[pdx] The Original Design For The City Of Portland's Seal, Revealed

3386.

It's long been known that, in the secret history of the Rose City, that Portland is a town that was built on an ancient unicorn burial ground. What's less known is that the original city seal's design featured one.

Portlandia, of course, is a virgin in this depiction. Unicorns will only associate with virgins, goes the legend.

Naturally, more sober heads prevailed and we have the current boring version which features Portlandia, a sheaf of wheat, a hammer, a gear, a ship to shop the poor people out so more prosperous people can move in, and three food carts, only one of which is ever open (never when you stop by).

And so it goes. 

[Unicorns] PDX, Land Of Unicorns. As We've Been Saying

3152.

Now, the idea of Portland and unicorns is something I definitely approve of, in as much as here, east of 82nd, the idea of Portlandia is certainly a thing – of which even we, out here, are alternatively entertained and sometimes appalled by.

But somehow, it all comes together and creates something awesome, as witness this t-shirt (which had the tag of the T-Line company of notably unicorn-free Canby) we saw on sale at Powell's this last week:

Indeed, as we've been documenting for a while now, Portland is indeed built on an ancient unicorn burial ground (not to be mistaken with an ancient Unicron burial ground, which is not a thing that I think could possibly exist, but I'm no Transformer expert). And as the tagline I Believe  suggests, this is more than a cute pairing of unicorn and city, but expresses … a deeper truth.

I want to believe. And so do you. Shut up, you do. 

[PDX} Project Pabst Bites My Style

3125.

Recently, as in the last couple of weeks, I've seen a upcoming festival break in the press; a little thing called Project Pabst, a musical festival (a/k/a that voodoo we do so well) featuring a plethora of musical combos in a marketing love letter to a city that apparently made a beer I drank when I didn't care about quality cool again.

They've come up with a pretty cute badge for it … here, let' me give you a look at it:

Totes adorbs, right? But I wonder … where could they have gotten the idea to combine a unicorn with the Portland Oregon sign? Where, I wonder … hermmmmm … Oh! I know Maybe, maybe, I don't know, I never had any success at designing, but, back in March, 2009, I posted this to this very tower of cultural integrity …

Dang. Uncanny.

Oh, I know. Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. And maybe … just maybe … that foolie a few of us got in on back during those days to remind everyone that Portland is built on an ancient unicorn burial ground has longer legs than I thought and went deeper than we imagined it would. And it's easy enough to say they got the idea out of the same found objects pile that I did.

Still …

If it was the inspiration, a hat tip would've been nice. Just sayin' here.

(speaking of hat tips, thanks for pointing this out, Mike Vogel, and his little twitter dog, too)

[PDX] TriMet MAX: KATU Says It Runs On Magic

3124.

While we have always held that Portland is built over the site of an ancient unicorn burial ground, I had no idea how deeply that went.

Here, today, KATU-Channel 2 has put up an article (that might be edited by the time you look at it, but it's here) about delays caused by upcoming maintenance. Here's a screenshot:

Not the best time for service delays, what with the hothothot weather and all. But what's that there? Second 'graf …

There you have it. They're using witches to power MAX. It's right there, and you couldn't put it on the web if it t'warnt true. And here I thought public transit was ran by muggles all this time. Live and learn, I suppose.

But what kind of witch improvements? I'm thinking better and more powerful spells to provide more trains and more on-time service. Though, if I were improving my witches, I'd not necessarily ask TriMet for that sort of advice on it. They'd probably just figure out some way to lay them off, budgets being what they are, and you don't want to lay off witches without a very good reason.

I'd ask a unicorn … if they were still around.

Sorry to be a downer here … but it is what it is. Or they are what they were, more appropriately.

UPDATE, 2208 Monday: Amusingly enough, KATU has not edited the article. Go fig.

[pdx] In Portland, When It Comes To Flaggers, YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!

3095.

… of course, I've never seen the actual flagger on duty, so I don't know. But I wouldn't want to push them, whoever they are. You know, liability, legal concerns, getting your ass fried off, and things of that nature.

Actually, you know what's really weird? The fact that this has sat there for over three weeks now, not chained to anything, and nobody's taken off with it. Earlier this very evening, while we were in the coffee room at Powell's, there was a police incident where someone was apprehended before they could get very far with a car prowl … but this sign has stayed in place.

It's gotta be the unicorns.

[pdx] Local Model Shows Off PDX Unicorn Wear, ca. 2012!

3030.

Sherman, set the wayback machine to about sixteen months ago. We at OryCon 34, not at all ready for the apocalypse that wasn't, and me and The Wife™are getting ready to attend the annual Who's Line Is It Anyway performance, and I have a spiffy new phone that'll take pixs and have teh Bluetoof and stuff.

And we meet a fellow con-goer.

Now, some time before, me and a few wired locals (most notably Dave Strom, who once ran the site Dave Knows Portland (which was DaveKnows.com but that site has gone on to alphabet heaven, alas, however Dave and his sweetie Heather and their twin sons and kitteh can be followed at the blog Mile73)were furiously spreading the word that Portland is, indeed, built over an ancient unicorn burial patch (there were others involved, and it's been long enough that your names escape me, but I remember how much fun that was, so if you stumble this way, feel free to check in).

It never got as meme-worthy as I'd like (nothing ever seems to) but it did get hooves. Because here I was, at OryCon 33, and I spot this lady (whose name has been lost in the memory graveyard):

She agreed for a photeaux. Here's a closer look:

The original attempt to post this is at this entry hyar (http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com/2012/11/pdx-orycon-34-portland-unicorns-got-legs.html) shows the tiny pixs I was then able to get.

Yeah, I'll bear up under the embarrassment of taking that long to figure out how to turn on the Bluetooth feature of my cell phone, because these pix are just that awesome.

Another awesome thing to note is that Portland's most awesome uncelebrated holiday, St. Unicorn's Day 2014, is coming next week on the 17th. Drink to remember the sweet Unicorns which died so that Portland can be a city that doesn't suck.

[pdx] OryCon 34 - Portland Unicorns Got Legs

2886.So, as it is getting known, Portland, as we have said, is built on an ancient Unicorn Burial Ground™.

This is true. Just accept it.

But it's easy to forget that the percolation of this awareness through the general population can be slow. I was confronted, however, with a very cheering thing waiting in line for a panel tonight:

I made the mistake of taking this on my TracFone, so the resolution on the photos are crap; the lady was sweet enough to pose for me told me, exultantly, that there is such a legend. The motto on the shirt says, simply, Portland: built on an ancient unicorn burial ground. Trust me on that.

I let on that I was part of the cabal that was making it known to the wider world, so that Saint Unicorn is properly remembered. So, we haven't made it into the New York Times, but with sweet people willing to believe … can it really be that much longer?

And so it goes.

[pdx_liff] Passing The Cool Torch To Pittsburgh … Or Are We?

2742.My friends, my fellow adopted- and lifelong-Oregonians and Portlanders, I have great news: 'The List', that ever-so-adept (and never-incorrect) arbiter of what's now cool and what was cool, has deemed Portlandia no longer teh hottness … and has wrenched away our cool badge and given it … horrors … to … Pittsburgh? 


Good god. Next thing you know, Salem will get its own Trader Joes.

Oh, you mean it has?

Oh, my.

The piece celebrating this epochal event, written by a Washington Post writer expatriate of Pittsburgh, Maura Judkis, is a thoughtful, considered piece, going into depth about the shallowness and superficiality of determining social trends and community qualities through surface styles and trendy notices in the press. Further, it delineates that despite trends, the qualities of community that made Portland so fashionable didn't spring up overnight but grew and developed in time over years; indeed, Portland's uniqueness is a quintessential quality that was here before we got fashionable, and will linger here long after fashion changes.

Well, sorry, I tell a lie there. That's just me being Portland-style ironic, or sarcastic, or something. Actually, the Judkis piece spends so much time doing the we're-cooler-than-Portland happy dance it fails at its modest goal of even scratching the surface. The deep, thoughtful article that should have been written was written but … wait for it … a Portlander, Brian Libby:

Instead of reading the tea leaves of decades-long socio-economic urban trends that have emboldened Portland and Pittsburgh, or any number of smaller cities around the world, this article and others before it - particularly those covering the Portlandia TV show - have instead confused them with trite, fickle pop cultural cache. The notion of 15 minutes of fame was of course coined by Pittsburgh-born Andy Warhol, but the mentality shown here is less that of a visionary art provocateur than of a TMZ or E! reporter genuflecting or scoffing at a Kardashian depending on the time of day.

The whole thing should be a required read for anyone who thinks Judkis made a point here. Including Judkis.

In the meantime, fashion and fame being the chimera so stipulated, it's notable, as Judkis herself points out, that Portland is the home of Portlandia, and I would add, two other series, one which even relocated its setting to Portland after pretending it was set in Boston for the past several seasons. whereas Pittsburgh, not to be too nebby here, is still, even now, only subbing for other locales.

If 15 minutes of fame is, as Pittsburgh-originated Andy Warhol dubbed it, nothing more than a duration of freshness rather than a tart commentary on the insipidness of the fame-culture then, sorry to say, Yinzers, Portlandia's clock still has a few minutes left to run. Don't get too impatient. You'll get your turn. Maybe.

Predicting what's next is a bit like betting where lightning will strike.

And no matter what happens, we'll still have our unicorns. You can't take that away from us.

[net_liff] "Spot the Unicorn", Zach Dundas Twitter Edition

2698.If you love something, they say, set it free.

Whoever came up with that folksy aneurysm must have had the internet in mind. Latterly, this bit of Unicorn-oriented Photoshoppery:

Which I created in March, 2010, has been showing up in interesting places. The newest find? The Twitter icon for Portland Monthly editor, Zach Dundas:

Am I irritated? Hardly! Flattered! Look, I know this about that; when you create something like this and fling it down the 'tubes, it'll get lifted and passed about. That was kind of the idea here. Right now, it's as close as I'm getting to fame, so, hey, it's cool. Definitely cool.

Remember the unicorns, my friends. You don't know you flattered me, Zach, but if you read this article, now you do. Thanks. Long may Saint Unicorn fly. Even though he hath no wings, yes, I know this.

[pdx] Portland: It's The Unicorns. Specifically, My Unicorn.

2684.As shared on Twittah by a longtime compadré, now known by the deliciously cryptic monicker "-b-" (Twittah: brx0), he of the Cyclotram blog, this now-famous Unicorn Photoshoppery of the erstwhile Made In Oregon sign (now the publicly-owned Portland Oregon sign)  has been shared around tumblr like a … well, like something that gets shared alot around tumblr…

It  originally appeared on this blog after I created it here (http://zehnkatzen.blogspot.com/2010/03/pdx-made-in-oregon-sign-belongs-to-city.html) and it's being shared about on tumblr here (http://fyeahportland.tumblr.com/post/9798949606/powells-fuckyeahportland-kyanpepper-i). Thank you, FYeahPortland. 

Of course the fame, wealth, power, and influence that should attach to such a notice has not yet descended upon me. I shall alert you all when it does and remind those of you who supported me over the years that positions of astoundingly embarrassing wealth and power may well be yours soon - well, as long as you have already purchased one of equal or greater value.

And so it goes.

[unicorns] PDX Unicorn Mounted Patrol - Magically Delicious

2600.A very very thrilled tip-o-the-unicorn-horn today to Farmer McGlitter, who's featuring a photo and a link to this blog entry in his blog Unicornomics today:

Word is getting out that Portland was built on a unicorn burial ground, and that makes us even more magical!

Farmer McG's post, including five things that make having a mounted unicorn patrol awesome, can be found here:

http://unicornomics.com/unicorn-mounted-police

Clean. Green. Sustainable. Magical. Unicorns!