Skip to main content
Watch: “In Bruges”
This year, celebrate St. Patrick's Day with some acclaimed Irish cinema, like this pitch-black gangster comedy from acclaimed playwright-filmmaker Martin McDonagh. Irish heartthrob Colin Farrell stars as Ray, a guilt-ridden hitman who's forced to go into hiding in Bruges, Belgium, after a contract killing goes tragically wrong. Fellow Irishman Brendan Gleeson co-stars as Ray's mentor, and Ralph Fiennes steals the show as their wrathful boss. Streaming on Amazon Prime, Peacock and other services.
Do: Kilbeggan March Cocktails To Go and Virtual Toast
Last year, pretty much every St. Patrick's Day festivity was scrapped because of the pandemic—from the always-popular Shamrock Run to Kells' slightly less athletic beer festival. While COVID-19 has forced those large events to cancel yet again, there will be more celebrating this time around, even if things look a little more subdued than normal. Kilbeggan, Ireland's oldest licensed distillery, is encouraging you to take the party to the living room by purchasing its to-go cocktail and Irish coffee totes from participating bars like Alberta Street Pub and Besaw's. On March 17, the company will hold a live, online toast. But if you can't get blitzed on a weekday, there's good news: The kits are scheduled to be available through the end of March—just in time for the stimulus money to arrive. Hey, those $1,400 checks aren't going to spend themselves! Kits are available through March 31. Find participating bars at kilbegganwhiskey.com/ TheKilbegganMarch.
Watch: “Sophie Jones”
"I always take from my life in some way," explains Sophie Jones director Jessie Barr, and that philosophy extends from the themes of her projects to co-creators. With her Oregon-shot feature debut, the writer-director-producer collaborated with her younger cousin, Jessica Barr, who also stars as the titular heroine. The film allowed the two to explore a shared experience: suffering the loss of a parent as an adolescent. Sophie Jones is an absorbing portrait of a teenage girl's denumbed maturation following her mother's death that drifts through the stages of grief with tenderness, dark humor and an assured grace. The movie debuted at last year's prestigious Deauville American Film Festival, and was then picked up for distribution by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It premiered this month via Video On Demand as well as special virtual screenings hosted by selected theaters—including Portland's Hollywood. Streaming on demand.
See: Myles de Bastion
In 2014, Portland musician Myles de Bastion founded CymaSpace, which strives to make concerts more accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing attendees through the likes of lighting matched to sonic frequencies. Even without in-person concerts, though, de Bastion has kept busy the past year, producing a virtual CymaSpace show and completing a virtual programming fellowship with Epic Games. His online new-media art show for Open Signal promises to be just as inventive. 5 pm Friday, March 19. opensignalpdx.org. Free.
See: Unquiet Objects
Disjecta's upcoming mixed-media exhibit is a meditation on cultural objects that have been removed from their original context, whether as a result of colonialism, forced migration or even digital technology. The show will display work by an extensive and exciting list of artists, including Iranian new-media artist Morehshin Allahyari and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art artistic director Kristan Kennedy. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., disjecta.org. Through May 2.
Hear: “Moods & Dances 2021” by RVDS
This album is like Plantasia on steroids—play it for your orchids and they might start fighting each other. While most ambient synth music aims for state-of-the-art home-catalog comfiness, this stuff suggests danger and adventure, and once the German musician gets a crew of buddies to shout the title of "Planet Dragon" with increasing enthusiasm, it's clear that this music can do anything and go anywhere. This is a must-listen for anyone who loves the pit-pat of old drum machines and the squeak of vintage synths. Stream on Spotify.
Stream: Pink Noise IV at Holocene
Almost every year, Portland new media artist Sarah Turner hosts Pink Noise, a trance-inducing showcase of femme visual and sound artists. Though it'll be a bummer not to be able to explore the show's art installations in three dimensions, the fact that this year's edition will take place online is kind of fitting. Pink Noise has assembled some of the city's most singular artists who work with digital mediums. Plus, it the theme of this year's self-described "witchual glitchual ritual" in "fantasy embodiment," which sounds like exactly what we all need right now. 7 pm Saturday, March 20. holocene.com. Tickets start at $5.
Stream: South by Southwest
If SXSW is still on your live music bucket list but you've never been able to make the trek down to Texas, 2021 is your year. For the first virtual SXSW, the organizers have pared down the lineup and set lengths for the music part of the festival, upped their film programming and are offering a diverse lineup of talks by everyone from Willie Nelson to Stacey Abrams and N.K. Jemison. And since it's all online, tickets are…well, still, like, $300. But if you somehow have a bunch of extra cash to spare, you'll be able to take part in one of the most unique iterations of the festival yet—certainly, it'll be the only one free of lines. sxsw.com. Through March 20. $325.
Watch: Blazers vs. Nets
Et tu, Brooklyn? At one point, the Nets were effectively Blazers East, having rehomed several cult-favorite Portland castoffs. Now, all those lovable roleplayers are gone, and the team with the laziest name in basketball is the NBA's newest Evil Empire. About the only thing standing between them and a championship is Kevin Durant's Achilles flaring up and/or James Harden and Kyrie Irving having a falling out over fluoridating the team's water supply or something. But none of that, of course, matters much to Damian Lillard. Sure, he hasn't had a lot of success toppling title contenders in the playoffs, but the dude loves a challenge: Remember when he dropped 48 on the eventual-champ Lakers in the Kobe memorial game last year? If this still injury-riddled Blazers team pulls off the win here, might as well just raise the banner now. Do it for Crabbe, Shabazz and Big Ed! 7 pm Tuesday, March 23 on NBC Sports Northwest.
