Willamette Weekend

10 things to do in Portland, Aug 3-5

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Friday, Aug 3

SMMR BMMR

[MUSIC] As in years past, the fifth installment of SMMR BMMR crams a staggering number of top-notch practitioners of punk, garage and guttersnipe pop into two beer-fueled days and nights at Plan B. Let’s call this “The Year of Dirtnap Records,” which will be represented by Canadian power-pop wonder White Wires, local surf-punk sleazebags Guantanamo Baywatch, and fake-dumb party dudes Mean Jeans, who will be backing Kepi Ghoulie through a set of Groovie Ghoulies classics on Friday before blessing Saturday with a set of perfect Portland pop punk. Go early, stay late and take Sunday off. CHRIS STAMM. Plan B, 1305 SE 8th Ave. August 3-4. $13 or $22 for weekend wristband. 21+.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
[FILM] As portrayed in Alison Klayman’s moving documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Chinese artist and troublemaker Ai Weiwei is a complicated, deeply charismatic figure: puckish, brazen, empathetic, narcissistic, deeply politically committed but often immune to the concerns of those closest to him—his fearful mother and cuckolded wife, for example. Most protesters who become powerful symbols are similarly complicated—Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi were no saints—but rarely does one get to view the charms and faults of a revered iconoclast at so intimate a scale. Weiwei, as an artist, has a mostly aphoristic and provacateurish intelligence, a knack for visually pithy renderings of simple or even hamfisted concepts. But still, his statements are made no less beautiful by their often pointed simplicity. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Living Room Theaters, 341 SW 10th Ave. Multiple showtimes.

Saturday, Aug 4

Velella Velella, Don't Talk to the Cops, OC Notes, Copy

[MUSIC] Velella Velella’s music might best be described as psychedelic synth-funk—something pumped lovingly into listeners’ ears through a labyrinth of drum machines, vintage keyboards, bass, guitars and cool-cat attitude... read our full write-up. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave. $10. 21+.

Trek in the Park: Journey to Babel

[PERFORMANCE] Now in its fourth year, Atomic Arts’ geeky annual performance has outgrown its original Woodlawn Park location and will find a new home at Cathedral Park, under the St. Johns Bridge. This summer’s episode finds the Enterprise en route to a peace conference, with a rogue assassin at large. Cathedral Park, North Edison Street and Pittsburg Avenue. 5 pm Saturdays-Sundays through Aug. 26. Free.

Fang Island

[MUSIC] With Major, Fang Island has attempted to craft the greatest balls-out rock album of all-time. The band didn't succeed in doing so, but that's not the point: The point is that rock ’n’ roll seldom gets this bombastic and overwrought and stylistically confusing and right-the-fuck-on all at the same time. The Brooklyn outfit has spent the last seven years crafting increasingly epic records, but Major is a back-to-basics game-changer, churning through candy-colored riffage that reminds of Andrew WK, Weezer, Sensefield, Heart or Cheap Trick, depending on which moment of which of the youthful power trio's songs you tune in for. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 8 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. All ages.

Bones and Brew Festival

[BEER] Now in its 18th year, Rogue’s Bones and Brew Festival celebrates the blissful marriage that is barbecue and beer. Along with beers from over 30 craft breweries, there will be a barbecue competition, the kobe bleu ball-eating competition, a charity dog wash and, of course, a lot of barbecue to eat. Green Dragon, 928 SE 9th Ave., 517-0660. noon-9 pm Saturday, noon-5 pm. Sunday.

Klown

[FILM] This is a movie in which a man poses with a little boy’s micropenis as leverage for blackmail, and also ejaculates in the eye of his sleeping girlfriend’s mother as an attempted gesture of love. (She wears a patch now, and her eye’s healing fine, thanks.) Which is to say, this is a grotesquely comedic gross-out-with-a-heart-of-gold to shame the Brothers Farrelly and team Hangover into submissiondominance games—although this one’s filmed in grainy verité style and unflattering light suitable more for a ’90s Dogme film, which means every punch lands hard in the uncomfortable gut rather than sliding off the polish. If you have no shame whatsoever, you will nonetheless discover it while watching this film. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Multiple showtimes.

Sunday, Aug 5

Astronomy Day and Mars Landing Viewing

[SPACE] Apparently Astronomy Day is a thing. More importantly, Curiosity is landing on Mars! OMSI is throwing a whole day of festivities, representatives from "local clubs and organizations" will be leading discussions and hands-on activities, and an inflatable model of Curiosity will be on display. Then from 9 pm, screens in the auditorium and planet-arium will show the live feed of NASA TV. OMSI, 945 SE Water Ave. 10 am-4 pm, then 9 pm (the actual landing happens at 10:30 pm).

Warped Tour

[MUSIC] Ride your skateboard (or your mom’s minivan) down to the Rose Quarter for Warped Tour, which this year features Rise Against, Pierce the Veil, Taking Back Sunday and a bunch of kids who look vaguely like Justin Bieber but are actually totes HRDCRE! Rose Quarter Riverfront, Aegean Lot, North Thunderbird Way. Noon. $31.50.

Farewell, My Quee

[FILM] Farewell, My Queen, Benoît Jacquot’s upstairs-downstairs look at the last desperate gasps of the French monarchy, finds Léa Seydoux (who appeared in everything from Mysteries of Lisbon to Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol last year) as the underling and not-sosecret admirer of Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger). Yes, it’s a film oozing with sexual tension and willful subservience—not to mention power plays, brinkmanship and backdoor politicking—but more front and center is a certain visual moodiness that compels all on its own. The aesthetic is both lush and understated, dolled up and softly lit. MICHAEL NORDINE. Fox Tower. Multiple showtimes.

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