Dave Knows Portland

Archives for February 2012

Offbeat Belly Dance (17-February-2012)

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Offbeat Belly DanceEvery third Friday of the month the Blue Monk (3341 SE Belmont) hosts the Offbeat Belly Dance collective, a club rocking, good timing, genre-defying gang of badass belly dancers.

This Friday, February 17, 2012 is now exception: Offbeat Belly Dance! Inaugural 2012 Edition! Fun! Fabulous! Free Show!

his Friday! Come share the love as Offbeat Belly Dance once again sallies forth to commandeer The Blue Monk’s basement stage, hellbent on bringing you only the very best in alternative, experimental, and maybe even traditional belly dance!

This month’s lineup is guaranteed to thrill and delight! Joining us will be:

Vee!

Zighala Zurah!

Jasmine!

Plus, the triumphant return of the scintillating, the shimmytastic, the shiny:

The Sundari Dance Company!

Furthermore – so excited! they haven’t joined us since like 2010! – the awe inspiring fabulous fusion of:

Tableaux Vivants

And! The amazing, electric, eclectic, and all around excellent Offbeat debut of:

Chandni!

We also are giddy with anticipation of two rock ’em sock ’em totally awesome troupes who will be joining us (it’s a troupeapalooza)!

Get here early and get a good seat!

Noble Portlanders, you need to get some of this awesome. Join us. You deserve to be a part of the magic, and the evening just won’t be the same without you.

Join us! Bring your friends! Bring your party hat and your dancing shoes and we will bring our awesomeness and our ninja skillz.

As always, the show is FREE!

As always, the show is AWESOME!

Viva Offbeat! See you Friday! Wooo!

Join Karissa, the Ringleader of Offbeat Belly Dance (pictured to the right), and the other fabulous dancers at the show Friday night.

Individually, the members of the Offbeat Belly Dance collective perform at shows throughout the Portland area, but on the 3rd Friday of the month they come together at the Blue Monk to perform in a rollicking belly dance revue. One of the things that makes it offbeat, is that the dancers choose whatever kind of music they like. Karissa tells me this has included traditional Middle Eastern music, zydeco, AC/DC, Strauss, The Pogues, hip hop, jazz, blues, Old Crow Medicine Show, the Spice Girls, and just about everything else.

The shows are free, and go from about 7pm until 9:30pm.

Visit OffbeatBellyDance.com for more information. You can also become a fan on Facebook, and follow the genre-defying, good timing gang of belly dancers in Portland OR, w/Karissa as ringmaster/carnival barker/propagandiston on Twitter at @OffbeatBelly

Photo credit: Offbeat Belly Dance

Entertainment for People (25-February-2012)

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Entertainment For People 2011The latest Entertainment for People extravaganza takes place Saturday, February 25, 2012 at the Disjecta (8371 N Interstate).

Hosted by Shelley McLendon and B. Frayn Masters (of Back Fence PDX fame), Entertainment for People is a highly entertaining variety show that offers a snack-sized smorgasbord of music, weird stuff, film, readings, comedy in all forms, and booze.

The lineup:

Playing double duty as hosts and performers are SHELLEY McLENDON & B. FRAYN MASTERS. Shelley is the creator and star of the wildly popular Roadhouse: The Play!, and Frayn is the cocreator and co-host of the super successful Back Fence PDX storytelling series.

Back by popular demand, weird and exciting times from Seattleite EMMETT MONTGOMERY. Standup and storyteller who’s performed at BUMBERSHOOT, BRIDGETOWN COMEDY FESTIVAL, and the SASQUATCH FESTIVAL.

The Who finally meets Peaches and Herb within sketch comedy enthusiasts MICHAEL FETTERS & SHELLEY MCLENDON as THE ACES. This is where you’ve seen Michael and Shelley together: ROAD HOUSE: The Play!, and SWEAT. Separately you’ve seen Michael in GRIMM, and in the video for CAKE’s MOUSTACHE MAN, you’ve likely lamped Shelley in The LIBERATOR’s, MORTIFIED, and LIVE WIRE.

Vocal synthesizer, sound mimic, beatbox mastermind FOGATRON is gonna blow your mind with the powerful fusion of storytelling and beatbox. He is endorsed by Soy a clothing company out of Seattle, and in 2004 he won the Portland Mercury Pizzaz competition alongside local rapper Manic D. The New York Times calls Fogatron, “The Portland legend.”

Bringing his whimsical brand of irreverence is the man, the improviser, the comedian… TYNAN DELONG. He was a finalist for Helium Comedy Club’s “Portland’s Funniest Person” contest, and is a featured performer for MORTIFIED. He hopes to one day land a recurring role on ‘Nash Bridges’ once it comes back from hiatus.

Recipient of Publisher’s Weekly honorable mention for Best Comics of 2011, ARON NELS STEINKE, will narrate a story with delightful visual accompaniment. Aron has published 5 issues of the autobiographical comics series, Big Plans, and has published two early-reader children’s books
with Blue Apple Books, The Super Crazy Cat Dance, (2010) and The Super-Duper Dog Park, (2011). Aron’s all-ages graphic novel, Neptune, was selected as a notable book for this year’s Best American Comics published by Houghton Mifflin.

She likes peaches and bourbon and getting hand-written letters in the mail, she’s MINDY NETIFEE. She travels the country with her banged up Casio performing poetry for college students, drunks at poetry slams, and people who would rather be out at art galleries and theaters and bars than home watching TV. Her father turned out to be gay, her mother turned out to be a life coach, and she turned out mostly straight, though Marilyn Manson believes she is a lesbian, and if you buy Mindy enough drinks she might tell you why.

At the last E4P you witnessed your own murder as JULIA KOBOS slayed you with two hilarious songs, so we had to bring her back. Julia performed in Chicago with Second City, IO, and The Annoyance Theater, participated in the 2011 Chicago Improv Festival, and the 2009 Del Close Marathon in NY.

Returning as lovable Uncle Peter Rice JASON ROUSE will steal your heart with a brand new video from a little series he created along with pal and collaborator B. Frayn Masters. Jason writes for Live Wire, appeared along with Michael Fetters in Cake’s Moustache Man video, and is a member of the sketch group SWEAT.

B. FRAYN MASTERS will be performing some kind of new and ridiculous thing with Julia Kobos. You may recognize the name, as she is one of the co-hosts and founders of Back Fence PDX. Recently, B. Frayn has graced stages with readings from her work in McSweeney’s, Hobart, and as Cherry Daniels in GGW magazine. She will be reprising her role as the voice of Sue Ellen Pierce in a little video series she is creating with Jason Rouse.

Doors open at 7pm, show starts at 8pm. Tickets are $10 online/$12 at the door – Visit EntertainmentForPeople.com for more information.

Attack of the Flix #02 (19-February-2012)

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Attack of the FlixAttack of the Flix, presented by Microflix, is a monthly competition for Portland filmmakers held at the Curious Comedy Theatre (5225 NE MLK). This month’s show takes place Sunday, February 19, 2012.

Submit your film if you are an Oregon or Washington filmmaker! Entries must be 10 minutes or less, and submitted on USB thumb drives encoded as AppleTV (see the FAQ for full details).

Films are shown in the order they are submitted, and screened live on the interwebz!

Vote for your favorite flicks – the first place winner receives a golden trophy!

Admission is free (a donation bucket will be at the door). Curious Comedy Theatre is an all ages venue, and has a full bar.

This recurring show takes place every third Sunday. Visit the Microflix website and the Attack of the Flix Facebook page for more details.

Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 4 #2: ORe-Gasm

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Kick Ass Oregon History Vol 4 #2: ORe-GasmKick Ass Oregon History is the latest series of podcasts from the enthusiastic historians behind ORHistory.com.

Volume 4 #2 dropped yesterday – ORe-Gasm:

In which we celebrate Oregon’s birthday by drenching our self in hot, wet, sticky history.

The brains behind this Kick Ass project are the crack hustlers of Oregon History Doug Kenck-Crispin and Andy Lindberg. Doug is a graduate student studying Public History and Pacific Northwest History at PSU, and Andy, though a Portland native, is currently working as an actor in New York City. Doug does most of the research and writing for the podcasts with input from Andy, who voices the broadcasts with a thespian’s flair.

With the Kick Ass Oregon History podcast they plan to cover just the good stuff: Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll and Earth Shattering, Devastating Destruction.

Ultimately, our goal is to take Oregon History out of the hallowed halls of the academy, get folks excited and enthused about this shared history, and get them out into the state, digging it and experiencing it. Get them to embrace it, and get their boots muddy in the process. It’s all OUR History; nobody owns it.

Visit ORHistory.com and stay tuned to @Oregon_History on Twitter for further details on specific episodes and the series. Catch up on missed episodes at the Kick Ass Oregon History archives.

Rose City Showdown IV (February 17-19, 2012)

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Rose City Showdown IVThe fourth annual Rose City Showdown takes place this weekend, February 17 through 19, 2012 at the Slingshot Lounge (5532 SE Center).

Rose City Showdown is a HERB style qualifying PAPA style finals tournament consisting of two divisions, an open division on 6 machines and a classics division on 4 machines. Top 16 from open will make the open finals and top 12 from classics will make the classics finals.

Tickets are $3 each or four for $10 and can be used for either division. All money collected will be paid back as prizes!

Friday competition hours are noon until 2am, Saturday noon until midnight. Sunday the classic finals begin at noon, followed by the open finals.

For more information visit Rose City Pinball and Crazy Flipper Fingers.