- Alex Thomas
- ELICIA SANCHEZ: Sanchez features at Minority Retort tonight. You should go see her!
JUMPDRIVE STUDIOS—Ben Coleman embedded himself within the group of professional nerds behind Portland’s Jumpdrive Studios, and reports from the field:
All four men operate out of a chic Eastside office building, in a single room that might be mistaken for a utility closet were it not for the clusters of computer monitors and a giant whiteboard filled with mathematical formulas. “I’d dream of formulas at night,” Pando tells me solemnly.
MINORITY RETORT—Jason Lamb and Jeremy Eli, the brains behind Portland’s only regular stand-up showcase for comedians of color, talked to me about their show, diversity in comedy, and why you should definitely be at tonight’s showcase (Bri Pruett and Elicia Sanchez are co-headlining):
MERCURY: What made you decide to start Minority Retort?
JEREMY ELI: We’re trying to display the amount of diversity in Portland that exists, and to appeal to a diverse audience that includes a lot of people of color who I don’t see at comedy shows as much as I’d like to.
JASON LAMB: That’s not bad.
JE: Thank you.
JL: Like Jeremy said, [we’re] trying to reach a diverse audience—this is just another one of the bullets that I’m using to try to strike out against the whole “whitest city in America” thing, which I’ve really just railed against ever since I moved here.
THE BURIED GIANT—Shane Joaquin Jimenez wanted to like Kazuo Ishiguro’s new book, The Buried Giant, but found it more buried than giant:
Ishiguro’s latest, The Buried Giant, is written as blandly as the best of his books, but in failing to achieve any sustained charm or allure, it ultimately disappoints.
We also wrote about Bukowski’s love of cats, which was apparently so strong you’re getting a book about it. Maybe you can read it in the cat cafe!