[May 27th, 2009]

IMAGE: Lukas Ketner

There’s a lot of things about me you don’t know anything about. Things you wouldn’t understand. Things you couldn’t understand. Things you shouldn’t understand. Which is why you should choose from a trio sampler of cockeyed, perverse filmmaking, and get your vanilla self acquainted with a little onscreen kink. This isn’t the year’s best weekend for movies in Portland, but it’s definitely the strangest. I’d come out and join you for the madness, but I can’t. You don’t want to get mixed up with a guy like me. I’m a loner, Dottie. A rebel.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure is overflowing with kitsch, a result of both star Paul Reubens’ and director Tim Burton’s ridiculous collections of toys and knickknacks (which can be seen strewn throughout Herman’s Space Age bachelor pad in the film). But kink often follows kitsch, and Pee-Wee is no exception. He’s a grown-ass man who acts like a 9-year-old and is terrified of girls. And we know from his children’s TV show that the character owns a gigantic pair of underwear and a talking couch that molests people. Without even getting into Reubens’ off-screen troubles, there’s plenty here to fetishize. CASEY JARMAN. Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 236-9234. 10 pm Friday, May 29, with gray suit and Amazing Larry Hawaiian shirt costume contest and a Pee-Wee look-alike bike ride following the show. 21+. $5. 2 pm Saturday, May 30, with costume contest and Pee-Wee look-alike bike ride following the show. All ages. $5 for adults, $2 for kids.

Plan 9 From Outer Space
The Ed Wood “classic” (the quotation marks cannot be emphasized strongly enough) is a strange enough sight on its own, what with the cardboard sets, wobbling spaceships and demented non-acting. But when electronica composer Sugar Short Wave teams up with Classical Revolution PDX String Quartet to write a new score, and 19 musicians and foley artists huddle below the screen for an entirely live soundtrack, it’s a transmission from the future—where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7 pm Wednesday and Friday, May 27 and 29. $8-$10.

It Came From Kuchar
Underground cinema’s bawdiest auteurs, George and Mike Kuchar, inspired John Waters to make movies with their groundbreaking inclusion of feces shots and ribald titles like Hold Me While I’m Naked and The Devil’s Cleavage. The thrust of new documentary It Came from Kuchar is just how far these men have gone to satiate their lust for melodrama, camp and sex. ALEX PETERSON. Portland Queer Documentary Film Festival, Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 238-5588. 9 pm Friday, May 29. $6-$8.

^Headout Picks

WEDNESDAY MAY 27

[STAGE] GREY GARDENS: THE MUSICAL
PCS presents the Tony-nominated musical based on the 1973 cult classic doc about “Big Edie” and “Little Edie” Bouvier Beale—who lived in a decrepit mansion in the Hamptons with more than 50 cats and even raccoons. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes June 21. $33.50-$68.50. $15 day-of-show rush tickets available.

FRIDAY MAY 29

[SCREEN] UP
A quiet, melancholy film about an aged widower who lives alone in a house. Did we mention the house is filled with balloons? And that it can fly? And that he meets a talking dog? Suddenly, we’re in favor of privatizing Social Security, as long as it’s contracted to Pixar. Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10, 846 SW Park Ave., 221-3280. See review, page 47.

[MUSIC] WHAT’S UP?, NEAL MORGAN
Last week we reviewed What’s Up?’s excellent Content Imagination, but the show got bumped at the last minute. So here it is, fans of hyperactive electro-math rock! The band Portland is buzzing about! TheArtistery, 4315 SE Division St., 803-5942. 8 pm. $6. All ages.

[DISH] ANTHONY BOURDAIN
The acerbic chef/author/TV world traveler/fan of the Acrop talks kitchen secrets at the Keller. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 248-4335. 8 pm. $46.50 $137.

SATURDAY MAY 30

[ROSE FEST] STARLIGHT PARADE
Trippy lights, umbrella drill teams and floats built by cute old people all at the Rose Fest’s nighttime romp. Downtown Portland. 8:30 pm. Free. Visit rosefestival.org for route.

[STAGE] NO ONE WANTS TO SEE THE WIRES
In the first installment of Alembic, a series of performances, Carole Zoom, Julie Osborn and Bill Alton perform autobiographical pieces about living as artists with physical disabilities. Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 777-1907. 7 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 30-31. $7-$12.

TUESDAY JUNE 2

[MUSIC] PEACHES, DRUMS OF DEATH
Peaches’ carnal sexuality is downright terrifying if you’re not ready for it, so prep for it at home using Dad’s old VHS tapes or one of your many local, organic porn websites. Then head to the Wonder to get your mind (and nether regions) blown. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 8:30 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. All Ages.