best of portland -- media

[July 24th, 2002] best radio station you'll miss if you're speeding
If you're chilling in your car, waiting for the MAX train to cross over MLK, and you've flipped your AM dial to the extreme right, you just might notice something sounds kind of ... strange. The faint signal you hear is that of Automagic Radio, 1610 AM. And it can only be experienced within a half-dozen blocks of Coffee In Motion and Rustic Pizza (1035 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 232-4614). It might seem like a great deal of work for a cafe to pump out a signal full of specials that only spans a few hundred yards. But if you're stuck in line at the neighboring Burgerville, you'll notice that this highly specialized program repeats every five minutes. And while the Coffee In Motion workers profess to be clueless about the "station," they do say, "Some guy offered to do it, and we figured, so long as we don't have to do anything, go for it." Ultimately fans of low-power AM may be a small market, but for those working in the coffee/pizza parlor/barbecue biz who are looking to build their customer base, it's a gimmick that might just do the trick.

best scandal sheet with s(e)oul
While political correctness has become de rigueur for many media outlets, there's still at least one publication willing to attack explosive social issues. Now in its 12th year as a weekly newspaper, The Asian Reporter (published Tuesdays and available online at www.asianreporter.com) serves as a news pipeline for the region's Asian residents to homelands west of the Pacific, running Associated Press stories often ignored by the mainstream U.S. media. The paper and its opinion editor, Polo Katalani, recently bit off a three-part series on racism, sexism and cultural stereotypes--written in a searing tone and in response to racist allegations directed at Katalani himself. As he writes, "This is not your liberal artsy American classroom where ev-ver-rybody's always more or less right.... In our world there's Right and there's dead Wrong." Though AR usually deals with hard news on weighty topics, the paper tempers its sobriety with lighthearted pieces as well, such as a nostalgic cultural study of Peter Frampton's live shows. With its twofold mission, AR's message could get muddied, but with its clear, shoot-from-the-hip editorials, and unapologetic camp, the paper--and its 14,000-strong readership--knows it's onto something.

best cable-access show with bark
With an overwhelming number of television stations dulling our critical senses, it's refreshing to find some that still possess shreds of informational value. One local activist keepin' the dream alive is Portland Cable Access guru Jim Lockhart . Lockhart produces and hosts A Growing Concern, a live weekly call-in program (7-8 pm Fridays, Channel 11; re-cast 10-11 pm Sundays, Channel 23; 10-11 pm Thursdays, Channel 22) focusing mainly on environmental issues, though he briefly tackled the war in Afghanistan. But Lockhart says he's most proud of his work with forest protectors on the BARK! Broadcast (6 pm on the first Thursday of the month, Channel 11; 6:30 pm on the second Monday and 10 pm on the last Wednesday, Channel 21), which publicizes environmentally sensitive areas in Mount Hood National Forest. Lockhart also regularly records and broadcasts lectures by famous enviros such as oxymoronic "Texas liberal" Jim Hightower. Lockhart says he's just trying to counter "corporate spin and fluff." "Though the public owns the airwaves, at least theoretically," he says, "we have scant access to them." Let Lockhart show the way.

best misuse of email at work
Everyday when you check your email, you might have one or two personal messages, several pieces of spam and (if you're lucky) at least 10 posts from the PDX-Pop List. As a bulletin board, the Pop List, created in 1998, is an invaluable source for house shows that (willfully) slip under local publications' radar. However, where the list shines is as a discussion group: Extremely heated debates start up every week about "indie" politics, the most recent issue to fill the inbox being the ethics of playing 21-plus shows. (Thankfully, people only post High Fidelity-esque "top five" lists once a year.) Get ready for action, because behind the keyboard, even shy indie-popsters pull out the claws. Notable posters include Kathy Baxter from All-Girl Summer Fun Band and, checking in from Olympia, Wash., Calvin Johnson. To subscribe, enter your email address at www.indiepop.com/pdx-pop.

best star billing
The seventh sister of the Pleiades lost her spot in the constellation because she couldn't keep off Sisyphus, a mortal. At Pleiades full-service salon (1122 SE Ankeny St., 238-8089), while the seventh "sister" is not represented among the six female owners, her lust for the mortal and material is. Manicures, hair, skin care, facials, massage--ah, luxury. Such temptations are embodied in the lusty business card wielded by resident hair artist Paula Jones, who co-opted the salon's none-too-shabby standard Pleiades card design, backed the card with low-pile red velvet, and inlaid a silvery replica of the Pleiades constellation. So boudoir! So provocative! Tossed on a pile of beige calling cards, Jones' outshines all others in magnitude and luster.

best reminder that portland does, in fact, rule
Forget The Big O--the rap sheet on Portland's big haps is Dailypdx.com. Taking its cue from NYC's Dailycandy.com, Dailypdx serves up fresh recommendations for hot events, phenomena and gossip in our town every morning. Each day of the week is devoted to a different category (Monday = notable Portlanders, Wednesday = where to eat lunch) Dailypdx's Michael (illustrator) and Heather (writer), only in their second year as Portlanders, share the transplant's gift for noting and celebrating P-town's peculiar delights. With each civic bonbon packaged as a single-serving paragraph avec splashy full-color drawing, Dailypdx is a social dope-slap for those who have started to complain about how booorrring it is here.