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Stumptown Stories: Lewis & Clark’s 210th Anniversary Extravaganza! (10 November 2015)

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Lewis and ClarkLewis & Clark’s 210th Anniversary Extravaganza! – a special installment of the Stumptown Stories series, begins at 7 PM on Tuesday, November 10 at Jack London bar (basement of the Rialto, SW 4th and Alder).

Hey Portland! Get ready for a rip-roaring good time with our favorite adventurers, Lewis and Clark! Joe Streckert will regale us with tales of the Lewis & Clark Centennital Expo, and Finn JD John will delve in deep with the story of how the Expo brought us Portland’s favorite heavy metal laxatives!

Stumptown Stories, batshit crazy stories from the murkiest, weirdest, and nuttiest corners of Portland history, takes place the second Tuesday of every month at the Jack London.

Admission is free. Doors open at 6:30 PM, 21 and over only.

Walktober 2015

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WalktoberWalktober 2015, the greatest walking holiday of the year takes place in Portland throughout October.

Walk anywhere, everywhere, for any reason, or for no reason at all. This is Walktober: walking fun October 6th through Halloween (the greatest walking holiday of the year).

Inspired by Pedalpalooza, three weeks of bikey fun in Portland held every June, the Oregon Walks conceived Walktober to promote walking as a fun, healthy, ubiquitous activity in the Portland metro region.

Some highlights include the Walktober KICKOFF Walk, it’s a pub crawl, on October 1; International Walk to School Day on October 7; Beers Made by Walking (more info on the website here) on October 10. The Walktober calendar is open – anyone can create, post, and lead a walk. Walks are put on by people like you!

Visit the Walktober website for the full calendar of walks.

History Pub: Portland Communists, A Longshoreman Strike, and The United States Supreme Court (28 September 2015)

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Portland Communists, A Longshoreman Strike, and The United States Supreme Court: Oregon v. DeJonge and the Right to Freedom of Assembly is the latest History Pub on Monday, 28 September 2015 at the Kennedy School (5736 NE 33rd).

On July 27, 1934, the Portland Police “Red Squad” arrested Dirk De Jonge, a World War I veteran, longshoreman, former Portland mayoral candidate, and Portland communist. The State charged him with criminal syndicalism for speaking at a meeting sponsored by the local Communist Party. The meeting was called in response to a police crackdown on striking longshoremen, who had shut down every West Coast port from southern California to northern Washington. De Jonge’s crime was speaking about jail conditions experienced by the arrested strikers. A jury found him guilty, and the judge sentenced him to seven years in prison. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the conviction, holding that the criminal syndicalism statute, as applied to De Jonge, unconstitutionally infringed on his right to assembly as protected by the First Amendment.

Presenter Marc Brown is an appellate public defender with the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services. He has taught at Washington State University-Vancouver and is a recent recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to teach about the U.S. Constitution in Guangzhou, China.

History Pub, presented by McMenamins, Oregon Historical Society, and the Holy Names Heritage Center, is free and open to all ages. Doors open at 6 PM, and the talk begins at 7 PM.

Portland Labor Day Weekend Amusements (2015)

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Labor day weekend!

Saturday and Sunday

Romanian Folk and Food Festival

Romanian fest 2015ROMANIAN COMMUNITY CELEBRATES ITS HERITAGE AND CULTURE IN ITS GENUINE WAY

BBQ, traditional foods, pastries, beer, wine, live music, dance, kids activities, and much more!

The fest takes place at Saint Marys Romanian Orthodox Church (135th and SE Stark)

Labor Day (Monday 7 September 2015)

2015 Labor Day Picnics

Union YesThe largest gathering by far takes place at in Southeast Portland. Sponsored by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, the picnic attracts members from multiple unions who enjoy barbecue, music, games, carnival rides, raffle drawings, vendor booths, and time to visit with local politicians. Gov. Kate Brown has confirmed that she will be in attendance.

The picnic runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Political speeches take place at 1 p.m.

Ongoing

Chapman Vaux’s Swift Watch 2015

Swirling SwiftsIn September thousands of Vaux’s Swifts coalesce into a giant undulating swirl in Northwest Portland near Chapman School after spending the day eating bug. Around sunset the swirl gets more compact, like a ground pepper tornado, and begins disappearing, measure by measure, down the school’s huge old chimney. On the lawn below hundreds of mesmerized and picnic-sated Portlanders stare into the sky from the comfort of lawn chairs and blankets while their oblivious children roll down the grassy hill screaming. Cheers erupt from the crowd when the slippery swifts dodge the opportunistic Peregrine falcons, boos when the predators get lucky.

Portland Film Festival

Portland Film Festival 2015The festival focuses on the people, ideas, technology, skills and artistry behind filmmaking and provides both entertaining and educational opportunities to the public. The festival is anchored with outdoor screenings, offering its filmmakers one of the largest audiences available on the West Coast.

The festival is spread across seven theater and education venues including some of the oldest historic theaters in Oregon

Movies in the Park

Movies in Parks

Friday, September 4

Saturday, September 5

Sunday, September 6

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – 40th Anniversary Screening (3 September 2015)

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Portland Film Festival presents One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – 40th Anniversary Screening Thursday, 3 September 2015, at the Clinton Street Theater (2522 SE Clinton).

Celebrate the 40th Film Anniversary of the Oregon classic, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” by Oregon author Ken Kesey with a special talk by resident Historian Doug Kenck-Crispin—he will introduce the film with some happy, huggy stories about the Oregon State Hospital.

The films producer gave us permission to screen a special edition of the film classic. Don’t miss this opportunity to see it on the big screen!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, and starring Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, and Will Sampson. The supporting cast features William Redfield, Brad Dourif, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers.

The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs.

Now considered to be one of the greatest films ever made, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is No. 33 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Years… 100 Movies list. In 1993, it was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Presentation starts at 8 PM. Tickets start at only $10 and can be bought in advance.

The Portland Film Festival: The Storytellers’ Festival & Conference runs September 1 through 7. Portland Film Festival is a non-profit dedicated to nurturing filmmakers and audiences, and to celebrating the power of a good story. The focus of the annual festival is on the people, ideas, technology, skills and artistry behind filmmaking and provides both entertaining and educational opportunities to the public.