Live blogging from the Drammys, Portland’s own local theater awards. Nothing has happened yet, so skip this post if all you’re looking for are winners—I’ll have those up as they’re announced. We’re at the Crystal Ballroom—I’m sitting in the corner grudgingly drinking a pink McBeer, while all around folks are mingling and schmoozing and waiting […]
Alison Hallett
Alison Hallett served nobly as the Mercury's arts editor from 2008-2014. Her proud legacy lives on.
Posted inCats
Cat Jamz
Blogging from the cat camp site. Y’all are missing a pretty rad playlist. AND THE ADORABILITY. ‘Cause shit is cute. Cats I mean. Are cute. Also! The Rialto, I used to work there, is probably the best downtown bar and their drinks are stiff and the jukebox ain’t bad either. I asked Courtney to say […]
Posted inCats
Pictures of Kitties!!11!!!!
Thank you to everybody who sent in cat pictures! I got a bunch of great responses—y’all have some nice looking cats. I’ll be showing off all the Blogtown kitties in an iPhoto-style slideshow at our campsite tonight (1 am, and you better believe there’s a soundtrack…). Stop by and say hello. I’ll post a few […]
Posted inArtsy
Onstage this Weekend
There are some really good things happening onstage this weekend. 9 Parts of Desire sounds amazing—the one-woman show about nine very different Iraqi women is co-produced by CoHo and Cygnet Productions; my notoriously irascible freelance theater writer, Temple Lentz, called it “one of the most compelling pieces of solo theater you will ever see on […]
Posted inBooks
Naming the New Blog Column
Thanks for all the help coming with names for the reading/drinking blog column. Here are my favorites—pick one! PICK A TITLE FOR THE MERCURY‘S NEWEST BLOG COLUMN
Posted inBooks
New Blog Column
Paul Constant up at The Stranger has a blog column called “Lunch Date,” where, a few times a week, he takes a new book with him to lunch, spends half an hour or so with it, then reports on both the book and the food (here’s one). With his gracious permission, I’m going to rip […]
Posted inPortland
New Seasons to Open Hawthorne Location
New Seasons has just signed a lease on upper Hawthorne—where the Daily Grind used to be. From an email sent out to staffers: We still have lots of details to work out but here’s what we know so far– The actual address is 4026 SE Hawthorne. It’s on the south side of Hawthorne and takes […]
Posted inCats
In Anticipation of Cat Friday
Tomorrow night, the Mercury will be camping out along the Rose Parade route, saving a prime viewing spot for the lucky folks who won it in our charity auction. And of course we’ll be providing wholesome, family friendly activities all night long. The schedule is here—our exact location is TBD, check Blogtown tomorrow for updates. […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Doubt: A Parable
Portland is a gay, gay town this month—gayer than usual, I mean—with Pride serving as anchor to a flurry of queer-themed events. Perhaps not coincidentally, Portland Center Stage has homo-themed plays currently running on both stages: The Little Dog Laughed, an intelligent, funny bit of social commentary about a Hollywood leading man with an awkward […]
Posted inMusic
More Kanye
I was there, too. And like my colleagues, I Have Opinions. We got to the Rose Garden at around 9, in time to see Rihanna strut through a high-energy set. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy her much—having once been puppet-mastered into dancing for like 30 minutes to “Don’t Stop the Music” by a DJ at […]
Posted inBooks
Reading Tonight: William Gibson
Duuude. William Gibson is at the Clackamas Town Center tonight, reading from his 2007 book Spook County, now out in paperback. Anybody read it? I haven’t read him since Neuromancer when I was 12, but that book sure is cool. Barnes and Noble Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd, 786-3464
Posted inMovies & TV
Morphine Dreams
The Fall: Adventures in Drug-Addled Babysitting
If contemporary kids’ movies are to be believed, children’s imaginations are glib, computer-generated videogame-scapes, full of skateboarding giraffes and wisecracking sea turtles. Alongside Guillermo del Toro’s recent Pan’s Labyrinth, Tarsem Singh’s The Fall refuses to countenance this candy-coated version of a child’s brain—taking us instead to a darker and far more interesting place. The Fall […]