September 14th, 2012
| by WW Arts & Culture Staff
Features |
Posted In: Willamette Weekend
IMAGE: CHRISTA CONNELLY
Dangerous Desires: Film
Noir Classics Series: The Prowler
[FILM] Short of watching the Republican National Convention, few viewing experiences implicate you so thoroughly in seedy covetousness as Joseph Losey’s 1951 lawn noir The Prowler, which makes the entire baby boom seem conceived in sin. The picture opens by peeping in a Los Angeles window at Evelyn Keyes in a bath towel. She snaps the shade shut, but we get in anyhow under the cover of uniform: An unscrupulous police officer (Van Heflin) with designs on unhappily married Keyes and the bankroll of her radio- DJ husband. Heflin is a fidgety wonder, constantly gulping, slurping, preening—every Michael Shannon performance should be graded against this work. If the movie’s opening is the stuff of Hitchcock, the ending is the Greed-inspired fuel of nightmares: Fleeing into the desert to raise a nuclear family, Heflin is exposed to terrible light. Also screening: The Hunted (9 pm Saturday, Sept. 15); Nobody Lives Forever (7 pm Sunday, Sept. 16). NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, Sept. 14. Dangerous Desires: Film Noir Classics continues through Sunday, Sept. 30. See nwfilm.org for full schedule.
Nude Beach, Divers
[MUSIC] If someone snuck a few antidepressants into Real Estate’s languid jangle, it might sound something like Brooklyn’s Nude Beach. Although the band emerged from the gutters of its home borough’s antagonistic punk scene, considering the classic sound of its debut full-length, II, the group probably didn’t get along too well with its iconoclastic peers. These dudes clearly love some ’70s rock radio: “Walkin’ Down the Street” is like a young, drunk Bruce Springsteen covering Big Star, and “Keep It Cool” and “Love Can’t Wait” are so indebted to Tom Petty they might qualify as rip-offs if they weren’t so goddamn perfect. Maybe it’s all a bit derivative, but with the youthful warmth the entire record gives off, who cares? Slabtown, 1033 NW 16th Ave. $5. 21 .
Saturday, Sept. 15
Mexican Independence Festival
Willamette Weekend
12 things to do in Portland, Sept. 14-16
IMAGE: CHRISTA CONNELLYFriday, Sept. 14
Time-Based Art
Time-Based Art
[ARTS] Portland's annual contemporary arts festival continues. Catch up on what you've missed so far with our TBA Diaries, or check out what you can still see at the festival's website.
XOXO Festival
[FESTIVAL] The first-year "disruptive creativity" festival is already earning whispers of "the new SXSW" from the digerati. Free events include an indie video-game arcade curated by Kickstarter-funded gaming site Venus Patrol; a music show with independent, Internet-famous bands and artists like the Kleptones and Julia Nunes; screenings of crowd-funded films including Indie Game: The Movie and Star Wars Uncut: The Director’s Cut; and a two-day street market with local creators, artists and food. Read more here. XOXO Festival runs Thursday-Sunday, Sept. 13-16, at various venues. For full schedule, see xoxofest.com/fringe.
[FILM] Short of watching the Republican National Convention, few viewing experiences implicate you so thoroughly in seedy covetousness as Joseph Losey’s 1951 lawn noir The Prowler, which makes the entire baby boom seem conceived in sin. The picture opens by peeping in a Los Angeles window at Evelyn Keyes in a bath towel. She snaps the shade shut, but we get in anyhow under the cover of uniform: An unscrupulous police officer (Van Heflin) with designs on unhappily married Keyes and the bankroll of her radio- DJ husband. Heflin is a fidgety wonder, constantly gulping, slurping, preening—every Michael Shannon performance should be graded against this work. If the movie’s opening is the stuff of Hitchcock, the ending is the Greed-inspired fuel of nightmares: Fleeing into the desert to raise a nuclear family, Heflin is exposed to terrible light. Also screening: The Hunted (9 pm Saturday, Sept. 15); Nobody Lives Forever (7 pm Sunday, Sept. 16). NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, Sept. 14. Dangerous Desires: Film Noir Classics continues through Sunday, Sept. 30. See nwfilm.org for full schedule.
Nude Beach, Divers
[MUSIC] If someone snuck a few antidepressants into Real Estate’s languid jangle, it might sound something like Brooklyn’s Nude Beach. Although the band emerged from the gutters of its home borough’s antagonistic punk scene, considering the classic sound of its debut full-length, II, the group probably didn’t get along too well with its iconoclastic peers. These dudes clearly love some ’70s rock radio: “Walkin’ Down the Street” is like a young, drunk Bruce Springsteen covering Big Star, and “Keep It Cool” and “Love Can’t Wait” are so indebted to Tom Petty they might qualify as rip-offs if they weren’t so goddamn perfect. Maybe it’s all a bit derivative, but with the youthful warmth the entire record gives off, who cares? Slabtown, 1033 NW 16th Ave. $5. 21 .
Saturday, Sept. 15
Mexican Independence Festival
[FIESTA] Celebrate Mexico and other Latin American countries' independence from Spain with dancing, live mariachi bands, food, vendors and a performance of the revolutionary cry for independence, El Grito de Independencia. Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th Ave. 11 am-11 pm. Free. All ages.
Northwest's Largest Paella Dinner
[FOOD] Chef Greg Higgins (of the eponymous Higgins restaurant) is cooking the largest paella in the Northwest. The paella pan will be more than five feet in diameter and serve 330 people. There will also be wine, tapas, desserts from Baker and Spice bakery and live music. It’s $100 a plate, but money goes to Hillsdale Main Street and Neighborhood House. Hillsdale Business District, 6309 SW Capitol Hwy. 6-9 pm. $100. Tickets here.
Cascadia Composers
[MUSIC] With help from expert singers like Nancy Wood and Mel Downie Robinson, various pianists and string players, some of Oregon’s top composers—Tomas Svoboda, David Bernstein, Jeff Winslow, Paul Safar and more—offer new works, including a string quartet by Michael Hsu that draws on New Order-style synthpop dance rhythms and other rock and pop influences. In addition, there will be a piece by Lewis & Clark College professor Michael Johanson based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Under Western Eyes. BRETT CAMPBELL. Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church, 2828 SE Stephens St. 8 pm. $5-$20.
Saved by the Bell Trivia
A Steady Rain/The Detective’s Wife
[THEATER] Both A Steady Rain and The Detective’s Wife, presented by Hellfire Productions, take place on stormy nights. At least that’s what the thundery sound effects suggest—the exact context of each play remains uncertain. Squally darkness fits these two gritty cop dramas by Keith Huff, stuffed as they are with intrigue, conspiracy and corruption. But it’s almost too fitting, as is much else in these two neat and tidy plays... Read the full write-up. REBECCA JACOBSON. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 757-6836. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Sundays, 4 pm Sundays. Through Oct. 7. $20 for each individual play or $35 for both.
Northwest's Largest Paella Dinner
[FOOD] Chef Greg Higgins (of the eponymous Higgins restaurant) is cooking the largest paella in the Northwest. The paella pan will be more than five feet in diameter and serve 330 people. There will also be wine, tapas, desserts from Baker and Spice bakery and live music. It’s $100 a plate, but money goes to Hillsdale Main Street and Neighborhood House. Hillsdale Business District, 6309 SW Capitol Hwy. 6-9 pm. $100. Tickets here.
Cascadia Composers
[MUSIC] With help from expert singers like Nancy Wood and Mel Downie Robinson, various pianists and string players, some of Oregon’s top composers—Tomas Svoboda, David Bernstein, Jeff Winslow, Paul Safar and more—offer new works, including a string quartet by Michael Hsu that draws on New Order-style synthpop dance rhythms and other rock and pop influences. In addition, there will be a piece by Lewis & Clark College professor Michael Johanson based on Joseph Conrad’s novel Under Western Eyes. BRETT CAMPBELL. Colonial Heights Presbyterian Church, 2828 SE Stephens St. 8 pm. $5-$20.
Far Away
[THEATER] Far Away is a brief but suggestive play: From the first scene's mysterious shrieks to the full-blown war described in the third (to reveal much more would spoil the production), it leaves the audience puzzling out the dystopian details. But Far Away is no transparent allegory for a single political or social issue—it's too ambiguous and too fantastical for that. Sharp moments of surrealistic and grotesque comedy add to the play's complexity, and to its appeal. Director Samantha Van Der Merwe confidently steers the tension between fantasy and reality, all the way through to the productions atypical—but not unsatisfying—conclusion. REBECCA JACOBSON. Shaking the Tree Studio, 1407 SE Stark St. 7 pm Thursdays-Sundays. $20-$25.
Portland Serbian Festival
[FESTIVAL] Portland's Serbian community celebrates with food like barbecue, roast meats, cevapi, baklava and palacinke, and live music and dancing. Serbian Orthodox Church, 11447 SE 27th Ave. Sept. 15 11 am-10 pm, Sept. 16 11 am-6 pm. Free.
Sunday, Sept. 16
Laurie Anderson
[PERFORMANCE ART] The queen of performance art returns to the Time-Based Art Festival for Dirtday!, the third and final installment of her trilogy of solo storytelling works. Don’t expect the kind of electrifying multimedia concert that vaulted the New York violinist-storyteller-composer-artist to levels of fame beyond the niche of the artsy in crowd in the 1980s and ’90s. Anderson instead offers low-key, trenchant to ironic to wry musings on life, politics, history, Darwin and even her late canine, accompanied by atmospheric incidental electronic music and delivered in her trademark warm, soothing, occasionally arch voice and that of her alter ego, Fenway Bergamot. BRETT CAMPBELL. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 7:30 pm. $15-$75. pica.org/TBA.
[THEATER] Far Away is a brief but suggestive play: From the first scene's mysterious shrieks to the full-blown war described in the third (to reveal much more would spoil the production), it leaves the audience puzzling out the dystopian details. But Far Away is no transparent allegory for a single political or social issue—it's too ambiguous and too fantastical for that. Sharp moments of surrealistic and grotesque comedy add to the play's complexity, and to its appeal. Director Samantha Van Der Merwe confidently steers the tension between fantasy and reality, all the way through to the productions atypical—but not unsatisfying—conclusion. REBECCA JACOBSON. Shaking the Tree Studio, 1407 SE Stark St. 7 pm Thursdays-Sundays. $20-$25.
Portland Serbian Festival
[FESTIVAL] Portland's Serbian community celebrates with food like barbecue, roast meats, cevapi, baklava and palacinke, and live music and dancing. Serbian Orthodox Church, 11447 SE 27th Ave. Sept. 15 11 am-10 pm, Sept. 16 11 am-6 pm. Free.
Sunday, Sept. 16
Laurie Anderson
[PERFORMANCE ART] The queen of performance art returns to the Time-Based Art Festival for Dirtday!, the third and final installment of her trilogy of solo storytelling works. Don’t expect the kind of electrifying multimedia concert that vaulted the New York violinist-storyteller-composer-artist to levels of fame beyond the niche of the artsy in crowd in the 1980s and ’90s. Anderson instead offers low-key, trenchant to ironic to wry musings on life, politics, history, Darwin and even her late canine, accompanied by atmospheric incidental electronic music and delivered in her trademark warm, soothing, occasionally arch voice and that of her alter ego, Fenway Bergamot. BRETT CAMPBELL. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 7:30 pm. $15-$75. pica.org/TBA.
Saved by the Bell Trivia
[TRIVIA] If the teacher pops a test / I know I'm in a mess / And my dog ate all my homework last night / Riding low in my chair / She won't know that I'm there / If I can hand it in tomorrow, it'll be all right. East Burn, 1800 E Burnside St. 6 pm. Free. 21 .
A Steady Rain/The Detective’s Wife
[THEATER] Both A Steady Rain and The Detective’s Wife, presented by Hellfire Productions, take place on stormy nights. At least that’s what the thundery sound effects suggest—the exact context of each play remains uncertain. Squally darkness fits these two gritty cop dramas by Keith Huff, stuffed as they are with intrigue, conspiracy and corruption. But it’s almost too fitting, as is much else in these two neat and tidy plays... Read the full write-up. REBECCA JACOBSON. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 757-6836. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Sundays, 4 pm Sundays. Through Oct. 7. $20 for each individual play or $35 for both.
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