Pullout: “We’re Geeks and We Know It” Music Issue
Julianne Shepherd
Posted inFeature
Introducing Compact Disc of Sound
It’s Like a Mixed Tape Just for You!
Pullout: “We’re Geeks and We Know It” Music Issue
Posted inArt
A Box of Ice
Art Review
A Box of IcePostcards by Cynthia Connolly Available at Reading Frenzy, $16 Though she started her career documenting the D.C. punk scene in the early ’80s, in recent years, photographer Cynthia Connolly’s work has evolved to a more ephemeral aspect of the musician’s lifestyle: the American landscape seen while touring. More current photo exhibits and […]
Posted inMusic
NXNW:
Au Revoir to a Load of Crap
Thanks to what they call their “carpetbagger image,” the gargantuan dead weight of the North by Northwest Music Festival (NXNW) has finally been lifted from Portland’s shoulders. According to a press release sent last Tuesday from its parent company, South by Southwest (SXSW), they’re searching for another city to host the seven-year-old event, originally scheduled […]
Posted inUncategorized
VITA CAFE
3024 NE Alberta, 335-8233 I almost feel guilty when I eat at the Vita. Their meals are so rich and delicious, flavorful and comforting, that surely by consuming them I am committing an extravagant crime against my digestive tract. But their ingredients are totally wholesome and organic–they just know how to make them right. The […]
Posted inMusic
Get Into the Groove
The Operacycle’s Music for Sleeping and Dancing
EVERYONE THINK BACK to summer. It’s hard, yes, but try. Think about lying on your back in the grass, and the sun makes light patterns on your eyelids. It’s a daydream vivisected by the cloud patterns making shadows on your skin. It’s somber, but somehow hotly rhythmic and alive. That’s what the Operacycle sounds like–or […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Oh Lost Weekend
Theater Review
Oh Lost Weekend Imago, 231-9581 Through Feb 17 Oh Lost Weekend, back in Portland after a highly successful run last year, is not a very coherent (linear) play–if it’s a play at all. It teeters on the abstract plank of performance art, incorporating modern dance, music, semi-traditional theater, and an artful set that, on its […]
Posted inMusic
All Originals
Pan Tourismos Ditches their Cover
HERE ARE SOME OF my favorite lyrics by Pan Tourismos, a Portland band that recently started playing shows: “The healthy store’s got mineral salts/ that way, dude, you won’t have to get funky if you’re playing onstage.” (from “Anti-Anti-Perspirant”) “Fuck sex/ I just want to make out.” (from “PDX Nightlife age 21”) “Loved by all/ […]
Posted inMovies & TV
A Muted Eulogy
The Voice of Benjamin Smoke
PATTI SMITH wrote a poem about Benjamin Smoke, which she reads at the end of this film. Its refrain looks you straight in the eyes and asks: “Have you seen death singing?” Robert “Benjamin” Dickerson was the singer, and Smoke was the Atlanta-based band. Benjamin’s voice bared all his guts and sounded as eerie as […]
Posted inMusic
Ooh, Mmm-hmm
These Onomatopoeias are Genius
JAPANESE electronic pop star Takako Minekawa is, to put it humbly, an underground visionary. And like most (non-American) musical visionaries–from the still widely unrecognized Krautrockers Neu! to recently rediscovered Brazilian psych-pop pioneers Os Mutantes–people will probably be buying her retrospective albums in 20 years and telling their friends, “Yeah, of course I bought this when […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Walking, Talking Intimacy
Johanna Hibbard Animates Her Heart
THOSE OF US who aren’t art-schooled in the subtle and diverse ways of animation are generally conditioned to equate “animation” with “Disney” and that corporation’s supple-smooth, big-eyed renditions of characters. Since our most familiar exposure to animation involves such clean-looking (and computer-assisted) lines, it’s easy to forget the rough edges and extremely personal flair of […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Theater Bio
Beau Van Hinklywinkle
Beau Van Hinklywinkle WHO: Smart and funny innovator who creates live, story-telling slide shows and other situationist/living art endeavors. WHY: Because he’s hilarious, and also because he’ll be showing two new presentations, Mod Fashion in the ’90s and The JFK Assassination Story, alongside filmmaker Johanna Hibbard and musicians Glacier Park at The Charm Bracelet (Stumptown […]