The official start of spring isn’t until Sunday, but don’t tell that to the all the trees blooming across Portland. So today, here’s your 30 seconds of cherry blossom zen:

Interesting article in this week’s New York Time’s Style Magazine on Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, a sculptor who is gaining recognition for his tapestries ‘woven’ from the aluminum caps of discarded liquor bottles. In spite of their humble provenance, the resulting pieces are lovely—enough to have been “upcycled” into the collection of the Met.

What’s your favorite night skiing spot?

Since moving to Oregon three and a half years ago, one of my favorite winter rituals has become the after-work night ski. With a packed car waiting and long-johns tucked under my work clothes, I duck out of work at 5pm on the button, pick up a few friends, and head for the hills. Soon, rush hour traffic is behind us, route 26 opens up ahead and—on a clear night—the peach-colored slopes of Mt. Hood loom out of the gathering darkness.

This year has been a tough one for skiing on Mt. Hood. After a few early November dumps, the freezing level climbed back up toward an unusually bare summit, leaving many of us with nothing to do but sit in Portland and watch the rain streak down our windows.  But that’s only made more special the few recent late-season dumps, including this past Wednesday when a modest 4” returned Mt. Hood Ski Bowl to form.

It made me think it was time to follow up on Josie’s “Ski Poll” post from last December. An informal survey here in the office saw Ski Bowl as the unanimous favorite: It’s close to town, just well enough lit, and has three of the best beer stubes you could ask for to warm your fingers and toes. But from modest bumps like Bradford Hill in Haverhill, MA to the (often icy) steeps of Snow King in Jackson Hole, WY, there are a lot of contenders. What’s your favorite?

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Cool. Today, Google Maps added an option for bike directions.

Today, our friends at GOOD have offered up just one more reason to give a damn—$500 in Nau gear. Always on the lookout for new and inventive ways to create positive environmental and social change, they’ve partnered with Nau on a contest to “Design an Everyday Solution to an Extraordinary Problem.”

Some would say the pressure is on the scientists, politicians, and business leaders of the world to develop those solutions. But why not you? With this project, we’re hoping you will think about what’s preventing you from acting on your positive impulses, and what inventions might remove those roadblocks. Do you not bike because you live somewhere rainy? Maybe you could invent a handlebar umbrella attachment. Do you hate the way tofu tastes? Maybe you could create a recipe for deep-fried delight. The possibilities are endless.

GOOD is accepting entries through March 31st, so put on your thinking helmet, charge up the idea machine, and fire off your flashes of brilliance by tweeting @GOOD, or by e-mailing projects[at]goodinc[dot]com. The top three solutions will win a $500 Nau gift card. So come on, Thought Kitcheners—what’ve you got? Hit us up in the comments with any ideas you’re thinking of submitting.

(via, or really just with, GOOD.is)

Check out the great photos of Holi, the Hindu “Festival Of Colors” celebrated this past monday, over on Boston.com’s Big Picture. Welcome Spring!

When the modish Hotel Modera opened up in downtown Portland last year, they welcomed guests into a renewed space, one thoroughly overhauled from what had been the threadbare shell of an old Days Inn. Perhaps the most striking part of the renovation, however, was the repurposing of a barren parking lot into a lush courtyard with a beautiful living wall. It’s that wall that keeps drawing me back to the space: the migration of green from the ground level planters onto the vertical plane breaking the horizon of concrete, a modernist reflection of Forest Park tucked away in the heart of downtown.

The landscape architecture blog Inspiration Wall has a nice photographic walking tour of the new courtyard, as well as a close up look at the G-Sky panels that the designers at Lango Hansen used to create the wall. But if you’re looking to bring a green wall into your home, check out today’s Cool Hunting post on Woolly Pocket Planters. Made of recycled plastic bottles, their “Wally” design makes it easy to grow your own vertical garden, indoors or outside. It’s got me looking at walls in and around my home in a whole new way.

(via Inspiration Wall and Cool Hunting, Modera pics © Lisa Town.)

I love long tracking shots in film-making. The car scene in Children Of Men, the “Woo Hoo” scene in Kill Bill Vol. 1, the club scene in Goodfellas. The amount of forethought and preparation that has to go into the blocking, lighting design and camera movement, combined with the dedication it requires to just keep doing it until you get the take—I’m a sucker for it.

Add to the mix the unpredictable chain reaction of a Rube Goldberg machine, however, and you enter a whole new level of masochistic videography. That’s what makes this new video from OK Go (who broke onto the YouTubiverse with their treadmill-based one-shot Here It Goes Again video) so cool. Word is it took 60 takes over two days to get it all to run start to finish. That’s a lot of paint to the face…

Got a favorite one-take scene from a film? Or your own Rube Goldberg machine? Throw a link in the comments down below.

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What does it take for a resort to win the hearts of ski and snowboard enthusiasts? A quick office poll revealed a wide variety of reasons- a memorable champagne powder day, challenging terrain, beautiful views, and the resort closest to home growing up. My favorite is the one that I know well enough to find a fresh stash of powder at the end of the day. What’s yours?

If you need to reach us between now and January, some of us will be testing product at the ski resorts that won us over. Check out the snow reports of our favorite ski area’s and come join us.

Mark: Alta & La Grave
Hal:  Bachelor
Tyson and Libby:   Ski Bowl
Susan:  Mad River Glen
Jamie and Eugenie:   Jackson Hole
Johanna:   Squaw Valley
Ian:  Purgatory
Kristen:   Killington
Josie:   Snowmass & Alpine Meadows

Friends of Nau:
Miriam:  Mt. Baker
Kim:  Big White, Lake Louise, & Zermatt

We love music. We love Portland. We love bikes. And that’s why we love Blind Pilot. Here is a great trailer for a documentary about of one of our favorite bands who took their tour on the road in 2008…by bike. Riding down the coast from Vancouver to San Francisco. These guys (and Katie) are a truly inspirational bunch. They just wrapped up their last tour in Portland with shows that benefited p:ear and the Oregon Food Bank.

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