Portland

You have to see Portland first hand to appreciate what a one-horse town it is. Some of you will remember the philosopher king Keith Jacobson who once resided in Hong Kong and now calls the rugged terrain of Portland home. According to Jake, Portland is very unpretentious and happily so. This damp little corner is so damn unpretentious that the day I arrive in town The Oregonian, not only the paper of record in Portland but the paper of record for the whole friggin’ state, clears out the top half of the front page to run a photo of the Trailblazers Brandon Roy and their remarkable come from behind victory over the Atlanta hawks. Now the Hawks are perpetually putrid and going into the game against the Blazers they were 18-21. To lose to them on your home court is unthinkable. So it would have to be a major sense of relief when the home team comes back from a 19 point deficit to eke out a win with a last second shot. It’s the type of win where a good team runs off the court as quick as possible and says: hot damn, we was lucky to win. In Portland, the win became front page news. Jake says Portland does not aspire to be bigger and better. It has no ambitions to be the center of the universe. Mission accomplished.

But you know Jake, not everybody in Portland is happy to be a hillbilly. A few do have global aspirations and one of them undoubtedly is Phil Knight, Dr. Frankenstein of the omnipresent Nike empire. Employees like to speak of Nike’s culture. But let’s get rid of the “ure” and call it what it really is: the Nike cult. At least among the younger and idealistic employees it is a cult. They would give blood for Phil and for Tiger and for His Airness and for Bo Knows and for Johnny Mac and so on and so on. That’s why I am lucky that my good friends at Nike are old and cynical. Not only have they been around the block a few times, they have been around the globe a few times. CB is a swoosh legend in China. He is so close to Knight that he can trim Phil’s nose hairs. JW watches more sports than any human in the universe and has for 50 plus years.

On a ridiculously frigid day JW takes me on a tour of the Nike Campus in Beaverton, Oregon. Frankly, there are worse places to work.

JW works in the Mia Hamm Building, which is not far from the Michael Jordan which is across the courtyard from the Tiger. You get the picture. You ain’t nobody in Nikeville unless you have your own building.

Jake left Nike five years ago to work for Adidas and naturally claims he has never been happier. As you can see from the photos below, despite working for rival companies now JW and Jake are still so tight that they take turns sleeping. Teamwork. CB and myself managed to stay awake for both pics, which ain't easy in "unpretentious" Portland.

And just in case you called, I ain't there anymore. One morning I went down for breakfast in my hotel the Heathman, which houses one of the more chic restaraunts in town I am told, and took my phone out of my pocket and put it on the table as I always do. For some reason I went upstairs without it only to realize 10 minutes later the error of my ways and swooped back down to retrieve it. But I was told by the staff that it was now gone. So sorry. They checked with the bus boy to see if he had mistakenly picked it up when he was clearing the table and I told them if the bus boy mistook my phone for a dirty dish then he's probably calling his wife right now with a spoon. You know, this is America and I chose to come here so there is nobody to blame but me. But if this was a nice bistro in Asia and my phone disappeared, the manager would have rifled through the bags of half his staff to find it. Not here, not now. So don't try my Hong Kong phone for the next two months because someone in Portland is eating their cereal with it.





No trip here is complete without a visit to Troutdale, Oregon. Some of you more savvy travellers will no doubt recognize my car in front of Jack's Snack and Tackle, a Troutdale fixture for many years. Well ok, I have seen it all. I'm out of here and on my way to California.