Arts & Books It is a common trope that reading is really the only art that requires skill from its audience; this is one of the reasons that the audience for serious literature will always be limited, whatever the countless perky entreaties of high school librarians. But in his 24-hour monologue, All the Hours of the Day, Mike Daisey demanded something even rarer than skill or education: he asked of his audience ...   More

Arts & Books Augmented by the evening’s natural fade from light to darkness, the Offsite Dance Project, in three parts, immerses witnesses in the playful with Mika Arashiki and Mari Fukutome, the complex with Yukio Suzuki and the disorienting with Yoko Higashino. Part of PICA’s Time-Based Art festival on Wednesday, the dance program by Japanese choreographers employs sites in Southeast Portland’s industrial ...   More

Arts & Books Stories Mike Daisey, All the Hours in the DayMike Daisey is, at various times, an improvisational storyteller, a big-hearted observer, a lonely expositor of self or a sweat-drenched haranguer from the stage   More

Arts & Books The first big success of this year’s Time-Based Art Festival is Portland sound artist Tim DuRoche and Brooklyn video artist Ed Purver’s bridge project. Over the weekend, the south side of the Morrison Bridge piers boasted video projections inspired by its surprisingly beautiful hidden spaces, along with a slideshow of the faces of the engineers and others who make the bridges function and ...   More

Arts & Books I caught a few episodes of Whispering Pines, multimedia wrangler Shana Moulton’s deranged New Age soap, when the artist visited Portland for 2008’s PDX Film Festival, so I knew what to expect, more or less, from Moulton’s appearance at the Works: she would don something unflattering to play Cynthia, an incessantly ailing schlemiel seeking spiritual breakthroughs in a dazzlingly bright and ...   More

Arts & Books So it’s 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and we’re all gathered round to watch cars crash behind the high school. These same three cars crashed twice Saturday, and they will do it again in a few hours. I’m not sure what I had expected, exactly, but I know I had expected something else; I had been told that cars would be made to crash in slow motion, and had wanted perhaps a giant game of popcorn ...   More

Arts & Books Masters of extreme control and fearless abandon, Abraham.In.Motion’s dancers seem to spare no energy performing The Radio Show at PICA’s Time-Based Arts Festival. How to hone such powerful command of the body and stamina? Sunday morning’s TBA Institute class with Kyle Abraham and his company revealed some clues, combining cool aesthetics and rigor for a sweaty good time.  Initially ...   More

News New York choreographer Kyle Abraham found a rich concept—African American radio station sounds from the 1970s forward, recalled from his Pittsburgh childhood—and used that music (from quiet storm soul to funk to pop to hip hop, along with some original electronica), talk show banter and even the between-the-stations static as you turn the dial (remember radio dials?) as inspiration for his sometimes ...   More

Arts & Books TBA's annual late-night Ten Tiny Dances show didn’t get going till after 11 pm this year, but was worth the wait. This was a greatest hits show reprising earlier 10TD performances, all of which force the choreographers and dancers to use a small stage and a short time slot. Danielle Ross’ opening dance was further constrained by a virtual cage of bright green beams, and every time she touched one, ...   More

Arts & Books Two things to know about Taylor Mac: yes, he is as absolutely fabulous as you’ve heard; and no, the faint of heart should not sit within easy reach of him. I caught Taylor’s uproarious cabaret last night, on the hottest night of the year, at Washington High School, where his latest performance event has been a conspicuous offering of this year’s Time-Based Art Festival. Entitled Comparison ...   More