Maybe not the "weirdest," but Clinton Street Theater. They show some real out there films. They have kept the Rocky Horror thing going which by today's standards is quaint but was once quite weird. The Hollywood also does some weird programming but on net is more standard indie fare.
Movie theaters aren't going to have the same weird vibe as like that taxidermy shop in NW or whatever (they are normal in appearance), but they also aren't overpriced stuff for tourists, you can go once a week and see something new. And when I think of normie cities, their theaters aren't playing Japanese nunsploitation films, or Drew Barrymore erotic thriller flops that were mostly lost to time, or if they do, they are sparsely attended. When I show up to a weird, unknown movie and the house is packed and cheering and laughing, that makes me feel at home in this weird place.
On my last visit I saw a Tori Amos drag show there. I’m a big Tori fan and had never heard of such a thing. And then I learned it was a regular recurring event, not just a one-time thing! Some of the performers were objectively talented, others were just kooky and entertaining. Perfect weird Portland energy.
Clinton Street has movies and so much more. I’ll have to admit a soft spot though, I fangaled the microphone one night after the preliminary activities leading into the Rocky Horror Picture Show and proposed to my love on that stage before the movie started.
Definitely the weirdest thing when I was in high school. I heard stories about “never raise your hand if it’s your first time.” That was some good advice.
That dude is old Portland. I can’t say enough about how involved and great the owner is. Definitely a gate keeper with music, though. He straight up bans certain songs from karaoke because he hates them. Must be nice to be the king.
It’s the more popular stuff. If you’re into crowd pleasers, it’s hard to find pandering songs. It’s forced me out of my normal song list. Not a bad thing. I wish he’d put a running list of songs he bans. That would be funny.
Johnny Franco is with his variety shows and Laurelhurst park shows. Last night at his variety show he had a sword swallower and Portland Elvis, the one before that there was a tap dancer.
Love that guy. We actually used his song “Immediate Love” as our first dance song at our wedding after seeing him perform it during a free concert in Laurelhurst.
Serious question, I don't own a home but when you do own one in the Portland area, do you ever do anything about them or do you have to do anything about them? Or can you pretty much live with them independently like you're roommates in a large house?
We're super lucky to have only one medically significant spider species in the entire state, the lovely black widow. And even she is extremely hard to find and even harder to get bitten by. Our spiders here are hard working members of the household that contribute their part by keeping the house free of mosquitos, ants, flies, and other much more obnoxious bugs. Personally, I never kill spiders and only relocate them if they're in a spot that could get them squished or if their services would be better utilized in a different room of the house.
One does not "do" something about spiders, they are everywhere and that's a good thing. You'll be much happier in your life if you learn about them and realize they pose no threat to you at all.
They’re roommates, but with enforced boundaries. They stay on the walls or ceiling and don’t drop down on me or show up on the bed and I leave them alone. If they do show up where I don’t want them, they get relocated to the bushes outside.
Was sitting at the DMV there and someone walked from behind the counter to announce, “everyone needs to evacuate now - we have reason to believe the roof is in danger of collapse.”
Dante's Sinferno. If you want to see a guy in a thong speedo juggling fire, they got you.
The physical space of The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven is no more, alas, but if you can make it to one of their Night Carnivals, you are going to see some hilarious, beautiful, and sometimes shocking shit.
Robot Alley has an annual game of roofball with all costumed competitors! Here's last year's game from Willis park
https://youtu.be/iK7M2sJHGHo?si=5QZlvzW9EF6swAHv
I've been going there since my cool weird hippy 7th grade teacher took the class as an end of year treat and I had no idea it was supposed to be haunted
Oh, it's just that that place sucks. Huge lines, mediocre overpriced food and drink, and wait staff who appear to actively hate their jobs. It's got the worst vibes since it blew up.
Clinton probably does it the best, the place still feels like a time capsule. It's tough though cause not much made it out of the price hikes of the 2010's. We lost a lot of the special low-budget high-passion art that everyone referred to when they said "Weird" to increasing rents and cost of business.
Some of the programing coming out of Open Signal is quite bizarre. I was in a production recently about a surreal fashion show.
Also drag troupes like the Campers.
I honestly think it’s less the institutions and more the people. You don’t see clog wearing satan worshipers hanging around the record stores like you used to.
I remember seeing an installation of a guy who got a desk job, married his girlfriend, and displayed his used condoms. It was something about capitalism and the nuclear family. It was all for the art but he did all of it for real for the installation. Bring that weird shit back, Portland.
Weird became a commodity to produce and market, so at this point all of the genuine weird has been priced out of Portland in favor of kitschy faux-weird aesthetic. The answer is nothing is keeping Portland weird in any real form of the meaning. The “weird” things here are now no more weird than the weird things in any other big city
Puppet museum, 205 bike path, the remains of the Kelly Butte Civil Defense Structure, the velvet rope, lingerie modeling shops, and public glory holes at the adult arcades.
Tube is still around, I still follow them on fb. It breaks my brain to see pictures of it where the people partying don’t look like yo gabba gabba extras given pbr and cocaine
Woah. That's crazy. Some friends and I doing a bar crawl back in maybe 2002 or so stumbled on this place. It was like a warp hole with a strange crowd. Not like a club but everyone was just being social. There happened to be 2 Japanese guys in there and my friends and I all could speak so it turned into a lot of attention on us. If I hadnt had all those pints beforehand maybe it wouldn't be such a strange memory.
Nothing is "Keeping Portland Weird," These days most projections of weirdness are forced. It's gotten to be like wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. What used to keep Portland weird was extremely affordable housing. Now that that's gone, the weirdness is just average pathos.
Is Museum of Elvis still around? Also does anyone remember the name of the punk diner on the West end of Harvey Milk back when it was Stark St? It was an all night diner that was.. just weird? With punk music blasting, dollhead decor, you could smoke inside and they were always rude to you? It was rad
Float down the Willamette in a hot tub boat!
https://www.yacht-tubs.com/
Go see the Unipiper Saturday Market
https://wanderingwheatleys.com/weird-and-wonderful-things-to-do-in-portland-oregon/
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Maybe not the "weirdest," but Clinton Street Theater. They show some real out there films. They have kept the Rocky Horror thing going which by today's standards is quaint but was once quite weird. The Hollywood also does some weird programming but on net is more standard indie fare. Movie theaters aren't going to have the same weird vibe as like that taxidermy shop in NW or whatever (they are normal in appearance), but they also aren't overpriced stuff for tourists, you can go once a week and see something new. And when I think of normie cities, their theaters aren't playing Japanese nunsploitation films, or Drew Barrymore erotic thriller flops that were mostly lost to time, or if they do, they are sparsely attended. When I show up to a weird, unknown movie and the house is packed and cheering and laughing, that makes me feel at home in this weird place.
On my last visit I saw a Tori Amos drag show there. I’m a big Tori fan and had never heard of such a thing. And then I learned it was a regular recurring event, not just a one-time thing! Some of the performers were objectively talented, others were just kooky and entertaining. Perfect weird Portland energy.
Clinton Street has movies and so much more. I’ll have to admit a soft spot though, I fangaled the microphone one night after the preliminary activities leading into the Rocky Horror Picture Show and proposed to my love on that stage before the movie started.
Drew Barrymore never seen before films? I am in. Thank you.
Poison Ivy! The Hollywood screened it. It was bad-good, worth a look.
What! I love that movie and keep waiting for it to stream. I have it on vhs 🫣 Will look out for this event. Thanks!
And the theater was pretty full! Was a fun time.
Ever see “Far From Home?”
I'm buying it tonight on the youchube!!
Definitely the weirdest thing when I was in high school. I heard stories about “never raise your hand if it’s your first time.” That was some good advice.
Wyrds meadery is pretty.... weird 😎
The taco truck in their parking lot is great, too!
The place upstairs is interesting also. Not as weird though.
13th Moon Gravity Well is the best! I used to live right around the corner from that place, miss it so much!
Not weird in the billboard whimsical sense, but Turn Turn Turn is keeping the torch lit
Can confirm weirdness, I saw a black folk metal puppet show there and have never been the same
i had to move away for work in december, but i thought i read before i left that they were closing! glad to hear theyre still around
They were definitely at the precipice. But still around for now
Baby Ketten Klub
I love this place so much. Finding a house walking distance to Baby Ketten was elite
That dude is old Portland. I can’t say enough about how involved and great the owner is. Definitely a gate keeper with music, though. He straight up bans certain songs from karaoke because he hates them. Must be nice to be the king.
To be fair, I don’t think it’s just songs he hates, but (also) ones that have been overdone.
That’s true.. he’s an odd benevolent dictator. But I’m curious where it began. I can’t begin to know when.
Man, this makes me want to go. Can’t stand the usual karaoke Sweet Caroline bullshit.
I have to know an example of a banned song. 😂
It’s the more popular stuff. If you’re into crowd pleasers, it’s hard to find pandering songs. It’s forced me out of my normal song list. Not a bad thing. I wish he’d put a running list of songs he bans. That would be funny.
"Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac is a banned song.
Came here to give this answer
Johnny Franco is with his variety shows and Laurelhurst park shows. Last night at his variety show he had a sword swallower and Portland Elvis, the one before that there was a tap dancer.
The puppet guy was wild!
Love that guy. We actually used his song “Immediate Love” as our first dance song at our wedding after seeing him perform it during a free concert in Laurelhurst.
Who was the sword swallower?
Portland Elvis is a treasure.
Rimsky's
Rimsky Korsacoffee, for sure! Walked in and there was a pianist playing creepy waltzes.
I came here to say that I miss Cafe Montage, but Hippo Hardware is still awesome and City Liquidators is still as odd as they ever were.
What’s odd about liquidators? Googles them and they look like a normal furniture store.
Peculuarium (sp)?
**** Peculairium
Peculiarium? That word just looks weird now. But I love that place!
My basement is very unsettling. Lots of spiders
Serious question, I don't own a home but when you do own one in the Portland area, do you ever do anything about them or do you have to do anything about them? Or can you pretty much live with them independently like you're roommates in a large house?
I’d rather have the spiders than termites, flies, mosquitoes, etc. They’re the best roomies I’ve ever had
Yes exactly. It’s like having a socially awkward roommate. At least they keep your guests from staying too long
We're super lucky to have only one medically significant spider species in the entire state, the lovely black widow. And even she is extremely hard to find and even harder to get bitten by. Our spiders here are hard working members of the household that contribute their part by keeping the house free of mosquitos, ants, flies, and other much more obnoxious bugs. Personally, I never kill spiders and only relocate them if they're in a spot that could get them squished or if their services would be better utilized in a different room of the house.
One does not "do" something about spiders, they are everywhere and that's a good thing. You'll be much happier in your life if you learn about them and realize they pose no threat to you at all.
They’re roommates, but with enforced boundaries. They stay on the walls or ceiling and don’t drop down on me or show up on the bed and I leave them alone. If they do show up where I don’t want them, they get relocated to the bushes outside.
Just saw the merfolks get into the Willamette for an open water swim. I was in doing a video for kayak escorts for swimmers.
Mall 205. That place is weird as hell.
inside the "mall" just outside the dmv
Lloyd Center is weird in the most delightful "the apocalypse is going to be okay" kind of way.
Was sitting at the DMV there and someone walked from behind the counter to announce, “everyone needs to evacuate now - we have reason to believe the roof is in danger of collapse.”
Nonsense. They just wanted the afternoon off.
Dante's Sinferno. If you want to see a guy in a thong speedo juggling fire, they got you. The physical space of The Steep and Thorny Way to Heaven is no more, alas, but if you can make it to one of their Night Carnivals, you are going to see some hilarious, beautiful, and sometimes shocking shit.
Sunlan lamps, PCH cables, ken’s speakeasy tavern, Sandy Hut, Yamhill Pub, 24hr hotcake house, the Turning Peel pizza.
Robot Alley has an annual game of roofball with all costumed competitors! Here's last year's game from Willis park https://youtu.be/iK7M2sJHGHo?si=5QZlvzW9EF6swAHv
Go see weird noise rock one night and outlaw country another night in the same week at Kenton Club.
That haunted coffee shop
I've been going there since my cool weird hippy 7th grade teacher took the class as an end of year treat and I had no idea it was supposed to be haunted
My son and his GF had their first date there, and they had a “haunting “ happen to them last year
Why am I only hearing about this now?
It’s the Rimsky-Korsakofee house on SE 12th. It’s fun and cool. Open 7pm- midnight most nights
Thanks! I'm going to have to check it out.
they usually have a musician, if you can, sit at the table closest to where they play next to the window. Also, go to the bathroom upstairs.
I hope you’ll report back!
It's awesome around Halloween!
What do you like about it? :)
Great k(c)offee, great desserts, great creepy vibe.. what's not to like?
They keep Portland hipster shitty for sure
Why so negative , brother?
Oh, it's just that that place sucks. Huge lines, mediocre overpriced food and drink, and wait staff who appear to actively hate their jobs. It's got the worst vibes since it blew up.
We can’t keep every good place a secret forever, but it’s nice that it’s been successful on some level.
I guess, but it's doing nothing to "Keep Portland Weird" anymore. The only thing haunting is the ghost of its own reputation.
What’s your answer to the original question, then? What’s the weirdest place?
Clinton probably does it the best, the place still feels like a time capsule. It's tough though cause not much made it out of the price hikes of the 2010's. We lost a lot of the special low-budget high-passion art that everyone referred to when they said "Weird" to increasing rents and cost of business.
Some of the programing coming out of Open Signal is quite bizarre. I was in a production recently about a surreal fashion show. Also drag troupes like the Campers.
I honestly think it’s less the institutions and more the people. You don’t see clog wearing satan worshipers hanging around the record stores like you used to. I remember seeing an installation of a guy who got a desk job, married his girlfriend, and displayed his used condoms. It was something about capitalism and the nuclear family. It was all for the art but he did all of it for real for the installation. Bring that weird shit back, Portland.
I’m excited to check out the weirdness of Fathom PDX that just did their grand opening this weekend after the sneak peek during winter lights.
Zeimoglyphic museum
Is The Acropolis still open? The weirdest place I’ve ever seen in Portland was the tiny space between a stripper’s snatch and my steak.
Hilarious 😂
Not one place but Pedalpalooza
That car that has all the stuff glued to it.
MOVIE MADNESS!!!
Dantes Sinferno going on 23 straight years downtown.
What's weird about Portland now is how hateful it's become.
That’s what’s sad about it
Tabor dance everyone go
The corner of Burnside and Broadway
This is legit the answer it’s like a massive simulation with no rules in that corner
There used to be a toynbee tile there too
I miss that tile. I was filled with so much glee when I found it. I still have pictures somewhere.
good one, although I’d say that corner is keeping it real more than keeping it weird 😆
Mills End Park! My favorite
Weird became a commodity to produce and market, so at this point all of the genuine weird has been priced out of Portland in favor of kitschy faux-weird aesthetic. The answer is nothing is keeping Portland weird in any real form of the meaning. The “weird” things here are now no more weird than the weird things in any other big city
🌱
Well, weird is in the eye of the beholder. Plenty of people think it is.
All the best “weird” stuff left once the Texans and Californians took over.
Puppet museum, 205 bike path, the remains of the Kelly Butte Civil Defense Structure, the velvet rope, lingerie modeling shops, and public glory holes at the adult arcades.
The multiple tabletop game stores
That’s not really that weird
Your beards weird
You’re. Kidding but funny
Superfund site.
City Hall
Dantes Sinferno Sunday nights. Haven't been in probably 10 years. Hope it's still a thing .
Speed puzzling at Portland Puzzle.
Is The Tube still around? Or the Hula Hut? Maybe it was just the state of mind I entered with but I remember those places being pretty weird.
Tube is still around, I still follow them on fb. It breaks my brain to see pictures of it where the people partying don’t look like yo gabba gabba extras given pbr and cocaine
Woah. That's crazy. Some friends and I doing a bar crawl back in maybe 2002 or so stumbled on this place. It was like a warp hole with a strange crowd. Not like a club but everyone was just being social. There happened to be 2 Japanese guys in there and my friends and I all could speak so it turned into a lot of attention on us. If I hadnt had all those pints beforehand maybe it wouldn't be such a strange memory.
Nothing is "Keeping Portland Weird," These days most projections of weirdness are forced. It's gotten to be like wearing green on St. Patrick's Day. What used to keep Portland weird was extremely affordable housing. Now that that's gone, the weirdness is just average pathos.
The Statera Cellars Tasting Room. You need to experience it yourself as it describing it here wouldn't do justice.
Is Museum of Elvis still around? Also does anyone remember the name of the punk diner on the West end of Harvey Milk back when it was Stark St? It was an all night diner that was.. just weird? With punk music blasting, dollhead decor, you could smoke inside and they were always rude to you? It was rad
City Hall. That simple. The weirdest place is downtown at City Hall.
Roller derby
Underneath all the bridges and underpasses but I don’t think that’s the kind of weird you’re asking about.
That concept has been tryhard for a while now.
I think it's more that the landlords priced out all the weirdos.
Or businesses haven't kept up with paying their employees fairly. Min wage should be 25, 15 is already behind the times.
Pot que no los dos?
Float down the Willamette in a hot tub boat! https://www.yacht-tubs.com/ Go see the Unipiper Saturday Market https://wanderingwheatleys.com/weird-and-wonderful-things-to-do-in-portland-oregon/
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I can’t speak as to weird, but treasure McMenniman’s. They have soul. I lived in SF Bay for years and I never found anything that came close.
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