BOOKS & TALKS

Mary Pappenfuss
7:30 p.m. Thursday, Powell's Books on Hawthorne
Soccer! Scandal! Strippers! Mary Pappenfuss and co-writer Teri Thompson bring it all together in American Huckster, their account about soccer dad-turned-FIFA scam artist Chuck Blazer.

COMEDY

Back Fence PDX
8 p.m. Saturday, Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center
For its competitive Russian roulette–style show—spin the giant wheel for your prompt, and then take five minutes to prepare a true tale—the storytelling series welcomes such raconteurs as Long Winters front man John Roderick, God Is Disappointed in You author Mark Russell, and previous champ Shannon Balcom. 

FASHION

Modified Style Fashion Show
7 pm Thursday, Crystal Ballroom
Newbie designers show off their stuff, with live music performances and always fabulous drag queen LuLu Luscious serving as emcee. Proceeds benefit Project Lemonade and Oregon Dress for Success, nonprofits that provide clothing for foster kids and low-income women.

FILM

Hollywood Theatre's 90th Anniversary
7 p.m. Friday and 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday–Sunday, Hollywood Theatre
Toast Portland’s stalwart movie house at a slew of special 70 mm screenings. Up this weekend is 2001: A Space Odyssey. Open the pod bay doors, HAL. For more, check out our Q&A with head programmer Dan Halsted.

MUSIC

Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival
Various times and locations Thursday–Sunday
Five weeks. 50 concerts. In its 46th year, the chamber music extravaganza returns to the halls of Reed and Portland State with a celebration of Beethoven, including performances of all 16 of the composer’s string quartets. Also promising: an expanded offering of Wednesday-evening concerts featuring percussion and jazz, BodyVox dancing to Shakespeare-themed chamber music, and a one-man theater piece about Brahms. For more picks, check out our Q&A with Third Angle's Ron Blessinger.

Diana Ross
6:30 p.m. Friday, McMenamins Edgefield
Ain’t no mountain high enough to keep us from seeing this Motown legend. Fingers crossed for lots of sequins, frothy tulle, crystalline vocals, and maybe even a DJ Khaled cover. (It’s happened before.)

Waterfront Blues Festival
Friday–Monday, Tom McCall Waterfront Park
The venerable festival, which launched in 1987, welcomes another packed lineup to the banks of the Willamette. This year features powerfully piped Portland songstress Liz Vice, Femi Kuti (son of Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti), blues rocker ZZ Ward, and funky saxophonist Maceo Parker.

case/lang/veirs
7 p.m. Saturday, Oregon Zoo
Deal of the summer: three kick-ass musicians with stellar solo careers for the price of one, touring on the back of their eponymous new Portland-made record. For more, check out our story about the making of the record.

THEATER

OPENING West Side Story
7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Deb Fennell Auditorium
Tigard’s Broadway Rose continues its 25th anniversary season with Stephen Sondheim’s epic Romeo and Juliet riff.

Original Practice Shakespeare Festival
2 p.m. Saturday, Cathedral Park; 7 p.m. Saturday, Irving Park
OPS claims to produce Shakespeare the way it was done in the Bard’s day: with minimal rehearsal, an onstage prompter, and plentiful audience interaction. The company has 13 plays in its repertoire this summer, with showings at parks across the city. Saturday's 2 p.m. show is The Tempest, while Romeo & Juliet hits at 7 p.m. 

CLOSING Procedures for Saying No
8 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Shaking the Tree
The inventive folks at Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble continue their Journey Play constellation—a set of performances that’s included a sound installation inspired by a doomed Arctic expedition, a meditation on Moby Dick, and a night of bawdy, grog-soaked cabaret—with what they’re calling “an examination of toil in the workplace.” It’s loosely inspired by “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Herman Melville’s short story about a law clerk who suddenly stops working—but never leaves the office.

VISUAL ART

CLOSING David Selleck and Mandy Stigant
11 a.m.–5 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Blackfish Gallery, FREE
In Couch Painting, Selleck shows collage drawings, all of which he creates in 30 minutes—vivid, playful works in which he riffs on advertisements, news, and other images he consumes on an average day. In Vary Plenty, Stigant has created functional ceramics that reflect Portland’s DIY obsession: think tea sets, pickling crocks, and baskets.

Ryan Pierce and Andrea Bowers
10:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Elizabeth Leach Gallery, FREE
In Dusk Is the Mouth of the Night, Portland painter Pierce imagines spaces such as museums ruined by climate change. Bowers’s single-channel video piece, The United States v. Tim DeChristopher, also dives into environmental devastation, via the 2008 disruption of an oil and gas lease auction.

Josh DeWeese
10 a.m.–6 p.m. Thursday–Saturday, Eutectic Gallery, FREE
The Montana ceramics artist uses local materials to craft expressive, painterly pots and jars.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Pedalpalooza
Thursday–Sunday, various times and locations
This month-long velostravaganza, which ends this weekend, has bike rides devoted to just about any obsession imaginable. Name your obsession—tweed? Organic produce? Freddie Mercury? Wine? Mamma Mia? Coffee at sunrise? Potlucks and dance parties at sunset? High heels? Solar panels? Lube your chain, lucky cyclist: Pedalpalooza has a ride for you.