Dave Knows Portland

Archives for April 2009

April 23-26: Comedy Fest, Earth Day celebrations, and Beer

by Leave a Comment

dncrabfest_thumbI’m heading to the coast this weekend (there’s a good chance we’ll visit the Astoria Warrenton Crab, Seafood & Wine Festival while we’re there), but if I were staying in town I would be checking out some of these events:

  • The Bridgetown Comedy Festival started Thursday, and runs through the weekend.
  • Celebrate a slightly belated Earth Day with City Repair, Saturday, April 25th at Wallace Park (NW 25th and Quimby).
  • Oi, the Rose Festival is already upon us: the 3rd Annual 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade takes place Saturday too. It begins at 9 am at Eastport Plaza (4000 SE 82nd Ave) and travel north to Yamhill, finishing up in Montavilla.
  • The Hair of the Dog‘s annual Earth Day Dock Sale is Saturday as well, at 4509 SE 23rd Avenue – get there early to stand in line! Don’t bother with the HotD website, it’s not been updated in months. The Beer Here has all the details.
  • The Oregon Garden Brewfest is also taking place this weekend, Friday and Saturday in Silverton, Oregon. Details here.

A Portland Timbers Primer

by 4 Comments

The 2009 Portland Timbers start the season on the road this Saturday, April 25th. A several hundred strong contingent of the Timbers Army support group are making the trip North to Vancouver, BC to cheer on the boys. If you can’t make it to Canada, head to Beulahland (118 NE 28th Ave) – match starts at 7pm.

But don’t miss the home opener Thursday, April 30th at PGE Park – the Timbers face the Carolina Railhawks [wtf is a Railhawk?!].

TimbersThe Portland Timbers are one of the top supported teams in the United Soccer League. They play in the 1st Division (until 2011, when they join Major League Soccer as an expansion franchise).

By American standards, the Portland Timbers football club has a long and storied history, and sport one of the most boisterous, and best known, supporters groups in the country – The Timbers Army. The Timbers Army is a loose, grass roots, organization consisting of fans of all ages, professions, and political persuasions. The group receives no official imprimatur by the team, has no official leadership or structure, and primarily serves to have a hell of a time in the North End at Timbers matches. But the group also contributes to charities, organizes travel to away games, composes new songs, creates tifo, and has horrible head aches and a sore throat the day after games.

Required reading:

Timbers ArmyHow do you join the Timbers Army? Come to a match, buy a General Admission ticket, and follow the noise and scarves and green. The entire North End of PGE Park is unassigned seating. Just a few years ago the Army filled only the bottom rows of section 107, but now three entire sections, 106-108, can’t contain the group. Come on down! If you’re shy sit or stand on the periphery of these sections for a game or two learning the chants and songs and observing the ruckus. Unless you’re soulless, you will be drawn in.

Required Reading:

The Soccer City USA Message Board, aka Talk Timbers is the information headquarters for the Timbers Army (and really all things soccer in Portland, Oregon). Sign up for an account and contribute to the discussion. Keep up with the latest news, learn about and contribute to the latest chant or tifo efforts, and get to know your fellow Timbers Army members virtually. Many of the folks you’ll meet in the stands are better known amongst the group by their message board moniker than their real names.

Required Reading:

  • The best local Timbers blog is the Portland Timbers USL Blog at The Offside.
  • Read Mark Evans’ occasional Portland Timbers bloggage at Blogtown (archive here). Mark’s cautiously optimistic this year.
  • The Timber Mill is the best source for news, match reports, photos, and stats.
  • The Portland Timbers website has press releases, roster updates, and generally the kind of news you’d expect from an official organ of the team.
  • The 107 Report is the Timbers pod cast. Pre and post game analysis and interviews, music and hijinks.
  • Google Alerts are your friend. Set one up for “Portland Timbers” and get linkage emailed to you.
  • There are some old standbys, but new chants and songs are introduced fluidly all the time; the best way to learn them is to attend the games and keep up with the message board threads. Song sheets are occasionally handed out at games, and googling Timbers Army Chants brings up some good, but also a lot of outdated, info.
  • Official Facebook Group (h/t devlyn)
  • On Flickr (h/t devlyn)

[Commenters – send me more resources to add to this list!]

Gourmet Magazine loves Portland Waffles

by 4 Comments

gourmet_logoLast November Gourmet fawned all over the Portland restaurant scene.

This time it’s more specific – Giovanna Zivny investigates waffles in the City of Roses:

Waffles are big right now in this city. Cooks are turning out yeasted Liège-style waffles with bits of caramelized pearl sugar baked inside; classic versions with maple syrup; and fun new combos like bacon, Brie, and basil.

Read the rest: Eight Great Waffles in Portland

Update: Portland photographer Thomas Boyd, who took some of the photos used in the article, writes about working with Gourmet Magazine on his blog.

April 22: Happy Earth Day 2009!

by 2 Comments

organicblog100thumbnailHappy Earth Day everyone!

I’m doing my part for Earth Day by refraining from driving a car for an entire 24 hours.

This is actually quite easy because I don’t own one, but it’s the thought that counts, right?

I might also enjoy an organic beer after work.

You can find a list of local Earth Day events at the PDXGreen blog. There are some more events here too.

City Repair is sponsoring a veritable Earth Day extravaganza, with live music and other fun on Saturday, April 25th at Wallace Park (NW 25th and Quimby).

At BlueOregon Carla Axtman adds a few more: Earth Day! Our own little shout out to the home planet.

Organic Blog image stolen from here

New local blog about the global game: The World is Round

by Leave a Comment

worldisround300Shawn Levy, the Oregonian’s film critic, film blogger, and author of several books, is also a huge fan of soccer. Unfortunately Chelsea is one of the teams he supports. Nevertheless, his new blog is worth checking out.

It’s called The World is Round. Here’s Shawn explaining what it’s about:

While at home, I follow the Portland Timbers Football Club of the United Soccer Leagues First Division and the men’s and women’s teams of the University of Portland (Go Pilots!).

But I first fell in love with the global game of soccer, and my real interest is in the European and South American games and in the way that football is a universal language (like cinema, cuisine, fashion or music) that expresses local sensibilities, aesthetics and historical/economic/social/cultural conditions. (This blog takes its name, kind of, from David Goldblatt’s remakable global history, “The Ball Is Round,” one of the few sports books that can wear the name ‘encyclopedia’ with honor and the definitive global history of the game.)

This blog is designed to reflect that interest: I won’t be writing a word about the Timbers, the Pilots, the USL or MLS. Rather, I’ll chronicle and rant about goings on in England, Italy, Argentina, Japan and Africa. I’ll bear my prejudices (I LOVE Chelsea, Napoli, L’Olympique Marseille, Boca Juniors — the blue teams with criminal ties, in effect), but I won’t insist on them. And I’ll be especially keen on talking about the way the global game reaches us here in America: books, movies, web sites, cable/satellite/streaming matches, and so on.