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

UNBOUND IV

I make very little if any of my income as a musician/writer/artist. I make most of my living working for Powells Books on Hawthorne Blvd in Portland OR. It is a fairly famous bookstore and calls itself the "largest Independent bookstore". I work in the smaller of the satellite stores. It is a true neighborhood bookstore. As in most retail outlets, our staff consists of people who are over-educated and over-flowing with talent. Four years ago, now defunct staff member, Julie Underhill, began a relationship with Fresh Pot, the coffeeshop inside the bookstore. Once a year the employees of the bookstore are allowed to showcase their collective artistic talents for one month in their "gallery". Each month they showcase a different local artist. It is very gracious of them to lend us such an opprtunity. We call our show Unbound.  ~john longstocking

JOIN MY CULT OF THE FALLEN NATION!

2GQ blog designer James Curcio has many an iron in the media fire. Catch up with Join My Cult! and other neoclassics of the 21st century oughts at the JMC blog, which includes audiobook subscriptions to Curcio's novel Fallen Nation and details about his podcasts for Disinfo and Jive magazine.

Summer Lovin'

Portland’s latest, greatest storytelling series, Back Fence PDX , kicks off this Thursday, June 19th with a theme that could only be described as hopeful, particularly with this weather lately: summer love. Storytellers include Alison Hallett of the Mercury. Intermission to showcase Pompina’s vintage swimwear, in which 2GQ writer Nora Robertson and a few other local artsy-girl types will “model” the suits for ya. Be there or be…you know the drill.

NO NEW MUSIC IN ST. JOHN'S!

Or, actually, "No.Fest : Nu Music.Arts St.John's." Head to North Portland on Saturday, June 21st for loads of music and goodness, free, all ages. White Rainbow, Evolutionary Jass Band, and Dead Air Fresheners are among the many bands playing.

Quote of the day:
"Astoria is the new St. John's."   -- JD Berger, 2004

ART 'N' PERFORMANCE STUFF: THIS FRIDAY

Installation, warm fuzzy fabric goodness, and performance featuring Eliza Fernand, Molly Enright, Mark Deutsch, and Gary Wiseman at Homeland. 8pm Friday June 20th @ Gallery Homeland, 2505 SE 11th, Portland OR.

PESTICIDE POISONINGS & HUMAN RIGHTS IN NICARAGUA: BENNIE @ HOLOCENE TONIGHT

"The Affected" is a movie being made by Lisa Wells and Catawampus Films from here in Portland.

"Amigo" is a benefit for the film with Point Juncture, WA, Tractor Operator, Hutch & Kathy of The Thermals, and more.

"Human Rights Issues & Pesticide Poisonings" are among the charming side effects of the "veiled genocide" that global agribusiness has inflicted on Nicaragua.

Comprendes, amigo? Thought so. Off to Holocene with you. Thursday June 5th. Details follow.

OREGON LITERARY REVIEW READING: First Wednesday

2GQ director/editor/etceterator Tiffany Lee Brown will read June 4, along with Matt Love, Leah Stenson, and Caitlin Clark.

Blackbird Wineshop and Oregon Literary Review co-host an evening of readings, performances  and video on the first Wednesday of every month, 7-9pm. Blackbird Wineshop is at 3519 NE  44th (off Fremont).503-282-1887.

RAW BEGINNINGS

Ever noticed, especially in Portland, the gap between the worlds of "dance" and "performance"? Tahni Holt is among our fair city's artists who bridge that gap; Holt's work expands well past the borders of pure body-focused movement and dance into creative conceptual explorations.

Non-dancers now have the chance to work with Holt in her "Raw Beginnings" class at Conduit, beginning Monday, May 5. Drop-ins are welcome to check it out for a single evening. —Tiffany Lee Brown  (image: Holt at left and Linda Austin, right)

PERFORMANCE WORKS NW & 2GQ PRESENT "HOUSE BOUND"

A kinesthetic salon of performance, installation, food, and drink by the artists of Works Corps. Tickets cost $5 less if purchased in advance from Brown Paper Tickets online; price includes tea, snacks, and beverages for grownups.

13 April 2008, Sunday
Showtimes 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00, 3:30, and 5:00. Advance reservations recommended.
Tickets: $10-20, advance at  Brown Paper Tickets.

At Performance Works NW
4625 SE 67th Ave, Portland
(half-block north of SE Foster Road).
Reservations & Info: 503 475 2306, housebound@2GQ.org, www.2GQ.org

The artists of Works Corps are (l. to r.): Nora Robertson, Clare Carpenter, Lilian Gael, and Emily Stone; front: Tiffany Lee Brown. Photo by Steve Fritz.

Co-presented by 2GQ and Performance Works NW's Alembic series. 

TONIGHT: 2 GYRLZ BRINGS RON ATHEY TO PORTLAND

2 Gyrlz Performative Arts is proud to present legendary performance artist, Ron Athey, for the first time ever in Portland. This will truly be a rare and exceptional event, in which performance is taken to an edge that 2 Gyrlz and other presenters in this city have rarely dared to visit. This is not about shock, this is about exposing truths and presenting new possibilities.

RON ATHEY (L.A.), SAMANTHA SWEETING (Britain/France), and Portland's own ARIA BENNER and MICAH PERRY of Cliché Au Lait.

First Thursday 03 April Hippodrome, PDX (SE 3rd & Oak)
$8 | 21 + Performances run 8 - 9:30 pm

After Party next door @ BRANX, 320 SE 2nd Ave., with PAN!ZEN Soundsystem (Chromosome 23/Acroyear, Try My Cabbage, Rudement, and b0t23 of Buried in Time/ELM). 21+, 9:30-close, $5 suggested donation or come in from the Ron Athey/ 2 Gyrlz show.

THE VIDEO GENTLEMEN: BYOTV

The Video Gentlemen present BYOTV, kicking off COUTURE08 @ the New American Art Union. Linda Austin's video screens during WEEK ONE: March 22-29.

Reception on Saturday March 22nd from 5-8pm at New American Art Union, 922 SE Ankeny, Portland.

NAAU's stipend recipients for Couture '08 are Rose McCormick, Ty Ennis, Jim Lommasson, Jacqueline Ehlis, TJ Norris, Stephen Slappe, Vanessa Renwick, Laura Fritz, Ethan Jackson, The Video Gentlemen.

BETSY BOYLE'S "RESPITE"

There is a quiet pause in girlhood on the cusp of adolescence. -BB

Knives, beds, a suitcase, a door, Sears gold-rimmed furniture, personal histories, things lost in time. In Betsy Boyle's new collection, "Respite", these things seem to be in limbo, lying in wait to be of use once again. Longing and lonliness. The tones
are rich in color, deep hued greens and red populate a diminishing urban landscape. There are moments of wonder when there are people in the photographs, but it is in the absence of peoplewhich makes the humanity of her work that much stronger. There is a struggle between innocence and adolescence where choice has defined a need to keep from reaching out towards memory, and one's ability to move on into adulthood. Betsy's is a voice which has a deep sense of her own past and is looking for answers in some of the emptiness left in the cobwebs of her childhood memories. What she finds is magic in the inbetween spaces of life. At her best Boyle is an anthropologist of the self, looking within to see herself from the outside.
-John Longstocking

DOMESTIC TERROR: "The Picky House Club" by Kristy Athens

2GQ continues our exploration of home and family with original fiction by Kristy Athens, a writer and editor based in Husum, Washington, also known for her work with Literary Arts.

Our Freezone is named after the creative writing and arts section of Signum Press, the dear departed Internet magazine I edited throughout the late 1990s and early aughts. The Freezone is open for fiction, poetry, performance documentation, visual art galleries, and multimedia extravaganzas. If you'd like to submit materials to our "Domestic Terror" feature, please read the submission guidelines. --TLB