August's Pop Culture Hot List
Image: Nateesh Podolske
The Band
If you missed Divers’ electric performances marking the February release of their great, guitar-grinding debut album, Hello Hello, you’re in luck: the Portland quartet takes the stage at MusicfestNW this month as part of the August 23 lineup. Get there early—they’re a surprisingly long way down the bill—for a kick of their kinetic energy.
Image: Gabrielle Urbani
The Book
Local writer Ellen Urbani follows an acclaimed memoir When I Was Elena—Alice Walker is a fan—with her first novel, LANDFALL, a story of mothers and daughters set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Out August 29, the 10th anniversary of Katrina’s Louisiana landfall.
Image: Scott Green / The CW
The TV Show
A Stumptown restaurateur whose best friend is dating his mother? Sounds thoroughly Portland. It’s also the premise for Significant Mother, a new TV comedy out this month on the CW network that was filmed in various spots around the city in spring. Added bonus? Linda Gray, who played the gin-steeped wife of JR Ewing on the soap Dallas in the ’80s, as the grandmother. Come for the Portland location spotting, stay for Sue Ellen.
