This Week in the Mercury
Monday, January 31, 2011
Fashion / Film Black Swan Costume Fight!
Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:06 PM
After typing "Black Swan Costume Fight," I realized it sounds like the most fun kind of fight possible. Unfortunately, the sqaubble between Black Swan costume designer Amy Westcott and Rodarte over costuming credits is somewhat less than fun. According to a piece today Rodarte not only contributed way fewer designs to the production than we've been given to believe (Westcott says seven, 40 is the number that's been widely circulated), but they're pissed because they're not credited as the costume designers, even though the vast majority of what was onscreen was Westcott's doing. (All of which, incidentally, I loved.) It's fun to watch when the claws come out:
Clothes on Film, Chris: Are you aware of the controversy surrounding yourself and fashion house Rodarte (the Mulleavy sisters) in the press; that they should be credited alongside you as costume designers?Amy Westcott: Controversy is too complimentary a word for two people using their considerable self-publicising resources to loudly complain about their credit once they realised how good the film is.
Mee-ow.
Film Guillermo del Toro: Still Badass!
Posted by Erik Henriksen on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:29 PM
- Via the New Yorker.
I've already made my shameless man-crush on Guillermo del Toro abundantly clear, but Daniel Zalewski's New Yorker profile of the guy kicks it up another notch. Del Toro talks about his childhood, long-gestating projects like At the Mountains of Madness, his mansion-sized office/museum, Bleak House ("It was as if the 40-Year-Old Virgin had been handed a three-million-dollar decorating budget," Zalewski writes), and more:
“Some of the most immortal things in our glossary of images come from movies with not necessarily the greatest screenplays.” [Del Toro] refers to a script as a “libretto”; horror, he said, is special because it “excites a nonverbal part of us.” He mentioned Kubrick’s The Shining: “You’re reading, ‘Danny rides his tricycle through the corridors.’ You just don’t get it—how lonely they are, the rhythm of the prrr, the change of frequency in the wheels, the pattern in the carpet going frh, frh, frh, the lens enhancing the field and the perspective, and the moment he turns the corner the twins being there. You can’t explain that in words.” Del Toro often spends months planting “visual rhymes” in his movies; the tunnels that Ofelia travels through in Pan’s Labyrinth, for example, all have “feminine apertures.” What others call eye candy del Toro calls “eye protein.”
The piece is also moderately heartbreaking for anyone who had been looking forward to del Toro's adaptation of The Hobbit. Brace yourselves, nerds:
The most difficult part, [del Toro] said, was “making peace with the fact that somebody else is going to have control of your creatures, your wardrobe, and change it, or discard it, or use it. All options are equally painful.” He added, “The stuff I left behind is absolutely gorgeous. I’m absolutely in love with it.” He suddenly became animated, waving his hands in the air like a conductor navigating a treacherous passage of Mahler. “We created a big exhibit in the last few weeks, in preparation for a studio visit. I had color-coded the movie: there was a green passage, a blue passage, a crimson passage, a golden passage. In Tolkien, there is a clear season for autumn, winter, summer, spring in the journey. And I thought, I cannot just stay in four movements in two movies. It will become monotonous. So I thought of organizing the movie so you have the feeling of going into eight seasons. So a certain area of the movie was coded black and green, a certain area was crimson and gold, and when we laid out the movie in a big room, we had all the wardrobe, all the props, all the color-coded key art. When you looked and saw that beautiful rainbow, you could comprehend that there was a beautiful passage.” His scheme would probably be abandoned, he said later: “Not much is going to make it. That’s my feeling.” Would his art be returned to him? “I hope to get maquette visitation rights.” But he was grateful not to have them already at Bleak House; they would be a torment.
There's more: Descriptions of del Toro's designs for The Hobbit's Smaug; a visit to del Toro's favorite special effects house to work on a sculpture for a potential Frankenstein film; and the word "uxoriousness," just in case you forgot you were reading the New Yorker for a minute. Read the whole thing here. Thanks to Grant for the heads up!
Comedy / Crime Don't Do the Crime, If You Can't Do the Time (Being Humiliated on YouTube)
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 3:14 PM
A lottery ticket booth in Brazil is hilariously robbed by the Gorton's Fisherman wearing a motorcycle helmet... providing me with yet another perfect opportunity to pair it with the only song in the world that could make a kitten getting run over by a car funnier: Yakkety Sax! (Hit play on both!)
Food Girl Scouts Fire Some Cookies
Posted by Scott "the Intern" Younker on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:43 PM
For those of you who love Girl Scout Cookies—and I mean, honestly, who isn't obsessed with those ridiculous cookies—the organization is planning on cutting their cookie offerings down by half.
"Our top five varieties make up 77% of cookie sales," says Amanda Hamaker, the manager of national product sales for the Girl Scouts, which have been selling cookies since 1917. "The others are yummy and fun, but they're side dressing — leaving councils with an awful lot of alternate varieties left over."
Here's the list of six that they plan to keep:
Samoas (also known as Caramel deLites)
Thin Mints
Do-Si-Dos
Trefoils
Lemon Chalet Cremes
Tagalongs (aka Peanut Butter Patties)
For fans of the other flavors, sorry but here are the flavors that will be disappearing:
Chips Deluxe
Dulce de Leche
Lemonades
Shout Outs!
Thank U Berry Munch
Thanks-A-Lot
You okay with this?
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Books The Book Of Freaks Preview From Future Tense
Posted by Jacob Schraer on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:13 PM
Local publisher Future Tense is releasing The Book of Freaks by Jamie Iredell next month. The summary promises a faux encyclopedia of the bizarre and the mundane, exploring the freakishness of people in their various incarnations, "From circus freaks, to nationalities, to you and everyone you've ever met."
My favorite part is the ladies in the siamese-twins-connected-at-the-vag suit.
Jamie Iredell will be in town on March 5th at Ampersand with free beer and Mike Young, author of Look! Look! Feathers.
Comedy / Ethics Marc Maron Interviews Gallagher
Posted by Lindy West on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 2:09 PM
You can listen to it here. And you should.
Maron (measured, direct, and fair—I love him) questions Gallagher about his history, the mechanics of comedy, and finally—as the interview builds toward Gallagher's abrupt exit—some of his more controversial material. Gallagher rants about sub-atomic particles (electrons are giving us cancer) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (apparently they screwed him out of some money—for pizza, probably) for the first ten minutes or so, and then it gets to the political stuff.
You should definitely listen to it if you're interested in this at all. It's a really dramatic, sad interview.
Gallagher has eight main defenses—which you can learn about after the jump.
Health / Politics Florida Judge Calls Health Care Reform Unconstitutional
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 1:40 PM
A second federal judge ruled on Monday that it was unconstitutional for Congress to enact a health care law that requires all Americans to obtain commercial insurance, evening the score at two-to-two in the lower courts as the conflicting opinions begin their path to the Supreme Court.Judge Roger Vinson of Federal District Court in Pensalcola, Fla., ruled that the law will remain effect until all appeals are concluded, a process that could take two years. However, Judge Vinson determined that the entire law should fall if appellate courts agree with his opinion that the insurance requirement if invalid.
Is there a lawyer in the house? Is there any precedent that signals how the Supreme Court will land on this?
Bikes Here's the Map for the New Eastside Bike Route
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 1:14 PM
One of the first major projects of the 2030 Bike Plan will hopefully make for a smoother ride between NE and SE Portland: The 50s bikeway project will improve the bike route from NE Hancock all the way to SE Woodstock at around 53rd Avenue.
The project keeps with Portland's overall approach to bike planning: Make numerous small changes to neighborhood streets that make them better for bikes, rather than making major overhauls of busy arterial streets. So instead of, for example, a concrete-separated cycletrack running along SE 60th, we're getting a series of stop signs, speed bumps, bike boxes, and curb extensions along NE 53rd and SE 57th. This kind of planning usually means less conflict and less cost, but some cycle advocates criticize it for not making big enough changes fast enough. Almost all of the cost of the bikeway is covered by a federal grant—about $1.4 million of the project's $1.5 million pricetag—though the actual amount of city money that will be used is still up in the air as the design is hammered out.
Anyway, here's the map of the proposed route! Download a copy here if it's not large enough.
?!?!? Chegg WTF?
Posted by Scott "the Intern" Younker on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 12:44 PM
Have any of you seen these commercials for Chegg.com? They sell textbooks or something for supposedly lower prices. Anyway, I watch a lot of YouTube and these Chegg ads have been showing up in front of the videos lately, even though they're more than a year old.
It feels as though cartoons from the 1990s have invaded my advertising space, and I'm not sure if I approve. There's a couple more after the jump. (The Ghandi one is particularly disturbing.)
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Geek / Books Chore Wars & "Alternate Reality Gaming"
Posted by Alison Hallett on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 12:29 PM
Given that my workplace is a toxic den of relentless status jostling, Tourettes-like outbursts from Steve, and cat lady jokes (I have ONE CAT, guys. ONE.), I am very fortunate to have a functional home life, thanks to two mature, emotionally balanced roommates. It's great: I haven't received a single passive aggressive note in years of co-habitation. My roommates and I do, though, share a certain laissez-faire attitude to housework—which, combined with a fondness for Netflixed TV, means that while we're making great headway on The Larry Sanders Show (HEY NOW!), our house is a squalid pit. Because I am concerned about acclimatizing to filth—those Grey Gardens ladies weren't born that way!— this morning I signed us up for Chore Wars, a website where housemates/officemates/families can create characters, quests, and reward systems based on housework. My avatar is a frightening monkey who enjoys counter cleaning and party planning. I plan to incentivize this with donuts.
I learned about Chore Wars from game designer Jane McGonigal's new book Reality is Broken, which begins with the premise that games (broadly defined) are in many ways an improvement on reality. Games, she argues, offer a sense of purpose, camaraderie, and meaning that's often missing in our personal and professional lives; from there, McGonigal introduces the concept of "alternate reality games," which attempt to effect real-world change by applying to reality some of the qualities that make game play so compelling (e.g., turning housework into a competition). I'm not much of a gamer—I like Limbo, because it is pretty and the controls don't make me feel like a 95-year-old—but I'm finding McGonigal's book fascinating. She'll be appearing at the Bagdad on Feb 7, in an event co-sponsored by Powell's and OMSI's Science Pub series; in the meantime, here's her TED talk from last year.
Fashion / Film To Portland Movie Theater Owners: A Polite Request
Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 12:14 PM
It has come to my attention that the wonderful-looking documentary on longtime, legendary New York Times street style photographer and originator Bill Cunningham is not currently scheduled to screen in Portland. Well, it is playing in Portland, Maine, and even in Duluth, Minnesota! This is wrong.
Please rectify this matter immediately. Thank you.
UPDATE! Woah, that totally worked. It will open on April 15 at the Living Room Theaters. HIGH FIVE.
Media / Politics How Did Egypt Shut Down the Internet?
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:44 AM
The government didn't flip some sort of Internet kill switch. Instead, it seems like they called Internet Service Providers and told them to shut down one by one.
Cats For the Cat Who Demands Privacy and High Quality Furnishings...
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:32 AM
...there's this. A mahogany cabinet/litter box... for her to poop in.
Via and while we're on the topic: Welcome back, A Cat!
Politics Details on the Red and Black Cafe's Plan to Create Affordable Housing
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:14 AM
I got coffee with Red and Black co-owner and Portland Collective Housing Development Director John Langley Sunday morning and asked for the rundown on how the redevelopment is going to work. Portland Collective Housing (PCH) owns two houses in Portland—the co-op on Mississippi Avenue and one in SE called the 25th Street House. They hope the transformation of Red and Black's upstairs will be a model for grassroots affordable-housing development, though it's clear that if this space succeeds it will be thanks in a large part to the kindness and flexibility of current landlord Kathy Tucker. Here are the details:
• The Red and Black's building was (most likely) originally a hotel that dates from 1874. The upstairs is currently five little offices with super high ceilings and brightly colored paint jobs.
• Unlike most housing transformations, turning the offices into living space does not require a major capital cost. All the co-opers are planning to install is a bathtub and one additional wall. The five bedrooms will share a single kitchen and bathroom. Each room will rent for $365 and the rent is fixed unless the loan rate changes.
• Current landlord Kathy Tucker is providing the loan for the building, requiring only a $50,000 down payment on a property worth at least $600,000. Knowing that Red and Black had originally intended to buy the building when they moved in three years ago, Tucker gave them the first opportunity to buy her out.
• The house will have income restrictions, like PCH's other two co-ops: 75 percent of the residents must be making less than $39,000 (which is 80 percent of the metro median income).
• The biggest hurdle for the development was figuring out how to split management of the building between PCH (which is a nonprofit) and the Red and Black. In the end, the groups couldn't figure out a way to split ownership in a legal and logical way before the down payment deadline, so Red and Black is technically going to own the entire building and PCH will just help the house create its own nonprofit and "figure out the nonprofit ownership details later."
"The biggest reason for doing this is that it's a model for doing affordable housing and urban density that I think is being ignored," says Langley. "On my street, Mississippi, they built a six-unit condo building that ended up going into foreclosure because people couldn't afford the units. You can make dense houses affordable by using the stuff that's already there and you're taking the property of the speculative market forever."
So will it work? We'll have to wait and see. But the experiment is beginning very soon: The first residents move in tomorrow.
Update: You want photos of the rooms? I got photos of the rooms! They're below the cut.
Update Update: As of Tuesday, February 1st, the Red and Black met their goal! People donated or made small loans totaling $51,776.
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Portland / City Hall Portlandia!... One More Chance for Sam Adams to Sell, Sell, Sell!
Posted by Denis C. Theriault on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 11:01 AM
- ILLUSTRATION BY DAVE NEESON
- Hark! To the promised land!
But like many things with Sam, there's a certain steely (even opportunistic?) shrewdness behind the comedy. For the mayor, a cable show cameo is only the latest chance to put on his salesman hat and preach the virtues of Portland to the kind of urbane national audience that laps up all the umpteen-thousand New York Times stories about how awesome we think we are. (Of course, the mayor isn't the only one eyeballing a sales opportunity.)
Consider the roll call from papers near and far in their coverage of the show. Most mention Sam's cameo, but a few have offered him a chance to deliver quotes like this one, this weekend in the Los Angeles Times:
For Portland Mayor Sam Adams, the local job market helps explain why the city has become a magnet for forward-thinking 18- to 34-year-olds. "We're known for high-tech, digital media and outdoor apparel, and those industries require highly educated folks or folks who skew younger," says Adams, who makes a cameo in "Portlandia" as the assistant to the mayor. (Yes, in Portland, even the mayor's ironic.)But Adams points out that the city's progressive attitude can be traced way back to "the Fort Hall phenomenon," named for the Idaho outpost where the Oregon Trail diverged from the California Trail. "Settlers who came to Oregon had to decide that they weren't gonna try to strike it rich in California," he says, "so there was a real self-separation going all the way back."
Or this one, in the Oregonian, after the series made its debut last month:
Portland Mayor Sam Adams says "Portlandia" is all in good fun—and that TV productions like this help employ and retain creative workers."I think it shows we've got a good sense of humor," says Adams. "It shows we can laugh at ourselves, in addition to our reputation of being sustainable, and offering a good quality of life, and as a good place to live with lots of small businesses."
Adams is known to travel widely to preach the Portland gospel. But sometimes it's easier to let a film crew invade your suite of third-floor City Hall offices. So maybe think of Portlandia like a bicycle-planning or green-building conference, but way cooler. (And about as funny. Snap!)
TV Why Does this Ass Smell Like Ass?
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:44 AM
As Alison Hallett wisely said to her co-workers last week, "When your boss asks you to smell something, you probably shouldn't do it." Similarly, if you're on a game show where you're asked to walk into a totally dark room and smell things... well, maybe you should try out for Jeopardy instead. (This video has the slightest whiff of NSFW.)
News Publican Don Younger In Unstable Condition (UPDATED)
Posted by Tony Perez on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:25 AM
Sad news coming in from 45th and Belmont. Don Younger, the undisputed godfather of Oregon craft brews and proprietor behind the Horse Brass Pub, is reportedly unconscious and on a respirator in the cardiac intensive care unit. OregonLive is reporting that he's not expected to survive long. Younger's influence on NW beer can't be overstated. Any number of heavy-hitter breweries—Widmer, Bridgeport, and Full Sail, among others—can trace their roots back to conversations over pints in Younger's bar.
John Foyston at OregonLive is reporting from the Horsebrass, where friends, brewers, fellow-publicans, and admirers are raising pints of Younger's Special Bitter. I imagine the toasting will carry on late into the night, and we'll update you with news of Younger's condition as it becomes available. For those unfamiliar with the Portland legend, I might point you to Brian Libby's 2006 profile in Imbibe.
Updated:It's been reported that Younger passed around 12:30 this morning. He will be missed. We'll be sure to keep you posted on any word of a public memorial.
Fashion / SEX "The Pegged Boyfriend"
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:24 AM
I was taken by surprise—or taken from behind—by a new pair of Gap jeans while I was working," writes a frontline Gap employee. "Jeans that fit the progressive and submissive boyfriend perfectly. Enjoy!!"
Hm... either the product development team at the Gap didn't think to Google "pegged boyfriend" before launching this new line of jeans... and so didn't realize what "pegged boyfriend" meant... or they did and they did.
Religion / Homo The Gays are Counterfeiters!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 9:58 AM
Here, some old dude in a golf sweater uses "LOGIC" to explain why a gay marriage cannot possibly be a "real" marriage—because, you see, gays are counterfeiters! Or something! (Again, why do we keep knocking gays for being talented? It's simply a fact they make the best 20 dollar bills and write the best showtunes.)
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Religion / SEX Private Sex Tape Lands Indonesian Pop Star In Prison
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 9:45 AM
One of Indonesia's best-known pop stars was sentenced Monday to 3½ years behind bars after sex tapes with his celebrity girlfriends found their way to the Internet, riveting and dividing this predominantly Muslim nation.Liberals said the embarrassment suffered by Nazril "Ariel" Irham—who insists the videos were not intended for public viewing—was punishment enough. But hard-liners were outraged, saying the singer was contributing to the country's moral decline.
Hundreds charged the gates of the courthouse in the city of Bandung after the verdict was read out, yelling "Too light! Too light," as he sped off in an armored police car.
News Good Morning, News!
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak is desperately trying to placate a tidal wave of uprising by shuffling around his cabinet (yeah, I don't think it's gonna work either).
You think Atlanta's airport is bad? Try Cairo's!
According to reports, there are 2400 Americans seeking help in getting out of Egypt.
Oscar winning composer John Barry (Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice) dead at age 77.
Another huge snow attack coming—this time in Chicago.
New Kid on the Block Jonathan Knight didn't mind being outed by Tiffany, since he was "out" already. You know what this story is missing? Punky Brewster.
Today in "Sounds funny, but actually kind of isn't" news: An Oregon rancher at a cattle auction is killed by a cow.
Another example of "Not the Best of Oregon City": A 13-year-old shoots his friend in the head with a gun.
Now here's what's going on in your neck of the woods: Chilly-ish, but nice and sunny through the week!
And finally, The Lonely Island has a great new song that will also help you pick up chicks. It's called "The Creep." (Special guest star: John Waters!)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
News Good Morning, News!
Posted by Denis C. Theriault on Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 11:03 AM
A portrait of Egypt in chaos: Amid the sixth day of massive, full-throated protests aimed at toppling dictator Hosni Mubarak, the military is bringing in the big guns but still doing little, police officers are melting away from major cities, inmates are walking the streets, and the US Embassy is preparing flights to rescue American citizens. But there is hope, too. Opposition figure (and erstwhile nuclear watchdog) Mohamed ElBaradei shouted through a bullhorn to Cairo crowds, “We are beginning a new era in Egypt. What we have begun cannot be reversed." Portlanders held a rally of their own in Pioneer Courthouse Square.
And you know who else is watching what's happening in Egypt really, really closely? Israel. While 30 years of Mubarak has been shitty for Egyptians, it's been pretty good for Israel, translating to 30 years of peace between the two nations, once the fiercest of foes.
In America, the Republican Party remains enamored with devouring itself, one crusty white-man incumbent at a time. The Tea Party faithful, ever bolder now that the taste of man-flesh is on their lips, are getting a head start on next year's GOP Enemies List. Suddenly, even conservatives like Orrin Hatch in Utah might not be conservative enough.
And that whole governing-instead-of-just-shouting thing? The NYT's Frank Rich deftly explains why that might not be going so well for the Tea Party.
I don't even know where you'd buy a globe, but here's hoping that if you do know where, you didn't. Because it's about to be outdated. Thanks to an overwhelming affirmative vote by the long-suffering people of southern Sudan, the giant African nation will split in two this summer.
Hey, remember Kyron Horman? Still missing. People with uniforms are still looking.
Because it's not worth watching Saturday Night Live, you probably didn't see that Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg appeared briefly alongside the actor who played him the The Social Network. More people will probably wind up watching the web video than the actual episode.
One scientist's wild dreams for the future of "meat": It one day will be grown in "carneries," football-field-size laboratories filled with large bioreactors. And hunger and gas-producing cattle farms, etc., blah blah... will be a thing of the past.
Here's someone who's apparently been fed some of this engineered meat. You should watch the whole thing, even if it hurts you.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Cops Examining the Grand Jury Transcripts in the Police Shooting of Tom Higginbotham
Posted by Denis C. Theriault on Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 10:06 PM
The call flashed over to 911 about five minutes before 4 o'clock on what officers said was a "slow" Sunday afternoon. A homeless man had threatened a security guard at a strip mall at SE 82nd and Powell. He was a chronic trespasser, camping at a nearby abandoned carwash, and was known to carry a knife.
Just 11 minutes later, 67-year-old Thomas Higginbotham, a Vietman War vet with a long criminal record, was dead.
He had been shot by police 10 times, with one of the bullets piercing his aorta and both lungs. His thick clothes had repelled a Taser's probes, and he was striding toward a pair of officers in a small room while holding a large kitchen knife. When he finally fell, outside a small room in the trash-strewed carwash where Officers Jason Lile and Larry Wingfield had confronted him, his left hand was still on the knife's handle.
The January 2 shooting was the eighth by Portland police officers since January 2010, and it marked the end of a seven-week spurt that saw five shootings. A grand jury found no criminal wrongdoing in Higginbotham's shooting. But transcripts released this afternoon (some 210 pages of interviews with police officers and other witnesses) offer new details about what happened—and how yet another call that officers assumed would be routine quickly turned deadly.
"I mean this is the last guy I want to get into shooting with, you know," Wingfield testified. "I don't know, that was a big deal with me being that he was a military service guy and, you know, and being an elderly guy, too. There is nothing about this that I want any part of."
But Wingfield said he also had a regret: that he and Lile had gotten so close to Higginbotham in the first place. Normally police are trained to keep at least 21 to 30 feet away from someone with a blade. In the cramped confines of the abandoned Lucky Car Wash on 82nd, they were never any more than 13 feet away, and probably more like six to eight feet as Lile and Wingfield waited to use force, barking orders at Higginbotham to drop his knife.
Complicating matters? Higginbotham was drunk—his blood alcohol level at .26 percent. Lile's Taser couldn't find easy purchase. And detritus—remnants from other homeless campers having come and gone—littered the floor, blocking an easy retreat.
"And that—you know, that was, honestly, a mistake," says Wingfield. "If I look back on anything I would do differently, I wouldn't let him get this close. He was an older man. He was a veteran. You know, we just didn't want to shoot him. I put my partner at risk. I put myself at risk to try to save this guy."
Artsy (En)Counter Culture, Flashing Up This Weekend
Posted by Matt Stangel on Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 6:21 PM
- (En)Counter Culture
The "flashmob art exhibit" will last for "approximately 30 minutes" at "a public outdoor location in downtown Portland"— pieced together on the fly by Bayans and Brown "to convey a unified message." Here, the organization's mission is to foster "community reflection upon the conventional definitions of 'museum,' 'curation,' and 'exhibit' through unexpected, brief, and temporary collaborative artistic endeavors."
Okay, right on— follow @EnctrCultrPDX's tweets if you're interested in seeing how things play out— but I'm still wondering why (En)Counter wants to take art out of the traditional museum model. After all, both Bayans and Brown work for OMSI, and it's not necessarily in their best interest to encourage the non-museum art experience— in fact, the opposite, especially in a time when national museum attendance is going down, down, down.
I suspect the central reason for this personal-professional contradiction comes from a dedication to social practice rhetoric, of which (En)Counter's mission fits snugly within. (See this Wikipedia entry for examples of where (En)Counter aligns with the lexicon and ideology of social practice.) Aside from theoretical relevance, why do the definitions of "museum, curation, and exhibit" need exploring?— I mean, we all know what these things are. We understand how, with the addition of art, public space can serve the basic functions of traditional venues.
What do you guys think?— do we need to reflect on "the conventional definitions of 'museum,' 'curation,' and 'exhibit'"? Are flash mob-related events played out to the point of rendering (En)Counter Culture culturally irrelevant? Am I just being a big meanie, or thick-headed, or something else entirely? Let's talk in the comments.
Theater Fertile Ground: Closing Weekend
Posted by Virginia Thayer on Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 5:17 PM
This is it: the final weekend of Fertile Ground 2011. Last Thursday I recommended a few events, and this week Alison shared some thoughts about three shows she saw, some of which you may still have a chance to see if you haven't already. (Or even if you have—Wm. Steven Humphrey makes a cameo in the latest episode of Captured by Aliens!) And this weekend brings a few more opportunities to see interesting, fresh, local performance. So go do it already!
Bridgetown, a Musical (staged reading): You love Portland. I love Portland. Portland loves Portland. Makes you want to sing sometimes.
Groovin' Greenhouse: Polaris Dance Theatre's Dance Hub seems to be the belle of the FG '11 ball, so if you see anything from the festival, this should be the thing.
Stories: From the Streets: Lunacy Stageworks partners with Street Roots to present Stories: From the Streets, featuring poetry, stories, music, and visual art by the homeless. As seen in My, What A Busy Week!
Communicatos: Sketch comedy from the founders of Curious Comedy. Looks like a good time, dudes!
As usual, tickets are available through the Fertile Ground website or at the door.
I really hope y'all will go experience some of the wide array of new artistic work we're surrounded by this week. I won't get to see most of these because I'm in one (last plug, I swear), so feel free to do my job for me and tell us what you saw and what you thought of it.
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