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Corbin Smith
Posted inTransportation Issue 2026

A Place To Skate and Belong

How DIYers made Portland a haven for skateboard culture and growth.
Avatar photo by Corbin Smith

What follows is one of the many articles in the Mercury‘s 2026 Transportation issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds. It is the crown jewel of Portland DIY tales. In 1990, a group of […]

Posted inMusic

The Sun Ra Arkestra Descends Upon Hollywood Theatre

The nearly yearly occurance has become a pilgrimage for both the Arkestra and Portland. 
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

He is a miracle of the highest order, a grand eccentric, and true genius of the cosmos. A peerless 20th century composer, a poet, a brilliant pianist, a live performance visionary, one of the greatest to ever have lived. A man who may or may not have tripped to Saturn, where the doomed pettiness of […]

Posted inPhoto Essay

Spectators and Players, Portland Is a Ping-Pong Town

Major League Table Tennis matches make it clear: The hype for ping-pong shouldn’t end at Marty Supreme. 
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

There’s a scene in the recent hit movie Marty Supreme in which Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet), an American table tennis champion and inveterate liar getting by on the skin of his teeth in post-WWII America, is seeking capital from a wealthy man, hoping to grow the game he loves and his own prestige. At one […]

Posted inPhoto Essay

PHOTO ESSAY: Riding in a Winter Wonderland

Every year Portland International Raceway lights up with holiday cheer—for cars and bikes alike.
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

In 1993, the Portland International Raceway—the city’s premier racing venue—installed a bunch of Christmas light displays around its track and invited people to drive through, luxuriating in the glow of holiday joy. It’s possible I was in attendance that very same year: my father, a street racer in his youth, was certainly aware of PIR […]

Posted inPhoto Essay

Game Jammers: Creativity as Code

Bringing past and present together to design the video games of the future.
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

A busted Mario costume. An extremely old pinball machine—so simple you wonder how pinball ever took off. Fighting games… so many fighting games. Hundreds of old consoles, some of which were complete flops, hooked up to hundreds of cathode ray tube televisions for maximum retro fidelity. High level Tetris players playing the NES version of […]

Posted inPhoto Essay

Sweating Out the Fascism With Anti-ICE Aerobics

Portland’s absurdist protest tactics continued with people emulating aerobics instructor/activist Jane Fonda outside the ICE facility.
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

On Sunday, November 9, roughly 20 people met outside Portland’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement facility for an aerobics workout class. Decked out in neon leotards, the participants did grapevines to classic, upbeat ‘80s new wave tunes in front of the boarded-up ICE building, where right-wing paramilitary types were conspiring to arrest and deport people.  Sunday’s […]

Posted inThe Trail Blazers

Trail Blazers Fandom Goes Hard For Home Opener

A photo essay featuring fans before the first regular season game at Moda Center.
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

As I sat in the Portland Trail Blazers’ press room and watched Chauncey Billups answer anodyne questions about if Matisse Thybulle was going to suit up for the Blazers’ home opener, no one had any idea that in 12 hours time he was going to be arrested by the FBI for allegedly serving as a […]

Posted inNews

Photo Essay: Tens of Thousands March in Portland’s No Kings Demonstration

More than 40,000 Portlanders turn out to march against authoritarian policies of President Trump
Avatar photoAvatar photoAvatar photo Wm. Steven Humphrey, Taylor Griggs, and Corbin Smith

At least 40,000 to 50,000 Portlanders took to downtown streets yesterday, Saturday, October 18, to march, wave signs, and raise their voices against the increasingly authoritarian policies of President Trump—though some estimated the crowd size to be much larger.  The march was just one of at least 2,700 similar demonstrations that happened across the nation […]

Posted inPhoto Essay

Photo Essay: The Gathering of the Jugglers

Inside Portland’s Juggling Festival and how a lifetime of practice can result in peace of mind.
Avatar photo Corbin Smith

Watching masses of people heaving clubs at one another during the Portland Juggling Festival last weekend, one wonders: How exactly did Reed College, an exclusive liberal arts college tucked away in the Woodstock neighborhood of Southeast Portland, become a destination for jugglers and other circus artists? It’s hazy. The best I could figure was this: […]

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