Most likely, you are familiar with Portland’s Dill Pickle Club, which is dedicated to “broadening knowledge of Portland’s past, present and future.” If you’ve always wanted to get involved, now may be your chance: Through this Friday (Dec 10) they’re soliciting ideas for their winter series of thematic tours, titled “Peripheries.” If enjoy vague, open-ended […]
History
Posted inHistory
Photo Timeline of Portland’s Historic Buildings
OoooOOOooo! Check out this fancy history nerd feature from the local Architecture Heritage Center. Portland’s Architectural Heritage on Dipity.
Posted inDrunk
Ken Burns’ Prohibition, Or Why You Should Be Watching TV at 2 AM
Last night documentary filmmaker Ken Burns’ (probably most famous for The Civil War) three-part Prohibition kicked off at 9 pm, a thorough, journalistic look at the story of America’s “noble experiment” with alcohol. If you missed the first installment, “A Nation of Drunkards,” all is not lost: OPB is airing it again at 2 am! […]
Posted inHistory
Happy Labor Day!
Today is Labor Day, the day the federal government and all 50 states reserve to ostensibly celebrate the contribution of workers. Although we don’t call it Worker Day or Employee Day, or even Manager-Worker Mutual Appreciation Day, but rather Labor Day, as a deliberate recognition of the contribution of organized labor. You know… unions. So […]
Posted inTV
Doctor Who Saves Hitler?!? SCREW YOU, WHO!!!
Me? I’m not a big Doctor Who fan. However, I know many of you are… which means you’ve all got a lot of ‘splainin’ to do! WHAT’S UP WITH DOCTOR WHO REFUSING TO KILL HITLER?? In the trailer for the upcoming episode entitled, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” it appears as if the Who team is doing […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Twenty Years Ago Today…
….what is perhaps the greatest action movie ever made was released in the United States. But let’s be certain:
Posted inMusic
Inside (and Outside) the Star Theater
photo from William Joseph Gallery The Star’s marquee in 1954. The hope is to rebuild it to its former glory. I stopped into the Star Theater last night for a quick glimpse of the new venue. It is indeed across the street from Roseland, in a building that you’ve probably overlooked but are no doubt […]
Posted inHistory
Improving One’s Telephone Manners as Told Through the Medium of “Rap”
White people invented the telephone, as well as “telephone manners.” This truth we hold to be self-evident. However, white people ruined rap. Here is a video that depicts all of these things. Thank you, Everything is Terrible.
Posted inHistory
A Brief History of Our Awesome New Office
It’s our first day in the new office, guys! For some reason, the Oregonian wrote about it. Our office is now in the New Market Theater Building, which has an exciting past. The building was originally the home of Captain Ankeny, a shipping magnate who won the title “Captain” during the Indian Wars. The old […]
Posted inHistory
Dads: The Original Hipsters
Does anyone in Portland still own this shirt? Here’s a Tumblr blog for fun: Dads Are the Original Hipsters. A collection of (sometimes amazing) photos of people’s dads looking like hipsters, acting like hipsters, doing hipster things. … whatever a “hipster” is.Enjoy. ht
Posted inHistory
And Now: A Tour of Portland’s Historic Brothels.
Always excellent local history blogger Dan Haneckow just put up a post about a small guide, circa the 1890s, of Portland’s brothels. The funny little handbook seems to have been mostly written, of course, in bawdy poems. It details various addresses of whorehouses around downtown and Old Town Portland. On what is now one block […]
Posted inHistory
Japan in 1923
The earthquake hit in the early afternoon off the coast of Honshu, Japan’s most populous island, triggering unprecedented destruction. Ninety percent of the houses in a score of seaside towns collapsed in seconds. Passenger trains fell off railway bridges and plunged into the sea. A few minutes later, a 35-foot-high tsunami rolled in, sweeping away […]