YEARS  AGO A BATTERED OLD PICKUP used to park regularly along the streets of downtown Portland, often on or around the corner from the South Park Blocks, within sight of the temple that is the Portland Art Museum. Its owner was apparently a person of some wit and at least a smattering of cultural erudition. Emblazoned in hand-scrawled paint across the door was this message: TOO LOOSE LE TRUCK.

The pickup, I assume, has long since gone on to that great scrapyard in the sky. But for the next several weeks the action’s trucked across the river for Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s friend Vincent Van Gogh, bright and starry knight of the touring spectacle Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, which is parked through January 9 at the Oregon Convention Center on Portland’s near east side. 

This show – one of several such Van Gogh extravaganzas touring the country – seems based on the premise that anything he could paint, it can paint bigger. It’s all done with lights and shadows and simulations and projections, and it’s meant to be a full-sensory spectacle, immersing its audience, as its title suggests, in a vastly bigger-than-life sea of color, as if you’ve slipped inside the frame and found yourself swimming inside a whole new world. For some, this is an enchantment. For others, it’s just a spectacle that has about as much to do with the veracity of Van Gogh’s art as a telephone pole has to do with the Eiffel Tower: Both are tall and thin, and that’s about it.

Here at ArtsWatch we’ve been paying attention, and considering both sides (or maybe it’s better to say, all sides) of the argument. In a Stage & Studio podcast, Dmae Lo Roberts takes a tour of the exhibition with art historian Fanny Curtat, who helped put it together. In a lively conversation she chats with Curtat, a charming raconteur, about what to look for and how and why it’s all done.

And in ‘Beyond Van Gogh’ at the Convention Center, Laurel Reed Pavic, our visual arts editor (and herself an art historian), takes the tour twice: once with Curtat, and once with her own seven-year-old daughter. Sure enough, Pavic writes, “My daughter was mesmerized. Watching her wide eyes, I realized that to disparage this [exhibition] as a screensaver is to neglect the accomplishments of the animators, who genuinely did an excellent job.” But: “No one goes to Disney On Ice expecting to learn about Hans Christian Andersen or the Brothers Grimm. They go to Disney on Ice knowing that any narrative is tangential and has been tumbled and dragged through so much popular culture that the ‘show’ bears little relationship to the original. They go because they appreciate showmanship and anticipate their kids being mesmerized. … This is the same as that, except without the ice skates.”

So. Is Le Truck Too Loose, or is it Dynamically Turbocharged? Or both? Your call. Either way, it’s not what originally came off the van Gogh factory line. It’s a new model, with its own road map, its own destination, and its own set of wheels.

Philip Cuomo: Farewell to a good man

DRAMAWATCH WEEKLY: DEATHS IN THE FAMILY. Philip Cuomo, the longtime Portland actor, director, and artistic leader of CoHo Theatre, died on Saturday at age 58. A beloved figure in the theater community and a clown of uncommon talent, he had battled lymphoma for two years. Marty Hughley wrote movingly about Cuomo in this column, last week, and follows up here with reminiscences of Cuomo’s life and art, and those of two other great talents who have recently died: the Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, and the outstanding Portland songwriter/pianist Dave Frishberg. 

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Hughley writes: “Cuomo had a motto: ‘Stop — find joy.’ That isn’t always easy. Cuomo, of course, knew that (which is why, I imagine, his advice begins by telling us to halt what sometimes seems the natural course away from joy). It is a skill and a practice, and his mastery of it is essential to the deep impact he had on so many in the theater community here.”

Cuomo’s life will be celebrated at a public gathering from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Alberta Abbey, 126 N.E. Alberta St., Portland.

Settling in with Willy Vlautin & other fascinating folks

DISAPPEARING ACT: WILLY VLAUTIN’S NEW NOVEL, “THE NIGHT ALWAYS COMES” CAPTURES A VANISHING PORTLAND. Writer Valarie Smith and novelist/musician Vlautin carry on a long and fascinating conversation about Vlautin’s love for noir, his writing process, his fondness for Sam Shepard and Myrna Loy, and other things. What distinguishes this fervently independent Oregon artist? Vlautin’s stories and songs, Smith notes, “are peopled largely with those who seek not fame, power, or riches, but peace: a place where they can retreat, somewhere they can’t be hurt – or hurt anyone else.”

LINDA AUSTIN’S “3 MILES OF POSSIBLE (THE FIRST MILE)” IS A COMPLEX AND MEDITATIVE TRIUMPH. The veteran performer and choreographer has been a compelling creative force in Portland’s contemporary dance and performance art scene for years. Amy Leona Havin checks out the first in what Austin’s planned as a tryptich of related performances, and describes in detail the rhythms, syncopations, and flapping arms that Austin brings to a “world of fluctuating personal, material, political, and artistic contingencies.”

FAYE DRISCOLL’S “COME ON IN” AT PICA; A PERSONAL REVIEW. What happens when you go to see a show and get pulled into it? Choreographer Faye Driscoll’s new exhibition at PICA invites audiences to reimagine relationships – and Hannah Krafcik finds herself part of the story.

MOVIE DIRECTOR WILLIAM RICHERT TALKS ABOUT HIS CULT CLASSIC “WINTER KILLS.” It was 1979. Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Sterling Hayden, Toshiro Mifune, Dorothy Malone, Anthony Perkins, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, and Elizabeth Taylor were in the cast – and for the first-time feature director Richert, all sorts of things went wrong. Earlier this week he was in Portland for a screening of the film that flopped and then became a cult classic, and talked with Marc Mohan about how it all went down.

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Bringing Oregon’s Indigenous culture forward

MANAGING CULTURAL RESOURCES FOR THIS GENERATION AND THE NEXT. In the newest chapter of her series Indigenous History & Resilience, Steph Littlebird talks with  David Harrelson, cultural resources manager for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a member of the Oregon Arts Commission. “l like the idea of keeping arts and cultural traditions living,” Harrelson says. “I’m not really interested in trying to replicate moments in art, whether it’s photography or a totem pole—I’m interested in showcasing and talking about living cultures and Indigenous futurism. … If you can walk in life in a way that you carry the past and future with you while being present—it is really powerful.” For Littlebird – an artist, curator, and writer – this story has personal significance: She and Harrelson have collaborated. “My job as an artist,” she writes, “was to illustrate his vision for a series of metal sculptures titled First Fish Herons, meant to be temporarily installed along the Willamette River each year.”

Early birds: What to look for this week & this month

DECEMBER DANCEWATCH: CUPCAKES, NUTCRACKERS, AND MORE. After a long year of mostly virtual performances, the dance world celebrates the season by throwing its doors open to live shows again. Jamuna Chiarini guides you to the right doors at the right times.

A WEEKEND OF WINTER SONGS. All right, it’s not technically winter. But it’s December, and it’s OK to get an early start. Daryl Browne has the lowdown on the collective radiance of Portland Symphonic Choir, Eugene Concert Choir, Central Oregon Mastersingers, and Choral Arts Ensemble.

LITWATCH DECEMBER: THE MOTH MAINSTAGE, THE ICELANDIC RITUAL OF BOOK GIVING, A MOVING SALE, AND THE PRACTICE OF SIMPLICITY. The heart and soul of the literary life, of course, is reading. But sometimes there’s so much more. Let Amy Leona Havin introduce you to a festive December calendar that includes author conversations, poet lectures, Passages Bookshop’s moving sale, and a pair of book fairs.

NOW HEAR THIS: DECEMBER 2021 EDITION. Robert Ham’s monthly perusal of the music distributor Bandcamp’s catalog for good new material by Oregon artists uncovers some working-class jazz, mountainous ambient, heavy electronica, psychedelic New Age, lo-fi Puntera, Sonic Meditations, molasses-slow hip-hop, and delectable, weird-angled pop.

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FILMWATCH WEEKLY: “POWER OF THE DOG” AND “BENEDETTA” TAKE ON THE PATRIARCHY IN THEIR OWN WAYS. Two excellent new movies – Jane Campion’s corrosive revelations on the Montana range and Paul Verhoeven’s tale of convent carryings-on – dig deeper than their surfaces, Marc Mohan writes.

VIZARTS MONTHLY: COZY INTERIORS AND THE NATURAL WORLD. From Yellena James’s primordial paintings to some playful new work by ceramic star Jeffry Mitchell, Lindsay Costello chooses art exhibitions, gallery shows, and other not-to-miss art events in December.

WEEKLY (P)REVIEWS: MOMENTUM, DECONSTRUCTED. Robert Ham’s weekly music column looks back on a recent show by the Brit group Squid and looks forward, via an insightful interview, to an evening of jazz with saxophonist and drummer Machado Mijiga.

Endnote: Have yourself a merry little … Hallmark

IT’S DECEMBER, AND THAT MEANS WE’RE ALREADY WELL  INTO THAT SPECIAL TIME OF THE YEAR. Yes, we’re talking about Hallmark Christmas Movie Season. Laugh lightly: Chances are that over the next few weeks you’ll curl up with at least one of them, or one of their Lifetime/Netflix/etc. cousins. Why, you could almost write one of these things yourself! And to help you out, ArtsWatch movie guy Marc Mohan has sent along this handy little mix-and-match cheat sheet from writer Kelli O’Neill on the website Odyssey, the Create Your Own Hallmark Christmas Movie Joyful Story Generator. Let’s see: “She’s an (a) feisty (b) dog walker, who’s unhappy because (c) she was given a puppy she does not want. Everything changes when she meets a (d) blundering (e) friend she hasn’t seen since childhood. While they’re both (f) moping around at a karaoke bar and get pressured into singing a Christmas duet, through crazy circumstances and with (g) a little help from the sister she never appreciated, she soon discovers that (h) Christmas isn’t Christmas without someone to love.” Oh, the possibilities! .