THURSDAY 8/10
West of Jesus
Like Neneh Cherry, Steven Kolter contracted Lyme disease and got terribly sick. (The Neneh Cherry comparison ends there.) After recovering, Kolter discovered Jesus and surfing, and this is his story. As a side note: Does anybody remember when surfing used to be cool? Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne, 238-1668, 7:30 pm, free
Hey Four-Eyes!
The Portland Zine Symposium kicks off tomorrow night, where clunky Clark Kent glasses will be almost as ubiquitous as ironic t-shirts. Get a jumpstart tonight with the party to celebrate the second issue of “world’s most popular zine about eyeglasses,” Hey Four-Eyes! Eighty-eight pages long. Wow. Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, 274-1449, 7 pm, free
MONDAY 8/14
The Madness of George W. Bush
At first, I thought this was another written-in-two-weeks bit of coffee table ephemera that’s flourishing under the regime of our disgraceful president. Turns out, author Paul Levy’s not taking the easy road in this Jungian study of the effects that Bush is having on our collective psyche. According to the book’s publisher, Levy “points out that if the malignant egophrenia epidemic manifesting in our world continues to go unrecognized, it will result in endless suffering and self-destruction. Levy proposes that this collective madness is simultaneously revealing to us our potential for an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness.” I’m all for an evolutionary quantum leap in human consciousness. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free
TUESDAY 8/15
Voodoo Heart
Stephen King loves this book, which is more of a curious distraction to me than it is an endorsement. Nonetheless, Scott Snyder’s stories sound packed with potential. There are Wall Street traders with spear guns, men in love with inmates at a women’s prison, and a guy whose job is to be on the lookout for jumpers at Niagara Falls. Maybe Stephen King’s right. This sounds awesome. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 228-4651, 7:30 pm, free