CULTUREPHILE: PORTLAND ARTS

Weekend Picks

Culturephile presents two blushing performance-art quinceañeras, a far-out Gypsy excursion, and a lawn-chair space odyssey

Posted by: Anne Adams on Jul 09, 2010 at 12:00PM 4 Comments

We still haven’t found the 4-H tent at the Oregon Country Fair.

PICA Turns 15
A woman in stylish safety goggles, calmly and methodically breaking glass. Children cutting adults’ hair. Beat-boxers, light-boxes, ukelele-wielding trannies—these are some of the many-spirited spectacles that have been brought to us in the last 15 years by PICA (Portland Institute for Contemporary Art) most notably at its annual Time-Based Art Festival (aka, “TBA”). Tonight at Holocene, with the hotly anticipated TBA a mere two months away, double-drum electronica duo Deelay Ceelay help celebrate this arts brainchild’s coming-of-age.

Conduit Dance
Look out, PICA—you’re not the only arts organization playing quinces princess. Conduit Dance also celebrates the big 15 this weekend, with a showcase of local luminaries including Conduit founder Linda K. Johnson, Oregon Biennial 2010 artist Tahni Holt, and former OBT dancer Gavin Larsen*. Conduit Benefit Performances: 15 hopes to help top off the coffers, so Conduit can continue moving contemporary dance forward.

Oregon Country Fair
Though Oregon Country Fair is held in the country (in Veneta, Oregon, outside Eugene) you can dispel any notions of country fare. Nowhere a 4-H ribbon, nary a cow or plow. It’s actually more like visiting a Gypsy enclave, where dusty paths wind through shady woodlands, dotted by makeshift curio shops and traversed by troubadours and elaborately-dressed denizens of various fairytale kingdoms.

Trek In The Park
You’ve probably heard of Shakespeare In the Park. And you may have caught wind of the odd Star Trek Convention. But have you ever thought of a grand convergence of the two? Never fear; Portland’s Atomic Arts is on it. As if beamed in by teleporter, Kirk, Spock and company will materialize in the Woodlawn Park amphitheater and perform the classic Trek episode “Space Seed,” best known for introducing Trek supervillian Khan and seeding the soil for future blockbuster The Wrath Of Khan. In this story, the Enterprise discovers a ship containing hibernating human specimens, and wakes their leader, Khan, who then seduces one of the Enterprise’s bouffanted crew beauties and attempts to kill Captain Kirk.

Portland Piano International
Pianists, if you can pry your eyes off the sheet music for a moment, heads up! Portland Piano International kicks off its week-long intensive, with performances, films, dinners, and master classes that promise to explore the whole dynamic expanse of ebony and ivory.

*According to one of my ballet sources, Gavin Larsen has some of the most beautiful hand positioning ever witnessed on stage or in studio. “When she makes a gesture, it’s like she’s balancing God on her fingertips.”

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Tags: Theater, Dance, Events, Weekend Plans, music, TBA, TBA, PICA, star trek

Weekend Picks

Independence-themed

Posted by: Aaron Scott and Anne Adams on Jul 02, 2010 at 01:00PM 0 Comments

A slightly older version of Taj Mahal will wail at the Blues Festival this weekend.

FRIDAY

Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival
Starring a lineup of legends (Taj Mahal, Little Feat, Booker T, among others.) and supporting the Oregon Food Bank, the Blues Festival promises to deliver on the crunchy riffs and soulful squawks that groove so deep and hurt so good.

SATURDAY

Charles A. Hartman Fine Art

What better symbol of independence, than the bicycle? An elegant, free-wheeling machine that squeezes easily through bottlenecks, swerves past pedestrians, and steers completely clear of the gas pump? This month, Charles A. Hartman Fine Art celebrates the bicycle with Pedaling: Bicycle Photographs from Then to Now, a collection of photos from the 1800s to the present, cataloging the many adventures of our spindly steed. 11 AM-6 PM.

Someday Lounge

Nothing to do the day before blastoff? No worries; Someday Lounge has your pre-func all planned. They’ll start a barbecue at 3 PM while the sun’s still high, segue into live soul music from 7-9 with the Mothership Band, and then kick into reggae jams with Wakaman. The price? Free as democracy.

SUNDAY

Chamber Music Northwest Protégé Project

OK, countrymen, lend me your ears:

Now imagine that epic tableau, distilled into a simple ensemble performance by one violin, a piano, and a clarinet. The Protégé Project—promoted as the “young, hip” part of Chamber Music Northwest’s Summer Festival, presents the Atria ensemble—Sunmi Chang, violin; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Hye-Yeon Park, piano; with selected all-American pieces sure to ignite patriotic fireworks. At The Woods in Sellwood; $12 in advance, $15 day of show. Click here to purchase advance tickets.

Your Friend’s Yard

Your friend called to say, “Don’t make too many extravagant plans.” Bring over some beer and cheer, and celebrate your independence unconstrained by schedules and hassles. And your Culturephile will do some of the same.

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Tags: Galleries, Weekend Plans, Live

Weekend Picks

Pick your poison—NoPo or Lake O; chamber music subtlety or Broadway flair.

Posted by: Aaron Scott and Anne Adams on Jun 25, 2010 at 12:00PM 5 Comments

No. Fest
These days, the North Portland/ St. Johns neighborhood is all over the place. Is it the new gay district? The latest plum to ripen for PDC plucking? The last close-in outpost for blue-collar, and “keeping it real?” In the throes of an all-engrossing identity crisis, NoPo, like any healthy adolescent, wants to party. This weekend marks the first annual No. Fest—boasting an eclectic, ambitious schedule, a compilation CD, and headline Bhangra bangers Anjali & The Incredible Kid. Click here for more info and complete schedule, and behold, below, a preview of Culturephile’s top pick, multimedia music/animation duo, ** Billygoat:

Dioscuri Part II from Billygoat on Vimeo.

Lake Oswego Festival of The arts
If the above description tempts you to run for the hills, point your warrantied wheels south toward Lake Oswego, for another Festival Of The Arts. They’ve been hosting theirs for 47 years, thank you—so they’re willing to offer some guarantees, including accessibility to everyone, several art exhibits, a Craft Faire, and a juried art show.

Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival
Attending a chamber concert is like taking tea with the Queen—simultaneously intimate and grand; punctuated by quiet throat-clearing. Chamber Music Northwest’s 40th summer festival landed its first bow-strokes this last Monday, but will string the festivities out for four more weeks. Click here for complete schedule and ticket information, and whet your appetite with this Bostonian version of one of the weekend’s featured pieces, Adagio For Strings .

RENT
Whether you measure it in minutes, cups of coffee, or torrid, twentysomething love*—the enduring success and relevance of RENT can hardly be denied. The Pulitzer-winning musical that opened in 1996 and dominated Broadway stages ‘til 2008, styles itself as a vivid snapshot of the edgy lives of seven friends in New York’s East Village. But it clearly offers something more universal: a diverse set of characters and a varied spectrum of passionate, complex emotions. At Theatre! Theater! through july 25th.

*Culturephile wonders, should that be calculated in volume, or density?

**Coming up on Culturephile: 5 questions with Billygoat!

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Tags: Museums, Theater, Weekend Plans, music, Festivals, Animation

Weekend Picks

Pride parade, courtroom drama, and circus hijinks

Posted by: Anne Adams on Jun 18, 2010 at 11:00AM 3 Comments

This villainous chap is just one of the characters you’ll meet at the Wanderlust Circus. Photo by Alicia Rose

Wanderlust Circus presents The Rose Rush
Time to bust out your bustier and untangle your fishnets, for the monthly vaudevillian freak-fest that is Wanderlust Circus. For The Rose Rush, Wanderlust’s intrepid collective of acrobats, aerialists, and sharp-tongued carnival barkers, puts its talents to a tale of Northwest conquest, “in which a cunning captain of commerce comes gunning for the creme de Cascadia.”

Portland Pride 2010
Grand Marshaled by Grande Dame Darcelle XV, the annual Portland Pride Parade will fill the streets with gay merriment, and then converge at the waterfront for a whole weekend’s worth of music, pageantry, and queer-friendly vending. (Parade begins at 11:30, followed by scheduled events from noon on.) In the immortal words of the Glenda the Good Witch: Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Imago Theater Backs Like That
Best known for her animal stage spectacles, a la Frogs, Imago Theater’s Carol Triffle also pens the occasional people-play. Backs Like That, her latest wackily existential offering, features an original musical score by Imago composer Katie Griesar—and they’re giving it away! Make a reservation to see it for free.

NW Dance Project Summer Splendors
NW Dance Project celebrates a year in the Mississippi neighborhood, hosting a set of world premiere works from Northwest choreographers James Canfield (founding Artistic Director of Oregon Ballet Theatre) Sarah Slipper, Carla Mann, and Lauren Edson, in its intimate studio setting. “You’re drawn in differently,” says Slipper. “The dance, the sweat, the action is inches away from you … it’s almost how dance should be seen, up this close.” Tickets and showtimes available here.

Testimony: Equality On Trial
The Brody Theater presents a “courtroom drama” with pressing political relevance—a reenactment of real court transcripts from the recent hearings addressing Proposition 8, a ballot initiative to uphold the ban on gay marriage. Part of a national effort to bring the touching testimony of gay plaintiffs to the public, this piece, timed to coincide with Pride, is on a mission to humanize the movement.

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Tags: Theater, Dance, Weekend Plans, Festivals, Carnivals/Fairs, NWDP

Weekend Pending

Your options are mostly family friendly, and weather-permitting

Posted by: Anne Adams on Jun 11, 2010 at 06:00AM 1 Comments

The Bard alfresco—like it was meant to be.

Much Adoe About Nothing

Original Practice Shakespeare, or OPS, is committed to keeping it old school—meaning sixteenth century. In its kickoff weekend, the group presents Shakespeare’s Much Adoe About Nothing, the way it would’ve been done in the day of the Bard: in the open air, with a fast-paced, irreverent flair. Saturday, Gabriel Park; Sunday, Esther Short Park; 2 PM, free.

School Of Rock: Talking Heads

Look out, gradually maturing hipsters—a youth rock army is mobilizing for world conquest, via a recent explosion of organized camps, classes, and seminars. The musical ideals that you cultivated through precious private obsession, have now been condensed into coursework that fast-tracks school kids into the rock ‘n’ roll spotlight! And according to my sources, School Of Rock delivers exuberant, shockingly skilled performances. So, go ahead and tender your resignation at The Hawthorne Theater Saturday afternoon, when School Of Rock tackles Talking Heads.

Bert Jansch

Neil Young has some pretty nice things to say about recent tourmate Bert Jansch; most notably, “He’s on the same level as Jimi Hendrix.” Now, does Neil Young seem like the type of guy who’d lie? Saturday, Mississippi Studios.

Alice In Wonderland

This variation of the classic, penned by U of P’s Conor Eifler, features Venetian masks, puppets and stilt stunts, and the script apparently plays up the original story’s existential twist. Interstate Firehouse, Friday through Sunday.

Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade

Floats may be the purest form of spectacle value. Extravagantly giant, garish, and slow, they drift along like gaudy cumulus clouds. Line up beside your fellow Portlanders for the annual mass-hypnosis. Here’s Sunday’s parade route.

R. Crumb’s Book Of Genesis
Cartoonist provocateur illustrates the Good Book. See Graham Bell’s preview here.

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Tags: Theater, Events, Weekend Plans

Weekend Picks

Last chances, last dances, and an all-around hoot.

Posted by: Anne Adams on Jun 04, 2010 at 10:30AM 3 Comments

OBT’s Bolero

“If you want to see OBT perform this summer, you’ll have to buy a plane ticket to Korea,” warns artistic director Christopher Stowell. While that may be an option for some, it’s probably easier to catch the season’s last dance, Bolero, this weekend at the Keller. For this program, Ravel’s passionate masterpiece is juxtaposed with the exuberant Russian classicism of Raymonda and the delicate harp-accompanied intimacy of Hush.

Siren Nation’s Dolly Hoot

Tonight, Siren Nation presents its fifth annual Dolly Hoot fundraiser, a Dolly Parton tribute show in which Portland music’s creme femmes (Rachel Taylor Brown, Stephanie Schneiderman, etc.) bring their own interpretations to the iconic smart blonde’s songs.

Best Of The 36th Annual Northwest Film And Video Festival

If you missed last November’s Northwest Film And Video Festival, don’t despair—a new rainy weekend ushers in another chance to go in for some of the Fest’s best entries. And, who knows; a diverse barrage of ideas and themes, may prove a perfect distraction from the same old rain.

Educating Rita
Bag & Baggage Productions’ season closing play, the My Fair Lady-like story of a working-class hairdresser seeking help from an English professor in a quest for refinement, explores the meaning of higher education.

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Tags: Theater, Dance, Weekend Plans, music, Festivals, Film

A Long Weekend

Do JUMP!, Rose Fest, and rock and roll for all ages

Posted by: Anne Adams on May 27, 2010 at 04:00PM 1 Comments

Portland pre-schoolers will adore the Dandy Warhols!

Sasquatch Music Festival
Every Memorial Day weekend, Sasquatch impresses a giant footprint into The Gorge, with a headliner-heavy lineup and a sprawling camporee. Though you’ll want to catch every act (Pavement, Massive Attack, Public Enemy!), you know you won’t. So try to make time—between jostling for water and shade—to root for your home scene. Nurses, Saturday, 2:25 PM, Yeti Stage; YACHT: Sunday, 7:30 PM, Rumpus Room; and Quasi, Monday, 3:25 PM, Bigfoot Stage

Do Varieté By DoJUMP!
With DoJUMP!, acrobatics come standard. But in its latest offering, feats of physicality are dispatched with an added flourish of classic carnivalia. The event promises jugglers, acrobats, aerialists—and the mysterious, ubiquitous “more.”

You Who, A Kids’ Rock Showcase
Thanks to this recurring Decemberist-curated kids’ variety show, Portland children get to rock before they can walk. (In fact, pre-toddlers get in free.) The last installment before a summer hiatus features The Dandy Warhols, a DJ Anjali bhangra dance party, and assorted guests.

Henry Rollins
Former Black Flag frontman and punk-rock straight-edge Spartan Henry Rollins, segued gradually in the late 80’s from rock into talk. More than 20 years later, he remains one of the most dynamic, compelling, comedic and incisive voices on the spoken-word stage.

Rose Festival
And finally, a late-breaking announcement from Captain Obvious: Rose Festival opens this weekend. If you aren’t planning to catch any specific events, you can always wander into the flurry of waterfront diversions. Rose Festival says, “You’re welcome,” for 100 years of treats, rides, and casual family fun.
 

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Tags: Events, Weekend Plans

Wet Weekend Picks

Choreography, classical music, and campy antics

Posted by: Anne Adams on May 21, 2010 at 09:00AM 3 Comments

For this weekend’s entertainment itinerary, I submit four options. Two are fancy pants affairs, one is vinyl pants, and one’s a toga party. Choose what suits you!

Dance Coalition of Oregon
The Seraphic Society likes to get spooky. Mythobolus does it with masks. And the Rose City Rosettes prefer to just kick it when they can-can. Find out what’s on the horizon for local and regional dance at Blue Sky Concerts, a three-day, 28-company showcase hosted by the Dance Coalition of Oregon, that convenes tonight through Sunday at Interstate Fire House Cultural Center, inviting both dancers and the public to sample a smorgasbord of mood and movement.

Rose City Rosettes:

Seraphic Society:

American Feast
For his 90th birthday, Portland Youth Philharmonic composer/conductor emeritus Jacob Avshalomov gets to hear a live world-premier performance of his original composition, Chintimini Turns. (Mr. Holland’s Opus, anyone?) A tribute to another honoree, composer Ernest Bloch; and another world premier, Michael Valenti’s Story of An Hour, round out this three-course American Feast from the Portland Chamber Orchestra.

Wild Space a Go-Go
Rocky Horror meets Barbarella, and they “do it.” Well, not exactly—but with a lead character named Barbarette, a “mod” theme, and the musical stylings of live band Paris Orbitalis, look for just as much gender bending, vinyl flexing, and rocket-launching in this musical farce, as if they had.

Hercules vs Vampires
Do you like opera? Wait—hold that thought. OK, now throw in some ‘60s kitsch, bulging biceps, a big movie screen, buttery popcorn, and the bloodthirsty undead. C’mon, what’s not to love? Opera Theater Oregon and Filmusik’s rippling presentation of Hercules vs. Vampires, an epic clash of voice and film projection, closes tonight at the Hollywood Theater.

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Tags: Dance, Weekend Plans, music, Opera, vampire