Happy Memorial Day!

I hope you're all having a great Memorial Day Weekend. Originally called Decoration Day, because people would decorate the graves of fallen soldiers, Memorial Day has become little more than an excuse for a three day weekend, or a reason for tire and mattress sales, and of course its the official marker of the start of Barbecue Season.

The Portland Memorial Coliseum, as the name suggests, was built as a memorial to our war dead. In case you're not from around these parts, or you've somehow missed it, the PMC has recently escaped the wrecking ball—at least, for now. Aside from being a memorial, there are many arguments, both architectural and cultural, to save this marvelous building, and I had planned on writing about some of them, as well as the greed/corruption factor in Portland politics which lead to it being threatened in the first place. Basically the reason boils down to Jim Morrison's theory: money beats soul every time—but I decided that would be an unnecessary digression, so I think I'll save all of this for a later post, and for now I'll just say that, I hope you'll remember the original spirit of the holiday, and take a few minutes to honor those who have sacrificed so much for our country.

-Cheers!