Mercury's Blogtown, USA

Note the subject line: From: C.K. Holton Subject: cesar chavez Ave. Madame: I cannot, for the life of me see how you can condone ANYTHING these ILLEGAL ALIENS do while they are in this country ILLEGALLY. What has happened to OBEYING THE LAW??. The fact is these people are in this country ILLEGALLY has been swept under the rug. If they really want to come here, why don't they follow the...

I wish I were more proficient in taking photos while riding a bike--I would have snapped a photo of the massive crowd of folks on bikes, following Commissioner Sam Adams on his commute home to Kenton, part of Pedalpalooza. As Adams turned onto the Eastbank Esplanade at the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge, the crowd--at least 150 strong, on regular bikes, bakfiets, mondo cycles, and everything in...

Hallelujah, and whoop-dee-doo! The Mercury has a brand new sexified website, with all sorts of new toys for YOU to enjoy! Surf around and check out these great new features: âââ Comment on anything and everything! Not only can you write your own reviews of movies, clubs, events and restaurants, you can now comment on any story on the site. SO BE NICE. (Pleaseâ)...

Since BOTH the resident cat ladies are out of the office today (that would be Marjorie and Alison), it is up to me to carry the torch. This heartwarming video of Christian the Lion chronicles his reunion with the two dudes who raised him in London. It would be a heartless bastard indeed who didn't get a little choked up after watching this. A little more info from Wikipedia: Christian is the...

Chas Bowie, bastard that he is, left the Mercury a while ago to focus on some "personal projects." If I ever leave the Mercury to work on "personal projects," you can rest assured that what I'll really be working on is a couple of well whiskeys at Union Jack's; Chas, on the other hand, has managed to get some pretty great arts- and Portland-related things off the ground. First, there's his new...

Here is what I like about art, with key words italicized: people producing something creative and then sharing it with other people. That's exactly what Last Thursday in Alberta felt like last night. Diverse art + non-exclusive atmosphere + lots and lots of people. Thanks to a wonderful lack of top-down organization, anyone can just show up at Last Thursday, set up on NE Alberta and share...

[Edit: Here's the audio!] "I believe that spending $4 billion dollars on a freeway bridge is a huge mistake," says economist Joe Cortright, in his opening statement at today's City Club forum on the Columbia River Crossing. Metro Councilor Rex Burkholder just finished his intro, making the case for the project--in part by referencing the East Bay Bridge in the Bay Area, which was seismically...