A few years ago, I had a Podcast Hotel event in Seattle. I had done a Podcast Hotel event before in Portland. But at the one in Seattle, something really clicked. Geeks came to talk podcasting. Artists came to learn and perform. The geeks interviewed the artists. The artists just loved that the geeks admired them and their work. The geeks and artists talked about artist rights, music and tecchnology. They partied. Good, good times.
I guess that is one of the most satisfying results of the Gnomedex field trip on the iterasi magic bus. Geeks took a bit of time to make a side trip to see some local art. We connected artists and their work with a group of super appreciative geeks.
It’s a big reason why I am so excited to get the iterasi magic bus back on out and welcome some people from the inverge conference on a little trip Thursday evening to see some works by local artists over in a part of town they might normally not visit. I’m talking inner SE Portland, one of the most exciting, emerging artist communities in the Pacific Northwest.
If you are unfamiliar, the magic bus is owned by Nat Taylor who drove us to Gnomedex, joined us at the conference and skillfully parallel parked the long, yellow biodiesel baby underneath the viaduct just off Alaska Way. The brother can drive. We connected through Jay Stewart, someone who I first met at Gnomedex two years ago. He’s part of the Gonzo gang. Those merry pranksters I’ve come to know from up and down the Pacific Northwest Coast from Portland on up to Vancouver, BC and beyond. Nat converted the bus, a 1978 International Harvester, added two couches, some bean bag chairs and a bed in the back. It has a rocking stereo and bus seats up front if you prefer the full, traditional school bus experience.
Now, inverge is a conference that is starting to gain some traction. And, it’s well deserved. It’s at the Gerding Theater, the old Armory building in Portland’s Pearl District. Steve Gehlen is the organizer who put inverge together. You can hear an interview with Steve on Hazelnut Tech Talk, Amber Case and Bram Pitoyo’s podcast.
The line up is strong. I’m particularly excited to hear Amber Case talk. She’s our local cyborg anthropologist. She’s super intelligent. She joined us for the Gnomedex road trip. Locals Scott Kveton and Raven Zachary are also on the bill. Scott is chair of the OpenID Foundation and VP of Open Platorms at Vidoop. Raven is talking about 20 things you’d never do with a mobile phone. He is founder of iPhoneDevCam. Also speaking are people like Joshua Green of MIT and David Card of Jupiter Research.
After a day of intellectual noshing, Renny Gleeson and the Weiden and Kennedy crew will host a little party at their office in Portland. It’s one of the coolest office spaces around.
We’ll roll the bus up to WK at 6:30 for boarding. Everyone is welcome. We’ll take a ride over to the Bamboo Grove, where we’ll see their current graffiti art exhibit. Perhaps we’ll look for other graffiti art in SE. It’s a draw to that part of town as local artists frequennt the area, spraying it with their art. We’ll hang out and then roll over to Green Dragon for food and drink, courtesy of iterasi.
We’ll then board back on the bus and head back to the Pearl for First Thursday and later for some music courtesy of MusicFest NW? Nat just sent an email and said we may have to check out Steel Pole Bath at the Doug Fir. They go on at 1 am. Could be that kind of night on the magic bus.
Local artists, geeks, media honchos, great music and craft beers - that sounds like a worthy combo. Perhaps we’ll fit in that late night music over at the Doug Fir. Sure sounds like fun to me.
See you on the magic bus!
