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Finder
Find A Finder
WILLAMETTE WEEK’S MAGAZINE�STYLE GUIDE TO THE CITY AND EVERYTHING IN PORTLAND WORTH A DAMN.
Finder is available at 156 locations all over the Portland metro area, including: Southeast
North
Northwest
Lake Oswego
Happy Valley
New Seasons 1954 SE Division St.
Videorama 7522 N Lombard St.
Everyday Music 1313 W Burnside St.
New Seasons 3 SW Monroe Parkway
Music Millennium 3158 E Burnside St.
Tasty & Sons 3808 N Williams Ave.
Ecotrust Building 721 NW 10th Ave.
Lake Oswego Library 706 4th St.
New Seasons 15861 SE Happy Valley Town Center Drive
Finder box corner of 37th & Hawthorne
Finder box 3954 N Mississippi Ave.
Powell’s Books 1005 W Burnside St.
Tualatin
Northeast
Southwest
Beaverton
Tualatin Public Library 18878 SW Martinazzi Ave.
Extracto 2921 NE Killingsworth St.
PSU Smith Hall 724 SW Harrison St.
Nike World Headquarters 1 Bowerman Drive
West Linn
Whole Foods 4301 NE Sandy Blvd.
Barbur World Foods 9845 SW Barbur Blvd.
Finder box corner of 22nd & NE Alberta
Bishops Barber Shop 1031 SW Columbia St.
Uwajimaya Grocery Store 10500 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Highway
West Linn Library 1595 Burns St.
Beaverton City Library 12375 SW 5th Ave.
Or look online for your nearest location at: wweek.com/finderlocations 2
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Hillsboro Whole Foods Tanasbourne 19440 NW Cornell Road
Milwaukie Oak Grove Library 16201 SE McLoughlin Blvd.
Tigard Barnes & Noble 10206 SW Washington Sq
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STAFF 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
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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, Morgan Green-Hopkins 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 Coordinator Jose Tancuan Give!Guide Director Brittany Cornett Production Assistant Brittany McKeever
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DISTRIBUTION Circulation Director Robert Lehrkind WWEEK.COM Web Production Brian Panganiban Web Editor Ruth Brown MUSICFESTNW Executive Director Trevor Solomon Know When to Hold ’Em, Know When to Fold ’Em Dan Winters OPERATIONS Accounting Manager Andrea Manning Credit & Collections Shawn Wolf Office Manager & Receptionist Nick Johnson Office Corgi Bruce Manager of Information Systems Brian Panganiban Publisher Richard H. Meeker
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
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
Willamette Week welcomes freelance submissions. Send material to either News Editor or Arts Editor. Manuscripts will be returned if you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope. To be considered for calendar listings, notice of events must be received in writing by noon Wednesday, two weeks before publication. Send to Calendar Editor. Photographs should be clearly labeled and will be returned if accompanied by a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. Questions concerning circulation or subscription inquiries should be directed to Robert Lehrkind at Willamette Week. postmaster: Send all address changes to Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Subscription rates: One year $100, six months $50. Back issues $5 for walk-ins, $8 for mailed requests when available. Willamette Week is mailed at third-class rates. A.A.N. Association of ALTERNATIVE NEWSWEEKLIES This newspaper is published on recycled newsprint using soy-based ink.
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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WW_4unit_081511.indd 1
8/15/2011 3:06:50 PM
WWEEK.COM READERS COMMENT ON “THE PORTLANDIFICATION OF BROOKLYN,” WW, AUG. 10, 2011 “The author’s a 24-year-old who wrote about her experiences in Portland as an even younger 20-something, and unfortunately accurately sums up the experience many of that demographic have when they move here. She’s right; this city doesn’t have many great job opportunities for kids fresh out of college. (Although, I would also argue that: 1.) The country as a whole doesn’t have many great job opportunities for that age bracket; 2.) the first couple years out of college are a shitshow wherever you end up; 3.) at least part of the problem is that kids graduating college feel entitled to awesome jobs even though they don’t know how to do anything yet, and feel most work is beneath them—I know, because I was one of them; and 4.) if you spend two years sitting on your porch smoking pot, at least some of the blame is yours.) Unfortunately, she appears unaware of the existence of other (older?) lifestyles here, and is representing her experience as The Portland Experience. As an early 30-something, the people I know in Portland have awesome, good-paying jobs, own their own houses (try doing that in Brooklyn!), volunteer time and raise money for some of the great nonprofits in this town, and otherwise contribute to make this city a great, livable place. We work Mon-Fri, bike to work, hit the food carts at lunch or late night,
I often see kids swimming in the Keller Fountain, which makes me nervous for their safety. I confess that it’s also annoying to deal with screaming kids on my lunch break. Is it legal for people to swim in the city’s fountains? —No Swimming Personally, I’m in favor of letting kids swim where they want. Of course, I’m also in favor of letting them smear their bodies with raw liver while lying down in the lions’ enclosure at the zoo. I guess I’m just one of those guys who likes a good laugh. That said, you’ve touched on what may be the central problem of modern childhood: No matter how innocuous the activity, somewhere there’s a child dumb enough to get killed doing it. This is why, historically, there’s always been a fine line between “good clean fun” and “culling the herd.” Of course, these days safety concerns tend to win out over the good-natured maiming of
leave the IPA drinking and pot smoking for the weekend, and have plenty of time left over for hiking, shows and naked bike rides. Sounds like, without realizing it, the author is largely describing the process of growing up, which is kind of just figuring out how to not buy all the candy in front of you at once, whether in Portland or somewhere else.” —Kelly “I hear the streets of Cleveland are paved in wine, women and weed.” —Jackie O “At least they’re paved.” —Ken “Another Portlander who thinks Portland invented beer, bicycles, coffee, cocoa and gentrification. In short, these Portland hipsters are all innocent small-town or suburban sheltered kids who have not seen much of the world and are easily impressed.” —Fatwhiteguy
CORRECTION
An article in Aug. 3’s news section (“Trash Talk in Lents,” WW, Aug. 3, 2011) misstated the first name of the president of the Springwater Trail Preservation Society. His name is Frank Fleck. WW regrets the error. 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
yesteryear, and the massive, multi-chambered fountain across from Keller Auditorium is no exception. “Keller is not designed for swimming or wading,” says Portland Parks and Recreation’s Mark Ross. “There are water-quality and design concerns, and people should be strongly discouraged from taking a dip.” He adds that they’re stepping up enforcement of the no-swimming policy at Keller. But lest you think PP&R is all dry, joyless safety, Ross points out that they do have “splash pads” at a number of parks, “where getting wet is legal and encouraged.” These splash pads feature steel sculptures which spray water on your skeptical children. They look extremely safe, and not un-fun, I guess. Especially if your child has always fantasized about getting peed on by a jungle gym. Still, in this litigious age, that’s about the best we can do. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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SOCIAL SERVICES: Homeless in your RV. CITY HALL: Eileen Brady answers our questions. HEALTH CARE: OHSU students and a malpractice case. ROGUE OF THE WEEK: Rep. Sal Esquivel.
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
He’s not up for re-election until 2016, but U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) held a bigticket fundraiser on Aug. 3 in Washington, D.C. The lunchtime event asked $2,500 from “co-hosts” and $5,000 from “sponsors.” The money went to Wyden for Oregon, a joint committee formed by Wyden’s Senate campaign and Holding Onto Oregon’s Priorities, a Wyden committee to help WYDEN Democratic candidates. In May, Wyden canceled a scheduled appearance at a reception for his former chief of staff Josh Kardon, now a lobbyist, after WW reported that Kardon’s prospective lobbying clients would be attending. WW has now learned from federal campaign finance reports that Wyden’s campaign paid Kardon’s company, Grant Park Strategies, $32,500 this year for “strategic consulting.” Wyden spokeswoman Jennifer Hoelzer didn’t return messages. Kardon’s assistant at Tonkon Torp, the Portland law firm where he works, said he was traveling in Europe and couldn’t be reached. Not so fast on fast-tracking the Columbia River Crossing. The Metro Council last week used an obscure state law for siting light-rail lines to give sweeping land-use approval to the $3.6 billion freeway project—even though light rail is 23 percent of the project’s cost (see “All Aboard!” WW, Aug. 3, 2011). The blanket approval got little attention or debate; the law Metro used limits grounds for appeals. Still, opponents say they will fight on at the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Metro did back off of one key decision: The board delayed its OK of the project’s final environmental-impact statement, saying it needed more review. Monocle calls itself a “briefing on global affairs, business, culture and design.” But it’s also a big, thick and expensive magazine that loves to talk about cities. Monocle’s annual ranking of the world’s top cities has Portland in 18th place—up from 22nd last year—making it the top U.S. city. Portland edged out Honolulu (19th) and Seattle (25th). The survey looks at factors such as medical care, public transportation, climate and chain stores. That might explain why the Rose City didn’t do even better. The number of Starbucks in the No. 1 city, Helsinki: zero. Portland: 114. Two more award-winning veteran journalists departed The Oregonian last week. FOODday writer Leslie Cole left after 18 years at the paper to become a communications manager for Grand Central Bakery. A spokesperson there says Cole will start after Labor Day. Phil Manzano ended his 27-year career at The O to join World Vision, an international-aid organization based in Federal Way, Wash. Manzano has been a reporter and suburban bureau chief at The O, and most recently worked as a community news Web editor. We couldn’t reach Manzano or Cole by press time. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt.
GOT A GOOD TIP? CALL 503.445.1542, OR EMAIL NEWSHOUND@WWEEK.COM
PHOTOS: JACOB GARCIA
NEWS
OUT OF THE CAR: Edie Richards with sons Chris (left) and TK in a WinCo lot where they parked while living in their Ford Escape.
HOMELESS ON WHEELS MORE PEOPLE, INCLUDING FAMILIES, ARE LIVING IN THEIR VEHICLES AROUND PORTLAND. BY S H A E H E A L E Y
shealey@wweek.com
Chris Nguyen is a Lincoln High School sophomore who wants to be a civil engineer. He likes to make bows and arrows, scale models of catapults and other medieval weaponry—it helps teach him about how physics works. But for five months this year, he had no place for his hobby. Chris, his mother and his older brother lived in the family’s 2002 Ford Escape. They had lost their Southwest Portland apartment when his mother, Edie Richards, couldn’t afford rent increases after one of her two jobs cut back her hours because of the slow economy. During the day, Chris went to school. At night the family parked outside 24-hour businesses—the Tigard WinCo or the Shari’s in Hillsboro. And they moved each night unless they ran out of gas money. “It’s embarrassing to live that way as it is,” Richards says. “But when cops come up and put a spotlight on your car and everyone’s looking at you, it’s just downright awful.” Across the city, more and more people are living in their vans, campers, trailers and RVs, shuttling from parking lots or hoping they go unnoticed on city streets. Portland city records show that the num-
ber of trucks, trailers and RVs ticketed for parking too long in one area has jumped 38 percent since 2008-09. City officials say they can’t tell how many of these vehicles are being used as makeshift homes. But housing experts say they’re seeing far more people living in their cars, campers and RVs on the streets. “We have definitely seen more individuals and families who are sleeping in their vehicles,” says Marc Jolin, executive director of JOIN, a nonprofit with a city contract to help the homeless find housing. “More families are losing options and ending up on the street, so we’re getting more referral calls from counselors and the police.” City parking rules prohibit storing a vehicle on the street or public property for more than 24 hours, and you can’t park an RV or trailer for more than eight hours in residential neighborhoods or four hours in commercial areas. JOIN’s outreach workers patrol areas known for vehicle camping—typically industrial areas with empty lots, and large businesses. Larry Jasper, 72, lives out of his 1973 RV that slouches on an industrial stretch of Northwest 22nd Avenue. He’s done so for more than a year—he even has a lawn chair out front. “It’s not residential,” Jasper says of the neighborhood where he’s camped. “Not a place where I’m going to be a nuisance to anyone, as long as we keep the place clean.”
While Jasper is breaking city rules, his RV is parked outside the central city area where the Transportation Bureau routinely enforces long-term parking rules. As many as four other RVs park next to Jasper’s rig. Jasper says he lives on Social Security disability; he has a history of substance abuse and a long criminal record, but says he now tries to stay out of trouble. He also says he sees more people—including single mothers and couples—living out of cars and vans. “There’s a freedom in living like
this,” Jasper says, “but not the kind that anybody would really want.” Richards, 39, and her sons didn’t want that life either. They kept moving to avoid drawing attention to themselves. She would sleep in the driver’s seat with the back seats laid down for her boys. Richards says the nights were “stressful and uncomfortable.” “With three people it was kind of tough. It’s not a big van, so we had to squeeze since we had some food rations and supplies with us,” her son Chris, 14, says. Richards says that the state Department of Human Resources revoked her Oregon Trail Card after she was evicted; she says that when she stopped paying rent, the state’s calculation of her monthly expenses made it appear she no longer needed assistance. “I was told to go to food banks, but I can’t cook from my car,” Richards says. Richards says the nurse at Lincoln High School alerted the school’s Parent Teacher Association after they talked about finding a place for Chris to shower. The PTA rallied school families to provide new clothes for Chris, two weeks in a hotel and money for gas and food. Two social service agencies, Human Solutions and Friendly House, helped secure an apartment. They moved out of their van and into their new place Aug. 1. “We have a huge rush, with people on the wait list,” says Mya Chamberlin, director of services for seniors and homeless families at Friendly House. “The people that we’re seeing now are from slightly different backgrounds than before— [homelessness] is new for a lot of them. Unfortunately, the need is increasing, but the dollars aren’t following.”
URBAN CAMPER: Larry Jasper and others live in their RVs parked in the Norhtwest Industrial district. Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
7
NEWS
CITY HALL
EILEEN BRADY
SHE’S RUNNING FOR MAYOR BASED ON HER BUSINESS EXPERIENCE. JACOB GARCIA
WW: You say your top priorities are jobs and the economy. What do you do, as mayor, to bring jobs to the city? Brady: I think there’s any number of things you can do. Can the city by itself create jobs? I mean, you can create some jobs, but you can’t create a whole economy, right?… The city can focus on keeping the cost of services at a reasonable level. [W]e need to spend Water Bureau revenue on Water Bureau projects.… You have to be able to say no to some of the special projects. Some of the elephants in the room in this city are the unfunded police and fire pensions. We’ve got something like over $3 billion that we have to be able to deal with. And if we don’t plan for it, we’re going to run ourselves into some trouble. So what’s the plan? So here’s the thing: I don’t have “the plan.” Here’s what I can guarantee you…I’m not afraid of the elephant in the room. You have to be able to put it on the table. Do I have the solution for it? No. There is not a plan for it. We need a plan.
BUSINESS FRIENDLY: Brady wants to bring New Seasons-style customer service to City Hall.
BY CO R E Y P E I N
cpein@wweek.com
Four years ago, Eileen Brady considered at launching her political career by challenging a two-term U.S. senator, Gordon Smith. At the time, some—including this newspaper—suggested she run for mayor of Portland (see “Done Deal,” WW, Nov. 28, 2007). Brady, a co-founder of the New Seasons grocery store chain, did neither. But this election cycle, Brady was first out of the gate to challenge Mayor Sam Adams in next year’s City Hall elections. She got in before former City Commissioner Charlie Hales entered the race, and before Adams surprised the city by saying that he wouldn’t seek a second mayoral term. Brady, 50, sat down with WW in two interviews totaling 2 1/2 hours. She told us about her background—growing up in a politically active Irish-Catholic family in Chicago; being a working mother after graduating from The Evergreen State College in Olympia; hashing out concepts for New Seasons on sheets of butcher paper. She also talked about serving on the Oregon Health Fund Board, which in 2008 proposed health insurance reforms later adopted by the Legislature. After getting to know her better, we wanted to hear her plans for the city—which, at this stage, remain pretty vague. An edited version of those conversations follow. See a clip of our interview with Brady.
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Let’s talk about those things for which you do have a plan. Let’s talk about Dan Saltzman’s plan for the utility rate review commission…. I would throw 100 percent of my support behind that at this particular point in time. [L]et’s talk about the ability to have a businessfriendly city…. It is very complicated to work through this city. Are you talking about the permitting process? Let me give you a story about New Seasons Market. We go to open a store at [Southeast] 20th and Division… [I]t’s on a set of parcels, part of which are zoned neighborhood commercial. They said, “You know what, you don’t need to change the zoning, as long as the part that’s zoned residential stays a parking lot.”…[T]hen we realized, you have to put the dumpster somewhere. So you put the dumpster on the side of the store—where this parking lot is zoned residential.… All dumpsters have to have a canopy over them. It then triggers a re-zoning. Two hundred and forty thousand dollars later in fees and attorneys and several months’ delay of the project, we finally have a parcel zoned neighborhood commercial with a grocery store and a canopy and a dumpster. Can you be specific about what you would do as mayor about this? We need a service-oriented culture.… There was a gentleman who was working with the city on a residential contract project, and waiting for permits to go through, waiting for information. Finally, [he] called the supervisor: “What’s going on?” “Well, he’s out of the office, he’s on vacation, he’s been on vacation.” He’s been
on vacation? Well, we’re under a deadline here. How come the guy isn’t putting his out-of-office message on? There’s some really basic, thoughtful things that can shift, without an additional cost. I’m looking forward to being more specific throughout this campaign. I’m at the theme level right now. It’s how I operate in general. I have to fall back on my record on this one. I’ve created organizations that are very, very service oriented, where the employees are the heroes. Tell us more about your agenda. At the top level, big themes—developing the economy, job development in the community, and all while maintaining our values. We’ve got to have a livability platform that extends to all neighborhoods, including underserved neighborhoods, particularly in outer East Portland. We’ve got to really look at the key issues facing public safety more closely. And I think underlying all that, or pushing all that, is fiscally managing the city responsibly. Can you be as specific as you can about what you would do differently? I think the city suffers from not being able to say, “What problem are we trying to solve, given the project that we have?” Let’s look at some projects that we’ve stalled on, which I think are unacceptable. The Memorial Coliseum Project, you can even throw the [Columbia River Crossing] into that even though the city’s not, you know, fully accountable for that project. The Sustainability Center project. All of those—and there are others—suffer from not having, from being aspirational ideas, with not a strong financing or revenue plan behind them. What’s your take on the CRC? Do you support the current proposal for a new freeway bridge? This project will not go forward in its current form. Do you think it should? I think parts, not the entire project.… I like to do my homework.… So, I have not come to a conclusion on which is the best option. You mentioned public safety. What would you do differently from the current police commissioner? I think the mayor has to have the police bureau. It’s certainly one of the functions in the charter that the mayor has, which is to select the police chief. We’ve got to work more effectively with [Multnomah County, which runs mental health services]. Do I have that plan? No. I think it has to be worked out.… The force [also] needs to look more like the community.
CONT. on page 11
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So, in your mind, the force is not diverse enough? Generationally diverse? Gender diverse? Probably both. For certain, on the racial side. Can you offer a critique of the Portland Development Commission? What’s PDC doing right, what’s it doing wrong, what should it be doing that it’s not? It’s been used a bit as a cookie jar for the Council because of its current structure. Second issue: Urban renewal is a tool, I think, of the 20th century to take care of blight. It’s a real estate development tool, and we have been using it in almost a convoluted way to try and have it be an economic development/jobs development tool. We have now moved forward into a situation, into a world where urban renewal’s probably a really appropriate tool to use in some parts of this city. So, let’s just say outer East Portland. I think there is a huge amount of urban renewal that could be done. You said urban renewal has been used as a cookie jar by members of the Council. [B]ecause of the way the Council is set up, we end up with multiple agendas as opposed to a single agenda for the city sometimes.
NEWS JACOB GARCIA
CITY HALL Are you saying urban renewal projects have been funded not because they part of the city’s overall agenda, but rather an individual commissioner’s? You know, I’m not going to go there today.… I’d like to come back and talk to you about that. What are your primary qualifications for this job? Entrepreneur. Founded a company that grew to 2,000 jobs in 10 stores….New Seasons, founded on three principles, right? Creating neighborhoods, progressive workplaces and creating a regional food economy.… [T]hose three things translate really well. Let’s go to [my role on the state] health policy board.… We were able to say, a couple of things, one is, “Let’s cover all the kids in Oregon with health insurance.” And actually, 95 percent of the kids in Oregon have access to health care as of now because an unusual set of stakeholders pulled together.… I asked for bold solutions. I said, “We need to be able to think outside the box.” How would you grade the city’s response to the federal corruption investigation of Portland parking manager Ellis McCoy? There is some structural problem with the city from a purchasing perspective, and I don’t know what it is, but it has something to do with who has how much authority to make what purchasing decisions.
CIVIL RIGHTS: Brady says the Portland Police Bureau “look more like a community.”
A lot of the problematic parking contracts went before Council. What will you do to prepare yourself to ask the right questions in those situations? I certainly would talk to the contracts manager and say, “What are we looking at, what are our exposures, what are our risks?” Well, in this case the contracts manager was allegedly taking kickbacks. It’d be interesting to look at how the county does it currently versus how the city does it. That’s the first thing I would do in this particular situation—say, “What’s the county doing?”
You were a strong supporter of public campaign financing in Portland. You’re now going to have to raise probably $1 million to run for mayor. How are you going to avoid the corrupting power of money in politics? All I can say is, “I wish it was not that way.”… You’re going to have to take my word for it.… I’ve lived by a set of ethics in my life—I don’t intend to change it. I’m a vision-driven person, I’m running for this city, I’m running for the people of Portland, and I’m going to continue to maintain that.
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NEWS
COURTS COURTESY: LAURA WILLIS
ONE PATIENT’S PAINFUL LESSON A WOMAN ALLEGES DOCTORS BOTCHED HER PLASTIC SURGERY AND NEVER TOLD HER OHSU STUDENTS TOOK PART. BY JA MES PITKIN
jpitkin@wweek.com
Laura Willis is a Salem housewife and HarleyDavidson enthusiast who saved for years to amass enough money—$12,000—to pay for breast implants and a tummy tuck. Willis had her surgery in Portland’s Slabtown neighborhood at the Futures Surgical Center on Northwest Kearney Street. The lobby features tasteful Japanese art and furnishings. During her operation July 9, 2009, Willis says something curious happened. A staffer asked her friends waiting in the lobby if Willis had AIDS or hepatitis. The staffer said they wanted to know because “one of the doctors” had been cut during the surgery. That was odd, Willis contends, because she was told that only her physician, Dr. Tuan Nguyen, and his partner would be performing the operation. Later, Willis developed a painful infection, and she has extensive scarring on her breasts and abdomen, as confirmed by photos she provided to WW. Willis, 42, says Nguyen told her that too much flesh was cut away during the operation. And she later learned from the clinic’s staff something that shocked her: Nguyen hadn’t done her surgery alone—he had allowed students from Oregon Health & Science University to operate on her. Willis says she had no idea OHSU students would take part in her operation. Last month, Willis filed suit against Nguyen in Multnomah County Circuit Court for negligence, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She wants $522,000—including the $10,000 she says it will cost her for corrective surgery, and $500,000 for both physical and emotional suffering. “The scars are deep on the outside and much deeper on the inside,” Willis says. “My selfesteem is completely gone.” Nguyen did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment. The case highlights the potential risks of medical students taking part in operations—a crucial part of their education. All medical students practice under the supervision of licensed physicians, says Dr. Henry Sondheimer, senior director of admissions at the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, D.C. He says the supervising doctor must determine which procedures each student is capable of handling—including surgery. OHSU, like many medical schools, insures its students for liability, but Sondheimer says the doctor supervising them is held responsible if anything goes wrong. “They’re not doctors. They’re not in a position to practice,” Sondheimer says. “The physician is responsible.” In her lawsuit, Willis claims Nguyen had told her before the operation that he teaches at OHSU. Elisa Williams, a spokeswoman for the 12
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LAURA WILLIS: Before the surgery.
school, confirms that Nguyen is an affiliate assistant professor—a volunteer faculty member who provides clinical training for students. Williams declined to answer other questions for this story, saying it’s possible the school could later become a defendant in the lawsuit. Smith, Willis’ attorney, confirms that is a possibility but says it’s too early to tell. At WW’s request, officials at OHSU went through its records for the past 10 years to look for cases where students have been sued for negligence. The school couldn’t find any. “Medical students basically do not get sued because they are not making independent decisions,” Sondheimer says. “It just doesn’t happen.” Nguyen’s main office is at Lake Oswego Plastic Surgery, but his staff confirms that he also performs operations at the Northwest Portland clinic. In March, Nguyen’s insurer settled for an undisclosed sum with a man who sued him for a botched carpal-tunnel operation. Willis consented before the operation to have her surgery videotaped for teaching purposes. After the infection set in, Willis says she requested a complete copy of her medical records and the video, but Nguyen refused to provide them. “She was there, but she was unconscious,” says her attorney, Michael Smith. “Everything that she learned about what happened came from people telling her afterward.” If it’s true—as Willis contends—that she was never informed students would be involved, Sondheimer says it would be unusual. “A person should be informed by their physician of who is on the team,” Sondheimer says. “Whoever is in there should be revealed.”
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ROGUE OF THE WEEK
REP. SAL ESQUIVEL ARE YOU A SUCKER WHO’D PAY $25 TO SEND EMAIL TO POLITICAL LEADERS? THIS LAWMAKER HOPES SO. Democracy Connection, a new website based in Medford, poses this question: “Have something you want to tell your local Paper, Senator, Congressman or even the President?” Well, who doesn’t? Thanks to our modern world, we can easily send our thoughts via email to our leaders. In fact, it’s free. Except that the people behind Democracy Connection want to charge you to do it. Click the “$ Get Connected” button on the site’s home page and pay a $25 annual fee. “Be heard with the Megaphone,” the site promises. For trying to get Americans to pay for access they’re already entitled to—and for obscuring his less-than-democratic connection to this ploy—we award this week’s Rogue to a state lawmaker, Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford). You can look high and low and not see Esquivel linked directly to Democracy Connection. The site operates out of the Medford office where Esquivel and partner Bruce Hough run Impact Marketing (“a leader in political consulting, campaign operations and telemarketing needs”), and where Taxpayers Union USA, a PAC that Esquivel helped create, is located. Hough is chairman of Democracy Connection—all of which is cozy, but doesn’t directly tie Esquivel to the website. For that we turn to the state representative’s wife. Jan Esquivel, Democracy Connections’ vice chairman, tells the Rogue Desk that her husband helped come with the idea. She says Sal has kept his name off the business, but he’s the boss. “Ultimately, he’s in charge,” Jan Esquivel says of Sal. “We work for him.” We caught up with Sal Esquivel, who told us his partner, Hough, came up with the idea and that he has no direct link. But Esquivel says he heartily supports Democracy Connection and helps behind the scenes. Esquivel says Democracy Connection provides a service for people who want to send messages to elected leaders but don’t want look up 600-plus email addresses. “It can save folks a heck of a lot of time,” Esquivel says. The Rogue Desk notes that Taxpayers Union USA promotes a similar deal on its Facebook page. On Aug. 1 Jan Esquivel used an address associated with the state rep’s campaign website, salesquivel.com, to push Democracy Connection: “Sign up today to use this powerful tool to really step up our game here in Oregon and allow our conservative Oregonians to be heard. Just $25 a year gives you unlimited access directly into the offices in Washington, D.C.” Sal Esquivel says he sees nothing improper with what Democracy Connection is trying to do, or his support of it. “We are doing a service,” he says. “If that’s unethical, so be it.” 14
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PORTLAND HELPED MAKE GROUPON A GIANT. HERE’S HOW LOCAL BUSINESSES GET CRUSHED. BY COR EY PEIN
cpein@wweek.com
Ethan Powell and Tobias Hogan, two typical restaurant workers with more than a decade’s experience between them, wanted more. Two years ago they stepped out and took a gamble that has lured—and then consumed—many other hospitality industry pros: They opened their own place. EaT: An Oyster Bar has beaten the odds. Powell and Hogan’s midmarket Cajun-style restaurant has won positive reviews and continues to draw customers to its trendy North Williams Avenue neighborhood.
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Three months after opening their doors, Powell, 33, and Hogan, 39, took what they thought wasn’t a gamble at all. This one had to do with a new form of online marketing— the latest next big thing. They signed up with Groupon. You might have heard of this company, Groupon. Rhymes with “coupon.” Groupon sells vouchers for deep discounts at restaurants, stores, spas and countless other businesses. The businesses agree to honor the vouchers—and risk losing money on the deal—hoping to draw new customers. Groupon sent out tens of thousands of “daily deals”
MA
by email offering $25 worth of seafood at EaT for anyone willing to pay Groupon $12 for a voucher. Within hours, Groupon had sold 1,544 of the EaT vouchers. And Powell and Hogan were committed to serving that many meals, each at a big discount, in hopes they could attract far more business. Indeed, they were swamped. “We probably made money,” Powell says. “And we still wouldn’t do it again because it was such a nightmare.” “It was,” Hogan adds, “absolutely horrible.” Swarms of first-time customers (most of whom never came back again) crowded out, undercut and alienated their regulars who were paying full price. Servers got stiffed on tips. Powell even had a Groupon thrown in his
KA RY
TE
Mc
DE
VIT
T
face by a customer after he declined to let the man redeem the same gift certificate twice. For everyone else, Groupon worked exactly as planned—the diners got a great deal, and Groupon (which often pockets half of the voucher’s price) walked away with an estimated $9,200 for doing little more than sending out emails. In all, Groupon is on track to collect $2 million from Portland businesses this year, based on WW’s estimate of Groupon’s likely share of its Portland business. Groupon is truly a phenomenon. Two solid years of friendly buzz from TV news, daily papers and consumer blogs have helped Groupon sell 22 million deals in North CONT. on page 18
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CHEAT LOCAL!
CONT.
M A X W H I T TA K E R
DARRYL JAMES
America that the company says have saved consumers That’s not quite right. Groupon gets its money first, Despite the strain the rush of customers put on the busi$980 million. whereas every other party to the transaction may or may ness—and even though some customers attempted fraud by Late last year, Google tried to buy Groupon for $6 bil- not realize a gain. using the same voucher multiple times—Weaver is satisfied lion, an incredible sum for a three-year-old startup that Let’s say a boutique usually offers a scarf for $20. But the online deals exposed her business to a new clientele. basically runs a large email list. with a Groupon deal, customers can get it for $10 by buy“It was huge. Talk about getting mobbed,” Weaver says. Groupon’s 30-year-old founder and chief executive, ing the voucher. “Our people were not loving us for doing it.” Andrew Mason, turned Google down. The company is makThere is no upfront cost to the business running the Another self-described success story comes from ing an initial public stock offering that values it at $30 billion. promotion. Groupon typically keeps half of the discounted another iconic Portland business: the pedicab. Magnus, Hordes of copycat daily deals sites emerged—from price, and reimburses half—so, $5 of the original $20 price of PDX Pedicab, says his company is about to run its third ZapHour.com in Portland to Maryland-based Jewpon.com of the scarf—to the merchant. But the store doesn’t get Groupon promotion; he says the first one, a discounted (think half off kosher meats). In June, the spurned Google its share all at once. Groupon makes a partial payment distillery tour, brought in $12,000. launched its own product, Google Offers. within a few days of the start of the promotion, paying the “We didn’t have to put a lot of money out of pocket,” he None has come close to matching Groupon’s success. remaining balance over a period of months. says. “In fact, we made a little money off of it. It also opens Portland is an important launching pad for the deals It’s not clear how many merchants run more than one up a demographic that we normally don’t have access to. A companies. The Portland metro area is reportedly Grou- deal with Groupon, but the company claims its service is lot of people came from Beaverton.” pon’s 15th-largest market, an outsized showing given the city’s population. But the experience of another pedicab Google Offers decided to test its prodcompany shows one potential downuct here in June ahead of larger techside of these daily deals: wasted energy. savvy markets like San Francisco, New Portland Rose Pedals Pedicab owner York and Austin. The Oregonian publiCasey Martell was disappointed with cized an account of EaT’s early success, the performance of his recent Google and Google Offers’ launch here gained Offer for his brewery tour. worldwide attention in the media. “They led me to believe I was going Many retailers are happy with their to sell, like, hundreds of these things. daily deals experience. Jonathan MagBut they only ran it for a day. I only nus of PDX Pedicab, for instance, says sold 26 out of the 700,” Martell says. Groupon deals helped his company fill “It’s totally not worth our time.” down time. “It turned out to be sucThere were consequences beyond cessful,” he says. Martell’s bottom line. “I brought on a But consumers—who almost never few more [drivers] because of this, and lose out on these deals—are probably they’re still waiting to get some work, unaware of the consequences they have because there isn’t any.” had on many other businesses. Pistils Nursery on North MissisNearly half the businesses using sippi Avenue is a popular spot for daily deals report they made no people seeking to buy seeds, plants SHELL GAME: Even though the owners of Eat: An Oyster Bar made money money. Customers often get their and chicken feed. Its Groupon deal with Groupon, they say they’ll never run another daily deal promotion. discounts and run to the next deal, last year offered customers a 60 perwithout creating the loyal relationcent discount. ship that Groupon says can follow. The deal was limited to one voucher Even Powell and Hogan say the fact per customer. But it had a loophole: that they made money doesn’t justify Customers could buy unlimited vouchthe damage these daily deals can do to ers if they said they were gifts. businesses and employees. “It was effing ridiculous,” says owner “You can’t hire people because Megan Twilegar. “I think we barely you’ve discounted your product. Now broke even on the money side. We were you’ve got to work more hours to break slammed. We were wiped out.” even, because your margins dropped a Some lose more than time. One couple of percentage points,” Powell Portland business was among the first says. “It seems regressive more than to go public with its horror story about progressive. The small-business owner losing big money on its Groupon deal. gets pushed down and pushed down.” Jessie Burke, who is the same age as Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, opened Groupon CEO Andrew Mason did not Posies Bakery & Cafe in North Portreturn text messages and emails; a land’s Kenton neighborhood at around company spokesperson did not return the same time Mason launched Groumessages. Because Groupon is about pon in 2009. WUNDERKIND: Groupon CEO Andrew Mason has overseen the company’s phenomenal growth. to sell shares publicly for the first time, The cafe is pitched at young mothfederal securities rules limit what the ers who aren’t keen on taking the tots company’s executives can say publicly. to Stumptown. (“Everyone loves you Groupon sets out to be the adverwhen you’re pregnant, but they hate tising and marketing department that many small busi- so successful that 97 percent of businesses who used it ask you when you have kids,” Burke says.) nesses lack. to be featured again. Burke, who has a graduate degree in public education Every morning, Groupon emails some 83 million loyal Elephants Delicatessen, the venerable local caterer and from Portland State University, got a $107,000 startconsumers with pitches for deeply discounted goods and eatery, has run promotions with both Groupon and Google up loan from the Portland Development Commission, services at restaurants, spas and boutiques around the Offers. Elephants CEO Anne Weaver says her experience where she once worked as an intern. Which means that country. It’s not the place to go if you want to save 50 cents with both companies was great. local taxpayers are invested in the success of Posies. on a jug of milk, but if you’re $40 short of a desperately Weaver says she entered into each promotion knowBurke approached Groupon after hearing about the needed facial, check Groupon. ing that it would be what’s known in business-speak as a company from a friend. According to Burke, Groupon If you want to take part in a Groupon deal, the company “loss leader.” divisional sales manager John Waller told her that charges your credit card and you get the voucher on your “We’re not making a dime on these things; it’s just mostly Groupon would keep 100 percent of the sales proceeds computer or phone. Groupon then divides the money with promotional awareness,” Weaver says. “You can pretty much because Posies’ average sales were under $10. Burke says the business offering the deal. do the math when you’re giving away the store for half price.” she declined. Groupon touts its “collective buying ” model as a We did the math. Between the two promotions, Ele“I was like, ‘Who could afford that?’” Burke says. “They revolutionary system that creates value for everyone phants committed to serving more than 10,000 customers, said, ‘But listen, you’ll never have to advertise again.’” involved—shoppers, sellers and Groupon itself. according to Groupon and Google Offers. That means that Groupon officials later denied that this was the offer “We only win if you win,” says the soothing, unseen Elephants guaranteed discounts (after being paid by the narrator in a Groupon sales video. companies) that cost it as much as $46,000. CONT. on page 20 18
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CHEAT LOCAL!
CONT.
PHOTOS: DARRYL JAMES
they made Burke. BusinessInsider.com, which wrote “You’re not able to create any kind of relationship at all Groupon has told customers it will make good on the about Posies last fall, quoted Groupon CEO Mason as say- with your customers if you’re only running a daily deal,” vouchers Lynch left unfulfilled. ing this aspect of Burke’s account was “100% false.” he says. “You’re saying, ‘My product is not good enough. But an email Burke provided to WW seems to contra- The only way you’re going to buy my product is if it’s half As soon as this September, Groupon will offer shares to dict that statement. It shows the company’s salesman, off or more.’ That’s not really sustainable for any business. the public in a deal that could raise as much as $750 milWaller, coming back to Burke and offering her company a By and large, that is not good marketing.” lion for the company. The stock offering is creating plenty cut of the money. Sarah Shaoul, who owns Black Wagon, a children’s of hype at a time when Wall Street could really use a sign “I gave this some more thought,” Waller writes. clothing and toy store, has tried to warn other businesses of hope. Jim Cramer, the carnival-barker host of CNBC’s “Understanding that your business [is] newer, I decided to on North Mississippi Avenue against the daily deals com- Mad Money, in June rated Groupon as “Buy! Buy! Buy!” split the revenue with you. So, you’ll be getting $3 of the $6 panies. “They hit up all these small businesses, and all Last month, Groupon’s baby-faced CEO, Mason, posed for we charge the customers. Also, we incur a standard credit these owners are wearing tons of hats, and they don’t have Vanity Fair with a cat on his head. card processing fee of 2.5%.... This should make this cam- the resources to really vet the offer,” Shaoul says. “All they But there’s a real question if any of this is sustainable. paign even better for your business!” know is, they see their neighbors jump off the cliff like Groupon reported revenues of $713 million last year. But The deal offered $13 worth of food and beverages at lemmings, and they’re doing it in droves, because Groupon last week the company acknowledged in Securities and Posies for just $6. says this is the best marketing thing you can do.” Exchange Commission filings that—after paying retailers Within a day, 890 people bought and its operating costs—it had a net vouchers. loss of $413 million. (A previous filing “They came out of nowhere,” Burke had claimed profitability.) Meanwhile, says. “And because they hold a coupon Groupon’s early investors have already in their hand, they feel like they’re cashed out their stock through insider entitled to something. It literally felt sales to the tune of $870 million. like I was getting beat up.” The number of competitors is growBurke says she lost $10,000 on the ing—hundreds now offer some kind deal. And it got worse. Groupon customof coupon or voucher deals for neighers—after jamming her shop—then went borhood or niche businesses. Google online and trashed her young business. Offers’ vouchers have not sold as well At the suggestion of a customer, as Groupon’s on average, according to Burke wrote a blog post calling GrouWW’s analysis; Agrawal found Google pon the single worst business decision is doing about half as much business in she’d ever made. At the time, Groupon Portland as Groupon. was, as Burke put it, “the darling of the But Google appears to have learned social media world,” so the sour note from some of Groupon’s early mistakes. got a lot of attention. “You could say we certainly listened to Groupon CEO Mason left a concilthe small businesses,” Google spokesiatory comment on Burke’s blog, and woman Jeannie Hornung says. “We’re emailed her with both an apology and looking at a long-term partnership LESSON LEARNED: Posies Bakery & Cafe owner Jessie Burke was one of the suggestion that her cafe was an outlier. with these small businesses—it’s not first businesspeople in the country to go public with a Groupon horror story. “We’ve run deals for hundreds of just a one-time interaction.” businesses similar to yours and they’ve Paul Wagner is founder of Forkfly. had great experiences, so I’m eager to com, a Portland-based restaurantunderstand what it is about your busirecommendation app that also offers ness that made Groupon such a bust,” discounts. He says this boom is also good Mason wrote. for merchants; the heated competition Burke was left cold. means Groupon and other companies “It’s hard enough to go into business have to cut back on the amount of money and take a huge risk and put your life they get out of the deal in order to peron the line,” Burke says. “Groupon is suade businesses to sign up with them. going to be like locusts. They’re going “There are so many, literally in to go through these businesses, they’re the hundreds of Groupon clones, that going to close all of these businesses, are just trying to get a cut of the same and they’re going to make billions of space,” Wagner says. “Small businesses dollars and sell the company and run.” are just overwhelmed. There’s a bit of deal fatigue setting in.” Small-business consultant, blogger Wagner says he’s seen surveys that and sometimes-Portlander Rocky show small businesses are getting at Agrawal has examined the daily deals least one call a day from these services. business more closely than almost any Among those small businesses inunNEIGHBORHOOD ALERT: Sarah Shaoul, owner of Black Wagon, a children’s clothing and toy store, warns nearby businesses about daily deals promotions. other writer. He’s come to a sobering, dated with sales calls from daily deals and unpopular, conclusion: Daily deals companies is Posies Bakery & Cafe. tend to promise quick cash to merJessie Burke says she doesn’t neceschants but do so at a great cost. sarily blame Groupon that her deal was a “Groupon and Google Offers have sold themselves as But Dholakia adds that, according to his research, more disaster. She just wants people to know the consequences of innovative new marketing companies. They’re not. The than half the businesses that run daily deals are happy. the artificially low prices that are part of daily deals. She hopes reality is, this is their business model: They are essentially “That can’t be simply because they got a short-term injec- other small-business owners won’t repeat her mistake. loan-sharking companies,” Agrawal says. “People think I’m tion of cash,” he says. “Some are smart enough to turn After Burke blogged about her Groupon experience, being hyperbolic, but I’m not. The core product is evil.” those customers into loyal buyers.” she got called from other daily deals companies. She thinks Rice University management professor Utpal M. Some are even clever enough to game the system, which some just wanted to land her business so they could show Dholakia has studied daily deals such as those offered by is why Groupon also faces some little-discussed risks, as they were better than Groupon. Groupon. He surveyed 324 businesses that ran daily deals one recent case in Portland shows. The company offered But she’s also feeling the crush of all the companies between August 2009 and March 2011. And he found that a deal through the Everett Street Bistro last year, offering simply trying to make a buck by offering her customers roughly 56 percent reported making money on the deals— customers $25 worth of food if they bought a voucher for daily deals vouchers. while 27 percent lost money, and 18 percent broke even. $12. The deal was good through June of this year. She says Groupon even called back. It was a new guy. “He Dholakia says the companies who use Groupon and But about seven months ago, Everett Street Bistro— was like, ‘Hey, I just wondered if you’ve ever tried out Grousimilar services are spending significantly less money with an unknown number of vouchers still outstanding— pon.’ He was serious.” on ads in the Yellow Pages, on local radio and TV, and in abruptly closed its doors, and its owner, Kyle Lynch, left Burke told him to go check out her blog and then call magazines and newspapers (such as WW). town. His former landlord tells WW that the Internal Rev- her back. But, he says, daily deals are a poor substitute for more enue Service and creditors are after Lynch, who has since “He emailed me,” she says, “and he was like, ‘I am so tried-and-true forms of marketing for small businesses. started (and closed) a new bistro in Bellingham, Wash. sorry. I had no idea.’” 20
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FOOD & DRINK: Doesn’t Portland ever get sick of beer? MUSIC: A string band’s true colors. COMEDY: Inside Reggie Watts’ head. MOVIES: Schlock at first bite.
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SAVING THE EARTH, ONE CROTCH AT A TIME. HAYNES BOX OFFICE: Portland-based director Todd Haynes told WW last month that “the door seems to be open and the welcome mat is extended” for him to return to HBO after 21 Emmy nominations for his Mildred Pierce miniseries. Looks like he’s walking in: Deadline.com reported Monday that Haynes has inked a deal with HBO to HAYNES direct Dope, an adaptation of Sara Gran’s novel about a reformed hooker and heroin addict who becomes a private eye. (Julianne Moore is in talks to play the gumshoe.) Here’s hoping it doesn’t completely distract him from his tea party movie—or, as we’ve started calling it around here, Michele Bachmann Gets Spanked. REAL-ESTATE ROULETTE: The Southeast Division space last home to Artemis Cafe will soon become a sandwich shop with wine and spirits called Double Dragon. Despite the promising name, the “coin-operated game” box on its OLCC form was sadly un-ticked, meaning no actual Double Dragon will be available. >> Adorable Montavilla pie and booze store Immortal Pie and Larder closed Saturday, Aug. 13. In an email, co-owner Morgan Ennis announced she had come to the decision “after much thought and doing-of-math.” >> Foster-Powell’s Guapo Comics and Coffee will soon close—in its current incarnation, at least—after almost six years in business. Although the coffee shop will remain and Guapo will sell comics online, the physical comic store is going. There will be a goodbye party and sale starting 6 pm on Friday, Aug. 26, with the sale continuing through Aug. 28. TWO GIRLS, TWO CUPS: Toni Craige and Sarah Konner love biking, meeting new people and...using menstrual cups. The earnest pair of twentysomethings are in Portland this week as part of a month-long bike trip down the West Coast to promote the use of reusable rubber hoo-ha cups instead of tampons or pads. No, confirms Craige, who works in social services in Seattle, this is not a Portlandia skit. Yes, she and Konner (who lives in Philadelphia) really dig cups, which at $35 each can be used for three to four years and save at least six pounds of blood-soaked trash from landing in your local dump every year. And no, they don’t think this is a gross thing to talk about with strangers. “Anything that puts women in closer contact with their bodies is liberating. [With a cup] you have to touch your body and you see what the fluid looks like that day,” says Craige. “I think I was a little hesitant of the mechanics of it [the first time I used one]. But I’ve had sex and I’ve masturbated, so it’s not like I haven’t stuck things up there before.” The women plan to sleep in strangers’ yards and surviving on $4 a day during the trip. Check in on their monthly progress, donate funds or find out where they’ll be handing out earthfriendly vag-pluggage at sustainablecycles.org.
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
HEADOUT
WILLAMETTE WEEK
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
THURSDAY AUG. 18 [MOVIES] GREASE 2 Fleur de Lethal Cinema pays tribute to the gloriously flunked return to Rydell High—on the theory, we suppose, that one Grease wasn’t bad enough. Bagdad Theater, 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 467-7521. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
I AM LEGEND
[THEATER] MADDER MUSIC & STRONGER WINE No touchy topic or potential pun is too taboo for this raunchy and enlightening musical (written and directed by Russ Cowan, who also stars) that mines historical dirt to dish on everyone from Lewis Carroll to Queen Victoria. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 205-0715. 8:30 pm ThursdaysSaturdays through Aug. 27. $12-$15.
A LARGER-THAN-LIFE BLAZER LEGEND STOPS BY TO SAY GOODBYE.
SEE HIM: Arvydas Sabonis arrives at Pioneer Courthouse Square at 1 pm Thursday, Aug. 18. Free. A 6 pm reception follows at the Rose Garden. $50.
FRIDAY AUG. 19 [MOVIES] STALKER Beginning in sepia hues and eventually jumping into color à la The Wizard of Oz, Andrei Tarkovsky’s quasi-sci-fi masterpiece follows three men as they journey into a mysterious land called the Zone. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 221-1156. 7 pm. $9. [DRINK] PORTLAND BEER WEEK A whole new slew of chances to celebrate Oregon suds, this time with a distinctly culinary bent. There’s special tastings, tappings and a documentary screening (The Love of Beer at the Bagdad); Widmer even created a “Rose City Hipster” brew steeped with rose hips for the kickoff party at Horse Brass on Friday. Friday-Sunday Aug. 19-28. Visit pdxbeerweek.com for a full schedule of events. 21+.
SATURDAY AUG. 20 [ARTS] PLAZM 20TH ANNIVERSARY Celebrate 20 years of artistic expression from one of Portland’s more fascinating magazines/art projects. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 286-9449. 6:30 pm. $50-$75 for VIP party, $5-$15 for main party. [COMEDY] REGGIE WATTS Watts’ blend of crooning, beatboxing and weirdo comedy makes him one of the most interesting performers working today. Do not miss this show. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, Aug. 19-20. $20. 21+.
SUNDAY AUG. 21
DANNY FRAZIER
Arvydas Sabonis, who entered the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., on Aug. 11, might be the best-loved Portland Trail Blazer of all time. Sure, Bill Walton won the team a championship, and Clyde Drexler fought some epic battles with Michael Jordan, but both players also left fans with heartbreak (Walton left on ugly terms; Drexler won a championship with Houston). The only hang-up most fans have when it comes to Sabonis’ career, on the other hand, is that it took him so long to become a Blazer. Despite being regarded as “past his prime” when he joined the team in 1995—nine years after he was drafted, thanks to Cold War politics and injury woes—the Lithuanian center looked kind of like your Uncle Frank, if your Uncle Frank excelled in every area of the game save for speed, where Sabonis was comically inadequate. (OK, he couldn’t jump, either, but when you’re 7-foot-3, you don’t really need to jump.) Perhaps most endearingly for Blazer fans, though, Sabonis played at full force through injuries and chronic knee pain, hitting the court for over 85 percent of his games as a Blazer—a startling number for one of the largest players in league history. When the aches and pains became too much, the big man simply refused to accept a new contract and returned to Europe. That was 2001. When a somewhat recuperated Sabonis returned for a final season with the Blazers (his only NBA team) in 2002, fans knew to relish every masterful behind-the-back pass, every effortless block, every clunky-looking hook shot that sailed through the net and, yes, every three-pointer (Sabonis nailed 50 percent of them in his final season). The last time we saw him playing in Portland, a stilldangerous 38-year-old Arvydas was helping bring Portland back from a 0-3 playoff deficit to go seven games with Dallas. Even in the defeat of the series, Sabonis, at least, looked unstoppable—playing a young man’s minutes and towering over the competition. We shall always remember him this way. CASEY JARMAN.
[MUSIC] THE ETTES Their garage stomp strained through snarling, saccharine pop confections, the Ettes have been rocking their familiar-yet-distinct swampy girlish groove for years. A reunion with White Stripes producer Liam Watson has given newly sweet and snaggled teeth to the Nashville trio. Doug Fir Lounge. 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+. Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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CULTURE
FOOD & DRINK
THE MELTING POT A LOCAL PREP KITCHEN INCUBATES PORTLAND’S NEXT GENERATION OF FOOD BUSINESSES. BY R U T H B R OW N
rbrown@wweek.com
Michael Madigan owns the best kitchen in Portland. It’s 3,200 square feet of gleaming stainless steel, filled with stoves, grills, mixers, slicers, smokers and fryers, manned day and night by a wealth of local culinary talent. Madigan isn’t a restaurateur or a chef. He’s a businessman, and this is his latest venture, KitchenCru. It’s ostensibly a commissary kitchen—a place where anyone from caterers to food-cart operators can legally prepare food for sale—but Madigan prefers “culinary incubator.” “I’ve got more to offer than just kitchen space,” he says. Madigan spent 25 years in the computer industry, buying, growing and selling businesses and helping others do the same. An avid home cheesemaker, winemaker, brewer, baker and cook, he decided to combine both passions, and KitchenCru was born. Since launching in March of this year in an empty storefront on Northwest Broadway, the kitchen has grown to 25 clients, each paying around $15 to $21 an hour for use of the space. Some are fledgling entrepreneurs looking to crack the shelves of New Seasons, others are experienced chefs hosting one-off dinners, wine tastings or cooking classes. But in five months, the space has become more than just a place to prepare food without getting a slap on the wrist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “It’s kind of formed a community,” says Madigan. “Everyone that’s in here, it is what they love to do. That intensity is infectious—I love being here all day.” On a July morning, Madigan sits working at the tiny 10-seat chef’s bar that faces into the kitchen. He has an office but says he prefers sit here, watching the bustle of the kitchen. In front of him, chefs from Sassafras Catering prepare desserts with fresh, local berries. In another corner, the ladies from MaggieBell Naturals fill bags of vegan trail mix. A worker from artisan pork purveyors Tails & Trotters tends to various pig parts curing in the 24
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
dry store. Cheflebrity Naomi Pomeroy uses Cru’s vacuum sealer to pack trays of beef cheeks to be sent to New York. In a few hours, temporarily homeless izakaya Tanuki will transform the bar into a pop-up lunch counter. Over the proceeding week, I watch the kitchen morph from bakery in the morning to fine-dining destination at night, getting to know the people, food, smells and stories that make up this melting pot of culinary creativity.
THE RELUCTANT BAKER
Joe Sterling has been cooking since 3 am, but you can’t wipe the smile off his face. Surrounded by slabs of butter and chocolate, his conversation is punctuated with belly laughs and big grins, and his voice lilts into a subtle Southern accent every time he talks about his food. The New Orleans native moved to Portland four years ago, but it’s only this year that he has been cooking his own recipes, his own way. In February, Sterling—who formerly worked the line at New Orleans’ famed Commanders Palace and Paley’s Place in Portland—formed his own catering company, Sterling Catering (sterlingcateringpdx.com). But the venture has taken him in an unexpected direction. “I’ve been doing a lot of corporate catering, I’ve been doing some box lunches and cookie platters,” he says, “And the more of those I did, the more people were like, ‘You need to sell your cookies at the farmers markets.’” Sterling began selling cookies at the Beaverton and Salmon Creek farmers markets earlier this year. He’s now baking 100 to 175 dozen a week, starting work at 3 am four to five days a week, in addition to catering jobs. “I do these little pecan tarts that’s got a cream cheese dough, that’s my mom’s recipe.... I’m doing a peanut butter and banana whoopie pie—people are loving that right now,” he says, reeling off the ingredients and story inside every cookie. “And…I developed a brown sugar [cookie] recipe, and then I’m doing a tablespoon of praline on top of that. And those I can’t make fast enough either. So it seems the more Southern things I’m doing are kind of flying out of here.” “I say I spent $20,000 to go to [the Culinary Institute of America],” says Sterling. “But I learned to cook in New Orleans.”
THE BIG FISH Many of the cooks in KitchenCru are still dreaming of a big client, grocery-store account or business loan. But Ken Norris’ dream is so close he can taste it. After years working in fine dining restaurants in New York, he and his fiancée, Jennifer Quist, moved to Portland in February to start a restaurant of their own. “We want to bring a really good contemporary seafood restaurant to Portland,” says the self-assured Norris on a Tuesday afternoon. “Because there’s great chefs, great seafood, but there aren’t any places that really celebrate the catch of the day…. I’ve done everything, worked every cuisine, but the catch has always been my pride.” It’s an ambitious plan. When celebrated seafood restaurant Fin closed earlier this year, many in the food community wondered whether there is really a market in Portland for fish-focused eateries that aren’t prefixed by the name “Jake’s.” Norris believes there is. The couple want to open their restaurant, Riffle NW, near Northwest 23rd Avenue, offering lunch, dinner, brunch and a cocktail lounge. “Food’s the easy part,” he says. By 7 pm, Norris is looking less self-possessed. Until Riffle (rifflenw.com) can sign on a property, it has been running a series of test dinners at KitchenCru to build buzz and refine the menu. Lighting, wine, place settings and the rich, buttery scent of Norris’ “dockside chowder” simmering on the stove transform the chef ’s bar into a miniature restaurant. Ten diners have paid $20 to taste through a multicourse dinner, prepared directly in front of them. Each is given a Riffle-branded notebook for their critiques. Quist, also a chef but tonight on front-of-thehouse duties, takes center stage as the host, while Norris cooks, plates and braces himself for the feedback. Taste tester Mike Stricker assesses a pair of panko fried oysters: “I thought maybe the fig sauce might have been a bit too vinegary; it needed more fig flavor,” he says earnestly. “But I really got the pistachio out of it.” Norris and Quist receive the diners’ verdicts graciously. “Here’s my philosophy,” Norris had told me earlier that day. “In New York, the vast majority of people are about going to the restaurant, whereas people here are about the food. I don’t care if it’s a food cart or Le Bernardin, as long as there’s passion put into it. That’s what makes good food—good ingredients and passion, and I think Portland’s population really appreciates that. “I’m kind of kicking myself in the ass that we didn’t move out here earlier,” he says.
PHOTOS: AMAREN COLOSI
THE CREW: (from left) Owner Michael Madigan prefers to do his paperwork in the kitchen; Jeff and Milla Woller package bacon for the Lake Oswego farmers market; Uma Dama dishes up goat biryani while husband Dipu looks on.
THE CURISTS If there were ever a couple that could make rubbing salt into pig fat adorable, it would be Jeff and Milla Woller. They gaze into each other’s eyes when they talk, finish each other’s sentences and get up at 5:30 am to make bacon together before work. She’s from Tennessee, he’s from Alaska. They met in Memphis but found themselves in Portland five years ago and never left. Neither has a background in cooking, although Milla has been working front of the house in the restaurant industry for 15 years. Earlier this year, the Wollers decided to take their bacon-making hobby semi-pro. They named their business Maialino Bacon (tellurianepicurean.com), scored a place at the Lake Oswego farmers market and moved production from their home in Southwest Portland to KitchenCru, where they now cure, smoke, slice and package 20 pounds of bacon each week. “We’d been making bacon for a while, giving it to family and friends,” says Jeff. “A couple chefs in town really liked what we were putting out, and we thought, ‘Why not?’” Jeff works full time as a patent lawyer, while Milla is a manager and server at Serrato restaurant. But at 8 am on a Thursday morning, Milla is in chef’s whites, frying up a pan of bacon, while Jeff does the dishes. Aren’t they sick of eating bacon by now? “No!” they cry in unison, grinning at each other.
The Wollers are hoping to turn Tellurian into a fulltime business, but there’s a catch: When the farmers markets finish up in winter, there are few places they can sell their bacon. Their Oregon Department of Agriculture license doesn’t allow them to sell their product wholesale. But to get the necessary USDA license, they need their own production facility. “You’ve gotta grow and expand your market to justify getting into a bigger facility, and at the same time, you need a bigger facility and the USDA license to grow and expand your market,” explains Jeff. “It’s tricky,” they say in chorus.
THE SPICE MERCHANTS
On an early Friday evening, the kitchen is thick with clove, cumin, saffron and about a dozen other spices and scents weaving through each other. Uma Dama has just taken the lids off several large pots of biryani rice she has been cooking for several hours, and the exotic aroma spills out into the warm summer air. Her husband, Dipu Kakumani, watches as she spoons the mixture into aluminum trays. Uma is the talent, he tells me, but his passion for the dish is the reason they’re here. “The place where we come from in India, Hyderabad, it’s really famous for this dish. And I grew up eating good biryani over there, it’s like a comfort food,” he says. “We came here, and in all the years we’ve been here, I could
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never find good biryani anywhere…. So in my quest for good biryani, my wife started to experiment with the recipes, and we hit upon one that is close to the original. That’s when we got this idea of, ‘OK, we can share this, there’s real potential for this.’” After several years of serving nothing but biryani to dinner guests, the couple decided to step production up a notch and moved to KitchenCru in April. Both work day jobs, and they have two small children, but when they find the time, they announce a Biryani cook-up on their Facebook page and website (search “PDX Biryani” on Facebook or pdxbiryani.com), and friends, colleagues and fans place orders for trays of the aromatic goat, chicken, shrimp or vegetable rice dish. Making authentic biryani is a complex, time-consuming endeavour that involves a 12-hour marinade and a multistep, 2 1/2-hour cooking process. Kakumani says their business is still in its infancy, and they need to spend more time converting Portland to their recipes before they expand any further. “This is not a mainstream dish,” he says. “Places like California, where there’s a large Southeast Asian population, there’s a lot of demand for it, but not so much in Portland. So for now, we’ll probably just stick to doing it on weekends.” GO: KitchenCru Culinary Prepspace is located at 337 NW Broadway, 226-1400, kitchencru.biz.
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FOOD & DRINK = WW Pick. Highly recommended.
SPECIAL AUTOGRAPH SIGNING!
PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20-$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: KELLY CLARKE. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
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50 SW Third Ave. 503-223-1375
Available 8/23
Joseph konTy SUNDAY 8/21 @ 5PM Musically, instrumentally and vocally Joseph ...has always been inspired by gospel music, soul, R&B and Motown. His sixth studio album, ‘Sweet Soul Music,’ was released this year and he did the guitar work, vocal work, bass, some keys, some percussion, as well as the programming. Joseph brought in singer Myrtle Brown to add the extra “it” flavor to his songs.
HOP TO IT: Ben Edmunds at Breakside brewery prepares for beer week.
EVENTS THIS WEEK
a reCord reLease eVenT! John doe TUESDAY 8/23 @ 6PM ENTER TO WIN A SIGNED TEST PRESSING AT THE IN-STORE PERFORMANCE! John Doe is a founding member of the seminal L.A. punk rock outfit X and the country spin-off band The Knitters. ‘Keeper’ is Doe’s eighth solo record and first since 2007’s acclaimed ‘A Year in the Wilderness.’ Doe produced the album alongside longtime collaborator Dave Way (Fiona Apple, Macy Gray). The record features vocals by Patty Griffin, Jill Sobule and Cindy Wasserman.
DARYL HALL JOHN OATES For Ticket Information: www.friendsofthechildren.org/portland
Presented by:
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Deschutes Brewery Street “Fare” and Base Camp Events
Jesus, doesn’t this town ever get sick of beer? No? Fine by me. Bend’s finest turns Portland into a carnival for beer fanatics with its Thursday Street “Fare” and full week of Base Camp events. Wednesday brings a two-wheeled blowout at Vendetta called “Bikes and Brews” (4-7 pm) featuring free bike inspections from Metropolis Cycle Repair and lots of Mirror Pond and Inversion IPA. Later that night the powers that be debut Deschutes’ new reserve series bottle, a Belgian-inspired bottle named “The Stoic,” plus host a homebrewers’ competition at Belmont Station (8-10 pm). Thursday is Deschutes’ giant Street Fare, which closes down the street outside its Pearl District brewpub for pints and food from carts like Eurotrash, Robb’s Really Good Food, FlavourSpot and Oregon Ice Works. Oh, and the Builders & the Butchers and Hillstomp are playing live. Wow. Still not sated? There’s a “brew dunk tank” (sorry, filled with water, not beer) at John’s Market on Friday that promises to soak a slew of local beer makers, writers and sellers while you slurp pints of Mirror Pond and eat bratwurst (3 pm Friday, Aug. 19), an arty mixed-media bash called Conflux (again, on Saturday) and an Urban Adventure Race held in Pioneer Courthouse Square on Sunday. I’m tired just writing all of it down. Deschutes Base Camp events take place all day Monday-Sunday, Aug. 16-21. Deschutes Street “Fare” $10 (includes first food and beer taster or a 16 ounce beer). See website for all other event prices; most are free. Find a full list of events at deschutesbrewery.com/events/ BaseCamp.
Portland Beer Week
As if Portland’s status as Beervana was in danger of lapsing, now we have the first annual “Portland Beer Week,” which brings a whole new slew of chances to celebrate Oregon suds, this time with a distinctly culinary bent. There’s special tastings, tappings and a documentary screening ( The Love of Beer at the Bagdad on Saturday); Widmer even created a “Rose City Hipster” brew steeped with rose hips for the kickoff party at Horse Brass on Friday. Highlights include a Double Mountain and Hopworks beer-meets-brunch menu at Spirit of ‘77 and Coalition Brewing’s First Anniversary bash both on Saturday (complete with cornhole tournament and Grilled Cheese Grill grub); a beer and sushi pairing at Roscoe’s on Monday; the “Brewers Burger Brawl” featuring beefy eats created by Hopworks, Upright, Laurelwood and other local brewers on Tuesday; a bar-
rel-aging beer panel at Hopworks (next Wednesday, Aug. 24); and a night devoted to session beers (at Coalition as well on Saturday, Aug. 27). Oh, there’s also five types of beer-inspired ice cream at Salt&Straw’s new Alberta scoop shop plus a Ninkasi brunch at EastBurn and a big closing party featuring tons of Belgian-style brews at Bazi Bierbrasserie (both on Sunday, Aug. 28) if you haven’t passed out by then. Oh yeah, and the 2011 Beer Bloggers Conference (beerbloggersconference.org, Aug. 19-21), an inebriated IRL meet ’n’ greet for more than 80 people from all across the country devoted to hop life, is being held in Portland this week, too. Coincidence? Nah. Portland Beer Week runs FridaySunday Aug. 19-28, all around Portland. Visit pdxbeerweek.com for a full schedule of events. 21+.
Multnomah Days
Pocket-sized Southwest PDX neighborhood Multnomah Village celebrates its 103rd birthday with a pancake breakfast, beer garden, arts and food vendors and a marching band. Capitol Highway between Southwest 33rd and SW 39th avenues. All day Saturday, Aug. 20. Free. Info at multnomahvillage.org.
Gravenstein Apple Celebration
All of your tart and puckery apple dreams come true as the farms, wineries and alpaca ranches located along Hood River County’s “Fruit Loop” highlight the brief, magical season when Gravenstein apples are ripe. Special deals, free tastings, live music, apple desserts and general familyfriendly adorableness abound at spots like Draper Girls Country Farm, Rasmussen Farms and Pearl’s Place. All day SaturdaySunday, Aug. 20-21. Find a map of participating farms and stores at hoodriverfruitloop.com.
Lents Founders Day
The increasingly re-energized neighborhood of Lents highlights its international streak with an ambitious Founders Day party featuring food and dance performances from across the globe, from China to Mexico and Indonesia. There will also be a bounce house, which I suspect is an American contribution. Lents Park, Southeast 92nd Avenue and Holgate Street. 3:30 pm. Free.Schedule and details at ilovelents.com.
Master of the Market Competition
Nostrana’s Cathy Whims, Jason French (Ned Ludd) and Tabla’s Anthony Cafiero a half hour to shop the Portland Farmers Market and then a half hour to make something scrumptious out of their raw ingredients in front of a live audience at Pioneer Courthouse Square. Pioneer Courthouse Square, 701 SW 6th Ave. 11:30 am. Free.
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*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 Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
MUSIC
MUSIC
AUG. 17 - 23 PROFILE
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
JULIE ROBERTS
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, AUG. 17 Sole and the Skyrider Band
[UNDERGROUND POP RAP] Sole, a.k.a. Tim Holland, was a founding member of Anticon, the seminal, Oakland-based experimental hip-hop collective from which such wonderfully weird MCs as Why?, Jel and Odd Nosdam have sprung. Sole—who left Anticon this year—has put out some pretty bizarre stuff on his own, but Hello Cruel World, the new record from his Sole and the Skyrider Band project, seeks (according to Sole’s website) to be “a document of what pop rap music can and should be.” Indeed, the Skyrider Band’s electronic, atmospheric backing makes the album more accessible than Sole’s earlier work, but while the rapper has jettisoned Anticon’s opaqueness, he has held onto its verve. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Pelican, Aeges, Shelter Red
[WORDLESS ASSAULT] Heavy instrumental bands of any worth were almost nonexistent when Pelican emerged from Chicago in 2003. With its debut, Australasia, the band leaped to the forefront of the rising “instrumetal” genre. Except, calling Pelican “metal” is something of a misnomer. Its dense, concrete-thick soundscapes are made up of bits and pieces of everything from post-rock to shoegaze. Which isn’t to say Pelican skimps on the hard stuff: Its slow-building compositions evoke images of nature at its most violent. Its last album, 2009’s What We All Come to Need, featured cameos from members of Isis, Helms Alee and Sun 0))). Not surprisingly, it’s the band’s most volcanic record yet. MATTHEW SINGER. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 8:30 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages.
Sporay, Pulse Emitter, Sabertooth Cavity, Rattle Dick
[NOISE AS ART] Portland is apparently becoming a haven for experimental musicians. We recently acquired Mark McGuire of the drone-tastic band Emeralds, as well as welcoming the husband-and-wife duo Sporay to join our cabal of music makers and art lovers. The minds behind Sporay are Eva Aguila, a musician who has compiled a stunning discography of work using monikers like Kevin Shields and Gang Wizard, and Brock Fansler, a creator of collage and noise. Together they dream up head-spinning swirls of tones, playful bits of melody, and rushes of gorgeous, expansive resonance. Catch them here as they prepare for an upcoming tour of Europe. ROBERT HAM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 8:30 pm. $5. 21+.
THURSDAY, AUG. 18 Luisa Maita, Infinite Bossa
[HI HI BRAZIL] Following a trail blazed by Bebel Gilberto, Seu Jorge and other hot recent Brazilian musical exports, the sultry-voiced singer Luisa Maita synthesizes the sambas that sizzle through her hometown of São Paulo with downtempo electronica, rock and earlier Brazilian pop forms like bossa nova. That last influence permeates the music of Infinite Bossa (singer Alexandra Santos, guitarist Pam Beaty and percussionist Anderson Reis), which covers classics by Gilberto, Jobim and more. BRETT CAMPBELL. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm. All ages.
Mister Heavenly, WATERS, Anne
[INDIE ROCK FUN] Love Nick Thorburn’s singing and songwriting from his Unicorns days but could never quite get behind that seminal indie-pop band’s cutesy/weirdo vibe? Thorburn’s new band, Mister Heavenly,
CONT. on page 31
TOP FIVE
C AS E Y JARMA N
PORTLAND BANDS WITH SUMMER RELEASES. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Mirror Traffic (out 8/23) Yeah, the Jicks still count as a Portland band even with Malkmus moving to Germany. And this disc has been a long time coming. Blind Pilot, We Are the Tide (out 9/13) The much-anticipated sophomore record from these PDX folk-pop folks is a bigger, broader affair with lots of radio potential. Blitzen Trapper, American Goldwing (out 9/13) Blitzen Trapper’s Dylan-esque ballads have proven quite popular on the national scale, but they still fit a couple psychedelic freak-outs on the new record. Richmond Fontaine, The High Country (out 9/20) It has been two years since Richmond Fontaine’s incredible last record, We Used to Think the Freeway Sounded Like a River. This new one is a big fat narrative epic—and real good. Nurses, Dracula (out 9/20) Quite simply one of the coolest-sounding records to ever come out of Portland. Nurses are back! SEE IT: Most of these bands are playing Portland release shows. We’ll keep you updated.
BLACK TO THE FUTURE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS BRING OLDTIME MUSIC—AND RACE—TO THE FORE. BY MATTHEW SIN G ER
243-2122
Growing up in Flagstaff, Ariz., as an AfricanAmerican kid in love with prewar American folk music, Dom Flemons knew he was a little weird. He didn’t quite know how weird, though, until he went to see bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley in concert. “I noticed I was the only black person there at the entire event, out of 3,000 or 4,000 people,” he says over the phone a day before his group, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, opens for Bob Dylan in Kettering, Ohio. “Stuff like that made me aware that this was something different.” Even now at his own gigs, as a member of one of the few all-black string bands left in the country, Flemons is still usually among the only black people in the room. And that’s at least part of the reason the Carolina Chocolate Drops exist: to remind audiences—or, perhaps more often, enlighten them to the fact—that this music, typically associated with white Southerners, is part of African-American culture as well. Although the group’s most famous song is an old-timey makeover of Blu Cantrell’s 2001 R&B smash, “Hit ’Em Up Style (Oops!),” when it got together six years ago it took on the role of a de facto historical preservation society. Instead of culling from the already wellsurveyed Appalachian songbook, the Chocolate Drops drew the bulk of their repertoire from the music of North Carolina’s Piedmont region, where communities of freed slaves developed a style placing the banjo—an instrument of African origin—at the forefront. Illuminating the black roots of those forgotten songs, the band presents a living education on a piece of America’s musical heritage it hardly knew existed. If that makes the group sound like it should only be touring libraries, that’s not how it comes across on record or in performance. Even when they’re not reworking new millennium pop hits, there’s something intangibly modern about the Chocolate Drops’ interpretations of tunes that, in some cases, are over 100 years old. The band stays faithful to traditional string-band instrumentation—members trade off on fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, jug
and even kazoo—but kicks the songs into the 21st century. The band’s energetic music isn’t simply a re-enactment of the past; just by existing, the Chocolate Drops represent the quickly changing perception of what it means to be black today. “It’s breaking past a lot of stereotypes people have ingrained in their minds,” Flemons says. “America has an obsession with white people liking black music. No one thinks of black people liking white music.” Talking about the group in terms of race isn’t a discussion the band is uncomfortable having; after all, it titled its Grammy-winning 2010 breakthrough Genuine Negro Jig. It’s a crucial element of the band’s identity, Flemons says. Coalescing in 2005 around a meeting of African-American folk music scholars, players and enthusiasts called the Black Banjo Gathering at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, the trio—Flemons, singer Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, who has since left the group—connected over growing up as selfdescribed “misfits,” the only young black people in their respective towns obsessed with roots music. Under the mentorship of 90-year-old fiddler Joe Thompson, the Chocolate Drops learned the songs that would make up their repetoire. As it’s toured the Americana circuit, the band has been approached by other “misfits,” thanking it for embodying the music in the present tense. “It’s a visceral reaction to seeing the visual,” Flemons says. “Many scholars talk about black string music, but to see it is another thing.” Flemons acknowledges that the novelty of an all-black string band in 2011 isn’t going to sustain the Chocolate Drops’ career. After that narrative runs its course, what’ll keep the group going is its music. Or, more accurately, its resurrection of this music. Although the group has dabbled in original songwriting before—one of Jig’s standouts, the elegiac “Kissin’ and Cussin’,” was written by Robinson—Flemons says the band has no intention of ever making an entire record of its own material. “There’s so much stuff that people just don’t know about in terms of music,” Flemons says. “We want to reach back and grab that stuff and make it live again.” SEE IT: The Carolina Chocolate Drops play the Oregon Zoo on Friday, Aug. 19, with the Be Good Tanyas. 7 pm. $19. All ages. Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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THURSDAY - FRIDAY PROFILE
IAN CAMPBELL
which also features Man Man’s Ryan Kattner and Modest Mouse’s Joe Plummer, takes itself more seriously—about half the time. The Sub Pop-approved trio (its new album, Out of Love, is out this week) plays seamless rock when it wants to and, much like the Unicorns, gets a touch too goofy for its own sake at other times. How goofy? The band dabbles in what its publicity folks dub “doom-wop,” and the vaguely Asian-sounding “Pineapple Girl”— which feels kind of like a send-up of two different Weezer songs—opens with the line “I saw your package, your nifty little package/ Read your letter ’bout how you love my sweater.” It’s good that this show is all-ages, because the kids are gonna get all the jokes that kinda make us old folks cringe. CASEY JARMAN. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 8 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. All ages.
MUSIC
LONE MADRONE
Foot-stomping folk rockers whose roots and western songs charm
+SAM COOPER $5 Adv/ $7 Dos
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17 JACK DANIELS PRESENTS
DANAVA
Avengers, Roxy Epoxy & The Rebound, Defect Defect, Ari Shine
[THE FEELING YOU’VE BEEN CHEATED] It’s a strange legacy to be best known as the opening act for an infamous swan song—the Sex Pistols’ final show at Winterland— but licensing nightmares effectively forced the Avengers’ catalog out of print for decades. For that matter, classically trained chanteuseprovocateur Penelope Houston spent much of the ’80s and ’90s dabbling in film and video projects (and releasing a dozen solo albums of macabre neo-folk) before finally getting the S.F. quartet back together for intermittent tours of its adrenalized, incisive shoulda-been classic punk tunes. JAY HORTON. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 2266630. 9:30 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Danava, White Orange, Wizard Rifle, Sons of Huns
[PSYCH PROG ROCK] Portlanders who love heavy ’70s rock have been rejoicing since Danava hit its stride. One look at the patches (Diamond Head and Budgie) on guitarist-singer Gregory Meleney’s denim jacket and you can tell the band has its roots in all the right places. Meleney’s vocal delivery (a dead ringer for former Diamond Head lead vocalist Sean Harris) is the icing on the cake of the band’s Hawkwind-style sound. For audiences, seeing Meleney and bassist Zachariah Dellorto-Blackwell traverse the necks of their instruments like wizards in tandem feels like stepping into a time warp. Don’t miss opening duo Wizard Rifle, who has been catching wordof-mouth buzz as a psychedelic version of Lightning Bolt. JOHN ISAACSON. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Retox, Lazers for Eyes, Dark Country, DJ Sethro Tull
See profile, this page. Tube, 18 NW 3rd Ave., 241-8823. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Youthbitch
[FAUX SOUL] Where does Jon Spencer belong in the 21st century? Back in the 1990s, he was perhaps the most polarizing figure in the rock underground: Some critics fawned over his Blues Explosion’s noisy subversion of blues and soul; other thought he was just making fun of black music (writer Jim DeRogatis called the band a modern-day minstrel show). Twenty years later—and seven years since his last album—nobody cares enough to continue the debate, and with groups like the Black Keys doing a less-adventurous but also less-shticky version of what he used to do, Spencer just kind of seems old hat. One thing everyone always agreed on, though, was that he is an exceptionally magnetic live performer, and that’s still true today. MATTHEW SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 2848686. 9 pm. $15 advance, $17 day of show. 21+.
RETOX THURSDAY, AUG. 18 Party at ground zero, baby, movie starring you...and some dead pigs.
[APOCALYPSE PUNK] “We have no problems singing songs that are not nice at all.” That’s Retox lead screamer Justin Pearson approximately 15 seconds into the brutal 12-minute LP Ugly Animals, which Mike Patton’s rowdy Ipecac Recordings will let loose Aug. 23. But just in case Pearson’s proud announcement doesn’t register—it’s delivered in an animal screech, after all—refer to the title of the song in question: “The World Is Ending and It’s About Time.” A facetious sentiment for sure, but Pearson, who has teamed up with Retox drummer Gabe Serbian in some of the finest, loudest troublemaking punk bands of the past decade (the Locust, Holy Molar, Head Wound City), sounds genuinely piqued when he gets to talking about the state of things. “Everyone just wants to wallow in a sea of MP3s and watch whatever they can on YouTube,” he says. “People don’t really give a shit about seeing music or experiencing music or buying a record or supporting a band. It’s just kinda like: eh, whatever.” Retox, based in San Diego and rounded out by guitarist Michael Crain (formerly of Festival of Dead Deer) and bass player Thor Dickey, seems to have been conceived as either a wake-up call or a knockout punch to a culture bingeing on fleeting distractions from what Pearson referred to in our interview as “this other side of life on this planet that people turn their heads from.” To that end—whatever the opposite of “eh, whatever” is—Ugly Animals proceeds with the frenzied breathlessness of a bulletin from the world’s last moments, with 11 tracks of unrelenting hardcore scattering images of apocalypse into the wind: kids who “found old teeth, spit and licked”; a “procrastinated rapist [who] shat through his loose teeth”; and a Jesus who “swings a rust hatchet” when he’s not “sleeping in chapters.” It is nearly impossible to experience Retox without feeling at least slightly queasy, if not downright nauseous. The songs, most of them hovering around the one-minute mark, are frenzied and unrelenting. The video for “A Bastard on Father’s Day” is a quickcut nightmare depicting a clutch of scabby men raping an overdosing woman, while “Ready to Spit,” from an EP released online early this year, can be found on YouTube accompanied by grisly images of a pig’s evisceration. Pearson doesn’t see this year-old experiment in extremity as grotesque theater, at least not entirely. “I don’t think it’s exaggerated, necessarily,” he says. “It’s a realist view of the world. Yeah, it’s negative, it’s depressing, but at the same time, it’s not nihilistic.” The secret to avoiding nihilistic despair when faced with so much brokenness? “We pee ’tween our high heels, and the beat still goes on,” Pearson sings on album closer “Piss Elegant.” Not exactly a happy ending, but perhaps there is some small consolation in embracing the abject and matching its menace with harsh sounds and dirty words, with songs that are not nice at all. CHRIS STAMM. SEE IT: Retox plays Tube on Thursday, Aug. 18. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
WHITE ORANGE WIZARD RIFLE +SONS OF HUNS FREE
THURSDAY AUGUST 18 A sweet ‘n’ local showcase featuring favorite folk tastemakers
THE PARSON
RED HEADS DOLOREAN +JEREMY BENSON FRIDAY AUGUST 19
$5 Adv/ $7 DoS
FRIDAY AUGUST 19 Songs of magical joy and humor from an artist called “The Paul McCartney of kids’ music” by USA Today
JUSTIN ROBERTS
& THE NOT READY FOR NAPTIME PLAYERS
$10 Adv/ $12 DoS
SATURDAY AUGUST 20
BAR BAR SUMMER PATIO SESSIONS
+LUZ ELENA MENDOZA
DEATH SONGS
SUNDAY AUGUST 21 FREE
4pm - 7pm on Bar Bar Patio
Esteemed Portland crooner, performing the electrifying rock and pop he’s so well known for
ROB WYNIA (of Floater)
SUNDAY AUGUST 21
+OH DARLING
$7 Adv/ $10 DoS
Illustrious hip-hop from famed underground duo whose politically-conscious lyrics can’t be rivaled
DEAD PREZ SATURDAY AUGUST 27
$20 Adv/ $25 DoS
Coming Soon 8/22 - SUNBEAM 8/23 - HELENE RENAUT 8/24 - NICK JAINA cd release 8/25 - GRASS WIDOW 8/26 - AU 8/27 - MICHAEL CHARLES SMITH 8/28 - OH CAPTAIN MY CAPTAIN 8/31 - VANIMAL
CONT. on page 32 Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSIC
Live Music, Music, Cabaret, Cabaret, Burlesque Burlesque & & Rock-n-Roll Rock-n-Roll Live
FRIDAY
FRIDAY, AUG. 19 Tel. 503-226-6630 • Open Daily 11am-2:30am •
w w w. da n tes l i ve . c o m
WE1D7 NESDAY AUG
TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
+ THE HAGUE
THU18RSDAY AVENGERS ROXY EPOXY & THE REBOUND AUG
TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
DEFECT DEFECT DEFECT DEFECT & & ARI ARI SHINE SHINE
RUSSIAN ROCKENROL REVOLUTION
IDAY FRID 19
RED ELVISES
AUG
TICKETSWEST $15 Adv
YOUR FAVORITE BAND!
THE THE RDAYY T THE H EM MEMORIALS EMORIALS SAT2U BLASTERS 0 G 20 AU G
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MIKE THRASHER PRESENTS
EMPTY MSWINGIN’ PTY SSPA PACCEE OORCHESTRA PA RCHESTRA UTTERS NNIAY IAY AYHBASTARDS FILTHY THIEVING FILTHY& THIEVING BASTARDS & & 48 48 THRILLS THRILLS “The Best Show In Town!”
AY ND SUAU G 21
SINFERNO cabaret
AY ND MOAU G 22
Karaoke FromHellHell Karaoke From So You Wanna Be A ROCK STAR ?
KARAOKE WITH A LIVE BAND
9PM 9PM -- PRETTY PRETTY THINGS THINGS PEEPSHOW PEEPSHOW
DAY TUE2S G 3
10pm $3
TTHE HE EED D FFO ORMAN FORMAN SSHOW HOW
“PLEASURE EDITION” GUEST: BLAZE, DANCER, CONTORTIONIST HOUSE-BAND: BASKETBALL JONES
AU G
No Cover 8pm Show
DSL
open mic comedy with hostess dirt starr love
COMING SOON
DAY SUN 21 AUG
TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
pretty things peepshow
STARTS AT 9PM • FOLLOWED BY SINFERNO CABARET AT 11PM
THU2255RSDAY AUG
TICKETSWEST $17 Adv
DOUBLE TEE PRESENTS
IVAN NEVILLEʼ NEVILLEʼS NEVILLE ʼSʼS IVAN NEVILLE
DUMPSTAPHUNK DAY SUN 28 AUG
TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
STARTS STARTS AT AT 8:30PM 8:30PM WITH WITH KNOTHEAD KNOTHEAD FOLLOWED FOLLOWED BY BY SINFERNO SINFERNO CABARET CABARET AT AT 11PM 11PM
DAY TUE3S 0 0 30 G3
8/17 God Is An Astronaut 8/18 Avengers 8/19 Red Elvises 8/20 The Blasters & The Swingin’ Utters 8/20 DRAG THE RIVER AT DEVILS POINT 8/21 Pretty Things Peepshow+Sinferno 8/22 Karaoke From Hell 8/23 The Ed Forman Show 8/24 Hot LZs & Burning Bridges 8/25 Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk 8/27 Exotic Mag 18th Anniversary 8/28 Mac Lethal & Sinferno 8/30 MC Frontalot 9/2 Valient Thorr 9/7 Jucifer 9/8 MFNW: Kylesa 9/9 MFNW: The Horrors 9/10 MFNW: Big Freedia 9/15 Stanton Moore Trio 9/16 Bob Log III 9/17 Miss Skooled Pageant 9/18 Sinferno + Shine 9/20 Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band 9/23 Coney Island Road Show 9/24 Whitey Morgan & The 78s 9/28 Rev. Deadeye 10/1 World Inferno/Friendship Society 10/4 Electric Six 10/5 Goddamn Gallows 10/7 Super Diamond 10/8 Cash’d Out 10/13 Rocky Votolato 10/14 Zepparella 10/16 Michael Monroe of Hanoi Rocks 10/23 POGO + That 1 Guy 10/27 Dwarves 10/28 Hell’s Belles 10/29 Dead Sexy Ball 11/4 Cherry Poppin’ Daddies 11/5 Shonen Knife 11/11 Cirque du Stiffy 11/17 Scott H. Biram TICKETS AVAILABLE @ DANTE’S, SAFEWAY, MUSIC MILLENNIUM 800-992-8499 AND TICKETSWEST.COM
+ BRANDON PATTON
TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
AU G
IDAY FRID T 22
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SEP T
VALIENT THORR LORD DYING • WITCHBURN •
DAAYY NESD WETD P 77 TICKETSWEST $10 Adv
SE P
SALVADOR
JUCIFER TOTIMOSHI & PALO VERDE
SDAYY THTU11R stanton moore trio 5 P 5 DOUBLE TEE PRESENTS
TICKETSWEST $15 Adv
SE P
BOB LOG III
IDAY FRID 6 T 116 SEP T
TICKETSWEST $13 Adv
+ Mr. Free & The Satellite Freakout
TUTE22S00DAY P SE P
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
SAT1 URDAYY T1 TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
CT O OC
TUE4SDAY T4 CT O OC
TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
+ KITTEN & MARK MALLMAN
THU133RSDAYY T1 CT O OC
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TICKETSWEST $12 Adv
& THE PHENOMENAUTS
ROCKY VOTOLATO & MATT POND PA
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Sympathy for the Devil: Classical Revolution PDX and the Electric Opera Company
[SATANIC SOUNDS] Please allow me to introduce myself, Portland indie-rock fans. I’m classical music, and I was flirting with the diabolical long before Mick, Keith and Brian unleashed those “woo woos.” But in this guise, you’d never guess my name. In a program of music that’s all on the theme of the devil (e.g., Faust, Danse Macabre), the city’s 15-electric-guitar army plays the notes written by classical composers Chopin, Gounod, and more, plus the Beatles and, of course, the Stones— but on a dozen-plus electric guitars, bass and drums instead of “classical” instruments. It’s a great way to open the ears of rock-oriented listeners to the demonic power of some pre-rock music that’s often overshadowed by classical music’s stuffy image and overly prim interpretations. Still, the show opens with Classical Revolution PDX playing on classical instruments. Woo, woo! BRETT CAMPBELL. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 719-6055. 8 pm. $8. All ages.
American Steel, The Shell Corporation, Lee Corey Oswald, Lost City
[ANTHEMIC PUNK] American Steel was given third billing, below No Use for a Name, on its last swing through Portland. Such a slight would raise bumps of stinging ignominy on even the shoddiest pop mediocrity, so the affront must have damn near destroyed American Steel’s feelings. Granted, it’s been a downhill trip since 1999’s Rogue’s March, which might be the last great record in the “classic” East Bay punk mode—but that’s quite a peak from which to begin a descent. Even coasting in neutral, American Steel can pull off a shiver-giving trick like “Tear the Place Apart,” a perfect plaintive anthem that made 2009’s otherwise tepid Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts essential. CHRIS STAMM. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 10 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. All ages.
Richard Buckner, David Kilgour
[SONGWRITER DUO] This show brings together a pair of amazing singer-songwriters, whose visions are singular but should mesh together beautifully on tour. Headlining is Richard Buckner, whose latest album, Our Blood, is another sparkling addition to his already gleaming catalog. It finds him in full-on country troubadour mode, letting his craggy voice rumble over his lyrics of agony and respite. Buckner is joined by New Zealand icon David Kilgour. His fulllength Left by Soft sows seeds cultivated from longtime influences like the Beatles and Lou Reed, and has a decidedly more playful feel than anything his tour counterpart has dreamed up. ROBERT HAM. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 8949708. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.
Red Elvises
[YAKOV BORDELLO] Just as Cold War relic comedians still coast Branson borne upon name recognition and the perverse comforts of faded topicality, it seems the Red Elvises—a Russian-by-way-of-SantaMonica troupe past expiration since even before their mid-’90s origins— shall always find a willing stateside audience for their lightly gypsified, wholly denatured, family-friendly takes on frat-tastic idioms (surf, reggae, swing) shorn of the slightest hint of true abandon. What, sigh, a country. JAY HORTON. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 9:30 pm. Cover. 21+.
Royal Baths, Broken Water, Hornet Leg
[LOADED] Nostalgics aren’t fighters. That’s why the San Francisco
CONT. on page 34
ALBUM REVIEWS
ROB WYNIA IRON BY WATER (SELF-RELEASED) [NAKED SONGS] The first time I heard Rob Wynia’s solo recordings, he was experimenting with soundscapes and edgy spoken-word pieces. I was shocked at how far off course the material was from the organic rawk of his divisive Portland band Floater. The acoustic guitar-led songs on Iron By Water— recorded mostly in Wynia’s temporary rural Idaho home—aren’t quite as drastic a departure, but they would certainly come as a shock to those who have Floater and its cult following figured out. The string-fueled verses of “Only You” sound like Nick Drake via Procol Harum, and the twangy “Soapbox” is a lushly lyrical, Pink Floyd-esque meditation on the self-awareness that comes with growing up (“If you know you’re headed for slaughter/ If you know where you’ve been/ You will be changed/ Like iron by water/ This is the end/ Just the end/ The end of an age”). Wynia’s capable, fluttering voice is a strong enough tool with which to build a record, but the singer-songwriter’s flair for the theatrical is always going to make it or break it for potential fans. The disc’s pretty opener, “Firefly,” engages in any number of untrendy activities: It tests Wynia’s upper register, features quietly patted congas and relies on medieval imagery for its inward-looking lyrics. All of this is liable to scare listeners from the Pavement generation. But then, that’s Rob Wynia: He’s a lover of classic rock, a history buff and a songwriter who’s truly dedicated to self-examination. It can come off as a tad hippie-dippy at times, but songs as soul-baring as “Testify” and as vulnerable as “Cast Aside”—perhaps the strongest cut on the disc—feel entirely honest and genuine (if also a little perma-stoned). I don’t know how many spins I’ll wind up giving Iron By Water, but I feel pretty good about keeping it in my collection. CASEY JARMAN.
YOUR RIVAL SEVEN SPARKLING CHILDREN (SELF-RELEASED)
[POP SONGS] I don’t think I ask too much of pop songs. I want them to physically move me and say something interesting or clever. In fact, if a song can do one of those two things well, I’ll take it. Alas, most pop music that comes across my desk neither makes me want to dance or gives me anything to think about. In Portland, pop artists have a tendency to enlist the help of a string section, a horn section and a choir before they ever learn how to write a catchy hook or pen a smart lyric—so it’s encouraging to hear a young band, with little in the way of resources, write a batch of songs that stand on their songwriting strength alone. Your Rival’s new cassette/MP3 EP, Seven Sparkling Children, scratched my pop-song itch for the first time in ages. This music is fun, energetic and loose: Think of pioneering Midwest emo outfits like Promise Ring and Cap’n Jazz; or, better yet, think of early Weezer if Geffen Records had never come along. Frontman/ multi-instrumentalist Mo Troper knows his way around a hook beautifully, and he is a passionate singer who reminds at times of Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook. Each song from the band’s sophomore EP has at least one brilliant, knife-twisting moment. And in fact, most of these songs have more than one such “fuck yeah” moment. Opening power-pop blast “My Canary,” which sounds like a Beach Boys summer jam reinterpreted by Superchunk, has four by my count, including a brief “Surfwax America”-esque guitar refrain, some brilliant whoa-ohs and a Big Star strum at the precise moment that the tune stops on a dime. The next song, “Wing Commander,” has too many clever twists count. So what are these songs about? Combat and girls, mostly, though the themes are less important than the easy confidence and smart construction Troper demonstrates as he builds them. “Sugar & Cream” is one of the silliest songs I’ve ever heard, and yet, like many a towering Kinks tune, I’m genuinely moved by it anyway. Closer “Rules of the Tub” is a startlingly beautiful 90-second song about bath time etiquette. Your Rival has my undivided attention. I hope it doesn’t wait too long for the full-length. CASEY JARMAN. SEE IT. Rob Wynia plays Mississippi Studios on Sunday, Aug. 21, with Oh Darling. 9 pm. $7 advance, $10 day of show. 21+. Your Rival plays Backspace on Sunday, Aug. 21, with Kyle Morton. 4 pm. $5. All-ages benefit show.
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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FRIDAY - SATURDAY
TERRORBIRD.COM
MUSIC
RIDERS ON THE STORM: Sole and the Skyrider Band plays Wednesday, Aug. 17, at Doug Fir. classic-rock downtempoists simply added “Royal” to the Baths’ name that L.A. beatsmith Will Wiesenfeld allegedly stripped them of. Makes sense, given Royal Baths’ druggy, 1960s-set experimentalism. Frontmen Jeremy Cox and Jigmae Baer bring hushed, poetic, Lou Reed-inspired vocals before droning guitars and surfy percussion. Apathetic as the band’s sound may be, the quartet has been crazy busy, having already written another album since the late last year release of debut Litanies. And, if I may stick with allegations, it sounds like it’s recorded live—a style that suits Royal Baths’ relaxed, retrotracing ways. MARK STOCK. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. 9 pm. $6. 21+.
Lew Tabackin with the Peter Boe Trio
[JAZZ] Lew Tabackin has a Jekylland-Hyde thing going on. The Jekyll version is a supremely talented flutist who can sit in with small combos, big bands and classical outfits alike. The Hyde version likes to blast scales on the tenor sax, something the bearded blower does with the best of them. He often does both in one session—as he did on 1976’s excellent Dual Nature, alongside Shelly Manne; the disc found him splitting six tunes into a very cool, rural-sounding A-side and a bluesier, decidedly urban B-Side. It’s not a gimmick when you rule at it. Tabackin’s releases in the past decade include the stylish, Eastmeets-West piano-less trio date, Tanuki’s Night Out, and the more straightforward Quartet. Both sessions prove Tabackin’s still “got it,” whether “it” means power, finesse or the ability to put an avantgarde spin on well-loved standards. CASEY JARMAN. Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542. 8 pm. $15 advance, $20 day of show. All ages.
Carolina Chocolate Drops, Be Good Tanyas
See music feature, page 29. Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Road, 2202789. 7 pm. $19. All ages.
Conflux: Monarques, Sean Flinn & the Royal We, Good Night Billygoat, Commodorks
[BEER AND TUNES] Bands have release shows all the time. Beers? That happens a little less often. Tonight’s show at Refuge—home of last month’s PDX Pop Now! festival—is at least partially in honor of Deschutes Brewery’s new brew, Conflux No. 2, and partially just a damn good excuse for an eclectic show. Monarques doesn’t have an album out yet but the Portland soul outfit has managed to turn a lot of heads anyway; Sean Flinn is a skilled singer-songwriter of local prominence; Goodnight Billygoat is a sonically engaging A/V project that should not be missed and
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
lauded experimental artist/musician Liz Harris is showing some of her latest visual art, as well. I’ll drink to this. CASEY JARMAN. Refuge, 116 SE Yamhill St. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Tunnels, Pool of Winds, DJ Copy, DJ BJ
[DANCING WITH THE DARK] Nick Bindeman is probably best known in Portland as a member of spacerockers Eternal Tapestry and longstanding improv freaks Jackie-O Motherfucker, but he has also produced a lot of music on his own under the name Tunnels. His previous work ranges from ambient drones to full-on psychedelic madness, but the upcoming The Blackout finds Bindeman getting a little groovy. This is allegedly his “pop” album, but as a dyed-in-thewool experimentalist, the closest he gets to actual pop is murky, minimalist synth jams in the vein of Suicide and Gary Numan. Make no mistake, though: This shit does, indeed, jam. MATTHEW SINGER. Rotture, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
The Suicide Notes, Si Si Si, Guantanamo Baywatch
[GARAGE SOUL] The Suicide Notes will soon be among Portland’s favorite bands. That’s in part because the sextet hasn’t even played a show and already has its look wrapped up—the trifecta of female frontwomen remind of a white, tattooed version of the Shirelles—but also because of the band’s stellar Portland punk credentials (members of the Epoxies, Pure Country Gold and Mean Jeans? Yes, please!). The band’s early recordings aspire to sound like Phil Spector-produced Crystals recordings meeting late-’90s Lookout! records fare, a feat the band is already quite close to pulling off. Early press photos emphasize the color-coordinated frontwomen, and they are surely the main attraction, but expect plenty of explosive riffage from the back-up musicians, too. We also expect—nay, demand— matching suits. CASEY JARMAN. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 4738729. 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
oso drumming and mind-spinning guitar work won the admiration of peers like Born Against and Man is the Bastard. The band’s sophomore release, Protestant, is perhaps the most challenging and technically proficient hardcore record of all time: It paints a landscape of sonic mayhem, blistering riffs, tempo changes and ominous, lurching build-ups. JOHN ISAACSON. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 8 pm. $8. All ages.
The Blasters, Swingin’ Utters, Filthy Thieving Bastards, 48 Thrills
[BOOZING TUNES] The erstwhile street punks in the Swingin’ Utters broke their eight-year spell of studio silence this spring with Here, Under Protest. Chalk this up to my summer-drunk nostalgia, but listen: It contains some of the Utters’ best work in 15 years. Although the album is overstuffed, there is a future classic EP hiding here, and the songs that make the cut aren’t the punk barnburners you’d expect. “Kick It Over,” for instance, eases into a wistful chorus worthy of the Buzzcocks, while the Social Distortion-does-Green Day sweetness of “Sketch Squandered Teen” is so good, so marvelously rending that I felt compelled to invoke the name of the best band ever. CHRIS STAMM. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 9 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.
Aimee Mann, Weepies
SATURDAY, AUG. 20
[FOLK MAIDEN] With a career spanning almost three decades, Virginia-born singer-songwriter Aimee Mann really hit her stride with The Forgotten Arm in 2005. Tragically, the concept album was never truly received by the mainstream music media. Tom Cruise had popularized Mann by mouthing Mann’s “Save Me” a few years prior in Magnolia, but then, the songwriter has never needed outside help to find a fanbase. Her tremendous ability as a lyricist; her signature somber, even sniveling tone; and a sweet tooth for simple Americana make her one of the most prized musicians of our generation. All this despite a recent lull that has included a pair of lessthan-stellar records. MARK STOCK. Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd., 220-2789. 7 pm. $20. All ages.
Rorschach, Rabbits, Arctic Flowers, Raw Nerves
SUNDAY, AUG. 21
[POWER VIOLENCE] After a 15-year hiatus, the New Jersey pioneers of technically astounding, dissonant metal-tinged hardcore are back. Rorschach’s brutal aesthetic is pretty well visually summarized by album cover photos of bodies hanging from their nooses and decapitated heads, but musically, it pulls from an eclectic range of influences from Black Flag to King Crimson. The band’s intelligent lyrics, harsh vocals, virtu-
Kyle Morton (of Typhoon), Your Rival, Profcal, The Shades
See album review, page 37. Also, welcome home, Typhoon’s Kyle Morton—congrats on that whole Letterman thing! Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 248-2900. 4 pm. $5. All ages.
CONT. on page 37
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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MUSICFESTNW.COM PAID ADVERTISING
RAP REBIRTH
SHABAZZ PALACES AND THE ART OF AVANT-GARDE REINVENTION
LOVE THY WRIST For all the nice things your wrist does, it might be the most underappreciated part of the body. It’s always there to tell you the time. It enables your hand to become a hot date on a lonely night. Yet all it gets in return is carpal tunnel. Time to show your wrist you care. Buy it a MusicfestNW wristband. The rest of your body will thank you when the simple gift unlocks access to more than 200 artists in a mere 5 days. Wristbands comes in three elegant models: $70 buys general admission to all club shows, plus the choice of one show at Pioneer Square, this year featuring Explosions in the Sky, Band of Horses and Iron & Wine. For $115 you get general access to all clubs and all Pioneer shows, and $250 snags a baller VIP pass allowing you and your wrist to roam in and out of all shows and all parties without waiting in line. It’s not exactly a Rolex, but a MFNW wristband is the best way to show the body’s hardest-working bendy bit that you care. PURCHASE a wristband at Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St., or at all TicketsWest locations. www.musicfestnw.com/tickets
SCHEDULE MAINTENANCE
W
hen Ishmael Butler exploded onto the hip-hop scene in the early ’90s with critically acclaimed beatnik-rap outfit Digable Planets, it’s unlikely anyone would have anticipated how prophetic his chosen moniker, Butterfly, would prove to be. The group was heralded for its smart mashup of hip-hop and lounge jazz, finger snaps and all. It spoke to the cerebral ideals and musicianship lurking in a genre that was, at the time, obsessed with guns, bitches, money and ego. When Planets was sucked into the black hole left by the supernova of mainstream gangsta-ism, though, nobody—not even Butler himself—could have envisioned that nearly 20 years later, the prolific MC would emerge from his soggy Seattle cocoon completely changed and more prolific and groundbreaking than ever before. As Shabazz Palaces, Butler is spitting out some of the most challenging, daring and experimental hip-hop on the scene today, and with his debut full-length for Sub Pop, Black Up, Butler has accomplished a rare feat: a comeback in which an artist defies all expectation in favor of a total reinvention of self. Shabazz’s avant-garde beats are at once stripped down and complex, venturing from spaced-out soul vocals wafting over simplistic snares devoid of the genre’s typical thump to marimba-driven compositions packing enough boom to kick you in the chest with the force of 1,000 808s.
MFNW TO GO
FREE MUSICFESTNW COMPILATION CD OFFERS A PRELUDE TO THE LINEUP Want to experience the genre-jumping thrill of biking from one MFNW venue to another without ever mounting your fixie? This year’s compilation of 2011 artists presents a nutshell example of the festival’s breadth. It starts with the vintage soul of Charles Bradley’s “The World (Is Going Up in Flames),” ends with the menacing doom pop of EMA’s “The Grey Ship,” and goes just about everywhere else in between. There’s alt-Americana (Band of Horses, Blitzen Trapper, Avi Buffalo). There’s hip-hop (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis). There’s synth pop (Handsome Furs, Blouse), indie rock both au courant (the Antlers, Explosions in the Sky) and classic (Archers of Loaf, Sebadoh, You Am I), and then there’s whatever the fuck you want to call Shabazz Palaces. It’s a collection as eclectic as the lineup itself. It will not, however, make it any easier to decide who to go see. Prepare for a lot of biking. The MusicfesTNW coMpilaTioN cd is available for free at Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St. 36
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Lyrically, mysticism and social awareness cohabitate in the musical landscape, with Butler switching from a stream-of-consciousness staccato to brilliant bursts of tongue-twisting finesse, combining experimental poetry with a swaggering street cred that lands him in a strange wonderland somewhere between Dead Prez, heroin-soaked Miles Davis and another dimension entirely. On stage, it’s a wonder to behold—albeit one that could cause confusion for hip-hoppers intent on throwing their sets in the air. Shabazz is a master of lulling listeners into a focused state of hypnotic bliss, only to suddenly deliver a sonic roundhouse kick that gets bodies moving. Shabazz Palaces is, in that sense, a puppet master showcasing bravado and the skills to back up the swagger. Returning to MFNW for a second consecutive year, the prolific mad scientist is poised to take his second act to the next level. Pay attention. This is what hip-hop’s future really should sound like. MFNW SHABAZZ PALACES plays MusicfestNW at the Roseland Theater with Macklemore and Ryan Lewis and TxE on Friday, Sept. 9, 9 pm. Entry with MFNW wristband or $16 advance ticket from TicketsWest.
MusicfestNW. Saturday. Day four. You’ve seen 41 bands, and you’re wandering around Portland in a zombified daze, fatigued by an endless barrage of drinking and dancing, ears ringing. But the promise of seeing BOAT at Star Theater keeps you going. You eagerly stumble into the venue, only to discover BOAT has already sailed. Yesterday. You reach for your pocket schedule. It’s nowhere to be found. That’s why man invented robots. And living in the future as we do, MFNW’s online scheduling system is here to prevent such confusion. Simply log in at musicfestnw.com, click the shows you want to see, and you’re presented with a color-coded schedule that can be uploaded to Facebook and Twitter to share with friends and stalkers alike. Bam! Crisis averted. Musicfest is here to do the thinking for you. All you have to do is sign up, go out and get down. Isn’t the future grand?
2011.MUSICFESTNW.COM
PRECIOUS METAL MFNW BRINGS THE NOISE
MusicfestNW turns 11 this September, which, in festival years, gives it senior-citizen status. Just because the event now qualifies for an AARP card, though, doesn’t mean it has gone soft in its old age. Sure, Portland has a reputation for making music that’s more rocking chair than rock ’n’ roll, and several of this year’s headliners embrace that softer side of the scene. But if you take a closer look at the stacked schedule, you’ll discover that this year boasts one of the heaviest lineups in the festival’s history. That’s right—it’s the dawning of a modern musical era now officially titled NWOBHM: New Wave of Bitchin’ Heavy Metal. From grindcore and thrash to black metal revivalists, all that is excellent and extreme in the world of metal will come together this September to add some fuel to MFNW’s fire. The must-see heavy show of the weekend is undoubtedly post-metal pioneer Neurosis (Sept. 10), whose melodic, sludgy sound blazed the trail for countless artists following in its footsteps. After more than 25 years as a group, the band remains as innovative and intriguing as ever. Before experiencing Neurosis’ heavy metal hypnosis, however, head to the Hawthorne Theatre Sept. 9 for the pulsing riffs of Virginia’s Pig Destroyer, a band that will give your ears the pummeling they’ve been looking for. For more ways to release your rage, be sure to catch the psych sounds of Kylesa (Sept. 8), the grinding guitars of West Coast punks Zeke (Sept. 9), Yob’s definitive take on doom (Sept. 10) and—to round out the roster—treat yourself to the raucous reverberations of Rabbits (Sept. 9), a local thrash favorite that will blow your fragile little mind into bunny turds. Go ahead and (stage) dive into the throngs of headbangers that will flood this year’s festival—all thanks to the loudest lineup to date.
MONDAY - TUESDAY
U.S. Bombs, Pascal Briggs, Shock Troops, The Viggs
[RETRO-PUNK] It’s ironic a band that so blatantly apes the sound and snarl of early British punk rock would call itself U.S. Bombs. Then again, Joey Ramone sang with a fake English accent, so maybe American punks have always exhibited a touch of Anglophilia. These SoCal dudes take it to another level, though: As if its title wasn’t an obvious enough tribute, 1997’s Never Mind the Opened Minds included a dedication to Sid Vicious in the liner notes, along with a song called “The Ballad of Sid,” which is on there twice. And beyond that record, the basis for the Bombs’ entire existence is apparently to embody an alternate reality where the Sex Pistols never broke up and just kept on making the same album over and over again (though it actually hasn’t put one out since 2006). MATTHEW SINGER. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 8:30 pm. $10. All ages.
The Ettes, Hans Condor, My Goodness (8 pm); Sons Of Warren Oates, Quiet Life (3 pm)
[CANDY STRIPES] Their garage stomp strained through snarling, saccharine pop confections—honeyed hauteur of front gal Coco Hames being the dominant flavor— the Ettes have been rocking their familiar-yet-distinct swampy girlish group (alas, Coco, Poni, and Jem are not all of the fairer sex) for years. A reunion with White Stripes producer Liam Watson for fourth full-length Wicked Will has given newly sweet and snaggled teeth to the Nashville trio. JAY HORTON. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
Rob Wynia (of Floater), Oh Darling (9 pm); Death Songs, Luz Elena Mendoza (of Y La Bamba) (4 pm)
See album review, page 37. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 9 pm. $7 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.
Boy Eats Drum Machine
[ELECTRO-POP] Portland-bred turntabilist Jon Ragel is a mad scientist: He ties together the best, most usable limbs of songs to build monsters of electro-tinged hip-pop that munch on your brain. Onstage, he brings his monsters to life, flipping switches and smashing drums while tripping over his own equipment with a sort of fanatical brilliance (you half expect him to yell, “It’s alive!” at the pinnacle of each song). Beneath the chaos, though, is one of the city’s most consistent artists— and a fine spokesman for the beauty of sample-based production. The fact that he performs his complex masterpieces live all by himself—a feat just as stimulating visually as it is musically—might be the most impressive thing about Boy Eats Drum Machine. REED JACKSON. Rontoms, 600 E Burnside St., 2364536. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
MONDAY, AUG. 22 Shannon and the Clams, White Mystery Band, The Men, Milk Music, Hurry Up
[GARAGE POP AND GARAGE PUNK] By my rough count, this is at least the third time Shannon and the Clams have visited Portland since the release of the band’s fantastic LP Sleep Talk. Hell, they can come every week for all I care. We’d still welcome the early ’60s garage rockinspired pop trio, as we did at this year’s SMMR BMMR, with raucous dancing and rapturous praise. Another band on the bill deserves a similar response: the Olympia punk dynamos Milk Music. Perpetually on the warpath, this trio has been clearing out the cobwebs of audiences throughout the U.S. in support of a scuzzy and steaming self-titled 12-inch. ROBERT HAM. East End, 203 SE Grand Ave., 232-0056. 21+.
Bellicose Minds, Cat Party, The Estranged, Moral Hex
[NEO GOTH PUNK] Portland and Vancouver, B.C., are changing the face of punk by reaching back to the ’80s for an obscure crop of influences in early British Gothic rock bands that stress songwriting over speed and distortion. Bellicose Minds are enthusiastically embracing this direction while staying true to their roots: They’ve just added Mira Sonnleitner, bassist from Mötörheadinspired Ripper, who puts some heavy-metal thunder into Bellicose Mind’s gloomy, pensive sound. Rounding out the evening is Cat Party, a three-piece from L.A. with minimal but effective arrangements (think Psychedelic Furs without the saxophone). JOHN ISAACSON. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 4738729. 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
Jeffrey Jerusalem, Onuinu, Pool of Winds, Safe
[DANCE MUSIC] The story so far: Long one of our favorite Portland dance musicians, Jeffrey Jerusalem—whom we first met as Inside Voices drummer Jeff Brodsky—makes catchy bleepbloop music with a live percussion soul. His promising first full-length, Grimace, was generally given away at house parties in 2009 and last year’s excellent remixes EP, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, turned heads not just because of its fine shot selection (Bobby Birdman, Nurses, Atole and Wampire among them), but because Brodsky’s sound—a fun-loving but deep twist on house music—shined brightly throughout. This year’s atmospheric and funky This Week 7-inch is more confirmation of the young producer/multi-instrumentalist’s talent, and we just hope that the full-time gig with YACHT doesn’t slow his release schedule down too much. Tonight’s Valentine’s show, alongside PDX Pop Now! standout (and Valentine’s lover) Onuinu, should be quite a party—especially now that the alley at the club’s front door is now, awesomely, pedestrian-only.
MUSIC
CASEY JARMAN. Valentine’s, 232 SW Ankeny St., 248-1600. 9 pm. Cover. 21+.
TUESDAY, AUG. 23 Esperanza Spalding
[BASS JUMPING] Despite the extraordinary success of Esperanza Spalding’s past few years, the upright bassist, chanteuse and scat-tershot soulster broke Belieber hearts by stealing Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammys, attended the 2009 Nobel Prize ceremonies at President Obama’s invitation and, briefly, bizarrely, was the second most searched item on Google one February 2010 evening after a PBS performance— she’s still rather more feted across the globe than within her native Portland. Tonight’s benefit for trumpeter Thara Memory’s celebrated local youth program shall probably focus more on the traditional jazz section of her repertoire, but through three acclaimed albums, she’s equally capable of a vibrant funk and arresting tropicalia. JAY HORTON. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm. $35$100. All ages.
Craft Spells, Hausu, Prescription Pills
[’80s POP] Craft Spells auteur Justin Vallesteros is clearly a talented songwriter: The ’80s-derived pop he first conjured in his bedroom in California truck-stop town Stockton (before relocating to Seattle and enlisting three fellow spell casters) mixes danceable drum beats, springy guitar lines and Vallesteros’ Joy Division-esque vocals to pitchperfect John Hughes-soundtrack effect. But despite beguiling the blogosphere and captivating trendsetting label Captured Tracks (which released Craft Spells’ debut, Idle Labor, this spring), the band’s revived-to-death sound seems like somewhat of a waste of Vallesteros’ ability. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 2397639. 8:30 pm. $8. 21+.
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h oTHINK m eta p eYOU’re s r e c o r d ilucky? ng artist...
THU MON
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The B-I-N-G-O caribbean free $
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hosted pluS by BSPECIAL R I A N J . GUESTS PEREZ
8:30pm
A the NIGHT woods’ OF WEST monthly soul INDIE-POP night LAST Thursday ofCOAST each MONTH mon sat Thu
the AUinDUNES BABY KETTEN RANGE OF LIGHT
cooky jar free $ free 6 WILDERNESS co o k y p a r ke r 18 6 KARAOKE 25 Y E S WAY july aug
WITH
8:30pm
WITH ***FIRST SATURDAY and THIS MONTH ONLY***
UPCOMING SHOWS 8/28 - Extraordinary Guitarist, Dan Grigor 8/30- STILL FLYIN’ PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS 9/1 - MEKLIT HADERO plus fast rattler 9/2 - in the cooky jar with cooky parker 9/8 - girlyman plus lucy roche 9/9 and 9/10 - THIS! FEST Doors 8pm, shows 9pm (unless otherwise noted)
6637 Milwaukie AVE. PORTLAND — served by bus lines 19 & 70 — ticketS available at:
thewoodsportland.com
Since 1974
Never a cover!
BY CASEY JA R MA N
TOBY KEITH Born: July 8, 1961, in Clinton, Okla. Sounds like: Bored high-school bullies hanging out in the summer. For fans of: Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Clint Black, Trace Adkins Latest release: Bullets in the Gun (2010) Why you care: Chances are that, as a blue-state WW reader, you only care because you’d like to spit on Keith and all his rah-rah, Bush-era warmongering bullshit. Surely Keith deserves the ire for ugly, hateful tunes like “Courtesy of the Red White and Blue (The Angry American).” But for all his “Big Dog Daddy” posturing, Keith seems to have developed a slightly more nuanced worldview in recent years. While 2009’s American Ride engages in bumpersticker politics (the title song acknowledges global warming—more than most Republicans are willing to do—but also contains the line “plasma gettin’ bigger/ Jesus gettin’ smaller/ Spill a cup of coffee/ Make a million dollars”), it also contains Keith’s smartest war song to date (“Ballad of Balad”). Last year’s Bullets in the Gun abandons politics—OK, so there are some gender politics involved with penning the lyric “get out of your clothes/ Or get out of my car,” even if Keith is being coy—and damn if it’s not a solid, twangy showcase for Keith’s substantial singing and songwriting chops that reminds of an era before country, rock and pop music forged into one indistinguishable mess. Perhaps Keith, who just turned 50, is going soft. Or perhaps he’s just tired of writing songs with expiration dates attached to them. In any case, if he hadn’t already alienated half the country, Keith might just have made some new fans with this one.
Buffalo gap Wednesday, aug ust 17th
“Buffalo Bandstand” (3 live Bands)
presented By: live artist Network Thursday, august 18th • 9pm
Craig Carothers
“Songwriters in the Round” ($10 Cover) friday, august 19th • 9pm
Brian Copeland (pop rock)
MOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOO OOOOOMURS!
PAGE 6
Saturday, august 20th • 9pm
The Sale & oh My My’s (folk pop)
Tuesday, august 23rd • 9pm
opEN MIC NIgHT
Hosted By: Scott gallegos
WIN $50!!
6835 SW Macadam Ave | John’s Landing
SEE IT: Toby Keith plays the Sleep Country Amphitheater on Friday, Aug. 19. 7 pm. $33-$89. All ages. Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
MUSIC CALENDAR = WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: Jonathan Frochtzwajg. TO HAVE YOUR EVENT LISTED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/submitevents or (if you book a specific venue) enter your events at dbmonkey.com/wweek. Press kits, CDs and especially vinyl can be sent to Music Desk, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Please include show or release date information with all physical mailings. Email: music@wweek.com.
[AUG. 17 - 23] Zenda and Mike Doolin (9 pm); Gaea Schell, Essiet Essiet, Sylvia Cuenca (7 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
White Eagle Saloon
Hawthorne Theatre
836 N Russell St. Unfiltered Showcase
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
For more listings, check out wweek.com.
JACQUELINE DI MILIA
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ron Steen Trio with Shirley Nanette
THUR. AUG. 18 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. The Don of Divison Street, Michael Jodell
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Luisa Maita, Infinite Bossa
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. French Exit, Alec Berg
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Matices
Andrea’s Cha Cha Club 832 SE Grand Ave. Dina and Bamba Y Su Pilon D’Azucar with La Descarga Cubana
Artichoke Community Music 3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd. Songwriters Roundup
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Heaven Generation, Red Ships Of Spain
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. The Sindicate
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Christina Havrilla
Bossanova Ballroom
VOICES OF ANGELS: Mister Heavenly plays Branx on Wednesday, Aug. 17.
WED. AUG. 17 Afrique Bistro
102 NE Russell St. The Javier Nero Quintet
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. The Don of Divison Street, Ezra Holbrook
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Sole and The Skyrider Band
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Suburban Slim’s Blues Jam (9:30 pm); High Flyer Trio (6 pm)
Alberta Street Public House
Ella Street Social Club
Alderbrook Park Resort
Goodfoot Lounge
1036 NE Alberta St. Open Mic
24414 NE Westerholm Road, Brush Prairie, Wash. Jack Straw
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Long Beach Rehab, Craze’8, The Defeyes, Lyible, Raise the Bridges, Set In Stone
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Assemble The Skyline, Farewell Fighter, Dylan Jakobsen, Listen to the Sky
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Robin Greene
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Stringed Migration
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Trap Them, All Pigs Must Die, Masakari, Alpinist, Lebanon, Raw Nerves, Cursebreaker
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. God is an Astronaut
714 SW 20th Place American Friction, Advisory, First Issues
2845 SE Stark St. The Dust Settlers, Left Coast Country
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Eric John Kaiser
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Pelican, Aeges, Shelter Red
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Sporay, Pulse Emitter, Sabertooth Cavity, Rattle Dick
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Park Whipple (8 pm); Christopher Worth (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Quartet
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Crown Point
320 SE 2nd Ave. Mister Heavenly, WATERS, Anne
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Sugarfree Jazz
30340 SW Boones Ferry Road, Wilsonville The Builders and the Butchers
Someday Lounge
430 N Killingsworth St. Chris Phillips
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
The Blue Monk
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Billy D
125 NW 5th Ave. Van Go Lion, Doom Squad, Gratitillium 3341 SE Belmont St. Arabesque Bellydance
The Globe
Chapel Pub
Corkscrew Wine Bar 1669 SE Bybee Blvd. Clifford Koufman Trio
Couch Park
NW 20th Ave. & NW Glisan Rich Layton and the Troublemakers
Milagros Boutique
2045 SE Belmont St. The Dramedy Acoustic, David Daniels
Mississippi Pizza
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Anandi
350 W Burnside St. Avengers, Roxy Epoxy & The Rebound, Defect Defect, Ari Shine
The Old Church
Doug Fir Lounge
5433 NE 30th Ave. Van Oodles
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Sammy
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Lone Madrone, Sam Cooper
O’Connors
7850 SW Capitol Highway Kit Garoutte
PCPA Antoinette Hatfield Hall 1111 SW Broadway PHAME
PCPA Music on Main Street SW Main St. & SW Broadway Midnight Serenaders
Kells
LaurelThirst
Plan B
2958 NE Glisan St. Dear Indigu, MacDougall, Sauvie Island (9 pm); Michael Hurley (6 pm)
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
Branx
206 SW Morrison St. Jordan Harris and Company
McMenamins Old Church & Pub
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
Open Mic with Go Fuck Yerself
722 E Burnside St. RAW: Brogan Woodburn, DJ Drew Groove
2314 SE Division St. Billy Kennedy 1305 SE 8th Ave. Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Lost City, Get Dead
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave.
1422 SW 11th Ave. The Scroggins’ Clan
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Julian’s Ride
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Johanna Courtleigh
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Nancy King with Steve Christofferson
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Harassor, Hive Mind
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Lifeswells Surf Night: The Mattson 2, DJ Zac Eno
Ventura Park
SE 115th Ave. & SE Stark St. Chata Addy and Susuma
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave.
Dante’s
830 E Burnside St. The Milk Carton Kids, Andrew Belle
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Portland Playboys
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Chasma, Addaura, Natur, Wilderness
Ella Street Social Club
714 SW 20th Place Polyps, Garrincha and the Stolen Elk, Lady Shapes, MSHR
1503 SE 39th Ave. Savoir Faire Burlesque 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Only in Memories, Flight 19, Skies Above Reason, Useless N’ Pointless
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Nice Nice, White Rainbow, USF, Big Spider’s Back
Hotel deLuxe
729 SE 15th Ave. Top Down: “Police Story” with Your Canvas
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Patrick Main
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown B3 Organ Group
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
Kennedy School
5736 NE 33rd Ave. The Devil Whale
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Goddamn Gentlemen, Blue Iris, Meta Sound
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Water Tower Bucket Boys, Twisted Whistle (9:30 pm); Fruition (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Little Red Shed 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Rootdown
McMenamins Old Church & Pub
30340 SW Boones Ferry Road, Wilsonville Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Buttonjaw (9 pm); Larry Wilder and the Stumptown Stars (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Danava, White Orange, Wizard Rifle, Sons of Huns
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Air Show
Mount Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Moonalice, Lost Creek Gang
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. John Craig and The Weekend
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Terry Robb
Pioneer Courthouse Square 701 SW 6th Ave. Freewill Band
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. Hey Mikey
Red Room
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
625 NW 21st Ave. Anthony Brady
115 NW 5th Ave. Beware of Safety, You May Die in the Desert, We’re From Japan!, Amos Val
3341 SE Belmont St. Julie Homi and Homiopathy
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Johnny Martin
The Hobnob Grille
3350 SE Morrison St. Open Mic
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Excruciator, Turbid North, At These Hours
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Bastards of Young, Company, Know Your Saints
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave. Portland Cello Project
The Woods
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Helene Renaut, Michael Hurley, Daniel Dixon, Jennie Wayne
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Merrill Not So Lite
Tin Shed Garden Cafe 1438 NE Alberta St. Whiskey Puppy
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. The Strange Veins, Memory Boys
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Retox, Lazers for Eyes, Dark Country, DJ Sethro Tull
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Brickers, Sunny Travels, Pink Slip, Tens and Twenties
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
Goodfoot Lounge
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge
The Blue Monk
Milagros Boutique
Ford Food and Drink
2845 SE Stark St. Mars Retrieval Unit, Audiophilia
Ash Street Saloon
Vie de Boheme
5433 NE 30th Ave. Mo Phillips
206 SW Morrison St. Tony Smiley
Sellwood Public House
8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic with Two Rivers
Friday Night Coffeehouse
SW Bull Mountain Road & SW 144th Ave., Tigard KINK Street Party with Redwood Son
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Billy Kennedy
2530 NE 82nd Ave. The Glory Days of Prime Time TV, After Everything, Filthy Face
2505 SE 11th Ave. Tim Roth
Street of Dreams
1530 SE 7th Ave. John Stowell
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Tara Williamson
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Bob Shoemaker (8:30 pm); Will West and the Friendly Cover Up (5:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. The Knuckleheads
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Youthbitch
FRI. AUG. 19 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. The Don of Divison Street, Matt Brown (7 pm); Poison Waters and Friends (5:30 pm)
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. Sympathy for the Devil: Classical Revolution PDX and the Electric Opera Company
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Dan Kimbro, Michael Apinyakul (9:30 pm); Mikey’s Irish Jam (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs Trio
Artichoke Community Music
3130A SE Hawthorne Blvd.
225 SW Ash St. Redshift, Rex Sole
Backspace
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. No Tomorrow
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Kathryn Claire and The My Oh Mys (9:30 pm); Billy Kennedy and Jimmy Boyer (6 pm)
BodyVox Dance Center 1201 NW 17th Ave. DJ Anjali and The Incredible Kid
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. American Steel, The Shell Corporation, Lee Corey Oswald, Lost City
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. Richard Buckner, David Kilgour
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Negara
Canvas Art Bar & Bistro
1800 NW Upshur St. Open Mic
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Andy Stokes
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Red Elvises, DJ Number 6
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. John Craig and The Weekend, Tango Alpha Tango, Leaves Russell, Nicole Berke
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Nopomojo, Astrovans (9 pm); Honey and the Hamdogs (6 pm)
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Royal Baths, Broken Water, Hornet Leg
Elizabeth Caruthers Park
3508 SW Moody Water Tower Bucket Boys
Greeley Avenue Bar & Grill 5421 N Greeley Ave. Countryside Ride
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Ken Hanson Band
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Karmedy, The Diggers, Way of the Yeti, Figureless Embodiment, Skyward Collapse, Born to Die
Helium Comedy Club 1510 SE 9th Ave. Reggie Watts
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Ronno Rutter (8 pm); Macy Bensley (6 pm)
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Lew Tabackin with the Peter Boe Trio
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cu Lan Ti
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Axxicorn, Dinner for Wolves, Avi Dei, Raw and Order
Lange Estate Winery
18380 NE Buena Vista Dr., Dundee Trina Hamlin
CONT. on page 40
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
39
MUSIC
CALENDAR
SPOTLIGHT
Linda Lee Michelet
VIVIANJOHNSON.COM
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Scenes
Twilight Café and Bar
2958 NE Glisan St. Lynn Conover Band (9:30 pm); Sassparilla (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
1305 SE 8th Ave. Demolisher, Defiler, Excruciator, Buck Williams, Weeds of Avarice
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Mark Alan
Press Club
McMenamins Old Church & Pub
Prindel Creek Farm
30340 SW Boones Ferry Road, Wilsonville Portland Cello Project, Adam Shearer
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Rock Creek Branders
Milagros Boutique 5433 NE 30th Ave. Mr. Hoo
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Melao d’Cuba (9 pm); Inky Shadows, Andrea Algieri (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Parson Red Heads, Dolorean, Jeremy Benson
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Sneakin Out
Nel Centro
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew with Dennis Caiazza
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Oregon Zoo
4001 SW Canyon Road Carolina Chocolate Drops, Be Good Tanyas
Original Halibut’s II
2527 NE Alberta St. Linda Hornbuckle and Janice Scroggins
Papa G’s Vegan Organic Deli
2314 SE Division St. Lynn Conover
Pints Brewing Company
412 NW 5th Ave. Zay Harrison
40
2621 SE Clinton St. Ezza Rose 95520 E Five Rivers Road, Tidewater Mountain Stomp 2011: Piano Throwers, Acorn Project, Outpost, Quick and Easy Boys, Dead Winter Carpentars, Moonalice, Moon Mountain Ramblers, Conjugal Visitors (Main Stage); Wunderlust, Crow Quill, Worlds Finest, Alder Street Allstars (Dome); Empty Space Orchestra, Mega Bounce (Late Night)
Proper Eats Market and Cafe 8638 N Lombard St. Stumptown Jug Thumpers
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Ramblin’ Rod’s Bastard Children, PDX Punk Rock Collective, Cuntagious, Drunken Debauchery, Five-O
Refuge
116 SE Yamhill St. Conflux: Monarques, Sean Flinn & the Royal We, Good Night Billygoat, Commodorks
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
Sleep Country Amphitheater
17200 NE Delfel Road, Ridgefield, Wash. Toby Keith, Eric Church, JT Hodges
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Hip-Hop Junkies-Stylized: Young X, Spaceman, eRok and Mayo
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. The Kinky Brothers
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Rocket Stove Workshop (9 pm); Off Beat Bellydance (7 pm)
The Foggy Notion
3416 N Lombard St. Foggy Notion One-Year Anniversary: Shallow Seas, Sugar Sugar Sugar, The Pathogens
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. The Fasters, VAJ
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Bobby Torres Trio
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Hollywood Tans, Soft Paws, Vitamins, Gamma Knife
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. The Suicide Notes, Si Si Si, Guantanamo Baywatch
The Lovecraft
206 SW Morrison St. Brothers Todd
421 SE Grand Ave. The Forgotten Ones
Roseland Theater
Thirsty Lion
8 NW 6th Ave. West Coast Hip-Hop Awards
71 SW 2nd Ave. Jacob Merlin Band
Rotture
317 NW Broadway Delaney and Paris
315 SE 3rd Ave. Tunnels, Pool of Winds, DJ Copy, DJ BJ
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Dick Lappe
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Tiger Bar
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. The People’s Meat, Subversive, Tummybuckles
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd.
11921 SE 22nd Ave., Milwaukie Liquor Music
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
221 NW 10th Ave. The Gary Ogan Band
315 SE 3rd Ave. Chicharones, Gepetto, DMLH
Kells
Sellwood Public House
White Eagle Saloon
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cu Lan Ti
836 N Russell St. Charming Birds, Swim Swam Swum (9:30 pm); Reverb Brothers (5:30 pm)
Kenton Club
Slabtown
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
SE Salmon St. & SE Water Ave. Vau De Vire Society, Gooferman, Wanderlust Circus, Vagabond Opera, DJ Smoove, Sisters of Honk, Kara Nova, Chervona, Solovox, Blaze, Miss Steak, Space Cowboy, Electric Dollhouse, Ethan Law
Wonder Ballroom
Plan B
River Roadhouse
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Angry Patria, The Lockouts, Cat Stalks Bird, Laureline Kruse
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Ed Bennett Quintet
LaurelThirst
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Kottonmouth Kings, Kingspade, Johnny Richter, D-LOC, The Dirtball, DJ Bobby B
Helium Comedy Club
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Madman Sam
VEGAN SWANK: I’m not cool enough to know what the current zeitgeist is, but I’m guessing Sweet Hereafter (3326 SE Belmont St.) has well and truly captured it. On a warm Friday evening, it was absolutely packed, while neighboring bars half the size struggled to fill seats. The Southeast sister to Alberta’s Bye and Bye, Sweet Hereafter sports a similar boozy cocktail and vegan bar-snack menu, but a slightly swankier setup—dark wood, dim Edison bulbs and all the usual vintage props. The crowd, likewise, is a little less grungy, but still young, attractive and displaying more ink than a Staples store. The large patio out the back is where you want to be this time of year. Soak up some vitamin D while slurping the bar’s namesake cocktail, the Hereafter ($8). It tastes like watery bourbon, but comes served in a 1-quart Mason jar certain to get you absolutely shitfaced. RUTH BROWN.
Hawthorne Theatre
128 NE Russell St. Satan’s Pilgrims, The Needful Longings, The Satin Chaps
SAT. AUG. 20 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. The Don of Divison Street
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Scab Apple (9:30 pm); Nick Brakel (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero Trio
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. PDX Rock Fest Native Noise Showcase
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Vanna, A Loss For Words, In Bloom, Chin Up Rocky, Heard It In The Headlines
Beaterville Cafe
1510 SE 9th Ave. Reggie Watts
Jimmy Mak’s
2025 N Kilpatrick St. The Caps, Watch It Sparkle
Lagunitas Beer Circus
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Tree Frogs
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Warren Floyd
McMenamins Old Church & Pub
30340 SW Boones Ferry Road, Wilsonville Freak Mountain Ramblers, Ants in the Kitchen, Dirty Little Fingers, Brian Harrison and the Last Draw
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Garcia Birthday Band
Mississippi Studios
2201 N Killingsworth St. D.C. Malone and The Jones
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Justin Roberts and The Not-Ready-for-Naptime Players
Biddy McGraw’s
Nel Centro
6000 NE Glisan St. Will West and the Friendly Strangers
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Rorschach, Rabbits, Arctic Flowers, Raw Nerves
Buffalo Gap Saloon
1408 SW 6th Ave. Mike Pardew with Tim Gilson
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Oregon Zoo
6835 SW Macadam Ave. The Sale
4001 SW Canyon Road Aimee Mann, The Weepies
Camellia Lounge
Original Halibut’s II
510 NW 11th Ave. Seth Myzel, Chris Bigley
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Elite
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. The Blasters, Swingin’ Utters, Filthy Thieving Bastards, 48 Thrills
Disjecta
8371 N Interstate Ave. Plazm 20th Anniversary: Smegma, Purple and Green, Strength, Atole, Woolly Mammoth Comes to Dinner, DJ Yeti, DJ Miracles Club
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Obits, Disappears, Broomsticks
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Snapperheads, Greg Georgeson
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Sick Jaggers, Bruxa, Extralone, DJ Vjestica
Ella Street Social Club
714 SW 20th Place PDX Punk Rock Collective
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Danny Barnes, 4 on the Floor
Hawthorne Hophouse 4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Little Sue
206 SW Morrison St. Ian James Buckets
Rotture
8132 SE 13th Ave. Fare Thee Wells
1033 NW 16th Ave. Stumblebum, 42 Ford Prefect, The Royals
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Jeremy Wilson
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Denim Wedding
The Heathman Restaurant and Bar 1001 SW Broadway Shirley Nanette
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Ten Million Lights, Hawkeye, Black Market Sunday
2621 SE Clinton St. The Pete Krebs Swing Trio
Prindel Creek Farm
95520 E Five Rivers Road, Tidewater Mountain Stomp 2011: The Motet, Tapwater, Excellent Gentlemen, MRU, Philly’s Phunkestra, Hives Inquiry Squad, Mosley Wotta, Banjo Killers, Left Coast Country (Main Stage); Wunderlust, Baby Gramps, Jamie Janover Presentation (Dome); Juno What?!, Wunderlust (Late Night)
Ravenz Roost Cafe 11121 SE Division St. 6bq9
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. Punk Start My Heart Showcase
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Othrys, Devoured, Short Fuse, Aytherium, Godenied
350 W Burnside St. Pretty Things Peep Show
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. The Ettes, Hans Condor, My Goodness (8 pm); Sons Of Warren Oates, Quiet Life (3 pm)
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge 1503 SE 39th Ave. Raq The Casbah
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Ryan’s Trio, Alana Raye, The Seventh Penalty, Young X and D.S.C, Enzymes, Travis Royce, Desideratum
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Thom Lyons (8 pm); Mick from Tree Top Tribe (6 pm)
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Sessions
Kennedy School
Lagunitas Beer Circus
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. Bleach on Blonde, DJ Hero Worship
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. The Bradley Band
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Strange Vine
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Falling Closer, Shelter Red, Fail Safe Project
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Sportin’ Lifers
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Kelley Shannon Trio
Twilight Café and Bar
1420 SE Powell Blvd. The Wayne Gacy Trio, Hit Me Baby, Bring the Dead, Mantra Fear
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Quintillion
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
White Eagle Saloon
Press Club
Dante’s
The Woods
2026 NE Alberta St. Fench Exit, Aisles
Peter’s Room
3031 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Bike-in Movie with Chervona
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Ron Steen Jazz Jam
The Know
2527 NE Alberta St. Robbie Laws
Portland Hawthorne Hostel
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5736 NE 33rd Ave. Craig Carothers, Randy Sharp, Tim Ellis
2929 SE Powell Blvd. The Tummybuckles, Broken Soviet
8 NW 6th Ave. Y and T, Garden of Eden, Western Aerial
U.S. Bombs, Pascal Briggs, Shock Troops, The Viggs
836 N Russell St. Fairweather, Sean Wagner (9:30 pm); The Student Loan (4:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant and Bar
Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave. Errik Lewis
SUN. AUG. 21 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Joshua English
Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St. An A Capella Evening: Strangers in Harmony, Uptown 4
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. Zodiac, Alternant Resonant
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Kyle Morton (of Typhoon), Your Rival, Profcal, The Shades
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. The Brothers Todd
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave.
SE Salmon St. & SE Water Ave. Wanderlust Circus, Vagabond Opera, Chervona, Solovox, Blaze, Miss Steak, Vau de Vire Society, Gooferman, DJ Smoove, Sisters of Honk, Kara Nova, Space Cowboy, Electric Dollhouse, Ethan Law
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Billy Kennedy and Tim Acott with Jake Ray (9:30 pm); Freak Mountain Ramblers (6 pm)
Lents Park
SE 92nd Ave. & SE Holgate St. Seven Year Tango, Mariachi Chapala Band, Richard Greer, Natalia Hougen
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Billy D
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Colleen Raney
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Trina Hamlin, Mike Midlo (9 pm); Scott Browning, Jay Irwin (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Rob Wynia (of Floater), Oh Darling (9 pm); Death Songs, Luz Elena Mendoza (of Y La Bamba) (4 pm)
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Irish Music
Music Millennium 3158 E Burnside St. Joseph Konty
NEPO 42
5403 NE 42nd Ave. Open Mic
Prindel Creek Farm
95520 E Five Rivers Road, Tidewater Mountain Stomp 2011: Praang, Wunderlust, Kyle Hollingsworth Band, Fruition/Bellboys, Sugarcane, 4 on the Floor, Twisted Whistle (Main Stage); Gloria Darlings (Dome); Jesta/ Papagaiyo (Late Night)
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Redwood Son
Rontoms
600 E Burnside St. Boy Eats Drum Machine, Purple N Green
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Noah Bernstein-Hanley Ensemble
The Globe
2045 SE Belmont St. Citizen Arms, Radio Cavalier
Tillicum Club
8585 SW BeavertonHillsdale Highway Johnny Martin
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Boom, Si Si Si, The Shivas
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Larry Yes and the Tangled Mess, The Shepherds, Ralf Youtz
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. Switchgrass
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Open Mic/Songwriter Showcase
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. 100 Monkeys, Kissing Club, Bleeding Horse Express, The Angry Orts
MON. AUG. 22 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Joshua English, Kelly Anne Masigat
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Battery-Powered Music (8 pm); Stereovision, Solovox (7 pm)
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Pictorials, Boys On The Storm
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Mike D (8:30 pm); Nicole Campbell (6 pm)
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Reagan Youth, Poison Idea, The Taxi Boys, Puke N’ Rally, Demerit
Duff’s Garage
1635 SE 7th Ave. Romi Mayes (9 pm); Suzie and the Sidecars (6 pm)
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Shannon and the Clams, White Mystery Band, The Men, Milk Music, Hurry Up
Goodfoot Lounge 2845 SE Stark St. Open Mic
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Dan Balmer
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Kung Pao Chickens
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Skip vonKuske with Will West
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Bob Shoemaker
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Mr. Ben
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Sunbeam, The Ascetic Junkies, Katie Mullins
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Lloyd Jones
O’Connors
7850 SW Capitol Highway
CALENDAR Kit Garoutte
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Dick Williams Blues Revue, Aux 78
Excruciator, Doomsower, Witchasaurus Hex, Caustic Misanthropy
The Mel Brown Septet (8:30 pm); NuGen Jazz (6:30 pm)
The Blue Monk
Blast Fridays
Backspace
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
The Globe
421 SE Grand Ave. Propaganda: DJ Horrid, DJ Ikon
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
115 NW 5th Ave. Granada, The Cat From Hue, Marca Luna, Candysound
The Blue Monk
Buffalo Gap Saloon
The Globe
Bunk Bar
2958 NE Glisan St. Jackstraw
Doug Fir Lounge
McMenamins Edgefield Little Red Shed
206 SW Morrison St. Tasha and Kaloku
3341 SE Belmont St. Renato Caranto Project 2045 SE Belmont St. Hank Hirsh’s Jazz Lounge and Open Jam
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Danger Thieves, Talkative, On The Tundra
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Bellicose Minds, Cat Party, The Estranged, Moral Hex
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Vaz, Pygmy Shrews, Gaytheist, DJ Wroid Wrage
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Jeffrey Jerusalem, Onuinu, Pool of Winds, Safe
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Evan Churchill Band, Redwood Son
TUES. AUG. 23 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. Joshua English
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. JB Butler
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St.
6835 SW Macadam Ave. Open Mic 1028 SE Water Ave. The Black, Zak Kimball 830 E Burnside St. Brite Futures, Art vs. Science, The Hundred Days
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 Danger Thieves, Bottle Rocket, Leafeater
Gerding Theater
128 NW 11th Ave. Esperanza Spalding and Friends
Goodfoot Lounge
2845 SE Stark St. Scott Pemberton Trio
Gypsy Restaurant & Lounge 625 NW 21st Ave. Dan Eagan, Mike Gordon
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge 1503 SE 39th Ave. Lamppost Revival
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Craft Spells, Hausu, Prescription Pills
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave.
Kenton Park
8417 N Brandon Ave. Rob Stroup and the Blame
LaurelThirst
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Colleen Raney Band
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Open Bluegrass Jam
Milagros Boutique 5433 NE 30th Ave. Mr. Ben
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. Andrew Stonestreet and Daniel Dixon
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Plant Party
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Helene Renaut, Like a Villain
Music Millennium 3158 E Burnside St. John Doe
Northwest Portland Hostel 425 NW 18th Ave. Dan Weber
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 206 SW Morrison St. Beth Willis Rock Duo
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Songwriter Showcase
3341 SE Belmont St. Pagan Jug Band 2045 SE Belmont St. Mark MacMinn, Howard Wade
The Knife Shop at Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Zack Zaitlin, Monte Mar, The Grownup Noise, Yoyodyne
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. PDX Singer Songwriter Showcase
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Ayars Vocal Showcase
Touché Restaurant and Billiards
1425 NW Glisan St. Tom’s Funky Tuesdays
Twilight Café and Bar 1420 SE Powell Blvd. Open Mic with The Roaming
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Malaikat dan Singa, Joey Casio, Fred Thomas
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. Lynn Winkle, Mark Stauffer
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Arthur “Fresh Air” Harmonica Party
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Amy Jacobsen, Libbie Schrader, Jake OkenBerg
WED. AUG. 17 East End
203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Smooth Hopperator
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Mike Gong, Bliphop Junkie
Matador
1967 W Burnside St. DJ Whisker Friction
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Krinkle Kut
Slim’s Cocktail Bar 8635 N Lombard St. DJ Rescue
The Crown Room
DJ Galavant, DJ Krinkle Kut
Saratoga
6910 N Interstate Ave. Sugar Town: DJ Brown Amy, DJ Carnita, DJ Beyonda, DJ Action Slacks
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. The Fix: Rev. Shines, KEZ, Dundiggy (9 pm); Happy Hour DJs (4 pm)
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Lush
The Whiskey Bar 31 NW 1st Ave. Bassroots
205 NW 4th Ave. Pop-Up Club: Lionsden, Nick Dean
Tiga
Tiga
Valentine’s
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Smelly P
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Josh Spacek; DJ Loyd Depriest
THUR. AUG. 18 Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Shameless Thursdays: Easter Egg, DJ3X
Fez Ballroom
316 SW 11th Ave. Shadowplay: DJ Horrid, DJ Ghoulunatic, DJ Paradox
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Zia McCabe
Palace of Industry 5426 N Gay Ave.
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Ramophone 232 SW Ankeny St. New Moon Poncho DJs, Troubled Youth, Jen O
FRI. AUG. 19 Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. DJ Epor
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Rockbox: DJ KEZ, Matt Nelkin, Dundiggy (9 pm); Soft Rock Happy Hour with DJ Kendall Holladay (5 pm)
The Lovecraft
31 NW 1st Ave. Juice Drum ‘n’ Bass: The Insiders, Random Movement, Calculon
The Woods
Tiga
6637 SE Milwaukie Ave. In the Detention Hall: Cooky Parker, DDDJJJ666
Tube
Red Room
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Whitehorse 18 NW 3rd Ave. Townbombing: Doc Adam, Lionsden; DJ Neil Blender
SAT. AUG. 20 Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. DJ I
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Gaycation: DJ Snowtiger, Mr. Charming, Roy G Biv
Mount Tabor Theater 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Dark Alice in Wonderland Ball: DJ Wednesday, DJ NoN, DJ Missionary, DJ Nevermore
Palace of Industry 5426 N Gay Ave. DJ Pippa Possible
The Crown Room 205 NW 4th Ave. Club Crooks: Izm, Easter Egg
The Foggy Notion
Record Room
The Lovecraft
The Crown Room
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Bill Portland
5426 N Gay Ave. DJ Holiday
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Justin Neal
1465 NE Prescott St. Tiny Vinyl
Tiga
3416 N Lombard St. Foggy Notion OneYear Anniversary: DJ Conform
Palace of Industry
MUSIC
The Whiskey Bar
421 SE Grand Ave. H.P. Lovecraft’s Birthday with Blast DJs
SUN. AUG. 21 2530 NE 82nd Ave. DJ Disgustor
The Whiskey Bar
31 NW 1st Ave. Deacon X’s Fetish Night with DJ Encrypted
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Hootchie Koo! with DJ Danny Dodge
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Doc Adam, DJ Rad
MON. AUG. 22 Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Amanda Demann
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. Plaid Dudes
TUES. AUG. 23 East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Second Hand Daylight with DJ Linoleum
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. DJ Vs. Nature
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. I’m Dynamite
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Tubesday with DJ Ronin Roc
205 NW 4th Ave.
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
41
AUG. 17-23
= 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 Boeing-Boeing
Set in a snazzy Manhattan pad, Boeing-Boeing, a 1960 farce by Marc Camoletti, centers 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 ’60s-era 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 airlinepun innuendo, entertaining portrayals of a militantly German flight attendant (Christy Drogosch) and a dopey 40-Year-Old Virgin-esque 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)—BoeingBoeing doesn’t disappoint in the laugh department. But in between the gut busts and giggles is a substanceshaped 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, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Aug. 21. $25-$28.
Book of Dreams
New theater company Book of Dreams makes its debut with Prince Gomolvilas’ adaptation of Scott Heim’s novel about two sexually abused boys whose trauma manifests in very different ways: One believes he has been abducted by aliens, while the other becomes a teen prostitute. The Back Door Theater, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971-269-4032. 8 pm ThursdaysSaturdays through Sept. 24. $15.
Eddie May Murder Mystery Dinner Theater
Interactive murder-mystery dinner theater at Kells. Kells, 112 SW 2nd Ave., 477-4984. 7 pm Saturdays through Aug. 20 and Friday, Aug. 26. $69, dinner included.
Fakespeare
The Unscriptables improvise short plays in the style of the Bard—in a park, of course. Dawson Park, North Stanton Street and Williams Avenue. 3 pm Sundays through Aug. 21. Free. All ages.
Famished Community Potluck
As part of the development process for her upcoming theatrical documentary about the rituals, ethics, traditions and pleasures of eating, Eugenia Woods hosts a community potluck and improvised performance at Portland Playhouse’s venue in Northeast Portland. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 805-7621. 6 pm Friday, Aug. 19. Free, reservations required (email famishedproductions@gmail. com). All ages.
Famished Staged Readings
Staged readings from Eugenia Woods’ in-progress theatrical documentary about eating. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 805-7621. 7 pm Sunday, Aug. 21. Free. All ages.
42
Madder Music & Stronger Wine
From male chastity belts to anti-tribadism laws, no touchy topic or potential pun is too taboo for this raunchy and surprisingly enlightening musical (written and directed by Russ Cowan, who also stars) that seeks to confront the hypocrisy of morality and its self-righteous champions. Armed with cheeky limericks and handfuls of historical dirt to dish on everyone from Lewis Carroll to Queen Victoria (“WE ARE NOT AMUSED!” barks a spluttering, pinch-lipped Shannon Jones), this crass and charming 90-minute performance brings a satiating mix of slapstick and substance. Some might see hypocrisy in a musical in which its own moral is that morality is often hypocritical, but Madder Music & Stronger Wine escapes the paradox by not taking itself as seriously as the malefactors it so joyfully critiques. “Pornography is filthy and disgusting,” a character proclaims cheekily, “and erotica is filthy and disgusting, but has pretensions to art…just like this play!” Touché. NATALIE BAKER. The CoHo Theater, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 2050715. 8:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays through Aug. 27. $12-$15.
Mamma Mia!
Mamma Mia!, you’re on the road again. My, my, when will they desist to tour Mamma Mia!? The show will never end. My, my, still I’ll always list you. Yes, the tour has charted 3,800 performances since it started. Why, why do people still buy tickets to Mamma Mia!? It’s a silly play. Bye, bye, leave us now forever. Mamma Mia!, I think it’s safe to say you’ll be back here next November. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 241-1802. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 23-28. $23.50-$85.60. All ages.
Much Ado About Nothing
Portland Actors Ensemble celebrates its 42nd summer of Shakespeare in the Parks with a high-energy rendition of Much Ado About Nothing. In line with the PAE mission “to bring financially accessible classical theatre to Portland communities in a nontraditional environment,” the production is geared more toward first-timers than theater buffs as evidenced by the cast’s relentless enthusiasm and overthe-top theatrics. The actors’ excitement paired with the play’s notorious sexism creates a playful environment that at times borders on parody— an effect magnified by director Asae Dean’s decision to cast women in the roles of several prominent male characters. Johnny Adkins and Racheal Joy Erickson steal the show as the sharp-tongued couple of Benedick and Beatrice, and the cast’s excellent projection ensures that every last lawn chair feels the verbal lash of some of Shakespeare’s finest one-liners. The entire show falls somewhere between a Renaissance rap battle and a delightful look at where high-school theater kids go to retire. See portlandactors.org for the full schedule. SHAE HEALEY. Multiple locations. 3 pm Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 4, and Monday, Sept. 5. Free. All ages.
Oklahoma!
Warm yourself up for Portland Center Stage’s season-opening revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s pioneering musical with a trip to an actual pioneer town to see Clackamas Repertory Theatre’s production in Oregon City. Clackamas Community College, Osterman Theatre, 19600 S Molalla Ave., 594-6047. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2:30 pm Sundays. Closes Aug. 28. $14-$24. All ages.
Orgy of Tolerance
A screening of a performance of Jan Fabre’s production recorded at
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Seattle’s On the Boards and presented in Portland by Hand2Mouth Theatre. The Mouth, Inside Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont St., hand2mouththeatre.org. 7:30 pm Friday, Aug. 19. $5.
showcase of experimental improv formats with a new guest each week. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 2242227. 7 pm Sundays through Sept. 12. $5. All ages.
Ripper
Lez Stand Up No. 4
In 1888, the bodies of five prostitutes were found hacked and slashed to bits on the streets of London. Nearly 125 years later, Jack the Ripper’s identity is still a mystery. But former TV jingle writer Duane Nelsen has turned his legend into a musical—complete with harlots (with hearts of gold, natch) and mysterious magicians. The show, which got its world premiere earlier this month courtesy of the mavens at Broadway Rose, is nothing if not ambitious—with a menacing set of looming East End brownstones set on moveable rails and an 11-member ensemble to shriek warnings and slew epithets at the main characters. But what should have been an evil little bit of fun ends up a two-hour slog through London’s gritty back alleys. The show can’t make its mind up whether it’s a nasty thriller or a swoony paperback romance novel. Nelsen wastes song after song on the lackluster romance between reporter Chester Talbot (an engaging and wry Isaac Lamb) and hat seller-turned-reluctant ho Mary Kelly (Audrey Voon), who join forces to catch the killer. There are some flashes of sharp-edge wit in Ripper, especially during Act II’s teasing “Catch Me When You Can,” where bumbling cops dance with jokey masked Rippers brandishing knives, trilling: “Rip goes the knife, down goes the girl. Drip goes the blood—watch it swirl.” It’s in bad taste, and that’s exactly why it’s entertaining. All too often the score veers into Andrew Lloyd Webber territory, reaching for affecting but landing near maudlin. With source material as bloody good as this, Nelsen should have aimed for the audience’s jugular; not its heart. KELLY CLARKE. Deb Fennell Auditorium, 9000 SW Durham Road, Tigard. 620-5262. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Aug. 21. $20-$35. All ages.
Romeo + Juliet
For an entire generation, the modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet is director Baz Luhrmann’s overstated yet luridly engrossing 1996 film Romeo + Juliet. For its excellent new production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Post5 Theatre (Milepost 5’s new outdoor theater program) uses that oh-soInformation-Age “plus” sign on its programs, but otherwise approaches the play’s contemporary elements with thankfully un-Lurhmann-like lighthandedness. The newly formed company (making its debut with this show) leaves the Bard’s story of “star-cross’d lovers” and his poetic and ribald language largely intact, but brings modern dramatic sensibilities and greater relevance to the play through clever stage direction and small but effective updates: All the characters, for example, wear 21st-century clothing (red for Capulets, blue for Montagues); Lord Capulet schedules Juliet’s marriage to Paris via smartphone; and one of Romeo’s cohorts (Benvolio) is recast as a tomboy. These latter-day bells and whistles fall away as the plot turns tragic, and some of the staging’s energy goes with them, but Post5 can hardly be criticized for presenting Romeo and Juliet’s final act without accessory: at its heart, the clear-eyed tale of beautifully, catastrophically unworldly love needs— still—no refurbishment. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Milepost5 Studio Courtyard, 850 NE 81st Ave. 7 pm Friday-Sunday. Closes Aug. 27. Free. Info at post5theatre.com.
The Miser
Masque Alfresco performs Molière at various locations in the western suburbs. See masquealfresco.com for details. BEN WATERHOUSE. Multiple locations , 422-0195. 6:30 pm FridaysSundays through Aug. 28. Free. All ages.
COMEDY Diabolical Experiments
The Brody Theater crew presents a
Kirsten Kuppenbender hosts an evening devoted to funny ladies (who prefer other funny ladies). Mississippi Pizza, 3552 N Mississippi Ave., 2883231. 9 pm Saturday, Aug. 20. $5. 21+.
Portland Neutrino Project
The Neutrino Project pays homage to its nimble namesake by ripping through the Curious Comedy Theater with speed-of-light velocity. Three groups of invigorated improv-ers—each equipped with a rotating cast of directors, tape runners, and actors—film a movie under the gun of a ticking timer and a live audience. Each team shoots three scenes based on a randomly selected
genre (science fiction, melodrama, film noir, etc.) and intersperses the threeminute story lines immediately after completion. The ultimate goal is connecting nine mildly related scenes into one hot mess of a movie. Shy spectators need not apply as the project is fueled by audience participation culminating in a final scene shot on stage (and possibly at your table). Some actors (Alex Gavlick, Annie Rimmer) are stronger than others, but the frenzied format is forgiving and fun for all parties involved. SHAE HEALEY. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 8 pm FridaysSaturdays through Sept. 3. $12-$15.
Quick n’ Dirty Puppet Slam
Beady Little Eyes’ felted crew gets drunk and filthy. Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-1030. 7 pm Saturday, Aug. 20. $8. 21+.
PREVIEW NOAH KALINA
PERFORMANCE
REGGIE WATTS (HELIUM COMEDY CLUB) Reggie Watts has no idea what he’ll say when he takes the stage at Helium Comedy Club this weekend. In fact, he won’t until the moment he actually grabs his mics—one plugged into the speaker, the other plugged into a looping machine. That’s just how the comedian and musician rolls. Nothing is scripted, and that chaos makes Watts one of the best performers touring today. To say this year has been kind The art of eccentric improv. to Watts—a skilled musician who fronted Seattle soul-funk outfit Maktub for years and now resides in Brooklyn—is an understatement. He spent a good chunk of 2010 on Conan O’Brien’s “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television” tour, went ’fro-to-’fro with ?uestlove on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and recorded a Comedy Central album, Why Shit So Crazy?, all while touring incessantly. A veteran of PICA’s Time-Based Art Festival, Watts’ return to PDX finds him at the top of his game. We are pretty sure there will be some improvised a cappella hip-hop and a hearty dose of observational humor. Beyond that, though, Watts’ set will consist of whatever happens to be percolating underneath that magnificent mane when he finally grabs the mic. Watts spoke about the gig—and the end of life as we know it—by phone with WW in advance of this weekend’s show. AP KRYZA. WW: Is your head just constantly going? Reggie Watts: I’m always thinking about stupid shit. It’s like a top or a gyroscope. It’s like it’s going and going and going, and when you release it kind of chaotically comes into being.... I usually just walk onstage and either start talking right away, or start doing something stupid like messing with stuff, or I’ll start with music. It really just depends on what hits me as I’m approaching the stage. Are you able to let loose at a smaller show? I like to take in the situation in real time. It’s always the same, whether it’s 10 people who show up, or a television audience, or a comedy club with 250 people in it. I shift gears to match the resonance of the room as much as I can. A few TBA fests ago, you were talking a lot about the 2012 apocalypse. What are your thoughts now? We got a little over a year left. I don’t know. It’s fun to talk about certain destruction. It’s a fun concept to just tell people there’s no way to avoid absolute catastrophe, and no matter what you do it’s just inevitable. But who knows. It’s one of those Y2K situations. It is an astronomical phenomenon. There will be a pretty awesome alignment of planets, so that’s definitely true. I look forward to it—but I definitely won’t be in a big city when it happens. GO: Reggie Watts plays Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888643-8669. 7:30 and 10 pm Friday-Saturday, Aug. 19-20. $22-$27.
AUG. 17-23
PERFORMANCE
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Summer in Brodavia
The Brody crew returns to the fictional nation of Brodavia—which lacks written and oral traditions and so must invent a new history each time it’s brought up—for a festival of improvised patriotism. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 8 pm Saturdays, Aug. 20 and 27. $7-$10. All ages.
The Weekly Recurring Humor Night
Whitney Streed hosts a weekly sketch and stand-up comedy night. Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 238-0543. 9:30 pm Wednesdays. $3-$5. 21+.
CLASSICAL Portland Cello Project
Just because you’ve attended one of its sold-out dance parties (if you could get in) or raucous largevenue concerts guest starring the cream of Portland’s indie-rock scene doesn’t mean you’ve heard what PCP will play at this intimate venue. PCP honcho Douglas Jenkins writes all-new arrangements for every show, and this one might include originals (from its more “classical” last album, A Thousand Words), covers of classical and pop tunes, and who knows what else—all performed by an ensemble of some of Portland’s finest cellists. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 222-2031. 8 pm Thursday, Aug.18. $13-$15.
Beer Circus
Performers in the San Francisco (Vau De Vire Society, Gooferman, Sisters of Honk) and Portland (Vagabond Opera, Chervona, Solovox and many more) avant circus scenes cavort under a 100-foot big-top tent below the Hawthorne Bridge. The revelry includes food, games and workshops. Southeast Salmon Street and Water Avenue. 1-9 pm Saturday, noon-6 pm Sunday, Aug. 20-21. $10-$20.
Northwest Oboe Seminar Recital
Participants in the all-day seminar will perform solo and ensemble works (including a new commissioned composition by Gary Powell Nash) for various combinations of oboes, oboe d’amore, English horns, bass oboe, bassoon and contrabassoon. All Saints’ Episcopal Church, 4033 SE Woodstock Blvd., 224-8499. 7:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 20. $10.
Rodgers-Pohl Duo
At this lunchtime show, the pianists play music by Fauré, Liszt and Kuhlau. St. James Lutheran Church, 1315 SW Park Ave., 227-2439. Noon Friday, Aug. 19. Donation.
William Byrd Festival
Every undeservedly obscure composer should be as lucky as Byrd, who, as England’s greatest Renaissance composer, should be better known and more
widely heard today. For 14 years, Portland’s Cantores in Ecclesia has been doing its best to remedy the unfortunate situation by performing everything he wrote that survived—which will take decades, as the Shakespeare contemporary (and closet Catholic in a time and place where that could be dangerous to your health) was one prolific dude, writing nearly 500 works for both Catholic and Anglican services. The festival also includes lectures and religious services. The festival’s longtime organist, Mark Williams of Cambridge, England, takes over as principal conductor this year, and they’re keeping him busy. He’ll lead the chorus in Saturday evening’s mass, which features Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices, and Sunday morning’s performance of the great Mass for Three Voices. He’ll also give an organ recital Sunday afternoon, whereupon London-based Byrd scholar David Trendell takes over to lead a choral evensong service with Byrd’s music for the Anglican liturgy. This is some of the Renaissance’s greatest music, performed in a relatively authentic setting. Masses: St. Stephen’s Church, 1112 SE 41st Ave. 7:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 20. Holy Rosary Church, 375 NE Clackamas St. 11 am Sunday, Aug. 21. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 147 NW 19th Ave., 800838-3006. 4:15 pm (organ recital) and 5 pm (choral evensong) Sunday, Aug. 21. Donation.
pink martini September 11-13 7:30 p.m. “This is rich, hugely approachable music, utterly cosmopolitan yet utterly unpretentious.” - Washington Post
DANCE Founders Day: A Celebration of Our Community
They’re dancing in Lents, and you’re invited: in honor of its rich cultural mix, the Southeast Portland neighborhood is hosting a daylong party with performances by the Sunflower Chinese Dance Troupe and Russian folk dancer Natalia Hougen, among others. Dance is just one of many attractions at Founders Day, which begins with a neighborhood parade and features mariachi and gospel music, lots of kidfriendly activities, a farmers market and free African, Mexican and American food. At 6:30 pm, Seven Year Tango offers a prelude to the Portland Parks and Recreation screening of Iron Man 2. Lents Park, Southeast 92nd Avenue and Holgate Street. 3:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 21. Free. Info at ilovelents.com.
Portland’s two great bands back together again! With Thomas Lauderdale, Carlos Kalmar and Storm Large there’s bound to be some great surprises!
Groups of 10 or more save : 503-416-6380
Tickets as low as $30. While they last.
Pretty Things Peepshow
This burlesque bonanza features go-go dancing, sword swallowing, midgets, rockabilly music and a guy named Donny Vomit. Who could resist? Not Ozzfest or The Colbert Report, both of which have hosted the performers. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 8 pm Sunday, Aug. 21. $10-$12. Info at prettythingspeepshow.com.
For more Performance listings, visit
Photo: James Chiang
Call: 503-228-1353 | 1-800-228-7343 Click: OrSymphony.org
Ticket office:
923 SW Washington | 10 am – 6 pm Mon – Fri
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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VISUAL ARTS
25
TH
AUG. 17-23
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
A N N I V E R S A RY
F O O D
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: 2431115. Emailed press releases must be backed up by a faxed or printed copy.
and
“ BCA gave me the skills, training and connections to serve on an arts board. Now, I’m able to make a real impact.” —Deborah Gumm
Join the movement. Attend the Art of Leadership program to learn how to bring your expertise to the board of an arts organization. Applications for Art of Leadership are due by September 3, 2011. For more information visit BusinessCultureArts.org. Thank you to our sponsors: American Express, The Boeing Company, Knowledge Universe, The Heathman Hotel & Tonkon Torp LLP.
D R I N K
page 24
HIVE IV BY STEVE ROYSTON BROWN AT BULLSEYE
NOW SHOWING Eva Lake
The seven paintings in Eva Lake’s series DRAPE hang flush with one another, snaking around a gallery corner with an élan that belies their electric, go-for-broke colors. Rectangles shade from one hue to another with Op Art kineticism, blanching out in the paintings’ middles in bursts of intensity. Augen DeSoto, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056. Closes Aug. 27.
Mark Wilson
Oregon-born, Connecticut-based artist Mark Wilson takes us into Tron territory in his show of computer-generated compositions, Code Matrix. It’s the world seen through the brain of a microchip: squares, cylinders and ovals bisected by triangles, the geometric rigor enlivened by bold colors. In works such as e10204, vivid purples, reds, yellows and greens envelop kaleidoscopic shapes in eye-boggling permutations. It’s as if your old Atari 800 had come back to life, invaded your stash of windowpane, and proceeded to get really, really high. Augen, DeSoto, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056. Closes Aug. 27.
Crossover
There’s nothing like side-by-side comparison to make an aesthetic point. In Crossover, Bullseye spotlights artists who work in glass and other media, showing similarities and differences in approach. Steve Royston Brown’s Hive series juxtaposes geometric motifs in flat prints with the same motifs in crackly, parched-looking glass. Lino Tagliapietra’s well-known work in blown glass is contrasted with his haunting Bisanzio in kiln-formed glass and metal. And Ted Sawyer’s painting, Uncrush, is transmuted into glass in the drop-dead-gorgeous Reprise, with its extraordinary surface effects and light play. Bullseye, 300 NW 13th Ave., 2270222. Closes Aug. 20.
Elizabeth Leach 30th Anniversary Exhibition Program
Where to begin in the embarrassment of riches that is Liz Leach’s 30th Anniversary Exhibition? How about in the front lobby? Above the reception desk hangs one of Jaq Chartier’s intensely saturated stain studies, a succession of fuzzy-
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Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
focus patterns atop an elegantly muted background. It’s an exercise in the dynamics between foreground and background. Directly across from the desk is Isaac Layman’s Ice Cube Tray, a 9-footlong photograph of a dirty ice tray, with chromatic gradations from blinding white to silver to soulchilling aquamarine. To elevate a quotidian object to such harrowing perfection takes vision and guts. So that’s the foyer, and it’s spectacular. The show just gets better from there. Elizabeth Leach, 417 NW 9th Ave., 224-0521. Closes Aug. 27.
Rick Bartow
Rick Bartow flawlessly and consistently melds figuration and symbolism in the inspired paintings and sculpture in Coyote’s Road. To marry mythological creatures with human figures and animals in a way that is not cringe-inducingly “spiritual” or amateurish is a tall order; for examples of how not to accomplish this, see nearly the entirety of contemporary Southwestern art. But Bartow is a visionary, and in paintings like Bull Man Laughs and Bull Disguise, he demonstrates his ability to turn simple pictorial elements into metaphysical archetypes. Froelick, 714 NW Davis St., 222-1142. Closes Aug. 27.
The Allure of the Automobile
If you’ve ever seen the movie Tucker: The Man and His Dream or salivated over a vintage Jaguar, Porsche or Chevy, you’ll get the appeal of PAM’s The Allure of the Automobile. Cars have always crystallized the duet between aerodynamics and aesthetics, with their intriguing trade-offs between form and function. The cars parked in the museum’s lofty front gallery glint and gleam in the light, their curves biomorphic and downright sexy. Ranging from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Bugatti, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and other autos (don’t miss the 1957 Jag once owned by Steve McQueen) look more futuristic than anything on the road today, although they’re antiques. Even if you’re not a classic-car freak, this show will inspire at least a couple oohs and aahs. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 226-2811. Closes Sept. 11. $15 general admission.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
BOOKS
AUG. 17-23
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. 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.
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 17 Mountain Writers Series
Poet Kevin Clark will read his work at the Press Club as part of the Mountain Writers Series, which features authors from the Northwest and beyond. Press Club, 2621 SE Clinton St., 233-5656. 8 pm. $5 suggested donation.
THURSDAY, AUG. 18 Meet the Inventor Game Night
While other local kids are preparing to head back to school, 12-yearold Emily Ehlers is launching a game she invented while on a yearlong sailing trip with her family. The game, Mermaid Beach, is being distributed nationally, but you can “meet the inventor” at Other Worlds Games. Other Worlds Games, 6350 SW Capitol Highway, 503-244-0290. 6-9 pm. Free.
Comma: Rich Wandschneider and Pamela Steele
Rich Wandschneider and Pamela Steele will read selections from their work for Broadway Books’ monthly “Comma” reading series, curated by Kirsten Rian. Longtime Oregonian Wandschneider writes a regular column for the Wallowa County Chieftain. Steele’s work includes the poetry book Paper Bird and a novel, Greasewood Creek, to be published this fall. Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726. 7 pm. Free.
On Mount Hood
Mount Hood’s towering peak defines Oregon’s landscape; in his book On Mount Hood, Jon Bell brings together stories and lore to narrate the mountain’s story. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, 246-0053. 7 pm. Free.
Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper
It’s 1971, and D.B. Cooper has just hijacked an airplane midflight between Portland and Seattle, extorted $200,000 from its owner and parachuted from the jet with over 20 pounds of cash tied to his body. In one of the greatest mysteries of law enforcement, he’s never seen again. Using confidential FBI files and new leads, Geoffrey Gray’s new book traces the story of America’s most enduring skyjacking mystery. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
SATURDAY, AUG. 20 Portlandia Loves In Other Words
PDX’s feminist bookstore-turnedcommunity-center calls upon Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein of IFC’s Portlandia to host a benefit auction featuring prizes including a walk-on role in season two of Portlandia, tickets to see Carrie’s band Wild Flag, and two personalized voicemail greetings from Armisen. In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth St., 232-6003. 6:30 pm. $40 ($20 for volunteers). Buy tickets at IOW.
Plazm 20th Anniversary
Celebrate 20 years of artistic expression from one of Portland’s more fascinating magazines/art projects at Plazm’s big bash. The event will feature a silent auction (where you can bid on such things as a Facebook post from Mayor Sam Adams), a VIP event with a light supper, drinks, music by Eric Hausmann, and a reading from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ new children’s book. At 8 pm, the main event opens with music performances, videos and the release of Plazm No. 30. Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave.,
286-9449. 6:30 pm. $50-$75 for VIP party, $5-$15 for main party.
SUNDAY, AUG. 21 Portland Poetry Slam
The Portland Poetry Slam runs every Sunday at Backspace. Each show opens with an open mic at 8 pm, followed by a featured poet, then the slam, where eight poets battle it out for $50 and poetic glory. RUTH BROWN. Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 248-2900. 7:30 pm. $5 suggested donation. All ages.
TUESDAY, AUG. 22 Matt Love & Kim Cooper Findling
Matt Love’s new work, Love and the Green Lady, is a multigenre ode to one of Oregon’s most enduring architectural features: the Yaquina Bay Bridge. Kim Cooper Findling’s Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir narrates the journey of a young woman coming of age in ’70s and ’80s Oregon. Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
For more Words listings, visit
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REVIEW
MICHAEL DICKMAN FLIES Let’s get the obligatory journalism out of the way quickly: Michael Dickman’s biography is interesting. He and his twin brother, Matthew, are both terribly renowned young poets (if poets are ever renowned, these days, outside of tight circles), both Michener Fellows, both raised in the decidedly unpoetic Felony Flats of Southeast Tell all the truth but Portland, and both played othtell it slant. erworldly twin PreCogs in the film Minority Report. Satisfied? Good. On to the poems. The most accessible poem in Dickman’s sophomore collection, Flies, “Emily Dickinson to the Rescue,” begins by wondering if Dickinson “took a shit every morning/ or ever fucked anybody/ or ever fucked/ herself.” From this jokey shock, however, the poem quickly submerges itself into quiet empathy: “You want these sorts of things for people/ Bodies and/ the earth/ and/ the earth inside/ Instead of white/ nightgowns and terrifying/ letters.” This sort of turn is common in Dickman’s poetry: one voice slipping into another, terse lyricism blending into buoyant colloquialism and back. Sometimes he sounds like a jaunty Frank O’Hara reporting on the traffic (“it was dark in there and scary and there were woods that no one had ever mentioned before”), while at others his language splinters into bleak, collagist fragments or isolating enjambments (The stars are wrong/ Begin Begin/ I was just whispering/ into my glass/ pillow”). Though Flies centers itself tightly on family and family trauma— in particular, on the death of his older brother—its poetry is far from confessional. As is true of most sufferers of anything, Dickman doesn’t confess so much as act out; his poems brim with twitches and tells, with unfinished thoughts and violent images that recur as if unbidden, never leading to release or resolution but rather to life’s insistent particularity and dumb, quotidian mystery. Often this means that these poems are what people politely call “difficult”: There are no Hallmark epiphanies or mellifluous reveries, and no easy narrative thread to grab onto. So even though Dickman’s words are humble, everyday, swift-moving things—and even though his poems are often absurdly funny—they don’t yield their secrets easily. And yet one is drawn through them as fluidly as through any experience; image and association accrete, rather than build, into substance. “None of my friends wrote poems or novels from the lives of my friends came their lives,” writes Dickman. From the poems, similarly, come the poems: queasy little prayer boxes, shot through with memory. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. GO: Michael Dickman and poet Zachary Schomburg read at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 2284651. 7:30 pm Friday, Aug. 19. Free. Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
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MOVIES
AUG. 17-23 REVIEW
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
30 Minutes or Less
55 The title of the new action farce
from Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) is very nearly accurate: At 83 minutes, the movie is notably short—also nasty and brutish. Those adjectives likewise apply to the lead performers, along with “lazy.” Everyone feels a little uninspired and short-fused, like it was a hot day on location and they had a pounding hangover. The premise doesn’t seem like promising comedy fodder anyhow—it’s based on the true story of Brian Douglas Wells, a pizza delivery man killed by a time bomb strapped to his neck as part of a bank robbery, tee hee—and Fleischer tries to counterbalance the queasiness by having his cast be hostile but harmless. Jesse Eisenberg is best served by this approach, playing the pizza guy as scathing as a dirt-road Zuckerberg; Aziz Ansari gives the most effort as his disgruntled best friend; and Danny McBride, as the kidnapping thug with a happy trigger finger, plays his usual scumbag without the redeeming vulnerability. The movie has its amusing bits, but it hasn’t thought its violence through (it hasn’t thought anything through), and the whole project feels half-baked, in several ways. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard,. Wilsonville, Sandy. NEW
Adam’s Rib
80 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL]
Penned by married screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon (yes, the same Ruth Gordon you know as the better half of Harold and Maude) and performed by longtime lovers Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, Adam’s Rib is a testament to perfectly antagonistic compatibility. It endures in the popular imagination as a flurry of lawyer-on-lawyer bickering, but the affection—and, yes, the sexual chemistry—is so persuasive we could be watching some Hepburn/Tracy home movies. (And, indeed, we do, in a scene that is equal parts endearing and boring.) The domestic bliss is the most enjoyable part of George Cukor’s 1949 picture: The best moments occur whenever the lead couple is alone, even if they have to pop under a courtroom table for momentary privacy. Other aspects have aged less gracefully. The legal scenes drag, a lot of the funny business isn’t very funny, and the proto-feminist argument, which amounts to the contention that nothing is worse than a homewrecker, male or female, isn’t exactly liberating. But then the pleasure of Adam’s Rib is how it presents a thing more satisfying than liberty. AARON MESH. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 17. NW School of Film faculty member Amy O’Brien will introduce the movie.
Another Earth
10 Oh, I cannot begin to tell you how
much I despised this movie. Nah, I’m being overdramatic: I certainly can begin to tell you. I won’t give away the plot twists; I’ll just say that at the 30-minute mark, feeling irritated, I wrote down the stupidest possible outcome of the story I could imagine, and that is exactly what happened. Another Earth, which is as authentically “indie” as a can of Pringles, postures as existentially profound because it makes sad faces. I would rather watch another movie—any other movie. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cinema 21. NEW
Black Happy: Settin’ Dogs on Fire
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, SUBJECT ATTENDING] A new documentary captures the reunion of Idaho heavy band Black Happy. Clinton Street Theater. 7 and 9 pm Friday, Aug. 19. Black Happy trombonist Mike Hassaries will attend the screenings.
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NEW
DREAMWORKS II DISTRIBUTION CO., LLC
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.
Brighton Rock
[REVIVAL] Richard Attenborough is the evil little teenage gangster who records a hit record in Graham Greene’s 1947 adaptation of his own even nastier novel. Cinema 21. 7 pm Friday-Thursday, Aug. 19-25. 2:45 pm Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 20-21. NEW
Can’t Stop the Serenity
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, BENEFIT] The PDX Browncoats stage their annual Joss Wheadon tribute/Equality Now fundraiser, this year with the addition of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Saturday, Aug. 20.
Captain America: The First Avenger
70 Patriot, super-soldier and the most violent Ultimate Frisbee player in history, Captain America finally gets the proper big-screen treatment after nearly 70 years with Captain America: The First Avenger, an obligatory origin story and extended commercial for next year’s The Avengers. With Chris Evans (previously the only watchable part of Marvel’s failed Fantastic Four) sporting red-white-and-blue tights as wimp-turned-World War II-icon Steve Rogers, First Avenger is exactly what Cap should be: an old-fashioned Nazi beat-’em-up. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Tigard, Sandy.
Cars 2
65 Valuable lessons are learned, includ-
ing 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. Clackamas.
The Change-Up
62 Director David Dobkin has a magic formula for tricking meatheads into exploring their feelings: Simply take a worn-out shtick wherein man-children learn important lessons, then pepper it with enough bare breasts, f-bombs, scatological humor and people speaking loudly to fill two hours. Dobkin has become a master of repackaging chick flicks for people who need a fart joke or 30 to help the sentimental medicine go down. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Forest, Lloyd Mall, Sandy.
NEW
The Company of Thieves
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR ATTENDING] Local filmmaker Shilpa Sunthankar tells the story of a crook who sells his soul. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Sunday, Aug. 21. NEW
Conan the Barbarian
No longer played by Arnold, but still gettin’ off on the lamentations of their women, we assume. Not screened for critics by WW press deadlines. Look for a review on wweek.com. R. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Cowboys & Aliens
66 A horde of anonymous extraterrestrials come to the American Southwest circa the late 1800s to plunder its resources and, just for the hell of it, abduct and probe the citizens of a tiny frontier town. Cue the hasty assemblage of a ragtag rescue party—the gruff cattle magnate (Harrison Ford), the whiskey-swilling priest (Clancy Brown), the wimpy barkeep (Sam Rockwell), the mysterious woman (Wilde), the steely-eyed outsider (Craig) and, why the heck not, a kid (Noah Ringer) and a dog—that sets off to find their fellow townspeople and bring them home. Along the way, enemies become allies. Racists become not racist. Wimps become heroes, and at the most opportune time. The lesson here is that simply pulling tired tropes from two different kinds of movies
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
IS THERE SOMETHING IN MY TEETH?: Anton Yelchin and Colin Farrell.
LET THEM EAT BEEFCAKE FRIGHT NIGHT GIVES VAMP FLICKS AN INFUSION OF SCHLOCK. BY KELLY CLA R KE
kclarke@wweek.com
Vampire movies have sucked all the fun out of being a vampire. These days, Dracula’s progeny are always moping around, sparkling, refusing to drink blood or have sex, or mindlessly devouring anything that moves. They are far too busy acting as stand-ins for important societal ills and bedroom mores to be properly camp or evil. But Craig Gillespie’s new remake of the 1985 horror-comedy Fright Night—the short, bloody story of Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) and Jerry, the vampire who moves in next door to his Vegas suburb tract house and promptly ruins his life—really doesn’t try all that hard. And that makes it a gory good time, packed with as many giggles as it is wooden stakes and exploding bodies. Much of the credit for this guilty pleasure goes to Colin Farrell, who plays Jerry (“That is a terrible vampire name,” Charlie says incredulously, early in the film) as a hunky romance-novel cad who quickly devolves into a menacing addict with personal-space issues. You’d be attracted to him if he didn’t seem so, well…rapey. Farrell, sporting an inky black widow’s peak and white wife-beater, has concocted an entire arsenal of tweaker twitches and undead affectations. Confronted by a stray beam of sunlight, he even gives a little hiss; like a cat startled by a spray bottle full of water. Obviously, he’s not taking any of this too seriously. And neither is the rest of the cast. Curlyheaded Yelchin imbues teen geek-turned-slayer Charlie with a sort of ineffable sweetness—he even tears up as Jerry eats his stripper neighbor. There are a few sharp lines for his obligatory cool mom, Toni Collette, and Charlie’s far-too-attractive girlfriend (the incredibly named Imogen Poots). And the flick even gooses the audience a fair number of
times—mostly due to the ferocity with which this vampire drains his victims. “He’s not brooding or noble. He’s the shark from Jaws,” mutters Christopher Mintz-Plasse, pouring his McLovin dorkdom into the form of Charlie’s occult-obsessed friend Ed. Now, I defy anybody to argue that the original Fright Night was a truly great movie. But it was kinda dark and kinda sexy and to an impressionable gradeschooler (like me, circa 1985), terribly fun. The oddball notion that vampires could live next door, remodeling their house by day and eating prostitutes by night, was irresistible—the ultimate second reel for a Lost Boys double feature.
YOU’D BE ATTRACTED TO JERRY IF HE DIDN’T SEEM SO, WELL…RAPEY. Wisely, screenwriter Marti Noxon and director Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl) have simply updated the cult classic for 2011, complete with geysers of 3-D blood that spurt toward the audience and a Foster the People song on the soundtrack. They’ve even kept the unsettling look of the original production’s fully transformed vampires— which look a bit like surprised carnival clowns that have had their teeth replaced with oversized razor blades. The biggest change may be the new version’s reimagining of late-night TV host Peter Vincent as a Criss Angel knockoff with a yen for supernatural artifacts and testicle-torturing leather pants (played with Midori-guzzling swagger by Brit David Tennant). But at heart, it’s still the same creepy, campy flick: all fangs and one-liners. And I suspect that’s something fans of the undead tend to crave. The devil you know is the one you really want. 76 GO: Fright Night is rated R. It opens Friday at Clackamas, Cornelius, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Living Room Theaters, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville and Sandy.
AUG. 17-23
Crazy, Stupid, Love.
70 Where Friends With Benefits
employed Justin Timberlake as an art director at GQ, this picture features Ryan Gosling as a walking issue of Esquire—the one with the “Am I a Man?” quiz on page 170. You can practically smell his cologne ads. Still, he’s fun, and he has great chemistry with eventual bravadomelting love interest Emma Stone, just as Steve Carell develops an easy rhythm with Julianne Moore. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Division, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall.
forward button. R. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
The Future
80 Every auteur communicates ideas
through other people, but Miranda July is singularly, tangibly committed to ventriloquism. This may begin to explain the most off-putting conceit of her second feature film, The Future: It is narrated by a cat named Paw-Paw—or, more specifically, July doing the voice of a cat puppet, which speaks in a high-
pitched singsong. Paw-Paw has been left in an animal shelter and is waiting anxiously for his new owners to arrive before the euthanasia needle does. Those saviors are a couple played by July and Hamish Linklater, who have identical dandelions of hair and even frizzier existential worries triggered by the impending adoption. As the movie proceeds, it becomes clear that she both identifies with them—to an autobiographical degree—and recognizes that they’re part of a generation frittering away its potential in a pan of hot narcissism. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
CONT. on page 48
REVIEW
The Devil’s Double
51 Not to make light of the trau-
Final Destination 5
42 Say what you will about the
endless Final Destination franchise: It knows its formula, and it knows its audience. The films, essentially death porn for the Rube Goldberg crowd, take a basic setup—attractive young stereotypes cheat death, death gets pissed and systematically splatters them all in exceedingly elaborate ways—and uses it to present a $50 million SFX reel of flying entrails and severed torsos. In the fifth go-round, Nice White Guy once again has a premonition of a massive disaster—this time a suspension bridge collapse—and saves all his friends from becoming hamburger at the last minute. Death gets pissed. One by one, Nice White Guy, Annoying WASP Chick, Smart Black Dude, Tom Cruise-Looking Friend, Greedy Jew, Waning Girlfriend and Slut With Glasses meet gory ends featuring hooks, laser surgery equipment, religious statues, falling debris and kitchen implements. For a while, it’s nasty fun. Too bad, then, that FD5 decides to throw in a last-minute twist—if you murder somebody, you basically take their lifespan, or some shit—that sucks all the fun out of the affair, transitioning awkwardly from a gruesome Wile E. Coyote cartoon into a D-class thriller for no good reason. Oh, and for some reason it’s a prequel to the first film. But then it concludes with a “greatest hits” reel of the series’ best kills, which is all we really wanted anyway, though I’m sure YouTube could save a trip to the theater. That the endcredits splatter montage is the best part of the film speaks volumes— these are works best enjoyed at 2 am with a loaded bong and a fast-
®
WRITTEN BY
THOMAS DEAN DONNELLY & JOSHUA OPPENHEIMER AND SEAN HOOD DIRECTEDBY MARCUS NISPEL
STARTS FRIDAY, AUGUST 19TH! LESS AWKWARD THAN OSCAR HOSTING: Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
ONE DAY Let’s assume, after her resounding success with 2009’s An Education, director Lone Scherfig was warned to brace herself for the occasional dud in her cinematic future. After all, if Spielberg’s oeuvre contains a calamitous Hook and a 1941, surely Scherfig should expect some artistic lurch one day. Sadly, that one day has arrived. Today. This very day. It is titled— say it with me—One Day. The good news? No matter what project Denmark native Scherfig takes on next (say, a YouTube study of Great Danes ingesting a Danish), it’ll be hailed as comparatively miraculous. Until that time, we have to contend with Anne Hathaway’s Emma and Jim Sturgess’ Dexter, two miserable characters mired in non-events spanning 20 years. Even the story’s conceit is shoddy: Unlike its precursor (1978’s Same Time, Next Year), this couple doesn’t necessarily need an annual face-to-face encounter. If Emma or Dexter simply mentions the other, then the filmmakers have met the appropriate prerequisite and can move on. (If only they didn’t insist that we do the same.) We watch an opening night in July 1988 when two graduating college students flirt with the idea of hooking up. Awkward, ugly-duckling brainiac Emma has a crush on the ever-popular rogue Dexter, who barely knows her name. They decide on friendship over fervor, and for the next two decades we follow them as they evolve. Or, more to the point, as they don’t. Attempting an English accent that’s far more amusing in its inconsistencies than is David Nicholls’ insipid script, Hathaway exudes a sour discomfort, as if she realized her error in signing on to the project after the first day of shooting but had no choice but to grimace and bear it. Given that her previous work has been uniformly strong, it’s shocking to see such a lackluster performance. Far more troubling is her other, lesser half, Sturgess’ everdissipated Dexter, who reflects a depth of character that goes from A to, um, A. References to how he makes her laugh, or how much she loves him, are simply incredible...and not in a good way. Neither a moving romance, compelling drama nor fascinating chronicle, this film lumbers from one insufferable moment to another. One Day seems much more like eons. PG-13. KIMBERLY GADETTE. The minutes seem like hours.
SEE IT: One Day opens Friday at Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower and Lloyd Center. 24
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matic life of Latif Yahia, but this is the movie that deserves to be called Horrible Bosses. Yahia’s employers were Saddam Hussein and his sadist son Uday, who conscripted lookalike Latif as a body double for the heir, and that title suits the movie’s tone—leering rubbernecking at garish crimes. The passably smoldering Dominic Cooper has a grand time playing both Uday Hussein and his reluctant doppelganger. As the tyrant, he uses a buck-toothed grin as a synecdoche for all kinds of sauntering madness, and comes off as a melding of Borat and Patrick Bateman; as the assassination decoy, he is nobly stoic in suicidal disgust. He might have had something memorable if the script were a little more sophisticated, and if director Lee Tamahori (xXx: State of the Union) showed more patience for atmosphere, instead of using every scene as an even more lurid demonstration of Uday’s psychosis. There’s a lovely Lynchian moment halfway through the picture where we and the hero silently observe two of Saddam’s tubby doubles playing a tennis match in matching white shorts. The entirety of The Devil’s Double could have achieved that level of haunting absurdity; instead, it just wants to titillate with glimpses of bizarre evil. Hey, you guys, crazy Uday just disemboweled a man on a banquet table! R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
E N T E R A N A G E U N D R E A M E D O F.
GILES KEYTE
doesn’t instantly make something fresh. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
MOVIES
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MOVIES
AUG. 17-23
Photo caption tk STALKER
Glee the 3-D Concert Movie
They sing, we suppose. Not screened for critics by WW press deadlines, and we stopped believin’. PG. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius, Living Room Theaters, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Grease 2
NEW
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, SINGALONG REVIVAL] Fleur de Lethal Cinema pays tribute to the gloriously flunked return to Rydell High—on the theory, we suppose, that the first Grease wasn’t bad enough. Bagdad Theater. 9 pm Thursday, Aug. 18.
The Guard
42 Brendan Gleeson has impossible
INVITES YOU AND A FRIEND TO AN ADVANCE SCREENING
features. He appears to have been born in the wrong aspect ratio, with a visage formatted to fit old televisions, a noggin incompatible with our wide screens. His face, or so it seems, must be stretched and pummeled like pink taffy to conform to the 16:9 standard, and it’s almost sadistically compelling to watch Gleeson work with his own strange packaging. Writer-director John Michael McDonagh (whose brother Martin used Gleeson in In Bruges, a film John should have studied more carefully) is lucky to have him in The Guard, for absent the big man’s wadded physicality, there would be little worth looking at here. Gleeson stars as an adorably racist police officer who reluctantly teams with a strait-laced FBI agent (Don Cheadle, very nearly comatose) to foil a trio of drug traffickers who discuss Nietzsche when they’re not killing people, because like much of the rest of The Guard, these bad guys seem to have escaped through a hole in the bottom of Tarantino’s barrel. R. CHRIS STAMM. Fox Tower.
Happy
[ENCORE SCREENINGS] A documentary from the director of Genghis Blues seeks the meaning of happiness. Clinton Street Theater. 7 and 9 pm Sunday-Tuesday, Aug. 21-23.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
80 A gratifying resolution to J.K.
MONDAY, AUGUST 29 AT 7:00 PM ~ PORTLAND For your chance to win a mobile pass good for two admissions, text “FAMILY” and your ZIP CODE to 43549 (Ex. FAMILY 98119) MUST ENTER BY 12 P.M. ON WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24! NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE. No purchase necessary. Texting services provided by 43KIX and are free. Standard text message rates from your wireless provider may apply. Check your plan. One entry per cell phone #. Late and/or duplicate entries will not be considered. 50 (Fifty) winners will be chosen at random on or about 3pm on Wednesday, August 24, 2011 and will receive a text good for two admissions. Limit one admit-two pass per person. THEATRE IS OVERBOOKED TO ENSURE A FULL HOUSE. A winning text does NOT guarantee a seat. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. This film is rated G. Void where prohibited by law.
SEVEN DAYS IN UTOPIA Hits Theatres September 2! WWW.SEVENDAYSINUTOPIA.COM 48
Willamette Week AUGUST 17, 2011 wweek.com
Rowlings’ wand opera. Director David Yates and his set-design team have created an atmosphere that explicitly recalls London during the Blitz, with young lovers snogging goodbye as the cathedral towers rain down. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Forest, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard.
The Help
86 Give a white male director a script about Southern racism and nine times out of 10 he’ll hand you back the story of an enlightened sports team wrapped in a flashy soundtrack. Director Tate Taylor manages to break this mold in his adaptation of Kathryn Stockett’s
2009 novel, The Help. Set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Miss., the film focuses on young, wealthy white mothers and their maltreatment of the black maids who serve them. Emma Stone plays Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, an aspiring writer whose childhood friends have grown up to resemble rabidly racist hybrids of the Plastics and the Stepford Wives. Sparked by contradicting stories regarding the abrupt departure of her own family’s maid, Skeeter attempts to document the reality of the Jim Crow era through a book detailing the experiences and perspectives of Jackson’s “help.” The Help doesn’t reward its viewers with a championship trophy. Instead, the film presents the reality of Southern life in the 1960s as something that takes much more than a high-school squad to overcome. PG-13. SHAE HEALEY. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Moreland, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Fox Tower, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Hood to Coast
55 German TV producer Christoph Baaden has brought his best HD cameramen (and apparently some helicopters) to chronicle the Hood To Coast relay descent from Mount Hood to Seaside; the result is some fluidly shot and edited footage that is going to look very nice in a national park visitor’s center someday. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
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. R. AARON MESH. CineMagic, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall. NEW
The Love of Beer
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, LOCAL SUBJECTS] The first annual PDX Beer Week presents the world premiere of Alison Grayson’s womenof-the-beer-industry doc, which raises a glass to sudsy ladies including Deschutes Brewing’s Veronica Vega and Saraveza Bottle Shop owner Sarah Pederson. Bagdad Theater. 7:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 20.
Magic Trip
62 For decades, the celluloid footage Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters shot on their 1964 LSDfueled bus ride has been something of an Oregon holy grail, a tantalizing 40-hour spool of moving history hidden in a barn in the hills outside Eugene. Suddenly, documentary prodigy Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Client 9) got his
mitts on the reels, and edited down the movie Kesey and company once thought would be the great American mind-expansion picture, if not for the drawback that it didn’t have synced sound recordings. Kesey biographer Mark Christensen has pointed out one reason the ambitious project failed: “Making a great movie about the wonders of acid while on acid is tough.” Now we have Magic Trip, and a second piece of bad news: Watching a movie about the wonders of acid while not on acid is even tougher. Seeing Kesey and Neal Cassady and “Gretchen Fetchin the Slime Queen” cavorting around the Furthur bus on what must have been very expensive color film stock, one is reminded that these were mostly farm kids with a domineering wrestler-writer for a guru. Here’s the thing: It doesn’t seem like that great a trip. They went to a pond. They threw some paint in the pond. I can only imagine how it all looked unedited. This would have been a terrible movie. R. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre.
Midnight in Paris
77 Owen Wilson, convincingly step-
ping into the “Woody Allen role,” stars as Gil Pender, a screenwriter and self-described “Hollywood hack” who thinks of himself as a novelist born in the wrong era. On vacation in Paris, he 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. PG-13. MATTHEW SINGER. Fox Tower, Hollywood Theatre, CineMagic.
The Perfect Host
David Hyde Pierce stars in a thriller about a dinner party gone awry. R. Living Room Theaters. NEW
Police Story
55 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, OUTDOOR
REVIVAL] The “story” of the title, rife with grating comedy and lazy twists, is an interminable crawl bookended by exhilarating and all too brief orgies of property damage orchestrated by Jackie Chan, who makes ballet of scathed navigation through the wreckage. Police Story is widely considered one of 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. CHRIS STAMM. NW Film Center Top Down series atop the Hotel deLuxe parking garage, SW 15th Avenue and Yamhill Street. 8 pm Thursday, August 18.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
17 I’ve seen episodes of Lassie that
made me ponder the human-animal relationship more than Rise did, and in fact this whole shitshow reminded more of Homeward Bound than it did of the 1968 Apes film that started it all. PG-13. CASEY JARMAN. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Center, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Sarah’s Key
75 Thanks to the cinematic adapta-
tion of Tatiana de Rosnay’s New York Times bestseller Sarah’s Key, readers can now transcend literary isolation by experiencing soul-crushing quantities of human depravity in the open air of a darkened movie theater. PG13. SHAE HEALEY. Lloyd Mall.
The Smurfs
They take Manhattan, in CGI form. No one on our staff could be persuaded to risk it. PG. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard.
MOVIES SOPHIE GIRAUD / SAMUEL GOLDWYN FILMS
AUG. 17-23
BRENDAN GLEESON
DON CHEADLE
“A RAUCOUS COMEDY!”
Willamette Week’s
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THE WHISTLEBLOWER NEW
Soul of Sand
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] An Indian thriller about the caste system. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 5 and 7:15 pm Sunday, Aug. 21.
Spy Kids: All the Time in the World
Jessica Alba and little children spy on something. Not screened for critics. PG. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Cinema 99, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Hilltop, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy.
Stalker
NEW
98 [TWO NIGHTS ONLY, REVIVAL] Andrei Tarkovsky, upon completing Stalker and receiving editorial suggestions from the USSR State Committee for Cinematography, reportedly responded with this wonderful middle finger of a sentence: “I am only interested in the views of two people: One is called Bresson and one called Bergman.” The latter dour auteur, who, years later, would praise his Russian admirer for “[moving] with such naturalness in the room of dreams,” must have adored Stalker, for it is Tarkovsky’s most enthralling trip into that nocturnal chamber. Beginning in sepia hues and eventually jumping into color à la The Wizard of Oz, Tarkovsky’s quasisci-fi masterpiece follows three men as they journey into the Zone, a verdant region depopulated by some calamity and yet blessed by a lingering power—time and space gets iffy, men disappear and “innermost wishes are made real” at the center of one of the Zone’s decaying buildings. Brave seekers must approach the heart of the Zone obliquely, in zigs and zags that obfuscate intent. Tarkovsky tacks in a similar manner—witholding close-ups, delaying conflict with daydreamy interludes, tracking this way and that—as if one must encounter cinema’s magic at a crawl, lest the vision in that room of dreams dissipate beneath a gaze that is all too quick to disbelieve. Believe. CHRIS STAMM. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday-Saturday, Aug. 19-20.
Tabloid
91 Errol Morris’ Tabloid contains
plenty of unscrupulous Fleet Street journalism (from the nonMurdoch Daily Mirror and Daily Express, mostly), but on the whole, its muckrakers are understandably gobsmacked by their seedy subject: Joyce McKinney, the “barking mad” blond American bombshell at the center of Britain’s “manacled Mormon” scandal of 1977. What? You are not familiar with the manacled Mormon scandal? Could I interest you in a story about a former Miss Wyoming who decided she would rid a Church of Latter-Day Saints missionary of his qualms regarding fornication by tying him to her bed? Oh, good. R. AARON MESH. Living Room Theaters.
Terri
88 Terri Thompson (Jacob
Wysocki) lives with an uncle succumbing to dementia, he is unmis-
takably 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. Terri offers a balm, by knowing its characters’ weaknesses as well as they do themselves, but treating them far more generously. R. AARON MESH.
Aurelio
Artist: (circle one:) Heather Staci Freelance 2
Emmett
Jay
Steve
AE: (circle one:) Angela Maria Josh Tim
Philip
NEW The Three-Minute Picture Show
“ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED FILMS IN YEARS!” – MARIE CLAIRE
The Tree of Life
97 In the final sequence, Sean Penn
“I LOVE THIS MOVIE!
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. Hollywood Theatre.
Intelligent, sensitive and full of heart!”
One Day O Twenty years. Two people...
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. NEW
The Whistleblower
43 To remain effective, human-
rights violation bloodboilers have been forced to up the ante on atrocity. The Whistleblower, a Canadian-made Rachel Weisz vehicle about U.N. security contractors aiding sex trafficking in Bosnia, is very effective: Enslaved teenage girls are sodomized with pipes. This may not even be the worst thing that happens to them. When peacekeeper-for-hire Weisz attempts to save two Russian kids from perpetual rape, the promise of rescue is a mere gambit to pull the audience closer for escalating barbarity in the torture chambers within a mountain brothel. (The movie uses similar rhythms as Hostel, or one of those evangelical haunted houses where you can get saved at the end.) The Whistleblower is a stumbling, inept drama, so director Larysa Kondracki compensates with visceral provocation. As sadism piled atop debasement, I began desperately hoping the movie would hop genres and become Rachel Weisz’s Death Wish. But since this is outrage porn for a better sort of audience, she reports the crimes to her superiors, then to the press. I am not a better sort of audience. “You want blood on your hands?” a peacekeeper asks Weisz. Yes yes yes yes yes. Kill ‘em all, and let the U.N. sort ‘em out. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
McCool
“AN EPIC Deadline: MUST-SEE ROMANCE!” – HARPER’S BAZAAR
Confirmation #:
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, LOCAL DIRECTORS] Portland filmmakers debut the fruit of a monthlong effort. Clinton Street Theater. 4 and 7 pm Saturday, Aug. 20.
ART APPROV AE APPROV CLIENT APPROV
– THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
Anne Hathaway/Jim Sturgess
Willamette Week’s Best of Portland Party 2011 Photo Credit: Bobby McHugh
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF “AN EDUCATION” FEATURING NEW MUSIC BY ELVIS COSTELLO
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IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE FRIDAY, AUGUST 19TH
CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATRE LOCATIONS AND SHOWTIMES
HELEN MIRREN
SPECIAL ENGAGEMENTS NO PASSES OR DISCOUNT COUPONS ACCEPTED
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IN THEATRES AUGUST 31ST
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“EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF THIS MOVIE IS HILARIOUS.”
MOVIES
AUG. 17-23 Pioneer Place Stadium 6
BREWVIEWS
Cole Abaius/FILM SCHOOL REJECTS
L-I-V-I-N: Among the lessons taught by Richard Linklater in Dazed and Confused—the importance of specific locations, how much deeper nostalgia cuts when it isn’t whitewashed, what Matthew McConaughey likes about high-school girls—the most trenchant in this era of slack improv is that stoner comedy doesn’t have to be sloppy. This is a movie of laser-Floyd precision, each scene meandering to a specific purpose, like a symphony in 420 time. It has the ecstasy of youth: It feels like the filmmakers, like dopily wise Dawson, wanted to “look back and say that I did the best I could while I was stuck in this place.” AARON MESH. Academy. Best paired with: Laurelwood Tree Hugger Porter. Also showing: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Laurelhurst), Grease 2 (Bagdad, 9 pm Thursday, Aug. 18).
Living Room Theaters
COLUMBIA PICTURES PRESENTS IN ASSOCIATION WITH MEDIA RIGHTS CAPITAL A RED HOUR PRODUCTION “30 MINUTES OR LESS” JESSE EISENBERG NICK SWARDSON MICHAEL PEÑA DANNY McBRIDE AZIZ ANSARI EXECUTIVE WITH FRED WARD PRODUCERS MONICA LEVINSON BRIAN LEVY PRODUCED BY STUART CORNFELD BEN STILLER JEREMY KRAMER SCREENPLAY STORY BY MICHAEL DILIBERTI BY MICHAEL DILIBERTI & MATTHEW SULLIVAN DIRECTED BY RUBEN FLEISCHER CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES
250 COL.Willamette (3.825") 12" 24" WED 8/17 Week X AUGUST 17, 2011 = wweek.com PORTLAND WILLAMETTE WEEK
Laurelhurst Theater
2735 E Burnside St., 232-5511 THOR Sat-Sun 1:40 EVERYTHING MUST GO FriSun 4:15, 6:50 Mon-Thurs 6:50 HANNA Fri-Thurs 9 X-MEN FIRST CLASS Fri 9:20 Sat-Sun 1:30, 9:20 Mon-Thurs 9:20 SUPER 8 Fri-Sun 4:25, 7 Mon-Thurs 7 BEGINNERS Fri 7:20 Sat-Sun 2, 7:20 Mon-Thurs 7:20 TROLLHUNTER FriSun 4:40, 9:40 Mon-Thurs 9:40 BUCK Fri 4:50, 7:30 Sat-Sun 2:10, 4:50, 7:30 Mon-Thurs 7:30 FERRIS
Bagdad Theater and Pub
Kennedy School Theater
Clinton Street
2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-8899 HAPPY Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:00, 09:00 BLACK HAPPY SETTIN DOGS ON FIRE Fri 07:00, 09:00 THE THREE MINUTE PICTURE SHOW Sat
Mission Theater and Pub
1624 NW Glisan St., 503-249-7474 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Wed 06:00 X-MEN: FIRST CLASS Wed 08:45 SUPER 8 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon 07:40 LARRY CROWNE Fri-Mon 05:30 TROLLHUNTER Fri-Mon 09:55 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Tue
Moreland Theatre
6712 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-236-5257 COWBOYS & ALIENS Wed 05:30, 08:00 THE HELP Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 05:30, 08:25
St. Johns Twin Cinemas and Pub
8704 N Lombard St., 503-286-1768 COWBOYS & ALIENS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 05:00, 07:35, 10:10 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 04:30, 07:00, 09:20
CineMagic Theatre
2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-7919 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 05:30, 07:35 HORRIBLE BOSSES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-
Academy Theater
Regal Fox Tower Stadium 10
BUELLER’S DAY OFF FriThurs 9:30
Hwy 99W, 503-538-2738 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Mon-Tue-Wed THE SMURFS Fri-Sat-Sun TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON Fri-Sat-Sun
3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474 X-MEN: FIRST CLASS FriMon-Tue-Wed 06:00 THE HANGOVER PART II Wed 09:05 MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS Fri-Sat-Sun 02:00 SUPER 8 Fri-MonTue 06:00
8203 N Ivanhoe St., 503-249-7474 X-MEN: FIRST CLASS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 09:15 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Wed 01:00 SUPER 8 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 09:15 WINNIE THE POOH Sat-Sun 01:00
5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-7474 THE HANGOVER PART II Fri-Sat-Sun-MonWed 08:15 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Wed 02:15, 05:30 SUPER 8 FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 02:30 WINNIE THE POOH FriSat-Sun-Mon 03:00, 05:30 MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS Sat-Sun 12:30
99 West Drive-In
1510 NE Multnomah Blvd., 800-326-3264 CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Wed 12:25, 03:50, 06:40, 10:00 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:35, 03:55, 07:10, 10:20 CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:45, 03:40 COWBOYS & ALIENS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:15, 03:30, 06:55, 09:55 THE CHANGE-UP Wed 11:40, 02:20, 05:05, 07:45, 10:30 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 02:40, 05:20, 08:00, 10:40 THE HELP Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 11:50, 03:15, 06:45, 10:05 30 MINUTES OR LESS Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 12:00, 02:25, 04:40, 07:15, 09:40 FINAL DESTINATION 5 3D Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:35, 02:00, 04:30, 07:00, 09:30 RIFFTRAX LIVE: JACK THE GIANT KILLER Wed 08:00 THE GLOBE THEATRE PRESENTS HENRY IV PART 2 CONAN THE BARBARIAN Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 12:25, 03:40 CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 07:00, 10:00 FRIGHT NIGHT Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:00, 05:10 FRIGHT NIGHT 3D Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 02:35, 07:45, 10:25 ONE DAY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 01:05, 04:25, 07:05, 09:45
St. Johns Pub and Theater
7818 SE Stark St., 503-252-0500 TROLLHUNTER Wed 02:15, 09:45 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 04:15, 07:00 KUNG FU PANDA 2 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 02:30, 04:45 X-MEN: FIRST CLASS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 06:45, 09:30 MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS Wed 05:00 LARRY CROWNE Wed 02:45, 07:15 THE HANGOVER PART II Wed 09:25 DAZED AND CONFUSED Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 02:00, 09:45 WINNIE THE POOH Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 01:40, 03:20, 05:00 SUPER 8 Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 06:45, 09:15 BEGINNERS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 07:15
Tue-Wed 09:40
Regal Lloyd Center Stadium 10 Cinema
340 SW Morrison St., 800-326-3264 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:55, 07:20 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2: 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 04:30, 10:20 COWBOYS & ALIENS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 04:40, 07:40, 10:30 THE CHANGE-UP Wed 12:50, 03:25, 09:50 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 02:55, 05:20, 07:45, 10:15 30 MINUTES OR LESS Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:40, 02:50, 05:05, 07:50, 10:00 FINAL DESTINATION 5 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:20, 02:35, 04:50, 07:30, 10:10 CONAN THE BARBARIAN Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue 04:20 CONAN THE BARBARIAN 3D FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue 01:20, 07:20, 10:05
846 SW Park Ave., 800-326-3264 CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE. Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 12:00, 02:30, 05:00, 07:30, 10:10 THE TREE OF LIFE Wed 02:20, 09:40 HORRIBLE BOSSES FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 02:50, 05:25, 07:50, 10:05 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 02:15, 04:35, 07:10, 09:35 THE HELP FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:05, 01:45, 04:05, 04:45, 07:05, 07:45, 10:00 THE DEVIL’S DOUBLE Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 02:25, 04:55, 07:25, 09:50 SARAH’S KEY Wed 12:10, 02:40, 05:10, 07:35, 09:55 TABLOID Wed 12:20, 05:15, 07:40 THE FUTURE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:25, 02:35, 04:40, 07:20, 09:30 THE GUARD FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:15, 02:45, 05:05, 07:15, 09:45 ONE DAY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 11:55, 02:20, 05:15, 07:40, 10:00 THE WHISTLEBLOWER Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 12:15, 02:40, 05:10, 07:35, 10:05
NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium
1219 SW Park Ave., 503-221-1156 STALKER Fri-Sat 07:00 SOUL OF SAND Sun 05:00, 07:15 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Mon-Tue
341 SW 10th Ave., 971-222-2010 LEAP YEAR Wed 05:10, 07:40, 09:40 GLEE THE 3D CONCERT MOVIE FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 11:50, 02:00, 04:10, 06:30, 08:45 HOOD TO COAST Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 11:40, 09:20 THE PERFECT HOST Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:40, 03:10, 05:20, 09:50 TERRI Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 02:40, 04:40, 07:30 SUPER 8 Wed 01:50, 04:20 THE TRIP Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:20, 02:10, 07:15, 09:35 CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:50, 02:50, 04:50, 07:00, 09:00 FRIGHT NIGHT 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue 11:40, 12:30, 01:50, 02:50, 04:20, 05:10, 06:45, 07:30, 09:00, 09:45 TABLOID Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue 03:00, 05:00, 07:00 SUBJECT TO CHANGE. CALL THEATERS OR VISIT WWEEK.COM/MOVIETIMES FOR THE MOST UP-TODATE INFORMATION FRIDAY-THURSDAY, AUG. 12-18, UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.