MUSIC

Natasha Kmeto
Thursday at 9 pm, Doug Fir Lounge
More sultry than Kmeto’s voice in her self–mixed slowjamz is the way she breaks it down to her own tunes, with electrobeats backing her R ‘n’ B melodies. After opening for TV on the Radio last year, the local musician is spreading her own wings with Inevitable, an album all about embracing her own worldview as a queer woman.

Kraftwerk in 3-D
Saturday at 7 pm, Keller Auditorium
Well into the 1980s, pioneering Düsseldorf electronica group Kraftwerk excelled at tapping a global fascination with the melding of man and machine. In 2012, the quartet launched a multi-media retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; catch the show live in Portland.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Time-Based Art Festival
Thursday–Sunday, various times and locations
The annual art extravaganza is back, this year with performance and visual artists from far-flung locales like Italy, Tunisia, Japan, and Norway. Watch for extra TBA treats, given that it’s PICA’s 20th anniversary—like this Saturday's special People's History Tour with Portland Center Stage.

Rose City Comic Con
Saturday & Sunday starting at 10 am, Oregon Convention Center
Gaming! Anime! Cosplay! Carrie Fisher! The fourth annual Rose City Comic Con packs in a pre-con Q&A with Robert Englund, the chance to meet stars from Grimm and The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., speaking appearances from the Eisner award winners and nominees who write, ink, illustrate, and publish your favorite comics (like Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, Jonathan Case, and Michael Allred), wonky panels on Battlestar Galactica, and so much more.

BOOKS & TALKS

Joe Whitworth
Friday at 7:30 pm, Powell's City of Books
The City of Books gets a little bit greener with the president of The Freshwater Trust's calculated book on environmental conservation. Quantified: Redefining Conservation for a New Economy uses examples of resource management set by tech–savvy organizations from the western U.S. to Australia to create an eco–friendly business manual that doesn't skimp on the bottom line.

THEATER

OPENING Or,
Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Imago Theatre
Third Rail Repertory kicks off its 10th season with a witty Restoration-era spy thriller in the vein of Tom Stoppard. Philip Cuomo—recently seen nailing last season’s masterful Belleville—directs.

Our Town
Thursday–Sunday at 7:30 pm, Sunday at 2 pm, Gerding Theatre
Portland Center Stage opens their 2015/16 season with a cast of 20 performing this Pulitzer Prize-winning Thornton Wilder classic, about life and death in a small New England town.

Mercy Killers
Thursday at 8 pm, Alberta Rose Theater
Powerhouse Michael Milligan, Broadway actor from Ohio, wrote and stars in this touring, one–man play about a Republican mechanic fighting for the love of his life, diagnosed with cancer. Milligan aims to mine the struggles and runaround within our current health care system (and proceeds will fittingly go to Health Care for All Oregon).

VISUAL ART

OPENING Dark Matter
Thursday–Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm, Jeffrey Thomas Fine Art
For this group show 15 artists turn into the shadows to contemplate the varied meanings of darkness—bumps in the night, hidden corners, and closed closets. Including a video installation by Laura Fritz and an enormous ceramic sculpture Brad Mildrexler, each meditation presents the artist’s discoveries and experiences on the dark side.

OPENING Demos: Wapato Correctional Facility
Friday–Sunday from noon to 5 pm, c3:initiative
From the collective mind of Bay Area artist group ERNEST, this mixed media exhibit (two years in the making!) rediscovers one-time St. John’s jail, now empty but for coyotes. The show takes on challenging topics inspired by the site, and includes a video based on shots of 525 vacant beds and footage from CCTV security and wildlife cameras.

OPENING Mrs. Benway                   
Saturday & Sunday from 11 am to 5 pm, Fourteen30 Contemporary
Just as the dream of the 90s dawned in Portland, 80s-born music magazine Spex was alive and well in Germany and discussing their growing art scene. Titled for a popular column in the mag, “Mrs. Benway” pulls together five artists from varied states and backgrounds for a group exhibit that presents womanhood, uninhibited.