2014 has been a rather bang-up one for independent retail in Portland. A healthy clutch of new spots opened up (West End Select Shop, North of West, Seven Sisters, SIX/SEVEN…), and old favorites expanded into additional or bigger/better locations (Tender Loving Empire, Stand Up Comedy, Frances May, Nationale…) It’s always an ebb and flow, though, […]
Portland
Posted inArtsy
Comedy, Riot Grrrls, and Puppies: Here are the Projects Getting RACC Dollars for 2015
Allyson Mitchell RACC’d: Allyson Mitchell’s work is featured in Alien She, coming to Portland in 2015! It’s arts grant season, which is like Christmas for people who make things, if you had to write out a very detailed plan of attack and list of necessary funding items in exchange for a present. Does that sound […]
Posted inFashion
Lookbook Looky-Loo
Usually I only draw attention to lookbook showcasing the local talents of apparel or accessories designers, photographers, models, and stylists—and I’m about to do that behind the cut. But first, I have to show you this: West End Select Shop What are we looking at here? Well: Loveleather, from New York, is a brand that […]
Posted inPortland
This Week’s Letters Section!
This was the week that Mercury readers, commenters, and letter-writers finally stopped talking about Uber! KIDDING. There is evidence, however, that beer, transgender rights, and police accountability still count among your lesser interests, though: ILLUSTRATION BY JENNA LECHNER THE BEER THAT BLUNTS RE: “Hop Along, IPAs” [Lush Life, Dec 10], a salute to local breweries […]
Posted inPortland
This Week’s Letters Section!
Let’s face it, the one thing everyone wants to talk about right now? UBER. The Mercury Letters Page included. Among the lesser interests still clamoring for attention? Rapid development, affordable housing, and whether the twain shall ever meet: WORDS ON THE STREETS RE: “Developing Fantasies” [I, Anonymous, Dec 3], in which an anonymous author bemoans […]
Posted inPortland
The Wild Red Carpet Event of Our Lives!
Last night, Cinema 21 hosted a red carpet premiere of the new movie Wild, based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir and starring Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. I met Laura Dern! And other things happened. OMG I wasn’t in town during the press screening for Wild, but the Mercury still sent me out to cover this […]
Posted inBooks
World-Building as Resistance: Walidah Imarisha and Grace Dillon Talk Revolutionary Science Fiction
AK Press I could listen to Walidah Imarisha talk about intersections between science fiction and social justice forever. Imarisha, who co-edited the new sci-fi anthology Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements (due out from AK Press in April 2015) and teaches at Portland State, makes a simple, but convincing argument for science […]
Posted inPortland
Jerry Seinfeld, Fred Armisen, and a Green Saab Monte Carlo
Jerry Seinfeld and Fred Armisen hung out for a day in Portland back in September for an episode of Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and now that episode is online for viewing. Seinfeld seems pretty enamored of Portland and its coffee—he and Armisen check out Coava Coffee Roasters, who make a decent cup of […]
Posted inBooks
Talking to Mallory Ortberg About Alt Lit’s Gender Problem and Unhelpful Attitudes Towards Sexual Assault
Mallory Ortberg mostly makes jokes. She’s made a career out this. She co-edits The Toast, a site geared towards (mostly) women with a very particular sense of humor, and just came out with a new book, Texts from Jane Eyre, which you can read more about in our paper that comes out today. But when […]
Posted inEvents
De-Gentrifying Portland
Everyone’s got an opinion on how this city is changing, but there’s one demographic that perhaps gets heard the least: the children of families who have been displaced from their neighborhoods by Portland’s rapid gentrification. Started over the summer, De-Gentrifying Portland is a program that’s designed to give young people a way to process and […]
Posted inEvents
This Week’s Style Events
If you thought we were out of the woods now that Black Friday weekend is over, allow me to point out that you’re not even close. Local retail and design events continue to abound, and that’s a good thing. Here’s your planner for the week!: • This year, instead of just envying the crafty types […]
Posted inArtsy
Win Tickets to Hear Tales of Sex, Lies, & Social Media at Back Fence PDX!
Back Fence PDX Are your weekend plans still super tentative? Do you wish you had something bookish to do tonight? Well, you’re in luck, because we’re giving away a pair of tickets to Back Fence PDX, for tonight or tomorrow. The lineup this weekend is hard to beat: You get to hear stories about sex, […]