If there's one theme dominating the dramas on network television these days, it's the question of moral relativism. No one, it seems, can figure out exactly where to draw the line between right and wrong. The means and the ends have become impossibly tangled.
Australian violinist Stanley Ritchie was once a revolutionary in the early music movement: In the early 1970s, after serving as concertmaster of the New York City Opera and associate concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera, he became one of the first New York musicians to adopt the period-practice approach pioneered a few years earlier by colleagues in Europe. The flier for Friday night's Sissyboy fundraiser show at Someday Lounge promised everything from music to art to "Nudity! Cheese Platter!
" Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" Symphony is one of the great works in orchestral music. Its immense power and beauty sells more tickets than any of the composer's other five symphonies. Comedy deriving from the differences between the sexes is nothing new.
More than 2,400 years ago, Aristophanes kept his ancient Greek audiences laughing at characters who danced across gender lines. No one manipulates time and space like a jazz player. Jazz in the hands of guitarist Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau becomes something like musical quantum mechanics.
SEATTLE -- In the liner notes to 2001's "Best of" collection bearing his name, Randy Newman writes of his 1972 song "Political Science": "Never out of date, unfortunately." Warring families, teen lovers caught in crossfire, hot-blooded youths, kindly robust nurses, helpful friars, hooded apothecaries. R eaders of The New Yorker are likely well-acquainted with staff writer Alec Wilkinson's fine essays and articles -- he has, after all, been a part of that magazine since 1980, and is the author of seven books.
Wilkinson has a particular gift for bringing flavorful characters to the page, in a delightful but not overly clever manner -- profiles that range from truck restoration expert Hugh Cosman to one of the nation's most beloved editors, William Maxwell. A consummate literary journalist, Wilkinson's pieces are replete with perfect pacing, terrific dialogue and passages of just-right detail. His long magazine features are consistently a pleasure -- not overly demanding of the reader, and just enchanting enough.
In many ways, Justin Furstenfeld of Blue October is one of the lucky ones. P aul deLay's family, friends, fans and bandmates will get together tonight for a concert and memorial service for Portland's much-loved bluesman, who died March 7 at age 55. "P roperly hopeful.
" This elegant phrase appears near the end of Bill McKibben's new book, "Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future." Properly hopeful also perfectly describes this exhilarating and essential book. Are you dying to get into Lisa Gardner's next novel?
Would you like to see your name attached to a headless body or on a corpse that floats onto a crowded beach? In the opening minutes of 1944's film noir classic "Double Indemnity," sultry Barbara Stanwyck crosses her shapely legs and in one sexy move sends poor Fred MacMurray careening toward his inevitable doom. "B ird of Another Heaven," a novel of Hawaii by James D.
Houston, the author of the 2001 fictional account of the Donner party, "Snow Mountain Passage," is actually two novels, one ordinary, the other extraordinary. Y our work is very sloppy. Why don't you proofread?
" While many people may have received similar comments from teachers, not many have grown up to be professional writers. M ary Gaitskill told a group of Franklin High School students that she's "a very shy person." "Return of the Secaucus 7" (1980), 4:15 a.
m. Sunday night, The Movie Channel. When Lawrence Kasdan's "The Big Chill" came out in 1983, everyone who had seen this John Sayles film assumed that Kasdan had, too.
Both films are set 15 or so years after the characters were college friends, and many had been social or political activists. Inevitably, they had lost touch, but at impromptu reunions they ponder how they have changed since graduation. W atching something like Showtime's colorful, spectacular "The Tudors," one may wonder just where and how the phrase "Merrie Olde England" arose.
It's good to be king. First, some personal confessions: I was painfully shy as an adolescent. I didn't go to the prom.
I broke into cold sweats around cute girls. My social life centered on chess club. I t's unavoidable: The hero of "My French Whore" simply must be imagined as a young Gene Wilder.
The talented actor wrote this enjoyable novella, and his gift for conveying humor and tenderness in unlikely situations makes an easy transition from stage to page. John Banville's having so much fun being Benjamin Black, he's not sure when he's going to stop. Sue Coe is a kind of modern-day Francisco Goya, creating not pretty pictures or abstract mind-benders but visual testament crusading against oppression of all sorts.
In a head-shot photo on the Web site of her representing dealer, Galerie St. Etienne in New York, the artist wears a black beret, as if ready to ship out with her battalion at any moment (or perhaps join a mime troupe). There's no fool like an April fool?
WRONG. There's no fool like a dancin' fool. Note the tips on hot-stepping spots that come courtesy of you, loyal Agenda aficionados.
FRIDAYA couple of weeks ago Agenda asked, "Where can those under 21 go to salsa in Portland?" Thanks and props to Grant High School sophomore Julia Stafford for pointing the way to the Satin Latin Dance Studio, where she and her friends kick up their heels on Friday nights. The studio offers a salsa lesson at 8 p.
m., with open salsa dancing afterward. It's all-ages, and all (or no) skill levels.
$5 covers the class and the open dance. And Diane Davis, a salsa-loving nurse in Happy Valley, noted that two weeks from now, the Night of World Championship Salsa at the Chelsea Ballroom offers lessons, dancing and performances for those 15 and older. Satin Latin, 707 N.
E. Broadway St., Suite 201; 503-281-6691, www.
satinnlatindance.com. Night of World Championship Salsa, Friday, April 13, Chelsea Ballroom, 1510 S.
E. 9th Ave., 503-698-5313, www.
sildavisproductions.com. For more salsa events, visit www.
salsaconsabor.org. The cottage at 2601 N.
W. Vaughn St. has seen many transformations, and not all of its incarnations have been restaurants: it once housed Sam's Barbershop.
Its appearance in the 1930s as Hawaiian Hut and Chatterbox Cafe didn't exactly put it on Duncan Hines' list of Best Restaurants in America. Diners will remember it as The Wood Stove in the 1970s and, more recently, the beloved L'Auberge, the first serious French restaurant in Portland. For decades, Minimalism has been the sexless, loveless Platonist of the major 20th-century art movements.
Pat Metheny and Brad Mehldau both connect with listeners because they fashion the abstract elements of modern jazz into compelling narratives. "Blades of Glory" falls midway down the "good" column in Will Ferrell's comedy filmography. It's about the struggles of the first male-doubles ice-skating team (Ferrell and "Napoleon Dynamite's" Jon Heder).
debuts with PBO In the world of early music, Stanley Ritchie commands respect as a pioneering violinist and teacher to a generation of string players. The Australian-born musician makes his debut with the Portland Baroque Orchestra this weekend in a program of early classical-era orchestral music by Mozart and Haydn and their contemporaries. Think of the words "Schnitzer" and "art," and you likely think about Arlene Schnitzer, the patron who founded one of the city's first serious commercial galleries, the Fountain Gallery, as well as being the Portland Art Museum's most important booster and donor of the past two decades.
1. "Mommy Said NO!" Known for hilarious and sometimes profane adult music, the Asylum Street Spankers jump into the kids music ring with a collection of original tunes about growing up, dreaming big and boogers.
Hear them live and sample a bit from the new CD. 5 p.m.
Thursday, Borders Portland, 708 S.W. Third Ave.
1. Man Man According to the scientific method, experiments are carried out only after carefully observing phenomena and after formulating a hypothesis that predicts what will happen to those phenomena as a result of the experiment. And while music is not science, the success of this Philadelphia rock band can be largely attributed to the three towering kings they must have observed before performing an experiment of their own: Tom Waits, Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.
Aspects of each of these influences is apparent in each of Man Man's songs. So while these guys might not be doing anything groundbreaking, they have digested the groundbreaking-ness of others very well. 9:30 p.
m. Friday, Berbati's Pan Restaurant, 10 S.W.
Third Ave.; $10; 503-226-2122; www.berbati.
com/site.html THRILLER SAKE -- In college, while his peers were downing cheap beer, Blaine Cline received an education in sake. A food-forward friend from Seattle turned him on to the nuanced brew, which he had tasted only piping hot -- the customary way to serve low-quality sake.
It was a life-changing revelation, prompting travels to Japan and frequent visits to Sake Bar Decibel and Sakagura, "the two best sake bars in New York," in his 20s and 30s. Who: Cook at Por Que No? Taqueria at North Fremont and Mississippi.
"It's all authentic Mexican food; farmers market vegetables, free-range meat, counter service, no burritos. I've been there a year and have been a cook since I was about 19 -- 11 or 12 years. Frida Kahlo's cookbook is one of my favorites.
I keep a copy at the restaurant. I also play bass in the band Minmae, so I have to be careful around knives. Everyone in the kitchen seems to be in a band.
" CHANCE COLLABORATION -- From the first time Peter Broderick and Justin Ringle played together in 2005, they knew their music was a fit. First comes love. Then comes marriage.
Then comes a slow, inexorable descent into emotional dysfunction, kick-started by differences over when exactly to produce a baby in the baby carriage. 1. Grayskul The Seattle hip-hop crew known for tight rhymes and live bass comes to Portland as they drop their new album, "FaceFeeder.
" 9 p.m. Saturday, Berbati's Pan, 10 S.
W. Third Ave.; $8; 503-226-2122.
1. "The Tragedy of Romeo Juliet" Hot on the heels of presenting children's author Avi's middle-school adaptation, Northwest Children's Theater ups the age range a bit with a more faithfully Shakespearean version of the most classic of love stories. Opens 7 p.
m. Friday, NW Neighborhood Cultural Center, 1819 N.W.
Everett St.; $20, $16 for 14 and younger; www.nwcts.
org, 503-222-4480. gender wars It's easy to be cynical about such things as love and relationships and gender roles in general, Isaac Lamb says. It's much harder, the Portland actor asserts, to take a serious yet sweet-natured look at such subjects.
This panda is flatulent. Every step he takes. Every move he makes.
This panda needs Beano. Why does this panda's borborygmus rumblings remind me of Tim Allen's grunts more than they sound like magic-store whoopee cushions? There are surprises in life.
The Jets win the Super Bowl. If, as Jean-Luc Godard famously stated, "The history of cinema is the history of boys photographing girls," then the art form has only imitated its ancestors. From the "Mona Lisa" to Marilyn Monroe, the visual arts have frequently relied on the female form for inspiration, and the generally male creators of such images have always gotten more attention than the objects of their gaze.
In the case of Edward Weston, one of America's predominant photographers of the 20th century, the woman in question was his companion, Charis Wilson, and the documentary "Eloquent Nude" does a commendable job of bringing her story out of the attic of art history and marking her as a true collaborator in his work. New shows and lectures On Sunday, the Portland Art Museum's curator emeritus of Asian art, Donald Jenkins, hosts what surely will be a fascinating discussion: "Collecting Chinese Art and Antiquities in a Changing World Market." Along with independent Asian art dealer Anthony Carter and Sotheby's director of Chinese art, James Godfrey, Jenkins will talk about how China's emerging role as a superpower has spawned a new class of art collectors and how that new group has impacted the value of Chinese antiquities as well as the transaction of burial goods from archaeological excavations.
The lecture starts at 2 p.m. Admission is $10; tickets are required and can be purchased online at www.
pam.org. Scott Frank made his name writing smart thrillers for smart directors.
His screenplays for "Out of Sight," "Minority Report," "Get Shorty" and "Dead Again" are tightly plotted and snappy to the ears; actual grown-up professionals are pushing your thrill buttons. OLIVIA BUCKS/THE OREGONIAN Japanese Garden: Portland's internationally recognized Japanese Garden features five formal styles set on 51/2 acres: Strolling Pond Garden, Natural Garden, Sand and Stone Garden, Flat Garden and Tea Garden. Hours: 10 a.
m.-4 p.m.
Tuesday-Sunday, noon-4 p.m. Monday; 611 S.
W. Kingston Ave.; $5.
25-$8; 503-223-1321 or www.japanesegarden.com.
I rina, the heroine of Lionel Shriver's new novel, "The Post-Birthday World," is happy with her life. A children's book illustrator, she lives in London with her longtime boyfriend, a think-tank researcher. Their relationship is steady, boring and utterly comfortable.
Irina cooks gourmet meals and waits for Lawrence to come home. Each night they eat a big bowl of popcorn while they watch TV: "Preparing their traditional pre-dinner popcorn, Irina was thankful for another routine of perfectly balanced variation within sameness." It has been more than three years since Joan Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne, died of a massive heart attack as she mixed a salad in the next room.
The only way through her deranged grief, she said later, was to write. "F reud's Wizard: Ernest Jones and the Transformation of Psychoanalysis" is an engrossing biography of the Welshman responsible for saving Sigmund Freud from the Nazis in Vienna in 1938, as well as for structuring and internationalizing, as Freud's early chief disciple, the master's budding psychoanalytic movement. Looking at Chris Johanson's wisp of a show at the Portland Art Museum, you'll be easily charmed, even moved, by the spirit of his work.
Most of the pieces are roughly drawn cartoon figures that make simple, heartfelt proclamations about war, love and self-awareness. T he late Larry Brown's characters spent a lot of time aimlessly driving the back roads of Mississippi, smoking cigarettes and sipping cold beers from the cooler. He must've loved it himself because he made it sound like a fine pastime, and the saddest thing about reading "A Miracle of Catfish" is knowing that the ride is over.
A good novel is like a perfect golf swing, a song well sung, or a line of spot-on dialogue descending upon you from the silver screen. It's a thing of beauty, something to behold and ponder. And it looks easy, especially when it's Tiger Woods or Celine Dion or Meryl Streep channeling the words of David Mamet.
Here's what you can count on if you watch the Portland movie scene: Every week will bring a sackload of Hollywood movies that make a lot of noise and money and aren't remotely as interesting as the homegrown stuff happening, regularly, all around us. Larry Brown wasn't a commercial success, but the events around the release of "A Miracle of Catfish" suggest that books sold is not the only measure. Unless otherwise indicated, the area code for all phone numbers is 503 and events are open to the public at no charge.
According to at least one book-turned-reality-TV-series, there are at least 1,000 places you should see before you die. This raises questions, some of them existential. For instance, if you take this dictum seriously and hit the road, only to die in some journey-related mishap, has your life been for naught?
Did you live yourself to death? Or did you die in order to live? T he bromide says I shouldn't, but I judge books by their covers.
Not in their entirety, of course. But what is cover art for if not to make first and, publishers hope, lasting impressions? "Pretty Persuasion" (2005), 11:15 p.
m. Monday, Encore. The title gals in "Mean Girls" were pussycats compared with the Bel Air high-schoolers in "Persuasion.
" "Mean" was a comedy. "Persuasion" is more of a sardonic satire like 1989's "Heathers." I was 5 years old the October my mother spent weeks sewing fall leaves onto a white sheet.
She had gathered the leaves from the neighborhood; huge oak and maple leaves that glowed orange and red and brown. I watched her work on it for a few days before I asked her about it. I was determined to find a four-leaf clover in the yard, and this kept me very busy.
But I had noticed her there, on the porch, the sheet draped over her lap, the leaves piled at her side. Describing Mira Nair's "The Namesake" as "a movie about 25 years in the life of an Indian family" is a bit like describing Nair's "Monsoon Wedding" as "a movie about a marriage ceremony." It's spring break, time to let loose on the dance floor.
And here's just the band for a spring fling: Luminescent Orchestrii, a New York string band that plays Gypsy, tango, Balkan, klezmer, punk, hip-hop and acoustic. Yes, yes, we know: The hip rock band coming out of the Williamsburg part of Brooklyn has become a cliche. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, not to mention the brief electroclash movement -- there's no shortage.
Spring break is to annual holidays what the appendix is to internal organs -- smallish, and with no discernable purpose. The decoration is not exactly maternal. I'm thinking of a type of movie: slick and loud; brimming with action; weak on character and dialogue; and increasingly implausible and incoherent as it goes along.
CLARKLEWIS, THE NEXT FRONTIER -- Looks like Dad just bought the rock club. From the freeway you can catch a glimpse of the neon horse, his legs in a flashing gallop. Sondre Lerche might be only 24 (and look about 18), but he's already a music industry vet.
The pop singer had two EPs out in 2001, when he actually was 18. Fleeing a horrific civil war, thousands of young boys endured an epic trek through African wilderness and refugee camps, spending years in the camps. A small number were granted the opportunity to move to the United States and a remarkable chance to escape their nightmarish pasts.
Cellar Door This power-pop quintet has been creeping into the local public consciousness for some time now, and with every energy-packed show they take one step closer to full exposure. 9 p.m.
Friday, Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E. Burnside St.; $6; 503-231-9663.
1. Lady Sings the Blues: A tribute to Billie Holiday Conversations about jazz vocalists don't get very far without turning to the greatness of Billie Holiday. Her name is often followed in the same breath with "one of the greatest of all time.
" Tastes aside, what Holiday did as a female black musician for future women musicians is immeasurable. Siren Nation, the organization that encourages and promotes women musicians in the Northwest, has organized a tribute to this legend, the proceeds going to putting on their annual festival in November. The night will include performances from a diverse group of talented women, including Per Se, Little Sue, Mary Flower and Felina.
9 p.m. Saturday, Blue Monk, 3341 S.
E. Belmont St.; $15; 503-595-0575; www.
sirennation.org and www.thebluemonk.
com All telephone numbers are area code 503 and admission is free unless otherwise noted. Porkpie All about the band, in their own words: "FAMILY LAW" -- It's the kind of story that easily could degenerate into maudlin melodramatics: A young father's reconnection with his own dad helps him learn to balance career and parenthood, and reveals (cue the violins) the things that are really important in life. Cast and crew: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly; director Edward Zwick STONE PERFECT-- A recent family weekend in San Diego left nowhere near enough time to sample the complexity and depth of the city's draft beer scene, let alone properly determine whether San Diego-style IPA is a real style.
But I tried. All area codes are 503 unless noted. Advance ticket prices are subject to service charges.
1. Oaks Park spring break Safeway sponsors a bunch of savings days at the park to help your spring break dollar go further. Specials are for club-card holders and are valid Monday through Friday, March 30.
The park is open Saturday through April 1. Park hours noon-5 p.m.
Saturday-April 1, at 7805 S.E. Oaks Park Way, off Spokane Street; free admission; www.
oakspark.com. 1.
"The Barber of Seville" Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez sings Count Almaviva in Rossini's opera in the next Met Opera HD theatercast. 10:30 a.m.
Saturday, Regal Lloyd Cinemas, 1510 N.E. Multnomah St.
, $18, www.fandango.com.
The moment I understood "MotorStorm" wasn't going to forgive my car-racing mistakes was when I played it online and got outraced by real-life gamers nicknamed JerkHusband and InUrEye. I also got beat by Bart-21. Cowabunga, dude.
All telephone numbers are area code 503 unless otherwise noted. family fun 1. "The Lives of Others" The debut film of writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is a gripping, brilliantly made drama about an East German secret police agent who comes to a new understanding of himself and his world when he's assigned to keep watch on a playwright and his actress girlfriend.
The craft is first-rate across the board, but the things that overwhelm you are the performances, especially that of Ulrich Mhe as the spy, and the story, which is tense, dense, sexy, political, heartbreaking and unfailingly smart. It's never less than absorbing entertainment. As a first feature, it ranks with the most impressive calling cards in the history of the cinema.
(City Center, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Moreland) It's generally acknowledged that even if the Stooges can't conclusively be proven to be the biological fathers of punk rock (DNA tests are ongoing), Michigan's legendary noisemakers are named on the birth certificate of rock's bastard child. It's always a delight to discover that a movie saddled with the ossifying label of "classic" actually has a pulse. Some movies include history; some movies make history.
"Days of Glory" changed history. All phone numbers listed are area code 503. In "Reign Over Me," Adam Sandler attempts once again to broaden his range into the sort of unabashedly serious roles that you wouldn't think the man who played Happy Gilmore could handle.
"New York, September 11th by Magnum Photographers" It was just another day, Sept. 11, 2001. Or so it began.
In New York, it was one of the most beautiful days in recent memory; the sky was a clear blue, not a cloud on the horizon. It was one of those days that turns the Big Apple into a picture postcard. Eleven-year-old Portlander Lisa Smith sounds like a "Dreamgirl" in the making.
TRUCKIN' ON -- Some bands can't get anyone to take them seriously. Some bands, in contrast, don't take themselves seriously. The core metaphor is striking and potent.
In William Nicholson's play "The Retreat From Moscow," a history professor likens his decision to leave his wife of more than 30 years to the withdrawal of Napoleon's army through the deadly Russian winter of 1812. Folly, abandonment, survival, guilt -- the possible parallels are many, none of them pretty.
News RSS