This is a RSS file. Copy the URL into your aggregator of choice. If you don't know what this means and want to learn more, please see: http://platial.typepad.com/news/2006/04/really_simple_t.html for more info. http://platial.comhttp://platial.com/map/Brandon-s-Portland/54430 Portland, Oregon, as experienced by Brandon. http://platial.com/post/53818
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]]> 2006-04-07 16:33:39.741636+00:00 http://platial.com/post/82020 2006-05-12 23:24:49.489133+00:00 http://platial.com/post/955294 Staff Picks: Best Place to Get Out of the Rain "A quiet, meditative and relaxing place to spend an afternoon trying a huge selection of gourmet teas in a Japanese garden-ish atmosphere. Take a good book. Nice menu with an amazing smoked vanilla ice cream." - Drew

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]]> 2007-02-10 22:40:46.75475+00:00 http://platial.com/post/858003
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]]> 2006-12-05 14:12:08.231429+00:00 http://platial.com/post/940752
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]]> 2007-01-30 18:47:29.435447+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945241 Staff Picks "You have to see The Back Stage to believe it. Literally the backstage of the Bagdad Theater, behind the movie screen, turned into a pub and pool hall with the same Middle Eastern theme as the rest of the Bagdad. The ceiling is seven stories above your head, through the theater's old catwalk system. There's a 20 foot by 20 foot mural on the wall that shows the space's history, from when it was a behind-the-scenes area of a vaudeville theatre in the '30s to when it was an arthouse and hippie haven in the '70s. When most people walk into The Back Stage for the first time, they seem to have trouble believing their eyes. All this, plus drinks and a jukebox with everything from Johnny Cash to Modest Mouse to Tom Waits!" - Brandon

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]]> 2007-02-04 21:16:21.818777+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945534 Staff Picks: Place To Go Out At Night "Smoke a hookah while enjoying one of their 30 beers or numerous wines." - Drew The Pied Cow is a coffeehouse, wine bar, and hookah bar in a historic house on Belmont. Inside, the place looks like an opium den (or how one would imagine an opium den would look, if one hasn't been on the Portland Underground Tour) -- lush, extravagant, incredibly atmospheric.

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]]> 2007-02-05 12:54:28.977325+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945536
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]]> 2007-02-05 13:01:51.174224+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945554 Staff Picks: Best Place to Get Out of the Rain "Movies for #3, beer and pizza while you watch." - Emily Probably the best second-run movie theater in Portland, the Laurelhurst features four screens. You can buy microbrews, wine, Pizzicato pizza, in one of the first art deco buildings in the U.S., dating back to 1923. It's about a 15 minute walk north from the Hostel.

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]]> 2007-02-10 22:36:58.785351+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945589
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]]> 2007-02-05 14:08:14.291257+00:00 http://platial.com/post/945666
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]]> 2007-02-05 14:43:34.173651+00:00 http://platial.com/post/955297 Staff Picks: Favorite Place to be Outdoors "Forest Park is the largest urban forest in the U.S. It's like the forest moon of Endor. But my favorite part is the "Witches Castle," a ruined stone building along the trail. It's a stone restroom from the '30s that was damaged in a storm in the 60s. It's absolutely gorgeous." - Brandon Forest Park stretches for more than eight miles, and the walking path in it is a 40 mile loop. The #15 bus from Belmont will drop you off near the Lower Macleay Park entrance, where these photos were taken. To get to the Witches Castle (also called the Stone House), walk the Lower Macleay Park trail for 20 minutes. The "Castle" is on your left, at a juncture with another trail.

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]]> 2007-02-10 23:06:02.22587+00:00 http://platial.com/post/940745 Staff Picks: Favorite Place to be Outdoors
"Take the trails, not the roads, to the top. Great view of Mt. Hood. Check out the wonderful reservoirs, the volcanic cutaway (beside the basketball courts), and on a clear day you can see Mt. St. Helens. A perfect place for sunrise and sunset." - Drew

Mt. Tabor, the hill you can see up Hawthorne from the Hostel, is an extinct volcano and a great park for walks, scenic views, and riding your bike or longboard down from the top.

In the park you'll find basketball and tennis courts, a playground, a cut-away of the hill showing the volcanic rock it's composed of and the soil on top, as well as three of Portland's reservoirs. The reservoirs were built between 1894 and 1911, and their battlements and stonework give the area sort of a medieval feel.

Portland didn't discover that Tabor was a volcano until after they'd already turned it into a park, and they used cinders from the volcano to pave the park's roads. Tabor makes Portland one of only two cities in the continental U.S. to contain an extinct volcano. (The other one, Bend, is also here in Oregon.)

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]]> 2007-03-14 23:44:46.229746+00:00 http://platial.com/post/943437 Staff Picks: Favorite Coffee Shop
"A funky eccentric evening coffee and dessert spot with live instrumental music. Check out the rotating tables, the underwater bathroom and the ohhh sooo bizarre atmosphere. A little like Grandma's house on psychedelics." - Drew

Rimsky-Korsakoffee is located in an old Victorian house. The only sign is tiny and right over the door, so it's easiest to find by its street number.

It's the sort of coffeehouse where you have a waiter and you get a bill at the end, rather than one where you order at the counter. There's origami and random objects hanging from the ceiling on string, and 'guestbooks' you can write in on the tables. And some of the tables, they do things you don't quite expect... There's live classical music most nights, a piano or a harp or a classic guitar. The bathroom upstairs is decorated to look like you're underwater, and it's one of a bunch of doors in a hallway with hats dangling from the ceiling. The other doors say things like, "No, not this door," and "You really better not to try to go through this door."

Needless to say, it's quite a strange, unique place.

On Friday and Saturday there's a $3 minimum per person, and there's a $1+ tip encouraged for the musician.

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]]> 2007-03-25 18:46:49.876528+00:00 http://platial.com/post/955316 Staff Picks: Favorite Place to Get Out of the Rain "Nothing quite like wandering around an eight story mausoleum on a rainy day. Yes, I know I'm morbid. It's still neat, and impressive." - Brandon The Portland Memorial Mausoleum covers two and a half city blocks, and holds 58,000 bodies, with room for 120,000 more. Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club) describes it as a cross between Dracula's castle and Nordstorms, and one of his books is set here.

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]]> 2007-02-10 23:12:37.396768+00:00