Sayonara!

As The Oregonian reported today, Portland Mayor Sam Adams is heading to Japan for six days. The reasons for this diplomatic visit are many, but the paper has distilled the mayor's mission down to two key points: bring Mitsubishi's zero-emission cars to Portland, and bring Pink Martini to Japan.

Like its competitor the Nissan Leaf, which will be sold in five U.S. markets including Oregon next fall, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV is powered solely by electricity, and can be recharged from a regular home socket. The four-seater vehicle can run up to 160 kilometers (100 miles) after charging seven hours at 200 volts. While any electric car is good news in my opinion, the part that I still don't understand is how the i-MiEV, at reported retail of $47,000, can compete with the Leaf, which most industry observers say will retail for $20,000 to $30,000. And there's no word yet on whether the Mayor plans to lobby Detroit to sell Portland a staging ground for the new Chevy Volt.

Whomever we are trying to woo, perhaps Thomas Lauderdale and friends can help. The Mayor is taking several autographed copies of Pink Martini CDs as gifts for Japanese dignitaries. After all, the French are in love with them, and Pink Martini has dabbled in Japanese a fair amount.


Sympathique features “Song of the Black Lizard," taken from the soundtrack of a Japanese cult film of the same name, and Hey Eugene! includes a Japanese-language track, "Taya Tan." In a reworking of the Japanese song “Kikuchiyo to Mohshimasu” for Hang on Little Tomato, Pink Martini collaborated and recorded in Japan with Hiroshi Wada, the slide guitarist whose group originally recorded and released the song 40 years ago. Splendor in the Grass doesn't have any Japanese inspired music, so we can only hope that our Japanese friends won't take it personally that critics are calling this the best and prettiest album of them all.

The Mayor will also be giving away Japanese-inspired blown glass orbs and vases from Portland artist Andy Paiko, and framed woodblock prints (you know, the Japanese printmaking process) by Carole Zoom. For our sister City of Sapporo, the Mayor is bringing a 1985 hand-colored etching by George Johanson. It's called "Waiting for the Parade I," and captures the true character of our world-famous Rose Festival better than most glossy photos.


The Mayor's office also tells me that Portland jazz performer Patrick Lamb is playing (or, played) in Sapporo tonight, and provided tickets to the U.S. Consulate General Sapporo as a pre-thank you for the Mayor’s hosted dinner there.

Now go get us some electric cars!

Giant Ship Covers the Waterfront

“Holy sh*t! What the hell is that?” was my reaction upon crossing the Morrison Bridge on my way home this evening. Not far from where a Ferris wheel spun at the Rose Festival’s Happy Funtime Joy Center just a week ago was an entire 12-story building floating in the Willamette River. Was this a new kind of Fleet Week?


The Oregonian ran an story on the ship’s visit today (and published the picture above). I did a little more research and found another short article in an obscure local journal, Portland Seaman Weekly:

AVAST MATEY! A Vast Ship Hoves into Stumptown

June 14, 2009
Portland OR

As part of Oregon’s strategy for stimulating the economy and reversing the region’s dismal joblessness rate, Governor Kulongoski and Mayor Adams have successfully convinced the operators of the cruise ship, The World, to dock at Portland’s Waterfront Park this week. The World is a 665-foot, 12-deck residential luxury liner that cruises the world while treating its 140 residents to upscale services such as a gourmet market and delicatessen, a full-service spa, a tennis court, an art gallery, a souvenir shop called “Jimbo’s House of Gimbals and Hawsers,” and a tattoo parlor run by a Norwegian artist, Sven the Sailorman.

The governor and mayor announced the ship’s upcoming visit during a hastily organized press conference held on a Pride Parade float upon which Thomas Lauderdale played “No Hay Problema” using Storm Large’s ass as a bongo drum.

“By bringing The World to Portland,” said Governor Kulongoski, “we hope to bring Portland to the world.” When asked what he meant by that statement, Kulongoski answered, “One word: Sustainability.” He then stripped off his clothes and rode an all-electric moped into a crowd of naked bike riders.

Mayor Sam Adams took the podium to announce, “This historic visit will contribute to cultural tourism in the region, creating economic opportunities for Portland’s artists and other creatives.” After a short pause, he added, “The farmers market people and bicycle frame builders too. And soccer. These people like soccer.”

The mayor concluded the press conference by directing job-seekers to a special hotline for positions that will be immediately created in the ship’s wake.

***

Out of curiosity, I dialed the number and heard this message:

"If you are an artist with cake decorating experience, press 1 now.

If you are a professional sushi chef, press 2 now.

If you are a tattoo artist and have blond hair, press 3 now.

If you have five years or more experience as a barnacle scraper, press 4 now.

If you have a graduate degree and a passion for clean scuppers, press 5 now.

If you are an experienced palanquin lifter, press 6 now."

UPDATE: The Oregonian has more photos of "The World," including the one below that shows the behemoth's scale more clearly. The small craft in the foreground are either Somali pirates or ZooBombers who have switched to jetskis after getting bored with little bicycles.

The Arts Win!

With the adoption of the FY10 budget just moments ago, Portland City Council approved a $4,325,300 allocation to the Regional Arts & Culture Council (RACC). That's actually an increase over FY09 (explained in a moment), which is an incredible accomplishment amidst a recession like this, made possible by a Mayor who has made the arts a priority, a City Council who thoroughly supported virtually every aspect of his proposed budget, and hundreds of artists and arts advocates whipped up by the Creative Advocacy Network to pack Council Chambers and participate in community budget forums, making a strong case for arts funding all the while. If you were part of that effort, then I personally applaud you.

The new funding, combined with the continued growth of Work for Art, will result in small increases in RACC grants to artists and arts organizations in FY10 -- a year when most city bureaus will be taking a 5% cut. The majority of the increase, however, is dedicated to expanding The Right Brain Initiative, advancing the regional "Act for Art" plan, and investing in the Creative Advocacy Network to deliver a regional, sustainable dedicated funding solution for arts and culture. One-time funding resources available to the City, which probably won't be available again next year, made it possible for them to invest in these opportunities.

We're batting 2 for 2 so far. Federal government: check. City government: check. State and county governments: stay tuned. Granted, we lost the Cultural Trust battle, and I'm not sure whether the war is over. We can anticipate a great big cut for the state arts commission in FY10, but let's see what the Governor and legislature does with arts funding for the next biennium before we call it for sure. The three counties in the region will be announcing their final budgets soon, and those may very well bring more GOOD news for the arts. Cross your fingers with me, won't you?

Memorial Coliseum is about more than Architectural Preservation

I understand if you're fatigued by the Memorial Coliseum story. Perhaps you're one of the many who think it's an ugly, obsolete behemoth that threatens to stifle progress and waste taxpayer dollars. In the end, this post isn't about that story, though it was triggered by it. It's really about who's running the show in this goddamned town, and who's reporting the story.

The front page of Monday’s Oregonian was splashed with two beautiful photographs of Memorial Coliseum (exterior and interior), accompanying a hatchet job of a story about the building’s financial viability. A smidgeon of snideness crept into a headline that read, “Save Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, but for what?”

The O’s editorial position has been staunchly anti-Coliseum from the get-go, parroting the talking points of the proponents of its demolition, and implying that the only folks who want to preserve the building are a few elitist architects with their heads up their asses. On Monday morning, that editorial posture crept onto the front page--or was journalistic laziness to blame?

Asking questions about how Memorial Coliseum will be managed and to what purpose is a legitimate exercise. That’s a task Portland’s mainstream newspaper ought to take seriously. Instead, the paper ran a half-baked recap of talking points with faulty and incomplete analysis. Is editorial bias intruding on journalistic independence, or is this what happens when a newspaper’s resources are stripped bare, leaving no capacity for real investigative reporting?

In her front page article, Helen Jung writes, “The Save Memorial Coliseum campaign, spearheaded by a few architects passionate about the arena, worked.” (Note the emphasis on a "few architects").

Let me turn that statement on its head: “The Raze Memorial Coliseum campaign, spearheaded by a few private sector developers and rich sports team owners passionate about making money, worked.” Is that what you would rather be reading? Because it came close to that and still might.

Jung takes as an article of faith the argument that nobody knows how to manage the Coliseum successfully: “Architects who love Memorial Coliseum would show you the massive glass walls that allow natural light to stream into the seating bowl. They would show you the clever engineering of the roof -- the size of four city blocks -- resting on just four concrete pillars. But it's a little bit harder for them to show the outlines of a good business when looking at the 49-year-old coliseum's financial bones.”

The article states that Memorial Coliseum “has struggled for more than a decade to just break even.” The print version includes a bar chart to support that argument. Unfortunately, it appears to do just the opposite: Over the six year period reported, the chart shows that the City of Portland received close to $2.8 million in revenue from parking and user fees while spending just under $2.4 million running the garage and making some capital improvements. That’s a net gain of $400k (14%) over that period. (Under the management deal for the venue, the Blazers collect all other revenue, such as rentals and concessions, pay the Coliseum’s operating costs, and then split any remaining profit with the city).

Sure, the chart shows that the city has “lost” money over the most recent three years; but that is because it spent money on capital improvements in those years. If there were surpluses from previous years, doesn’t it make business sense to reinvest them in improvements and deferred maintenance? What happened to those surpluses anyway? The article doesn’t explore that question, nor does it report on what the Blazers earned or lost by operating the facility. (A year or two ago, a brief report said that the Blazers broke even operating the venue after years of losing money).

The article correctly notes that “the coliseum needs millions of dollars in fixes, from overhauling its half-century-old electrical system to replacing the roof. Its egalitarian seating arrangement, with no luxury boxes or club seats, makes the coliseum feel more like a high school gym than a venue out to make a profit.”

Why doesn't the article mention that the Blazers recently invested $13 million to upgrade the Rose Garden Arena after less than a decade of use? What makes that a legitimate investment, while maintaining Memorial Coliseum is portrayed as pouring money down a rat hole? By the way, $13 million is exactly what a 2002 study said would need to be invested in upgrades to the Coliseum.

The article briefly describes the management deal struck between the City of Portland and the Blazers. It mentions the “Portland Arena Management” as the Blazers's sister company responsible for managing the venues. It does not mention that Portland Arena Management signed a five year deal with AEG Facilities a few years ago to run the Rose Quarter. It doesn’t mention that Los Angeles-based AEG Facilities is a huge entertainment and venue management conglomerate with a world wide base of operations. (You might call AEG the Halliburton of sports and entertainment management). When the Blazers signed the deal in 2007, its chief operating officer at the time, Mike Golub, described AEG as “the fastest-growing facility management group and one of the most dynamic sports and entertainment companies in the world." Oh boy!

Reports in the Oregonian and other media outlets at the time read like they were transcribed from the Blazers/AEG press release. “The AEG team wants to attract a Rose Garden naming rights partner, coax more development of the Rose Quarter campus, add new events and generate more revenue for Vulcan Ventures, which owns the arena for Blazers owner Paul Allen.” AEG is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, a sports entertainment outfit that operates the Staples Center in Los Angeles and many other venues and sports teams around the world. Part of its reputation is its ability to sell naming rights for venues, and its development of entertainment centers such as “L.A. Live” – a $2.5 billion district of residences, offices, hotel rooms and event venues which Blazers execs reportedly cite as a model for developing the Rose Quarter.

According to reports, AEG ranks as the nation's second-largest concert promoter behind Live Nation. That's what business folks call "integrated" but you may know it better as a "monopoly." They control the product, the content and the delivery systems. I thought it was interesting that my search of Oregon Live and the Oregonian's archives (thank you Multnomah County Libraries) turned up no further mention of AEG since the 2007 article about the Blazers handing over venue management.

The Blazers are now talking with another mega-developer, the Cordish Co., about creating the entertainment district, so it's not clear what AEG's role is in all this. What seems beyond dispute is that the Blazers and Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures have been hankering for better profits and that Memorial Coliseum is sitting there as a huge obstacle. The connections between AEG, Cordish and Vulcan certainly make discussions about the proposed “entertainment district” more interesting. I won't be surprised if I learn that the Convention Center hotel project, for which Mayor Sam Adams has a powerful itch, gets integrated into this whole development deal. And here's another interesting connection: Mike Golub either quit or was fired by Vulcan recently, and reports are that Merritt Paulson wants to hire him as general manager for that new Major League Soccer team Portland is getting. It is a Small World after all!

As long as we're constructing a house of cards, when AEG took over management of the Rose Quarter, it was reported to have a “strong interest in developing and managing a 2,500-seat arena" on the site. At that seating capacity, such a venue would compete directly with the Schnitzer Auditorium (2,800 seats) and Keller Auditorium (3,000 seats) for commercial concerts, sucking away some of the revenue potential for those venues and destabilizing their financial underpinnings. Guess who gets hurt if that happens? The nonprofit performing companies that use those city-owned facilities at reduced rates thanks to commercial rentals that offset operating costs, that's who. Top on that list are the Oregon Symphony, the Oregon Ballet and the Portland Opera, all of which are struggling under current economic conditions. Oy!
So here's what has me riled up: This is all starting to feel Bush league. By that, I mean it's looking like the kind of private sector deal-making that we saw flourishing over the past eight years.

It's Enron and Halliburton rolled together into one flaming clusterf**k.

It's a strategy of belittling and marginalizing opponents, treating them as if they're idiots for not understanding the complexities of the deal.

It's the media rolling over and reporting from press releases and talking points rather than doing its investigative job.

It's spreadsheets with variables jiggered so that the future looks rosy and risk free until it all turns to shit and then what's the next brilliant plan?

It's rich fat cats sucking at the public teat while pocketing all the upside of the deal and walking away from the risks.

It's elected officials wanting to appear decisive and action-oriented, hellbent on creating a legacy greater than scandal.

It's about whatever happened to Portland being a town that knows how to plan?

Okay, I’m not a reporter and I have other work to do and many miles to go before I sleep. All of my investigation of this post was done on a laptop while watching the season finale of "House." If I got facts wrong, tell me and I'll fix them. I'll try to add links and give proper citations later. I didn't even take the time to add a photo to brighten things up.

Go read Bob Hick’s excellent analysis of this story at Art Scatter, which he's titled,"Memorial Coliseum: The Empire Strikes Back." It's brilliant and passionate, and Bob is more articulate about it. I particularly like the questions he raises about the place of profit in managing public facilities that were built for the public good.

Sparing Memorial Coliseum (for now)

Let's start with a confession: I have never been inside Memorial Coliseum.

I had not yet been born when Portland voters approved the $8 million bond to finance its construction in 1954. I wasn't there when the neighborhood was bulldozed and the big glass box began to emerge on the eastside skyline.

I was not quite four years old when the "Glass Palace" was dedicated to the "advancement of cultural opportunities for the community and to the memory of our veterans of all wars who made the supreme sacrifice."

I did not attend either of the two Beatles shows at the Coliseum in 1965 (ticket price $6.00). I did not see Led Zeppelin perform there in either 1970 or 1972. I didn’t witness Evel Knievel jumping his motorcycle over a row of 17 vans and trucks in 1973.



I wasn't there when the Portland Trailblazers won the Championship in 1977. I didn't hear Bruce Springsteen sing an impromptu version of “On Top of Old Smoky” in honor of the Mount St. Helens eruption when he played the Coliseum in 1980. I've never watched floats in the Grand Floral Parade roll out its big doors, which were designed to accommodate that purpose.

I never rolled around the concourse level on rented inline skates (which was a possibility when I arrived in Portland 15 years ago). I've never been to a hockey game in Portland (or anywhere else for that matter). My daughter's graduation from PSU was held in the Rose Garden, not the Coliseum, and I had to explain to her grandparents that the ceremony was not actually at the Rose Garden.

My dirty little secret is that up until a few years ago, I never paid much attention to Memorial Coliseum. It was just a big box in a confusing jumble of streets and parking lots–-a neighborhood of jammed traffic when my cross-town timing was bad.

In 2001, I read an article by Randy Gragg, who was then the Oregonian's architecture critic (and one of the paper's best and most prolific writers). After reading the building described as "a teacup in a glass box," I began to see it anew, and to appreciate its simple beauty. Since then, I've gained more appreciation of its place in Portland's architectural history.

With that more enlightened perspective, I became alarmed (along with many others), when Mayor Sam Adams decreed that Memorial Coliseum must be razed to make room for the new Triple A baseball stadium--all part of a complex development and public/private financing deal tied to bringing Major League Soccer to town. My dismay grew when Commissioner Leonard flatly declared that Memorial Coliseum was "ugly" and a building "only a mother could love." The proponents of tearing the building down repeated the same litany of faults: (1) It's an ugly box; (2) It's never used; (3) It would be impossible to fix; (4) It's a money pit; (5) Only a tiny group of elitists architecture geeks want to save it; and (6) We've been looking for solutions for years and nothing ever happens.

The Coliseum's destruction seemed inevitable. But then a remarkable thing happened: People started to squawk about the plan, and a real grassroots campaign arose, not only with protests but offering alternatives worthy of consideration. It was enough that the Mayor decided that precipitous action was not such a good idea--that it might be worth taking the time to actually think this one through.

As reported by Mark Larabee in this morning's Oregonian, the razing of Memorial Coliseum has been taken off the table for the moment. We're back to considering the Lents neighborhood as a site for the baseball part. That seemed like a sensible plan in the first place, so let's see if it can happen.

Of course, that's not the end of this issue. There is still much work and thinking to be done. What happens to Memorial Coliseum now? The building suffers from a backlog of deferred maintenance and there are legitimate questions about its financial viability in its current use. (There are good explanations about how the Rose Quarter's management structure creates incentives for the Blazers to minimize capital investments in the building, along with disincentives to book events there instead of the Rose Garden).

Do you remember the brilliant plan floating about in 2003? The city's star developers, Gerding/Edlen, had the idea of turning Memorial Coliseum into a big box retail outlet that would attract 4 million people a year. With the stadium bowl torn out, there would be plenty of room for a Costco or Home Depot store stuffed in the space, with parking on the middle floor. Of course, big box stores don't have much need for big windows and city views, and proximity to light rail isn't helpful when you're hauling building materials home. That was one solution I'm glad we didn't pursue, though there were some that were convinced it was brilliant thinking.

Now the Blazers are talking about creating an "entertainment district" in the Rose Quarter. It's a plan that may cost upwards of $100 million and will certainly require no small amount of public financing. Keep an eye on this one folks! It's going to get ugly ... I mean that literally.

If you're late to this game, lots of smart people have been covering it over the past six weeks:

One of the most vocal and smartest leaders of the movement to save Memorial Coliseum was Brian Libby, who pressed the argument with fervor on his Portland Architecture site. Brian was also kept busy responding doggedly to Memorial Coliseum critics on various blog comment strings, which must have been wearing. Congratulations Brian, and keep up the good fight.

Barry Johnson has done a great job covering the story at Portland Art Watch--both reporting and posing good questions. Tim DuRoche's commentary on his Burnside Blog was also insightful. The Portland Mercury's coverage of the proposed entertainment district has been especially good.

Nixon: Uncomfortable in his own Skin

Last Friday, upon returning home from a satisfying opening night performance of "Frost/Nixon" at Portland Center Stage, we snuggled up on the sofa with a nightcap and a bowl of popcorn and proceeded to surf the net on our respective laptops, engaging in a little post-theater research and memory freshening. There's nothing quite like historical research to top off a night of theater.

Since then, I’ve been trying to write a review, hoping to deliver a post that provides the reader with my uncanny analysis and musings on media, political corruption and human nature. I wanted to draw parallels between Nixon’s corruption and other political travesties, national and local. I wanted to reflect on the role of media in politics and how it has changed over the past 35 years. (Note: MY GOD! Has it been that long?).

Unfortunately, after six days of noodling, all I've come up with are dribs and drabs of incomplete thoughts. I keep getting distracted watching YouTube clips of the original Frost/Nixon interviews and listening to snippets of secret White House recordings. I'd like to be able to use the following Nixon blooper clip as a springboard for profound commentary on media and image-shaping, but mostly I just thought it was funny ... in a sad kind of way:



Over at Art Scatter, Bob Hicks writes more eloquently about Nixon as a tragic figure, so read his post (including the comments) and then pretend that you heard it from me. I'm done trying to weave the following random notes into a coherent essay. Best that you just go see the show, which runs through May 10th at the Gerding Theater ("The Bob"). It's good.

Full disclosure: I’m a neighbor and former colleague of director Rose Riordan and we frequently bump into each and talk about the business and art of theater while walking our dogs late at night. Our dogs are friends too.

1) "Frost/Nixon" is a complex technical achievement, with panels and set pieces that slide smoothly in and out, and lots of projected video (recorded and live). While tricky, all of these elements work together without being obtrusive or flashy – the whizbangery did not distract me from the story. The extensive use of video projection is an essential part of the storytelling and is not a gimmick. (Note: The actors aren’t lip-syncing to prerecorded video as one patron reportedly complained). The proscenium itself is encircled in a bezel that says, "I'm a giant TV set."

2) Technical bravado aside, the true key to the production’s success is that Riordan found just the right Nixon in Bill Christ. For any production of "Frost/Nixon," the big challenge is to transcend the three basic Nixons implanted in our brains: (1) The original Tricky Dick we watched on television from the Checker’s speech to his resignation; (2) the cartoon Nixon with floppy jowls and outstretched arms flashing the victory sign; and (3) Frank Langella.

Bill Christ conveys key Nixonian mannerisms and vocal inflections without sounding like a hack impressionist. He portrays Nixon’s complexities and vulnerabilities, and even manages to elicit a smidgeon of empathy. His nuanced acting holds up even when his gigantic mug is supersized on the video projection that dominates the set.

3) If there are weaknesses in "Frost/Nixon," they are in Peter Morgan's script. I think the play leans too heavily on expository speeches by two of the side characters: Jack Brennan (Scott Coopwood) on the Nixon team and Jim Reston (Adam Ludwig) as one of Frost's researchers. I’m not sure how else the necessary exposition might have been accomplished, but it struck me as a clumsy mechanism to bring the audience up to speed and move the story along. (Note: "Clumsy" may be too strong in this case ... make it "inelegant").

4) Other than Frost and Nixon, I thought the other characters were weakly developed (though well played and directed). Of course, the play's focus should be on the match between the title characters. Still, I would have liked to have known more about the other characters and their motivations, beyond what the script provides. For example, the character of Caroline Cushing (Allison Tigard) is introduced as a woman Frost meets on a flight while on his way to meet Nixon in advance of the interviews. She's invited to accompany him and they become an "item." In real life, Cushing was a journalist who had already been in a relationship with Frost for five years before the Nixon project. Tigard's portrayal gives the role enough weightiness to avoid coming across as Frost's arm candy, but the picture still seems incomplete.

5) The script makes David Frost out to be a journalistic lightweight and party boy. Perhaps that’s an accurate depiction, but it makes him less plausible as a “worthy opponent” (as Nixon ultimately declares). The underdog overcoming odds and beating a tough opponent is a perfectly legitimate plot trajectory. In this case, Frost's transformation from hapless bimbo to master debater seems to happen too quickly, conveniently and without enough dramatic tension. (Note: I couldn’t resist writing “master debater,” but did edit out the reference to Frost as a “cunning linguist” because I have my standards).

6) One of the play’s pivotal scenes involves a drunken Nixon making a late night phone call to Frost in which he exposes all of his insecurities and grudges. (Note: I’m putting “Drunken Nixon” on my list of potential band names). It’s a powerful and effective scene, but one that is completely fictional. I'm not sure what to think of that. I know, I know, it's a play, not a documentary, but still. (Note: I really mean it when I say I don't know what to think about this ... but at least it made me think about the role of truth and imagination in creating theater based in historical fact ... ).

7) I would like to say that "Frost/Nixon" will win a Drammy for best set, except that I think that category might be won by either "The Receptionist" or "How to Disappear and Never be Found" -- also directed by Rose Riordan. Bill Christ should at least be nominated for Best Actor -- but if he wins, the monkey-fightin' Portland acting community will go batshit crazy because he's from out-of-town.

8) Really. Go see the show. Ignore my little penny ante quibbles. It's really well done and is a fascinating story with lots to think about afterwards, food for thought, blah blah.

Oh, one more thing: It's always good to be reminded of how power corrupts. Nixon thought he had the right answers and that his reelection would serve the nation best; hence, the ends justified the means -- lying, cheating and covering up were okay because he was the guy with the brilliant mind and great ideas who was going to save us from ourselves and the rest of the world. Isn't that always the slippery slope upon which politicians risk finding themselves?

Flyin' on a Monday to Friday Plane

Here at Culture Shock, we try to stay focused on life and culture in Portland. And we try hard to avoid gratuitous recycling (or "repurposing") of material culled from the vast interwebs. For instance, I've been working on a review of Frost/Nixon since Friday night (thumbs up with a few quibbles), and a reasoned argument in favor of saving Memorial Coliseum (thankfully, Mayor Adams has given me another week to work on that one before it's too late).

Having said that, I take this moment to give you a clip from the televised version of the classic film, "Snakes on a Plane," sanitized to protect your delicate ears.



Now, let's get on with this monkey fightin' day.

Excuse me, but your brandscape is fragmented.

I just received a reminder of the Innotech conference (“The Business and Technology Innovation Conference and Expo”) at the Convention Center next week. This year’s keynote speaker will be Rahaf Harfoush, a new media strategist and member of Obama’s Social Media Team. She’ll be giving an insider perspective on the Obama campaign’s use of social media to win the election. While that may be fascinating and practical, I can’t imagine it being more exciting than this conference session:

Experience Strategies: Maximizing Customer Engagement in the Fragmented Brandscape

Oh my. That reminded me of a link Culture Shock contributor, cynseattle, found a few weeks ago. The Landcape Urbanism Bullshit Generator is a user friendly tool for anyone operating in the fieldscape of landscape urbanism. I used it to generate this erudite recommendation about the Rose Quarter. (By which I mean the Memorial Coliseum razing that Mayor Sam Adams is ramrodding, bulldozing, railroading and dragooning past any semblance of public process, thoughtful consideration or economic reality).*

To negotiate the urban experience, we must first bundle performative fields and extend self-organizing phase-states. Only by expediting robust synergies within an aggregated landscape grid will we effectively reclaim the hyperbolic dynamics and generate the customized networks needed to enable front-end armatures. Furthermore, as we mesh green contexts within post-urban clusters, we will begin to incentivize permeable partnerships as integrated bleeding-edge models of biodiversification.

Imagine the grant proposals that could be written with this simple tool!

* Please visit Tim DuRoche's post on this topic on his Burnside Blog.

Mea Culpa

I need to apologize to our readers, to artists and to all who support the inclusion of arts funding in the economic stimulus package. Like you, I’ve been reading about how the “batshit crazy” rightwing anti-culturalists have been maligning arts funding as non-stimulative pork. I was just as disappointed as you to learn that Senators Wyden and Merkley voted for a stimulus bill that included this egregious amendment from Senator Coburn:

None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, arts center, or highway beautification project, including renovation, remodeling, construction, salaries, furniture, zero-gravity chairs, big screen televisions, beautification, rotating pastel lights, and dry heat saunas.

I was dismayed to learn that a recent editorial in the National Review sarcastically opined that increased funding for the NEA would mean that "the unemployed can fill their days attending abstract-film festivals and sitar concerts."

Then it all started to sound vaguely familiar. I got a sinking feeling that I may have inadvertently contributed to the problem. A quick scan of my files brought the memory back and verified my complicity: Just last year I wrote a grant proposal to the NEA on behalf of a regional arts organization. (Professional ethics and common decency bar me from revealing the client's name). The proposal must have been leaked to the Republicans by a disgruntled grant panelist! Since the project is unlikely to be funded, I will share a synopsis of the proposal:

Describe the Project: [NAME REDACTED], Oregon’s leading collective of multidisciplinary dance, theater and abstract film artists, seeks NEA funding for a project through which it will engage the community in dialogue that will inform a co-creative process of examining, exploring and explicating the multidimensional intersections and interstices between consumer culture, Wall Street fraud and organized religion. The site-specific, time-based performative project will draw upon influences as diverse as Andres Serrano, Karen Finley and Robert Mapplethorpe. Seminal materials will be used. We mean urine.

The project’s artistic collaborators will construct a temporary public art installation on the eighteenth hole of the Bandon Springs Golf Resort. This site was selected to provide opportunities for broad-based cultural access to underserved rural communities. The installation will consist of two vitrines to be fabricated, in situ, by 48 glass artists using recycled wine bottles melted in massive anagama kilns. Each vitrine will measure 20’ x 20’ x 20’ (8,000 cubic feet) and will be filled with liquid.

The first vitrine will represent the primeval ocean from which all life evolved. It will be filled with sweat collected from 800 dance artists commissioned to perform an extended choreographic masterwork in a giant dry heat sauna to be constructed in the abandoned warehouses of Laika Studios. At risk youth from inner-city neighborhoods will be employed to scrape the sweat from the dancer’s bodies over the course of the 18-month dance performance.

Once the vitrine is filled with the salty fluid, hundreds of chinook salmon will be released into it. Their futile attempts to migrate and spawn will be accompanied by a techno-industrial score performed by a 32 piece sitar orchestra and four dozen unemployed construction workers with jackhammers. The salmon will then be slaughtered by marauding sea lions in a bloody orgy of classist oppression.

A live video feed will be sent by fiber optic cable to a state-of-the art Imax theater to be constructed at a remodeled Oregon Aquarium (Newport). Simultaneous video feeds will be sent to Spirit Mountain Casino (Grand Ronde) and Chinook Winds Casino (Lincoln City), where spectators will view the salmon slaughter on big screen televisions while placing bets on which fish will be the last to survive. To highlight the interconnectedness between the project sites, Highway 101 (Newport to Lincoln City) and Highway 18 (Lincoln City to Grand Ronde) will be beautified by a nighttime display of rotating pastel lights as well as abstract film.

The second vitrine will be filled with urine. Members of Portland’s burgeoning creative class will be invited to a three-day outdoor concert at which free PBR and Stumptown coffee will be served. Participants will then urinate into special holding tanks. (Many participants may choose to kiss each other while doing so). They will also be encouraged to ride bicycles to the concert site.

Once this vitrine is filled, a figure of Jesus Christ suspended in a zero-gravity chair will be smeared with dung and chocolate and submerged. The vitrine will be lit by more rotating pastel lights (or perhaps primary colors this time). The artistic co-creators will initiate intra-, extra- and inter-community dialoguing sessions to find, create and shape meaning.

The proposed project budget of $2.75 million will leverage an estimated $18.7 million in direct spending in the region, as well as an additional bunch of fiscal stimulus through the economic multiplier effect we’re always talking about. The project will create at least 1,500 family-wage jobs for artists, as well as employing construction workers and teenagers who would just as soon cut you. The long-term infrastructural improvements to roads, fiber optic networks, casinos and art centers (did we mention art centers?) are incalculable, but are sure to be sustainable. Letters of support from the big screen television, rotating light and zero-gravity chair industries are attached.

Talkin' Philosophy and Ethics

I’m going to stick with my resolve to stay away from the fray about the Sam Adams Situation. Instead, I want to plug a couple of upcoming cultural events:

Next week, two live performances of the radio show Philosophy Talk will be presented as part of the Illahee Lecture series. Philosophy Talk is a chatty discussion of philosophical and ethical issues, featuring learned guests and intellectual (yet accessible) banter on meaty topics. The show, which plays on OPB on Thursdays at 8:00 p.m. touts itself as “the program that questions everything ...except your intelligence.”

On Friday, January 30, 2008, the hosts of Philosophy Talk will chat with William Irvine, author of On Desire: Why We Want What We Want.

The next evening, they will host an encore show with Michael Philips, author of The Undercover Philosopher: A Guide to Detecting Shams, Lies and Delusions.

Even though the selected topics have NO immediate relevance to current events in Portland, they should be stimulating (but not in a sexual way).

The lectures start at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30) will be held at the First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park, Portland.

Make Better Mistakes Tomorrow?

(photo by Dan Savage)

Like my colleague Mighty Toy Canon and so many others who have hesitated to weigh in on the Sam Adams situation, I have my own set of mixed emotions to sort through and reconcile. But this being a blog about "the arts" and "Portland," and Sam being heretofore the most visible leader of "the arts" and "Portland," sharing with you today's take in the New York Times seems appropriate and pertinent to our efforts here at Culture Shock.

OK, OK. You want to know my take? Fine. While Sam clearly showed piss poor judgment in that fateful series of events several years ago, assuming it was all completely legal, I haven't been able to decide how serious an offense it was to have denied the relationship earlier this year. I am inclined to let the investigation tell us conclusively what transpired, and to let the public decide then what they want to do about it. If he's ousted then in a recall effort, that sounds fair to me, but in the meantime, I for one think he should stay.

To cement my resolve I cosigned a letter from several arts leaders (including other members of the Culture Shock family) that's getting some very interesting (and quite humorous) criticism from several Mercury readers, their gist being, "who the hell are these people and how dare they claim to represent the arts community." Oh it's so easy to be misunderstood these days... certainly it was not our intention to claim to represent the arts community, only to come out as some in the arts community who want cooler heads to prevail in this affair.

I also attended the rally last night, and I must say it was a fascinating display of support from a great many people. I'll be interested to see how the story unfolds today.

Blog on Blog Action

To keep up with the latest news of the Sam Adams Sex Scandal (SASS), I've been lurking on Portland Mercury's Blogtown--an intriguing source of information and perspective, what with that publication itself enmurked™ in the controversy. If you're wondering what Mr. M.T. Cannon has to say about it all (and I know you're not), I'm opting to stay out of the fray on this one. There's already enough monkey poop flying from all sides.

Given the hullabaloo of local news (did you hear that we have a new President?), I only just now noticed that Culture Shock has achieved the enviable status of being included on Blogtown's "Our Friends" list. Moreover, the link actually goes to the right spot. (The Mercury's arch nemesis, Willamette Week, is also listed as a Friend but with a link to the AARP website). Color us honored.

Have a good weekend. Go see some theater.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp ...

The words in the title are from the last lines of Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, Praise Song For the Day.

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.

This morning we splurged on coffee and scones to accompany the inaugural events. We tucked the Oregonian out of sight for the moment. (We'll get back to Sam another day; this is not a day for feeling disappointed in our leaders). Tonight we opened a celebratory bottle of champagne to toast the President and First Lady (imagine that!) dancing at one of the many balls capping this historic day.

I should be writing something benedictory, solemn and congratulatory. Instead, I'll just share a few of my random observations from the day.

(1) Dick Cheney arrived in a wheelchair, reportedly because he hurt his back moving boxes. Carrying files from his office to the incinerator perhaps? I hate to kick the man in pain (though he's accustomed to inflicting pain), but can't help but point out his resemblance to old man Potter from It's a Wonderful Life.



(2) During NBC's coverage, anchor Pete Williams* provided viewers with interesting insights into President Obama's personal aide, Reggie Love (top photo). Unfortunately, this was while the camera was showing footage of Michelle Obama's brother Craig Robinson (bottom photo) at the inauguration. When Mr. Williams eventually realized his error, he tried to cover by saying that his "good friend" Reggie was on his mind because they had been chatting earlier that morning. Oops. * CORRECTION: This morning, my wife pointed out that it was BRIAN Williams who made the mistake ...you know, all those white newscasters look the same to me.




(3) Barack Obama flubbed his lines while taking the oath. Wait ... I mean Chief Justice Roberts screwed them up. The President (for he was already in that role as soon it was noon) handled it with equanimity and followed along with a smile. According to the Constitution, the oath reads: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Roberts put "faithfully" in the wrong place. Do you suppose some nutbag right-wingers are going to try making a case that Obama isn't really President because he didn't give the proper oath? UPDATE: My observant wife has informed me that this argument has indeed started to spread. UPDATE 2: A colleague informed me that President Obama redid the oath today just to make sure he was swearing properly.

(4) After the oath of office, the camera zoomed in on Joe Biden taking a picture with a little digital camera. I wanted to shout "Joe, you're the frigging Vice President now!" But then I realized he was using Malia Obama's camera, taking the picture for her because she was stuck in the second row. How sweet is that? I'll bet they call him "Uncle Joe."

(5) The Queen of Soul! With her rendition of "America the Beautiful," Aretha Franklin proved that she's more than a fabulous voice -- she is a truly great stylist and interpreter.


(6) Tonight, at one of the inaugural balls, Joe Biden quoted an excerpt from Doubletake, a section of Seamus Heaney's poem The Cure at Troy. I looked it up and decided to post the whole section (Biden quoted the third stanza):

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted and endured.

The innocent in gaols
beat on their bars together.
A hunger-striker's father
stands in the graveyard dumb.
The police widow in veils
faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.

Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
if there's fire on the mountain
or lightning and storm
and a god speaks from the sky.

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.

(7) Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem was simple, direct and perfect for the occasion. I thought she read it beautifully, with a careful, deliberate pacing and without Angelou-ish inflections to distract from the words.


(8) Reverend Joseph Lowery's benediction was another beautiful work of poetry, starting with "God of our weary years, God of our silent tears," and ending with

"...help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."

Predictably, cries of outrage are already being heard about how the last phrase inappropriately injected racism into the proceedings. Some will try to do to Reverend Lowery what they did to Reverend Wright. Let's ignore them this time.

That's all. I'm proud to be an American today.

Cultural Planning: It's All the Rage

As more and more cities recognize the economic, educational and social benefits of arts and culture, cultural plans are on the upswing. Portland had its own cultural plan in the '90s, and many of you will recall the laborious but productive effort that was "Arts Plan 2000." There hasn't been much comprehensive planning since, except for occasional check-ins on Arts Plan 2000, and check-offs of the strategies as they were accomplished. Work for Art, RACC's workplace giving program, was one of the last remaining items in the plan and we checked that one off in 2003. The other big thing that never DID happen: dedicated funding for arts and culture.

From time to time, RACC has tried to have that conversation -- how do we secure dedicated, reliable, and increased funding for arts and culture in the region -- but the timing has never been right. When I first started working on this issue in 2002-03, our school system was in crisis (you remember the Doonsbury cartoons) and there was no way people were going to fund the arts... we definitely needed to tend to our education system first. There was also no leadership from elected officials until -- you guessed it -- Sam Adams came along.

Over the past 16 months, Sam has led community leaders -- business owners, arts administrators, elected officials and other civic leaders throughout the region -- in a comprehensive planning process to uncover not only what our arts and culture organizations need, but what our entire community needs to do maintain (and improve) this strong, vibrant and unique place where innovation and creativity thrive in our schools and our businesses. The timing finally feels right, with people everywhere understanding that part of the reason our schools are not as good as they used to be is because we have stripped arts education out of them. Also, Portland has clearly attracted lots of creative talent over the past five years, and there is a keen awareness that the city will reap benefits if we can keep them here. And we keep talking about how our companies must innovate to succeed in the new economy; certainly arts and culture and right-brain thinking play a huge role in stimulating the power of imagination.

So with leadership from the top and a new mindset percolating in our communities, a bold new plan is in the works. It's dubbed "Creative Capacity," and you can see what's taking shape in the phase one report that was released earlier this week. The report highlights how public opinion polling has demonstrated more support for investing in arts and culture than some people might have expected. A few recommendations are starting to take shape.

In the weeks and months ahead, there will be many more town hall meetings, online surveys, and other ways for artists and arts-lovers to lend their voice to the direction we are headed. I definitely encourage folks to get involved now before the plan is cemented in December. Citizens can generally stay attuned to this effort -- and lend input -- through the project website, www.creativecapacity.org.

And oh, by the way, Portland's not alone in conducting this kind of assessment. The City of Austin did some nice cultural planning recently, and four cities released some kind of cultural plan in the last week: Greensboro, NC; Ft. Collins, CO; Denver; and Concord, NH. No doubt many more cities' plans are in the works!