Willamette Weekend

Sarah Donner
[MUSIC] Sarah Donner (of "The Motherfucking Pterodactyl Song" fame) performs two Portland shows in day: first at the Cat Adoption Team Thrift Store, helping raise money for its good works, and then at the Alberta Street Public House with local act the Doubleclicks. 1 pm at the Cat Adoption Team Thrift Store, 4838 SW Scholls Ferry Rd. Cost: Donation of cat food or thrift store item. 9 pm at Alberta Street Public House, 1036 NE Alberta St. 5pm. 21+.

Entertainment for People: An Indie Variety Show
[WORDS] Gathering together the most-interesting people at parties and putting them in one room, Back Fence PDX presents a tantalizing selection of readings, music, comedy and video in their variety show Entertainment for People. Visiting author Steve Almond (Candyfreak) will join the local lineup with stripper/author/musician Viva Las Vegas, director Arthur Bradford, radio host Courtenay Hameister, author Pauls Toutonghi and many more. Plus, cupcakes! Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave. 8 pm. $10-$12. 21+.

Smashed Block Party
[MUSIC] The summer calendar is already cluttered with festivals and daylong music events, so what's one more to cause you paroxysms of worry about how to manage your free time? And trust us, the East End Smashed Block Party will have you begging Siri to clear your weekend calendar. Primarily because the venue is boasting the return to Portland of Redd Kross, the great ’70s-inspired rock group that features its original lineup and a ton of new material, as well as the reunion of classic Michigan grindcore band Repulsion. Padding the two-day block party's lineup is a dizzying array of talent, including New Orleans garage freak Quintron, meandering folk popster Dent May, and local acts of all stripes. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave. Sat-Sun, starting at 1 pm. $12 per day.

Kevn Kinney (of Drivin' N Cryin'), Peter Buck (of REM), Kris Stuart (of Root Jack)
[MUSIC] Atlanta-based rockers Drivin' N Cryin' have been releasing music on the regular since 1986, though you might not know about it. The band was overshadowed in its heyday by similarly minded acts like Soul Asylum and R.E.M., and it's been two decades since the release of its one commercially successful album, Fly Me Courageous. So if this fantastic group has eluded your grasp, get acquainted with a solo set by frontman Kevn Kinney. He may not have his band's signature guitar attack to fend with, but this way you can parse out his razor-sharp melodies and stinging lyrical brilliance. Hawthorne Theatre Lounge, 1503 SE Cesar E. Chavez Ave. 9 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show.
[FILM] Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation was a relatively small and quiet character study released between the twin behemoths of The Godfather parts I and II. As a result, the film was overshadowed commercially, despite being nominated for several Oscars in 1974, but it remains an artistic highlight in Coppola’s career, easily ranking among his larger, more iconic works. At least half the credit for that goes to Gene Hackman. He plays Harry Caul, a legend in the private-surveillance industry uncomfortable in his own skin. He knows firsthand that the concept of privacy in contemporary society is mostly illusory, and the nature of his occupation has made him increasingly paranoid and plagued by guilt. As Caul, Hackman pulls off a subtle acting feat, managing to make a man who’s so emotionally guarded he’s practically lifeless into a fascinating character. Laurelhurst Theater, 2735 E Burnside. Multiple showtimes.

El Velador: The Nightwatchman
[FILM] The tomb business is booming in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. The freshly built mausoleums for cops and narcos looks like miniature McMansions with onion domes. Counterprogramming to Oliver Stone’s hopped-up glamorization of cartel wars in Savages, director Natalia Almada’s funereal documentary El Velador obliquely observes the carnage by watching its collateral construction. Almada’s static camera places the colorful monuments in the background—jammed together in the desert, they resemble a macabre Legoland—while the titular night watchman wipes the morning dew from the inside of his truck windshield. El Velador is an odd experiment in verite non-fiction, since it keeps the lurid subject matter at a cautious distance. We see small children slurping fresh mango from a food cart parked next to a funeral, and we see an old man smoking a cigarette while caked in plaster, like a mummy with a nicotine habit. We don’t see any of the young men who party at allnight wakes. We hardly see any young men at all, except in memorial photographs flocked by candles. But we hear their goodbye parties somewhere in the city of the dead, parties that seem to have replaced graduations and weddings in Culiacan. At dawn, the night watchman comes to pick up their cans of Tecate, left empty in the graveyard. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 and 9 pm Friday-Saturday, July 6-7. 5:30 pm Sunday, July 8.