Dave Knows Portland

Portland Streetcar Central Loop Grand Opening Celebration (22-September-2012)

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Portland Streetcar Central LoopThe Portland Streetcar Central Loop Grand Opening Celebration takes place Saturday, September 22, 2012. The celebration at the OMSI Plaza starts with speeches and a press event at 10 a.m. At 11 a.m. the first, ceremonial train departs.

The Central Loop will connect with the existing streetcar on 10th & 11th in Downtown Portland. From there it will cross the Broadway Bridge traveling along Broadway, Weidler, 7th, MLK and Grand connecting to the Rose Quarter, Lloyd District, Oregon Convention Center, the Central Eastside Industrial District and OMSI. This is the first streetcar project in the country to be funded with a Federal Grant and includes new vehicles made by United Streetcar located in Clackamas, Oregon.

As part of the celebration, streetcar rides are free all day Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23, 2012. Catch a ride to OMSI between 7:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. to attend the celebration. Visit the Portland Streetcar website for a full schedule of celebration events.

Dill Pickle Club Introduces New Walking Tours

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Dill Pickle Walking ToursPortland’s Dill Pickle Club, known for, amongst other things, its unique and one-time-only cultural and historical trips and tours, is debuting three new recurring walking tours of downtown Portland. These new tours are geared not just to tourists, but also recent transplants to Portland and long time residents – basically everyone!

This series is comprised of three distinct, Portland-centric tours led by community leaders and experts with first-hand knowledge. All include the “untold” histories of Portland with contemporary significance, and offer a fun and interactive way to learn about the city and its people.

The tours:

1) Hidden Portland: City Treasures! with Carye Bye
What if the City was a Museum? Hidden Portland: City Treasures! attempts to answer this question by allowing tour goers to discover and appreciate the often unnoticed parts of the city. Led by author, artist and self-described “Museum Lady of Portland” Carye Bye, the tour shows how public art, museums, buildings and architectural features can encourage seeing the Rose City with new eyes and experiences.

2) Old Town/ Chinatown with Reiko Hillyer
While today Portland is known as one of the whitest cities in the U.S., its multicultural and immigrant history is rich and storied. Old Town/ Chinatown shows the challenges faced by Portland’s ethnic communities, as well as their many contributions to the city’s economy, industry and culture. Hillyer is a professor of Urban History and African American History at Lewis & Clark College.

3) Seedy, Seamy & Sinful Portland with Doug Kenck-Crispin
Join resident historian of Kick Ass Oregon History Doug, as we visit sites of famous saloons and bordellos, opium dens and card rooms, some of which are still in operation today. The tour will “end” outside of Mary’s Club, one of Portland’s most venerated strip clubs. (*This tour is best suited for those 21+)

Visit the Dill Pickle Club website for more details, including how to register.

The Dill Pickle Club is a Portland creative cultural club, which organizes educational tours, lectures, and publications. For more information visit the website, and consider becoming a member.

Stumptown Stories: Oregon’s Top Five Dirtiest Elections

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Five Dirtiest ElectionsThe Stumptown Stories: Free Tuesday Lecture Series, geared to anyone who is curious about the world and community in which we live and loves to learn new things, 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!

This Tuesday, September 11, 2012 Finn John, author of the Offbeat Oregon column and recently published book, Wicked Portland: The Wild and Lusty Underworld of a Frontier Seaport Town, presents Oregon’s Top Five Dirtiest Elections: We’ve been through some crappy times before.

Join Finn J.D. John as he discusses the dirty politics of 1890s Oregon.

Including a “hold-up session” – a 40 day drunken party Jonathan Bourne threw to stop Senator Mitchell from being sent back to Washington.

Why would anybody want to prevent Senator Mitchell from going back to Washington? Find out more on Tuesday, September 11th.

The presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. Always free. Always fascinating.

OMSI Science Pub: How to Succeed with Physics…or at Least Look Great Trying (10-September-2012)

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Omsi Science PubHow to Succeed with Physics…or at Least Look Great Trying is the topic of the latest OMSI Science Pub on Monday, September 10, 2012 at the Bagdad Theater (3702 SE Hawthorne):

Are you an aspiring runway model or secret agent? Would you like to have the elegance and confidence of one? If so, you must become familiar with basic physics concepts. Christine McKinley will show you how a knowledge of physics is crucial in everyday situations like first dates, stage dives, and arson.

Maybe you didn’t pay attention to physics in high school because you didn’t think the subject was relevant to your life goals, but there is no escaping gravity. Whether you want to be a stunt woman, a rock drummer, or a martini critic, being on friendly terms with physics will help you get there in style. You can’t change the laws of physics and you can’t escape them. So, why not put them to work for you? Apply your knowledge of momentum, atomic bonding, and thermodynamics to ramp up the glamour factor in your life. Come and find out how.

The presenter, Christine McKinley, is a mechanical engineer, musician (formerly of Portland’s Dirty Martini), and co-host of History Channel’s Brad Meltzer’s Decoded.

This event begins at 7 p.m. but arrive early to secure your beer, grub, and a seat! There’s a $5.00 suggested donation/cover charge. Minors with adults are welcome, otherwise this event is 21 and over.

“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.