PoMo Picks: May 2015
MUSIC: Riot Grrrl Ruse
It’s the gig of the month—face it, the gig of the year. So woe betide those who aren’t holding tickets for Sleater-Kinney’s long-sold-out Crystal Ballroom comeback. Portlanders will be muttering over their microbrews about this one for years. If you can’t go, you’re going to have to fake it: try this handy guide (drawn from reviews of the No Cities to Love tour thus far) to bluff your way through the inevitable post-show postmortems.
May 5 | Crystal Ballroom
Image: Brigitte Sire
THEATER: The Simpsons Gets Meta
What better way to pass your time in a TV-deprived, postapocalyptic future than by retelling an episode of The Simpsons? Specifically, an episode of The Simpsons that is itself a retelling of the movie Cape Fear? Which is itself a retelling ... well, you get the picture: stories get meta in Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, an acclaimed work from Reed College alumna Anne Washburn. Matt Groening’s characters take on the stuff of legend as a group of survivors forges a new culture from memories of the one they’ve lost. In this Portland Playhouse production each act unfolds in a different part of the company’s building. Smithers, release the hounds.
May 13–June 7 | Portland Playhouse
the essentials
Image: Caldo Verde Recrds
The album: If you’re looking for lush, disquieting vocals and a record to remind you of the strange joy of heartbreak, then Corrina Repp should be your earbud staple this month. Her new album, The Pattern of Electricity, packs a lyrical punch to the solar plexus. May 5
Image: Little, Brown
The book: Stocking up for your summer speed-reads? Check out the debut novel from Portland writer and former Powell’s employee Polly Dugan. The Sweetheart Deal, her second book with heavyweight house Little, Brown, follows her short-story collection So Much a Part of You. May 19
Image: Purplemaze Productions
The film: The Cult of JT LeRoy screens this month in the queer-focused QDoc festival. Marjorie Sturm’s documentary unpacks a literary hoax: the acclaimed author of a precocious “autobiographical” novel, allegedly a prostitute’s androgynous teenage son, turned out to be a Brooklyn-born woman in her thirties. A connection with Gus Van Sant—“LeRoy” gets credit on the original screenplay of Elephant—and Portland Monthly contributor Nancy Rommelmann’s appearance in the documentary up the local interest.
May 14–17
