POH-Hop 8 Thur Dec 18 & Fri Dec 19 Ash Street Saloon & Berbati’s Pan In 1995, when Terence Scott (better known as Cool Nutz) started staging the Portland Oregon Hip-Hop Festival (better known as POH-Hop), hiphop was a lot different. Not just locally, when only a few groups were coming up; but nationally, before […]
Julianne Shepherd
Posted inMusic
Ukulele Ladies
Exotica Hits from Petty Booka
Petty Booka Tues Dec 16 Alberta Street Pub Given this town’s affinity for wacky renditions of karaoke classics (i.e., “Paradise City” sung entirely in falsetto, “Jolene” performed in a death metal voice, anyone doing “Baby Got Back”)–you could bet money that Petty Booka was born here. Consisting of Petty (Satomi Asano) and Booka (Miyuki Matsubara), […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Tragic Ends
Faces of the Asian Sex Trade
Anonymously Yours dir. Ferraro Opens Fri Dec 5 Hollywood Theater In 1999, documentarian Gayle Ferraro and a crew of three smuggled digital video cameras into the dictatorship of Myanmar (formerly Burma). Their mission was to document the brutal sex trade that plagues Southeast Asia, ripping women from their homes, often against their will, and the […]
Posted inMusic
The Uplift Heartbreak
Explosions’ Mental Fireworking
Explosions in the Sky Wed Dec 10 Berbati’s Pan The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place is the name of Austin, Texas band Explosions in the Sky’s second record, and it’s the point of it, too. After a stint of making sweeping, dramatic oceans of guitar and drum music that was splendorous yet depressing, […]
Posted inMusic
The People’s Hero
Mariah Carey: PopulistÉ Survivor
Mariah Carey Tues Dec 9 Schnitzer Hall She has won Grammies. Her phenomenal voice has more range than Paris Hilton. She has guest-starred with everyone in the entire universe who has ever been remotely famous and/or talented, including platinum-pushing artists P-Diddy, Jay-Z, Boyz II Men, Busta Rhymes, Usher, Missy Elliott, Da Brat, Ja Rule, Ludacris, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Drinking Condom Tea
Teknolust, A Virtual Eye-Roller
Teknolust dir. Hershman-Leeson Opens Fri Nov 28 Cinema 21 So there’s this scientist, Rosetta Stone (Tilda Swinton), and she figures out how to make three artificially intelligent, color-coordinated clones of herself (Ruby, Marinne, and Olivia–also played by Tilda Swinton). But chromosome-wise, they’re incomplete. Their only hope for continued function is Ruby, who goes out, screws […]
Posted inMusic
Metalsmith
Make Way for the Silentist
Silentist Mon Nov 24 Meow Meow Mark Burden is Silentist, which is pretty accurate because every time I’ve seen him play I’ve been rendered speechless. After peacefully resigning his position as organist in Get Hustle, he became a one-man band in the most explicit manner; he pre-records his gorgeous, dramatic compositions on piano, bass, and […]
Posted inMusic
Nice Beats!
Hale Zukas Has Neat Rhythms
Hale Zukas Thurs Nov 20 Nocturnal Hale Zukas played the “Fuck Shit Up House” in Cedar Falls, Iowa, but were a little disappointed. “We were so looking forward to it,” explains bassist John Benson. “Playing at the Fuck Shit Up House, we thought it was going to be so crazy. But we got there and […]
Posted inMusic
Resonant Verse
The Expressive TV on the Radio
TV on the Radio Sun Nov 16 Berbati’s TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adibempe has a rasp in the higher reaches of his singing voice that’s earned him Peter Gabriel comparisons. Really, though, “Blind” is the only TVOTR track that bears any real resemblance to any of Gabriel’s (it ponders like “Don’t Give Up”), and […]
Posted inMusic
Instrumental Break
Grails Inspires Man to Kill Television
Grails Sun Nov 9 PS WHAT? From the Neurot Newsletter: “Neurosis’ longtime friend and brother (and onetime roadie) was listening to the Grails record just released on NR. This friend was just having a quiet evening at home, drinking one or two bottles of beer, and was so overcome by the emotional intensity of Grails’ […]
Posted inMusic
Shapeshifter
The Sharp-Tongued Jean Grae
Jean Grae The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP (Baby Grande) **** Where were you when Jam Master Jay died? A year after his death, JMJ’s still-unsolved murder has contributed to a malaise wherein a procession of NY underground rappers have reacted in all manners to his death, producing a crop of existential, dark, soul-searching albums. […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Hemmed In, Windowless
Slyvia Doesn’t Do Plath Justice
Sylvia dir. Jeffs Opens Fri Oct 24 Various Theaters It’s hard to paint a true-life tragedy without treading onto mythic territory, especially when your subject is already considered a martyr for art. Sylvia Plath’s life, the basis for Christine Jeffs’ Sylvia, became a cornerstone of early feminist theory, a real-life example of a strong woman […]