This is Portland, we do what we like. This is Portland, we do what we like.

On the plane flying back to Boston after an incredible boy’s trip weekend. Karaoke was, per usual, insane. Casa Diablo, per usual, sketch. Food, record shopping, all the good Portland shit. I’ll miss you Portland.

Sounds like you hit it all. Where was karaoke?

(I hit Send and then realized: probably The Alibi?)

IsPortlandBurning.com

come to my karaoke nights, pdx ilxors! (it's in the burbs no one is gonna go)

I went to see a friend host trivia at a strip-mall bar in Gresham, so you never know. Could be fun!

xp tell me more

i've hosted karaoke fri/sat (and now alternating wednesdays) at a sports bar in a famously uncool portland suburb for like 8 years now! could be a fun ilx outing sometime, honestly never thought about it til today. i'd rather not put the name of the bar on here but maybe we can figure a way to work it out sometime in the future

def down for a Saturday sometime

That sounds fun for sure - up for it as well.

I did karaoke at Voicebox (off of NW 21st) with some friends this summer and loved it. Private-room karaoke and just well run in every way, including charging per person, which was easier to sort out than standard a room rental.

Baby Ketten has the top catalog, from my experience, fwiw

did you guys ride your bikes around naked?

We went to Baby Ketten!

did you guys ride your bikes around naked?

It was way too cold!

voicebox is my friend's standard karaoke place... i don't do karaoke myself, i get pretty overwhelmed, but it seems nice for people who like that.

that said i'd show up for ilx karaoke, tho i mostly use public transit, so if it's not accessible that way i'd need a ride.

been down with a cold lately but once i'm over that would love to hang out with folks more!

hey any portlanders interested in a signal group chat? just tossing the idea out there, my friend groups are increasingly turning to signal chats as the internet dies (film at 11)

this saturday i'm hitting the clinton street theater's annual RHPS, they do it all the time mind you but they really go all-out for the halloween shows. i made it last year and my god RHPS at the clinton street theater reaches linear calculus levels of genderfuck

is "linear calculus" an actual mathematical thing, i failed calculus three times in a row and then changed my major

did you guys ride your bikes around naked?

It was way too cold!

portland does have an annual "worst day of the year" bike ride that generally happens in early February. it's not naked, though.

I live by Ladd's, and we've got the annual Ladd's 500 in the spring (500 laps around a circle, in fun outfits).

Anticipating Knife + Heart in 35mm tonight at the 5th Avenue Cinema (which I've followed closed - lots of good programming - but have never been to). Hadn't heard of K+H until this week, but a film-director friend says it was his favorite film of that year and I just found ILXor raves from then as well.

*followed closely

The Clinton Street Theater
Friends on the block lost a coworker to the kidnappers from ICE. There's a fund set up to try and get him back to his family:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-reunite-orlando-vazquez-with-family

Saw that on Dot's instagram (where he worked). Also read about some abductions around Alberta & 18th (from restaurants and food carts near there). Frightening to see things kicking in here, after a month where it seemed like they were mostly focused on protesters.

I live by Ladd's

Hah! I grew up up the hill from Ladd's, just off Harrison St. at 26th Ave. Looks just different enough, yet same enough, to feel uncanny to me on my very infrequent passes through the old neighborhood.

I starting visiting/living in Portland in '21, so the mazes of Ladd's were my kind of fun when everything indoors was shut down. Love the combo of lush quiet streets but then all the coffee/food/bar/movies/etc on all sides of it.

we had a cook at my joint deported a month or so back, we're doing what we can to help his wife/kids but it's obv so awful

hey any portlanders interested in a signal group chat?

Sure, I’d be interested

Works for me too.

so yeah lol i did nothing with that, ummmm i'm still down for it, my email is my username at gmail dot com

so some local politics stuff

one of my friends is going to a town hall my representative is holding tonight out in gresham, rockwood market hall at 5:30 pm. i don't think i'll make it cuz i'll just have gotten out of therapy and i have no car

the pressure i'm seeing is on local orgs to cut ties with ice

watchthispdx is pointing out that pam/tomorrow theater is partnered with mubi, and mubi are taking investment money from sequoia capital, who have ties to the israeli army... i contacted the tomorrow theater and let them know what my values are, and they're difficult to follow, and i'm willing to make sacrifices to support those values, and saying i'd appreciate it if they could make sacrifices to support their values

watchthispdx linked to an article in vulture, which they noted is paywalled, so i don't have any more detail than that. i tend to interpret paywalls as censorship and route around them. this used to piss me off, but times like these, primary sources aren't necessarily more accurate than the rumor mill. i am trying to take a middle-path approach, always polite, always respectful. voicing my values to orgs three degrees away, that's the level on which my voice is effective, so i'll do it.

i'm also hearing that adventist health and legacy health are collaborating with ice, and legacy health is sacking nurses for opposing collaboration with ice. this is pretty personal for me - professionally, i'm a healthcare data analyst. a "general strike" has been outside of the overton window for most of my life, but my personal values _have_ meant that i don't have a lot of employment opportunities, and those values have a lot to do with me not having worked since the beginning of '25. i'm educated, professional, and highly skilled in my field, and i'd really love the opportunity to use those skills for good again. call it what you want - for a long time now a lot of companies haven't been able to do some of the essential things they need to do because of a lack of skilled staff.

anyway, just putting this out there, since i'm not plugged in to many official channels and the rumor mill is most of the information available to me these days.

Legacy(I think) got called out from the speaker’s stage at the rally today for collaborating

watchthispdx linked to an article in vulture, which they noted is paywalled, so i don't have any more detail than that. i tend to interpret paywalls as censorship

I checked Tomorrow and PAM CUT’s free websites (today and back to opening) and tickets for all screenings are more than an issue of NY. You can get a year’s subscription for less than a weekend’s movies.

Also they have waaaayyy fewer sponsors now than when they opened two years ago.

Btw, the Cascade African Film Festival is this month, screening stuff at either the Hollywood or PCC Cascade.

https://www.africanfilmfestival.org/2026/festival/

I’m thinking of heading there this afternoon because they’re screening Raoul Peck’s documentary at 2pm on Ernest Cole, documented of South African apartheid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Cole:_Lost_and_Found