This Week in the Mercury
Tom Bissell Writes What He Wants
Magic Hours: Essays on Creators and Creation Is a Book of Essays About Things!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Conflict of Interest Condemn or Allow: Crocs Donates 100,000 Pairs of Hideous Shoes to Japan
Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 5:33 PM
Far be it from us to scoff at the charitable acts of others, but does anyone else get a weird vibe from the news that Crocs is bombarding tsunami/earthquake victims in Japan with shoes that—I think we can all agree—are among the worst in the world? (Well, at least worst looking.) I mean, I guess they seem conducive, to like, moist conditions, and they are probably more sturdy than Toms, which purport to solve the shoe problems of children living in developing countries even though they can't even withstand one summer of an American hipster's life. What I guess it boils down to is, which need is more of a factor, Japan's need for Crocs or Crocs' need for good press (and to offload those hideous Crocs)?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
News At Last: Council Approves Better Cop Oversight
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 9:28 PM
City council has tonight finally voted to approve police oversight improvements suggested by City Commissioner Randy Leonard two weeks ago. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz asked for a vote to be delayed so that her human relations committee could weigh in last week. Some feel that Fritz's "public process" concerns were misplaced. Still...
- AARON CAMPBELL'S MOTHER, MARVA CAMPBELL-DAVIS, SAT IN THE AUDIENCE AT COUNCIL TONIGHT
"I want to acknowledge the mother of Aaron Campbell and the young lady who was shot with the beanbag," said Joyce Harris with the African American Alliance. "It's for them that we do the work that we do, and it's for the children in our community who we hope are not victims of police violence."
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he hoped the ordinance would help to "regain" the community's trust in the police.
"With great power comes great responsibility," said City Commissioner Randy Leonard. "And with great responsibility comes accountability. The accountability part of the police bureau is broken, at the moment, in my opinion." "There are those that do commit acts that cause others to lose their lives that are not held accountable." He encouraged the police bureau to "not put up roadblocks" in the way of the changes, which will be implemented over the next 30 days.
There's more after the jump.
Sports Blazers vs Knicks - Hot Live Blog Action
Posted by Ezra Ace Caraeff on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 6:58 PM
Live from the Rose Garden as the Portland Trail Blazers welcome the New York Knicks. The Knickerbockers, from the Island of Manhattan, are less a basketball team and more a lobbyist group hellbent on wooing future free agent LeBron James to their city. Wins, loses, it doesn't really matter, they just want LeBron.
Portland just wants to go to the playoffs. And they will tonight if they win, plus if Houston and Memphis lose their respective games. Could a playoff berth be a few hours away?
Film Jackpot Records Film & Music Festival Line-Up Announced
Posted by January "the intern" Vawter on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 5:40 PM
Jackpot Records owner and festival curator Isaac Slusarenko has amassed a collection of obscure, yet highly relevant films for this year's festivities, from the history of the Mellotron (whom the Beatles and Kanye owe props) to the rise of Rough Trade. The highlight of the week will undoubtedly be the non-celluloid performance of Thurstan Moore collaborating with Jandek.
- Brooke Weeber
No score and seven years ago, Jackpot Records held its first film festival. Decidedly low concept from inception, the premise remains: we show films, you watch for free. Behind the scenes it’s a bit more involved: we spend months wandering the celluloid highway looking for masterpieces that may be a bit off the map. Over the years we’ve landed some genuine Portland premiers, had extremely colorful director appearances (Pinky, we’re looking at you) and evaporated the minds of young and old alike with ridiculously rare clips and features that genuflect before no genre. It’s our way of saying, “Look at all this cool stuff we found!”
Cool stuff indeed. The 1964 concert film The T.A.M.I Show is dusted off for a fundraiser kick-off Thursday, April 22nd. They suggest a $5 donation and I suggest you don't be a dick.
For complete festival info, click this delightful link.
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Film The Expendables Trailer! Arrrghhaughhh!!!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 4:17 PM
Here it is, guys! The trailer for The Expendables and what could be the most sperm-gasmic old person action movie since Space Cowboys. I KID, I KID! But check out this cast: Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Dolph Lundgren, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Jason Stratham, Jet Li, and Dakota Fanning. (OKAY, no Dakota Fanning. Maybe in the sequel.) Nevertheless, I don't care what anybody says: This movie is going to be horrible, and I'm going to watch the shit out of it!!
Food Make These Pickled Carrots
Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 3:39 PM
Searching the internet, I was excited to learn how simple is was to pickle veggies. I found two recipes: One, more a marinade than anything, took about a minute to prep and a few hours for the flavor to develop in the carrots. The other took a bit longer to prep and required the carrots be left overnight. I made both (because I had enough carrots), and while the the marinade worked just fine to add the necessary spicy pickled carrot twang to the meal, the overnight pickled carrot recipe has been blowing my mind for days.
It's simple. You should do it. The recipe is after the jump.
News Breedlove: "You are the loseres."
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 3:00 PM
Beau Breedlove has struck back at those who may have described him as a "fame seeker" in the comments on an earlier Blogtown post, linking to his comments on the recall. I am aiming STERN LOOKS in your direction, Kiala Kazebee.
*And on another note-
By Beau Breedlove on UncategorizedTo all those people who have linked to my site, aka A PERSONAL BLOG- and have sent me nasty e-mails, or are commenting on online articles linked to my blog, try to get some brains. You make comments like I’m a fame seeker, and out for the attention, and a douchebag. Well, doesn’t it seem odd that I am not the one posting these links on online websites, some low-level media idiots are. Then, you people that HATE me are taking the time out of your day to read my blog and then post nasty comments.
Grow up, it’s the people like you who have no self confidence or morals, and chose to hide behind stupid screen names. Picking at everyone else in the world, anonymously, because you know in all reality you know nothing about me, or any of the other people you write about online. In reality, YOU are the loseres, and YOU are the worthless, low life’s who need to go away.
When it comes down to it, I let everyone think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do and say nasty things, then I’m already better than them. To those of you who are kind, good people, who understand and support people like myself, remember that- If people take the time to bother with what you’re doing, and then try to be cruel to you, don’t worry about it because you’re already better than all of them.
Quit the hating!
SEX Savage Love Letter o' the Day: Never Read the "Savage Love" Mail At Lunch, Never Read the "Savage Love" Mail At Lunch...
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 2:58 PM
Those with weak stomachs, beware…
I am a big fan of your column and have a question that I have never seen addressed. The back story: married with a new child. Before I got pregnant my husband would tell me not to flush my tampons down the toilet because it can clog it. Makes sense since we live in a house built in the 60's. So I started to wrap it in TP and place in the waste basket in the bathroom. Fast forward a year, baby is now has arrived, and my period is back to normal. The first time I was able to wear tampons I forgot about flushing them. My husband gently reminded me to not flush them and I felt bad about forgetting. Well I am on my period now, and this is where my question comes in.I came home yesterday from work with the baby and heard the radio in the bathroom so I knew my husband was about to take a shower. I put the baby down and went to pop my head in to let him know we were home, and saw him getting ready to turn the shower on with a string hanging from his mouth. I didn't have time to register what it was when he spit it out from being startled and it was my bloody tampon. I freaked!! I shut the door and just sat on the couch in shock. He took a really long time to come out so I know he was freaked out that I saw what I saw. I am a very GGG kinda girl but I have to admit I was taken back. After I finally got him to sit and talk he told me he had been doing this for a few years with the women he was dating and now me, his wife. I am sure you have heard of this and I Googled it and know it is a real fetish, but I am curious if it is safe. Never thought about the tampon once I disposed of it but now I have vested interest to know if it is okay to do. I can't ask anyone I know so I went to my favorite expert. :)
I'm His Blood Type
My response after the jump.
Artsy Red Truck Gallery Pops Up
Posted by Matt Stangel on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 2:51 PM
- Red Truck
- The Red Truck Boys
I'm about six feet four inches tall, so I'm not super used to looking up at people. Noah Antieau, owner and director of the traveling New Orleans-based Red Truck Gallery, stands well above me, looking gracefully out-of-town in worn overalls and a tattered white shirt. "My mom [Chris Roberts-Antieau] makes these quilts" says Antieau in his half-Bayou drawl, while giving me the tour of his temporary art space at 1106 NW Marshall (open through April 18).
In Roberts-Antieau's "Chimpanzees Are Dangerous," a quilted two-panel narrative recalls a news meme about a woman and her pet chimp. Antieau tells me that the woman and the chimp would drink wine and take Xanax while watching television together, which is shown in the top panel. The bottom panel shows the chimp wigging out and ripping a house guest's face off (hear the 911 phone call). Not exactly the quilts grandma makes.
Antieau has taken the work of his mother, family, and friends around the globe under the Red Truck name: To London, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, and throughout the continental United States. When I asked him why he took his gallery on the road, his answer was transcendentally simple. "Because it's more fun that way," he says with an easy smile.
John Whipple, Antieau’s uncle, created the Misfit Toys series, which is made up of charcoal illustrations of mopey animals with modern maladies— such as "chain smoking," "sex addiction," and "workaholic." Ross Bonfanti, who Antieau has know since childhood, created cement animals by de-stuffing plush critters, pouring cement into their pelts, and then peeling back the fabric to expose the cement figures. Jason Houchen, another artist Antieau has know since boyhood, burns illustrations into wood in a process he calls "pyography."
While Red Truck is about the art, they're equally about the road stories— in a buddy-flick kind of way. “We had Thanksgiving with Princess Leia,” Antieau tells me, recalling the scene at Carrie Fisher’s house this past turkey day. We trade stories and drink beer for a while.
"We got a midget," says Antieau, motioning to a man sitting outside, drinking a beer. "We were in New York City and put an ad on Craigslist saying we needed a midget for a reality show," he explains. Nik Sin— the "midget"— joined his traveling gallery after being duped by the ad. (Sidenote: Sin is half-famous for performing as Mini Marilyn Manson, and has graced the pages of Maxim, Bizarre, and others.)
As I say my goodbyes, Antieau puts up a hand written sign, reading "Out for heavy drinking, be back tomorrow," summing up the perpetual sense of humor of the self-proclaimed “[four] rednecks and a goth midget [who’re] out to steal your hearts and credit card numbers,” (as reads the Red Truck Facebook page).
Pics of artwork on view at Red Truck, after the jump!
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Events It's Happening Tonight!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 2:39 PM
JERSEY BOYS—Since when did Ken Burns' Civil War series become so influential on pop culture? Titus Andronicus' flawless sophomore LP The Monitor is a sprawling conceptual recording about the Civil War that's both confusing and inspiring. You might not spot references to the Confederacy or songs about gangrenous limbs, but you will be hearing one of the year's finest recordings. EAC
w/Let's Wrestle; Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi, 9 pm, $10SAM'S CLUB—The mayor has taste in eyewear, but what about art and music? Sam Adams curates a multimedia exhibit at Holocene, as part of the "A Few of My Favorite Things" series. Musical performances by Soft Tags, Rev. Shines, and more. Art by Chris Haberman. Proceeds benefit arts and education funding. SK
Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison, 8 pm, $5-15 donation
Ack! So busy!! My, What a Busy Week!
Artsy PHART CHART TOPPER!
Posted by Scrappers on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 2:39 PM
This week's PHART CHART TOPPER is I M A U-M-N-B-N! Congrats, and look! We've animated it for you!
Will you be the next Phart Chart Topper? Submit your art or photos to the Mercury's Flickr group, and start PHART-ing today!!
Puppy / Artsy "Disturbing Easter Bunny with Dogs"
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 2:05 PM
Politics Governors' Race: The Gloves are Coming Off!
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 1:40 PM
So the moment everyone's talking about after last night's environmentally-focused debate between gubernatorial candidates John Kitzhaber, Bill Bradbury and Allen Alley came right at the very end of the debate, when the opponents stopped played nice.
- Kitzhaber: Wins the tie award.
Given the chance to ask each other questions, Kitzhaber threw Bradbury a softball, tossing his Segway-riding opponent the chance to stump about his work on salmon. Kitzhaber had just recently reminisced onstage about the time he and Bradbury ate steaks together on the banks of the Rogue River, all in all playing up the “Hey we’re friends! This Bill learned a lot from me!” angle.
But when it was his turn to ask a question, Bradbury snapped back at Kitzhaber with a pointed attack. In front of the packed house of environmentalists, Bradbury questioned a $10,000 campaign contribution Kitzhaber received from Frank Foti, CEO of Cascade General, a company which the EPA and local authorities have been fined for polluting. “Why would you take contributions from such a big polluter?” said Brabdbury, asking whether his old steak-eating friend would send back the check.
“The answer is I do not intend to send Frank back his check, he’s a long time friend of mine and an upstanding citizen,” replied Kitzhaber, showing some edge. “If you are somehow implying that if someone gives me a contribution, I am in their pocket, then I am insulted, incensed and extraordinarily disappointed in you.”
Kari Chisholm over at BlueOregon called the attack “just plain dumb.” Bradbury himself received money from Foti back in 2002. And he didn’t return the check.
Anyway, one thing is clear: the gloves are slipping off in this race between two buddy-buddy progressives.
But, honestly, I don’t want to talk about nitpicky politicking. I want to talk about the hero of the night, Allen Alley. The affable pro-gun, pro-car, pro-business Republican candidate probably isn’t going to get many votes from the Sierra Club crowd, but last night he showed off his helluva sense of humor. He kept upbeat and friendly while telling the hundreds of Portland greenies that he’s never going to ditch his car and that the economy is more important to him than the environment.
Alley’s somewhat conflicted political philosophy can be summed up as this: Don’t regulate business. Do regulate the environment. Or, as he said it, “If we just let nature take it’s course, we’re going to wind up as victims just like the polar bears and the cougars.”
Here are several out of context quotes from Allen Alley which, I can assure you, made just as much sense in context:
Allen Alley on salmon: “I love salmon! Especially when I eat them!”
Allen Alley on our transportation future: “I believe in personal transportation alternatives, formerly known as ‘cars.’ Please don’t force me into mass transit.”
Allen Alley on his car: “I drive a SmartCar in Portland because the gun rack looks silly.”
Election 2010 / News Saltzman Back At Cornett: "The community is not served by using the tragic deaths of Aaron Campbell and others to forward a political campaign — or even more distastefully, a political career."
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 1:12 PM
- SALTZMAN AND CORNETT AT THE MERCURY'S CANDIDATE OLYMPIAD EARLIER THIS YEAR
BAM. Dan Saltzman just accused Jesse Cornett of grandstanding with the deaths of Aaron Campbell and others, after Cornett called on him yesterday to talk publicly about police issues. At the end of his two page letter back to Cornett this morning, listing all of the many things he feels he's done, Saltzman writes:
These are difficult and longstanding issues that require hard work, and often do not have simple answers. So here is what I have not done and what I will not do: politicize these efforts by
playing them out in the media or using them as a campaign tool.As you well know, we will have numerous opportunities to appear jointly at forums and debates
throughout the community, including the City Club on April 23rd. But the community is not
served by using the tragic deaths of Aaron Campbell and others to forward a political campaign —
or even more distastefully, a political career. We should honor their memories by making
change, not demean them by trying to use their deaths to score political points.Therefore, I respectfully decline your invitation.
"Those are mighty tough words from a career politician who has been unwilling to learn lessons from history to save lives in the future," Cornett responds. POW. ZAP. KABLONG. So:
Who's Grandstanding Whom?
Update, 8:22: Cornett hit back at Saltzman this evening, bringing up the death in 2005 of his best friend Ray Gwerder, at the hands of the Portland police:
"In the middle of everything else that I'm doing in my life right now, to be accused of trying to make political capital out of this situation by someone who could never imagine picking up bloody gloves off your porch after the police have taken your best friend and roommate from the world."
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Mercury Today's Burning Questionland Question!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:43 PM
News Nice Design—Cop Oversight Hearing Tonight
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:11 PM
In case you feel like coming down to city hall to testify.
News Breedlove: "It is beyond my comprehension how people justify a politician lying to them to be elected."
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 12:05 PM
I've said it before. As long as he keeps lobbing 'em out, we'll keep linking.
Gossip They Have Rehab for Nazi Cheataholics Now?
Posted by David Schmader on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 11:42 AM
Hump addressed this in Good Morning, News!, but it really deserves its own post, with picture.
Yes, that fantabulous photo to the right shows Jesse James giving a Nazi salute while donning a German soldier cap. As US Weekly reports, the pic was taken in 2004, a year before his marriage to Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock, and six years before his dumping by Oscar-winner Sandra Bullock.
And yes, Jesse James has checked into sex rehab, because that's what you do when you're a celebrity the whole world hates.
Continued condolences to Sandra Bullock, who, it must noted, devoted much of her recent career to films riddled with klunky race issues/white-guilt themes before being exposed to the world as the cuckqueaned wife of a lout with white-power issues. Good one, God.
Sports The Blazers Will Make the Playoffs Tonight...
Posted by Ezra Ace Caraeff on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 10:38 AM
...if they beat the New York Knicks and both the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies lose their respective games. It's very possible—especially since the Rockets are in San Antonio against a desperate Spurs teams and Memphis is playing Dallas—and for the Blazers to clinch on their homecourt would be a nice way to wrap up a very dramatic regular season. If not, the team will have to wait until later this week when they travel to Denver and Sacramento.
As always we'll be liveblogging the game here in Blogtown. Stop by and celebrate the team's (possible) playoff clinching night.
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TV LOST Discussion Group Commence!!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 10:29 AM
Hello! Welcome to today's LOST Discussion Group! I'm Wm. Steven Humphrey and I like to use exclamation marks! Did you see last night's episode, entitled "The Package" featuring Jin and Sun? THEN LET'S TALK ABOUT IT! As usual, I'll kick off the convo with a few ill-informed and spoilery discussion starters after the jump! SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET'S TALK LOST!! EXCLAMATION MARK!!
Comedy Comedy Is OK
Posted by Andrew R Tonry on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 10:00 AM
- Co-Hosts Mikey Campmann (left), and Andrew Michaan
(Writer's note: busy week in the Arts section. Here's an expanded version of the Comedy Is OK story from the week's print edition.)
"Patton Oswalt has a funny quote," says Mikey Kampmann. "'Someone needs to set an ambition bomb off in Portland.'" Kampann, along with his friend and co-host Andrew Michaan, laughs. "It's true." And in their own little way, the duo are building a bomb.
Homo Christian Bigots: Barack Obama Our "First Gay President"
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 9:46 AM
Tom McClusky of the Family Research Council:
"It was argued during his two terms in office that Bill Clinton was 'our first black President' because of his supposed liberal policies that would benefit African-Americans ... shouldn’t Barack Obama already be our 'first gay President' due to his liberal policies pushing the homosexual agenda?"
Um... really? The same day that the FRC bigots were slamming Barack Obama for pushing "the homosexual agenda," the Obama administration's DOJ filed a brief—echos of the administration's notorious DOMA brief—aggressively defending DADT, the law that Barack "Fierce Advocate" Obama supposedly wants to repeal. What it means (someone isn't pushing the homosexual agenda), why it's galling (Obama's SOTU?), and a full run down of reactions (even the lapdogs at HRC are pissed) at Towleroad.
News Good Morning, News!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 9:26 AM
Two days after suicide bombers hit Moscow's subway, another pair of bombers attack Southern Russia killing 12.
Obama opens up large swaths of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico to offshore drilling. CALL AN EXORCIST! Somehow, Dick Cheney got inside of him!
Seventeen countries have faster internet speeds than America... including ROMANIA?? WTF?!?
Multiple shooters open fire on a crowd in Washington, D.C., killing four.
Insurance companies agree to cover pre-existing conditions for children—BUT THEY DON'T LIKE IT!!
David Mills—who you know as one of the main writers of The Wire—is dead.
The most horrible story you will read today, possibly all week, and maybe even all year. You've been warned.
Today in "Shut the Fuck Up": Sarah Palin predicts a second holocaust!
Sandra Bullock's philandering scumbag of a husband checks himself into a treatment facility... because it seems to have worked for Tiger, right?
OH! And you HAVE to read this story about an alleged foursome Jesse James had with Michelle "Bombshell" McGee and someone named... wait for it... SKITTLES VALENTINE.
And here's a picture of Jesse James wearing a Nazi hat and giving a "seig heil" salute. POOR SANDRA!!
Crackpot Christian militia planned to kill policemen and then bomb their funeral in their ongoing battle against the "Antichrist." Pretty sure that's something Jesus wouldn't do.
The Large Hadron Collider works, you guys! Now we're finally on our way to create a brand new universe (hopefully one that has free cable).
Now here's what's going on in your neck of the woods: Rainy today, sunny tomorrow, and a rainy beginning to the weekend.
And finally, a horrible father devastates his young son by telling him he cannot be "a single lady." Hey, we're all a little "single lady" inside, pal!!
UPDATE: You can still see this hilarious video HERE. In your face, DAD.
Music Win Tickets to See Tegan and Sara!
Posted by Ezra Ace Caraeff on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 8:44 AM
- Pamela Littky
The finest Canadian duo since these two, Tegan and Sara are making their way to Portland on Thursday April 8 at the Keller Auditorium and we want to send you. Head on over to End Hits for your chance to win.
News / Cops Cop Union "Ransacked" After Copocalypse
Posted by Matt Davis on Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 8:23 AM
So Scott Westerman tells KGW. Also, here are six of the eight people arrested on Monday night:
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