Archives for June 2011

SE 7th Ave Block Party (15-June-2011)

June 14, 2011 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

Join the Pacific Pie Company, Vie de Bohème Winery, and Deco Distilling for a SE 7th Avenue Block Party this Wednesday, June 15, 2011 starting at 4pm.

The neighborly businesses (all situated between Hawthorne and Clay on SE 7th) will feature special deals during the block party:

Pacific Pie Company: $2 Aussie beers + sparkling wine, $3 sausage rolls

Deco Distilling: 2 free tastes in their tasting room

Vie de Boheme: Sangria for $4, 1/2 off a wine flight, 20% off a case of wine, and free live music at 7:30pm

The occasion: The grand opening of Deco (1512 SE 7th), the grand re-opening of Pacific Pie Company (1520 SE 7th), and the grand opening one-year-removed of Vie de Bohème (1530 SE 7th Ave).

Via Make Me Some Pie

Portland Pride Festival and Parade (June 17-19, 2011)

June 14, 2011 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

Portland’s official LGBTQ Pride Parade and Festival, Portland Pride, takes place Friday, June 17 through 19, 2011.

The theme of this year’s event is “Make It Happen!” – from the press release:

“We know that real lasting change comes from the bottom up. With our 2011 theme, ‘Make It Happen,’ we honor the work of activists everywhere, from the young person taking that brave first step in coming out to those who exercise their right to peacefully resist injustice,” stated Pride Executive Board member Mark Santillo. “Each of us has the power to effect change in our own lives and to make a difference in the lives of others. This year’s theme challenges our community to make that critical decision to act.”

The Portland Pride Parade takes place Sunday, June 19 – kicking off at 11:30pm.

The Waterfront Festival runs Friday though Sunday and features entertainers (schedule here), vendors, and more.

Find more information at the official site. And visit qPDX.com, Queer news, views and events for Portland for Pride coverage, including the indispensable Portland Pride – A How-To-Guide (sorta).

Offbeat Belly Dance (17-June-2011)

June 14, 2011 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

Every third Friday of the month the Blue Monk (3341 SE Belmont) hosts the Offbeat Belly Dance collective, a club rocking, good timing, genre-defying gang of badass belly dancers.

This friday, June 17, 2011, is no exception – the Offbeat Belly Dance collectives invites you to Offbeat Belly Dance! Fun! Fabulous! Freeee Show! ZOMG!

This month you shall thrill to the scintillating shimmies of our returning champions…

Vee!
Ziggy!
Karissa!

You will be agog, yea verily agog, I tell you, in the wonder of…

Grace Constantine, of Deviant Dance!
Erika Ryn, of Bridgetown Revue!

Plus more players to be named later! (So much suspense! Who can it be? You simply must attend and see!)

As always, the show starts at 7(ish)

As always, the show is gonna be made of equal parts glitter, charisma, madskillz, and awesomesauce!

And as always, the show is freeeeeeeee!

Bring your friends! Bring your party hat! Bring your dancing shoes and your fancy pants! Most of all, noble Portlanders, bring your fabulous self, for lo, it will not be nearly so fun without you there.

Viva Offbeat! Yiyiyi!

Join Karissa, the Ringleader of Offbeat Belly Dance (pictured to the right), and the other fabulous dancers at the show Friday night.

Individually, the members of the Offbeat Belly Dance collective perform at shows throughout the Portland area, but on the 3rd Friday of the month they come together at the Blue Monk to perform in a rollicking belly dance revue. One of the things that makes it offbeat, is that the dancers choose whatever kind of music they like. Karissa tells me this has included traditional Middle Eastern music, zydeco, AC/DC, Strauss, The Pogues, hip hop, jazz, blues, Old Crow Medicine Show, the Spice Girls, and just about everything else.

The shows are free, and go from about 7pm until 9:30pm.

Visit OffbeatBellyDance.com for more information. You can also become a fan on Facebook, and follow the genre-defying, good timing gang of belly dancers in Portland OR, w/Karissa as ringmaster/carnival barker/propagandiston on Twitter at @OffbeatBelly

Photo credit: Offbeat Belly Dance

SCRAP Carnival (18-June-2011)

June 14, 2011 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

The 2011 SCRAP Carnival takes place Saturday, June 18 from 10am to 2pm at the SCRAP parking lot (2919 NE MLK Jr.).

SCRAP (The School & Community Reuse Action Project) is a non-profit organization with the mission to inspire creative reuse and environmentally sustainable behavior by providing educational programs and affordable materials to the community.

SCRAP has a beautiful and organic history. In 1998, it was founded by teachers who couldn’t bear to throw away good art materials and supplies left over from school projects. Instead, they transported the reusable materials to A Teacher’s Space, a resource center for educators in the Portland area. Other teachers began bringing in materials that they no longer needed in their classroom. Still others used the materials left over from other teachers’ projects to create their own projects. They took it a step further and began soliciting materials from businesses in the area.

The carnival features games, activities, prizes and food – kids of all ages are invited and welcome.

Bring change (i.e. nickels, dimes, and quarters) to join in on the activities.

All proceeds benefit Camp SCRAP scholarships.

June 14, 1903: Flash Flood Devastates Heppner, Oregon

June 14, 2011 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

The name “Willow Creek” sounds innocent enough, and usually in June the stream is merely ankle deep as it meanders through the town of Heppner, Oregon. But on June 14, 1903 thunderstorms in the surrounding rolling hills fed the trickle until it became a raging torrent.

An ominous roar–not thunder, not wind, a grinding, terrifying roar– the likes of which the community had never heard before; a swirling, crashing, breaking and tearing, an onrush of leaping, darting and tearing, crushing tumbling wall of water. shrieks of terror, screams, moans and anguished prayers in an indescribable pandemonium–and the dead and dying were buried beneath water and mud and debris, and strewn in the underbrush at the edge of a flood for two miles down Willow Creek. The destruction continued one awful hour.

A cloudburst about one mile south of the city had piled up a wall of water 200 yards wide–to sweep without warning down the narrow gorge, leaving death and destruction in its path (The East Oregonian, June 12, 1953 – via Heppner Chamber of Commerce).

247 people were killed in the flood. Two-thirds of the houses were destroyed. Less severe floods have occurred since 1903, and in the early 80s the Willow Creek Dam was built to mitigate the possibility of future floods.

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