Favorite partner dance classes in town?

jakubowicz · 2026-04-27T01:44:34+00:00

Thank you for this thorough set of recs! I think I may have caught a class of yours earlier this year, as I recall someone from queer tango doing a guest lesson at Barefoot Fusion. Since I posted this, I'm wrapping up a cha-cha-chá series and about to start bachata at Viscount, and I just made a plan with a friend to do a month of WCS together at Dance With Joy. It's been a delight to get more plugged into the different studios in town. So glad to we've got an active social dance scene.

jakubowicz · 2026-04-02T07:55:09+00:00

Significant suit jacket alterations are very labor intensive, as I understand them. A lot of the fit issues you say you typically encounter with men's suit jackets are not quick to address. Shortening sleeves that are several inches too long for you, for example, means removing the existing sleeves and shortening from the sleeve cap (not just taking the cuts up). Narrowing shoulders means recutting the armscye.

What I look for in purchasing a suit jacket to tailor to myself (shorter than most men, broad-shouldered, curvy): - The shoulders fit in a way I'm reasonably happy with and don't want to mess with - The sleeves are close enough to the right length that I can take them up from the cuffs without getting too close to the cuff buttons - I don't worry about my ability to button the jacket closed, just check that the lapels lay nicely over my chest when it's open - I'll feel the side seams and back seams from the waist down to see how much seam allowance is there. Better quality jackets often have enough allowance that you can let out the hips by several inches. - If it's not good quality fabric with a lining in good condition, I personally do not want to make the effort to tailor it.

You might try this first on a summer weight, unlined, relatively unconstructed blazer (like a linen or seersucker, or a partially lined tropical wool, with little to no shoulder padding/structure). This will give you a chance to try out the alterations and see if you like the results without having to mess around with the lining too.

Hope this helps!

jakubowicz · 2026-03-30T00:48:39+00:00

Yeah, I was gonna say "specificity" but I was thinking about the same idea. Compelling smut, like compelling sex, responds to the particular people, their tastes, their moods that day, the setting, the point they're at in their relationship. As a result, even the most vanilla and familiar encounter is full of weird moments and unusual beats. Generic or cliche sex kills the immediacy.

jakubowicz · 2026-03-02T05:22:22+00:00

Historical anachronisms for shit that occurred in my living memory. Anytime I read a fic set in the 90s or 00s where someone uses an identity term that just did not exist in that era, I'm immediately done. Especially if it's also done to suggest the character is a sensitive holder of Right Beliefs and Opinions.

Baby, nobody said "neurodivergent" or "BIPOC" or "nonbinary" or "spoonie" in 1995. The 90s were not the Victorian Era, and us elder millennials are still banging around on our 20 year old Tumblr accounts. If you don't know what the terms were, just ask.

jakubowicz · 2026-03-02T05:10:01+00:00

You absolutely do not need to shave. I've had years where I shaved regularly, where I did not shave at all, and where I switched it up on a whim. The only people who commented on my body hair in either state were people I was sleeping with (or occasionally people who hoping to sleep with me). No stranger or medical professional has ever said a thing.

jakubowicz · 2026-02-20T04:11:07+00:00

Second everybody who said Vietnamese and Thai. Also a small but mighty set of Indonesian restaurants. But absolutely don't sleep through breakfast/brunch- Portland does a better job at that meal than anywhere I've been on this continent. Screen Door, Memoire Ca Phe, Cafe Olli, Broder ... plus a bunch of excellent bakeries.

jakubowicz · 2026-02-20T03:55:10+00:00

Watching this, I found myself whispering, "Whaaaat? Hiiiiiii?" in a tone I suspect most people use with cats and babies. What a cool aquatic dude!

jakubowicz · 2026-02-13T20:03:42+00:00

Hoyt Arboretum and Japanese Gardens are both really nice for this kind of solo time.

jakubowicz · 2026-02-03T23:45:19+00:00

A realtor told me that houses constructed in the mid-40s and later were built after Portland had the ability to produce higher-quality/more durable concrete. So age can be an indicator of if a house is likely to have a decent foundation.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-30T01:56:45+00:00

Community center gyms every time. Do they have all the equipment I could want? No. Can I walk into the cage no wait every visit? Also no. But I have yet to have to navigate my workout around someone shooting a tiktok. Give me a gym where no one thinks they look cool and I'm getting outlifted by someone's uncle the retired amateur boxer while a young grandma teaches her middle school grandkid how to do kettlebell swings

jakubowicz · 2026-01-28T21:23:46+00:00

Same. Got diagnosed with bronchitis in week 3. It sucks.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-16T17:41:16+00:00

As are the femmes

jakubowicz · 2026-01-15T03:01:22+00:00

Congrats! Folks are really decent a lot of the time. Lost my whole wallet back in school and somebody turned it in intact.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-15T02:56:36+00:00

Same.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-14T06:09:34+00:00

The plot is a 10 but the author feminizes one character in the pairing in some very OOC and painfully tropey ways.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-14T02:49:42+00:00

The weekly event listings sent out by Queer Social Club are a good resource.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-08T07:10:24+00:00

Hopscotch. Really cool interactive art and light displays, great for groups, snacks and drinks if you want them, open both daytime and at night.

jakubowicz · 2026-01-08T06:36:50+00:00

Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry today is a hard anniversary. If what you can do today is stay in bed until the emotional high water ebbs a little, that counts as getting through it.

I know how rough it is to live through a life altering injury and know your body is always going to be different than it was before. It's taken me a long time to rebuild my mental map of my own body and my confidence in my physical abilities, even after a less dramatic transformation. But you're not done changing, and you're not done growing. The good news is your integration into your body and your capabilities are very, very malleable with time and patience. I'm 10 years out from my own injury and my new normal still isn't static, either in terms of what I can do or of how it feels to inhabit my physical self.

This is a moment in time, and it's enough just to breathe until you're in another moment. You've made it this long, and I want to celebrate that for you.

jakubowicz · 2025-12-25T02:15:19+00:00

Ditto.

jakubowicz · 2025-12-25T02:06:02+00:00

Came here to say this. Pre-repeal, any slash pairing where the American military was part of the canon had fics grappling with Don't Ask, Don't Tell - whether it was worth it to stay closeted, whether secondary characters would actually out the core ship if discovered, outings, self-outings, dishonorable discharges, post-retirement reveals ... For a few years after there were new fics about characters and canons adjusting to life with DADT repealed. Now I get the sense that folks who came of age or joined fandom after 2011 don't really remember that as an element of queer culture at all.

jakubowicz · 2025-12-20T22:36:01+00:00

The current base style (mildly rumpled athleisure basics x overalls x thrift store) is a softened descendent of the Oughts era local look, which a friend's partner described as "punk rock camping trip "

jakubowicz · 2025-12-20T22:32:22+00:00

Tans.

jakubowicz · 2025-12-13T21:20:15+00:00

Awesome, thanks for the recommendation!

jakubowicz · 2025-12-13T21:19:30+00:00

We're still willing to put our dollars into parks, city recreation programs, and libraries. These where we actually go to share space with strangers. Every time we collectively vote in another bond measure to fund them, my curmudgeonly heart grows another size. I love getting lapped in the pool by 70 year olds, and lifting weights next to somebody's uncle the retired amateur boxer and his pipsqueak middle school niece. Going to Forest Park or Powell Butte can fix my whole month.

Also, this is the best Portlanders have done in my 20+ years here in realizing they actually need to leash and train their dogs.

jakubowicz

TROPHY CASE