Tuesday February 9top
FOOD
Urban Growth Bounty 2010 Classes
The City of Portland just released its giant schedule of inexpensive sustainable food and garden classes for 2010, focusing on everything from beekeeping to fermentation, taught by food pros like Slow Hand Farm’s Josh Volk, cookbooker Ivy Manning and cheese master Claudia Lucero. Classes start as early as February, so check out the class calendar and sign up.
To find a schedule and info visit portlandonline.com/bps/ugb. , , portlandonline.com/bps/ugb. Map
13th Annual Great Balls of Fire Challenge
Every year Salvador Molly’s does its damnedest to send Portlanders to sweaty, searing pepper heat hell with their crunchy hot balls. All February long, part of the proceeds from every order of the restaurant’s habanero and cheese fritters go to Oregon Heat, a nonprofit that helps residents pay their heating bills. The fundraiser kicks off Saturday with the “Toughest Tongue in the West” contest, which dares locals and minor celebs to stuff their face with poppers until they collapse. Last year’s winner, Ben Plont, ate 20 of the spicy suckers.
To compete, reserve your seat at salvadormollys.com. , , . Toughest Tongue takes place at noon Saturday, Jan. 30. The Great Balls of Fire benefit runs through Feb. 28. Map
STAGE
The Ed Forman Show, with ME! ED FORMAN!
Aaron Ross terrorizes Dante’s every Tuesday night as Ed Forman, a frenetic, oversexed, foul-mouthed 1970s talk-show host who abuses local notables (this week his guests are Alma Rubenstein of PDX Speed Dating & The Bachelor and Ma’Rollin Monroe of the Rose City Rollers), roams the audience stealing drinks and flinging insults, and generally makes mayhem. Imagine Stephen Colbert as a libidinous sociopath. Ross’ lacerating wit and bottomless energy make for a hilarious evening of great gags and public humiliation. With two guests and a new house band every week (Tiger House), it’s the best entertainment $3 can buy. BEN WATERHOUSE.
Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. 9 pm Tuesdays. $3. Map
The Receptionist
Portland Center Stage remounts Adam Bock’s dark comedy about office politics of the truly frightening sort, which Rose Riordan directed last year at CoHo. Sharonlee McLean (who won a Drammy for her performance) and Laura Faye Smith reprise their roles. The remount is exactly the same as the CoHo production except for the addition of Chris Harder and Robert M. Thomas in place of Chris Murray and Gary Norman and the comfier seating. What I wrote about that production still stands: “Bock has a uncommon facility for capturing the way people really speak, in leaps and spurts and nonverbal noises. His realist dialogue and the ordinariness of his workplace settings lead audiences to believe they’re watching a funny but unremarkable quotidian comedy. The gut punch of depravity, when it comes, is wholly unexpected. The modern office is an ideal place to address the banality of evil." McLean has her role, as the titular receptionist, nailed. She switching in and out of her telephone voice in midsentence and flips her head mic up and down like a defensive visor. She juggles calls and conversation and coffee-making and advice-giving. She’s magnificent. The costumes, designed by Riordan, are brilliant, down to the details of ill-fitting blouses and misadjusted collars. It’s all perfectly ordinary, and exceedingly menacing. See this show! BEN WATERHOUSE.
Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays, noon Thursdays, alternating 2 pm Saturday and 7:30 pm Sunday matinees. Closes March 21. $24-$45, $20 day-of-show rush tickets available. Map
LIVE MUSIC
Portland Jazz Singers Showcase
Jax, 826 SW 2nd Ave., 228-9128. 21+. Map
Arabesque
It's a Beautiful Pizza, 3342 SE Belmont St., 233-5444. All ages. Map
Julie And The Boy
7:30 - 10:30. O'Connor's Vault, 7850 SW Capitol Highway., 244-1690. 5.00. 21+. Map
Magical Musical Weekly
Laurelwood NW Public House, 2327 NW Kearney St., 228-5553. Map
DJ Sneakers, DJ Fatboy
Greek Cusina, 404 SW Washington St., 224-2288. Free. 21+. Map
Harlem Nights
Calabash, 835 SW 2nd Ave/Taylor., 241-5676. Map
Tubesday: Doc Adam and Ronin Roc
Tube, 18 NW 3rd Ave., 241-8823. Map
Scott Pemberton Trio
Goodfoot, 2845 SE Stark St., 239-9292. Map
Tree Frogs (9 pm); Jackstraw (6 pm)
9 pm. LaurelThirst Public House, 2958 NE Glisan St., 232-1504. FREE. Map
New Band Night
8 pm. Mt. Tabor Theater, 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd., . FREE. Map
Video Vanguard w/ Dantronix
9 pm. The Knife Shop, 426 SW Washington St., 228-3669. FREE. Map
Wilco, Califone
[DEEP CUTS] Despite the fact that its latest album, the tongue-in-cheek
Wilco (The Album), is the weakest of an incredible 15-year career, you can't argue that a Wilco show is still a Wilco show. Over the course of the last decade, the Chicago band morphed from the American Radiohead to, well, the next Grateful Dead, with Jeff Tweedy's sturdy songwriting embellished by guitar hero Nels Cline and super multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone. So the fact that you'll likely sit through tepid fair like the new record's "Solitaire" and "Deeper Down" is totally worth it to hear old favorites like "A Shot in the Arm." Tweedy, if you play "I'm Always In Love," I'll probably cry. Who doesn't want to see that? MICHAEL MANNHEIMER.
8 pm. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway., 248-4335. $42.75. All ages. Map
RECYCLE
9 pm. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. FREE. Map
Singer/Songwriter Showcase
9 pm. Thirsty Lion, 71 SW 2nd Ave., 222-2155. FREE. Map
DJ Mannee
East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. Map
Aram Arslanian
6:00 - 8:00. MacTarnahan's Taproom, 2730 NW 31st Ave., 228-5269. Map
Rock Band 2sdays with MC Destructo
8 pm. Ground Kontrol, 511 NW Couch St., 796-9364. Map
Open Mic
Buffalo Gap Saloon, 6835 SW Macadam Ave., 244-7111. Map
Organ Leroi and the Donors
Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 595-0575. Map
Leslie & The Badgers, Quiet Life
Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. Map
Tahni Holt & Noelle Stiles, Little Friction, More
Valentine's, 232 SW Ankeny St., 248-1600. Map
The Mel Brown Septet (8 pm); Mac Potts and His Jazz/Funk Quartet (6:30 pm)
Jimmy Mak's, 221 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542. Map
Eye Candy Video
Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. Map
Acoustic Brew W/ Bradley Duo
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, 206 SW Morrison St., 796-2739. Map
Starantula, Infamous Sugar
[FILTH & FURY] There are few local rock frontmen more convincing than Seantos McDonald. It’s McDonald’s aesthetic—abrasive, hairy and geeky with just a touch of sleaze—that pilots the good ship Starantula. When you hand the riffage to the riffraff, things are going to get a little loud, and fans of Motörhead, Butthole Surfers, the Who, Sabbath and plain old mayhem ought to enjoy the recently relaunched band’s antics. Keep Portland loud. CASEY JARMAN.
9 pm. Dante's, 1 SW 3rd Ave., 226-6630. Cover. 21+. Map
Brownish/Black, Special Guest
9 pm. Ella St. Social Club, 714 SW 20th Place., 241-8696. $2. Map
Cannery Row, A. King, The Camerata
9:15 pm. Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St., 226-0430. FREE. Map
Huge Sally Local Artist Showcase
Hawthorne Theater Lounge, 1503 SE 39th Ave., 233-7100. FREE. Map
Weekly Jazz Jam
9pm. TeaZone and Camellia Lounge, 510 NW 11th Ave., 221-2130. No Cover. Map
Caleb Klauder & Sammy Lind
7 pm. McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale., 669-8610. FREE. Map
Open Bluegrass Jam
7 pm. McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern, 10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road., 645-3822. FREE. Map
Hosted by Marv Ellis
8:30 pm. White Eagle Saloon, 836 N Russell St., 282-6810. FREE. Map
Baby Ketten Karaoke (9 pm); Whitney Steele, Justin Froese (6 pm)
Mississippi Pizza, 3552 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3231. Map
Dover Weinberg Quartet
Duff's Garage, 1635 SE 7th Ave., 234-2337. Map
Pompoir, Orca Team, Reverse Dotty
Dunes, 1905 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 493-8637. Map
Sci-Fi DJ Party
Red Room, 2530 NE 82nd Ave., 256-3399. Map
All Teeth, Defeater, Valor, Two Hands, Snake Bitch
Satyricon, 125 NW 6th Ave., 227-0999. Map
Fred Longberg-Holm and Friends
The Wail, 5135 NE 42nd Ave., . Map
Laura Gibson & Ethan Rose
Music Millennium, 3158 E Burnside St., 231-8926. Map
DJ Papi
Tiga, 1465 NE Prescott St., 288-5534. Map
JB Butler
Bar Mestizo at Andina, 1314 NW Glisan St., 228-9535. Map
DANCE
Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival Youth Dance
Portland’s Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival is looking for all kinds of dancers, ages 14-21, to perform at the fourth annual festival April 22-24. The group meets every Tuesday to rehearse at the brand-new artists space Zoomtopia. Organizer Kathy Coleman stresses that everybody is welcome.
For info or to sign up contact Kathy Coleman at 238-0723 or email disabilityartculture@gmail.com. KELLY CLARKE.
Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont St., zoomtopia.com. 6 pm Tuesdays through May 18. $5-$10 sliding scale. Map
CLASSICAL MUSIC
Ying Quartet
Friends of Chamber Music brings still another acclaimed foursome, this one in residence at the Eastman School of Music, in two completely different programs. Monday’s show features one of Haydn’s landmark Op. 33 quartets, Samuel Barber’s only quartet (the most famous slow movement in American music) and Dvorak’s popular “American” Quartet. Tuesday’s all-Beethoven concert includes early (Op. 18, No. 3), middle (Op. 59, No. 3) and late (Op. 131) quartets.
First Baptist Church, 909 SW 11th Ave., 7:30 pm Monday, Feb. 8. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Feb. 9, at Kaul Auditorium, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd. $14-$40. Map
VISUAL ARTS
Yuji Hiratsuka.
Mushrooms sprouting from Japanese hairdos.... Samurai types with multiple arms linked together like anime versions of M.C. Escher.... Yuji Hiratsuka’s wacked-out imagery in
Persona Perspectives doesn’t live up to its wild promise. The brushwork is sloppy, the palette homogenous and the visualizations hackneyed. Alas.
319 NW 9th Ave., 241-6460. Closes Jan. 31. Map
Scott Wolniak.
Patterning is about pattern, yes, but it’s also about Chicago artist Scott Wolniak’s relationship to the Windy City’s miserable winters. He drolly presents a suite of “Simulated Sunprints” made in the dead of winter, not with sunlight but with bleach. The sprawling lawn that makes up his sculptural installation is not actual, verdant, inviting grass but a hodgepodge of trash from his studio, held together with wires. Even his sunny tie-dyed patterns, though meticulously drawn, are leached of all color. Only his trippy video animation,
Musical Notes in Harmony With the Attuned Healing Colors, with its soundtrack by Jim Dorling, lets the sun shine in.
916 NW Flanders St., 227-9398. Closes Feb. 27. Map
The Dregs.
The souvenirs of yesteryear that we leave behind for others to disperse and dispose of are the subject of Paul Middendorf and Brandy Cochrane’s affecting collaboration,
The Dregs. About two years ago, Cochrane managed an estate sale for a recently deceased septuagenarian named Larry Forsyth. Laid out fastidiously on the Art Gym’s floors and walls are Forsyth’s childhood report cards, photos and slides and six Dallas TV show jigsaw puzzles. The man had also lovingly preserved dozens upon dozens of her nightgowns, corsets, bras and panties. They also discovered gay porn, leather sex harnesses and a mattress with conspicuous brown stains. The artists step outside of strict documentarian presentation, embroidering the soiled mattress with an image of two men cavorting and covering Forsyth’s favorite chair (in which he is believed to have died) with fabric octopus tentacles sewn together from his mother’s undergarments. This Norman Bates-worthy conceit is the show’s most fascinating: the juxtaposition of the wholesome and lurid components of a human life examined posthumously. We are left with a strange sympathy for this man, who after a lifetime of playing the Good Son was freed by his mother’s death to finally let his freak flag fly.
17600 Pacific Highway (Oregon 43)., 699-6243. Closes Feb. 11. Map
Made in California.
California in the 1960s and ’70s wasn’t just hot tubs, water beds, and shag rugs—not that there’s anything wrong with that. The Golden State was also the hotbed of a golden age in printmaking, with innovative presses such as Tamarind, Gemini, and Crown Point leading the way to bold innovations in the medium. Utilizing new technology and master technicians, Sam Francis entered a period of enormous productivity with his Crayola-colored splatter technique; Helen Frankenthaler used the presses to walk the line between freedom and fastidiousness; and Ed Ruscha advanced his text- and graphic-intensive statements in ways that continue to provoke thought. In
Made in California, Augen owner Bob Kochs curates a selection of some of the gallery’s most intriguing prints made from the 1960s to the present.
716 NW Davis St., 224-8182. Closes Feb. 27. Map
SuperNatural is an apt title for Seattle artist Jaq Chartier’s eye-popping exhibition. Supercharged colors impart a vibratory exuberance to these studies of chemical processes. A cross between a painter and a scientist, Chartier sets up experiments in which scientific stains interact with gesso, spray paint, acrylic, and other materials. The results are rigorous but not dispassionate: methodical in the extreme but chromatically wild. Think of J.S. Bach crossed with Lady Gaga, and if that image causes your mind to short-circuit, then get your arse over to Liz Leach ASAP and see what promises to be one of February’s best shows.
417 NW 9th Ave., 224-0521. Show runs Feb. 4-27. Map
Jenene Nagy.
“Hello, my name is Jenene Nagy, and I’m here to invade your personal space.” That’s the subtext of this ambitious artist’s vertiginous, stomach-churning tsunami of an installation,
Tidal. Massive, magenta-painted drywall planes float above 2-by-4 support beams. These broad sheets suggest geographic forms: an island, a peninsula, a subcontinent colliding with a continent. As if shoved upward by tectonic forces, these plates climb the wall, all 35 feet wide and 20 feet high of it—and they don’t stop there. At the rafters they jut forward over your head, the formerly contiguous parts shattering into shards suspended by more 2-by-4s, floating like crystals from a psychedelic chandelier.
Tidal is Nagy’s biggest statement so far, and short of mounting an installation in the Rose Garden, it would seem there’s not a helluva lot more she could do to advance this particular aesthetic. Then again, people were saying that about Christo and Jeanne-Claude back in the 1970s...
8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449. Closes Feb. 28. Map
In 2006, the artist collective Blood Rainbow Family was responsible for Disjecta’s
Haunted, perhaps that year’s most ambitious show. Now they’re teaming up to curate
Dark: A Show to Winter at Fourteen30. Conceived as a meditation on the long Portland winter, this group show aims to draw panache out of our seasonal doldrums. You gotta love the curatorial statement, which ought to be set to a Morrissey song: “The grim, the cold, and the black will mingle with the solitary, the contemplative, and the transcendent...” Aaaaah, if only it had mentioned a stone-cold tombstone bearing names of people like you and me!
1430 SE 3rd Ave., 236-1430. Show runs Feb. 5-March 13. Map
Alexis Mollomo.
Alexis Mollomo’s narrative tableaux combine a loose, contemporary sensibility with a fine-honed channeling of Flemish Renaissance portraiture and landscape painting. She peppers her panels with arcane symbols that suggest myriad interpretations, drawing from psychoanalysis, myth, and shamanism. Totem poles, burning fields spewing portentous clouds, and androgynous figures wearing sexy boots are among her recurring motifs, populating a world that seems post-apocalyptic, yet somehow ripe for hope.
310 NW Broadway., 227-4333. Show runs Feb. 4-March 27. Map
Bean Finneran.
Bay Area sculptor Bean Finneran takes hundreds, sometimes tens of thousands, of ceramic coils and places them side by side, one atop the other, in compositions that spiral, circle, and tower. The components aren’t glued or adhered to one another in any way; only gravity keeps them together. While they’re visually suggestive of cells, algae, or sea anemone, they do not mimic nature per se. With their thoroughly unnatural Day-Glo palettes, they are more about the idea of nature than nature itself. It takes Finneran hours or even days to install some pieces, only for them to be disassembled at the end of each show. The sculptures in
Incidence and Pattern manage to come across as both whimsical and lyrical.
925 NW Flanders St., 222-0063. Closes Feb. 28. Map
Corey Smith.
Rock-band frontman, snowboard whiz, and Oregon-to-California defector Corey Smith is known for his irreverent Pop-inspired paintings. Who can forget his wall-spanning installation of Paris Hilton portraits at Backspace or his image of a boy snorting a line of coke, entitled After-school Pick-me-up? In
!Obsolete Dreams., his curiously punctuated show at Worksound, he pilfers and perverts cherished Americana imagery such as astronauts, Stealth Bombers, and the good old Stars and Stripes as he critiques and subverts our overinflated cultural icons.
820 SE Alder St., myspace.com/worksoundpdx. Show runs Feb. 5-28. Map
WORDS
NorthStar No Mic Poetry Night
NorthStar Coffeehouse kicks off its new weekly "no mic" open-mic poetry night with a literate shindig. So stop hiding those poems in the back of your Moleskine! It’s a new year! No excuses! Get out there and share your writing! Or I'll keep using exclamation points!
NorthStar Coffeehouse, 7540 N Interstate Ave., 285-5800. 7 pm. Free. Map
Poetry in Motion Vote
Choose which poems you want posted on the inner walls of TriMet's buses and trains as part of the Poetry in Motion program. Portland Literary Arts is conducting the survey and encouraging locals to vote for their favorite three poems from works by nationally and internationally renowned poets. Partake in your share of literary democracy today!
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William Stack
Learn about your state's history the fun way, with a photo book. William Stack reads from
Historic Photos of Oregon, his brand new collection of black-and-white photos. The best part is the portraits of families in which every member is frowning. The technical explanation for this mopey phenomenon is beside the point; those scowls just seem so much more honest than the plasticky grins of today's studio portraits.
Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway., 284-1726. 7 pm. Free. Map
