MONDAY, JANUARY 21 Ahem. You there. YES, YOU. The American Psychoanalytic Association has made a request: STOP PSYCHOANALYZING BRITNEY SPEARS! Apparently the nation’s psychology community has banded together, and no longer thinks it’s okay for the rest of us to make judgments in regards to Britney’s sanity. Sooooo… when Brit bashes an SUV with an […]
2008
Posted inLetters
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
IN THE BLIND SPOT [Since the publication of “Blind Spot of Justice?” [Feature, Jan 17]—which discusses what level of accountability is necessary if a driver kills a bicyclist— readers’ responses have been pouring in. Below is a sampling.—Eds.] DEAR MERCURY—As an active member of Portland’s bicycling community and a fellow student of the late Tracey […]
Posted inBooks
The Delivery Man
by Joe McGinniss Jr(Grove Press)
The Delivery Man packs a wallop, in that Bret Easton Ellis “my characters live in an ethical vacuum and they love it” sort of way, but author Joe McGinniss Jr. has a voice of his own. Yes, his characters live in the epitome of a moral morass—Las Vegas—but these twentysomething desert rats are searching for […]
Posted inArt
Richard Deacon
The Jubitz Center’s previous contemporary art exhibition showcased Ursula von Rydingsvard’s enigmatic monolith “Pod Pacha,” a dumpster-sized sculpture made of cedar beams and an unseen motor. With an exhibition featuring a pair of enormous works in wood, the British artist Richard Deacon creates a seamless aesthetic segue. Like von Rydingsvard’s sculpture, Deacon’s two pieces, which […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
A Few Stout Individuals
Profile Theatre devotes every season to the work of one specific playwright, and the results are generally perfectly adequate. Their current show is an unfortunate exception to the rule: A Few Stout Individuals, the second full-length production in their John Guare season, is absolutely excruciating. It’s 1885, and Ulysses S. Grant (Tobias Anderson) is no […]
Posted inSold Out
Changing Room, and Bargain Hunting 101
Every week I fill this space with news from Portland’s small boutiques and designers, and many of the people who read it aspire to become part of this community. Publications like WWD are the trade papers for fashion commerce and design, but its stories concentrate on the major playing fields, where huge sums change hands […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Bloodening
Rambo: Welcome to Idgit Valhalla!
“Endearing” isn’t generally the first word that springs to mind regarding someone who kills Commie hordes for a living, but in Sylvester Stallone’s case, it somehow applies. I mean, don’t get me wrong—this isn’t to say that movies like Rhinestone or D-Tox don’t deserve to be buried in a lead-lined vault, but only to note […]
Posted inMusic
Once More With Feeling
Two Ton Sloth
No, not Two Ton Boa. There is, curiously enough, another local band with a moniker that describes a two-thousand-pound animal. But unlike the thumping dark cabaret of the Boa, the Sloth is a baffling assembly of found noises, junkyard hiphop beats, and the clenched-teeth flow of spoken-word frontman Brad Hamers. On their most recent release, […]
Posted inFeature
Our Guide to Drinking Games (Or How to Make Alcohol Abuse Fun)
Pullout: Drinking Issue 2008 Drunk Olympics
Posted inMusic
Local Music News
You know that Portlanders’ collective attitude toward tobacco has taken a decisive turn for the cancer-conscious when a local decadence-themed music venue that hosts recurring events with names like “Sinferno Cabaret” and “Karaoke from Hell” not only politely complies with Oregon’s freshly ratified ban on smoking in bars and taverns, but does so voluntarily a […]
Posted inFeature
Sports Medicine
Hangover Remedies That Sort of Work
Pullout: Drinking Issue 2008 Drunk Olympics