Top Down, summer in the city

Visiting the great outdoors is filled with hassles. Urine-extinguished fires, bears eating your food and general dirtiness all indicate why some people would just rather stay in the city during the summer. And why not? Great events like the Northwest Film Center’s Top Down Music and Movies series can give you the best of both worlds: it’s outside, but has a distinct lack of bears. Top Down has been running for two weeks now, will run for four more and is a brilliant mix of off-beat movies and local bands. Every Thursday in August on the roof of Hotel deLuxe’s parking structure, you’ll find a panoramic, moonlit view of our fair city in its entire metropolitan splendor. On the roof, Gracie’s Restaurant provides meals, snacks and all sorts of beverages. This week’s double-header begins with a concert from local popsters Dirty Mittens and is followed by the wire-laden kung fu film The Heroic Trio. Dirty Mittens is a guitar/keyboards/drums trio featuring the intriguing voice of Chelsea Pants, who sounds a bit like Joanna Newsom, though not as quirky. The group has a new record, The Mid-July EP, which is sure to light a fire in the earphones of local music lovers. Their songs have everything one could ask of a respectable band: dynamics, good melodies and a solid variety of stylistic approaches amongst their songs. Dirty Mittens are a band to watch. The Heroic Trio is a 1993 Hong Kong martial arts fantasy flick featuring Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung as two-thirds of a magical fighting trio that fights a demonic lord of the underworld, who is stealing newborns right out of hospitals. This film, on the surface, seems totally unrelated to the sprightly music of Dirty Mittens, but watching them back-to-back may bring new meaning to both artistic enterprises. On August 16th, the Top Down presentation features Preston Sturges’ 1941 classic Sullivan’s Travels and the band Hurah Hurah. Hurah Hurah is a garage-y, sloppy indie band whose second-to-last show will be on this here occasion. Their music features a metric ton of xylophones, so if that’s your thing, hurry up to the roof. Sullivan’s Travels, however, is a wonderful film that never gets old. The plot revolves around a film director who, in order to make more authentic works, decides to travel around like a hobo, gaining worldly wisdom and street cred. His dream film is a little socialist number called “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Sullivan’s Travels has aged marvelously; literally every film critic loves it, and you can bet your Fargo-loving ass the Coen Brothers took a few cues from it as well. August 23 will feature the eminently lovable Sexton Blake, whose praises have been sung in Vanguard issues past, along with a visit from the Rose City Rollers. The film for the evening is the roller-derby camp classic Kansas City Bomber, featuring the spicy hot Raquel Welch as “the hottest thing on wheels!” Kevin McCarthy (the hilarious R.J. Fletcher from UHF) plays roller-derby star Raquel’s manager/love interest. Look hard and you’ll even find a nine-year-old Jodie Foster. The trailer features a bunch of fighting women and a skeezy elderly man trying to seduce Raquel, which reminds us that, “in the world of roller games, there’s room at the top for only one!” In the world of the NWFC, however, there’s room on the roof for plenty. The final night (August 30th) of Top Down features the enduring Portland pop/rockers Blue Skies for Black Hearts. The movie is Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello’s 1963 beach-ploitation flick Beach Party, which features cameos from Dick Dale, Brian Wilson and, naturally, Vincent Price. The plot is not exactly labyrinthine, nor is the title misleading: the film is about a beach party. Nothing could be campier fun. Every Thursday, bands start at 8 p.m. and movies start around 9. Bring a chair or blanket. Admission is $7. Located at 729 SW 15th Ave. More information can be found at www.nwfilm.org