The Saturday of any convention is pretty much the main course. On Friday, people have jobs, people are in traffic, people are late. On Saturday, though, everyone’s there. The second day of the Emerald City Comicon was a sizable tide of humanity. When I got to the Washinton State Convention Center, a man in a […]
Joe Streckert
Joe Streckert is the author of Storied & Scandalous Portland, Oregon: A History of Gambling, Vice, Wits, and Wagers. He writes about books, history, and comics.
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Sex, Drugs, and Massive Attack.
While gluing my eyes to Twitter yesterday I was somewhat surprised to see this tweet from the Portland Police Bureau. I’m not opposed to the cops promoting a show that’s kinda-sorta about them (except with magic fairy tale powers) but it was a far cry from the normal fare that gets put up on their […]
Posted inComic Books
Dispatches from From the Emerald City Comicon: Day One
Unlike that thing in San Diego, the Emerald City Comicon is actually about, you know, comics. You know- sequential art and all that. The show is not about movie or TV studios promoting their next giant project or making huge, Hollywood-level announcements. It’s more of a giant nerd party that actually cares about the book, […]
Posted inSports
Roller Derby Recap: High Roller vs. Heartless Heathers
MASONITE BURN (AKA SHARKEY) The Hearthess Heathers’ star jammer Blast Unicorn weaving her way through enemy lines. I had every expectation that Saturday’s sold-out bout at the Oaks Park hangar was going to be a blowout, as the struggling Heartless Heathers went up against the undefeated High Rollers. The High Rollers defeated the Heathers 155-102, […]
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Here Be Dragons
Dragons occupy kind of a weird space in the awesome/lame spectrum. In the context of, for example, video games dragons are utterly amazing. The draconic combats in Dragon Age were some of the most memorable parts of the game, and the other night I watched a friend bring down one of the great beasts in […]
Posted inTV
A Snake Eating Its Own Tail: I Was an Extra on Grimm
Steve sent me an email a few days ago: Hey!Just in case you have nothing better to do with your time, they’re currently filming Grimm outside on 3rd ave in front of Voodoo.Ciao! My reply: Really! I’m downtown- will probably check it out. Thanks! Like a coked-up labradoodle I galloped downstairs outside the New Market […]
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: HITLER WAS A WEREWOLF!
Last night’s episode of Grimm was about magic coins that turn you into Hitler. It was stupid. I enjoyed it. I fully and completely recognize that it was bad. The dialogue in particular was groan-worthy. However, the episode moved along at a fairly good pace and managed to be mostly unboring. As a piece of […]
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Grimm Goes to Fight Club
There’s a kind of compromise that you have to make with yourself if you’re going to watch network television. No hour-long thing on network TV will ever be as good as what’s on cable. Cable’s given us The Wire, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, and Battlestar Galactica. Shows like that have significantly amped up what […]
Posted inPortland
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Watching Grimm on Location
I watched last night’s episode of Grimm surrounded by people who were going “woo!” A few early scenes of the episode were filmed in and outside of Old Town’s Graeter Art Gallery, which hosted a viewing party to show off their brush with televisionary fame. The gallery was recognizable in the shot, and, to my […]
Posted inPortland
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Last Night’s Episode of Grimm Was (Dare I Say It?) Kinda Good!
For some inscrutable reason, Grimm decided not to suck last night. Going into the episode, I had a feeling of resignation, that would just be another installment of a C-grade cop show with fantasy creatures thrown in for window dressing. It wasn’t. Last night’s episode was actually kind of good. Was it brain-shatteringly awesome? No, […]
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: NBC Put My Neighborhood on the TV, Guys!
Some months ago, I came home to find a yellow flap of paper attached to the door outside my apartment. “Grimm will be filming in your area!” said the paper, and proceeded to announce that a portion of Mississippi would be blocked off by the show’s crew for a day. For a while, the crew’s […]
Posted inTV
Recaps For the Mildly Interested: Grimm is Back!
Hi, guys! In addition to TV that is actually good, Grimm is back. I don’t care if you didn’t miss it- you get a recap anyway. Last night’s episode was pretty straightforward, with “straightforward” being a nice word for “boring.” There was this ogre who went to jail. He got out of jail, and started […]