Dave Knows Portland

Archives for September 2011

Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 3 #3: Civil Defense Part 2 – A Day Called X

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Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 3 #3Kick Ass Oregon History is the latest series of podcasts from the enthusiastic historians behind ORHistory.com.

Volume 3 #3 dropped yesterday – Civil Defense Part 2 – A Day Called X:

In 1957 CBS showed a documentary by Canadian filmmaker Harry Rasky about Civil Defense in PDX. Narrated by actor Glen Ford, if featured, amongst other things a look into Portland’s Doomsday Bunker beneath the soils of Rocky Butte.

Featuring the insights of Portland Mayor Sam Adams!

The brains behind this Kick Ass project are the crack hustlers of Oregon History Doug Kenck-Crispin and Andy Lindberg. Doug is a graduate student studying Public History and Pacific Northwest History at PSU, and Andy, though a Portland native, is currently working as an actor in New York City. Doug does most of the research and writing for the podcasts with input from Andy, who voices the broadcasts with a thespian’s flair.

With the Kick Ass Oregon History podcast they plan to cover just the good stuff: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and Earth Shattering, Devastating Destruction.

Ultimately, our goal is to take Oregon History out of the hallowed halls of the academy, get folks excited and enthused about this shared history, and get them out into the state, digging it and experiencing it. Get them to embrace it, and get their boots muddy in the process. It’s all OUR History; nobody owns it.

Visit ORHistory.com and stay tuned to @Oregon_History on Twitter for further details on specific episodes and the series. Catch up on missed episodes at the Kick Ass Oregon History archives.

September 14, 1946: First Opening Day at Portland Meadows

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Portland Meadows ad appearing in The Oregonian, 6 September 1946Over 10,000 people attended the grand opening of Portland Meadows on Saturday, September 14, 1946.

Portland Meadows was the first thoroughbred track offering night racing on a regular basis (The Oregonian, 14 September 1946).

The new Portland Meadows presents a mile track that General Manager William P. (Bill) Kyne of Bay Meadows fame in San Francisco categorically avers will be one of the fastest in the world; a luxurious plant built to accomodate 12,500 customers nightly . . . This race meet presents something entirely new in major horse racing: Night races under the lights. . . . There has been night racing before on fairground or other small tracks, but this is the first mile track in racing history to turn to it; success of night racing here would certainly establish a trend elsewhere . . .

General Electric developed the sports floodlights, first application of which was in New York’s Yankee baseball stadium – with improvements since added, making the Portland Meadows, according to G.E., the brightest lighted park in the country. The 584,000 watt system had enough power to light a four-lane superhighway from Portland to Salem.

Gay Fair on the Square (18-September-2011)

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Gay Fair in the SquareJoin Portland’s Gay Men’s Choir this Sunday, September 18, 2011 for Gay Fair on the Square, an afternoon of entertainment and information as the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus puts the spotlight on area non-profit organizations serving the LGBT community.

Held at Pioneer Courthouse Square from 12:30pm to 5pm, over 60 LGBT friendly organization will be on hand at this free event, for an afternoon of music, information, and interaction.

The Gay Men’s Choir will perform, in addition to the Portland Lesbian Choir, Portland Gay Symphonic Band, and the Willamette Valley’s LGBT chorus, Confluence.

Visit PDXGMC.org and the Facebook Event page for more details.

Offbeat Belly Dance (16-September-2011)

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Offbeat Belly DanceEvery 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, September 16, 2011, is no exception – the Offbeat Belly Dance collectives invites you to Offbeat Belly Dance! Fun! Fabulous! Freeee Show! ZOMG!

Yo! Noble Portlanders! Grab your party hat and head to the Blue Monk! This Friday it’s time once more for Offbeat Belly Dance!

Ah yes, the Blue Monk! Home of delicious beer! Complex and intriguing mixed drinks! Tasty food! Air conditioning!

And Offbeat Belly Dance! This month’s lineup of rock ’em sock ’em fabulous dancers is nearly too awesome to be believed! Please do join us, and feast your eyes upon…(tharr be more) the wonders of….

Vee!
Ziggy!
Jasmine!

And as if that weren’t enough –

The fantastic Jo will once again bring her sassy OG stylings to the Offbeat stage!

And this month marks the triumphant return of:

Adeylah! Yes, she of the amazing hair, mesmerizing musicality, and shiny fabulousness!

Margaret! You love zee Mandala? Yes, yes you do. Now see the captivating and charismatic Margaret tear it up solo style! She will blow your very mind!

Erika! Omg. Seriously. Whether with Deviant Dance or as a soloist, she is always a force to be reckoned with, and she always adds a bottle full of Awesomesauce to her performances at Offbeat! Come see the magic!

And of course, we will also have Karissa merrily dancing and ringleadering and serving as your humble yet knowing sherpa on this daring excursion to the top of Mount Awesome!

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

September 13, 1985: Ma Anand Sheela Flees Rajneeshpuram for Europe

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The Oregonian front page, 17 September 1985Ma Anand Sheela, the personal secretary to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, fled Rajneeshpuram in Wasco County, Oregon for Europe on September 13, 1985.

Rajneesh called a press conference on September 16 and accused Sheela and her cohorts of turning his commune into a fascist concentration camp (The Oregonian, 17 September 1985). He claimed she had planned to open a housing complex near the commune to house AIDS victims (sadly a scary thing to many people at the time), that she may have stolen $55 million from the religious group, that she was involved in the intentional salmonella poisoning of residents of The Dalles and a fire at the Wasco County planning office, that she had bugged rooms and telephones at the commune, and had attempted to poison his doctor, dentist and companion; the Jefferson County district attorney; and the water system in The Dalles.

Several of the allegations were true, and Sheela was extradited to Oregon from West Germany on October 28, 1985, and sentenced to ten years in prison. Eventually Rajneesh attempted to flee too, and was arrested and tried on immigration fraud charges.

Additional sources