2008 May 22 - Portland Events, Music, Art, Entertainment, Sustainability | PDXPIPELINE.com | Portland Events, Music, Art, Entertainment, Sustainability

This play smells like musk: A review of The Labyrinth of Desire

May 22, 2008 — PDXPIPELINE

posted by diana bayless Labyrinth of Desire - image from milagro.org

The Miracle Theatre Group (525 SE Stark) is now in the middle of its run of an intimate-set play called The Labyrinth of Desire. The theatre is more known for its Spanish spoken plays, but Caridad Svich adapted a Lope de Vega play into an English-language script, and Devon Allen directs this whimsical production.

The play was a humorous and melodramatic roller coaster, with enough momentum to keep the entertainment going. But just like a roller coaster, a constant up and down with no turns can get annoying pretty quickly. Mid way through, I realized, in the choppy way the characters were thrown together, that we were in for a bumpy course before it would get interesting again. However, an eclectic mix of theatrical elements made the production unique: a European setting (think Spain and Italy), current-day props (think cell phones), and Shakespearean dialogue (complete with swooning and dramatic formality).

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Portland's "Free-Internet" Provider, MetroFi, Bites The Dust

May 22, 2008 — Julian Chadwick

Well,

A service that barely worked anyway appears to be out the door. Here is the email I just received from them:

Dear MetroFi User,

It is with regret that we notify you of our intentions to discontinue
offering the MetroFi FREE and MetroFi Premium services in Portland. We are
in the process of negotiating with a 3rd party network operator to keep the
network in place, and during this time your services will not be affected.
As soon as we know the outcome of these negotiations, we will provide you
with further information.

Thank you,
The MetroFi Team

Who might that 3rd party be you might ask…well, how about the city of Portland and more of our tax money? Because, that is what they are trying to do. For the most part, I am decently happy with Portland's city government. I don't expect much I guess except not screwing things up. Well, this was a huge screw-up! Can the city sue these people? Sam Adams, come on…do it.

What's even more upsetting is that it could have easily been avoided by having the city build, operate, and own the system. OR, how about those guys at Personal Telco who have been doing a great job for years and continue to do so?

Ridiculous…you can read some of my previous pieces on this garbage and see a couple lies MetroFi wrote back