December To Forget (DTF™) features:
WAMPIRE
MOON BY YOU
EVERYONE IS DIRTY (SF)
Party Damage Records DTF DJs in the bar
-The second edition of "the hot party boy" cocktail
-Costumes
-Door prizes
-Canned food drive: $1 off your ticket with a canned food donation for the Oregon Food Bank (foods high in proteins and nutrients are most needed: tuna, vegetables, soups, etc).
Rasheed Jamal's 2015 full-length album, Sankofa, starts out with the sleepy trip-hop beat and breathy vocals of "Zuzu's and WhamWhams," lulling you into a slow nightmarish sense of disconnection, followed by the raw intensity of "Urban Decay" and its vocal hook, "Can we please have a moment of silence (violence)." This syncopated, sprint-jog pacing sets the tone for what is one of the best Northwest hip-hop releases of the past few years.
Joining Jamal tonight is fellow Resistance emcee Mic Capes, who released a collection of singles this summer from his upcoming album, Concrete Dreams, all of which are emotional, powerful, honest, narrative-driven raps over eerily simple backbeats.
Kill Rock Stars Presents:
KINSKI (Seattle, WA)
WIMPS (Seattle, WA)
DEEP FRIEND BOOGIE BAND (Portland, OR. Members of Quasi, Boston Spaceships, Dragging An Ox Through Water, etc.)
Cayetano Ferrer, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gordon, Nate Hess, Jonathan Mandabach, Ashland Mines
Curated by Chiara Giovando
Contact Expo by DLS Solution (Downtown Light and Sound Solution), is a multi-channel sound and light environment that will continually shift over the course of the six-week exhibition. Focusing on the potential of surface as the site of sculpture, this collaborative installation will utilize 3D mapping with extensive speaker and projection arrays to question the reliability of an object’s obligations to the quality or character of its environment.
Part of the Curator-in-Residence program, Sound is Matter, from Chiara Giovando.
DLS Solution is an exhibition think tank focused on light and sound environments. The growing list of contributors include Daniela Anastassiou, O.A. Biddle, Cayetano Ferrer, Nate Gonzales Hess, Jacqueline Gordon, Jonathan Mandabach, Miles Martinez, Ashland Mines and Daniel Pineda. Blurring the boundaries between light industry and deep content production, DLS Solution is a platform for collaboration through corporate identity dissolution. DLS Solution is informed by rapid changes in aesthetics technology and seeks to modify existing frameworks to create new input/output circuitry for form and content. Past events and exhibitions by DLS Solution have taken place at Satellite Space in Santa Monica, and MOCA, Human Resources, and the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.
Exhibtion runs December 12, 6pm - January 17th, 2016
Opening reception Saturday, December 12th || Free
Abra Ancliffe
When Looking Down is Looking Up
The Secret Astronomy of Tristram Shandy
Book Launch + Opening Reception
Saturday, December 12, 5-7pm
at c3:initiative | free and open to the public
When Looking Down is Looking Up is an ongoing investigation of the shift from outer space to page as a re-envisioning of matter and printed matter. It centers on how when contemplating what is known and unknown, one usually finds themselves either staring down at the page or up into the sky.
The Secret Astronomy of Tristram Shandy is a book that reproduces over one hundred, self-reflexive black pages from multiple, paperback editions & copies of Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. When taken out of context and accumulated, these once playful, visual metaphors reveal the printing inconsistencies of ink on paper (varying density, hickeys, oxidation spots, and moiré patterns). The hidden nature of the page, that which was unread, can now be read. In this case, astronomical imagery is revealed; that of stars speckled across an inky blackness or the soft haze and ripple of a galaxy. Since the 1760s, readers, printers and publishers have been forced to grapple with the black pages of Sterne’s novel; this struggle with discovery, meaning, and craft is at the heart of The Secret Astronomy of Tristram Shandy.
The Secret Astronomy of Tristram Shandy is funded in part by the Regional Arts & Culture Council.
About the Artist
Abra Ancliffe makes printed matter, books, and libraries about the pursuit of knowledge and the inevitable mistakes and misunderstandings inherent in this pursuit.
abraancliffe.com
personallibrarieslibrary.com
The drama of watching twinkling lights rise ever higher on a magical tree …The thrill of being swept away by snowflakes to a faraway land… The joy in the familiar, shimmering notes announcing the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy… No holiday season is complete without a trip to the “Land of Sweets”! This year, make Oregon Ballet Theatre’s production of Balanchine’s Nutcracker and music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky a part of your holiday experience.
"Weird religious music" show, with special guests Sad Horse, Montgomery Word.
Ron Ewert
I Wish Lunch Could Last Forever
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The psychologist asked Edward whether he had any special powers or abilities that other people do not have. He responded by saying that he didn’t know because he didn’t date women. Puzzled by this response, the psychologist asked him to explain what he meant. Edward responded by asking his own question, “If you had a star in the middle of your head, would you swallow marbles?”
Q: Have you been nervous or tense lately?
A: No, I got a head of lettuce.
Q: You got a head of lettuce? I don’t understand.
A: Well, it’s just a head of lettuce.
Q: Tell me about lettuce. What do you mean?
A: Well…lettuce is a transformation of a dead cougar that suffered a relapse on the lion’s toe. And he swallowed the lion and something happened. The…see, the…Gloria and Tommy, they’re two heads and they’re not whales. But they escaped with herds of vomit, and things like that.
Q: Why are your arms itchy?
A: The problem is insects…my brother used to collect insects. He is a man 5ft 10 inches…you know, 10 is my favorite number. I also like to dance, draw, and watch tv.”
Q: How are you feeling otherwise?
A: “Well, hell, it’s well to tell.”
Q: How does it feel to have your problems?
A: Who can tell me the name of my song? I don’t know but it won’t be long. It won’t be short, tall, none at all. My head hurts, my knees hurt, my nephew, his uncle, my aunt. My God, I’m happy…not a care in the world. My hair’s been curled, the flag’s unfurled, this is my country, land that I love.”
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Ron Ewert lives and works in Chicago, IL, where he received his MFA from the Painting and Drawing Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been shown in a number of solo, two-person and group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the New York Art Book Fair; Johannes Vogt, and Launch F18 in New York; 356 Mission, and LA Art Book Fair Los Angeles; Good Weather Gallery, Little Rock, The Green Gallery and American Fantasy Classics, Milwaukee; Circuit 12 Contemporary, Dallas; and the Freies Museum, Berlin. He has also exhibited widely in Chicago; recently, Ewert’s work was included in A Study in Midwestern Appropriation, a group exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center curated by Michelle Grabner, as well as Power Objects at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids. He was a founder and Co-Director of The Hills Esthetic Center, an exhibition space in Chicago dedicated to emerging local and international artists. In July of 2015 an electrical fire destroyed the warehouse that was Ewert’s home, studio and gallery space for nearly 10 years. Lost in the fire was an expansive archive of Ron’s work and collections, as well as the work of many other artists who had shown in the gallery and had studios in the building. This will be Ewert’s first solo exhibition after the fire.http://ronewert.com/
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SMART Collective, the interactive skate shop located in the Foster-Powell neighborhood, has played host to some outstanding all-ages matinee shows. This event premieres their latest skate video.
The venue welcomes some of Portland's best up-and-coming bands, including atmospheric post-rock outfit Helens, bubblegum pop-rock act Ladywolf, and the jangly, slow-fi trio Bed.
Kiasmos is made up of Icelandic BAFTA-winning composer Ólafur Arnalds, known for his unique blend of minimal piano and string compositions with electronic sounds, and Janus Rasmussen from the Faroe Islands, known as the mastermind of the electro-pop outfit Bloodgroup.
By focusing solely on their self-titled debut album, Ólafur and Janus have been able to combine and further develop their unique sound aesthetics to complete an album driven by their mutual love for electronic music. Made in Ólafur's newly build studio in Reykjavík, Iceland, a majority of the album was recorded using acoustic instruments next to a variety of synthesisers, drum machines and tape delays. It features a live drummer, string quartet and Ólafur performing on the grand piano, producing an ambient, textured sound, which makes it a perfect home listen and equally danceable record. If you listen closely, you can spot them record the thumb piano, finger snapping and even the sound of the metal grinder of a lighter slowly to replace the usual electronic hi-hat sounds, giving the album a far more intimate and unique atmosphere.
"We decided to start almost completely over with this record, so most of the material is written this year with the idea of making a record that can stand as one piece rather than a collection of songs. I am very excited to get a proper record out exploring a different territory than I am used to. I touch a lot on electronic genres in my own music but never have the opportunity to go full out electronic like we do here." -- Ólafur Arnalds
"The Kiasmos project has been around since 2009, but because of all our other projects we never really got the time to sit down and write all the tracks we always wanted to. So when we early this year finally found the time to sit down and make a full length album there was so much we wanted to try out. The result surprised us a bit, it's deeper and more emotional than we imagined it to be, but that's the beauty of being able to make an album." -- Janus Rasmussen
Parker, then calling himself Tiny T or Gabby T, was already developing keen skills as a battle MC, and he and Mosley teamed up the following year. After graduating, Parker returned to Los Angeles, but he and Mosley kept up their partnership by phone. While attending UC-Davis, Mosley fell in with a group of hip-hop eccentrics who became the SoleSides collective, and Parker moved up to the Bay Area to join him in 1991, now having settled on Gift of Gab as his hip-hop alter ego. Blackalicious issued their debut single, "Swan Lake," on SoleSides in 1994, and several more followed, establishing their underground reputation and leading to a tour of Europe. They began work on a full-length album, during which time SoleSides shut down and reconfigured itself as Quannum; however, the process was long and laborious, as Gift of Gab struggled with an alcohol problem that took several years to overcome. Finally, in 1999, Blackalicious re-emerged with the A2G EP, whose "Alphabet Aerobics" electrified the underground and marked Gift of Gab as a prodigious new talent. That talent was confirmed by Blackalicious' first two full-lengths, 2000's NIA and 2002's Blazing Arrow, which elevated him to the status of perhaps the most under-appreciated elite MC in hip-hop.
venues mounting in as many as 10,000 heads in attendance. The release of his first album, The Mourning After Pill (The MAP), gained him international notoriety by landing on a list of the top 20 most downloaded albums of March 2013 on bandcamp alongside such caliber as Ghostface Killah and many other well known artists. The MAP wouldn't be Landon's first taste of success though. Wordswell, under the moniker of "Youngs" at the time, had peaked at number 2 in the Japanese hip hop charts during his college years for a single pushed there by Origami/Shibuya Records on an album entitled "Revenge of
Soul". Now in 2015 Landon is signed to both Cult Classic Records (London, UK) & Blue Bottle Records (New Zealand). Landon crossed paths with the legendary Gift of Gab by opening a show in Nevada City, CA on April 13, 2013 while touring to promote "The MAP" & they have been tour partners ever since. Landon Wordswell has also performed alongside greats such as Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep, Zion I, Raekwon (Wu-Tang), Devin The Dude, Aceyalone, Freestyle Fellowship & many, many more.
The Portland rap game couldn't stay below street level forever. Word is starting to spread about the talent the Rose City boasts, and the one name that keeps popping up on people's lips is a rapper known simply as Tope.
A good deal of that attention is due to the respect that Tope has earned for the years he's committed to the scene. Starting in his teens, he's been a fixture at local hip-hop showcases and freestyle jams. He eventually started a pair of groups, Living Proof (with Seattle-based rapper Prem) and the well-respected crew TxE with Epp and Calvin Valentine (aka G_Force). Tope has also been providing production help and dropping by for guest appearances on tracks by artists including Abstract Rude, Myka 9, TiRon, Planet Asia, Scarub, Co$$, LMNO, and many more.
As any restless and talented artist would, Tope has been stepping out on his own, releasing solo albums that have only burnished his talent even brighter. Last year's Until The Next Time We Meet was a bold step forward, but he's evolved in leaps and bounds on his latest EP Trouble Man.
This eight-song collection is a daring and fearless one, with a willingness to fold live instrumentation into the soulful mix, some smartly chosen samples (check out how "Got To Be Real" bumps through "Family Affair," his collaboration with fellow Portland rhymers Grinch and Spaceman), and some deep lyrical content.
Says Tope: "This project is my most personal to date expressing themes regarding my family, the death of my mom and grandpa, absence of my dad, relationships with girls, the struggle of trying to make it musically." He doesn't wallow in self-pity though. No, these songs are about coming to accept the bumpy road that helped form his personality and, even with the grind of trying to get heard in the overflowing world of hip-hop, loving the game as he plays it.
Tope's burden to be accepted in the wider music world is getting lighter and lighter these days. He's already a well-respected member of the Portland scene, having placed at #6 on Willamette Week's Best New Bands of 2012 list, joining the likes of Radiation City, Onuinu, and his collaborator Reva Devito, as well as #2 on The Deli Magazine's Emerging Artist List of 2011. The East Coast is starting to take notice now, too, with legendary NY & Philly Record Labels knocking on his door, and features in VICE and Frank 151 Magazine. And as ever, he's become a go-to opener for hip-hop's best and brightest when they make it to the Rose City. To date, he's shared the stage with Nas, Talib Kweli, Dom Kennedy, Blu, Macklemore, Mac Miller, Shabazz Palaces, Dead Prez, Nappy Roots, Digable Planets, The Coup, and many more.
The whole of the U.S. is waking up to, and showing lots of love and respect for, what Tope brings to the table. Now it's time for the rest of the world to take notice.
like men in the folds of a fallen tent, ii.
like men in the folds of a fallen tent, ii is a three day series of performance, activated installations, and experimental film considering the display of our organic and manufactured human interactions dismembered through a crude and unscripted process.
Created by: The House Of ia & Babette DeLafayette l John Marc Powell
Performers: Cameron Fletcher, Marlys Yvonne, Chelsea Hunter, Sean Rosado, THOi, Babette Delafayette
The House Of ia is the collaborative conceptions of Jillayne Hunter & kb Thomason. ia exists as a nomadic nucleus.
Babette DeLafayette & John Marc Powell partnered together to form an onmi-diciplinary entity. Through their partnership they have developed a process called Activated Environments.
Cameron Fletcher is a photographer and inter-media artist based in Seattle, WA. His work currently focuses on the flow of information & energy through the body.
Marlys Yvonne is a movement artist with ties across the US and Canada. She seeks truth in her creations and collaborations.
Chelsea Hunter is a performance artist, astrologer, sailer, & female sexuality enthusist. Currently based in Seattle, WA, she continuously explores her relationship to reality through art.
7-9pm nightly
sliding scale donation $5-$20 (at door)
On Tuesday, December 8, PICA will hold a reception to publicly announce the 2015 Precipice Fund awards and celebrate PICA’s third year of the Precipice Fund, a new grants program supporting independent, collaborative, visual art projects in Portland! Join us at our downtown headquarters for the public announcement of the 2015 Precipice Fund grantees! RSVP requested for the Precipice Announcement: precipice@pica.org.
Immediately following the Precipice Announcement, PICA will keep the festivities rolling with our year-end Winter Soiree where we will celebrate all of the artists, members, volunteers, and friends who make up the PICA family! Admission is free and open to all. Champagne toasts, Burnside beer and holiday cocktails, warm tamales, photo booth, DJ, dancing… More details to come.
Three Day psychedelic music at Crystal Ballroom and various Mcmenamins locations sponsored by your old pal XRAY.
Friday: Super Furry, Animals, Earth, King Black Acid
Saturday: Red Fang, YOB, Witch Mountain, Eternal Tapestry
Sunday: Built To Spill, Mikal Cronin (acoustic duo), The Fresh and Only's, Brett Netson & Snakes
FULL Line-Up Here!
While psychedelic music covers a range of styles and genres, it is inspired by psychedelic culture and the attempt to replicate the mind altering experiences that started in mid-'60s folk, rock and blues. The Crystal Ballroom, Portland’s historical proving ground for psychedelia’s ever-evolving forms, hosts this celebration of this century’s interpretations of the artform. With events taking place all over the Crystal Property including Blasphemous Brew Fest in Lolas, performances in Al's Den and Ringlers Pub, not to mention a ridiculously awesome line up of todays stoner rock rotating through the main Crystal Ballroom stage for three nights!
An exhibition of the citizens of Portland and their stories about rent, displacement, gentrification, and the future of Portland.
One Grand has teamed up with PCC students to exhibit and promote what is one of the most important issues facing the city of Portland.
Modeling the project after Humans of New York, the participants have crafted the human side to an issue that can often get lost in numbers and dollars.
Exile on Burnside is where facts meet faces: a narrative that transcends the political to bring the community together.
The Outset Series provides an opportunity for local improvising musicians to get in front of an audience in a non-commercial venue with a completely attentive audience that is dedicated to creative, improvised music. This is the only regular series in Portland that features experimental, improvised music in front a live audience. The Outset Series is now hosted by Turn Turn Turn in Northeast Portland after 3 years of performances at Revival Drum Shop.
Jeff Witscher
Jeff Witscher was born in 1983 in Long Beach, California and is now a custodian at the Portland Art Museum. He has recorded under a few different names, Rene Hell perhaps being the most known. He enjoys playing chess & has started his own cleaning company called Vincent’s Expert Cleaners. He primarily works with the computer as well as recording of acoustic sounds. Recent solo recordings include Bifurcating a Resounding No!, 2014; Meclu, 2013; Vanilla Call Option, 2013
Contact
Contact is made up of Geneva Snyder and Shane McDonell. Contact is an experimental live cassette duo exploring textures, ambient rhythms and visuals.
Gabi Villaseñor, Helmy Membreño and the Hollywood Theater invite you to the relaunch of the Getting to Know You(Tube) video sharing series!
The project brings people together for an evening of watching and hearing about YouTube videos chosen by three presenters. It's a chance to share and present on something that they’ve been curiously thinking or dreaming about in a format that we're all guilty of indulging in—who hasn't gone down an infinite YouTube rabbit hole?
Getting to Know You(Tube) was originally founded and run by Crystal Baxley and Stefan Ransom (2011-2015), and as huge advocates of the project, Helmy and Gabi are taking over to bring back the magic of this great platform by relaunching it this December, 2015.
Libby Werbel (www.portlandmuseumofmodernart.com)
Britt Howard (www.portlandgarmentfactory.com)
Travis Beardsley (www.yahtrav.com)
With its inception in Boulder, CO almost 20 years ago at The Boulder Theater (Furtado’s previous homebase), the series has become a staple for music lovers in Portland (and now Seattle) since it's migration to the Pacific Northwest five years ago.
Tony will be performing material from his new album, The Bell, his 17th full length release. With original songs drawing inspiration from a major career shake-up, the loss of his father and the birth of his son, The Bell is Tony’s most personal, engaging and heartfelt album to date. After parting ways with his long-time management and record label, Furtado dove headlong into his newfound independence with a fury, writing, recording and releasing The Bell - as well as a mostly instrumental companion EP, Copper and Tin - on his own newly formed independent label, YouSayFurtado Records.
The “Black Friday” edition of Minority Retort will be held November 27th at 9:30pm at Curious Comedy Theater in Northeast Portland. Minority Retort is the NW’s only stand-up showcase focusing on comedians of color. Hosted by comedian Jeremy Eli and co-produced by writer/podcaster Jason Lamb (Colors in Black, Karl Show! starring Jason), Minority Retort is held monthly at Curious Comedy Theater. Tickets are $7 when purchased in advance at curiouscomedy.org or $10 at the door.
The “Black Friday” edition of Minority Retort will feature some of the NW’s funniest African-American comedians: Monisa Brown, Lee Hinton, Jamal Harrington, Belinda Jiles, The Real Hyjinx and Debbie Wooten.
Oneohtrix Point Never
Although composer Daniel Lopatin's R Plus Seven contains many familiar sonic touchstones for listeners who have followed the acclaimed electronic music composer's development over the last half-decade, his Warp Records debut is a major departure from his previous work; Lopatin's experimental inclinations lurk behind the scenes – in the concepts and procedures he adopted to create the tracks – while the music itself comes as close as Lopatin has ever gotten to anything resembling traditional song structure. Which, for Lopatin, is only so close: The work is full of overlapping, abstract musical through-lines, puzzle-like pieces that, taken together, might allow you to glimpse an overarching tableau. But it's more about the journey than the destination. R Plus Seven is disruptive and hypnotic in equal measure, and the fun of it lies in trusting Lopatin as he guides you past – and often through – its succession of walls and mirrors.
The Brooklyn-based artist has always deftly balanced the experimental with the accessible: He has released several albums under his Oneohtrix Point Never moniker on various independent labels -- including the 2013 3-CD/5 LP Rifts, a compilation of his early work -- as well as amassing a large catalogue of mini-album tape releases. His most recent disc, 2011's Replica, was built around samples of television commercials; Sasha Frere Jones of the New Yorker called it "music that gently triggers a series of images and feelings, none of which you can name and all of which seem entirely common." He has built live soundscapes at the Museum of Modern Art; collaborated with Montreal-based ambient electronic music composer Tim Hecker on the largely improvised 2012 Instrumental Tourist; and recast the title track from his 2010 disc Returnal as an elegant and emotive piece for piano, featuring the otherworldly voice of Antony Hegarty. Advertising powerhouse Saatchi & Saatchi tapped Lopatin for an installation event at the 2012 Cannes film fest and Sofia Coppola's longtime cohort Brian Reitzell invited him to create original music for Coppola's The Bling Ring. Said the Saatchi execs, "There's this grandeur to his music, but it's always counterbalanced by moments of irony and lightness."
James Ferraro
To pursue an acting career as a soap opera star as James Ferraro ® Simulacra Company was the ultimate 21st century dream for James Ferraro, a dream that was forged on a note pad under the cyber skies of Manhattan's slick midtown metropolis to become a world-famous hyperized living puppet of our Postmodern civilization, acquiring the world's media stage as a canvas, in the form of a glossy pure entertainment pop machine.
The approach to assembling his acting style was to be a theoretical expedition through the virtual landscape of Tabloid Cultoure, The Linguistic Consequence of Modern Decadence and Digital/Mega Entertainment Age Sexuality Persona … to name just a few sources of inspiration, and of course for it all to be captured on the flawless $1,000,000 TV cameras of the entertainment industries' major studio networks.
But where to assimilate to the aforementioned theories:
"My ideas from New York had flowered in the most violently magical way, as I entered what we Hollywoodologists call 'The Floor' (HOLLYWOOD GROUND ZERO) . . . and this led to outlets beyond my wildest imagination, seeing beyond the institutional buildings of the worlds Entertainment Center," says Ferraro.
JF continues: "Whilst wine tasting in Napa valley with my mother, on a tour through Simulacra's wine country . . . in the red convertible PT Cruiser and watching a giant Hollywood Blockbuster intermittently on the on-board DVD screen between wineries, I was so excited and inspired by the leading actors performance that I decided to leave the world of acting to focus more dramatically on a venture to be a recording artist."
"I became completely obsessed with Bach's Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor. As it blasted from the speakers of the PT Cruiser, spilling out into the open air, I indulged in an ecstatic delirium that was colored by a sweet subtle victorious madness, ideas flooded my mind, blood coursed through my veins, Smart Water™ oxidized my brain . . . thoughts of Napoleon at the Olive Garden, Julius Cesar reading poetry to me . . . I started to fully investigate these two artistic individuals almost exclusively at this moment, scanning what historic memory I had available in my brain. When I arrived home I ran into my humble chamber and got to work."
Ferraro has since released countless musical recordings on various record labels hailing from The U.S.A., The United Kingdom, Japan, Europe and beyond. A critically acclaimed artist of the 21st Century POP ART wave, the man with the moon-lit pompadour now teams up with Hippos in Tanks to create the next chapter in his on-going sonic adventure, in which, Ferraro explains, "The results of this relationship will see a new era in Art History."