Portlandia and Pickathon: Together At Last! 

Two beloved local institutions are to come together this summer when Portlandia descends on the Pickathon festival to film an entire festival-themed episode. Pickathon announced this week that Fred, Carrie and crew will be making a festival appearance, on day one of the four-day event. Word is there’ll be a special musical guest with them, who’ll be treating audiences to some bonus entertainment at 5.30 pm on Thursday, July 30. The catch? You need an Early Entry ticket for this, and those have to be accompanied by Pickathon Weekend Tickets. If you've already got your weekend ticket, shell out a little extra for the Early Entry pass, get your festival finery on you and get thee to Pendarvis Farm, Portlandia fans!

Happy Birthday Hollywood Theatre

Portland’s beloved Hollywood Theatre is 89 tomorrow, July 17, and celebrations are afoot. A special screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 thriller Vertigo in 70mm will form part of the day’s festivities, accompanied by a swig or several of The Vertigo Effect, a new beer specially crafted for the occasion. The Hollywood is teaming up with Astoria’s Fort George Brewery to create the birthday beer, which will be available on tap during the Vertigo run, July 17-19. FYI, the 'Vertigo effect' is a camera technique used by Hitchcock in the movie, a simultaneous zoom-in and track-backwards intended to make the viewer feel vertiginous. Then again, if you drink enough of the Fort George brew, you might not need the camera trickery. Just sayin'.

Fight Club Rock Opera, Anyone?  

Local literary darling Chuck Pahlaniuk has some Fight Club news—at least that’s what he reportedly told entertainment journalist Jeff Goldsmith. At last weekend’s Comic-Con in San Diego, Goldsmith tweeted that director David Fincher and Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor were working on a Fight Club rock opera. All this plus the comic sequel to the novel that kicked off this spring ensures Tyler Durden is not going away any time soon. Oh, and it’s safe to say that everyone is breaking the first rule right about now . . .

So @chuckpalahniuk told me he's working with David Fincher & @trent_reznor to do a #FightClub rock opera - an enhanced version of the film!

— Jeff Goldsmith (@yogoldsmith) July 11, 2015

 Wild Kratts Coming to PDX

Activate your ticket-buying powers, parents—the popular PBS KIDS show Wild Kratts is en route to Portland, and tickets go on sale tomorrow. The animated Kratt brothers, Chris and Martin, will take on human form on the Schnitzer stage for the live show, complete with comic villain, animal factoids and lots of power activations. Hordes of five- to eight-year-olds will be smashing their piggy banks for tickets to the September 21 show, so get yours early for the sake of family peace. They’re on sale from 10 am.