FINAL MOVEMENT: Unless it can raise $100,000 before month’s end, the Vancouver Symphony will have to cancel its 2011-12 season,
the group’s board of directors says. In an open letter posted on the
orchestra’s website, the board attributes the group’s financial sturm
und drang to a recession-driven decline in individual donations and
corporate sponsorships: Contributions have fallen 15 percent each of the past three years
and the orchestra’s annual fundraising event last month “fell short of
expectations.” The orchestra’s directors vow that if the group can fund
what would be its 33rd season, it will emerge from this budget crisis a
much leaner organization, with an administrative budget less than half
its current size and a schedule heavier on economical chamber-sized
performances.
SLOPPY SECONDS: A late-night pop-up restaurant called Sloppy Town
is now operating out of Geraldi’s at 518 SW 4th Ave. Between 5 pm and 3
am Thursday to Saturday, downtown diners can line their stomachs with sloppy joes, sloppy tacos and sloppy mac and cheese,
with fillings like pulled pork, slow-cooked chipotle barbecue beef and
scrambled eggs. Top it off with a “sloppy cookie pie,” sandwiching
marshmallow creme between two cookies. It’s cash only, but everything is
under $10.
NW NOSHING: Rose’s Restaurant and Bakery on Northwest 23rd Avenue is closing after 55 years in business. In its place will be a second outpost of Bamboo Sushi. >> Also on 23rd, Binh Minh bakery is opening a restaurant called LeLa’s Bistro, which will offer “Vietnamese sandwiches with a twist” as well as wine, beer, cocktails and housemade “Asian-inspired sodas.” >> Bent Brick, the new tavern from Park Kitchen’s Scott Dolich, is set to open on Northwest Marshall on June 28.
HIP-HOP HOORAY:
So, Pickathon isn’t going to be your only option for smoking a few
bowls and watching bands outdoors during the first weekend of August. Fire in the Canyon’s initial lineup features some impressive national hip-hop names (Pharcyde, Digable Planets, Del the Funky Homosapien, Busdriver and the Lifesavas
among them), alongside regional R&B, funk and hip-hop outfits
galore. Tickets for the festival are $110 for all three days including
camping at the gorgeous Horning’s Hideout, which is a few bills cheaper
than Pickathon’s $145 (plus parking fee). It remains to be seen whether
the local urban music contingent will come out in the numbers that
support Pickathon’s more roots-centric lineup—especially on the same
weekend. On a related note, there are no fewer than four weekend-long music festivals in Portland next weekend. For a city with such a high unemployment rate, we sure know how to party!
