photo credit: Tom Oliver

Our November artist Ali Ippolito, has invited her dear friend, the deeply talented Singer-songwriter Levi Cecil (of Heroes and Villians, KBOO Midnight Mixtape and Destination DIY fame) to sing songs and share the riches this weekend.

“If the Northwest has its own musical sound, it’s exemplified on Leviethan Cecil’s 2007 release, Monuments in Memory of Nothing So Far. It’s vintage indie-rock made modern. The lyrics have a dreamlike quality, beautiful and deep. Monuments gets a place in my Top 10 CDs of 2007.”
-Amy Atkins, Boise Weekly

Building a strong following through the noble art of storytelling and song, Cecil’s music brims with evocative melody and emotion, harmony and a certain honesty and earthiness—values that Portlanders have an insatiable yen for.

Not only does he have a hammer, he uses it, hammering in the morning, producing, “the kind of lo-fi bedroom pop the Northwest seems to have perfected,” according to the PTrib’s Barbara Mitchell.

Cecil’s kaleidoscope presents mesmerizing strands of steely independent punk conviction and a lyrical underpinning of elliptical, folk-rock imperative that seems equal parts Elliot Smith, the Minutemen, Neil Young , Skeleton Key and Fugazi, Sandy Bull, Utah Phillips and Syd Barrett. The result: a keening, inspired tonic that both charms and enlightens.

“As compelling as anything in recent memory.”
-Casey Jarman, Willamette Week

Ali Ippolito will be back next week to finish out the month–and December heralds the return of Grammy-nominated Nancy King!

LIVE MUSIC EVERY SATURDAY!

PCS & Music Millennium, the place where people and music still matter, invite you to  SOUNDS. LIKE. PORTLAND—our new early evening showcase of the best in local music, every Saturday from 5-7 pm.

Planning to be downtown getting a jump start on holiday shopping this Thanksgiving Weekend? On Saturday, November 28th we invite you to take a break mid-marathon and join us for a relaxing Holiday Oasis at the Armory- you can pick up A Christmas Carol tickets at half price* when you show a Pearl District shopping receipt, cross some theater (and cupcake!) lovers off of your shopping list, and spend some precious moments rejuvenating with a FREE chair massage, a cocktail and the soothing sounds of our Holiday Jazz Trio.

Bring the kids and they can get their photo taken by our production photographer Owen Carey in our Victorian Family Photo Booth and then enjoy some free hot chocolate and some holiday cartoons on our big screen while you check out the offerings at the cafe.

{photo: The Cratchit Family Photo Outtake. photo by Owen Carey.}

Here’s some of what we’ve got planned:

FREE Victorian Family Photo Booth. 11 am to 3 pm.
Dress the family up in their finest and get your holiday photo taken in front of our Victorian backdrop by professional photographer Owen Carey. We’ll email you the picture- feel free to use it in your holiday e-cards!

FREE Live Holiday Jazz. 1 pm to 4 pm and 5 pm to 7 pm.
Chill out to the jazzier holiday classics from the Dan Gaynor Trio from 1 pm to 4 pm and the soulful stylings of Ali Ippolito from 5 pm to 7 pm.

FREE 15 minute Chair Massages. Prep for the next leg of your shopping marathon with a quick chair massage from professional massage therapist <XX>.

FREE Package Check. 11 am to 7 pm. Don’t want to make the trip back to the car? Check your holiday packages at the Armory Coat Check. We’ll keep an eye on them till you get the car pulled around.

Kids Colouring Lounge. 11 am to 7 pm.We’ll have A Christmas Carol themed Colouring Activities and Holiday Movies on the big screen TV for the kids to chill out with. They can redeem their completed coloring activity for a complimentary cup of hot cocoa from the Armory Cafe.

Holiday Themed Treats at the Armory Cafe. All day long we’ll be serving post-Thanksgiving holiday treats, including Turkey/cream cheese/cranberry sandwiches, harvest salads, mulled cider, and a whole bevvy of holiday cocktails at the upstairs bar.

Hot Deals on A Christmas Carol. Show your Pearl District shopping receipt at the box office and get 2 for 1 adult tickets to A Christmas Carol. Choose a performance before December 7th and tickets are $15 for kids and $30 for adults- a family of four could see the show for just $60 TOTAL if they show a Pearl District shopping receipt on Saturday!

Great Green Gifts for Everyone on Your List. Give the gift of experience this holiday season for a LEED Platinum certified holiday experience. Give PCS Gift Certificates and you can double the value of your certificate purchase when you mention the PDX Green Gift Guide.

Instant Gratification Giving: Our Sweetness and Spotlight gift package includes a pair of tickets to any PCS performance plus a dozen cupcakes from Cupcake Jones for just $75. Buy yours on Saturday and walk away with a complimentary cupcake for yourself (while supplies last).

What are you waiting for? Marshall the troupes and make a day of it! We look forward to helping make your downtown holiday shopping a bit more enjoyable this Thanksgiving weekend.

The Green Gift Guide

Gift-giving may take a different form this year, and the Chinook Book Green Gift Guide aims to help Portland-area residents shop locally, give experiences and save money. A partnership of the Portland Arts Coalition and Chinook Book, the guide is available free in print and digitally at www.greengiftspdx.com.

Over 30 local arts groups participated in the guide, including the Oregon Symphony, Oregon BalletTheatre, Portland Opera, BodyVox, The Portland Art Museum, Whitebird, Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland Playhouse and US! Many offered an exclusive discount in the guide. For example, Portland Center Stage will double the value of a gift certificate when the guide is mentioned, and Oregon Symphony offers 2-for-1 tickets for selected performances.

The Chinook Book Green Gift Guide also contains several pages of information on reducing waste around the holidays. Ideas for wrapping gifts and listings for how to recycle holiday detritus – from batteries and cardboard to ribbons, bows and electronics – are included. These messages were sponsored by the City of Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

How did this all come together?

Over a year ago a small group of leaders from a handful of Portland’s arts and culture organizations gathered to hold a conversation about new ways to seek collaboration and partnership. That gathering quickly grew to a bi-monthly luncheon with over 50 representatives from those groups in attendance. From discussing latest trends in audience development and philanthropy, to nuts and bolts topics like ticketing software, to sharing ideas on deepening connections with the region, this group aspires to make the Portland arts and culture community more sustainable in many ways.

The Regional Arts and Culture Council, and KINK-FM also provided significant support for the Chinook Book Green Gift Guide.

Download your own free copy right here.

Ali Ippolito is back this week, TODAY (Saturday, Nov. 14) at 5 pm with Sweet Williams Ghost, the kind of luxurious music that lives in the dreamy recesses beneath the floorboards of roots-rich Americana. It features Ali with Dean Gorman (guitar, vocals) and Ben Cartwright (dobro, lap steel, guitar). And it’s damn fine. You’ll rarely have a chance to hear this kind of thing, this up-close and FOR FREE.  Pull up a chair, get an Armory cocktail and simmer in the sounds. 

LIVE MUSIC EVERY SATURDAY!

PCS & Music Millennium, the place where people and music still matter, invite you to  SOUNDS. LIKE. PORTLAND—our new early evening showcase of the best in local music, every Saturday from 5-7 pm.

November’s artist-in-residence is vibrantly talented Ali Ippolito.

Ali Ippolito (of Heroes and Villians, Nick Jaina fame) writes music with a haunting poetry and quiet authority that simultaneously tugs, pulls, coaxes, vexes, and inspires.

A mezmerizing singer, Ippolito accompanies herself on piano, accordion, and the curious banjolele, giving us fading, sepia-tinged sonic postcards of love and loss. This is music that, to paraphrase the poet Mina Loy, “infects us with unendurable ease/touching nerve-terminals.” And that’s a good thing, folks

So you’ve bought your tickets to A Christmas Carol for Mom, Dad, Grandma, Bobby and Susie. But what about little Sally? She’s only four and that’s too young for A Christmas Carol (No children under 6 are allowed into PCS shows).  She really wants to go out and when you leave her home with a sitter, it isn’t pretty.

The answer is here! Two blocks from the Armory is We Village Drop ‘n Go Child Care.  Sally can have a great time with age appropriate fun focused around art and movement based activities. A night out for everyone!

As a special partnership with Portland Center Stage, We Village is offering a theater special. 3 1/2 hours of child care plus dinner for $35. What a deal! Just show them your ticket stub or email confirmation.

Learn all about We Village here.