Bars and clubs on East Burnside and south of it couldn’t be more varied. Whether housing live music or offering $2 beers, there’s always something to explore. I started at…
You Missed It: Morbid Angel ripped my face off
Morbid Angel, the most influential death metal band of all time, annihilated Portland fans by playing their best-selling album, Covenant, for its 20th anniversary. Most people site Venom as being…
You Missed It: Nine Inch Nails obliterate space-time at the Moda Center
The biggest regret of my life was flaking out on dinner in Los Angeles with Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Jerry Casale (Devo) in 2006. That would’ve been the…
You Missed It: GWAR tortures “Justin Bieber” on stage
Last time GWAR was in Portland they chopped off President Barack Obama’s head. This time they disemboweled Justin Beiber and ripped off his legs. Gwar. I can’t believe I waited…
You Missed It: Pet Shop Boys electrify Portland
Only the soulless are incapable of appreciating the Pet Shop Boys. Even my most macho friends have admitted to liking the Pet Shop Boys’ heart-wrenching and sometimes satirical lyrics and stellar…
Top 10 Perfectly Portland Places
Every city has character. Everyone knows Portland for its plethora of mostly odd entertainment options mixed with Mother Nature and a dash of nerdcore. Here’s a list of parks and businesses, both nationally known and obscure, that put a face on Portland’s zany flavor.
Upcoming at 5th Avenue Cinema
In 1940, Alfred Hitchcock’s psycho thriller Rebecca won an Oscar for Best Picture. Not bad for his first American film. This Gothic suspense opens with a fantastical sequence: a moon hidden beneath clouds, dissolving into a mansion’s gate, followed by a long take panning across a foggy path.
Bug Eater’s Delight
I did it. I ate a scorpion. And mealworms. With ice cream. With a cherry on top. And it wasn’t that bad.I was trying to find something bizarre and creepy to do in Portland, and I remembered my friend telling me about eating bug sundaes at the Freakybuttrue Peculiarium and Museum.
Double, double toil and trouble
No Lovecraftian tentacles peered out from the shadows as I had expected—well, hoped—except the random gnarled root sticking out from the pale, muddied earth, obstructing the trail and mocking me.
Laugh out loud
“If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up like an old lady and push her down the stairs. If you want to make comedy writers laugh, you push an actual old lady down the stairs.” —Tina Fey
Where to go when you come out
When I asked my friends about their top five gay bars in Portland, the first response I got was, “I wouldn’t use the word ‘top’ in reference to them. They are mostly bottoms.” Cute!
Anyway, here’s a quick-and-dirty list I compiled with local comedian and self-proclaimed “resident gay” Belinda Carroll.