 KAREN VITT IMAGE: asleeptodream.wordpress.com |
- ONLINE CHIC: Behold, the “blogazine. ”That’s how former Oregonian scribe Karen Vitt is terming her new online project, The Neat Sheet (pdxneatsheet.com), a Portland-focused fashion site that celebrates its launch with a party and a PDX boutique summer fashion show this Friday, July 9, at Hotel deLuxe. Vitt says the site offers local fashionistas tips, features and event info. The party will feature looks from local shops like Idom and Popina Swimwear. She’s also promising music, appetizers and cocktails free with your $10 admission. Some proceeds benefit Willamette River Keepers. Tickets at craveportland.eroievent.com.
- OREGONSPLOITATION: Can’t get enough ’70s flea-pit cinema? After you’ve finished digesting Dan Halsted’s Grindhouse Trailer Spectacular 2 (7:30 pm Wednesday, July 7, at the Hollywood Theatre), there’s more degenerate celluloid waiting for you at home: Former WW Screen Editor David Walker has joined with local-access Super Atomic TV producer Kurt Loyd to create Missing Reel, a Web series on superatomictv.com dedicated to the sleaziest fare of the silver screen. The pre-release pilot episode (the show is still looking for a distribution deal) promises to “kick controversy square in the nut sack.” Quentin Tarantino should just move here already.
- BOOZE NEWS: This week’s OLCC applications had a few surprises: A new distillery, Big Bottom Whiskey, in Hillsboro; a new tenant, Encore Club, in the space under Pearl Ace Hardware that’s been vacant since Bar Convivium closed in 2008; and Morrison Street tapas bar The Maiden becoming Bridgetown Star Bar.
- MUSIC OF THE TWILIGHT: Portland conductor Keith Clark, fresh from directing the Astoria Music Festival, has won the award given by People’s Classical Chart for the most played classical track in 2009. It’s a Naxos recording of Clark leading the CSR Bratislava Symphony Orchestra in an orchestration of Claude Debussy’s ever-popular 1905 “Clair De Lune. rdquo; Clearly, this signals a major Impressionist revival, although the music’s appearance on the original Twilight movie soundtrack might have played a small part in the recent uptick in its popularity.
BAR BAR BARGAIN: North Portland’s Mississippi Studios looks to cement its place among the city’s best venues this week by expanding to the bar next door. The simply/strangely named Bar Bar, a co-venture between Mississippi Studios’ Alicia Rose and Jim Brunberg, Aalto Lounge’s Peter Bro and Whole Bowl food cart owner Tali Ovadia and Kevin Cradock, opens Saturday, July 10, during the Mississippi Street Fair. How does Bar Bar expect to stand out? It’ll host free, all-ages shows on its patio each Sunday afternoon this summer—with names like Blitzen Trapper’s Marty Marquis and the Builders and the Butchers’ Ryan Sollee speckling the calendar. Bar Bar’s first “Summer Sessions” gig is this Sunday, with Pancake Breakfast and Weinland’s Adam Shearer.
