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Outdoors
Posted inOutdoors

How To Tell Your Situationship That You Don’t Want To Go Camping

Trying to keep your booty calls constrained within city limits? Portland comedian Riley McCarthy is here to help!
Avatar photo by Riley McCarthy

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of in order to have sex. I’ve gone to concerts for bands I abhor. I’ve feigned interest in sports I’ve barely heard of. I’ve taken a bus to Hillsboro. But I’m proud to say that I’ve never gone camping. As the long winter months of cuffing […]

Posted inMusic

Curbside Serenade Makes Portland’s Street Corners More Musical

The nonprofit offers several free, weekly outdoor music performances in Laurelhurst Park, Director Park, and more.
Avatar photo by Cody Tracey

“Hey there!” David Pollack hollers into the microphone in the direction of a passing cyclist, halfway through his acoustic set. “Nice day for a ride!” he shouts before slipping back into an Elvis Costello cover.  The moment unfolds in front of a laid-back crowd on Rainbow Road at SE 28th and Ankeny where the nonprofit […]

Posted inOutdoors

How to Rockhound a Rainbow of Rocks in Oregon and Washington

Geology enthusiast Alison Jean Cole on where to find the geological equivalent of a hot trans man.
Avatar photo Alison Jean Cole

As simple pleasures are gay and hiking is gay, it feels easy to declare that the sport of rockhounding is also a gay activity. And the Pacific Northwest is home to the pros. For this guide, I have collected some recommendations for where you might find beautiful rocks, and eventually build your own rainbow. Let […]

Posted inTheater & Performance

The Best Things to Do (While Staying Home and Staying Safe) in Portland: Fri May 1

Avatar photo Mercury Staff

The Alien TrilogyThere have been more than a few film recommendations made over the past two months, recommendations made with the intent of reflecting our current situation through a camera’s lens, and a visionary’s eyes. And really, is there any more appropriate trilogy to our current moment than the three-film story of Warrant Officer Ellen […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Our Trails Too Offers a Look at a Better, More Inclusive Wilderness

Avatar photo Erik Henriksen

Our Trails Too As anyone who’s recently been on a trail in the Pacific Northwest can attest, hiking, backpacking, and camping in Oregon and Washington are more popular than ever. But as trailheads within driving distance of Portland become crammed with a very specific kind of hiker—day-trippers with selfie sticks and still-creased Patagonia gear—something else […]

Posted inBooks

A Reading List for the End of the World: The Best, Weirdest, and Scariest Books About Climate Change

Avatar photo Erik Henriksen

“It is worse, much worse, than you think.” So begins journalist David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, a book about climate change that reminds you, chapter after chapter, that even if you think you know how bad things are, and even if you think you know how much worse they’re going to get, […]

Posted inNews

It’s the First Day of Spring and It’s Already Wildfire Season in Oregon

Avatar photo Ned Lannamann

Oregon’s Taylor Creek and Klondike Fires, August 2018. U.S. Forest Service – Pacific NW Oregon’s first notable wildfire of 2019 is currently burning. Yesterday, it was still officially winter. The Santiam Park Fire started yesterday at the North Santiam State Recreation Area, a fishing and camping spot located to the south of Highway 22, just […]

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