Art Snack Portland: PICA's Beyond Now, Niles Abston Comedy Special, and Single Episodes of Podcasts
Welcome to Art Snack Portland, a snack-sized newsletter that explores the ways art is changing to adapt to social distancing. Art Snack is curated and written by Suzette Smith, the furloughed Arts Editor of the Portland Mercury.
This newsletter aims to be weekly, but I tweet about last minute remote events on Twitter. I always want to hear about cool art people are interacting with. Tell me about it! suzettesmithsmith@gmail.com.
Last week, on a video call, a colleague described the unsettling feeling that approaches every evening, when his natural rhythm is still set to leave the house and find a show, but he realizes that there aren’t any shows and he should stay home. I empathize, because I used to go out a lot too, but in some respects I’m seeing more art and performance under the Stay Home order than I did when I had to commit and commute to events where I wasn’t supposed to be on my phone.
Now I can watch a drag performance, stand-up show, and DJ set in three different tabs whilst picking fruit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. As a millennial, flipping between multiple thought streams is my natural state, but I’m also a critic so I’ve learned that some of the most rewarding works only reveal themselves under my full interest and attention.
This week’s newsletter highlights a comedy set that I cackled loudly about on a run by the river at dusk, some podcasts I inhaled while cooking, and a fundraiser weekend which looks very worthy of our undivided interest. Let’s hit up that one first:
Online Sleepaway TBA
The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) has assembled a stunning roster of artists for their upcoming virtual fundraiser, Beyond Now, which will stream next weekend, Thurs May 14-Sat May 16. The list of featured artists is star-studded—including several performers from recent years of PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival (TBA)—, but there are even more exciting surprises hidden in the alphabetical index. Reading it feels like:
Ahamefule J. Oluo? Awesome! His comedy / music / memoir show at last year’s TBA was wonderful.
Allie Hankins? Tight. Hankins is a dancer and creative force behind a number of local interactive projects like Transcendentaerobics or the twice held Say When Festival, which she collaborates on with her collective Physical Education.
House of Ada and House of Flora? A staple. Portland’s best known ball culture houses are challenging conventions, changing minds, and winning hearts with their walks and lewks.
AND—WAIT A FUCKING MINUTE—RYAN TRECARTIN? Ryan Trecartin is an experimental video artist whose work has received extensive critical and institutional acclaim. He creates glitchy, hilarious, philosophical films—like his breakout 2007 feature I-Be Area, which explored ideas of identity, persona, image, online avatars coming to life(!) and taking over, child performers not living up to their full potential, and the ethics of bead stores. Trecartin packages big ideas inside witty scripts and dialogue delivered in the style of daytime talk show paternity accusation. It’s hard to follow and impossible to look away from. I’m so excited to see what he and his longtime collaborator Lizzie Fitch will bring to the weekend.
And that’s barely scratching the surface of Beyond Now. The weekend promises talks, performances, dance parties, and more—all of which will all be viewable at PICA.stream and on Instagram and Facebook. In an e-mail this morning, PICA encouraged attendees to watch in groups via Zoom screen share, Kast or Dischord. You could stream baby online TBA with friends in far off places who’ve never been able to attend!
Beyond Now is slated to begin Thurs, May 14 at 1 pm PDT. There isn’t a posted schedule yet, but I’m really impressed with how it’s coming together!
Nostalgia for Living Room Stand-up
If you went to Portland’s Black Comedy Festival a few months ago, you may have caught stand-up Niles Abston in the fest’s Minority Retort showcase. If not, you’re in luck because he just dropped a new stand-up special, filmed in the pre-pandemic packed living room venue of LA’s Scoopty Boopty Comedy Club.
Abston holds court beautifully for a 72-minute set of equal jabs at both LA culture and that of his home state Mississippi. He mentions he’s from Mississippi so much you could drink to it, but the humor is fresh and pulled from an interesting life of witnessing foolishness. At one point, Abston explains the concept of “Ring By Spring,” which was a norm at his religious college, and a person in the audience shouts “OHHhhh,” as their mind expands. The vocal and boisterous audience cranks up what is already a great set. You can feel the Hennessy starting to hit at the 20-minute mark, and by the time Abston unfolds some “controversial” Game of Thrones opinions people are straight up screaming: “Dragons!”
A lot about Girls Don’t Twerk to Jokes will make you nostalgic for the before times, like the fact that Abston’s special—which will likely be watched by people alone on their computers—features a packed home filled with 100+ trashed friends. There’s a DIY feel to the lighting and recordings, but the special is edited well and succeeds at creating a comfortable stage for Abston to shine. When we’re allowed to hang out with one another again, this is an approach to comedy specials that more should try.
Recent, Excellent, Single Episodes of Podcasts:
Of all performance mediums, podcasts are strangely holding steady right now. Here are a handful of terrific, single episodes:
This Is Love Episode #20 - DO YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT A HEROIC DOG? You know you fucking do. Handle with care, but the dog gets through 9/11 just fine. I will always let you know that the dog is okay.
Yo, Is This Racist? #1076 - You already know this great, well-renowned podcast, but last week there was a confluence of good things in one place. Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome posted their interview with LA comedian and improviser Ronnie Adrian, whose career I actively monitor because he’s quick, witty, and destined for greatness. This episode is like a laugh-out-loud-embarrass-yourself-in-public-why-can’t-I-laugh-it’s-a fucking-pandemic-put-on-your-mask-okay-fine situation.
Kreative Kontrol # 539 - Canadian music journalist Vish Khanna posted a nice long pre-pandemic interview with Canadian singer songwriter Andy Shauf—who probably wrote the best album of 2020 and released it in January (whoops!). Shauf says he wants to make a disco record next, and I was so shocked that I fainted delicately behind the credenza.
Thank you for reading Art Snack Portland! If you want to reach out about Art Snack, I’m sitting in front of my computer for 23-hours-a-day like everyone else: suzettesmithsmith@gmail.com.