Sockeye.tv

An Aquarium of Ideas – Port of Portland

The Port of Portland is awesome!

Even if we don’t realize it, the Port of Portland plays a huge role in every Portlanders life. In short, they help make things move.

Ever wonder how your french fries got from a farm in Idaho onto your plate? Or why our airport is ranked as one of the Best in the Nation? Or ever wonder about who directs all the barges cruising the river? Yep, the Port helps make that happen.

Well, not only are they lovely people that help our beautiful city run, they also care about artists and art. They recently asked some NW artists to create pieces for their new headquarters (which also happens to be one of six U.S. structures recognized as the world’s most high-tech green buildings). These pieces ranged from enormous movable metal sculptures to traditional woodcarvings. And we were fortunate enough to make a short film about it. Very inspirational.

Enjoy.

Port of Portland Artist Video

Congrats!!

We’re not an agency that brags about ourselves. We don’t tend to wax on about our work or our awesome clients that let us do work we love. So when someone else notices, well, it’s nice. And it seems people have noticed because Travel Portland and Sockeye won a 2010 Silver Telly Award!! (The Silver is their TOP award, since there is no gold…go figure.)

CONGRATULATIONS TO EVERYONE!!!

Including but not limited to: Travel Portland (Greg Newland, Courtney Ries, Jeff Miller), the entire Sockeye team (Andy, Pete, Erin, John F., John G., Laura, Mr. Westby, Me), Tom Grissom, Joe Spencer, Brad Reeb, Alfonz Swinehart, all our friends, family, random acquaintances, and basically anyone that helped us make it happen. Congratulations.

Truly a labor of love. And what’s not to love—it’s about Portland. While it’s not here yet, we have already designated a special spot right next to our other Telly’s. Good times.

Cinco De Drinko

We at Sockeye love holidays. Whether it’s National Handwriting Day or Mr. T’s Birthday, anything that’s an excuse for fun, revelry and beverages gets an A+ in our book. Cinco de Mayo is no exception. So to commemorate the Mexican Army’s defeat of the French in 1862, we did what any good neighbor would do, we raised our margaritas, dipped our chips and attacked a helpless paper donkey (it never stood a chance). Feliz Cinco de Mayo Amigos!!

How to make your own awesome Cinco de Mayo Party

1 Part Sombrero
1 Part Guacamole
1 Part Salsa
2 Part Chips
1 Over-Stuffed Donkey Pinata
Lots of Tequila

Cue the Mariachis…

Sockeye and Live Wire! Radio Team up
to Completely Change the Internet

Cheryl VanClacken just may be the most annoying talk show host this world has ever known. She’s a bad listener, she has terrible hair, and is prone to near-psychotic outbursts. But other than that, she’s adorable! And she KNOWS SAVINGS!

Hosted by Perky Portland Dealhound Cheryl VanClacken, P.U.P. is the first-ever Internet morning program devoted entirely to the savings found in the Portland Perks Coupon Book! And get this! The 1st Episode’s guest is none other than singer/songwriter/rockstar/playright/actress/multi-hyphenate STORM LARGE!

It took a collective total of exactly 300 cups of coffee for the folks at Sockeye (that’s us) and LiveWire! Radio (that’s Courtenay Hameister and bunch of other super-talented people) to come up with PERK UP, PORTLAND!, the latest Internet sensation produced for a good friend of ours named Travel Portland.

And the fans have spoken, and they give Ms. Large glowing reviews for her first-ever appearance on an Internet show devoted to Portland Perks.

Pick up your Portland Perks package today!

Chinese New Year at Lan Su

We recently took a short jaunt down to the Lan Su Chinese Garden. And what did we find? Dr. Ed Yang of the NW Art Academy entertaining with music and calligraphy. His playing ability somehow combines tranquil and upbeat notes into a catchy tune. So we recorded it, natch.

Dr. Yang is just one part of the festivities in the Gardens during Chinese New Year 2010. The whole event culminates in their annual Lantern Viewing on Sunday night. It’s a finale of finales, including hundreds of floating lights. See you there!

-Andrew

Sockeye Creative + Chelsea Cain

EQUALS FUN.

For our latest video series here at Sockeye, we joined so many forces it would make Luke Skywalker jealous. Novelists, musicians, performers and actors all came together in the name of supporting Portland. First up, New York Times Bestselling author Chelsea Cain. She recently completed “Evil At Heart”, the third book in her Heart series of thriller novels (available at Powells Books and on Kindle). Chelsea can now add Screen Actor to her resume.

Photography by Cory Tepper. More imagery can be blinked at here.

Sockeye Says Thanks

A big Gobble Gobble, er, Thanks, to everyone who joined us here at Sockeye for our THANKS Party last Wednesday! It was an occasion to remember, or not, depending on how many Turkey ‘tinis you imbibed. So in other words, Rob has very limited recollection of the evening and was quite confused as to why he woke up with a painting of a salmon eating a turkey on his forehead. Everyone had a rollicking good time mingling with friends both old and new, sipping Oregon wines and beers, and nibbling delicious appetizers by Artemis Catering, and as all who attended can attest to, we took painting by numbers to a whole new level. Wonder how much we can get for this masterpiece on eBay? Enough to cover the carpet cleaning bill? Sold!

View our Flickr party album

Here’s a time-lapse video of our paint-by-numbers Sockeye:

Travel Portland!

–by James Westby

We here at Sockeye love the Rose City. We heart Stumptown. We think that Rip City equals AWESOME. Bridgetown rules the earth, says us.

Sorry– that was annoying. But–

…the clearly MAD CRUSH we have on our hometown of Portland, OR has at long last been condensed, filtered, compressed, encapsulated, if you will– into this 4-minute sales video for our awesome, forward-thinking client TRAVEL PORTLAND (formerly POVA– bonus points if you know the acronym!). Sure, the video covers some of the PDX classics like Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Powell’s Books, but when was the last time you saw a Portland video featuring seriously high-speed bicycling through Ladd’s Addition, or the owner of Hopworks balancing on a beer keg logger-style? Uh-huh, didn’t think so.

Try not to GASP as you check out the time-lapse photography of the Chinese Garden! And the visual splendor of the Sokol Blosser Winery! Or the man near the end of the video REALLY enjoying his potato chips!

All your local favorites are shown here– the Pearl District, PSU Farmer’s Market, Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course, and of course all the beloved sights on SE 82nd Avenue (hee hee kidding). In addition, we feature side trips to such nearby destinations as the gorgeous (pun intended!) Columbia River Gorge, the breathtaking Oregon Coast, and the very tall and imposing Mt. Hood.

With music by local artists March Fourth Marching Band and Poddington Bear, it is our hope that this video will make the WHOLE WORLD want to move to Portland.

Oh, wait… um… uh…

Here, watch!

Storm Large’s Vagina
Has Been Viewed By 154,000 People (And Counting).

–By James Westby

Kidding! Sort of! The truth is that Sockeye has produced its first-ever music video, and it is for Storm’s hit song “8 Miles Wide.”

The consensus around here was that it would be quite liberating to do a video for a song that features the word VAGINA so much. As it turns out, the song is a metaphor for female empowerment, and is a pean to Portland, freedom, and to women of all shapes and sizes.

But it really does have the word “vagina” in it a lot…

Our video (posted here) has been viewed 154,000 times as of this writing, and shows no signs of slowing. Actually, it has slowed a little. But not all that much! And we continue to get emails daily, saluting our singular vision and/or condemning our childlike prurience.

Starring Storm herself (duh) and band members James Beaton and Davey Loprinzi, this vigantic (ha ha, you’ll see) video also features cameos by Portland icons Rick Emerson, Marc Acito, Malice 666, and many others.

Furthermore, the public loves it! Here is a small sampling of YouTube text comments for Eight Miles Wide:

“Woo hoo! PORTLAND!”

“WTF! hahahahaha”

“OMG ha ha ha ha lol lmao”

“Isn’t she the chick from “Puke in my mouth?”

Don’t know what this last one means, but we are pretty sure it is positive…

Enjoy.