Arts & Culture
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.
Artists from myriad genres and time periods have gotten considerable mileage out of Hans Christian Andersen’s 1845 fairy tale The Red Shoes. There’s the 1993 pop album from Kate Bush, the 2005 Korean horror film and, most notably, the 1948 British film of the same name, written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, which is playing this weekend at 5th Avenue Cinema.
Anyone who believes that silence is golden has never seriously listened to opera.
On Tuesday, Jan 31, the Portland Opera’s Studio Artist series presents soprano Lindsay Ohse at the Portland Art Museum’s Whitsell Auditorium. Over the course of a 90-minute recital, Ohse will sing her way through three sections of music, providing a unique and intimate vocal experience.
Looking for an Italian dish that makes you scream, “Mama Mia!”? Maybe not. That’s a little silly, and not many people dig ABBA these days. But this recipe will surely make you say, “Wow, this is crazy delicious, which reminds me: I love eating food!” It’s a dinner that can be prepared in no time, and it’s a brilliant, tasty balance of sweet and spicy.
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.
The Portland State department of music’s Performance Attendance Recital Series gives students and the community the opportunity to see a free performance every Thursday at noon. This week’s performance will be French chamber music featuring the harp, played by none other than PSU professor Denise Fujikawa.
“I think that it’s a program that anyone would really enjoy,” Fujikawa said. “It’s not just for classical music lovers.”
Accomplished storyteller Slash Coleman is coming to town along with Portland comedic heavy-hitter Augi Garred to bring several fun-filled nights of theatrical catharsis to the city. The Coleman and Garred ensemble will be presenting a two-part show titled Big Plastic Heroes at Northeast Portland’s The Sanctuary for six dates that span late January and early February.
Coleman, having produced, written and starred in a prior PBS special, 2008’s The Neon Man and Me, will be performing a piece to be featured in an upcoming PBS special. Each show will be different but still carry the same basic theme: unlikely teenagers cast into heroic scenarios.
While you may be familiar with Harry Belafonte in his role as African-American singer and entertainer, Sing Your Song, a documentary following his life up to the present, reveals yet another side of Belafonte: the activist.
This 2011 HBO film spends less time presenting Belafonte objectively and more time displaying a controversial can-do hero who just happened to top the charts with the “Banana Boat Song” between his noble political endeavors. Belafonte was certainly heroic, but the film itself comes off as too slanted and ultra-glamorized.
When a journalist, blogger or columnist refers to “U.S. military presence,” they are most likely referring to acknowledged combat zones like Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, or to the less substantiated, off-the-grid chicanery we’re engaged in in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Iran and Somalia.
They are generally not talking about the thousand-odd military bases scattered around the globe in places like Italy, South Korea, Spain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, Greenland and Japan. The United States’ military presence in Japan, in particular, is overwhelming: The Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force maintain roughly 90 military bases across mainland Japan and Okinawa, which house roughly 40,000 U.S. troops, according to 2010 estimates.
Looking for a healthy salad option that won’t bore your taste buds? This tropical curry chicken salad presents some wonderfully exotic flavors. It’s a tangy treat that serves as a refreshing option for your regular dinner salad. Plus, it is a great meal to throw together at the last minute and requires few ingredients.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.”
Almost 49 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered these words from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963. It has been almost half a century since that game-changing day, but King’s legacy is going strong, and the Multicultural Center at PSU is one of several campus organizations celebrating MLK week.