Seattle resident Ryan Boudinot edits DVDs at Amazon.com to pay the bills, and his debut story collection, The Littlest Hitler, burns with the slick techno jargon of corporate drudgery. “I’m getting a consultation clause into the contract,” says Bette in “Bee Beard,” talking to coworkers while wearing, as the story’s title suggests, a beard of […]
Justin W. Sanders
Posted inBooks
Goodbye Lemon by Adam Davies
In his debut novel, 2002’s The Frog King, Adam Davies flexed a hyper-clever writing style that would have grated, were it not the perfect first-person voice of the book’s narrator and central character—shameless, social-climbing New Yorker Harry Driscoll. Narrated with equally obnoxious first-person verbosity but with none of the gritty sincerity that made Frog King […]
Posted inBooks
Michael Gray author of The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia
Packaged as a legitimate, alphabetized reference book, Michael Gray’s Bob Dylan Encyclopedia is not the 700-page obnoxious trivia orgy it appears to be at first glance, but an utterly absorbing, incredibly rich tapestry of interrelated information. Look up “Tom Petty” for instance, and you could find yourself pinballing between everything from the films of Gillian […]
Posted inMovies & TV
I’m Staying Home
As you’ve surely noticed, we call this little column o’ video-rental recommendations “I’m Staying Home”—and in this week’s installment, you’ll “stay home” in more ways than one! That’s because—just like Old Joy, which opens this week—all of the following films were shot in your very own “I’m Staying Home”-town of Portland, Oregon, USA! • The […]
Posted inBooks
Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity by Dan Berger
It’s hard to know where to begin with Outlaws of America, Dan Berger’s 432-page chronicle of the Weather Underground, the ’60s-era group of white, political renegades whose commitment, courage, and intelligence makes most current “militant” activists (Tre Arrow) look like a bunch of reactionary hippies. Berger’s bibliography alone is 15 pages long, in tiny type […]
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Second Time’s the Charm
Failed Competitive Eater Redeems Himself
When last we checked in with amateur competitive eater Joe Collver, he was squaring off with a 72-oz. hunk of steak at Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen, trying to eat the whole thing in less than an hour. He failed. “I’m more about intensity of spice than quantity,” Collver stated at the time. Pretty sure this […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Woody Allen Likes Himself
Good for Woody. Bad for Us.
As Scoop‘s seedy, aging magician, “Splendini” (AKA Sid Waterman), Woody Allen appears to be having more fun on screen than he’s had in years. He hobbles to and fro, whiny as ever, but with a subtle gleam in his eye—as if finally, beneath all the nervous tics and the stammering one-liners, he’s learned to relax. […]
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If it Ain’t Broke… Fix It
Somehow, Someway, Acme Gets Better
If I had known months ago that the bar/restaurant Acme was planning significant changes to both ambience and cuisine, I would have protested. It already had a wonderful Twin Peaks-style setting replete with wooden blinds, dark leather booths, and a lovely patio. It had a killer beer selection and stellar mixed drinks. It had a […]
Posted inBooks
The Cantor’s Daughter by Scott Nadelson
A collection of interconnected short stories about a Jewish family living in a New Jersey suburb doesn’t seem like the ideal manuscript for a publishing house in Portland to put out. But Hawthorne Books printed Scott Nadelson’s Saving Stanley in 2004 anyway—and he wound up winning the Oregon Book Award for short fiction. Now, they’ve […]
Posted inMusic
Honky-Tonk Hero
The Secret Genius of Tom Heinl
FOLKS REMEMBER EUGENE singer/songwriter/bingo host Tom Heinl for his absurdly funny song lyrics, the pages on his website featuring his fifth-grade journal, and his endearing recording innovation known as “Stereoke,” which, on his album, With or Without Me, features songs that “are repeated in their original vocal-free format so YOU AT HOME CAN SING ALONG.” […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) is nestled in the beautiful southern hills of this fair state, in the town of Ashland, a tourist trap fantasyland lined with overpriced, mediocre restaurants and kitsch shops. Here, the population consists of two sorts of people: visiting old folks who have the money and time to see the kind […]
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Do the Mambo
Callaloo is a Caribbean Explosion
Even with the warm summer months coming on, it’s hard to imagine anywhere less tropical than Portland’s stretch of NW Glisan near the I-405 entrance. And yet the folks behind Callaloo, Kevin and Colleen Peck, have set up an intensely “Caribbean escape” there all the same. On the outside, Callaloo is a blandly colored corner […]