If somebody were to explain the concept to me, it would sound so simultaneously populist and intellectual that I’d swear it was a European fancy: a short film being made about a new literary novel, screened at a huge movie theater, and followed by a discussion between local literati, with live music. But this isn’t […]
Chas Bowie
Posted inNews
The H-Word
Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Word “Hipster”
“That bar’s a total hipster enclave.” “Look at that poseur over there. What a hipster fag.” “I don’t know much about them. They’re just another hipster band, as far as I know.” “Portland/North Portland/This restaurant/This bar/This trivia night/This strip of Mississippi/etc. used to be cool, until all these hipsters took over.” Chances are if you’re […]
Posted inBooks
Elbow Deep
Meet Dishwasher Pete: The Man Who Set out to Wash Dishes in All 50 States
In the restaurant kingdom, no job ranks lower than dishwasher. It requires virtually no skill (tons of stamina and work ethic, true, but they don’t call it “unskilled labor” for nothing) or a presentable appearance. The dishwasher is typically the last guy out of the building after closing; works elbow deep in soggy leftovers; is […]
Posted inArt
Smithson, Serra, and Holt:
At the Drive-In
Portland is a social city, and never more so than in the beauty of summer. The punks nod hello to the hippies; motorists stop plowing over bicyclists for a while; and even the surliest waiters force out tiny smiles when refilling your water glass. The consensus is that it’s time to be with your fellow […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Hurt Me, Baby, One More Time
Every time we see William Hurt in a movie, we think to ourselves, “That’s a damn fine underrated actor.” So, on the event of Mr. Brooks, in which Hurt plays Kevin Costner’s hallucination, we’re taking this opportunity to review some of Mr. Altered States‘ coolest roles. • The Big Chill (1983)—When I told my mom […]
Posted inArt
The Magic of View-Master
We all have the usual litany of Stumptown bragging rights that we bust out when any poor saps from less-cool burgs come to behold our fair city. We talk knowingly about The Simpsons genesis while cruising down Flanders; we point out Gus Van Sant’s apartment building and mention how our ex-coworker pops up in the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Film School
Janus’ Crash Course in Movie Masterpieces
It’s happened to the best of us: You’re at a party, or on a date, when somebody drops the line, “It was like something straight out of an Ingmar Bergman movie,” and knowing laughter ensues. You laugh, too, because you kinda sorta know what it means (it means “weird,” right?), but inside, you give yourself […]
Posted inBooks
Miranda July
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Long before Me and You and Everyone We Know made Miranda July a household name with the indie set, Portlanders and other people with their noses to the ground were fully aware of the 33-year-old’s gift for creating dazzling creepiness in all sorts of mediums. From her audio-theatrical CDs on Kill Rock Stars to her […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
GRIM FILM
With the release of Fay Grim this week, it’s as good a time as any to catch up on the films of Hal Hartley, one of the most unique and intriguing independent film directors of the ’90s. Fifteen years ago, Hartley was on track to become one of the “next big things” in arthouse cinema, […]
Posted inArt
Arnold J. Kemp
Presents Suspiria and Prince of Darkness
Nearly 20 years ago, a young artist named Arnold J. Kemp was working at a used camera store in Boston when a customer came in, browsing the Bolex cameras. Bored, Kemp started chatting up the customer, who wound up buying not one but two expensive cameras and introducing himself as Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Rebirth of a Classic
Killer of Sheep Emerges From Obscurity
Killer of Sheep, Charles Burnett’s gritty 1977 portrait of a Watts ghetto, has a lot to live up to—namely, its own hype. Burnett made Killer of Sheep as a UCLA film student for $10,000, using friends and neighbors as actors and shooting on weekends for over a year. The resulting film has been heralded by […]
Posted inArt
A Look Ahead at TBA:07’s Visual Art Programming
Last week, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) announced the lineup for September’s Time-Based Art Festival (TBA), which looks as promising as ever. Local artists like YACHT, Hand2Mouth Theatre, and Andrew Dickson will all be representing the home team, while Claude Wampler, Donna Uchizono, and Elevator Repair Service are among the more exciting acts coming […]