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Seattle's good but Portland's better.
Portland oregon, set against the stark beauty of mount Hood, straddling the williamette river and dotted with fir trees and rose gardens, Portland is constantly pulsing to the juddering beat of the hundreds of young, slick guitar slingers that have called the place home.
Portland had always punched above its weight in the indie music scene. Courtney Love, Frank Black, Steven Malkmus, Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney and The Dandy Warhols all hail form its low rise streets. Yet these muscians are just a tiny fraction of the portland music scene. On august 24th for instance - just an average thursday night - entertainment mag Williamette week listed over 100 band playing in a total of 60 venues.
Why should this city generate and attract so many hopefuls when few people outside the US have heard of it? The band The Gossip - Originally from Arkansas - moved there four years ago "Partly we went there because it's so cheap, you can live in portland for like $350 rent a month, But once you're there, there are so many people you age- its a really young town- doing so many creative things and all going out and watching each other play that it became hard to imagine living anywhere else".
"It's partly the natural beauty, the forest is right there, the ocean has a wild and vicious beauty, the rivers are swift and dangerous, so that's pretty inspiring, But its also the people round here have a low tolerance for posturing, so everyone is doing really creative stuff as a result" said Viva Voce's Kevin Robinson.
Portland have a strong loyalty to the scene. Indeep, the dandy warhols used the money they earned from their vodafone advert to buy a quater city block in portland, building film and music studios, as well as a club to throw parties in. This desire to avoid LA and New York reflects the city's emotional disconnect from large tranches of the US. There's even a half serious separatist movement - the casacdians - who want oregon and washington to secede from the union and set up as an independent country with british columbia.
The desire for independence is partly fulled by portland and neighbouring Eugene's politica. The two have always been at the heart of the surprisingly strong but rarely reported American Hippy movement. Indeep, Eugene was recently described as "the town VW camper vans go to die". Portland smells less of Patchouli oil, but it does offer a vision of how america could be if the whole country had turned left instead of right in the 1980's.
Theres a cheap, clean and efficient public transport system built on demolished freeways; strict urban planning controls to prevent ugly skyscrapers; abortion is legal, as is assisted suicide for the terminally ill, and the city is leading the campaign for oregon to legalise gay marriage. Portlanders are so sexually tolerant, you'll find rainbow flags in every part of the city. On top of its liberal politics, theres a thriving local arts scene supported by a healthy counted culture media including two radical weeklies, three arts mags and a bar mag.
While the global retail chains do exist - Starbucks, saks fifth avenue, borders, tiffany and all the rest of the megamarts have a presence in the blocks around pioneer courthouse square - portlanders have a deepseated love for local businesses. Mom and Pop grocery stores, bookshops, coffee shops and diners vastly outnumber the branded behemoths.
Most Portlanders, however, are proudest of one thing - the city has more breweries than anywhere else in the world - 33 at the last count, and a new one seems to open every year.
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