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Posted inMusic

Steve Turner Dishes the Dirt in Mud Ride

A History of Grunge in the Form of a Memoir by Mudhoney’s Guitarist
Avatar photo Dave Segal

Portland-via-Seattle musician Steve Turner has led a semi-charmed life. He’s made a decent living in the music business without succumbing to substance abuse and without his personal life descending into tabloidy drama. He’s had ample time to indulge in his main hobbies—skateboarding, collecting fuzz boxes, and accruing and selling records. Oh, and he played a […]

Posted inBooks

Heat Waves

Climate journalist Jake Bittle on climate migration, climate displacement, and how the Pacific Northwest isn’t prepared for either.
Avatar photo Adam Willems

Nowhere—not even “climate-proof Duluth” or Buffalo—is safe from the ravages of climate change. Even seasonal-affective-disorder-inducing cloud cover can’t protect Portland from a now-annual wildfire season and the occasional devastating heat dome. But will the ravages of climate change eventually push Portlanders to safer locations? After spending significant time in post-disaster communities across the United States—from […]

Posted inBooks

Aubrey Gordon’s “You Just Need to Lose Weight” Is a Sharp Sword Against Anti-Fatness

The Maintenance Phase co-host and Your Fat Friend columnist wrote 20 short, sourced arguments you can hand to your body-shaming mom (and doctor).
Avatar photo Suzette Smith

In “You Just Need to Lose Weight” the Maintenance Phase co-host and author of Your Fat Friend wrote 20 short, sourced arguments you can hand to your mom (and your doctor) about fatness.

Posted inBooks

The Mercury’s Favorite Books of 2022

To read list: queer narratives, punk graphic novels, and tranquil apocalypse tales.
Avatar photo Mercury Arts Crew

If you, like many literature-lovers, are looking to get started on your 2023 reading stats (looking at you, moms who chowed down 150 novels in 2022) here are some suggestions from our crew of book-loving writers. This list is not exhaustive, but these were our favorite books of 2022. The Boy With a Bird in […]

Posted inTransportation

Q&A: Metro President Lynn Peterson on New Book, Roadways for People

Peterson calls for greater community engagement in transportation planning.
Avatar photo Isabella Garcia

When Metro President Lynn Peterson was in school for civil engineering, she was taught how to design roads to get a vehicle from Point A to Point B in the most efficient way. Through her career at the Washington State Transportation Department, TriMet, and now leader of the Portland metro area’s regional government, Peterson found […]

Posted inNews

YOUR SUNDAY READING LIST: Council Votes to “Keep Portland MEAN” and Criminalize Homelessness

Plus: A wild look at Portland’s underground scene, carnivorous 9-foot lizards, and David Sedaris is looking for a dead body.
Avatar photo Wm. Steven Humphrey

GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY! It’s the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the Mercury churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being “the last to know,” then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to […]

Posted inBooks

David Sedaris Is Coming and Wants to Know Where He Can Find a Dead Body

“Whenever I Smell a Dead Deer or Something in the Woods I Get So Excited. Oh, It’s Finally My Time!”
Avatar photo Matt Baume

Look out, world, David Sedaris is back. After a long pandemic hiatus, the famed writer is returning to the road with a new collection of essays and he’ll be swinging by the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Tuesday, November 22 for a reading. You may know him for The Santaland Diaries or Me Talk Pretty One […]

Posted inBooks

How to Get Back to the Land of the Living

Morgan Talty’s debut book Night of the Living Rez follows a Penobscot family through time.
Avatar photo Martha Daghlian

In the spoof horror movie Shaun of the Dead (2004), the main characters pretend to be zombies in order to avoid attracting attention from roving groups of undead. Their ruse is quickly uncovered, but what if they had kept up the act long-term? Morgan Talty’s debut book, Night of the Living Rez—published this past July […]

Posted inBooks

Downtown Portland Could Get a Comics Museum

Pacific Northwest comics world professionals want to create a Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts.
Avatar photo Suzette Smith

For nearly a year, a sizable group of Pacific Northwest comics world professionals have been working towards a significant goal. They want to create a Northwest Museum of Cartoon Arts (NWMOCA) and place it in Portland’s downtown. “Portland is the epicenter of the artistic comic community in the United States,” Mike Rosen, NWMOCA’s Board Chair […]

Posted inBooks

Kevin Sampsell’s Creative Chopping Block

I Made An Accident collects darkly humorous collages from a celebrated Portland author
Avatar photo Andrew Jankowski

Author Kevin Sampsell is a known face at most Powell’s books readings—but for the past seven years he has also fostered a passionate found media collage practice.
A new book from Kevin Sampsell collects seven years of the Portland author’s found media practice. Arts writer Andrew Jankowski calls it “a jubilant celebration of bizarre, jarring, and defiant imagery.”

Posted inBooks

Killer Prophets?

Leah Sottile’s When the Moon Turns to Blood Examines Mormon Extremism at the Roots of Alleged Murders
Avatar photo Rich Smith

In June of 2020, Idaho police found the remains of Lori Vallow’s two children buried in her husband’s backyard. The following year, prosecutors charged Vallow and her husband, the apocalyptic novelist Chad Daybell, with murder. The exact motives and details of the killings continue to unfold, but in her new book on the case, When […]

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