…you’re at the new server. Hooray!

Look for a debrief later when I can see this for myself, warts & all. (Am posting via iPhone app now.)

UPDATE: So far, this has been one of the easiest and most painless server moves ever. Why? Because someone smarter than me (namely, Damien at Network Redux) did most of the work for me! I’m grateful to him & the entire Network Redux team for helping facilitate our trip back to local hosting, and really do appreciate their efforts to support our local community (the PDX WordPress User Group site is now running on an account donated by Network Redux for life).

Thanks, @reduxdamien! (corrected my earlier borked reference, sorry about that…)

If you still run into glitches or things that aren’t working correctly, let me know — I’m sure it was something that was on my own to-do list and I did a half-assed job of handling it. Or something like that…

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….5…4…3…2…1.

I’m going to do some much-needed updates to the site’s infrastructure in the next few minutes, so the site may look a little, um, strange from time to time.

(For those who care, am updating to WP 2.8.2, Thesis (our site theme) 1.5.1 and then updating a few plugins while I’m at it…)

Yes, everything’s been backed up. Yes, the database has been optimized and backed up as well. That means nothing will go wrong and you won’t notice a thing. Right?

Well, (she says, knocking on wood) that was a total non-event. My thanks to both WordPress & the folks behind Thesis for building quality products!

And now? Back to my Bloody Mary, garnished with homemade dilly beans. Mmmm – dilly beans.

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As you may have heard, OurPDX had our one-year birthday party Friday night. Oh the humanity!

The events at Green Dragon are well documented. It was a pleasure to meet you all, to put names to faces. I even ran into an old neighbor from the 1980s. (Hi Sam!) It was nice of Beer and Blog to share their space with us. Did anyone mention the spectacular cake? If I don’t double my exercise regimen I’ll be looking like Alfred Hitchcock soon.

With all the imbibing, it was suggested that we eat sometime during the evening. After all the love we’ve been giving them lately, there was no other choice than the Hawthorne Food Carts. (Check out their spiffy new permanent street sign.) We hit Whiffie’s again, but looked around first. I make a personal vow to try some of the other carts soon. (I’m looking at you, almost-always-open Mexican joint…)

Strange Love Live will be covered by our lovely hostess, Cami Kaos, and you can watch the fun/nonsense on the podcast coming soon. Getting there was half the fun. RadioGretchen doesn’t often drink; her ‘just the other side of tipsy’ status kept us in stitches. Mostly intentional… When she signed the guest book we couldn’t tell if she was writing or praying to the South.

When setting up for the party, there was some concern that there wouldn’t be enough booze. That turned out not to be a problem. Everyone brought two bottles of liquor. (Reminder for next year: Assign someone to bring mixer.) Morgan (?) was put in charge of fetching drinks during the podcast. (The secret code word was Swahili for vagina, I believe.) There was a lot of “take one, pass it along.” I was treated to an extensive lesson in Tiki glassware, and want one of my own ‘Baby-Eater’ glasses. More on the Baby-Eater in a few days. (This has absolutely nothing to do with you, Steph.)

I finally met author djtv, aka Theressa. We shared a couch during the SLL segment, and I accidentally grabbed her leg while digging for a microphone. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I must say, her avatar doesn’t do her justice. Rrrroarrr…

A few of the authors missed the anniversary, but made it to SLL. The elusive Endless Monkeys arrived with an armful of cookies and bourbon. You are a good student, Greg. One can never have too much bourbon and cookies. The bourbon went into my pocket, for medicinal purposes. (Call me the Kentucky doctor: I’ll give you a shot!) Even though I drank nothing stronger than h20 all night, it was comforting to have around. I’m still a drunky crow at heart.

What better way to keep me amused than to give me the car keys, right? I turned Betsy’s Kia into the OurPDX Clown Car. After the podcast, several of us migrated to Sellwood, where friends of the blog were hosting karaoke night. I figured we’d bring the funny, but had no idea how much, um, talent our little group had.

Dieselboi kicked it off with a bring-down-the-house version of Led Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. Oh…my…gawd! Equal parts Paul Rogers and Sully from Godsmack, he put it all out there on the very first song. He probably sounds like a twelve-year-old girl with tonsilitis today.

OurPDX’s queen bee, Ms Betsy, sang a Partridge Family song. She’s a proud David Cassidy fan. Worship them while they’re still with us, hon.

RadioGretchen, who by now was giggly and dancing to imaginary beats, was next. Everyone was watching, like the train wreck you can’t look away from. When she said she was going to sing a tribute to Michael Jackson, we all groaned.

And then something magical happened. She donned the glove sitting on the pillow next to the stage, grabbed the mike and laid out a note-perfect rendition of One More Chance. Wow. It was like there were ghost-Jacksons singing backup. I will forever resist the urge to prejudge a karaoke singer after that.

Since we were honoring dead celebrities, Dieselboi got the unintentional last word when he sang a tribute to David Carradine. The song? One Night in Bangkok.

We dumped RadioGretchen off on her doorstep about 3 AM, then stopped at Voodoo 2 for the driver’s reward: a Memphis Mafia. The bottle of bourbon made it home untouched, although I almost broke it pulling it out of the trunk. (Sober or not, it’s just dumb to drive around with an open pint in your pocket.) I gave it a good home, and will use it toward my own devious purposes one of these days.

In all, it was great fun. Check out our episode of Strange Love Live. We’re a goofy bunch, and we do it all for you…

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Just over a year ago*, a few of us stumbled out from the wings and onto the stage — we were the proverbial kids in the barn, putting on a show for y’all as Portland’s latest group blog. And it seems appropriate that I commandeer the 1000th post on OurPDX to make a celebratory speech of sorts because I’m just bossy like that — but you all knew that already, right?

Last year at this time, I was pouring my all into getting the baby born (the ten-day birth story is chronicled here) while rounding up a kick-ass band of cohorts and — oh, yeah — fueling the whole thing with equal parts moxie and Maker’s Mark.

Once the site was live, the band hit the road as OurPDX — although we haven’t yet been assimilated as One Borgian Entity, thankfully. Instead I’d call us a loosely federated hydra-headed beast of not-always-quite-harmonizing voices (you should see the internal never-ending debates on just where to have our monthly meetups, for starters!) We live, work or play in all parts of the greater PDX metropolitan area — yes, that includes our Vancouverian neighbor to the north, home of legal meth. Our only mandate? Write about Portland, for a Portland audience. (Bonus points if you can do it with style, wit, smarts, or passion, of course.)

Over the last year, we’ve picked up an entire supporting cast of authors. Roped in more than a few loyal supporters; landed in the media spotlight from time to time (KGW’s Live@7, we love you too!) And managed to harness our energy, enthusiasm, and just plain chutzpah in ways that alternately delight and/or dismay you.

Nearly a quarter of a million visitors later, well — we’ve had to seriously learn more about site optimization. Extended our vaunted ‘cashflow-negative’ reputation by upgrading to a more powerful hosting environment (not to mention sponsoring events like this one or that one.) In the next year? We’re going to bite the bullet and figure out how to at least break even; do expect to see advertising on the site sometime soon.

But that’s for another day. Here’s an imperfect sampling of what’s lured you in this year:

• The post that garners the steadiest inbound traffic from search engines? (Aside from any search term containing the word ‘porn’, that is!) This one — people do love that Bonneville Fish Cam!
• The most popular post? This one, by a landslide (thanks to Stumbleupon and a quiet network of local musicians): The Band: Local Songwriters on “The Well Crafted Song”
• The plethora of resident twisted souls among our author community (or, alternately, those with an, er, healthy appetite for the wild side.) Want a sampling? Try this. Or this. Or maybe this instant classic that kick-started the genre…
• Speaking of indulgences — lordy, do we love our food and drink! From locavores to farmer’s markets to Burgerville to food carts to beer (our most frequently-used tag, no less) — to shamelessly steal from Food Dude, well we believe in indulging, then reporting!
• Pie — whether it’s the Portland Pie-Off or @Whiffies, we’ve managed to ride the wave of a love that will never die (plus, it netted 450.00 for Free Geek!)
• We don’t often break news here — but when we do, it’s interesting to see just how far it travels (and how infrequently we’re credited…!) From the Floyd’s saga to Ted Wheeler’s social media hire to (my personal favorite) our wall-to-wall PDX Monkey on the loose (including bonus round-the-clock Twitter coverage!)
• We’ve always supported local musicians & managed to land a few interesting interviews or insights: The Dimes, Greg Glover and Spun Academy, to name a few.
• Smart-asses and/or highly opinionated posts? We’ve got plenty of those: See this, or this, or this historical reminiscence or this recent post or an earlier post that started a lively conversation, back in the day…
• Speaking of comments — who can forget the first comment firestorm? Breeders vs. Non-Breeders in a steel cage death match!
• For that matter — all of our commenters, and their just under 3,000 comments total. We love it when you talk back to us!

This tribute wouldn’t be complete without thanking everyone who’s supported us along the way (I’ll try to keep it brief before the orchestra gets the cue to play over me….) First, I have to thank our partners-in-negative-cashflow crime: Cami Kaos & Dr. Normal, who graciously share their Strange Love Live material with us each and every week.

To all the folks who link to us or send traffic our way: Jack Bog, Dave from Dave Knows: Portland, the kids at the Merc (as long as they keep their hands off {unauthorized use} of our photos, that is…!), everyone’s favorite cheerleader Rick Turoczy, and our special BFFs, our Twitter pals who keep retweeting our stuff & garnering us new followers — just to name a few!

Okay, enough of the schmaltz and/or the trip down memory lane (I know, I know – I’m starting to burble): who’s ready for a beer?

We are! And while we’d love to buy you one at Beer & Blog this Friday, well – we can’t. (Did we mention the whole ‘flat broke’ thing yet?)

But we’d love to drink with you. And hey — we’ll have some birthday cake there as well, thanks to our fine friends at Thatch Tiki Bar (more news about their special event next Wednesday soonish…!)

Join us this Friday starting at 4 pm at Beer & Blog, won’t you?

* 6/23/08, to be exact

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Parade season is in full swing. The crowds have already started forming for the Grand Floral Parade, which engulfs downtown for the next couple of days. However, not everyone “loves a parade,” and one of the more vocal detractors is our own Wizardboots.

In fact, last weeks Haters Ball, loosely disguised as an OurPDX Writers Meetup, took place during the Starlight Parade. (It had NOTHING to do with the fact that we’d set the meetup a month previous, overlooking the whole parade thingy. Ahem.) Wizardboots opened the evening’s entertainment at Kelly’s Olympian, after a harrowing adventure in which he had some difficulty getting his band equipment across the parade route. His mutterings of “I hate f#@king parades…” evoked the spirit of Maynard James Keenan. His music? Think Hank Williams channeling Mike Patton.

I hadn’t been to Kelly’s since the big remodel a few years back. The knife shop next door went out of business, so Kelly’s gutted it and turned it into a music space, cozy, cool. Kelly’s has reinvented its image, much like PBR. What was once the stomping grounds of old men is now hip with the new generation of drinkers. It was nice to see women welcome. There was a time when Kelly’s didn’t even have a women’s bathroom. I’m glad to see times have changed; women were the majority. Woohoo!

After seeing the guys in Wizardboots in their red shirts, I looked down at mine, which is no longer red, but somewhere between Carlo Rossi and Pepto-Bismol. Guess the red shirt was a good call. Mine had a pocket on it; Wizardboots had a big white moose on his. Add the squirrel lamp hanging from the bass drum, and you’ve got fodder for Bullwinkle references aplenty.

The writers meetup was sparsely attended, but those of us who made it were vocal and boisterous. Our Goddess-and-Keeper, Betsy, was put on light duty, passing her keys off to yours truly. “Whiskey, bartender!” I was celebrating a birthday and a year without drinking, so being designated driver was a bit of a treat for this bus-rat. (I was well-rewarded, having been treated to Brazil Grill beforehand.) Despite our attempts to get her hammered, Ms Betsy remained her ladylike self all evening. Sorry, no topless dancing or catfights.

Dieselboi was there, capturing the fun on video and even joining the band on-stage for a song, playing the hell out of Satan’s Tambourine. Yes, he can get jiggy with it.

While the evening held many highlights, a favorite was when the lovely young lady on stage choked her chicken. I got a thing about chickens, as Mickey Rourke once said. She also blows a mean horn. (Trumpet, that is. Dirty minds, tsk.) She took that chicken, stretched its neck and accompanied her buddy on the kazoo. It was Zappaesque.

Alas, Mr Wizardboots and company were only allowed so much time. The next band on the bill was itchin’ to get on with it. It appeared they had fifteen members and one groupie. It looked like a busy stage. We fled into the night. Stepping outside, we were greeted with the smell most associated with Kelly’s Olympian: cigarette smoke. Hit with a wave of carcinogens, we floated away. One used to have to go outside for oxygen. How the times have changed.

We made a trip to the Hawthorne food carts, for some Whiffies pies. I was ‘pie-deflowered’, (apple FTW) and made a mental sticky note to return for some of the other available grub. I was also able to put Twitter names and faces together. Thanks to Twitter, normal people now seem like celebrities!

The Grand Floral Parade? Yeah, it’s tomorrow, but I have a feeling the Haters Club will be nursing hangovers, tending to their offspring, or otherwise staying the hell away from downtown. But, there will be another OurPDX Writers meetup soon. (I’m hearing rumblings about a June 26 one-year birthday event. Shh…) Someone will be dropping a few hints as they become available.

Now, off to downtown before everyone else gets there…

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It may not exactly be sunny and/or patio weather tonight — but a little bit of rain/cloudy skies won’t stop the monthly OurPDX author/reader meetup from happening.

Instead, we’ll just take it inside at Rontoms, and we’ll be happy to buy some happy hour apps for the group besides (as ever, you’re on your own for your beverages.)

We do ask one thing — if you’re thinking about stopping by? Please RSVP on the Upcoming page (this way, we know how much food to pony up for!)

Details:

Rontoms
600 E Burnside St.
Portland, Oregon
5ish (on the patio if it’s nice, inside if it’s not!)

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No, we haven’t found a cure for cancer. We haven’t solved the issue of world peace. Hell, we can’t even begin to solve the infighting on our own City Council (not to mention break up squabbles between toddlers on the playground.)

But we *have* been fighting a battle of sorts mostly behind the scenes: Reclaiming the @ourpdx Twitter account.

We had to walk uphill in the rain and/or snow and or wind for miles. Both ways. Barefoot. Over what felt like glass shards at times.

Our persistence paid off, though. The Twitter support staff saw the rightness of our claim on the OurPDX name.

And that’s why if you were following us at @ourpdxnet yesterday? You’re now following us at @ourpdx. (If you have a Twitter account & aren’t following us – why not start now?)

Now that I’ve got some spare time, hmm…think I should jump into the fray around the Made in Oregon sign?

On second thought, um, nevermind…!

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We’ve picked a new site theme, and are putting it in place over the next few days. (I opted to get the theme upgraded and modified in a fairly transparent way, but it shouldn’t impact your ability to read or comment.)

Please feel free to comment if you notice issues or concerns. I’m a big fan of the bigger, easier-to-read text myself. One sad note: We will probably not be able to get the tabbed features back any time soon, but I’ll see what I can do here.

Thanks for your patience and/or patronage!

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UPDATE: Okay, new theme’s in place. (See this post for details…)

UPDATE: Moving this to the top so people know we’re still working on this. As folks have mentioned, all of our content is still here – you just can’t see who’s posting what if you’re reading this via the web, which is annoying, we know! No longer true, thankfully – you can see us now!

Yes, we’re going minimalist for St. Paddy’s Day since we know your eyeballs may appreciate the break the next day.

Or we’re redoing the place as part of our spring cleaning frenzy. Yeah…that’s it.

Or (crossing fingers) we’re fighting over just which theme we want to move to next – and since everyone’s fighting, Betsy is unilaterally laying down the vaunted WP classic theme until the squabbling can cease in true ‘don’t mess with the mother’ fashion.

That won’t work, either? (C’mon — you all know I’m mean enough to do that, right?)

Okay, okay. Betsy broke the site. (I’m sorry. Really sorry. Did I mention the fact that I’m sorry?)

She’ll get it fixed later tonight. Or there will be no Irish whiskey for her… within the next few days.

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There’s a lot to see in Portland. And there are a lot of photographers capturing it. I’m excited to announce we have created an OurPDX Flickr Pool to feature photography of Portland. Anyone can contribute to the pool – simply join the Flickr group and add your photos. Here are the guidelines:

• We’re looking for contributions of photos of anything Portland-related. Events, bridges, buildings, artwork, and so on. If it’s related to Portland, it’s welcome in the group.
• These photos will potentially appear in two ways: as thumbnails included as part of the OurPDX website (showing the most recent photos added to the group), and occasionally we’ll highlight an image by featuring it as a post on the blog. All uses of photos will link back to the original photo on Flickr.
• By posting photos to this group you agree that OurPDX Networks may display your photo on the OurPDX website.
• Only “safe for work” photos, please.

I look forward to highlighting some great Portland photography here on the blog. Join us on Flickr.

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