Eighth Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival dir. Various Oct 22-31 Cinema 21 Let’s face it: there are only so many gay films you can watch. Problem is, the Eighth Portland Lesbian & Gay Film Festival has a huge number of films, all of them overflowing with gayness–so here’s a quick rundown of this week’s […]
Evan James
Posted inBooks
That’s Revolting
That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation edited by Matt Bernstein Sycamore, reading at Powell’s, 1005 W Burnside, Wednesday Sept. 29, 7:30 pm The introduction to That’s Revolting disappointed me: “Of course we’re enraged and depressedÉby the ways in which mainstream gay people steadily assimilate into the dominant culture that we despise,” it reads. “The […]
Posted inMusic
Art Is Everywhere
The Ephemeral Ecstacy of TBA’s Music
TBA Festival Music Fri Sept 10-Sun Sept 19 Machineworks 1115 NW 14th What is time-based art? “I like to think of it as art that is completed when the artist and the audience are in the same time and space together,” says Erin Boberg, co-curator for PICA’s TBA Festival. What purpose does this concept serve? […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
Competitive Crying
Is it just me, or are people always using movies to make you think they’re sensitive? “Oh, did you see that film? It was so good! It made me cry.” The one thing I’ve learned from this is that tears are the best gauge of cinematic quality–the more a movie makes you cry, the better […]
Posted inBooks
Empress of the Splendid Season
Empress of the Splendid Season by Oscar Hijuelos (Perennial, 1999) Even though a contemporary fiction factory like Harper Collins pumps out thousands of narrative shipwrecks every year, books like Empress of the Splendid Season are islands of relief; ripe with thoughtful description and finely nuanced characters. Empress tells the story of Lydia Espana, a once-spoiled […]
Posted inUncategorized
A Greek Classic
Eleni’s Delights Portland, Twice
Eleni’s Philoxenia 112 NW 9th 227-2158 Eleni’s Estiatorio 7712 SE 13th Ave 230-2165 Homer crafted two enormous and magnificent epic poems, The Odyssey and The Iliad. Likewise, Eleni’s has created their own Greek masterpieces, in the form of two restaurants, which share a similar menu as exhaustive as The Odyssey‘s list of characters. For those […]
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The Art of Seduction
Downtown Decadence at Vitis
Vitis Enoteca 535 NW 16th St 241-0355 It’s the season for loving: sultry nights and summertime horniness encourage the pursuit of carnal pleasures. In the game of attraction, there’s no replacement for an appeal to the senses; so skip the dive bar tonight, and opt for an atmosphere that leaves your date smitten. If you’re […]
Posted inNews
I Was a Nude Model
Another True Life Story in Our How Hard Can It Be? Series
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The Mercury is embarking on a brand new journalistic series, entitled “How Hard Can It Be?” A series of true stories designed to explore jobs and hobbies that would appear to require a certain amount of expertise to accomplish successfully–and, in fact, do. However, that won’t stop our inexperienced and inept […]
Posted inBooks
The Jefferson Bible
Akashic U.S. Presidents Series E very time I ask questions like “Thomas Jefferson, who’s that?” or “What? Since when could women vote?” my peers seem to look upon me as though I were part of a great national shame. If you feel similarly inept when it comes to comprehending US history, the slim volumes in […]
Posted inBooks
Why Marriage Matters
Why Marriage Matters by Evan Wolfson, reading at Border’s Downtown, 708 SW 3rd, Friday August 6, 7 pm Given the cascade of new books about the fight for equal marriage rights, I picked up this book with a heavy dose of skepticism. On the other hand, the immediate relevance and controversy surrounding the issue left […]
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You’ve Come A Long Way, Banh Mi
The Best French-Vietnamese Sandwiches in Portland
In 1858, the French seized Vietnam, beginning a colonial occupation that lasted nearly a century. As a result, a distinctly European taste for baguettes, café au lait, and gateaux emerged that exists to this day. One particularly delicious tradition preserved from this cultural intersection is Banh Mi (pronounced “bun mee”), French-Vietnamese sandwiches with a remarkably […]
Posted inBooks
The Dog Fighter
The Dog Fighter by Mark Bojanowsky (William Morrow) If Ernest Hemingway and Chuck Palahniuk conceived a child, their baby’s name would be Mark Bojanowsky. The child’s first words would be The Dog Fighter, and each word would, predictably, teeter the line between masculine brusqueness and frustrating oversimplification; spectacular violence and overblown sensationalism; stylistic concentration and […]