On Bitch Planet, Kelly Sue DeConnick rewrites classic exploitation narratives.
Megan Burbank
Posted inComedy
Conquering the Midwest: The Aces are Headed to the Chicago Sketch Comedy Fest!
Andy Batt Champs. Portland sketch comedy duo the Aces have been selected to perform at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival this year! This is a big deal—Sketch Fest, happening this weekend, is the biggest sketch comedy festival in the country, hosted annually at Stage 773 in the heart of Chicago’s beloved comedytown*, and the Aces […]
Posted inBooks
Internet Treasure Steve Roggenbuck is Coming to Town!
Steve Roggenbuck If Tim and Eric and Walt Whitman had an alien child who was part-cartoon… In the world of post-internet art, Steve Roggenbuck is a rare gem. He’s 27 now, but Roggenbuck rose to internet prominence when he was a delicate 24. He’s an MFA dropout, who makes what I’m hoping is the future […]
Posted inBooks
Toiling in Obscurity: Here are the Literary Journals You Should Be Pretending to Read
Cold Front O, literary journal editors with day jobs! They alone will face the slushiest slush piles of the world, sifting through them to find the untapped talent responsible for whatever cool thing any indie press you like publishes next. They’re terminally under-appreciated, the good ones overshadowed by the bad ones, and all toiling in […]
Posted inCrafty
Calling All Oregon History Diorama-Makers! Your Time Has Come!
It’s that time again: DIORAMA TIME, the one time of the year you can relive what was arguably (according to me) the best part of elementary school—making a slapdash dollhouse, for education! After two years of hosting its Oregon history-themed diorama competition, the good people of Kick Ass Oregon History show no signs of stopping […]
Posted inArtsy
Cash Rules Everything at Disjecta and Nisus Gallery Shows
IT’S A TESTAMENT to Disjecta Curator-in-Residence Rachel Adams’ range that this fall’s Intimate Horizons is followed by Sightings, a collection of video installations from Jessica Mallios and Kevin Cooley. While Intimate Horizons featured Claire Ashley’s colorful, balloon-like, almost humanoid objects, Mallios and Cooley’s video installations challenge what we ordinarily expect from video art and photography, […]
Posted inBooks
I Never Want to Read Ugly Girls Again, But You Should
FSG I can’t un-read this book. I never want to read Ugly Girls again. The debut novel from Chicago author Lindsay Hunter is a slim, mean book that opens with two teenage girls, Baby Girl and Perry, in the act of stealing a red Mazda. That’s not a spoiler by any stretch, but it is […]
Posted inBooks
Sucker Punch
I Never Want to Read Ugly Girls Again, But You Should
Ugly Girls is one of the best books of the year, but you won’t want to read it again.
Posted inCrime
Serial Update: The Deal With Jay, According to Jay
As many, many Ira Glass-adoring novice Agatha Christie NPR fans did, I listened to Sarah Koenig’s crime podcast Serial and agreed strongly with Joe Streckert’s take on the final episode, which left a lot open in the story of Hae Min Lee’s murder. But one key stumbling block in figuring out what happened came from […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
New Year, New Performances: Art Dance Parties, The Vibrator Play, and Comedy Shows Named After Natural Disasters
Physical Education Fact: January in the Pacific Northwest is gray, dark time. Luckily, indoor kids have these performances to look forward to in the new year, while we wait for the light to return: Allie Hankins, who Suzette Smith profiled last week, will launch Physical Education this February, along with Keyon Gaskin, Lucy Lee Yim […]
Posted inHoliday
How To Not Sound Like Glenn Beck: A Mandatory PSA from Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams
I saw a LOT of holiday shows this holiday show season, and in one cringe-inducing moment in one such show, a character made a Kwanzaa joke. This was weird for a number of reasons that I think are best explained in this video. You may remember Phoebe Robinson, a very funny lady based in Brooklyn, […]