Daily Vanguard July 28, 2010

WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 65, ISSUE 5

Event of the day Dr. Peter Fogtdal, a visiting professor from Denmark, will be giving a free lecture titled “Love and Lust in Fiction” as part of the Tour the World 2010 Lecture Series.

When: Noon Where: SMSU, room 338

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INSIDE NEWS College Station Apartments approved When completed, 16-story building will house 900 students PAGE 3

ARTS

Researchers study eco-roof and solar panel combinations Green roof could impact future ecological roofing choices Anna Snook Vanguard staff

Seafood in Stumptown Upcoming seafood spot FIN to fill an unexplored niche PAGE 4

If you’re happy and you know it clap your ass Predictability dampens the fun at CoHo’s latest stage performance PAGE 5

OPINION

The greening of PSU is good for everyone PSU plans to become carbon neutral in 30 years PAGE 6

Atop the construction mess that is Portland State’s Science Building 2, a veritable ecosystem is flourishing. Right on the rooftop, sage, thyme and succulent plants sit in raised beds—these little urban gardens are called eco-roofs.

Eco-roofing is becoming increasingly popular, especially in Portland, where the “green” movement is alive and well. These self-sustaining systems are designed to grow year-round, using whatever sunlight and rainwater they can get from the rooftops.

The so-called “green roofs” have many different functions. For many urban-dwellers, they serve as a green space that might not be readily available otherwise. In addition, they add insulation to buildings and cool down the urban environment.

Green roofs also impact water-flow and storm-water runoff by absorbing much of it, and then releasing it back into the air through evaporation.

The plants in the eco-roofs absorb carbon dioxide, bring a measure of oxygen back into the cycle, capture air pollution and

provide a habitat for insects and birds.

With the support from PSU, chemistry professor Carl Wamser— along with Todd Rosenstial, an assistant professor in the biology department, and David Sailor, a professor in the mechanical and materials engineering department­ —received a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to begin testing the effectiveness of eco-roofing and solar panel combinations on Science Building 2.

Additional support comes from Portland General Electric, the Portland Bureau of Environmental Services and the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center.

In general, solar panels generate more energy at cooler temperatures.

However, though Portland’s perennial rainy weather seems advantageous in that respect, even this city has its share of hot weather. During summer days when temperatures soar, the surfaces of building rooftops retain so much heat that the capacity of the solar arrays is significantly decreased.

The suggestion to combine a green roof system with a solar array comes from the need to lower the rooftop temperature and thereby increase solar efficiency. Eco-roofs retain rainwater and morning dew, which generally keeps the roof cooler.

ECO-ROOF continued on page two

Heather Noddings/Portland State Vanguard

Carl Wamser: Too much heat in the summer can decrease a solar panel’s energy efficiency.

Life sciences complex ready for design phase Board grants permission to move forward with $160m collaborative project Corie Charnley Vanguard staff

At its meeting this month, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education voted to proceed with planning for the Life Sciences Collaborative Complex. moving the project forward into its design phase.

The 263,000 square-foot building—which will be located

near the south waterfront on the Oregon Health and Science’s Schnitzer Campus—will house educational and research facilities for several universities, including the Portland State biology and chemistry departments, OHSU medicine, dentistry, nursing and physician assistant schools,

Life sciences complex: The new facility will expand medical and life sciences programs within OUS and OHSU.

Photo courtesy of Cacophony/Wikipedia

Oregon State University’s pharmacy school and retail spaces for private companies.

“The motivation was to capitalize on the three universities involved: PSU, OHSU and OSU and to better support the bio- and life-sciences needs of the region,” said Jay Kenton, the OUS vice chancellor for finance and administration.

The life sciences complex will also feature a lecture auditorium, classrooms, class simulation rooms, instructional wet labs, research labs, a vivarium and faculty offices, according to the project’s docket.

“This is a significant project for both OHSU and OUS,” Kenton said.

“PSU plans to locate its biology and chemistry programs at this location and that’s significant in that PSU is the largest supplier of medical students to OHSU [and is] thus building that relationship.”

In utilizing the space at the facility, PSU expects to increase its student credit-hour capacity in the life sciences by 18 percent over the next seven years, according to material provided by OUS. In addition, PSU estimates that having

LIFE SCIENCES continued on page two

Vanguard 2 | News July 28, 2010

Virginia Vickery Editor-in-Chief Corie Charnley News Editor

NEWS ECO-ROOF |

from page one

Project aims to show eco-roof and solar panel compatibility

Nicholas Kula Arts & Culture Editor

Additional support

Zach Chastiane Opinion Editor

Though major funding for the project comes from the National Science Foundation’s $300,000 grant, additional support comes from a variety of other sources.

Robert Britt Sports Editor Bryan Morgan Production Manager

-Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center through its proposal matching program: $36,400.

Heather Noddings Photo Editor Adiana Lizarraga Online Editor

-Portland General Electric through purchase of solar array equipment: $45,000.

Kristin Pugmire Copy Chief

-City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services, including green-roof materials, and assistance from Tom Liptan, a renowned green-roof expert: about $20,000.

Kristin Pugmire Calendar Editor Jae Specht Advertising Manager Judson Randall Adviser Ann Roman Advertising Adviser Illustrator Erin McIntyre Production Assistant Justin Flood Contributors Susannah Beckett, Meaghan Daniels, Steve Haske, Tamara K. Kennedy, Erin McIntyre, Richard Oxley, Tanya Shiffer, Robert Seitzinger, Anna Snook, Catrice Stanley, Amy Staples, Nilesh Tendolkar, Andrea Vedder, Kat Vetrano, Allison Whited Photographers Michael Pascual Adam Wickham Copy Editor Noah Emmet

Heather Noddings/Portland State Vanguard

Eco-roofs: Eco-roofs are being studied at PSU through a grant from the National Science Foundation.

“They just need a cooler environment,” Wamser said. The researchers have tested combinations with white reflective roofing, but the added benefits of the eco-roofs make them a more efficient choice. In turn, the solar panels provide much-needed shade to the eco-roof plants, adding to the cooling effect.

“We’ve created an ecosystem here,” Wamser said. “We started with just a few succulent plants.”

Succulents are naturally droughtresistant and can survive long periods with little or no moisture.

This makes them ideal for the urban rooftop ecosystem, which will ultimately take care of itself.

Researchers are still monitoring the effects of the eco-roofs to determine what else can be gained by implementing more of them.

Now, a year into the project, the

testing facility and monitoring systems are set up on Science Building 2.

Each part of the eco-roof is being monitored for temperature range, soil moisture levels and water flow, as well as photosynthetic activity. Researchers in the biology department also determined the best plant and soil choices for the roof, in terms of sustainability.

In addition, the researchers are measuring plant growth and carbon dioxide intake of the eco-roof systems.

In a small way, these roofs can impact urban CO2 levels.

Commenting on the solar energy levels, grad student Keith James said, “We’re at about 1,232 kilowatt hours—we’ve gotten pretty close to the max rating.” He and other students have been helping monitor the test combinations.

-PSU Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices, via an allocation from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation fund in support of sustainability programs: $83,442.

-PSU Office of Graduate Studies and Research, through waivers of indirect cost charges and tuition waivers for student researchers: about $120,000.

-SolarWorld, through contribution of solar panels to the project.

-Silicon Chemical Corporation, through support of Carl Wamser’s solar energy research: $25,000.

-E C Company, a primary contractor for both projects, led by Cliff Schrock.

The project’s initial goal was to monitor such results for three years, according to Wamser. However, he hopes that the facility will be running for longer than that.

“The biggest thing we hope to accomplish,” he said. “Is to show

that you can do both [solar panels and eco-roofs] and that they’ll work very well—better than individually.”

Though the project is still in its early states, the data gathered could significantly impact ecological roofing choices for many in the future.

Advertising Sales Iris Meyers Advertising Designer Beth Hansen Distributor Cody Bakken The Vanguard is chartered to publish four days a week as an independent student newspaper by the PSU Publications Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers, and do not necessarily represent those of the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. One copy of the Vanguard is provided free of charge to all community members, additional copies or subcription issues may incur a 25 cent charge. The Vanguard is printed on 40 percent post-consumer recycled paper.

Copyright © 2010 Portland State University Vanguard 1825 SW Broadway, Smith Memorial Student Union, Rm. S-26, Portland, Ore., 97201

LIFE SCIENCES |

from page one

Facility will help PSU serve more life sciences students access to the life sciences complex will help it double its research expenditures by 2015.

“We view the collaboration as an important step for us in expanding our ability to serve additional students in the sciences,” said Marvin Kaiser, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. “It will also provide the opportunity for close interaction with OHSU and OSU health-related programs.”

The OUS material also states that it is costly for each institution to facilitate its own research projects.

However, the new facilities will provide shared instrumentation laboratories that can be used by several institutions, thus “avoiding duplication and saving millions of dollars.”

According to Anna-Louise Reysenbach, chair of PSU’s biology department, teaching labs and research space will be located at the facility. Currently, the biology and chemistry departments’ labs are being upgraded, but the continuing growth of the programs will pose problems in the future.

“We keep running out of space…so we need to plan for the future,” she said. “[The life sciences complex] will not only double our capacity,

Project Funding According to Kenton, the breakdown of the project’s funding is: -Article XI-G bonds (state): $50 million.

-Article XI-F bonds (OUS): $60 million.

-OHSU gifts: $40 million.

Photo courtesy of OHSU

Institutional collaboration: The new facility will be located on OHSU’s Schnitzer Campus.

it will provide valuable links and opportunities at OSHU for students.”

PSU will use about 64,000 square feet of the facility.

The life sciences complex also has the potential to act as a business incubator; PSU estimates that one to three start-up companies will grow out of its labs each year. “[The collaboration] represents our commitment to bringing together the intellectual resources of OHSU and OUS to create critical

masses of scientists and to enhance research in the biosciences in the Portland metropolitan region,” Kaiser said.

The project was initially approved by the OUS Board as part of the 2009–11 Capital Outlay Budget and then by the governor and legislature in the state’s biennial budget process.

According to Kenton, the project is being funded by a combination of OHSU gift funds, OUS bonds,

-TriMet: $10 million.

Total: $160 million.

state bonds and other private funds, including those from Tri-Met, which will provide a transit station at the site. Overall, the projected costs are $160 million.

The project’s design phase is estimated to take anywhere from eight to 12 months. The facility is scheduled to open in the fall of 2013.

College Station Apartments approved When completed, 16-story building will house 900 students Catrice Stanley Vanguard staff

Student housing at Portland State will dramatically increase in the coming year as the result of the Portland Design Commission’s approval for the College Station Apartments. The structure was approved on May 20 by a 4-1 vote.

The College Station Apartments will be a 16-story, multi-use building with 280-plus rooms. It will also encompass an entire block, according to an article in The Oregonian.

Located at 1965 SW Fifth Ave., the College Station Apartments will provide space for an additional 900 student beds. Currently, the PSU campus only has about 2,200 beds available for students.

The building itself will be a dramatic change to the current skyline on Fifth Avenue as well. The building will be U-shaped, and will contain a courtyard on the south side. The Figo House—a Victorian house that was built in 1894—will be located in the courtyard.

Randal Acker moved his attorney firm, Acker & Associates P.C., into the two-story house in 2005, according to its website. From 2006 to 2008, TriMet tried to buy and demolish the Figo House in

preparation for more tracks and the PSU dormitory.

Acker refused to sell the building, and his associates banded together to save the house with a combination of media coverage, buttons and pamphlets.

Now, agreements have been made to accommodate both parties.

The Figo house will remain where it is, and the new College Station Apartments will be built around it.

“This is like a little jewel box sitting in the courtyard,” Kurt Schultz, a principal in SERA Architecture, said of the Figo house in an article published by The Oregonian on Dec. 3. “It’s really a lovely building.”

Last fall, student enrollment at PSU hit nearly 28,000 students.

However, Mark Gregory, associate vice president for finance and administration, said that enrollment could easily hit 30,000 students in the upcoming academic year, according to an article published by The Oregonian on May 29.

“We are getting bigger, faster than we ever have before,” he said.

By the year 2035, PSU hopes to be able to provide 10,000 beds to its student population, according to the article.

Lindsay Desrochers, vice president for finance and administration at PSU, reported in a Daily Journal of Commerce article that the student population at PSU is indeed growing, and the university is looking for ways to accommodate the number of residents hoping to live on campus.

Vanguard News | 3 July 28, 2010

News Editor: Corie Charnley 503-725-5690 news@dailyvanguard.com

PSU doubles its advising staff

Photo courtesy of Inflektion Workshop

College Station: The future building will nearly double the student housing capacity at PSU.

“Our goal is to house 25 percent of our student body in the long term,” she said. “It’s becoming clearer to the academic community that housing is key to the success of students.”

This complex will not only house student dormitories, there will be a classroom, retail outlets and a TriMet office on the ground floor.

TriMet plans to build light-rail stops on the east and west sides of the building once construction is complete, according to The Oregonian.

PSU has teamed up with American Campus Communities, a private company based in Texas, to construct and manage the upper levels of the building that will be used for apartments. This will be

The Daily Cut Your world in brief

Local: Reward in search for missing Oregon boy doubles PORTLAND, Ore.—The mother of an Oregon boy missing for 53 days tearfully told her son not to give up hope, while investigators doubled the reward for information leading to his whereabouts.

The Multnomah County Sheriff ’s Department says “significant progress” is being made in the search for 7-year-old Kyron Horman but declines to offer details.

The $25,000 reward has been increased to $50,000.

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Desiree Young broke down while addressing her son, sobbing: “We are all coming to get you to bring you home.”

Kyron vanished June 4 after attending a science fair at Skyline Elementary School in northwest Portland. The case has taken many twists in the weeks since, many of them centered on stepmother Terri Horman.

—William McCall, Associated Press

US: Gulf flow has stopped, but where’s the oil?

NEW ORLEANS—In the nearly two weeks since a temporary cap stopped BP’s gusher at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, not much oil has been showing up on the surface of the water.

Scientists caution that doesn’t mean the crude is gone. There’s still a lot of it in the Gulf, though no one is sure quite how much or exactly where it is.

“You know it didn’t just disappear,” said Ernst Peebles, a biological oceanographer at the University of South Florida. “We expect that is has been dispersed pretty far by now.”

Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said government and independent scientists have been working hard to figure out where the oil might be, but don’t yet have numbers. Some is still washing up on beaches and in coastal wetlands, but not in the quantities it was a few weeks ago.

Scientists do know that more than 600 miles of coastline has been oiled in the nearly 100 days since the April 20 explosion of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon.

They estimate that between 107 million gallons and 184 million gallons spewed into the Gulf before the cap stopped the flow July 15. The permanent solution, using a relief well to shoot in mud and cement, is still several weeks away.

So far, officials say they have recovered 34.6 million gallons of oily water using skimmer boats and burned about 11.1 million gallons off the sea surface.

So where’s the rest?

Scientists are worried that much of it has been trapped below the surface after more than 770,000 gallons of chemical dispersant were used to break up the oil a mile deep. They have found evidence of massive clouds of oil suspended in the water.

“What is down there is a smaller particle,” said chemical oceanographer John Kessler from Texas A&M University.

“You can’t think of it as thick, nasty crude.”

Kessler sampled the waters around the broken well and found high natural gas levels more than 3,000 feet below the surface and miles-long underwater oil plumes.

—Cain Burdeau, Associated Press

the first time PSU has paired up with this company.

While American Campus Communities will be managing and constructing, SERA Architecture will be designing the space. SERA Architecture, a Portland-based company, has worked with PSU in the past. Its website lists work such as the 2009 remodel of PSU’s Neuberger Hall and work on the Oregon Sustainability Center.

Scott Gallagher, director of communications in university relations, reported in September 2009 that the university hopes to have the building completed in 2011. However, he could not be reached to confirm if the date was still accurate.

Portland State is hiring 14 more advisers to better handle the higher influx of students this fall, according to its website. By doubling its professional advising staff, the university hopes to improve retention rates.

PSU plans to spend about $1 million to hire, train and support the new advisers. All of the new advisers will have master’s degrees and prior experience working in higher education.

According to its website, the university relied on faculty members to advise students in the past.

However, research shows that students are more satisfied when they also have access to professional advisers.

—pdx.edu/news

Vanguard 4 | Arts & Culture July 28, 2010

ARTS & CULTURE

Arts Editor: Nicholas Kula 503-725-5694 arts@dailyvanguard.com

Oh, Hi Shows.

Purple Rhinestone Eagle, STLS, Forever, DJ Jenny Hoyston Basically, Purple Rhinestone Eagle is one of the best metal bands in the entire city and I’m not going to stop writing about them until I feel that they are as saturated in Portland’s metal scene as they should be. People get mad when I write about house shows in here; with that said, if I could, you’d see a PRE show listing every time they play out.

They’re that good.

Tonight they’re playing at Backspace, a great chance to check them out if you’re not 21. Bring earplugs.

And a spare set of underwear.

July 29, Backspace, 8 p.m., $5, all ages Ylang Ylang, XDS, Pegasus Dream Rontoms The place isn’t really known for its shows— in fact, one might be inclined to say that whomever is in charge of booking shows at Rontoms just doesn’t give much of a flip at all. Whoever happens to need a show kind of just gets one, but man did they ever luck out with this lineup.

Ylang Ylang plays fuzzed-out garage rock, admittedly not the most original thing right now, but with an acute knack for melody and songwriting. XDS is a jangly, angular pop band who used to go by the name Experimental Dental School; they ruled then and they rule now.

August 1, Rontoms, 9 p.m., free, 21+ Weird Al Yankovic Man, let me tell you something.

Do you want to be entertained? Do you want like forty-three costume changes in a two-hour show? Do you want to witness one of the only people in contemporary music who plays the accordion unironically?

If the answer to any of this is “yes” boy, do I have the show for you. Sure, he made most of his money playing parodies of countless songs, but what people don’t realize is that Yankovic is actually a very talented songwriter.

His parodies of other bands’ styles are easily his best work; 1985’s Dare to be Stupid, a stylistic parody of Devo, holds up to this day. Take that, naysayers.

August 3, Roseland Theater, 8 p.m., $35, all ages

Heather Noddings/Portland State Vanguard

Upcoming seafood spot FIN to fill an unexplored niche Kat Vetrano Vanguard staff

Portland’s culinary scene has gotten attention for the best of culinary trends: we’ve got your heritage pork (and chefs who fight outside strip clubs over it), we’ve got food carts and we’ve got vegan cuisine.

Until now, one thing that Portland’s food scene has been lacking is a legitimate seafood spot.

To our rescue comes a man who takes his fish very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that a large red fish is tattooed across his forearm. Trent Pierce, formerly a sous chef at this year’s new Foster Burger, is the executive chef and he is predicting good things to come for FIN’s July 30 opening. When asked what the restaurant will be doing differently than the present (yet small) seafood scene in Portland, Pierce is thinking dynamically.

“Portland has perfected farm-totable cuisine, as well as pork,” said Pierce. “With seafood, I think it’s easy to stay within the comfort zone of very few choices: trout, albacore, clams, salmon. What we’re doing at FIN is looking at coastal towns all over the world and how they make food, then using similar techniques but also looking at it from a new angle. It’s exciting to work with a surface that hasn’t really been scratched.”

PINEAPPLE I LOVE YOU If you don’t know how to pick the right pineapple, your experience could be unpleasant.

To test the pineapple’s ripeness, pick off one of the leaves from the top. If it comes out easily, your pineapple is ready to go. Color is not always the best indicator.

The menu will let the seafood sing in each of its preparations.

Pierce is sure not to over-complicate the ingredients, with one section of the menu consisting entirely of crudo, or raw options (but not in the sometimes expected sushi style). In addition, there will be grilled seafood dishes, house-made pastas and more.

One specific pasta dish Pierce is especially excited for is a Parisianstyle gnocchi (made with rice flour) similar to the consistency of a Korean rice cake. It’s crisped up in the pan and then served with seafood sausage, peppers and fermented chile in a brodetto (seafood broth).

True to Portland’s environmental rep, their press release promises that all their seafood will be “obtained from Pacific sources that honor sustainable fishing practices.”

As if we’d expect anything less.

To wash it all down, Pierce and owner Joan Dumas called in sommelier and James Beard award winner Israel Morales from Chicago’s ENO Wine Room in the Intercontinental Hotel. Morales’ wine list only includes global wines within 100 miles from the coast, which captures the same old world/new world mindset as the food. In addition to the wines, there will be house-made cocktails, a small presence of sake, and of course Oregon beers.

Morales is “looking forward to working with such high quality ingredients and super-clean flavors.”

The space itself is beautiful with its cork floors and high ceilings. A large part of the restaurant will be taken up by a dual sided bar for single diners as well as a lively communal-style atmosphere.

In addition to the dream team of Morales and Pierce, owner Joan Dumas has credentials worth talking about as well. She co-owned a Mexican resort café as well as a French dinner house in California prior to the new spot on Hawthorne. With Pierce’s backgrounds at Portland’s Foster Burger, Bend’s Japanese restaurant, Deep, and American cuisine restaurant, Volo, it’s safe to say we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

FIN 1852 SE Hawthorne 503-517-5770 Wed. to Sun. 5 p.m. to close

Pineapple Cucumber Gazpacho Ingredients: ■ 1 cup of pineapple ■ 1 small or medium cucumber ■ Half a jalapeño pepper ■ 1/4 cup of chopped onion (red or white) ■ 12 oz. of pineapple water or pineapple juice ■ Handful of chopped red cabbage ■ 1/4 cup of cilantro Method: Whir all ingredients together in the blender. If you don’t have

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS Image courtesy of Columbia Pictures

New Angelina Jolie flick just an oversalted James Bond Richard D. Oxley Vanguard staff

There are various styles of action flicks—assorted ingredients with which to explode, chase and defy danger on the screen. Different folks have different tastes in movies, though whatever your personal flavor for action is, the recipe for a good action film could use a lot less Salt.

Evelyn Salt is just about to head home from her job at the CIA when just before stepping out the door, she is called in to debrief a walk-in— a person who possibly has information to offer. Along with her partner Ted, she questions a mysterious Russian informant, who spins a tale and may know a little bit too much about Evelyn herself. With this turn of events, the film kicks into high gear and speeds off into suspense, suspicion and subterfuge.

From this point on Evelyn is on the run, trying to get to her husband, evading her colleagues at the CIA and trying to get to the bottom of a possible Russian conspiracy.

Is Evelyn Salt a Russian spy? Is she who she says she is? Does Salt actually know the whole time?

I would tell you to watch the film and find out for yourself, but in the end, you’re not missing anything.

Salt is an action film you have seen time and time before—sometimes good and sometimes bad. This time it fails to succeed. After watching Salt I felt as if an old script for a Bond film was left over from cheesier Bond days, and Sony Pictures dusted it off.

Salt certainly attempts to stand up next to other modern action-spy films such as The Bourne Identity or the more recent, polished Bond films, but fails to meet a level of be-

onion, chives are a nice substitute.

When you have a nice pureed mixture, let the soup sit in your fridge until chilled (two hours at the least). Serve in a bowl and top with cilantro, red cabbage and/or tortilla chips if you have them. To wash it down, try the next recipe.

Pineapple Water Ingredients: ■ The rind from a pineapple ■ A pitcher filled with water Method: After cutting a pineapple, take the rind and slice off any

lievability, even for an action flick.

Too many convenient occurrences aid Salt in her run from the law, from the type of handcuffs she may find herself in to the sudden emergence of skills she possesses. There is a bit of a break in her character, as she is set up to be a pencil-pushing analyst-type working for the CIA, but when the shit hits the fan, suddenly she is an ass-kicking, sharp-shooting badass whom no one can take down.

At a certain point one wonders why the hell such a super sexy and crafty fighter is working a desk job. The film also lays on the convenient clichés a bit thick. The car is dead, so of course there is a motorcycle parked nearby, which Salt can easily ride and perform tricks on to boot.

Though with all the drawbacks, Salt doesn’t entirely fail. I am well aware that there is certain market out there that just eats up any blockbuster fresh from the factory, and for them this film may just suffice. If you just want a basic action movie, even one you may have seen before, Salt will do the job.

And though the film may suffer a bit, it should not reflect poorly on some of the talent behind it.

Angelina Jolie works fairly well as Evelyn Salt. Liev Schreiber as her partner Ted is, of course, a charm.

And the overall story, though previously stated as needing some originality in the action department, does include some twists and speculation as to the great mystery of who Evelyn Salt truly is.

Salt may amuse a few, but it’s a safe bet to wait for the cheap theaters or the rental.

SALT NOW PLAYING

remaining fruit. Wash away any dirt or residue from the rind, or just give it a quick rinse.

Place rind in a large pitcher and fill with water. Put the pitcher in your fridge for four to 24 hours, and enjoy all week long. The flavor is subtle—don’t expect a juice—just a refreshing take on your usual H2O. Try the above recipes, or enjoy your pineapple tossed in a stir-fry, blended in a cocktail or straight from the bowl.

—Kat Vetrano, Vanguard staff

Forgettable Time

Vanguard Arts & Culture | 5 April28, July 21,2010 2010

Rock ‘n’ Roll: In the toilet?

Image courtesy of CoHo Productions

If You’re Happy and You Know It Clap Your Ass Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

Singularity is an average shooter with some interesting ideas Steve Haske Vanguard staff

If I had a dollar for every time I came across a rote first-person shooter, I’d be able to quit writing for a living. That isn’t how life works, though, so I have to sit through games like Singularity.

Every game has its gimmick, and Singularity is no exception. The game revolves around using time to undo an alternate-history reality, in which the Soviets discover a new element more powerful than any used to make the atomic bomb, and then use a singularity made from it to take over the world.

In 2010 you find a device that allows you to alter certain properties of time (creatively called the Time Manipulation Device—the writing department clearly brought their A-game that day), so you can swap between capping Russian soldiers and aging or reverse-aging objects, creating time-freeze bubbles, altering gravity and the like.

The singularity also (predictably) mutated everything on the island, an abandoned R&D facility, so there are radiation zombies and monsters to contend with as well as the Russian new world government soldiers.

Sound familiar? That’s probably because you’ve seen just about everything in this game before in some respect or another. The narrative, such as it is, is a lot like the original Half-Life, only replacing dimensional rifts with time-based ones (there are a lot of other nods to that series as well).

The mechanics, dilapidated ’50s aesthetic and time powers are mostly ripped straight out of BioShock. The totalitarian Russians (who, maddeningly, all speak English) are for all intents and purposes Wolfenstein’s Nazis in different uniforms. The whole “postapocalyptic Russian setting with mutants” has been done in both the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and Metro 2033.

You get the idea.

There are some cool ideas in Singularity, whose only real advantage right now is its release during the summer slump. There’s a time-manipulated gun that slows time down and allows you to control the bullet trajectory (think Metal Gear’s remote-controlled Nikita missiles), and your TMD’s “melee” is essentially a burst in the fabric of time, which makes any nearby enemies’ limbs pop off like they were

made of paper mâché.

While I was playing the game, though, I couldn’t get over its wasted potential. Take the basic age or deaging process: If the developers had really put a lot of time into making that useful (or usable on anything), it could have been a single mechanic that made the game.

Instead, you’re only allowed to manipulate items you’ll be using for immediate progress (which instantly become either sparkling new or so old they’ve fallen apart). You can’t just go around manipulating everything just for the hell of it. It’s as bad as the “destroy everything” environmental damage in Red Faction Guerilla—awesome idea until you find out any “destruction” you create just looks like so many Lego structures falling apart.

Generic or overdone as many of its trappings are, Singularity isn’t a terrible game. The combat works well enough, though it lacks the visceral feeling of say, Modern Warfare 2. It is fun to use the TMD to screw with time, and upgrade your powers as you go along. But even if Singularity isn’t bad, it’s the kind of game that you’ll probably never pick up again once you play through it.

I appreciate that Raven has both upped its game from last summer’s dismally forgettable Wolfenstein reboot as well as taken the time to create a setting and aesthetic that is at least interesting—even in its cobbling together of clichés and borrowing of elements from other games.

But, there are better first person shooters out there to spend your hard earned cash on. With no marketing and little compelling elements on which to hang its hat, Singularity is most likely destined to suffer sluggish sales before making its way to the bargain bin, just as Wolfenstein did before it—yet another casualty of forgettable design.

Also, please, if anyone makes another Russian-based game, at least give us the option to play it in Russian with subtitles. Communist propaganda videos recorded in English just don’t work.

Singularity Activision PS3, Xbox 360 $59.99

Predictability dampens the fun at CoHo’s latest stage performance Andrea Vedder Vanguard staff

Ever wondered what goes on backstage at a strip club?

CoHo Productions bets that yes, you have, and its latest play, Live Girls, strives to show Portland what life is like as an exotic dancer. The setting is the locker room of a club called Bare Essentials, and while t.he audience is never privy to the characters’ stage performances, we do witness what are arguably the more interesting halves of their nights.

The trouble is, just how accurate or interesting are these behind-thescenes scenes?

Natalie Rose, the woman who wrote Live Girls, is a self-described gypsy, and hand-in-hand with her many locales are many performance endeavors. She has been an actress, a singer, a dancer—even an exotic dancer—and now she is also making the foray into life as a playwright.

Live Girls is not her first script, nor is it her first produced script, but Rose’s skills still fall easily between the brackets of amateur.

The characters in Live Girls are based on archetypes of strippers Rose has known. The line-up, then, includes: Cherry (Alyssa Roehrenbeck), the young dancer who’s beaten regularly by her boyfriend and doesn’t use swear words because she’s Catholic; Baby (Pat Janowski), the too-old, big-mouthed dancer who’s trying to marry a customer and move on; Fantasy (Meegan Anslee), the Pacific beauty with a deadbeat baby daddy and a serious substance abuse problem; and Tigress (Danika Louise), the chesty expert pole dancer who’s working as a stripper to pay for school.

We also meet Divinity (played by Rocket, the only cast member with stripping credentials) and Sapphire (Briana Ratterman), two of the more seasoned and professional dancers.

These are the two who are fierce, competitive and who—outside of Sapphire’s plans to star in pornography, promote sex toys and dance in Las Vegas—don’t discuss leaving. They are also relatively understated characters and a pleasure to watch on stage.

The “new girl”—the audience’s appreciated window into how one might become a stripper, and the inner-workings of the club—is Juli (Ileana Herrin), the cocktail waitress with debt and a long-term boyfriend.

Predictably, good-girl Juli takes a bad turn: After finally consenting to compete in the club’s Amateur Night (under the pseudonym Ecstasy), Juli also cheats on her boyfriend with

the club’s manager Jason (Jonah Weston) and becomes embroiled in a hot-headed mess.

The show is too long, running even beyond the two hours and fifteen minutes stated in the program, and the ending is abrupt— irritatingly abrupt, considering the time investment the viewers have made by curtain close. If a play runs over two hours, loose ends are hard to forgive; the intent to provoke discussion is no excuse.

Stage management and direction are spotty. The events of the play occur over a period of several weeks, and the progression from one day to the next is sometimes clumsy.

Jackets, purses and shoes can believably remain in place (though moving them around wouldn’t hurt the temporal transition), but “cocaine” spills, strewn clothing and liquor bottles cannot. However, the cast members make excellent use of their stage space and the “mirrors” that mark the stage boundaries are very effectively utilized.

For a production that promises to “remove the veil of fantasy and witness the truth and rawness of each woman,” Live Girls is extremely dramatic. Unintended pregnancies, cat fights and cocaine overdoses are a little hard to swallow as truth.

However, it’s probable that few outsiders would care to see the leg-shaving and eyeliner touchups that play out in actual strip club locker rooms, and so Rose’s decision to skimp on the banal is understandable.

Unfortunately, the fast life portrayed in Live Girls is not only overdone but is also a frustrating contribution to our society’s perceptions of strip clubs and the women who work in them. The most honest “inside look” Live Girls grants is at how the dancers teach Juli to find the courage to perform, and the way in which the girls discuss their regular customers. These moments are at once comical, touching and thought-provoking.

Although there is no full nudity in the play, there are breasts and plenty of butt cheeks. There are also plenty of four-letter words— presumably stripper vernacular, though it does feel forced at times.

Despite the criticism leveled here, Live Girls is as fun and aesthetically pleasing as it promises to be. The premise is awesome, and the stumbling evident in the performance is certainly fixable.

Live Girls CoHo Productions 2257 NW Raleigh Thur. to Sat., 8 p.m.

Sun., 2 p.m.

Through Aug. 7 $10 students

By now, you may have heard the story, but if you haven’t, it’s so good that it bears re-telling at least five times a day.

Kings of Leon, dadrock band that they are, recently played an outdoor show in St. Louis. Three songs into their set, a pigeon, thoroughly disgusted with this display, earned his stripes by taking a poop on the band, which subsequently landed in the bass player’s mouth.

This prompted the band to exit the stage in a hurry, citing “unsanitary conditions.” Despite the jeers from the angry crowd of simultaneous sandalsand socks-wearers, KoL did not return to the stage. They were upstaged by a bird.

Hats off, bird.

Now, granted, I am not the biggest fan of Kings of Leon.

However, this raises a bigger issue: Is Rock ‘n’ Roll wussing out?

Metal bands have always been a different league. When Mötörhead and Judas Priest were in their heyday, all sorts of kooky stage antics occurred nightly. Ozzy bit the head off a bat.

This kind of behavior was expected; many longtime music fans saw Metal as a young genre, and like an infant or adolescent, braying for attention is par for the course.

Rock n’ Roll, the longtime symbol of shrewd, sophisticated badassness was a constant.

When Kings of Leon stormed off stage after having just ingested pigeon excrement, they exhibited conduct unbecoming of the steadfast image of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Do you think Mick Jagger would stop the show if a pigeon crapped in Keith Richards’s mouth (even though Richards probably wouldn’t mind)? Not at all. Every band that busted their asses upholding the hallowed image of Rock took a pigeon load to the face when Kings of Leon walked off stage that day.

Let’s hope this is the first and last time this type of disrespect is perpetrated. You play music for a living—something a lot of people would kill to do. Harden up, your majesties.

—Nicholas Kula

Vanguard 6 | Opinion July 28, 2010

OPINION

Opinion Editor: Zach Chastaine 503-725-5692 opinion@dailyvanguard.com

This day in history July 28, 1868 Following its ratification by the necessary three-quarters of U.S. states, the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing citizenship and all of its privileges to African Americans, is officially adopted into the U.S. Constitution.

Two years after the Civil War, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 divided the South into five military districts, where new state governments, based on universal manhood suffrage, were to be established. Thus began the period known as Radical Reconstruction, which saw the 14th Amendment, which had been passed by Congress in 1866, ratified in July 1868.

The amendment resolved pre-Civil War questions of African American citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States—are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”

The amendment then reaffirmed the privileges and rights of all citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws.”

—history.com

The greening of PSU is good for everyone PSU plans to become carbon neutral in 30 years Meaghan Daniels Vanguard staff

Portland State University is taking control and adopting a climate action plan to make the campus “carbon neutral” within 30 years. This kind of action and proposal holds true to Portland State’s “green” reputation.

Carbon neutrality is reached by using techniques and renewable energy projects that offset carbon emissions.

Portland State is one of 685 colleges and universities in the United States that have agreed to address global warming. It joined 16 colleges and universities in Oregon by signing the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment in 2007.

While cap-and-trade bills may be stuck at state and national levels, Multnomah County and the City of

Portland produced their own climate action plan in October. The plan hopes to cut carbon emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050.

Portland State did not seem to care that bills are stuck in the state legislature or congress. Rather, the school decided to forge a plan that would prove to be even more ambitious than the Portland and Multnomah County climate action plan.

On May 24, the university released a 69-page plan that shows how it will play its part in helping climate change. PSU owns up to its sustainability calling and its reputation for being a “green” school.

The plan aims for an 80 percent reduction in carbon emissions below that of the current levels by 2030 with the goal to get to carbon neutrality by 2040.

The plan for Portland State to become carbon neutral within 30 years is not only good for the

Welcome to the jungle Residents need more support to maintain trees Zach Chastaine Vanguard staff

Letters to the editor are gladly accepted and should be no longer than 300 words in length. Submissions may be edited for brevity and vulgarity.

E-mail letters to opinion@ dailyvanguard.com.

Illustration by Susannah Beckelt/Portland State Vanguard

Portland is a beautiful city, due in part to the growing number of trees within its city limits, where there are literally thousands of them.

No matter where you go in Portland, trees can be found across almost every block and the city—as some Portland residents are discovering— is very serious about taking care of them properly.

Over the years, the responsibility of taking care of trees growing within the city has fallen largely on residents. However, care should be taken before trying to prune or plant a tree.

Patsy McInnis Brioady and Marie D. Zeller learned the hard way that tree pruning is not something to be taken lightly in the city of Portland.

According to The Oregonian, Brioady and Zeller hired a tree service to prune the trees on the sidewalk outside of their building.

The company chose to trim the trees using a method called “topping,” which involves cutting the tops of the trees flat, a method the city no longer approves of. The company that pruned the trees was fined $1,000–$7,000 per tree for pruning without a permit, while Brioady and Zeller wound up picking up the cost to remove and replace the trees. Ultimately, the ordeal was painful and costly for the parties involved.

In another case reported by The Oregonian last month, Martha Rutherford voiced her disapproval for some of Portland’s tree policies.

Rutherford, 73, was approached by city officials to plant two Norway Maples between the sidewalk in front of her home and the street.

Rutherford loves the trees and believes they are a fine addition to the city. However, 30 years later she isn’t happy with city policy involving maintenance of the trees.

Cost for maintaining the trees, as well as the immediate areas around them, has fallen on homeowners.

Chaffed by rising water costs, Rutherford has had to pay for three sidewalk repairs and sewer

environment, as it takes steps toward the ever pressing issue of climate change; it is also good for the school.

Students and faculty at Portland State are very involved in sustainability efforts. Several buildings on the campus are “eco-friendly,” including two of the residence halls, the Broadway Housing Building and Stephen Epler Hall. Not only are students learning what it means to be “green,” they are living green lives as well.

Portland State is currently Oregon’s largest university, with 28,000 students. PSU plans to add 12,500 more students by 2039. The number of students who are exposed to sustainability efforts while attending PSU is phenomenal.

Even if the students are not directly involved in sustainability efforts, students are exposed to them just by attending PSU. They are exposed to the things they can do to help the environment throughout their college career, and hopefully

they can take some of the habits and continue with them in life after PSU. The plan to become carbon neutral is also good for the community in Portland. Since Portland State is in the middle of downtown, the community is aware of many of the efforts, ideas and activities that the campus partakes in, and sometimes also participates.

Although Portland and Multnomah County have their own plans to cut carbon emissions, PSU’s efforts for carbon neutrality and the steps it is going to take to get there are going to help spread the idea of sustainable living.

Reaching carbon neutrality in 30 years is certainly an ambitious goal and one that the university should be proud of setting; even if the goal is not reached, the efforts to reach it will not go unnoticed by anyone. Portland State should be proud of its continuous sustainability efforts and of its new goal of carbon neutrality.

maintenance when the maples outgrew their space. Now that one of the Norway Maples has died, she will be picking up the $900 bill to have it removed as well as the $35 inspection permit.

Permits to prune trees can be obtained for free from the city and come with an inspection from a city tree inspector. In addition to a free permit for pruning, a person must also obtain a free permit before planting a tree. The planting permit also comes with an inspection from the city to help choose the appropriate species to plant.

Both permits are mandatory for pruning or planting trees, and both are easy to get from the city. Yet for a city that promotes growing trees so heavily, it seems strange that they would not do more to support the residents that are responsible for maintaining the trees.

Holding residents accountable for the full cost to maintain sidewalks and sewers that have been damaged as a result of overgrown trees in the city seems unfair. The city should pick up at least some of the cost rather than leave it all to residents.

For someone like Rutherford, expensive tree removal may be hard on a senior’s income. Since the city originally prompted the planting of her two Norway Maples, it seems fitting that the city should help maintain them.

Other possible issues like power lines, street signs or fences are things the city should monitor and maintain so that residents don’t have to pay for them after they have become a problem. Although there is a hotline for residents to call if a tree is an immediate hazard, not all problems may warrant an inspection. If, say, a single small branch is a nuisance blocking a stop sign, does it really take an official inspection to label that a problem?

It seems like it would be helpful for the city to set up a patrol of sorts to keep trees growing in check before problems arise. Or perhaps the city should foot some of the bill for repairs that residents at times are required to pay.

One thing is for sure—if the city is going to promote residents growing trees, then the city should do more to help them take care of those trees.

etc.

Vanguard Etc. | 7 July 28, 2010

CALENDAR

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Today Edited by Will Shortz Across 1 “Still mooing” 5 Old flames?

10 Forage storage 14 Old flames 15 Job made almost obsolete by voice recorders 16 Privy to 17 Tots 19 Upper hand 20 Plaza de toros cry 21 First murderer 22 “Entourage” agent Gold 23 Moorʼs deity 25 Make fine adjustments to 30 Home of the Stars 32 Fictional airline on “Lost” 33 Wine label datum 36 “Itʼs ___-brainer”

37 “On the Waterfront” Oscar winner 41 Actress Larter of “Heroes” 42 Stars that exhibit the “lighthouse effect” 43 Tortilla chip brand 46 Need leveling, perhaps 50 With 60-Across, ink a contract … or a feature of 17-, 25- and 37Across 53 Shop group 54 Trellis climber 55 “Drat!”

57 “Usual gang of idiots” magazine 58 One of Spotʼs masters 60 See 50-Across 63 Graph line 64 Film director Kershner 65 Fit for duty

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE L A M B

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5 Away from harbor 6 Stiff-upper-lip sort 7 Temporary tattoo dye 8 St. Louis-toCleveland dir.

9 “Sending out an ___” (muchrepeated line in a Police hit) 10 Jagged mountain range 11 Hoosier 12 Captainʼs journal 13 Diet-drink calorie count 18 Toast at a bar mitzvah 22 Mt. Rushmore neighbor of Teddy 24 Menlo Park middle name 26 Pricey seating areas 27 Winter fishermanʼs tool 28 Salon job 29 Prefix with -cide 31 Attach with a click 34 Target for Teddy Roosevelt 35 Feel awful

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Brown Bag: Health and Bicycling in Portland Noon Urban Center, room 220 Presented by Dr. Eric France, chief of Population and Prevention Services for Kaiser Permanente Colorado.

France will share his insight on why active transportation is a public health issue.

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Thursday Demystifying Dissertation Writing: Workshop for Doctoral Students 5 p.m.

PSU School of Social Work, rooms 620­–630 A free workshop by Peg Boyle Single, author of Demystifying Dissertation Writing: A Streamlined Process from Choice of Topic to Final Text. A book signing will follow the workshop.

Puzzle by Alex Boisvert

37 Morlocksʼ victims, in an H. G. Wells story 38 Birthplace of eight U.S. presidents 39 Roughly 40 Publisherʼs 10digit ID 41 Billboard displays 44 Buy gold, e.g.

45 Water pistol or popgun 47 Bahamas getaway 48 Temporary wheels 49 Win over 51 Sharp products, for short 52 Opposite of “take out”

56 Setting for the movie “Sister Act” 58 Use a Fuzzbuster on 59 Send packing 60 Handymanʼs letters 61 Minerʼs find 62 “U R funny!”

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Climbing Center— Beginner’s Hour 6 p.m.

ASRC This is an opportunity for those who have never climbed before to take part in a free introductory informal movement class.

Monday Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring Community Symposium 9 a.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228 A free event featuring various mentoring researchers and practitioners. Register at www.2010mentoring symposium.eventbrite.com

KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. ©2010 KenKen Puzzle LLC. All rights reserved. Dist. by UFS, Inc. www.kenken.com

row and each column ● Each must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given

operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.

Tuesday

Fill in single-box ● Freebies: cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Red Cross Blood Drive 11 a.m.

SMSU Ballroom To sign up to donate blood, visit www.givelift.org or e-mail gwyn@pdx.edu

7-28-10

Your Ad Here Call the Vanguard 503.725.5686

VANGUARD NOW HIRING WRITERS NEWS ARTS AND CULTURE OPINION SPORTS apply now!

dailyvanguard.com

To place an event: Contact vgcalendar@ gmail.com or pick up a calendar request form at the Vanguard advertising office, SMSU, room 115.

Vanguard 8 | Sports July 28, 2010

Sports Editor: Robert Britt 503-725-4538

SPORTS A look at the state of affairs in basketball

sports@dailyvanguard.com

Robert Seitzinger

Timbers set for MLS expansion coin toss Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers, along with fellow 2011 MLS expansion franchise Vancouver Whitecaps FC, will participate in the Expansion Priority Coin Toss Wednesday during halftime of the 2010 AT&T Major League Soccer All-Star Game on ESPN2. The coin flip will determine the first pick in the 2011 Expansion Draft, SuperDraft and priority in other player acquisition mechanisms.

The winning club will announce first priority in one of the mechanisms on Aug. 11. The two teams will then alternate choices through the priority list, which also includes USL player priority, allocation ranking, designated player ranking, discovery ranking, lottery ranking and waiver/re-entry draft ranking.

Representing the Timbers for the coin flip is technical director Gavin Wilkinson.

He will be joined

by MLS Executive Vice President Todd Durbin, who will oversee the coin flip, and Whitecaps representative Greg Anderson.

Kickoff of the 2010 AT&T MLS All-Star Game at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, is set for 5:30 p.m. (Pacific) on ESPN2; the coin flip will air during halftime.

The game features forwards Landon Donovan and Brian Ching, midfielders Dwayne De Rosario and Guillermo Barros Schelotto, defenders Chad Marshall and Omar Gonzalez, goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts and the top players in MLS against world-famous English Premier League club Manchester United.

Talkin’ hoops

Vanguard staff

This summer has been an exciting one for basketball fans. The flow of news and rumors has been very active, from LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat to our hometown Portland Trail Blazers making big draft-day trades and acquisitions. Here are a few perspectives on some current issues that relate to the coming year of basketball.

Julius Thomas just finished four seasons with the men’s basketball team, participating in two NCAA Tournament runs and providing a powerful post presence for the squad. His experience as a player provides him with considerable basketball IQ. Owen R. Smith is a former editorin-chief and sports editor of the Vanguard who currently writes for the East Oregonian as both a sports and news reporter. His experience as a sports reporter qualifies him as a knowledgeable basketball analyst.

On the Miami Heat

Photo courtesy of NBAE

I’m not sure if they have a deep enough bench to win it all.

Owen R. Smith: You’re looking at a 68-win team; what I was surprised at was their ability to get a good supporting cast [for Lebron James, Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade] for cheap. Give Pat Riley some credit. They’ll have one of the best backcourts in Wade and James, who I imagine will pay a lot of pointforward.

My take: This is a powerful squad on paper, but one big injury or ego clash will send this rocket ship of a team plummeting. I like them for 60–65 wins, but not a championship this season.

JT: I think the Blazers have a great opportunity to reach the top of the Western Conference echelon, though

TODAY’S GAMES Portland Timbers

Portland Beavers (39-63)

(7-5-5, 26 pts.)

at

at

Salt Lake Bees

AC St. Louis

(4-10-4, 16 pts.)

(51-51)

6:05 p.m.

Audio at www.portlandbeavers.com

5:10 p.m.

Audio at www.955TheGame.com

UPCOMING HOME GAMES Portland Timbers

vs.

vs.

Salt Lake Bees

NSC Minnesota Stars

Game times vary

they need to play more of that playoff brand of basketball. I like that they’re not just young talent this season, that there are some veterans too.

OS: I don’t think their offseason is over. I understand they’re trying to weather the storm of the upcoming clash and potential lockout we all know is coming. I like the fact that everyone important is coming back, but I’m worried about whether they’ve done enough. Am I excited about Wesley Matthews?

Yes. He’s really stepped up his game.

My take: They’re too guard-heavy right now, and I agree with Smith that they’re not done maneuvering players. Head coach Nate McMillan has finalized his coaching staff for the year, so I expect the final word on players will come down in the coming weeks as well. I’d put them at 50 wins and a playoff berth, though I’ll reserve bolder predictions until the roster is finalized.

Brown garners preseason nod Football season has yet to begin, but Vikings kicker Zach Brown is already anticipated to impress during his upcoming sophomore season.

On Monday, Brown was named to The Sports Network’s second team preseason All-American list.

The selection comes just a week after he was named to the Big Sky Conference’s preseason AllConference team.

A native of Keizer, Ore., Brown chalked a record-breaking freshman season in 2009 that earned him an All-Big Sky selection. Last year, he set a new school record of 18 field goals on 25 attempts, and went 21 of 21 on extra point attempts. Two of Brown’s field goals were from over 50 yards out, and three of his seven misses were from 52 yards or more.

Portland State football begins fall practices Aug. 8 and the 2010 season starts Sept. 4 at Arizona State.

Beavers set franchise record

Portland Beavers

July 31 – Aug. 3

My take: It isn’t fun to think that a work stoppage may occur. However, buzz abounds that it’s coming, so I’ll cross my fingers and hope something gets worked out over the summer and only cuts into five, maybe 10 games of the 2011–12 season.

Takin’ it to the Heat: LeBron James recently left Cleveland to join Miami. But can he win a title with the Heat?

Around town

—portlandtimbers.com

JT: I don’t think [lockouts] are ever completely likely. Players know that just one year of missed salary has a big impact, and I think they’ll be willing to get there [to an agreement with league owners]. I know that if work does stop, it’ll be a horrible year for me without NBA basketball.

OS: It’s clearly imminent, that’s my opinion. That’s what I’ll say about it. If neither side budges, the renegotiation will be painful and will end in a labor dispute including a lockout. It’ll be a big boom for the NCAA, though.

On the Portland Trail Blazers

Julius Thomas: I think they provide a natural nemesis for the [Los Angeles] Lakers. It isn’t a guaranteed championship, however.

On the potential lockout

Aug. 11, 7 p.m.

The Portland Beavers set new franchise records for runs and hits in Sunday’s 21-4 win over the Las Vegas 51s.

Led by former major leaguer Wily Mo Pena and Kyle Phillips, the Beavers offense erupted with 32 hits—seven more than the previous franchise record set in 2003, and eight more than any other Triple-A team has knocked this

On the Team USA world championship team JT: I think they look good. I describe them like the [Oklahoma City] Thunder, in that they’re young and talented. I expect they’ll be in the top three of the world.

OS: With this group of players, it all depends on their focus level, how much they want to be there.

It’s kind of tough when you know you have a long season in front of you too. Kevin Durant just dropped 28 points in scrimmage, so you’ve got to give him some credit.

My take: There are a lot of superstars abstaining from the world championships, but with guys like Durant, Derrick Rose and Rudy Gay likely to survive the cuts and compete in late August, I think Team USA will at least bring home bronze.

season. Pena and Phillips each went 5 for 6 at the plate and combined for 10 hits and eight RBIs. The Beavers split the four-game series in Las Vegas, and began a fourgame series at Salt Lake City last night. Portland (39-63) is currently in last place in the Pacific Coast League’s Pacific North Division and 19 games behind first-placed Tacoma.

PSU Athletics to unveil new website Portland State’s athletics program announced Monday it will unveil a new GoViks.com website later this week.

The redesigned site will go live Thursday and feature a mobile site, improved video and quick links to the program’s YouTube channel and social media feeds. Interactive media guides for each of the Vikings’ sports programs will also be available.

“We have been proud to offer a comprehensive and informative GoViks.com website over the years, but I think our fans will really be pleased with the look and ease of use of our newly-designed website,” athletics spokesman Mike Lund said in a news statement.

The new GoViks.com is the result of a new partnership between the athletics department and web service provider SIDEARM Sports —Robert Britt, Vanguard Staff