NEMO Presents: Portland Looking Up -Artwork by Chris Donnelly

Join us Friday, August 7, 2009 for the opening reception of Portland Looking Up – featuring the paintings and carvings of artist Chris Donnelly.

Portland Looking Up will highlight Chris Donnelly’s work of paintings and carvings. The exhibit will focus on Donnelly’s travels through Portland, where he became captivated by the shapes of the industrial water towers, and their contrast to the neighborhoods below.

Discovering Portland by bicycle last summer, Chris noticed the shapes quietly looming overhead. Like floating ships or low-tech space ships at rest just above the neighborhoods, these water towers have a presence. As if monuments from a bygone era, they fade into the landscape despite their size and visibility. These giant vessels venerate our most precious resource. The striking blue sky of Portland summer provides the backdrop for these strong shapes. While strong and industrial looking, their round shapes and patina create a friendly character. Painting these pictures helped Chris get to know Portland.

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(l to r) @adognamedpants @pampelmoose @motorcoatdave – pic:Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal

The Portland Business Journal ran an article today about the head-to-head that the Portland Advertising Federation and their Rosey Awards show is having with the the Noseys, a non-federated, creative community inspired subversive start-up. The Noseys campaign began on Twitter and has been supported solely by the local creative community that objected to the Rosey Awards’ ‘talking smack’ campaign.

The Noseys is a clear example of how ‘owning the message’ online will always be a difficult task. In this case the PAF president, Jerry Ketel of local ad firm Leopold Ketel, embraced the subversive nature of the Noseys campaign and immediately embraced it. The Noseys viral campaign has now moved beyond the web as this article shows.

Synopsis – No money, grassroots, community support, Flickr and Twitter = Nosey Awards

@noseyawards @adognamedpants @motorcoatdave @pampelmoose

Aaahh the social web. As you can see in the image above, the Portland Ad Federation has an annual awards fest, The Roseys, that honors local agencies who provide the best creative work in marketing and advertising or, as a quick Google search returns, “Portland Advertising Federation: Celebrating 100 Years of Setting the Standard for Portland’s Creative, Design, and Media Community!” [I have a problem with that byline - can an advertising federation set 'the standard' or should the federation be setting standards?] Anyway, I digress.

So, as noted above, PAF has recently launched a web site created by Anthill Marketing for this year’s show, with the motto – “Nothing Says I’m Better Than You Like A Rosey” and “Our City Is Better Than Your City.” On the site you can ’spin a wheel’ [whoop-de-doo] and a needle comes to rest on such intelligent phrases as the ones below:

Austin: “Award winning copy in Austin: Yee-Haw”
Boulder: “There are two things Alex Bogusky can never take away from you: your pride and your Rosey”
Seattle: “Fast Company’s 2009 most creative city. How depressing is that?”
San Francisco: “Goodby this, Goodby that. Fuck Goodby”
Vancouver B.C.: “Remember, this is the city that brought you Alan Thicke and Lover Boy”

Well, well, well… [another side note: you've all heard of a band called The Weakerthans right?]

I’ll cut to the chase – I can see exactly what Anthill/PAF were trying to achieve – “edginess” “talking points” “hope this goes viral” etc etc. Basically they want a social media smackdown; bring it on, Portland will fight that fight, look at our logo we are raising the finger at you, yeah you San Francisco and you Goodby…. unfortunately it comes across as if we’re back in high school here, meanwhile not all of Portland’s creative community has embraced the tone of this campaign.

And so, along comes The Nosey Awards! Two Portland creatives [egged on by me I have to admit,] @adognamedpants and @motorcoatdave, created that site along with the Twitter name @noseyawards and the Twitter search hashtag #noseys. Finally things get interesting…

Here’s a fact – on Twitter no one owns a hash tag. For instance, here’s one #nooneownsahashtag. There, I just created it but I can’t own it because the Twitter community owns it by using it. And so it goes with #roseys and #noseys. Anthill and PAF cannot own #roseys and now that #noseys has come along and is being used by Twitter users who follow the thread, the two hash tags become joined at the hip…take a look at my TweetDeck grab below:

The Rosey Awards can’t shake off the Nosey Awards, they are now one and the same. Wherever the Roseys try to go on Twitter the Noseys will be right alongside. The Roseys and the Noseys can now duke it out all summer long. And this is a good thing. The Noseys are creating a ton of brand awareness for the Roseys – a rising tide lifts all boats. As people pile on this particular bandwagon, both pro and con, those little hash tags will be used thereby elevating the experiential awareness of the Roseys across an extremely wide arc. A campaign like this fits rather neatly into my idea of Authenticity and Authority on the Social Web.

The Roseys and the Noseys smackdown will be worth watching and I know it will create an interesting case study; it might even get more people to join the current 25 people on the Roseys FaceBook Group.

Bryce Kanights- Part 1 of 3 from Nemo Design on Vimeo.

Bryce’s work will be part of the Mixed Mania exhibition at Nemo Friday June 26th – details here.

Once again, Twitter leads me to a great article. It is hard to believe that some people still “don’t get” Twitter but when I use it as I feel it is best used, as a business tool, it is incomparable for exposing me to some great thought leaders. Unlike RSS feeds, by following certain people on Twitter I find the good stuff that’s important to me more directly.

Today’s example is via Jay Rosen @jayrosen_nyu – here’s his Twitter profile – “I teach journalism at NYU, write the blog PressThink, direct NewAssignment.Net, and try to grok new media. I don’t do lifecasting but mindcasting on Twitter.” In the somewhat twisted vernacular of 140 characters he tweeted the following – “Right on, @AmandaRMichel. “Redundancy is a network fact-checking tool.” See her essay on OffTheBus: http://tr.im/pJu3 Learn, @ivortossell.”

I followed the link. The article that was linked to at the Columbia Journalism Review is called Get Off The Bus and it is a fascinating overview of the future of journalism. As Amanda Michel writes – “OffTheBus (OTB) [is] a citizen-powered campaign news site co-sponsored by The Huffington Post and Jay Rosen’s NewAssignment, at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. Inspired by Timothy Crouse’s The Boys on the Bus, which chronicled a campaign’s ability to manipulate the press, we instructed our citizen journalists to steer clear of the horse race and the top-down coverage that dominates the mainstream press.”

For anyone interested in the decline of newspapers and how journalism will morph into the future you could do worse than follow Rosen. Insights like this are worth following him for – another tweet of his – “In 1976, 27% had a great deal of confidence in our press; in 2006, 4.5% did. During this time journalists became far more educated. So: WTF?”

Get Off The Bus is a must read too.

Follow me on Twitter and Nemo on Twitter.

Current.org on NPR’s Argo Project – To add depth to web news, stations try going ‘vertical’

Published in Current, June 10, 2009
By Karen Everhart

Looking to advance public radio’s standing as an online provider of news, NPR will try ramping up 14 stations’ local reporting capacity through a project that creates and distributes web-original content in specialized subject areas that the stations want to develop.

The Argo Project, as the network calls it, will help the stations expand coverage by creating “content verticals,” a new-media term for an ongoing online offering devoted to a particular subject.

Think of Planet Money — the NPR.org feature that persistently examines the mysteries of the global economic meltdown. Imagine how Boston’s WBUR could apply that reporting depth and doggedness to health-care reform stories on its CommonHealth blog, or what Triple A pioneer WXPN could do on the Philadelphia music scene, or how Oregon Public Broadcasting could clarify environmental policy.

Read the whole story here.

From PCPA web site.

David Byrne comes to raise the hair on your arms and the sweat on your palms. Eno and Byrne have made a new record, Everything that Happens will Happen Today, their first in 30 years—the formula was lost, but now it has been found. Byrne and Eno began their artistic relationship in the late seventies with 3 Talking Heads albums, followed by their groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Songs from all of the above will be performed in this concert, but not in that order.

David Byrne is well known as the musician who co-founded the group Talking Heads (1976–88) in New York. On record and in concert, the band was acclaimed by critics and audiences alike; more importantly, however, they have proven to be extremely influential. Talking Heads took popular music in new directions, both in terms of sound and lyrics, and also introduced an innovative visual approach to the genre. In 2002 Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2003, Talking Heads released a lovely boxed set which includes a DVD of all the band’s videos. In 2005 a Brick was released with the complete studio catalog on dualdisc with previously unreleased audio and video material.

Brian Eno is not performing on this tour

Nemo show “Beneath the Surface” 5/1/09 from Todd Templeman on Vimeo.

If you live or are visiting Portland, follow Nemo on Twitter for our event updates – @NemoHQ

From the Streetfilms site – “The first time you visit Portland, Oregon, the gaggles of cyclists streaming over the Hawthorne Bridge during rush hour is a sight you will never forget. It’s something other cities need to see and be inspired by.”

Black Lips- 4/24/09 Portland, OR from Nemo Design on Vimeo.

Exploding Car on Broadway from Front Ave. on Vimeo.

A Time For Lions: Artwork of Blake Britton and Jonny Fenix

PORTLAND, OR – Nemo presents A Time For Lions, with the artwork of Blake Britton and
Jonny Fenix, a photo exhibit opening on Friday, April 3, 2009 6-10pm. The show will run through
Monday, April 27, 2009 at Nemo: 1875 SE Belmont Street in Portland, OR. The opening
reception includes a special musical guest.

A Time For Lions, may be a call to action in response to the incomprehensible, unjust and
unconstitutional, which both Britton’s and Fenix’s works address. Though similar in its question, their
work is vastly different in application. Fenix takes a playful, satirical approach to the contradictions
of mass media and the realities they gloss over. While Britton’s works have more traumatic
manifestations of a world experience. Both artist implicate themselves, their privileges and their loses in their work, making more multidimensional pieces that invite the audience to question their role in these inconsistencies.

Blake Britton was born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1978. He has spent the time since observing the
relationships between humans and their existence while studying the craft processes of the past. His
current work he examines the social paradigms that exist within our own culture and brings into
question the complacency of free thinkers, entitled mongers, and the otherwise forgettable bravado
we encounter daily. The work serves him as both question and statement, as ambiguous as truth, as
heavy as feathers. He currently lives with his wife and cats in Portland, Oregon where he works a
freelance artist and prop maker for film. His work has shown in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Philadelphia,
and Portland among other places.

Jonny Fenix was born in Nacogdoches, Texas in 1973, and currently lives in Portland Oregon. He
walks the world with his daughters and wife and wonders why mankind isn’t. Why is man’s push to
extinguish rudely everything natural? Quietly screaming. From neither school nor the streets, he spent his boyhood in the desserts of Arizona thinking to himself, “this looks like the bottom of the ocean”. Researching everywhere, he attempts to create what his mind sees. Artwork, furniture, sculpture, letters to friends, they are the same and loaded. Soft but Sharp. Pretty and Painful. To say nothing is not possible. His work has shown in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and New York.

2009 Seen of Change at Artery! from Dave Allen on Vimeo..

Artery opened a skateboarding photography exhibit called The Seen of Change, curated by Bryce Kanights. Fellow artists in the show include Grant Brittain, Jon Humphries, Joe Brook, and Ryan Flynn. The Seen of Change opened on Friday March 13, 2009 at Artery, 4114 N. Vancouver Avenue in Portland.

American Blur: Photos by May Juliette Barruel and Tamar Monhait

Friday, March 06, 2009 6-10pm. Free admission. Complimentary Wine & Beer.

PORTLAND, OR — NEMO presents American Blur by May Juliette Barruel and Tamar Monhait, a photo exhibit opening on Friday, March 06, 2009 6-10pm. The show will run through Wednesday, April 01, 2009 at NEMO: 1875 SE Belmont Street in Portland, OR. The opening reception will include special musical guest, Sigmund Henry.

american pie. american eagle. american literature. american football. american cars. american dream. american english. american flag. american express. american dollar. american airlines. american idol. american frontier. american pitbull. american presidents. american blur. American Blur examines the images that make-up the “American” consciousness both individually and collectively. Barruel and Monhait exhibit work that creates the feeling of an overwhelming barrage of the social and physical landscapes identified as “American.”

May Juliette Barruel holds a master of arts degree in American Literature from l’Université de Paris Sorbonne Nouvelle and a professional certificate from New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts. A native of Grenoble, France and a resident of Portland, Oregon since 2000, she works as both an artist and curator. As an artist, she creates textile-based work that addresses the themes of nostalgia, obsession and loss in an intimate and often voyeuristic fashion. Her photography reflects the dreamy experience of her foreign eyes in America. As a curator, Barruel has been responsible for Stumptown Coffee Roasters’ downtown gallery since 2006. She has exhibited work by: Portland artists Ty Ennis, Paige Saez, Nicholas Pittman, Norm Sajovie and Alex Steckly; San Francisco photographer Jeff Warrin; and Los Angeles filmmaker William Haswell. Barruel also owns Nationale, a shop and gallery on Portland’s east side.

Tamar Monhait is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Portland, Oregon. She was born and raised in Chicago and has spent time between the two cities studying Electrical Engineering and Art. Her work explores process, ritual, music mathematics, technology, and time. She has participated in group shows at Disjecta, Hall Gallery, PNCA, Mark Woolley, Jace Gace, and the Newberg Gallery at the Glasgow School of Art. She also had solo exhibitions at Stumptown Downtown.
_ _ _
NEMO is a Portland-based integrated branding, marketing and design shop. NEMO’s capabilities include brand strategy, design, motion graphics, interactive development, film, video, print and photography production. NEMO is at 1875 SE Belmont Street in Portland, OR.

Image from Blog of Mr Tweet.

Recently on the blog known as MrTweet a question was posed – “How are you using Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter differently?”

If I had been asked I would have responded as follows: Those three networking platforms can be grouped into a historical context – Facebook past, Linkedin future/present, and Twitter future.

Facebook is the past. I have been a member of Facebook for what seems like an eternity but in fact it has been a little under two years. I have 1,472 “friends” as of writing and it’s fair to say that I only know about 15% of these “friends” very well. As a minor music celebrity I have attracted a lot of musicians, bands and labels. As Director, Insights & Digital Media at Nemo and as someone who speaks regularly at conferences on social media as well as online music issues, I have attracted those cohorts too. Just this past week my sister and brother who still reside in the UK joined Facebook and brought along with them various nephews, nieces, cousins, aunts and uncles. I now have no excuse for not being in touch with my family more regularly – technology shortens the distance between us. On Facebook that is not necessarily a good thing.

The author centre, tagged in a picture from the early 80’s

Facebook is historical white noise to me. I am constantly tagged in pictures and videos and more often than not in an unflattering light. There I am at a wedding in 1987 clearly drunk, and there I am in some unnamed establishment sitting next to some old girlfriend who is probably mortified to see that photo in such a public forum after all these years. [Insert landscape and memory essay here.] I have spent many hours un-tagging myself in photos and videos just to have someone tag them right back after I’ve moved along. One day soon I fully expect to find a video of myself dancing naked on a table at a party. And that’s what is wrong with Facebook for me; the complete lack of control of message, my message.

Facebook really is for college students who want to catalogue images and videos of their crazy drunken selves for all the world to see; images they will live to regret when applying for a job. Closing your account is the only means of control on FB.

For the more mature types on Facebook [apparently there has been a surge of new members in the 40+ demographic] there is the shock of discovering that all those folks in high school or college -the ones that you had left behind and wiped from memory – are now waiting in your email inbox as “friend” requests. There was of course a reason for leaving all that behind. I could go on. Clearly Facebook is best left to the young who actually seem to enjoy being stalked across social networks.

Linkedin is Future/Present. Linkedin I term as future/present because I use it to store current details about my career activities [present]. I have built a decent network of like-minded business people with whom I can share job opportunities and details of event activities and/or my role within Nemo [future client work.] There are useful forums where I can post a topical question and via the crowdsourcing effect of Linkedin I often receive a lot of very intelligent answers [I wouldn't try this on Facebook for e.g.]

Linkedin is a dry world whereas Facebook is a week at the beach in Mexico during Spring Break. Linkedin is quiet time in the study where you get things done. It really is all business.

This brings me to Twitter. Although millions of users are on the Twitter platform its audience is in the low millions compared to FB and LI. Many of my peers who open a Twitter account leave me a message soon after joining that invariably includes the phrase “I don’t get it…” Fair enough, but hey everyone what is it you want to get? If you want to have a tool that is the perfect blend of Facebook [without Spring Break] and Linkedin [without retiring to the study] then Twitter is for you.

Twitter put simply is micro-blogging. Used wisely Twitter gives your followers a real-time window into your social, business and working world down to the minute. Use it unwisely you will find yourself in a lonely corner of Twitter twittering to yourself with a dunces hat on. I put Twitter in the future column even though other social media types put it in the present because I believe that when it is used purposefully it has a transcendental power and therefore we will see it being used much more widely in future.

And by purposefully I mean by intent which then leads to a question – what are your goals when using social media? Remember, we have to put technology to one side, this is not about technology it is about doing something that comes very naturally to all human beings [sociopaths excepted,] – it’s called socializing. Technology has shortened the distance between us but it hasn’t changed why we socialize. It is worth noting that Twitter is arguably more successful than any other social network platform for helping to get offline groups organized around conferences and such – they are known as Tweetups. And for e.g., I know of someone tweeting upon arrival at PDX airport asking for a ride downtown who within minutes was picked up and given a ride from a fellow tweeter – Twitter can be that hyper-local.

On a grander global and political scale, Wikipedia notes: Twitter has been used as a “social justice tool” to connect groups of people in critical situations. On April 10 2008, James Buck, a graduate journalism student at UC Berkeley, and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested in Egypt for photographing an anti-government protest. On his way to the police station Buck used his mobile phone to send the message “Arrested” to his 48 “followers” on Twitter. Those followers contacted UC Berkeley, the US Embassy in Cairo, and a number of press organizations on his behalf. Buck was able to send updates about his condition to his “followers” while being detained. He was released the next day from the Mahalla jail after the college hired a lawyer for him.

Should you be arrested or simply lost just remember Twitter is always at your fingertips – text 40404.

So what’s different about Twitter vs Facebook?

Here’s an answer to that question based on my own use – I see Facebook as a vessel that contains your past – landscape and memory again. FB informs you of your friends’ activities via your email inbox when they change their status. One then links back to FB [unless you happen to always be on your FB account constantly refreshing your browser window,] logs in and reads the status or message. In other words many actions are required to keep in touch with your friends. On the other hand Twitter is a constant feed of information from those that you have chosen to follow. There is an important distinction here – on FB I choose to accept a “friend request” and your request is at the mercy of my keystroke, yes or no? If I key yes then we are “friends” and in my case that decision is made on a whim – I may or may not know you but we’ll see how it goes [sounds like a one night stand in college, right?]

The author tweets

With Twitter “friending” permission is not required – you can follow me if you like, I can follow you if I like. The decision to be or remain followed or un-followed is out of my hands or your hands. The content of our messages or tweets is all that makes us worthy [Think dunce Twittering in the corner..] and Twitter restricts those Tweets to 140 characters. And best of all, if I don’t check in for a day or two I miss the conversation and that’s fine – I am not obliged to be responding to some request ala FB. Nor do I get poked or bitten by a vampire and no one sends me Valentine bear requests. I mean, c’mon!

Twitter profiles are simple too. They consist of 160 character bios and links to the person’s web site. Twitter protocol suggests that having an avatar is more pro than not having one and being anonymous on Twitter creates suspicion.

Twitter has some user practices that are carefully followed unlike other social networking platforms. There is an etiquette in place that may have provided an atmosphere of decorum in what looks at first blush like a frenzied space. Here are some Twitter basics:

If you tweet using a company name, i.e @NemoHQ, don’t tweet only about Nemo – you have an obligation to tweet informative posts that have nothing to do with your company. You should share the sharing. You will gain more respect from your followers that way. Also your tweets will not be considered spam.

To reply to a Tweet that you like just reply to the persons address e.g. @pampelmoose This can keep the conversation moving as other people can look up that users profile to find the thread.

Re-Tweeting – Add the letters RT to the front of the original tweeter’s address and include the original message. For e.g. if it was a message from me that you are RT’ing you would put RT: @pampelmoose Again this keeps a conversation moving. By Re-Tweeting you are getting the conversation in front of your followers and they in turn can RT to their followers creating an exponential audience.

If you want to contact someone directly through Twitter you can Direct Message them as long as they are following you. At Twitter.com you add D in front of the username to message people directly – D @pampelmoose

When someone follows you on Twitter it is good practice to DM them and say thanks for the follow.

It’s ok to ask your followers to spread the word for you by re-tweeting. If they like your tweet content they will, if they don’t they won’t.

By using the # sign you can create search terms that other users can access. For example if I were to write about Nemo I would type #NemoHQ then users can click through to all of the conversations on Twitter that include #NemoHQ You can also monitor what the most popular conversations are by using the Twitter search link.

I recommend reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog as he has great insights into using social network platforms wisely including Twitter.

As this post was inspired by Mr Tweet’s questions we can now come full circle back to his blog and two comments on this subject that he highlighted:

Featured Comment by Heather Rasley

They’re vastly different platforms with vastly different goals. Here’s how I use each:

Facebook: Have been on it since undergrad, and have a large network. It was once more important to me, but now I don’t check in too often and don’t take it seriously.

Sometimes I’ll have wall exchanges with friends, which are almost exclusively based on inside jokes. Status updates are rarely related to anything I’m actually doing. I’ll add someone new when I meet them, if only to feel more “connected.”

Sometimes I’ll send messages to folks I don’t have other contact info for. It’s great for rekindling old/lost connections. I don’t share anything there (or anywhere) that I would be ashamed of.

LinkedIn: Purely professional, and not used often. Very rarely send messages or take part in other social activity, aside from adding new coworkers / associates / friends to my network and replying to any requests sent to me. Any actions I take there are explicitly toward the end of building my professional persona / furthering my career. To me, it feels cold. Interactions there typically aren’t very rich.

Twitter: Used for a blend of personal/social and professional use. I’m highly aware of the public and repostable nature of my tweets.

Content posted varies from where I am at the moment, to work-related links, to tweets about personal projects, to quotes and other links that I personally enjoy. I like it because it’s malleable.

I think people tend to understand that what they’re seeing is a glimpse of me as an entire person. @s and DMs are effective for quick, asynchronous communication between acquaintances.

I’ve met lots of new people in the real world through Twitter (”Oh, you like that, too? Let’s meet.” “Oh, you’re there, too? Let’s meet.”)

Featured Comment By Dean Kakridas

Here is how I currently utlize the ‘Big 3′:

Facebook: ‘rekindling and repurposing the past’.

Primarily used with close friends, family and colleagues I interface or have interfaced with in the physical world.

Twitter: ‘present day by day social stimulus for personal and professional betterment.’

Here, I am actively looking for key inputs to drive my lifestyle design while reciprocating the same with friends and followers.

LinkedIn: ‘all about future interactions with people and parts unknown‘.

This is the shiny and professional looking profile that stays consistent and concrete–hopefully a buoy and beacon for perpetual professional good standing and hope for financial prosperity.

So past, present and future aspects of my life are well served by these three bastions of digital social connectedness.

Although Twitter has been around since March 2006 it has recently erupted in popularity and is covered in the media almost daily. In other words Twitter has become the buzz word du jour and with that comes scorn and derision as well as support. Those that don’t get it dismiss it is a gimmick, and those that do, use it as a very useful business tool.

The social media arena is fast-moving and ever-evolving but the one constant is people. Without people there is no such thing as social media. As the Philippines-based web site Mindanao Examiner points out: …social media today is a pure mess: it has become a collection of countless features, tools, and applications fighting for a piece of the pie. and goes on to say We’re moving away from “users,” “customers,” and “shoppers”: social media is bringing back the human element to all digital interaction. People now deliberately seek meaningful connection, self-expression, and a relevant and receptive community.

That sounds a lot like Twitter to me.

Here’s a few stories I found on Twitter about Twitter in the media on February 21 2009:

Politico – Conversion of a Twitter Skeptic
The Oregonian – Portland Twitter’s the Oscars
Forbes – Travel Portland Creates Nation’s first Twisitor Center
COED Magazine – 406 Bands Who Twitter
Guy Kawasaki – How To Get ReTweeted
San Francisco Examiner – Twitter Helps You Make Friends With Shaq
Idaho Statesman – Visit Idaho Now on Twitter
The Orlando Sentinel – Twitter and NASCAR Go Together Like Kyle Busch and Auto Club Speedway
San Francisco Chronicle – Mayor Gavin Newsom has a Twitter Account

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More essays from Dave Allen – Thoughts On Social Media

Nemo recently completely overhauled the web site for Oregon’s historic Timberline Lodge and Wordpress.org featured the site as a showcase. Go Team Nemo or is that Meat Omen?

The house slide above Terwilliger

Hyper-local can be summed up easily as ‘all the news in your zip code.’ Wired Magazine Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson captured it nicely too in a post titled The Vanishing Point Theory of News. The idea of hyper-local is further validated by the success of sites such as Yelp and Outside.in; they drill down to the zip code level to bring us all the news that’s fit to print, or not as the case may be.

I was hiking with my dog in my Hillsdale neighborhood yesterday and some thoughts percolated to top of mind – one being that hyper-local is an awesome idea yet that thought was immediately tempered by the next; hyper-localized information means having easy access to all the news in our communities, we are made aware, therefore we have to accept responsibility for what happens in our communities. There will be no excuses.

I could have stopped right there, it would have been a good Twitter-esque moment. But no. I have actually been paying attention to what goes on in my neighborhood and it’s not always pretty..

From tragedy and despair to new thinking.

No vehicles, a blessing

My regular hike leads from my home in the residential neighborhoods of Portland’s West Hills, down narrow musty lanes and streets to Terwilliger Boulevard [known to locals as the Terwilliger Highway - you may already sense where this is going...]. Where Terwilliger crosses the SW Capitol Highway the road is now closed to vehicles but not to hikers and bicyclists. A few weeks ago a house slid down the hillside that I can see ahead of me taking two others off their foundations as it cascaded toward Terwilliger. Road closed. Despair for the families involved but thankfully no injuries.

The house collapse has created a chain of events that can be seen as an opportunity.

First and foremost, as vehicles can no longer drive along the boulevard it is possible for hikers and bikers to enjoy the serenity of walking Terwilliger’s tree-lined curves without inhaling exhaust fumes or having to be constantly vigilant of motorists speeding to work. Remove the automobile from the equation and we are suddenly back on the path to nature. Of course the traffic has to go somewhere; the detour funnels it through Hillsdale along the increasingly congested Capitol Highway, up through the dangerous cross-section at Sunset Blvd and the Wilson High School entrance, and on back down to the severed umbilical that is Terwilliger where commuters, one to each car, can speed off toward OHSU.

Here’s the opportunity for Hillsdale as I see it: make things difficult for drivers.

Two fairly recent developments in Hillsdale [in the last 4 years] changed the character of the neighborhood – one positively, one negatively. The Hillsdale Library, completed in 2004, is both architecturally and holistically a perfect example of how Hillsdale should be developed. The Watershed building on the other hand is just the opposite. And yet the library, as good as it is, is not perfect.

The library is a wonderful building to look at – a mix of modern eco-friendly materials, an open inviting design that allows complete transparency throughout and although it is a thoroughly modern building it has hints of neo-classical architecture, a good mix for housing the books within. Its problem? It has added to the areas automobile congestion. Drivers attempting to park on the streets or enter the parking lot below the building create mayhem just a half block from the already overloaded intersection at Capitol Highway and Sunset Blvd. And why the library’s underground parking entrance was placed right opposite the parking lots for the Hillsdale Post Office and Liquor Store is beyond me. The pedestrian crosswalk indiscriminately dropped at the corner of the library at the junction of SW DeWitt St has to be the most risky crossing in Hillsdale for the old and young alike.

Meanwhile the Watershed building at the southern end of Hillsdale’s strip malls is an eyesore. [Calling this building the Watershed is apt. Here's one definition of the name's meaning - A critical point marking a change in course or development.] There is nothing to love about this building. Although the ground beneath it was once a brownfield it was at least an open space that afforded a view across Bertha Court to the well-designed public housing just off Bertha Boulevard. The Watershed was perceived with a noble cause – a 51-unit senior affordable housing project – and is also an environmentally-friendly building but it is architecturally dull and has a ludicrous light tower perched on its NW corner that proclaims Hillsdale – such a folly and a waste of money. A retail condominium has lain empty since the buildings’ completion and the low retaining wall that runs along Bertha Court opposite provides a perfect sanctuary for the nicotine-addicted residents to sit and smoke throughout the day. Smoking is a choice and I’m fine with that but it’s a shame that as our local children walk to school they must pass these smokers. This building does not represent the future of Hillsdale.

Back to the problem of cars.

Another Hillsdale development with potential is the advent of the local Farmer’s Market. Along with the Food Front Cooperative taking over the old Wild Oats market, the local community now has easy access to organic foods which in many cases are locally grown. Yet once more the local “planners” failed to estimate the amount of traffic that the Farmer’s Market would create. The entrance to the market across from SW Sunset Blvd and Capitol Highway is now as congested and dangerous to pedestrians on Sundays as it is on weekdays. I don’t see this as progress; the car has dominion over the pedestrian and bicyclist in Hillsdale. Those that think this way will reduce our vibrant urban community to that of a bland, automobile-saturated sprawl reminiscent of the worst of any of Portland’s suburbs. Why doesn’t the Farmers Market and its boosters provide shuttle buses, bike racks and safe pedestrian access?

Shopping local, supporting growers and eating locally grown organic foods are all fine acts but not at the expense of clogging up the community with more cars. Talk about carbon footprint.

To add salt to the wound our hyper-local newspaper the Southwest Community Connection, the same paper that insists on calling the strip malls along Capitol Highway ‘Hillsdale Town Center,’ recently had an article titled ‘A New Look For The Heart of Hillsdale.’ This ‘new look’ according to the architecture and planning firm SERA is a way to “strengthen the qualities of what is Hillsdale” and “to over time create a more focused activity center or plaza.” Business folks in the district are all over it. As happens all too often in Hillsdale, business and automobiles trump residents and community.

The plan as presented by SERA is to create three high-density commercial and residential zones by extending roads through the middle of what is known as the “Sunset Triangle,” some green space that is bordered by Sunset Blvd, Capitol Highway and SW 18th Drive. But don’t worry, the designers “imagine the roads to be tree-lined boulevards with a European air.” If they truly imagined a “European air” they would understand that in Europe buses, light rail, pedestrians and cyclists predominate in towns and villages and many cities – not the automobile. The ‘European’ tag is just pure marketing fluff, an attempt to soften the blow that this development would create in the community.

I presume SERA has already asked the question of Hillsdale’s residents, [although I wasn't included], of what exactly are the strengths of Hillsdale that this phrase invokes – “strengthen the qualities of what is Hillsdale.” If they had asked me I would have these words for its qualities – urban, green, democratic, aesthetic, forward-thinking, family-friendly, bike and pedestrian-friendly, educated, local, supportive….. If they had asked me of my dislikes they would include the ugly buildings that dot Capitol Highway such as the abandoned gas station next to Baskins Robbins, the bizarre architecture that houses the Mexican restaurant Casa Colima, Starbucks [Baker and Spice next door is local and has better coffee,] the traffic, lack of bike lanes and most importantly the nightmare that is the junction at SW Sunset and Capitol Highway – will it take a pedestrian or bicyclist’s death to make someone pay attention?

Nature has a way of dealing. Capitol Hwy in December

Hillsdale simply does not need more businesses and homes crammed into its green spaces. It is hypocritical folly to suggest that the very same decisions that create suburban blight should be made on behalf of Hillsdale’s residents. Hillsdale also does not need to create more roads for automobiles. In fact the community should be doing the exact opposite and work on creating more bike and pedestrian-friendly streets in our neighborhoods.

Here’s a quick example – SW Sunset Blvd. The city should remove all the “traffic calming speed bumps” as they do not work. Drivers have discovered that they are low enough that by speeding up they can clear them more conveniently! The city should put in either stop signs at every junction or traffic circles to slow cars down. It could also narrow the street by putting in chicanes that slow traffic by funneling and are used very efficiently in Europe. Pedestrians and bicyclists should be considered more important than cars…

The Hillsdale District, as it stands today, is a model community. It has the potential to be as strong a destination as the Hawthorne, Clinton and Belmont Districts in SE Portland. It is an urban oasis with charm and character yet it is being blighted by the automobile and wrong-headed thinking such as the idea of under-grounding our utility cables. The money that would be spent on a pet project like that, one that benefits no one, should be put toward a holistic and sensible urban community plan. One that reduces traffic and improves the safety and quality of life for Hillsdale’s residents and those that are attracted to the district as they go about their activities that support local businesses. Filling in our green spaces with more roads and buildings, even if they were “tree-lined boulevards with a European air,” is simply wrong. Cars should come last.

Surely the community of Hillsdale understands that creating more roads and streets for vehicles that burn scarce fossil fuels is a redundant idea – an idea that is not aligned with Hillsdale today nor one that should be in its future.

[where: 6344 SW Capitol Highway, OR 97239]

Portland electronic duo, Little Hunks

Social Cache is but one window into the world of Nemo HQ. The multi-talented Nemo designer, fashionista and blogger Nubby Twiglet and myself post up to Social Cache as often as time will allow between posting to our respective blogs NubbyTwiglet.com and Pampelmoose. The Nemo blog world also includes StudioNemo and Roger Bridges’ Strange|Beautiful and all these blogs feed the Nemo cultural hopper.

Another spin-off is the Pampelmoose New Music Hour that airs twice a week on 94.7FM KNRK, Portland’s biggest alternative radio station. The show is dedicated to bringing the on-air audience as much of the best new music we can squeeze in to an hour as well as playing as much local Portland music as we can. All the songs are then posted to Pampelmoose and archived for streaming or downloading.

This is the final 2008 Pampelmoose edition of the New Music Hour on Portland’s 94.7FM and it’s time to take stock of all the great music that I’ve been able to play from Portland’s vibrant music scene. I have 14 songs from some of Portland’s finest. They are by no means ranked in any order, nor are they songs necessarily from ‘08 releases, just a selection from many songs that I could have played. The choice was difficult but having room for only 14 bands forced my hand. To those that didn’t make the list be assured that in ‘09 you will be played on the show and maybe the list will be longer next year and I can accommodate more bands…just keep the great music coming.

Hockey – Song Away
Starfucker – Holly
Little Hunks – Came To Party
Lackthereof – The Columbia
Holy Sons – The Feral Kid
Peter Broderick – With The Notes In My Ears
The Mint Chicks – 2010
Red Fang – Reverse Thunder
The Shaky Hands – We Are Young
James Low – American Dream
The Wherewithals – The Point
Bark Hide and Horn – Change It
Loch Lomond – Blue Lead Fence
Microfilm – Fox And His Friends

Stream or download all the previous Pampelmoose 94.7FM shows here.

It’s getting goofy ’round these parts… StudioNemo

This must be one of the better exit letters I have read. Completely transparent and open without any finger-pointing or playing of the blame game. Everyone in business today should take note of how gracious being radically transparent can actually be. Leather Storrs took the high road and should take a bow. Many people in business and politics today can learn a lot from this simple statement.
[Found on PortlandFoodandDrink.com]

“Rocket will close Saturday, November 8th. Economic pressure and critical dissatisfaction combine to make continuing on our current course impossible. We are, however, resolved to keep our beautiful space and our magical garden for as long as we can. To that end, we intend to become a private venue. We hope that you will consider Rocket for your functions: holiday parties, birthdays, receptions, hip-hop throw downs, pinochle tournaments and any other events you can imagine. We will also sponsor several events of our own: wine dinners, thematic menus and roof produce driven dinners. Despite the current national vogue of finger pointing, I’m afraid the responsibility for our failure lies squarely with me. In an attempt to wow and titillate I forgot the fundamentals of a pleasant dining experience: thoughtful, delicious food served expertly. In a fever for molecular gastronomy and cute, clever combinations, I alienated customers and critics. Bring on the humble pie.

This is not a tragedy. Employees will be paid, debts will be honored and there will be no absconding with cash. There are no investors left holding an empty bag. The ripples of our closure are contained.

We would like to extend an invitation to you to join us one last time in the coming weeks. We will host a tequila dinner on November 5th . That will be fun. Other than that we will continue our dinner service, Tuesday through Saturday, from five until whenever. There is still plenty of produce to pick and liquor to drink. We’d love to see you in Rocket and we hope you’ll keep us in mind in the future. Please forward this message to anyone who might find it helpful and remember to subscribe to our newsletter.

Sincerely,

Leather Storrs”

I wrote on this blog back in March about the success of plastic and paper bag elimination in Ireland. The government there made it a priority to reduce the use of these bags and worked with business to make it happen. Here’s my blog post on the subject.

The campaign was incredibly successful even though it meant adding a tax penalty to both shoppers and grocery store owners to make it work. It has now become as socially unacceptable to be seen using plastic grocery bags in Ireland as it would be to be caught smoking in a maternity ward. It is not hard to switch peoples social behaviour when it is seen to be for a social good. It was made clear to the Irish that the amount of energy that went into manufacturing plastic bags, that were all destined to end up in landfills anyway, was not sustainable. Paper bags were not the answer either as they are just as wasteful of natural resources as their plastic counterpart. reusable shopping bags were the answer and the Irish bought that argument.

The Irish now pack reusable bags in their cars and offices and carry them with them on buses when they go shopping. It’s simple and effective and it is a small step toward energy independence. Portland can do it.

Nemo teamed up with Fuel TV to promote their show Dew Underground about the Dew Tour in Portland. We came up with the dewy and sticky idea of collaborating with Voodoo Doughnuts to create the Mountain Dew doughnut, known from here-out as the Voo Dew!

Voo Dew Doughnut – Nemo and the Dew Tour from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Nemo’s Chris Hotz explains the process that leads up to a special doughnut – it ain’t simple…

i suppose i should let bare my past for this project. you see, from the time i was 16 thru 23, i was on a strictly mountain dew diet. i didn’t drink water, or milk, or beer, or god forbid, coke products, ONLY mountain dew. at one point the Dew people told me i was drinking so much it was bad for my heart and i needed to stop. instead i asked for some coupons and like good americans, they gladly obliged. so with that in mind, this collaboration was actually pretty easy to come up with. the AST Dew tour only happens in a few very lucky cities, portland being one of only five venues. so as a city, we’re pretty fortunate.. we started to think about how lucky portland is to have such a cool and creative culture. those, “Keep Portland Weird” stickers are for a reason. as far as portland-centric institutions, Voodoo Doughnuts is one kick ass independent doughnut shop. i mean seriously, a maple bacon bar, genius… it almost seems like they make doughnuts that they dare you to eat. so as we started brainstorming, we threw out the idea of a Mountain Dew flavored doughnut. and honestly, i was thinking more about the color and the presentation, but when we contacted the VooDoo guys, they we’re all about getting the flavor JUST right. boiling down Mountain Dew into a syrupy reduction, lemon lime additives, caffeine powders, adding lemon sprinkles, laboring the color of the frosting. the first taste tests were unbelievable. the second test brought back memories from my childhood. damn i’m thirsty.

Mark Lewman our CD at Nemo who works on the Nike 6.0 brand came up with the idea of freezing the 6.0 shoes into blocks of ice, so Nike found a rad ice sculptor guy to come out and carve an 8 ft tall Mogan Mid. See below.

Then the kids had at ‘em to see who could be the fastest to thaw out the shoes and win a free pair.

More pics here.

Stop 3 of the AST Dew Tour is in Portland this weekend. And if you are 21+ you can come to the AST After Party – click here for info and to RSVP.

Earlier this year, Portland enhanced its bike-friendly status by becoming the first US city to be designated a Platinum-level Bicycle Friendly Community. In 2006, then Commissioner now Mayor-elect, Sam Adams had launched a nine-part strategy to win that status and called together advocates and community leaders to work toward achieving the goal. Mission accomplished as they say.

There is a problem though. In Portland and across the nation as more people are affected by the high price of gas and switch to the bicycle for their commute tensions are rising between car drivers and cyclists. Along comes a timely new book – ‘Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do’ by Tom Vanderbilt which has been reviewed by Mary Roach, who admits to a map-reading-while -driving induced fender bender in Portland a few years ago. Reading this book may help understand the psyche of the person behind the wheel – human nature is at fault.

For anyone interested in the way traffic flows and why you find yourself sitting in many traffic jams this book seems to be a good read. What follows are bullet points that I’ve pulled from Roach’s review:

01. Traffic jams are not caused by flaws in road design but by flaws in human nature.
02. Gawkers cause a 12.7% increase in traffic slowdown after a crash and the rubberneckers themselves are so busy gawking that they often slam into the car in front of them as it brakes for the driver to get a better look.
03. Drivers will slow down to look at anything, even a couch dumped in a roadside ditch.
04. Starbucks places stores with drive-through lanes on opposite sides of the road to spare drivers the “agony of having to make a left turn during rush hour.”
05. In a 15 block area around UCLA drivers logged on an average day 3600 miles looking for a place to park.
06. Add a new highway and drivers will defect from others to clog it up.
07. Americans won’t accept congestion charging to help reduce traffic.
08. They will accept a surcharge for peak-travel time hotel rooms and airfares though.
09. We think we are good drivers and that’s a problem as we base that on the number of accidents we’ve been in instead of on the number of accidents we narrowly avoid.
10. In ancient Rome, Caesar declared a daytime ban on chariots and carts as traffic was so bad!

And how does this affect bicyclists? Well, Vanderbilt’s research has discovered that drivers pass bicyclists more closely on a road with bike lanes than on one without. And pedestrians can’t win either – more people are killed while crossing in crosswalks than while jaywalking.

The solution appears to be that we should separate cars, bicyclists and pedestrians and also implement a congestion charge on drivers to reduce the amount of cars in cities. Portland seems to be the best candidate for this experiment. Go Sam.

Nike 6.0 at StudioNemo from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Video of Josh Letchworth shooting 6.0 athletes Ben Horan, Nigel Sylvester and Trevor Jacob at StudioNemo.

Art 4 Life at StudioNemo from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

There’s never a dull day at Nemo but when kids come in the energy level always kicks higher. Here’s a bunch of kids from Art4Life art camp putting together a poster for their class with the StudioNemo crew.

Here at Nemo, we were lucky to be graced by the VP of Business Development at Ning, Rachel Masters on Friday (read Dave Allen’s account here). What’s notable about Ning’s web-based platform is that it that allows you to create your own social network for anything and is fully customizable in almost every way imaginable.

One of the most beneficial elements of Ning I discovered is the option to use your own domain name. In essence, Ning can be built to function as your main website and many corporations and bands have leveraged this option with fantastic results. The band Good Charlotte uses Ning as their main site while Saturn has created an official gathering place for fans and employees of their line of cars.

Speaking of Saturn, they are a sponsor of the Bravo hit show, Project Runway. Now on its fifth cycle, this season features Portland alum Leanne Marshall of the chic Leanimal label. Though she first auditioned for the show in 2007, waiting out a year turned out to be to her advantage. She took the downtime to further develop her point of view and refine her designs and it shows in the crisp yet voluminous designs.

It’s true that Portland is a hotbed of creative talent. And, as the success of Ning and other social networking platforms have shown, connecting with like minded individuals needn’t be a chance encounter any longer. Whether you’re a fan of Saturn cars, Project Runway (or anything else for that matter), the odds are that a social network is only a click away.

An oil rig off the coast of California

Here in Portland I am seeing signs that the price of gas is making a difference in how people get around the city. Bus ridership has spiked, there are less cars on the road during the commuting hours and bicyclists seem to be everywhere. Yesterday as I walked my dog along the banks of the Willamette River, I noticed far more sailboats than the motorized variety. Maybe the price of gas is making Americans think twice before getting into the car? Maybe.

I carpool to the Nemo warehouse and it’s still a drag to see that of those cars that are on the road I’d guess that 95% of them are occupied by only the driver. And don’t get me started on the hypocritical Prius owners who fly past at speeds that exceed the legal limits. And on Sunday’s the Hillsdale Farmer’s Market is filled with people buying fresh, locally-produced organic food while the parking lot and the surrounding streets are crammed with their cars. None of this makes sense. If you’re concerned perhaps you can leave a comment on their blog.

It seemed that once gas went through $4 a gallon and the $100 fill up entered the public’s economic equation we’d see a marked change in the way we would use our energy. Unfortunately that’s really not the case.

Portland is one of the more environmentally-friendly and green cities in North America. If we can’t break the automobiles stranglehold on our city then what hope for other cities that are less friendly toward buses and bicyclists? Portland has also shown strong support for ending the war in Iraq. If we disagree with the Iraq war, and the inevitable future Middle East wars that will be fought over oil and water resources, what will we Portlanders do at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil?

I argue that if we are unwilling to drastically reduce our gasoline use then it is hypocritical of us to oppose off-shore drilling in California and drilling and exploration in Alaska. We simply can’t have our cake and eat it.

Today, President George W. Bush plans to lift a presidential ban on offshore drilling to combat soaring energy prices, a largely symbolic move unlikely to have any short-term impact on the high cost of gasoline.

Who will stand in his way this time?

Related Post: I’m Sick of the Co-Opting of Green

Well not exactly. Portland, Or, the home of Nemo and thousands of cyclists has a problem it seems. The price of gas, the economic slump and the fact that Portland is a cyclists dream city has led to an uptick in the amount of folks biking everywhere. Inevitably they run into vehicles, and I’m speaking both literally and figuratively.

It’s causing a lot of friction. Case in point being this video of a fracas, that took place outside our offices here at Nemo, between a motorist and a cyclist caused, according to the driver, by the cyclist not obeying traffic lights. The biker literally attacks the guys car with his bike.

On the local blogs both sides have weighed in about who’s right and who’s wrong but there is only one solution – car-free streets for cyclists and pedestrians [who are treated worse than cyclists by drivers if you ask me.]

Today I became the lucky winner of a DB Clay Feather wallet. The fine people from DB Clay came by the Nemo Design offices and dropped off four wallets and I was able to claim mine, the one pictured above. To paraphrase the old T-shirt adage, never under-estimate the power of a free wallet. I’m now a customer for life.

Cool Hunting dropped the word on Portland’s Rock Camp For Girls documentary. How both of us missed the fact that it opened March 7th is a crime! We here at Nemo at least can take credit for hosting Shayla Hason’s – Hope Is A Muscle photo exhibition starring the Rock Camp For Girls kids.

Most reviews of the 2007 documentary “Girls Rock,” might mention it’s a tearjerker (it is) or praise it for being uplifting (also true), but none so far mention the overwhelming urge you will get to take out your checkbook to support the cause. Arne Johnson and Shane King (two seasoned SF-based documentarians and longtime pals) tell the story of four girls, all dealing with their own struggles in adolescence and gender, over the course of their time at Portland, OR’s Rock Camp for Girls. The film deftly relates their struggles and giggles, unapologetically delving into the issues without preaching and with surprising honesty.

We highly recommend you check it out for yourself. To find out screening dates and locations, check out their site. (You may want to check their blog also as it seems to be updated more regularly.) Also, donate!

Weezer cover Radiohead’s Creep, live in Portland from Dave Allen on Vimeo.

Weezer came to Portland last night and rounded up 200 local Portland musicians and fans via a radio call-out from KNRK 94.7, our local alternative radio station. A few of us here at Nemo got the tip so we headed off down to the Oaks Park Fairground pavilion to watch everyone stream in and learn the songs, practice a little and then have a great time performing with their favorite band. The video here is the band and their fans performing Radiohead’s ‘Creep’.

In an age when it is difficult for bands to break through the white noise of popular music culture, Weezer have come up with an interesting idea – tour up the west coast dropping in on radio stations and inviting their fans to come jam with them. They record each nights’ performance and then they will select the best cuts for a limited edition CD to follow. Judging by last night’s crowd it’s the perfect way to engage directly with your fans in an unassuming and non-pretentious way.

Sign Language, 2007 by Amy Yoes. A sculpture for “L.I.C., NYC.” Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY.

All The Way From NYC!
Amy Yoes Will Lecture About Her Work!
The Public is Invited (it’s free, tell your friends)
Monday June 2nd, 7:30pm Sharp!
PSU 5th Avenue Cinema Room 92
510 SW Hall St. at SW 5th Ave

Amy Yoes has been interested in ornament and architectural space for many years. Her recent projects have become more three dimensional and have involved animation and light. Her work has been exhibited in L.I.C., NYC, Socrates Sculpture Park; 50,000 Beds, a project by Chris Doyle on view at Artspace, New Haven, CT; the Islip Museum’s Carriage House, Islip, NY; and Michael Steinberg Gallery, New York, NY.

She created a wall drawing, Sightseers Folklore, for Wave Hill’s exhibition Out of Bounds in 2005. Her work has been exhibited at Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfiled Hills, MI; Hollins University, Roanoke, VA; and The Peppermil Fireside Lounge, Las Vegas, NV. She has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She earned her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

ABOUT PMMNLS
PMMNLS visiting artists are interviewed each Monday on Art Talk AM on the Radio: 12-1 PM. Find it at 98.3 FM on the PSU campus, streaming at KPSU.org and available at arttalkam.blogspot.com.

Portland State University’s Art Department offers free public lectures every Monday night of the school year. This is the twenty-sixth lecture in the PMMNLS for this season. The PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series is supported in part by PICA, Reed College, PNCA, Lewis and Clark College, and PSU’s Department of International Studies and Ben Rosenberg Studio. If you or your organization are interested in becoming a supporter of the lecture series please let us know.

What do you say, Portlanders? We’ve got some fancy new containers but what are we going to do with all those leftover yellow plastic bins? One container can be used for glass, as everything else gets tossed into the new blue thingy with the wheels, but what about the rest of the yellow containers? Where do THEY go? Being that we are one of the leading green cities of the world, surely we should be able to think of something more creative to do with them then simply tie them together like plastic sausage links and float them across the river to our brothers and sisters in Vancouver, Washington.

So what do YOU think we should do with all the extra yellow bins? Whoever comes up with the best idea should win some sort of new Pampelmoose prize that we invent just for you. Hm. We need a good prize. I don’t know…perhaps…the 563 promo cd’s settling on Dave’s desk right now? Yes…you could recycle them for him! I mean, how long could it possibly take to shred 563 cd’s?

As for me, I vote for building a big yellow Qbert environment in the middle of Pioneer Courthouse Square. Yes…that would be awesome. Now gimme my 563 cd’s!

Posted by Jon Ragel

A sad day for the folks at Nau. A message on their website today says that they have run out of capitalization and under the current credit climate can not raise any more investment.

Cool stuff in the mail at Nemo today – that box pictured above. What I’d call the best business card yet, an audiobox from Jason Edwards at Newcrackle. Jason offers up sound design, foley and adr plus broadcast mixing. All your sound production needs in other words.

Portland Powerhouse!
Marie Watt Will Lecture About Her Work!
The Public is Invited (it’s free, tell your friends)
Monday April 14th, 7:30pm Sharp!
PSU 5th Avenue Cinema
510 SW Hall St. at SW 5th Ave

Marie Watt (born 1967) is a contemporary artist living and working in Portland, Oregon. Part Seneca, Watt has created work centered on contemporary Native American themes. She holds a B.A. in art from Willamette University and a Master’s Degree from Yale University. She has also studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts.

Watt’s art is primarily lithography and sculpture. For her sculpture, she uses a variety of materials, including everyday objects, as well as textiles, alabaster, slate, and cornhusks. In 2002, her stone sculpture Pedestrian was installed along the east bank of the Willamette River in Portland. Her work has appeared in several exhibitions in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

In 2004, as part of the Continuum 12 artists series, an exhibit of her work opened in New York City and the George Gustav Heye Center of the National Museum of the American Indian. The exhibit includes Blanket Stories, a sculpture made of two towers of wool blankets, with each stack sewn together with a central thread. The blankets are ones Watt collected over several years, including many Hudson’s Bay point blankets that were given to Native Americans in trade by the Hudson’s Bay Company during the 19th century.