4 pm Sunday, Sept. 14: "Are you allowed to do that?" asked an incredulous young man leaning on a concrete ledge at downtown Portland's Keller Fountain as local dancer Jim McGinn performed a perfect cannonball into one of the fountain's upmost pools. "I mean, can I go do that?" Many of the hot, sweaty crowd gathered for one of TBA 08's last hurrahs, the huge City Dance of Lawrence and Anna Halprin, echoed that sentiment as we watched the performers cavort in the almost 40-year old fountain, sometimes pausing to trace lines in the air before falling back into the water?all to the bleep and shimmer of Third Angle New Music Ensemble tackling Morton Subtnick's A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur. The aim of the large-scale show, which invited onlookers to hoof it to watch a series of dance and music works at four downtown Portland parks (the Keller, Pettygrove Park, Lovejoy Fountain and the Source Fountain) in the course of two hours, was to spotlight the artistry of famed architect Lawrence Halprin. Many argue that he helped redefine what was though of as public space back in the 1970s when he created a series of "people parks" in Portland, including the massive Keller Fountain. The show was also designed as a thank you from local choreographers to Halprin's wife, post-modern dance-maker Anna Halprin, whose work itself, minimalist and based on natural forms, was a stark break from that era's ideas of ballet and modern dance. But, really, that's all background. Last Sunday it was all about watching bodies interact with local landmarks in ...

PDX Writer Daily has spent its share of icy nights and Sunday mornings among the echoing parking lots of the so-called South Auditorium. Therefore, it is naturally interested in what Messrs Abbott and Gragg have to say about the planning that made that weird curvy area between Broadway and the river what it is today.

Fifty years later, was the urban design that threw out all those smelly Europeans to make for office buildings a success? Well, the talk is being held over a mile away from the neighborhood they're describing, if that's any indication. PDX Writer Daily...

Hot Pot City is easy to miss if you're not looking for it. Matter of fact, I ride past it on the bus every day and didn't realise it was there until I went looking for it on Saturday.  I was sick. I wanted lots of food, warm food, and I didn't want to trek out [...]