Homeless Men Shot Under Morrison Bridge Had Been Turned Away from Packed Old Town Tent RefugeThe two homeless men shot this morning in what police suggest was a random drive-by attack had been staying "on and off" at Right 2 Dream Too, organizers of the Old Town tent refuge told the Mercury this afternoon. But the men had been turned away when they tried to sleep there again last night—after trying to escape stormy, blustery conditions—because there was no more room. "Those two guys were coming here," says Ibrahim Mubarak, a spokesman for the group, "but we just didn't have enough room. This is a good reason why we need more places like this." The men decided against sleeping in a nearby doorway, in hopes that some space would open up at some point in the middle of the night. And instead they trudged across the river and tried to sleep under the Morrison Bridge. Early this morning, someone in a black pickup truck fired shots at the two men as they lay in their sleeping bags, lightly injuring one man, but sending another to the hospital with injuries that police say were critical but aren't expected to be fatal. Police have yet to identify the men, and say detectives are still investigating. Right 2 Dream Too, which the city is treating as an illegal recreational campground and fining for a pair of code violations, normally hosts about 75 to 80 people every night. Art Rios, another organizer, says the tent refuge, right at NW 4th and Burnside, filled up around 9 pm. He says at least six other people were turned away. "It's a lot of people we have turn away every night," Rios said, adding that some days it's as many as 20. "We tell them to go across the street and sleep in a doorway, and if someone leaves, we'll come and get you." Rios also wouldn't share the men's names, but said he's spent some time with them over the past two months, about when they started showing up among Portland's homeless community. He says he'd sometimes walk with them up to Sisters of the Road for lunch and that they'd help clean R2D2 on the days they stayed there. Both Rios and Mubarak say violence is a sad fact of life for anyone living on the streets—and that this attack just happened to get a lot more press than most other attacks that no one ever hears about. "This is an awareness thing," Mubarak says. "We provide security. We provide walls. And the city wants to charge us money to do something they should be doing." Beer! Bands! Introducing the First Ever Malt Ball!
You like music. You like beer. So we're bringing the two together—in a way that seems perfectly obvious, but hasn't really ever been done successfully before.
The first annual Malt Ball is coming on Saturday, March 24, and it's going to be fantastic—Portland's very first beer festival that actually has GOOD music. The Malt Ball, brought to you by your pals at the Portland Mercury and the Oregon Brewers Guild, is a full day packed with tons of local breweries offering exclusive beers, and 12 of Portland's best bands performing onstage. It's a concert! It's a beer fest! It's the damn best time you'll ever have*. *FACT. Tickets have just gone on sale, and you're gonna want to get advance tickets because this thing is going to fill up fast. Trust us on this. If you're still not convinced, check out this killer lineup of bands: The Builders and the Butchers; Weinland; Lord Dying; Quiet Life; Wow & Flutter; Lost Lander; Old Junior; Denver; Stay Calm; The Golden Bears; Archers; Mission SpotlightAnd beers from the following breweries: IO Barrel; Breakside; Coalition; Columbia River; Fort George; Full Sail; Gilgamesh; Hopworks; Laurelwood; Lompoc; McMenamins; Ninkasi; Portland U-Brew; The Commons Holy malt balls! This is going to be AMAZING. Get your tickets now. The Malt Ball; Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside, Sat March 24, 2 pm-midnight, $20 presale/$25 door (admission includes commemorative glass and four tasting tickets), BUY TICKETS HERE Beer! Bands! Introducing the First Ever Malt Ball!
You like music. You like beer. So we're bringing the two together—in a way that seems perfectly obvious, but hasn't really ever been done successfully before.
The first annual Malt Ball is coming on Saturday, March 24, and it's going to be fantastic—Portland's very first beer festival that actually has GOOD music. The Malt Ball, brought to you by your pals at the Portland Mercury and the Oregon Brewers Guild, is a full day packed with tons of local breweries offering exclusive beers, and 12 of Portland's best bands performing onstage. It's a concert! It's a beer fest! It's the damn best time you'll ever have*. *FACT. Tickets have just gone on sale, and you're gonna want to get advance tickets because this thing is going to fill up fast. Trust us on this. If you're still not convinced, check out this killer lineup of bands: The Builders and the Butchers; Weinland; Lord Dying; Quiet Life; Wow & Flutter; Lost Lander; Old Junior; Denver; Stay Calm; The Golden Bears; Archers; Mission SpotlightAnd beers from the following breweries: IO Barrel; Breakside; Coalition; Columbia River; Fort George; Full Sail; Gilgamesh; Hopworks; Laurelwood; Lompoc; McMenamins; Ninkasi; Portland U-Brew; The Commons Holy malt balls! This is going to be AMAZING. Get your tickets now. The Malt Ball; Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside, Sat March 24, 2 pm-midnight, $20 presale/$25 door (admission includes commemorative glass, four tasting tickets), BUY TICKETS HERE Because I Just Learned that Maya Rudolph Was in the Rentals......we are all going to watch the incredibly adorable and life affirming video for "Please Let That Be You." YOU'RE WELCOME. Because I Just Learned that Maya Rudolph Was in the Rentals......we are all going to watch the incredibly adorable and life affirming video for "Please Let That Be You." YOU'RE WELCOME. Archie Comics to Take On Occupy Wall StreetBleeding Cool broke the news yesterday: Apparently, Archie Comics #635...
...will tell the story of the global protest against massively unequal redistrubution of wealth and power, under the title Occupy Riverdale, echoing the Occupy movements present around the world...And just as Betty and Veronica are divided over Archie, so here they are divided by being on the 99% or the 1%. The story is apparently being told in Archie Comics' new realistic art style. As you can see from the cover, Veronica and Reggie are on the side of the 1% with Jughead and Betty on the Occupy side and Archie torn between the two. I think this may be the first major comics company response to Occupy Wall Street; frankly, I can't wait to see how Batman deals with all this. Blogtown's Poster of the Week
Third times a charm—that's what we say in the Poster of the Week business. This week let's turn our beady little eyes to the artwork of Seattle poster god Nat Damm and his bill for the upcoming Au, Tu Fawning, Parenthetical Girls show at the Doug Fir. Pretty, pretty. Got a poster you want to see pasted up on Blogtown's walls, then send it this way. Make sure it's for an upcoming event, and I'll see what I can do.  Cosign at CompoundCompound gallery and store is currently hosting their Cosign project. Started in 2011 and held every other month since, the Cosign project originated as a way to sell and buy collector apparel and shoes instead of selling them to Ebay, or to second hand stores that only return 15-20% of the original selling price. Cosign is taking place through February 26th and has tons of great new and used footwear to choose from, including Nike/Nike SB, Jordan, Adidas, New Balance, Vans, Converse and more. This sounds like a great way for all you sneakerfreakers to score some new kicks and get rid of a few oldies but goodies. Click here for more deets about Cosign, Compound is located at 107 NW 5th Avenue. New arrivals at Cosign: 
For Patient Ears: Pulse Emitter - "Hermits"
 Portland's Daryl Groetsch has been therapizing modular synth tones as Pulse Emitter for almost a decade now, and we're no stranger to the transcendental and curative effect his pieces are known to elicit, but never before has the artist succeeded with a project of such grace and breadth as he has now. On Aeons, his newest release for one of Europe's premier experimental outlets, Aguirre Records, Groetsch takes the listener on a journey through four distinct periods of history: ancient earth, Renaissance Europe, the future, and a more distant future in which "consciousness has been uploaded to computers and people live without bodies." What's remarkable here is the inherently resonant effect of Groetsch's music. Certainly, the experience is open to interpretation and will draw a different response from each listener, but there's something about Groetsch's music that's intuitively "tuned in" to humanity's timeless relationship with the transmundane; a metaphysical exploration of the universe and being through music. LISTEN: It's Happening Tonight!
 BEYOND FOLK—Seattle troubadour Damien Jurado's latest, Maraqopa, comes out February 21, and it's a staggeringly great album, full of sorrow, hope, strange sounds, and breathtakingly beautiful music. Jurado performs a very special in-store show today, so go and get your heart ripped out by one of the greatest songwriters alive. NL SEARCH ME—Stripsearchme.com is a start-up website that produces charming music-video commercials advertising Portland's favorite strip clubs, and they're throwing a party to debut the first batch, plus dancers and live music from a Ministry cover band (Thieves) and Mini Marilyn Manson, among others. MS 
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