Don’t step to me that he isn’t deep.
Suzette Smith
Suzette Smith is the arts & culture editor of the Portland Mercury. Go ahead and tell her about all your food, art, and culture gripes: suzette@portlandmercury.com. Follow her on Twitter, Bluesky, and Letterboxd.
Posted inBooks
Sarah Glidden Explores Conflicts in the Middle East and Ethics in Comics Journalism
Sarah Glidden I read Rolling Blackouts in black and white. Our review copy was a gray-toned paperback with one burst of tantalizing color pages stapled near the back of the book. I was happy to read it, even in gray, but over the course of Sarah Glidden’s detailed narrative of traveling through Iraq, Syria, and […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Let’s Get Fucked Up on Doctor Strange‘s Supernatural Medicinals
Doctor Strange first appeared in the 1963 Marvel Comics anthology Strange Tales as a crippled neurosurgeon apprenticed to a wise Tibetan sorcerer, the Ancient One. After ascending to the position of Sorcerer Supreme, Strange went on to defend Earth from magical attackers and, eventually, chill with the Avengers. As recently as 2011, Strange was loaning […]
Posted inArts
Rolling Blackouts is an Ambitious Muddle
Sarah Glidden Explores Conflicts in the Middle East and Ethics in Comics Journalism
Sarah Glidden explores conflicts in the Middle East and ethics in comics journalism.
Posted inMovies & TV
The Magical Whitewash of Doctor Strange
The Cure for Racism? Sorcery!
The cure for racism? Sorcery!
Posted inHorrors
Millennial Tales of Terror: Smooth Exorcist
Kenneth Huey For a while, I lived in a Detroit mansion. It had three stories, two wings, 10 bedrooms, and a ceiling that was falling in. The mansion was rife with haunts. One guest saw a woman in white running down a hall (from the corner of her eye). Windows opened mysteriously. Weather got in. […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Portland’s Newest Film Festival Features VHS, Two-Minute Shorts, and More
“If you filmed it on VHS, it was just a little bit more intriguing to us,” says Nini Liedman of the 250 movies she and her husband, co-founder Bryan Liedman watched while curating the North Portland Unknown Festival. The Liedmans have a love for experimental, lo-fi, and just plain weird films—and the festival is their […]
Posted inComedy
All Jane Comedy Fest Wrap-Up: Election Year Jokes and Rants Off/Dance Off
Barbara Holm Suzette Smith Early on covering the All Jane Comedy Fest, I made a hash mark list in my notes of the times a comic sad-jawed over being single and lonely. I’ve noticed that joke working less and less. (Other than perhaps its intended purpose of getting the comic in question laid. I’m sure […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Lo-Fi Riches of the North Portland Unknown Film Fest
Portland’s Newest Festival Features VHS, Two-Minute Shorts, and More
Portland’s newest festival features VHS, two-minute shorts, and more.
Posted inComedy
Our Picks for the All Jane Comedy Fest
Maria Bamford’s Lady Dynamite is one of pop culture’s best, most honest, and very surreal portrayals of depression and anxiety. Natalie Brasington Sick of sausage-party stand-up lineups and bro-centric Comedy Central fare? Get excited for this week’s All Jane Comedy Fest, which is practically a Portland tradition at this point, the one time a year […]
Posted inArts
Our Picks for the All Jane Comedy Fest
From Maria Bamford to Irene Tu, Here’s What Not to Miss
From Maria Bamford to Irene Tu, here’s what not to miss.
Posted inTheater & Performance
Looking for Tiger Lily Deconstructs Assimilation with PowerPoint
CHELSEA PETRAKIS In June, I profiled a series of short pieces presented for Risk/Reward’s Festival of New Performance. Known onstage as audacious drag clown Carla Rossi, Anthony Hudson presented a piece that stood out for its exciting exploration of Native American cultural assimilation via Cher’s Half Breed and the 1954 Peter Pan Broadway musical number […]