I had fun doing a presentation for the Curiosity Club at Core77's HandeEyeSupply store here in Portland. Tobias and Will are producing an always interesting series of talks by local makers, thinkers and tinkerers. They have included presentations by Joey Roth, Nathan Bergey, Amber Case and Aaron Parecki and many others. It is an informal event that is always informative and thought provoking. I highly recommend it for anyone in Portland on the event evenings.

There is a video of the presentation for those with the patience to persist. I am going to put together an annotated version of the Keynote presentation I used that I can post so the mystery projection on the wall from the video can be seen.

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I'll be giving a presentation Tuesday at Core 77's Hand Eye Supply in Portland.

It's a great series of talks by makers and thinkers of various stripes.

About the Curiosity Club
Ex Curiositas, Scientia. We pledge to learn with out prejudice in pursuit of our mutual goal; perpetual noviceship. We admit that it is impossible to know everything about anything and thus we remain perpetually curious and perpetually novice. The Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club meets fortnightly on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30. Each meeting of the Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club will contain a 18-28 minute lecture from a speaker who has an area of knowledge that appeals to the curiosity club. The presentation will be videocast on the Core77 blog along with any presentation materials. The series highlights an eclectic group of speakers across a broad range of subjects dictated by our curatorial interests in the areas of Culture, Design, Science, Technology, Art, Fabrication and Design Techniques and Lost Common Knowledge.

The Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club is a speaker series hosted by Will Lolcama, Tobias Berblinger and Core77's Hand-Eye Supply store

Curiosity Club

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I am working with Brian Marki Fine Art in Portland, Oregon to organize a juried pinhole photography exhibition. We are looking for Portland area artists producing traditional wet process prints from pinhole camera images. See the CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for details.

Brian Marki Fine Art is a long-established Portland gallery with a beautiful exhibition space and a dedicated, enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff.

This will be an excellent opportunity for Portland area photographers to show their work during the holiday season.

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Lisa and I decided one afternoon to check out some of the notable buildings along the newly opened transit mall.

TriMet, the Portland area transit authority, recently opened the new North/South light rail route in the downtown area. After a lengthy period of construction, traffic snarls and businesses struggling to deal with the turmoil, a free-ride day opened the new route.

It is interesting to sense the contrast between the modern electric-powered transit infrastructure and the classically inspired buildings.

Replacing all but one lane of automobile traffic on two major downtown streets is an example of the self conscious decision Portland made about it's transportation future. And yet it could be argued that Portland's growing network of light rail is, if anything, a lesson learned from the past.

The sleek new MAX light rail train

There was once an extensive network of electric trolleys throughout Portland. Like so many other American cities, the automobile led to the eventual abandonment of most of that legacy.

It's perhaps ironic to contemplate the fact that some of the the earliest Portland trolley lines were set up as real estate promotion lines although this is not true of the trolley shown below.

Mt Tabor Trolley - PDXHistory.com

The PDXHistory.com web site has an interesting page of early streetcar history in Portland which includes the photo above - Mt. Tabor Car No. 438 near 65th & Belmont.

Our habit of taking the occasional walking tour of Portland's architecture was rewarded on this particular day by the beautiful light that often follows a bit of rain while there's still water on the ground.

I enjoy that brief time between the soft light of a overcast day and the challenging light of a cloudless sky when things seem especially vibrant. We seized the moment and strolled along to take in some less familiar buildings from the city's past.

Bet even here were reminders of the troubled economy.

It was a nice distraction from the Bungaloft project.

We're thinking it would be cool to have a small group of people who would like to do architecture walks. Maybe a Meetup group is in the works . . .

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Peel P50

At 6' 5" inches tall, my interest in things small might seem inexplicable, but the fact remains - small things are cool. And there is not much cooler than a Peel P50. Check out the links at left and @ the image of the Peel P50 above for some great shots of this great little vintage wonder.

Isetta plus teardrop

When I was a bit shorter my father worked for Porsche Cars Southwest in San Antonio, Texas, the southwest regional distributor for Porsche ("por sha, not porsh" as he used to say.) I grew up around interesting cars and car people.
So when my young eyes first glimped a BMW Iseta, I knew that it was just about the coolest thing a car could be - small. Of course, the next logical step is to add a teardrop trailer - another growing interest of mine. An even smaller one can be seen here on the Tales and Trails website.

The park - in the middle of Naito Parkway!

One wet Portland afternoon Lisa and I set off on one our periodic architecture tours in the downtown area. I decided it was time to visit Portland's smallest park.

Mill Ends Park

It was a perfect, rainy Portland afternoon, the kind that makes color sublime and car tires hiss. Mill Ends Park, created as a home for leprechauns, appears with different vegetative scenery in every picture you will find of it.
Portland being a center of the once booming lumber industry, the term Mill's End refers to the pieces left over in the process of converting tress to lumber. The story of the park's creation is an interesting bit of Portland history and worth investigating at the Portland Parks and Recreation site.

The current theme.

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