Portlandia.
I know that as a native Portlander I am supposed to like to talk to people about Portlandia, hipsters, and "green living". I am supposed to embrace all of these things as a part of my cultural heritage, especially Portlandia, the only thing that people from other parts of the country find capable of validating our little, insignificant, Pacific Northwest existence. But to be honest, Portlandia really irritates me. For a while I dismissed this as my own lack of sense of humor, an inability to laugh at myself. But try as I might I still just felt like I was being ripped off, like everything that was unique and special about my life was being stolen and used by former Sleater Kinney band members to make money. It couldn't be true. I was surely just jealous of other hipsters making good. Until.
Until one day someone sent me a clip from the show about the Lucky Seven punk flop house. A place that actually existed, that was cool, and filled with music and people and noise and dirt and parties. So who cares if it's in a Portlandia sketch? Most of the things in Portlandia are based in reality, why should I care about the Lucky Seven sketch? Why would someone go out of their way to send it to me? Because what they lifted out of my life was not just the Lucky Seven, they lifted my sister and her boyfriend, Kathleen and Lars. Kathleen and Lars were the real thing, real musicians and artists that really hung out at the Lucky and really lived in houses like the one from the sketch. And there they are, the only named people in the sketch, Kathleen and Lars. What are the chances?
So no, it's not paranoia or pretension, it's just really hard to like something so clearly based off of, and then redirected back at you. And, my sister is way cooler than that Portlandia, do her some justice next time.
To watch the clip:
Posts
