Plazm editor Jon Raymond and Plazm contributing writer Emily Chenoweth appear live and on local NPR this Saturday night, on LiveWire. Ward Cunningham, inventor of the Wiki, will also be interviewed.

As the LiveWire people say:

JON RAYMOND – Writer of MEEK’S CUTOFF, a film starring Michelle Williams, Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano and directed by Kelly Reichardt. Opening in theaters around the country on April 8, the film is a beautifully shot Western set on the Oregon Trail in 1845 and follows settlers on their way to build new lives in the Pacific Northwest. “The allegorical whiffs are unmistakable in ‘Meek’s Cutoff,’ from the hubris of Manifest Destiny and fear of the Other to the enduring tension between individual freedom and collective responsibility…’Meek’s Cutoff’ is revisionist in the best sense of that word, giving audiences a new way to see the past and, quite possibly, the present.” Raymond also wrote Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy.

EMILY CHENOWETH – Writer and 2011 Oregon Book Award finalist for her novel “Hello Goodbye.” Emily’s work has appeared in Tin House, Bookforum and People, among other publications.

Music by Third Angle Ensemble, Eve Beglarian, Rocky Votolato, and Agesandages.

Saturday, April 2, doors 6:30 show 7:30
Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta Street, Portland, 503-719-6055
Advanced GA – $18, Day of Show GA – $20
Reserved Seats (sold online and at box office until 5:30 until day of show) – $30
Online tickets here.

…or it can save the world. So says Jane Savage, product director and design leader in Nike’s Sustainable Business + Innovation division, where she works to develop a sustainable design ethos across the Nike brand.

Read more in the Spring 2011 issue of INNOVATION, the quarterly publication of the Industrial Designers Society of America, or get a preview of “Saved by Design” here.

In its three inaugural years, The Dill Pickle Club has brought us Oregon History Comics, a guided tour of Portland’s public works projects, field trips to African American public art projects, and a host of other happenings. This spring, in partnership with and Publication Studio, a local “experiment in sustainable publication,” the young club presents old books and new ideas.

The PDX Re-Print Series will re-issue four out of print, obscure texts, and gather artists, authors, and thinkers to honor Portland’s art history and examine its relevance to contemporary city-planning and art community. “In recent years, Portland has seen an influx in new residents, especially the rise in its young creative class and recent baby boomer retiree populations. It has also seen many of its neighborhoods adopt a modernist feel, with new facades and renovated buildings, says Marc Moscato, director of the Dill Pickle Club, “Consequently, there is often little connection to place, or understand the history and culture of the city’s neighborhoods. If we want to make informed decisions and enact good policy, we need an informed populace. This starts with community dialogue.” (See also the New Oregon Interview Series.)

The first of these dialogues, “Twenty Seven Installations,” takes its name from the catalogue of installation-based exhibitions at the now lionized Portland Center for Visual Arts (1972-1988). Exhibiting artists included photographer Robert Rauschenberg, musicians Laurie Anderson, composer Phillip Glass, renowned minimalist sculptor Richard Serra and abstract architect Alice Aycock.

“It seems that PCVA had just a small audience at the time,” says Mary Beebe, former director of the center, now director of the Stuart Collection at UC San Diego, “And many didn’t realize the importance of the artists we brought to town. I’m not sure we did so much either, but they were interesting to us at the time and we had the help of artists in Portland. They actually started PCVA and did all the physical work of the installations on a volunteer basis. Amazing. I hear all the time – still – from artists who were students or young at the time – that it was important to them.”

Beebe, artist, teacher and PCVA co-founder Mel Katz, urban designer Tad Savinar, sculptor and curator Paul Sutinen and art writer Lisa Radon will all participate in a panel discussion to be held, aptly, at the Yale Union Laundry building, home to a newborn artist-driven contemporary art center. The catalogue will cost $35 for members of the Dill Pickle Club and $28 for non-members, entry to the event is a suggested sliding scale donation from $0-$10. —Elizabeth Pusack

Plazm editor Jon Raymond wrote this lovely film. You should go.


Meek’s Cutoff: A Screening to Benefit the Cultural Trust