New Shows, Sad Songs And Long Goodbyes.

By WW Editorial Staff
  1. SHOW BUSINESS: Members of Third Rail Rep and Lewis Clark College prof Stepan Simek are seeking investors to bankroll a for-profit production of Mamet’s Speed the Plow to be staged in 2011. The show will feature Tim True, Michael O’Connell and Brittany Burch under Simek’s direction. O’Connell’s undaunted by Portland’s historical lack of investment-based theater: “The great thing about Portland is, if you’re creative and tenacious you can put up a show if you want,” he says.
  2. CURSED NO MORE? Construction appears to be nearly complete at Pizzicato owner Marc Frankel’s new venture, Lovejoy Baking, on the Pearl District corner where Nina’s Place, Graze and Leonardo’s on Lovejoy all withered and died. We hope this one fares better. FRESH ROAST: Adam McGovern, owner of the lauded Coffeehouse NW, has been in the market for a second space for about a year now, and he’s finally decided on a little cart no bigger than the area in which he currently works on West Burnside. McGovern, along with business partner Aric Miller, will open Sterling Coffee Roasters at 2120 NW Glisan St., where he will roast coffee beans and prepare drinks to order, all the while telling patrons everything they never wanted to know about where their coffee comes from. According to McGovern, it will finally give him the chance to be “creative.” Look for it next to Trader Joe’s in December.MR. WEI GOES TO WASHINGTON: Portlander Jonathan Wei’s The Telling Project, a nonprofit that creates theater pieces based on the stories of veterans and performed by the veterans themselves, will appear at the national Veterans Day celebration in Washington, D.C.—on the same stage as Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.
  3. FRESH ROAST: Adam McGovern,
  1. SAD SONGS: Last Wednesday, cyclist and musician Kipp Crawford was killed when he was struck by two cars in North Portland. Crawford, 31, was the drummer for Americana/rock band Celilo and also played with the electro-jazz outfit the Fractal Quintet and his own group, Thanks Kipp. Celilo frontman Sloan Martin says the group’s scheduled show on Nov. 21 at Mississippi Studios will go on, and that a tribute to Crawford is forthcoming. This week also brings news of the death of local DJ Michael Marantic, whose School of Rock and Rock ’n’ Roll Bingo nights at such clubs as Slabtown, Tube, Momo’s, Matador and Ella St. Social Club meshed a love of pop and rock music with trivia geekery for most of the past decade. Marantic, who also worked as development director at local nonprofit Youth Progress Association, died Sunday, Nov. 1, of complications from pneumonia. He was 49. “He was a treasure trove of 20th-century music,” says friend and former co-worker Mark Newman, who organized a memorial at Basta’s last Sunday. “He educated all of us.”

WWeek 2015

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