A swimsuit show featuring the Mercury’s Allison Hallett and Marjorie Skinner, novelist Monica Drake, Portland Monthly Culturephile writer Anne Adams, author and dancer Viva las Vegas, your humble reporter Nora Robertson, and many more bathing beauties will open Popina Swimwear’s new location in the Pearl on Thursday, Nov. 4th, bevvies by New Deal, Hip Chick Do Wine and Kona Brewing, cupcakes by Cupcake Jones, nail changes by Studio Luxe, 6-9PM, 318 NW 11th, FREE.
Brody Theater’s Brad Fortier recently was invited to Amsterdam to give a talk on the Anthropology of Improvisation for the 2010 Applied Improvisation Network conference. Besides being somewhat jealous of his being in Europe, where they serve fries with mayonnaise, I also was super intrigued by his interview on the anthropological roots of improvisation.
Brad is something of an anthropologist, in fact. Brad holds an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Portland State University focused on the anthropology of improvised theater. His book, Long-Form Improvisation: Collaboration, Comedy and Communion, is a social science analysis of, well, long-form.
As an anthropologist, Brad bounces between doing archaeological contract work for WillametteCRA and continuing his ethnographic studies of improvised theater. His performance career has included shows in the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. He is also known for his duo work with Fort Hal and Uncle Trouble with comedy partner Nate Halloran. Brad can also be found onstage with Icarus and, occasionally, FunnybusinessPDX. He is the Education Director for the Brody Theater in Portland, where he has been teaching since 1998. Brad has also directed several shows for the Brody Theater: The Bards-an improvised musical, Generic Hospital – an improvised soap opera, and Starhole 3060. He also directed “SexyNurd” in Portland’s 2010 ‘Fertile Ground’ Festival of new works.
For more of Brad’s work, check out his collaboration below with director Alden Morgan, or, on a more frivolous note, come see him eat doughnuts stylishly for the Body Show Benefit’s Voodoo doughnut eating contest, Wednesday, Nov. 3rd, Someday Lounge, door at 7PM, 7:30-9:30PM, $5-15 donation.
The Last Laugh from Alden Morgan on Vimeo.
A woman decides to jump naked out of a cake to surprise her husband for their anniversary, and quickly ends up baking hundreds of sheet cakes. Gigi Little’s writing has appeared in the anthologies Portland Noir and The Pacific Northwest Reader, and she has written and illustrated two children’s picture books, Wright Vs. Wrong and The Magical Trunk. She works as In-Store Merchandising and Promotions Coordinator for Powell’s, and before moving to Portland, she spent fifteen years in the circus. To hear more of this story, check out Gigi at the Body Show Benefit, Nov. 3rd, door at 7PM, 7:30-9:30PM, $5-15 donation.
EXCERPT
I never thought I’d be the kind of person who’d like frosting a cake in the nude. But, oh, I do. First is the smell of the sugar all around. Then there’s the way it feels. Trust me, if you think running a knife along frosting is kind of sensual, try doing it with nothing but air against your skin.
The Glenhaven skate park is very close to my house. Late last August, I was sitting on my back patio and I heard this loud creaking sound like a screen door. I thought maybe someone was standing in the front pushing the broken doorbell, so I came out the front with my glass of red wine and found a couple guys skating over the top of the bench I sometimes see an old lady from across the courtyard rest on while walking her grey tabby cat on a little neon nylon leash.
A couple is running late for a medical appointment which turns out to involve an exam and a doctor in knee-high boots about to go on African safari. Oregon Literary Fellow Margaret Malone and filmmaker Brian Padian recently released a short film Brian adapted from her short story by the same title, “I’m Your Man.” Cinematography by Scott Ballard, song by Joe Haege, performers include Christine Calfas and Karen Hepner. Real-life couple Margaret and Brian are also collaborating on a memoir about Brian’s survival of a brain tumor, The Year of Travel & Good Fortune.
i’m your man from Northern Flicker Films on Vimeo.
Also catch Margaret reading more of her hot fiction at the Body Show Benefit on Nov. 3rd at Someday Lounge. Performers include Arthur Bradford, Gigi Little, B. Frayn Masters, Nathaniel Boggess and Danielle Fish, and there will be a Voodoo doughnut contest judged by style points. Door at 7PM, 7:30-9:30PM, $5-15 donation.
EXCERPT: I’m Your Man
We sit in the small room. It is already crowded. Bert is on the papered exam table and I’m on a loveseat smooshed into the corner. The loveseat is pink pleather cushions and wood arms and legs, like something out of a medical office furniture catalogue under the heading – Make Your Patients Feel Right At Home – only of course it doesn’t, because our home does not look like the exam room of a urologist.
Portland cartoonist Matt Bors recently traveled to Afghanistan with Ted Rall to cover the state of the country. I happened to catch his and Ted’s panel presentation at Wordstock and was super intrigued by their experiences as the sole team of unimbedded journalists covering this conflict in a place where no one, literally no one, goes on the streets at night.
Known for their unique storytelling series, the ladies of Back Fence PDX also produce Entertainment for People. Performers include Derrick Brown, Beth Lisick, Steve Almond and Back Fence’s own B. Frayn Masters. This variety show is brand new and offers an exciting and, as the title promises, highly entertaining event with a snack-sized smorgasbord of music, comedy in all forms and booze. Sponsorship by Hotel Deluxe, Saint Cupcake and Popina Swimwear. Sunday the 10th, The Woods, 7:30 PM, door at 6:30 PM, 21+, $14. Free cupcakes!
PERFORMERS
E4P’s host, the studly DERRICK BROWN, is a well-rounded genius. A former paratrooper and magician – he will not only lay down his hosting skills, but spin your major chakras with his band Spring Hill Spider Party.
New York Times best-selling author & sketch comedy performer BETH LISICK brings her hilarity to The Woods.
After stimulating the Back Fence storytelling audience with his cover-your-mouth-and-laugh-so-hard-you-pee story about lady parts – Portland Lit fan favorite STEVE ALMOND returns to our city with more dark and more funny.
You may recognize the name B. FRAYN MASTERS, as she is one of the co-hosts and founders of Back Fence PDX. Recently, she has graced the stages with readings from her work as Cherry Daniels in GGW magazine; she is also the blond half of Portland’s all-girl sketch comedy duo, Eastland Academy.
Acclaimed music critic Mike McGonigal sits down with Robert Scott of legendary New Zealand bands The Clean and The Bats for an evening of conversation on Scott’s own work and involvement in the internationally-known music scene coming out of New Zealand’s Flying Nun record label in the early 1980s. After the discussion, several Portland musicians will present covers of their favorite Flying Nun songs and Scott will perform a handful of his own songs. A day after The Clean play Holocene, Wed. Oct. 6th, Bunk Bar, 9PM-12AM, FREE.
BIOS
Robert Scott emerged into the early 1980’s New Zealand indie scene as the bassist for The Clean and founding member of The Bats, two of the Flying Nun bands whose music has become a major influence on the lo-fi sound of such bands as Pavement, Olivia Tremor Control, and many others.
Mike McGonigal is the publisher of Yeti magazine, author of the Continuum 33 1/3 series book on My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, and a contributor to such publications as Pitchfork. Most recently he curated Fire in my Bones, a collection of rare and raw gospel music.
