I just got an email from Portland’s own Ian Karmel confirming some very big news: he’s been hired as a writer on the new Late Late Show on CBS! I asked how he feels about putting words in James Corden’s mouth. Says Karmel, via email: “I feel amazing! I get to work with fucking James […]
Megan Burbank
Posted inComedy
Funny People in a Bike Shop Basement in the Middle of the Night: Kickstand Comedy’s Great First Week
This bicycle themed bar is playing Death Cab for Cutie, and i’ma just keep chanting “stabbing people is wrong” until the show is over.— Curtis Cook (@Curtis_Cook) December 11, 2014 I spent two evenings this week at Kickstand Comedy, and though I now feel like human garbage (show that doesn’t start until after 10 + […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Ghostin’
Blithe Spirit Is Artists Rep’s Holiday Show Alternative
In a sea of holiday shows, Artists Rep opts for ghosts in Blithe Spirit.
Posted inBooks
“Our Fear was that the Report Would Fade Quickly from the News Cycle”: Indie Publisher Melville House to Publish CIA Torture Report
Melville House Hey, if you were wondering why it’s important that indie presses exist, HERE, THIS IS WHY: Independent, Brooklyn-based publisher Melville House is going to publish the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program,” aka “the torture report,” that was released on Tuesday, with a run of 50,000 […]
Posted inBooks
Minty Fresh: CAConrad’s Stardust, Sodomy, and Jokes About Ayn Rand
“ayn rand doesn’t / really annoy me / because she’s dead / it’s her fans who irritate me / a little like jesus,” writes CAConrad in his new chapbook, WRITING IN ALL CAPS IS THE BREATH MINT OF THE SOUL, out now from Portland’s own Bone Tax Press. I started Conrad’s book with trepidation, because […]
Posted inMedia
If You Read One Article About the Rolling Stone/UVA Debacle, It Should Be the One Written By a UVA Student
As I’m sure many people did, I spent this weekend watching in utter dismay as a certain Rolling Stone piece on sexual assault at the University of Virginia, written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, 180’d from a powerful, viral success to a case of questionable reporting, and Rolling Stone, in an apology, initially seemed to put […]
Posted inBooks
World-Building as Resistance: Walidah Imarisha and Grace Dillon Talk Revolutionary Science Fiction
AK Press I could listen to Walidah Imarisha talk about intersections between science fiction and social justice forever. Imarisha, who co-edited the new sci-fi anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements (due out from AK Press in April 2015) and teaches at Portland State, makes a simple, but convincing argument for science […]
Posted inArtsy
Are You a Film Nerd? Go See Hiroshima Mon Amour Right Now!
Last week, I panned Jean-Luc Godard’s latest film, Goodbye to Language, because while I’m generally willing to watch plotless French films, this one was just a mess—in 3D! And a mess that, thanks to Godard’s fame, will invariably be read as artful. (When I read the glowing reviews of Godard’s latest, I’ll just imagine they’re […]
Posted inPuppy
This is Your Last Chance to See the (Maybe) Weirdest Art Show Around!
EVAN LALONDE A DOG ON A STICK W.P.P. by Patrick Rock All too often, perfectly good art is ruined by taking itself too seriously—well, okay, maybe not ruined, that’s a strong word, but still. Just as some people suffer from incurable allergies to poetry, I am allergic to pretentious artist statements*, artist bios longer than […]
Posted inBooks
The Nothing Beat
How Charles D’Ambrosio Turned Writing About Nothing into an Art
Charles D’Ambrosio first found a home for his writing in alt-weeklies. The result? Some of the best essays you’ll read this year.
Posted inBooks
Life’s a Rich Tapestry
The Toast’s Mallory Ortberg on Texts from Jane Eyre
The Toast’s Mallory Ortberg on Texts from Jane Eyre.
Posted inBooks
Talking to Mallory Ortberg About Alt Lit’s Gender Problem and Unhelpful Attitudes Towards Sexual Assault
Mallory Ortberg mostly makes jokes. She’s made a career out this. She co-edits The Toast, a site geared towards (mostly) women with a very particular sense of humor, and just came out with a new book, Texts from Jane Eyre, which you can read more about in our paper that comes out today. But when […]