Odnarotoop, apparently
May 20, 2016 8:58 AM Subscribe
I think this scores perfectly in the Japanese venn diagram of Charming/Quirky/Friendly. Really - it does a great job of reflecting Portland and the easy going adventure-y nature of the city. Spoiler alert* Is that Maggie Gyllenhaal marrying Bigfoot?
posted by helmutdog at 9:17 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by helmutdog at 9:17 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
I would like to see something similar for Ocean City, MD, please.
posted by lagomorphius at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by lagomorphius at 9:31 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
for some reason I wanted this to end with a big Monty Python foot squashing the town
posted by phooky at 9:32 AM on May 20, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by phooky at 9:32 AM on May 20, 2016 [10 favorites]
The love child of Terry Gilliam and Flaming Lips, with Maurice Sendak as doula.
posted by Chuffy at 9:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Chuffy at 9:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
Wait- this is just random footage from a camera someone set up on the street, right?
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 9:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
The title is kind of translinguistically funny. Portland in Japanese is ポートランド (po-torando). If you were a Japanese person and wanted to write that backwards, you would simply reverse those letters, to be ドンラトーポ (donrato-po).
That's not what happened here. Someone took the English transliteration of the Japanese transliteration of "Portland", reversed those letters, and tried to re-transliterate that into Japanese. But "odnorato-po" doesn't work in Japanese—you can't have the "dn" letter pair. You need a vowel in between them, and "u" is usually pressed into service for that purpose, but that would change the pronunciation of "d" to "z" so "o" gets used instead. But then there are some extra gymnastics. That dash in Japanese means you hold the vowel for an extra beat; this is often represented as doubling the letter when transliterating. So "pootorando." But when an English-speaker sees two Os, it's pronounced like "U", so when they reversed it, they had to change the letters to reflect the different sound an English speaker thinks it should have.
Whacky.
posted by adamrice at 9:37 AM on May 20, 2016 [17 favorites]
That's not what happened here. Someone took the English transliteration of the Japanese transliteration of "Portland", reversed those letters, and tried to re-transliterate that into Japanese. But "odnorato-po" doesn't work in Japanese—you can't have the "dn" letter pair. You need a vowel in between them, and "u" is usually pressed into service for that purpose, but that would change the pronunciation of "d" to "z" so "o" gets used instead. But then there are some extra gymnastics. That dash in Japanese means you hold the vowel for an extra beat; this is often represented as doubling the letter when transliterating. So "pootorando." But when an English-speaker sees two Os, it's pronounced like "U", so when they reversed it, they had to change the letters to reflect the different sound an English speaker thinks it should have.
Whacky.
posted by adamrice at 9:37 AM on May 20, 2016 [17 favorites]
Uh, I'll have what they're having...
posted by jim in austin at 9:56 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by jim in austin at 9:56 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've been to Portland twice and this is pretty much exactly what it's like.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:01 AM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:01 AM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
And these are the bikes that we like to ride naked
Alrighty then
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:04 AM on May 20, 2016
Alrighty then
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:04 AM on May 20, 2016
I really don't like this. I can't put my finger on it, but it seems strangely distasteful? It reminds me of the $10 million Cover Oregon commercial. Why does Portland have to be so kitschy and twee? It's a city filled with rampant drug abuse, record number gang shootings, increasingly unlivable due to rising rents and displacement with little recourse for renters, a homelessness crisis, and in the midst of all this are people more worried about fluoride in the water.
But still, great place to live. I just don't know why it has this kitschy image. Where'd that come from? The Shins haven't been a big band in over 10 years. There are metal and hardcore bands here, too.
posted by gucci mane at 10:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
But still, great place to live. I just don't know why it has this kitschy image. Where'd that come from? The Shins haven't been a big band in over 10 years. There are metal and hardcore bands here, too.
posted by gucci mane at 10:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, IIRC, Voodoo Donuts is doing their largest expansion in Japan, and I'm pretty sure Blue Star Donuts already opened up there. Seems like the city is really setting up a partnership with the country.
posted by gucci mane at 10:25 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by gucci mane at 10:25 AM on May 20, 2016
Why does Portland have to be so kitschy and twee? It's a city filled with rampant drug abuse, record number gang shootings, increasingly unlivable due to rising rents and displacement with little recourse for renters, a homelessness crisis, and in the midst of all this are people more worried about fluoride in the water.
Yes, all of those things would make a great tourism campaign.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:26 AM on May 20, 2016 [21 favorites]
Yes, all of those things would make a great tourism campaign.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 10:26 AM on May 20, 2016 [21 favorites]
Yes Portland was hit hard by the 2008 downturn and has never really been the same since. Also, like Austin, it has been loved to death. Small city charm doesn't survive the influx of hundreds of thousands of new residents.
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:27 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bee'sWing at 10:27 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I really like the song! Didn't expect to say that. Earworm tag accurate.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:27 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:27 AM on May 20, 2016
Why does Portland have to be so kitschy and twee?
Every time I'm there, I ask my self the same question. But then I buy a few yards of fantastic fabric from a woman wearing a dress made of the literal coffee bean bags from a coffee shop down the street. Then I go there for coffee, before heading to the vegan soul food place, where I run into the same woman in the coffee bean bag dress, and we start talking about shoes, so she takes me to her friend's house where we look at her homemade tyvek shoes. By this point I stop wondering why and just let it wash over me.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:30 AM on May 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
Every time I'm there, I ask my self the same question. But then I buy a few yards of fantastic fabric from a woman wearing a dress made of the literal coffee bean bags from a coffee shop down the street. Then I go there for coffee, before heading to the vegan soul food place, where I run into the same woman in the coffee bean bag dress, and we start talking about shoes, so she takes me to her friend's house where we look at her homemade tyvek shoes. By this point I stop wondering why and just let it wash over me.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:30 AM on May 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
Yes Portland was hit hard by the 2008 downturn and has never really been the same since. Also, like Austin, it has been loved to death. Small city charm doesn't survive the influx of hundreds of thousands of new residents.
I find myself agreeing more and more, but I have no idea where I'd want to go instead...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:31 AM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
I find myself agreeing more and more, but I have no idea where I'd want to go instead...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:31 AM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
Portland is no Milwaukee, that's for sure. (previously)
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:35 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think it's neat that the Steel Bridge figures so prominently, considering how ugly it is compared to some of our other bridges. (Admitted, it isn't as hideous as the Marquam bridge.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:37 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:37 AM on May 20, 2016
TheWhiteSkull: Yes, all of those things would make a great tourism campaign.
It's not so much that I want those things to be presented to Japanese tourists, especially when our tourism industry is really important. I just think it's weird that there's this entire image of Portland presented in a way that makes the city seem so cutesy. Are other cities trying to present themselves this way? Are other cities "cute"? Portland just isn't cute to me. It's dirty, and gritty. But then again, I'm not typically doing touristy things here, so perhaps that's it.
posted by gucci mane at 10:37 AM on May 20, 2016
It's not so much that I want those things to be presented to Japanese tourists, especially when our tourism industry is really important. I just think it's weird that there's this entire image of Portland presented in a way that makes the city seem so cutesy. Are other cities trying to present themselves this way? Are other cities "cute"? Portland just isn't cute to me. It's dirty, and gritty. But then again, I'm not typically doing touristy things here, so perhaps that's it.
posted by gucci mane at 10:37 AM on May 20, 2016
As I drive downtown and see tourists, I often wonder why they come here. Now I know! Beavers, donuts, ice cream, and giant beer bottle robots.
I love this town.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:42 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I love this town.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:42 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think it's neat that the Steel Bridge figures so prominently
I dunno, for me the Steel is the most Portland of Bridges, but I am unable to fully articulate why
posted by Dr. Twist at 10:51 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I dunno, for me the Steel is the most Portland of Bridges, but I am unable to fully articulate why
posted by Dr. Twist at 10:51 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
I feel like it's the most Portland of bridges because it's such a pedestrian bridge, although the Tilikum takes those honors now.
posted by gucci mane at 10:58 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by gucci mane at 10:58 AM on May 20, 2016
And the Tilikum drops you right by Division/Clinton and Powell: two really hip neighborhoods and then an area that people who don't know any better think is really sketchy.
posted by gucci mane at 10:59 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by gucci mane at 10:59 AM on May 20, 2016
Having lived in the Northwest for a while, I think the kitschy and cutesy parts are because of the hard stuff:the unemployment, the griminess. It's optimism - that despite things being rough, you put a good face on it, pretty things up as best you can because at least it feels like you're doing something, and you believe things can be better. Kitsch isn't expensive until someone repackages it as hipster fashion, all this artisanal stuff is time consuming, but if you're unemployed then you have the time. Better drown your sorrows in a fancy pants beer than turn to meth or something that'll cost you so much more.
I mean, I'll be honest, part of that optimism is that it's a pretty darn white city, and it's easier for a broke white kid to be optimistic and believe that they have a future in this country than someone who's race gets held against them in major ways. But still...
I don't know, it bothers me when people trash Portland for being 'weird' and 'cutesy' and 'hipster'. It just seems so darn cynical and dammit, optimism is something this country sorely needs these days
posted by Zalzidrax at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
I mean, I'll be honest, part of that optimism is that it's a pretty darn white city, and it's easier for a broke white kid to be optimistic and believe that they have a future in this country than someone who's race gets held against them in major ways. But still...
I don't know, it bothers me when people trash Portland for being 'weird' and 'cutesy' and 'hipster'. It just seems so darn cynical and dammit, optimism is something this country sorely needs these days
posted by Zalzidrax at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016 [7 favorites]
I would like to see something similar for Ocean City, MD, please.
I'm pretty sure that Tom Peterson and Joseph Kro-Art share some DNA, so this checks out.
posted by delfin at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016
I'm pretty sure that Tom Peterson and Joseph Kro-Art share some DNA, so this checks out.
posted by delfin at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016
Stop moving here.
posted by asfuller at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by asfuller at 11:00 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Was the rose garden represented? I do remember liking the rose garden.
posted by sammyo at 11:01 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by sammyo at 11:01 AM on May 20, 2016
It's a city filled with rampant drug abuse, record number gang shootings, increasingly unlivable due to rising rents and displacement with little recourse for renters, a homelessness crisis, and in the midst of all this are people more worried about fluoride in the water.
I lived there for a year in the mid-90s, and when "Portlandia" started in with that "dream of the 90s is alive in Portland" bit, all I could think about were the teenage runaways, tweakers, and junkies that I used to run into regularly on my commute to my warehouse job in a desolate office park.
I did see a lot of great music that year, though.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:08 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I lived there for a year in the mid-90s, and when "Portlandia" started in with that "dream of the 90s is alive in Portland" bit, all I could think about were the teenage runaways, tweakers, and junkies that I used to run into regularly on my commute to my warehouse job in a desolate office park.
I did see a lot of great music that year, though.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:08 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I like it all: the goofy song, the website, doughnuts, and Portland. Sue me.
posted by Bella Donna at 11:19 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bella Donna at 11:19 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Stop moving here.
Yeah, I think gucci mane is doing a good job with their anti-tourist campaign in this thread. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
Yeah, I think gucci mane is doing a good job with their anti-tourist campaign in this thread. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
gucci manel: I just think it's weird that there's this entire image of Portland presented in a way that makes the city seem so cutesy. Are other cities trying to present themselves this way? Are other cities "cute"?
Well, you must remember this is to market to Japan - the universe's epicenter of cute (kawaii). So, I'd say it's about perfect.
I suspect they're not using the same campaign to market to other places.
posted by ecorrocio at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, you must remember this is to market to Japan - the universe's epicenter of cute (kawaii). So, I'd say it's about perfect.
I suspect they're not using the same campaign to market to other places.
posted by ecorrocio at 11:22 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Interesting that they show the Chinese Garden but not the (even more beautiful IMO) Japanese Garden.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:42 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 11:42 AM on May 20, 2016
That video will probably go over better than this.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:45 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:45 AM on May 20, 2016
Well, you must remember this is to market to Japan - the universe's epicenter of cute (kawaii). So, I'd say it's about perfect.
This is hitting a really specific flavor of hippie/hipster kawaii, too, from the Terry Gilliamish look to all the lyrics about how "open" people are. Leaving linguistic issues aside, judging just by the look of the Japanese tourists I'm seeing around Portland these days it's pretty perfectly targeted — but I am pretty sure it isn't for the Japanese mass market, rather than a specific set of Americaphilic subcultures.
posted by RogerB at 11:49 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is hitting a really specific flavor of hippie/hipster kawaii, too, from the Terry Gilliamish look to all the lyrics about how "open" people are. Leaving linguistic issues aside, judging just by the look of the Japanese tourists I'm seeing around Portland these days it's pretty perfectly targeted — but I am pretty sure it isn't for the Japanese mass market, rather than a specific set of Americaphilic subcultures.
posted by RogerB at 11:49 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Steel Bridge may not look like a bridge in, say, a Disney movie or a tourist trap but that doesn't mean it's "ugly". It has far more character than most of the other bridges, the next two to the south for example.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 11:50 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 11:50 AM on May 20, 2016
Yeah, this is more "weird" than "kawaii". Of course, Japan has its lovers of weird kitschy things too, but I would not say this is done in the same style as the normal "kawaii culture" kind of thing you see in ads all over Japan, for example.
posted by thefoxgod at 11:56 AM on May 20, 2016
posted by thefoxgod at 11:56 AM on May 20, 2016
All else aside, it's nice to see DJ Skelepirate getting some more exposure.
posted by cortex at 11:58 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by cortex at 11:58 AM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]
Interesting that they show the Chinese Garden but not the (even more beautiful IMO) Japanese Garden.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:42 PM on May 20
I've never seen a Japanese garden in the US that even came close to the gardens in Japan. I think they have a full time pruner for every ten square meters.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:05 PM on May 20, 2016
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:42 PM on May 20
I've never seen a Japanese garden in the US that even came close to the gardens in Japan. I think they have a full time pruner for every ten square meters.
posted by Bee'sWing at 12:05 PM on May 20, 2016
Well, the Portland Japanese Garden boasts, in the words of two Japanese Ambassadors, that it is "the most beautiful and authentic Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan," or possibly even including those in Japan. I'm sure there couldn't possibly be any polite hyperbole involved.
posted by RogerB at 12:15 PM on May 20, 2016
posted by RogerB at 12:15 PM on May 20, 2016
Japanese tourism to Portland isn't a new thing really, but it has been refocused and smaller brands are getting in on it. I know of one coffee company who's owner places a number of advertisements and PR pieces in Japanese media, and he estimates that Japanese specific tourism accounts for upwards of 17% of his cafe's sales. Kind of bonkers.
Yeah, "Portland, a city where people are so desperate, they'll break into your shed and only steal your camping gear because they need to survive" doesn't make for a good tourism slogan in any language...but that totally happened to us last week. They could have grabbed a bunch of tools and shit, but just took what they needed; shelter. Been grappling with all the emotions around that ultra hard.
Not that tourists, or people with upper-class incomes need to worry about that at all.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:30 PM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
Yeah, "Portland, a city where people are so desperate, they'll break into your shed and only steal your camping gear because they need to survive" doesn't make for a good tourism slogan in any language...but that totally happened to us last week. They could have grabbed a bunch of tools and shit, but just took what they needed; shelter. Been grappling with all the emotions around that ultra hard.
Not that tourists, or people with upper-class incomes need to worry about that at all.
posted by furnace.heart at 12:30 PM on May 20, 2016 [6 favorites]
they could have saved some money and time by licensing Portlandia's kohiirando skit.
posted by joeblough at 12:37 PM on May 20, 2016
posted by joeblough at 12:37 PM on May 20, 2016
The Steel Bridge may not look like a bridge in, say, a Disney movie or a tourist trap but that doesn't mean it's "ugly". It has far more character than most of the other bridges, the next two to the south for example.
The Tillikum is great and all, but getting on and off it by bike is ridiculous, unpleasant, and possibly unsafe. The Steel is a pretty agreeable bridge in that regard. The pace is slow but it's safe for pedestrians and I've never felt impeded when I've taken my bike across it. In my old office, it was how I got back and forth to work and on/off the East Esplanade. It is a great bridge and serves as a fine emblem of what it is to be on a bridge in Portland as a bicyclist or pedestrian.
With my new office, the Hawthorne is the most logical choice and it is atrocious. It gets mentioned the most because of the volume of bike traffic it gets, but I find it terrible: A god-awful mix of pedestrians, "I have a short ride from close-in" steel Schwinns, the "I'm riding my hybrid in from out past the 40s somewhere" set, and testosterone-addled lycra goons who are constitutionally incapable of looking at who's ahead of them, and then thinking about who's ahead of that person.
It is also a fine emblem of what it is to be on a bridge in Portland as a bicyclist or pedestrian, provided what you're looking for is an emblem of the hideous, passive-aggressive recreation of car culture people can get up to when they're regular but not acculturated bicyclists.
So, glad we're showing potential tourists the Steel.
posted by mph at 12:45 PM on May 20, 2016
The Tillikum is great and all, but getting on and off it by bike is ridiculous, unpleasant, and possibly unsafe. The Steel is a pretty agreeable bridge in that regard. The pace is slow but it's safe for pedestrians and I've never felt impeded when I've taken my bike across it. In my old office, it was how I got back and forth to work and on/off the East Esplanade. It is a great bridge and serves as a fine emblem of what it is to be on a bridge in Portland as a bicyclist or pedestrian.
With my new office, the Hawthorne is the most logical choice and it is atrocious. It gets mentioned the most because of the volume of bike traffic it gets, but I find it terrible: A god-awful mix of pedestrians, "I have a short ride from close-in" steel Schwinns, the "I'm riding my hybrid in from out past the 40s somewhere" set, and testosterone-addled lycra goons who are constitutionally incapable of looking at who's ahead of them, and then thinking about who's ahead of that person.
It is also a fine emblem of what it is to be on a bridge in Portland as a bicyclist or pedestrian, provided what you're looking for is an emblem of the hideous, passive-aggressive recreation of car culture people can get up to when they're regular but not acculturated bicyclists.
So, glad we're showing potential tourists the Steel.
posted by mph at 12:45 PM on May 20, 2016
Yes Portland was hit hard by the 2008 downturn and has never really been the same since. Also, like Austin, it has been loved to death. Small city charm doesn't survive the influx of hundreds of thousands of new residents.
...yeah, I'm starting to actually get worried, watching my rent escalate by double digits, year after year. Maybe instead of twee ads, they should feature Skylab's THE YARD with its ominous "LIVE HERE" sign. That might keep back the hordes.
posted by Auden at 12:51 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
...yeah, I'm starting to actually get worried, watching my rent escalate by double digits, year after year. Maybe instead of twee ads, they should feature Skylab's THE YARD with its ominous "LIVE HERE" sign. That might keep back the hordes.
posted by Auden at 12:51 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I really like the song! Didn't expect to say that. Earworm tag accurate.
Is it me or does this sound like "I'd like to buy the world a Coke"?
posted by a lungful of dragon at 1:39 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is it me or does this sound like "I'd like to buy the world a Coke"?
posted by a lungful of dragon at 1:39 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
I thought it sounded like "Bringing in the Sheaves"
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 1:49 PM on May 20, 2016
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 1:49 PM on May 20, 2016
> Are other cities trying to present themselves this way? Are other cities "cute"?
Surprised by Shoreline, Washington.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:25 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Surprised by Shoreline, Washington.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:25 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
This is hitting a really specific flavor of hippie/hipster kawaii, too, from the Terry Gilliamish look to all the lyrics about how "open" people are. Leaving linguistic issues aside, judging just by the look of the Japanese tourists I'm seeing around Portland these days it's pretty perfectly targeted.
There does seem to be a specific take on Portland prevalent in some sectors of Japan. One of my neighbors is a Japanese photographer who moved here from Tokyo. He does most of his work for companies back in Japan and apparently "Looking Portland" is a thing and a large part of how he sells his work. It seems to be focused on the whole lumbersexual/indie business/food cart/hipster coffee thing. VERY PORTLAND! Poler / Letterpress / Food Cart / Kinfolk / Record Shop / Nike / DIY / Good Cafe as one of the many Japanese language guidebooks puts it. I met an (American) guy on the max with one and the thing was practically the size of a telephone book and hugely detailed not to mention full of places neither of us had heard of despite living there .
posted by tallus at 3:31 PM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
There does seem to be a specific take on Portland prevalent in some sectors of Japan. One of my neighbors is a Japanese photographer who moved here from Tokyo. He does most of his work for companies back in Japan and apparently "Looking Portland" is a thing and a large part of how he sells his work. It seems to be focused on the whole lumbersexual/indie business/food cart/hipster coffee thing. VERY PORTLAND! Poler / Letterpress / Food Cart / Kinfolk / Record Shop / Nike / DIY / Good Cafe as one of the many Japanese language guidebooks puts it. I met an (American) guy on the max with one and the thing was practically the size of a telephone book and hugely detailed not to mention full of places neither of us had heard of despite living there .
posted by tallus at 3:31 PM on May 20, 2016 [3 favorites]
I think the existence of this amazing "Magazine Of City Boys" puts paid to the myth that the Portland Tourist Bureau is cultivating this image. They are just delivering what the punters already believe. It's much like the quaint, twee London/England promoted with pictures of bobbies, hedge-rows, and thatched-roof teahouses.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 4:51 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 4:51 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's dirty, and gritty.
Portland was always a scrappy, blue collar city, but it never had the depressed kind of gritty you find in the rust belt. But I agree about the dissonance between the twee imagery and the reality.
The commercial was fun, but it's hard to see how it would make someone want to actually visit.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:52 PM on May 20, 2016
Portland was always a scrappy, blue collar city, but it never had the depressed kind of gritty you find in the rust belt. But I agree about the dissonance between the twee imagery and the reality.
The commercial was fun, but it's hard to see how it would make someone want to actually visit.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:52 PM on May 20, 2016
I didn't see a single dog. I call shenanigans.
posted by bendy at 7:16 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bendy at 7:16 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
But "odnorato-po" doesn't work in Japanese
It doesn't work in Japanese because Odnarotoop is actually Carrie Brownstein's Witch name and that video is her labyrinth.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:56 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
It doesn't work in Japanese because Odnarotoop is actually Carrie Brownstein's Witch name and that video is her labyrinth.
posted by betweenthebars at 7:56 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
Portland just isn't cute to me. It's dirty, and gritty.
Really? Pretty much every city of its size that I've been to is dirtier.
posted by msalt at 9:03 PM on May 20, 2016
Really? Pretty much every city of its size that I've been to is dirtier.
posted by msalt at 9:03 PM on May 20, 2016
It's not that I don't think other cities aren't gritty or dirty, it's just a weird juxtaposition to see Portland portrayed as kitschy in media, such as NYT articles, or in Portlandia, and then I walk down the street and see 15 people struggling to live in tents on the side of the road while tourists walk by with their Salt & Straw ice cream cones, or know that a guy got stabbed nearly to death in the alleyway between Little Big Burger and Boxer Ramen at Last Thursday last summer and the police arrested a local rapper who had nothing to do with it. Or to know 15 of my friends have all lost their homes because their landlords decided to kick them out. It's not apocalyptically grim, but it's not a kitschy, cute place. It's depressing a lot.
posted by gucci mane at 9:25 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by gucci mane at 9:25 PM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]
Portlandia pulls a lot of punches, it's true. But a comedy show featuring a skyrocketing homeless population, a sewer for a river, and a police force with a penchant for shooting minorities? That's some rough chuckles, right there.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:35 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:35 PM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]
testosterone-addled lycra goons
My new band name.
posted by oheso at 1:57 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
My new band name.
posted by oheso at 1:57 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Portlandia pulls a lot of punches, it's true. But a comedy show featuring a skyrocketing homeless population, a sewer for a river, and a police force with a penchant for shooting minorities? That's some rough chuckles, right there.
It's Always Sunny in Portlandia.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:05 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's Always Sunny in Portlandia.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:05 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's not that I don't think other cities aren't gritty or dirty, it's just a weird juxtaposition to see Portland portrayed as kitschy in media, such as NYT articles, or in Portlandia, and then I walk down the street and see 15 people struggling to live in tents on the side of the road while tourists walk by with their Salt & Straw ice cream cones
I invite you to take a look at every country which has something along the line of 'land of smiles' in its tourism bureau taglines.
/writing this from Cambodia
posted by tavegyl at 2:26 AM on May 21, 2016
I invite you to take a look at every country which has something along the line of 'land of smiles' in its tourism bureau taglines.
/writing this from Cambodia
posted by tavegyl at 2:26 AM on May 21, 2016
Portlandia pulls a lot of punches, it's true. But a comedy show featuring a skyrocketing homeless population, a sewer for a river, and a police force with a penchant for shooting minorities? That's some rough chuckles, right there.
I hear you but I would love to see some REAL satire with what you just described.
posted by Pembquist at 9:57 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I hear you but I would love to see some REAL satire with what you just described.
posted by Pembquist at 9:57 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
The Yeti didn't have a No Pity scarf on. I call shenanigans.
posted by bink at 10:53 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bink at 10:53 AM on May 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Pembquist: I hear you but I would love to see some REAL satire with what you just described
This is what has always bothered me about Portlandia as well: they could be using their platform for something like that, but they'd also probably run into the issues that Chappelle did as well. It's almost a lose-lose. Even now, I know people who laugh at the idea of a feminist bookstore (In Other Words, on Killingsworth and Vancouver), without realizing that they're really important and there aren't many surviving. There are only about 13 left and that's from two years ago. That's not funny, that's sad. I know it's funny to my friends in the suburbs of Phoenix, but it isn't funny when people rely on them as resources.
posted by gucci mane at 6:02 PM on May 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
This is what has always bothered me about Portlandia as well: they could be using their platform for something like that, but they'd also probably run into the issues that Chappelle did as well. It's almost a lose-lose. Even now, I know people who laugh at the idea of a feminist bookstore (In Other Words, on Killingsworth and Vancouver), without realizing that they're really important and there aren't many surviving. There are only about 13 left and that's from two years ago. That's not funny, that's sad. I know it's funny to my friends in the suburbs of Phoenix, but it isn't funny when people rely on them as resources.
posted by gucci mane at 6:02 PM on May 21, 2016 [2 favorites]
a really specific flavor of hippie/hipster kawaii, too, from the Terry Gilliamish look
IMO this flavor is completely lacking in kawaii -- that Monty Python animation style says "Europe" to me, not "Japan." And how can there be a Portland promo with no mention of Powell's?
posted by Rash at 11:22 PM on May 21, 2016
IMO this flavor is completely lacking in kawaii -- that Monty Python animation style says "Europe" to me, not "Japan." And how can there be a Portland promo with no mention of Powell's?
posted by Rash at 11:22 PM on May 21, 2016
IMO this flavor is completely lacking in kawaii -- that Monty Python animation style says "Europe" to me, not "Japan."
It does look very American to me, but surreal kawaii is sometimes a thing.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:20 PM on May 23, 2016
It does look very American to me, but surreal kawaii is sometimes a thing.
posted by betweenthebars at 6:20 PM on May 23, 2016
Sure, but its still a very different style of surreal, IMO. Maybe its just that the Portland thing looks SO Monty Python its hard to see it as anything else.
posted by thefoxgod at 6:22 PM on May 23, 2016
posted by thefoxgod at 6:22 PM on May 23, 2016
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I need help reacting to this.
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 9:16 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]