This week on "State of Wonder," a Blazer talks about his side-gig as a rapper, Portland's indie remix pioneer brings home the win, Portland Community Media gets an update and more.
This week the Eugene Opera faced the music with a public meeting about its finances. Taking into account staff and office costs, the Eugene Opera needs $230,000 to stay alive through the end of the fiscal year this summer and has suspended the rest of its season. The opera board and staff have held two public meetings this month and have two more planned for Feb. 22 at the Eugene Public Library and Feb. 23 at the Springfield Public Library.
You may know Damian Lillard for his buzzer beating shots on the basketball court: He was the NBA Rookie of the Year in his first season with the Trail Blazers in 2012, and he just extended a five-year contract to stay on in Rip City. But you may not know that Lillard is also a musician. Last year, he released his debut album, “The Letter O,” under the moniker Dame DOLLA and launched his own record label called Front Page Music.
You can hear Lillard’s full courtside chat with opbmusic's Dave Christensen here.
Portlander Andre Allen Anjos just brought home the city’s only Grammy this year for his remix of Bob Moses’ “Tearing Me Up.” Working under the name RAC, Anjos first found success with his remix of The Shins’ “Sleeping Lessons,” which was featured on Pitchfork then released as a B-side by the band themselves. He quickly became the go-to guy for indie groups, working with everyone from Death Cab for Cutie to The Yeah Yeah Yeahs — to say nothing of the mega stars like U2, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.
Anjos invited us into his studio to take apart how he remixed Odesza's "Say My Name," which was nominated for a Grammy last year (also, you have to see his music videos).
From "Wayne's World" to "UHF," public access television doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation. But that's about to change. Portland Community Media is renovating its building and rebranding itself as Open Signal, a media arts center where you can learn not only TV, but also storytelling, podcasting, coding, mixed reality, and other forms of digital media. We got a tour from Open Signal’s new, fearless director, Justen Harn, who came from the team that transformed the Hollywood Theatre.
Curled up in the corner of Open Signal’s parking lot is a beautifully restored, vintage Airstream trailer that doubles as a mobile podcast studio. StreamPDX is an outgrowth of the late, lamented DIY makerspace the XOXO Outpost. In this unconventional space, aspiring journalists and audiophiles have the opportunity to record and produce their own podcast. Listen to director Tyesha Snow's full conversation on "Think Out Loud."
Portland-based 1939 Ensemble is not just a jazz group. Their atypical beats slowly build momentum, creating an ominous wave of sound that is both unsettling and delightful, sounding like a bunch of jazz musicians were tasked to write a post-rock soundtrack for an edgy cop show. With vibraphone.
1939 Ensemble played a live set at bandmember Jose Medeles's Revival Drum Shop and sat down for an interview with KMHD DJ Derek Smith. You can watch videos here.
The band’s fresh record, "New Cinema," is out now, and the ensemble plays the Festival of the Dark Arts at Fort George Brewery in Astoria Feb. 18 and Pickathon this summer.
In 1964, the air force pilot Thomas Waldo McCormick got a mission to fly a B-52 carrying two 9-megaton thermonuclear bombs from Massachusetts to Georgia. It hit bad weather about halfway through its flight, and crashed in snowy woods outside of Washington, D.C, narrowly averting nuclear disaster. McCormick's grandson, Portland filmmaker Matt McCormick, made a film about the crash entitled “Buzz One Four.”
The new documentary is playing Feb. 18 at noon at the Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium as part of the Portland International Film Festival. Hear him speak about it with Dave Miller on Think Out Loud.
Courtesy of Open Signal
/Open Signal has one of the few green screen studios in Portland, and it's available to anyone with the proper training and an idea.
Copyright 2017 Oregon Public Broadcasting