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Brian Libby

@brianlibby.bsky.social

810 followers 500 following 680 posts

Portland, Oregon architecture & arts journalist (Metropolis, Dwell, Oregon ArtsWatch, NY Times) • keen photographer and experimental filmmaker • fond of film noir, college football, cats, British panel shows, tennis, jazz, espresso, Columbo, democracy

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Reposted by Brian Libby

Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 9d

Ever wondered where all the Cheers title photos are from? I did. And I've gathered everything I can find into this post. That was fun.

joelmorris.substack.com/p/where-nobo...

Where nobody knows your name...

Tracing the anonymous faces at the start of Cheers.

joelmorris.substack.com

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 17h

I love it: Oregon is no war zone....unless beer supremacy is at stake. I think I'll put a pFriem IPA in the fridge and a glass in the freezer. www.oregonlive.com/dining/2025/...

Oregon absolutely crushes it at America’s biggest beer competition, and the numbers are staggering

With just 1% of the US population, Oregon breweries claimed an impressive 8% of all medals at the 2025 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

www.oregonlive.com

Reposted by Brian Libby

C. E. Aubin @ceaubin.bsky.social · 1d

You can arrest us or pepper spray us or whatever, but we will make you look stupid and feel silly doing it because wanting to assert control is stupid. You want to assert control? Do it to an inflatable frog!
So, it’s not just a meme thing, it’s a Portland cultural thing.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 1d

My Instagram and Facebook profile pic is just such an image: of me appearing on a local children's TV show here in Portland, in about 1983.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 2d

And in real life, of course, Brown was Michael Powell’s lover for I think 20-plus years, right up until her death.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 4d

Yep. My friend is actually writing a book about his book collection, a kind of biblio-autobiography, and instead of seeking a publisher is literally just printing and binding the books himself.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 4d

This week I visited my friend Randy's incredible basement library and I'm still thinking about it.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 4d

Nice rendition. Thank you.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 5d

So glad you liked it! I had the same response. I actually didn’t recognize what it was when the song first played on the radio. But each subsequent listen, I like it more. It gets to the heart of Come Together being about the bass, even as it reworks the bass line.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 5d

@iammilliam.bsky.social Thought you might like this one.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 5d

One of the more interesting Beatles covers I’ve heard, which I was introduced to on KMHD tonight. youtu.be/Kp0n-461fg8?...

Counter Points Come Together

YouTube video by wilt234

youtu.be

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 5d

At Mt. Tabor Park this afternoon, on a walk with a former editor of mine whom I hadn’t seen in 20 years, and who led me to different parts and vantage points of a park I thought I already knew.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 6d

Another shot from yesterday at Washington High School. Although I'm rooting for cloudy fall to arrive in full force, I do enjoy the effect sunny days have on this building's windows.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 6d

They’re right at the entrance as the hallway slopes down going past the bar.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 6d

Wow, that’s cool!

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 6d

Paintings of Nobel chemistry prize and peace prize winner Linus Pauling, encountered today at Portland’s Washington High School, which Pauling attended. It’s now a mixed-use concert venue, bar and offices (including my chiropractor).

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Reposted by Brian Libby

Jack Jenkins @jackjenkins.me · 6d

Gonna be thinking about this lede for a minute.

(RNS) — Last month, the Rev. David Black stood in front of a Chicago-area U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility and spread his arms wide. Adorned in all black and wearing a clerical collar, the pastor looked up at a group of masked, heavily armed ICE agents on the roof and began to pray.

“I invited them to repentance,” Black, a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA), said in an interview. “I basically offered an altar call. I invited them to come and receive that salvation, and be part of the kingdom that is coming.”

But when Black began to lower his arms a few seconds later, the agents responded to his spiritual plea by firing pepper balls, or chemical agents that cause eye irritation and respiratory distress, video footage shows. One struck Black in the head, exploding into a puff of white pepper smoke and forcing him to his knees. Fellow demonstrators rushed to his aid, and as the pastor rubbed his face in pain, the agents continued to fire.

“We could hear them laughing,” Black said.

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 7d

These are surreal dystopian times, but my sister is doing some amazing work out on the front lines telling the story.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 8d

I wonder if there could be a silver lining to federal troops being sent to incite violence in otherwise-peaceful Portland: a tsunami of love and appreciation for the city.

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Reposted by Brian Libby

Valarie Smith @valarie.bsky.social · 8d

Laura Cumming gets Thiebald exactly right.

“There are still days,” he told an interviewer more than 50 years later, “that start with the thought: This morning, I’d like to paint a pie.”

America’s ‘laureate of lunch counters’ | The Observer

Wayne Thiebaud’s vibrant paintings capture the romance of a bygone age. The first solo exhibition in Britain of his art opens this week

observer.co.uk

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 10d

At my friend Avantika Bawa’s gallery show of architectural drawings tonight, featuring modernist landmarks in Portland, London and Chandigarh.

Reposted by Brian Libby

Thom Hartmann @hartmannreport.com · 10d

Portland:

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Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 11d

Fun time today being interviewed by filmmaker Erika Bolstad for her upcoming documentary "Monumental," about Portland's toppled and removed monuments and the question of which ones to bring back. I talked mainly about the beloved Thompson Elk statue and fountain.

Brian Libby @brianlibby.bsky.social · 12d

"Take this, that, those and these."
"Thank you, doctor."
"Oh, I'm not a doctor."

Honorable mention: "Larry Flynt is right!" (In response to a cameo by Stephen Hawking.)

Willow @rockshrimp.bsky.social · 12d

what's the stupidest/randomest Simpsons quote that lives in your head rent free? Mine is the urge to say "you said go to bread" every time I am about to head to bed.