In Portland, public transportation is a culture unto itself. I suppose that’s true of all major cities, but it’s especially valid here, in a city considered to have one of the best transit systems in the country. Combine the ease of getting around with the other things that make Portland so Portlandian, and that makes…
OK, I don’t know if non-hardcore basketball fans will find this video as hilarious as I do, so maybe it requires some context: For years, the highlight of NBA All-Star Weekend was the annual Dunk Contest. It produced such memorable moments as Michael Jordan vs. Dominique Wilkins in 1988, 5-foot-7-inch Spud Webb dominating the field…
How many times have you heard Portland referred to as “the Paris of the Northwest”? Oh, never? Well, perhaps it makes sense, then, that the French appear to be nearly as fascinated with Portland as the New York media is. But even Brooklyn hasn’t had a Portland-themed cultural festival (yet, anyway). In April, the Paris-based…
Just a few weeks ago, Portland-via-New Zealand psyche-breakbeat three-piece Unknown Mortal Orchestra premiered the Lynchian video for “Thought Ballune,” a highlight off its great 2011 self-titled debut. Now, here’s yet another clip for a song off that album. This time around, instead of going in the kooky-creepy direction, the video nods toward ’70s spy films,…
YACHT member and my partner-in-blogging Claire Evans is much too modest to post this herself, so I’ll go ahead and do the honors. Typically, just leaving Portland for Los Angeles — let alone writing a song describing L.A. as utopia — is an offense to Stumptown punishable by death (or, y’know, a stern finger-wag), but…
(Photo by Todd Mecklem) Hey guys: So, I realize it is pretty late to change any Valentine’s Day plans, but it’s not too late. Especially if you’re planning on taking your date to any of the places I’ve listed below. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with these establishments 364 days out of the year.…
Yeah, yeah. I know I’m a couple days late with this. But Portland itself was disturbingly late jumping on the “Ish People Say” meme, anyway. Seriously, I thought we’d be one of the first cities to produce one of these videos. Now we’re about a month behind. I guess we’re not as hip as we…
It’s often said that English is the hardest language to learn. A classroom setting can only teach so much; Portland-based instructional Web site English, baby! goes beyond the typical curriculum, teaching non-native speakers the way Americans really converse. Among other methods, the site employs celebrities — particularly NBA players, but also musicians like Sheryl Crow…
Earlier today, Barack Obama’s reelection team unveiled the campaign’s official playlist — that is, the songs that will be used to (literally) drum up support for the president at rallies and other big events. It’s a predictable mix of new and old, rock and soul, country and pop, with a questionable abundance of Darius Rucker,…
In a city where bands should be considered on the census, for musicians, simply writing good songs isn’t enough. You need to have a Thing. Whether it’s playing toy instruments or making beats from the sound of crying babies or recruiting your cat as a full-fledged member (foreshadowing!), an extra level of ingenuity is required…
For two years now, Into the Woods has been documenting Portland’s vibrant music culture with the dogged persistence (and technical slickness) of National Geographic. Capturing bands in both their natural and unnatural habitats — at their homes, in fast-food restaurants and, indeed, in the woods — the site acts not just as an index of…
Martin Cizmar moved to Portland last year as a skinny man. I bring up his weight because 1) he struggled with it for years, 2) he wrote an entire book about losing it, and 3) as a new-ish resident of one of the country’s rising culinary meccas, he’d like to keep it off. In the…
Earlier today on IFC.com, we premiered the new video from rising Portland dream-pop act Radiation City, which featured the band dragging a beautiful-looking old piano into a field and artfully bashing the ever-loving heck out of it with a sledgehammer. Well, now it’s time for something completely different. In this latest clip from Portland’s bearded…
Yes, I know this is the blog for “Portlandia,” not “Whisker Wars.” What’s more Portlandian than a big ol’ bushy beard, though? The only thing that comes closest to screaming “I’m from Portland” more is a ridiculous mustache. It’s no surprise, then, that the Crystal Ballroom would be absolutely packed at 3 p.m. on a…
Portland-based frayed-funk band Unknown Mortal Orchestra knows how to party. Or, at least, directors Jordan Blady and Ryan Knowles know what a typical Portland house party looks like. In this new clip for “Thought Ballune,” a slinkin’-and-slidin’ standout from the group’s excellent 2011 self-titled debut, a dude who looks like your average PDX record store…
When it comes to music, Portland starts ‘em young. In a city with one of the best music scenes in the country, there’s no need to force-feed our youth brainless kiddy music. Why listen to Kidz Bop when Red Fang is playing right down the street? School of Rock certainly agrees. Last Friday at the…
On the day Michael Jackson died in 2009, The Woods opened its doors in the Southeast Portland neighborhood of Sellwood. It was a slightly morbid coincidence: Before being repurposed into a concert venue, the building was home—for close to eight decades—to a funeral parlor. That night, however, in between inaugural sets from the Portland Cello…
On last week’s “Portlandia,” we learned just how far Portlanders will travel for a bizarrely obscure cocktail—all the way to the badlands of Los Angeles. Luckily, most of us don’t have to go much further than up the street (or, y’know, to the Pearl) to find a mixed drink you never knew existed because you…
As we all know, the world is ending this year. (If Roland Emmerich makes a movie about it, then it must be true.) What the Mayans didn’t tell us is exactly what that means. What specific brand of doom is coming our way? Is the earth going to collapse into a giant sinkhole? Are aliens…
Described by some in the local media as “Stephen Colbert as a libidinous sociopath,” Ed Forman is the creation of Portland-born actor-comedian Aaron Ross. A show-biz icon and seriously unqualified self-help guru (a sample of his book titles: “I Will Make You Better, ‘Cause I’m Better Than You!”; “Poop or You’ll Die”; “Foreign People are…
As a Southern California native who moved to Portland more than three years ago, y’know what I’m sick of? My friends and family who still live in California invading my Facebook, text messages and voice mailbox to tell me just how warm and sunny it is there, as I sit and listen to raindrops clatter…
In one season, “Portlandia” created catchphrases and viral videos potent enough to nearly kill off an artistic cliché. If that’s not evidence enough of the show’s impact, just look on YouTube. Sure, searching “Portlandia + parody” won’t yield as many results as, say, “dog with eyebrows”—and really, what can compete with that juggernaut?—but if you’re…
2011 was a big year for Portland. We were sweetly satirized on cable television and think-pieced in the media ad nauseum, and at this point the name of the city could practically apply for dictionary recognition as an adjective for a kind of lifestyle some folks scoff at but secretly envy. As great as this…
In the window of the pink-colored building that houses Northwest Portland’s Peculiarium, there are signs advertising its contents with adjectives such as “Bizarre” and “Shocking.” The ones to pay attention to, however, are those reading, “We Promise Nothing” and “Not So Unusual, Actually.” Although it sounds like a knock-off of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!—or…
