We spent our last morning in Portland wandering around the “largest independent new and used book store in the world,” Powell’s. I’ve been before, but it never ceases to amaze me. Three rambling floors of books covering an entire city block. Probably my favorite thing about the store, besides the ability to browse shelves upon shelves of books on even the most obscure topics, is the unorthodox practice Powell’s is famous for: shelving new and used books side-by-side. It’s so brilliant (and they’ve been doing it this way since 1979).

But what I was thinking about after this book-lovers orgy (while eating brunch at the very delicious Genie’s) is how Powell’s is such an anomaly in the word of on-line versus off-line retailers and independents versus big chains. Powell’s has a very successful dot com (started before Amazon, incidentally) but I want to set that aside for a moment and just look at the Burnside Street store. We’ve been conditioned to go on line if we want inventory and selection, and go to a real-life store if we want an “experience” within a community. Powell’s manages to do both at once (and I’m still trying to get my head around how the Long Tail theory fits into all of this). It’s so successful, even amidst the chains, because of its huge selection, knowledgeable and friendly staffers ready to share everything they know, and plenty of in-store events that make you feel a part of a crazy-book-lovin’ community. You leave with your books, and a story to tell–an experience.

Are there any parallels in the world of film and DVDs? A way to get the films you really want–to not be limited–yet to have an experience within a community? What’s the ideal model for theaters or DVD rental stores? Can an “experience” be created for on line consumers? (Obviously Spout thinks so…)

Each morning as I walk around my brother’s too-hip-and-cute Portland neighborhood in search of my next cup of coffee, I’m secretly waiting to run into Morgan Freeman. Yes, he is here, filming at a coffee shop a mere two blocks from my brother’s front door. What could be more Portland than that, for a girl from Illinois? Bringing film and coffee together. Ahhhh yes…

The Lakeshore Enetertainment film that’s causing traffic to be redirected all along Mississippi Street here in Portland is apparently called Feast of Love. Freeman plays a college professor at Portland’s private Reed College, and Greg Kinnear is the owner of the coffee shop, which is in real life called Fresh Pot, but for the sake of the film has been renamed Jitters. (Not a very impressive change, if you ask me.) Anyway, people here are generally excited, gauging from the conversations and blogging going on.

Even Oregon’s governor, Ted Kulongoski, wants to get in on the excitement by taking some credit for the three films now being shot in the state. Something tells me, though, that no matter what the governor of, say Nebraska, did, he would have had a tough time attracting the film.

Greetings from Portland, the city that apparently has more movie theater seats per capita than any other city in the country. My man Jason and I are out here visiting my brother, Bill, who is a huge film lover–6-foot-4, to be exact (so sorry for the bad pun). For people who are into great community film-watching experiences, this seems to be the place to live. Not only are there theaters all over the city keeping up with the first-run pace of much larger cities like New York and LA, there are several alternative theater experiences to take advantage of. Personally, I’m much more excited about these than I am about catching a new film now that will hit my local art theater back home two or three months later. I can wait. What I can’t do back home is drink a good microbrew while I’m enjoying an affordable, well-chosen film in a community setting (ie: not my livingroom).

Take the Laurelhurst Theater. This movie theater landmark since 1923 shows second runs and classics on four screens for $3 a show, while you fill up on pizza and wash it down with microbrews. The McMenamin brothers have also made a huge name for themselves in Portland, by refurbishing historic buildings, showing $3 films, and serving exceptionally delicious pub grub and their own micro-brewed beers. They have four theater locations, including one in an old elementary school. And get this: The Academy Theater not only has “real” food, beer and wine, it also offers inexpensive babysitting on site! A complete date at an affordable price–what a novel concept!

So all of us not from Portland (or Austin or the few other places in the country that have their theater groove on) are thinking “Of course! That’s the way to see films! That’s the way to keep historic theaters as theaters, and to repurpose other great old buildings into film destinations rather than driving film-lovers all out to the suburbs!” If we’re all thinking that, where are the McMenamins of Indianapolis and Pittsburgh and Louisville? When will every other place jump on the train? Are the rest of us really not cool enough to support these kinds of theaters in small and mid-sized cities across the map?