This week marks the first Design Week Portland, a multi-venue, multidisciplinary celebration of design in its myriad forms, with talks, films, exhibitions and workshops—many of them free, almost all cheap—around the city. Instead of writing about it (dancing about architecture, and all that), we thought we’d show you some of the actual designs created by the people who will be speaking and exhibiting. 

 

---

GO: Design Week Portland runs through Oct. 13 at various venues around Portland. See designweekportland.com for more info.

Headout Picks

THURSDAY OCT. 11

BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON
[THEATER] In this election year, Portland Playhouse looks back on American political history—waaay back. The company stages its first musical, an emo-rock tale about the man behind the Trail of Tears. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 205-0715. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. $15-$38.

WORDSTOCK
[BOOKS] Like Comic-Con for the lit crowd, the annual literary celebration Wordstock has returned for four days packed with author appearances, panel discussions, writing workshops and probably a Fifty Shades of Grey drinking game at the after-party. Catch your favorite authors, learn to self-edit like a pro and finally break out that Jonathan Franzen costume. Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 235-7575. Various times, see page 24. $7.

VICE-PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
[POLITICS] Republican Paul Ryan does dramatic readings from Atlas Shrugged and the Bible. 5 pm. Broadcasting live at Laurelhurst Theater, 2735 E Burnside St., and Back Stage Bar, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Both free.

FRIDAY OCT. 12

DEFTONES
[MUSIC] Infatuated with the gloomy melodicism of ’80s Britpop as much as the pulverizing crunch of metal, Deftones were—despite coming to prominence in the age of Limp Bizkit—the last of the big, bulldozing acts of the alternative era. As natural selection kills off less-evolved peers, the band maintains a fervent cult through its aggressively cathartic live shows and a sound that continues to mature. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 221-0288. 8 pm. $32.50-$44.50. All ages.

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
[MOVIES] From the director of 2008’s hilariously poignant In Bruges comes this heavy-meta crime comedy, which is pretty much just hilarious. When you’ve got a sympathetic Colin Farrell playing a blocked-up screenwriter and Christopher Walken at his most Christopher Walken-y, who needs emotional complexity? Multiple theaters.

TUESDAY OCT. 16

BOSTICH+FUSSIBLE
[MUSIC] Mexico’s answer to Daft Punk, these members of Tijuana’s Nortec Collective fuse electronic dance music with the traditional sounds of banda and norteño, envisioning a future—much like their cyborg French cousins—where robots and humans can party together in harmony. The pair makes a rare appearance in the Pacific Northwest as part of the Portland Latin American Film Festival. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 8:30 pm. $25.