IFC's Portlandia Debut - Hipster chickens, co-op love, bookstore hate, and other beautiful nuggets of Portland life

A few weeks back I wrote about the new IFC series Portlandia that pokes fun about the unique alternative and hipster subcultures of our cute small-town sister to the south.

The show stars SNL's Fred Armisen alongside former Sleater-Kinney lead singer Carrie Brownstein (remember them?). Produced by NBC's Lorne Michaels, there are many guest cameos, including Steve Buscemi (which hipster movie hasn't he been in?) and Jason Sudeikis. With the power of SNL and Portland combined....

After watching its debut episode, I was definitely entertained and in stitches (quietly, at work, I should say). The show hits right on the head every stereotype you could possibly have about the Rose City. There's the fanatical obsession with local, organic food, the feminist co-op bookstore divas, adult "hide and go seek" leagues at the public library, and the most hilarious, stifled romance I've ever seen.

The wait for this long-anticipated show is happily over. Check out the debut episode below!

The Dream of the 90s Lives on in Portland.

I should concede that although I consider myself a born-and-raised Seattleite, technically I was born in SW Portland and lived there until I was a year and a half old. Still, I am sometimes guilty of the Seattle superiority complex, if there is such a thing, a.k.a. thinking that Seattle kicks Portland's ass at any and all things important. Regardless, Portland still manages to hit the very highest echelons of hipster cachet in ways even Seattle can't match. Portland is like Seattle's free-wheeling hipster little sister, a parallel universe where Belltown, Amazon and Microsoft never happened.

This is a promo video for the new IFC series Portlandia that hits the nail right on Portland's hipster, fixied head. Do you know anyone who gets the IFC channel? Fuck, I sure don't. Is that the one that comes with the HBO package? Either way, hopefully the episodes will be streamed online somewhere - if so, I'll be sure to post the link.

 

-"People grew up wanting to be clowns. You could go to clown school!"
-"I gave up clowning years ago."
-"Well, in Portland you don't have to."