special events

TEDx Portland: Now with Macklemore
Saturday, Keller Auditorium
Back for its fourth year, TEDx Portland returns to dust off our brains in time for spring with “ideas worth spreading,” although with the late-breaking addition of Grammy-winning rapper Macklemore, that dusting has suddenly become a wind tunnel. Tickets are still available, and we're giving away a pair.

H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival and Cthulhucon
Friday–Sunday, Hollywood Theatre
Fans of the grandfather of horror writing, H.P. Lovecraft, come together for the 19th annual extravaganza weekend featuring short and feature films, panels with the likes of Doug Bradley (aka “Pinhead” from Hellraiser), music by Lovecraftian bands, and even a Temple of Yog-Sothoth Spaghetti Dinner.

concerts

Little Dragon with Unknown Metal Orchestra
Thursday, Roseland Theater
Little Dragon performs with Unknown Mortal Orchestra, a winning combination of dreamy playfulness and psychedelia.

Shook Twins
Friday, Mississippi Studios
Quirky indie-folk doesn’t have many more idyllic voices than those of these twins, who follow up their collaboration with Ben Darwish on 2013’s excellent Morning Ritual album, The Clear Blue Pearl, with a new duo effort, What We Do.

Pink Martini with the Oregon Symphony and the Von Trapps
Friday to Sunday, Arlene Schnitzer
Thomas Lauderdale and friends team up with the great-grandchildren of Captain and Maria von Trapp and the Oregon Symphony as backing band to celebrate the release of their new album, Dream a Little Dream.

ticket alert

• Tickets for Justin Timberlake at the Moda Center on November 20 go on sale Monday, April 14 at 10 am (pre-sales currently going on for members of his fanclub and Amex holders). 
• Tickets for Michael Franti and Spearhead at McMenamin's Edgefield on June 29 go on sale Friday, April 11 at 10 am. 
• All general admission, OMG, parking and camping passes now on sale for What the Festival.

dance

Review in Short White Bird: Emio Greco
Thursday–Saturday, Newmark Theatre
Inspired by the 1960 Italian boxing film Rocco and His Brothers, this Amsterdam-based company puts a boxing ring on stage for two intense acts of athletic, harrowing, and deeply sexy dance set to a soundtrack of boxing bells and electronic music.

First one pair of dancers in boxing shorts, and then a second pair in outfits that transform from cartoonish all-black get-ups to glitter hot pants, take the ring, their choreography not just drawing the old comparison between boxing and ballet, but detonating it in an explosion of punches, parries and spins, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets modern dance. The fight-dancing toes the homoerotic line between masculine aggression and agressive attraction—with a quick breather for a humorous "Pause" of consignment hawking and lip-synching. In other words, this is butch dance that will even appeal to dance-hating but mixed-martial-arts-loving men.

If you go, do whatever you can to sit in one of the rows of seating on stage. The four dancers are not just masters of movement—they are actors who communicate as much in the intensity of their stares as in their swings. And there's nothing so intense as when they turn that stare on you.

Zip Zap Zoom & Zip Zap Doom
Thru April 19, A-Wol Dance Collective
A family feud between superhero Zoom and her evil sisters, Zip and Zap, with the fate of Zoom’s unicorn at stake, sets the stage for a high-flying warehouse extravaganza of ground battles, aerial theatrics, dance, and classic storytelling.

theater

Midsummer: A Play with Songs
Thru April 19, CoHo Theatre
Third Rail flirts with its first musical in this two-person romance about trying desperately not to fall in love. “Midsummer wears its irreverence like a badge of honor: an early dialogue-heavy sex scene sets the tone for a production that holds no punches when it comes to depicting the intimate awkwardness of early relationships, particularly when there's booze and pot involved..." Read our full review.

The Quality of Life
Thru May 11, Artists Repertory Theatre
Involving the death of a child, terminal cancer, a burned-down house, and the reality of vastly differing values, Jane Anderson’s drama’s title, well, speaks for itself.  Of course, it’s nothing some red wine and a few bong hits won’t fix.

comedy

The Breast Variety Show Ever
Thursday, Brody Theater
This fundraising event for local improv stalwart Domeka Parker, currently battling breast cancer, features stand up, fire juggling, improv, music, and raffle prizes. Bring your friends, your generosity, and your sense of tumor…er, humor!

Cappella Romana: Passion Week
April 11, St. Mary's Cathedral
Artistic director Alexander Lingas and his ensemble present the world premiere of Maximilian Steinberg’s long-lost score, the last major sacred work composed in Russia before Stalin cracked down on religious art. It disappeared for 88 years. In our Spring Arts Preview, we track how Lingas found it.

art

This is Not a Silent Movie
Thru April 19, Museum of Contemporary Craft
The Museum of Contemporary Craft teams up with the Anchorage Museum to offer four contemporary Alaska Native artists who are blending ancient traditions with new media: Nicholas Galanin, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Da-ka-xeen Mehner, and Susie Silook. The show is everything an exhibition should be: haunting, thought-provoking, funny, and beautiful—not to mention easily accessible for those who aren't regular gallery goers. Don't miss it.

Art Gym: Vanessa Renwick Opening Reception
Sunday from 3–5 pm, Marylhurst University
The veteran local artist covers the Art Gym’s large windows with intricate, colored gels in the shapes of birds, which combine with a video of migrating birds scored by Sam Coomes from Quasi for the full Renwick experience.

books & Talks

Tom Spanbauer Book Release and Fundraiser for Oregon United for Marriage
Thursday, Broadway Books
"His writing does my favorite thing: it makes me feel more human," says Cheryl Strayed, one of several local authors to sing Spanbauer's praises in our story about his incredible literary influence in preview of his fourth book, I Loved You More.

Tough Guys Reading Poetry
Friday, Jack London Bar
Hear some swarthy n' tough guys and gals spin tales and speak prose about their surf and turf journeys. Gotta be quick because these folks are on the mic and then back to the everyday as regular Jack Keroucs of the sea and road.