1.Portland's art scene is hipper than Seattle's, according to the December issue of ARTnews. The article mentions the abundance of venues for local artists, the Pearl District, PICA's avant garde performance series, new PAM director John Buchanan and Reed College sculpture professor Geraldine Ondrizek.
2.PDXS editor and publisher Jim Redden proved this week that if you write about a story long enough, it eventually becomes timely. In an 18-part series that ran most of this year, Redden chronicled former club owner Larry Hurwitz's alleged involvement in the murder of Tim Moreau, a former employee. Hurwitz was extradited from Vietnam this week for tax evasion.
3. Hugely successful radio station KKRZ got a boost last week in the national trade journal Hits. The Dec. 12 issue features a two-page spread on Z-100 program director Ken Benson, who discusses the station's No. 1 rating, its new owners and the 15-year-old "Morning Zoo" program.
Losers
1. Retired Portland Police officer and perpetual grouch Loren Christensen showed just how much power he has in the most recent issue of the Rap Sheet, the police union newspaper. In his monthly column, Christensen urges cops to stop talking to the media--particularly WW--for the month of December. Judging by WW's cover story this week, his boycott failed.
2.The New York Times took a hit last week when Business Week hyped Portland's indie effort to undermine the Times' Bestseller List. The article singled out "half a dozen stores in Oregon" for jump-starting an alternative list in reaction to the co-dependent promotional and financial arrangement between The Times and Barnes & Noble.
3. Gov. John Kitzhaber's efforts to keep timber barons, fishing advocates and environmentalists working cooperatively may be in trouble. As the governor worked to meet a Dec. 18 deadline for a plan to save threatened fish, state officials were hinting that the feds could list steelhead as an endangered species, scuttling Kitzhaber's efforts for a voluntary recovery plan.
