"The current board, staff, and volunteers were not involved in the decision, made six years ago, to allow Portlandia to film at In Other Words. We stand behind our collective decision to discontinue our relationship with the show. "

They are a struggling specialty bookstore - a specialty that is rare to find these days. (Also from their website: "When we opened in 1993 there were over 200 feminist bookstores in the United States and today there are fewer than 30".)

If the filming is not only disrupting their already precarious nonprofit business, but is also resulting in disrespect of their space and their staff, then it sounds like the right decision. They provide an important service to their community and that has to come first.

And I'm perfectly capable of laughing at Portland; although I do think for all the "ooh Portland's so weird looky how weird it is", actual "normal" middle America is waaaaaaaaaay weirder. It's not the "weird" people you need to watch out for, anyway.

Think about all the time that was spent in the 80s and early 90s with the popular entertainment press obsessing over whether Michael Stipe was gay; is he? Isn't he? He's so weird! So obscure! What's he saying? Such odd sexuality!

Meanwhile, at the same time, "America's Dad" was apparently busy being a serial rapist. Don't even get me started on Denny Hastert or the Catholic Church.

Yeah, it's the normal people you need to watch out for.

But I digress. I think the bookstore was in a kind of going-out-of-business money losing spiral before Fred Armisen showed up, the show may have given em a year or so extra but the fame didn't pay the bills. And some of it may have been the bookstore's fault, some of it may have been that a bookstore is a tough business in the age of Amazon, and when you're sharing a city with a 6 floor walk-in bookstore like Powell's, that probably has a section of a floor devoted to Feminist Discourse larger than their entire shop-- the writing was probably on the wall a while ago.

The bookstore is one of the skits I like. I know not everyone agrees but the ability poke fun at yourself is valued by some. Maybe even some femenists?

There was a special feature on the dvd where they interviewed the owners of the actual shop and they said the store is nothing like it's portrayed, but they do think the skits are very funny...guess that changed.