It took several attempts to contact Evel Knievel–the most famous, if not the greatest stuntman in the world–but I finally reached him on the road, as he was traveling from his residence in Florida, to an unspecified destination in Texas. (The night before, while doing research, I learned he once hospitalized a writer–with a baseball […]
Lance Chess
Posted inMusic
Buffet of Doom
You Owe the Portland Metalfest
Portland Metalfest April 1st-4th Sabala’s Mt. Tabor 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd Like some seething, gluttonous Izzy’s fantasy gone terribly array, Sabala’s is rolling out a four-day hesher buffet–and metal is on the menu. In fact it is the menu. The metal scene, like everything else in the post-modern Western culture bubble, has fragmented into a […]
Posted inBooks
Portland Confidential
Portland Confidential by Phil Stanford (Westwinds Press) Proving once and for all that Portland is a dirty old town, Portland Tribune columnist Phil Stanford’s Portland Confidential takes you on a factual historic tour of the city you always suspected Portland used to be. Stanford digs up the dirty past, spanning the years between Prohibition and […]
Posted inMusic
The Endless Road
Ride with Zeke
Zeke Fri Dec 31 Sabala’s 4811 SE Hawthorne I don’t give a fuck what the detractors say, I love Zeke. I love them not as individuals, but rather as Zeke; tireless, foul-mouthed, drug addled foot soldiers in the ongoing struggle to satiate the riff-hungry drunks who inhabit the abundantly fouled punk shitholes littering the globe. […]
Posted inUncategorized
That Perfect Drink
Specialty Cocktails Worth Celebrating
There are occasions, albeit rare, when one prefers a quality alcoholic beverage over a bucket glass filled to the rim with cheap booze. These scenarios range from the final peaceful hour before your in-laws fly into town to the 45 minutes between that painful breakup and your swan dive off the Fremont Bridge. Whatever the […]
Posted inNews
Tan By Numbers
Lance Chess Conquers Winter’s Pale Complexion with a “Spray-On” Tan.
I’ve been pallid my entire life. I’m the one in the pool with his shirt on; I use SPF 45 and don’t like to linger in the bright places. I’m not Goth or demure. The fact is I burn easier than a mattress in a flophouse. And because of my genetic prison sentence, I am […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Ho, Ho, Hell
Kranks’ Makes Christmas Crappy
Christmas with the Kranks dir. Roth Now Playing Various Theaters Tim Allen’s career is starting to revolve solely around making family friendly Christmas movies. This year’s offering, Christmas with the Kranks, has a nuclear family (Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis) deciding that since their daughter will be serving in the Peace Corps in South America […]
Posted inBooks
Derek McCormack
Derek McCormack appearing with Dennis Cooper, Martha Kinney & Benjamin Weissman, Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W. Burnside, Friday November 5, free Derek McCormack writes darkly imaginative fiction that evokes the chill and excitement of your first taste of autumn-crisp air and spooky romps through the cemetery. His most recent work, a novella entitled Haunted […]
Posted inMusic
Bio: Music
John Campbell of Lamb of God A conversation with Lamb of God bassist John Campbell, who plays this Thursday October 28 at Roseland. “Lamb of God” is a term used for Jesus Christ; do real Christians ever show up to a gig by mistake? I don’t think they make it as far as showing up […]
Posted inNews
Zombie Like Me
Does Portland Discriminate Against the Undead? To Find Out, I Walked a Mile in a Zombie’s Shoes.
I’m sure we’ve all fantasized about being on the run from a pack of brain-devouring zombies. Perhaps you’ve even imagined yourself armed with a shotgun and a handful of shells. How many zombies did you take out before you succumbed? One? 10? 50? But what if it were the other way around? What if YOU […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
The Wizard of Id
British directors are generally regarded as more “expressive” and “colorful” (should that be “colourful?”) than their blockbusting American counterparts. But one Brit stands alone in his cinemagraphic perversity and overt symbolic displays: Ken Russell, whose mark on moving pictures will linger like a greasy lipstick stain on a martini glass. For outstanding visceral vulgarity, the […]
Posted inBooks
Prison Books
Marching Powder by Rusty Young and Thomas McFadden (St. Martin’s Griffin) Criminals: Let ’em Fry Boil and Sauté by Terry Lachelt and Theresa Marie Within the United States, over two million adults are living incarcerated lives. That’s roughly the same number of people living in greater Portland. Worldwide, the figure tops well over eight million. […]