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June 30th, 2006
So the other night we were at the Doug Fir for an event, dressed up and feeling like real big-city girls, mingling and making small talk and having cocktails in stemmed glassware…and then we spied the Galaxy Diner across the street. It had to be done…we traipsed across Burnside into the dingy joint and were treated to some of the most bizarre karaoke we’ve yet seen. People with no shame (and even less natural talent) were belting out everything from Lionel Richie tunes to Death Metal dirges to – our personal fave – the theme from “The Facts of Life,” performed by an energetic, shortish man in a smallish red shirt who made us laugh so hard that White Russians came out of our noses. Kudos to that guy – whoever you are, you need a TV show. Or at least a page on MySpace. |
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Portland Picks: |
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| 1 | Find Your Skin’s “Center” at Urbane Zen Check out www.urbanezen.com for details or to order! |
  urbanezen.com |
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| 2 | You’re in (Bijoux) Luck! Okay, we’re so excited about this that our palms are sweaty. No kidding! The last time we felt this happy about something it came with a card and a cake. No, it’s not a birthday…it’s the opening of a jewelry store. We are as happy as little girls, just thinking about how we’re going to clean out our jewelry boxes in preparation for some sparkly goodness, courtesy of Bijoux Luck! So what if we have meetings to attend and kids to pack up for camp, we are bee-lining it down to Northwest to get in on this action. We adore designer Vanessa Constanti’s fresh take on bold, modern baubles. It’s the most fun costume jewelry, and we’ve been buying it forever without realizing that one designer is responsible. Her influences stem from her girlhood growing up in Hawaii, and we feel like hot island princesses in her fun designs. She somehow mixes classic and retro with that vacation-y influence and it all comes out precious and lovely in the end. Her stuff sells at stores like Fred Segal and Kitson, and has been featured in magazines like Lucky and on Elle.com. The Portland store will be her flagship – she’s going to debut retail outlets in New York City and Los Angeles, but chose us first! So let’s support the effort – pop by Bijoux Luck, and tell them Portland Picks sent you! Bijoux Luck |
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| 3 | Naughty Cakes for Naughty Girls Anyhoo, banish those memories of bad taste, because there’s a new bakery in town – the aptly named Burlesque Bakery – and they are serving up saucy goodies that are as delicious as they are naughty. Their daringly scrumptious cakes come in a variety of, ahem, “fun” shapes and sizes for your special occasion: bachelorette parties, bridal showers, bachelor parties, birthdays, sororities…you name it…they are the hit of every party. And we do mean every party. Check out their "bondage," "striptease" and "Chippendale" cakes and you’ll know what all the buzz is about. They also have edible photo-image cakes. Imagine your guy's face on a buff body made of buttercream. Yummy! We’ll have that cake...and eat it, too. |
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| 4 | See You Ringside A good steakhouse should provide these four things: First, a perfectly mixed straight-up martini; second, a little bit of history; third, a Caesar salad with anchovies; and fourth, a semi-dark atmosphere where you feel cozy and intimate, even in a large room. Oh right, and then there’s the steak. Because we’re so into decadence, the beef itself is actually fifth on our list, but walk into Ringside Steakhouse and you’ll see it’s number one for them. Once your eyes adjust to the light you’re greeted by award after award from respected notables like The Wine Spectator and Distinguished Restaurants of North America, and they have been named one of the Top 10 Steakhouses in America by numerous critics. It’s pretty impressive, and a good indicator of the quality you’ll find while dining there. And Ringside definitely meets our other criteria – they know how to mix a filthy – yes, filthy – martini, they’ve been in Portland since 1944, their Caesar salad has not only anchovies, but huge shavings of Parmesan cheese, and the restaurant and bar are filled with dark wood and cozy booths and enough boxing paraphernalia to keep you interested, even if your date is a snooze. Or keep your date interested if you’re a snooze. Plus they serve Prime One steaks and top-notch seafood. Are you salivating yet? You should be. Ringside Steakhouse |
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| 5 | Zoom Your Smile We’ve done the white strips, we’ve done the gooey, stinging trays. We’ve nearly gone so far as to order a Made for TV gizmo that promised us a famously bright smile (almost). But we lack patience and those require time to work if they work at all. We want fast results and will pay for it if it does the job, so this is money well spent: We had a Zoom Teeth Whitening treatment from cosmetic dentist Dr. Keith Norton. He is the Zoomer to the stars in this town. And so we went in, and zip, zap, zoom, shazam! Out we went with incredibly white, sparkling teeth. If you’re not familiar with the Zoom Teeth Whitening treatment, as seen on Extreme Makeovers, basically they put this gel on your teeth and flash this light on it that kills these teeth-staining germies on the surface, so you get up to 8 shades whiter! No pain, no gain, right? Well, other than having to hold your trap open for a while, it’s really not that uncomfy. Plus you can think of it as your quiet time and plug into their iPod and pretend you’re somewhere else. And you walk out, voila, with a gleaming smile. Done! Now we can spend less time with the strips and more time contemplating the next color we need for a pedicure…or the theories of quantum physics. We don’t know. But we do know that for some reason we feel younger, prettier…and dare we say…smarter? This is definitely something to smile about. Keith R. Norton, DDS |
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| 6 | Spy-Worthy Nightlife After a crazy night out, way past our bedtime, we ended up at Apotheke. We’d heard about it, but we’re not exactly “the beautiful people,” so we tend to shy away from anything too glam or trendy. But it’s located above Andina restaurant in the Pearl, so after filling to the brim with an excellent meal downstairs, we hopped and skipped up to Apotheke and burned off our dinner by the sheer beat of the place. You have to see to believe – it’s almost surreal, like a Scandinavian snow palace you’d see in Bond's “Die Another Day.” |
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| 7 | Happy-Making Pants It can be so depressing to shop for pants. And if, like a needle in a haystack , we find a pair that doesn’t make our butt look big, we wear them every single day thereafter and we wish, oh how we wish, we had bought 12 of them in every color. Well, we have found a clever new store that makes custom, made-to-fit, fine women's clothing in flattering, skinny styles. It’s Opal Creative and it goes like this... A variety of finished designs are displayed on mannequins to show the silhouettes, fabrics and finishes that they offer. At the moment, there are four skirt styles - a pencil, a princess seam with flare, a contour skirt and an A-line with a front pleat - something for every shape. They have samples of 10 different sizes in each silhouette, so that you will always be able to test any style on your body and see for yourself what looks good. If you want to move forward with designing one or more styles, they gather your measurements…providing you with close-fitting knit pants (so you don’t have to stand there nakey). The measurements are later plugged in to their software, which they have programmed according to their styles and patternmaking expertise, to draft individual patterns for each person...so cool. Then you determine design elements, hem length, fabrics, the whole shebang, and they are ready for pick-up within 2 weeks of ordering. So now you can find your skinny clothes (and order 12 of them). Opal Creative |
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| 8 | Banish That Stress! There’s a new game in town, Palaquin Massage, and they are now a regular part of our stress–management program. On our first visit we went in with a bundle of tight neck and shoulder muscles, clenched jaw, and a crazy mind, and left feeling like we had a restful night’s sleep. Honest. When you get a massage from a Palaquin therapist, they're not going to tell you that your chakras are misaligned or that your aura is yellow when it should be blue. Instead, they'll be efficiently working on your tired, stressed muscles, allowing you to return to whatever it is that you do feeling invigorated. No pixie dust. No mood rings. Just simple, effective massage. They call the end-result "The Massage Face." It's the face you have when you get up from the table or chair: a blissed-out, ready-to-summit-Everest kind of look. And it means they've done their job; they’ve found the spots where you experience pain or tension, and worked within your level of comfort to eliminate them. Fifteen minutes is often all it takes. But if it's a little longer, they'll work with you. Whatever it takes to get you feeling your best. Try Palaquin and see; it's time well-spent. They even make office visits. Gather your co-workers around for a relaxing, rejuvenating lunch-hour that will leave you all with more energy for a productive afternoon. (Hint, hint...forward this to your boss!) Palaquin Massage |
 palaquin.com |
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| CD of the Week: | |||
| The Magnetic Evan Johansen When Evan Johansen was 13 years old, a doctor referred him to a half-Chinese, half-Indian medicine man to see if this medicine man could cure Evan’s anemia. This doctor gave him a tattoo of a magnet, colored with “special” ink. Evan passed out from the pain, but woke to find that he was miraculously cured. “I was stupid enough to believe it, but believing can work wonders,” he says. “To this day I have not suffered from anemia once. I am a magnet.” It was this experience that led Evan Johansen to being called “Magnet.” |
 amazon.com |
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| Quick Chick Picks: Must Haves for Summer | |||
| 1 | The rubber watch - perfect for summer at the beach, exclusively from vivre.com.
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 vivre.com |
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| 2 | The long halter dress – so Cher, so 70s, so comfy cool for summer.
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 intermixonline.com |
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| 3 | Break-up cards - better than a post-it note, not as easy as email, you’re busy this summer...get it done.
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 eevil.org |
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| 4 | The most gorgeous swimwear in the whole wide world - if only we looked this good in it. We’re buying it and tacking it to the fridge.
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 jodemer.com |
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| 5 | Nothing like the summer halter top - like this patchwork halter by Ranna Gill.
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 vivre.com |
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| 6 | For a lower-fat ice cream, lose the cow and get a goat - Laloo's Goat's Milk Ice Cream Co. is the answer (we swear!)
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 laloos.com |
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Hip Happenings: |
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| 1 | Be Inspired – BecomeX Be inspired. BecomeX, one of our favorite local non-profits, empowers young women to celebrate who they are and encourages them to embrace the possibility of who they might become. Get it, BecomeX…it’s all about helping young women live lives directed by choice, rather than circumstance. The BecomeX program affords young women an opportunity to build a base of awareness and direction that will last a lifetime! Two sessions will be offered this Summer: the High School track runs July 10-15, and the Young Adult track runs from July 24-29. Visit www.BecomeX.org to fill out a program application and to learn more, or call 503.222.2087. |
 BecomeX.org |
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| 2 | Looking for Something To Do Today? Devine within Reach Here’s something fabulous to do this evening: Head down to Bridgeport Village to join Design Within Reach as they welcome Gretchen Schauffler, founder of Devine Color and author of “Devine Color: When Color Sings.” Schauffler has become a familiar name to the color-conscious with her line of paint and wall coverings, in-home color consultations and recently published book. Making color theory accessible to everyone, she has been featured in USA Today, the Washington Post, OUT Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, O at Home and on The View. She will give a short talk, using DWR merchandise to demonstrate her color theories and translating them into contemporary settings, and will then be available for a Q&A and book signing. Food will be provided by Chef Bryan Colombo of Momentum Catering. Devine Within Reach Today! Friday, June 30, from 3-5 p.m. 7475 SW Bridgeport Road Tigard, OR 97224 503.684.2048 www.dwr.com |
 dwr.com |
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| 3 | Local Business Named Best of the Best! The Lippman Company, Portland’s favorite party store, was recently awarded the “2006 Party Retailer of the Year” award by Greetings Magazine, the only trade publication devoted to the greeting card, stationery products and party goods markets—an industry that generates billions in annual sales. The Lippman Company, founded in 1948 and now a Portland institution, is a third-generation family business that has been locally owned and operated since its inception. The business has grown and developed a great deal over the years and has adapted to the changing needs of both its retail and wholesale customers. The judges commented that “innovative in-store promotional events, clever advertising, ongoing media exposure, and unique business add-ons such as a party-supply rental business and a 3,000-square-foot event space (Studio Ten-FIFTY)” all contributed to The Lippman Company winning the award. Stop by The Lippman Company to see what makes them “the best of the best”! The Lippman Company |
 lippmancompany.com |
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| 4 | Henri and Sarah Store-Front Closure Sale! Save huge at henri and sarah children's clothier during the Month of July! The last day of business at the store-front location is July 31, 2006, but you can always visit the online store. For some fabulous savings visit the store! You’ll find incredible savings on items like Serena & Lily bedding at 20% off, DwellBaby bedding at 20% off, and PetuniaPickle Bottom Bags at 15% off. Plus, there are great savings on Zutano, Tea Collection, Icky Baby, KC Parker, Dogwood, Petit Bateau and IPlay SwimWear! The online store will continue to carry many of your favorite brands and the owners look forward to continuing their relationship with all their beautiful customers. It will be hard to say goodbye, but they look forward to hearing from you online! henri and sarah children's clothier |
 henriandsarah.com |
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| 5 | Get Happy at Balvo Balvo introduces their new Summer Happy Hour Menu, available early and late, seven days and nights a week, early from 4:30-6:30 p.m., and late from 9 to close. Balvo’s new Happy Hour features an expanded food menu with a range of offerings from $2 to $6, including Fritto Misto (a seasonal assortment of crisp-fried fresh vegetables), Polpettine (little veal meatballs breaded and fried with lemon dressing), Antipasti Misti (a daily assortment of cured meats, cheese and vegetables), and gelato. |
 balvo.com |
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What's your favorite store in Portland? We'd love to know! Is it a special shoe store you return to again and again? A boutique where they know your name, and your dress size? Let us know! Maybe we'll pop in…we’ll find out anyway, but won’t you feel better if you’re the saucy gal who tips us off? After all…it’s just shopping…but it’s what we do. |
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