PICA Akio Suzuki There was a point during poet Gozo Yoshimasu and experimental musician Otomo Yoshihide’s performance for Voices & Echoes at PSU’s Lincoln Hall when Yoshihide started throwing loose change at his modified turntable— the contact mics inside it amplifying the metallic collisions— and I was reminded of this time that I asked a […]
Performance
Posted inTBA
Closing out TBA:12 with Laurie Anderson’s Dirtday!
This year, TBA closed out its ten-day run with a show by Laurie Anderson, a returning TBA artist who’s just about as big as it gets in the contemporary art scene. I’m not sure why PICA decided to close the fest with their big event, rather than opening with it as they’ve done in years […]
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Adaptation vs. Translation in Chelfitsch’s Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech
PICA In our TBA blog comments a few days ago, I picked on Mexican company Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol a bit for their sloppy use of supertitles. That show was translated directly from its original language, where Japanese performance troupe Cheltfisch’s Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech felt adapted. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, […]
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Go See Gob Squad’s Kitchen
PICA There are two performances left of Gob Squad’s Kitchen (You’ve Never Had it So Good). Go see it. Hilarious, technically ambitious, surprising, thoughtful—this show is wonderful. To explain it is to make it sound a lot more pretentious than it actually is, but: It’s a contemporary reenactment of a handful of Andy Warhol’s movies, […]
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“But Still We Danced”: Faustin Linyekula’s Le Cargo
To see a perfect example of how simplicity will always trump spectacle, do yourself a favor and go watch Faustin Linyekula’s Le Cargo. The piece is honest, at times breath taking, and completely void of unnecessary bells and whistles. There is no set, save a handful of floor lights placed to scatter shadows against the […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Review: Sam Green and Yo La Tengo’s The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller
Kate Holly Sam Green and Yo La Tengo Just gonna put it out there: I pretty much want to live in The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, the live documentary written and performed by filmmaker Sam Green and scored by Yo La Tengo (originally commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to […]
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Re: Valkyries, Golden Retrievers, Boobs, Parenthetical Girls
From this week’s Mercury letters section, in reference to last week’s piece by Rebecca Wilson on the Parenthetical Girls, “An Invitation to Privilege“: Dear Mercury—Why will no one admit that Parenthetical Girls is an emo band? –Isaac Hudson GOOD QUESTION, ISAAC. Also, I WILL ADMIT THAT PARENTHETICAL GIRLS IS AN EMO BAND. They were last […]
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Keith Hennessy: Counterpoint
Two of our writers saw Keith Hennessy’s improv-based Turbulence on the same night. Jenna was sharply critical of the piece; here’s Noah’s response, which I’m pulling from the comments: I am of people who really liked this show. And for all intents and purposes, following my own standards, I should have disliked it. I usually […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Future Cinema, or How to Turn Your Google+ Conversation Into a Performance Piece
Things I was looking forward to seeing last night at The Works: Weston Currie premiering a new film with a live soundtrack provided by Portland’s own Liz Harris (Grouper). And B-Movie Bingo presented by Wolf Choir, in which audience members play bingo using movie cliches from Bulletproof starring Gary Busey(!). I didn’t see them though. […]
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Quick Thoughts on Perforations
It’s press day at Mercury HQ, so I don’t have much time to write about Perforations, but in a nutshell: I didn’t like it. The program of performers from the Balkans was intermittently boring, irritating, and boring again. I left before the fourth and final piece in the show, after sitting through three segments of […]
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Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol, Asalto al Agua Transparente: Simple and Relatable Foreign History
One mark of a promising theater company, to me, is the ability to do a lot with a little. Tackling a centuries-long, war-addled saga in a foreign language with a cast of two and a set comprised mostly of produce boxes? Yeah, I’d say that counts. Juan Leduc All right, I’m sorry to say it, […]
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Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug: In Praise of Shadows
Last night was the first and last performance of Fluid Hug-Hug’s Glowing. If you missed it, my apologies in advance: It would be a lot better to see the dance—it’s so much about the subtleties in seeing—than to read whatever recap I will muster about it. Check this out, at least: The majority of the […]