ARTIST(E)RY: Mount Eerie's Phil Elvrum.

MINOR RULE LIFTED The Portland music scene escaped certain death earlier this month when the Oregon Liquor Control Commission wisely reconsidered its restrictive 15-month-old Minor Entertainer Rule.

Well, maybe the rule that prohibited underage musicians and dancers from performing in local nightclubs didn't legislate certain death to Portland music, but it certainly didn't offer young musicians a reason to stick around.

Thanks to the recent OLCC reversal, youngsters can roam free in clubs, as long as they don't roam around all the drinkers.

"What we're doing is relying on the industry about being more vigilant about enforcing the minor entertainer rule," said OLCC spokesperson Ken Palke. "When a minor isn't performing, they have to wait in a place where alcohol isn't being served."

Why the sea change? How in the world did the interests of musicians and club owners trump the intent of a regulatory agency? Bruce Fife, I'm pointing at you.

Fife, president of the local musicians' union, has worked for the past six months to gain support for the repeal of the rule, applying pressure to political leaders, drafting musicians to write letters to the commission, and informing young rockers of public hearings.

Quite a few musicians--and their parents--turned out to argue for the power of self-enforcement, Palke said.

As for Fife, the union leader says he was cautiously optimistic that the rule would be changed. "Going into that meeting that day," he says, "I couldn't see how they could pass it with a straight face."

VOTE NOW! There's so much hype spewing out of the TV/radio/magazine corporate media machine this election year that it's hard not to grow callous and believe that, like the T-shirt says, "Voting is for old people."

But voting is fun, kids, and just to remind your cynical soul, the people setting up the all-local PDX-POP NOW! music festival have chosen democracy as their booking platform. For one more day, voters will get the chance to determine which bands will play the festival, set to take place at the Meow Meow, July 9-11. But first you've got to be a member of the list. Check it out at www.indiepop.com/pdx-pop. It's just like registering to vote--which you should also do.

MIAMI'S 50 CENT SPIES The people of Miami can consider themselves safe from the ever-looming threat of mainstream hip-hop artists. Members of the Miami Police Department admitted to spying on big-name hip-hop artists, according to a Miami Herald news story. The Herald reported that the MPD's program was based on a similar program used by New York police. Why do we need to spy on hip-hop celebrities? Well, consider this paranoid little snippet from Sgt. Rafael Tapanes of the MPD, as quoted in the Herald: "A lot [of], if not most, rappers belong to some sort of gang. We keep track of their arrests and associates."

So is there a hip-hop division here? "I'd be very surprised, to say the least," says Portland Police Sgt. Cheryl Robinson. "We do not keep files unless there has been criminal activity."

WAL-MART'S 88-CENT SONGS Now online music fans have the opportunity to exploit underpaid, uninsured workers. Wal-Mart, masters of union busting, began selling single-song downloads this month for 88 cents each, undercutting competitor Apple.com by a full 11 cents.

MEET THE NEW ENFORCEMENT ARM OF THE FCC: CLEAR CHANNEL The last thing you want is to challenge FCC Chairman Michael Powell to prove he's tough. After the Janet Jackson boob flap at the Super Bowl, Powell and his FCC have been under pressure to squelch indecency.

While there has yet to be an increase in fines levied for indecency, Clear Channel is making sure it stays on the commission's good side by sidelining some of its most frequent on-air violators. This month the radio conglomerate, which has prospered from the recent relaxing of FCC ownership regulations, dropped Howard Stern and canned Todd Clem, the naughty host of "Bubba the Love Sponge." This hypocritical ploy makes the commission look very tough, and, trust me, Clear Channel knows it.

ARTISTERY ONLINE Those wacky religious-leaning kids are at it again. The Artistery, a house of spiritually focused artists on Southeast Milwaukie Avenue, is posting live recordings of in-house performances at artistery.net. You don't have to believe in a higher power to dig MP3s by Climber or Looking for the Yellow Haired Girl. Check out upcoming shows also, including an enticing performance by Mount Eerie and Thanksgiving on April 17.