NEWS D.I.Y. TAXIDERMY. P. 10 MUSIC NIRVANA IS GONE. P. 27 MOVIES PEARL JAM IS OLD. P. 49
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WWEEK.COM VOL 37/46 09.21.2011
TOM BISSELL IS PORTLAND'S FINEST WRITER. WHY IS HE SPENDING HIS TIME ON VIDEO GAMES AND BAD MOVIES? BY AARON MESH | PAGE 12
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CATCH A POSE: Do-it-yourself taxidermy is giving Portlanders a new use for roadkill and other dead fauna. Page 10.
NEWS
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LEAD STORY
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Editor-in-Chief Mark Zusman EDITORIAL Managing Editor for News Brent Walth Interim Arts & Culture Editor Ruth Brown Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Corey Pein Copy Chief Sarah Smith Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Rob Fernas Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Ben Waterhouse Movies Editor Aaron Mesh Music Editor Casey Jarman Editorial Interns Emilee Booher, Emily Green, Brandon Hamilton, Reed Jackson, Maggie Summers, Annie Zak CONTRIBUTORS Classical Brett Campbell Dance Heather Wisner Food Kelly Clarke Visual Arts Richard Speer Erik Bader, Judge Bean, Nathan Carson, Devan Cook, Shane Danaher, Jonathan Frochtzwajg, Robert Ham, Jay Horton,
PRODUCTION Production Manager Kendra Clune Art Director Ben Mollica Graphic Designers Melissa Casillas, Soma Honkanen, Adam Krueger, Brittany Moody, Carolyn Richardson Production Interns Morgan Green-Hopkins, Lana MacNaughton ADVERTISING Director of Advertising Jane Smith Display Account Executives Sara Backus, Maria Boyer, Michael Donhowe, Drew Harrison, Janet Norman, Kyle Owens Classifieds Account Executives Ashlee Horton, Corin Kuppler Advertising Assistant Ashley Grether Marketing and Events Manager Jess Sword Marketing Coordinator Jose Tancuan Give!Guide Director Brittany Cornett Production Assistant Brittany McKeever
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INBOX GETTING FISCAL WITH AVAKIAN
Regardless of whether or not [Brad] Avakian’s fiscal issues [“Not Paying His Dues,” WW, Sept. 14, 2011] are or are not the same issues many of us private citizens regularly face, it is a cop-out to say, “Oh, well…we’ve all done it too.” As an elected official, we *SHOULD* be able to hold him to a higher standard than the rest of us bear, that is part and parcel of seeking an elected office. That [University of Pacific political science professor] Moore recognizes Avakian’s issues as a “pattern” is even more troubling... And finally that Avakian himself does not see any ethical problems with using his state office job to seek private employment and/or gain is perhaps the most telling (and troubling) statement of his character. —“Ken” To clarify the finances discussed here, Avakian ran into financial trouble when he left private practice and went into a state legislator’s position, [a] capacity he served in for six years earning less than $22,000. It’s ridiculous to keep state legislators on poverty wages. This invites them either going into debt or finding some deep pockets to dip from. Avakian went into debt (and not even big debt). We’re a grown-up state now. We need a fulltime annual Legislature, and legislators should be paid enough money to keep them solvent and—if they have it in them—honest. As for his approaching lobbyists for jobs—he says he sent out résumés to EVERYONE. He was not soliciting a specific agency, nor for a specific job. I see no ethical breach there. As to the complaints that he is spending many of his daytime hours campaigning—I will take
them seriously when he has been shown to be derelict in specific duties as labor commissioner. He says he’s been working double-time. I see no reason to disbelieve it. —“Bee” No, Brad…we DO care about how you take care of your personal finances. How can we trust you to “care” about OUR money if you’re so irresponsible with yours? How can you get away with not paying your bills? A collection agency? Seriously? Voting GOP this time around, not going from Wu to a deadbeat. —“Kitty Hogan”
LAUGHTER FROM THE WEST HILLS?
The Right’s current nationwide strategy is to divide and conquer [“Public Paydays,” WW, Sept. 14, 2011]. Seems from the look of most of these comments, it’s working. I don’t work for the government, and I really don’t care what these employees’ benefits are. Why don’t we strive to bring everyone up in wages and benefits, rather than bring everyone down? Ooo, look at what he got, I want it too... no fair! Really? Is that what our country has come to? The rich are in their mansions high atop the hill laughing at all of us. Leading us like sheep to fight with one another. They’re laughing at us, you know. They’re getting their tax breaks and laughing at us. Don’t be sheep! Don’t be distracted as to what REALLY is going on! —“Steven” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Fax: (503) 243-1115, Email: mzusman@wweek.com
Take your dreams. Add in a rigorous and relevant education, engagement with other serious adult students and working instructors who help you think critically and broadly. Bring it all together and what does it equal? You becoming whatever you want be.
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4
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Last winter, we endured greater-thanusual rainfall because it was a La Niña year. Now I’m hearing that this year will be more of the same. Where’s El Niño when you need him? Aren’t they supposed to take turns? —Wet William Now, now, William; I know it’s easy to imagine that two consecutive years of excessive winter rains must be a sign that a sadistic God hates the Pacific Northwest. However, the judicious application of scientific reasoning clearly shows us that it’s Somalia that God really hates. Getting to drive us to suicide with an eternal chilly drizzle is just an added bonus. Without going into too much stultifying detail, under La Niña conditions a portion of the Pacific gets cooler than usual, setting off a climatological Rube Goldberg device that, among other things, pushes winter storm systems approaching the West Coast northward.
This rerouting of the “storm track” results in more rain for us and less for the Southern U.S., much of which, as you may recall, just burned to the ground in drought conditions aggravated by the 2010 La Niña. I doubt they’re looking forward to this new one any more than we are. But before we start our characteristic American whining, we should note that La Niña also causes drier-than-usual conditions around the Horn of Africa, where, as most of us have barely noticed, there’s already a drought-exacerbated famine of biblical proportions going on. Since the people in that part of the world are desperately poor, God just loves to fuck with them. So, even though it’s rare to see La Niña two years in a row, the opportunity for Him to smite the Somalis with another drought was apparently too good to pass up. If we get drenched in the process, well, so much the better. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
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CITY HALL: A Jeffersonian campaign in the mayor’s race. POLITICS: The retailing of an Oregon House seat. ARTS AND CRAFTS: Do-it-yourself taxidermy. COVER STORY: The wayward journey of Portland’s finest writer.
7 8 10 12
WE’VE NEVER BEEN NEAR GLEN RICE OR AN OIL DRUM Two City Council candidates who are also state lawmakers face pressure to get their fundraising done before the May 2012 primary. State Rep. Mary Nolan is running for City Council and Rep. Jefferson Smith is running for mayor. The Legislature will meet for a 35-day session beginning Feb. 2, 2012. House rules ban members from raising money during session. House leaders may consider whether to alter the rule during an interim session later this week. But with the House deadlocked 30-30—and Republicans having no reason to help two Portland Democrats—it’s unlikely the rule will change.
Women’s Health, Naturally NCNM Clinic Open House Saturday, September 24 1 – 5 p.m. Your health is the foundation for an active, happier life. Learn about natural medicine for healthy living. Free talks include: •
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Receive a FREE mini-consultation, make your own essential oil blend, and tour the NCNM Clinic. Walk-ins welcome, or reserve your appointment today. NCNM Clinic is located at the west end of the Ross Island Bridge with plenty of free parking. 3025 SW Corbett Avenue, Portland, OR 97201 503.552.1551
For more information go to www.ncnm.edu and click on the Clinic Open House link. For directions click on “Quick Links.” 6
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Having trouble finding a decent and yet affordable rental in Portland? You’re not alone. Portland had the lowest vacancy rate out of the 75 largest U.S. cities for the first half of 2011, according to the U.S. Census Bureau—that means landlords can raise rents—and their standards— when filling their units. Ari Rapkin, co-director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, says the low vacancy rates make it even more difficult for Oregonians to find affordable housing. Go to oregoncat.org for some tips on how to land an apartment—such as dressing like you’re going to a job interview and leaving misbehaving children at home. Last month, WW exposed the owner of a shady business that charged people $39 to have their mugshots removed from the Web (“Mugshot Profiteers,” WW, Aug. 24, 2011). Portlander Kyle Ritter took the pay button off his site, pdxmugshots.com, and others he runs across the country. Well, he’s back—sort of. His site now advertises removemymug. com that charges $99 to remove mugshots. Ritter says he’s out of the mugshot-clearing business. “Removemymug.com is an advertiser,” Ritter says in an email. “We do not operate the website and we have no stake in it.” Turns out many Portlanders who’ve joined the backyardpoultry bandwagon weren’t exactly clear on the whole cycle-of-life thing. Hence an upcoming seminar on dealing with a “sensitive” subject: “chicken end-of-life issues.” Karen Wolfgang, co-owner of Independence Gardens (tagline: “We help you DIY”), which sets out to help in-over-their-head urban farmers, says many people don’t know how to handle hens that have passed their prime egg-laying years. Owners often discover they lack the guts to butcher their pet chicken. “I have heard of people maybe ‘accidentally’ leaving the chicken coop door open,” she says—letting the raccoons have their way. Wolfgang’s Sept. 27 seminar will provide referrals to a reputable hen “retirement home”—or tips on wielding a hatchet. The $20 seminar runs from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Urban Farm Store, 2100 SE Belmont St. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt.
GOT A GOOD TIP? CALL 503.445.1542, OR EMAIL NEWSHOUND@WWEEK.COM
JAMES REXROAD
NEWS
ENTER THE HYPER SPACE: Rep. Jefferson Smith brings his frenetic style—and a busload of quirk—to the mayor’s race.
PLAYING THE WIRED CARD JEFFERSON SMITH STARTS THE MARATHON MAYOR’S RACE HALF-BLIND AND STUMBLING. HERE’S WHY HE COULD STILL CATCH UP. BY CO R E Y P E I N
cpein@wweek.com
State Rep. Jefferson Smith’s campaign for mayor isn’t off to an awe-inspiring start. “It’s going terrible,” Smith, an East Portland Democrat, told WW last week. “I’m about to run into a wall.” Literally. Smith woke up on his announcement day with an excruciating “corneal abrasion”—his eyeball had been scraped by a contact lens. He spent last week wearing a patch on his left eye. Smith has since admitted to an “atrocious” driving record, as he described it to WW, including a 2004 conviction for driving while suspended. “Luckily,” Smith says, “the mayor has a driver.” Then The Oregonian reported that Smith, 38, hadn’t voted regularly until 2002 when he started the Bus Project, a nonprofit devoted to getting young people to vote. His opponents, former City Commissioner Charlie Hales and businesswoman Eileen Brady, spent the summer raising money—$154,000 for Hales; $189,000 for Brady. A poll, Smith says, would reveal “most people wouldn’t know who I am.” He’s also untested in a big race. He’s famously scattered and frenetic, and some supporters say Smith’s two House terms haven’t prepared him for running City Hall. Yet Smith’s entry into the mayor’s race has already
Smith has had labor backing before. One of his closest political friends is Joe Baessler, a Bus Project board member who’s now the political director of Oregon AFSCME, representing 1,000 city workers. Baessler didn’t return WW’s calls but has shown his devotion to Smith before. “Screw off,” Baessler wrote in 2005 to a Bus Project changed the election in a big way. Hales and Brady got into the race to offer alternatives critic on BlueOregon. “[Y]ou should be on your knees to Mayor Sam Adams. But with Adams out, Hales and thanking god that Jefferson quit his six figure job in New Brady have lost their foil. Hales presents himself as the York to come back here and help start [the Bus Project].” safe and responsible choice—old-school, bricks-and-rail No union has endorsed a candidate yet, but their leadtracks. Brady’s narrative: An eco-conscious working-mom ers took notice of Smith’s entry. “No one was running before Smith stepped in that had any kind of real relasuccess story. Neither has generated much enthusiasm. Smith fills a void. He’s the “Keep Portland Weird” tionship with labor,” says Richard “Buz” Beetle, business candidate unafraid to swear in public or indulge in self- manager of Laborers Local 483, which represents 850 city deprecating humor. And he’s a hungry underdog. working, including Portland Parks Bureau employees. After graduating from Harvard Law, Smith put in short [Hales] has a lot of integrity. But he has no real understanding of labor unions. The same with stints at powerful firms in New York and the other candidate.” Portland before founding the Bus Project He also has a stronger grasp of new in 2001. Four years ago, he bought a house FACT: Smith’s father, R.P. (Joe) Smith, is a former state in outer Southeast Portland when the dismedia. Search for an entry on Hales or legislator and Umatilla County Brady on Wikipedia and you won’t find trict’s state rep, Jeff Merkley, was launchdistrict attorney. His stepmother, one. Instead you’ll get a flattering entry ing a successful campaign for U.S. Senate. Meredith Wood Smith, chairs the Democratic Party of Oregon. for “Jefferson Smith (Oregon politician).” Smith took Merkley’s seat unopposed. Smith, who was about $3,000 in the hole At 38, Smith is the youngest candibefore his announcement, has already date—Hales is 55 and Brady is 50—a difference he hopes to leverage by rallying the young-and- raised $31,000, according to this campaign. And he says critplugged-in demographic targeted by the Bus Project. His icisms of his lack of managerial experience are “bullshit.” “I’ve directly managed smaller budgets, and bigger campaign already has 1,504 Facebook followers—more budgets,” Smith says. “I placed talent directly for 10 years. than Brady and Hales combined. “A lot of people in my generation have taken for granted I managed the formation of a half-dozen organizations. I that this city is great and will always be great,” Smith says. pick good people. I would put my leadership capability up “If it’s great for another 30 years, it’ll be because our gen- against, how shall we say, other options.” We’ll have more than a year to find out. His presence eration, and the younger generation, makes it so.” He also gives hesitant labor unions someplace to send likely means one candidate won’t win a majority in the their money. Hales had a testy relationship with the fire- May 2012 primary, forcing a runoff the following Novemfighters’ union while in office. Brady has played up her co- ber. Given his start, Smith has little room to go anywhere but up. founder’s ties to New Seasons Market, a non-union store. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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In the past few weeks, Peter Geiger has played host in his backyard to two people who want to win a seat in the Oregon Legislature. He’s shown them his chicken coop, his heritage arugula and his sunflowers, and talked politics on the back deck of his Mount Tabor home. He’s getting even more invitations from candidates by email and by phone. “I’ve never been so popular in my whole life,” he says. Geiger is an unusual position of power at the moment. He’s a Democratic precinct committee person helping to decide who gets the House seat vacated Sept. 1 by Rep. Ben Cannon (D-Southeast Portland). That makes Geiger the target of an unseen campaign waged in the past few weeks by candidates trying to win his support. Right now, seven people want the seat once held by Cannon, appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber last month to be his top education adviser. The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners by the end of the month will choose Cannon’s replacement from a list of three to five finalists. The precinct committee persons pick the finalists. Candidates have been wooing them at coffee, tours, lunches—more attention than most voters will ever get. Wednesday night, Geiger and 28 other precinct committee persons—known as PCPs—convene at the Hollywood Senior Center to name a list of finalists. “You want to talk to the PCPs, get to know their issues, their concerns,” says Rob Milesnick, one of the candidates for Cannon’s seat. “You want to kind of get some idea of what at least part of your voting population is interested in.” Typically, the job of precinct committee person is obscure. They help organize during campaign seasons and get out the vote around Election Day.
Cannon’s House District 46 includes the Laurelhurst, North Tabor, Mount Tabor, South Tabor and Montavilla neighborhoods. The precinct committee persons include an architect, a lobbyist and a former probation officer. Voters registered with political parties elect the PCPs on the primary ballot. Tracy Nichols, a 51-year-old architect, says he never thought about getting involved in politics until a friend put his name on the ballot last year. “I got enough votes,” Nichols says, “and let me tell you, it doesn’t take too many.” Nichols has been sent résumés by candidates and received calls from two hoping to get together with him. He’s found all the attention a bit surprising. “I never thought that I’d help to choose a replacement for Ben Cannon,” he says. This kind of retail politics has created some unusual match-ups. Milesnick and Mike Delman ran against each other in a six-way primary in 2008 for the county commission seat held by Judy Shiprack. Delman lost to Shiprack in the general election; Milesnick never made it out of the primary. Milesnick recently came calling on Delman, a PCP. The two talked politics in Laurelhurst Park —Delman walking his border collie, Clinton, and Milesnick pushing his 9-month-old son in a stroller. Delman says they talked about health care, education and whether to build the Columbia River Crossing. “I look at it as being part of my duties,” Delman says—noting he’d already made up his mind. “I’m supporting Alissa.” That would be Alissa Keny-Guyer, a project manager at Oregon Solutions, a nonprofit sustainability group, and wife of Neal Keny-Guyer, CEO of Mercy Corps. Keny-Guyer recently found herself in back-toback lunches with PCPs at E.A.T. in Milepost 5 in the Montavilla neighborhood. One talked to her about arts funding, and the other gave her a walking tour and took her to a homeless services center. “Really sitting down with them and understanding their own experiences is a way to take a nine-month campaign and distill it into one month,” she says. The spotlight for PCPs ends Wednesday, and the prospect leaves some PCPs wishing politicians would pay this kind of attention to voters’ needs more often. “Citizens don’t get heard much,” said Veronica Broeth, a 62-year-old court service processor and former probation officer. “It’s neat to establish a relationship with someone in that position. Hopefully, I can give them a call someday and say, remember me? All citizens should have that relationship.”
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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CULTURE PHOTOS: JACOB GARCIA
NEWS
INCISIVE ARTISTRY: Emily Humphries, a Portland State student who is among a growing number of taxidermy hobbyists, prepares a crow for mounting.
THE RIGHT STUFFING FOR DO-IT-YOURSELF TAXIDERMISTS, HOPE IS A THING WITH FEATHERS— OR FUR AND SOMETIMES HORNS. BY S H A E H E A L E Y
shealey@wweek
Emily Humphries removes a frozen crow from her kitchen freezer, places it on a metal workbench in her garage and lights a scented candle. She draws a scalpel down the bird’s chest, pulls back the thin layer of skin and prepares to stuff it. Despite the candle, the smell of rotting carcass fills the air. A Portland State University film student from Spokane, Humphries recently had a mounted elk tattooed on her chest over the words taxis derma. She bartered with the tattoo artist in exchange for one of her works, a stuffed and mounted mole. Humphries, 22, is among a growing number of do-it-yourself taxidermists, many self-taught and working on roadkill or other dead animals they scavenge. Humphries, who says the hobby has become an obsession, recently finished a raccoon and a scrub jay. “I like the process of taking something,” she says, “seeing how it works, and then bringing it back to life.” Taxidermy has long been a staple for museums and the living rooms of hunters who want to show off their kills. It’s long been dismissed as a gruesome art that’s passé and cliché. But there’s been a resurgence of interest in the art—fueled by an eye for kitsch. It seems no hip restaurant or bar can go without a mounted animal head. “It’s morbid and weird, but there’s something classic about it,” says Brooke Weston, a Whole Foods chef whose taxi10
dermy was shown recently at the Globe on Southeast Belmont Street. “It’s appealing and hilarious and ironic.” John Janelli, a Florida taxidermist and vice president of the National Taxidermy Association, has also seen heightened interest in his field. He says the Internet has helped make how-to guides widely available as the art itself comes back in vogue. “Regular folks are rolling up their sleeves and getting into it,” he says. Paxton Gate, a natural sciences store on North Mississippi Avenue, has sold a lot of taxidermy since opening last year, often to bar and restaurant owners looking for signature pieces. “People tell us about projects that they’re doing with collected roadkill and animal bones,” says co-owner Andrew Brown. “There’s definitely a steady trend line increase in this stuff.” Debee Smith, a bartender at the Florida Room in North Portland, does freelance taxidermy at her small studio in Northeast. “It’s pretty incredible to be able to get up close to an animal that you would normally have no interaction with at all,” says Smith. “There’s something almost mystical about looking into the eyes of a beast like that.” Like many hobbyists and homegrown artists, Smith gets dead animals from the urban landscape. “I got a call from a girl who watched a squirrel get electrocuted and fall off a power line,” said Smith. “I was there in minutes.” Smith is a recent graduate of the Oregon Taxidermy School in Roseburg, founded in 2007 by Caleb May in response to intense interest in the art. May says he has had no trouble filling his five-week training course; costs can run $6,000. It’s $5,000 if you BYOA—bring your own animal. But the self-taught have no trouble get-
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
ting the key material to do the job. “Borax,” says Humphries. “Lots and lots of borax.” The white powdery mineral helps soak up blood and other fluids, and helps prevent hands from slipping while pulling muscles and tendons from the bone. The stuffing itself—shavings known as wood wool or excelsior—can be found at craft stores. Taxidermists then add glass eyes, paint and makeup. It helps to have a strong gut. To prepare the crow, Humphries hangs the bird from hooks. “At this point,” she says, “you sort of just pull the skin off like a sock.” She also recommends VapoRub under the nose to cut the smell. But it turns out taxidermy as a kitchentable hobby can be illegal without the proper OK from wildlife officials. Under state and federal law, only recreational trappers, licensed rehabilitators and educators with permits can pick up dead wildlife—even that squished opossum in front of your house. Other laws aimed to discourage poaching can also apply. But these permits go only so far. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act, for example, makes it a federal misdemeanor (up to six months in jail, and a maximum fine of $15,000) to possess any part of a protected bird, including a crow like the one Humphries worked on. The risks don’t discourage hobbyists. “I know I’m not doing some large-scale operation,” Humphries says, “so I don’t worry too much.” Not everyone sees taxidermy as a harmless art form. “We’d never preserve and display a beloved human family member,” Nicole Dao, spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wrote in a prepared statement in response to WW’s questions. “Photographs and video footage of animals in their natural habitat that show them interacting, playing, searching for food, and even relaxing, tell us far more about their behavior than a taxidermy display.”
Not surprisingly, PETA also takes a dim view of “Frankenstein”—an art form of mixing and matching animal body parts. A YouTube video demonstrating the steps to attach duck feet to a mouse body has more than 35,000 hits. “It’s a morbid and disrespectful hobby, like patching a bit of your dead grandmother’s foot onto the head of a stranger who was hit by a car, because you feel like it,” Dao says. Humphries doesn’t condone this kind of mash-up taxidermy. But she says many people reject what she calls the “hardcore PETA mentality.” She’s a vegan and animal lover who sees the art as respectful. “People in Portland seem to be really into using what they find and not being wasteful,” she says. “Egyptians used to preserve only the most important people, so really I’m honoring these animals.”
CREATURE ART: Squirrel and bird taxidermy by Brooke Weston.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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BY AA R O N M E S H
amesh@wweek.com
I saw the best mind of my generation, and he asked me to watch a crappy movie. Tom Bissell is not a household name in Portland. But in the two years he has lived here, teaching creative writing at Portland State University, he has quietly ranked among the most dexterous, savvy and chameleonic wordsmiths in the country. Bissell, 37, writes essays and short stories. His specialty— honed in five books, with another three on the way—is traveling to remote places and making them intensely personal. He has written about the environmental cataclysm of Uzbekistan’s Aral Sea, and his own mental collapse as a Peace Corps volunteer nearby. (“The world could be unevenly divided into those who diet and those who starve, those who gobble antidepressants and those who die of curable diseases such as tuberculosis.”) He has written about visiting Vietnam with his father to see the places where his Marine dad fought. (“The reason 12
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
this was becoming a stock scene in the literature of Americans in the new Vietnam was that a confrontation with the lingering costs of war was inevitable for every American who came here.[...] Even a broken heart is a cliché.”) On a lark, he and a friend wrote a book of fake DVD commentaries parodying political pundits like Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn arguing over movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. (“Zinn: You view the conflict as being primarily about pipe-weed, do you not?”) He is relentlessly prolific: In the weeks between my first handshake with Bissell in early August and the article you’re reading, he wrote a profile for The New Yorker, reviewed the new Nicholson Baker novel in GQ and published four lengthy essays at the au courant sports-andpop-culture website Grantland. In that same time, his story about a honeymoon gone wrong in Rome, “A Bridge Under Water,” was picked for The Best American Short Stories 2011 anthology. “Tom’s work,” says the novelist Jonathan Franzen, “reminds me of both William T. Vollmann and David Foster Wallace—he has some of Vollmann’s peripatetic daredeviltry and encyclopedic ambitions, and some of Wallace’s manic prose energy and in-touchness with his demons—but he sounds like nobody but himself. For a writer his age, that’s saying a lot.” When I arrived a month ago at the ground floor Pearl District apartment Bissell shares with girlfriend, Trisha
Miller, he didn’t want to talk about his literary triumphs. He wanted to discuss what he’s currently writing about: video games, and a very bad movie called The Room. “I started out writing about war and environmental catastrophe, and now I’m writing about cinematic catastrophe,” he mused, after preparing a lunch of lamburgers: mutton patties held together with feta cheese and cherry slices. Since the publication of his fifth book, Extra Lives— Random House launched a 15,000-copy paperback run last month—Bissell has become the national magazine industry’s go-to essayist on video games like Mass Effect 3 and Gears of War. At the same time, he has grown fixated on The Room—a 2003 movie notorious for its preposterous, fervent incompetence. Bissell has watched The Room at least 30 times. He is now collaborating with one of The Room’s supporting actors on a tell-all book about the making of the film. As a finishing move, Bissell informed Portland State last month that he was quitting his job to move to Los Angeles and become a screenwriter at a video-game development company. On the afternoon we met, Thomas Carlisle Bissell sat on his couch opposite two framed Harper’s covers with his name on them, watching a DVD of The Room on his plasma television—noticing for the first time that in the film’s opening sex scene the lead actress removes her lover’s necktie twice. “Sweetie,” he excitedly called upstairs to Miller, “I just found a new Room continuity error!” Is something seriously wrong with him? The Tom Bissell C.V.: Born in 1974 and raised in Escanaba, Mich., in the Upper Peninsula. English major at Michigan State; joined the Peace Corps in 1996. Deployed to Gulistan, Uzbekistan. Freaked out, flamed out, sent home. Worked as a book editor in New York City for most of his 20s. Returned to Uzbekistan in 2001 on a Harper’s assignment-cumbook deal. Published Chasing the Sea, ’03; God Lives in St. Petersburg and Other Stories, ’05; The Father of All Things: A Marine, His Son, and the Legacy of Vietnam, ’07. Moved to Estonia to write a book about the tombs of the 12 apostles. Began playing video games. Playing a lot of video games. Playing them for 10 hours a day, three days on end. Literary output essentially vanished for two years. Returned in 2009-10 with magazine pieces of video-game criticism; eventually published the lot as Extra Lives last year. The Tom Bissell look: a close-cropped shagginess, with a thick jaw and wide smile that lend him a friendly CONT. on page 15
DARRYL JAMES
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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HEAVENLY SWORD: Bissell was embedded with Marines in Iraq in 2005.
canine aspect; this, combined with his glasses and quiet erudition, recalls Mr. Peabody from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. His speech is rapid but deliberate, and the effect is one of initiation—as if he were trying to include others on his intellectual playground. The Tom Bissell mood: ambivalent about his career trajectory. He has become the leading critic of an art form he finds innovative and idiotic. He has penned that “any writer who is not interested in what we are now calling ‘video games’ is a bystander to one of the most important conceptual shifts between story and storyteller in a hundred years.” But he also writes in Extra Lives about the doubts raised by arguing about the storytelling economy of Left 4 Dead: “I then realized I was contrasting my aesthetic sensitivity to that of some teenagers about a game that concerns itself with shooting as many zombies as possible. It is moments like this that can make it so dispiritingly difficult to care about video games.” Extra Lives is the first book-length argument about whether video games can be art: In it, Bissell makes a case that interactivity—the game player making changes in the story with every push of the PlayStation console—is both an insurmountable problem and a liberating narrative sea change. Reviews of Extra Lives were mostly exultant, though Dwight Garner was one of the few naysayers in a New York Times review, saying he loved the writer but not the topic: “Reading it was like sitting on a hot tractor, mowing a big weedy field of Ambien.” In fact, Bissell wrote much of it on cocaine. He confessed this while once again sitting on his couch, in our second interview. He was chewing Nicorette gum—“My one lasting addiction; I will chew it ’til the day I die”—and playing Far Cry 2, a first-person shooter game set among mercenaries ravaging a post-colonial African country. Bissell, who has spent his share of time in war zones (he was embedded with Marines in Iraq in 2005), believes Far Cry 2 is a profound statement about “the behavioral and emotional consequences of being exposed to relentless violence.” At the moment, however, he was just wandering through the burning savanna. “The only chapter of Extra Lives that had no drug influence at all was the last one,” Bissell said softly. That chapter, titled “Grand Thefts,” is the best thing in an ambitious but uneven book: a grappling with intertwined binges on cocaine and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City—habits that
reached a nadir in 2008, when Bissell was living in Tallinn, Estonia, ostensibly writing his early-Christianity book but in fact traveling in a perpetual loop from ATM to Russian drug dealer to Xbox 360. Revisiting those nights, Bissell finds parallels between himself and his car-stealing avatar, Niko: “He was trying, he was doing his best, but he was falling into habits and ways of being that did not reflect his best self.” Bissell quit cocaine not long after Sept. 12, 2008: the day David Foster Wallace hanged himself. Wallace is the writer Bissell most obviously resembles—and has modeled himself after. “I probably stole more from him than any other writer,” Bissell has said. The two played chess several times, bonding over a shared fondness for dipping tobacco. “I was living in Estonia the day I found out David Wallace killed himself,” he said. “That was just one of the most terrifying thoughts possible. This person who wrote with so much joy and perceptiveness was in fact an incredibly tormented, dark soul who was willing to pay out to himself and everyone who loved him the ultimate punishment. The existential implications of that were so terrifying and so profound I kind of went into a tailspin.” He was frightened enough by his subsequent cocaine binge that, when he returned to Michigan, he attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. “And you’re not allowed to talk about what goes on in those meetings, but I will say that I went to one meeting and listened to people’s stories—most of which involved crystal methamphetamine—and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, I went to pieces living abroad in a fancy European country. I don’t belong here. My problems are manageable. I’m 37 years old, and I have neither the time nor the physical vitality to keep subjecting myself to this kind of stuff.’” His stimulants are now more benign: His refrigerator is stocked with bottles of Diet Dr. Pepper, and the pride of his spotless apartment is a $149 SodaStream Fizz home soda maker, which he uses to blend his own generic root beer and Diet Coke. “Substance abuse and I...I hope and I think that’s a story that is mostly over,” Bissell said as he bagged trash in his kitchen. “But you know what? I’ll say this: I think the Grand Theft Auto chapter in Extra Lives is one of the best things I’ve ever written, and I would happily go through every drug-induced terror and self-mutilation to have written that piece. Seems to me like a very fair bargain.” CONT. on page 16
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Bissell wrote the end of Extra Lives back in his hometown of Escanaba, leveling out of a depressive plunge. In the Upper Peninsula, he began dating Miller, a friend from high school. When PSU offered Bissell a teaching gig in its Master of Fine Arts program, he and Miller decided to move to Portland together. In Portland, he embraced his teacher’s role, sharing his vulnerabilities with other young writers. “He wrote seven- or eight-page letters in response to every story I turned in,” says Chelsea Bieker, an MFA student in his spring-semester fiction workshop. “He always used to ask if we felt ‘understood and well-served’ at the end of each workshop.” He also found The Room. Bissell’s second night in his Pearl District apartment was also the first night The Room ever screened theatrically in Portland. When he went for a walk around the block on Aug. 15, 2009, he found a crowd of 500 people waiting in line at Cinema 21 to watch a six-year-old movie. “It’s proof that you don’t have any fucking idea what life has in store for you,” Bissell said over Moroccan kebabs and beer before he took me to another late show of the movie. “The Room and Portland seem made for each other.” The Room was released in 2003, a self-funded project by Tommy Wiseau, a director of indeterminate Eastern European origins. He meant it as a statement about emotional betrayal. It became a Plan 9 From Outer Space for a generation looking for its own Rocky Horror Picture Show. The dreadfulness of Wiseau’s opus is obvious. Characters appear without introduction, speak without feeling and behave without motivation.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Wiseau himself plays the all-American hero, who seems more like a barbiturate-addled bouncer at a Budapest nightclub. The movie’s best performance is given by a gun-wielding drug dealer on screen for 90 seconds. Portland has embraced the movie with typical ironic ardor. Menomena drummer Danny Seim held private shows at his house before the Cinema 21 screenings began. The lobby of Cinema 21 is currently decorated with Tommy Wiseau bobbleheads and a poster explaining what audiences should shout at the screen. Bissell believes Portland’s love for The Room has something to do with the city’s rejection of conventional success. “The culture around The Room is this valorization of an indie, do-it-yourself aesthetic,” he said. “There’s a celebration of the outlaw aspects of The Room. But this is not just Portland: A large part of the [national] audience sees this film without trying to figure out what human sadness lurks underneath the surface of it.” The Room is a naked statement of Wiseau’s personal feelings. The plot (such as it is) is effectively a teenage boy’s self-pitying fantasy of how, if he killed himself, everyone would regret how mean they had been to him. The abject solipsism is an invitation for giggles. Many people have taken Wiseau up on that invitation. Bissell saw the opportunity for his great nonfiction novel. In August, Bissell started the book. He wrote 80 pages in a week. He has compared Wiseau to the hero of The Great Gatsby, another self-funded outsider seeking lost love. “Jay Gatski,” he chuckled. “Part of my goal with this book is to take those skinny-jeaned CONT. on page 19
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Oregon Public Broadcasting and the University of Oregon Present
FREE SCREENINGS! SEPTEMBER 27, 2011 Gala Season Premiere! Women, War & Peace: Pray the Devil Back to Hell Reception@5:30 PM, Film@6:00 PM
OCTOBER 11, 2011 Deaf Jam
A deaf teen discovers the power of American Sign Language poetry. Film@6:00 PM followed by panel and Q&A
NOVEMBER 8, 2011 We Still Live Here
The Wampanoag nation revive their native tongue. IX X VIII
V VI VII
DECEMBER 13, 2011 Lioness
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II III IV
Film@6:00 PM followed by panel and Q&A
War through the eyes of women on the frontlines in Iraq.
Film@6:00 PM followed by panel and Q&A
University of Oregon in Portland, 70 NW Couch Street
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21,2011 wweek.com
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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BISSELL’S FAVORITE FOLLY: A scene from The Room (with director Tommy Wiseau sprawled out). Bissell’s co-author, Greg Sestero, is at right.
hipsters and make them think twice about laughing at The Room too hard ever again.” As soon as Bissell’s girlfriend, Miller, arrived in Portland, he wanted her to view his Room DVD. She has now watched the movie 15 times. “What does he see in it?” says Miller, an actress now performing in the Artists Repertory Theatre production of God of Carnage. “Gosh. What does he not see in it? I just think he realizes…the 100 percent sincerity [with which] Tommy Wiseau makes every artistic decision in the film. I think a lot of creative people like us wish we had that much self-confidence.” Bissell published an essay in Harper’s last summer contemplating the film’s “sincerealism.” One of the readers was Greg Sestero, a male model who played The Room’s linchpin character Mark, Johnny’s turncoat best friend. Bissell and Sestero met in Los Angeles, and soon began work on a memoir of the actor’s fraught friendship with Wiseau (tentatively titled Locked Inside The Room, it’s slated to be published in 2013 by Simon & Schuster). Bissell kept the stories in a notebook titled “My Sestero Journey.” “I think Greg’s and my desire is the same: to write something first-rate about something fifthrate,” Bissell said. “At some point I kind of realized: This could be the novel I never write.” It sounded, I ventured, like Bissell was trying to create his In Cold Blood. “As pathetic as that sounds, that’s kind of how I’m trying to think of it, yeah,” he said. “I want it to be that riveting.” Two weeks ago, at Sellwood’s former funeral home-turned-concert venue the Woods, Bissell stood on the small stage for the music and literature weekend This! Fest and read a story about a blowjob. It was a passage from his story, “A Bridge Under Water,” which was selected for the Best American Short Stories 2011 collection. The selection—which described the giving of oral sex from the point of view of the female protagonist—was daring and funny and sad. “She wondered why they were otherwise getting along so well,” he read aloud to laughter from the audience, “and had the brief, horrified thought that maybe couples in newly dead marriages got along in a way akin to the cheerfulness of people about to kill themselves.” Get ready for more of that prose. McSweeney’s is preparing a book anthology of Bissell’s magazine pieces, Magic Hours. He has finished 1,300 pages of his travelogue and cultural
history about the tombs of the 12 apostles. Entitled Bones That Shine Like Fire, it is, “I hope, a kind of return to form.” At the same time, he’s preparing to leave Portland for an entirely new kind of writing: videogame scripts. After teaching his last PSU course this fall, Bissell plans to move to California in the winter. He won’t say the name of the video company or what exactly he’s doing—he has signed nondisclosure agreements in “an industry notoriously adamant about keeping secrets.” I asked Franzen, whose novels include last year’s much-lauded Freedom, if he thought Bissell was wasting his gifts on The Room and video games. “Because he is a true talent, I’ll follow Tom wherever his interests take him,” Franzen wrote in an email. “Some of the recent work he’s done comes out of his need to make a living, and my worry is not that he’s squandering his talent but, perhaps, that he’s reining in some of the linguistic heedlessness and inventiveness that made his work so distinctive in the first place.” After Bissell finished his reading at the Woods, I told him what Franzen had said. He looked slightly wounded. “The commercial contingencies of being a writer are cruel and unforgiving,” he said. “Look, I’m still writing stuff that’s more in line with the other stuff I’ve done, but I nearly went bankrupt writing that stuff. I was $20,000 in debt, and didn’t have a place to live, and came back from an intercontinental extended vacation having fucked my life up trying to pursue that stuff alone.” Bissell then told a story that contained something grand and something silly, and took measure of himself. “I happened to see Spider-Man 2 and Red in the same week,” he began. “Alfred Molina played Mark Rothko in that play [Red] when it was on Broadway. He’s amazing as Rothko. It’s one of the most electrifying performances I’ve ever seen. He just filled the stage with force and vigor and intelligence. And then you see him do Doctor Octopus.” His voice, which had been rushing excitedly ahead, hushed. “I think Alfred Molina is a great actor, and I don’t think he had any second thoughts about being Doctor Octopus. I think he tried to do Doctor Octopus in the most humane, interesting way he could. And I thought to myself, ‘Shit, maybe my video-game stuff is my Doctor Octopus.’ If I could be lucky enough to have a Doctor Octopus, I hope this is it.’”
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ocom.edu Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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North Coast Seafood Festival October 1-2 Indoors at Tillamook County Fairgrounds Sat. 11am-6 pm Sun.11am-5 pm Music and dance from around the world International food court featuring seafood Oregon microbreweries and wineries Marketplace of select Oregon Coast artists Close to Home
Adults $8 - Seniors $5 - Students 6-17 $5 503-398-5223 - www.northcoastseafoodfestival.com
WW presents
I M A D E T HIS WW’s free marketplace for locally produced art. this Week: ruth shively’s Girl in St. PeterSburG. p. 54
Sponsors:
the big story america is a story that never ends
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
experience over 150 stories from the american narrative at wordstock · october 6–9, 2011 bewordstock.org · oregon convention center
WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?
STREET
SHORT CIRCUIT CUT-OFF JEANS ARE CROPPING UP EVERYWHERE. P H OTOS BY MOR GA N GR EEN -H OPKIN S A N D LANA MACN AU GHTON WITH SA MI GASTO N
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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FOOD: Polish off some Polish food. MUSIC: Love in a time of radiation. BARS: Dig a pony, do a road hog. COMEDY: Sweat gets sweaty.
Enjoy family recipes (vegan & gluten-free, too)
Happy Hour all day Belly Dancer Fri & Sat 221 SW Pine • 503-459-4441
small stories too
america is a story that never ends
experience over 150 stories from the american narrative at wordstock october 6–9, 2011 · bewordstock.org oregon convention center
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SCOOP GOSSIP THAT’S ON A MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR. LIKE A THAI-GER: Thai restaurant tycoon Andy Ricker (Pok Pok, Ping, Whiskey Soda Lounge) has announced he will be opening a third eatery on Southeast Division Street. Ricker has scored the building soon to be vacated by Kappaya Restaurant at Southeast 33rd Avenue, where he plans to open a restaurant based on a Thai “khao kaeng” (rice and curry) stall. Baby palates who cry about the lack of familiar curries at Ricker’s other locales will be pleased to hear the proposed menu includes “kaeng kiaw waan kai” (green chicken curry) and “kaeng phet pet yaang” (red duck curry), alongside lesser-known dishes, including “khanom jiin,” the less-famous cousin of khao soi: fermented rice vermicelli served with various soupy curries and a variety of accoutrements, including, sometimes, blood cakes. 24-HOUR PARTY PEOPLE: PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival wrapped up on the weekend, coming to a late but powerful climax with this year’s most-talked-about show, All the Hours in the Day: a 24-hour monologue by solo performer Mike Daisey. Enduring the show for WW was Mead Hunter, who reported ending up “in my own private magical mystery tour, going in and out of consciousness,” but ultimately declared: “I feel like I’ve lived through an extraordinary moment with hundreds of Portlanders...that will never be repeated.”
NOT EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND: Todd Haynes and Jonathan Raymond were robbed! The Portland filmmaking duo, nominated for HBO’s Mildred Pierce, was shut out at Sunday’s Emmys—they lost the best writing, best directing and best miniseries categories to a bunch of Britishers who made the markedly inferior PBS miniseries Downton Abbey. Actually, we haven’t seen Downton Abbey, but we are told it is seven hours long and contains multiple scenes about pudding. The silver lining on this farce of justice: Kate Winslet’s performance as Mildred won, and Haynes and Raymond will be irate enough to move forward on making their tea party movie. AN HEIR TO THE THRONE: Cute alert! Jared and Brianne Mees,, the couple behind the adorable downtown shop Tender Loving Empire and the hotshit record label of the same name (see page 27 to read about TLE’s latest signing, Radiation City), are expecting a baby. WW music editor Casey Jarman has taken the liberty of pre-emptively awarding the couple’s debut child first place in WW’s 2030 Best New Band poll (ugh, it’s all about who you know). He also suggests the following baby names: Casey (if it’s a boy) or Casey (if it’s a girl). 22
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
WILLAMETTE WEEK
HEADOUT
WEDNESDAY SEPT. 21 [MUSIC] BLUE SCHOLARS, BAMBU, THE PHYSICS, SERGE SEVERE Long before Macklemore blew up, the Blue Scholars were paving the way for Seattle hip-hop to enter the national mainstream. With this year’s Cinemetropolis, the Scholars prove they’ve got a lot more political, electro-tinged boom-bap to go around. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell, 284-8686. 9 pm. $18. All ages.
FRIDAY SEPT. 23
ZIBA’S BIG IDEAS Thirty-one bicycle designers from across the nation will converge on Portland this Friday for the second Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Design Challenge. Their goal: To prove they’ve built the ultimate urban utility bike in a 50-mile field test and win the $3,000 grand prize. The requirements are tough—all designs must incorporate lights, locks, fenders, cargo and some sort of kickstand—and the competition is fierce, with renowned framebuilders Chris King, Joseph Ahearne and Renold Yip in the running. In addition to the individual competitors, this year’s Challenge will showcase three “Creative Collaborations” between industrial design firms and bicycle builders, including Portland’s Signal Cycles and Ziba Design. To kick off the design process, Ziba held a companywide brainstorming session. Here are some ideas that didn’t make the final design. To see the ones that did, head to Oregon Manifest this Friday. BEN WATERHOUSE. SEE IT: Bikes entered in the 2011 Oregon Manifest Constructor’s Challenge will be on display Friday, Sept. 23, from 7 to 10 pm at Pacific Northwest College of Art, 1241 NW Johnson St. The winning bikes and the Creative Collaboration projects will be displayed Sept. 27 to Oct. 29 at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, 724 NW Davis St. See oregonmanifest.com for details.
[COMEDY] MICHAEL IAN BLACK Between The State, Stella and Wet Hot American Summer, Michael Ian Black has earned more legit comedy stripes than his lesser ventures (VH1? Really?) could ever destroy. His live show is irreverent, dirty and often befuddling. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of. 21+.
SATURDAY SEPT. 24 [OPERA] PORTLAND OPERA The company kicks off its season with an opera’s greatest hits concert, featuring music from Aida, Carmen and other warhorses. See the show for free in a simulcast on a colossal screen outside Keller Auditorium. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 241-1802. Street fair at 5 pm, concert and simulcast at 7:30 pm. Free-$250. All ages. [MUSIC] JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY This Tulsa-based quartet has made a rep on the strength of its appealing jammy-jazz improvs and rock covers. But its 21st album, Race Riot Suite, ably follows the example of other ambitious jazz composers like Ellington, Mingus and Marsalis. The Goodfoot, 2845 SE Stark St., 2399292. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
SUNDAY SEPT. 25 [MUSIC] MASTER MUSICIANS FROM SOUTHERN CHINA Along with local musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments, this benefit boasts a special treat: the rarely heard music of southern China, performed by three visiting master musicians. Lan Su Chinese Garden, Northwest 3rd Avenue and Everett Street, 228-8131. 7 pm. $22$25. All ages. [THEATER] ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS Third Rail Rep screens a recorded performance of the National Theatre’s production of Richard Bean’s adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters, which The Guardian called “one of the funniest productions in the National’s history.” World Trade Center Theater, 121 SW Salmon St., 235-1101. 1 and 5 pm. $15-$20. [BOOKS] BANNED BOOKS READING As part of the ACLU’s Banned Books Week, Powell’s hosts an evening of forbidden readings. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 2284651. 7:30 pm. Free. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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The geeks, sportos, motorheads, dweebs, dorks & buttheads all adore us. They think we’re one righteous wing joint.
FOOD & DRINK = WW Pick. Highly recommended. PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20-$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: KELLY CLARKE. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22 Junior Ambassador Book and Ice Cream Launch
1708 E Burnside • 503-230-9464 & 4225 N Interstate • 503-280-9464
Way back when food carts were still considered roach coaches (you know, like, 2007), Rudy Speerschneider commandeered a weedy lot on North Albina Street and set up his principality of Mostlandia, a country housed in a tiny orange cart that specialized in “panwiches” and making fabulous, small-batch ice creams out of bizarre ingredients, from smoked salmon and corn on the cob to gingersnaps with basil. These days, the cart has closed but the legend lives on, both in the form of the frozen treats at Mississippi’s Liberty Glass bar and as an art installation first featured at the TimeBased Art Festival last year. This week, Speerschneider adds author to his title, with his book: The History of Junior Ambassador’s Food Cart: A Mostlandian Venture. The launch party goes down in the NoPo lot where it all started. Revelers are promised live music and free tastes of “Next Batch of the Universe Ice Cream,” which is basically a scoop-by-scoop history of Speerschneider’s greatest hits packed in one container. Buy the book and you get a free pint. 4734 N Albina St. 6-8 pm. Free.
Indulge at the Jupiter
“DreamTENT” once more for a giant foodiegasm of eastside eats and drinks, which includes everybody from restaurants like Beaker & Flask, Laurelhurst Market, Tabla and Cheese Bar to food carts including Whiffies, Tamale Boy, Lardo and Hot Pink Taco. Aaand a giant assortment of spirits, beers and wines. Plus, rooms are 25 percent off if you collapse into a food coma at the end of the night. Jupiter Hotel, 800 E Burnside St., 2309200. 5:30 pm. $45. Tickets at indulgeatthejupiter.eventbrite.com.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 23 Rheinlander Oktoberfest
Yes, you can celebrate Oktoberfest at countless watering holes across Portland. But can you celebrate the German beer fest in a giant tent adjacent to a building that looks like the inside of a cuckoo clock, where people actually wear lederhosen and play accordions on a nightly basis? Thought not. Der Rheinlander pours all the requisite Munich beers, hosts live polka, doles out brauts, etc. And a portion of your cover charge benefits the Northwest Down Syndrome Association. Rheinlander German Restaurant, 5035 NE Sandy Blvd., 288-5503. 5-10 pm Friday-Saturday, Sept. 23-24. 21+ (all ages noon-5 pm Saturday). Adults $5, seniors $4, kids 6-12 $2.
The Jupiter Hotel hoists its
LIZ DEVINE
EAT MOBILE
FRY A LITTLE: Mira Kowalska prepares her zucchini cakes..
MIRA’S LADLE
“People think Polish food is heavy,” says Mira Kowalska with a little smile. “But it’s healthy.” Well, at least it is the way this Southern Poland native cooks it. She boils up big batches of slightly spicy, pepper-and-bean-packed, vegan, gluten-free leczo chili ($4-$10) so hearty that adding meat would be superfluous. She only buys eggs from “the lady who treats her chickens like pets” at Brookside Farm, and those beets in the shocking pink barszcz ($3.50-$9) were at the farmers market less than 24 hours ago. An out-of-work architect, Kowalska actually designed the Order this: A bowl of that exceladorable, red-trimmed wood lent leczo over rice ($6) and zucchini cakes ($6) will feed two. cart herself, and for the past Best deal: A cup of the everfour months she’s been filling rotating soup ($3.50). Last Hawthorne-area stomachs with Thursday it was silky curried sweet potato. Friday it was zurek very good Polish soups, hot dogs made with fermented rye flour. with kraut ($3.50), and potato pancakes ($5). Although Mira’s potato cakes are tasty, her zucchini cakes ($6) are even better: pale green discs spotted with crunchy griddle marks that sploosh in your mouth. Dunk them in sour cream and applesauce for a zingy hot/cold contrast. KELLY CLARKE. EAT: Mira’s Ladle, 4031 SE Hawthorne Blvd. (across from New Seasons), mirasladle.com. Noon-7 pm Wednesday-Sunday. $. 24
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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Mongolian Beef Skewers Pan Seared Seared Ahi Ahi Tuna Tuna Steamed Mussels Steamed Mussels Cheeseburger Cheeseburger Turkey Sandwich Turkey Caesar Salad Smoked Salmon Smoked Salmon Plate Plate Buffalo Chicken Wings Turkey Quesadilla Turkey Turkey Enchilada Black Black Bean Nachos Bay Shrimp Cocktail Soup Du Jour Bowl Bowl Fried Calamari Artichoke Spinach Spinach Dip Chips Dip & & Chips
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A quintet of Portland’s super-pow-
ALL DaY!
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Viridian Farms is a bucolic wonderland of fancy Spanish peppers and
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ered lady chefs teams up to fight childhood hunger at one tasty benefit. The lineup is pretty amazing: Beast’s Naomi Pomeroy, Sarah Pliner from Aviary, Din Din maestro Courtney Sproule, and Paley’s dessert maven Kristen Murray will join chef Sarah Schafer at Irving Street Kitchen to create a fivecourse dinner, plus cocktails from Mint’s Lucy Brennan, lots of local wines, and silent and live auctions. At $150, the event’s not cheap, but well worth the money since proceeds help Share Our Strength fill the grumbling bellies of our nation’s schoolkids. Irving Street Kitchen, 701 NW 13th Ave., 343-9440. 6 pm. $150. Call 202-649-4356, email rcanter@strength.org or visit tinyurl. com/3zyksdg for tickets.
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Northwest Portland bistro Cafe Nell says happy birthday to itself with its third annual clambake, complete with seafood stew, Ninkasi brews and live music (and chefs in shortshorts again, we hope). This year, all proceeds from the party go to Mercy Corps Northwest. Cafe Nell, 1987 NW Kearney St., 295-6487. 5 pm. $30. Tickets at Cafe Nell. 21+.
flowering herbs and fruit trees. The Portland Culinary Alliance takes over the Dayton farm for its summer picnic, with chef Scott Ketterman cooking up a giant Valencia paella packed with rabbit, shrimp and snails over a wood fire. There’s also fried padron peppers and heirloom tomato salad. Viridian Farms, 18525 SE Lower Island Road, Dayton, 8307086. 5 pm. PCA members $30, non-members $40. Bring a picnic blanket or a lawn chair. Tickets at pdxca.org.
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Dinner Jazz 6-8p
Thur Sept 22 Lucas Cozby Fri Sept 23 Steve Mariman Sat Sept 24 tbd
Friday & Saturday 9pm -11:30pm Free
503.228.5686 503.228.5686
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411 SW SW 3rd Avenue 411 Avenue
ALL IN THE FAMILY GRANDPA’S IS FULL OF GRANDMAS (WHO THINK YOU LOOK A LITTLE SKINNY).
10 low tables and a little four-stool bar in the back that serves Polish beers exclusively (Zywiec and Okocim are two of the more popular). The pierogi ($6) were a beautiful callback BY M AT T H E W KO R F H AGE food@wweek.com to the form—I prefer the kraut and mushroom ones—as were the golabki ($6, stuffed with pork, Some of my fondest memories from my time in rice and onion), which I hadn’t tasted in any form Chicago are of the Spartan, hole-in-the-wall, in Portland, and the wonderful potato pancakes train-car Polish cafes in the northwest part of ($5, served only on Fridays). Less preferred are the city. These were Polish community gather- the traditional Polish hardtack rye slabs that ing places centered on the almighty pierogi (soft come with each meal. I politely buttered them, dumplings stuffed with potatoes and cheese, then left them alone. The menu is all rustic, famor with any number of meats), kielbasa and ily-style fare, served at prices that make it possible to sample the entire golabki (stuffed cabbage or small menu for about $20. pepper). English speakers As always, the Polish were perfectly welcome— Order this: The hefty combination plate ($10) and potato pancakes ($5) to split, community shows up in though sometimes merely plus a bottle each of zimne piwo (Polish for numbers. On our way out tolerated—but the center “cold beer”). the door on our first visit, a was always the community Best deal: It’s all cheap. If you complain about a single price here, I will personally quite elderly Polish woman itself, which if you came come over to your table and slap you in the was struggling to stand from often enough, you were face with a sausage. I’ll pass: The nalesniki (farmer’s cheese her chair. My companion allowed to join. crepe with strawberry purée, $5) sport an asked if she could help, and I hadn’t expected to find earthy sweetness I’ve not yet understood. was repeatedly, smilingly anything similar in Portrebuffed. “You’ll…fall…me,” land, but Grandpa’s Cafe, tucked demurely away at the backside of a Polish said the woman. She wasn’t refusing out of pride community center on North Interstate Avenue, or politeness, but simple untrusting self-preseris a warm and inviting exemplar of the form, if vation. That, precisely, is the Polish spirit (and also an occasional one—it opens only for Friday Polish grandmother) I know and love best. dinners and Sunday brunch. After swinging past the sign and down a back stair into a nigh on EAT: Grandpa’s Cafe, 3832 N Interstate Ave. (entrance in rear), 360-936-6564, portlandpolonia. unmarked door, you enter a downright domestic org. Dinner 4-9 pm Friday, brunch 10 am-3 pm interior of hearth and paneled wood, with about Sunday. $.
5515 SW Canyon Court 503-297-5568 www.sylvansteakhouse.com
Bar & Grill
Stimulate your taste buds! Succulent steaks, mouth-watering burgers, delicious sandwiches ... and so much more! 12434 SW Broadway St., Old Town Beaverton 503-641-7474 I www.broadwaysaloon.com Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
full liquor bar 14 domestic & micro brews on tap all lottery games 8 big-screen TVs
POLISH PLATE: The combination offers pierogi, hunter’s stew, kielbasa and golabki for $10.
gourmet hamburgers & hot sandwiches excellent lunch specials happy hour
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836 N RUSSELL • PORTLAND, OR • (503)
CRYSTAL
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1624 N.W. Glisan • Portland 503-223-4527
CRYSTAL BALLROOM
LIVE STAGE & BIG SCREEN! WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21
14th and W. Burnside
80s VIDEO DANCE ATTACK
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 CRYSTAL BALLROOM 9 PM $5 21+OVER WITH VJ KITTYROX
MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS
COLBIE CAILLET ANDY GRAMMER
SAT OCT 8 ALL AGES 8 P.M. SHOW
“UNFILTERED” INDIE ROCK SHOWCASE!
LYNNAE GRYFFIN JESSIE ARON
New album MIRROR TRAFFIC out now!
(FROM OCEAN AGE) FREE
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 5:30 p.m. is “eagle time” • free
JESSE YOUNG
THUR OCT 13 ALL AGES
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Ty Segall
FREE
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 5:30 p.m. is “eagle time” • free
REVERB BROTHERS
MATT BROWN SARA JACKSON-HOLMAN PERRY ACKER SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
FRI OCT 14 ALL AGES
4:30 p.m. is “eagle time” • free
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FRI DEC 16 ALL AGES
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9/21 Backfence PDX Storytelling 9/24 & 10/1 School of Rock Presents 9/26 OE History Talk 9/29 PDX Jazz: Joe Zawinul Tribute 10/7–12 Reel Music Festival 10/8 Miz Kitty’s Parlour 10/9 Crafty Underdog 10/18 & 11/15 OMSI Science Pub 10/22 Ryan Montbleau Band 11/5 Deer Tick 11/8 Fall Fly Fishing Spectacular Call our movie hotline to find out what’s playing this week!
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SEPT. 21 - 27 PROFILE
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Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and socalled convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines. Editor: CASEY JARMAN. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, go to wweek.com/submitevents and follow submission directions. All shows should be submitted two weeks or more in advance of event. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: cjarman@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21 The Caps, Your Rival, Larry Yes [SUNNY POP] You’ll love the Caps or you’ll hate them. You might love the lighthearted pop tunes like satirical band biography “Breaking Up” or silly love song “All I Can Do.” You might hate the cuteness of sugary, self-conscious anthems like “Bike City” (tongue in cheek as it may be). You might also decry frontman Chris Worth for sounding a bit like Randy Newman if the latter had fronted a power-pop band. The local quartet, which is at its best on downtempo, heart-on-sleeve love songs like “LA Moon” and “Paralyzed” (sample lyric: “When you got your job at the Tastee Freez/ It made me feel like a melted sundae”), is plenty goofy and lovable on brand-new disc Have a Blast, and if you want my two cents, I’d say it’s always nice to hear a group that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Besides, similarly pop-centric opener Your Rival is a must-see. CASEY JARMAN. Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 248-2900. 8 pm. $5.
Junior Boys, Young Galaxy [WAGES OF SYNTH] Caught between the glacial distance of their lovely but slow-to-thaw recordings (crystalline waves crashing gently above the burbling beats of a top 40 R&B masterclass) and the limitations of a hardscrabble hometown (Junior Boys frontman Jeremy Greenspan a proud son of Hamilton—Ontario’s Pittsburgh), the electro-pop duo seemed fated to remain sweethearts of the blogosphere. Then the newly released fourth album, It’s All True, gave teeth to the songs’ hooks and weight to Greenspan’s suddenly soulful vocals. JAY HORTON. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $16. 21+.
Unifactor: Tunnels, ASSS, DJ Cenobites [NOT QUITE POP] Talking about his solo project Tunnels recently, Nick Bindeman said it was his chance to explore the idea of pop songwriting. But if you’ve heard his work with his other projects, like Eternal Tapestry and Jackie O Motherfucker, you’d have to guess that Tunnels is a lot less straightforward than that. For his recent release, The Blackout, Bindeman took snippets of drum parts from YouTube clips, looped them and built them into sharp little bits of space junk. Poppy, yes—but also dark and foreboding enough to keep you shivering a little as you grin with joy. ROBERT HAM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Blue Scholars, Bambu, The Physics, Serge Severe [SEATTLE STATESMEN] Northwest hip-hop champions Blue Scholars returned this year, after a brief hiatus, with Cinemetropolis—a self-described “visual soundtrack” album full of complex concept tracks relating social issues to various individuals or places that the group has found influential in its nine-year run. The album was a massive and largely successful effort that showed some growth, especially for producer Sabzi, whose electrotinged break beats breathed new life into the group’s sound. To push the project, the duo is coming back to Portland, where it played some of its first shows back in 2002. Of course, Blue Scholars’ concerts have changed a bit since then, going from mostly empty basement venues to sweatdrenched dance affairs crammed with college kids. MC Geo always manages
TOP FIVE
CONT. on page 29
BY CAS E Y JA R MA N
ALBUMS RELEASED ON THE SAME DAY AS NEVERMIND. On Sept. 24, 1991, the rock world changed forever. That’s the day Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magik. And, less notably, some Seattle hair band called Nirvana made its major-label debut. Here are five other CDs/cassettes that dropped on that fateful day. John Prine, The Missing Years A fine effort from the treasured songwriter. “Jesus: The Missing Years” is a fan-favorite; “Everything Is Cool” is among Prine’s prettiest tunes. A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory I daresay Tribe’s second record—jam-packed with classics like “Buggin’ Out” and “What?”—was the best album released this day. Blur, Leisure The first effort from Blur didn’t make a huge splash in the U.S., but it did feature standout single “She’s So High” and other shoegazey gems. The Cult, Ceremony This disc sounded a bit outdated even in ’91, and it is not considered the Cult’s best work. Still, Ian Astbury goes nuts—David Lee Rothstyle—on “Heart and Soul.” Kid ’n Play, Face the Nation The famed hip-hop duo tried best to remain positive on the eve of House Party 2, promoting marriage, anti-violence and black unity with easy-to-understand raps. Alas, the tide was changing: Face the Nation would be Kid ’n Play’s last album together.
NEW ROMANTICS WE BUILT THIS RADIATION CITY ON...LOVE? BY CASEY JA R MA N
cjarman@wweek.com
There are intangibles in Radiation City’s debut record, The Hands That Take You: Ghosts in the machine that cast dark shadows and shoot warm jetstreams across tracks like the skittering, electro-soulful “The Color of Industry” and the Doors-esque brain-melter “Phantom Lady.” There’s something buzzing, deep in the mix, that makes this Portland quartet the most exciting young band in the pop scene. It sounds tacky, but that unidentifiable element—a God particle of pop, if you will—is love. There was a spark of it when Radiation City’s Cameron Spies and Lizzy Ellison first met in November 2009. “Our mutual friend introduced us and she was like, ‘You guys are both musicians, you should hang out,’” Spies says, impersonating the friend with a devious accent. Spies, talking from behind the wheel of Radiation City’s van near Davis, Calif., sounds like he wasn’t ready to start a new band at the time—let alone start a relationship. “I had just broken up with my girlfriend and (Ellison) had just broken up with her boyfriend—it was kind of like we were being set up.” “Whenever I used to meet guys that I knew were musicians, I would get worried that they’d play me their music and it would suck,” Ellison says. “But I heard his music and was overjoyed.... We just kind of fell in love immediately.” Love, though, was a logistical problem. Ellison had just moved back to Portland after six years in Chicago, but Spies was only on vacation, visiting family for Thanksgiving after relocating to San Francisco, where he was active in the music scene. “I pestered him for about eight months to move back to Portland and he was hesitant, because he had grown up here and didn’t want to move back immediately,” Ellison says. You can hear Spies’ hesitation fading on Radiation City’s “Park,” a song he wrote while living in the Bay Area and contemplating a move back home. “You might still feel a thing after all this/ Chances are looking good,” a shaky-voiced Spies reassures himself over guitar strums as the
song opens. He sounds frozen on the edge of a highdive. When the band joins him shortly thereafter— crashing together like a more confessional version of the Shins on a shoestring budget—it’s sonic confirmation that Spies has made the right choice. It all worked out in the real world, too. Before long, Spies and Ellison were living Portland’s variation on the American Dream: The couple found themselves sharing their two bands—Spesus Christ and Soap Collectors; similarly named yet independent of one another, a suspicious coincidence that Ellison insists is just one of many—while running a well-regarded all-cassette label called Apes Tapes. Spesus Christ and Soap Collectors were unusually polished Portland bands strewn with electronic elements—the former allowing for sharp edges; the latter softened by Ellison’s glowing self-harmonies—but as the couple began collecting misfit material for their unnamed new group, it started shaping up as something moodier and more palatable than either previous group. Radiation City’s split cassette with Your Canvas, released by Apes Tapes last August, presented a project that seemed fully mature and thrilling before it even played a show. This year has been a bit of a whirlwind. Radiation City grew from duo to trio in early 2011 with the addition of drummer Randy Bemrose, and later added Matt Rafferty on bass to complete the band’s current incarnation as a quartet. It recorded five new tracks and compiled a stellar full-length in February, then announced a deal with respected Portland record label Tender Loving Empire (Typhoon, And And And, Y La Bamba) in June. The debut album will be re-released on TLE at this Saturday’s Doug Fir show. Radiation City, wrapping up a five-week tour that found it dodging tropical storms and playing alongside buzz band Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. for a stretch, has taken its growth spurts and increasingly high profile in stride. The live show is shockingly good, and the band is already working on new material—with all four members contributing songwriting and vocals—that it plans to release next spring. And it is indeed love, Ellison confirms, that makes this band so good. “We love each other so much, and that is really the glue between us,” she says. “I feel like I hear a lot of people say that, but it’s absolutely true. It’s kind of like dating three guys.” CASEY JARMAN. SEE IT: Radiation City plays Doug Fir on Saturday, Sept. 24, with Blouse and Aan. 9 pm. $8. 21+. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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Pat Travers Band
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DK Stewart & Peter Dammann FrIday OctOber 14th • 8pm • 21+ peter’s rOOm@rOseland
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September 29th • the roSeland • 9pm • all ageS
Ziggy Marley FORWARD TO LOVE TOUR Sat oct 1St • roSeland • 9pm • all ageS
THE BANGLES nOvember 6th rOseland 8pm • 21+
HALLOWEEN NITE
Krizz Kaliko & More! october 30th • roSeland • 8pm • all ageS
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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SAFEWAY-MUSIC MILLENNIUM
WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY PROFILE
HEYLOVERMUSIC.COM
to promote social awareness while your girlfriend shakes her ass. Los Angeles-born rapper Bambu— who just released an album with Geo—and the Physics, creators of the Northwest summertime anthem “Seward Park,” join them. REED JACKSON. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 9 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.
MUSIC
Rocking Americana that veers between the traditional and the experimental
KARL BLAU
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22 Storyhill, Mare Wakefield [FOLK] No record advertisement will ever begin with “Remember Vertical Horizon?” But from the sound of things, the boys of Storyhill do—and fondly, too. Is it just me? What is it about a male acoustic harmony duo that smells of overearnestness, or at least an overeagerness to please? If you lack such prejudices, these guys certainly do sing beautifully together, though no individual song leaves much of a lasting impression. Opening is Nashville’s smooth-voiced Mare Wakefield, long a Eugene-dwelling local favorite, touring on new album Meant to Be. JEFF ROSENBERG. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 7196055. 8 pm. $15. All ages (minors must be accompanied by parent or guardian).
Pat Metheny, Larry Grenadier [JAZZ ICON] Pat Metheny is one of many jazz artists that I dismissed out of hand for a number of years. I locked him in a closet with the rest of the fusion hippies and soft-jazz icons that were cluttering up my personal landscape of real artists. Then I happened to hear his terrifying and brilliant 1994 album, Zero Tolerance for Silence, which found the guitarist working in frantic noise and overmodulated solos. I’ve since explored earlier and later works and found beauty and subtle humor in Metheny’s fleet technique and his crafty melodies. You win, Metheny. I still refuse to give the Rippingtons the time of day. ROBERT HAM. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. $45-$85. 21+.
Unwritten Law, Ninjas With Syringes, In Bloom, Rendered Useless [RADIO ROCK] Best remembered (if remembered at all) for its 2002 modern-rock hit “Seein’ Red” (a.k.a. that one obnoxiously memorable Hoobastankian gumwad with the “follow the leader” chorus that you couldn’t help but wail along with whenever you had your girlfriend’s Honda to yourself), Unwritten Law still has a way with burnished hooks that get stuck in the brain’s lazier regions. Take (please!) the first track on this year’s Swan, “Starships and Apocalypse,” a shiny trifle about getting drunk and getting laid that not only quotes Bowie’s “Space Oddity” but nicks a trick or two from Cursive in the process. I regret to inform you that it is a wonderful pop song. CHRIS STAMM. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 8 pm. $12. All ages.
Old Growth, Company, DJ Rod Meyer See album review, page 33.. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. 10 pm. Free. 21+.
La Luna Nueva Festival: Edna Vazquez with Mariachi Los Palmeros [SOUTH-OF-THE-BORDER SOUNDS] Miracle Theatre’s annual celebration of Latino art continues with Thursday’s performances of three different regional styles of Mexican mariachi music by Edna Vazquez with Mariachi Los Palmeros. On Friday, the Alfredo Muro Trio plays a wide range of Latin jazz, from the Brazilian samba and bossa nova of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz
OHIOAN MANXES +RAFFA DE ALASKA Y SUS CAMPAS $7 Adv WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 Rock ‘n’ roll from a 5-piece of Texan’s whose songs evoke the American south
THE BAND OF HEATHENS
HEY LOVER FRIDAY, SEPT. 23 [GARAGE ROCK, GROWN UP] Hey Lover is like, a bajillion years old. In Portland band years, that is. By the regular old Gregorian calendar, the garage-rock two-piece— which releases its new album, Tennessee, on Sept. 23—appeared with a self-titled debut only four years ago. But in a town where a Best New Band (Hey Lover made the list in 2007) can rise and fall with remarkable speed, Hey Lover is an old-timer. That might not be such a bad thing. Certainly, it’s cool by the husband-and-wife duo, Justin and Terah Beth Varga. Sitting in a Foster-Powell bar, the easygoing couple—Justin has dark features and a pensive air; Terah Beth is blond, an elfin twinkle in her eye— say they don’t feel rushed about making music. After all, for them, Hey Lover is more a lifestyle than an urgent project. Justin and Terah Beth learned their instruments—electric guitar and drums, respectively—together roughly a decade ago, and they’ve only played together since. “It just sort of feels like part of life,” Terah Beth says. It’s not for lack of trying, though, that the band hasn’t produced a full-length since 2007. The Vargas tried to record a follow-up themselves, but they were stymied by problems both technical and creative. “We needed help,” Justin says. “Sometimes that’s hard to admit, or understand.” That help came from Rick Duncan, a music-scene friend who was looking for projects for his new studio. Hey Lover gratefully acquiesced to being a guinea pig, and credits Tennessee’s polished sound not only to Duncan’s engineering, but to the studio itself. Located in a ’70s-era accounting firm, Duncan’s facilities provided the band with space “to explore a little more,” Justin says. “And, in my opinion, I think it helped a lot.” Indeed, the record that came out of that accounting office doesn’t just have higher production values than Hey Lover’s debut; it’s also a more mature album. In most ways, the Hey Lover on Tennessee is the same Hey Lover as ever: a garage-rock band with a pop sensibility and a punk heart (not to mention an arrestingly frenetic stage presence). Those traits are evident on lead single “Our Heads in a Hole,” a cry against Portland winters that displays genetic Hey Lover traits such as shouted dual vocals, ebullient drum work and catchy guitar lines. But while the record features plenty of poppy, fun songs, as well as fast-and-furious tracks like “Piranha,” there are also pleasant surprises such as album sign-off “I Can Tell,” a slow dance anchored by Justin’s frail-sounding vocals and swelled by cello and horns. “Before,” Terah Beth says, “I used to always be sort of scared of slow songs, like it was going to turn people off from our music.” Instead, much of the positive early feedback the band has gotten for Tennessee has centered on the album’s sway-along tracks. That’s probably because those songs display musicians newly at ease with themselves—and willing to let listeners lean in close. “We’re not as scared of downtime, or slower stuff, or laying an emotion out rather than just trying to blast out sound,” Justin says. “I think we’ve become more comfortable being vulnerable.” JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. The Portland couple behind Hey Lover gets comfortable in its own sound.
SEE IT: Hey Lover plays the Kenton Club on Friday, Sept. 23, with Pelican Ossman. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
+DAVID JACOBS-STRAIN THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 $10 Adv Rollicking folk music from Portlands finest
DENVER
LUZ ELENA MENDOZA (from Y La Bamba) +RAYMOND BYRON FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23
$5 Adv
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 Innovative duo who rock experimental electro driven songs paired w/stunning video visuals
DEELAY CEELAY ANCIENT HEAT +PETOSKEY
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24
$5 Adv
MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS AT DANTE’S:
WHITEY MORGAN & THE 78s
THE TUMBLERS +WATER TOWER BUCKET BOYS
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24
@ DANTE’S (350 W. Burnside)
$12 Adv
MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS: famed Texan folk chanteuse whose latest album, Pint Of Blood, is a showcase her honey-tinged vocals, her breadth of range finding home in elegant songs that are a sultry take on 70s classics
JOLIE HOLLAND @ STAR THEATER (13 NW 6th Ave)
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 26
$15 Adv
Coming Soon 9/25 - IDIOT GLEE 9/26 - THE VACANT LOTS 9/27 - REVOLVER 9/28 - TIG NOTARO 9/28 - VETIVER @ Star Theater 9/29 - JONATHAN TYLER 9/30 - DAN NAVARRO @ Bar Bar Apt. 9/30 - NICKY CROON
CONT. on page 30 Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
29
MUSIC
THURSDAY - FRIDAY
Bonfa to Jose Feliciano and more. On Saturday, guitarist Muro (now based in Boulder, Colo.), returns for a solo acoustic show that also takes an expansive journey from Argentina (Astor Piazzolla) to Brazil, Spain and beyond. BRETT CAMPBELL. El Centro Milagro, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursday - Saturday. $15-$23. All ages.
sibly thick songbook between the two of them, this is a country music dream pairing. But don’t go to this show to bid these two legends farewell; go to hear two incredible songwriters still very much in command of their craft. CASEY JARMAN. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 8 pm. $45 advance, $47.50 day of show. All ages.
Nurses, AU, Houndstooth, DJ Jeffrey Jerusalem
D.R.I., Motorthrone, Deth Proof, Arterial Spray
See album review, page 33. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 2397639. 8:30 pm. $7 advance, $8 day of show. 21+.
Yeah Great Fine, Jared Mees and the Grown Children, Decades [HAPPY MATH ROCK] Yeah Great Fine’s membership is a polyglot of refugees from other Portland rock groups (most notably Jared Mees and the Grown Children), a lineage that must have a hand in allowing the quintet such effortless command of its convoluted arrangements. However, in contrast to most bands whose time signatures seem born of a random number generator, Yeah Great Fine sounds like a pop band—albeit one with a notably limited attention span (think Battles by way of Vampire Weekend). This show marks the release of the group’s Circadian EP, and at four songs in length, that collection offers just enough sunny-eyed enthusiasm to entice without actually exhausting. SHANE DANAHER. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Kicker, Stoneburner, Salted City [OLD-SCHOOL PUNK] The mascot on Kicker’s website is a drooling, septuagenarian punk rocker with a walker. It’s a self-referential stab, since members of the band have been “kicking it” in legendary acts Dystopia, Filth and Neurosis since before you were riding a tricycle. With that kind of résumé, and with stacks of reverently wornout Rudimentary Peni and Black Flag records, only good things could come of this union. To top it all off, the man, the myth “Pete the Roadie,” the heavyweight champion of all punk-rock roadies, has finally been pulled onto the stage properly as a lead vocalist. This will be a special night. Just don’t forget to turn down your hearing aid. NATHAN CARSON. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 23 Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson [PAIR OF ACES] For some people, seeing legendary musicians is like collecting trading cards: They just want to grab the most valuable ones before they go out of circulation, no matter what condition they’re in. Well, Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson may not be quite as handsome as they were in their outlaw country heyday, but they’ve still got plenty to say and are well worth seeing. Hag’s 2010 disc, I Am What I Am, featured a healthy dose of classic country waltzes and some fine topical material (“I’ve Seen It Go Away” is a world-weary state of the union) and a touch of the old outlaw spirit (“early mañana, I’ll smoke what I wanna and listen to old Mexican bands,” he sings on “Mexican Bands”). Kristofferson might be a little Hollywood these days, but he’s also a peerless songwriter, and he’s been crafting some of the best music of his career as of late (see excellent 2009 disc Closer to the Bone, and especially the incredibly poetic “Starlight and Stone,” which reminds one of late’90s Johnny Cash). With an impos-
30
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
[PUNK] When I was growing up punk, the D.R.I. logo was ubiquitous. Everyone had the shirt with the Houston band’s iconic “Skanker Man” emblazoned on the front (never mind that, from afar, it unintentionally resembled a swastika), although no one I knew actually owned any of the band’s records. In fact, it’s doubtful how many alleged fans even knew the group’s name was an acronym for Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. Like Suicidal Tendencies— who made a similar leap in the late ’80s from hardcore to thrash metal—D.R.I. was a band kids preferred to wear rather than listen to. That probably speaks ill of the group, but then again, it’s still out there touring while a lot of its peers are long gone. And, hey, the original singer and guitarist are still in the lineup. So, y’know, that’s something. MATTHEW SINGER. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $12. All ages.
Kings Go Forth, Brownish Black [OLD SOUL] Playing supercharged ’70s soul led by the over-the-top wailing of frontman Black Wolf— whose name alone should arouse an indie-rock crusade—Milwaukee’s Kings Go Forth seems set to follow Sharon Jones as the latest band of the moment to highlight and promote a formerly unsung vocalist for the ages. Embarking on an international tour after the success of 2010 debut The Outsiders Are Back, the multigenerational 10-piece
ecstatically wallows in the bygone bacchanalia of horn-dogged grooves and lockstep instrumental interplay. JAY HORTON. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 2319663. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
California Honeydrops (9 pm), Honey and the Hamdogs (6 pm) [THROWBACK SOUL] Hailing from the streets and subways of Oakland, the California Honeydrops waltz through the history of mid-20thcentury black music, from early Motown sounds to rhythmic gospel, boogie-woogie, melodic blues, earnest soul and beyond. It’s stirring in its masterful presentation, particularly on 2010’s Spreadin’ Honey, which offers some of the best throwback love letters to ’50s and ’60s soul dynamos in recent memory. Even more surprising, the velvet-voiced nexus of the group is Polish immigrant Lech Wierzynski, a master musician weaned on the classics who leads his (all-white) cavalcade into the very heart of soul. Not that color should matter: Close your eyes, sway your hips; the Honeydrops are very much the real deal, and the band’s sound transcends time. AP KRYZA. Duff’s Garage, 1635 SE 7th Ave., 234-2337. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Hey Lover, Pelican Ossman See profile, page 29. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Cute Lepers, Something Fierce, Anxieties, Blue Ribbon Boys, The Cry! [SPIRIT OF ’79] Something Fierce is an undeniably awful band name that evokes a dust-caked fiasco rotting in a dollar bin somewhere hot. Get past it, please, because the awfulness of the name is inversely proportional to the transcendent perfection of Something Fierce’s fidgety punk-rock anthems. This year’s Don’t Be So Cruel, easily my favorite album of 2011
MIC CHECK
CONT. on page 33
by CASEY JARMAN
SAGE FRANCIS Last May, Sage Francis was headed to Portland in support of his then-new album, Li[f ]e—an excellent collection that examines death from every conceivable angle—when life kicked him in the gut. A few days before his Portland show, Francis’ father died and he cancelled the tail end of his tour. Now returning for a make-up tour in support of the same excellent album, WW recently talked to the 34-year-old MC-songwriter via telephone about the pros and cons of being a hiphop homebody. Sage Francis: I shut out the public. I live alone, I have public interactions about twice a week, maybe.... You really have to cut out a major portion of your social life and cut out a lot of friends and family stuff and just work on your craft. That’s not easy to do, especially if you’re the kind of person who wants to be doing things and having fun. None of this has been fun for me, man. Really. Like, honestly, wholeheartedly, this shit is not fun. WW: There has to be some fun in it somewhere! Sage Francis: There are flashes of fun. When you go on tour, and you’re onstage and the crowd is going wild—at that moment, you’re like, “Yeah, this is the shit.” But the 23 hours around that hour are really shitty. The list is pretty long as to what is bothersome about the whole [touring] experience. But, for me, it’s better than working for somebody else. It’s a lot more work, but it’s worth it. SEE IT: Sage Francis plays the Roseland Theater on Wednesday, Sept. 21, with the Metermaids and Sadistik. 8 pm. $18. All ages.
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21,2011 wweek.com
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INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ART AND NEW MEDIA
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RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
The Crocodile 2202 2nd Ave (21+) The Baltic Room 1207 Pine St (21+) The Nordstrom Recital Hall 200 University St. (all-ages) Re-Bar 1114 Howell St (21+) Volunteer Park 1247 15th Ave E. (all-ages)
Fred Wildlife Refuge 127 Boylston Ave E. (all-ages / 21+ bar) The Triple Door 216 Union St (all-ages) HG Lodge 722 E. Pike St (21+) The Woods 1512 11th Ave (21+)
FRIDAY - SATURDAY
WhiteWater Ramble [JAM] The members of Fort Collins, Colo., jam quartet WhiteWater Ramble are masters of their instruments. On last year’s All Night Drive, the band proved skilled with amped-up bluegrass, funky jams and off-the-cuff cosmic rock, vividly evoking groups like the Gourds and String Cheese Incident. That’s the problem with the modern jam landscape: Endless groups like WhiteWater strive to become the next String Cheese Incident or moe. or Umphreys McGee through emulation. Until good musicians like the ones that populate WhiteWater forge more unique soundscapes, the genre will continue to placate diehards and irritate naysayers. Music based on on-the-fly improv should never sound like redundant imitation. AP KRYZA. Slabtown, 1033 NW 16th Ave., 223-0099. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
James Blake, Teengirl Fantasy [SLEEPY BEAT SOUL] The last time James Blake rolled through Portland—which was really recently, considering the once-hesitant beatsmith-songwriter is from England—we called him boring. I understand that accusation, Matt Singer, but I beg to differ. Blake’s sleepy, minimalist beats are the sort that reveal more with each listen. There are sonic secrets tucked between the clicks, snaps and tortured self-harmonies of this year’s self-titled full-length that it takes a handful of listens to really “get.” Just as songs like “I Never Learnt to Share” creep slowly into gear, falling in love with them is a gradual process. Viewed as a singer-songwriter, Blake leaves something to be desired, but his compositions must be judged on their own terms—as Aphex Twin- and Sade-inspired sonic art installations that use the human voice as one of many intimate layers. I missed Blake last time through, largely because I find it hard to imagine that songs best experienced through nice headphones or on late-night drives could possibly translate to a sweaty club. I’m still of that opinion, but my crush on Blake has grown so exponentially that I just might show up anyway. CASEY JARMAN. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 8 pm. $20 advance, $22 day of show. All ages.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 24 Jonathan Richman [ROADRUNNER] Always the least Modern of Lovers, there was always something of the timeswept minstrel about Jonathan Richman, well before he intrigued a whole new audience by chancing upon Sesame Street or appearing unexplained throughout Something About Mary. It seems impossible he’s turned 60 but even weirder to imagine that he hasn’t always played the wandering troubadour. O Moon, Queen of Night on Earth, his latest release for Neil Young’s Vapor label, adds another collection of disarmingly childlike reflections rendered with assured maturity that, at their best, capture the reedy appeal of live appearances ’midst a never-ending global tour. JAY HORTON. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm. $15 (Minors must be accompanied by a parent.). All ages.
CONT. on page 34
ALBUM REVIEWS
OLD GROWTH OUT OF THE SAND AND INTO THE STREETS (BAKERY OUTLET) [PRE-GRUNGE] Upon dropping his band’s new album by the WW office, Old Growth co-frontman John Magnifico noted disparagingly that Out of the Sand and Into the Streets was recorded quickly and under some duress. I was happy to hear that. Old Growth isn’t a band that should spend months languishing in the studio and polishing its sound; it’s a band that should barrel through a dozen tracks in a couple of days and accept the results, warts and all. Actually, Old Growth is too tight a trio to have any real warts. Out of the Sand—an album built on sludgy, bottom-feeding riffage and lurching, cymbal-heavy breakdowns—does have a less intentional sound than the band’s last album, 2008 sophomore disc Under the Sun, but it’s clear from Dead Moon-esque opener “The Deep End” to victorious pop-punk closer “Sandy” that these guys know exactly what they want from their sound and know exactly how to get it. That sound—perhaps most reminiscent of early Mudhoney— would be enough reason to listen even if Old Growth didn’t know how to write songs. Lucky for us, they are often fantastic: “Hey Young” is a dramatic, shifting Molotov cocktail of a song that reminds of the Refused; “The Money’s Gone” is a Replacementsstyle melodic punk cut with perfectly off-kilter vocal harmonies; “Movin’ Along ” is Old Growth’s searing take on pirate punk, featuring a working-class narrative about displacement and a few surprising piano chords (which help replace the much-missed harmonica blasts from Under the Sun). I don’t think there’s any Portland band, save for Pierced Arrows, that captures the spirit and history of its region better than Old Growth. And yet Out of the Sand remains wholly vital and of-themoment. That’s some trick. CASEY JARMAN.
NURSES DRACULA (DEAD OCEANS) [PSYCHEDELIC POP] On 2009’s Apple’s Acre, Nurses sounded like a gang of tykes who had snuck off to their parents’ basement and recorded an album after the babysitter fell asleep. Think an avant-pop Muppet Babies, banging out desktop rhythms on makeshift percussion and tinkering with out-of-tune pianos, with a vocalist singing in a pinched nasal croon like Bunsen Honeydew battling a sinus infection. It was amateurish in the best sense: a record that stumbled upon its own unique world because the artists didn’t seem to know where they were going. With Dracula—Nurses’ third album overall and second since finding its way from Idaho to Portland—the band remains inside that world, only now it has mapped the terrain. Gone is the ramshackle construction and wide-eyed whimsy of Apple’s Acre, replaced by sturdier grooves, stickier melodies ( just try getting the chorus of opener “Fever Dreams” out of your head) and brighter colors. It’s a densely layered yet wide-open record, employing the reverb-doused expansiveness—and, on “Dancing Grass,” the melodicas—of dub, except instead of drifting through space, the album conjures the feeling of floating on the ocean. Guitars, keyboards and other indecipherable noises refract off the wavy, shimmering pulses of “Wouldn’t Tell” and “So Sweet,” and there’s always something swishing, swirling or whirring behind singer Aaron Chapman’s hyper-adenoidal voice. It’s an immersive listen, but it’s not without moments of pure pop confection: “Trying to Reach You,” all finger snaps and plinking piano, is Nurses’ most straightforward tune yet, and yet it’s the perfect song to soundtrack the coming fall. Grab the headphones and bliss out. MATTHEW SINGER. SEE IT: Old Growth releases Out of the Sand and Into the Streets at East End on Thursday, Sept. 22, with Company and DJ Rod Meyer. 10 pm. Free. 21+. Nurses releases Dracula at Holocene on Thursday, Sept. 22, with Au, Wet Wool and DJ Jeffrey Jerusalem. 8:30 pm. $8. 21+.
CD Release •ALBERTA ROSE THEATRE•8pm•Sept 30• sponsored by:
so far, deserves a bit of the same breath you’d give to praising the Jam’s Setting Sons and the Clash’s London Calling, two obvious influences on this young Houston trio’s sound, but Something Fierce is too vital to be dismissed as a throwback act. Just consider it beautiful, essential music and go. CHRIS STAMM. Plan B, 1305 SE 8th Ave., 230-9020. 8 pm. $7. 21+.
MUSIC
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for tickets visit albertarosetheatre.com
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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SATURDAY BILLIONS.COM
MUSIC
GROW LIGHT SPECIAL: Junior Boys play Doug Fir on Wednesday.
Radiation City, Blouse, Aan See music feature, page 27. . Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 2319663. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
Girls Going Single: Guantanamo Baywatch, DJ HG Walls, DJ Fuzzboxx [QUIET GRRRL] Midcentury America, as any Mad Men fan can attest, wasn’t as peachy as it seemed. You wouldn’t know it, though, from the early-’60s “girl groups.” Hits like the ShangriLas’ “Leader of the Pack” told the nation stories it wanted to hear— stories about innocence that was, in reality, already being lost. Listening to these songs retrospectively is a quintessentially campy experience, which makes locals Guantanamo Baywatch—kings and queens of camp, czars of surf rock—the perfect choice to play an all-girl-group covers set at this all-girl-group evening. Prior to the live music, DJs will spin in-theme vinyl, and there’ll be a record swap. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. 7 pm. Free. 21+.
Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey with Peter Apfelbaum, Mark Southerland [SUITE JAZZ] The Tulsa-based Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey has made a rep—and 20 albums— on the strength of its appealing jammy-jazz improvs and rock covers, which have won it some of the same indie fans as Medeski Martin & Wood and the Bad Plus. But after its recent forays into Beethoven symphonies, the quartet’s new long-form, multimovement Race Riot Suite is a change of direction that musically recounts the hideous, greedgenerated genocidal 1921 attack on Tulsa’s African-American middle class that killed hundreds of black Tulsans and devastated their neighborhoods. The music, which deploys horns, composer Chris Combs’ lap steel guitar and piano, draws on jazz (Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton) and swing (Tulsa native Bob Wills) of the period, but its fierce contemporary sounds follow the example of other ambitious jazz composers like Ellington, Mingus and Marsalis. The band will be augmented tonight by horn players Peter Apfelbaum and Mark Southerland. BRETT CAMPBELL. Goodfoot
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Lounge, 2845 SE Stark St., 503239-9292. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Bon Iver, Other Lives [SINGER-SOFTIE SONGWRITER] Aren’t we all a bit sick of the Bon Iver origin story by now? Man gets his heart broken, goes into the woods to recover, comes out with a modern folk classic, blah blah blah. Admittedly, it’s a much better story than that of his selftitled second album, which is basically, “Man goes into studio, comes out with a Bruce Hornsby record.” Without the compelling narrative—which, if we’re being honest, is at least half the reason everyone loved that first record—Justin Vernon, the Wisconsinite behind Bon Iver, found himself against a wall when recording the follow-up. So he did what anyone in his position would do: He made a softrock album. Oh, wait, no one would do that! So, on the one hand, it’s sort of a bold move. On the other hand, the album—despite its critical accolades—is actually pretty damn boring. It’s like a glacier: Yeah, it’s pretty to look at it, but do you really want to sit and watch it melt? MATTHEW SINGER. McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale, 669-8610. 6:30 pm. Sold out. All ages.
The Body, Chasma, Braveyoung [NOISE METAL] While thunderous duos are increasingly in vogue, the Rhode Island-based duo of drummer Lee Buford and guitarist Chip King resides in an echelon far beyond your average Jucifer or Death From Above 1979 experience. 2010’s All the Waters is a harrowing, horrifying and gorgeous piece of intricate industrial noise metal, augmented by an eerily angelic, 13-piece choir and flourishes of viola and sousaphone (among other instrumental oddities). Impressively, the pair pulls it all off with aplomb in a live context (with help from a dizzying array of samplers and sequencers), assisted in no small part by its visual presence, which typically includes hoods, nooses and all manner of suggestively morose props. HANNAH LEVIN. Plan B, 1305 SE 8th Ave., 230-9020. 9 pm. Cover. 21+.
WW / DANTEʼS & STAR
MERCURY / DANTEʼS
MUSIC
Live Music, Music, Cabaret, Cabaret, Burlesque Burlesque && Rock-n-Roll Rock-n-Roll Live
R YA N L E W I S
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Tel. 503-226-6630 • Open Daily 11am-2:30am •
Tel. 503-226-6630 • Open Daily 11am-2:30am •
w w w. da n tes l i ve. c o m
FREE PORTLAND SHOWCASE WED21NESDAY THE IDEALISTS SEPT No Cover
THE FASTERS • VAJ
FREE PORTLAND SHOWCASE THU22RSDAY THE DRAWING BOARD SEPT No Cover
TICKETSWEST $18 Adv
SHO
E FREW ! SHO
THE BURNING BRIDGES • LIGHTS BELOW
HOWIE DAY
FRID23AY SEPT
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MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS
DA26Y NPT MOSE
FromHellHell Karaoke From SINFERNO Karaoke Hell Duran Duran, Neon Trees [HUNGER, WOLVES] Even for a band that began its career by hiring a fashion designer right alongside its manager, Duran Duran has been especially conscious of pop culture’s prevailing winds. The British quintet was one of the first bands to take music videos seriously, releasing a skin-heavy vid just weeks after the birth of MTV. Duran Duran was the first group to sell music digitally, and just last year, it roped David Lynch into directing a concert film for broadcast on YouTube. In its three decades of existence Duran Duran hasn’t ventured far from the synthesizer as a stylistic staple, though in the interval between 1983’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” and last year’s All You Need Is Now, some of the group’s libidinous energy has dissipated. SHANE DANAHER. Rose Garden, 1401 N Wheeler Ave., 235-8771. 8 pm. $74-$255. All ages.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 25
KARAOKE WITH A LIVE BAND STILL JUST SABZI AND GEO FROM THE BLOCK: Blue Scholars play Wonder Ballroom on Wednesday.
THE ED FORMAN SHOW the News album of the same title),
MUSICAL GUEST: CAWS POBI
DSL
open mic comedy five-piecewith Balance anddirt starr and for good reason. The record hostess love
Composure wails, it sounds a bit like early Built to Spill. The coarse vocals, animalistic guitar work and affinity for distortion speak to a PT 28 upbringing built around SE musical TICKETSWEST records like Ultimate Alternative $8 Adv Wavers and Perfect From Now On. The Pennsylvania quintet lacks the complexity of its Pacific Northwest sound-alikes, but with the promising full-length Separation in tow and backing by California label No Sleep Records (La Dispute, Santah), B&C seems poised for alt-rock success. Should the group add some CT 1 and a little more musical Onuance TICKETSWEST risk, $12 Adv we’ll see it move from strong opener to worthy headliner. MARK STOCK. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 8 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. All ages. & THE PHENOMENAUTS
WEDNESDAY
REV. DEADEYE THE PRETTY POOR KNOW • PIECOST
SATURDAY
400 Blows, Lord
Y UNDDJAStarbird SDying, 2 ROCK] Fresh off a tour [NOISE OCT
MIKE THRASHER
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expressed a certain tight grasp on modern-era punk, which has strayed COMING from the politicized brass-knuckSOON les approach yore and become 9/21 The Idealists of & The Fasters 9/22 Drawing Boardintrospective. & Burning Bridges increasingly There are Howie Day 9/23 echoes of Atlas Sound in Weekend’s 9/24 Whitey Morgan & The 78s music, albeit from a harsher and less Cabaret 9/25 Sinferno Hell punk (pre-, 9/26 Karaoke patient place. From But isn’t 9/27 The Ed Forman Show present or post-) supposed to be Deadeye 9/28 Rev. impatient? STOCK. Holocene, Network Fundraiser 9/29 NASW SocialMARK Melodies 9/30 Naive 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 Talking Heads Tribute pm. 21+. Friendship Society World/Inferno 10/1 $8.
10/2 Crossfade + Sinferno 10/4 Electric Six 10/5 Goddamn Gallows [SPACE DISCO]Video Most electronica, 10/6 Rome Snowboards Premiere Diamond 10/7 Super chillwave and trance music is oneCash’d Out 10/8 dimensional robot music. It doesn’t 10/13 Rocky Votolato have & to Matt be. Enter Marmont, PondChateau PA Zepparella a10/14 Parisian quartet that began its 10/15 Western Aerial CD Release glitchy, spacey, adven10/16 Michael Monroe ofsuper-dancey Hanoi Rocks ture remixing theJack likes of La Roux Boom Chick & Root 10/20by John Doe 10/22 and Ladyhawke, among others. Busy 10/23 POGO + That 1 Guy at work on a new record due out Dwarves 10/27 this winter, the electro-cosmonauts Hell’s Belles 10/28 Dead Ball 10/29 are on a rareSexy visit to American turf 11/3 Sonic Smackdown to play CMJ in New York after a 11/4 Cherry Poppin’ Daddies great reception Knife at SXSW this spring. 11/5 Shonen Electric Boots 11/10 of Fans Air, Midwest Product and 11/11 Cirque du Stiffy Lovelock, this your band. MARK H.isBiram 11/17 Scott STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N 11/18 Rezurex 11/25 Fur Pillows Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm.
Revolver, Chateau Marmont
TICKETSWEST thePRESENTS with Butthole Surfers (if anyone $13.50 Adv time 7pm Show can remain fresh after that) comes 400 Blows. This L.A. trio has [DREAM-POP] You’d better not gone through some changes but pilfer and pluralize the name of a still retains manic frontman Skot UUCCTT TICKETS AVAILABLE @ TR T cult-famous indie rock act unless ESTR ES DANTE’S, $12. 21+.MUSIC MILLENNIUM, IN••RR RET BARE Alexander as anchor cokeCABA DAAKKAADIN NOCA FERNO CASCADETICKETS.COM & SINFER IC••AAFODand BYSIN you’re truly ready to make a name ATIC WED BY 11PMM AT11P LLOWE EMPPHHAT AT FOLLO TICKETSWEST.COM EM fueled cheerleader. Now backed for yourself. Calgary quartet Braids by guitarist Scott Martin, this hardhas certainly done that, garnering [FUTURISTIC ICE POP] By taking charging band has finally released blog-world affection and Canadian its name from a Roxy Music song, the long-awaited album Sickness mainstream acclaim (latest disc T 4 Health. Its 11 tracks of bruisOCand Liverpool’s Ladytron made its Native Speaker was a finalist for TICKETSWEST modus operandi immediately known ing noise rock don’t require a bass $12 Adv the increasingly prestigious Polaris the early aughts: This is 21stguitar to kick ass. And I’d be +your KITTEN & MARKin MALLMAN Prize as of press time). The band’s century glam, with an emphasis on remiss if I didn’t point out that new actual recordings are a touch less “21st century.” Feminizing the fashdrummer Kevin Fitzgerald is one impressive than the accolades would ion-conscious ’tude of dudes like of the most badass skin-poundTICKETSWEST imply: pretty, trippy, Bjorkian comMarc Bolan and David Bowie and Adv T 7out$18there. He made his name in OCers positions from the pretty-is-enough feeding it through modern machinthe Geraldine Fibbers and landed school of art rock. Frontwoman ery, the band created a hybrid in 400 Blows after a stint with the Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s vocals sound fusing disco and New Wave Circle Jerks. TICKETSWESTFitzgerald is arguably are airy and playful, and her vocals 8 Adv T best $15 OCthe with pop and electro-clash, utilizing drummer ever to play Tube. largely impressionistic; she’d fit just a detached European iciness that NATHAN CARSON. Tube, 18 NW 3rd as well in the new-age music world made it the toast of the indie world Ave., 241-8823. 9 pm. $5. 21+. as the pop world—but then the lines TICKETSWEST when its debut long-player, 604, hit & MATT POND PA between the two grow increasingly OCT 13 $12 Adv in 2001. Ten years later, the world blurred. A few bong rips before THE WORLD RENOWNED ALL-FEMALE LEDhas ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE to fit the band’s vision changed the show and this one might blow of the future, so on its fifth album, your mind. Otherwise, check back TICKETSWEST the band also changes, moving from OCT 14 $12.50 Adv in with Braids in a few years when one Roxy alum to another: Gravity the promising young band grows up. the Seducer is more Brian Eno than CASEY JARMAN. Holocene, 1001 SE [POST-PUNK] Bay Area shoegaze Bryan Ferry, favoring cold atmoTICKETSWEST Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 pm. $10. act Weekend embodies the coastal 22 $14 Adv spherics over pop hooks. MATTHEW OCT 22 fog it was formed in, stacking SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE walls of dark and droning guitars Russell St., 284-8686. 9 pm. $20 beside fleeting, vaporous vocals. advance, $23 day of show. All ages. TICKETSWEST 23 T 23 $15 Adv underground press drooled OCThe over 2010’s Sports (not to be confused with the Huey Lewis and
Braids, Pepper Rabbit, Painted Palms
TUESDAY
Ladytron, Geographer, SONOIO
SDAY TUE27 PT SE PT
No Cover 8pm Show
10pm $3
So You Wanna Be A ROCK STAR ?
KARAOKE WITH A LIVE BAND
THE ED FORMAN SHOW
MUSICAL GUEST: CAWS POBI
DSL
open mic comedy with hostess dirt starr love
COMING SOON
NESDAY WED 28 SEPT
TICKETSWEST $8 Adv
REV. DEADEYE THE PRETTY POOR KNOW • PIECOST
SAT1 URDAY T OC T
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& THE PHENOMENAUTS
DAY SUN T2 OC T
MIKE THRASHER
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PRESENTS TICKETSWEST $13.50 Adv 7pm Showtime
TRUUCCTTT ESTR ES AINN •• RR RET BARE AKAI CABA NOCA ADAK FERNO SINFER IC •• AD BYSIN ATIC M WEDDBY 11PM PHAT AT11P LLOWE FOLLO EMPH AT FO EM
9/21 The Idealists & The Fasters 9/22 Drawing Board & Burning Bridges 9/23 Howie Day 9/24 Whitey Morgan & The 78s 9/25 Sinferno Cabaret 9/26 Karaoke From Hell 9/27 The Ed Forman Show 9/28 Rev. Deadeye 9/29 NASW Social Network Fundraiser 9/30 Naive Melodies Talking Heads Tribute 10/1 World/Inferno Friendship Society 10/2 Crossfade + Sinferno 10/4 Electric Six 10/5 Goddamn Gallows 10/6 Rome Snowboards Video Premiere 10/7 Super Diamond 10/8 Cash’d Out 10/13 Rocky Votolato & Matt Pond PA 10/14 Zepparella 10/15 Western Aerial CD Release 10/16 Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks 10/20 Boom Chick & Root Jack 10/22 John Doe 10/23 POGO + That 1 Guy 10/27 Dwarves 10/28 Hell’s Belles 10/29 Dead Sexy Ball 11/3 Sonic Smackdown 11/4 Cherry Poppin’ Daddies 11/5 Shonen Knife 11/10 Boots Electric 11/11 Cirque du Stiffy 11/17 Scott H. Biram 11/18 Rezurex 11/25 Fur Pillows
TICKETS AVAILABLE @ DANTE’S, MUSIC MILLENNIUM, CASCADETICKETS.COM & TICKETSWEST.COM
TUE4SDAY T4 OC T
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
+ KITTEN
& MARK MALLMAN
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TICKETSWEST $18 Adv
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ROCKY VOTOLATO
Karaoke FromHellHell Karaoke From
cabaret
FRIDAY
THURSDAY
DAY NPT MOSE 26
SINFERNO
So You Wanna Be A ROCK STAR ?
PT SE[RAUCOUSNESS] When No Cover Pennsylvania 8pm Show
MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS
“TheFiredancers Best Show Burlesque, In Town!” DJs, Magic & Debauchery!
Y DA NPT SUSE 25
THE TUMBLERS • WATER TOWER BUCKET BOYS
SDAY TUE27 PT
WITH PAINTED GREY & WILL BRADLEY
THE TUMBLERS • WATER TOWER BUCKET BOYS
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
10pm $3
HOWIE DAY
MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
SEPT
cabaret
TICKETSWEST $18 Adv
SHO
THE BURNING BRIDGES • LIGHTS BELOW
AY FRID 23 SEPT
E FREW !
SEPT
WITH PAINTED GREY & WILL BRADLEY
“TheFiredancers Best Show Burlesque, In Town!” DJs, Magic & Debauchery!
SEPT No22 Cover
URDAY SAT24
URDAY MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS PRESENTS SAT24 Y DA NPT SUSE 25
w w w. da n tes l i ve. c o m FREE PORTLAND SHOWCASE RSDAY THE THU22 DRAWING BOARD
OCT 14
OC T
SQUARE PEG CONCERTS PRESENTS
ROCKY VOTOLATO & MATT POND PA
THE WORLD RENOWNED ALL-FEMALE LED ZEPPELIN TRIBUTE
TICKETSWEST $12.50 Adv
TICKETSWEST $14 Adv
JOHN DOE The Newly Restored Historic
TUESDAY, SEPT. 27
FRIDAY Weekend, Talk Normal, SQUARE PEG CONCERTS PRESENTS
Hausu, DJ Ghost Animal
SATURDAY
MONDAY, SEPT. 26
Polar Bear Club, Fireworks, Balance and Composure, Such Gold
SUNDAY
POGO
THU27RSDAY T OC T
TICKETSWEST $13 Adv
AY FRID 28 OCT 28
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
JOHN DOE
DWARVES
ZEKE & SPECIAL GUESTS
HELL’S BELLES
OPEN AT 5PM DAILY • LIVE MUSIC • FILMS • LOUNGE • PATIO RESTAURANT www.StarTheaterPortland.com • 503-248-4700
9/24 GEEKLESQUE: POWERS UP! 9/26 JOLIE HOLLAND 9/28 VETIVER 9/29 RON OSBORNE NAKED COMEDY 9/30 QUEENS OF THE POLE 10/1 DISNEY AFTER DARK 10/2 MELT BANANA 10/4 THE ED FORMAN SHOW 10/5 ELVIS’ BIRTHDAY PARTY 10/7 RICHMOND FONTAINE CD RELEASE
10/8 JUNE & JEAN MILLINGTON OF FANNY 10/28 ROBERT WYNIA OF FLOATER 10/29 VAGABOND OPERA CD RELEASE 10/31 WAX FINGERS 11/4 WAYNE “THE TRAIN” HANCOCK 11/10 RICH ROBINSON 11/11 BLACK LODGE BURLESQUE 11/12 DWIGHT SLADE 11/19 DAN REED 12/4 BARFLY XMAS PARTY
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
35
MAKE IT A NIGHT
JOBS
Present that night’s show ticket and get $3 off any menu item Sun - Thur in the dining room
Thursday, Sep 22nd
DOUG FIR RESTAURANT + BAR OPEN 7AM - 2:30AM EVERYDAY
Storyhill
IS HIRING!
SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, LATE-NIGHT. FOOD SPECIALS 3-6 PM EVERYDAY COVERED SMOKING PATIO, FIREPLACE ROOM, LOTS OF LOG. LIVE SHOWS IN THE LOUNGE... DANCE-INSPIRING GREATNESS FROM ELECTRO-POP DUO
JUNIOR BOYS WEDNESDAY!
ANYA
MARINA
+OH DARLING DOORS AT 7PM, SHOW AT 8PM - EARLY SHOW!
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 • $10 ADVANCE +YOUNG GALAXY
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 • $16 ADVANCE DYNAMIC RETRO-SOUL FROM MILWAUKEE COLLECTIVE
KINGS GO FORTH FRIDAY!
Monday - Friday
SULTRY AND SAVVY SONGSTRESS FROM THE ROSE CITY
THURSDAY!
SELF GROUP & DOUG FIR PRESENT AN ALBUM RELEASE
RADIATION CITY SATURDAY! BLOUSE
$695
Mare Wakefield Friday, sep 23rd
LIVE WIRE guests include:
TWO LOCATIONS
Chuck Palahniuk and On The Rocks
Portland 4604 SE Hawthorne Blvd 503.236.1466
Saturday, Sep 24th
TWO SHOWS!
+AAN
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 24 •
$8 ADVANCE
FOR MORE INFO, CHECK OUT EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
PAGE 51
OTHERWORLDLY DREAM POP FROM LA
ACTIVE CHILD
+BROWNISH BLACK
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 •
$13 ADVANCE
SOPHISTICATED ELECTRO-POP FROM BROOKLYN
TWIN SHADOW
BOBBY
LONG
$10 ADVANCE
INTROSPECTIVE FOLK FROM BAY AREA TROUBADOUR
SEAN
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27 •
+MICHAEL MUSIKA
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28 • $15 ADVANCE AN ALL-LADIES NIGHT OF ELECTRO/ROCK GREATNESS
LOVERS THE SHONDES +FORSORCERERS
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 30 •
$15 ADVANCE
THE TALENTED AND GENETICALLY GIFTED
SUNDAY OCTOBER 2 •
$12 ADVANCE
Wednesday, Sep 28th
an evening with
$12 ADVANCE
$8 ADVANCE
SIDE PROJECT FROM GRIZZLY BEAR MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST
CANT
+BLOOD ORANGE
SATURDAY OCTOBER 1 •
$15 ADVANCE
PRESTON REED
instrumental acoustic guitar magic! Thursday, Sep 29th
SAM WEGMAN cd release with
Tyler Stenson
INDIAN
COM TRUISE +PURITY RING
MONDAY OCTOBER 3 •
Safire
Friday, Sep 30th
Gypsy Fuzz cd release
$15 ADVANCE
with
LISA HANNIGAN +JOHN SMITH
TUESDAY OCTOBER 4 •
$14 ADVANCE
THE QUICK & EASY BOYS - 10/29 THE CORIN TUCKER BAND - 11/4 HEY MARSEILLES - 11/18 MARKETA IRGLOVA - 11/21 THEE OH SEES - ALL AGES - 11/30 THEE OH SEES - 21+ - 12/1
All of these shows on sale at Ticketfly.com
MEGAFAUN 10/6 • DUM DUM GIRLS 10/7 • MONA 10/8 • WILD BEASTS 10/9 THE DRUMS 10/10 • ZEE AVI 10/11 • VAN HUNT 10/12 • THE NAKED & FAMOUS 10/13 MELISSA FERRICK 10/14 • MOTHER HIPS 10/15 • MOONFACE 10/16 ADVANCE TICKETS AT TICKETFLY - www.ticketfly.com and JACKPOT RECORDS • SUBJECT TO SERVICE CHARGE &/OR USER FEE ALL SHOWS: 8PM DOORS / 9PM SHOW • 21+ UNLESS NOTED • BOX OFFICE OPENS 1/2 HOUR BEFORE DOORS • ROOM PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT www.jupiterhotel.com
36
Ellis
Coming Soon...
AN EVENING WITH CELEBRATED IRISH SONGSTRESS
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Buffalo gap Wednesday, S eptember 21st • 9pm
Buffalo Bandstand (3 live Bands)
presented By: live artist Network Thursday, September 22nd • 9pm
and
GLO-FI CHILLWAVE FROM BUZZ-WORTHY NOSTALGISTS
NEON
Never a cover!
CATHERINE MACLELLAN
GRAVESS +THE SOFT HILLS
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 29 •
Since 1974
&
TANGO ALPHA TANGO
LIAM FINN MARQUES TOLIVER +THE YOUNG EVILS
SHOOK TWINS
A FULL-ON NORTHWEST ROCK-STRAVAGANZA WITH
HAYES
www.ThaiDishCuisine.com
Sunday, Sep 25th
$11 ADVANCE
10/1
John Craig & The Weekend 10/5 Holcombe Waller • Gabriel Kahane 10/7 WHY? & Serengeti 10/8 THe Portal 10/14 Matt Braunger
Alberta Rose Theatre (503) 764-4131 3000 NE Alberta AlbertaRoseTheatre.com
Canby 108 N. Ivy St. 503.263.9898 We do take-out & catering!
THE RADICAL REVOLUTION
POETIC MAJESTY FROM ATO RECORDING ARTIST
+DIAMOND RINGS
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 26 •
soundtrack of the 80s with
+CHAD VALLEY
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 25 •
Lunch Specials
Beautiful lies & Stuck Runnin’ (pop rock)
friday, September 23rd • 9pm
The Sale (folk soul)
Saturday, September 24th • 9pm
Brandon Chandler w/ Cody Beebe and The Crooks (americana)
Tuesday, September 27th
opEN MIC NIgHT
Hosted By: Scott gallegos
WIN $50!!
6835 SW Macadam Ave | John’s Landing
MUSIC CALENDAR
[SEPT. 21 - 27] The Globe
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: Jonathan Frochtzwajg. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/submitevents or (if you book a specific venue) enter your events at dbmonkey.com/wweek. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: music@wweek.com. For more listings, check out wweek.com.
2045 SE Belmont St. Melz/Prigodich/Erskine Group (MPEG)
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Karla Harris
ADAM KRUEGER
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Delaney & Paris, Thuggage
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Still Caves, The Bubs, Margo May
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave. The Studio of Nancy Olson-Chatalas
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Alabama Black Snake
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Gary Smith’s Mardi Gras Band
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Nancy King with Steve Christofferson
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Paint it Black: DJ Josh Spacek, Morning Teleportation; DJ Loyd Depriest
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Bleach on Blonde
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. Chuck Israels Orchestra
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Lynnae Griffin, Jessie Aron
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ron Steen with Kerry McCoy, Dave Captein
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Blue Scholars, Bambu, The Physics, Serge Severe
THURS. SEPT. 22 ALL MY FRIENDS ARE FUNERAL SINGERS: Merle Haggard plays the Schnitz on Friday (with Kris Kristofferson).
WED. SEPT. 21 Afrique Bistro
102 NE Russell St. The Javier Nero Quintet
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Violet Isle
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Open Mic
Periphery, The Human Abstract, Textures, The Contortionist, Ocean of Mirrors, Sisyphean Conscience
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Andrew Goodwin
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. The Idealists, The Fasters, Vag
Doug Fir Lounge
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
830 E Burnside St. Junior Boys, Young Galaxy
Ash Street Saloon
Duff’s Garage
Andina
225 SW Ash St. No More Parachutes, Mineola Tangelo, Broken
Backspace
1635 SE 7th Ave. Suburban Slim’s Blues Jam (9:30 pm); High Flyer Trio (6 pm)
115 NW 5th Ave. The Caps, Your Rival, Larry Yes
East India Co.
Beaterville Cafe
Goodfoot Lounge
2201 N Killingsworth St. Lowell John Mitchell and The Triplets of BeaterVille
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. David Gerow
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave.
821 SW 11th Ave. Josh Feinberg 2845 SE Stark St. Cold Hard Ground
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Protege
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Unifactor: Tunnels, ASSS, DJ Cenobites
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. The Sale, Colin Fisher
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Quartet
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Counterfeit Cash (9 pm); Green State (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Tim Snider
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Billy D
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Oslo in September
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Karl Blau, Ohioan, Manxes, Raffa De Alaska Y Sus Campas
Mt. Tabor Theater Lounge
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Jackbone Dixie, Rayllway
O’Connors
7850 SW Capitol Highway Kit Garoutte
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Lubec, Sucker For Lights, Anne
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Open Mic with Go Fuck Yerself
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Sage Francis, The Metermaids, Sadistik
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Nightshift: Man Mantis, DMLH, Everybody Knows, Joe Cyrus
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Sons of Huns, Jarret Killen, Tom Schraeder & His Ego
Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan 231 SW Ankeny St. Pressure, Mt. Lion Sound
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Fenix Project Jam Session
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Violet Isle
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Pat Metheny, Larry Grenadier
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Storyhill, Mare Wakefield
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. The Cabin Project, Jeremiah Nelson, Kris Doty (9 pm); Duckmandu! (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Borikuas
Andrea’s Cha Cha Club 832 SE Grand Ave. Dina & Bamba Y Su Pilon D’Azucar with La Descarga Cubana
Artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Songwriters Roundup
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. The Sindicate, Item 9, Busekrus, Rudefish
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Nicole Campbell
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Unwritten Law, Ninjas With Syringes, In Bloom, Rendered Useless
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Beautiful Lies, Stuck Runnin’
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Brett McConnell Lovetet
Chapel Pub
430 N Killingsworth St. Steve Kerin
Corkscrew Wine Bar 1669 SE Bybee Blvd. Sellwood Jazz Quintet
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. The Drawing Board, The Burning Bridges, Lights Below
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Anya Marina, Oh Darling
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Love Pyle
East End
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Lauren Sheehan
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Terry Robb
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Los Other Phux, Race of Strangers, Bangovers
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Yo! Adrian, Johnny Payola’s Hay Ride, Skatter Bomb, Mormon Trannys, Mouthwash Enema, Surprise Ninja Attack
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Opiuo, Russ Liquid, Spekt1, Montel Spinozza
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. Lesley Kernochan, A Simple Colony
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. Lesley Kernochan, A Simple Colony
Sellwood Public House
203 SE Grand Ave. Old Growth, Company, DJ Rod Meyer
8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic with Two Rivers
El Centro Milagro
125 NW 5th Ave. Mixer
525 SE Stark St. La Luna Nueva Festival: Edna Vazquez with Mariachi Los Palmeros
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place The Glorious First of June, Sundaze
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Bottleneck
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Stone White
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Nurses, AU, Wet Wool, DJ Jeffrey Jerusalem
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. DJ Tronic, Jeremiah Brunnhoelzl, Wil Koehnke
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown B3 Organ Group
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
Kennedy School
5736 NE 33rd Ave. The Fashion Nuggets
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Yeah Great Fine, Jared Mees and the Grown Children, Decades
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Jake Ray & the Cowdogs (9:30 pm); Lewi Longmire Band (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale John Bunzow
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Mexican Gunfight
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Annie Bethancourt (9 pm); How Long Jug Band, Lost in the Holler (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Band of Heathens, David Jacobs-Strain
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Kevin Galagan
Someday Lounge
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Momma’s Boyz, Kaylah Marin, DJ Gstar
Sylvan Steakhouse
5515 SW Canyon Court Lucas Cozby
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Kenny Lavitz
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Alan Jones Jam
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Johnny Martin
The Hobnob Grille
3350 SE Morrison St. Open Mic
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Holy Children, Hidden Knives, Smoking Mirrors, Dylan Roe
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Stoneburner, Kicker, Salted City
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Y La Bamba, Quiet Life, Ezza Rose, Alameda, Nevele Nevele, Vikesh Kapoor, Raquel Nasser
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ed Bennett Trio
FRI. SEPT. 23 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Violet Isle
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Live Wire!: On The Rocks
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Executive Swede (9:30 pm); Mikey’s Irish Jam (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Sambafeat Quartet
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson
Artichoke Community Music
3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Friday Night Coffeehouse
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Growler, Visions, Just Lions
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Audiodub
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Mean Satisfaction
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Bottleneck (9 pm); Billy Kennedy, Jimmy Boyer (6 pm)
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. The Sale
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. D.R.I., Motorthrone, Deth Proof, Arterial Spray
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. David Friesen, Greg Goebel
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. LaRhonda Steele
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Howie Day
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Kings Go Forth, Brownish Black
Duff’s Garage
Thirsty Lion
1635 SE 7th Ave. California Honeydrops (9 pm), Honey and the Hamdogs (6 pm)
Tonic Lounge
East End
71 SW 2nd Ave. Merrill Lite 3100 NE Sandy Blvd. County Bucks, Woodgrain, The Small Arms
203 SE Grand Ave. Sick Jaggers, Litanic Mask, Light House
El Centro Milagro
Tony Starlight’s
525 SE Stark St. La Luna Nueva Festival: Alfredo Muro Trio
Twilight Café and Bar
Ella Street Social Club
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Pete Petersen Septet 1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Hunt, Astorian Stigmata, Horse Eats Horse
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Mike Winkle
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. Wendy and The Lost Boys
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Broken Soviet, The Pretty Deep (8:30 pm); Jesse Young (5:30 pm)
714 SW 20th Place Medicine For the People, Worth, Krista Herring
Ford Food and Drink
2505 SE 11th Ave. Josh Cole, Jacob Arnold
Greeley Avenue Bar & Grill 5421 N Greeley Ave. Advisory
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. River Twain
CONT. on page 38
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
37
MUSIC
CALENDAR
BAR SPOTLIGHT VIVIANJOHNSON.COM
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Violet Isle
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Jonathan Richman
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. The Radical Revolution (early show, 5 pm; late show, 9 pm)
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. John Craige (9:30 pm); Nappily Blue (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero Trio
Andrea’s Cha Cha Club
SIZE DOES MATTER: Dig a Pony (736 SE Grand, 971-279-4409) is a big bar. Housed in the former Niki’s Restaurant building near the Morrison Bridge, its high, exposed wood-beam ceilings, floorto-ceiling windows and good old-fashioned square footage make for one spacious tavern—which is just as well, as this place is already pulling in big crowds. But this is no beer barn: Cozy booths line the walls, allowing groups to stake out their own territory away from DJs, dancers and the eclectic group of punters mingling around the huge, horseshoe-shaped central bar. This diversity in crowd (we spied everyone from rock pigs to suits, and no one looked out of place) coupled with plenty of personal space creates a rare venue that is both cool and largely unpretentious. Cheap, accessible cocktails don’t hurt, either: at $7 to $8 a pop, they’re both boozy and delicious. RUTH BROWN.
832 SE Grand Ave. Pilon D’Azucar Salsa Band
Artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Simon Lynge
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Hillstomp, I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, Lonesome Shack
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Tyler Ward, Savanna Outen
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. The Basinbillies
Buffalo Gap Saloon Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Project Sign, Sunderland, Meet Your Monster, SO GOOD, Fringe Class
Jade Lounge
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Lynn Conover
Plan B
2346 SE Ankeny St. Dan Pelley (8 pm), Carra Barratt (6 pm)
1305 SE 8th Ave. Cute Lepers, Something Fierce, Anxieties, Blue Ribbon Boys, The Cry!
Jimmy Mak’s
Press Club
221 NW 10th Ave. Thara Memory’s Superband
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cul An Ti
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Hey Lover, Pelican Ossman
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Pete Kartsounes Band, The Student Loan (9:30 pm); Alice Stuart (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Redwood Son
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro The Old Yellers
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. “Animal House” screening with Ants in the Kitchen
Mississippi Pizza
2621 SE Clinton St. Nevele Nevele, Hello Mountain
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Sickness in September: Devour, Godenied, Sadistic, Progenitor, End of All Flesh, Chonaexus, Killgasm, Slaughterbox, Feast
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Operative, Yximalloo, Toning, DJ Copy, DJ BJ
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. Trashcan Joe (9 pm); Professor Banjo (6 pm)
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Aaron Baca
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. WhiteWater Ramble, Twisted Whistle, World’s Finest
Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Ave. Audiodub
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Melao d’Cuba (9 pm); Border Crossing (6 pm)
Spare Room
Mississippi Studios
Sylvan Steakhouse
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Denver, Luz Elena Mendoza (of Y La Bamba), Raymond Byron
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Papa Dynamite
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Kinzel and Hyde
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. King Louie Trio
38
Willamette Week
4830 NE 42nd Ave. The Kinky Brothers 5515 SW Canyon Court Kung Pao Chickens (8:30 pm); Steve Mariman (6 pm)
Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan
231 SW Ankeny St. Commotion, Excellent Gentlemen
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Lloyd Allen Sr.
The Blue Monk 3341 SE Belmont St. Wild Wild Men
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Halie Loren
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Autopilot Is For Lovers, You Me and Apollo, Jeremiah Nelson, Ryan Sollee
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Don’t, New York Rifles, Iron Lords
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Mortal Clay
The Woods
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. The Stolen Sweets
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Robert Moore Trio
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. Zero Season, Ginosis, Distrackted, Cement Season
Twilight Room
5242 N Lombard St. Johnny Credit and the Cash Machine
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. The Wicked Homi Sisters
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Matt Brown, Sara Jackson-Holman, Perry Acker (9:30 pm); Reverb Brothers (5:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Jean Ronne Trio
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. James Blake, Teengirl Fantasy
SAT. SEPT. 24
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Fast Rattler
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. School of Rock: ‘80s Hair Metal
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Play/Start (9 pm); Ladytown, Driftwood Fire (6 pm); Lorna Miller Little Kid’s Jamboree (4 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Deelay Ceelay, Ancient Heat, Petoskey
510 NW 11th Ave. Toque Libre
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Andy Stokes
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Whitey Morgan & The 78s, The Tumblers, Water Tower Boys
Doug Fir Lounge
1635 SE 7th Ave. The Strange Tones
East End
1305 SE 8th Ave. The Body, Chasma, Braveyoung
Plew’s Brews
8409 N Lombard St. Moonlight Mile, Anna-Lisa 2621 SE Clinton St. Jaycob van Auken, Ezra Holbrook 8 NE Killingsworth St. Chad Christopher, Jeffrey Scott
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Sickness in September: Blood Hunger, P.D.P., Crush Your Enemies, Human Obliteration, O.T.I.S., Mumification, Rotten Funeral, Larry David, Saprouphogus, Whoregrinder, Enabler, Suspended, Truculence
Rose Garden
1401 N Wheeler Ave. Duran Duran, Neon Trees
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Rich Layton & The Troublemakers, Ron Rogers and the Wailing Wind (9 pm); Boy & Bean (6 pm)
El Centro Milagro
Sellwood Public House
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey with Peter Apfelbaum, Mark Southerland
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. MC Chris, MC Lars, Mega Ran, Adam WarRock
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Rose Gerber; Stephanie Scelza
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Linda Hornbuckle Band
8132 SE 13th Ave. Arlie Conner
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. Blow Up Dolls, Steak Knife, Reefer Madness
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Here Come Dots, Hema, Curious Hands
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Kode Bluuz
St. Josef’s Winery
28836 S Barlow Road, Canby The DonauMusikaten
Star Bar
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cul An Ti
639 SE Morrison St. Cyclotron, Burning Leather, Shut Your Animal Face, DJ Smooth Hopperator
Kenton Club
Star Theater
Kells
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Satin Chaps, Papillon, Paradise, DJ Drew Groove
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Shelley Short, Nervous & the Kid (9:30 pm); Tree Frogs (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale
The Globe
Ella Street Social Club
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar
Hawthorne Theatre
The Know
3341 SE Belmont St. Planet Jackers 2045 SE Belmont St. Abbey Road
1001 SW Broadway Bre Gregg
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Danger Thieves, Cement Season, Distrackted
The Lovecraft
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe
Plan B
13 NW 6th Ave. Powers Up (late show, 11 pm; early show, 7:30 pm)
Sylvan Steakhouse
5515 SW Canyon Court Kung Pao Chickens
TaborSpace
5441 SE Belmont St.
3341 SE Belmont St. Better Homes and Gardens
The Globe
317 NW Broadway Delaney and Paris
4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
The Blue Monk
1635 SE 7th Ave. Captain Jeff’s Musical Chumbuckets 525 SE Stark St. La Luna Nueva Festival: ¡Viva la Cultura!
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. James Clem
The DonauMusikaten
El Centro Milagro
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. The Lumineers, Ravenna Woods
3435 N Lombard St. Blueprints
Active Child, Chad Valley
Duff’s Garage
The Blue Monk
Mock Crest Tavern
203 SE Grand Ave. Girls Going Single: Guantanamo Baywatch, DJ HG Walls, DJ Fuzzboxx 525 SE Stark St. La Luna Nueva Festival: Alfredo Muro
Taborfest: Professor Banjo, ZIMBA! Marimba, Alphabeticians, Aaron Smith, Marion Drake/ Traditions Band, Donna Dunaif, Square Dance Band
421 SE Grand Ave. [Product] and Reak[tion]
Record Room
Duff’s Garage
Tony Starlight’s
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
Camellia Lounge
Thirsty Lion
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Therapists, Nun Un, Hole In My Head, Denizenz
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Bon Iver, Other Lives
Press Club
830 E Burnside St. Radiation City, Blouse, Aan
Tonic Lounge
McMenamins Edgefield
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Brandon Chandler & The Revival, Cody Beebe & The Crooks
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. On The Stairs, The Lower 48, Jarad Miles 71 SW 2nd Ave. Jacob Merlin Band
Chris Margolin
The Woods
Tiger Bar
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Timmy The Terror & The Winter Coats, Grrlfriend, I Multiply
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Tony Starlight and the All Star Horns
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Kelley Shannon Trio with Steve Christofferson
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Gnome Sorcery Federation, Nova Shround, Strangeletter
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Where’s Danny?
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. Belly Dance Uncorked
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Nick Peets, WhistlePunk! (9:30 pm); The Student Loan (4:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Sean Holmes, Fred Stickley
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Never Shout Never, A Rocket to the Moon, Carter Hulsey, Plug In Stereo
SUN. SEPT. 25 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Paul Basile, Debbie Miller
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Shook Twins, Catherine MacLellan
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Oranguntangular, Ata Ghost, Sol Rioting
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Andrew’s Ave
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. For Those Alive, Hello Yellow, The Modern Golem, Oslo In September
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Ron Steen Jazz Jam
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St.
714 SW 20th Place Jobo Shakins, Egg Plant, The Damnson Brothers
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Comeback Kid, The Chariot, This Is Hell, American Me, I Am The Monster
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Braids, Pepper Rabbit, Painted Palms
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Dwight Rundle
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Irish Sessions
Lan Su Chinese Garden Northwest 3rd Avenue and Everett Street Traditional Chinese Music Benefit Concert
LaurelThirst
2045 SE Belmont St. Rychen
426 SW Washington St. Papa Dynamite & The Jive, The Skirt Chasers 2026 NE Alberta St. Guardians, Before the Eyewall, 19ADD
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Joseph Arthur, Emily Greene
Tillicum Club
8585 SW BeavertonHillsdale Highway Johnny Martin
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. The Ocean Floor
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Open Mic/Songwriter Showcase
MON. SEPT. 26
2958 NE Glisan St. Billy Kennedy & Tim Acott (9:30 pm); Freak Mountain Ramblers (6 pm)
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
McMenamins Edgefield
Alberta Street Public House
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Oktoberfest: The Defibulators, Hoot Family Showcase, Mimicking Birds, Pete Kartsounes Band, The My Oh My’s, Merrill, Gypsy Heart Tribal, Lincoln Crockett Band, Julie McCarl, High Five Polka Band
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Hanz Araki & Kathryn Claire
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. The Dark Backward (9 pm); The New Five Cents (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Idiot Glee, Pictorials, Boys On The Storm
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Irish Music
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Pepper Rabbit
NEPO 42
303 SW 12th Ave. Paul Basile, Shoeshine Blue
1036 NE Alberta St. Anna Laube
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Open Mic
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Gay Ghost, Eee Ee
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Mike D
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Twin Shadow, Diamond Rings
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Suzie and the Sidecars
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Open Mic
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Polar Bear Club, Fireworks, Balance and Composure, Such Gold
Holocene
5403 NE 42nd Ave. Open Mic
1001 SE Morrison St. Systems Officer, Phantom Works
Newmark Theatre
Jade Lounge
Red Room
Jimmy Mak’s
1111 SW Broadway Peacock After Dark
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Sickness in September: Nocturnal Slaughter, Echoic, Exuviate, Aytherium, Ceremonial Castings, Dead in a Ditch, Damage Overdose, Mills Lane
Red and Black Cafe
400 SE 12th Ave. George Mann, Jay Russo, Rose Darke
2346 SE Ankeny St. Salon De Musique 221 NW 10th Ave. Dan Balmer
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Kung Pao Chickens
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
Rontoms
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Skip vonKuske, Laura Ivancie
Rotture
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
600 E Burnside St. Atomic Mama 315 SE 3rd Ave. Ceschi, RickoLus, Kaigen, Hives Inquiry Squad
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. John Heart Jackie, Zoe Boekbinder, Mal Blum, On the Stairs
St. Josef’s Winery
28836 S Barlow Road, Canby
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Bob Shoemaker
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Mr. Ben
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Vacant Lots, Tomorrow’s Tulips, The Shivas
CALENDAR Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Lloyd Jones
O’Connors
7850 SW Capitol Highway Kit Garoutte
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Jolie Holland
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Renato Caranto Project
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. 400 Blows, Lord Dying, DJ Starbird
Unico Plaza
SW 6th Ave. & SW Oak St. March Fourth Marching Band
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Virgin Blood, Intuit, Emp Moe, Alex Dolan
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Riviera, Little Beirut
TUES. SEPT. 27 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Paul Basile, Ezza Rose
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Die Geister Beschworen
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. JB Butler
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Radio Way, Aux. 78, Amy Bleu
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave.
The Hague, Hip Hatchet, Ugly Flowers, Candysound
Jimmy Mak’s
Buffalo Gap Saloon
Kells
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Open Mic
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. Sun Angle, Death Songs
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Jazz Jam
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Massive Moth, Monoplane, Youth, We Shared Milk
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Bobby Long
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Dover Weinberg Quartet (9:30 pm); Trio Bravo (6 pm)
Ella Street Social Club
714 SW 20th Place Magic Mouth, No More Train Ghosts
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Scott PembertonTrio
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Todd Mauvais
Hawthorne Hophouse 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Ben Larsen & Austin Moore
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Weekend, Talk Normal, Hausu, DJ Ghost Animal
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. DJ Sean, Lance Vallis, Sue Zakolar
221 NW 10th Ave. The Jacqui Naylor Trio 112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Jackstraw
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Joshua English Duo
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Open Bluegrass Jam
Mississippi Pizza
Star Bar
Sundaze, Ask You In Gray, Sucker For Lights
639 SE Morrison St. Blank Fridays with DJ Ikon
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. All-Request Music Video Night: Therapists, Amoebas, Denizenz
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Black Metal Night
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. PDX Singer-Songwriter Showcase
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Pleassure, Welsh Bowmen
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Ayars Vocal Showcase
The Crown Room
WED. SEPT. 21 203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Smooth Hopperator
Soljah Sound with Red Fyah, Bamboo, Jagga, Derious De Witness, Chalice Rom, Gypsy Roots Bellydance Crew
Ground Kontrol
Tiga
East End
511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Mike Gong, Bliphop Junkie
Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Kit Fisto
Star Bar
1465 NE Prescott St. Gentleman Matthew Yake
FRI. SEPT. 23 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Krillim
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Drew Groove
Tiga
Crystal Ballroom
Mississippi Studios
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Open Mic with The Roaming
Valentine’s
Yes and No
Record Room
232 SW Ankeny St. Breakfast Mountain, Onuinu, Prescription Pills
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Patience Chaitezvi with Njuzu Mbira
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Revolver, Chateau Marmont, Eric John Kaiser
Twilight Café and Bar
8 NE Killingsworth St. Hero Worship with VJ Keep It On The Brownlowe
Vie de Boheme
Slabtown
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
1033 NW 16th Ave. System and Station, Ieguas Iargas, The Middle Ages
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Songwriter Showcase
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Pagan Jug Band
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Steve Hall Quintet
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St.
1530 SE 7th Ave. Lynn Winkle & Mark Stauffer
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Arthur Moore’s Harmonica Party
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Chris Margolin Duo, Jason Henderson
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Ladytron, Geographer, SONOIO
1465 NE Prescott St. Sweet Jimmy T 20 NW 3rd Ave. Death Club with DJ Entropy
THURS. SEPT. 22 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Anjali & the Incredible Kid
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. JoyStick
Star Bar 639 SE Morrison St. Dance-o-rama: DJs A Train, Isaiah Summers
Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan 231 SW Ankeny St. DJ No Request
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave.
1332 W Burnside St. ‘80s Video Dance Attack
Fez Ballroom 316 SW 11th Ave. Decadent ‘80s: DJ Encrypted, DJ NoN
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Soul Stew with DJ Aquaman
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. Landau Boyz
Holocene 1001 SE Morrison St. Girl Trouble: DJs KM Fizzy, Genevieve D, Magic Beans, Liz B, Jen O, Tropical Depression, Troubled Youth (9 pm); Aperitivo Happy Hour with DJ Jason Urick
Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Curse
205 NW 4th Ave. Dancehall City Lock: DJs Tyler Keys, Joe Nasty, Ben Tactic
The Lovecraft 421 SE Grand Ave. Darkness Descends with DJ Maxamillion
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Bad Wizard
Tube 18 NW 3rd Ave. Hoodrich with Ronin Roc; DJ Neil Blender
Valentine’s 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Hwy 7
SAT. SEPT. 24 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. DJ E3
Fez Ballroom 316 SW 11th Ave. Twice As Nice
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. Roxy’s Ego Hour
Mount Tabor Theater 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Stahlwerks with DJ NoN
Rotture 315 SE 3rd Ave. Blow Pony: DJs Airick, Kinetic, Jodi Bon Jodi, Lustache, Roy G Biv, Mr. Charming
Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan 231 SW Ankeny St.
MUSIC
Jai Ho! Bhangra Revolution
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Red Star Lounge: DJs Morse Code, Doc Adam, Ronin Roc
The Lovecraft 421 SE Grand Ave. Industrial Night with DJ Ghoulunatic
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Maxamillion
Tube 18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Wels
SUN. SEPT. 25 Matador 1967 W Burnside St. Next Big Thing with DJ Donny Don’t
Plan B 1305 SE 8th Ave. Hive with DJ Owen
MON. SEPT. 26 Star Bar 639 SE Morrison St. Into the Void with DJ Blackhawk
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Copy
TUES. SEPT. 27 East End 203 SE Grand Ave. Second Hand Daylight with DJ Linoleum
Star Bar 639 SE Morrison St. DJ Smooth Hopperator
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. Tropical Depression
©2011 COORS BREWING COMPANY, GOLDEN, CO Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
SEPT. 21-27 JOHAN PERSSON
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead. Editor: BEN WATERHOUSE. Stage: BEN WATERHOUSE (bwaterhouse@wweek. com). Classical: BRETT CAMPBELL (bcampbell@wweek.com). Dance: HEATHER WISNER (dance@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: bwaterhouse@wweek.com.
THEATER Annie Get Your Gun
Lake Oswego’s prosperous Lakewood Theatre tackles the classic Broadway musical about unrefined sharpshooter Annie Oakley’s transformative adventures with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Directed by Ron Daum and performed by a handful of talented familiar faces, Lakewood’s production delivers on all notes. Sara Catherine Wheatley’s shining performance as Annie is the apt highlight, carrying the charm of her innocently mischievous ways from the musical’s beginning to end, whether she’s hunting the bird on vindictive Dolly Tate’s (Stephanie Heuston) hat or covered in medals and wearing “oh day colog-neh water.” The cast’s quality singing (directed by Alan D. Lytle) and dancing (choreography by Joel Walker, who also plays Tommy Keeler) ties it all together. NATALIE BAKER. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 6353901. 7:30 Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 pm Sunday, Sept. 25; 2 pm Sundays Oct. 2-16. $32, $29 seniors. All ages.
Back Fence PDX
True stories by interesting people, including Egan Danehy, Laurie Notaro, Meg Worden, Priscilla G. Robinson, Sarah Grace McCandless and Saurabh Tak. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Sept. 21. $12-15. 21+.
Be Careful! The Sharks Will Eat You!
Actor Jay Alvarez performs his solo show about the Cuban revolution and his family’s escape to Miami in 1964. Alvarez’s performance, which received rave reviews in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, is presented here as part of Miracle Theatre’s La Luna Nueva festival of Latin music and theater. Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Wednesday, Sept. 21. $15-$17.
Crimes of the Heart
Bag & Baggage begins its 2011-2012 season with Beth Henley’s Pulitzerwinning dysfunctional-family drama. The Venetian Theatre, 253 E Main St., 345-9590. 7:30 pm ThursdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 9. $19-$25. All ages.
God of Carnage
“Children consume our lives, and then they destroy us,” says Alan (Michael Mendelson). As far as French playwright Yasmina Reza is concerned, this is a half-truth. The psychological (and occasionally physical) cage match that rocks the stage in her Tony-winning comedy has its roots in matrimony and the innate violence of humanity, but children provide the accelerant. Michael (Patrick Dizney) and Veronica (Allison Tigard) Novak, he a wholesaler of housewares and she a seller of art books writing a monograph on Darfur, have invited Alan and Annette (Trisha Miller) Raleigh, a pharmaceutical company lawyer and a wealth manager, to their Design Within Reach-outfitted living room (somewhere on Vista, from the view) to discuss the prior evening’s beating with a stick of the Novaks’ 10-year-old by the Raleighs’, which left the Novak child down two teeth. The children are not present. The evening would end quickly enough were Veronica not determined to force a teachable moment over coffee and clafoutis in a civilized manner. Civilization does not enter into child rearing, apparently—the ensuing hour of philosophy and fisticuffs turns husband against wife, men against women, hunters against farmers. Director Denis Arndt, who performed in Seattle Rep’s 2010 production of the show, has wisely chosen to interpret Carnage as a particularly disturbing farce. The show
40
is outrageously funny, and its more sober moments are either too absurdist or too French (“What we like about women is sensuality, wildness, hormones,” Alan says, forgetting to mention je ne sais quoi) to be taken entirely seriously by an American audience. Instead we get a comedic brawl with no winners, performed by four terrific actors—Mendelson’s uncharacteristic show of bellicosity is especially welcome—that will leave you either shaking with laughter or just plain shaken. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 9. $20-$42. All ages.
Good Will
Northwest Classical Theatre Company presents artistic director Grant Turner’s one-man show about the life of William Shakespeare. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 971-2443740. 7:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 2. $18-$20. All ages.
The House of the Spirits
A staged reading of Caridiad Svich’s adaptation of Isabel Allende’s novel about unrest and repression in an unnamed South American country. Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 2367253. 7 pm Monday and Wednesday, Sept. 26 and 28. Free.
I Love You Because
Broadway Rose presents Ryan Cunningham and Joshua Salzman’s musical love story, loosely adapted from Pride and Prejudice: New Yorker Austin Bennett fights with, then falls for, Marcy Fitzwilliam. Broadway Rose New Stage Theatre, 12850 SW Grant Ave., Tigard, 620-5262. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays; 2 pm Saturdays, Oct. 1-15. Closes Oct. 16. $20-$35. All ages.
Let’s Talk Church
“You will laugh out loud, enjoy great music and witness the redemptive power of God!” exclaims the press release for this gospel comedy by comedian Mary “Liz” Paige. Well, then—what can I add to that? Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. $32.50.
Love Song
John Steinkamp directs a Lunacy Stageworks production of John Kolvenbach’s comedy about a man who falls in love with the woman who burgles his apartment. Sellwood Masonic Lodge, 7126 SE Milwaukie Ave., www.lunacystageworks.org. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 2. $15, $12 students and seniors.
Maybe Baby, It’s You
To kick off its first full season in the company’s new digs—the Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza—Triangle Productions has chosen a mostly insipid script that would be more appropriate if offered as cruise-ship entertainment rather than as an addition to Portland’s already full fall theater lineup. Maybe Baby, It’s You consists of 13 vignettes about the challenges of dating and marriage in heterosexual relationships. Some of them are laugh-outloud funny, as when Medea of Greek tragedy goes on a blind date with the world’s nicest guy, or the characters of a film-noir romance settle down and try to make marriage work. But most of the sketches consist of half-baked writing filled with stock characters. The one genuinely touching piece was “Once Upon a Time,” in which a divorced grandmother and grandfather tenderly rehash their past after meeting at their grandson’s soccer game. Despite the weaknesses of the material, Gary Cash
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
ONE MAN, TWO GUVNORS and Adair Chappell’s high energy and good on-stage chemistry keep the show moving. They’re fun to watch as they complete more costume and wig changes in 90 minutes than your average drag show. MARIANNA HANE WILES. Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., 239-5919. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 2. $15-$35. All ages.
Mysterious Skin
New theater company Book of Dreams makes its debut with Prince Gomolvilas’ adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel about two sexually abused boys whose trauma manifests in very different ways: One believes he has been abducted by aliens; the other becomes a teen prostitute. The Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971269-4032. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, Sept. 22-24. $15.
Oklahoma!
Portland Center Stage’s advance publicity for its big fall musical has focused on director Chris Coleman’s gimmick—the cast, with the exception of “Persian” peddler Ali Hakim, is made up entirely of black performers. While some super-fans might find the idea unsettling, I don’t think the skin color of the actors will change the spirit of the show one bit. Coleman could have cast only obese Japanese cosplayers, but the strangeness of the concept would still be outweighed by the central weirdness of Oscar Hammerstein’s plot. If you pay attention to Oklahoma!—but who pays attention to musicals?—you’ll find a dark, unsettling story of absurdist sexual politics. Coleman’s cast, almost all newcomers to PCS, have impressive résumés. Barring egregious directorial error, it should be a great show. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm TuesdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays, alternating 7:30 pm Sunday and 2 pm Saturday performances. Closes Oct. 30. $39$69, $25 students. All ages.
One Man, Two Guvnors
Third Rail Rep resumes its series of screenings of recorded performances from the world’s great theaters with the National Theatre’s production of Richard Bean’s adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters. James Corden plays a burned-out musician watching over a small-time thug (who turns out to be a thugette) in what The Guardian called “one of the funniest productions in the National’s history.” World Trade Center Theater, 121 SW Salmon St., 235-1101. 1 and 5 pm Sunday, Sept. 25. $15-$20.
The Real Americans
Fed up with yuppie brunch and his life in the liberal bubble in general, San Francisco native Dan Hoyle decided he needed to explore the oft-lauded “real America” of the 2008 presidential campaigns. He bought a van and spent 100 days traveling rural highways through the Deep South, Appalachia and the Midwest in search of homegrown country wisdom. What he found was anger, ignorance and racism,
as well as kindness, hospitality and hope. Hoyle, a journalist, playwright and performer, turned his experiences from the trip into an acclaimed, new one-man show, The Real Americans, in which he tells the stories of the people he met in their own words, voices and mannerisms, and creates composite characters to represent them—many of which would be offensive if they weren’t so hilariously dead-on. There’s the crippled racist in Alabama who reckons that terrorists don’t mess with the South because they must have seen Cops and know that “rednecks don’t go down easy,” and the evangelist grandfather in Texas who explains that giraffes are proof of creationism because they don’t get dizzy when they raise their heads. But whether ranting about how Obama is a Muslim, lamenting the lack of work to be found or praying for their grandchildren shipping out to Afghanistan, each of Hoyle’s characters comes off as both real and surprisingly sympathetic. PENELOPE BASS. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays, alternating Saturday matinee and Sunday evening performances. Closes Nov. 6. $26-$46. All ages.
To Kill a Mockingbird
In Ted deChatelet’s unique take on the Harper Lee classic, an ensemble cast of seven men and women crosses genders and races to embody the citizens of Maycomb, Ala. It’s an ambitious choice, but solid acting, simple costume changes and vocal modulations created nearly 20 distinct characters (as a reviewer hailing from the South, this show featured the best Southern accents I’ve ever heard on a Northwest stage). Jocelyn Seid’s transformations were especially masterful— she portrayed widow Helen Robinson and prosecuting attorney Gilmer with equal zest, not to mention taking on the roles of Calpurnia and Miss Maudie as well. Of course, this type of ensemble staging runs into trouble at some points, and the choice has been made to employ African-American spirituals to cover the transitions between scenes. While the voices were strong, these songs often seemed jarringly out of place and overwrought. In order to integrate these tunes into the storytelling, fragments are often sung at important moments. Harper Lee’s words (which are well-preserved in this script) have such weight and import that the music seemed an unnecessary distraction. Still, if this production succeeds in its stated aim of creating dialogue around racism in Portland— and with grants provided to take the show to three area high schools, this seems likely—it will do us all some good. MHW. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 922-0532. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Oct. 1. $24, $19 students. All ages.
Waver Clamor Bellow Picture Show
New shadow-puppet theater troupe Waver Clamor Bellow Picture Show performs the story of a young blind woman’s travels in a “surreal and mys-
terious world.” Acoustic trio Alameda opens. Eat Art Theater, 850 NE 81st Ave., 548-4096. 7:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. $5.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Clackamas Rep ends its summer season with Albee’s masterpiece of mean-spirited matrimony. The very promising cast features Dennis Kelly, Annie Rimmer, Doren Elias and K.B. Mercer. Clackamas Community College, Osterman Theatre, 19600 S Molalla Ave., 594-6047. 7:30 pm ThursdaysSaturdays, 2:30 pm Sundays through Oct. 9. $12-$22.
COMEDY Anon and On and On
The Brody crew improvises Shakespearean comedy and tragedy for your amusement. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8 pm Friday-Sunday, Sept. 23-25, and FridaySaturday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1. $8-$12. All ages.
Michael Ian Black
The prolific actor, writer and comedian of The State and Stella hits town for a stand-up gig. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 8 pm Friday, Sept. 23. $18-$20. 21+.
Comedysportz
Family-friendly competitive improv comedy. ComedySportz, 1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888. 8 pm FridaysSaturdays. $12.
Curious Comedy Open Mic
Virginia Jones hosts a comedy open mic. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 9 pm every second and fourth Sunday. Free.
Mixology
A monthly late-night comedy variety show with sketch, improv and standup. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 10 pm the last Saturday of every month. $5.
Nothing but Treble
Musical comedy improv. ComedySportz, 1963 NW Kearney St., 236-8888. 8 pm Sunday, Sept. 25. $5. All ages.
Sweat
In its sophomore show, the sketch comedy group Sweat features bewigged kickballs, a gyrating North Star and inflatable dolphins. There are also jokes about Justin Bieber. Oh, and a trio of ugly mermaids. And yet, it (mostly) works. The group’s members, who hail from radio variety show Live Wire!, comedy troupe the 3rd Floor and last year’s popular Road House: The Play, have serious comic chops, and they balance in-your-face absurdity with subtler, more fanciful spots— the hilarious and expressive Michael Fetters executes one of these whimsical sketches to perfection. Though burdened by some limp material, such as an unfunny karate gag and an over-
SEPT. 21-27
PERFORMANCE CONTEMPORARY IMAGES PHOTOGRAPH
burdened by some limp material, such as an unfunny karate gag and an overlong Christian summer camp scene, most vignettes in this fragmentary, rather meandering string of sketches carry a smart punch. REBECCA JACOBSON. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., sweatysweat.com. 8 pm FridaysSaturdays through Oct. 1. $15-$19. All ages.
The Play
Local improv group Peachy Chicken performs an improvised parody of an off-off-off-Broadway theater production, from first rehearsal through opening night. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Sept. 23-24. $15.
CLASSICAL Cascadia Composers
This program of acoustic and electric chamber and vocal music (and a video installation) written by women from our own region features composers such as PSU’s Bonnie Miksch, Cynthia Stillman Gerdes and Lisa Marsh, whose only common factors are their XX chromosomes and their quality. Performers include Oregon Symphony violinist Erin Furbee and former Florestan Trio pianist Harold Gray. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., cascadiacomposers.org. 7:30 pm Friday, Sept. 23. $5-$20. All ages.
Creative Music Guild
This benefit features Sam Coomes’ new Deep Fried Boogie Band (which includes members of Quasi, Guided by Voices, and Dragging an Ox Through Water), Why I Must Be Careful, Golden Retriever’s Matt Carlson, Better Homes and Gardens (with drummer/sound artist Tim DuRoche and members of Blue Cranes), a live film score by experimental composer Daniel Menche, the 1939 Ensemble and DJ Jeffrey Jerusalem, along with dancers. Bamboo Grove Salon, 134 SE Taylor, 236-0386. 8 pm Friday, Sept. 23. $7. All ages.
Sikkil Gucharan
In this Rasika concert, the muchpraised, young Carnatic singer returns with the mesmerizing music of southern India, accompanied by violinist HK Venkatram and percussionist Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam on the mridangam drum. Intel, Jones Farm Campus, 2111 NE 25th Ave., Hillsboro, rasika.org. 5 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. $10-$20. All ages.
Master Musicians from Southern China
Along with local musicians playing traditional Chinese instruments, this benefit boasts a special treat: the rarely heard music of southern China, performed by visiting ethnicminority musicians on instruments like the hulusi (a reed instrument that sounds a bit like a clarinet), banhu (fiddle) and the one-string zither duxianqin. The heartfelt folkand dance-oriented music bears influences from neighboring areas of Thailand and Vietnam, says one of the Portland performers, Dr. Jiyu Yang. Lan Su Chinese Garden, Northwest 3rd Avenue and Everett Street, 228-8131. 7 pm Sunday, Sept. 25. $22-$25. All ages.
Northwest New Music
Founding duo percussionist Florian Conzetti and cellist Diane Chaplin have invited Third Angle pianist Susan Smith, Portland Youth Philharmonic conductor-clarinetist David Hattner, University of Oregon violin professor Fritz Gearhart and
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LYNNE COX / South with the Sun (Knopf)
Gives readers a full-scale account of the life of explorer Roald Amundsen. WED / 21ST / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
NEAL STEPHENSON / Reamde (William Morrow)
The Weekly Recurring Humor Night
Jimmy Newstetter hosts the weekly sketch and stand-up comedy night. This week: improv from Ian Karmel, Gabe Dinger, Bri Pruett, Christian Ricketts, Whitney Streed, Jen Allen and Tynan DeLong. Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 238-0543. 9:30 pm Wednesdays. $3-$5. 21+.
SEPT
The visionary author once again blazes new ground with a high-stakes thriller. Note: Tickets, $9.99, are available at the Bagdad Theater, the Crystal Ballroom, CascadeTickets.com, or by phone at 855-227-8499.
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD flutist Sarah Tiedemann to play. The fall program features Claude Debussy’s Syrinx for solo flute and the 20th century Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree for percussion trio and Toward the Sea for flute and marimba. The concert closes with Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” which the French composer wrote in a German POW camp during World War II. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 7533357. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 27. $5-$20. All ages.
world-music ensemble Brothers of the Baladi play traditional acoustic Turkish, Persian and Armenian music; dancers are signed up a year in advance and rotate weekly, giving everyone a chance to perform, and offering viewers variety from week to week. Speaking of viewers, the band also plays open dance music for amateur dancers, belly or otherwise. The Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 595-0575. 8 pm Wednesdays. $5. 21+.
Oregon Symphony
Monthly burlesque showcase the Marquis’ Mad Agenda features performances by Angelique DeVil, Atlas Alaska, Sandria Dore’ and Dee Dee Pepper. Agenda, 2366 SE 82nd, 384-2463. 9:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 27. $5. 21+.
In this all-Russian music program, Finnish violinist Elina Vähälä takes the solo spotlight in Sergey Prokofiev’s vibrant Violin Concerto No. 2, which shares the melodiousness of his other mid-1930s works, then takes off on a tart Spanish dance in the closing movement. The orchestra will also play Rachmaninoff’s ultra-Romantic Symphony No. 2 and kick off the proceedings with Mikhail Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 228-1353. 7:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, 8 pm Monday, Sept. 24-26. $21-$92.
Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble
This octet concert benefits the larger PJCE and features some of its stars, including trombonist Lars Campbell, saxophonists MarySue Tobin and Gus Slayton, pianist Andrew Oliver and other young jazz stalwarts, playing five new compositions by the members. Gallery 135, 135 NW Park Ave., 312-4856. 7 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. $5. All ages.
Portland Opera, Electric Opera Company, Opera Theater Oregon, Twangshifters
“And now, on with the opera,” proclaimed Groucho Marx in A Night at the Opera. “Let there be dancing in the streets, drinking in the saloons and necking in the parlor!” The company kicks off its season with an opera’s greatest hits concert, featuring music from Aida, Carmen and other warhorses. The fundraiser benefits the opera’s education and outreach programs, but the company will let non-nabobs see the show for free outside Keller Auditorium in a simulcast on a colossal screen, which you can watch from the street while enjoying a repast from food carts and a beer garden. The alt-opera groups and rockabilly band will warm up the crowd, and after the show, Groucho and siblings will take the screen in the aforementioned funniest movie about music ever made. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 241-1802. Street fair at 5 pm, concert and simulcast at 7:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. Free-$250. All ages.
DANCE Arabesque
Locally and nationally known belly dancers perform at Arabesque, a weekly Middle Eastern music and dance party. Members of longtime
The Marquis’ Mad Agenda
The Oregon Fall Festival
High-profile ballroom dance partners Sharone Levit and Yuliya Zavadska—whose faces and fancy footwork you might recall from So You Think You Can Dance and Take the Lead—headline the Oregon Fall Festival, a weekend-long ballroomdance event featuring competitions and exhibitions, awards and general dancing. Holiday Inn-Columbia Conference Center, 8439 NE Columbia Blvd., 590-4914. Various times Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 24-25. $70 for all-day pass. All ages.
Polaris Contemporary Dance Company Benefit
If you don’t attend the fundraiser for Polaris Dance Theatre, you can’t bid to win a fine-wine package or a trip to Bali or Italy, and you certainly won’t be treated to a private company performance of Robert Guitron’s work as you dine on Northwest Italian cuisine by chef Branden Whalen. So what are you waiting for? Show up in cocktail attire—a cocktail hour is included. Proceeds benefit the company’s outreach and artistic programs. Polaris Contemporary Dance Center, 1501 SW Taylor St., 380-5472. 6:30 Thursday, Sept. 22. $150.
Powers UP!
Attendees will need somewhere to rest their sore thumbs when the Portland Retro Gaming Expo is over, which is where Geeklesque: Powers Up comes in. Hosted by the Mad Marquis de Maltease, Powers Up is a gaming-themed burlesque show; performers include Hai Fleisch, Satheara Sin, Burlesquire, Lizzy O’Boom and special guest Randi Rascal, winner of the Burlesque Hall of Fame 2011 Best Debut award. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 7:30 and 11 pm Saturday, Sept. 24. $10$30. 21+.
Savoir Faire Burlesque Revue
Weekly burlesque revue featuring local, regional, and national burlesque and cabaret performers. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 10 pm Thursdays. $8 21+.
For more Performance listings, visit
THU / 22ND / 7P BAGDAD
STEVEN J. ROSS / Hollywood Left and Right (Oxford Univ. Press) Recounts how Hollywood emerged during the 20th century as a vital center of American political life. THU / 22ND / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
Jobs for the Food and Drink Industry Staffing Solutions for Owners & Managers
CALVIN TRILLIN / Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin (Random House) The definitive, and invariably hilarious, Calvin Trillin collection. FRI / 23RD / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
CINDA WILLIAMS CHIMA / The Gray Wolf Throne (Hyperion) The third book in her Seven Realms series for young adults. SAT / 24TH / 4P CEDAR HILLS
LISA MONTIERTH & ASHLEY BURKE / Right Where You Are Now (Craigmore Creations)
Picture book for children with a new educational adventure on every page. SUN / 25TH / 2P CEDAR HILLS
BANNED BOOKS WEEK Powell's Books and the ACLU of Oregon present an evening of readings, including Jonathan Hill and his graphic novel about censor- ship, Americus, Live Wireís Courtenay Hameister, and others. SUN / 25TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
SIMON REYNOLDS / Retromania (Faber & Faber)
Douglas Wolk joins Reynolds for a conversation about culture. MON / 26TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
CRAIG THOMPSON / Habibi (Pantheon) Since the enormous success of Blankets, fans can finally celebrate a new graphic novel from Craig Thompson. TUE / 27TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
SUZANNE MORRISON / Yoga Bitch (Three Rivers) Chronicles the hilarious misadventures of an aspiring yogi too skeptical to drink the Kool-Aid. WED / 28TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
SMART CHICKS KICK IT TOUR / Enthralled (HarperCollins) Seven authors present a collection of paranormal stories united by a theme: road trips. THU / 29TH / 6P CEDAR HILLS
SEBASTIAN BARRY / On Canaan’s Side (Viking) The heartbreaking story of a woman whose compassion, even for those who have wronged her, is astonishing. THU / 29TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
CHARLES MANN / 1493 (Knopf) A fascinating account of the ì most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs.î FRI / 30TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
Visit POWELLS.COM/CALENDAR for further details and to sign up for our EVENTS NEWSLETTER. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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upcoming in-store performances
SEPT. 21-27
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
SOUTHERLY — TONIGHT!! WEDNESDAY 9/21 @ 6PM
JACOB FRED JAZZ ODYSSEY •
VISUAL ARTS
SATURDAY 9/24 @ 4PM
By RICHARD SPEER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit show information—including opening and closing dates, gallery address and phone number—at least two weeks in advance to: Visual Arts, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: rspeer@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115. Emailed press releases must be backed up by a faxed or printed copy.
Founded in Tulsa, Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is a band consisting of Brian Haas on piano, Josh Raymer on drums, Chris Combs on lap steel, and Jeff Harshbarger on double bass. Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey is the evolution of an ongoing musical discourse that's been developed during 16 years of touring. ‘The Race Riot Suite,’ JFJO’s latest release, was written by Chris Combs.
PEPPER RABBIT •
CRUSH UK •
UNTITLED 5 (SALT LICK - USED) BY MALIA JENSEN AT ELIZABETH LEACH
NOW SHOWING
WEDNESDAY 9/28 @ 6PM
XOE WISE AND MATT RYD •
THURSDAY 9/29 @ 6PM
EXOTICA I NTERNAT I O N A L C LU B
FO R
M EN
Portland’s Premiere Gentlemen’s Club - HAPPY HOUR 3 PM
TO
7 PM
- NO COVER CHARGE - 8 OZ. STEAK SPECIAL FOR $4.99 ( ALL
HOURS )
- OPEN DAILY AT 11AM - COUPLE FRIENDLY - PORTLAND’S MOST EXOTIC FEMALE ENTERTAINERS
CONVENIENTLY LOCATED NEAR DOWNTOWN, PDX & DELTA PARK 240 NE COLUMBIA BLVD., PORTLAND, OR 97211 • 503-285-0281 42
Dana Popa’s Not Natasha chronicles the lives of prostitutes in Moldova. This body of work strives for the kind of gritty vérité that photographer Mary Ellen Mark achieved in her Falkland Road series (shown at Blue Sky in March) about life in the brothels of Mumbai. But ultimately, Popa, unlike Mark, pulls her punches, turning coy when a more fearless photographer would not have flinched. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 225-0210, blueskygallery.org. Closes Oct. 2.
Frank A. Rinehart
Formed in London in April 1999, Crush UK have developed a powerful, eclectic and lively mix of original and classic power rock-pop. Their recordings feature Martin Weller’s passionate vocals, power electric and soulful acoustic guitars that blend perfectly with Dave Dudley's dynamic and distinctive bass guitar style — complemented by Rick Bells's harmonies and percussion. The latest release ‘Proper Job’ is their 5th studio album.
SERVED FROM
Dana Popa
SUNDAY 9/25 @ 4PM
Now living in Los Angeles, Pepper Rabbit (frontman Xander Singh and drummer Luc Laurent) was practically born in New Orleans. The NOLA sessions for their debut LP ‘Beauregard’ left such a lasting impression on the young duo that it continues to haunt this summer’s ‘Red Velvet Snow Ball’ album. Their sound can be described as a loose brand of psychedelic pop music, rounded out by Xander’s deftly-layered loops and a third touring member on bass and synths (currently NOLA native Jonathan Allen).
yscapes in this gripping exhibition. The claustrophobic convergences of empty buildings and dirt lots inspire a sense of airlessness and dread. This town appears so cold and soul-crushing, it makes your bones hurt just to look at the pictures. Nine Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 225-0210, blueskygallery.org. Closes Oct. 2.
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
Grace Weston
The miniature stage sets in Grace Weston’s Angles of Incidents offer wry commentaries on contemporary life. Although they initially come across as whimsical, there are darker undercurrents in many pieces. Happy Hour, which would seem a critique of alcoholism, shows an empty suit holding a cocktail; there is no person anymore, just a costume whose purpose is to hoist a drink. The Initiate shows a woman in front of a throne-like chair in the middle of the woods, perhaps about to be initiated into a cult. Then there is Dress Rehearsal, a depiction of a man looking at three sets of female legs in a strip club. The man is shown from the back, his identity subsumed in carnal obsession. Augen Gallery, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056, augengallery.com. Closes Oct. 1.
Kristen Miller
Impossibly elegant, simple but not simplistic, the works in Kristen Miller’s Memento transmute fabric, paper and beads into the stuff of aesthetic epiphany. Crepey and delicate, the pieces juxtapose beaded lines with pristine planes. Although most works are white, there are exceptions: Landscape, with its delicious mint green, and Shadow/ Spring, which alternates green fabric with green beads. Miller is one of the gallery’s most talented artists, and this is her best show so far. PDX Contemporary Art, 925 NW Flanders St., 222-0063, pdxcontemporaryart. com. Closes Oct. 1.
Chris Watts
Chris Watts’ acrylic and ink paintings on birch panels display an immaculate marriage of grid and meandering lines. Although Watts has a penchant for tedious, overliteral titles, the works themselves are vivacious. In pieces such as Ten Horizontal Interlocking Constructions/Spirals and the Scrabble-board-like Six Horizontal Interlocking Forms, the artist shows that geometric rigor does not equate with rigor mortis. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 224-2634, blackfish.com. Closes Oct. 1.
The Shape of the Problem II: 30th Anniversary Exhibition
The most delightfully outrageous work in this 30th anniversary group show is Malia Jensen’s saucy, cheeky, and borderline creepy digital video installation, Salty. In the video, Jensen places a breast-shaped salt lick in the middle of a pasture. Warily, cows approach the white object, then take tentative licks, then crowd together, licking the nipple and gentle curves, as many as three cows at a time. There is something perverse and downright pornographic about this. The salt licks
themselves are also displayed and offered for sale. You may buy one of them for $8,000. Elizabeth Leach Gallery, 417 NW 9th Ave., 224 0521, elizabethleach.com. Closes Oct. 1.
Connecting
The highlight of this group show, Connecting, is Eva Speer’s virtuosic Untitled (Black Sea). It depicts dark ocean waves in a near-photorealist style, the surface selectively eroded, betraying abstract swirls of boldcolored paint underneath. It is a jarringly beautiful effect: an abstract world lying underneath the “real” world. Speer is treading on metaphysical ground, making us question whether what we see and construe as fact might actually be only a thin membrane covering a much more complicated universe. Chambers @ 916, 915 NW Flanders St., 227 9398, chambersgallery.com. Closes Oct. 22.
Monroe Hodder
Monroe Hodder slathers thick impasto on his canvases in luxuriant horizontal stripes. The teal and aqua tones in Songlines contrast with the sunflower yellows of Icarus Ascending and the red-and-white strawberry shortcake palette of After Dr. Pozzi, named after John Singer Sargent’s Dr. Pozzi at Home, which has a similar color scheme. Hodder’s works, while homogeneous, are sensual and satisfying. Butters Gallery, 520 NW Davis St., 248-9378, buttersgallery.com. Closes Oct. 1.
Nike Graphic Studio Art Show
Twenty-eight graphic designers for Nike teamed up for this fundraiser benefiting the Japanese tsunami relief effort. The show’s most compelling works are Chris DeGaetano’s semi-abstract portraits of basketball stars Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. With their black, white, fuchsia and silver metallic palette, they spatter and drip spray paint and other media across the picture plane. Sports superstar portraiture does have its limits, however, and as with most graphic design presented under the rubric of fine art, these relentlessly sports-themed pieces become at a certain point a triumph of technique over subject matter. Compound Gallery, 107 NW 5th Ave., 796-2733, compoundgallery.com. Closes Sept. 30.
Kelly Kievit
For the most part, Kelly Kievit’s oiland-marble-dust paintings meander around the canvas in dallying scrawls and scribbles. But when she goes for broke, both chromatically and compositionally—as in the aggressively pink Sustenance and Discourse and the orange-and-pink Spare—she scores big. Froelick Gallery, 714 NW Davis St., 222-1142, froelickgallery. com. Closes Oct. 1.
Christopher Rauschenberg
Christopher Rauschenberg traveled to Inner Mongolia to photograph the frosty brick streets and desolate cit-
At the tail end of the era we have come to mythologize as the Old West, photographer Frank A. Rinehart captured the images of Native Americans in a series of studio portraits. The images are all from 1898, 1899 and 1900, and hauntingly document the waning of American Indians’ way of life on the continent that once was theirs. Unfortunately, the generic studio backdrops and bland lighting Anglicize, homogenize and objectify the subjects into cardboard-cutout noble-savage standins. These photographs occupy a sad intersection between photojournalism, portraiture, history and tragedy. Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, 134 NW 8th Ave., 287-3886, hartmanfineart. net. Closes Oct. 1.
Assemblage
For Assemblage, curator Leo Michelson has gathered together pieces by 21 artists, all of whom work in assemblage. Michelson’s interest in the medium dates to the 1960s, when he was fascinated by the assemblages of the late Joseph Cornell. The current exhibition showcases a wide variety of approaches to assemblage by artists from across the Pacific Northwest. Annie Meyer Artwork Gallery, 120 NW 9th Ave., Suite 102, 224-3150, anniemeyerartwork.com. Closes Sept. 30.
Carrie Iverson
Carrie Iverson’s Correspondence unflinchingly explores the memory loss experienced by the artist’s father. The artist has taken objects associated with her father and transmogrified them into elegies in paper, kiln-formed glass and chalkboards on which all writing has been obscured into messy indecipherability. A milky glass plank called Redacted (which would have been a chilling title for the exhibition itself) evokes diary pages that have faded or been erased. Iverson conjures an atmosphere of sfumato and stonewashed memories, in which all concretes have eroded into ghostly traces of their erstwhile referents. This is a technically assured and courageous inquiry into the disappearance and endurance of memory. Bullseye Gallery, 300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222, bullseyegallery.com. Closes Nov. 19.
Stephen Scott Smith
The memories in Stephen Scott Smith’s Burlap 2B are those of a Gen-X’er now in his late 30s, slipping nostalgically and perhaps uneasily into middle age. On the gallery’s walls, Smith’s large-scale drawings recall classic ’80s motifs with droll wit, including an image of Ronald Reagan wearing a Star Wars pin, an allusion not only to the famous film series but also to the Strategic Defense Initiative (nicknamed “Star Wars”) championed by the late president. Breeze Block Gallery, 323 NW 6th Ave., breezeblockgallery.com. Closes Oct. 1.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
BOOKS
SEPT. 21-27
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By RUTH BROWN. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit lecture or reading information at least two weeks in advance to: WORDS, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: words@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 21 Back Fence PDX
Portland storytelling series Back Fence PDX continues with “interesting people” telling true, unmemorized stories. This edition’s theme is “Mistakes Were Made,” with guests Egan Denahy of Mortified PDX, author Laurie Notaro, former federal prisoner Meg Worden, former forensic military photojournalist Priscilla G. Robinson, author Sarah Grace McCandless and storytelling champion Saurabh Tak. Reserve tickets at backfencepdxsep. eventbrite.com. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 6:30 pm. $12 with reservation, $15 without. 21+.
THURSDAY, SEPT. 22 Dave Jarecki, John Morrison, Peter Sears Annie Bloom hosts readings from Portland poets Dave Jarecki, John Morrison and Peter Sears, followed by a short open-mic session. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, 246-0053. 7 pm. Free.
Annie Proulx
Portland Arts and Lectures kicks off its 2011-12 season with a lecture by Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and about a million other awards winner Annie Proulx. The catch? You have to subscribe to the entire five-lecture series to score a seat. Upcoming presenters include biographer Stacy Schiff, journalist and filmmaker Sebastian Junger, and authors Abraham Verghese and Chimamanda Adichie. Subscriptions start at $70, which works out to $14 per lecture—a bargain, if you ask us. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7:30 pm. Subscriptions $70-$285.
Comics Underground
Kaboom! Kersplat! Bort! Comic book writers and artists read dialogue from their own works. This edition’s participants include Greg Rucka (Stumptown, The Punisher); Jamie S. Rich, Joelle Jones and Nico Hitori (Spellcheckers); Kelly Sue DeConnick (a bunch of Marvel stuff, but she’ll be reading from a comic about CBGB); and Natalie Nourigat (Between Gears). Jack London Bar, 529 SW 4th Ave., 2287605. 8 pm. Free. 21+.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 23 Calvin Trillin
Journalist, author, poet and all-round hilarious writer Calvin Trillin brings his new book, Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin—a collection of the best of his humorous writing from the past 40 years—to Powell’s. It will, undoubtedly,
NEWS
be a thoroughly entertaining evening. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
Live Wire!
This edition of the twice-monthly live OPB radio variety show features authors Chuck Palahniuk and Lidia Yuknavitch, designers Rob Forbes (Design Within Reach) and Tinker Hatfield (Nike), stand-up comic Dwight Slade, and musical acts Blouse and On The Rocks (responsible for that a cappella “Bad Romance” video). Alberta Rose Theater, 3000 N Alberta St., show at 7:30 pm, doors at 6:30 pm. Advance $18 GA, $30 reserved, day of show $20 GA, $30 reserved.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 24 Adam Warrock and Mega Ran Meet Up
In what may be the geekiest event of 2011, “comic book rapper” Adam Warrock and Mega Ran, who raps over and about video games, will be signing autographs and selling albums and merchandise at Bridge City Comics before their performance at the Hawthorne Theatre later that night. Bridge City Comics, 3725 N Mississippi Ave., 282-5484. 1 pm. Free. All ages.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 25 Design*Sponge at Home
The woman behind insanely popular craft and design blog Design*Sponge, Grace Bonner, has written a book, Design*Sponge at Home. The press release says it’s “overflowing with photos,” which doesn’t sound like good design at all. Regardless, Bonner will be in Portland for two events: first, a craft event and signing at the Cleaners at the Ace Hotel (403 SW 10th Ave., book at eventbrite.com/ event/2095793575) on Sunday, Sept. 25; then a book signing and party at chichi Pearl furniture store West Elm (1201 NW Couch St.) on Monday, Sept. 26. As one WW writer puts it: “This is going to be like the Beatles for 35-year-old women in floral-print dresses.” 2 pm Sunday, Sept. 25, $25 crafting fee; 6 pm Monday, Sept. 26, free.
Attic Atheneum Reading and Induction
The Attic Institute kicks off its next Attic Atheneum class—a six-month MFA alternative program—with a night of readings from the facility’s faculty, including David Biespiel, Wendy Willis, Karen Karbo, Cheryl Strayed, G. Xavier Robillard and Merridawn Duckler. Even if you don’t care about the Atheneum, that’s a pretty great lineup. Plus, free wine and snacks. Conduit Dance, 918 SW Yamhill St., Suite 401, 221-5857. 7 pm. Free.
ACLU’s Banned Books Reading
As part of the ACLU’s Banned Books Week, Powell’s will host an evening of readings featuring Bitch magazine’s Andi Zeisler, OPB’s Courtenay Hameister, illustrator Jonathan Hill, author Chelsea Cain, Back Fence PDX’s B. Frayn Masters and author Arthur Bradford. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free. All ages.
MONDAY, SEPT. 26 Retromania
Renowned British music critic Simon Reynolds asks: “Band re-formations and reunion tours, expanded reissues of classic albums and outtakecrammed box sets, remakes and sequels, tribute albums and mashups…. Is this retromania a death knell for any originality and distinctiveness of our own?” Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free. All ages.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 27 Amor Towles
Set in Depression-era New York, Amor Towles’ debut novel, Rules of Civility, has been receiving enthusiastic reviews across the board, from The New York Times to, er, Good Housekeeping. It tells the story of a young woman attempting to make her fortune in Manhattan in 1938, in a story that The Guardian called “Sex and the City 1930s-style.” Barnes & Noble Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Ave., 786-3463. 7 pm. Free. All ages.
Craig Thompson
Eisner Award-winning Portland-based graphic novelist Craig Thompson (of the wonderful Blankets) promotes his new tome (and, really, it’s huge), Habibi, which follows two refugee child slaves through deserts, harems and cities. The artwork is, as one would expect from Thompson, absolutely stunning. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
Tim Egan
Seattle-based National Book Awardand Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times reporter Tim Egan will speak at the University of Portland as part of its Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series. Egan is the author of The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest, Lasso the Wind, Away to the New West and The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America. He has followed the entire length of the Lewis and Clark trail. Please commence feeling like an underachiever. University of Portland, Mago Hunt Recital Hall, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., 503-943-8000. 7 pm. Free.
For more Words listings, visit
pilobolus
REVIEW
NEAL STEPHENSON REAMDE Neal Stephenson’s new novel is a departure from the epic sciencefiction sagas with which he transformed the genre in the 1990s and 2000s. Like some of his previous books, Reamde (William Morrow, 1,056 pages, $35) is too long, it’s cluttered with computers, and it comes wrapped in a mostly black dust jacket, but it’s not science fiction or historical fantasy. It’s a realistic, present-day adventure Neal Stephenson writes thriller that explores what could another big black book. happen if a war in the online gaming world spilled over into the real world of hackers, mobsters, terrorists and spies. The main character, Richard Forthrast, is a secretive multimillionaire who amassed his initial fortune smuggling marijuana across the Canadian border while dodging the draft during the Vietnam War. He later creates T’Rain, a World of Warcraft-style online role-playing game for the purpose of laundering the proceeds: Instead of preventing Chinese kids from farming the game for virtual gold they can sell to affluent Western players, T’Rain encourages the trade. Forthrast collects from online buyers who pay by credit card and then pays off the gold farmers with aging $100 bills squirreled away from his drugsmuggling days. Trouble starts when a young Chinese hacker tries to cash in on this virtual economy by creating a readme file (misspelled “reamde”) that encrypts T’Rain players’ personal computer files. To get the code needed to decrypt them, players must deposit a ransom in virtual gold, fueling an online war as bandits ambush victims for their ransom money. Forthrast’s adopted niece, Zula, is kidnapped by the Russian mafia when her self-absorbed boyfriend, Peter, unwittingly sells the mob a file of stolen credit card numbers infected with the reamde virus. Zula and Peter are shanghaied to China to help track down the author of reamde, but the action powers up to the next level when the Russians clash by mistake with a cell of Islamic terrorists, and Zula falls into the hands of a bin Laden-style jihadist. From there, the stakes are raised from the merely personal to the potentially global. Reamde is easily 400 pages too long. Stephenson can’t resist describing his characters’ every thought and movement in minute detail, whether they’re designing believable topography for an online fantasy world or trying to shoot a terrorist in the head with a Makarov 9mm after forgetting to cock it. But for readers with the patience to unzip Reamde’s dense, high-resolution narrative, the choice is clear: reaidt. MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM. SEE IT: Neal Stephenson reads at the Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 236-9234. 7 pm Thursday, Sept. 22. $10.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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44
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
For complete details and OR to register online, visit www.oakridgehostel.com/events 48175 East First St. Oakridge, 97463 541.782.4000 For complete details and to register online, visit www.oakridgehostel.com/events For complete details and to register online, visit www.oakridgehostel.com/events
Oakridge Hostel
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SEPT. 21 - 27 REVIEW
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
MELINDA SUE GORDON
MOVIES
Editor: AARON MESH. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, send screening information at least two weeks in advance to Screen, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: amesh@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
NEW
Abduction
Taylor Lautner discovers intrigue about his real parents, who are probably not wolves, but maybe. Not screened for critics. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Attack the Block
87 For the second time this year—
following Super 8—we’re sided with a rag-tag group of adolescent weirdos dealing with space invaders. It’s about as generic as a movie can sound. But within three whip-smart minutes of Attack the Block, it’s obvious freshman director Joe Cornish has crafted a nasty, hysterically funny homage that mines everything from 1950s sci-fi schlock to vintage John Carpenter to craft one of the smartest, funniest and most kinetic films of the season. The film opens with our heroes—multi-cult London gangbangers who talk like Ali G and recall The Goonies by way of Boyz n the Hood—mugging a pretty young nurse (Jodie Whittaker), only to be interrupted by an alien life form plunging to Earth and into a nearby car. The kids’ leader, charismatic 15-year-old Moses (John Boyega, in a star-making turn), promptly slays the beast and takes it to the nearest secure place, a weed den lorded over by a violent hip-hop wannabe (Jumayn Hunter) and run by fanny-pack-sporting Ron (Shaun of the Dead’s Nick Frost). This is genre drivel simmered to perfection by a director who makes the familiar seem alien. The joy of watching the picture lies in Cornish’s skill at instilling it with the same freshness Wright’s Shaun of the Dead gave to the rigor-mortis world of zombies. Attack the Block seethes cool while reminding us why we like this type of film in the first place: It makes us feel like kids again, facing the unknown with a smirk—and a katana blade, for good measure. R. AP KRYZA. Lloyd Center.
Bobby Fischer Against the World NEW
88 A riveting documentary about an impossible man. Chess master Bobby Fischer’s long, gangrenous decline into anti-Semitic bile hopelessly sullied his memory, but it is the feat of director Liz Garbus’ work for the sports wing of HBO Films to resuscitate the man’s initial power and grace. This is no easy task—even the suspense of Fischer’s 1972 championship matches with Boris Spassky emerged chiefly from his bizarre refusal to show up for matches—but Bobby Fischer Against the World paints the man with great sympathy, carefully revealing how his self-loathing and psychosis was rooted in a childhood that deserves to be called tragic. The movie is also a lot of fun, featuring as it does a Russian folk ditty about Soviet chess superiority (“Steely are my muscles/ Oh, my fingers they’re so long!”) and a celebrity sketch artist with a mustache to rival Anchorman sidekick Brian Fantana’s, but it is mostly a tense study of loneliness. Fischer, who in ’72 looked like Ryan Gosling in the role of Dirk Nowitzki, is shown reading the New York Post headlines trumpeting his victory—but he’s sitting on a rock in the desolate Icelandic terrain, and this is as happy as his life will get. Working with the late Portlandnative film editor Karen Schmeer, Garbus melds the testimony of chess experts and Fischer’s former friends to create comprehensible explanations of complex chessboard strategies; their greater accomplishment is making the man himself reachable through images—none sadder than the shot of him alone at some European amusement park, flying in a little tin airplane. As Fischer is driven to abstraction, the film remains stubbornly humane. AARON MESH. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, 7 pm Thursday
and 4:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 22 & 24. Living Room Theaters. NEW
Connected
A documentary on human links in a technological age. PG. Fox Tower.
Contagion
64 Examining what would happen if the grim prophecies of a global swine flu-like epidemic had come true, Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion takes great pains to show the excruciatingly complicated and frustrating lengths the global scientific community would go to in an effort to vaccinate a crumbling world. Soderbergh trains his lens on a global group of scientists/A-listers (among them Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law and Elliott Gould) who work endlessly in labs as the disease escalates, leaving a pile of dead Oscar winners and lab monkeys in its path (because you can’t make an outbreak flick without at least a few monkeys, apparently). But scratch Soderbergh’s name off the credits and sub in actors like Powers Boothe, Corbin Bernsen, Anne Heche and Bronson Pinchot, and Contagion would simply be a standard-issue TV movie of the week. PG13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, CineMagic, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Cowboys & Aliens
66 Enemies become allies. Racists become not racist. Wimps become heroes, and at the most opportune time. The lesson here is that simply pulling tired tropes from two different kinds of movies doesn’t instantly make something fresh. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Eastport, Forest, Sherwood, Tigard.
Crazy, Stupid, Love
70 Where Friends With Benefits
employed Justin Timberlake as an art director at GQ, this picture features Ryan Gosling as a walking issue of Esquire—the one with the “Am I a Man?” quiz on page 170. You can practically smell his cologne ads. PG13. AARON MESH. 99 West Drive-In, Clackamas, Fox Tower.
Dial M for Murder
[REVIVAL] Press * to have Alfred Hitchcock POKE YOU IN THE EYE. Cinema 21. 5:45 pm Friday-Wednesday, Sept. 23-28. 1:30 and 3:30 pm Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 24-25.
The Debt
60 John Madden’s The Debt feels like a talented but glib college student trying to pass a modern European history exam with an essay on the repercussions of the Holocaust and the founding of Israel—it volunteers answers, but has no feeling for the questions it raises. The film’s confusion is not merely thematic; it also bungles at the most basic levels. Remaking an Israeli film, Ha-Hov, Madden positions Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds as aging former Mossad agents, then rewinds to their fateful 1966 mission in East Berlin—but he casts two young men (Sam Worthington and Marton Csokas) who could each be young versions of either Wilkinson or Hinds. Jessica Chastain, however, is unmistakable: She was the ethereal mother in The Tree of Life and the kind soul in The Help, and now, as mini-Mirren, plays a woman whose first instinct is to try and make the best of bad situations. This disposition is not all that helpful when you’re locked in an apartment with three men, two of them rivals for your romantic attentions and the other a Nazi doctor. These scenes are undeniably claustrophobic, and the movie gains some power from physical intimacy—Chastain captures the vile
CONT. on page 46
BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SABERMETRICS KID: Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill.
EASY A’S BRAD PITT GOES YARD IN MONEYBALL. BY CHR IS STA MM
503.243.2122
As of this writing, the Oakland Athletics (full disclosure: my Oakland Athletics), who have not posted a winning season since 2006, are 18 games out of first place in the American League West, a division that consistently offers only one sweet consolation to fans of the Bay Area’s second-favorite baseball team: The doomed Seattle Mariners will almost always be even more hapless. Nine years ago, however, this small-market club with one of Major League Baseball’s paltriest payrolls topped the AL West with a 103-59 record. Every season needs a Cinderella story, and in 2002, Oakland donned the fragile footwear. Moneyball, based on Michael Lewis’ bestselling account of the Athletics’ unlikely run, glues itself to A’s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) for a trip through that improbable year. If that first paragraph did nothing for you—if the dehydrated poetry of sports-page chatter fails to tickle you even a little bit—I can almost guarantee Moneyball will leave you cold. For although director Bennett Miller (Capote) and his elite writing team (Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian) pad Beane’s character with paternal longings and past defeats, there’s not a whole lot of squishy human interest to dig into here. This is a movie about baseball and the obsessed men (women in the film are wives, ex-wives, extras) who devote their lives to it. Make no mistake: There is heart in Moneyball, but it’s the part of the heart that swells at the sight of numbers on the back of a Topps card and breaks beneath tacky banners commemorating past championships. Mercifully short on baroque re-enactments of pivotal match-ups and pandering locker-room banter, Miller’s uptown update of Major League is almost wholly devoted to the front offices and underground clubhouses in which the game behind the game is played. The cash-strapped Beane is charged with the task of rebuilding a roster recently gutted of its superstars (Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, most notably) by East Coast organizations that need not be named. The swift, captivating first half of Moneyball finds Beane, the sort of jocular
ex-jock who fears stillness, failing at his thankless mission before teaming up with math geek Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), whose righteous faith in certain overlooked statistics convinces Beane to field a team of ostensibly mediocre has-beens and never-weres. It wouldn’t be a movie if Beane’s bad news bears didn’t succeed, of course, but Miller understands just how enervating a pitch-by-pitch victory march would be. And since Beane doesn’t bother to watch his team play, we don’t either. So when opening day arrives, Moneyball invests in the park’s ambience, in the hacky national anthem, the giant American flag, the outsized check accompanying some hokey pregame PR. The subsequent ups and downs of the 162-game season register as last-minute trades, squabbles with scouts, klatches with coaches and various other verbal maneuvers conducted in windowless rooms filled with cheap furniture. Pitt,
AN UPTOWN UPDATE OF MAJOR LEAGUE. perhaps the most orally fixated actor not employed by Vivid Video, chews his way through these assignations; when he is not spinning language webs, he is sucking on tobacco or chomping on popcorn in the furious manner of a man who is afraid his mouth will quite literally run away from him. It’s a delightfully wired performance, more action per minute in it than on any mound. When Miller finally does take the field with the fictional Athletics for some extended game action, the Nike commercial that results is at glaring odds with the conversational rhythm of the rest of the film. It seems an almost intentionally clumsy stab at grandiosity, an unnecessary reminder of how Moneyball might have been rendered for the big screen by lesser filmmakers. It is as if Beane traded for David Ortiz and then made him warm the bench to underline the efficacy of his unorthodox strategies. But maybe we need the reminder: Sometimes it’s the stuff we don’t see that counts. And so: Let’s go, Oakland! 90 SEE IT: Moneyball is rated PG-13. It opens Friday at Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville and Sandy.
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
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“
���� GOSLING MESMERIZES.”
– Peter Travers,
“THE COOLEST MOVIE AROUND.” – A.O. Scott,
Music
MOVIES
SEPT. 21 - 27
CALENDAR
RYAN GOSLING
THERE ARE NO CLEAN GETAWAYS LOCAL LISTINGS THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES NOW PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE FOR CHECK
3.825” X 3"
elio
mett
PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK DUE MON 6PM
Artist: (circle one:) Heather Staci Freelance 2 Jay
Steve
Philip
WED 09/21
AE: (circle one:) Angela Maria Josh Tim
Bobby Fischer Against the World
ART APPROVED AE APPROVED CLIENT APPROVED
McCool
WRITTEN BY
SHAWN CHRISTENSEN
DIRECTED BY
JOHN SINGLETON
IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23!
WWEEKDOTCOM WILLAMETTE WEEK WED: 9/21 2 COL. (3.772") X 5" ALL.ABD.0921.WI
95 Drive, the luxurious new L.A.
PAGE 37 2H.indd 1
Dolphin Tale 3D
Drive
VV
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46
NEW
58 Dolphin Tale is like Free Willy
set in the age of the Internet. The cetacean sensation here is Winter, an injured dolphin who loses her tail in an accident and is lucky enough to garner a ragtag team of marine something-or-others (Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr.) who make it their mission to fix her by attaching a prosthetic fin. But unlike the mostly unfettered Free Willy, many major themes of our complicated age are involved in Dolphin Tale: war, hurricanes, debt, disability, corporate buyouts, major loss. The kids are younger than our hero in Free Willy (and they look like siblings, making the mild flirtation I sensed between them throughout kind of creepy) but they act like teenagers. Perhaps this is an unintentional nod to how the Internet is changing what it’s like to be a kid (Wikipedia makes a cameo) or maybe I’m just being nostalgic for a time when 11-year-olds didn’t carry cell phones, organize massive charity events, say oddly witty things to their parents or have extremely adult-sized conversations with their pint-sized friends. Despite its cheesiness (and there’s no shortage of that, musical montages and all) Dolphin Tale has a great message at its core, and really, isn’t that what all those overactive, over-stimulated kids need? PG. MAGGIE SUMMERS. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Deadline:
ion #:
doc (a nasty Jesper Christensen) by going undercover for gynecological exams, and later gives him a very close shave. But as the Mossad fighters grow increasingly rattled, the picture begins to abandon moral inquiry in favor of plot contrivances. By its final act, The Debt bears an unfortunate resemblance to another Mirren vehicle, the AARP assassin flick Red. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, City Center, Fox Tower, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com 8/22/11 2:54 PM
noir from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, is the most brutally antisocial movie of the year. It is also the most romantic—but it is primarily spellbound by the romance of isolation. It is also exhilarating filmmaking, from soup to swollen nuts. It contains half a dozen white-knuckle action sequences—starting with a Ryan Gosling robbery getaway timed to the final buzzer of an L.A. Clippers game—yet its closest relative is the lightheaded, restrained eroticism of Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. In this context, the relentless carnage of Drive’s second half makes a sick kind of sense: It is a movie about men who only know how to show loyalty and care by staving in the skulls of other men. Winding Refn’s last film, Valhalla Rising, featured vikings disemboweling each other by hand, and the
characters here are not much more civilized, though they do have more cosmopolitan surroundings, smearing each other across some handsomely paneled elevator interiors. It is some kind of advancement, I suppose, that while the characters speak after very long pauses, they have moved past grunts. It is macho, self-pitying poppycock, and it engrossed and moved me like no other picture I’ve seen this year. And I have a sliver of justification: The entire history of noir, stretching back to The Maltese Falcon through Drive’s obvious influences like Walter Hill’s The Driver and Michael Mann’s Thief, is a lot of macho, self-pitying poppycock. That does not diminish the power of those movies. If Drive, a deliberate throwback, belongs in their company, it is because it is unreservedly committed to the decadent masochism of its fantasy. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub. NEW
Fix: The Ministry Movie
[ONE WEEK ONLY] A documentary about the industrial band Ministry. Clinton Street Theater. 7 and 9 pm Friday-Thursday, Sept. 23-29.
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
65 In adapting his own comic
book about the life of French pop maestro Serge Gainsbourg, director Joann Sfar concentrates on one central image—a walking, talking anti-Semitic caricature. It’s a larger-than-life-size puppet that young Lucien Ginsberg summons in his Nazi-occupied childhood as a kind of golem sophisticate. This brash reclaiming of Jewish identity through Jewish libel is a bold gesture—but it’s also a stagy one, and it keeps throwing the brakes on the larger biopic. Here is the metaphor of how Ginsberg became Gainsbourg, intruding on any attempt by lead actor Eric Elmosnino to become Gainsbourg. The film briefly gets revving in its re-creation of go-go ’60s Paris, as our hero beds Brigitte Bardot (Laetitia Casta) and marries Jane Birkin (Lucy Gordon, whose suicide casts a pall over the vibrancy of her scenes here). With the former he recorded “Bonnie and Clyde”; with the latter he sang “Je T’Aime... Mon Noi Plus.” Nothing matching the pure pleasure of those two tracks is in this movie. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
The Guard
42 Brendan Gleeson has impossible features. He appears to have been born in the wrong aspect ratio, with a visage formatted to fit old televisions, a noggin incompatible with our wide screens. His face, or so it seems, must be stretched and pummeled like pink taffy to conform to the 16:9 standard, and it’s almost sadistically compelling to watch Gleeson work with
SEPT. 21 - 27
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
80 The first act of Deathly Hallows 2 is a roller-coaster ride through goblin caves, and everything else is dedicated to an all-out battle that, with its rubble and dusty light, looks like Saving Private Potter. This World War II tone is the finest thing about the film: Director David Yates and his set-design team have created an atmosphere that explicitly recalls London during the Blitz, with young lovers snogging goodbye as the cathedral towers rain down. Also, we learn that Voldemort is an incredibly awkward hugger. PG-13. AARON MESH. Eastport, City Center, Lloyd Center.
life (or, at least, pro-procreation) subplot involving Olivia Munn as Kate’s aggressively single co-worker, who suffers a birth-control malfunction 15 minutes after declaring she doesn’t want children then inexplicably decides to keep the baby. That made me want to yell out, “Just get a fucking abortion!” like I do while watching 16 and Pregnant, but it’d be insulting to place that show in the same league as this piece of garbage. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinema 99, City Center, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard. NEW
Killer Elite
Jason Statham vs. Clive Owen vs. Robert De Niro. Why wasn’t it screened for critics? Look for a review on wweek.com. R. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia
Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
“‘
STRAW DOGS’ IS BLOODY GREAT!” Patrick Stoner, wHyy-tv/PBS “FliCkS”
“A
FIRST-RATE FILM OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE!”
The Lion King 3D
roger ebert, CHiCAGo SUn-tiMeS
It means “no worries,” except for that thing about to POKE YOU IN THE EYE. G. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
“AN INTENSE AND RIVETING
HEART-POUNDING THRILLER!” Shawn edwards, Fox-tv
“ONE OF THE MOST FRIGHTENING
Midnight in Paris
AND
GENUINELY SCARY
MOVIEGOING EXPERIENCES.
77 Sorry to break it to you, New
York, but Woody Allen is cheating on you. He’s had trysts in the past, but in Midnight in Paris his flirtation with the City of Light blossoms into
HHHH
”
Jeff Craig, Sixty SeCond Preview
CONT. on page 48
“ SUPER
REVIEW JANUS FILMS
his own strange packaging. Writerdirector John Michael McDonagh (whose brother Martin used Gleeson in In Bruges, a film John should have studied more carefully) is lucky to have him in The Guard, for absent the big man’s wadded physicality, there would be little worth looking at here. Gleeson stars as an adorably racist police officer who reluctantly teams with a strait-laced FBI agent (Don Cheadle, very nearly comatose) to foil a trio of drug traffickers who discuss Nietzsche when they’re not killing people, because like much of the rest of The Guard, these bad guys seem to have escaped through a hole in the bottom of Tarantino’s barrel. R. CHRIS STAMM. Fox Tower.
MOVIES
PERFORMANCES FROM AN AMAZING CAST.” Carrie keagan, vH1 BiG MorninG BUzz live
The Help
86 Give a white male director a script about Southern racism and nine times out of 10 he’ll hand you back the story of an enlightened sports team wrapped in a flashy soundtrack. Director Tate Taylor manages to break this mold in his adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s 2009 novel, The Help. Set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Miss., the film focuses on young, wealthy white mothers and their maltreatment of the black maids who serve them. Emma Stone plays Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, an aspiring writer whose childhood friends have grown up to resemble rabidly racist hybrids of the Plastics and the Stepford Wives. Sparked by contradicting stories regarding the abrupt departure of her own family’s maid, Skeeter attempts to document the reality of the Jim Crow era through a book detailing the experiences and perspectives of Jackson’s “help.” Taylor might be a white dude, but he successfully parodies touchy stereotypes—Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer) loves fried chicken and throws down plenty of “Lord knows you don’t wanna mess with this angry black woman” moments—in a way that calls attention to the guilt in the room while neither pardoning nor paralyzing white viewers. The Help doesn’t reward its viewers with a championship trophy. Instead, the film presents the reality of Southern life in the 1960s as something that takes much more than a high-school squad to overcome. PG-13. SHAE HEALEY. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Moreland, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Hilltop, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
I Don’t Know How She Does It
12 I bolted from the theater as soon as I had the chance, so I didn’t stick around long enough to see if I Don’t Know How She Does It’s final credit was “#firstworldproblems.” If it wasn’t there, it should have been. In yet another comedy about the struggles of an upper-middle-class white woman, Sarah Jessica Parker plays Kate Reddy, a financial something-or-other whose high-powered job forces her to neglect her kids, her husband and her best friend. Appropriately, the movie itself also neglects everyone except Kate. All other characters—including a boredlooking Greg Kinnear and uselessly radiant Christina Hendricks—are props in her isolated worldview, in which the greatest tragedy of her busy life is missing her son’s first haircut. Quoth Minor Threat: boofucking-hoo. There’s also a pro-
ASTRONAP: The ’70s were a strange and exhausting time.
WORLD ON A WIRE The great German dervish Rainer Werner Fassbinder, still only 27 years old and already fairly deep into a frantic career of unceasing productivity—he seemed to know he would die young—dipped his toe into science fiction with 1973’s World on a Wire, a 205-minute made-for-TV marathon unavailable in the U.S. until this year. That it’s not even close to being the longest work Fassbinder directed for television (Berlin Alexanderplatz is over 15 hours long) is proof of the man’s obsessive-compulsive work ethic. That a film from the early ’70s ostensibly concerned with cutting-edge technology can captivate at this late, jaded date should give you some idea of the visionary talent at work here. By turns dilatory and manic, with lazily navigated narrative turns stabbed by violent zooms and frequently catatonic performances swiped by quick pans, Fassbinder’s bipolar sci-fi meditation centers on a virtual environment called Simulacron, “the most exciting research project in the entire world.” An immersive construction not unlike the labyrinthine brain jails of eXistenZ and The Matrix, Simulacron is essentially a forecasting device meant to play out supply-and-demand scenarios for the benefit of humans in the near future. Inside Simulacron are approximately 10,000 “people” that can frizzle and fry into non-being if a cup of water spills onto whatever machine runs their code. They think they’re “real.” Like you, basically. When Fred Stiller, scientist-cum-middle-manager at the proto-Cronenbergian concern responsible for the project, begins chasing twinned suspicions about the project’s ultimate goal and the nature of his own apparent reality, well, I think you see where this is going. The revelations may be obvious, but as in the work of fellow mindfucker Philip K. Dick, the narrative involutions are secondary to Fassbinder’s philosophical probing. The film dawdles at times, but it is scarily good at capturing the creepy-crawly sense that life is not only a dream, but a dream someone else is having about you. That’s fairly fluffy Phil 101 fodder, but Fassbinder makes the idea sing—scream, more like it—with an addled madness that is all too... real? CHRIS STAMM.
Fassbinder’s mind-bender.
SCREEN GEMS PRESENTS A BATTLEPLAN PRODUCTION “STRAW DOGS” DOMI NIC PURCELL LAZ ALONSO WILLA HOLLAND AND JAMES WOODS MUSIC EXECUTIVE BY LARRY GROUPÉ PRODUCERS BEAU MARKS GILBERT DUMONTET BASED ON THE NOVEL “THE SIEGE OF TRENCHER’S FARM” BY GORDON WILLIAMS BASED ON THE ABC MOTION PICTURE SCREENPLAY BY DAVID ZELAG GOODMAN AND SAM PECKINPAH DIRECTED SCREENPLAY PRODUCED BY ROD LURIE BY ROD LURIE BY MARC FRYDMAN CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES
SEE IT: World on a Wire screens at the NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at 7 pm Friday-Saturday, 4:30 pm Sunday and 6:30 pm Monday, Sept. 23-26. 86
2 COL. (3.825") XWillamette 12" =Week 24"SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com WED 9/21 47 PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK
MOVIES CORDIALLY INVITE YOU AND A GUEST TO A SPECIAL ADVANCE SCREENING
SEPT. 21 - 27
a full-blown affair. If it’s any consolation, Paris isn’t about Paris in the way Allen’s classic New York films were about the experience of actually being in New York. It’s more about the idea of Paris, and really the idea of any time and place that aren’t our own. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Hollywood Theatre, Fox Tower. NEW My Afternoons With Margueritte
FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A PASS FOR YOU AND A GUEST, EMAIL US AT JWMOVIECLUB@GMAIL.COM AND INCLUDE “MGP WWEEK” IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE EMAIL. ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26. M ACHINE GUN PREACHER is rated R for violent content including disturbing image, language, some drug use and a scene of sexuality Seats are first-come, first-served. One pass per person. Each pass admits two. No phone calls. W hile supplies last. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Employees of all promotional partners and their agencies are not eligible.
IN THEATERS SEPTEMBER 30
36 This is a French film in which an obese, nearly illiterate yokel learns to love literature after meeting and befriending an old woman in a park. The amount of vomit in your mouth upon reading that synopsis should serve as a gauge for how much you’ll enjoy My Afternoons with Margueritte. A nauseatingly sentimental trifle from director Jean Becker, it’s a movie about the way language stimulates the imagination that doesn’t trust the imagination of its audience: As 95-year-old Marguerrite (Gisele Casadesus) reads aloud to dumpy town simpleton Germain (Gerard Depardieu, looking like a giant-sized Weeble Wobble stuffed into a pair of overalls), Becker visualizes the images in Germain’s head—i.e. thousands of rats descending on the Algerian city of Oran in The Plague—as if the creations of our own mind’s eye weren’t enough. He also flashes back to Germain’s childhood, where the insults and chastisements of his mother and schoolteachers explain his intellectual shortcomings. That’s a lazy device to use in developing a character, but it does produce the best scene in the film, in which Germain’s mother stabs an abusive boyfriend in the thighs with a pitchfork. Hey, if the director doesn’t think I’m smart enough to appreciate something like Camus without his help, I might as well enjoy the gratuitous violence. MATTHEW SINGER. Fox Tower.
NEW
My Own Private River
[ONE DAY ONLY, DIRECTORS ATTENDING] James Franco has edited together River Phoenix outtakes from Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho. Hollywood Theatre. Separate screenings at noon and 12:30 pm Sunday, Sept. 25. Franco and Van Sant will attend the screenings.
Our Idiot Brother
55 Our Idiot Brother is an uncommonly affable little movie, a very indie teasing of latter-day hippies. A lot of it feels like a Portlandia sketch—specifically the organic farm bit, but slightly less funny— and I’m honestly grateful it wasn’t filmed here; that would have been a blow of stereotyping from which we’d never recover. As it stands, Our Idiot Brother is set in New York City and upstate, though it could be anywhere where young people are bewildered by having to be grownups. Paul Rudd plays the title character, a holy fool with a produce stand who goes to visit his sisters— Emily Mortimer, Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel—who are a far sight more fouled up than he is, even if they weren’t recently jailed for selling weed to a uniformed cop. Rudd’s performance is oddly flat: It may be that playing such a beatific innocent saps the acidity that gives him a lot of his comic appeal. None of the other family members is especially memorable either—Deschanel comes closest, though that’s just because she’s unconvincingly cast as a bisexual with a boundless erotic appetite. Mostly what registers is that these are a lot of notably goodlooking people whose problems could be solved by admitting how easy they have it. R. AARON MESH. Eastport.
Point Blank
85 This season’s gritty French
thriller opens with a bang, followed by several more bangs, as a desperate man in a neatly trimmed goatee, holding his guts in with one bloody hand, slams into a chain-link fence and sprints down a rickety
48
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com
James Franco and Gus Van Sant present My Own Private River fire escape just a few scant yards ahead of a pair of carefully manicured, gun-waving thugs. Bang! A bullet ricochets past. Bang! Out of nowhere, our man is struck by a speeding motorcycle. The movie goes banging right on from there, as the pursuit of miraculously still living motorcycle-guy (an unsettlingly taciturn Roschdy Zem) ensnares a nurse-in-training, Samuel, (Gilles Lellouche) and his very pregnant wife, kidnapped before his eyes. A reasonably fit but not especially bright sort, Samuel sets off at a sprint to get her back, and doesn’t stop running, through tenebrist warehouses, squalid apartments and dreary public spaces for the next hour. Writer/director Fred Cavayé’s film is as loud and ugly and improbably plotted as anything by his American contemporaries, but remembers the vital truth that Sydney Pollack knew but Haggis and Greengrass and Schumacher have forgotten: when your ordinaryguy protagonist emerges from a 10-minute sprint through a subway tunnel, he should vomit on the sidewalk. When he sees a fat snitch shot three times in his quivering belly, he should show disgust. When he is shot at, he should be afraid. Samuel searches for his wife with the determination all husbands like to think we would ours, but he does not do so gracefully. He is fazed, and because he is fazed we fear for him. R. BEN WATERHOUSE. Living Room Theaters. NEW Rhythms and Rhymes I + II by Filmmaker Helga Fanderl
[TWO NIGHTS ONLY, DIRECTOR ATTENDING] Paris director Fanderl comes to Portland with a collection of Super-8 movies, which track the motions of apples and sardines. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Tuesday-Wednesday, Sept. 27-28. Presented by Cinema Project.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
17 In quick cuts of bright green and earthy brown and pure white flashing teeth, the opening scene makes a false promise: These motherfucking apes are going to get their revenge and it’s going to be awesome. OK, so the apes—or the Children of the Apes, anyway— do get a bit of revenge. But 105 minutes later, very little awesomeness has come to pass: just a lot of stiff, hammy lines from central beefcake James Franco and 90 million dollars’ worth of underwhelming action scenes you’ve already seen (assuming you’ve been to one of these overblown summer blockbusters before). Instead of a bold new world, we get the sunny suburbs of a postcard-perfect San Francisco, with a slack-jawed and entirely miscast James Franco—playing a self-absorbed super-scientist named Will Rodman—as our guide. The movie spoon-feeds us heap after generous heap of banal, pseudoscientific backstory before leading us to a semi-climactic ape revolt on the stupid fucking Golden Gate Bridge—with most of the apes transforming from uncivilized beasts to a sophisticated Tom Clancy-style tactical assault force literally over-
night. I’ve seen episodes of Lassie that made me ponder the humananimal relationship more than Rise did, and in fact this whole shit show reminded me more of Homeward Bound than it did of the 1968 Apes film that started it all. PG-13. CASEY JARMAN. 99 Indoor Twin, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Forest, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Lloyd Center.
Sarah’s Key
75 Thanks to the cinematic adapta-
tion of Tatiana de Rosnay’s New York Times bestseller Sarah’s Key, readers can now transcend literary isolation by experiencing soul-crushing quantities of human depravity in the open air of a darkened movie theater. In this book-to-film metamorphosis, director Gilles Paquet-Brenner emphasizes the emaciated elbows of suffering that jut from its harrowing plot. Sarah’s Key weaves the life of Julia (Kristin Scott Thomas), a present-day journalist investigating the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of 1942, with the story of 10-year-old Sarah Starzynski (Mélusine Mayance), who is targeted by that roundup during the Nazi occupation of France. PG-13. SHAE HEALEY. Living Room Theaters.
Senna
65 Like the Formula One racecar driver it profiles, this documentary tests the limits: Ayrton Senna pushed how fast his car could go, and Senna lives on the edge of alienating those unfamiliar with his sport. Anybody more fascinated than I with F1 car racing—anybody who has watched an entire race, say—is likely to take a good deal more pleasure from the movie than I did, though by the end of the thing I was no longer actively annoyed by the engines whining like mechanical mosquitoes. Director Asif Kapadia’s work is on par with other ESPN Films releases (which is to say it’s very good), and there’s a lot of tense footage from inside drivers’ meetings before controversial Japanese Grand Prix races. The film even becomes actively interesting for a stretch in the middle, as the Brazilian Casanova Senna feuds in the early ’90s with calculating French driver Alain Prost, who was surely the inspiration for Sacha Baron Cohen’s character in Talladega Nights. (Rivals Senna and Prost both drove cars imprinted with the Marlboro logo, which in hindsight seems like an emblem of self-destruction.) The footage from cockpit cameras is alarming, especially as you begin to sense it will inevitably precede a fatality, and Senna suggests that racing is as the poet described life: first boredom, then fear. PG-13. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre, Fox Tower.
NEW Shut Up, Little Man! An Audio Misadventure
41 The distinct noise of barrelscraping can be heard in Matthew Bate’s Shut Up, Little Man!, a foundsound documentary that again ponders the question of whether borrowing another person’s suffering is art or exploitation. The movie is an aural companion to last year’s Winnebago Man: Instead of an irate trailer salesman captured in infomercial outtakes, we get two irate
SEPT. 21 - 27 last Christmas’ widely acclaimed boxing biopic The Fighter. But they’re both about two brothers punching other men—and sometimes each other—in the face. Warrior is far more fanciful—the two brothers, unbeknownst to each other, end up fighting for a $5 million purse in the same worldclass, eight-man MMA tournament in the most unlikely of circumstances—though the filmmakers appear to have put great thought into creating “real” characters whom American audiences can get behind. Tom Hardy’s character, Tommy, is a traumatized Iraq war vet, and Joel Edgerton’s Brendan is in danger of losing his family home to foreclosure. But in Warrior, the MMA sequences take a genuine starring role: About a quarter of the film is dedicated to the aforementioned tournament in all its bone-snapping glory. The fights are sweaty
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“
IT WILL PUT A BIG SMILE ON YOUR FACE. QUIRKY, FUNNY AND VERY TOUCHING.”
and dirty and shot right up in the actors’ armpits and groins. There are a few dubious pro-wrestling moves thrown in for show, but for the most part, the bouts are painfully realistic and utterly engrossing. You won’t care which of the brothers wins, but you will be on the edge of your seat to see how the bout is won. The problem isn’t really that Warrior, as a drama, can’t go toe-totoe with the likes of The Fighter— they’re not even in the same weight class. It’s that far too many of the film’s 140 minutes are dedicated to that drama. The film’s core demographic is going to be the 700,000odd people who order pay-per-view UFC; I doubt they care how genuinely heart-tugging the characters’ backstories are, and they probably don’t want to see two hours of it before any real blood is shed. PG-13. RUTH BROWN. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport.
-Esther McCarthy, SUNDAY WORLD
“GÉRARD DEPARDIEU IS EXCELLENT.
GISÈLE CASADESUS IS A PLEASURE TO WATCH.” - Rachel Saltz, THE NEW YORK TIMES
“ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR.
A WONDERFUL, HEARTWARMING STORY.” - WOLF ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
cohenmedia.net
starts friday
REVIEW VINYL FILMS
roommates captured on mixtapes by enterprising apartment neighbors. But the more pressing question, at least to this viewer, is whether a viral phenomenon can ever interest somebody who never caught the virus. The nocturnal ranting of Peter and Ray, San Francisco bête noires, has delighted underground collectors and inspired Daniel Clowes panels; to me, the bilge-spewing alcoholics sound like the awful blankness of decay and death—which might be what delighted the underground collectors. Director Bate exhaustively considers the recordings, dutifully charting the aesthetic, sociological and ethical angles (e.g., is it ever OK to sell copies of somebody’s death certificate to prank-call aficionados?) and chronicles the phenomenon’s diminishing returns from cult hit to three competing movie pitches. But this is not a movie. It is a segment on This American Life, complete with a Magnetic Fields song as a coda. It indeed was featured on public radio at some point, and I’m sure it held interest for 20 minutes. At 90, it is evidence that navel-gazing is no more worthwhile when it gazes at someone else’s navel. AARON MESH. Cinema 21. 9:15 pm Friday-Thursday, Sept. 23-29.
MOVIES
SEPTEMBER 23 3.825” X 3.5"
Aurelio Emmett
NEW Spike & Mike’s New Generation Animation Festival
Confirmation #:
A new program of cartoons promises more creativity, less sickness and twist. Cinema 21. 7:45 pm Friday-Wednesday, Sept. 23-28.
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
Jessica Alba and little children spy on something. Not screened for critics. PG. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport.
Straw Dogs
46 “That would be some kind of
overkill,” says skinny blonde actress Amy Sumner (Kate Bosworth) as her dweeby screenwriter husband David (James Marsden) finds an old bear trap and asks whether her father used it to kill deer. They’ve just moved from Hollywood to Amy’s dilapidated home in flood-ravaged Mississippi for a bit of isolation and peace and quiet. Naturally, if you’ve seen Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 provocation of a film, you know that it is indeed some kind of overkill that’s to follow. In fact, you know pretty much everything about Rod Lurie’s modern update of Straw Dogs, including what’s going to happen to Amy when her high school sweetheart (Alexander Skarsgard) and his buddies catch her alone (and that she might secretly, you know, kind of be into it for a minute). Say what you will about Peckinpah’s original— I personally find it to be a trashy rape fantasy hiding a brutally fetishistic sickness behind the aesthetic of art. But it did provoke. It did, in some ways, titillate. And it did force you to ponder what you would do if you were Dustin Hoffman’s nebbish and meek mathematician suddenly confronted by murderous, limey brutes intent on destroying everything you held dear, your moral code of pacifism first and foremost. Here, though, there is no real provocation, no deeper thoughts or meaning. Lurie has simply re-shot the same movie, amped up the violence with extra splatter and removed most of the ambiguity simmering beneath events that escalate from smalltown hazing to all-out violence. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville.
Warrior
65 It may be unfair to compare
mixed martial arts flick Warrior with
WED 09/21
“With humor andWILLAMETTE creativity all its own, PORTLAND WEEK MON 6PM the issues Connected DUE illuminates that affect us all...” -Al Gore (circle one:) (circle one:)
The Smurfs
They take Manhattan, in CGI form. It might be harmless, but after seeing the trailer (“I just smurfed in my mouth”), no one on our staff could be persuaded to risk it. There are only so many things we are willing to do. PG. Cedar Hills, Clackamas.
REGAL FOX TOWER STADIUM 10 846 SW Park Avenue, Portland (800) FANDANGO
Artist: Heather Staci Jay
AE: Angela Maria
ART APPROVE
Josh “Bright, electric and brimming AE APPROVE McCool Steve Philip CLIENT APPROVE with thingsTimto say. ” Freelance 2
-The San Francisco Examiner
Deadline:
I’M ON A BOAT: Eddie Vedder ponders lyrics, in a nautical setting.
PEARL JAM TWENTY We unleashed a lion.
Pearl Jam Twenty is a Pearl Jamapproved Pearl Jam documentary. So you already know what to expect from it: Pearl Jam’s members will appear all humble and smiley; Pearl Jam’s peers will talk about how much they respect the band; someone will talk shit about Ticketmaster. You’d be right to expect these things, and your cynicism toward band-sanctioned documentaries—which should never be mistaken for definitive portraits—is well-founded. Celebrity director Cameron Crowe (who does an admirable job of staying out of the picture after the film’s opening minutes) focuses on the mental anguish Eddie Vedder and company were caused by the band’s overnight success, and how Pearl Jam learned to cut its own noble path through the wilderness of mega-stardom. He never mentions how much money the band makes, or why Vedder is OK with gouging these days (tickets to his recent solo gig at the Schnitz were $85). Still, if you suspend your disbelief a little and assume the members of Pearl Jam are the awesome dudes Crowe paints them as, this movie is a wild success. The sheer amount of archival video here—especially in the film’s Seattle-centric first half—is striking even if you’re not a Pearl Jam fan. Home movies of fresh-faced Seattle rockers just before the grunge explosion remind us just how young these rock gods-to-be really were: Early stadium-era Pearl Jam concert footage shows Vedder as a wild animal swinging untethered from light rigs three stories above the stage and the crowd. And for their part, the band members do offer candid—and sometimes quite moving—commentary on their group’s creative inner workings (guitarist Stone Gossard, the doc’s most insightful tour guide, offhandedly admits that Vedder long ago seized nearcomplete control of the once-democratic band). For die-hard fans who have waited 20 years to see a movie about their favorite band, Pearl Jam Twenty—as self-aggrandizing as it can be—will prove a huge treat. Given Pearl Jam’s tight control over its image, this is also as close as those fans are ever going to get. CASEY JARMAN.
an autoblogography about love, death & technology
EXECUTIVE EXECUTIVE PRESENTED BY THE MOXIE INSTITUTE IN ASSOCIATION WITH IMPACT PARTNERS PRODUCERS GERALYN DREYFOUS SARAH JOHNSON REDLICH AND PAM BOLL CO-PRODUCERS ROSELYNE CHROMAN SWIG CAROLEEN AND JULIETTE FEENEY THE 11TH HOUR PROJECT AND DAN COGAN PRODUCERSCO- DIANA BARRETT FOR THE FLEDGLING FUND JULIA PARKER BENELLO WENDY ETTINGER AND
JUDITH HELFAND FOR CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES BRAD AND ANDREA HEFFLER JIM AND SUSAN SWARTZ THE RICWRIHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND THE EMBREY FAMILY FOUNDATION PRODUCED TTEN BY SASHA LEWIS AND CARLTON EVANS BY TIFFANY SHLAIN KEN GOLDBERG CARLTON EVANS AND SAWYER STEELE ANIMATION NARRATED DIRECTED DIRECTOR STEFAN NADELMAN BY PETER COYOTE BY TIFFANY SHLAIN connectedthefilm.com connectedthefilm
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT
STARTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
@tiffanyshlain
REGAL CINEMAS
FOX TOWER STADIUM 10 Portland (800) FANDANGO #327
DIRECTOR TIFFANY SHLAIN IN PERSON Q&As FOLLOWING SELECT SHOWS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd
WWEEKDOTCOM 4 COLOR WWEEKDOTCOM WILLAMETTE WEEK
SEE IT: Pearl Jam Twenty opens Friday at the Hollywood Theatre. 70
WED: 9/21 2 Willamette COL. (3.772") X 7" VV Week SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 wweek.com ALL.CON.0921.WI
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MOVIES
PETER TRAVERS
“‘MONEYBALL’ IS ONE OF THE BEST
SEPT. 23-29
BREWVIEWS
AND MOST VISCERALLY
EXCITING FILMS OF THE YEAR. BRAD PITT NAILS EVERY NUANCE. JONAH HILL SCORES A KNOCKOUT!
KAREN DURBIN
MONEYBALL’ LEFT ME READY TO CHEER.” “‘MONEYBALL’ IS HILARIOUS. BRAD PITT SHOWS US ONCE AGAIN JUST HOW GOOD HE IS.”
“SUPER-SHARP AND ROUSING. DIALOGUE SO LIGHT AND SHARP IT CUTS THE AIR.” OWEN GLEIBERMAN LOU LUMENICK THIS CROWD-PLEASER
BRUCE HANDY
ANGOLA JACK: The Clinton Street Theater is enthused about Red Scorpion because it marks the launch of its new Flattop Film Series, a program of ’80s demolition salvage. I’m excited about Red Scorpion because it is the only movie made by Jack Abramoff. The corrupt Beltway lobbyist was the producer of this 1989 Dolph Lundgren Commie-busting picture; he marshaled the project to bolster support for Angolan warlord Jonas Savimbi, and secretly obtained financing from the apartheid South African government. In other words, there are all kinds of badness here. It is unsurprising to learn that many of the actors claim they weren’t paid. AARON MESH. Clinton Street Theater. 8 pm Wednesday, Sept. 21. Best paired with: MacTarnahan’s Amber. Also showing: The Future (Laurelhurst).
“IS A TRIUMPH.” “ENTERTAINING ACHIEVEMENT. THIS FILM MARKS A SERIOUS AND
Sun-Mon-Tue 09:00 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Sat 12:00 RHYTHMS AND RHYMES I & II Tue 07:00
”
“‘
MONEYBALL’ CRUISES INTO THE HIGH GEAR OF THE SAVVIEST OLD HOLLYWOOD COMEDIES.
BRAD PITT IS
SENSATIONAL.”
RICHARD CORLISS
A FILM BY BENNETT MILLER
Regal Lloyd Center Stadium 10 Cinema
1510 NE Multnomah Blvd., 800-326-3264 THE DEBT HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:25, 06:35 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 03:20, 09:50 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:45, 03:35, 10:25 THE HELP Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:10, 03:25, 06:45, 10:05 STRAW DOGS I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT ATTACK THE BLOCK Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:15, 02:30, 04:50 CONTAGION Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:50, 03:55, 06:50, 10:00 DRIVE Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:30, 02:55, 05:25, 07:55, 10:30 THE LION KING 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:00, 02:20, 04:40, 07:00, 09:25 MONEYBALL Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:20, 03:40, 07:05, 10:15 KILLER ELITE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:35, 03:50, 07:20, 10:10 ABDUCTION Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:05, 02:35, 05:10, 07:45, 10:20 REAL STEEL Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue THE IDES OF MARCH Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue AN EVENING WITH JANE GOODALL LIVE Tue 08:00
Regal Lloyd Mall 8 Cinema
“MONEYBALL” COLUMBIA PICTURESEXECUTIVEPRESENTS A SCOTT RUDIN/MICHAEL DE LUCA/RACHAEL HOROVITZ PRODUCTION BASED ON THE PRODUCERS SCOTT RUDIN ANDREW KARSCH SIDNEY KIMMEL MARK BAKSHI MYCHAEL DANNASCREENPLAY BOOK BY MICHAEL LEWIS PRODUCED STAN CHERVIN BY STEVEN ZAILLIAN AND AARON SORKIN DIRECTED BY MICHAEL DE LUCA RACHAEL HOROVITZ BRAD PITT BY BENNETT MILLER
MUSIC BY STORY BY
LOCAL LISTINGS FOR STARTS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 CHECK THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES
Week X SEPTEMBER wweek.com 250 COL.Willamette (3.825") 12"21, 2011= 24" WED 9/21 PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK
2320 Lloyd Center Mall, 800-326-3264 BUCKY LARSON: BORN TO BE A STAR WARRIOR CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. APOLLO 18 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER COWBOYS & ALIENS OUR IDIOT BROTHER COLOMBIANA CONTAGION Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:20, 03:35, 06:15, 09:00 THE LION KING 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 06:05, 08:55 KILLER ELITE Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:15, 03:15, 06:00, 09:15 THE LION KING Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:00, 03:05 STRAW DOGS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 06:30,
09:30 I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:30, 03:25, 06:35, 09:20 ABDUCTION Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:35, 03:20, 06:20, 09:10 DOLPHIN TALE Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:25, 03:30 DOLPHIN TALE 3D FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:05, 03:10, 06:25, 09:25 KEVIN HART: LAUGH AT MY PAIN Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:10, 03:00, 06:10, 09:05
Laurelhurst Theater
2735 E Burnside St., 232-5511 BUCK Sat-Sun 1:40 THE FUTURE Fri-Sun 4:40, 7:15 Mon-Thurs 7:15 KUNG FU HUSTLE Fri-Thurs 9:40 BRIDESMAIDS Fri-Sun 3:50, 9:30 Mon-Thurs 9:30 THE TREE OF LIFE Fri 6:30 Sat-Sun 1, 6:30 Mon-Thurs 6:30 CAPTAIN AMERICA Fri 4:10, 9:15 Sat-Sun 1:15, 4:10, 9:15 Mon-Thurs 9:15 HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-Thur 7 BEGINNERS Fri 6:45 SatSun 1:30, 6:45 Mon-Thurs 6:45 TROLLHUNTER FriSun 4:30, 9 Mon-Thurs 9
Bagdad Theater and Pub
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY BRIDESMAIDS FriSat 08:00, 10:15 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Fri-Sat-Sun 02:00 HORRIBLE BOSSES Sat-Mon-Tue 05:30
Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515 DIAL M FOR MURDER FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 05:30 SHUT UP LITTLE MAN! AN AUDIO MISADVENTURE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:15 SPIKE & MIKE’S NEW GENERATION ANIMATION FESTIVAL Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 07:45
Clinton Street Theater
2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-8899 BELLFLOWER FIX - THE MINISTRY MOVIE Fri-Sat-
Mission Theater and Pub
1624 NW Glisan St., 503-249-7474 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Fri-Sat BAD TEACHER Sun-MonTue 10:00 HORRIBLE BOSSES Sun-Tue 05:30 BRIDESMAIDS Sun-Tue 07:40
Kennedy School Theater
5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-7474 HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-Sat-Sun-Tue 08:05 BRIDESMAIDS ZOOKEEPER GREEN LANTERN BAD TEACHER Fri-Sat-Sun-Tue 02:30, 10:10 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Fri-Sat-SunTue 05:30 CONAN THE BARBARIAN Fri-Sat-SunMon 02:30
The OMNIMAX Theatre at OMSI
1945 SE Water Ave., 503-797-4640 TORNADO ALLEY Fri-SatSun 12:00, 02:00, 05:00 THE ULTIMATE WAVE TAHITI Fri-Sat-Sun 01:00, 04:00 BORN TO BE WILD Fri-Sat-Sun 11:00, 03:00, 06:00 HUBBLE Fri-Sat 07:00 ADRENALINE RUSH: THE SCIENCE OF RISK FriSat 09:00
Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-281-4215 SHAOLIN THE LAST CIRCUS THE RIVER WHY MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 07:00, 09:00 PEARL JAM TWENTY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 07:15, 09:30 SENNA Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 07:30, 09:35 MY OWN PRIVATE RIVER Sun 12:00, 12:30
Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10
846 SW Park Ave., 800-326-3264 THE DEBT Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 11:55, 02:20, 04:50, 07:20, 09:45 CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Fri-
Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:05, 02:35, 05:05, 07:35, 10:10 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:15, 02:30, 04:40, 07:05, 09:35 THE HELP Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:35, 04:05, 07:00, 09:55 STRAW DOGS Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 05:20, 10:05 I DON’T KNOW HOW SHE DOES IT Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:40, 02:45, 04:45, 09:25 LIFE, ABOVE ALL THE GUARD Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 12:20, 02:55, 05:00, 07:15, 09:30 HIGHER GROUND SENNA Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:10, 02:50, 07:45 MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:25, 02:40, 05:10, 07:25, 09:40 ABDUCTION Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:00, 02:25, 05:15, 07:40, 10:00 THE IDES OF MARCH Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue CONNECTED Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:55, 02:15, 04:55, 07:30, 09:50
Pioneer Place Stadium 6
340 SW Morrison St., 800-326-3264 BUCKY LARSON: BORN TO BE A STAR WARRIOR HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES CONTAGION Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 01:40, 04:40, 07:40, 10:15 DRIVE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 01:50, 04:50, 07:50 THE LION KING 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 04:10, 07:10, 10:10 MONEYBALL Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 01:30, 04:30, 07:30, 10:30 KILLER ELITE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 01:20, 04:20, 07:20, 10:00 THE LION KING Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 01:10 DOLPHIN TALE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 04:00, 09:55 DOLPHIN TALE 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 01:00, 07:00 REAL STEEL Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue
Academy Theater
7818 SE Stark St., 503-252-0500 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 07:30 ZOOKEEPER FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 04:30 BRIDESMAIDS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 04:50, 09:40 SUPER 8 Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 04:40 THE TREE OF LIFE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 07:00 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 06:45, 09:20 THE FUTURE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:50
Living Room Theaters
341 SW Tenth Ave., 971-222-2010 LIFE IN A DAY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 02:50, 07:30 CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 12:10, 02:40, 04:40, 06:45, 09:00 SARAH’S KEY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:20, 02:10, 04:30, 07:00 FRIGHT NIGHT 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 09:15 BRIGHTON ROCK Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue 11:40, 02:30, 04:50, 07:15, 09:35 GAINSBOURG POINT BLANK Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:00, 02:20, 04:20, 07:40, 09:40 BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:50, 02:00, 05:10, 07:50, 09:50 GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 05:00, 09:30
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