Schmelvis dir. Wallace Opens Fri Nov 29 Hollywood Theatre Call me crazy, but when I heard about a documentary film exploring Elvis’ Jewish roots, including a Hasidic Jew Elvis impersonator, I thought it might be entertaining. Insane Elvis fans are always a good time, as are Elvis impersonators, as are people so insanely fanatical that […]
Katie Shimer
Posted inMusic
FROSTY FREEZE
Wayne Frost–Frosty Freeze–was a member of the second generation of the Rock Steady Crew–b-boys that helped revitalize an almost-forgotten art in the ’80s. Frosty was the first b-boy ever to grace the cover of a magazine (the Village Voice, in 1981), was featured in Wild Style and Flashdance, and invented the Suicide (the move in […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Hey Ladies!
A Guy and a Boy Go to Bars to Meet Chicks
Roger Dodger Dir. Kidd Opens Fri Nov 15 Cinema 21 Pontification movies are only good if you care about the characters. Richard Linklater’s movies (Tape, Waking Life), for example, bore me to tears. His characters seem to serve merely as demonstrations of Psychology 101–and they never, ever stop talking. While Roger Dodger director Dylan Kidd […]
Posted inUncategorized
Loveless Fare
Mexican Joint Lacks Heart
Javier’s 121 N Lombard 286-3186 I do not like to make a habit of writing a crappy review about the local hole in the wall. What’s the point? The restaurant business is grueling, and regardless of what I say, if the place sucks, they’ll drive themselves out of business eventually. In the case of a […]
Posted inBooks
Book Review:
Shit Magnet: One Man’s Miraculous Ability to Absorb the World’s Guilt
If you’re not the type who frequents Mary’s Club or Magic Gardens, you may not have noticed Exotic Magazine; and even if you have a stack of back issues in the bathroom, with all the provocative photos to distract you, you may not have thought to actually read Portland’s monthly sex mag. But if you […]
Posted inNews
HAVING AN AWESOME PARTY?
Of Course You Are!
Yes, we’ve all been to them; and even worse, we’ve all had them. An intervention? No, thank god–a bad party. Bad lighting, not enough beer, Dave Matthews on the stereo, the host running around like a wacko giving everyone an anxiety attack ("do you need another drink, did you try the bruschetta"), boring guests, bad […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Life is Ordinary
And So Are You
Don’t see this movie on a date, because in the end you will feel something like this: Love lives and love dies. Single or together, one isn’t necessarily better than the other. The film starts with Carlo and Giulia driving in a car. She’s about to tell her parents she’s having a baby. She looks […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Moonlight Smile
For the Blind Optimist
Moonlight Mile dir. Silberling Opens Fri Oct 4 Various Theaters All right, what am I going to say about this movie? Sappy, kinda pointless, stars one of those Rene Zell-whatever look-alike chicks that does zany things like kiss old men on the cheek. Jake Gyllenhaal (aka Donnie Darko) is in it and does a pretty […]
Posted inUncategorized
Laff Riot
Thai Food, Plus Comedy
Sivalaya Thai Restaurant 4806 SE Stark 230-2875 Even though I consider Southeast Portland to be played out, it does have its advantages. If you live in the heart, near Belmont or Hawthorne, you have a million places to walk, the bus takes five minutes to downtown, there are tons of good parks, and (here’s my […]
Posted inMusic
Rocker Haven
A Shower, a Shave, and a Shit
Dixon Manor Benefit Sat Sept 28 Berbati’s Pan No, I’ve never been crammed in a tour van with all my gear, driving for weeks across the country, stuck trying to make new conversation with two or three people I see all the time (and occasionally want to kill). It almost seems like a miracle that […]
Posted inMovies & TV
An Adult Fairy Tale
Destiny For the Taking
Sex and Lucia dir. Medem Opens Fri Sept 13 Cinema 21 For those of us who believe in it, there is destiny. There’s one person you’re destined to spend your life with or at the least, one person you’re destined to spend your early 20s with a couple years you’re destined to enjoy spending single […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Jeffrey Dahmer: Just Like You
In Some Ways, That Is
Dahmer dir. Jacobson Opens Fri Sept 6 Clinton St Theater When Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in 1991, police found the remains of 11 bodies inside his apartment. He had a freezer with severed heads in it, skulls that had been boiled and painted, ten sets of hands, and three torsos in a 55-gallon drum. Dahmer […]