Dave Knows Portland

11th Annual Village Building Convergence (May 27-June 5, 2011)

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Village Building Convergence 2011City Repair, an organized group action that educates and inspires communities and individuals to creatively transform the places where they live, is hosting the 11th annual Village Building Convergence (VBC) in Portland from May 27 through June 5, 2011.

The VBC is a ten-day placemaking festival that combines crowdsourced activism, creative community development, hands-on education and celebration.

11th Annual VBC in brief: We will come together to create benches, community kiosks, gardens, street paintings, tile mosaics, and more! Come join your neighbors as they bring to life the natural building, permaculture, and public art projects that they’ve been planning for the last 4 months. Learn valuable skills for urban sustainability and social regeneration while celebrating the creativity and diversity of our wonderful city!

During the day, participants have the opportunity to participate, for free, in creative, community designed placemaking projects all over town.

Presentations, food, and musical performances fill the evenings – 9 day tickets for the evening events can be purchased online or at the door.

Visit the Village Building Convergence website for more project and event details.

Rubbings from the Rose City (28-April-2011)

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Rubbings from the Rose CityThe Dill Pickle Club presents Rubbings from the Rose City on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at the American Institute of Architects (403 NW 11th) at 7pm.

Rubbings from the Rose City documents Portland through one-of-a-kind handmade etchings of building façades, gravestones, street signs, manhole covers and more. Self published by Christopher Gossett in 1983, the book provides a unique snapshot of the city and its many familiar landmarks. Celebrate the reprinting of this out-of-print book, as we examine the interface of art and the built environment.

Presenters will discuss places in Portland they appreciate for architectural, historical, and artistic form; followed by Q & As with the audience.

The presenters:

VAL BALLESTREM is an independent historian and the education manager for the Bosco-Milligan Foundation/Architectural Heritage Center in Portland. A life-long Oregonian, he has a master’s degree in western U.S. history and public history from Portland State University.

DOUG BLANDY is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Arts and Administration Program in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. His research and teaching attends to art educational experiences in community-based settings that meet the needs of all students within a life-long learning context. His research and teaching also concentrates on the relationships between art, education, community and place.

RANDY GRAGG has written for, edited, and produced a wide range of publications over the last 30 years. His current day (and, often, night) job is editing Portland Monthly magazine. But he still seems to be best known for the many years he wrote on art and architecture for The Oregonian.

KHRIS SODEN is an artist who makes work focusing on place and history in Portland. He authored the popular comic series “City of Roses,” in the arts journal The Organ, focused on lesser known Portland histories. He has also conducted tours of Portland, and written about architecture in the city on his blog, http://khrissoden.blogspot.com/.

The Dill Pickle Club, Portland’s volunteer-driven non-profit group dedicated to organizing non-traditional educational tours, program, and publication. A recommended donation of $0-10 is requested in lieu of admission. Copies of the book are available for $16 (members) / $20 (non-members).

rubbings from the rose city from dill pickle club on Vimeo.

Oregon Saves (April 1-22, 2011)

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Piggy BankJoin the Oregon Society of CPAs in celebrating Financial Literacy Month – enter your photo in the Oregon Saves Piggy Bank Photo Contest!

Have a cool piggy bank and a fun story behind it? Do you keep your loose change somewhere unusual?

It doesn’t matter how you save, it just matters that you save! So the Oregon Society of CPAs wants to see how Oregonians save as we celebrate April as Financial Literacy Month in Oregon!

Submit your piggy bank photos and the stories behind them for a chance to pick up a nice chunk of spare change!

The grand prize is a $50 Visa or Mastercard gift card, and $25 cards for second through fourth place. Visit the Oregon Saves facebook page and the Oregon Society of CPAs Financial Literacy site for official rules and more information. And check out some of the upcoming Financial Education events.

Dave Goes . . .

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Astoria!Heather and I are moving to Astoria!

I put in my notice at my day job last week – my last day will be in early May, and by June we except we’ll be living somewhere above downtown Astoria with a view of the Columbia.

That’s the plan anyway.

We don’t have new jobs lined up. Well, jobs in the traditional sense. Between developing Dork Face Media, running PDX Web Ads, blogging and tweeting, we’ll be busy enough.

But really our plan is to largely take the summer off and discover more of what the North Coast has to offer. With the Astoria Bicentennial celebration taking place all summer long, the place will be especially thick with fun activities. But also, we just want to relax and enjoy the town (Blue Scorcher, Fort George Brewery, and daily walkabouts; we’re looking in your direction).

So that’s the “plan,” if it really qualifies as such.

But don’t worry, Dave Knows Portland is not going anywhere. In fact I’ll have more time to spend on the site this summer than ever before. Plus we’ll be in Portland a lot during the summer – for weddings, Timbers games, and business. I’ve got some new plans for the site percolating too, which I’ll share in due time . . .

Heather has more details on this big announcement at Mile73.com, including FAQs!

Kick Ass Oregon History: Episode 3

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

Episode 3 dropped friday: Balloon Bombs!

The previous episodes:

  • Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 1 #1: The Roseburg Blast – The city of Roseburg goes up in smoke
  • Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 1 #2: The Eggs! – 1942 poisoning at the Oregon State Hospital for the Insane.

The brains behind this 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.