why i won't vote for Sho Dozono
Posted by: Matt McCormick
I caught him fibbing!
In an article in today's Oregonian, it was revealed that a restaurant owned by Portland Mayoral candidate Sho Dozono owes roughly $18,000 in rent and taxes to its landlord, who happens to be the City of Portland. Read the story for details, but what I find amazing is this bit of information and the quote from Dozono:
"Dozono said the city shares blame for Bush Garden's problems, noting that construction has blocked nearby streets, closing Ninth Avenue in front of the restaurant's door for most of April. That closure is for work on a 35-story tower being built by a private company, TMT Development. But the city's Office of Transportation issued permits for the work. Different city bureaus permit street closures and lease SmartPark space. But, Dozono said, "the city is ultimately the entity that controls both."
"If you had a business and your landlord closed the street in front of your business, would you happily pay rent? Or would you negotiate?" [Dozonoa] said."
Now, here is where my deal comes in. I have been visiting this block several times a week during the past couple months, filming and photographing the demolition of the buildings across the street from Bush Gardens. Dozono says they stopped paying rent because this project closed down the street and hurt business, but they reportedly stopped paying rent March 1 and I know for a fact that the street was not closed until the second week of April. During all of March and the beginning of April there was very little going on in terms of construction and things were pretty normal on the block. The past week has been totally crazy with buildings toppling down, but to insinuate that this demolition/construction project was effecting his business so greatly in February that they decided to not pay rent as a form of protest starting March 1 is just ridiculous. It looks to me like Sho is just trying to shed blame and looking for an excuse and a scapegoat, and that is not the sort of person I want to vote for as mayor.
l@@k!! the PDX Film Festival starts TODAY!!!!!
Posted by: Matt McCormick
The seventh annual Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival (PDX Fest, for short!) takes place at the historic Hollywood Theatre from April 30 - May 4, 2008. We will also be hosting an exciting sidebar program of video installation work and multi-media performances at galleryHomeland. This year's festival is easily our biggest yet featuring five jam-packed days of provocative, artistic and firmly uncompromising films and videos from around the globe. The full schedule is now up for your eager eyes at our website. Check it out!
Festival Highlights include:
OPENING NIGHT! Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
PDX Fest is excited to present the Northwest premiere of Wild Combination, Matt Wolf's visually absorbing portrait of the seminal avant-garde composer, singer-songwriter, cellist, and disco producer Arthur Russell. Before his untimely death from AIDS in 1992, Arthur prolifically created music that spanned both pop and the transcendent possibilities of abstract art. Now, over fifteen years since his passing, Arthur's work is finally finding its audience. Wolf incorporates rare archival footage and commentary from Arthur's family, friends, and closest collaborators--including Philip Glass and Allen Ginsberg--to tell this poignant and important story.
Featured Artists: Travis Wilkerson & Shana Moulton
We are incredibly excited to welcome documentarian Travis Wilkerson and video performance artist Shana Moulton as our featured artists this year! Travis Wilkerson is an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker, whose work is firmly based in the tradition of Third Cinema, or activist filmmaking. Wilkerson's work consistently tackles the challenges of presenting the tangled threads of contested social history and making them relevant to today's world, marrying a sophisticated interrogation of history with a provocative approach to the documentary film form. Travis will be presenting a special May Day presentation of his multi-media performance, Proving Ground (which premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival) as well as a special screening of his award-winning 2002 documentary, An Injury to One.
Video and performance artist Shana Moulton is rapidly gaining international renown through her witty yet strange video and performance series, Whispering Pines. Following in the footsteps of such innovative multi-media performers as Miranda July and Cindy Sherman, Moulton's work utilizes a variety of mediums with an undeniably playful approach to explore the isolation and confusion of consumer living in the New Age. Shana will be presenting a very special Whispering Pines program featuring many of the videos from the series as well as a live performance that will bring this strange world to life right before our eyes!!
The 2008 Peripheral Produce Invitational
The Peripheral Produce Invitational (dubbed the 'World Championship of Experimental Cinema') will once again pit filmmakers from Portland and beyond against each other in a rock-em-sock-em, trash talkin' competitive film showdown. At last year's Invitational, history was made as 91-year old filmmaker George Andrus walked away with the trophy and our audiences' hearts. This year George returns to defend his title against a brand new batch of rabid filmmakers who hope to make the trophy their own. Will George cast his adorable spell over the audience again or will a new superstar usurp his throne? With all the filmmakers in attendance and the audience deciding who wins, you never know what will happen in this battle-royale of experimental film.
CLOSING NIGHT! Mock Up On Mu by Craig Baldwin
This year's PDX Fest will close with the Northwest premiere of Mock Up On Mu, the latest feature film from collage filmmaker Craig Baldwin (Sonic Outlaws, Tribulation '99). A radical hybrid of spy, sci-fi, Western, and even horror genres, Mock Up On Mu musters the creative audacity to take up within its absurdly impossible 'collage-narrative' agency the profoundly serious issue of the militarization of space. Based (mostly) on historical fact, Mu explores the occult rituals of 3 seminal figures in post-War California - Jet Propulsion Laboratory founder Jack Parsons, his partner artist Marjorie Cameron, and Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
The First-Ever Experimental Filmmaker Karaoke Throwdown! at galleryHomeland
An all-new interactive event joins the PDX Fest roster with this one night only, one of a kind Karaoke Night! We have invited a handful of experimental filmmakers to tackle the great unexplored territory of the Karaoke Video to bring us a kustom-made katalog of your favorite karaoke hits! Come join us as we try to take Karaoke to the next level!!
Surreal Systems: The PDX Fest Video Installation Exhibit at galleryHomeland
For the third consecutive year, Portland artists Stephen Slappe and Mack McFarland have put together an exhibition of video art for the PDX Fest. Surreal Systems glimpses at artists working within the wide field of video installation, featuring work from fourteen artists and artist teams from the USA and Europe. What creates a system? Who dictates the rules? And what occurs when the rules fail? These are a few of the questions posed by the work in Surreal Systems. This show promises Portland's heaviest annual dose of installation-based moving images under one roof!
PLUS new films and videos from a ton of amazing filmmakers (many of whom will be in attendance!) including Sam Green, Stephanie Barber, Ben Russell, Linas Phillips, Jeanne Liotta, Cartune Xprez, and Michael Robinson! PLUS PLUS workshops, parties, surprise performances AND MUCH MUCH MORE!!
testing testing 12 12
Posted by: Matt McCormick
is this thing on? Urban Honking has been out of order the past couple weeks as the fine dudes who run it have been moving operations to a new server. I don't really understand what that means, but I know they have been working hard, so thanks dudes!
also, a couple quick notes:
The PDX Film Festival starts on Wednesday April 30 and of course you should check it out. l@@k here for more info. There is also a cool little story about PP/PDX Fest and the Boat House in the current issue of Paper Magazine.
On a recent trip to a mountain cabin, Tess the Toothless Wonder Dog, decided to run away and spend the night out in the forest. Needless to say I was a little stressed and thinking I'd never see her again. But the next morning she made her way back to the cabin and we found her patiently waiting at the front door!
And finally, my good pal Ryan Smith hosted a Prom 1989 (Eternal Flame) party, and it's safe to say that with our freshly scored Value Village outfits, Meg and I were the cutest couple there (of course Meg pushed the cute factor up much more than I did)...
show in portland TONIGHT!!
Posted by: Matt McCormick
for those of you in Portland and interested, i will be showing my films tonight at the Portland Art Museum / NW Film Center. below is a blurb, and you can find more info here and here
also, a great review here
please come! thanks!
what: an evening with Matt McCormick
when: April 9, 2008 8:00pm
where: The Northwest Film Center / Whitsell Auditorium (Portland Art Museum)
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This summer, local filmmaker Matt McCormick will begin production on his first feature-length film Some Days are Better than Others; a story that follows an awkward web of characters who have a difficult time navigating typical forms of communication. But in the meantime, he will be presenting a collection of recent short works, including the local premiere of The Problem with Machines that Communicate (2008, 13 minutes) and a clip from his on-going installation project Future So Bright.
The Problem with Machines that Communicate, which made it’s world premiere at the 2008 South x Southwest Film Festival, is an experimental narrative that examines three lonely characters interacting with technology in a world that otherwise doesn’t seem to notice them. Don is a custodian who is never taken seriously, George is a very old man exploring the vivid detail of the world around him, and Hazel is an office worker who is desperate to engage in real conversation. But while each struggle with traditional forms of communication, the inadvertent by-products of their loneliness produces entirely new, abstract forms of communication. Features Marty Crandall, Elyse Sewell, and George Andrus.
Future So Bright is an art project mapping and cataloging the abandoned relics of American western expansion. First exhibited at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery and recently included in the curated portion of Art Basil Miami Beach, it is a series of film installations that detail and document abandoned structures in the American west. Captured on 16mm film and then transferred to digital video, the images create a visual time capsule of forgotten and disregarded spaces, many of which are quickly being reclaimed by nature or new development. Future So Bright examines the disposable mentality of American Western expansion and creates a catalog of the forgotten spaces and abandoned relics that are quickly disappearing.
Also included will be recent music videos for bands such as The Shins, YACHT, and Sleater-Kinney as well as other random and miscellaneous tidbits such as PSAs made for MTV and some interactive video performance art!
mobile storage facility (or) a really good packing job
Posted by: Matt McCormick
walking by this empty, permit-only parking lot the other day, it was hard not to notice this amazingly well packed Buick...
i have to admit that it has been a long time since i have seen a vehicle so thoroughly loaded up. it almost seems as if this car is more of a storage unit then actual car.
i felt that this was pretty sketchy when i first saw it, but closer examination revealed that the car does indeed have a permit to park in the lot, so it must be totally legit.
*thanks to Jenn Keyser for the tip on this amazing find.
good and bad decisions
Posted by: Matt McCormick
It's amazing how hard it is to find pie in restaurants these days, but Coos Bay, being an old funky dock town, seemed as likely a place as any that you could walk into an old 24-hour diner, sit at the counter, and order a cup of coffee and piece of pie from a waitress with a big bouffant hair-do, a cigarette dangling from her lip and a pot of coffee dangling from her index finger. Her name would probably be Bev, and the pie would be unquestionably perfect.
I had read in the newspaper that a new shipwreck had been discovered on the Southern Oregon coast near Coos Bay, and being fascinated with all things left abandoned, and having a hankering for that slice of homemade pie, I decided I had no choice but to go down and find it. It didn't take much to convince my pal Megan Scheminske to come along, and we loaded up Tess in the Red Baron and headed south.
A shipwreck is the physical manifestation of a bad decision. The decision to go right when you should have gone left, the decision to go forward instead of turning around. Or sometimes it's just the result of bad luck; some important apparatus stops working, a particularly bad storm hits, or maybe things just don't go right. Either way, the moment in which the ships crew realizes all is lost must be a heavy one. Crap, we really messed up.
After asking the clerk at a convenience store, the entire wait staff at a restaurant, and the owner of a motel where the shipwreck was located, we were somewhat able to piece enough information together to go find it. While everyone in Coos Bay is aware and excited about the newly discovered shipwreck, it's on a pretty remote stretch of beach and it seems that very few have actually ventured out to see it.
The new shipwreck is actually an old shipwreck, dating back to 1944, which until just a few weeks ago had been completely covered by a sand dune. But after a winter of punishing storms, the sand dune was swept away by waves, and the old wreck was revealed. It was first discovered by a couple beachcombers, and since has attracted a bevy of maritime enthusiasts and lookie lous from up and down the coast. It took a few days, but amateur maritime historians where able to pinpoint the ship's identity and determined that it was the George L. Olson, "a 223-foot-long wood-hulled schooner, launched on Jan. 22, 1917, from the W.F. Stone shipyards in Oakland, California" that ran aground and sank in June of 1944. The ship had been all over the world, but on it's last journey it was attempting to haul a load of timber from Coos Bay to San Francisco.
The shipwreck is on a remote beach that is only accessible by hiking or dune-buggying. Since dune-buggying isn't really either of our styles we decided to hike it, especially since the hike would take us past another noteworthy shipwreck in the New Carissa. The New Carissa, which was a big ocean freighter that ran aground in 1999, serves as example number one on the list of things not to do when a giant freighter runs aground. First, after the ship ran aground and started spewing bunker oil and diesel fuel into the water, state officials tried to pump the fuel off. When the waves and weather proved that task to be too difficult, the decision was made to burn the fuel off. Many thought that was a curious decision, but they went ahead and ignited the remaining fuel, only to find that instead of slowly burning off, the entire ship exploded into a giant fiery inferno. You'd think that after the famed 1970 whale detonation that state officials would have known better, but days later, when the flames finally receded, it could be noticed that the 640 foot ship had now blown into two pieces and was deeply embedded in the sand. Giant tugboats where called in to tow the ship pieces out to sea, but the lumbering hull wouldn't budge. Then the navy came in and managed to pull the bow of the ship off the sand bar, but as soon as they let it go, it just drifted back to shore instead of sinking like they thought it would. The tugs pulled it out again, and this time a submarine torpedoed the hull and it finally sank. However, the navy tugs where never able to pull the stern of the ship off the sand bar, and to this day it remains sitting there, slowly rusting away. Apparently there is another attempt scheduled for this summer, I'll be curious to see what they try this time.
I kind of wish they'd leave the ship there. Considering the original wreck, and the botched attempts to deal with it, the heap that is the New Carissa is essentially a monument to failure and bad decision-making. In fact, instead of removing it they should install a giant marker on the beach that just says FAILURE in really big letters, and maybe some poetic words about remembering all the times we have just totally fucked up.
The hike was an 8 mile round trip journey that left me sore for days. Something about walking in sand seems to get the attention of the most disused muscles in my body. By the time we got back to the car it was obvious that it was time for phase two of our trip to go into effect: find pie. I am not going to lie; I have been on a banana cream pie kick for the past couple of months. There is just something about going into some old funky diner and ordering a cup of coffee and a fat slice of homemade pie. It's not just a desert, it's an adventure. And sure enough, we found a place right on Route 101, the Main Street Diner that advertised AWARD WINNING PIES on their decorative neon sign. Our waitress may not have been named Bev, but man was the pie good. Definitely a CORRECT decision.
wells, nevada
Posted by: Matt McCormick
a couple days ago, one of my favorite 'almost' ghost-towns got hit by a giant earthquake. apparently the town is one big pile of rubble, which is very sad. luckily it doesn't sound like anyone was hurt. below are some picts i have taken over the years when visiting, but i think these buildings are all totally gone now.
true words spoken by a wise man
Posted by: Matt McCormick
when in socorro...
Posted by: Matt McCormick
things are looking better
Posted by: Matt McCormick
