The Salem Creative Network celebrates Mardi Gras tonight with a benefit for Haiti and 60 jazz musicians at the Grand Ballroom and Theatre. A $5 donation get you in and we have mask for sale ($2-$25) made by the Open Studio artist from f-stop visual arts center.

So tivo NCIS, American Idol and the Olympics; Salem is ALIVE tonight and re3veling in a shared community experience. Shake off the isolation and stroll through downtown with the merry musicians. Most pub crawl venues are throwing parties too. See you there!

Join us this month for tons of networking opportunities. Tonight, we’re inaugurating Eat Salem at Vietnam and Saigon Restaurants downtown. This is a new project with eatsalem.com where we meet monthly at different restaurants and socialize. We will visit at least two places so participants can try and compare cuisine. Splitting entrees is encouraged. 5:00 p.m. at Vietnam (364 Center St NE) and 6:30 at Saigon (477 Court St NE) are the selections for tonight.

The Willamettte Valley Wine Walk’s blind wine tasting at Tea Party Bookshop was a hit last month. We will meet there from 6-8 pm. Please bring a bottle of your favorite pinot noir to test against other wines. NOTE: We are skipping Travel Salem’s Travel Cafe due to a schedule conflict. We will return there in March.

We need volunteers for the huge MARDI GRAS fundraiser at the Grand Ballroom and Theater Tuesday, February 16. There are 60 musicians performing from 7-midnight and we want to make the event run smoothly. We’re looking for door staff, a stage manager, two stage gophers, four OLCC servers and general help. Email me if you would like to help. This is a fundraiser for the Red Cross relief effort for Haitian earthquake victims.

On Friday the 19th, we’ll continue the Mardi Gras party at the Creative Pub Crawl so keep those beads warm and masks intact.

For those that just want dessert while networking, we’re offering Just Desserts on Friday the 26th. We’ll meet at Cafe Noir at 6:00 p.m. and continue on to Napoleon’s and search for Salem’s best creme brulee.

There will be a Salem Creative Network fundraising dinner on Sunday, February 28th at Zena Timber featuring lamb shanks to close out the month of February. Tickets are $30 and are going fast. Seating is limited to 30 people. We will unveil our 2010 goals, political action committee and business advocacy group at the dinner.

Whew! Let’s keep this train rolling, it’s picking up speed!

Ross

6:00 Copperjohn’s
6:45 Brown’s Towne Lounge
7:30 Venti’s Cafe and Basement Bar
8:15 Pete’s Place
9:00 Magoo’s Sports Bar
9:45 Cokie’s Landing
10:30 FlipSide!

Next Crawl – MARDI GRAS! Friday Feb. 19

Salem Creative Network is officially a nonprofit! We filed the paper work last week with the State of Oregon, incorporating the Salem Creative Network as a 501 (c)(3) organization with the mission to provide creative solutions for social innovation.

It’s time to celebrate!

Join us tonight, Friday, January 15 on the monthly Willamette Valley Wine Walk. We’re visiting four venues and our first retail storefront – Tea Party Bookshop, where we’ll hold our first BLIND WINE TASTING.

Please bring a bottle of local red wine and a clean palate.
We will bag your wine, taste it and rank it on a scale from 1 to 10. The highest and lowest scoring wines will win a prize. There is no charge for the blind wine tasting.

6:00 pm Travel Salem’s Travel Cafe with Willamette Valley Vineyards
7:00 pm Tea Party Bookshop with BLIND WINE TASTING
8:00 pm Grand Vines with Local bubblies
9:00 pm Da Vinci Ristorante with House Special
10:00 Cafe Noir with House Special
11:00 FlipSide!

Creative Pub Crawl British Invasion Friday January 22

We have a great six months of pub crawls planned starting with next Friday’s British Invasion. We have changed the format slightly after evaluating the crawler’s feedback and asking the venues for a promotional commitment. There are now 7 venues participating in the pub crawl and we’ll have 45 minutes at each place. Here’s the schedule:

6:00 Copperjohn’s
6:45 Brown’s Towne Lounge
7:30 Venti’s Cafe and Basement
8:15 Pete’s Place
9:00 Magoo’s
9:45 Cokie’s Landing
10:30 FlipSide!

We will have an international theme for each month. February is Mardi Gras and March is Luck of the Irish. Venues are asking that you bring cash rather than plastic to keep things flowing smoothly. Please spread the word.

Downtown Stakeholders Summit

Salem Creative Network is officially a downtown Salem Stakeholder. We have been invited to the Downtown Stakeholder Summit sponsored by the City of Salem 5:30 Thursday, January 28 at the Salem Conference Center. Free refreshments will be provided. Please attend! We would like to influence the decisions being made about the immediate future of downtown Salem.

Due to our pressure during 2009, the City Council has prioritized incentives for nightlife and entertainment as their second highest goal for 2010. We are making an impact and your participation at the summit will increase the chances of our success in creating a downtown that everyone can enjoy.

Thanks again for all that you do to make Salem a better place. We have tons more creative ideas for Salem and will do our best to make them happen. Stay tuned for more updates.

Ross

Celebrating six months of the Salem Creative Network at Travel Salem.

So here we are, six months after a small group of motivated individuals gathered to provide creative solutions for social innovation. The Creative Pub Crawl, Willamette Valley Wine Walk, Salem City Repair, Bicycle Music Festival and establishing a green downtown were planned and implemented when business owners, property owners, community organizers and artists decided to create a new network focused solely on social innovation. We have provided hundreds of programming hours and tens of thousands of dollars to small businesses, artists and musicians. And we have created a structure to support more programming, business advocacy and political action.

Help us celebrate our successes Friday night at the last Creative Pub Crawl of 2009. We’ll start with a 5:00 p.m. pre-crawl art show featuring Jami Moffett at the f-stop, 335 Grove St NE. The crawl moves to Cafe Noir at 6:00 p.m. with live music for our enjoyment. Bring a coat or scarf for her clothing drive to benefit Union Gospel Mission. You can see the full Pub Crawl schedule on our Facebook event page. Please stop by Coffee House Cafe for $1 espresso shots and the Stender Jazz Band and Straight From New York Pizza for $1 slices.

We’re looking forward to more success in 2010 and invite you to be a part of it. Please reply if you’re interested in planning or participating in future Salem Creative Network efforts.