Pirates Festival at Wonder Ballroom

Pirate devotees dance during the Portland Pirate Festival at the Wonder Ballroom.

(Oregonian file photo)

If the antisocial reputation that plagues devotees of geek culture ever had a real basis, it was because there just weren't that many public events geared toward the offbeat tastes of devoted subcultures. That's definitely not the case anymore, as a pair of events this weekend proves.

In 2009, fans were crushed when KUFO canceled The Rick Emerson Show, one of the most popular outlets for fans of sci-fi, comics and pop culture ephemera. They weren't as crushed, though, as Greg Nibler and Sarah X. Dylan, who worked on the show and found themselves jobless.

"Within a week, we both realized that neither of us could handle the boredom of no longer doing a show," recalls Nibler. "I had a makeshift recording studio in a spare bedroom at my house, so we sat down and tried a couple of test shows to see if we had the ability to work well one on one. As it turned out, we could!" The aptly named Funemployment Radio podcast quickly garnered a loyal following. It celebrates its fifth anniversary with a party at the Bossanova Ballroom on Friday, Nov. 14.

By 2011 the show moved out of the spare room and was recorded (and aired live) at an actual recording studio. Other podcasters joined the Funemployment Radio Network, covering pop culture, music and sports. To celebrate their milestone, Nibler and Dylan will perform a live episode during Friday night's shindig, rock out to the sci-fi hip-hop sounds of Star Pilot (aka Kielen King) as well as Nibler's band Courage, and perhaps resolve the long-running question of whether or not Nibler's house is haunted.

At Saturday's Swashbuckler's Ball, not every attendee boasts a waistcoat, a pegleg and a real flintlock, says Mark Axton, one of the event's co-founders. Now in its fifth year as well, the ball attracts, by his guess, about 200 of "the usual suspects," some from Portland, others traveling from around the country. People who Axton calls the "pirate-curious" might show up in black jeans and a skull-and-crossbones t-shirt, but all are equally welcome.

The Swashbuckler's Ball came about when Axton (a.k.a. "The Dread Pyrate Topknot") and Dan Clark (a.k.a. "Ragnar 'Redgoat' MacHaggis") wanted to raise money to help fund the Portland Pirate Festival. In succeeding years, the money raised from raffling donated goods during the event has gone to various charities, with this year's recipient being the Portland nonprofit My Voice Music.

Staff members and participants from My Voice will perform at the event, which has a new home this year at the Tiffany Center's Emerald Ballroom. They'll be opening for "mongrel rock" outfit Brother and returning acts Coming Up Threes and Tempest. The menu will be pirate-themed, including turkey legs, but with vegan and gluten-free options available as well (this isn't the 18th century, after all), and plenty of rum drinks for the traditionally thirsty crowd.

This year's raffle features donations from a three-master's worth of companies, ranging from the historically inspired (martial arts lessons from Academia Duellatoria) to the technological (gadgetry from iDope) to the highbrow (the Oregon Symphony and Portland Center Stage). It's all enough to make Blackbeard's head spin, but one gets the sense that Captain Blood and his ilk would approve.

After all, as Axton points out, despite their sometimes larcenous, and even murderous, ways, pirates were a forward-thinking lot: "They were a product of their time, but they rebelled against their predetermined fates. They had democratic votes, profit-sharing, a lot of modern ideas." Not to mention a lot of great songs and a knack for rambunctious fun.

— Marc Mohan, Special to The Oregonian

Funemployment Radio's 5-Year Anniversary Party starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E. Burnside St. Tickets are $10.

The 5th Annual Swashbuckler's Ball starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Tiffany Center's Emerald Ballroom, 1410 S.W. Morrison St. VIP tickets are sold out; general admission tickets are $28 in advance or $35 at the door.)