- Andy Batt
- THE ACES! McLendon and Fetters, doing what they do best.
This week in art is special: You’ll notice it’s packed to the gills with GLOWING REVIEWS. You guys, with a few notable exceptions (WHY, EL JAMES, WHY?!) we all really liked what we saw and read this week. This does not always (ever?) happen. So I hope you have some time between Pedalpalooza rides this weekend to take in some of the brilliant performances Portland has to offer, to say nothing of thrilling new book releases—I mean, I’ll just get straight to it:
Patron saint of adolescent girls Judy fucking Blume has a new book out. Courtney Ferguson brings happy news: With In the Unlikely Event, “Judy Blume still kicks ass. Like a YA samurai, this is her way. Her first adult novel since 1998’s Summer Sisters is out this week, and—bold words—it’s her best work for grownups yet.”
Coming off a triumphant performance at Chicago’s SketchFest, sketch comedy dream team Shelley McLendon and Michael Fetters launched their new show. Suzette Smith compares the duo’s For Your Pleasure to being a guest at “a dinner party or, yes, a polite evening orgy,” to see hilarious sketches involving love and sloths between “name-dropping accounts of our hosts’ musical, sexual, and humanitarian exploits.” Faith in humanity reserves feeling depleted? Go see the Aces!
Portland’s full of galleries, but not many focus on contemporary work pulling from photography. Melanie Flood is changing that. Jenna Lechner visited the curator/artist to talk about filling the gap—and reaching out across disciplines. “We’re all spread out in Portland, [so] it’s nice to try to bridge and introduce people that are from different parts of the art scene—the photography scene is very separate from the art scene,” she told Jenna. “And then there’s the video art and media crowd, and there’s the social practice crowd. Even though we’re all related under this umbrella of being invested in art, we’re still a little separated.”
Good-bye, Northwest Classical Theatre Company. Hello, everyone involved in the company’s final show. The theater group we call Northwest Classical’s saying good-bye after the final performance of their latest, Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). But don’t worry! Good Night Desdemona is a certain kind of perfect balm to nerdy ex-academic ladies everywhere, plus it’s crumpleface-funny, and features a promising cast and director who are all Portland-based.
PLUS! Boom Arts’ incredible spin on the story of Billie Jean King. On Amy Butcher’s Visiting Hours, the limits of unreliable narrators, and what you should never erase from a crime narrative (the victim). ICYMI: Comedy comes to Beaverton.
AND! I STILL DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY EL JAMES IS WRITING ANOTHER BOOK PLEASE SEND HELP.