words to remember from Lawrence Rinder as I prepare to attend and write about the big Core Sample show in Portland, which opens 11 Oct.: "The saddest thing going on these days in Portland is the yearning for recognition from afar, the aspiration to an imagined normalcy which seems to motivate a number of up and coming art enthusiasts. When you have a chance to be anything, why would you cultivate, as Jef Jahn advises, the tepid success of a Julie Mehretu or even the vapid stardom of a Matthew Barney? And why the cloying need to be appreciated by someone from out of town? Athens (Greece, not Georgia) had far fewer citizens than Portland and you can bet that they didn't measure their success by the sheen of their reputation in Corinth. "