Here's a little sampling of Portland's art magnetism, as experienced by the NY times travel section: NYT Travel

And of course the Holbein: NYT Holbein



Here's a conversation I had recently:

It's a Holbein madonna.

Oh really? which one?

Oh, you know, it includes the patron's portraits... Jakob Meyer and his family.

You mean THE HOLBEIN MADONNA. Oh my God.

Can't you just feel that it's here? Doesn't the air feel kinda tingly or something? Doesn't everything seem a little more sparkly?

I read almost the same thing in United Airlines travel magazine. Other cities featured: Boise, Idaho and Missoula, Montana. But this is different, right?

oh this is way, way different! Also I just found out, my name is in the most recent Portland phone book! Yes! I am somebody! See, right there in black and white! I've finally made it! yeah, the travel magazine is ooookay. Personally, I'm much more into the skymall magazine. Although, it's been ages since I ordered my 24 karat gold reproduction of the ring of power with inlaid fire runes and I still haven't gotten it in the mail...hmm... I figure at 600 dollars it was a sound investment.... I wish they let you take those catalogs off the plane... does anyone know the custumer service number for skymall?

The Sky Mall catalogs are complimentary and you are encouraged to bring one home.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=31933&category=22127

whoa. You should write a cultural theory of Sky Mall as a utopian model...

that could be as cool as Hotel Theory...

2 articles in 6 days in the NYT's for Portland is different... it all seems kind of funny and old news to us here.

Also, all travel writing is inherently utopian to some degree. Although, Paul Bowles book "The Sheltering Sky" adds some nice kinks to the topic... like what is the difference between a tourist and a traveler?

It's a bit like what is the difference between soft serve icecream and the harder stuff that requres scooping.

Then again if you are kidnapped in Kashmir or your cruise ship is attacked by pirates then you have other problems beyond the traditional 3 hour tour.

To be less utopian a real vist to Portland would require a rousing discussion on how we cant seem to fund schools properly.... which is why the stereotype of Portland as a parents town is so off. Someone described the city to me last night as, "an adult disneyland filled with bookstores, restaurants, hiking, cafes, cocktails and bikelanes." Like many places in Europe Portland may like its dogs better than its children.... I'm not advocating this as an ideal but it is an observation.

I think what is significant is the acknowledgement of the energy that we all know is here. Its all old news to us but its nice to see something as mainstream as the NYT's travel section is now catching on (in a superficial way). The CNN story last year beat them to it though.

RC GORMAN - RIP

In RC Gorman's obituary, ANDY WARHOL was among the many famous people who collected his work. In case you didn't know who Gorman was, somebody at sometime, declared him the Native American equivalent of Pablo Picasso. Judging from the images on Gorman's site, he skipped the blue and rose periods, CUBISM, and for that matter almost everything about Picasso's output that might have challenged him or his audience, and got right to heart of the matter... WOMEN. If you didn't know this already, Warhol collected LOTS of weird stuff.

Sorry about the weird unrelated post. What I meant to say was that it's doubtful that people living in New York check The Oregonian to see whether or not we are writing about them.

Yeah, but the fact remains that Portlanders don't even need to read the Oregonan to know the consarned Holbein is here. It's all over the busses and billboards.

That said Im certain the NTY's readership has shifted significantly to those who don't live in New York, especially with their online presence.

The Holbein Madona is hilarious.

Imagine how one might feel if it was revealed that Richard Serra's Tilted Arc was really a representation of Charles Saatchi's manhood.