Culture and contemporary life

See also: List of fiction set in Oregon

Portland is often awarded "Greenest City in America" and "most green cities" designations. Popular Science awarded Portland the title of the Greenest City in America in 2008, and Grist magazine listed it in 2007 as the second greenest city in the world. The city is home to the Rose Bud and Thorn Pageant, started in 1975 and modeled after the Imperial Sovereign Rose Court of Oregon.

In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by CBS MoneyWatch.

Entertainment and performing arts See also: Music of Oregon The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, home of the Oregon Symphony, among others

Like most large cities, Portland has a range of classical performing arts institutions which include the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera and the Portland Youth Philharmonic. It also has quite a few stages similar to New York's Off Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway such as Portland Center Stage, Artists Repertory Theatre, Miracle Theatre, Stark Raving Theatre, and Tears of Joy Theatre. Portland hosts the world's only HP Lovecraft Film Festival at the Hollywood Theatre.

Portland is home to famous bands such as The Kingsmen and Paul Revere & the Raiders, both famous for their association with the song "Louie Louie" (1963). Other widely known musical groups include The Dandy Warhols, Everclear, Pink Martini, Sleater-Kinney, The Shins, Blitzen Trapper, The Decemberists, and the late Elliott Smith. The city's now-demolished Satyricon nightclub is well known for being the place where the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love met each other; Love had grown up in Portland for most of her life. In recent years, a number of indie music bands from Portland have been touring nationally.

According to the New York Times, the dozens of karaoke bars in Portland make it not just "the capital of karaoke" in the United States, but "one of the most exciting music scenes in America.

Widely recognized animators who hail from Portland include Matt Groening (The Simpsons, Futurama) and Will Vinton (Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration). Dan Steffan, cartoonist-illustrator for Heavy Metal and other magazines, lives in Portland. Portland is also home to Laika stop motion animation studio, creators of Oscar-nominated feature films Coraline (2009) and Paranorman (2012).

Filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting (1997), Milk (2008)) is also a Portland native. Actors from Portland include Sam Elliott and Sally Struthers. Pop artist, Johnny Cash protégé and filmmaker Trevor Chowning resides in Portland.

Recent films set and shot in Portland include Gone, Extraordinary Measures, Body of Evidence, What the Bleep Do We Know!?, The Hunted, Twilight, Paranoid Park, Blue Like Jazz, Wendy and Lucy, Feast of Love, Untraceable, Drugstore Cowboy and My Own Private Idaho. Coraline and ParaNorman were both filmed in the Portland suburb of Hillsboro. An unusual feature of Portland entertainment is the large number of movie theaters serving beer, often with second-run or revival films. Notable examples of these "brew and view" theaters includes The Bagdad Theater and Pub and the Laurelhurst Theater, in operation since 1923.

The IFC sketch comedy series Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and former Sleater-Kinney member Carrie Brownstein, shoots on location in Portland, satirizing the city as a hub of liberal politics, organic food, alternative lifestyles and anti-establishment attitudes.

MTV's long-time running reality show, The Real World, was recently shot in Portland for the show's 29th season. The Real World: Portland premiered on MTV on March 27, 2013 and was filmed in a loft in the Pearl District. The show featured the cast members taking part in several Portland activities, such as hiking in the Columbia River Gorge. The cast members worked at a local frozen yogurt shop and the local Pizza Schmizza.

Other TV shows which have shot in the city include Leverage, Under Suspicion, Grimm, Nowhere Man and Life Unexpected.

Authors

Authors from Portland include science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, famous for her Earthsea novels, Hainish Cycle and Orsinian Tales; Katherine Dunn author of the bestselling novel Geek Love; transgressional fiction novelist Chuck Palahniuk, best known for his award-winning novel Fight Club; best-selling Christian author Don Miller; Washington Institute Book Prize-winning author and journalist Michael J. Totten, and Beverly Cleary, author of the famous series of children's books featuring Henry Huggins, his dog Ribsy, Beatrice "Beezus" Quimby and Ramona Quimby. Klickitat Street, where Cleary's characters live, is an actual street in northeast Portland. Statues of the characters stand in nearby Grant Park.

Portland is home to a number of independent, small graphic novel publishers such as Dark Horse Comics and Oni Press, as well as comic book artists and writers such as Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka, and Farel Dalrymple.

Tourism See also: Tourism in Portland, Oregon and List of artists and art institutions in Portland, Oregon The White Stag sign is a popular city landmark Oaks Amusement Park is Portland's Main Amusement Park

Portland is home to a diverse array of artists and arts organizations, and was named in 2006 by American Style magazine as the tenth best Big City Arts Destination in the U.S.

The Portland Art Museum owns the city's largest art collection and presents a variety of touring exhibitions each year. With the recent addition of the Modern and Contemporary Art wing it became one of the United States' twenty-five largest museums. Art galleries abound downtown and in the Pearl District, as well as in the Alberta Arts District and other neighborhoods throughout the city.

The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is located on the east bank of the Willamette River across from downtown Portland, and contains a variety of hands-on exhibits covering the physical sciences, life science, earth science, technology, astronomy, and early childhood education. OMSI also has an OMNIMAX Theater and is home to the USS Blueback submarine, used in the film The Hunt for Red October.

Portland is also home to Portland Classical Chinese Garden, an authentic representation of a Suzhou-style walled garden.

Portlandia, a statue on the west side of the Portland Building, is the second-largest hammered-copper statue in the U.S. (after the Statue of Liberty). Portland's public art is managed by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.

Powell's City of Books claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world, occupying a multistory building on an entire city block in the Pearl District. In 2010, Powell's Technical Books was relocated to Powell's Books Bldg. 2 across the street from the flagship store.

The Portland Rose Festival takes place annually in June and includes two parades, dragon boat races, carnival rides at Tom McCall Waterfront park, and dozens of other events.

Washington Park, in the West Hills, is home to some of Portland's most popular recreational sites, including the Oregon Zoo, the Portland Japanese Garden, the World Forestry Center, and the Hoyt Arboretum.

Portland hosts a number of festivals throughout the year in celebration of beer and brewing, including the Oregon Brewers Festival. Held each summer during the last full weekend of July, it is the largest outdoor craft beer festival in North America with over 70,000 attendees in 2008. Other major beer festivals throughout the calendar year include the Spring Beer and Wine Festival in April, the North American Organic Brewers Festival in June, the Portland International Beerfest in July, and the Holiday Ale Festival in December.

Shopping Hawthorne District

Portland has many options for shopping. Some of the well known shopping areas are Downtown Portland, Nob Hill (NW 21st & 23rd Avenues), Pearl District, Hawthorne Avenue for vintage apparel, and the Lloyd District. Major department stores in downtown include Nordstrom, Macy's, and H&M. The major malls in the metropolitan area are Lloyd Center, Washington Square, Clackamas Town Center, Westfield Vancouver, Bridgeport Village and Pioneer Place. Another destination is the Portland Saturday Market, a town bazaar-like environment where many kinds of goods are sold from Artisan Crafts to Tibetan Imports, reflecting the many cultures of Portland. The Saturday Market is open every weekend from March through Christmas.

Breweries

Portland is well known for its microbreweries. Oregon Public Broadcasting has documented Portland's role in the microbrew revolution in the United States in a report called Beervana. Some illustrate Portlanders' interest in the beverage by an offer made in 1888 when local brewer Henry Weinhard volunteered to pump beer from his brewery into the newly dedicated Skidmore Fountain. Portland's modern abundance of microbreweries dates to the 1980s when state law was changed to allow consumption of beer on brewery premises. Brewery innovation was supported by the abundance of local ingredients, including two-row barley, over a dozen varieties of hops, and pure water from the Bull Run Watershed.

Portland is home to more than 60 breweries—more breweries than any other city in the world—which is partially responsible for CNBC naming Portland the best city for happy hour in the U.S. in 2010. The McMenamin brothers alone have over thirty brewpubs, distilleries, and wineries scattered throughout the metropolitan area, several in renovated cinemas and other historically significant buildings otherwise destined for demolition. Other notable Portland brewers include Widmer Brothers, BridgePort, Hair of the Dog, and Hopworks Urban Brewery. In 1999, author Michael "Beerhunter" Jackson called Portland a candidate for the beer capital of the world because the city boasted more breweries than Cologne, Germany. The Portland Oregon Visitors Association promotes "Beervana" and "Brewtopia" as nicknames for the city. In mid-January 2006, Portland Mayor Tom Potter officially gave the city a new nickname: Beertown.

The original Stumptown Coffee location at 45th and Division. Cuisine

Portland has a growing restaurant scene, and among three nominees, was recognized by the Food Network Awards as their "Delicious Destination of the Year: A rising city with a fast-growing food scene" for 2007. In 2010, The Washington Post called Portland "one of the best places in the country to dine." Travel + Leisure ranked Portland's food and bar scene #5 in the nation in 2012. The city is also known for being among the most vegetarian-friendly cities in America.

Portland has been named the best city in the world for street food by several publications, including the U.S. News & World Report and CNN. Food carts are extremely popular within the city, with over 600 licensed carts, making Portland one of the most robust street food scenes in North America.

In addition to its reputation as a craft beer capital, Portland is also known for its artisanal coffee culture. The city is home to Stumptown Coffee Roasters as well as dozens of other micro-roasteries and cafes.

Sports Main article: Sports in Portland, Oregon The Rose Garden, home of the Portland Trail Blazers. Jeld-WEN Field, home of the Portland Timbers.

Portland is home to two major league teams: the Portland Timbers of Major League Soccer and the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. The city is also home to a number of minor league teams.

Running is a popular sport in the metropolitan area, which hosts the Portland Marathon and much of the Hood to Coast Relay, the world's largest (by number of participants) long-distance relay race. The city is home to two elite running groups, the Nike Oregon Project and Oregon Track Club, which include American record holder at 10,000m Galen Rupp, British 2012 Olympic 10,000m and 5,000m champion World Champion at 5,000m Mo Farah and 2008 American Olympic bronze medalist at 10,000m Shalane Flanagan. Skiing and snowboarding are also highly popular, with a number of nearby resorts on Mount Hood, including year-round Timberline Lodge.

Portland was formerly home to the Portland Rosebuds of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, the first professional sports team in Oregon and the first professional hockey team in the United States. The Rosebuds played in the 1916 Stanley Cup Finals, the first American team to do so.

The city also has one of the most active bicycle racing scenes in the United States. The Oregon Bicycle Racing Association sanctions hundreds of bicycling events each year. Weekly events at Alpenrose Velodrome and Portland International Raceway allow for racing nearly every night of the week March through September, and cyclocross races September through December, such as the Cross Crusade, can have over 1,000 riders and boisterous spectators.

Portland is also home to the Rose City Rollers, a women's flat track roller derby league.

Portland has two Division I college sports teams, the University of Portland Pilots and the Portland State Vikings. Both universities field teams in numerous sports, including soccer, baseball, basketball, and football. The University of Portland plays at Joe Etzel Field, the Clive Charles Soccer Complex, and the Chiles Center. Portland State University plays at the Stott Center and Jeld-Wen Field. In addition, Lewis & Clark College fields several sports teams that compete in NCAA Division III.

Club Sport League League championships Home venue Founded Portland Trail Blazers Basketball National Basketball Association 1 (1976-77) Rose Garden 1970 Portland Timbers Soccer Major League Soccer 0 Jeld-Wen Field 2009 Portland Thorns Women's soccer National Women's Soccer League 0 Jeld-Wen Field 2012 Portland Winterhawks Ice hockey Western Hockey League 2 (1982–83, 1997–98) Rose Garden 1976 Media Main article: Media in Portland, Oregon

The Oregonian is the only daily general-interest newspaper serving Portland. It also circulates throughout the state and in Clark County, Washington.

Smaller local newspapers, distributed free of charge in newspaper boxes and at venues around the city, include Portland Tribune (general-interest paper published on Thursdays), Willamette Week (general-interest alternative weekly published on Wednesdays), The Portland Mercury (another weekly, targeted at younger urban readers published on Thursdays), and The Asian Reporter (a weekly covering Asian news, both international and local).

Portland Indymedia is one of the oldest and largest Independent Media Centers. The Portland Alliance, a largely anti-authoritarian progressive monthly, is the largest radical print paper in the city. Just Out, published in Portland twice monthly until the end of 2011, was the region's foremost LGBT publication. A biweekly paper, Street Roots, is also sold within the city by members of the homeless community.

The Portland Business Journal, a weekly, covers business-related news, as does The Daily Journal of Commerce. Portland Monthly is a monthly news and culture magazine. The Bee, over 105 years old, is another neighborhood newspaper serving the inner southeast neighborhoods.

Portland is well served by television and radio.