Author: Richard D. Oxley

Portlanders clad in kilts and plaid sashes gathered at University Place Friday to honor the 250th birthday of the Scottish bard Robert Burns and to receive a brief education in the skill of whisky tasting.

Fernando Viciconte moved to Portland 15 years ago from Los Angeles after the breakup of his band, Monkey Paw.

OPB Radio’s Think Out Loud visited Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom Wednesday night, hosting four Oregon university presidents to discuss the condition of Oregon’s higher education, to be aired next week.

Let me give a tip to all the musicians out there from the perspective of one who writes often on the topic of music. A fault many bands exhibit is that of being dreadfully homogenous from one song to the next.

Another year gone, and another one arrives. Once you have gone and acted all family-like with your loved ones over the holidays, it’s time to counter that over New Years with some disgusting, debauched and possibly dangerous party’n.

Queer Resource Center communications coordinator Nathan Keep will be introducing a new publication focusing on equality and advocacy for underrepresented groups at Portland State.

New and used book store giant Powell’s Books has been going through some changes lately that will not only benefit the environment, but will also offer loyal customers a little more modern sight when walking through the store’s front doors.

There is a certain DIY spirit that the Northwest exudes. Here, a band can write material, book their own shows, record and release their own albums. It’s this spirit that Portland’s Mark Twain Indians embody.

Ask a band what they sound like and you will most likely get one of two answers. One, you will be blasted with a slew of adjectives and odd-ball similes like “it sounds like a rusty Iron Man getting it on with a mermaid.” Or two, you will get some statement to the effect of “Uh, I don’t know, it’s too hard to explain.”

Portland State professor Hazel Denhart has received a $55,000 grant from Mercy Corps to develop a New Orleans-based service-learning program to help revitalize the city, which still has not recovered from Hurricane Katrina.

After nearly a decade of listening to NWA wannabes, let’s just face it: hip-hop is suffering. Though it seems that over the past few years, after bearing the scars and stains of gangsta rap, hip-hop has been rebuilding its form with diverse, original and genuine sounds.