Oregonians Narrowly Avert Disaster.

Readers,

It’s been a big few weeks for BWC. We opened up a small office on Burnside Street, right across from the fabled Doug Fir Lounge. It’s been great to sit down in one place and focus completely on our projects. Our office is located in the same building as the offices that our church, Imago Dei, rents, and being around those great people has been amazing. Imago is doing some amazing things. A new urban renewal program is being launched, Sacred Space, which cleans up run-down parks. If you’re interested in partnering, check them out.

It’s also an exciting time for sports in the State of Oregon. The Oregon State Beavers pulled off an improbable run to the College World Series, capped by a thrilling win over the Tar Heels of North Carolina. It was satisfying to see Tar Heel basketball coach Roy Williams with a discouraged sneer on his face at the end. I’m a Ducks fan, but I’m also an Oregonian, and it was great to see such a fantastic story come out of my home state. Seriously, someone needs to make a “Hoosiers” style movie out of this team.

I’m excited about the Blazers in the NBA Draft. It looks like Portland will end up with Washington’s Brandon Roy and Lamarcus Aldridge of Texas. It’s been a long time since I was happy with the Blazers during the draft, but I think they picked up some good guys. We shall see, I guess.

In other Portland news, the city was nearly wiped off the face of the Earth by a 9.2 earthquake/tsunami/broken dam combo (like “Mortal Kombat”). A pastor in Salem sort of prophesized the Rose City would be destroyed. Some flooding has occurred elsewhere, so maybe the message was intended for someone else.

We should have audio files available to download at our online store in the coming week. If you’ve ever seen Donald Miller speak (and especially if you haven’t), I recommend checking them out. We will also be launching a few other products in the coming months.

If you are interested in advertising with us, you can now download a .pdf file for information.

And speaking of advertising, Slate.com has a great recurring section called “Ad Report Card” where Seth Stevenson reviews various marketing campaigns. While I’m not in marketing, the combination of creativity and business that advertising begets is fascinating. You can view an archive of Stevenson’s articles here.

In this issue, the incomparable Chad Gibbs and I talk about HBO. Chad details how he convinced his wife that HBO was a good channel to have (I went through the exact same process), and I talk about some of HBO’s shows. Jan Carson reviews Band of Horses’ latest, I discuss the second best album of the year so far, and John Pattison reviews Absurdistan.

As always, Penny has great social justice insight for us this month. I recommend her piece on gold mines in Chile.

Lastly, we are holding a contest. We want to see the best email you’ve ever received, unedited if possible. We’ll run the winners on August 1st. You can send your wacky email to reviews@burnsidewriterscollective.com.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

And Go Ducks and Blazers!

And Beavers.

Jordan Green
BWC