News — Culture

There’s something about the combination of Nicolas Cage and Portland that just feels right. Each emanates a performative eccentricity that can sometimes obscure a genuinely artistic soul. Cage is probably known more for his cockroach-eating antics in Vampire’s Kiss and his twisted take on Elvis in Wild at Heart than he is for his Oscar-winning turn in Leaving Las Vegas. Portland gets more coverage for its naked bike rides and political passions than for its vibrant culinary and cultural diversity. Which brings us to Pig, the shot-in-Portland story about a man (Cage) who lives alone in the Northwest woods with...

— Did you know that right now, we are in the midst of a disease epidemic that is already at least 100 times more prevalent than the feared polio epidemic of the 1950s? Most people don’t know it. Their ignorance testifies to the novel character of this disease, the lowered expectations we have for human health, and the atomization of community that has rendered sickness into a private affair. The myth of ascent would have us think that medical technology has largely conquered the great viral epidemic diseases that once held humanity in thrall. Oh, sure, there are a few...