As a great philosopher once said, our lives are made up of days, which pass like so much sand…through the hourglass.

But as the waves of years become decades, and decades become centuries, those waves recede and leave things behind: relics, treasures, and shining fragments of other times. Together, they are highly-polished pieces of the cultural jigsaw puzzle.

Some of those artistic shards resonate more deeply than others. They show us a different shade of life. They change our thinking, our path, our music, until –to paraphrase Rob Sheffield– no matter what year the calendar says, in our heads, it’s always 1957. Which brings us to rockabilly, and some of our glorious city’s most accomplished practitioners of the form.

The Twangshifters join us for a free-ranging discussion of music, performance, and why the 1950s have made such a profound and lasting impact on rock-and-roll culture.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

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On the next Outlook Portland (Sunday, 6:30am, on NW32 TV)…

A friend of mine, who happens to be left-handed, was lamenting the right-centric composition of the world recently, and I –without thinking– casually dismissed her concerns. “It seems fine to me,” I said, “Just use your other hand; problem solved.” There was an icy silence indicating that I, perhaps, did not see –or experience– the world in quite the same way she did.

And so it is that the somewhat-specialized need can, from time to time, be given short shrift…shunted to the side. The Mac user in a world of Windows; the Zune user in a world of iPods; the soybean enthusiast in a beef-centric city.

In Portland, Oregon, the closest comparison might lay in those eternally-intertwined but utterly different creatures: dogs and cats. A quick look around our city might lead an outside observer to think we had somehow installed canines as our leaders…or at least as something approaching legal citizens.

So, it’s only fair that we take some time to talk about the other side of that particular coin, and this weekend, we’ll start with The Cat Adoption Team…or C.A.T. They’re the Northwest’s largest nonprofit, limited admission cat shelter–and much beyond that, including medicine, adoption, and foster care programs.

Joining us Sunday to talk about all of this is Miss Bobbie Winchell.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

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In 1955, Harold Crockett gave us Harold and the Purple Crayon, the story of a boy who conjures the most extraordinary things through the most amazing means…he draws them. Trees, the sky, a dragon.

Harold wants to go for a moonlit stroll, but there is no moon….so, with a wave of his hand, he creates one. When the moonlight shows that there is nowhere to walk, Harold -in the book’s most symbolic moment- uses the crayon to literally draw his own path through his own world.

So it is with anyone who creates, and perhaps especially so with those who use not just words, but the confluence of words and imagery–fashioning from their own imaginations what never before existed.

All of which brings us to Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett, the creative force(s) behind such works as Heartbreakers and Boilerplate, the latter of which was recently optioned by Paramount Studios for Mr. J.J. Abrams.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

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It’s amazing what a single word can do. Ask North Dakota, commonly believed to be much colder than its southern cousin, even though the two states have similar climates. Ask South Central Los Angeles, which recently dropped the “Central” altogether as part of a rebranding effort. Ask the “middle” child, for that matter…or the recipient of a “left-handed” compliment.

A single word can color a lot of perceptions, and it’s no different in our fair city: North Portland, the West Hills, and…The East Side.

Alive and vibrant with overlapping cultures and characters, East Portland is beloved by its residents…and occasionally misjudged by others. The East Portland Action Plan is an attempt to remedy that situation.

On Sunday’s Outlook Portland, we’ll speak with Katie Larsell, Nick Sauvie, and Larry Kotan of the East Portland Action Plan. We’ll talk about The East Side’s challenges (and advantages), and we’ll examine how one side of the city became so vastly different from the other.

The show will also feature another “Outlook Portland Editorial Reply”, brought to you by our marquee sponsor, Things From Another World. This week’s guest editorialist: The Last Son of Krypton: Superman.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

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Since 1961, Burgerville has been a part of Northwest life, starting at a single address in Vancouver and growing to more than 35 locations throughout Washington and Oregon. This year, the restaurant celebrates its 50th anniversary, and what was true fifty years ago is true today: ask anyone in this part of the world–they’ll have a favorite item on the Burgerville menu.

On this Sunday’s Outlook Portland, we’ll be joined by Burgerville USA‘s President and CEO, Mr. Jeff Harvey; he’ll talk about the restaurant’s founding, evolution, and freakishly-delicious onion rings. We’ll also speak with Daniel Cogan, General Manager of Burgerville’s Montavilla location…and, as a side note, I’ll solemnly vow to never again tape Outlook Portland on an empty stomach.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

As you might imagine, Webster’s defines “robot” as “A machine which looks like a human being and performs various complex acts, but whose lack of capacity for human emotions is often emphasized.”

And, as Douglas Adams fan are almost certainly aware, the Marketing Division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as “Your plastic pal who’s fun to be with.”

Then there is Sid, the protagonist of Cognition: The Robot Uprise, a new comic whose first issue is already receiving significant acclaim. If you asked Sid –who is, in fact, a machine– to define “robot”, well…Sid might have an answer unlike any you have heard before.

Indeed, Cognition: The Robot Uprise is, itself, unlike anything you have recently experienced. A subversion and inversion of classic sci-fi paradigms, it’s also fantastically entertaining, and something you really ought to read.

On the next Outlook Portland, we’ll be joined by Cognition‘s author and creator, Mr. Aaron Cronan, along with graphic artist Matt Hopkins. They’ll discuss the book’s inspiration, creation, and evolution, and will give some clues about what the future holds…both for Sid and for Cognition itself.

Cars may get the glory, but bicycles have the numbers. There are more than one billion bicycles in use on planet Earth –easily double the number of automobiles– and another 130 million bikes are sold every year.

An astonishing number of those bicycles end up right here in Portland, where the streets and sidewalks are filled, year-round, no matter the weather, with pedaling enthusiasts of every stripe and variety.

From every walk of life, so to speak, cyclists emerge onto the paths and pavement of our fair city, forming –to borrow a term from Dostoyevsky– an accidental tribe, with its own culture, history, challenges, and coalitions. Portland is, in many ways, a city which runs on two wheels.

On the next Outlook Portland, we’ll be joined by Rob Sadowsky, Executive Director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance; we’ll discuss all of the above…and more.

On the next Outlook Portland (Sunday, 6:30am, on NW32 TV)…

Throughout human history, music has adapted, evolved, and cross-pollinated, each amalgam mixing and swirling the disparate forms together, often to create something staggeringly new.

One thing, however, remains a constant: the player, the singer, the songwriter. In a room or in a studio, attempting a kind of artistic alchemy: the transformation of imagination into physical form. To capture -on tape, paper, or hard drive- what exists only as a free-floating magic within the creative center.

Sometimes, it seems so amazing that it’s a wonder it ever happens at all.

On this week’s Outlook Portland, we’ll speak with Kielen King, a Portland musician whose latest idea has been successfully transferred into the realm of the real. His past albums include Soundtrack for an Automated Night and (as part of Azure Noir) Addicted to Blue. His new project is Star Pilot’s Lament: A Musical Sci-Fi Epic.

The show will also feature another “Outlook Portland Editorial Reply”, brought to you by our marquee sponsor, Things From Another World. This week’s guest editorialist: Paul Stanley of KISS…as a rubber duck.

Outlook Portland, Sunday at 6:30am, only on NW32 TV…the home of Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, and Rick Emerson.

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