Books & Talks

Gabriel Urza

7:30 p.m. Thu, Powell's City of Books, FREE
Attorney-author Gabriel Urza’s latest, The White Death: An Illusion, deals with the mysterious death of a 14-year-old illusionist. Urza, who teaches English at Portland State, will join Leni Zumas—author of Red Clocks and the director of PSU’s MFA program—at Powell’s for a talk.

Music

A. A. Bondy

9 p.m. Thu, Doug Fir Lounge, $15–17
Per the press release: “Enderness, A. A. Bondy’s first album in eight years, was finished the day before a wildfire burned his house down.” Featuring song titles like “Diamond Skull” and “Fentanyl Freddy,” Pitchfork describes Enderness as “a plodding dystopian story of living death stoked by internet anti-reality.” So expect the flamboyant former Verbena frontman to deliver... some of that when he rolls into town at the end of July.

Paradise Hotel Release Party

8 p.m. Thu, Mississippi Studios, $10
Mississippi Studio throws a release party to celebrate Paradise Hotel, New Move’s collaborative LP featuring a roster of PDX favorites. Acts include Y La Bamba, New Move, Aan, Laura Palmer’s Death Parade, Michael Finn, Tribe Mars, and Dan Dan. 

Chamber Music Northwest Summer Festival

Times, venues, and prices vary
The Northwest’s only chamber music festival takes over stages across the city for its 49th year. Featuring multiple events every day from late June to late July, it covers a lot of ground: Mozart, film scores, jazz clarinet, an “instrument petting zoo” where kids can get familiar with brass and strings. Performances are supplemented with a series of talks and open rehearsals for the extra-curious.

Broken Social Scene

7 p.m. Sat, Oregon Zoo, $35–95
Broken Social Scene, whose 2017 release Hug of Thunder reminded us why they’re worthy of every Lorde callout they’ve ever received (one), hit the Oregon Zoo this July. Local duo Helio Sequence opens.

Theater

CLOSING Much Ado About Nothing

7:30 p.m. Thu–Sat, 2 p.m. Sun, Vault Theater, $27–32
Perhaps the greatest of Shakespeare’s comedies, Much Ado About Nothing is a twisty tale of love and deceit and an uproarious farce to boot. Hillsboro’s Bag & Baggage Productions offers a modern take on the classic source material, promising an exploration of “love and its many facets with a fluid approach to gender.” 

CLOSING Wicked

7:30 p.m. Thu–Fri, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sat, 1 and 6 p.m. Sun, Keller Auditorium, $49+
Since its debut in 2003, the famed Broadway show has broken countless box office records, establishing itself as one of the most widely beloved musicals of the 2000s. As a reimagining of The Wizard of Oz’s embattled witches, it tells the story of Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, Wicked Witch of the West, long before Dorothy entered the fold.  

OPENING In the Penal Colony

7:30 p.m. Fri, 2 p.m. Sun, Hampton Opera Center, $75
Jerry Mouawad, best known as Imago Theatre’s inventive cofounder, directs Philip Glass’s one-act chamber opera based on Franz Kafka’s short story about an island prison and its vicious execution machine.

Visual Art

CLOSING Jessie Weitzel Le Grand

Noon–5 p.m. Thu–Sun, Carnation Contemporary, FREE
In Bloom Tomb, the local sculptor and second-grade teacher showcases mixed-media “artifacts and snacks” from an imagined town she calls Ny By. Sounds precious, but it’s not: Le Grand’s multilayered sculptures are colorful, cheeky affairs featuring flowers and sandwich fixings.

Paris 1900

10 a.m.–8 p.m. Thu–Fri, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Sat–Sun, Portland Art Museum, $20
It’s a Parisian time-travel vacay at the Portland Art Museum, with a sweeping exhibit that luxuriates in the opulence of the Belle Époque via paintings (including by Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot), posters, jewelry, art nouveau furniture, early film clips, and more, all on loan from museums in the French capital. Très magnifique!

Special Events

Portlandia Mermaid Parade

Noon Sat, Japanese American Historical Plaza, FREE
The incomparable Una the Mermaid hosts the fourth annual installment of this annual parade, a gender-fluid, family-friendly, body-positive gathering of merpeople of all stripes.