PUBLIC CAMPAIGN FINANCING: IT’S BACK, BABY! WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
WHAT YOUR CHILDHOOD TOYS ARE WORTH P. 29
P. 6
“SO HE KILLS PEOPLE. ALL OF THE PEOPLE.” P. 57 WWEEK.COM
VOL 42/25 4.20.2016
, AN EX-BLAZER’S TS C U D O PR IS B A ANN S. PLUS HOT NEW C IJUANA MIRACLE R A M L A IC ED M D AN WEED BUSINESS, PAGE 13
HATE-FREE CHICKEN IS NOT AS DELICIOUS P. 31
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Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
A LY S S A W A L K E R
FINDINGS
PAGE 29
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 42, ISSUE 25.
Two Portland cops once publicly
mocked an innocent man killed by another cop and kept their jobs. 7 The Man is trying to prevent Brad
Avakian from fighting for equal pay, cracking down on polluters and auditing corporations just because it’s not “his job,” per se. 9 Earl Blumenauer has his own strain of cannabis now. 18 Whoopi Goldberg has her own strain of cannabis now. 23
ON THE COVER:
Southeast Foster dive O’Malley’s is working to save the whales. 28 If you want a really, really good fried-chicken sandwich, you still have to help oppress gay people. 31 At long last, D-Generation X shirts are back in style. Suck it! 38 Furikake fries are a thing now. 47
There’s a Native American comedy show that’s like Chippendales staged inside a KFC. 49
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
Sandy Smoking by Rachael Renee Levasseur.
Nonprofit hospitals are making fat cash thanks to Obamacare.
STAFF Editor & Publisher Mark Zusman EDITORIAL News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Beth Slovic Copy Chief Rob Fernas Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Maya McOmie Stage & Screen Editor Enid Spitz Projects Editor Matthew Korfhage Music Editor Matthew Singer Web Editor Lizzy Acker Books James Helmsworth
Visual Arts Jennifer Rabin Editorial Interns Karina Buggy, Jenna Mulligan CONTRIBUTORS Mike Acker, Dave Cantor, Nathan Carson, Peter D’Auria, Alex Falcone, Shannon Gormley, Jordan Green, Jay Horton, AP Kryza, John Locanthi, Mark Stock PRODUCTION Production Manager Dylan Serkin Art Director Julie Showers Special Sections Art Director Alyssa Walker Graphic Designers Rick Vodicka, Xel Moore Production Interns Henry Cromett, Gabi McKenzie, Skylar Nguyen
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OBAMACARE ENRICHES HOSPITALS
ance, boundaries and limits that are also respectI like Willamette Week and read it every week, ful. And safe. and I understand your “to provide an indepenUsing one’s power to physically control or dent and irreverent understanding” phrase in intimidate a child is unwarranted. If you can’t your mission statement. better handle your own child’s disrespectful behavior, if you would actually prefer But the title and subtitle of no relationship with your child to one last week’s cover story [“Thanks, Obama!: The Five Things Hospitals where you are forced to learn how to appropriately deal with their anger, Don’t Want You to Know About then you have no business working in Obamacare,” WW, April 13, 2016] government. is unfair and misleading, especially —“C.A. Therapissed” because most people who just read the headlines incorporate that into their political and social views. Parents are supposed to discipline their children. Nothing in this story Ho s p i t a l s n ot u s i n g t h e i r sounds like child abuse or assault. “profits” and cash reserves for “If hospitals Unfortunately, many Portlanders community benefit is not Obama’s are doing or the Affordable Care Act’s fault. communitydon’t have children and may hold an State Rep. Mitch Greenlick is right unrealistic vision of how to raise chilwhen he says it’s disingenuous that benefit work dren. hospitals claim most of that money for less than —Pamela Fitzsimmons through underpayment from fed- their costs, eral reimbursements. CORRECTIONS shouldn’t I like the headline on the article’s A story last week on Portland City they be sidebar: “Voodoo Accounting.” Council candidate Fred Stewart losing —Richard Dandliker (“Family Values,” WW, April 13, 2016) money?” North Portland incorrectly stated he was arrested because he was $9,000 in arrears on If hospitals are doing community-benefit work paying child support. A warrant was issued for for less than their costs, shouldn’t they be losing Stewart’s arrest in 2013 for nonpayment of child support, but he was not arrested. money rather than building large cash reserves? Last week’s interview with the founder If the numbers they are using are “real,” then they are charging more than their costs for other of Portland State University’s “Students for Trump” group (“Four Questions for Volodymyr services—much more by the sound of it. Kolychev,” WW, April 13, 2016) misquoted his —“Dispassionate Assassin” characterization of his political opponents. He described them as “aspiring Bolshevik commisCITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE As a therapist, I am appalled at the last line of this sars,” not “aspiring bullshit commissars.” WW article [“Family Values,” WW, April 13, 2016]. It regrets the errors. speaks volumes to Fred Stewart’s character. Anyone who has ever parented a teenager LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. knows how difficult and challenging it can be, Letters must be 250 or fewer words. but it is part of adolescence to push back and test Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. limits. It is a parent’s role and job to offer guid- Email: mzusman@wweek.com. OREGON MONEY AND “BATHROOM BILLS.” PORTLAND’S NEW BEST RAMEN SPOT. BURNSIDE 26 GETS A VERY NICE BAR!
SUMMER CAMP GUIDE INSIDE. P. 18-23
WWEEK.COM
VOL 42/24 4. 13. 2016
THE FIVE THINGS HOSPITALS DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT OBAMACARE. PAGE 12
Q.
Every time there’s bridge-painting, they wrap the bridges to prevent debris from falling into the river. But on Cinco de Mayo, the Fourth of July, etc., the river is used as an ashtray for the heavy metals and toxic chemicals in fireworks. Isn’t there a smarter way to spend our tax dollars? —Ray
When I told one of my housemates what I was working on this week, she asked, brightly, “Are you going to tell them that the solution to pollution is dilution?” “No,” I said, and made her wash the dishes. That said, when you’re deciding whether to be worried about an environmental chemical, the question “How much?” is at least as important as the question “What kind?” Let’s take cadmium, the most dangerous colorant in fireworks. Cadmium will mess up your lungs, kidneys and bones and give you cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency says that levels of cadmium above 5 parts per billion are unsafe. 4
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
That’s not much—by comparison, 4 parts per billion is the ratio of winning Powerball tickets to all Powerball tickets. However, it’s also true that cadmium occurs naturally in the earth’s crust—both seawater and soil contain about 0.1 parts per billion of it all the time. So “how much” matters. The Willamette’s flow rate means about 3.7 billion pounds of water pass during a half-hour fireworks display. Even assuming the manufacturers used an entire pound of cadmium powder/ foil per show, the river’s contamination wouldn’t reach 0.4 parts per billion. The Bureau of Environmental Services says it doesn’t test for fireworks residue. Among places that have, though, the only worrisome concentrations I could find were at a landlocked lake in a tourist town that had fireworks shows every week. Meanwhile, Multnomah County reports that the recent partial repainting of the Broadway Bridge shipped over 100,000 pounds of debris. That’s a lot. Given that the only thing Portland loves more than a fireworks show is yet another bridge closure, it’s probably just as well that jimmy wears a hat. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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Portland Public Schools has been working on a November bond measure to fund an overhaul of Benson, Lincoln and Madison high schools. But PPS officials are “dropping hints” that Madison should be removed from the plans, says School Board member Mike Rosen. Renovations and financing at three high schools would cost $635 million, but polls show voters won’t support a bond larger than $556.5 million. “Madison needs to be in the bond,” says Rosen. “We’re going to have to change the public’s mind.”
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ACLU Says Prosecutors Need Challengers
The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon has released a new report that seeks to challenge one of the most predictable outcomes in Oregon politics—the re-elec-
tion of county prosecutors. “In the past ten years and six election cycles from 2004 to 2014, 78 percent of district attorney races in Oregon were uncontested,” says the 22-page report, written by ACLU director David Rogers. He says the lack of choices has immunized Oregon district attorneys from criminal justice reforms taking hold in many other states. Oregon District Attorneys Association president Daina Vitolins says the report, as summarized by WW, sounds like a solution in search of a problem. “The reason there aren’t more contested races is DAs are very in touch with our communities,” she says.
Deputies Ask Sheriff Dan Staton to Resign
Pressure is mounting on Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton. On April 18, the law enforcement deputies union told Staton it wanted him to resign. “The Sheriff said he would take our request under advisement,” union president Matt Ferguson wrote in an email to the rank and file. Staton confirmed to WW he is considering the union’s request, but noted he still enjoys the support of jail deputies, a larger union.
Former Oregonian Cartoonist Wins Pulitzer
Former Oregonian cartoonist Jack Ohman has won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning for his portfolio of drawings at The JACK OHMAN
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NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK Uncommitted Superdelegates • U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio • Frank Dixon, DPO • Laura Calvo, DPO • Lupita Maurer, DPO • Karen Packer, DPO • Larry Taylor, DPO
Superdelegates Committed to Sanders
W H E R E W E ’ R E AT
Startup Funding
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
Does it seem like tech money is suddenly flooding into Portland? It is. A new study by investment website Mattermark shows Portland is bucking a national trend of declining venturecapital funding for startups. While most U.S. cities experienced a drop in startup fundraising from the first quarter of 2015 to the first quarter of 2016, Portland saw a 674 percent jump to $42.6 million. That may seem like a lot of money—but it’s still a drop in the ocean compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, which endured a 19 percent funding decline in the same period but still raised $1.74 billion in a quarter. AARON MESH.
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Oregon Superdelegates
Superdelegates Committed to Clinton • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden • U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer • U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader • Gov. Kate Brown • Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
GO: WW sponsors TechFestNW at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., on Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26.
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Q1 2015 Q1 2016 200
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As the May 17 primary approaches, there’s a lot of interest in how Oregon—a likely stronghold for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.)—will allocate its Democratic delegates. The short answer: 61 of them will be allocated proportionately to the popular vote in each of the state’s five congressional districts. Another 13, so-called superdelegates, are more complicated. Superdelegates are party insiders and elected officials selected before the primary to cast votes at the Democratic National Convention. Their picks don’t have to reflect the popular vote. Of the 13 Oregon superdelegates, six have already
committed to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. All of them are either members of the congressional delegation or statewide elected officials. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is the lone Sanders endorser. Another six remain uncommitted. Carol Butler, a campaign spokeswoman for Gov. Kate Brown, one Clinton’s backers, says Brown is impressed by the passionate support Sanders has generated in Oregon. Butler says Brown is a longtime Clinton supporter but will keep an open mind. “She will enthusiastically endorse whoever gets the nomination,” Butler says. NIGEL JAQUISS.
ANNIVERSARY
Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson was 31 years old when a Portland police officer killed him. It’s been 31 years since he died. Stevenson, an off-duty security guard, father to five and a former Marine, was in a 7-Eleven store in Northeast Portland when it was robbed April 20, 1985. He helped two employees stop the thief, but then got into a fight with a witness in the parking lot. Portland police Officer Gary L. Barbour put Stevenson in a “sleeper hold” that rendered him unconscious. Barbour chose not to perform CPR when
Stevenson collapsed, and 45 minutes later, in a Portland hospital, Stevenson died. Barbour was white. Stevenson was black. Portlanders were outraged. That fury grew when, on the day of Stevenson’s funeral, two white officers, Paul Wickersham and Richard Montee, sold T-shirts to fellow cops. The shirts showed a smoking handgun and the words “Don’t Choke ’Em, Smoke ’Em.” Mayor Bud Clark fired Wickersham and Montee, but they got their jobs back. Barbour was never indicted in Stevenson’s death.
Stevenson’s killing came nearly three decades before the Black Lives Matter movement. But its leaders see parallels. “Tony Stevenson’s murder shows us that it is not what you do but who you are that makes you a target of police violence,” says activist Walidah Imarisha, who has taught black studies at PSU. “Protests by the black community in Portland in the wake of Stevenson’s murder show the continuity not only of oppression by police, but of resistance in this community.” KARINA BUGGY.
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Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
W W S TA F F
NEWS “I VIEW THESE OFFICES NOT JUST FOR WHAT THEY’VE ALWAYS DONE BUT FOR WHAT THEY HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO DO.”
THE EXPANSIONIST: “I think the Secretary of State’s Office has been well-managed,” Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian says. “I just see some different ways to do it.”
Brad Intentions LABOR COMMISSIONER BRAD AVAKIAN WANTS TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE—EVEN IF THAT MEANS A NEW DEFINITION OF THE JOB. BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS
njaquiss@wweek.com
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian is making bold promises in his campaign to become secretary of state. Avakian, 55, who’s won the bulk of the endorsements in a three-way Democratic primary, has told supporters he’d audit private corporations, pursue polluters and police workplace pay. Those are laudable goals. But none of them is a duty of the office Avakian is seeking. The Oregon secretary of state’s role is mostly administrative: overseeing elections and archives, auditing state agencies, serving on the State Land Board, and registering corporations that do business in Oregon. Avakian is unapologetic about his expansionist view of the office. “I view these offices not just for what they’ve always done but for what they have the potential to do,” he tells WW. “Just because an agency hasn’t done something before doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do it.” Avakian’s view of what he might accomplish surprises many observers, including one who used to hold the job. “It’s not unusual for somebody who’s running for county commission or the Legislature to stretch the definition of the job,” says former Gov. Barbara Roberts, who served as secretary of state from 1985 to 1991. “But I can’t remember recently hearing a recognized candidate with statewide experience who would be quite so loose or casual in their definition of the boundaries of the office they are seeking.” The Democratic secretary of state primary features three experienced politicians: Avakian, state Sen. Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin), and state Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Eugene). Each brings leadership credentials to the race. Avakian, a former Washington County lawmaker, has been labor commissioner since 2008. Devlin is the longtime co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee, which writes the state’s budget. Hoyle served
as House majority leader from 2012 to 2015. Avakian is an experienced campaigner. In 2008, he was running for secretary of state when then-Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed him labor commissioner. He won reelection in 2008, 2012 and 2014, taking time out to run for a vacant congressional seat in 2011. (Then-state Sen. Suzanne Bonamici defeated him 65 percent to 22 percent.) As labor commissioner, Avakian has zealously pursued high-profile cases. In 2014, his agency found Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a Gresham bakery, had discriminated against a lesbian couple that wanted a wedding cake. He also aggressively enforced laws that benefit veterans, and penalized a Portland nightclub for barring transgender patrons. “He’s put Oregon in the spotlight and shown that we’re not going to tolerate discrimination,” says CM Hall, chairwoman of Basic Rights Oregon’s political action committee, which endorsed Avakian. “He’s resolute and clear-headed, and he’s really distinguished himself through his actions.” In his run for secretary of state, Avakian has seized the left lane in the Democratic primary by pitching himself as the progressive’s progressive. He says constituents are hungry for an activist secretary of state. “I’m the only one in this race who has spent a career investigating and prosecuting wrongdoers,” says Avakian, a former trial lawyer. “That’s part of the culture you’ll see in my office.” He has won key endorsements from diverse groups, including NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, the Oregon Education Association, numerous trade unions, and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. But Ryan Deckert, executive director of the Oregon Business Association and a fellow Washington County Democrat, says his former legislative colleague continually overstates the scope of the job he’s seeking. “If you are on his email list, you’ll see that he’s running for many different offices—including secretary of state,” jokes Deckert, whose group issued a joint endorsement of
Devlin and Hoyle. He’s pledged, for instance, to audit private companies that do business with the state. “Avakian’s plan calls for using the Secretary of State’s Audits Division to hold corporations accountable,” he wrote in a Feb. 11 fundraising email. “Auditing companies doing business with the state, Avakian will ensure employment laws and accounting rules are being followed, saving the state money and protecting workers.” Avakian acknowledges that auditing corporations is not within the established scope of the office’s duties—but says it should be. “The secretary of state has not done that before,” he says, “and I think that’s a mistake.” Avakian has taken a similarly broad view of the role he might play in environmental matters. “As secretary of state, I’ll fight for clean energy and forward-thinking climate policies,” Avakian wrote in a Feb. 29 fundraising email. “I’ll work to hold polluters accountable.” But other state agencies—the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, the Oregon Department of Energy and the environmental enforcement unit of the Oregon Department of Justice—already handle such work. Executive director Doug Moore of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters says his group, which endorsed Avakian, is encouraged that Avakian wants to beef up the secretary of state’s role in environmental matters. “The secretary of state is one of the three members of the State Land Board, which has enormous influence over state lands and what we are doing with a vast amount of state forest,” Moore says. “A key part of what we look at is the desire to use the land board to advance conversation.” Last week, Avakian announced that if elected, he’d seek to ensure state agencies pay men and women equally for equal work. “Avakian will use the Audits Division to audit the pay differential between female state employees and their male counterparts,” he wrote in an April 12 fundraising email. That pledge drew praise and an endorsement from Mother PAC, an influential women’s group, which issued a statement applauding “Brad Avakian’s ongoing commitment to equal pay.” Roberts, the second woman to serve as Oregon secretary of state and also the first to serve as governor, was less impressed. “Enforcing equal pay is the job of the labor commissioner,” Roberts says. “That’s his job now. It would generally not be the job of the secretary of state.” Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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BIG LOTS: Busy corridors such as Hawthorne Boulevard (above) are home to large buildings next to small ones because of zoning regulations that change from lot to lot.
henry cromett
NEWS
Apartment Block HOUSING ADVOCATES SAY PORTLAND PLANNERS ARE TAKING A DIVE ON ADDING NEW APARTMENTS TO BUSY STREETS. By B ETH SLOVIC
bslovic@wweek.com
At the corner of Southeast Division Street and 23rd Avenue sits 5,000 square feet of grass that could help solve Portland’s housing crunch. The vacant lot, owned by a California contractor, sits three blocks from a New Seasons, along one of Portland’s rapidly changing streets—a corridor that has seen hundreds of new rental units. That change still isn’t keeping pace with a wave of new residents: The city’s rents keep rising, in part because the rental vacancy rate is still just 3.1 percent and the number of homes for sale is at record lows. This patch of grass could be used to add dozens of rental units, easing the shortfall. But it won’t. Portland city planners have designated this lot for lower-density housing, meaning the five planned attached homes are all that’s allowed. And the city’s comprehensive plan, which directs Portland’s growth for the next 20 years, will keep it that way, failing to address a checkerboard of zoning regulations that change from one property to the next, even on the same block. “I don’t know if waste is the right word,” says Doug Klotz, a Southeast Portland activist who pushes sustainable development. “But it’s an under-utilization of valuable inner-city property near transit and shopping.” People are not going to stop moving to Portland, so the big question is how to meet demand. Few subjects seem as dull as the comprehensive plan, a massive policy document. But few city documents have as much potential to shape the housing supply as advocates for affordability spar with residents who don’t want change. Housing advocates say planners are ignoring a potential solution by not attempting a large-scale change in zoning rules, which determine how large new buildings can be. (This week, the Portland City Club announced it supports rezoning single-family neighborhoods to allow duplexes and townhouses.) “There’s no reason we shouldn’t be encouraging more higher-density use in this area,” says Alan Kessler, a lawyer who sits on the board of the Richmond Neighborhood Association, located in a red-hot section of Southeast Portland bounded by Hawthorne and Powell boulevards and 28th 10
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
and 52nd avenues. “These half measures are baking in some bad decisions.” Even as thoroughfares like Division, Hawthorne Boulevard and Belmont Street attract newcomers, development will proceed inconsistently because city planners have done little to address zoning regulations that alternate between residential and commercial. Division, Hawthorne and Belmont all have this patchwork zoning. The effect of this is obvious at Hawthorne and 15th Avenue. To the west, a 30-unit apartment complex rose from the lot that used to contain the Langano Lounge. To the east, a low-slung Auto Body and Electric store sits next to a surface parking lot. That particular auto site will change under the comprehensive plan, but many others won’t. The alternating zones can create a desired effect, says Heather Flint Chatto, also of the Richmond association. It’s what Flint Chatto, an urban planner, calls “pearls on a string,” with development spaced between lower-density zones. City officials are creating some additional commercial spots in Southeast Portland but don’t want to incentivize tearing down smaller, existing structures that provide good housing. Eric Engstrom, a chief planner for the city, says the plan was always intended to look at the big picture. “We didn’t set a bar for ourselves to completely relook at each zoning line,” he says. Zoning regulations along particular streets, he says, will have to be re-examined later: “We’re waiting for proposals to come from local areas.” But that’s not likely. So far neighbors are largely OK with the patchwork, more the result of historic accidents than deliberate policies. Some fear an oversupply of storefronts. “You end up with empty windows that sit there during recessions,” says Linda Nettekoven, a longtime Southeast Portland activist. Tenants’ advocates say Portland leaders must reconsider zoning rules if they want to address housing affordability in the long term. It’s one small component of Portland’s housing dilemma, says Justin Buri, executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants. “Zoning is one piece of the puzzle,” he says, “and it’s something we need to look at as we search for long-term solutions.”
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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6 Year Anniversary
R A C H A E L R E N E E L E VA S S E U R
4/20 ISSUE
T
he first Christmas after I turned 21, my grandfather offered me whiskey. This was a big deal—my grandma only let him have two bottles of Crown Royal a year for health reasons, so he guarded the stuff with his life. When I said I wanted it only with a couple rocks, my grandma couldn’t contain her joy and hugged me with tears in her eyes. “You’re becoming a man!” she exclaimed. You sit down with Dad or Granddad for that first beer, or Mom for a martini up with a twist, and it’s like you’ve crossed through the looking glass. You’ve joined them in a new, adult world where everything is slower, funnier and a little more stupid. Finally, you’re equals. So they tell you all the dumb stories they wouldn’t tell you when you were a kid—like how your dad met your mom only because his best friend bribed him with a pitcher of beer to play wingman on a double date. It’s an important rite of passage. If they’re a little blitzed on Blitz, they don’t have to play parent anymore. You see the person their friends see. But since October of last year, there’s a new tradition form-
ing. When you turn 21, you get to have that first joint with Mom, or that first bong with Dad—and hear a whole new set of stories. So we got high with our parents Like the new “beers with Dad,” it’s a coming-of-age bonding experience made more intimate by the haze of terpenes and THC. Since getting high is a lot like being born—disorientation, a kaleidoscopic sense of time, then suddenly, the light—who better than parents to share that experience with you? Here’s what happened to three of us, plus our tips for making the most of this 4/20. We’ve got some cannabis products we’re into right now (page 21), our experiences with the extreme relaxation of CBD dabs (page 22), and interviews with an exBlazer now selling weed (page 23) and a medical marijuana patient who found that cannabis salved her chronic pain in a way nothing else could (page 20). The sooner we do that, the sooner we can start fixing the disappointments of early legalization (page 16). MATTHEW KORFHAGE. CONT. on page 14
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This heart-to-heart is an experience I’ve had a 1,000 times—when she saw me off to London, when I got detention for smashing Trevor Bergquam’s lollipop in third grade, as we watched her younger brother die of cancer. But the haze of burnt flower makes this a little different. We’re ditzier, even weepier and less coherent. I’m hearing the same stories I’ve heard since I was 10 years old—but with extra scenes. There’s a lot more weed in this extended director’s cut of my mom’s life. My mother took a 42-year hiatus from smoking—she stopped when she was 22—and only started again last year, when her brother’s cancer made him too weak to light his own joints. “It was like we were right back in the ’70s again,” she says. Back then, her weed came from anonymous dealers who met her in the woods, sometimes with guns, or from truckers who gave her a ride from Ashland back to the Bay Area. I explain the concept of 4/20 and the difference between THC and CBD. “Is that an Oregon thing?” she asks. No, Mom. The right high might make every stranger around a bong feel as welcoming as a loving mother. But there’s no replacement for the human who popped you into this world, taught you phonetics and probably saved your ass when you couldn’t pay rent. There’s nothing like taking a joint from the same hand that spoon-fed me homemade tofu ice cream when I was lactose intolerant and 2 years old. ENID SPITZ. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
Xel His Mom and
Getting stoned is not a new thing for me or my mother. I remember two giant terra cotta pots that my parents used to grow plants in outside the dining-room windows. When they budded, I recall dinnertime smelling a little skunky. I was obviously too young to realize what was going on. But it had been some time since the two of us got high together. I decided if we were going to do this, we might as well make a night of it. A nice home-cooked meal, a bottle of wine, and two 1-gram pre-rolls from Belmont Collective. This was my mom’s first time going to a dispensary and ordering cannabis from a menu, so I took the lead. We wanted to start out slow, so I got some Earl Blumenauer, a high-CBD strain perfect for getting shit
continued to cook and reflect back on how cool it was that we could legally walk into a store and order this. She never thought she’d see this in her lifetime. Half a bottle of wine and a quarter-chicken later, we lit up the Blue City Diesel. Right away we both noticed how smooth this smoke was by comparison. We were so impressed that we didn’t realize we had just smoked a full gram. We giggled. Both our eyes shrank to slits. I teetered between “pretty high” and “incredibly” wasted. We sat back and listened to some music. For some reason, Harry Belafonte’s “Day-O” song came on, like, three times. We sang it each time, all the way through. We were having fun and laughing. Mom laid down on the couch. I put on a movie and we fell asleep. XEL MOORE.
done and getting high. After all, we did have a big meal to prepare. I asked my mom what kind of high she would like to get after dinner. She wanted something that would make us laugh. I asked the budtender what we could get that would give us the giggles. He pointed out two strains, one of which had something like 28 percent THC, and the other, Blue City Diesel, with 17 percent THC. I didn’t want to get too wasted, so we went with Blue City. I started to prepare my chicken, and mom lit up. Earl B was a little rough on the lungs. Coughing over and over, we made it through half of the pre-roll before taking a wine break. Our eyes were bloodshot because of the coughing, but we didn’t feel very high. Mom was relaxed. I thought it was perfect. A little stoney, we
Matthew and His Parents “I’m going to ask you something I didn’t think I’d ever ask you,” I tell my father. He probably thinks I want money—although, of course, I’ve asked for that before. “Will you smoke weed with me?” “No,” he says. This seems to be the end of his thinking on the matter. The last time he smoked it was right after he got back from the Vietnam War to discover his hometown of Salem was full of the stuff. “It was mostly the land guys,” he says—but he was Navy, and nobody he knew was dumb enough to try it on an aircraft carrier. He wasn’t a fan, he says. After that, he he spent most of the next three decades as a grocery store manager catching his courtesy clerks trying to smoke cigarettes in the back parking lot. Neither one of us is quite sure about my mother; she grew up very, very Catholic. He agrees to smoke his first legal bowl with me only as a favor, and only because it’s for work. This is his weak point, and I know I should feel guilty: I have pressured my father into doing drugs.
“I’ll let your mother know she may be required,” he tells me before hanging up. The next Sunday at their house in Happy Valley, my mother smells a nug of floral 27 percent THC Tangilope that I’ve brought from Sofresh Farms and declares it “very aromatic” and “well-named” as I break it apart to load it into a little pipe. Each takes a couple fairly demure tokes. “Is that it?” my mother asks after about a minute. “It’s kind of like a halo around my head,” my father says. “Like my hairs are vibrating. If you get close enough, it’d probably sound like crickets buzzing.” “I guess I’m glad I’m not close,” my mother says. My father says it’s been 40 years since his last toke—“Back then it was a felony!”—so he figures he’s now pretty much set for the next 40. “It’s just another buzz,” he says. My mother—in his absence—tells me she wouldn’t mind getting a lot more high, but only with a bunch of people. This is her second time smoking cannabis, it turns out; the first was in her teens, and she just couldn’t stop laughing. Before dinner she says grace, but with a small improvisation. “Thank you, Lord,” she says, “for sons who bring home pot.” MATTHEW KORFHAGE. S
R A C H A E L R E N E E L E VA S S E U R
ANISSA NASLUND
My mother is also my best friend. We’ve never really talked about pot, though there aren’t any secrets between us. Long before I tried my first joint, I knew she’d smoked back when she was a blond flower child in Joni Mitchellera California. My mom grew up in suburban Sacramento—no meat on Fridays, church on Sundays, camel hair coats when they went to the city. When she was 18, she moved to Tahoe with her two pet goats and best friend. Her parents didn’t know that she lived in a two-room cabin without doors between rooms. They drank Cold Duck, ate mostly carrots with ranch dip, and hitchhiked to work at the Alpine Lodge motel, where she cleaned rooms. That was until the old couple, who fed her quiche for lunch, fired her for smoking weed on the job. That last part, I just found out. And I only learned that because we were high together for the first time last week—having shared a pre-roll of Red Haze, a few bongs hits of Earl Blumenauer and some puffs of Canna-Tsu. Like I said, my mom is my best friend. But it wasn’t until we’d smoked that this whole story came out. After two hours of shopping at the Jayne dispensary and smoking—and one uncontrollable giggle fit—I found myself on the floor in front of her, leaning on my mom’s knee. She was wearing the embroidered kimono top she wore in this year’s Christmas photos, massaging my arm like she does when we nap with our mini schnauzer on the back patio in Sacramento. “What was I saying?” she says, midthought. Her blouse is a little wet from where she tried to drink water and missed her mouth.
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4/20 ISSUE
Her Mom
S R GRO
and
TYLE
Enid
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Are We Sure Weed
Is Legal?
Potlander magazine out now! The discerning cannabis consumer’s guide to Portland. Our favorite dispensaries, strain picks, road trips, stoney Sandy Blvd. and more. Find complete distribution directory at wweek.com/potlander or pick up a copy at Powell’s.
THE EARLY DISAPPOINTMENTS OF LEGALIZATION. BY TYLER HU R ST
For 10 months now, cannabis has been legal in Oregon. Adults can buy flower, or grow their own, and medical patients still have access to other products without dosage or potency restrictions. Some have had cannabis-related convictions expunged. These are all good things, yes. But is this what you thought legalization would look like? Personally, I’ve felt some disappointments. It’s hard to find a place to legally smoke... I’d toke a joint while walking across a bridge at sunset, but that’s a civil violation if caught by a police officer. I’d toke in the park, on a bench or under a tree away from others, but the city put an end to that. I’d toke in my apartment, but I’m a renter and that’s not allowed per my rental contract. I’d toke at a private club opened expressly for people to consume cannabis inside, but smoke complaints from a neighbor led to the closure of the World Famous Cannabis Cafe. I’d toke at a public event with a special-event permit, but any property or business consorting
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with cannabis risks a crackdown from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. I’d toke at a private business, but that’s frowned upon, even at businesses that thrive on cannabisadvertising revenue. ...or even a place to vape. I’d just vape—loose-leaf vaporizers cook the cannabinoids out of flower at temperatures below burning, meaning there’s no harmful smoke released—except the state doesn’t understand the significant science-based difference. Thanks to overzealous changes made to Oregon’s Indoor Clean Air Act by undereducated legislators, vapor isn’t allowed inside, either, making it impossible for renters to legally consume anything but edibles. This makes no sense given there are no concerns about secondhand smoke, and the faint odor that results dissipates almost immediately. But legalization has shown me that we live in a too-often backward, antiscience state.
Titrate Vape Kit $50, titratevape.com. Most vape-pen companies try to sell their products based on THC and CBD only. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with chasing a psychoactive high or some pain relief, Titrate knows there’s a lot more to vaping cannabis than just cannabinoids. Infused with specially selected terpene blends and THC oil, Titrate combines essential oils and cannabis into a relaxing experience that’s easily transportable in four options: Serene, Active, Sexy, and Relief.
L AT O YA J O H N S O N
Cannabis remains stigmatized by people who should know better. I imagined a world of legalization that would bring cannabis out of the shadows and allow everyone to embrace it—or at least treat it like cigarettes or booze, both of which have proved to be far more harmful. That has not happened. When will Oregonians stop treating cannabis like the dangerous drug it never was and its users like the lawbreakers we never were? Neither the state nor some “progressives” seem to acknowledge that cannabis should never have been prohibited. Rather than taking a “conservative” approach to “smart” legalization with controls designed to maximize tax revenue, we should be looking at all cannabis regulation as a justice issue, dismantling oppressive laws as quickly and completely as possible. Too many people have their greasy hands out, but aren’t giving back. The cannabis business scene is a friendly and cooperative scene. People give what they have and take what they need. It’s still largely self-regulating and fundamentally honest. I’ve loved being part of the circle. The world at large, not so much. Oregon businesses and the state have both sought to cash in on cannabis without so much as dropping their sneer of contempt, let alone reinvesting. Frankly, it’s insulting for an industry that’s already brought in more than $800,000 in tax money to the state—without a single significant negative side effect—to still have to plead its case on every issue as though it’s a criminal asking for clemency. And it’s unconscionable that any bank or business would not acknowledge the money cannabis has pumped into the rest of our economy. 4/20 If your business did well last year, or ISSUE if you got a raise, or if your employer hired a new person to help with the workload, dig deep enough and you probably have cannabis to thank. If you’re such a person, maybe take 4/20 as a moment to feel some gratitude for all cannabis has given Oregon in the last 10 months—then call your state representative to request better treatment of this industry.
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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THOMAS TEAL
4/20 ISSUE
FIRST-TIME CANNABIS JUDGES CHAT ABOUT THE CULTIVATION CLASSIC.
BY M A RT I N C I Z M A R
The Judges’ Chambers
mcizmar@wweek.com
Judging cannabis is tough work. At least if you want to be serious about it—the only way to do justice to the growers in next week’s Cultivation Classic. The festival is the world’s first competition for cannabis grown in soil and without the synthetic pesticides and mineral salt fertilizers that much of the industry relies on. It’s sponsored by Willamette Week and Farma, and is open to the public—there’s even a beer tent. And so, when judging, I tried to follow the instructions carefully: I used my Pax every night at about the same time and while in basically the same mood. I abstained from alcohol while judging. I took copious notes. After two weeks of focus and discipline, I wanted to know how the other judges fared with their own randomized samples. So I called up two of my fellows and set up a porch sesh. Both are experienced cannabis users and prominent advocates for sustainability within their respective fields. At the request of one judge, they have been given aliases from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Phineas Phreak is a sativa man who says indica-dominant strains tend to make him “grumpy.” He uses a Pax regularly, and his favorite strain discovery since legalization was Sweet Pink Grapefruit purchased from Blue Sky. Dealer McDope uses both, but tends to prefer heavy indica strains. He grows Nine Pound Hammer at home, and recently switched to an organic system. McDope usually smokes joints, and found the vaporizer produced milder effects than he’s used to. If you want to sample the stuff we did, come to the Cultivation Classic on Saturday, April 30. You need not be as disciplined as we were, and you don’t need to take any notes. WW: Did you have access to everything you wanted before legalization, or did you just get what your guy had? Phineas Phreak: I always had better weed than all my friends, but I didn’t have any choice in what I got. I just happened to have a friend who is really good at it. It wasn’t until after legalization that I really began to understand the differences between indicas and sativas, and different
flavors and aromas and effects. I became more scientific and, generally, picky.
McDope: I equate it to the fact that I learned a ton about beer when I worked at Belmont Station once upon a time, because you’re just sitting there staring at—back then there were 400 beers. You bring a different one home every day, and you learn a lot by experience. I think it’s the same thing with marijuana now with the dispensaries. I remember when the dispensaries opened up, I went in and it was exciting, like, ‘Wow, now I can finally identify specific things.’ Just checking them out individually, you learn quite a bit in a hurry. How did this compare to judging something else, like beer? Phreak: I’ve never really judged anything like this, and the experience of judging has really helped me feel more confident talking about what something smells like, and what it tastes like. McDope: I’ve never judged cannabis, though I’ve definitely approached aroma qualities in cannabis from an interested perspective. That part was really similar to what we do beer-judging-wise. The taste thing was a little trickier, I thought. And the effect was just screwy because you really have to wait it out. I would notice sometimes that it hits you right away, but other times not. You had to give it at least an hour, if not a couple hours, to really judge it properly based on the effect. I tried to do it at the same time every day and in the same mindset, which was tough. I was doing them all the exact same way at the same time to try to keep the variables at a minimum. That’s what I thought was tough—I was doing it about 10 pm, and you fill the vaporizer up with something and you have no idea what sort of ride you’re signing up for. You get some idea based on the aroma and appearance, but there are surprises, and you might be wired for the next three hours or immediately zonked out. Phreak: I’m glad I mostly had a box of sativa, but the one indica I had made me an asshole for, like, two days. The problem with that one was that it tasted the best of all of them, so I went back for more.
Earl Blumenauer
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And what did you think of the samples? McDope: I was surprised at how subtle the aromas were throughout. Some of them were strong, but most of them were very subtle. Phreak: I didn’t think they were very strong overall. The stuff in my stash is much stronger and smells much better. Scent-wise, I only had a couple fives for aroma, and I only had a couple fours. McDope: Likewise—no fives. I was surprised after going into a dispensary for the first time and then walking into a grow shop—they have all these weird, I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re, like, flavor enhancers. There’s one that will drive berry aromas in the pot, one that will drive citrus aromas in the pot. They can say that it’s all natural all they want, but that’s bullshit. That shouldn’t be there, as whether it’s natural or not. I was weirded out. I remember thinking about how I had some weed that smelled just like raspberry and it probably had a bunch of this shit in it. Because it shouldn’t smell that much like raspberries. It just shouldn’t. If you’re doing it legit and organic, it’s going to be more subtle. Were there standouts? Phreak: There was one Super Silver Haze that I loved. How do you know it was Super Silver Haze? Phreak: Because it was. I could tell from the smell. I Googled it and looked the sample up and, yup, Super Silver Haze. It was great—super-conversational. But I also had samples where I wrote “this smells kinda poopy, and it also smells a little like skunks.” McDope: I had one particular standout that smelled good, was cured really well and was really strong. I felt like a lot of them were on the tame side. I smoke joints at home and I probably have a relatively high tolerance, so it’s hard to say. If I was going to do it again, I’d probably do a joint of all of them instead of vaporizing. GO: The Cultivation Classic is at the North Warehouse, 723 N Tillamook St., on Saturday, April 30. Noon-6 pm. $40. Tickets on sale at wweek.com. 21+.
Obama got his own kush, so it was probably only a matter of time until Portland’s weed-friendly, bow-tied statesman got a strain. The Earl is a high-CBD, low-THC flower grown on a mountainside and available at Belmont Collective. It doesn’t taste great—in fact, it tastes bad even for a CBD strain, like East Coast ditch weed left to dry in the glove box of an Oldsmobile— but it offers a pleasant, clear body hum and a nice bit of relaxation.
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CHRISTOPHER MALOTT
4/20 ISSUE
“I WAS IN EXTREME PAIN, AND WALKED AWAY EMOTIONALLY HURT FROM BEING TREATED LIKE A JUNKIE.”
Fighting Pharma With Fire
ONE WOMAN’S STORY OF OVERCOMING CHRONIC PAIN WITH CANNABIS. BY L AUR E N TE RRY
503-243-2122
Pain is different for everyone. Some people live their entire lives with a bad knee, never able to go for a run on the beach. Some suffer from daily migraines. Others can run a marathon on a broken leg without complaint. For Stefani Malott of Portland, excruciating pain was normal. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at age 14, the native Minnesotan spent the next 20 years in constant discomfort, trying medication after medication in fear of a deadly allergic reaction to the next one she was prescribed. That pain ended with the flick of a lighter. Malott, who today runs Phyre Gardens, which sells flower and concentrates, says medical marijuana helped her in a way nothing else could. Though medical marijuana tends to get less attention now that Oregon has moved into full-on recreational use, talking with her you come to understand that while prohibitionists derided medical cannabis as a scam, the way medical users have reacted to legalization demonstrates the flip side of the argument. “When you’re diagnosed young, you have to grow up really fast,” Malott says. “The people around you don’t believe you. Even doctors weren’t taking my symptoms seriously. It all started with a raised rash on my hands. I remember running them under hot water to get it to spread so I could miss school the next day. Little did I know.”
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Because of her rheumatoid arthritis, Malott suffered from fibromyalgia and strained ligaments that were often inflamed by the smallest movements—reaching up for a plate in her kitchen, or turning the steering wheel at the wrong angle, which led to a dislocated wrist. And because of her body’s sensitivity to pharmaceutical medications, she feared for her life with each new drug. Her first drug treatment, before she was 18, caused skin ulcers, severe anemia, and left her passed out in a pool of blood after a ruptured ulcer. “I’ve had close calls about five times with allergic reactions to Western medicine,” she says. “It got to a point where I fell asleep with my hand on my heart, feeling sure that I would have another extreme reaction and die in the night.” Methotrexate, Enbrel, Celebrex, naproxen, Humira, Neurotin, Percocet, Darvocet, Oxycodone—Malott tried them all. She says she couldn’t live a normal life on these meds—there were times when she forgot how to drive while in her car. “I had tried cannabis in college, and heard of medical marijuana programs in some states, but I didn’t understand how it worked with different symptoms,” she says. “It took a moment of desperation for me to give it a shot.” One weekend, an unsympathetic pharmacist refused to refill Malott’s pain medication two days early.
“I was in extreme pain, and walked away emotionally hurt from being treated like a junkie,” she says. “It was the last straw.” Malott and her husband started reading studies on medical marijuana. She selected a few high-THC strains and made cookies that weekend. Although the cookies were way too strong, she noticed the absence of the shooting pains from fibromyalgia. Her body went from stiff to rubber, the bones in her feet and hands cracking with glee as she stretched them without discomfort. More research prompted Malott to vape CBD oil and try transdermal CBD patches. She learned THC was better at night to relax her muscles and let her sleep peacefully, while pure CBD topicals soothed inflammation. She still keeps a few homemade CBD cookies from her own plant in her daily regimen. Malott’s heavy pharmaceutical doses took a long time to taper off, and her body had been ravaged from decades of taking steroids. “Prednisone had destroyed my adrenal system, my body wasn’t producing cortisone, and my endocrinologist was preparing me to be disappointed with my experiment with medical marijuana,” she says. Yet by wearing CBD patches every day, religiously applying CBD topicals to her skin and joints, she says her system rebooted. She has been healthy and free of pharmaceuticals for four years. “Now I chase my boys around the house, play video games with them,” Malott says. “I actually want to start making gloves for people who want to grip things while wearing CBD salve on their hands. I’m like the Windexhappy dad from My Big Fat Greek Wedding: I tell everyone to put CBD on everything!” She wants to empower other pain sufferers to let go of their embarrassment and share their stories. On April 20, as we celebrate recreational cannabis, Malott’s story is a reminder of why the medical marijuana program began, and where marijuana research can go from here. “I encourage people to consider it. If you’ve been considering it, try it. Try a cream, try an oral dose, try vaping,” Malott suggests. “I am grateful for that pharmacist that wouldn’t help me, because it made me try something that changed my life.”
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The Hax 1.0 It’s no secret that Pax makes the Lexus of loose-leaf vaporizers. The Pax 2, released about a year ago, is the slickest and most reliable way we’ve found to toast up cannabis flower. But what about an oil vape? Not everyone wants real flower—it smells like weed and looks like weed, and most people need a whole bowl to feel the effects. Some people, especially medical users, prefer their flower to be distilled down to a more potent and portable substance. Pax has you covered there too—sorta. Last year, the San Francisco company started by Stanford alums launched its second product, the Juul, a super-slick and powerful e-cig. The Juul is about the size of three Popsicle sticks and charges by USB. This closed system is pre-loaded with juice in a tiny, disposable plastic nub, which doubles as the mouthpiece. The Juul uses the nicotine salts found in tobacco leaves to deliver a potent experience one dedicated smoker at WW compared to a Turkish cigarette. As far as nicotine vaporization goes, it’s a big leap forward. And if you’ve got some pliers, you can turn the Juul into a best-in-class cannabis oil vape. (Directions at wweek.com.) Pachecos Ever wanted a joint that could pass for a cigarette? Well, they’re here. These 1-gram, filtered joints are the brainchild of Eco Firma Farms, and come in packs of three or five. The labeling is neo-throwback and stylish, adorned with a leaf and gold stamping. Each smoky treat is tinted the color of biscotti with a short khaki filter and a double
black-and-gold band. Each offers a hearty gram of densely packed flower and kief in four options: heavy-hitting Hammerhead, uplifting Stryder, lower-strength Mazzy, and Keen, which is composed primarily of CBD strains. We tried the Hammerhead and Mazzy, and the effects of both were apparent, but a low dose of CBD allowed for steady function. The caveat here is a gram of high-grade bud is a lot to puff in one sitting, even for those with high tolerance.
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Strong Silicone Bong $80-$100, strongsilicone.com. Not everyone appreciates the fragility of an all-glass bong. This Bend company produces a water pipe made from food-grade silicone allegedly able to withstand a bomb blast. With a suction-cup base and a bowl with downstem, we expect to see these at more than a few campgrounds this summer—though be sure to keep it out of the campfire, as that may be the only damage not covered by its lifetime warranty. MouthPeace Silicone Mouthpiece $12.99, moose-labs.com. It’s one thing to pass around a rig or bong with friends, but no one wants to swap spit with hundreds of people at events. Enter MouthPeace, a silicone mouthpiece designed to stay affixed to existing rigs to reduce germ-swapping, or to be used solo as a removable piece as you roam among tables trying products. The included lanyard makes it a little dorky at first, but that’s way better than getting another cold.
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WE DID SIX DABS IN 10 MINUTES AND DIDN’T EVEN GET HIGH. BY LIZZY ACKER
AND
MA RTIN CIZMA R
Oregon’s fledgling cannabis market has a lot of quirks. Chief among them is the fact that recreational consumers can’t buy any concentrates, edibles or body oils, despite the fact that some of them are not the slightest bit psychoactive. Take CBD concentrates. CBD, as we’ve noted before, is basically the Xanax of weed. It’s the cannabinoid in marijuana that gives you the body-relaxing, mind-freeing feeling you get when you smoke. It’s mellow and nice, like chamomile tea. It’s great for people who don’t want to feel “high” but enjoy the physical sensation of marijuana. But CBD strains don’t taste especially good. And, if you want to get extremely chilled, flower won’t do it. In that case, you need edibles or concentrates. Luckily for recreational chillers, there are concentrates that exist to help people in extreme pain—see page 20. So we asked a patient we know to illegally procure products so we could sample the lesserknown world of CBD concentrates. Here’s what happened.
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AMERICANNARX, $55 PER GRAM 3.45 percent THC/59.8 percent CBD Shatter is made through a butane extraction process and this shatter was...just not that good. The taste was described as “earthy” and “like medicine,” and it was nobody’s favorite. Still, it tasted like medicine and acted like medicine, in that it was relaxing and painkilling. Though not as painkilling as the extracts with higher percentages of CBD.
Harle-Tsu (Sap)
BLOOM, $55 PER GRAM 4.20 percent THC/70.20 percent CBD While we loved the live resin version of HarleTsu, the sap version, made using propane extraction, was our least favorite of the dabs. The flavor was soapier and the inhalation was harsher, and while it did ultimately dull the pain, the taste and feel weren’t worth it, when you could pay five fewer dollars and get a much better version of the same strain.
Toro Bar
JAYNE, $50 PER GRAM 4.03 percent THC/72.34 percent CBD Live resin is the freshest form of dabbable concentrate. It’s made by taking flower as soon as it is harvested, flash-frozen, and then extracted, leaving the terpenes intact. To use it, you stick a tiny bit on the end of a little metal rod and put it onto a super-hot piece of metal that instantly vaporizes it. The Harle-Tsu live resin was our favorite CBD dab—that freshness translated into a smooth finish and a pleasant taste and it felt like an immediate pain eraser.
COLLECTIVE AWAKENINGS, $15 PER BAR 55.5 milligrams of CBD in the chocolate, no THC The interesting thing about CBD is that while it doesn’t get you traditionally high, it sometimes tastes and smells even weedier than THC. The Toro Bar is a perfect example of this: It’s a very classy-looking chocolate bar that tastes and smells like the weed brownies your roommate used to make in college. That said, our reviewers were split: One liked that weediness and one hated it. The effect of the chocolate was much subtler than the taste—it was calming and lightly numbing for sore muscles.
Dropperz Honey Lemon CBD Tincture
Wee Farms Coconut Oil Capsule
Harle-Tsu (Live Resin)
– BENEFITING –
Charlotte’s Web (Shatter)
F
THE NATION’S ONLY COMPETITION FOR CANNABIS GROWN WITHOUT MINERAL SALT FERTILIZER, OR SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES/HERBICIDES/FUNGICIDES.
Chill Dabs
PURE GREEN, $50 PER GRAM 3.16 percent THC/78.91 percent CBD Refined cannabis oil is made by alcohol extraction of a full plant extraction. This CBD Apothecary oil was our second-favorite dab. It tasted clean—or, as one reviewer said, like “apple skin.” These dabs also went down easily and left us feeling a little light-headed but happy.
TA F WW S
TYLER GROSS
CBD Apothecary (RCO)
$35 FOR 10 SERVINGS Are you one of the people who buys those little tincture vials in the back of New Seasons? Well, try this. You’ll have to drive to a Washington dispensary, but one vial has 100 milligrams of CBD and no THC. That’s 10 servings of deep relaxation in the form of a greenish-yellow liquid that tastes like a liquified Ricola.
TREEHOUSE COLLECTIVE, $3 PER PILL 18.2 mg CBD, 0.81 mg THC in the pill. There’s a hefty dose of relaxation juice inside this little amber capsule, which looks like fish oil. It releases slowly, and you’ll notice when it wears off in the middle of the night and all your pains and worries return in a rush.
4/20 ISSUE
CELEBRITY CANNABRANDS Robinson isn’t the only celeb looking to parlay his fame into selling bud. Here are five famous faces who’ve already launched marijuana brands. None are yet sold in Oregon.
JULIE SHO WERS
Cliff Robinson
Whoopi Goldberg In March, Goldberg announced she was partnering with cannabis entrepreneur Maya Elisabeth to launch Whoopi & Maya, a line of medical marijuana products aimed at reducing menstrual cramp pain. Tommy Chong The stoner comedy icon’s product line, Chong’s Choice, includes pre-rolled joints, marijuana flower, and THCinfused breath strips.
THE FORMER BLAZERS ALL-STAR WANTS TO SELL THE GATORADE OF CANNABIS. (AND, YES, BLAZE THE NUGS.)
BY P E T E R D ’AUR I A
503-243-2122
Cliff Robinson lost 11 games to marijuana. But the former Trail Blazers player says the plant gave him extra years on the court—and a plan for afterward. During his 18 seasons in the NBA, the All-Star forward known as “Uncle Cliffy” was suspended three times for pot use. After his retirement in 2007, Robinson has become an advocate for legalized weed. In January, he announced plans for a line of marijuana products: Uncle Spliffy. Next month, Robinson will pitch his products at the ArcView Investor Forum in Portland, hoping to get backing not only for marijuana products but also for “a line of active lifestyle branded apparel” and Cliff Robinson’s Garden Club, “an exciting and exclusive cannabis club and destination retreat.” WW sat down with Robinson, 49, to talk about Uncle Spliffy, going to North Korea, and the benefits of smoking a joint before working out. WW: So many celebrities have released lines of weed products. There’s Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, Tommy Chong. How are you going to break into that market? Cliff Robinson: I’m going for a whole different market. I’m going for the person that goes on a nice run, that goes on a nice hike, that goes and plays basketball, and wants to really enrich that activity by partaking in a cannabis product before. Or you want to smoke a joint after the activity. It’s going to be geared toward the active-lifestyle people. Do you do that? Go for a run and smoke a joint before? I love to smoke a joint and go work out. I mean, you want to have somewhat of an enjoyable experience while you’re beating yourself up. I think the idea that athletics and cannabis is a bad mix is overblown. It’s kind of reefer madness. Is this the Gatorade of weed? This is the playbook. Something for before, maybe during, after your experience. We’re looking at it as a sports science. Gatorade doesn’t have THC infused in it, though. Makes it a little better. How did you use cannabis when you were in the NBA? I used it as a way to calm down. I had a little anxiety some-
times. I definitely didn’t like pharmaceutical drugs, as far as how they made my stomach feel, so I would use [marijuana]. But you couldn’t be really consistent with cannabis use, because of the way they tested. I put myself in a position where I had to be taken off the court, which you’re never proud of. But at the same time, I did feel that cannabis was helpful for me. I took the risk.
Snoop Dogg The Leafs by Snoop line boasts weed f l owe r, c a n n a b i s extracts, and a line of edible “Dogg Treats,” including chocolate bars, lemon drops and peach gummies.
What is cannabis use like in the NBA right now? I don’t know, because I don’t play in the NBA right now. What about when you did? You know, when I played, there were guys who smoked cannabis. I don’t know the number. There are 32 teams in the NBA. I didn’t walk around with a survey. I’m not one to throw other people under the bus as well. I know what I did.
Willie Nelson The country legend’s weed, under the name Willie’s Reserve, is not yet for sale. The brand’s website promises the marijuana is “Coming soon to Colorado, Wa s h i n g to n , a n d everywhere voters say yes.”
You had an 18-year career in the NBA. The average is, like, five. Did cannabis help? I stayed away from injury for the most part in my career. I was always on the floor. So I would like to think it played a part in that. I know the hard work that I put on the floor to get there. But as far as how my body recovered, and was able to stay away from injury, I would like to think so. Because I was definitely not one to be in the training room all the time. A few years ago, you went to North Korea with Dennis Rodman. What was that like? I wish I had some cannabis then. [Laughs.] As a basketball player, what I do, what I’ve done for a long time, is go and touch people through basketball. To me, it was just another basketball trip. I didn’t go over there as a diplomat, and no one should have looked at it that way. I mean, really? Dennis Rodman takes a basketball team over to North Korea, are you really going to take it that seriously? Really, come on. Do you still play basketball? No, I don’t play basketball anymore. I still shoot. I think what a lot of guys [in the NBA] have struggled with, and probably myself as well, is finding the next thing. This was a natural fit for me. Why not take something that’s been perceived as a negative in my life and through my career and turn it into a positive?
Wiz Khalifa The Pittsburgh rapper ’s own weed strain, Khalifa Kush, has already received rave reviews. Khalifa’s full p ro d u c t l i n e , a collaboration with Colorado’s RiverRock Cannabis, is slated to launch April 20.
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TYLER GROSS
4/20 ISSUE
Leather, Laced
A PORTLAND CHEF WALKS US THROUGH HIS WEEDINFUSED MENU. BY J E N N A M ULLI GAN 503-243-2122
Leather Storrs makes edibles like you’ve never tasted before. Storrs, 45, has been a chef in Portland for over 20 years, most famously at Noble Rot since its opening in 2002. But since November, he’s
— STA STARTERS— PI NE A P P LE SAG E AN A N D MIN T MOJ ITO,
infused
I’ve found that the most rapid delivery system is alcohol and bubbles. The longer your weed is in that alcohol, the stronger that tincture will be. And if you apply some heat to that, it goes in further. That’s the most efficient delivery method, but it’s the nastiest. We’re willing to let some THC go in the interest of flavor. F I N G E R SA N DW IC H E S :
Smoked trout and pimento cheese Ahi tuna poke on a Pringle The starters are meant to be a little silly, and we play into people’s cravings a bit. We’ll go for a mixture of salty and sweet, which is what a lot of people want when they’re high.
— CoURSE ONE — C H A R C U T ER IE :
Quince tart, pork rillettes, cannabis-cured pork loin, pork rind with Jager salt There’s a process called decarboxylation, which is a fancy way of saying toasting before you cook it with butter. To my understanding, it makes the molecular chain brittle, which allows more THC to go into the oil. So it’s efficient. And it’s a flavor thing. It gives it a nuttier, toasty flavor, which for me is much easier to work with than that vegetal, musky aspect of green weed. We’ll make pork rillettes, which is pork cooked in pork fat, which will be infused. I’m pretty sure this will be the biggest kicker.
been trying something new: a menu where every dish contains some form of cannabis. He serves these dishes at members-only dining events hosted in private residences, where tickets can run as high as $225.
WW: H OW H I G H WI L L PEO PL E BE A F TE R TH E F I RST CO URSE ? Well, we won’t really know until the end of the dinner. In these menus, we always front-load the meals. The worst thing is to be fine as the meal ends and then, an hour and half later, you’re melting. So the majority of the psychoactives is in the first couple courses. That helps people settle in a little bit.
— CoURSE TWO — F I NE S H E RBE S SPA E TZ L E
It’s spring in a bowl!
The spaetzle will be kind of a pale green color. I’ll get some spring vegetables that look good, and those will get a precook before a finish in a hot pan with some psychoactive oil.
— CoURSE THREE — H A L I BUT WI TH BE E TS A ND CA RROTS:
Shake-roasted beets, coriander hemp-seed crust, harissa, and an infused delfino-calendula salad The halibut really isn’t psychoactive, but we’ll be using the plant in a couple different ways. The top of the fish has a thin orange crust with carrots, coriander and hemp seed. The hemp seed has a nutty quality that pairs well with the coriander and carrot. The thing that bothers me about the majority
On April 29, Storrs will debut a six-course dinner at the Cultivation Classic, an event presented by WW. We asked Storrs to walk us through each dish.
of cannabis recipes is that they sort of pile the weed on top of the food and don’t really take into account the challenges of the ingredient itself, which is pretty funky—you have to really manipulate it to be anything other than kind of grassy and a little musty. In addition to the fish, I’ll make a big batch of salt and shake—not first flowers but trim—and then roast the beets on the bed of that shake salt. At this point, we’ve used the seeds, the flowers, the stems—we’re using the whole plant. The beets cooperate with an earthiness of their own.
— CoURSE FOUR — B ROASTED LAMB SHOULDER, B RAISED RADISH, TURNIP AND GREENS
Lamb jus and cold-press cannabis oil
We’re talking about a little skunk and musk from the radishes and turnips, but then we have a winey sauce and the richness and the gamey quality of the meat. We’ll look for a varietal that either echoes the flavors, or goes against them in a way that makes the combination greater than the sum of its parts.
— DESSERT — CITRUS OLIVE-OIL CAKE, LEMON CURD, MANGO-RHUB ARB COMPOTE The dessert will be completely cannabis-free, just a nice and sweet finish. I send everybody home with a little jar of the caramel that I make. It’s delicious, and it’s strong. If you eat that caramel, I’m warning you.
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STREET
EAST BURNSIDE OUR FAVORITE LOOKS FROM 28TH AND BURNSIDE. PHOTOS BY CHR ISTIN E DON G www.wweek.com/street
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Simple ApproAch
Bold FlAvor vegan Friendly
open 11-10
page 43
STARTERS
BITE-SIZED PORTLAND CULTURE NEWS. PETE COTTELL
everyday
“He had a Wilco shirt, and I said, ‘You play music? You wanna play on a record?’”
500 NW 21st Ave, (503) 208-2173 kungpowpdx.com THE BATTLE OF FOSTER: There’s a sign war heating up on Southeast Foster Road. In March, EuroClassic Furniture’s Jon Shleifer put up signs protesting the city’s plan—approved by the City Council in June 2014 to help lower pedestrian fatalities—to shave Foster down from four lanes to a threelane street with a turn lane, add bike lanes, expand sidewalks and plant a bunch of pretty trees. “It Will Be a Mess. Foster Cut Down to 2 Lanes. Call Mayor,” reads one. The multicolored protest signs have proliferated at Lucy’s Hair Salon, Sew & Vac, and the vacant building across the street from EuroClassic. Now there’s a counterprotest. Matthew Micetic of Red Castle Games has furnished his own signs to local businesses in support of the so-called “road diet.” A sign at N.W.I.P.A. reads simply “Slow Down & Shop Foster.” At Foster Road bars Starday and O’Malley’s, the signs are mostly nonsense: “Loud Noises.” “U.S. Out of FoPo.” “Save the Whales!” O’Malley’s owner Glen Wallace says he’s poking fun at the whole thing: “My signs are a ridiculous response to a ridiculous response. I thought of the two dumbest things I could think of.”
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Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
CALIFORNICATION: Newberg’s Penner-Ash winery has been sold to Californians. Jackson Family Wines bought the winemaking facility and 15 acres of vineyards, though co-founder Lynn Penner-Ash will stay on as winemaker and chief decision-maker for the vineyard. Penner-Ash has been well-recognized in the upper echelons of Oregon wine, with its pinot noir routinely scoring in the 90s in The Wine Advocate. The deal will increase distribution of Penner-Ash wine, according to the announcement, and grant access to more vineyards. “Artisanal winemaking is first and foremost about grape sourcing,” writes Lynn Penner-Ash. “[Jackson’s] Zena Crown and Gran Moraine vineyards are amongst some of the best vineyard sites in the Willamette Valley.” Jackson Family Wines is a huge wine company best known for its successful Kendall-Jackson brand. The company now has over 440 planted acres of vineyard in Oregon. NO MORE DISTRACTIONS: An era is coming to an end at Moda Center: Free Throw Guy is retiring. The Blazers season-ticket holder born Robert Ems is a cult hero among fans, known for sitting directly behind the basket in the Ems arena’s lower bowl and gesticulating wildly in an attempt to distract opposing players, often while wearing custom-made shirts. He’s attended close to 400 consecutive home games, stretching back to 2007. On Facebook, Ems announced that after the Blazers’ playoff run, he will attend games only sporadically. “I said when I started that if all the players were younger than me or we won the championship, I’d call it,” he wrote. “Chris Kaman is a free agent July 1. I will then be older than our team at that point.” TECHIES: Trucks that drive themselves, designed right here in Portland. Virtual reality simulators that put you on the field for a Pac-12 football game. Gigantic flying whales. Yep, technology is a hell of a thing. Next week, TechFestNW returns for its fifth year with two days of speakers, events, networking and meet-ups that have made it Portland’s premier tech event. Tickets are available at techfestnw.com.
A LY S S A W A L K E R
Headout
WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
WEDNESDAY APRIL 20 Timber!
GO
[LUMBERJACROBATS] Bearded acrobats, ax-juggling and log-throwing combine in the lumberjack-inspired circus by Canada’s Cirque Alfonse. It’s an extravagant mix of live music, dance and stunts. “Our percussionist juggles axes with us,” says founder Antoine Carabinier Lépine, who’s a veteran of Cirque du Soleil and the famous 7 Fingers circus company. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 7:30 pm. $26-$72.
The Vintage Toy and Record Show is at the Pearson Air Museum, 1115 E 5th St., Vancouver. 10 am Saturday, April 23. $3, $6 early bird (9 am).
SATURDAY APRIL 23 Triple Dip
[DIRTY DANCING] Like a Rubik’s Cube of bar acts, three dance companies and three bands mix ‘n’ match to make nine different performances. Dancers from SubRosa, AUTOMAL and WolfBird take turns performing to Grand Arcbiter’s ambient electronic, Tig Bitty’s dance pop and Consumer’s one-man live lopping—all packed inside a heavy-metal fringe bar in NoPo. High Water Mark Lounge, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-286-6513. 8:30 pm. $10. 21+.
BARBIE AIN’T WORTH MUCH
Dej Loaf
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM THE PRO COLLECTOR RUNNING VANCOUVER’S VINTAGE TOY AND RECORD SHOW.
When Portland’s one toy show shut down a few years ago, Michael McClafferty mourned. Then he started his own. “I have a Rolodex of fellow pickers,” he says. The Vintage Toy and Record Show at Vancouver’s Pearson Air Museum this Saturday marks his fifth. He added the record room so “girlfriends who have cars will drive the boyfriends who don’t have cars to come see the toys.” Turns out toy collecting is a little sexist and ageist, and a lot like a gang war. Here’s what we learned, with comments from McClafferty. ENID SPITZ.
My Little Ponies are, like, mer-ponies, bro.
Model trains are out. Beanie Babies and the Beatles are in.
Seattle is for the transportationists.
Furby is never in.
Any time we mentioned a Furby to McClafferty, he laughed. “You can bring a bag of toys for me to look at. Don’t bring a Furby.”
Your mint-condition Barbie isn’t worth as much as that headless G.I. Joe.
People think every Barbie or G.I. Joe in their attic is worth hundreds. A pristine Barbie is worth less than a G.I. Joe. Why? “Girls take good care of their dolls. Every boy took an M-80, dug a hole to put their G.I. Joe in, and blew it up. It’s all supply and demand.”
Don’t say “mint.”
“That’s for coins. You want something that’s NRFB [never removed from the box] or MOC [mint on card].”
Late-period Star Wars toys are where the action is.
Forget original 1978 action figures. “In 1985, when the movies were in a lull, they didn’t make many figures. It’s like impossible to find a loose Amanaman for $200. You can get loose R2-D2s for $25 all day long.” The most valuable is a “double-telescoping” Darth Vader. Less than 100 were made, and one can be worth up to $10,000. “In the toy world, there’s so many genres. I’m a vintage action guy. Some people just collect transportation toys. Like in Seattle, because they’re so much closer to Boeing.”
This isn’t like comic con.
“I’m anti-con. The day my show turns into a venue for third-level wrestlers giving autographs and a Princess Leia costume contest, I’m out.”
Don’t bring Grandma; she will be exploited. “Vendors cannibalize the market by buying and reselling before the shows even open. They find the virgin vendor—that little old local lady—and buy her out.”
SUNDAY APRIL 24 Mala Sichuan Pop-up
[CHINESE] Mala is a pop-up within a pop-up in a ham bar—a monthly restaurant full of spicy Chinese food that last month included a Sichuan chilipepper rabbit, not to mention twice-cooked pork and cocktails from Hamlet’s Ryan Magarian. No reservations, no tickets, no prix fixe. Just show up, order and eat. Hamlet, 232 NW 12th Ave., 503-241-4009, hamletpdx.com. 5-10 pm.
TUESDAY APRIL 26 Sheer Mag
YESTERVILLE
“People who collect trains are dying off, so the value is dropping. Toys from the late ’80s or early ’90s are popular now, because the people who grew up with those are hitting their prime nostalgia years. Beatles records will always be valuable because every 12-yearold will always love the Beatles.”
Bronies are still a thing, and they’re driving up the price of coveted Ponies.
[DETROIT RAP] On record, 25-year-old MC Deja Trimble comes off bright and sweet. But don’t let her charm overshadow her muscle on the microphone, or her Detroitbred disposition. With confidence and charisma, she’s become a necessary voice in hip-hop almost overnight. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 8 pm. $35 general admission, $45 reserved balcony. All ages.
[MAX RIFFAGE] Philadelphia power-punk band Sheer Mag has earned a following off only a few EPs, and it’s easy to understand why. Deploying relentlessly catchy, Thin Lizzy-inspired riffs, brothers Kyle and Hart Seely lay a chunky foundation for the soulful hollering of Tina Halladay, who sounds like a hybrid of Etta James and Joan Jett. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 8 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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I
Shandong www.shandongportland.com
FOOD & DRINK = WW Pick. Highly recommended. By MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20 All Things Dank and Smoky
Shandong
In a metaphor lost on precisely no one, the Beermongers will host a 4/20 beer fest devoted to...dank and smoky beers, from brewers like Pfriem, Fat Head’s, Schlenkerla, Reverend Nat’s, Locust Cider, Baerlic, Upright and Evil Twin. The Beermongers, 1125 SE Division St., 503-234-6012. All day.
www.shandongportland.com
Antoinette Antique & Estate Jewelry
SATURDAY, APRIL 23 GermanFest
Every year, for one day—Deutschetrinkenbierestag on the calendar— Bailey’s devotes its Lebensraum to all Teutonic brews from Buoy, Breakside, Rosenstadt, Pints, Heater Allen and others. Bailey’s Taproom, 213 SW Broadway, 503-295-1004. All day.
Reinheitsgebot
7642 SW Capitol Hwy 503-348-0411
AND WORLD PEACE, ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING GOING ON RIGHT NOW!
COMING MAY 9th: A NEW PORTLAND SANDWICH TRADITION BEGINS @ MARTHAS Portland’s Happiest Happy Hours Daily From 4–6pm 1300 SE Stark St. @ Revolution Hall marthaspdx.com :: 503.288.3895 7 days: 7am–10pm 30
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
1. Marukin
Marukin, 609 SE Ankeny St., 503-894-9021, marukinportland.com. The lines are long, but the ramen is very, very good, especially the tonkotsu shoyu, paitan shio and miso. And keep your eye on the second, Pine Street Market location downtown, set to open within the week. $.
DRANK
SANDWICHES
MARTHAS
1986 NW Pettygrove St., 503-689-3794, gastromaniapdx.com. Tiny spot Gastro Mania serves up octopus salad with a tenderness and spice-charred exterior as fine as most fine dining. But it costs a mere $8.50. $.
1740 E Burnside St., 503-232-0274, madgreekdeli.com. Get the Greek deli-style sub, deep-laden with meat and cheese—plus Greek fries that are definitely not french fries. $.
AND YOUR HAPPINESS…
Traditional taste, contemporary nourishment. The only all gluten-free, Middle Eastern lunch buffet in town. Delicious vegan and meat dishes. Signature cocktails with Middle Eastern herbal infusions. Join us! 320 SW Alder St. darsalamportland.com M-F 11:30 a.m.- 9 p.m. Sat. 12:30 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Mala is a pop-up within a pop-up within a ham bar. The last Sunday of every month, chefs from Chinese pop-up Mian will make numbing, spicy Sichuan fare. Last month, this included a chili-pepper rabbit dish, not to mention twice-cooked pork and cocktails from Hamlet’s Ryan Magarian. This month, it’s no reservations, no irritating tickets and no prix fixe. Just show up, order and eat. Hamlet, 232 NW 12th Ave., 241-4009. 5-10 pm.
3. Gastro Mania
2. Mad Greek Deli
BESIDES YOUR FAMILY…
SUNDAY, APRIL 24 Mala Sichuan Pop-Up
The Dan Hart Deutsche doublewhammy of Prost and Stammtisch
Moving in Sale 4/22 to 4/30
will celebrate the 500th anniversary of the only German purity law that doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of men: the beer law that demands Bavarian beer use only barley, hops and water (and eventually yeast and wheat) in beer. Both bars will host special beer releases brewed in Germany, with dainty food items like entire pig roasts. Prost, 4237 N Mississippi Ave., 503-954-2674. 2 pm.
4. Paiche
4237 SW Corbett Ave., 503-403-6186, paichepdx.com. Chef Jose Luis de Cossio serves some of the most extraordinary food in Portland—including the brightest, most balanced and lovely ceviche we’ve had in this country. $$.
5. Wei Wei
7835 SE 13th Ave., 503-946-1732. Taiwan spot Wei Wei’s beef noodle soup ($13) is the beefiest beef noodle soup. And the most wonderful beef noodle soup we’ve had this year. $$.
Pulp Free IPA (BREAKSIDE/ FAT HEAD’S)
When Breakside’s Ben Edmunds and Fat Head’s Mike Hunsaker got together to brew a “Vermont-style” cloudy, juicy, late-hopped, low-bitterness IPA, it wasn’t out of long admiration for the style. It was a shot across the bow—the closest the tight-knit local beer scene gets to public politics. Back in February, two summery, orange-juice-hazy IPAs from Alberta Street’s just-minted Great Notion Brewing—Ripe IPA and Juice Jr.—were judged among the top five in Portland in a blind taste test. (Fat Head’s had the top two; Breakside’s IPAs are brewed in Milwaukie.) Hunsaker and Edmunds, West Coast classicists at heart, thought the cloudiness was more flaw than feature, and both declined to make an opaque IPA when we asked them. Pulp Free IPA is now their collaborative answer to all the orange haze—a tropical late-hopped stew of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado that comes in at a low, low 45 IBU. Hundreds of beer dudes, including a lot of brewers, crammed into Growler Guys last week to get the first taste. Surprise! The beer was kinda hazy. Edmunds says the opacity is a bit of a mystery, because aside from maybe some yeast borrowed from Hopworks, they brewed it the same way he’d make his own honey-colored Wanderlust. It’s also juicy as hell. But the Pulp Free has a finer and lighter haze than Great Notion’s, with a bit more of the classic IPA bitterness balancing out the grapefruity blast and intense hop funk coming off the nose. You could call Pulp Free a sort of grand compromise between Vermont and West Coast IPAs, or you could just call it a damn fine beer. It’s on tap at Fat Head’s until it blows. Recommended. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
HENRY CROMETT
REVIEW
HATE-FREE CHICKEN: Sadly, not as good as Chick-fil-A.
Chicks, Man BY M A RT I N C I Z M A R
mcizmar@wweek.com
ChkChk is the rare restaurant with a stated political agenda. The owners aim to “reclaim the chicken sandwich from a fast-food industry riddled with questionable sourcing and dominated by national chains who champion regressive social agendas.” The shop took over the old Subway on Northwest 23rd Avenue, replacing the booths with white picnic tables and replacing Creepy Jared with twee rainbows. They’re cagey about the specifics, but we all know they mean Chick-fil-A, which just opened its first Oregon location since shuttering a spot at Lloyd Center back in 2003. That chicken chain’s late owner, S. Truett Cathy, was a dedicated culture warrior. His shops closed on Sundays and donated generously to anti-gay causes. Cathy also had oddly strong opinions about facial hair. He liked the boys under him to be clean-shaven. Yes, this outspoken straight man very strongly preferred sprightly young men with soft, smooth, babyish skin. So wholesome, so American. I have some bad news. When it comes to fried-chicken sandwiches, ChkChk can’t match Chick-fil-A. Having driven out to Hillsboro and waited in a line of 50 idling cars, I can confirm that the Atlanta-based chain still makes a sandwich with an impossibly plump and juicy breast encased in an achingly crisp shell. ChkChk is…well, it’s not as good. Not when it comes to fried sandwiches, anyway. Their breasts aren’t so big and juicy, the breading is too thick in some places and too thin in others. The shell lacks the buttery warmth. However, for political reasons, I wish to acknowledge the ways in which ChkChk is superior.
Better vibe.
Chick-fil-A is cleaner than most any fast-food shop and, despite the long lines, somehow still light years faster than the now-departed Wen-
dy’s on Southeast Powell. Many locations play instrumental versions of Christian songs. While ChkChk maintains the old Subway’s layout to a degree that’s almost unnerving for a former regular, the restaurant has blasted it to a bright white sheen, then added accents of teal and pink to make a very cheery place. Wooden picnic tables aren’t the most comfortable seating, but, hey. Music mainly comes from the post-disco dance era. Think Culture Club and Donna Summer.
Better sauces.
Well, mostly just the Buffalo Blue Cheese and the Hot Honey. The former is an orangey blend of hot sauce and stanky cheese, the latter is cayenne honey. My favorite find is the Buff Chick ($7), an off-menu offering in which the sandwich is drenched in Buffalo Blue Cheese sauce before you get it. Also, the sauces ( just 25 cents each, so get a “flight”) come in impressively large cups— they have to be twice as large as Chick-fil-A’s.
Equally good fries.
ChkChk’s waffle fries are pretty much just as good as Chick-fil-A’s, especially if you dip them in the sauces.
Bomb mac ’n’ cheese.
So, Chick-fil-A now has some really, really good sides, like a nutritious superfood salad with kale, broccolini, toasted nuts and cranberries in a delicious maple vinaigrette. It’s definitely the best salad I’ve ever had at a fast-food joint. But ChkChk has mac ’n’ cheese. It’s gooey with milky white cheddar and has a nice little hat of garlic breadcrumbs.
Vegetarian sandwich option.
ChkChk has a chickpea sandwich. It’s dry and bland, but it’s not made of meat. Yay for inclusionary menus!
Doesn’t give money to hate groups.
It’s open Sundays, gives 5 percent of its gross to Q Center, and allows employees to have beards. EAT: ChkChk, 1305 NW 23rd Ave., 971-302-6368, chkchk.com. 11 am-10 pm daily. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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MUSIC PROFILE
= WW Pick. Highly recommended.
C O U R T E S Y O F F R U I T I O N . B A N D C A M P. C O M
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: MATTHEW SINGER. 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: msinger@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
Courtney Barnett, Alvvays
[SLACKER FOLK] To this day, the best label I’ve seen attached to breakout Aussie artist Courtney Barnett is “slacker Bob Dylan.” Those three words almost perfectly encapsulate the musician’s laidback, highly narrative folk rock. Her albums have wowed critics around the globe, and her tongue-in-cheek lyrics hit with a dash of grunge and plenty of hooks. Newest effort Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit is one of the most nonchalant yet inspired records in years. Canadian indie darlings Alvvays kick off the evening. MARK STOCK. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.
Tommy Guerrero, El Diablitos
[BONELESS TONE] Skateboarders will always worship professionals of their craft—even after they stop skating, even when the guys they look up to start Ennio Morricone-influenced, freeform jazz bands. Tommy Guerrero is no exception. He’s a living legend as a skater and a deftly imaginative guitar player. His latest, Perpetual, is a spaghetti Western soundtrack reimagined through a Dia de los Muertos kaleidoscope, and the moody, pastoral landscapes should appeal to anyone, even if you’ve never heard of Bones Brigade. CRIS LANKENAU. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
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THURSDAY, APRIL 21 Dressy Bessy, Tripwires, Mope Grooves
[GRRRL GROUP] In the seven years since the Great Recession forced the members of Dressy Bessy to abandon their tour (and, effectively, their careers), like so many subprime mortgages, the Kindercore survivors may not have noticeably matured, but their signature sound has, perhaps, ripened. Though never veering far from their “’90s college rock meets ‘60s teen-pop” blueprint, the Denver combo’s recent comeback album Kingsized raided the Northwest for a murderer’s row of instrumental assistance (Peter Buck, Rebecca Cole, Scott McCaughey) that smartly curdles the froth, and the years have only sharpened the razors frontwoman Tammy Ealom always hid beneath the bubblegum. JAY HORTON. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St. 9 pm. $8. 21+.
Roots Radicals
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DANNY CLINCH
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
MAKING FANS HAS ALWAYS COME EASY FOR FRUITION. IT’S GETTING EVERYONE ELSE’S ATTENTION THAT’S BEEN A CHALLENGE. BY MATTHEW SIN GER
COURTNEY BARNETT
THE FIVE STONIEST 4/20 SHOWS HAPPENING IN PORTLAND The First Annual Smokey Da Bear 4:20 Hip-Hop Festival with Mic Capes, Mikey Vegaz and Fliboimoe, Stevo the Weirdo, Illmaculate and more (Ash Street Saloon) Does this really require any more explanation? 2 Party Boyz 420 Rager featuring And And And, 100 Watt Mind, Little Star (The Liquor Store)
Maybe referring to local podcast queens Elizabeth Elder and Rachel Milbauer—who put together this show—as “the Abbi and Ilana of Portland” is an overused comparison, but if the vape fits…
3 Knower (Doug Fir Lounge) Full disclosure: I went to college with Knower’s frontwoman. But I say this without bias: If you take in the duo’s spastic electro-pop not stoned, you’re doing it way wrong. 4 Courtney Barnett (Crystal Ballroom) She writes songs that sound like someone who got too high to remember to write a song. She’s a genius. 5 Karaoke From Hell (Twilight Cafe) “Pass the Dutchie” isn’t on their song list, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t request it all night long. MATTHEW SINGER.
msinger@wweek.com
It shouldn’t have been so hard for Fruition to play the Northwest String Summit. With its bluegrass-indebted folk sound, you’d think the band would make an ideal fit for Portland’s crunchiest roots-focused music festival. But after getting shut out two years in a row, the group had to take matters into its own mandolins. “We were determined to make our own party there, somehow,” says singer-guitarist Jay Cobb Anderson. “One of our friends brought a generator to the campsite. So late night, we set up a whole PA system and all our equipment. We got three or four songs deep before Bob Horning, who runs the place, came rolling up on his four-wheeler and shut us down. But he also liked what he heard.” Two years later, Fruition played the main stage. That’s kind of how it’s always gone for the band. At this point, it’s no great stretch to call the quintet Portland’s most popular Americana ensemble. They have sold out venues as large as Revolution Hall, toured with some of the major names in modern roots music, and are about to headline two nights at Wonder Ballroom. But you wouldn’t know that from reading this paper, or any other in town—unless you picked up the results of WW’s Best of Portland Readers’ Poll last year, where the group was voted the city’s Best Alt-Country Band. Nor would you know from attending Pickathon, which the band has all but given up on ever being invited to. None of this has left the members of Fruition particularly aggrieved. They understand the stigma of being a 21st century string band, even though their sound—warm and historically informed, closer to the Band than the Lumineers—defies a lot of those preconceived biases. And anyway, they’re doing just fine without the institutional support of the music scene at large.
At the same time, Fruition has never fully seen itself as a traditional “string band,” an “alt-country band” or even really a “folk band.” It’s always preferred a broader term: rock band. With new album Labor of Love, the group is making a concerted effort to expand its reach, drawing from a wider palette of influences—from soul to pop—and nudging the volume upward. It’s not about distancing themselves from the labels already ascribed to them. It’s about making other people see them for the kind of band they’ve always thought they were. “I feel like labels matter to other people,” says Mimi Naja, who plays guitar and mandolin, “so if it’s going to keep mattering to other people, then yes, I want to be called a rock band.” If Fruition hasn’t always sounded exactly like a rock band, that was mostly out of necessity. Anderson, Naja and Kellen Asebroek started out in 2008 as a busking trio, harmonizing Bob Marley songs and gospel standards along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. But even after recruiting a rhythm section—bassist Jeff Leonard and drummer Tyler Thompson—three years ago, the band struggled to capture the energy that’s made it such a popular live draw on record. “We’ve always wanted to make, and have been trying to make, a record that represents what we’re doing live,” Asebroek says, “and that is hard to do in the studio.” For Labor of Love, the band took the time to get it right—two years, in fact. Integrating electric guitars and humming organs among plucky banjos and stirring three-part harmonies, the result is the band’s most broadly appealing effort yet. The hope, the band admits, is that it’ll open them up to a larger audience, and maybe change a few perceptions. Whether that happens remains to be seen, but it’s certainly made it harder to keep ignoring them. Of course, the flipside is that it could alienate the fan base that’s always been there. So far, that hasn’t happened. And even if it does, well, perhaps it’s for the better. “I think there’s been more people that have latched on than have dropped off,” Anderson says. “And the ones that drop off, it’s like, good riddance, then.” SEE IT: Fruition plays Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., on Friday and Saturday, April 22-23. 9 pm. $17 advance, $20 day of show, $30 two-day pass. 21+. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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coURtESY oF tHE WInDISH AGEncY
MUSIC
TONIGHT CATERING T O P R AT E D The 1975 plays Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Tuesday, April 26.
Fat White Family, Dilly Dally
[tHRoBBInG DoGGEREL] Postpunk provocateurs torn between a profoundly self-destructive nihilism and cheekily self-delighted cleverness, Fat White Family does its damnedest to reconcile disparate leanings throughout the band’s newly released sophomore album, Songs For Our Mothers. During its famously bonkers live shows, of course, the UK troupe simply allows its oppositely charged elements freedom to combust, but the recorded output’s far more hit-and-miss. on tracks like infernal disco thumper “Whitest Boy on the Beach” or bunker ballad “Goodbye Goebbels”, the marriage of high craft and low humor proves exhilarating. But all too often, the lyrics disappear within a lo-fi electro dirge, as if even the boys themselves have begun to grow embarrassed. JAY HoRton. Doug Fir, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
Stumpfest V
[RIFF cItY] Portland is spoiled for choice when it comes to heavy metal. We’re only four months into 2016, and Stumpfest is Portland’s third metal festival. this year’s Stumpfest showcases the best of contemporary “swamp metal,” the galloping, guitar-driven and beer-soaked subgenre born in the early 2000s from bands like Mastodon and Baroness. Although the absence of local heroes Red Fang is conspicuous, between torche’s upbeat, almost bubblegum psychedelics, Yob’s soaring doom and Saviours’ rollicking, Lemmy-inspired throwback thrash, there will be more than enough rocking out for one long weekend. WALKER MAcMURDo. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, April 21-23. $17 advance, $20 day of show, $45 three-day pass. 21+.
Dirty Fences, Andy Place and the Coolheads, Sad Trips
[PUnK RAWK] the nYc punk scene of the ’70s has been reappropriated so many times it almost tarnishes how legendary an era it actually was. Dirty Fences, though, are a refreshingly authentic amalgamation of all the aspects that made it great. they apply the breakneck speed of the Ramones, the throaty growl of the new York Dolls’ David Johansen and the streetwise lyrical tone of Richard Hell, then ferment it in stale McSorley’s. Every song on their latest LP, Full Tramp, is catchy enough to make you forget that every epicenter of new York punk has been converted into shopping centers. cRIS LAnKEnAU. The Know, 2026 NE Alberta St. 8 pm. $7. 21+.
Frightened Rabbit, Caveman
[ScotcH RocK] this descriptor for Frightened Rabbit intentionally has a double meaning. the band is from Scotland, but the five-piece’s moody folk rock also makes you want to reach for a dram of whisky.
Although earlier records showcased singer Scott Hutchinson’s anxious energy with quick-paced acoustic guitars, the band’s new album, Painting of a Panic Attack, experiments with electronics more than anything else from the group’s 10-year career. HILARY SAUnDERS. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St. 9 pm. $20. All ages.
C AT E R I N G
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FRIDAY, APRIL 22 Federale, the Shivas, Hickory Justice
[SPAGHEttI coUntRY AnD WEStERn] Portland’s Federale has gradually evolved from a glorified Ennio Morricone tribute to a band capable of creating its own vivid soundtrack music. tonight, the band previews tracks from its upcoming new album, including “All the colours of the Dark,” which is set to appear in director Ana Lily Amirpour’s upcoming film The Bad Batch, starring Keanu Reeves and Jim carrey. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
companytonight.com
Heavy City, Chris Murray, OMASEC, the Bandulus, DJ Mikey Oh
[BEYonD tHIRD WAVE] continuing to appropriate Jamaican music from about 50 years ago probably isn’t going to result in much more than cultish adoration. canadian-born chris Murray’s been working at it for a few decades at this point, moving from the full-band setup of King Apparatus into solo forays while merging ska, rocksteady and folksy inclinations on occasion. His The 4-Track Adventures of Venice Shoreline Chris remains a pillar of experimentation within an unquestionably limited genre. Portland’s Heavy city, though, strives more for traditional application of the music. And pretty frequently, the ensemble succeeds. DAVE cAntoR. The Analog Cafe, 720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23 Black Mountain, Marissa Nadler
[coSMIc SoUnDS] Black Mountain’s IV, like many numerically titled albums from classic rock’s heyday, is about both refinement and exploration. It cements the Vancouver group as a premier purveyor of psychedelic rock, one with the ability to weave Sabbathlike melodies that swirl and pirouette like our planet around the sun. At the same time, the flurry of synths offset the doom and gloom, providing guitarist Stephen McBean with a palette of hazy textures on which to unfurl his acidic riffs. It’s also the best release since the band’s 2004 debut—which is saying something, since the first thrilled heshers and indie-pop purists alike. BRAnDon WIDDER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $20. 21+.
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MUSIC Creative Adult, VHS, Phantom Family
[PUNK ROCK] We’ll be hearing a lot about VHS come summer. The Seattle quartet will be releasing its debut LP on Suicide Squeeze Records in June, and if the band’s cassettes and singles are any indication, Gift of Life is going to be a beast. The nimble force and grandiose mania of Jay Reatard’s peerless discography clearly made an impact on the members of VHS at some point, but these guys haven’t borrowed Reatard’s sound so much as they’ve tapped into the essence of his craft: No matter how gnarly and noisy it gets, an undeniable and irresistible pop sensibility lights the way. CHRIS STAMM. Hanigan’s Tavern, 2622 SE Belmont St. 7 pm. $6. 21+.
SUNDAY, APRIL 24 Sloan
[POP-ROCK REHASH] Sloan gets no respect, or at least not the respect the Canadian rockers deserve at their age. Their excellent 1996 album, One Chord to Another—which the band is revisiting in full here—is an underrated master class in Beatles-esque pop that was drowned out in its day by the sound of the burgeoning grunge scene. The LP melds trumpets, spoken word, bright guitars and the kind of adolescent hurt that can only be expressed with big hooks and a gentle symphony of “ooohs” and “aaahs.” It was a return to form after a lackluster sophomore effort, and while the band will certainly touch on the recently released Commonwealth, it’s not the centerpiece anyone is looking for. BRANDON WIDDER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St.. 9 pm. $20. 21+.
The Renderers, the Lavender Flu, Sleeping Beauties
[NIGHT MUSIC] Discovering the
DATES HERE Renderers is a treat. Inexplicably unsung, the New Zealand band has evolved a woozy, country-tinged sound all its own, but it shares Yo La Tengo’s knack for decorating delicate, skeletal melodies with densely woven textures that transform songs into eerie dreams. On their eighth album, In the Sodium Light, the Renderers give in to the sublime strangeness of Joshua Tree, the desert outpost they now call home. It’s a gorgeous and unsettling part of the world, and the Renderers have made a perfect soundtrack for those long, lonely nights when the sky seems too close and stray sounds grow into echoing threats. CHRIS STAMM. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
MONDAY, APRIL 25 Låpsley
[ELECTRO-POP] Liverpool’s music scene doesn’t begin and end with the Beatles. Holly Lapsley Fletcher, who performs under the stylized moniker of Låpsley, grew up on the outskirts of the region and writes minimalistic electro-pop. Her debut album, Long Way Home, came out earlier this year, and while it’s reminiscent of Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath in vocal timbre, Låpsley’s music veers more toward the existentially soulful rather than the danceable. HILARY SAUNDERS. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $15. 21+.
M83, Yacht
[SPACE POP] Anthony Gonzalez hasn’t been obscure for some time. The French-born California artist has spend the past couple of years touring the world, scoring soundtracks and getting Grammy nods. By now, everybody has heard the sexy saxophone stylings of “Midnight City.” Yet, M83 has a more experi-
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COURTESY OF DEJLOAFMUSIC.COM
PREVIEW
Dej Loaf, LeekDaBarber,
Bonaphied, Prodiga1, Kody
[DETROIT DARLING] At first glance, Deja “Dej Loaf” Trimble is a petite 25-year-old MC with a knack for stylishly smooth lyricism. The internet took notice when “Try Me” dropped in late 2014—a song that has since amassed over 44 million views on YouTube—but Dej had been part of the Detroit scene since 2011. She’s a model of the Drake-ian sing-rap trend, able to float buoyant hooks into crisp verses without flinching. But don’t let her charm overshadow her muscle on the microphone. On the first track of her 2012 debut mixtape, Just Do It, she lays out her life: “When the fuck I was a kid, I ain’t really know much/ All I wanted was my mama, my daddy and packed lunch/ But instead I got whippings and took ’em like I was tough.” It’s no wonder that in the past two years she’s spent time in the studio with E-40, Big Sean, Future and Eminem. Dej Loaf has carved her own lane, and it’s looking like everyone wants to ride along. MATT SCHONFELD. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 8 pm Saturday, April 23. $35 general admission, $45 reserved balcony seating. All ages. 38
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dates here c o U R t E S Y o F S H E E R M A G . B A n D c A M P. c o M
SOCIAL MEDIA
MUSIC
@wweek
@WillametteWeek Sheer Mag plays Mississippi Studios on Tuesday, April 26. mental, vinyl-digging sound that rears its bobbing head now and again. newest record Junk is proof. It’s a spacy, cinematic, noirish record that’s far from original yet terribly satisfying. Formerly Portland altdance troupe Yacht joins a soldout bill. MARK StocK. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave. 8 pm Monday-Tuesday, April 25-26. Sold out. All ages.
Woman Is the Earth, Urchin, Dead Coyote
[PSYcHEDELIc BLAcK MEtAL] Back in the heady days of mid2000s American black metal—then still referred to as “USBM”—Illinois’ now-maligned nachtmystium released an album called Instinct: Decay, a swirling masterpiece of hook-driven, spaced-out black metal that didn’t trip on its own psychedelia. South Dakota’s Woman Is the Earth may be the first band directly inspired by that album, and it does an excellent job of turning it into its own style. the band’s new album, Torch of Our Final Night, seethes with winding melodies without getting lost in directionless guitar noodling, and is already a strong contender for best black metal album of the year. WALKER MAcMURDo. Valentines, 232 SW Ankeny St. 9 pm. $5. 21+.
TUESDAY, APRIL 26 The 1975, Japanese House, Wolf Alice
[MoDERn RocK] For fans of the 1975 worried about the effects of a platinum debut on frontman Matt Healy’s prior bent toward selfobsessed pretensions, fears couldn’t have been calmed by the title of its recently launched second album, I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It. Still, while the collection suffers at times from Healy’s monomania and all-too-public cocaine addiction, its excesses are very much linked with the ott synth-pop grandeur buried within most of the (sigh) 17 tracks. the U.K. band could’ve perhaps done without the ambient digressions or gospel choirs or lyrical logorrhea, but for an album that reached no. 1 on both sides of the Atlantic in its first week of release, there are worse things than keening ambitions. JAY HoRton. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway. 8 pm. $49.95. All ages.
Sheer Mag, Public Eye, Andy Place and the Coolheads
[MAXIMUM RIFFAGE] Philadelphia punks Sheer Mag have only released a handful of EPs so far and have already earned mass critical praise and a respectable fan base. Deploying relentlessly catchy, thin Lizzy-inspired riffs, brothers Kyle and Hart Seely lay a chunky foundation for the soulful, socially conscious hollering of tina Halladay, who sounds like a hybrid of Etta James and Joan Jett. III 7” is a foursong EP that follows the promising lead of 7” and II 7” and has every punk in the country anticipating the band’s IVth effort. cRIS LAnKEnAU.
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Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9 pm. $12. 21+.
Kool Keith
[RAP EnIGMA] Known to some as Dr. octagon and others as Black Elvis but originally known as Kool Keith, the Bronx-born rapper and founding member of the Ultramagnetic Mcs has spent decades channeling satyrical personae into his art via a series of conceptual albums. Despite taking ownership for the abominable rap-rock subgenre known as horrorcore, Keith’s off-the-mic ruminations which could often be filed under “weird internet” are part of his credo. His discography spans an entire cosmology of conscious rap that is less uplifting than wokeyet-hallucinatory. collaborations with like-minded up-and-coming talent, such as with L’orange on the Madvillainy-like 2015 release Time? Astonishing! means Keith keeps gunning for the underground charts, allowing him to camp out on his latest mixtape, titled Total Orgasm 4, featuring Ice-t. WYAtt ScHAFFnER. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $16. 21+.
CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Vancouver Symphony Evening of Jazz Benefit featuring Ken Peplowski
[cLASSIc cLARInEt] Ken Peplowski would have been a Jimi Hendrix-level god if he had grown up in the roaring ’20s. A hardswinging woodwind player who wears his love of Benny Goodman as overtly as his single-breasted jacket, the clarinetist has long been among the most acclaimed throwback-style musicians on his instrument. Performing tonight for patrons of the Vancouver Symphony with local heros like drummer Gary Hobbs, Peplowski will pull out all the stops as a musical time capsule who is best enjoyed in an era when alcohol is federally legal and dancing comes easy. PARKER HALL. Heathman Lodge, 7801 NE Greenwood Drive, Vancouver, Wash. 6 pm Thursday, April 21. $100. 21+.
Extradition Series
[AMERIcAn EXPERIMEntAL] the second installment in what’s shaping up to be a fascinating new quarterly series of music in the American experimental tradition combines mid 21st-century compositions by John cage disciple, christian Wolff, and West coast innovator Pauline oliveros with contemporary improvisations and compositions by Portland’s own Dana Reason, catherine Lee and Matt carlson. the last three perform on piano, oboe and electronics respectively; other performers include Portland percussion masters Matt Hannafin (who’s organizing the series) and tim DuRoche, along with veteran experimentalists Loren chasse and Branic Howard. BREtt cAMPBELL. Leaven Community Center, 5431 NE 20th Ave. 7:30 pm Saturday, April 23. $5-$15. All ages.
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TICKETS ON SALE AT
PORTLAND.PROJECTPABST.COM
SUNDAY AUGUST 28 SATURDAY AUGUST 27
21+
DURAN DURAN ICE CUBE
/ NATHANIEL / RATELIFF
STRFKR / & THE NIGHT SWEATS A$AP FERG / ANDREW W.K. / LIZZO THE COATHANGERS / KYLE CRAFT
TAME IMPALA / WEEN / DRIVE LIKE JEHU
UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA PARQUET COURTS / SHEER MAG HOP ALONG
/ DIARRHEA PLANET / TENEMENT
WATERFRONT PARK PORTLAND, OR
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
Featuring MY-G, Laura Ivancie, and Fly Trapper Saxophone by Clarence Slaughter (RIP) Produced by MY-G, Smoke (Oldominion) Artwork by Arnold Pander (Pander Bros)
MUSIC [20TH-CENTURY MASSES] The ethereal opening “Kyrie, eleison” (“Lord, have mercy”) of the double choir masses by Swiss composer Frank Martin and English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams could almost have been heard during the Renaissance. In fact, both were composed in the early 1920s, in the wake of Europe’s then most devastating war, and combine early 20th-century approaches with ancient traditions, as though trying to console the survivors of a shattered continent. Vaughan Williams nostalgically recalled a pastoral preindustrial England, with added lateRomantic lushness, while Martin took a more austere devotional approach— “an affair between me and God,” he wrote—in a composition belatedly recognized as one of the 20th century’s greatest sacred choral works. It’ll be a treat to hear the city’s finest large choir perform these relatively rarely heard masterpieces. BRETT CAMPBELL. First United Methodist Church, 1838 SW Jefferson St. 2 pm Saturday, April 23. $35. All ages.
Choral Arts Ensemble
[LOCAVOCALS] Under the leadership of artistic director David De Lyser, Choral Arts Ensemble has recently been refreshing its repertoire with 21st-century vocal music, and now it’s turning to Oregon’s own composers for new homegrown music for voices. This collaboration with Cascadia Composers includes music by Northwesterners Greg Bartholomew, Stacey Philipps and Lisa Ann Marsh, as well as contemporary works by nationally renowned choral masters Eric Whitacre, Eriks Esenvalds and Beaverton native Morten Lauridsen. BRETT CAMPBELL. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave. 7:30 pm Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, April 23-24. $20. All ages.
Lamsma Plays Tchaikovsky
[CLASSICAL] “Silence and darkness: the sun rises with a joyous song of praise, it wanders its golden way and sinks quietly into the sea.” That statement constitutes the entire program notes for composer Carl Nielsen’s 1903 meditation on the rising and setting of the sun. He was inspired by an escape from the Danish winter in the scorching haven of Athens, Greece. Helios Overture is the lovely, rousing and sonorous 12-minute solarism that preludes this evening’s centerpiece, Symphony No. 1 by Shostakovich. The Russian master emerged from the Petrograd Conservatory fully formed at age 19. This modern masterpiece presents jagged melodies, humor and emotion in a tightly constructed, halfhour roller-coaster ride. The final act of this short program is Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, who returns to Portland to perform a Tchaikovsky concerto. NATHAN CARSON. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, 8 pm Monday, April 23-25. $105. All ages.
Wayne Thompson Tribute featuring Randy Porter, Gary Hobbs, Dave Captein, David Evans
[JAZZ FOR JOURNALISM] At the end of the day, jazz musicians and journalists have a lot in common. Both are storytellers, offering interesting and nuanced perspectives of particular moments in time. An indefatigable jazz advocate and a lifelong storyteller, Wayne Thompson, who passed away earlier this year, was a shining star in the world of jazz writers, a beloved critic who was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association as a jazz hero, and was named a Portland Jazz Master by City Hall in 2015. Several of the region’s most acclaimed musical voices assemble this evening to pay tribute to Thompson’s life, sharing classic swinging sounds in honor of the writer’s venerable and nuanced prose. PARKER HALL. Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta St. 3 pm Sunday, April 24. $25. All ages.
For more Music listings, visit
INTRODUCING COURTESY OF xO PUBLICITY
Oregon Repertory Singers
dates here
Câlisse WHO: James Collette (guitar, vocals), Kevin Hoffman (bass), Rob Iggulden (drums), Karen Moore (keyboard, vocals), Morganfield Riley (guitar, vocals). FOR FANS OF: Black Mountain, Frog Eyes, Sunset Rubdown. SOUNDS LIKE: The bizarro love child of Jeff Mangum and Jello Biafra flushed down a dark rabbit hole. Typically, the formation of a band precedes the first record it makes. But little about Câlisse is typical. Its inception began in October 2014, with James Collette gathering a few friends to cover the beloved 1998 Neutral Milk Hotel album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea in its entirety. From there, he began planning his ideal album in his head, even booking studio time for a batch of songs he’d written and reaching out to high-profile musicians in Portland as potential producers. As his appointment drew closer, he struggled to get anyone to commit to the gig on such short notice and felt the increasing need to recruit other musicians to help flesh out the strange sounds he was planning. In a last-minute whirlwind, Collette finally formed a backing band of sorts. “Karen [Moore] and I had been roommates years earlier,” he says. “Kevin [Hoffman] had just moved back from New Orleans, and I just kept texting him over and over. Rob [Iggulden] I’d known for a few weeks. He had a Wilco shirt, and I said, ‘You play music? You wanna play on a record?’” Production duties eventually fell to Morganfield Riley (who now plays guitar and sings in the band full-time) and Jason Driver, who owns Fur Vault PDX Recording Studio in Southeast Portland, where Collette’s album, Farewell, Blacksheep, was recorded last March. The songs have a bipolar edge executed so precisely it’s hard to imagine the musicians were all barely more than strangers. Collette employs a playful, elastic tweak to some of his phrasing that’s reminiscent of Frog Eyes’ Carey Mercer, and his vocal melodies are interlocked with unexpected instrumental bursts of brass or low-end boom that negate any sort of expectation. For a band that came out of a tribute to Neutral Milk Hotel, it retains the bombast of “Holland, 1945” but shoved through a dirtier lens—as if The Diary of Anne Frank were illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. Since the recording, Câlisse has undergone some minor lineup changes as members started families or moved away, but the current roster is in a place where everyone is still fully dedicated. With a full year having passed between the record being made and then released, Câlisse has already tweaked the live performance of the songs and integrated several new ones, which will appear on its forthcoming sophomore effort, planned for release later this year. What began as one man’s project has now taken on communal aspects. “The dynamics have changed,” Riley says. “With the first record, a lot of the songs were fleshed out on acoustic and adapted for a band, and they were James’ songs. Now, there are songs that other people are bringing in. Even if a song is somewhat structured when it comes into the studio, it undergoes a treatment and changes to something else. It’s become a lot less tentative.” CRIS LANKENAU. SEE IT: Câlisse plays the World Famous Kenton Club, 2025 N Kilpatrick St., with Small Million, Christopher Bock and DJ Extra Gold, on Wednesday, April 20. 9 pm. Free. 21+. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
MUSIC CALENDAR WED. APRil 20 Alberta Rose
3000 NE Alberta St Keith Greeninger, Taylor John Williams, David Jacobs-Strain
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St Courtney Barnett, Alvvays
Doug Fir lounge
830 E Burnside St. Knower, Coco Columbia
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. The Christopher Brown Quartet, Mel Brown Quartet
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. The Reverberations, The Dandelyons, Hollow Sidewalks, Silver Ships
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St. Calisse, Small Million, Christopher Bock, DJ Extra Gold
landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, Miller and Sasser’s Twelve Dollar Band, Jake Ray and the Cowdog’s!
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave Tallulah’s Daddy
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Tommy Guerrero, El Diablitos
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St Brad Parsons & The Local Talent, Mondegreen
The liquor Store
3341 SE Belmont St, Party Boyz 420 Rager featuring And And And, 100 Watt Mind, Little Star
Tin House Magazine Release Party
Turn! Turn! Turn!
8 NE Killingsworth St Doug Theriault, Gordon Ashworth
ThuRS. APRil 21 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave For The Love Of
Alberta Rose
3000 NE Alberta St Northwest Horn Orchestra 10th Anniversary Jubilee
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Dressy Bessy, Mope Grooves
Doug Fir lounge
830 E Burnside St. Fat White Family, Dilly Dally
Duff’s Garage
2530 NE 82nd Ave Warthog Stew
heathman lodge
7801 NE Greenwood Dr., Vancouver, Wash. Vancouver Symphony Evening of Jazz Benefit featuring Ken Peplowski
high Water Mark lounge
6800 NE MLK Ave Dry Heathen, Cursus, Inverted Crosses
holocene
1001 SE Morrison St.
[APRIL 20-26]
LAST WEEK LIVE
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Mel Brown B3 Organ Group
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. Santiam, Tumbledown, Dan Cable
Kennedy School
5736 NE 33rd Ave Extra Credit, Beer Tasting
landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, The High Cotton Boys, Leslie Lou and The Lowburners
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave Maia Pilot, Charles Ellsworth; Red Yarn
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Stumpfest V: Torche, Thrones, Gaytheist, House of Lightning, Humors
The Analog Cafe
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Pancho and The Factory, Farm Animals
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St The Movement, Iya Terra
The Know 2026 NE Alberta St Dirty Fences, Andy Place and the Coolheads, Sad Trips
The Secret Society
116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing featuring 12th Avenue Hot Club, Pink Lady & John Bennett Jazz Band
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St The Cold Hard Cash Show
Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St. Frightened Rabbit, Caveman
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave Sack Lunch Free Concert with Tualatin Chapter of Oregon Music Teacher Assocation
For more listings, check out wweek.com.
E M I LY j o A n g R E E n E
= WW Pick. highly recommended.
Editor: Matthew Singer. to HAVE YoUR EVEnt LIStED, send show information at least two weeks in advance on the web at wweek.com/ submitevents. 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.
FRi. APRil 22 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Flula Borg
Alberta Rose
3000 NE Alberta St John Gorka
Alberta Street Pub 1036 NE Alberta St The Robin Jackson Band, The Colin Trio
Bossanova Ballroom
722 E Burnside St. Anamanaguchi, Lindsay Lowend
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St Down the Rabbit Hole with Phutureprimitive, Bluetech, Wanderlust Circus, Chris Dyer
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Federale, The Shivas, Hickory Justice
Doug Fir lounge 830 E Burnside St. Judah & The Lion
Duff’s Garage
2530 NE 82nd Ave Big Monti, Rae Gordon
hawthorne Theatre
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. D.R.I.; Skull Diver, Introvert (lounge)
high Water Mark lounge
6800 NE MLK Ave Intersection: Auditory & Visual
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave.
LIVING HISTORY: There are legacy acts, and then there’s Paul McCartney, an artist whose legacy is the sedimentary layer atop which all modern pop is built. At this point, his most well-known songs—many of which appeared in his careerspanning set at Moda Center on April 15—are as fundamental as nursery rhymes. How do you critique a performance of “Love Me Do,” which is basically “The Wheels on the Bus” of rock’n’roll, or “Birthday,” whose lead riff should eventually join “Happy Birthday” in the public domain? And is it possible to feel anything other than warm familiarity for music that comes practically preloaded onto our collective psyche? Then again, “warm familiarity,” to a great degree, is what everyone comes to a Paul McCartney show to experience, and Sir Paul is nothing if not a “give the people what they want” type. In Portland, he presided over his three-hour set like a museum docent guiding the crowd through an exhibit on his own life: telling stories, sharing old photos and videos, and playing just about every hit he has. It was dominated by the Beatles, of course, with a smattering of Wings, three tunes from 2013’s New and, weirdly, 1980’s “Temporary Secretary,” Farnell Newton and the Othership Connection
Kelly’s Olympian
Heavy City, Chris Murray, OMASEC, the Bandulus, DJ Mikey Oh
426 SW Washington St. Green Luck Media Group presents Three Sigma, The Goods, Cosmic Butter
The Firkin Tavern
landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, Aarun and Jonathan
2026 NE Alberta St Havania Whaal, Crown Larks, Galaxy Research
Mississippi Pizza
The Old Church
3552 N Mississippi Ave The Pearls; Cedro Willie
Mississippi Studios
1937 SE 11th Ave My Siamese Twin, The Coastline
The Know
1422 SW 11th Ave Friday Night Live with Julianne Johnson
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Stumpfest V: Helms Alee, Black Cobra, Norska, Life Coach, Chron Goblin
Valentines
Star Theater
836 N Russell St Jawbone Flats and Tenbrook
13 NW 6th Ave. Pert Near Sandstone, Head for the Hills, Coast Country
The Analog Cafe
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
232 SW Ankeny St Quiet Type, Hart & Hare, Paper Gates
White Eagle Saloon
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Fruition!
SAT. APRil 23 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Cloud Cult
Alberta Street Pub
1036 NE Alberta St Body Holographic, Oscar Fang & The Gang, Pelican Ossman
Alberta Street Pub
1036 NE Alberta St Glass of Hearts (Blondie tribute)
Arlene Schnitzer Concert hall
1037 SW Broadway Lamsma Plays Tchaikovsky
Dante’s
350 West Burnside The Big Pink, Rare Monk
Doug Fir lounge
830 E Burnside St. Black Mountain, Marissa Nadler
Duff’s Garage
2530 NE 82nd Ave
his admirable but mostly failed attempt at writing a Kraftwerk song. But as much as the night was unabashedly nostalgic, McCartney and four-piece band never sounded like wax statues miming through the standards. The early Beatles tunes, including “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” jangled with garage-rock vigor. “Let Me Roll It” smoked with blues-bar authenticity. The emotional high points came in tribute to McCartney’s old bandmates: “Here Today,” written in the wake of John Lennon’s murder, about “a conversation we never got to have,” performed solo on a platform above the crowd; a rendition of George Harrison’s “Something ” that began on solo ukulele and grew into a stirring full-band arrangement. It culminated in the standard “hands across the world” sing-along of “Hey Jude,” something we’ve all heard and seen so much that it’s little more than a soccer chant at this point. But it doesn’t matter. That chorus hits, and suddenly, you’re na-na-naing along with thousands of other people. Because, somewhere deep down, you know it’s what you’re supposed to do. MATTHEW SINGER.
Pin & Hornits
First united Methodist Church 1838 SW Jefferson Street Oregon Repertory Singers
hanigan’s Tavern
2622 SE Belmont St. Creative Adult, VHS, Phantom Family
hawthorne Theatre
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Toxic Zombie; Rachelle Debelle, The Jamfest Miracle (lounge)
Jimmy Mak’s
Tender Age, The Purrs, A Certain Smile
landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, Dust and Thirst, PeeWee Moore
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave Hearts of Oak, Archangels; Coldwater; The Alphabeticians
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Stumpfest V: Yob, Saviours, Ides of Gemini, Emma Rundle, Sol
Roseland Theater
221 NW 10th Ave. Ants in the Kitchen
8 NW 6th Ave Dej Loaf
Kelly’s Olympian
Star Theater
426 SW Washington St. Bedroom pop Tender Age, The Purrs, Toxic Slime
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St.
13 NW 6th Ave. Lyrics Born, Speaker Minds
The Analog Cafe
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd.
In Dying Arms, Convictions, Set To Stun, Phantoms
The Firkin Tavern
1937 SE 11th Ave The Living Skins, Nolan Garrett, Serena Elisheva
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St Garcia Birthday Band, Joytribe
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St Tragedy, Gasmask Terrör, Hangmen Also Die
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave Choral Arts Ensemble
The Secret Society
116 NE Russell St Get Rhythm; Ancient Heat, Mothertapes, Leo
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St
cont. on page 46 Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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MUSIC Crown The Eagle Polish Festival
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St. Fruition
SUN. APRIL 24 Alberta Abbey
126 NE Alberta St Wayne Thompson Tribute featuring Randy Porter, Gary Hobbs, Dave Captein, David Evans
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
Alberta Rose
3000 NE Alberta St Renee Terrill, the Mike Horsfall Trio
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway Lamsma Plays Tchaikovsky
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Wed. April 27 • 6:45PM-8:30PM th
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St. Sloan
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, Ian Miller and Friends!
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave All Together Now: Beatles Sing a Long
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Renderers, the Lavender Flu, Sleeping Beauties
Panic Room
3100 NE Sandy Blvd Gravehill, Ghoulgotha, Mysticism Black, Petrification
Rontoms
600 E Burnside St Moorea Masa, Lee Allstar
The Liquor Store
3341 SE Belmont St, Machine, Pet Tigers, Die Robot Machine, Pet Tigers, Die Robot
The Old Church 1422 SW 11th Ave
Son de Madera, Justin Klump; Choral Arts Ensemble
The Secret Society
116 NE Russell St Wesley Stace & Scott McCaughey
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny St Hex 8: A Monthly Noise/Experimental Night
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Corner and Friends
MON. APRIL 25 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Joshua Radin
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1037 SW Broadway Lamsma Plays Tchaikovsky
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Karaoke From Hell; Jeff Bernat
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St. Låpsley
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Dan Balmer Trio
Kelly’s Olympian 426 SW Washington St. Bunker Sessions Open Moic OPEN MIC
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, High Flyers
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave Mr. Ben
Roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave M83, Yacht
The Know
2026 NE Alberta St Behavior, Private Room, Tyrants
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny St
Woman is the Earth, Urchin, Dead Coyote
TUES. APRIL 26 Alberta Street Pub
1036 NE Alberta St The Naked Mic: Songwriter’s Open Mic
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway The 1975, Japanese House, Wolf Alice
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Jabba the Whitt?
Duff’s Garage
2530 NE 82nd Ave Joni Harms; Hobo Jim
Jimmy Mak’s
221 NW 10th Ave. Mel Brown Septet
Kelly’s Olympian
426 SW Washington St. The Morals
Landmark Saloon
4847 SE Division St, Rocky Butte Wranglers
Mississippi Pizza
3552 N Mississippi Ave Katie Roberts
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Sheer Mag, Public Eye, Andy Place and the Coolheads
Moda Center
1 N Center Court St Pentatonix (Theater of the Clouds)
Panic Room
3100 NE Sandy Blvd US Bastards, The Night, tba
Roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave M83, Yacht
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave. Kool Keith
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave Greg Smith and Irving Levin ANDREW ARTHUR
IBU Public House 4439 SW Beaverton/Hillsdale HWY Portland, OR 97221
CALL NOW FOR YOUR RESERVED SEATING Free Admission and Gourmet Meal Please RSVP to (503) 454-6200
Limited Seating Available - CALL at 503-454-6200 NOW! 46
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
M83 plays Roseland Theater on Monday and Tuesday, April 25-26.
Where to drink this week. 1. Teutonic Wine Co.
henry cromett
BAR REVIEW
3303 SE 20th Ave., 503-235-5053, teutonicwines.com. Some of the finest and most singular urban wine from riesling to complex pinot noir is now available in a handmade bar, and often served by its winemakers and owners to the soundtrack of ambient Stereolab or German butt rock.
2. Neat
2637 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-267-2800. the former Prettyman’s General opened out its space, got seating that made sense, and has begun filling its bar with barnwood, portraits of mustached ladies and a vast selection of well-made cocktails and very fine whiskeys. canadian whiskey is banned, but Pappy 12-year is $18.
3. Railside
5301 NE Portland Highway, 503-282-8000. railside is a beautiful sleeper of a dive bar nestled next to passing sleeper cars on nearby train tracks, with cheap-as-sin Buoy beer that’s $3 at happy hour and a camaro on jacks permanently pointed at the bar’s patio like a drawing on a Peechee.
4. 23rd Avenue Bottle Shop
2290 NW Thurman St., mcmenamins.com. not only are the cocktails very nice here—with a refreshing $5 special daily— there’s no corkage fee on bottles. that means Pabst tallboys are $1.10, cheaper than at yamhill Pub, and import bottles are the price of a pint. Wow.
5. Pop Tavern
825 N Killingsworth St., 503-206-8483. Pop tavern has a solid $5 tap list featuring Pfriem and the commons, a $6.50 burger (with fries!) that’s meaty as hell, and a back patio. Like the bar equivalent of a good rug, Pop tavern really ties the neighborhood together amid Ardor, Dynasty and Florida room, so maybe you can say “Killingsworth” the same way you already say “Alberta.”
IN THE MOOD FOR GINGER: Old Town’s Ankeny alley looks after its own. For nearly 20 years, Greek-owned bar and venue Berbati’s was host to some of Portland’s most legendary shows, but over the past half-decade the block-long space has been parceled out to friends and neighbors of the Papaioannou family. The lobby is Voodoo Doughnut, owned by the former Berbati’s booker, and the stage is now a strip club owned by the people from neighboring Dante’s. And as of March, the bar has turned into Tryst (19 SW 2nd Ave., 503-477-8637, bartryst.com), co-owned and run by a former manager of the bar next door. The old Berbati’s Pan sign remains, hung on the wall inside, but everything else in the once-ramshackle pool hall has gotten hefty upgrades, from patterned tile floors to pressed copper wainscoting to plush black booths and electric-blue paint on the walls. The if-’60s-were-’90s lounge aesthetic recalls, more than anything, the films of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai—also the namesake of a refreshing low-cost $7.50 rum-lychee-lemon cocktail. The food is equally Asian-inflected, including a deliciously buttery $11 hoisin-Sichuan burger ($7 at happy hour) that comes with furikake-spiced fries. The biggest revelation on that plate, though, is the fry dipping sauce, a green “ketchup” that tastes like ginger-lemongrass Marshall’s Haute Sauce but comes glopped on the side instead of costing $9 at Whole Foods. The same people will soon also open a breakfast nook called Opaline’s next door, in the annex that used to house Berbati’s poker room. But as summer approaches, there’s a problem: Tryst doesn’t have a patio license yet. In the meantime, Tryst’s six future alleyway tables are often occupied by denizens of Valentines across the alley—owned by Estia “Opie” Papaioannou, daughter of Berbati’s founder Ted Papaioannou. Old Town’s Ankeny alley looks after its own. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. The lovecraft Bar
421 SE Grand Ave Oh My Goth with DJs Miz Margo and Carrion
SAT. APRil 23 The lovecraft Bar
wed. APRil 20 dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave. Baby Makers
The lovecraft Bar
421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon (industrial, EBM, electro)
THURS. APRil 21 dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave. Happy Hour with New Jack City (early ‘90s R&B and rap)
Panic Room
3100 NE Sandy Blvd Tetsuo/House Call with Ray Uptown (drum and bass)
421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay (EBM, goth, industrial, darkwave)
FRi. APRil 22 dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave. DJ Cooky Parker (soul)
dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave. Freaky Outty
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St. Candi Pop: Spice Girls Edition (bubblegum pop)
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew with DJ Aquaman (funk, soul, disco, break beats)
SUN. APRil 24 dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave. Dear Mama presents Do Right Sundays (electro, R&B, rap)
The lovecraft Bar
Holocene
421 SE Grand Ave Softcore Mutations with DJ Acid Rick (hunkwave)
Panic Room
dig A Pony
The liquor Store
The lovecraft Bar
1001 SE Morrison St. Main Squeeze with DJs Kiffo and Rhymes, Jamie Burton, Laura Lynn (house, techno, disco) 3100 NE Sandy Blvd DJ Mes (disco, bass) 3341 SE Belmont St, Saints of BassSaints of Bass featuring Woody McBride aka DJ ESP (techno, acid)
The lovecraft Bar
MON. APRil 25 736 SE Grand Ave. Bobby D (West African boogie) 421 SE Grand Ave Morbid Mondays w/ Miz Margo
TUeS. APRil 26
421 SE Grand Ave Darkness Descends with DJ Maxamillion
dig A Pony
Valentines
The lovecraft Bar
232 SW Ankeny St Basscrooks, BOGL, DJ SamFM, $treetProfit$, Skelli Skell
736 SE Grand Ave. AM Gold (oldies) 421 SE Grand Ave BONES with DJ Aurora (goth)
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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THE SAINT JOHNS FRIDAY, APRIL 22ND AT 7PM (change of time)
Jordan Meredith and Louis Johnson of The Saint Johns have the ingredient every special duo needs: chemistry. Theirs is the kind of relationship where neither finishes a sentence because the other already gets it in just a few words. It’s the kind of relationship that starts at a friend’s Taco Tuesday party in St. Augustine, Florida, in 2008. And it’s a relationship everyone assumes is romantic. But this meet-cute has an unusual ending – it doesn’t end in marriage, but a beautiful partnership nevertheless that has yielded The Saint Johns’ debut album Dead of Night.
STRONGSENDER
Th e W
Store k e e W e illamett
SUNDAY, APRIL 24TH AT 3PM
Strongsender is a trio of musicians with a highly realized and dark vision… stemming from deep within improvised music, chamber music, and electronic music scenes across several cities. Visceral and hallucinatory music that lies well beyond any comfortable limits. For fans of Autechre, Sun Ra, Rune Grammofon, Flying Lotus, Pharoah Sanders, Lorn, etc.
GOOD FRIDAY SUNDAY, APRIL 24TH AT 5PM
Good Friday was founded in 2014 by Eli Fissell. He decided to recruit longtime friends Dawson Kolstad and Hayden McAllister. Dawson met Patrick Procaccini in their Freshman year of High School, where the two instantly bonded over music, and have been close friends ever since.
To all of our customers who supported the store on Record Store Day 2016 (and every other day of the year),
TREAT YOURSELF WITH A DUBDUBDEAL!
THANK YOU!
We’ve got plenty of affordable offers to start the year off right. Find certificate discounts to your favorite Portland restaurants.
since 1969 we’ve been Portland’s record store and you are the reason why!
wweek.com/dubdubdeals 48
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
C O U R T E SY O F FAC E B O O K
PERFORMANCE = WW Pick. Highly recommended. Most prices listed are for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply, so it’s best to call ahead. Editor: ENID SPITZ. Theater: ENID SPITZ (espitz@wweek.com). Dance: ENID SPITZ (dance@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: espitz@wweek.com.
THEATER & VARIETY Blue Door
The audience is “a bunch of white people,” says one of the many black characters in Blue Door. And he’s not wrong. The second show in Profile’s season dedicated to Pulitzer Prize nominee Tanya Barfield follows an insomnia-ridden professor who imagines meeting his dead ancestors. He’s searching for an answer: Did he run away from his blackness by entering the white world of academia? It begins with Lewis (Victor Mack), a philosophy and math professor, lying awake in a bed surrounded by chains, ears of corn, an African drum and a “White Only” sign. As Lewis talks about his life, he opens a metaphorical door to the past, allowing in a steady stream of visitors, all played by Seth Rue. The two-tiered thrust stage is painted black with white mathematical equations. Ropes are stretched diagonally from the ceiling, and a full moon hangs overhead. It is not realistic. The set looks like a dreamland dimension between sleep and waking, and it creates the perfect, surreal world where Lewis meets his relatives. SOPHIA JUNE. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1516 SW Alder St., 503-2420080. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sundays, through April 23. $38, $20 under 30.
A Doll’s House
You’re seated inside a human-sized dollhouse with see-through walls in the newest production from Shaking the Tree. And it feels like you shouldn’t be there. From the living room, you witness a domestic scandal unfold in the turn-of-the-century Norway home of an uptight lawyer named Torvald and his little wifey Nora. Unbeknownst to Torvald, Nora borrowed a huge sum of money and is being dogged by a greasy debt collector. Each room in their house is lit up a pop art color that would never hold up in late Ibsen’s Norway: Torvald’s study is blue, Nora’s room is pink, the dining room is purple and the entryway is red. As you peer around the stove to witness Torvald and Nora’s juiciest fight, Samantha Van Der Merwe’s genius staging makes you feel like a fly on the wall. This is playing house, grown up and gritty, and all the more fun. SOPHIA JUNE. Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., 503235-0635. 7:30 pm Thursday-Sunday, April 14-May 7. $25.
Hay Fever
It’s a carefree Saturday in June when unexpected visitors descend on the Bliss family’s English country home, where papa Bliss is attempting to finish writing his latest novel. Tea time with flappers goes to Wilde-like shit when the socializing devolves into melodrama and fainting. This 1920s comedy of manners by Noel Coward is the first spring show from Vancouver’s community theater. Magenta Theater, 1108 Main St., Vancouver. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday April 15-29; 2 pm Saturdays April 23 and 30. $18.
Love and Information
More than 100 characters dash through 57 micro-vignettes about things like dating computers in British playwright Caryl Churchill’s 2012 play. Theatre Vertigo accomplishes this with a cast of 12 and no small amount of ingenuity in their tiny Shoebox Theater. On a pull-apart stage with a set that folds out from the walls, nameless characters wax philosophical about the meaning of God; they make awkward first-date small talk; they tell secrets. Friend One doesn’t understand why Friend Two
is dating a computer. “She’s just information!” exclaims One in exasperation. Two replies, nonplussed: “Aren’t we all?” The vignettes are hit-or-miss, some cleverly amusing and others painfully obvious or purely nonsensical. But taken as a whole, the play is a fairenough representation of a society suffering from information overload and seeking that titular holy grail, um…love? PENELOPE BASS. Shoebox Theater, 2110 SE 10th Ave. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday and 2 pm Sundays, April 8-May 7. $20.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
Edward is a heady rabbit doll who goes on a 20-year journey of self-discovery and discovers the true meaning of friendship in this Oregon Children’s Theatre show. Edward’s odyssey takes him through piles of garbage, treacherous waterways, and eventually, “a hobo’s knapsack.” No shows 5 pm April 23 or 11 am April 24. Winningstad Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 228-9571. 2 and 5 pm Saturdays; 11 am and 2 pm Sundays, through April 24. $14-$28.
The New Electric Ballroom
As Irish as theater comes and as talented as a Portland cast gets, Third Rail’s New Electric traps you inside the dingy cottage of three spinster sisters in a coastal fishing village. The sisters spend every day re-enacting one fateful night when they biked to the new electric ballroom and had their sexual desires crushed by a traveling rock star. The birdlike Breda (Lorraine Bahr) and frumpy Clara (Diane Kondrat) take turns undressing on stage and dolling themselves up like they did when they were teens, all the while telling their tragic tales. This story time is perpetually interrupted by Todd Van Voris as the bumbling fishmonger. It looks like a quaint fairy tale about family, but then Breda mimes being fingered and Clara calls the Virgin Mary a bitch. This is a haddock-scented Goldilocks and the Three Bears with a black Irish heart. ENID SPITZ. Imago Theater, 17 SE 8th Ave., 503-235-1101. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday and 2 pm Sundays, April 13-30. Under 30 $38. General $42.50.
Newsies
Disney’s musical about underdogpaperboys-turned-journalism-vigilantes scooped the Tony’s in 2012. The touring cast of boy band look-alikes visits from Broadway, bringing hope for the future of American journalism and the trendiness of plaid. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 7:30 pm Tuesday-Friday; 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday; 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday, April 19-24. $50-$105.
Othello
The new Post5 Theatre leaves the vision of former directors Cassandra and Ty Boyce far behind with its newest production, an all-female Othello set in what looks like an Operation Desert Storm bunker. Drammy-winning makeup artist Caitlin Margo Fisher-Draeger directs 6-foot-plus actress Ithica Tell as the eponymous Moorish general. Tell seizes, sweats and smothers her wife on a splatter-painted stage that’s decorated with hazard signs, air intake fans, electrical boxes and naked light bulbs. Within the first five minutes, Tell creates a homoerotic charge by embracing Joellen Sweeney (playing Desdemona) as Post5 mainstay Jessica Tidd blazes onstage as villainous Iago in combat boots and a septum piercing. This is Shakespeare with tattooed female
CONT. on page 50
PUT THIS IN YOUR LITTLE BOOK: The 1491s.
Like Chippendales in a KFC A NATIVE AMERICAN COMEDY CALLED THE 1491s LANDS AT PAM. Doing a comedy show at the Portland Art Museum in conjunction with the Contemporary Native Photographers exhibition may not sound like a recipe for success. Words like “irreverent” in the description are dog whistles to warn old people who don’t like jokes. But the 1491s—a Native American group that made a name for itself with YouTube videos and a funny but incredibly awkward Daily Show segment about the Washington football team’s mascot—is used to performing under uncomfortable conditions. Before the show at PAM, WW talked to 1491s members Bobby Wilson, Sterlin Harjo and Migizi Pensoneau about uncircumcised penises, their origin story and being pigeonholed as Native comedians. ALEX FALCONE. WW: Bobby’s not answering. Can I get started with just the two of you? Sterlin Harjo: That’s OK. We’re like limbs of the same body. Migizi Pensoneau: And obviously Bobby’s the penis. Harjo: Yep. The uncircumcised penis limb, that’s Bobby. So what’s the origin story of the 1491s? Harjo: We all come from... Bobby Wilson: Sorry, I’m here. Harjo: Oh, good. We were just telling this guy that you’re the penis limb. Wilson: Sounds right. Harjo: OK, our origin is, we all come from these varied backgrounds: filmmaker, screenwriter, street artist. I got in touch with these guys and said, “Hey, let’s make a video.” It was right around the time of Twilight: New Moon, with all those sexy Native Americans. So we decided to shoot something making fun of that, imagining what it would be like if we auditioned. Pensoneau: It spread like wildfire. What was it about that video that people responded to most? Harjo: There’s really a lack of Native humor out there. We made this to make our friends laugh; it was a video by Indians for Indians. At one point, a friend sent us a photo of these elders sitting around a laptop laughing at that video.
Were you surprised it took off like that? Harjo: The idea of a Native American in a contemporary role—nobody’s looking for that. No distributor is like: “That’ll make money!” But when we put it on YouTube, we got rid of that middle step [the distributor] and nobody said, “We don’t want to see Indians onscreen.” People did want to see it. We’re not as big as a cat in front of a mirror making a funny face, but we have a consistent fan base. Nobody will ever be that big. How has the response been outside the Native community? Harjo: White people hate us. [Everybody laughs.] I’m kidding. My theory is that it’s like watching the British The Office. It’s a different rhythm, different accent, so you’re confused at first. But after a couple episodes you get the rhythm and it’s your favorite show. That’s good, because you’re going to be performing at the Portland Art Museum, and that’s probably the whitest audience ever. Pensoneau: The hardest show we ever did was for a group of curators of Native American Art. They’re so earnest that they just didn’t want to laugh. Wilson: Sometimes people aren’t sure if they’re allowed to laugh. Those people look at us through the lens of Natives of the past. When we come out taking our clothes off and jumping around, they’re like, “Oh, this really is just comedy?” Harjo: We’re just trying to make ourselves laugh. Occasionally, we say profound things by accident. So what kind of show is it? What’s the format? Pensoneau: It’ll be like a Chippendales show if you went to KFC to see it. Harjo: And it’s also like Gallagher. There are lots of fluids flying. So white people might like it? It’s not profound? It’s got stripping and fluids? Wilson: We told the Albuquerque paper that and the show sold out, so put that in your little book you’re writing there. Sure, I’ll do that. SEE IT: The 1491s are at Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-226-2811. 7 pm Friday, April 22. $19.99. 13+. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE D E S I G N B Y G O AT S
soldiers who wield handguns and spend their time either fucking each other or fucking each other over.Extra show 7:30 pm Thursday, April 21. Post5 Theatre, 1666 SE Lambert St., 971-333-1758. 7:30 pm Friday-Sunday, April 1-23. $20.
The Pianist of Willesden Lane
Grammy-winner Mona Golabek plays Bach, Beethoven and Chopin on a concert grand, backed by 1930s portraits of her Jewish family in massive golden frames. She’s playing her own mother, the aspiring Jewish pianist Lisa Jura, who watched her dreams burn when the Nazis invaded her hometown and wiped out thousands of Jewish residences in a few hours during 1938’s Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” Part recital, part survival story, it’s about musical inspiration and 10,000 child refugees who were first denied entry into England. Gerding Theater at the Armory, 128 NW 11th Ave., 445-3700. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Friday; noon Thursdays; 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday-Sunday. April 8-May 1. $25-$75.
The Sound of Music SingAlong
Four great-grandchildren of The Sound of Music’s Georg and Maria make up The von Trapps, a Portland-based quartet that started touring internationally when the youngest, August, was just 7 years old. The von Trapps’ 15-year run ends in Portland this spring, culminating in a sing-along Sound of Music at Cinema 21 and one last concert at Star Theater in May. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave. 7 pm FridaySaturday, April 15-16, and 2 pm Saturday-Sunday, April 16-May 1. $15.
COMEDY & VARIETY The Adam Corolla Show: Live Taping
Adam Carolla is a man of many hats. For years, he gave out advice with varying degrees of quality alongside Dr. Drew on Loveline; chugged beers and brought girls on trampolines to the masses on the hopelessly dated The Man Show; and created a show for Spike called Catch a Contractor that led to fewer stabbings than one might expect. He also holds the world record for the most downloaded podcast. That very same podcast is being taped in Portland. Come be part of history. MIKE ACKER. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-234-9694, 7 pm Sunday, Apr. 24. $30.50-$49.50.
Curious Comedy Open Mic
Sign up start at 7:15, and every comic gets a tight three minutes onstage in this weekly show hosted by Andie Main. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 4779477. 8 pm Sundays. Free.
Doug Benson
Even if you’re not a huge stoner, you know Doug Benson. He’s been named “Stoner of the Year” by High Times, he’s made a bevy of comedythemed documentaries with weed as the principal subject, and one of his many regular side projects is a YouTube show called “Getting Doug with High.” The man loves weed, and though you won’t be able to celebrate with him on 4/20, he’ll be in town for 4/22, which is almost as good. MIKE ACKER. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-6438669, 5 pm Friday, Apr. 22, 4:20 pm Saturday, Apr. 23. $22. 21+.
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TRIPLE DIP
Earthquake Hurricane
Some of WW’s favorite funny Portlanders showcase famous and not-so-famous, local and not-solocal comedians. Hosted by Curtis Cook, Alex Falcone, Anthony Lopez and Bri Pruett inside a pretty epic bike shop. Velo Cult Bike Shop, 1969 NE 42nd Ave., 922-2012. 9 pm every Wednesday. Free, $5 suggested donation. 21+.
Extra Cheese
Brodie Kelly’s weekly pizza party/ comedy showcase gives locals a tight 5 for standup, and coincides with happy hour: $2.50 pints. Hotlips Pizza, 2211 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 2349999. 8pm Mondays. Free.
Flula Borg
The kids love YouTube, apparently. Touted as a “German DJ with over 80 million YouTube views,” Flula Borg is a modern entertainer in the most specific sense of the term. Borg also played the second-in-command of Das Sound Machine in Pitch Perfect 2. Any way you slice it, his live show is going to be weird. MIKE ACKER. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, 503-234-9694, 7:30 pm Friday, Apr. 22. $15-$20.
Open Court
This weekly, long-form improv show combines performers from many Portland theaters and troupes. Newbies are welcome and teams are picked at random, then coached by an improv veteran before taking the stage. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 4779477. 7:30 pm Thursdays. $5.
Steve Byrne
Sullivan & Son was a traditional sitcom that ran on TBS for three seasons. It’s alright if you’ve never heard of it, but you should make yourself familiar with its creator Steve Byrne. With appearances on everything from Chappelle’s Show to Good Morning America, Byrne has made the rounds. He comes to Portland for a three-night, five-show engagement that might convince you to sign up for cable television. MIKE ACKER. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., 888-643-8669, 8 pm Thursday, Apr. 21, 7:30 and 10 pm Friday-Saturday, Apr. 22-23, $15$33. 21+ .
Sunday School
Workshop students, veteran crews and groups that pre-register online perform long form improv every Sunday. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 477-9477. 6 pm Sundays. $5 suggested donation.
Supernova
Brody’s students showcase their improv, sketch and standup skills— a different class each week. Brody Theater, 16 NW Broadway, 224-2227. 7:30 pm Thursdays. $5.
For more Performance listings, visit
GUILLAUME MORIN
FEATURE
You Can’t Catch Them All UNOFFICIAL DANCE WEEK HITS PORTLAND.
APRIL 25-26 | THE ARMORY
Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 7:30 pm Wednesday, April 20. $26-$72.
Dance of the Dream Man: A Twin Peaks Story
Trip the Dark’s theater-dance hybrid should hold diehards over until the Twin Peaks reboot, which is haunting the internet with rumors of a 2016-17 release date. This show, staged in a theater that looks like a railcar next to North Portland’s train tracks, includes tap dance, burlesque on Fridays and the show’s token drink: coffee. Friday shows include Black Lodge Burlesque (21+). The Headwaters Theatre, 55 NE Farragut St., No. 9. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, April 21-30. $15.
C O U R T E SY O F FAC E B O O K
Pearl Dive Project
For the first time, BodyVox asked experts from other industries to choreograph new works, which it’s premiering at this season opener. It might be the most experimental show in the company’s 18-year history. The 11 “creatives” include Byron Beck, a 53-year-old Portland blogger and former WW editor, Pink Martini singer China Forbes, Dharma Bums frontman Jeremy Wilson, a director for M&Ms ads and Colombian landscape architects. BodyVox Dance Center, 1201
NW 17th Ave., bodyvox.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, through April 23. $25.
C O U R T E S Y O F O B T. O R G
Timber
Bearded acrobats, ax juggling and log throwing are featured in the lumberjack-inspired circus by Canada’s Cirque Alfonse. It’s an extravagant mix of live music, dance and stunts. “Our percussionist juggles axes with us,” says founder Antoine Carabinier, who’s a veteran of Cirque du Soleil and the famous 7 Fingers circus company. Arlene Schnitzer
COURTESY OF THE H E A D WAT E R S T H E AT R E
Mark Lounge, 6800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 8:30 pm Saturday, April 23. $10.
TIMBER
CHELSEA PETRAKIS
Triple Dip
TICKETS & SCHEDULE: TECHFESTNW.COM
JANE HOBSON
D E S I G N B Y G O AT S
Six big dance shows sweep Portland this week. Usually, you’d be lucky for one, let alone this experimental roster. Colombian landscape architects choreographed for BodyVox, Canadian circus performers juggle axes, and a sexagenarian who recently had both hips replaced performs ballet. ENID SPITZ.
Like a Rubik’s Cube of bar acts, three dance companies and three bands mix and match to make nine different performances. Dancers from SubRosa, Automal and WolfBird take turns performing to Grand Arbiter’s ambient electronic, Tig Bitty’s dance pop, and Consumer’s one-man live looping— all packed inside a heavy-metal fringe bar in NoPo. High Water
NEXT WEEK
Performance Works NorthWest, 4625 SE 67th Ave. 8 pm FridaySaturday and 2 pm Sunday, April 22-24. $15-$50.
BRINGING THE PROMISE OF VIRTUAL REALITY TO ALL THE PEOPLES.
TAWNY SCHLIESKI
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH INTEL’S DESKTOP ORGANIZATION
THE WONDERS AND CHALLENGES OF TELLING STORIES WITH VR
ANTHONY BATT CO-FOUNDER, WEVR
More talks and speakers at techfestnw.com/speakers
PITCHFESTNW / DEMO ALLEY FEATURING THE LATEST IN VIRTUAL/AUGMENTED REALITY
A Head of Time
Wearing just underwear, fleece blankets and extension cords, 62-year-old choreographer Linda Austin dances with a hammer and microphone. This brutally experimental work has been four years in the making and started as a memorial for her younger sister and nephew. Multimedia effects—like a projection screen and an original soundtrack of radio hits remixed with everyday sounds—add drama to Austin’s solo show.
WE ARE THE [VIRTUAL] 99%
PARTIES / NETWORKING Beautiful Decay
Twenty-something ballerinas share the stage with sexagenarian dancers Gregg Bielemeier and Susan Banyas for Oregon Ballet Theatre’s final show this season. Dancers flutter en pointe, then crouch like Gollum. It’s the OBT debut for Bielemeier, who just had double hipreplacement surgery. Newmark
Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 2 pm Sundays, through April 23. $29-$146.
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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= WW Pick. Highly recommended. By JENNIFER RABIN. 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: espitz@wweek.com.
Inventing Problems and Congratulating Myself for Solving Them
Sculptor Shelby Davis investigates the way that things intersect. Sometimes the materials are divergent, like the river of soft pewter that Davis inlays into a slab of unyielding concrete. In other pieces, meticulously finished wood planks pierce weathered hunks of gnarled wood painted to resemble concrete. The same material takes on different properties, and the point of intersection makes them alien to each other. Davis also uses humor as part of his visual language, so don’t be surprised to find a concrete casting of Romanesco broccoli, sitting like a curiosity atop one of the sculptures. Alexander Art Gallery at the Niemeyer Center, 19600 Molalla Avenue, Oregon City, 503-594-3032. Through April 29.
ARTIFACT
Photographer Delaney Allen captures a future race inhabiting a distant landscape. Allen shoots outdoors in the dark, aiming a floodlight at some of his subjects, which gives the impression that they have never been seen before, caught unsuspecting in the middle of the desert in the dead of night. In other photographs, Allen cloaks his figures in tribal textiles, covering most of their skin and faces until they are unrecognizable, shrouded in ceremonial mystery. There is a sharp contrast between what is hidden and what is exposed, and therein lies the tension of the series. Nationale, 3360 SE Division St., 503-477-9786. Through May 9.
Hidden Narratives
Four glass artists present work that combines printmaking techniques with kiln-glass, further pushing the boundaries of both processes. Michelle Murillo explores her ancestry and identity in a standout installation comprised of rows and rows of ghostlike pieces of identification—travel documents, driver’s licenses—that are missing the faces of the people to whom they belong. Each was made by screenprinting glass powder and then kiln-firing it, resulting in objects so fragile, they look like they might dissolve if you touched them. Bullseye Projects, 300 NW 13th Ave., 503-227-0222. Through June 18.
I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees
Man Lives Through Plutonium Blast
Artist Peter Brown Leighton creates dystopian 21st-century images by digitally combining black-and white snapshots from the mid 20th century. A man and a woman in ‘50s bathing suits stand on a beach, plumes of ominous smoke billowing behind them. Four Leave It to Beaver-era brothers crowd around the family TV, the headline announcing “AN ATTACK IS TAKING PLACE.” A woman in a white nursing outfit walks past a deserted picnic area wearing a gas mask. Because Leighton’s digital manipulation is so seamless, it is often difficult to know what is real and what Leighton has imagined, which makes the series all the more disturbing, foreboding, charming, bizarre and hilarious. Blue Sky Gallery, 122 NW 8th Ave., 503-225-0210. Through May 1.
A Marginal Tic
One of a gallery’s tasks is to help orient a visitor who comes in off the street, to help them understand what links the art inside the space, why the work is being shown together, and why they should care about it. Without any information about the exhibition, or about the three artists whose work is on display, save for the title and materials list of each piece, the decontextualized collection of minimal 2-D and 3-D pieces in A Marginal Tic is inaccessible and unrelatable and it feels like the gallery deigns to have us. Fourteen30 Contemporary. 1501 SW Market St., 503-236-1430. Through April 23.
Symbolic Autobiography
Photographer Ann Mansolino’s blackand-white portraits are not meant to capture something personal about her subjects, but to represent Mansolino’s own internal states of mind. In one photo, a woman stands in a field of stones so endless that it disappears into the horizon. The subject, her head cropped out of the frame (Mansolino obscures the faces of all of her subjects so as to de-emphasize the importance of the individual), stands in the close foreground burdened by her own heavy armload of stones. Through her subjects—usually women, sometimes herself—emotions are made manifest, embodied in physical form. And though the medium and large-format images are carefully staged, the backdrop of
COURTESy OF LAUREN MANTECóN
In this month’s group show from PDX Contemporary, a knotted black cord hangs on a wall with a price tag of $6,000. Across the gallery, a white ceramic elephant covered with gold flowers sits atop a pedestal. Black and white beads fill two shallow ceramic dishes. It is likely that these pieces have
interesting stories that would engage us and help us to appreciate the work, if the gallery was willing to tell us more about it. But, sadly, in an information vacuum, this is the type of show that makes people who are genuinely interested in art feel like it doesn’t pertain to us. And, worse yet, it makes us not care. PDX Contemporary, 925 NW Flanders St., 503-227-5111. Through April 30.
the outdoors lends them a naturalistic quality, leaving us free to lock into the feeling that Mansolino is trying to convey without distraction. Sage Gallery, 625 NW Everett St. No. 106, 541-2062560. Through April 28.
Recent Work
Some of Michael T. Hensley’s abstract paintings look like what you might expect to find inside Hensley’s head, if you were able to unzip it and have a peek. Frenetic graffiti-esque marks spanning the color palette shout over one another for attention. Other canvases are comparatively subdued, like whitewashed chaos, hinting at the muted madness underneath. The occasional naïve doodle—discernable as a Christmas tree or a pyramid or a hand with six fingers—gives the work a childlike quality and a lack of self-consciousness. Hensley has established an unmistakable visual language all his own, and if you’ve seen it once, in his paintings or in one of his public murals around town, you will recognize it immediately. Mark Woolley Gallery, 700 SW 5th Ave. Suite 4110, 503-998-4152. Through May 15.
Shape Shifting
Lauren Mantecón’s abstract paintings make you feel like you’re in the middle of an interplanetary dream. Faded orbs hover in the background while clusters of tiny dots, like constellations, pop with bright color in the foreground. Up close, you can see the wax and paint, and can even read the newsprint she uses to create texture, but view the work from the other end of the gallery and Mantećon has left you drifting out into the cosmos. She plays with the density of her surfaces, sometimes building up thick layers of material onto which she gouges quick hatch marks or meandering tributaries. In other pieces, Mantećon uses a wash of pigment so faint that the grain of the wood panel shows through. Mark Woolley Gallery, 700 SW 5th Ave. Suite 4110, 503-9984152. Through May 15.
2016 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards
A tilted monolith of concrete, wood, foam and metal greets you in the gallery of Portland Art Museum’s biennial awards exhibition for Northwest Art. Work from eight regional artists, in every medium from etched glass to neon, wait for you beyond. The photorealistic drawings of post-apocalyptic scenes by the collaborative duo known as Lead Pencil Studio are a standout, as are the haunting faceless figures, drawn on paper by Samantha Wall, that give the impression that they might dissolve at any moment should you stand in front of them too long. Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-2262811. Through May 8.
Now I Am Myself
For its grand opening, Wolff Gallery is presenting a group show of five female photographers whose portraits of themselves and other women subvert the male gaze. In so doing, the work excludes the dominant perspective, the lens through which representations of women have always been presented to us. That said—and here’s the tricky part—in order to change the culture, in order to shift the balance and give female artists their voice, it is imperative that we evaluate Now I Am Myself, not as work made by women, but as work made by artists. Wolff Gallery, 618 NW Glisan St., Suite R1, 971-413-1340. Through May 1.
GreetinG Jupiter by Lauren Mantecón, Part of shape shiftinG 52
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
COURTESy OF RUTH GRUBER
VISUAL ARTS
For more Visual Arts listings, visit
refugee families awaiting forced Deportation by ruth Gruber
The 104-Year-Old Woman Who Beat the World Sometimes an artist’s life is worthy of as much consideration as her work. This is especially true of Ruth Gruber, the photojournalist who received the lifetime achievement award from the International Center of Photography and whose ICP-curated retrospective is being shown at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education. Gruber’s biography reads like an outline for a Hollywood biopic of a 20th-century world-beater: in 1931, when it was rare for women to even attend college, Gruber became the youngest person in the world to earn a Ph.D. In ’44, she was made special envoy on a top-secret mission to bring 1,000 holocaust survivors from Europe to the U.S. for asylum. During that trip, her purpose crystallized. “Listening to their stories of survival, I had an epiphany,” she remembers. “I realized that for the rest of my life I would use my tools—my words and images—to fight injustice.” After that, she often put herself in dangerous situations, like having herself smuggled into internment camps, in order to document the atrocities of war. She went where few, if any, reporters were allowed; in some cases, her images were the world’s only way to witness events it could only read about in newspapers. Walking through the gallery, you will notice that Gruber’s untitled black-and-white images tell the biggest stories by capturing the tiniest moments. In one photo, duffle bags molder in a monumental pile on a dock in Haifa, thrown off the side of a boat when their refugee owners were disallowed entry and forced onto British prison ships without their belongings. In another, a young girl who has just disembarked after a long trip to what she thinks is her new home, looks straight into Gruber’s lens, unaware that she and her family are about to be sprayed with DDT and sent back to a displaced-persons camp. Gruber, who turns 105 in September, also gives us glimpses of hope, with images of refugees reuniting with their relatives after being separated by years of war. I cannot claim objectivity with this review, because in the photos are the faces of my people. And when I saw them, I wept openly in the gallery, unable to hold back tears. For some of you, the retrospective will feel similarly personal; for others, simply historic. And for all of us, in light of the current refugee crisis, Gruber’s images will be a sharp reminder that we don’t always learn from our mistakes. JENNIFER RABIN.
Ruth Gruber’s photographs are as stunning as her life story.
See It: Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist is at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 1953 NW Kearney St., 226-3600. Through June 13.
BOOKS = WW Pick. Highly recommended.
MONDAY, APRIL 25
By JAMES HELMSWORTH. 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.
Ox Cookbook
Brad and Drew Harper
Evangelical pastor Brad Harper’s son Drew came out as gay during adolescence. In Space at the Table, they tell their story: Brad’s struggle to reconcile his faith with his son’s identity, and Drew’s struggle to reconcile his identity with his family. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
THURSDAY, APRIL 21 The Elements of Pizza
As founder of Ken’s Artisan Bakery, Ken’s Artisan Pizza and Trifecta, Ken Forkish knows a thing or two about pizza and bread—and he dispensed his arcane wisdom in 2012’s Flour Water Salt Yeast. In The Elements of Pizza, the James Beard Award winner zeroes in on pizza. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
FRIDAY, APRIL 22 A.J. Swoboda
A.J. Swoboda is pastor at Theophilus church on upper Clinton Street. But do not fear him, oh militant atheists: he shops at New Seasons and eats at Jam—or at least his bio says so. In his book, The Dusty Ones, he suggests that, rather than being a crisis of faith, wandering through one’s faith and asking questions about it are an important part of faith. Draconian dogma, arcane rituals, vengeful gods? That’s for Winco shoppers. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
SATURDAY, APRIL 23 BCC: BrownHall Poetry Workshop
This spring, Black Creative Collective: BrownHall—a group of black artists living in Portland—has held a residency at the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Poet Tessara Dudley of Mourning Glory Publishing will lead a workshop on adapting the pain of violence into poetry. Independent Publishing Resource Center, 1001 SE Division St., 827-0249. 2 pm. Free.
SUNDAY, APRIL 24 Kim Dower, A.M. O’Malley & Joe Wilkins
For National Poetry Month., three poets will read from their new collections. Kim Dower will read from Last Train to the Missing Planet. PEN Center USA Award finalist and Pushcart Prize winner Joe Wilkins will read from When We Were Birds. Finally, A.M. O’Malley, executive director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center, will read from Expecting Something Else. Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 800-878-7323. 4 pm. Free.
Beyond Lolita: Literary Writers on Sex and Sexuality
Cheryl Strayed, the most portrayedby-Reese-Witherspoon of any Portland author, and Lidia Yuknavitch, who just won the Oregon Book Award (twice!) will be joined by Porochista Khakpour (The Last Illusion), MariNaomi (Dragon’s Breath), and Sarah Hepola (Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget) for a conversation about sex in literature, writing about others’ experiences and the importance of including LGBTQ experiences in their work. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
TUESDAY, APRIL 26 Steve Toutonghi
In Steve Toutonghi’s debut, Join, the titular program links people’s minds such that they can live several lives at once, and somehow also forever. But when two friends link up with a psycho killer, they find that friending is
Diana Abu-Jaber
With four novels and a work of nonfiction to her name, including the critically acclaimed 2011 release Birds of Paradise, Diana Abu-Jaber is an accomplished writer known for her lush descriptions of food. In her new book, Life Without a Recipe: A Memoir of Food and Family, she tells her own story of breaking free from her parents’ designs, getting married thrice, having a kid in her late 40s, and living each day without any adherence to a script. Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
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Felicia Day Like a latter-day, geeky Forrest Gump, Felicia Day has been a part of almost every event in nerd culture over the past 20 years— from AltaVista-era chatrooms to an appearance as Vi on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her earliest fame came from The Guild, one of YouTube’s first web-series hits, which followed a World of Warcraft guild—a game that Day also played. In her book, You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) (Touchstone, 272 pages, $25.99), she recounts her tenure as a violin prodigy and her eventual rise to fame. She spoke to us about nerds, #GamerGate and embracing weirdness. JAMES HELMSWORTH. WW: Is nerd culture just mainstream now? Felicia Day: There’s a lot more people who enjoy “geek” stuff. I think that’s a great thing because it supports more creators. And also it increases the diversity in the kind of people and the backgrounds of people who are into comics and TV shows. I don’t see a downside. In your book, you write about getting addicted to World of Warcraft. To me, gaming isn’t inherently addictive or destructive, but I used it as a tool to escape the things I should’ve been focusing on in my life but didn’t. Ultimately, I turned it into something creative. If you’re someone who’s spending more time in a virtual world than the real one, it’s probably a red flag. After writing about #GamerGate, you immediately had your address shared online. Any advice to women? I think the kind of prejudice that women are experiencing—I don’t think it’s ever not been there on a small level. But in the last few years, people feel a lot more comfortable about hateful speech, and trying to push people with diverse opinions out of the world of gaming. It’s sad, but I don’t think it’s going to go away, that vocal minority, because the internet allows people to become entrenched in their agendas. I think the best thing we can do, as people who love games, is encourage people from different backgrounds as kids to be into games as creators—and consumers.
CHRISTINA GANDOLFO
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
Everybody likes Ox, the Argentineinflected steakhouse on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. I would probably like it too, were my paycheck to ever take me out of the Taco Bell bracket. Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
a dangerous business. Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 800-878-7323. 7 pm. Free.
THE INTERNET OF EARTH LEVERAGING SOFTWARE AND SENSORS TO SAVE THE PLANET.
TED SCHMITT VULCAN
MATTHEW MCKOWN
CONSERVATION METRICS
JAKE WALL
SAVE THE ELEPHANTS
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What do you hope people take away from your book? Embrace your weirdness. The things that make you different are the things that make you stand out, and you should never abandon them because of peer pressure and societal pressure. No matter what you’re interested in, or what kind of person you are, the internet can connect you with people who are like you. There’s a chapter in your book where you talk about hanging out in Portland. How many coffee shops did you say you went to again? I went to all the ones downtown. Well, not all of them, but everything I could get to walking. Heart was my favorite. GO: Felicia Day will sign copies of her book on Wednesday, April 20, at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, 800-878-7323. 6 pm. Free. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Editor: ENID SPITZ. 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: espitz@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
OPENING THIS WEEK The Huntsman: Winter’s War
A sequel to the 2012 film Snow White and the Huntsman, which was a reimagining of the Grimm fairy tale for a Game of Thrones generation. It was better than it had any right to be. The sequel subtracts Snow White from the proceedings and has a cast that’s better than it has any right to be. Screened after deadline. See wweek.com for a review. PG-13. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
A Hologram for the King
Tom Hanks’s newest feature is aimed at politically centrist and optimistic parents, and you might’ve expected as much from its star’s production company (Larry Crowne, Charlie Wilson’s War). A fish-out-of-water tale about an obsolete American salesman peddling IT to Saudi royalty, the film telegraphs cultural clashes that aren’t xenophobic or exploitative, just safe and sentimental. Quips about forbidden alcohol in the Kingdom here, a polite misunderstanding about the CIA there. If you can buy the tone—and Hanks is doing his everyman damnedest to convince you of this endeavor’s beating heart—it falls back on the clever flourishes of Dave Eggers’ source material. R. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Clackamas.
Animation by Design
C It’s $5 Friday at PAM! Also, Portland Design Week is still going. In honor of both, the museum is screening a program of abstract, animated shorts from Northwest creatives. Among the lineup, Marilyn Zornado’s Old-Time Film is a 2½-minute ditty in which retro polka dots, lines and schoolbook pictures of trains and things wiggle across the screen. The 6 Is Silent, which is mostly a black background with hand-drawn sketches of trees or monkeys flashing quickly by in neon colors, is actually a music video for the Boston rock band Skyjelly’s song about Jim Cowan. Voilà: 60 minutes of trippy, flashing pictures and then staring at “the world’s greatest cat painting” until the museum closes. Strain recommendation: Violet Delight. Have a good night. NR. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear. It’s a look inside the annual celebrity gala at the Met that’s put on every May by Anna Wintour, Vogue’s famously demanding editor in chief, and Andrew Bolton, the curator extraordinaire who still feels lucky to have the job of his dreams. “Jennifer!” one reporter shouts at Jennifer Lopez. “Jennifer!” another one shouts to Jennifer Lawrence. Inside, they sing along with the headliner, Rihanna. Happy May Day. NR. ESTER O’FEARGHAIL. Living Room Theaters.
If There’s a Hell Below
B Abe (Conner Marx) is a callow young journalist from a small newspaper who’s hoping for a big break in his career when he meets Debra (Carol Roscoe), a cautious whistleblower with a secret that someone will die for. Set amid the sprawling rural plains of somewhere vague, this slow-paced, atmospheric thriller plays out almost entirely in real time, forcing the audience to sit through every tense moment and awkward conversation. While the film requires a degree of patience from the audience, it definitely delivers. If There’s a Hell Below will leave you wondering who you can trust until it’s too late. R. CURTIS COOK. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
Lamb
A The first Ethiopian film ever shown
at Cannes, Lamb tells the story of a boy trying to escape his relatives’ house before they can sacrifice his beloved lamb for a religious feast. The verdant mountains of Ethiopia, which you have probably never seen before on celluloid, provide the backdrop for this quiet film that unfolds in unexpected ways. Firsttime director Yared Zeleke coaxes gorgeously nuanced performances out of his first-time actors, and you will be hardpressed to find an indie film starring a sheep that is more thoughtfully directed or beautifully photographed—and that’s saying something. NR. JENNIFER RABIN. Clinton.
Lifeforce
A- Countless young nerds spontaneously
at the White House asking to meet President Richard Nixon. He had decided to become a federal agent for the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, and to lend support to the country in any way it needed. That meeting went better than expected. What’s great about this story is that it focuses on a very short period of time—a couple of days, culminating in an hourlong meeting—and manages to extrapolate from those few hours a completely different version of these icons than you’re used to seeing. Kevin Spacey plays a charming and smart Nixon who seems like he’d be fun to hang out with. Meanwhile, Michael Shannon (Boardwalk Empire) plays a brooding, gun-obsessed Elvis between his heyday and Fat Elvis phases who seems as if he would be a bummer to be around. Despite what the phrase “based on a true story” leads you to believe, Elvis & Nixon is fascinating and really fun. R. ALEX FALCONE. Clackamas, Living Room Theaters.
went through puberty when first watching R-rated 1985 sci-fi horror cult classic Lifeforce. Director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) was riding high on the success of Poltergeist and exercised grand vision with his $25 million budget. John Dykstra (Star Wars, Dune) did the special effects. Dan O’Bannon (Alien) wrote the screenplay. The DP came over from the Bond films. It was a pre-CGI 70 mm Hollywood spectacular based on Colin Wilson’s novel The Space Vampires. Countless casting calls for a lead alien antagonist finally yielded young and nubile Mathilda May. Her performance is most crassly remembered because, rather than aping H.R. Giger’s alien, Tobe Hooper chose to depict the ultimate evil as a strikingly beautiful naked woman. May’s poise as a ballet dancer gives her performance a sublime vibrancy that undermines sheer titillation. Better still, she’s on record (and so is the crew) saying that she was treated very well by everyone on this huge production. Lifeforce was not a hit in America, but it was in Europe, and has had a very healthy life as a cult phenomenon. A few performances—particularly leading man Steve Railsback’s—keep this from being a perfect film. But Patrick Stewart’s first onscreen kiss to none other than Railsback more than makes up for the shortfall. NR. NATHAN CARSON. Hollywood Theatre. 9:45 pm Saturday, April 23. Sold out.
The First Monday in May
Los Sures
Elvis & Nixon
A- In 1970, Elvis Presley showed up
A- Top celebrities in red carpet regalia swarm the Metropolitan Museum of Art in this real behind-the-scenes version of
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A- UnionDoc is delivering a big piece of history about our present-day hipster counterpart, the Williamsburg neighbor-
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
SKINHEAD SHOWDOWN: Patrick Stewart.
“Nazi Punks, F— Off” GREEN ROOM IS A PERFECTLY BLOOD-SOAKED FOLLOW-UP TO BLUE RUIN. BY EZR A JOHN SON -GR EEN OU GH
503-243-2122
supposed to see and a bouncer they take hostage. Outside, the white supremacists engage them in negotiations to leave the room, where we know they are likely to be murdered. The characters on both sides are loosely drawn but smart enough not to make stupid decisions, which makes the delay of action last longer than expected. Like Akira Kurosawa, Saulnier finds the anticipation of violence more cinematic than its outcome, which are brief but gratuitous acts that leave a stain.
Much of the buzz around Green Room centers on Patrick Stewart’s performance as an experienced, world-weary leader of a violent group of outcasts. But enough about the X-Men films. Here, Stewart plays the big bad leader of a backwoods gang of white supremacists. He is intimidating, menacing and scary as hell without snarling like an X-Men baddie. The punkrock band that falls into his clutches is At one point, a literal light switch loosely led by Anton Yelchin (Scotty Embrace gets flipped on the protagonists. It in the new Star Trek films), and the the insanity leads to a figurative flipping, too, of band is on an unsuccessful tour, taking a detour to play a paying gig and be prepared the switch between light and dark, action and inaction. As the band at a neo-Nazi compound. There, to fight to the explodes into motion like the kickthe band witnesses a murder that off to a headbanging set, the violence these guys won’t let them walk death. landslides in. The outcomes are unpreaway from. dictable, shocking, grisly and really fun. Green Room is a violent high-tension In a moment of calm preceding the final thriller filmed and set in Oregon. It’s also the newest by acclaimed young director Jeremy Saulnier, battle, one survivor recounts a paintball game whose 2013 film Blue Ruin was a breakout hit that in which his squad was getting its ass kicked by explored the consequences of violence. But while off-duty Marines until it was able to turn around Blue Ruin followed a loser’s struggle with grief and sure defeat by abandoning all strategy and sanity. revenge, Green Room follows a loser band’s struggle That may be the film’s message: Embrace the insanity and be prepared to fight to the death. It’s for survival that requires an embrace of violence. Saulnier ratchets up the tension after the the only way to survive. band’s members lock themselves in the titular B+ SEE IT: Green Room is rated R. It opens Green Room, with a dead girl they were not Friday at Cinema 21.
Miles Ahead
B Fans looking for a solely reverent portrait of Miles Davis won’t get it in Miles Ahead, the new, loosely biographical film on the jazz legend. Instead, Don Cheadle, who wrote, produced, directed and stars in the film, delivers a more complete picture of Davis as a groundbreaking musician who was also an abusive drug addict. The film waxes buddy action flick, as Davis, clad in a silk paisley shirt, accompanied by a Rolling Stone journalist (Ewan McGregor), traverses the city trying to get his new session tape back from record execs. But Cheadle also uses artistic flashbacks, pairing scenes of Davis’ personal struggles with ones of him on his entrancing trumpet. Whether he’s snorting cocaine, shattering a glass table during a fight with his wife or being arrested and beat up by a policeman for smoking in public, the audience is reminded of Davis’ best and worst moments all at once. R. SOPHIA JUNE. Hollywood.
tries killing Superman because, you know, “he might be bad later.” With nobody to root for, BvS:DoJ is just an unconscionably long slugfest simultaneously attempting too much and accomplishing almost nothing. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Edgefield, Milwaukie, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, City Center, Division, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Roseway, St. Johns Cinemas.
Barbershop: The Next Cut
D It’s been 14 years since we first entered Calvin’s Barbershop in South Side Chicago, and along with shiny, bald additions like Common, J.B. Smoove and Nicki Minaj’s bosom, there’s a new “No Guns Allowed” sign on the wall. The third chapter in the saga of Calvin (played by the intrepid Ice Cube) and the adventures at his
old-school barbershop takes a somewhat darker tone, framed by Cube’s personal ties to his Windy City hometown and its surge in gang violence. Unfortunately, the writing is too childlike to make an impact or come close to the subtle wit that brought up themes of masculinity, black America, and class conflict in the original Barbershop. I’m not sure which is less natural: hearing the characters exclaim, “#BarbershopSaves TheNeighborhood is trending on Twitter,” or Calvin calling a red bandanna “gang paraphernalia” when talking to his son about his new friends. LAUREN TERRY. PG-13. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, Oak Grove, Bridgeport, Division, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Tigard.
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hood of Brooklyn. This 1984 documentary is a fresh lesson about a Puerto Rican and Dominican community amid a great economic struggle. Dynamic characters such as Marta, a 40-year resident of Williamsburg, describes her experience living in the lively, cultureheavy neighborhood that perseveres through limited resources, violence and drug problems. The compilation of narratives from Williamsburg locals, paired with up-close scenes of the neighborhood itself, gives viewers an intimate snapshot into gentrification all over. NR. AMY WOLFE. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
Strange Victory
C- Director Leo Hurwitz’s Strange Victory is not as victorious as it is strange. The black-and-white film dating back to 1948 takes a complex view of the aftermath of World War II. The monotone voice-over trailing scenes of oppression, racial bias and lots of babies in the maternity ward tries desperately to convey the vast amount of racism that remained after the war. With politics being such a hot topic of conversation, this film dramatizes every single scene in an effort to be bold. Though the message is strong, the documentary feels more like a never-ending newscast, cutting quickly through blunt statements and scenes of Nazis on the march. With no absence of black smoke and waving soldiers, this film packs a punch but falls short of making a mark. NR. AMY WOLFE. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
STILL SHOWING 10 Cloverfield Lane
C+ The motto of J.J. Abrams’ latest thriller is, basically, don’t text and drive. Also, don’t break up with your fiance, or else you’ll get in a terrible car accident, be abducted by a Lolitainspired murderer and watch your whole family die in the alien apocalypse—in one night. Despite the clichés, Abrams shows for the first hour and 20 minutes that he’s almost capable of a smart psychological thriller. The last 10 minutes, however, confirm he’s not. PG-13. SOPHIA JUNE. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Clackamas, CineMagic, Bridgeport, Division, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Tigard.
Anomalisa
B- It’s a little creepy watching a stopmotion puppet perform cunnilingus. R. Laurelhurst.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
D Batman and Superman are fighting, and it’s hard to choose a side. The new Superman is boring and out of place in the 21st century. Batman, on the other hand, has been reinvented as a huge dickhead. Played by Ben Affleck with a characteristic lack of gravitas, Batman walks around in a silly metal suit killing people. You know how Batman never kills people? He does now. Even when he doesn’t have to. He even
FRICKE, IT’S COLD: Baraka
Where in the World Did Carmen San Diego Get This Much Peyote? Whoever arranged to bring Baraka to the big screen after Oregon legalized marijuana deserves a medal. This tour de force of timelapse photography spans the globe, the cycles of the moon and every color of the rainbow, with messages so fundamental that age, language and THC levels will have no bearing on your ability to enjoy it as a fine art film. A decade before Ron Fricke conceived the masterful 1992 non-verbal narrative feature, he cut his teeth on a similar venture, titled Koyaanisqatsi. What he learned about nonverbal filmmaking and high-end time-lapse photography came in handy when he began the long process of composing a “guided meditation” in the forgotten 65 mm format. For Baraka, Fricke built his own custom time-lapse camera and programmed it with an early motion-control computer system. He also scheduled production around phases of the moon to take advantage of optimal lighting conditions. Baraka begins with sublime nature footage, followed by a dangling carrot of cuteness: snow monkeys soaking in hot pools while snowflakes drift onto their fur. Montages of morning rituals from around the world follow. We hear temple bells ringing, see young men donning kippahs in Jerusalem and watch dervishes slowly begin to whirl. The viewer is swept into a calm and psychedelic landscape of subtly shifting global echoes. The film’s crew booked its journey around the world in loops, prioritizing locations with the most opportunities to capture nature, spiritual life, urban activity and astronomical events. Then, they returned to America to edit their footage and plan the next round. In this way, they avoided both exhaustion and superfluous imagery. Color balance and vividness were paramount concerns. While the scenes look a bit dressed up at times, stirring images of sweatshop factory workers and mass-produced chicken farming are still alarming. The overall effect is both perfectly achieved and utterly meaningful. Homeless bodies sleeping on the street have never seemed quite so color-coordinated. NATHAN CARSON. Baraka in 70 mm is like Planet Earth on LSD at the Hollywood.
A SEE IT: Baraka plays at the Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm FridaySunday, April 22-24. $12. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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The Big Short
A It’s based on the book by Michael
Lewis, who’s known for making complicated financial topics into compelling stories, and adapted by Adam McKay, who is known for Talladega Nights and the “More Cowbell” sketch. Surprisingly, this combo works. R. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Laurelhurst.
Born to Be Blue
B+ Rather than awkwardly cramming
Chet Baker’s entire life into a film, Robert Budreau focused on a period in the 1960s when Baker’s career saw a rebirth following his brief recovery from heroin addiction. It opens with black-and-white footage of Baker’s dark hallucinations and the temptations of sex and heroin, but those scenes are just the setup for a big f-you for anyone expecting another customary biopic. A little improvisation here works just fine. R. CURTIS COOK. Living Room Theaters.
The Boss
B- After Tammy, pretty much anything written by Melissa McCarthy and her husband-director, Ben Falcone was bound to be an improvement. This time, McCarthy stars as Michelle Darnell, a self-made tycoon whose confidence is rivaled only by the height of her turtlenecks. After getting caught doing a little insider trading, it’s bye-bye to the shirtless pilots of her private helicopter and hello to couchsurfing with her assistant, Claire (played by Kristen Bell). While joining Claire’s daughter at a Girl Scout-inspired Dandelion meeting on cookie sales, Michelle sees dollar signs around this unpaid sales force. Although crude in comparison to more polished McCarthy films, it is fair to say it is her funniest project without Paul Feig at the wheel. R. LAUREN TERRY. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns 1 & 2, Tigard, Vancouver.
Brooklyn
Portland Cannabis Museum follow us on instagram follow us on leafly www.localleaf420.com 503-946-8199 7570 sw 74th Ave. Pdx 97223 56
Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
A- Based on the novel by Irish author Colm Tóibín and adapted by Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy), Brooklyn is just the sweetest thing. Saoirse Ronan (Atonement) makes an adorable couple with Emory Cohen (Smash), and I could watch them court for hours, especially their awkward dinners with Cohen’s Italian family. PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Academy
City of Gold
B+ Jonathan Gold is one of food jour-
nalism’s only legitimate heroes, and certainly the only one with a Pulitzer on his metaphorical belt buckle. This new documentary by Laura Gabbert accompanies the legendary journalist as he tours the eateries and neighborhoods of L.A. Gold told WW, “I love the way it makes Los Angeles look. It’s a part of Los Angeles that doesn’t make it onto film so often. In a way, it’s probably as much about the ecstasy of being in your car as the
sun sets as it is about going to restaurants.” Read the full Q&A with Gold at wweek.com. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. NR. Cinema 21.
Criminal
D To be remotely successful, Criminal needs to realize the absurdity of its premise. A CIA agent’s memories are injected into the frontal lobe of a nothing-to-lose convict (Kevin Costner). Complete with the prisoner going rogue from government grasp, it’s a plot worthy of ’80s Stallone or Schwarzenegger face-lifted by an overqualified cast (Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot) and updated with a few cybercrimes. Looking a haggard 61 with an involuntary growl, Costner refuses to wink at the preposterous proceedings, playing it deadly serious or unhinged as his character reckons with a surgically enhanced consciousness that makes him feel normal human emotions. Criminal lands as a transparently bad action flick, housing an unintentional tragedy about this violent homeless man lost in London. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.
Deadpool
B Within the first 10 minutes. the titular “merc with the mouth” slaughters a baker’s dozen of goons to a soundtrack of “Shoop,” breaks the fourth wall by talking to the audience, punches multiple scrotums, drops more f-bombs than Tony Montana and takes a bullet directly up the butthole while giggling about it. Deadpool doesn’t reinvent the wheel. But it does teabag it. And sometimes that’s enough. R. AP KRYZA. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Vancouver.
Demolition
C+ After his wife is killed in a car crash, corporate millionaire Davis Mitchell (Jake Gyllenhaal) is forced to tear down his emotional barriers and face the realities of his once seemingly perfect life. Along his ruinous path to recovery, he forges a sordid friendship with vending machine customer service rep Karen Moreno (Naomi Watts) and her dejected son, Chris (Judah Lewis). Despite charming performances and gleaming moments of gallows humor, Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition gets a little carried away. That said, it’s intensely satisfying to watch people in suits break stuff. PG-13. CURTIS COOK. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Fox Tower, Vancouver.
The Divergent Series: Allegiant, Part 1
D Undistinguishable from its counterparts, Part 1 ’s excessively dull proceedings are punctuated by generic action scenes in which the Bureau of Genetic Welfare uses a bunch of weirdo army shit to kidnap little kids and wipe their brains clean. If you are over 17, there is exactly zero reason for you to waste your money on this. PG-13. MIKE GALLUCCI. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Oak
Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.
Everybody Wants Some!!
A- Richard Linklater’s newest film doesn’t have a plot. But you’ll hardly realize it—and you probably won’t care. Everybody Wants Some!! says “fuck that” to Hollywood convention, which makes sense for the filmmaker who stunned the world with Boyhood’s artful filmmaking techniques that still broke the box office. This “fuck it” attitude also makes sense for a film that follows a college baseball team in 1980s Texas through the three days before school starts. R. SOPHIA JUNE. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Fox Tower.
Eye in the Sky
C+ The year’s first movie on the ethics of drones, and the last film featuring Alan Rickman, misses its mark. British Col. Katherine Powell (Helen Mirren) tracks infamous terrorists to a house in Nairobi, Kenya. To stop the suicide bombing they’re planning, Powell orders a Predator drone to destroy the house. The only problem is a small, hula-hooping neighbor girl. The plot arc is more of a plot sine wave, with the withering Lt. Gen. Frank Benson (Rickman as a wandless Professor Snape in olive drab) throwing up his hands and staring down the people who just refuse to blow that little girl up already. It’s not Rickman’s fault (RIP) that his dry humor is out of place in a movie about the ethics of vaporizing people with missiles. R. ZACH MIDDLETON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Living Room Theaters, Tigard.
Gods of Egypt
D It’s ancient Egypt like you’ve never seen it before: bigger, shinier and chock-full of deities punching each other. Shown but never explained: giant flying beetles; a 3,000-foot waterfall; removing and putting back somebody’s glowing blue brain; a flaming pyramid; ridable, giant firebreathing snakes; and why the characters are all so white. This is Egypt! PG-13. ALEX FALCONE. Avalon, Vancouver.
Hail, Caesar!
B+ From the opening scene, in which Capitol Pictures “fixer” Eddie Mannix (a gruff Josh Brolin) skips out of confession, it’s a quick 27-hour shitstorm through high drama as movie star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) gets abducted. The Coens’ funniest film since The Big Lebowski combines a zany caper, a communist plot, ’50s studio politics and a touching story about one man’s calling in life into a cohesive, lighthearted and quip-heavy comedy. PG-13. JOHN LOCANTHI. Living Room Theaters.
Hello, My Name is Doris
B Enter the mind of Doris, where
20-something men with waxed chests rip off their shirts and slam her passionately against the wall. Until someone wakes her from the daydream. Doris is a whip-smart comedy that pokes fun at the ultracurated youthful lifestyle, while avoid-
How to Be Single
D Dating is hard, not sure if you’ve heard. It’s especially hard for four single women in New York who are, like, different kinds of single (Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann, Dakota Johnson, Alison Brie). R. ALEX FALCONE. Jubitz Cinema, Vancouver.
The Invitation
B+ This dinner-party thriller evokes the
Joy, Valley, Vancouver.
The Sound of Music Sing-Along
Four great-grandchildren of The Sound of Music’s Georg and Maria make up The von Trapps, a Portland-based quartet that started touring internationally when the youngest, August, was just 7 years old. The von Trapps’ 15-year run ends in Portland this spring, culminating in a sing-along Sound of Music at Cinema 21 and one last concert at Star Theater in May. Cinema 21.
Spotlight
A- Spotlight inverts the usual comparison: It’s a movie that feels like prestige television. Specifically, it feels like The Wire. R. Academy, Laurelhurst.
Manson murders in present-day L.A., where Will and Kira attend a grating dinner party thrown by Will’s ex-wife and her new husband—at Will’s former home. Will’s irking suspicions balloon into psychological thrills, neatly edited and dimly lit by director Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux, Jennifer’s Body), with a not so subtle nod to Scientology, too. This film’s mind games play rough, though the action drags at times. See a Q&A with Kusama on page 46. PG-13. MERYL WILLIAMS. Kiggins, Laurelhurst.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
I Saw the Light
familiar, almost cliché story about a gay teen and his parents going to Nebraska for a family reunion with the conservative, country-fried side of the family, but then it takes an unexpected turn. Ryder (Logan Miller), who is out to his supportive parents, is keeping his secret for the duration of the trip. These small-towners know there is something different about their short shorts-wearing cousin from California, but they keep it to themselves. Until, that is, Ryder’s 9-year-old cousin runs back to the house screaming, blood on her skirt, after going out to the barn alone with him. The further you get into Take Me to the River, the further it transforms from a potential coming-out movie into a series of progressively more awkward, uncomfortable scenes. By the time the credits roll, you’re pretty sure it went too far. PG-13. JOHN LOCANTHI. Living Room Theaters.
B- I Saw the Light seeks to educate the
world about the 1940s country singer who burned bright and too briefly. You’d expect a story of a musician living life in the fast lane to be exciting, but The Light manages to make drinking and womanizing seem like a lecture on tax law. R. ALEX FALCONE. Fox Tower.
Kung Fu Panda 3
A- It’s been five years since Kung Fu Panda 2, and Jack Black hasn’t been in anything even close to that good since. PG. Academy, Avalon, Empirical, Kennedy School, Vancouver.
London Has Fallen
D About halfway through London Has Fallen, Gerard Butler’s grumbling, stabby Secret Service agent slowly digs his gigantic knife into the organs of Random Brown Villain No. 453 and implores him to “go back to Fuckheadistan.” The look of horror on the face of his BFF-inchief, Aaron Eckhart as the U.S. president, is meant as part of a joke (he’s such a pussy!). Tthis sequel to Olympus Has Fallen is a huge-budget debacle that looks like a direct-to-video tossaway. The action sequences are at best shootouts and at worst look like cutscenes from an old Playstation game— with added gay panic and racism. It’ll undoubtedly inspire some jingoistic fists to pump. In fact, it might have inadvertently given the Trump campaign a new slogan for foreign policy: “Go back to Fuckheadistan.” R. AP KRYZA. Avalon.
Midnight Special
B The premise of a magical boy running
from the government sounds trite. But add a clever, light-handed screenplay, take away the kitschy magic, and include a dark take on the increasing flow of data through satellites, and you’ve got a fresh, modern science-fiction film. Writerdirector Jeff Nichols (Mud) uses sparse dialogue to maintain an air of mystery around the calm, young Alton (Jaeden Lieberher), carefully using every word and glance to tell a little more about this electromagnetically charged child. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Clackamas, Lloyd, Vancouver.
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
Fourteen years after the big fat wedding bells, Nia Vardalos and John Corbett are back, with a ton of familiar faces. Remember Joey Fatone of ’N Sync in the original? Neither did we. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Fox Tower, Oak Grove.
The Revenant
A- Leonardo DiCaprio finds his trapping party on the receiving end of a bear attack. R. Academy, Empirical, Jubitz Cinema, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst,
AP FILM STUDIES W W S TA F F
ing the recent trope of seniors finding a place amid the nostalgic fascination of millennials. You can almost feel John trying not to laugh as he offers custom-blended artisanal cocktails to Doris during Friendsgiving at his place. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Hollywood, Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.
A- If there’s one thing we know about Star Wars fans, it’s that they’re as resistant to change as any religious zealot. And so, the best thing that can be said about The Force Awakens is that it’s almost old-fashioned. PG-13. Academy, Avalon, Empirical, Laurelhurst, Mission, Valley, Vancouver.
Take Me to the River
C- Take Me to the River begins as a
Too Late
C- For a private-eye yarn as old as the hills, Too Late arrives steeped in the trappings of post-modernity. There are endless digressions filled with pop-culture references, a jumbled chronology, and a lurid seediness that leaves every woman under retirement age dead or pantsless. Writer-director Dennis Hauck’s debut feature feels not just familiar, but utterly fake. John Hawkes does his best as a detective investigating the violent death of a young stripper he used to know, but even this sterling noir cast (Robert Forster, Dichen Lachman, Jeff Fahey) can’t sell the tone-deaf script or inexplicable emotive leaps. NR. JAY HORTON. Hollywood.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
C+ Tina Fey stars in this light comedy about the war in Afghanistan, based on the book The Taliban Shuffle by Chicago Tribune writer Kim Barker, who was sent to cover Afghanistan with no prior experience in a war zone. Fey’s portrayal of Barker is the same as other characters you’re used to seeing from her, bumbling yet surprisingly competent, awkward in life, awkward in love. She’s funny for sure, but something just feels off with the 30 Rock-style humor interlaced with the horrific violence of Kabul circa 2004. R. ALEX FALCONE. Academy, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst, Valley, Vancouver.
Zootopia
B Leave it to Disney to sneak powerful, adult messages into a PG-rated movie. A modern-day Morocco, the Zootopia of the title is a metropolitan melting pot, where predator and prey live in perfect, fictional harmony. PG. AMY WOLFE. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cine Magic Theatre, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
For more Movies listings, visit
Crimes and Punisher HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE AN EFFIN’ GOOD PUNISHER MOVIE? BY A P KRYZA
apkryza@wweek.com
The Year of Our Lord 2008 was a banner year for comic-book movies, and not just because Bruce Banner returned to the screen in The Incredible Hulk. It was the year Guillermo del Toro combined superheroes and high fantasy in Hellboy II. It was the summer when Marvel changed the shape of franchise filmmaking by setting Iron Man up as the linchpin of its shared universe, and the year The Dark Knight elevated the form to something even pasty-ass Oscar voters could get behind. One thing that didn’t change? Well, turns out it’s fucking impossible to make a decent film about the Punisher. Considering Punisher: War Zone is the best of the three big-screen appearances by Frank Castle speaks volumes about the character’s weirdly tough time finding success. Why is this so hard? It can’t be the fact that the character of Frank Castle is that complicated. He’s a war hero. His family got killed. So he kills people. All of the people. His superpower? He’s good at murder. When he’s not murdering people, he basically sits in his hideout sharpening knives and making ammo while thinking about who he’s going to murder next. He’s basically Batman. Except he’s totally down with killing people (so, basically, he’s preZack Snyder Batman). You’d think that Punisher would be the easiest of all characters to adapt, mainly because all you’d have to do is remake an ’80s action movie and change the hero to a dude with a skull on his shirt. Commando? Great Punisher movie! The Punisher from the actual ’80s, starring Dolph Lundgren in Hot Topic hair dye? Not so much. War Zone, though, should at least get some credit. It’s a film coated in brain matter and bone fragments that seems plucked straight out of a VHS bargain bin, a flick that opens with Ray Stevenson decapitating an elderly mob boss right after he talks about his colostomy bag, then breaks the neck of the dude’s elderly wife for good measure. That kind of shit goes on for nearly two hours. It’s a film defined by violence and camp, but the violence is too cheap and sadistic and redundant to be effective, and the camp is too over-the-top to match it. It’s hard to have an ultra-violent piece of exploitation action—complete with a pair of
villains that consist of a cannibal and a Two-Face knockoff whose origin story is “I fell in a vat of broken glass”—and then drench it in enough monochromatic neon light to make Dario Argento and Joel Schumacher splooge. It’s basically Batman Forever, but somehow cornier. And a lot bloodier. In our modern cinematic landscape, the Punisher doesn’t fit in well as a marquee player. His tale, simple though it is, is a little too sadistic and basic to be totally fun, even in a post-Deadpool world. The specter of Virginia Tech reportedly hung over director Lexi Alexander during production, which explains her choice to go camp to water it all down. Make it too grounded in reality and you’ve got a horribly over-the-top exercise in trash. Make it too campy and you’ve got, well, this. Basically, the only way a character like the Punisher could really work is to dump him into a war zone devoid of plot. That worked for Judge Dredd. It could work for Frank. War Zone is an important film, sure, and one that’s just goofy enough to merit another viewing. But it’s more interesting to look at compared to the other films that came out at the same time, if only for a grim look at what comic-book movies could have become if it had hit its target. SEE IT: Punisher: War Zone screens at 5th Avenue Cinema. 4 and 10 pm Friday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, April 22-24. ALSO SHOWING:
It’s probably inadvertent that Church of Film has the only extremely trippy movie screening for 4/20, but hey, look! It’s the 1976 Czech take on The Little Mermaid. The Fish & Chip Shop is right down the street from North Star. Just sayin’. North Star Ballroom. 8 pm Wednesday, April 20. Mississippi Records pays tribute to the late Andy Kaufman with a program of the comedian’s TV appearances and his favorite old-school cartoons. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Thursday, April 21. Coraline might not have been the surefire timeless classic that LAIKA had hoped for, but dammit, it’s a treasure for those of us who love our animation a little creepy, and little lucid and a lot different. Academy Theater. April 22-28. Total Recall, in which a man ponders the age-old question: If man is not himself, den who de hell is he? Laurelhurst Theater, Academy Theater. April 22-28. Willamette Week APRIL 20, 2016 wweek.com
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4/20 SPECIALS!
Freebies For Medical Patients (while they last) $5 Toke Joints!
13836 ne Sandy blvd portland, or 97230
Strain Specific pre-rolled JointS available in 25 diSpenSarieS throughout oregon
tokeJointS.com 58
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END ROLL
ORGANIC BLUE CHEESE $20 EIGHTHS
Do you just want to get high and veg? YES
420 DEALS!
NO
1
1979 NW VAUGHN ST. SUITE B PORTLAND, OR 97209
But do you want to get on a bus?
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HOURS: 11-7, 7 days a week Just North of the Pearl District.
WWW.VESSELPDX.COM
(Your Couch)
YES
7
Waldos Pub Crawl 6
YES
NO
Munchies?
But do you want to rave?
Do you yoga?
N0T YET
2
Free Slices
8 3
Refuge PDX 4
2
3
4
High 5 Party Bus
YES
YES MEH
Are you proud of your jointrolling skills?
Pure Green Party
WW’s Potlander guide comes out today. Find a spot at wweek.com. High 5 Tours High 5 offers two two-hour tours of Portland dispensaries that will have deals you can enjoy on the bus. 4:20 pm at Mary Jane’s House of Glass, 5425 NE 33rd Ave.; 7 pm at Mary Jane’s House of Glass, 3619 SE Division St.; fareharbor.com/high5tours. $20. Refuge PDX Drink and chill with Little Amsterdam and Eco Firma Farms, live music from 1,000 Fuegos and Two Planets, and a joint-rolling competition. Refuge PDX, 116 SE Yamhill St., 503-516-5206, refugepdx.com. 3 pm. $20-$75. Pure Green Party There will be gram giveaways and specials, meet-and-greets with growers, kegs from Laurelwood, and a DJ. Pure Green, 3738 NE Sandy Blvd., 971-242-8561, puregreenpdx. com. 10 am-8 pm.
Jobs for the Food and Drink Industry Staffing solutions for owners and managers NYC/ CHI/ SFO/ SEA /PDX/ AUS
NO
YES 5
420 on Tabor
FAK Wednesdays NO
9
1
Do you want a live DJ to spin your high?
NO
YES
All tax Included
NO
Do you like to drink and smoke?
YES
$15 ORGANIC SHISHKABERRY ERRY EIGHTHS! $5 ORGANIC BLUEBERRY ERRY PRE ROLLS! LLS!
10
Untitled-2 1
6/10/12 9:41 AM
High Yoga
I DAB
Adventures in Cannabisland
5
420 on Tabor Get high first, then bring your snacks, drums and hacky sacks, and count down to 4:20 pm in the park. Mount Tabor Park, Southeast 60th Avenue and Salmon Street. 4:20 pm. Free.
6
Free Slices Roman Candle will give away free slices of margherita pizza for 42 minutes, or as long as supplies last. Roman Candle Baking Co., 3377 SE Division St., 971-302-6605, romancandlebaking.com. 4:20 pm. Free.
7
Lagunitas Waldos Pub Crawl Enjoy weed and beer with the 10 Lagunitas crew. Meet up at Chill N Fill, then jump on the bus for stops at Tin Bucket, Bear Paw and N.W.I.P.A. You can do the whole ride or just join at one spot. Chill N Fill, 5215 N Lombard St., lagunitas.com. 4 pm. Free.
8
9
420 at FAK Wednesdays This will be a sweaty, EDM and West Coast bass night at the old Branx/Rotture basement club, with giveaways and themed sponsors. Euphoria Bassmnt, 315 SE 3rd Ave., 503-234-5683. 10 pm-2 am. $5. Adventures in Cannabisland NW Cannabis Club fills its three rooms with three ways to get high— edibles and foosball in the lounge, concentrates upstairs, and flower on the patio. NW Cannabis Club, 1195 SE Powell Blvd., 503-206-4594, nwcannabismarket.com. Noon. $5. High on the Roof Yoga Smoke before, then do rooftop yoga with a chill soundtrack and mellow flow led by Chris Calarco, the guy who brought Michael Jackson and Phish yoga to Portland. Weekly High on the Roof classes run through the summer. Yoga Union, 2305 SE 50th Ave., 503-235-9642. yogaunioncwc. com. 4:20 pm. $15.
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BY N AT E WAG G O N E R
END ROLL
Potlander
magazine out now! The discerning cannabis consumer’s guide to Portland. Our favorite dispensaries, strain picks, road trips, stoney Sandy Blvd. and more. Find complete distribution directory at wweek.com/potlander or pick up a copy at Powell’s.
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EXCEED ENTERPRISES Exceed Enterprises, a nonprofit that provides vocational and personal development services for people with disabilities, will host its annual fundraiser on April 30, 2016 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Portland to benefit the more than 200 adults and students that we serve. Exceed is selling 1,000 raffle tickets for a 55” big screen TV, BluRay and Surround Sound. Funds collected from the raffle will go toward the purchase of a new 14-passenger bus with a wheelchair lift. The winner will be announced at the Gala. If the winner is present at the Gala they receive one-year subscription to Netflix!Please visit www.exceedpdx.com and click on April Gala to sign up for the event and purchase raffle tickets.
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HAULING/MOVING LJ’S HAULING ANYTHING Removal of Metal/Cars free 503-839-7222
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PUBLIC NOTICES HEALTH/PERSONALS/ MISCELLANEOUS: IF YOU USED THE BLOOD THINNER XARELTO and suffered internal bleeding, hemorrhaging, required hospitalization or a loved one died while taking Xarelto between 2011 and the present time, you may be entitled to compensation. Call Attorney Charles H. Johnson 1-800-535-5727
STEVE GREENBERG TREE SERVICE Pruning and removals, stump grinding. 24-hour emergency service. Licensed/ Insured. CCB#67024. Free estimates. 503-284-2077
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“Err Guitar”–definitely not a solid instrument 56 Poopo or Titicaca, e.g. 59 Empty (of) 60 About, formally 61 “I can’t hear you!” 62 Four-color card game 63 King with three daughters 64 John Doe, e.g. 65 Part of rpm
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22 Corleone patriarch 23 A year in Paris 24 Lawsuit 26 Pair with a lot of pull? 27 Spherical treat that comes from a toroid 32 Bowler’s place 33 Hockey Hall of Famer Cam 34 Kal Penn’s costar John 37 Hitchcock title word 38 ___ au poivre 39 “The Grapes of
Wrath” family name 40 Neither’s partner 41 Graphics program included with Windows 1.0 42 Carried, as by the wind 43 Sprays some sticky stuff as a prank 45 Answer sharply 48 Plasma particles 49 Not mine, in bucolic comic strips 50 Carpenter’s leveler 53 Autocorrect target
Down 1 Like some mistakes 2 In the distance 3 Like some small biological projects? 4 Chum 5 Late hour, for some 6 “Caprica” star Morales 7 Light bulb unit 8 Reverb (and a cliche when a character thinks it’s someone else) 9 Ultra-wide shoe size 10 He was associated with the Jets 11 “Mr. Belvedere” actress Graff 12 Vegetable cutter 13 Fermented rice drinks 19 Recover from a setback 21 Final Jeopardy! amount 25 Not forthcoming 26 Eleventh U.S. president 27 “Shoot!” 28 It’s sold in bars and tubs
29 No later than 30 Pint-sized 31 Events at meets 34 Sweetener under recent scrutiny 35 Install in a gallery, maybe 36 Neruda works 38 Seasonal addition? 39 It usually gets rolled 41 Schroeder’s prop 42 ___-country (2010s music genre) 43 Comparatively agile 44 Opportune 45 Emmy-winning title role for Sally Field 46 All’s opposite 47 Tony-winning actress McDonald 50 Graceful swimmer 51 Xbox series since 2001 52 “Was ___ inside job?” 54 Maine’s state tree 55 Paper factory side effect 57 Ft. Lauderdale locale 58 Aries’ animal last week’s answers
©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #JONZ776.
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Week of April 21
ARIES (March 21-April 19) “The writer should never be ashamed of staring,” said Aries writer Flannery O’Connor. “There is nothing that does not require his attention.” This is also true for all of you Aries folks, not just the writers among you. And the coming weeks will be an especially important time for you to cultivate a piercing gaze that sees deeply and shrewdly. You will thrive to the degree that you notice details you might normally miss or regard as unimportant. What you believe and what you think won’t be as important as what you perceive. Trust your eyes. TAURUS (April 20-May 20) The ancient Greek geographer Pausanias told a story about how the famous poet Pindar got his start. One summer day, young Pindar decided to walk from his home in Thebes to a city 20 miles away. During his trek, he got tired and lay down to take a nap by the side of the road. As he slept, bees swarmed around him and coated his lips with wax. He didn’t wake up until one of the bees stung him. For anyone else, this might have been a bother. But Pindar took it as an omen that he should become a lyric poet, a composer of honeyed verses. And that’s exactly what he did in the ensuing years. I foresee you having an experience comparable to Pindar’s sometime soon, Taurus. How you interpret it will be crucial. GEMINI (May 21-June 20) “I measure the strength of a spirit by how much truth it can take,” said philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Measured by that standard, your strength of spirit has been growing -- and may be poised to reach an all-time high. In my estimation, you now have an unusually expansive capacity to hold surprising, effervescent, catalytic truths. Do you dare invite all these insights and revelations to come pouring toward you? I hope so. I’ll be cheering you on, praying for you to be brave enough to ask for as much as you can possibly accommodate. CANCER (June 21-July 22) Göbekli Tepe was a monumental religious sanctuary built 11,600 years ago in the place we now call Turkey. Modern archaeologists are confounded by the skill and artistry with which its massive stone pillars were arranged and carved. According to conventional wisdom, humans of that era were primitive nomads who hunted animals and foraged for plants. So it’s hard to understand how they could have constructed such an impressive structure 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza. Writing in National Geographic, science journalist Charles C. Mann said, “Discovering that hunter-gatherers had constructed Göbekli Tepe was like finding that someone had built a 747 in a basement with an X-Acto knife.” In that spirit, Cancerian, I make the following prediction: In the coming months, you can accomplish a marvel that may have seemed beyond your capacity. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) In myths and folklore, the ember is a symbol of coiledup power. The fire within it is controlled. It provides warmth and glow even as its raw force is contained. There are no unruly flames. How much energy is stored within? It’s a reservoir of untapped light, a promise of verve and radiance. Now please ruminate further about the ember, Leo. According to my reading of the astrological omens, it’s your core motif right now. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Uh-oh. Or maybe I should instead say “Hooray!” You are slipping into the Raw Hearty Vivid Untamed Phase of your astrological cycle. The universe is nudging you in the direction of high adventure, sweet intensity, and rigorous stimulation. If you choose to resist the nudges, odds are that you’ll have more of an “uh-oh” experience. If you decide to play along, “hooray!” is the likely outcome. To help you get in the proper mood, make the following declaration: “I like to think that my bones are made from oak, my blood from a waterfall, and my heart from wild daisies.” (That’s a quote from the poet McKenzie Stauffer.) LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) In many cultures, the butterfly is a symbol of transformation and rebirth. In its original state as a caterpillar, it is homely and slow-moving. After its resurrection time in the chrysalis, it becomes a lithe and lovely crea-
ture capable of flight. The mythic meaning of the moth is quite different, however. Enchanted by the flame, it’s driven so strongly toward the light that it risks burning its wings. So it’s a symbol of intense longing that may go too far. In the coming weeks, Libra, your life could turn either way. You may even vacillate between being mothlike and butterfly-like. For best results, set an intention. What exactly do you want?
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SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) “I gladly abandon dreary tasks, rational scruples, reactive undertakings imposed by the world,” wrote Scorpio philosopher Roland Barthes. Why did he do this? For the sake of love, he said -- even though he knew it might cause him to act like a lunatic as it freed up tremendous energy. Would you consider pursuing a course like that in the coming weeks, Scorpio? In my astrological opinion, you have earned some time off from the grind. You need a break from the numbing procession of the usual daily rhythms. Is there any captivating person, animal, adventure, or idea that might so thoroughly incite your imagination that you’d be open to acting like a lunatic lover with boundless vigor? SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “Difficulties illuminate existence,” says novelist Tom Robbins, “but they must be fresh and of high quality.” Your assignment, Sagittarius, is to go out in search of the freshest and highest-quality difficulties you can track down. You’re slipping into a magical phase of your astrological cycle when you will have exceptional skill at rounding up useful dilemmas and exciting riddles. Please take full advantage! Welcome this rich opportunity to outgrow and escape boring old problems. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) “When I grow up, I want to be a little boy,” wrote novelist Joseph Heller in his book Something Happened. You have cosmic permission to make a comparable declaration in the coming days. In fact, you have a poetic license and a spiritual mandate to utter battle cries like that as often as the mood strikes. Feel free to embellish and improvise, as well: “When I grow up, I want to be a riot girl with a big brash attitude,” for example, or “When I grow up, I want to be a beautiful playful monster with lots of toys and fascinating friends who constantly amaze me.” AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) In one of his diaries, author Franz Kafka made this declaration: “Life’s splendor forever lies in wait around each one of us in all of its fullness -- but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come.” I’m bringing this promise to your attention, Aquarius, because you have more power than usual to call forth a command performance of life’s hidden splendor. You can coax it to the surface and bid it to spill over into your daily rhythm. For best results, be magnificent as you invoke the magnificence. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) I’ve got a controversial message for you, Pisces. If you’re addicted to your problems or if you’re convinced that cynicism is a supreme mark of intelligence, what I’ll say may be offensive. Nevertheless, it’s my duty as your oracle to inform you of the cosmic tendencies, and so I will proceed. For the sake of your mental health and the future of your relationship with love, consider the possibility that the following counsel from French author André Gide is just what you need to hear right now: “Know that joy is rarer, more difficult, and more beautiful than sadness. Once you make this all-important discovery, you must embrace joy as a moral obligation.”
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