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Carrie Brownstein and Portlandia
Few recent local pop culture offerings have gotten as much play as this trailer for Portlandia, the new cable show making a "dreamy and absurd rendering" of Portland:
Portlandia will debut on IFC on January 21st, with a premiere at Portland's Hollywood Theater on the 14th. The series stars Carrie Brownstein and SNL comedian Fred Armisen, and has been the talk of the town for months now. Much of the coverage has focused on the question of whether or not the show will be "making fun" of the city. But then there was this satirical take from Live Wire, in which Portlanders' fears of being mocked give way to excitement for the national spotlight.
Portlandia started out as Thunderant, a series of internet comedy sketches by Brownstein and Armisen. Here's "Portland Pet Haven," from a few years ago:
Before Thunderant and Portlandia, Carrie Brownstein was already a northwest cultural force from her time in Sleater-Kinney. And she's been very busy since then: she's in the new band Wild Flag (which is playing on January 12 at Portland's Bunk Bar), and she has a book in the works. (Recent past jobs have included blogging about music for NPR and a brief stint at Wieden & Kennedy.)
She's joining us this hour to talk about Portlandia and Portland, punk and comedy, writing and acting. What questions do you have for her?
Tagged as: comedy · portlandia · rock · tv
Photo credit: IFC
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In an interview today, I was asked why did I move to Oregon in 1993? My answer: To become a lesbian feminist. The interviewer reacted: That is sooooo 90s.
Although the lesbian feminist thing didn't work out for me, I have enjoyed the last two decades of my fellow laid-back Oregonians, extraordinary artisans, eccentric dancers and actors, die hard cyclists, and oxymoronic individuals including men who wear pub shirts under their shirt and tie. Of course none of us true Portlandians could survive without Santa Con, the Zombie Walk, and Pirate festivities. We only need a hint of an excuse to put on a costume and parade around town.
If you want to be a clown, be a clown. Check out Portland's nonprofit The Circus Project at thecircusproject.org. You too can learn to parade around town in a red nose and floppy shoes while engaging in a civic activity.
Here in Portland we care about each other -- our civility is strong. We are unique in our values, politeness, togetherness, and eccentric nature. I look forward to seeing us depicted through the humorous eyes of Brownstein and Armisen.
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Great trailer. I'm the director of The Circus Project, a Portland-based nonprofit organization that teaches circus arts to homeless and at-risk youth. I was especially fond of the reference to Portlander's idealism and the acceptance of clowning as an appropriate career path (though we mainly specialize in aerial arts)! For those with either overt or covert aspirations of joining the circus, or a desire to empower street and other at-risk youth reminiscent of the 90s, check out our programs at www.thecircusproject.org! (And for all those aspiring Portland clowns - we are thrilled to offer a workshop with Canadian Master Clown teacher Sue Morrison this coming March!)
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It’s about time someone starting nationally mocking Portland. The rest of Oregon has been making fun of Portland hipsters for years because they take themselves so seriously and seem to be isolated with little knowledge of the rest of the state. Time to laugh at yourselves Portland!
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The idea for Portlandia makes me think of the movie Singles. How much of that movie influenced the development of Portlandia?
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Will your show include any minorities, or will it do what Portland--as a whole--continues to do, which is to ignore that we exist?
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Great comment. Racial relations are the great unspoken hypocrisy - but it could also be very important, healing and funny to begin to poke fun at it.
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Minorities? In Portland? Kidding. Mostly. Portland is one of the whitest cities around. It's ironic, really, Portland is very liberal minded and yet Portland is very white and seemingly unfriendly towards minorities.
Beaverton (a city often reviled by Portland hipsters) is a lot more ethnically diverse.
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Thank you for the comment. Please see my post, related to this issue. The trailers I saw of Portlandia were 100% white. Portland is not only "seemingly" unfriendly to minorities, as a comment to this post states, but outright hostile. We have a long history that spans to the current decade of taking over neighborhoods and kicking out the minorities. Yes, it's "economic," but if we cared about minorities, we could find different models for urban renewal.
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Actually, that "Dream of the 90's " song is very catchy. If music radio stations were still locally run instead of run by computers somewhere in LA that song would be getting a lot of airplay here.
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I love how Portland's bike commuters often behave much like the stereotypes of car commuters. At the monthly "breakfast on the bridges" where free coffee and voodoo doughnuts are given out free, most zoom past, in just as big a hurry to get somewhere as the cars in the next lane. I think you could have some fun with that whole world of bikes as transportation . . .
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You can't accurately depict Portland without the millions of Subaru station wagons, hiking boots and waffle knit henleys!
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LONG TIME LISTENER FIRST TIME COMMENTER
CARRIE- LOVED THE BAND. GIRL RIOT!
does portlandia lampoon a semi-serious radio call-in show that generally asks softball questions?
THANKS. KEEP PORTLAND WIRED
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We recently had a show about Adults Failing to Launch, frustrated that they cannot get a job with benefits let alone a career, earn enough to have an apartment or buy a house, and have education degrees that do not lead anywhere.
We can pursue things that are fun and novel and ostentatious like clown college, walking a tightrope or starting a heavy metal band. But something has to put bread on the table. OR we can pursue things that are hard, necessary, and difficult like geometry proofs, industrial bioengineering petro-chemistry or cardiac surgery. These may lead to job security and a career.
Imagine if half this town were circus performers as the show portrays. Now imagine if half the town were ambitious educated responsible adults.
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I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm a composting, biodiesel-driving, bike commuting, cloth-diaper using (on my babies), sustainable coffee consultant - a totally conventional figure in Portland, but super crunchy by national standards. Our blue-and-pink-haired acrobat nanny took our toddler daughter to playgroups at the Feminist bookstore where you filmed those scenes. For us, Portlandia is a HILARIOUS documentary of our lives and those who surround us. It allows our far-off relatives to see that we're actually not as weird or colorful as it gets... and it actually has me fall in love all over again with Portland. Thank you!!!!!
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From what I know of Portlandia, which isn’t much, it seems as though the same tools the clips make fun of, are the same tools the show is meant to appeal to. The aesthetic of the show seems to have the same hipster kitsch, quirkiness, ‘cleverness’, that it attempts to make fun of. A bunch of people cooing, and slouching around, at how oddly, asymmetrically, self-consciously, funny they are. This show seems to be, yet, another attempt at more commentary on what people are doing, or were doing, rather then something new---much like my comment here.
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P.S. I guess at least there is something to make fun of in Portland---perhaps, that in itself is an achievement. No matter how annoying, cliched, and stifling, I find so much of the culture of Portland, there are few other places in the country I would want to live.
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Making fun of Portland is a past time of mine and as a member of the select few who made it across the border to the 'Couv, I can tell you I enjoy the view from here.
As far as targets, I have always thought that a particularly good soft spot are those individuals who think of themselves as gang members and put "503" on their rear windows. Every time I see one, I bust into a fit of giggly hysteria. What makes it so much fun, is that they are really quite serious. Pot smoking Gang members are as much threat as a puppy dog. They've smoked three bowls and are nothing more than an irrate, lethargic teenager.
"Man, I'd get you.. but.. like.. I totally have this urge to head over to Krispy Kreme... So.. like.. just stay here, cause.. . yeah."
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This show sounds hilarious. Any way to watch it for someone who doesn't have cable? I know, typical. . . no cable. . .
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My brother told me about the show Portlandia over vegan biscuits and gravy at the Vita Cafe. Sunday, while eating at Dots, I felt like I might be in a scene of Portlandia, as Dead Moon played in the background and as the velvet paintings looked down on me eating falafel and tofu dip.
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Portlandia should do something on the whole Urban Farming culture in PDX, especially with Chickens. Everyone in SE has chickens on their block. They are loud, dirty, eat every plant you own and all for what? a dozen eggs costs only $1.99. It's crazy!
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Dear Carrie,
It's Fred and me, not Fred and I.
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Maybe a Public Grammarian segment on a future episode of Portlandia? Me like it.
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Been in Portland 20 and love it. One moment I've seen many times, is the cafe with baristas who play their own preferred music - a bit too loud, while customers are trying to talk. Especially ironic when some of the coffee drinking customers are older and not 'alt'. Do these serviers not notice the room?
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About banks; I encourage her to check into Credit Unions instead of banks, become a member of one and support yourself and your community instead of the greedy people who caused our Great recession.
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My book club is not reading a book this month, we are having a Portlandia viewing party! We have all been talking about riding our bikes, bringing our homemade kombucha to share, needing to find someone to watch our chickens while we are out, knitting glasses frames to wear and of course putting a bird on it. And NO gluten!
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I have a perfect show idea: PCC (Portland Community College) will be celebrating it's 50th Anniversary beginning the next school year, 2011-2012. PCC is quintessential Portland-- literally almost everyone has gone there at one time or another. It will be a year long community-wide celebration with many public unique Portland-esque events. Could be great for a Portlandia episode. Thanks for considering.
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How DARE you make fun of Pitbull rights!
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As a new parent, I think you should perhaps think of incorporating the ideas of militant breastfeeding (Portland has the highest %age of breastfeeding mothers nationwide, but some can be a bit high and mighty about it). Along the same lines, there are some that prescribe to a "Diaper free" baby potty training technique... which involves parents watching their babies signals to warn of impending bathroom "learning opportunities" and hold them over a waterproof mat or bowl. Ugh. To each their own, right? Still interesting topics potentially for Portlandia!
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Dave Miller: You need your own show.
Relevant / engaging interview topics and good questions.
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Thanks for the kind words. In fact, I'm working on a pilot for what we hope will turn into a weekly show about arts, culture, and life in Portland. More — including two hours to listen to —here:
http://blogs.opb.org/thespeakeasy/
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About 8 years ago, I was part of a community alliance, going door to door in N/NE Portland neighborhoods, trying to galvanize some resistance to the incoming wave of gentrification. It failed, as the current state of N/NE Portland (think Mississippi Ave) is testament to. The face of these neighborhoods has changed completely, with much of our city's minorities once again being pushed out. (Portland has a history of doing this - NW 21st used to be the "black" neighborhood, until the whites wanted it.) I can't enjoy hanging out in the Mississippi neighborhood now - to me it simply represents modern-day inequality.
The clips I've seen of Portlandia show a small slice of Portland, the same slice that roams the Mississippi, Kenton, and other gentrified neighborhoods. I don't know this outright mistreatment of our city's minorities is represented in Portlandia, if at all, but in my experience, this slice of Portland that lives and plays in the places people of color used to call home is too self-absorbed with their DIY artsiness to appreciate or pay any homage to what came before them. There is a sense of total entitlement.
I know that Carrie said in her interview that she is not trying to make a documentary about Portland, but at the same time, throughout the interview she and callers talk about how "Portland" is hyper-aware (about some issues, maybe), or how "Portland" needs to be able to laugh more. So then it does feel like there is a claim or assumption that the people shown in the documentary are somehow representative of or synonomous with Portland.
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I just moved here a few months ago. I've lived in numerous urban areas across the country and while gentrification isn't desirable - it's usually what change brings to a neighborhood. ( the exact reverse is worse- believe me) and change happens- no matter what else happens, you can depend upon change. The artists and students move in first, along with fringe elements, (because it is cheap). They make it attractive to developers and real estate pimps who begin to see "potencial" for development for upper middle class families. Property taxes rise and there you have it. People everywhere want to live well- within their means. Blaming the "newness" of your neighbors doesn't create a community. And isn't that what makes the original neighborhood cool to begin with- the Community? It isn't a racial issue, it's an economic issue. My parents are getting squeezed out of their neighborhood for similar reasons after residing there for 40 years. Sure it isn't fair. But who told you life was going to be? Entitlement? I wish my parents were entitled to live the rest of their lives out in the home we grew up in, but I don't blame the "new neighbors" or "gentrification". And (any) young people paying "homage" is an exception, not the rule (unfortunately).
BTW- this is about a Television Program that mocks all that you apparently hate about Portland- one would think you would be overjoyed to have the chance to participate in laughing with your fellow Portlanders about it. It is humor after all. Enjoy the show.
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I mentioned in a response to another post that it is called an "economic" issue, as you also say, but it's not - it's disregard. I am in no way suggesting that all must remain stagnant. The neighborhoods in question were in serious need of development. But if we cared at all about the existing communities, we could have made it a priority that the urban renewal plan would have helped them to stay. There was none of that. Lots of public funding went into improving the neighborhoods, so we had a responsibility to using that public funding in a way that was fair to all, with priority given to the people already living there.
To your final point, this show is not really mocking. It's a showcase of cuteness, and that's completely fine. I am a bike-riding, vegetarian (unless the chicken comes with papers!), eco-friendly, belonged in a band, etc., etc., like the others this show is about, so I definitely don't "hate" those things about Portland. I just have trouble with the fact that the show does seem to suggest that the people in this show ARE Portland, which is very exclusionary.
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The third time I visited Portland, I went to Voodoo Doughnuts for the experience, on the way out a 20 year old in a pack of drifters asked me for a doughnut, I told him, "No", out of no prejudice, I just have strict restrictions on how I donate. On hearing this, badgered me, guilt tripped me, and harangued me while I walked away. The worst part was that he had a guitar that he couldn't play, that if he could play, would have earned him a doughnut from me.
I thought it funny that debating was the skill that this vagrant had to offer. The next block over the same thing happened, I thought only in Portland would I have to argue with bums to justify why I would not give them handouts.
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Question #1: Who do we get in contact with if we want to be on the show? We know someone who would be a *perfect* character for the show.
Question #2: Where is a suggestion box for next season? My friends and I have been brainstorming since we saw the trailer a month ago. We had to laugh at ourselves as we were pegged in SOOO many of the characters. But our biggest suggest is to feature the March Fourth Marching Band (M4). Building off the circus theme in the trailer, M4 is a 20-40 person escapade of a freak-show-meets incredible creative collaboration in the form of band. Truly a whole new meaning to Marching Band with stilt walkers, hula-hoopers, fire spinners, and lots of theatrics. Now the alterna-Marching Band is almost its own genre with bands throughout the US, but March Fourth was one of the first of its kind in the nation performing on the scale it does, and it is a Portland staple.
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I'm just adding on to my earlier post, and I'm responding to a post that suggested that Portlandia make fun of its self-congratulatory claim of progressiveness, while it ignores the marginalization of its minority populations.
The main characters could always refer to their black friend and friends from other minority groups, who are never actually on the show, they bring up them when they need to bolster their cultural competency cred.
Similar to when I was twelve, I use to tell my friends about my boyfriend whom I met in summercamp...I never went to summer camp.
Of course, they wouldn't overtly say that their friend is from a particular race or ethnicity, they would drop a lot of not-so-subtle hints and, hopefully, it would be obvious to the viewers (unless, their Portland hipsters).
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Really enjoyed the interview today and plan on watching often! I'm sure you're getting tons of suggestions for show ideas, is there any contact information available so people can email real life Portland experiences for consideration? I did not find anything on the Portlandia site.
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One thing that was not mentioned is how bringing TV and film to Oregon increases revenue to local businesses. At the annual meeting of the Oregon Film Board in December 2010, Governor Kulongoski was honored for the work he has done to increase commercial productions in Oregon, bringing in millions of dollars to our economy. Shows like Leverage and Portlandia are important to our financial future. I can see Portlandia significantly impacting tourism.
Contact http://www.oregonfilm.org/contact/ to find how many millions of dollars are spend here in Oregon when a film crew visits.
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The rest of Oregon has been making fun of Portland hipsters for years because they take themselves so seriously and seem to be isolated with little knowledge of the rest of the state.Titanium Jewelry
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I've been a regular listener to "All Songs Considered" and was sorry to see that your NPR Music contributions had to be sacrificed in favor of your work on Portlandia and the new band. You had a great rapport with the other members of Bob Boilen's crew, and your absence means the job of putting the "All" in "All Songs Considered" is left only to Lars Gotrich. :-) If nothing else, I hope you reunite with them for a report on SXSW, since I read you'll be in Austin anyway for the post-SXSW Bro Fest.
My question is about artistic collaboration. You were a member of Sleater-Kinney for years giving the band plenty of time to creatively mesh. Thunderant, Portlandia's web-based predecessor, required collaborating mostly with just one other person. So it's easy to imagine that you found a way to collaborate on those "projects." But expanding Thunderant into Portlandia brought a bunch of new people into the creative process, particularly Allison Silverman of the Colbert Report, as well as the IFC people. Was it easy to collaborate with an expanded cast and crew? Wild Flag took a while before you all were willing to start performing in public, but I imagine with Portlandia you didn't have that kind of control and time for preparation, even if TV is a writer's medium. Can you give examples of the creative impact that Silverman, Jonathan Krisel, and others had in expanding Thunderant into Portlandia?