Category Archives: Culture

Getting to know dead people

Being a writer with a strong interest in the region’s history, I find myself running across certain names with great repetition. It is hard, for example, not to read about the Ladds in Portland, or John McLoughlin in the pre-territory … Continue reading

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Upcoming: Presentation on the Mount Tabor streetcar line

Interested in the past, present, and future of streetcars in Portland? Since late last year, the Architectural Heritage Center has been celebrating the city’s streetcars, first with “Streetcars Build a City”, an exhibit of streetcar artifacts, as well as with … Continue reading

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Announcement: Presentation on railroad architecture in Portland!

Interested in architecture, the history of American expansion, the Gilded Age, or rail transportation? If so, consider yourself invited to attend Railroad Architecture and the Northwest: Economics, Ethos, and Culture, an educational program given by me at the Architectural Heritage … Continue reading

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New Digs / Good-bye, route99west

For some time now, I’ve had a web site of some form or other on the domain route99west.com. This blog, for example, has sat on route99west.com/addendum/ for something like 5 years, maybe 6. I chose the name for various reasons, … Continue reading

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Photography: Permanent yet Temporary

Mad Men ´The Carousel´ from Emilio on Vimeo. I’ve been writing a lot lately about the purpose of photography, and how it might be shared with others. One of the ideas I just lightly skimmed on was the issue of … Continue reading

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Outside the box photography outlets

Should photographers think more like a guerilla? Recently, I wrote here questioning the ways that photography is displayed and shared with the public. My basic premise: that the typical ways that photography is shared — the gallery wall, the publication, … Continue reading

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Recommended reading/viewing on photography

Skylines and the Grand Style: Learning past photographic movements can inform present-day photographic approaches. San Francisco, California, 2010. I’ve commented before on the value of planning and research before making photographs in the field, including spending time communing with books … Continue reading

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Time, Loss, Plowden

went on Iowa Public Radio to talk about steam locomotives, photography, and this latest book. The interview is 49 minutes long, but well worth making time to listen to. It made for a good start to this Monday with my … Continue reading

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Review: Discovering Main Street: Travel Adventures in Small Towns of the Northwest

Discovering Main Street: Travel Adventures in Small Towns of the Northwest By Foster Church. Oregon State University Press, 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis, OR 97331; http://oregonstate.edu/; 5.5 x 8.5 in; trade paperback; 192 pages, 5 maps; $18.95 Although the Northwest … Continue reading

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Historic Hyper-Localism and Portland Culture

Is the knowledge of fringe, obscure historical remnants like these traces of the former industrial past of the Central Eastside — and the stories behind them — part of the uniqueness of Portland cultural DNA? What makes up the cultural … Continue reading

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