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The Northwest metal scene is rife with stoner, doom and black metal stereotypes thick enough to choke out the sun. Still there are a precious few acts that transcend, escaping the mire to unfurl like wildflowers springing from the thorniest of thickets. Amongst these are local favorites Agalloch and Yob, in many ways kindred spirits, though vastly dissimilar in sound. Continue reading
Golfing is to sports what masturbation is to sex — a solitary endeavor that, no matter how vigorously you go at it, always ends up being about you and you alone, as you come face to face with your own failings in the universe as well as the measure of your stamina in overcoming them. I’ve been golfing, more or less vigorously, for years, and I’m sad to report that my game hasn’t improved one jot. It’s an existential dilemma. Golf, for me, is too often a good walk spoiled, just like people think Mark Twain said. So why walk? Continue reading
The drums beat, heavy and slow at first, then picking up speed like a heartbeat. The rhythm pushes for answers, for ancestry. Dontrell cannot escape the dreams calling him to this quest — dreams of a forebearer who leapt to his death from a slave ship during the Middle Passage. But Dontrell has a scholarship to maintain, a family to deal with and he can’t swim. Making his way into the middle of the Atlantic feels as hopeless as any hero’s journey. Faith, fate and family will all step in to shuffle his chances of success. Continue reading
The weeks leading up to Sasquatch! Music Festival, all I could focus on was the chaos that would ensue Memorial Day weekend, May 22-25. Alongside countless new faces and friends, I camped five nights in The Gorge. I forgot my pillows. I forgot my blankets. I even forgot my water bottle. It was the best. Continue reading
Jenny Lewis cruised into town on a rainbow Tuesday night, and she left a pot of gold. For a weeknight performance on the same night that Shakey Graves performed at McDonald Theatre, the WOW Hall was packed. Alt-country songstress Nikki Lane opened. Afterward, the stage was transformed into Lewis’ playground with the Monty Python-esque rainbow imagery from her 2014 album The Voyager. Continue reading
With hashtags like #HowToSpotAFeminist recently creating a focal point for derogatory tweets that peg feminists as hairy man-haters, it’s clear that, even in 2015, people still love to hate feminism, or whatever their warped interpretation of it is. Continue reading
Ashlee Olson, Artist. Photo by Athena Delene. Not many understand the difference between style and fashion, the ebb and flow of trends and tastes. But if anyone does, it’s the groundbreaking designer Yves Saint Laurent. Continue reading
The fashion documentary has become a bona fide film genre. In the past decade alone, filmmakers have spun out more than two dozen docs, from the delicious Vogue insider flick The September Issue to the incredible story of a global fashion editor in Diana Vreeland: The Eye Must Travel and, of course, the quirky life of New York Times street-style photographer in Bill Cunningham New York. Continue reading
It’s fitting for a band obsessed with Anne Frank to be reclusive. After a 12-year vanishing act, Neutral Milk Hotel is touring again. The group has entered a gilded age, and rightly so. Continue reading
Oregon Contemporary Theatre artistic director Craig Willis recalls hearing a reading of a new play, Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea, at a 2013 showcase for the National New Play Network (NNPN) he attended in San Diego. “Clearly, this play inspired the most reaction that weekend,” Willis says. “You could tell that there was a special voice behind it.” Continue reading