When you walk in, you're going to smell the wood burning fireplace. You're going to see all of the antique furniture. Our goal is to have people who come to Pelican Inn feel like they stepped into 16th century England.
The creative output of that tribe was so immense, and their bohemian adventures so inspiring, that I wrote and published a historical novel, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty featuring many figures from the Lost Generation.
With more than eight miles of coastline and consistently strong breaks, it's long been a magnet for surfers from around the world. However, the city's appeal goes beyond the water-it also has a walkable downtown, a charming namesake pier, and plentiful waterfront bars and restaurants.
Rocher de la Vierge is a rocky promontory connected by a footbridge to the beach, that offers one of the most photographed panoramas in Biarritz. Access to the site is free, and it is best visited during daylight hours to fully enjoy the views.
No single musician better represents that contribution and its nearly forgotten history than pianist Sidney Porter. From 1941 until his untimely death in 1970, he cast a 6'8" shadow over Portland's jazz scene as both a performer and nightclub owner. Two months after he died, more than 3,000 people filled the Hoyt Hotel in a 10-hour show of respect that included 20 bands and more than 160 musicians.
A prolific polymath, Sand published 70 novels, as well as travel writing, criticism, autobiography, political polemic and visionary essays on the interconnectedness of the natural world. She founded several politically progressive periodicals and became a highly successful playwright. But none of it came easy. When she burst on to the Paris scene in 1831 at 27, writing for Le Figaro, she became immediately notorious as a woman in a man's world.
The third Wednesday or Thursday evening of each month, comic book shop Books with Pictures ( 1401 SE Division St) hosts this open-invite book club devoted to a wide variety of graphic novels-from the Bitter Root series, about a family of sympathetic monster hunters during the Harlem Renaissance, to an illustrated retelling of the 1872 queer vampire murder mystery Carmilla. Sometimes artists and writers join to talk about their latest work.
A wall near the entryway is plastered with pages from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and thrifted gold candle sconces line the walls. Diners are greeted with thimble-sized welcome cocktails and eat off tea party-like floral-painted plates atop doilies. But the whimsy doesn't stop there: At the end of your meal, the check comes tucked inside an old romance novel, a nod to chef Althea Grey Potter's grandmother, who loved to read romance novels in the bathtub.
Maybe if I had been smart, I would have bought the land a long time ago, but, at the end of the day, sometimes you have to say, It's been a beautiful experience and it's time for it to have its fat lady sings opera moment,'
Instead of being dropped to a sober corner, a few nonalcoholic sparkling wines are listed right next to the German Rieslings and proper Champagnes, simply marked with an icon indicating their NA status. It's a way to give due respect, says co-owner and beverage director Jeff Vejr, and to note that these wines are delicious. They aren't necessarily cheaper than their boozy counterparts, either. "To dealcoholize wine is way more expensive than to just produce it naturally," Vejr says.
It was the first Wednesday of December and the last One-Page Wednesday of 2025. Hosted by Portland novelist Emme Lund (The Boy with a Bird in His Chest) at the Literary Arts bookstore, the free monthly event is an open mic that functions more like a public writers' group. Students, aspiring writers, and National Book Award-winning authors hang out and read aloud one page from a work in progress.
For the traveler who finds romance in a curved wall, chases good lighting, and believes a space should quietly seduce, a good design-led vacation rental is the destination as much as the location around it. These are homes chosen for how they look, feel, and linger in our memory-where architecture, interiors, and setting shape the experience of travel itself. Across the sun-washed corners of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and beyond, today's most compelling rentals are as
Last night I had a dream and you were in it, and I was in it with you. I was doing the packing I never did. Not sure how it started, that's how dreams go. But I was nervous that you might show up. Just like you were nervous I'd be there. Eventually you did show up, but your head was buzzed and dyed orange.
Good news, the Mercury's reader Valentines are back, and they're in print and online! DID YOU GET ONE? CHECK AND SEE! That's right, we've been collecting hundreds of your 150 characters love notes-many of which are crammed into our current print issue, on the streets in more than 500 spots around the city-and online right here! And while you may have missed our print deadline, DO NOT FRET!
He battled the often fatal disease with a unique combination of courage, fortitude and humor. After all, humor was just one of Ken's many remarkable gifts. He was without question the quickest and sharpest wit amongst all our artists. Ken always brought joy to every gig or occasion. No one came away from a conversation with him without a laugh or smile.
That is one of several conclusions you're likely to draw after reading an article by Sheila Yasmin Marikar recently published in Air Mail. Marikar takes the reader into the world of small boutique hotels, the sort of establishment that attracts travelers looking for properties with an independent streak and a unique approach to doing business. The challenge here, though, is figuring out where that line exists, as some iconoclastic companies have acquired massive corporate parents over the years.
The three met in Roumagoux's Thursday morning Open Studio class at Oregon Coast Community College, two hours when a dozen students paint and Roumagoux roams the room sharing the wisdom honed over her decades as both an artist and teacher. "As people started loosening up and telling their life stories, as happens in a good studio class, lo and behold, we told what ages we are," Roumagoux recalled.
"I went to Wordstock in 2005 when it was still Wordstock, and I felt like I had walked into the world I should have been in my whole life," Emmerling said, referring to what is now called the Portland Book Festival. It wasn't long after that Emmerling and her husband, John, a blacksmith, were delivering a fireplace he'd crafted. When they drove by a bookstore, Emmerling recalled, "I said, 'You know, when we retire, it would be fun to open a bookstore.'"
With most of us, 90 minutes of reminiscing wouldn't make for scintillating theater. Gert Boyle, as played by Wendy Westerwelle, is the exception to that rule. The late Gert came to fame when she took the reins of Columbia Sportswear after her husband's death in 1970 and also became the "One Tough Mother," with gray hair and glasses, of its comedic '80s and '90s ad campaigns. In one, she put her son, Tim, through a carwash to test the durability of a coat.
To pass the time, the pair play a game they've shared since Daughter's childhood, triumphantly rattling off palindromes - words that read the same backwards and forwards, such as "m-o-m," "d-a-d," "s-i-s" and "r-a-c-e-c-a-r." As the game gets increasingly complex ("name now one man"), it becomes clear that Dana's play is a dark palindrome itself, where circling dialog and damaging relationship dramas repeat themselves.