Portlandia goes overboard with outdoor gear

by Mike Barish on

Gearing up for a day outside should be relatively easy. Grab the necessities – proper clothing, comfortable shoes, safety equipment, etc – and hit the road. Sure, you’ll be excused if you include a few extras in your pack (especially if you bring along enough snacks for everyone), but it’s easy for things to snowball until you suddenly realize that you’ve completely filled your car with gear for a simple day trip. In typical Portlandia fashion, this sketch mocks those over-packers, hyper-planners and big talkers who just can’t seem to stop planning and start doing.

The next time you’re heading out for a day of adventure, try to keep your pack light. Just make sure you bring the snacks!

Comedic team of ‘Portlandia’ set to create an off-beat Portland, Oregon, guidebook

by Jessica Festa on


Are you bored of the usual travel guidebooks aimed at everyday tourists? If you’re interested in Portland, Oregon, and would rather learn about funny, fictional places that could exist rather than the Oregon Zoo and the Portland Art Museum, you should put “PORTLANDIA: A Guide for Visitors” on your shopping list. Set to debut in November of 2012, the book is being created by the team who brought you the hit comedy series “Portlandia,” starring Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, which takes you on an off-beat tour of Portland while poking fun at the city.

“It will be written like a Fodor’s or Lonely Planet guidebook, but full of fake, made-up, humorous stuff that could easily exist in a place like Portland, but doesn’t,” explains Ben Greenberg, the executive editor of Grand Central Publishing who will be producing the book. “Everything will be a bit off.”


To get an idea of the team’s humor and what to expect, check out the clip above from “Portlandia” on the Independent Film Channel (IFC).

Travel Blogger Broke-Ass Stuart Brings Cheap Thrills to TV

by Chris Owen on

Called “A travel show that’s on the map but off the beaten path”, Young, Broke and Beautiful, debuted this week on the IFC network starring funnyman, writer/blogger Stuart Schuffman (aka Broke-Ass Stuart). The new show goes to some of America’s largest cities but typically avoids touristy stuff to revel in cheap, underground offerings and weird people.

In the season premiere of the 6-city summer series, Stuart dives right in on his mission to uncover the hidden, cheap attractions that might be overlooked in mainstream travel guides. According to Stuart, known for his popular guidebook Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco being a “broke ass” is a state of mind where life is not about the stuff you have, but the stuff you do.

In the New Orleans episode of the new show, Stuart hangs out with a fangmaker (for humans), cooks gumbo, talks New Orleans music history, then hits an all-night bounce party at the NOLA Art House.

Also available in paperback, a free chapter of Young, Broke and Beautiful is available to download on Schuffman’s Facebook page.

“Broke-Ass Stuart’s philosophy is to write for busboys, poets, social workers, students, artists, musicians, magicians, mathematicians, maniacs, yodelers and everyone else out there who wants to enjoy life not as a rich person, but as a real person” says TheFutonCritic.

Let’s take a look at what’s coming up on Young, Broke & Beautiful , Fridays at 11 p.m./10 p.m. Central on IFC.

Video of the Day: Portlandia demonstrates the stresses of housesitting

by Mike Barish on

The new IFC show Portlandia takes the quirkiness of the Pacific Northwest city and magnifies it. However, the inspiration for this sketch is as real as the trees are big in Oregon. Anyone who has ever had a housesitting gig knows that people can be insanely neurotic about their homes when they’re going to be away for a while. They’ll show you how to turn on the lights, how to properly sit on the couch and which plates should never be used for food. It’s enough to make you never want to travel yourself lest you become one of those crazy people who worries senselessly about your own home.

If you have a great travel video that you think we might enjoy, share the link in a comment below. We could feature it as our next Video of the Day!

[Via Gawker]