in Oregon, the state’s brewing companies added 200 jobs in 2010 and directly employed more than 4,900 people.

Portland, Oregon currently has 40 breweries within its city limits, more than any other city in the world. The state of Oregon has 91 brewing companies operating 121 brewing facilities in 50 cities.

See event poster here.

I wonder how much satellite imagery has changed over the years? Where once were vast swaths of green, are now green rimmed swaths of brown clearcut, and steely  grey buildings built around man arranged – much more orderly – swaths of green. Are the man arranged swaths of green of the worlds best parks — Central Park, Stanley Park — even less beautiful than the wild splashes of color you see in the satellite imagery of the wild? Not at all. They are, in actuality, just more better organized chaos. Nature, edited. They aren’t abstract expressionist, they are the modernist, organized bits of beauty. Is the planned urban forest that is Portland’s Forest Park, post-modern art then? Well sure, why not. And like all art, this edited, organized nature is put here to make our lives a little better, even if just for a moment. Like that ten minutes we get to go for a walk through it on our lunch break. Or for me, that year I stared longingly at the maps on my screen, at the many mysterious pieces of art on this planet I dreamed of zooming further in to.

I was project manager/producer and worked with an internal and external creative team made up of an art director/designer, designer/developer, and copywriter. I contributed design and content input, planned the project, developed approved budget and managed the process, while also getting my hands dirty and adding content to the site as it was developed. Working with our IT team, we developed a custom content management system and many new additions to the site.

Site: ecosconsulting.com

My CV, more about Ecos

28 Beers Later – 2nd Annual Division Street BrewPubliCrawl Recap

March 21 2011

http://brewpublic.com/beer-events/28-beers-later-2nd-annual-division-street-brewpublicrawl-recap/

28 beers sampled, 21 brewers met, 5 bars visited, 1.6 miles traveled in 7.5 hours by around 250 craft beer lovers.

That’s the concise summation of our second annual SE Division Street Meet the Brewer Pub Crawl (BrewPubliCrawl). It was an event whose cup runneth over with amazing beer and a lot of cheer. The 28 Oregon brews seemed to taste even better because we met their brewers and heard the first hand creation stories about these marvelous brews. It all went down on a wonderful, mostly sunny day that kept spirits high and made crawling and tasting event more enjoyable. What light rain did briefly fall, held off until about 5pm.

This event, like most craft beer events in our opinion, is about more than special beer, cool brewers and blessings from the weather gods – it was about the people that attend them. Events like this remind us that enjoying good beer also means enjoying the company of friends and family, meeting new friends, and hanging with the diverse group of people that show up both share the love of craft beer, and share a few laughs with friends new and old.

 

The crawlers proved to be a lively and diverse group. We met ages ranging from a group of young men celebrating a friend’s 21^st birthday, to couples and groups of friends in there 60’s and 70’s. As expected, many hardcore beer geeks attended, but we were excited to also meet many who told us they were just beginning to learn about the bountiful universe of craft brews from Beervana and beyond. People came from as near as the immediate neighborhood — excited to have something happening close to home – and as far as Canada, the East Coast and Seattle — excited to be in town for a yet another PDX beer event. The mixed ages and types of people really made this, like many beer events, something special. So thank you to all who attended!

We were pleased and impressed that the first stop (beginning at noon at Victory Bar] had a huge turnout. Our staff were still counting tokens and deciding on event guide placements when crawlers started rolling in. Owner Yoni Laos had his hands full but kept things pouring smoothly as the line formed and tokens were exchanged. Hopworks brewer Ben Love surprised us with a special crawl offering dedicated to Brewpublic editor Angelo De Ieso called the “De Ieso Spades”, a firkin of their gold medal winning seasonal Imperial IPA release “Ace of Spades.” While we didn’t have a chance to sample them all, we heard great things about all the beers. Perhaps an unofficial crowd favorite was Double Mountain’s Red Light District, a special creation by co-founder Charlie Devereux for the Hood River brewery’s recent 4-year anniversary.

The sun broke through in full force in time for the second stop (1:30 – 3:00pm at Lompoc’s Hedge House), which was a perfect climate for lounging on the Hedge House’s front lawn, porch and outdoor seating area. Many crawlers grabbed a bite to eat at this stop and soaked up the sun while enjoying Lompoc’s two special crawl beers, Crazy Dave’s Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout and Dagda Irish Red, as well as some choice offerings from the brewery’s regular draft lineup.

The line formed outside the third stop (Bar Avignon, 3:00pm) quite early. Owners Randy Goodman and Nancy Hunt and their staff wisely had many pints pre-poured and were ready to quickly serve the wave of crawlers. The weather (and relatively limited amount of indoor seating) drove people to the sidewalks, where crawlers soaked up a little more sun and watched the Division Street traffic pass by while in turn watching the crawlers. Before the stop was over, Full Sail brewer John Harris announced that his quarter-barrel of cask-conditioned Hop Pursuit had already blown. The thirsty crawlers were undoubtedly loving the cask pours of this refreshing, hoppy brew which made its debut here at SE 22^nd and Division.

The fourth stop, (The BeerMongers, 4:30pm), brought a loud party atmosphere for crawlers standing shoulder to shoulder in the bottle shop/bar and outer sidewalk seating area to enjoy two different brews each from Block 15 of Corvallis, Barley Brown’s Pub of Baker City, and Migration, a favorite local brew haunt.  We did a raffle at this stop, with Angelo announcing winning ticket numbers over the Hopworks megaphone while excited winners fought through the crowd to claim their Brewpublic shirts, pint glasses, brewer sweatbands, and other brewery gear.

The fifth and final stop (Blitz Ladd, 6:00pm), had what appeared to be a near-capacity crowd before the crawlers even arrived. The Portland Timbers soccer season opener, pre-Blazers game partiers, March Madness fans, and a bustling private party all contributed to having the place rocking before the hundreds of crawlers even showed up. While seemingly overwhelming at first, it was a prime opportunity for some new patrons to take part in the crawl’s closing ceremonies and taste some of the great microbreweries’ offerings not normally pouring at Blitz (or most choice beer bars for that matter). We spoke with many patrons who hadn’t heard of Southeast Portland nanobrewery Beetje, newcomers Burnside (though brewer Jason McAdam is well known for his past brew work at Roots Organic Brewing), 10 Barrel (rapidly growing and Bend brewery), Flat Tail (Corvallis, Oregon’s newest brewery with a range of esoteric and traditional styles) and others, and were stoked to sample them. In addition to housing the most people along the crawl, this stop had the most beers on tap and the most brewers in attendance. The special crawl beers were poured from the main tap lines and from jockey boxes (thanks to Maletis Beverage) that were setup for the event. The setup provided more of an authentic beer festival atmosphere to this stop. The standing area near the jockey boxes turned into a great spot to meet and greet the multitude of brewers on hand for this event (and those from other events who came to continue the revelry and talk with their industry peers). In fact, wandering through this area at times felt like an industry or brewers convention of sorts.

 

By the event’s end, the Brewvana Brewery Tours bus loaded up some crawlers (many who amazingly made it through the whole 7.5 hour event), the Timbers had been defeated in their first Major League Soccer match, and the crowd began to dissipate. The brewers and crawlers said their goodbyes and our exhausted staff headed out for a late dinner to begin talking about our next events and our vision for improving BrewPubliCrawl in the future.

This event could not have happened without the support of many, many wonderful businesses and individuals in the craft beer community. We would like to offer our sincerest, heartfelt thanks to the 5 bars, 21 breweries (and their talented brewers), event sponsors (Full Sail, Hopworks, Laurelwood, Maletis Beverage brands including Southern Oregon Brewing, 10 Barrell, Widmer, Ninkasi, and Fort George), event volunteers and especially the diverse group of pub crawlers who made this truly a special day to remember.

Hopworkings: Successful Secession, North Williams “Bike Bar” and Barrel Aged Beers

Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) Secession CDA release, plans for the new “Bike Bar” and other brewery hoppenings.

by Aaron Miles

Jan 21, 2011

http://brewpublic.com/brewpubs/hopworkings-successful-secession-north-williams-bike-bar-and-barrel-aged-beers/

Yet another Reason to Secede: HUB’s Successful Secession
Portland’s Hopworks Urban Brewery (HUB) provides yet another reason for Cascadia to secede and form our own sustainable nation, with the People’s Brewpublic of Beervana as its cultural capital. We’re all for the formation of Brewpublics, so any reason is good reason in our book. Cascadia (loosely defined by the majestic peaks of the Cascade Range which barrel through Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, lower Alaska, a little Idaho and maybe a little California) has its own beer style – the Cascadian Dark Ale, also known as a Black IPA. Much has been said here at Brewpublic about this new style, so we won’t belabor the basics. We will say that HUB’s 2011 Cascadian Dark Ale is one of the top entries of this variety. With the inclusion of Magnum, Cascade, Amarillo, Simcoe, and Mt Hood hops, the hop character is balanced and does not appear as excessively spiced as many other CDA’s or Northwest  IPA’s. The HUB Secession has a refreshing and piquant bitterness at 70 IBU. The organic Pilsner, C60, Chocolate, and Black malts give this brew it deep dark color and a rich, complex malt character.

Kudos to HUB for using the CDA name this year. Last year’s Secession was dubbed a Black IPA. HUB’s Christian Ettinger says HUB went with the Black IPA name last year due to the new style and an uneducated market. They chose to initially introduce craft beer lovers on the newish style with the association of  the best selling style in the Northwest (IPA). Ettinger says his brewery changed the name to Secession “Cascadian Dark Ale” this year because craft beer drinkers are now more familiar with and enlightened to the emerging style that was, in 2010, added to the Brewers Association beer style guidelines. Now many regional craft beer lovers will be toasting HUB’s choice to secede from the mainstream and stand behind this unique Cascadian name.

Hopworks’ North Williams Avenue “Bike Bar”
It’s now official, Hopworks is expanding to a second location in Portland, Oregon, to be dubbed the “Bike Bar.”  The new bar and restaurant will be in an eco-friendly mixed-use commercial/residential building on North Williams Avenue near Shaver. North Williams is often referred to as “bikers highway” due to the more than 3000 commuters passing through daily. Stretches of North Williams, such as the blocks surrounding New Old Lompoc’s 5th Quadrant, have seen rapid commercial growth, gentrification, and growing pains but continues to remain vibrant. Ettinger says the new spot will have a similar family-friendly atmosphere to their Powell flagship, but the overall footprint and capacity will be smaller, and the new spot will have some unique bike-centric characteristics. There are plans for two outdoor seating areas: long outdoor bars on Williams where patrons can belly up with a brew and watch bikers dodge the buses crossing over the  bike lanes to get to their stops as well as other eye candy. Like Hopworks’ Powell Boulevard location, the new location will be family friendly, with kid play areas and minors allowed throughout most of the establishment. Cyclists will be able to virtually bike up to the bar and even order some “bike friendly to-go food,” Ettinger says. Biking to Hopworks will be the preferred way to go, not only because of the lovely wide bike lanes on Bike Highway, but because the new Hopworks restaurant will have 50 bike parking spots and absolutely zero dedicated car spaces. Expect to see plenty of gear heads about, either admiring the patio canopy framed by custom built bike frames, or from students on break from the Portland campus of the legendary United Bicycle Institute (from which this writer is a proud alumnus) which will share a wall with the Bike Bar. The building Hopworks will occupy is a ZeroNet Energy Project, which means it’s striving for the lofty and admirable goal of using no more energy than it produces and having a carbon footprint of zero. They will try and accomplish this through Photovoltaic (solar energy) panels on the roof and other green amenities to which HUB will no doubt contribute.

Barrels, Banquets, and Growth
The pending movement of the Powell brewery refrigeration area will open up more space which Ettinger predicted will likely include more room for barrel aging brews. More barrel aged brews in addition to their recently setup nano brewing system will mean a lot more creative and experimental beers to try at Powell and the new Bike Bar. Hopworks is also ready to formally open a new 50 – 80 seat banquet room with indoor and patio seating at their Powell location.

Ettinger also informed us that Hopworks will be adding three more 40 barrel fermenters to the Powell brewhouse which produced about 6,400 barrels of beer in 2010 (up from about 4,400 in ’09 and about 3,000 in ’08). He says that HUB anticipates putting out around 12,000 barrels of its product in 2011. The added growth which will also include five 80 barrel tanks is necessary. “We would soon exhaust our current capacity otherwise” says Ettinger.

Northern Lights’ Brews Brighten the Inland Empire

Aug 18 2009

http://brewpublic.com/places-to-drink-beer/northern-lights-brews-brighten-the-inland-empire/

Brewpublic co-founder and Marketing Director Aaron Miles visits Spokane and the Inland Empire: part 1 of 2, Northern Lights Brewing.

Northern Lights Brewing Company of Spokane, Washington is a brewpub with which some folks from the Northwest beer scene, specifically Portland, may not be very familiar. This is because it is a good five to six hours away from Portland, and less than three hours from Missoula, Montana, by car. Located at the heart of the Inland Empire, Northern Lights is an area favorite, with solid craft brews on tap that are also available in bottles and throughout Eastern Wash and the Puget Sound area. Their brewpub is a recommended destination for craft beer lovers visiting Spokane (“capital of the Inland Empire” and the region’s most populated area).

Northern Lights has been brewing since 1993 and is one of the first craft breweries this writer has enjoyed. On this recent visit to the area, I was pleased to find out that in 2002, the brewery had moved from a suburban warehouse production operation to a spacious brewpub. My mother is quite fond of the place and highly recommended we visit. She liked to tell me about their chocolate beer, which she thinks is the coolest thing since chocolate milk.

brew crew – owner Mark Irvin (center), and brewer Bryan Utigard (right)

The news of Northern Lights’ success inspires some hope for an Inland Empire Brewpublic. Recent closures of old favorites such as the Fort Spokane and Birkenbeiner breweries has done little to benefit the Spokane brew scene. Northern Lights is today the largest and most respected craft brewery in the Spokane area, and the only one that distributes its product. Owner andBrewmaster Mark Irwin founded the brewery in 1993 after working at Hale’s Ales, the Pacific Northwest’s longest running craft brewery. I spoke with Irwin and brewer Bryan Utigard during my visit and learned that with tap handles and bottles throughout Spokane, Seattle and soon Portland, the brewery is still shining bright.

Located near downtown Spokane in a semi-industrial East-side area, the brewhouse and restaurant sit on the bank of the Spokane River. It is a peaceful location offering a great atmosphere for quaffing Northern Lights’ craft brews or enjoying some decent American brewpub fair with friends or family. This is especially prevalent in the warmer months when you can enjoy outdoor seating situated on a grassy lawn literally 20 feet from the river.

With beer sampling in mind, we decided to go for the biggest of three sample trays, experiencing eleven of Northern Lights’ offerings in total. They were all prudent and drinkable and I would give the package deal an overall average rating of a B+. I will certainly return again for some of the solid, balanced and clean brews. With a broad variety on tap, it’s easy to find one for any palate and one to pair well with the restaurant’s conforming selection of sandwiches, salads, appetizers and pasta dishes.

Here are some of our favorites:

Solar Winds – Billed as an APA, this seasonal is blonde with a thin but present head. Super crisp and refreshing for how hoppy it is. Some subtle citrus and piny undercurrents. Similar to IPA with more complex flavors. Our favorite for a hot day.

IPA - Hoppy throughout with a dry hop finish backed by a mild and barely noticeable malt presence. Clear, amberish, thin head. Good overall IPA.

Chocolate Dunkel – My mom goes crazy for this one. I could stop right there, but I’ll add that it’s smooth and creamy, but pretty thin-bodied. Good balance of chocolate and malt characters. Obviously a good dessert beer and winter beer. In summer try mixing with Blueberry Creme for an interesting blend.

Blueberry Crème Ale – Normally I don’t go for fruit beers, but it was hot and this one hit the spot. Maybe it’s because I love blueberries and they have a star role in this one. Not overly sweet, with a big but smoother and balanced berry attack. Any berry attack should be smooth, and this one hit the spot. This was my mom’s second favorite.

Some additional brews that should be on tap now: a whiskey barrel aged version of they flagship Crystal Bitter, and an Anniversary Double IPA as well asOktoberfest beers in Fall.

Fun with Blends – We tried a blend of the Chocolate and Blueberry. It made me smile, and of course, my mom liked it a lot. She talked about it for a while – apparently one of the coolest things since chocolate blueberry pie. Brewmaster Mark Irwin said he’s heard of people also trying blends of: the Blueberry and equally refreshing Summer Wheat; and a black and tan of Summer Wheat andStout. Irwin seemed a little leery of all this beery blending but said: “As long as people are having fun with beer, I’m happy.” Then he went mountain biking. It was the weekend.

The food was adequate but underwhelming. It was a creative and fairly balanced menu, but for us, the delivery was lackluster. A calamari appetizer was predictable, but tasty enough to do the trick. A Greek chop salad had potential but failed to impress. It seemed to have been made with lettuce that had been sitting out for a while. The accompanying perfectly-cooked salmon saved the day. The Reuben was just fine, juicy in all the right places. And the sausage sampler appetizer paired well with the hoppy ales. Food prices were a touch high for what you’re getting, and for Spokane in general, but overall it was much better than standard fried pub grub.

Brewer Bryan Utigard

The large building the brewpub is in also houses a Thai restaurant and other businesses you have to walk past before reaching the brewhouse and restaurant. The cavernous, high-ceiling bar area’s indoor seating has a great bar atmosphere for gathering with friends and reportedly can really fill up on the weekends. Large windows behind the formidable wooden bar provided a glimpse into the brewery where the large tanks glean mightily. This made the ales taste even fresher, knowing they came from 20 feet away. In the summer the outdoor seating can’t be beat. While the plastic patio tables leaves a little to be desired in comfort and aesthetics, the spacious lawn on the bank of the Spokane River provides a stellar gathering atmosphere. There is some residual traffic noise from a nearby bridge, but this is hardly noticeable. I took a break from the meal and walked to within two feet of the river…pretty nice. Definitely a good place to bring your mom, especially if she likes chocolate and blueberries.

 

In Bluebeard, Vonnegut rounds up several familiar themes: genocide, the surreality of the modern world, fluid interplay of the past and present, and the less-than-heroic figure taking center stage to tell his story. This curmudgeonly non-hero is wounded World War II veteran and abstract painter Rabo Karabekian. The story is told in his voice, it’s his “hoax autobiography.” Vonnegut uses Rabo’s life story to satirize art movements and the art-as-investment mind-set and to explore the shifting shape of reality.

Critics say this is not among Vonnegut’s best work. I don’t feel comfortable making such a statement, not having read any of his other work for a number of years. I enjoyed this as much as a remember enjoying any of his other works, and it was a fun read.  Even steeped in Vonnegut’s borderline nihilistic views and strong satire of the art and literary worlds, this story left me appreciating art, for art’s sake. The painting, writing, creative self-expressions and anything that we do to create beauty where it was absent and make life better for ourselves and others. It is no easy feat to make beauty when created amidst war and even lesser unpleasantries like dirty diapers and soul-sucking jobs. Do whatever you can, I say. Saying that was rather easy. The doing, not so much. Create something, write something, express a feeling to someone and make their day brighter. Because it shouldn’t stay in you, all your life. Easier said than done my friends, but nice to have a reminder.

Why Ecos Calls Portland Home

(Final copy for: http://www.ecosconsulting.com/about/why-portland/) Ecos does business across the United States, and we’re often asked “why Portland?”

Ecos is passionate about the environment, and it’s no accident that our corporate headquarters is in Portland, Oregon — one of the most environmentally sustainable cities in the world. Ecos was actually founded in California – and still has an office there – but Portland has become our showroom for sustainability and is the perfect home for us as we continue to grow and help our clients save energy and become more sustainable.

Here are six things about Portland that make it the perfect home for Ecos:

1. GreenestCityintheU.S.-Portland is regularly recognized as a world leader and model sustainable city. Portland has been named the Greenest City in America by Popular Science, SustainLane and many other publications, including Grist, which recognized Portland as a global leader.

2. GobyBike-Portland residents love to commute by bike.The city is regularly named the Top Bicycling City in the country by, among others, Bicycling Magazine. Add public transportation and other alternative commuting to the mix and over a quarter of Portland’s work force commutes sustainably. Ecos encourages employees to commute by bike with incentives and special activities. Thanks to these efforts we’ve placed in the Top Ten for three years in a row in the city-wide Bike Commute Challenge.

3. Locavorism-Portland eats local.We pick the many farmers’ market stands bare each week and restaurants and grocery stores pride themselves on offering local ingredients. The New York Times wrote that nearly every notable Portland chef lives by “the gospel of locally grown ingredients.” The more local our food is, the lower its carbon footprint. We’re happy to live in a place that makes eating local so enjoyable.

4. GreenBuilding-Portland is home to the most Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified buildings of any municipality in the country, and the nation’s first LEED Platinum condominium building. The city has forward thinking development policies that will keep us on the forefront for years to come and inspires other cities to improve.

5. GreenPolicy–Policies implemented by the City of Portland and the region’s metropolitan council help its residents be more aware of sustainability and make it more convenient to put into practice. In turn, residents contribute by demanding more legislation and progress. Half of Portland’s energy comes from renewable sources and Portland’s recycling rate is 55% (17% higher than the national average) with plans to be at 75% by 2015. Strict land-use and urban growth legislation has been in place since the 1970s, and even as Portland’s population rises, the future is still looking very green.

6.    Sustainable Business Cluster - Portland is home to a large and growing “cluster” of organizations, like Ecos, that work for the environment on a multitude of levels. In addition to the city government, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) has been instrumental in creating this cluster. NEEA, through collaboration with Ecos and other like-minded organizations, has made the Northwest a national leader in energy efficiency. This sustainable business cluster has attracted the nation’s best minds and talent to the region and local colleges and universities have answered the call to inspire the next generation by offering sustainability focused programs.

Having been here for over a decade, Ecos is proud to call Portland home and has become a senior member of Portland’s sustainable business cluster. Because Portland is such a great place for us, we know it’s important to give back to this community and the environment that we value, which is why we have formed our Community Service and Green teams.

Why Portland? The city has become our showroom for sustainability, and as we expand, we plan to be here for years to come.

DJ Teenage:

DJ Teenage is a “human jukebox” who plays danceable hits of the ages. He moistens the masses “wherever people are in need of dance, wherever parties are in need of beats, but mostly at Holocene,” at his Death By Disco night.

Why are you a human jukebox? I don’t get all caught up in making “music” with the turntables. My job is to play songs that you like and want to dance to, not play songs that no one has ever heard of. I’m not totally top 40, but dude… it’s gotta be fun and familiar or people will not dance to it.

Death By Disco: explain. I want you to dance yourself to death. I want you to fucking get killed on the dance floor, I want you to have so much fun that you expire.

You say you’re not just for the bedroom anymore. Why not?

It’s understandable that most people would find my most appropriate applications in the bedroom setting. However, I’m extremely versatile. Don’t be afraid to experiment with DJ Teenage, you might just find an application that no one’s thought of yet. DJ Teenage cannot be stopped!

OK then. So let’s say I’m at a party you’re spinning. What’s going down?

Two kids are passed out in the bushes from shotgunning 22 oz. PBRs. “Just a Friend” by Biz Markie is totally pumping. The dance floor is so packed full of sweaty shirtless dancers that I have to remind everyone repeatedly not to touch the fucking turntables or the record will skip. The irresistible beats never end and you don’t care how I do it, you just do not want me to stop.

Is it true you do nothing but make out when you’re not DJing? Actually, I try to do that while DJing as well, that’s the only turntable trick I know.

This interview has given me a man crush. Please explain. It’s my shoes. They always do that.

Wow, it is the shoes. Is it hard being DJ Teenage? It’s like when you first learned to ride your bike… you are suddenly totally free.

DJ Wicked

DJ Wicked

DJ Wicked has been a staple of the Portland hiphop scene for years, earning a status as one of the best and busiest DJ’s around. As his website www.justplainterror.com shows, he prefers the macabre side of things, but he also happens to like MILFs (as in “Mom I’d Like To Fuck”–not the Mono Islamic Liberation Front). His new CD asks the question burning the minds of many men: Got MILF?

Q: So what’s up with the Got MILF title?

Back in high school I used to have this huge crush on my buddy’s mom (who also happened to be my band teacher). So on the night of our big Christmas concert, I told her my feelings and one thing just led to another. I found myself backstage with her making our own sweet music, if you know what I mean? Ever since then I’ve always had a fascination with MILFs, and with my new “Got MILF?” CD, it’s sort of my way of giving back to them. Thank you Ms. Letourneau!

Q: Is there any hot MILF action at your shows?

There’s always hot MILF action at my shows! When I tell people to come check me out as I spin the “golden oldies,” I’m not just talking about the music.

Q: Do you think those MILF hunter websites are for real?

Man, I hope they’re for real. If not, I don’t know what I would do. It would be like finding out Santa Claus didn’t exist all over again, or that pro wrestling was fake.

Q: What do think about the Portland hiphop scene?

The Portland hiphop scene is way behind the times and I think it sort of always has been. You have a tiny handful of artists that are really making moves of any significance. The older generation has diminished for the most part, and there is an entire new slew of youngsters that are coming up. I’m excited to see where the Portland hiphop scene will be in, say, five years from now. Not until that point do I think we’ll have caught up with everybody else in terms of status, credibility and quality.

Q: What are your thoughts on the underground vs. mainstream debate?

Man, the debate between underground vs. mainstream hiphop is one that seems will never end. All I really have to say on the issue is just “keep it true”–and do what you can to preserve the culture. Oh, and FUCK Rammin’ 95.5! Oh, and if I ever mysteriously turn up missing, somebody question Paul Allen.

DJ Stay In School

“Do what I say, not what I do,” warns college dropout DJ Stay In School before a self described hypocritical rant about how it’s “cool to follow the rules, drink your milk, and stay in school.” This lover of long walks on the beach and Peach Schnapps has always thought vinyl was sexy. Four years ago, he decided to put his wax where his decks were and see what would happen. After taking three seconds to decide IDM and downbeats were boring, (and didn’t attract the ladies) he took up regular nights at the Tonic and the now defunct Chocolate Sushi at Madame Butterfly. Mr. School is now hosting a semi-regular School House Breaks night at the Ohm, a “very underrated” club he says, which originated the Portland dance scene and rules the school because they’ve “always been focused on the music and quality events more than money.” His past guests include DJ P and Broken Window. Old school break-beat master Simply Jeff visits again for this month’s installment.

What’s the School Breaks philosophy?

I try to compress as much booty shaking, ass grabbing rhythms as possible into one set of speakers and the way you do that is with breaks, two-step and electro, plain and simple. But it’s wrong to compartmentalize all those electronic genres; it all comes from the same mentality. The nights are about the total get down and we want everyone to feel included. We also go to great lengths to avoid the knuckleheads.

Why do you put on these parties?

Dance music is easy for a lot of people to relate to. Once they understand it, they start to have something in common with a lot of people. It’s a very strange thing, you’ll go out and wind up talking to someone that you otherwise wouldn’t, and you end up being best friends. Maybe because of this, a lot of people who organize dance events try to assign this spirituality to them. It drives me bonkers when I go out and see all these little temples and religious crap. This isn’t church. I want to dance, flirt and have a good time.

—

DJ Suppoz

“I’m doing this because I love to share music with people,” says DJ Suppoz. And when not reading or hanging with his hyper cat, Suppoz is indeed sharing his mix of “deep, soulful tech house, electro/disco house, and melodic, soulful drum and bass.” He turns on the Saucebox crowd to new sounds every Thursday night and inspires some dirty dance floor action at the monthly Dirty parties he co-hosts (this month’s is on July 15 at XV). He’s also trying to start a night of all indie rock and indie pop 7 inches, which Portland would surely appreciate. Like most music fans, he likes new and unique sounds, and is excited about all the hybridity that’s taking place in music these days.

“The exciting thing about electronic music is the newness, using these relatively new instruments to make new forms of music. One of my favorite things lately is how a lot of indie bands are incorporating electronics into their sound and how a lot of electronic music is incorporating vocals or indie song structures. I like the way the genres are bleeding a little more than usual these days. One of my favorite things about music is how there will be periods of great exchange between popular music and experimental music. I think the difference between experimental and more dance oriented music is mainly intent, but that can be overcome by a DJ or a listener. There are DJs, though not that many, who can take a totally abstract record and make it very successful on the dance-floor because they see something in the sounds or the beats that people will latch on to. Those are the DJs I really admire.”

Do you have any advice for aspiring DJ’s?

“You gotta love music if you want to be a DJ. If you love throwing parties, you should be a promoter, not a DJ. But the technical fundamentals of this are not that challenging. Above all, just do it because you want to do it, not because you have some greater need to please others.”

Currently on the Suppoz playlist:

Tomas Anderson: Bas

Any thing on Trapez and Treibstoff

Hold Tight: Girl Next Door

“Weapons of Mass Creation” 3LP

Calibre: Drowning in You

Boom Bip: Morning & Day EP

Raconteurs

By definition a raconteur is a story-teller, and this super-group’s songs by dual singer/guitar players Jack White of the White Stripes and Brendan Benson are rock stories worth hearing. The classic rocking songs and bluesy ballad backgrounds are rounded out by Greenhornes bassist Jack Lawrence and drummer Patrick Keeler and make excellent vessels for the tales. By now, it’s hard to escape their first single “Steady As She Goes” with it’s syncopated rhythmic verses and huge chorus. Its persistence on the radio and everywhere else is matched by the longevity it earns in a listeners head. The song was written for fun one hot summer day by White and Benson and it inspired the creation of a full band to pursue in-between their other projects. There’s no real match for “Steady” on the debut album Broken Boy Soldier, but there are many other fine tales told with good clean rockin’ and plenty of heartstring tugging ballads that, when performed by a group of talented individuals like these four gents, will no doubt sound great live.

 
MORE PREVIEWS TO COME!
 

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Your neighbor is on TV

Portland Community Media brings community to the airwaves.

“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box.” Legendary news anchor Edward R. Murrow’s words about television in 1958 are especially relevant in this current age of media consolidation where television programming certainly entertains, but doesn’t necessarily represent our communities or allow them access to their airwaves.

Portland Community Media (PCM), like public access channels across the country, has become one of the last true places where local communities have access to the television airwaves initially intended as a public medium and service. Like community radio stations, these bastions and advocates for free speech give voices to the otherwise marginalized and voiceless and provide the training and knowledge necessary to learn film and video production. PCM is the Portland areas largest cable access organization, programming three public access channels on Comcast cable channels 11, 22, and 23 and one government programming channel, 24 hours a day, seven days a week – over 8000 hours of programming per channel, per year. Most of the programming embodies all the hallmarks of community access television: an eclectic blend of low budget productions with plenty of interesting televised moments. They continue to innovate with updated technology, media access activism, and community outreach – but not without challenges like funding cuts at local and national levels and lack of a large enough volunteer base.

“We are one of the last remaining free speech forums around, says PCM Programming/Tape Traffic Specialist Matt O’Dell. “Our doors are open to anyone who wants to learn how they too can use the airwaves to broadcast their messages. Portland Community Media and other local access center around the nation are the only feasible television mediums available to the public anymore.” O’Dell says community volunteers are crucial to station: “We need our volunteers in order to survive. Our budgets get cut every year, which makes it harder to produce our own shows, so it’s up to the volunteer user base to take on those productions and continue making programs that impact the community. If we lose this valuable resource, many organizations, local governments, and individuals will no longer be seen or heard because the local media won’t do it for free, but we will.”

To get a show into PCM rotation, volunteer community members have to attend a free 90-minute orientation where they learn about cable access, review the rules and procedures and learn how to get programs on the air. Once they have attended the orientation they are eligible to sign up for PCM trainings and can become certified on their equipment. Then they produce or submit a program they didn’t produce but are “sponsoring” for airing and O’Dell schedules the programs based on the producer’s request.  The programs will get anywhere from two to five air dates and times based on where the program was produced – locally produced programs get more air dates.
The volunteer producers and sponsors submit a relatively evenly divided mix of arts and entertainment, education, public affairs, municipal and religious programs, and PCM sponsors other programs to fill the gaps and as a service to the community.

New shows are often added to the rotation. One promising new community program is a new two-hour biweekly series from the Independent Black Producers Organization called IPBO Presents, which airs live every other Saturday at 6 pm on channel 22 and repeats during the week on the other channels. “We wanted to get a message out for those voices that are not usually heard, and gain feedback on things happening in the community,” says IBPO producer Von Bailey. “The hope is that our programs act as a voice for local communities, and give an opportunity for events in the community to get some recognition.” Bailey says the growing IBPO group also wants to “teach young minorities and low income students multimedia.” Their programs will cover financial issues like home buying, teen issues, and a Generation X focused show hosted by local hip-hop MC Mic Crenshaw. Bailey thinks that PCM “is very instrumental in getting information out to the community,” and hopes that funding struggles are resolved and community shows like those from the IBPO can continue to be produced.

While the community issue programs like IBPO Presents are a crucial part of the programming mix, there are many arts and entertainment shows that just want to have fun. Dawn Higgins-Jasman hosts and produces Galactic Groove After Dark, a live late night talk and variety show with live bands that “can be a little risqué, but we try not to cross the line.” Jasman says the show was originally “supposed to be a dance party, but it was hard to get dancers in who wanted to shake their butts on live TV,” so it eventually evolved into its current format. The story of Galactic Groove is a good example of how community programs come to life. Jasman was inspired by another late night show on PCM that went off the air in the late 90’s and in an effort fill the void she decided to become a producer herself and launched her first live show in 2001 after a PCM training experience that she says had both easy and challenging aspects. Jasman, who also helps out with other shows, like the popular Outside the Box show on Thursday nights, thinks that “PCM is doing an awesome job in providing a service to the community. Cable access is the final frontier of free speech as we know it.”

One way PCM enables community members like the IBPO to get their voices on air is by offering inexpensive hands on training in both field and studio production, and they have recently revamped their education program. When they had standard technique training courses on topics like camera use, editing and lighting, there was excellent attendance, but not a corresponding amount of programs produced. In part due to a lack in community-based programs, PCM changed from a technique to a project based educational approach. Under the old technique based model, PCM taught traditional classes where students would learn lighting, camera operation, digital editing and other necessities, with no real commitment to actually produce a program. Under the project based model, the learning process is a means to and end – after learning the skills, volunteers put them to use and, ideally, each training session nets a unique program that PCM can air. “We found that we have been lacking in community based programs (so) we re-vamped our media education curriculum to be more project-based instead of technique based (which) gives us the opportunity to reach out to community organizations. This also educates our viewers and volunteers on community organizations that they might not otherwise know about.” The training at PCM have long been a popular way for aspiring producers and directors to get started. O’Dell says “it’s pretty common for people to get their start here because of cost alone. Our facilities and equipment are available for use for free.  The only thing we charge for is our classes and workshops.  Users have to supply their own tapes, but they get to use top of the line equipment for nothing.  I’ve also noticed that a lot of commercial TV shows get their ideas from public access shows.”  The project-based approach has also been taken to classrooms with the Oregon Learning Lab for Information Education (OLLIE) program. The program, co-run by Multnomah Community Television, takes the project-based approach to classrooms, bringing digital video production to under-served students to produce video projects on topics they study and that affect their lives.

There are significant challenges ahead for PCM and other community access outlets. Two bills in the U.S. House and Senate, including one sponsored by Oregon’s Senator Gordon Smith would give telephone companies national cable television franchises without any local government oversight or adequate provisions for cable access funding. Now is an excellent time to get involved in community media and move from consumer and spectator of television to an actual creator and take an opportunity to illuminate, teach and even inspire through this powerful medium.

Libretto

Dirty Thangs b/w Alma Mater
One Drop
Slowly bobbing your head in a blunted daze to some indy-hop is all right, but it’s more fun to bounce like it’s 1995 with hands in the sky and ass in motion. Libretto and the Lifesava’s Jumbo, both from Portland’s Misfit Massive crew, deliver many bounce ounces on this single. Jumbo’s upbeat productions have a classic west-coast, P-funk influenced vibe with tweaked, high pitch voices over skanky guitar riffs and keyboard punctuation. These tracks, like Libretto says, will no doubt “keep the dance floor wet.” Dirty Thangs discusses life’s literal funk like “crime on the brain,” “crackin’ bed frames” and stolen Disneyland keychains. On Alma Mater, Libretto pays homage to his Watts, L.A. days and asks, “can Watts get some paper?”  Since this platter will be in every DJ’s crate soon, I’d say it’s paper time.

(From Portland Mercury)

Various Artists
The Now Sound of Brazil 2
Six Degrees/Ziriguiboom

The second “Now Sound” compilation from Ziriguiboom, one of Brazil’s leading sources of new music, once again provides a fun, if not entirely comprehensive, mix of what’s going on in Brazil. These songs represent electronic, modern bossa, and samba soul from seven of the label’s artists. Most of these songs were released stateside on other Six Degrees releases but the album has four exclusive tracks, including the dreamy “Meu amor” by Cibelle that layers her beautiful vocals over muted electronic textures. Bebel Gilberto shines as usual, and this disc includes a couple tracks from her recent remix collection, including the cool bossa remix of “Cada Beijo” by Thievery Corporation. Bossacucanova offers some groovers, but the catchiest track is the funky electro-samba bounce of Zuco 103’s “Love is Queen Omega” which features the always-interesting Lee Scratch Perry.
(from Portland Mercury)
 

How to create music for modern dance, and start a feud with the Dandy Warhols.

I’m sitting with Justin Harris and Danny Seim, rhythm section of the Portland band Menomena, in a small car on SW Oak Street. Our conversation has steamed up the windows, and it’s probably pretty hard to tell what we’re up to.

It’s hard to tell exactly what Menomena are up to as well, and that’s just the way they like it. They’ve released two very different albums thanks in part to their very open-ended songwriting approach. “We would hate to get pigeonholed in any one direction, we don’t rule anything out” says Seim. Mix that with a sense of humor – “we should start a feud with the Dandy Warhols,” – and what they’ll do next is anybodies guess.

Their 2003 album, “I Am The Fun Blame Monster” an anagram of  “the first Menomena album,” showed them as a rock trio with some melodic pop sensibilities and a penchant for experimentation. The album is a diverse and moody blend of textures made primarily with vocals, piano, bass and drums, but accented with great effect by guitar, baritone sax, glockenspiel, loops and other textures. It’s anchored with tight rhythms that could hold their own in a hip-hop song. Their logical next step might be to follow up with a similar album, especially after the success of Monster, which got them excellent reviews, plenty of local support, an opening slot for part of the Gang of Four reunion tour and a co-headlining tour with Chicago’s Pit er Pat.

Instead they released Under an Hour. The album was originally composed as a live soundtrack for the Monster Squad dance troupe’s 2004 TBA festival performance of the same name, then re-recorded in their home studio. The three tracks clock in at just under an hour and are long repetitive motifs using much the same instrumentation as Monster. The highlight is the closer “Light,” in which Seim’s big drumbeat drives things more aggressively. “It’s a lot different from anything we’ve ever done before, it depends on who you ask if it’s a departure,” says Seim. This album may confuse and turn off some fans, but also reinforces the fact that these are three talented guys capable of creating great music for diverse settings. At the very least, it’s good music for modern dance.

Their unique sound stems from their songwriting approach. They create their music by collectively improvising and building off each other’s ideas that are captured with the help of Deeler, a software tool created by vocalist/keyboardist Brent Knopf. This organic song building process takes more time than having a pre-planned sound or songs. “If we did sit down and plan it out, our third album would probably be finished,” says Harris. “Maybe we’ll get our hairstyles first, then work on the music and see what happens,” says Seim. “Actually that would be an interesting concept album,” adds Harris, “get makeovers then see what music we created.”

The oxygen was getting thin in the steamy little coupe and I was having a hard time determining when these guys were serious, and the jokes keep coming. I comment that they are a lot funnier than their music lets on. “We try and put so much of our serious energy in our music, by the time it’s over, this is what you’re left with – a bunch of screwoffs and idiots,” says Harris. “Wait, isn’t that the name of the new Dandy Warhols album,” he asks. “No those are the new members,” quips Seim. They discuss the benefits of starting a feud with the local rockers, then having gotten out some of the inner idiot, Harris adds that “our next album is going to be really good,” and I don’t doubt it.

No queiro labor exploition

Fliers around campus promoting the Taco Bell and Coca-Cola boycotts remind me of the awesome power we have as consumers. Purchases are a vote of support for a business. When consumers boycott or vote en-mass against an entity, it is one of the most powerful economic strategies to enact social change.

They aren’t always the best strategy (for instance, when consumers don’t readily have alternatives available to a boycotted product) and they don’t always work (the boycott on Janet Jackson), but in many cases they are very powerful.

Like many good things in life — well, good whiskey at least — the boycott as we know it comes from the Irish. Irish farmers waged war in the 1780′s against English land agent, Charles Cunningham Boycott, who refused demands to cut rents during a time of poor crops. Their refusal to work his land or sell him goods forced him to return to England. Relations between the two neighbors never really improved.

Perhaps because it involved kicking English ass, the United States embraced the term and concept. In the late 1880′s, U.S. farmers boycotted railroads that charged exorbitant rates, and in 1885 alone American labor unions carried out 196 official boycotts.

One civil sanction that made a profound impression on 20th-century U.S. society was the Montgomery bus boycott, organized by Martin Luther King Jr. after Rosa Parks refused to take a back seat aboard public transportation in 1955.

The United Farm Workers boycott of table grapes, begun by Cesar Chavez in the 1960s, and the recent boycott of Nestle over the marketing of infant formula in developing countries has greatly impacted attitudes and business practices in those industries.

Research gathered at the consumer information Web site coopamerica.org found that business leaders consider boycotts to be more effective than other consumer techniques like class action suits, letter writing campaigns and lobbying and are taken more seriously because well-organized boycotts directly threaten sales – the life blood of any business.

In a 2003 study, Britain’s Co-operative Bank determined that boycotts cost big companies 2.3 billion pounds a year. According to a Guardian newspaper analysis, they used safe conservative methods to achieve accuracy and may have even undercut the total impact.

The impact of boycotts on “Killer Coke” and Taco Bell remains to be seen. The Coca-Cola boycott wasn’t called due to syringes, rats or band-aids in cans, but after union organizers and Coke employees were assassinated, tortured and taken hostage after attempts to unionize in Cardona, Colombia. Colombia is reportedly one of the most difficult locales for labor unionization and brutish union-busting isn’t uncommon (see The Vanguard, April 6, 2004).

The Taco Bell boycott was called a few years ago by a coalition of Florida Tomato pickers – the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Press coverage has been supportive; much media coverage drew comparisons to working conditions they endure as modern slavery.

The 2.5 million members of the Presbyterian Church are on board, CIW members won the 2003 Robert Kennedy Human Rights award and over a hundred Notre Dame students are currently on a hunger strike protesting their Universities ties with the chain and other products.

One of the major demands by the CIW is that the Yum corporation, which also owns KFC, Pizza Hut, A&W and others, pays one cent more per bucket of tomatoes picked. According to the CIW (ciw-online.org) they’ve made the same 40-45 cents per 36 pound bucket for twenty years. They have to haul 125 buckets, or two tons, of tomatoes to make $50 per day, less than $7,000 a year.

While a few students I’ve spoken to saw a Friendster message or a flier, many didn’t know much about the boycotts. Many already practiced pocketbook voting and avoided Taco Bell and Coke, except when drunk or needing a mixer for their Irish whiskey. I could be talking to the wrong people. A few of those I asked for comment consumed both products, but admitted they may cut down consumption or boycott knowing that the companies that produce them engaged in unethical practices.

Cutting out the boycotted products will help, but each of our daily individual purchases also makes a difference. Like Madonna, we are material girls (and boys) living in a material world. Every day we spend money on not only our needs, like water and energy, but also a glut of snacks, trinkets and baubles. Our purchases are small, quiet sociopolitical statements. Each purchase sends a message to the company that they are doing something right – but how often is that true? However invisible and insignificant it may seem at the time, our purchases are votes of support not only for the product, but for the companies business practices.

For many, it can be difficult to always vote responsibly with our pocketbooks. As much as I’d like to, I find it hard to always buy local, unionized, organic, recycled, chemical-free, non-sweatshop etc. and to avoid Taco Bell when I’m drunk. More people are trying, though, and that is encouraging news, not only for the earth and laborers, but for business profits.

Jeffery Hollander-the CEO of Seventh Generation, a company that makes socially-responsible home products-argued at a recent lecture to the PSU business school that responsible businesses are outperforming their non-responsible counterparts on every level. With profitable performance ruling our current system, other businesses should follow suit and our responsible choices should increase.

For most products, we have plenty of alternatives to the big corporate polluters and labor exploiters. A quick Internet search will turn up a list of businesses with good track records. On campus we have Food for Thought for part of the day, and perhaps Aramark can be persuaded to get wise and cancel the Taco Bell contract (there’s got to be another source of cheap Mexican-like food that causes indigestion).

Taking part in the successful tradition of boycotting the wrongdoers is one easy step to take. The next increasingly easy way to create social change is to vote with our hard-earned money for the success of businesses that act in the right way.

Adaptation and innovation: these are the harbingers of the most important musical revolutions. For instance, jazz broke free of European confines, reveling in improvisation and celebrated imperfection; meanwhile, the blues spurned the rock and roll revolution. As rock grew, punk told formality to piss off. A few minutes later, urban African Americans utilized consumer electronics, records, and voice to create hiphop. Simultaneously, the avant-garde, dance, and pop producers also began messing with digital sound technology.

Today, from Neptunes to Menomena, it’s the digital revolution that’s all up in our speakerboxxx, creating more possibilities for musicians to do their duty-pleasing booty and giving the people what they need. The revolution isn’t televised, but when you plug in, it is good, brothers and sisters… it is very good.

And digital music tools–from laptop improv programs like Ableton Live to big-studio pitch correctors to help Britney stay in key–offer nearly infinite possibilities. Sounds and arrangements can be endlessly manipulated until the artist’s subjective perfection is achieved.

Portland composer, graphic artist, and Audio Dregs label owner E*Rock came up on punk rock. With digital composition tools, however, he now creates and releases beautiful electronic music. He says, “Once I started [working digitally], producing new sounds and building songs changed. There is no such thing as a perfect beat–but you can create something close to the ideal.” Instrumental limitations also disappear. “You’re not limited to the 12-note classical progression, and you don’t have to be trained.” With digital media, innovation not only gets faster and more precise, but global collaborations are possible through the click of an email: just attach an mp3, and voila! You’re writing a song with someone in Bermuda.

“A lot of stuff people do is about collectiveness,” says E*Rock. “It benefits everyone who’s making music and opens up this memepool of musical ideas.”

When composing with digital media, songs can sound like the perfect, machinelike robot music that rock Luddites like to hate on–but it’s starting to sound more “human,” too. Elliott Adams (local DJ, event promoter with Othertempo, and sometime Mercury contributor) observes, “People freaked out on that old techno shit: ‘Why does this sound so crazy and mechanical and perfect?’ Now, [all kinds of digital music] have organic instrumentation going on. The novelty of the medium has worn off, or it’s seen as retro–you have punk or electroclash stuff where they want to sound real robotic, but it’s all tongue in cheek.”

Still, mass disco record burning is a thing of the past–and thanks to the crossovers and pioneers in this land of innovators, the feud between rockers and techies is evaporating. Is there reason to hate on digital music and its potential mathematical perfection? Perhaps, but hope lies in humans’ abilities to celebrate their imperfections–to love our annoying sacks of flesh and the art we create. The carrot of absolute control and perfection that technology holds up is alluring. So are buns of steel. But life is imperfect and random. It’s not meant to be perfectly composed, and sometimes the buns get a little droopy. “Any technology is dangerous if you don’t see it for what it is and what it’s doing to you. There has to be a public discourse about it,” says Adams, sounding rather prophetic. Let the discourse happen, and let music reflect the people.

The Light of the Spoon

Fischerspooner Puts the Art in Artifice

Let’s face it: everyone loves watching people in cool costumes do fancy dances to catchy music. Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to see a show including choreographed booty moves, smoke, swooshy lights, and above all, shiny underpants? However, big spectacles such as these are painful like a weekend in Vegas. We leave the arena feeling empty, cheated out of rent money and guilt-ridden.

Many music lovers grew weary of such pop shenanigans, turning instead to all things do-it yourself, independent and un-produced. Still, our inner pop imp still yearns for the flashy-flashy-boom-boom and shiny dancing underpants. That’s where Fischerspooner, our potential pop saviors, come in.

This one’s a good old boy-meets-boy story. Once upon a time, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner decided to perform an experiment: make pop music, infiltrate pop culture, and put on an entertaining pop show. Mr. Fischer learned how to make simple, catchy, vaguely ’80s sounding electronic pop, while Mr. Spooner waxed his chest and learned how to lip synch in shiny underpants with a straight face. They recruited dozens of designers, filmmakers, and turban specialists and put on a few extravagant shows, earning them love from the New Yorkers, the Brits, and the Krauts. They became regarded stateside as part of the genre du jour–the so-called electroclash movement–but they won’t make you sick: an essential part of their performance is a post-modern deconstruction of their own artifice.

To do so, Fischerspooner incorporates all the necessary ingredients: a little performance art with modern dance, elaborate costumes, film, smoke, swooshy lights, and shiny underpants while lip-synching along with audio playback of their album #1. Mr. Spooner hams it up, mocking and talking about his own spectacle, before vogueing on into the night. They look and sound so damn good and demand so much short-term attention, they may expand pop culture–and finally make shiny underpants popular again.

You can’t wave your favorite American flag without hitting a tacky, hyper-sexualized image. Mass mediated sexual imagery and tasteless porn permeate, but for my money, there’s nothing like well-written erotica. The depth and diversity present in quality erotica remind us that it’s natural to be sexual, and just fine to fantasize about medieval animal trainers and skaters.

Thanks in part to the work of Susie Bright, editor of The Best American Erotica series (now on its tenth edition) erotic literature is alive and crackilatin’, and sexual expression is coming out of the dark ages.

“Here’s one thought,” Bright shares via email. “All the religious institutions that abhorred erotic expression are now in such deep shit themselves with various corruption and sex scandals, it’s making boring old pornographers look pretty decent by comparison.”

Providing a little historical perspective, she says, “the Vatican grabbed as many copies of the great works as they could find and hid them in their secret porn libraries The clit posse of the feminist movement got stirred up and started publishing their own erotica by the early ’80s, which is where I come in!”

Bright came in with a bang, truly earning her title as a respected sexpert. She’s written six books, edited a dozen anthologies, edited the legendary lesbian magazine On Our Backs, been a sex consultant for films, and edits the Best American Erotica and Herotica series. Hell, she even has a day, January 25th, dedicated to her in her hometown of Santa Cruz, CA. Bright is often featured as a spokesperson for the wave of feminists who advocate sex, a position that has ironically earned her the title “reactionary woman hater” by pro-censorship feminist Andrea Dworkin. Her book Full Exposure gets people talking about sexuality, while How to Write a Dirty Story gets them writing about sexuality, and the BAE and Herotica series just arouses their sexuality.

“Erotica, like all art and expression, affects peoples’ imaginations,” she says. “That’s not because it’s sex, per se, but because it’s life, period. Sexual expression can arouse, it can make you think, it can scare you, it can anger you, it can delight and amuse you.”

The tenth anniversary edition of Erotica contains 28 new contributions, plus the top five readers’ favorites from past editions, and interview bits with many previous contributors. The anthology has an enormous range and nearly all preferences, curiosities and fancies are tickled. From the sexual revolution of middle-aged Southern country folk, to Courtney Cox’s bleached asshole, it serves up a mix of sex, submissive men, s/m, transgender issues and voyeurism. All these components are bathed in a wash of multicultural representation, and imagery both beautiful and ugly. It’s an arousing and thought-provoking collection that encourages broader conceptions of sex. It will get people talking, but it will hopefully get them freaking, too. Post-coitus conversation may never be the same again. Susie Bright is filling those dark, cozy moments with something to say. AARON MILES

While fortunately not the mainstream media-touted “next big thing,” electronic music as delivered through the disc jockey in nightclub, warehouse, or cornfield has made a strong mark on our collective ass. So why is the delivery person usually a dude? Like a heavy metal kielbasa cook out, deejaying isn’t always a friendly scene to break into for the ladies. However, thanks in part to collectives like Sister SF in San Francisco, Internet forums like www.sisterdjs.com, and now Sister PDX, the sausage party’s over.

Sister PDX is an open monthly gathering for female DJs of all skill levels. “It’s for gals who want to know how to spin, but don’t want to go ask guys who would make it into a DJ contest, [so that they] can learn in a low-pressure environment,” says Layla Dudley, aka DJ Velo, the host and founder of Sister PDX. “There is no reason anyone should feel intimidated about [deejaying] because they’re girls.”

The gatherings started a year ago and eventually settled into their groove as a monthly Sunday potluck. Beginners can show up early to learn some basic knob twisting and the experienced ladies show up later with their records, some food, and their dancing shoes.

Dudley enjoys teaching the newbies. “Teaching somebody to play records is like teaching somebody how to paint; you can show them all the colors, but no one will have the same style. I tell the new girls, ‘Now that you know what all this does, watch what other people do with it.’”

Basic skills, a love for music, and a good record collection are the first step. The second step, often a more difficult one, is learning to self-promote and play live. At this juncture, being female can be both an asset and a hindrance. According to Dudley, some bookers and promoters will book a woman DJ simply because of her gender. Sister’s goal is to make women a respected part of the scene–not a novelty act booked because they’re female.

Elizabeth Wolfe, aka DJ Flutterby, is a talented, busy local DJ and recent addition to the Sister PDX crew. She’s experienced the novelty syndrome: “It seems to be easier for females to rise above the glut of wannabe DJs,” she says, “especially if they have sex appeal. However, once they’re out there, that becomes a liability, and female DJs have to work extra hard to prove that they didn’t get booked ‘just because she’s a girl.’”

Longtime KBOO personality and club DJ Deena Barnwell organizes all-female club nights and has also noticed the two-sided treatment. “It’s a mixed bag. Dudes are like, ‘Let me help you with this,’ like you don’t know your shit. But then there are people who come out to support it, and there’s a different energy when it’s just women playing.”

By the time Amber Kurtis, aka DJ Psyke, hooked up with the Sister gatherings, she was getting sick of asking guys about deejaying. “I learned to spin with a group of guys I feel like I had to prove myself a little more to them,” she said.

Kurtis has been going to the Sister gatherings since the beginning, and appreciates the supportive and diverse atmosphere. “Girls come and talk about their aspirations as an artist and they listen to others with very different levels of talent,” she said. “It’s become a really chill evening, [with lots of diversity]; there’ll be a girl interested in hiphop and then maybe one interested in hard techno sounds.” Dudley shares the age-old wisdom that “you can learn a lot on your own, but by going to a group, you get a whole new perspective.”

Eventually the Sister crew plans on hosting regular Sister Nights, where all-lady residents and guests perform. Female DJs can also take advantage of the many resources from Sister SF at www.sistersf.com, and the ongoing discussions on www.sisterdjs.com.

Mural painted on shutters in Brixton Village market

(Originally published in the Portland State University Daily Vanguard Newspaper in 2002)

Run-DMC DJ’s murder last week can shed light on negative content.

With Twinkies and Hi-C in hand, my best grade school mate and I often snuck into his parents’ den for our forbidden fruit: mid-’80s MTV.

Among the videos that flickered rock star fantasies into our noodles was “Walk This Way,” by hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC and featuring Aerosmith.

I’d grown accustomed to guitar slinging, longhaired rock stars. What really fascinated me were these three black dudes in head to toe Adidas gear, gold chains and matching hats. Their fast delivery of lyrics over irresistible beats began my lifelong fascination with hip-hop music.

As I watched this performance, and later many more, I never paid too much attention to the guy in the back twisting knobs and manipulating … wait, what were those anyway, records?

Hopped up on goofballs in the mid-’80s, I didn’t give much thought to DJs, my future as an aspiring DJ, or one of the trailblazers of the art: Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay.

This Halloween, sitting in the Portland airport waiting to fly to a music industry schmooze fest in the Big Apple, I stumbled across a news blip in USA Today declaring that Jam Master Jay had been murdered inside a Queens, N.Y., recording studio where he often let local artists record for free.

As tragic as this news is for Jay’s family and hip-hop lovers, it wouldn’t be horribly surprising if Jay had been involved in gang and open rivalries, which are usually marketing tools. Such as the East Coast vs. West Coast rivalry Tupac and Biggy Smalls (hip-hop’s most high-profile murders) were caught up in. But JMJ wasn’t.

Do hardcore rap lyrics have some truth to them after all? With every hip-hop related murder, people inevitably ask if hip-hop lyrics talk about filling someone with lead for some petty offenses and glorify a mafia style gangster lifestyle.

That doesn’t mean someone would do such a thing in real life, or does it?

Art imitates life imitates art.

As New York tabloid headlines declared “slayings” and “rap war,” old images of Jay jamming behind the decks with his gold chain flailing blurred in my head with all the other DJs and MCs I’ve loved. This murder didn’t make sense. Who was Jay? Everyone knew him as peace-loving family man. Hadn’t Run-DMC turned Christian? Didn’t they speak out against gang violence? Yes, in 1986 they called for a day of peace between warring street gangs in L.A.

Jay’s greatest impact on hip-hop may start now. Perhaps in the wake of this peaceful family man’s mysterious murder, people will no longer want to support the hip-hop genres that use violence, hatred, rivalry and greed to sell records. Hip-hop, rap and R&B aren’t inherently violent. Most of it encourages understanding and standing up against oppression in nonviolent ways. The violent content is sometimes all too real, but if people stop buying it, companies, managers and hip-hop dons will stop encouraging artists to create it.

Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was 37 and is survived by a wife and three children.

CLAN OF THE CAVE MACKS…BEST DJ CREW IN PORTLAND!

When the weather is just right, and you’re patient, you may catch the mysterious and alluring Clan of the Cave Mack, aka the best fucking DJ crew ever, as they emerge stealthily from their cave in solo and clan formation. They’ll have crates of secret bitches in tow, as they seek to serve our community, liberate the oppressed, and get their mack on.

I caught up with three of the current core Mack’s: Venom 3, Soil and Jammotron, along with their alter ego DJ crew –The Fantastic Four — partner Seoul Brother #1. I was lucky to catch them all on a rare foray from the cave. We settled into a smelly old town shelter stoop, within a stones toss of a record store of course.

As we got started, an overzealous and hairy Mack fan in a half shirt and hot shorts meandered over. “Have you seen Desiree?” he asked, “she’s tall and pregnant.” We thought hard about all the tall pregnant women around and told him we didn’t know where Desiree was. “Oh, I thought you might.” He was obviously feeling the mysterious allure and wisdom of the Macks!: the Best Fucking DJ crew in Portland!

How does it feel to be the best fucking DJ crew in Portland?

Soil: it feels good but a lot of people hate it, it’s one of those things people won’t understand until later, but hopefully they’ll just figure it out now, so we don’t have to wait.

Who’s an inspiration to you?

CCM: Invisible Scratch Picklz, X-men (X-Ecutioners), Allies: Craze and those guys, Craze is dope. No one can be the best cuz even if they have the same records they do different things.

How would characterize you style?

Venom 3: Improv, everything style.

Soil: Water, flow, if it goes good together, that’s it.

What’s with the name, how’d you come up with it?

Venom 3: From the book Clan of the Cave Bear. Good movie too, Darryl Hannah was great. “Mack” is a manipulation of music.

Soil: Vinyl Pimpin! It’s all really conceptual,

Do you refer to your records as bitches?

Venom 3: I have lots of bitches!

Soil: More bitches than anyone I know,

What advice do you have for the aspiring DJ:

Soil: Being and aspiring DJ myself, I’d have to say that time on the turntables is crucial. Many a year, listening to music, knowing your shit and taking time to find little things. Usually if you like something, people will like it too. If they don’t, you can try it again another time.

Jammotron: I’ve been all around, checked out a lot of scenes, its good to see good people still out there representing the old customs of what being a DJ is all about. It’s hard to find DJ’s like that.

Is scratching as easy as it looks?

Jammotron: It may seem easy, but when you do it yourself, it’s not, it takes a lot of practice!

Venom 3: It’s easy for us, cuz we’ve been doing it a long time.

What are the Clan’s objectives?

Soil: The whole concept of Cave Mack is taking people back to the essence of the beginning that people are forgetting right now. So we are just trying to let people know that hip hop came from so many other aspects of music, that it can’t just be like one entity on the radio or underground and mainstream, because it’s just music, it’s all together, it’s not exclusive and should be for everybody. That’s what it was about back then, everybody coming out on the street together and having a party, like a block party, your neighbors and shit. You gotta group up cuz communities the only way.

Venom 3: We’re the only crew that plays every style of music, we’re not just turntabalists, house, or hip-hop. We all come from different styles of music and we bring those together. We’re musical DJ’s.

As the best fucking DJ crew, do you stay on top of your game by singing your scratch sounds?

Venom 3: Sometimes when I’m really high I do, sometimes I play the air guitar when I DJ.

Seoul Brother #1: I play the air harmonica.

Soil: It can help you remember stuff. Sometimes you’ll hear someone do a scratch and recognize it, then you’ll discover how they made that sound, you might find a break right there, and that’s what it’s all about.

Do you have any essential records?

CCM: We can’t disclose that shit! Quasimoto, MF Doom and Bob James are all you can print.

Are Michael and Latoya Jackson the same person?

Soil: It could be true, we should research that! We should dress in costumes. No one will know who we are.

Venom 3: No one knows anyway!

I used to play in bar blues band. It was fronted by a fifty something guitar slinging romeo who went by the name “Brother Music.” We toured Idaho, Montana and Utah. I heard the Hoochie Coochie Man in my sleep for years. I’m currently trying to remember enough to write some memoirs.

These days I distance myself from the blues. I avoid many of our local talent blues performances for fear some standards may re-attach themselves to my cerebrum. But I do have much respect, especially for the old timer greats, many of whom have left us.

R.L. Burnside may not be as well known to many as John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters were but he has dedicated himself to the blues and made a lasting mark.

A southern fisherman and farmer, he studied with Muddy, played alongside Junior Kimbrough and jessie Mae Hemphill and played the Mississippi hills for decades.

He made his mark on the alternative rock scene with his album An Ass Pocket Of Whiskey recorded with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

His latest release Burnside on Burnside is special. It’s special because it was mostly recorded live in Portland on Burnside street at the Crystal Ballroom at the venues 87th Birthday party.

This album is special because Burnside’s 22 year old grandson Cedric lays it relentlessy down on the drums and his 48 -year -old “adopted son” slide master Kenny Brown, slips around in a elctrified frenzy while Burnside howls “Don’t be so mean.”

It’s special to me because I was there. I listen for my two hands clapping after his anecdotes and loud rollicking songs. This show was free and I stood in the back of the ballroom, uncomfortable in a state of de-ja-vu beside middle age blues fans, yuppies and frat boys.

Most importantly this album is special because it’s reaI, it happened once and may never happen again. It may never happen again because as the liner notes note: R.L. moves slowly …like old men do. His eyes are red, runny, sometimes cloudy. His teeth are gone, his back aches, his arteries are cloggin up.”

It’s special because when you listen to this album you wonder if he could ever die. His voice may sound a little muddy, but its fierce and intense. It’s special because his guitar playing may not be filled with flashy blues licks but it chugs along harder than an over-stoked steam engine. It’s special because after a quick four songs he plays “Long Haired Doney” and says “Well well well. (his favorite shout out) I know I was gettin’ lonesome up here, but somethin’s kinda hot on these lights. I’m gonna bring me a little tomato juice you know, kinda cool off. Cuz after tonight I’m not going to drink any more. Unless I’m by myself or either with somebody.”

Words like those are as real as his dirty slide intro to the standard “Walkin Blues.”(So much for keeping these classics out of my head. “I woke up this morning …” And it goes on from there. And on and on until you die. “I guess I got those walkin’ blues”

This album’s special because in fine form three songs later and still on Burnside street, Burnside tells another story. It’s about a 22 year old man who was instucted by his father to go get married. He brings back two different girls but he can’t marry them because “both of them girls your sisters, but your mom don’t know it.” The son finally talks to his mom. She says, “You can marry either one of them girls you want to, “‘cuz he ain’t your daddy but he don’t know it!”

After this anecdote the set eases into the solo slide number “He Ain’t Your Daddy.” R.L. is good with a driving trap set and frenzied slide guitar behind him, but on the solo numbers like this the blues really come out.

If I didn’t know this was recorded in front of my eyes at the Crystal, I may think it was from the fifties and recorded in one of Burnside’s native Mississippi juke joints. A place where the slippery slide guitars blend into the patrons blurry eyed ramblings fueled by shots of Jack and dollar cups of beer.

Before you know it, this album has moved to track ten, “Goin’ Down South” and to a theater in San Francisco.

Cedric, Brown and Burnside ride out the set in fine form, with no sign of aches pains or blues. I think they’ve also chaised may blue criticisms away. I was going to say that this album, like the show, wasn’t very captivating. That it sounded like one long song.

But now I remember the blues, or maybe I remember how to feel the blues. And all of a sudden I’m feeling them: the truth, honesty, years of toil and experience that make this show very very special.

Billy Martin, percussionist for the jazz trio Medeski Martin and Wood talks about the band, his new label, creativity, DJ’s and Napster, before their sold out performance at the Schnitzer.

I was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to interview Billy Martin before he performed this Saturday at the Schnitzer concert hall. Billy Martin is the percussion playing third of a hugely successful cutting edge, funky as hell jazz trio that goes by their family names: Medeski, Martin and Wood.

After hanging with some of the road crew for a while backstage at the Schnitz, the band got back from a Japanese/Chinese garden tour and shopping trip. I find Billy and we set off for the band dressing/green room to get the overdue talk underway.

I’m here because Mr. Martin wants to get the word out about his new label Amulet, which is dedicated to the art of percussion and more.

I’m also here to talk to part of the creative force behind a group that defies even the broad “jazz” categorization.

After paying dues around the New York jazz scene, Medeski Martin and Wood banded and have since put out seven full length albums, and toured the world, selling out most shows. The last time they came to Portland they sold out two nights at the Rosalind. They have a large following; Most of whom fall into the neo-hippy category. En Route to the bus to grab a copy of his record: Illy B eats: Groove Bang and Jive Around, Billy and I walked into about ten dreadlocked fans with cardboard signs pleading for tickets to the sold out show. I saw the wheels turning and eyes lighting up in one of them as he recognized Billy. We were almost to the bus by then. Later that night, College kids, average joes, and old jazz fans were all in attendance at the beautiful and packed Schnitz.

The crowd wasn’t disappointed. MMW opened with some free ambiance, morphed into some improvised grooves, let solos turn into songs from albums new and old, pulled off and ambient rainforest segment and even did a tasty acoustic piano trio piece. Billy played his vintage Rogers trap kit, bird whistles, rain sticks, an African Marimba and talking drum.

The audience loved every minute of it, dancing most of the time.

I decided to address this popularity right away as we settled in to the sofas of the green room.

Aaron Miles: You guys helped make jazz cool again to a whole new generation, how did you do it?

Billy Martin: I think that a lot of the younger generation wants to experience something fresh and exciting. The way we perform on stage, improvising, and the intensity with which we play with is what a lot of the younger generation wants, so I think they relate to that because …

Before Martin finished, John Medeski, Chris Wood and some tour crew came barging into the dressing room. They set off to find it 15 minutes ago, when I first found Billy. Medeski immediately asks: “How’d you guys find this fuckin place?” Everyone is then talking at once and grabbing beverages.

We decide to relocate.

We settle in to the Karl Denson tour managers office. Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe is the 7 piece acid jazz funk band that kept the crowd dancing past midnight after MMW finished their early set.

BM: As I was saying, I guess we are breathing new life into this style. It has a lot to do with that we are always on the edge, pushing the threshold you know? It’s a more intense experience than what you usually get in a lot of jazz music today. I mean, it’s either watered down smooth jazz shit, or something that’s been done already; like maybe some be-bop, or groups sounding like Bill Evans or something. For us, it’s like we have that rock edge and the hip hop edge and all these things we are using to communicate with, I don’t know, it seems to get people out to the shows!

It wasn’t something we conceptually said “this is how we are.” We’re gonna do what we’re gonna do and play in front of people. I always thought if we played this music in front of people they were going to like it. We have a special chemistry.

AM: As far as albums go, is their a reason you did the acoustic <I>Tonic<I> and an all acoustic tour then went back to the electric and more experimental sound with the <I>Dropper<I>?

BM: The reason we started doing piano trio stuff is because we had been playing a lot of big halls and we needed a break. We needed to balance out sonically what we do by playing a small intimate place with just an acoustic piano and the different level or area. Basically if you hear the <I>Tonic<I> stuff and you here the <I>Dropper<I>, these two latest records that are different, we’re still communicating in the same way in terms of the style in which we play, but the (differences are) instrumentation and the fact that the tonic was a live gig. We wanted the intimate setting, kind of a workshop thing. Someone was recording it and later on we realized we had some good stuff on tape, a good sounding room, and a live situation, so we decided to release it. It wasn’t planned that way. And so then we did a follow up tour which was great, its good to change things up like that, good for our music.

So now we are back to doing electronic stuff, a little more hard hitting and intense, but there is still acoustic sections within our sets sometimes. We break it down to the minimal instrumentation and do a mix of both.

AM: What’s the next step for MMW

BM: We’re just evolving. we’re touring right now and I’m sure we’ll get together and start thinking about another record that will probably be released early next year. We’re thinking about that but now we’re just out on the road playing and coming up with some new stuff, and of course always rearranging the old stuff every night, trying to play it in a different way, being in the moment.

We never know what it’s going to be, as soon as we book studio time we go in there and it starts coming together. We roll tape and play, listen to it and see if there is anything worth developing or keeping. That’s usually how we make a record, it kind defines itself as time goes on. We might do a bossa and boogaloo type record. Maybe an EP maybe a whole record, we don’t know.

AM: You guys worked with DJ Logic on <I> Combustication<I> and toured with him for a couple years. Any thoughts on how DJs are changing music today?

BM: Yeah, I think the DJ is now becoming a pop star. There was guitar gods and all that, now there’s DJ’s that have there own bands, composing there own music. I saw that coming and I think its great, I think it’s just another dimension another extension of creating music, I think it’s a great art form, it just depends on who’s creating it. I really think it’s a cool thing.

AM: Its good to hear that. I know that some musicians think that DJs are taking over their role as entertainer. People go out and pay to hear a DJ spin more as opposed to a band.

BM: Anyone who is threatened by a DJ is insecure about themselves. Unfortunately it’s a very competitive business, it’s not easy to make a living being a musician. If you choose to make one kind of music one way you could be limiting yourself, I just think if you are sincere, and you really are creative it doesn’t matter if you’re a DJ, drummer, violinist, keyboard player, or a singer; it all has to do with what you have to say, what you’re communicating to people, and whether or not they are open to hearing it. Whether they are or not doesn’t really matter. What matters is how you are developing and evolving. That’s what’s important. So on the commercial end of things , like people stealing other peoples jobs, that’s nothing new! People who worry about it are obviously insecure about it to begin with.

It’s fear just like when synthesizers and samplers came around. there’s still orchestras out there there’s still people using strings. We got John Medeski, he can play any keyboard in the world, we had a string trio play on our record, we had a violinist play, there’s nothing like it.

AM: Along the same lines, as far as musicians or artists developing their creativity, do you have any good advice on how to develop creativity and how to bring out the best of what’s inside someone?

BM: Yeah, I have students and the most important thing is to try and bring out the essence of who they are, in their playing. If you have that mindset of just getting to know yourself and being open and honest and accepting of who you are, I think what’s going to follow is going to be a real sincere thing. If you’re really creative in what you do and you have the ability to improvise in situations then you’re going to really develop your style and I think the only way to do that is to think music all the time. If you’re a musician to think of everything you do in a musical way, think compositionally . For drummers I always tell them “you’re making music you’re not just making a beat. When you sit down and practice, sit down and play like you’re performing in front of an audience solo. That solo from beginning to end is a piece of music. If you take it to that level you’re going to develop you’re style.

Everybody’s an individual, we’re all here to bear our fruit. We all have our own thing to give to the world, especially if you’re an artist you have even more, more of something special. That goes for me, it goes for everybody: people working in an office you know, everybody’s got their own thing. If they really know what they’re about and what they’re good at, they’ll do good.

AM: So your new label Amulet just released Illy B Eats

BM: Yep, Illy B Eats: Groove Bang and Jive around.

AM: It’s basically just beats right?

BM: Yeah, beats for DJs to use, a vinyl only limited edition. It’s not just for DJs but ultimately that’s what a breakbeat record is. DJs need material to use, to blend in, to compose with. I also think musicians can use this stuff if they need some drums. I think especially now those kinds of sources are really valued and I think it’s great. It’s my way to interact with people. If they need some drums, I would love to supply them , and vice versa. I’m inviting people to contribute, kind of work with me in writing some music for the follow up CD. It will be a double CD, one CD is just the breakbeats the other one will be special guests. I already have a couple people that are going to do it. Like Steve Cannon. That title: groove bang and jive around is from a book he wrote, and who I was inspired by, so he is going to read something from his book, a spoken word thing. DJ logic will do something, and I am going to ask some other people I’ve worked with. Maybe Iggy Pop, Marc Ribot, Jon Scofield. I’ll also put a little band together to do one or two. Construct the music by starting with the beats. But I’ll also take the beats, slow them down, you know, do what DJs do, make something else out of them.

AM: Is Amulet trying to focus on just percussion stuff.

BM: Primarily yeah it’s dedicated to the art of percussion. Being a drummer and percussionist I feel like it’s an outlet for me. Besides, playing with other bands, playing with MMW–my essence of who I am is really strong with the band–but I still want to compose with percussion. I want to write ensembles and I want to work with people and expose other people’s inventive ways of composing with percussion. That’s what this labels about. Percussion music is in it’s infancy, in this country, and in this culture. Compared to like West African or Indonesian or something like that.

The first thing I released on CD was a percussion duet record. Percussion duets I did with Calvin Weston, Calvin played with Ornette Coleman in the 70’sand we played in the lounge lizards together, John Luries lounge lizards. So that was when I met Calvin and we had a great chemistry. We even had a trio with Jon Lurie, The John Lurie national orchestra, there’s a record out of that: “men with sticks”

I also released some Gamelan music from Bali that David Baker recorded.

He went to Bali with his wife, and they recorded a bunch of different Gamelan groups, particularly a woman’s group which is very unusual and some bronze and bamboo duets. Just some different parts of the island, different types of Gamelan, It was beautifully recorded it was really great recording so I was happy to get that out. There is plenty of Balinese music going on but there’s a handful of recordings I think are really great. I really think this is right up there.

AM: Anything out now that you are listening to that’s inspiring?

The Karl Denson tour manager gets a plug in: “Karl Denson’s tiny universe.” Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe is the seven piece acid jazz funk band that kept the crowd dancing past midnight after MMW’s early set.

BM: I just got a Lee Scratch Perry record, he’s dub reggae type stuff, it’s really cool. In some ways that music is really avant garde. There’s a certain way he mixes stuff that’s so out there, its beautiful. It’s like Sun Ra meets reggae or something.

I’m listening to some music from Zaire that was recorded in 1952, that’s really amazing. For me that’s some of the most inspiring music. Over the years I’ve discovered field recordings from parts of Africa, particularly west and central Africa.

Also Charles Ives and some classical composers that I really like, orchestral stuff that’s really inspiring to me.

On the hip hop tip I haven’t heard anything that’s blown me away lately. Haven’t been as in touch with it. Although I love to play in that style, as far as where my drum beats come from. A lot of it’s inspired from African music too.

AM: I should probably ask the cliché Napster question.

BM: Laughs, what is it? ask it.

AM: How do you feel about Napster, Yeah or Ne.

AM: I think Napster’s cool, I’ve used it. I’m into sharing, people turning each other on to music. By checking music out myself I’ve ended up buying CDs. I’ve downloaded some stuff and been like no, I don’t listen to it or use it. When I find something I usually end up going to the store and buying the whole CD or finding more music by that artist. I feel like ultimately it’s a great way to share music and it’s just an issue for these people to figure out how to be able to keep alive and make a living.

I play live in front of people. That’s the majority of how I pay my bills and survive is by playing live. Some people are just songwriters and they get money from record sales or whatever, air play. Part of that income is how I make a living also. I don’t really feel that threatened by Napster, not yet. I can see why people are nervous about it though. I think it’s really an exciting time. The only thing … say someone in a far away third world country bootlegging something and making a lot of money doing it and not sharing it or being responsible. That’s a possibility. I guess with my music I don’t have to worry about that. The big labels have to worry. The Michael Jackson’s and the Britney Spears and all that, so much money, I’m not worried about that.

AM: Allright Billy Martin, Anything else?

BM: No.

AM: Feel free to talk about anything.

BM: I have this website for the label amulet.com and this gallery, illyb.com

its my art gallery.

You know, being a musician and a visual artist is really the same thing for me. I improvise on both. I create and communicate with both. In many ways, it’s similar as far as where it’s coming from.

AM: Thanks.

BM: Thank you.

SOME PULL MATERIAL. Everybody’s an individual, we’re all here to bear our fruit. We all have our own thing to give to the world, especially if you’re an artist you have even more, more of something special. That goes for me, it goes for everybody: people working in an office you know, everybody’s got their own thing. If they really know what they’re about and what they’re good at, they’ll do good.