Crimson Peak is going to divide audiences. The advertising campaign is definitely selling, while not quite a different movie, something a little more comfortably defined as horror, when the film is actually a very old-fashioned ghost story. This is a violent gothic romance with some ghosts, secrets, bodice ripping, and face smashing. Anyone expecting something […]
Jared Rasic
Film critic and author of food, arts and culture stories for the Source Weekly since 2010.
Posted inCulture
Film Events 10/21-10/28
Back to the Future Part II Now that we live in the future that Back to the Future Part II promised us and it is devoid of hover boards, flying cars, 3D shark attacks on street corners, and blow-drying jackets, it’s hard to know whether to be depressed or overjoyed. While the film was much-maligned […]
Posted inMusic
Newgrass City
The Lil’ Smokies pack a big sound
It would be simplest to describe The Lil’ Smokies as bluegrass, which is pretty accurate, but there is something else there not as easily definable. Most bluegrass has an effortless and unattainable vibe to it, where the audience can dance and have a wonderful time, but the technique is so complicated that there is always […]
Posted inMusic
Source Suggests 10/21-10/28
Bombadil Hopefully named after the delightful character from The Lord of the Rings, Bombadil brings its signature eclectic sound to Father Luke’s Room. Described as “Syd Barrett meets the Beatles,” their new album combines every single genre you can think of—appropriate since the band doesn’t really fit into one themselves. As we all know, those […]
Posted inCulture
The Black Box of Dead, Evil Musicals
A Thrilling October with CTC and 2nd Street
Cascades Theatrical Company and 2nd Street Theater are both trying something interesting over the next few weeks. Both theaters are trying something familiar in different and unexpected ways with CTC starting up this season’s first Black Box production and 2nd Street launching its fifth iteration of Evil Dead: The Musical. In each case, the experiment […]
Posted inCulture
Film Events 10/14-10/21
NT Live: Hamlet Since Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t getting enough exposure right now, why not check him out in a live production of the National Theatre’s Hamlet. In what is supposed to be one of the finest Hamlet stagings of the 21st century, Cumberbatch is receiving rave reviews as Shakespeare’s most disturbed lead from his finest […]
Posted inMusic
Good Vibrations
Seven minutes in reggae heaven with Israel Vibration
While it’s easy to set reggae on a shelf next to faded college memories of hookah smoking and wall tapestries, some bands are more than a flash in the pan—or pot, as it were. And there’s certainly more to the genre than that icon of icons, Bob Marley (whose likeness adorns countless dorm room walls). […]
Posted inCulture
Glacial Warning
Jumbo Wild drives its point home
A good documentary doesn’t lead its audience by the nose, it shows them where to stick it. Jumbo Wild is one of those rare and wonderful docs that slowly shares all of its facts, making the audience more knowledgeable (and disgusted), while letting all personal judgments come organically. Produced by Sweetgrass Films and Patagonia, Jumbo […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Special Delivery
The Soup Cycle serves sustainability
Seven years ago, Soup Cycle was a bite-sized idea with a big dream. What started in 2008 as an informal network of friends sharing soup via bicycle in Portland has expanded to bring fresh, local food to people in Corvallis, Eugene, and—in the last month—Bend. That’s right. In your time of need, be it the […]
Posted inCulture
Space Damon
Or how I stopped worrying and learned to grow poo-tatoes
The Martian will be compared a lot to 2013’s Gravity. Mostly because both films focus on a single person fighting back against overwhelming odds in an environment that wants to destroy them (the vacuum of space in Gravity and the surface of Mars in The Martian), but the films have one major difference: The Martian […]