News When I was a freshman at Covenant College in Georgia, I was a member of an intermural indoor soccer team. (I realize this sounds like a boring story, but trust me, there's a national news angle here.) One evening, our team did something rare in its history: We won a game. I was so excited that I threw off my glasses and ran onto the court for a group hug. Unfortunately, the lack of visual aid led me ...   More

News Pecha Kucha Night 8:20 pm, Monday, November 1, 2007 Pecha Kucha Night. Sort of sounds like some nocturnal luau, doesn't it? Some kind of ukelele grass-skirt coconut-bra soiree with apple-mouthed roasted pigs and weak Mai Tais in tiki glasses. If only. Pecha Kucha (Japanese slang for “conversation”) is a globe-trotting forum for designers, architects, and other artsy types to ...   More

News Margot at the Wedding Family beware: There's a writer in the room. “When a writer is born into a family,” Philip Roth said, “that's the end of that family.” Margot, the titular character of Noah Baumbach's film Margot at the Wedding, is a writer, but in 90 minutes she makes a convincing case that she could have wrecked her family even if she had never picked up a ...   More

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News According to a post on the Portland Mercury's site, a ticked-off City Auditor Gary Blackmer exploded at the Merc's Matt Davis in City Hall, telling him "I think you're despicable" and "fuck you." What drove the mild-mannered auditor to profanity? Davis says it was a disagreement over a "no comment" line in one of his stories, but we suspect Blackmer may have been inspired by a new movie in which ...   More

News I saw the Portland opening of Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience (the stage show based on the BBC special, featuring three-story robot dinosaur puppets) last night, and I'm torn. The part of my brain devoted to cruel, judgmental criticism wants whinge about the cheesy narration and the deafening, Star Trek-style soundtrack, but it's having trouble competing with my inner 10-year-old, who is ...   More

News They're doing it again. MTV's grandaddy of all reality shows, The Real World, is having another open casting call in Portland, Oregon for Season 21 (the next scheduled season to premiere—its 20th—will bring the show back to Hollywood, the same site for Season 2). It will be held at 10 am-5 pm Saturday, Feb. 2 at City Sports Bar (424 SW 4th Ave.). If you are between ages of 18 ...   More

News So we've all had a few good chuckles in this office about The Oregonian's street-box front page, which has been re-designed to provide you, the citizen reader, with the largest possible photos of dead football players and Snowball the deer. But today, in the wake of the Great San Francisco Tiger Attack, the paper has crafted a measured, proportional response that in no way panders to anyone's fears: AWW, ...   More

News For readers of The Oregonian who turn to the comics for a laugh, WWire would like to direct your attention to the corrections box of the daily newspaper's Wednesday edition. Retired NBA player Latrell Sprewell did not sign with the Seattle SuperSonics and did not say, "My coach-choking days are behind me. We're both older and wiser. Besides, I have lawyers to pay and pit bulls to feed." The ...   More