s n a p p e r h e a d: Portland OR

Craftsmanship Pride

A dozen rational reasons to enjoy living in Portland, Oregon: Number three.

I—like everyone—have heard the 'where's the pride in craftsmanship anymore?' complaint for so many years I thought it was a rhetorical question. It's not. Pride in one's craft only comes when your product is appreciated, purchased, admired, and desired. Since the trend toward more inexpensive IKEA products and nicer furniture from China is not reversible, the craftsmen and women of today are making wonderful products in my neck of the woods (and my neighbors and I appreciate them by the mug, plate, glass, bottle, and ticket on a frequent basis):

With 47 different brewing facilities within a 30-mile radius of the city (450 beer labels) this is the micro brew center of the world.
Over 30 wineries in the northern Oregon area make this a wine-lovers wonderland.
A handful of distilleries are catching hold, and besides unique local vodkas and other liquors, absinthe is now locally produced and available for legal consumption.
There are two local brothers: Mike and Brian McMenamin, who should be canonized by the Revitalized Congregation of Our Dearly Inebriated. They have brought new life into dozens of wonderful old buildings—including a 1920's-era Art Deco Vaudeville theater, a fully restored 1910's-era Ballroom with its "floating dance floor", and a Masonic retirement home—by turning/returning them into movie houses, brewpubs, hotels, and music venues. McMenamins: true pride in local craftsmanship.

There's a moment for everyone when you fall into your own shadow and the fact is that it's your shadow and you're forced to live in it. And this is nothing to celebrate or not celebrate. It simply is. — Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)