It’s raining as I write this, like it has for the past two goddamn weeks, and I’m in a pretty miserable state, like I’ve been for the past two goddamn weeks, and I’m wondering why Talib Kweli can’t catch a break. Okay, he can. He’s caught a few, actually, but none of them have panned […]
Erik Henriksen
With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.
Posted inMovies & TV
Double-O Awesome
007’s Back! And He Doesn’t Suck!
There are very few certain things in this world. One of them is this: James Bond is awesome. Part caricature of male power fantasies and part… well, okay, that sums up James Bond pretty completely. But while clichéd, outdated chauvinism and manlier-than-thou bullshit doesn’t quite work anymore for anyone else (witness Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gradual neutering, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
The Last Rock Band that Mattered
Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! Now Available on DVD (Geffen/UMe) They were so young. When Nevermind came out in 1991, Kurt Cobain was 24, Krist Novoselic was 26, and Dave Grohl was 22. I know, that’s a simple observation—but it’s the one that hits hardest on the DVD Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! Originally conceived […]
Posted inBooks
What Is the What by Dave Eggers
When I talk about Dave Eggers with people—friends, family members, strangers in bars—this is usually what happens: These people say they only liked half of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, or that they didn’t like any of You Shall Know Our Velocity, or that they didn’t even know about the collection of short stories […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Unlucky Number
The Curse of 13 Tzameti
Here it comes: The obligatory Sundance reference. In writing about 13 Tzameti, it’s pretty impossible to avoid, since the thing won 2006’s Grand Jury Prize at the fest. On the other hand, it’s also pretty impossible to see why, exactly, the film won that prize. Equally impossible is finding a way to summarize the film. […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Geek Out
18 Holes, Hold the Bourgeois
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 Developed and Published by EA Sports Available Now for PC, PlayStation 2, PSP, Xbox, and Xbox 360 At the Mercury offices, we’ve got a rocky relationship with golf—some of us have a great time taking off early to hit the links, and some of us have a great time mocking […]
Posted inMovies & TV
You Like Sexytime Moviefilm?
Coming to America with Borat
First things first: We were supposed to have an interview with Borat. I know, I know. That’s what I was supposed to be writing, and that’s what you were supposed to be reading, and how great would that have been? I’d have asked Borat how he liked America, and what he thought about current world […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Take That, French New Wave!
Grindhouse Film Fest Returns, Many Rejoice
“Anyone who thinks an Ingmar Bergman film is more important than, say, 36th Chamber of Shaolin is full of shit,” Grindhouse Film Festival organizer Dan Halsted wrote me in an email a week or two ago. “They Call Her One Eye is a far better and more powerful movie than any of the overrated French […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Rat Race
Getting Flushed Away to Tigard
Me whining about my job is like the dude who’s banging Jessica Alba complaining about his relationship. I show up to work late. I watch movies. There’s a bar right next door to the Mercury offices, and we have dogs here. I play videogames and I read comics and I call it “research.” It is […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Gouge Away
Dysfunction Rocks with the Pixies
The Pixies spend a lot of time in loudQUIETloud: A Film About the Pixies reiterating that they don’t dislike each other. But I’m pretty sure they do. They might even hate each other. And they totally just did the reunion tour to make some scratch. loudQUIETloud follows the Pixies on their 2004 reunion tour, and […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Wholphin Ahoy!
Wholphin No. 2 dirs. Various Now Available Watching Donald Trump talk about Citizen Kane—he forlornly notes how wealth can’t help but alienate the rich—is a uniquely surreal experience. At least, it is until one realizes it’s hardly the most surreal thing on McSweeney’s latest DVD collection, Wholphin No. 2. Also crammed on this disc: an […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Botched Assassination
An Anticlimactic Death of a President
“Chicago could be a tough city for protests, just like Portland or Seattle,” recalls one of the fictitious government employees in Death of a President. He’s remembering a particularly rough day in Chicago: October 19, 2007, when protestors clogged the streets and two bullets slammed into the chest of George W. Bush. Such is the […]