#FUBAR's War Stories
Portland veterans speak up in a new storytelling series. by Joe Streckert "INEVITABLY, everyone in the military has experienced some sort of trauma," says Ryan Stroud. "In military life, all the rules...
View ArticleThe Secret Token Exposes the Mythology of the Roanoke Colony
Andrew Lawler outlines the history, disappearance, and the eventual mythologizing of the Roanoke colony in his new book The Secret Token. by Joe Streckert In 1587, 115 colonists established England’s...
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I'm Done Recapping Game of Thrones
by Joe Streckert Like the title says, I'm not going to recap Game of Thrones anymore.It's because of rape.More after the jump.C'mon, Ned. Let's get out of here.A big part of why I have been...
View ArticleHow to Cook a Rib
Tips for cooking the perfect rib. by Joe Streckert FOR MOST of the year, cooking is something that happens in the kitchen, with handy modern inventions like stoves and microwaves. During summer,...
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Old-Timey Portland: Inside the Society Hotel
by Joe Streckert A recognizable Old Town landmark is getting reformatted into a boutique hotel soon. Later this year the Mariner's Home on NW 3rd and Couch will become the Society Hotel, a boutique...
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Burger Week Preview: All-Way's Bacon Blue Cheese Barbecue Burger
by Joe Streckert For the third year running, Burger Week brings you limited edition, $5 burgers from your favorite Portland bars and restaurants, for one week only! This year the promotion will run...
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Burger Week Priview: White Owl Social Club's Double Lamb Burger
by Joe Streckert For the third year running, Burger Week brings you limited edition, $5 burgers from your favorite Portland bars and restaurants, for one week only! This year the promotion will run...
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How We Got Here
There's a reason Portland suffers from high rents and lack of housing... we planned it that way. by Joe Streckert LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, you've probably complained about Portland's high rents and...
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Check Out Trees, Air Quality, and Poverty With This App From PSU
by Joe Streckert Researchers at PSU have created an app that lets you check out trees, urban heat, and demographics in Portland as well as twelve other American cities. The Trees and Health App shows...
View ArticlePortland Myth Bustin'!
What you think you know about Portland is wrong. by Joe Streckert YOU PROBABLY have a few preconceived notions about Portland. Like any other city, this place has a reputation—some of it well earned,...
View ArticleGetting Around
Navigating Portland transportation for the newbie. by Joe Streckert GREETINGS, NEWCOMER! Like most of us, you're probably incapable of teleportation, astral projection, or Superman-style flight. Given...
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Portland in 2025
Think Portland is different now? Here's what your city could look like in 10 years. by Joe Streckert UNLESS YOU'RE a desert hermit, incapable of perceiving the outside world, or willfully oblivious,...
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Think Portland Is Different Now? Here's What Your City Could Look Like in 10...
by Joe Streckert UNLESS YOU'RE a desert hermit, incapable of perceiving the outside world, or willfully oblivious, you've probably noticed that Portland is changing. In previous decades this city's...
View ArticleJonathan Case's New Deal, Fighting a Raw Deal
A Depression-era caper: not a contradiction in terms, actually. by Joe Streckert JONATHAN CASE'SThe New Deal is, improbably enough, a delightful romp through the Great Depression. In the newly...
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Experts Critique Portland's Most Famous Public Art
Our Critics Take a Hard Look at Art You See Every Day. by Joe Streckert THERE'S A STATUE of a cat on the transit mall downtown. It's called "Cat in Repose" and I pet it every time I walk by it....
View ArticleA Glimpse into the City's Checkered Past in Murder and Scandal
Before it was an empire of coffee, Portland was an empire of corruption! by Joe Streckert DESPITE WHAT you might think, Portland did not emerge fully formed from the forehead of Zeus as a place filled...
View ArticleThe Ship Ahoy: Where Living Happens
It's a neighborhood spot to drink away the workday. by Joe Streckert "THIS PLACE has been under different names—same vibe all the way through, though," says Justyn Reese, a bartender at the Ship Ahoy...
View ArticleThe Birthplace of Homelessness
How Old Town became Portland's primary homeless district. by Joe Streckert HOMELESSNESS IN PORTLAND may not be unique to Old Town, but the neighborhood is well known as Portland's primary homeless...
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Pizza Week Preview: Pizzicato Fremont’s "Mama’s Lil’ Secret"
by Joe Streckert Sarah GiffrowThe good people who make, serve, deliver, and manage pizza places eat plenty of pizza. But they don't just scarf down what's leftover—they make special pizzas for...
View ArticlePortland(s) of Tomorrow in Futurelandia
What will the city look like in 50, 100, 200 years? by Joe Streckert GLASS TOWERS. Identical apartments. Crowded neighborhoods with astronomical rent. A post-earthquake apocalypse. Portland's future...
View ArticleThe Central Eastside's Vanishing Borders
Diving into the future of one of Portland's most rapidly changing areas. by Joe Streckert THE WILLAMETTE RIVER is an obvious dividing line for Portland. It is, after all, a rather sizable chunk of...
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A Magical World of Clay
Portland's claymation king, Will Vinton, on a career of filmmaking, innovation, and singing raisins. by Joe Streckert IN THE WANING YEARS of the '80s, one of the biggest (and most surprising) pop...
View ArticleWhat Is the Deal with the Portland Streetcar?
Here’s the deal with the Portland Streetcar by Joe Streckert THE BUSES are self-explanatory. They have buses where you’re from. You know how buses work. The light-rail system, the MAX (it stands for...
View ArticleMass Transit: Reviewed
Succinct reviews of the city’s more popular mass transit routes. by Joe Streckert YOU WILL RIDE TRANSIT in Portland, newcomer. Even if you have a car, you’ll soon grow tired of driving, of parking, of...
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Beyond the Cuckoo’s Nest
How Portland and Oregon Have Historically Dealt with Mental Illness—and What It Means for Us Today. by Joe Streckert One of the oldest mental hospitals in the US is the still-standing Friends Hospital...
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How Portland and Oregon Have Historically Dealt with Mental Illness
by Joe Streckert HAWTHORNE ASYLUM PHOTO COURTESY OREG. HIST. SOC. RESEARCH LIBRARY, 38379One of the oldest mental hospitals in the US is the still-standing Friends Hospital in Philadelphia. Founded in...
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Millennial Tales of Terror: Make Room for Daddy
by Joe Streckert Kenneth HueyOh, I don’t drink coffee,” she said as we sat down at a coffee shop, “but you suggested this place, so I said yes.”Had the worst date of my life been a horror movie, this...
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Days of Protest Past
Portland’s rich history of marches, protests, and political action. by Joe Streckert Make no mistake: Inauguration Day on January 20 will bring protests. There will also be marches, rallies, and other...
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Happy Oregon's Birthday, Everyone!
by Joe Streckert It's Oregon's birthday, everyone! 158 years ago our particular piece of geography went from being a territory to a full-fledged member of these United States. In celebration of our...
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Human Being’s Art Behind Bars
Gallery 116 spotlights work by incarcerated artists. by Joe Streckert Incarcerated people who make art rarely get a chance to share it with the outside world. A show opening on Thursday, July 6...
View ArticleThrough the Eyes of a Tourist
How teaching tourists about Portland taught me a lot about Portland. by Joe Streckert I spent seven years as a Portland tour guide. It was my job to escort groups of tourists through Downtown, Old...
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Zachary Schomburg’s Mastadon Marathon: An Appreciation
Get into the weirdness of the Portland poet’s debut novel, Mammother. by Joe Streckert Portland poet and publisher Zachary Schomburg has assigned himself a potentially punishing task. On Saturday,...
View ArticleOld Stuff for New Portlanders
How to trick Old Portlanders into thinking you aren’t new. by Joe Streckert If you just got here, you’ve probably heard a bit about something called “Old Portland.” To be clear: Old Portland is...
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Echoes of the Klan
The history of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon—and the striking similarities you may recognize. by Joe Streckert “Dear Sir,” begins the membership form, “We have been requested by one of your personal...
View ArticleA Peek at Portland’s Alternative Universe
What If Portland Were Completely Different? (You’d Still Complain About It, Right?) by Joe Streckert Nothing’s inevitable. Had it not been for a storm, the Spanish Armada would have beaten up England....
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An Imaginary Oregon
Early map makers had no idea what was in the Pacific Northwest—but that didn’t stop them from making stuff up. by Joe Streckert You’re no geography expert, but you probably have a basic idea of where...
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Julie Whipple’s Crash Course Will Make You Never Want to Fly Again
Julie Whipple’s Crash Course explores the 1978 Portland plane crash that claimed the lives of 10 and changed commercial flight as we knew it. by Joe Streckert On December 28, 1978, United Airlines...
View ArticleHow to Fake Being a Portland Native
by Joe Streckert If you’re new to Portland, you may have experienced a moment when someone gives you a look and pointedly asks, “Where are you from?” They know. You don’t know how they know, but...
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Ryan North's Long View Perspective in How to Invent Everything Curves Towards...
by Joe Streckert Courtesy of the artist, author photo by Connie TsangYou're a time traveler. Your time machine broke and you're trapped in the past. There's no way you're getting back to the future,...
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Lost Portland Uncovers Not Only Dead Buildings but the History of Portland's...
by Joe Streckert Courtesy of The History PressIf you're walking through inner Portland, there's a good chance whatever buildings you're looking at sit on the sites of past constructions. Since at...
View ArticlePeople Want to Read Changing the Narrative, PSU's Graphic Novel Comic...
by Joe Streckert Portland State University instructor Kacy McKinney has used comics to teach in her classroom, written about them academically, and made them herself. Now she's bringing local...
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Book Review: Rajneeshpuram Digs Into the Behind-the-Scenes Dirt of the '80s...
by Joe Streckert Rajneeshees line up outside of a building in the 1980s. The movement created upheaval in the sleepy town of Antelope, which they renamed Rajneesh. Courtesy of Oregon Historical...
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Robert Evans’ After the Revolution: A Vision of a Splintered US Future (With...
by Joe Streckert Tavia Morra, courtesy of ak press Speculating about how the US will crack apart is a cottage industry for sci-fi authors and political commentators. Ernest Callenbach did it in 1975...
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Oregon’s Mark O. Hatfield Was a Fascinating Political Figure—But in a New...
by Joe Streckert Courtesy of University of Oklahoma Press Mark O. Hatfield is one of the most significant politicians in Oregon’s history. He held office in the Oregon state legislature, spent two...
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Queer Bars in Portland, a History
Silverado was once Flossie's; Lowensdale Park was once a place to cruise—take a brief dive into a history of our city's queer spaces. by Joe Streckert [Find the Mercury's Queer Guide in...
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You Can’t Capture Arlene Schnitzer’s Vast Art Legacy
Fountain of Creativity tries to show how a growing city and artistic scene developed and evolved. by Joe Streckert The Fountain Gallery was a major hub of Portland’s downtown arts scene for much of the...
View ArticleCommissioning Change
How did Portland decide to adopt its unique commission form of government? You can blame a hurricane. by Joe Streckert After more than a century, Portland is transitioning away from a commission form...
View ArticleWhat’s the “Holiday” in Holiday Beers?
Local brewers describe the secret ingredients that put their beers in the holiday spirit. by Joe Streckert [Editor's note: Read all our holly jolly HOLIDAY GUIDE articles here. Looking for a print...
View ArticleThe Mercury's Favorite Books of 2024
Portland as ground zero for a zombie plague. Bisexual exes on a romcom food and wine tour. And how pointless it is to try to guess what happens next in a MIranda July novel. It's the Mercury's...
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The Mercury's Favorite Culture Moments of 2024
Doing something stupid in Ladds, dressing up for the movies, and finding catharsis at live shows, et al. by Cameron Crowell We went out a lot this year. We saw bands, rode bikes, ate snacks—all the...
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