Period films: not a big fan. Between the ludicrously rococo set designs, the blatant grabs for Best Costume Oscar, and those horrible innuendoes they try to pass off as “humor,” period films and I have always been content to go our separate ways. So it came as no small surprise to realize that half an […]
Chas Bowie
Posted inMovies & TV
That Sweet Soul Sound
Don Cheadle Keeps it Real in Talk to Me
When Petey Greene died of lung cancer in 1984, over 10,000 Washington DC mourners gathered in his honor—the largest gathering of its kind the city had ever seen, save for the deaths of elected officials. If you have no idea who Petey Greene was, or what he did to attract such a devoted following, the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Flood of Suffering
The Painful Truths of When the Levees Broke
As the floodwaters began to rise in the wake of the levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina, Herbert Freeman, a soft-spoken man of retirement age, insisted to his elderly, wheelchair-bound mother that they seek higher ground. When a neighbor came by with a canoe, Freeman loaded his mother in, and they paddled through the floodwaters—past dead […]
Posted inArt
DeSoto Project
A fairly seismic shift in Portland’s art scene is happening this weekend, although most of the galleries involved seem too busy preparing to even let their audience know about it. On Sunday, July 22, the DeSoto Project—a complex of art galleries located in the old Daisy Kingdom building on the North Park blocks—opens to the […]
Posted inArt
Among Us and Curious
Among Us and Curious is the third annual juried photography exhibition at Newspace, and like its predecessors, provides a broad view of contemporary photography practices. Unfortunately, as is the case with most exhibitions of its kind, the juried format attracts artists in the nascent stages of their career, and doesn’t allow viewers to explore what […]
Posted inBooks
Tin House Writers Workshop ’07: Week Two
Last week, the Tin House Writer’s Workshop kicked off with a bevy of events, including a reading by T. “don’t even bother trying to pronounce ‘Coraghessan’” Boyle. But the fun doesn’t stop there—not even close. The workshop continues through the weekend, and even if you’re not a prepaid registrant, there are a ton of seminars […]
Posted inMusic
Death to the Hoochie Coochie Man
A Few Non-Sucky Acts at This Year’s Blues Fest
As a musical genre, the blues is an iffy proposition at best. Aside from a few genuinely brilliant innovators, the blues generally conjures up a very limited style based on a minor key shuffle and an even narrower range of song topics. It’s a shame, because the history of the blues is a fascinating story […]
Posted inArt
Portland? Fuck Portland!
Rocksbox, 6540 N Interstate, Sat-Sun noon-6 pm, through August 12
It’s pretty hard to ignore a show with a title like Portland? Fuck Portland!: The Influence of Oregon on Oregonians, which opens this week at the brand-new Rocksbox gallery in North Portland. To back up the provocative title, the show boasts one of the strongest lineups we’ve seen in forever, with artists like Storm Tharp, […]
Posted inBooks
Tin House Writers Workshop ’07
Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock, July 8-15, tinhouse.com/workshop
It happens every year, but it’s not one of those events that gets huge splashy ads on the sides of buses or full-page sponsorship from the Oregonian, even though it’s one of the best literary events to hit our already-literary city. I’m talking about the Tin House Writers Workshop, which—in addition to helping writers punch […]
Posted inBooks
After Dark
by Haruki Murakami (Knopf)
It’s nearly impossible to name another contemporary author whose books are as hypnotic and disorienting as those of Haruki Murakami. His metaphysically skewed universes of mysterious Japanese women, disappearing housecats, and the occasional psychotic apparition of Colonel Sanders turn most readers into thirsty evangelicals: Once they’ve gotten a taste of the good word, they demand […]
Posted inArt
Video Banquet
It seems that everybody in the Portland art scene claims to know exactly what our city “needs” as a mid-sized arts community to reach the fabled next level of maturity and acceptance: more writers, affordable studio space, a better nonprofit art center, a name-brand MFA program, more articles in national magazines touting the supposed uniqueness […]
Posted inBooks
Blumesday
Featuring Monica Drake, Courtenay Hameister, Erin Ergenbright, and others
For James Joyce fans around the globe, there are few days more significant than June 16, otherwise known as “Bloomsday.” Joyce’s seminal novel Ulysses—an urban retelling of the Greek legend, with antihero Leopold Bloom as its protagonist—unfolds the events of a single day (June 16). Now, every Bloomsday, Joyce fans get together for what local […]