I would say that Blackbird has flown down to Portland, but that’s just way to cheesy. Oh, wait a minute, I typed that didn’t I? This place gained its popularity in Seattle and has been going strong since its inception 6 years ago.

The Portland shop will carry the usual Blackbird suspects. Some of my favorites include A.P.C and Yuketan. I recently purchased a pair of Blackbird’s house brand jeans and I haven’t been happier. They’re pretty pimp fit. 

Read more and find out about the opening party on their blog.

BLACKBIRD
1306 West Burnside
Portland, OR, 97209 
portland@blackbirdballard.com
Open 11-8 Daily

I know what you’re thinkin’. “Rob has given up. He’s no longer interested in filling the souls and brains of us fashion blog consumin’ types.” Well, let me tell you. I haven’t. I’ve just been slammed. Work has been busy and I’ve started working on a new web project with a friend that is consuming a great deal of my bloggin’ time at night. K and I have also been trying to avoid the heat with by staying in theaters and close to the water. Anyway, I thought I’d take a second to tell you about a great place to tube in Oregon.

This Saturday, we woke up early (grr..), slapped on some sunscreen, mixed up some gin & juice and headed out to Carver, Oregon. It took about 40 minutes to get there from Portland and it’s best if you take two cars. One person parks at the end of the tubing run and another at the starting point. If you’re new to tubing, there’s not much you need to know. Just bring a hat, maybe some paddles and get yourself a tube with a cooler. Oh yeah, and if you can’t swim, you might wanna bring a life jacket. You probably knew that, though. As far as the tubes go, we went with some friends and we all had River Run IIs. They didn’t let us down. We even tied them together and floated as a group most of the trip. 

I’m from the South where the rivers are gross and so I was delighted to see that the Clackamas river was clean. I didn’t see the first poop log. Once we plopped ourselves in the water, we were floating for the next 4 hours. It’s an all day thing, so set aside the time. You’ll probably at least need an hour of floating in circles to sober up, too.

Tanner Goods is a local company (Portland, OR) and it looks like they have nice belts. They’re so good that they keep them in big shiny glass cases. They’re also curled in sophisticated knot patterns (intricacy = quality, right? Maybe?). Besides the nice looking belts, the company is also making tracks across the U.S. They’ve recently collaborated with the NYC-based shop 3sixteen (I hate the name and spelling, but like the shop.) to produce a waxed canvas tote bag. And the devil in my head tells me that this bag should only be used to hold an entire collection of belts, preferably those shown above.