Dave Knows Portland

“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” 50th Anniversary Party (16-September-2012)

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Join the Kick Ass Oregon History crew and the fine folks from Nestucca Spit Press on Sunday, September 16, 2012 as they present the “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” 50th Anniversary Party at Mississippi Studios (3939 N. Mississippi) – the celebration begins at 7:30 p.m.

In 1960 or so, Ken Kesey was volunteering to take hallucinogenic, psycho-active drugs while working the night shift at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital. He would talk to the mentally ill, and drop acid, and write. Kesey began to play with themes of sanity and insanity, society and the fringes, The Combine and non-conformity. He set his novel in the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, and the narrator was a Native American from Celilo, who’s life was irreversibly changed with the damming of the Columbia River at The Dalles.

Fifty years ago this novel was published. Oregon is an inseparable component of this selection. So on the eve of what would have been Ken Kesey’s 77th Birthday, we are going to have one big fuckin’ party!

The celebration includes readings from the book, discussions with Matt Love and Doug Kenck-Crispin, live music by the 1939 Ensemble, a trivia contest (with lots of prizes – grand prize is a night stay in the Kesey room at the Sylvia Beach Hotel!), AND to finish off the evening, after everyone has had a share of adult beverages, Matt Love will lead us in a classroom debate worthy of your senior year American Lit class!

Tickets are a mere $8 at the door, and $6 in advance. Find more details about this event, the novel and film, and Oregon’s sordid history when it comes to taking care of the mentally ill at OrHistory.com and at the Nestucca Spit Press website.

OE History Night: The Martha Washington Hotel & The Women Who Built Her (10-September-2012)

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History NightThe Oregon Encyclopedia, in conjunction with McMenamins and the Northwest Examiner, presents The Martha Washington Hotel & The Women Who Built Her: A History of the Portland Women’s Union, a screening of a documentary film and discussion by filmmakers Dana Plautz and Miles Sprietsma, on Monday, May 7, 2012 at the Mission Theater (1624 NW Glisan).

In 1887, 100 women, all volunteers, started the first women’s boarding house in Portland, with the intent of providing safe housing and cultural benefits for young women coming to the Rose City to work. Through a series of video interviews of historians, residents of “The Martha Washington,” housing experts, and past presidents of the organization, the film traces the Portland Women’s Union and how it raised the monies, managed and actually built the hotel.

Admission is free to this, and all the OE History Night events. Children are welcome if accompanied by a parent or guardian. Doors open at 6 p.m., show starts at 7 p.m.

Exhibit Opening: Streetcars Build a City (7-September-2012)

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Streetcars Build a CityStreetcars Build a City, the new exhibit at the Architectural Heritage Center (701 SE Grand), opens Friday, September 7, 2012 with a free showing from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

In Portland, our urban neighborhoods are a product of the pre-automobile era. Although far-slung suburbs may be a result of America’s love affair with the private automobile, inner city residential districts owe their location, street alignment, and pattern of growth almost entirely to the advent of the street railway. Current Portland roadmaps still reflect those early “streetcar suburbs.”

Portland and its street railway system grew together and expansion into the open spaces beyond downtown was rapid. Until the coming of the automobile streetcars were also the only easy means of getting around town and had become an integral part of most inner city neighborhoods.

But the heyday of streetcars only lasted a few decades. Already by the 1910s the automobile had begun to change the way people moved about the city. By the 1920s traffic around the city was frequently snarled by the volume of automobiles and the existing (and abundant) streetcar lines. The 1930s marked the “beginning of the end” as streetcars began to be replaced by electric “trolley buses” while the old rails were buried under layers of asphalt.

The guest curators are Dan Haneckow (blogger at Cafe Unknown) and Richard Thompson, author of Portland’s Streetcars (Images of Rail) (2006) and Portland’s Streetcar Lines (2010). Regular AHC hours are Wednesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Oregon Symphony Waterfront Concert – And Fireworks! (30-August-2012)

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Waterfront ConcertThe Oregon Symphony 2012 Waterfront Concert takes place Thursday, August 30, 2012 at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

At 5 p.m. the Portland Youth Philharmonic performs, followed by the Oregon Symphony at 7 p.m.

The traditional grand finale is a performance of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with an elaborate fireworks show, which includes shots from military cannons from the Oregon Army National Guard 218th Field Artillery.

The concert is free, and no tickets are required. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets to Tom McCall Waterfront Park and enjoy the show. Visit the Oregon Symphony event page and read the press release for more details.

Stumptown Stories: Mythological Creatures & Fantastic Biology (28-August-2012)

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Stumptown Stories, an event geared to everyone who loves this city we live in, takes place most Tuesdays at Jack London bar (basement of the Rialto, SW 4th and Alder). Free to get in, but must be 21 or over – there’s a full bar!

The topic of the installment this Tuesday, August 28, 2012 is Mythological Creatures & Fantastic Biology, presented by mythology expert, Dr. Kate Bruner.

She’ll be covering a lot of territory at this lecture, and we’re very curious to learn!

* Composites–centaurs, sirens and their reverse-Darwinian evolution.

* Fauns and satyrs, green men, Robin Hood, Pan and
nature, and Panic and the Devil

* Myths that are actually real–manticores, basilisks, vegetable lambs, cameleopards; house spirits

* Scary Animals–black dogs, cats of all colors, phookas, headless horses, death coaches, and gabriel hounds.

And lots, lots more.

Doors open around 7 p.m. for this free event (21 and over only). Presentation begins at 7:30 p.m.