Artist and skater Stephen Slappe shares his best day
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Stephen Slappe enjoys skateboarding, tattoo shopping and Vietnamese food with his artist wife. Photo: Samantha Wall
Stephen Slappe is a digital artist who runs the Dead Media Hour archive, where he showcases videos and stills he finds on old formats such as Super 8, VHS and audio tape.
The intrigue: The 50-year-old has been an avid skateboarder since age 4 and loves to explore Portland's underground skate spots from his home in Mill Park in SE Portland.
We asked him what his best Portland day looks like.
🌯 Breakfast: La Osita, a lone food cart near Market Street, where he gets the $10 breakfast burrito with chorizo, egg and salsa.
🛹 Morning activity: Slappe is an early riser who skates first thing. He likes Luuwit Skatepark, because it's quiet, and he loves Feral Cat Cove, a DIY park in Lents that started during the pandemic.
- "At first the neighbors complained, then they smoothed it over. It's better than a camp full of broken-down RVs."
🍛 Lunch: With his wife, artist Samantha Wall, at Nong's Khao Man Gai for their eponymous chicken and rice dish.
- "It's one of our favorite meals in the city."
⛺ Afternoon activity: Shopping in the Mississippi/Albina neighborhood, including Worn Path for clothes, skateboards and outdoor gear.
- "It's a one-stop shop for middle-aged men into hiking, backpacking and skateboarding in Portland."
Down the street, he visits Atlas Tattoo, where Dan Gilsdorf has done much of Slappe's body art.
- "Every few years I get matching anniversary tattoos here with Samantha."
🇻🇳 Dinner: The Paper Bridge for its North Vietnamese food with a Chinese influence. They order a range of dishes, including pickled morning glory, Dungeness crab spring rolls, and Bún chả Hanoi, a rice noodle dish with little pork meatballs.
- "I grew up in the south, but when I had their boiled peanuts with lemongrass, it was incredible."
🤡 Evening activity: A film at the Hollywood Theater, probably something from Queer Horror, the long-running series hosted by Anthony Hudson as Carla Rossi, a drag clown.
- "I love the dedication to film history there, from 70mm prints to the rare 35mm kung fu flicks," he told Axios. "Everything is presented in context."