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Re: “Nutshell”
The vegans rating their "ethics" rather than their opinion of the food is pretty pathetic. Yes, this place is too spendy and too hip for me to want to go often. But as much as I wanted to dislike it, to be annoyed by still being hungry after dining there--the flavors they're creating are genuinely unique amongst the vegetarian dining establishments in this town. I'm not sure they make sense exactly in the location they've chosen--but it makes sense for Portland to have at least one vegan/vegetarian option that is suitable for those occasions when spendy is ok, and one is looking for an interesting culinary experience rather than cheap filling grub (nothing wrong with either). Having recently returned after almost a year--despite having gone from fully vegan to vegetarian, the new "small plates" dishes were, I have to admit, considerably tastier and more interesting than my previous visits. I've been vegan twelve years, and they were happy to make the couple of dishes I tried that were normally vegetarian as vegan dishes, and I can't imagine they suffered for the change. Unlike a lot of zealous, joyless vegans one meets (and gets a bad rap from), I'm not bothered by people being given options--veganism is my choice, but I know it's not for everyone, and ultimately eating local and non-factory-farm is a more feasible option for a much larger population. So if including a little local-made dairy helps people see that there are tasty middle-grounds, that it's not all "giving things up"--that's only a good thing. Yes, I wish everything I tried had been 25-50% less expensive--but I can't knock the food. The wait staff was friendly, if a little "unprofessional" in their approach, but I figured that was an intentionally casual approach. I could quibble with a guy with long hair and a headband and flannel as a waiter--but I'm not the target market for that appeal. So--if you want your vegan ethics absolutely pure, then you should probably just cook for yourself--a great option. If you think the world can handle a little variety, and you've got a special occasion where the quality of the food matters more than the quantity, I'd say Nutshell has become more compelling over its development, and is worth visiting.
Recent Comments
Re: “Well Eff You Too, Travel + Leisure”
Definitely more "interesting" than the stack-of-pancakes Modernist snoozes that dominate Portland's skyline from across the river, but definitely just as bad. "Post-Modernism" was hilarious--proof that contemporary architecture is all about trading out one absurd trend for another every few years, and immediately becoming vehemently opposed to anything that isn't the current one. Only this sort of mindset could "engage with tradition" and end up with bullshit like this building.
Thank god that hidden behind this ugly mother and all the other erector set losers that stand close to the river, we still have so many legitimate buildings that don't have to be "post-" anything and can simply be beautiful and functional and meaningful, because they're from when architecture was a part of the culture, not vociferously and destructively spiteful toward it. Despite the best efforts of the Modernists to turn them all into surface parking lots or tabula rasa for their born-outdated, outsized sculptures.
Re: “Flame On! Shirt Off!”
New album is absolutely fantastic--I'm totally astonished by how good it is. Quite probably the best thing they've ever done, if you're more a fan of things like 'Hit to Death' and 'Zaireeka' than 'Yoshimi'. But it's not a "return to form," just a whole new thing for them.
Re: “Microcosm Superpack: Nate Powell”
Whoa, I didn't know he'd won the Eisner. A home-town hero--picked up his first zines/comics at an otherwise superhero-oriented comic shop back in Little Rock, and saw Soophie Nun Squad untold times through high school and college. The compendium 'Tiny Giants' is at least as good, possibly better than 'Swallow Me Whole'.
Re: “NYT Gets Woofy On Pearl District Dogs”
Shame there's the Pearl--it would be better if our yuppies stuck to suburban sprawl like in most places in the U.S. Where do they get off thinking they can gentrify an area which previously had very little in the way of residence or viable business, and via brownfield redevelopment in a reasonably urban, dense, mixed-use fashion. What a horrible blight.
Look, I dont' shop at most places in the Pearl, and have little interest in the hoity-toity culture of the area--not my style. And I despise a lot of the new construction, aesthetically. But it is an urban area, and it makes sense that some a city's wealth live and shop in an area in its city center. A city has to have some wealth, sorry to say--everybody can't be struggling creative class and underemployed like us. Slagging the Pearl is just silly, when the centers of most American cities are derelict, completely abandoned after 5pm, etc.--the Pearl is far from perfect, but it beats emptiness and suburban sprawl and urban divestment. For largely new construction in the 2000s, Portland could have done a lot worse.
Re: “Some LEED Buildings Fail to Remain "Green"”
Although Portland has some good examples of retaining existing/historic structures in LEED-certified projects, the most egregious misuse of LEED green status occurs in projects where usable, culturally valuable buildings are demolished to make way for "green" new construction. In some cases where increased density is imperative for the continued urban viability of an area this might be justifiable. But in many cases, the net result is at best an environmental wash, at worst, a cultural and urban loss no different from any other ("non-green") tear-down and an environmental downgrade. The non-replaceable value--material and cultural--already invested in our historic structures has to be considered if one is to accurately assess the sustainability of a building an, more importantly, a neighborhood and a city.
This upcoming presentation in Portland by Donovan Rypkema (September 15th at The Nines Hotel) should be an interesting look into the phenomenon of "green-washing" cultural and resource destruction:
http://www.visitahc.org/content/sustainabl…
Re: “Avatar Trailer.”
Looks like every moronic video-game-as-a-movie made in the last ten years, with added faerie goofiness.
It's weird that 'Terminator 2,' 'Jurassic Park,' hell, even 'The Abyss' all blended CG more convincingly than contemporary movies. I guess it's because these days you're more often than not talking majority CG, small minority physical reality in any given scene. Nobody seems to be willing to sacrifice the hyper-detail they can achieve to anything--grit, grain, realistic focus, slightly believable camera movement, etc.--that would make the sum total actually more realistic. (Except, ironically, something like the first half of 'Wall-E,' entirely CG-made, for kids).
Re: “Call Any Vegetable: Try Vegan Week Begins Tomorrow”
As per usual, ratio of touchy "preemptive strike" oh-those-fucking-vegans comments to "preachy pussy douchebag" vegan comments is massively disproportionate in favor of the former. The word "vegan" is like a strawman siren for people with something to prove (what, no one can tell--but they feel it with a burning passion, clearly).
I've been vegan for fourteen years, and I honestly couldn't give half a shit if somebody wants to eat animals--I don't think it's "wrong" or "unnatural," just that the way we're doing it in America is generally beyond repair and that it's simplest and most affordable to just abstain than to try to seek out non-antibiotics-and-corn-based meat. But there are countless ways to contribute to the betterment of mankind, and if food ethics isn't for you, that's fine with me and 99% of us horrible vegans. For every schmuck whose misguided priorities lead him to shout like a psychopath outside of the fur shop by my house instead of doing some good for somebody, there are hundreds of vegans who just want to enjoy the food they enjoy, want to do a little good, and find veganism a reasonably simple, maintainable way of living ethically--but for whom it's a personal thing, not a religious crusade. Do what you want, I'll do what I want, and fortunately in this town there's room for both and everything in between. Surely there are more important things to rail against than some people who don't eat just what you eat, right?
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