Oh for fuck's sake - we are not WORTHY of your presence! Thank YOU for temporarily gracing our town with your awesomeness and teaching us the wonders of living life to the fullest.... like YOU!!! If only we could just absorb one tiny iota of your aura we could finally experience true bliss and happiness. Teach us, o-anointed one!!!
Oh, and don't let our collective boots get crammed in your ass when when we kick it as you slink out of town. Sooner the better.... and you forgot to complain about the weather here!!!
Classic. I always imagine letters like this are written by a 21 year old who moved here 6 months ago from Omaha, can't make any friends, isn't an overnight indie rockstar and is frustrated because Portland DIDN'T magically make their lives perfect like the blogs and cutesy tv show said it would!
Boohoo. Portland isn't the magical fantasyland you were expecting? The Go Fuck Yourself express departs the station anytime you'd like it to. For your next "Cool City Living Adventure," don't have such high expectations.
This is asinine, obnoxious, and extremely banal, so I don't want to talk about that. I want to try and explain the "Keep Portland Weird" slogan in a nutshell, since people often seem confused by it or irritated by it, or both. It's the longstanding local version of "Keep Austin Weird," because the two cities have certain things in common, such as being places where you can find independent venues and other cultural centers, non-corporate-chain businesses, grassroots organizations, communities of LGBTQ sexuality and other things considered "weird" in most parts of the country. The idea is that people should keep supporting these things so that they can go on existing, and so that people who are square pegs in one way or another can find acceptance at least some of the time. Things like gay bashing still happen but most people at least realize that in addition to just being wrong, it goes against what Portland is supposed to represent, for many of us anyway.
Idiotic ranting about "hipsters" seems to be some sort of backlash against all this, with "hipster" potentially meaning anything that doesn't exist in, or goes against the dominant mores of, most of the rest of the country in the world of suburban sprawl and urban spaces even more thoroughly corporatized/sanitized than Portland is. In addition to being vague, such complaints never seem to get beyond "they're annoying" and never offer anything in opposition to what's being complained about. If all the "hipster crap," whatever that may be, disappeared tomorrow, the complainers never offer the slightest notion of what kind of crap should replace it.
@geyser, "Keep Portland Weird" is actually a very successful corporate marketing campaign by a consortium of local businesses (notably Cinema 21 and Music Millennium). They just want you to buy their products and services, and as long as you're doing that, I doubt they care much about the other things on your laundry list of "weird" things Portland has in common with Austin.
My impression was that the Music Millennium founder introduced the slogan here quite a while ago for the reasons I was discussing, of which supporting local independent businesses was one. Of course local businesses benefit financially from a campaign to encourage people to support them. I imagine that was the point. Anyway, who controls the slogan legally doesn't really change or limit it's underlying meaning: the broader spirit of the slogan still exists, which is why many people here still use it.
My own criticism of the slogan is that it seems a little played out and watered-down into a kind of shallow identity based on complacency and self-satisfaction. I don't think it should be about that. To the Oregonian, one of the things that counts as "weird" in this sense is hybrid car ownership. I don't believe there's anything weird whatsoever about driving a Prius etc. and it's kind of gross to have some sort of supposed "lifestyle" defined by what you buy.
Just because a viral marketing campaign is successful doesn't mean it's not a marketing campaign. It was always shallow, because it was always about buying shit:
Part of what they're selling and branding (much like Nike) is lifestyle. And Portlanders lap that shit up big time. Yes, that's right: come to Portland, where you can buy "weirdness" off the rack, just like some ad man tells you to. Yawn. Quite ordinary, really, in every sense.
There's a shallow, even ugly side of it, as I've fully acknowledged, but I think most people in Portland are basically good folks with decent impulses and those who identify their civic pride with the "Keep Portland Weird" slogan do so for reasons that go deeper than "selling shit" or the desire to buy into some fake image. If it were just some ploy to make money with no greater relevance, I don't think so many people would've wanted the stickers.
But maybe that's just me being my usual Pollyanna-ish and irrepressibly positive self again.
anywhere in time if I received a post-it note about this subject, I wouldn't know what to do do with it. Id think I'd keep it, and then use it.
My guessing is all that is discussed here as people following some kind of "lifestyle" or whatever is healthy and very positive, as opposed to other cities where people are encouraged as an example to think homosexuality is a disease or that obsessed pop culture types (nerds, comic readers/writers, movie/books erudites etc) etc are something "out of the ordinary" (the same with lgtb). If it leads people's wills to something good rather than something non-constructive I don't see the problem in it.
Also, I will never understand bitching about good customer service. I really would prefer to have a nice little chat with a cashier than to have them throw my shit at me and scowl.
That's not good customer service. That's scripted "friendliness." A simple "How are you?" would be friendly without being intrusive. I mean, what if I have a six pack and some personal lube in my cart?
Oh, and don't let our collective boots get crammed in your ass when when we kick it as you slink out of town. Sooner the better.... and you forgot to complain about the weather here!!!
Stop smoking dope and you might be able to remember things, son...
Idiotic ranting about "hipsters" seems to be some sort of backlash against all this, with "hipster" potentially meaning anything that doesn't exist in, or goes against the dominant mores of, most of the rest of the country in the world of suburban sprawl and urban spaces even more thoroughly corporatized/sanitized than Portland is. In addition to being vague, such complaints never seem to get beyond "they're annoying" and never offer anything in opposition to what's being complained about. If all the "hipster crap," whatever that may be, disappeared tomorrow, the complainers never offer the slightest notion of what kind of crap should replace it.
My own criticism of the slogan is that it seems a little played out and watered-down into a kind of shallow identity based on complacency and self-satisfaction. I don't think it should be about that. To the Oregonian, one of the things that counts as "weird" in this sense is hybrid car ownership. I don't believe there's anything weird whatsoever about driving a Prius etc. and it's kind of gross to have some sort of supposed "lifestyle" defined by what you buy.
http://keepportlandweird.com/html/day.html
Part of what they're selling and branding (much like Nike) is lifestyle. And Portlanders lap that shit up big time. Yes, that's right: come to Portland, where you can buy "weirdness" off the rack, just like some ad man tells you to. Yawn. Quite ordinary, really, in every sense.
But maybe that's just me being my usual Pollyanna-ish and irrepressibly positive self again.
My guessing is all that is discussed here as people following some kind of "lifestyle" or whatever is healthy and very positive, as opposed to other cities where people are encouraged as an example to think homosexuality is a disease or that obsessed pop culture types (nerds, comic readers/writers, movie/books erudites etc) etc are something "out of the ordinary" (the same with lgtb). If it leads people's wills to something good rather than something non-constructive I don't see the problem in it.
Also, the carnitas at the El Rodeo cart on SW 10th are great.
Also, I will never understand bitching about good customer service. I really would prefer to have a nice little chat with a cashier than to have them throw my shit at me and scowl.
That's not good customer service. That's scripted "friendliness." A simple "How are you?" would be friendly without being intrusive. I mean, what if I have a six pack and some personal lube in my cart?
If you don't like the friendliness, why don't you be yourself and show it? Or are too scared to be yourself? Fucking poser.