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Ecoroof Portland (18-March-2011)

March 2, 2011 by Heather Leave a Comment

Ecoroof PortlandAbout a year ago, we took a tour of the Central Library’s Ecoroof. It was neat to see a 95 year old building updated with an Ecoroof.

Just last week we had the pleasure of meeting with Matt Burlin, the City of Portland’s Sustainable Stormwater Management Outreach Coordinator, for another ecoroof tour. We are actually just being polite when we say it was a pleasure. Matt was a nice guy, and all, but as we reached the penthouse level of the sleek new Pearl tower we were visiting, the Portland winter sky opened up and unleashed upon us a ferocious mixture of snow and sleet and wind and rain and cold.

Over the roar and din, Matt pointed out the surrounding rooftops and their colorful mosaics of living roofs. I did the best I could to get photos without drowning the camera. But the weather was really remarkably bad. Matt said it was the worst weather during any of his tours.

Roof of the Pearl District Safeway

We learned enough on our quick tour to know we certainly want to tour more projects from the Portland Ecoroof Program (maybe on a day when the weather is more cooperative . . . in August, and preferably with a summer beer in hand, when the rooftop BBQ is open).

Ecoroofs aren’t just for hippies, dainty environmentalists, and real estate developers. If you want to learn more about how they work, and maybe even put on your own structure (high rise, house, food cart or chicken coop!) go check out Ecoroof Portland 2011 on March 18 (10am to 6pm) at the Oregon Convention Center (777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd).

Participants will learn how ecoroofs work, why they’re important, and what resources are available to help start their own projects. They can get information directly from ecoroof vendors including architects, consultants, contractors, landscape architects, manufacturers, nurseries, structural engineers, suppliers, researchers, and non-profit and community organizations.

Go on a tour too (but be sure to bring your rain gear!).

Visit the Ecoroof Blog any time for project updates, announcements, and events. Ecoroof Portland can also be found on Facebook!

Interview: Google Hotpot Community Manager Vanessa Schneider

January 11, 2011 by Heather 1 Comment

Google swept into town recently to introduce a new product/service, Hotpot, which is an enhancement to Google Places. One of the people they sent to Portland to investigate the market and to rouse up some interest in Hotpot was Community Manager Vanessa Schneider. She graciously agreed to answer some of Heather‘s questions about Hotpot and her experience debuting it in Portland for Dave Knows’ readers!

Google Hotpot

What is Google Hotpot, exactly?

Hotpot is Google’s new local recommendation engine from Google Places, powered by you and your friends. You tell us what you like — restaurants, bars, hotels, hardware stores — and we serve you up personalized results the next time you do a Google search.

So for instance, I live in New York City. I’m a big Italian food fan, so I search on maps.google.com: “italian restaurants, new york, ny.” In my search results, I see one of the first listings is Porchetta LLC, and at the bottom of the Porchetta result listing it says that my Hotpot friend Vivi rated it 4 stars, along with a sentence or two about his experience. Don’t have to go much farther than that — done and done!

You can rate places via our desktop client or via our Rate Places widget for Android (iPhone app coming soon!). And of course, you can search for places and recommendations via your desktop or Android (or wherever you do Google searches).

How is Hotpot different than Yelp, Citysearch or other places that rate businesses?

Think of Hotpot like a personalized, social layer on top of your existing Google search. It’s all about providing a better Google search experience for you. People are performing local searches every day, so we wanted to focus on making those results more relevant and social (everything’s more fun with friends!).

Hotpot is not just for restaurants, right? Can I see recommendations for other local businesses too?

Exactly, any kind of business. You can rate any spot listed on Google Places, our local business listings, and that’s just about every place. Here’s an example of a Place page (you probably see the iconic red pin a lot in your searches — those lead you to Place pages). Place pages exist for anything from cafes to doctors’ offices to book shops.

Dave Knows' Hotpot screenshot

How does Hotpot work for business owners? Is there a way for businesses to manage their site?

Business owners can definitely claim their free Place page, and in fact, many already have. This guarantees that their Places listing is up to date and accurate — they can list their address, business hours, photos and more. You can read more about how to claim your business listing here.

Because customers can leave public reviews on a business’s Place page, the owner can monitor those and also look for opportunities to respond to reviews on the page – here’s how. Business owners can also encourage customers to share their experiences and spread the word about their business via Hotpot.

Google could have chosen any city on the planet to launch Hotpot, but aren’t you glad they chose Portland?

Portland’s proven to be an amazing launch city choice. Everyone has been so welcoming and lovely! Not only are Portlanders tech savvy, but the city has a very strong local business community, and residents are constantly talking to one another about that delicious dish at that hot new restaurant — and that’s what Hotpot’s all about, sharing recommendations with friends and discovering new local places.

Have you tried poutine yet?

Yes, and it was glorious. After a long day at work, my colleague Sameer and I headed to Potato Champion at the Hawthorne food cart pod to eat the heck out of some poutine (Documented with Instagram here).

Can you put in a good word for Portland with Google Fiber?

Since I am now Portland’s newest #1 fan, I’ll do my best!

Vanessa blogs at VanessaSchneider.com, and can be found on Twitter too: @vanessagene. She also contributes to the Hotpot Community Blog (on Twitter: @GoogleHotpot).

Vanessa also encourages people to participate in the Hotpot Jackpot contest. Sign up for Hotpot and enter to win a dinner for up to 10 people at any Portland restaurant (there are first and second prizes as well). All you have to do is give your opinion about a bunch of places you’ve been on Hotpot, share your recommendations with friends on Hotpot, and you’ll earn points. The more points you earn, the better your chances of winning. Register today and start rating! Winners will be announced in February.

January 10, 1969: The Old Spaghetti Factory Opens

January 10, 2011 by Heather 1 Comment

The Old Spaghetti FactoryYou may know that Portland is home to such heavy industries as barge building, truck manufacturing and camper making. But did you also know that Portland is the hometown of carb-heavy starch manufacturer The Old Spaghetti Factory? The original location opened on a drizzly January 10 in 1969 in Portland, Oregon.

Following the trend of questionably appetizing industrial pasta concepts, a similar restaurant known as Spaghetti Warehouse opened in Texas three years later.

The Old Spaghetti Factory has expanded impressively since its founding, now boasting over 35 domestic locations, plus a presence in Canada and Japan.

FWIW, the restaurant was never known as “The New Spaghetti Factory,” even in 1969, when that title would have been more accurate.

Interview: Mike Vogel

April 19, 2010 by Heather Leave a Comment

Mike VogelWe are all pretty well aware that Portland is full of creatives. It’s sometimes hard to know what it means to be “A Creative.” If I had to venture a guess, local film maker Mike Vogel would be a good example. Mike’s first feature length film, The Waiting List, has just come off a successful run on the indie film festival circuit. Mike has written a book, produced a slew of short films, and is currently working on his second feature length film, Did You Kiss Anyone? All while working a full time day job and raising kids. Oh, and in true Portland fashion, he rides a bike to work, even in the snow.

We first became familiar with Mike Vogel’s oeuvre when during Snowpocalypse 2008, he produced a hilarious parody of breathless weather news hype. Since then we’ve had the pleasure of being “Twitter friends” with Mike and have been able to visit a couple of sets for his current project. He kindly took some time away from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us. — Heather

When did you first know you wanted to make movies?

When I used to think about making movies, I always thought I needed to make movies like A Clockwork Orange or Apocalypse Now. I didn’t even want to attempt to make a movie until I could make The Godfather or something like that. Which is totally ridiculous and will pretty much ensure you never make a movie. I wrote a few screenplays before The Waiting List, but it was the first one I wrote with the idea that I would direct it. That’s why it takes place in mostly one location with a handful of actors.

Do you have an academic background in film making? Or are you self taught?

In college I was an English major. Then I went to technical school to learn editing and all the technical stuff, but it was more public access oriented than narrative movie oriented. The thing I gained most from the public access philosophy was just this manic “Yes! Let’s do it! Create!” All energy and limited resources. Or figuring out your limitations and turning them to your advantage. Each movie is sort of like school though. On the first day of my first movie, I literally didn’t know when I was supposed to say Action. You can take classes and read books and discuss with peers, but really the only way to learn is to do and to make mistakes and then try not to make those mistakes again.

You seem to be a late night cereal eater. Which cereal is your favorite and why?

Frosted Flakes. I love Apple Jacks but it seems like eating a bowl of candy. I’ve been known to dump graham crackers or animal cracker in a bowl and pour milk over them. Trader Joe’s animal crackers in milk is pretty awesome. I still eat cereal out of an orange half-basketball shaped bowl that I got from Wheaties back in the Michael Jordan days.

You are from here, and your family is here, and you live here, but why are you still in Portland? Wouldn’t LA or New York be better for an aspiring film maker?

I honestly can’t imagine a better city for an aspiring filmmaker than Portland. You’ve got a ton of talented actors to work with. There’s an amazingly supportive community–not just film community, but the communities in Portland itself. If I want to use a location, I just walk in and ask if I can shoot a scene for a movie. Most of the time, after you finally get a hold of the right person, the answer is yes. We’ve filmed all over the city and have never had a cop ask if we had a permit. That includes when we shot a scene where Amanda Englund was getting attacked and screaming loudly. Two cop cars pulled up and watched ominously from a distance. We did another take and they zoomed off. There’s a saying that LA is the only place where you can die from encouragement. I think Portland’s community actually provides support, not just encouragement.

Also, I don’t like traffic or hot weather.

You’ve made a number of funny shorts, your feature length film, The Waiting List has just finished the festival circuit, and you are currently working on your next project, Did You Kiss Anyone? Through all your projects, what is the most useful thing you’ve learned about film making? What is the most challenging thing?

The most useful and challenging thing as a director is saying “Let’s do another take.” If your gut didn’t tell you that was the perfect take, then do another. Sometimes I can’t even identify why I want to do another take and later when I watch the footage I’ll realize my brain caught something I couldn’t identify while on set. Ultimately my job as director isn’t to do some crazy camera move or compose a shot so it evokes a similar shot by Truffaut or something like that. My job is to make sure the actor’s performances tell the story. Although if we’re shooting a funny scene, it’s easier because you just make everyone talk faster.

How many names of fish can you name in 30 seconds? (no cheating!)

Salmon
Sturgeon
Trout
Catfish
Tuna
Hamachi?
Unagi (okay, it’s an eel)
Cod
Filet O
Gold
Nemo

You write, you act, you direct, and you do camera work. You probably do other stuff too. What’s your favorite part of film making?

I don’t really act. I just pretend to be an even more awkward version of myself. And I don’t really do the camera work. That’s mostly my Director of Photography, Brian Mohr and he’s pretty good about understanding what I’m going for based on the script, which frees me up to focus on performances. I love each aspect of the process, but the thing that brings everything together is editing. I work with Evelyn Geree, who’s this self-taught editor doing bizarre abstract personal stuff, but I know her from a family connection so she helps me out as long as I don’t force her to join Twitter.

Can you talk a little bit about water boarding your kids?

Waterboarding My Kids Is Not Torture – watch more funny videos

Some people see that and think I really waterboarded my daughter. It was actually my brother’s My Buddy doll from childhood. The idea came from the argument that waterboarding isn’t torture, so that must mean I can punish my children that way. I look so serious in that video though. My favorite part is at the end when I deliver the punchline and my (then) 2 year old daughter laughs on cue.

If your fairy godmother offered a crapload of money to make a movie, like unlimited budget, what kind of movie would you make? Would you blow stuff up and stuff? (hint: blowing stuff up is the correct answer.)

There’s a guy in town making a movie called James Vs. Reality and I don’t think he has a crapload of money from a fairy, but he’s blowing things up. Granted, he’s an insanely talented computer animator. But for me, sometimes I’ll see the Tram and dream about a Portland re-make of The Nighthawks, where a terrorist stops the tram and threatens to blow it up. Other times I picture the Portlandia statue coming to life and just stabbing at people with her pitchfork–it’s not a trident, it’s a pitchfork! When a 3D camera was announced at some trade show, I joked that I would make a 3D movie where it looked like someone was sitting in the row in front of you. It would just be a normal movie, only you’d wear 3D glasses and have your view obstructed by a tall person wearing a cowboy hat or something.

At The Waiting List screening, you mentioned these films are part of a trilogy. What’s next? And will Gandalf be in your next film?

We always joke that The Waiting List has about five endings, like the final Lord of the Rings movie. But yes, so I have an idea for a Domestic Trilogy. The first part was The Waiting List, which focused on parenting. Now I’m working on Did You Kiss Anyone? which focuses on marriage. The third one will likely be about extended family, or grown-up siblings. I was originally going to do one about Work, but that’s been pretty played out and after seeing that French movie Summer Hours last year, it made me realize how badly most American movies about families are. Everyone had to be histrionic or “psychotic.” Everyone’s always yelling and bringing up old injuries and eventually people cry and hug. Summer Hours felt to me more what it’s like when you’re grown up with siblings. So I plan to rip that movie off and include a scene where Portlandia harpoons the entire family in 3D. Fade out.

Mike blogs at MikeVogel.com. His nano-budget film production company is called Front Ave. And Mike is on Twitter too: @FrontAve.

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