If you’ve spent any significant portion of your life in bars, you know the dark side of humanity hangs out where the light is dim, the air is smoky, and fresh fruit means dried-up pieces of lime. As Halloween approaches, the pull to the dark side gets stronger, and us boring common folk look for […]
Marjorie Skinner
Marjorie Skinner is the Portland Mercury's Managing Editor, author of the weekly Sold Out column chronicling the area's independent fashion and retail industry, and a frequent contributor to the film and other arts and feature sections of the paper. She has been writing about Portland life and culture for the Mercury since 2001, produces one of Portland's largest annual spring fashion shows, and occasionally answers emails.
Posted inMusic
Slow Motion Surprise
Interpol’s Second Stab
Interpol Sun Oct 24 Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside “Derivative” is an overly demonizing weapon turned on most non-experimental rock bands. It’s a common ailment, this derivativeness, its most frequent affront being that it produces incredibly boring records. But for a good time, sometimes that derivative rock does just fine. It’s the equivalent of having […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Can I Get A Hell Yes?
Political Pranks from The Yes Men
The Yes Men dir. Ollman, Price, & Smith Opens Fri Oct 15 Fox Tower Artist activists Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum–AKA the Yes Men–specialize in what they call “identity correction.” It began when they collaborated on satirical websites, particularly one mocking the World Trade Organization’s. Their WTO site looked so similar to the real thing […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Kumbaya My Lord
Peaceful Americans Storm the GOP
Way Cool: RNC as Not Seen on TV dir. Huestis Opens Fri Oct 8 Clinton Street Theater There were no riots at the Republican National Convention in August. Perhaps that’s why most of the media attention surrounding the event kept its blinders rather well secured, studiously chronicling the speeches and glad handing that went on […]
Posted inNews
Portland’s New Rock Block
Eastside Triumvirate Fuels the Portland Party Flames
Portland’s nightlife is about to get new digs. With the exception of notable Eastside venues like Holocene and Sabala’s Mt. Tabor, this little big town has long sequestered its major music scene in the SW end of the Burnside area. But all that is about to change. On October 9th, the Doug Fir Lounge will […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Beer Is For Drinking
Not For Boring
American Beer dir. Kermizian Opens Fri Sept 17 Clinton Street Theater I once dated the youngest certified beer judge in the nation, who also worked at a beer store, wrote for a brewing publication, and made his own beer. He drank so much beer that after being around him I was so sick of it […]
Posted inFashion
Fast, Forward, and Fashion
Fashion Week Preps You for Spring
Forget Fall and Winter. It’s time to think “Spring” and take advantage of the sassy fashion that’s poised to flood the city’s boutiques and clubs. The Second Annual Fashion Week starts Monday, August 16, bringing a wash of style and freshness to the regular haunts of window shoppers and smart collectors–and this year, they’re taking […]
Posted inMusic
Long Strong Trip
Oneida’s Psych Arrives
Oneida Thurs Aug 5 Berbati’s 10 SW 3rd Once upon a time, artists wanted to live in Manhattan. Brooklyn was still considered a less hip suburb, although the seeds of its current harvest of bands and hangers-on had been planted, and shrewd critics were sharpening their pencils to pioneer the reference lists of descriptive phrases […]
Posted inSex
Ride the Wild Sex Bull
The Sybian Sex Machine, Or “Hey… Somebody Had to Try It!”
Pullout: Sex in Review
Posted inMovies & TV
Crack Wars
Just Say No To Scrabble
Word Wars dir. Chaikin, Petrillo Opens Fri July 9 Hollywood Theatre Scrabble’s not much of a spectator sport. Nonetheless, Word Wars, a documentary following some of the game’s top competitors through a national tournament, attempts to get water from a stone. Its structure is similar to that of Spellbound, 2002’s adorable documentary about kids competing […]
Posted inMusic
Once Again, With Feeling
The MC5 Returns–Mostly!
MC5 Fri July 2 Roseland 8 NW 6th Everyone loves the MC5. Even if you couldn’t name one of their songs, they would sound familiar when you heard them, if for no other reason than that they have been profoundly influential on rock ‘n’ roll music and culture, despite never having been as famous as […]