8/17/2023 0 Comments Portland keep it weird video![]() While new development brings with it fresh energy, it also makes it harder for new folks to realize what makes Portland great in the first place-all the weird little places fostered by its community of creatives. Like most cities, Portland has been changing and growing. The scenery changes so drastically, and that helps you understand how nature affects the culture in Portland.” “When you travel to the Falls, you get to see that transition from the city into the natural landscape of the Columbia River Gorge. “The true beauty of Portland reveals itself over time,” says Kidd.īut if Kidd had to pinpoint one thing someone visiting the area should see, it’s Multnomah Falls, about 45 minutes east of downtown. Portland has a little something for everyone. Really, keeping Portland weird means preserving the things that the city built its reputation on in the first place,” says Kidd.įinding those little things that make it unique can be hard for first-time visitors and new residents. “You can ask a 100 different people, you’ll get 100 different answers. It’s hard to pin down exactly what makes Portland weird. “Getting to perform live on TV is cool and all, but the best thing I’ve experienced as the Unipiper is being accepted by the community here.” ![]() Since that video blew up, Kidd has appeared on America’s Got Talent, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Jimmy Kimmel Live! But those appearances were nothing compared to the support he’s found in the City of Roses. ![]() “I was just in the right place at the right time to become the symbol of a much larger movement.” “I think the reason I was embraced was because, in one image, you could see what Portland is all about,” says Kidd. Then a video he posted of his performance went viral. Kidd started showing off his Unipiper act at Portland’s Saturday Market. He had no intention of staying long term, but the city and its people changed his mind. “I became sick of hearing about it! But when I decided I wanted a change of scenery, it was on my shortlist of places to check out.” Kidd moved sight unseen. While interning after graduation in North Carolina, Kidd started combining those two creative outlets.Ī couple of Kidd’s college friends, who were from Portland, kept talking about how great it was. He learned to unicycle and play bagpipes while going to college at the University of Virginia. ![]() When Kidd moved here twelve years ago, he never expected to become an icon for Portland. “People here are more likely to express themselves in their own ways and not judge others for their expression. “Portland’s weird spirit comes from its culture of freedom and acceptance,” says Kidd. This reputation for weirdness is what drew Brian Kidd-that unicycling, bagpipeplaying, costume-wearing man known as the “Unipiper”-to Portland. The mixture of historic and new buildings, along with its proximity to Oregon’s natural beauty, make it a hotbed of inspiration. It’s a town that attracts people of all kinds. “Keep Portland Weird” is the city’s unofficial motto for good reason. Policy makers made no secret of their derision of the LA model and rejection of any attempts to replicate its ‘infinite chokehold freeways and no-centred-ness.’ Its medical students, for example, are known to travel campus-to-campus via gondola.Įconomically too, the city was noted as an activewear cluster and had a reputation for its ‘Obama-era zeitgeist, emerging technology, DIY mentality and organic movement.’ Keep Portland Weird - by this point on 18,000 bumper stickers around the city and emblazoned on the side of a building with a 30-foot long mural - had gone beyond alternative lifestyle choices and towards economic strategy.A man in a Darth Vader costume riding a unicycle and playing flaming bagpipes can only mean one thing: you’re in Portland. It was an articulation of a different way of living: and a different way of imagining the urban experience. An openly gay mayor, excellent public transport, citywide cycling, citywide recycling - the initial adoption of Keep Portland Weird to protect the interests of small businesses was being extended to city policy and planning. By early-2000s American city standards, Portland was definitely weird.
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