Bumbershoot 2007

New Seasons Happy Valley: Grand Opening

Hallelujah! Foodie praise to the great folks at New Seasons for opening up their largest store yet ... just down the street! (*boogie dance*)

Store Features:
Cooking Classes
Gelato Case
Organic Bakery
Café with a Cozy Fireside
Handmade Sushi
Fresh Noodle Bar
Deli & Rotisserie
Hot Pizza Oven, Wok, and Grill

...olive bar, fine chocolate, cheese, wine & beer stewards, book/paper section, great smelling candles, a pharmacy and much more.

Its 50,000 square feet of food-lovers paradise, that's staffed with some friendly people. You can even shop online and have it delivered for $9.95.

"We'll do whatever it takes to make New Season's Market the best shopping experience in town." And in the fine print, they include a squeeky wheel policy: "Our shopping carts will be oiled and maintained so they don't drag, squeak, or otherwise annoy you."
Gotta love that.

New Seasons Cooking School – to sign up call 503.558.9214

Introductory topics: Heirloom Tomatoes, Cooking the Spanish Way: Ole!, A Perfect Marriage of Craft Beer & Cheese, Gluten-Free Cooking

10th Anniversary of Diana's Death

Spring daffodils in bloom at Kensington Palace:

Countdown to Bumbershoot

Just 2 more days...

The fine folks at nuTsie.com created a comprehensive playlist featuring the 2007 lineup! Listen: Bumbershoot '07

SlideShowPro Upgrades

Check out all the new features: SlideShowPro
Both upgrades will be free of charge to all current users.

New Graphic Warnings on Cigarette Packs for UK

At present, a cigarette pack in Britain appears like this:


The new labeling will include images like this:


Other graphics include cancer plagued mouths, a dying smoker and a fetus in the womb. Read more: BBC

"This simple initiative will save thousands of lives."
-Professor John Britton, Chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group

The graphic images are being used in Canada, Australia, and Brazil (to name a few) and have shown that people do heed such warnings and they do encourage people to quit.

Studies also suggest that U.S. warning labels are in need of a facelift. Cigarette packaging in the U.S. provides even less health information than many other, more benign consumer goods.

Hello Boys & Girls

Today we're going to teach you some fun facts about salmon
and a brand new dance: The Salmon Dance
Official Site: Chemical Brothers

Songs of Mass Destruction

"I feel closer to my own cutting edge than before and my voice seems to be in it's prime" - Annie Lennox

The video for the new single Dark Road premiered on Amazon last Monday. Haunting...beautiful song. Permalink for this content: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/7011:7008

"I think it's one of my most powerful pieces of work to date. We're all living in such complex and challenging times fraught with uncertainty, and too often underscored by a sense of powerless despair. I have a sense that people will connect with what I'm trying to convey here. Music is still a great vehicle to communicate, and express the soul."
- Annie Lennox

October 2, 2007 release date.
Official Site: Songs of Mass Destruction

The Honeyed Sound of Rebecca Kilgore

Rebecca Kilgore is one of America's leading song stylists. Her voice and guitar skills have also brought her international acclaim. You might recognize her from NPR's Fresh Air with Teri Gross, or as a guest on Garison Keller's A Prairie Home Companion. That's how I first came to know of her, and was thrilled to discover she's lives in Portland and performs here often.

In 2003, she was inducted into the Jazz Society of Oregon's Hall of Fame, and has been a strong advocate for America's original art form, interpreting the great vocal jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Her exposure to the swing jazz is credited to her father's record collection and for the driving rhythm guitar behind Count Basie's band. Rebecca also educates and teaches jazz vocal repetoire and swing guitar.

This year she collaborated with The Harry Allen - Joe Cohn Quartet along with vocalist Eddie Erickson to perform music from Guys And Dolls with Joel Forbes and Chuck Riggs. Most recently, she partnered with Lyle Ritz on ukulele for I Wish You Love which can be heard here ~ courtesy of CD BABY.

Visit her Official Website

Quarterback Dog Chew

"The proceeds from sales of this $10.99 effigy will be donated to animal rights charities. Here's what the makers of the Vick's dog chew toy had to say: Vick's Dog Chew Toy is made of state of the art "dog" material. The Vick's Toy Doll is so strong and flexible, it will challenge every breed. Especially the pit bull."

Let your dog begin chewing today.
-via Gizmodo


Palm Dreams:

L.A.M.B. ~ The L Stands for Love

New on the celebrity scent block:

Gwen's Signature Fragrance L: Sparkling green freshness and warm sensual musks. Additional notes include freesia, pear, violet leaves, jasmine, rose, lily of the valley, sweet pea, orange blossom, frangipani blossom, peach skin, heliotrope and musk.

Coty's celebrity partnerships include: Sarah Jessica Parker, Gwen Stefani, JLo, and most recently supermodel Kate Moss.

The iFly Experience

Indoor skydiving comes to San Francisco. "Four 250 horsepower fans circulate air around the interior of the structure, generating the same wind speed which skydivers feel during freefall. By learning to position yourself to balance on this airflow, you'll learn to fly your body the way skydivers do, close to mother earth and in view of your friends and family!"

Opening gala scheduled for September 1 , 2007
Website: iFLy

Face Recognition Technology ~ My Celebrity Look-alikes

Completed by algorithms that compare the face in my photo, with all faces previously known to MyHeritage Face Recognition, through photos and meta-data contributed to their database.


....George Michael!

Visiting Springfield:

TASCHEN Books

Originating in Cologne, Germany in 1980 Taschen is known for innovative, beautifully printed art books. This month he opens his 5th shop in LA.

Website: TASCHEN

Playlist of the Week, 08.17.07

1. Get Together (Jacques Lu Cont Remix) - Madonna
2. Savane - Ali Farka Touré
3. A Strange Education - The Cinematics
4. Dancing With Myself - Nouvelle Vague
5. Can I Get Get Get - Junior Senior
6. Be Good Johnny - Colin Hay
7. Under Pressure - The Used/My Chemical Romance
8. Air Aid - Menomena
9. Waiting For My Real Life to Begin - Colin Hay
10. Little Boxes - Elvis Costello

#1 Pick goes to birthday girl Madonna, who turned 49 yesterday.

Along with a new album (expected later this year) Madge has teamed up with Annie Lennox on Lennox's new album, Songs Of Mass Destruction.

Jacques Lu Cont = a moniker for Stuart Price.

#10 welcomes the return of WEEDS on Showtime. The song was written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962. Little Boxes is thought to be inspired visually by the houses of Daly City, California (!), as Reynolds lived in nearby Berkeley. In the second season, different artists performed Little Boxes in the introduction sequence of each episode. Reynolds' version was used for the finale of the second season.

For the upcoming third season, more bands will cover the opening. The Decemberists and The Shins will be two of the bands covering the song in the third season.

-via wiki

30 Years Ago: The Day the Music Died

Remembering The King

Did You Know?
· The only Grammy awards Elvis Presley won were for gospel recordings.

· Elvis had an identical twin. Born stillborn.

· Aside from 3 concerts in Canada, Elvis never performed outside the United States.

· More than 20 million Elvis Presley records were reportedly sold on the day after his death.

· Elvis once wrote a letter to President Nixon in which he asked to be appointed as an undercover narcotics cop. Nixon gave Elvis a honorary Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge - a presentation which, in the light of his death (where heavy drug use was suspected), turned out to be pretty ironic.

Local Nostalgia: Portland's Church of Elvis Website

The Phenonema Menomena

Menomena's third studio album Friend or Foe is bizarre, fractured, and totally addictive. If you haven't heard of Menomena, go out and buy their music. The print materials that accompany the CD are hand assembled, its as intriguing as the music itself—the front cover has eight possible permutations, and that's just a place to start.

A large contributor to the band's uniquely layered sound is "Deeler", a Digital Looping Recorder that was created by band member Brent Knopf to record impromptu material. The band uses the recorder primarily in working out new music, it is not used live or in recording sessions. So, don't think of them as a Midi band.

Menomena's on stage next at Bumbershoot over Labor Day Weekend, appearing with their 25 member 'choir' (an assembly of NW artists, musicians and close friends - give a shout out to Abra).

In the meantime, live from Juan's basement: Weird

Living to the End: An Oregonian Special Report

A conversation about living and dying.

Lovelle Svart was told she had six months to live,
this is her story: Living to the End


What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.

-OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES