THURSDAY, JANUARY 12
DEADITE DELIGHT—What could be better than watching The Evil Dead for the 6,666th time? Going to the theater to watch it for the first time. With a splatter zone… and songs about chainsaws… and demon dancing at Evil Dead: The Musical. I think I had a dream about this once—a wonderful, wonderful dream where I gave Ash some sugar. CF
Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, Thurs 8 pm, Fri & Sat 7 & 10 pm, $25-30, all ages
TAKING YOU DOWN TO CHINATOWN—The Dill Pickle Club celebrates the release of its fifth Oregon History Comic, The Streets of Chinatown, with a free (in-depth) chat about the current state of the neighborhood featuring community leaders like Henry Sakamoto and Mary Leong. Bonus! The Mercury‘s own Sarah Mirk not only wrote the comic but also will be moderating the discussion. (No, it won’t be about bicycles.) DCT
Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, 121 NW 2nd, 5 pm, FREE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 13
FREEBIE—We’re talking 20 bands spread out over four downtown venues, all but one of which is all ages. And it’s completely free? We’re talking ’bout Big Ass Boombox, perhaps the coolest idea of 2012 so far, in which local bands like Pigeons, Sons of Huns, Blue Skies for Black Hearts (and more!) hit a cluster of venues all within easy walking distance, and all for no scratch at all! NL
Backspace, 115 NW 5th; Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th; SoHiTek Gallery, 625 NW Everett, #102; Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch; 7 pm, FREE, all ages (Someday Lounge 21+)
DARRYL—You know him best as Darryl Philbin from the American Office—but Craig Robinson was working in comedy long before he started at Dunder Mifflin: Robinson’s an accomplished musician who backs his comedic smooth patter on the keyboard. AH
Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th, 7:30 & 10 pm, $30-35
SATURDAY, JANUARY 14
BOLLYWOOD BOOTY—Let’s pretend there’s a global battle royale of dance (like Step Up meets It’s a Small World). Is there any question that Bollywood and bhangra would dominate? No. Because it’s the insanest, sweatiest dancing in the entire world, and it doesn’t involve dumb clogs. Tonight DJ Prashant celebrates two years of rockin’ Lola’s Room’s Jai Ho! dance night with Bollywood beats. SM
Lola’s Room, 1332 W Burnside, 9 pm, $10
GLAM GLAM—Welcome to the glamorous and moody world of Italo disco, where everyone looks great and sounds even better. Because on a night that both Glass Candy and Chromatics play, it’s a sure bet that the prettiest, most fashionable people in town will congregate under their damaged, beautiful sound roof. CF
w/Desire, Mike Simonetti; Branx, 320 SE 2nd, 9 pm, $10
SUNDAY, JANUARY 15
SURFER SLIME—Gunk up your Sunday night with an unholy bill, jam-packed with enough trash to fill your greedy heart. California’s Thee Cormans play biker-meth monster-movie surf rock—with weirdo masks to boot—plus Thee Headliners are no strangers to the Kenton stage, and Cecilia und die Sauerkrauts have French-language garage tunes for your go-go boots. NL
w/Audios Amigos, Chemicals, DJ Hwy 7; Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick, 9 pm, FREE
GO NORTH, YOUNG MAN!—Ever wonder what a typical day is like in creepy and secretive North Korea? Absurdist literary darling Adam Johnson takes an elegant stab at that question in his latest, long-awaited novel, The Orphan Master’s Son. It’s all about a boy who goes undercover in the stranger-than-fiction police state—part thriller and part epic—and Johnson will be at Powell’s to tell you all about it. DCT
Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm, FREE
MONDAY, JANUARY 16
HEY HEY MLK!—In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., today we take a day off from work. Wait. What? MLK was a hard-working rabble-rouser! Get off yer sofa and take to the streets with a Sisters of the Road MLK Day March through downtown calling for justice and peace! SM
Sisters of the Road, 133 NW 6th, noon, FREE
KING—As they do every year, the Clinton Street Theater celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day in an excellent way: by screening Sidney Lumet’s Oscar-nominated 1970 King documentary, King: A Filmed Record—Montgomery to Memphis. EH
Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, 7 & 9 pm, $6
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17
CHILD’S PLAY—In Roman Polanski’s Carnage, a parental discussion over a playground brawl turns ugly. Over the course of the short film, the vestiges of civility are stripped from four polished Brooklyn parents. Screaming, vomiting, and hamster murder are just the tip of the iceberg. AH
Various Theaters, see Film Times for dates and showtimes
BLACKJACK BY GOD—In the critically lauded documentary Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians, a gang of young evangelicals decide to take on casinos (and raise money for their church) by learning to count cards in blackjack. The result is a tense, fascinating account of strained faith, gambling, and whether the ends justify the means. WSH
Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton, 7 & 9 pm, $6
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18
WALTON VS. GIBSON—In an attempt to drive Portland’s well-read geeks insane, Powell’s has cruelly scheduled readings by not one but two amazing genre authors tonight… miles away from each other. In Portland, godfather of cyberpunk William Gibson reads from his latest, Distrust That Particular Flavor, while Beaverton has Jo Walton, whose brilliant Among Others was one of the best books of the year. Choose a side, nerds. EH
Jo Walton at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills, Beaverton, 7 pm, FREE; William Gibson at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 7:30 pm, FREE
SICK BURN—Strange that such an unassuming, almost kindly looking man could possess such pure comedic evil inside him, slow roasted over a boiling cauldron of bile and acidic sarcasm. The closest thing this generation has to a Don Rickles, Roastmaster General Jeff Ross storms the Aladdin, leaving a trail of broken celebrities in his wake. BR
Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie, 8 pm, $25-30