Topic - Blogtown, PDX, Portland Mercury

Writing about films as important as Fast & Furious 6 is immeasurably difficult—there are a lot of things to get through before you can even talk about what the film means, from the series' increasingly complex timeline to the its detailed and nuanced physics. My review—my futile, earnest, failed attempt at summing up all there is to say about Fast & Furious 6 in a mere 300 words—is here. There were, however, three things that I was not able to fit into the review. I shall now list them here. ...

I really liked the new Portland-set movie City Baby, which premieres for one screening at Cinema 21 tomorrow night. Here's a trailer that makes it look way worse than it is: A lot of people will probably hate this film—they won't be able to look past the fact that it's about "hipsters," or they'll miss the part where you're not supposed to like the main character—but I thought it functioned as a great critique of Portland's PYTs, and I reaaaally want people to see it so we can talk about the ...

CHALLENGE! Do you know more about Marvel super heroes than four-year-old Mia strapped in her car seat? Let's find out when we play (cue music)... DO YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT MARVEL SUPER HEROES THAN FOUR-YEAR-OLD MIA STRAPPED IN HER CAR SEAT? (audience applause) Good luck contestants, and let's begin! [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

French president Francois Hollande legalized gay marriage on Saturday, after years of French polls being in favor of gay marriage. Though there have still been oppositional protests, Hollande maintains that he “wouldn't accept any disruption of France's first gay marriages.” Said Disney princess Belle, "Finally—we can stop pretending 'The Beast' is a dude." Kaitlyn Hunt, An 18-year-old high school student in Florida, was recently charged two felony counts of “lewd and lascivious battery on a ...

But there atheists in Moore, Oklahoma: Says BoingBoing: "This is CNN." [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

GOOD MORNING, BLOGTOWN! Girl, I'm feelin what you feelin'. No more hopin' and wishin'. I'm 'bout to take my key and stick it in the ignition. LET'S GO TO PRESS. As predicted, in last night's election fluoride went down in poisonous flames. (Did you know that fluoride is so poisonous it can actually kill fire? A DOCTOR IN EUROPE TOLD ME THAT.) The latest tally was 60 percent anti to 40 percent pro. I'll try not to be too sour grapes-y about it... but can you guys keep on spamming our comments ...

As you clearly recall, one of comedian Patton Oswalt's most memorable appearances was last month's guest shot on Parks and Recreation where he pulled off a hilarious citizen filibuster in which he lovingly describes his dream Star Wars sequel. Happily, artist Isaac Moores has made an animated version of Oswalt's speech convincing me more than ever WE NEED THIS SEQUEL. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Today saw the reveal of Microsoft's newest gaming console, the Xbox One. The console looks like a VCR from 1985, and in keeping with that motif, Microsoft spent about 2 hours telling you all the cool and interesting ways you can watch TV on it. Then there were 15 minutes of games you'll be able to play, and then there was a mocapped dog that everyone thought was cute, and that was the end. The TV stuff was a very, VERY big part of Microsoft's presentation today, and probably the largest of th...

I love Pete Holmes. I love his Nerdist-network podcast You Made It Weird, I love his standup, and I'm sure I will love his new Conan-produced talk show when it premieres on TBS in the fall. Holmes is in the Craig Ferguson school of standups: Goofy, excitable, and capable of high-wire riffs that you kinda can't believe he pulls off. Holmes is coming to the Aladdin Theater at the end of June; it probably would not hurt to get tickets early for this one, because it's going to be a great show and...

Look, science teachers! I GET IT. You want to really involve your students by showing them science in action. But don't forget—sometimes science turns around and bites you in the ass... as was the case in this high school class, which goes hilariously wrong and turns into the best science experiment EVARRRRR! via [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Okay, so I just watched this video? And my PTSD from growing up in tornado alley Alabama just jumped into overdrive. This completely engrossing video was shot by a guy who witnessed the birth of the tornado that ravaged Oklahoma and took dozens of lives. At :50 you see it coming out of the sky, by 2:00 you're crapping your pants and by 3:00 your crap is crapping itself. Say what you will about the man who stuck around to shoot this, but you can't say he isn't brave. The man's son introduced t...

IT'S ELECTION DAY, PORTLAND! Vote, if you haven't, damn your eyes. Emergency workers are searching this morning through the rubble that was once an Oklahoma City suburb, after a powerful tornado struck the area Monday afternoon. The damage is vast, and the toll is unclear, but dozens are dead and many more injured. And, yikes. More rough weather looks likely. A new Xbox is being revealed today, which at my current rate of adopting video game consoles mean I can look forward to owning one in n...

Dan Aykroyd continues to be my favorite celebrity ever because 1) skull-shaped vodka, 2) ALIENS!, 3) The Great Outdoors, and 4) he continues to insist that Ghostbusters 3 is going to happen, even though Ghostbusters 3 is clearly never, ever going to happen. Here's his latest update about Ghostbusters 3, which, again, is not a movie that is going to be made. "It's based on new research that's being done in particle physics by the young men and women at Columbia University. Basically, there's r...

Ray Manzarek, keyboardist for the Doors, has died. He was 74. Manzarek passed away in Germany this morning; he had been fighting bile duct cancer. Along with his work with the Doors, Manzarek produced X's classic Los Angeles album from 1980. Here are the two best songs he did with the Doors: [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Prior to the Timbers' season opener in March, team owner Merritt Paulson used a slightly modified version of a Timbers Army chant to ask the question on every fan's mind. "We'll sing for you, Timbers," he tweeted on March 3. "Will you finish the fight?" The answer appears to be a resounding "YES." Portland once again proved it's not a team to be counted out on Saturday: The Timbers rallied twice to shock a large swath of soccer-loving British Columbia and earn a 2-2 draw against rival Vancouv...

I know the Stefon clip was the thing on SNL everybody wouldn't shut up about over the weekend, but, ah... you guys noticed Kanye West kind of killed it, right? West performed two new tracks, both of which are generally and accurately being described as "intense" (here's the other one, "New Slaves"); they're presumably from his upcoming album, Yeezus (subtle, Kanye), which'll be out June 18. Considering West's last solo album, 2010's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, was his best and weirdest...

The big bummer about working on Open Season shows is how jealous I am of everyone who can simply enjoy them without having to deal with language-garbling headsets and endless rolls of utility tape. Audrey Goldfarb is a serial attendee of local fashion events, as well as a documentarian of sorts—she once made a truly amazing film about herself that topped two hours and included copious party crashing and Pabst consumption as well as some rather surprising family dynamics. She makes shorter epi...

GOOD MORNING, BLOGTOWN! You could plan a pretty picnic (you could plan a pretty picnic), but you can't predict the weather, Ms. Jackson. LET'S GO TO PRESS. Three months after we caught 'em hacking, the Chinese hackers have resumed attacking American targets—this time employing different tactics. Sounds like someone is challenging us to a... hack war!! The Washington Post is reporting that the Obama administration spied on Fox reporter James Rosen, collecting phone records, tracking his moveme...

We don't have a lot of time with each other in this life, everybody. Let's keep it brief today. Powerball. You're not going to win, but it will be thrilling for a minute (if you win, e-mail me!). Sometimes trains collide head-on. It happened in Connecticut yesterday. It makes no sense. North Korea's firing missiles again. But it's not a big deal. MOON EXPLOSION. France is cool with gay marriage. Oregon still is not. Uh oh. Crazy ants trump fire ants every time. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has yet ...

Sigh. Everyone went to see Star Trek into Darkness and I'm stuck Googling the correct spellings of various dried Italian meats. I'm going to watch my own futuristic space opera with Janelle Monáe's new song "Q.U.E.E.N." from her upcoming album Electric Lady. That'll cheer me up. It'll work for you too, I bet. She has that effect. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Oy vey, it's Video Vriday! Just in time for the upcoming Rose Festival, here's a new video from Scout Niblett, which must have been filmed at last year's Rose Fest. Niblett is no stranger to wearing wigs, but here she goes one step further with full Snow White regalia. She fits right in, while the slow-burning, seething undercurrents of the track "Gun" provide a bizarre and hilarious counterpoint. Scout Niblett's new album, It's Up to Emma (her first name is indeed Emma), comes out this Tuesd...

Who is Lord Dying?They are the doomy Portland metal band who recently signed with Relapse Records. When does their first full-length album come out?July 9, 2013 in the year of our dark lord. What is it called?Summon the Faithless. What does the cover look like?Cast your eyes upward to the top of this post. What are the titles of the eight tracks contained within?1) In a Frightened State of Gnawed Dismemberment2) Summoning the Faithless3) Greed Is Your Horse4) Descend Into External5) Dreams of...

Opening tonight over at the CoHo, a show about a mom and kid who move to a conservative small town, called Crooked, co-produced by local theater power couple Philip Cuomo and Maureen Porter. I've found myself prioritizing seeing shows at the CoHo lately: Their co-production model means you're seeing a variety of work; it's typically very well produced; and it's such a great little space, easily the most professional-seeming of the city's small blackbox theaters (and bonus, unlike the Back Doo...

It tends to keep a low profile, but never forget: Odessa is—and has been for longer than most—one of the most sophisticated boutiques in the city. They recently put together a lookbook for the spring season featuring stunning new pieces from Tsumori Chisato and Isabel Marant, modeled by their own Bree Goertzen (remember Fleshtone? She was one of the backup dancers, and has also been featured in those awesome Miracles Club videos). And, objectively speaking, you cannot tell me that this sweate...

I'd like to apologize for everything I said about Pacific Rim yesterday morning. The movie I meant to say a bunch of excited crap about was Atlantic Rim. LET'S DO THIS, GRAHAM GREENE! AND TREACH, WHOM YOU MIGHT REMEMBER FROM HIS TIME IN NAUGHTY BY NATURE! We've written about the Asylum before, but this is the first time I've felt like theaters are totally missing out by not doing a double feature of the original film and the Asylum version. Hollywood? Roseway? Pacific Rim and Atlantic Rim? Wh...

DAMN YOU, HILARIOUS OLD SPICE COMMERCIALS! Why must you continue to be so hilarious? Isn't it enough that I post your ads for free, AND I rub you under my arms? Goddddammmmmitttt!!! BUY OLD SPICE! [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

There is an apparently amazing video for sale—says Gawker, which has seen the video and broke the news—showing the conservative mayor of Toronto smoking crack-cocaine within the past six months. While in office. And his dealers, says Gawker, service a wide swath of the cognoscenti in Canada's New York. Ford's lawyer addressed the claim rather curiously in the Toronto Sun: “I think unless one has expertise in crack cocaine smoking, it is very difficult to gauge what a person is actually doing ...

As you may have noticed, all the nets are releasing trailers this week touting their new fall lineup of shows—and adorable baby net The CW is no exception. They've just squirted out five of 'em, including this one for The Tomorrow People—which true to CW form is another vehicle for hot teens with supernatural powers. AND THAT IS NOT AN INSULT. Keep 'em comin', CW! [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Since I saw Star Trek Into Darkness last night, the big summer blockbuster I'm looking forward to the most is Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, which just so happens to have a brand-new trailer out. Not only is it del Toro's first movie in what feels like forever, but it also apparently a giant pterodactyl in it, which I fervently believe be a requirement for all motion pictures. Good day. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

OUR TOP STORY: Topless Bea Arthur painting sells for nearly $2 million! (Worth it!) Along with Seth Meyers and Bill Hader, now Fred Armisen is probably leaving Saturday Night Live to possibly pursue a career portraying lesbian book store owners? According to BBC News, police were called to a sci-fi convention to break up a fight between Star Wars and Doctor Who fans. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! WHERE'S THE VIDEO??? Rob Thomas tweets that the Veronica Mars movie will start shooting on June 17—indica...

While we're all thrilled about Arrested Development returning on May 26, DO NOT FORGET that you'll need to cram in some time to watch the other TV event of the season, Beyond the Candelabra—the biopic about Liberace directed by Steven Soderbergh (!), and starring Michael Douglas as Liberace (!!) and Matt Damon as his personal companion/lovah (!!!). Here's a new extended trailer, and OH MY SHIT. I cannot wait to watch this! That's Beyond the Candelabra, May 26, HBO, 9 pm. YESSSSSS. [ Subscribe...

“It was pretty much a proctology exam through your earlobe." Conservative groups talk about being targeted by the pain-in-the-ass IRS and detail the flaming hoops that inspectors and investigators forced them to leap through—in violation of the law. Confronting a bizarro reality where Tea Party acolytes look legitimately aggrieved and sympathetic, President Obama has fired the acting head of the IRS. Never mind that the deposed director, who blamed rogue employees in Cincinnati, wasn't in cha...

Here's what our friends at Portland Police Bureau public relations have been whipping up today. I'm not even being judgmental. This pleases me. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

2000's Pitch Black—at least as I remember it, it's been a while—was pretty great. One of Vin Diesel's first big roles, director David Twohy accomplished quite a bit with a relatively low budget; like Twohy's The Arrival (with Charlie Sheen!) it was a fairly smart and consistently entertaining sci-fi thriller, the sort of thing that holds up really well when you stumble across it on TV in the middle of the night. After Pitch Black's unexpected success, Universal quintupled Twohy's budget for a...

ABC released a whopping 12 new show trailers yesterday afternoon, and they are all—with the exclusion of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and The Goldbergs—universally TERRRRRRIBLE. If you feel like checking them out for yourself, have fun—but they all feel like movie trailers for the worst romcoms and dramas you've ever seen. How are these weak-ass ideas supposed to sustain themselves for more than a single episode? DON'T ASK ME. However, I will be watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D (which I am so very tir...

Fox News radio host Alan Colmes recently got into a bit of a tiff over the air with spokesperson for the American Family Association, and white-haired stallion Bryan Fischer. After Colmes asked him, “Have you ever had a gay impulse?” Fischer responded, “Alan, I’m not going to talk about that. We’re not going to go there. We’re not going to talk about that.” Fischer then continued on to say, “Everybody experiences sexual impulses that, if they acted on those impulses, it would destroy them. I'...

GOOD MORNING, BLOGTOWN! I'm the trouble starter, fuckin' instigator. I'm the fear addicted, danger illustrated. I'm a firestarter, terrific firestarter. LET'S GO TO PRESS. It's been a grisly, horrific month in Syria in which government forces have murdered entire families and forced survivors to proclaim President Bashar al-Assad as "God." For the second time in a month, a U.S. military member working in a sexual assault prevention program is accused of... you guessed it! SEXUALLY ASSAULTING ...

What gives, you might ask? Then maybe you've forgotten Charlie Hales and his wife, Nancy, were supposed to be entrants in a local charity version of Dancing With the Stars. Nancy Hales is particularly on point—loose enough to twirl while also getting into character. The mayor has a natty outfit and isn't so awful himself. Hales' spokesman, Dana Haynes, says his boss took a lot of tango lessons. He hadn't seen the video either. "Dude, he’s good. I just watched it for the first time and have as...

Thanks to what I will only describe as a fairly awful experience in high school English—high school, that great ruiner of literature—I've yet to be able to make it all the way through any book by Faulkner, which... look. I know. I don't feel great about it either, okay? Do I feel any more great about the fact that James Franco is now directing a movie version of As I Lay Dying—and one with his Your Highness costar Danny McBride? I have no idea, because I feel like the sentence I just wrote sh...

Thanks Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D for Sunday night's sneaky peek at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D—but especially thanks for the news that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D will be in the highly coveted Tuesday 8 pm slot on ABC, AND this new super-extendo Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D trailer, which has tons more COULSON (who we are assume is some sort of clone?) and gives me yet another opportunity to write Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Okay, fine... you caught me. I've been cutting and pasting it.) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D!! [ Subsc...

After 8 years, SNL regular Bill Hader—best known perhaps as the heeeeeelarious Stefon—is leaving the show. Fine, but don't take Stefon with you! Adult Swim is returning with another Greatest Event in Television History (last year's was an exact recreation of the opening credits of Simon & Simon, starring Adam Scott and Jon Hamm), this time Scott and Parks & Rec co-star Amy Poehler will recreate the classic romantic detective series Hart to Hart! (This "greatest event" will surely be the "grea...

I just moved into the Dekum/Woodlawn area and it's the shit, don't move there, people like me are already ruining it. A few nights ago I wandered into the soft opening of the Oregon Public House, a new bar (and eventual brewery) underneath the Village Ballroom. Billing itself as "the nation's first non-profit pub", proceeds from the Oregon Public House go to support local charitable organizations. It's an attempt to do some good with the fact that—as founder Ryan Saari notes in the below vide...

President Obama's sort of mucking things up, lately, everybody. A rundown: -Obama's Justice Department, it turns out, surveilled the phone records of more than 100 Associated Press reporters last year, an attempt to identify a leak. -We're pretty conservative here at GMN, and it boils the blood to learn guys like us have been disproportionately scrutinized by the IRS. States' rights! -To say nothing of this Benghazi business. Small government! -And look! An accused American spy stationed in t...

We already heard a new Typhoon song this morning, but there's much more Music Monday! Cold Hearted Town by The TaxpayersLocal DIY punk-folk-goof-etc. band the Taxpayers have a new album on the way titled Cold Hearted Town, and and here's the opening title track, in two parts: "Cold Hearted Town Pt 1" and "Cold Hearted Town Pt 2." A rollicking, seasick-drunk jaunt with ragtime overtones, the two-parter is lively, dark, and immediately gripping—"Pt 2" in particular is really outstanding. The al...

TODAY IN STAR WARS NEWS: The most meaningful Star Wars news today is that good ol' Star Wars Kid—who's now 25 years old, which means his name is slightly out of date—is speaking out against bullying. Man. People were dicks to Star Wars Kid, which just seems insane to me. So good on you, Star Wars Man! The rest of us who weren't dicks to you still love you! (No word yet on if Star Wars Man is dreading the return of Arrested Development. I'd guess... probably?) The most interesting Star Wars ne...

Joss Whedon joins Twitter! (I love it when people you figured were old hands at Twitter finally decide to jump on the boat. So adorable! FOLLOW HIM.) Jimmy Fallon's new Tonight Show and Seth Meyers new Late Show will debut during the Winter Olympics in February, as if you care, and I know you don't, so why am I even typing these words?!? Carrie Underwood will star in a live TV stage version of The Sound of Music in February—and guess what? The Von Trapp great grandchildren visited the Mercury...

Look, I'm not watching this thing. I want to go into the fourth season of Arrested Development completely fresh, and I don't know why anyone would want some of the jokes telegraphed in advance. But if you want to see it, here it is: [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Stoned, bearded Stan is your favorite Stan. Until Now. Did you know Stan was a Teenage Heartthrob in the 90's? Adorable! Hit the jump for this week's Mad Men recappage. "Man With a Plan" finds us in the wake of the SCDP/CGC merger, the respective staffs meeting up and butting heads and feeling the crunch of redundancies. A few points, the loss of Vick Chemical and Frank Gleason's illness, are unwelcome surprises, but Cutler and Sterling seem like old buddies already. Don and Ted have some thi...