The Week of Wordstock: Kristin Hersh’s ‘Rat Girl’

This coming weekend, Portland’s convention center once again hosts Wordstock, a weekend (and more!) of readings, signings, discussions and other literary events. All this week on EW! A Blog, we’ll review books by authors appearing at the festival, which is super-affordable, should you happen to be a book-nerd with weekend plans that involve PDX: $7 per day, or $10 for both festival days. Continue reading →

MFNW Saturday: Double-Dipping in the Pool of Portland Awesomesauce

Yes, MFNW continued! And continued to be great! And then I got sick and had Chow to finish and … and … and … And suddenly it’s September Twenty-freaking-third and I’d have to do some serious brain-wracking to figure out how we got this far into the month, but ANYWAY, let’s just relive the magic of MFNW just a little bit longer, and then I’ll shut up about it until next year. Continue reading →

Hey! MusicfestNW Starts Tonight!

Holy crap! It’s already time for my other favorite Portland festival (the other one being Pickathon, of course). Willamette Week’s MusicfestNW starts tonight with just one show — Devonwho and Animal Collective’s Panda Bear — and really gets rolling tomorrow. MFNW sprawls all over town, meaning sometimes it’s a pain when you want to get from Holocene to the Crystal Ballroom in a hurry, but there are enough interesting shows that you can usually keep busy just skipping from venue to venue around West Burnside. Continue reading →

The Jazz Station Finds a New Home

The Jazz Station — the small, all-ages downtown performance space that’s made a home on Broadway between Willamette and Olive for five years — is getting bigger. In a letter sent to Jazz Station members on Monday, board president Chris Orsinger announced the news: The “new, improved” Jazz Station is expected to open in January at 124 W. Broadway, in a space leased from Lord Leebrick and nestled between the theater company and DIVA. Continue reading →