1. Former Mercury Food Editor Patrick Alan Coleman talks food to students at the Oregon Culinary Institute.

2. On Thursday, former Arts Editor Chas Bowie will discuss Chuck Close at PAM's Monthly Artist Talks series.

On December 9th, Chas Bowie will discuss "Study for Klaus," a gelatin silver print with graphite and ink by Chuck Close. "My guilty secret is that I've always found the human face to be a vastly overrated photographic subject," Bowie reveals. "I don't mean to diminish the incredible portrait work of artists such as Félix Nadar, August Sander, or Rineke Dijkstra, all of whom I admire," he continues, "but I'm pretty sure I would like their work just as much if their subjects had been horses or bowls of fruit. Chuck Close's early photographic portraits seem as if they could have just as easily been landscapes or still-lifes had the dice tumbled a little differently."

That's Thurs Dec 9, 6 pm, $5 members, $12 non-members, tickets here.