Skip to main contentOn a hot edge-of-summer evening, regulars line the bar of Tony's Tavern on West Burnside. Bud flows at dynamite prices. A few men sit alone at tables, staring through their own cigarette haze with the blank Zen of dedicated barflies. Somewhat mysteriously, the juke plays "Fortunate Son," followed by that goddamn Santana song.
It's not hard to ID Sam Gould in this crowd. He's the one under 40, the one reading the Basquiat biography, the one with a duct-taped notebook on the table in front of him. That's Sam for you--even over a beer at the dive he calls "the friendliest bar on the West Side," he's working, on fire to learn more, to have, if possible, more ideas.
Consider that when Gould moved to Portland from New York City about two years ago, he barely knew a soul here. Now consider that Gould has since become the founder and benevolent generalissimo of Red76, perhaps Portland's most energetic and multifaceted arts and music "organization."
Under the aegis of Red76, Gould has marshaled a popular series of events fusing venturesome music, visual art, film, performance and writing. The first week in July provided a representative sample of Red76's slash-heavy activities:
--On July 5, Red76 sponsored an installment of its 3-month-old "Journals" series, a reading/film showcase/slideshow/improv/music performance at Crystal Ballroom.
--On July 6, a Red76-curated selection of videos played at the new East Side nightclub the Blackbird during an album-release show by avant-garde band Jackie-O Motherfucker.
--Gould prepared for an opening party for a Red76 photo show at the new Stumptown coffeehouse on Southeast Belmont, slated for this Friday. The show, which runs through the end of July, features shots by Gould and three other photographers.
--Meanwhile, Gould perfected plans to transform Red76 into a record label and publishing house, wrangling articles for a literary magazine projected for an October debut. Gould also aims to publish a book of stories by Portland writer Sean Clair. Red76 released a three-disc set by Sauvie Island Moon Rocket Factory last year; the debut album from Project Perfect, a group featuring a member and ex-member of mega-meditative Portland experimental group Fontanelle, is scheduled for later this year.
--Oh, and he's overhauling the website, www.red76.com.
"I'm not a good person unless I'm working," says Gould. "That's one thing I know about myself, for sure."
Evidently.
The very sense that Portland offered an opportunity to do lots of work very fast prompted Gould to ditch Brooklyn for Stumptown. In New York, Gould says, paying rent and buying food left him with scarce time to satisfy his palpable creative obsessions. He also says he had the feeling that he'd meet some like-minded holy warriors here.
"One big reason I moved out to Portland was the sense of community," says Gould, reared around New York. "In New York, my only friend was this insane 33-year-old Irish philosopher--he was completely suicidal, but we had great conversations. There were a few of us who were, like, journeymen academic-bookstore employees. That's who I hung out with. I sensed that out here, people help each other out."
Right on cue, "My Kind of Town" comes on Tony's jukebox. Indeed, it didn't take long for Gould to tap into a diffuse creative world: the melting pot of underground music, unheralded visual art, rough-cut indie film and zine writing that boils beneath Portland's commercial art scene.
In March 2000, the first genre-splicing Red76 extravaganza took over the Cobalt Lounge, a venue known more for go-go dancers dressed as Catholic school girls than for the Fine Arts. Since then, through a score of events large and small, Red76 has galvanized a fluid community of creative people who may never have visited the Art Museum, taken in a PICA event or shuffled through First Thursday.
"I think Red76's role in Portland has been integral," says Khris Soden, a comic-book artist and writer who has contributed both art and bookkeeping for Gould's events. "It provides an opportunity for artists who do not know how to, or choose not to, play the 'art game,' running a gauntlet to get their work into galleries."
"I realized that there were a lot of good people who weren't getting the chance to show their work," says Gould. "Goddammit, including me."
Though he's gathered a small contingent of regular contributors and accomplices, Gould is Red76 for all practical purposes--certainly, his demonic work ethic and restless enthusiasm fuel the enterprise. A conversation with Gould that delves into his passion for just plain doing stuff packs many of the effects of a triple espresso.
"I'm such a New Yorker," Gould says, laughing. "When I started, it was hard for people in Portland to figure me out. I think people thought I was super-aggressive and pushy. I would say, 'Hey, I'm just trying to get the job done.'
"Someone described Red76 as a really happy oligarchy. I think that's about right."
Featuring photos by Steve Carter, Dan Cohoon, Sam Gould and Faulkner Short
Gould on Portland's accursed parochialism: "It frustrates the hell out of me to see talented people get to the top in Portland and then stop. This is a great city with a lot going on, but if you get to the top here, it's like you've conquered Cleveland. Think of it that way. Do you want to be frustrated all your life and work at Coffee People?"
Chantelle Hylton, booking queen of the Blackbird nightclub and Red76 fellow traveller, on Gould's output: "He's like an A+ student among a classroom of lazy A students, in that he puts on so many different kinds of events that it's challenged others in town to do the same."
WWeek 2015