The 2012 "Dead Memories Portland" calendar is now available—it's a great, nostalgic photo collection of now-gone Portland landmarks. My dad got one for Christmas last year. He's probably going to get another one this year.

There's also a release party for the calendar on Monday at the Boiler Room, if you want to pick one up in person; Kevin Michael Moore, the calendar's creator, is a local comedian who will be hosting a standup open mic at 9 pm followed by karaoke at 11. Details here; and for further reading, here's a piece I wrote about the Dead Memories Portland project last year, with a great comment thread full of real and fake local history facts.

While poking around the site, I ran across a reference to Alpenrose Dairy's Storybook Lane, which prompted some surprisingly fruitful Googling—apparently Christmas in Dairyville is back this year, after a six-year hiatus, in partnership with Multnomah County 4-H. All you people who have produced smaller people: It's a fun, free thing to do—Dairyville is a fake Western town that gets all decorated, and they set up fairytale tableaux with real farm animals in 'em, and uh... it's pretty neat if you're 5. Also, did you know that Alpenrose has a go-kart track? It DOES.