Beer and Blog put together “End Joblessness: A mini job fair” on Saturday in Beaverton. The event took place at the offices of Oregon Technology Business Center, which is a non-profit incubator for tech startups.
I walked in, grabbed a Deschutes Mirror Pond and began to mingle. I spoke with Web designers, a researcher for a tech recruiter (whose boss wants him “to Twitter and blog”). I also met Steve Morris, the Executive Director of OTBC and the co-host of the event, along with Beer and Blog’s Justin Kirstner.
What I didn’t expect was Magic Seth. He approached me directly and asked if we’d met before. I said no. He said next time we will have. He then drew me and two iPhone App developers into a magic trick. He asked me to pull a card from a deck. I did. It was the 8 of Hearts. He asked one of the developers to pull up a card site up on his iPhone. He did. He then chose the 10 of Diamonds from that digital deck. Magic Seth said we could look at each others choices. I won’t tell the rest, ’cause it’s magic, but suffice it to say all three of us were alerted to the quirky but powerful intelligence in our midst.
Here’s some video, if you feel like investing deeper in the Magic Seth story:
Turns out, Magic Seth leads half day to three day intensive seminars in “doing the impossible.” It’s possible that he’s licensing proprietary technology to multinationals on the side. Anyway, I didn’t find work on Saturday, but I did encounter some mid-afternoon brain food.
Mike Went West put Hometown by The Rural Alberta Advantage on his best albums of 2008 list. I was intrigued by their name–as cheesy as that sounds–but the name led me to their music, so all is good.
MWW says the Toronto-based group “is one of the best new bands I’ve heard in a long time.”
Here is the MySpace description the band provides:
The Rural Alberta Advantage play indie-rock folk songs about hometowns and heartbreak, born out of images from growing up in Central and Northern Alberta. They sing about summers in the Rockies and winters on the farm, ice breakups in the spring time and the oil boom’s charm, the mine workers on compressed, the equally depressed, the city’s slow growth and the country’s wild rose, but mostly the songs just try to embrace the advantage of growing up in Alberta.
Excellent. I want to feel the place a band comes from and if the band is supremely talented I do feel it. Take America, The Eagles or Steely Dan–I instantly hear Los Angeles (and the perfect production of LA studios when one of their songs comes on the radio). But The Rural Alberta Advantage isn’t about that, thankfully. Their music is the kind of stripped down, unpretentious folk-inspired pop one might listen to with friends around a campfire in Western Canada.
President Obama is a published author and a man who considers himself a writer. So, expectations were high today when he delivered his inaugural address.
Time Magazine has the speech in its entirety. It’s well worth reading several times over.
Here’s one of the best parts, IMO:
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
I love how President Obama calls out “the risk takers, the doers, the makers of things” and says they are directly responsible for our nation’s “prosperity and freedom.” What a celebration of American ingenuity and a call to arms for entrepreneurs of all shapes and sizes. The nation needs us to risk, to do, to make—now more than ever.
I first stumbled in to Big Horse Brew Pub in downtown Hood River in 1996 when I was on an epic NW road trip. I remember being impressed with the location and the beer. We stopped in again today and things were as I last experienced them. Stunning views of the river and tasty beer.
These are all well known items to craft beer drinkers in the Pacific Northwest, thanks to the Herculean efforts of two brothers, Mike and Brian McMenamin, owners of the entertainment empire that bears their name.
Edgefield. Kennedy School. The Crystal. The Bagdad.
These proper nouns are also well known. You can order a Hammerhead or Ruby in these places, but that’s just the beginning. You can also spend the night, dip in an old school soaking pool, see a concert or movie, attend a wedding, and so on. Thanks once again to the beer brothers, Mike and Brian.
What started on SE Hawthorne Blvd. in 1983 is now a business with more than 50 pubs, hotels and music venues in Oregon and Washington. McMenamins sales in 2007 topped $27 million dollars. They employ 1,400 people and the brothers now run the third largest craft brew operation in the United States. They also produce and market wine, spirits and coffee.
So, what’s the foundation for their success? Timing had something to do with it, as did their entrepreneurial makeup and powers of persuasion. The brothers were semi-normal tavern owners until 1985. That’s the year they successfully lobbied lawmakers in Salem, Oregon, to allow patrons to consume beer at the place where it is made. They soon started brewing at their Hillsdale location and before their eyes an entire industry was born.
Another key that unlocked McMenamins success is the family-friendly atmosphere that they bring to their properties. While the beer is strong and the spirits stronger, there’s something almost theme-parkish about each McMenamins property. The properties all share a fun, somewhat kitschy, look and feel. You instantly know you’re at a McMenamins when you enter one, and that’s a credit to Mike and Brian, as every business needs a strong sense of identity if it’s going to stand out in the sea of sameness.
McMenamins, for certain, does more than just stand out in the neighborhoods they inhabit-they’re often the defacto community center. Take Kennedy School in NE Portland. There’s the building itself to consider. It spans an entire city block and is a lovingly restored architectural gem. Inside the old elementary school, former classrooms are now spacious accomodations for guests to the Rose City. Kennedy School also has live music and a movie theater, plus a restaurant and five bars, including the Honors Bar and Detention Bar (for good and bad citizens, as the case may be).
Yes, there are five bars, all in one building. That’s how the McMenamins roll.
There’s something European about what the McMenamins are doing. Mike McMenamin has noted in interviews that bars in Portland were generally dark, hard-partying, slightly scary places when he got into the business. He had a different vision and he’s executed against it perfectly. McMenamins pubs and hotels are now anchors in the communities they serve. In several cases, the buildings the McMenamins bought and refurbished were historically signigficant properties. Their way of doing business consciously improves the community while helping members of said community have a good time.
There are some rumblings from long time customers that the quality of the chain’s food and the beer have suffered, after the company expanded into hotels and the concert business. “They’re cutting corners now they never would have cut before,” says Nathan Parr, who’s been a fan since the early 1990s. There’s likely some truth in his assessment. Furthermore, Mike McMenamin has lamented not knowing all his managers. And the widespread proliferation of the McMenamins brand is Starbucks-like in Portland particularly. Yet, if you weigh the positive contributions to local communities and to the craft beer culture in this region and nation, it’s hard to fault Mike and Brian. The company they’ve built is as Portland as Nike, maybe more.
We went looking for Terrapin Cellars on Saturday. According to our source materials, the wine is produced in Rickreall, just west of Salem. We arrived in the small town by mid-afternoon and looked around a bit, but we didn’t see Terrapin. I don’t know if I imagined a shrine to the classic Grateful Dead album or what, but it wasn’t there. We asked a local walking his two dogs and he said the winery–he couldn’t think of its name–was on the edge of town. That’s the lead we were looking for, so we motored over there and found Eola Hills ready and waiting to serve.
Unlike most of the wine tasting rooms we’ve been to recently, Eola Hills didn’t charge us to taste their value-conscious wines. They did ask for a $5 fee on their higher end wines, but then they applied those fees to the purchase of wine, so there was no tasting fee after all. While there, we inquired about Terrapin and the woman said, oh yes, Terrapin is made on premise. Then she dodged off to get me the winemaker’s phone number. It turns out lots of winemakers produce their wine at Eola Hills. So, for those in the Amity Eola Hills area with grapes and the requisite know how, but no winery, there’s a community-oriented production option. Pretty cool.
As for Eola Hills, their wine is pretty decent for the price. Most bottles we sampled were going for $13 or $14. Some of their higher end offerings were $25 to $50. Their $50 bottle, the 2006 Oregon “Wolf Hill” Clone 667 Pinot Noir is right up there with the best of them. The complexity of Wolf Hill kept coming and coming. I’d love to take an entire bottle for a ride some night.
“Diana Jones writes songs which she sings in such a haunting high lonesome that one can’t help but wonder if she isn’t the lost daughter of the Carter Family.” -Ann Patchett, New York Times
One of Americana music’s biggest champions, Songs:Illinois introduced me to yet another special singer-songwriter living in Nashville. Her name is Diana Jones.
Diana’s new release Better Times Will Come will be released on Proper Records later this month. Guest artists on the record include Nanci Griffith, Betty Elders, Mary Gauthier and Ketch Secor.
Oregon’s artisan culture has given rise to a full fledged microdistilling movement. The Seattle Times published a detailed and glowing review of the scene last June.
With 17 microdistilleries in Oregon, and eight more startups expected across the state by year’s end, spirits aficionados haven’t seen anything like this in recent memory.
Collectively, the distillers help shape the bar and culinary scene in Portland. The Rose City is now seeing a renaissance of classic cocktails, and some high-end restaurants are trying experimental pairings of food with spirits.
“The distillery scene here is where the wine industry in California was in the 1960s,” said Steve McCarthy, owner of Clear Creek Distillery, one of the nation’s first microdistilleries. “We are rewriting all the rules. The artisan distilleries are making up a whole new industry.”
One of the most valuable offerings in the piece is the sidebar, where the state’s microdistillers are listed.
Elsewhere in the Beaver state there’s Bendistillery, BU-TAY Vodka and Liquid Vodka in Bend. Plus Brandy Peak Distillery in Brookings; Dolmen Distillery in McMinnville; Hood River Distillers in Hood River; Indio Spirits in Cottage Grove; and Rogue Spirits in Newport.
Among the spirits being crafted here: whiskey aged in Oregon oak, pear brandy, pinot noir brandy, gewürztraminer grappa, Eastern-style gin, hazelnut spiced rum, vodka infused with hot pepper, saffron, tarragon, chocolate and basil.
American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, define wine growing regions throughout the U.S. It’s a program administered by the ATF. Lately, I’ve been studying the local wine producing regions by visiting the areas on weekends and by looking at maps, like this one, care of the Oregon Wine Board.
According to WinesNW.com, when Willamette Valley AVA was first authorized 1984, its geographic description included some 3.3 million acres. Twenty years later, winemakers and wine growers succeeded in submitting applications for approval of six sub-regions within the Willamette Valley, to better describe micro climates proven over the years to be distinctly suited for the growing of wine grapes. McMinnville Foothills, Dundee Hills, Ribbon Ridge, the Yamhill-Carlton District, Eola-Amity Hills District and the Chehalem Mountains were all authorized as official American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in 2005 and 2006.
Once that data kind of sinks in, it’s time to start identifying certain wines with the characteristics found in a given AVA. For instance, we know that 2006 was a great year for pinot noir in the Willamette Valley. But was it a better year in Dundee Hills than it was in Eola-Amity Hills? I don’t know, but I know it’s going to be fun finding out. Some of the famous producers in Dundee Hills include Sokol Blosser, Archery Summit, Domaine Drouhin, Domaine Serene, Erath Winery and The Eyrie Vineyards. In other words, the classic Oregon producers. Eola-Amity Hill is more of a mystery. I’ll need to go looking for a bottle of Witness Tree or Strangeland.
BTW, where is the best place to buy locally produced pinot noir in NE Portland?
