Dave Knows Portland

A Portland Ghost tower – or should that be a Boise Hole?

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Tom Moyer is halting construction on the putative 32 story tower, Park Avenue West (at this stage it’s just a really big hole in the ground).

Moyer announced today that construction will stop for nine months, a troubling sign of just how far the economy and the financial markets have fallen. Law firm Stoel Rives had already announced plans to move into the Park Avenue West building. The tower was 55 percent leased, an unusually strong demand during a recession.

Portland’s very own Ghost Tower . . . well, it would be if it weren’t currently just a hole.

Update: Per Devlyn’s comment, I guess what we have now in Portland, is our very own Boise Hole!

Nicolas Batum has a bloc-notes

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Allez Blazers!The best rookie Frenchman in Portland Trailblazer history has a blog (bloc-note? ) for French basketball website, Basket Session.com.

In a recent post Batum writes about All-Star weekend. He shares his experience doing color commentary for the Rookie Sophomore game on Canal+, partying with Steve Nash, setting world records, and more. But despite my best efforts learning French, I’m glad that Oregonlive.com’s Tim Brown has translated the post for us at the Blazer Blog.

El Blog de Rudy (de Bart King)

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I have a new favorite Trailblazer blog: El Blog de Rudy (not to be confused with el blog de rudy at ADN.es, the newspaper with a Sexo section!)

The blog’s first post in December was merely the (bad) translation into English of a post from Rudy’s Spanish language blog. The Spanish post, ¡Greg Oden es enorme! became ¡Greg Oden is huge!

The blog continued in that vein, with a link to the original Spanish, for the next several posts, but then it got weird(er) . . . some examples:

Now my team heckles my sweaters. This amuses me less than others are.

Sometimes fans say I am like Pistol Pete Maravich. I am not sure about him. He played for the Polish National Team?

Since first being in Portland, I have noticed an oddness. Greg Oden was more anxious in his demeanor at the start of the season. Today, he is more youthful. When I asked him about this, Greg said, “One day you’ll be as old as I am, if you go backward like a crab!”

Then he laughed really hard.

The blog is the brainchild of Bart King (yeah that Bart King).

So yeah, highly recommend.

Things to do in Portland on Christmas Day

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powellsbooks_logoMy family does the Xmas thing on Xmas eve, so I have traditionally spent part of Xmas day at Powell’s (1005 W Burnside). The downtown Powell’s is open 10am to 6pm today. It’s the best place on Xmas to encounter Portland’s non-Xian literati (read: cute Jewish girls – though of course I have a beautiful girlfriend so that’s not why I’m going this year!). This year I’m going to do my holiday shopping, which I was unable to do the past few weeks due to the crap weather. So if you’re expecting a Festivus present from me; sorry, you’ll have to wait a few more days!

rialto200After your visit to Powell’s, wander around downtown. You’ll find that most hotel restaurants and bars are open on Xmas day too.

Also downtown, stop in at the Rialto (529 SW 4th). It stays open 365 days a year. Play some pinball or pool, while enjoying your beer. Watch basketball on the ginormous TVs.

In the Clinton neighborhood, according to this post on Craigslist, you can get your latte on at K&F Coffee (2706 SE 26th Ave. – at Clinton St.).

The smokiest bar in town ®, the Basement Pub (1028 SE 12th), is open today too. As is the Cheerful Tortoise (1939 SW 6th) (though the Cheerful Bullpen is closed).

Other neighborhood pubs and taverns that cater to real drinkers have a better than average chance of being open too. Take a walk through your neighborhood business district; you might be pleasantly surprised.

Update: PDX Pipeline knows of several other places that are open today: Chopsticks Express (2651 E Burnside), Grand Central Bowl (SE 8th and Morrison), BOG (4801 SE Hawthorne), Tanker Bar (4825 SE Hawthorne), and the Jolly Roger (1340 SE 12th).

BlazersThis doesn’t happen every year, in fact it seldom happens, but the Trailblazers are playing on Xmas day this year. They take on the Dallas Mavericks at 7:30 tonight at the Rose Garden. There are plenty of tickets available too. I’m going to tonight’s game; perhaps after a couple pints at the Rialto . . .

Trimetiquette has all the TriMet Xmas day schedule updates.

At the end of the day crank up the baseboard heat, settle into a comfy chair and read a good book while enjoying your glühwein!

Of course this list is far from comprehensive – if you know of particular restaurants, bars, etc. that are open today please comment!