Willamette Weekend

[BIKES] Pedalpalooza—Portland's annual bike festival (because this city just doesn't celebrate cycling enough)—is off and racing. Of course, all you ever hear about is the naked ride, but there's so much more to it than that, with some 277 events taking place across the city through the end of June. This weekend includes ride themes like Run DMC vs. Beasties, the Morrisey mobile disco, gluten free, G.I Joe vs. Strawberry Shortcake, and taste of the Austro-Hungarian empire, amongst others. Click here for more details and events.

[FILM] The Loving Story is the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple living in Virginia in the 1950s, and their Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia’s anti-miscegenation laws. Thankfully, the legal workings are not the film’s main focus, which would make for an unbearably tedious hour and a half. Rather, the real story is the couple themselves—their humanity, their affection and their love for each other—and the people who surrounded them. The subject is a quiet, undemonstrative love, which, oddly enough, runs the risk of seeming trivial. Yet, under director Nancy Buirski’s treatment, the importance of the Lovings’ story shines through. The strength of this traditional documentary is in the absence of the director’s hand. Buirski allows the historical documents, photos and voices to speak for themselves. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St.. 6 and 8 pm Friday-Thursday, June 8-14.

Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, Jaime Leopold and the Short Stories
[MUSIC] Dan Hicks is the musical equivalent of the father Sallie Ford never knew. The two singers' music share the same swing, two-step and fast-shuffle grooves—but Hicks' peak of popularity was 40 years ago, when the singer's songs "Canned Music," "I Scare Myself" and "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away?" were staples on commercial "underground" stations across the country. The sound of Hicks and His Hot Licks relies heavily on the contribution of the two female backup vocalists (the "Lickettes") and violin lines that snake and corkscrew around the melody—it's akin to Stéphane Grappelli's work with Django Reinhardt.  DAN DEPREZ. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. 8 pm. Minors must be accompanied by a parent. 

[FILM] It was most startling image of this year’s Portland International Film Festival: A boy peeks into his middle-school classroom, and through a sliver of doorway sees his teacher’s lifeless body hanging from the ceiling. Not a conventional way of starting a “magical schoolteacher” movie, but don’t worry: It gets conventional pretty quick. The titular Mr. Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) is hired as the dead woman’s replacement, and soon he’s not just teaching these kids...they’re teaching him. Still, writer-director Philippe Falardeau keeps things simple enough, allowing the sincere performances from Fellag and the young Sophie Nélisse and Émilien Néron— both from the “so mature it’s unnatural” class of child actors—to bolster the film beyond its clichés. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave. Multiple showtimes.

Genders, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Tango Alpha Tango (7:30 pm); The Woolen Men, Fanno Creek, The Angry Orts, Sons of Huns (1 pm)
[MUSIC] Since 2007, Midwestern transplants Louie Herr and Aaron Colter have valiantly overachieved in their efforts to expand, promote and bear witness to Portland’s house show scene. First, by opening a secret venue in Southeast (the Banana Stand), then by forming a record label/media depository (BananaStandMedia.com) that offers recorded testimony of the duo’s house-show exploits. Now for phase two: After mounting a successful Kickstarter campaign, Herr and Colter have scraped together a compilation album whose release they are celebrating with a full day’s worth of shows at the Hawthorne. The two bills feature many of the rock-and-roll heavy lifters who have graced the Banana Stand venue, with the likes of the Woolen Men and Blue Skies for Black Hearts offering particularly formidable responses to the age-old query “Are you ready to rock?!” SHANE DANAHER. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 8 pm. Free. Early show all ages. Late show 21 .