action figures sold separately

heard about the new green micro gym in pdx. dude, duh! all gyms should generate electricity, has it not been cost effective? well, cool say i.

bridgetown, puddletown, stumptown, thorn city.

Whichever name you like to give it, this place is pretty amazing. There’s so many incredible things going on here, and so many of them we didn’t know about when we first moved here. Recently, we’ve had a couple times when pals from far away moved to Portland, and I wanted to give them an orientation to some of the stuff I couldn’t have learned about just from looking around, or from the official visitors guides. So here’s what I put together for them:

• The Portland Bike There! Map from Metro.
• The Trip Tools, Ticket Sales Outlets, Explore Portland, and Riders Guide brochures from Tri-met
• “Your Guide to Multnomah County Library“
• The Museum Attractions and Membership brochures from OMSI.
• Zipcar brochure.
• My seven favorite mapclicks neighborhood maps.
• The You Can Own and Supporting Business Guide brochures from Peoples Food Coop.
• The SE Portland Walking Map from the Office of Transportation’s Getting Around Portland section.
• The current season’s brochure from Portland Center Stage.
• The (no longer available?) 7-page Fix-It Fair Resource Guide from the Office of Sustainable Development.
• An Advantis Credit Union Membership Kit.
• The Office of Transportation’s Portland By Bicycle map and Neighborhood Bikeway maps for Northeast and Southeast.
• The Map & Guide to Powell’s City of Books
• Brochures for the Portland Classical Chinese Garden and the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, along with a 4-garden promotional that also includes the Japanese, Oregon, and International Rose Test gardens.
• The ReDirect Guide
• A copy of the Portland Gay & Lesbian Community Yellow Pages.
• …and finally a page of links to all kinds of cool, interesting things on my del.icio.us “Welcome to PDX” page.

what would be in your “welcome to portland” packet?

in pdx. thanks madcat!

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there’s a new organic brewery on powell and 29th. looking forward to trying it out.

Update: Workshop rescheduled! Note also cost is now: $donations accepted.

For those in the Portland area, I’ll be giving a training workshop on December 5th. It’s called: Working More Efficiently and Effectively on Your Mac: A Hands-On Training Workshop to Help You Increase Productivity (and Have More Fun!)

It will be super useful for:

• independent professionals
• non-profit organizations
• corporate teams
• freelancers
• students, and more…

See the full description and more details on this pdf flyer. Contact me with any questions

sunflower bees

Originally uploaded by fogboy.

i’m shooting in raw now and really liking it. summer’s over and i wanted to post this series before fall was fully upon us.

i love that our library has feeds showing all the newest titles that they’ve got in. but it can be overwhelming sometimes. here’s a few that i just won’t have time for now, but i’d like to keep on the list…

• Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal
• You Never Call! You Never Write!: A History of the Jewish Mother
• Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law
• Parenting Without Fear: Letting Go of Worry and Focusing on What Really Matters

yeah, those are all powell’s links. stop typing amazon!

just finished working on the website for my pal Sarah, the amazing artist and printmaker whose shows have wowed us at local galleries and who we are so honored to know.

we are really loving Captain Bogg & Salty’s new album, and it was so fun to see them recently.

“Hey Sol, what do the pirates say?”
“YAR!!”

and the video they made for “pieces of 8ight” has been on their site for a while, but if you’ve not see it, GO NOW!

EAT A LIME!!

looking forward to this: The Bicyclist

description from the site (where you can subscribe to episodes):

The Bicyclist is a new web tv series shot in one of the centers of bike culture Portland, Oregon. A wind blown and rain soaked comedy from the hipster streets of counter culture. Seen through the eyes of Conrad Miller, a transplant to Portland from Middleton, Wisconsin.

not quite sure what this is about, the votergate “about” page seems to be busted. i recall in the 80’s the sidwalk graffiti near the polling places that said, “if voting changed anything, it’d be illegal.” speaking of the bay area, i know i’ve linked to this before, but i always like checking back in on the list. some of my current faves:

• 16 bitch pileup
• brain police
• dreadful children
• go kart mozart
• maylene and the sons of disaster
• space monkey ganstas

i love the bay area and miss it sometimes for sure, but i’m so happy i now live in this crazy f’ing town. [update: and while we are (trying to get off) the subject of electoral politics, we can agree that “Fox is not a credible news outlet and needs to be stopped.” I’d say duh, but Foxattacks.com has some good stuff there for media activists.

ow.

Originally uploaded by fogboy.

i keep finding new sidewalk ponies around SE pdx and this was one i’d not yet taken a picture of, til it was run over. inpired by other flickrheads, i’ve started to once again put titles and some descriptions on my pix, and post to more groups. it’s such a great tool and community, i can get sucked in big time.

see more sidewalk ponies, and the original story.

some cool chicken tractor pix and info, from City Chicken, who “encourage city folks to take the plunge.” — goes well with my new photoset on the Portland coop tour.

i used to have a regular feature here on action figures featuring my favorite missed connection ad of the week. haven’t done that in a long while, but today there was one that was pretty funny. i was just going to link to it, but then realized that it will be gone from craigslist soon. so here tis:

To my naked hot tub party neighbors
Reply to: anon-86310316@craigslist.org
Date: 2005-07-22, 5:44PM PDT

So I have no idea if it is on again this weekend, but if it is can I make some suggestions?

1) You guys are freaking hilarious, at the very least please record the audio from your night. Last weekends favorite quote “I want your boobies to kiss my boobies”
2) Please hand out a lyrics sheet to all members of the hot tub. I would love to help pick the songs, if I am going to have to listen to them. Although the sentiment was sweet your song (Islands in the stream) of choice last week, really blew. My requests: Down Under (Men at Work), She Goes Down (Motley Crue)
3) Lets make it an official rule, every time a guy stands up you ladies must yell at the top of your lungs “Cocktail” and then drink. Also for every time someone says boobies, the group drinks.
4) Plastic only – lesson learned
5) Just say, turn off your porch light rather then unscrewing it. I will hop right up and do it. I didn’t realize when you were having one of you unscrew a light it was mine.
6) In the event you are playing “guess who’s foot”, please be clear with your rules. There seemed to be some confusion in the past.
7) I didn’t quite catch all the shapes that had been shaved in the ladies whoonie nananas. Please redo that conversation and a little louder.
Bring back Willie, everyone loves Willie. Or even better just get Jack Black. My favorite part was hearing him talk about how much he loves being a soccer coach to these little kids while he was sitting buck ass naked in a hot tub. Somehow naked hot tubs and talks of children don’t seem to mix.
9) Start and finish times; 3:30 am to 5:30 throws my schedule completely off. Can we shoot for 1 – 3 am?
10) Thanks for describing the cup sizes, lets make that a habit. Really feel free to be as descriptive as possible. When I compared notes with the other neighbors we weren’t exactly sure who had what. Maybe repeat your name after the description.
11) After this weekend we will have two more neighbors. They will be living upstairs and I am guessing will have a pretty unobstructed view. I do not know if they will find you as funny as I do. Maybe an invite for them?
12) Bathroom use, kudos to all of you who got out of the hot tub! The couple of you who didn’t…….shame!
13) The ass smacking, although it sounded solid I think needs some work. Don’t be shy really get after it! After all, your drunk and you’ll need something to remember it by.
14) If you find yourself in a lull, feel free to just yell boobies or cocktail for no apparent reason.
15) Last rule, please only very attractive naked hot tub party attendees. Unless you follow strict rules of bringing them home after I have gone to bead. Which will allow me to imagine it is Halle Berry, Jessica Alba and Pam Anderson in your hot tub.

Last weekend rather then get mad and try and sleep, I thought screw it, I’ll just listen to the show. 20 feet away just isn’t far enough to stop sound. Thanks for the entertainment.

Your neighbor who knows better then to be a hypocrite

“for a more submissive, yuppie-firendly neighborhood, press 2.”

this week’s “We don’t care what the community thinks, we just want to make more money!” award goes to the fratboys and gals over at urban works real estate for trying to put in a new starbucks on 20th and division.

a lot of folks in the community just ain’t gonna have it. but of course that doesn’t surprise you, since there’s a global movement pressuring the anti-democratic earth-and-people hating chain store.

it’s no wonder that in those photos they all look like they gotta run to the bathroom. but seriously, i’m sure they’re perfeclty nice, polite people. but their platform for community destruction is seriously harshing my mellow. so get over to the nostarkbucks site, get the 411, and fax ‘em — early and often!

despite the successful events of mini-bike summer, the past week has not been a good one for cyclists in the county’s most bike-friendly town (as we’ve been named by the L.A.B. and bicycling magazine for several years running).

On the 21st, a 45 year old SE Portlander was killed while riding in a bike lane before dark, when a pickup driver hit him from behind and dragged his bike for nearly a mile. Then this past Wednesday around midnight, Lindsey Llaneza hit and killed two cyclists and severely wounded another. He was driving drunk and his license had been suspended for years. He’d been pulled over for DUI’s and other citations as recently as March, and yet, the cops and the courts saw no reason to make sure he wasn’t driving.

first, lemme just get this off my chest. don’t ever say any shit to me about bikes and cars needing to share the road. this kind of thing continues to happen, all the time, for many reasons, of course, but the chief reason is that the individuals who make our laws, and who define our culture and our political economy continue to prioritize the auto over all other methods transportation (not to mention peace, security, and a humane foreign policy agenda).

of course there have been many calls to push for Llaneza to be punished harshly. while i agree that he should be held accountable for his actions by the communities he has so deeply hurt, a prison sentence for him will do exactly nothing to deter other drivers from ignoring, neglecting, and hating cyclists. it’s not simply that i believe prisons are not the answer, indeed they are not. it’s also that bikes need to be asserted as a more important part of our cities than cars and trucks.

critical mass, of course, is a great way of making that happen. indymedia’s call for tonight’s mass asks us to come out to ensure this type of madness stops, and that we stop the cops from hassling the mass so much.

i didn’t go to the mass tonight. the indymedia call says that if we don’t come out, the cops have won. well, here’s the deal. i’m scared of the cops. by cops in 3 states, i’ve been beaten up, hospitalized, arrested, and harassed a great deal in the last 10 years. and tonight, as i read the news, and wound down from work, and considered going to critical mass, i realized i’m especially scared of the particular blend of my rage and the rage of the cops. i’m no good to any movement, and i can’t support any progressive issues if i’m locked up or injured.

so i’m taking a break from the big actions for now. we all need to recharge our batteries and take care not to burn out. instead, i’m doing some fund-raising work for the awesome new biking advocacy group, shift. and cleaning the garage and walking the dogs.

this position posted in the craigslist portland “office jobs” section won’t be available long. oh, right, cuz it’s not legal:

Personal assistant to Vice President level position. Young pretty girl needed for answering the phone, making appointments and light typing. Attitude more important that skills, will train. Pretty smile and nice legs a must. Multi-national company, Asian background a plus, but not necessary. Flexible schedule and great benefits. Apply in person.

though i’ve never quite fit the lifestyle anarchism of some of the @ folx i know, i’ve long understood that as one who jibes with anarchist organizing princliples, the commies would sell us all out first. if you’re not sure what i’m blabbing about, then see the excellent flick Land and Freedom and read how other commies feel about the RCP. suffice to say that working alongside leninists and maoists, whenever my activism has necessitated it, has been either frustrating, boring, or rage-inducing, or all three. so i was struck with an oh-they’re-not-so-bad feeling when i saw this weeks ads. and these are just two among many great ones. the mercury has come unhinged, and it seems p-town is on fire this late winter. happy reading.

MC PUMA

Tristan, I love you and miss you with all of my revolutionary heart. The Commie House yearns for your beautiful face. Please don’t run away forever.

SARAH W. IS HOT

You are the eco-defender of my dreams. Us communists miss you over here on the other side of town. I send you a kiss and a revolutionary hug.

besides adding the new category to the links section as well, i’ve set up 67 new links, yesterday and today. If you were able to make it to an action this weekend, i hope it was rockin. despite very boring chants and a long wait while organizers appeased the cops, portland went extremely well. well, except for this IMC person who was denied a press packet by liberal march organizers (read the comments for full story, it’s not as bad as it may sound, but still, get a grip people…) here’s some fabulous photos (click for larger):

kid waving a Palestinian flag

sweet dog with cute sign

a couple of very creative protesters