Jump to: Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Multi-Day
COMEDY
Remind
Like
List
Kickstand Comedy’s hugely popular Comedy in the Park series has returned, hitting Laurelhurst Park on most Fridays through September 6. Grab your pals with a sense of humor and drop your blankets early—the free stand-up show has been known to draw crowds of 4,000 or more. The plus side of the bonkers crowd is the unmatched dog-watching; I’m a fan of Laurelhurst duck-watching, too. This Friday, a lineup of much-loved funnybones will head to the stage after local laughers Rachelle Cochran and Julia Corral get the crowd going. LC
(Laurelhurst Park, Laurelhurst, free)
Like
List
The city’s first annual comedy pageant is less Toddlers and Tiaras and more I Think You Should Leave. It’s also an easy way to familiarize yourself with dozens of local comedians. A whopping 50 comedy acts will show up to bemuse the crowds on Fridays from July 12 to August 2, and panelists and audiences (that means you!) will vote for their faves. Each contestant will have only five minutes to perform, so expect tight, rapid-fire funnies as comics battle it out for the crown and title of Portland Comedy Royalty. LC
(Curious Comedy Annex, King, $10-$12)
Remind
Like
List
Because nothing’s less funny than the prospect of eternal singledom, loneliness, and despair, Kickstand will snatch up real audience dating profiles and lend a helping hand with a team of “professionally trained dating experts” (aka improvisers) on stage. You’d have to be the perfect blend of brave and desperate to participate in such a thing, but I mean, “I’m sending this message with the help of nine comedians” is a hell of an opener, right? LC
(Kickstand Comedy, Ladd’s Addition, $10-$15)
LIVE MUSIC
Like
List
Tucson-born, Tacoma-based musician Justin R. Cruz Gallego’s project JRCG approaches indie rock with an experimental lens obscured by Krautrock, jazz, and electronic sounds. If you’re familiar with the Silver Apples’ 1968 self-titled album, consider JRCG’s Sub Pop debut Grim Iconic...(Sadistic Mantra) a modern interpretation of the band’s visionary and unnerving psych rock. Don’t miss opening sets from fellow punk experimentalists Guitar and Teton.
(Mississippi Studios, Boise, $15)
READINGS & TALKS
Like
List
If you’ve ever feasted your eyeballs on surreal eroticist and very online person Chuck Tingle’s works, count yourself lucky: Among Tingle’s books are Pounded in the Butt by My Own Butt and Space Raptor Butt Invasion, both of which drive home his commitment to satirizing the LGBTQ+ erotica genre in the weirdest and best possible way. Tingle’s writing has established him as a bona fide queer internet icon. His latest, Bury Your Gays, takes a turn toward horror, and he’ll deliver a “hilarious, mysterious, multimedia performance” to chat about the book. It’s got a little of everything—Chris Pine references, cartoon woodchucks, David Duchovny, and more—so don’t miss this ticketed launch, where he’ll be joined by The House in the Cerulean Sea novelist TJ Klune. LC
(Clinton Street Theater, Hosford-Abernethy, $10)
VISUAL ART
Like
List
You might not know his name, but if you’ve lived in Portland for more than a day or two, you’ll recognize his work. Gary Hirsch is a prolific muralist who’s painted larger-than-life compositions of colorful robot weirdos with positive messages all over the city. Pop by Sidestreet Arts for Meet Your Monsters, a selection of new works by Hirsch. The improvisational, character-driven paintings will be presented in a “you name it” format, which means viewers can title each painting on display. “Final titles will be chosen by the purchaser,” the gallery explains, and if your title is chosen, they’ll send you a “hand-painted domino Bot” by Hirsch. LC
(Sidestreet Arts, Kerns, free)
EXHIBIT
Remind
Like
List
Ethereal Reflections seems hellbent on creating as many meet-cute opportunities for Portlanders as possible, hosting wine nights, reading parties, and other events that sell out almost instantly. If you haven’t picked up what they’re puttin’ down yet, here’s an easy opportunity—the collective’s formerly “one night only” exhibition Identity Crisis will be open at Union/Pine again on August 3. Drop by for iced matcha, Lloyd’s bagels, jazz tunes, impeccable art-viewing, and maybe some people-viewing, too. LC
(Union/Pine, Buckman, free)
FESTIVALS
Remind
Like
List
With over 4,000 years of recorded history, it’s an understatement to say there’s a lot to learn about Chinese civilization. Fill in some of the gaps in your knowledge at this festival, which is hosted by the Oregon Chinese Coalition and shares the Chinese culture and its traditions through food, activities, and performances including fan dance, Sichuan opera face changing, Chinese yo-yo, and wushu demonstrations. JW
(Pioneer Courthouse Square, Downtown, free)
Remind
Like
List
Obon is a summertime Japanese festival that pays tribute to one’s ancestors. The Oregon Buddhist Temple celebrates Obon annually on the first Saturday of August with food, dance, memorial visits, lantern hanging, and other joyous festivities. The highlight of the fest is a dance called “Bon Odori”—while it will be led by Japanese dance groups, all are invited to join and celebrate ancestors and family members who have recently passed. SL
(Oregon Buddhist Temple, Creston-Kenilworth, free)
FILM
Remind
Like
List
PAM CUT’s indoor summer camp includes friendship bracelets, custom merit badges, and drinks, but best of all, the theater understands what the people want: Air conditioning. Head there on August 3 and spend the whole day cooling off. “Camp counselor” Crystal Powers will lead crafting sessions before screenings of Wes Anderson’s sleepaway love story Moonrise Kingdom and David Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, aka the film that birthed my obsession with Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black. Maybe you’ll leave with some new friends forever. LC
(Tomorrow Theater, Richmond, $15 for each film)
Remind
Like
List
We live in Oregon, dammit, and if there’s one thing Oregonians love more than watching movies, it’s being in nature. ¿Por qué no los dos?! Hollywood Theatre has teamed up with the Oregon State Parks Department to do just that, offering up a series of screenings in scenic state parks throughout the summer. The series continues on August 3 with the ’82 Jim Henson/Frank Oz puppet-and-animatronic tale The Dark Crystal at Champoeg State Heritage Area. LC
(Champoeg State Heritage Area, Saint Paul, free)
Remind
Like
List
If, like the rest of the world, you binged Tiger King in 2020 and are famished for more zookeeper madness, may I suggest Noel Marshall’s 1981 film Roar? Like a twisted Disney flick with a dash of Swiss Family Robinson, Roar tells the story of a woman and her family who travel to Africa to meet a scientist who lives with wild animals. Hundreds of cast and crew members abandoned the project, and a hell of a lot of them (like, 70) were injured, including the 14-year-old Melanie Griffith. LC
(Clinton Street Theater, Hosford-Abernethy, $10)
FOOD & DRINK
Remind
Like
List
It’s been a dozen years since the founders of pFriem met at a kid’s birthday party in 2011, bonded over their love of beer and family, and started their well-known Oregon brewery. Help them celebrate with this free, family-friendly festival, which will include lawn games, food trucks, plenty of pFriem beers, exclusive ciders from Son of Man, and three sets of live music from Music Festival of the Gorge, including headliner Scott Pemberton. The event will also raise money for Hood River County School District music programs. JB
(Hood River Waterfront, free)
LIVE MUSIC
Remind
Like
List
This weekend, sip on one of the Lollipop Shoppe’s refreshing cocktails while dreamy punk band Nonbinary Girlfriend reminds you how nice it is to leave the house sometimes. Expect to hear songs from their latest album, BIG AND KIND, which is a cathartic explosion of soul-baring vocals, shoegaze riffs, and purging percussion. Indie rock outfits Bg Seance and Lazy Sunday will open. AV
(Lollipop Shoppe, Buckman, $10-$12)
PARTIES & NIGHTLIFE
Remind
Like
List
Beloved all-vinyl DJ Action Slacks will be joined by a very special guest DJ this weekend…YOU! That’s right, this edition of Flame gives the rare opportunity to request your favorite bops from the ’50s-’80s. There is the condition that Slacks has to have the song her vinyl collection, but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue considering her collection spans genres like soul, country, oldies, classic rock, disco, funk, jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, and Latin. Request up to three songs over on her website, and show up on Saturday night to anxiously await your special tune. AV
(The World Famous Kenton Club, Kenton, Sliding scale $10-20 at the door)
PERFORMANCE
Remind
Like
List
If you’re old enough to have voted for Obama, you probably remember FOUND Magazine, which papered the aughts era with strange ephemera, tossed notes, and whatever else people happened to find lying around. The magazine—and subsequent website and books—captured something special in a time before it felt that social media and the internet had really, truly taken over. Everyone loved Animal Collective, nostalgia reigned king, and spotting an intriguing scrap of paper or a stranger’s photograph was still special, not something you could achieve in five seconds on Twitter. Do I sound old? It’s because I’m getting there. Anyway, FOUND Magazine stopped producing issues in 2014, but they’re actually still doin’ the thing in various capacities. Editor/publisher Davy Rothbart will share his favorite finds on stage for this event, and his brother Peter will pluck some rowdy tunes based on found notes. Puzzlingly, they’ll be joined by “world-famous sword swallower and magician Brett Loudermilk of America’s Got Talent.” LC
(Kickstand Comedy, Ladd’s Addition, $10-$15)
SHOPPING
Remind
Like
List
We love an excuse to dress up. Don your ’80s best and head over to the Fremont neighborhood for a themed street fair celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Beaumont Business Association with live music, tons of local vendors, fun activations on the lawn outside of boutique The Arrangement, a beer garden at Hi-Top Tavern, and more. SL
(NE Fremont & 42nd, Beaumont-Wilshire, free)
VISUAL ART
Remind
Like
List
I’m in Georgia O’Keeffe’s camp when it comes to the summer heat, but that doesn’t mean everyone else shouldn’t enjoy the season. “Summer amplifies our sense of aliveness, of being in the world among other beings…Temperaments become whimsical yet cognizant—we are uniquely attuned to the exterior and we want to revel in it, to enjoy one another,” ILY2 posits. The gallery’s new group exhibition was designed to be viewed in the sunshine during its summer closure. Gone Fishin’ is installed in ILY2’s windows, so you can stroll by and see pieces by Emma Kohlmann, Morgan Buck, Tanner Lind, Bonnie Lucas, and many others. The show should provide more than enough artistic inspiration to tide you over before the gallery’s fall and winter exhibitions. LC
(ILY2, Pearl District, free; opening)
Remind
Like
List
The rise of residential art galleries in Portland is no mistake—during the pandemic, which shuttered some of the city’s more traditional art spaces, curators began to think creatively. One such gallery, Derek Franklin’s SE Cooper Contemporary, is housed on his family property in outer Lents. The gallery’s shows are consistently inventive and surprising, like this one, in which artist Jason Carey-Sheppard shares a “black metal pastoral exhibition of paintings, a sculptural installation of approximately 100 cast plaster plates permeated with toasted blue cheese, and two resin cast beetles.” Show up during their Saturday hours and venture beyond the familiar. LC
(SE Cooper Contemporary, Lents, free)
CLASSES & WORKSHOPS
Remind
Like
List
The Independent Publishing Resource Center is the best writing, printmaking, and publishing resource that you might not know about, and they’re worthy of your support. (How do I know? My boyfriend went to one workshop and came home a bookbinding fiend. They know their stuff.) From humble beginnings on the second floor of the now-shuttered Reading Frenzy bookshop, IPRC has expanded with certificate programs, workshops, and residencies. This chill drop-in writing event is a free way to familiarize yourself with the organization; Writing Night offers prompts, light facilitation, and opportunities to share your work. LC
(IPRC, Buckman, free)
LIVE MUSIC
Remind
Like
List
I’ll go out on a limb and say that this is likely the only Klaus Schulze tribute night to ever take place. Local electronic artists Pulse Emitter, Arkham Sunset, and FunSize Renegade will celebrate the electronic pioneer’s birthday by covering songs from his 53-year-long career. If you are not familiar, Schulze stepped onto the scene with krautrock legends Tangerine Dream before releasing a string of forty-seven solo albums. AV
(Holocene, Buckman, $12)
OUTDOORS
Remind
Like
List
The Great American Outdoors Act was passed in 2020, helping to provide funding to improve our natural public spaces and make them more accessible to all. Celebrate the legislation’s anniversary with an entrance fee-free day to National Park Service sites this Sunday. Pack up the car and head to the one-and-only Crater Lake, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park in adorable Astoria, or Fort Vancouver just across the Washington border. SL
(Various locations, free)
EXHIBIT
Remind
Like
List
The World Forestry Center is throwing open the doors to its wood-filled Discovery Museum all summer long, offering special programming—including storytimes, forest crafts, science and wildfire preparedness talks, and an art exhibition,Tree People—that’s bound to leave you more arboreally inclined than you were before. Learn about the Northwest’s forests and their role “as a habitat, a place for recreation and reflection, a critical resource, and more” through an engaging variety of events; they’re all included with the cost of admission. LC
(World Forestry Center & Discovery Museum, Washington Park, $5-$8, Friday–Sunday)
FILM
Remind
Like
List
There’s nothing you could say to convince me that you don’t already watch cat videos at home. The question, therefore, is this—why shouldn’t you watch them do their weird, wonderful thing on a big screen? Oscilloscope Laboratories’ annual fest compiles the most exemplary cat videos from unique submissions and sourced animations, music videos, and Internet icons, creating a program that appeals to the kitty video connoisseur in all of us. If you truly need another reason to attend, a portion of ticket sales support the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon. LC
(Cinema 21, Nob Hill, $8-$9, Saturday–Sunday)
Remind
Like
List
The City of Portland’s Summer Free For All events build community with family-focused activities like outdoor screenings, concerts, and performances by local artists. The dusk film screenings, held at parks across the city, are a free, low-lift option if you’re itching to get outside in the evenings. On August 2, head to Berrydale Park for Pixar red panda flick Turning Red, an absolute must-see for anyone who has ever turned spontaneously furry during puberty. LC
(Various locations, free, Friday–Saturday)
GEEK & GAMING
Remind
Like
List
As a jigsaw puzzler, I sometimes feel like doing puzzles is an underappreciated hobby. I just want to sit around, drink tea, and casually chat with friends while focusing on putting a painting of cats together; but do other people? Turns out, yes. For a little bit of a high-paced twist, the Portland Puzzle Company and Pomegranate are hosting a puzzle-solving competition, with around 400 teams assembling 500-piece puzzles as fast as they can. There will also be a puzzle swap and puzzle fair featuring vendors, live music, and local food and drink. SL
(Avenue Portland, Northeast Portland, $10, Friday–Sunday)
OUTDOORS
Remind
Like
List
Grab your camera and your allergy meds and get ready to experience 40 acres of dahlias featuring over 370 varieties. Floral novices and aficionados alike can sign up for flower arranging and crafts classes, listen to flower care lectures, take a bunch of flowers home, and more. Check out the 41st Annual Northwest Koi Show this weekend, listen to local bands perform on weekends, or grab a bite to eat from a rotating selection of food carts. SL
(Swan Island Dahlias, Canby, free, Friday–Sunday)
Remind
Like
List
It’s lavender season! Live out your lavender haze fantasy at one of the largest u-pick fields in the state. You can frolic among the fragrant plants, pick some flowers to take home, and shop for kitchen products, essential oils, and tasty refreshments at their vintage-core farm store. They’ve even created a lavender-a-maze, which is probably the nicest being lost has ever smelled. SL
(Wayward Winds Lavender Farm, Newberg, free, Friday–Sunday)
PERFORMANCE
Remind
Like
List
The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival brings its productions outdoors each summer, interpreting the Bard’s work in the classic First Folio style (that means limited rehearsal, an onstage prompter, and a fast-paced, improvisational feel). “Shakespeare should feel a little dangerous,” the fest’s promotional materials explain, and nothing sounds more dangerous to me than hopping on stage in front of a crowd to perform a barely rehearsed Elizabethan play. Check out the calendar for dates and locations of plays performed in parks across the city. LC
(Various locations, free, Friday–Sunday)
SHOPPING
Remind
Like
List
The White Lotus Foundation works to support and empower the AANHPI community in Portland, and they’ll be doing just that at their new open-air street market series this summer, running now through the beginning of August. Vendors rotate each weekend, but you’ll always be able to find over 200 different booths showcasing Asian culture with offerings from food and drink to handmade goods. SL
(SF Supermarket, Foster-Powell, free, Saturday–Sunday)
SPORTS & RECREATION
Remind
Like
List
This summer-long festival of bikey fun is an annual highlight for pedal-powered Portlanders. From June through August, riders of all ages are invited to join hundreds of events independently organized by community members like you. Although the famous World Naked Bike Ride is on hiatus this year, there are still plenty of opportunities to connect with like-minded bikers at events like an adoptees of color ride, a Kim Petras ride, and a Lord of the Rings ride. JW
(Various locations, free, Friday–Sunday)
VISUAL ART
Remind
Like
List
Google doesn’t often classify movies as “family/horror,” but Coraline is one of the few flicks that fits the bill. The 2009 LAIKA film, which follows an audacious 11-year-old who finds an alternate world populated by strange characters (including a button-eyed Other Mother), is based on the creepiest, most addictive Neil Gaiman book I read as a seventh-grader. If the book/movie’s lanky black cat elicits your nostalgia, I recommend spending an afternoon with Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail, LAIKA’s path of six-foot Cat sculptures stationed throughout downtown Portland. The free art trail’s public unveiling on August 2 will include curated maps to guide your adventure. LC
(Various locations, free, Friday–Sunday)
Remind
Like
List
Oregon Contemporary’s 2024 biennial brings together artists curated by Jackie Im and Anuradha Vikram. The show deprioritizes a hierarchical approach, instead opting to present work that’s “timely and relevant” to Oregon communities. The biennial also emphasizes diversity—over 50% of the artists shown identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+. I’m excited to see personal faves Meech Boakye,Srijon Chowdhury,Bean Gilsdorf, Rainen Knecht, Vo Vo, and Morgan Ritter among the lineup. The show also includes an iteration of Maxx Katz’s Yelling Choir, contact microphone and audio tape workshops, and oodles of other supplemental programming. LC
(Oregon Contemporary, Kenton, free, Friday–Sunday; closing)
Remind
Like
List
Multidisciplinary artist MK Guth’s last show at Elizabeth Leach, Touching Matter, focused on social ritual, incorporating objects with “implied performativity” and extending opportunities for reflective audience engagement. Guth’s latest solo exhibition, Distant Dreamer, dives into her archive to cherry-pick from themes and materials used across the artist and PNCA professor emeritus’ 30-year career. “Full of adjacent tangents and aestheticized renditions, the result is what one could call a ‘performance’ by an indomitable artist very much connected to her own thesis,” the gallery explains. Translation? Anticipate a range of multimedia works that revisit and expand upon Guth’s wide-reaching oeuvre, including textile works and sculptures from repurposed materials. LC
(Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Pearl District, free, Friday–Saturday)
Remind
Like
List
Mixed-media artist Erik Geschke, who’s also a professor at Portland State University’s Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design, explores “modernity, hierarchy, and artifice” in his painstaking constructions. Subterfuge imagines simulacrum that reference everything from the human body to industrial design, and working in sculpture, drawing, and video, Geschke creates an intriguing array of forms to interrupt your expectations. I’ll have to head to Well Well to get the full scoop, but I can’t help but be intrigued by this two-eared sculpture. LC
(Well Well, Kenton, free, Saturday–Sunday; opening)
EverOut Staff
Source link