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Clique Here
Portland's coolest bloggers have no budget, no credentials and no idea how they got so popular.
BY ZACH DUNDAS & MARK BAUMGARTEN
In a battered old warehouse off North Interstate Avenue, three young men sit around a table, plotting the destruction of media as we know it.
OK, not really. The three twentysomething guys hunched over a jumble of Macintosh gear are actually working on an elaborate parody of reality TV, an ironic take on Survivor-style melodrama that will "air" on a website only a tiny fraction of Portland--let alone the world beyond--has ever heard of.
But stick with us. These guys are on to something.
Mike Merrill, Steve Schroeder and Jona Bechtolt run a website with the ungainly name UrbanHonking.com. Even in the jargon-enriched environment of the Internet, it's hard to find a single word that accurately describes Urban Honking. Call it a blog of blogs--an invitation-only family of dozens of different Web diaries, loosely united by a certain aesthetic and the fact that Merrill, Schroeder and Bechtolt, well, are fond of them.
Comments
Our apartment manager puts them out by the mail in the morning... so I came down and saw myself and my friends! So crazy!
Posted by: Mikey at March 1, 2006 1:01 PM
Yea!
Posted by: Liz at March 1, 2006 1:02 PM
Hey, whatever anyone thinks of the article, Mark and I really appreciate the time everyone involved with Urban Honking took to field our inane questions. Any stupidity or overall lameness is the fault of the authors, not the subjects.
Posted by: Zach Dundas at March 1, 2006 1:30 PM
Note: That wasn't just me posting at Zach. :)
Thanks Zach, we're really excited!
Posted by: Mikey at March 1, 2006 1:32 PM
This is so rad! Way to go, homies! It was a great article that totally "got" UrHo. I showed it to my cohort, and I had to surrender my copy to one of my colleagues who couldn't stop slapping me on the back.)
(PS I don't actually have a mustache.)
PPS, Everyone is saying how handsome M, S, and J look!!
Posted by: willow at March 1, 2006 3:45 PM
Dude!
I was chillin' down the street this afternoon on the way to work when I glanced at a WW box and thought, "that guy looks familiar." A second box and I said, "Wait, THOSE GUYS look familiar," and a third box with me crouching, staring, and pointing saying, "I know those guys! Or did!"
Mike, your sorry ass used to sit across from me at CyberRep. Congrats on making this thing Something after all!
Posted by: Dave at March 1, 2006 4:30 PM
That is a fantastic story. Well done Zach, and congratulations Urho boys! You guys are blowing up.
Posted by: lucie at March 1, 2006 11:20 PM
I saw somebody reading this article on the bus this morning. I hadn't seen the paper yet so it was awesome to look up and see that picture of you guys staring back at me.
Posted by: Azure at March 1, 2006 12:56 PM