Friday, December 3, 2010

Keeping Portland Weird

Out on a stroll with the dog the other day I experienced a “keep Portland weird” moment. Many citizens of this city in which I live pride themselves on living somewhere a little different. They resent the homogenization of our cities that corporate America can bring and strive to support the local and the offbeat thus (in part) keeping Portland weird.

I would like to think it’s in this spirit that an artist by the name of Scott Wayne Indiana is said to have, in the fall of 2005, tied his first toy pony to a one of the many horse rings embedded in our Portland sidewalks. The idea caught on and soon people were tying up toy horses all over town. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen one, I thought the idea had ran its course and quietly died. I guess not.I have to say the sparkly gift tie is a nice touch.

And I realize this really has nothing to do with gardening but heck it’s my blog and I felt like sharing, hope it made you smile.


18 comments:

  1. That's pretty damn cool. I like it when there are reminders that life used to be very different from modern life. I wish we had something like that in my city.

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  2. I love it, things like that are great fun.

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  3. I still take joy at seeing these around town from time to time...although it does seem to have passed at this time. We have a few of the rings on our curbs and were thinking of searching for a My Little Pony to hitch on. Oh, and I meant to reply to your post on "Why we blog"...but I got too wordy and ended up doing a post on my blog about it :-)

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  4. nice touch... its all about wanting to be free.....

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  5. That is pretty funny! And you go and write about whatever you want. I know mine is suppose to be all about succulents but yesterday I posted about a weird cloud formation. Ha ha!

    What were those rings for in the first place. And yes it is pretty strange!

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  6. I certainly hope Portland stays weird, it's one of the reasons I want to move there!

    Alas the closest I come to awesome toy pony action is some possibly sketchy dude walking around with a toy pony in his pocket at a concert.

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  7. I know you know I subscribe wholeheartedly to the 'It's my blog I'll post what I want' idea, so you'll get no argument from me for this post -- Love it!

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  8. Those rings, also make a good place to tie up reindeer. Very handy for the big guy in red!

    Wyatt and Stanzie

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  9. Love it! So quirky. Austin likes to be weird too.

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  10. Between you, Grace and the news ya'll have a lot of things going on in Portland...this is a not so bad one here though.

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  11. It DOES TOO have to do with gardening! They're garden ornaments!

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  12. That's funny! Spokane definitely has its own weirdness, different from Portland. The camo trend that went through clothes for a while - it has never, ever gone out of style here, not since camo was invented.

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  13. Hi Loree~~ I remember those rings. What a cute idea. It makes me smile too.

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  14. we are trying to keep laguna beach weird, too. i figured some work by some of our "old laguna" artists that some might find weird. but i think it's creative, fun and necessary!!

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  15. Departures are good: variety, spice of life, that sort of thing.

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  16. Why have I never seen these ?? SW, NE NW or SE ? or all ? I guess I'm too busy looking at conifers.

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  17. That's awesome! We have a old corral over outside the local corner store. I like that it's still there.

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  18. Mary C, does your city still have pay phone booths? Those remind me of an earlier time!!

    Spiky O, I'm glad I happened to walk by it WITH my camera in hand.

    scott, you should get the whole rainbow of my little pony colors! And I love that you made your reply into a post on your blog.

    Bangchik, took my awhile to get what you were saying but now I do! (and agree)

    Candy, they were for just that! Tying up your horse...only not the toy ones but the real ones.

    Jessica, you make that sound awfully creepy! Yes...you should move to Portland, soon.

    Rancho, thank you!

    Wyatt and Stanzie, but I thought he landed on the roof?

    Pam, you guys have the "keep ___" weird bumper stickers too don't you?

    Darla, I need to catch up with Graces blog and see what news she's got!

    RFG, aha! Thanks for the angle.

    VW, and that's why the General Store is still in business (well that and fishing licenses).

    Grace, good to hear it (the smile).

    Janine, necessary indeed.

    ricki, I could take that as a challenge and see just how far I can go.

    ks, I remember seeing the rings and the toy ponies predominantly in the Pearl District, but this one was in NE PDX. Concordia to be specific.

    Laura, is it wood? Someone cares for it then or is it in a state of slowly falling apart?

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