To say Russ Meyer made the world a better place would be a highly contentious statement–perhaps even an untruth. But Mr. Meyer did make the world a better place for some: filmmakers and cinema viewers who were ready to let their freak flags fly. Influencing the likes of John Waters and John Landis, and always […]
Michael Svoboda
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
I Heart Zombies An emotion largely left unexplored in our culture, the theme of hopelessness is rife in zombie films, with filmmakers free to roll around in dread and unease (and gore) like a pig in shit. Feeling nihilistic? Check out these fine examples of zombie cinema. – Bio Zombie (1998) A funny and scary […]
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Take Me Away!
Peer Into Costello’s Windows to the World
Costello’s Windows to the World 2222 NE Broadway 287-0270 There are not many spots in Portland where you can sip coffee and be standing on the corner of a busy Chinese intersection–but you can at Costello’s Windows to the World. With two large flat screen TVs mounted on opposite walls, Costello’s shows looped footage of […]
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Now That’s Some Scary Shit!
Ju-on Thrills and Chills, Japanese Style
Ju-on dir. Shimizu Opens Fri Aug 20 Cinema 21 Most American horror films follow the same cliched, fill-in-the-numbers formula: there’s always an evil being who the characters spend much of the movie running away from. After the characters are hunted down by said evil being, the last survivor fights the evil being in a perfunctory […]
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I’m Staying Home
Duvall Delight
There have been many heralded film duos in the last hundred years of cinema. One such collaboration that’s slipped through the cracks is Shelley Duvall’s work with director Robert Altman. Throughout their films, Altman’s loose, almost voyeuristic directing style perfectly compliments Duvall’s melodic, kooky characters. – McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)–A tale of a town […]
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Baby, I Like it Raw!
Smart Monkey Foods Do Vegan Right
Smart Monkey Foods smartmonkeyfoods.com 236-7878 Ani Phyo, co-owner of Smart Monkey Foods, is the perfect spokesmodel for the raw and living foods movement; she’s intelligent, confident, friendly, athletic, and absolutely stunning. She is exactly who should be pushing foods that are claiming to be “anti-aging.” Listening to Ani and partner Ede Schweizer’s story of how […]
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One Sick Mutha
The Even-Handed Diagnosis of The Corporation
The Corporation dirs. Abbott, Achbar Opens Fri Aug 6 Cinema 21 Apparently, people in Nebraska are still lining up around the block to see Fahrenheit 9/11. It’s as if because of Michael Moore, Middle America’s decided that now it’s okay to go see films with some weight, rather than the usual sugar water of summer […]
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Mercury Video Picks
Cinema du Highway 30
If you were scouting locations for a film, Highway 30 probably wouldn’t be the first place you’d think of. But once you’ve “touched the road,” so to speak, there’s a grittiness mixed with nature that can’t be replicated. A handful of film productions have used Highway 30’s ample bosom to nourish their art… here are […]
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SPOOKY ST. HELENS
A Trip to the Haunted Side of Highway 30
A local shop owner in St. Helens (who wished to remain anonymous) is convinced that most of the paranormal activity in St. Helens is concentrated in the Old Town area from the old theater to the old Klondike Hotel (now a restaurant) at the end of South 1st Street. His knowledge is based on personal […]
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The Anti-Passion
The Religious Experience of Life of Brian
Life of Brian dir. Jones Opens Fri July 9 Cinema 21 As a born-again atheist/recovering Catholic, my mother loved Monty Python. Every Christmas we watched The Holy Grail, and every Easter, the whole family gathered to view Life of Brian. At a very young age, I was taught that sacrilege was funny stuff, and Monty […]
Posted inBooks
Through It Came Bright Colors
Through It Came Bright Colors by Trebor Healey (Harrington Park Press) Iremember the first guy I ever slept with; a high school friend who crept into my bed one night during a sleep over. We rolled around for hours, wrestling and kissing, waking the tentacled octopus of desire that had lain dormant since birth. A […]