You’re a student, and it’s a Friday night. This can only mean one thing—it’s time for a night out. While many of your cohorts might prefer to indulge in a wild and most likely forgotten night out, you’re of a different breed. Your tastes are more sophisticated, more demanding. Only one type of night will work for you—an artsy night out.
Get your art on
It’s Friday, so chances are good that your classes are getting out early, if you even have any. While you’re hanging around campus waiting for your pals to get out of their final class for the week, mosey on over to one of Portland State’s many fine art galleries and peruse some fine art.
The Littman Gallery and the White Gallery are PSU’s student-run art galleries. Others, like the Autzen Gallery on second floor of Neuberger Hall and the galleries in the Art Building, the AB Lobby and the MK Gallery, are department-operated.
Get your art on, redux
All arted out? Of course not. That’s why it’s time for you to swing by the Portland Art Museum. If you’re a student, take advantage of their College Pass. At $15 for an entire year, it equals the admission a regular adult pays for a single visit.
Well, on second thought, maybe you are arted out. If that’s the case, cross the street to the Oregon Historical Society and scratch that historical itch you’ve been meaning to scratch. Current exhibits include The Art of War: Propaganda Posters of World Wars I and II, A Community on the Move (which focuses on the lives of black Portlanders in the 1940s and ’50s), Place: Framing the Oregon Landscape and several others. Costing a grand total of absolutely nothing for Multnomah County residents, it would be a disaster of historic proportions if you were to miss out on an OHS tour.
A reel good time
The next stop of the night calls for something more cinematic. Only minutes from PSU on the streetcar, two of Portland’s premier cinema houses are saving a seat just for you on this glorious night. Cinema 21 on NW 21st Avenue and the Living Room Theater on SW 10th Avenue screen some of the most artistic and entertaining movies one can find in Portland. And you know what’s even better than watching films you can’t see anywhere else? Getting to drink beer while you do it.
Play us out
The movie is out, and chances are pretty good that you just watched something long, depressing and subtitled. We all know you’re a closeted crooner, so what better way to cheer yourself up than killing it to some sing-along fun with Don Henley and Marc Cohn?
There are a few options for awesome karaoke bars, but Suki’s Bar & Grill on SW 4th Avenue and Voicebox Karaoke Northwest on NW Hoyte Street are your best options. At Voicebox you can rent private rooms so nobody can watch you butcher Meatloaf’s “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)”, but where’s the fun in that? Whatever you do, for the love of God, don’t sing Queen. Nobody wants to be that asshole.