Hungry? Thirsty? You might want to head on over to the Oregon Convention Center this Friday and Saturday (Feb 3-4) for the Portland Seafood and Wine Festival.

Enjoy live music, sand sculpture demos, award-winning wines and, of course, seafood. (It’s Dungeness Crab season, so expect a fair number of our pincer-clawed friends to be on display… on plates, of course!)

Cost – $12 Adults, $10 Seniors and kids, children under five get in free. $.50 of every ticket goes directly to the Oregon Chapter of the National MS Society. So you can do good by eating well this weekend.

It’s the year of the dragon according to the traditional Chinese calendar. In celebration the Lan Su Garden is hosting a variety of special activities and demonstrations all weekend. You can find a full schedule of events on their website. There will even be Lion Dances on both Saturday (1/28) and Sunday (1/29) at noon. It should be a great excuse to get out of the house, soak up a little culture and maybe check out that dim sum restaurant you’ve always wanted to try out.

The Guardian newspaper today has named Portland as one of the “Five Best Places to Live” in the world, joining the ranks of such other exotic locations as St. Pauli, Hamburg; Northern Coast, Maui; Cihangir, Istanbul; and Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

The Guardian didn’t rank their top five locations with a number… but we here are pretty sure that the article leads off with little ol’ Portland for a reason. (We’re #1!! We’re #1!!)

The Guardian gave us props for having the most microbreweries of any other city, our great public transit and support of bike paths, and for our great food scene! Thanks for the mad props! And yes… it is the greatest!

The Advocate recently published a list of America’s Gayest Cities and Portland came in at number 12. Right in front of Austin, TX (#13) and Little Rock, Arkansas (#11)?!  We got points for our openly gay mayor; Portlandia co-creator, and Sleater-Kinney alum, Carrie Brownstein; the food and art scene in our Pearl and Alberta districts; and our hipster, hyper-locavore, hyper-literate scene….

Well… even if we don’t necessarily agree with the rankings (really?!? Salt Lake City at #1?!), it’s nice to get the mention. Especially considering that Portland did not even make the list in 2011.

Portland’s beer scene scored another victory in its quest for eternal Beervana-dom. Or rather, six victories.

DRAFT magazine named six of Portland’s beer bars in the US’ top 100 this week, including some of our downtown favorites we like to feature in our “Beervana Tour“.

See the link to the full story here:

http://draftmag.com/new/feature/americas-100-best-beer-bars-2012/

Next Thursday, January 19 kicks off the fourth annual Fertile Ground Festival of New Works, a 10-day celebration of new plays, plays in development, and even some film and dance.

The Festival features over 100 brand-new works by local playwrights in dozens of venues and represents a great opportunity to get a sneak peak at work that may well grace local, regional, and even national stages in coming years. Names of playwrights, actors and venues range from the familiar to the hoping-to-break-through variety, giving Portlanders a chance to see the evolution of local talent in its earliest, often most experimental stages.

Productions range from one-offs to full runs, from fully staged to concert-style readings, from shorts and one-acts to full-length productions. See the full calendar of productions here.  And get a sneaky-sneaky early-early preview of top one-liners from the shows here.

Is it expensive? Come on, this is Portland. Many shows are $5-10 or pay-what-you-will, and you can buy a festival pass to see as many shows as you can fit in your schedule for a mere $50. That’s less than some plays cost per seat the rest of the year.

Oh, and if you see a few familiar faces on stage now and again, you’re not imagining things. Many of our fabulous Resident Experts dabble in the creative performing arts and will be participating in the festival.

OK… the TNT show Leverage is now entering its 5th season. Since season 2 the series has been filmed in Portland, but the show’s setting has been Boston. Imagine lots of Portland locations interspersed with stock footage of the Boston skyline. While that has made for great audience participation games of who-can-guest-the-on-screen-location-first… we are all very excited to hear that starting next season the show will be not only filmed in Portland, but set there as well. Woot!

If you engage in ten or more ecologically-minded activities regularly – things like recycling, taking transit or walking to work, etc. – you are a “super greenie.”

And chances are good that if you do, you live in Portland.

According to Sustainable Oregon Business, Portland ranks #3 in the nation in its percentage of Super-Greenies – 11%, compared to a national average of 5%.

(The top two in the study were San Francisco at 17 percent and Seattle with 13 percent).

How about we make a city-wide New Year’s resolution to come in first next year?

Here’s a quick list of activities – for starters – that make one “green.” If you can do ten or more (and please, think of more!), you’re a “Super Greenie.”

• Commute by bus, rail, bike or foot.
• Combine trips to markets, movies, etc. when you do have to go by car.
• Carpool.
• Recycle.
• Eat local, fresh, and organic.
• Use recycled paper.
• Print on both sides – re-use your paper.
• Use low-wattage light bulbs.
• Install a programmable thermostat that reduces the heat while you’re not at home, and at night. (Cuddling and blankets work great!)
• Turn off the heat (close vents, etc) to unused rooms in the house.
• Use Energy-Star appliances.
• Add insulation to your home.
• Grow your own vegetables.
• Buy green products – those without chemicals, pesticides, and excess packaging.
• Volunteer to do local cleanup.
• Walk more.

Thank you for making 2011 such a great year! And best wishes to you and yours in 2012 from everyone here at Portland Walking Tours!

We know you’ve  made up  your mind to make 2012 your best year ever. So have we. But rather than pretend that we’re REALLY going to hit the gym every day like we did last year (and made it, all the way through January 3… almost), this year we’re going a different direction. And we hope you’ll join us in resolving to:

• Walk a lot more, and not just to get somewhere, but to really see and enjoy the  beautiful city around us. And, oh yeah… for exercise.
• Forget eating in moderation… we’re going to indulge. But when we do, we’ree going to eat fresh  and local. The best, most delicious produce, meats and dairy are fresh, local, organic, seasonal and sustainable, and that’s what belongs on our plate.
• Drink in moderation… most of the time… but again, when we do, it will be local. The world’s finest beer, wine, and of course coffee are all produced right here in Portland. We want to support that.
• Explore the city. We’re going to learn something new about it, if not every day then at least on a regular basis. We’ll share what we learn here, so check back now and again… and who knows, maybe it’ll turn into something new and tour-worthy.
• Celebrate. Portland’s a great place to live, with fascinating, diverse opportunities to live fully every day. We’re going to give credit to our city and our local heroes who make it so.

We hope you’ll join us in these five resolutions. Imagine if everyone here did – what an amazing city we’d have.

Oh, yeah… we do.