Archive for “July, 2008”

$4 Gas and Buying Cars

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

I’m just finishing up the last rounds of edits for an article that will run in the September issue of Portland Monthly. I did a slew of interviews and test drove a Smart ForTwo to gauge the new-car market in Portland, now that gas is so ungodly expensive.
The magazine will hit metro-area newsstands around the [...]


Blogging about Blogging

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

I’ve been given a new blog all my own, though it’s still part of the RiverWired.com universe. Check it out at GoodGreenCars.com. There aren’t many posts yet — I heard about it Monday and it went live yesterday — but I’ll be posting more often here than I did on RiverWired.com.
The new blog is all [...]


Why I Love My Job

Friday, July 18th, 2008

I just got back from driving a Maserati, a Dodge Viper, a C63 Mercedes-Benz tuned by AMG, and the Audi S5, among 15 others, through the mountains of Central Oregon. I drove faster and pushed harder through corners than I probably ever have, and the people on the rally were as nice as the cars.
Fellow [...]


Two Days of Driving — for Fun

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

I leave bright and early tomorrow morning to join my fellow Northwest Automotive Press Association members on a two-day jaunt through Central Oregon in a string of fast cars. The organizers lined up everything from a Mazda MX-5 (that’s a Miata) to a Maserati, with the likes of Audi, Volvo, and a Dodge Viper thrown [...]


Article finally sees the light of day

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

I wrote this piece on Subaru tuners for Izmo Autos, a content site, over a year ago. A friend found it on the Internet and told me about it today, since he knew both the author (me) and the subject (local Subie enthusiast Tad Dinsmore).
Getting publication verification from Izmo has been a nightmare. I’m glad [...]


Another article in Portland Monthly

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

Mudroom section editor Kasey Cordell asked if I could do a 150-word piece on kind of short notice, and I said, “Why not?” I think it turned out well. The photo they used of Gary Mortensen is spectacular, which helps. Find it in the July issue of Portland Monthly in the metro area, or on [...]


EV Awareness Day 7-5-08

Monday, July 7th, 2008

I went to Pioneer Courthouse Square Saturday morning to check out EV Awareness Day, held by the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association. There were about a dozen cars and trucks there, from a squared-off Citicar from the early 1970s to a Prius converted to plug-in hybrid technology.
I overheard a woman tell her husband, “He’ll let me [...]


New NY Times article

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Here’s a link to my latest New York Times article, about the Isuzu Trooper that runs on wood chips. I’ll get a PDF in my clips sometime in the next couple of days. It took almost a week’s worth of edits and rewrites and expansions, but I’m happy with how it turned out. What started [...]


Wood-chip powered SUV in the NYT

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

I just finished (I think) the last round of edits for a story I did on Robert “Chip” Beam’s wood-chip-powered Isuzu Trooper. It’ll be in the Sunday New York Times, probably in just the metro edition. But you can always look it up online at nytimes.com/autos, and I’ll post it here on my Clips page.