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TV host Will Durst. Now that's a good job.

If during the past few weeks you've noticed sketchy-looking people lurking around an inconspicuous building near the corner of Southeast Morrison Street and 18th Avenue in the wee hours, don't worry. They're not crackheads, they're just musicians. And the building is not a crackhouse, it's the Colonel Summers Cooperative Music Establishment.

It might seem a dubious place at first: Taped to a door likely to be locked is a napkin penned with the words "members only please"; the building, a faceless stucco thing, is just too nondescript; and the hours of operation, though always odd, are never constant. But the Establishment's purpose is actually a benevolent one: to provide a casual space for musicians and other artists to perform, display, network and otherwise hang. Membership isn't difficult to attain; sign the list and you're in, no charge. Members can make dollar donations for coffee and muffins, lounge around, play chess...or play music.

"We're not out to make a profit," says Establishment founder Michael, who makes his living installing fiber-optic cable by day. "We just want a place where people can relax, let the creative juices flow, meet friends and fellow artists." All donations go straight back into maintenance and upgrading of the space. "It's not an organization exactly, and it's not run by management," Michael says. "It's a theme: common sense in unity."

Though the Establishment has only been open for a few weeks, already a slew of notable local musicians have graced the stage, including members of bands like Kerosene Dream, Dharma Engine, Higher Ground and Blue Honey. But, says Michael, musicians needn't be professionally known to play at the Establishment: "Could be a 12-year-old kid banging a dobro in the street...as long as he's good enough to come out of the basement, he's got himself a stage here."
 --Rob Ziegler

PUCKS, NOT BUCKS
 
Canadians might want us to buy Black Tiger coffee, but not on Nov. 28. The day after Thanksgiving, a.k.a. the biggest shopping day of the year, has been named Buy Nothing Day by Adbusters, a Canada-based anti-advertising, anti-consumerism magazine. The group has spent years building a grassroots, international campaign to remind people of the implications of how and where they spend their money, and the first day of the Christmas shopping season is its prime target.

 Buy Nothing Day has caught on locally, particularly with Portland's Liberation Collective and the International School of Learning's global studies class. Both organizations are downloading posters from Adbusters' Web site--www.adbusters.org--and hanging the mantra "Participate by Not Participating" around town. They'll also meet at Pioneer Square on Friday for some theatrical subversion; past years' activities have included musical romps through shopping centers and a credit-card slashing ceremony. If you're a reluctant lefty happily waiting for your kick back refund, Adbusters' lack of somberness might just win you over. Instead of simply railing against the buying machine, these activists emphasize what else you could be doing with family and friends the day after Thanksgiving: Playing hockey!
 --Brooke DeNisco

Arts and Awareness
 
Miracle drugs and protease inhibitors now help AIDS patients and those who are HIV-positive, but the disease continues to afflict millions throughout the world. In observance of World AIDS Day, many Portland organizations will hold events throughout the afternoon of Monday, Dec. 1. At 7:30 pm, the Portland Area Business Association hosts an evening of speeches, dance, music, theater, film and more at the Portland Art Museum Grand Ballroom.

Dr. Amos Brown, the senior pastor at San Francisco's largest black Baptist church and a contemporary of Martin Luther King Jr., will address the issue of human rights for the occasion. The Northwest Afrikan American Ballet, Outside In's Gorilla Theater and members of the Portland Opera are scheduled to perform.

One of the evening's highlights is likely to be a preview of Jennifer Jako and Rebecca Guberman's long-awaited documentary about youth in Europe and America living with AIDS and HIV. The powerful video, which has the feel of a well-made MTV program (if there is such a thing), features interviews with young people who look like their peers but have a markedly different perspective on life and death.
 --Richard Martin


Nice Work...
 
Remember when it was typical for a job to last one's whole life, culminating with a retirement watch and a nice little nest egg? Remember back when having a college education meant access to a better, higher-paying job? Maybe not, but lots of people are talking about those times--and comparing them to today, when Dilbert is king. This changing world of the job force is a captivating subject--note the popularity of the "work" documentary Fast, Cheap & Out of Control now playing at Cinema 21. It is also the topic of a new public television series called Livelihood.

Host comedian Will Durst takes the viewer through a tour of the lives of average Americans: a realistic landscape of company downsizing, temp work and the constant change and instability of the workplace. Although the graphics are a bit reminiscent of high-school programming, the documentary-style show evokes emotions--it's encouraging, inspiring and disheartening. Scenes of a North Dakota town saved by one businessman's good deed and the strong Midwest ethics of a farming community revive faith in humankind, but they can't subdue the butterflies that result from another man's stories of layoff after layoff. Throughout, Durst provides funny and thought-provoking commentary on society and the effects of business and technology. There's no answer, but the show does raise the question: Where is the balance between working to survive and finding satisfaction in a hard day's work? The opening show, "Shift Change," airs on Portland's KOPB at 8 pm Friday, Nov. 28.
 --Sarah Patch