[September 6th 6:04pm] Musicfest NW Diaries: Friday (Videos! Photos! Twitterings!)

Day Three! We're Dying! In a good way! Today's contributors include (in no particular order) Kelly Clarke, Robert Ham, Nilina Mason-Campbell, Casey Jarman, Brandon Seifert, Mark Stock, Whitney Hawke, Inger Katz, Arian Stevens, Heather Zinger, Byron Beck, Jordan Strong (photo at left) and video of the crazy Monotonix show by David Walker and some other stuff you can't live without.
Before we even start, here's a Flickr slideshow from Nilina and a couple...

[September 6th 4:16pm] Trailer of the Week: I Served the King of England

Those who enjoyed the Czech political farces of Milos Forman screened last month by the Northwest Film Center should be excited for this, a delightful new period piece from Jiří Menzel about an opportunistic waiter enduring the pratfalls and pitfalls of wartime capitulation. I Served the King of England is rated R and opens Friday, Sept. 12 at Fox Tower 10. Image of Ivan Barnev in I Served the King of England

[September 5th 8:28pm] The Musicfest Diaries: Thursday

Who needs an intro. Our whole flock of freelancers were out last night, and they've got all sorts of stories to share with you. Contributors are: Michael Mannheimer, Brandon Seifert, Whitney Hawke, Jim Sandberg, Robert Ham, AP Kryza, Kelly Clarke, Byron Beck, Mark Stock, Nilina Mason-Campbell, Jason Quigley. Scroll to the bottom to see a Jason Quigley slideshow. Again, it wouldn't be a Musicfest post unless we had Byron Beck's photos from the V.I.P. party. Here they are! 5:30 pm,...

[September 5th 4:53pm] Lunch & Munch With PPS Supernintendo Carole Smith

Portland Public Schools superintendent Carole Smith closed the first week of the school year with a speech at the weekly Portland City Club luncheon. WW reported optimism from parents and School Board members in April, for Smith's patient, methodical style, and this occasion marked her first significant public address since taking office almost a year ago. The hour-long speech touch only briefly on Portland's elementary schools, which are, in general, at or exceeding "benchmarks," and...

[September 5th 4:43pm] Curtain Raiser: We're Back!

After a long summer hiatus, Curtain Raiser has returned for the opening of the 2008-09 theater season. There's a ton of theatrical stuff going on this weekend, and we fully expect to to enjoy all of it. You will not eat, you will not sleep. You will only watch. First and foremost is the opening of Artists Rep's season, David Harrower's Olivier award-winning Blackbird. This short, intense play details a confrontation between Una (Amaya Villazan) and Ray (Artists Rep Artistic Director Allen...

[September 5th 2:50pm] TBA DIARIES: Opening Night at the Works

10:15 pm Sept. 4, Leftbank, The Works: Word has arrived that Portland Spaces Editor Randy Gragg wants to "buy" the recycled cardboard benches made by students of the Art Institute and are filling one of the several Egyptian catacomb-cum-Andy Warhol Factory rooms throughout The Works. "Maybe he could just write something nice about us," said one of A.I's blushing students on hearing about the "offer." Outside in the parking lot-cum-outdoor garden everyone is loading up on cheap tacos and...

[September 5th 2:36pm] TBA DIARIES: Zidane and I-Be Area Reviewed

Chris Stamm reviews two of the arty, arty movies showing at the Whitsell Auditorium for two weeks as a part of Time-Based Art: Aesthetically disparate as they may be, Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait and I-Be Area—the two most prominent films screening during TBA: 08—are each bothered by the same question: what does it mean to be human in our fractured digital age? The former, directed by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, enlists 17 cameras and the cinematographic eye of Darius...

[September 5th 1:52pm] TBA DIARIES: Opening Night Party Photos

11 pm Thursday, September 4, TBA Headquarters at Leftbank: Hundreds of art world migrants descended on East Broadway's Leftbank space and mingled with curious Portlanders at the free opening night party for this year's festival. In the multi-level exhibition hall, between repeat viewings of Ryan Trecartin's flamboyant, addictive video art, sets by Deelay Ceelay and the batucada mix-downs of DJ Acidophilus, we asked people where they were from. At least half responded that they were in town, or...

[September 5th 11:39am] TBA DIARIES: Anna Halprin's Blank Placard Project

Photo by Mary Christmas. For her take on the "Happening," see post here. On First Thursday, the fourth night of the Republican convention and the opening night of PICA's TBA Festival, the Pearl is a hive of art-musing, wine-sipping, chattering activity. At the corner of Sixth and Davis, two unkempt men and a woman hold up an enormous cardboard sign reading, “Travelin’ Broke Hungry.” “Spare change for a bigger sign?” the woman asks the gallery-goers who amble past. I have come here...

[September 5th 11:38am] TBA DIARIES: Blank Placard Happening, The World's Most Polite Maybe-Protest

In a re-enactment of 60's performance artist Anna Halprin's creation, "Blank Placard," for PICA's 2008 TBA Festival, protesters cross the Broadway Bridge Thursday, September 4th at 8:30pm. Then proceed to politely wait at every red light they come across until reaching TBA's evening headquarters at Leftbank. Republican convention it was not (thankfully.) Read more diaries from the 2008 TBA Festival here.

[September 5th 11:20am] Nobody Works Any More: Freaked Out Friday

BREAKING UPDATE: One rope of meat graffiti (reported a week ago by Nobody Works) has gone missing. The remaining strand hangs defiantly, grease pool spreading. Mythic keeper of the gates of Hades, Cerberus, spotted at last night's MFNW VIP party. The CREEPIEST. In case you missed it, the 29-yr-old pedophile who faked being a grade schooler, fooling even his his 44- and 61-yr old bum-buggering guardians. And lastly, a question: What happens when you Google "vagina face"?...

[September 5th 8:50am] “Cocaine" For Sale in Southeast Portland

Located in Southeast Portland on 50th and Foster, The Smoke Shack’s storefront sign has attracted the attention of our always attentive WW readers. The sign reads: Glass Pipes, Brawndo, Hookahs and… Cocaine. Whoa. That's worth a trip to check out. So I did. Inside the shop, huge hookahs and water pipes sit on shelves. And eye-level locked glass displays house hundreds of assorted pipes. Dave Littlefield, father to the shop’s owner, stands silently watching me behind a cloud of...

[September 5th 8:37am] Portland Medics Arrested Outside Republican National Convention

It turns out some of the medical workers I wrote about here (in the photo above, they were helping activists who had been sprayed with pepper-spray or hurt by police in the aggressive suppression of anti-war protests on the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul) are from a Oregon group called Portland Medics. According to the Medics, their members were arrested and attacked by police despite being at the rally only to provide medical help and first aid. Some of the...

[September 4th 5:24pm] UPDATED! MFNW MANIA: Girl Talk's Crazy Show / Todd Berry of Greyday Records on Sonicbids

UPDATE!!! Note from Casey Jarman: The following is a response to the Todd Berry interview with David Ellis of Sonicbids Member Relations. I’d like to restate to our readers what I said to David, which was that we presented this as an interview with Todd from Greyday and nothing more (I wish we had time to do an in-depth story on booking, and sooner or later I’m sure we will). None the less, I am really excited to have a response from someone who works at the company on a daily basis. I...

[September 4th 5:00pm] PUBLISHER'S JUKEBOX: Betty Wright

For the past few Thursdays, we've begun sharing the old-school soul that WW publisher Richard Meeker blasts from his office after hours. This week's video is from Betty Wright and goes out to our fine janitorial staff: Drop a bookmark here to watch all Publisher's Jukebox posts.

[September 4th 3:26pm] P:ear unveils new art center for homeless youth tonight.

On an afternoon last week, before the Old Town reopening of local nonprofit p:ear, local musician and volunteer Sarah Dougher sat in a sawdust-riddled corner waiting for a Nike representative to drop off donated soccer equipment for the kids. The corner she was briefly relaxing in was hugged by books that will soon grow and reproduce to become a library rivaling that of many cash-strapped public schools; so appropriate for an organization that refuses to employ social work lingo, instead...

[September 4th 2:53pm] The Musicfest Diaries: Wednesday

Day one is over! It was loud!
But first, where there are parties, there is Byron Beck. Here are his shots from the Spectre Entertainment MFNW pre-party last night (on the second floor of the Goldsmith building): And now, the MFNW diaries. Contributors are Michael Mannheimer, David Robinson (the new British music intern), Kelly Clarke, Aaron Mesh and Casey Jarman. 9:33 pm, Wednesday, Sept. 3. Outside Berbati’s Pan: Damn, there’s a long-ass line...

[September 4th 11:50am] Birthday (& Help Retire Debt) Boy: Sam Adams Gets "Blitzed"

Sam Adams held his 45-er at Blitz bar smack dab in the middle of the Brewery Blocks (above with former Gang of Four member Dave Allen, who is not Sam's boyfriend). Not only was it a chance for his friends and colleagues to wish him well, it was also a chance to help him retire his campaign debts, which he says are somewhere in the vicinity of $30,000. Below you can watch a lil' film I made full of birthday greetings (make sure to stick around until the end for the request from his...

[September 4th 10:35am] Nobody Works Anymore: Get Festive!

With Burning Man just over and MusicfestNW and TBA just getting underway, we're feeling pretty festive. So here it is: the festival edition. At right: how they do when they do in Kawasaki. FESTIVAL OF LOVING TOO MUCH: No use crying over felled trees. FESTIVAL OF CARING: What the Republicans who couldn't be evacuated from the Twin Cities were doing on Monday. IT'S A FESTIVAL, BABY: Why kids fear heights. FESTIVAL GONE DIGITAL: If you're out of town for MFNW, at least you can catch...

[September 3rd 4:03pm] Nobody Works Any More: Starbucks in Two Thousand Hate

A place where everybody knows you're lame. Five ways Starbucks could stop digging its own grave. Metropolis schmetropolis. Scale model of Shanghai, 2020. Unsurprisingly, he eventually died. The antics of speed climber Dan Osman, a YouTube star ahead of his time. Check out more reasons Nobody Works Anymore here!

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