Skip to main content- SONOFABITCH IS BACK: Lock up your Young Republican daughters, because raucous Portland roots-punk outfit I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House will reunite next month. The band built a solid reputation in the early aughts by touring behind down-and-dirty, lefty political tunes like “Dear Mr. Heston” and “Westboro Baptist Church” (which encourages listeners to “fuck Pat Robertson,” a suggestion made fresh by the televangelist’s recent comments on the Haiti earthquake), and it put on one of the wildest, drunkest shows in Portland. Last we heard, frontman Michael Dean Damron had softened his hard-living ways a bit, so it remains to be seen if the band’s reunion show—March 5 at the group’s longtime home base of Dante’s—will live up to Sonofabitch’s tough-as-nails reputation. Yes, that’s a challenge.
- SHORT AND SWEET: Tonic Lounge and Spot 79 are changing their names to “Tonic” and “Spot,” respectively. Character-counting line editors approve. Coming soon to the corner of Northwest 18th Avenue and Upshur Street: the Canvas Art Bar, a restaurant, lounge and art supply store.
- HAYNES RAISES CAIN: In an interview with Todd Haynes more than a year ago, WW broke the news that the Portland-based director was working with writer Jon Raymond on a miniseries adaptation of James M. Cain’s Mildred Pierce, the book that inspired Joan Crawford’s legendary weepie role. On Thursday, word came down from Variety that Haynes’ five-hour miniseries has been greenlighted by HBO, will start shooting this summer and will star Kate Winslet. As long as Mildred isn’t an illiterate Nazi who teaches a boy to love, we’re happy. IMAGE: Cameron Wittig
- IN MEMORIAM: One of the Northwest’s best-known gallery owners, Laura Russo, has died, at age 66, of esophageal cancer. Robert Kochs, a friend and owner of Augen Gallery, confirms that Russo passed away last Thursday night after a relatively short bout with the cancer. She had been under hospice care in recent weeks. Russo, niece of celebrated artist Michele Russo, established her namesake gallery in 1986 and represented some of the Northwest’s best-known talents. What her death means to her gallery and formidable stable of artists will play itself out over the coming weeks. What is undisputed is her influence in preserving, shaping and propagating a uniquely Northwest sensibility in visual art.
- CATWALKED: This week in Retail Therapist: Spring is nigh. Have you accepted white jeans as your personal savior? Read more at blogs.wweek.com/retailtherapist.
- ASTRO-NOT: Portland science-fiction writer David Levine has never visited Mars. He was, however, in Utah recently, living in a simulated Mars habitat. For two weeks last month Levine spent his days collecting Mars rocks and eating rehydrated food at the Mars Desert Research Station—all for the sake of promoting space and future space travel. “I learned what the smell of dust is like and how your breath sounds in your ears when you’re wearing a space helmet, [but] the important lessons I learned were emotional,” Levine told WW. “We were quite isolated…our only contact with earth was a limited-bandwidth satellite Internet. When you’re that isolated your priorities change. You become a unit. You care very much about each other. You work together to solve problems.”
WWeek 2015