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Around the World in 90 Films
The first weekend of the Northwest Film Center's International Film Festival was so successful that the center had to turn people away. The two screenings of the Norwegian film Junk Mail were so popular that the NWFC is seeking permission to add another screening (check the Web site www.nwfilm.org for up-to-date schedule information and last-minute changes). According to film center publicist Jenny Jones, the other two big hits among the 30 films that screened this weekend were Eric Rohmer's A Summer's Tale and, interestingly, the Belgian child-transsexual comedy My Life in Pink, which will play at the Movie House after the festival ends.
Love Is on the Plate
Last Saturday night, St. Valentine's Day, was a fine time to fall in love, stay in love and show your love--as long as you made your reservations way in advance. Restaurants around town were booked solid. Owners across town report that Valentine's Day is usually their most popular night of the year; since it was on a Saturday this year, it may have been Portland's most popular night of all time to eat out. Trio was booked two weeks in advance, as were Cafe des Amis, Zefiro and Higgins. L'Auberge's lovebirds may have been the most fastidious in assuring a seat; the restaurant was fully booked by the second week in January. Many places report getting 10 to 30 phone calls on Saturday. In Southeast Portland, Chez Grill, the Bread and Ink Cafe, Il Piatto and Genoa were also booked well in advance; all report getting increasingly desperate calls--even drop-in visits--mostly from men who had forgotten to make reservations. The prices of dinners varied; $75 per person at L'Auberge for a six-course meal, $55 at Fiddleheads for a four-course meal and $35 at Trio for a three-course meal. We've only heard of one actual proposal that resulted from all these dinners; it was offered and accepd at Higgins. We're still wondering what happened to those guys who didn't get their dates a date. --Cynthia MacKay
ROCK in the SUMMERTIME
Last year's most successful summer concert package, the Lilith Fair, will start its 1998 tour in Portland. According to reports on MTV and the Internet, Lilith ringleader and Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan has asked artists such as Sinead O'Connor, Erykah Badu, Natalie Merchant and the Indigo Girls to join the North American summer tour, which will begin in mid-June, probably at Portland Meadows. Another hot ticket this summer will be Pearl Jam's first full-fledged tour in four years. The Seattle band's new album, Yield, hovers near the top of the charts, and reviews compare it favorably to the band's 1992 breakthrough debut, Ten. The online music magazine allstar reports that Eddie Vedder and company will perform at the Rose Garden on July 18.
--Richard Martin
Callahan for Kids?
Cartoonist John Callahan is a bona fide Portland celebrity, but he claims to be just a regular guy. Some critics classify him as an angry cripple, while the physically challenged community charges him with being insensitive to their plight. People love him; people hate him. He's racist, he's sexist, he's a champion for free speech. Callahan celebrates the cloud of conflict that surrounds him in his new book, Will the Real John Callahan Please Stand Up? A Quasi Memoir (Morrow, 210 pages, $20, ISBN 0.688.13339.8). In it, he includes samples from the boatload of disgruntled letters he has received over the years, alongside commendations from civic groups and fan letters from scads of celebrities--even one from Bill Clinton. He also writes about his failures, such as his first humiliating encounter with a Seattle prostitute. But Callahan doesn't seem too broken up about the many people who vilify him--he's too busy rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous. He spent a recent weekend evening schmoozing with Ron Wood's wife backstage at a Rolling Stones concert. He forced comedian Louie Anderson to chase him for two blocks in Sellwood before allowing the adoring rotund Minnesotan a brief audience. And he's plying Gus Van Zant with gags to include in the screenplay for the upcoming movie of Callahan's life starring Robin Williams. He also reports that the Hollywood powers that be are mulling over an idea for a Callahan cartoon show for kids. Those who need more than the weekly Callahan fix that this newspaper provides may soon be able to watch his animated antics with the youngsters on Saturday morning. Now that sounds like a twisted image. --Susan Wickstrom |
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