Happy Halloween!

Honestly, I’ve been waiting for this post since Organic City Sounds started three months ago. Halloween in Portland is awesome! It combines many of the things that Portlanders love: costumes, big parties, screaming, and heavy drinking lots of candy.

Over the last couple months this project has explored the lighter, less-than-sinister sides of Portland. But this week that all changes! We’ve brought together some of Portland’s creepiest characters for your listening pleasure.

In this week’s portrait, we’ll hear from a local ghost-hunter, a master spooky-story teller, and the man who runs one of Portland’s creepiest Haunted Houses.

So turn out the lights, secure your headphones, and grab your favorite stuffed animal. This week, we’re exploring spooooooooooky Portland.

Thanks to Jefferson Davis, Portland Walking Tours, and Scream PDX for their creepy contributions.

Organic City Sounds is a bi-partisan project…in fact, we do our best to stay away from those prickly issues that might distract you from all the cool sounds this city has to offer.

 But there are certain opportunities that are just too good to miss.

The ‘Occupy Portland’ Rally, part of the larger ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement, has attracted thousands of people to downtown Portland over the last week. Last Thursday, an estimated 10,000 people gathered in the city-center to demand that their voices (and other noises) be heard.

The voices and sounds we collected while at last week’s rally are emblematic of Portland’s passionate, activist spirit. While those you’ll hear from obviously don’t represent all Portlanders, the spirit of social justice and global-awareness certainly runs deep through many of the city’s citizens.

So whether or not you agree with these folks, we hope you’ll agree that they certainly make for some interesting listening!

And for you all of you ‘sound-purists’ out there, here’s this week’s soundscape without any pictures to distract you:

Colonel Summers Community Garden, Portland Oregon                                   

Summer in Portland sure has been nice, but it’s once again time to return to the reality of cloudy days and soggy shoes. Yes, it’s raining again in the City of Roses…but luckily we’re here to provide you with one last spot of summertime sunshine!

This week, we’re exploring local foods, extremely local foods. In our first October portrait, we’ll chat with three Portlanders dedicated to growing food close to home. And we aren’t simply talking about a couple wimpy tomato plants and some radishes (well, in one case we might be…). We’ll talk with folks who use gardening and farming as a means of supporting and deepening the roots of their communities.

Hope you’re ready to get your hands dirty, this week we’re exploring Urban Farming in Portland.

 Explore the pictures below to check out some sounds from the farm!

Zenger farm is located right on a busy street

Zenger’s not only looks beautiful, but sounds beautiful too!

Cockadoodledoooooooo

Dear amazing listeners-                                                                                                                                                                                                    This week we’re trying something a bit different. To listen to individual parts of this week’s portrait, simply explore and  click each of the photos below. If you’d rather listen to the piece in its entirety, you can still find that at the bottom of the post!

“We look at places where people aren’t and they seem more pristine, they seem wilder. But every place on earth is wilderness and is nature when you look at it in a particular light.” – Becky Lerner

This week we’re exploring the hidden wonders of Portland’s sidewalks and alleyways.  Rebecca Lerner is an Urban Forager…. she finds foods, medicines, even smokeables, growing in places that most of us walk, bike, or drive by everyday.

Walking down a city street with Becky is like going on a nature-walk, as she is constantly spotting seemingly normal plants and revealing their hidden ‘talents’. Whether you’re hungry, feeling sick, or looking for something to roll up and smoke, this week’s post has something for everyone.

 As a young, smart, funny woman, Becky has helped bring a great deal of attention to Urban Foraging.

Her blog about Urban Foraging, First Ways, is extremely popular. She’s also been featured in magazines, newspapers and websites, and even has a viral video on YouTube!

So join us this week as we explore the sidewalks and back-alleys of Northeast Portland.

Click on the in-picture links to listen to segments of this week’s piece

Distracted by pictures? Here’s the piece in its entirety for ya!

Check some beautiful beer photography here and here!

This week we’re exploring a subject very close to my heart, and (quickly growing) belly.

Beer is to Portland as wine is to France. Yea, you folks in Germany or Belgium may think you’ve got centuries of tradition on your side, but as the new kid on the block, Portland is quickly becoming recognized as one of the beer capitals of the world.

Portland has more than 40 breweries within its city limits, more than any other city in the world!

Portland beer has been receiving a lot of attention recently, but beer is worthless without great people to drink it! So this week, we’re focusing on some of the people who help define drinking culture here.

Join us as we toast this great city and the great people in it.

Cheers!

Big thanks to everyone who helped with this week’s episode.

You can check out John Foyston’s blog here. Create your own hoppy masterpiece at Portland U-Brew, or simply grab a cold one at Coalition Brewing.

Alright people. Put your spandex shorts on, tighten those helmets and oil your gears, because this week we’re focusing in on bicycling in Portland!

For anyone who may not know, this city is freakin’ obsessed with biking. In fact, we’re ranked as the world’s second friendliest bike city (after Amsterdam…go figure). Within the city you’ll find bike lanes, bike-up coffee shops, biker bars (not the Harley Davidson kind), bike parties, bike festivals, and, as we’ll hear, bike races.

One of the best parts of cycling in Portland is all the different type of people you find yourself pedaling next to. You may end up biking alongside people headed to work, getting some exercise, picking up their kids, or just heading to the bars (my personal favorite).

Portland has also gained a reputation for its infamous ‘freak bike’ scene. Freak bikes, like a few of the ones pictured below, encompass anything hand-made and out of the ordinary.

The eccentricities on display every day in any given bike-lane definitely contribute to the city’s theme of:

‘Keep Portland Weird’.

So hop on that bike, pop in those ear-buds, and take a leisurely cruise with us as we explore the PDX bike scene.

Check out some more pictures while you listen!  

For more information on biking in this fine city of ours, be sure to check out the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

Big thanks to ‘The Contractor’ for the Portland homegrown music!

This week’s portrait focuses on two Portlanders at very different points in their artistic journeys, yet both deeply inspired by our city.

Obo Addy is a Ghanaian Master Drummer, and credited as one of the first Africans to popularize the genre that became known as “worldbeat”. He settled in the Northwest more than three decades ago, after becoming popular in Ghana and Europe in the early ‘70s.

Ben Larsen, only 23 years old, has been living and working as a professional musician in Portland for around a year. A mandolin virtuoso, Ben is proof that determination, hard-work, and perhaps a bit of God-given talent can allow a performer to stand out, even in a city with thousands of musicians.

This week’s portrait is an experiment in comparison. What happens when you intertwine the thoughts and aspirations of two performers at very different stages in their lives and careers? What striking differences do you hear? What similarities?

Listen and find out, on this week’s edition of the Portland Portrait.

Hello again friends!

Did you know that your taste-buds are directly connected to your ear drums?

Well, maybe that’s not exactly true. But this week we’ll attempt to bring them a little closer together.

For those of you who aren’t too familiar with Portland, you might not be aware that our small city has become the Food Cart Capital of the United States. In certain areas of the city there are dozens of food carts to choose from, offering you everything from Hawaiian to Thai to BBQ to gourmet Burgers. And it seems like more are popping up every day!

The “Cart Scene” has received a lot of media attention in recent years, but the focus has mainly been on the trend itself.

We thought it would be nice to focus on the people behind the carts (well, technically they’re in the carts…). Why would someone start a food cart? Is it really as much fun as it looks? And why does food seem to taste so much better when you’re buying it in a parking lot?

We’ll answer all these questions and more, on this week’s edition of Organic City Sounds.

Big thanks this week to our friends at the Grilled Cheese Grill, Foodcartsportland.com, the Flying Fish Cart, and our buddy Raymo.

Welcome to the first week of Organic City Sounds! Each week we’ll present you with a unique portrait from the city of Portland. Whether it be a very special person, a group of Portlanders, or an important issue creating a buzz around town, O.C.S. will be here to capture the experience in sound.

Our first piece focuses on something many of us Portlanders can relate to: Big Dreams.

One of the defining characteristics of many Portland residents is their gigantic dreams. Whether its starting a band, writing a book, climbing a mountain, or simply living life sprawled out in the sun at Overlook Park, most of us Portlanders have some sort of dream.

This week, we talk with one Portlander who has dedicated his life to fulfilling his dream. Many people know Kirk Reeves as the Mickey Mouse guy…or the trumpet player on the Hawthorne Bridge blocking your view of oncoming traffic. But Kirk isn’t just sitting there for your viewing pleasure. Nope, whenever Kirk is out, he’s working tirelessly to achieve his dream.

You can follow Kirk On twitter @KirkReeves, or email him at WorkingKirk@yahoo.com