I, too, would like to know how to fold a burrito without losing its contents.
Robert Ham
Robert Ham is the Mercury's former Copy Chief. He writes regularly about music, film, arts, sports, and tech. He lives semi-consciously in far SE Portland with his wife, child, and four ornery cats.
Posted inUncategorized
Move Over, Santa! Shopping Local for Toys is Easy.
Bricks & Minifigs Kathleen Marie / Mercury Staff Yes, Virginia, it’s that time of year when you have expend mental energy figuring out what holiday presents to bestow upon your ungrateful children and your even worse nieces and nephews. Lucky for you, there are a bevy of wonderful shops in town stocked full of amazing […]
Posted inSports
Rose City Rollers’ All-Stars Win Their Fourth International Roller Derby Championship
Wheels of Justice Jammer Eve Anne Hellical Quick’N’ Derby Photography The Rose City Rollers‘ Wheels of Justice (WOJ), the all-star team comprised of the best of the bad-asses that compete in our local roller derby league, made more history this past weekend, bringing home their fourth International Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Championship trophy. The […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Frankie Review: Isabelle Huppert’s Latest Is a Simple Yet Profound Pleasure
Sony Pictures Classics Movies as quiet and graceful as Frankie are becoming harder to come by, and not even one starring the legendary Isabelle Huppert, in one of the most understated, poignant performances of her storied career, is going to change that. In part, that’s because a story like this is a hard sell to […]
Posted inMusic
Press Play: Music News for the Week of November 15
Eyelids with producer Peter Buck John Clark You like music. You like news. You like music news. Well, you’re in luck, brothers and sisters. Press Play is your weekly guide to what’s going down in the Portland music scene and beyond. But, hey, enough of my yakkin’. Whaddaya say? Let’s boogie! One of our favorite […]
Posted inBooks
Portland Book Festival 2019 Report: Oh, Hello Tim O’Brien! and a Few *Chef’s Kiss* Panels
Tim O’Brien, interviewed by Dave Miller Blair Stenvick The 2019 Portland Book Festival—Literary Arts’ annual one-day book and author extravaganza—popped off pretty-damn-seamlessly this year. Portland’s rain showed up in traditional damp, mono-cloud fashion, but the locality of the readings and book fair (in and around the Portland Art Museum) meant attendees didn’t have to endure […]
Posted inBooks
R&B Legend Booker T. Jones’ New Memoir Time is Tight Is Impassioned, Uneven
Booker T. Jones Booker T. Jones gets a lifetime pass. That’s what you earn when you’ve amassed the discography the musician has during his nearly 75 years on this planet. Drop his name in casual conversation, and his achievements scroll like the tracklist of a Time-Life CD collection being hawked on TV in the mind’s […]
Posted inHobbies/Arts/Crafts & Toys
Move Over, Santa! Shopping Local for Toys is Easy.
Yes, Virginia, it’s that time of year when you have expend mental energy figuring out what holiday presents to bestow upon your ungrateful children and your even worse nieces and nephews. Lucky for you, there are a bevy of wonderful shops in town stocked full of amazing toys, gadgets, books, and puzzles that will hopefully […]
Posted inMusic
UK Dreampop Band Seefeel Finally Come to America
Seefeel Ivan Jones Over the course of the band’s life, Seefeel have never managed to tour the US until this year. There are plenty of valid reasons for that. During the UK group’s first chapter, when they released three stunning albums during the 90s—1993’s Quique, 1995’s Succour, and 1996’s (CH-VOX)—the quartet never quite got past […]
Posted inSports
Portland Trail Blazers Are Releasing a Greatest Hits Album. For Real.
Your Portland Trail Blazers are pulling out all the stops this season to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The folks in the front office have a new court for the boys to play on, featuring their sweet celebratory logo at the center. There are a handful of “Decade Nights” planned, like tomorrow’s ’70s Night, which coincides […]
Posted inTech
Why You Should Care About What’s Happening at Deadspin
The front page of Deadspin on Oct 29 It’s hard out here for a publication. If you don’t believe me, just ask anyone that works in the media. Many of them will tell you that, if they’re not having their profession denigrated by folks in the highest echelons of power, they’re watching helplessly as the […]
Posted inMusic
Live Review: Cat Power at Roseland Theater
Cat Power Julien Bourgeois Chan Marshall looked ready for a dance party on the evening of Tuesday, Oct 29. Taking a well-deserved victory lap a full year after the release of her last album, Wanderer (recorded, as ever, under the name Cat Power), she took the stage at the Roseland Theater in a long, ’70s […]