From now until the end of October there’s going to be free and fun things to do in downtown Portland. It’s a new program sponsored by Portland Mall Management, Inc. who’s partnered with Trimet and Pioneer Courthouse Square in an effort to bring more people to the Transit Mall. It's called Mondays on the Mall.

One of the free activities is something called Fliptography. It calls for someone to do whatever they want in front of a camera for 7 seconds in a row. Their camera takes still shots consecutively and they print them out and run the proof through a cutter that separates the pictures. Then they put it together into a little book and you ‘flip’ through it, by holding the book in one hand and using your thumb and index finger of the other hand, flip the pages, watching the pictures as the pages go by. The pictures appear to move and show you much the way the seven seconds of film looked. They’re doing it for free at different locations along the Transit Mall.

Another free and fun activity is the Wii game truck. The whole side of a panel truck is a giant screen, and you hold the game stick and play it outside. Everyone gets to watch and have fun, too. They have bowling, sports games and Rock Band. Again, it's free.

There’s going to be other fun free activities, too. The Sellwood Marimba Band, Kansas City Rhythm Kings, Dance Fusion NorthWest, The Closet Monsters, Buckman Marimba and Ensemble will perform either in the Transit Mall or one of the other locations off SW 5th and/or 6th Avenues. There will also be someone available to draw a caricature of you, too!

They actually have a schedule worked out and you can find it at www.freefundowntown.org, but for your convenience I’ll tell you what it is for next week, April 5th.

• Fliptography will be in Unico Plaza (SW 6th & Oak) from 11:30am to 1:30pm.
• The Wii on the Mall game truck location will be announced soon but it will be played from 10am to 6pm. Check the website.
• The Sellwood Marimba Band will play on 6th Avenue from noon to 2pm.

Next Monday, April 5th I’ll be there doing all the free fun things to do, and I‘ll take a slide-show of photos for you. Want to meet me there? Email me or leave a comment and we’ll talk.