Is the Falcon the ultimate hipster-mobile? Yes. Laurence Jone’s argument for that is right here. Is Portlandia the ultimate hipster city? Did you have to ask? So finding this ’64 Futura sedan parked in the Montevilla district on a recent visit was anticlimactic. But it did not have the obligatory Keep Portland Weird bumper sticker. Let’s face it; everything that might once have been weird in Portland has long become utterly predictable.
Just in case you haven’t caught Portlandia on tv yet, here’s a little sampler from the first season, which we watched. It was fairly funny, but hit a bit close to home; we haven’t watched the subsequent seasons. Eugene is sort of a mini-me Portland, and there’s really no need for the locals to watch what we see all too often. But if you’re still a stranger to how things are in Portland, there’s no better way to get a taste, even if it is a bit concentrated and overly-crafted (oh oh; that sounds a bit too hipsterish).
Back to the car. These Falcons really are the perfect car for the role they’ve been given in Portland, as they’re the perfect antidote to the ’69 Camaro z-28 clones and such that are still hot in the small farm-town and lumber-mill burgs. The Falcon was geeky and nerdy in its day, and now it’s been embraced by that set as an icon to geeky nerdiness. As long as it’s a six; no V8s, please!
The two-speed FordOMatic makes a perfect team with the wheezy 170 cubic inch six, to leave no doubt about this NOT being a performance car. That is supremely important.
Here’s a clip from Portlandia that deals with the difficult subject of buying a car. Too bad a Falcon wasn’t included.
And here’s one that should really have been shot in a Prius.
And a final salute to…intersection etiquette, and the Yugo.
Ok; I’ve more than had my fill; no wonder I rarely watch tv. Well, actually we do, in the winter, but pretty selectively. This winter’s viewing was the four seasons of The Killing, which was set in that more northerly city of the PNW, Seattle. But it had a rather different vibe altogether.
Watching those Portlandia clips, I thought of only one thing…. Those people would be better off if they’d eat a Whopper and smoke a cigarette once in a while. Take the edge off.
Reminded me of the callers to NPR’s cooking programs, who are always trying to get advice on cooking without food. Vegan, gluten-free, MSG-free, GMO-free. If you want to starve, you can do it without all that expensive equipment.
“……cooking without food. ” Too funny!
To those callers to the NPR cooking shows: PILE ON THE BACON!!!
I’m wondering what gluten-free coffee is! (Giant Eagle’s store brand proclaims this) I didn’t know wheat (or other grains) were used in coffee. Is that just marketing? and could they also proclaim the light bulbs are gluten-free?!?
Of *course* the lightbulbs can be gluten-free! Do you remember how many illogical things were proclaimed to be Y2K-compatible? Not only things that didn’t contain computers or even clocks, but things that didn’t even use electricity?
almost forgot!, I’ll bet “Big Bird’s” coffee was “Y2K” compliant! (I was on Coffee98 then!)
A couple years ago I was listening to a Vermont Public Radio call-in show about ethically raised meat, and the caller said the sort of things you’d expect from the topic (mostly slow-cooker techniques), but then added “…and if my 10-year-old gets a squirrel, we’ll cook that too”.
It’s still the most Vermont thing I’ve ever heard. Either so hipster it wraps around to redneck, or so redneck it wraps around to hipster…
Portland’s trendiness is becoming it’s undoing, the locals are being rapidly pushed out….
This TV show was actually one of the factors in our unwanted fame.
Eugene is next in the cross hairs, I’m afraid.
“Hipster” has become only another mode of marketing, yes, very predictable. Some say we reached “peak hipster” in 2012.
Any time an area becomes trendy because it has a local flavor, outsiders come in and take it over pushing the real locals out,until it becomes the “Disney” version. Yech! It’s like my mother said: First rule of Real Estate Development: Name any new development after what USED to be there!
Where my wife came from, there used to be a shopping centre called Old Orchard – after the orchard that used to be there, of course. Kinda made sense. Then some developer bozo came in and changed the name to something purely generic and utterly forgettable.
Our dowdy old local shopping center was redeveloped a few years back, and named “Woodfield Station”. WTF? Totally made up.
Hahaha Paul, that’s hilarious. And there was just no explanation, and no link whatsoever to the area’s history? What a bizarrely specific-sounding name to pick.
Nope. Total fabrication. We still feel like throwing up a bit every time we see the sign. But that’s all too common over here.
It could have been called Evergreen Plaza.
I’ve always wanted to create a housing development name generator, that randomly picks from two groups of words.
The greater Seattle area is no different in this respect.
I moved out after 65 years of living in Portland. Too much nonsense going on.
I recently watched a clip from “Portlandia” called “Early Onset Grumpiness” that was eerily like me. 🙂
https://youtu.be/bewKPi9gdT4
The Futura interior was a nice balance between the taxi like base interior and brougham touches that would have been out of place in this car. The quantity of metal decoration over the metal dash is quite different to various qualities of plastic that are now ubiquitous.
I had the same impression of the interior. While this car has obviously spent long periods of the last 50 years unused, the quality of the interior is apparently very, very good. Very minimal fading and discoloration, few signs of wear, the chrome and stainless has minimal pitting.
The bits and pieces in this “economy car” of the early ’60s put a lot of what we call luxury cars today to shame. Both the quality and the style are very nice.
Certainly more upmarket than the local Falcon Deluxe. Futuras were uncommon here, as people with the money to spend on one usually didn’t want a Falcon derivative, however fancy the interior. This one looks really nicely trimmed inside. Except the black with red interior reminds me of the old Black Cabs – decidedly downmarket.
Did many people in the US buy black cars during the sixties? I think it was a special order colour here, and in my experience only bought by a few elderly folk.
Probably less common the farther south you went, for the same reason it wasn’t popular in Australia.
Like the car, very nice in black/red. Who do hipsters get to fix their cars, the few I know are mechanically useless?
I’ll watch the clips later, we never bothered getting cable when we got our first rented place, and haven’t had it in 19 years.
Friends & co-workers have long given up trying to discuss anything on television with me. I don’t understand how anyone has multiple hours every day to watch, there’s just so much interesting actual stuff to do…
Ha, have never watched Portlandia. After watching a couple of the clips, I wonder if the Falcon is really right for them. After all, the steel probably all came from Gary Indiana, made by catholic eastern europeans with union cards who went home at night to smoke Chesterfields and swill Old Style beer while they smacked their kids around. Probably not the kind of steel that would appeal much to lovers of free range organic chicken. 🙂
Oh yes, has there ever been tougher vinyl upholstery fabric than what was used by Ford in the early 1960s? That stuff could withstand almost anything.
True. The stitching was the weak spot, but the vinyl seemed indestructible.
I would call your profile of the steel guy overly pessimistic if not for the father of a friend of mine that was a career non management postal worker. Move the timeframe up 10 years, change the brand of beer and cigarettes, and you nailed the profile of the guy.
He did clean up his act a bunch after a heart attack about 15 years ago. He is still around and a hipster might find him more appealing now.
Very high concentration of hipsters here in Richmond, but curiously, not many Falcons. The prototypical RVA hipster would probably be driving whatever got them through college or, if they have enough income to swing a car loan (or generous parents), a Prius.
We do have examples of the competiton driven by people of the approximate correct age, both a ’67 Rambler American and a ’67 Valiant. However both are in really nice shape so “gearhead” might be more likely than “hipster”. Or both, though the gearhead hipster is a rare bird.
I always thought the Dart was a more stereotypical hipster-mobile. But definitely not the Nova.
I can not help but note the friendly, pleasant face of the Falcon, contrasting with the angry, hostile stare of the JapSUV behind it. “GETOUTAMYWAY!!!” Portland vs. Noo Yawk?
And the rear of the Falcon says, “I’m a Fooooorrrrdd!” Just as the back end of the Grey Anonymity in front of it says,”I’m a Committeemobile from a not-too-uppity-but-wannabe suburb.”
I’ll take Portland, and stop in at that bakery. Hope it’s like the ones that used to be all over northeast Philadelphia, and not Yuppie-trending-Millennial (tofu cinnamon buns with agave glaze and vegan butter, anyone?).
I’ve only ever seen two episodes of the show, back to back on a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Melbourne. I liked it!
But I like that Falcon even more – nice car! We never got those body side panels here in Australia so it looks different to our early Falcons. Nice!
Ford Australia spent money underneath beefing up the suspension and strengthening the body before the 1965 restyle that was their first successful model, The 64 was hammered around youyangs proving ground for some durability records to rid the company of the reputation the early cars gained for falling to pieces. I had a XP Fairmont blue with white top and white bucket seats that reclined 170 and two speed it was a well worn bomb of a car.
I’m old enough to recall when these Falcons were 10 year old family hand me downs to leaded footed high school & college kids. They were (just barely) tolerated, often loathed and despised blivets of automotive transportation, pushed off by parents who didn’t want the hulk in front of their house anymore, onto their kids, secretly hoping the kid would find a way to kill it.
The wheezing, annoying sound of a 144/170 Falcon six cylinder engine and two speed Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission, bleating thru a partially burnt out muffler, will be painfully embedded in my brain until my last breath.
The “Futura” trim turned these econo-boxes into much nicer, almost plush cars, esp when compared to the lowest, cheapest versions.
The ’65 Falcon Futura, when equipped with the 260/289 V8 engine & the THREE speed (first year for a Falcon) Cruise-O-Matic automatic transmission transformed this car into an accepotable means of transportation (In My Opinion).
A buddy once called me a “hipster” for having a sizable collection of records (Note: I did NOT use the term “vinyl”…) I laughed, because one CAN’T be a “hipster” for owning “retro” stuff If you bought it new! That, and I smoke Pall Malls, drink Iron City beer and am a Republican! LOL!
There’s a sub-genre of hipsters that smoke Pall Malls and drink IC. I’m not sure how they vote. But I’ve been to their bar a few times (The Vern on SE Belmont in Portland).
I get a giggle out of the video clip of the car buying experience as it was filmed in my buddy’s shop, and the blue Saab is his mom’s car.
Wow, I didn’t even know you coukd GET Iron City in Portland! I drink it because I’m a Pittsburgher. My father drank it, My Grandfather drank it. If it’s considered “hip” elsewhere, cool! Here it’s as “exotic” as Bud or PBR! I smoke Pall Malls ’cause I’m cheap!
They also drink IC and smoke Pall Malls because they are cheap. But I remember IC being $3.50 for a tall boy, rather than the usual Rainier, PBR and Oly for $2.75.
Of course, In Pittsburgh, If any one TRIED selling a sixer of Ahrn (IC) “pounders” (16oz cans) for more than $9, Those jagoffs (jerks) would be run out of tahn (town). Yinz (you all) could git PBRs at Big Bird’s (Giant Eagle) for less! LOL!
PBR was the darling of the hipsters for quite some time. Still the default cheap draft in the type of bar where you wouldn’t be caught dead with a Bud Light.
Atomic Auto right?
My daughter lives in Eugene (seriously she does) and she complains about the drivers there all the time. Her favorite comment is how, as she puts it : “The other drivers will not try to avoid an accident even when they are causing it.” Sounds like a good time. She learned to drive out here in Texas so I can only imagine what she does out there.
She recently bought a Forester so she is being sucked in.
Ugh! Hipster. Yuppie. Can’t stand either one of them. So who is dumb enough to stand in a line for 2+ hours, in San Francisco, just to buy some dim sum because they “heard” it was fantastic? A hipster of course and the photo of the line proved it.
My condolences to Portland as you guys are going to rue the day. Believe me.
I love Portlandia.
Vancouver, BC needs a version because it’s all about us obviously… Something like Vancouver-la-te-dalia that focuses on our foibles and perhaps self-centredness (we did have the slogan “Best Place on Earth” on our 2010 Olympic license plates after all; no doubt ‘crafted’ by a Vancouverite). Oh and weird here, for the most part, is frowned upon, which may as well align with the untouchable class. Ugh. Kitsilano/Mt. Pleasant notwithstanding.
I embrace weird and all the liberties and freedom it offers. Not weird? Ohh-hmm, well.. la te da… *with a smug and snappish little head jerk*
Anyway the Ford Falcon above is nice. I own a Ford, but it’s Mazda based but with a Ford transmission – though it was jointly developed with GM. Ford’s are weird sometimes. It truly is a fusion of everything including its Falcon heritage I’m sure. In fact I’m confident come to think of it because the Fusion was actually going to be called Futura except for the fact that Pep Boys auto parts had a trademark for the name and couldn’t (source: Wikipedia – Ford Futura, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Futura)