(I’m bumping this up for the weekend—we start paring down our list on Monday, so speak up ASAP!)

The Mercury’s Holiday Charity Auction is just around the corner, which means it’s time to pick this year’s lucky charity recipient—and we want your input!

Tell us about the great non profits in town that could use a whole big pile of cash—last year, it was $11,000, from readers who ponied up for auction goods like an autographed bass guitar from Storm Large, and a ride on the tram with Sam Adams.

Our criteria is simple: We’ll choose a charity that’s relatively little known, underfunded, and doing great work in Portland. In other words, we want to hand a ginormous pile of cash to a non-profit where it will make a big difference.

Previous recipients have included JOIN, Resolutions Northwest, and the Portland Relief Nursery.

We start researching charities next week. If there’s a group that should be on our list of potentials, leave a note in the comments, or email me.

Some thoughts on a few of the shows running this weekend:

Third Rail Repertory, Grace
Third Rail produces yet another Craig Wright script, this one about a young evangelical couple who move from Minnesota to Florida and get involved in a shady hotel management scheme. I think I’m in the minority on this one, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with the script. Wright’s handling of faith/religion seemed heavy handed and simplistic—I kept picturing the playwright drawing a chart indicating that “this character represents blind faith, this one represents nihilism”—and because the characters were so obviously symbols being manipulated to show a kind of “faith spectrum,” I had a hard time investing in their circumstances.The show, however, is technically amazing, and worth seeing on that basis alone. You rarely see lighting and sound used to better effect in this town than in a Third Rail show, and the actors do a great job with their material.
Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate, 235-1101. thirdrailrep.org. $15-24. Thurs-Sat, 8 pm and Sun, 2 pm. Through Oct 27.

Portland Center Stage, Cabaret
Again, I seem to be the only one in town drinking the haterade. I thought Cabaret was all right; it should've been better. The moral of this story seems to be that the Holocaust was terrible and sad. Right, check, I was hoping for a little bit more. Storm Large does a damn good Liza impression, and I like Wade McCollum best when he's being creepy and pervy, but some of the other principles were pretty snoozy. The show has been extended through Nov. 11,
Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th. $15-62. Tues-Sun, 7:30 pm, Sun, 2 pm and Thurs, noon. Through Nov 4.

Imago, Double Feature
I'm looking forward to seeing Double Feature this weekend, two one-acts written by Imago's Jerry Mouawad, who claims inspiration from the likes of Pinter, Beckett, and Philip k Dick. Jerry has kept us press folks up to date on his progress writing and directing the shows, here are a few of his thoughts:

'Serial Killer Parents' In the dress/preview performances we have been receiving good responses. Its been a fun mix of vaudeville and strange existentialism. Magic and cheap jokes mixed some profundity thrown in here and there. Working with Carol after so many years is like riding a bike. Our timing and movement sometimes click into place like an veteran comedy team. Even though the magic tricks were simple, they were difficult to arrange.

"The Father-thing' Snip, snip, snip. This piece has been on the cutting room floor. Since last Saturday I've cut 20 minutes and today I will cut some more. It's revealing how redundant my writing turned out to be. Couldn't really see that until it had a run-through. I'm adding lines here and there, changing endings here and there - you be the judge. It's an unusual piece - neither sci-fi, or dance, or movement theatre - somewhere on that tangent.

$18-22. Fri-Sat 8 pm. Through Oct 24.

Profile Theatre, Six Degrees of Separation
I absolutely love that Profile Theater tackles the work of a different playwright each season. It feels very grounded to me, learning about a playwright and their life, getting a sense of history and context. This season, it's the John Guare catalogue. First up, Six Degrees of Separation, about a young man who claims to be the son of Sydney Poitier.
$20-28. Thurs-Sat, 8 pm and Sun, 2 pm. Through Nov 11.

Finally, an encyclopedic collection of every douchebag in Hollywood—set to a super catchy beat! Watch it once… then sing along!

Welcome to “Consider Yourself Informed,” a new weekly blog column devoted to society’s most nagging questions—and their answers. This week’s question:

“WHO, EXACTLY, IS HANNAH MONTANA?”

You’ve been hearing a lot about her lately in the news—primarily that ticket prices to her concerts have shot up to the $700 + range. But what is her deal, anyway? As a TV columnist I get this question put to me at least three times a week, and so I’ve put together the following factoid sheet (with video evidence, of course). Now, the next time someone asks you at a party, “What’s up with Hannah Montana, anyway?” You can… CONSIDER YOURSELF INFORMED.

This is “Hannah Montana,” real name Miley Cyrus. Her dad is former C&W one-hit wonder Billy Ray “Achey-Breaky Heart” Cyrus. Hannah Montana is a show on the Disney channel, starring Miley and her real dad… playing her TV dad. Miley’s character is Miley Stewart who leads a double life as famous pop singer Hannah Montana, while also secretly pretending to be an anonymous normal girl in Malibu, California. (What? They don’t have access to TV or the internet in Malibu?). Anyway, Miley’s double life leads to a weekly series of big-time misadventures, as well as garden variety hormonal problems experienced by teenagers of every icky stripe.
For reasons known only to the pubescent set, Hannah Montana is WILDLY popular, eclipsed only by the teenybopper juggernaut known as High School Musical (which I can also attempt to explain, if there is enough interest). Anyway, “Hannah” currently has four CDs out, as well as a handful of DVDs and videogames. And as mentioned previously, her concerts are being instantly sold out, with prices skyrocketing into the hundreds.

SO WHAT’S HER SHOW LIKE?

Glad you asked. Hannah Montana is a fascinating blend of community theater artistry, classic slapstick, and teenagers screaming at each other as if they were all students at Malibu’s High School for the Deaf. Here’s a clip. Hannah is the one with the (brrrrr) teeth.

Actually, I can kind of see the attraction, from a meth-y perspective. That’s Hannah Montana. CONSIDER YOURSELF INFORMED!!

Originally from Philadelphia, Matt Pond PA now calls New York home (Matt Pond NY?), that is, when Pond and company aren’t making the rounds in a tour van. It’s hard to say if his latest, Last Light, is any better than its predecessors, since (much like John Vanderslice) Pond has a knack for churning out effortless pop albums on a yearly basis, all of which are pretty great.

He even likes to share the singing duties…

MP3:
Matt Pond PA and Neko Case - Taught To Look Away

Matt Pond PA performs at the Doug Fir tonight.

Here at the Mercury there’s an informal ban on poetry, but I’m going on record to say that poetry has never seemed so, well, cool before.

Last night I braved the crack heads under the Burnside Bridge to get to the Ohm Night Club for Harlem Nights. Backed up by the freestylin’ jazz group, the Black Notes, performers brandished fast-moving poetry at this newly re-vamped slam poetry event.

What really attracted my attention was the ambiance of cool—the clustered tables in a brick-wall basement setting, the jazz, the caliber of the slam poetry, which is at least half performance art.

You never know what these crazy cats are going to have up their sleeve—maybe a tap dancer will accompany their poem, or maybe a poet will break into soul just because she felt like it. Of course, you do see the occasional scrawny git who wants to expound on some better-off-private sexual fantasy.

If you’re looking for something fresh, Harlem Nights is held every Thursday at the Ohm Night Club at 9 p.m.

-Jennifer Furniss

Damn. So every once in a while something cool sneaks under my radar. I try to keep on top of all the film stuff that happens in Portland, but every once in a while, something sneaks by. I have no excuse other than my chronic ineptitude and my near-total lack of reading skills. Also I am easily distracted, usually by candy.

ANYWAY. The whole radar sneakage thing is just what happened with a screening that’s happening tonight. The 2007 Electronic Theater is “a film and video extravaganza” showing off a bunch of computer graphics and special effects shots. It’s put on by SIGGRAPH and sounds promising. (A bunch of these presentations sound cool, and one of them is “Lifted,” the excellent Pixar short by Gary Rydstrom that we’ve previously blogged about right here.)

It happens tonight at PCC, and if you want to attend you’ll need to RSVP via email. (Annoying!) But at $5 and with 34 carefully chosen shorts, it seems like it could be worth the hassle. Here’s the first bit of the press release. Hit the jump for the rest of it.

Cascade SIGGRAPH Hosts Screening of the 2007 Electronic Theater in Portland

Exclusive Reprise of the Best Computer Graphics Shorts from Around the World

Portland, Ore. — Sept. 27, 2007 — Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH, Oregon and Southwest Washington’s local SIGGRAPH chapter, has announced that it will host a special screening of the 2007 Electronic Theater, a film and video extravaganza featuring incredible technical imagery on Friday, Oct.12, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. at Portland Community College, in the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building Auditorium, Portland, Ore. Shown each year during SIGGRAPH, an international conference of computer graphics and interactive techniques, the Electronic Theater is a highly-acclaimed showcase of the best computer graphics and special effects shorts from around the world, offering insight on future trends in films and commercials.

The 2007 Electronic Theater collection was curated by one of the founding fathers of High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDRI), Paul Debevec. This year’s collection contains 34 shorts selected from over 900 submissions. Winners were chosen for their extremely high standards of creativity and technical excellence. With show categories ranging from animation to research, this year's Computer Animation Festival submissions originate from countries across the globe including France, Germany, Japan, Poland, South Korea, Switzerland, the U.K. and New Zealand.

The 2007 Electronic Theater includes the following productions:

1. 300's Liquid Battlefield - SCANLINE VFX (Germany)

2. Ark - Marcin Kobylecki, Grzegorz Jonkajtys, Producers (Poland)

3. Burning Safari - Gobelins, l'école de l'image (France)

4. Capturing and Animating Skin Deformation - Carnegie Mellon University (USA)

5. Children of Men - Framestore CFC (United Kingdowm)

6. Dreammaker (Trailer) - Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (Germany)

7. En Tus Brazos - Supinfocom Valenciennes (France)

8. equilibrio - New York University (USA)

9. Formation of a Spiral Galaxy - National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Japan)

10. Game Technology 2007 - Playable Universal Capture 2007 Reel, Electronic Arts

11. A Gentlemen's Duel - Blur Studio (USA)

12. Happiness Factory - PSYOP, Inc. (USA)

13. High Fashion in Equations - MIRALab, University of Geneva (Switzerland)

14. HP Hands "Paulo Coelho" - Motion Theory (USA)

15. Industrial Light & Magic 2007 - Industrial Light & Magic (USA)

16. The Itch - Bournemouth University (United Kingdom)

17. Lifted - Pixar Animation Studios (USA)

18. No Time For Nuts – Blue Sky Studios (USA)

19. NVIDIA Real-Time Graphics Research: The GeForce 8 Demo Suite – NVIDIA Corporation (USA)

20. Opening and Title Animations - florianwitzel.com (USA)

21. Portal - Valve Corporation (USA)

22. Raymond - The Mill (United Kingdom)

23. The Recent Future Robot: HELPER Z Katsuyuki Suzuki (Japan)

24. Sears Tools "Arboretum" - Method Studios (USA)

25. SIGGRAPH 2007 Papers Preview - Microsoft Research (USA)

26. Spider-Man 3: VFX Highlights - Sony Pictures Imageworks (USA)

27. STORM - Digital Domain, Inc. (USA)

28. Surf's Up: A Practical Guide to Making Waves - Sony Pictures Imageworks (USA)

29. swirl - Lee Griggs (United Kingdom)

30. Travelers: Snowball - Weta Digital Ltd. (New Zealand)

31. U2 and Green Day "The Saints Are Coming" - SWAY studio (USA)

32. A VFX Journey Through Pan's Labyrinth With CafeFX - CafeFX, Inc. (USA)

33. Vigorsol: The Legend - The Moving Picture Company (United Kingdom)

34. World Trade Center - Double Negative (United Kingdom)

Location and Registration

The SIGGRAPH 2007 Electronic Theater screening will take place on Friday, Oct. 12, 2007 at the PCC Cascade Campus, in the Moriarty Arts and Humanities Building Auditorium (room 104), located at 705 N. Killingsworth Street, Portland, Ore. Directions and a map can be found on the web at http://www.pcc.edu/pcc/dma/cascademap.htm. Social hour will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the lobby, with the screening starting at 6:30 p.m.

Attendees are requested to RSVP via email to cascadesiggraph@gmail.com. Free parking passes will be available only to respondents that RSVP and request a parking pass by noon, Oct. 11, 2007.

This and other Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH meetings are free to Cascade SIGGRAPH chapter members. Nonmembers will need to pay a $5 admissions fee at the door. New members who sign up on site and pay the $35 annual membership fee do not have to pay the $5. Sorry, checks or cash only; no credit cards accepted. For more information on Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH and membership registration, visit the Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH website at www.cascadesiggraph.org.

Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH

The Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH chapter exists to serve the needs of the Oregon and Southwest Washington computer graphics industry and students. Through meetings, workshops, conferences, and other activities, the Cascade ACM SIGGRAPH chapter works to promote an increased knowledge of and greater interest in the educational, artistic, and scientific aspects and applications of modern technology to graphics, enhancing communication between persons in Oregon and Southwest Washington that have an interest in any aspect of computer graphics.

I suggest you get your thesaurus out, Wilson, and use a different phrase in paragraph two. If you want to be accurate, I mean.

Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein has submitted a formal declaration in support of the motion to intervene lodged yesterday in Federal Court, aimed at pushing the City to release information relating to the Chasse case. I’ve attached the motion to intervene here and here as not one, but two pdf documents, and Maxine’s declaration here if you’re interested in downloading them.

Bernstein writes that the Portland Police Bureau has repeatedly tried to evade her attempts to get access to information about its officers under public records law—until the Oregonian hires an attorney to fight for the access, and usually wins.

Bernstein writes in her declaration that she frequently submits public records requests to the Portland Police Bureau regarding 1.Internal Affairs Department investigations into high-profile fatalities involving officers, 2.Discipline information and documents about officers, 3.After Action and Review documents about officers, 4. Independent Police Review documents—but that the PPB often tries to claim such records are “exempt from disclosure.”

However, whenever the Oregonian has followed the statutory procedures set out in ORS 192.310 to challenge the PPB’s claim of exemption in such cases, the paper has almost always been successful, according to Bernstein.

We have a lawyer here at the Merc, but I’ve always just assumed the bureau had the voice of God when it said a record was exempt—they enforce the law, after all. Now I’m going to be calling our attorney next time I hear a “no,” so thanks to Maxine for pointing all of us in the right direction.

The cyclist killed yesterday was Tracey Sparling, a 19-year-old student at PNCA who worked at Saint Cupcake, according to commenters on BikePortland.org, and the PDX Design Company, which has a memorial to her on their site.

There’s a memorial ride planned for tonight. Meet at the west side of the Burnside Bridge at 6 pm.

What happens when a county official refuses to comment on an over-budget juvenile detention center? He takes the creepy opportunity to repeatedly tell a pushy reporter how much Jesus loves him. If I lived in this city? I’d vote this nutbag into the insane asylum.
SERIOUSLY. THIS JESUS FREAK IS NUTS.

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig—even his homegrown potato recipes are filthy.

From some weird “Congress Cooks” list:

The Honorable Larry E. Craig

United States Senator, Idaho

Specialty Recipe

Super Tuber

Super Tuber is a great snack that uses one of my favorite vegetables: The Idaho Potato. Of course, I suppose any type of potato could be used, but I cannot guarantee that a Super Tuber made with anything but a true Idaho potato would taste as good. Sincerely, Larry E. Craig, United States Senator

Ingredients
1 hot dog, cook’s choice
1 Idaho baking potato, 7 to 10 ounces
Mustard for dipping, any style
Other condiments as desired such as cheese sauce, sour cream, chili, chives, bacon pieces or black olives.

Wash and dry potato. Rub with shortening or butter. With an apple corer or small knife, core out the potato center (end to end). Push hot dog through the center. Bake until potato is cooked through.

To Microwave: Place on microwave safe plate; cover loosely (to avoid splatters). Microwave on high about 4 minutes per potato until fork tender.

To Bake in Conventional Oven: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Bake for approximately one hour or until potato is fork tender.

To Barbecue: Wrap in aluminum foil and place above medium hot coals, turning at least once during cooking. Cook until potato is fork tender.

Serving Suggestions: Allow potato to cool slightly. Eat as a finger food, dipping in your favorite hot dog condiments (mustard is my favorite).

Before you start thinking anything, Larry Craig is NOT GAY. Got it? NOT GAY.

Thanks to Alison (who saw it at GuiltyCarnivore) for the tip, and apologies if Craig’s super tuber is old news.

I just got word that the second anti-gay petition—which would have put the new non-discrimination law on next fall’s ballot—fell short of the 55,179 valid signatures needed.

The number I’m hearing (I’m waiting on official confirmation from the Secretary of State’s office) is 53,875, or 1,304 short. That’s a healthy margin, so hopefully Restore America’s David Crowe won’t be blathering on about conspiracies in the Elections Division, like he is over the 116 signature margin by which the first petition failed.

So that’s it—the referendum effort is over, and both laws go into effect on January 1. Same sex couples can sign up for domestic partnerships with all of the state rights and responsiblities of marriage, and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is barred statewide.

But Crowe’s group is exploring a repeal effort, which would mean signature gathering would start up again soon, and go through early next summer. I’ll keep you posted!

UPDATE: Yep, 53, 875 signatures, which is a 90.15 percent validity rate. From the Elections Division…

ELECTIONS DIVISION ANNOUNCES FINAL REFERENDUM SIGNATURE VERIFICATION RESULTS FOR #304

SALEM – Today the Elections Division of the Secretary of States Office announced verification of signatures for referendum petition #304 submitted for the November 4, 2008 General Election ballot has been completed.

The result of the signature verification is referendum #304 did not contain enough valid signatures to qualify to the ballot. Referendum #304 was filed on SB 2 passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature.

This proposed referendum required 55,179 valid signatures to gain ballot access. The referendum contains 53,875 valid signatures, or 90.15% of the 59,761 total unverified signatures submitted for verification.

A picture of Portland Police Bureau Officer Christopher Humphreys they could email me? Chris, you’re welcome to do it yourself if you like. It’s mdavis@portlandmercury.com.

On tour to support his new DVD Circle of Friends (Doug Fir, Sunday Oct. 14), the legendary BOB MOULD of Hüsker Dü and Sugar fame conducted an interview with Matt Slessler of Pure Pod For Now People. The pair discuss Pro Wrestling, YouTube, and a little music. Welcome to a very special (and the 40th) episode of PURE POD FOR NOW PEOPLE! Link.

The UN climate change panel won the Nobel Peace Prize, and, oh yeah, so did Al Gore. Needless to say, Republicans were lining up to congratulate him.

A state agency says it may have evidence showing Multnomah County Sheriff Bernie Giusto lied about important public matters, including the sexual abuse of a teenage girl.

Soon, students might not only need to fear their fellow psycho gun-wielding students—but also psycho gun-wielding teachers. The Medford teacher who wants to carry a gun in school appeared in court yesterday to argue her case. Wow, I can think of some high school teachers I would never, ever in a million years want armed.

A lawsuit has been brought against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, accusing the agency of injecting several detainees with psychotropic drugs while deporting them out of the country.

Condoleezza Rice failed! And so do the U.S.-Russian missile defense talks. For some reason, Russia does not want the U.S. to park missiles right across their border—they must be forgetting the last 100 years of glorious peace that has characterized our two countries’ relationship.

Juno looks promising, as it’s directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You for Smoking) and features the guy from Teen Wolf Too, that one lady who was in Alias, Dwight Schrute, Michael Cera in a headband… STOP RIGHT THERE!

Michael Cera in a headband?
That is all I need to hear.

So following the semi-interesting news that Eric Bana (Munich) will be playing the bad guy in the new Star Trek movie, shit just got genuinely interesting. (Well, it did if you’re a huge fucking nerd. Which I am. And I’ll assume you are too, considering you saw that headline and continued reading.)

Okay, so: Simon Pegg—he of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz—has just been cast as Scotty, while John Cho (yep, Harold from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle) has nabbed the role of Sulu. They join Bana, Heroes’ Zachary Quinto as Spock, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as Chekov, and Leonard Nimoy as… uh, Spock. Again. Also. As well. The full story from (where else?) the Sci Fi Wire is here.

Man, Simon Pegg as Scotty is just flat-out awesome. The dude’s excellent in everything I’ve seen him in (esp. Shaun and Fuzz), and I think he’ll be a really great Scotty—smart and witty and trustworthy. Also, I’m looking forward to hearing him shout about how he canna do something. I hope it’s something important that he canna do, and I hope he does na ha enough time to do it, and I’ll bet you a billion dollars he does it anyway. This is because in the future, Scottish spaceship engineers will have magical, wizard-like powers. They will steal them from the Irish leprechauns in the surprisingly brutal Adorable Accents of the United Kingdom Wars of 2087.

And I really like the John Cho casting, too. George Takei’s Sulu was always the weakest link in the original series’ cast (well, maybe Uhura was weaker), and somebody as likeable and earnest as Cho will go a long way in making the character stand out. Esp. if, like Takei had to do in that one amazing episode, Sulu does the thing where he gets the crazy-making disease that’s transmitted by SWEAT and he tears off his shirt and runs around with a fencing foil trying to kill everyone and basically acting super, super gay. Looking back, that’s probably the best scene that’s ever been on television. Also looking back, anyone who was surprised that Takei turned out to be super, super gay is an idiot.

Maybe most importantly, both of these casting choices just seem really sharp. They fit, but I don’t think they were what anybody was expecting. That’s kind of how I felt about the whole Star Trek project when I heard J.J. Abrams was going to be in charge of it, but so far the casting (w/ the exception of Nimoy, maybe) hasn’t really been that intriguing. But these two choices make me pretty curious about what might be happening here.

At this point, the only big casting question marks that remain are Kirk and Bones. I always thought Matt Damon would be a great Kirk, but with how the casting seems to be going, Damon’s probably too old for this crew of the Enterprise (GO BACK TO DRINKING YOUR PRUNE JUICE OLD MAN), and I have no idea who could play Bones, aside from the Mercury’s bearded newsman, Scott Moore. (Alas, I recall that Moore, while trimming his lustrous, mighty beard one summer afternoon, told me that no matter what “them liberal L.A. fat cats” paid him, he “wouldn’t never go to no Hollywood, no way no how.”) Anybody got any other ideas who they should cast? I guess we’ll find out who’s playing them soon enough; Star Trek starts shooting next month, for a Christmas Day 2008 release.

Last night, the Kenton Neighborhood Association’s board wrote a new letter to the city, pulling their previous support for the effort to rename Interstate Avenue for César E. Chávez, and going neutral.

As you might recall, several neighbors in Kenton were ticked off when they found out that the board had written a letter of support for the proposal, without consulting the neighborhood (as the boards in Overlook and Arbor Lodge did, resulting in two meetings where the proposal was soundly rejected). The board president pointed out that they’d written a letter only offering the board’s support—they weren’t claiming to represent the neighborhood.

At last night’s meeting, neighbors showed up to protest. One resident reports:

The KNA meeting was very heated and the board members kept saying that they were a separate entity from the actual neighborhood and that they don’t have to reflect the neighborhood members. Several of us, holding copies of the association bylaws, begged to differ.

So the board wrote a new letter, which went out today:

This just in from Uncool Kids…
The awesome Buffy musical of Once More with Feeling has been shut down due to vampires (AKA the accountants at Fox).
From the OMWF musical coordinator:

I don’t yet have an official written statement as to why exactly this has happened, but from my understanding the circumstance around the suspension of the rights for our screenings isn’t greed or anything like that—so please don’t use this as an excuse to lash out at Fox. Basically, the idea of presenting television shows in a theatre is so new that there are a lot of details that still need to be resolved around payments of residuals, deals with the guilds and unions, etc. (I don’t know any specifics, but these are some of the issues that usually come up). Both Fox and Criterion need to fix some of these issues before they can continue to do any theatrical screenings.

Sign the petition to get it back on track!
And what does this mean (if anything) for Mission Theater’s screenings of Angel?

Ugh.

Be careful out there.

The Nobel Prize in Literature was announced today; a lot of people are pissed that Philip Roth was passed over once again, which seems like a legitimate gripe. British author Doris Lessing won instead, which is alright with me, based solely on this interview blurb following her 1997 memoir, Walking in the Shade:

Were you surprised at the criticism you received after writing, in your first [memoir], about leaving the kids from your first marriage behind you?

Of course I wasn’t surprised. The thing was that this was a terrible thing to do, but I had to do it because I have no doubt whatsoever if I had not done it, I would have become an alcoholic or ended in the loony bin. I couldn’t stand that life. I just couldn’t bear it. It’s this business of giving all the time, day and night, trying to conform to something you hate. Nobody can do it without going crazy.

I hear you Doris. (On another Nobel-related note, last year’s winner, Orhan Pamuk, will be at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall next Tuesday, Oct 16.

The National Book Award shortlist was announced today, and after seeing Miranda July on nearly every other major lit award list this year, I was kind of shocked not to see her on the list.

FICTION
Mischa Berlinski, Fieldwork
Lydia Davis, Varieties of Disturbance
Joshua Ferris, Then We Came to the End
Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke
Jim Shepard, Like You’d Understand, Anyway

NONFICTION
Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying
Christopher Hitchens, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
Arnold Rampersad, Ralph Ellison: A Biography
Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

I started reading the Denis Johnson book on vacation last week, and it’s pretty incredible. (Jim Shepard is a great writer, too; he’ll be in town in January, I believe.) But if I had to place bets on this one, I’d have to predict Johnson and Danticat in the end. The lingering effects of violence is a hard theme to beat in ‘07, and both are seriously skilled crafts(wo)men.

It just dawned on me—if Portland bans dumpsters from city sidewalks, where will babies come from?

Hot damn! We’ve got some free passes to give away to the Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival.

We’ve got a few one-use passes that’ll let you into any of the festival’s screenings (except Brand Upon the Brain!). These are good for the length of the fest (October 12-21).

We’ve also got a few passes for the opening night gala, which is tomorrow night, and starts with a screening at the Hollywood Theatre of The Curiosity of Chance, with director Russell P. Marleau and star Brett Chukerman in attendance. That one also will get you into the “opening night gala celebration,” which follows the Curiosity screening and is happening downtown at two places: The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel and the Living Room Theaters.

How do you get these fantastic golden tickets, you ask? It’s easy! Just come by the Mercury offices (605 NE 21st, Suite 200), walk up to our front desk, and give our friendly office manager, Brad, a hug. He’ll hook you up with a pass of your choosing. First hug first serve.

More info on the fest can be had here.

Like a young/relevant Elton John, the music of Patrick Wolf is never short of dramatic flair and decadent pop melodies. Who knows if he’ll stand the test of time, but it’s hard to deny the sugary hooks and boyish theatrics of The Magic Position.

Patrick Wolf performs at the Hawthorne Theatre tonight.

I’m kind of embarassed to admit that this sounds really delicious to me.

From the inbox:

Greetings from California! In your recent article regarding “Donut or Bagel” [“Foods Fight!,” Oct. 4]- bagels got the nod in part because of the lack of of donut sandwiches.

Well - here’s info regarding a Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger that might sway you back towards donuts. Or - maybe not. If I were in attendance at a Grizzlies game, I’d still opt for the more traditional rats feet/chicken lips hot dog on a boring bun….

Take care,
Miles Brandon
Baseball Fan/Part-Time Vegetarian/Oregon native

May 12, 2006 - The Grizzlies and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts have teamed up to create “Baseball’s Best Burger.” The burger, which was debuted at the Grizzlies' December 10th sale, consists of a thick and juicy burger topped with sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon. The burger is then placed in between each side of a Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut.

Grizzlies general manager Tony Funderburg got the idea after reading about the "Luther Burger" served at Mulligan's, a restaurant near Atlanta.

The Grizzlies have added a unique concession item each of the least two seasons. In 2004 “Baseball’s Best Hotdog” hit GCS Ballpark. It consists of a 1/5 pound Farmland 8 inch All Beef Black Angus Hot Dog, topped with two strips of freshly cooked bacon, 1 oz. Sautéed Onions, 1 oz. Sautéed Sauerkraut and ½ oz. Cheddar Cheese Sauce, all on a fresh baked bun. In 2005, the “Swiss Brat” was introduced. The “Swiss Brat” is made from a Landshire Bratwurst with a slice of Swiss cheese in the middle of it. 1oz. of Sautéed Sauerkraut is served on top.

“We have had the opportunity to bring in a new concession item for the past two seasons and each of them have been very successful. We look forward to Baseball’s Best Burger and the excitement it will bring to the ballpark,” said Grizzlies General Manager Tony Funderburg.

After taste-testing the creation, the Grizzlies sought the approval of Krispy Kreme for use of the name and doughnuts.

“We are excited to work with the Grizzlies this season on Baseball’s Best Burger,” said Tina Bryan, Vice President of Marketing for Sweet Traditions, the local area developer for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. “Our doughnuts have been used in such things as wedding cakes, bread pudding, fondue, and now a hamburger bun. What a fun and unique way to offer our signature Original Glazed doughnut to Grizzlies fans.”

Ever heard of Goboz.com? I hadn’t until today, but we might be seeing more of the site—it’s a local outfit that’s trying to take on the likes of CitySearch.

The Urban Dictionary defines the word “Goboz” as “kick ass” or “da bomb”. We at Goboz.com define it as the best local site in town!

Whether searching for a new salon or a hot new restaurant to try, you’ll find it on Goboz.com. A simple voting system allows you to instantly know what business is hot and what is not, while customer comments give you more detail.

What makes Goboz.com different than the other local search sites you’ve used? Well for starters, anyone can vote for a business…no registration required! Have a favorite coffee shop? Submit it to Goboz.com and it shows up instantly on the homepage for others to vote on! Finally, listings have all the information you’ll need, like integrated maps and deals/discounts, without having to click through to other sites. But if you need more info, the business’s web site is linked right there for easy access!

What else makes Goboz different? They’re apparently lifting original content from other Portland blogs and websites, and posting it in a way that makes it look like their own writers penned the reviews.

Like this review of Zibas Pitas, posted at Goboz (warning, their site is very, very slow):

It’s a reposting of Cuisine Bonne Femme’s review at her new site devoted to Portland’s Food Carts:

Yep, that’s the same review, and Cuisine Bonne Femme’s clearly went up first. Sure, GoBoz’s version has a generic link to foodcartsportland.com at the bottom, but when it says “Posted by jemima” at the top, it gives the appearance that “jemima” wrote it.

Cuisine Bonne Femme—who also writes and moderates at Portland Food and Drink—is not happy about Goboz’s use of her copyrighted work. In a terse email this morning, she demanded that Goboz remove her content ASAP:

I noticed that GoBoz has pretty much stolen and posted several reviews and listings from my site foodcartsportland.com verbatim without my permission, without linking to my site, or without crediting me as the author. I noticed that you have also stolen material from other blogs in a similar manner.

This is unacceptable and not very nice, and I would like to remind you and GoBoz that materials on foodcartsportland are under legal copyright protection.

What gives?

Jeremiah Kastner, CEO and Founder of Goboz, replied to Cuisine Bonne Femme’s letter (and I’m waiting for a call back from him).

I wanted to start off with apologizing for our BOT grabbing your Food cart listings. We are in the process of going through Goboz and removing them right now. I do want to say that we did have a link back to your site on every business profile and that we have no ads on our site . We never intended to profit from your hard work if anything we hoped to drive even more traffic to your site. Again I apologize and in the future we will make sure that we do not link to your site.If you have any questions please feel free to email me.

CBF says that Goboz is ripping off other sites, too, so I did a little digging. Sure enough, Goboz has taken content from the Mercury’s site. This review of Escape from New York Pizza is posted by “gobot,” but neglects to link to our listing, despite lifting the review, word for word. (And despite Kastner’s assertations that “every business profile” has a link.) The review for Nutshell looks like it came from VegPortland.com, Queen of Sheba’s from ethiopanrestaurant.com’s guide (ditto Jarra’s), The Jade Lounge from the Portland Tribune, etc, etc.

So, Kastner, what’s up?

More after the jump!

As readers in the comments have pointed out, Portland Food Carts lists a "Creative Commons" license, which allows material to be shared, if it's propertly attributed and not-for-profit.

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

CBF outlined her attribution guidelines in a further email to Jeremiah (who still hasn't responded to me).

I really do like the idea of your site (alas so much better in theory than CitySearch). However, the way you currently have it set up it comes across as pretty blatant plagairism and stealing. It might be a good idea to restructure your site and here are some suggestions: 1. At the top of each post clearly and boldly state the original author and source (Such as PROVIDED BY FOODCARTSPORTLAND.COM , Cuisine Bonne Femme, Author. You should also put a direct link to that source in a more prominent location. 2. Only post the first line or two of the original post and then have a "read more" link that takes the reader to the original source. 3. Rather than list "posted by KittyKat, Jemima, etc" at the top of the post, move it to the bottom and say "linked by" because the way it is structured right now makes it look like KittyKat, Jemima (hey that's you!) are the actual authors, and well, in most cases as I found out, you are not.

Jeremiah's response to her:

I agree we may need to reevaluate how the listings are posted . Our main goal for Portland has always been as we get bigger the sites that have reviews etc on Goboz get pulled up in more prominence . Kindof a win / win situation for all of us. I am going to sit down with our team later tonight and go over your concerns and ideas that you listed below.

And, back to CBF:

You certainly need to not only reevaluate the way you post content, but more so, you need to fix it, pronto. But explain something to that I find very troublesome in your below response. How exactly is having one's content lifted word for word and posted in full on another site without the author being credited, or by only being given a teeny-tiny link at the bottom of the post, and sometimes not linked to at all a win-win for everyone? That's only a win-win for you.You get free full free content without having to get permission or having to spend the time researching, writing, or paying for the expenses that go into it (including paying writers). It builds up content for your site, starts building search engine crawls towards your site that bring in readers, but really does nothing at all for me except steal the above away from the rightful owner.

In addition, whoops, you forgot about the whole legal thing of potential copyright infringement.

Here’s a new promo for The Crime Channel, which features a magical land where Gali the Alligator… well, let’s just say he could be nicer.

A conglomerate of Portland Media including the Oregonian and Willamette Week, the Tribune and all our local TV stations has hired an attorney, Duane Bosworth, of the international law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, to argue that Federal Court should force the City of Portland to release information publicly about the disciplinary records of the Portland Police Bureau Officers and Sheriff’s Deputy involved in the controversial death in custody of James Philip Chasse last September.

James Rice, Deputy City Attorney, and Carlo Calandriello and Susan Dunaway, attorneys for the County, and attorneys for American Medical Response, filed a claim earlier this year asking the court for a “protective order,” which would keep the officers’ disciplinary records secret from the public. On that condition, they would then be given to attorney Tom Steenson, who is litigating the Chasse case on behalf of the dead man’s family, but he would not then be able to disseminate them outside his office.

Yesterday, Bosworth, whose services are extremely expensive, filed a motion to intervene in the case, on behalf of the local media conglomerate—arguing that the disciplinary records of the officers are not only crucial to the Chasse family’s case against the city and county (Steenson is arguing that the bureau could have intervened earlier to discipline Officer Christopher Humphreys, who has the second-highest record of use of force in the police bureau)—but that the public, too, has a right to know about these things.

That motion will not be heard today, as it was filed so late yesterday evening, said Judge Dennis Hubel, presiding. But it will proceed later, and will have far-reaching implications for all Portlanders.

Bosworth, talking to an Oregonian reporter in the elevator after this morning’s hearing, who it felt like was semi-frantically gesturing, trying to get him to shut up, described Hubel’s statement about the timing of his motion to intervene, as “preposterous.”

READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP

Update, 5pm: What follows is pretty much everything that happened with regard to releasing information to the public about the Chasse case, at today's court hearing. There'll be a story in next week's paper that boils it all down, but since one of the major issues in today's arguments was "the public interest," I thought why not simply lay it all out for those of you who want to know, and let you read as closely as possible about what happened. It's loooong, but I was interested all the way through. So who knows, maybe you will be, too.

Original Post: If the city and county eventually win the right to keep the information secret, then Police Chief Rosie Sizer and Sheriff Bernie Giusto will continue to have their hands tied with regard to improving transparency in cases like this—unlikely to improve the community’s trust in the Police Bureau and Sheriff’s office.

This morning’s oral argument, in Courtroom 9B of the Federal Courthouse on SW 3rd, was just between Steenson and the city, county, and AMR—the ambulance firm which did not transport Chasse to hospital after his beating, but instead sent him with the officers to jail.

Regardless of whether he can eventually make it public, Steenson wants more information from the city as soon as possible.

That kind of information includes personnel and medical records for Officer Humphreys and Sergeant Nice, their phone records, information about whom they spoke to within hours of the incident, and so on. It also includes information about standard operating procedures and training procedures in the police bureau, both written and anecdotal.

“There won’t be a written policy saying ‘we’re not going to discipline officers based on what they do.’ But I believe there will be evidence that the city does not take the steps necessary to discipline or terminate officers in cases like these,” said Steenson, in his opening arguments.

“The word on the street if you’re a police officer is that essentially you can act with impunity,” he continued. “And in order to prove that claim, we have to have the various materials.”

Deputy City Attorney James Rice responded: “The protective order really is integral to what we’re talking about today. We’ve produced 5500 pages worth of information, and my legal assistant has worked hard with Mr.Steenson’s legal assistant. We have submitted a significant number of documents in this case. In a way it’s a man who creates a barrier, and then complains to the defendants about the barrier that exists.”

Steenson agreed, until the issue of any protective order can be resolved, to treat any documents released by the city as if they were under protective order.

“If the court were to issue a protective order, then everything else would fall like dominoes,” said Rice.

Judge Hubel said he’s not going to tell the court what his thoughts are on the protective order at this stage, but that he thinks there’s going to be some information subject to protective order, and some, not.

Among other things, Steenson is seeking disciplinary information from the police bureau for the last 25 years about the city’s handling of deaths in custody.

“We absolutely need that kind of discovery in order to proceed with proving the claim we are making against the city,” he said.

Steenson also wants details of the cops’ Internal Affairs investigation into Chasse’s death. That includes the decision of the Bureau’s performance review board, its use of force review board, the officers’ disciplinary records, and whether or not they were identified by the Bureau’s “early warning system.”

“All of those types of processes are identified in the Police Bureau’s directives as part of its management system, and we have received none of that information,” said Steenson. “They should be produced, and should certainly not go under any protective order.”

The city tried to argue that it shouldn’t release the information until the internal affairs investigation is complete, although it could not give a date when that will be.

“Why should Mr.Steenson have to wait until it’s over to start his investigation, when everything is stale?” asked Judge Hubel. “We’re not going to wait until they’re done. You’ll supply them now. And as things come into your possession, at some reasonable frequency,” [the city will have to give them over.]

Hubel also ordered the City Attorney to get information from the Police Bureau’s training division on its standard operating procedures, within ten days. Rice implied that the training division has not been forthcoming with information, “because it is focused on its primary task” of training police officers.

Hubel told the City Attorney to tell the training division they need to get him the information, or tell him how much effort is going to be required to get it, within 10 days—or else they’ll see him in court.

Steenson also wants to see any complaints relating to the officers named in the case. “We do think we are entitled to performance and misconduct type complaints,” he said.

The City Attorney is happy to produce those documents under protective order, which Steenson agreed to, until that issue can be worked out.

Steenson also asked for Officer Humphreys’ career-long 2400 arrest reports, saying his office “has evidence,” it believes, that Humphreys has a “history or pattern of falsifying police reports.”

The City Attorney said that would be time-intensive, adding that “this sort of gill-netting operation” would be very expensive.

Judge Hubel ordered the production only of Humphreys’ reports as they relate to tort claims filed against the city, and for the City Attorney’s office to find out if there’s a way to link Humphreys’ alleged falsification of reports to use of force, prior to the introduction of use of force reports, which happened relatively recently in the bureau's history.

Then they broke for lunch. They pick back up at 1.15pm, when Judge Hubel hopes the details of a protective order will be thrashed out.

Update, 3pm: Between 1.15 and 2:45, Judge Hubel ordered more information to be released:

1.All the city’s information on Crisis Intervention Training, except where it includes information about psychological issues as they relate to individuals—which will be redacted.

2.The City Attorney’s office must also now work with the Police Bureau, Independent Police Review, and PARC—the California-based agency which has produced three reports on officer-involved shootings, and has another one due out next year—to produce as much source-information as possible upon which the 4 PARC reports are based. The Chief of Police will also communicate with all her officers, asking them to come forward with any documents they may have had returned to them by Parc over the last few years.

3.The city must also release documents it has already released in another case—the Price case, which is currently under appeal at the 9th circuit court of appeal, which describe what the police bureau has done, and is doing, to address use of force by police officers, back to the mid 1980s.

4.The city must produce all supporting documentation, which led to the production by the Police Bureau of its Spring 2007 use of force report.

Update, 4.30pm: The Judge in the Chasse case is going to think about whether or not to issue a protective order to keep information about the police officers involved in James Chasse’s death largely secret between the City Attorney’s office and that of Chasse’s attorney, Tom Steenson, before it goes to court.

“Whatever rights the public have to watching their court system in action, and I concede and agree that there are rights to that to take place, the primary purpose for the courts being here is to resolve the disputes between the litigants as far as possible,” said Judge Hubel, this afternoon. “The vast majority of the time, the public pay no attention to what we do here. In this case they have been, and I would expect them to continue to pay attention.”

Here’s Deputy City Attorney Jame’s Rice’s justification to keep the information under wraps: “The threat of harm to officers in this case is not theoretical. We’ve had officer Humphreys say in his affidavit that he’s been stopped by an armed person who had information about him.”

Judge Hubel asked if this was before or after the Chasse incident. It was actually beforehand, Rice said.

“He also works under cover—information about him jeopardizes him,” Rice continued. “We have the info that there’s an element in the community that goes around putting up posters of heavy-caliber Smith & Wesson pistols pointing at police. Why should an officer be jeopardized by discovery matters? We’re interested in it not getting out there, and in today’s world, placed on the Internet. It’s more than annoyance and embarrassment, it’s a level, truly, of oppression to the police officers.”

“Ultimately another of the issues in this city is having a fair trial,” Rice said. “It simply doesn’t lend itself to the defendant’s having a fair trial down the road later. Protective orders tend to morph. At the present time, I think we’ve laid out good cause reasons for the implementation of the protective order. For now, it seems to me, is that the proper thing to do is to accept that the court impose a protective order.”

Attorneys for the county and American Medical Response also said they wanted the information kept private.

Steenson, attorney for the Chasse family, responded: “Those IAD reports, all of that information, that type of information, that comprises the kind of information we’re talking about, relates to the operation of the Portland Police Bureau. And I believe that it’s a fair statement to make that historically, lawyers have not been as conscious about the public’s right to look at things as perhaps we should have over the years. I also think it’s fair to say there’s been sort of a shift, whether it’s because of more aggressive litigation over the issue, as to the recognition by the courts, to the judiciary being much more careful about what information ought to be kept away from the public.”

“The public interest here is probably off the chart. I don’t think that the generalized concerns the defendants have about the standard operating procedures are enough to outweigh the citizens’ concerns.”

Rice responded: “One of the things lawyers do have to be concerned about is not impeding a fair trial. And that’s going to be difficult once the media circus gets going. What we’re looking for is to have the jury be able to come into trial in an unbiased fashion. For purposes right now, if we’ve got good cause, let’s put the protective order in place, and move the litigation along. I don’t see why he has a say in this other than this ‘right of the public,’ which he is not representing when he makes this argument because it is going to be harder to have a fair trial.”

“I’m going to take the motion under advisement, for now,” said Judge Hubel—meaning he’s going to make a decision in a few days. “But I can’t ignore what is glaring in this case, and that is that discovery has been essentially going at a snail’s pace because of a dispute about the protective order. We would all be much further down the road if there had been some kind of protective order in place and some discovery could have happened.”

Portland is insanely lucky to have Cinema 21. It’s one of the best theaters in town—if not the best—and they show a ton of badass stuff. Continuing the trend: I just got word that the eagerly-anticipated Blade Runner: The Final Cut (which I blogged about a little while ago right here) will play at the theater for two weeks starting on Friday, October 26. Start getting excited right about… now.

I listened to Jose Romero of the Chávez committee on KBOO this morning. Hosts Dave Mazza and Jo Ann Bowman were clearly in favor of the rename, as were most of the callers. One caller did question the change, pointing out that Interstate and Union have their own identity. Bowman wasn’t buying it: “Just because when you show up it’s Union Avenue, means when you die it has to be Union Avenue,” she said. “Any street should be open for the community to decide they want to make a change.”

One thing I learned while listening this morning: The Chávez committee has a website! The site has info on Chávez, a link to the petition in favor of the rename (which now has 361 signatures), and a place to comment on the proposal. (I’m going to ignore the part where it calls on supporters to “contact your county commissioner.”)

Other news: Rick Seifert, a community activist and writer in SW Portland, has a suggestion to rename streets for “Justice, Dignity, Freedom and Peace” instead of leaders’ names. In his blog post, however, he’s got an even juicier tidbit:

I got a phone call the other day from one of the proponents of renaming Interstate Avenue for Cesar Chavez.

Apparently defeated in North Portland, the renamers were looking at Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway as a thoroughfare to honor Chavez.

Does that mean the committee is open to compromise? No word yet from city hall on that potential “third way” of honoring Chávez.

And finally, Lew Church of PSU’s Progressive Student Union not only wants Interstate renamed for Chávez, but he wants Portland State University renamed, too!

CESAR CHAVEZ UNIVERSITY

Dear Mercury — Amy Ruiz’s story (“The Interstate Solution,” Oct. 11) analyzes the current fight over renaming Interstate for labor leader Cesar Chavez in north Portland. At Portland State, PSU Progressive Student advocates that, in addition to renaming Interestate for the former UFW leader, PSU itself change the college’s name to Cesar Chavez University. After all, PSU became the 9th college in the U.S. to kick out Taco Bell from the cafeteria in the recent, nationally-successful Taco Bell Boycott organized by Florida farm workers, which resulted in the first pay raise for them in 20 years. Moreover, when some of us recently listened to Chavez cohort and UFW organizer Delores Huerta talk, in east LA, at the national conference of Students Against Sweatshops, Huerta noted that farm workers are among the most vital workers in the world, putting food on people’s tables, and yet, are among the world’s most vulnerable populations. As an undergrad many years ago, at Reed College, I heard Chavez himself talk, shortly before he died, when Cesar noted that labor rights are human rights, locally and globally. Perhaps the real questions is: Is Portland simply a city of Anglo yuppie wine consumers, or, a community where we honor the workers who harvest the grapes to start with?

Lew Church, Coordinator
PSU Progressive Student Union

Leave it to the man in the big suit to point out something about Khaela Maricich (aka The Blow) that has escaped me during the dozens of times I’ve seen her live—she’s totally like Ellen DeGeneres!

Byrne says many a nice thing (“What a great show!”) about Maricich in his blog—although he does spell her name wrong—and he brings up a solid point about her live show sharing a few elements with Ellen.

Jona Bechtolt reminds me of Howie Mandel! There, I said it!

Check out this hilarious (and much needed) blog solely devoted to comic book frames of men getting kicked in the nuts. Appropriately, it’s named “Nad Shot.”

Tips to Gorilla Mask!

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, that city’s considering adopting a sit-lie ordinance, and they’re looking at Portland as a model (!?!?).

Representatives from the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce and other business leaders are meeting with officials in Portland this weekend to see how their sit-lie ordinance is being administered.

Is sit-lie the answer? It might not be. But right now [in San Francisco] it is an idea in play, and it would be worth everyone’s time to sit down and discuss it without the rhetoric. Surely there is middle ground in here somewhere.

What compromise has meant in other cities is that the angry residents realize and admit that there is a need for homeless counseling and services. But it also means that homeless advocates have to accept that there has to be some kind of an enforcement ordinance that allows police to get people engaging in reprehensible behavior off the street.

Granted, that will take some doing. Right now, we’re still at the stage where we are yelling at each other. In Portland and Philadelphia, they remember that phase well.

“It was very contentious at first,” says Maria Rubio, public safety and security adviser for the Portland mayor’s office. “Everyone was just digging in their heels.”

A) Since when is sitting on the sidewalk reprehensible behavior? (We’ve already got laws that deal with actual problematic behavior.)

B) “Contentious at first” implies that the newly enacted sit-lie ordinance is now embraced by all. Um…quite the contrary. There have been enforcement issues, capacity issues at the temporary day center, restroom issues, and then there’s the whole little issue of the basic Sit/Lie law being an offensive, constitutionally-questionable piece of legislation.

(P.S.—Interestingly, the Chronicle seems to be doing their part to scare off the homeless. In a note at the bottom of their story, there’s a box about “Documenting the Problem,” asking readers for assistance in a disturbing little program: “Chronicle readers often write us about scenes on the street or vagrants camping out in front of their homes. If you see something you think would make a good photo, shoot it and send it to cwnevius@sfchronicle.com with your name and a line describing the location attached. We’ll post many of your photos on sfgate.com.”)

(Thanks to Scott S. for the tip!)

Who needs another Mercury Music section now that Kanye has teamed up with Michael Jackson? We’re all doomed.

If you have yet to check out the lovely Fur and Gold album from Bat for Lashes, do it soon. If you have yet to check out her video for “What’s A Girl To Do?”, then you better do that right away. Like, right now.
MP3: Bat for Lashes - Trophy

Film School decides to unbreak-up, hold it together, and keep releasing records. ‘Atta boy!
MP3: Film School - Lectric

If there is any artist that will usurp The Moz of his hugging crown, it’s Patrick Wolf. How can you not climb onstage and just hug the very life out of him? He’s dreamy, a bit naughty and unless the Hawthorne Theatre’s hired muscle gets in the way, my arms are going to wrap around him tonight.
MP3: Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

What? Another blog piece on Justice? Enough already!
MP3: Justice - Phantom

Dry your eyes… wait, nevermind. Keep crying. The Everybodyfields are a sad, sad, band.
MP3: The Everybodyfields - Lonely Anywhere

•Blackwater—the government’s mercenar… I mean, “security consultants”—are being sued for firing on Iraqi citizens.

•Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is now saying he was misquoted when he said there were no gays in his country… misquoted in front of 700 people.

•Multi-kazillionaire Sir Richard Branson jumped off the top of a Las Vegas casino. (Unfortunately, he only ripped his pants.)

• And finally, this month Radar magazine publishes a cover that will be forever burned upon your retinas.

This whole Cesar Chavez renaming debacle has actually got me interested in urban planning. I’ve started hiding out in the library in an effort to learn more about it. This week, I’ve been reading The Slaughter of Cities—Urban Renewal as Ethnic Cleansing, by E.Michael Jones. I don’t know what the E. stands for, Ebeneezer, Esmond? I can’t find it anywhere, but it makes Jones sound legitimate: Likewise M.Charles Davis has a certain ring to it…

Portland has several “Urban Renewal Districts,” which are projects of the Portland Development Commission. PDC happens to be the defendant in a racial discrimination lawsuit over a personnel issue, currently, and it didn’t exactly come up with the concept of affirmative action. Regardless, it’s unlikely the Urban Renewal Districts are going to be renamed “Ethnic Cleansing Districts” any time soon, but that doesn’t mean the history of urban planning isn’t riddled with racial injustice.URBAN RENEWAL: I’m not the first highly intelligent person to have thought the whole thing smelt a bit fishy…

The book runs to 666 beastly pages, and I’ll keep you updated. Jones focuses on Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago, but so far all I’ve read (the cover) makes me think of Portland. Sherry Russell writes on the blurb:

In his meticulously documented book, [Jones] proves that urban renewal had more to do with ethnicity than it ever had to do with design or hygiene or blight. Urban renewal was the last gasp attempt of the WASP ruling class to take control of a country that was slipping out of its grasp for demographic reasons…Using political tactics like eminent domain and “integration,” the planners made sure that the ethnic neighborhood got transformed into something more congenial to their dreams of social engineering than the actual communities of people they saw as a threat to their control.”

“Something more congenial to their dreams of social engineering.” Hmmm. I know it’s not exactly the same, but I can’t help thinking about downtown Portland, or the Pearl District. Or Mississippi. Regardless of whether I’m “right,” I’m increasingly intuiting that SE 82nd is the place to be in this city, right next to the Fubonn supermarket, in New Chinatown, and further from people’s good intentions. Of course, Lents is part of urban renewal, too. So: Where is safe? Gresham? A Libertarian outpost in rural Oregon? Beaverton? The moon?
THE MOON: Wish I was walking-on-his-face…

After quite possibly the busiest off-season in the team’s history, the Trail Blazers kicked off the ‘07-‘08 (pre)season tonight with an impressive 111-102 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

So, granted this is preseason, and the Clippers looked pathetic (with the exception of Gollum Sam Cassell and Al Thornton), but the Blazers squad appeared to be pretty solid, especially considering they were missing Brandon Roy (heel inflammation) and Greg Oden (some mysterious knee injury, I sure wish someone would report on it). The new up-tempo pace meshes well with their rotating multiple guard offensive setup, and win or lose, this team will be scoring 100 points often this year. Martell Webster looked like a grown-ass man from the field, dropping 28 points and shooting close to 80% on the night. In what will be a common theme this year, LaMarcus Aldridge seemed to be the best player on the court, as he effortlessly had 21 point in the game.

Press credentials pending, I’ll try and start live blogging the games, starting with the Sacramento game on the 19th. Yeah, you heard me Ron Artest, me and my fancy blog skills are gunning for you and Tru Warier Records.

It looks like the anti-gay activists have realized that suing over the razor-thin margin that kept the new domestic partnership law off the ballot last week—the campaign fell 116 signatures short of the 55,179 required to put a referendum on the ballot—would be futile. It also looks like they’re working on a repeal initiative.

From David Crowe:

While disappointing and suspect, the decision whether to challenge in court or pursue another course, must be an informed and thoughtful process. The goal is to place these two culture redefining and defiant bills on the ballot in November of 2008. There is still time and there are ways to do that.

Since the only way to challenge the decision is to go to court with a lawsuit, we must weigh the time and costs involved as well as the predisposition of the Marion County and Oregon State Court System. All legal advice we have received thus far, is that the court system is not sympathetic to our cause and in some cases the judges are known to be hostile.

The experience of one attorney on this same issue is that it would take a year for final ruling on the case, and probably not in our favor. So what will we have gained to leave it to a few people and then not get it on the ballot at all?

The remaining option appears to be an initiative requiring 82,000 signatures, which if reached, as in 2004, would place both laws on the November 2008 ballot for repeal. Having obtained 63,000 names and addresses with the current effort, to which we could mail the petition apart from the bills, and being able come January 1, 2008, to download petitions online to sign and return, the 82,000 signatures, plus an additional 20,000 to ensure a victory in the Elections Division, is attainable.

Far more Oregonians now realize what the governor and legislature have done, and they will be more than eager to sign these petitions. Many more churches, now that they know about these bills and what is at stake, are likely to participate.

(The entire letter—including the repeal intitiative game plan—is after the cut.)

Most Oregonians who are concerned by the legislature's action to circumvent their vote in 2004 in the matter of marriage between a man and a woman, know by now that the petition signature drive to give Oregonians the right to vote on this circumvention, was determined by the Oregon Elections Division on Monday, October 8th, to have failed by 116 signatures.

55,179 valid signatures were required and Concerned Oregonians along with Defense of Marriage and Family Again turned in nearly 63,000 signatures.

They also know from past signature petition efforts that the signature validation process in Oregon seems to invalidate many valid signatures, thus denying a nearly sacred right in America, that of having your vote counted, and they do not approve. A signature on a petition is in essence a 'VOTE.'

Challenging the Elections Division decision
While disappointing and suspect, the decision whether to challenge in court or pursue another course, must be an informed and thoughtful process. The goal is to place these two culture redefining and defiant bills on the ballot in November of 2008. There is still time and there are ways to do that.
Since the only way to challenge the decision is to go to court with a lawsuit, we must weigh the time and costs involved as well as the predisposition of the Marion County and Oregon State Court System. All legal advice we have received thus far, is that the court system is not sympathetic to our cause and in some cases the judges are known to be hostile.

The experience of one attorney on this same issue is that it would take a year for final ruling on the case, and probably not in our favor. So what will we have gained to leave it to a few people and then not get it on the ballot at all?

Where do we go from here?
The remaining option appears to be an initiative requiring 82,000 signatures, which if reached, as in 2004, would place both laws on the November 2008 ballot for repeal. Having obtained 63,000 names and addresses with the current effort, to which we could mail the petition apart from the bills, and being able come January 1, 2008, to download petitions online to sign and return, the 82,000 signatures, plus an additional 20,000 to ensure a victory in the Elections Division, is attainable.
Far more Oregonians now realize what the governor and legislature have done, and they will be more than eager to sign these petitions. Many more churches, now that they know about these bills and what is at stake, are likely to participate.

Getting Started
Since the wording of the initiative must be crafted, and several attornies are stepping forward to ensure that is done wisely, and since the state approval process will take 2-3 months, that leaves 3-5 months in 2008 to secure the needed petition signatures by the July deadline. With an established database of signers, online petition availability, and a more seasoned team, we can place these bills on the ballot.
Please pray for wisdom as we conduct our research, seek wise counsel, and continue to seek the LORD as we honor and exalt both Him and the institutions he has ordained.

David Crowe

The pace of politics, one can argue, is glacially slow. The process of involving interested parties, identifying and weighing outcomes, balancing cost vs. benefit, considering compromises, etc., can drag on for a seeming eternity, even over the smallest of issues.

And nowhere is that more evident, it appears, than Portland. Today, after two long years of committee work, city council finally heard and accepted a report that recommends enforcing an existing law that bans trash dumpsters from public sidewalks. Two. Years. To recommend the city enforce a law that’s already on the books—for decades.

According to an introduction to the report given by Commissioner Dan Saltzman, an estimated 300 businesses are using the sidewalks to keep their trash dumpsters—not only blocking the public right of way, but posing health and fire hazards, and sidestepping the normal safety regulations that are imposed on businesses that actually keep their dumpsters on their own property.

Currently, no one is actually enforcing the law. For the last couple of years, that’s been on Randy Leonard, who heads up the Bureau of Development Services, which regulates that kind of thing. That wasn’t acceptable to Michael Mills, the city’s ombudsman, who brought the issue to council two years ago after receiving an avalanche of complaints about the dumpsters.

Speaking in favor of the committee’s recommendation (which requires all new buildings to have built-in space for dumpsters, provides a six-month “education” campaign, and then a complaints-based process for citing scofflaws), Mills pointed out the city’s hypocrisy when it comes to sidewalks.

“It’s hard for me—or anyone at the city—to justify a law that forbids people sitting or lying on the sidewalks while also allowing dumpsters to remain on public space,” he said.

The recommendations are backed by neighborhoods, the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, disabled citizens who showed up to testify, and even the Portland Business Alliance. In opposition, though, are the city’s Small Business Advisory Council (SBAC) and the Oregon Restaurant Association, who claim that enforcing the law would pose an undue burden on small businesses.

That sent Leonard, who’s recently had a rocky relationship with the SBAC, into a tizzy. “I’m sooo disappointed in the Small Business Advisory Council’s position,” he said, directed at SBAC member Ken Turner, before voting yes. “I would like to have a better relationship with the SBAC, but it’s recommendations like these that make that difficult.”

Immediately after the session, Leonard caught an earful from Turner and Judy Crane, who runs Holman’s and spoke as a representative of the Oregon Restaurant Association. Later, he explained that he told them that he hasn’t considered consulting the SBAC on issues—like with with anti-graffiti ordinance—because of their knee-jerk rightwing reactions.

At any rate, there may actually be some money for small businesses through the Portland Development Commission to help them with construction on proper places to put their dumpsters.

Shockingly, no one seems to have consulted the constituency that will perhaps be most affected by the anti-dumpster law: Freeg