Higo No Kami Knife

I spent most of the past week in Portland attending Coffee Fest (and the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, but that’s another story). While there, I spent a good deal of time in the Pearl District, where I enjoyed some killer food (literally) and got to visit some of the shops that carry Blackwing pencils. One of those shops was Hand Eye Supply, an amazing tool/hardware/clothing store stocked with everything from hand-made axes and selvedge jeans, to aprons, hammers and hats. One tool that caught my eye was the Higo No Kami knife, a knife specifically designed for sharpening pencils. I couldn’t resist, so I picked one up and have been honing my pencil sharpening skills ever since.

John

Woolen Men – Fear (Man Revisited) Tour Tape #4

Woolen Men are a sturdy DIY rock band straight out of the depths of Portland, Oregon.  There seemed to be a lot of hype surrounding Portland’s music scene a few years back, but that’s faded and true-blue rockers like Woolen Men endure.  They’re a three-piece band with each member contributing songwriting.  Delve into their discography to find years’ worth of home-recorded, home-dubbed cassettes, 7” splits and EPs, and an LP on Woodsist.  For each tour they release a tour tape – Fear might be the strongest one yet.  Five stellar songs that really capture the essence of a somber Portland fall.

Grant

The Keen Garage (Portland, OR)

While in Portland last week, I stumbled into the flagship store and headquarters for Keen. They not only manufacture durable high quality clothing and footwear but their store design and vibe is worth the visit alone. You can take a break from shopping on one of the kegstools or in their lounge area. But my favorite part, hands down (or heads up) was the Boot Chute.

Mahlon

Ground Kontrol

Before going to Portland this weekend, several of my friends told me that I needed to check out Ground Kontrol. For those of you not familiar, Ground Kontrol is a BARcade, a bar that caters to gamers with 90+ arcade and pinball machines. We showed up around 10 PM and this place was already filled to capacity. After a 20 minute wait we were able to make our way inside. Once the excitement and wonder of all these active machines wore off, we decided to get to business.

We started with Sunset Riders, a four player shoot ‘em up with a cartoony wild west setting. We made it about ¾ of the way through before Chief Scalpem finally got our number. After the sun set on our riders, we moved on to TMNT: Turtles in Time. This is the one we had the most fun with. Some guy whose name I didn’t catch hopped into the game with us and helped us see it to the end. At one point near the end when we were getting light on quarters, he reached into his pocket and slammed a pile of quarters on the cabinet and said “We’ve come too far not to finish this!” I can’t even describe how cool the level of camaraderie felt in that moment. If you’re ever in Portland do yourself a favor and check out Ground Kontrol.

The post Weekly Discoveries 10.23.2014 – Ground Kontrol, Keen, Woolen Men and Higo No Kami appeared first on Blackwing.