This week we saw...

1) What you had for dinner...

2) Killer trees!

3) Graffiti training camp...

Tonight at the Works, Neal Medlyn covering Beyonce and Ice Rod laying down some filthy, reputedly hilarious (post?) ironic hiphop. Leftbank, 240 N Broadway, $10. If you're gonna come out, bring layers (it got awful hot in there last night, but there's a huge outdoor beer garden to escape to). And drinks are a bit pricey, so plan accordingly.

On September 17th, City Council will hear public testimony about whether to allow the rezone of the 140-acre Colwood Golf Course in NE Cully neighborhood from open space to light industrial. The golf course owners say it could bring jobs to the neighborhood and offer to convert some of the acerage into a public park. The neighborhood leaders don't want to see their precious green space turned to pavement and hope the city Parks Commission will buy out the property and turn it entirely into a park.

Back in May, the city's planning bureau heard the heated debate over the rezone. The hearings office eventually ruled against the rezone, saying both that the Slough section is a "unique, practically irreplaceable asset" to the city and that the essentially political decision (industry vs. open space) should be left up to City Council. Neighbors see the hearings board rejection of the rezone as a major victory and proof that there's a solid chance the Council might swing their way, too.

But how to convince them? Bill Barber, of Central Northeast Neighbors, and Tony Fuentes, of Concordia Neighborhood Association, shoot ideas back and forth across the room. What's more effective - petition or letter? Email or handwritten note? "I think everybody in this room should get 10 people to testify," says Fuentes, "I will be disappointed if we don't get 200 pieces of testimony. I will be happy if we get 500." Maybe they could set up an info table outside the nearby New Seasons? "We'll have to rock-paper-scissors Street Roots for space," laughs one woman. The neighbors aren't digging the 22-acre "compromise park" that's promised along the environmentally-sensitive Columbia Slough if the area is rezoned. Neighbors don't use the private golf course as a frisbee-playing, dog-walking park (except illegally after hours sometimes), but see big possibilities if all the land could come into public hands. "It has such potential to be a regional park," says NE resident Nancy Hatch, "It's not a neighborhood park, but a regional asset."

More on the debate plus some hot rezone pix below the cut.

Olbermann said:

If, at this late date, any television network had, of its own accord, shown that much video tape and that much graphic video tape of 9/11--it, we, would be rightly eviscerated at all quarters, perhaps by the Republican Party itself, for exploiting the memories of the dead, and perhaps even for trying to evoke that pain again. If you reacted to that video tape the way I did, I apologize. It is a subject of great pain, for many of us still, and it was probably not appropriate to be shown.

The video, embedded below, implies that the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, the Iraq War, the 2000 USS Cole attack, various attacks on US embassies overseas, and the 9/11 attacks were all linked by a common enemy--"those who... obey God's command to kill Americans." Over shots of the collapsing World Trade Center, firefighters rushing to pull bodies out of the rubble, and a solemn Rudy Giuliani arriving at the scene, a male narrator solemnly intones, "This enemy has been at war with us for decades. This, we now know. The jihadists are intent on attacking...freedom--the very soul of America."

It is, almost literally, sickening.

Watch it:

And Olbermann's reaction:

The hoots and hollers from the Republicans crowd after the video (standing ovation can be seen here) ends tell you all you need to know about what sort of person is supporting John McCain.

Via Slog.

This morning Electronic Arts sent over a copy of Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, the company's latest Grand Theft Auto-inspired shooter.

The game places you as the leader of a private military contractor who has been screwed out of some blood money by a corrupt government official. As is your wont, the rest of the game is spent blowing up large pieces of the country in a quest to earn your cash.

As you'd expect, the storyline is equal parts Rambo and sociopolitical commentary on the dangers of a world owned by multinational corporations and the well-armed thugs they hire.

Unfortunately, no one seems to have tipped off EA's marketing department.

So My Pretty Portland is over and done with--but now local filmmakers have another chance to show off their short films. The Regional Arts and Culture Council's "Portland Art Happens" program is a new project that intends to "excite, stimulate, and inform the 50,000 monthly visitors to the RACC website by showcasing an array of short videos by local filmmakers that portray Portland's vibrant art scenes." (I know, right? Who'd have thought you could have both "excite" and "stimulate" in a sentence and still have it be that boring?)

Basically, the RACC is looking for films that are between 30 seconds and three minutes long and are produced exclusively for this project, and they need to "feature a variety of art forms being presented in the tri-county area." You've also gotta open and close with the RACC logo (which, in addition to all these requirements, kinda makes this whole thing feel like maybe RACC is just lookin' to get some TV ads made on the cheap). Deadline's September 17, and if you're one of the six filmmakers they select from the submissions, you get $200.

Complete details are here.

As for the above image? Bayotic, isn't it? (I don't know what you guys' problem with the dude is. He's just trying to make a lot of kids' dreams around the world. He's a goddamn hero.)

Instead of creating his signs in a studio, Gorman decided to bring the process to the Works. I watched the sign come together for a long time last night. It's a bit of meditative creation in the hustle and bustle of TBA's party space.

I think this one was going to read "Hush Hush..." The only problem is, I have no idea where he's going to put it. I can't find the information anywhere. I guess I'll just have to go and ask him tonight.

Get all the latest TBA coverage and listings here at our TBA Blog!

You may remember in last month's feature, Selling Scientology, which focused on the marketing of the church in the 1980s, allegations were made about difficult conditions inside the so-called "Sea Organization." The church's head of communications, Karin Pouw, accused the Mercury of furthering an agenda of religious hatred by printing the allegations.

Now, Lentsch is asking Pouw to answer her allegations that since she allowed her daughter to join the Sea Org in 1993, Katherine was promised three weeks vacation a year. But this has never happened...

You want to know what my main criticism of the Church of Scientology is? That they have isolated me from my own daughter and made it impossible for me to maintain the close and loving relationship that both Katherine and I desire. That is my objection. How can I be "handled" on this objection? Easy.

Grant Katherine her well-earned three week leave to see her family. Is that so hard?

I never, ever thought I would have to sacrifice my relationship with my daughter over religious differences. Many, many families across the world have differences with their choices of religions and political ideologies. A loving family does not let these differences impede their relationships with each other.

You, yourself, have denied publicly that Scientology disconnects families. In your press release of 14 January of this year, you stated that "...most family members of Scientologists are themselves not Scientologists. And yet, as any one of millions of Scientologists would have told Morton if he had asked, they maintain a loving relationship with their families. Indeed, the Church always counsels to mend any and every familial upset - whether between Scientologists or those of another faith."
Nice words. A wonderful, politically correct sentiment. But the question is, Ms. Pouw, are you actually willing to stand by those words? Are you willing to put them into action? Are you, as a Scientologist, willing to factually practice what you so eloquently preach?

I am still waiting for my daughter's arrival in Portland for the vacation that she and I have been promised.

Something tells me it might be a long time. Download the full letter here.

No date this weekend? Friends still pissed about you peeing in their aquarium? Cat looking at you with those cold, dead eyes? None of that matters, as this weekend you can entertain yourself with The Behemoth's awesome downloadable beat-em-up Castle Crashers.

Remember that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game where you could have four players simultaneously beating the hell out of the Foot Clan? Castle Crashers is like that, only with hyper-stylized artwork and the ability to customize the skills and weaponry of any of the game's 26 characters.

Yeah, the game sports a $15 price tag. That's a bit high for a title that you download from the Xbox Live Marketplace, but unlike all those crappy arcade ports or shoddy independent games taking up space on Microsoft's service, Castle Crashers won't end after a dull 20 minutes of play. Even discounting its innate replayability or any of CC's multiplayer modes, most will spend 10+ hours just trying to finish the regular game.

Even if you don't value my word as law -- you should -- at least consider this reason to download the Castle Crashers demo. It's free, cheapass.

Speaking of which, is it just me, or does McCain have REALLY YELLOW TEETH? You'd think that with all the money the RNC threw toward the convention, they would have at least bleached his dentures.

Will there be a Hellboy TV series? Activate NERDGASM!

Check out The Office season four Blooper Reel!

Entourage returns on Sunday night (HBO, 10 pm), and according to some reports, it now contains more FUNNY.

Vampire lovers will also want to check out the debut of True Blood also on Sunday (HBO, 9 pm). Here's a review that claims it doesn't suck. GET IT?!?

GEEZ, Sunday sure is busy! Masochists may want to check out the 25th anniversary of the MTV Video Music Awards (MTV, 6 pm)... featuring an opening act with Britney Spears? (Hey, it turned out so well last time! Should we watch it again just for old times sake? OH WHY THE HELL NOT?)

Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there.

Barracuda: Not to be messed with

RENT-A-COP WITH OBAMA CAMPAIGNER AFTER MOVING HIM OFF THE SQUARE...

Officer Byrd, who looks like a cop, and could work for Portland Patrol, Inc, or Pacific Patrol Inc, or Portland Patrol Services Inc (they all look so similar to me, it's impossible to tell the difference) asked Obama campaigner Darin Richey to move his table of Obama badges off the Max platform on the North Side of the square at 10:15 this morning. Richey decided to set up across the street instead.

"He asked me to move," said Richey. "I was a little disheartened, to be honest. It was a high traffic spot and I thought I'd be able to talk to a lot of people over there."

"I'm 43 years old," Richey continued. "I'm only out here because this is the first time I've ever been interested in politics. Obama and Biden, they seem like good hearted people, and that's why I'm out here working."

Richey was spotted being moved by Dale Hardway of the Civic Action Group from Sisters of the Road. "He wasn't blocking the sidewalk," says Hardway. "People had plenty of room to get past, and I notice that there's an SUV parked on the square advertising 94/7, and a bunch of other stuff blocking people's way."

Richey asked, "isn't this public property?"

No. Sadly not.

Officer Byrd denied retaliating against Richey because of the content of his speech.

"As far as I know, it's fine, it's just the legs on the table that he can't have on the square," he said.

Variety has a great story up about three big, upcoming films--each of which, for one reason or another, is making studio heads nervous. James Cameron's first film since Titanic is the 3D/CG/live-action sci-fi epic Avatar, slated to come out at the end of 2009; David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story and has caused a rift between Finch and Paramount about the film's running length; and Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are... well, who the fuck knows what's up with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

I'm stoked about all three of these--those are three of my favorite directors--but right now I'm just insanely curious about/impatient for Avatar, a film that Cameron's been talking about, on and off, for like 12 years. Just having Cameron return to sci-fi would be exciting enough, but Avatar feels like something utterly new to boot: When Variety says that Cameron's "goal is to change motion pictures as we know it," they're dead on, despite their questionable grammar. Cameron has always been part storyteller and part inventor, and if Avatar lives up to its promise, it won't only be as technically revolutionary as The Abyss, Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and Titanic, but it also stands a very real chance of changing the way people go to movies. Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D was cute and all, but imagine a Cameron-scale mega-blockbuster, possibly showing exclusively in 3D and Imax, and you start to realize that a few years from now, going to the movies could be a substantially different experience.

But that's a ways off. In the meantime, I'm just going to hope that Fincher gets final say on what stays in Benjamin Button, and that a Spike Jonze-directed, Dave Eggers-written Where the Wild Things Are does, in fact, exist somewhere, and wasn't just something I gleefully hallucinated in a sweaty fever dream.

I was worried all week. I worried that Sarah Palin might actually string two sentences together without sounding like a right-wing zealot; I was worried John McCain might kill at the RNC. I was worried that Think Out Loud might be canceled; I was worried that I would start my Mercury blogging career trying to put into words the bitter disappointment of a 0-0 tie at home, like the last time Miami came to town. I didn't need to worry.

all the details after the jump

Unafraid to take on the true losers of this world--Star Wars geeks, comic book nerds, and now Republicans--Triumph the Insult Comic Dog pays a visit to the Republican National Convention and, as they say, hilarity ensues.

Sarah Palin, and her fertile fertile daughter, aren't the only exports from Wasilla, Alaska. John Gourley, the charismatic frontman for Portugal the Man also hails from the fourth largest city in Alaska.

Gourley, whose parents were both Iditarod racers (seriously), recently released a statement about growing up in Wasilla and how he disapproves of the city's GOP superstar.

We don't need drilling in some of our most beautiful and untouched land. We need to work towards options. We should be investing and working towards clean fuels. We don't need to be draining our planet of every last drop before moving on to the next. Sarah Palin disagrees

Also, according to Wikipedia, adult film star April Flowers (the 2001 AVN Award nominee for "Best Group Sex Scene") is also from Wasilla, but no word on her stance on Palin, Portugal the Man, or the Iditarod.

LISTEN:

Portugal the Man - "Lay Me Back Down"

Portugal the Man performs tonight at Berbati's Pan on something called the "Southern Comfort Stage." I assume that is just the regular Berbati's stage, but with a banner for whiskey behind it.

End Hits: We try to link to a least one porn star in every music post.

Outside the Convention: Police use tear gas to arrest 250 peace-walking protesters en masse.

MEANWHILE...

Eight consecutive months of job loss: The U.S. reaches its highest unemployment rate in five years.

Hola Portland: Mexico City launches 21 community gardens to combat rising food prices.

No Football for Oil! Arab emirates royal family bids $345 million to buy Manchester city soccer team. The BBC quotes Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher on the matter.

Monetary Break Down: Portland's pipes, electrical lines, bridges etc. need $10 billion in repairs that the county's not sure it has.

High Rise Hopes: New six-story Pearl District development promises 135 affordable family units.

If you're not normally the type to go in for these artsy-fartsy type things, I'd encourage you to get a TBA brochure and take a chance on something that tempts you. At the very least, watch the Mecury's TBA blog for recommendations.

Yeah, yeah, I know you'd rather sit at home and watch television. But I assure you that TBA is as weird, and far more entertaining than, America's Got Talent. Here's a NSFW preview (because of nudity-natch) of what you might witness.

Looks pretty good when compared to this:

Okay, so the production values are better on television, but at least TBA's female impersonators can actually sing. Plus, they have waaaay more attitude. Just sayin'.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'Gah! What the fuck is that?!' Well, dear reader, that is what you think it is: Jar Jar Binks Salad. And if you want a Jar Jar Binks Salad for dinner tonight, you can learn how to make one. The tutorial notes, "Mr. Binks may look gross, but he gets tastier and tastier as his insides absorb the lime-vinegar juice." Hmmm... tempting.

Via Craftzine Blog.

The report isn't just wonky stuff, it relates to how landlords and tenants get things fixed. Portland is a city of renters (an estimated 43% of us rented back in 2000, and I bet it's higher now thanks to the housing crisis) and common problems in rented apartments and houses like mold and broken heaters lead to major health problems. Everyone's got crazy landlord stories, but last night, a handful of tenants told their rental sob stories to the County's Housing and Development Commission.

One woman said her apartment had a "wall of cockroaches" and the landlord didn't clean up even after city inspectors cited the landlord twice. Another woman told the harrowing recollection of the time the glass-front of her living room's gas heater exploded, sending molten glass into the walls and carpets and leaving an open flame exposed in the middle of the room. She explained how she lay awake at night, fearing her cat would wander into the flames. When she moved out in protest two months later, the landlord still hadn't cleaned up the glass.

Right now, a single family home that breaks housing code can be fined only $90 a month even if its roof is caving in and mold is creeping up every wall. A 20-unit apartment complex where just one unit has those problems is charged based on the size of the whole complex - which for a 20-unit building racks up to $450 - even though it's probably about the same number of actual people living in danger. A measly $90 isn't a very strong incentive to make repairs and some landlords just pay it off month after month rather than splurging for the new roof or, you know, annihilating the wall of cockroaches. The new plan would:

- Fine landlords based on the number of units that are unsafe, rather than the number of units in the whole building.
- Increase the fines a lot for single family home landlords. The top monthly fine for a home would jump from $90 to $300, which is a lot harder hit to take.
- Make the fines double if the problem isn't solved within four months (currently, the fines double after six).

More about the plan and some all-important numbers on funding under the cut.

PICA's Time-Based Art festival kicks off tonight with a procession based on choreographer Anna Halprin's 1968 Blank Placard Happening. Halprin was the wife of architect Lawrence Halprin, who designed several Portland fountain (including the Keller); her work reputedly influenced his, and the couple are a recurring theme in this year's festival.

To participate in tonight's festivities, wear white and/or bring a blank sign, and show up at the PNCA Commons (1241 NW Johnson) at 8:30 pm. A ghostly procession will make its way to Leftbank (240 N Broadway) for the opening of TBA's visual art program at 9 pm, followed by a FREE late-night party with performances from Deelay Ceelay and the PDX Flash Choir. I will be there. Wearing, um, pink. Sorry, I forgot.

We'll be providing full blog coverage of the 11 days of the festival on our shiny new TBA blog, at portlandmercury.com/tba. Patrick's got a good post up already about the Works and visual arts setups at Leftbank, including some photos of the stage and a floorplan. We've also got complete festival listings here, while lengthier pieces about some of the artists can be found here.