Top Things to Do This Weekend: July 9–12
Your weekend itinerary, courtesy Portland Monthly's weekend-by-weekend Summer Guide: Stumptown’s swingingest Friday happy hour? N Mississippi Avenue whiskey house Bungalo Bar, where a double bank of porch swings starts the weekend on the right foot. (Get it?) Then comb back that duck tail and head to the Portland International Raceway for the long-running Vintage Racing Festival, where classic car heats run all day—from ’70s Trans Ams to Roaring ’20s jalopies. PIR’s high-octane party starts after the last checkered flag, with dinner on the track for competitors, and live music from Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Go posh on Sunday with the perfect post-brunch digestif: a free afternoon preview (at the Central Library, no less) of Portland Opera’s The Elixir of Love.
New album Highlights "began in a basement in Pittsburgh and ended in a church in Brooklyn." Photo credit: Tanlines.
MUSIC
Tanlines
Thursday at 9 pm, Mississippi Studios
In May, sparkly Brooklyn dance duo Tanlines released sophomore album Highlights. The vivaciously poppy recording from drummer Jesse Cohen and singer Eric Emm (whose vocals earn comparisons to Roy Orbison) is already being called the “most fun indie rock album” of the year.
Decemberists with Calexico
Friday & Saturday at 6:30 pm, McMenamins Edgefield
New album What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World is everywhere; now you get to see it live. Who could possibly upstage Stumptown’s resident rock stars? Perhaps sonic soulmates Calexico, of Tucson, whose 2015 album, Edge of the Sun, called on indie-rock darlings like Neko Case, Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam, and Devotchka’s Nick Urata.
COMEDY
Russell Howard
Friday at 8 pm, Alberta Rose Theatre
In Britain, this young BBC comedian is known for ripping bits from the headlines with a “mind as sharp as a witch’s nose” (or so says Time Out). Will his stage material translate across the pond? He’s got a one-month North American tour to find out.
Photo credit: Marc Maron.
Marc Maron
Saturday at 7 pm, Revolution Hall
Maron dated Moon Zappa, interviewed Barack Obama, had a bit part in Almost Famous (as "angry promoter") and calls his home the Cat Ranch (because, you know, he has three cats.). The Air America radio vet, iconoclastic podcaster, and frequent TV stand-up guest accepts being called an “Iggy Pop Woody Allen.” Catch him on the end leg of his Maronation Tour.
SPECIAL EVENTS
World Domination Summit
Thursday–Monday from 9 am, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
What happens when 3,000 special snowflakes meet in Portland for five days of intentional adventures fomented by local self-help superstar Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup? Yoga-chain world records are broken and smoothie-empire success stories are shared. (If the fearless nonconformity is too much, head to the Highly Sensitive Person Lounge for hammocks and green tea.)
Gettin' sudsy this Saturday at the White Owl Social Club!
LagerFest
Saturday from 2 pm, White Owl Social Club
Ah, cold, crisp, refreshing lager! Whether cut with glacier-fed Rocky Mountain spring water or New Jersey’s Wanaque Reservoir, bottom-fermented beer remains the people’s choice (90 percent of global boozers swill it). But as Saturday's lineup of 50+ mostly-local lagers, pilsners, and porters proves, there’s no reason, anymore, why lagerphiles must choose between just a few macrobrews.
BOOKS & TALKS
Jay Nebel
Sunday at 4 pm, Powell's Books on Hawthorne
New works from a rising Portland poet: Nebel’s collection Neighbors presents a set of lyric profiles on that guy at the DMV or the 24-hour diner.
THEATER
Drowned Horse Tavern (A Sea Shanty Cabaret)
Thursday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, CoHo Theatre
What do you do with a drunken sailor? If your answer involves a rusty razor (or the captain’s daughter) then you’re ready for this show with Amber Whitehall, Christi Miles, and Rebecca Lingafelter. Promised: salty dogs, vaudeville, leviathans.
Don't mess with the Mirren! Promotional shot from The Audience.
NT Live: The Audience
Saturday at 2 pm and 7 pm, World Trade Center Theatre
Helen Mirren adds yet another royal role to her CV as Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan’s very British play—presented in London's West End in 2013 and here broadcast locally by Third Rail Rep. Eavesdrop on the monarch's [dramatically reenacted] weekly discussions with her Prime Ministers—twelve over the course of the play.
The Taming of the Shrew
Saturday & Sunday, Various times and locations
Bust out your loudest picnic blanket for this alfresco run of the Bard’s classic farce, directed by Patrick Walsh. Portland Actors Ensemble’s 46th season of free Shakespeare in the Park spans locations like wineries, the Concordia and Reed campuses, and Laurelhurst Park.
VISUAL ARTS
Photo courtesy Sean Chamberlain of One Grand Gallery.
The PDX Project
Thursday from 7–10 pm, Friday–Sunday from noon to 6 pm, One Grand Gallery
Twenty artists (including Nike designer William Green and Sizzle Pie owner Mikey McKennedy) show work inspired by—and even made from—the infamous PDX carpet. The framing question: if this carpet could talk, what would it say? Expect design motifs like marijuana and footprints (and, slightly more end-of-life, a carpet–coffin).
The Spacesuits: Tales of the Ancient-Future
Friday at 8 pm, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center
Afrofuturist jazzman Sun Ra is the inspiration for this multimedia installation from art collective the Spacesuits—a group that aims to generate “new concepts for paradise.” For one night, the art is incorporated into live performances from Portland-based Spacesuits Ripley Snell, High Society, Mat Randol, and Grape God.
