Amy Fusselman’s 8: A Memoir was a difficult book to settle into. At first, the writing seemed elliptical and meandering; the “narrative” went nowhere; and at its worst, it teetered on cloyingness. But that was only for the first 30 pages or so, after which Fusselman’s rhythms and styles began to feel more natural, and […]
Chas Bowie
Posted inMovies & TV
Life’s a Bitch
And Then You Watch Year of the Dog
Not only is Year of the Dog Mike White’s directorial debut, but in the eyes of his fans, it heralds a return to form. The former Freaks and Geeks writer made a big splash with 2000’s creepy but tender Chuck and Buck, and followed it up with the wonderfully dark romance The Good Girl. But […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Films, Fonts, and Terrorists
Thank God for the PDX Film Fest
In a city overflowing with lousy film festivals, one remains worthy of real anticipation: the Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Fest (or the PDX Film Fest, for those in the know). Born out of Matt McCormick’s popular Peripheral Produce screenings of the ’90s, the PDX Film Fest is now in its fourth year of delivering […]
Posted inArt
J. Bennett Fitts
No Lifeguard on Duty
The premise of J. Bennett Fitts’ No Lifeguard on Duty—color photographs of empty motel swimming pools in depressed, barren landscapes—is so respectful of the history of photography as to be suffocatingly tiresome and clichéd. Ever since ’70s photographers like Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz made it acceptable to take photos of parking lots and abandoned […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Anthony Hopkins is So Smart
Fracture Won’t Insult Your Intelligence
Due to the nature of this job, I see more movies about CIA turncoats, bank robberies, double-crosses, and tampered evidence than I’d ordinarily care to. And nine times out of 10, I walk away frustrated, thinking that if the director had only put an ounce of intelligence and craftsmanship into their film, they wouldn’t have […]
Posted inMusic
The Five-Year Wait
Cornelius Makes it Worth Your While
It’s been five long years since Cornelius dropped his last album, Point. For a pop artist to ask their fans to hang around that long between releases is like asking your girlfriend to stay celibate while you’re serving time for grand larceny. You’d like to think that people are loyal by nature, but the reality […]
Posted inBooks
Five New Art and Design Books
I’ll admit it—we spend so much of our limited space in the Mercury reviewing the best (and sometimes the less-than-the-best) new fiction and literary nonfiction that we frequently forget to give our eyes a treat and indulge in some top-notch picture books. So as soon as you plow though the last of Against the Day‘s […]
Posted inBooks
Jonathan Lethem
When it comes to contemporary authors I think will be studied in early 21st century literature seminars of the not-too-distant future, it’s hard not to circle back to Jonathan Lethem. Part brainiac, part genre-bender, part literary celeb, certified Genius (as per the MacArthur Foundation), ambitious novelist—Lethem has been a sort of “total package” in the […]
Posted inArt
Office Space
Dozens of Portland Artists Invade a Dreary Office Environment for a Weekend-Long Party of Art, Collaboration, and Gingerbread
“I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of artists working in office spaces, ever since I worked in a very cubicle-y architectural firm myself,” says Alicia Eggert, co-organizer of the weekend-long art-show-in-an-office-space, Step into My Office. “I wondered what an office would be like if artists took it over. I have some friends who would […]
Posted inBooks
Charles Simic
In his essay “The Minotaur Loves His Labyrinth,” Charles Simic writes: “It’s the desire for irreverence as much as anything else that brought me first to poetry. The need to make fun of authority, break taboos, celebrate the body and its functions, claim that one has just seen angels in the same breath as one […]
Posted inBooks
Grotesque
by Natsuo Kirino
Natsuo Kirino’s Grotesque has a cool enough dust jacket that people frequently stopped me to ask how the book was. “I’m not sure yet,” I’d say. “I’m only on page 85.” Later I’d tell a coworker, “I can’t really tell if I like it or not.” I was over 250 pages in at this point. […]
Posted inMovies & TV
So A Dimwit Robs A Bank…
The Lookout: Another Neo-Noir Psychodrama!
It’s one of those plot devices that gives screenwriters involuntary erections: Chris (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of 3rd Rock from the Sun and Brick) was a star athlete in a small Kansas town until a tragic accident left him with a mysterious cognitive dissonance. (Dummy tries to open a tin can with a garlic press!) And what […]