Brian Libby
@brianlibby.bsky.social
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
I keep thinking about a Cezanne painting I saw for the first time last night: "The Robbers and the Donkey." There is some kind of violent scuffle happening in one corner, and one or two people are active in other parts of the picture. But this motionless animal in the middle is the focal point.
November 21, 2025 at 7:33 PM
I keep thinking about a Cezanne painting I saw for the first time last night: "The Robbers and the Donkey." There is some kind of violent scuffle happening in one corner, and one or two people are active in other parts of the picture. But this motionless animal in the middle is the focal point.
I'm still thinking about the fantastic 1946 film Deadline at Dawn. Though based on a novel by noir icon Cornell Woolrich centered around a murder and unfolding in one NYC night, in some ways it's unlike a noir. Written by playwright Clifford Odets, it's a film about empathy and integrity.
November 20, 2025 at 5:11 PM
I'm still thinking about the fantastic 1946 film Deadline at Dawn. Though based on a novel by noir icon Cornell Woolrich centered around a murder and unfolding in one NYC night, in some ways it's unlike a noir. Written by playwright Clifford Odets, it's a film about empathy and integrity.
Gresham's new East County Library is incredible! It's no branch library, but a flagship like Central Library downtown. It's credited to Portland's Holst Architecture, but the design came equally (or more) from Ghanaian-Brit starchitect David Adjaye (who was dropped before construction). WOW.
November 19, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Gresham's new East County Library is incredible! It's no branch library, but a flagship like Central Library downtown. It's credited to Portland's Holst Architecture, but the design came equally (or more) from Ghanaian-Brit starchitect David Adjaye (who was dropped before construction). WOW.
Four more shots from this past weekend's trip to coastal Waldport, Oregon.
November 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Four more shots from this past weekend's trip to coastal Waldport, Oregon.
Whenever I spend a weekend at the coast with my group of old pals (in this case at Waldport, Oregon), I seem to collect pictures of them walking ahead, while I fall behind taking photos and videos.
November 18, 2025 at 3:26 AM
Whenever I spend a weekend at the coast with my group of old pals (in this case at Waldport, Oregon), I seem to collect pictures of them walking ahead, while I fall behind taking photos and videos.
What a treat today getting to see four Rothko paintings, and in a room my myself no less, after today’s press preview of the expanded Portland Art Museum and its newly opened Rothko Pavilion.
November 13, 2025 at 10:18 PM
What a treat today getting to see four Rothko paintings, and in a room my myself no less, after today’s press preview of the expanded Portland Art Museum and its newly opened Rothko Pavilion.
Excited to finally have my own copy of this long out-of-print 1974 album by former Monk saxophonist Charles Rouse, courtesy of iconic jazz label Strata-East. And it’s SO good!
November 11, 2025 at 5:20 AM
Excited to finally have my own copy of this long out-of-print 1974 album by former Monk saxophonist Charles Rouse, courtesy of iconic jazz label Strata-East. And it’s SO good!
I’m not even done watching the 1946 noir Deadline at Dawn yet, and I’m already kind of mesmerized, especially by Nicholas Musuraca’s cinematography and by Susan Hayward’s performance as a world-weary heroine coming to the aid of an innocent, would-be-wrongly-convicted seaman.
November 10, 2025 at 4:19 AM
I’m not even done watching the 1946 noir Deadline at Dawn yet, and I’m already kind of mesmerized, especially by Nicholas Musuraca’s cinematography and by Susan Hayward’s performance as a world-weary heroine coming to the aid of an innocent, would-be-wrongly-convicted seaman.
Slightly mesmerized by a tow truck’s lights outside my house.
November 8, 2025 at 5:39 AM
Slightly mesmerized by a tow truck’s lights outside my house.
I always say, autumn is my favorite two weeks of the year.
October 31, 2025 at 12:27 AM
I always say, autumn is my favorite two weeks of the year.
Saw this display on my walk and thought that in addition to Halloween, it also might work for July 4.
October 29, 2025 at 9:03 PM
Saw this display on my walk and thought that in addition to Halloween, it also might work for July 4.
This house in my neighborhood has more pumpkins on display than I've ever seen, and fake cobwebs, even as it's shrouded in protective plastic sheeting for some kind of repair. Or wait...is the plastic part of the Halloween decor? I don't even know anymore.
October 29, 2025 at 3:54 PM
This house in my neighborhood has more pumpkins on display than I've ever seen, and fake cobwebs, even as it's shrouded in protective plastic sheeting for some kind of repair. Or wait...is the plastic part of the Halloween decor? I don't even know anymore.
Nothing is better musically for helping me stagger through the last two hours of a story-deadline day than Art Blakey. Just total swing and swagger and chops. Even as the personnel around him changed in the fifties and sixties, one great record after another.
October 28, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Nothing is better musically for helping me stagger through the last two hours of a story-deadline day than Art Blakey. Just total swing and swagger and chops. Even as the personnel around him changed in the fifties and sixties, one great record after another.
I enjoyed this article about items from Gene Hackman's home being auctioned off, including a painting he did that I think is pretty good, and his own Galaga game (which was always one of my favorites at the arcade.) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/m...
October 26, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I enjoyed this article about items from Gene Hackman's home being auctioned off, including a painting he did that I think is pretty good, and his own Galaga game (which was always one of my favorites at the arcade.) www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/m...
Visiting the Nyback Archive last night for a screening. After archivist-projectionist Dennis Nyback's death a couple years ago, a team of volunteers has kept this thousands-strong collection of 16mm films alive, and even created a fun microcinema. I loved hearing the sound of a projector again.
October 24, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Visiting the Nyback Archive last night for a screening. After archivist-projectionist Dennis Nyback's death a couple years ago, a team of volunteers has kept this thousands-strong collection of 16mm films alive, and even created a fun microcinema. I loved hearing the sound of a projector again.
The many sides of Jenny...
October 23, 2025 at 8:46 PM
The many sides of Jenny...
Fall leaves, in my yard and peeking over the grocery store's rooftop parking lot.
October 21, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Fall leaves, in my yard and peeking over the grocery store's rooftop parking lot.
I'd been meaning to watch the 2012 Christian Petzold film Barbara ever since it came out, and finally did last night. What a lovely blend of quiet melancholy and simmering tension, with evocative cinematography, which makes wind in the trees a beautiful continuing motif.
October 19, 2025 at 3:40 PM
I'd been meaning to watch the 2012 Christian Petzold film Barbara ever since it came out, and finally did last night. What a lovely blend of quiet melancholy and simmering tension, with evocative cinematography, which makes wind in the trees a beautiful continuing motif.
Finally saw the 1975 movie Night Moves, by Arthur Penn and starring Gene Hackman. Really quite good: an existential murder mystery that makes a good companion to my favorite Hackman role, 1974’s Coppola masterpiece The Conversation. Any Night Moves fans out there?
October 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
Finally saw the 1975 movie Night Moves, by Arthur Penn and starring Gene Hackman. Really quite good: an existential murder mystery that makes a good companion to my favorite Hackman role, 1974’s Coppola masterpiece The Conversation. Any Night Moves fans out there?
Listening to Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints tonight while reading a book, I had to stop, put the book down, turn up the volume and give my full attention to “The Cool Cool River.” So great.
October 18, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Listening to Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints tonight while reading a book, I had to stop, put the book down, turn up the volume and give my full attention to “The Cool Cool River.” So great.
Photos of my great grandfather, Edward Lehman (1888-1974), and my great-great uncle, Charly Lehman (1881-1938), from an ancestral photo album put together by my aunt. Grandsons of Swiss immigrants, they migrated to Oregon in 1900 from Iowa.
October 17, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Photos of my great grandfather, Edward Lehman (1888-1974), and my great-great uncle, Charly Lehman (1881-1938), from an ancestral photo album put together by my aunt. Grandsons of Swiss immigrants, they migrated to Oregon in 1900 from Iowa.