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WWEEK.COM
VOL 37/37 07.20.2011
WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
Bad Neighbor One wealthy Portlander’s tool kit for conflict resolution: Tasers, chain saws and “coffee bombs.” BY NIGEL JAQUISS | PAGE 13
P. 45
THOMASPITILLI.COM
BACK COVER
NEWS INSIDE THE GANGLAND WAR. FOOD SPICY TOFU SOUP & DIY SUSHI. MOVIES TODD HAYNES AND THE TEA PARTY.
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
CONTENT Master of Acupuncture Program NCNM’s School of Classical Chinese Medicine is founded on a millenniaold and highly complex system of knowledge within the framework of a modern graduate curriculum.
BAD FREQUENCY: Why a dead idea keeps costing us money. Page 11.
NEWS
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FOOD & DRINK
22
LEAD STORY
13
MUSIC
25
CULTURE
20
MOVIES
45
HEADOUT
21
CLASSIFIEDS
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EDITORIAL Managing Editor for News Brent Walth Arts & Culture Editor Kelly Clarke Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Corey Pein, James Pitkin Copy Chief Kat Merck Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Sarah Smith Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Ben Waterhouse Movies Editor Aaron Mesh Music Editor Casey Jarman Editorial Interns Natasha Geiling, Nathan Gilles, Shae Healey, Reed Jackson, Corey Paul CONTRIBUTORS Classical Brett Campbell Dance Heather Wisner Visual Arts Richard Speer
Erik Bader, Judge Bean, Nathan Carson, Devan Cook, Shane Danaher, Jonathan Frochtzwajg, Robert Ham, Jay Horton, Matthew Korfhage, AP Kryza, Hannah Levin, Jessica Lutjemeyer, Jeff Rosenberg, Matt Singer, Chris Stamm, Mark Stock PRODUCTION Production Manager Kendra Clune Art Director Ben Mollica Graphic Designers Melissa Casillas, Soma Honkanen, Adam Krueger, Brittany Moody, Carolyn Richardson Production Interns Jacob Garcia, Katharine Jacobs, Dustin Murdock ADVERTISING Director of Advertising Jane Smith Display Account Executives Sara Backus, Maria Boyer, Michael Donhowe, Drew Harrison, Janet Norman, Kyle Owens Classifieds Account Executives Ashlee Horton, 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: 80,000-90,000 (depending on time of year, holidays and 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
Applications are now being accepted for fall 2011 and winter 2012 entry. Contact admissions@ncnm.edu 503.552.1555
STAFF Editor-in-Chief Mark Zusman
The Master of Acupuncture (MAc) three-year program is designed for students having a special affinity for classical Chinese medicine and wanting a more streamlined graduate experience focused on acupuncture and moxibustion, with fewer hours of theory and herbal instruction. It folds the very best traditions of mentoring and lineage into a course of study that richly integrates the wisdom and philosophy of the ancients.
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INBOX WWEEK.COM READERS COMMENT ON “WI-FI WOO-WOO,” JULY 13, 2011
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“It would be educational malpractice for a modern middle school NOT to have Wi-Fi. Mr. Morrison should send his daughter somewhere that doesn’t have the Internet. Then when she graduates perhaps she can find work as a blacksmith.” —JJ Gildersneeze
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“…The jury is still out on the effects of this type of radiation on humans, especially children, who have thinner skulls. Other firstworld countries have chosen to play it safe, as far as exposure to children is concerned. In 1950, the FTC ruled ‘that the smoking of cigarettes.... in moderation by individuals… who are accustomed to smoking and who are in normal good health… is not appreciably harmful.’ In this regard, the lawsuit seems mostly to be asking PPS to sit up and at least pay attention. Something this writer chose not to do.” —Gino “Biological insults commenters mention— tobacco, DDT, plastizers, lead, etc.—participate in the chemical reactions of the body. Ionizing radiation sources: ultraviolet light, radioactive decay particles and X-rays, knock electrons off of molecules in the body, leading to unwanted chemical reactions. If you remember from school, chemical reactions are reactions between the electron shells of atoms. The reason scientists are skeptical of claims radio waves are harmful is that there is no known mechanism. The wavelengths don’t correspond to anything in the body, nor do the frequencies. They don’t have enough
The news says it’s not safe to swim in the Willamette today because of sewer overflow. So…it was safe to swim in it before? Seems the river has always had a rap for being unsavory, but details are hazy. What’s the, er, poop? —Lamont Cranston Regular readers of this column are aware of my fascination with local conservation group Willamette Riverkeeper and the fact that its director bears the totally badass job title of “Riverkeeper.” Needless to say, this question sent me racing to activate the Riverkeeper-signal, a giant arc lamp that projects the silhouette of a salmon onto the clouds and has a carbon footprint the size of Wyoming. Unfortunately, the actual Riverkeeper was out of town slaying balrogs. However, I was able to reach his comely elvish handmaiden, Amy Baur (who doubles as Riverkeeper’s development director). 4
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
energy to ionize, and they don’t participate in chemical reactions. The body is salt water, so the skin blocks radio waves from penetrating, especially at high frequencies, like Wi-Fi. The only known mechanism is heating. Unless you are in the military repairing active radar, you are not going to get detectable body heat from radio waves, including Wi-Fi. But there is solid evidence that selfinduced stress, over issues like this for instance, weakens your immune system. That immune system is responsible for removing cell faults caused by purely random mutations—those that occur in the absence of any actual hazards, every day, even in children (who hopefully are learning science).” —Robert “…I used to work for a toxic activist group in CA that was instrumental in stopping 2,4-D and 2,45-T cocktail (Agent Orange) from being sprayed by [the] U.S. Forest Service…. In the 1970s, a local U.S. Forest Service bigwig publicly asserted that 2,4,5-T was as harmless as “table salt.”… Obviously, this is an extreme example of the U.S. government claiming something is safe when it ended up killing 100s of thousands... but as parents, I think we have a right to be skeptical. This was not that long ago. …Now let’s talk about what’s in the school lunches, all enclosed and cooked in plastic!” —Erika 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
She assured me that on most days, the Willamette is as pure as a mountain freshet in Rivendell. “The river’s water quality is excellent—well, two points shy of excellent,” says Baur. The river’s bad rap comes from the fact our sewers were designed in such a way that too much stormwater made them overflow into the Willamette. Until recently, this happened about 100 days a year. Such days are becoming rarer, though, as the 20-year, $1.4 billion sewer upgrade we’ve heard so much about nears its scheduled completion this winter. In fact, on July 31 Willamette Riverkeeper is sponsoring an event where a bunch of folks will prove this point by floating across the river on inner tubes and then not mutating. You can even join them—see thebigfloat.com. And pray there isn’t a hard rain July 30. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
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“Evolving Consciousness through Conscious Food Choice” 7pm - Mon, July 25th - New Seasons Market, Community Room 15861 SE Happy Valley Town Center Dr., Happy Valley
& “A Change of Direction; Exploring our Fourth Element” 7pm - Thurs, July 28th- Center for Natural Medicine 1330 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., Portland *Talk given by an authorized speaker
Sant Baljit Singh, the spiritual Master teaches meditation on inner Light & Sound to anyone who is searching for a deeper meaning in life. info@knowthyselfassoul.org 1-877-633-4828 www.santmat.net
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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CRIME: Inside the gang wars. EDUCATION: An online charter school without students. FIASCOS: How a dead project keeps costing us money. COVER STORY: One very rich, very bad neighbor.
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Jonah Edelman, the chief executive of Stand for Children, a national education reform group based in Portland, has been forced to eat his words after bragging in a June 28 video about outfoxing Illinois teachers union leaders and legislators earlier this year. Stand for Children used donations from private equity titans to roll back seniority and teachers’ right to strike. “I can tell you there was a palpable sense of concern, if not shock, on EDELMAN the part of the teachers unions in Illinois...that we had clear political capability to potentially jam this proposal down their throats,” Edelman said June 28 at the Aspen Ideas Festival. As video of those remarks (see it at wweek.com) circulated, critics lambasted Edelman, who later sent an apology to the Chicago teachers’ blog that first aired the video. The negative publicity comes after Stand for Children’s Oregon chapter successfully led reforms in Salem. Edelman declined to comment.
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Eric Lemelson, the Yamhill county vintner and heir to a billion-dollar technology fortune, has quietly made a name for himself as a generous Democratic political contributor: He gave $516,000 in Oregon races in 2010 and another $217,000 in federal races. Now Lemelson is moving into Portland real estate. Records show he recently bought vacant commercial land—about two-thirds of an acre—at the corner of North Vancouver and Fremont Street for $1.65 million. The site, near Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, is less than a mile from an Irvington house Lemelson bought two years ago for $1.8 million. Lemelson couldn’t be reached for comment.
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A block on Southwest Ankeny Street between Southwest 2nd and 3rd avenues—known as the Barmuda Triangle—is scheduled to open Thursday as a pedestrian-only area through October. Business owners hope this test will persuade the city to build a European-style promenade. The city took up the idea after WW published an article about Central bar owner Dustin Knox’s efforts to distinguish the area from obnoxious elements nearby (see “Douchebags Not Allowed,” WW, March 23). Conflict arose when Portland’s Sisters of the Road, a group that advocates for the homeless, worried the plan would deprive the downand-out of public space KNOX in favor of cafe tables. It’s Portland, so not to worry: The final plan now calls for public seating. Knox says area businesses are kicking in $5,000 to cover costs of the closure. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt.
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SOMA HONKANEN
NEWS
INSIDE THE GANG WARS AN UNPRECEDENTED REPORT REVEALS NEW DETAILS ABOUT THE WAVE OF GANG VIOLENCE. BY JA M E S P I T K I N
jpitkin@wweek.com
On June 21, two men beat Jacob Klesalek on the corner of Northeast 16th Avenue and Killingsworth Street, leaving him with severe bruises on his face. Police believe Klesalek, 21, is associated with Money Over Bitches—a new Portland gang that law enforcement says includes different races and exists mainly to pimp women. Police later arrested two associates of the Woodlawn Park Bloods for the beating. It was a recent outburst in what’s shaping up as the worst year of gang violence in city history. Portland has seen 52 shootings, stabbings and beatings this year that police blame on gangs. And the frenzied summer gang season isn’t even half over. If the pace holds, 2011 will top last year’s record-setting 93 gang attacks. And the human cost is real: at least 29 people shot and four others stabbed. Seven have died. We now have an unprecedented look inside the gang violence, thanks to a document police distributed to members of Portland’s Gang Violence Task Force on July 9. The six-page chart contains striking details about the first 49 incidents of gang violence this year. (The 52nd took place July 18.) It lists the location of each attack, a brief description, the victims and assailants, plus gang affiliations. Gang-outreach worker Michael Johnson says the data offer a detailed snapshot that will help show who’s who
in the gang wars. Johnson, a former Columbia Villa Crip, sees few surprises in the details. He plans to use the data to draw maps of gang violence in Portland. “This is what we’ve been waiting for,” Johnson says. The Portland Police Bureau has in the past balked at naming gangs, saying it only inflates members’ egos. But gang-outreach workers have pressed for more intel. Sgt. Don Livingston of the police gang unit says cops released the report at the request of the mayor’s office, which sought more details on the outcome of gang cases. The report lists which cases have resulted in an arrest (15) and which are still open (34). Here’s what the data show: Black gangs are to blame for two-thirds of the attacks. Police link Crips, Bloods and other black gangs to 34 of the 50 incidents—including two stabbings and one beating. The Crips/Bloods violence has left 27 people shot, including the seven dead. Cops say only six incidents involved Latino gangs, including two stabbings and two people hit with bullets. The white supremacist gang the Brood was behind two shootings, cops say. Police did not list gang affiliations for eight of the incidents, but many of those took place in territory traditionally associated with black gang activity. Livingston says that racial mix in gang violence has been typical for Portland. “The only thing that surprises me this year is the seven dead,” Livingston says. “We haven’t had that in the last few years. That’s the alarming thing. Everything else seems pretty consistent.” New gangs are upping the violence. Most incidents of gang violence still stem from the Crips and Bloods.
Those sides were identified as the perpetrators in 12 incidents and the victims in 20 others. Carl Goodman, assistant director of Multnomah County’s Department of Community Justice, and others say the most dangerous conflict in Portland now is a rivalry between the Kerby Blocc Crips and the Unthank Park Hustlers, a local gang that mixes Crips and Bloods. Hustlers were named as victims in two shootings and a stabbing. At the same time, new sects emerge. Because cops can identify Crips and Bloods by their colors and signs, the new groups adopt different colors—but they retain the tradition of violence. One new Crips-affiliated group, the Fat Bitch Killaz, was involved in a Feb. 14 stabbing. Nearly one in five attacks occurred outside a bar or concert. Three more were shots fired in a public park. There were two incidents of shots fired on a MAX platform. Cops say that makes sense, because enemies from rival gangs can meet by accident in public places. The consequences for bystanders can be tragic. On April 18, 14-year-old Shiloh Hampton was fatally shot in the Lloyd District’s Holladay Park. Cops don’t believe Hampton was a gangster, but the two suspects—Jimmie Ray Sanders-Garcia and Eddie Mohr—were associated with the Six Deuce Crips. Investigators believe their shots missed the intended target. Pat Callahan, a Multnomah County senior gang prosecutor, says he isn’t sure why the appeal of gangs continues to spread—especially among African-Americans. “They are a tiny minority among a community that has an awful lot of hardworking people,” Callahan says. “But for whatever reason, [the gangs] exist. And their numbers seem to be growing.” Rev. Roy Tate of North Portland’s Christ Memorial Church says the violence won’t stop until the community steps up. “The police,” he says, “are not going to be able to solve it.” WEB EXTRA: Read the document at wweek.com. Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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NEWS
EDUCATION M A N B A B Y. C O M
VIRTUAL COMBAT OREGON’S TEACHERS UNION HATES ONLINE CHARTER SCHOOLS. BUT ITS ALTERNATIVE HAS LITTLE TO SHOW FOR MILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS. number of children filling chairs in Oregon classrooms. In the next 10 days, Gov. John Kitzhaber is “I’ve been saying that since January likely to sign a controversial online charter 2005 when I entered the Legislature,” school bill that infuriates his largest finan- says Komp. cial backer, the 48,000-member Oregon Her research and her own experience Education Association. in schools convinced Komp there’s a small The bill would allow up to 3 percent of but significant group of students for whom the students in any district to attend online online learning is the best option. She says charter schools. Currently, fewer than 1 she pushed for the state to help provide it. percent of Oregon’s 550,000 public school “I sat down with the OEA lobbyist mulstudents do so. tiple times in 2005,” Komp says. “All I was OEA President Gail Rasmussen and her ever told was, ‘OEA has a plan.’” members have plastered the issue across That plan, Komp says, turned out to be op-eds and blogs and showered Kitzhab- the Oregon Virtual School District. er—who took $1.1 million of the teachers In 2005, the Legislature approved the union’s money in his narrow 2010 victory virtual school and directed the Oregon over Republican Chris Dudley—with let- Department of Education to provide a ters and emails urging his veto. state-run alternative to charter schools, “Bottom line, we want a quality educa- which are public but often affiliated with tion for every kid,” Rasmussen says. for-profit corporations. As state law puts it: Online charter schools are public but “The Oregon Virtual School District shall are typically run by private companies provide online courses.” paid by school districts to But after six years provide distance learnand the appropriation ing for students. OEA has FACT: The state has invested of $7.1 million, includ$600 million of Oregon Public fought the expansion of Employees Retirement funds ing another $1.5 million these schools for years in Apollo Management, the lawmakers just approved and lost its battle to kill parent of Oregon Connections for the current biennium, Academy, the state’s largest the most recent bill in the online charter school. the Oregon Virtual School Legislature. District has yet to provide But few people know a single “course.” that six years ago OEA pushed for a stateSteve Nelson, the Oregon Department run online entity that would compete with of Education manager who oversees the online charters. virtual school, contends the effort has been The OEA-backed plan has cost the state successful. In the past year, he notes, about more than $5 million. one in five Oregon public school students It has yet to teach a single student. accessed the virtual district’s offerings, That failure neither pleases nor sur- which include academic materials vetted prises Rep. Betty Komp (D-Woodburn). by the Education Department and trainA former public schoolteacher and ing for teachers. Where an online charter administrator in the Woodburn district, school provides a student with a teacher Komp says she knew in her first session in and course credit, all the taxpayer-funded 2005 that the K-12 system needed to cre- school provides is content. ate an alternative for students not served Despite the 2005 law’s intent, Nelson by conventional seat-based learning—that acknowledges the state’s efforts are not an is, the state paying for kids based on the alternative to online charter school offerings. BY N IG E L JAQ U I SS
njaquiss@wweek.com
“We are not set up to compete with them from a financial point of view,” Nelson says. The OEA’s Rasmussen says there are three reasons online charter schools—and the bill Kitzhaber is poised to sign—won’t provide the high-quality education all Oregon kids deserve. First, allowing up to 3 percent of students (about 16,500) to migrate to online charters could transfer $90 million annually from cash-strapped schools to the online, for-profit corporations that run the charter schools. Second, OEA worries online charters are insufficiently unaccountable. And third, Rasmussen says, the closed-door deal-making that guaranteed passage of the bill, HB 2301, cut parents and teachers out of the conversation. For Komp, her frustration with the
state’s inability to come up with a meaningful solution led her to be one of five House Democrats to vote yes on the online charter schools bill now on Kitzhaber’s desk. Komp says she shares OEA’s concerns that current online charter schools may not be sufficiently accountable. But she also says the demand parents are expressing—as evidenced by the rapid growth of online charters—shows they care more about the availability of online courses than who is providing them. If the K-12 system does not provide better online options, Komp says, parents will continue to flee public schools. “There is a group of students that is highly likely to drop out if we don’t provide them other options,” Komp says. “That is a big cost to society.”
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TECHNOLOGY
NOT YET OVER AND OUT BY BR E N T WA LT H
bwalth@wweek.com
Earlier this year, Gov. John Kitzhaber made clear he wanted to halt an ugly project he’d inherited when he took office: the proposed statewide emergency radio system called the Oregon Wireless Interoperability Network. Better known as OWIN, the project had already cost taxpayers $29 million and was a political embarrassment: State officials misled lawmakers and then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski about the need for the project and its spiraling costs. You’d think Kitzhaber’s decision would have stopped the financial bleeding. It didn’t. Records now show the final bill for the OWIN fiasco has climbed to a surprising $55 million—and, WW has learned, this amount still doesn’t include all of the costs.
“THIS HASN’T BEEN AN EASY THING TO UNTANGLE. THIS ISN’T HOW WE WOULD NORMALLY WANT TO GO AROUND DOING BUSINESS.” The OWIN plan called for building or updating 300 radio towers to allow emergency responders across the state to talk to one another, something they can’t always do now. The federal government is requiring public safety radios across the country to switch to new bandwidths. The $600 million OWIN project was way bigger and more complex than was required. But records and audits show OWIN officials convinced lawmakers the feds were indeed requiring the massive new system (not true) and that they had cut project costs (another fib). In February, Kitzhaber proposed scaling the project back. In June, lawmakers OK’d a plan to replace Oregon State Police and Department of Transportation radios, and to update failing microwave towers. The state also rechristened it as the State Radio Project. The price tag came down a lot but is still a sizable $209 million. (This total includes money previously blown on OWIN.) Meanwhile, private contractors kept billing the state. One company, Federal Engineering of Fairfax, Va., which came up with the original plan under a $1 million contract, has since billed taxpayers $7.9 million for its consulting work. State employees were replaced with high-priced consultants who cost $250,000-plus a year. Tom Lauer, who took over the troubled project last year as major projects director for the Oregon Department of Transportation, says OWIN’s rising costs came from commitments the project had made before Kitzhaber hit the brakes. And he says other costs reflect the state’s efforts to change the project’s focus from a sprawling network to a simpler plan to replace radios and equipment. Then there’s the political mop-up costs. Lawmakers quietly slipped $10.4 million into a spending bill to pay off local public safety agencies who
had counted on OWIN to help build their own radio systems. From 2008 to 2010, OWIN officials wheeled around the state, promising millions to local governments if they joined the project. Many of these promises were only handshake deals, and ODOT officials are still trying to figure out how much money was pledged. “This hasn’t been an easy thing to untangle,” Lauer says. “This isn’t how we would normally want to go around doing business.” Lawmakers argued that these local agencies shouldn’t be left hanging. But records show lawmakers haven’t been told about other local governments that have been stiffed by OWIN. In April 2009, then-OWIN director Lindsay Ball pledged in a letter to the Eugene Water and Electric Board that his agency would split the costs of building two radio towers. EWEB spent $3.2 million to build the towers and now wait for the state to keep its word. “It’s too bad the state isn’t living up to its commitments, because those funds would be appreciated by our customers,” says EWEB spokesman Joe Harwood. “We haven’t seen the $1.6 million promised. That’s the way it’s been with this—lots of promises, none of them kept.” Rep. John Huffman (R-The Dalles) says he and other lawmakers worked to shrink the radio project—but he says they have yet to figure out a way to corral the costs of huge state technology and construction projects where bureaucratic momentum has taken hold. “We try to get some accountability,” Huffman says. “And we did here to some extent. But you growl and you bluff, but in the end you’re just teasing a big beast.” HAPPYBURBECK.COM
THE STATE’S EMERGENCY RADIO PROJECT IS DEAD, BUT ITS COSTS KEEP GOING UP.
NEWS
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Bad Neighbor ONE WEALTHY PORTLANDER’S TOOL KIT FOR CONFLICT RESOLUTION: TASERS, CHAIN SAWS AND “COFFEE BOMBS.” BY N IGEL JAQU ISS
njaquiss@wweek.com
On Aug. 22, the most expensive home ever sold in Southeast Portland will be auctioned on the steps of the Multnomah County Courthouse. That auction may mark the low point of Peter Fournier’s troubled stay in Laurelhurst. The high point probably came in December 2006, when Fournier and his wife, Kirstie, bought a sprawling, 12,000-square-foot, 17-room Laurelhurst home known as the Bitar mansion for $1.825 million. Such a price might not raise eyebrows in the West Hills or Lake Oswego, but the Multnomah County assessor’s office says nobody, before or since, has paid more for a home in Southeast. Now the Fourniers, who could not be reached for this story, are in foreclosure. Their 1927 Mediterranean-style home—originally built for the president of the Doernbecher furniture company—was the work of architect Herman Brookman, who also designed such Portland landmarks as Temple Beth Israel and Fir Acres, the Frank estate that became Lewis & Clark College. The Bitar mansion features extraordinary woodwork, a marblefloored ballroom, a heated pool, a servants’ wing, and elaborate tile, metalwork and sculpture. The property sits on the equivalent of seven standard city lots and enjoys a commanding view of the West Hills. Yet, today, the Fourniers’ property is an eyesore. CONT. on page 14
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CONT.
Waist-high grass sways on the lawn. A brush pile of ancient rhododendrons chokes the elegant semicircular brick driveway. Ugly plaster patches mar the home’s façade, and half-finished security gates stand watch over a property now occupied only by a couple of previously homeless caretakers. Banks have foreclosed on thousands of Portland homes in recent years. And in a sense, the Fourniers’ story is a tale of what happened when the decades-long rising real estate tide turned into a tsunami. But their situation is different. For one thing, there is evidence the Fourniers had the resources to pay their mortgage. Long before Bank of America pulled the plug, the family walked away from their home. “We are going to demolish the house and sell it to the highest [bidder] to build apartments,” Kirstie Fournier wrote March 11, 2010, in an email to a neighbor. “Have a nice live [sic].” The Fourniers’ story also shows money cannot buy happiness, particularly when a family ill-suited to city living tries to fit into a tight-knit neighborhood. Laurelhurst Park—like any public space—can be a dangerous place, and there will always be friction between people whose lives intersect. But Peter Fournier, whose property abutted the park, appears to have had little tolerance for park users, and even less for his neighbors. The Fourniers’ Laurelhurst experience echoes difficulties they had before and after buying the Bitar mansion. Their rocky journey, from Lake Oswego to Laurelhurst to two new homes in the past year, shows that no matter how extensive a family’s resources, the social contract between neighbors remains a powerful force. Says Elisa Leverton, a 25-year Laurelhurst resident, “When they moved from here, it relieved a lot of stress for everybody.”
BACK TO NATURE: The Fourniers’ lawn is not helping to attract buyers.
“I presently live in the home the second President of the company built in 1927,” he wrote in a 2007 post on the website of Furniture World magazine. “Anybody interested in selling me their Doernbecher furniture?” Neighbors were not sure where Fournier’s income came from. Neither Fournier, 48, nor his wife, Kirstie, 52, worked a conventional job. On a résumé she posted online, Kirstie Fournier wrote that the couple’s residential construction firm, Agate Investments LLC, “built dozens of residential homes” in the previous decade and owned five residential rentals. Agate did build some houses in the metro area and Marion County, and renovated others, but struggled financially. The firm’s Oregon contractor’s license had lapsed by the time the Fourniers moved to Laurelhurst. The Oregon
Next door to Fournier lived Dick Kroll, 72, and the late Park Bailey. The two were longtime Laurelhurst residents who bought and renovated houses. Their home—a brick Georgian that rivals the Bitar mansion in its grandeur—stands immediately east of the Fourniers’ and also borders Laurelhurst Park. Police records and neighbors’ accounts show the dispute took many forms: Fournier allegedly threatened Kroll and Bailey, he frequently yelled homophobic slurs, he blasted conservative talk radio at them with outdoor speakers for hours, and he would shine spotlights from his property into their windows for nights on end. “It all started when he tried to claim a piece of my land with his fence,” Kroll says. “And before long, he had a halogen floodlight pointed at my house all night long.”
COURTESY OF THE DAN VOLKMER TEAM
In the beginning, the Fourniers, who sold a $1.7 million Lake Oswego home to move to Laurelhurst, made a good impression. For Halloween, Peter Fournier transformed his yard. Lifelike ghouls and goblins hung from trees and lurked in bushes. Dry ice provided a foggy background and a sound system broadcast bone-chilling sounds. Inside a glass anteroom covered in elaborate gold-toned
C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
BAD NEIGHBOR
BEFORE PETER: The Bitar family treasured a one-of-a-kind property.
metalwork, the 5-foot-11, 210-pound Fournier delighted in showing kids the guts inside a lifelike ghoul as he handed out full-sized Snickers bars, Almond Joys and Airheads. During the record-setting December 2008 snowstorm, Fournier cleared sidewalks and even some driveways with his snowblower. “People in the neighborhood were very excited when they moved in, especially because they had young kids,” Leverton recalls. The previous occupants of the Fourniers’ home, the Bitar family, owned it for 57 years. It served as the Lebanese consulate in Portland and over the years hosted First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, pianist Van Cliburn, and numerous Oregon governors and U.S. senators. The home was also a frequent stop on architectural tours. Fournier hoped to restore his new home to its original condition. 14
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
Home Builders Association has no record of Agate ever having been a member. Peter Fournier did have family money. Documents show he is a descendent of the founder of Procter & Gamble, which last year ranked 22nd on the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest companies. (Fournier’s middle name is Procter.) When he moved to Laurelhurst, Fournier, a 1997 Georgetown Law graduate, told neighbors he had started a new business—Residential Security Patrol. Portland police had stopped responding to residential burglar alarms, so Fournier’s plan was to hire ex-cops to respond to calls in affluent eastside neighborhoods. Used police cars he’d bought for the company lined his driveway. Behind the neighborliness and entrepreneurship, however, there was another Peter Fournier. And a propertyline dispute began to reveal a different side of him.
Fournier and his wife became so well known to police that officers took the unusual step of entering a “flag” in their computer system if either was involved in a call. Typically, if police are called to a neighborhood, especially in a low-crime area such as Laurelhurst, one officer responds. Not so with the Fourniers. “Please flag [the Fourniers’ Laurelhurst and Ladd’s Addition addresses],” says an April 19, 2010, police report. “Mandatory two-officer response for all calls for witness and verification reasons.” Fournier’s difficulties came to a head in March 2010. He had erected a 10-foot wooden fence between his house and Kroll and Bailey’s, and 6-foot-high columns for security gates at the entrances to his driveway. Both projects violated city code, and inspectors forced him to CONT. on page 16
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BAD NEIGHBOR
CONT.
sharply reduce the heights of both. Fournier’s beef with his next-door neighbors paralleled a dispute he had that same month with an even more powerful neighbor—the City of Portland. Portland Parks and Recreation informed Fournier that the fence between his property and Laurelhurst Park was significantly inside the park boundary, so a big of chunk of what Fournier thought was his backyard belonged to the park. The fence pre-dated Fournier. But his communication with parks employees grew increasingly acrimonious over the course of a year. Responding to a city request that he remove structures that were on park property, he chainsawed a decrepit greenhouse and burned it in his backyard, resulting in a blaze so big that neighbors called the Fire Bureau. In an apparent fit of pique, Fournier also cut down ancient rhododendrons on the disputed land. He piled the resulting debris in his driveway, where it remains today. “As the plants in question were planted by my predecessor in title, I must remove them,” Fournier wrote to a parks official in a Feb. 11, 2011, email. “This is very unfortunate, as the remaining Rhododendrons are quite spectacular, and at least 80 years old.” Fournier also tangled with contractors and creditors. Shortly after the Fourniers moved to Laurelhurst, for instance, a city inspector ordered Fournier and several neighbors to repair their sidewalks. Fournier hired Metro Sidewalk Repair in May 2007 for $1,400 worth of repairs. Metro Sidewalk did the work and the city inspector signed off on it—but Fournier refused to pay his bill. It wasn’t as if he lacked the funds: His mortgage was $8,400 a month and he had paid the home renovation firm Hammer and Hand nearly $150,000 to spiff up his new house. The dispute over the sidewalk tab dragged on, with lawyers on both sides, until an arbitrator finally ordered Fournier to pay. “He was just being a little contrary,” says Brian O’Brien, Metro Sidewalk’s lawyer. Court records show banks, collection agencies and other creditors have also pursued Fournier. Hammer and Hand sued to collect another $60,000 for work on his home in 2008. That bill—now up to $74,000 with interest—remains unpaid, although a Multnomah County judge entered a judgment against Fournier in May. Plenty of people don’t pay their bills—even some who live in mansions.
“[FOURNIER] THEN HELD ME DOWN WITH HIS FOOT PRESSED VIOLENTLY AGAINST MY CHEST CAVITY.” —KATU CAMERAMAN BOB BULLOCK
C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
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UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT: Dick Kroll says he endured three years of abuse from the Fourniers.
But it was Fournier’s seeming obsession with safety that got him in real trouble. Nobody should have been surprised when Fournier confronted a rowdy group in Laurelhurst Park. In conversations with neighbors and online, Fournier had lamented the dangers he saw in one of the east side’s most affluent neighborhoods. “The Portland Business Alliance, through their SAFE program, in cooperation with Portland Police, and the Parks Department, have succeeded in pushing a large portion of the homeless population from the downtown east across the river,” Fournier wrote on a parks department blog in November 2008. “There has been a large increase in camping, drinking, littering, drug use, sexual activity (used condoms everywhere), and abusive and mentally ill individuals harassing park users.” Fournier felt city officials ignored his concerns. “Pleas made to Southeast Precinct Police and Park Rangers, as well as Mark Warrington, [Parks] Public Safety Manager, have resulted in no improvement or noticeable action,” he continued. “Everybody I have contacted appears to be an apologist for the problems and those who create them, rather than a problem solver for park users and the homeowners in the neighborhood.” So Fournier decided to clean things up himself. On Feb. 20, 2009, he heard yelling and the sound of glass breaking near the park’s pond. Fournier, wearing a uniform, badge and service belt complete with a Taser and handcuffs, sprang into action.
“I believed that a park visitor was possibly being assaulted,” Fournier later wrote. “[I] approached the general area of the noise, to observe the situation, and found myself in the middle of a group of at least six, possibly nine individuals, all wearing black, most partially clad in leather with studs, and several with pentagrams on their backs.” Fournier told the beer-swilling crew to leave the park. “After several of the individuals began approaching me from several directions,” he wrote, “I ordered them to lie down prone on the ground, for my own safety.” All except one of them lay down. That man advanced on him. Fournier unholstered his Taser and shot him. The man later identified in a police report as “Fred Alfredo” fell to the ground. “Ow, what the fuck?” he yelled. Fournier handcuffed another of the men and waited for police to arrive. For the moment, by his standards, he was a hero. After the Taser incident, Fournier faxed a three-page “incident report” to the East Precinct, using the clipped language cops favor. He did admit to excessive zeal. “There was a question as to whether I had exceeded my authority,” Fournier wrote of the Taser incident. “[I] will modify my procedures and response in the future to include observation and reporting to police dispatch.” Parks officials banned Fournier from CONT. on page 18
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BAD NEIGHBOR
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CONT.
Laurelhurst Park for 30 days for carrying and using a Taser on park grounds. But before that exclusion went into effect, police responded to another incident, this one at the park’s community center. “Upon arrival, I observed a black and white Crown Victoria [the standard model for police cars] with a badge on the door (decal),” wrote the responding officer. “Fournier was standing beside this car flagging me down. Fournier was wearing a dark uniform and jacket with a badge and duty belt.” Fournier told the officer he’d seen a homeless man sleeping in the park and told him he’d have to leave by the 10 pm closing time. When the man failed to leave the park, Fournier called the police. Soon after that incident, his exclusion from the park went into effect. Fournier turned his vigilance to other neighborhood hot spots. Just before 8 am on Oct. 14, 2009, Fournier saw Bob Bullock, a cameraman for KATU TV Channel 2, taping outside Laurelhurst Elementary, which one of Fournier’s two children attended. Fournier told Bullock to stop filming and attempted to block his view by moving his SUV in front of Bullock’s camera. Bullock showed Fournier his KATU identification, but Fournier ignored it. Fournier flashed a badge and “called me a ‘fucking stupid, fucking loser reporter,’” Bullock wrote in a now-pending lawsuit. “[Fournier] then swung his hand at me striking the camera twice, which I was holding while filming. “[Fournier] then grabbed the camera and knocked me to the ground. With [Fournier] over the top of me, I remained on the ground. [Fournier] then held me down with his foot pressed violently against my chest cavity.” (Bullock captured much of the incident with his camera. Watch the footage at wweek.com.) Police arrested Fournier and charged him with felony assault, criminal mischief and impersonating a police officer (for flashing a badge). Fournier told police he feared Bullock was a predator lurking to videotape children, an explanation that made little sense given that he had seen Bullock’s KATU identification and called him a “reporter,” as tape of the incident reveals. Fournier was convicted of assault and sentenced to four days in jail and two years of probation. That conviction cost Fournier his fledgling security business. On Oct. 15, 2009, the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which licenses security firms, yanked Fournier’s certification. Not long after cutting down the rhododendrons in early 2011, Fournier and his family fled Laurelhurst for Southeast Portland. “The neighbors ran us out,” he would later say.
On Feb. 19, 2010, a limited liability company registered to Fournier’s parents’ California address paid $735,000 for an elegant 1905 Old Portland-style home in Ladd’s Addition. There is no mortgage recorded with the sale, which suggests the Fourniers paid cash for the 4,700-square-foot home. As in Laurelhurst, Fournier decorated elaborately for Halloween. He also began a series of projects: He sunk 10-foot fence posts, hanging security lights on some; he bulldozed the backyard and tore out interior steps. He got into disputes with homeowners next door and across the street, says Jenny Myrick, who lived next door to Fournier in Ladd’s Addition. “I think what happened here is part of a pattern,” says Myrick,
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parklanemattresses.com who says Fournier would talk to her for hours while she worked on her garden. “Peter had problems with everybody. He was at odds with everyone in front of his house, beside it and behind.” Former neighbors in Lake Oswego, where Fournier lived from 2001 through 2006, recall similar behavior. There, he clashed with city officials over a fence and ran afoul of city code when he dotted his 2.3-acre property with about 100 John Kerry signs in 2004. “I remember he started to build a fence. It stopped and stayed in a state of suspended animation for about a year and then disappeared,” says Doug Babb, who lived across the street from Fournier in Lake Oswego. “He was known at the local coffee shop as the ‘Coffee Bomber,’ because he allegedly threw a cup of coffee at somebody during a political argument.” Today, Fournier has fled Ladd’s Addition, too. His house there sold July 6 for $660,000, a loss of $75,000. Meanwhile, the Laurelhurst property remains on the market for $1.8 million. The “For Sale” sign in front is rapidly disappearing into the
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C O U R T E S Y O F K AT U
PLAN OF ATTACK: Peter Fournier confronts KATU’s Bob Bullock.
grass, and a 1979 Chevy pickup, registered to a man who, prior to becoming Fournier’s caretaker, lived in a camper parked on various streets in the neighborhood, occupies the driveway. A few blocks away on East Burnside Street, Kristine Bitar Wilkins, who grew up in the house, runs the Bitar family property business with her husband, Michael. Friends keep them posted on the goings-on at the Bitar mansion, but the Wilkinses cannot bring themselves to drive by. “My wife is so sick about what happened to the house she can’t talk about it anymore,” says Michael Wilkins. “It’s not just a foreclosure, it’s a tragedy.” And Peter Fournier? He’s moved on, across the river, to a new neighborhood...in Southwest Portland.
beaverton • clackamas • gresham • hazel dell hillsboro • lake oswego • tualatin • vancouver
F O O D
and D R I N K
page 22
PRESENTspace Gallery 939 NW GLISAN July 7 – 30, 2011
July 21, 5 – 6 pm Artist Talk with Erik Ferguson: “A Wobbly Line: from Improv to Ink and Back Again.” A free event! July 26, 7 – 9 pm ADA 21ST BIRTHDAY PARTY! The Americans with Disabilities Act turns 21 and we are throwing a celebration to mark it. At the door tickets are $21 for two. For discount tickets go to A Somewhat Secret Place Facebook Event page. July 30, 12 – 2 pm – Artist Talk and storytelling with Joy Corcoran “FEEDING THE DRAGON” A storytime that will nurture children’s appetite for the arts, and inform children about people with disabilities A free event! Children must be chaperoned. July 30, 6 – 9 pm Closing Party: A performance by Elie Charpentier and several author readings will celebrate the conclusion of the exhibition. A free event with refreshments!
asomewhatsecretplace.wordpress.com Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK: Tofu and beef broth, together at last. MUSIC: Most likely to rock. THEATER: Jay Horton boldly goes... BOOKS: This rose needs some thorns. MOVIES: Some toplessness is better than others.
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SCOOP DISMOUNTING FROM THE ZESTY PONY.
V O Y A E X P L
O
IT’S OK WITH US: Looks like director Azazel Jacobs has caught the Portland bug. After filming Terri, written by Portland novelist Patrick deWitt, he’s collaborating with deWitt on a second screenplay—and has just finished co-writing an adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s 1935 story “Spanish Blood” with Gill Dennis, a Portlander best known for penning the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line. Line “Something in the air in Portland, I guess, right?” Jacobs tells WW. WW “I very much have been in love with Chandler and Hammett, and have wanted to be in that world for a long time.” Jacobs says casting will soon begin for Spanish Blood, Blood which is about a detective investigating a politician’s murder: “I’m looking for my Elliott JACOBS Gould,” the director says.
T
A
R
BENEATH THE HISTORIC
RIALTO POOL ROOM
4th & Alder Downtown Portland
Wednesday • July 20th Lily Wilde Quartet. Swing/Jazz 8pm, $3
Thursday • July 21st
“Call of the Witty” Comedy Showcase/Improv with Arlo Stone. 9pm, free
Friday • July 22nd
Shut up and DANCE! DJ Gregarious 10pm, $3
Saturday • July 23rd
Subterranean Soul Dance. DJ Drew Groove 10pm, free
Every Monday:
Shanrock Trivia 8pm, free
COMING SOON:
Seantos Showdown! Don’t miss Portland’s hottest new variety/talk show. Every last Thursday.
OPEN NIGHTLY AT 7 FOR COCKTAIL HOUR 529 SW 4th Ave Portland Oregon 20
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
CLASSICAL DEPARTURES: Third Angle New Music Ensemble is performing in Chiang Mai at the Thailand International Composition Festival. And Cappella Romana was just invited to take its Byzantine music back to the country of its origin, Greece, for two performances in September. One departure, however, will be much lamented: Executive director Katie Taylor has left Opera Theater Oregon. The low-budget company has successfully courted younger and more diverse audiences through a combination of low ticket prices, popculture references (like last year’s Baywatch-style version of Wagner’s Rheingold), and beer available during performances. “After five years on the pony—the zesty, prancing pony that is OTO—I’ve decided it’s time for me to step down,” Taylor’s announcement read. “I was going to invent a sex scandal (not involving ponies) to explain my departure, but then I remembered that this is Portland, and no one would be likely to care, even if ponies were involved.” OTO Musical Director Erica Melton and Film Division Director Jen Wechsler will assume Taylor’s duties. FOOD + BOOZE: It’s bar month in Portland! Quimby’s, a bar on Northwest Quimby Street at 19th Avenue with an attached cart pod, opened July 9. Kask, a charcuterie and cheese-centric bar attached to Chris Israel’s Grüner restaurant, opened July 15. Rum Club, a new bar that shares a building and owner with Beaker & Flask, opened July 18, as did RingSide Fish House in the Fox Tower. And Trader Vic’s makes its tiki-triumphal return to Portland on Aug. 1. Cheers. FAREWELL METROPOLIS: And in caped-crusader news, the latest edition of the Superman comic series is set in Portland (Superman #713). The book actually opens in Newberg, where Superman is hanging out in a park having an existential crisis. Later he slips on some thickframed square glasses and hangs out in a Starbucks-esque coffeeshop in the Pearl District. There’s even a panel showing Jamison Square’s kid-clogged fountain. Superman #713 now available for $2.99 at local comic book stores.
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
sTR E eTWAlKers * * S TReetwalKeR s s t ReE T WAL k e rs* * ALLEY 33 TURNS A ROAD INTO A RUNWAY. Portland fashion can be baffling—at least judging from the hodgepodge of hiking boots, cycling shorts and painstakingly planned thrifted ensembles you see sauntering down our city’s sidewalks. But on Saturday, nearly 20 homegrown designers are literally using our streets as their runway for the Alley 33 Fashion Show, an event that will convert the skinny alley at Southeast 33rd Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard into a hotspot for fashionistas like Amai Unmei, Dress Up Alice and Rio Wrenn’s R.A.W. Textiles. The event’s producers say the show is an opportunity to increase community awareness about the positive impact of designers who produce handmade garments in small batches. “Fashion by its nature, in Portland, is a little bit exclusive. We were like: Let’s bring this directly to the community,” says event co-producer Cassie Ridgway, who owns adjacent local art and design shop Mag-Big. It couldn’t get more direct than this: A 45-foot raised runway will extend the length of the alley, with silk canopies and textiles from designers stretched between buildings. In true Portland style, there will even be a beer garden run by nearby bar Gold Dust Meridian. “It’s pretty magical,” says Ridgway. “This is about having a fashion show that is totally in the public space.” NATASHA GEILING. GO: The Alley 33 Fashion Show takes place in the alley at Southeast 33rd Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard. 4 pm doors, 6 pm show Saturday, July 23. $10. Tickets and info at hawthornefashionshow. wordpress.com.
WILLAMETTE WEEK
HEADOUT
THURSDAY, JULY 21 [MOVIES] MISSILE TO THE MOON The parking-garage al fresco cinema of Top Down begins with Filmusik performing a live soundtrack to the 1959 cheeseball epic of ladies who launch. Hotel deLuxe parking garage, corner of Southwest 15th Avenue and Yamhill Street. 8 pm. $9. [THEATER] JAW Portland Center Stage’s playwright workshop is back, culminating this weekend in eight free performances at the Gerding Theater. 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700, pcs.org. 4 and 8 pm Thursday-Sunday. Free, advance reservations required. [STORIES] BACK FENCE PDX Stories from lawyer Dayvid Figler, Loose Girl author Kerry Cohen, 12-year-old drummer Lucinda Jane Holscher and more. Proceeds benefit Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., backfencepdx.com. 7:30 pm Thursday. $15. 21+.
SATURDAY, JULY 23 [MUSIC] THURSTON MOORE, KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS Rather than overpriced nostalgia from a rock veteran on the reunion circuit, tonight promises an engaging batch of new solo material from Moore. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 9 pm. $20. 21+. [FOOD] FIRST ANNUAL KENNY & ZUKE’S PICKLE THROWDOWN Gorge on Portland’s briny best, including goods from Olympic Provisions, Picklopolis, Garden State, Biwa, Grüner and more. All admission proceeds go to the Oregon Food Bank. Kenny and Zuke’s SandwichWorks, 2376 NW Thurman St., 222-3354. Noon-5 pm. $5.
SUNDAY, JULY 24 [MUSIC] YUCK, UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Both Yuck (from London) and Unknown Mortal Orchestra (from Portland by way of New Zealand) have ascended to their current renown on tidal forces of buzz strong enough to level a coastline. In both cases, these best-kept secrets are more than deserving of the hype. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
TUESDAY, JULY 26 [MOVIES] BULLET BALLET: JOHN WOO HONG KONG ACTION DOUBLE FEATURE Hong Kong director John Woo’s kinetic action sequences have far too often been described as balletic, when what they resemble more than anything is a Rube Goldberg machine—albeit one made of tender meat and bullets. Here’s Hard-Boiled and The Killer. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 7:15 and 9:30 pm. $7. Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK = WW Pick. Highly recommended.
WIN TICKETS TO
PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20-$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: KELLY CLARKE. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
THURSDAY, JULY 21 SCAN TO ENTER
8.06 @ HAWTHORNE BRIDGE GO TO WWEEK.COM/PROMOTIONS
Bastas Tuscan Pig Roast
Marco Frattaroli has been roasting up pigs and carving them tableside for special family-style feasts at Bastas since the early ’90s, so it’s about time you experienced one of his juicy porkers for yourself. KELLY CLARKE. Bastas, 410 NW 21st Ave., 274-1572. 6:30 pm. $60 includes wine and gratuity. Call to reserve your seat.
SATURDAY, JULY 23 Kenny & Zuke’s Pickle Throwdown
Kenny & Zuke’s gather Portland’s briny best, including goods from Olympic Provisions, Picklopolis, Garden State, Biwa, Grüner and more, for a giant pickle tasting. A panel of judges including Storm Large will pick the top pickle but all tasters get to lobby for the People’s Choice award. KC. Kenny & Zuke’s SandwichWorks, 2376 NW Thurman St., 222-3354. Noon-5 pm. $5. All ages.
Migration Brewers’ Feud
Local breweries Migration and Amnesia pit some of the city’s best beerheads, from Upright Brewing to Saraveza and Horse Brass crews,
as well as unwitting bystanders, against each other in a hops- and booze-centric game of Family Feud. KC. Migration Brewing, 2828 NE Glisan St., 753-7572. 2 pm. Free.
Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea
A gaggle of local businesses go Wonderland this Saturday for a “Mad Hatter” tea party—complete with adult tea concoctions, parlor games, tiny bites and “mischief.” It’s going down at community supported kitchen Salt, Fire & Time, which will serve goods like chilled cherry-nectarine soup and potted salmon-violet-pickled zucchini tea sandwiches while artisans like Steve Smith Teas, Alma chocolates and Liza Rietz show off their wares. KC. Salt, Fire & Time, 1902 NW 24th Ave., 208-2758. 2 pm. $25 includes food and games. Call or visit saltfireandtime.com/products-page/ changing-menu/mad-hatters-afternoon-tea-july-23rd to reserve a seat.
TUESDAY, JULY 26 Fred Eckhardt Beer & Cheese Tasting
Ten microbrews paired with 10 gourmet cheeses at one dinner presided over by the nation’s best beer writers/gurus. KC. Rogue Ales Public House, 1339 NW Flanders St., 222-5910. 5 pm. $30 advance, $35 door ($25 Rogue Nation members). Call for tickets.
JACOB GARCIA
DEVOUR
JULY 22-24 FREE! ALL AGES!
MIO SEAFOOD MARKET
REFUGEPDX
SE 2ND AND YAMHILL
The eight Portland-area outlets of Sonny Kim’s Mio Sushi empire go through a lot of fish any given day—so much so that the chain buys its sashimi fodder in very, very large quantities, and distributes the fish to its restaurants from a Slabtown neighborhood warehouse. If you’ve got the space and the fish, why not just run a fish counter? Kim did just that, quietly opening Mio Seafood Market one month ago. “Besides Newman’s [Fish Market], there’s nowhere around here to buy good fish,” said counterman Brian Heyman, a veteran of Newman’s venerable Eugene operation. “It works great for us, because we’ve got eight restaurants to use whatever we don’t sell, so there’s no loss whatsoever.” Indeed, the fish is very fresh—big, bright fillets of salmon, lingcod and striped martin shining under the glass, without a bit of ice (which would be necessary to cover up odor) in sight. The Market also carries some pre-cut sashimi from the restaurants, along with all the ingredients you’ll need to make your own rolls (nori, fish roe, udon and soba noodles) and some very inexpensive vegetables (avocados for $1.50 a pound.). But what really caught my eye were the sardines, which, at $2.49 per pound seemed too good to be true. “They’re great right now,” Heyman explained. “[Tuna fishermen] fish them on the way out, then use them as bait on the way back to shore.” Well, consider me hooked. BEN WATERHOUSE. Mio wants you to make your own sushi.
AND AND AND ARCHERS BLOOD BEACH BLOUSE BRAINSTORM THE CHICHARONES CLASSICAL REVOLUTION PDX CLOAKS DIESTO DUSU MALI E*ROCK EXTRALONE EZZA ROSE GOLDEN RETRIEVER GUIDANCE COUNSELOR HAUSU HOLY SONS JARED MEES & THE GROWN CHILDREN KAREN KELLI SCHAEFER LIVING PROOF LOCH LOMOND LOST LANDER LOVERS THE MINDERS MONARQUES MUSEE MECANIQUE NASALROD NURSES ONUINU PALO VERDE PORT ST. WILLOW PURPLE & GREEN RADIATION CITY RESERVATIONS ROLLERBALL STLS WATER TOWER BUCKET BOYS WEINLAND WILD ONES WITCH MOUNTAIN WIZARD RIFLE THE WOOLEN MEN YEAH GREAT FINE
ppn.oregonmusicnews.com
GO: Mio Seafood Market, 1703 NW 16th Ave., 972-1140, miosushi.com. 9 am-6 pm Monday-Saturday. 22
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
FOOD & DRINK TIM GUNTHER
REVIEW
Shandong cuisine of northern china
fresh ingredients • prepared daily • a new look at classic dishes 3724 ne broadway portland or 97232 503.287.0331 shandongportland.com
open daily 11-2:30 lunch 4-9:30 dinner happy hour specials 4-6
SEOUL FOOD: Sizzling hot stone-pot bibimbap at So Kong Dong.
YOU GOT YOUR TOFU IN MY BBQ! the best rendition is packed with briny oysters, clams and big shrimp. It’s served with a raw egg, too. Crack it directly into the bowl, creating fluffy clumps of egg and a creamier broth as you stir it in. Order an SKD Combo, and you can pair BY K E L LY C L A R K E kclarke@wweek.com that soon tofu with a respectable sizzling plate At So Kong Dong Tofu & BBQ, you hear your food of pork, beef or chicken bulgogi ($12.95-$13.95 before you see it. The hiss-spit-sizzle of broth lunch, $13.95-$15.95 dinner). The namesake barbecue, which you cook and meat hitting hot stone and grill tops fills the space all day long. The Korean restaurant took yourself on a grill embedded in your table and over the Banh Cuon Tan Dinh space in the 82nd dip in spicy soy/ginger/sesame sauce, is good— Avenue Fubonn complex last year, and has been especially the fatty pork loin. The smallest combo serving face-meltingly hot stone bowls of spicy is $44.95 for two people but can feed four, thanks tofu stew and mountains of tabletop barbecue to to the tasty vegetable-packed soybean soup, fluffy shoppers ever since. steamed egg bowl, rice and banchan (assorted Korean grub is still a relative rarity on Port- side dishes like kimchi and bean-sprout salad) land’s east side, compared to the legions of pho that come with each order. One server mentioned that SKD’s American customjoints or Thai and Chinese restaurants that crowd its Order this: Seafood soon tofu ($8.95); ers are partial to the cold, roasted potatoes dressed outskirts. While SKD’s plates stone pot bibimbap ($10.95). aren’t as transformative as Best deal: The crunchy seafood pancake with honey that often show is big enough to share; and it the goods at Beaverton and ($13.95) up as free banchan. He’s right. tastes good cold from the fridge the Hillsboro spots like Jang next day. Those suckers are addictive. But although playing with Choong Dong Wang Jok Bal, I’ll pass: By itself, the bulgogi is underits hearty fare is always well whelming; get the SKD combo with tofu. tongs and fire is fun, it’s far easier to heat things up with prepared and incredibly comforting—like some Midwestern family din- the stone-pot bibimbap ($10.95). The Korean ner amped up with smoky chili pepper paste. The standby asks diners to mix little piles of hot staff is kind and willing to explain to you which beef, cucumber, bean sprouts, mushrooms and sauce goes with what dish and why you’re getting other veggies atop rice with, again, a raw egg and a pair of scissors with your barbecue. a healthy squeeze from a bottle simply marked There’s an excellent simple mackerel ($12.95), “bibimbap sauce” (think of it as spicy chili ketchserved grilled and dressed with lemon, and a up). The stone pot, or dolsot, actually toasts the crunchy, feather-light seafood pancake bursting rice into a crunchy mat of grains as you eat, lendwith long scallions and nubbins of squid ($13.95) ing a complex, charred flavor to each mouthful. and other sea critters. But the soon tofu ($8.95) You will burn your tongue at least once as you is the unexpected star of the menu. The slippery, eat this. And you will not care. After all, your dincustardy tofu is served in one of those super-hot ner didn’t hiss-spit-sizzle for nothing. stone bowls, bobbing in a rich, spicy beef-bone broth that takes the kitchen two days to boil up. EAT: So Kong Dong, 2850 SE 82nd Ave., No. 11, 808-9990. Lunch and dinner 11 am-10 pm daily. You can order the soup with pork or beef, but $-$$.
UPCOMING EVENTS
AT SO KONG DONG, HOT TOFU AND MEAT LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER.
> JUL 22
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> AUG 11-14
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> AUG 26
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
MUSIC
MUSIC
JULY 20 - 26
FESTIVAL GUIDE
PDX POP NOW! YEARBOOK, 2011 A HANDY PRIMER TO OUR FAVORITE ALL-LOCAL, ALL-AGES, ALL-FREE MUSIC FEST. BY C AS E Y JA R M A N
cjarman@wweek.com
Some things have changed for PDX Pop Now! this year: The festival tries out a new venue, Southeast Portland warehouse/club Refuge, and debuts an extremely solid lineup that lacks some of the star power of previous years. The first change promises to be a good one: Refuge’s indoor stage can hold a crowd of 700 to 800, a marked improvement over last year’s pre-makeover Branx venue, while remaining centrally located. The second change is a bit trickier—and certainly not intentional. Honestly, though? We kind of like the fact that this year’s PDX Pop lineup functions as a pretty direct representation of what’s bubbling up from beneath this city’s musical surface. From Jared Mees and the Grown Children’s opening set to the Sunday night Guidance Counselor dance party closer, this year’s class is packed to the gills with talent. The following eight acts are ones to watch, to be sure, but the best PDX Pop Now! moments usually happen when you least expect them.
Most Likely to Succeed: Radiation City (4:10 pm Sunday) With apologies to up-and-coming acts like Archers, Blouse and Onuinu, this one is sort of an easy call. Sure, Radiation City is talented and good-looking, but there’s a lot of substance here, too. Debut record The Hands That Take You is a superb effort that channels early Band of Horses sparkle and that coolly futuristic Blonde Redhead vibe. RC’s new fleshed-out live band makes things extra slick in concert—it has already recorded an album’s worth of new material, we hear—and a record deal with local hotshit boutique label Tender Loving Empire can only spell good things. Most Popular: Nurses (11:50 pm Saturday) While PDX Pop Now!’s 2011 lineup is incredibly strong, this isn’t one of those years where everyone is standing around waiting for the nationally renowned headliner to take the stage. But the lovely, danceable and atmospheric Nurses—who tied with Blind Pilot for second in WW’s 2009 Best New Band Poll—are as well-loved as any act playing the fest. Nurses’ next record, Dracula, drops in September, so expect new tracks tonight. This will be special. Best Dressed: The Chicharones (11:30 pm Friday) The Chicharones were a late addition to PDX Pop Now!, replacing the nixed set from Tre Slim of the Pharcyde. Lucky for us, the PDX trio (Sleep, Josh Martinez and DJ Zone) is also quite fashionable. Whether the occasion calls for James Bond-style suits, matching wife-beaters or Mario and Luigi outfits, Portland’s best live hip-hop act always brings the right tools for the job. You can also expect stupid human tricks and Martinez’s excellent New Jack Swing-era dance moves to complete the look. Valedictorian: Classical Revolution PDX (6:15 pm Sunday) Classical Revolution PDX is not only trying to change the perception of its musical namesake, but it’s perhaps the only act on the PPN! lineup with its own manifesto: “We love classical music. We love playing classical music. We love listening to classical music. We are tired of the elitist and inaccessible nature of the classical world.” There are similar outfits in San Francisco, Berlin and Amsterdam, but a PDX Pop Now! performance is exactly the kind of set this group needs to prove its point. Best Pep Squad: STLS (6:40 pm Friday) STLS, which features Kickball/Explode Into Colors drummer Lisa Schonberg and STS (Cadallaca, the Haggard), is all about the drums. I mean, it is literally
just a bunch of drums, those two players and their occasional hoot or holler. Of course, these are two of Portland’s most talented musicians—somehow they weave melody beneath the surface of their drum-’n’drums arrangements, and they prefer to leave the drum stools at home to make for a more compelling visual performance than one would imagine. Really, though, what do you need to make you dance your ass off? Drums. You just need drums. Friendliest Fellows: The Minders (10:15 pm Friday) Martyn Leaper has an adorable smile. And when the Minders’ frontman talks—with the ghost of his childhood in England following him around as an accent—it’s usually to say something nice. His recently re-formed pop group isn’t just endlessly catchy and crafty, it’s full of nice guys: Ex-Shins drummer Jesse Sandoval is always smiling, even when he’s serving you hot sopapillas at his food cart, Nuevo Mexico; ex-Shaky Hands bassist Mayhaw Hoons gets nervous and has to take walks before shows; and guitarist Andy Naify bears striking resemblance to Elliott Smith, so you know he’s nice. Super Seniors: Witch Mountain (11:10 pm Saturday) While experimental act Rollerball is technically the longest-running band in the PDX Pop lineup, metal outfit Witch Mountain celebrates its 14th anniversary this week. But don’t think the Maiden- and Sabbathloving quartet is slowing with age: Witch Mountain plays a total of three shows this weekend, including two on Saturday night. Current vocalist Uta Plotkin is a relatively new addition to the group, but she has some old-school chops that meld nicely with guitarist Rob Wrong’s chugging and shredding and (WW contributor) Nate Carson’s furious drumming. Most Studious: Archers (1:25 pm Saturday) It’s not just that Archers’ brief 2011 discography is only available on 7-inch and cassette, or that the local rock quintet resembles the Jam or Attractionsera Elvis Costello more than it does anything going on in the Northwest these days; Archers has a spirit that’s rare in the contemporary indie-rock world, too. In the best possible way, these guys don’t give a shit. The vocals are often a little flat, and the live shows can get sloppy, but Archers knows rock ’n’ roll isn’t about getting it right, it’s about keeping it raw. Like Huey Lewis always says: The fucking heart of fucking rock and roll is still fucking beating. SEE IT: PDX Pop Now! runs from 6 pm Friday to 11 pm Sunday, July 22-24, at Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. Free. Amazing. All ages. Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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VISUAL ARTS 13 topless bartenders and 70 dancers each week! Open Every Day 11am to 2:30am
GALLERY LISTINGS AND MORE!
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www.CasaDiablo.com (503) 222-6600 • 2839 NW St. Helens Rd
BOOKS BOOKS, LECTURES AND MORE!
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WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY
FRIDAY, JULY 22
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. 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. Editor: CASEY JARMAN. 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. Fax: 243-1115.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 20
THURSDAY, JULY 21
David Wax Museum, Real Vocal String Quartet, The Unbande
Animal Farm, Destro & L Pro, Theory Hazit, Serge Severe, DJ Wels, DJ Spark
[SOUTH OF THE BORDERS] Longtime NPR darlings and break-out sensations from SXSW and the Newport Folk Festival for their fresh-faced post-grad rendition of traditional Mexican idioms, David Wax Museum— David Wax on jarana, companion Sue Slezak on donkey (sigh) jawbone— blends the insufferable condescension of world music’s aural tourism with the cutesy self-obsessions blessed by indie folk. Recently released second album Everything (siiigh) Is Saved shall doubtless be playing wherever frothy, over-sugared, organically harvested vegan lattes are sold. JAY HORTON. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 7:30 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show (Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian). All ages.
Memory Tapes, Sleep Over
[BORE-NO-MORE] I wouldn’t have predicted, a few years back, that the next big trend in underground music would be super boring, sleepy pop songs—but that’s certainly the direction things are headed. But it makes sense: The gaudy, disgustingly catchy faux-futurism of Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas provide a month’s rations of sugary hooks in one threeminute pop song, so those of us prone to radio migraines take solace in the James Blakes and Bon Ivers of the world to chill out. And we used to turn to Memory Cassette, too, until Davye Hawke combined his old shoegazey electro project (kind of sounded like Starfucker if the beats never kicked in) with his beat-oriented Weird Tapes project to create Memory Tapes. It started off kind of slow and soothing (see 2009 full-length Seek Magic) and has upped the caffeine-to-OxyContin ratio on new disc Player Piano, which retains some floaty qualities while rocking out now and again. I’m not sure any of this translates well to the live show, wherein Hawke’s vocals— confessional and sweet on record— sound a tad twee and the rock-out moments ruin the mood. I guess we’ll just have to look for some new boring bands to enjoy. CASEY JARMAN. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 2319663. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
Abadawn, Eddie Valiant, Start Fires, Hives Inquiry Squad, DJ Gwizski, DJ Zone
[WILD RAP] Portland’s Abadawn is at his best when he’s letting it all hang out. Though there are some fine lyrical twists and turns on the more traditional hip-hop cuts from his new record, Deadication (see opener “Supernova” and the slightly spacedout “Pointlessness”), it’s the more sonically courageous fare (“Go It Alone” is a smart, unsettling collaboration with the Sexbots’ Ilima Considine; the awkwardly slow beat of “Rare One” forces both Aba and iAMe to stretch their flows in a really intriguing way). It’s a solid effort from Abadawn, signaling that his skills as an MC have progressed admirably and he’s not just the little brother of the Portland hip-hop scene these days. That said, we’re still waiting for Aba to channel the game-changing punk/hip-hop fusion of his Kill Party live shows into a new record. That’s the future. CASEY JARMAN. Rotture, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
[HIP-HOP HOORAY] As Portlanders, we know that only two things in life are certain, and will inevitably come calling for us sooner or later: death and New York City. Luckily it’s the latter that came calling for Animal Farm’s Gen.Erik, who is jumping ship for the Big Apple, home of his client Rob Swift and all the intoxicating hip-hop history a true head could ever want. But tonight’s show is also a celebration—with what will likely be the last Animal Farm set in a long while and an appearance from L Pro, who drops a new music video on the audience this evening. You’ll like it—it’s sort of Reservoir Dogs meets Repo Man. But really—farewell, Erik. I’m sure it won’t be long before half of Portland is crashing on your couch. CASEY JARMAN. Ted’s (ex-Berbati’s Pan), 19 SW 2nd Ave., 226-2122. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Dusks Embrace, Way of the Yeti, Von Doom, Southgate
See album review, page 32 . Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 7 pm. $12. All ages.
Melville, Eddie Cohn, Always-Already
[SINGER-SONGWRITER POP] In a perfect world, Eddie Cohn would be a rock drummer. But at the age of 12, a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis forced him to forgo his dreams of being the next Keith Moon. Still itching with a need to be heard, the L.A. native has since turned himself into a pop singer-songwriter of some weight. His latest self-released album, Stay With Me, bubbles over with downtempo beats, the restrained pulse of his piano playing, and his stirring croon that he melts all over his lyrics of love, loss and pain. ROBERT HAM. Ella Street Social Club, 714 SW 20th Place, 227-0116. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
Dusu Mali Band
[MALIBEAT] In a town where African funk is often mistaken for jam-band fodder, Portland sextet Dusu Mali Band—led by Malian native Ibrahim Kelly on guitar and vocals—is a standout, and not only because the band isn’t stoked with bearded hippie faces. But horn-driven Afrobeat this isn’t. The band’s debut full-length, Doni Doni Che Be Jdimi, is driven by frantic polyrhythmic beats, spacey synth and some surprisingly well-placed blues and rock riffs. It’s a funked-out fusion that only gets better live, and further proof that Dusu Mali is the band to watch for worldly listeners who like to get down. AP KRYZA. Goodfoot Lounge, 2845 SE Stark St., 239-9292. 9 pm. $6. 21+.
Your Canvas, Yours, Desert Noises, Gratitillium
[SUBTLY ’60s] Local three-piece Your Canvas takes just the right amount of inspiration—and just the right elements—from early-’60s rock, from the twinkle of baroque keyboard on “Are You Scared” to the pining, girl-groupevoking lyrics on “Telephone” (“Wake up/ I’m always alone/ Sleeping next to my telephone/ No calls from you”). The band, which releases its debut LP, Real and Imagined, tonight, displays tasteful, somewhat coy reserve in its songs, keeping the winking retro references from ever feeling shticky. Come early to have your “I saw them when” moment with on-the-up Portland psych-rockers Yours. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8 pm. $5. 21+.
PROFILE SCOTLANDBARR.COM
MUSIC
Pink Mountaintops, Pete Intl Airport
[HOMEMADE HALLUCINOGENS] When he’s not melting faces with Canadian psychedelic prog-stoners Black Mountain, Stephen McBean is frying brains all on his own under the name Pink Mountaintops. Taking the trippier elements of his main band and giving them a gauzy, lo-fi treatment, his first two solo records came across as nice but ultimately diversionary downtime bedroom projects. With 2009’s Outside Love, however, McBean took a step toward legitimacy with a bigger sound—dipped liberally in Jesus and Mary Chain-esque dream fuzz— and greater emotional heft. MATTHEW SINGER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Cold Cave, Austra, Dangerous Boys Club
[SYNTH POP] They say donning clashing shades of black is unbecoming, sartorially gauche, but tonight’s abridged survey of the Stygian end of the synthpop spectrum gives the lie to that rule. You’ve got Cold Cave’s funereal lewdness, shiny and black as a goth teen’s fingernails, dumb and fun as a wad of bubblegum; the fragile vastness of Austra’s lunar melancholy, which evokes the blasted, unvarnished black of deep space as reflected in the eyes of Kate Bush; and the dank, noisy dark of Dangerous Boys Club, a humid, palpable black that surrounds bodies in sticky congress. I’m guessing you don’t need me to tell you what to wear. CHRIS STAMM. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
Witch Mountain, Fist Fite, The Guild
See music feature, page 25. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. $3. 21+.
TV on the Radio, Menomena
[SMART ROCK] For all the grief we here at WW give to blog-world superstars and overnight buzz-bands, the Internet era probably has a better track record for sniffing out talent than the major-label era ever did. And sometimes, just sometimes, Pitchfork and its ilk anoint a band to stardom that absolutely deserves all the fuss. TV on the Radio is one of those bands: From the Brooklyn quintet’s promising and catchy 2004 Young Liars EP to its latest artrock epic, Nine Types of Light, these guys have always been the real deal— and they have the stage show to back up their increasingly ambitious studio recordings. Nothing sounds quite like TVOTR, but comparisons to luminaries as disparate as David Bowie and Prince aren’t terribly off-base: This is that rare group that challenges itself at each new turn and has the chops (and the heart) to pull an audience in any direction it chooses to go. And, holy shit, Menomena opens. CASEY JARMAN. McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale, 669-8610. 6:30 pm. $34 advance, $38 day of show. All ages.
PDX Pop Now!: And And And, The Chicharones, Golden Retriever, The Minders and more
See music feature, page 25. See music calendar, page 37, for complete lineup. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. 6 pm. Free. All ages.
Katy Perry, Robyn, DJ Skeet Skeet
[POP PRINCESSES] Ah, Katy Perry: She of the heaving bosom, doeish eyes, and chirpy pop tunes that toy with sexual and romantic mores. Here she comes to Portland, dragging with her a crate full of outlandish costumes that showcase her curvaceous body and a candycolored stage set that will threaten to dwarf the diminutive singer. Fans should arrive with time to spare so as not to miss the opening set by Sweden’s finest musical export, Robyn. Another tiny woman with a big voice, this blond and beautiful Scandinavian messes with the formula of pop by running it through a skein of pinging electro and loopy hiphop. ROBERT HAM. Rose Garden, 1401 N Wheeler Ave., 235-8771. 7:30 pm. $25$45. All ages.
CONT. on page 29
THE SLOW DRAGS, PICTURED WITH SCOTLAND BARR (1965-2009)
THE SLOW DRAGS, SATURDAY, JULY 23 [PORTLANDICANA] The title of the new, posthumous release from Portland singersongwriter Scotland Barr and his band, the Slow Drags, We Will Be Forgotten, seems to revel in its lack of sentimentality. It’s surely a contrarian name for a final musical testament. But Barr (a.k.a. Scott Barr Moritz, also the founder of westside eatery Salvador Molly’s and creator of Secret Aardvark Hot Sauce) conceived of the so-named song as his next album’s title track immediately upon writing it, well before his September 2008 diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. When assembling the new release following Barr’s death a year later, the band—with input from Barr’s widow, Stacy Moritz—wrestled with the question of whether to adhere to what Barr would have released had he lived, or to deal frankly with the fact that much of the project was incomplete by the time Barr died. While Barr had always planned the album as a double, the band ultimately chose to put all 11 songs with Barr’s vocals on one disc and the eight unfinished tracks on the other. It’s an effective way of organizing the material, establishing Barr’s personality before throwing the band in relief without it. As with the use of negative space in art, the second disc is a work defined by absence. But whether he’s physically present on a track or not, Barr’s singular lyrical voice keeps him in the game. At times, his words define a feeling you’ve had but never expressed; at others, he had the courage not to care if you couldn’t quite get what he was saying. The chorus to “Eyes like L.A.” pairs the title phrase with “Lips just like Japan,” the author steadfastly refusing to say why either facial feature conjures the locale in question, but committing fully to the similes regardless. “Right Where You’re Supposed to Be,” meanwhile, celebrates finding identity and purpose in music performance, its expansive arrangement climaxing in a majestic, go-for-baroque piano solo from Mont Chris Hubbard. Hubbard shines, too, when singing the album’s title song, which begins the second disc, in a sweet, sincere tenor recalling the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris at his most plaintive. “That song was OK with a lighter, softer voice, which mine is—not that gruff, whiskey-stained sound,” says Hubbard—though while recording he imagined Barr watching and plugging his ears with a grin. Other vocalists on Barr’s unfinished songs include familiar Portlandicana practitioners Morgan Geer, Tyler Stenson and Chris Robley, plus close Barr friend and Seattle musician Tony Fulgham and the band’s pedal-steel guitarist, Bryan Daste. The members of the Slow Drags, says Hubbard, are eager to get past the release show—to move on from the long and arduous process of completing Forgotten. But Stacy Moritz, though she’s heard the music and seen the artwork throughout the process, has so far only been able to bring herself to remove the disc’s shrink wrap. She has yet to listen to or look over the finished product, worrying that it might not correspond to Barr’s original vision, unknowable as that may be. There’s a deeper reason, too, why she’s hesitated to sit and listen. Eyes welling, she says, “See, for me, it means there’s no more music.” JEFF ROSENBERG. The Slow Drags soldier on, even without their fallen frontman.
SEE IT: The Slow Drags play Dante’s on Saturday, July 23, with I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch in the House and Steve Wilkinson. 9 pm. $8. 21+. Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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CryStal ballroom
the KillS
SePt. 7 with eleanor Friedberger & mini manSionS doorS 7 Pm
ti c k e o n S tS aLe now !
f aLL o e th e S r e Sa w o Sh g e S! aLL a
roSeland theater butthole SurFerS Sept. 8 with throneS & Dirty ghoSt
blitzen traPPer Sept. 9 with Sharon Van etten & weinLanD DoorS 8 pm
arCherS oF loaF SePt. 8 with Sebadoh & ViVa VoCe doorS 7 Pm
blind Pilot
Sept. 10 with aVi BuffaLo, aLeLa Diane & BLack prairie DoorS 7 pm
Pioneer Stage at Pioneer CourthouSe Square
aladdin theater
iron & wine
CharleS bradley & denniS CoFFey
SePt. 9 with marKéta irgloVá & Sallie Ford & the Sound outSide doorS 3:30 Pm
Sept. 8 with monarqueS DoorS 7 pm
exPloSionS in the SKy
horSe FeatherS
DoorS 8 pm
maCKlemore & ryan lewiS Sept. 9 with ShaBazz paLaceS & txe DoorS 7:30 pm
SePt. 10 with the antlerS, tyPhoon & eluVium
Sept. 9 with Joe pug & anaiS mitcheLL DoorS 8 pm
doorS 2:30 Pm
neuroSiS Sept. 10 with graiLS, yoB & akimBo DoorS 7 pm
band oF horSeS
SePt. 11 with CaSS mCCombS band, morning telePortation & bobby bare Jr doorS 2:30 Pm
Portland Cello ProJeCt Sept. 10 with LifeSaVaS & emiLy weLLS DoorS 7 pm
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
MUSIC
DATES HERE
ARIAN STEVENS
SATURDAY
BUMMED IN THE BARNYARD: Animal Farm plays Ted’s on Thursday, July 21.
SATURDAY, JULY 23 Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Hush Arbors
[SONIC ELDER] Throughout his career with Sonic Youth and as solo artist, Thurston Moore has demonstrated an uncanny ability to make music that is consistently fresh, yet always marked with his seminal sound. His most personal work to date, new record Demolished Thoughts, finds Moore exploring euphoric harmonies and delicate melodies. Moore enlisted longtime friend Beck Hanson to produce the album, and his influence is evident in rich string arrangements and a sophisticated approach to folk that echoes Beck’s 1998 album, Mutations. Unlike many artists touring with three decades of experience under their belts, Moore is no aging rocker reaching for past glory, but a musician who continues to evolve and grow. Rather than overpriced nostalgia from a rock veteran on the reunion circuit, tonight’s show holds the anticipation of an artist with great new music to debut. DEVAN COOK. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 234-9694. 9 pm. $20. 21+.
Scotland Barr & the Slow Drags (Memorial CD Release)
See profile, page 27. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
Lumerians
[ROCK DEMONIC] Psychedelia can be frightening, and Oakland quintet Lumerians thoroughly exploits unease on its March debut, Transmalinnia. Tracks like “Burning Mirrors”—with its fuzzy and repetitive guitar, haunted-house synth and gut-kick bass—could aptly replace Goblin’s work on an old Dario Argento horror flick, while the dreamy “Organ Grinder” sends waves of euphoria over trippedout sonic lulls. Paired with a live show featuring nutso lights and costumed performers, the group is well-loved by folks who aren’t afraid to eat the brown acid. For others, it’s a horror soundtrack without a villain, background noise for nightmares to come. AP KRYZA. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Los Tremelocos
[MEXICAN-AMERICANA] Proud Los Angeleno—don’t hold that against him, Portland—Tony Zamora is the main man behind Los Tremolocos, and the sound of L.A.’s Mexican-American heritage is all over the group’s 2008 debut, Dulcinea, from the classic Latin street rock of Little Willie G and Thee Midnighters to traditional Mexican folk styles to the borderless roots music of Los Lobos, whose Cougar Estrada and David Hildago have performed with the band. But Zamora’s outlook doesn’t stop in Southern California. It also expands out to New Orleans for an interesting fusion of accordion-driven party music that must be labeled Cajun-norteño. When’s the next time you’ll have a chance to hear something like that in the
Pacific Northwest? MATTHEW SINGER. Duff’s Garage, 1635 SE 7th Ave., 234-2337. 9:30 pm. $10. 21+.
Ben Darwish’s Commotion
[ORCHESTRAL FUNK] Whether reimagining Michael Jackson through the ears of Fela Kuti or exploding with any number of local jazz projects, Portland keymaster and composer Ben Darwish is a musical sponge, and he soaks up funk like a steroidal Brawny sheet. With Commotion—Darwish’s long-standing project with guitarist Dan Duval, bassman Sam Howard, drummer Russ Kleiner and an on-call army of guest players— Darwish proudly flaunts his debt to Kuti, Herbie Hancock, 1970s orchestral funk masters and damn near every funk master of the past 40 years. The world-beat and hiphop-infused compositions are, by nature, repetitive. But anyone impressed by skilled musicians holding down a groove and letting the horns do the talking would be hard pressed to find a better live dance party. AP KRYZA. Goodfoot Lounge, 2845 SE Stark St., 2399292. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
Fucked Up
[HARDCORE] Excuse me while I petition whomever is doing sound for Fucked Up: Please let Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham’s vocals get lost in the mix, as I am eager to experience the majesty of this Toronto outfit’s expansive take on hardcore as it should be heard, with a minimum of Abraham’s spotlight-hogging cannonballing. I dig piqued punk gruffness as much as the next guy, but at this point, Abraham’s implacable shtick— imagine Al Pacino robbed of the ability to vocalize anything but his famous “hoo-ah” for the rest of his life—is at increasingly dispiriting odds with his band’s more subtle (and effective) plan of attack. CHRIS STAMM. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 2337100. 9 pm. $15. All ages.
Cults, Guards, Writer
[POSTMODERNISTS] Hopelessly infectious single “Go Outside” sums up everything NYC duo Cults does well: With the band’s lethargic bass lines and flirtatious, Claudette Rogers-inspired vocals, the partnership of vocalist Madeline Follin and guitarist Brian Oblivion is fixated on catchy ’60s pop. On the surface, Cults falls somewhere between a darker, retro version of Tennis and a bandbacked Zooey Deschanel project. Underneath, though, Cults gravitates toward foggy alley ways and wee-hour gatherings, singing of Charles Manson, Edgar Allan Poe and all kinds of mania. MARK STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
PDX Pop Now!: Nurses, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Purple & Green, Dusu Mali and more
See music feature, page 25. See music calendar, page 37, for complete lineup. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. Noon. Free. All ages.
CONT. on page 32 Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSIC P O R T U G A LT H E M A N . C O M
PROFILE
PORTUGAL. THE MAN SATURDAY, JULY 23 [CLASSIC ROCK] As he glanced around the office where his band had just signed its contract with Atlantic Records, looking at the framed photos of his new labelmates hanging on the wall, Portugal. The Man singer-guitarist John Gourley began to sweat. Four years earlier, he’d moved from tiny Wasilla, Alaska, to Portland, trying to figure out how to make a living as a musician. Now, he and his little psych-pop group were sharing roster space with some of the biggest artists in the history of popular music. No shock, then, that the pressure to produce an album worthy of that lineage nearly destroyed the band. In-fighting, too much partying and 4 am shouting matches with producer John Hill dragged a scheduled six-week recording process out to eight months. Ironically, things started to change once Gourley had a talk with Atlantic chairman Craig Kallman. At the end of the meeting, Kallman told Gourley to just go make the album he wanted to make. And that’s what he did. In the Mountain in the Cloud, Portugal’s major-label debut, is a soaring, swaggering record, fusing modern pop hooks with the kick of ’70s glam rock. Here, Gourley shares the albums that shaped not only its creation but the band as a whole. MATTHEW SINGER. The Rolling Stones. Led Zeppelin. Aretha Franklin. Portugal. The Man?
MASTERPATH
®
THE TEACHINGS OF LIGHT AND SOUND
The conventional approach to spirituality instructs us to search for
God and truth outside ourselves (exoteric), whereas the Light and Sound approach instructs us to search for God and truth within ourselves (esoteric). There is a vast difference between the two, of which greater numbers are growing increasingly aware. –– Sri Gary Olsen
Sri Gary Olsen Spiritual Leader of MasterPath
EXOTERIC APPROACH
ESOTERIC APPROACH
Search for God in temples or scriptures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . God, Soul, and Spirit exist inside the body Born in imperfection, forgiving of sin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Born in perfection, resolving of karma Only one incarnation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Multiple incarnations External worship of past Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Attaining your own Self and God Realization Mind is the disciple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Soul is the disciple Morality, forced abstinence, and denial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Moderation and balance in all things Hope of heavenly reward in afterlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heavenly state attained while living Ascended Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Living Master
All sincere seekers are cordially invited to a free introductory talk on the Mysteries of the Divine Spirit, given by a longtime student of MasterPath (includes video presentation). Saturday, June 23rd — 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Clark Public Utilities - Community Room 1200 Fort Vanvouver Way, Vancouver, WA 98663 1:00 - 2:30 pm Introductory Talk (includes video presentation) To receive a free copy of the book Soul’s Divine Journey by Sri Gary Olsen, please visit our website at www.masterpath.org or write to P.O. Box 9035, Temecula, CA 92589-9035 USA 30
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon: Gourley admires Pink Floyd’s ability to scoop up elements from across the musical spectrum and place them beneath its sprawling psychedelic umbrella. “Eventually, we’ll be confident enough to step out and try and do something that actually spans all those things,” he says. Everything by David Bowie: Portugal’s chameleonic growth— from art-rock hodgepodge to widescreen psychedelia to chamber pop—is a direct result of its love for the ever-shape-shifting Bowie. “He’s part of the reason we started the band,” says Gourley, who explains that the group’s odd name is partially a tribute to Ziggy Stardust and the idea of a fictitious alter ego that transcends the artist himself. The Beatles, “The White Album”: When In the Mountain engineer Andy Wallace (Nevermind) received the album, he was tasked with making sense of literally hundreds of layered instruments and melodies. “We talked about ‘The White Album’ because it has these great moments of focus, where it’s almost like you’re at a concert looking around the room: You’re looking at the bassist, now at the guitarist,” Gourley says. “We wanted to see this stuff happen, and that’s how Andy took on the album.” Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers): Growing up, Gourley listened mostly to old soul and watched a lot of kung fu movies. So it’s obvious why Wu-Tang would strike a chord with him. But what he finds really inspiring about the visionary rap crew is their ability to draw in people who aren’t traditional hip-hop fans by just being themselves—a universality he strives to achieve with Portugal. “As tough as they are, I would never say this to their faces,” he says, “but they’re really a bunch of nerds.” SEE IT: Portugal. The Man plays an in-store release show at Music Millennium on Saturday, July 23. 4 pm. Free (purchase the album in advance at Music Millennium for guaranteed admission). All ages.
RAILROAD
EARTH TRAVELIN’ McCOURYS
KELLER
EMMITT NERSHI
GREENSKY BLUEGRASS CORNMEAL ELEPHANT REVIVAL CASCADIA PROJECT
TODD SNIDER &
& THE KEELS
BAND
GREAT AMERICAN TAXI FEATURING VINCE HERMAN
DANNY BARNES with DREW EMMITT and LARRY KEEL
DAROL ANGER, SCOTT LAW, SHARON GILCHRIST,
PETE KARTSOUNES & BENNY “BURLE” GALLOWAY
JACKSTRAW
PERT NEAR SANDSTONE
AND SAMSON GRISMAN
Cascadia Coffeehouse Acoustic Stage!
Fruition, Sugarcane, 4 On The Floor, Left Coast Country, The Scrugglers, and Dust Settlers
3- Day Passes On Sale Now! Upgrade for Early Entry and “Three Band Thursday”!
KIDS!!
Ages 10 and under are free with paying adult. Kids Area Expanded!
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
31
Since 1974
Never a cover!
MUSIC
SATURDAY - SUNDAY
Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Uncle Kracker
Buffalo gap Wednesday, July 20th
“Buffalo Bandstand” (3 live Bands)
presented By: live artist Network Thursday, July 21st • 9pm
TBa
friday, July 22nd • 9pm
Nilika Remi (folk indie)
Saturday, July 23rd • 9pm
Ill lucid onset (alt rock)
Tuesday, July 26th • 9pm
opEN MIC NIgHT
Hosted By: Scott gallegos
WIN $50!! 6835 SW Macadam Ave | John’s Landing
Pe
[CUHNTREE] Ah yes, the dude who sings about how girls think his tractor is sexy. This country superstar is the epitome of what people hate or, in some cases (he’s sold close to 25 million records), love about modern-day country music: shamelessly cheesy stuff you can sing along to after a few beers. Even if you are of the former ilk and think Chesney’s nothing more than a goof in cowboy boots, you have to admit his concerts seem like a good time. Look at it like a NASCAR race: You’d never watch one on TV, but the idea of drinking all day amid overly excited, beautiful, leather-booted women (or rough-’n’-tumble cowboy types) is pretty cool, huh? And, who knows, maybe some of his lyrics, like those of “Better as a Memory”—an apology by Chesney to those he left behind in his quest to be true to himself—will prove that the singer is a touch more talented than you thought. REED JACKSON. Rose Garden, 1401 N Wheeler Ave., 235-8771. 7 pm. $25-$75. All ages.
Advisory, Goddamn Gentlemen, Burning Bridges
[ROCK OF AGES] ’Midst squatter enclaves, tales are whispered of a mighty garage cadre whose raucous, booze-drenched onstage explosions were overshadowed only by the chaotic ferocity of their tunes: Freewheeling, hellfor-leather, Farfisa-fueled forays through the darker alleyways of Northwest proto-punk. Nobody ever expected the Goddamn Gentlemen to continue on forever—though, during those bad old days one would’ve presumed a rather darker fate than members splintering off to school administration, the movie business and an early Floridian retirement. When the band fades to legend after tonight’s final show, we shall tell the children that giants once rocked the earth. JAY HORTON. Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579. 9 pm. Cover. 21+.
SUNDAY, JULY 24 Sinferno Cabaret (11 pm); The Damnwells, Josh Fletcher (7 pm)
[GOOGLE DOLLS] Ever approachable (if not quite memorable), overtly literate (though hardly difficult) and drawn to a backward-looking modern rock whose natural audience would be capable of donating funds (and somewhat honored by the request), the Damnwells seemed perfectly suited to embrace the new funding opportunities provided by social networks. To that laudable end, they stuck their fan base for $35,000 in recording costs, but the lyrical indulgences and warmedover ’90s stadium hooks of resultant album No One Listens to the Band Anymore rather underlines the constraints of appealing to a thousand patrons. JAY HORTON. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 2266630. 7 pm. $12. 21+.
Yuck, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
[BEAUTIFUL BUZZ] Both Yuck (from London) and Unknown Mortal Orchestra (from Portland by way of New Zealand) have ascended to their current renown on tidal forces of buzz strong enough to level a coastline. The U.K. youngsters of Yuck re-create the slack lo-fi rock of the early ’90s, earning deserving comparisons to Pavement, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. Unknown Mortal Orchestra started as a warped, funky side project of the Mint Chicks’ Ruban Nielson before its surreptitious release of the “Ffunny Ffriends” single gained far greater attention than its creator intended. Both groups have the feel of projects that started for pleasure before ending up a point of international fetish. In both cases, these best-kept secrets are more than deserving of the hype. SHANE DANAHER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
CONT. on page 34
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ALBUM REVIEW
DUSKS EMBRACE THE TWILIGHT ENIGMA (SELF-RELEASED)
or m
a
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e
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stage classical dance Page 41
[DEATH METAL] Is it possible to record an understated death-metal album? I certainly didn’t think so, but Dusks Embrace has proven me wrong. Certainly, the second full-length by this Salem quartet does have the bombastic drumming and lava-gargling vocals you would associate with death metal’s dark, aggressive sound. It’s surprising, though, just how even-keeled The Twilight Enigma is. The longest song on the album squeaks past the five-minute mark. And the guitar solos are impressively restrained: a few quick runs on the fretboard here, a wah-wah pedal interlude there and then back to whiplash-inducing rhythm lines. Like most successful death-metal discs, it’s the little touches that separate Twilight from the rest of the snarling, bloodthirsty pack. Moments like Carisse Brewer’s sirenlike vocals and haunting synth lines appearing amid the clamor of “Desecrated Labyrinth.” Or a Dark Shadows soundtrack piano line that opens up the album’s brooding title track. Sometimes those lighter touches don’t work as when Josh Brewer’s clean male vocal takes a melody line on the otherwise sturdy “Oblivion at Hand.” These are unnecessary embellishments but do help to magnify the other great stuff packed between extra sonic touches. And even without those additions, you’d be left with a lean, hungry fulllength worthy of inclusion among the best local metal releases of the year. ROBERT HAM. SEE IT: Dusks Embrace plays Branx on Thursday, July 21, with Von Doom, Way of the Yeti and Southgate. 7 pm. $7 advance, $10 day of show. All ages.
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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SUNDAY - TUESDAY ARI MICHELSON
MUSIC
THIS BRA IS A PIPE BOMB: Katy Perry plays the Rose Garden on Friday, July 22.
Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys
[HOWLIN’ WOLVES] Any day now, the cool kids will rediscover Los Lobos. In the early years of the “alternative era,” the East L.A. institution had immense hipster cred, thanks in large part to 1992’s luminescent Kiko, a masterpiece that deserves to be mentioned in any discussion of the greatest albums of the past three decades. Somewhere along the line, that cred began to fade, getting picked up by bands like Wilco, which performs more or less the same mix of eclectic Americana and sonic weirdness, minus the foundation of traditional Mexican folk. It might take a Kiko reissue (and Pitchfork reappraisal) to make Los Lobos “cool” again, but these wolves are surviving regardless—2010’s Tin Can Trust is a gritty paean to the working class, with touches of the experimentation that has sparked the band for damn near 40 years. MATTHEW SINGER. Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Road, 220-2789. 7 pm. Cost at door: $26. All ages.
SAVE $1O
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PAGE 6
PDX Pop Now!: Guidance Counselor, Brainstorm, Kelli Schaeferand more
See music feature, page 25. See music calendar, page 37, for full lineup. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. Noon. All ages.
MONDAY, JULY 25 Stereovision, Solovox
[LOVE ROBOTS] For a band that is relatively long-lived, indisputably hard-working and generally well regarded, Stereovision has had a surprisingly stingy recorded output. The brainchild of producer-composers Nancy Hess and Dave Camp, the project has not put out a full LP since the release of its self-titled 2004 debut. Total bummer, considering that Stereovision’s kaleidoscopic funk mixes a welcome combination of live and sampled instruments to form songs that sound like something Of Montreal might come up with if it took a couple deep breaths and chilled the fuck out. With frequent in-town performances, a creative life split between Portland and New York, and at least one high-end licensing deal to fill the coffers, it’s understandable that it took six years for Stereovision to get to work on another album. But still, it’s about time, guys. SHANE DANAHER. Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 2482900. 7 pm. $4. All ages.
Woods, The Fresh & Onlys
*Offer good from 07/18/11 through 09/02/11 or while supplies last. Only Valid on wristbands purchased at tinyurl.com/mfnw-coupon. Price may vary. Full details available at www.musicfestnw.com/promo 34
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
[FREAK FOLK] Like a weird cross between the jangle-pop cult sounds of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes and the bizarre experimentation of Ween—but with the charm of neither—Brooklyn quartet Woods has spent six years crafting a strange blend of lo-fi folk and psychedelic meandering, and last month’s Sun and Shade offers more of the same. With Jeremy Earl’s high-pitched and modulated voice wafting over simplistic and catchy melodies, the group wanders from trippy folk hooks to obnoxious, acid-
laced noodling. It’s hard to imagine not being annoyed by Woods without huffing nitrous in the forest alongside its members beforehand. AP KRYZA. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
The Fagettes, The Rotten Apples
[ROCK ’N’ ROLL] The overly reverent garage-rockers of the Fagettes would be perfect as one of those not-too-shabby “movie bands” in one of those scenes where a heartbroken chap stumbles into Hollywood’s idea of a grimy venue and gets knocked around by generic men in leather jackets before being seduced by Hollywood’s idea of a rough chick, with whom our Cusackish schlemiel makes oral sorts of love in Hollywood’s idea of a filthy men’s room. Which is to say that the Fagettes are a suitable soundtrack to the kind of trouble you might hope to find at the Kenton Club. CHRIS STAMM. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
TUESDAY, JULY 26 This Charming Man
[YOU’VE HEARD THESE ONES BEFORE] Tribute acts only make sense when filling a void left by a band its fans will never see again. Although it’s possible the Smiths will one day reunite—all four members are still alive—the antipathy between Morrissey and Johnny Marr is apparently so great that they allegedly turn down multimillion-dollar paydays for one-off festival gigs almost yearly (much to the chagrin of Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, surely). Thus, the existence of cover acts such as this Charming Man remains justified. Not to be confused with These Charming Men, the Irish impersonators whose routine goes the full Vegas route, this Portland-based, two-man, twowoman cover band doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. MATTHEW SINGER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
The Black Church: DJ Deathcrush, DJ Decapod Claw
[METAL DJs] The first time I tried to visit the unmarked Southeast Portland “horror bar” Lovecraft, I nearly gave up altogether. Luckily, I noticed a skinny, black-clad man smoking cloves out front to mark the door. Once inside, I was greeted by Crowlean circles, tentacled murals and framed portraits of Bruce Campbell. As this niche venue clings to its outsider status while denying that it’s “just a goth bar,” it makes sense to allow other dark forms of entertainment into this beast’s belly. Answering the call for diverse shades of black are two local extreme metal fans, DJ Deathcrush (named for Mayhem’s first demo) and Decapod Claw (who has also released dark electronica under the same name). The pair will delve into their crates of thrash, black metal and doom every last Tuesday of the month for their amusement—and your pain. NATHAN CARSON. The Lovecraft, 421 SE Grand Ave., 971270-7760. 8 pm. Free. 21+.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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VARIOUS ARTISTS
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Artists on this 3-cd set include Elliott Smith, Ryan Adams, Wilco, Pink Martini, John Doe, Spoon & more, all to benefit Portland’s Outside In helping homeless youth.
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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newshound wweek.com
Eleanor Friedberger is previously known for her work in Chicago power-pop harmoniemusik The Fiery Furnaces, a band she created with her brother Matthew. Their last album, ‘Take Me Round Again,’ a collection of cover songs from their previous album, inspired Eleanor to make her first solo record. With ‘Last Summer,’ Eleanor may well be telling us about last summer, or various last summers, or even the last summer there will ever be.
MUSIC CALENDAR = WW Pick. Highly recommended.
[JULY 20 - 26] Branx
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. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: music@wweek.com. Find more music: reviews 25 For more listings, check out wweek.com.
320 SE 2nd Ave. Dusks Embrace, Way of the Yeti, Von Doom, Southgate
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Tom Wakeling, Gaea Schell
Chapel Pub
430 N Killingsworth St. Steve Kerin
Corkscrew Wine Bar 1669 SE Bybee Blvd. Clifford Koufman Trio
Dante’s
721 NW 9th Ave., Suite 200 Vagabond Opera, Boy and Bean
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Melville, Eddie Cohn, Always-Already
Ford Food and Drink
303 SW 12th Ave. Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. David Wax Museum, Real Vocal String Quartet, The Unbande
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Open Mic
Alderbrook Park Resort
24414 NE Westerholm Rd., Brush Prairie, Wash. The Buckles
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Toshi Onizuka Trio
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. My Machete, No More Parachutes
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Ninja Turtle Ninja Tiger, Zeus Deus, DJ Palmer
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Robin Greene
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Stringed Migration (9 pm); Little Sue (6 pm)
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. New Years Day, Girl On Fire, The Material, Goodnight Sunrise, In Bloom
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Buffalo Bandstand
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. The Wishermen
Dawson Park
O’Connors
East India Co.
Kit Garoutte
821 SW 11th Ave. Josh Feinberg
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Project Film, Siren and the Sea
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Pre-Northwest String Summit Party: Sugarcane, Pert Near Sandstone, Pete Kartsounes
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Eric John Kaiser The French Troubadour
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Pacific Dub, The Movement, Outpost
Palace of Industry
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
SW Main St. & SW Broadway Mike Coykendall, Michael Jodell 5426 N Gay Ave. Benefit for In Other Words: Name That Tune
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Quartet
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Barkers, DJ Tuff Gnarly
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Low Bones, The Old States (9 pm); Portland Country Underground (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Larry Wilder and the Stumptown Stars
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Billy D
Mississippi Studios
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Focus Focus, Tigress
THURS. JULY 21 303 SW 12th Ave. Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights
Alberta Rose Theatre
Rotture
Alberta Street Public House
2314 SE Division St. Billy Kennedy
125 NW 5th Ave. Portland Advertising Federation’s Battle of the Bands
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Melz/Prigodich/Erskine Group (MPEG)
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Sabrina Fountain, Adam Sweeney and the Jamboree, Jared Miles
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Face the Rail, Therapists, Geister
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Phreak
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Nancy King, Steve Christofferson
Vie de Boheme
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Hague, System and Station, Land of Pines
1530 SE 7th Ave. Krista Herring
Mudai Lounge
836 N Russell St. “Unfiltered” Showcase
801 NE Broadway The Woolen Men
Willamette Park
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
Jimmy Mak’s
Doug Fir Lounge
1635 SE 7th Ave.
PCPA Music on Main Street
SW Macadam Ave. & SW Nebraska St. Vagabond Opera
1111 SW Broadway Grupo Condor
Someday Lounge
Mississippi Pizza
Duff’s Garage
PCPA Antoinette Hatfield Hall
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Lizzy Pitch
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ron Steen with Laura Stilwell
315 SE 3rd Ave. Abadawn, Eddie Valiant, Start Fires, Hives Inquiry Squad, DJ Gwizski, DJ Zone
N Stanton St. & N Williams Ave. Dirty Syncopators 830 E Burnside St. Memory Tapes, Sleep Over
7850 SW Capitol Highway
White Eagle Saloon
3000 NE Alberta St. Chris Chandler and Paul Benoit, David Rovics
1036 NE Alberta St. Tumbledown House (9:30 pm); Brian Buck Ellard (6:30 pm)
Aloft
9920 NE Cascades Parkway Koloku Holt
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Matices Trio
Andrea’s Cha Cha Club
2505 SE 11th Ave. Tim Roth
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Dusu Mali Band
Greenway Park
SW Greenway Blvd. & SW Parkview Loop, Beaverton Tremoloco
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Anthony Brady
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
1503 SE 39th Ave. Savoir Faire Burlesque (10 pm); Ron Rogers (6 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Defender, We Are Mud, Grey for Days, Nothing Said, Masonic Weird, Mannequinhead, K. HUMP, Shadow of Apollo, Born Broken Heart, Worth, Patrimony
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Your Canvas, Yours, Desert Noises, Gratitillium
Horning’s Hideout
21277 NW Brunswick Road, North Plains Northwest String Summit: Greensky Bluegrass, Cornmeal, Pete Kartsounes and Burle
832 SE Grand Ave. Dina and Bamba Y Su Pilon D’Azucar with La Descarga Cubana
Jade Lounge
Artichoke Community Music
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown B3 Organ Group
3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Songwriters Roundup
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Turf Noize, JLew, Rapture
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Art Spark Info Session with Rocky and The Proms
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Christopher Kern and Bret Malmquist
Berbati Restaurant
19 SW 2nd Ave. Animal Farm, Destro & L Pro, Theory Hazit, Serge Severe, DJ Wels, DJ Spark
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Rosie Burgess Trio, Laura Ivancie (9 pm); Blvd. Park (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
Mock Crest Tavern
Ecotrust
Suburban Slim’s Blues Jam (9:30 pm); High Flyer Trio (6 pm)
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Atomic Duo
Doug Fir Lounge
1635 SE 7th Ave. Knuckleheads (9 pm); Portland Playboys (6 pm)
WED. JULY 20
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Echo Helstrom, Goldenboy, Ravishers
Duff’s Garage
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Freak Mountain Ramblers
350 W Burnside St. Jerry Joseph and Friends 830 E Burnside St. Norman, The Tree Ring, John Heart Jackie
FIVE TYPES OF AWESOME: TV on the Radio plays the Edgefield on Friday, July 22.
McMenamins Edgefield Little Red Shed
2346 SE Ankeny St. Goose and Fox
Jimmy Mak’s
3435 N Lombard St. Air Show
Mudai Lounge
801 NE Broadway Edibles, Blood Beach
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Terry Robb
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Andrew Orr, Jen Howard
Pioneer Courthouse Square 701 SW 6th Ave. Redwood Son
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Left Alone, Rendered Useless, Clackamas Baby Killers, Mills Lane, Cuntagious
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Rick Bain and The Genius Position, Whole Wide World
Sellwood Public House
8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic with Two Rivers
Skamania County Fairgrounds
710 SW Rock Creek Drive, Stevenson, Wash. Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival: Jammers Jamboree
Slim’s Cocktail Bar 8635 N Lombard St. River Twain, Karyn Patridge
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Julie Homi and Homiopathy
The Hobnob Grille
3350 SE Morrison St. Open Mic
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Amber Voltaire, Microtia
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Unnatural Helpers, Tensions, Freedom Club
Kennedy School
The Woods
Kenton Club
Thirsty Lion
5736 NE 33rd Ave. Thumptown, Brownish Black
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. The Cabin Project, The Lower 48
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Violent Vickie, Starlight and Magic, Amy Kasio
71 SW 2nd Ave. Brian Krichevsky Band
LaurelThirst
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Rate of Rise, The Autonomics
2958 NE Glisan St. Nicole Campbell, Shotgun Holiday (9:30 pm); Lewi Longmire Band (6 pm)
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St. The Pink Snowflakes, Hawkeye, 1776
Tonic Lounge
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Cabaret Chanteuse
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Andrea Algieri
Twilight Café and Bar
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Axxicom, Whales, Drunk on Pines
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. Dawid Vorster Trio
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. David J, Adrian H and The Wounds, Fever
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Cold Cave, Austra, Dangerous Boys Club
Duff’s Garage
Wallace Park
1635 SE 7th Ave. The Lonesomes, Jawbone Flats (9:30 pm); Honey and the Hamdogs (6 pm)
White Eagle Saloon
NE 37th Ave. & NE Ainsworth St. Melao de Cuba
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Allie On-the-Uke (8:30 pm); 6bq9 (6 pm) NW 25th Ave. & NW Raleigh St. Shelly Rudolph
Fernhill Park
836 N Russell St. Rabbit Foot String Band, Blue Ribbon Tea Company (8:30 pm); Will West and the Friendly Cover Up (5:30 pm)
Greeley Avenue Bar & Grill
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
625 NW 21st Ave. River Twain
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ellen Whyte with Jean Pierre
FRI. JULY 22 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Antsy McClain and the Trailer Park Troubadours
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. We Are The Willows, A.W. Feldt, Petoskey (9:30 pm); Mikey’s Irish Jam (6:30 pm)
Aloft
9920 NE Cascades Parkway Ian James
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Sambafeat Quartet
Artichoke Community Music
3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Friday Night Coffeehouse
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Dirtnap, Stonecreep, Ditch Digger, Downfall 2012
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Violet Isle, Symmetry/ Symmetry, Ben Union, Oslo
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Walter Cryderman, Lowell John Mitchell, Jamie Leopold
Biddy McGraw’s
5421 N Greeley Ave. Jeff Jensen Band
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Dredg, Fair to Midland, The Trophy Fire, A Tale Through Audio
Horning’s Hideout
21277 NW Brunswick Road, North Plains Northwest String Summit: Yonder Mountain String Band, Keller and The Keels, Cascadia Project: Anger/Law/ Gilchrist/Grisman, Band Competition
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Class M Planets and OBVCP Dan Pelley (8 pm); Gil Paradise (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Devin Phillips Band
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Witch Mountain, Fist Fite, The Guild
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Pagan Jug Band (9:30 pm); Alice Stuart (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Atomic Duo
McMenamins Edgefield 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale TV on the Radio, Menomena
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Matthew Price Band
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. Dangermuffin, The Beautiful Train Wrecks
6000 NE Glisan St. Kathryn Claire, The My Oh Mys (9:30 pm); Billy Kennedy and Jimmy Boyer (6 pm)
Mississippi Pizza
Branx
Mississippi Studios
320 SE 2nd Ave. Rye Rye, DJ Skeet Skeet, Lionsden, YoHuckleberry
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Lincoln Crockett SPB with Nicole Berke (9 pm); Ric Rac (6 pm)
Buffalo Gap Saloon
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Jeremy Messersmith Band, The Lumineers, Nicki Bluhm
Bunk Bar
3435 N Lombard St. Sneakin Out
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Nilika Remi 1028 SE Water Ave. Pink Mountaintops, 1776
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Bre Gregg
Canvas Art Bar & Bistro
1800 NW Upshur St. Open Mic
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. La Rhonda Steele
Mock Crest Tavern
Nel Centro
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew with Jeff Leonard
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Oregon Zoo
4001 SW Canyon Road Indigo Girls, Mount Mariah
CONT. on page 38
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSIC
CALENDAR
SPOTLIGHT
Ill Lucid Onset
VIVIANJOHNSON.COM
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Anna Gilbert Band
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Randy Star Band
Crowne Plaza Hotel
1441 NE 2nd Ave. Portland GEAR Con: Vernian Process, Wanderlust Circus, Unwoman, DJ Panix, DJ Brian Backlash, DJ Owen
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Scotland Barr Memorial CD Release: The Slow Drags, I Can Lick Any SOB In The House, Steve Wilkinson
HOUSE OF BREWS: Summer is patio season, and if you’re in the no-porch-at-home camp like I am, you’re in total outdoor seatinghunting mode about now. That’s where Northwest Public House (2327 NW Kearney St., northwestpublichouse.com)—in the literal Northwest Portland house formerly occupied by Laurelwood Public House—comes in handy. In addition to two levels of breezy, wide-open indoor seating, it has a total of three outdoor seating areas: A large front porch with both outdoor bar and table seating, plus two intimate upstairs patios that you might just have to cut a bitch to enjoy. You may just wind up staring at the eight flat-screen TVs upstairs (a huge contrast to the stripped-down main dining area). Beers and food items are generally a buck or two more than they probably should be—the gluten-free crowd won’t mind, as NWPH is way GF-friendly— but then the build-a-burger options are pretty thrilling. And those $8 apple fritters? Oh my lord. NWPH is all about the great outdoors, but what’s inside isn’t half bad, either. CASEY JARMAN.
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Lumerians
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Tremeloco
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Deth Proof, The Bloodtypes, The Taxi Boys
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Nuestro, Bitterroot
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Ben Darwish’s Commotion
Hawthorne Hophouse 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Little Sue
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
Original Halibut’s II
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
The Hugs (9:30 pm); Reverb Brothers (5:30 pm)
1503 SE 39th Ave. Colin Fisher, SJ Strangeland, Vanessa Rogers
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
Someday Lounge
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar
Hawthorne Theatre
Pints Brewing Company
Spare Room
2527 NE Alberta St. Duffy Bishop
2314 SE Division St. Lynn Conover
412 NW 5th Ave. Tanner Cundy Band (9 pm); BobbiLynn Forbus (7 pm)
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Diesto, Beringia, White Orange, Fjord
Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. Pete Krebs Swing Trio
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. A Decade Apart, Livid Minds, Exfixia, Cane Sugar, 4 More Wars
Refuge
116 SE Yamhill St. PDX Pop Now!: And And And, The Chicharones, Golden Retriever, The Minders, Lovers, Onuinu, Weinland, Blood Beach, STLS, Jared Mees and the Grown Children
Rose Garden
1401 N Wheeler Ave. Katy Perry, Robyn, DJ Skeet Skeet
8635 N Lombard St. Threadbear
125 NW 5th Ave. The Foreign Exchange, Rev. Shines 4830 NE 42nd Ave. Saturday Night Orphans
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. James Faretheewell, Hannah’s Field
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Derek Sarkela
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Shirley Nanette
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Watch It Sparkle, Errata Note, Hairspray Blues, Silverhawk
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Valkyrie Rodeo, Same Sex Dictator
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Sugarcookie
Tiger Bar
Rotture
317 NW Broadway Delaney and Paris, Three Bad Jacks
Secret Society Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. The Twistellettes, Held Up Hands, Rumblebox
315 SE 3rd Ave. Danava, Federation X, Leaders, Gaytheist 116 NE Russell St. The Shanghai Woolies
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Arlie Conner and Friends
Skamania County Fairgrounds
710 SW Rock Creek Drive, Stevenson, Wash. Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival: John Resichman, Prairie Flyer, Town Mountain, Bluegrass Regulators, Sugarpine, Caleb Klauder
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. Carnabetian Army, Pynnacles, Midnight Callers
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Tonic Lounge
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Rita Marquez, Suzette Rodway
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. David Valdez and Weber Iago, Robert Moore Trio
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Quintillion
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Lucy Hammond Band
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Dick Berk Trio with Jon Mayer
SAT. JULY 23 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Thurston Moore, Kurt Vile & The Violators, Hush Arbors
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Matt Brown, Painted Grey, Deanna Walton
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. The Harmed Brothers, Scott McDougall (9:30 pm); The Calamity Cubes, Benyaro (6:30 pm)
Aloft
9920 NE Cascades Parkway Ian James
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero Trio
Artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Robyn Landis and Scott Docherty
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Proven, Fallen Angels, Blood of Martyrs, Truth Vibrations
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Paleo, Canoe, A.W.Feldt
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. B Fifty-thousand, Dark Matters
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Jimmy Boyer
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave.
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Fucked Up
Horning’s Hideout
21277 NW Brunswick Road, North Plains Northwest String Summit: Yonder Mountain String Band, Railroad Earth, Todd Snider with Great American Taxi, Traveling McCoury, Emmitt Nershi Band, Jackstraw, Pert Near Sandstone
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Julie Lipson Beth and Crow V Squirrel (8 pm); Ahmond (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Thara Memory’s Superband
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Git Rights, 82nd and Heartache
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Nervous and The Kid, Dramady, Roy Tinsel (9:30 pm); Tree Frogs (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Atomic Duo
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Rock Creek Branders, Garcia Birthday Band, Uncle B and Auntie E and J Dog
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Electric Opera Company, De La Warr (9 pm); Franchot Tone (6 pm); Lorna Millers’ Little Kids’ Jamboree (4 pm)
Mississippi Studios
Mock Crest Tavern
The Globe
Muddy Rudder Public House
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar
3435 N Lombard St. Kinzel and Hyde
8105 SE 7th Ave. James Clem
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Portugal. The Man
Nel Centro
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew with Tim Gilson
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Jon Bunzow
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Warpony, Technicolor Caterpillar, Searchlights
Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. James Low and Lewi Longmire
Proper Eats Market and Cafe 8638 N Lombard St. Jacki Wheeler
Ravenz Roost Cafe
11121 SE Division St. Music To Read Books By
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. The Happening
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Ace of Spades, Motorthrone, Angry Axe, F.O.A.L.
Refuge
116 SE Yamhill St. PDX Pop Now!: Nurses, Purple Rhinestone Eagle, Purple & Green, Dusu Mali, Blouse, E*Rock, Monarques, ExtrAlonE, Living Proof, Wizard Rifle, Wild Ones, Loch Lomond, Karen, Lost Lander, Palo Verde, Archers, Yeah Great Fine, Ezza Rose
River Roadhouse
11921 SE 22nd Ave. The Disappointments, The Last Day of Dreams
Rose Garden
1401 N Wheeler Ave. Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Uncle Kracker
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Steel Pulse, Island Trybe
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. Sentimental Gentlemen
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Fare Thee Wells
Skamania County Fairgrounds
710 SW Rock Creek Drive, Stevenson, Wash. Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival: The Seldom Scene, Dry Branch Fire Squad, John Reischman, Sugarpine, Bluegrass Regulators, Town Mountain, Prairie Flyer, The Buckles
Slim’s Cocktail Bar 8635 N Lombard St. Jackbone Dixie
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Tornado Rider, Larry Freakin’ Steiner Band, Wanderlust Circus, Sarah King, Day of Judgement, DJ Writhe, William Batty
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Irie Idea
Pan
Ted’s/Berbati’s
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Kasey Anderson, Peter Miller
231 SW Ankeny St. Advisory, Goddamn Gentlemen, Burning Bridges
Mississippi Studios
The Blue Monk
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Cults, Guards, Writer
3341 SE Belmont St. The Planet Jackers, The New Solution
2045 SE Belmont St. North Bound Rain
1001 SW Broadway Linda Lee Michelet
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Gardening Not Architecture, Stepkid, Quiet Countries
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Jethrine, Soft Paws, Gnome Sorcery Federation
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Oh Captain My Captain, Seacaves, Meyercord
Thirsty Lion
Northwest String Summit: Yonder Mountain String Band, Danny Barnes with Drew Emmitt and Lary Keel, Elephant Revival, Band Competition Winner
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Human Voices (8 pm); Suzanne Tufan (6 pm)
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Billy Kennedy and Tim Accott, Jake Ray (9:30 pm); Freak Mountain Ramblers (6 pm)
McCoy Park
N Trenton St. & N Newman Ave. Connie Bieberach and Armonia Latina
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
Michael Hurley, DJ Eric Isaacson, DJ Cuica
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. American Classic Song (6 pm); Trio Intime (4 pm)
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Van Meyers Duo
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Open Mic / Songwriter Showcase
MON. JULY 25 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Honeymoon
Alberta Street Public House
71 SW 2nd Ave. Jacob Merlin Band
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale John Bunzow
Tiger Bar
McMenamins Edgefield
Aloft
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Fleet Foxes, Alela Diane
9920 NE Cascades Parkway Martini
Tonic Lounge
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
Andina
317 NW Broadway The Problems, The Lordy Lords 3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Bitch School, The Pity Fucks, The Royals
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Tony’s AM Gold Show
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Kelley Shannon, Gaea Schell, Tom Wakeling
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. Choke The Silence, Distracked
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. A La Mode
White Eagle Saloon
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Hanz Araki and Kathryn Claire
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. The Hugs (9 pm); Jenny Finn Orchestra (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Mbilly, James Low
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Irish Music
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Eleanor Friedberger
Oregon Zoo
836 N Russell St. Buster Blue, Riviera (9:30 pm); The Student Loan (4:30 pm)
4001 SW Canyon Road Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar
116 SE Yamhill St. PDX Pop Now!: Guidance Counselor, Brainstorm, Kelli Schaefer, Musee Mecanique, Holy Sons, The Reservations, Classical Revolution PDX, Diesto, Woolen Men, Radiation City, Nasalrod, Rollerball, Port St. Willow, Hausu, Cloaks, Water Tower Bucket Boys
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Linda Hornbuckle Trio
SUN. JULY 24 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Honeymoon
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Mira Loma and The Bad Vibes, Volifonix, The Never Never, Granada
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Andrew’s Ave (9 pm); The Brothers Todd (6 pm)
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Ron Steen Jazz Jam
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Sinferno Cabaret (11 pm); The Damnwells, Harper Blynn, Josh Fletcher (7 pm)
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Yuck, Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Stolen Sweets
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place California Stars, T. Jones
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The Hashbrown Department, The Big Sleep, Top Hat Confederacy, Until We Crash, Skatter Bomb
Horning’s Hideout
21277 NW Brunswick Road, North Plains
Refuge
Rontoms
600 E Burnside St. Turbo Perfecto, No Kind of Rider
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Hanz Araki, Cary Novotny
Skamania County Fairgrounds
710 SW Rock Creek Drive, Stevenson, Wash. Columbia Gorge Bluegrass Festival: Gospel Show
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. FPW Trio
The Globe
1036 NE Alberta St. Gold Dusk
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Open Mic
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Battery-Powered Music (8 pm); Stereovision, Solovox (7 pm)
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Sex Life, Starlight and Magic
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Mike D (8 pm); Nicole Campbell (6 pm)
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Woods, The Fresh & Onlys
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Hamilton Loomis (9:30 pm); Suzie and the Sidecars (6 pm)
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Catnap
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Open Mic
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. The Coathangers, XDS, Sexhair
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Salon du Musique featuring host Jaime Leopold
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Fagettes, The Rotten Apples
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Post-Strummit Pick: Green State, Sharon Gilchrist
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
2045 SE Belmont St. Dean
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Brooks Robertson
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
426 SW Washington St. Excruciator, Fatality, Order of the Gash, Revolution Overdue
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Signals Midwest, Potsie, Confederacy of Dunces
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Bob Shoemaker
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. The Yesberger Band, Mr. Ben
The Woods
Muddy Rudder Public House
Tillicum Club
O’Connors
Tonic Lounge
Ravenz Roost Cafe
Valentine’s
Roseland Theater
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Storm Large 8585 SW BeavertonHillsdale Highway Johnny Martin 3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Heaven Generation 232 SW Ankeny St.
8105 SE 7th Ave. Lloyd Jones
7850 SW Capitol Highway Kit Garoutte 11121 SE Division St. 6bq9 8 NW 6th Ave.
CALENDAR The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, Powerglove, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Regiment 26
Andina
Ash Street Saloon
LaurelThirst
Sellwood Riverfront Park
Beaterville Cafe
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom
SE Spokane St. & SE Oaks Pkwy. Soul Vaccination
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Hank Hirsh’s Jazz Lounge and Open Jam
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. The Oldest Profession, The Staters
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Muddy River Nightmare Band, Unko Atama
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Ghastly City Sleep, Housefire, Hang the Old Year
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. Bobby Sick
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. The Woolen Men, Ketchup, Hookers
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Tango Alpha Tango
TUES. JULY 26 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Honeymoon
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Olive Juice, Paper City
1314 NW Glisan St. JB Butler 225 SW Ash St. Judgement Day, Unko Atama, Tornado Rider 2201 N Killingsworth St. 6bq9
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Dizzy Feather
Buffalo Gap Saloon
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Open Mic
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. This Charming Man
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Weekly Jazz Jam
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Dover Weinberg Quartet (9:30 pm); Trio Bravo (6 pm)
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Glassbones, Little Volcano
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Scott PembertonTrio
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Todd Mauvais
Hawthorne Hophouse 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Ben Larsen and Austin Moore
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Painted Palms, Jared Mees and the Grown Children, The Golden Hours
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave.
The Mel Brown Septet (8:30 pm); The Wishermen (6:30 pm) 2958 NE Glisan St. Jackstraw
1332 W Burnside St. Freak Mountain Ramblers
McMenamins Edgefield Little Red Shed 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Hanz Araki
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Open Bluegrass Jam
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Cedro Willie
Mississippi Studios
125 NW 5th Ave. Songwriter Showcase 3341 SE Belmont St. Pagan Jug Band
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Steve Hall Quintet
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
2026 NE Alberta St. Eye Candy Music Video Night with Don and The Quixotes
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. PX Singer-Songwriter Showcase
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Ayars Vocal Showcase
1425 NW Glisan St. Tom’s Funky Tuesdays 1530 SE 7th Ave. Lynn Winkle, Mark Stauffer
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
Plan B
White Eagle Saloon
8635 N Lombard St.
Ground Kontrol
Record Room
2314 SE Division St. Paul Brainard
Slim’s Cocktail Bar
203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Smooth Hopperator
The Know
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Arthur “Fresh Air” Moore Harmonica Party
8 NE Killingsworth St. Violent Vickie, DJ Gutter Glamour
WED. JULY 20 East End
511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Labwerx, Mike Gong, Bliphop Junkie
Vie de Boheme
Record Room
18 NW 3rd Ave. Ronin Roc
426 SW Washington St. Iceland, AUX 78
Mount Tabor Park
1305 SE 8th Ave. The Dark Backward, Ask You In Gray, Sunny Travels
Tube
The Blue Monk
Touché Restaurant and Billiards
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Golden Wilson
Someday Lounge
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Paper Bird, Come Gather Round Us, Daniel Dixon SE 60th Ave. & SE Salmon St. Kevin Selfe and the Tornadoes
Tiga
Yesburger, Open Mic
836 N Russell St. Will West and the Friendly Strangers
8 NE Killingsworth St. VJ Keep It On The Brownlowe
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Erich Zann
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Get Skroached With: DJ A-Train, DJ Colin Jarel
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Endless Sumler, DJ Actual Magick
THUR. JULY 21 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Anjali and the Incredible Kid
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Easter Egg, DJ 3X
Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St. DJ Drew Groove
Element Restaurant & Lounge
1135 SW Morrison St. Labworks: DJ Apolinario Ancheta, DJ Sappho, DJ Genevieve D
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. DJ Noah Fence
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Ossicle
Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Ave. The Fix
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Lush
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. City Baby
FRI. JULY 22 Aalto Lounge
3356 SE Belmont St DJ Drew Groove
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Bikini Briefs, DJ Morganixx
SAT. JULY 23 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Stargazer
Barracuda
9 NW 2nd Ave. Hot Flash Dance: DJ Zel, DJ Wildfire
Fez Ballroom
316 SW 11th Ave. Twice As Nice
Ground Kontrol
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
511 NW Couch St. Roxy’s Ego Hour
Fez Ballroom
1001 SE Morrison St. Big Fun: New Osaka Sound System, 9 to 5, Drug Lordz
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Miracle Miles 316 SW 11th Ave. Decadent 80s: DJ Encrypted, DJ NoN
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. DJ Zac Eno, DJ Rumtrigger (9 pm); Aperitivo Happy Hour with Feelings (5 pm)
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St. ‘80s Video Dance Attack
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Gemini Mars
Holocene
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. Blow Pony: DJ Airick, DJ Kinetic, Lustache, Mr. Charming, Katey Pants, Roy G Biv, Jodi Bon Jodi
The Jack London Bar 529 SW 4th Ave. DJ Drew Groove, Kartrinia Martinia
232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Freaky Outy
SUN. JULY 24 Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Hive with DJ Owen
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Hootchie Koo with DJ Danny Dodge
MON. JULY 25 East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Lost Lockets, DJ Nate C
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. Service Industrial Night with DJ Tibin
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ HC Joe
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Cody B, DJ Tony R
TUES. JULY 26 East End
203 SE Grand Ave. California Screamin’: DJ Sarah Smut, DJ Master Blaster
The Crown Room
205 NW 4th Ave. See You Next Tuesday: Kellan, Avery
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Blast
The Whiskey Bar
Tiga
31 NW 1st Ave. Decadent ‘80s: DJ Jason Wann, DJ NoN
The Whiskey Bar
Tiga
31 NW 1st Ave. Dominate the Night: DJ Jason LeMaitre, DJ Jamie Meushaw
Valentine’s
421 SE Grand Ave. The Black Church: DJ Deathcrush, DJ Decapod Claw
The Lovecraft
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. DJ Maxamillion
MUSIC
DJ Wels
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Slim Chances
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Blackwell
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Tubesday with Ronin Roc
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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presenTs
crystal ballroom
blitzen trapper , OR SE PTE M B E R 7 -1 1, 2011 • P ORTLAN D
Band Of HOrses • iron & wine
sepT. 9 wiTH sHarOn Van eTTen & weinland dOOrs 8 pM
explosions in The sky • THe Kills
entry with musicfestnw wristband* or $18 advance ticket
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blind pilot
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THe THerMals • dennis coffey • THe HOrrOrs • glass candy Off! • cass MccoMbs band • pHanTOg raM • aVi buffalo r H eTT M i lle r • Mar kéta i rg loVá • Ty s egall • b ig fr e e dia giVers • kylesa • pOrTland CellO prOjeCT • Pig destroyer the oliVia treMor control • daM-funK & MasTer BlazTer CrOOKe d fi ng e rs • g rai ls • Te d leO • e leanor fr i e db e rg e r
sepT. 10 wiTH aVi BuffalO, alela diane & BlaCK prairie dOOrs 7 pM
eManciPator • yOu aM i • eMa • sHaBazz palaCes • bobby bare Jr. tennis • CenTrO-MaTiC • tyPhoon • dan Mangan • talkde Mon ic TH e HOOd i nTe r n eT • salli e for d & th e sou n d outs i de • z e Ke THe MOOndOgg ies • twin sister • THe gaslaMp Killer • Ps i loVe you eluViuM • TH e s O f T M O O n • P u r it y r i n g • Mad r ad • th r o n e s d i rt y b eac h e s • Mor n i ng te le Portation • aki M bo • an d an d an d yOB • ViVa Voce • unKnOwn MOrTal OrCHesTra • anders Parker ale la dian e • B laCK prai r i e • wh ite ar rows • s le e py s u n yOung BuffalO • white hills • jOe pug • lifesaVas • eMily wells pierCed arrOws • heaVy creaM • riCHMOnd fOnTaine • y la baMba natas ha kM eto • r e B eCCa gaTes • Poison i dea • B laCK COB ra • rtX BOaT • the ladybug transistor • TH e M i n de rs • th e M us ic taPes we i n lan d • rab b its • dOlOr ean • th e M i racles clu b • Bar e wi r es a stor M of lig ht • z u z u Ka pOde rOsa • 80’s Vi deo dance attack HOlCOMBe waller • suuns • dj anjali, THe inCrediBle Kid, e3 & CHaaCH!!! dirTy MiTTens • uMe • anais MiTCHell • Mini Mansions • and Many MOre...
entry with musicfestnw wristband* or $18 advance ticket
* niKe pr es e nTs
* tic kets & wr istban ds on sale now at all tic ketswest locations i n f o avai l ab l e at m u s i c f e stnw.c o m /ti c k ets
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
JULY 20-26
= 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 As You Like It
This is the summer of Shakespeare in Portland, apparently. The new Portland Shakespeare Project makes its debut with a Michael Mendelson-directed production of the Bard’s other comedy about frolicking in the woods, starring two of my favorite actors, Cristi Miles and Darius Pierce. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 3133048. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays. Closes Aug. 7. $24, $15 students. All ages.
Back Fence PDX: Storytelling
Stories from lawyer Dayvid Figler, Loose Girl author Kerry Cohen, 12-year-old drummer Lucinda Jane Holscher, former Just Out columnist Jimmy Radosta, Forest Park ranger Bob McCoy and realtor Dale Chumbley. Proceeds benefit Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 7:30 pm Thursday, July 21. $15. 21+.
Boeing-Boeing
Set in a snazzy Manhattan pad, Boeing-Boeing, a 1960 farce by Marc Camoletti, is centered on the superficial fiancée-juggling of a three-timing joe (Ben Plont) who thinks he’s got it all. Lakewood Theatre Company’s production, directed by Alan Shearman, seeks to follow the current pop-culture penchant for simultaneously fetishizing and subtly mocking ’60sera society by bringing back laughable male egoism, innocent misogyny, daytime drinking and a handful of Barbie’s muses—as if we have evolved so far that the mere presence of such phenomena constitutes a commentary on them. Make no mistake: Boeing-Boeing is a funny play. Filled with airline-pun innuendo, entertaining portrayals of a militantly German flight attendant (Christy Drogosch) and a dopey 40-Year-Old Virginesque Minnesotan (Leif Norby)—not to mention an excellent bra-straddling dance by the aforementioned couple and much-needed snarkiness from a sharp-tongued housekeeper (Lisa Knox)—Boeing-Boeing doesn’t disappoint in the laugh department. But in between the gut busts and giggles is
a substance-shaped hole that is only highlighted by the very jokes upon which the play’s simple, farcical nature rests: the persistent sly references to the protagonist’s “international harem” or the ease with which such supposed male dunces dupe and seduce the three stewardesses who are known more by their employers’ names than their own. Go to Boeing-Boeing prepared to laugh, but leave your thinking cap at the door. NATALIE BAKER. Lakewood Center for the Arts, 368 S State St., Lake Oswego, 635-3901. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 7 pm Sunday, July 24; 2 pm Sundays July 31-Aug. 21.$25-$28.
Evil Dead: The Musical
Campy musicals based on classic horror films are all the rage in Los Angeles, so it was only a matter of time before we got a production of our own. This adaptation of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy—Army of Darkness included, apparently— was born in Toronto, moved to offBroadway and is being produced in Portland by…someone. (There are no names on the website.) Expect good makeup, really bad music and Gwarlike amounts of spraying bodily fluids. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 308-9274. 7 and 10 pm FridaySaturday, July 22-23. $20-$32. 18+.
For Better
Clackamas Rep begins its season with a comedy by Eric Coble about a pair of globe-trotting sweethearts struggling to put together a wedding despite never being in the same city. Clackamas Community College, Osterman Theatre, 19600 S Molalla Ave., 594-6047. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday, 2:30 pm Sunday, July 21-24. $12-$22.
Hairspray
What happens when you take a John Waters film and make it into a very traditional musical? An unexpectedly delightful alloy of camp and chorus. Hairspray, the musical, hews closely to Waters’ plot: Tracy Turnblad (Blythe Woodland) is a hefty teenager whose greatest dream, in 1962, is to dance on The Corny Collins Show and—when that dream comes to pass—who realizes that what she really wants is to
integrate Baltimore television. Despite an awful book and annoying namedropping tic, the show is a real joy: a loud, exuberant tribute to loving yourself as you are, with infectious energy and an immediately memorable score—including “You Can’t Stop the Beat,” by far the best finale in recent memory. Broadway Rose’s production shows all the company’s usual ambition and inevitable flaws. Dan Murphy is a lot of fun as Tracy’s unapologetically hefty mother, but I wish he had a bigger voice—Murphy is a crooner, and the role demands a belter. Alina Ziak dances too well as Amber Von Tussle, the supposedly graceless daughter of the evil former beauty queen Velma Von Tussle. But these are minor quibbles. The show has a great, cartoony set, all wild angles and candy colors, that suits the manic fantasy of the score. Music director Rick Lewis’ band is punchy and loud enough to compete with the enormous cast. And the show is completely stolen by the outstanding performances of two minor characters: John “Jay” Kelley Jr. as Seaweed, who showed off a voice as big as his graceful, bassplayer hands on “Run and Tell That”; and Lacretta Nicole as Motormouth Maybelle, whose delivery of “I Know Where I’ve Been” outshone even Queen Latifah’s performance in the 2007 movie. BEN WATERHOUSE. Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 SW Durham Road, 620-5262. 7:30 pm ThursdayFriday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, July 21-24. $20-$35.
the Desert—created new works for Portland Center Stage’s JAW festival, which they will perform in and around the Gerding Theater this weekend. See PCS.org for the schedule. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 3:15, 3:40, 7:15 and 7:40 pm ThursdaySunday, July 21-22. Free. All ages.
The Miser
Masque Alfresco performs Molière at various locations in the western suburbs. See masquealfresco.com for details. Multiple locations , 422-0195. 6:30 pm Fridays-Sundays through Aug. 28. Free. All ages.
Original Practice Shakespeare Festival
Nothing says summer in Portland like free theater in the park. The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival performs the Bard’s plays the way they were purportedly done four centuries ago at the Globe—outdoors, with little rehearsal, in front of a boisterous audience. Actors rehearse only their own lines before being thrown onstage (grass, technically) where they must improvise their blocking on the fly. A godlike prompter rescues actors’
CONT. on page 42
REVIEW RIO HUGI-RIOS
PERFORMANCE
JAW: A Playwrights Festival
Portland Center Stage’s playwright workshop is back, culminating this weekend in eight free performances at the Gerding Theater. This year’s plays, in order: Quincy Long’s The Huntsmen, about a 14-year-old who sees horrible visions, accompanied by music (4 pm Thursday, 8 pm Saturday); Anna Karenina, adapted from Tolstoy by Kevin McKeon (8 pm Thursday, 4 pm Saturday); David Grimm’s Tales From Red Vienna, about an Austrian war widow forced into prostitution who finds love, maybe (4 pm Friday, 8 pm Sunday); and Dan O’Brien’s The Body of an American, about Paul Watson, a war reporter haunted by ghosts who forms a friendship with the playwright Dan O’Brien (8 pm Friday, 4 pm Sunday). All performances are free, but reservations (at 445-3700) are required. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 4 and 8 pm ThursdaySunday, July 21-24. Free, advance reservations required. All ages.
JAW: Devise & Conquer
Three local acts—puppeteer Sarah Frechette, drag artist Max Voltage and butoh dance crew Water in
SPLURK: Evil Mr. Sulu goes down.
TREK IN THE PARK (ATOMIC ARTS) Summer Spock theater
Seating space: the final frontier. Rapidly growing and ever more eclectic (though, shall we say, far from diverse) crowds have overwhelmed the smallish amphitheater within Northeast Portland’s Woodlawn Park to catch a performance of the third season of Trek in the Park. Refashioning a different voyage of the Starship Enterprise each year, Atomic Arts this summer chose parallel universe potboiler “Mirror, Mirror,” a fan favorite renowned for equating trimmed facial hair with palpable evil, incorporating a theater in the round approach to better serve the late-arriving hordes pushed to the fringes, midst small children and smaller dogs. Thanks to broad performances and a cheekily DIY aesthetic, the stripped-down spectacle remained shamefully captivating from a distance, aided by source material containing little more than inexplicably exultant expository passages. Much as the well orchestrated flourishes of kitsch-chic—deft stabs of retro synths, enviable space-age ensembles and lime colored stacking chairs, the only real set decoration apart from the captain’s chair and a metallic door frame suggesting a transporter—smartly nudged proceedings away from empty camp hijinks, the most revelatory moments came about when the crowds quieted and helplessly began to pay attention. No matter the dopey grandiloquence of the orations or absurdity of the setting, the physicality of the actors ennobled the stupidest of story lines, particularly when set against the ham-fisted edits and fixed camera shots we all dimly remember from the original program. The weaknesses of some portrayals momentarily seemed an inspired artistic decision. While there was some question among first-time attendees about whether or not Adam Rosko would stoop to imitation of the original James T. Kirk—turns out, anyone thrusting those peculiarly metered declarations leans Shatnerian—nobody thought much about Spock. But Jesse Graff commanded the park with a magnetic portrayal of the malevolent doppelganger (he’s a tad more Zachary Quinto than Leonard Nimoy, if you’re curious). Through force of presence and a considerable height advantage, Graff literally towered over Rosko’s empty swagger until, at once, the captain came thrillingly alive during an extended and near balletic brawl between the two that silenced even the corgis. For better or worse, these characters still hold a lingering resonance for generations of Americans; sometimes, to rediscover all that was once vital and incandescent of myths too often told, you have to explore strange new worlds. JAY HORTON.
SEE IT: Woodlawn Park, Northeast 13th Avenue and Dekum Street, REAL VOCAL STRING QUARTET
trekinthepark.com. 5 pm Saturdays-Sundays through July 31. Free.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
JULY 20-26
YI-CHUN WU
Filmusik
With the space shuttle program expiring, the 1958 science fiction drivein film Missile to the Moon, which depicts human encounters with lunar divas and monsters that have so far escaped detection by the subsequent Apollo missions, could suggest a viable replacement space program. As part of the hotel’s summer rooftop films series, seven voice actors from Willamette Radio Theater and members of Classical Revolution PDX reprise their live piano quintet accompaniment, using an original score by Scott Ordway. Hotel deLuxe parking garage, 729 SW 15th Ave., nwfilm.org. 8 pm Thursday, July 21. $9. All ages.
Joe Powers & Friends
The local harmonica virtuoso brings global sounds, jazz and blues to downtown’s loveliest oasis. Lan Su Chinese Garden, Northwest 3rd Avenue and Everett Street, 228-8131. 7:30 pm Tuesday, July 26. $21-$24. All ages.
Pretty Creatives
Northwest Dance Project shows off work by the winners of its third annual Pretty Creatives international choreographic competition: Netherlands resident Marina Mascarell Martinez (who has already set work on European notables including Nederlands Dans Theater and Scapino Ballet) and New Yorker Gregory Dolbashian, a veteran of the Alvin Ailey school and winner of other choreographic competitions including Ballet Austin’s New American Talent contest. The pair created and set the pieces on the 27 professional dancers in NWDP’s Launch project. Northwest Dance Project Studio & Performance Center, 833 N Shaver St., 421-7434. 7:30 and 8:30 pm Saturday, July 23. $10. All ages.
Raq the Casbah
Local and national belly dancers do their thing at Raq the Casbah, a monthly evening of Middle Easternstyle entertainment. In this installment, Ritim Egzotik provides live accompaniment to Belly Dance Soul Fire, Shara, Lorraine Hanson, Henna, the Nagamani Duet and Kristnh; expect anything from traditional to fusion to tribal styles. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 8 pm Sunday, July 24. $8. 21+.
For more Performance listings, visit
REVIEW
Portland Taiko
This fundraising concert benefits the Asian-American drum ensemble and celebrates Tanabata, the Japanese star festival. Lan Su Chinese Garden, Northwest 3rd Avenue and Everett Street, 205-0715. 7 pm Wednesday, July 20. $75. All ages.
KICKIN’: Pretty Creatives competition winner Gregory Dolbashian. missed cues and salvages interruptions from public park noise with demands for actors to waltz, sing and invent. Now in its third year, the company is performing A Midsommer Nights Dream, Much Adoe About Nothing and Twelfe Night in parks around Portland and Oregon (the spelling is as originalist as the performances). Fastpaced plots full of crossed identities, crude humor dressed in Old English, and a vocal audience wielding blankets, boxed wine, “boos” and “ahhs”— this is Shakespeare at its finest. STACY BROWNHILL. Multiple locations. Times vary, see opsfest.org. Free.
Over the Cliff Notes on A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Shakespeare Liberation Army summarizes the Bard’s most overperformed comedy, and adds more Bottom. Multnomah Arts Center , 7688 SW Capitol Highway, 823-2787. 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, July 23-24. Free. All ages.
The Tooth of Crime (Second Dance)
Contagious Theatre presents a dystopian musical by Sam Shepard. Yes, you read that correctly: Shepard collaborated with T Bone Burnett to write this story of musicians battling it out on guitars—to the death! The Hostess, 538 SE Ash St. 7:30 pm ThursdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes July 31. $15. All ages.
CLASSICAL Chamber Music Northwest: Brahms and Chausson
AN OAK TREE (OUR SHOES ARE RED/ THE PERFORMANCE LAB)
DANCE
...And then improv night got very, very sad.
them to shout out a hardware object (“hammer!”) or scenario (“rehab intervention!”) or sentence (“do not step on my begonias!”), which they instantly incorporate into their skits. STACY BROWNHILL. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8 pm Saturdays through July 29. $8-$12.
The Weekly Recurring Humor Night
Whitney Streed hosts a sketch and stand-up comedy night. Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 238-0543. 9:30 pm Wednesdays. $3-$5. 21+.
The 41st annual festival enters its closing stretch on Thursday as the superb Miro Quartet is joined by departing Oregon Symphony concertmaster Jun Iwasaki and several other stars in a program of vocal music by Brahms (the lovely alto songs) and Chausson, plus a lively trio by Dvorak and Bartok’s daring 1937 Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 294-6400. 8 pm Thursday, July 21. $15-$35. All ages.
Chamber Music Northwest: C.S. and C.P.E.
COMEDY
On Friday, a new set of young Protégé artists tackle a sweet program of music by J.S. And C.P.E. Bach, George Enescu and one of the most mysteriously beautiful works in the chamber repertoire, Maurice Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 294-6400. 7 pm Friday, July 22. $15-$35. All ages.
Beer and Cookies Cabaret IV: The Reckoning
Chamber Music Northwest: Tribute to Sergiu Luca
Trek in the Park
See review at right. Woodlawn Park, Northeast 13th Avenue and Dekum Street, trekinthepark.com. 5 pm Saturdays-Sundays through July 31. Free.
The Working Theatre Collective presents a music and comedy cabaret. There will be cookies. Radio Room, 1101 NE Alberta St., 287-2346. 9 pm Sunday, July 24. Free. 21+.
Fly-Ass Jokes
Ian Karmel and Tom Johnson headline a weekly showcase of West Coast talent. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8:30 pm Fridays through Aug. 5. $8. All ages.
Mice-tro
Put 16 improv actors onstage with a voice-of-God maestro pitting them against each other and the audience voting them off, and what do you get? A raw and clever show that’s disgustingly full of talent. The actors take cues from the audience, asking
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Real Vocal String Quartet
Turtle Island String Quartet founder Irene Sazer’s foursome has been winning raves in the Bay Area for years. The violinist/composer and orchestra veteran, who’s also played with everyone from Ali Akbar Khan to Ray Charles to Björk, embraces world music influences from West Africa, Brazil, Appalachia and beyond, and her classically trained partners (violinist Alisa Rose, violist Dina Maccabee, cellist Jessica Ivry) have played in dozens of classical, bluegrass, new music, improv and world music ensembles. Together, the women weave an intimate, inviting original tapestry of strings and voices. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm Wednesday, July 20. $10-$12.
Sunday’s closing concert features a cast of dozens of the country’s finest young and seasoned classical players in a tribute to festival founder Sergiu Luca, including Shostakovich’s 1940 Piano Quintet, Ravel’s Five Popular Greek Melodies and Arnold Schoenberg’s chamber version of Gustav Mahler’s transcendent “Farewell” from The Song of the Earth. Kaul Auditorium at Reed College, 3203 SE Woodstock Blvd., 294-6400. 5 pm Sunday, July 24. $15-$35. All ages.
Classical Revolution
For this PDX Pop Now! Showcase, the classical-music rebels perform music by Philip Glass. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St., pdxpopnow.com. 6 pm Sunday, July 24. Free. All ages.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
A Month of Sundays
Linda Austin dances her way through a work in progress every Sunday in July, accompanied by a different choreographer each time. Performances are layered with video projection (of the previous Sunday’s performance) and short performances by members who will dance in Austin’s final group project next year. Austin’s conspirators include Keyon Gaskin (July 3), Linda K. Johnson (July 10, off-site at The Headwaters Theatre as part of the 1 Festival), Lucy Yim (July 17) and Philippe Bronchtein (July 31, plus a reprise of Combo No. 2 with Austin, Jin Camou and Esther LaPointeJensen). Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 777-1907. 7 pm Sundays July 3, 17, 24, 31 (5 and 7 pm Sunday, July 10 at Headwaters Theatre). . $8-$25. All ages.
Arabesque
Locally and nationally known belly dancers perform at Arabesque, a weekly Middle Eastern music and dance party. Members of longtime world-music ensemble Brothers of the Baladi play traditional acoustic Turkish, Persian and Armenian music; dancers are signed up a year in advance and rotate weekly, giving everyone a chance to perform, and offering viewers variety from week to week. Speaking of viewers, the band also plays open dance music for amateur dancers, belly or otherwise. The Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., 503-5950575. 8 pm Wednesdays. $5. 21+.
Miss Kennedy’s Cabaret
This month features burlesque artists Bayou Bettie and Charlotte Treuse, belly dancer Gretchen Dances and circus performer Lily Lickabottom, plus Burk Biggler and a surprise guest performer. Ted’s/Berbati’s Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579. 9 pm Friday, July 22. $9. 21+.
VERY SLEEPY: Dennis Kelly (standing) and Patrick Tangredi.
In 1973, an artist named Michael CraigMartin put a glass of water on a glass bathroom shelf and insisted it was an oak tree. In 2006, the playwright and actor Tim Crouch responded to Craig-Martin by conducting a psychological experiment and calling it a play. It is a work for one performer and one victim: The performer is Dennis Kelly, who plays a hypnotist—not a therapist but a comedian, of the “cluck like a chicken” sort who appear at every county fair. He is running through his act at a local bar, but admits he’s only doing so to honor old bookings, because for the past three months his mesmeric chops have failed him. For the past three months he’s been unable to concentrate, because three months ago he struck a 12-year-old girl with his car, killing her. The victim, who is played by a different actor each night of the run, is the girl’s distraught father. The actors do not know this. Indeed, for the piece to work as Crouch intended, they must know nothing whatsoever about the performance. Each night, the actor playing the father enters the theater with the rest of the audience, takes the stage when the hypnotist asks, and does whatever he tells him (or her) to do. Sometimes the hypnotist whispers directions to the actor directly; sometimes he asks him to read dialogue from a clipboard; sometimes he turns his face to the back wall of the theater and murmurs instructions over a wireless headset; on occasion he just interrupts his patter with a command. The hypnotist does not realize, at first, that his volunteer is the father of the girl. As the situation slowly dawns on him, the distinctions between what is stage direction and what is hypnotic command grow fuzzy. At one point, he breaks to ask the actor playing the father what he thinks of the whole endeavor, but the answers are scripted. Ultimately, An Oak Tree is not about a dead girl but about power dynamics and control. I assume that the performance you see will not be the one I saw (with Matthew Kern, who was very game, as the father), but it will definitely be a strange and maybe mesmeric experience. BEN WATERHOUSE.
SEE IT: Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., osarlab@gmail.com. 8 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes July 31. $10 suggested donation. All ages.
VISUAL ARTS
JULY 20-26
= 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.
NOW SHOWING Recent Graduates Exhibition
For the 15th year in a row, Blackfish presents a group show featuring work by recent visual arts graduates of Oregon colleges and universities. Thirty artists from 15 schools present work across a gamut of media, and while much of the exhibition looks like you would expect recent graduates’ work to look like (formative, transitional and just plain green), there are some exceptions. The most notable is Willamette University grad Chelsea Ibarra, whose sumptuous black-andwhite nighttime photograph of a lone park bench uses all the bells and whistles in a photographer’s arsenal in the service of an overarching mood. With its heightened differentials in light scale articulating each of hundreds of tree leaves in the glow of lamplight, the piece is a haunting, melancholy nocturne. Blackfish, 420 NW 9th Ave., 224-2634. Closes July 30.
Ming Fay
If you’ve been to the Oregon Convention Center, you’ve seen Ming Fay’s mobile sculpture hanging from the ceiling, looking like a gargantuan opium poppy. In Butters’ 20-year retrospective, Fay presents smaller versions of his gloopily organic pieces, which, according to your taste, will strike you either as droll, fantastical artifacts from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or as oversized chewing-gum wads that have been eaten by a dog, shat out three days later, and strung up on tree branches to slowly petrify. Butters, 520 NW Davis St., 248-9378. Closes July 30.
Berenice Abbott
An assistant to legendary artist Man Ray in Paris during the 1920s, photographer Berenice Abbott (1898-1991) came into her own as an artist in her own right the following decade in New York City. Her works from that place and period stand among the most accomplished of her career. Immaculately composed, the prints capture the twinkly city grids and diffused light of the “city that never sleeps.” Their sole drawback is that they are so immaculate that something of the city’s heart gets lost; there is much of New York’s scene and “seen” communicated here but little of its cacophanic sounds, smells and claustrophobic bustle. Charles A. Hartman, 134 NW 8th Ave., 287-3886. Closes July 30.
Joe Bartholomew
In Girih Extended, Joe Bartholomew uses computer programs to riff on medieval “girih” patterns of traditional Islamic tilework. After altering
Q&A
the patterns and programming them into an incising tool, the artist lets a digitally controlled spinning drill bit cut them into blocks made of plastic, paper and resin. However, it is in his glass pieces, which are hand-cut, that Bartholomew shines most brightly. The works’ surface irregularities— which is to say, imperfections—impart a soul that a computer program never could. Chambers, 916 NW Flanders St., 227-9398. Closes Aug. 27.
Group Show
In an otherwise mediocre group show, Ryan Berkley’s colored-pencil and marker drawings stand out for their impish humor. In the style of late1800s portraits and political banners, Berkley has cast a menagerie of whimsical animals, clothed in period dress: a hammerhead shark, fox, otter, moose, pelican and chimpanzee. That this frothy silliness is the highlight of the show tells you something about the lowlights. Compound, 107 NW 5th Ave., 796-2733. Closes July 30.
Brad Carlile
There is something eerie and otherworldly in Brad Carlile’s photographs. The prints in Tempus Incognitus show hotel rooms around the world photographed on slide film. Long exposures impart a richly saturated, thoroughly unnatural, and perversely arousing panoply of hues. The Independent, 530 NW 12th Ave. Closes Aug. 7.
Matthew Picton
Blending his update of 1960s and ’70s Land Art with an interest in text-based work, British-American artist Matthew Picton creates a kind of topographical-typographical hybrid in his latest wall sculptures and prints. A piece titled Portland is based on Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven and incorporates text from the novel, which is set in Portland around the hypothetical eruption of Mount Hood. As always, Picton’s approach is obsessively detailed and conceptually rigorous. Pulliam, 929 NW Flanders St., 228-6665. Closes July 30.
Ellen George and Jerry Mayer
Ellen George and Jerry Mayer collaborate on the installation Splace, an intriguing title that intimates the splicing of a space according to spontaneity and chance. These artists have long histories in the Northwest, so it will be a treat to see what they come up with working together in Nine Gallery, a small and boxy space that is inventively curated almost without fail. Nine Gallery (122 NW 8th Ave., inside Blue Sky Gallery). Closes July 31.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
PAIN SCALE BY MICHAEL ENDO AT FALSE FRONT
MICHAEL ENDO FALSE FRONT STUDIO Michael Endo’s haunting show at False Front this month, Pain Scale, is compelling for how uncomfortably it stretched the meticulous painter’s working methods. Endo, 32, normally lavishes time on his paintings, which generally never include human figures and are almost always in a subtle grayscale palette. This time, he forced himself to paint seven canvases—incorporating figures—in only three days, working not in the familiarity of his studio, but in the middle of the gallery itself, with a palette of bright, saturated colors. WW asked Endo why he made things so hard on himself. RICHARD SPEER. Turning pain into paint.
WW: Pain Scale is based on the hospital painmanagement scale, right? Michael Endo: Yes. About eight years ago, I had my appendix removed. I had never felt pain like that before. There’s this flash moment when that doctor asks you, “On a scale from 1 to 10, how much pain are you in?” It was difficult to assign it a number. I had to find a union between my memory of pain in the past and my perception of what was happening to me physically in the moment. It seemed arbitrary, in a way similar to choosing which colors you use in a painting. It fit in with my ideas about my work, because I’m always interested in the difference between perceived reality and the world that exists— that weird, liminal space between the psychological and the physical.
Was it frustrating to make all seven paintings in such a short amount of time? To me, it was liberating. The last two years, I’ve been working with such strict parameters, so in this series, bringing color back into it, I didn’t have to think too much about it. If I had been sitting there meditating on which colors to use, I would have tortured myself, overthinking it. So it was great to just get it out there. The big, 4-by-7-foot piece you did is really eerie. Who are those people, and why are we just seeing their outlines? I wanted to create a kind of apocalyptic landscape, where the figures are seeking shelter, but in the act of seeking shelter, their anxieties and feelings, which I assign colors, invade the space. They’re so wrapped up in their inner worlds, they can’t even see that the shelter is filling up with this black oil, which is erasing everything. Some of the figures are more realized, and others remain silhouettes. I wanted them to be in this flux of being there and not being there. Some of them are hanging onto some semblance of reality, and others are devolving into pure anxiety and fear. GO: Pain Scale at False Front, 4518 NE 32nd Ave., 781-4609. Closes July 24. Endo’s installation Et in Arcadia Ego shows Aug. 1-26 in the Portland Building, 1221 SW 4th Ave.
The week sTarTs on wednesday
10 years ago, our loved ones went to war. So did we. 7:30pm Friday, August 5th | The Old Church 1422 SW 11th Ave.
new issues every week
willameTTe week
Tickets: $5 – $25 at showtix4u.com or door The Sanctuary for Veterans and Families, 501c3 This program was made possible in part by a grant from Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH's grant program. Open Meadows Foundation Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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BEST COMEDY VENUE:
BOOKS
JULY 20-26
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
THURSDAY, JULY 21 Comma
Broadway Books’ Comma reading series features two authors from disparate genres; hear Sharon Wood Wortman and Skye Leslie as each author reads from her work. Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726. 7 pm. Free.
Back Fence PDX: Storytelling
ALTERNATIVE. CREATIVE. CURIOUS COMEDY OPEN MIC SUNDAY, JULY 10th LOCAL. 9:00PM FREE!!! AFFORDABLE. NON-PROFIT. HILARIOUS.
SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, 228-4651. 7 pm. Free.
azine blog the One-Block Diet, True and her team of writers set out to make year-round meals from ingredients grown or raised in their backyard plot. The result: a candid recounting of the group’s successes and failures. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 4 pm. Free.
SATURDAY, JULY 23
TUESDAY, JULY 26
Bill Alton
Demon Fish
By NATASHA GEILING 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.
Oh, the beauty of summer camp: sleeping bags, cafeteria food and infrequent showers. Experience camp exploits through the readers at Back Fence PDX: Storytelling, a benefit for Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls. Hear 10-minute stories from a park ranger, a Vancouver real-estate agent and a 12-year-old rock camp veteran (among others) while enjoying free alcohol, food and cupcakes. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 6:30 pm. $15. 21+.
William Dietrich
William Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist, tries his hand at an international thriller with his new book, Blood of the Reich, based on an actual Nazi expedition to Tibet to find an energy force that would make them invincible (spoiler alert: They didn’t find it.). Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415
Bill Alton presents One Man Show, his spoken-word memoir of a childhood filled with violence and an adult life plagued by drugs and injuries. Alton, who has published two books of poetry, was a 2010 nominee for the Pushcart Prize. Performance Works NW, 4625 SE 67th Ave., 777-1907. 7:30 pm. Free. 18+.
SUNDAY, JULY 24 Filter Literary Journal Release
Filter celebrates the publication of its newest handmade literary journal, Filter III, with a release party featuring readings by Zachary Schomburg, Melanie Noel, Sid Miller, Susan Denning, Sarah Bartlett and Becca Yenser. Copies will be available for purchase. Crow Arts Manor, 850 NE 81st Ave. No. 114. 7 pm. $5 suggested donation.
The One-Block Feast
When food editor Margo True prepares meals with local wares in The One-Block Feast, she’s not messing around. Inspired by the Sunset mag-
This spring, Oregon lawmakers voted to ban the sale of shark fins throughout the state; see what Washington Post environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin, author of the new book Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks, has to say about this when she comes to speak at OMSI’s Science Pub. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 7 pm. Free.
Hell on Two Wheels
It’s something only the insane, or insanely committed, would attempt: Race Across America, which takes cyclists from California to Maryland’s Atlantic shore. Three-time Ironman finisher Amy Snyder followed the racers by car to produce her new book, Hell on Two Wheels: An Astonishing Story of Suffering, Triumph and the Most Extreme Endurance Race in the World. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
For more Words listings, visit
REVIEW
ROBERT C. DONNELLY DARK ROSE
Music
CALENDAR
page 55
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
Robert C. Donnelly’s history of organized crime Instead of taking a few lines to explain “tick-tack” and political corruption in Portland in the 1950s (in this case, apparently a system of hand signals could have been as riveting as a James Ellroy for soliciting prostitution), the author leaves his novel. Instead, it reads like a textbook written by readers scratching their heads. Throughout Donan assistant professor of hisnelly’s book, no racy dialogue or tory at Gonzaga University, gritty anecdote that might shed which, of course, Donnelly is. an informative or entertaining Dark Rose (University of light on the inner workings of Washington Press, 208 pages, Portland’s once-flourishing $22.50) tells how a cabal of vice industry goes unwasted. Seattle mobsters, Teamsters Part of Donnelly’s challenge union officials and corrupt is that this den of vice has politicians tried to muscle in been raided before, to much on the vice rackets controlled more lurid effect by former in the Rose City by “vice czar” Oregonian and Portland TriJim Elkins, an unlikely godbune columnist Phil Stanford father who resembled John in his 2004 book, Portland Gotti less than he did Pa Kent. Confidential: Sex, Crime and Elkins double-crossed the Corruption in the Rose City. wiseguys—and a Multnomah Stanford included a lot of shady County DA on the take—by characters Donnelly leaves out taping their conversations and splashed his book with the and ratting them out to kind of grainy photos that once two Oregonian reporters filled the pages of True DetecA soft-boiled history of vice who wrote a Pulitzer Prizetive magazine. rackets and crooked cops in winning exposé on vice in Stanford left Donnelly an the City of Bridges. Portland. This inspired act opening, however, by admitof public-service journalism ting in the acknowledgements was clouded by the fact the intrepid reporters of his book that it was “hardly an analytical shielded their source’s own criminal hijinks. work.” Donnelly tries to fill this gap, with limIn recounting one of the most fascinating and ited success, by tracing how the Portland vice colorful periods in Portland’s history, Donnelly scandal of the 1950s helped Senate investigahas managed to drape blankets over the hoochie- tors link the Teamsters to organized crime, coochie girls, pour all the bootleg liquor down boosted the political career of Bobby Kennedy, a street drain, and drive spikes into the pinball and eventually led to civic reforms Portlanders machines that once proliferated as gambling still enjoy today. Too bad he expects his readdevices throughout the city. ers to do the time without enjoying the crime. Sin in Stumptown never seemed so dull. Early MATTHEW BUCKINGHAM. in the book, for instance, Donnelly quotes a visiting sailor describing “the endless rows of girls READ: Robert C. Donnelly’s Dark Rose: Organized Crime and Corruption in Portland is who play tick-tack on windows as one passes by.” on sale in bookstores now.
MOVIES
JULY 20-26 Q&A
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
Bad Teacher
32 It should have been a riot: Pot-
smoking, binge-drinking, cleavagebaring Cameron Diaz corrupting junior-high kids and getting down and dirty in the teacher’s lounge sounds like a decadent blast. Trouble is, Bad Teacher is neither dirty enough to make the shtick work as an exercise in shock vulgarity, nor rich enough in character to make its small moments of sentimentality seem anything but forced. If you really need another Cameron Diaz semen joke, just pop in a copy of There’s Something About Mary and save yourself the trouble of watching her make Justin Timberlake splooge in his pants during a dry humping session. R. AP KRYZA. 99 West Drive-In, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, Wilsonville.
Beginners
56 For all the big topics director Mike Mills addresses in this little dramedy— death and grief, repressed homosexuality, the idea that life starts whenever we’re ready for it—the thing most people will leave thinking is, “Boy, that dog sure was cute.” They’re not wrong. Arthur, a clingy Jack Russell terrier Ewan McGregor inherits after his father (Christopher Plummer) passes away, is the fourth most important character in Beginners, the second most interesting and definitely the most adorable. It’s probably not what Mills would want audiences to take away from the film, but then, he shouldn’t have had the dog “speak” to McGregor in subtitled pearls of wisdom. That kind of irksome preciousness, of which there are many other examples, undermines the genuinely moving story— apparently semi-autobiographical for Mills—of a thirtysomething graphic designer coming to terms with the fact that his dad has come out of the closet at age 75. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Fox Tower.
A Better Life
49 You have the right to regard a movie about the plight of immigrants made by the director of American Pie and New Moon with a bit of skepticism. To his credit, Chris Weitz—a paleface New Yorker with Mexican ancestry whose shining credit is his heartfelt adaptation of Nick Hornby’s About A Boy—labored to get the details correct: He shot A Better Life on location in the more impoverished corners of Los Angeles, allegedly altering the Spanglish dialogue to fit the slang of individual neighborhoods. Weitz’s neo-realist ambitions extend to casting actual day laborers and gang members, but the authenticity non-actors can provide disappears when placed against an emotion-cuing Hollywood score and the painful earnestness of the script. Then, they just become people who can’t act, and the film’s good intentions come off feeling strained. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Fox Tower.
The Body Electronic: An Evening With Jesse Malmed NEW
71 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, FILMMAKER ATTENDING] Participatory cinema is gaining momentum, with singalong screenings, in-theater drinking games and midnight movies becoming social events. But in the realm of avantgarde cinema, audience participation is typically relegated to post-screening banter over a glass of wine. Local artist Jesse Malmed seeks to change all that, and with The Body Electronic the filmmaker presents a series of short abstract films that range from invigorating to off-kilter. It’s a rather strange trip: Shorts like IN3DIA, in which more than 1,200 images of India bombard the screen to a hypnotic symphony of street noise, are wonderfully abstract and serious, then suddenly we’re presented with found footage of old family movies that dissolve into static as Malmed sings Smash Mouth’s cornball “All Star” reimagined as a lounge
A N D R E W S C H WA R T Z / H B O
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.
act. The audience is also kept on its toes with “Conversational Karaoke,” wherein two members are handed mics to perform karaoke featuring nonsense lyrics. All the while, Malmed plays the diabolical conductor, adding noises and song to his bizarre repertoire. It’s not for everybody, but any arthouse cinephile looking to lighten up is urged to catch The Body Electronic, Malmed’s last show before relocating to Chicago. AP KRYZA. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Wednesday, July 20.
Bridesmaids
60 Considering this is the first direct reunion of Paul Feig and Judd Apatow since they co-created the wondrously warm Freaks and Geeks, all the straining for ribaldry feels a little sad, like Feig and his actors know they’re sacrificing honesty for coarse bumptiousness. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Bridgeport, Lloyd Mall.
Buck
TEA, MILDRED?: Kate Winslet and Todd Haynes on the set of Mildred Pierce.
78 “God had him in mind when He
made a cowboy,” a friend says of Dan “Buck” Brannaman, the country’s foremost “horse whisperer.” Maybe so, but when Hollywood made up its version of a cowboy, it certainly didn’t have a guy like Brannaman in mind. Exuding Zenlike calm rather than macho stoicism and speaking in a twangy monotone, Brannaman doesn’t make an obvious subject for a compelling documentary, but director Cindy Meehl achieves one anyway. She avoids mythicizing Brannaman’s gift, instead probing the deep childhood pain he transformed into powerful interspecies empathy. PG. MATTHEW SINGER. Hollywood Theatre, Eastport.
Bullet Ballet: John Woo Hong Kong Double Feature NEW
73 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL]
Hong Kong director John Woo’s kinetic action sequences have far too often been described as balletic, when what they resemble more than anything is a Rube Goldberg machine—albeit one made of tender meat and bullets. Each shot, chop or spin seems to follow fluidly, inevitably from the previous; of course a firing gun would cause a table to rise in its path, just as every man springing up against a window inspires a behind-the-back bullet and a thin spray of red. His 1989 classic, The Killer, revolves, of course, around a killer— a young Chow-Yun Fat (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)—who accidentally blinds a pretty nightclub singer while shooting a bunch of other people to little tiny pieces. Bound by duty and remorse, he becomes her caretaker, which muddies his previously pristine life with betrayal, vulnerability to law enforcement, etc., etc., in a tragic spiral that is likewise inevitable and Rube Goldbergian. While most later Woo is high-fructose, murderous candy (see Hard-Boiled, showing as the first half of this twin bill), in The Killer the exhilarating pyrotechnics alternate with pained silent paeans to honor and slow-motion sentimentality that amount to a wonderfully unlikely— and surprisingly engaging—misreading of Jean-Pierre Melville’s long career of French noir crime fables, in particular Le Samourai. Filmic quotations abound, from Scorsese to Kurosawa to the aforementioned Melville, so it’s small wonder that Tarantino sees fit to quote Woo so often: It saves a lot of time. In any case, Woo will start production on a 3-D remake of The Killer later this year, which should arrive just in time for the inevitable technological backlash. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Hollywood Theatre. Hard-Boiled screens at 7:15 pm, The Killer at 9:30 pm Tuesday, July 26. $7 for both films. NEW Captain America: The First Avenger
Yo no soy marinero. Yo no screened by WW press deadlines. Look for a review on wweek.com. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius,
CONT. on page 47
TODD HAYNES PORTLAND’S EMMY NOMINEE TALKS MILDRED PIERCE AND HIS NEW TEA PARTY PROJECT. BY AA R ON MESH
amesh@wweek.com
The last time we spoke to Todd Haynes, he told us he was packing up his supply of historical melodrama for a move to television, to direct the Mildred Pierce miniseries for HBO. Nearly three years later, Haynes woke up Thursday morning to 21 Emmy nominations for his adaptation of the James M. Cain book about a Depression-era chicken-and-waffle entrepreneur with a singularly ungrateful daughter. (The haul included nods for his direction and his writing with fellow Portlander Jon Raymond.) To keep his hot streak going, it was time to tell WW his latest plans. On the eve of a local appearance, and the NW Film Center’s showing of Mildred Pierce in its 330-minute entirety on the big screen, the Portland-based indie tyro was thinking about...economics, mostly. WW: Twenty-one Emmy nominations have got to make you want to stay in TV, right? Todd Haynes: The door seems to be open, and the welcome mat is extended to us with HBO. I have to say, that was an exemplary experience for me, in terms of working with such an intelligent and committed production company. Is TV replacing independent cinema? Oh, I really hope not. I just can’t accept that. But we’re definitely in a perplexing time, in terms of the range of films getting financed—and the fear factor, the nervousness about doing anything that falls even marginally outside an existing “hit” model. That’s certainly disconcerting to filmmakers. Especially when studios are reaping in record profits. That’s the thing that you could apply to almost any aspect of our industries in this country today: the lopsidedness of profit-driven incentives in every industry, and how much we are eating shit to keep the wealthiest and the CEOs and the stockholders happy. It’s so distorted, even in companies that are performing exceedingly well. The distorting power of greed is a theme in Mildred Pierce as well.
Definitely. It’s not just greed, although that’s certainly a factor, but how economic incentives or economic conditions interface with emotional and domestic situations and conflicts in the most subtle and mercurial way, each mirroring the other. [It’s] a really amazing way of looking at domestic conundrums, like the mother-daughter relationship. You’ve had a lot of scenes in your work of shocking confrontations, but there can’t be one more shocking than the final bedroom scene between Mildred and her daughter Veda. That kind of goes off the charts. We did our best to really honor the sickly shock of that scene, and I think we succeeded. It was also the point of some discussion with Evan Rachel Wood, who felt some hesitancy at first about it. And then Kate Winslet—who has had nude scenes in her films from the beginning and obviously has had a proud and respected career regardless, or perhaps as a result, of how she handled that kind of material— she was a great cheerleader and supporter for Evan’s nervousness. What are you working on now? Jon [Raymond] and I are actually starting to develop something together. It’s really, really early, so it’s hard to talk about it, except to say that it examines the populist conservative culture, and the latest chapter of paranoia in the American political style.
“WE ARE EATING SHIT TO KEEP THE WEALTHIEST HAPPY.” That sounds like you’re making a tea party movie. Well, yeah, kind of. Kind of are. We’re really curious about what’s been going on, and concerned. But I think we have to approach it from the inside out, and not the outside in, which is really where we stand in our lives. But we want to approach it narratively without a strong judgmental point of view going in. Which is tough. It won’t be starring George Clooney, in other words. SEE IT: Mildred Pierce screens at the NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at 7 pm Saturday, July 23 (330 minutes with one intermission). Todd Haynes will hold a discussion with producer Christine Vachon at the Whitsell at 7 pm Sunday, July 24. Read an extended Q&A on wweek.com. Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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Cars 2
65 It’s not every day a kids’ movie
combines elements of Machete and Inception. Unlikely as it may seem, though, Cars 2 does exactly that. OK, so there’s no intestinal rapelling— but remember that part of Machete where the lowriders all jump up and down pre-battle? That happens. And the set designs are nearly as gorgeous and intensely detailed as Chris Nolan’s magical Paris upside-down cake. Then again, Cars 2 isn’t exactly a kids’ movie. Like most of Pixar’s work, it’s clearly written by and for grownups; kids might like the talking cars and the (many) potty jokes, but it’s hard to imagine them keeping up with the plot. And you sort of have to hope that the moral of the story, such as it is, will fly right over their heads. Valuable lessons are learned, including that true friends indulge each other’s bad behavior always, and that there’s no such thing as an environmentally friendly alternative fuel: Try it and you will probably explode. G. BECKY OHLSEN. Cedar Hills, 99 Indoor Twin, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop
70 Can’t Stop, a behind-the-scenes
look at the live tour he embarked on while contractually blocked from appearing on TV, doesn’t present Conan O’Brien as anything other than a funny and creative person with a compulsive drive to entertain. His backstage banter with sidekick Andy Richter and faux-bullying of his crew (along with a few jabs at NBC and Jay Leno) is funny enough to earn the film a recommendation, and perhaps the point of it wasn’t to be enlightening, but then, what is the point of making what’s essentially a 90-minute DVD bonus feature? MATTHEW SINGER. Living Room Theaters.
The Double Hour
76 Freshman Italian director Giuseppe
Capotondi builds his haunting debut, The Double Hour, around a twist that allows him to tell the story of a horrendous crime through the perspectives of the two people affected by it. But not content just to let the twist— which actually comes about halfway through the film—do the talking, Capotondi lets his narrative play out as a human story, and his film benefits from the extra care. AP KRYZA. Living Room Theaters. NEW
Farmageddon
62 Listen up, farmers market cheesemakers. Watch your back, Alberta Co-op. You’re terrorists corrupting the bio-harmony of America, and the federal government is coming to fuck you up. Kristin Canty’s Farmageddon traces a strange trend: the U.S. Department of Agriculture targeting small, family-owned farms for SWAT raids, sometimes holding entire families at gunpoint as their livelihoods are seized for bullshit reasons. The culprit is often raw milk, that unpasteurized nectar that some see as medicinal, but that 28 states see as creamy anthrax (don’t worry, Oregon farms can sell it—the dirty hippie liberals). So Canty tracks organic farmers who were targeted by the feds and had their lives ruined—sheep-milk farmers whose animals were slaughtered; a well-loved dairy quarantined with no explanation— to make a larger point about freedom of culinary choice. The stories are compelling and eye-opening, but this being the work of a first-time filmmaker, we’re also forced to sit through talking-head interviews and man-on-thestreet encounters at farmers markets. Ending with a “the reason I made this film” speech, Farmageddon devolves into another ho-hum entry in the “go organic, eat your veggies” subgenre, becoming intoxicated with its righteous message and, as a result, coming off as more processed than organic. AP KRYZA. Hollywood Theatre.
The First Beautiful Thing
73 The First Beautiful Thing has all
the trappings of a sappy melodrama: mother in hospice, junkie son, estranged father, reunions, revitalization and self-actualization. Clichés aside, director Paolo Virzì has crafted a bittersweet drama that defies convention while playing it close to the heart, tracing 40 years in the life of Anna (the luminous Micaela Ramazzotti), a devoted mother whose insulated son (Valerio Mastandrea) is forced to reconnect with her in hospice, triggering flashbacks to the chic Italy of yesteryear. Touching, elegant and witty, it’s a thing of beauty itself, making it easy to forgive its overindulgence in the requisite corn. AP KRYZA. NEW
Friends With Benefits
Mila Kunis. Justin Timberlake. Fuckin’. Not screened for critics by WW press deadlines. Look for a review on wweek.com. R. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Green Lantern
29 What’s that line from Macbeth? Something about a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, and computer-generated landscapes and Blake Lively in form-fitting business suits and Ryan Reynolds’ abs, signifying nothing? It’s almost as if Shakespeare knew this vacuous Green Lantern adaptation was coming down the pike. Calling director Martin Campbell an idiot is a bit harsh—he gets an extended pass for making Casino Royale—but his preoccupation with bright colors and loud noises and barely comprehensible action sucks this first big-screen appearance for the long-standing DC Comics superhero into a black hole of meaninglessness. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Eastport, Movies on TV.
NEW
Grounds for Resistance
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR ATTENDING] A documentary about Coffee Strong, a G.I.-supporting java shop outside Lewis-McChord Joint Base, the largest military base in the Pacific Northwest0. Clinton Street Theater. 6 pm Thursday, July 21. Director Lisa Gilman will answer questions after the screening.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
80 It is a gratifying resolution to J.K. Rowlings’ wand opera, even if resolution isn’t really what we want: The best movies in the series were the third through the sixth, which felt most like a semester-long stroll through the Hogwarts campus. No time for that now; the first act of Deathly Hallows 2 is a roller-coaster ride through goblin caves, and everything else is dedicated to an all-out battle that, with its rubble and dusty light, looks like Saving Private Potter. This World War II tone is the finest thing about the film: Director David Yates and his setdesign team have created an atmosphere that explicitly recalls London during the Blitz, with young lovers snogging goodbye as the cathedral towers rain down. It is a good stage for good deaths, and everybody shows a lot of grace under pressure, especially Neville Longbottom (Matthew Lewis), who gets the most noble bits. Everything almost makes sense, and the backstory of the Potter family and Severus Snape gets its deserved heft. (Also, we learn that Voldemort is an incredibly awkward hugger.) With the exception of a coda where makeup causes the protagonists to look less like they’re middleaged and more like they’ve contracted tuberculosis, it unspools like gangbusters. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Roseway, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Horrible Bosses
76 An occasionally sublime dollop of silliness, Horrible Bosses plays like Adam McKay’s The Other Guys without the sincere workingman’s rage or the full courage of its absurdist instincts. It doesn’t need those higher qualities; it relies entirely on the chemistry of Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day, the motormouth from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia who looks and sounds like what would happen if Bradley Cooper and Casey Affleck had a baby, and that baby, like Stuart Little, turned out to be a mouse. This is a labored analogy, I admit, but it’s in keeping with the movie’s delight in extended digression. The single best scene is Jamie Foxx as a parolee explaining, in grave detail, how he received the street name Motherfucker Jones. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Larry Crowne
24 Take the NBC series Community,
remove its braces of irony so it spills and wobbles onto the screen like a Tom Hanks-shaped Jell-O, and you have Larry Crowne. It announces itself from the opening scene as a gnawthrough-your-own-leg-to-escape variety of sunny torture; I spent almost all 99 minutes wishing I had to pee. The movie is so hapless from the outset that I don’t think anybody will hold it against the participants—even Hanks, who directed. After being callously fired from his beloved big-box job, Hanks’ Larry enrolls in junior college—an apt setting, since the movie feels like it was written by a juco student, maybe one studying English as a second language. It is possible that every character in the movie is falling-down drunk; that’s the best hypothesis I can offer. I do not mean to be snotty but merely precisely descriptive when I say that much of Larry Crown appears intended as a matinee for people with mild cognitive disabilities. Its target demographic is Forrest Gump. PG-13. AARON MESH. Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Hilltop, Movies on TV, Tigard, Sandy. NEW
MISSILE TO THE MOON
TOP DOWN: ROOFTOP CINEMA The NW Film Center goes middlebrow every Thursday for the rest of the summer, with evening outdoor screenings on Hotel deLuxe’s garage rooftop. As you can see, I’ve ditched our 0-to-100 scale for something a bit more appropriate to the occasion. You’ll catch on. CHRIS STAMM.
Like a backyard movie night, if your backyard was a parking garage.
Filmusik Live: Missile to the Moon: “Portland is rad.” The alfresco series starts strong with ’50s sci-fi trash getting spiffed up by the awesome folks of Filmusik, who will be contributing a live original score and voice dubbing to Missile to the Moon, for which I have just invented the Best and Most Ridiculous Giant Spider award. 8 pm Thursday, July 21.
The Light Thief
Female: “I actually forgot I was outside with people I hate.” Michael Curtiz’s sharp little number about slutting around was released in 1933, so of course mogul and maneater Alison Drake must be shamed and tamed in the final 10 minutes. The cool thing about 1933, though, was that it wasn’t 1934, which is when the MPAA prudes began enforcing the Hays Code; for 50 minutes, then, Drake is a proudly libidinous and unsentimental woman who conscripts her livery to help her ensnare lovers and ditches her dudes once they get soft on her. 8 pm Thursday, July 28.
A Little Help
Viva Las Vegas: “It’s cold and I want to go home. Or die.” I don’t understand Elvis. I don’t understand people who like Elvis. I don’t understand the appeal of his oil-spill voice. I don’t understand why his aw-shucks mugging is considered charming or even permissible in this day and age. I don’t know what to tell you. Elvis is in this movie. Go buy a Beatles album. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 4.
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] An electrician fights greedy developers in Kyrgyzstan. Not to be confused with Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, though honestly it would be very funny if someone made this mistake. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, July 22. NEW
REVIEW ASTOR PICTURES
Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Broadway, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
MOVIES
25 The title is a cry—and you wonder
why someone didn’t heed the distress call and put this poor picture out of its misery. There are several weak hiccups of happenstance that might be construed as plot twists, and I’ll avoid them, but suffice it to say that this is a movie where the climactic scene hinges on a child getting a picture painted on his back of the Twin Towers on fire. I’m not kidding. Neither is the movie, though if it played its Long Island malaise slightly more askew, maybe it would be near to a thirtysomething Heathers. Instead, it’s another degradation dramedy, where a woman suffers because she is kind of pretty and the world is kind of terrible. Jenna Fischer (Pam on The Office) is that woman, and her work suggests Amy Adams if Amy Adams had been in a terrible accident and lost the ability to act. It is the best performance in the movie. At times I wondered if writer/director Michael J. Weithorn was trying for the intentionally appalling (there’s a scene where a character admits he got married to be near his wife’s sister), but no: He’s just incompetent at bathos. Everything is tonally wrong, none of the putative problems are resolved on a pragmatic level, and Jakob Dylan wrote a new batch of songs just for the film. “That’s really sad,” a friend of mine observed upon hearing this news. The whole thing is really sad. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
The Outsiders: “I’m outside. On a roof. Watching a movie. Cool.” A fine homage to Nicholas Ray and a great excuse to gaze upon the denim-strangled packages of Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez and the Karate Kid, The Outsiders finds Coppola turning the failed soundstage experiments of One From the Heart into something it doesn’t hurt to watch. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 11. Police Story: “This beer line is long. I don’t care. At least it’s moving.” Police Story is widely considered one of Jackie Chan’s finest achievements, which will have you questioning the very idea of wide consideration until you remember that Chan’s list of achievements includes Police Story 2, Police Story 3, Police Story 4 and Rush Hour. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 18. Goldfinger: “Stars are pretty.” With chest unwaxable and wit unflappable, Sean Connery’s 007 takes on Auric Goldfinger, Oddjob and Pussy Galore in the Bond film you’ve already seen even if you haven’t. Too timid to work as camp and too smitten with rank double entendres to work as anything more than a slimy joke trapped in a 12-year-old’s soft head, Goldfinger is bad but not terrible, which means it’s pretty awful. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 25. SEE IT: The Top Down: Rooftop Cinema series is presented by NW Film Center on the top deck of the Hotel deLuxe garage, at the corner of Southwest 15th Avenue and Yamhill Street. $9.
CONT. on page 48 Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
47
blication
MOVIES
Midnight in Paris
Betsy Sharkey,
“‘TERRI’
IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO LOVE. Nearly everything about this very fine film is surprising.
77 Owen Wilson, convincingly step-
ping into the “Woody Allen role,” wanders into the streets one night and tipsily stumbles upon a rip in the space-time continuum that transports him to the 1920s to party with his literary idols: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. It’s a fairy tale for lit majors, and Allen’s best work in years. That said, calling Paris a true return to form for Allen after the past decade’s mixed bag is an exaggeration. It’s more of a charming trifle. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Cedar Hills, Forest, Lake Twin, Bridgeport, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
”
John Anderson,
“A
DISARMING, ORIGINAL COMEDY... JACOB WYSOCKI IS TERRIFIC. JOHN C. REILLY MAY HAVE FINALLY FOUND THE PERFECT ROLE FOR HIS GIFTS.” David Fear,
“EXTRAORDINARY... gently
FUNNY and genuinely TOUCHING.”
Monte Carlo
35 All you preteen ladies, take note: If this Selena Gomez vehicle contains any valuable lessons about self-reliance, they’re overshadowed by dangerously bad examples of how to behave abroad (or on your home soil). Fact: Identity theft and impersonation are crimes, even if you’re spunky. Suggestion: If you must steal somebody’s identity, know your own personal limits regarding equestrian safety. PG. SAUNDRA SORENSON. Clackamas.
Leonard Maltin,
“ONE OF THE MOST STRIKING AND SATISFYING
indie films of the year.”
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3.825” X 5"
WED 7/20
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the exact moment when all movies about drug kingpins are required to deliver a comeuppance—Rhys Ifans tries to calm his nerves about a big hashish shipment, dozes off at the wheel of his roadster, and sails off a steep embankment, slamming brutally into a sheep pasture. And he walks away from the wreck, goes dancing in a pub, and helps an IRA member steal a projector to watch dirty flicks. Perhaps because Mr. Nice is about marijuana—legalize it!—the movie feels little of the standard compulsion to scold about the dire consequences of drugs, and is free to have a jolly old time. As an Irish patriot gamesman, David Thewlis is as scruffy as he’s ever been (and he’s a werewolf in the Harry Potter movies, recall), while Chloë Sevigny seems intent on upending the crime-picture cliché of the wet-blanket wife, screaming “JUST SAY NO!” in time with Nancy Reagan as she fucks our hero on a futon. Chloë Sevigny is a national treasure. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre.
ART APPROVED AE APPROVED CLIENT APPROVED
Deadline: invites you to see
tion #:
Page One: Inside the New York Times
WARNER BROS. PICTURES PRESENTS A CAROUSEL PRODUCTION A DI NOVI PICTURES PRODUCTION STEVE CARELL “CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.” RYAN GOSLING JULIANNE MOORE EMMA STONE JOHN CARROLL LYNCH MARISA TOMEI AND KEVIN BACON EXECUTIVE MUSIC BY CHRISTOPHE BECK NICK URATA PRODUCERS DAVID A. SIEGEL VANCE DEGENERES CHARLIE HARTSOCK WRITTEN PRODUCED DIRECTED BY GLENN FICARRA AND JOHN REQUA BY STEVE CARELL DENISE DI NOVI BY DAN FOGELMAN
July 25 • 7:00 PM ~ Portland To download your tickets, go to gofobo.com/rsvp and enter the RSVP code: WWEEK0HVV This film is rated PG-13 for coarse humor, sexual content and language. Tickets are available while supplies last. Tickets received through this promotion do not guarantee admission. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. THEATRE IS OVERBOOKED TO ENSURE A FULL HOUSE. No one will be admitted without a ticket or after the screening begins. All federal, state and local regulations apply. A recipient of a ticket assumes any and all risks related to use of the ticket and accepts any restrictions required by ticket provider. Warner Bros. Pictures, Willamette Week, Terry Hines & Associates and their affiliates accept no responsibility or liability in connection with any loss or accident incurred in connection with use of a prize.
IN THEATERS FRIDAY, JULY 29 www.crazystupidlovemovie.com • Like us on Facebook - www.facebook.com/crazystupidlove
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
31 Cue a high-speed carriage chase through London, swordfights, flesh-munching mermaids, ’splosions, looting, double crosses, and Johnny Depp swaggering around the screen like an effeminate Hunter S. Thompson with a bad accent. Yet it all rings hollow. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Living Room Theaters, Movies on TV.
NEW PNCA and NWFC Present: Re-Situated Animation
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A program of experimental ’toons. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Monday, July 25.
PROFILE
74 Halfway through Mr. Nice—at
REGAL FOX TOWER STADIUM 10 846 SW Park Avenue, Portland (800) FANDANGO
PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK Size Run Date(s)
times it’s unbelievably cheesy, but it’s so damned energetic and overthe-top and Italian that you won’t mind. A scene in which Turturro and company don turbans and dig for oil is nowhere near as good as James Gandolfini and a chorus of garbagemen bemoaning heartbreak in New Jersey (from Turturro’s 2005 melodrama Romance & Cigarettes). And a crazy multi-lingual performance of “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” though hilarious and weird and rhythmically intense, doesn’t entirely fly. Also there is no storyline or narrative structure at all. But this is a love note, and logic has no place here; what counts is heart, gusto, sincerity, and the willingness to risk exposing same. Passione has all of that, plus dancing girls. BECKY OHLSEN. Living Room Theaters.
Mr. Nice
JACOB WYSOCKI CREED BRATTON and JOHN C. REILLY
NOW PLAYING!
JULY 20-26
TJ WAT T
DISCOVER THE BEST REVIEWED NEW COMEDY OF THE SUMMER.
70 Page One is propaganda on behalf of journalism. It is All the News That’ll Make The New York Times Look Good. It is a rousing defense of monoculture, which places it alongside World War I on the list of battles fought over a corpse. But most of all, Andrew Rossi’s documentary is the David Carr Show. The Times’ media reporter gets about 45 of the movie’s 88 minutes—not coincidentally, these are the good 45 minutes. Famously recovered from crack addiction and alt-weekly employment, with a voice like The Simpsons’ Patty and Selma Bouvier combined, Carr has become that most enviable and admirable of figures: the pugnacious advocate of civilization. R. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
Passione: A Musical Adventure
71 It’s hard to know what to make
of John Turturro’s latest project. Neither sober nor linear enough to neatly be labeled a documentary, it’s also not quite a travelogue; basically it’s John Turturro goofing around. He and several groups of musicians wander haphazardly through the musical traditions of Naples. Interviews with locals are interspersed with scenes of random Neapolitans singing on street corners, archival footage of classic songs performed by the likes of Angela Luce, and odd little dramatization numbers in which the various musicians act out song lyrics. At
PICTURE ME LOGROLLING: The motivating clear-cut in central Oregon.
IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT They were the Lorax, with gasoline.
I can see why a person would want to burn down Eugene. That squat, dingy city of bureaucratic lobbies and granola shops two hours south of here is the setting for much of this rigorous documentary on arsoninclined environmental group the Earth Liberation Front—and the effect of seeing Eugene in contemporary footage, as well as video from the ’90s, when it was somehow even worse, is to illuminate a certain mind-set. Which goes like this: Here is this ugly little town inside this magnificent forest, and the people who run the ugly little town are tearing down the magnificent forest, and when we try to stop them tearing down the magnificent forest, they paint our eyes with pepper spray, so maybe—just a thought—we should set fire to the ugly little town? From this angle, the ELF was like the Lorax, if the Lorax had firebombed the Once-ler’s house to save the Truffula Trees. From another angle, it was anarchist yokels torching universities. At any rate, it does not strike me as a coincidence that Daniel McGowan’s move to New York City coincided with a flagging desire to burn things. McGowan is the main subject of If a Tree Falls: a former ELF member wearing an ankle bracelet under a terrorism beef. There are many people who have been in Oregon longer than I, whom I anticipate have greater knowledge and stronger feelings about clear-cutting in national forests, but I’m going to submit that McGowan, pudgy and principled, will not strike anybody as the terrorist type. Comparing his destruction of empty offices to Timothy McVeigh’s mass murder is an obscenity. Still, we’re good liberals, and we agree that if you target somebody for violence because you ideologically loathe them—because you believe their sexuality will cause them to rot in hell, say—this is worse than if you just randomly attacked them. Doesn’t the same rule apply if you burn down their lumber mill for ideological reasons? So it’s complicated, is what I’m saying. Directors Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman are willing to engage a lot of perspectives (including those of some shit-eating, smug feds), but by the end, they’re pulling out songs from the National to escort McGowan to his fate, and a lot of that complexity leaches away. The Cascade forests—the ones still standing, anyway—are rich in color. It’s in Eugene that everything turns black-and-white. Burn it down! AARON MESH. 72
SEE IT: If a Tree Falls opens Friday at Cinema 21.
JULY 20-26 NEW
MOVIES
Project Nim
James Marsh (Man on Wire) directs a documentary about a chimpanzee raised as a human. Not screened for Portland critics by WW press deadlines. Look for a review on wweek. com. PG-13. Fox Tower.
Super 8
73 In a season of lazy cash-grab
sequels and more tired comic book adaptations, Super 8 is fun and cool and genuine in the ways summer blockbusters used to be. The way movies used to be is writer-director J.J. Abrams’ entire driving principle behind the project. By its very conceit, it is nothing you haven’t seen before. You just haven’t seen it recently. But you should still see Super 8. It is imperfect—Abrams occasionally trips over the thin line separating homage and cliché— but it is a movie infused with a love of the movies, and that carries it a long way. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Clackamas, Cornelius, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Tigard. NEW
Super Skate Summer 2011
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY] A weekend of shredding: Sunday night looks the most promising, with No Age scoring lost Dogtown-era videos. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm FridaySunday, July 22-24.
Terri
88 Terri Thompson (Jacob Wysocki)
lives with an uncle succumbing to dementia, he is unmistakably fat, and he’s so bullied and embarrassed about his weight that he has begun attending school in his pajamas, as if throwing himself the only slumber party he’d get invited to. Maybe you recognize the feeling: the uniquely hollow knowledge that you’re constitutionally incapable of facing social interactions most people breeze through without a second thought. Nothing cures that, but Terri offers a balm, by knowing its characters’ weaknesses as well as they do themselves, but treating them far more generously. Director Azazel Jacobs (Momma’s Man) and writer Patrick deWitt—yes, Portland novelist Patrick deWitt, the one who hung out at Liberty Glass and just published The Sisters Brothers—have pinpointed how the very admission of your weaknesses feels shameful, a body blow to your pride. In the movie’s most exquisitely biting sequence, Terri realizes that his weekly counseling sessions place him in the school’s lowest caste—a montage of misshapen frames and untouchable personalities. “I guess I just wish I didn’t need help, you know?” says Terri to his principal, Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly). Mr. Fitzgerald knows. He gives Terri a malted milk ball. So, yes, Terri is a therapy movie. But it is also a radical inversion of the John Hughes formula—in which all the outcasts are secretly conformists-in-waiting—and a proof that elegant ’70s exploration of outsider lives can flourish in contemporary small-budget cinema. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
53 Watching Transformers movies, you can imagine a preadolescent, mulleted Michael Bay lording over other kids’ imaginations, demanding his classmates play the way he wants them to. But he has the coolest toys, so everybody obliges him, in the hope they’ll get their hands on one of his cutting-edge gadgets. And what cool toys they are. With Transformers: Dark of the Moon, he has delivered what we want: a dumb-as-rocks, rock’em-sock-’em popcorn flick without pretension. For no other reasons than familiarity and bankability, Shia LeBeouf is back as Sam Witwicky, a friend of the heroic Autobots, who work black ops for the U.S. government while preventing the evil Decepticons from destroying humanity. As the robot races square off around the globe (in such exotic locales as Angkor Wat and “Middle Eastern Illegal Nuclear Site”), Sam races to protect his new love interest
FARMAGEDDON (Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, introduced by a 3-D ass shot that makes Megan Fox’s debut in the original look like a Gloria Steinem book jacket) from falling debris. Alas, like most kids, Bay doesn’t know when to close the toy box. At nearly 160 minutes, the film is as butt-numbing as it is eye-popping, and no amount of chaotic action can mask the fact that Dark of the Moon is at least an hour too long. Bay may have ceded to his critics and made a more crowd-pleasing flick, but he can’t hide the rust on his gears. Perhaps it’s time to put these toys in the attic and move on to exploiting a different cherished childhood plaything. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
The Tree of Life
97 “A man who writes of himself
without speaking of God,” Hollywood screenwriter Ben Hecht wrote in his later days, “is like one who identifies himself without giving his address.” Terrence Malick gives precise geographical coordinates in The Tree of Life, a project that has gestated in the mind of the director for 32 years. It turns out that God—or at least little Terry Malick’s first stirrings of the divine—was hiding in Waco, Texas. The movie feels like an explanation for why Malick has been so reluctant to produce scheduled work. With the hero’s puberty comes a rebellion against the tyranny of earthly and heavenly fathers. “Why should I be good if you aren’t?” asks Jack, the young protagonist— and at this point, the movie had my number so completely that I feared it would come up with a reason. It doesn’t, thank goodness. In its final sequence, a grown Jack (Sean Penn) rides up a Houston skyscraper and—in a probably unintentional nod to Willy Wonka’s Great Glass Elevator—ascends to a healing vision of heaven. This is not very persuasive, and it doesn’t matter: What is so piercing about The Tree of Life is not that it knows life’s answers, but that it knows how the questions feel. PG-13. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
The Trip
85 Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon,
essentially reprising their barely fictionalized, largely improvised roles from Winterbottom’s Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, have the kind of comic chemistry where the only thing a director needs to do is point the camera at them to come away with the funniest film of the year. MATTHEW SINGER. Living Room Theaters.
TrollHunter
Norwegian creature feature TrollHunter is at once a clever parody of the increasingly tired “found footage” trope popularized by The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield and [REC], and a slick thrill ride using the shakycam, first-person style to perfect effect. The low-budget, older-kidfriendly thriller takes a less-is-more approach to its tale of monsters rampaging through the icy countryside, and in so doing crafts a playful and utterly original piece of tongue-
in-cheek escapism. When the trolls are terrorizing the people and the landscape, it’s a goofy treat, another Scandinavian fractured fairytale to set beside Rare Exports. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Hollywood Theatre. NEW
The Video Gong Show
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] Aspirant filmmakers bring their (often strange) products, and judges see how long they can stand them before clanging them offscreen. Hollywood Theatre. 6:30 pm Monday, July 25.
Winnie the Pooh
WWEEKDOTCOM
62 Let’s assuage some fears regarding the new Winnie the Pooh movie right up front. No, it isn’t computer animated. It wasn’t shot in 3-D. It doesn’t feature celebrity voice cameos from Seth Rogen or Jim Carrey or Angelina Jolie. At no point does Pooh rap or tell Christopher Robin to “chillax,” and it doesn’t end with the cast singing and dancing to a Beyoncé song. It is very much like the cartoons you remember from childhood: simple, unassuming and twee as all hell. It doesn’t launch fart jokes at you, and it won’t make you weep. In other words, it’s a bit of an anachronism. It’s so old-fashioned, its narrative device is framed around the reading of an honest-to-goodness, paper-andink book. A friggin’ book! It’s handdrawn, with two of those classic, surreal Disney sequences that make you wonder if the animators were smoking opium. It’s even adultfunny in spots; there’s an exchange of “Who’s on first?”-style wordplay that’s more clever and fun than it should be. It just never justifies its existence, and that makes all its positives feel like a waste. A traditional animated film with no poop gags or obnoxious voice casting or incongruous song-and-dance numbers set to modern pop hits is rare these days—so why does this one have to be squandered on antiquated characters who, frankly, were never that appealing to begin with? Oh, bother. G. MATTHEW SINGER. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
X-Men: First Class
73 A prequel to the four preced-
ing X-Men movies, First Class has so much fun with its setup that you almost wish it never got around to the saving-the-world-from-nuclearannihilation plot. PG-13. BECKY OHLSEN. Eastport.
Zookeeper
22 By now you’ve surely caught wind that Zookeeper is terrible—and it is, but it’s a reassuring kind of terrible, like cat poetry or Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies. If it weren’t terrible, you wouldn’t know what to do with yourself. It plays exactly like Grown Ups, but if all of Kevin James’ idiot pals were zoo animals. (Adam Sandler voices a capuchin; Judd Apatow does an elephant.) It’s also exactly like Hitch, but if Kevin James got relationship advice from zoo animals. It’s like anything with Kevin James you’ve ever failed to enjoy, but with zoo animals. PG. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, 99 West Drive-In, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Cinema 99, Bridgeport, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Movies on TV.
Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
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MOVIES
DATES
BREWVIEWS Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10
SEATTLE’S BEST: What John Callahan was to Portland, poet Steven J. Bernstein was to Seattle—a troubled, idiosyncratic icon of the seedier side of the street. Now Bernstein also has his own movie: I Am Secretly an Important Man, which is arranged by director Pete Sillen as a scramble of Emerald City diners in 16 mm. With a voice somewhere between Steve Earle and the guy who narrates those Wizard People, Dear Reader videos, Bernstein became a patriarch of grunge, but describes his poetry in the old-fashioned terms of workaday duty, even appearing in a departmentstore window to read. Keep Seattle Weird! AARON MESH. Clinton Street Theater. Best paired with: Black Butte XXIII. Also showing: The Odessa File (Laurelhurst), Wayne’s World (Academy). Clinton Street Theater
Regal Lloyd Center Stadium 10 Cinema
1510 NE Multnomah Blvd., 800-326-3264 SUPER 8 Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 11:25, 02:15, 05:05, 07:50, 10:40 CARS 2 Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:05, 01:45, 04:30, 07:15, 10:00 TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON 3D FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:40, 03:25, 07:05, 10:35 HORRIBLE BOSSES FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:20, 01:50, 04:20, 06:50, 09:50 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:00, 02:05, 05:15, 08:30 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:35, 03:45, 10:10 FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 11:10, 01:55, 04:40, 07:20, 10:05 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:10, 04:15, 07:30, 10:30 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:25, 03:30, 06:45, 09:45 TEKKEN BLOOD VENGEANCE IN 3D PREMIERE EVENT Tue 07:30 THE MET SUMMER ENCORE: DON CARLO Wed 06:30 RENéE FLEMING LIVE WITH THE ISRAEL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE.
Regal Lloyd Mall 8 Cinema
2320 Lloyd Center Mall, 800-326-3264 BRIDESMAIDS Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:00, 03:20, 06:15, 09:10 BAD TEACHER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:35, 03:35, 06:25, 09:25 TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 08:00 ZOOKEEPER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:25, 03:15, 06:30, 09:05 WINNIE THE POOH Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 12:15, 03:25, 06:10
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Willamette Week JULY 20, 2011 wweek.com
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:20, 03:30, 06:20, 09:15 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 11:50, 03:05, 06:05, 08:55 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 03:00, 09:00 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:45, 06:00 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 03:10 SHREK FOREVER AFTER Tue-Wed 10:00 FURRY VENGEANCE Tue-Wed 10:00
Laurelhurst Theater
2735 E Burnside St., 232-5511 GREEN LANTERN SatSun 1:20 EVERYTHING MUST GO Fri-Thurs 6:50 13 ASSASSINS Fri-Sun 4, 9 Mon-Thurs 9 KUNG FU PANDA 2 Sat-Sun 2 HANGOVER 2 Fri-Sun 4:40, 7:20, 9:40 Mon-Thurs 7:20, 9:40 THOR Fri-Sun 4:30, 9:15 Mon-Thurs 9:15 WIN WIN Fri 7, Sat-Sun 1:50, 7 Mon-Thurs 7 JANE EYRE Fri 4:10 Sat-Sun 1:30, 4:10 ODESSA FILE Fri-Thurs 6:40 HESHER Fri-Thurs 9:30
Bagdad Theater and Pub
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474 GREEN LANTERN Fri-SatSun-Tue-Wed 06:00 THE HANGOVER PART II FriSat-Sun-Tue-Wed 09:10 KUNG FU PANDA 2 SatSun-Tue 03:30
Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515 IF A TREE FALLS: A STORY OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 04:45, 09:00 SHORTS 3 Sun 01:00
2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-8899 I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:00, 09:00 REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA Fri 11:30 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW LIVE Sat 12:00
Lake Twin Cinema
106 N. State St., 503-635-5956 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 02:55, 05:00, 07:05, 09:10 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 02:40, 05:30, 08:15
Mission Theater and Pub
1624 NW Glisan St., 503-249-7474 GREEN LANTERN SatSun-Mon-Wed 06:00 THE HANGOVER PART II Sat-Sun-Mon-Wed 08:15 HESHER Sat-Sun 10:00
Roseway Theatre
7229 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-282-2898 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:00, 03:30, 07:00, 10:30
CineMagic Theatre
2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-7919 HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 05:30, 07:35, 09:40
Kennedy School Theater
5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-7474 KUNG FU PANDA 2 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Wed 05:30 THE HANGOVER PART II Fri-Sat-Sun-Wed 07:35 EVERYTHING MUST GO FriSat-Sun-Tue-Wed 02:30, 09:45
Fifth Avenue Cinemas
510 SW Hall St., 503-725-3551 WOMEN ART REVOLUTION Fri-Sat-Sun 03:00
846 SW Park Ave., 800-326-3264 THE TREE OF LIFE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:55, 04:10, 07:05, 09:50 HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:00, 12:30, 02:25, 03:00, 04:50, 05:25, 07:10, 07:45, 09:30, 09:55 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 12:45, 02:15, 02:55, 04:35, 05:20, 07:00, 07:50, 09:35, 10:05 PROJECT NIM Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:10, 02:20, 04:40, 07:15, 09:25 A LITTLE HELP Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:25, 02:50, 05:05, 07:40, 09:55 BEGINNERS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:55, 02:10, 04:25, 07:20, 09:40 A BETTER LIFE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:15, 02:35, 05:15, 07:35, 09:45 TERRI Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:20, 02:45, 05:10, 07:30, 10:00
NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium
1219 SW Park Ave., 503-221-1156 THE LIGHT THIEF Fri 07:00, 08:45 MILDRED PIERCE Sat 07:00 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Sun-TueWed PNCA AND NWFC PRESENT: RE-SITUATED ANIMATION Mon 07:00
Pioneer Place Stadium 6
340 SW Morrison St., 800-326-3264 TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:20, 03:40, 07:00, 10:30 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:20, 04:20, 07:35, 10:40 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:50, 03:50, 07:05, 10:05 FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:40, 03:35, 07:20, 10:20 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 04:15, 07:40, 10:35 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER 3D Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 03:45, 07:10, 10:00
Living Room Theaters
341 SW 10th Ave., 971-222-2010 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES 3D FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 03:50, 06:45, 09:30 PASSIONE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:00, 02:20, 04:20, 06:35 PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 12:30, 03:00, 07:30 CONAN O’BRIEN CAN’T STOP Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 05:10, 09:40 THE FIRST BEAUTIFUL THING Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 05:00, 08:50 THE DOUBLE HOUR FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:50, 02:40, 07:40, 09:45 THE TRIP Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 02:10, 04:40, 07:15, 09:35 CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:40, 12:50, 02:50, 04:50, 07:00, 09:00
SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CALL THEATERS OR VISIT WWEEK.COM/MOVIETIMES FOR THE MOST UP-TODATE INFORMATION FRIDAY-THURSDAY, JULY 22-28, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED