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WWEEK.COM
VOL 38/10 01.11.2012
NEWS TAXING BIG GULPS.
P. 10
FOOD A NEW INDONESIAN CART.
P. 30
MUSIC BEHIND BLOUSE’S BUZZ.
P. 31
2
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
CONTENT
Photo Events For complete event details visit us at www.ProPhotoSupply.com then click Events
The Business of Architectural Photography Presented by ASMP Oregon. Photographers today are facing more challenges today than ever before. The corporate world is becoming a more challenging environment and photographers are struggling to deal with those many changes. Using his architectural photography business as a model, Steve Whittaker will focus on the “business” of photography covering topics such as estimating, licensing issues, scouting assignments, risk management and copyright concerns, all important factors. •
WHEN: Thursday,
Jan 19
COST:
$15 - ASMP member $25 - non-ASMP member)
TIME:
6:30pm - 9:00pm
Fine Art Digital Workflow for Nature Photographers
Join outdoor photographer, Sean Bagshaw, for an informative day-long class in the art of processing images in the digital darkroom. This is an intermediate to advanced level class for those who already work with Adobe Photoshop Elements or Adobe Photoshop CS and are wanting to establish a complete, best practice, non-destructive workflow for producing images of exceptional quality. Must register online.
•
WHEN:
Saturday, Jan 21
COST:
$169 (lunch included)
TIME:
9am - 5pm
HDR Processing for Nature Photographers
Outdoor photographer, Sean Bagshaw, will present advanced digital photo processing techniques he uses to help make his high dynamic range (HDR) landscape, nature and travel photographs possible. This advanced level class will delve into techniques of extending dynamic range in scenes with challenging high dynamic range light.
• FREE MARKET VS. FARMERS MARKET: Small growers can’t compete. Page 7.
WHEN:
Sunday, Jan 22
COST:
$169 (lunch included)
TIME:
9am - 5pm
Crash Course in Digital Photography
This is the perfect one-day training session for anyone looking to learn the fundamentals of photography. Whether you are a new photographer needing to learn the basics or a seasoned shooter wanting to brush up on the world of digital, this class puts all students on firm ground for advancing their photography. Must register online.
NEWS
4
FOOD & DRINK
29
• WHEN: Saturday, Jan 28
LEAD STORY
13
MUSIC
31
Fast Start Camera Classes - Knowing your camera is essential for exploring the
CULTURE
21
MOVIES
47
HEADOUT
23
CLASSIFIEDS
52
EDITORIAL Managing Editor for News Brent Walth Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Hannah Hoffman, Nigel Jaquiss, Corey Pein Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Kat Merck Assistant Arts & Culture Editor Ben Waterhouse Movies Editor Aaron Mesh Music Editor Casey Jarman Editorial Intern Melinda Hasting CONTRIBUTORS Classical Brett Campbell Dance Heather Wisner Food Ruth Brown Visual Arts Richard Speer
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PRODUCTION Production Manager Kendra Clune Art Director Ben Mollica Graphic Designers Soma Honkanen, Adam Krueger, Brittany Moody, Carolyn Richardson, Dylan Serkin Production Intern Lana MacNaughton
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ADVERTISING Director of Advertising Jane Smith Display Account Executives Sara Backus, Maria Boyer, Michael Donhowe, Greg Ingram, Janet Norman, Kyle Owens Classifieds Account Executive Ashlee Horton Advertising Assistant Ashley Grether Marketing and Events Manager Jess Sword Marketing and Promotions Intern Jeanine Gaitan Give!Guide Director Brittany Cornett
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.
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Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
3
INBOX YING DEFENDS RESIDENCY
1
12/24/11
11:01 AM
I was surprised when I received the call from [WW reporter] Corey [Pein] asking about my residency [“Home Away From Home,” WW, Jan. 4, 2012]. I never considered it would be a news story that my husband and I failed to sell our Happy Valley house when we moved to Northwest Portland. I guess this is why people don’t run for office. After our children grew and left for college, we wanted to downsize. We started getting our house ready at the height of the market and placed it on the market only to see [the market] collapse in 2008. We didn’t get even one potential buyer and, rather than take a huge loss on our biggest investment, we pulled it off the market. In 2010, as I was retiring from a 30-year career in education, we felt an even greater need to move out of the “big house” and, in March 2010, we purchased and moved into a condo in NW Portland. I became a voter in the district in April 2010. It wasn’t until July 2011 that I began thinking of running for the Metro [Council] seat after sitting Councilor Rex Burkholder told me he was ineligible to run again. Why did we choose District 5? First, my daughter Melanie was down the hall (a great benefit). Second, we had connections to this community. I started my education career in the district at Madison High School in 1979 and worked much of my career in this community. In my 14 years working in the district, I saw that too many children and families living here are left behind—lacking healthy food, safe routes to get to school, and vibrant neighborhoods. I want to run for this Metro district so people here
Like lots of folks, I disconnected my gutter downspouts from the storm-drain system to save the river. Now that the “Big Pipe” is finished, though, can I reconnect them? It’s a swamp over here. —Allen P. Well, Allen, I’ve got good news and bad news. The bad news is Big Pipe or no, the powers that be would strongly prefer you keep those downspouts disconnected. The good news, though, is I got a really fantastic hummer last night, so I feel great. Here’s the deal: Portland’s sewage system was designed—foolishly, in retrospect—such that stormwater and doo-doo water all go to the same place. This meant that any time the system was overloaded by, say, a hard rain, the whole mess overflowed into the river. Recently, a long, expensive sewer project known as the Big Pipe (actually, three different pipes) greatly increased the system’s capacity. 4
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
have the same amenities and services as [in] other parts of the region. My husband and I also have a strong connection to Old Town/Chinatown...and have been working to preserve and revitalize this historically important area. Recently, I became involved with the 1882 Project asking Congress to express regret for passing the Chinese Exclusionary laws that separated families by limiting Chinese who could come into this country. It separated our family. When my grandfather first came to the United States in the late 1800s, he experienced intense discrimination and hardship...most of his family could not come over to be with him. My father was not allowed to bring his family to this country until 1968, [when] I was 11. Our family moved to Portland when I was 13.... My dad worked in a kitchen and my mother was a seamstress. They made minimum wage, under $2 an hour, and yet they saved enough to buy a house in SE Portland. My parents taught us the values of hard work and determination. Now, it is because of my grandfather, and my parents, that I feel I must work hard and help make a better future, not only for my children, but all in our community. I’m a principled person who believes integrity is all a person has to stand on, and so, I apologize to the voters of my district for any confusion. Helen Ying Northwest Portland 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
Now it’s a lot harder to overload the system, and these “combined sewer overflow” events have become concomitantly rarer. Unfortunately for you, however, when the city was deciding precisely how big each of the Big Pipes would have to be, they assumed that disconnectors like you would stay disconnected. (Unfortunately for me, I didn’t really get a hummer last night, but that’s another story.) “If people started reconnecting their downspouts, we’d slowly be right back in the same spot we were before,” says Amber Clayton of the Bureau of Environmental Services. Thus, Allen, I’m afraid you’re almost literally hosed. If it’s any consolation, your sacrifice has paid significant dividends for your fellow man— according to Clayton’s figures, each residence that unhooked its gutters from the sewers was worth $11,500 in construction-cost savings on the Big Pipe project. You won’t see a dime of it, of course, but it’s a nice thought. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
2012 International Speaker Series THE NATION’S PREMIER SPEAKER SERIES FOCUSING ON INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
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HEALING TOOLS
BUSINESS: Local farmers say they need taxpayer support. POLITICS: Our endorsement for David Wu’s replacement. HEALTH: Campaign gathers signatures for soda tax. COVER STORY: Inside the OLCC’s enormous booze operation.
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Mayoral candidate Eileen Brady continues her torrid fundraising—she’s brought in $486,000 to Charlie Hales’ $294,000 and Jefferson Smith’s $171,000. But Brady returned two contributions this week—$500 from former U.S. Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Portland) and $250 from Packwood’s wife, political strategist Elaine Franklin. Franklin told WW that Brady BRADY called her in December and asked for a campaign contribution. After Brady received the contributions, the mayoral candidate called Franklin back and said she had a change of heart. Here’s where the stories diverge: Franklin told WW that Brady said she couldn’t accept the contributions because she has a policy of not taking money from former or current elected officials. “That’s what she told me,” Franklin says. “I just took her at her word.” Brady has a different story. Her campaign consultant, Jon Isaacs, says that Brady told Franklin nothing of the sort: “That’s just plain wrong. Eileen did not say that,” Isaacs says. Instead, he says, Brady simply decided she did not want Packwood’s money. “This was an isolated decision about an unsolicited contribution from Bob Packwood,” says Isaacs. (Packwood resigned from the Senate in 1995 amid allegations of sexual harassment.) Professional baseball is one step closer to returning to the metro area. The Milwaukie City Council voted 3-2 Monday night to proceed to a second phase of study of locating a minor league ballbark on Oregon Route 99E just south of the Portland border. In the next phase, the city will hire an economist to evaluate the idea, and 360 Architecture, which has designed ballparks around the country, will complete a preliminary design for budget purposes. Councilors hope to have answers by mid-April. “Most folks we’ve talked to in town are supportive, provided the project pencils out,” says Council member Greg Chaimov. City of Portland bureaus—not counting the police—have claimed $191,000 this fiscal year under an $18 million-a-year state program that subsidizes wage and equipment costs for employees injured on the job and assigned to “temporary transitional work” or skills classes. A document by the city’s Risk Management Division shows three bureaus have benefited most from the Oregon Employer-at-Injury Program since July: the Water Bureau, with $60,000 in claims (or $92 per bureau employee); the Bureau of Transportation, with $50,000 (or $64 per employee); and the parks bureau, with $30,000 (or $26 per employee, excluding seasonal workers). The fire bureau—which places workers at risk of injury—had just $9,800 in claims, or $12 per employee. A Water Bureau spokesperson did not respond to a message. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt.
6
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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COLD COMFORTS: John Eveland of Gathering Together Farm sells produce at the new Portland winter farmers market at Shemanski Park.
GREEN FOR ACRES OREGON’S SMALL FARMERS WANT SUBSIDIES, TOO. BY C A R R I E ST UR R O C K
243-2122
Four years ago, Florence Jessup spent a small fortune to start her Hillsboro farm, Artisan Organics: more than $70,000 from an inheritance and her retirement accounts. Since then, Jessup, farming on rented land, has joined the Portland area’s burgeoning local food movement— selling at three farmers markets and through community-supported agriculture, the subscription-based buying system where consumers purchase shares of local crops. If she hadn’t had the cash, Jessup says, she could never have got her 6-acre operation up and running. “What does this mean for the future of food in the United States when the only people who can afford to grow it [on small farms] are already retired or trustafarians?” Jessup asks. “That’s a very limited population.” In the Portland area, the popularity of farmers markets and local agriculture continues to grow, fueled by smallscale farms that emphasize sustainability. But taxpayers may soon be asked to step up and help out this local food base. Federal support for agriculture nationwide is nothing new, with multibillion-dollar annual subsidies for large growers of corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton. The largest farms get the lion’s share of government payments. The area’s small farming operations now say they want in as well. Small farms are vital to the sustainable local food system that urban Oregonians celebrate every week by
crowding into highly priced farmers markets. The Oregon Farmers’ Markets Association estimates the number of farmers markets in the state has grown from 12 to 158 since 1987. For the first time, the Portland and Hollywood farmers markets will have winter markets. (The former is open Saturdays through February, the latter on the first and third Sundays of each month through April.) But advocates say this trend is not financially sustainable without state help. John Eveland says his family maxed out its credit cards and needed cash it received from an insurance settlement following an auto accident to keep Gathering Together Farm in Philomath 23 years ago. It took more than two decades—and hitting $750,000 in annual sales—before the family could qualify for credit from banks. “There have to be better ways to help farmers access the capital they need,” says Jared Gardner of Oregon Banks Local. The push for assistance to small-scale farming comes as state lawmakers draft legislation for next month’s session to create the Oregon Growth Board, an entity with the power to invest in businesses and projects without having to wait for the Legislature. The plan is aimed at helping businesses in general, but advocates of small, family farmers want it to contain strong language supportive of that group. Steve Hughes, state director of the Oregon Working Families Party, says his organization is eager to avoid legislation aimed at luring that “one big company” promising jobs with millions in tax giveaways. There doesn’t seem to be much enthusiasm at the state’s Department of Agriculture. Brent Searle, special
assistant to the department’s director, says federal programs are already available. The state has 38,500 farms—of those, about 7 percent produce 85 percent of Oregon’s agricultural output. The majority of the remaining farms are often those that sell produce at farmers markets, and most of them—often organic operations—have sales of less than $10,000 a year. Other states do far more to help small-scale farming. Two years ago, Massachusetts responded to the growing popularity of farmers markets and community-supported agriculture by providing up to $10,000 in matching grants for new farmers even if they don’t own the land. Massachusetts also provides grants up to $100,000 for farmers who keep their land in production. Program director Craig Richov says the state assists 20 to 24 farms annually, and only a handful have failed since the program started 15 years ago. “If you had banks working with businesses and providing loans, and 99.5 percent were successful, you would be a pretty good banker,” Richov says. Chances of gaining any new subsidies this year for Oregon small-scale farming are slim, says Rep. Brian Clem (D -Salem), who co-chairs the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. But Clem says that could change if small-scale farming advocates can mobilize. Last year, he sponsored House Bill 2336, which exempts small-scale farmers from foodinspection laws when selling their fruits, vegetables and other produce. So many constituents wrote in support, he says, that many lawmakers told him, “I’m not voting against that.” The bill passed. The bottom line, advocates say, is that the state should subsidize small farms as the feds subsidize large ones. “We have a long history of supporting agriculture because it’s our food,” Hughes says. If we simply leave agriculture to the whims of the free market, we’d probably be “eating rations of genetically modified corn chips from Monsanto” every day. Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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OUR ENDORSEMENT IN THE RACE FOR THE 1ST CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. ELECTION DAY IS JAN. 31. BY WW STA FF
243-2122
Few voters in Oregon’s 1st Congressional District will miss U.S. Rep. David Wu. First elected in 1998, Wu resigned last August after exhibiting bizarre behavior and, ultimately, facing allegations he had made improper sexual advances to a teenage girl. Despite Wu’s work as an intellectual property lawyer prior to running for office, he never really clicked with Washington County’s tech sector. Nor did he enjoy a strong reputation for constituent service among the rural and agricultural sectors of his district, which stretches from Portland’s west side to Astoria and down to the central coast. On Jan. 31, residents of the district will vote in a special election to replace Wu. The best choice on the ballot is state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici (D-Beaverton). A lawyer and educational advocate prior to entering the Oregon House of Representatives in 2007, Bonamici, 57, has spent much of her time in Salem on consumer protection issues. She pushed for a better deal for homeowners facing foreclosure and helped expel payday lenders from Oregon. Because of her diligence and attention to detail, Senate President Peter Courtney (D -Salem) last year selected her over more senior colleagues to lead the always-controver-
SUZANNE BONAMICI: No tiger suits in her closet.
Today the company has no office and employs only four people other than Cornilles and his wife, Allison. If starting and running a struggling small business were all it took to serve in Congress, Oregon would have tens of thousands of candidates ready to go to Washington. In his policy statements, Cornilles has been inconsistent. He blasts tax breaks for corporations and wealthy individuals, but in 2011 proposed a renovation of Memorial Coliseum built on millions of dollars’ worth of tax breaks. He appeared at a 2010 tea party rally in front of a rack of guns but is so eager to attract independent voters he never mentions in campaign materials that he’s a Republican. Cornilles is at his best when he criticizes
AFTER WU’S ANTICS, DULL IS GOOD. sial job of redrawing legislative district boundaries. Bonamici completed that task without the help of the secretary of state or the courts, the first time in 60 years that has happened. In many ways she’s like her former legislative colleague, U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.): smart, dogged and dull. After Wu’s antics, dull is good. Bonamici’s chief opponent is Tualatin businessman Rob Cornilles. Cornilles, 47, ran a creditable race against Wu in 2010, losing with 42 percent of the vote. He is pleasant, blessed with a nice smile and the gift of gab. Other than that race against Wu, however, Cornilles has no political experience and a thin record of community service. He’s running, then, on his record as a “job creator.” That’s a stretch. Since 1995, Cornilles has run a company called Game Face Inc., which helps sports teams sell more tickets and also does executive recruiting for teams. WW’s reporting shows that Game Face is a company in decline, having reached its peak size of 22 employees nearly a decade ago. 8
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Bonamici’s reflexive support for the Democratic platform, and suggests that he would be more independent. It’s true that he’s broken with conservative Republicans in a number of areas, including their opposition to what they call Obamacare. But his moderate stances feel less like independence than an acknowledgement he’s running in a district with a 12-percentagepoint Democratic advantage—and that he needs a job. Besides, his résumé simply cannot match the accomplishments of Bonamici. Libertarian James Foster, a Beaverton software engineer (who, like Bonamici, once served as a Federal Trade Commission lawyer), and Progressive Party candidate Steven Reynolds, a disabled West Point graduate, are also running. Foster is a thoughtful candidate whose calm demeanor belies a fierce opposition to government interference in just about anything, while Reynolds, whose post-military adventures included a stint as a pot smuggler, seems personally adrift. Neither has mounted a serious campaign. Vote for Bonamici.
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SUGAR FEE SODA A PROPOSED TAX ON SWEETENED DRINKS COULD RAISE $35 MILLION FOR MULTNOMAH COUNTY. BY HAN N A H HOF F MA N
hhoffman@wweek.com
Soda pop, energy drinks and even some juice mixes will get more expensive in Multnomah County if voters approve a new tax proposal bound for the November ballot. As first reported Jan. 9 at wweek.com, the 1-cent-per-ounce tax on “sugar-added” beverages is being proposed by Gregg Coodley, a Portland doctor who was active in Multnomah County’s recent effort to ban bisphenol A from sippy cups. The measure needs 16,851 valid voter signatures to make it on the ballot. Campaign manager Rich Rogers says he’s retained a signature-gathering firm, Democracy Resources, to help, at an estimated cost of $30 per signature. Coodley expects the tax to raise $35 million. About half will go to after-school and physical education programs for children in the county’s school districts. The rest will fund jobs programs. Multnomah County would administer all the money raised and set up a “jobs fund” to pay for the unemployment programs, according to draft language for the measure. Yet county leaders are not publicly supporting the measure. “This just isn’t a campaign we’re involved in, and we’re not taking a position,” county spokeswoman Julie Sullivan says. “We’ve got a lot of things going on, and this isn’t one of them.” Coodley says county officials have told him they won’t support the measure because they’re worried about backlash from soft-drink companies. But the tax proposal dovetails with two longstanding efforts by county commissioners. One is to find new ways to boost the county’s budget. In 2010, for instance, the county supported a state Senate bill that would have allowed counties to raise cigarette taxes independently to increase revenue. Second, this ballot measure echoes recent county efforts to steer Portlanders toward healthier eating habits (see “Making Food Deserts Bloom,” WW, Jan. 4, 2012). Since March 2010, the county has spent about $150,000 of a larger federal grant on a media campaign that includes television commercials discouraging kids from drinking sugary beverages. Coodley says reducing kids’ soda intake will have a big impact. Studies have shown calories from soda can lead to childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes, although research on the efficacy of placing taxes on such drinks is not as conclusive. It’s also hard to foresee how much of the tax will be passed on to consumers. Retailers would be liable for any tax not paid by distributors, under penalty of misdemeanor. Rodgers says it makes sense to tax sweetened drinks to help pay for programs that combat their effects. “We’re not anti-soda. It’s not intended to be punitive,” he says.
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GROCERS THINK THEY CAN FINALLY BREAK THE STATE’S 80-YEAR, NEARLY $500 MILLION MONOPOLY—BUT AT WHAT COST? BY N IGEL JAQU ISS
njaquiss@wweek.com
Steve Pharo has something just outside his Milwaukie office door that Joe Gilliam wants—$70 million worth of vodka, whiskey, tequila and every other distilled spirit sold in Oregon. CONT. on page 14
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CONT. C H R I S T A C O N N E L LY
BOOZE WARS
Pharo is executive director of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, and his workplace is a boozehound’s dream. Shrink-wrapped pallets of liquor rise from floor to ceiling in a warehouse the size of three downtown Portland blocks. Beeping forklifts continually unload incoming trucks, while a Rube Goldbergian conveyor system moves 1,000 cases an hour out the door to state liquor stores. In fact, every single one of the 2,676,106 cases of liquor sold in Oregon last year passed through the OLCC warehouse that sits off of Oregon Route 99W, just south of the Acropolis strip club. For years, Gilliam, president of the Northwest Grocery Association, has dreamed of breaking the OLCC’s monopoly on booze. He wants to see his members— Fred Meyer, Safeway, Costco and others— rather than the state, selling liquor. To do that, grocers and their allies must tear down a maze of 1930s-era liquor laws. It’s curious that in Oregon, a state that has been as reform-minded as any, pioneering unfettered beach access, allowing assisted suicide and being the first to require statewide land-use planning, the OLCC has withstood for nearly 80 years any efforts to unshackle its iron-fisted control over liquor. Today, that control is under an unprecedented threat. “We’ve never seen this kind of change and pressure,” Pharo says. Here’s a primer on why the OLCC’s days might be numbered:
DARRYL JAMES
What changed? In November, Washington state residents voted to take liquor control out of the state’s hands. For years, Costco had been trying to get the state Legislature to do just that. When legislative efforts failed, the Issaquah, Wash.-based retailer poured more than $22 million into an initiative campaign. Costco, already the nation’s largest wine seller, also wanted to sell distilled spirits. In Washington, as in Oregon, the state is the exclusive wholesale provider of distilled spirits, which it sells through state liquor stores to bars, restaurants and individuals. Costco’s campaign worked—by a margin of 59 percent to 41 percent, breaking the state’s monopoly. If the vote survives a Washington Supreme Court challenge, the state will cease selling liquor May 31. Instead, Costco, Albertsons and the New Seasons that recently opened in Vancouver will sell booze. “Washington went from being the most tightly controlled state in the country to
PHARO 14
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being the most deregulated,” says Ron Dodge, CEO of Hood River Distillers, Oregon’s largest spirits manufacturer. Hood River spent $100,000 in Washington to oppose Costco. “They handed all the business to the big grocers on a silver platter.”
“WASHINGTON WENT FROM BEING THE MOST TIGHTLY CONTROLLED STATE IN THE COUNTRY TO BEING THE MOST DEREGULATED. THEY HANDED ALL THE BUSINESS TO THE BIG GROCERS ON A SILVER PLATTER.”—RON DODGE, CEO OF HOOD RIVER DISTILLERS
What does this have to do with Oregon? Immediately after the Washington measure passed in November, Gilliam of the grocers’ group said Oregon was next. That’s logical because the two states have nearly identical approaches to alcohol sales. Oregon is among 18 so-called “control” states, where the government maintains a tight grasp on every aspect of alcohol distribution and sales. In Oregon, hard liquor is sold by OLCC-licensed retailers—and there are only 246 of them (California has about six times as many liquor stores per capita). Oregon liquor stores get about 9 percent of sales as a commission. They must sell at state-established prices and only during prescribed hours. (It was not until 2002, and only because of a financial crisis, that Oregon finally allowed liquor sales on Sunday.) Beer and wine are regulated differently, but every bit as strictly. State law carves out monopolies for beer distributors who sell to retail outlets such as grocery stores, bars and restaurants. Wineries have slightly more leeway—they can sell directly to consumers via mail and at their wineries, and directly to stores, although most do not. Even as the state is shoving liquor out the door at breakneck pace, the OLCC acts as Oregon’s liquor-licensing and enforcement cop. Some might argue that the dual role of marketer and regulator is like jumping into a car and jamming on the gas and the brakes simultaneously. For instance, the OLCC built a sophisticated website to help drinkers track down rarities such as the 55-year-old bottle of single-malt scotch it sold for $14,000 a few years ago. But the
agency also sends underage decoys into bars and polices licence-holders diligently. No one is suggesting the OLCC cease its licensing and regulatory work—Gilliam and the grocers just want it to stop competing with the private sector for alcoholic-beverage sales. The success of the Washington initiative is creating a good deal of pressure. “We’re trying to look at what we can do differently as the market changes,” Pharo says. “But I understand that the industry would like to have us out of the way.” Adds Paul Romain, who leads the Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association, “We’ve never seen anything of this magnitude before.” Why do the grocers care so much? The short answer is money. Grocers complain that OLCC rules are tilted in favor of distributors. When distributors buy beer or wine from the manufacturer, they can pay days or weeks later. But the law requires that when distributors deliver product to bars, grocery stores or wine shops, the retailer must pay cash immediately. That means the distributor gets to hold the retailers’ cash for days or weeks before paying his supplier. “There’s no other deal like it anywhere,” Gilliam says. So the next time you walk into your neighborhood wine shop, consider that your wine merchant has already paid cash for every bottle in the store—no credit. That’s the law. Romain says credit practices simply reflect the cost of warehousing wine and beer, and help smaller producers get paid faster. “There are costs critics don’t see,” he says. Distributors also enjoy brand monopolies in geographic territories. For example, Portland-based Maletis Beverage is the CONT. on page 16
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CONT.
only company allowed to distribute Budweiser beer in the metro area, and state law makes it virtually impossible for AnheuserBusch ever to end that relationship. Current laws fix prices in ways that, some argue, protect the little guy. But others complain the laws are contrary to the rules of commerce. Oregon requires a beer distributor to sell to every retailer at the same price. With beer, retailers can then decide how much profit they want to make, pricing a six-pack of beer accordingly, although they are prohibited from selling below cost. Hard-liquor prices are even more tightly controlled: A bottle of Hood River vodka, the state’s volume leader, costs the same in every state store, and that price is set by the OLCC. One OLCC rule that generates the most heat is its prohibition of the centralized warehousing of wine. Even Mary Botkin, a lobbyist for OLCC union workers and a defender of the agency, scratches her head about this one. “Let’s say the Interstate Fred Meyer in North Portland orders 10 cases of pinot noir from a distributor, and it sits on the shelf,” Botkin says. “But the same wine is flying off the shelf at the Hawthorne store. Freddy’s can’t just move the wine from one store to the other. It has to go back to the distributor and get redelivered. That’s just crazy.” John DiLorenzo, a lawyer for Grocery Outlet, tried in the Legislature and at the OLCC to end central warehousing and is now challenging the prohibition in front of the Oregon Court of Appeals. “We believe that 20 percent of the final cost of wine is an embedded cost from the 1930s,” DiLorenzo says. “We have nothing against distributors when they add value, but we don’t like it when they just get paid for being there.” If the system is so bad, why hasn’t it changed? One of the immutable rules in Salem is if it brings in money, don’t mess with it. Last year, state figures show the OLCC delivered more than $178 million to state and local governments, including $8 million for substance-abuse and mentalhealth programs. The money goes to every city and county as well as the state’s general fund, which means there is considerable resistance to change. The Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors Association also plays a powerful role in maintaining the status quo. Romain has led the group since 1983, which means he mastered the state’s arcane alcohol rules
ROMAIN 16
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Estimated Alcohol Use in the Past Month UNITED STATES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51.75% IDAHO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.66% TEXAS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48.49% CALIFORNIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.65% WYOMING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.11% NEVADA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.45% WASHINGTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56.04% MONTANA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.96% OREGON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59.83% COLORADO. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62.15% Percentage of population aged 12 and over that used alcohol in the past month, according to estimates.
“OUR SYSTEM HAS WORKED REALLY WELL IN TERMS OF KEEPING TEENS FROM GETTING LIQUOR. PRIVATIZATION WOULD REALLY LET THE CAMEL’S NOSE UNDER THE TENT.”—JUDY CUSHING, PRESIDENT OF THE OREGON PARTNERSHIPS
GILLIAM
before most lawmakers had their first drink. The distributors’ political-action committees have given Romain more than $750,000 for campaign contributions in the past five years, making him a colossus in Salem. Union support also has helped protect the OLCC. Romain, a Republican, has a somewhat unlikely ally in Botkin, a veteran lobbyist for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. AFSCME represents 67 OLCC warehouse and distribution workers, as well as the agency’s enforcement staff. In 2011, lawmakers proposed deep cuts to the OLCC’s head count. But when the session ended, the budget included a small staff increase. Botkin acknowledges some laws are puzzling, but she does not see the need for change. “What we have is an OK system,” she says. How would breaking the OLCC’s grip affect consumers? Oregon drinkers have lots of choices. The OLCC warehouse contains nearly 1,800 different items, from Aalborg Akvavit ($21.95 a bottle) to Zwack “Kosher” Slivovitz ($20.45), any of which is available at every OLCC store. “The selection in Oregon is second to none,” says Hood River Distillers’ Dodge. “That could all change in deregulation.” That’s because shelf space is limited— even at big-box stores—and the Costcos of the world prefer to carry fewer rather than more items. Oregon’s booming craft distillers fear there would not be shelf space for them in a deregulated environment, a concern Dodge says is evident in states where big-box stores sell liquor. The success of Oregon’s flourishing craftwine and beer industries seems at odds with Oregon distillers’ fears. Grocery stores are under no compulsion to give shelf space to
Hair of the Dog beer or any of Oregon’s 400 wineries, yet many do because consumers want variety and will pay for it. Romain says, however, if volume discounts were allowed, craft distillers would get pushed off the shelf. “Whatever the case, I think the small distillers should be at the table,” DiLorenzo says. How would deregulation affect the cost of booze? The effect of deregulation on prices is hotly debated. Not surprisingly, those in favor of regulation say prices could get cheaper, while defenders of the status quo warn prices will rise. OLCC and industry-price data suggest Oregonians get their Jack Daniel’s and Tanqueray cheaply. The OLCC regularly compares its prices to those in Washington and California, and Pharo says Oregon’s prices are lower. “We don’t compete with the ‘loss leaders’ you might see in California,” he says. “But we could if the Legislature wanted us to.” Pharo, Dodge and other opponents of regulation say liquor prices will rise in Washington because distributors and retailers will need to make a profit, whereas before only the state took a cut. In theory, the state gets a better deal than many competing buyers will get under deregulation, because each of them will buy far less than the state. A deregulated system also means middlemen will enter the liquor business, prompting critics to say that retailers such as Costco and Safeway will require bigger margins than the 9 percent OLCC stores now get. Gilliam disagrees. “The private sector is more efficient,” he says. CONT. on page 19
S O U R C E S : T H E S U B S TA N C E A B U S E A N D M E N TA L H E A LT H S E R V I C E S A D M I N I S T R AT I O N , C E N T E R F O R B E H AV I O R A L H E A LT H S T A T I S T I C S A N D Q U A L I T Y, N A T I O N A L S U R V E Y O N D R U G U S E A N D H E A LT H , 2 0 0 8 - 0 9 .
BOOZE WARS
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CONT.
BOOZE WARS
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2012 ILLAHEE LECTURE SERIES DEMOCRACY | FEBRUARY 1, 2012
CHRISTOPHER PHILLIPS author, deliberative democracy specialist
How would deregulation impact the downside of drinking—alcoholism, drunken driving, etc? Temperance groups such as the Oregon Partnership oppose any deregulation. The group argues that more outlets selling for more hours creates more opportunities for alcohol abuse, particularly among underage drinkers. “Our system has worked really well in terms of keeping teens from getting liquor,” says Judy Cushing, president of the Oregon Partnership. “Privatization would really let the camel’s nose under the tent.” A recent report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supports Cushing’s position. “Privatization results in increased per-capita alcohol consumption, a well-established proxy for excessive consumption,” the February 2011 report says. Cushing and the CDCP may be right, but federal statistics also show Oregon’s tight control over alcohol has not stopped consumers from drinking more per capita than those in other states who enjoy unfettered access to booze. And it has not stopped Oregonians from drinking and driving more, as measured by DUII arrests per capita. (See chart.) What’s next? Whether Oregon is ready for or needs the kind of sweeping change that’s coming in Washington is uncertain. Gilliam and grocers have made it clear if the Legislature does not make substantive changes, probably in 2013, they will consider putting a Washington-like measure on the ballot. “If 2013 is a dead end, the industry will have to decide on the initiative process,” Gilliam says.
Even Romain concedes citizens like the idea of privatization. “If there were a yes or no vote in Oregon, it would pass,” he says. In the meantime, the OLCC is moving forward with two rule changes that Pharo says are significant and should address concerns about convenience. In March, the five gubernatorialappointed OLCC commissioners will vote whether to allow corporations, rather than individually run state liquor stores, to sell booze. That would allow Safeway, for example, to obtain a license to operate a liquor store within an existing grocery location. In addition, state stores that are willing to expand and invest in improvements would be allowed to sell beer and wine. But even if both changes are approved, Pharo does not anticipate an increase in the number of licensed stores. Gilliam says the proposed moves fall far short of what his members want. “The OLCC rule changes as proposed,” he says, “are a goose egg.” In rocky economic times, perhaps the biggest barrier to sweeping change will be lawmakers’ concerns about preserving the cash flow from liquor sales and the (far smaller) contributions from beer and wine taxes. In Washington, the state’s fiscal impact analysis of the Costco measure predicts state and local revenues will increase by more than $400 million in the next six years. There are no guarantees that estimate is correct, of course, but everybody who wants to change Oregon’s system acknowledges any new approach must produce at least as much tax revenue as the current system. “Any plan would have to be at least revenue neutral,” Gilliam says.
JOBS | FEBRUARY 24, 2012
JULIET SCHOR author, economist
EDUCATION | MARCH 20, 2012
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HEALTH: Alternative medicine explained. MUSIC: Blouse looks good. VISUAL ARTS: Fresh feminist art. BOOKS: Storm Large’s mommy issues.
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SCOOP AUTOMOTIVE RHYTHMS
GOSSIP STRAIGHT FROM THE INVALID LITTER DEPT. BALDWIN WATCH: The Great Daniel Baldwin Experiment—Mr. Baldwin’s move to Portland and promise to bring a reality-TV studio with him—has entered its third year. It must be judged a considerable success, if by “success” you mean “not accomplishing any of the stated goals but scoring some great Blazers tickets.” However, Baldwin can finally add a hit TV show to his résumé, as he has a guest role BALDWIN on NBC’s Grimm. “[S]ay hello to Julian Vance[,] Grimm’s new arson investigator!!!!” Baldwin tweeted last week. Grimm producers are thrilled. “Daniel Baldwin is our guest star this week,” tweeted Edward Irastorza. “Not sure which one he is; the crazy one or the super religious crazy one.” KIMCHI KARAOKE: Starting Jan. 29, Nob Hill karaoke studio Voicebox is rolling out a new menu designed by Janis Martin, the chef and owner of Voicebox’s former neighbor, Tanuki. Martin’s decision to move her restaurant to Montavilla was the cause of much weeping among Northwest Portland residents. Soon they’ll be able to drown their sorrows in steaming boxes of udon noodles while singing “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”
STRANDING OF A SALESMAN: Gus Van Sant has replaced Matt Damon as director of a movie starring Matt Damon, says The Hollywood Reporter. The movie’s plot involves a traveling salesman stranded in a small town and was written by Dave Eggers with The Office’s John Krasinski. The actor best known as “Jim” once helmed a movie based on a David Foster Wallace book, so the project has a McSweenish aura. FESTIVAL GROUNDS: With the Broadway Metroplex shuttered since September, the Portland International Film Festival finds itself in need of at least four more screens to make up for its erstwhile central VAN SANT location. It has added some rather unlikely ones: Lloyd Mall, World Trade Center, Pioneer Place, and Lake Twin Theater in Lake Oswego. QUIN-DO’H-A: In a restaurant review of 2nd Story (Jan. 4, 2012), we described quinoa as a grain-like pasta. It’s a seed. 22
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
C AT H Y C H E N E Y
PATTY PARTY: The JoPa restaurant group, which recently closed both its eponymous restaurant in Raleigh Hills and 50 Plates in the Pearl District, has fully transitioned to a burgerflipping operation. The company will open the third branch of its new venture, Joe’s Burgers, on Thursday, Jan. 12, in the ground floor of the downtown Portland building next to Ross Dress for Less, at 625 SW 4th Ave.
N I C K PAT TO N
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
WILLAMETTE WEEK
HEADOUT
WEDNESDAY JAN. 11 DICK DALE [MUSIC] The father of surf guitar recently beat cancer, and now he’s about to beat your ass with some rad, reverb-drenched guitar. How many 74-year-olds get down like this guy? Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $25. 21+.
THURSDAY JAN. 12 KILL ALL REDNECK PRICKS [MOVIE] Great bands and stories are often derived from childhood friendships, and this caring, low-budget documentary collects the raw, surviving footage of a K Records power trio that was poised for success before an unavoidable implosion. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 281-4215. 9:30 pm. $7.
FRIDAY JAN. 13 SCHOOL OF ROCK AND PDX POP NOW! BEST OF PORTLAND [MUSIC] This fine benefit features teenage kids playing songs from bands like the Thermals, Menomena, Red Fang, Blitzen Trapper and Typhoon—alongside members of said bands. That’s called synergy, people. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 8 pm. $14 advance, $20 day of show. All ages. CRAIG ROBINSON [COMEDY] The real star of The Office comes to Helium for one night. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669. 7:30 and 10 pm. 21+. $30-$35.
SATURDAY JAN. 14 KEITH MURRAY [MUSIC] Long Island MC Keith Murray isn’t a household name, but the boom-bap rapper is clever, funny and punishing on the microphone. The Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 222-6655. 9:30 pm. $5. 21+.
SUNDAY JAN. 15 1. What Super Mario Bros. 3 item allows you to warp between worlds? 2. Who was Donkey Kong ’s original captured damsel? 3. In Super Mario Bros. 3, how many kids does Bowser have? 4. In the movie Ghostbusters II, what controller was used to control the Statue of Liberty? 5. In Mega Man 3, Proto Man was introduced under what alternate name? 6. In the GameCube’s Resident Evil 1 remake, what musical piece must Jill Valentine play on the piano to open a secret passage in the mansion? 7. What items does Sonic the Hedgehog obsessively collect as he races through levels? ANSWERS: 1. Warp whistle. 2. Pauline. 3. Seven: Larry, Morton, Wendy O., Iggy, Roy, Lemmy and Ludwig von Koopa. 4. The NES Advantage. 5. Break Man. 6. Moonlight Sonata. 7. Rings.
Ground Kontrol’s bimonthly Video Game Quiz Show is one of the most elaborate trivia nights in town. Gaming geeks compete on teams—like in a real television game show— using custom-built, light-up buzzers and a huge game board rivaling Jeopardy’s. It’s hoot to watch. And watching is what most people should do. Winning the grand prizes—which include vintage consoles, hefty gift certificates and rare comic books— is as tough as Dark Souls. The show’s popularity has increased, even drawing a few odd and unfamiliar guests into Link’s lair. Guests of the Croftian variety. “There’s a big increase in female participants, which we’re happy about,” says Art Santana, manager of Ground Kontrol. So how geeky do you need to be to win? Here’s a smattering of typical questions. If you’re not able to answer these, Ground Kontrol has a full bar and lots of pretty lights and binging buzzers to entertain your comparatively feeble mind. MELINDA HASTING.
GO: The Video Game Quiz Show is at Ground Kontrol, 511 NW Couch St., on Sunday, Jan. 15. 7-9 pm. Free. 21+.
BUCKMAN-KERNS BREWFEST [BEER] EastBurn hosts the nowannual gathering of breweries from the Buckman and Kerns neighborhoods. Getting sudsy this year are Lucky Labrador Brewing Company, Coalition Brewing Co., Natian Brewery, Migration Brewing Co., Buckman Brewery, Cascade Brewing Barrel House and Burnside Brewing Company. EastBurn, 1800 E Burnside St., 236-2876, theeastburn.com. Noon-8 pm. Admission $10 (includes pint glass). Drinks tickets $1. 21+.
TUESDAY JAN. 17 NORTHWEST NEW MUSIC [MUSIC] Some of the city’s top musicians perform works inspired by the seventh-century-B.C. Greek lyric poet Sappho, including pieces by 20th-century composers Iannis Xenakis and Jacob Druckman, and acclaimed contemporary composer Daron Aric Hagen. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave. 7:30 pm. $5-$20. Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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Celebrate the Year of the Dragon with OCOM
Clinic Open House Complimentary acupuncture, qigong and New Year’s foods
January 31, 2012
5:00 PM – 7:00 PM 10541 SE Cherry Blossom Drive, Portland 97216
ocom.edu Call our clinics to schedule regular appointments:
24
OCOM Acupuncture & Herbal Clinic
OCOM Hollywood Clinic
503-253-3443 x550
503-281-1917
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com WW_4unit_HealthIssue_010912.indd 1
1/9/2012 1:53:06 PM
KIRSTEN VENG-PEDERSEN
C H R I S PAG E
HEALTH
HELLO, NEW MAN: The before-and-after Martin Cizmar.
CONFESSIONS OF A CHUBSTER THE MORAL CRUSADE AGAINST FATTIES. BY M A RT I N C I Z M A R
mcizmar@wweek.com
Americans are disgustingly fat. I’m allowed to say so because not long ago, I was disgustingly fat. Three years ago, I weighed close to 300 pounds. I would like to tell you being a big, lazy slob was awful, but it wasn’t. I enjoyed massive portions of rich, delicious foods and took great pleasure in passively watching the shiny flat-screen TV in front of my leather couch. It was not such a terrible life. It was also incredibly selfish. Things changed for me when I fell in love with a girl who wasn’t fat. She’s a nurse, and she explained the many reasons I needed to lose weight. So I did. It wasn’t that hard, really. I restricted my calories and got some casual exercise. It took eight months to drop 100 pounds. I’ve slowly taken off another 10 pounds or so since. I did not set foot in a gym or eat any weird berries; I adhered to a common-sense diet that fit my lifestyle. If you want to hear more about the diet, I wrote a book about it, Chubster, that came out last week. Dieting was, for me, a reasonably pleasant experience. I’d describe it as the kind of surprisingly not-so-horrible chore you wonder why you allowed yourself to avoid for so long. Like taxes or dental work, other blandly irksome tasks that people procrastinate about for reasons you can’t understand once you’re on the other side. Yet two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Why? Being fat is a choice. Genetics plays a role, sure. So does your upbringing. But you do not get fat unless you’re eating more than you need to nourish your body. That’s basic science. There are no excuses, no matter what someone from the so-called Fat Acceptance Movement wants to claim. Not that you can totally blame people who get discouraged and give up, inevitably leaving their loved ones or the government to care for them when the bill comes due. There’s a $60 billion industry of Organized Dieting that exists to sell people schemes and gadgets. Most of the
things they’re selling are bunk because the truth is too simple to market. Our bodies are machines; food is their fuel. Since the early 1900s, we’ve known how much fuel various foods contain and how much bodies of various shapes and sizes need. In 1918, the first modern diet book, Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters’ Diet and Health, With Key to the Calories, sold two million copies by explaining that the calorie is a measurement of food energy and that people gain weight because they’re taking in too much fuel. This is too easy, of course. It’s been parsed thousands of different ways since, often with the basic science of the matter obscured in the process. Worth remembering with foodie gluttony cresting: People aren’t fat because they eat fast-food hamburgers, wheat bread, too much meat, too little meat or gingerbread. They’re fat because they eat too much, period. It’s quite possible to get fat from artisan charcuterie or tofu scrambles. We can have sincere debates about our food systems— hyper-efficient, factory-style farms or the organic localist approach, and whether it’s OK to eat animals if you kill them yourself—but few arguments seem to address how we can develop a food system that will end the obesity epidemic. I think we’re at the point where that needs to change. I hope we’re ready to take a clear-eyed look at the problem. It starts deep in our DNA. Evolution has fine-tuned the human body for the lifestyle of a tribesman engaged in hunting-gathering and subsistence agriculture. Your body’s natural inclination is to get and store whatever fat you can because you never know when a hard, cold and hungry winter is coming. “For centuries, the human race struggled to overcome food scarcity, disease, and a hostile environment. With the onset of the industrial revolution, the great powers understood that increasing the average body size of the population was an important social and political factor,” writes Dr. Benjamin Caballero, a Johns Hopkins University professor. So we, as a society, put an emphasis on producing and distributing cheap, high-fuel food. By the year 2000, we
reached what Caballero calls “one of the major achievements in human evolution”—having more overweight people than underweight people for the first time in human history. Fatness is a byproduct of the leisurely life our hardworking ancestors and the greatest minds of the Western world have been working to create for millennia. They wanted for us a life of plenty, without back-breaking work. Our overweight society is, by the standard of the ancients, a utopia. Yet it’s not working. We’re at a point where life expectancy is actually falling in parts of the country. Do people seem happier? Humans aren’t meant to sit limply on soft chairs, imprisoned by our own fat, we’re meant to be actively engaged in the outside world. The irresponsibly overweight are also counting on someone—their kids, spouses or our overstrained social services—to pick up their mess when the effects catch up to them. Turns out, burgers and fries are fine when you’re working in factories, but not so much after the postindustrial economy picked people off the assembly line and plunked us down in cubicles. And yet our habits— what we eat, how we get around—haven’t evolved to match our new reality. That can’t change overnight. It will, eventually, I’m confident. Just like it did with smoking, still the country’s leading cause of preventable death but half as common as it was in the 1960s. Foods will get lighter, perhaps aided by new technology—look at the miracle of Popchips. Urban planners will build cities that get people on their feet. Portland is getting there quickly. Responsible people can’t sit idly waiting for macro change, though. For the fat, that starts by admitting your weight is a byproduct of your choices. Then it’s a matter of recognizing those choices are unsustainable. I realized if I didn’t change my life, I was going to die—but not before burdening the people I loved and our hospitals, and not before missing out on the life I could have been living. Too many diet pitches start with the premise that being fat is terrible. It isn’t, really. In contemporary American society, it’s perfectly possible to live a happy life as a big, fat slob. It’s also disgusting—not aesthetically, but morally—and don’t blame anyone for saying so. There is life behind the flatscreen. Get off the couch and start living it. GO: Martin Cizmar signs copies of Chubster at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., on Thursday, Jan. 12. 7:30 pm. Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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GREG PIZZOLI
HEALTH diluted in water. What it costs: Too much. Prices vary wildly, but in all cases you’re just being sold water. Sometimes the water has a few molecules of some mineral, but so does the water that comes out of your tap. Does it work? Hell, no. Not a single reputable study has found homeopathic magic water to be more effective than plain old water. But you shouldn’t need science to convince you—the principles of homeopathy are patently absurd. HYPNOTHERAPY What it is: The use of hypnosis to treat a wide variety of ailments such as chronic pain and anxiety. What it costs: $105 per session at Glancy Hypnosis; $160 per session from Geoffrey JN Knight. Does it work? Depending on one’s level of suggestibility, hypnosis has been shown to be very effective in treating anxiety, pain and hypertension, but its usefulness for quitting smoking is still disputed. Unless you’re mentally ill, it couldn’t hurt.
A GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE FOR THE BEWILDERED. BY BE N WAT E R H O U SE
bwaterhouse@wweek.com
Why are Portlanders so drawn to therapies outside the medical mainstream? Maybe it’s our general love of deviance, or just because we’re broke, unemployed and can’t afford a trip to Kaiser. Whatever the reason, the city is home to a bewildering diversity of healing practices, ranging from the more-or-less conventional (chiropractors aplenty) to the quite odd (reiki for cats) to the outright bizarre (blue-skinned fans of colloidal silver). It’s an intimidating environment for a newcomer, and there’s a lot of misinformation in the marketplace. It’s important to remember that unusual healing practices may not provide any physiological benefit, and also that, because humans are very strange creatures indeed, a treatment needn’t offer any scientifically measurable benefit. (If you’re really sick, though, please go to the hospital.) With that in mind, here’s a primer to some of the most common “alternative” healing practices in Portland, with analysis informed by the excellent research of Dr. Edzard Ernst, author of the Oxford Handbook of Alternative Medicine. ACUPUNCTURE What it is: The practice of pricking the skin with needles to treat physical and mental ailments by manipulating the flow of “chi,” or life force. What it costs: Based on a quick review of the Internet, anywhere from $15-$35 per treatment at Working Class Acupuncture to $95 per session at PDX Acupuncture. Does it work? Maybe. With the exceptions of pain and nausea, acupuncture has not yet been shown to be more effective than sham acupuncture (performed randomly, without regard to tradition) in any large, reputable study. That said, even if both acupuncture and sham acupuncture merely produce a placebo effect, they do so very effectively. So long as you don’t run to your acupuncturist for chest pain, you should be fine. CHIROPRACTIC THERAPY What it is: The manipulation of the spine to treat back and neck pain, and sometimes other disorders. What it costs: Around $50-$100 per treatment. Does it work? Yes! For back and neck pain, chiropractic treatments are as effective as any other tools in the modern medical arsenal. But like most medical practice, chiropractic care has its roots in some very 26
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
strange ideas, some of which are still subscribed to by a minority of practitioners. If your chiropractor offers to cure your eczema, they’re probably crazy. COLONIC IRRIGATION What it is: The use of enemas to “cleanse” the body, usually of unspecified “toxins.” What it costs: $65 per treatment at Oasis Colonics, which also offers discounted packages of up to 12 enemas. Does it work? Enemas have important medical uses, but they cannot “detoxify” the body. Barring serious organ failure, you are not being poisoned by the contents of your colon. If you must worry about pollutants in your environment, worry about your lungs and liver. CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY What it is: The very gentle manipulation of the skull and the base of the spine to aid the proper movement of spinal fluid to treat conditions such as headaches, vertigo and learning disabilities. What it costs: $70 for an hour of treatment by Dana Buhl, LMT. Does it work? While the treatment is undoubtedly very relaxing, the little existing research on craniosacral manipulation failed to demonstrate any lasting therapeutic effect.
CUPPING What it is: The treatment of pain through the application of heated cups to the skin that create suction. What it costs: $65 at Exodus Spa & Salon. Does it work? The only controlled study of cupping found the treatment had no effect on pain, but it does seem to generate an above-average placebo response. The treatments can leave round bruises. EAR CANDLING What it is: The insertion of hollow candles into the ear that, when lit, supposedly draw ear wax and “toxins” out of the body to treat various nose and throat ailments. What it costs: $10-$20 at Exodus Spa & Salon. Does it work? A 1996 study in Spokane found the candles removed no ear wax, and in fact left candle wax deposits in the ears of patients. In short, you’re better off not sticking anything in there. HERBAL MEDICINE What it is: The use of plants and plant extracts to treat ailments of all sorts. What it costs: Varies. Does it work? Yes, frequently. Much of our modern pharmacopeia is derived from plants to begin with—the English word “drug ” comes from the Swedish druug, meaning “dried plant”—and many frequently prescribed herbal medicines, such as garlic for high cholesterol and cranberry for urinary-tract infections—have been proven to be very effective by rigorous studies. But be sure to buy treatments from a reputable source—some imported herbal supplements are contaminated with heavy metals—and keep in mind that herbal medications can have as many unpleasant side effects as anything from Pfizer. HOMEOPATHY What it is: The fanciful idea that disease can be treated by administering minute amounts of a substance that would in large amounts produce similar symptoms,
MASSAGE THERAPY What it is: You know, massage. They rub your muscles. What it costs: Anywhere from $55 per hour at Papillon Massage to $145 per hour at Aequis. Does it work? Yes, especially for back pain, anxiety and depression and constipation. And it feels awesome. Few studies have been performed on specialized massage techniques such as shiatsu and reflexology, so think twice before paying extra. The normal kind should do. REIKI What it is: Buddhist faith healing through the laying on of hands to transmit healing energies. How much it costs: $45 per hour at Susan’s Reiki for Life; $60 per hour at Awakenings Wellness Center. Does it work? Of course not—or at least not more so than any other sort of faith healing. Being touched to the sound of singing bowls is nice, but you can probably find someone to do it for less than a buck a minute, even if they might not have a tiny rock garden or miniature waterfall.
GET IT CHEAP! Acupuncture:
Oregon College of Oriental Medicine offers $25 treatments at its Intern Teaching Clinic at 10541 SE Cherry Blossom Drive. See ocom.edu for details. The five Portland members of the Community Acupuncture Network (pocacoop.com) offer treatments for as little as $15.
Chiropractic care:
University of Western States (uws.edu) operates a clinic at 221 W Burnside St. that provides free or low-cost care to uninsured and underinsured patients.
Massage:
There are several massage schools in the Portland area. The largest, Oregon School of Massage (oregonschoolofmassage. com), offers $45, one-hour massages on its campus at 9500 SW Barbur Blvd. East West College (eastwestcollege.com) offers $25, 45-minute massages from its students at 525 NE Oregon St. Thai massage school The Naga Center (thaimassageinportland.com) offers $45, one-hour massages at 4423 NE Fremont St.
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“Before You Give Up Do This…” Dear friend, Four out of five people that show up in my office have tried “every” diet, wound up gaining back any weight they lost, and are still no better off. Often, they’ve had high hopes that a new diet, supplement, or exercise will do the trick and help them shed pounds for good, yet for one reason or another, the results are only temporary. That’s not what most people are looking for. Often, these people get frustrated and wind up in my office. I’m used to it….it’s fine with me. Years ago, I was an assistant editor for Spirituality & Health magazine in NYC. My office was in the financial district and I had a stunning view of the World Trade Center. All was fine by me. But then, 9/11 happens and I have front row seats. I was able to rinse the ash from my hair after a week, but debilitating fatigue sets in. I lose my drive and focus. Everything feels like an effort, yet I desperately want to keep my job. My MD tells me there’s nothing I can do about it. Despite suggestions, I have no interest in talking to a therapist. Instead, I find a Neuro Emotional Technique (NET) practitioner. I felt so much relief after the very first visit. I didn’t have to take medications or talk about my feelings for weeks or months on end. Ten years ago NET saved my life. It allowed me to have more energy, less pain, and more happiness despite living through the aftermath of September 11th. I was so impressed that I earned a doctorate in clinical psychology so that I could learn NET and help others. Now, people from Portland come to see me for their fatigue, painful joints, unhappiness, chronic health conditions, relationship issues, and weight loss blocks just to name a few.
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These neighbors of yours tell their stories: “Some time ago I was experiencing horrible back pain. To put it simply, after my NET sessions the back pain never came back.”-Layla “I battled weight issues most of my life. After my NET sessions at Sterling Holistic Health, I was finally able to lose weight, uncover the real reasons why it hadn’t budged before and, I’ve maintained my results.” -Stephanie Special Offer-Look, I know you’re smart. You want to get to the cause of your problem, and not just cover it up with the latest fad or drug. So, when you call to schedule a new patient exam (by January 25th, 2012) you’ll receive that entire exam for just $47. That’s a full history, an assessment of your current level of functioning, and the report of findings. Plus, it includes NET-the whole ball of wax. These two exams normally cost $354. But, please call right away because this offer expires on January 25, 2012, and I wouldn’t want you to miss out. My office is called Sterling Holistic Health and is in Sellwood, within Elixia Wellness Group, located at 8113 SE 13th Avenue (on the corner of Tacoma, diagonally across from Starbucks). My phone number is 503-232-5653. Please call my wonderful assistants today, Cindy or Kim to reserve your spot. -Serena Sterling, PsyD Holistic Health Practitioner NET Practitioner PS: I know your time is valuable, which is why I have a no-wait policy. You’ll be seen within 10 minutes or less.
At the NCNM Clinic we take the time to listen and to manage your health care holistically, using the most effective treatments, from nutrients and botanicals to acupuncture and hydrotherapy. You’ll have access to the very best of naturopathic and classical Chinese medicine in a peaceful and supportive atmosphere. Helping you achieve and maintain good health is the key measure of our success. Call today for an appointment. 503.552.1551 www.ncnm.edu 3025 SW Corbett Avenue, Portland, OR Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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HEALTH
GYMANIA SO YOU’VE RESOLVED TO JOIN A GYM. GOOD FOR YOU! BUT HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH IS RIGHT FOR YOU? HERE ARE THE ESSENTIAL FACTS. COM P I L E D BY M E L I N DA H ASTI NG
1210 NW Johnson St.; 4121 NE Halsey St.; 1407 SW 4th Ave.; 24hourfitness.com.
No initiation; $36 per month.
DAYCARE
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SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
ADDRESS
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FEES
24 HOUR FITNESS
243-2122
Open 24 hours. 25-meter lap pool, wet/dry sauna, jacuzzi, cycling (at the Pearl location).
CASCADE ATHLETIC CLUB
4016 NE Fremont St., alamedafitness. com.
9260 SE Stark St., cascadeac.com.
$54 per month flat dues, no initiation fee.
$75 initiation fee, waived with a 15-month contract. $47 monthly.
Pool, wet/dry sauna.
None.
Spin, Zumba, yoga, Pilates, hip-hop.
Yoga, Pilates, ballet for kids and youth, TRX, “Hot Mommas.”
Yoga, Pilates, spin.
$20 unlimited per month or $4 for two hours.
None.
$20 per month for unlimited care.
EAST/WEST SIDE ATHLETIC CLUB 4606 SE Boardman Ave.; other locations in Clackamas and Milwaukie, eastsideathleticclub.com.
$35 initiation fee. $25 monthly dues. You must attend 8 times per month or incur a $50 charge.
Pool, racquetball.
Climbing wall, TRX training, yoga and Pilates studio, boot-camp studio.
Aqua, Zumba, Group Power, TRX, Pilates, group swim.
$2.50 per hour.
Good for everyone who would like to feel better, faster, lighter, younger, more balanced and more alive.
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1127 SW Morrison St., bodyempower. com.
$50 initiation (average, depending on package). $50 monthly dues.
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THE GREEN MICROGYM
LA FITNESS
1237 NE Alberta St., 828 SE 34th Ave., 7703 SE 13th Ave., thegreenmicrogym.com.
1270 NE Weidler St.; 1400 NW Northrup St.; 4140 SE 82nd Ave., and other locations, lafitness.com.
$100 initiation fee, $40 monthly dues.
$35 monthly dues.
$15 initiation, $44 monthly dues.
$99 initiation fee, waived with a 12-month contract. $40 monthly for 24-hour access.
Saltwater pool, jacuzzi, wet/dry sauna (at the Pearl location).
Racquetball and squash courts, steam room, wet/ dry sauna, hot tub.
Yoga studio.
iPads on the elliptical machines. All the equipment contain generators that provide power to the gym.
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4943 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., mefitpdx.com.
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$17-$33 monthly, varying by location.
Basketball courts, climbing walls, swimming pools.
Yoga, Zumba, Pilates, cycling.
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FOOD & DRINK
Eat Happy | Drink Well
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
Intimate Dinners&Boisterous Feasts
By RUTH BROWN. PRICES: $: Most entrees under $10. $$: $10-$20. $$$: $20$30. $$$$: Above $30. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
Gilt Club holds a dinner, matching piggy dishes like spicy Thai pork spareribs and pulled pork on scallops with cocktails using R1 rye whiskey. Gilt Club, 306 NW Broadway, 222-4458. 5 pm. $55.
Beat the Winter Blues Party
A wine tasting and soup cookoff to raise money for Esther’s Pantry, which provides food and personal-care products to low-
Stay Tuned for Jazz dans la Cave Friday, February 3 with the George Colligan Trio Friday, February 24 with the Alan Jones Sextet
Salt & Straw Meet the Producer Series: Mark Bitterman
Alberta’s Salt & Straw hosts a tasting series including the Meadow co-owner and “selmelier,” who will take participants on a tour of artisan finishing salts. At some point, this will involve eating ice cream. Salt & Straw, 2035 NE Alberta St., 208-3867. 1 pm. Free.
AMAREN COLOSI
REVIEW
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Gilt Club’s Hog and Rye Dinner
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SATURDAY, JAN. 14
...at the community bar, rustic dining room, or in your own private room
income people with HIV or AIDS. Hip Chicks Do Wine, 4510 SE 23rd Ave., 234-3790. 5-9 pm. $15 general admission, $5 for wine-club members. 21+.
503.654.4423 • 10605 SE Main St. Milwaukie, OR www.CanbyAsparagusFarm.com
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Run an image search for “torta” and you’ll find many small variations on a single theme: lots of meat, avocado and shredded iceberg lettuce stuffed in an enormous loaf of soft, lightly crusted roll. Sometimes there is cheese; sometimes there are hot dogs. Almost always there is heartburn. Order a torta at Torta-Landia, a rancho-themed restaurant that opened in July in the former Rock Cafe building just off Southeast Foster Road, and you’ll get a sandwich that’s related but unfamiliar. It’s as if a member of the Torta family—little María Jesus—had been sent off to boarding school for eight years and returned insisting everyone call her MJ. Not content with the passé squishiness of the bolillo, she opts instead for the classy chew of a “bolo roll” from Grand Central Bakery, and she rejects mayonnaise for “tequila-chili aioli.” Torta-Landia’s sandwiches are, in short, not a fitting substitute for the enormous, heart-stopping absurdities dished by La Catrina, which caters to honest laborers in need of fuel. Like most products of culinary gentrification, they are a little smaller, a little healthier and, at $9 to $10 with one side, a little more expensive. But that’s not bad. Although the al pastor is a little dry and the carnitas are a little soft, the sandOrder this: Carne asada torta, $10. wiches, overloaded with Best deal: Two tacos for $3 from 3-5 pm aioli, crema and avocado, Tuesday-Friday and 9 pm-close TuesdaySunday. are, for all their differI’ll pass: Lovers of traditional al pastor ences, quite good. The will be disappointed. carne asada, dressed with cheese and peppers over big, tender hunks of seared cow, is downright delicious. Sides are fine—tasty beans and fried potato fritters are standouts. The enormous burritos ($5-$8) lean, as they should, toward California, loaded with ripe avocado and wrapped in housemade tortillas. But most important, Torta-Landia, with its pleasant casual service, free-jazz soundtrack and tap list featuring the micro favorites of the day (Double Mountain, Southern Oregon, Fort George), is a nice place to hang out on a stretch of Foster that has very few such places. For that, we’ll even overlook the name. BEN WATERHOUSE. EAT: Torta-Landia, 4144 SE 60th Ave., 445-9966, tortalandia.com. 3 pm-close Tuesday-Friday, 11 am-close Saturday-Sunday. $. Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK
CONT.
C H R I S R YA N P H O T O . C O M
EAT MOBILE
DANG GOOD: Beef rendang from Batavia.
BATAVIA There’s a great cup of coffee in Portland that costs only 75 cents. It’s light, sweet and has an earthy flavor that makes it the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon meal of meat and peanut sauce. I’m not talking Thai, this is Indonesian food—similar but with hints of Indian and Chinese cooking and spices. The chicken satay ($6.99) is a good place to start for the slightly adventurous eater who can’t fully commit to something that’s difficult to pronounce. Plus, it comes on a stick, and who can argue with grilled meat on a stick covered in yummy sauce? It’s the unfamiliar at Batavia that requires attention. Mie ayam ($6.99)—a noodle soup made of chicken broth, egg noodles and meatballs—offers a strange flavor combination at first, with the noodles overpowering the subtle broth. The meatballs are intentionally bland, letting the other Order this: Beef rendang ($6.99). complex flavors compleBest deal: Gado-gado—steamed vegetables with peanut sauce, fried ment one another. In the tempeh, boiled egg and shrimp chips beef rendang ($6.99), the ($4.99). meat does just the oppoI’ll pass: Who needs a sandwich with all this other great stuff? site, playing the lead role with its subtle spice and tender texture. It’s no wonder rendang, traditionally served to honored guests, was named in a recent CNN poll as the world’s most delicious food. It’s great, and Batavia’s version is fabulous. It’s got just enough spice to have a kick but not enough to give you heartburn. Still, your tongue will thank you for following it with lupis ($1.50), sweet rice with shredded coconut and a brown sugar sauce that’s more savory than sweet, but makes a great dessert. PATRICIA SAUTHOFF. EAT: Batavia, 239 SW Washington St., 954-7529. 9 am-3:30 pm Monday-Friday, 9 am-5 pm Saturday.
DRANK
PRECURSOR (10 BARREL BREWING) The folks at 10 Barrel Brewing are eager young Turks. The Bend brewery, founded in 2006, already has a “Product Development Team” and plans to expand across state lines with a Boise brewpub captained by the much-decorated former brewmaster from Barley Brown’s in Baker City. He’ll be teamed with fellow newcomer Tonya Cornett, the only woman named best brewmaster at the World Beer Cup. Precursor, a barrel-aged Imperial red ale, is the lead offering in the 1,000-barrel-a-year brewery’s sanguinely named “Small Batch Series.” (In contrast, Deschutes did 200,000 barrels last year.) Each of the 2,600 bottles is hand-numbered, but ours was marked “10” along with the others at Belmont Station. Popping a very stubborn cork reveals a skyscraper-high head with a surprisingly bitter nose. The beer itself is milder, though there’s an intense but stale hoppiness and a whiskey burn. Precursor was aged in bourbon barrels but its sour fruit and Scotch-like peatiness are far louder. MARTIN CIZMAR. 30
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
MUSIC
JAN. 11-17 PROFILE
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
CAPTUREDTRACKS.COM
MUSIC
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.For more online-only music listings, go to wweek.com.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 11 Dick Dale
[THE ONLY SURFER WHO MATTERS] Dick Dale is the undisputed King of Surf Guitar, though mostly by default. He invented the twangy, staccato picking style made famous by his instrumental “Misirlou”—reintroduced to the zeitgeist by Pulp Fiction, then again a decade later by, um, the Black Eyed Peas—and while his attempts to record the sounds swirling in his head as he surfed off the California coast in the early ’60s gave birth to an entire genre, it’s not like anyone who isn’t a guitar geek can name the closest competitors for his crown. So he’s not like Michael Jordan as much as he’s like the Michael Jordan of, say, Uzbekistan. Whatever, though. It doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s still a certifiable badass who, at age 74, wouldn’t even let a recent cancer scare stop him from ripping up stages across the country. MATTHEW SINGER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.
THURSDAY, JAN. 12 Emily Wells, Timmy Straw
[CLASSICAL HIP-HOP] Emily Wells can hardly contain herself. Sure, there’s a certain trepidation to her vocals, which flutter in and out of classically charged beats like a hummingbird greets a feeder. Seems fair considering these genres, classical music and hip-hop, never set out to meet. But Wells is a progressive people-pleaser at heart, injecting bounce and swagger into otherwise dapper and traditional melodies. It’s an infectious marriage; just ask Dan the Automator (who plays with Wells under the moniker Pillowfight) and former tourmate and fan Colin Stetson. Mama, Wells’ longawaited third album—recorded on a horse ranch just outside of L.A., mind you—is due out this spring. Baroque crunk is back, and hopefully for good. MARK STOCK. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Natasha Kmeto, Graintable, Plumblyne, Danny Corn, Sweatson Klank
[EXPRESSIVE ELECTRONICS] The past few years have seen the city of Portland stake its rightful claim as the home of some amazing beat makers and electronic producers. One of the names that is quickly heading to the forefront of this renaissance is Natasha Kmeto. The young producer and performer helped provide the soundtrack for a million delicious dreams with her 2010 release, Expressor, a disc that showcased her abilities to generate sexy stutter-step beats and her soulful, icy-hot vocalizing. With an East Coast tour lined up next month, now is the time to let her feel the hometown love. ROBERT HAM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 239-7639. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
Arctic Flowers, Mundo Muerto, Autistic Youth (The Know’s 7th anniversary)
[LOCAL PUNK] There are a lot of antecedents in Arctic Flowers’ eruptive punk assault—Joy Divisionish bass lines, shards of guitar picked up from Gang of Four, Crass-style anarcho shout-alongs, the voice of the Avengers’ Penelope Houston in singer Alex’s desperate holler—but on Reverie, its 2011 debut LP, the Portland band finds a snarl all its own. Doomy and angry in equal measure, the group displays a remarkable knack for mixing and matching punk aggression with dark, near-gothic textures. It’s a perfect fit for a place like the Know. Speaking of which, the venue is spending the entire week celebrating its
seventh anniversary, but this show falls on the actual date it opened, which will be commemorated with a “special Champagne toast.” Of course, this being one of the most proudly divey dive bars in town, “Champagne” probably means Miller High Life. MATTHEW SINGER. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
FRIDAY, JAN. 13 David Grisman and Frank Vignola
[NEWGRASS] Master mandolin innovator, former Jerry Garcia BFF, touring juggernaut and Walt Whitman impersonator David “Dawg” Grisman has spent the majority of his 66 years crafting a niche hybrid of bluegrass, folk, jazz and psychedelia that has made him a favorite of musical purists and Deadheads alike. Appearing on more than 60 recordings—including a recent release under David Grisman’s Folk Jazz Trio and a tribute to Bill Monroe—Dawg has plenty of material to draw on with his current touring partner, jazz guitarist Frank Vignola. The duo’s appearance promises a wholly engrossing night of instrumental mastery. AP KRYZA. Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 7196055. 8 pm. $22 advance, $25 day of show. Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. All ages.
Big Ass Boombox: Tiger House, Scrimshander, Sons of Huns, Queued Up, The We Shared Milk, Torn ACLs, Profcal
[PDX POP NOW!-ISH] Twenty bands, four venues, $0: That’s the rather persuasive by-the-numbers pitch for Big Ass Boombox, a new all-local and (mostly) all-ages festival that will invite fans of Portland bands—particularly under-21ers—to mingle with the crackheads in Old Town. There, like the SAD-afflicted huddled under Vitamin D lamps, they’ll get their wintertime dose of under-age-friendly local music until summer, and the PDX Pop Now! festival, rolls around again. The varied lineup of under-the-radar acts features punk outfit Sons of Huns, country- and soul-influenced rockers My Autumn’s Done Come and orchestral-pop quintet Pigeons. JONATHAN FROCHTZWAJG. Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 248-2900. 7:30 pm. Free. Other venues include Floating World Comics, Sohitek Gallery and Someday Lounge. See music calendar for details. All ages.
School of Rock and PDX Pop Now!’s Best of Portland
[KID ROCK] If you doubt for a moment that you’re living in (or visiting, perhaps) a special little corner of the world, this ought to shake you out of those doldrums: Tonight the Portland branch of the School of Rock is benefiting one of Portland’s best nonprofits, PDX Pop Now!, by pairing the kids from the school with a host of amazing local rockers to cover the city’s best contemporary rock tunes. That’s right, these teenage kids are playing songs from bands like the Thermals, Menomena, Red Fang, Blitzen Trapper and Typhoon—alongside members of said bands. That’s called synergy, people, and it should prove as fun to watch as it is to be a part of. CASEY JARMAN. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 225-0047. 8 pm. $14 advance, $20. All ages.
Pickwick, Bryan John Appleby, Jessica Dobson
[NEW AGE SOUL] Pickwick took its own shot at the indie-folk sound that breeds exponentially in the band’s native Seattle music scene. Luckily,
CONT. on page 33
BEHIND THE BUZZ BLOUSE IS A REAL BAND. BY JON ATHA N FR OCHTZWA JG
243-2122
At the North Portland warehouse where Blouse rehearses and records—a local ad firm’s outpost occupied by commercial props and a half-pipe— singer-guitarist Charlie Hilton, bassist Patrick Adams and touring drummer Paul Roper give a rundown of their 2012 calendar. “I’ve never been more excited for a year,” says the casually mussed Adams. Following its show at Doug Fir Lounge on Jan. 11, the band will tour the West Coast, hop the pond for 20 European dates, play SXSW in Austin, Texas, in March and record a second album in April. There are plenty of reasons to be excited. Not that 2011 was unkind to Blouse: The band’s star rose precipitously last year. Hilton, 30, and Adams, 31, had each put music on the back burner to focus on graphic design when they met in a course at Portland State University and started playing together after class. Adams, sensing potential, asked longtime friend Jacob Portrait—bassist for Unknown Mortal Orchestra and producer for the Dandy Warhols and Starfucker—to help get the nascent project on record. Adams posted “Into Black,” a sparing song built around a slinky bass line and Hilton’s ethereal vocals, to the musicstreaming website Bandcamp. “Right away, we started getting emails from smaller labels and people that had blogs and things like that,” Adams recalls. “It felt really magical…that people were drawn to it so quickly,” adds the mellifluously voiced Hilton. “It just kept picking up momentum.” Within a few months, Blouse had released singles on two influential labels, Sub Pop and Captured Tracks, and had been signed to the latter for their full-length. The band was blowing up—yet it was hard not to be skeptical of Blouse’s early success. After all, Portrait is a well-connected producer, the band has friends in several acts that have found national success and the group’s hazy, nostalgic sound seems to latch on to a recent resurgence of indistinct production and Reagan-era pop. Could Blouse be some studio-concocted test-tube baby? It would seem so—if Hilton and Adams them-
selves didn’t seem so genuinely surprised by their band’s success, which they alternately describe as “magical” and “fairy-tale.” Hilton, who writes most of Blouse’s songs, says the band’s style was far from preconceived: It started as a “post-punk, real dirty, Galaxie 500 kind of thing,” absorbing flavors from her longstanding affinity for the “simple, beautiful, classic melodies” of artists like Nico, and only gradually yielded to what Hilton calls a “really nostalgic phase.” “It felt like it had a life of its own,” she says. “It just landed in this place, and...we took that as this way to navigate the rest of the songs into that same mood.” The resulting self-titled album, which came out in November, is a stylistically unified collection of ’80s-inspired dream pop, wistful-feeling and gauzy-sounding, with brooding bass, shimmering synth and glazed-over vocals center stage, and Portrait’s masterful production behind the curtain. Twinkling synth-pop songs like “Firestarter” and danceable post-punk numbers like “Time Travel” are studied New Wave tributes, and seduce as such. But the best Blouse tracks gaze forward and backward, Janus-like, to meld New Romantic aesthetics with more recent production sophistication. Portrait mixes “They Always Fly Away” beautifully, setting the sober meditation on transience in a bleak soundscape of eerie keys and vaguely menacing, steadily swelling bass. Elsewhere, his soundboard artistry reveals itself in glinting details, as when the opening bars of “Videotapes” slide in and out of tune—like a VHS tape in need of tracking. The album’s sound is, on the whole, vintage. Next time around, Hilton and Adams talk of a more contemporary feel—“clearer,” “bigger” and sans the time-stamp of their Juno-6 keyboard. “We’re not, like, totally stuck in the past,” Hilton says. Good thing, because the future looks bright. As it embarks on this tour, Blouse has played only 12 shows to date, all with a continually shifting lineup of backing musicians. But the band members seem, if humble, not especially concerned. “I’m excited to just play and see what happens,” Hilton says. And why not? Thus far, Blouse’s fairy tale has been all happily-ever-afters. SEE IT: Blouse plays Doug Fir Lounge on Wednesday, Jan. 11, with Wampire. 9 pm. $8. 21+. Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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80S VIDEO DANCE ATTACK-lola’s 1/22 PORTLAND MUSIC AWARDS 1/29 DANNY BARNES-lola’s 2/3 HER BENEFIT: DJ ANJALI 2/5 BARGAIN HUNTING 2/13 DR. DOG 2/14 CHALI 2NA-lola’s 2/17 BIG HEAD TODD & THE MONSTERS 2/22 THE FRAY 2/24 PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL: BILL FRISELL 2/25 PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL: VIJAY IYER, PRASANNA & NITTIN MITTA (3 PM) 2/25 PDX JAZZ FESTIVAL: CHARLIE HUNTER (9:30 PM) 3/2 & 3 RAILROAD EARTH 3/4 MARCH FOURTH MARCHING BAND 3/15 NEEDTOBREATHE 3/22 KAISER CHIEFS 3/23 OF MONTREAL 3/24 GALACTIC 3/31 DARK STAR ORCHESTRA 5/2 SNOW PATROL
AL’S DEn at CRYSTAL
HOTEL
Sunday, January 15, 22 & 29
School of Rock
OMSI Science Pub
PDXJazz presents: Cyrille Aimée & Diego Figueiredo: “Django To Jobim”
Saturday, January 28
Nomading Film Festival
Sunday, February 5
Super Bowl XLVI
Tuesday and Wednesday, February 14 & 15
Mortified Portland
Sunday, February 26 84th Academy Awards Call our movie hotline to find out what’s playing this week!
Event and movie info at mcmenamins.com/mission
FRI JAN 27 ALL AGES
1/13
DANCEONAIR.COM
Old Time Music Gathering Cabaret
(503) 249-7474
moe.
Rob Wynia (of Floater)
Miz Kitty’s Parlour
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CHAMPIONSHIPS
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SIREN AND THE SEA HOWL AND WIND
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Portlandia Friday Night TV Party
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TARA WILLIAMSON MATTHEW GAILEY
BEARD &
Performing live for his debut solo release “Iron By Water”
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The historic
REDRAY FRAZIER LINCOLN CROCKETT ELECTRIC BAND 4:30 p.m. is “eagle time” • free
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Mike Thrasher presents
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1624 N.W. Glisan • Portland 503-223-4527
14th and W. Burnside
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CRYSTAL BALLROOM
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Lush, orchestrated rock 7 p.m.
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PETE KARTSOUNES Soulful songwriting 7 p.m.
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FRIDAY
Fu Manchu, Lord Dying, Witchburn
[STONER ROCK] The stoner-rock movement comes in waves; the cycles ebb and flow like the bongwater in a double percolator. In the ’90s, Kyuss, Monster Magnet and Sleep ruled the scene, while Southern California’s Fu Manchu nipped at the holy trinity’s heels. By 1996, Fu Manchu had established its own brand of underachieving fuzz rock to the degree that it was signed by Mammoth Records. The major-label debut album In Search Of became a cult fan favorite, marking the end of a lineup that included Eddie Glass, who went on to form Nebula. Tonight, In Search Of will be performed in its entirety, as history prepares to load itself yet another bowl. NATHAN CARSON. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 233-7100. 8 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
Pancake Breakfast, Great Wilderness, Bryan Free
[SINGALONG FOLK-ROCK] You can’t get pancakes at Jimmy Mak’s, but there’s something quite appealing about watching Portland’s Pancake Breakfast—which releases a rollickingly good tune about its home town, “PortlandtownUSA,” tonight—while chomping on gyros and fries at Portland’s finest jazz club. This band may start with some Tom T. Hall-esque wacky honky-tonk numbers, but Pancake Breakfast at full force is loud enough to stretch the sound system at Jimmy’s, where things are genuinely a touch more, you know, jazzy. We love the formatbreaking and Portland sure loves Pancake Breakfast—expect this one to pack the house and be an awful lot of fun. CASEY JARMAN. Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave., 295-6542. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Stripper Pussy, Monogamy Party, Wax Edison
[NOXIOUS NOISE] Nearly everything about Los Angeles’ Stripper Pussy is execrable. The band name is an idiotic provocation. Stupid song titles sport wordplay the likes of which one does not usually encounter outside of a pubescent boy’s addled head—“Cuntry” and “Tig Ol’ Bitties” are my favorite—and the lyrics, like the whole Stripper Pussy shebang, reduce knowing dumbness to dull brattiness. Get past the artschool schlock, however, and what you’ll find is an undeniably wonderful synth-punk assault reminiscent of Jay Reatard’s work with Nervous Patterns and Lost Sounds. Only nastier, because, you know, the band’s called Stripper Pussy. CHRIS STAMM. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
The Shook Twins, Ruby Pines, Worth
[QUIRKY FOLK] Harmonies are beautiful, but twin harmonies are even better. Sorry to state the obvious, but the allure of the Shook Twins is the fact that Katelyn and Laurie Shook are, indeed, twins. As two people who’ve been together since the womb, the sisters have a bond most musical duos strive
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PROFILE B R A N D Y K AY Z A K I A N - R O W E
the group had a revelation after its singer Galen Disston heard Sam Cooke on the radio. It turns out that Disston’s pipes are more befitting a soul singer than an ambient-folk frontman, and the group has found its home playing a genre somewhere between pop, soul and whatever feels good. Pickwick has yet to release anything more than a series of three 7-inches and a split EP of covers (with Concours d’Elegance), but the band is hard at work on a full-length album that’s expected to come out this year. Tonight’s show also features fellow Seattle musician Bryan John Appleby, whose Fire on the Vine was recently listed among WW’s albums of the year. EMILEE BOOHER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 231-9663. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
MUSIC
503.288.3895 info@mississippistudios.com 3939 N. Mississippi
all shows 21+ 8pm doors 9pm show (except where noted)
Former frontman for Low vs Diamond, this Seattleite spins soul inflected pop melodies, showing why Seattle isn’t just a home for folk rock anymore
LUCAS FIELD
+KENDL WINTER
FULLY SEATED - 200 TICKETS AVAILABLE
WED JAN 11th
$8 Adv
NPR has called him one of the best living songwriters, and Dondero lives up to the hype, a classic folk troubadour who weaves a captivating, mesmerizing song
DAVID
DONDERO ST. EVEN +VIKESH KAPOOR
THUR JAN 12th
DAVID ORNETTE CHERRY SATURDAY, JAN. 14 [ADVENTURES IN JAZZ] As it has been on previous albums, the cover of David Ornette Cherry’s most recent solo disc, Eternal Monologue, shows the keyboardist’s last name in capital letters and colored red. It’s a fitting tribute to his musical family, which includes fellow musicians Neneh, Eagle-Eye and Jan. But mostly it is there to emphasize the creative relationship between David and his famous father, the late jazz trumpeter Don Cherry. It began when David was 16 and sitting in with his dad’s group for the first time. The relationship continues today, 16 years after Don’s death, with one of the centerpiece tracks from David’s new album, titled simply “Groove For My Father.” “I really did it for him,” Cherry says, speaking on the phone from his Portland home. “I had just pulled into Los Angeles and was staying with my aunt and looking at the photos of my dad. And I went to the Watts Towers, a landmark in L.A., which is very powerful for me spiritually. I was hanging out thinking about my dad, and I immediately went back and started working on it.” The African-inspired track features David playing some of Don’s favorite instruments, including flute and the guitarlike doussin gouni, with the melodies built into a steady, down-tempo groove. “I didn’t have to think about naming the song,” David says. “It was there. I can hear him playing the trumpet over this thing.” Inspired by explorations of his African and Native American roots (David is part Choctaw) as well as the work he has been doing for theater productions, the rest of Eternal keeps a strong rhythmic core that dabbles in straight-up funk (“Unexplored Area”) and minimalist electronic beats (“Eternal Influences”) while also featuring ambient keyboard interludes that could have been lifted from latter-day Brian Eno albums. David points to a larger theme of the last few years—traveling, working and recording—as influencing his sound. “It’s the feeling of being in the United States, and all the things I’ve seen and experienced: the environment, great artists. And it’s a culmination of my experience playing music for the past 30 years or so.” The 53-year-old musician’s journey has taken him all over the world, performing with his father and with his own groups, as well as working on projects like a spoken-word jazz opera that should open in L.A. late this year. That winding path brought him to Portland in 2007, when he moved here after visiting to compose music for a play by local writer Susan Banyas. Four years on, David Ornette Cherry (his middle name is a tribute to jazz great Ornette Coleman, a regular collaborator with David’s father) has settled comfortably in the local jazz scene, playing regularly around town with a band featuring guitarist Frank Tribble and drummer Carlton Jackson. David embraces the responsibility imparted to him by his father—an idea wrapped up in his last name and in the long tradition of jazz in America. “What I learned from my dad is that [playing jazz] is a responsibility because of the heritage and the ancestors, and that there is a beauty in the music, a spirituality, a consciousness,” he says. “I have to understand those standards and continue to reach.” ROBERT HAM.
Local four-piece Forest Park celebrate an anticipated record release, showcasing dynamic guitars and vocals that make for one of the most innovative bands around
A monthly explosive dance extravaganza
FOREST
What’s in a name? Well, in this case, quite a lot.
SEE IT: David Ornette Cherry and his band play at a CD-release party for Eternal Monologue at the Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont St., on Saturday, Jan. 14. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
$10 Adv
PARK
TWO SHOWS! +YOUTH FREE! FRI JAN 13th AAN
DUCK LITTLE BROTHER DUCK +YOUR RIVAL
6:30 Doors, 7:00 Show ALL AGES!
SAT JAN 14th
$5 Adv
Our favorite locals return with swarming rock songs channeling a heavy metal influence
BLOOD BEACH
MRS w/ DJ BEYONDA 10pm - 2am
SAT JAN 14th
$5 DOS
A Chicago quintet of multi-instrumentalists who create an experimental sonic landscape that gracefully encompasses a multitude of genres
A LULL DELETED SCENES +RAVENNA WOODS
THUR JAN 19th
HAUNTED HORSES
SUN JAN 15th
+ANNE FREE!
The finest of Northwest players who pay tribute to our favorite soul artist
JOEYTRIBUTE PORTER’S TO STEVIE WONDER
TWO SHOWS!
FRI JAN 20th
$15 Adv
SAT JAN 21st
$15 Adv
TWO SHOWS! 7:30 Doors, 8:00 Show
MON JAN 23rd TUE JAN 24th
Rock, jazz, and blues come alive with famed instrumental rock guitarist Johnny A behind the strings, an eloquent player who has earned himself a spot as one of the great guitar masters
JOHNNY A SUN JAN 22nd
$18 Adv
Stephen Ashbrook is a singer/songwriter known for alt rock and guitar driven songs, with rich baritone vocals and swelling folk induced songs that can’t help but win your heart
STEPHEN ASHBROOK
+SARAH GWEN PETERS PARTIALLY SEATED 7:00 Doors, 7:15 Show
$20 Adv $20 Adv
$8 Adv
WED JAN 25th
$10 Adv
Coming Soon: 1/26 - DKOTA 1/27 - INTO THE WOODS 2nd ANNIVERSARY PARTY 1/28 - FUJIYA & MIYAGI 1/29 - THE PARSON RED HEADS 1/31 - DOLDRUMS 2/1 - PAPER/ UPPER/ CUTS 2/2 - DAVID JACOBS-STRAIN 2/3 - LAURA GIBSON 2/4 - THEE SILVER MT. ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA 2/6 - THE FEATURES 2/7 - ELEANOR FREIEDBERGER
www.mississippistudios.com Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
33
MUSIC
FRIDAY-SATURDAY
13 topless bartenders & 80 dancers each week! Open Every Day 11am to 2:30am www.CasaDiablo.com
STONED AND RE-THRONED: Fu Manchu plays the Hawthorne Theatre on Friday.
(503) 222-6600 • 2839 NW St. Helens Rd
for and never achieve. The Shook Twins’ performances feel like a glimpse into a long history of musical discovery—their shows can feel like late-night porch sessions, where the songs are so internalized they stream out like a conversation. On a given night, the ladies might bust out anything from a telephone microphone to an ocarina to a beatboxing loop, always maintaining the kind of organic sound that comes from years of experience. EMILEE BOOHER. Secret Society Lounge, 116 NE Russell St., 4933600. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Blake Lyman Trio
[MODERN JAZZ] Portland saxophonist Blake Lyman’s trio is a bit unconventional. The group is piano-less, with bassist Andrew Jones and drummer Jonas Oglesbee filling out a sound that’s surprisingly deep considering its portability. Unlike a lot of debut efforts, Lyman and company also rely almost entirely on originals on debut disc Anthology, for Now—Joe Henderson’s well-rendered “Black Narcissus” being the lone exception. And in an age where young players often premiere chaotic bursts of sound, Lyman’s group prefers to mix straight-ahead sounds reminiscent of pre-bop Charlie Parker and more modern pre-free influences. “Song” and “The Game” feel indebted to John Coltrane, but other tracks remind, funny enough, of pianist composers like George Russell and Bill Evans (the latter was often criticized for doing the sort of multi-track layering that Lyman does on the gorgeous and mathy “Pastoral”). There’s an awful lot of talent in the playing here, but the real draw is in Lyman’s knack for original composition and the group’s noir mood. CASEY JARMAN. Vie de Boheme, 1530 SE 7th Ave., 360-1233. 8 pm. $5. 21+.
SATURDAY, JAN. 14 Kimya Dawson, The Morals
[FOLK HELPING FOLKS] In the past three years I’ve managed to see Olympia-born twee singularity Kimya Dawson both in the cavernous reaches of the Wonder Ballroom and the “hugging distance only” confines of Music Millennium. If you’re familiar with Dawson’s work (even if it’s only from the Juno soundtrack), you can guess which of those relative intimacies best befits her whimsical, bedroom-styled folk. Backspace, thankfully, features a room cozy enough for Dawson’s “let’s hang out and play guitar” vibe to actually make some sense. Proceeds from this show will help support the continued existence of Backspace, a place that, like most all-ages venues, doesn’t always make enough on booze to drum up the rent money. SHANE DANAHER. Backspace, 115 NW 5th Ave., 2482900. 9 pm. $12. All ages.
Peter Rowan
[BLUEGRASS ’N’ FOLK] Peter Rowan is a veteran of both Bill
34
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
Monroe’s ’60s band the Bluegrass Boys (to which he contributed guitar work, mandolin and vocals) and ’70s rock groups Seatrain and the Rowan Brothers as a guitarist and singer. He wrote “Panama Red” and other songs for the New Riders of the Purple Sage, then banded with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and others to form Old and in the Way. After making a yodeling appearance on an Art of Noise album (No Sense? Nonsense), Rowan got back to his bluegrass roots on his 2010 album, Legacy. To see someone like Rowan in an intimate setting like the Beaterville Cafe is a rare opportunity. We can’t guarantee there will be yodeling— but then we can’t guarantee there won’t be yodeling, either. DAN DEPREZ. Beaterville Cafe, 2201 N Killingsworth St., 735-4652. 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire, Mike Simonetti
[DISCO ITALIANA] From the math-rock “Computer Love” to the Bell Jar-esque acid trip that is “Covered in Bugs,” Glass Candy has managed to transcend dozens of musical genres in its 15-year run. Frontwoman Ida No has a voice any teeny-bopper would bite and scratch for: She’s like Tiffany with a hipper ’tude and effortlessly dreamy vocals. The Portland duo plays “Mike Simonetti’s Sweet Sixteen Party” (that you must be 21 years old to attend) with fellow Italians Do It Better artists Chromatics, Desire and the fake birthday boy himself, who co-founded the label. For a look at what’s in store, check out the pounding, synthy “Digital Versicolor” on Glass Candy’s 2007 Beat Box album, or just pick up the Drive soundtrack, on which two of the four groups are featured. NIKKI VOLPICELLI. Branx, 320 SE 2nd Ave., 234-5683. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Buzzy Shy Face, Jason Lytle
[SMART POP] Jason Lytle and Buzzy Shy Face’s Herman Jolly have something in common: Both once fronted critically acclaimed bands that lived and died as “next big things.” For Lytle, that band was Grandaddy, a sensitive-andsmart rock group that reminded of an Internet-generation Pixies. For Jolly it was Sunset Valley, which applied a scattershot punk ethic to Kinks- and Beatles-inspired tunes. Neither musician has tried to bury his past—Sunset Valley occasionally reunites and Grandaddy just re-issued its excellent 2000 record, The Sophtware Slump—but neither tries to re-create it in these stripped-down appearances, either. Both songwriters are well-loved and occasionally inspire crowd singalongs, so expect a warm, familial feel here—and really, you can jump in any time. CASEY JARMAN. Kelly’s Olympian, 426 SW Washington St., 228-3669. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
Mrs. with DJ Beyonda
[SOUL SHAKE] Tonight, Casey Minatrea (a.k.a. DJ Beyonda)
CONT. on page 36
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
35
DATES HERE
MUSIC
SATURDAY-SUNDAY RONALD RIETMAN
NEW MUSIC FOR THE NEW YEAR LLITTLE WILLIES
For The Good Times
$14.95-cd/$15.95-lp
Norah Jones returns with her country-tinged outfit, this time covering Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and of course, Willie Nelson.
LLADYSMITH LADY SMITH BLACK MAMBAZO AZO
Friday, Jan 13th
& Friends
DAVID GRISMAN FRANK VIGNOLA
$16.95-2xcd
The South African group releases an album of their collaborations, including tracks with Emmylou Harris, Taj Mahal, Dolly Parton, Paul Simon & more.
PAPA WAS A YODELING STONE: Peter Rowan plays Beaterville Cafe on Saturday.
SNOW PATROL Fallen Empires
$12.95-cd/$17.95cd+dvd/$14.95-lp
An album that takes it’s cues from LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire, Fallen Empires is poised to be Snow Patrol’s best yet. Sale prices good thru 1/22/12
NEW RELEASES Kronos Quartet • Charlie Haden & Hank Jones Joshua Bell • Alex Chilton • Nightwish • Yo Gotti
USED NEW &s & VINYL VD CDs, D
Saturday, Jan 14th
KEEGAN SMITH sneakin’ out with
THE DOYLE BROTHERS Monday, Jan 16th
FOR ANY & ALL USED CDs, DVDs & VINYL
DOWNTOWN • 1313 W. Burnside • 503.274.0961 EASTSIDE • 1931 NE Sandy Blvd. • 503.239.7610 BEAVERTON • 3290 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. • 503.350.0907 OPEN EVERYDAY AT 9 A.M. | WWW.EVERYDAYMUSIC.COM
OCCUPY the DREAM with MIC CRENSHAW, WANDERLUST CIRCUS, the SPROCKETTES, DAVID ROVICS AND MORE!
Thursday, Jan 19th
BEN DARWISH + SHOOK TWINS Friday, Jan 20th AN EVENING WITH
PETER YARROW
AND FRIENDS: CHRISTOPHER YARROW• LAURA VEIRS• BLAQUE BUTTERFLY •ADAM+KRIS Saturday, Jan 21st
20th ANNIVERSARY SHOW!
THE RENEGADE SAINTS W/ SPECIAL GUEST HAYMAKER Sunday, Jan 22nd
comes to Mississippi Studios to host Mrs., one of the queerest dance parties in all of the city. The Memphis-born DJ and tastemaker is known around Portland for digging up rare ’50s and ’60s funk and soul tracks and patching them together to make them more danceable than ever. Each month, Beyonda chooses guest DJs to help set the mood for the Portland pride event. She plays only original, uncommon mixes that are sure to keep everyone interested and on the dance floor shaking everything. NIKKI VOLPICELLI. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 288-3895. 10 pm. $5. 21+.
band—Foal. This power trio employs a more modern hardcore style to its pulverizing sludge, recalling the latest album by Chicago’s Indian or Cleveland’s Keelhaul. Give it up for some local up-and-comers who put the riffs before the skinny pants. NATHAN CARSON. Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 238-0543. 9 pm. $6. 21+.
Sandrider, Gaytheist, Brokaw, Triplehorn
[PSYCH-GARAGE HORROR SHOW] The California-based surf-garage band Thee Cormans takes its love of ’50s and ’60s kitsch to the logical extreme: The four musicians dress up in masks and outfits right out of the B-horror movie costume closet. Too, the group’s 2011 release, Halloween Album, mixes sound effects of monster attacks, spooky wind and screaming girls into its fuzzy, frothy instrumentals. The band is joined at the Kenton Club by the equally kitschy and fun Cécilia und die Sauerkrauts, a Portland group that dresses like extras from The Sound of Music but plays covers of its favorite ’60s yé-yé French pop tunes. ROBERT HAM. Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., 285-3718. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
[HEAVY HEAVINESS] If you are one of those strange people who wish Seattle metal titans Akimbo were even heavier and more bombastic, might I suggest you give a listen to Sandrider? Not only does the group feature Nat Damm and John Weisnewski from Akimbo, but the two have also collaborated for this new project that is deeper, weightier, and more mind-bogglingly devastating than the screaming fury of Akimbo. It helps that the band takes its name and many of its lyrical themes from the pages of Frank Herbert’s Dune books. Now that’s metal to geek out to. ROBERT HAM. Plan B, 1305 SE 8th Ave., 230-9020. 8 pm. $6. 21+.
Keith Murray, Love Loungers, DJ Zimmie
[BOOM BAP] Keith Murray isn’t a name that rolls off the tongue, which perhaps begins to explain the Long Island MC’s low profile alongside some of his more famous contemporaries (EPMD and Big Daddy Kane among them). Murray is also a bit too stylistically slippery to pin down: His rhyme schemes bob and weave like a featherweight in the first round, but his voice is smoky and deep; he’s an exceedingly clever battle-bred MC, but he sticks to bread-and-butter subject matter like weed and street violence. Then there’s the other stuff (he was dropped from Def Jam after allegedly assaulting a member of the label’s street team). Still, Murray should not be slept on. His latest disc, 2008’s Puff Puff Pass, retains the MC’s boombap sensibilities while developing a self-aware sense of humor and a refreshed sense of hustle. CASEY JARMAN. The Crown Room, 205 NW 4th Ave., 503-222-6655. 9:30 pm. $5. 21+.
Starkiller, Ritual Healing, Tanagra, Foal, Brazen the Skeptik
ALASDAIR FRASER NATALIE HASS Alberta Rose Theatre (503) 764-4131 3000 NE Alberta AlbertaRoseTheatre.com
36
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
[METAL] It’s rare anymore that I’m handed a demo that gets me excited. CD-Rs are truly the bane of my existence. But the manager of the CD/Game Exchange in Gresham recently tipped me off to the existence of Ritual Healing, a local death-metal band that is taking increasing cues from thrash and classic metal for a refreshing aural assault. Ritual Healing’s bassist, Josh Herman, also leads his own
SUNDAY, JAN. 15 Thee Cormans, Thee Headliners, Cécelia und die Sauerkrauts, Chemicals, Audios Amigos
The Isley Brothers
[SOUL LEGENDS] Careers don’t get much more epic than that of the Isley Brothers. From their success with “Shout” in 1959—the song is still bringing in royalties for the Isleys thanks to sporting arenas—to funkier mid-career hits like “It’s Your Thing” and “That Lady,” right down to smooth latter-era sex jams (“Between the Sheets” has aged better than most tunes from the ’80s, and, like much of the Isleys’ work, remains heavily sampled in the hip-hop world), these guys won’t stop. Remaining brothers Ronald (vocals) and Ernie Isley (guitar) have kept the group rolling over the past 15 years or so, hobnobbing with guys like R. Kelly, Snoop and T.I. in endless fruitful collaborations, and the duo’s own material remains shockingly wellproduced and relevant. On tour, the Isleys are still a family affair: 70-year-old Ronald’s young wife and her sisters sing back-up, and their 5-year-old son waits in the wings. Hell, Ronald’s outfits have been picked out by the same guy for 40 years. If you’ll only drive to one casino show this year— and what a shame that would be for you—this is our pick. CASEY JARMAN. Spirit Mountain Casino, 27100 SW Salmon River Highway, Grand Ronde, 800-760-7977. 8 pm. $15. 16-and-up minors are allowed in with parent. See wweek.com for excerpts from Casey Jarman’s awful interview with Ronald Isley. 21+.
Trauma, Raw Nerves, Ripper
[GRUFF PUNK] The Know caps its weeklong birthday party with three
CONT. on page 38
! h c n Lu
WIN TICKETS TO
SCAN TO ENTER
JAN. 20 @ CRYSTAL BALLROOM IN LOLA’S ROOM
GO TO WWEEK.COM/PROMOTIONS
6
Announcing New Hours
$
doubletee.com / roSelandpdx.com
SATURDAY NITE!
JAN 24tH • StAR tHeAteR • 9pm • 21+ THE X TOUR
LIVE
SideStep • Sporeganic sat jan 14th • roseland • 9pM • all ages
oN sAle FRIdAy! FeB 23Rd • RoselANd • 8pm • All Ages
SAt feb 4tH • RoSelANd • 9pm • All AgeS
FeB 2nd • roseland • 8pM • all ages
JANuARy 24tH • RoSelANd • 8pm • All AgeS
LIQUID STRANGER LUCKY DATe • Jaden
AmericAn TomAhAwk • revA DeviTo
STEADY MADE MUSIC PRESENTS
March 7th • roseland • 8pM • 21+
Three Six Mafia
YukMouTh • Luni CoLeone PorTSide
STEADY THE BOSS • DJ CHILL
feb 10tH • RoSelANd • 8pm • All AgeS
FRI JANuARy 27th • RoselANd • 8pm • All Ages
SAt feb 18tH • RoSelANd • 9pm • All AgeS
feb 21St • dANte’S • 9pm • 21+
the
JAYHAWKS
ON SALE NOW!
mARcH 14tH • 8pm • All AgeS ARleNe ScHNitzeR coNceRt HAll
DEATHTRAP AMERICA
jan 30th • peter’s rooM@roseland • 8pM • all ages
ABIGAIL WASHBURN WITH KAI WELCH
feb 7tH • RoSelANd • 8pm • 21+ 503-224-tIXX
SAFEWAY-MUSIC MILLENNIUM
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
37
MAKE IT A NIGHT
DATES HERE
Present that night’s show ticket and get $3 off any menu item Sun - Thur in the dining room
DOUG FIR RESTAURANT + BAR OPEN 7AM - 2:30AM EVERYDAY SERVING BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DINNER, LATE-NIGHT. FOOD SPECIALS 3-6 PM EVERYDAY COVERED SMOKING PATIO, FIREPLACE ROOM, LOTS OF LOG. LIVE SHOWS IN THE LOUNGE...
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page 40
+TIMMY STRAW WAMPIRE
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WEDNESDAY JANUARY 11 •
$8 ADVANCE
BUZZ-WORTHY INDIE ROCK SOUL FROM SEATTLE
FRIDAY!
PICKWICK BRYAN JOHN APPLEBY SOLD OUT +JESSICA DOBSON
FRIDAY JANUARY 13
TIX AT THE DOOR
•
$10 ADVANCE
THURSDAY JANUARY 12 •
$10 ADVANCE
AN ALBUM RELEASE PARTY WITH PDX POWER POP KINGS
THROWBACK
SATURDAY!
SUBURBIA SATURDAY JANUARY 14 •
$7 ADVANCE
THE RETURN OF THE KINGS OF HUSHED, HARMONIC MELODIES
+WATER TOWER
SUNDAY JANUARY 15
•
$5 ADVANCE
DEEPLY PERSONAL DREAM POP FROM BOISE BUZZ BUILDER
YOUTH
MILK CARTON
The
KIDS
TIX AT THE DOOR
SATURDAY JANUARY 21 •
+THE BRENDAN HINES
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18 •
$10 ADVANCE
AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH SO-CAL ROCKERS
AUGUSTANA
LAGOON SOLD OUT
+GRAFFITI 6
SUNDAY JANUARY 22 •
$18 ADVANCE
$10 ADVANCE NASHVILLE-BASED SINGER/SONGWRITER AND HOTEL CAFE ALUM
JESSIE BAYLIN
“A LOOK TO THE WEST” TOUR WITH ATOMIC TOM
ATOMIC TOM THE DANCE PARTY +VIOLET ISLE
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 25 •
$10 ADVANCE
MELODIC HEARTFELT INDIE POP FROM THE UK
+THE WATSON TWINS
THURSDAY JANUARY 26 •
$10 ADVANCE
AN EVENING WITH HEAD-TURNING SOUL REVIVALISTS
SCARS ON 45
ALABAMA SHAKES
+ANYA MARINA
SOLD OUT
FRIDAY JANUARY 27
•
$10 ADVANCE
EPIC PSYCHEDELIC ROCK FROM SWEDEN
GRAVEYARD +RADIO MOSCOW
TUESDAY JANUARY 31 •
$10 ADVANCE
TIX AT THE DOOR
SATURDAY JANUARY 28 •
$9 ADVANCE
CROCODILES - 3/7 WHITE RABBITS - 3/22 on sale 1/13 LOST IN THE TREES - 3/25 on sale 1/13 FARFARLO - 4/7 on sale 1/13 CHAIRLIFT - 4/8 on sale 1/13 All of these shows on sale at Ticketfly.com
TEITUR 2/2 • LOST LANDER 2/4 • TWIN SISTER 2/6 • LOS CAMPESINOS! 2/7 &2/8 WAX FINGERS 2/9 • ACE ENDERS 2/10 • GARY CLARK JR. 2/14 CHRISTOPHER MARSHALL & THE AUGUST LIGHT 1/15 • BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB 1/17 ADVANCE TICKETS AT TICKETFLY - www.ticketfly.com and JACKPOT RECORDS • SUBJECT TO SERVICE CHARGE &/OR USER FEE ALL SHOWS: 8PM DOORS / 9PM SHOW • 21+ UNLESS NOTED • BOX OFFICE OPENS 1/2 HOUR BEFORE DOORS • ROOM PACKAGES AVAILABLE AT www.jupiterhotel.com
38
SUNDAY-TUESDAY
of Portland’s burliest punk bands. Let’s meet our brawlers. Ripper’s driving metal-punk anthems reek of Budweiser and beater fumes, and if you’re not fucking something up while listening to its fine racket, you’re doing it wrong. Raw Nerves, which worms around in the pitch-black corner of punk where Black Flag and ’90s metalcore merge, sounds like a band that might eat you and then write a song about how awful you taste. As for Trauma, three words should suffice—members of Tragedy—but allow me to elaborate: If a patchy punk vest grew a brain and started a band, it would sound like this. CHRIS STAMM. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St., 473-8729. 8 pm. Cover. 21+.
MONDAY, JAN. 16 City and Colour, The Low Anthem
[SUBURBAN BLUES] As deceptively profound generic band names go, City and Colour—the imprimatur for Dallas Green’s Canadiana-tinged folk-pop musings—seems pretty grand until you realize the criteria are only a practical description of the artist’s name. Little Hell, Green’s third and most ambitious album (released last summer shortly before he quit his day job co-fronting Ontario hardcore troupe Alexisonfire), doesn’t fall apart as quickly under scrutiny, but the lyrical craft fails
to nearly approximate the emotional resonance of his honeyed, powerful vocals or subtly memorable melodies. He’s bringing along a full band this tour to more accurately replicate the sound of the recordings, but for the important bits, he’ll be alone under the spotlight. JAY HORTON. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 2848686. 7 pm. $25 advance, $28 day of show. All ages.
TUESDAY, JAN. 17 Hawkeye
[WALL OF SOUND] Hawkeye’s recordings make it sound like the band has spent an inordinate percentage of its short life laboring over the creation of layers (and layers and layers) of overdubs. Time well spent? Definitely. Drawing from the roomy production ethos of the Jesus and Mary Chain and Echo and the Bunnymen, the Portland-based quintet has created recordings so colossal that searching through them for a vocal line requires an excavation equal in scale to an archeological dig. Hawkeye draws from post-punk’s dark malaise and the high-end twang of the ’60s’ psychedelic masters, but the group’s real talent lies in meshing these influences into a nigh-impenetrable edifice of noise. SHANE DANAHER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 894-9708. 10 pm. $3. 21+.
STEREOVISION +FRAME BY FRAME (feat CHRIS MARGOLIN)
JACK DANIELS PRESENTS THE BLACK & BLUE SERIES
Music calendar
MUSIC
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
ALBUM REVIEW
PETE KREBS AND HIS PORTLAND PLAYBOYS EARLY SESSIONS (ELKO) [WESTERN SWING AT DUSK] It’s good to hear Pete Krebs’ voice showcased again. The former Hazel singer-guitarist and current Stolen Sweets band leader had released a handful of fine headlining discs until 2002, when he left the singer-songwriter world for music instruction and regular gigs around Portland, playing gypsy jazz and other American folk musics on his lonesome or with his trio. The Portland Playboys, an expanded version of that trio, play Western swing in the vein of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, generally regarded as forefathers of the genre. And while that explains the Portland quintet’s name and many of its stylistic choices—skittering tempo, stand-up bass, twinkling slide-guitar work and Krebs’ own barn-burning guitar solos—it doesn’t fully explain the Portland Playboys’ sound. As with Krebs’ solo-ish releases, there’s a darkness lingering just out of frame here. This is starlight swing, less sentimental than downright heartbroken— a feeling evoked by the song choices (from misty-eyed standards like “Walkin’ the Floor Over You” and “Waltz Across Texas” to Krebs’ original “Everybody’s Tryin’ to Be My Baby”) and the occasional artfully employed reverb. Don’t get me wrong—everyone in this tight band is having an awful lot of fun on Early Sessions. That joy is most evident in the fine interplay on the disc’s instrumental tracks, which include an up-tempo cover of jazz standard “Caravan” and the lovely “Cherokee.” But try as Krebs might to sound party-ready in his singing—which is both markedly more forceful and more clearly enunciated than usual—the Oregon rain has soaked too deep into his soul for Krebs to pass as a Texan. Those unmistakable vocal cords lend the band, like all of Krebs’ projects, a real sense of place that sets these Playboys apart from their forebears. It also explains why the saddest tune on the record, Charlie Feathers’ haunting “Man in Love,” is also the most striking. Sometimes you’ve just got to embrace the storm clouds that follow you around. CASEY JARMAN. SEE IT: The Portland Playboys play the Secret Society Ballroom on Friday, Jan. 13. 6 pm. Free. All ages.
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
39
MUSIC CALENDAR Mississippi Studios
= 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. For more listings, check out wweek.com.
WED. JAN. 11 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Goldenboy, Water Tower
Alberta Street Public House 1036 NE Alberta St. Open Mic
Andina
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Weekly Jazz Jam
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Snow Bud and the Flower People, P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S., Party Trigger, Muddy River Nightmare Band
Doug Fir Lounge
1314 NW Glisan St. Toshi Onizuka
830 E Burnside St. Blouse, Wampire, The Crow
Ash Street Saloon
Ella Street Social Club
225 SW Ash St. A.V., Jae-Lava, Young Phly, Caution & Rush, Young Weeb & HaLarryis
Backspace
Ford Food and Drink 2505 SE 11th Ave. Eugene Lee
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. From the Eyes of Cain, Southgate, At Wit’s End, Above the Broken, Censure
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant
1435 NW Flanders St. Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra (8:30 pm); Jimmy Gadinas (5:30 pm)
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Renee Muzquiz
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Quartet
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. The Nutmeggers (9 pm); Green State (6 pm)
Lents Commons
9201 SE Foster Road Open Mic
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale The Old Yellers
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Billy D
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Dreaming in Colors
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Lucas Field, Kendl Winter
The Know
Muddy Rudder Public House
2026 NE Alberta St. Nucular Aminals, Koko & the Sweetmeats, Still Caves
Palace of Industry
1422 SW 11th Ave. Dora Hazlett
Press Club
71 SW 2nd Ave. Merrill Lite
Someday Lounge
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. The Tom Barber Quartet
8105 SE 7th Ave. Stumbleweed
5426 N Gay Ave. Flat Rock String Band 2621 SE Clinton St. Swing Papillon
The Old Church
Thirsty Lion
Tony Starlight’s
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Song Circle with Brian McGinty
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Euphoria
13 NW 6th Ave. Dick Dale, Federale
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Fenix Project Blues Jam
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar 800 NW 6th Ave. Ron Steen Trio with Carolyn Joyce
THURS. JAN. 12
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Valeri Lopez, Jupiter the Band
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Greg Wolfe Trio
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Aranya, Bad Bibles, 42 Ford Prefect
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Squid Attack; Mythologies; Lather, Rinse and Repeat; Ibid
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Lorna B. & The B. Band
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Open Acoustic Jam (9:30 pm); Half-Step Shy (6 pm)
Brasserie Montmartre 626 SW Park Ave. John “JB” Butler & Al Craido
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Mathew Gailey Trio
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Emily Wells, Timmy Straw
East End
Kenton Club
Vancouver Brickhouse
LaurelThirst
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
2958 NE Glisan St. Kathryn Claire (9:30 pm); Lewi Longmire Band (6 pm)
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Total Chaos, The Royal Tees, Clackamas Baby Killers
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Natasha Kmeto, Graintable, Plumblyne, Danny Corn, Sweatson Klank
109 W 15th St., Vancouver, Wash. Jerome Kessinger
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Brian Gaunt (8:30 pm); Faerabella (6 pm)
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Jimmy Bivens
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Pete Kartsounes
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Jenny Finn Orchestra (9 pm); Mo Phillips, Johnny Keener & Jason (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. David Dondero, St. Even, Vikesh Kapoor
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Claes
Moon & Sixpence
2014 NE 42nd Ave. Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Jam Session with W.B. Reid & Bonnie Zahnow
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. John Bunzow
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Terry Robb
Polish Hall
3900 N Interstate Ave. Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Uncle Wiggily, Flat Rock String Band (square dance)
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Music Showcase with Sam Densmore
Hawthorne Theatre
1420 SE Powell Blvd. Eric Allen Band
White Eagle Saloon
Ella Street Social Club
2505 SE 11th Ave. Jacob Arnold
18 NW 3rd Ave. Doomsower, Towers, DJ Mistina La Fave
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
Red Room
Ford Food and Drink
MAGIC FINGERS: Dick Dale plays Star Theater on Wednesday.
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Bison Bison, American Friction, Lord Master
203 SE Grand Ave. PDX Punk Rock Collective, Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division tribute), Josh Spacek (Beatles tribute), DDDJJJ666, DJ Magnolia Bouvier (Portland Radio Authority benefit) 714 SW 20th Place Eidolons, Dear Rabbit, Whorehound
Tony Starlight’s
Twilight Café and Bar
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St. Cold Hard Ground
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. My Fellow Traveller, Bandemia, Bottles and Cans
Kennedy School
5736 NE 33rd Ave. Buoy LaRue
Star Theater
Tonic Lounge
Tube
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. 6bq9
317 NW Broadway Karaoke from Hell
Kelly’s Olympian
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Succotash, Gallus Brothers, Bois D’orme Cajun Allstars
Tiger Bar
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Sing for Your Supperclub with the All-Star Horns
426 SW Washington St. Pheasant, De La Warr, The Dirty Words
1425 NW Glisan St. Jarrod Lawson
Arctic Flowers, Mundo Muerto, Autistic Youth, DJ Skell (The Know’s 7th anniversary)
Kells
Touché Restaurant and Billiards
303 SW 12th Ave. Goldenboy, Vicious Kisses
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
1435 NW Flanders St. Jim Templeton with Carey Campbell (8:30 pm); Mark Simon (5:30 pm)
125 NW 5th Ave. Eventuals, Ghost Montrose, Evyn Oliver, Electro-Kraken
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
40
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant
112 SW 2nd Ave. Pat Buckley
ADAM KRUEGER
115 NW 5th Ave. The Great Train Robbery, Groves, Profcal
714 SW 20th Place The Morels, Bee, Brave Julius
[JAN. 11-17]
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Dethroner, American Roulette
Sellwood Public House 8132 SE 13th Ave. Open Mic
Spare Room
Ted’s (at Berbati’s)
231 SW Ankeny St. Christopher Neil Young, Mercy Graves, Myrhh Larson, The Brickers, KaleidoSkull
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Tom Grant Jazz Jam
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Alan Jones Jam
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St.
836 N Russell St. Gabby Holt (8:30 pm); Will West and Tanner Cundy (5:30 pm) 800 NW 6th Ave. Sean Holmes & Fred Stickley
FRI. JAN. 13 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Goldenboy, The Bevelers
Alberta Rose Theatre
3000 NE Alberta St. David Grisman and Frank Vignola
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Pocket Panda, Lone Madrone, Holy Tentacles (9:30 pm); Mikey’s Irish Jam (6:30 pm)
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Sambafeat Quartet
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. The King Is Dead, Downrite Walnut, Rustmine, O.A.K.
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Big Ass Boombox: Tiger House, Scrimshander, Sons of Huns, Queued Up, The We Shared Milk, Torn ACLs, Profcal
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Tom Goicoechea & The Jazz Quartet
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. The Old Yellers (9:30 pm); Billy Kennedy (6 pm)
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. A Lot Like Birds, I the Mighty, Just Like Vinyl, A Hope for Home, Amos Val
Brasserie Montmartre 626 SW Park Ave. Tablao
Camellia Lounge 510 NW 11th Ave. Melanie Roy Trio
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. Andy Stokes
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Chervona, Pava, DJ Eugene, DJ Makedon
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Pickwick, Bryan John Appleby, Jessica Dobson
Eagles Lodge, Southeast
4904 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Too Loose Cajun/Zydeco Band
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Portland Mutant Party: Guantanamo Baywatch, Defect Defect, Youthbitch, Compilation
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Black on Black on Black
Floating World Comics
400 NW Couch St. Big Ass Boombox: Mo Troper, Awkward Energy, Fasters
Ford Food and Drink 2505 SE 11th Ave. Hanz Araki & Kathryn Claire, Nicole Campbell
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Fu Manchu, Lord Dying, Witchburn
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant 1435 NW Flanders St. Templeton Trio with Shirley Nanette (8:30 pm); Galen Clark (5:30 pm)
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Will Koehnke
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Pancake Breakfast, Great Wilderness, Bryan Free
Katie O’ Brien’s
2809 NE Sandy Blvd. Flat Black Tomatoes, Dr. Stahl
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Grafton Street
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Holy Children, Black Pussy, Branden Daniel & the Chics, Sugar Sugar Sugar, Ex-Girlfriend Club, Geist & The Sacred Ensemble
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Stripper Pussy, Monogamy Party, Wax Edison
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Jimmy Boyer Band (9:30 pm); Woodbrain (6 pm)
Lents Commons
9201 SE Foster Road Parfait
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Mark Alan
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Rogue Bluegrass Band
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Krebsic Orkestar (9 pm); Hush, Hush Club (6 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Forest Park, Aan, Youth
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. Sneakin’ Out
Mount Tabor Theater
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Jetpack Missing, Never Awake, Gordon Avenue, Summer Soundtrack
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Reverb Brothers
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Jon Bunzow
Plan B
1305 SE 8th Ave. Dragstrip Riot, The Romanes, Johnny Credit and the Cash Machine
Plew’s Brews
8409 N Lombard St. Thom Celica, Dinosaur Heart, Lil’ Lord Fontleroy
Press Club
2621 SE Clinton St. John Vecchiarelli and Luminous Things
Queen of Hearts Tavern
5501 SE 72nd Ave. HiFi Mojo
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Jeff Handley and the Travelling Goodbye, Static Parallel, Brazen the Skeptik, Mohawk Yard
Scottish Rite Center
1512 SW Morrison St. Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Gabe Strand, Porterbelly (square dance, 11 pm); Rich Hartness, Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms, The Tallboys, The New Five Cents (7 pm)
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. The Shook Twins, Ruby Pines, Worth (9 pm); Pete Krebs and his Portland Playboys (6 pm)
Slabtown
1033 NW 16th Ave. Hairspray Blues, Ghostwriter, DRC 3
SoHiTek Records
625 NW Everett St., Suite 102 Big Ass Boombox: Fanno Creek, The Morals, Rob Gray
Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave. Big Ass Boombox: Pigeons, Little Volcano, Blue Skies for Black Hearts, Hollywood Tans, My Autumn’s Done Come, Charts, Gamma Knife
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Papa Dynamite
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. Hip Deep Soul Revue
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Saloon Ensemble
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. From Ashes Rise, Tragedy, Bi-Marks
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Will Bradley Band
Tiger Bar
Lincoln Crockett Electric Band (9:30 pm); Reverb Brothers (5:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar 800 NW 6th Ave. David Friesen Trio
SAT. JAN. 14 15th Avenue Hophouse 1517 NE Brazee St. Spodee-O’s
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. Goldenboy, The Mermaid Problem
Aladdin Theater
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant
1435 NW Flanders St. Kerry Politzer Quartet (8:30 pm); Art Reznick (5:30 pm)
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Jamie Treadwell
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Stephanie Schneiderman, Keith Schreiner, The 45th Parallel String Quartet, Naomi Hooley
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Grafton Street
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave. Appetite for Deception (Guns ‘n’ Roses tribute), Hair Assault
426 SW Washington St. Brush Prairie, Jason Lytle, Buzzy Shy Face
Alberta Rose Theatre
Kennedy School
3000 NE Alberta St. Sneakin’ Out, The Doyle Brothers
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. Solomon’s Hollow, Felsen, Ugly Flowers (9:30 pm); Gypsy Fuzz, Christine Havrilla, Hello Mtn (6:30 pm)
Kelly’s Olympian
5736 NE 33rd Ave. Garcia Birthday Band (J.R.R. Tolkien Birthday Bash)
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Colonel Jimmy and the Blackfish, The Pine Box Boys, Coffin Hunter
LaurelThirst
Andina
2958 NE Glisan St. Meridian (9:30 pm); Tree Frogs (6 pm)
Ash Street Saloon
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
1314 NW Glisan St. Toshi Onizuka Trio 225 SW Ash St. Static Parallel, Oden, A Killing Dove, Tentacle Burn
Backspace
115 NW 5th Ave. Kimya Dawson, The Morals
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Peter Rowan
Biddy McGraw’s
6000 NE Glisan St. Radio Giants (9:30 pm); Twisted Whistle (6 pm)
Branx
320 SE 2nd Ave. Glass Candy, Chromatics, Desire, Mike Simonetti
Brasserie Montmartre 626 SW Park Ave. Trashcan Joe
Camellia Lounge
510 NW 11th Ave. Rich Halley Quartet
Club 21
2035 NE Glisan St. No Tomorrow Boys, Lordy Lords, Youthbitch, Cherry City Deadbeats
Clyde’s Prime Rib
5474 NE Sandy Blvd. ON-Q Band
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. One Man Banned
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Throwback Suburbia, Stereovision, Frame by Frame
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Pete Kartsounes
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro 23Window
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Z’Bumba (9 pm); Level 2 Music (6 pm); Lorna Miller Little Kid’s Jamboree (4 pm)
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Forest Park, Duck Little Brother Duck, Your Rival
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St. NoPo Mojo
Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave. Alan Hagar
Music Millennium
3158 E Burnside St. Throwback Suburbia
Noho’s Hawaiian Cafe 4627 NE Fremont St. Traditional Hawaiian Music
Original Halibut’s II 2527 NE Alberta St. Ellen Whyte
Palace of Industry 5426 N Gay Ave. DJ Pippa Possible
Plan B
East Burn
1305 SE 8th Ave. Sandrider, Gaytheist, Brokaw, Triplehorn
East End
8409 N Lombard St. Northbound Rain (Grateful Dead tribute)
1800 E Burnside St. DJ Gray Matter, Motherbunch
Plew’s Brews
Press Club
Tonic Lounge
203 SE Grand Ave. Portland Mutant Party: P.R.O.B.L.E.M.S., Thee Cormans, Cyclops, Denizenz, DJ Ken Dirtnap
Ella Street Social Club
11121 SE Division St. 6bq9
Tony Starlight’s
714 SW 20th Place Shadows on Stars, SuckerForLights, Josh and Mer
Touché Restaurant and Billiards
2845 SE Stark St. Sugarcane, Polecat, Renegade String Band
Vie de Boheme
4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Kelsey Morris
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
1503 SE 39th Ave. Ninjas with Syringes
White Eagle Saloon
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Neversleep, Gladius, Acidious Mutandis, Tetramorphic, Titarius
317 NW Broadway Tuesday’s Project, Simple Sweet, Soul Distraction 3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Particle Sun, Ghost Motor, Dead Animal Assembly Plant 3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Sportin’ Lifers
1425 NW Glisan St. Mike Winkle Trio 1530 SE 7th Ave. Blake Lyman Trio
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Billy D. 836 N Russell St.
Goodfoot Lounge
Hawthorne Hophouse
Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
Hawthorne Theatre
2621 SE Clinton St. Casey Neil, Ezra Holbrook and Matt McDonald
Ravenz Roost Cafe
Record Room
8 NE Killingsworth St. Table of Contents, New Century Schoolbook
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Tribe of the Outcast, Synesthesia, Saint Jack’s Parade, The Strong Arms, Unicornz, She Preaches Mayhem
Roseland Theater
8 NW 6th Ave. Infected Mushroom, Sidestep, Sporeganic
Scottish Rite Center 1512 SW Morrison St.
Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Shout!White Dragon, Hopping Jenny, Red Pipe Resinators, The Billbillies (square dance, Ballroom); Tom Sauber, The Dragonflies, Foghorn Stringband (square dance, Auditorium); Mark Graham and Lauren Sheehan, Pretty Little Feet, Suzy and Eric Thompson, Rabbit Foot (New Meeting Room)
BAR SPOTLIGHT ROSNAPS.COM
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St. School of Rock and PDX Pop Now!’s Best of Portland
Secret Society Lounge 116 NE Russell St. The Stolen Sweets (9 pm); Boy & Bean (6 pm)
Someday Lounge 125 NW 5th Ave. Manoj, Curve
Spare Room
4830 NE 42nd Ave. Teri and Larry
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Wanderlust Circus, William Batty, Nagasita, Vivivi, Russell Bruner, Miss Spooky, Jay Lieber, Meg Russell, Keph Sherin, Petra Delarocha, Edie en Garde, Burk Biggler, The Full Cirque, Dawn Laderer, Jeremiah Guske, Joesai Carr, Nat Stillmaker, Ari Lynn
Ted’s (at Berbati’s)
231 SW Ankeny St. Load B, Libretto, Risky Star, Destro & L Pro, Mighty Misc
The Blue Diamond
2016 NE Sandy Blvd. The Doors Tribute
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. David Ornette Cherry
COCONUT CUPS: Kava tastes like dirt. That’s not figurative language, nor is it a reason to pass on Bula Kava House (3115 SE Division St., bulakavahouse.com), a cafe serving the drink made with the mildly psychoactive roots of a pepper found in the South Pacific. Steeped overnight, the dried and ground kava roots numb the mouth and offer a sedated, Valium-like buzz. Elaborate rituals traditionally surround kava consumption. The laid-back Portland version involves coconut-shell cups and a bright space with big acacia tables and comfy booths. Kava promotes socialization and relaxation, traits reflected in Bula’s warm vibe. A tiny but excellent food menu accented with sweet onion, pineapple and macadamia nuts is a nice touch, too. Kava is unregulated, though Bula’s menu says you “should be at least 18 years of age” to imbibe. Kava will be better enjoyed by experienced drinkers craving an exotic, albeit dirt-flavored intoxicant. MARTIN CIZMAR.
The Crown Room
205 NW 4th Ave. Keith Murray, Love Loungers, DJ Zimmie
The Foggy Notion
3416 N Lombard St. Needful Longings, Mike Angel
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Rabbits, Fist Fite, Nasalrod
Thirsty Lion
71 SW 2nd Ave. Sugarcookie
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Slutty Hearts, Spacewaves, Kaleidoskull
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Starkiller, Ritual Healing, Tanagra, Foal, Brazen the Skeptik
Tony Starlight’s
3728 NE Sandy Blvd. Midnight Serenaders
Touché Restaurant and Billiards 1425 NW Glisan St. Kelley Shannon Trio
Vie de Boheme 1530 SE 7th Ave. Ty Curtis Band
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar 2929 SE Powell Blvd. Arthur “Fresh Air” Moore Harmonica Party (8 pm); Blues Jam (2 pm)
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St. Siren and the Sea, Howl and Wild (9:30 pm); The Student Loan (4:30 pm)
Wilfs Restaurant & Bar 800 NW 6th Ave. Tom Grant, Toni Lincoln, Dave Captein
Winona Grange No. 271 8340 SW Seneca St., Tualatin Molly’s Revenge with Rebecca Lomnicky and Colleen Raney
SUN. JAN. 15 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave. MBOMB, Sarah Gwen Peters
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Danny Romero Trio
Ash Street Saloon 225 SW Ash St. The Choices, Dead Remedy
Beaterville Cafe
2201 N Killingsworth St. Angel Rhodes, Slim Bacon
Dante’s
350 W Burnside St. Molly Gene One Whoaman Band, Crosby
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Larry & His Flask, Water Tower
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Vonangel, Moon by You, The Ghost Ease
Hawthorne Theatre
3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Fantom Fingers, The Seventh Penalty, Enzymes, Orion, Laura Mims and the Outlaws, Charlie Blue and the Black Market, Choke the Silence, Jet Force Gemini, The Matthew Stone Project, Lion and the Mouse
Jade Lounge
2346 SE Ankeny St. Alexa Wiley (7 pm); Sacred Song and Storyteller Haiba (4:30 pm)
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney (9 pm); Irish Sessions (7 pm)
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Space Waves, SuckerForLights, Souvenir Driver
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Thee Cormans, Thee Headliners, Cécelia und die Sauerkrauts, Audios Amigos, Chemicals, DJ Hwy 7
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Billy Kennedy & Tim Acott with Jake Ray (9:30 pm); Freak Mountain Ramblers (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Billy D
McMenamins Rock Creek Tavern
10000 Old Cornelius Pass Road, Hillsboro Brongaene Griffin
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St. School of Rock: Motley Crew vs. Guns and Roses
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Coronation, DSR, A Gentlemen’s Picnic
Vie de Boheme
1530 SE 7th Ave. Pardon My French
Village Ballroom
700 NE Dekum St. Riley Calcagno (square dance)
Vino Vixens Wine Shop & Bar
Mississippi Pizza
2929 SE Powell Blvd. Gumbo Americana
Mississippi Studios
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Key Losers, Older Women (9 pm); The Old Straight Track (6 pm) 3939 N Mississippi Ave. Blood Beach, Haunted Horses, Anne
Moon & Sixpence
MON. JAN. 16 303 SW 12th Ave. MBOMB, Casey Neill
Alberta Rose Theatre
Mount Tabor Theater
3000 NE Alberta St. Mic Crenshaw, Wanderlust Circus, The Sprockettes, Justin James Bridges, David Rovics, DJ Hoya
Music Millennium
1314 NW Glisan St. Pete Krebs
2014 NE 42nd Ave. Portland Old-Time Music Gathering: Foghorn Stringband 4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd. The Sindicate 3158 E Burnside St. The Crescendo Show
Red Room
2530 NE 82nd Ave. Phalgeron, American Roulette
Andina
Brasserie Montmartre 626 SW Park Ave. Eric John Kaiser with Todd Bayles
Congregation Neveh Shalom
Rontoms
2900 SW Peaceful Lane The Michael Winograd Klezmer Trio
Spirit Mountain Casino
Dante’s
600 E Burnside St. Pegasus Dreams, Palmas
27100 SW Salmon River Highway The Isley Brothers
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Kane Mathis/Andrew Oliver Duo
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Trauma, Raw Nerves, Ripper, DJ Smooth Hopperator
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. The Drawing Board, Danny Dodge
350 W Burnside St. Karaoke from Hell
East End
203 SE Grand Ave. Avi Dei vs. Fjord (Portland Metal Winter Olympics)
Ella Street Social Club 714 SW 20th Place Fingers Moen
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Dan Balmer Band
Kells
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
CONT. on page 42 Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
41
MUSIC
CALENDAR
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. David Gerow
LaurelThirst
2958 NE Glisan St. Kung Pao Chickens (9 pm); Portland Country Underground (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Skip vonKuske with Nicole Campbell
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave. Johnson McLean, Sam Sullivan (9 pm); Bluegrass Jam (6:30 pm); Mr. Ben (5 pm)
Secret Society Lounge
116 NE Russell St. Carlton Jackson-Dave Mills Big Band
The Blue Monk
3341 SE Belmont St. Renato Caranto Project
Tiger Bar
317 NW Broadway Bobaflex, Royal Bliss
Ben Larsen & Austin Moore
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. MBOMB, Mike Coykendall
Alberta Street Public House
1036 NE Alberta St. FloorBoards, Backwater Opera, Chelsea Appel
Andina
1314 NW Glisan St. Neftali Rivera
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. The Oldest Profession, Roselit Bone, Outer Space Heaters
Backspace
Jimmy Mak’s
2958 NE Glisan St. Bingo (9 pm); Jackstraw (6 pm)
McMenamins Edgefield Winery
232 SW Ankeny St. Like a Villain, Foreign Orange, DoublePlusGood
Crystal Ballroom
The Know
White Eagle Saloon
Ella Street Social Club
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. City and Colour, The Low Anthem
TUES. JAN. 17 15th Avenue Hophouse
1517 NE Brazee St.
714 SW 20th Place A Volcano, Gloomsday, Labradora, Little Kitties
Hawthorne Hophouse
639 SE Morrison St. DJs Moderhead, OverCol
The Crown Room
205 NW 4th Ave. American Girls, American Me, DJ Rad
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Nothing Lasts Forever
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. La Jefa
Tiger Bar
Tube
317 NW Broadway Papa Dynamite & The Jive
18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Loyd Depriest; Paint It Black with DJ Drew Groove
Valentine’s
4111 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Steve Cheseborough
232 SW Ankeny St. Regular Music, ExtraLonE, Stepkid
Ivories Jazz Lounge and Restaurant
White Eagle Saloon
1435 NW Flanders St. Jazz Jam with Carey Campbell
Star Bar
2026 NE Alberta St. Shoppers, Dente Na Mente, Quiet Dawn
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. DJ Bad Wizard
Yes and No
836 N Russell St. Brad Creel and the Reel Deel
20 NW 3rd Ave. Death Club with DJ Entropy
Jade Lounge
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. DJ Nate Carson
Beauty Bar
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Discos Discos: DJ Zac Eno, Michael Bruce, Tyler Tastemaker, Lincolnup (9 pm); Aperitivo Happy Hour with DJ Copy (5 pm)
Fez Ballroom
316 SW 11th Ave. Shadowplay: DJs Ghoulunatic, Paradox, Horrid
Rotture
Rotture
315 SE 3rd Ave. I’ve Got a Hole in My Soul: DJs Beyondadoubt, Primo
Someday Lounge
315 SE 3rd Ave. Live and Direct: Rev Shines, Slimkid3, DJ Nature
125 NW 5th Ave. Mixer: Selectress Instigatah, Mike Grimes, King Fader, Ben Milstein
The Crown Room
Star Bar
The Foggy Notion
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Jake Cheeto
3416 N Lombard St. BENT
The Crown Room
The Lovecraft
205 NW 4th Ave. The Disco: Doc Adam, Tyler Tastemaker, Nathan Detroit
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Manchester Night with DJ Bar Hopper
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Comidienne
FRI. JAN. 13
2346 SE Ankeny St.
“Hard to Beat”! $2
440 NW Glisan St. J Phlip, The Perfect Cyn, Miss Vixen
Ground Kontrol
1967 W Burnside St. DJ Whisker Friction
3341 SE Belmont St. Pagan Jug Band
Groove Suite
111 SW Ash St. Shameless Thursdays: Easter Egg, DJ 3x
Matador
3552 N Mississippi Ave. The Underscore Orkestra, Michael Winograd Klezmer Trio
THURS. JAN. 12
Goodfoot Lounge
511 NW Couch St. TRONix with DJ-808
111 SW Ash St. Off Brand: Doc Adam, Nick Dean
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Anjali & The Incredible Kid
2845 SE Stark St. Future Beats: Ryan Organ, Brazil, Carrier
LaurelThirst
The Blue Monk
836 N Russell St. The Resolectrics, Ezza Rose, Egg Plant
203 SE Grand Ave. DJs He Slayer, Sacrilicious
426 SW Washington St. Foxtrot, Verdelite, Mark MacMinn
Mississippi Pizza
1332 W Burnside St. The Wailers, Outernational
East End
Kelly’s Olympian
510 NW 11th Ave. Tom Wakeling/Steve Christofferson Quartet
Valentine’s
WED. JAN. 11
112 SW 2nd Ave. Cronin Tierney
Bunk Bar
Valentine’s
232 SW Ankeny St. Sex Life DJs
Beauty Bar
Kells
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Caleb Klauder and Sammy Lind
Camellia Lounge
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ Hwy 7
221 NW 10th Ave. The Mel Brown Septet (8 pm); The Disappointments (6:30 pm)
115 NW 5th Ave. Staller, Metatheric, Dead Remedy 1028 SE Water Ave. Hawkeye, Souvenir Driver
Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
Margeret Wehr
205 NW 4th Ave. City Lock: Tyler Keys, Joe Nasty, Ben Tactic
421 SE Grand Ave. DJ Horrid
The Whiskey Bar 31 NW 1st Ave. Recess: Bil Bless, Comma, Kitty D, Treyzilla
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Slim Chances
SAT. JAN. 14 Al’s Den at the Crystal Hotel
303 SW 12th Ave. DJ E3
Beauty Bar
111 SW Ash St. Body Language with DJ Nature
Fez Ballroom
316 SW 11th Ave. Popvideo with VJ Gigahurtz
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Atlas: DJ Anjali, E3, The Incredible Kid
Lola’s Room at the Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St. Jai Ho! Two-Year Anniversary Party
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Mrs. with DJ Beyonda
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Smooth Hopperator
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. DJs Entropy, MisPrid
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Survival Sklz
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Hollyhood with DJ Stray (10 pm); Saturdazed: DJs GH, Czief Xenith (7 pm)
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. No Hands with Yo Huckleberry (10 pm); DJ Neil Blender (7 pm)
SUN. JAN. 15 Produce Row Cafe 204 SE Oak St.
Bridge Club: Pocket Rock-It, Hold My Hand, Sweat/Shine, Huf n’ Stuf, Little Chrissy
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Black Church Metal Night
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Honky Tonk Happy Hour with Tennessee Tim
MON. JAN. 16 Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. Into the Void with DJ Blackhawk
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St. Time’s Up with DJ J-One Ill
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Rat Creeps
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. DJ Toilet Love
TUES. JAN. 17 East End
203 SE Grand Ave. DJ Mis Prid
Star Bar
639 SE Morrison St. DJ Smooth Hopperator
The Lovecraft
421 SE Grand Ave. Death Club with DJ Entropy
Tiga
1465 NE Prescott St. DJ Dog Daze
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave. Tubesday (10 pm); DJ Dirty Red (7 pm)
Upcoming In-Store Performances
–WW Bar Spotlight Domestics/$250 Micros
18 TVs • All Games! Weekend Breakfasts
“...hearty with titular steaks, nachos, excellent sweet potato tots.”
“...good live music”
THROWBACK SUBURBIA
THE CRESCENDO SHOW
With one mod-style boot planted in classic British rock and another planted firmly in today’s pop universe, Throwback Suburbia continues to break new ground with their fresh take on ultra-hip, harmony-laden power pop. Throwback Suburbia is back with their most ambitious work yet, ‘Shot Glass Souvenir.’ If you should find yourself having trouble locating a pulse in today’s music, Throwback Suburbia is the proof of life in power pop.
Forming in October of 2008 with a focus on songcraft, The Crescendo Show has remained very active in the Willamette Valley, with its strongest fan base residing in Corvallis. They are known for their intricate playing, foot stomping, group singing and youthful energy. The band is currently recording while maintaining a healthy live schedule to promote their music and cultivate a broader fan base. Their sophomore album is due in the spring of 2012.
SATURDAY 1/14 @ 3PM
SUNDAY 1/15 @ 5PM
Ron Steen Jam
Every Monday 8-11pm
Lucas Cozby Piano Dinner Jazz Fri. 6-8pm 80s Night Fri. 9-12m
5515 SW Canyon Ct. 503-297-5568 sylvansteakhouse.com 42
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
JACKSTRAW
WEDNESDAY 1/18 @ 6PM
Jackstraw has been the flagship of Portland’s bluegrass and roots music scene since the group formed in 1997. These boys have a cutting edge take on bluegrass picking that they’ve developed over years of touring the United States, and their original songs can sound as much country as old-timey. Recorded at Type Foundry Studio, Jackstraw’s brand-new sixth album, ‘Sunday Never Comes,’ features Cory Goldman on banjo, and all original material.
RAGS & RIBBONS
THURSDAY 1/19 @ 6PM
Rags & Ribbons play melodic rock anthems driven by classically-inspired piano. Progressive and post-rock influences by way of Queen, Muse, Arcade Fire and Sigur Ros color these intricate pop songs, expressing desire, yearning, regret and joy like only pop can. ‘The Glass Masses’ is a debut album of elaborately structured songs with rich harmonies and dramatic hooks.
PERFORMANCE
JAN. 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
Hamlet
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.
Action/Adventure Fundraiser
Action/Adventure Theatre—the folks behind Fall of the House and Captured by Aliens—are throwing a housewarming and fundraising party in their new permanent home. Action/Adventure Theater, 1050 SE Clinton St., actionadventure.org. 7:30 pm Saturday, Jan. 14. $10-$20 suggested donation. 21+.
At Home at the Zoo
[NEW REVIEW] After writing The Zoo Story in 1958, Edward Albee worried he had created a 1½ character play rather than a two-character one, with the voluble Jerry overshadowing the mild, quiet Peter. Nearly 50 years later, Albee penned a new one-act, a sort of prologue to his earlier play, to flesh out Peter and to introduce his restless wife, Ann. At Profile Theatre, Pat Patton directs the combined work, a gripping, unsettling and darkly comic production. The first act, a spare yet revealing conversation between Peter (Don Alder) and Ann (Karla Mason), is something of an intellectual exercise. The second act, a volatile encounter between Peter and Jerry (a frenetic but commanding James Sharinghousen), is less meta and more visceral, but no less calculated. At Home at the Zoo proves both fascinating and vexing. Viewers may disagree if Albee did right to unite the two acts, but no one expects Albee to comfort or coddle, and in this light, Profile Theatre succeeds. REBECCA JACOBSON. Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 242-0080. 7:30 pm WednesdaysSaturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Jan. 29. $16-$30.
B’aktun 13
Miracle Theatre premieres Portland playwright Dañel Malán’s latest. Miracle Theatre, 525 SE Stark St., 236-7253. 7:30 pm Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sunday, Jan. 15 and Saturday, Jan. 21. $12-$24.
Collapse
Third Rail Rep presents a new comedy by Minneapolis playwright Allison Moore that finds humor in the 2007 collapse of the Mississippi River Bridge and the simultaneous crumbling of the American dream. Winningstad Theatre, Portland Center for the Performing Arts, 1111 SW Broadway, 800-982-2787. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Jan. 29. $29.50-$38.50, $14.50 students.
Doctor Smyles House of Dolls
Wanderlust Circus and Dreame Scape Theatre get gory. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., startheaterportland.com. 9 pm Saturday, Jan. 14. $15-$20. 21+.
Durang in the New Year
Readers Theatre Rep presents shorts by Christopher Durang. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 295-4997. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Jan. 13-14. $8.
Evil Dead: The Musical
There are many things going for Evil Dead: The Musical, which helped kick-start a new lineage of campy stage adaptations of old cult horror films in 2003 and got the Portland treatment in July courtesy of Last Chance Productions. There are zombies, Rocky Horrorstyle anthems including “What the Fuck Was That?,” scantily clad heroines, Bruce Campbellian machismo, severed limbs, a cheerfully rapey tree, chainsaws, broomsticks and everything in between. Most enticing, though, is the Splatter Zone, where audience members can shell
out an extra $5 to get soaked with goop when dim-witted college students get hacked by Dead-ites onstage. So why were people complaining after the last go ’round? The red stuff wasn’t red. Denizens of the Splatter Zone—which is lined with plastic to look like a Dexter kill room—just got sprayed with everso-slightly pink water. This time, the producers promise 33.3 percent more crimson, which will make an already clever show 100 percent more fun for Sam Raimi fanboys. AP KRYZA. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., evildeadnw.com. 8 pm Thursday, 7 and 10 pm FridaySaturday, Jan. 12-13. $25-$30.
(I Am Still) The Duchess of Malfi
Artists Rep’s premieres Joseph Fisher’s adaptation of John Webster’s Jacobian revenge tragedy, Duchess of Malfi. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 241-1278. 7:30 pm TuesdaysSaturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays. Closes Feb. 12. $25-$50.
NT Live: Collaborators
Third Rail screens the latest from London’s National Theatre: John Hodge’s new drama about an imagined meeting between Joseph Stalin and the playwright Mikhail Bulgakov. World Trade Center Theater, 121 SW Salmon St., 235-1101. 1 and 5 pm Sunday, Jan. 15; 2 and 7 pm Saturday, Jan. 21. $20.
CONT. on page 44
REVIEW GARY NORMAN
THEATER
Northwest Classical Theatre is rotten in Denmark. Shoe Box Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave., 971-244-3740. 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 pm Sundays. Closes Jan. 22. $18-$20.
WWeek ad 4S Spec10 ABBA runs 1-11, 18, 25
MARIO CALCAGNO AND KERRY RYAN
THE
MUSIC
OF
HUNTER GATHERERS (THEATRE VERTIGO) There will be blood. And cum. And lamb.
The reunion begins with a sacrifice. Milquetoast computer programmer Pam (Kerry Ryan) arrives home to find her metalworker-novelist husband, Richard (Mario Calcagno), preparing a lamb for slaughter in the middle of their living room. Their high-school friends Wendy (Brooke Fletcher) and Tom (Joel Harmon), with whom they shared a double wedding and terrible secrets, are coming to celebrate their mutual anniversary, and this dinner will be very special. In Hunter Gatherers, San Francisco playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb joins the spate of plays exposing the hidden savagery of modern life—such as God of Carnage and The Pain and the Itch, two produced in Portland since September—and manages to top them. His characters are not merely shown to be hypocrites or repressed chauvinists. In 90 minutes, they devolve into a state of nearincoherent paleolithic savagery. The show has a little something for everyone: For foodies, there’s roast lamb; for action fans, there’s light maiming; for Europeans, there’s sex; and for Stieg Larsson readers and Rick Santorum voters, there’s even some anal rape. This is not, as you may have guessed, a subtle play. It’s not a particularly deep one, either. Hunter Gatherers has only very little to say about the human condition, but it says it in the loudest, wittiest way one could ask. Theatre Vertigo’s finest productions have been chaotic, absurdist farces, and this one is no exception. Director Tom Moorman and his cast exploit every possible sight gag, every insult and outburst and every opportunity for gross-out excess. I don’t know there’s much great art to be found in the sight of Calcagno and Fletcher feeding feverishly on a whole roast lamb, or Ryan’s strangely calm, high-pitched fits, or the final gruesome tableaux, but I haven’t laughed so hard in the theater all season. BEN WATERHOUSE.
SEE IT: Theatre Vertigo at Theater! Theatre!, 3430 SE Belmont St., 306-0870, theatrevertigo.org. 8 pm Thursdays-Saturdays. Through Feb. 4. $15.
WITH TRIBUTE BAND “ARRIVAL FROM SWEDEN”
Friday, January 27 7:30 pm ’70s fashions, unforgettable tunes, four great singers, original ABBA musicians and the Oregon Symphony . . . the whole hall will be rockin’.
Mamma Mia ! Ticket office: 923 SW Washington | 10 am – 6 pm Mon – Fri Call: 503-228-1353 | 1-800-228-7343 Click: OrSymphony.org
ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
JEFFREY SMITH
Soledad Barrio & Noche FlAmenca
JAN. 11-17
FROM SPAIN “Soledad Barrio is a gif t from heaven to f lamenco on ear th.” -El Diario (Argentina)
CRAIG ROBINSON
T H U RS DAY - SAT U R DAY
Near to the Wild Heart
JAN 12-14
Amber Whitehall performs her new “dance monologue,” a “love poem to anxiety,” based on the words of Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein and others. Conduit Dance , 918 SW Yamhill St., Suite 401, amberwhitehall.com. 8 pm Thursdays-Sundays. Closes Jan. 22. $15.
Newmark Theatre 7:30pm
ScratchPDX
The monthly showcase of new performances returns. Hipbone Studio, 1847 E Burnside St., scratchpdx. com. 9 pm Saturday, Jan. 14. $10.
The North Plan
Portland Center Stage premieres a play by Jason Wells about the aftermath of an American governmental collapse. Gerding Theater, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Wednesdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7:30 pm Sundays and Saturday, Jan. 21. Closes Feb. 5. $20-$64.
TICKETS:
w w w.whitebird.org
SPONSORED BY
(ZERO ticket fees)
Photo by Zarmik Moqtaderi
Noche - WW - Jan 4.indd 1
12/29/2011 11:25:23 AM
COMEDY Craig Robinson
The real star of The Office. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669. 7:30 and 10 pm Friday, Jan. 13. $30-$35. 21+.
The Unscriptables
Co-Artistic Directors Angelle Hebert and Phillip Kraft
MAKE/BELIEVE
Improv-comedy troupe The Unscriptables celebrates the opening of its new venue with three performances. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., theunscriptables.com. U.S.S. Improvise 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Jan. 13-14. Secrets and Lies 10 pm Friday, Jan. 13, 8 pm Fridays Jan. 20 and 27. Dom-Prov 10 pm Saturday, Jan. 14. “Pay what you want.” 21+.
WHITE BIRD
“Emotionally gripping, provocative work.” -Portland Mercury
CLASSICAL 45th Parallel
The presenting organization gathers an all-star team of local classical players to perform Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet and Winter Roses, by Jake Heggie. The eight-song cycle tells stories of coming to terms with loss, including of the great singer Frederica von Stade’s father during World War II, before she was born. She wrote two of the texts, based upon his letters home. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 222-2031. 8 pm Friday, Jan. 13. $20-$25. Photo by Patrick Weishampel
Northwest New Music
event
A White Bird COMMISSIONED
THURSDAY-SATURDAY
JANUARY 26-28
Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 8pm
Some of the city’s top musicians perform music associated with, or setting words of, the Greek lyric poetess Sappho, including works by 20th-century composers Iannis Xenakis and Jacob Druckman and contemporary composer Daron Aric Hagen. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Jan. 17. $5-$20.
Oregon Symphony TICKETS: $30 adult/$20 student/senior
SPONSORED BY
w w w.whitebird.org (ZERO ticket fees) 44
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
tEEth - WW Ad - Jan 11.indd 1
1/3/2012 11:10:16 AM
Joshua Bell returns to Portland to play Brahms’ mighty Violin Concerto. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 228-1353.
7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, 8 pm Monday, Jan. 14-16. $26-$150.
Simone Dinnerstein
After winning worldwide acclaim for her lilting performances and chart-crowning recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2005 through 2007, Dinnerstein quickly rose to become one of the stars of the solo classicalpiano circuit. Lately, she’s been expanding her repertoire, so in this Portland Piano International concert, along with Bach, she’ll play the Oregon premiere of the music Dinnerstein commissioned from composer Daniel Felsenfeld, The Cohen Variations (inspired by Leonard Cohen’s music), works by Chopin, a lovely intermezzo by Brahms and Schubert’s great Four Impromptus. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-1388. 4 pm Sunday, Jan. 15. $14-$62.
Trio Con Brio Copenhagen
The threesome of Korean sisters Soo-Jin and Soo-Kyung Hong and Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer (presented here by Friends of Chamber Music) is a family musical affair of the first order. One of their specialties is contemporary Scandinavian repertoire, and Tuesday’s show highlights Bent Sørensen’s Phantasmagoria, along with Romantic trios by Mendelssohn and Anton Arensky. Monday’s program features Haydn’s dance-tastic Piano Trio No. 25, with its famous “Gypsy Rondo” finale, plus Tchaikovsky’s epic and only piano trio, and an Irish- and Eastern Europeaninflected work by Swiss composer Frank Martin. Lincoln Hall, Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., 224-9842. 7:30 pm MondayTuesday, Jan. 16-17. $14-$40.
DANCE Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
Some of the finest flamenco you’re likely to see comes to town in the form of Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca, who make their Portland debut at White Bird. Madrid natives Barrio and husband Martín Santangelo founded the award-winning company nearly 20 years ago; along with Barrio, it includes Alejandro Granados and Antonio Jiménez, singers Manuel Gago and José Jiménez and guitarists Eugenio Iglesias and Salva de María. The program includes the ensemble piece Amanecer, fashioned as a kind of impromptu party; Caminando, an elegant solo for Jiménez; El Patuka, danced by Granados and Oda al Amor, in which Jiménez and Barrio dance a lovers’ duet in the shadow of death. The evening ends with Barrio’s solo Soledad, which explores the multiple Spanish meanings of her name. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 248-4335. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday, Jan. 12-14. $20-$60.
For more Performance listings, visit
VISUAL ARTS
JAN. 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By RICHARD SPEER. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit show information—including opening and closing dates, gallery address and phone number—at least two weeks in advance to: Visual Arts, WW, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: rspeer@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115. Emailed press releases must be backed up by a faxed or printed copy.
Asia 2011
Inveterate globe-trotter Larry Cwik has long brought his colorful travelogues to viewers in Portland and across the country. Artgoers with long memories will remember his 2004 exhibition at Gallery 500, showcasing elegant idylls from Morocco. Cwik has also taken us along on his treks through Mexico and Antarctica. Now, in his first major Portland show since 2008, he shows us sights from his recent journey across Asia. As always, the photographer imbues his imagery with vibrant color and a sense of humanity that distinguishes his work from that of other travel photographers. Through Feb. 25. Milepost 5, 900 NE 81st Ave., 729-3223.
Facture: Artists at the Forefront of Painterly Glass
When we think of painting, we think of oils, acrylics and egg tempera. But for a sextet of artists in Bullseye’s new show, painting brings to mind a differ-
ent medium: glass. Kari Minnick, Martha Pfanschmidt, Ted Sawyer, Jeff Wallin, Abi Spring and Michael Janis all use glass to mimic the liquidity, texturality and other surface effects we normally associate with paint. Using a variety of techniques, they aim to prove glass every bit as worthy as other media to enter the pantheon of painterly media. Of particular interest in this show will be Abi Spring’s minimalist studies and Ted Sawyer’s evocative channelings of Abstract Expressionism. Through Feb. 25. Bullseye Gallery, 300 NW 13th Ave., 227-0222, 227-0222.
Jeffrey Conley: Winter
Seasonally themed group shows are overdone, but we must grant an exception to Jeffrey Conley’s Winter. A rhapsody of snow-blanketed tree boughs and frosty cliffsides, the exhibition commemorates the season with fondness but without preciousness. Conley has a painter’s eye for composition, framing barren treescapes against
moody skies, all lines softened with atmospheric sfumato in an accentuation of winter’s oddly dialectical aesthetic impact: a sympathetic chill in the bones, even as the heart warms. Through Jan. 14. Charles A. Hartman, 134 NW 8th Ave., 287-3886.
Made in Italy
In the summer of 2011, 14 art students—many from Portland State— traveled to Italy to take in the prestigious Venice Bienniale and create artwork in the town of Macerata. PSU professors Bill LePore and Horia Boboia led the students in their travels and studies. Now the students have distilled their experiences into works of art spanning diverse media and referencing their summer sojourn. William Bruno, Fara Di Noto, Stephanie Drachman, Gabriela Golez, Yibo Lu, Robert McKirdie, Riley Werner and Amanda Wilcox commemorate the spirit of the boot-shaped peninsula that was one of the prime wellsprings of all Western art. Through Jan. 27. MK Gallery, Portland State University Art Building, 2000 SW 5th Ave.
Memory
In past exhibitions, Ellen George and Jerry Mayer have used unconventional materials in their installations in the boxily intimate Nine Gallery. Now they
are at it again with Memory, a materially simple but conceptually complex work consisting of a single sheet of paper spanning an entire wall. Working on site, George and Mayer will crumple, rumple, crease and crunch the paper, deciding where and when to create the surface effects. Once a crease is made, it can’t be unmade. Its record is there, out in the open, irreversible, subject to the viewer’s judgment. Like these collaborators’ previous exhibitions, Memory invites allusions to the irretractibility of the decisions we make in everyday life. Through Jan. 29. Nine Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 227-7114.
Recent Contemporary Print Acquisitions
An eerie sun hovers over an exploding shape, enveloped in an atmosphere of sooty acid rain: This is the iconic Burst series of the late Abstract Expressionist Adolph Gottlieb. The artist used simplified imagery to convey imagery that concretized his generation’s fears of atomic cataclysm. Gottlieb’s print, Expanding, is part of a selection of modern and contemporary prints culled from international collections by Robert Kochs, one of the Northwest’s most well-versed experts on prints. The work is at once cautionary, horrifying and haunting. Through Jan. 28. Augen Gallery DeSoto, 716 NW Davis St., 546-5056.
The Horse
After Froelick’s and Butters’ equinethemed exhibitions this past summer, it’s time for a moratorium on horses on gallery walls. A big whinny of disapproval, then, for Blackfish’s The Horse, a six-months-behind-the-curve celebration of a noble animal which has, through no fault of its own, become a hackneyed artistic muse. Curator Steve Tilden adds his own take to this group show featuring 13 additional artists. Tilden contributes cringe-worthy sculptures of unicorns, Trojan horses and other variations on the theme in steel, wood, ceramics and old automobile parts. The works appear to hail from a junkyard and would meet a welcome end in similar environs after the show ends. The only works that begin to recontextualize this weary trope are Friderike Heuer’s digital collages, which update the immediacy of cave drawings and pictographs with welcome postmodern pastiche. Through Jan. 31. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 234-2634.
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
REVIEW
BODY GESTURE: A GROUP EXHIBITION OF FEMINIST ART A feminist art show might strike some as a stale proposition at this late date. Then again, with chauvinist-chic TV shows (Mad Men, Pan Am, The Bachelor) all the rage, maybe it’s perfect timing for Body Gesture: A Group Exhibition of Feminist Art. This final salvo in Elizabeth Leach’s yearlong series of 30th anniversary programming is a museumquality show, thoughtful and provocative as it explores feminist themes such as body image, gender polarization and a woman’s right to choose. Many among the 17 artists in the show hail from the movement’s heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, but several younger artists rode in on feminism’s second and third waves. One of these is Gen X’er Nicole Eisenman, whose mixedmedia print, Brillo, depicts a box of the eponymous wire pads collaged with a nude female figure. Eisenman has covered the figure’s underarms and nether regions with willynilly scrawls that look like hair, confronting the viewer with cultural expectations about beauty, naturality and the multimillion-dollar business of feminine depilation. Another confrontational piece, Sophie Calle’s Histoire vraies, L’amnesie, fills a large-format, black-and-white photograph with a man’s body: his head cropped out, arms thrown seductively back, his penis tucked out of sight between his thighs, in what is colloquially known as a “mangina.” Even in 2012, it’s still a little shocking to see a man
subjected to the same brand of objectification that women have endured for millennia. Take, for example, the croppedout head. Women’s heads and faces have never been all that relevant in art, from the faceless Venus of Willendorf (24,000 B.C.) to the paintings of Pop artist Tom Wesselmann, who gave his famous female nudes big, succulent lips but no eyes and no noses. Apparently, what is important in Western art is not a woman who can see or breathe, but one who can suck dick. Calle reverses the standard patriarchal tactics, though, disarming us by depersonalizing and emasculating her male subject. Elsewhere in the show, Jenny Holzer’s scrolling horizontal sculpture uses text to critique gender expectations, while Rachel Lachowicz employs makeup to parody the male-dominated minimalist art movement. Then there’s Alexis Smith, who recasts Robert Indiana’s famous LOVE composition as LUST, reclaiming the arena of sexual desire for women, a not entirely uncontroversial endeavor, even in the 21st century. In fact, work across the gamut of Body Gesture implies that during the half-century since Gloria Steinem-brand feminism kicked in, some aspects of being a woman have improved, but others have gotten worse. Today, with entire generations having grown up after feminism’s flowering, many women are ignorant of the battles waged by elder activist sisters. All too willing to take the movement’s hard-won achievements for granted,
NICOLE EISENMAN’S BRILLO
many young American women have become complicit, even gleeful, participants in their own objectification. Maybe we haven’t come such a long way after all, baby. RICHARD SPEER. SEE IT: Body Gesture: A Group Exhibition of Feminist Art is at Elizabeth Leach Gallery. 10:30 am-5:30 pm TuesdaySaturday. Closes Jan. 28.
LEARN THE ART OF GLASS BLOWING Sign up now for classes starting in Januar y. CLASSES OFFERED IN:
Beginning & Intermediate glass blowing. Beginning & Intermediate solid glass sculpture. 8 week classes in the afternoon & evenings.
P O RTL A N D ’S H OT SH O P! 1979 Vaughn Street, Portland, Oregon 97209 • 503.228.0575 • ElementsGlass.com
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
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BOOKS
JAN. 11-17
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By MARIANNA HANE WILES. 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, JAN. 11 Writers in the Schools: Benson High
Literary Arts presents a reading by students from Benson High School who have been studying with professional writers through the Writers in the Schools program. These students have stories to tell—come listen. Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726. 7 pm. Free.
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
When Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was published last year, her memoir about raising her children the Chinese way—pushing them to excel academically and musically at any cost—caused quite an uproar among parents of all stripes. Chua’s on tour again to promote the paperback, and the contentious Q&A session alone should be worth the trip. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
THURSDAY, JAN. 12 Sarah Bartlett and Emily Kendal Frey Two prolific local poets share their work in Multnomah Village.
Presumably, Frey will be reading from her most recent collection, The Grief Performance. Bartlett has a way with chapbook titles: She is the co-author of Baby on the Safe Side and A Mule-Shaped Cloud. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, 246-0053. 7 pm.
SUNDAY, JAN. 15 Adam Johnson
Adam Johnson’s new novel follows a young man growing up in North Korea under Kim Jong-il. The Orphan Master’s Son illuminates both the familiar cruelties and corruption of the mysterious regime as well as the everyday aspects of humor and love. It should be interesting to hear Johnson’s thoughts on North Korea after Kim Jong-il’s recent death. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651. 7:30 pm. Free.
MONDAY, JAN. 16 Drunk Poets Society
This poetry open mic takes place every Monday at the horror-themed Lovecraft bar. RUTH BROWN. The Lovecraft, 421 SE Grand Ave., 971270-7760. 8 pm. Free. 21+.
TUESDAY, JAN. 17 William Stafford Birthday Celebration in Oregon City
Oregon City hosts its own William Stafford birthday celebration at Clackamas Community College. Friends of William Stafford Board Member Paulann Petersen will host an open-mic session of Stafford poems and remembrances of the poet. The reading will be held in the Literary Arts room at Roger Rook Hall. Clackamas Community College, 19600 Molalla Ave., Oregon City, 657-6958. 6-8 pm. Free.
William Stafford Birthday Celebration at In Other Words
On Jan. 17, beloved Oregon poet William Stafford would have turned 98. Celebrate his nativeness by attending the reading and open mic hosted by the Figures of Speech reading series. Poets Mary Szybist and Leah Stenson will read works inspired by Stafford, and attendees are invited to bring their own Stafford-esque poems to share. Broadsides of Stafford poems will be available, too. This reading is among dozens of events in the metro area that celebrate Stafford’s birth month; full details are available at williamstafford.org. In Other Words, 14 NE Killingsworth St., 2326003. 7 pm. Free.
For more Words listings, visit
REVIEW
CRAZY ENOUGH
INVITES YOU AND A GUEST TO AN ADVANCE SCREENING OF
TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 7:00 P.M. VISIT WWW.GOFOBO.COM/RSVP AND ENTER THE CODE WWEEKZ5LH TO DOWNLOAD YOUR COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS! THIS FILM IS RATED PG-13: PARENTS STRONGLY CAUTIONED FOR ADULT LANGUAGE, ADULT SITUATIONS. Please note: Passes are limited and will be distributed on a first come, first served basis while supplies last. No phone calls, please. Limit two passes per person. Each pass admits one. Seating is not guaranteed. Arrive early. Theater is not responsible for overbooking. This screening will be monitored for unauthorized recording. By attending, you agree not to bring any audio or video recording device into the theater (audio recording devices for credentialed press excepted) and consent to a physical search of your belongings and person. Any attempted use of recording devices will result in immediate removal from the theater, forfeiture, and may subject you to criminal and civil liability. Please allow additional time for heightened security. You can assist us by leaving all nonessential bags at home or in your vehicle.
IN THEATERS JANUARY 20 www.extremelyloudmovie.com
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Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
WILLAMETTE WEEK WEDNESDAY 1/11/12
Storm Large is not a stranger to anyone with tenure in Portland’s music and arts scene. Her new memoir, Crazy Enough (Free Press, 288 pages, $25), painstakingly details how Large came to be the bombastic Amazonian the Rose City adopted as its own. She perfected her stage persona in Portland, yet her hometown of Southborough, Mass., is where Large spent her formative years— time spent in the shadow of her schizophrenic, bipolar mother, Suzi. Large’s relationship with her mother consumes the majority of her memoir, and rightfully so. It’s their fraught relationship that guides Large through her youth and helps define her early career. Crazy Enough can be easily read as an attempt by Large to simply unburden herself of issues born of a mother who was in and out of hospitals and psych wards, yet it’s much more than that. Large’s relationship with her mother is dispiriting—as Large writes, “When someone asked what our parents did for a living we’d say, ‘Our dad works but our mom is broken’”—but it’s also powerful. Crazy Enough is, thankfully, at least as much Running With Scissors as it is The Dirt. Throughout the stories of Storm’s mother trying to poison everyone—herself included—with a dinner of “chicken soup, oatmeal and Calgonite dishwashing powder,” Crazy Enough rambunctiously details struggles fitting in throughout high school, an awakening in New York art school, the clichéd drug-addled years in San Francisco and Large’s stint on the reality singing show Rock Star: Supernova. For every Large accomplishment, her mother is there to eclipse her daughter’s success with another made-up disorder or hospital stay. Large’s relationship with her mother is volatile and full of resentment, but Large shows sincere love for the damaged woman who raised her. One instance finds Large struggling to compose
herself at her mother’s funeral; another sees her break down at the sight of her long-lost aunt’s uncanny resemblance to Suzi. We’re touched when Large reveals—perhaps surprising herself— just how much she loved Suzi. Crazy Enough easily could have been only a tawdry romp based on the ever-so-trite trinity of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Thank God it’s not. What we see in Large—her raw emotions, her vulnerability—lends an inalienable sincerity to her life’s story and, hopefully, some satisfying closure to her relationship with her mother. MICHAEL LOPEZ. GO: WW published excerpts from Large’s book in last week’s issue. Read it at wweek.com.
MOVIES
JAN. 11-17 REVIEW
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
The Adventures of Tintin
82 Steven Spielberg’s CGI Tintin film,
like Christopher Nolan’s Batman pictures or Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, will soon define Hergé’s cast of iconic characters for a generation. That turns out not to be such a bad thing. While Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin is a tad higher-octane than its comic-book progenitors, the director clearly has a soft spot for the books, which he honors in the spectacular opening credits and the film’s opening scene. In the film’s early scenes, even Tintin’s lovable dog, Snowy, seems to have gone Hollywood. But as we prepare ourselves for another action movie by the numbers, something funny happens. Something really funny. His name is Captain Haddock. Played by Andy Serkis, Haddock is the film’s true lead, and he is absolutely brilliant. As soon as he is introduced, we start to care. It may be classic Spielbergian spectacle more than Hergé understatement, but damn it feels good, whether you’re familiar with Tintin or not. PG. CASEY JARMAN. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Wilsonville.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked! Dancing rodents on an island. WW did not brave the horror. G. 99 Indoor Twin, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Division, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood. NEW
Another Happy Day
39 Another Happy Day has the trap-
pings of every Lifetime movie rolled into one, with the exception of 2006’s Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. Wise-ass junkie teenage son and suicidal daughter? Check. Grandfather on deathbed? Check. Emotionally abusive sisters? Triple check. Abusive ex-husband played by former TV actor? Bam! But hey, this is credible because it has Ellen Burstyn and George Kennedy as the elders, Thomas Haden Church as the reformed hubby with a pit bull wife (Demi Moore) and, leading the sniffling brigade, Ellen Barkin as a doe-eyed puddle of tears forced to attend the wedding of her estranged son amid a flurry of scorn. Oh, and it’s kind of a comedy, though only Ezra Miller as the junkie son seems to get any laughs. Freshman director Sam Levinson really wants us to care about these people, but neglects to explore what made his characters such spiteful creatures. Here, we’re stuck with a sister dynamic in which horrible women openly mock an autistic child to his face and side with the ex-husband when Barkin recalls being savagely beaten. These aren’t people; they’re monsters in lipstick. Even in the hellish world of family reunions, their company is unbearable. R. AP KRYZA. Living Room Theaters.
The Artist
64 Repressed memories drive The Artist. It’s a silent-film homage to silent films—or, rather, the fond, slightly condescending recollection of silent films. Already the Oscar front-runner, the comedy from Michel Hazanavicius (who directed the two OSS 177 spoofs) is yet another take on A Star Is Born, with a slam-bang energetic Jean Dujardin trading places in the spotlight with flapper Bérénice Bejo at the cusp of talkies. The period is apt, since most of the movie’s charms are technical gimmicks: the interstitial cards, the tight aspect ratio on glamorous black-and-white marquees, and the sneaky intrusion of ambient noises into the soundtrack. Days after seeing The Artist, I find it hard to place any individual moments that resonated (aside from the doggie heroism of terrier Uggie), and I suspect that, title aside, the movie feels a complacent cynicism toward art. PG-13. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
NEW
Beauty and the Beast 3D
Tie your napkin ‘round your neck, cherie, and we’ll POKE YOU IN THE
ALEX BAILEY
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. EYE. G. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville. NEW
Contraband
Just when Mark Wahlberg was out, they pull him back in. Not screened for critics by WW press deadlines; look for a review on wweek.com. R. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Sandy.
A Dangerous Method
81 So...tell me about your father. The new David Cronenberg film about the salad days of psychoanalysis, A Dangerous Method isn’t a horror movie until you consider what isn’t shown. There are terrible memories of childhood beatings, recounted by Keira Knightley as Carl Jung’s patientturned-protégée Sabina Spielrein, as the specter of European genocide looms over the talking cures. What makes Method the most engrossing of the season’s releases is how the characters are grappling with bestial parts of themselves through ornate words— and often justifying savage betrayals or king-of-the-jungle pride the same way. “All those provocative discussions helped crystallize a lot of my thinking,” Michael Fassbender’s Jung tells Viggo Mortensen’s Freud. And while the movie includes lots of sex and spanking, it’s chiefly about the thrills, arousals and perils of conversation. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower.
The Descendants
THE GREATEST TORY EVER TOLD: Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent.
STREEP THROAT
MERYL GOES ON THE AUSTERITY PLAN FOR THE IRON LADY. BY AA R ON MESH
amesh@wweek.com
72 George Clooney puts in a
nuanced, wincing performance as the Dickensianly named Matt King, a workaholic real-estate lawyer and haole heir of Hawaiian royalty, who finds himself suddenly at sea when his wife of many years is knocked into a terminal coma by a high-speed motorboating accident. Clooney makes the most of his underwritten role—it is a comedic wonder to watch him lope awkwardly in flip-flops, or register his polite, pride-sucking pain over and over— but it is difficult nonetheless for the viewer to invest emotionally in the film, despite its easy charisma. R. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall.
The Devil Inside
Another exorcism movie not screened for critics. This one’s in Italy. R. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Division, Evergreen, Lloyd Mall.
Drive
95 Drive, the luxurious new L.A. noir
from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, is the most brutally antisocial movie of the year. It is also the most romantic—but it is primarily spellbound by the romance of isolation. It is also exhilarating filmmaking, from soup to swollen nuts. R. AARON MESH. Academy, Bagdad, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst, Mission, Fox Tower, Hollywood Theatre, St. Johns Pub. NEW
Female Trouble
[THREE NIGHTS ONLY, REVIVAL] John Waters directs Divine. NC-17. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, Jan. 13-14. 3 pm Sunday, Jan. 15.
Garbo: The Spy
A documentary about World War II double agent Juan Pujol Garcia. Living Room Theaters.
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher’s take on Stieg Larsson’s froth of woman-killing and woman’s revenge is less repellent than the flat nose-rubbing of the Swedish version, maybe because Fincher mostly gets his jollies from digital showboating. The movie looks like somebody found the pornography stash of Steve Jobs;
CONT. on page 48
Give The Iron Lady points for transparency: The film’s centerpiece is shots of Meryl Streep practicing her accent, the foundation of her biennial Oscar bid. She’s been Danish and Polish and Australian and whatever Julia Child was—she’s like a sailor with a different drawl in every port. This time out, she’s playing Margaret Thatcher, who in fact did train to lower her register in the 1979 prime minister campaign. So we get a montage of Streep bellowing like she’s rehearsing British Channel whale songs. It is a gesture toward the essential falseness of Thatcher (who had to practice to sound like a no-nonsense mum) and an inadvertent reminder of the vaunted hollowness of Streep. When has she ever given herself to the screen—or allowed anyone to share it? Instead, she does impressions. If Ben Stiller ever makes Night at Madame Tussauds, he should cast Streep as each waxwork, so we can be impressed that she looks and sounds almost exactly like everybody. If Streep seems particularly fit to play Thatcher, it’s because the Tory leader became a synonym for “ungenerous.” Yet I left The Iron Lady knowing no more about Thatcher than when I walked in—or possibly less. My understanding, based primarily on Martin Amis novels and punk songs of the era, was that she took a proud nation in decline and turned it into a churlish nation in rapid decline. But the movie, directed by Mamma Mia!’s Phyllida Lloyd, doesn’t address her effects on the isles, except for a few montages of angry Londoners setting things on fire. (This could be visual shorthand for the mood of Londoners in 1666, or last Wednesday.) The Iron Lady is that most condescending of objects: the “sympathetic” biopic of a conservative directed by a liberal, reducing all ideologies to personal hang-ups. Thatcher’s speeches are boilerplate let-them-eat-austerity stuff, with the only memorable exception coming when she takes umbrage at a doctor inquiring about how she’s feeling. “Ask me what I’m thinking,” she demands. It’s a little astonishing screenwriter Abi Morgan could pen
that line, then ascribe Thatcher’s entire hard-line Northern Ireland policy to sorrow at the car-bomb killing of an adviser. In an even more patronizing touch, this is a biopic where the conservative spends most of her time fighting off voices in her head. At least half the picture is dedicated to an elderly Thatcher wandering through her quarters in a housedress, like Kermit the Frog at his mansion in The Muppets, talking to her late husband Denis (Jim Broadbent). Even in this condition, she is stern: “Denis, you’re dead!” she informs the hallucination. The Iron Lady’s failure of taste is even more incredible when you remember that Thatcher is alive. The only
THE ONLY EQUIVALENT I CAN IMAGINE IS A RONALD REAGAN MOVIE CALLED THE GIPPER’S GOT ALZHEIMER’S. equivalent I can imagine is if somebody made a Ronald Reagan movie in 1994 called The Gipper’s Got Alzheimer’s. Why would the filmmakers possibly choose this approach? For a very simple reason: It draws attention to Streep’s acting chops—not only can she play Margaret Thatcher, she can play a senile Margaret Thatcher!—and away from a moral reckoning. It’s the same ploy Clint Eastwood used in caking Leonardo DiCaprio with old-age makeup for J. Edgar. Very elderly people are piteous and endearing, and if you ask audiences to pet an old bear, maybe they won’t fear being bitten. But this is a refusal to grapple with the full human, just as it’s a dodge to emphasize how very brave Thatcher was to make a career in a man’s world, without asking what kind of world she then created. It’s setting the same low bar as Streep’s continued reliance on impersonating public figures: If we’re awed by how lifelike she is, we won’t judge too harshly. This movie doesn’t grant Margaret Thatcher the dignity of being a real bitch. 35 SEE IT: The Iron Lady is rated PG-13. It opens Friday at Fox Tower, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia, Mill Plain, City Center and Evergreen.
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
47
bodacious book, buy it, now!” —Gus Van Sant
“Like some twisted love child of Mae West and Keith Richards, Storm Large is a force of nature. . . . Crazy Enough is vulgar and fragile, tragic and empowering, and like Storm, it is always entertaining.” —Chelsea Cain, bestselling author of Heartsick and The Night Season
MOVIES
JAN. 11-17
the snow and the torture chamber both look like they were designed by Apple. The enterprise has a necrotic vibe that is distancing, and in some shots, the characters’ skin is nearly purple. Fincher’s best jokes are all sick ones: A killer carves his victims to Enya, the opening credits are a Bond montage caked in a spew of power cords and crude oil, and he gets us awfully attached to that cat. The only human element is Rooney Mara. As the hacker detective Lisbeth Salander, she benefits from lucky miscasting: Her big, emotive eyes belie the heroine’s traumatized unfeeling. R. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, CineMagic, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
Hugo
80 Set in a vivid version of 1930s
Paris so edibly adorable it might as well have been born in a crocodile tear sliding down Amélie’s pristine cheek, Hugo drapes its bittersweet study of broken dreams over a plot of fairy-story simplicity. Martin Scorsese pulls off a few wonderful tricks with Hugo. It is a film populated by uncanny visions— dreams, films, dummies, trompe l’oeil expanses—and resonant with wonder, dolor and regret. The message: Life, though brief, admits of magic. The messenger: a master magician still. PG. CHRIS STAMM. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, City Center, Wilsonville, Living Room Theaters, Division, Evergreen. NEW
“Shattering, gorgeous and uproarious fun.” —Katherine Dunn, author of Geek Love Pick up or download your copy today
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80 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR
ATTENDING] Though ’90s Olympia, Wash., indie-metal band KARP dropped the acronym early in its career, Kill All Redneck Pricks was a manifesto the three high-school friends wrote in zines and scrawled on lockers. Great bands and stories are often derived from childhood friendships, and this caring, low-budget documentary collects the raw, surviving footage of a power trio that was poised for success before an unavoidable implosion. Musically, KARP was a breath of fresh air in the K Records scene—loud, unapologetic, high-energy Melvins acolytes. But for all the aggression, Jared, Chris and Scotty come across (in the beginning) as very good-natured dudes. KARP was an astoundingly powerful live band, but its albums were sadly under-produced documents. This film is similarly roughedged, with archival footage being haphazardly shot and collected over the past 4½ years by New York fan and filmmaker William Badgley. NATHAN CARSON. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Thursday, Jan. 12. Director William Badgley will attend the screening. NEW King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] Sidney Lumet’s documentary on Martin Luther King Jr. Clinton Street Theater. 7 and 9 pm Monday, Jan. 16. NEW
Kuroneko
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] A 1968 samurai ghost story. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Saturday, Jan. 14. NEW
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48
Willamette Week JANUARY 11, 2012 wweek.com
Make It Short: 40-Second Films
Mission: Impossible— Ghost Protocol
83 In only three magnificent films— The Iron Giant and Pixar smashes The Incredibles and Ratatouille— director Brad Bird has honed an eye: one of uncanny imagination, one that envisions a chaotic urban battlefield and a small kitchen as scenes of similar peril. That’s essential to a film in which crawling through a ventilation shaft and dangling from the world’s tallest building are equally dangerous. Luckily,
Bird’s eye for the real world more than matches his animated ingenuity. Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol finds Tom Cruise’s generic super-agent Ethan Hunt sprinting from set piece to set piece to stop a madman from blowing up the world. That’s it. No talky exposition. Just kinetic action (much of it shot in glorious IMAX), gadgetry of the Wile E. Coyote variety and the requisite goofy disguises. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Wilsonville.
The Muppets
85 Every Muppet movie—hell, even
the ’70s television show—is about pining for a bygone era, whether it be that of the vaudevillian variety show that The Muppet Show romanticized so well, or the caper flick, or even Treasure Island. This reboot,
REVIEW
Joyful Noise
Queen Latifah vs. Dolly Parton. Not screened for critics by WW press deadlines; look for a review on wweek.com. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cornelius, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Fox Tower, Lloyd Mall, Sherwood, Tigard, Wilsonville, Sandy. NEW Kill All Redneck Pricks: A Documentary About a Band Called KARP
40TH
NEW
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] The NW Film Center celebrates its 40th anniversary with a contest for films less than 40 seconds long. There’s probably a joke here about Twitter in the theater, but we don’t have enough characters. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Tuesday, Jan. 17.
GUY FERRANDIS
“Storm Large has written a
The Life of Oharu
[ONE NIGHT ONLY, REVIVAL] Kenji Mizoguchi’s drama about a feudal prostitute. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday, Jan. 13
HELLO, WE MUST BE GOING: Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly vs. Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet.
CARNAGE Your son is a fiend. Try the cobbler?
Considering the standard result in Roman Polanski movies of yuppies breeding in fancy New York apartments—birthing the spawn of Satan in Rosemary’s Baby, that sort of thing—it’s a wonder little Zachary Cowan has merely knocked out two of his classmate Ethan Longstreet’s teeth with a stick to begin Carnage. The bitter comedy, which observes the hostilities that escalate when the Cowan parents visit the Longstreet pad to make a formal apology, has likewise been already consigned to the status of minor Polanski. Yes, it is nothing more than an adroitly choreographed one-act. Yes, Yasmina Reza’s play rubs the veneer of civilization off the petit bourgeois with too obvious a gusto. (I’ve never seen anybody react so badly as these characters to an afternoon shot of whiskey.) But an opportunity for a quartet of actors to play selfregarding louts hasn’t been grabbed with such relish since Mike Nichols made Closer. Jodie Foster has the most fun with her persona: As often as she’s been cast as an avenging victim of violence, it’s hilarious to see her Penelope Longstreet insist on describing schoolboy Zachary as “armed” with that stick. As the Cowan paterfamilias, Christoph Waltz needles her with talk of “your friend Jane Fonda”—he’s the one instigating most of the altercations, a practiced and subtle conversational underminer. And it’s a brilliant stroke of casting to place John C. Reilly as Foster’s placating husband, the practical working man who solves all conflicts by pretending they don’t exist. (He has cured his fear of rodents by placing his daughter’s hamster on the curb.) Only Kate Winslet fails to register for most of the movie, until her stomach rebels against an apple-and-pear cobbler. Inside, everyone churns. Carnage’s impact may have been dulled by timing. Nobody, not even Polanski, conveys the particular hell of polite company like Louis C.K. has been doing every week on television. But sometimes you have to get off the couch, and as an evening out for misanthropes, Carnage sure beats getting stuck at somebody’s house. R. AARON MESH.
76 SEE IT: Carnage opens Friday at the Hollywood Theatre, Fox Tower, Eastport and City Center.
JAN. 11-17
MOVIES F O C U S F E AT U R E S
coordinated by Jason Segel, asks: Can’t we just be happy with an old-fashioned, MGM-style musical number (with puppets)? The tear stains on my jacket are proof I’m not too hard to please. PG. AP KRYZA. 99 Indoor Twin, Division, Lloyd Mall.
My Week With Marilyn
44 Michelle Williams steps off the Oregon Trail to play Marilyn Monroe, and gets about halfway there. She has the look of Marilyn—her features are like a portrait of Tinker Bell carved from a ripe peach—and nails the calculated-naif pout of the public persona, but she’s never quite convincing as Norma Jeane Baker. Her efforts to seem wounded and confused are always a smidgen too knowing and telegraphed. The surrounding movie looks at Monroe from the least interesting possible angle, that of snooty Anglos. It is a typical Weinstein Company property in the wake of The King’s Speech: light, British and shapeless. R. AARON MESH. Fox Tower, Mission, Kennedy School.
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New Year’s Eve
23 A tenaciously stupid movie,
one where Lea Michele gets stuck in an elevator with Ashton Kutcher and berates him about hope and magic until he agrees to make out with her. Robert De Niro performs a meta-commentary on the trajectory of his career by playing a man who just wants to die as soon as possible. “What’s the difference?” he asks. “Why delay the inevitable?” Which also nicely summarizes New Year’s Eve. PG-13. AARON MESH. Clackamas, Lloyd Mall. NEW
Pariah
73 It’s not a new story: Girl searches for love, girl finds love, girl loses love, finds herself. But first-time writer/director Dee Rees’ new Sundance-approved film gives us a girl and a setting worth watching: Adepero Oduye as Alike, a 17-yearold black woman just beginning to navigate life as a lesbian—much to the discomfort of her spectacularly brittle mother (Kim Wayans) and Fort Greene, Brooklyn, neighbors. The gritty yet winsome film is a case study in avoidance. On the verge of “losing” her daughter, Alike’s mom refuses to let her hang out with her butch best friend, Laura (Pernell Walker), and buys her pink sweaters to break her habit of donning ballcaps and menswear. Her cop dad mumbles “You know you’re Daddy’s girl, right?” and abruptly changes the subject. Bouncing from hip-hop-blaring strip clubs to Afropunk house parties, burgeoning writer Alike just wants to meet a girl and have her first kiss. Frustrated and on guard against revealing too much of herself, Oduye is genuine and affecting even when she’s silent: her brow furrowed in hurt or her mouth stretched in a rare, split-second smile so bright it could light up the whole city. Dees has a knack for understated words and authentic moments, even when it’s Alike fidgeting with the strap-on dildo she’s asked Laura to buy her to bolster her confidence. Sadly, the ugly reaction when Alike admits to being gay isn’t a surprise. But the bittersweet power of this little film is. R. KELLY CLARKE. Fox Tower.
NEW
Portlandia Season 2
70 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, TV
ONSCREEN] In an era when the best TV comedies—The Office, Party Down, Parks and Recreation— have been centered on the workplace, Portlandia reaches back for the dream of the ’90s as represented by Seinfeld and Friends. It’s set in a lifestyle destination where people take their leisure gravely serious. It’s a horror show about happiness. The residents get too much of what they want, and obsess over the proper and moral forms of gratification. When the series is in top form, they hone privilege to an art: Carrie Brownstein specializes in the screaming tantrum, while Fred Armisen identifies the many flavors of satisfied milquetoast. If
the payoffs are often bilious, the setups are sharp. Portland should be smug that its flagship TV show is set in a paradise that requires finding trouble. AARON MESH. Hollywood Theatre. 10 pm Friday, Jan. 13. Mission Theater. 7 and 10 pm, with variety show “The Friday Night TV Party & Theater Club Neighborhood Association” in between.
Shame
86 “I find you disgusting.” These
are the first substantive words spoken in director Steve McQueen’s sex-negative new film, aptly titled Shame. They are a misdirection, delivered after a crafty cut to a luxe office meeting, but they are spoken immediately after the film’s subject—Brandon Sullivan, played by a Bale-intense Michael Fassbender— has bought himself a high-end prostitute. And thus, the main focus and dichotomy in the movie: a constant swing between Sullivan’s clinically posh New York life and his lonely, seamy, uncontrolled sexual obsessions. The ugliness remains so lovely that we are not only at its mercy but wholly compelled by it. NC-17. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Cinema 21. NEW
Shelf Life
72 [ONE NIGHT ONLY, DIRECTOR
ATTENDING] Whenever somebody asks you, “Wanna go to Powell’s?,” the correct answer—no matter if you’re hungover, sick, having sex, negotiating a hostage crisis or trying to watch the Tebow game—is yes. The same affirmative reply should suffice for this lively, inquisitive documentary on the treasured Portland bookseller and its downtown paperback labyrinth. Director Lisa Day works briskly through what is clearly a large inventory of digital footage (if this seems a low compliment, you haven’t watched many low-budget docs) and pairs examinations of the City of Books’ history and operations with interviews of Chuck Palahniuk and Ursula K. Le Guin. (The latter appears to be—and I’m judging from limited evidence—the best person in the world.) The movie skirts close to being a promotional video—and an already dated one, with owner Michael Powell talking about competing with Borders—but if it doesn’t really broach the Amazon of pitfalls facing bright-eyed new CEO Emily Powell, it at least confronts the less cheery aspects of the store, including confrontations with desperate customers selling their beloved authors for quick cash. Shelf Life advocates the pleasures of reading without growing sanctimonious, and benefits enormously from the storytelling presence of Michael Powell, who couldn’t be more Chicagoan if he made a deep-dish pizza among the stacks. The film is worth browsing just for his story about an estate sale, Moby-Dick and Thomas Hardy. AARON MESH. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Thursday, Jan. 12. Director Lisa Day will attend the screening.
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
42 While watching Guy Ritchie’s new entry in the Sherlock Holmes franchise, it was difficult not to think of Hairspray. Not the seminal camp John Waters feature, but the slapstick John Travolta version based on the subpar Broadway musical that was, in turn, loosely adapted from the original. In a similar unholy game of telephone, the two characters in Ritchie’s Sherlock have nothing to do with Conan Doyle or Basil Rathbone but rather are rooted in Drs. Wilson and House (who himself lives in the Holmesian apartment 221B) from Fox’s House, M.D. So Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Watson (Jude Law) are here polymathic Victorian fratboys, prone to pranking, with earnest do-gooder Watson terminally at the mercy of his sociopathic-with-a-heart-ofgold, game-obsessed friend. This is not a Holmes who first discovers a mystery and then sets about solving it with uncanny precision; Downey is a dimly wisecracking blunderbuss whose main talents seem to be intellectual bullying, all-around asskicking and the art of disguising himself as women or furniture. PG-13. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Cornelius, Lake Twin, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Sandy.
NEW
Sordid Things
[ONE NIGHT ONLY] A drama about a wealthy couple’s surrogate mother, who holds the baby hostage. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Thursday, Jan. 12.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
23 British author John le Carré answered James Bond fantasy with his realistic sense of class politics and moral disillusionment in a faded empire. His 1974 novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, filled six hours when the BBC adapted it for television. In this version, a mere two hours are supposed to convey agent George Smiley’s search for a Soviet mole among his colleagues at MI6, or “the Circus.” Because the English actors look distinctive, you can almost follow the plot, beginning with Mark Strong as a fellow agent who gets ambushed in Budapest. Before we know anything about the guy, we’re expected to fear for his life because the film’s director, Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In), turns up the earthquake sound effects. Like many young boys, Alfredson seems enamored with the movies of David Fincher, in which pale, paranoid men discover horrible corpses, and all the politics and emotions of adult life have conveniently taken place off camera. This English spy version is especially disingenuous. R. ALISTAIR ROCKOFF. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Cinetopia Mill Plain, City Center, Evergreen, Fox Tower.
CONT. on page 50
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JAN. 11-17
Treasures From the UCLA Film and Video Archive NEW
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INVITE YOU TO ENTER TO WIN UNDERWORLD TRILOGY: THE ESSENTIAL COLLECTION.
The NW Film Center plundered some heavy material from the UCLA Film and Television Archive for this week’s screenings—This is Your Life: Holocaust Survivors (yup) and Native Land (“paean to the labor movement”)—but it scored some perfectly aged Cecil B. DeMille Cheez Whiz as well. The Crusades (7 pm Sunday, Jan. 15), DeMille’s 1935 follow-up to Cleopatra, saddles up with King Richard the Lionheart as he throws in with the holy warriors of the Third Crusade in order to dodge an arranged marriage. It’s not giving too much away to say that he eventually falls in love with the comely spawn of a cattle farmer, because it’s fairly common knowledge at this point that the Crusades were all about scoring strange. The film is a crosshatched mess of silly romance, macho pageantry and throne-room intrigue. In other words, it’s precisely what you want from a lavish historical epic that blows its load on double entendres before hurriedly tacking spiritual redemption to the tail end. I suggest taking notes during the screening, as The Crusades is chock full of great pickup lines. I call dibs on this one: “This sword will enter Jerusalem and rest on the tomb.” Hot. CHRIS STAMM. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. Saturday-Sunday, Jan. 14-15.
Young Adult
82 The reunion of Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody with director Jason Reitman, Young Adult is a movie with many antecedents—it recalls John Cusack’s grasp-at-thepast pictures Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity, as well as the bottoms-up despondency of Sideways. As if modeling her life on those Cusack characters, Charlize Theron listens repeatedly to the same Teenage Fanclub song on a cassette tape—the movie’s very clever opening credits play “The Concept” three damn times—and uses it as
a pep talk to return to her hometown of Mercury, Minn., and reclaim her high-school quarterback boyfriend (Patrick Wilson). His marriage and baby are but minor obstacles, and all other people are attendants in the royal court of her drunken imagination. Young Adult isn’t quite the nasty chortle it first appears to be, and it isn’t some Very Special Episode about the perils of booze. After some easy laughs in its first half, it becomes a realist horror about the universal need to maintain a few illusions about yourself. R. AARON MESH.
REVIEW C O N N E L L C R E AT I O N S
MOVIES
War Horse
48 Steven Spielberg has directed a twin bill of holiday films, but the ostensibly more mature entertainment, War Horse, has the exact same plot as a children’s film: 1945’s Son of Lassie. In both pictures, a British Isles pet—substitute plow horse for collie—is dropped behind German enemy lines, and has encounters with innocents who promptly die. The echoes may be accidental, and are partly the responsibility of War Horse’s book and Broadway lineage, but Spielberg has very consciously made a 1940s family picture. The Irish greenscapes are as gossamer and fake as the sets of Brigadoon. It is typical of Spielberg to make a World War I picture in which the central players emerge unharmed, like E.T. and Elliott on the Western Front. Even without the stage version’s famed puppets, War Horse has moments of wordless power—a cavalry changing into a Gatling gun, the mounts galloping on, riderless— but it is skill devoted to grating nonsense. PG-13. AARON MESH. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Cinetopia Mill Plain, Forest, Oak Grove, City Center, Division, Evergreen, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Sandy, St. Johns Twin Cinema-Pub.
We Bought a Zoo
70 Everybody feels oh so very
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much in We Bought a Zoo, but that’s to be expected from Cameron Crowe, whose heart has been perpetually on his sleeve since Say Anything. The movie is explicitly about risking embarrassment: the possibility of ridicule that comes from carrying a capuchin on your shoulder, playing Cat Stevens songs loudly, or...well, buying a zoo. It’s not quite the glop of Elizabethtown, but no humane sentiment goes unremarked (or unreiterated), and with Matt Damon playing a newly single parent trying to salve his kids’ bereavement, it’s essentially The Descendants for people who don’t get subtlety. I must be one of those people: Large sections of We Bought a Zoo worked me over. (Not the parts with the monkey.) Crowe is didactic, and thinks too highly of Sigur Rós’ Jónsi as a composer, but he’s also unafraid to work through relationships in dialogue. There’s a marvelously unsteady yelling match between father and son midway through, where Damon’s kid asks his dad why he’s forcing this dream on him, and Damon cries out: “Because it’s a great dream! With cool animals!” That naked optimism is disarming. PG. AARON MESH.
STAY ON 3:16: Director Bryan Storkel.
HOLY ROLLERS If you’re a smug atheist like me, you’ll come into Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians looking to shake your fist and roar “Hypocrisy!” at the screen, as you watch this team of evangelicals (of the young, trendy, tattooed, prolific-useof-the-word-“awesome,” members-of-shitty-rock-bands variety) winning millions of dollars at blackjack tables in Vegas while babbling about “glorifying God.” But you won’t, because this is a pretty good documentary, and so by the halfway mark, these kids will have probably converted you with their genuine niceness, strong moral convictions and infectious positivity—as evangelicals are wont to do. The main protagonists are two floppy-haired “cool pastor” types from Seattle who learn to count cards (they say it’s easier than it’s made out to be; of this I remain a skeptic) and turn it into a business, commanding a team of other young believers who disperse across the country’s casinos, using math and wacky disguises to beat the house and return a tidy profit to their bosses and investors. Their justification is that card counting is perfectly legal, that it isn’t cheating, and that casinos are horrible, so why not take their money and use it to support their families and/or ministries? The potential sin of greed is largely moderated by paying the players an hourly wage regardless of their wins and losses. Director Bryan Storkel clearly sides with his subjects over the gaming industry, and the film is weaker for it, but it’s not a difficult stance to defend. There’s a certain anti-authoritarian thrill in cheering as these polite young men systematically rack up the Benjamins, smiling while grizzled casino staff kick them out again and again just for being good at a game. And then, because this is a pretty good documentary, the good times stop rolling. What happens when a non-Christian joins the team? What happens when the team starts losing? What happens when God starts speaking to one of the players, informing him of a Judas in the group? Suddenly people aren’t so nice, and our floppy-haired heroes have to face running their business like, well, an actual business—which isn’t always the Christian thing to do. Oh, you’ll keep the faith through a last-ditch Vegas heist—like Ocean’s 11 with more cargo pants and less cussing. But because this is a pretty good documentary, you won’t leave a true believer. RUTH BROWN. What happens in Vegas is rewarded in heaven.
75 SEE IT: Holy Rollers screens at the Clinton Street Theater at 7 and 9 pm Friday-Sunday and Tuesday-Thursday, Jan. 13-15 and 17-19.
2
JAN. 13-19
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3D Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-TueWed 01:40, 04:20, 07:20, 09:50 CONTRABAND Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:20, 04:40, 07:40, 10:20 THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 04:10 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE -- GHOST PROTOCOL Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 04:00, 07:00, 10:00 THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 01:30, 07:10, 10:10 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:10, 05:00, 09:45 SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 01:15, 04:15, 07:15, 10:15
Sun 02:30, 07:00 THE MUPPETS Fri-Sat-Sun 02:30, 07:00
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2320 Lloyd Center Mall, 800-326-3264 JOYFUL NOISE Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:35, 03:20, 06:10, 08:50 THE DEVIL INSIDE Mon-TueWed 12:20, 03:00, 06:20, 08:35 WE BOUGHT A ZOO Mon-Tue-Wed 12:25, 03:15, 06:00, 08:45 THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Mon-Tue-Wed 06:25 THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN 3D Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 03:10, 08:55 ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED Mon-TueWed 12:15, 03:05, 05:55, 08:25 YOUNG ADULT Mon-Tue-Wed 03:25, 09:00 NEW YEAR’S EVE Mon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 06:15 THE MUPPETS Mon-TueWed 12:10, 03:30, 06:05, 08:40 THE DESCENDANTS Mon-Tue-Wed 12:00, 02:55, 05:50, 08:30
Bagdad Theater and Pub 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-249-7474 DRIVE Fri-Sat-Sun-MonWed 08:25 MONEYBALL Fri-Sat-Sun 06:00 HAPPY FEET TWO Sun-MonWed 06:00 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Tue
Cinema 21
616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515 SHAME Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 04:30, 07:00, 09:15
Clinton Street Theater
2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-8899 HOLY ROLLERS: THE TRUE STORY OF CARD COUNTING CHRISTIANS Fri-Sat-Sun-Tue-Wed 07:00, 09:00 THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW Sat 12:00 KING: A FILMED RECORD... MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS Mon 07:00, 09:00
Laurelhurst Theatre
2735 E. Burnside St., 503232-5511 MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:00 MELANCHOLIA Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:05 OFFICE SPACE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 09:45 THE IDES OF MARCH Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:30 MONEYBALL Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 06:45 DRIVE Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 09:30 MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 07:10 THE SKIN I LIVE IN Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:20 PUSS IN BOOTS Sat-Sun 01:50
Mission Theater and Pub 1624 NW Glisan St., 503-249-7474 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Fri-Tue MY WEEK WITH MARILYN SatMon-Wed 05:30 DRIVE Sun-Mon-Wed 10:15 MELANCHOLIA Mon-Wed 07:35
CineMagic Theatre
2021 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-231-7919 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 05:30, 08:40
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5736 NE 33rd Ave., 503-249-7474 PUSS IN BOOTS Fri-SunMon-Tue-Wed 02:30 DRIVE Fri-Sun-Mon-TueWed 07:40 HAPPY FEET TWO Fri-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 05:30 MELANCHOLIA FriSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 09:50 NO FILMS SHOWING TODAY Sat MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Tue-Wed 02:30
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Highway 99W, 503-538-2738 ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: CHIPWRECKED Fri-Sat-
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1911 Pacific Ave., 503-844-8732 WAR HORSE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 04:00, 07:30
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NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium
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11700 SE 7th St., 877-608-2800 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST 3D Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 12:15, 02:35, 04:50, 07:05, 09:15 CONTRABAND Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:05, 02:40, 05:15, 07:50, 10:30 MISSION: IMPOSSIBLEAurelio -- GHOST PROTOCOL FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed Emmett 12:50, 03:45, 07:10, 10:10 WAR HORSE Fri-Sat-SunMon-Tue-Wed 12:10, 03:25, Confirmation 07:00, 10:15 TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:30, 03:50, 07:25, 10:20 SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS FriSat-Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed 12:00, 03:00, 06:40, 10:00 THE IRON LADY Fri-SatSun-Mon-Tue-Wed 01:00, 04:20, 07:30, 10:30 THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Fri-Sat-Sun-MonTue-Wed 02:00, 06:00, 09:30
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YOU GOTTA GO, YOU GOTTA GO: Every possible aspect of The Godfather has been thoroughly assayed and diagramed—in some college library, there is surely a term paper titled Woltz Up, Doc?: Khartoum the Horse and the Art of Non-Verbal Communication—but I’ll still point out my personal-fave performance. It’s Sterling Hayden, who gets about six minutes of screen time as corrupt Capt. McCluskey, and makes him the most repugnant policeman before the pepper-spray era. Hayden made a magnificent career out of self-loathing tough guys, but for two scenes he makes us loathe him, until we can’t wait for Michael Corleone to send his soul to damnation on a plate of veal Parmesan. AARON MESH. Showing at: Academy, on 35 mm. Best paired with: Farnese Montepulciano. Also showing: Office Space (Laurelhurst).
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