CULTUREPHILE: PORTLAND ARTS

PICA Announces the Initial Lineup for TBA 2012

To celebrate the festival’s 10th anniversary, PICA invites back some artistic greats and introduces a host of new artists from around the world.

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 24, 2012 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Just got back from a meeting at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s still shiny new digs to get a preview of the lineup for this year’s Time-Based Art Festival from the new artistic director, Angela Mattox, and communications director Patrick Leonard. The roster promises some big, recognizable names – Laurie Anderson and Yo La Tengo, anyone? – as well as some exciting new international performers from Japan, Mexico, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Croatia, to name a few. And these are just the evening performances; the Works lineup is still to come (and for those following the lingering uncertainty over where the Works will take place like the cliffhangers of Lost, the Works venue is still, um, in the works).

As Mattox has said over the last few months, her curatorial choices this year are driven by a number of priorities, which I’m going to break down with examples for each (though of course most performers can check multiple boxes). For a complete list of performers, scroll to the bottom.

Art that grapples with bigger socioeconomic issues and is a mode for social and political activism.
Many of the performers and groups coming this year grapple with themes of democracy, justice, economics, and society, whether on the larger, societal scale, or a smaller, personal one. The transgressive, multi-media mavens Big Art Group were just in town to record local interviews for their opening night performance The People—Portland. Based off the Greek tragedy, Oresteia, about the then nascent idea of democracy, it will mix live acting, real-time film, and a video “chorus” of the diverse Portland interviewees discussing topics of freedom, democracy, terrorism, and justice projected through five channels onto the side of a building.

Interdisciplinary work
Some of the most exciting performances include a mix of mediums. Of course, there’s Big Art Group, but the name that most folks might recognize immediately is the indie band Yo La Tengo, which will team up with the Academy award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green (The Weather Underground) for a “live documentary” about the amazing polymath futurist, inventor, and big thinker Buckminster Fuller, called The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller. To get at the “live” part of “live documentary,” Yo La Tengo will play the score from the stage while Green narrates live.

The singular artist’s point of view
Legendary performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson has been a guiding light for the TBA Festival, both as an artistic inspiration, as a headliner twice over, and as someone sitting on the advisory council. To provide a sense of celebration/closure/arrival for the festival’s first 10 years, Mattox has invited Anderson back to perform Dirtday!, the third and final part of the solo storytelling series, the first two parts of which she’s performed at previous TBAs.

Creating meaningful connections and dialogue with the larger global artistic community
Perhaps more than anything, what sets this year’s program apart from previous years’ is the far-flung diversity of its performers, more than half of whom will come from overseas. There’s Lagartijas Tiradas Al Sol, a Mexican theater collective that blends drama and documentary to reconstruct histories of revolutionaries and water wars. There’s Faustin Linyekula, whose dance addresses the decades of violence, terror, and fear in his home country, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and who Mattox calls “one of the most important choreographers of our time, and I don’t say that lightly” (she gets verklempt talking about how Faustin has had to literally change his name because certain names aren’t safe in the Congo and about how he’s struggled to work through issues of identity). And then there’s a half dozen other performers and groups hailing from Japan, Zimbabwe, Croatia, and more.

Creating more ways for the local community to connect with the work and build relationships with the artists
To this end, PICA is not only bringing back several performers from previous TBAs (Laurie Anderson and choreographer Miguel Gutierrez for solo performances) and thinking long term about building future relationships (such as commissioning a full company performance by Gutierrez for 2013), but is bringing artists to town in freshly-open residencies that involve strong public participatory components. On the heels of Big Art Group, next month the famed San Fransisco choreographer Keith Hennessey will gather an international ensemble and a number of Portland dancers for a week in June to workshop his TBA performance, Turbulence (A Dance About the Economy). The week will also include a performance of his Bessie award-winning solo, Crotch, open rehearsals, and talks, as well as A.L. Steiner & A.K. Burns’ “sociosexual” (read: feminist art porn) film, Community Action Center.

Other standouts include a world-premiere by Zimbabwe-born, NYC-based dancer Nora Chipaumire, a former cornerstone of Urban Bush Women; a contemporary theater game changer in the Japanese scene, Chelfitsch (who’s recorded performance reminded me a little of a Japanese version of Nature Theater of Oklahoma); a series of site-specific performances curated by the Croatian founder of Perforacije and Queer Zagreb Festival, Zvonimir Dubrovic; and a participatory “autotheater” performance for two audience members-cum-performers at the Multnomah County Library by “autoteatro” pioneer Ant Hampton and artist/writer Tim Etchells.

To learn more about many of these performers and see videos of their work, check out PICA’s Resource Room.

The festival takes place Sept 6–16. Though it seems far away, you might start thinking about those passes and breaking out your calendar….what with Music Fest NW and Feast, you’re going to have to take a month of vacation just to keep up.

Here’s a complete rundown of the performers announced thus far:

Laurie Anderson
Big Art Group
chelfitsch
Nora Chipamuire
Andrew Dickson
Gob Squad
Sam Green & Yo La Tengo
Miguel Gutierrez
Ant Hampton & Tim Etchells
Keith Hennessy
Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol
Faustin Linyekula
Perforations: New Performance from the Balkans
Voices & Echoes from Japan
Kota Yamazaki/Fluid Hug-Hug
Visual artist installations curated by Kristan Kennedy
Ten nights of after-hours entertainment at THE WORKS

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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Getting To Know Ashia Grzesik

The cabaret cellist and soprano songwriter sits down with a Culturephile correspondent to talk about music, fashion, gender-blending, and the Polish-American experience.
See her live tonight!

Posted by: Andrew Jankowski on May 24, 2012 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Meet Ashia
When I walked into the pub on a late February evening, I knew who I was looking for: Ashia Grzisek (grr-JHI-jhek), a rising star in the Portland music scene, a classical cellist and songwriter, Vagabond Opera’s fishnet-clad flirt, a solo soprano and four-year veteran of Cirque de Soleil’s “O.” A featured nightlife expert in Portland Monthly’s Best of the City

But who would I find?
A bohemian pagan priestess?
A Bearded Lady from a traveling circus?
A rock star diva from beyond the sea?

In contrast to her many stage demeanors—which range from classical sublimity to burlesque bawdiness—the offstage Ashia actually blends in with the rest of the patrons, carrying herself with a youthful humility and looking as though she just got off a 9-5 job in her black pea coat, silver headscarf, and handmade red-and-white earrings that look like tiny strawberries on a bed of whipped cream. “My friend from Brazil gave them to me,” she explains. “As a Seattle area kid…I have to step up to the quirky.”

Poland to Portland
The worldly soprano siren hails from Wroclaw (vrotz-vah), Poland, but spent most of her formative years in Kent, Washington after her family fled violence and martial law during the rise of Polish Solidarity in the early 80’s. Though Grzisek’s family enjoyed their Seattle suburb, she admits the proud Poles had some difficulty assimilating. “My dad was a very strong character—very charismatic, but if he didn’t agree with you, he’d let you know. It didn’t always go over well in the workplace, with bosses.”

Now a Portlander, Grzesik feels the aforementioned cultural tension finally melting. “The Pacific Northwest has also been a closed-off community,” she adds, “It’s only been within the last decade that it’s opened up to the rest of the world.”

Once a bane and now a boon, her multiculturalism manifests in her art. Her 2007 debut album, Pay to be Loved, and 2010’s warmly-received EP Bison Rouge are infused with her international sensibilities. Loved’s dark, dreamy rendering of the French classic “Ne Me Quitte Pas;” and Polish-sung ballad “Prosto Do Nieda” off Bison particularly whisk audiences away to another time—and indeed, an older world. Her universal appeal has gotten her gigs in Canada, Germany, Japan, and Hong Kong, and of course her motherland, Poland.

“Using my last name can be tricky, though, because they don’t see me as an American artist,” says Grzesik, “They see a Polish name. They see me as the kid next door, and think ‘Ah, she’s just one of us.’ If they saw me as an American artist, they might get more excited,” she winks.

Three Eagles
“My siblings and I were all born under different eagles,” she said, referring to the emblems of Poland, Germany, and the US, “My uncle used to tease my mom, saying, ‘You’re going to have children by three different men. One will be black, one will be white, one will be striped,’ and his forecast actually came true! I was born under the white eagle [Poland], my middle sister was born in Hamburg, Germany (the black eagle) and my third sister was born in the States, under the stripes.”

Her “blended” family is highly supportive of her musical ambitions—particularly her sister, Ania, who creates “upcycled” costumes for her shows and artwork for her albums.

Ivan/Ivana?
A new twist has recently crept into Grzesik’s ever-growing stage repertoire: donning a beard and playing her usual cabaret tunes under the pseudonym “Ivan Ivana.” “He’s my long-lost twin brother,” she explains. “He’s also a parody of dark cabaret performers like me.”

I ask her if Ivan Ivana could be seen as offensive or appropriative of transgendered culture. Grzisek, after all, is a ciswoman (a woman whose biology matches her gender expression), and one could argue she is wearing a culture identity as a “costume.” Grzisek, an ally to the LGBT community, respectfully disagrees, saying Ivan Ivana lives in the world of drag: “He identifies as male, but he’s been stuck in the in-between,” she explains, “He isn’t quite sure how people see him.”

“I’m not really sure how [the transgender community] would view him,” she says, “because I haven’t performed in front of anyone who’s ‘gung-ho’ transgender. I do have friends who are [transgender], and I hope they would tell me how the felt, if they didn’t feel right about it. Yes, it is entertainment, though in the transgender, drag, and gay communities, that’s been a part of the tradition. On the stage is where we can understand, see, and transcend the self, and help the audience understand something, through the media of theatre and art.”

What’s Next
While Paid to be Loved is an album that can be classified as dark cabaret, and Grzisek is well known in Portland for her involvement in numerous cabaret-themed projects, Grzisek’s more recent Bison Rouge is a warmer, more Americana-and-pop-tinged offering. In her future projects, she intends to experiment with the ukulele, and possibly even make a foray into electronic dance music.

But tonight, she’ll play a show at Secret Society Ballroom to fundraise for new recording with recently-assembled trio Ashia and the Bison Rouge, with all the spirit, sparkle, and elegant musicianship for which she’s increasingly well-known. She’ll definitely put on a show…and if you’re good, maybe even a beard.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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Review: Mishka Henner’s “No Man’s Land”

Aggregator-photographer Henner trolls Google Street View for women who ‘might’ be sex workers. Controversy ensues. At Blue Sky Gallery thru June 3

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 24, 2012 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Contrada Vallecupa, Colonnella, Abruzzi, Italy

Google Street View has raised a number of controversies involving invasion of privacy, mostly involving people—often the wealthy kind—not wanting easily searchable photo documentation of their houses and private property, that in turn incite questions about how much of our physical world we really want publicly accessible online without our knowledge or consent. Photographer and self-titled ‘aggregator’ Mishka Henner has pushed those questions into a whole new world with his exhibition “No Man’s Land” at Blue Sky Gallery.

Henner visited web forums where men describe common sites in Italy and Spain to find prostitutes, and then he scoured the GSV database for the automatic and extensive photographs of those places. What he found were women, mostly alone, sometimes in pairs, standing by the side of the road or sitting in dirty plastic folding chairs along long stretches of empty rural highway or industrial park-style suburbia. Some are on their phone talking or texting; others simply stare at passing traffic. Some are dressed in shorts and shirts; others nothing but bikinis.

Under the strong Mediterranean sun, most of the pictures are blown out, bleak, and occasionally marred by the panoramic glitches of the GSV cameras. Garbage litters the side of the road and shade seems fleeting if nonexistent. Some of the women sit under umbrellas like they’re next to a pool instead of a highway (one wonders how far they carried the umbrella).

But there’s something eerily beautiful about the pixelated images of these women idly occupying blank expanses of space. There’s a patience and even rooted resilience, tinged of course by immense boredom, to their wait. If they were cowboys or farmers in the Wild West, the images would even be romantic.

But, of course, they’re not, and the images become much more sinister when one starts to think about the traffic for which they wait. If they are indeed prostitutes, then their idleness and isolation suddenly become immense vulnerability. If that bush or underpass behind them is their point of transaction, who would hear them scream if their trick turned violent?

Strada Provinciale 1 Bonifica del Tronto, Controguerra, Abruzzi, Italy

In turning GSV into a documentary archive, the exhibition raises a number of questions, the most obvious and troubling of which is: how do we know any of these women are actually prostitutes? Yes, Henner is going by John websites, but that doesn’t mean it can’t just be a woman passing through. And several do appear just to be someone walking to or from the main road on a side path. Some critics called it exploitative to identify women as prostitutes and then profit from them without their consent (a John at least pays—although, of course, Google is the original photographer to capture without compensation) and have even lobbied for Henner’s book to be pulled.

The complaint about compensation seems somewhat moot, given few subjects of documentary style photography are paid for their image. More troubling to me is the implications of identifying, if even implicitly, an individual as a prostitute without any knowledge of who she is beyond her geographic location at that one moment in time and her choice of dress. (I won’t even get into the debate about whether this qualifies as documentary photography or something much lazier, although Henner identifies himself as an “aggregator of sorts, finding the visual means with which to represent a number of cultural and social issues revealed by the technology”).

That said, while many of the women could be en route from point A to B or waiting for a friend or family member, others, particularly the women in bikinis standing by the side of the road or sitting in folding chairs, sure have chosen odd spots to tan if sex solicitation is not their goal.

Whether one accepts the documentary validity of the photo project (and Henner argues back), the most viscerally troubling, and technologically innovative, component for me was the video installation. Henner uses GSV to make what basically amounts to time-lapse videos of driving down these stretches of barren country road or crumbling industrial highway, but as the Google car approaches the woman, Henner starts to shift over to the side cameras and then to the back cameras. The effect for the audience is to inhabit the perspective of a driver who turns his head to look at the woman as he passes and then looks behind him as she recedes into the distance. Sometimes the woman as still, but in some cases, she bends over or turns. Basically, Henner inserts us into the point of view of the John cruising for sex—the only thing giving away the illusion is the occasional shadow of the GSV camera tower on top of the car and the blurring of the women’s faces. If Henner is exploiting the women by turning them into prostitutes, then he is equally exploiting his audience by making us complicit in the trade. Technology is a double-edge sword (or perhaps a two-way street?). And therein is the poignancy of the exhibition.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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NW Music Festival Guide,
Summer 2012

From this weekend’s Sasquatch to the season-closing MFNW, here’s a short list of the summer’s hottest musical destinations:

Posted by: Anne Adams on May 24, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

SASQUATCH FESTIVAL
May 25–28
Whether you’re going or not, you’re probably aware that this wildly popular festival-season-starter in the Gorge is SOLD OUT. Don’t fret; Portland Monthly will be there, giving you the play-by-play on Twitter. And anyway, there’s plenty of festival fun yet to come!

NO FEST
June 30
70 performers hit 19 venues in one glorious, ridiculous, eclectic, eccentric one-day mashup in St. Johns. While it’s physically impossible to see everything, it should be relatively easy to find something you like.

WATERFRONT BLUES FESTIVAL
July 4–8
This Portland institution’s rollicking, upbeat take on the blues is palatable to all ages, drawing throngs to the riverfront for beer, blanket picnics and general head-bobbing. But if you make an effort and do some prior research, you might be able to appreciate the bill’s smattering of living legends on a deeper level.

SALEM WORLD BEAT FESTIVAL
June 30–July 1
This EPCOT-esque effort brings a smorgasbord of ethnicities together for a weekend of excitement and enlightenment. Information for this year’s fest is still apparently forthcoming, but last year’s highlights included a pop-up “Plaza Mexicano” and European and Pacific Asian villages.

PDX POP NOW
July 20–22
The too-good-to-be-true free all-local-artists all-ages fest returns. Pick up one of their comprehensive two-disc compilation CD’s to support their worthy nonprofit cause and get up to speed on our hottest, hungriest, most of-the-moment local bands.

WHAT THE FESTIVAL
July 27–29
This first-year dance and DJ extravaganza has secured a bankable lineup and a naturally epic location: White River Canyon. Rumored to be the destination of choice for displaced Burners, we predict a reverberant mass-booty-shake.

FAERIEWORLDS FESTIVAL
July 27–29
A surprisingly secretive swarm of 10,000 or more airy sprites (aka fantasy cosplayers) alights on Mount Pisgah (near Eugene) each summer for a three-day bacchanal of music and puckish pageantry. What sort of music tickles a fairy’s fancy? Mostly Celtic, some psychedelic, a smidge of mystic chanting.

SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION
July 27–29
Details are still forthcoming, but local avant-art provocateurs Disjecta have hand-picked acts from as far as Australia and Japan (and a few much closer to home) for a three-day fest. Find out what sounds are hip amongst the gallery/performance/arts academia crew.

PICKATHON
Aug 3–5
Broadly touting “roots music” (read: alt-country, blues-pop, bluegrass and folk), this salt-of-the-earth festival offers unabashed loyalty to its long-timers, but also consistently lures young pups into the fold. There’s only one curatorial criterion: they have to think the music’s good. Luckily, they’re hardly ever wrong.

OREGON JAMBOREE
Aug 3–5
If Pickathon’s rootsiness is still a bit too city-slick for your taste, you may enjoy this Sweet Home hoedown that commits completely to straight-up radio-grade country music.

FIRE IN THE CANYON
Aug 5–7
Some of the most unforgettable 90’s-era hiphop acts are still kickin’ it at this campout in Horning’s Hideout, no doubt forging friendships with the newer Portland-area dance-pop/hiphop crews that fill out the bill. If you’re a fan of January’s Poh-Hop or April’s Soul’d Out, count on this fest to coast you through summer.

NORTHWEST STRING SUMMIT
Aug 9–12
Hmmm. This Horning’s event seems a bit of a misnomer if you—like we—think of an orchestral “string section” when you first hear it. Instead, consider the whole spectrum of string-ed things (guitar, banjo, mandolin, etc.) and you’ll get the general idea. Basically, this fest seems to favor long-time players with awesome chops over acts that are currently charting.

WILLAMETTE COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL
Aug 17–19
A whole herd of big-time new-country stars rides into Brownsville, Oregon, conspicuously endorsed by bargain brand names. We’re guessing you should leave your arugula and your latté at home.

BUMBERSHOOT
Sept 1–3
Seattle hosts its usual hullabaloo of au-courant pop-and-rock who’s-who. The bill is a safe bet, though rumor has it that braving the giant crowd is a veritable bloodsport.

MUSICFEST NW
Sept 5–9
Ever more competitive with the Bumbershoot/Sasquatch–style biggies, this Portland-based concert juggernaut closes the summer season with big shows in Pioneer Square and the Roseland, smaller showcases around town, and a roar of press hype.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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Review: Gossip’s “A Joyful Noise”

Album out today and record release concert streaming live at 6:45pm!

Posted by: Julie Reposa on May 22, 2012 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

Today, Portland band Gossip (formerly “The” Gossip) releases its fifth studio album, A Joyful Noise, on Columbia Records. To celebrate, the band is streaming their record release concert tonight live from NYC’s Terminal 5 beginning at 6:45pm. As if that’s not enough for the Portland powerhouse, they’ll also be on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight.

Since its formation in 1999, Gossip has evolved from riot grrl roots to bluesy garage punk to recent forays into electro-pop on 2009’s Music for Men, but along the way it has never failed to incite your body to move, whether a simple bop or all out dance. With the new album, the urge is still there, but Beth Ditto’s fierce vocals, drummer Hannah Billie’s thrashing beats, and guitarist Brace Paine’s ragged riffs have been replaced by the kind of glistening post-disco pop music that Madonna would be proud to call her own. The sweat, lust, betrayal, and blustery abandon of the earlier albums are absent, and it’s difficult to hear exactly what Billie and Paine’s contributions are due, to the pro-toolification of A Joyful Noise. It sounds like Ditto’s solo debut as a disco diva. However, it’s important to remember that since Gossip’s start 12 years ago, it’s had a battle cry that simply proclaims: “… Our mission is to make you dance, and if you’re not gonna dance, just stay at home and listen to the oldies station." Though A Joyful Noise is all nightclub glamour in place of basement punk grit, the band unequivocally stays true to this mission statement.

Beth Ditto has slowly risen to feminist-icon status because of her fierce, unapologetic persona, which is in full force here. In the very first lines of opening track "Melody Emergency," you get the feeling that Ditto is preempting the inevitable backlash by impassively purring "You got a head on your shoulders/ You got a bone on your back/ So you’re not a rock and roller/ And there is nothing wrong with that.” There’s no ambiguity with this album: it’s pure dance pop, made glaringly obvious on the polished synth, steady beats, and dramatic chorus of lead single “Perfect World. “Get A Job” features a bitter-sounding Ditto chiding spoiled rich girls, and begins with an awkward pseudo-rap that’s only slightly less uncomfortable than Liz Phair rapping on her last album. “Move in the Right Direction” is the album’s standout track: It’s a self-affirming, club-thumping disco anthem that could easily be mistaken for a Cher song (See the new video for "Move in the Right Direction" below). “Casualties Of War” starts off with a cool beat and a plucky bass riff, as Ditto’s wispy croons swell into a sugary chorus. Ditto has stated that she listened to nothing but ABBA for a whole year before making this record, and their influence is most prominent here, as well as on the down-tempo breeziness of "Into the Wild.” The album hits a lull after this, offering up a few uninspired filler tracks. It recovers near the end with the electro-funk of “Horns” and the disparate "I Won’t Play," where an indignant Ditto spews contempt at a former flame. It’s the only song on the album that recalls the brasher vibe of past albums.

Music critics will likely turn up their noses at this album, flagging it as proof of a band trying to jump ship on their designated genre for the glittery pastures of the Top 40. Longtime fans might declare this a sell out. Considering Ditto’s iconoclastic nature, though, my guess is that she doesn’t care. After all, this band never succumbed to the posturing and self-seriousness that some of their contemporaries in the punk and indie scenes chose to embrace. Gossip just promised to make you dance. Although they’ve defected from the indie/punk rock ranks to make a record that sounds half a world away from their start 13 years ago in Olympia, they still make good on their promise—this album will make you dance.

Check out the brand new video for "Move in the Right Direction" below, or stream A Joyful Noise at gossipyouth.com.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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Tags: music, Review

PDX Pop Now! Announces Its 2012 Compilation Album Lineup and Release Show

June 7 at Holocene with Sun Angle, Wild Ones, Hollywood Tans, Rose, DJ Porsche Cayenne

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 21, 2012 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Sasquatch is kicking off the summer music festival season this weekend with the big names and big budgets, but you don’t have to travel five hours for quality music festival lineups—not when you have PDX Pop Now! Portland’s local-focused, all ages, free, little-festival that could (and does) recently announced the lineup for it’s 9th annual, 2-disc compilation album, otherwise known as the Portland Music Compilation of Record (i.e. if you want the abbreviated history of the last nine years on the Portland music scene in easy two disc installments, you can do no better than tracking down the PDX Pop Now! compilations). As always, it’s an excellent cross-section of what’s seducing the sound systems across town and across the country, from national names like M. Ward, to tracks from sophomore albums by budding national names like Y La Bamba and Tu Fawning (read our review), to the recent winner of Willamette Week’s Best New Band, Radiation City (along with runners up Pure Bathing Culture and Grandparents).

To celebrate, PDX Pop Now! is doing a CD Release Benefit on June 7 at Holocene with Sun Angle, Wild Ones, Hollywood Tans, Rose, DJ Porsche Cayenne. $10 will get you in and a copy of the compilation. And through remarkable OLCC wrangling, it’s all ages.

And, of course, the actual festival will be held July 20-22 at Refuge PDX.

PDX Pop Now 2012 Compilation track list

Disc 1:
1 Watch The Show – M. Ward
2 It’s Real – Wild Ones
3 Super Blues – Archers
4 Soul Damage – Sex Life
5 The Last Four Years – The Ocean Floor
6 Cool California – Youthbitch
7 Live @ Pioneer Square – Cloudy October
8 Call It Done – Brooke Parrott
9 Garage & Grace – Trio Subtonic
10 Hug Me – Jeffrey Jerusalem
11 Wastoids – Big Black Cloud
12 Happy Ghosts – Pardee Shorts
13 Bendito – Y La Bamba
14 We Got It Good – Charts
15 While We While – Palmas
16 Munde Ba Be Mali La – Dusu Mali Band
17 Modern Cinderella – The CRY!
18 Glass Watch – Like A Villain
19 Happy Home – Onuinu
20 Middle Of The Riddle – White Orange
21 Golden Age – Future Historians

Disc 2:
1 PortlandtownUSA – Pancake Breakfast
2 Get Alive – AU
3 Ride For My City – Rose
4 I Wanna Do (What You Wanna Do) – Federer
5 The Wanderer – Sons of Huns
6 Secret Language – Boyscout Discovery
7 Timesnakes – Sun Angle
8 Arrows – Grandparents
9 Gentle Friend – MY BODY
10 Fathers Day – Neal Morgan
11 Wish I Could Love – Hollywood Tans
12 Winter Blind – Radiation City
13 Abigail iii – Lynnae Gryffin
14 Introduction – Luck One & Dekk
15 When You’re Somewhere (You Ought To Be There) – Mark McGuire
16 Ivory Coast – Pure Bathing Culture
17 It’s Just The Beginning – Smegma
18 Dead Maester’s Tongue – Blood Beach
19 Anchor – Tu Fawning
20 Warm In The Winter – Glass Candy

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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Review: Imago Theatre’s ‘The Black Lizard’

The English premiere of the classic Japanese jewel heist satire seduces but occasionally stumbles over its own obi in this noir-thriller-erotic-kabuki mash-up. Thru June 2

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 17, 2012 at 04:00PM 0 Comments

The Black Lizard (Anne Sorce, right) kidnaps a beautiful jewel heir (Samantha Joy Luhn). Photo by Sumi Wu

The sexy sway of the Black Lizard sure has seduced Portland with her campy Japanese charms.

Perhaps you’ve heard of her from Pink Martini’s “The Song of the Black Lizard,” the eerie but beautiful track from their first album, Sympathique. During concerts, bandleader (and lover of all things obscure and campy) Thomas Lauderdale likes to tell the story of tracking down the drag queen Akihiro Miwa, who originally sang the song while playing the Black Lizard in the 1968 Japanese cult classic about a sexy jewel thief femme fatale who seeks to steal and preserve beauty by turning gorgeous young people into lifeless statues that never age.

And now, thanks to Imago Theatre’s Jerry Mouawad, you can get her full story in English for the first time. With translation help from Laurence Kominz and Mark Oshima, Mouawad is staging the first English adaptation of the 1949 play by Yukio Mishima, a three-time Nobel Prize nominee and one of Japan’s most important writers from the 20th Century, that was the inspiration for the movie (and is itself based on a detective novel from 1934). And the production is delightful in its genre-mashing, multimedia ingenuity, if its does drag and stumble at times.

A camp satire of sorts, the story is drawn straight from the jewel heist/crime noir genre: an endlessly resourceful and sexy jewel thief called ‘The Black Lizard’ has her eyes set on the ultimate prize, a priceless diamond called the Star of Egypt belonging to Japan’s wealthiest jeweler, and, even to even more sinister ends, his equally pristine and beautiful daughter. The jeweler hires Japan’s most famous (and disillusioned) detective, Kogoro Akechi, for protection. A battle of wits, disguises, and plot twists ensue as the Black Lizard kidnaps the daughter and heads for her secret island getaway with the detective in hot pursuit—literally, for the Black Lizard and Akechi, both more archetypes than individuals, start to fall in love with each other and what the other represents.

While it might be a genre plot, it’s far from a genre production. Mishima mixed an intoxicating cocktail that combines the psychological complexity of Japanese realist dramas; the monologues, dance, and music of grand kabuki; and strong doses of the era’s eroticism and camp (the leading lady was played by a drag queen—and Mishima’s lover—after all) to which Mouawad has added some gloriously creative staging plays of his own as he whisks us from a Tokyo hotel to the Tokyo streets to an ocean liner to the Black Lizard’s lair (all beautifully designed by Dan Meeker), no mean feat for a small production. One highlight in particular is a noir-style city chase scene, which happens entirely on a screen with projections of the city (by Catherine Egan and Kyle Delmarter) and the artfully directed manipulations of silhouettes by the characters. Also of note is the equally complex mashup of sound effects and music by Kyle Delamarter and John Berendzen, which further flirts with the camp over stylizations of the production by, respectively, punctuating points of dialogue and action with lo-fi sound effects and also underlying the existential, kabuki “chamber” style soliloquies of the characters with fuzzy, Orientalized music.

Unfortunately, the acting itself is also a mix. The leads are strong. Anne Sorce plays the Black Lizard with wide, frozen eyelids, her pupils darting from one corner to the other. As cold and contained as the gems she steals, she seductively draws out her syllables, occasionally losing control with neatly confined yelling fits. I yearned to be front row for the theatrical equivalent of close ups of her eyes (and pitied the folks in the back of the house or with outdated prescriptions). Matt DiBiasio gives Akechi the stony, disaffected swagger of the noir detective and also gets a humorous turn in disguise. And the physical humor, particularly by Black Lizard’s two mostly silent henchmen, entertains and perfectly suits the production. However, several of the other supporting actors fall flat and begin to wear heavily after a while.

Consequently, as fun as parts of the show are, others started to drag for me, particularly in the first act (and this version is shortened from the original). In pursuing multiple styles, it commits to none, challenging the audience to wonder what to take seriously and what as parody, which is not necessarily a bad or unintentional thing, just something to be aware of. Despite being overwrought, it’s not straightforward comedic camp, but something more thoughtful and complex. The show is recommended for adults, but I think it should be less due to the full nudity at the end and more because you need a decent attention span and love for, as well as knowledge about, the competing genres in order to get the maximum pleasure from the Black Lizard’s many guiles.

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Listen to What Hearts Debut Album

Hear the album now on OPB , and plan to see them at Mississippi Studios on Sunday!

Posted by: Anne Adams on May 17, 2012 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

We promise it’s an equally lovely record.

Five Women
Culturephile first caught wind of What Hearts about two years ago at the Woods. As they wrapped up a very promising sound check, filling the still-empty room with sparkle and harmony, an incoming patron actually remarked, “Ohmygod, I love all-girl bands! Do they all have cute fake names too?”

No. And shut up.

Yes, they’re real pretty (see graphic, left), but Julie and Sophie Vitells, Sarah Fennell, Karin Nystrom and Courtney Sheedy also keep it pretty real, using lush, wafty arrangements laced with emotive fiddle, bouyed by echoey guitar, and strung along a clean clothesline of stream-of-consciousness storytelling.

Female Simon & Garfunkel?
OPB’s comparison of What Hearts to Simon & Garfunkel seems a stretch, as none of these melodies match the hook-power of a “Cecilia,” the intimacy of “The Sound of Silence,” or the credible world-weariness of “Keep the Customer Satisfied.” That said, to make such a comparison in the first place seems unfair. A local debut record’s tensile strength should never be tested against Bridge Over Troubled Waters; in that scenario, almost all would drown.

Apter (and still plenty positive) comparisons might include Beach House, Belle & Sebastian—or, further back, Nico, Helium, or Fairport Convention.

Ignoring both the apparent overhype and the inevitable beauty backlash, take this record on faith, and enjoy it for what it is: A beautiful debut with enough character and craft to establish WH once and for all as credible players in the Portland scene. Also, the perfect accompaniment to a road trip or a rainy day.

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The Oregon Symphony Gets Dark and Seedy for Its Closing Concerts

The Symphony takes on Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and John Adam’s City Noir for its Sunday and Monday performances

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 16, 2012 at 02:00PM 0 Comments

When composer Igor Stravinsky’s angular, dissonant ballet The Rite of Spring premiered at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 1913, its combination of jarring music, uncomfortable choreography, scandalous costumes, and story of pagan sacrifice worked the audience into such a fervor that the producers feared a riot. Yet today it towers as a 20th-century masterpiece—Leonard Bernstein went so far as to describe one passage: “That page is 60 years old, but it’s never been topped for sophisticated handling of primitive rhythms.” You might also recognize it as the score for the animated history of the Earth (at least up to the dinosaurs) in Walt Disney’s Fantasia (see the video below). Pagan ritual, billions of years in the geologic time scale…same thing, right?

Rite is but the final note in the beautifully dark closing program to the Oregon Symphony season on Sunday and Monday. There is also Liszt’s haunting “Black Gondola,” Dvorák’s pensive Nocturne, and the Portland premiere of John Adams’s 30-minute symphony City Noir—a moody piece inspired by Kevin Starr’s evocative writing on the gritty LA of the 1940s and ’50s—which the New York Times described as “riveting.” Watch Adam talk about his influences for the piece below.

Walt Disney’s take on The Rite of Spring:

John Adam’s (and a number of Dutch musicians) talking about City Noir:

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Bring It On: The Musical Goes to Broadway Courtesy of Oregon-born Theater Wunderkind

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 15, 2012 at 09:00PM 0 Comments

Don’t say Oregon don’t play on Broadway. Coos Bay born and raised theater boy Jeff Whitty, who won a Tony for his book to the pervy puppet musical Avenue Q, is going to take home his second Broadway credit with the announcement today that Bring It On: The Musical will open on August 1. The musical, while set in the world of competitive high-school cheerleading, is a “free adapatation,” meaning it doesn’t share any of the characters or plots from the movie. While we might lose imminently quotable lines like, “Follow me, or perish, sweater monkeys,” given Whitty’s pen, you can expect hilarity that is equally smart and just as dirty. And with real cheerleaders in the cast, there’s no end to the high flying shenanigans (and these girls don’t need wires, Julie Taymor). The promotional video makes the gymnastics and dance look, um, amazing.

Or as they chanted at my backwaters high school in the ’Couv:
“Peel it to the left, peel it to the right, stand up, sit down, huh, take a bite!”

This from the New York Times:

Broadway producers rarely open new shows in summertime, when tourist-dominated audiences in New York are biggest for long-running hits, but a new musical comedy is moving into the St. James Theater in July: “Bring It On,” a takeoff on the battle-of-the-cheerleaders movie from 2000 starring Kirsten Dunst. The show will start previews on July 12, direct from a 13-city national tour — a rare example of a production that played in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Toronto before coming to New York, where musicals usually begin before going out on the road.

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Tomorrow Only: $30 Tickets to ‘It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues’

Posted by: Aaron Scott on May 15, 2012 at 10:00AM 0 Comments

Right on the heels of Black Pearl Sings, Portland Center Stage is bringing more blues to town. And while it might be hard to feel the blues in weather like this, that doesn’t mean it’s hard to appreciate them, particularly when they’re sung well. Tomorrow only, PCS is offering $30 tickets for its upcoming production of It Ain’t Nothin but the Blues (that’s up to $39 off per ticket). To get the discount, click here and use the code word GUITAR or call the box office.

This from PCS:

From African chants and Delta spirituals to the urban electricity of a Chicago nightclub, It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues is a stirring retrospective of blues classics that summons the soul of American music. Over two dozen musical numbers are included, among them “I’m Your Hoochie-Coochie Man,” “Goodnight, Irene,” “Fever,” “Walkin’ After Midnight,” “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Let the Good Times Roll.” It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical, and has played to rave reviews all over the country. Through the music that is cherished as an original American art form, the standout group of musicians and singers on stage share a moving American story of troubles and triumph.

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“Portland Weird” in Paris: Artists Report

New Paris-based festival “Keep Portland Weird” hosted a bunch of Portland artists and reportedly spoiled them rotten.
We asked our correspondents: Have we got a new sister city, or is our hometown’s hip oeuvre officially “over?”

Posted by: Aaron Scott and Anne Adams on May 10, 2012 at 10:00AM 2 Comments

Quoi?
A 10-day festival with events in Metz, Paris, and Nantes, curated by the Centre Pompidou (France’s national modern art museum) in partnership with Portland organizers and local commercial rock clubs.

Qui?
Performers included Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, The Thermals, Helio Sequence, Tara Jane ONeil, Holcombe Waller, Rebecca Gates,Tender Forever, Dragging an Ox Through Water, Au, Brainstorm, Beyondadoubt, Slimkid3 from Pharcyde, Nurses, Sunfoot, Miracles Club, YACHT, and more. Coordinators included Serge Laurent, Delphine Legatt, and Geraldine Celli at the Pompidou Centres; Benoit Rousseau at the Gaite Lyrique; Kristan Kennedy from Portland Institute for Contemporary Art; Department of Kick Ass Filmmaker Vanessa Renwick; and Melanie Valera of Tender Forever.

Oú?
In Metz, venues included Trinitaires (a former convent), and the Metz Pompidou. In Paris, it was the Centre Pompidou (more about that distinction is explained below by Holcombe). Most of the rest of the week-long fest took place under the watchful eye of PICA fine arts curator Kristan Kennedy at Paris’s Gaité-Lyrique, a former opera house.

We all felt so grateful to be there together sharing our work with the French audiences! Even the French curators commented on how they noticed that, for such a large group of people, they were surprised at how much we cared for each other and really liked to be together. We all have a lot of respect for what each other are doing, and they really liked what we had to offer.

However, a few times I did hear French people say, “This isn’t weird.”

Vanessa has a screening of her films Charismatic Megafauna and Mighty Tacoma at The Hollywood Theatre on May 27th, the closing night of the brand new Experimental Film Festival.

The only other act I was able to catch was Life Savas; it was my first time seeing them perform and they really came with it—great beats and conscious lyrics. They held it down for Portland. Other than that, we had a packed schedule in the streets of Paris and then in Berlin, shooting videos for my new album and for my current single, produced by DJ NuMark of Jurassic 5. Overall, I was just happy to see a city that stands out like Paris give props to Portland. I’m such a fan of Paris and its obscure art and open, nothing-to-prove, nothing-to-hide culture. But it makes me shake my head that they would wanna highlight Portland for being weird. We seem to share some major creative freedoms that are so complementary.

It felt a little like some strange class field trip, with representatives from every pocket of music-making in Portland present. Many high fives and “super cool’s” were exchanged, and there were two rabid German fans who’d driven seven hours to see The Thermals play. During Tara Jane ONeil’s set, a radical Italian artist whispered in my ear, “This is what Paris needs now!” Most nights were packed and those that weren’t still held intimate crowds with rapt attention! I am a cynic about most things, but this event was downright charming. Gaite Lyrique and the Pompidou were very gracious to all of the artists and curators, true gems of hosts. It is sad to leave.

When we first started playing, our audience seemed very quiet. Realizing that they mostly didn’t understand a word I said in English, I broke out in Franglais (my dad’s French) and things got instantly more amusing, since my French is a disaster.

I heard I got name-checked by the Pompidou’s Paris curator of performance, Serge Laurent, during an afternoon talk with PICA’s Kristin Kennedy and others. Serge mentioned that the whole idea of Portland-in-Paris came out of a coffee conversation Serge and I had a couple of years ago in New York. I am officially patting myself on the back. Good job, Holcombe!

I don’t think any of this is a harbinger of some kind of “over sell” of Portland. I do think Portland is getting a ton of national and international attention, but it doesn’t seem like the quality of life and creativity in Portland is doing anything but improving. I think as long as Portland is the gorgeous, creative, unique American city that it is, it’s not going to “sell out” or get “over played.”

I’ve seen a lot of bands in my twenty years of living in Portland, and the constant seems to be that there is no overwhelmingly obvious constant. The most famous current bands/artists originating from here are the likes of The Dandy Warhols, The Decemberists, Esperanza Spalding, Pink Martini, Blind Pilot and Lifesavas. I can’t think of many similarities between any of those, other than the word “Portland” in their bios. This sort of diversity was highlighted at the Keep Portland Weird festival in Metz and Paris. Most refreshingly, it wasn’t just all straight white dudes with guitars. The majority of the bands included female people or gay people or non-white people (or female gay non-white people) making all sorts of different sounds.

I guess overall, while I was admittedly a little embarrassed about the festival’s name, just as I am a little embarrassed when I see the same bumper sticker on a car over here (in my opinion, the moment you have to force weirdness, you’re no longer weird…plus, Austin TX was kept weird long before Portland was), the whole thing made me realize individuality is a hard thing to tangibly export like a flannel. And as long as no one declares diversity “over” anytime soon, I think we’ll do okay.

But our absolute favorite report is one done by the French themselves: “Portland: Bizarre, Vous Avez Dit Bizarre?” We particularly love the teleporting Lifesavas, the time-lapse dragon boats, and the gaggle(?) of Segways they somehow found in Portland (when was the last time you saw a Segway? Even Homer Williams traded his in.) Doesn’t particularly seem like the French need our help keeping anything weird.

For more about Portland arts, visit PoMo’s Arts & Entertainment Calendar, stream content with an RSS feed, sign up for our weekly On The Town Newsletter, or follow us on Twitter @PoMoArt!

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