Scoop: Gossip Trapped In a Prism, a Prism of Light.

ZOOKA
  1. SEAT SLASHER ON THE LOOSE: A seat slasher has Portland’s motorcycle community in an uproar. Starting about two weeks ago, motorcycle owners say seats of bikes left on the street at night have been slashed, leaving many with an odd, square cutout. “It seems like some somebody is doing it to have some sort of souvenir,” says Joshua Stenseth, who woke up Sept. 4 to find a patch removed from the seat of his 2003 Suzuki SV650. He walked down Northeast Hancock Street and found the same had been done to two other motorcycles. Ginger McCabe, who runs motorcycle upholsterer New Church Moto in Southeast Portland, says she’s heard of “literally hundreds” of incidents like this. She posted to her business’s Facebook page Sept. 9: “Portland motorcyclists: there is someone in town who is slashing seats.... Any help or leads or eyes kept out would be much appreciated. Let’s catch this fucker!” For more information, see here.
  1. BOARDING-PASS BEERS: To those who noticed Laurelwood Brewery’s airport locations no longer offered growler fills for outbound travelers who wanted to take some Portland beer with them after passing security gates, never fear. It was a mere glitch. The brewery has reapplied for an off-premises beer license, and will again fill and sell growlers to go. “That’s one of the great things about those airport locations,” Laurelwood founder Mike DeKalb tells WW. “People can take Oregon beer around the world.” >> And more good news for drinkers: Abram Goldman-Armstrong’s Cider Riot cidery—which WW was very taken with earlier this year at a media tasting—is one step closer to making its high-end cider available to the masses. Cider Riot applied for its winery license Sept. 4. 
  1. LAUNCH HOUR: Local Kickstarter-funded company Carbon Audio announced a spanking new product Sept. 7 at TechfestNW at OMSI. As a follow-up to Zooka, a speaker that slides onto laptops to amp up the volume, the company demonstrated the Pocket Speaker, a Bluetooth-driven device about the size of a deck of cards, which pumps out audio at an alarming volume.  “Really all we wanted to do with this was destroy Jambox,” said Jason Martin, Carbon Audio’s co-CEO, referring to the product from San Francisco mini-speaker company Jawbone.
  1. AND THE EMMY GOES TO... MusicfestNW is over, but you can see a snippet of it on the Emmy Awards show. During Fred Armisen’s variety show at Crystal Ballroom on Sept. 5, the Portlandia star invited audience members onstage to be part of a nomination reel that will air during the Emmys broadcast Sept. 22. Meanwhile, a planned protest against Armisen’s appearance, reported in Scoop last week, did not take place. Read all our MFNW coverage at wweek.com/mfnw2013.

WWeek 2015

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