• Home
  • Archives

Dave Knows Portland

Best Portland Blogs You’re Not Reading #2: Cyclotram

October 11, 2010 by Dave Knows 3 Comments

This is the 2nd of an occasional series of posts on the Best Portland Blogs You’re Not Reading.

Periodically I visit each of the blogs on my blogroll (which you’ll find just below the ads on the right). Many are popular and well trafficked, others are infrequently updated, but contain some gems. And then there are the ones that are almost always well written or entertaining, and routinely updated, but don’t get the traffic, I think, they deserve (which sometimes I have to guess at because Sitemeter is set to private).

Cyclotram

CyclotramEclectic is an overused descriptor, but if it doesn’t apply to this blog, the term is meaningless. The subject matter of the eclectic Cyclotram demonstrates author -b-‘s quirky, broad and diverse range of interests.

If you’re looking for photographs of local parks, bridges, monuments, fountains, or neighborhoods – Cyclotram has you covered. Contrails and cute animals? Check. Flowers and benchmarks? Yup. How about food and artwork? Uh huh. Unfortunately the author, -b-, has a tendency to forget (or choose not to) to tag or categorize posts, so searching for said topics can be a challenge, but trust me – they’re all there!

And don’t forget to read the text. The often erudite, somewhat stream of consciousness comments describe the motivation, the thought process, or subject matter of the photographs. Read one of my favorite posts, How to walk the Ross Island Bridge and not die, if you’re lucky, to see what I mean.

The archives go back to 2005. (And on the very first blog post, on December 20 2005, the mysteries of the moniker Cyclotram are explained.)

Oh, and -b- is known as Atul666 on Twitter. He’s also got a Flickr account.

Best Portland Blogs You’re Not Reading #1: Unexpectedly Bart

October 4, 2010 by Dave Knows 3 Comments

This is the first of a soon to be occasional series of posts on the Best Portland Blogs You’re Not Reading.

Periodically I visit each of the blogs on my blogroll (which you’ll find just below the ads on the right). Many are popular and well trafficked, others are infrequently updated, but contain some gems. And then there are the ones that are almost always well written or entertaining, and routinely updated, but don’t get the traffic, I think, they deserve (I have some not so nefarious ways of determining this, e.g. open Sitemeter stats).

Unexpectedly BartUnexpectedly Bart

You probably know Portlander Bart King as the author of the tomes The Pocket Guide to Brillance, The Pocket Guide to Mischief, The Big Book of Boy Stuff, The Big Book of Gross Stuff, and several more books in that vein. Oh, he also wrote An Architectural Guidebook to Portland. Yes, he’s got some range. And he blogs at Unexpectedly Bart.

Here are the titles of some recent stories:

  • Do you ever wonder, “What IS hip-hop?”
  • It’s a Segway for Ninjas!
  • Headlines Are Fun!
  • What Does an Author Smell Like?

Unexpectedly Bart serves as a repository for Bart King’s always amusing takes on random internet memes, Boing-Boing-esque curiosities, absurd news headlines, and the writer’s life. Most of the posts take the form of Bart rifting succinctly on silly YouTube videos or photos from news stories.

In my opinion, Unexpectedly Bart is one of the Best Portland Blogs You’re Not Reading – go read it!

Oh, and in addition to Unexpectedly Bart, Bart King maintains two other blogs that should also be on your reading list:

  • Ultra-Gross! – Your Source for Gross News
  • El Blog Ilusorio de Rudy – Rudy Fernandez: Hypothetical & Unofficious

Portland Transit Blogging 2010

September 23, 2010 by Dave Knows 5 Comments

Portland Transit BloggingIn 2008 I posted a fairly comprehensive, at the time, roundup of Portland transit blogs.

Times have changed, and some of those blogs have vaporized, others have transformed, and several new transit blogs have appeared.

But one thing that hasn’t changed is that Portlanders still have some of the country’s best transit (despite budget and route-cutting woes of late) and a very active blogging community. I blog about transit sometimes, but the blogs and sites below take transit and transport blogging to the next level:

MAX FAQs Light rail in Portland

MAX FAQs has only been around since March of this year, but already it has taught me more about pantograph arcing than I ever thought I’d want to know. MAX FAQs covers not just the geeky aspects of rail transit in Portland, but also provides commentary and the occasional rant. This is my favorite newish Portland transit blog. Read about what the blog is and isn’t: Welcome Aboard.

Ravings of a Trimet Ally

A new entry in the Portland transit blogging category, Ravings of Trimet Ally is authored by teenager Cameron Johnson. As the blog title suggests, his posts focus on the good things about TriMet. So far the blog also features Pictures of the Day, comments on transit related news stories, and a bit of optimism. Keeping an eye on this blog!

Buses, Light Rail, Life and I

By the same author as the now defunct blog Light rail and I: a love story 28 years in the making . . . , which I linked to in the 2008 roundup, this blog covers much of the same material. Since then EMS has switched from piloting trains to driving buses, however. She still shares her stories, expresses her opinions, and gives a TriMet driver’s point of view to her readers.

Transit Sleuth

The URL has changed since 2008, but Adron Hall continues apace at Transit Sleuth observing, commenting about, and sleuthing transit. Alas, he’s based in Seattle now.

punkrawker blogs on

Another Portland-focused transit blog that has since moved to Seattle, it covers much of the same material as MAX FAQs, but with a little more opinion generally, and with lots and lots of videos and photos. Chad, aka punkrawker4783, drives for Seattle’s King County Metro, but of course expresses only his own views and opinions at punkrawker blogs on!

Portland Transport

Portland Transport has continued to be a conversation about access and mobility in the Portland/Vancouver region. It’s a good starting point for those interested in transit issues in the region. There are many contributors, but the founder of the site, Chris Smith, is the heart and soul and most voluminous poster. The discussions in post comments are more intelligent than your average fare.

Rantings of a Trimetbus driver

Al M is still at it, but where he used to be [in]famous for his video rants, the blog now serves more as a general purpose transit in the news resource. There is still, of course, plenty of Al M’s rantings at Rantings of a Trimbetbus driver.

TriMetiquette

TriMetiquette‘s posting frequency has slowed down a bit since it blazed out of the gates in 2008 with stories on riding etiquette, service alerts, and coverage of regional transit news, but still has lots of good stuff in the archives, and hopefully Christian will kick it into gear again. Also it still has the best name.

Honorable Mentions

Portland Afoot

Not a blog nor exclusively about transit, Portland Afoot is, however, PDX’s online guide to buses, bikes, and low-car life.

Hard Drive

Oregonian writer Joseph Rose blogs about commuting on this blog at OregonLive.com. Commuting, of course, involves transit.

The Honeymoon is Over . . .

September 11, 2010 by Dave Knows 2 Comments

Wedding Photo. . . literally, but not figuratively!

Heather and I returned from the wilds of Eastern Oregon last night. We had an amazing vacation, which my wife [will I ever get used to saying that?] has begun chronicling with an account of the first stop on our trip, in Salem, the Oregon State Fair!

That was just the first half-day of our trip, however, so stay tuned for lots more. We also visited old friends in Bend, had an almost double rainbow experience in the Painted Hills, found Big Lebowski fanatics in Prairie City, froze our tushes off at Wallowa Lake, drank delicious beer in Enterprise and Joseph, and completely unplugged and read books in the Imnaha River Canyon, to name a few memories from our epic honeymoon!

Blogging here shall recommence immediately. Thank you for your patience!

Dave Goes . . . on his Honeymoon!

September 7, 2010 by Dave Knows Leave a Comment

Wedding PhotoNote: The blog won’t be completely idle while I’m gone – I’ve written a few event posts that are scheduled to appear throughout the week.

Heather and I are hitting the road on another of our Oregon adventures. It’s our honeymoon!

We’ll be back next weekend with stories and posts and lots of photos.

During the week we’ll largely be off the grid, but keep an eye out for us on Twitter (@DaveKnowsPDX and @Mile73), which we’ll no doubt update if we find even the weakest signal out in the wilds!

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Search

Dave Knows Portland Archive

Copyright © 2026 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in