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Audio Live Music Video

I’d Rather Not Talk About It

Holland Andrews and Chris Johnedis in an Improvised Concert Film The experimental drum and vocal duo, called I’d Rather Not Talk About It, closed out the 2016 Improvisation Summit of Portland, last summer. It was the end of another long weekend in which even big fans of weird music and their acute ears were beginning […]

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Film Video Visual

How To Capture a Hemisphere

World Wide Wall tells the story of the Portland Mercado Mural. In the fall of 2014, two artists were chosen by Hacienda CDC to collaborate and represent Southeast Portland’s brand new mercado as a haven for Latin American culture in Portland. This original THRU documentary tells how the mural at Portland Mercado was created by artists Pablo Solares and Rachel Oleson. Nobody […]

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New Release Records Visual

The Chronology of Color

Qasim Naqvi’s musical response to the art of Pippo Lionni I received my copy of Chronology several months back. Composer Qasim Naqvi had asked me to review his forthcoming album before the experimental/electronic music label, New Amsterdam Records, picked it up for release on November 4. The first time I heard it, I wasn’t sure what to […]

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Movies New Release

Who Are US?

Silver Ochre’s road video gets to the heart of America. Thollem McDonas and partner Angela C. Villa have been on the road together, on and off, for over a decade. It was around seven years ago that I first learned of Thollem, the local avant-garde music scene was buzzing when he came to town. He […]

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Movies

Learning to Respect Jaco

I guess he really is the most influential pop bassist. I had always regarded Jaco Pastorius with a certain distaste, as the artist who ruined Weather Report, a 1970’s jazz fusion band whose influential sound helped pave the way for electronic music as we know it today. For me, Sweetnighter stays in my vinyl collection, […]