Willamette Weekend

15 things to do in and around Portland, December 7-9

INTERURBAN
Friday, Dec. 7 

Found Footage Festival 
[MOVIES] This is way better than YouTube: Talented dudes Joe Pickett (of The Onion) and Nick Prueher (Late Show with David Letterman) salvage videos from thrift stores across the country and patch together the most absurd and hilarious clips. Laurelhurst Theater, 2735 E Burnside St., 232-5511. 9:30 pm. $10.  

The Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola Duo
[JAZZ] Drummer Scott Amendola and guitarist Charlie Hunter have been bouncing in and out of each other’s orbits for decades. The two are Bay Area jazz luminaries who have collaborated on stage and on record over the years, including a stretch when they were members of T.J. Kirk, a project that melded the work of James Brown, Thelonious Monk and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. The duo circled back together again recently and recorded one of 2012’s best jazz LPs, Not Getting Behind Is the New Getting Ahead, a warm, groove-heavy paean to the struggles of the 99 percent. ROBERT HAM. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $20. 21kknd.

How to Dress Well, Beacon, Hustle and Drone 
[MUSIC] The genre of ’90s R&B has many wonderful qualities: It’s heartfelt and polished, and features some booming choruses. One thing it is not, however, is subtle. That’s where producer How to Dress Well (real name: Tom Krell) has made his niche. Krell sucks the life out of ’90s R&B, creating songs with similar lyrics but built on ghostly backdrops and reverbdrenched vocals. It’s a remorseful and harsh take on the glitz and glam of the decade, but it has a similar purpose to the genre, in that it establishes a tone of heartbreak. That ache goes two ways when Krell decides to combine his breakup lyrics with actual samples of ’90s groups like INOJ, a cold slab of nostalgia to make you realize how long ago that time really was. REED JACKSON. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12. 21+.


Saturday, Dec. 8 

Vancouver Winter Brewfest 
[DRINK] Missed last weekend’s Holiday Ale Festival? Scrooge still got your holiday bonus? No problem, because Vancouver has brewed up a serious competitor to Portland’s celebration. For $10 less, you get the same package at the door: a commemorative mug and 10 tasting tickets. Though you only get half of the beers offered last week in Portland, we’re betting crowds and general beer snobbery will be halved, too. Brewvana is even running an interstate shuttle service from the Widmer Brothers Pub in Portland to the festival. Esther Short Park, 801 W 8th St., Vancouver. Noon-10 pm. $15-$25. 21kknd.

Tuba Christmas Concert 
[MUSIC] Pretty much every time we clip on our bowties to see the symphony, we think what everybody thinks: not enough tuba. That will not be a problem here. A solid 225 of the brass band’s fattest horns will bellow their dulcet bass belches alongside euphoniums and baritone horns at this free Christmas concert. It’s like dubstep for the big-band set. Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th Ave., 223-1613, tubachristmas.com. 1:30 pm. Free.

Antibalas
[
MUSIC] Antibalas has evolved into the United States’ premier Afrobeat orchestra. Along the way, the band picked up pieces of other genres, from Latin jazz to hip-hop, to the point that, by the time of 2007’s Security, it was using Afrobeat merely as a jumping-off point. On its new self-titled album, however, the band resets after a four year break—several members took time off to work on the Fela! musical—returning to the pure, protest-minded funk of classic Kuti. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., with Stay Calm. 7 pm. $16 advance, $18 day of show. 21kknd. 

Skinner/Kirk Dance Ensemble
[DANCE] Shapes and sculptures, deconstructed. sHape-shifters: Dancers channel Russian Constructivism. The essential building blocks of dance— shapes—are deftly deconstructed in a new contemporary dance program from the Skinner/Kirk Dance Ensemble. Co-founders Eric Skinner and Daniel Kirk (also founding members of BodyVox) dance the program’s two works alongside their BodyVox colleagues Holly Shaw and Zachary Carroll, and former Oregon Ballet Theatre soloist Brennan Boyer. Skinner’s new work, Juxtaposition, unfolds in and around two conical, corrugated plastic structures set at center stage. The title refers to the contrast between two types of lines: soft (the human body) and stark (mechanical sculpture). Suspended in Mid-Air (And About to Collapse), the program’s second piece, is inspired by the Russian Constructivism philosophy of art (if you’re not intimately familiar, a program note describes its “bold shapes and geometric lines” and its use of art for social purposes).  Some sections have a balletic formality, others the playful feel of abstract forms springing to life. There is a pleasing geometry to this piece as well as to Juxtaposition, a combination of well-structured dance performed with musical and technical rigor. Geometry itself should be so enjoyable. HEATHER WISNER. BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, Dec. 6-8. $36-$59.

The Tragically Hip
[MUSIC] Ontario’s the Tragically Hip couldn’t be more Canadian if the band dressed like mounties and sang about socialized medicine and tapping maple trees for syrup—meaning, they sound like an American band, just slightly more congenial, and a bit paler. Basically the R.E.M. of the Great White North, the band has been kicking around since the early ’80s, performing anthemic, vaguely rootsy rock ’n’ roll with an undercurrent of collegerock jangle. Fourteen albums into their careers, the Hip are legends up there and well-regarded cult figures down here, but the band continues to produce strong albums— the latest being this year’s Now for Plan A—that play well on both sides of the border. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 8 pm. $30. 21kknd. 

Wanderlust Circus, 3 Leg Torso
[CLASSICAL] Two Portland institutions impossible to categorize, the wild circus troupe and the accordion- and violin-driven world-chamber-music ensemble, join forces for the third time in a new, original version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The show features circus performers, Vagabond Opera leader Eric Stern as the Ghost of Christmas Past and Wanderlust ringleader Noah Mickens as Scrooge. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm Friday- Saturday, Dec. 7-8. $15-$30.

Oregon Ballet Theatre
[DANCE] A source of nostalgia and parody both in and outside the ballet world, The Nutcracker has its charms, particularly the enduring Tchaikovsky score (performed live), the saberrattling battle between toy soldiers and giant mice and the cast of colorful characters who whirl through the Land of Sweets. Oregon Ballet Theatre does the George Balanchine version of the piece, with all the formalism and sparkle that entails. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 800-745-3000. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Fridays, 2 pm and 7:30 pm Saturdays-Sundays through Dec. 23. $28-$161.35.

Sunday, Dec. 9

The State of Riesling
[DRINK]The home country of Riesling is China. Well, no, but if food pairings have anything to say about origins, then Riesling might as well hail from the Yangtze, not the Rhine. Local vintners Ransom, Coeur de Terre, Brooks and Love & Squalor will present their Rieslings alongside Hop & Vine chef Sam J. Reed’s Chinese buffet with pork belly char siu (barbecue) and scallop and ham egg-drop soup. Tickets get you two glasses and a ottomless belly full of food. The Hop & Vine Bottle Shop, 1914 N Killingsworth St., 954-3322. 6 pm. $50. 21kknd. 

The Santaland Diaries 
[PERFORMANCE] The Santaland Diaries, David Sedaris’ brutally comedic account of a stint playing wage-slave elf “Crumpet” for Macy’s annual Yuletide installation, always seemed an odd evergreen to brighten the theatrical season of giving. Amid nastier moments (talk of special children with one in the fifth row, say), it’s a Christmas miracle that the spirit never dims. For this fourth Portland Center Stage run, Darius Pierce dons the striped leggings for the first time, and the local stage and television veteran navigates the poles of impish self-deprecation and scathing misanthropy with an eye toward sheer momentum. JAY HORTON. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Sundays, 2 pm Saturdays and Sundays, 12 pm Thursdays. Through Dec. 30. $30-$59.

ZooZoo 
[PERFORMANCE] Don’t let the farewell run of Imago Theatre’s ZooZoo pass you by, particularly if you’ve got little ones at home. This colorful menagerie of a show features oversized housecats, springy frogs, competitive penguins, lazy polar bears and long-tongued aardvarks in a comic and interactive dance party. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 231-3959, imagotheatre.com. 2 pm. $16-$31.

King Tuff, White Fang, Mean Jeans 
[MUSIC] This guy looks like he should be roadying for the next hip-hop show at the Roseland, but don’t let the gold teeth and bling fool you: King Tuff (born Kyle Thomas) is a softie with a bluesy soul, and the music he makes is simply fun. Imagine Dr. Dog and Woody Guthrie making love, having a child, and then driving from Tuff’s native Vermont to Los Angeles and abandoning the baby there, with nothing but a guitar to comfort him. The results—evident on his self-titled Sub Pop debut—are hopeful, cutesy lyrics, clean acoustics and a West Coast, feel-good, bobblehead vibe. DREW LENIHAN. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663.

A Bit of the Old Ultra-Kubrick: Four Definitive Films by Stanley Kubrick
[FILM] While Stanley Kubrick has long been a highly vaunted filmmaking titan, his films were rarely embraced at the time of their release. Highlights from this series include Peter Sellers being brilliant (Dr. Strangelove), trippy wormhole journeys in space (2001: A Space Odyssey), the opening on Alex’s eyes set to an amazing Moog score (A Clockwork Orange) and a whole lot of painterly compositions lit by candle (Barry Lyndon). ERIK MCCLANAHAN. Cinema 21.

WWeek 2015

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