Sleater-Kinney, with Weiss (center). Charlie Engman This morning, Janet Weiss announced she is leaving the band Sleater-Kinney. The drummer had been with the Portland-based group—whose other members include guitarist/vocalists Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker—since their 1997 album Dig Me Out and was the fourth and longest-lasting drummer Sleater-Kinney have had since forming in 1994. In […]
Ned Lannamann
Ned Lannamann is a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. He writes about film, music, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, and other things.
Posted inMusic
We Can’t Get ELO Out of Our Heads, and We Don’t Ever Want To
Columbia Productions/Carsten Windhorst To casual observers, Jeff Lynne may forever be the curly-haired guy who somehow finagled his way into the Traveling Wilburys, alongside “genuine” legends like George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. But you and I know better—Lynne was every bit the equal of those guys, and he’s got the back […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Demarco’s Will Soon Be Selling Fantastic Italian Sandwiches from a Food Cart Next to Kim Jong Grillin’
The stuff your East Coast deli dreams are made of. Portland Mercury Demarco’s Sandwiches, a new food cart serving note-perfect Italian American sandwiches, has been testing the waters this week on Southeast Division, right next to Kim Jong Grillin’ (4606 SE Division). Reuben Demarco (the cart’s namesake) and Kim Jong Grillin’s Han Hwang are trying […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Yesterday Review: A World Without the Beatles Makes for a Fun but Inconsequential Comedy
Universal Pictures Imagine there’s no Beatles. That’s it. That’s the concept behind Yesterday, an intermittently charming fable that’s part musical and part Twilight Zone-type morality tale, but is mostly just a romantic comedy—and a pretty limp one at that. A world without the Beatles is an easy idea to grasp but becomes more and more […]
Posted inBooks
Comics Store Books with Pictures Has Opened Its New Location
Tippy says: Now Open!! #lcs #ncbd #NewComicBookDay @unbeatablesg pic.twitter.com/TAvvuIUq2L — BookswithPictures📚 (@bookswpictures) June 26, 2019 Books with Pictures, the comics store with a mission of carrying all-inclusive fare, has opened the doors of its new location at 1401 SE Division, the former home of Longfellow’s Books. The building is a distinctive landmark along Southeast Division, […]
Posted inMusic
Summer of Stax: Reissues Galore from the Legendary Memphis Label’s Vault
Every day for the month of June, Craft Recordings is digitally re-releasing a long-lost gem from the legendary Stax Records archives. Since we’re most of the way through the month, that means almost all 30 of these albums are now available on whatever streaming service you prefer. Here’s a Spotify playlist that’s been adding a […]
Posted inFood and Drink
1984 and the Birth of Craft Beer in Portland
IANAVKOTOVA / GETTY IMAGES From the Portland Mercury‘s Craft Beer Issue! There was beer in Portland before 1984. There was even craft beer in Portland before then. But 1984 marked the opening of two foundational breweries that signaled the local start of the craft beer movement, a seismological shift in drinking that continues to this […]
Posted inMovies & TV
TV Review: Futuristic Soap Opera Years and Years Tackles the Anxieties of Today
Matt Squire/HBO HBO’s gambit of airing original content on Monday nights is already paying off handsomely, with Chernobyl one of the most talked-about and praised shows of the year so far. Tonight, HBO launches its third Monday-night series—following Chernobyl and Gentleman Jack—and like its predecessors, it’s a co-venture with a British production company. Years and […]
Posted inFood and Drink
First Look: The Just-Opened Hi-Top Tavern Has One of the Best Patios in Portland
Meg Nanna Meg Nanna Today’s the first day of summer, and serendipitously, it also marks opening day for Hi-Top Tavern, a gorgeous new bar on Northeast Fremont in the former Bottles building. The rambling space, much larger than it first appears, was once the site of a Jim and Patty’s Coffee People outpost (which now […]
Posted inMusic
Universal Music Group, Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool, and Why We Can’t Let Master Tapes Burn
Universal’s new reissue of Birth of the Cool came out just before news broke of a disastrous 2008 fire at Universal’s warehouse. Last week, the New York Times Magazine released a devastating, detailed report from Jody Rosen about a fire at Universal Studio’s Hollywood backlot in 2008. That fire incinerated an enormous warehouse filled with […]
Posted inFood and Drink
1984: A Tale of Two Portland Breweries
Widmer and BridgePort set the pace for Portland’s craft beer movement.
Posted inMusic
We Can’t Get ELO Out of Our Heads, and We Don’t Ever Want To
Decades on, the pop genius of Jeff Lynne is finally getting its due.