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One Night With Janis Joplin Review
One Night With Janis Joplin
The concept behind Portland Center Stage's production of One Night With Janis Joplin is a good one: bring the Janis Joplin concert experience back on stage and give modern audiences a taste of what it was like to see her in concert. Unfortunately, the production, created, written and directed by Randy Johnson, is one big hot mess. Johnson has a fairly impressive resume with a number of other stage music re-experiences including Elvis The Concert, Always Patsy Cline, and Conway Twitty – The Man The Music and The Legend. Johnson also has extensive experience directing actual concerts and tours. All this experience, however, doesn't result in a good show.
One Night With Janis Joplin suffers on a number of fronts. The first and most serious issue with the show is an absolutely horrible script. The play never can make up its mind if it's a singular concert experience or a journey through Janis Joplin's life. Many of the monologues that happen between or during songs are just one step up from ramblings. In the first act many of these monologues focus on "The Blues" and the other artists who influenced Joplin. Johnson seems obsessed with these influences and at times the show feels like it's more an essay on The Blues than a show about Joplin herself. This obsession manifests itself in the creation of another character who wanders in and out of the show, 'The Blues Singer'. This character comes on stage to represent many of the women who influenced Janis Joplin's music. The role is voiced wonderfully by Sabrina Elayne Carten, whose rendition of classic Nina Simone, Bessie Smith and Aretha Franklin songs are some of the absolute highlights of the show. Read more…
Louis CK in Portland Review
Louis CK
"I know that things will probably never get better than this and I'm ok with that" – it wasn't a boastful exclamation from one of the hottest contemporary comedians, but more an admission that Louis CK's popularity is unusually strong. With his self titled show a hit on FX and concert film "Louis CK: Hilarious" making the rounds online, Louis CK has built a very strong following, putting him on par with many of the top stand-up comedians performing today. Selling out two back-to-back shows at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Louis CK tickets sold for hundreds of dollars on Craigslist and had people waiting in line around the block from the Aladdin Theater.
Louis CK's charm is that he simply isn't charming. Most comedians want to connect with their audience, compliment their city and make them feel welcome. Louis CK dispels all this pretense and simply says what he thinks and what he feels. This naked approach results in a show that is constantly fresh and alive. I've seen much of Louis CK's work, including his entire series and recent concert film, and the set he did at the Aladdin didn't repeat a single joke from any of it. To have an entire show of completely new material is a real delight, and some jokes, including a riff on Sarah Palin, seemed to come right off the cuff during the set. Read more…
Why I Am Cancelling The Oregonian
Oregonian
There's a point in almost any bad relationship when you know you've stuck around longer than you've should have. The moment came when you should have broken up but somehow you thought things might change, that whatever was weighing things down would dissipate if you only waited it out. This is how I feel about The Oregonian.
I first started to subscribe to The Oregonian in 1993 when I first moved to Portland. It was our first connecting point to the news of our new home. The Oregonian in 1993 was a mighty thing, with staff writers and columnists galore. The paper stood as many things in Portland do: much stronger than you'd expect for a city of its size. Flash forward 17 years and you have a paper in absolute ruin. Where once stood a Business section is often a single page of wire reports and cobbled-together news bits. Where once there was insightful and award-winning investigative journalism, you now have reporters using anectodal information; my favorite was for the story Construction of downtown Portland high-rise is halted by tight credit in which "reporter" Ryan Frank says, "Real estate brokers had taken to saying that Park Avenue West would be built by the "Bank of Tom Moyer." No source, no quote, no real reporting.
The Oregonian suffered like most papers in this country as the economy faltered and news migrated online. But I stuck it out. I tried to look past the fact that more and more of the paper was comprised of news articles that came off the news wire. It became harder when I started to see wire articles appear in the paper that had been online for days and some times weeks in advance. Again, a sign of the economic times.
With belt tightening at The Oregonian came another clear trend: articles that were going to print without being proofed. Over the last year we've played a game at the breakfast table, reading aloud some of the headlines and articles from The Oregonian to our two grade-schoolers to see if they could spot the glaring grammatical errors. They almost always can. Read more…
Portland Getaway – Inner tubing on Mt. Hood
Inner Tubing at Skibowl at Mt. Hood
It's a common misconception that if you don't ski or snowboard, there isn't a lot to do on Mt. Hood. In fact, there are a number of places to go where you can rent inner tubes on Mt. Hood and have a fantastic experience in the snow.
This year we decided to give three of the major Mt. Hood inner tube options a try and see which one is best. The most well known innertubing on Mt. Hood is Mt. Hood Skibowl . Skibowl sells passes for two hour sessions which start on the hour. This can be a royal pain if you arrive on the half hour, as you either have to wait thirty minutes to hit the mountain or lose a full quarter of your time. Read more…
Zoo Lights at The Oregon Zoo
Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo
Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo is one of the holiday activities we've always meant to do, but never managed to actually attend. In Portland, the holiday season is so packed with holiday fairs, parties, and related activities, it's easy to put off going to things like Zoo Lights or Peacock Lane until it's too late. This year we had the opportunity to make it to the Zoo Lights earlier in their run. Unfortunately, we were not prepared for the massive crowds and bitter cold that we experienced at the Oregon Zoo. Read more…
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