It’s been more than the year since a nonprofit group that for years helped organize Alberta’s Last Thursday festival held a press conference to announce they were quitting. Friends of Last Thursday (FoLT) resigned over new strictures on the freewheeling event proposed by Mayor Charlie Hales—changes that have since been realized—and left the mayor’s office […]
Artsy
Posted inArtsy
Liam Drain/Potter’s Field
In this week’s Sold Out, I got to profile Liam Drain, one of my… er, favorite ceramicists. (Why does it feel so much weirder to have a favorite ceramicist than it does a favorite painter or photographer? Oh god, is it an art vs craft thing? It is, isn’t it.) I’ve actually known Drain for […]
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Justin Hocking Steps Down as Executive Director of IPRC
Big changes over at the Independent Publishing Resource Center: Justin Hocking just sent out a press release announcing that after eight years at the helm of the IPRC, he’s stepping down as executive director to focus on teaching and writing. (He just published a well-received memoir, which we excerpted in the Mercury.) In a not-terrifically-surprising […]
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Submit Your Arts Event to the Fall Issue of Agenda by July 30
I know, it’s barely summer, but we’re already gearing up for the fall issue of Agenda, the Mercury‘s new arts and performance magazine. The first issue hit the stands in March, and issue number two’s gonna be bigger and—dare we say?—better, with more articles, more calendar listings, and more profiles of local artists, writers, performers, […]
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Win VIP Tickets to Back Fence, PDX
Our pals at storytelling series Back Fence PDX are gearing up for a big weekend: This Friday, their popular mainstage show moves to the Hollywood Theater, after a long and productive run at the Mission. (The Mission, like the Bagdad, is moving away from hosting live events.) Back Fence invites interesting musicians, writers, and performers […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Associated
Maybe you’ve noticed that this rad former service station on N Interstate and Skidmore has been undergoing a transformation over the past few months: It’s been becoming Associated… again: Associated via Facebook The space was taken over three months ago by Aaron Hoskins, Corey Davis, Caitlin Troutman, and Amanda Yakisoba (full disclosure: Hoskins and Troutman […]
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Risk/Reward Preview: Watch These Segways Try to Do Each Other
The arts! Seattle-based artist/dancer/Segwist Erin Pike is one of the performers at this weekend’s Risk/Reward festival, an annual showcase of new performance work from West Coast artists. Also on the roster: Ilvs Strauss, a mixed-media artist from Seattle who’s known for witty slideshow presentations; the Neutral Fembot Project, a Portland ensemble with a performance-art piece […]
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Forest for the Trees 2014
Last year was the first for Forest for the Trees, an initiative founded to bring in a mix of local and international artists to paint permanent murals on walls around the city—walls that for many years were off-limits for such projects thanks to some legal challenges. The first year resulted in 10 completed walls by […]
Posted inFashion
Sword + Fern to Leave E Burnside
Emily Baker’s Sword + Fern is one of the city’s most unique, personal shops. In addition to showcasing its in-house line of wildly popular jewelry, Baker has used it to gather small vintage housewares, art, plants, a line of wildcrafted apothecary products, books, posters, and more. Despite its tiny size, its always invited careful exploration […]
Posted inCrafty
Tonight: Stephanie Syjuco at MoCC
This evening at 6:30 San Francisco mixed-media artist Stephanie Syjuco (her work is part of the permanent collections of both the SF MOMA and the Whitney) is giving a free lecture at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in advance of a two-day workshop she is also teaching next week. It’s part of the museum’s Fashioning […]
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High Art/Low Art: Scooby-Doo Background Paintings
Here’s a relatively ancient blog post from Secret Fun Blog that documents the 50 best background paintings from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? seasons one and two—and DAMN! Taken out of context, they are really gorgeous for a series we normally think of as artistically sub-par. From SFB: The background art in Scooby Doo Where Are […]
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Photos from the Steam Radio Syndicate’s Debut Broadcast
In last week’s paper, I wrote about the Steam Radio Syndicate, a new audio collective that’s taken up residence on an old WWII tugboat just north of St. Johns. On Friday, the Syndicate had their coming-out party: A four-hour-long show on KBOO featuring music, readings, and theatrical performance, all broadcast live. The show was closed […]