The Twangshifters.

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

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.

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 King of the Monsters: Godzilla.

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)…I’ll talk with two of Portland’s premier online broadcasters.

In 2009, they moved from terrestrial media into the world of online entertainment as the hosts of FunemploymentRadio.com. And then, earlier this year, they added online television to their resumes when the Portland Trailblazers began airing their program, Sportlandia. (And, somewhere, back in the mists of time, they worked alongside an edgy, Gen-X motormouth whose name currently escapes me.)

Sarah X. Dylan and Greg Nibler…on the next episode of Outlook Portland.

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: Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons.

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

Portland’s History: The good, the bad and the sordid.

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

As Mick Jagger once said, there is no future, only recycled past. And one can scarcely find a pattern more frequently repeated than that of vice…and vanquishing. Indeed, in our own time -in our own city- these things are never far from sight. When in doubt, check your rearview mirror–in this case, to just over 100 years ago, when the City of Roses was both very much the same…and shockingly different.

This weekend, two different authors with a shared love of Portland will give their perspectives on the city’s cycle of rise, ruin, and reclamation:

Dan Haneckow, who writes extensively about Portland history -the good, the bad, and the sordid- at CaféUnknown.com.

And Tracy Prince, author of the new book Portland’s Goose Hollow, which contains hundreds of photos documenting a Portland era very nearly lost to history.

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: Magic: The Gathering’s Thornscape Battlemage.

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

Indigo Kelleigh, Stumptown Comics Fest

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

Let us now praise Tippy the Turtle, familiar to millions, even if they never knew that was his name.

Tippy the Turtle, along with a pirate just called “Pirate”, peered out from matchbooks and comic books for several decades, passing along the positive message that you (yes, you) could be an artist. If you could draw the turtle, the advertisement said, then a world of magical knowledge was within reach…an art school was standing by, and there, you would learn all the secrets of visual creation.

A great many of us did learn several things from this exercise:

1) Advertisements included with a pack of cigarettes or a copy of Swamp Thing aren’t necessarily the gold standard for truth, and

2) Drawing the turtle -drawing anything- is a lot harder than it seems, giving most of us a newfound appreciation for people such as this Sunday’s guest.

Indigo Kelleigh is an illustrator and designer; a creator of artwork for individuals, corporations…and for its own sake. He’s also the director of the Stumptown Comics Fest, which happens this weekend at the Oregon Convention Center.

This Sunday, he’ll join us for a discussion of art, inspiration, and what makes the Stumptown Comics Fest stand apart. Don’t miss it.

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 King of the Monsters: Godzilla.

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

Author of Nerve,Taylor Clark, on the next Outlook Portland.

If you want to know how human beings really think, look to the Greeks, who had a seemingly-insatiable fetish for isolating, naming, and, finally, personifying in deity form all the various facets of our existence. (And sometimes through bizarre multitasking, such as Athena being the goddess of wisdom……and handicrafts. Really.)

There was, however, one element of Earthly life so large, so powerful that it took no fewer than six beings to represent it. And thus, when Ares went to battle, he was accompanied by Phobos, who represented horror, Deimos, who was terror, and by four attendants: Trembling, Panic, Dread…and Fear.

Fear is, perhaps, the overriding emotion in our lives, and Outlook Portland’s next guest wanted to learn more about what causes fear, who can handle it, and what it really does to us.

Taylor Clark, the author of Starbucked, returns to discuss his latest book, Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool.

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 King of the Monsters: Godzilla.

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

Christopher Witherspoon.

It is what Joseph Campbell called The Monomyth: The progressive, sometimes-cyclical evolution from commoner to hero, from apprentice to master, from observer…to architect. This journey is, of course, found throughout the worlds of literature, film, music, videogames–anywhere there are battles to be fought, prizes to be won, and stories to be told.

It is worth remembering, however, that such journeys exist on both sides of the equation: on the screen and behind the curtain. Every film is, after all, a snapshot of its creator at a particular moment in their journey.

Joining us Sunday is one such artist: Mr. Chris Witherspoon. His love for film began early, and his career began shortly after. He has worked on, and for, myriad film and television projects, from B-movies to children’s fare to music videos. His most recent project, the horror film Rage, premieres at the NW Film Center on Thursday, Feb 3rd.

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: Megatron, Leader of the Decepticons.

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

Seth Aaron Henderson.

Tune in tomorrow for a brand new show with fashion designer and Project Runway winner, Seth Aaron Henderson.

Sunday. 6:30am. Only on NW32 TV. Home of Hellcats! Rawr!

Oregon Film and TV Dollars.

Dean Martin, when asked about his film career, famously said, “Acting? That’s not hard work. Anyone who says acting’s hard work never had to deal blackjack for three hours.”
But, of course, even that carefully-dismissive answer was, itself, part of an act–a construct, for, as Dean Martin knew, acting is a craft, a magic, a talent, an art…and a sometimes-difficult job. And balancing all of those elements can be the hardest act of all.

On the next Outlook Portland (6:30am, on NW32 TV), we’ll talk to Mr. Harold Phillips, a man who handles both the creative and commercial sides of the equation with aplomb.

He’s been seen in myriad TV and film productions, including Leverage, The Outbreak, Company of Thieves, and Dark Horizon. He also works -seemingly without pause- to raise and maintain awareness of Portland’s potential as a hub for artistic dollars.

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.

Zack Whedon.

On this week’s Outlook Portland (6:30am, on NW32 TV), we’ll be joined by Mr. Zack Whedon.

He has worked on or written for TV series such as Deadwood, Angel, Fringe, and Rubicon. He is the co-creator and co-writer of Dr.Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog…the very definition of an instant classic. And, just to spike the ball, the co-author of numerous comic books, including Terminator: 2029 and the recently-released Serenity: The Sheperd’s Tale. We’ll discuss art, writing rituals and routines, and the nature of sc-fi fandom.

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: Magic: The Gathering‘s Thornscape Battlemage.

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

OP Fail.

We regret that due to a technical issue, there will be no Outlook Portland this Sunday. We hope to air the interview with author Mark Christensen at a future date. Tune in next week for the Oregon Cultural Trust and on December 19th our guest will be Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog co-writer, Zack Whedon!