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WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
DIRT ROADS, DEAD ENDS Portland has 59 miles of unpaved streets. Guess who promised to fix them.
Serving OR & WA • 4911 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland 97213
WWEEK.COM
VOL 37/27 05.11.2011
BY JAMES PITKIN | PAGE 15
P. 25
C H R I S R YA N / W O N D E R F U L M A C H I N E
BACK COVER
Guitar Lessons
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The plywood mill has always been the biggest employer in this tight-knit southern Oregon community. When it shut down two years ago, a lot of families felt the impact. Now, thanks to funding from the Oregon Lottery, the plant is up and running again, employing more than 100 workers. “It just brings stability to a lot of people’s lives,” says local resident and mill employee Joshua Mize. “Rogue River is a really nice place to live, and having jobs keeps the town alive.” A business – and a community – brought back to life. It’s just one more example of how Lottery dollars work to keep Oregon working.
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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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CONTENT
FLUSHED: A business deal involving erotic shops goes down the tubes. Page 8.
NEWS
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FOOD & DRINK
29
LEAD STORY
15
MUSIC
31
CULTURE
24
MOVIES
46
HEADOUT
25
CLASSIFIEDS
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STAFF Editor-in-Chief Mark Zusman EDITORIAL Interim Arts & Culture Editor Ruth Brown Interim Managing News Editor Beth Slovic Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, James Pitkin Copy Chief Kat Merck Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Sarah Smith Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Ben Waterhouse Screen Editor Aaron Mesh Music Editor Casey Jarman Editorial Interns Ailin Darling, Nathan Gilles, Ashley Gossman, Karen Locke, Evan Sernoffsky CONTRIBUTORS Classical Brett Campbell Dance Heather Wisner Visual Arts Richard Speer
Erik Bader, Nathan Carson, Shane Danaher, Robert Ham, Whitney Hawke, Jay Horton, Matthew Korfhage, AP Kryza, Jessica Lutjemeyer, Nilina MasonCampbell, Jeff Rosenberg, Matt Singer, Chris Stamm, Mark Stock PRODUCTION Production Manager Kendra Clune Art Director Ben Mollica Graphic Designers Soma Honkanen, Adam Krueger, Brittany Moody, Carolyn Richardson, Dylan Serkin Production Interns Christa Connelly ADVERTISING Director of Advertising Jane Smith Display Account Executives Sara Backus, Maria Boyer, Michael Donhowe, Drew Harrison, Janet Norman, Kyle Owens Classifieds Account Executives Jennifer Lee, Corin Kuppler Advertising Assistant Ashley Grether Marketing and Events Manager Jess Sword Marketing and Promotions Coordinator Brittany McKeever
Our mission: Provide our audiences with an independent and irreverent understanding of how their worlds work so they can make a difference. Circulation: 90,000 (except during holidays and school vacations.) Though Willamette Week is free, please take just one copy. Anyone removing papers in bulk from our distribution points will be prosecuted, as they say, to the full extent of the law. Willamette Week is published weekly by City of Roses Newspaper Company 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Main line phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 243-1115 Classifieds phone: (503) 223-1500 fax: (503) 223-0388
DISTRIBUTION Circulation Director Robert Lehrkind WWEEK.COM Web Production Brian Panganiban MUSICFESTNW Executive Director Trevor Solomon Superstar Dan Winters OPERATIONS Accounting Manager Andrea Manning Credit & Collections Shawn Wolf Office Manager & Receptionist Nick Johnson Office Corgi Bruce Manager of Information Systems Brian Panganiban Publisher Richard H. Meeker
Willamette Week welcomes freelance submissions. Send material to either News Editor or Arts Editor. Manuscripts will be returned if you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. To be considered for calendar listings, notice of events must be received in writing by noon Wednesday, two weeks before publication. Send to Calendar Editor. Photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Questions concerning circulation or subscription inquiries should be directed to Robert Lehrkind at Willamette Week. postmaster: Send all address changes to Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Subscription rates: One year $100, six months $50. Back issues $5 for walk-ins, $8 for mailed requests when available. Willamette Week is mailed at third-class rates. A.A.N. Association of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLIES
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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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INBOX WWEEK.COM READERS COMMENT ON “BEST NEW BAND,” MAY 4, 2011
“WAH! Why wasn’t my stinky bongo jam band/middle-aged white guy blues/soulful Teva acoustic folk/gated community gangsta rap act mentioned??!!? WAH!” —Jim-Bob
great because when bands that have no connections, no friends, only passion, actually do break through, it will be because they’ve been doing something substantial that is worth listening to. Just listened to all of these bands, and for the most part they are all emulating something that has been done before. It is easy to like what carries a similarity. The test of time will always outweigh scene cred, which, unfortunately, if you put research into this study, you’ll realize that this is what a good amount of this process is based on. Until then, keep chooglin. Just my opinion, feel free to argue.…” —Steven
“Ya know how in the late ’70s there was a massive backlash to disco music? Well I think it’s about time to start the backlash against the hipster scene. 2011-It’s coming, who’s with me?” —Spindles
“I love how the ‘Music Industry’ is like the food industry. Happy customers just come back. Only the ones who have a problem with something post on the website.” —Debbie Downer
“Hipster backlash and music in general is so 2007. Creative movement is the new music.” —Jeff
“White people in Portland, particularly at Willamette Week, should never try to write about black culture. It’s so cringe-worthy. You guys probably still say ‘talk to the hand.’” —smh
“Is it just me, or do the vocals for your No. 1 band make anyone else want to rip their ears off?” —Horrible
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“Cue the ‘bullshit hipster band list’ comments….” —Larry
“…Stoked that these bands win this recognition— not because I like them, but because it must be exciting. At the end of the day, though, shit doesn’t matter. There are bands that will never make this list that may go on to do way better things than any of these bands. Vice versa as well, I recognize, but looking at the ballot points you can’t help but wonder a few things…booking agencies listing the bands that they represent? Maybe not entirely, but connections and image reign supreme. Which is
“A refrain I hear in this town over and over again, from both townies and outta-townies, is P-town contains more wimps per capita than any other city.… What a bunch of garbage. The wimps oughta be happy, though.” —J LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Fax: (503) 243-1115, Email: mzusman@wweek.com
Take your dreams. Add in a rigorous and relevant education, engagement with other serious adult students and working instructors who help you think critically and broadly. Bring it all together and what does it equal? You becoming whatever you want be.
Undergraduate Info Session Saturday, May 14 from 9 a.m. to noon in the BP John Administration Building. To register for this free event, call 503.699.6268. Summer Term starts June 20.
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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
Driving to work on Monday [May 2], I noticed that the flags on the Fremont Bridge were at half-staff. Given that weekend’s news, I have to wonder: Did this have anything to do with the death of Osama? —Vantucky Woman I realize that certain flag-waving types think we’re a bit deficient in the patriotism department, but let’s be clear: Portlanders don’t actually hate America, we haven’t added the words “for me to poop on” to the end of the national anthem, and we did not just declare a city-wide day of mourning for Osama bin Laden. On May 2, the flags were actually at half-staff in honor of Eugene police officer Chris Kilcullen, who was killed in the line of duty on April 22. Still, maybe you can be forgiven for thinking “Osama,” since dozens made a similar mistake last week.
When the Springfield, Ohio, Hampton Inn’s flag got stuck halfway down the pole (and don’t you hate it when that happens?), locals naturally assumed management was shedding tears for bin Laden. Townsfolk descended on the hotel with pitchforks and torches (or at least made angry phone calls), dispersing only when eclipse-savvy authorities threatened to blot out the sun. As to how anybody gets on top of our bridge to mess with the flags in the first place: The arches of the bridge are hollow. “You climb on your hands and knees,” says ODOT’s Kimberly Dinwiddie. “Once you make it to the top of the arch, you climb out of a hatch, down a ladder and onto the catwalk.” Piece of cake, right? As long as you have no fear of heights, don’t mind enclosed spaces, and enjoy soiling yourself in white-knuckled terror on a public right-of-way. I salute the brave souls at ODOT, but I think I’ll pass. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
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BAR TAB: One lawmaker’s spending. PANTY CRUSADE: A lawsuit over lingerie shops. ROGUE: Rep. Peter Buckley. COVER STORY: Dirt roads, broken promises.
7 8 12 15
UNLIKE ARNOLD AND MARIA, WE’LL BE BACK. One of the most important proposed environmental laws to go before the Oregon Legislature in a generation may be dead in the water, a key lawmaker concedes. State Sen. Mark Hass (D-Raleigh Hills) says a bill he’s co-sponsoring to make Oregon the first state to ban singleuse plastic grocery bags (see “Plastic Crusader,” WW, March 16, 2011) is stuck in the Senate Rules Committee. Why? Hass says the vote tally for the bill in the Democratic-controlled Senate is tied at 15-15. He says he isn’t giving up hope that the bill may be saved in late-session deal-making, but he acknowledges, “This may not be the year for it.” Cue City Hall: Failure in Salem to enact a statewide plastic-bag ban would mean Mayor Sam Adams could push a Portland-specific ban—perhaps as soon as this summer—under an agreement the mayor struck in 2010 with state lawmakers. Last year, Adams tried to abolish single-use plastic bags within city limits. But he backed down under pressure from Hass, Sens. Jackie Dingfelder and Diane Rosenbaum and Rep. Ben Cannon (all Portland-area Democrats). The lawmakers wanted to try for a statewide initiative again before letting Portland and other local entities try a patchwork approach. A spokeswoman for the mayor, Amy Ruiz, says Adams still has hope the state will prevail. Chaos in the cab business: The Oregon Employment Department recently found that because of the degree of control company owners exert over taxi drivers, those drivers are employees—not independent contractors, as they have been classified for decades. Taxi company owners from Portland and Eugene say the change could cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in new benefits and administrative costs. Portland’s largest cab company, Broadway Cab, would see its employee rolls swell from a couple of dozen to about 400 if the ruling stands. Cab companies aren’t the only industry under scrutiny for reliance on “independent contractors” (see “Dirt Under the Nails,” WW, May 4, 2010). Harun Mustafa, the teenage cello player who went to prison for an assault conviction in 2009 (see WW, “Stitch and Time,” May 12, 2010), was released last month. And now he’s returning to his passion of playing music in a big way. On May 12, 14 and 20, Mustafa will perform with the Portland Cello Project. The final concert, on May 20, will take place at Portland’s Aladdin Theater. Tickets are available at aladdin-theater.com. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt. 6
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
NEWS
GOT A GOOD TIP? CALL 503.445.1542, OR EMAIL NEWSHOUND@WWEEK.COM
PERFECTLY LEGAL HOW ONE LAWMAKER USES CAMPAIGN MONEY TO SUBSIDIZE HIS MORTGAGE, PAY HIS BAR TABS AND EXPLORE CANADA. BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS
njaquiss@wweek.com
When elected officials provided their statements of economic interest to the Oregon Government Ethics Commission last month, the filing for Rep. Mike Schaufler (D-Happy Valley) included one unusual disclosure—a trip to northern Alberta paid for in part by Shell Oil. Records show Shell Oil picked up the tab for Schaufler to inspect the Canadian tar sands, a prolific source of crude oil. A separate record, Schaufler’s campaign expenditure report, reveals he charged another $2,859 for travel and lodging to his campaign account for the trip. And that’s just one of hundreds of expenditures Schaufler has made in recent years that have no direct connection to campaigning. Schlaufler’s profligate use of campaign funds for a wide variety of expenses—all
campaign finance reforms. “Any gifts the ethics law prohibits can be given in the form of campaign contributions.” The Calgary trip marked Schaufler’s third foray to Canada in the past three years on his campaign’s dime. (Schaufler explains he is first vice-president of an economic development group that comprises five Canadian provinces and five Western states. He does not draw a salary for that work.) Unlike most lawmakers below retirement age, Schaufler, 51, does not have a job. In fact, he has not worked outside the Legislature since 2004. That could explain why he leans more heavily on campaign contributions than others. “This [legislating] is all I do,” Schaufler says. “I have a passion for public service.” The former union laborer and contractor says he is frugal, not wealthy (his wife is a dentist). But Oregon’s lax campaign-finance law allows him to use campaign contributions to fund his daily expenses to an extraordinary degree (see box below). State elections director Steve Trout says those and other expenditures appear to fall within statute, which says funds may be
“IT MAY BE LEGAL, BUT IT’S NOT APPROPRIATE.” —PUBLIC INTEREST LAWYER DAN MEEK of them seemingly legal—suggests that Oregon’s highly touted 2007 ethics law, which aimed at curbing lobbyists’ spending on lawmakers, was at best a half measure. Although the 2007 reform made it harder to give pricey gifts to lawmakers, it didn’t bar gifts disguised as campaign contributions. And after an examination of numerous other lawmakers’ filings, it is clear that nobody spends campaign dollars in Oregon like Schaufler. “These kind of expenditures shows that all the commotion about Oregon’s ethics laws is irrelevant,” says Dan Meek, a public interest lawyer who authored two 2006
used for “any lawful purpose.” Meek says the law’s breadth opens up legislators to “corruption,” but Schaufler is unapologetic. “Everything I do is legal, reported and ethical,” he says. “If you pay me and my colleagues a living wage, not a fraction of these [campaign] expenditures would show up,” he says. “But I’m not going to pay out of my pocket to do this job.” Lawmakers get paid $21,612 a year in salary and a $123 “per diem” payment every day (including weekends) the Legislature is in session. That adds up to $19,680 a year for the long session every odd-numbered
REP. MIKE SCHAUFLER: “I’ve never had a contributor complain about my expenditures.”
year. Schaufler is not the first to point out that lawmakers’ pay is low. But since the passage of a 2007 ethics law, Schaufler has elevated the creative use of campaign funds to umatched levels. “Schaufler’s level of spending, especially on items that could be covered by his per diem, is atypical,” says Janice Thompson of Common Cause Oregon. State filings show, for instance, that since Jan. 1, 2009, Schaufler has charged his campaign nearly $6,000 for 91 separate visits to Magoo’s, a Salem bar. Over the same period, he’s charged his campaign $2,434 for 68 visits to another Salem bar called the Brick Bar & Broiler. “I’m surprised it’s only 91 visits to Magoo’s,” he says. “I meet with people all the time on legislative business. And when I do, it’s paid for by my PAC.” Since Jan. 1, 2009, his campaign paid for 58 nights at the Phoenix Grand Hotel, totaling $7,392. Schaufler says long Salem hours make commuting difficult. “It’s just best to stay down there sometimes,” he says, adding that this session he’s
saving money by renting an apartment— also with campaign money. When the Legislature is out of session, he “rents” a district office in his home for $400 a month. That put nearly $5,000 in his pocket last year, which is allowed provided he charges himself a fair market rate. When Schaufler charged his campaign for Salem bar tabs and hotel rooms, he was already getting a salary and a per diem check from the state. Meek says that’s wrong. “It’s worse than double-dipping, because instead of getting paid twice by the state, he’s getting paid by the state [salary plus per-diem expenses] and by his campaign contributors,” Meek says. “It may be legal, but it’s not appropriate.” Schaufler says he’s a model lawmaker— he’s never had an unexcused absence since first winning election in 2002, and regularly returns part of the money lawmakers are budgeted for office costs. And he adamantly insists his vote is not for sale. “I don’t pander or cater to any interest,” he says. “I’m better at that than anybody in the Legislature.”
What else did Rep. Mike Schaufler charge to his campaign account in 2010?
Comcast bill: $695
Oregonian subscription: $213
Starbucks purchases: $262
Jiffy Lube: $643
Gasoline: $1,899 between two suppliers
Cigars: $159 (a “gift to our men and women fighting overseas,” he says)
S O U R C E : O R E S TA R F I L I N G S
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OHSU is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
NEWS
BUSINESS
NAKED DAMAGES A LAWSUIT ALLEGES DIRTY TRICKS IN THE “LINGERIE SHOP” TRADE. BY JA MES PITKIN
jpitkin@wweek.com
A contract dispute over a downtown nudedancing parlor has led to allegations against the owner of several Portland-area erotic shops. Centerfold Suites, on the third floor above Dante’s Inferno on West Burnside Street, sells private, half-hour sessions with a female “model” for $100 plus tips. “We work for tips,” said a model who answered the door there on a recent Sunday evening. “The better the tip, the better the show.” Centerfold Suites is now the subject of a breach-of-contract complaint filed May 3 in Multnomah County Circuit Court by Kelly Jain, a newcomer to the so-called “lingerie shop” business that has proliferated around the Portland area in recent years. Lingerie shops have made news this spring, with state lawmakers trying to rein in what they call a nuisance industry (see “Jack Shack Attack,” WW, March 30, 2011). State Sen. Mark Hass (D-Raleigh Hills) says those efforts to let local governments control the spread of live nude-entertainment businesses are stalled in committee. Now, claims that Jain makes in court documents allege high drama inside what critics describe as one of Oregon’s seediest industries. Jain, a computer technician from Clackamas County, says he made a deal in February to buy Centerfold Suites from Ben Cunningham, a hog farmer from McMinnville. Besides running Northwest Heritage Pork, Cunningham also owns three Pussycats lingerie shops in Portland and one in Salem. The Pussycats on Northeast 82nd Avenue advertises “rubdowns” and “shower shows.” According to Jain, Cunningham agreed to sell Centerfold Suites to Jain for $5,000 plus an agreement that Jain would pay off a $20,000 debt Cunningham owed the owners of the building. Cunningham handed Jain the keys to Centerfold Suites on Feb. 27, the lawsuit says. But in March, Cunningham switched gears and stopped helping Jain with the transition to new ownership, leading to the lawsuit. Both men agree the bad blood has to do with a woman named Brittani Potter, whom Jain brought in to help run the business. Cunningham says he and Potter had previously been associated running a lingerie shop on Southeast Division Street. Relations soured, Cunningham says, and he objects to her being involved in Centerfold Suites. Jain claims Cunningham tried to take back the business and refused to turn the lease over to Jain as agreed. Now Jain is suing to try to force Cunningham to comply with their contract. “I’d like to retain ownership, work out a longterm arrangement with the building owner, and just run a clean, nice place,” Jain says. Cunningham tells WW he’s within his rights to back out of the arrangement. “In terms of a lawsuit, this is going
to be pretty easy,” Cunningham says. “We didn’t have a contract finished, [and] we don’t have a lease in order.” Jain’s lawsuit includes claims that Cunningham is willing to resort to heavy-handed treatment of competitors. For example, Jain claims Cunningham admitted to vandalizing Private Pleasures, a lingerie shop on Southwest Barbur Boulevard that competes with Cunningham’s Pussycats next door. Jain claims that while trying to take back Centerfold Suites, Cunningham issued “threats” that he can “become a total asshole” toward business competitors. As an example, Jain says Cunningham described vandalizing the Private Pleasures lingerie shop next door to Cunningham’s Pussycats on Southwest Barbur Boulevard. “Specifically, he told me that they poured cement into the toilets and shoved rotten garbage into the furnace and heating units. In addition, they performed routine vandalism and breakage but on a massive scale, according to his recounting of it,” Jain writes. Police reports show that last July, Private Pleasures owner Misty Hildebrand reported stolen computers, stolen security cameras and two broken windows. Last September, the property owner, Hedy Kauffman, reported concrete poured in the drains and widespread flooding. Police arrived to witness “dripping walls, dripping ceiling fixtures, sheet rock sagging from the rafters…broken glass everywhere and torn-off wooden railings outside,” a police report says. Cunningham tells WW he never damaged Private Pleasures. “How bizarre,” Cunningham says about Jain’s allegations. “I never had anything to do with that.” Private Pleasures closed soon thereafter and has not reopened. No arrests were made.
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EDUCATION
CORE VALUES THE USUALLY SLEEPY DAVIS DOUGLAS SCHOOL DISTRICT FACES CONTESTED BOARD RACES. BY BE T H S LOV I C
bslovic@wweek.com
David Douglas School District, the low-key Southeast Portland educational agency best known for its dramafree governance, will experience something of a historic milestone May 17. For the first time in at least 16 years, all of the incumbents in this year’s David Douglas school board election face opponents. (Three of the board’s seven seats are on the ballot.) The incumbents include Frieda Christopher, who has won five elections since 1991 without ever facing a challenger, and Mike Centoni, a six-term incumbent who’s served on the board since 1987. Centoni’s opponent this year was just 5 years old when Centoni first won election in the district, which now serves 10,000 students.
12% (79 teaching positions)
SLICED: David Douglas School District cuts for 2011-12.
The electoral energy comes as David Douglas confronts a number of challenges due primarily to the state’s budget drain. Long considered a fiscally conservative district, David Douglas banked a $25 million reserve as recently as 2008. Now the district’s savings have dropped to $6.4 million. And to fill a $12 million budget hole for the upcoming school year, district officials have decided to eliminate 79 teaching positions—or 12 percent of its teaching staff. District spokesman Dan McCue says that’s the largest single cut to the district’s teaching corps ever. Mix in a superintendent who’s been on the job only one year and it’s clear David Douglas is on the cusp of change. “It’s a pivotal year,” says Shemia Fagan, a 29-year-old business litigator for the Ater Wynne law firm who is challenging Centoni. In another first that signals just how much has changed in the 52-year-old school district, which is headquartered at Southeast 130th Avenue and Market Street, Fagan has raised more than $8,000 for her race against Centoni, a retired construction-equipment business manager. The Fagan-Centoni race isn’t the only contest drawing attention. Christopher’s opponent is John Payne, an insurance agent who’s also active in the Multnomah County Republican Party. In the third contest, Jane Doyle, a 1979 graduate of David Douglas High School who coordinates programs for senior citizens with Portland Parks and Recreation, hopes to unseat her former classmate and neighbor Mike Price, a vice president for an industrial-equipment company who first won his post in 2007. State Rep. Jefferson Smith, a Portland Democrat whose district includes parts of David Douglas, says he thinks the contested races are a good sign for Portland’s east side, which has historically lacked political clout. “More and more eastsiders are paying attention to what’s going on,” Smith says.
NEWS
As a quick reminder, here are our picks in other schools-related races on the May 17 ballot. Portland Public Schools Measure 26-121: A $548 million construction bond to upgrade buildings. YES Portland Public Schools Measure 26-122: A $59-million-a-year local-option levy for teachers’ salaries. YES
REGAN
WILLIAMS
SPELLMAN
Portland Public Schools Board of Education Zone 1: Ruth Adkins Zone 2: Matt Morton Zone 3: Bobbie Regan Portland Community College Zone 2: Harold Williams Zone 7: Deanna Palm Multnomah Education Service District Position 5: Gary Hollands Position 6: Doug Montgomery Position 7: Kevin Spellman
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ROGUE
ROGUE OF THE WEEK
REP. PETER BUCKLEY A LAWMAKER WHO SAYS ONE THING, THEN DOES ANOTHER. No lawmaker has fought harder for increased school funding than state Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland). As co-chairman of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, Buckley is the House Democrats’ budget writer. And in February he pushed to boost G o v. J o h n K i t zhaber’s proposed $5.7 billion 2011-13 schools budget, telling Oregon Public Broadcasting that the governor’s figure was $250 million short. “We’ve gotta find a way to get [the K-12 budget number] up,” Buckley said on OPB radio Feb. 4. Buckley’s strong support for education funding makes a bill he sponsored this session, House Bill 3626, so perplexing we’re naming him this week’s Rogue. Here’s why: Buckley wants to give small farmers, who already get generous tax treatment, an even sweeter deal—at the cost of schools and other programs that depend on property taxes. Currently, small farmers operating on land that is zoned for non-agricultural purposes can qualify for a hefty property tax break, reducing their tax burden to almost nothing. For example, let’s say a Portlander wanted to raise chickens in a vacant inner-city lot. To get a property tax deduction under the current guidelines, the chicken farmer would have to raise his fowl and
“WE ARE STARVING OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM....”—JODY WISER OF TAX FAIRNESS OREGON meet a minimum farm-income threshold of $650 for three years before qualifying for the break. Buckley wants to accelerate that tax break, so all the wouldbe chicken farmer would have to do is file a plan with county officials, saying he intended to raise chickens. “Allowing faster designation of the tax deferral will have an impact,” Buckley says. “But the ability for these farmers to produce and sell locally will, in my view, provide significantly greater revenue in the long run.” Assessors from Polk and Clackamas counties last week testified against Buckley’s bill. “The Legislature has already made it attractive and easy to qualify for this program,” testified Clackamas County Assessor Bob Vroman, who called the $650 minimum a low hurdle. Another opponent, Jody Wiser of the watchdog group Tax Fairness Oregon, noted that farmers (who can qualify for the break if they raise bees, greyhounds, ducks or any number of “crops” or more typical agricultural products) could also write off significant expenses, depriving the state of income taxes. Wiser, who lives in Northwest Portland on land zoned residential that is covered with trillium, provided lawmakers with an example: She could qualify for the proposed tax break next year simply by buying an adjacent lot and letting the flowers run wild. “I could harvest the trillium from my property and qualify for this [tax break],” Wiser told lawmakers. “We are starving our school system while allowing people to starve our property and income tax revenues.” 12
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C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
DIRT ROADS, DEAD ENDS PORTLAND HAS 59 MILES OF UNPAVED STREETS. GUESS WHO PROMISED TO FIX THEM. BY JAM ES P I TKIN
jpitkin@wweek.com
Last week, Mayor Sam Adams provided reporters a peek at his proposed city budget, which is set for a City Council vote on June 16. The mayor points with pride to the city’s sound fiscal health. It’s a note he struck in February during his State of the City speech, when he said Portland is “now in better shape than other cities as we move out of the recession.” And with Portland’s coffers full, the mayor, who will no doubt launch his re-election campaign later this year, presented a good-times budget that doles out sweets to a variety of constituencies.
Adams’ proposed budget would give half a million dollars for college scholarships, $300,000 to fix high-school sports fields, $100,000 to the Black Parent Initiative, $100,000 to the Oregon Food Bank and $100,000 for after-school programs. “We’re able to make investments in our future today,” Adams said in his State of the City speech, describing Portland as a city “where all neighborhoods are complete, connected and beautiful.” Not according to Laura Young. CONT. on page 16
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CONT. C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
DIRT ROADS, DEAD ENDS
PUDDLETOWN: Laura Young stands on a stretch of Northeast 66th Avenue near her house in Cully. The road is one block from Scott K-8 School.
Young lives in Cully, a neighborhood in won the race—to bring up unpaved roads. It’s a Northeast Portland. Her beef ? More than 10 perennial talking point when city candidates find percent of Cully’s streets are unpaved dirt roads. themselves east of Mount Tabor. In the morning, she sends her son off to school Fritz railed about a recent announcement along streets that make Portland look more like that City Hall had a $39 million budget surplus. Port au Prince. The potholes in Cully’s dirt roads Some of that money was spent on the arts, social are so appalling, neighbors have filled them in services and even public tennis programs. with piles of bricks, sod and even firewood. “It’s not a surplus,” Fritz insisted. “It is money “We pay taxes like everyone else,” says Young, that could have and should have been used to the transportation chair for the pave streets; to provide sidewalks to Cully Association of Neighbors. schools so kids can walk there. What “This shouldn’t be happening.” I will do if I’m elected is have a plan We asked our West Coast neighbors, Portland may pride itself on for how we’re going to do that.” and other cities livability and transportation, but Four years before that, Nick Fish around the country it has a shameful secret: 59 miles was running for City Council against that are similar in size to Portland, of unpaved dirt and gravel roads. Adams. On May 10, 2004, The Oregohow many miles of That’s more than three times as nian quoted Fish saying Portland’s dirt roads they have. much as in Nashville, Boise, Seattle, dirt roads were blocking economic Sacramento, Las Vegas, Atlanta, development. Denver, Minneapolis, Boston, AusFish lost that race to Adams, but San Francisco: 0 tin and San Francisco—combined. returned in 2008 to win the seat Las Vegas: 0 “It’s definitely Third World,” says vacated by Erik Sten. Fish drew Boston: 0 Lynn Partin, a lawyer who’s been applause that May in an eastside Atlanta: 0 active in city politics for years. “I’ve forum for hammering the city’s plans been to Mexico City. I guess that to build a Burnside-Couch couplet. Sacramento: 0 would be the closest.” “I have serious reservations about Denver: 0 While close-in neighborhoods spending $100 million to do a couNashville: 0 sport bioswales and bike boulevards, plet downtown with Couch Street poorer quarters like Lents, Powellwhen we have unpaved streets in Boise: 1 hurst and Brentwood-Darlington East Portland,” Fish told the crowd. Seattle: 4 suffer the worst of Portland’s pothole Sam Adams has also promised to Minneapolis: 5 plague. The loose dirt litters the air pave streets. When he ran against and water, and the rutted streets Fish in 2004, he echoed Fish’s conAustin: 7 pose hazardous barriers to kids, the cern about the issue. Portland: 59 elderly and the disabled. After beating Fish and joining City Oklahoma City: 166 “It’s totally unacceptable,” says Council, Adams took over as transporstate Sen. Rod Monroe (D -East tation commissioner—the politician SOURCE: LOCAL Portland). “There is just no reason directly responsible for overseeing T R A N S P O R TAT I O N D E PA R T M E N T S in my mind that these streets should street repairs. One of his first trips out not have been paved by now.” of the office was to Cully, for a tour of It might be defensible if Portland were short the neighborhood’s battered dirt roads. on cash. It might be excusable if members of the Adams promised action. City Council, when they were candidates, hadn’t “I want to address some of the most-traveled promised to pave those streets. and worst conditions of gravel streets in the city Neither is the case. on a priority basis and then work through the backlog,” Adams declared, according a June 24, On a Tuesday morning in October 2008, with the 2005, Portland Tribune article. general election just three weeks away, City CounSo much for promises. Adams’ plan never cil candidates Amanda Fritz and Charles Lewis materialized, and stretches of our city still look visited a retirement home in outer Southeast to more like Appalachia than Cascadia. meet the East Portland Chamber of Commerce. It didn’t take long for Fritz—who eventually CONT. on page 18 16
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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True, the Portland Bureau of Transportation recently paved a stretch of Cully Boulevard. But all that talk about paving other dirt roads has gone about as far as a used car bought on 82nd Avenue. Ten years ago, there were 70 miles of dirt and gravel streets in Portland. A decade later, there are still 59. At the current rate, Portland won’t catch up to modern, paved cities like Denver until the year 2070. Other West Coast cities like Seattle launched projects to pave their dirt roads decades ago. Even tiny Grand Rapids, S.D., announced this month it was paving its final 10 miles of dirt road with a program called “Out of the Dust.” City officials there cited health and environmental hazards. Meanwhile, Portland remains stuck in the mud, and East Portland is especially cursed with the role of urban hillbilly. The east side is home to more than two-thirds of the city’s unpaved streets. Charles Lewis, who runs the nonprofit Ethos Inc., made unpaved streets a cornerstone of his 2008 campaign against Fritz. He lives on a gravel road in Cully and provided what became an enduring symbol of the election season, filling potholes on dirt roads in front of TV news crews. Lewis still says that leaving some neighborhoods with 19th-century infrastructure is an affront to basic fairness. “It’s not equitable, and there should be changes,” he says. “I don’t know what is going to convince them to change. The funding is there.” Fritz, who announced last month she’ll run for re-election, says she hasn’t been able to fulfill her campaign promise because the city doesn’t have enough cash. “The recession hit,” she says. “We’ve been neighbors who pay to pave their streets (see “Put cutting for the past two years. I came into office a LID on It,” page 20). wanting to do a great many things, but instead “I have been pretty consistent in my view that we’ve been deciding where to cut.” the dollars should go to basic services and transThat’s no longer true. By Adams’ own account, portation,” he says. “Where I have influence, I the city is in far better financial shape than the have tried to make a difference.” state of Oregon. And the $300,000 Fish requested in Adams’ After experiencing rapid expansion during budget to fix high-school sports fields, which the pre-recession boom years, the city’s discre- arguably should be a school-district expense? tionary budget did decline for the past two years, “It is wrong to call that a pet project,” Fish but not by much—first by 1 percent and then by contends, saying it’s part of a plan to improve 4 percent. This year the discretionary budget parks and recreation in East Portland. surged 5.8 percent. “No one is going to defend More important, instead that there are unpaved streets of paving streets, the city is in the city,” Fish says. “There WEB EXTRA: Go to wweek.com continuing to finance prohas been progress, but it’s been for a map of Portland’s worse dirt-road neighborhoods and grams that may be worthslower than we’d like.” a video featuring Cully, Lake while, but are hardly core But more than 20 years after Carlton and news intern Evan services. Cully was annexed into the city, Sernoffsky driving the longest dirt road in the city. Anthony Rufolo, an Young says her neighbors are e c o n o m i st w h o t e a c h e s sick of waiting. urban studies at Portland “It’s a safety issue, it’s an ecoState University, says social programs and col- nomic issue, it’s a livability issue,” she says. lege scholarships fall far outside the traditional Jefferson Smith, a Democratic state repreduties of a city government. sentative from East Portland, has his own expla“From an economic perspective, I would nation why eastsiders feel they’re being shafted argue those are distorted expenditures,” Rufolo by City Hall. says. “I would disagree with many of the deci“We don’t have any money. We don’t have any sions that are made, but obviously the voters power,” he says. “Portland is a city that, at its best, don’t, because they keep re-electing the people operates through the exercise of informal civic who make those decisions.” power. And almost any way you measure, there’s less Fritz, who campaigned as a back-to-basics informal power the farther east of Tabor you go.” reformer, counters that in Portland’s unique form of government she lacks control over the Ultimately, it’s Adams who should answer for the budget for paving streets. failure to pave roads, and not just because he sets “It’s something that has been of concern to the budget as mayor. Under Portland’s commisme for decades and something that we need to sion form of government, he also exercises dayprioritize,” Fritz still insists. to-day control of the Transportation Bureau. As for Fish, he says he kept his campaign promises by voting to use city resources to help CONT. on page 20
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MUDDY WATERS: Neighbors have planted metal spikes in “Lake Carlton” to warn off drivers. The giant puddle in Southeast Carlton Street is home to mallard ducks.
PLUGGING LAKE CARLTON To discover just how unlivable Portland’s dirt roads can be, you need venture no farther than the Woodstock neighborhood in inner Southeast. Kim and Greg Geist bought their home on the corner of Southeast 45th Avenue and Carlton Street in September 2009. Neighbors warned them about water that collected on the unpaved stretch of Carlton beside their house. The block is just one small piece of the three miles of dirt and gravel roads in the Woodstock neighborhood. Come rainy season, the Geists watched as water washed into the rutted city street and flooded an area more than two feet deep and 20 feet across—a body of water that stays around much of the year. Neighbors have dubbed it “Lake Carlton.” The lake hosts a pair of mallard ducks. Neighbor kids have plied its waters in canoes, and 4x4 pickup drivers spin doughnuts through it in the middle of the night. After an elderly man got his car stuck in the lake and became hypothermic last winter, the Geists took action. Without seeking City Hall’s permission, Greg put down railroad ties to block access to cars and stuck metal fence posts in the lake to further warn off motorists. “We decided we’d rather face the city’s wrath than have someone get hurt out there,” Geist says. In the end help finally came from a neighborhood coalition. With a $2,000
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grant, neighbors hope to fill the lake and perhaps add some decorative plants. Portland State University students last year studied the unpaved streets in Woodstock. Their report, “Roadway Not Improved,” slammed the city for its laissezfaire attitude and recommended a series of changes to city policy and outreach. None has been made. Surprisingly, the PSU study found 39 out of 59 Woodstock residents and visitors surveyed said they don’t want the dirt streets paved. Instead, they see them as part of the neighborhood’s charm. But Woodstock is a relatively prosperous district. So are many of the newly annexed areas of Southwest Portland, which also have a large number of unpaved streets. Jack Klinker of the Ashcreek Neighborhood Association describes an attitude there similar to Woodstock’s: Southwest neighbors are split on whether dirt roads are rural charm or a royal pain. WW found no surveys on unpaved roads outside the Woodstock report. Some neighbors in Southwest may enjoy their winding dirt lanes, but on the outer east side, where the city is a flat urban grid and poverty thickens, neighborhood leaders report widespread frustration. “We all had to get hooked up to the sewer system [when we were annexed to the city during the 1980s.] For me personally, it cost $5,000,” says Kathy Fuerstenau, head of the Cully Association of Neighbors. “And we still didn’t get the street improvements.”
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BRICK ROAD: Neighbors in Cully fill their potholes with discarded construction material.
Adams says a shortage of funds is partly to blame. Low gas taxes—which help fund the Portland Bureau of Transportation—and the recession forced him to cut the transportation budget down to basic services, he says. In PBOT’s case, that meant maintaining major arterials. Under a 2009 City Council resolution, unless there’s a major safety hazard, repairs to neighborhood streets have been deferred for the time being. “I’ve prioritized safety and saving lives over smooth pavement,” Adams says. “It’s a trade-off I made, and I stand by it.” Adams and other city officials also make a more nuanced argument.
PUT A LID ON IT Here’s what Portland tells neighbors who want their dirt roads paved: Form a local improvement district. Under that scenario, neighbors come to the city and ask to have their street paved. The city helps with the planning, hires the contractors and oversees the work, then turns around and charges the neighboring property owners, who have the option of paying back the money over 20 years. It’s not a terribly popular option. In the past decade 16 LIDs have been completed for street paving, putting asphalt down on about five total miles of roadway. Half those LIDs were formed by commercial properties or a developer, and the other half by homeowners. LIDs are rare because they’re expensive. The price varies depending on the terrain and the number of properties involved. The cheapest LID now under way for street paving costs each property owner about $38,000. The most expensive is about $216,000 per property owner. Another problem: In 2009, the City Council ordered PBOT to stop maintaining
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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
Historically, they say, the cost of paving roads has been borne by adjacent property owners— which makes sense, because it adds to their property values. And since those neighbors paid to have their streets paved, the argument goes, it’s unfair to ask them to pay for others now. So the neighbors on dirt roads have to pay for it themselves. Until they do, the city won’t even fix the potholes. The policy and the reasoning behind it are spelled out in plain language on PBOT’s website: “The City of Portland does not currently share in the cost of constructing streets or maintaining substandard streets. Since the beginning of the CONT. on page 23
neighborhood streets and focus only on arterials, citing a lack of money. A main selling point for paving a dirt street was that the city would start maintaining it. Now even that doesn’t happen unless there’s a clear safety hazard. Arlene Lux would love to pave the block of Southeast Carlton Street beside her house on 43rd Avenue in Woodstock. She currently spends about $100 a year buying gravel to fill the potholes. She says the city quoted her a price of $40,000 for her share of the job. “I don’t have that kind of money,” says Lux, a retired billing clerk who lives on Social Security. Jack Klinker, a retired electrical engineer, says he and his neighbors don’t want to pay the costly city-run LID repairs. So they take matters into their own hands. They each pay a few thousand dollars to pave patches of their gravel road in Southwest Portland’s Ashcreek neighborhood. They don’t bother asking City Hall’s permission. “If you talk to the city,” Klinker says, “you’re going to talk to some bureaucrat who’s going to cover his ass and tell you why you can’t do it.”
MUD RUN MS PORTLAND
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JUNE 18, 2011, 9:00 A.M. SHERWOOD, OR REGISTER NOW: MUDRUNMSOREGON.COM
During these tough economic times, we need to do everything we can to protect the middle class. R
ight now, the Oregon legislature is considering deep budget cuts to our local schools, senior care, children’s services and public safety. The proposed state budget in Salem will close schools and eliminate school days, reduce in-home care and skilled nursing for 30,000 seniors, cut lifelines for the unemployed and slash funding for youth corrections by 25%. But at the same time, the legislature voted to give nearly $100 million away in tax breaks to corporations, and they’re even considering more tax breaks aimed at those who could most afford to share. It’s unfair and irresponsible to give away more tax breaks to the rich, especially when it means deeper cuts to the services that middle-class families depend on.
How we respond to this crisis is a test of who we are as a people. Now, some legislators in Salem want to hold on to more than $440 million—all while we’re facing cuts to school days and seniors being denied critical care. This is about priorities. Whose priorities will our legislators protect? Will lawmakers protect those who’ve been hurt most by the recession, or will they only protect those who are still doing well even in this recession??
Make your voice heard. We need to make sure that our legislators are making decisions based on the right priorities. Call your legislators now and ask them to stand up for middleclass families by using every available dollar to protect our schools, health care, and public safety. To be connected to your legislators, call 1-800-332-2313.
›› For more information, visit: www.OregonMiddleClass.org.
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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Why is the Portland School Bond so important?
The condition of our schools isn’t a problem. It’s a crisis. 4/27/2011
4/21/2011
“This election is all about education… our schools are too crucial to the health of our city to defer this needed maintenance any longer. … Portland is a city that raises taxes for elephants, fireboats and salmon. We ought to be a city that teaches its children in schools that aren’t raining ceiling tiles.
So, how do we vote? Yes…”
5/1/2011
“A solid commitment to public education will send a strong message to employers who might want to move to Portland (you like having a job, don’t you?) and to community-minded family types who might be (reluctantly) considering moving away… let’s look at what’s not up for debate: Our schools are falling apart. (We’re talking asbestos-coated pipes, oil furnaces that are time bombs for fire, and kids taking turns plugging in computers because of shoddy wiring.) They’ll be even worse in two years. And with the state mired in a budget apocalypse, it’s our responsibility to fix them. Now. Before a major disaster or tragedy makes us wish we’d voted yes… What this bond focuses on—overhauling the city’s worst schools and making fixes at every school citywide—is a necessary investment and not one that should wait. Vote yes.”
Money for schools cannot be delayed “Without approval of the bond measure, which appears on the ballot as Measure 26-121, school buildings and classrooms within the district will continue to deteriorate. Students will be without modern science labs and computer centers. The school district will continue to be at a disadvantage when competing with suburban schools to attract families with children…The cost to do anything about these problems will rise into the future… The sooner we get started, the better.”
We say YES on the Portland School Bond! Because We Just Can’t Wait Any Longer (partial list) • League of Women Voters of Portland • The Oregon State Council of Retired Citizens • Portland Council of the Oregon Parent Teacher Association • Portland Association of Teachers
11/14/2010
• Portland Firefighters Association Local 43 • Portland Police
“Portland is long overdue to reinvest in its historic school buildings, and a rebuilding campaign could pay educational and economic dividends for decades to come… the need to protect Portland’s capital investment is impossible to ignore. Many schools date from the 1920s or earlier… these schools need a lot of work to preserve their value: new wiring, new pipes, better heating systems, new insulation, refinished wood, new flooring and fixtures. … The list is daunting, but the work is essential for a longlasting building and a healthy school environment.
Association • Portland Business Alliance • Portland Schools Foundation • Community and Parents for Public Schools • Portland Parent Union • Portland Association of Public School Administrators • Amalgamated Transit Union • American Heart Association • Stand for Children • NW Oregon Labor Council • Columbia Pacific Building Trades • The Democratic Party of Multnomah County • VOIS Sustainable Business Alliance
Speaking of work, a capital bond would create jobs for construction workers and other skilled tradespeople in the Portland area. That would provide a welcome boost in a city still struggling with high unemployment… If any kind of capital plan deserves a fair hearing, it’s this one.”
YES
Our schools and our kids need every vote.
Ballots are due by 8 pm Tuesday, May 17. Please send yours in today! Paid for by Portlanders for Schools. 22
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
DIRT ROADS, DEAD ENDS C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
CONT.
A Store for Cooks
Fine Foods from over 40 Countries Superb Produce All-Natural Meats & Fresh Daily Fish Pita & Pizza baked to order 80-Olive Oil selection Walk-in Beer cooler with 500+ varieties 1,200+ wines Plenty of Gluten-Free Foods Ya Hala recipes in the Deli! We bring the world to you!
503-244-0670 • 9845 SW Barbur Blvd. • BarburWorldFoods.com
UPCOMING IN-STORE PERFORMANCES PLUG IN STEREO
THURSDAY 5/12 @ 6PM WALKABLE NEIGHBORHOOD: Kids make their way down Southeast Cooper Street in the Brentwood-Darlington neighborhood.
City’s history, most or all of these costs have been paid for by adjacent property owners.” Of course, that’s not the argument Adams made when he toured Cully and promised to work through the backlog. But there’s a bigger problem with the city’s policy—it’s based on a total falsehood. That particular version of city history was thoroughly debunked in a report provided to Willamette Week by PBOT itself. In a 2000 report to City Council about funding for street improvements, an expert panel delved into the history of Portland infrastructure. They called the notion that property owners have always borne the cost of paving streets a “long-standing myth.” As recently as 2000, the study found, the city was paying most or all of the costs to pave many streets, especially in poorer neighborhoods. “The implication of this myth was that property owners paid almost entirely for their street,
PBOT estimates it would cost about $300 million to pave all the city’s dirt and gravel roads. Where does our street money go instead? The current transportation budget includes projects like an improved crossing at Northeast 12th Avenue over I-84, cycle tracks on North Williams and Vancouver avenues, and a buffered bike lane on close-in Northeast Glisan Street. Each costs about $1 million and is funded entirely with discretionary money. Greg Jones, development and capital program manager at PBOT, says elected politicians set the priorities for his agency’s $250 million budget. “Of the money we have, we follow the direction we get,” Jones says. “It is a resource choice, and ultimately, those resource choices are made by the Council when they adopt their budget.” Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who hails from the West Hills, has never made paving dirt roads a priority—he says he doesn’t see 59 miles as too many. He’s also never made it a campaign issue.
“BECAUSE IT ISN’T A WEALTHY NEIGHBORHOOD DOESN’T MEAN IT SHOULDN’T HAVE THE COMMON AMENITIES A CITY HAS TO OFFER.” —KEN TURNER a proposition that is nowhere near the truth,” the report says. “It is much more accurate, and also much more relevant to the problems we face today, to state that property owners have almost always helped pay for at least a portion of the costs for improving their streets.” Randy Leonard, the only city commissioner from east of 82nd Avenue, has never made an outright promise to pave dirt roads. But he’s never shy about vowing to look out for the east side. When asked about unpaved streets, Leonard—who holds a B.A. in history—launches into a five-minute lecture about the history of Portland annexation. Multnomah County and other outlying communities didn’t require property developers to pave streets, he says, and the newer parts of the city are still living with the consequences. Ultimately, Leonard says, the problem is lack of cash. “The reason we don’t just flat go out and [pave] is because we don’t have the money,” Leonard says.
“I try not to make promises I don’t feel I can keep,” Saltzman says. “But if somebody swears it’s going to be their priority as commissioner—and the mayor as well—I think it’s within their ability to take leadership on this and make it happen.” East Portland boosters say their unpaved streets are an issue of fairness and equity. “A city the size of Portland should not have unpaved streets,” says Ken Turner, an East Portland property developer and community activist. “Because it isn’t a wealthy neighborhood doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have the common amenities a city has to offer.” Adams’ proposed budget does have a plan for increasing basic fairness. He proposes setting up an Office of Equity to advance civil rights and achieve “social sustainability,” in Adams’ words. The price tag: $525,000.
Plug In Stereo’s 17-year-old wunderkind Trevor Dahl is a multi-instrumentalist with a talent for easy-going and down to earth acoustic melodies. The new album ‘Nothing To Something,’ is filled with acoustic pop jams with influences such as John Mayer, The Shins, and Jason Mraz.
LEVEL FLOW
FRIDAY 5/13 @ 6PM
Level Flow started as a trio consisting of lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Chris Robles, guitarist Andrey Nikolaev, and drummer Micah Burnett in May of 2009. They added bassist Jesse Klinger in 2010, which put Level Flow at its current lineup. Now with a solid repertoire of original songs, a debut album, and a building fan base, Level Flow is looking towards a bright future.
JOE PUG
SATURDAY 5/14 @ 3PM
After playing over 200 shows, including runs with Steve Earle, M. Ward and Josh Ritter, Pug took to the studio to record his sophomore release. While the ‘Nation of Heat’ EP may have earned him the title of talent to watch, with ‘Messenger,’ Pug explores new territory, sneaking in pedal steel guitar and a powerhouse rhythm section.
THE APACHE RELAY SUNDAY 5/15 @ 2PM
The Apache Relay takes more long car rides than most bands. But only a portion of their car time is dedicated to their touring schedule — the rest is something like driving in the middle of the night from Nashville to Alabama and back, just to listen to a new record 12 consecutive times. Now The Apache Relay have released their second album, ‘American Nomad,’ a modern and young roots-rock collection produced by Nielson Hubbard.
– AUTOGRAPH SIGNING – SILVERSTEIN/BAYSIDE
SUNDAY 5/15 @ 4:30PM
Originally formed in 2000 as a side project, Silverstein was launched by vocalist Shane Told, guitarist Josh Bradford, drummer Paul Koehler, guitarist Richard McWalter, and bassist Bill Hamilton in Ontario, Canada. After diving into Ontario’s hardcore/emo scene the band found an audience for its particular brand of shimmering emo and hot-blooded post-hardcore. Silverstein’s newest album is titled ‘Rescue.’ Bayside lead singer/rhythm guitarist and founding member Anthony Raneri has been waiting 10 years—since he formed the band in 2000—to make an album like ‘Killing Time.’ On ‘Killing Time,’ the group turns Raneri’s acoustic songs into full-blown, deceptively complex rock epics that touch on bitter endings, fresh starts, band camaraderie and even a hopeful ballad, complete with a 20-piece orchestra and a horn section.
HAYES CARLL
WEDNESDAY 5/18 @ 6PM
Hayes Carll hasn’t been resting on his laurels since topping critics polls and winning awards for his 2008 album, ‘Trouble in Mind.’ He’s been on the road nearly nonstop with his band, The Poor Choices, blasting through honky-tonks and rock clubs across the U.S. and beyond. Along the way, he’s been inspired to write a crop of new tunes that he says are “a layman’s take on our country – a snapshot of ...America in some small way.” The result: the sharply drawn collection ‘KMAG YOYO (& Other American Stories).’
—News intern Nathan Gilles contributed to this report. Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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Live Music
FOOD AND DRINK: June’s flower power. MUSIC: Four-play with Point Juncture, WA. STAGE: Trailer Park Boys. MOVIES: Bridesmaids are pooping in the street.
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The Best Of Portland Independent Jazz: End of the Earth Sax Quartet 7:30pm Tuesday May 17th
“The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence”
Justin Morrell, Damian Erskine, Ben Darwish, and Randy Rollofson. 8pm every wed - Arabesque & Belly Dance 8pm Now serving home made NY pizza!
MUSIC 7 NIGHTS A WEEK
Portland’s best happy hour 5 - 7 pm and all day sunday 3341 SE Belmont thebluemonk.com 503-595-0575 24
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
GOING FOR GOLD: Portland Mercury music editor Ezra Caraeff is planning to open a bar called the Old Gold. Caraeff applied for a full liquor license in April for 2105 N Killingsworth St., next to the Beaterville Cafe. According to the application, the bar will not have live music or DJs—probably for the best if he plans to keep his day job. RETURN TO NORMANCY: Sources have been telling WW for more than two years that Phil Knight’s Portland animation studio, Laika, would follow its Oscar-nominated cartoon Coraline with ParaNorman, another spooky story about a zombie-busting kid. Last week, the studio confirmed that rumor, announcing ParaNorman’s planned release date of Aug. 17, 2012. Another little mystery solved: In March 2010, Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox cinematographer Tristan Oliver showed up unexpectedly at the Hollywood Theatre. Turns out Laika successfully courted Oliver to be cinematographer for ParaNorman. CURTAINS: James Peppers, a prolific local musical theater performer who made regular appearances at Northwest Children’s Theater and Stumptown Stages, died of complications from surgery May 6. Plans for a memorial service have not been announced. PUT A BEARD ON IT: Portland chefs Andy Ricker (Pok Pok) and Gabriel Rucker (Le Pigeon) were each recognized Monday night at the James Beard Awards—farcically referred to in some circles as the Oscars of food—in the best chef Northwest and rising star categories, respectively. CLUB’S NOT DEAD: The venue formerly known as Berbati’s Pan has rechristened itself “Ted’s” (after late owner Ted Papaioannou), and hosted its first show on Friday, May 6, with upand-coming rockers Beach Fossils. Our crack photographer Ro Tam (who shot the show for a live review at wweek.com) noted: “The space has been rearranged by ditching the bar off to the side of the lounge area and moving the main entrance,” concluding that “pretty much everything about the show seemed familiar, which isn’t always a bad thing.” Tam’s photos evidence a classier look and less awkward layout for the downtown nightlife institution. CLOSED: Nob Hill’s Temple Bar is closing after only two months. Owner Raj Sharma made over his Indian restaurant Indish as a whiskey bar in early March, but announced on Friday via food blog Eater that he had decided to “bow out gracefully.” WW will miss the paneer biscuits and Rangpur G&Ts. >> Also shutting its doors is SuperDog, the hot-dog-focused eatery with two locations near PSU. “SuperDog unfortunately was not able to weather the storm of the financial crisis,” chef and owner Ellen Green said in a press release.
HEADOUT
WILLAMETTE WEEK
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
THURSDAY, MAY 12 [MOVIES AND MUSIC] SOUND AND VISION FEST A three-night benefit to help fund the Hollywood Theatre, featuring collaborations between musicians and filmmakers, with each night curated by a different local artist. Thursday will be curated by filmmaker Matt McCormick, Friday by musician Carrie Brownstein and, on Saturday, documentarian and music-video director Lance Bangs. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. Thursday-Saturday, 7 pm. $10 each night.
GO: Wonder Northwest will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1441 NE 2nd Ave. Saturday-Sunday, May 14-15. $6, $10 for both days. The Lolita Fashion Show begins at 4 pm Sunday, May 15. Visit wondernorthwest.com for info.
[THEATER] UNCANNY VALLEY Hand2Mouth finally premieres its year-in-the-making new show about memory, which promises all the company’s usual exuberance, messy introspection and sweet special effects. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 235-5284. 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays, May 12-22. $12-$18 at boxofficetickets.com.
SATURDAY, MAY 14 [STREET FAIR] ST. JOHNS “BIZARRE” WW Best New Band winner And And And is among the musical acts playing this year’s St. Johns Bizarre, which also features a beer garden, craft vendors and plenty of food. We’ll take any excuse to visit one of our favorite Portland neighborhoods, but the music—Archers and Jared Mees & the Grown Children are also on board—seals the deal. North Lombard Street and Philadelphia Avenue. 10 am-6 pm. Free. All ages (except for the beer garden). [DRINK] PORTLAND INDIE WINE FEST Less hassle than a winery crawl, with better food and no need for a designated driver, the Portland Indie Wine Fest offers unlimited pours of limited-production wines from 51 Oregon craft wineries, alongside nibbles from some of Portland’s best restaurants. Bison Building, 419 NE 10th Ave. indiewinefestival.com. 1-6 pm. $75-$125. 21+.
SUNDAY, MAY 15 [MUSIC] THE JULIANS The irrepressible lady vocal quartet, all classically trained singers who get frisky with nonclassical tunes, sings works by Fleet Foxes, Postal Service, Leonard Cohen, Girlyman, Lassus, Björk, Stephen Sondheim and more, accompanied by violin and piano. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1432 SW 13th Ave., 2275783. 3 pm. $10.
DEVONDEVEREAUX.COM
Wonder Northwest: It’s Portland’s newest geek convention, bringing together pop-culture subcultures from all walks of life. A read though the schedule is pretty much what you’d expect: comic-book signings, Star Wars, pirates, costumes, an event at Ground Kontrol. And then you get to “Lolita Fashion Show.” The WW newsroom is pretty hard to offend, but the general collective reaction rhymed almost exactly with: “Are you fucking kidding me?” We’ve come across some pretty extreme geek fetishes in our time, but there’s tentacle rape cartoons, and then there’s…that. But “Lolita fashion” has nothing to do with the Nabokov novel or the associated sexual connotations, insists event organizer and “Lolita” Holly Reynolds. “It is a fashion that started in the late ’70s by independent fashion houses in Japan,” says Reynolds. “There’s been a lot of disputes with where [the name] came from, but usually people think the Japanese just took the word as an association with being youthful and not really how it’s interpreted in Western society.” It is also, she says, unrelated to the Japanese term “lolicon,” which is a mangled portmanteau of “Lolita complex” and does refer to an attraction to prepubescent girls. “It’s a similarity in name,” says Reynolds. “I know the fashion can be fetishized—just like anything else can—but that’s not why people wear it.” Lolita fashion includes a huge range of subgenres, but is primarily inspired by old rococo and Victorian aesthetics. “It’s sort of a return to elegance,” says Reynolds. “I’d say the most characteristic part is big frilly skirts, petticoats.” One of the subgenres, called Sweet Lolita, does involve dressing up in “childlike” clothes, with bows, ruffles, pigtails, toys and lots and lots of pink. Lolita fashion started gaining popularity in the West around 10 years ago. Reynolds claims the name is too entrenched to be changed now, but she and other Portland Lolitas are wary of splashing it around too much. “When I have meet-ups with people and we’re all dressed up and people ask us, ‘What are you all dressed up for?’” Reynolds says, “we usually don’t say, ‘Oh, we’re wearing Lolita clothes.’ We just say we’re dressed up in Japanese street fashion.” RUTH BROWN.
[MUSIC] YELLE, FRENCH HORN REBELLION Let’s celebrate all things French tonight: the bubbly French electro-pop of Yelle (who just got off tour with Katy Perry, thank you very much) and the synthy dance stylings of the French Horn Rebellion. The latter hails from Wisconsin, which is famous for cheese, but not for baguettes. Wonder Ballroom. 8 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. All ages.
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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BUSINESS
JAMES REXROAD
CULTURE
she just started modern dance,” he says, pointing out a photo of a young ballerina with her hair in a bun, extending her leg into the air. “She’s getting really good.”
IT’S A SETUP: Ralph Welker works on a ballet set in unit 8102.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS BY C H R I ST I N A CO O KE
243-2122
Open one of the 800 doors in the Portland Storage Company building, and you’re as likely to find the clutter from someone’s basement as a photographer snapping pictures of a semi-clad stage performer. Within the eight-story brick building, located pass-thesalt distance from the Morrison Bridge on the east side, you’ll find random junk from people’s garages, yes. But you’ll also find artist studios, ad agency headquarters, liquidation company offices and closet-sized units in which homeless people put their bedrolls during the day so they can wander the streets unencumbered. This year, the historic building, a microcosm of urban Portland, reaches a milestone: It turns 100. The building was constructed in 1911 as the Northwestern distribution center for the John Deere Plow Company. It served in that capacity for five decades before converting to a general warehouse in 1963 and a public storage facility in the mid-’80s. Built to hold farm machinery, it has 14-inch-thick steel-reinforced floors and 110-foot columns running through its interior from base to roof. Early one morning, longtime maintenance man Rex Church rolls open the garagelike door overlooking the loading dock on Southeast 3rd Avenue to open the facility for business. Tenants filter across the bare concrete floor of the lobby to meet the heavy-duty freight elevator that will carry them to their units. Unit 8102: Down to the Wire On the eighth floor, Ralph Welker is making everybody nervous. He is supposed to have a set for the Sellwoodbased Classical Ballet Academy’s production of Coppélia finished in less than two days, but he has barely started. “I procrastinated so bad I could kick myself,” he says. “The design is in my head, but everyone is stressed because they don’t know what I’m thinking.” 26
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
Welker has his long gray hair pulled back into a ponytail and wears a diamond earring in his left ear. He started renting his spacious, top-floor unit 23 years ago, when the rest of the building was still deserted, and he appreciates the still-cheap rent ($250 a month for his spot). Welker’s space is packed with two decades’ worth of clamps, hammers, ladders and buckets; from a high shelf, a carved foam gargoyle head overlooks the room. Welker started working for the Academy a decade ago in exchange for free ballet classes for his granddaughter Sierra, now 13. “She’s been en pointe a couple years, and
Unit 3326: To the Highest Bidder Once a month, Portland Storage Company auctions off the contents of units whose renters have not paid in three months despite mailed warnings (see “Raiders of the Lost Crap,” WW, Dec. 17, 2008). Church, who has been in charge of the building’s maintenance for two decades, has learned to recognize short-timers from the second they unload their vehicles. “If I see anybody moving in here with a waterbed, I know it will go to auction,” he says. The same goes for rattan furniture and mirrors with cheap beer logos on them. Today, a white-haired retiree named Richard Struzan wins one of two units up for bid, No. 3326, for $130.50. Because the rules prohibit bidders from entering a unit to examine its contents beforehand, Struzan had to judge the collection’s worth from afar based on clues like how neatly it was arranged and the value of any items actually visible. “I paid way too much,” Struzan says, rooting around in his new purchase after the auction. “Hopefully, there’s enough stuff in here I can get my money back.” Struzan rolls a cart into the space and begins sorting
JAMES REXROAD
A PORTRAIT OF THE PORTLAND STORAGE CO. BUILDING ON ITS 100TH BIRTHDAY.
Unit 2009: Exotic Photographer Three deeply tanned strippers wearing white and pink braand-panty sets pose in front of a lit-up white backdrop in London Lunoux’s studio this afternoon. Lunoux, a student at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and full-time photographer, has shot for Portland-based Exotic magazine for the past five years. Today, she’s taking pictures of performers from three local strip clubs for one of the magazine’s advertisements. Lunoux’s studio is a large, well-lit space on the second— and most finished—floor of the building. While the top six stories were as wide open as skating rinks before the owners erected walls to create the individual storage units, the second story was originally used as the John Deere office and remains more ornate, with a white marble stairway, oak wall panels and frosted glass panels on its interior windows and doors. Lunoux says she coexists easily with the other tenants on her floor, though she’s sure they’re shocked occasionally when a stripper runs down the hall in her underwear to use the restroom. “I try to keep that to a minimum,” she says, laughing.
PRETTY IN PINK: London Lunoux inspects prints from her PNCA show in unit 2009.
JAMES REXROAD
THE LIQUIDATOR: Fabian Gordon uses the facility’s freight elevator to transport a commercial steam press from a Washington State prison, and a centrifuge from the EPA.
through the unit’s contents, setting aside ceramic bowls, African sculptures and other things with resale value. He creates another pile for throwaway items: a typed screenplay, a self-produced CD and a stack of old photographs. He adds a copy of Ebony magazine, a book on hypnosis techniques, an unused condom and the results of an HIV test (negative). As Struzan works, a portrait of the unit’s owner—probably an older black man, a lover of art, music and Toni Morrison novels— begins to emerge. “He was into jazz,” Struzan says, setting a Bill Evans CD in the “keep” pile. “That’s good—jazz sells OK.” Unit 2013: Last Man Standing “I am the place businesses go to die,” says Fabian Gordon from behind a desk in Unit 2013, where he is addressing a stack of padded manila envelopes containing the DVD KISS Meets Phantom of the Park. It’s one of the last stockpiles of the movie in the country, and Gordon is selling them for $30 apiece. Gordon is a large, jolly man with a dark goatee and plenty to say. He runs Uncle Fabe’s Square Deals, a liquidation business that sells mostly online. His recent purchases include 12 pairs of snowboarding boots, giant grocery store signs that say “Produce,” “Meat” and “Checkout,” and 10 World War II gurneys. The phone rings. The woman on the line wonders if she can stop by in 20 minutes to check out an aged office chair rated for 500 pounds that Gordon has listed on Craigslist. Sure, Gordon tells her. After he hangs up, he locates the chair in the back of the room, hoists it upside down over his head and carries it out of the jumble. “Normally I steam clean things,” he explains, wrapping a piece of tape sticky side out, around his hand. He begins running the tape across the office chair to pick up bits of lint and hair. “This is not what I prefer to do.” Like many of the tenants at Portland Storage, Gordon appreciates the 100-year-old building for its bombproof strength, its decaying elegance, its low overhead, and the chance it has given him to succeed at his venture. “It’s like Casablanca,” he says. “It’s the way station of the damned. It’s the place where you’re waiting for the next thing to happen.”
CENTRALBOWL.COM MORRISON • THEGRAND & 8th SE • 95 .26 36 503.2 Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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ON SALE NOW THE LONELY ISLAND TH Turtleneck & Chain
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Nicki Minaj & Justin Timberlake contribute! Hilarity ensues. Includes dvd of SNL shorts.
GREG BROWN Freak Flag
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Brown’s signature folk sound, a rough-hewn yet smooth baritone, is in fine form on his 24th(!) album.
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Never a cover!
Buffalo gap Wednesday, May 11th • 9pm
“Buffalo Bandstand”
presented By: live artist Network Thursday, May 12th • 9pm
private Event
friday, May 13th • 9pm
Matthew lindley Commission (americana) Saturday, May 14th • 9pm
Ken Hanson Band (blues soul funk)
Sunday, May 15th • 5pm
West Coast Songwriters Hosted By: Daniel Work Tuesday 5/17 • 9:00pm
opEN MIC NIgHT
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FOOD & DRINK REVIEW
THURSDAY, MAY 12 Love to Japan Fundraiser
Seven Virtues co-owner Misa Kawada’s strong ties to Japan inspired this benefit for Mercy Corps. Beer from Deschutes Brewery and wine from Seven Bridges will be provided as well as small portions from local restaurants. A silent auction of donated items and ticket sales go toward disaster recovery. KAREN LOCKE. Seven Virtues Coffee House, 5936 NE Glisan St., 236-7763. 6 pm. $10 minimum.
FRIDAY, MAY 13 Cheers to Education
Brews from across the Northwest will be put to the challenge with a blind tasting event to benefit Portland’s Education First chapter. Enjoy live music, a raffle and silent auctions. Tickets include beer, wine and appetizers. KL. NW Natural, 220 NW 2nd Ave. 6 pm. $24. 21+.
SATURDAY, MAY 14 Portland Indie Wine Festival
This year’s Portland Indie Wine and Food Festival boasts an all-star lineup of Oregon’s small-production wineries. The event includes samples from 37 past participants and 14 new wineries, alongside nibbles from top Portland eateries. The best part? Unlimited samples and tastings. KL. Bison Building, 419 NE 10th Ave. 2-6 pm. $75.
MONDAY, MAY 16 Confluencias Dinner at Andina Restaurant
Graze on meals from Japan, Italy, France, Spain and pre-colonial times without ever leaving Northwest Portland. This five-course dinner includes wine pairings and dishes like sashimi-style octopus with a sesame-passion fruit salsa, highlighting Peruvian food’s cultural influences. KL. Andina, 1314 NW Glisan St., 228-9535. 6:30 pm. $75 plus gratuity.
Triple Anniversary Party for Tasty, Toro and Chop
Records will be spinning and the dance floor will be jumping for this threeway party, celebrating four years for Toro Bravo, one year for Tasty n Sons, and the addition of Chop Butchery and Charcuterie as Tasty’s new neighbor. The kitchen and bar will be turning out signature dishes and cocktails from both of chef John Gorham’s eateries. KL. Tasty n Sons, 3808 N Williams, Suite C, 621-1400. 6 pm.
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is June’s forte, prompting inspired decisions: A Dover sole ($18) is wrapped in tart leaves of collard greens, adding a summer snap to the fillet, while a Quinault River steelhead with sweet and sour radishes ($25) was so beautifully seared I put down my book to give the fish my full attention. A cut of smoked sturgeon is also the highlight of an uneven charcuterie plate ($18), which is accompanied by bruschetta slices and a fig preserve that tastes like the world’s best Newtons. June’s cuts of meat are a dicier proposition: Perrault serves each one with a preparation that calls attention to its status as flesh. The lamb roast ($27), cooked in a layered porchetta style, is stuffed with slivers of apricots—the contrast of the fruit against the heavy, borderline gamy flavor of the lamb reminded me of that famed photo of a hippie sticking a daisy in the barrel of a gun. It’s arresting; it’s also hard to finish. Same goes for the ribeye steak ($40), a dinner for two bathed in a red wine truffle sauce that strikes AMERICAN PASTORAL: June’s lamb à la porchetta, scattered with apple blossoms. a fatiguing note. Dessert is a welcome return to the garden and orchard: A caramelized approach marks a departure. Portland’s apple vol-au-vent with vanilla ice cream ($9) dining scene is dominated by fatty foodie is a standout. gratification; we are besieged by big-ass Service is excellent, and willing to offer sandwiches, foie gras ice cream and lakes of useful study tips for the menu. The dining béchamel sauce. June operates on a higher room is meticulously designed to look like degree of difficulty. Perrault’s entrees are a pioneer homestead showing off its Sunday challenging; they demand your active crockware. At a candlelit wooden bar, Kelly engagement. You will not like everything you Swenson continues to hone the cocktail BY AA RO N M ESH amesh@wweek.com eat here: The entrees include experiments magic that made his name at Ten 01. His that run counter to the palate, and since the specialty drinks are clever sidesteps of A dinner at June is intensely floral. By this menu rotates, you will risk encountering expectations: The Bentley ($8), made with Calvados, Dubonnet I mean not only that the petite restaurant, one of these frustrating and a twist, has some opened last summer by former DOC chef meals. It is worth the Order this: The morel and foraged greens of the same notes as an Gregory Perrault on a previously unattract- risk to taste the suc- salad, then the steelhead. appletini, but is much, ive stretch of East Burnside, has the atmo- cesses of cooking with Best deal: Roasted heirloom carrots— some of them royal purple—with toasted much better. Challenge sphere of an indoor meadow—the ceiling such ambition. barley and crème fraîche panna cotta, $10. y o u r s e l f , h o w e v e r, lamps look like upside-down lilies, and each The best thing I tried I’ll pass: The Columbia River walleye and move straight to a table is garnished with a tiny bouquet in a on the spring menu was terrine ($11) is a noble failure. concoction called P.S. I perfume bottle—but also that there are flow- nothing more complicaters in the food. Among recent entries on the ed than a salad: the morel and foraged greens Read Your Diary ($8), which mixes gin, Cocrotating seasonal menu, a morel and foraged affair ($15), with a slice of Pluvius cheese laid chi Americano, orange bitters and absinthe greens salad is garlanded with yellow clusters on top and one soft-boiled egg in the center. to create the impression of a high Cascade of red mustard petals, a walleye terrine is Using runny yolk as a salad dressing is not brook flowing with alcohol. In Swenson’s drinks, as in Perrault’s topped with arugula blossoms and sunflower unprecedented—I’ve seen it done at the late, sprouts, a lamb roast is sprinkled with apple lamented Belly, among other spots—but as cooking—really, in the entirety of this quiblossoms, and the French yogurt cake blooms an accent to what amounts to a coastal-range etly daring restaurant—the lesson is clear: with bright purple violas. The experience is forest floor, with the morel mushrooms just Unfamiliarity breeds delight. like eating from a carefully tended window- slightly warmed, it is exhilarating. A lamb and nettle ravioli ($12) is also revelatory, EAT: June, 2215 E Burnside St., 477-4655, sill planter—or a top-shelf dining room. junepdx.com. Dinner 5 pm-10:30 pm TuesdayEven in a city where veganism is approxi- with thin slices of Parmesan cheese spiking Thursday and 5 pm-11 pm Friday-Saturday. mately as popular as Catholicism, June’s a rich wheat pasta. Among entrees, seafood $$$-$$$$ Expensive-Very Expensive.
AR
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Beer
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= WW Pick. PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20-$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: RUTH BROWN. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
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VIP ticket includes Meet-and-Greet, early entry and special VIP section for show.
WED MAY 11 21 & OVER
THUR MAY 12 ALL AGES · (VIP 21 & OVER)
80s VIDEO DANCE ATTACK
AEG LIVE PRESENTS
Ghostland Observatory DJ Gregarious
FRIDAY, MAY 13 9 PM $5 21+OVER WITH VJ KITTYROX
LOLA’S ROOM
UNDER THE CRYSTAL BALLROOM
Jai Ho!
FRI MAY 13 ALL AGES OCTOPUS ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS
“LOCAL FLAVORS”
Tango Alpha Tango Hello Morning No Kind of Rider Violet Isle THUR MAY 19 21 & OVER
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SAT MAY 14 21 & OVER lola’s room 9 P.M. LESSON 10 P.M. DANCING
MON MAY 16 21 & OVER GREAT NORTHWEST MUSIC TOUR
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1624 N.W. Glisan • Portland 503-223-4527
FRI MAY 20 ALL AGES
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MAY 11 - 17 PROFILE
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
CHRISTOPHER NELSON
Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and socalled convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines. Editors: CASEY JARMAN, MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, go to wweek.com/submitevents and follow submission directions. All shows should be submitted two weeks or more in advance of event. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: cjarman@wweek.com, mmannheimer@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 Benny Golson with The Mel Brown Quartet
[JAZZ] It feels like I say this a lot, but when you get the increasingly rare opportunity to see a full-blown jazz legend, you shouldn’t miss it. Benny Golson is an all-time great. The saxophonist played dates with almost everyone, including Dinah Washington and Dizzy Gillespie (he also appears on two of my personal favorite jazz records, Art Blakey’s Moanin’ and Charlie Mingus’ Mingus Ah Um), but he may be more famous for writing standards like “Blues March” and the famed “I Remember Clifford,” a tribute to late Golson collaborator Clifford Brown. At 82 years young, Golson—who plays in a style that’s technically complex, warm and often downright romantic— still sounds amazing in concert, so local jazz aficionados are well aware just how special tonight’s date alongside the excellent Mel Brown quartet should be. If there are any tickets left by the time you read this, snatch them up. CASEY JARMAN. Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542. 8 pm. $18 advance, $22 day of show. All ages.
The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun
[RUN RUN RUN] Befitting a band that was christened after the Velvet Underground’s famously off-putting improvisatory fuzz dirge, the Black Angels’ brand of slow-building psychedelic jams veered decidedly toward the worst of trips along ominous guitar swirls. If Phosphene Dream, the group’s third album (and first for resurrected blues label Blue Horizon), straightens the production curves, flattens the dynamics and revs its engine toward something resembling songcraft, the Austin outfit’s live rally should continue to reward the faithful with cruise control firmly set at droning speeds and all maps thrown to the curb. JAY HORTON. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 9 pm. $15 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.
THURSDAY, MAY 12 The Ventures
[(SURF) ROCK ROYALTY] Rock ’n’ roll doesn’t get much more legendary than the Ventures. The pioneering surf group—formed in Tacoma 53 years ago—made Fender guitars and fuzz pedals must-buys for an entire generation of young rockers and, as has often been asserted, had an impact far beyond the realm of their own somewhat quirky genre. Not only did the band tour the world in its ’50s and ’60s heyday, it played the music of the world—rocking surfed-out versions of cuts from Mexico, Italy, Japan and everywhere in between. Now bona fide members of the Rock Hall of Fame (who boast having sold more albums than any instrumental group, ever), the Ventures return to play a rare show in their native Northwest at the Crystal with golden-era guitarists Don Wilson and Nokie Edwards in tow. Sadly, cofounding guitarist Bob Bogle died in 2009 and longtime drummer Mel Taylor in 1996—but the legend lives on: Taylor’s son Leon mans the drums and the Ventures are still something to behold. CASEY JARMAN. Crystal Ballroom, 11332 W Burnside St., 2250047. 8 pm. $25 advance, $30 day of show. All ages.
Peter Bjorn and John, Bachelorette
[WHISTLE WHILE YOU BOP] Sweden’s Peter Bjorn and John stumbled into immortality in 2006 with “Young Folks,” a song highlighted by the catchiest whistled melody since the
theme from The Bridge on the River Kwai. When the book is written on indie rock’s mainstream assimilation in the mid-aughts, that single will certainly require at least a lengthy footnote. So where does a band go from there? Well, when your big hit comes along three albums into your career, you can afford to futz around a little. PB & J’s follow-up to the breakthrough Writer’s Block (not counting the instrumental detour Seaside Rock), 2009’s Living Thing, was an icier production, marked by spare percussion and isolated vocals. Gimme Some, its newest, returns to the bright, Orange Juiceinspired pop of its past work. There’s no “Young Folks” here, but then again, that’s probably true of most albums this year. MATTHEW SINGER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $20. 21+.
Sepultura, Vader, Abigail Williams
[PRECIOUS METAL] Poor Sepultura. The gods of Brazilian thrash have not smiled upon their once-favored sons. Bassist Paolo Jr. is the only member still active from the original 1984 lineup—though, to be fair, lead guitarist Andreas Kisser has been in the band for about 25 years now. The Cavalera brothers flew the coop and stole most of Sepultura’s fan base upon leaving. But do not let this misguide you: The group continues to put out high-concept thrash albums, such as its latest work, 2009 opus A-Lex, which was based entirely on A Clockwork Orange. Over the past 13 years (since frontman Max Cavalera split to form Soulfly), this band has stayed brutal and disappoints only in its inability to capture the imagination of its former fan base. NATHAN CARSON. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 7 pm. $22.50 advance, $28 day of show. All ages.
Fin de Cinema: Blow-Up: Monarques, The Reservations, Rocky & The Proms
[MOD MOVIE W/MUSIC] Previous installments of Fin de Cinema, Holocene’s frequent mixture of film and music, have asked atmospheric and experimental bands to soundtrack an unusual or surreal motion picture. But for this edition, they have brought in three decidedly poppy groups to match their sounds up with the relatively straightforward narrative in the form of Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s ode to Swinging London. The peppy ’60s beat pop of Monarques and unhinged garage swing of the Reservations should sound mighty fine when put next to the candy-colored imagery projected behind them as they play. ROBERT HAM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 pm. $6. 21+.
William Fitzsimmons, Slow Runner
[IRON & WELLBUTRIN] After devoting his first two song collections to divorce—his parents’ and his own, respectively; one imagines the overeager calls to his unborn children decades hence questioning their matrimonial strife—much-bearded therapist-turned-folkie William Fitzsimmons has turned attentions to all manner of mental illness for a sort of DSM IV: The Soundtrack on his recently released Gold in the Shadow. Write what you know and all that, but the breathy intimacy and fragile melodies of earlier albums seem to slightly curdle when laced with this new positivity. All too confident about the chances of healing (coincidentally timed with the Grey’s Anatomy-soundtracking songwriter’s brimming coffers), it’s hard not to attach a literal significance to the
CONT. on page 33
FANTASTIC FOUR THE CHALLENGING AND REWARDING ALBUMS OF POINT JUNCTURE, WA. BY CASEY JA R MA N
cjarman@wweek.com
If you asked a cross-section of Portland musicians about their favorite local band, Point Juncture, WA, would score pretty high. And yet the quartet largely remains off local showgoers’ radar. Not that anyone in the band is bothered by this. “When you’re a young band, popularity can really define you,” says multi-instrumentalist Skyler Norwood of his band’s station. “But you’ve got to define popularity. So our ambition is just to see how long we can be a band and to keep constantly surprising ourselves.” Still, we feel bad for any local music fan who hasn’t delved into one of the strongest catalogs in Portland rock. We asked Norwood to help us explain each of PJWA’s four releases, including the excellent Handsome Orders, which sees release this Friday at the Woods. Juxtapony EP (2004) We say: Later in its career, Point Juncture would develop an almost inhuman level of restraint—a perverse unwillingness to take its songs to the obvious places the listener wants them to go. So it’s kind of ironic that the first full tune in PJWA’s discography—the blistering “Siesta Movement”—is nearly four satisfying minutes of towering guitar figures and squealing feedback. The band quickly tempers the song’s majestic rock attack with the lovely, grinding “Transient Attack” and the unpredictable, vibraphone-fueled “Comments in Jars.” Norwood says: “It’s full of wonder and going in a hundred directions at once. But that EP has every genre that we’ve continued to do—proggy stuff, pop-punk stuff, ambient piano ballads. That’s all in our first six songs. God, that was fucking eight years ago!” Standout tracks: The slow-building “Transient Attack”; the thrashy and pretty “Superer.” Mama Auto Boss (2005) We say: Here we find PJWA challenging itself to expand on its initial sound: changing up time signatures and experimenting with the shoegazey walls of sound that would eventually launch the band’s next record into the stratosphere. The lyricism here is also more intentional and evocative, though PJWA often uses vocals more as additional
instruments than to forward concrete narratives. Norwood says: “It felt like a good sequel for us. We had played the Best New Band thing and people were liking us, so we went into that recording with a lot of confidence. But we were learning how to record and doing it all in our own weird way.” Standout tracks: The joyous double-entendrerisking “Happy Ending”; the jazzy, seven-minute epic “Autopilot”; mathy, horn-driven ensemble closer “It Slows Down.” Heart to Elk (2009) We say: It may have taken three years to record, but Heart to Elk is an absolute must-own Portland record that shines with evidence of its long gestation period at every moment. Opener “Rocks & Sand” is a floaty lounge ballad darkened with sonic undertones of Roland Kirk and Ravi Shankar, and things only get headier from there. Despite its complex wall of sound, the disc glistens with pop appeal and finds plenty of opportunities to rock out. Norwood says: “That took three years of experimentation, recording and re-recording. We tried everything including the kitchen sink—we recorded in the kitchen. Victor [Nash] and Amanda [Spring] and Wilson [Vediner] were mad scientists. It’s epic in so many ways, but that record almost killed us.” Standout tracks: The mid-album stretch of “Sioux Arrow,” “Kings Part II” and “The Kings Were Good” is one hell of an exhilarating trifecta. Handsome Orders (2011) We say: Heart to Elk should be an impossible act to follow, but PJWA internalized the lessons from that convoluted recording process and streamlined them in a two-week session of home recordings. Handsome Orders’ first half is all about taking care of rock ’n’ roll business, but its B-side is as layered and interesting as anything the group has done to date. PJWA didn’t rush this one, it just knows what it wants these days. Norwood says: “We’re going to be a band for the rest of our lives at this point, so we were just like, ‘Let’s do it, and then we can do another one!’ Touring with the Thermals and the Shaky Hands for six weeks obviously influences a band. So we all got a lot out of our side projects and came back ready to rock.” Standout tracks: Bacharachian opener “When You Wake Up It’s Today”; the lush and harmonythick “Bones.” SEE IT: Point Juncture, WA, plays the Woods on Friday, May 13 with Pigeons and DJ Bill Portland. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
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Congratulations to our Burrito Belly ContenDers!
MUSIC PROFILE MERCY MCNABB
CinCo De Mayo Festival 2011 First plaCe: DouBle pinot-tration
Best teaM naMe: los ulCeritos
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JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN SATURDAY, MAY 14 [EXHAUSTING POP] At this point, Jared Mees is just trying to keep his shit together. For the past three years, his life has been a balancing act of responsibilities. On the one hand, there’s his label, Tender Loving Empire. Once simply a means of putting out his own music and that of his close friends, it now boasts one of the strongest rosters of any label in Portland, releasing albums by Y La Bamba, Typhoon, Loch Lomond and the winner of Willamette Week’s 2011 Best New Band poll, And And And. Then, there’s the business of the same name that he runs with his wife, Brianne: a hybrid record store, consignment shop and art gallery on Southwest 10th Avenue. In addition to those operations, he also tours and records with his band, the Grown Children. And somewhere in the midst of all that, the 30-year-old songwriter tries to carve out time for, in his words, “being a human.” No wonder he gave his new album the mantralike title Only Good Thoughts Can Stay. “It becomes really confusing and intense to keep all the plates spinning,” says the bristly-bearded Mees, squinting in the sun from his table outside Ringlers Annex downtown. “It’s a difficult task, but ultimately it causes the creativity, when it comes, to feel really freeing. It makes the catharsis way more intense than it’s ever been.” Indeed, Only Good Thoughts sounds like the release of three years’ worth of stress. Although it’s his most labor-intensive record—Mees started writing it almost immediately after completing 2008’s Caffeine, Alcohol, Sunshine, Money, with some songs taking six months of revisions to finish—it’s somehow also his most immediately exuberant album, one full of joyous, heartswelling pop moments. But the bright effusiveness of the music disguises an album that is, by Mees’ admission, the product of much turmoil, and not even all his own. “It’s really more just [about] deciphering why people go through things, and what you can learn from other people’s heartache,” he says. In some cases, that means embodying another person altogether: In “Billy Bird,” he recalls his younger brother’s first encounter with death; “W.W.J.B.D.” is about Mees suffering a near breakdown while on the road, told from the perspective of his wife, who was fielding his distressed phone calls back home. But on the last song, “Shake,” Mees is undoubtedly speaking in his own voice when he sings the album’s title and declares over trumpets and galloping drums, “I am trying to love what I’ll have to leave/ And I’m trying not to grieve prematurely.” It’s a great final purge, casting off old worries and investing in the idea that enough positive energy can keep life in balance. “It’s upbeat songs about difficult things,” Mees says of the album. “It makes them somehow easier to handle, and I think that’s all anybody really wants: stuff to just be easier to handle. Half of your life you spend trying to just have life not be so difficult for you.” MATTHEW SINGER. If life imitates art, Jared Mees’ life must be pretty hectic about now.
SEE IT: Jared Mees & the Grown Children play two album-release shows on Saturday, May 14. The first is at Backspace with Wild Ones and Your Rival. 6 pm. $7. All ages. The second is at Someday Lounge with Dirty Mittens and And And And. 9 pm. $8. 21+. 32
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
THURSDAY - FRIDAY new album’s title. JAY HORTON. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $15. 21+.
Of Montreal
[OMNI-POP CONFLAGRATION] If anyone ever films an Of Montreal documentary, it should be titled Fear of a Wack Id. In the decadeplus since Renaissance maniac Kevin Barnes inaugurated this indifferently named project, he’s turned college rock, crushing Afrobeat, ’60s pop, ’80s funk, and everything else taking up space in his vinyl crates into alive-and-wildin’-out dispatches from his E.T. consciousness. If you don’t know quite how to describe what Barnes does— and on recent album False Priest he does it so well that it’s almost criminal—quit sweating it: You’re supposed to be Dance Dance Revolution-ing merrily along to the beat(s), thrashing away your neuroses. RAY CUMMINGS. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 219-9929 (Grill), 224-2038 (Theater). 8 pm. $20 advance, $22 day of show. 21+.
Ezra Weiss
[JAZZ TRIBUTE] Over the course of four CDs and a decade on the Portland and New York jazz scenes, still-youthful pianist Ezra Weiss has proved to be a reliably elegant and increasingly economical straight-ahead player and composer. On his lustrous new album, The Shirley Horn Suite, Weiss (who teaches at Portland State) honors the legendary jazz pianist-singer who also had the confidence and taste to leave plenty of space for feeling to emerge—characteristics that earned famed singer Shirley Horn the admiration of Miles Davis. The limpid instrumental trio pieces here frequently achieve a reflective beauty that will enchant any fan of mainstream piano jazz, while the lovely original songs featuring veteran Northwest chanteuse Shirley Nanette (who’ll perform at this release concert, along with veteran drummer Alan Jones and bassist Tom Wakeling) don’t clone Horn’s sound, but share her measured, relaxed swing and emotional depth. BRETT CAMPBELL. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 2222031. 8 pm.
The Raveonettes, Tamaryn
MUSIC
critics give Black Rebel Motorcycle Club for blatantly ripping off the Jesus and Mary Chain, no one really calls out the Raveonettes for being a flat-out clone of the Glaswegian noise-pop legends. There’s a reason for that: The Raveonettes are actually a great J & MC ripoff. Since the early 2000s, the Danish duo has essentially put out the same album five times in a row, and that album is Psychocandy. On its latest record, however, singer-guitarists Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo try something a bit different. Dialing back the guitar fuzz and ’50s girl-group melodies, Raven in the Grave is—as you might guess by the title—the band’s gloomiest record yet, trading noirish cool for even darker gothic moodiness. Even then, it just sounds like the Reid Brothers off their antidepressants. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. MATTHEW SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 9 pm. $16 advance, $18 day of show. 21+.
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FRIDAY, MAY 13 A-Trak, Gaslamp Killer, Rude Dudes, Kid Sister
[THROWBACK RAP] In a hyperaccelerated media age, timing means everything. Just ask Kid Sister. On second thought, don’t ask her. It’ll just bum her out. In 2007, the Chicago party rapper born Melissa Young dropped “Pro Nails,” an infectious little novelty jam about—what else?—getting a dope-ass manicure. It had enough attitude to catch the ear of Kanye West, who remixed the track and got Young signed to Fool’s Gold, the label owned by his DJ A-Trak (the stone-cold killer who headlines tonight’s show). Then, nothing happened for almost three years. By the time she finally released her retro-’80s pop-rap debut, Ultraviolet, the underwhelming quality couldn’t justify the wait. Tastemakers moved on to hyping Nicki Minaj (who jacked Young’s Technicolor fashion sense), leaving Kid Sister in the odd position of being in a sophomore slump with only one album to her name. Of course, with expectations now lowered, she’ll probably meet them
PRIMER
RAILROAD
EARTH TRAVELIN’ McCOURYS
CONT. on page 34
[DARK DANES] For all the shit
BY
N ATH AN C ARSON
LOST LOCKETS Formed: In Portland in the deep winter of 2006. Sounds like: It sounds a lot like what David Lynch directing O Brother, Where Art Thou? would look like. For fans of: Gospel, Twin Peaks, Kate Bush, 4AD Records, Gogol Bordello, Rasputina, the Shangri-Las and banned Disney cartoons. Why you care: Kookier than astrologers and hotter than the sun, the duo of Kaetlin Kennedy and Fiona Petra plays outsider gospel that would make David Lynch’s heart go wild. Together, they are a minimalist girl group without peer. On banjo, organ, violin and a single drum, the pair—successor to both Petra’s Viola Viedma and Kennedy’s former troupe House of Cunt—weaves glittering nightmare music with angelic vocal harmonies. Lost Lockets’ stage show features a menagerie of spooky animal statues and plastic flowers and, oh yes, there are the outfits—usually a combination of frilly and sheer, and sometimes wrapped in Christmas lights. The three tracks on the 7-inch single out at tonight’s show are country in instrumentation, gospel in vocalization and sweetly bizarre in execution. If your sensibilities include Jandek, the Sun City Girls and Rollerball, then you need a little Lost Lockets in your life. Lost Lockets plays Rotture, with $kull$, PeoplePerson and DJ Ox, on Tuesday, May 17. 9 pm. $5 . 21+
SEE IT:
DATES HERE
KELLER
EMMITT NERSHI
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS CORNMEAL ELEPHANT REVIVAL CASCADIA PROJECT
TODD SNIDER &
& THE KEELS
DAROL ANGER, SCOTT LAW, SHARON GILCHRIST, AND SAMSON GRISMAN
JACKSTRAW
BAND
GREAT AMERICAN TAXI FEATURING VINCE HERMAN
DANNY BARNES with DREW EMMITT and LARRY KEEL
PETE KARTSOUNES & BENNY “BURLE” GALLOWAY
PERT NEAR SANDSTONE
Buy Now Before Price Increases May 13th And Upgrade for Early Entry and “Three Band Thursday”!
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSIC
FRIDAY - SATURDAY
this time around—whenever her second record happens to come out. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $15. All ages.
The Low Anthem, Daniel Lefkowitz
[EPIC INDIE BALLADS] When you have the word “anthem” built right into your band name, you better be prepared to deliver the goods. Luckily, Ben Knox Miller and Jeffrey Prystowsky are up to the challenge. Delivering songs so thickly veiled in overdubs that you can practically swim through them, the Low Anthem has secured itself a wellearned berth in Nonesuch Records’ stable of immaculate melodramaticists. On February’s Smart Flesh, you can still hear the country twang subsisting beneath the group’s increasingly spacious arrangements, though at this point it has crossbred that tendency with an equally vehement strain of folk music to produce the group’s unique, Americana-cized balladry. SHANE DANAHER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 2319663. 9 pm. $14 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
Witch Mountain, Wolvserpent, Story of Rats
[DOOM-METAL OPERETTAS] The admission that one has had an intense physical reaction to music (“It melted my face off”; “it rocked my ass so hard”) is often the highest compliment that can be paid to a rock band. But Wolvserpent’s music—while certainly capable of its share of face-melting—is more about rearranging the listener’s circuitry. Sure, the Idaho duo of Blake Green and Brittany McConnell (known as Pussygut until, presumably, they realized that moniker was a bit of a turn-off to most ladies) plays with the chugalug immediacy that endears them to Northwest metalheads, but their long-form songs, composed more like classical pieces than thrash jams, are pretty psychedelic, as well. New LP Blood Seed is made up of just two (extremely long) songs, each of which is a separate and equally dark sonic journey of its own. If you’re looking for music to lose your mind to, Wolvserpent is a good place to start. CASEY JARMAN. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. 9 pm. 21+.
Pigeon John, Chicharones, Rafael Vigilantics, Sexbots
[HIP-HOP] Since the closure of Berbati’s Pan last New Year’s Eve, hip-hop has looked high and low for a new Portland home. While the Ash Street Saloon, Someday Lounge and Slabtown have all filled that void from time to time—a smaller, newly reopened Berbati’s music venue remains to be seen—the Mount Tabor Theater has proven itself worthy of legacy acts like Kurtis Blow and the Digable Planets while also helping to install a cultlike following around regular Taborians Hives Inquiry Squad. But tonight’s show, featuring so-smooth SoCal MC Pigeon John—making another Portland stop in support of his late-2010 boom-bap pop effort, Dragon Slayer—and the hardestworking hip-hop outfit in Portland, the Chicharones, should get to the bottom of whether or not the eastside club can pack Portland heads like sardines. Portland hip-hop needs a spiritual home base. CASEY JARMAN. Mount Tabor Theater, 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Blue Cranes, Gutbucket
[ART JAZZ] As its name might suggest, Gutbucket has a pretty keen sense of humor for a jazz quartet. Not that the band’s music is of a cornball type that would work best soundtracking a Benny Hill chase scene. Rather, it injects a fair amount of playfulness into what is otherwise rumbling, muscular jazz of a stripe that hasn’t been on the scene since the demise of the Lounge Lizards. And as heard on the group’s fifth album, Flock, Gutbucket’s sound welcomes hard shifts, discordance and punky puckishness. It is joined on this bill by
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equally adventurous Portland jazz quartet Blue Cranes, which recently returned from an Amtrak tour of America that the group detailed in tour diary form on wweek.com. ROBERT HAM. Secret Society Lounge, 116 NE Russell St., 4933600. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
SATURDAY, MAY 14 The Death Set, Win Win, Breakfast Mountain, Serious Business
[ELECTRONIC RAGER] It takes a unique surfeit of enthusiasm to go from kicking around an Australian backwater to sitting atop Brooklyn’s indie-rock scene within the space of five years. If the Death Set weren’t capable of regularly producing enough hyperactive energy to kickstart the sun, it might be hard to believe the group had executed such a speedy rise. The Death Set consists of Johnny Siera, Jahplet Landis and Daniel Walker, who produce a careening amalgam of electronica and punk rock, something that blends the knob-twiddling ADD of Dan Deacon and the sneering vivacity of Blink 182. Listening to the group’s recently released Michel Poiccard is nothing short of exhausting, and I’m pretty sure that means it’s a success. SHANE DANAHER. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 8 pm. $10. All ages.
Marti Brom, Quarter Mile Combo
[NORTHWESTERN SWING] More Grand Ole Opry than rockabilly in the strictest sense—her song “Blue Tattoo” is reminiscent of the finest melancholic ditty Patsy Cline never sang—Marti Brom still roams the R & B pastures often enough to take best advantage of a honky-tonk vixen allure. This evening, apart from marking the West Coast celebration of new album Not for Nothin’ (themed to capture Washington, D.C.’s, contribution to country idioms), also serves as a local debut for the recent émigré from Austin. The Bay Area’s Quarter Mile Combo will open and play backing band to Brom, but she’ll assemble her own Stumptown group soon enough. JAY HORTON. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, DJ Santo
[AFROBEAT] If Fela Kuti was the godfather of the explosive Afrobeat genre (a melding of traditional African music with James Brown-style soul), then eldest son Femi is his Michael Corleone, taking the reins of his controversial father and cleaning things up
CONT. on page 37
ALBUM REVIEW
NEW CENTURY SCHOOLBOOK DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH (SELF-RELEASED) [SHOW-TUNE TWEE] New Century Schoolbook is an orchestral pop quintet composed of what I suspect are ex-drama students. They are literary and enamored of the twee-er edges of pop, and they express talents for orchestral instrumentation and coy charm. That they embody those adjectives without becoming a carbon copy of the Decemberists is an impressive feat. Whereas Mr. Meloy and company borrow from Dickens and Jethro Tull, New Century Schoolbook is more apt to name-drop Anne of Green Gables and politely ape the works of Alan Menken. Small distinctions, but important when writ large. On this self-titled album (the group’s first full-length release, after last year’s The Happy Detective EP), New Century Schoolbook shows itself to be more in line with the jaunty ethos of American show tunes than with any other strain of modern pop. There is a hint of the Unicorns’ manic chirping on “The Cognitive Revolution” and an occasional diversion into a John Darnielle-ish talksing, but New Century Schoolbook’s foundational supports are, persistently, a nervous piano, a squeaky-clean guitar and frequent embellishment via flute. Placed on top of these instruments are lyrics that favor the rhyming couplet and the outlandish narrative. It’s in its more jokey moments that New Century Schoolbook falters. When frontman Johnny Askew tries to hang lines like “Laughing as I turn my back/ You’re acting like I sold you crack” on the band’s spare instrumentation, the whole structure totters. But there is a true and still-developing aesthetic at the heart of New Century Schoolbook’s music, and it shines through in moments when the group uses its minimal instruments to maximum effect. “Anne of Green Gables” (told you!) features the couplet, “This livery is full of stables/ Cry when you read Anne of Green Gables/ Well don’t get cute with me.” It’s a charming, somewhat nonsensical line that starts with a joke and skitters sideways to reach an actual sentiment. Cloaked in some chirpy, Wurlitzer-based hooks, we arrive at precisely what New Century Schoolbook does best. SHANE DANAHER. SEE IT: New Century Schoolbook plays the Ella Street Lounge on Sunday, May 15. 9 pm. $6. 21+.
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SATURDAY - TUESDAY
MUSIC
MAKE IT A NIGHT Present that night’s show ticket and get $3 off any menu item Sun - Thur in the dining room
a bit—but still staying gangster as fuck when it comes to the family business of getting down. With his latest album, Africa for Africa, Femi and his Positive Force stand tall as the world’s greatest living Afrobeat orchestra, with the Nigerian prince blowing sax and taking vocal duty over blaring horns, thumping bass and polyrhythmic explosions that are impossible to resist on the dance floor. AP KRYZA. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 219-9929 (Grill), 2242038 (Theater). 9 pm. $25 advance, $28 day of show. 21+.
Members of Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, Animal Farm, Manimalhouse
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SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, LATE-NIGHT. FOOD SPECIALS 3-6 PM EVERYDAY COVERED SMOKING PATIO, FIREPLACE ROOM, LOTS OF LOG. LIVE SHOWS IN THE LOUNGE...
[HIP-HOP INSTITUTIONS] Any time you see the words “members of” on a hip-hop flier, you’re right to be a little bit skeptical. Especially with a group so multi-tentacled as the storied Bay Area Hieroglyphics crew. That said, that three-eyed Hieroglyphics smiley face logo—like the Criterion Collection emblem or that little hologram on your baseball cap—pretty much ensures quality. The actual Hieroglyphics discography is composed of just two fulllength records—the most recent of which, the breathless and thoroughly fun Full Circle, came out eight years ago—but in this case the parts are greater than the sum, especially when the parts include the Souls of Mischief crew, whose ‘93 ’Til Infinity is a top-tier classic of West Coast hip-hop. Should the Hiero crew fail to fire on all cylinders (or, more likely, if it should fire up too much Oregon doobie and take the stage well past midnight), rest assured that openers Animal Farm, readying an explosive new record, will take the opportunity to steal the show. CASEY JARMAN. The Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 503-222-6655. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
ied folk is plucked from a small town in the South and beefed up with a sturdy string section. In the vein of the Decemberists, Flynn and company incorporate rich tales and thespian melodies, quite natural given his years spent acting before he ever picked up a guitar. Flynn’s second full-length, Been Listening, spotlights his poetic lyricism and old-shoe-comfort sound. Be sure to arrive early for Caitlin Rose, Nashville’s answer to Neko Case. MARK STOCK. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
YACHT, Light Asylum, Bobby Birdman
Kara Grainger
[PARANORMAL POP] Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans don’t like to repeat themselves. The duo, a selfdescribed “band and belief system” known as YACHT, is on just as much a quest as a world tour, capturing followers with its fuzzed-out, semitrace dance rock. Growing increasingly Talking Heads-ier in sound and character, the band is still steaming from a rousing Coachella performance in which a few tracks from upcoming utopian-themed release Shangri-La were tried out on thirsty fans. Opener Bobby Birdman and Dear Nora members Katy Davidson and Jeffrey Jerusalem currently anchor the YACHT live band in its ever-provocative, ever-changing live bill. MARK STOCK. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 2848686. 8 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. All ages.
SUNDAY, MAY 15 Yelle, French Horn Rebellion
[LONG & LEAN DISCO POP] Yelle is the musical namesake of a coltish young female from France named Julie Budet, who has, since 2005, committed her fluid vocals to a bubbly, pastel-colored style of electro-pop that feels divested of location tags despite the fact that she sings in her native tongue. It’s a club-ready sound that would feel as welcome throbbing out of massive speakers in a neon-lit bar as it would pouring out of a car window in some far-flung corner of the world. Budet comes to Portland after causing a commotion at Coachella and spending some time opening for Katy Perry’s current tour. ROBERT HAM. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 284-8686. 8 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. All ages.
MONDAY, MAY 16 Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit, Caitlin Rose
[A FOLK PAINTING] Johnny Flynn calls England home and Kentucky his muse. His cabin-bred, full-bod-
BACARDI PRESENTS
WEDNESDAY!
The
THE RETURN OF PERFECT POP TRIO FROM SWEDEN
PETER BJORN & JOHN
THURSDAY!
SLANTS +BACHELORETTE PHANTOMS
WEDNESDAY MAY 11 CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION: Of Montreal plays Roseland on Thursday.
[LIGHT BLUES] Aussie songbird Kara Grainger has that rare kind of crossover voice, an angelic yet Bonnie Raitt-ish siren song that blends well with slide guitar-heavy 12-bar blues and rootsier country tracks alike. Now stateside and shopping around her soulful debut album, Grand and Green River, Grainger sounds right at home among the purveyors of smooth Americana. And while her sexy, sultry voice is paired with a mellower, sometimes more adult-contemporary musical backdrop than we’re used to on the gruff Portland scene, the singer-songwriter’s sound and presence are undeniably hypnotic. AP KRYZA. Duff’s Garage, 1635 SE 7th Ave., 234-2337. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
TUESDAY, MAY 17 Aan, Witch Gardens
[SOULFUL EXPERIMENTAL POP] Having watched Bud Wilson develop his band Aan from its humble but compelling roots as a bluesy solo project to its impressive current fullband incarnation, what impresses me most about new 7-inch Somewhere’s Sunshine is just how big it sounds. Reverb-drenched A-side “Haunted, Million Ways” is a jumpy summer jam that disintegrates into near-ambient dirge without losing the listener. The title track is a funky, commanding joint with Radiohead-esque guitar lines that showcases Wilson’s soulful vocal warble—one that bridges the considerable distance between Jason Molina and Curtis Mayfield. Both tunes pack an awful lot of sonic action into the vinyl’s grooves. Wilson, with bandmates Reese Lawhon and Jon Lewis (and sometimes Mica Rapstine), has built Aan into something of a local institution with enough stylistic depth to be paired with just about any touring act coming through town. Let’s hope that magic stuck with the band for its national tour, which officially wraps up tonight in Portland. CASEY JARMAN. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Emily Wells, Timmy Straw
[VOX AND VIVALDI] New York singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells lists among her chief influences two seemingly strange bedfellows: Vivaldi and Nina Simone. Disparate though they may be, the self-comparisons prove apt. Like Simone, Wells possesses a powerful voice—although unlike the jazz legend’s, hers hovers mostly at a high, childlike register. Wells’ music, like Vivaldi’s, centers on the violin; she dexterously plays and loops the instrument to build her classical-, folk- and even hip-hop-inflected sound. Similarly string-centric Oregon-based folk act Timmy Straw opens. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Parenthetical Girls, Hausu
[CHAMBER FUZZ] This May marks the completion of Parenthetical Girls’ ambitious five-disc project, Privilege, in which a new EP was dropped every three months. Such efficiency is usually reserved for bigbudget, homogenous machines like Kanye or Gaga, not the plugged-in, ballistic Baroque of Parenthetical Girls. Classical in Zac Pennington’s fluttering vocal arrangements and punk in the group’s love affair with buzzing, gasping electronics, Parenthetical Girls is the Dirty Projectors’ weird uncle—one equally adept at traditional songwriting and avant-garde exploration. MARK STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
•
•
$5 ADVANCE
ENCHANTING FOLK-ROCK FROM PROVIDENCE, RI
THE LOW ANTHEM FRIDAY!
A CO-HEADLINE AFFAIR OF SCORCHING LYRICISM WITH GIFTED SONGWRITERS
SATURDAY!
JOE PUG
CELILO +STRAND OF OAKS
SATURDAY MAY 14
•
$10 ADVANCE
THE HERALDED RETURN OF ‘90S ROCK STALWARTS
BUFFALO
+DANIEL LEFKOWITZ
FRIDAY MAY 13
•
TOM
$14 ADVANCE
NU-FOLK FROM ENGLISH ACTOR, POET & SONGWRITER
+THE HEAVENLY STATES
JOHNNY
FLYNN
& THE SUSSEX WIT
THURSDAY MAY 19 +CAITLIN ROSE
MONDAY MAY 16
•
$12 ADVANCE
AN EXPLOSIVE EVENING WITH COMPLEX SCOTTISH ROCKERS
BIFFY
CLYRO
•
SALLIE FORD & THE SOUND OUTSIDE
$11 ADVANCE
$11 ADVANCE
+WATER & BODIES
MONDAY MAY 30
•
$12 ADVANCE
$17 ADVANCE
A TWO-NIGHT ALBUM RELEASE CELEBRATION WITH PDX OLD-TIMEY REVIVALISTS
QUIET LIFE +WHAT HEARTS
FRIDAY JUNE 3
PANCAKE BREAKFAST +BASEMINT
SATURDAY JUNE 4
THE RETURN OF NOVA SCOTIA’S LOVABLE INDIE ROCK HEROES
AMERICANA-ROOTED ROMPS WITH PDXS FAVORED SONS OF THE APOCALYPSE
BUILDERS AND BUTCHERS THE
THE
Wet Hair, Golden Retriever, The Woolen Men
[SKIN-CRAWLING POP ROCK] Wet Hair writes experimental songs like Quentin Tarantino makes trashculture movies: Conflicting vibes are conjured up, layered one atop another and sent out into the world to fend for themselves. So in the course of a single track, a mannered garage-rock grind might rub up against a Krautrock groove that’s busily feeling up a humdinger of a coked-up ’60s organ line; the parts don’t quiet cohere, but they don’t feel entirely alien as relations, either. Whether you feel these X-questers depends a lot on one thing: How comfortable do you need to feel within your own skin? The choice is yours. MARK STOCK. Valentine’s, 232 SW Ankeny St., 248-1600. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
ADVANCE TIX SOLD OUT TIX AVAIL AT DOOR
THURSDAY MAY 12
+VEIO
SLOAN
+DEARLY BELOVED
SUNDAY JUNE 5
•
$13 ADVANCE
A CO-HEADLINE AFFAIR WITH FOUNDING MEMBERS OF DEAD CAN DANCE & COCTEAU TWINS
BRENDAN
+KELLI SCHAEFER
WEDNESDAY JUNE 8 THURSDAY JUNE 9 •
$12 ADVANCE
PERRY
+ROBIN GUTHRIE
FRIDAY JUNE 10
•
$25 ADVANCE
AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH HYPNOTIC & RASPY ROCK BARITONE
MARK
THE APPLESEED CAST 6/25 HUNX & HIS PUNX 6/28
LANEGAN
THE DITTY BOPS 7/11
THE BEAUTFIUL GIRLS’ MAT MCHUGH
+SEAN WHEELER & ZANDER SCHLOSS
THURSDAY JUNE 16
•
$20 ADVANCE
(solo acoustic) 7/12 YUCK 7/24 All of these shows on sale at Ticketfly.com
EZRA FURMAN & THE HARPOONS 5/15 • EMILY WELLS 5/17 • HAYES CARLL 5/18 • JAMES BLAKE 5/20 LEWI LONGMIRE BAND 5/21 • SYSTEM & STATION 5/22 • THE LOW BONES 5/24 THE UPSIDEDOWN 5/25 • S. CAREY 5/26 • COTTON JONES 5/27 • GAYNGS 5/28 •NOAH & THE WHALE 5/29 ADVANCE TICKETS AT TICKETSWEST 503-224-TIXX - www.ticketswest.com, MUSIC MILLENNIUM, JACKPOT RECORDS • SUBJECT TO SERVICE CHARGE &/OR USER FEE ALL SHOWS: 8PM DOORS / 9PM SHOW • 21+ UNLESS NOTED • BOX OFFICE OPENS 1/2 HOUR BEFORE DOORS • ROOM PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT www.jupiterhotel.com
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSIC CALENDAR = WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: Jonathan Frochtzwajg. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/submitevents or (if you book a specific venue) enter your events at dbmonkey.com/wweek. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. lease include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: music@wweek.com. Find more music: reviews 31 For more listings, check out wweek.com/music_calendar
WED. MAY. 11 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Nate Lacy
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Taina Asili y La Banda Rebelde, Pachi Pamwe
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Suck My Open Mic
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Toshi Onizuka
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. The Rodeo Clowns, Olivia’s Pool, JAMF
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Shug Mauldin and Riders in the Round
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Little Sue
Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Arabesque Bellydance
Branx
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Buffalo Bandstand
Dante’s
112 SW 2nd Ave. Tom May
LaurelThirst
350 W Burnside St. Adler’s Appetite, Willie Basse, Ed to Shred
2958 NE Glisan St. Piano Throwers (9 pm); Michael Hurley (6 pm)
Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen
Doug Fir Lounge
Mount Tabor Theater
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Sewblue, Pheasant, De La Warr
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Fall From Zero, Kingdom Under Fire, Nasasartu
Mudai
801 NE Broadway Vox Populi Karaoke
Good Neighbor Pizzeria
Muddy Rudder Public House
800 NE Dekum St. Open Mic
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. The Memories, Pleasure, Youth Bitch
Jade Lounge
8105 SE 7th Ave. Stumbleweed
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. The Ventures
O’Connor’s Vault
2346 SE Ankeny St. Steven and Jane Fish 221 NW 10th Ave. Benny Golson with The Mel Brown Quartet
Portland Police Athletic Association
Press Club
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Empty Space Orchestra, Brouhaha, Yeah Great Fine
1635 SE 7th Ave. Suburban Slim’s Blues Jam (9:30 pm); High Flyer Trio (6 pm)
1305 SE 8th Ave. Heshbeard, Axxicorn, Witchasaurus Hex
Mississippi Pizza
Mississippi Studios
Duff’s Garage
Plan B
Matador
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Jackbone Dixie
830 E Burnside St. The Slants, Phantoms, Veio
Billy Kennedy
618 SE Alder St. Geno Delafose and French Rockin’ Boogie
1967 W Burnside St DJ Whisker Friction
4605 NE Fremont St. Karen Maria Capo
Jimmy Mak’s
Kells
7850 SW Capitol Highway Kit Garoutte
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St.
2621 SE Clinton St. Swing Papillon
Pub at the End of the Universe
4107 SE 28th Ave. Music on Mars Showcase: My Robot Lung, Jack Cassidy
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Open Mic with Mr. Plow
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Jordan Harris
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Autopilot is for Lovers, Mike Coykendall, Alameda
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Spoke, Imaginary Airship, Strangeletter
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Fenix Project
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Tree Top Tribe
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Bre Gregg
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Harlowe and The Great North Woods, Kelly Blair Bauman, Pat Hull
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Cowboy & Indian, Norman, My Jerusalem
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Shivering Denizens
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Mia Nicholson
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Sup, Dude - DJ Freaky Outy
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Hikaru Okada
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. 6bq9
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Left Coast Country
Wilf’s Restaurant
800 NW 6th Ave. Dick Berk Trio, Nancy Curtin, Joe Millward
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. The Black Angels, Sleepy Sun
THURS. MAY 12 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Nate Lacy
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave.
ADAM KRUEGER
320 SE 2nd Ave. A Faylene Sky, Rosaline, When The Lights Go Out, Ethics, Promise Stars
Buffalo Gap Saloon
[MAY 11 - 17] Jesse Cook
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Wammo vs. Forsyth
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Edie Carey
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Greg Wolfe Trio
Andrea’s Cha Cha Club 832 SE Grand Ave. Dina & Bamba Y Su Pilon D’Azucar with La Descarga Cubana
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Hairspray Blues, Thundering Asteroids, Mega Dynasty 5, Pitchfork Motorway
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Andre St. James
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. The Old Yellers
Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Curtis Salgado, Alan Hagar Duo
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. James Coates, Parfait Bassale
Chapel Pub
430 N Killingsworth St. Steve Kerin
Corkscrew Wine Bar 1669 SE Bybee Blvd Krezetu
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. The Ventures
Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen
4605 NE Fremont St. Ron Steen’s Jazz Jam
2958 NE Glisan St. Will Stenberg and the New Fathers, Death Songs, Meridian (9:30 pm); Lewi Longmire Band (6 pm)
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Negara with Belinda Underwood (9 pm); Mo Phillips with Johnny & Jason (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
625 NW 21st Ave. Karaoke Kings (10 pm); Radical Revolution (7 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1503 SE 39th Ave. Savoir Faire Burlesque
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Sepultura, Vader, Abigail Williams
Hollywood Theatre 4122 NE Sandy Blvd. Goodnight Billygoat
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Fin de Cinema--”BlowUp”: Monarques, The Reservations, Rocky & The Proms
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Krista Herring
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Joe Louis Walker
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Cabaret Chanteuse
Vie de Boheme
18 NW 3rd Ave. Doc Adams 1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Mercury Tree, Sweet Rock City, The Automatics
8105 SE 7th Ave. Thad Beckman
1530 SE 7th Ave. Dig Infinity Trio
Music Millennium
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
3158 E Burnside St. Plug In Stereo
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Andrew Orr, Jen Howard
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Ealdath, Shadow of the Torturer, Anhedonist, Ritual Necromancy
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Sindicate, Stepper, Torture Me Elmo
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Tony Smiley Loop Ninja
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Of Montreal
Secret Society Lounge
Silver Dollar Pizza II
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Graves, Sarx, Nathan Wolfe, Elevated, Half Man Half
Muddy Rudder Public House
Ella Street Social Club
2845 SE Stark St. Kory Quinn and the Comrades, Mike Midlo
Tonic Lounge
Twilight Café and Bar
3435 N Lombard St. Claes of the Blueprints and Friends
Sellwood Public House
Goodfoot Lounge
71 SW 2nd Ave. Evan Churchill
Mock Crest Tavern
Duff’s Garage
714 SW 20th Place The Hugs, The Shivas, The Verner Pantons, DJ Meow
Thirsty Lion
Tube
830 E Burnside St. Peter Bjorn and John, Bachelorette
Doug Fir Lounge
Nick Peets, Don of Division Street
3939 N Mississippi Ave. William Fitzsimmons, Slow Runner
116 NE Russell St. Greg Gerding, Lesser Saints featuring Viva Las Vegas, Dee Madden, Eirean Bradley, Splinter Choir
1635 SE 7th Ave. Portland Playboys
8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic with Two Rivers 225 SW Broadway Open Mic
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
8635 N Lombard St. Wendy and the Lost Boys
TeaZone and Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. James Coates and Parfait Bassale
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Karen Maria Capo
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Tasha Flynn, Demon Squirrel
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Johnny Martin
The Hobnob Grille
3350 SE Morrison St. Music/Comedy Open Mic
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Eggplant, On the Stairs
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Company, All Eyes West
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave. Ezra Weiss
The Whiskey Bar
2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Father, Weird-Life
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Quintillion (8:30 pm); Will West and the Friendly Cover Up (5:30 pm)
Wilf’s Restaurant
800 NW 6th Ave. Sean Holmes and Fred Stickley
Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St. The Raveonettes, Tamaryn
FRI. MAY 13 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Nate Lacy
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Kina Grannis
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Mumbo Gumbo, Brothers of the Baladi
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Professor Gall (9:30 pm); Mikey’s Irish Jam (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Dan Diresta Quartet
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Mercy Graves, Just Lions, Visions
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Houses, The One AM Radio, Themes, Radiation City
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. D.C. Malone and the Jones
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. The Texecutioners (9:30 pm); Billy Kennedy and Jimmy Boyer (6 pm)
Bipartisan Cafe 7901 SE Stark St. Kate Reid
Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. AC/DDC, The Bugs, Bombs Away, Hosmanek
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. A-Trak, Gaslamp Killer, Rude Dudes, Kid Sister
Buffalo Gap Saloon
Kells
31 NW 1st Ave. Japan Benefit: Rex and the Rockits, Tank Mango
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Matthew Lindley
Kennedy School
The World Famous Kenton Club
510 NW 11th Ave.
112 SW 2nd Ave. Tom May
SURF’S UP: The Ventures play the Crystal Ballroom on Thursday, May 12.
LaurelThirst
5736 NE 33rd Ave. Cornmeal
2025 N Kilpatrick St.
Camellia Lounge
CONT. on page 40
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
39
MUSIC
CALENDAR SAT. MAY 14 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Nate Lacy
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Live Wire Radio: Klezmocracy, Delorean
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Trashcan Joe, Trolley Jane (9:30 pm); Car (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Toshi Onizuka Trio
Ash Street Saloon
ALL SMILES: YACHT plays the Wonder Ballroom on Saturday, May 14. Tom Wakeling, Steve Christofferson Quartet
Canvas Art Bar & Bistro
1800 NW Upshur St. Open Mic
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. ON-Q Band
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. Ghostland Observatory
Dante’s
Mock Crest Tavern
3435 N Lombard St. Hudson Rocket Band
Mount Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Pigeon John, Chicharones, Rafael Vigilantics, Sexbots
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Reverb Brothers
Music Millennium
350 W Burnside St. Smoochknob, The Smoochgirls
3158 E Burnside St. Level Flow
Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen
4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
4605 NE Fremont St. Frank Tribble (7:30 pm); Laura Cunard Trio (5 pm)
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. The Low Anthem, Daniel Lefkowitz
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Greg Georgeson, Snapperheads
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Witch Mountain, Wolvserpent, Story of Rats
Ford Food and Drink 2505 SE 11th Eugene Lee and Jon Shaw
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge
625 NW 21st Ave. Karaoke (9 pm); Karyn Partridge (7 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1503 SE 39th Ave. Rockstar Karaoke (9:30 pm); Ghost Town Waltz (7 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Set In Stone, Afflictions End, City of God, The Oblivion
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Delaney and Paris (8 pm); The Oh My Mys (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Michael Allen Harrison
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. St. James’ Gate
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Squirrel Butter, Water Tower Bucket Boys (9:30 pm); Woodbrain (6 pm)
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. ‘80s Video Dance Attack
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Sneakin’ Out, Cyndi Harvell Band (9 pm); Weekend Assembly (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Stephen Kellogg, Tift Merritt (8:30 pm); Eye Candy VJs (5 pm)
40
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe
Original Halibut’s
2525 NE Alberta St. Lloyd Allen
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Lynn Conover
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Old Kingdom, Gay Marriage, Ports Will Call
Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. Luminous Things, Whistlepunk, Buzzyshyface
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Wayne Gacy Trio, Bloody Fucking Mess, Dragstrip Riot, Hollowbodiess
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Alli Battaglia
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. War Pigs, Ace of Spades, Thunderstruck
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Blue Cranes, Gutbucket (9 pm); The Brazillionaires (6 pm)
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Charles Robertson
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. Mean Jeans, Hey Lover, El Rey
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
8635 N Lombard St. Wormburner, Bradley Wik and the Charlatans
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Solovox, DJ Manoj, Mr. Wu, AWOL Dance Collective, Kazum, The Good Time Girls
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Bob Shoemaker Trio
TeaZone and Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Tom Wakeling, Steve Christofferson Quartet
The Foggy Notion 3416 N Lombard St. Bent
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St.
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
The Fasters
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Naomi LaViolette
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Blacklights, Hidden Knives, Kyle Morris of Holy Children, Unit Delta Minor
The Know
225 SW Ash St. Virus--The Club Night: DJ Missionary, DJ Adamnation, DJ Encrypted
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Jared Mees & the Grown Children, Wild Ones, Your Rival
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights, Red Jacket Mine, Michael Sheridan
Biddy McGraw’s
2026 NE Alberta St. Welcome Home Walker, Held Up Hands, The Ex-Girlfriends Club
6000 NE Glisan St. The Redeemed, The Northstar Session (9:30 pm); Twisted Whistle (5 pm)
The Old Church
Blue Monk
1422 SW 11th Ave. Stage & Screen
The Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St Davis Hooker, DJ Rat Creeps
The Whiskey Bar
3341 SE Belmont St. Bordertown
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. The Death Set, Win Win, Breakfast Mountain, Serious Business
31 NW 1st Ave. Xylem: Mux Mool, Stephan Jacobs, Sponge Park, Brown Bear
Buffalo Gap Saloon
The Woods
510 NW 11th Ave. David Friesen, Greg Gobel, Jon Gross
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Point Juncture, WA; Pigeons; DJ Bill Portland
The World Famous Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Stag Bitten, Almost Dark, Bad Fate
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Hoegarden Brothers
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Blacksmith
Tonic Lounge
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Ken Hanson Band
Camellia Lounge
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Norman Sylvester
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Marti Brom, Quarter Mile Combo, Portland Playboys
Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen
4605 NE Fremont St. Jay Harris’ Moon by Night Soul Trio
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Bryan Minus & The Disconnect, Tiger House, Unicorn Domination
Doug Fir Lounge
Tony Starlight’s
Duff’s Garage
Tube
East Burn
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Tony’s AM Gold Show 18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Chilly Chaze
Twilight Café and Bar
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Lucky Beltrain, Junio Muere, Brudos, Blow-Me Pops
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Kode Blunz
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. Jim Wallace, Rick Welter
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. The Greater Midwest, The Glyptodons (9 pm); Reverb Brothers (5:30 pm)
Wilf’s Restaurant
800 NW 6th Ave. Jay Collins Quartet with Dick Berk
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Trampled By Turtles, Larry and His Flask
830 E Burnside St. Joe Pug, Celilo, Strand of Oaks 1635 SE 7th Ave. The Knuckleheads 1800 E Burnside St. Miracles Not Medicine
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. X-Ray Eyeballs, Grave Babies, Forbidden Friends
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Drew Grow and the Pastor’s Wives, Quasi
Good Call Sports Bar & Grill
11010 SE Division St. Bobbie Sick, Con-Crete, VD & JP Tha Hustler, Nocturnal Soldier, Tragically Homicidal Cannibals, Kriminal Mizchif, Silent
Hollywood Theatre
4122 NE Sandy Blvd. The Corin Tucker Band
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Steve Wilkinson, Naomi Hooley, Rob Stroup (8 pm); Spruce Baugher (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Soul Vaccination
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. St. James’ Gate
Andina
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Hellokopter
Biddy McGraw’s
TeaZone and Camellia Lounge
6000 NE Glisan St. The Brothers Todd
The Crown Room
3341 SE Belmont St. End of the Earth Sax Quartet
Buffalo Gap Saloon
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
205 NW 4th Ave. Members of Souls of Mischief and Hieroglyphics, Animal Farm, Manimalhouse
The Globe
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Ron Steen Jazz Jam
2958 NE Glisan St. Buxter Hoot’n, Bad Mitten Orchestre (9:30 pm); Tree Frogs (6 pm)
1332 W Burnside St. Bollywood Dance Party
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Z’Bumba (9 pm); Boa Saida, Gingko Murphy (6 pm); Lorna Miller’s Little Kids’ Jamboree (4 pm)
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. NoPo Mojo
Mount Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. PDX Prom: Just People, Barisone, Mr. Wu, Dr. J, DJ Ceez
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Alan Hagar
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Joe Pug
Original Halibut’s
2525 NE Alberta St. Rick Welter
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Fogatron
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Murderess, Violence of Humanity, Sorrower, Lago
Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. Kelly Blair Bauman, Hip Hatchet, Aerial Ruin
Proper Eats Market and Cafe
8638 N Lombard St. The Tomorrow People, Social Graces, Larry Yess and Thee Tangled Mess, Future Ghetto
2045 SE Belmont St. Dead Peasant, Steve Michael
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Barbara Lusch
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Bryan Minus and The Disconnect
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Big Black Cloud, Ghostwriter, Moira Scar, Psychic Feline
The Slate
2001 NW 19th Ave, Suite 104 Deklun and Pace
The Whiskey Bar
31 NW 1st Ave. The Polish Ambassador, Splatinum, Sporeganic, The Dream Dusters
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. A Leaf, Sarah Jackson Holman
The World Famous Kenton Club
Blue Monk
6835 SW Macadam Ave. West Coast Songwriters Competition
Clyde’s Prime Rib
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Sinferno Cabaret
Doc George’s Jazz Kitchen
4605 NE Fremont St. Ed Neumann with the Big Easy Band
Doug Fir Lounge
Good Call Sports Bar & Grill 11010 SE Division St. A Blinding Silence
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
Hawthorne Theatre
Twilight Café and Bar
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, DJ Santo
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Nazi Dust, Raw Nerves, White Wards, Basement Animal
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. Chervona, Dgiin (9 pm), The Portland Playboys (6 pm) 8132 SE 13th Ave. Oh My Mys
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. Dkota
Slim’s Cocktail Bar 8635 N Lombard St.
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Somerset Meadows, Heart of Oak, The Meredith Brothers, Dave Lindenbaum
LaurelThirst
Matador
1967 W Burnside St Next Big Thing: DJ Donny Don’t
Matador
1967 W Burnside St DJ Donny Don’t
Mississippi Pizza
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
Mississippi Studios
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Arthur “Fresh Air” Moore
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. The Young Evils, Rare Monk, Brothers Young (9:30 pm); The Student Loan (4:30 pm)
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. YACHT, Light Asylum, Bobby Birdman
SUN. MAY 15 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Brian Bonz
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St.
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Future Ghetto, DJ Courier
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Karen, Sexhair, K-Tel ‘79 (8 pm); Hangover Helper Comedy and Burlesque Showcase (2 pm) 18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Nick Dean, DJ 60/40
Tupai at Andina
Twilight Café and Bar
2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Lansings
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Open Mic / Songwriter Showcase
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Yelle, French Horn Rebellion
MON. MAY 16 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
1314 NW Glisan St. Scott Head
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Andy Harrison
The World Famous Kenton Club
Kells
2346 SE Ankeny St. Dogtooth
Ravenz Roost Cafe
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Grim Ritual, Excruciator, Truculence, Godenied, Midnite Winter, Negative Zen
2045 SE Belmont St. Sex Offender, Patrimony, The Shy Seasons
303 SW 12th Ave. Brian Bonz
2958 NE Glisan St. Jerry Joseph with Steve Drizos (9:30 pm); Freak Mountain Ramblers (6 pm)
Red Room
The Globe
Jade Lounge
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Cherie Price 18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Tigerbeat, DJ Stray
8635 N Lombard St. NoPoMoJo
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
714 SW 20th Place New Century School Book, Johnny and the Bells, The Caps
Tony Starlight’s
Tube
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
Ella Street Social Club
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
11121 SE Division St. Suzanne Tufan, Anna Spackman, Thom Lyons
8 NW 6th Ave. Curren$y with Trademark, Young Roddy, Fiend, Corner Boy P
1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Washers, Mega Dynasty 5
203 SE Grand Ave. Confessions
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Drowning Poseidon, Icon Saints, Tall As Rasputin
4107 SE 28th Ave. Papagaiyo, Joint Venture
Roseland Theater
East End
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Silverstein, Bayside, Polar Bear Club, The Swellers, Texas In July
Tonic Lounge
600 E Burnside St. Leviticus Appleton
1314 NW Glisan St. Bobby Torres Quartet
1635 SE 7th Ave. The Stolen Sweets
Thirsty Lion
317 NW Broadway The Gusto Brothers, Sex Hawk, The Brothers Todd
Rontoms
Duff’s Garage
1503 SE 39th Ave. Raq The Casbah
Tiger Bar
206 SW Morrison St. Trio Subtonic
Tube
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Fast Takers, Advisory, The Chemicals 71 SW 2nd Ave. Erotic City
5403 NE 42nd Ave. Open Mic with Fred Stephenson
830 E Burnside St. Ezra Furman and the Harpoons, Tristen, The Apache Relay
Pub at the End of the Universe
2845 SE Stark St. Jujuba
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Indelible Terror, Run Bitch Run, All I Ask, Southgate, I Reckon, Filth Machine
125 NW 5th Ave. Jared Mees & the Grown Children, Dirty Mittens, And And And
NEPO 42
LaurelThirst
Sellwood Public House
Hawthorne Theatre
Someday Lounge
Tribute to Utah Phillips: Jenn Rawling, On the Stairs, David Rovics, Fast Rattler, Jim Page
510 NW 11th Ave. David Friesen, Greg Gobel, Jon Gross
Goodfoot Lounge
1503 SE 39th Ave. Sharaya Mikael
St. Johns Parade: My Autumn’s Done Come, Rok Choy, Dye Hippie Dye, 21 Horses, Audrey McLain, Catfight, Threadbear, Right On John, Irie Idea
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Eastern Sunz (9 pm); Scott Browning (6 pm) 3939 N Mississippi Ave. Rico All The Time, Onuinu, Skip Roxy (9 pm); Ladies Rock Camp Showcase (3 pm)
Mount Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Band Aid for Japan: Appetite For Deception, Voodoo Cirkus, The Atomic Outlaws, The Punctuals, Second Hand Buzz, Another Fine Crisis
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Irish Music
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Silverstein/Bayside (4:30 pm); The Apache Relay (2 pm)
Andina
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Blackhounds, The Bumpin Nastys
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Battery Powered Music
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Nicole Campbell
Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Renato Caranto’s Funk Band
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Johnny Flynn & the Sussex Wit, Caitlin Rose
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Kara Grainger
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Heavy Metal Ladies Night: DJ Nate C
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Sonic Forum Open Mic
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Combichrist, Ivardensphere, Star Killer, Dead When I Found Her
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Dingo Dizmal
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Dan Balmer Band
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St.
CALENDAR Kung Pao Chickens (9 pm); Little Sue and Lynn Conover (6 pm)
Andina
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
Ash Street Saloon
1332 W Burnside St. Cornmeal
Mount Tabor Theater 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Keegan Smith and The Fam
Saratoga
6910 N Interstate Ave. Besties, No
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Carlton Jackson, Dave Mills Big Band
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Hank Hirsh’s Jazz Lounge and Open Jam
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
1314 NW Glisan St. Neftali Rivera 225 SW Ash St. Mixed Social: Astrovan, Welsh Bowmen
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Frederick’s Nordic Thunder
Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. Aan, Witch Gardens
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Weekly Jazz Jam
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. The Ed Forman Show, DSL Open Mic Comedy
426 SW Washington St. Crazy Mountain Billies, Darren, Betty and The Boy
Doug Fir Lounge
Valentine’s
Duff’s Garage
232 SW Ankeny St. Cole and the Rats, Fabi Music
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Buoy LaRue
TUES. MAY 17 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Brian Bonz
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. Songs of Sondheim
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Arielle Dollinger
830 E Burnside St. Emily Wells, Timmy Straw 1635 SE 7th Ave. Dover Weinberg Quartet (9:30 pm); Trio Bravo (6 pm)
Ella Street Social Club
714 SW 20th Place Verso/Recto, Midlman, SUN MAR
Good Call Sports Bar & Grill 11010 SE Division St. Reed Turner
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Scott PembertonTrio
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Sharaya Mikael
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Jackstraw
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Will Coca Trio
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Parenthetical Girls, Hausu, Support Force
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Jeff Jensen Band
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Open Mic
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Paul Brainard
Peter’s Room
8 NW 6th Ave. CunninLynguists, Homeboy Sandman, Tonedeff, Blue Sky Black Death
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Lost Lockets, $kull$, PeoplePerson, DJ Ox
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Dominic Castillo
Slim’s Cocktail Bar 8635 N Lombard St. Open Mic
Heaven Generation, Monster Sized Monsters, Alabama Black Snake
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Eye Candy VJs featuring Spanish Galleons
The World Famous Kenton Club 2025 N Kilpatrick St. Countryland
71 SW 2nd Ave. PDX Singer-Songwriter Showcase
Tonic Lounge
East End
Thirsty Lion
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Profits, The Cast Pattern, The Hedonist, The Deep
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Emily Beleele
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Nature
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Roaming
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Wet Hair, Golden Retriever, The Woolen Men
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Music Extravaganza
TeaZone and Camellia Lounge
The Crown Room
Wilf’s Restaurant
205 NW 4th Ave. Kellan, Avery
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St.
Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St. ‘80s Video Dance Attack: “The Wedding Singer” Sing-along with VJ Kittyrox
White Eagle Saloon
510 NW 11th Ave. Weekly Jazz Jam
WED. MAY. 11
836 N Russell St. Brad Creel and the Reel Deel 800 NW 6th Ave. Ron Steen Trio, Mike Winkle, Joe Millward
Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St. Soulive, Lettuce
203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Sandy
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Future Beats with Ryan Organ
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. TRONix: DJ-808
The Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St DJ Gaycondo
The Whiskey Bar 31 NW 1st Ave. Crush: Uptown, Konkrete Jungle, Elementry, Josh D & Believe
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. Gentleman Matthew Yake
Valentine’s 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Golden Wilson
THURS. MAY 12 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid
East End 203 SE Grand Ave. Captain Ahab, Swahili, Boyfriends, DJ Copy
DJ Bob Ham
2845 SE Stark St. Soul Stew with DJ Aquaman
Tiga
Ground Kontrol
Valentine’s
511 NW Couch St. Samuel DJ Jackson
Holocene
1435 SE Hawthorne Blvd. New Jack City
1001 SE Morrison St. Girl Trouble: KM Fizzy, DJ Honey O, DJ Patricia Furpurse, DJ Dreamlover, DJ Cuica, DJ Troubled Youth, DJ Tropical Depression (9 pm); Aperitivo Happy Hour: Sex Life DJs (5 pm)
Rotture
Rotture
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. DJ Noah Fence
Langano Lounge
315 SE 3rd Ave. I’ve Got A Hole In My Soul: DJ Beyondadoubt, DJ Primo
Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Ave. The Fix: Rev. Shines, KEZ, Dundiggy
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Graffiti Rock: DV8, Spekt1, Joe Nasty
The Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St DJ Vs. Nature
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Bad Wizard
Valentine’s 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Magic Beans, DJ K Fizzy, DJ Jen O
FRI. MAY 13 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Hanukah Miracle
MUSIC
Goodfoot Lounge
315 SE 3rd Ave. Live and Direct: Rev Shines, Slimkid3, DJ Nature
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Bubblin: Dre Skull, Ben Tactic, Lincolnup
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. Cowboys From Sweden
Valentine’s 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Tigerstripes
SAT. MAY 14 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Santo
Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. DJ I (heart) U
Mississippi Studios 3939 N Mississippi Ave. MRS: DJ Beyonda, DJ Ill Camino, DJ Trans Fat
The Record Room
1465 NE Prescott St. ELMX 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Copy
SUN. MAY 15 Plan B 1305 SE 8th Ave. HIVE: DJ Owen
The Whiskey Bar 31 NW 1st Ave. Deacon X’s Fetish Night
Valentine’s 232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Maxx Bass
MON. MAY 16 Ground Kontrol 511 NW Couch St. Service Industrial Night: DJ Tibin
The Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St Ladies Night with DJ Roxie Stardust
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. Alex Hall
TUES. MAY 17 East End 203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Mike V and James P
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge 1503 SE 39th Ave. Classic: DJ Be Lo
The Record Room 8 NE Killingsworth St DJ Disarm
Tiga 1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Womb Service
8 NE Killingsworth St
©2011 COORS BREWING COMPANY, GOLDEN, CO Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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MAY 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead. Editor: BEN WATERHOUSE. Stage: BEN WATERHOUSE (bwaterhouse@wweek. com). Classical: BRETT CAMPBELL (bcampbell@wweek.com). Dance: HEATHER WISNER (dance@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: bwaterhouse@wweek.com.
THEATER Bust
On any given day, the Los Angeles County jail system holds more than 18,000 men and women in custody—160,000, all told, in 2010. Lauren Weedman’s autobiographical play, drawn from her experiences volunteering there as an inmate advocate, is about more than inhumane jail conditions, weaving her visits to the jail with the humiliation and frivolity of the lives of the not-quite-famous. But it is the sense of overpopulation that lingers. BEN WATERHOUSE. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Wednesdays and Fridays, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturdays and Sundays, noon and 7:30 pm Thursdays, through June 19. $18-$40.
The Cherry Orchard
With the premiere of Richard Kramer’s commissioned adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, Artists Repertory Theatre and director Jon Kretzu have completed the project of four new Chekhov adaptations they began six years ago. NATALIE BAKER. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm WednesdaysSaturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays. Closes May 22. $20-$42.
Cymbeline
Northwest Classical Theatre Company presents Shakespeare’s odd fairy tale. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 971-244-3740. 7 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 11-15. $15-$18.
Fortinbras
Profile Theatre concludes its season of plays by Lee Blessing with his comedy about the poor sap who walks in at the end of Hamlet. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 242-0080. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes June 5. $12-$28.
Grand Guignol 3: Ménage à Trois
again) is good, and the masks worn by all the performers but Cruz are masterfully designed (by Kate Braidwood, who also performs), the show is, despite many entertaining moments, too long and too loud. The energy level remains so high throughout that sitting through it is exhausting, like watching a 24-hour Tom and Jerry marathon. Cruz obviously has a lot to contribute to contemporary physical theater, but he badly needs a director. BEN WATERHOUSE. Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 28. $14-$25.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Having enjoyed great success in 2010 with August Wilson’s final play, Radio Golf, Portland Playhouse now returns to the playwright’s work to end its season with his first. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 205-0715. 8 pm WednesdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $20-$25.
The Mystery of Irma Vep
Bag&Baggage presents a comedy by Charles Ludlam that parodies Hitchcock, Poe, Brontë and Shakespeare in the story of a murder in a haunted mansion populated by various shapes and sizes of Brits, all played by two actors. The Venetian Theatre, 253 E Main St., 345-9590. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $16-$23.
Neverwhere
Northwest Academy presents a stage adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novelization of his own script for a BBC series about magical beings living beneath the streets of London. Northwest Academy’s Blue Box Theater, 1130 SW Main St., ballard@nwacademy.org. 7:30 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 5 pm Sundays. Closes May 22. $5-$10.
Picasso at the Lapin Agile
Vignettes from Third Eye Theatre. The Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 970-8874. 8 pm ThursdaysSaturdays through June 4. $12-$15.
Readers Theatre Repertory reads Steve Martin’s debate between Einstein and Pablo Picasso. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 295-4997. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, May 13-14. $8.
How I Became a Pirate!
Reasons to Be Pretty
Oregon Children’s Theatre presents a musical about juvenile piracy. Winningstad Theatre, PCPA, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-9571, octc.org. 2 and 5 pm Saturdays and Sundays through May 22. $17.50-$33.
Janet Bradley memorial
Janet Bradley, the founder of Portland’s 40-year-old Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre, died suddenly April 26. Her friends and colleagues will remember her with eulogies and performances this Monday. Newmark Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway, 284-7540. 7 pm Monday, May 16. Flowers and donations to Tears of Joy Theatre gladly accepted.
Lazarillo
[NEW REVIEW] Last summer, CarlosAlexis Cruz staged an odd and exhausting circus-inspired performance titled A Suicide Note from a Cockroach. In that show, the writerdirector-performer stood in the middle of the stage while a succession of tragedies transpired, loudly, around him, with much tumbling and mugging, to a soundtrack by Juan Prophet Organization. This show, very loosely adapted by Cruz from the 16thcentury picaresque novella Lazarillo de Tormes, is spiritually identical to that work. Cruz plays Lázaro de Patillas, a Puerto Rican New Yorker who is sold into service to a succession of cruel masters and eventually finds rewarding work at a fast food joint. While the music (by Juan Prophet Organization,
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CoHo and Lucky Apple Productions present the best of Neil LaBute’s plays about body image. In this one, Greg (Casey McFeron) stupidly mentions his girlfriend’s (Nikki Weaver) physical imperfections, and suffers for it. Gretchen Corbett directs. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 205-0715. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes June 18. $20-$25. Thursdays are “pay what you will.”
Road House: The Play!
[NEW REVIEW] Patrick Swayze as Dalton, the “philosophical” bouncer with a penchant for one-liners and the ability to whip not just bars but whole towns into shape. Sound familiar? If you missed Road House: The Play! last year, it may seem unlikely that anyone would think to adapt the gloriously ridiculous film for the stage, but creator Shelley McLendon and co-writer Courtenay Hameister got it exactly right. The duo’s humor blends so seamlessly with the original script it can be hard to distinguish real lines from riffs—not that it matters. The fourth wall is largely nonexistent, rendered pointless by the glee of our collective inside joke. But Road House charms even outside of such exclusivity: My date had never seen the film, but was soon laughing with the rest. The cast is culled largely from the local improv world, with lead Sean McGrath proving a worthy Dalton—and yes, you do expect him to be bigger. CAITLIN MCCARTHY. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 10 pm May 12-13 and 20-21. $18 in advance, $22 at the door.
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
ScratchPDX
The monthly showcase features short performances by actors, dancers and musicians. Hipbone Studio, 1847 E Burnside St., scratchpdx.com. 9 pm Saturday, May 14. $10.
The Secret Garden
Kirk Mouser and Alan D. Lytle direct the musical adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 635-3901. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays; 2 and 7 pm Sundays, May 15 and 22; 2 pm Sundays May 29-June 12. $20-$32.
Singlehandedly!
The festival of solo performance wraps up with stories from Slash Coleman, Lawrence Howard and Lynne Duddy. Hipbone Studio, 1847 E Burnside St., 793-5484. 8 pm Friday, May 13. $15.
Snow White
Northwest Children’s Theater presents a new, “anime-inspired” take on Snow White. NW Neighborhood Cultural Center, 1819 NW Everett St., 222-4480. 7 pm Fridays, 2 and 6 pm Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $18-$22.
a great showcase for Triangle’s new venue, a very nice little theater inside the former Salvation Army building on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. BEN WATERHOUSE. Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., 239-5919. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $15-$35.
Trailing Colors
[NEW REVIEW] Weaving the tales of a struggling refugee, the shopkeeper who takes her in, two aid workers, a naive journalist and an elephant keeper, local writer and director Gretchen Icenogle’s new play tells the familiar story of lives brought together and torn apart by the Rwandan genocide, while doing justice to the complexity of a nightmare that still haunts much of the world today. The play moves with ease between its underlying call to action and the smaller but riveting plot lines among individ-
ual characters. Brutally honest in one moment, as humanitarian doctor Will (Keyton Gaskin) struggles with the reality of being African-American in Africa, and hilarious in the next instant, as his cheating journalist girlfriend, Leah (Jenny Finke), realizes that she’s been set up to cover the humanitarian work of Will’s own secret lover, Cinzia (Kate Mura), Icenogle’s piece provides an emotional balance that keeps the two-hour performance interesting and fresh. Also notable is Lauren Modica’s compelling performance as Rose, the toughened shopkeeper who takes pity on Tutsi refugee Marie-Claire (Shoshana Maxwell). NATALIE BAKER. The Headwaters, 55 NE Farragut St., No. 9, 800-838-3006. 8 pm ThursdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $10-$15. Thursdays are “pay what you will.” Proceeds from Thursday and Saturday performances benefit charities working in Rwanda.
REVIEW OWEN CAREY
PERFORMANCE
Songs of Sondheim
Most of the cast of Artists Rep’s 2006 production of Sondheim’s Assassins join Susannah Mars, Margie Boulé, Julianne R. Johnson-Weiss, Brian Bartley and Dale Johannes in music by the great composer. A benefit for Cerimon House and Stumptown Stages. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 381-8686. 7 pm TuesdayWednesday, May 17-18. $40.
’Tis Pity She’s a Whore
[NEW REVIEW] Compass Rep has chosen a ballsy work for its second production in John Ford’s controversial Jacobean tragedy ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. The tale of incest and lust was naturally quite shocking in the 17th century, but even today’s supercynical and open-minded audiences will still squirm a little in their seats at the sight of siblings shagging onstage. Young Giovanni (Noah Dunham) falls passionately in love with his sister, Annabella (Alex Leigh Ramirez), who is fending off the unwanted advances of several other suitors. After a bit of eyelid batting, the two cast aside their crushing Catholic guilt and begin screwing like horny teenagers. It all goes rapidly downhill from there, in a bloody mess of murder, eye gouging and money-grubbing cardinals. One of the reasons the play caused such a stir in its time was for making a sympathetic protagonist out of the incestuous Giovanni. This production—either by design or flaw— never quite achieves that (Giovanni spends so much time shouting at us, it’s frankly a relief when he’s inevitably knifed). That honor goes to the farcically foppish Bergetto, who is portrayed with such great physical comedy by Orion Bradshaw that his is the only truly upsetting death in the whole performance. The show is not quite as powerful as it might be in more seasoned hands, but it’s a credit to the new company for enthusiastically tacking one of the few taboos left in our society. RUTH BROWN. Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N Interstate Ave., 800-494-8497. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 3 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $20, $10 Thursdays.
[title of show]
[NEW REVIEW] There is very little meat in this 90-minute musical, written by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell about the creation and production of a 90-minute musical that happens to be this 90-minute musical. The joke starts to wear thin before the opening number, “Untitled Opening Number,” is through, but that’s sort of the point, I think. [Title of show] is a quick, funny, foul-mouthed exercise in interesting harmony, sung, in Greg Tamblyn’s production for Triangle Productions, by four of the city’s finest voices. Erin Charles, Dale Johannes, Joe Theissen and Pam Mahon are obviously having a blast with the score’s dynamic tricks and tricky chords, and watching them play is just delightful. It’s also
DAMON KUPPER
LAST OF THE BOYS (THIRD RAIL REP) The jammed-up Vietnam vet, as a character, achieved its epitome in 1998 at the hands of the Coen brothers, but writers keep going back to the Walter Sobchak well. Steven Dietz’s 2004 drama, in which the prolific playwright endeavors to explain why America is still hung up on the ’60s, draws straight from the archetype. A pair of Army buddies—Jeeter (Michael O’Connell), a groovy communitycollege professor whose taste in music and spirituality were frozen in 1975, and Ben (Damon Kupper), a reclusive carpenter who mostly just scowls—down endless bottles of Miller High Life in the littered yard outside Ben’s trailer (vividly rendered by scenic designer Demetri Pavlatos), noisily flinging the empties into a dumpster and talking about anything but their ghosts. Ben has father issues so convoluted he missed the old man’s funeral; Jeeter went, and brought back a suitcase full of souvenirs and a thirtysomething girlfriend (Laura Faye Smith) he picked up along the way. She’s got father issues, too (he was killed in ’Nam, naturally), and works them out in the beds of veterans. Dietz, seemingly aware that he’s stuck on a well-beaten path, takes a page from Shakespeare and throws in some ghosts. A young soldier repeatedly appears from the wings, prompting Ben to channel, in the New Age-y literal sense, Robert McNamara, who happens to have been a close friend of his estranged father. When he’s caught speechifying in the dark, a shouted debate over who bears the responsibility for the war, who owes whom an apology and how the dead should be remembered ensues. This is all performed fairly well, but I don’t believe a word of it. I do not buy Ben’s dismissal of his father, or Jeeter’s gooshy mysticism, or the secret under his girlfriend’s clothes. And I especially do not believe that four people broken by the war (the girlfriend’s mom, played by Valerie Stevens, also makes an appearance) would all blame McNamara alone. From where I stand, there’s no debate: The Vietnam war was an unjustifiable crime against humanity, and McNamara is no more or less reprehensible than Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and the rest of the warmongering scum responsible. Dietz lays out a lot of anger and guilt, but none of it rings so true as Walter Sobchak crushing a Corvette with a crowbar. BEN WATERHOUSE.
Well, there isn’t a literal connection, Dude.
SEE IT: World Trade Center Theater, 121 SW Salmon St., 235-1101. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes May 29. $15-$32.
PERFORMANCE APOCALYPSE NOW NOW KENNETH AARON, NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES
MAY 11-17
(AND LATER)
UNCANNY VALLEY
Uncanny Valley
Hand2Mouth premieres its yearin-the-making new show about memory, which promises all the company’s usual messy exuberance. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 235-5284. 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays, May 12-22. $12-$18 at boxofficetickets.com.
A Wrinkle in Time
Oregon Children’s Theatre presents a new staging of L’Engle’s sci-fi classic. Newmark Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-9571. 2 and 5 pm Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays through June 5. $16-$26.
ers Jean Michel Damase, Eugene Goossens and Hendrik Andreissen, along with a Brazilian-influenced quartet by Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc’s great Sextet. First Presbyterian Church, 1200 SW Alder St., 228-7331. 2 pm Sunday, May 15. $10-$15.
Portland Piano Club
Music by George Gershwin, contemporary composer William Bolcom and PSU’s student composers. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 242-1419. Noon Saturday, May 14. Free.
Apocalypse Now and Later
T.G.I.Funday!
DANCE
Sketch comedy set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 8 pm FridaysSaturdays through June 4. $12-$15.
The Brody crew improvises an episode of an early-’90sstyle sitcom. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 10 pm Saturdays through May 14. $8.
UTV
You suggest genres you’d like to see turned into improv-comedy fodder, and the Unscriptables make it so. The Unscriptables Studio, 1121 N Loring St. 8 pm May 13-14 and 20-21. “Pay what you want.”
CLASSICAL Blue Cranes, Gutbucket
Brooklyn-based avant-jazzers Gutbucket join Portland’s own incomparable improvisers. The Secret Society Ballroom, 116 NE Russell St., 493-3600. 9 pm Thursday, May 13. $8.
End of the Earth Sax Quartet
Josh Kliburn, Gus Slayton, Tom Garcia and Mary-Sue Tobin play music by Allen Toussaint, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Ornette Coleman and the Pixies. Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 503-595-0575. 7:30 pm Sunday, May 15. $3-$7. 21+.
The Julians
The irrepressible lady vocal quartet sings works by Fleet Foxes, Postal Service, Leonard Cohen, contemporary Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara and Estonian composer Veljo Tormis, Girlyman, Lassus, Lykke Li, Kurt Weill, Björk and Stephen Sondheim, accompanied by violin and piano. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1432 SW 13th Ave., 227-5783. 3 pm Sunday, May 15. $10.
Moussai Ensemble
In this Celebration Works concert, a new ensemble of veteran local chamber musicians perform trios by contemporary compos-
CURIOUS STAND UP SHOWCASE SATURDAY, MAY 7TH, 10:00PM PDXʼS BEST FOR ONLY $5
Portland Youth Philharmonic
David Hattner conducts PYP founder Aaron Avshalomov’s Hutungs of Peking, along with Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis and Pablo de Sarasate’s virtuosic “Gypsy Ways.” Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 223-5939. 4 pm Sunday, May 15. $11-$16.
COMEDY
A CURIOUS COMEDY SKETCH SHOW FRIDAYS & SATURDAYS 8:00PM, THROUGH JUNE 4TH $15 DOOR/$12 ON-LINE
BodyVox
The dance company stages an old favorite, A Thousand Little Cities. In a series of vignettes— many athletic, some lyrical, a few even airborne—the company evokes the times, and places, of our lives. BodyVox Dance Center, 1201 NW 17th Ave., 229-0627. 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:30 pm Saturday, May 7; 2 and 7:30 pm Saturdays, May 14 and 21. Closes May 21. $36-$49.
Geeklesque
Burlesque and geekery are combined in this cabaret-style event featuring sultry superheroines, villainous vixens, comics and video games. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St., 206-7630. 9 pm Sunday, May 15. $10-$12. 21+.
Barak Marshall
Humiliation, fear, anger and defiance all take recognizable physical forms in Israeli Barak Marshall’s Monger. The dramatic, hourlong dance performance, which explores the concepts of hierarchy and power, is set to music from Balkan Beat Box and National Public Radio’s Yiddish Radio Project. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 1-800-380-3516. 7:30 pm Tuesday, May 17. $22-$60.
The Zig Zags
The myth of Pandora’s box inspired Seeds of Hope, a new show from Do Jump! Physical Theater’s teen company. Through aerial dance, acrobatics, live music and physical theater, the Zig Zags work their way through various changes, personal, familial and global. Echo Theater, 1515 SE 37th Ave., 231-1232. 7 pm Saturdays, 1 and 4:30 pm Sundays, May 14-15. $5-$10.
For more Performance listings, visit Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
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VISUAL ARTS
MAY 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By RICHARD SPEER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit show information—including opening and closing dates, gallery address and phone number—at least two weeks in advance to: Visual Arts, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: rspeer@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115. Emailed press releases must be backed up by a faxed or printed copy.
YU
With Philip Glass flowing from the sound system and a who’s-who of Stumptown art scenesters milling about the cavernous space, YU’s Selections from the PCVA Archive felt like an important moment in the city’s cultural life. No matter that the venue, with its impossibly long wall of windows, isn’t particularly friendly to anything other than installation and sculpture—after all, you can’t hang something as old-fashioned as a painting on glass windows. And no matter that the exhibition itself was an inert collection of old newspaper articles and other paperwork under glass, in the manner of an entomology project. Still, that space—that space!— and the palpable edge of possibility combined to create a frisson that will hopefully bear fruit as YU blooms. YU, 800 SE 10th Ave., 236-7996, yucontemporary.org. Closes July 30.
Ted Katz
Many of the paintings in Ted Katz’s Looking at Pictures: The Edge of Vision present his trademark cerulean skies meeting the hard horizon line at the lip of an abstracted landscape. Others, such as How Far, are more pointedly gestural, with nearly abstract swaths of teal, royal blue, green and maroon sweeping diagonally across the picture plane. Still other works, such as Always Put Up Pictures, with its frothy waves, suggest seascapes rather than landscapes. In pivoting between razoredged linearity and more painterly effects, Katz finesses the line between cucumber-cool cerebral meditations and the drama of atmospherics. Butters Gallery, 520 NW Davis St., 248-9378, buttersgallery.com. Closes May 28.
Tom Cramer
COLORVOID (FACEBOX) BY JOHANNES GIARDONI AT PDX CONTEMPORARY ART
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Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
One of the most striking contrasts in Tom Cramer’s Oregon Landmarks is the difference between rough-hewn, compositionally expansive works such as Blue Sun at Short Sand Beach and densely intricate pieces such as
Multnomah Falls Lodge and Crater Lake Lodge. These works further contrast with the long, limpid vertical lines in Oneonta Gorge, an aquatic fantasia that is perhaps the sexiest work in the artist’s fond homage to the landmarks of his home state. Laura Russo, 805 NW 21st Ave., 226-2754, laurarusso. com. Closes May 28.
Johannes Girardoni
Johannes Girardoni’s wax-encased wooden boxes are drop-dead gorgeous and highly allusive, while his Exposed Icon photographic prints leave as much to the imagination as they give to the eye. This show, titled Light Matters, occupies the entirety of PDX and PDX Across the Hall and is one of the most sensually gratifying, conceptually challenging exhibitions of the year. PDX Contemporary Art, 925 NW Flanders St., 222-0063, pdxcontemporaryart.com. Closes May 28.
Cheryl Norton
Delicate and enigmatic, Cheryl Norton’s installation of clay-caked undergarments is understated, yet impactful. The neatly stacked piles of clothing rise from gray pedestals: highly sculptural, fragile-looking, implying volumes, divulging little. Based on porcelain work by Hong Kong artist Sara Tse, the pieces make a unique statement using a minimum of colors and visual information. 325 NW 6th Ave., 224-5721, ankagallery.com. Closes May 27.
Dante Marioni
In the triumphant exhibition Variations, Seattle-based sculptor Dante Marioni, best known for his work in blown glass, stretches his already formidable technique to include works in kilncast and fused glass. His gloriously bizarre piece Chrome Poppy is one of the most jaw-dropping sculptures you are likely to lay eyes upon in the next 10 years. One part Wizard of Oz, one part art deco and one part Dorothy Draper, it is an object of uncommon
assertiveness: preeningly macho in its technique but absolutely effete in the over-the-top preciousness of its ornamentation. In Variations, Marioni takes a big risk, and it pays off in spades. Bullseye Gallery, 300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222, bullseyegallery.com. Closes June 25.
Holly Andres
Holly Andres is known for her eerie narrative photographs, which often weave stories around the fundamental creepiness of small-town America. In The Fall of Spring Hill, she heralds the heroism of mothers protecting their children. Some of the works have the unnerving quality that has become her signature style: the pissed-off, baseball bat-brandishing mothers in The Mothers Ascending Spring Hill, and the disturbing Mother With Child and Ax. But other works come across prosaic and flat: Unremarkable shots of watermelons and punch bowls are hard to get excited about. Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, 134 NW 8th Ave., 287-3886, hartmanfineart.net. Closes May 14.
Sean Healy
Pristine is not a word that comes to mind in association with devastated Northeastern manufacturing towns (“sooty,” “grungy” and “derelict” are more like it), but in Sean Healy’s dramatic Upstate, the once-thriving industrial hub of Brasher Falls, N.Y., becomes a spotless and abstracted metaphor for everything from urban decay to the psychic ravages of middle age. The cigarette butts and filters deployed in works such as Smoke Breakers, Ember and Male Pattern Midlife I, are placed with such O.C.D. precision and chromatic exactitude they turn a quotidian material into the stuff of transubstantiation. Elizabeth Leach, 417 NW 9th Ave., 224-0521, elizabethleach.com. Closes May 28.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
BOOKS
MAY 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By ASHLEY GOSSMAN. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit lecture or reading information at least two weeks in advance to: WORDS, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: words@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
MAY
WEDNESDAY, MAY 11 Margaret Chula
In What Remains: Japanese Americans in Internment Camps, Margaret Chula writes poems in the voices of Japanese-Americans imprisoned during World War II. Ledding Library Pond House, 2215 SE Harrison St., Milwaukie. 786-7582. 7 pm. Free.
THURSDAY, MAY 12 Rick Emerson
Rick Emerson, local radio host and co-author of Zombie Economics: A Guide to Personal Finance, uses the comparison of a zombie apocalypse to teach readers how
to gain financial stability, with straightforward advice, such as, “Leave your credit card at home, frozen in a block of ice.” Barnes and Noble, Lloyd Center, 1317 Lloyd Center, 249-0800. 7 pm.
SATURDAY, MAY 14 Adam Carolla
Comedian, author, and radio and TV host Adam Carolla signs copies of his new book, In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks. Barnes & Noble Clackamas Town Center, 12000 SE 82nd Ave., 786-3463. 3 pm. Free. All ages.
11 LARRY CORREIA / Hard Magic (Baen) A secret war is being waged by opposing magical forces. WED / 11TH / 7P CEDAR HILLS
DAN MILLMAN / The Four Purposes of Life (H. J. Karmer) A map of the journey to discover oneís purpose. WED / 11TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
DAVID GOLDFIELD / America Aflame (Bloomsbury) A major new interpretation of the Civil War era. THU / 12TH / 7P CEDAR HILLS
For more Words listings, visit
REVIEW
DAVID GOLDFIELD AMERICA AFLAME As new books commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War assail readers like a latter-day Pickett’s Charge, at least one volume deserves to break Union lines as the rebels at Gettysburg could not. Like photographer Mathew Brady, historian David Goldfield has done something in America Aflame (Bloomsbury Press, 632 pages, $35) to bring home to us the terrible reality Counting the costs of and earnestness of war. If he America’s “new birth has not brought the costs and of freedom.” laid them in our dooryards and along our streets, he has done something very like it. Goldfield’s book is unlike most other Civil War histories. The war itself takes up less than 200 pages. Whole chapters drift by in which readers might forget they are reading a book about the Civil War at all. And yet Goldfield’s depiction of human suffering on the battlefield, in a war whose battles have been described so many times in so many different ways they have lost the power to shock, is almost unbearable. But not quite as unbearable as the darkness in the Southern heart after the war, or the optimism of freed slaves before the ultimate betrayal of Reconstruction. It is a tale often told, and yet in Goldfield’s retelling the familiar yields new meanings that cut the human heart in new, unscarred places. He more closely captures the essence of Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy in three sentences, for instance, than some historians have done in as many volumes: “Lee was not a tragic figure any more than the Confederacy was a tragic attempt at sovereignty. Tragedy requires unmerited suffering. What we have in Robert E. Lee, and the Confederacy, was a series of bad decisions, some startlingly impulsive, given Lee’s embrace of reason, that led to predictable but not tragic destruction.” Goldfield places the direct costs of the Civil War to the federal government at $6.7 billion, less than half of which would have been enough to buy freedom for all the slaves and a 40-acre farm for every slave family—without killing a single American soldier. He traces the war’s origins—and the South’s intransigence in defeat—to evangelical Christianity. It’s a fascinating argument, but one that Goldfield takes too far. Yes, evangelicals agitated zealously for and against slavery, but they also laid the groundwork for much of the progressivism of modern American life: social services, public education, women’s suffrage and the civil-rights movement, although the latter would not bear fruit for more than a century. MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM. GO: David Goldfield visits Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, 228-4651. 7 pm Thursday, May 12. Free.
CRAIG ROMANO / Day Hiking Columbia River Gorge (Mountaineers) Offers multitude of trails with waterfalls and spectacular views. THU / 12TH / 7:30P HAWTH
URSULA K. LE GUIN / The Wild Girls (PM Press) Le Guinís Nebula Award-winning story in book form for the first time. THU / 12TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
KARL MARLANTES / Matterhorn (Grove)
THIS SATURDAY
A Marine and his comrades are dropped into the jungles of Vietnam. FRI / 13TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
ROBIN HOBB (aka MEGAN LINDHOLM) / The Inheritance (Harper Voyager)
Displays the full talent of one of the finest writers in the fantasy genre. SAT / 14TH / 4P CEDAR HILLS
KARIN GASTRIECH / Eolyn (Hadley Rille) An heiress to a tradition in a world where women like her are tortured. SUN / 15TH / 5P CEDAR HILLS
TWESIGYE JACKSON KAGURI / A School for My Village (Penguin Books) Kaguri overcame odds to build a school for AIDS orphans in Uganda. SUN / 15TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
JOHN SCALZI / Fuzzy Nation (Tor) New sci-fi from the author of the Old Manís War sequence. MON / 16TH / 7P CEDAR HILLS
DANIEL CLOWES / Mister Wonderful (Pantheon) Mister Wonderful more than lives up to its name.
D E S I G N • D E TA I L • C R A F T S M A N S H I P • E S T 1 9 8 2
LET US MAKE YOUR BED Designers and Master Craftsmen of Sust ainably Harvested Hardwood Furniture
MON / 16TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
WILL POTTER / Green Is the New Red (City Lights) How the FBI is using anti-terrorism resources to target environmentalists. MON / 16TH / 7:30P HAWTH
LITERATURE FROM THE EDGE OF LATIN AMERICA Three NW translators read Latin American fiction and poetry. TUE / 17TH / 7P CEDAR HILLS
JAIMY GORDON / Lord of Misrule (Vintage)
Captures the dusty, dark, and beautiful world of small-time horse racing. TUE / 17TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
JENNIFER HAIGH / Faith (Harper) A novel about family secrets and one womanís search for truth. WED / 18TH / 7P CEDAR HILLS
ANI PHYO / Ani’s Raw Food Asia (Da Capo Lifelong )
Travel with raw food goddess Ani Phyo back to her roots. WED / 18TH / 7:30P DOWNTOWN
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45
MAY 11-17 REVIEW
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
MOVIES
Editor: AARON MESH. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, send screening information at least two weeks in advance to Screen, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: amesh@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
African Cats
Disneynature visits lions and cheetahs. Not screened for critics. Look for a review on wweek.com. G. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Evergreen. NEW
24-Hour Film Race 2011
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] Teams compete to finish a four-minute movie in a day. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Wednesday, May 11.
Atlas Shrugged: Part 1
27 This jerry-built project doesn’t plunge us into Ayn Randland so much as assume we’ve been marinating in this bizarro world for half a century: Villainous characters say things like “I’m giving the money to the less fortunate” with the same mustache-twirling sneer traditionally reserved for “I’m going to burn down the orphanage and build condominiums over the dead babies’ bodies.” PG-13. Tigard.
NEW
The Beaver
58 Though it sounds like a nickname Mel Gibson might give one of his girlfriends, The Beaver is director Jodie Foster’s attempt to grant her friend and star some redemption, or at least exorcism. Gibson plays Walter Black, a suicidally depressed toy executive who takes to speaking through a bucktoothed hand puppet with a Ray Winstone accent, but the movie is bleaker than the outrageous premise suggests: This isn’t a whimsical healing journey, but another form of breakdown. “Oh, c’mon, it’s a radio show,” complains Terry Gross when Walter visits her Fresh Air studio. “People can’t even see the puppet. So why talk through the puppet?” That question might well be posed to Gibson, who is begging forgiveness through a character far less despicable than himself. There is, in his blue eyes, a hint of the madman despairing and shamed by his own madness—but he’s always had a good face, and this may be a drunk’s practiced sympathy ploy. (The Beaver includes—of course it does—a scene of self-torture and mutilation.) But here I am playing armchair psychologist when there’s a whole movie ready to do just that. Or half a movie: The other, much better half features Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence as high-school sweethearts with their own, more intelligible grief to surface from. The younger actors are the more affecting, not just because they are wisely restrained, but also because they don’t have all that external baggage to carry. PG-13. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
Bill Cunningham New York
82 Arriving with the prized imprimatur
(and fonts) of the Sulzberger Times, director Richard Press’ graceful documentary is deceptively spontaneous—a quality it shares with fashion photographer Cunningham’s “On the Street” column. It requires real concentration to find the patterns and connections between haute Paris runways and harried Manhattan commuters, just as it surely took effort to get Cunningham to reveal any detail of his personal life—or even to sit still long enough to take questions. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
80 The new Werner Herzog documentary is comparatively thin on the cuckoo German’s trademark perversity—except when you consider that he has made a 3-D documentary about motionless drawings on rocks. They are, admittedly, very old drawings on very unique rocks: Sketched in charcoal on the walls of the Chauvet Cave in southern France, the 32,000-yearold paintings are the earliest ever found, preserved by a rockslide that sealed the artwork (and many bear bones) until 1994, when the cave was uncovered and immediately locked up again for preservation. Still, there are no flying dragons. You will have to settle for woolly rhinos, which doesn’t strike me as too painful a concession.
46
Science, even at a remove, trumps fantasy. What is most endearing about the drawings is their suggestion that Paleolithic man, much like a tribe of elementary-school girls, dreamed mostly of horses. There are also some bears on the walls, some bulls and a lot of rhinos. The images roll out from the shadows, rippling under headlamps— and suddenly the rationale for filming in 3-D makes perfect sense. This is the closest most of us will ever come to these paintings, and we should be able to gain as tactile an experience as possible. AARON MESH. Cinema 21.
Dr. Butcher, M.D. (Medical Deviate)
NEW
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] The Grindhouse Film Festival presents a 35 mm print of the 1980 Italian splatter flick also known as Zombie Holocaust. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, May 17.
Even the Rain
NEW 63
Spanish director Icíar Bollaín’s barbed making-of-a-movie movie opens with a giant wooden cross towed by helicopter into the Bolivian mountains—a cadge from La Dolce Vita and its airborne Christ fleeing Rome, but this time signifying the return of rapacious Europeans. The imperialists are back in town! A parable of colonizers re-enacting colonization (Gael García Bernal is shooting a Christopher Columbus picture), only to enable further exploitation of every natural resource, including the one in the title, the Howard Zinn-dedicated drama scores geopolitical points before devolving into a sub-Haggis thing where people with poor motives unaccountably do heroic things in a pinch. “You don’t understand, white face!” shouts an actor/water-rights demonstrator (Juan Carlos Aduviri), and yeah, that about sums it up. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
Fast Five
70 Less than a minute into Fast Five,
the simply-titled fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise, we get our first car chase. It’s a quick and dirty gambit, something about busting Vin Diesel’s mush-mouthed, car-swiping meathead Dom Toretto out of a moving prison bus. It’s the first great explosion in a movie filled with unbelievable explosions: The bus flips over a few cars, the good guys get away, and Diesel mutters something about family as his bald head glistens like a guido Jason Kidd. It’s also the most realistic scene in the entire film. Diesel and his cast of chiseled friends—Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, some Asian dude from Tokyo Drift and the gorgeous model Gal Gadot—don’t just steal fast sports cars and obliterate the streets of Rio, they concoct a plan to swipe $100 million from Brazil’s biggest drug kingpin, who keeps his bills locked inside an impenetrable vault inside police headquarters. If this concept seems farfetched, well, I hate you. Go watch The King’s Speech and get off my lawn, you damn intellectual. PG-13. MICHAEL MANNHEIMER. 99 West Drive-In, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Hanna
65 Best things first: I see no reason why every movie shouldn’t be filmed in a rusting, abandoned German amusement park. East Berlin’s Spreepark does wonders for the final act of director Joe Wright’s Hanna, which includes some jaw-dropping visuals—including Cate Blanchett walking down train tracks that emerge from the moldering jaw of a giant wolf. If there were an Oscar for location scouting, Hanna would be the 2011 front-runner; as it is, the eerie moonscapes throughout the film (Finnish ice floes, orange-tiled Berlin subway stations, granite military compounds under the Moroccan
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
NICE DAY TO START AGAIN: From left, Melissa McCarthy, Ellie Kemper, Rose Byrne, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig.
EVERYBODY POOPS
BRIDESMAIDS IS ACTUALLY ABOUT ONE ANGRY, FILTHY MAID OF HONOR. BY AA R ON MESH
amesh@wweek.com
On that regular occasion when some scribbler or movie honcho decides he’d like to alienate at least half of the ol’ fan base by declaring women less funny than men, he’ll usually trot out the backhanded compliment that the gentler sex just has too much dignity for farce. I don’t know whether the cast of Bridesmaids huddled up with director Paul Feig on set and explicitly decided to pulverize that illusion once and for all—but not 30 minutes into the movie, there’s a wedding-dress fitting interrupted by an eruptive case of food poisoning, and after our heroines finish vomiting into each other’s hair and lining up to use a fancy marble sink as a commode, the bride (Maya Rudolph) rushes out of the store and shits in the street. With the bustle of her white gown bunched around her crouching form, she looks like a swan defecating in the reflecting pool. So much for dignity. As for comedy...well, I dunno. There is something a little labored about Bridesmaids, as if Feig and star Kristen Wiig were trying to compensate for a decade of Judd Apatow’s dong jokes by bypassing the genitalia and going straight for the universally scatological. Considering this is the first direct reunion of Feig and Apatow since they co-created the wondrously warm (and female-led—you rule, Lindsay Weir!) Freaks and Geeks, the project feels dispiritingly calculated: Last weekend saw the opening of Something Borrowed, and here is something blue. But I’m not sure the audience will leave gratified. All that straining for ribaldry feels a little sad, like Feig and his actors know they’re sacrificing honesty for coarse bumptiousness. I don’t think it makes me a chauvinist if, when a movie climaxes with two people screaming in public about their bleached assholes, I feel a little sorry for them. It may just be that I don’t find Kristen Wiig much fun to watch. In her SNL skits and supporting movie roles, she’s shown two gears—discomfort disguised by maddeningly persistent cheer; affectless muttering—and she doesn’t add many here, at least until her final outburst, a mortifying and
self-perpetuating overreaction that destroys most of a garden party. (The fact that her rampage frightens away actual swans does make it funnier.) And this is a Wiig vehicle, not an ensemble picture: Most of its improvisational bits are strung on the implosion her character, maid of honor Annie, even as her best friend’s wedding coheres into an inexplicably elaborate showcase at the hands of usurping Helen (Rose Byrne). Annie’s grievances are nicely detailed—there’s a collapsed cake business, sociopathic roommates and a terrible fuck buddy (Jon Hamm)—but they don’t leave room
“WHY CAN’T YOU JUST BE HAPPY FOR ME AND THEN TALK BEHIND MY BACK LIKE A NORMAL PERSON?” for the rest of the bridal party. The only member of the supporting cast who makes an impression is Melissa McCarthy, as a gal Galifianakis. It’s only in a couple of set pieces (including a blotto flight to Vegas) that the picture threatens to develop momentum and camaraderie. But Bridesmaids can’t do that, because while it is billed as a women’s group-bonding comedy (a bra-mance?), it’s also a movie that operates from the premise that women are brutally competitive and backstabbing—that they basically can’t bond as a group. “Why can’t you just be happy for me and then go home and talk behind my back like a normal person?” Rudolph eventually asks. And while it’s beyond my expertise to comment on the accuracy of this gender stereotype (you thought I was going to get suckered into that one, but oh no, you were wrong), it leaves the film exhaustedly bitter as well as filthy. I laughed a lot, but I never experienced any joy. You’ll probably laugh, too—you’re not above a good poopin’-in-the-street joke—but you may feel a certain frustration with the movie not getting its shit together. 60 SEE IT: Bridesmaids is rated R. It opens Friday at Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Tigard, Wilsonville, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Oak Grove and Sandy.
MOVIES
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF “WENDY AND LUCY”
MAY 11-17
desert) help compensate for a script that feels a little too eager to be a punky parable. PG-13. AARON MESH. Eastport, Forest, Cinema 99, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall.
Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil
55 The answer to your prayers, if you’ve been praying for a midtier production company to make an animated version of Mission: Impossible featuring the principal characters of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale. If this is the case, you probably aren’t reading this review. Your parents might be; lucky for them, they’ll find some adult-oriented dialogue and nods to films like GoodFellas and The Silence of the Lambs amongst the varied levels of expected children’s humor in this fairy-tale populated universe. PG. JUDGE BEAN. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Forest, Lloyd Mall.
Hop
38 This being a big studio project, the Easter Bunny is a flannel-sporting, jellybean-crapping slacker voiced by Russell Brand. PG. AP KRYZA. Clackamas.
I Am
29 Tom Shadyac’s documentary
flits from decrying man’s separation from the natural world and our obsession with stuff (cue fat WalMart shoppers) and competition to heartening encounters with experiments involving democratic herds of deer, human hearts that can tell the future and Argon atoms. As uplifting as the doc aims to be, it’s as if Shadyac packed a rifle full of New Age ideologies and sprayed the shot directly at a movie screen. KELLY CLARKE. Broadway.
Insidious
30 It all starts out simply (if not
exactly captivatingly) enough: Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) move to a new house—a creepy house!—and their son falls into a coma. Weird things start happening. Weird, not very scary things. PG-13. RUTH BROWN. Clackamas.
Jane Eyre
77 A word of warning for fans of
sweeping period romances: This is not the Jane Eyre you are looking for. Young director Cary Fukunaga and screenwriter Moira Buffini pull everything dark out of Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel and unleash
it in all its gothic glory on the big screen. Although this version chops vast swaths of the original text, it is, in many ways, a much truer adaptation than most of the 5 trillion others, which have tended to polish away the characters’ rough edges—including casting inordinately good-looking stars to play characters who repeatedly talk about how ugly they are. Really, most of the characters in the original novel are assholes—ugly assholes—and Fukunaga doesn’t shy away from that. PG-13. RUTH BROWN. Fox Tower, Hollywood Theatre.
Jumping the Broom
45 From the opening marriage
proposal backed by the world’s creepiest piano player, there’s something a little off-putting about Jumping the Broom, the new wedding dramedy co-produced by influential African-American minister T.D. Jakes, who also plays the ceremony’s officiant. The movie contains all the requisite clashes between upscale and boondock families on Martha’s Vineyard, but there’s also an unexpected Grant Hill vs. Jalen Rose thing happening, a debate about blackness that becomes very frank and then emphatic: “I usually don’t talk to dark-skinned girls, but I’m making an exception for you.” None of this is funny, but none of it is boring. As the groom’s undermining mom, Loretta Devine plays against expectations of lovability—her character is remarkably awful, yet still the only one in the movie with much poignance. As directed by Salim Akil, the picture is more polished than the Tyler Perry movies, but Perry is willing to skewer everybody. This feature feels more like a hip youth-group leader who tries to join in on the dirty jokes, but keeps needing to mention that, OK guys, it’s good to laugh, but let’s remember that sex really is a precious gift shared between a husband and wife, and that’s not something we should take lightly, right? The uncomfortable piety distorts the whole film, so that Jumping the Broom is never free to be at ease or funny; it’s an unintentional reminder why you don’t invite church people to parties. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, City Center, Lloyd Mall.
CONT. on page 48
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BANG A GONG: Sixteen Candles doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Of all the films in John Hughes’ lauded ’80s teen-flick canon, the epic saga of Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald)—who gives her polka-dot undies to a geek and pines away for senior Jake Ryan (and his red Porsche 944) while her family forgets her birthday—always gets shrugged off in favor of Hughes’ more serious films, especially The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink. But Candles is an incredibly enjoyable farce in its own right, from its crushing catalog of familial embarrassments and finely drawn high-school social strata to the cringingly amazing Asian exchange-student stereotype Long Duk Dong. It’s silly and dirty and goofy—and that’s exactly what makes it a classic. KELLY CLARKE. Academy. Best paired with: Double Mountain India Red Ale. Also showing: Rope (Laurelhurst).
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MAY 11-17
Meek’s Cutoff
93 “We’re close, but we don’t know
what to.” These lines, spoken in an apprehensive hush near the close of Kelly Reichardt’s pioneer drama Meek’s Cutoff, are a key to what makes her film—which is methodical, arid, uneventful and without resolution— so improbably thrilling. It is not, as many of us were vocally hoping, the Oregon Trail video game turned into a movie. Instead, it saturates an audience with the sensations of what it was like actually to be on the Oregon Trail: the complete disorientation, the exhausting routines as a means of warding off fear, the paranoia of being surrounded by so much silence but being unable to quite hear the most important conversations. It is a vision of the West different from and more intimate than any I have seen before, and it sets a high-water mark for the Oregon film renaissance. The film hinges on Michelle Williams’ decision to trust a captured Cayuse Indian (Rod Rondeaux) over hired guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood)—but it is the choice itself Reichardt chronicles, not its results. The character’s courage is stirring, but the movie’s ultimate openendedness is electrifying. PG. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
Mia and the Migoo
A little girl and a shape-shifter fight global warming in this French cartoon. Not screened for WW critics, though quite popular in Europe. PG. Fox Tower.
Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune NEW
88 Some of Phil Ochs’ best songs are all but lost to history. His most political material is just never going to strike a chord with young people of today—the outspoken folkie wrote songs that were torn from the headlines (see his 1964 debut album, All the News That’s Fit to Sing), and let’s face it, ultra-specific ditties about the Cuban Missile Crisis aren’t exactly racing up the charts these days. But Ochs, a big-hearted kid from Ohio who also wrote some beautiful, elegant folk songs, is still one hell of a compelling character—especially when his story is told with the patience and care that There But for Fortune uses in presenting the life of one of the great underdogs in American music. Commercially, Ochs—like so many songwriters of his generation—fell into Bob Dylan’s long shadow and never really climbed out of it. But creatively, Ochs proved himself an artist capable of stylistic breadth, empathy and tenderness. It’s an especially impressive catalog because Ochs’ entire recording career unfolded in about a decade. The film, through dozens of interviews with famous artists and friends in low places alike, builds a portrait of Ochs that manages to delve into his discography and offer an emotional authenticity at the same time. Candid archival audio interviews with the singer himself reveal a keen intellect and rare self-awareness—there’s foreshadowing in that material that haunts the viewer long after the film is over. There But For Fortune is that rare documentary that’s as sensitive and ambitious as its subject—it deserves your full attention whether you’re an Ochs fan or you’ve never even heard of the guy. CASEY JARMAN. Hollywood Theatre.
NEW 97
Poison
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY, REVIVAL] It’s fitting that Todd Haynes’ debut feature about contamination and containment became a locus of subversive critical theory and an excuse for the American Family Association to catechize the NEA, and it’s tempting, 20 years later, to keep the film tethered to its historical moment as New Queer Cinema bellwether and Ralph Reed’s favorite blue movie, but 1991’s Poison is too intractably gorgeous and smart for any neat taxonomy or timeline. Inspired by the work of Jean Genet and clearly still reeling from whatever else he read in college (a lot of Foucault, I’m guessing), Haynes braids three disparate and separately titled narratives into an exhilaratingly unwieldy disquisition on illnesses both real and perceived. Genet’s influence is
48
most apparent in the “Homo” episodes about prison violence and desire, while “Horror” riffs on expressionistic science-gone-wrong films of the ’50s and “Hero” adopts a documentary guise to investigate suburban patricide. Haynes is chasing academic game here, but the interplay of form and function—the stories seem to begin speaking to and about each other as their protagonists reach the limits of the body—results in a film that is as surprisingly moving as it is fiercely intelligent. CHRIS STAMM. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, May 13-14. 3 pm Sunday, May 15.
Pom Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
35 I imagine the conceit of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold sounded ohso-clever to Morgan Spurlock when he first dreamed it up: Make a film about product placement in movies by filming himself selling product placement into the movie itself, and thereby exposing the big Hollywood secret that: Brands pay money to put their products in movies! Did you hear me? THEY HELP FINANCE THE FILMS BY PUTTING THEIR PRODUCTS INTO THEM! Oh…you knew that? Your 7-year-old knows that? Forgive my facetiousness, but the very concept of this film is inherently flawed. The actual movie is amusing enough: Spurlock talks moronic marketing people from largely D-list brands (Sheetz, Pom Wonderful, Amy’s Organic Pizza—damn you, rapacious Amy’s Organic Pizza!) into sponsoring the project, mocking them and their products as he fulfills his part of the deal by including them in the film. And then you leave the cinema wishing it had been 30 minutes shorter and thinking about Sheetz, Pom Wonderful and Amy’s Organic Pizza. Who’s laughing now? PG-13. RUTH BROWN. Broadway, City Center.
NEW
Priest
Paul Bettany is a killer monk—again. Not screened for critics. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
The Princess of Montpensier
51 As if in rebuke to the Disney associations conjured by the title, Bernard Tavernier’s tale of 17th-century foxiness opens with a Huguenot soldier, cornered in a barn, accidentally stabbing a pregnant mother in the belly with a pike. This is the Comte de Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), who resigns from religious war to tutor teenage Princess Marie de Montpensier (Melanie Thierry), who loves one heir, is forced to marry another, and pursued by a third—I don’t think differentiating them is of much use, since they’re mainly distinguished by how forcefully they stare at Marie’s gregarious bosom. It’s a bit of fun as period anti-romances go, and Tavernier includes some blunt recognition of the ugly treatment of very young women as chattel, but whatever enchanting horror it produces in well over two hours can’t match what Catherine Breillat summoned in the 80 minutes of Bluebeard. Yes, I’m still angry that Bluebeard never got a proper Portland theatrical release last year, and I’m going to take it out on all the inferior princess movies for a while. This one becomes so drearily and stereotypically French, culminating with cutlasswielding noblemen hissing at each other through their wispy mustaches. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
Prom
40 Upon entering Prom, I was besieged by questions: “Will you go with me to prom? Will you go with me to prom? Will you go with me to prom?” These were coming from the screen. If there was a world record for the most time a film’s title is spoken within the film, Prom has shattered it. PG. AARON MESH. Clackamas, Forest.
Queen to Play
Kevin Kline plays chess. In French. Living Room Theaters.
Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com
NEW Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] Cinema Project kicks off four nights of San Francisco treats with a program featuring 1950s hipster parody. Clinton Street Theater. 7:30 pm Tuesday, May 17. The program continues Wednesday-Friday, May 18-20 at various venues; look for a review in next week’s edition. NEW
Red, White & Blue
42 [FOUR NIGHTS ONLY] British
director Simon Rumley’s Red, White & Blue plays out like a Texas revenge thriller written by Alejandro González Iñárritu. Like Amores Perros and 21 Grams, it follows three seemingly unrelated characters—a gentle hillbilly veteran, a damaged nymphomaniac and a whiny indie-rock guitarist—whose lives intersect around a tragic event that teaches each a life lesson. Only the tragic event involves the allure of the aforementioned nymphomaniac’svagina. And the life lesson is that prolonged torture really, really hurts. Rumley’s film begins as an effectively tender, albeit disturbing, emotional exploration of lonely and broken hearts. But the director quickly grows bored with all that emotional mumbo-jumbo and jackknifes the film into a drawn-out series of graphic torture sessions, with grizzled hillbilly Noah Taylor hacking his way through those what done him wrong. Switching from tender to terrorizing can be effective whenit has a purpose (see Takashi Miike’s Audition). Rumley, on the other hand, has crafted an amateurish exercise in gross-out one-upmanship wrapped around indie romance and coincidental drama. A movie revolving around a nymphomaniac’s vagina and bloody vengeance has no excuse for being so flaccid. AP KRYZA. Clinton Street Theater. 7 and 9 pm Friday-Monday, May 13-16..
time for no good reason, but there’s no reason for any of this, so whatever. Features Counting Crows and Third Eye Blind songs. Cover versions. Yup. PG-13. CHRIS STAMM. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, Roseway.
Soul Surfer
25 The true story of Bethany Hamilton is basically a gender-switched 127 Hours, except she gets her arm stuck in a shark. I attended out of a sense of responsibility to the amputation-movie beat and because, hey, it could always defy reason and be good. Nope. Soul Surfer is Dennis Quaid quoting Bible verses and Carrie Underwood trying to explain the mysterious ways of God—schmaltz for Jesus. PG. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinema 99, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Wilsonville.
NEW
Sound + Vision Fest
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY, CURATORS ATTENDING] Bridgeport Brewing has put together a three-night benefit to help fund the Hollywood Theatre, featuring collaborations between musicians and filmmakers. Filmmaker Matt McCormick provides images to accompany the band Eluvium (7 pm Thursday, May 12); Portlandia player Carrie Brownstein shows Who Took the Bomp: Le Tigre on Tour (7 pm Friday, May 13); and music-video director Lance Bangs shows excerpts from Michel Gondry’s An Animated Conversation with Noam Chomsky and his own in-progress documentary on the band Slint (7 pm Saturday, May 14). Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm ThursdaySaturday, May 12-14.
Source Code
93 The director Duncan Jones must
understand the desire to recapture a fleeting experience: His alone-withmy-clone movie Moon was one of the
REVIEW J O H N E S T E S / R O A D S I D E AT T R A C T I O N S
MOVIES
Rio
63 The new Fox cartoon begins with a Busby-Berkeley-in-Brazil number, a computer-choreographed cavalcade of tropical feathers. But then Man Is in the Rain Forest, and Rio never regains that first kinetic burst—it’s grounded by the story of Blu (an amusingly fussy vocal turn by Jesse Eisenberg), a macaw endangered by poaching and his own domestic timidity, which has left him unable to fly. His crisis is a transparent case of performance anxiety; his ladybird friend (Anne Hathaway) is not very understanding. Overall, it’s hard to watch a cartoon toucan without thinking he’s selling you cereal. But this one is voiced by George Lopez, and he’s selling Latino libido and the joys of species procreation. That just means more little CGI birds get made, and I didn’t mind that. I’m only human—I like artificial colors and flavors. G. AARON MESH. 99 West Drive-In, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Something Borrowed
24 Without a doubt the most harrowing of the Saw sequels, Something Borrowed stars Kate Hudson as Darcy, a tan with teeth engaged to a haircut with teeth named Dex (Colin Egglesfield, who looks like he was conceived, delivered and christened at one of Rob Lowe’s Slip ’n Slide parties circa 1985). Darcy and Dex, whose names actually function as rather swift character development—stay away from these people, basically—have enough money and free time to go to the Hamptons every weekend to wear sandals and play badminton and drape thick white sweaters over V-necks without a care in the world. The only problem: Rachel (Ginnifer Goodwin, cute as a button sewn into the face of a kitten that’s as cute as a bug’s ear), Darcy’s best friend and maid of honor, has a thing for Dex, and that Top Gunlooking motherfucker Dex might have a thing right back. And, like in a bad dream, John Krasinski, whose service as The Office straight man has rendered him permanently bemused, but in a creepy and almost PTSD way, as if he will sarcastically kill himself at any moment, is somehow there the whole
MILK WAS A BAD CHOICE: Will Ferrell on a bike.
EVERYTHING MUST GO At this point, we all know what’s up with the suburbs: Supposedly a symbol of American normality, they’re really just a hiding place for the damaged and dysfunctional. That wasn’t a secret even when American Beauty won the Best Picture Oscar in 1999, yet filmmakers still love wallowing in the misery of the middle class. Everything Must Go is another movie concerning unhappy people living behind perfectly manicured lawns, with a crucial difference: It’s about an unhappy person forced to live on his perfectly manicured lawn. Adapting a Raymond Carver short story, first-time director Dan Rush isn’t interested in simply putting suburban anguish on display; he wants to deal with that anguish by dragging it out into the open, literally. That probably seems odd for a film starring Will Ferrell; existential crises aren’t exactly his usual forte. As Nick Halsey, a once-successful salesman and relapsed alcoholic who, after coming home one day to find his wife gone, the locks changed and his stuff scattered outside, takes up residence in his front yard, Ferrell turns out to be an inspired casting choice. He finds a pain in Halsey that’s been around long before we first meet him, sitting in a parking lot minutes after getting fired, considering slashing his boss’s tires with the Swiss Army knife the company gave him as a parting gift. As more of the things that once defined him are stripped away—his car gets repossessed, and his newly estranged wife cuts off his cell phone and access to the bank account— Ferrell doesn’t even look surprised. Halsey’s been dead inside so long that when he finally decides to sell off the rest of his possessions, he initially labels it an estate sale. Shedding himself of everything, Halsey is eventually able to start over. Like Ferrell’s performance, his salvation is low-key (although ending with “I Shall Be Released” is a bit on-the-nose) but delivered with enough genuine heart and subtle humor to make it resonate. Alert Sam Mendes: There are ways of escaping the white-picket prison that don’t involve plastic bags, pedophilia or getting shot in the back of the head by your neighbor. R. MATTHEW SINGER.
Little boxes filled with Will Ferrell’s life.
75
SEE IT: Everything Must Go opens Friday at Fox Tower.
MAY 11-17
Thor
26 It has been two days since I saw Thor. Rarely has a movie given me so little to think about and consequently faded so quickly from my memory. Looking through my notes now feels like reading someone else’s journal—a few lines of disembodied dialogue (“Is the Renaissance Faire in town?” and “Oh. My. God.” stand out) and lots of wanton cursing. Chris Hemsworth—he’s the musclebound Aussie who plays Thor—is from the “louder is better” school of acting, and lucky for him the role calls for plenty of incoherent yelling. But even when the film speaks softly, the dialogue is so entrenched in actionmovie cliché—with just a touch of hack-job Shakespeare from director Kenneth Branagh—that you might as well wear headphones through the whole thing (Handel, maybe? Powermetal?). The love story is banal and the paper-thin love interest, played by a returning-to-awful-form Natalie Portman, barely qualifies as a character. When Marvel began to reclaim control of its movie licensing, the hope was that the superhero-movie universe might become as complex and interwoven as the superherocomic universe. But really, if Marvel’s movies are going to be this dumb, why bother? They can keep their universe—I’d much rather flip through old comic books than sit through two more hours of flexing and screaming. PG-13. CASEY JARMAN. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Lake Twin, Moreland, Pioneer Place, Broadway, Cinema 99, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family
68 Like a lot of pale dudes, I’ve come to Tyler Perry movies somewhat belatedly and crabwise—starting with For Colored Girls, and only now seeing my first Madea picture. So forgive me if this has been often noted before, but what strange genre mash-ups these movies are: very straightforward, three-hanky melodramas abruptly interrupted by brassy, trashy sitcom characters who come pounding in to make everything right and everybody laugh. It’s essentially low-production-value Almodovar broken up by short episodes of Mama’s Family. But this movie, at least, works like gangbusters: Loretta Devine, who was spectacular in For Colored Girls, is nearly as good here as a dying mom who just wants to serve her kids some collard greens and say goodbye. PG-13. AARON MESH. Eastport, Lloyd Mall.
Water for Elephants
30 Oddly, at no time in this surpassingly dreary circus movie does anybody fetch any water for the show’s sole elephant. The pachyderm is seen slurping up lemonade, and often it is served buckets of contraband hooch (it’s Prohibition, but try telling that to the elephant); however, there’s no water-carrying—which is strange, since you’d think with all that boozing, the poor creature would be dehydrated. Anyway, it’s a gorgeous elephant (played by Tai, who has also starred with Bill Murray
and posed for Banksy, and so may be the second-most accomplished actor here, after Hal Holbrook), and just about every scene she’s in is interesting—as opposed to just about every scene Robert Pattinson is in, which is boring. I’ve vouched for the Twilight kid’s chops before, but here he takes a nothing role and makes even less out of it. Director Francis Lawrence takes a Far and Away-style whitewashed periodpiece approach that favors dull lovebirds—including Reece Witherspoon, who was beating a hot retreat to squaresville even before she won her Oscar—over actors who are trying something: Here, that’s pretty much just Christoph Waltz and Tai, who develop a guilt-ridden abusivepartners dynamic that is so much more interesting than Pattinson and Witherspoon making whoopee to orchestral flourishes. No movie set on a train can be completely worthless, but Water for Elephants comes very close. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport,
CineMagic, Cinetopia, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy. NEW
White Irish Drinkers
Brooklyn kids plan a robbery. Not screened for WW critics. R. Living Room Theaters.
Win Win
81 In Tom McCarthy’s redoubtable indie film, Paul Giamatti plays Mike, a New Jersey elder law attorney and high-school wrestling coach who volunteers to become a guardian for laconic runaway Kyle (Alex Shaffer), who turns out to be a champion high-school wrestler. This is perhaps one coincidence too many for the movie to bear, but Shaffer’s presence redeems a lot: His blond shag of hair, long face and collected indifference recall Sean Penn’s Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
REVIEW PETER D. RICHARDSON
handful of films in recent years to develop a devoted cult following, and he has returned to the same theme of multiple lives for a larger-scale sophomore feature, Source Code. Lightning has struck twice: Source Code is the best science-fiction film since Moon, and may prove the finest picture of this year. While Hitchcock famously defined suspense as a conversation in which the audience knows a bomb is under the table, Source Code’s adrenaline rush of slightly comic dread is one man knowing the bomb is there, and not being able to defuse it, because it already went off. It’s Groundhog Day, except instead of every day ending with a blizzard, they all end with everybody exploding. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Oak Grove, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall, Tigard.
MOVIES
PROFILE IN COURAGE: Cody Curtis (right) in How to Die in Oregon.
DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT DEATH How to Die in Oregon 92 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR ATTENDING] If one of the afflictions of human life is being the only animal that knows it’s going to die, it is some small consolation to choose the day and the hour. Portland director Peter D. Richardson’s expertly wrenching documentary shows Oregon’s Death With Dignity in its quiet rites; it opens and closes with the sound of a spoon clinking as it stirs Seconal into a glass. In between, the documentary examines the political echoes of the law, notes both the mercies and inequalities in its practice, and most centrally gives an intimate but not invasive account of the final months of Cody Curtis, a gorgeous, gentle 54-year-old Portland woman with inoperable liver cancer. How to Die in Oregon is devastating and eloquent, its title indicating not an instructional video, but a wish for a way we all might face the inevitable. AARON MESH. Oregon Convention Center. 6:30 pm Wednesday, May 11. Richardson and family members featured in the documentary will answer questions after the screening. Into Eternity 79 This Finnish documentary tonally suggests a conceptual horror movie and, sure enough, its subject is an ancient Lovecraftian abomination beyond reckoning—except it is contemporary, and we don’t know how to warn coming generations about it. “You are heading towards a place where you should never go,” intones Into Eternity director Michael Madsen as his camera creeps into a tunnel carved into bedrock. “What is there is dangerous and repulsive. Please turn around and never come back.” The place is Onkalo, a massive burial chamber being dug beneath Finland; what will be there are cannisters of nuclear waste, lethally radioactive for 100,000 years. The film could not be more timely, or timeless—this is a Cave of Dreams We Would Like to Forget—and though it could probably stand to be a fraction less histrionically grim, that might break the spell. Somehow, the eeriest scenes are of scientists trying to figure out what warning might keep some future Indiana Jones from tarrying or digging. An obelisk? A field of giant thorns? Munch’s The Scream? What symbol says “wrath of God,” anyway? AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
SCREEN GEMS PRESENTS A MICHAEL DE LUCA PRODUCTIONS/STARS ROAD ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION IN ASSOCIATION WITH TOKYOPOP “PRIEST” PAUL BETTANY KARL URBAN CAM GIGANDET MAGGIEEXECUTIVE Q LILY COLLINS WITH STEPHEN MOYER AND CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER MUSIC BY CHRISTOPHER YOUNG PRODUCERS GLENN S. GAINOR STEVEN H. GALLOWAY STU LEVY JOSH BRATMAN PRODUCED BASED ON THE GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MICHAEL DE LUCA JOSHUA DONEN MITCHELL PECK SERIES “PRIEST” BY MIN-WOO HYUNG WRITTEN DIRECTED BY CORY GOODMAN BY SCOTT STEWART
STARTS FRIDAY, MAY 13 IN THEATERS IN
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2 COL. (3.825") X 12" = 24" WED 5/11 Willamette Week MAY 11, 2011 wweek.com 49 PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK