Portland Center Stage Courtesy PCS Last Friday, March 27, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival announced that they were canceling their summer shows and laying off hundreds of staff—a devastating blow to the many artists, technicians, and OSF employees who abruptly found themselves out of work (not to mention the economic impact on Ashland). Soon after, Portland […]
Alison Hallett
Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.
Posted inBooks
Local Bookstores You Can Support During the COVID-19 Crisis
Wallace Books KATHLEEN MARIE / MERCURY STAFF You’re probably hearing a lot of “we need your help now more than ever…” fundraising pitches from local arts organizations and nonprofits, and the reality is—it’s all true. Even Powell’s has announced sizable layoffs and store closures. But there are a lot of Portland bookstores still open for […]
Posted inTBA
TBA: Raquel André Exposes More Than Just Her Collection of Lovers
Photo by Tiago de Jesus Brás, Courtesy of PICA The opening of A Collection of Lovers is clinical, almost cold: Against a clean white backdrop, wearing a white smock and blue leggings that evoke a doctor’s scrubs, Raquel André recites name after name, accompanied by a stethoscopic, thudding score. These are the names, we soon […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
TBA: Back to School with Professor Vag(inal Davis)
Nebojša-Tabačk / Courtesy of TBA When confronted with something as prosaic as a lecture in the TBA lineup, particularly from a figure as iconoclastic as the legendary “drag terrorist” Vaginal Davis, one could be forgiven for expecting an ambush—a smashed paradigm, a knife to the heart of convention, or any of the other violences that […]
Posted inPizza Week
Pizza Week Preview: Slice Pizza Company’s “Greek Veggie” and “Alligator Sausage”
Slice Pizza Company Northeast Sandy’s the Zipper is a hipster riff on a mall food court—several restaurants and a bar (Paydirt, helmed by former Mercury music editor Ezra Caraeff) share a common area, complete with cafeteria-style tables where picky parties can convene. Like any good food court, there’s pizza: Slice, helmed by a former delivery […]
Posted inPizza Week
Pizza Week Preview: Bridge City Pizza’s “The Antonio Abate”
Alison Hallett Bridge City Pizza is tucked into a discreet corner of Woodstock, next to a Plaid Pantry and mere blocks from a pretty good pot store. Discreet, that is, for an INTER-DIMENSIONAL PORTAL. When you step through the door into the tiny storefront, you’re not in Portland anymore—this charming sandwich and pizza shop is […]
Posted inFood and Drink
City of Gold Is a Love Letter to Jonathan Gold—and Los Angeles
I’ve never quite understood why Portlanders are so quick to ‘fess up to hating Los Angles. It seems a bit like admitting you lack curiosity, or fear cultures that aren’t your own, or don’t like tacos? “I resent things I don’t understand. But traffic, right?” Jonathan Gold is LA’s best-known food critic; beloved for taking […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Eating Across Los Angeles in City of Gold
LA Haters to the Left
LA haters to the left.
Posted inMovies & TV
Hey, Wanna See a Sweatsuit-Clad Gymnast Masturbating to Her Own Highlight Reel?
That’s how The Bronze opens, so it’s as good a place as any to start a review of The Bronze. How you feel about that opening shot is probably a pretty good indication of how you’ll feel about the film as a whole—it certainly does set the tone. The Bronze is good old-fashioned shock comedy, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Gymnasts Get Dirty in The Bronze
What Happens When America’s Sweetheart Grows Old
What happens when America’s sweetheart grows old.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Choice Is Just Like Every Other Nicholas Sparks Movie, Which Is to Say It’s Terrible
A Helpful Guide to the Nicholas Sparks Industrial Complex
REMEMBER HOW in The NeverEnding Story, a boy reads a mysterious book that comes to life before his eyes, plunging him into a thrilling adventure in an alternate universe? Watching a new movie from Nicholas Sparks, the romance author whose film adaptations are constantly slithering into multiplexes, is kinda like that, if instead of a […]
Posted inMovies & TV
45 Years Is Complex, Compelling, and Features a Tremendous Performance from an Old Racist
45 YEARS “Okay, this 50 Shades book is pretty good.” Fans of writer/director Andrew Haigh know that it’s only a matter of time until he catches on big. We True Believers have been waiting very patiently until the rest of you learn his name, dead certain it’ll happen—the proof is in 2011’s Weekend, a romantic […]