2GQ ~ 2 Gyrlz Quarterly ~ Portland, Oregon arts, literature, & madness

...AND A SNARKY NEW YEAR

Portland photographer Jim Lommasson is all fulla Xmas cheer...

THE GYRLZ ARE BACK! Programming for 2008 + Holiday Gifts of Luv

HELLO, GYRLZ: Most of you know by now that 2 Gyrlz founder/directors Lisa Newman and Llewyn Maire have returned from their year-plus of performing and living in Europe. Portland is ready for a new round of innovative performance programming from our favourite gyrlz. The new season promises to bring some excellent international artists to town; we will soon update this site and 2gyrlz.org with confirmed shows.

COMPENDIUM BOOKS AVAILABLE
We also have signed, numbered, limited edition books on sale; click "Compendium" on the Plazm Books site.

PANCAKE BREAKFAST: not just for brunch anymore

This week: Mike Midlo brings his fabu, delightfully weird organ-and-chicken-noises music to Portland from the wilds of White Salmon, WA. Deets follow!

DOMESTIC TERROR: Freezone at 2GQ

We live in our bodies. We live in our little lives. We live in our homes.

Sometimes these realities are not reflected in the creative literature associated with taking risks, presenting challenges, engendering innovative fiction, and going out on the occasional experimental limb. Sometimes, we want our "edge" to be so "edgy" that it falls completely away from how we live. Sometimes we invest more inventiveness in form and style than we do in the emotional honesty of a work. As for subject matter: sometimes we're afraid to engage with the mundane truths of home and domesticity, fearing that our work will turn out like all those hyper-workshopped hausfrau short stories set in Connecticut, the ones you see all the time in New York magazines and Midwestern literary journals.

OK, there's definitely something to fear in that. But there's much to celebrate and explore, as well. Family and home are not the opposite of things fascinating, dark, gripping, hilarious, or glamourous. Hell, no. Family and home are the very source of the best neuroses, the kind that turn people into writers...

Welcome DOMESTIC TERROR. This series of short literature & other fun stuff will be published on the 2GQ.org Freezone throughout 2008. On deck we have Kristy Athens, John Barrios, Nora Robertson, and hey, I'll probably make an appearance myself. If you would like to submit material, which can include memoir, poetry, fiction, hypertext, visual works, comics, multimedia presentation, and documentation of performance/visual works, please READ THIS FIRST (www.2GQ.org/DT-submit.html). Thanks. --Tiffany Lee Brown