Monday, February 13

Sam Adams is on Yelp

News The other day I noticed a curious tweet from our venerable mayor's Twitter account:Yes, Sam is tweet... More

Feb 13, 2012 01:20 pm by RUTH BROWN  | Comments 1
 

Doctor Groups Flex Muscle In Capitol: $2.3 Million in Campaign Cash to Influence Health-Care Reform

News The State Capitol has been abuzz the last couple of days because of a hot list (PDF) circulating in ... More

Feb 10, 2012 06:00 pm by NIGEL JAQUISS  | Comments 4
 

Nonsense Knows No State Boundary: Washington Legislators Get Bogus Job Claims on CRC

News Up north of here, Washington legislators in Olympia are debating whether or not they should authoriz... More

Feb 10, 2012 09:09 am  | Comments 1
 

Occupy Arrestees Win Their Right to Full Trials—Even Though They May Not Need It

News The estimated 160 people arrested during Occupy Portland protests in the past five months have won t... More

Feb 9, 2012 01:24 pm by HANNAH HOFFMAN  | Comments 2
 
 
 
August 22nd, 2007 WW Editorial Staff | Letters to the Editor
 

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MOHAWKS AND DREADLOCKS


Silly Willamette Week : Your ignorance of culture is rivaled only by the naiveté on display in your sensational approach to local politics. There isn’t now, nor has there ever been, a conflict between “punk rock” and “hippie culture” [“Kvetchfest,” WW , Aug. 15, 2007].  

To wit: One of the Sex Pistols’ primary influences was the Nuggets compilation. This collection of psychedelic/garage rock recordings was compiled by Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, who dubbed the music the original “punk rock.” The Sex Pistols and the Clash led giant caravans around the U.K. on their tours—sharing housing, food, clothing, etc. Both Crass and Holland’s the Ex were/are commune residents and have been constant, tireless peace activists. Ray Manzarek produced the first X album, for chrissakes, while Jim Morrison’s “Lizard King” persona was the primary inspiration for James Ostenberg’s [pretty sure you mean Osterberg. —ignorant ed. ] onstage persona, Iggy Pop.

The ‘hippie’ ethos has continued to play an important role in punk ever since—through a devotion to anarchy and freedom, veganism, social-outreach programs like Food Not Bombs, etc. Many of the “gutter punk” kids who populate downtown lead nomadic lives, traveling around the country hitching rides and jumping trains, living off the charity and kindness of others when they stop—much like the characters of Easy Rider (sans motorcycles).  

This isn’t a new trend in Portland, either—I’ve known ‘”hippie punks” in Portland since moving here a decade ago. If you have a problem with the collection of eclectic personalities on display in NoPo, then maybe it’s best you keep to the familiar environs of downtown and Southeast, where the surroundings are more likely to conform to the little boxes you use to categorize people.  

Neither “hippie” nor “punk,”
Ryan Tobias
Southeast 29th Avenue

GOT SOME KVETCHING TO DO IN HAIKU


I see a snowflake
May turn into a blizzard
Cancel school again

• • •

How great, I deadpan
Greeted by blank stare; sarcasm
Can’t fly in Portland

Elona Landau
Via kvetch@wweek.com

See wweek.com/kvetchfest for more kvetches, and submit your own (in verse or prose) to kvetch@wweek.com.

CORRECTION: The names of the company and ship were incorrect in last week’s story “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.” The correct names are Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and the JA Aladdin Dream II ship. WW regrets the errors.

 
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08.22.2007 at 11:50 Reply
Punks and hippies could not be more at odds, and this fact could not be more clearly underscored than in the article about the acid casualty capitalist "free spirit" scum who dress themselves in the garbs of consciousness while shitting pollution all over the place. While the hippies are smoking enough weed to think that changing your name to DragonFly! and hauling a paper mache snail to the desert to wow a bunch of idiots on mushrooms is the pinnacle of revolutionary activities, the punks are feeding the homeless at food not bombs, educating the incarcerated with books to prisons programs, running co-op cafe's, record stores, and anarchist book stores here in portland and all over the world. We book our shows in basements, ride our bikes there, and don't need to fry to have a good time. Parties over hippies, drum circles and paying your taxes aren't ever going to change anything. Up the Punx!

 

08.23.2007 at 08:30 Reply
Val
The differences between hippies and punks only go as far as the accessories. I've seen just as many punks who do little more than get drunk and break things as I have hippies who get stoned and think experimental art is a social revolution.

At the same time, so-called "punks" and "hippies" alike are making positive contributions in too many ways to name here. It's not what you are or what you wear that matters--it's what you do.

The divisions you're trying to apply are superficial and dangerous; they're exactly the ideas that The Man (pardon the clich

 

 
 

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