Top Things to Do This Weekend: Feb 11–14
The Oregon Symphony beams us up with a live-score Star Trek.
BOOKS AND TALKS
JD Chandler
7:30 pm Thursday, Powell's Books
JD Chandler, co-author of Murder and Scandal in Prohibition Portland, knows Portland better than most—and certainly when it comes to the vice-riddled reign of Roaring Twenties-era Mayor George Louis Baker.
Jonathan Berger
6:30 pm Thursday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
The New York conceptual artist is affiliated with Bread and Puppet Theater and Yaddo. He guest lectures for PNCA’s MFA in Visual Studies visiting artist series. He also has a show at Adams and Ollman, opening Thursday (Feb 11).
COMEDY
Bill Maher gets Politically Incorrect at the Schnitz.
Bill Maher
8 pm Saturday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Still Politically Incorrect, the late-night TV personality has made recent waves deriding both Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson and the values of Syrian refugees.
MUSIC
Turtle Island String Quartet
7:30 pm Thursday, Dolores Winningstad Theatre
For latest album Confetti Man, the Grammy award-winning Turtle Island String Quartet brings an innovative, genre-collapsing jazz/chamber sound that prompted cellist Yo-Yo Ma to name the group among “the most creative music-makers today.”
Grace Potter plays town on Friday.
Grace Potter
8 pm Friday, Roseland Theater
Kicking ass since 2002, the Nocturnals front woman recently released solo album Midnight, a dance-floor pop monster that turns up—like, to level 10—her hard-hitting brand of blues rock.
Fernando
9 pm Friday, Star Theater
Before Portland's resident Argentine indie rocker heads to Europe to tour for new album Leave the Radio On, he needs to pad the bank account a bit. Joining him at this fundraiser show are fellow heavy-hitters Trujillo, Joshua James, and Michael Dean Damron.
Ural Thomas and the Pain
9 pm Sunday, Rontom's
The venue's popular Sunday Session aims straight for the heart this Valentine's Day weekend. Resurgent local soul man Thomas headlines; the Domestics open.
THEATER
OPENING Contigo Pan y Cebolla
Thursday-Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2 pm, Milagro Theatre
This Spanish-language comedy takes place just prior to the Cuban Revolution; in Héctor Quintero Viera’s 1962 play, money-hungry matriarch Lala is hell-bent on faking it till she makes it.
Milagro opens Contigo Pan y Cebolla.
OPENING Blasted
Friday-Saturday at 7:30 pm, Defunkt Theatre
On its 1995 premiere, Sarah Kane’s brutal drama was itself blasted, for shock value. (After all, it’s a story of war, rape, and death.) Years after her 1999 suicide, the late playwright gets critical nods for her fearless exploration of humanity’s darkest corners.
CLOSING Great Expectations
7:30 pm Thursday-Sunday at 7:30 pm and Saturday at 2 pm, Gerding Theater
Dickensian orphan Pip’s rags-to-riches adventures here features Dana Green as the intriguingly unhinged Miss Havisham.
CLOSING Golden Boy
7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, Lakewood Center for the Arts
Clifford Odets’s acclaimed bildungsroman set in Depression-era Harlem erupts on the Lakewood stage. Tortured protagonist Joe Bonaparte dreams of becoming a violinist; circumstances force him into prize-fighting. Vladimir Ilnitzky directs this timeless tale of fractured selfhood.
FILM
Star Trek: Into Darkness
7:30 pm Friday, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Take J. J. Abrams, add Benedict Cumberbatch, mix in some of Grammy-winning composer Michael Giacchino’s sweeping score, and top it all off with the Oregon Symphony: the result is Star Trek Into Darkness, with the symphony playing along. Set phasers to stun.
Still from Songs from the North—South Korean director Soon-Mi Yoo's collage of on-site footage, archival film and TV clips, and interviews from North Korea. (Running Feb 19 as part of PIFF 2016.)
Portland International Film Festival
Various times Thursday-Sunday, various locations
Screening upwards of 130 films and luring more than 45,000 cinephiles, Oregon’s largest film confab features global indie favorites alongside works from the likes of Irene Taylor Brodsky, Michael Palmieri, and Donal Mosher. Multiple screenings occur daily at various theaters including Cinema 21 and Regal Fox Tower. Check out some of our picks here.
VISUAL ART
Some of the most impressive work in the region, collected at the Contemporary Northwest Art Awards.
OPENING Contemporary Northwest Art Awards
Saturday & Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm, Portland Art Museum
Prejudice, war, technology, and the environment are some of the issues addressed in the works on show at the Portland Art Museum’s fourth biennial awards exhibition. This year’s celebration is an eclectic showcase of eight of the region’s most significant artists working in all manner of media—among them, Portland artists Dana Lynn Louis and Samantha Wall. Expect large-scale installations, neon figures, ceramic portraits, and metaphorical, moody landscapes.
APEX: Shelby Shadwell
Thursday & Friday from 10 am to 8 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, Portland Art Museum
Shadwell’s massively lustrous black-and-white charcoal renderings aim for a dialogue that “elevates the mundane;” the Wyoming artist startles with abstractions of cockroaches and dirty diapers.
Rowland Ricketts
Thursday-Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm, Museum of Contemporary Craft
From hand-grown indigo dye (“sukumo”) prepared the ancient Japanese way, Ricketts creates an immersive, site-specific installation featuring hand-dyed linen and historic textiles.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Zwickelmania
Saturday from 11 am to 4 pm, breweries across Portland
Presidents’ Day weekend tradition happily coincides with Valentine’s Day this year, giving you a legit reason to toast love, love lost, or even zwickels (if you’re curious, they’re the keys used to get samples from fermentation vats). Over 100 breweries in the Portland area will participate in the statewide beer-centric fest, opening their doors to the public for tours, meet-the-brewer events, and special tastings.
