city news...
Jan 6,2009
Portland Cello Project Kicks Off Family Friday Concert Series
by pearlgirl
Portland Cello Project, the city's popular "indie cello orchestra" leads off a series of Family Friday concerts at the Community Music Center (CMC) in Southeast Portland on Friday evening, January 9 at 7:00 PM. Family Friday concerts, a new series at the Center, are short musical programs by popular local musicians designed for school-age kids and adults to enjoy music together. The Portland Cello Project , an ensemble of 8 to 16 cellists playing everything from Brittney Spears to Beethoven, from video game themes to Strauss, has had "a meteoric rise in the vibrant Portland music scene", with diverse and exciting collaborations, all in the spirit of building a stronger music community. WHAT: Portland Cello Project performs a family concert WHERE: Community Music Center, 3350 S. E. Francis, Portland
WHEN: January 9 at 7:00 PM, ending by 8:30
TICKETS: $5 for individuals, $15 for families, purchased at the door only. Future Fam
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posted at 04:22 PM
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Jan 5,2009
Portland Neighborhood Wallpaper for Your Computer
by pearlgirl
In 2008, we captured some really great photos of Portland's neighborhoods and have selected our 15 favorites to share with you. We invite you to download the images from our Flickr photo gallery and use them as your computer wallpaper. Enjoy! About the photographs All of these photos were taken using a technique called high dynamic range (HDR). Each photograph is a composite of over and under-exposed images, combined into a single photograph on the computer. This technique provides extraordinary detail in the shadows and highlights, far beyond what a single image can capture. In addition, some images were also shot using a digital camera adapted to shoot in infrared—a spectrum of light not visible to the human eye. These photographs were finished with hand coloring in Photoshop. Sunlan Lighting, Boise Ladd's Addition, Hosford-Abernethy Skidmore Fountain, Old Town Chinatown
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posted at 01:01 PM
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Jan 2,2009
NW Film Center Open House and 30 Second Film Festival
by arthur smid
Here's an opportunity to turn on the camera, press record and focus on what you love about Portland. I went into the Northwest Film Center to see what's up with their new location. It's a nicely remodeled building at 934 SW Salmon, just a block uphill on SW 10th from the Public Library. While talking with the office manager, Kristy Conrad, I noticed an open call for entries to celebrate Portland in the 30 Second Film Festival. Okay, so this part of the event is secret, and maybe why you haven't heard of it: "This is a surprise for Mayor-Elect Sam Adams!" The entries chosen for their ability to celebrate and inspire Portland will be shown at Sam Adam's Winter Gala and Swearing In, on January 31, 2009. So the deadline looms: January 9th. I hope you have time to film 30 seconds of Portland (all styles are acceptable) and drop off your entry on DVD, DV tape, or MOV file (using animation code c) by 5 pm Jan 9 at the Northwest Film Center. Hey, an opportunity to get involv
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posted at 08:21 AM
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Jan 2,2009
Cinema Junkies » The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
by roxanne
If you have been thinking about seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , run, don't walk to see this remarkable film on the big screen. The film was directed by David Fincher (Fight Club) and based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story of the same title. Fitzgerald wrote that the story was inspired by a comment made by Mark Twain that it was "a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end." The film has the kind of voyeuristic feel of early Truman Capote or Carson McCullers, whose fiction always seemed to capture a microcosm of humanity that was both fascinating and exposing of the dark underbelly of the deep south. Benjamin Button is an emotionally complex epic, touching all of the deep places in the heart. It is a well-told tale that centers around the big themes in life; love, separation, fear of differences, and vulnerability related to aging and mortality, to name a few. In short, this is a moving story you can really sink
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posted at 08:10 AM
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Dec 30,2008
Brody on Broadway
by arthur smid
"Please make mistakes," Brad Fortier, comedian and educational director at the Brody Theater explains, "they're essential to this art, because a lot of those mistakes can become very brilliant comedy if we utilize rather than minimize the mistakes." Fortier talks casually with students, "Improv training really opens a different way of being - when you eradicate insecurities around mistakes. With improv we're breaking social norms to get to this comedy." People come to the show to be entertained and maybe, with a desire to participate. One of the attractions of the theater is a chance to enroll in classes, overcome your fear of speaking in public, and be spontaneously creative with people. The Brody Theater has been active in Portland for twelve years and just leased a new home at 16 NW Broadway. It's in the lower part of the Broadway Hotel, between Helen's Market and Ichiban Sushi. The Housing Authority of Portland welcomed the theater to Old Town in hopes
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posted at 11:15 AM
4 comments
Dec 29,2008
Snowpocalypse 2008 - The Movie
by shooter
I thought everyone might enjoy reminiscing about Snowpocalypse 2008, so I put together this video from the bits I shot during the storm. I've been experimenting with the FlipVideo camera and the storm provided the perfect reason for further experimentation. As I reviewed what I shot, I thought it would be fun to piece the segments together. Here's the result. I hope you enjoy it. Snowpocalypse 2008 - The Movie from Neighborhood Notes on Vimeo .
I like this camera. FlipVideo is a cheap and easy way to capture video for the web. The camera can easily be carried in your pocket or added to a camera bag. I chose the Ultra because it uses AA batteries. Since I always have rechargeable AA batteries in my camera bag power is never a problem. It will capture and store about 60 minutes of video, and has a built in USB plug that makes downloading very easy.
The picture quality is pre
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posted at 10:29 AM
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Dec 21,2008
For Those About to ShanRock- We Salute YOU!
by NoPo Ness
Looking for a way to cut loose a bit on a week night? Nothing too severe you think- too much tequila and a spontaneous trip to Tijuana seem out of your grasp mid-week. Consider yourself the Cliff Clavin of the hipster set? Do you know whose business is it that it's Istanbul not Costantinople? Do you know who Angelina Jolie's first husband was? Have you memorized every episode of the Ben Stiller show? Then you probably know P-town's coolest, self-proclaimed Trivia Jock, ShanRock (aka Shannon Donaldson) the host of Triviology events all over Portland. Starting out three years ago at Peter's 19th Hole on NE Fremont she has since spread her brand of trivia all over P-town, successfully parlaying it into a full-time job that provides her sole income. ShanRock's got so much game that she's hosted fundraisers for FirstBook and ECO as well as pub quizzes for Wordstock, PSU, the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland Elvis' birthday party and the Annual Barfly Trivia Bus. And now she even
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posted at 05:04 PM
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Dec 20,2008
Cinema Junkies » Finding Graceland
by roxanne
Recipe: Take one relatively unknown director (David Winkler), one bizarre screenplay, and one beloved and outstanding actor. Combine together with one of America's biggest obsessions: Elvis dead or alive? The most compelling reason to see Finding Graceland is Harvey Keitel. Can you think of anything more incongruous than an irresistible Harvey Keitel doing Elvis? Keitel plays a mysterious drifter who identifies himself as Elvis. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that Elvis has a profound effect upon the people he encounters during a road trip to Memphis, where he plans to visit Graceland on the anniversary of his death. Finding Graceland falls into the alternative history category and is a screen-writer's fantasy about what really happened to Elvis after his "supposed" death in 1977. The story is so good you will find yourself wishing it were true. In the vast body of commentary on this film, there are a great number of Elvis fans who thought this was a ter
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posted at 09:16 AM
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Dec 19,2008
The Way We Were
by roxanne
Macy's did something very clever this year. A few of their Christmas windows feature vintage photos from the fifties that stir up lots of old feelings and memories. The best window is the one that shows an old photograph of the kiddy monorail in Santa Land at the old Meier & Frank department store. It is a dead-ringer for the kiddy monorail I grew up with in Philadelphia at the Wanamakers department store. Of course I was terrified to ride the monorail, as I was certain it would fall off the ceiling with all the kiddies in it. I couldn't imagine what held it up. I was at the same time however, envious and in wonderment of the boys and girls inside that screamed with delight.
A real missed opportunity. I will never know what it felt like to be in one of those things. These kiddy monorails were built in Iowa by the Louden Machinery Company, who apparently built about 26 of these trains for department stores throughout the country.
Macy's, which n
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posted at 10:10 AM
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Dec 16,2008
In Other Words Books: An Endangered Species
by NoPo Ness
We all know that our country is going through the worst economic recession in years. If you're not feeling it in your own bottom line, you're certainly hearing about it daily- from friends, family and the media. You're also seeing some of your favorite businesses and restaurants around town closing (see the growing goodbye and closure posts here on this site.) And while we all may be focusing on how to keep the most money in our own pockets (especially in the holiday season) let's not forget the many worthwhile causes, businesses and the people who take the personal financial risk to bring us some of the favorite things in our neighborhoods. Earlier this week, I was notified that one of our most beloved bookstores and a great feminist resource is in dire straits. In Other Words Books , the last non-profit feminist bookstore in the country, will soon be closing unless they receive the $11,000 in needed donations before the end of the year. I (like many of you) have spent countl
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posted at 10:29 AM
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