Portland

East Portland’s Own Esperanza Spalding Wins Grammy for Best New Artist

For perhaps the first time in Grammy Award history, the winner of the Best New Artist Grammy is actually an artist. East Portland’s hot, young and talented jazz bassist Esperanza Spalding surprised everyone by beating out Youtube sensation and all around nice guy, Justin Bieber. Immediately after her victory, outraged Bieber fans hacked Esperanza’s Wikipedia …

“Can a City This Self-Serious (Portland) Take a Joke?” asks the New York Times

The New York Times has decided to have some fun at Portland’s expense in an article titled, “Can a City This Self-Serious Take a Joke?” which contains such big city literary observations as the following: “For years, many residents here have reacted with practiced apathy and amusement toward the national fascination with Portland. Outsiders and …

Garage Rock vs. Quirky Indie Pop: Weren’t Young Fresh Fellows more important in the grand scheme of things than Nirvana? And wasn’t Popllama more significant than SubPop?, Critic’s Roundtable, Part 1

“Weren’t Young Fresh Fellows more important in the grand scheme of things than Nirvana? And wasn’t Popllama more significant than SubPop? – East Portland Blog Critic’s Roundtable, Part 1 (This conversation has four parts.) Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 Through the 1980s a couple of different strains ran through …

Portland May be a Paradise for Music Lovers, but Struggling Musicians: Beware, by Dr. David Wakeling, Celebrity Guest Blogger

In the greater Portland area there are 160 music venues, give or take a few, that will feature live music on any given night, many featuring music everyday of the week. It really is a music lover’s paradise. Reggae, punk, indie, alt, rock, you name it, Portland has got it. Having lived in or around …

Pink Martini – Do You Hear What I Hear? – And on TV and Radio, from Randy Rendfeld

It’s the holidays, and that means it’s time for Pink Martini. Randy Rendfeld sent me several excellent links to Pink Martini material, past and present: The Pinksters performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Monday, 12/20/2010. Just two days earlier (12/18/2010), Thomas (Lauderdale), China (Forbes) and the gang brought their rollicking genre-bending orchestra to …