The Great Dictator
So there's an election coming up, apparently? Did you hear? Or maybe you've been hearing about it for years and years and years and are now at the point where you want to ram a screwdriver into your ear so you can stop hearing about it. DON'T DO THAT. Here's a better option: Head to the Hollywood Theatre, where they're showing Charlie Chaplin's must-see masterpiece The Great Dictator—a still-hilarious, still-scathing take on Hitler, fascism, fear, and hatred. For better or worse, it's as relevant today as it was in 1940. Particularly this week. ERIK HENRIKSEN
Nov 5-6, 2 pm, Hollywood Theatre, $6, all ages
Wordstock
Portland’s biggest book festival, Wordstock, is back this weekend, with more space to accommodate our book-loving hordes (last year was CROWDED), and a fantastic lineup including the likes of Alexander Chee, Sherman Alexie, Lindy West, and Sarah Glidden. If you love to read, Wordstock is a goddamn delight, a day to admire your literary heroes and add to your collection at a beautiful, giant bookfair. MEGAN BURBANK
9 am, Portland Art Museum, $15, all ages
Alice Bag, Hurry Up, Sex Crime, Macho Boys
Legendary Latina musician, artist, and author Alice Bag got her start fronting the Bags, one of LA’s first punk bands. She’s done a whole lot throughout her 40-year career, but this past June brought the release of her self-titled solo debut—11 tracks that soulfully blend punk, doo-wop, glam, and traditional ranchera. CIARA DOLAN Read our story on Alice Bag
8 pm, The Know
Genders, Máscaras, Laura Palmer's Death Parade
If Portland had a house band, it’d probably be Genders. The four-piece plays around town all the time, tours nonstop (with Built to Spill, no less), and cranks out new music like a goddamn machine—most recently an EP called Phone Home that they’re celebrating tonight. Its five songs are catchy, riding the line between hazy guitar-rock and sunshiny Coke-commercial pop like they’re on autopilot. They’ve mastered a sound that’s sweet and mild, with a foundation built on honeyed harmonies and layers of reverb-heavy guitar. It sounds great; I can’t say I dislike any Genders song. But on Phone Home, the band stays in the same lane they’ve been in since forming four years ago, and I can’t help but wish they’d pull the rug out from under themselves and try something wild. A few months ago I saw them do a blistering cover of a Sheryl Crow song at Mississippi Studios, and it was delivered with the kind of gory emotional rawness that subverts predictability. This EP is another link in Genders’ daisy chain of solid releases, but here’s hoping they’ll weave in something thorny soon. CIARA DOLAN
9 pm, Mississippi Studios, $10
Hell Hath No Funny! The 10th Annual Siren Nation Festival presents Hell Hath No Funny, a lady-centric night of comedy featuring side-splitting stand-up from Los Angeles-based comedian and past Bridgetown performer Caitlin Gill, who recently wrote for the brilliant new Seeso web series, Take My Wife. Portland's own JoAnn Schinderle and Seattle's Alyssa Yeoman provide support. Hosted by Becky Braunstein.
8 pm, Alberta Street Pub, $12
Moonlight
Moonlight is a movie about what it’s like to grow up male in America. Moonlight is also a movie about what it’s like to grow up gay in America. And Moonlight is, in addition, a movie about what it’s like to grow up black in America. That inevitably makes Barry Jenkins’ justly acclaimed film sound like it will appeal primarily to gay, black, and/or male audiences. And indeed, people who share some or all of its protagonist’s characteristics will be overjoyed at the belated depiction of lives like theirs on screen. But Moonlight, if I can swoon for a moment, does what all true art aspires to do. It shares something unique but universal about what it’s like to be human.
Cinema 21, see Movie Times for showtimes, $8.50
Chuck Westmoreland
The local singer-songwriter and former frontman for the Portland-based indie rock outfit The Kingdom plays a release show for his new self-titled solo album.
9 pm, The Fixin' To
Live Wire! Radio: Wordstock Edition
A special Wordstock edition of Portland's preeminent variety show, featuring Jonathan Lethem, Emma Straub, and musical guest Blitzen Trapper. Hosted by Luke Burbank.
8 pm, Aladdin Theater, $25-35
Club Nitty Gritty: DJ Action Slacks
If you're looking for a dance night that sets the evening on fire, check out Club Nitty Gritty, hosted by the always down for a good time DJ Action Slacks (Shannon Wiberg). She's been pounding the turntables for years with righteous choices in down-home dirty soul—the kind with raw sax and voices that wail and scratch. WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY
9 pm, (The World Famous) Kenton Club, $5
OPB's Think Out Loud: Sherman Alexie
If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you (I hope) know Sherman Alexie, who's written a staggering amount of devastating and funny fiction depicting the experiences of people living in Native American communities in Washington State, from Reservation Blues' indictment of both the recording industry and Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, to The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian, which was supposedly for teenagers but really appealed to everyone. Alexie's also devastating and funny in person. MEGAN BURBANK
10 am, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, $15-18
Contact
Probably the last thing Bob Zemeckis did that could truly be considered "good," before he wandered into mo-cap wilderness to flounder away whatever filmmaking goodwill he'd accrued to that point. And there was a lot of it following this adaptation of Carl Sagan's novel, featuring one of Jodie Foster's best performances as Dr. Ellie Arroway, a researcher who becomes an astronaut in order to finally meet the extraterrestrial life she's been trying to communicate with all her life. Post-film Q&A with Lily Brooks-Dalton and Dan DeWeese.
7 pm, NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium
Richard Dawkins
A discussion between the world-renowned author and atheist and special guest Charles Simony, on the subjects of science, reason, and humanism.
7 pm, Eliot Center, $29-225
Hir
A veteran returns from war having seen unspeakable things and harboring deep psychological wounds. He has trouble finding his place in society again. A familiar plot? Yes, but at Defunkt Theatre, Taylor Mac’s hero-comes-home family drama Hir is a droll and intelligent subversion of the genre, a romp through queer theory and problematic masculinity. In one of Hir’s first productions in this country, Defunkt Theatre has shown an outstanding capacity to make theater that’s challenging, but takes care of its audience, too. KATIE PELLETIER
7:30 pm, Common Grounds Coffee House, $15-25
Stewart Villain, Donte Thomas, Samuel the 1st, DG, Laine, Dee Styles, Skoobie HD Star
Portland-based rapper and in-demand producer Stewart Villain plays a release party for his new album, Walking Cliche.
8 pm, Hawthorne Theatre, $7-15
Don't forget to check out our Things To Do calendar for even more things to do!