Moodboard With the Gilmore Girls revival in full swing, we some of us at the Mercury find ourselves asking that age-old question: Who is the best Gilmore Girls boyfriend? Now that we’re finally getting our dreamed-of Stars Hollow mulligan, who will ultimately win Rory’s heart? Our revered editor in chief, Wm. Steven Humphrey, says, “In […]
Megan Burbank
Posted inTheater & Performance
At Portland Center Stage, Dael Orlandersmith’s Conversations with Dead People
Patrick Weishampel / Blankeye.TV The final resting place of Jim Morrison, Richard Wright, Colette, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, and Marcel Proust, Père Lachaise Cemetery should be a haunted place, but it isn’t. That’s because Père Lachaise, on Paris’ Right Bank, is like most Parisian cemeteries, akin to public parks where people pay tribute to icons […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Portland Black Film Festival: “A Lot of This Is About Having a Good Time.”
BUCK AND THE PREACHER Sidney Poitier’s precursor to Django Unchained. “A lot of this is about having a good time,” says Portland filmmaker and writer David Walker, who, in collaboration with the Hollywood Theatre, co-founded the Portland Black Film Festival in 2013. In a cultural landscape that’s often embarrassingly normative when it comes to representation […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Dael Orlandersmith’s Conversations with Dead People
In Forever, the Writer Takes Refuge in a Cemetery Full of Artists
In Forever, the writer takes refuge in a cemetery full of artists.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Portland Black Film Festival Charts a Moviemaking Legacy
Festival Co-Founder David Walker on Cinematic Resistance to Hollywood’s Racism
Festival co-founder David Walker on cinematic resistance to Hollywood’s racism.
Posted inPolitics
It Must Be Election Season, Because We’ve Fallen into the “Young Women Are X” Trap
Thinkstock Gloria, I love you, but you’re bringing me down. When Gloria Steinem said that dumb thing about young women who support Bernie Sanders, I just kind of rolled my eyes, because 100 percent yes, Steinem is a luminary of the feminist movement, but she’s also old, and though she’s made some interesting shifts entering […]
Posted inMedia
Being Under 30: One Weird Trick for Getting a Subscription to The New Yorker?
Something weird happened when I became a Sunday New York Times home delivery subscriber this fall, and it wasn’t just that a 28-year-old person willingly exchanged perfectly good American dollars for the paper version of print media’s oldest available dinosaur. MB NOT PICTURED: Unbridled joy. It was this: Suddenly, I was in demand. High-brow print […]
Posted inDrunk
Sorry, CDC, But “Not Drinking” is Definitely Not a Form of Birth Control.
You’ve probably seen this delightful infographic from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, right? You know, the one that says women shouldn’t drink if they’re not on birth control, because they might get accidentally pregnant? If you haven’t, and you haven’t yet met your quota today for the absurd, well, here you go: Centers […]
Posted inGirls Only!
Somewhere in Portland, An Anti-Choice Protester May Be Missing Their Sign
Thinkstock Pray to end the anti-choice movement. When I saw a tweet come up that mentioned Planned Parenthood, my heart immediately sank and I assumed the worst: that yet another clinic had been attacked (yes, I am a hardened woman, AND ALSO that shit is depressingly common). And then, my heart soared. Here’s @pdxalerts: Portland […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Great Expectations Meets Expectations, Does Not Exceed Them
The Crazy Lady in the House with No Light Is Great, Though!
The crazy lady in the house with no light is great, though!
Posted inTheater & Performance
Hey, People Who Walked Out of Faith Helma’s I HATE POSITIVE THINKING! Here’s What You Missed!
via Faith Helma Last Friday night, at least three people walked out of Faith Helma’s Fertile Ground performance of I HATE POSITIVE THINKING at the Shout House in inner Southeast. I know because they were sitting right behind me, and I heard them leave. Meanwhile, the rest of us sipped complimentary mint tea out of […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Fertile Ground Review: A List of Art School Problems from Theatre Vertigo’s I Want to Destroy You
Gary Norman Duffy Epstein, Shawna Nordman, and Jacob Orr in Theatre Vertigo’s I Want to Destroy You. 1. Theatre Vertigo’s entry into this year’s Fertile Ground festival is the world premiere of Rob Handel’s I Want to Destroy You, which is basically about performance artist Chris Burden, who famously had a friend shoot him in […]