|
BEST CORPORATE SPONSOR
Artists, figure this out: Unless you want to spend the rest of your life making collages out of old fashion magazines, start looking for corporate sponsors now. The NEA is dead and last time we checked there weren't many monarchies in Oregon, which leaves rich people and corporations to fund your stupid ideas. Under the leadership of its vice president of corporate affairs, Peter Gray, BANK OF AMERICA has stepped up as one of Portland's most adamant supporters of contemporary art, embossing its logo on such recent events as the Being and Time video show at the Portland Art Museum, the Cascade AIDS Project's annual art auction and the still nascent Portland Festival of Arts. Besides endowing the museum's contemporary art program, B of A is also slipping money to PICA, music festivals around the state and performance art from Ashland to southwest Washington. On hearing Gray discuss B of A's commitment to contemporary art, one forgets why anyone cared when Jesse Helms practically destroyed federal funding for the arts a few years ago. Let regional corporations kick down, if they're as articulate and passionate about it as Gray is. Dismayed by Oregon's disinvestment in schools, Gray views the underwriting campaign as an investment in Oregon's educational system, in particular the neglected idea of extracurricular, continuing education. BEST-LOOKING EMPLOYEES
It never fails. Anytime you go to the KINKO'S at 221 SW Alder St., you are greeted by a fresh young thing who looks like a member of an L.A. band, a Sassy magazine model or one of the "cute" characters in a Richard Linklater movie. With hip-and-healthy hair, trim bods, sexy nail polish (on both gals and guys) and little black outfits, these kids place the downtown Kinko's ahead of even Urban Outfitters for best Model Search stompin' grounds. They make pretty good coffee (and copies), too. BEST JOB PERK
You've got a 401(k) plan, you've got medical, maybe even dental. Now, what else could your job offer you? How about FREE GOLF? Much to the delight of its employees, the Ringside restaurant company (2165 W Burnside St.; 14021 NE Glisan St.) also owns and operates the Glendover golf course in East Portland. In addition to getting free meals, every employee, right down to the dishwasher, can invade the golf course free of charge, seven days a week. Now that's preparing for retirement. BEST BUSINESS CARD
It's a rite of passage at AKA INC. ADVERTISING, says president Mike Doherty. After you've been on board for a month, the rest of the staff gets together and comes up with a customized quip for your business card. "It takes us about that long to figure a new person out," Doherty says. Greg Harris, in account services, was branded with "All I ask is that you buy everything I present you." It seems it's no use arguing with Harris, who has an unflappable strategic plan for decisions. Meanwhile, staffers discovered that new employee Suzanne Baird wasn't as prim and proper as she first appeared. Her card reads, "Let's get liquored up and go fishin'." When you get to know her, Doherty says, "you find her hidden side. Well, she's kind of wild." "We wanted our cards to be little ads for each person," says Doherty, who founded the ad agency 6 1/2 years ago. Clients include Full Sail Ale, Northwest Natural Gas and Tillamook Teas. As for Doherty's card: "Don't you just hate advertising agencies? We do." Cathy Boyce, aka broadcast producer, gets our vote for best one-liner. "If you really want me happy," the card reads, "send me to lunch on your expense account. Without you." BEST VIEW FROM AN OFFICE LUNCHROOM
Someday, George tells himself, someday I'll be a real lawyer. Sure, right now he's just a lowly assistant, but his ship is about to come in. Just you wait, he thinks. One of these days, I'll be Mr. Mercedes--I'll have a big leather couch, my own secretary, Armani suits and lunch at Atwater's every day. For now, though, George must satisfy his ambitious fantasies by pretending the STOEL RIVES LUNCHROOM on the 23rd floor of the US Bank Tower (900 SW 5th Ave.) is the fancy restaurant of his dreams. It doesn't take much imagination. All the men are wearing ties, and the women are in dresses. The room is huge, with a mirror along one wall and a great view of the city through giant windows. Plus, George and the rest of the underlings get free soda and as much coffee as they want, served in special Stoel Rives coffee mugs. Taking a sip, George gazes out the large windows. Off in the distance, barely visible, a ship approaches. George holds his breath. Is it possible? Could that ship be...his? Perhaps he's simply had too much free coffee. BEST COMPANY NAME
Named after the legendary blood-sucking ghoul that roams the Mexican countryside plaguing farmers by feeding on goats and sheep, Portland's own CHUPACABRA SYSTEMS leaps off the list of mundane local monikers (RadiSys Corp. ties Northwest Pipe Co. for best yawner). Feeding off Portland's booming high-tech industry, the two young entrepreneurs at Chupacabra specialize in developing object-oriented intranet systems. Chupacabra, founded in April, is already doing work for heavy hitters like Tektronix and Hewlett-Packard (now, there's a name for you). Asked to explain the strange company ID, Chupacabra co-founder Amos Latteier writes, "The World Wide Web is our workplace. What better place for a contemporary mythological monster than the dense underbrush of hype, hearsay and hysteria that is the Internet. The figure of the reviled yet celebrated blood sucker also provides ironic insight into the symbolic economy of Web development." Unfortunately, the company logo isn't based on the celebrated bloodsucker. BEST WINDOW DISPLAY BY A STOCKBROKER
The window display at EDWARD D. JONES & CO. (4726 SE Hawthorne Blvd.) has been known to lure in shoppers looking to buy groceries. "A couple people came in when we had the Campbell Soup cans on display thinking we were a grocery store," says Cheryl Nelson, the office administrator at the full-service brokerage. Nelson plots out and diligently changes the window display every two months. A recent display featured a garden box of soil with rows marked IRAs, CDs, Savings for College and Tax Free Bonds. $10 and $20 bills were attached to the planting stakes and a sign propped up behind the display read, "Plant the Seeds of Your Future Now." "I want to grab people's attention," says Nelson. Elaborate displays like the "Seeds of Your Future" promo and the Campbell's setup have graced the window of the brokerage firm since the business opened in January 1995. Last summer's PepsiCo. display featured Pepsi products like Doritos and Oreos laid out in a beach picnic setting with hand-written signs hyping the company's tasty treats and their market value. Nelson was, however, a little disappointed with last month's window dressing. She planted mint in the soil boxes, expecting green to lace its way up the stakes. "They haven't started to grow yet," she says. "I guess it doesn't grow inside very well." BEST-LOOKING ANNUAL REPORT
OREGON STEEL's no-nonsense annual report is as straightforward as the company's name. The 41-page yearly wrap-up is printed on white paper with black ink and sports a plain, royal-blue cover with one page of simple bar and pie graphs. This no-frills document upstages the flashy batch of multicolored graphic wonders from other Portland businesses like an elegant ballroom dancer at a rave. Lattice's annual report, for example, features page after page of National Geographic-quality nature photos with pretentious pontificating like, "The Net and the Web are themselves circles encompassing once discrete and linear markets and industries as a circular continuum that has no distinctions, and no beginning or end points." Meanwhile, Oregon Steel's document, "designed"--or, more accurately, typed--in-house by director of investor relations Vicki Tagliafico, features little more than the report itself and a letter from chairman Thomas Boklund about shipments and revenues. Tagliafico notes that other public companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars designing and printing reports to impress shareholders. As for impressing shareholders, Oregon Steel lets the numbers speak for themselves: Revenues jumped nearly 9 percent to $770 million. This pushed up shareholder net income per share by 64 percent. BEST THING ABOUT THE BANK TAKEOVERS
If waiting in post office lines has you thinking violence and you keep forgetting to purchase them at the checkout line of your neighborhood grocery, then buy your STAMPS via a Wells Fargo automated teller machine. Though huge banking conglomerates generally give us the creeps, convenient services like this one sure make life a lot easier. BEST HOME-BASED BUSINESS
Working at home conjures images of a messy, unglamorous guest-room-cum-office, where the intrepid entrepreneur reclaims capitalism with just a computer, a fax machine and a cardboard box of files. At SOUTAS SALTWATER AND REEF (2603 SE 17th Ave., 233-9587), the case is clearly different. Ten years ago, Rick Soutas' hobby became a sideline business when he began selling tropical fish out of the garage behind his Southeast Portland home. Now, instead of commuting to a job, he travels each day to a land of undersea mysteries; Soutas has twice expanded the garage to accommodate his growing business, which now employs him and store manager Patrick Pheoray full time. Soutas is the hobbyist's hobbyist; his store's 700-gallon centerpiece tank is the largest saltwater tank in the state. There are no labels or price tags on his specimens--the expert pisciculturist needs no such hand-holding. There, among the Day-Glo sea cucumbers and Dr. Seuss-like suckers, a fish fetishist is in hog heaven. Clown fish wriggle in the tentacles of fluorescent anemones, and yellow toadstool leather corals snuggle with something called "live rock." For the non-collector, wonderment abounds: There are spotted fish and spiked fish, striped fish and even a plaid fish. If you've ever wondered what your curious neighbor is up to in his garage, here's a rare opportunity to sneak a peek. BEST EXECUTIVE TATTOOIST
If you've never been to a tattoo parlor before, the Atomic Art Tattoo Studio (1306 NW Hoyt St.) will surprise you. It isn't a dark and dingy dive on the outskirts of town crowded with big beer-bellied men whoopin' and hollerin' over the din of blaring Metallica. Atomic has old wooden plank floors and good natural light. This is a place where fine art is produced--but don't just take our word for it, follow Phil Knight's cue. It makes sense that the Nike magnate would recruit a classy outfit to ink his ankle, and those of Olympic marathoner Alberto Salazar and other super-loyal employees. That famous Swoosh is probably the smallest work LONDON BELLMAN has done; Atomic primarily does grand-scale custom bodywork. But Bellman has another outlet for his creative talents: the completely groovy lamps adorning the waiting room. BEST MOM AND POP
Though the huge "open 365 days a year" lettering was replaced with a more colorful and contemporary sign last summer, most Sunnyside neighbors still refer to their favorite local grocery as "365." Its real name is the BELMONT MARKET (3400 SE Belmont St.), and owners Nam and Suk Pak are some of the most gracious hosts around. If you've ever been there, you know that any purchase ending in 99 cents rewards the customer with a "lucky penny" in change from Mrs. Pak. (And if you walk in wearing boots and a miniskirt, she compliments you with, "Whoo! Looking good!") Mr. Pak's involvement in the neighborhood comes in a more stoic fashion: He contributes money regularly to REACH Community Development and last year donated products to the Belmont Street Fair raffle. Daughter Danni Pak, who minds the till most afternoons and holds the occasional wine tasting, keeps the regulars coming back with her good-natured jokes and lovely smile. So warm is the Pak family to the Belmont brood that some customers attended son Bruce's wedding last September. Even the new storefront mural was painted by a regular customer. In the nine years the Paks have owned the market, they've seen a lot of changes on Belmont Street, not the least of which is the glossy new Zupan's Market a block away. But owing to incredible customer loyalty, the Paks have not been stung by the presence of the yuppie megastore. "Zupan's employees came here to check out our wine and beer prices because customers said they were too expensive," says Danni. "They have an overhead and we don't. We can change our prices, they can't." Belmont Market also offers incredible selection: What other corner store boasts Chimay beer and wines from Châteauneuf-du-Pape? |
|
