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Lindsay Costello

Lindsay is the Portland Mercury's staff writer, covering all things arts and culture. Send arts tips and pictures of birds to lindsay@portlandmercury.com.
Posted inBooks

Jibz Cameron Becomes Dynasty Handbag

The artist’s new memoir traces the evolution of her performance alter ego.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

The clearest way to explain Dynasty Handbag’s act might be to quote the artist herself. “I am not a wretched performance artist, or merely a comedian, or the ghastly clown, or simply an actor,” Jibz Cameron writes in her new memoir, Hell in a Handbag. “I perform as this alter ego. I do songs sorta […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for May 4-10

Lo-fi indie, two cool comedians, and your Mother’s Day plans.
Avatar photoAvatar photo by Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

Dust off your A/C unit, it’s Do This, Do That!! This week’s events pair well with the sunshine: the St. Johns Bizarre brings Alan Sparhawk of Low to the neighborhood’s stage, the Portland Fire show up for their regular season opener, and two-time Mercury Genius of Comedy Neeraj Srinivasan slings some jokes. Plus, we’ve got […]

Posted inSecond Run Portland

Second Run Portland: Reality Be Damned

This month, two theaters present surreal screening series, and Björk appears in an atmospheric witchcraft fantasy.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

May Day carries an ancient connection to Floralia, a Roman festival that honored the blossom goddess Flora in early May. It’s only fitting that local cinemas would screen dreamy, surreal films this month, yeah? Two screening series at Clinton Street Theater and Tomorrow Theater wander toward the uncanny, offering opportunities to drift through the otherworlds […]

Posted inMovies & TV

Frederick Wiseman’s Close-Up

A six-day, round-the-clock film marathon underscores the documentarian’s deep impact.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

“There are not many filmmakers for whom you could create a six-day, round-the-clock marathon,” said Brendan Nagle, who’s one-half of the avant-garde screening duo Spectrum Between. “The sheer volume of Frederick Wiseman’s body of work really sets him apart.” An upcoming marathon from April 29 to May 4 at Belmont’s Sunnyside Community Center will screen […]

Posted inCalendar

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for April 27-May 3

This week: blooming lilacs, dog comedy, and peril in Bikini Bottom.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

Hello and welcome to one of the springiest weeks we’ve seen in quite some time! Sure, T.S. Eliot called April “the cruellest month,” but around here, it’s losing its grip with sunbreaks and lilacs coming on strong. On the docket: Mirah’s earnest, diaristic indie rock, a May Day march for workers’ rights, and the weekend’s […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for April 20-26

Earth Day puppets, $4 pizza slices, and can you pronounce Sunn O)))?
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

We’re back! This week, Making Earth Cool celebrates Earth Day with a costume parade on April 25, and the Mercury’s Pizza Week offers $4 one-of-a-kind slices across 70 locations. Plus, DJ Assault will pull up for the ass-jigglers among us, and Independent Bookstore Day brings cute prizes and swag to local shops. U ready? MONDAY, […]

Posted inVisual Art

What Lies Beneath Sean Christensen’s Mount Saint Helens?

And other reasons to sink into his Never Coffee show, Memory Foam.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

Consider the sensation of memory foam beneath your hand, and the way a handprint slowly fades as the material returns to its original shape. On view at Never Coffee, Portland artist Sean Christensen’s new exhibition Memory Foam makes that feeling visual, thinking about the impressions left by memory.  The exhibition pulls inspiration from Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for April 13-19

Woodwind sounds, emotional support animals, and florals for spring.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

How’s your spring shaking out? This week, Do This, Do That unfurls with events like sooo many cherry blossoms, tulips, and daffodils. John Waters cruises into town to celebrate eight decades of debauchery, Making Earth Cool screens a verdant array of 16mm nature films, and did you know you can learn Latin dance for free […]

Posted inTransportation Issue 2026

Do This, Do That: April 2026

The city’s coolest art and cultural events this spring.
Avatar photoAvatar photo by Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

Satpreet Kahlon: an imagined place (here and now) THROUGH MAY 23 (VISUAL ART) I’ve been following Satpreet Kahlon’s career since 2023, when the Panjabi-born artist’s Bellevue Art Museum exhibition the inscrutable shape of longing explored displacement and colonization’s aftermath through a web-like installation of folk ritual and splintered, mirrored acrylic. An imagined place (here and […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for April 6-12

Twenty good reasons to leave the house this week.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

This past weekend at Cooper Mountain Nature Park, I watched a smattering of wild iris and pond lily sway against a backing scene of scraggly oaks, jays and juncos flitting in between. I sat on a log with my partner for two hours, staring at the pond, chatting about nothing and everything. Two ducks floated […]

Posted inSecond Run Portland

Second Run Portland: Iranian Docufiction, Soviet Sci-Fi, and Catherine O’Hara’s Impact

This month’s rep screening schedule is stacked.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

Hello, reader. I am once again requesting you go to the movies, and here’s why: This month, we’ve got Soviet sci-fi, eerie animation, and some of the 20th century’s directorial greats represented (Robert Altman, Akira Kurosawa, Abbas Kiarostami, and the list goes onnnn). Also, have you read Suzette Smith’s picks for the upcoming Portland Panorama […]

Posted inDo This, Do That

The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for March 30-April 5

Spring-approved activities unfurl, from tulip time to rowdy documentaries.
Avatar photoAvatar photo by Lindsay Costello and Mercury Staff

Did you get a dose of Vitamin D in the eyeballs this weekend? Portland spring is a fickle and fleeting thing, but when it feels good, it feels reeeeally good. Let’s keep that boat afloat this week. Here are some helpers: The Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival is a no-brainer, but if you can swing it […]

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