Introducing #TraegerMethod In November 2017, THRU Media hosted its penultimate art opening at the company studio and gallery in northwest Portland. Comedian Jason Traeger was featured in the latter half of the month. He called his show “Soft Launch” and it was the debut of a campaign to find a confluence of artistic disciplines. While …
Category Archives: Literature and Spoken Word
Froelich’s Ladder is a Promising Debut
Jamie Duclos-Yourdon’s character-driven novel offers a new frontier. Froelich arrives in Oregon in the fall of 1851 after a long journey from Germany. During the trek, I imagine him distracted with visions of a life so full of wonder, of newness — the opposite of what he saw as an inevitably unfulfilling future back home …
People Like Her: Margaret Malone
In People Like You, the title story of Margaret Malone’s first book of short stories published late last year, a couple goes out to a party. It’s an ordinary night, they treat the party like an errand or at most, like a job interview for a position neither want. A page in, I relate to the reluctance Cheryl …
American Comedy Finds Itself at Holocene
Contributing Editor, Kathleen Dolan American Comedy is a free monthly showcase, currently running at Holocene, curated and hosted by Jason Traeger, Milan Patel, and Paul Schlesinger, featuring a mostly local line-up. It was started almost a year ago by Paul at the now defunct Kickstand Comedy (basement in Velo Cult Bike Shop). He soon brought in …
Wordstock Returns, Overflows
Wordstock returns to Portland as a Literary Arts Organization venture, and a new venue swells with the city’s rain-braving readers. The relaunch of Wordstock this last weekend reminded me of how large family holiday get-togethers go; noisy, overcrowded but in a festive, cozy way. Volunteers in red T-shirts were cheery in the mid-morning when everyone arrived, all …
“A Self In The Image of Art. Not God. Not Father.”
When Lidia Yuknavitch took the podium at Powell’s Books a few weeks ago, I think all of us in the room were blushing – including her. She was nervous. “I’m bad at this,” she said about talking in front of people. She made a few jokes as she swung her long blond hair over her shoulder …
Continue reading ““A Self In The Image of Art. Not God. Not Father.””
With the Lizards and the Insects at Poetry Press Week
The line-up of poets on Saturday night for the 2015 Spring/Summer installment of Poetry Press Week boasted five distinct voices, each varied from content and style to presentation. Some read like excerpts from memoirs, musical lines recalling childhood lessons and revelations. Others were thrown like mysterious poetic darts, momentary thoughts and obscure observations following no …
Continue reading “With the Lizards and the Insects at Poetry Press Week”
A Weekend of Laughs: Bridgetown Wrap Up
The Bridgetown Comedy Festival Wrapped Up Sunday, Culminating a Weekend of Laughs From Names Big And Small. On the small makeshift stage at the Bunk Bar Friday night, comedian Andy Kindler improvised when the train all Portlanders know well howled by, just a block outside the industrial southeast bar. The train’s whistle pierced louder and louder …
Bridgetown Offers Therapy for a Weary World
Bridgetown Comedy Festival begins tonight and runs through Sunday. With so many difficult stories, so many trying moments in our lives, news of riots and disasters, climate change and war, the heart can become weary. But for the price of one hour on the couch with a psychologist, you can watch comics from all over the world …
Continue reading “Bridgetown Offers Therapy for a Weary World”