Foreward Thinking

In The Renegade Sportsman, Zach Dundas unearths the foul-mouthed, fun-loving future of sports, starting right here in PDX.

Featured Stories It’s time for sports fans to start playing a new game—one that’s cheaper; less fame-obsessed. That’s what Zach Dundas, a Portland-based freelance journalist (and former WW staf ... More

Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Zach Dundas

Pan Labyrinth

Featured Stories There’s something wonderful about the aroma of bread baking. Even Franz with its Wonder-soft loaves smells good when the ovens are on. But Mexican bakeries—panaderias—are a whole oth ... More

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 NICK ZUKIN

The Mustachioed Man Sings

Making an opera is really hard, but musicians from The Who to Portland’s Vagabond Opera keep on trying. Why?

Featured Stories VAGABONDAGE: Stern, center, and the rest of the Vagabond Opera. IMAGE: Alicia J. Rose“There’s nothing like telling a story,” says Eric Stern, the founder of Vagabond Opera, Portland& ... More

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 BRETT CAMPBELL

Best New Band 2010

Our seventh annual poll of Portland’s music insiders unveils 10 local bands you’ve just got to see.

Featured Stories IMAGE: Darryl JamesA few months ago, someone asked WW’s music staff if we had any predictions who would top this year’s Best New Band poll. For a minute or two, we drew a blank; not becaus ... More

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 Michael Mannheimer, Casey Jarman, Rebecca Raber, Robert Ham, Aaron Mesh, Chris Stamm

Jengatecture

What’s with all the bumpy buildings?

Featured Stories They look as though a godlike hand had poked square sections of building from behind, giving their façades the appearance of a half-finished game of Jenga. Their faces are broken by what can on ... More

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 BEN WATERHOUSE

Collect Them All!

Our six favorite books you’ll find at the Stumptown Comics Festival.

Featured Stories STUMPTOWN BY GREG RUCKA & MATTHEW SOUTHWORTHThink of your favorite comic book or graphic novel. Got it? Now think of the book’s creator(s)—what do they look like? Unless you’re a com ... More

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Casey Jarman, Ben Waterhouse

By Comics, For Comics

How the fastest-growing comedy festival in the country snuck into Portland.

Featured Stories Portland’s first Bridgetown Comedy Festival, in 2008, featured 50 comedians with a gaggle of around 1,000 people showing up to watch them in bars and clubs along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard ov ... More

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 Ben Bateman

Flip City

Portland is the center of the pinball galaxy. But why!?

Featured Stories Pinball is dying, most experts will tell you, but it’s a slow death. When Chicago’s Williams Entertainment, the largest U.S. manufacturer of pinball machines, shut down its pinball product ... More

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 CASEY JARMAN

The Wild Ones

A cadre of geeky micro-roasters helps Portland’s coffee industry grow up.

Featured Stories Matt Higgins, 29, changes emotions so fast it’s hard to keep up. From a spirited moment of adolescent horseplay—throwing his keys halfway across the massive chamber that will soon be home ... More

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 HANNA NEUSCHWANDER

Bet On Willy

Willy Vlautin wrote the book on horse racing at Portland Meadows. It’s called Lean on Pete. WW has an excerpt and the story behind it.

Featured Stories The novelist and musician Willy Vlautin wrote his latest book in the grandstands of Portland Meadows, at a trackside betting table that doubled as his office. More recently, Vlautin began renting a wo ... More

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 AARON MESH