Sacha Reich speaks of “Christians, Muslims and Jews, sitting down together in debate as they’re forging their ideas of a new Iraq.”
But Reich isn’t describing the trials of modern-day Iraq. Rather, she’s referring to a time in history less than 80 years ago, as depicted in the upcoming Café Baghdad performance by the Portland-based Jewish Theatre Collaborative.
Two men and two women are in the throes of an argument, their faces alight with emotion, their gestures fierce and desperate.
But they’re not arguing with each other. Instead, the four of them stand staggered, facing the same direction, shouting a torrent of barely audible words at no one in particular, depicting the many faces of human conflict.
Guitarist Bruce Windham’s fingers were red and chapped from his time spent in the cold, but they still danced through the chords of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroad Blues” with a veteran’s precision. There weren’t many onlookers on that rainy afternoon, but he kept his spirits high and played on.
“Nothing to be done.”
The opening words, sighed by the listless loiterer Vladimir, illustrate the tone of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist play, Waiting for Godot. Described by the playwright as a tragicomedy, Godot is, almost literally, a play about nothing.
The Northwest Film Center will screen a 1961 film adaptation of Godot by Alan Schneider Jan. 19–20 as part of its ongoing “Treasures from the UCLA Film and Television Archive” series.
“But I’m his girl. From that first night on the beach, when I was 15, I was his girl.”
It’s a simple line but one that tells an entire story, according to Dawn Schiller, who narrowly survived years of sex trafficking and abuse at the hands of porn legend John Holmes.
Years ago, Schiller might have uttered those words in defense of her relationship with Holmes, even as he sold her off for cash or cocaine. Today, she sees these words as the key to explaining not only her own fall into the world of human trafficking but those of so many other youth still being victimized.
If Frédéric François Chopin has been called the poet of the piano, then Portland pianist David Rothman could be described as its scholar. His approach to learning and performing the works of the 19th century Polish composer is comprehensive and methodical. His technique is thoughtful and precise, with unassuming poise and keystrokes that sound like whispers against the ivory.
More than 50 years after her death, Marilyn Monroe remains one of the most celebrated Hollywood personalities.
This weekend, Portland State students will have a chance to see the iconic pinup model onscreen at 5th Avenue Cinema’s showing of director John Huston’s 1961 western romance, The Misfits.
Set in the dusty Nevada countryside, The Misfits is about the rugged rebound of newly divorced Roslyn Taber (Monroe). Having left her neglectful husband in Reno, she and her friend Isabelle Steers (Thelma Ritter) fall in with a posse of cowboys who make their living ranging the mountains in pursuit of free-running mustangs.
“It seems very difficult for them to conceptualize a sense of Chinese-ness that’s a locally defined Chinese-ness,” said Sharon Carstens as she explained the cultural plight of ethnic Chinese in Malaysia.
This plight is the focus of her colleague Dr. Alison Groppe, assistant professor of Chinese literature at the University of Oregon. Groppe will visit Portland State Tuesday, Nov. 22, to deliver a lecture, titled “Not Made in China: Identity & Home in Sinophone Malaysian Fiction,” about Chinese fiction written in the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia.
“Looking at the literature that is based on their local culture is something that’s very interesting,” Carstens said.
“How do we create a world where economies are stable and can grow?” Martin Hart-Landsberg asked.
The question was rhetorical, and the quiet authority in his tone suggested that he’d long pondered the answer. “One thing that’s important to learn is that countries like Korea did prosper, and they transformed themselves economically, not through relying on the market, but through state planning,” Hart-Landsberg said.
The topic of conversation was the South Korean economy. As a professor of economics at Lewis and Clark College and an adjunct researcher at Gyeongsang National University’s Institute for Social Sciences in South Korea, Hart-Landsberg has spent years studying the subject.
“Of course, I’m prejudiced, being employed in libraries, but I think I can say objectively that libraries are coming into a whole new phase of relevancy,” said Susan Banks, director of Multnomah County Central Library.
Banks will be speaking at Portland State about the future of libraries in the digital age with a talk titled “Jurassic Library: Public Libraries in the 21st Century—Dinosaur or Dynamo?” to be presented Thursday by the Retired Associates of Portland State University.
Any vegan will tell you that finding a place to dine out can be a real problem. Portland has made a lot of headway, but it can still be difficult to track down the right places when you’re new to town, especially if you’re in a hurry. Here’s a list of nearby places that offer a variety of tasty vegan options.