Arts & Culture

Every first Thursday, the streets of downtown are flooded with people. Those who are unfamiliar with this Portland ritual will often wonder—“what’s all the fuss about?”

When you’re really good—and I mean upper echelon, few-in-the-world-are-better—at an instrument, after some time you pretty much get a free pass on anything you want to do in music. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what’s happened here. Sometimes, it’s good. This is one of those times.

Every self-respecting Portlander knows that there is only one place to go when it comes to playing pinball and classic arcade games while also sipping on a cold beer: Ground Kontrol.

Though the bar has long had the market cornered on classic gaming, Ground Kontrol is continually trying to offer more features and events to bring in new customers and give the die-hards greater variety.

Portland is a town that’s known for putting a twist on things. We like our art funky, we like our people weird and we like our food a little more on the interesting side. So when it comes to Portland food carts, we can all rest assured that some places will be just out of the box enough to spark our interest and thrill our taste buds.

Summer in Portland is more than a break in the clouds—it is a season of beer.

One of the more prominent events centered around the region’s favorite beverage is the Portland International Beer Fest, and it lands in downtown Portland this weekend.

Few things are certain when Ah Jong enters the room—doves will scatter in flight, candles will be burning and there will be white jackets soon to be stained with blood. This weekend Portland State’s 5th Avenue Cinemas shines John Woo’s The Killer across their big screen.

In today’s ever-changing musical landscape, it’s not too often that a band can make a name for itself before releasing an album without churning out cookie-cutter garbage. There was a time in musical history when bands could garner great hype before cutting wax, but that time is long since gone. That said, it baffles the mind how Connecticut-based something-trio Snake Oil has managed to gain a little bit of following before this, their self-titled debut LP.

Amongst the cluster of Portland food carts or special diet-tailored food trendsters, finally someone has brought this town what it has been hungry for—good old-fashioned food. But a visit to Sloppy Town is more than a late-night bite, it’s a unique experience.

Among the stretch of bars on Southeast Belmont stands a majestic white unicorn snarling with fervor and hunger as his magical horn pierces a brilliant golden dumpling.

Director Andrew Rossi’s documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times, spends one year observing the paper’s operations as it
tackles breaking news stories amongst the most trying times in newspaper industry history.

The Autobots have once again been called to duty to “fight the good fight” in director Michael Bay’s latest installment of the Transformers series.