Keep Portland Weird

As seen in this ubiquitous bumper sticker (co-opted from "Keep Austin Weird!"), Portland is proud to be weird. Through outlets such as the new TV series Portlandia the proudly weirdo culture of Portland has become increasingly well-known across the country.

However, I didn't know about Portland's reputation until after I got here in November*, and in the four-ish months I've been living in the area I hadn't really participated in anything especially Portlandy. So I decided to make today a Super Portland Day:

1. I had heard on the radio that this weekend was the annual Portland Urban Iditarod, run through the streets of downtown Portland with shopping carts instead of sleds and people instead of dogs. They had me at shopping carts, so today I went down to check out the action. I headed downtown in my car without knowing beforehand where I should go to catch the race, but I had no trouble finding it because once I got within four blocks of the course I could hear what sounded sounded like the world's most raucous party:



I had a blast watching this. The shopping cart-sled template pulled out a zany, childlike energy out of all these twenty- and thirty-somethings that was absolutely infectious. I was dazzled by the sheer amount of creativity and bravado on the part of every single team and loved how this wacky event provided a mode of self-expression that didn't hurt anyone and just came off as a giant celebration of life. Any kind of social or political gesture that may have been made was softened by the absurdity of it all, such as the mock fistfight captured in this video:



2. If you look at the other side of the street in that second video you can see the tents and booths of the Portland Saturday Market. They had taken a winter hiatus at the end of December and had just started the market back up again last weekend. It reminded me of a smaller-scale Ann Arbor Art Fair (to be fair, this does run from March to December, whereas the Art Fair in Ann Arbor, while massive, only lasts a week), with the same kind of hippie arts and crafts and live music (I saw a rootsy Americana group called The Conjugal Visitors).

3. I stopped at the downtown Portland branch** of the Multnomah County Library to pick up a library card. About 6 weeks ago I moved to Beaverton in adjacent Washington County, and as a resident of a neighboring county they granted me a card. I don't imagine I'll make the trip out to use their libraries very often, but one of the perks of membership is access to a service called Freegal Music. They have a huge library of music and I am allowed three free downloads per week through my library card. Score! (A shout-out to my sister Emily and her incredible deal-finding powers for that tip.)

4. Before leaving the downtown I picked up a gyro at one of Portland's famous food carts. These carts are so awesome - they are tiny little stalls or trucks or campers that set up shop on the outside edge of parking lots facing the sidewalk. They are everywhere (the internet says there are over 400 in downtown Portland) and they have a staggering range of choices, whether it be hot dogs and burgers or Vietnamese Phở.

5. Portland is a major player in the shoe market; my new house is just a few blocks away from the Nike World Campus where there are dozens of buildings and a big beautiful artificial lake that I've jogged past along the public-access running trails. Adidas also has its U.S. headquarters in Portland, and Yahoo! recently gave all of its employees a pass to the Adidas employee store with a 50%-off coupon. I went there today and ended up getting a good deal on the pair of shoes on the left, which are the lightest, most comfortable things I've ever put on my feet - it's like wearing a cloud covered in pillow feathers. I've never had a pair of shoes with such loud, funky colors, but maybe I was emboldened by the lack of inhibition I witnessed at the Urban Iditarod.

6. My Portland day isn't quite over yet, so if you'll excuse me I've got to go put some birds on things:



*Shortly after I got here I read an article in the Oregonian newspaper called "Is Portland the New Neverland?" that made me feel like such a cliché. Like many of the people profiled in the article I was in my late twenties, I had a degree (or three) in the arts, I was unemployed and uncertain about my next move, I was living with my sister, and I had been drawn in by Portland's magnetic pull. I guess I lost a lot of my Portland hipster cred by turning thirty, getting a job (in the tech industry, no less), and moving out of my sister's house.

**This library branch also has a large, beautiful children's section named after beloved Portland author Beverly Cleary. Apparently she named several characters after Portland landmarks (i.s. Quimby St.) and set most of her stories in the city. Sidenote: Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, is also from Portland and he named many characters after street names. As a Simpsons fan it is fun to drive down Flanders Street, Lovejoy Street, or Terwilliger Boulevard.