Dave Knows Portland

Keeping Up With The Portland Timbers

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TimbersThe best way to keep you head above water in terms of Timbers news, rumors, and sundry related topics is to religiously reload threads on Talk Timbers, aka the Soccer City USA Message Board.

But if you’ve been following the board for a while, you may have noticed the wrong side of the signal to noise ratio is getting higher and higher, and becoming a barrier to actually extracting anything useful or interesting from the discussions.

I’m here to help.

Below you’ll find my tried and true tips and recommendations for staying on top of Timbers news:

SoccerCityUSA.com

The Timber Mill remains the best source for Timbers schedule information, team and player statistics, and historical data. Allison Andrews, the site creator and owner, also produces some of the best match recaps, and photo galleries.

Despite the extra effort required, you’ll still want to bookmark your favorite sections and threads at Talk Timbers, and occasionally load the most recent posts. Tip: use the following link to get the 25 most recent comments (but don’t reload too often; you don’t want to overload the server!): http://www.soccercityusa.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?action=recent;display=25

Community and Social Networking

Join the 107 Independent Supporters’ Trust, aka 107ist.

Stay informed about Timbers fan activities and news with The Timbers Army. Join the Timbers Army Facebook group, and follow @TimbersArmy on Twitter (and check out the associated lists for other Timbers twitterers).

The Blogs

I recommend visiting these blogs daily:

Portland Timbers USL Blog at The Offside

Portland Timbers at Oregonlive

Dropping Timber Twitter: DroppingTimber

The Woodwork

And check Dave Knows Portland every Tuesday and Friday for the Tuesday Timbers Tidbits and the Portland Timbers Roundup, respectively, wherein I aggregate much of the recent Timbers news and info from the above blogs and more. I read all the blogs and set up Timbers google alerts and organize the results so you don’t have to!

The News

OregonLive.com can be difficult to navigate. Fortunately the editors aggregate all the Oregonian Timbers articles and OregonLive Timbers Blog entries on this page: www.oregonlive.com/Timbers

At 95.5 The Game, scroll to the bottom of the Strong At Night page to find The Strong Blog, which features plenty of Timbers content.

The official organ of the organization: PortlandTimbers.com is the best source for player news.

As far as local television station websites go, only KPTV seems to be aware of the existence of the Timbers. Find their stories here: www.kptv.com/Timbers/

The Timbers coverage at other TV stations, The Columbian, Portland Tribune, and the alt weeklies is sparse to nonexistent; if you’re looking for Timbers news, they aren’t worth checking daily (though this may change as the season gets under way and MLS approaches in 2011). If these news sources do publish something worthwhile, you’ll probably hear about it through the other resources listed here.

The Portland Pinball Map iPhone App Giveaway

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Update: The 10th and final free code has been given away. Thanks to all who played!

Portland Pinball Map AppDo you have the Portland Pinball Map App for your iPhone yet? If you live in Portland and play pinball you need this app – it’s slick!

Over 340 pinball machines in over 170 locations in the Portland area (including Vancouver, Washington) are covered.

You can search for machines by location, proximity, or name.

Only interested in places that have four or more machines? Wondering where new machines have shown up recently? The Portland Pinball Map iPhone App can show you.

How would you like a free copy of the app? (Sure, it only costs 99 cents at iTunes, but free is free!)

Well thanks to the ladies of iPhoneSlutz, Dave Knows Portland has 10 iTunes codes to give away, each good for a free copy of the Portland Pinball Map App!

iPhone Slutz

iPhoneSlutz is comprised of three chicks that just love their iPhones and want to share what they think of them. Local PDX.FM hosts, Sabrina Miller, Emily Gibson, and Rose Harding bring you some crazy reviews of some awesome (and not so awesome) iPhone apps, they tell it to you straight with no BS. iPhoneSlutz just recently had the number one iPhone related audio podcast on iTunes and has a global audience, particularly popular in a few European countries and in Australia.

The show airs live on PDX.FM every Wednesday at 3pm and is then archived and available for free download shortly thereafter at the website iPhoneslutz.com, or through iTunes.

(It’s probably best to warn you that the show may not be considered safe for work, or for sheltered children – wear headphones! And another warning: listeners have been known to fall off of treadmills due to laughter, and several listeners have peed their pants – no joke, the gals are funny!)

And lucky for me and you, the iPhoneSlutz heart Dave Knows Portland and wanted to give a little back to the Portland iPhone and pinball communities. Comment on this post. Win some codes. Play pinball. Be happy.

First 10 commenters will receive a free code! (Make sure to enter a valid email address in the appropriate field when you comment, so we can contact you with the code – don’t worry, your address will not be used for anything else.)

And be sure to tune into iPhoneSlutz Wednesdays at 3pm to get the scoop on the latest, greatest (and lamest) new apps!

Portland Timbers Roundup (04/09/2010)

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TimbersThe 2010 season starts soon! The Timbers’ home opener is next Saturday, April 17th, but other teams in the league kick off tomorrow:

USSF Division II Season Begins This Weekend by mao at Timbers.TheOffside.com

The USSF Division II season will officially begin this Saturday, April 10, as two matches will launch the new year. Two more games on Sunday will follow before the Timbers kick things off next Saturday, April 17 at PGE Park. [more]

So what can you expect PGE Park matches this year? Any exhibition match news?

Highlights from the Liaisonnaires Meeting on Wednesday, April 7th (via Keeper01’s notes on SCUSA):

1. The club expects to play four or five exhibition matches this year. There may be two matches with Premiership teams and another match with a Mexican club.

2. Mandjou Keita is expected to return next week; he is not likely to play in the home opener.

3. Webcasts should be available for all home and road league games.

4. The club plans to stage two World Cup events this summer.

5. Yes it’s true: There will be a $1.50 pre-game food-and-beverage menu.

(More details about these items can be found on a different SCUSA thread: Liaisonnaire Notes: 4.7)

In other Timbers fan news, Shawn Levy was a guest this week on Ham Fisted Radio – every Timbers fan should listen to the podcast: Shawn does a great job capsulizing the history of and passion for soccer in Portland (NASL Timbers, U of P, PGE Park, etc.).

Episode 019: Timbers Army, the Joys of Portland Soccer, and Batman’s Wedding with Shawn Levy

Film critic, author, and avid soccer supporter Shawn Levy regales us with tails of Portland football — including his own rendition of Portland Timbers-themed show tunes! [download the podcast!]

And also this week the Timbers made possibly their last pre-season signing announcement:

Timbers Officially Sign OJ Obatola and Bright Dike by mao at Timbers.TheOffside.com

OJ Obatola, hero of the Community Shield, and Bright Dike have been added to the burgeoning Portland Timbers roster in the hopes of bolstering attack and in the interest of adding youth. Both forwards are just 22 years old and bring scoring prowess to the Timbers’ final season in the American second division. [more]

And don’t forget to check out the Timbers Tidbits from earlier this week, for even more Timbers news!

April 2: The Cort and Fatboy Midnight Movie presents Mallrats

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MallratsCelebrate the 15th anniversary of the release of Kevin Smith’s Mallrats this Friday, April 2nd, at the Cort and Fatboy Midnight Movie for April. The doors of the Bagdad (3702 SE Hawthorne) open at 10pm, film begins at 11pm. Admission is only $3, and you have to be 21 or over.

Not only is it a cheap excuse to larf heartily at the cartoonish exploits of Jay and Silent Bob whilst supping tasty brews and enjoying all manner of bar food, it’s also a chance to culturally educate yourself on Mid-Nineties Mediocrity. Not just a goofy teen comedy, this movie details the conundrum of Superman’s sexual reproduction, and addresses the problems inherent in spooning, as well as illuminating the discomfort involved when having sex in the back of a Volkswagen Bug. And before you ask: No, the Bagdad will not be offering Chocolate-Covered Pretzels on its menu for the night.

Wow, I didn’t get any of those references. Probably because I haven’t seen the movie. I was going to blame Dogma, one of the worst films I’ve ever seen, but I checked and that came out several years after Mallrats. I did like Clerks though.

My Take on The Life Portlandic

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The Life PortlandDoug Zanger and I recorded a conversation Tuesday evening about the blog, the Portland Timbers [and of course Doug’s goal!], pinball, poutine, Portland’s day in the sun, bus routes, and stylish eyewear.

If any of that sounds mildly interesting to you [cheers!], tune into The Life Portlandic (TLP) on PDX.am at 9am today to listen (or visit the website or iTunes page shortly after the broadcast to download the podcasts).

(The interview will be split into three parts, broadcast on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, March 24-26.)

I’d like to thank Doug Zanger for the opportunity to be on his show. Pre-blog and pre-TLP, he and I used to work together (in a demonstration of how small a town Portland is). We only recently put the pieces together to determine this. Tuesday’s visit to the Bull Mountain Studio afforded us an opportunity to catch up, and, I hope, we got a decent interview out of it (at times I was not completely inarticulate).

Oh, and Heather from Mile73.com makes a special appearance during the interview!