Another weekend is upon us, another three steps forward on this citywide journey to stay safe, stay indoors, and support our loved ones and our community while also finding new ways to stay sane and entertained while stuck in self-quarantine. There's a lot of cool Things to Do from the comfort of your couch this weekend, and even a few things that might ask you to get off that couch in interesting (and hopefully rewarding) ways. Hit the links below and plan accordingly
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Friday, April 10
Go to Pickathon!
Pickathon's response to COVID trying to mess up everyone's outdoor music festival fun? A 60-day long streaming series, spanning multiple online platforms, and featuring full sets by artists including Jeff Tweedy, Mac DeMarco, People Under the Stairs, Damien Jurado, Charles Bradley, Tank and the Bangas, and many, many more. Many of these performances haven't been put online before, and all viewer donations will go to the MusiCares iniative. Click here to see each week's schedule.
(Wed April 8-Sun June 7, YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, free, all ages)
Go to Coachella!
Today is the 20th anniversary of what's become the biggest music festival in the worldāif not in size, then definitely in terms of cultural impact. Coachella might still happen in late 2020, depending on whether or not the idiot asshole in the White House does his best to screw up the productive, constructive plans of our state governors to fight the spread of COVID-19. But while we're all sheltered-in-place for this weekend, why not load up this YouTube Original Documentary that will take millions of people behind the scenes of a festival we might otherwise never get to attend?
(Now Available, YouTube, free)
Fleabag Live
Phoebe Waller-Bridge's Fleabag is some of the best television made in the last 10 years period. A lot of people have heard it was adapted from a one-woman-show she did in London, but recorded performances of that show haven't been too easy to see... until this weekend, when Waller-Bridge partners with Amazon Prime (the platform that streams her show) to make her 2019 Wyndham Theatre performance available for $5, with all the proceeds going to The National Emergencies Trust, NHS Charities Together, Acting for Others, and the Fleabag Support Fund. Oh, and the show? It's somethin'. If you saw season one, you'll recognize some of it, but even if you know where it's all going, Waller-Bridge's storytelling is going to surprise and shock you a little. But a little surprise and shock shouldn't be enough to stop you getting into bed with Fleabag, right? Like Waller-Bridge herself says, "It's for charity!"
(Fri April 10, Amazon Prime, $5)
Bond Marathon!
Speaking of Ms. Waller-Bridge, another big deal debut was supposed to happen today, when her writing work on No Time to Die, the last Bond film to star Daniel Craig, was going to be heard in theaters all across America. Except theatres aren't open, and the movie got postponed to November anyway (Maybe they'll be open then? Maybe people will want to crowd into dark rooms full of inconsiderate strangers in various stages of recovery from a virus that has no vaccine? Sure!) So why not celebrate what should have been Bond Day by organizing a Bond marathon! You can handpick your 00-playlist at Amazon Prime (our suggestion: From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, License to Kill, and GoldenEye), or you can do it old-school style: Just turn on Pluto TV, scroll to the Bond channel, and have yourself a lazy weekend while a small parade of janky-yet-charming Roger Moore movies stretch out with commercial interruptions.
(Now Streaming, Amazon Prime, Pluto TV free w/ ads)
Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
At one point or another, nearly every person interviewed in Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool slips into an impression of Davisā gravely speaking voice. Itās a minor detail in this superb documentary about the famed trumpeter, but a telling one: No matter how awful he was (ill-tempered and drug-hungry, Davis was also notoriously abusive to the women in his life), everyone in his orbit wanted to be Miles Davis. Director Stanley Nelson makes a great case for the allure of Davisā ineffable cool and creative genius, while not shying away from his uglier qualitiesāa sometimes tricky balance that this film handles easily
(Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99 per month, free trial here) ROBERT HAM
STRFKR
Portlandās STRFKR (formerly Pyramiddd, formerly Starfucker, still Starfucker) has never made a bad record. The album art is always on point. Their live shows are original and fun. Their music video for āIn the Endā is an homage to John Watersāitās about beautiful drag queens pulling off a heist with toy guns and showering a dance club in cash. I donāt know how we ever got it so good with STRFKRās indie pop. You can dance to it, clean your house to it, take a long walk in the rain and feel morose to it. STRFKR continues to deliver; their latest album, Future Past Life is out now. SUZETTE SMITH
Schitt's Creek
Like Battlestar Galactica before it, Schitt's Creek is a show whose title has always been one of its biggest stumbling blocksātrying to convince friends an endearing, progressive, and honestly lovely sitcom that needs to be seen is called "shit's creek" makes said endearing, progressive, and honestly lovely sitcom kind of hard to buy into. That first season doesn't help much either, often playing down to the easy joke of its title and coming off like a lite-rock Arrested Development. But hey: Books, covers, judging... cliches like that exist for just this reason: Schitt's Creek is well worth the binge, and it just wrapped up its feel-good final season this week, so once you've witnessed how well the show levels up in its first five seasons on Netflix, hop over to Fubo TV (speaking of weirdly off-putting names), sign up for their free trial, and binge that last one, too.
(Now Streaming, Netflix; Final season on FuboTV, $54.99 [!], free trial here)
Howards End
Portland Center Stage was set to bring Caroline Hewitt's adaptation of this classic (and quietly devastating) E.M. Forster classic to the Armory today, but staying safe and staying home took precedence, and unfortunately the show was canceled. However, Netflix provides an easily streamable opportunity to watch the 1992 Merchant-Ivory film adaptation, starring Hannibal Lecter, Marla Singer, and Professor Trelawney. And if you're feeling a little generous, maybe make a fancy evening of it! Get dressed to the nines, bust out the candles and bubbly alcohol in a glass, and send a donation to Portland Center Stage as your admission before sitting down and really digging into a subversive story about sad British people who aren't particularly good at handling their raging passions. (There's also a PCS-hosted virtual book club on Monday, starring Caroline Hewitt. Tune into that, too!)
(Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99 per month, free trial here, donate to PCS here if you're feeling generous)
John Prine
It's legitimately awful that one of the strongest reminders we need to stay inside and stay safe is that we keep losing legends to this pandemic as it's prolonged, and this last week it took John Prine from us. Prine is beloved for making simple, but magnificent folk songs, which revolve around his acoustic guitar and inimitable drawl. Though his early work gets a lot of attentionāparticularly songs like āSam Stoneā and āAngel from Montgomeryā from his 1971 self-titled debutā2005ās Fair & Square is perhaps Prineās best record. He recorded the Grammy-winning album after undergoing throat surgery for squamous cell cancer, which deepened his voice into a low, gravelly rumble. The Tree of Forgiveness is John Prineās first collection of new material in over a decade, and it contains some of the legendary folksinger/songwriterās most playful tunes to dateāit's sweet, silly, and a little sad, meaning it's the perfect kind of John Prine record. Remember him from safe inside your home as you watch him performing inside Canadian DJ George Stroumboulopolous' home, circa 2018. CIARA DOLAN
Saturday, April 11
Turn Your Home Into a Tiny Desk Concert
The very first installment of our sheltered-in-place Things To Do roundup made sure to shout out NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series as a must-subscribe on YouTube, and that's still true. But in the meantime, the Tiny Desk Concert has become the most reliably great place to see live performances from a music-star's living room, much like it was already the most reliably great place to catch live music online (seriously, I have yet to stop the Anderson .paak Tiny Desk when it comes up, and it always comes up, one of the only times YouTube's algorithm hasn't proved itself to be a noxious tire-fire of pure hate). The lineup already includes Yacht Rock commodore Michael McDonald, Tarriona Ball of Tank & the Bangas, and Ben Gibbard, but check out this stripped-down set from King Princess, who former Music Editor Ciara Dolan said "artfully subverted the status quo of mainstream pop."
Make Your Own Beats!
Give someone a beat, they'll vibe for a few minutes. Teach someone how to make beats, they'll vibe forever. Another thing we made sure to call out in the early days of coronavirus shutdown was the Chilled Cow channel, forever churning up laid-back, dusty hip-hop beats perfect for relaxing and letting go of some stress. It's so big, Will Smith even cooked up his own "chill" channel (Why he didn't name it "Chill Smith" nobody knows. We'll get to him in a sec). Serato is a company that your favorite DJ probably owes a ton of debt to, since they're one of the biggest providers of software for break-blenders, beat-makers, and record-spinnersāand thanks to their most recent (and free!) release, Serato Studio, now you can make your own dusty, crunchy, vibed-out beats. You don't need a keyboard or a DJ deck (if you have one, that helps tho) and you don't even need a big bank of samples to pull from, they got you covered there, too. Check out this tutorial and see if a download and a couple hours worth of mouse-clicking work doesn't result in a blissed-out head-nodder (or three) you can call your own.
(Now available, Serato.com, free)
Will From Home
Okay, now let's talk about Mr. Smith. Before Bad Boys for Life blew up big earlier this year (it might end up being the biggest film of the year, depending on how theaters rebound from COVID-19), Will saw a lot of success carving out a second career as a livestreaming dynamo. You know, jumping out of helicopters, learning how to do stand-up, shit like that. Give Will a camera, Will can entertain for hours. And quarantine is nothing but another opportunity for Will to prove that, with a 12-episode season of Snapchat programming called Will From Home, broadcasting straight outta his garage, starring special guests, his family, and regular folks also doing the right thing by staying safe and staying at home.
(Now Streaming, Snapchat, free)
John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch
People like to talk about Saturday Morning Cartoons as if it's some big tragedy they aren't really around anymore. But early-morning entertainment for kids and families back then was pretty much pure junk, just like the sugared cereal that fueled many a kid through the three-to-four hour blocks of commercials for commercials of commercials (God bless the '80s). Kids today have it so much better now. For one, kids entertainment is now basically everyone's entertainment (see: Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Pixar) and even when it's being specifically aimed at kids, it's miles better than what we had. Take John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. Ironically, Mulaney disagrees with this assessment, he states right up front his intention is to make a kids TV special like the kind when he was growing up. Unfortunately, he failed in the funniest, most adorable way possible.
(Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99 per month, free trial here)
Sugar Calling
Cheryl Strayed is the award-winning, best-selling author of Wild, Tiny Beautiful Things, and Brave Enough, and she's also Dear Sugar, one of the country's most listened-to advice columnists. COVID-19 has led to somehow making podcasting even more intimate feeling than its best shows already were, and Strayed's latest venture for The New York Times is a great example of this phenomenon. Sugar Calling is an opportunity to listen in as Strayed calls some of her most-admired friends at home while they're sheltered-in-place, and talks to them for an hour or so. So far, her friends include authors George Saunders (Tenth of December) and Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale). Wisdom abounds. Listen in.
(Now Streaming, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, free)
GRIS
One of the benefits of the platformer's position as many people's earliest, most formative experiences in video gaming is that familiarity allows for solid storytelling possibilities in ways only gaming can provide. When your audience is fluent in the language of run 'n' jump taught by years (decades!) of Mario, Sonic, Mega Man, and more, you can use that to poke at much deeper ideas than "I saved a princess!" 2009's indie breakout hit Braid was one of the first to do just this, but GRIS, Devolver Digital's game from 2018, garnered much well-deserved acclaim for a platformer using beautiful art design and simple-yet-intricate gameplay to investigate the ways navigate their way out of trauma and grief. It never comes flat out and states its themes verbally or literally like that, but as the inkwashed, watercolored landscapes flow by the hero, the metaphor makes itself clear, and the reason we're recommending you give it some playtime now should be just as clear.
(Now available, Steam and Nintendo Switch, 16.99; Android and iOS $4.99)
Grow Your Own!
To clarify: we're speaking here about herbs and vegetables, not herb. So if you're looking for that, we kindly direct you to the pros, who have already grown, harvested, and are selling you the kindest deals they have in our takeout/delivery dispensary roundup. But if your restlessness has you wanting to develop a green thumb, why not give into that impulse? The Pacific Northwest is a verdant agricultural wonderland for a reason, and there more than a few tutorials on YouTube with pleasant folks patiently stepping you through growing delicious food in your own backyard (or on your balcony/back porch if you're apartment-bound). It's not as if becoming a little more self-sufficient in the middle of a shutdown is a bad idea or anything...
Now streaming, YouTube, free)
Popeye
This might seem like a weird one, considering it's best known as being a box-office bomb starring a mumbling Robin Williams before he became Robin Williams, but stay with us for a second: This weekend, the Clinton Street Theater was all set to host StageWorks Ink's live stage adaptation of Robert Altman's 1980 movie before the shutdown. The performances are postponed to yet-to-be-determined date, so this is good time for getting up to speed with one of the most...unique comic-book movies ever made, in an era long before anyone knew what "comic-book movie" was even supposed to mean. The fact it's a Robert Altman comic book movie, starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall (still maybe the best comic-book movie casting in film history), makes it must-see alone, but throw in the fact Altman literally had a town built in Malta to film it (it's still there!) and got Harry Nilsson to write the songs? Oh, that's right: This is also a damn musical too. Some movies are described as being "ahead of their time," some movies are called "timeless," and then...there's Popeye. (Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99 per month, free trial here; Crackle, free w/ ads)
Take a Break and Read a Fucking Poem
Rich Smith of our big-sister publication The Stranger has been writing an ongoing column called "Take a Break and Read a Fucking Poem," and it consists of Rich... doing exactly that. He selects a poem, and we all read it together. Or in the case of Franny Choi's "Pussy Monster," we hear her read it. From Smith's notes: "One of the many great vagina poems, which you can find in her 2014 collection, Floating, Brilliant, Gone, available at local bookstores. The poem, which was first published in PANK, is a remix of a Lil' Wayne song called "Pussy Monster." She's taken his lyrics and rearranged them in order of their frequency, saving the word with the highest number of uses for the end.
Sunday, April 12
Amazing Grace
Even at a remove of almost 50 years, and even with Aretha Franklin's album Amazing Grace firmly established as a familiar classic in the canon of recorded music, the movie is a staggering thing to behold, and is probably the greatest filmed document of American gospel music that has ever been captured. While everyoneās relationship with God (or lack thereof) is different, I donāt think thereās anybody who can sit through Amazing Grace and not pick up on something recognizably holy in this music. Whether itās proof of a divine creator is entirely up to you; for me, itās more than enough that the music itself is capable of attaining the quality of what we generally think of as divine.
(Now Streaming, Hulu, $5.99 per month, free trial here) NED LANNAMANN
Saturday Night Live
There's almost nothing about regular life that COVID-19 hasn't interrupted. Going to the movies, going to a concert... going outside at all. Also interrupted? The steady sketch comedy comforts of tuning in "Liiiive, from New York!" on Saturday night! But after announcing season 45 (!) was suspended indefinitely, a new, "remotely-produced" (read: Zoom'd) episode of the show went online at 11:30 pm on Saturday! Just like normal! And in keeping with that sense of normalcy, you're probably waiting until Sunday morning to find out which sketches are actually worth watching on YouTube, and then clicking on only those!. God it feels good to slide back into routines from what already feels like a lifetime ago. Who'd have thought anyone would be happy to see Colin Jost's face again, right? Right.
(Now Available, YouTube, free)
What the Hell... Let's Tidy Up with Marie Kondo
Maybe you've already done this once. Maybe you only did it halfway that one timeāMs. Kondo's program is sort of like the P90x of how-to-clean routines. You know what? That's ok! Honestly, being on lockdown kinda prevents one of the big steps of the KonMari method, because you can't take all the stuff you're throwing out to a thrift store afterwards (since they're closed and all). But there are still some really useful ideas provided, and after about a month of being hunkered down, tearing everything up and putting it all back together as neatly and joy-sparkingly as possible might be a good way to spend the day! You don't have to do everything she says exactly to the letter. Improvise your own tidying solutions on the fly! Plus maybe you'll finally learn how to fold a shirt correctly, who knows.
(Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99, free trial here)
Gary Gulman: The Great Depresh
It's not often that a stand-up special can be described as "sweet," but that's one of the minor miracles of Gary Gulman's hourlong on HBO, The Great Depresh. A lot of people are feeling that crush during this crisis, and Gulman's ability to shine a light on his own struggles with depression while still being positive, and uplifting, and most importantly hilarious, makes this set (sprinkled with documentary-style cutaways to scenes from his private life) a must-see while sheltered in place.
(Now Streaming, HBO Now, $14.99 per month, free trial here)
The Tiger King and I
Been noticing that there's a recent groundswell of negative attention focused on the quarantine-fueled success of Netflix's Tiger King? Hoping that you can get in on squeezing every last sour drop of schadenfreude before a backlash of (checks notes) "decency and basic human compassion" swallows this shitshow whole? GREAT NEWS: Netflix is providing one last bite of the poisoned apple via a Tiger King after-show hosted by Joel McHale, a veteran of looking at human trainwrecks and pouring gasoline on their dwindling fires as the host of E! Network's The Soup. He was also on a show about junior college too, apparently. ANYWAY: Special guests will include one of Joe Exotic's ex-husbands, a reality show producer and his wife, and Saff. Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!
(Now Available, Netflix)
Uncorked
While currently enjoying ridiculous success with its full-tilt resurrection of early-'00s trash reality programming, Netflix was once, long ago (read: 2017) celebrated for resurrecting a Hollywood practice effectively killed by the Disney blockbuster: Mid-budget, low-key, thoughtful movies for grown-ups. Sometimes they were rom-coms (Set it Up) sometimes they were powerhouse memoirs by acclaimed directors (Roma), but amidst all the tiger-striped madness and blind dating currently on the platform, Netflix has returned to that well with Uncorked, a wonderfully-cast, wonderfully-written-produced-and-directed story by Insecure's Prentice Penny, about a son (Mamoudou Athie) who doesn't want to follow in his father's (Courtney B. Vance) barbecue-slinging footsteps. He wants to be a sommelier. His dad thinks that's snobby. He knows it's his dream. The conflict resolves wistfully, comedically, and beautifully. It's a tall bottle of feel-good that's very needed right now. Drink up!
Now Streaming, Netflix, $8.99 per month, free trial here)
NK Jemisin
African American sci-fi and fantasy author NK Jemisin has earned an impressive number of awards for her works. In fact, she currently stands as the only person to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel three years in a row, for all three of the books in her Broken Earth series (2015ās The Fifth Season, 2016ās The Obelisk Gate, and 2017ās The Stone Sky). She has an incredible knack for creating sympathetic, believable characters within the truly unbelievable, fantastic worlds she builds, which makes sense considering her background as a psychologist; she only stopped practicing to focus on her writing full time in 2016. The City We Became is the first in a brand-new trilogy in which āevery great city has a soul,ā some cities like NYC have several, and five of its avatars must come together to save it. NYC, that is.
(Now available, ebook and audiobook at MultCo Library w/ card; Powell's.com, $28) LEILANI POLK
Leslie Odom,Jr.
Known for originating the role of Aaron Burr in the Broadway hip-hop musical Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr. and his spectacular voice are national treasures. His perfect pitch, tone, and insane vocal control are the only reason I ever unmute during a commercial break; whenever that damn Nationwide Insurance commercial comes on, I simply must be reminded that they are on my side. He also dropped a really lovely Christmas album a couple years ago, and recently starred alongside Janelle MonƔe and fellow Tony-winning Broadway superstar Cynthia Erivo in the terribly underrated Harriet. His concert at the Hawthorne was one of the first big postponements here in Portland, but you can still get a taste of what being there would have been like via this episode of PBS's Live from Lincoln Center.
(Now Streaming, PBS.org, free) JENNI MOORE
A Case of Distrust
Everyone loves themselves some true crime podcasts and Netflix documentaries. But why not play one for a change? 2018's A Case of Distrust is specifically designed by creator Ben Wander to scratch the noir itch, taking a damn good mystery, building a compelling point-and-click game around it (remember those?), and then art directing the hell out of that; filming the actions, and then rotoscoping the footage so the game plays as if you're controlling paper cut-outs as they move through a shadowy world of liars, criminals, and very mouthy cabbies in mid-'20s San Francisco.
(Now Available, Steam, Nintendo Switch, $14.99)
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The nightly talk shows have been at the front line of the entertainment world's attempts to figure out how livestreaming itself can work (attempts that are coming a good four-to-five years after semi-professional high-school age "gamers" began collecting million dollar checks to screech non-sequiturs and slurs over immaculately-produced Fortnite and Minecraft footage but anywayyy). The results have been mixed, but the one show that seems to have improved under these circumstances is Last Week Tonight. Maybe it's because his style of comedy just works better when his delivery isn't being interrupted by (often forced) applause breaks and cheers, but there's a lot to be said for this version of the show feeling like a very smart and funny friend is visiting your living room and just going off.
(Now Streaming, HBO Now, or Just Watch the Best Bits on YouTube, free)
