CONGRESS STALLS ON HONORING MAX SLAYING VICTIMS. P. 9 R.I.P. LEGENDARY THOR LINDSAY. P. 20 HASSLE-FREE WEED BUTTER FOR ALL YOUR EDIBLE NEEDS. P. 43
WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
“COME ON IN, AND BRING THE BANANAS!” P. 25
ZOMBIELAND PORTLAND IS TOWING CARAVANS OF RVS OFF THE STREETS. HERE’S WHAT IT’S LIKE INSIDE THOSE MOBILE HOMES. PAGE 10 WWEEK.COM
VOL 43/38 07.19.2017
BY TH AC H E R S C H MI D
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W W S TA F F
FINDINGS
PAGE 43
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 43, ISSUE 38.
Commissioner Dan Saltzman did
that Portlandia thing where he announces his retirement years in advance. 6 Some schmuck in Salem will
charge you $750 to put up a tent in a backyard during the eclipse. 7 Voters gave the city $258 million to build affordable housing. Mayor Ted Wheeler is dragging his feet. Commissioner Nick Fish says we should cut the mayor slack since he’s busy dealing with protesters angry about his other policies. 8
ON THE COVER:
Some Portlanders prefer that people live on the street instead of crappy old RVs. Dan Saltzman feels those Portlanders’ pain over the “acute” issue of homeless people having walls and roofs. 11 You can pick wild mushrooms in Oregon that sell for $200 a pound in Japan. 40 There’s a place where you might be happy to hear a train coming. 35 There’s a new household appliance that makes weed butter. 43
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
Zombie RV by Daniel Stindt.
A teen was killed by drugs purchased on the internet.
STAFF Editor & Publisher Mark Zusman EDITORIAL News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Martin Cizmar Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Katie Shepherd Copy Editors Matt Buckingham, Nicole Groessel Stage & Listings Editor Shannon Gormley Screen Editor Walker MacMurdo Projects Editor Matthew Korfhage
Music Editor Matthew Singer Web Editor Sophia June Editorial Interns Dana Alston, Max Denning, Elise Herron, Jessica Pollard CONTRIBUTORS Dave Cantor, Pete Cottell, Jay Horton, Jordan Michelman, Jack Rushall, Thacher Schmid, Chris Stamm, Matt Stangel, Mark Stock PRODUCTION Creative Director Alyssa Walker Designers Tricia Hipps, Rosie Struve, Rick Vodicka Photography Interns Carleigh Oeth, Nino Ortiz Design/Illustration Intern Elizabeth Allan, Ann Gray
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Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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DIALOGUE Here’s what readers said about road tolls coming to two Portland interstate highways, and how they could burden working-class people (“For Whom the Road Tolls” WW, July 12, 2017).
JoeCommentor, in response: “‘Relative few’? Is that why the freeways are jammed for three hours each morning and night? The blame for traffic comes squarely down upon the shoulders of the employers not paying a living wage for residence within their town of employment.” @VerbioGroup, via Twitter: “This will affect workers coming in and out of Portland. Will businesses pick up the tab?”
@enobacon, via Twitter: “The edge of Portland is not a long bike ride from downtown (10 miles on an e-bike even). Where is the bike freeway?” Cspdx11, via wweek.com: “I find it ironic that people are complaining about congestion leading to long commutes while asking poorer people on the outskirts to give up their cars and take long commutes on public transportation. Not everybody can bike…due to health reasons, age, time constraints, capacity.” LIZ ALLAN
Hoyt Schermerhorn, via wweek.com: “One of the main points of tolling is to get a relative few people out of their private autos and on to some other mode, mainly transit. Without providing vastly improved transit options, any tolling scheme will be a failure, both functionally as well as politically.”
It runs so infrequently that you will miss your appointment if you miss your bus/train.”
“Don’t people also pay a ‘toll’ to ride bus and MAX?”
@BikePortland, via Twitter: “Don’t people also pay a ‘toll’ to ride bus and MAX? Why do people expect most expensive (to society and city) transpo choice to be so cheap?” @pdxvisionzero, via Twitter: “Interesting how people are OK with billions spent on highway projects but not paying for it personally.” Jorge Da Silva, via wweek.com: “People can’t take public transit because it does not work. You cannot depend on it. It does not run 24 hours.
Katherine Howard, via Facebook: “They need to toll Washington drivers who have long had a free ride in Oregon. We tolled the Astoria Bridge because Washington wouldn’t help pay for it. Now it’s time to toll I-5 and 205 to pay for Oregon infrastructure, while they are earning their living in Oregon.”
Marie Sorbel, in response: “I pay so much in Oregon state income tax AND still pay my home state sales tax and literally all I do is drive a federally funded freeway on my commute. A toll is going to hurt my family so much. I commute three hours a day because I’m NOT wealthy!” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@wweek.com
BY MA RTY SMITH
In the ongoing right-wing bloviation about how poor people don’t actually need health care, I have recently heard mention of something called “The Oregon Study.” How did our state end up getting used to justify scrapping public insurance? —Doctor This! Oh, Oregon, how God hates you. Here’s the backstory: In 2008, a shortage of state health care dollars led to the Oregon Health Plan—our incarnation of Medicaid—being offered by lottery. Health policy scholars realized this situation could be employed as a de facto randomized controlled trial of Medicaid. The study encompassed 10,000 participants over two years. That wasn’t enough to determine whether OHP recipients died at a higher rate than the uninsured. That said, the study did find that some markers of health—blood pressure, cholesterol, a pre-diabetes indicator called HbA1c, and a cardiac index known as the Framingham risk score—weren’t conclusively better among the Medicaid group. (Each marker was somewhat better in the Medicaid group, mind you—just not to a degree that it couldn’t possibly have been random.) Was this due to the small sample size and short duration of the study? Quite possibly, but that 4
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
didn’t keep conservative pundits from seizing upon the findings as proof that Medicaid doesn’t make anyone healthier. Of course, plenty of indicators did improve to a significant degree in the Medicaid group, including self-reported health, incidence of depression, and proper diabetes management. But screw that, we’ve got a tax cut to ram through. Here’s the thing—Medicaid isn’t a drug that either works or doesn’t. Medicaid is just going to the doctor. I’ve had both OHP and private insurance, and I’ve gone to the same doctors and taken the same medications the whole time. It’s possible that medical care in general may be overrated. Still, Medicaid foes seem unwilling to expand their money-saving ideas to their logical end by letting employer-insured conservative pundits join the lucky poor in being spared the indignity of unhelpful, non-life-prolonging health insurance. Go figure. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek. com.
BIG BRIDGES
THURSDAY, JULY 20TH AT 6PM
Big Bridges is the brainchild of Japanese rock guitarist Takashi O’hashi in collaboration with musicians in Portland, Oregon. The songs carry a thematic thread of international travel and relocation that echoes the cross cultural nature of the band.
PHOTONA
SATURDAY, JULY 22ND AT 6PM
Photona bring a moody, thought-provoking ride through spacey, goth inspired synth pop songs with vocals that fluctuate between desolate croons and gutsy wails.
FELSEN
SUNDAY, JULY 23RD AT 2PM
Frontman Andrew Griffin started Felsen after his 2006 cancer diagnosis, which led to the release of Felsen’s first album, Accidental Drowning, in 2009. The Oakland-based indie rockers were Deli Magazine’s November 2010 Band of the Month.
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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SALTZMAN
Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman tells WW that if he wins re-election in 2018, his sixth term at City Hall will be his last. For years, speculation has persisted that Portland’s longest-serving city commissioner would retire at the end of his current term. But Saltzman, who was first elected in 1998, says he’ll seek one more term and then call it quits in 2022. “I’m 63 now,” says Saltzman. “If I get re-elected, by the time I finish that term, I’ll be close to 70. So I figured, that’s enough. Time to do something else.”
Portland Marathon Agrees to New Route
The Portland Marathon may have found a path forward to holding its race in October. More than nine months after the city of Portland began asking for a change in the route, marathon organizers have agreed to a compromise. The old route, which had been in place for two decades, required more police officers than the city was willing to provide—the new one doubles back over the same path, reducing the demand on police. But the Portland Bureau of Transportation has not yet issued a permit. “Because the organizers did not contact the Police Bureau or PBOT to discuss event plans for more than six months,” says PBOT spokesman Dylan Rivera, “time is running out and the marathon still has many steep hills to climb before it can qualify for a permit.”
Kitzhaber and Hayes Face Renewed Inquiry ADAM WICKHAM
Deals GooD thRouGh 7/24
Wyden Calls for Stripping Kushner of Security Clearance
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a July 17 interview on CNN that he thought White House adviser Jared Kushner’s presence at a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer should disqualify him from handling classified material. “You really are just stunned at how reckless, almost cavalier this White House is with respect to security clearances,” Wyden said. The senator, who has consistently harried the Trump campaign for its contacts with Moscow, turned his aim at the president’s son-in-law: “He concealed contacts with the Russians on the security clearance forms, then he attended a meeting billed as a session that in effect would have Russia helping the Trump campaign against Hillary Clinton. I just think the evidence piles up.”
HAYES
The investigation into allegations of influence peddling by former Gov. John Kitzhaber and first lady Cylvia Hayes isn’t over. Less than a month after federal officials declined to press criminal charges against Kitzhaber and Hayes, the Oregon Government Ethics Commission voted unanimously July 14 to launch full investigations. The commission found “substantial investigative basis” that the first couple may have traded on their public position for private gain, improperly taken gifts and violated conflict-of-interest statutes.
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
LEFT IN THE DARK TOURISTS BOUND FOR OREGON HOTELS IN THE PATH OF THE ECLIPSE SAY THEY GOT SCAMMED. BY KAT I E S H E P H E R D
kshepherd@wweek.com
Last week, the Oregon Department of Justice warned tourists chasing August’s total solar eclipse: Double-check those hotel bookings. The Justice Department has received an unusually high number of complaints alleging that hotels in the celestial path have revoked reservations and rebooked rooms for as much as five times the rate originally offered. The Aug. 21 eclipse—which is best viewed along a path through the center of the state—is a windfall for Oregon hotels and campgrounds, which are charging as much as $7500 for tent spaces. But customers allege some hotels
that initially offered low prices changed their minds as demand went up. Twelve hotels racked up a total of 29 complaints. WW obtained copies of the complaints via a public records request. Several hotels allegedly told guests there had a been a “computer glitch” and the hotel bookings had been made by mistake. Others simply denied a reservation had ever been entered into their system. Many hotels then told customers they could rebook the rooms for as much as $1,000 a night. Here’s where people say they were scammed.
AMERICA’S BEST INN AND SUITES
QUALITY SUITES
LINCOLN CITY
KEIZER
2 complaints Sample complaint: “I think the motel’s actions should be illegal and that they should be held accountable for this. I understand making a profit when you are aware of the situation and make the appropriate plans ahead of time, but not screwing over people that properly book a room.” Hotel’s response: America’s Best Inn and Suites says it hired a lawyer to rebook the rooms at the originally promised rates.
6 complaints Sample complaint: “They blamed a ‘computer glitch’ and only gave us one of our rooms back, which now has 4 people needing the one room. We did everything we were supposed to do and they ruined our plans that we made 11 months in advance and never even told us of the cancellation.” Hotel’s response: Did not respond.
Eye-Scorching Deals WHAT $800 WILL GET YOU DURING THE ECLIPSE.
On July 13, a Jefferson, Ore., man named Jim Baxter made an announcement. “We have decided to convert our massive hay fields into a campground,” Baxter declared. He said that he would offer 292 campsites in the fields, a short distance from Interstate 5, during the weekend of the August solar eclipse at $499 for three nights. “Our Oregon eclipse camping area will see the longest total eclipse in the entire area, over two full minutes of totality!” That might seem like a steep price to sleep in a hay field, even if it does come with sunglasses, a horseshoe pit and “possibly a food truck or two.” But by eclipse standards, it’s a bargain. A glance at Airbnb shows Oregonians jacking up prices across the state. Here are three of the lodging offers currently available on the short-term rental website. AARON MESH.
SALEM
Backyard tent space with access to shower, Wi-Fi and phone charger. NIGHTLY RATE: $750
LIBERTY INN
SUPER 8 MOTEL
LINCOLN CITY
BAKER CITY
11 complaints Sample complaint: “Apparently ‘guaranteed’ doesn’t mean what I thought. Either these people are incompetent or maybe they decided they could rebook these rooms at a higher rate for the eclipse. All in all I feel this hotel screwed me over.” Hotel’s response: A Liberty Inn employee who answered the phone said the hotel had “no response” to the complaints. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, and hung up.
SAILOR JACK’S OCEANFRONT INN LINCOLN CITY 1 COMPLAINT LINCOLN CITY
PALACE INN AND SUITES LINCOLN CITY 1 COMPLAINT
SALEM
GRAND HOTEL SALEM 1 COMPLAINT
SUBLIMITY
RODEWAY INN SUBLIMITY 1 COMPLAINT
MADRAS
MOTEL 6 MADRAS 1 COMPLAIN T
ALBANY
ECONO LODGE ALBANY 1 COMPLAINT
2 complaints SAMPLE COMPLAINT: “Solar eclipse motel scam victim. When I protested, he told me that they had a computer glitch on the day I made my reservation, and the motel was actually full for the day I wanted.” HOTEL’S RESPONSE: Ankur Prashar, a manager at the Super 8 Motel in Baker City, said the rooms were erroneously booked while the motel was changing its computer system. He added that Super 8 allowed some of the affected customers to rebook the rooms directly through the motel.
PRINEVILLE
CASCADE LODGE BEND BEND 1 COMPLAINT
BAKER CITY
SALES PITCH: “Backyard tree-lined space for the urban edge camper who wants to be near one of the highest peaks in the ‘line of totality’ eclipse path!”
BUENA VISTA
30-by-50-foot campsite, on a hill with a three-story observatory. NIGHTLY RATE: $800 SALES PITCH: “Other places are charging over $2,000 for four people camp spots AND you’re ONLY on a wait list.”
ALBANY
A “shared room” where two guests can sleep on a fold-out sofa. Usually rents for $30 on Airbnb. NIGHTLY RATE: $770 SALES PITCH: “If you wish to have your meals in the home, just let us know in advance and you will dine with the owner(s) at no additional cost.”
STAFFORD INN PRINEVILLE 1 COMPLAINT Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
7
FONZY NILS
NEWS
Slow Buildup PORTLAND’S HOUSING BOND IS BESET BY DELAYS AND DOUBTS. BY RACHEL MONAHAN
rmonahan@wweek.com
Ted Wheeler entered the Portland mayor’s office saying housing was his priority. It sure doesn’t look that way. The mayor has blown past a deadline his own office set for starting to spend a $258 million bond approved by voters last November to build and rehab affordable housing units. Funds have been available since July 1. But a growing number of critics are complaining Mayor Wheeler is taking too long to buy land and address the city’s shortage of affordable housing. Wheeler won’t greenlight the fi rst project until October, at the earliest. That puts City Hall at least three months behind its own schedule—Wheeler’s office had promised to be ready to start the purchases by July 1. The city’s two previous housing commissioners are frustrated by the sluggish pace. City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversaw the bureau until Wheeler took over in January, says he’s baffled by the lack of progress. “You got me,” Saltzman says. “I have no idea. It’s frustrating to me. We’re in an affordable housing crisis. I think it should be on a much more accelerated scale, as befits having a housing crisis.” His predecessor supervising the bureau, Commissioner Nick Fish, is also frustrated, but says Wheeler deserves some slack after a tumultuous fi rst six months in a city beset by protests and violence. “In putting out fi res all over the place, this thing just slipped a little bit,” says Fish, but he remains “eager to get money out the door. We have this bad habit of reinventing the wheel every time.” Saltzman’s and Fish’s mild criticisms are the stron8
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
gest public rebuke yet from City Hall about Wheeler’s leadership. They echo harsher grumblings behind closed doors. Three sources familiar with the project selection spoke to WW on condition of anonymity. They say it has been waylaid by Portland’s obsession with public process, fumbling by the Housing Bureau and inattention from the mayor. A community advisory group that the mayor formed to recommend how to select projects ballooned to 20 members and was given little direction. Meetings started only in April, and dove into questions that were supposed to have been answered during the bond campaign, including how many units to build. Wheeler has yet to attend a meeting. As he sometimes does when pushed, Wheeler challenged the premise of the question when asked about Saltzman’s remarks calling for “accelerated” work. “Accelerated what?” he said. “We’re almost into August. The advisory committee is winding down the last of their meetings.” The mayor’s spokesman, Michael Cox, says the delays are ultimately insignificant, and the Housing Bureau is moving forward with non-bond purchases. “If you’re asking if we have missed deals in the meantime,” Cox says, “the answer is no.” The stakes are high for the city to make a dent in the shortage of publicly subsidized housing. In the state legislative session that ended this month, Salem failed to move on key housing initiatives, including new tenant protections (“House of Shards,” WW, July 12, 2017). “Portland is going to have to step up regardless of what the rest of the state is doing,” says Israel Bayer, executive director of the homeless newspaper Street Roots. “We have an opportunity to do that.”
The bulk of that burden for Portland rests on the housing bond. During the ca mpa ign, proponents said the $258 million would fund the construction or purchase of 1,300 units—a number many developers thought was too low. Wheeler oversees the Housing Bureau personally—a sign of how central the issue was to his mayoral campaign and is to the city as a whole. But he has shifted his priorities elsewhere. Alma Flores, Wheeler’s senior policy staffer responsible for housing, lasted less than three months in the job. (She told WW it was a family decision to return to her old job at the city of Milwaukie.) When she left in March, housing policy fell to lowerlevel staffers. That meant those closest to the mayor weren’t the ones fully briefed on housing. “It was probably a pinch point along the way,” acknowledges Wheeler. “It was disingenuous to say that losing our top housing person didn’t slow it down, but by the same token I think we’ve responded very well.” In Ma rch, W W inquired about simila r delays. Affordable housing developer Rob Justus was greeted with a monthlong silence when he asked to meet with the mayor’s office about a proposal to build units for the housing bond at nearly half what the city had paid in the past (“Half Off,” WW, March 22, 2017). Justus reports having “positive” meetings with Portland Housing Bureau leaders since that story. In a brief phone interview with WW on July 17 from New York, the mayor appeared unfamiliar with the basic details of the delays. “October doesn’t seem like an unrealistic time frame for me personally,” Wheeler said, but added that the city could speed up its process. “That doesn’t mean we couldn’t start laying out potential opportunities.” Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
E M I LY
JOAN GREENE
NEWS
A CITY MOURNS: Friends and family of Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Rick Best gathered May 27 near the Hollywood Transit Center.
No Honor
A RESOLUTION HONORING THE VICTIMS OF PORTLAND’S MAX STABBINGS HAS MYSTERIOUSLY STALLED IN THE U.S. HOUSE. BY KAT I E S H E P H E R D
kshepherd@wweek.com
For more than a month, Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives has declined to consider a congressional resolution to honor the victims of a double slaying on a Portland MAX train. One week after the May 26 MAX killings— allegedly committed by a Portland white supremacist who marched with right-wing protesters—Oregon’s Democratic U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, drafted the resolution. It honors “acts of heroism and sacrifice for the safety and sake of others in the face of acts of domestic terrorism.” The resolution passed the Senate on June 8 by unanimous consent. But the House leadership has declined to bring it to the floor for a vote, or answer questions from Oregon’s delegation asking why. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who sponsored the resolution in the House, is furious. “It’s outrageous that the Republican leadership in the House won’t take two minutes to honor these heroes,” Blumenauer tells WW. The resolution is a purely symbolic gesture, as routine as a politician offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of any tragedy. That makes it all the more puzzling why Congress wouldn’t rubber-stamp it—especially when it has been quick to memorialize the victims of other hate crimes and terrorist attacks, both in and outside the U.S. In June alone, the House passed resolutions honoring the police response to an attack on a GOP congressional baseball practice, commemorating the one-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., and condemning the Islamic extremist attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Two of those resolutions were passed the same day they were introduced, and the third—condemning the Manchester attack—was passed within two weeks. Congressional gridlock on other, more substantive issues like health care is no explanation, either. Each week, the House gets an opportunity
to vote on the resolution while approving its suspension calendar—a time when the House frequently approves so-called easy votes, like naming new post offices and passing resolutions. But the Portland MAX stabbings were immediately polarizing—and a touchy subject for nationalist groups that have gained traction with the election of President Donald Trump. It’s unclear whether calling the stabbings “terrorism” is politically unpalatable for some Republicans. The accused killer, Jeremy Christian, is a Portland white supremacist who had latched onto an extremist movement known as the “alt-right”—and could be heard on public transit spouting the movement’s complaints about antifascist protesters and the liberal suppression of free speech (“Who Radicalized Jeremy Christian?” WW, May 31, 2017). In the moments before he stabbed three men May 26, Christian harassed two black teenage girls, one of them wearing a hijab. The men intervened to stop Christian’s hateful rant; Christian pulled out a knife and stabbed them in the necks. Rick Best and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche were killed in the attack; and Micah David-Cole Fletcher survived. Wyden, who co-sponsored the resolution, says a memorial to those three men should be as easy to approve as any other. “I am calling on the House leadership to take the same step recognizing these heroes for standing up courageously to terrorism,” he tells WW in a statement. Merkley agrees. “It is beyond unacceptable for House leadership to fail to call a vote on the resolution honoring the heroes who gave their lives on the Portland MAX train,” he tells WW. A bipartisan delegation of U.S. representatives from Oregon—including Republican Rep. Greg Walden—sent a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on July 7 demanding that he allow a vote on the resolution. McCarthy has not responded to the delegation, nor has he showed any signs of bringing the resolution to a vote. McCarthy’s office did not return WW’s requests for comment on why the resolution hadn’t been put to a vote yet, or whether it ever would be. He also had not responded to the letter from the Oregon delegation by press time. Blumenauer says he won’t quit pushing for a vote. “This attack was unlike anything we have seen,” he says. “It shouldn’t be this hard, and we’re going to keep pressing.” HOW TO ACT: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office can be reached at (202) 225-2915.
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ON THE STRIP: Francisco “Junior” Claudio, 39, in his Itasca. “I want the people to feel comfortable and to know that we don’t mean any harm and we’re just trying to survive.” 10
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IN PORTLAND, OREGON
ZOMBIE LAND INSIDE THE CARAVANS OF RVS THAT PORTLAND IS PREPARING TO TOW OFF THE STREETS. BY THACHER SCHMID
@thacherschmid
| PHOTOS BY DANIEL STINDT
There is a stretch of North Lombard Street called the Strip: a line of 12 RVs parked snout to bumper on the west side of the road, across from Pier Park in the St. Johns neighborhood. There’s a Prowler, a Country Camper, a Minnie Winnie, a Jamboree and a Gulfstream. None of the motor homes is hooked up to water or sewer, and most use portable generators for electricity. They provide the only houses their owners can afford. The Strip has existed for six months. Francisco Claudio, 39, is a resident, living in his 1980 Itasca Sunflyer RV when he isn’t working day-labor gigs or odd jobs. And he knows that he, along with his fellow RV dwellers, is not welcome here. “It’s a lack of knowledge,” he says, “just ignorance.” He pauses. “I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want that shit in my neighborhood either.” Portland has never before seen so many recreational vehicles parked on its streets. City officials estimate as many as 500 motor homes and camper vans are currently being used as dwellings while parked along curbs and sidewalks. That’s 10 times the number the city estimated just two years ago. In the first six months of 2017, city officials received 4,133 reports of derelict RVs on Portland streets—more than they received all last year. In a city with a crippling shortage of affordable apartments and a skyrocketing cost of living, lines of RVs have become the latest symbol of a frayed social safety net. Across Portland, clusters are growing. The largest concentrations become temporary neighborhood landmarks: eight on Southeast 94th Avenue in Lents, 10 in the Roseway neighborhood east of I-205, and the dozen on the Strip. “A year ago, we weren’t talking about this,” says Dave Benson, who manages parking for the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
@dfdstindtphoto
“This has been an explosion of RVs appearing in the right of way, and we’ve been playing catchup.” Police say the RVs are being used for more than shelter: They describe them as drug houses and brothels on wheels, dripping motor oil, strewing used needles or discharging blackwater into storm drains. They warn that many of the RVs have no documented owners, no insurance, no vehicle registration and no license plates. Local TV news stations fill their nightly broadcasts with reports of “abandoned” or “zombie” RVs—terms that suggest the people inside don’t count or are somehow unnatural. Portland City Hall has seen enough and is deploying a new policy—one that allows cops to immediately remove people from any RV deemed a hazard to public safety or health, while tow trucks drag the vehicle away. Since the beginning of May, 25 RVs have been towed away. The city isn’t sure how many people lived inside. “One of our jobs is to make sure our city is a livable place,” says City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees transportation. “The RV issue is acute. Some neighborhoods are overwhelmed.” It may seem counterproductive for a city in a housing crisis to be tossing people back out on the streets. But neighbors and police have found motor homes more unnerving than houseless people sleeping outdoors. What RV dwellers most cherish about their motor homes is the same thing that most bugs cops and homeowners: Nobody can see what’s going on inside. So we went in. For the past two weeks, WW has interviewed more than a dozen people living in RVs on the streets of Portland—especially on the Strip. In the following pages, the residents share stories and photos from a hidden world.
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Z O MBIELAND
SNOOPY COME HOME: Sheila Fitch, 57, and her dog Snoopy outside her Country Camper. “I’m just beautiful here with my homemade stove,” one of her favorite features on her RV.
L
ast week, Sheila Fitch stood in lavender-colored Disney pajama pants in front of her 1989 Country Camper, watching her neighbor sweep broken glass and screws out of the street—all that remained after the city towed a derelict RV from the Strip earlier that morning. That burned-out shell of an RV was among as many as 11 motor homes allegedly parked and left behind on Portland streets this spring by a man named John Maher. He now faces misdemeanor criminal charges for vehicle abandonment. Fitch says she turned Maher in to police when he “tried to run me over” while dropping off RVs along Lombard. “He’s messing it up for us, the normal people,” she says. Then she laughs. “What’s normal?” Fitch, neighbors say, is the founder of the Strip: In early 2017, she was the first driver to park an RV across the street from Pier Park and its public restrooms. Fitch, 57, hails from San Diego and Myrtle Creek, Ore. Eleven years ago, she was an office manager making $800 a week. “In 2006, I kind of went woooo,” says Fitch, fluttering her hand in a downward direction. “I had a stroke, because I’m a workaholic.”
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She now survives on Social Security disability payments and does a little “canning”—collecting cans and bottles—for extra cash. Fitch got her Country Camper from a neighbor, for free. Nearly all the people interviewed for this story say they obtained their motor homes at bargain-bin prices: free, or $400, or borrowed from a church. RVs are a buyer’s market. When they break down, car-crushing lots charge between $1,000 and $1,500 to dismantle them. So owners sell them at low prices to avoid the expense. One recent Craigslist ad offered a 1978 Avco motor home for $1. “Needs to go,” the Beaverton seller said, “…to be hauled out by you.” To Fitch, the Strip seemed a safe haven: free, quiet, near a public restroom. To enter Fitch’s Country Camper, you pass under a small plastic bag filled with water hanging over the front door “for mosquitoes.” A swarm of flies buzzes around the tiny kitchen. During the interview, Fitch’s dog, Snoopy, lies on a pile of clothing—nearly indistinguishable from other items piled and strewn about the interior. The ashes of Fitch’s mother sit in a rectangular box with a princess sticker. A wood-burning stove lined with aluminum foil, a red kerosene lantern and an AM-FM radio-flashlight she got for her 14th birthday are objects of pride. “These are family heirlooms,” Fitch says, becoming emotional mentioning her late mom, dad and brother. “What little stuff I have left is what God has seen fit to leave me.”
TIGHT TIMES: Curtis Smith and Becky Lesser inside their 1999 Prowler. Smith says he was “born and raised” in St. Johns. “I’m all self-contained,” he says. “We have no choice.”
“These are family heirlooms. WhaT liTTle sTuff i have lefT is WhaT God has seen fiT To leave me.” Even a cheap RV comes with expenses, starting with driving. Most if not all RVs on the Strip still run, but several couldn’t do the minimum speed on I-5. Curtis Smith, who owns one of the few RVs on the Strip with both current tags and working plumbing, says he spends $20 a day in gas for his 1999 Prowler, including $15 for his generator. The gas money adds up: Smith drives almost every day to medical appointments for himself or his girlfriend, who has cancer. Finding a place to park it was harder. “I didn’t think I wouldn’t be able to get into an RV park,” Smith says. “That was the last thing I expected. If I want to get into an RV park, I’m going to have to go at least 20 miles.” Most local RV parks have a rule that motor homes can’t be more than 10 years old. Even if a vehicle qualifies, the typical monthly rent for an RV space is around $650. Residents of the Strip do take some responsibility for their neighborhood, sweeping the sidewalk and hauling away garbage. “I want the people [nearby] to feel comfortable and to know that we don’t mean any harm and we’re just trying to survive,” says Claudio. But some of these RVs have debris piled next to them on the sidewalk: Volvo car doors, shopping carts. The occasional clothing line is attached to a tree on a grassy area nearby. Hygiene is a challenge without water or sewer. Claudio showers at a nearby community center; others use homes of friends or family. Curtis Smith pays $10 to empty the Prowler’s septic tank at Jantzen Beach. Claudio says he puts his waste in a bucket, loads it into the trunk of his Honda (which he parks behind his RV) and drives it to a nearby garbage bin.
GOING INSIDE: The kitchen of Smith and Lesser’s Prowler.
CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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Z O MBIELAND
! S U PICK Advertise with WWEEK!
“THAT’S WHAT I MEAN BY HATE— IT’S SCARY. THIS IS DANGEROUS, LIVING LIKE THIS.”
A
cross the city, in the Southeast Portland neighborhood of Lents, Jennifer Young tracks the movement of every RV that pulls onto the streets. A July 7 visit to Lents Park found only one RV, but Young says Lents Park and the former campus of Marshall High School were home to as many as 20 RVs—until the city increased towing in recent months. Young and other East Portland residents who have formed neighborhood watch groups say their core issue is equity: The clusters of RVs allowed to gather in Lents would never be allowed in wealthier areas, they argue. “I document every RV that’s in Lents,” says Young, a therapist and homeowner in her 40s. “I’m not this horrible lady trying to chase RVs out of my neighborhood. I make an effort to understand what’s going on. Unfortunately, in Lents, we don’t have a lot of innocent people living in RVs.” Randy Teig of the Portland Police Bureau agrees. The East Precinct sergeant leads a team that responds to calls in a long swath of Southeast and Northeast Portland, between Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard and the city’s eastern border with Gresham. Teig says the criminal behavior he sees in RVs isn’t a result of housing shortages—it’s just crime, and would be intolerable if it occurred in any dwelling. “Sometimes it’s a straight-up crime issue and
they just don’t have a house,” Teig says. “When you really start peeling back the bark, you start realizing that some of these people got to go to jail.” Last October, after months of complaints from Young, police and Multnomah County Animal Services entered an aging Itasca motor home on Southeast 86th Avenue and found two German shepherds named Sassy and Phoenix living in trash and their own feces and blood, with no food. Four days later, James Andrew Fisher, the RV’s owner, pleaded guilty to methamphetamine possession. “They were making some sort of drugs in there, and the dogs were guarding that,” Young says. “They basically started eating each other. It was so horrible. I fought for months to have them do something.” Meanwhile, several people told WW stories of increasing vigilantism against people living in RVs. It can be something as innocuous as honking, which people on the Strip say happens each morning, as organized as a social media group, or as frightening as threats with a baseball bat. Fawn Haskins-Mack, a Grand Ronde tribe member who lives on the Strip, says she recently parked her Shasta at a 7-Eleven on Lombard when someone turned on her propane tank. The RV filled with gas, and she and her boyfriend, James Smith, ran outside. The couple haven’t filled the tank since. “That’s what I mean by hate—it’s scary,” Haskins-Mack says. “This is dangerous, living like this.” CONT. on page 16
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ABLE AND WILLING: Jay Vincent, 49, is training in Americans With Disability Act advocacy. “I want to help turn this around,” he says. “There are a lot of people out here who are disabled.”
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STREET
THACHER SCHMID
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INTO THE WOODS: Lois Hartley, 73, at her camp in a forest near Northeast Airport Way. Hartley lives on Social Security with two adult sons. She moved to this campsite after the city towed her Ford F-150 pickup and RV trailer last year. “I don’t trust any of the cops,” she says. “They just left us out on the street.”
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zomb i el a n d
I
n May, Portland police and city transportation officials seized their first RV under a new policy called the Community Caretaking Tow Program. In its first 45 days of operation, police have used the program to inspect 46 RVs, towing 25. The program, pioneered by Teig and first reported last week by The Portland Mercury, gives the city authority to seize RVs it deems hazardous—including occupied ones. It allows police or transportation officials to order an immediate tow of an RV creating “dangerous conditions”: fire hazards, biohazards like used syringes or discharged wastewater, or debris. In those cases, police are authorized to remove people living inside, tow the vehicle to an impound lot, and keep it for 30 days. If no one claims it, the city will pay to dismantle it. The city reserves shelter beds for the people displaced, and police are supposed to call Multnomah County to assist with services, such as a trip to detox. (A county spokesman describes the arrangement as informal at best.) For people living in RVs, displacement is devastating. Pamela Pilcher had her 1988 Aljo RV trailer towed by the city in March while she and her husband, Jason, were in another part of the city where Pilcher was recuperating from surgery for kidney stones. Since then, they’ve been sleeping in their pickup truck and couch surfing. She misses the RV. “It was nice, it felt like your own space,” she recalls. “You had a warm spot, or semi-warm—at least you had a spot.” She tried to get her possessions back, she says, including the only photos she has of her mother and grandmother. But the city demands that she pay $990 in fines first. The couple’s total monthly income is $1,100, from their combined Social Security disability payments. “My whole life is in there,” she said, her voice trembling. “It’s overwhelming. I just don’t know how you do it. They don’t have any option for us.” Saltzman, the transportation commissioner, says he sympathizes with people who are pushed back on the streets. “We don’t consider every RV that’s occupied to be a danger,” he says. “People need a place to live. But when there’s a public health hazard—as in, needles or human waste—there has to be some balance between livability and people having a place to stay.” He says the number of RVs targeted by the city program is small—no more than 90 motor homes citywide that pose health and safety hazards. (Teig estimates the number is much larger: 100 RVs in East Portland alone.) Last week, on the Strip, city workers installed “No Parking” signs on telephone poles along the sidewalk. A few RVs took off. Not Curtis Smith. “They’re just pushing people farther and farther out,” he says. “I’ve moved everywhere. I did everything I possibly could do. I ain’t moving.”
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TOWED AWAY: Pamela Pilcher, 32, lost her 1988 Aljo trailer to a city tow in March, she says. “My whole life is in there,” she says—including her only photos of her mom and grandma. She’s working with Catholic Charities but worries “we’ll just have to end up sleeping on the sidewalk.”
“They’re jusT pushing people farTher and farTher ouT. i’ve moved everywhere. i did everyThing i possibly could do. i ain’T moving.” EVERYWHERE A SIGN: City workers mounted “No Parking” signs along the Strip on July 11.
STUCK IN REVERSE: Residents of the Strip’s RVs expressed frustration at city policy. “I don’t have the funds, I don’t have a place to go, and I’m unable to comply with [city] demands,” says RV dweller Jay Vincent. “When you’re backed into a corner, where can you go?” WHEEL LIFE: Curtis Smith says people on the Strip “are kind of watching out for each other,” but he’s dismayed by city workers who recently gave him an $85 ticket for his pop-out window being too far into the roadway. He says parking on the street shouldn’t be treated as a crime: “I didn’t choose for this to happen.” Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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Street
“Frozen Moscow mule at Rachel’s Ginger Beer.”
“Mint lemonade kombucha, anywhere under the sun.”
“Thai iced coffee, outside.”
“A cold one with the boys on my back deck.”
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SUMMER DRINK, AND WHERE DO YOU LIKE TO DRINK IT? OUR FAVORITE LOOKS THIS WEEK. P H OTOS BY CHR ISTIN E DON G
“Pina Colada, in front of PaaDee.”
“Dutch Bros. iced tea!”
“Cazadores tequila at Bunk Bar.”
“Water, anywhere, everywhere.” 18
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Left: “Flat white latte from Starbucks.” Right: “Iced coffee in the park.”
“Water. Anywhere.”
TRICIA HIPPS
The Bump
Remembering
Ken Burns: Portland
THE LEGENDARY DOCUMENTARIAN RETURNS TO THE SITE OF HIS MOST CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. BY D R. M I TC H E L L M I L LAR
Since 1981, Ken Burns has had a successful career chronicling the American experience through documentaries. His films, including The Civil War, Jazz, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea and many others, tend to focus on those events and institutions that are distinctively American. He will be appearing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Monday, July 24, to discuss his career and newest work, which is already being hailed by some as his “boldest” and “most observant yet,” the 10-part 18-hour series Truck Nutz: The American Accessory, premiering on PBS in September. In returning to Portland, Burns will revisit the place of arguably the greatest failure of an otherwise illustrious career. Ken Burns: Portland, the documentary he began but was unable to complete due to a series of hilarious production mishaps, would have fit snugly within the context of his overall body of work. After all, is not the history of Portland—its successes and failures and mounting tensions and ongoing changes—emblematic of Burns’ favorite subject, our nation of America?
Fortunately, the unfinished version still exists and was recently screened at the Olde Portland Preservation Society. This is what we saw.
HOUR 1: Before Portland was Stumptown, it was Lavatown. And as you might guess, life in Lavatown was a constant struggle. Burns’ research unearthed fascinating diary entries from a man who lived on a large rock floating in the middle of the Boring Lava Field with his wife and children. Lava Man’s diary entries describe the harsh realities of that time, what it was like raising a family and the grim task of having to leap from rock to rock so as to not fall into the boiling lava below. The late pumicevoiced actor Jason Robards narrates Lava Man’s diary.
HOUR 2: When hour 2 begins, Portland is no longer a volcanic, sulfuric wasteland. It is a booming, gritty, industrial city on a river fork. David McCullough narrates, citing one-time daily newspaper the Oregonian:
“Portland is the most filthy city in the northern states.” In order to deepen his research for this hour, Burns hung around the supposed entrances to the Shanghai Tunnels glaring and gesturing at seedy Old Towners, hoping he could get one of them riled enough to knock him out and send him to China in the hold of a ship.
HOUR 3: Disappointed at not being Shanghaied, Burns withdrew in solitude to Powell Butte. There, he built an elaborate treehouse mansion where he could be undisturbed. He left the manse only when necessary, to raid nearby homes for food and caches of old photographs. Around this time, an emissary from PBS was sent to check in with Burns. The missing persons case remains unsolved. This hour features little narration, but makes up for it with lots of beautiful nature photography.
HOUR 4: Burns’ re-emergence into society coincided with his appearances at Saturday
Market to barter the pelts of ground squirrels he trapped on the butte. Anarchists, admiring the quality of the pelts, offered to let him hang out with them in exchange for pelts. This final hour ends abruptly. We see footage from what appears to be a protest in front of a hotel in downtown Portland. Suddenly, the camera begins to shake violently and we hear Ken Burns shouting the immortal words, “Hey, give it back!” The camera lifts in the air and turns back to a young baby-faced Ken Burns jostling for position in the crowd and reaching impotently for the camera. Two burly fur coat-clad anarchists grab Burns by the shoulders and lead him out of the crowd. The camera is set on the ground, and we see the bottom of a black boot rise above it. FADE TO BLACK. KEN BURNS: PORTLAND. Directed by Ken Burns.
GO Ken Burns appears Monday, July 24, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, portland5.com. His new 18-hour documentary, Vietnam, is probably not about Truck Nutz, but may feature Truck Nutz. 7:30 pm. $20-$30 ($12 for vets).
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STARTERS
COURTESY OF TWITTER.COM/ T H E DA N DY WA R H O L S .
B I T E - S I Z E D P O RT L A N D C U LT U R E N E W S
LINDSAY
Thor Lindsay, a longtime fi xture of Portland’s indie music scene and co-founder of the legendary label Tim/Kerr Records, has died. He was 59. Originally from Minnesota, Lindsay moved to Portland in the late ’70s, where he opened a record store, Singles Going Steady, downtown, and worked for then-fledgling concert promoter Monqui Presents. In the ’80s, Lindsay co-founded Tim/Kerr Records with namesake Tim Kerr, releasing the debut albums by Dandy Warhols and Everclear, as well as recordings by Poison Idea, the Wipers and Pere Ubu, among many others. Perhaps the label’s most famous release was a
collaborative single between poet William Burroughs and Kurt Cobain titled “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him.” (A photo of Cobain and Lindsay, taken 10 days before Cobain’s suicide, is purportedly the last known image of Cobain taken while he was alive.) On Twitter, the Dandy Warhols referred to Lindsay as “one of the most influential figures not only in our career but in our entire adult lives.” Portland’s oldest comedy club, Harvey’s, has closed. Owner Barry Kolin decided to close the club, notorious for encouraging comedians to work without cursing, after he suffered a heart attack three weeks ago. “I’m glad we’re having this [interview] over the phone instead of a Ouija board,” says Kolin. “My mind’s telling me to just keep going, but my body’s telling me I can’t.” Kolin founded the bar as jazz club Harvey’s Restaurant
and Lounge 37 years ago, and says he’s seen Portland comedy change a lot since adding comedy with the Last Laugh in the ’80s. “I was here when the Leaky Roof Tavern was the only comedy club,” he says. “It’s just gone crazy. It’s exciting.” Over its decades of existence, Harvey’s has notably booked Louis C.K. and Amy Schumer before they got big. Kolin owns the building, and says he expects to rent the space to a new comedy club, and that he’s met with several interested parties. Modest Mouse frontman Isaac Brock will have his own bar in the former home of Red Flag on Northeast 28th Avenue, across the street from Stammtisch. “Isaac would really like to call it Glory Hole,” says Matt Brown of Title Bout, the company helping Brock put his bar together. “I don’t know if we’re going to go for that one.” Brown, a Bunk Bar co-owner and longtime friend of
Brock’s, says they’ve wanted to do a bar together for many years. The lease is signed but the bar remains untitled. Other names thrown around include Missionary Position and Trash Panda, Brown says. Fukami sushi’s Cody Auger just signed the lease to take over the former Boxer Sushi space on Southeast 20th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard for a new sushi restaurant called Nimblefish, partnered with Davenport wine guy Kurt Heilemann and former Masu Sushi head chef Dwight Rosendahl. Auger plans to continue his prix-fi xe Fukami pop-up on Sunday and Monday. During the rest of the week, Nimblefish will serve more affordable á la carte nigiri and hand rolls, using the rare-inPortland Edomae technique, in which sushi fish is “mildly cured and developed for flavor—not a cut-and-make sushi place
like a lot of them.” The trio hope to open by this November. 20
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W E D N E S D AY
7/19 MARIO LIVIO Astrophysicist Mario Livio takes on the concept of curiosity with his new book, Why? Based on interviews with curious people and Livio’s own interest in history’s most inquisitive figures like Da Vinci and Richard Feynman, the book is sure to tickle the minds of factoid fans. It’s not dry, promise! Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800-8787323, powells.com. 7:30 pm. Free.
AVIARY CELEBRATES NATIONAL HOT DOG DAY Today is National Hot Dog Day, and Aviary’s kicking off the festivities by off ering its famous $7 slaw dogs from 5 to 10 pm instead of the regular happy hour slot. The dogs are Americana at its fi nest, made with an Olympia Provisions sausage that’s smoked in-house and packed with ample smoky fl avor. Aviary, 1733 NE Alberta St., 503-287-240, aviarypdx. com. 5 pm. Free.
T H U R S D AY
7/20
F R I D AY
7/21
ROMEO & JULIET/LAYLA & MAJNUN For their addition to this summer’s outdoor Shakespeare plays, Bag & Baggage will premiere a version of Romeo & Juliet that combines Shakespeare’s words with the 12th century Persian play that’s theorized to have inspired it, Layla & Majnun. The Civic Center Plaza, 150 E Main Street, Hillsboro, bagnbaggage. org. 7:30 pm. $20.
XEB Former Third Eye Blind members (minus singer Stephan Jenkins) are reuniting to perform their debut album for its 20th anniversary—at a dirty punk dive, no less. Expect drunken singalongs to hits like “Jumper” and “Semi-Charmed Life” and pensive reflection on RASHEED JAMAL PLAYS PDX POP NOW! ON JULY 21. “Motorcycle Drive By” and “God of Wine.” Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St., 503-2260430, ashstreetsaloon.com. 7 pm. $17. 21+.
PDX POP NOW Anyone who thinks Portland's music scene is nothing but sad indie dudes and warbling ukulele players needs to spend some time at PDX Pop Now, which brings together a broad sample platter of the best local sounds—from punk to jazz, folk to hip-hop, metal to EDM—all under one bridge. AudioCinema, 226 SE Madison St., pdxpopnow.com. Through July 23. Free. All ages. See preview, page 24.
SUNDOWN GRAND OL’ COUNTRY FESTIVAL If Pickathon is too rock’n’roll, and the String Summit too crunchy, McMenamin’s inaugural Sundown Festival should be just right for the boot-scootin’ set. The lineup features more than a W H AT W E ' R E dozen country and country-adjacent acts, including E XC ITE D A B O UT rising singer-songwriter Brandy Clark and an allwoman Merle Haggard tribute act appropriately J U LY 1 9 -25 named Gerle Haggard. Grand Lodge, 3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove, 503-992-9533. July 20-23. Free. See mcmenamins.com/sundown-grand-ol-countryfestival for complete schedule.
Get Busy
S AT U R D AY
7/22 PORTLAND ZINE SYMPOSIUM Since 2001, the Portland Zine Symposium has been bringing together hordes of independent publishers to host free workshops, panels and discussions. Plus, you can leave with an armful of the coolest coff ee-table magazines of anyone you know. Jade/APANO Multicultural Space, 8114 SE Division St., portlandzinesymposium.org. Noon. Free. All ages.
NIGHT OF 1000 TEPACHES Eleven breweries, 23 blends of beer and tepache. Great Notion, Cascade, Gigantic and others offer up their take on the fermented pineapple beverage blended with beer. Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, 813 NE 2nd Ave., 503-567-2221, reverendnatshardcider.com. 4-11 pm, $25 for a glass and 7 drinking tokens.
S U N D AY
7/23 BRUNO MARS About the only two people America agrees on these days are the Rock and Bruno Mars—and Bruno isn't threatening to run for president. He's content supplying wedding DJs with all the funk and R&B jams they'll need for the next 20 years, and God bless him for it. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 503-2358771, rosequarter.com. $49.50-$125. All ages.
KING LEROY POP-UP AT CHALINO Chef Cameron Addy—of Ava Gene’s and La Moule fame—is bringing a Southern pop-up named after his childhood cow. Expect six homestyle courses, including a relish tray with “Sunday eggs,” a “he-crab soup,” rack of pork and Georgia cobbler, plus a take-home treat that’s not your own budding potbelly. Chalino, 25 N Fremont St., 503-206-6421, kingleroy.com. 6:30 pm. $45.
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY Stanley Kubrick's tale of a giant rock that travels through time and space is visually stunning even in digital, but it will be pretty mind-blowing in crystal-clear 35mm film. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, 1219 SW Park Ave., 503-8947557, nwfilm.org. 7 pm. $9.
BETH DITTO Beth Ditto always seemed bigger than Gossip, the band she used to sing for, so it was only a matter of time before she went solo. Fake Sugar, her debut album, makes a case for Ditto as the Southern-rock Adele—and damnit if she doesn’t have the rafter-scraping pipes to pull it off. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar Chavez Blvd., 503-233-7100, hawthornetheatre.com. 8 pm. $17 advance, $20 day of show. All ages. See Hotseat, page 25.
M O N D AY
7/24
T U E S D AY
7/25 BLONDE REDHEAD Over the years, Blonde Redhead has drifted from their beginnings as an even-artier Sonic Youth toward a gauzier, more controlled sound. On 3 O’Clock, their new EP, light strings glint around singer Kazu Makino’s ever-wispy vocals, sounding like the mid-afternoon daydream its title implies. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503-284-8686, wonderballroom.com. 7:30 pm. $25. 21+.
JULIE BYRNE The world might not need another folk singer, but Julie Byrne is a welcome addition anyway. With her sophomore album, Not Even Happiness, the New York singersongwriter carves a distinct place for herself in an oversaturated field, addressing life’s contradictions in a way that feels beautifully real. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 503-222-2031, theoldchurch.org. 8 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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I
Shandong = WW Pick.
Highly recommended.
By JANELLE ALBUKHARI. www.shandongportland.com Editor: MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19
Shandong www.shandongportland.com
Fillmore Trattoria
Italian Home Cooking
TALK:
Tuesday–Saturday 5:30PM–10PM closed Sunday & Monday
5am 7am – 2pm
MUSIC:
National Hot Dog Day
Today is National Hot Dog Day, and Aviary’s celbrating by offering its famous slaw dogs all night instead of their regular happy hour slot, as an $8 meal deal with a pint of Thunder Island Hefe. The dogs are Americana at its finest, made with an Olympia Provisions sausage that’s smoked in-house and packed with ample smoky flavor. Aviary, 1733 NE Alberta St., 503-287-2400, aviarypdx.com. 5 pm. Free.
Puckerfest
Belmont Stations’s six-day festival of sour beers continues after the Tuesday kick-off with an assload of sour Pfriems, including four lambics, mango Berliner Weisse and their killer Flanders red. Upcoming? Thursday is Upright, The Commons & Ruse; Friday is international; Saturday is Block 15 and de Garde; and Sunday is noobs, including Yachats and Alesong. Belmont Station, 4500 SE Stark St., 503-232-8538. 10 am-11 pm.
FRIDAY, JULY 21
2pm – 5am
Oregon Winemakers in the House
1937 NW 23RD Place Portland, OR 97210
(971) 386-5935
If the promise of wine is the only thing that gets you through your workday, you might want to consider stopping by the E&R Wine Shop for their Oregon Winemakers in the House night—with $15 nabbing you 10 different local wines to taste. Discover something new with picks from Hundred Suns Wine, Cana’s Feast Winery or Hazelfern Cellars. E&R Wine Shop, 6141 SW Macadam Ave, erwineshop.com. 5:30 pm, $15.
SATURDAY, JULY 22 Tea Fest PDX
Tea enthusiasts, rejoice! This Saturday is the first Tea Fest PDX at the World Forestry Center, a day devoted to celebrating all things tea. You can find plenty of tea tastings with informative classes like “What Makes a Good Matcha Bowl” as well as examples of tea ceremonies from all over the world. Expect to see Steven Smith Teamaker, Townshend’s Tea Company and more than 25 vendors getting their cuppa’ on. Tea Fest PDX, World Forestry Center, 4033 Southwest Canyon Road. teafestpdx. com. 9:30 am, $10 at the door.
RADIO IS YOURS #wweek
Night of 1,000 Tepaches
Eleven breweries, 23 blends of beer and tepache. Great Notion, Cascade, Gigantic and others offer up their take on the fermented pineapple beverage blended with beer. Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider, 813 NE 2nd Ave., 503-567-2221, reverendnatshardcider.com. 4-11 pm, $25 for a glass and 7 drinking tokens.
MONDAY, JULY 24 King Leroy Pop-Up at Chalino
Chef Cameron Addy—of Ava Gene’s and La Moule fame—is bringing a Southern pop-up named after his childhood cow. Expect six homestyle courses, including a relish tray with “Sunday eggs,” a “he-crab soup,” rack of pork and Georgia cobbler, plus a take-home treat that’s not your own budding potbelly. Chalino, 25 N Fremont St., 503-206-6421, kingleroy.com. 6:30 pm. $45.
Where to eat this week. 1. Farmhouse Kitchen
3354 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-4328115, farmhousepdx.com. This San Fran-founded Thai spot serves up a few dishes you can’t get better anywhere in town—including a 24-hour beef short-rib soup that’s monumentally good. $$-$$$.
2. Han Oak
511 NE 24th Ave., 971-255-0032, hanoakpdx.com. Sunday and Monday dumpling and noodle nights are more on point than a credit union. $-$$$
3. Bunk Bar Wonder
128 NE Russell St., 503-328-2865, bunksandwiches.com. Every Friday and Saturday, Bunk Bar Wonder’s Josh Luebke is making one of the best burgers in the city: a double cheeseburger with pork-onion jam, fried onions and killer french fries on the side. $.
4. Zilla Sake
1806 NE Alberta St., 503-288-8372, zillasake.com. Zilla has been getting serious sourcing—including a terrifyingly good Hokkaido-bred scallop. $-$$$
5. Marukin
609 SE Ankeny St., A, 503-894-9021, marukinramen.com. Hello, summer! There’s now cold ramen at Marukin with house shichimi togarashi. $
DRANK
MINDSTÜRM HEFEWEIZEN (WAYFINDER BEER)
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Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
It may have taken them eight months after they opened— and a year after they were supposed to open—but lo, Wayfinder is a brewery now. Brewmaster Kevin Davey, Bavarian at heart, threw down an Augustiner-style helles as the brewpub’s first official beer, and it’s already all gone for the time being. But that’s OK: The beer you really want on that huge, sunny patio is the terrific hefeweizen. Davey threw in the same hefe yeast they use in the oldest brewery in the world—Munich’s thousandyear-old Weihenstephaner—and then beat the living shit out of it until it off-gassed every phenol and ester it had to offer. That Mindstürm hefe came out hazier than a Great Notion IPA and tasted like clove, banana and bubblegum all at once. Consider it Munich in a glass, but turnt to 12. Recommended. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
C O U R T E S Y O F WAY F I N D E R B E E R
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FOOD & DRINK
NINO ORTIZ
suspect most smaller operations are using. Not to mention Mad Greek’s signature garlicky, creamy “Omega Sauce” feels almost like cheating, We whiffed on copping a chicken breast three different times, though: The construction workers nearby have put a daily strain on Mad Greek’s hot case offerings. Still, the chicken tenders were juicy, amply seasoned and fresh. Call ahead and see what’s left in the hot box.
QFC
1835 NE 33rd Ave., 503-284-9901, qfc.com. Daily 5 am-midnight. $4.39 FOR A BREAST AND HALF-POUND OF JOJOS The jojos at Freddy’s insomniac cousin were exactly the same, but the batch we snagged at 3 pm on a Thursday was noticeably fresher. Unfortunately, the chicken lacked juice. It’s likely a crapshoot choosing between one or the other, but logic dictates that a much busier Fred Meyer would churn through the goods faster, leading to more consistent jojo freshness.
STAN’S MARKET
NINO ORTIZ
5020 NE 82nd Ave., 503-253-2760. Monday-Friday 7 am-midnight, Saturday-Sunday 8 am-midnight. $4.78 FOR A SMALL PILE OF JOJOS AND A BREAST
WING AND JOJO KING: Alberta Market’s legendary hot box.
Instant Potatoes
WE RANKED EVERY GROCERY-STORE, GAS-STATION AND HOT-PLATE JOJO WE COULD FIND IN PORTLAND. @vanifestdestiny
As far as convenience-store cuisine is concerned, nothing beats fried chicken and jojos. The chicken-jojo gold standard is the broasted combo at Reel M Inn, but you’ve got to wait up to an hour for it—making the heat-lamp convenience store staple worth looking into. This list is by no means exhaustive: Hot-plate jojos are ill-recorded everywhere, and we look forward to hearing about favorites we missed.
ALBERTA MARKET
CULLEN’S CORNER
4938 N Albina St., 503-287-0542. Monday-Saturday 8 am-10 pm, Sunday 9 am-10 pm. $3.99 FOR A BREAST AND JOJOS, PLUS A $.50 FEE FOR USING A CREDIT CARD The jojos at Cullen’s were a tad bland, but their firm texture was complemented nicely by being served piping hot on our visit at 10:15 in the morning. What’s truly outstanding at Cullen’s is the size of the chicken breast available. You’ll marvel at the sweet, delicious steroids. It’s also a hell of a value proposition.
It took a fair amount of haranguing to convince the little old lady behind the counter to fire up the fryer and cook us a pair of breasts at 11:30 am on a Wednesday. The chicken was crispy and well worth the wait, but jojos were average at best: The enjoyable seasoning was tanked by undercooking.
50TH MARKET 5002 SE Woodward St., 503-235-8642. Monday-Friday
FRED MEYER NINO ORTIZ
909 NE Alberta St., 503-282-2169. Sunday-Thursday 8 am-11 pm, Friday-Saturday 8 am-12 am.
$5 FOR WINGS AND JOJOS, PLUS A SIDE OF RANCH Among Portland quirks, knowing that Alberta Market sells damn good fried chicken and jojos is somewhere between knowing which DMV to use and that there’s a Voodoo Doughnut with “barely any line” on the east side. This is the only stop on the list that sold wings as the primary protein, but once you’ve had a bite of their meaty, juicy flesh you won’t want to waste your time with anything else. The jojos skew on the narrow side, with a rich potato flavor up front and a salty finish that was almost spicy on a few bites. James, the man behind the counter on two visits, claims he tries to have them ready by 10:45 am every day, but we weren’t able to cop any until around 11:30 on two separate visits. Get there before late afternoon, because they usually sell out, and for good reason.
3805 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-872-3300, fredmeyer.com. Open daily 7 am-11 pm. $3.99 FOR A BREAST AND TWO SIDES A fresh chicken breast from your neighborhood Fred Meyer will make you ponder the time you’ve spent waiting at Screen Door—while salty juices drizzle down your chin. The jojos were hit or miss, with a tendency to be rubbery and lifeless from sitting under a heat lamp all day. But the fried chicken is great at all hours. Maybe Fred Meyer should consider a fried chicken and jojo food cart parked in front of the Country Cat?
NINO ORTIZ
BY PE T E COT T E L L
MAD GREEK DELI
1740 E Burnside St., 503-232-0274, Monday-Thursday 10 am-9 pm, Friday-Saturday 10 am-10 pm, Sunday 9:30 am-7 pm. $7 FOR A BREAST AND SMALL GREEK FRIES Mad Greek isn’t a convenience store, but fries are available instantly for take-out. And though the spuds they sell alongside their chicken are referred to as Greek Fries, we’ll call a spade a spade. The jojos were of the longer, hand-cut, skin-on variety, yielding a fresh and very potato-y flavor more akin to boardwalk fries than the frozen, pre-made variety we
7 am-10 pm, Saturday-Sunday 8 am-10 pm. $4 FOR TWO CHICKEN STRIPS AND WHAT WAS LEFT OF THEIR JOJOS Scarcity was a notable trend at smaller markets in nice neighborhoods, which is the reason 50th Market gets low marks. It took three visits to score a pair of chicken strips and a small serving of jojo remnants—all of which were rubbery, bland and sad. The one thing that salvaged the experience at 50th Market was a pretty tasty samosa ($3.50), which was rich with seasoning and a gooey mess of potato mush.
HOLLYWOOD FOOD MART
1510 NE 42nd Ave., 503-287-0550, Monday-Thursday 6 am-midnight, Friday 6 am-2 am, Saturday 7 am-2 am, Sunday 7 am-midnight. $4.15 FOR TWO TENDERS AND JOJOS The market of this busy 76 station near the Hollywood MAX stop bustles with folks picking up smokes and loose cans of Bud Ice, which means the hot case sees a lot of action. Two visits were fruitless, and on the third we got chicken strips reminiscent of a bad middle-school lunch, plus a handful of soggy, undercooked jojos with a burnt finish.
SAFEWAY
2800 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-236-7070, safeway.com. Open daily 5 am-1 am. $3.49 FOR A BREAST AND 1/4 LB OF JOJOS Having enjoyed Safeway’s bargain-priced breakfast burrito— $2.99 with a pair of jojos—we thought an early batch of jojos would yield favorable results. It did not. The jojos we scored at 9:45 am were soggy, flavorless and downright unpleasant to chew, while the chicken breast was rubbery, dry and vaguely reminiscent of charred Tofurkey. It’s like the worst of both worlds!
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
MUSIC COURTESY OF EMI
HOTSEAT
Gossip Woman BETH DITTO ON ENDING GOSSIP, GOING SOLO AND WHY SHE’LL ALWAYS CALL PORTLAND HOME. BY JAY H O RTO N
“Come on in,” Beth Ditto yells, hopefully to someone else, a few moments into our conversation, “and bring the bananas!” For this phone chat, she’s ensconced herself in a coat room next to the stage at the U Street Music Hall in Washington, D.C., where her soundcheck is about to start, and we’ve only a short time before the drums begin. On the verge of a national tour supporting her first solo album Fake Sugar—a glossy evocation of the more crowd-pleasing moments from her longtime Portland-based band Gossip—Ditto has agreed to talk with WW about her life and career following a turbulent few years that saw Gossip break apart and Ditto herself become a full-fledged superstar across Europe. Despite her former group’s outsized success across the pond—2006’s Standing in the Way of Control went gold in the U.K.; their penultimate album, 2009’s Music for Men, was certified double platinum in France—Ditto has never quite conquered the States. But she seems to genuinely relish returning to 500-seat venues after playing stadiums abroad. “Always be grateful for what you have,” she says, her Arkansas-bred Southern drawl undimmed. “To me, this—America—is the reality. Europe is surreality. This is normal. That’s the weird part. So, you have to be realistic, but this is going to be great. I can’t wait.” Willamette Week: On average, how much of the last few years did you spend in Portland? Beth Ditto: Oh, well, you know, I travel a lot, but I spend most of my time there. My homes, I would say, are London and Portland, and I split it up—not evenly—between them. When you were coming up with the new album? That was over time. It was written in the span of about two years, really. I was still in Gossip, [guitarist] Nathan [Howdeshell] had moved back to Arkansas, and I found myself trying to write songs without him, which I should not have. Because of logistics, it was just hard to be in the same room, so I had been writing. I wanted to be working on something even if we weren’t all together. Before you know it, I’d written the new record, but I knew these songs weren’t...Gossip songs. What’s the difference between Gossip songs and your solo album? Honestly? I don’t think there’s that much. [Laughs] I mean, [Fake Sugar] misses Nathan because Nathan is so special. There’s really no one like him in the world. And, it misses [drummer] Hannah [Blilie]. I think, more than anything, making this record shows me how important I was to Gossip. I hadn’t really
realized how much of a role I played in the songwriting. We’d tell you it’s equal parts, but I didn’t know how much a part of it I was until I listened back to this record and was, like, “Oh! This sounds like a Gossip record!” And, you know, I was really happy because that’s what my life was for so long. There wasn’t any big idea to make this different “set me apart from everything else” record. Gossip didn’t make me miserable. It just wasn’t working out anymore. Were there any times that you felt constrained by the Gossip? I don’t think people realize how easy it was to be in that band. If there were any tiffs about sounds or whatever, it was never a big deal because we all had such varying tastes. Like, Hannah is obsessed with Mariah Carey but also listens to the Prids and was in a band called Soiled Doves. But, then, we have Nathan who listens to anything and everything. Then you have me, and all I want to listen to is Bobbie Gentry. At the same time, we all had our common place, which was usually punk or new wave or post-punk, so I think it was a really lovely combination. When people are, like, “Oh, so, you’re going solo. Do you feel free now?”—I never felt anything but free. It wasn’t like that. I just needed to make music, and it wasn’t happening. And, I realized I was waiting for Gossip. We definitely take four years between records. Labels hated it, but that’s just the way we have always been. But, I really wanted to do something, and it just felt like people’s hearts weren’t in it anymore. It felt like Nathan’s heart wasn’t in it anymore, and I felt like Nathan was the kind of person who would never say that it’s time to let go. I felt like I had to be the one to say it. There wasn’t, like, drama. We had some hard times when we kicked Kathy Mendonca out of the band. That felt horrible. That felt like a divorce—like cheating on your best friend. That was the biggest drama we had. But, for the most part, it was really, really special. We always got along. It wasn’t like other bands, and, mostly, I think it’s because Nathan’s not like other people, you know? He lives in a pod somewhere. [Laughs] Just this strange, fascinating person. You’d never hear a song, wish you could do that with Gossip, and then realize it wouldn’t be appropriate? No. We’d make it a Gossip song. When I said I was writing songs without them and it wasn’t working because they weren’t Gossip songs, that’s because Nathan wasn’t involved. If I was, like, “I love this song” and we set our minds to it, Nathan would do his best to write a guitar part around it. It’d never end up being like the original song, because we weren’t that good of musicians. Hannah was phenomenal, but me and Nathan were at the mercy of our abilities. So, the songs would always just
end up being what they were. Even if we did try write a song like another one, you always knew it would never come out that way. Which was fun. It was kinda exciting just waiting to see what would happen. What was it like going on your own? When people call it a solo record, I always want to be like, “Well, really, it’s a record with my name on it.” I did have so much help from a lot of different musicians. I can’t play anything, you know? So, of course, there’s a lot of talking about direction and talking about references and what I didn’t want and what I did want and how I wanted it with the sounds and the effects and all that. But, when it came to down to someone playing, it was just like Nathan, honestly. To me, bouncing ideas for songs was exactly the same. I can’t even explain it to you. I just know what my strengths and weaknesses are. I know my role, and that’s all I can do. So, even if I’m working with Nathan or with a studio musician I don’t know, it has to be the same process because I don’t know any other way. It’s like driving a car. Would you ever be in another band? I love being in a band. Even with this group that I’m on tour with right now, I feel that we’re a unit. It’s not the same as Gossip. It’s fun. It’s different. It’s a little bit frightening. The thing about Hannah and Nathan and I—with Kathy, too—we were all such good friends, and we grew up together. We knew each other since we were children. So, the dynamic is different, but I love being in a band. I love the creative process. Of course, I love it. And for the next solo album? I don’t really think about things like that. Ninety-eight percent of it’s so in the moment that I’m never, like, “Ah, I wish I would’ve done that.” It’s too late, you know? I always see albums like babies. You have this idea that’s inside of you. It grows and grows. It comes to fruition. It becomes its own little
person out there in the world for other people to judge, and it’s not my job to decide if it’s good or bad. It’s none of my business. All I can do is my best, you know? You want people to like it, but the truth is you can only do as well as you can. For me, it’s not about sonics. With every record, I’m never, like, wanting this sound over this other sound. For me, it’s learning that, next time, I hope I trust myself even more. Can we discuss your fashion line? Fashion, schmashion. I mean, fashion’s fun, but it’s a little boring to talk about. Portland has started to develop something of a reputation for plus-size fashion. Oh, yeah, for sure. The fat scene in Portland is really strong and really cool and, I would say, unlike any other place. It makes me really proud to be from here. It’s another reason why I feel like it’s home. Even if I’m not an active participant —I don’t necessarily go to every fashion show—it’s so nice just to know that it’s around me. So, you do consider Portland home? Yeah. Forever. Just today we were talking about that. I know there are people who are from here, of course, and who’ve lived here way longer, but I’ve still seen it change quite a bit. And, even with all of the changes, it still feels like home to me. The family across the street from me has lived there for 30 years in a rental house, and when I see them, I just feel better. I feel home. It’s the only place that, when the plane lands or you drive in, I actually feel home. Every once in awhile, I’ll see an old punk rocker walk down the street. I don’t mean, like, old punk rocker—just, y’know, my age, maybe even older. Or, you’ll see the weird little kid running around on a skateboard. And you just feel a little bit relieved. SEE IT: Beth Ditto plays Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE Cesar Chavez Blvd., with US Girls, on Monday, July 24. 8 pm. $17 advance, $20 day of show. All ages. Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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of Portland’s hottest pizza & pie makers
Baby Doll Pizza Via Chicago Ex Novo Ranch East Glisan Pizza Jerk Ecliptic Petunia’s Pasteries & Pies Baker & Spice
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Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
MUSIC dancing faithful shall believe all life’s mysteries have been answered. JAY HORTON. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639. 9 pm. $18. 21+.
= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and so-called convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines.
The Drums, Stef Chura, Soccer Mommy
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.
Musiq Soulchild, Maurice Moore, DJ OG One
[NEO-SOUL] Musiq Soulchild’s career has been one of constant reinvention. For nearly two decades, Soulchild’s name was synonymous with moody R&B-soul, until he decided to experiment a bit with alter-egos. But after his rapper persona The Husel and spiritual singer Purple Wondaluv were met with lukewarm responses, he went back to basics on 2016’s Life on Earth, delivering comfortable, slowsimmering songs that felt immediately familiar. Soulchild once told his fans that he wouldn’t exist without the inspiration of D’Angelo’s Voodoo and Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,, and just like them, he’s sidestepping contemporary trends in favor of silky anthems of the heart. ERIC DIEP. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047. 8 pm. $40. All ages.
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John Talabot, Ben Tactic
[SUMMER HOUSE] At the first dawning of John Talabot, when de facto debut single “Sunshine” burned bright above global clubland eight years back, the shadowy creator remained a complete enigma. That secret identity has since been revealed as Oriol Riverola, which sounds far more like the proper moniker for a superstar DJ. These days, Talabot’s an acknowledged lord of the dance. Well beyond his sparkling solo discography, the Barcelona producer has entered into several high-profile collaborations—most notably, the enlightened disco of recent release The Night Land comes from his “Talaboman” partnership with Swedish mixmaster Axel Boman—while still touring the lands to spin intricate grooves so ecstatic the
FIVE POTENTIAL BREAKOUT ACTS AT THIS YEAR’S PDX POP NOW!
THURSDAY, JULY 20 XEB, Intisaar, Johndus Beckman
[THIRD EYE VISION] See Get Busy, page 21.” Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St Portland OR 97204, 503-2260430. 7 pm. $17. 21+..
Austra
S AG E PA R K S
WEDNESDAY, JULY 19
[SHOEGAZE] Devout fans of the Smiths can be hard on the next generation of Morrissey-inspired shoegazers. But that legion will have a tough time disagreeing with the Drums’ ’80s-minded, introspective indie-pop. Longtime musical partners Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham have officially parted ways, but the former has gracefully pushed on, with the outstanding, just-released Abysmal Thoughts as proof. The songwriting is sharp, the bass guitar is always lagging and the many shimmering hooks are both infectious and rife with melancholy. MARK STOCK. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., Portland OR, 503-284-8686. 8:30 pm. $16 advance, $18 day of show. All ages.
MAARQUII
1 MAARQUII (SATURDAY, 11:35 PM)
Maarquii is the singing, rapping alter-ego of Chanti Darling dancer Marquise Dickerson, though really, there doesn’t seem to be much “altering” going on. While Dickerson’s drag background gives the project a performative flair, the lyrics are often all-too-real, drawing from an unabashedly black, defiantly queer point of view—just the perspective Portland needs more of.
2 TURTLENECKED (FRIDAY, 9:20 PM) It’s possible Harrison Smith has already broken out—Pitchfork reviewed his new album, Vulture —but the bedroom-pop auteur feels like a Next Big Thing (or at least a Best New Band) waiting to happen. 3 COOL SCHMOOL (SATURDAY, 2 PM) Seattle’s punk scene may have the market cornered on lacerating feminist ennui, but Cool Schmool impresses with the sheer depth of their slackerism, which seems coded into the songwriting process itself. Every harmony drips with sarcasm, which makes the fact that they stumble upon some great ones even more impressive. 4 PUBLIC EYE (SUNDAY, 4:40 PM) Like Parquet Courts on cheap speed rather than dirt weed, Public Eye’s post-punk rant-rock maintains the velocity, volume and melodic snottiness of their previous configuration as Autistic Youth, only with sharper lyrical bite and deeper grooves. 5 AMENTA ABIOTO (SATURDAY, 3:20 PM) A one-woman wonder in the vein of Like a Villain, Abioto has floated under the local radar for a few years now, probably because the ephemeral nature of her music—improvised mostly from loops of her own voice—means that unless you experience it in the moment, it’s hard to know it exists. No one should benefit more from the built-in PDX Pop Now audience. MATTHEW SINGER. SEE IT: PDX Pop Now! is at AudioCinema, 226 SE Madison St., on Friday-Sunday, July 21-23. Free. All ages. See pdxpopnow.com for complete schedule.
[DARK POP] Austra believes in utopia. At least, that’s the theme of the four-piece Canadian band’s latest album, Future Politics, released the day of Trump’s inauguration. Its synth-pop dance beats make for great form of escapism, but nothing makes you forget about a shitty president than frontwoman Katie Stelmanis’ voice, which is as clear and crisp as the air at the top of a Swiss mountain. Throw in a little bit of cello, and Austra evolves into fully formed electronic powerhouse. SOPHIA JUNE. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214, 231-9663. 9 pm. $20. 21+..
Sundown Grand Ol’ Country Festival
[FREE COUNTRY] See Get Busy, page 21. Grand Lodge, 3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove, 503-992-9533. Free. All ages. Through July 23.
Flor, Pleasure Curses, Talk Modern
[MOM ROCK] Not long ago, members of what is now Flor were high-school pals growing up in Hood River. Currently based in Los Angeles, the quartet formerly known as Sunderland is aiming for FM success with its ultra-polished poprock. Any of the Oregon grit that existed early on has been washed away by the California coast, and while that makes for unthreatening sounds, it’s also likely to propel the band to bigger deals ahead. Flor’s latest record, come out. you’re hiding, resides in the same vein as the 1975 and Two Door Cinema Club—it’s far from challenging but cozy and familiar. MARK STOCK. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503239-7639. 7 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show. All ages.
Reptaliens, Boone Howard, Vexations
[NIGHTMARE POP] To grasp the buzz surrounding Reptaliens, they must be seen live. Before a gig earlier this year, a pair of anonymous band members in reptile masks carried out an incantation ceremony involving a mysterious crystal box. Betweensong banter yielded to samples of conspiracy theories and commercials for bizarre products from the future. And there was lots of fog, of course. Stage gimmicks aside, the music holds up on its own. Variations on “dream pop” get tossed around, but considering the group’s knack for miragelike songs built from rubbery basslines, woozy synths and absurd lyrics, the term “nightmare pop” would be more fitting— that is, if the music didn’t happen to be so goddamn pretty. PETE COTTELL. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $5 advance, $7 day of show. 21+.
CONT. on page 28 Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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MUSIC SATURDAY, JULY 21 Green Velvet, Roni Size
FOU R
OF! O FANT R ASTIC ROOMS UNDER ONE
[HOUSE’N’DRUM’N’BASS] When Curtis Jones created his Green Velvet alias, he’d already put his stamp on Chicago’s house scene. As Cajmere, Jones helped bring the city’s deep dance music culture back to life in the ’90s. Dying his mohawk the color of a Chia Pet, he developed the Green Velvet guise as an outlet for the more flamboyant—and humorous—side of his personality, while the productions maintain his signature streamlined and vintage club stylings. He’s joined tonight by Roni Size, who spent the ’90s and early 2000s doing more than probably anyone to help drum’n’bass cross over with audiences not necessarily predisposed to digging rhythmically complex electronic music. MATTHEW SINGER. 45 East, 315 SE 3rd Ave. 10 pm. $15 advance, $20 day of show. 21+
SATURDAY, JULY 22 SPORTS BAR • VIDEOPOKER
SUNDAYS
THUR JULY 20
Neo-Soul Sundays
Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group
Farnell Newton & Friends
Killiam Shakespeare
Coco’s Cacophony
Sidewalk Chalk
TUESDAYS
WED JULY 19
WED JULY 26
FRI JULY 28
Eyelids, Moon Tiger
[INDIE POP] “She said, ‘If I can’t keep from sighing, why can’t you?’” Eyelids’ Chris Slusarenko sings on “Slow It Goes,” the first song on the band’s second album, an expression of shared ennui that’s made to sound like bliss. Melodic melancholy is the group’s signature, and on Or, it sticks with what works—gentle rockers bright enough to distract from the weariness at their core. Peter Buck produces, as he did Eyelids’ 2015 EP, and “Camelot” and “Falling Eyes” jangle and sway like Reckoningera R.E.M. Buck also dusts off his mandolin for the waltzing “Ghost Ghost Ghost,” a fine detail on an album full of small glories. MATTHEW SINGER. Bunk Bar, 1028 SE Water Ave., 503-3282865. 9 pm. Free. 21+.
Roselit Bone, the Verner Pantons, Fronjentress
[ARE YOU KIDDING ME] Think for a minute of a time you’ve been told that “John Mayer is a really great guitar player, though,” and remember who was feeding you that half-assed defense. Was it a boy wearing a deep V-neck? Chances are the answer is yes. Mayer’s music, inclusive of his new LP The Search for Everything , is trite, tasteless hetero-pop garbage. At best, it accomplishes a catchy hook while making overtures to a woman’s hot bod, and at worst it makes a helplessly misguided attempt at timeliness and sincerity—see new track “Emoji of a Wave,” in which Mayer fingerpicks and ooh-ahhs through a sickeningly predictable narrative of text-based romance. And for the record, he’s not even that great at guitar. ISABEL ZACHARIAS. Moda Center, 1 N Center Ct St., 503-235-8771. 7:30 pm. $39-$250. All ages.
Wolf Alice, Skelevision
[ALPHA ROCK] London outfit Wolf Alice hit the ground in scorching style with its debut My Love Is Cool . The record is a full-throttle effort, spanning alternative, grunge and postrock in a spiraling fashion that leaves the listener in an utter daze. It is alpha in stature, stressing cranked amplifiers, battered drum heads and red-lining microphones on stages all over the planet. The four-piece is set to release its sophomore album in September, teasing it with some fiery singles. Fans of Hole and Yeah Yeah Yeahs will find Wolf Alice most pleasing. MARK STOCK. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-248-4700. 9 pm. Sold out. 21+.
Today Is the Day, Kayo Dot
[NOISE METAL] Entire subgenres of bands owe their careers to the pioneering math-metal albums Today Is the Day issued in the ’90s. The mad scientist behind them is Steve Austin—he’s also known for producing crucial early albums for noisy metalcore acolytes Converge, as well as discovering Brann Dailor before the drum virtuoso went on to fame as a member of Mastodon. The 1997 landmark album Temple of the Morning Star was the band’s first for Relapse—its fourth overall—and is now considered a classic celebrating its 20th anniversary. Seeing it performed live will be a gut-wrenching ride full of violent tempo shifts, offensive samples and demented riffs. Along for the ride is a rare treat in these parts, Toby Driver’s long-running avant-garde classical metal act Kayo Dot. NATHAN CARSON. The Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-238-0543. 8 pm. $15. 21+.
CONT. on page 31 COURTESY OF FRIENDSHIP FEVER
[CINEMATIC COUNTRY] What began as a duo in 2013 has swelled into the nine-piece act known as Roselit Bone, purveyors of twisted twilight country. The band’s sophomore record, Blister Steel, falls somewhere between the spaghetti Western sounds of Daughn Gibson, big-band balladry and Neil Young’s shadowy score for Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man. Roselit Bone’s strength-innumbers approach allows for a diversity of textures, from the nightmarish alt-Americana of “Leech Child” to the shuffling Tex-Mex of “Riders on The Wall.” The result is decidedly filmic; you can see the saloon and the brawl that’s about to break out playing behind your eyelids. MARK STOCK. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave., 503-288-3895. 9 pm. $10 advance, $12 day of show. 21+.
John Mayer
GANGS OF PORTLAND: Roselit Bone plays Doug Fir Lounge on Saturday, July 22. 28
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
COURTESY OF SHOREFIRE MEDIA
PROFILE
Rex in Effect
Singer Olivia Chaney might specialize in traditional British folk music, but she isn’t too keen on being labeled a “traditionalist.” It’s much too stodgy a term for someone with a background in jazz and improvisational music, and who has taken part in, as she puts it, “many weird and wacky collaborations.” So when Colin Meloy asked her to help realize his dream project—a straightup English folk-rock record, done in the stately, psychedelic style of bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span—Chaney made it clear that she had little interest in simply doing ’60s cosplay. “I think when he proposed it, I was like, ‘I don’t want to just try to recreate a Steeleye Span record,’” she says. “I don’t think we agreed on the concept at the beginning, which made it more interesting than if we went in with similar tastes.” And so began a cordially contentious friendship, one whose creative push-and-pull eventually resulted in The Queen of Hearts, the album Chaney, Meloy and the rest of the Decemberists recorded in Portland last year under the name Offa Rex. Interpreting centuries-old tunes, many of which already have definitive modern renditions, could’ve ended up as merely an exercise in well-studied Anglophilia. Instead, the music feels lived in—partly because, well, Chaney has lived it. Spending most of her youth in Oxford, Chaney grew up immersing herself in her father’s record collection, which was full of folk revivalists like Bert Jansch and Anne Briggs. She first came to Meloy’s attention with her 2015 debut, The Longest River, a set showcasing her luminous voice against spare instrumentation. He invited her to open for the Decemberists on tour, and dropped hints about a formal collaboration. “We did have what I thought were pretty indirect conversations backstage, with him saying, ‘Hey, have you ever thought of having a backing band?’” Chaney says. “He being Colin, he already had ideas sneaking and brewing, but I didn’t know he was thinking about it.” A few months later, Chaney found herself in Portland. Once they got into the studio, with producer Tucker Martine, the cultural displacement forced Chaney into a new relationship with songs she’d known since childhood. “It meant that I wasn’t on my turf, and I wasn’t able to feel like those references were as near as when I’m here,” she says. It also caused her some anxiety. While Chaney may not consider herself a traditionalist, she holds enough reverence for the British folk tradition that the potential for screwing it up weighed heavily on her. Propelled, perhaps, by her own nerves, Chaney’s performances throughout The Queen of Hearts are stirring and graceful, especially on ballads like “Willie o’ Winsbury” and “The Old Churchyard.” For Meloy’s part, the arrangements fit within the classic folk-rock template, with knotty layers of guitar, organ and harmonium, though there are some notable left turns—see the heavy take on “Sheepcrook and Black Dog,” inspired by a group outing to see Black Sabbath. Chaney still isn’t sure how the folk community is taking the album. But now that it’s out, she is breathing a bit easier. “Thank God there’s been some nice reviews,” she says. MATTHEW SINGER. Colin Meloy had a dream, and English folk singer Olivia Chaney helped it come true.
SEE IT: Offa Rex plays Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., with Courtney Marie Andrews, on Sunday, July 23. 9 pm. $30. All ages. Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
A N DY J O H N S O N
MUSIC
JEFF ROSENSTOCK
SUNDAY, JULY 23 Jeff Rosenstock, Laura Stevenson, Walter Etc.
[PUNK AUTEUR] Jeff Rosenstock has been releasing albums since he was a teenager, but the 34-year-old scene vet finally broke through to something like mainstream success with last year’s Worry, a tornado of an album that cuts through three decades of pop and punk history. Pick your poison: Whether it’s ska-punk, hardcore, Pinkerton-esque plaints, piano-driven ballads or latter-day emo, Rosenstock has you covered. The Brooklyn-based songwriter isn’t some magpie huckster, though. The sharp stylistic turns never come across as showoff-y magic tricks. If anything, it sounds like Rosenstock is desperately trying to keep the titular bad vibes at bay by inviting listeners into a state of maximum exuberance. And it works. CHRIS STAMM. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.
Bruno Mars
[FUNK FOR ALL] See Get Busy, page 21. Moda Center, 1 N Center Ct St., 503-235-8771. 7:30 pm. $49.50-$125. All ages.
Natalie Merchant
[MONOMANIACAL] For an artist whose choices have long felt frustratingly deliberate, 3 Decades Of Song seems an oddly imprecise title for Natalie Merchant’s recent 10- disc solo box set. Even a teenaged Merchant, in her days fronting proto-alt-rockers 10,000 Maniacs, appeared eager to embrace the role of greying eminence, which now fits as splendidly as we always imagined—that sugared alto slightly more oaken, her signature onstage sway at last age-appropriate. Despite a lifetime before the mic, though, she hasn’t exactly the most extensive of songbooks. Of the six solo albums released since Tigerlily’s debut, Leave Your Sleep adapted children’s poetry, The House Carpenter’s Daughter covered folk tunes and 2015’s Paradise Is There covered, um, Tigerlily. As the woman who helped inspire Lilith Fair, Michael Stipe’s dour period, Lili Taylor’s entire career and vegan potlucks the world over, Merchant’s legacy is assured. But it’s remarkable nonetheless how little of those 3 Decades Of Song were spent singing. JAY HORTON. Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd. 7 pm. $47.50-$107.50. All ages.
Strange Ranger, the Toads, Cool American
[THROWBACK POP] Nineties rock revivalism tends to tilt toward the grungy end of things, which is understandable—Hole was awesome, and Nirvana shirts still look great. But Portland band the Toads, which celebrates the release of its new Time EP tonight,
is bold enough to summon the spirits of less-revered deities like Gin Blossoms and Matthew Sweet, artists who wrote great songs but were untethered to trends or scenes. They were very good, and so are the Toads, who merge classic power-pop and ‘80s college rock so skillfully it makes one long for the days when movies were mere pretexts for Proclaimers songs. CHRIS STAMM. Rontoms, 600 E Burnside St., 503236-4536. 8:30 pm. Free. All ages.
MONDAY, JULY 24 Drunken Boat, RVIVR
[PDX PUNK REVIVAL] Drunken Boat broke up before it had a chance to blow up, but the Portland punk band—whose members split off to form Divers and Steel Chains—was designed with basement bashes in mind. With a sound caught between classic No Idea Records gruffness and raw East Bay melody— think Small Brown Bike hitched to American Steel—Drunken Boat channeled the chaotic throb of unsanctioned house shows into songs that flirted with falling apart while somehow hanging together. It was grimy and it was glorious. This is the band’s first show since 2008, and it looks like it will be a one-night-only reunion. You know what to do. CHRIS STAMM. The Know, 3728 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-473-8729. 8 pm. Contact venue for ticket prices. 21+.
TUESDAY, JULY 25 Tobin Sprout, Elf Power
[HISS AND POWER-POP] In the “classic” configuration of Guided By Voices, Tobin Sprout’s boyish sweetness helped balance Robert Pollard’s drunken surrealism. Now, he’s essentially doing the same for Southern California burnout-pop label Burger Records. The Universe and Me, Sprout’s Burger debut and his first solo record in seven years, shows the young smart-asses that dominate the label’s roster that maturity and low-fidelity are not, in fact, opposed ideas. MATTHEW SINGER. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
Julie Byrne, Johanna Warren
[FLOATING FOLK] See Get Busy, page 21. The Old Church, 1422 SW 11th Ave., 503-222-2031. 8 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. All ages.
Blonde Redhead, Porcelain Raft
[ART-GAZE] See Get Busy, page 21. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., Portland OR, (503) 284-8686. 8:30 pm. $25. 21+.
CONT. on page 32 Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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WW’S HAPPY HOUR & BAR GUIDE ON SELECT NEWSTANDS NOW!
MUSIC CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Chuck Israels Orchestra
[BASS AND BAND] If you’re a fan of jazz’s much-lauded post-bop era—including the brilliant work of John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock—you’re probably already an unknowing listener of legendary bass player Chuck Israels. A longtime legend of the upright, Israels made Portland his home after finishing up a lengthy stint as the head of jazz at Western Washington University, putting together a group of local all-stars he calls the Chuck Israels Orchestra to perform gorgeous arrangements of jazz classics. A midsize ensemble with brass and woodwind layers, the band fits each moving part together perfectly, with Israels’ warm bass tone and perfect time acting as the thickest of musical glues. PARKER HALL. Fremont Theater, 2393 NE Fremont Street, 503-946-1962. 8 pm Friday, July 21. $15. All ages.
Extradition Series Summer Concert 2017
[CONCEPTUAL SOUNDS] Creative Music Guild’s regular series of experimental music by 20th and 21st century composers this time features music—sometimes for unspecified instruments—based on concepts and processes that allow each performance to be different. Dutch composer Samuel Vriezen’s 2002 The Weather Riots allows each player to build their own score from among several possible melodic fragments that can be combined in different ways. The title of Nomi Epstein’s Combine, Juxtapose, Delayed Overlap tells the musicians what choices they’re allowed to make. Modernist Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi’s 1967 Ko-Tha treats guitar as a percussion instrument, while two pieces by Greek composer Anastassis Philippakopoulos for clarinet and piano respectively incorporate spaces of silence in the tradition of contemporary European Wandelweiser composers. One of Portland’s most exploratory musicians, oboist Catherine Lee, also plays two new electronically enhanced pieces written for her by Dana Reason and Taylor Brook. BRETT CAMPBELL. Leaven Community Center, 5431 NE 20th Ave. 7:30 pm Saturday, July 22. $5-$15. All ages.
Chamber Music Northwest: Bach to Twin Peaks
[BACH TO TWIN PEAKS] Composer Daniel Schlosberg was only three years old when Twin Peaks premiered in 1990, but when he saw it as a teenager, it became “a constant source of artistic, philosophical and spiritual inspiration.” He even wrote his doctoral thesis on Angelo Badalamenti’s famous soundtrack. When Schlosberg, one of America’s most promising young composers, was part of the Chamber Music Northwest Protege Project three years ago, he forced fellow protégés the Dover Quartet to binge all 30 episodes of the original. Now, just in time for the show’s reboot, they’ll be performing the new piece commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest and inspired by the original series and its music. The concert also features another new piece the festival commissioned from another of its rising young protege composers, Chris Rogerson, whose Thirty Thousand Days reflects three stages of life—youthful innocence, middleage struggle and finally, the acceptance and resignation of age. The program also includes classics by J.S. Bach (from his magnificent Musical Offering) and Francis Poulenc’s sparkling 1939 Sextet featuring the fabulous Imani Winds. BRETT CAMPBELL. Lincoln Performance Hall, 1620 SW Park Ave., 503-7253307. 7:30 pm Tuesday, July 25. $10$60. All ages.
For more Music listings, visit 32
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
ALBUM REVIEWS
Portugal. The Man WOODSTOCK (Atlantic)
[OVERSTUFFED POP] Anyone with access to a Pandora account needn’t do much research to figure out the connotation of the term “landfill indie.” Start with Modest Mouse, thumbs-up tracks by Band of Horses and Tame Impala, and there you have it—a guided tour of guitar-rock’s so-called “resurgence” as it slowly breathes its dying breath, where you’re almost guaranteed to hear the earlier work of Portugal. The Man. On their latest, the curiously titled Woodstock, the group has aggressively doubled down on a predictable mélange of Top 40-baiting sounds that aren’t exactly rock, but are far too familiar for anyone to consider “experimental.” After “Number One” briefly evokes the spirit of the titular festival with a sample of Richie Havens, listeners are smacked in the face with “Easy Tiger,” a stomping pop ditty stuffed with pitchbent vocal samples á la fellow mainstream music festival headliners like Flume and Odesza. Its core of slackerish, acoustic strumming and the underrated vocal range of singer John Gourley stands as proof that Portugal. The Man once knew what they were capable of, and played to their abilities. But other missteps, like the Black Keys-meets-Maroon 5 sad-boy swagger of “Live In the Moment” and the faux-swing shuffle of “Feel It Still,” feel mostly like lukewarm attempts to shake down Apple for placement in an iPod commercial. The band is certainly successful enough to exist in a world beyond expectation at this point, but Woodstock sounds a lot like an unfortunate manifestation of ambition gone wrong. PETE COTTELL. SEE IT: Portugal. The Man plays Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale, with the Shivas and Cat Hoch, on Saturday, July 22. 6:30 pm. Sold out. All ages.
Nick Delffs
REDESIGN (Mama Bird Recording Co.) [MINUS THE FLARE] For his first LP under his own name, ex- Shaky Hands singer-guitarist Nick Delffs offers a subdued effort of gorgeously opaque songs suggesting the maturation of a one-time scene kid into an astute songwriter. The driving energy created on opener “Running Moon” builds a slow-burning momentum that sustains the whole way through the following nine tracks. It’s equal parts Peter Gabriel and Bruce Springsteen—more specifically, the same side of Springsteen that Arcade Fire borrowed from so heavily on their sophomore effort. The spacious reverb also recalls Bob Dylan’s work with Daniel Lanois. Aside from impeccable reference points, Delffs makes a remarkable case for self-sufficiency in the studio. With the exception of some female backup vocals from Ali Clarys and his Tiburones bandmate, Luz Elena Mendoza, Delffs is the sole player on his record. While the ubiquity of home-recording gear has made it possible for everyone to self-appoint themselves as multi-instrumentalists, very few can do more than one or two things masterfully enough to come off as anything more than dilettantes with inflated egos. Delffs avoids this pitfall with an inventively minimalistic palette that serves as the unfussy thread that ties these 10 tracks together. CRIS LANKENAU. SEE IT: Nick Delffs plays Mississippi Studios, 3939 N. Mississippi Ave., with Haley Heynderickx and Clarke and the Himselfs, on Friday, July 21. 8 pm. $10. 21+.
MUSIC CALENDAR The Robert Mabe Band
Grand Lodge
Ash Street Saloon
3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove Sundown Grand Ol’ Country Festival
Church
1001 SE Morrison St., Flor, Pleasure Curses, Talk Modern
Crystal Ballroom
529 SW 4th Ave., Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group
Edgefield
2025 N Kilpatrick St The Dalharts, The Northside Four
Fremont Theater
2958 NE Glisan St Belcurve, Ben Ballinger, Sean Flora
WED. JULY 19 225 SW Ash St. The Long Goodnight, Seed Ling 2600 NE Sandy Blvd. The Simple Pleasure, Vern, Avalanche Lily 1332 W Burnside St Musiq Soulchild, Maurice Moore, DJ OG One 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Leslie Mendelson (The Winery Tasting Room) 2393 NE Fremont St. Abacus
Hawthorne Theatre
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Michelle Branch, Haerts
High Water Mark Lounge
6800 NE MLK Ave John Haughm, Nighttime, Kertoa Kalevala, Erin Jane Laroue
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St., John Talabot
Jack London Revue 529 SW 4th Ave., Coco’s Cacophony
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St LOBH+Roast, Slow Season, The Night
LaurelThirst Public House 2958 NE Glisan St Kendall Core, Sarah Parson, Lili St Anne
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave., The Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show
Sunlight Supply Amphitheater
17200 NE Delfel Rd, Ridgefield, Wash. Matchbox Twenty & Counting Crows: A Brief History Of Everything Tour
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St Kris Deelane & the Hurt, Resolectrics
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., Elrond, Magisterial, Wayne
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St SJT; Shae Altered, After Hours, Rebecca Mcdade
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St., The Drums, Stef Chura, Soccer Mommy
THU. JULY 20 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Delbert McClinton
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St XEB, Intisaar, Johndus Beckman
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Jon Wayne and the Pain and Joytribe
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St, Austra
Edgefield
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Cedar Teeth (The Little Red Shed)
Fremont Theater 2393 NE Fremont Street
For more listings, check out wweek.com.
LAST WEEK LIVE
The Analog Cafe HENRY CROMETT
= 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.
Holocene
The Goodfoot
2845 SE Stark St Shafty
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., Qui with Trevor Dunn, EMS, Humours
LaurelThirst Public House
The Lovecraft Bar
Star Theater
The Fixin’ To
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., Bothers, Abolitionist, Carole’s Gold Gym 3341 SE Belmont St, Toothbone, Kulululu, Star Club, Haley Heynderickx
116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing featuring Pete Krebs and the Rocking K Ranch Boys, Pink Lady & John Bennet Jazz Band
The Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Mean Jeans, Poison Rites, Problems, Public Eye
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny St Great Smoking Mirror, Kialani, Galloping Strider
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St Blue Lotus & New Dew
White Owl Social Club 1305 SE 8th Ave. The Entire Universe, Heavii Mello
Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St., R5
FRI. JULY 21 Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St The Slants, The Sentiments, The Forever Agos, The Adarna
AudioCinema
226 SE Madison St., PDX Pop Now!
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St, Portugal. The Man
Edgefield
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale The Good Time Travelers (The Winery Tasting Room)
Fremont Theater
2393 NE Fremont St. Chuck Israels Orchestra
Grand Lodge
3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove Sundown Grand Ol’ Country Festival
Hawthorne Theatre
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd.. Sisyphean Conscience
High Water Mark Lounge 6800 NE MLK Ave Spacebeast, Magic Mansion, Meterse
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Nick Delffs
Mock Crest Tavern 3435 N Lombard St, Alexa Wiley & the Wilderness
Star Theater
13 NW 6th Ave., Robert Wynia and The Sound
The Analog Cafe
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., School of Rock; Heartsounds, Western Settings
The Firkin Tavern
1937 SE 11th Ave. RILLA, Crush Hazard, Avalanche Lily
The Fixin’ To
8218 N. Lombard St
Mic Capes, Drae Slapz, Rasheed Jamal, Glenn Waco, Luke Tailor
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., Airport, Marion Walker, Azul Toga
The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave, GAR GAR!
The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St The Sportin’ Lifers
Twilight Cafe and Bar
1420 SE Powell One Master, Winter in the Blood, Circle Of Beings
White Eagle Saloon
836 N Russell St Mexican Gunfight; Mick Overman
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St., Joshua Radin, Rachael Yamagata
SAT. JULY 22 Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St Advent Horizon, Red Forman, Trick Sensei, The Mercury Tree
AudioCinema
226 SE Madison St., PDX Pop Now!
Bunk Bar
1028 SE Water Ave. Eyelids, Moon Tiger
Dante’s
350 West Burnside Derv Gordon (of the Equals), So What, Welcome Home Walker, Virgil & DJ Jo
Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St, Mustache Harbor
Edgefield 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Portugal. The Man, the Shivas, Cat Hoch; The Good Time Travelers (The Winery Tasting Room)
Fremont Theater 2393 NE Fremont St. Mary Flower and The BBQ Boys
Grand Lodge
3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove Sundown Grand Ol’ Country Festival
Hawthorne Theatre
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. The Last Internationale (lounge); RAR, Mechanism ,Chemical Rage, Mohawk Yard
Kenton Club
2025 N Kilpatrick St Hound The Wolves, Young Hunter, Paleons
Leaven Community Center 5431 NE 20th Ave, Extradition Series
Mississippi Studios 3939 N Mississippi Ave. Roselit Bone, the Verner Pantons, Fronjentress
Moda Center
1 N Center Ct St. John Mayer
Oregon Zoo
128 NE Russell St., Life During Wartime (Talking Heads tribute), Yak Attack
SUN. JULY 23 Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Offa Rex
Anarres Infoshop
7101 N Lombard St. The Michael Character, Conor Hennessy, Glyptodons, Izzy and the Chimera
Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St. Boy Hits Car, DS8, The U.S. Wage Slaves
AudioCinema
226 SE Madison St., PDX Pop Now!
Bossanova Ballroom
722 E Burnside St, Tantric, Silent Effect, Jon Davidson
Dante’s
350 West Burnside JC Brooks
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St, Jared & The MillKOLARS
Edgefield
2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale Lewi Longmire & Anita Lee Elliott (The Winery Tasting Room)
Fremont Theater
2393 NE Fremont Street The Aarun & Jonathan Bluegrass Show
Grand Lodge
3505 Pacific Ave., Forest Grove Sundown Grand Ol’ Country Festival
Holocene
Revolution Hall
Jack London Revue
13 NW 6th Ave., Wolf Alice, Skelevision
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Unwed Fathers, Blue Mongeon
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., TV Heads, Loveboys, Paper Brain, Nouvauxfaux
White Eagle Saloon
White Eagle Saloon
1001 SE Morrison St., Jeff Rosenstock, Laura Stevenson, Walter Etc.
Star Theater
The Analog Cafe
1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd. Beth Ditto
4001 SW Canyon Rd. 2Cellos 1300 SE Stark St #110 The Psychedelic Furs, Robyn Hitchcock
600 E Burnside St Strange Ranger, the Toads, Cool American
Doug Fir Lounge
Wonder Ballroom
FOR YOU: In the year since Prince’s death, many questions have been raised over the handling of his posthumous legacy. For instance, what do you think his reaction would be if he knew his old band was touring the country, playing his songs without him? Watching the Revolution perform at Roseland Theater on July 14, it was a hard notion to shrug off. Certainly, it’s something they’ve thought about, too. “I don’t know if he’d approve of what we’re doing,” drummer Bobby Z told me, “but he’d approve of what we’re doing onstage.” That is to say, when paying tribute a notorious perfectionist, the main responsibility is to get the songs right. To that end, he’d likely nod approvingly. Focusing primarily on the funk workouts of the pre-Sign o’ the Times era, the group was unerringly taut, sweating through the likes of “Let’s Work” and “DMSR” with lean precision. And yet, the show couldn’t help but feel like a musical uncanny valley—so close to the real thing, yet jarringly not. For that reason, the most resonant moments occurred when the band decided to acknowledge their leader’s absence rather than play through it. “Sometimes It Snows in April,” performed in a hush, with only guitarist Wendy Melvoin and keyboardist Lisa Coleman onstage, was the show’s emotional highpoint, so wrenching it had to be followed by the eruptive ecstasy of “Let’s Go Crazy.” It was the night’s most cathartic moment, and a justification for the reunion—so that we could all gather, and try to get through this thing together. MATTHEW SINGER.
Rontoms
Twilight Cafe and Bar
836 N Russell St The Last Draw; Billy Kennedy
The Liquor Store
4001 SW Canyon Rd. Natalie Merchant
The Tonic Lounge
1420 SE Powell Bitter Inc., Body Shame, Lost in a World of Color; Nana Grizol, Your Heart Breaks, Wizard Apprentice
8218 N. Lombard St Dolphin Midwives, Key of V, Tashi Delay
Oregon Zoo
Ash Street Saloon
3100 NE Sandy Blvd Today Is the Day, Kayo Dot
13 NW 6th Ave., Supaman, Burial Ground Sound, Blue Flamez
1 N Center Ct St, Bruno Mars
The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St The Hot Club Time Machine
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Reptaliens, Boone Howard, Vexations
Moda Center
836 N Russell St Perry Gerber; Korby Lenker and Rebecca Loebe
421 SE Grand Ave, Cult of the Volt
Mississippi Studios
The Secret Society
1937 SE 11th Ave Team Francis, Your Boyfriend, Melfry
8218 N. Lombard St Heartless Magnus, SSOLD, Toim
Kenton Club
421 SE Grand Ave, Sorrowseed, Exorcists, Spectral Vision
The Firkin Tavern
The Fixin’ To
Jack London Revue
The Lovecraft Bar
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., In The Pink (Pink Floyd Tribute)
[JULY 19-25]
529 SW 4th Ave., Neo-Soul Sunday with Sedell Jones & DJ Doc Rock, hosted by Rich Hunter
MON. JULY 24 225 SW Ash St Nails Hide Metal, Internal State, Plastic Shadow 830 E Burnside St, The Life and Times, Shelter Red, Last Giant
Hawthorne Theatre
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. Peter Bradley Adams
The Firkin Tavern
1937 SE 11th Ave Edward Cohen, Count Kellam
The Know
3728 NE Sandy Blvd., Drunken Boat, RVIVR
White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St Urban Pioneers
Wonder Ballroom 128 NE Russell St., The Sword
TUE. JULY 25 Ash Street Saloon
225 SW Ash St GAR GAR, Pluto Revival, The By Gods, Sad Baxter
Doug Fir Lounge
830 E Burnside St, Tobin Sprout, Elf Power
Lan Su Chinese Garden
239 NW Everett St. 97209 Jane Bunnett & Maqueque
LaurelThirst Public House 2958 NE Glisan St Ragged Union
Lincoln Performance Hall
1620 SW Park Ave., Chamber Music Northwest: Bach to Twin Peaks
Mississippi Studios
3939 N Mississippi Ave. The Marcus King Band
Roseland Theater 8 NW 6th Ave SOB X RBE
The Analog Cafe
720 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Emery
The Old Church
1422 SW 11th Ave Julie Byrne, Johanna Warren
Twilight Cafe and Bar 1420 SE Powell Sounds Like Disco, In Reverie, When We Met, Night Lizard
Wonder Ballroom
128 NE Russell St., Blonde Redhead, Porcelain Raft
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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MUSIC C O U R T E S Y O F D J N AY I R A M
NEEDLE EXCHANGE
DJ Nayiram (SEATTLE) Years DJing: I never realized how long I’ve been a DJ. I’ve always been that kid who got called out to take care of the music during house parties and family gatherings, ever since I was 12 years old. I bought my first set of equipment when I moved to the states in 2011 and everything has been magical since then. Professionally, it’s been 5 years. Genre: Afrobeat, Afro-house, future dance-hall, Afro-trap, soca, dance hall, hip-hop. Where you can catch me regularly: Currently a resident DJ for Red Lounge, Seattle’s monthly Afrobeat party every last Friday. I also started the Afrobeat Global Show on Blast Radio, Sundays 3-5 pm. You can also catch me at Stage Seattle for Afrique Fridays on the first and third Friday of each month. Craziest gig: The Afrobeat Day Party in March at Rhumbar at the Mirage in Las Vegas with the most hype and fun crowd ever. I would say this space held about 300-plus party people, and almost everyone present had a good sense of musical knowledge. I love these crowds—the singalongs, the crazy dancers and mostly those who walk up to appreciate the DJ. I repost videos from this gig every Thursday as my favorite Throwback Thursday memories. Take me back to Vegas! My go-to records: Brenda Fassie, “Vulindlela”; Fuse ODG, “Antenna”; Jay-Z, “You Don’t Know”; Damian “Jr. Gong ” Marley, “Welcome to Jamrock.” Don’t ever ask me to play…: I personally wouldn’t mind taking a request during my set. If it fits the vibe I’ve created on the dance floor already, I will definitely play it. I give credit to the countless times the song requests actually reminds me of a particular song I haven’t played in a while or didn’t remember to play at the moment. With that being said, if the music doesn’t fit the mood on the dance floor or doesn’t make sense, I’m not with it. NEXT GIG: DJ Nayiram spins at the Way Up Afro/Caribbean Dance Party at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with DJ Solo and Jiggaman, on Friday, July 21. 9 pm. $5 before 10:30 pm, $7 after. 21+.
FRI, JULY 21 Black Book
20 NW 3rd Ave, The Cave (rap, r&b, club)
Crush Bar
WED, JULY 19 Beulahland
118 NE 28th Ave, Wicked Wednesday (hip-hop)
20 NW 3rd Ave, Ladies Night (rap, r&b)
Dig A Pony
Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St 80s Video Dance Attack
736 SE Grand Ave., A Train and Eagle Sun King (vintage cumbia)
Dig A Pony
Ground Kontrol
Killingsworth Dynasty
Ground Kontrol
Killingsworth Dynasty
Moloko
511 NW Couch St. TRONix: Proqxis 832 N Killingsworth St Sensoria w/ DJ Felix
The Lovecraft Bar
832 N Killingsworth St Post Punk Discotheque
3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Nik Nice & Brother Charlie (brazilian)
421 SE Grand Ave, Event Horizon (darkwave, industrial)
Parasol Bar
Tonic Lounge
The Lovecraft Bar
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Death Throes (death rock, post punk, darkwave)
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave., Dubblife
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
Black Book
1400 SE Morrison Pants OFF Dance OFF: Pop UP Summer Edition!
736 SE Grand Ave., Chazz Madrigal (soul)
Dig A Pony
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THU, JULY 20
215 SE 9th Ave, Vinyl Takeover w/ PuffTuff
736 SE Grand Ave., Jimbo (funk, rap, electro) 511 NW Couch St. DJ ROCKIT - The Excellence of Traxicution
Holocene
1001 SE Morrison St., The Way Up: Afro/ Caribbean Dance Party
Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Strange Babes
421 SE Grand Ave, Shadowplay (goth, industrial, 80s)
Lay Low Tavern
The Paris Theatre
Moloko
6 SW 3rd Ave, Synergetic NW Presents: Requin and Needlep01nt
6015 SE Powell Blvd., DJ Matt Stanger 3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Sappho & Friends (disco)
Where to drink this week. 1. Level Beer
5211 NE 148th Ave., 503-253-5103, levelbeer.com. Out in the wilds of Parkrose, Level Beer is the biggest, wildest beer porch Portland’s ever seen—with two food carts and excellent collaboration beer including a great ESB with Laurelwood.
CARLEIGH OETH
BAR REVIEW @WillametteWeek
@WillametteWeek
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2. Revolution Hall Rooftop Deck
1300 SE Stark St., 503-288-3895, revolutionhall.com. There’s nothing more posh than a rooftop bar—and this one’s finally open to the public, all the time. It’s like Kinfolk got a patio.
3. Cat’s Paw
3565 SE Division St., 503-719-5189. Why did it take so long for restaurantheavy Division to get a cool-ass, skaterfriendly, hole-in-thewall service industry hang? Dunno. But it’s got one now.
4. Bailey’s Taproom
213 SW Broadway, 503-295-1004, baileystaproom.com. Well, guess who’s turning 10 years old? Bailey’s, that’s who. And they’re celebrating with a bunch of good beer.
5. Schilling Cider House
930 SE 10th Ave., 971-352-6109, schillingciderhouse.com. Schilling’s new 50-tap cider house might be spendy, but damn, that’s a great taplist. Look for multiple Spanish, French and British ciders on those taps, plus a world of local farmhouse and specialty cider.
No Fun
1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd Some Kinda Fun (punk, mod, freakbeat)
Quarterworld
WIDMERGARTEN: From 2014’s World Cup beer garden to 2015’s Drinking Lot on the Burnside bridgehead, it just ain’t a Portland summer without a pop-up beer garden. The Bailey’s Taproom beer pop-up in downtown’s heroin-happy Ankeny Square—essentially a city plan to use food and beer carts as park rangers to keep the homeless at bay—has already failed, because food carts refuse to do business there. But the Widmer Brothers Beer Garden (929 N. Russell St.), in the gravel plot across from the brewery, should be a Portland tradition in the making. Apparently, this spot was supposed to be a beer garden when the brewery started 33 years ago, but the Bros. just finally made good on their plans, throwing down a smattering of picnic tables and a four-tap beer cart every Thursday to Sunday. There are OP Wurst hot dogs served out of a cart. There is cornhole. There is giant Jenga. There are $3 pints on Thursdays, Journey and Foreigner on the speakers, and discount cans of hefe if you storm the beer cart when a passing train whistle sounds. The Pilsner tastes clean and lovely in bright sun, and on our last visit, the Bros. were pouring a seriously kick-ass, lightly sweet-hot chili blonde ale called Ser Jalbanheim, mixing up serrano, jalapeno, habanero and Anaheim peppers for a subtle kick and lots of well-rounded pepper flavor. And during the Oregon Brewers Festival on July 28, Widmer will be holding a six-brewery brunch in the garden, pouring Pilsners and only Pilsners—the only beer brewers drink in heaven. Our only complaint about this summer beer garden? We don’t understand how it took them 33 years to open it. MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Crystal Ballroom
1332 W Burnside St 90s Dance Flashback
Dig A Pony
The Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave, Electronomicon (goth, industrial)
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd Soul Spectrum
736 SE Grand Ave., Battles & Lamar (freestyle, electro, boogie)
Valentines
The Goodfoot
Hawthorne Eagle Lodge
Whiskey Bar
2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew (funk, soul, disco)
The Lovecraft Bar
4904 SE Hawthorne Blvd., Atomic Blast! 50s/60s Oldies Dance Party
232 SW Ankeny St bentheinventor 31 NW 1st Ave, Dance United: Turkish & Indian Night
421 SE Grand Ave, DoublePlusDANCE w/ DJ Acid Rick & DJ Carrion (new wave, synth, goth)
Holocene
Valentines
232 SW Ankeny St Decadent 80’s w/ DJ NoN
832 N Killingsworth St Dynasty A Go-Go! (60s soul, r&b, garage)
Whiskey Bar
Lay Low Tavern
736 SE Grand Ave., Do Right Sunday (throwback rap, electro, r&b)
Moloko
Star Theater
31 NW 1st Ave, DANGER w/ Eastghost, Laura Lunn, Nathan Detroit
SAT, JULY 22 45 East
315 SE 3rd Ave, Botnek
Black Book
20 NW 3rd Ave, The Ruckus (rap, r&b, club)
Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St, Blowpony
1001 SE Morrison St., Ordinary Thing (house, edm)
Killingsworth Dynasty
6015 SE Powell Blvd., DJ Joey Prude 3967 N. Mississippi Ave. Lamar Leroy (jams of all types)
SUN, JULY 23 Black Book
20 NW 3rd Ave, Flux (rap, r&b, club)
Dig A Pony
13 NW 6th Ave., HIVE (goth, industrial)
The Liquor Store
Quarterworld
3341 SE Belmont St, Love American Style
The Liquor Store
421 SE Grand Ave, Softcore Mutations w/ DJ Acid Rick (new wave, synth, hunkwave)
4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd DJ White Merlot (tropical beats) 3341 SE Belmont St, SubSensory presents: Neel (Voices From The Lake)
The Lovecraft Bar
MON, JULY 24 Dig A Pony
736 SE Grand Ave., Anjali & The Incredible Kid (vintage international)
Ground Kontrol
511 NW Couch St. Reaganomix: DJ Robert Ham (80s)
The Lovecraft Bar
421 SE Grand Ave, Black Mass (goth, new wave, post-punk)
TUE, JULY 25 Kelly’s Olympian 426 SW Washington St. Party Damage: DJ Moodytwoshoes
The Embers Avenue 100 NW Broadway, Recycle (dark dance)
R E V NE SS MI A T A E B
The Lovecraft Bar
421 SE Grand Ave, BONES w/ DJ Aurora (goth)
Tonic Lounge
3100 NE Sandy Blvd. Toxic Tuesdays (goth, postpunk, spooky)
Tube
18 NW 3rd Ave., Tubesdays w/ DJ Jack
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PERFORMANCE JENNY GRAHAM
REVIEW
= 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: SHANNON GORMLEY (sgormley@wweek.com). TO BE CONSIDERED FOR LISTINGS, submit information at least two weeks in advance to: sgormley@wweek.com.
THEATER OPENINGS & PREVIEWS Romeo & Juliet/Layla & Majnun
It’s pretty well known—Shakespeare didn’t come up with most of his own plots, instead lifting most of them from other writers. For their addition to this summer’s outdoor Shakespeare plays, Bag & Baggage will premiere a version of Romeo & Juliet that combines Shakespeare’s words with the 12th century Persian play that’s theorized to have inspired it, Layla & Majnun. Which means that instead of the feuding Montagues and Capulets, the tale of the doomed teenage lovers will be at least partially in the context of the conflict between Muslims and Christians during the Crusades. SHANNON GORMLEY. The Civic Center Plaza, 150 E Main St., Hillsboro, bagnbaggage.org. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday, July 20-August 5. $20.
Hands Up
After several performances throughout last year, the August Wilson Red Door Project is bringing back its production of Hands Up for 2017. Commissioned by the New Black Fest after the death of Michael Brown, Hands Up is seven monologues by black playwrights about their experiences with institutionalized racial profiling. It’s an intense collection of monologues that all seven actors in Red Door’s production deliver with deeply visceral performances. SHANNON GORMLEY. Wieden + Kennedy, 224 NW 13th Ave., reddoorproject.org. 7:30 pm Saturday, July 22 and 2 pm Sunday, July 23. Free, donations accepted.
ALSO PLAYING The Addams Family
You can’t accuse a play of lacking sinister panache that co-stars a disembodied hand. Yet this refurbishing of Charles Addams’ freakish family by the Broadway Rose Theatre Company feels oddly lethargic, in part because it’s burdened by a blandly formulaic book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice. The plot is powered by the antics of Wednesday Addams (Molly Duddlesten), who wants to marry a white-bread goofball (Colin Kane), even if it means disappointing her aptly named mother, Morticia (Lisamarie Harrison), and enlisting the aid of her bumbling father, Gomez (Joe Theissen). It’s a fairly wrote plot, and the Addams actors work overtime to enliven the story. Yet even their profoundly creepy performances can’t compensate for the staleness of the central romance and a frustrating lack of slapstick energy. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Deb Fennell Auditorium at Tigard High School, 9000 SW Durham Rd., Tigard, broadwayrose.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday through July 23. Additional shows 2 pm Saturday, July 15 and Saturday, July 22. $21-$50.
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte opens with a man dressed as a monkey lounging on a red velvet couch. The immediate absurdism is wholly emblematic of director Christopher Mattaliano’s adaptation of Lorenzo Da Ponte’s 18th-century libretto, composed by Mozart. The plot is equally ridiculous. An older gentleman named Don Alfonso (Daniel Mobbs) overhears
Ferrando (Aaron Short) and Guglielmo (Ryan Thorn) gushing over their girlfriends Fiordiligi and Dorabella (Antonia Tamer and Kate Farrar). Alfonso attempts to prove to the men that their partners aren’t faithful by having the men dress up in obscene outfits, pick up aliases and attempt to seduce the women. What’s most striking about Così is its staunch juxtaposition of two time periods: the classic opera, with all Così’s characters draped in historical garb, mixed with modern, playfully surreal twists. Characters eat Voodoo Doughnuts, and the set’s background–a gigantic projector screen–showcases pixelated close-ups of half-open mouths. Yet it’s the show’s actresses who are awarded the juiciest solos and comedic twists. For an 18th-century opera with a misogynistic AF title, Portland Opera’s Così fan tutte elevates its female performers with its colorful, surrealist tweaks. JACK RUSHALL. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, portlandopera.org. 7:30 pm Saturday through July 29. 7:30 pm Thursday, July 20 and July 29. $35-$110.
Troilus and Cressida
Portland Actors Ensemble’s new production unfolds around a towering memorial at Lone Fir Cemetery. It’s a fittingly sepulchral setting for William Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, a play defined by death, betrayal and characters who hunger for love they’ll never receive. Director Patrick Walsh has helmed plenty of successful productions of the Bard’s plays and was the co-artistic director of the Shakespeare-oriented Post5 Theatre’s last season. But this one is full of baffling conversations, a traumatically bleak conclusion and a sprawling ensemble that makes the two eponymous characters seem like afterthoughts. Still, the production has its spine-tingling moments—like during the battle that brings this Troilus and Cressida to a harrowing climax with a tornado of prop gunfire. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Lone Fir Cemetery, SE 26th Avenue and Stark Street, portlandactors.org. 7:00 pm Thursday-Saturday, through July 29. Free.
COMEDY Helium’s Funniest Person Final Round
Each summer, Helium Comedy Club hosts a judged competition to pick the comedian they deem the funniest person in Portland. They’ve been hosting elimination rounds for the past several weeks, and they’ve whittled down the 200 competing comedians to just 10. Whoever wins, it will be a lot of kickass sets, including from the first and second place winners from WW’s Funniest Five comedy poll this year, Caitlin Weierhauser and Adam Pasi, and Jason Traeger, who placed third in the poll two years ago. But there are also competing comedians who have long been established in local scene but have yet to score a much-deserved title, like JoAnn Schinderle, Alex Falcone and Kirsten Kuppenbender, plus plenty of upcoming comedians who are still making their name on the local circuit. SHANNON GORMLEY. Helium Comedy Club, 1510 SE 9th Ave., portland.heliumcomedy.com. 8 pm Wednesday, July 19. $20.
For more Performance listings, visit
AMY KIM WASCHKE, EUNICE HONG
Kim Jong-Il and 100 Days of Garlic
OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL PREMIERES AN AMBITIOUS PLAY. BY MA RTIN CIZMA R
mcizmar@wweek.com
Everybody in the family at the center of Hannah and the Dread Gazebo is a bit disoriented. That starts with Grandma, who suffers from dementia and who leaps from the roof of Sunrise Dewdrop Apartment City for Senior Living on the border of South and North Korea, falling to her presumed death inside the demilitarized zone. That continues to her daughter, who is plunged into depression by her mother’s likely death and who copes by installing a gazebo for the roof of her Seoul condo, then tries to leap off that roof. She instead trips, bumps her head and enters a coma in which she meets Kim Jong-Il and a maimed bunny. And that extends a third generation to Hannah, who is supposed to be studying for an exam to become a board-certified neurologist when she receives a package from her grandmother with a note she can’t understand and a little white stone, “a wish” that’s been passed down through their family. That’s not to mention Hannah’s father, who’s sent to negotiate with bureaucrats for the right to look for his mother-in-law’s body in the DMZ or his son, an American rocker kid who can’t understand the language or customs of his parents’ native land and who bemoans that fact that everybody there “looks the same.” Which is all to say that Jiehae Park’s world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a bit gauzy, to the point of sometimes feeling psychedelic. It’s arguably the most ambitious of the offerings in Ashland this year, a 90-minute dramedy with two suicide attempts and a chat with a brutal dictator. Much of the plot involves unraveling a myth related to the origin story of Korea, in which a bear becomes human by living in a cave with nothing but garlic for 100 days. Despite
its headiness, Hannah is propelled by intrigue and well-timed bits of humor, but grounded in familial bonds that’ve gotten tangled with politics, generational conflict and eccentricity. Hannah is a short play and moves fast, in large part thanks to performances by Cindy Im and Jessica Ko. Im plays the titular character, delivering several short but commanding monologues and bringing energy to interactions with her family, characters who are mild thanks to personality or crippling depression. Ko plays more characters than I could count, from the grandmother to a nurse to Kim Jong-Il. She’s excellent in each role. Her reappearances become a welcome sight and her jokes leaven what could otherwise be dreary scenes only meant to move the story forward. If there is a weak point in Hannah, it’s the coma-induced dreamworld Hannah’s mother enters after her botched suicide. As her family frets and plots, she’s in the DMZ, surrounded by land mines and animals, where she meets with Kim Jong-Il, who has died just as the story unfolds. It’s hard to say what exactly a dream sequence should offer, given it’s a license for absurdity, but the intended takeaway was lost on me. Once the ghost of Jong-Il has been conjured, something more should be done with him—otherwise it’s a bit too Tarantino for the tone here. For all the calculated disorientation, Hannah does wrap things up in a satisfying way that manages to build on the mythology introduced and settle the family drama. That’s no small feat in a world of garlic, bears, inherited wishes and bureaucrats. SEE IT: Hannah and the Dread Gazebo is at Thomas Theatre, 15 S Pioneer St., Ashland, through Oct. 28. See osfashland.org for full schedule. $30-$108. Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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VISUAL ARTS C O U R T E S Y O F D AV I D S L A D E R
REVIEW
Creative Constraints HUMAN BEING DISPLAYS ART FROM OREGON INMATES.
SCREW, BY DAVID DRENTH. BY L AU R E N T E R RY
At the First Thursday reception for Human Being, three key people were missing from the crowd of over 500 attendees—the artists. David Drenth, Jerome Sloan and the artist known as B. Pat won’t get to see their work while it’s on display at Gallery 114. They can’t take this momentum of a Pearl District gallery exhibit to pursue their careers because they’re inmates in Oregon correctional facilities. David Drenth is at the Oregon State Penitentiary, where he received an associate degree of arts through Chemeketa’s OSP program (a program that recently got cut). Drenth’s illustrations are works of colored pencil and pastels, with colorful cubist backgrounds broken up with metal bars and gears that blend into menacing faces holding keys. “I want people to look at the bright side of things. I’ve had terrible things happen in my life, but maybe my art can help people
look at a person differently,” said Drenth, calling from OSP. “It’s very limiting with the supplies and size of my cell, I’d love to get out of here and be able to work with acrylics, oils and even metal sculptures.” David Slader, the member of the co-op gallery that curated this exhibit, was first exposed to inmate art as a defense attorney in Chicago, when a client paid him for post-conviction work with art. (Slader’s own works, a collection of female forms in expressionist gestures of teal and magenta, are also displayed in Human Being.) Many inmates pick up a pencil to pass the time while incarcerated, and in the case of the three artists shown at Human Being, end up executing a creative vision with skills they never knew they possessed. Another artist in the exhibit, Jerome Sloan, is serving a life sentence in the Snake River Penitentiary. Sloan is originally from Portland and his art shows his roots in street graffiti and a creative grasp
of script. He’s developed a spacelike sense of scale, suspending hyperrealist faces, sometimes his or his nephew’s, in galaxies of clocks and angular lettering from a language he’s made up. It’s a strange context—these artists wouldn’t have cultivated these skills if they weren’t in prison. But art can only be so much of an escape from the isolation inmates are subjected to, which was made glaringly obvious when attempting to contact the artists for interviews. It costs money for an inmate to dial out and to send an email. Drenth and Sloan were open to being interviewed, but it took three attempts to get my number into the Department of Corrections’ verified directory. Sloan dialed me once, but the line disconnected and he didn’t call again. The artists’ limitations can also be seen in their art supplies. Drenth uses the paper he uses for wrapping laundry as his canvas. “They can’t order from Blick,” says Slader. “Because most materials are
considered contraband; inmates don’t have many options beyond short nubs of colored pencils in the commissary.” When facing the paintings and mixedmedia collages of B. Pat, you can nearly hear roars of anguish. His mediums include M&M pigment mixed with toothpaste, and many of his otherworldly portraits are made on cardboard from a cereal box. He’s saved magazine clippings when he can, using feminine snarls from lipstick advertisements on distorted, clownish faces. There are excerpts from his notebooks, with Jungian musings and elegant analyses of what “life in a cage” does to a human being. Human Being is a visceral experience. If you’re struck by the show, Drenth has a request: “Please write to my parole officer and tell him my art deserves to be seen.” SEE IT: Human Being is at Gallery 114, 1100 NW Glisan St., gallery114pdx.com. Through July 31.
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BOOKS = WW Pick. Highly recommended.
PROFILE
BY DANA ALSTON. 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.
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 19 Mario Livio
Remember those science-y books your dad can’t stop talking about at dinner? Time to add another to the cursed collection. Mario Livio—an astrophysicist, no less—takes on curiosity with his new book Why? Based on interviews with curious people and Livio’s own interest in history’s most curious figures like Da Vinci and Richard Feynman, the book is sure to tickle the minds of factoid fans. It’s not dry; promise! Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800-8787323. 7:30 pm. Free.
THURSDAY, JULY 20 Bianca Marais
It’s been 26 years since apartheid was abolished in South Africa, and less than a decade since the last thinly veiled sci-fi critique made its way to theaters. Looking at you, District 9. Johannesburg native Bianca Marais’ new novel Hum If You Don’t Know The Words follows a white girl and a Xhosa woman whose paths cross in the aftermath of the Soweto uprising in 1976. So, a little less crazy. But more grounded and potentially powerful? You bet. Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 212-782-9714, 7:30 p.m. Free.
Lee Matthew Goldberg
Looking for the next likely “book-tomovie thriller” candidate? Try Lee Matthew Goldberg’s The Mentor, which follows a new editor at a major publishing house named Kyle. Fresh on the job, Kyle’s favorite college professor—an aspiring writer named William Lansing—offers a horribly depraved manuscript. It’s grade-F hot garbage. But Kyle’s rejection seems to inspire Lansing’s sinister side. Oh, and the manuscript in question perfectly mirrors a missing-persons case from Kyle’s college town. Jeepers. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
MONDAY, JULY 24 Samantha Hunt
On the lookout for some bite-sized surrealism? The Dark Dark is novelist and essayist Samantha Hunt’s first collection of short stories, and it sounds suitably creepy and strange. A cop falls in love with a suicidal robot, for example. Or the story of a woman transformed into a deer on a nightly basis. And who can forget the classic tale of 13 pregnant teenagers and their time-traveling relationship with the Founding Fathers? Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
TUESDAY, JULY 25 Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home
As the internet continues to collectively combust over “doggos,” Portland author Nicole Georges’ new graphic memoir shows both sides of our canine pals. A fictional Georges tries to battle depression by getting a dog—an equally troubled Shar-Pei/ Corgi mix named Beija—who remains her companion for the next 15 years. All the while, Georges grows up among the punks of Portland and tries to remedy Beija’s aggressiveness until she discovers compassion is the best medicine. Think Marley & Me starring that weird guy living downstairs. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm. Free.
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Stephen Holgate, TANGIER
Casablanca is not Casablanca. It is, instead, Tangier—a Moroccan port-town hive of intrigue and vice, filled in the ’40s with expats tired of the war. Sooner or later everybody came to Dean’s Bar, the real-life analog to Rick’s Cafe. When this point is made in the opening pages of Stephen Holgate’s novel, Tangier (Blank Slate, 384 pages, $19.95), it’s a statement of purpose—a signal this is a book where the dead-eyed women of noir lead hard-boiled men to resign themselves to doom. But Holgate, a Portlander and former staffer at the U.S. embassy in Rabat, Morocco, is the sort of amateur historian who’d spend two decades gearing up a oneman show about Abe Lincoln. His novel is as much Graham Greene as Dashiell Hammett, a meditation on the unknowable past. Tangier is, on the one hand, a story about a son searching for his father. Christopher Chaffee, a diplomat who resigned in disgrace, has been sent to Tangier Holgate in 1995 to search for his longlost father, a Frenchman thought killed during World War II. His mother has received a letter 50 years late, and has un sentiment that Christopher’s father is alive—the book, in a sort of ecstatic exoticism, is sprinkled with an italicized potpourri of French, German and Arabic. The other story is the cigarette-chewing spy tale of his father, René Laurent, and the woman who led him wrong—a world of sinister Englishmen and the sinister Swiss. The book is not a fast-moving potboiler, nor is it a book of great literary firepower. Legs are “leaden,” nights are “blustery” and a tired man’s head is “like a box of broken gears.” At one point, in what one hopes is a sly wink, a British operative actually introduces himself as “Grant. Richard Grant.” Tangier is, rather, a book whose primary virtue is patience, lingering lovingly over its mysteries. Some of its most compelling scenes take place in diplomatic offices, showing evidence of Holgate’s experience with grinding bureaucracies abroad—a jejune French consul with “baroque” English who pings Chaffee over to the Spanish, who swear the answer will only be found in Madrid. Cliffhangers come in the form of letters opened at hotel desks, read aloud by clerks. Suddenly, the setting in 1995 makes sense—it is the very edge of the internet, perhaps the last year in which such mysteries take place in person, rather than at the arrowpoint of a cursor. Holgate’s book becomes an often pleasant throwback to the dusty days when time moved languorously slow, when becoming another person was as simple as introducing yourself under a different name, and when surveillance came in the form of a shadowy figure on the street corner. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.
Artisan Pie Pie Artisan Event Event
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August
5-9
1ST PM
Tickets on sale now! $27
GO: Stephen Holgate reads Thursday, July 20, at Mother Foucault’s, 523 SE Morrison St., 236-2665. 7 pm. Free. Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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COURTESY OF THELASTSEASONFILM.COM
MOVIES GET YO UR R E PS IN
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick’s tale of a giant rock that travels through time and space is visually stunning even in digital, but it will be pretty mind-blowing in crystal-clear 35mm film. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, July 24.
The Connection
(1961)
Raising Arizona
(1987)
Shirley Clarke’s film about a beat community in New York was half erased from the American film canon thanks to a denied license from the New York Department of Education. Based on a play of the same title, it tells the story of jazz musicians who agree to be in a film in exchange for drugs, and they say the word “shit” apparently more than the state government was willing to tolerate. 5th Avenue Cinema, July 21-23.
The Nicholas Cage-starring movie about a married ex-con and ex-cop who steal a baby might not be the Coen Brothers’ most profound. But the fact that it’s so ridiculous is also what makes it so endearing. Plus, it’s still plenty deadpan despite being fervently absurd. Mission, July 23-25.
The Room
Searching for Matsutake
(2003)
Soon to be parodied by a James Franco and Seth Rogen movie, T he Room is just as odd for its bafflingly horrible soap opera-like plot as it is for its fans. At this point, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is more about the mythology its cult following has developed than the movie itself. Is it the worst movie ever or is it a black comedy? Was it all an elaborate joke or a drug trafficking coverup? Who is Tommy Wiseau, really? Cinema 21, July 21.
Le Samouraï
(1967)
There are few things more suave and atmospheric than JeanPierre Melville’s ’60s noir crime dramas. As part of its classic French cinema series, NW Film Center will screen Melville’s metaphor-heavy masterpiece about an extremely stylish assassin. NW Film Center, July 23. Whitsell Auditorium.
ALSO PLAYING: Academy: The Goonies (1985), July 20. Clinton Street Theater: Scott Pilgrim vs, the World (2010), July 22. Stripes (1981), July 24. Kiggins: Stop Making Sense (1984), July 19. Laurlehurst: Vampire’s Kiss (1988), through July 20. Moonstruck (1987), July 21-27. Mission: Breathless (1960), July 21-22. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), July 20-22. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), July 20-22. NW Film Center: Dune (1984), July 21-22. Angels of Sin (1943), July 22.
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MUSHROOMED OUT: Kouy Loch at a mushroom-picking camp.
THE LAST SEASON DEPICTS AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP AND THE HUNT FOR REALLY EXPENSIVE MUSHROOMS. BY DANA ALSTO N
dalston@wweek.com
The opening shots of The Last Season are deceivingly serene. Sara Dosa’s 2014 documentary begins with a silhouetted hill just after sunset, an empty gas station surrounded by darkness, a burger joint with a few parked pickups out front. It’s the dead of night in Chemult, an unincorporated town in Klamath County with a population that peaks around 300. But the town’s population is about to spike. For two months every year, Chemult transforms from near-ghost town to a thriving community of immigrants. Hundreds of pickers flock from Southeast Asia to gather matsutake mushrooms. It’s a lucrative venture, especially since they sell in Japan for around $200 a pound. The pickers deliver their daily crop to makeshift camps, where the mushrooms are sorted and sold. Workers leave with pockets of cash. Dosa, a San Francisco native, first heard about the industry while in grad school at the London School of Economics. But the money involved rarely makes its way onscreen. Instead, Dosa followed Kouy Loch, a Cambodian war veteran who works the mushroom circuit throughout the Northwest
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
in order to provide for his daughter Janette. In the mid 2000s, Loch met Roger Higgins, a Vietnam War veteran and 40-year Chemult native living with his wife Theresa. Loch is now their adopted son, and lives in Higgins’ backyard in a makeshift shack. Dosa filmed them for three months, documenting their relationship and the ways in which war—now decades in the past—continue to haunt them. Higgins was near the end of his life during production. He walks with a cane and a nasal tube protruding from a backpack, the aftermath of a long battle with alcoholism. The damage his struggles have caused to him and Theresa makes up one of the film’s major arcs. But Dosa handles the subject impressively from the onset, only occasionally hinting at Higgins’ past before allowing Theresa and Loch to fully divulge it in the final act. Along the way, anecdotes regarding the horrors of war slowly make their way into the fold until his attitude—he calls himself “a real son of a bitch”—is given heartbreaking context. Loch’s story unfolds the same way. Dosa says his fear that Janette may never understand his absence was one of the reasons he agreed to be filmed. “Sometimes I can say that I’m lucky to have this job,” Loch says. “Other times, I hate myself.”
When Theresa asks Loch for advice to help comfort Higgins during his night terrors, his response is powerful and nearly poetic. “A flashback is just like a ghost coming into you,” he whispers. “You have to explain to him...that nobody can hurt him anymore.” The bond between these people is palpable, especially near the film’s ending. Credit Dosa, who works serene footage of the Oregon countryside into her film with grace. In fact, “serene” is a good way to describe the film in full. Dosa—who relied on her growing relationships with her subjects to drive the film’s emotional power—favors intimacy over visual splendor. It’s also a tear-jerker. Higgins’s ailing health is never exploited, but it’s obvious that he’s nearing his end. He passed away a year after production, and Last Season is dedicated to his memory. Dosa filmed him during the year he went sober, which she says may have contributed to his involvement. “I always the hunch that he saw the film as an opportunity to find a sense of redemption and reframe his story on his own terms,” says Dosa. SEE IT: Last Season screens at NW Documentary on Sunday, July 23. Free.
: This movie sucks, don’t watch it. : This movie is entertaining but flawed. : This movie is good. We recommend you watch it. : This movie is excellent, one of the best of the year.
NOW PLAYING A Ghost Story
A glimpse at the promotional poster for A Ghost Story—Casey Affleck, clad in a white sheet with eye holes— suggests creepy horror. But there’s little that’s frightening in David Lowry’s emotional exercise in magical realism. Instead, we’re treated to fine performances from Affleck and critical darling Rooney Mara in a time-hopping story about a ghost and the house where he lived. Affleck really is behind that sheet, haunting his suburban home after his character dies in a car accident. His wife (Mara) moves through the house and tries to move on from the loss over days and weeks. Time moves quickly. We get glimpses of a 19th-century prairie and a futuristic cityscape. It’s introspective and head-scratching, thanks in part to a haunting soundtrack from solo violinist David Hart. Comparisons to Spike Jonze’s equally conceptual Her are somewhat apt. But Ghost Story is much more supernatural. Lowry has a welldeveloped eye for inventive storytelling thanks to his background in micro-budget shorts. His vision is on full display here, and the result is one of 2017’s most powerful films. R. DANA ALSTON. Cinema 21.
Dunkirk There are plenty of bombs and rifle-fire and bulletholes and casualties, but for a war movie, there is very little actual fighting that goes on in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. When the film opens, we’re immediately dropped into the abandoned beachside town of Dunkirk, France, where bullets are whizzing at dehydrated soldiers and propaganda fliers are raining down. The idea that our protagonist, the English war machine, could face down the Germans and triumph in a conventional battle is ludicrous. The only sliver of hope is evacuation. So, evacuate to where? The grunts are sitting ducks for dive bombers on the beach, and beyond that is miles of sea where enemy planes standby to strafe and U-boats lurk shark-like below the surface. You may have noticed I’ve said nothing of the characters in this film. That’s because there aren’t any, really. We do get to
follow a few soldiers and pilots and civilians at sea, but they’re more like standins for the other 400,000 like them marooned on the beach or assisting in the rescue effort. That’s fine, though. This movie doesn’t really need characters, and wasting time on distracting details like what’s waiting at home for these boys would only slow down the headlong pacing of the operation, which is one of the film’s major successes. The star of the show is cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema, whose serene photography provides a necessary counterbalance to the breathless editing. I don’t think this film will win Best Picture at next year’s Oscars, but it’s a shoo-in a handful of technical nominations. PG-13. R. MITCHELL MILLER. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lloyd, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver
Spring Term Student Screening
NW Film Center students from a bunch of different backgrounds—including screenwriting, documentary editing, digital cinematography—will present their final project short films. All under five minutes, the films will include one student’s ode to her cat which the filmmaker will accompany with live music. Plus, they’ll be some live readings of scripts by screenwriting students. NW Film Center, Sunday, July 23.
STILL SHOWING 47 Meters Down
In this shark thriller, a recently dumped Lisa (Mandy Moore) thinks an Instagram post during a trip to Mexico will get her boyfriend back. That gives you a pretty solid idea of the movie’s depth. Still, those seeking the heart-pumping adrenaline of a summer shark flick won’t be disappointed. PG-13. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Tigard
Alien: Covenant
Casting Danny McBride as the alien was a ballsy gamble that paid off. Sadly, nothing else in Ridley Scott’s frenetic follow-up to the underrated Prometheus comes together as it should. R. Clackamas, Empirical, Vancouver
Band Aid
Relationships on the fritz make for some of rock music’s best mythology. In a twee reversal, Band Aid asks whether a civilian Carter-Cash or BuckinghamNicks could take up songwriting as couples therapy. Anna and Ben (Zoe Lister-Jones and Adam Pally) bicker compulsively—about their mountain of dirty dishes, spiralling all the way to a miscarriage they can barely discuss. Transposing grievances into duets— backed by their neighbor Weird Dave (Fred Armisen) on drums—could be the remedy. It’s a strong conceit from actor, writer and first-time director Lister-Jones (Breaking Upwards, Life In Pieces), and the movie hangs in the chemistry between her and Pally. Both are comfortable in a ping-pong battle between humor and drama, but it’s the multitasking Lister-Jones who proves an uncommonly believable comedic presence. She beats back a world of doting Silver Lake moms and her classless Uber passengers with a dryness that never becomes schtick. Ultimately, though, like so many premise-driven indie comedies, Band Aid crescendos with enthusiasm but has no idea how to strike a resolving chord. It settles on letting its too-cute, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus garage-rock songs soak in the limelight. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room Theaters.
Baby Driver
It takes a scant five minutes for Baby Driver to feel like one of the best car-chase films of all time. Director Edgar Wright’s first film since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World kicks off with a stellar getaway through the streets of Atlanta set to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms.” Somehow, though, Wright manages to top that scene throughout, culminating in a frantic, mesmerizing and utterly joyful 45-minute finale. At the wheel is Baby (Ansel Elgort, whose face really sells the “Baby” business), who combats his tinnitus by constantly pumping tunes through his earbuds. Every sequence plays out perfectly to the music in Baby’s ears, whether it’s the rat-a-tat of gunfire punctuating the snare on an old funk track or clashing metal with the cymbal smashes on classic-rock oddities. This is a movie where violence and velocity are played up to surrealist levels while remaining relatively grounded in reality. It’s hysterically funny, but not a straight comedy. It’s often touching, but seldom cloying. It’s the hyperstylish car chase opera the world deserves. AP KRYZA. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic Theatre, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lloyd, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver
Baywatch
I am pleased to report that this movie is exactly as unnecessary and idiotic as you think it is. R. Avalon, Jubitz, Kennedy School, Valley Cinema Pub, Vancouver
prankster protagonists, two elementary schoolers (voiced by Kevin Hart and Thomas Middleditch) at war with the tyrannical Principal Krupp (Ed Helms). PG. Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie Academy, Avalon, Empirical, Kennedy School, Vancouver.
The Beguiled
Cars 3
Sofia Coppola’s Civil War-era tale of amorousness and limb-severing vengeance has a beautifully haunting opening: a scene where a young girl (Oona Laurence) happens upon the wounded Union soldier John McBurney (Colin Farrell). With its aura of quiet menace, that moment sets the style for the movie, which follows McBurney back to a Southern all-girls seminary, where his hosts (including Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning) both vie for his affections and subject him to ghastly torment. Coppola—who adapted the film from a Thomas Cullinan novel—may have packed the movie with intimations of repressed rage and sexuality, but she suffocates The Beguiled with monotonously pretty scenery and the tiresome spectacle of awful people doing awful things to other awful people. Only rarely does the film flicker with emotional life, which usually happens when the effortlessly charismatic McBurney is onscreen. He declares that he’s “easily amused,” which begs the question: Why doesn’t Coppola try amusing us for a change? R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Living Room Theaters
Beauty and the Beast
Did we need this remake? Probably not. Is is pretty good? Yes. PG. Empirical, Valley Cinema Pub, Vancouver
The Book of Henry
Directed by Colin Trevorrow’s (Jurassic World), The Book of Henry tells the story of Henry (Jaeden Lieberher), a cute, dying, 11-year-old genius who lives next door to Christina (Maddie Ziegler), another cute kid with an abusive stepfather (Dean Norris). PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. City Center, Fox Tower.
The Boss Baby
Somehow, this movie isn’t a terrifying monstrosity. PG. Academy, Avalon, Empirical, Vancouver.
Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
Giddy satire gives way to lazy bombast in this animated adaptation of Dav Pilkey’s children’s book series, which has too much of its titular underdressed superhero and too little of its
Cars 3 is a tribute to the bonds shared by teachers and students, albeit with a slapstick demolition derby scene dominated by a comically sinister school bus. Yet it’s Pixar’s gift for imbuing inanimate objects with humanity that makes you care when Cruz and Lightning lean into the curves. G. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, St. Johns Pub and Theater, Tigard, Vancouver
Despicable Me 3
Conventional Hollywood wisdom dictates that animated children’s movies must vigorously trumpet the merits of kindness (good!) and condemn the evils of selfishness (bad!). Yet that memo clearly hasn’t reached the makers of this anarchic entry in the Despicable Me franchise, in which the bulbous, reformed supervillain Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) finds his lust for mischief is stoked by his twin brother, a cheerful moron named Dru (also Carell). Among their adventures is a tussle with the mullet-sporting master criminal Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker) that allows for plenty of delightfully nonsensical scenes, including a dance-off that features Gru and Balthazar busting moves to Madonna’s “Into the Groove.” Like the film itself, that scene eschews forced wholesomeness and delivers a truckload of dumb fun—which, in an age when even witless entertainments like The Mummy arrive swollen with pomposity, is a minor miracle. PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bagdad, Beaverton, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Milwaukie, Moreland, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Roseway, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.
Everything, Everything
This young adult movie about a girl (Amandla Stenberg) who lives in a bubble is just as devoid of logic, storytelling or disability rights as it sounds like it is. PG-13. Vancouver.
The Fate of the Furious
Sadly, Paul Walker was the key ingredient missing in the eighth iteration of the Fast and the Furious franchise. At least there’s still a bunch of cool explosions and shit. PG-13. Avalon, Vancouver
CONT. on page 42 MELINDA SUE GORDON
Editor: WALKER MACMURDO. 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: wmacmurdo@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.
DUNKIRK Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
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MOVIES Get Out
Yes, this movie is as good as everyone says it is, enough so that it makes you ask why other horror movies aren’t better. R. Academy, Laurelhurst.
Going in Style
Zach Braff ’s Going in Style acts as a bitterly honest ode to aging, ageism and existentialism—themes that are always spry. What one might not expect is a plot that’s fairly heinous, both morally and logistically, with characters who remain justified and likable throughout. PG-13. Vancouver.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
When the first Guardians debuted, its irreverent, hilarious, bizarro tone came out of nowhere, making audiences fall in love with Marvel’s D-list heroes at the confluence of Star Wars,
The Ice Pirates and Buckaroo Banzai. Vol. 2 isn’t the jolt that the first one was, but between all the action and its surprisingly poignant finale, it’s a welcome addition. We’d follow this band of charismatic assholes anywhere at this point. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Tigard
I, Daniel Blake
An “I” precedes the name Daniel Blake in Ken Loach’s (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) 2016 Palme d’Orwinning film because its protagonist will eventually be driven to testimony. But Daniel doesn’t start out an evangelist for the English commoner, and neither does the film. Played as a grouch with a heart by comedian Dave Johns, we follow Daniel through a welfare system’s circles of hell in the former industrial hub of Newcastle.
REVIEW
You’d be hardpressed to find a more sobering portrayal of a losing streak taking over a life. R. Laurelhurst.
Kong: Skull Island
Following the original film’s blueprint, Kong: Skull Island sends a boatload of explorers past the permastorm that’s hidden the titular archipelago for millennia. The similarities end there. Shifting to Southeast Asia just after the fall of Saigon, Skull Island replaces Age of Discovery heroics with wartime ambience. PG-13. Vancouver.
The Lego Batman Movie
Fast, funny and pleasingly drunk on the joys of mockery, The Lego Batman Movie is as fun as the 2014 original but stars Will Arnett as a petulant, preening goofball who rocks out on an electric guitar and showers orphans with cool toys from a merch gun. PG. Clackamas, Vancouver.
Logan
C O U R T E S Y O F H O L LY W O O D T H E A T R E
Turns out having Hugh Jackman and cute child Dafne Keen perform Mortal Kombat fatalities on robot-armed mercenaries is a cool idea for a movie. R. Vancouver.
The Lost City of Z
This supremely entertaining tale of exploration and obsession unfolds in the early years of the 20th century to chronicle the storied search of Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) for an ancient city he believes lies hidden deep within the Amazon. With a buildup of suspense that would have made Hitchcock crack a sinister smile, and intoxicating images— men hacking their way through foliage with machetes, ramshackle boats floating toward elusive destinations—from director James Gray (Two Lovers), the movie hypnotizes completely. PG-13. Fox Tower.
Maudie
CITY OF GOLD: Ahmoudo Madassane.
Strange Trip A Portland filmmaker takes an acid-tinged journey into Saharan folklore.
Like any good hallucinatory experience, it takes Zerzura a bit of time to kick in. But when it does, what begins as a relatively straightforward hero’s quest suddenly transforms into a striking, surreal and utterly gorgeous symphony of bizarre, cerebral imagery. This isn’t the first time Portland-based director and ethnomusicologist Christopher Kirkley has looked to the city of Agadez, Niger, for conventionbucking inspiration. His breakout film, Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, was essentially a retelling of Purple Rain set in the desert, a place lacking both the purifying waters of Lake Minnetonka and an actual word for purple (the title translated to “Rain the Color of Blue with a Little Red in It”). With Zerzura, he and co-director Rhissa Koutata dive further into the deep end to craft a fable rooted in ancient myth, touching on modern immigration issues while maintaining a near-Homeric tone. The legend at the root of the film is the titular lost city lorded by djinn, who guard its excesses of gold. It’s claimed the brother of the film’s nameless protagonist. After receiving a magical dagger, our hero (played by Ahmoudou Madassane, who also scored the film) begins his long walk across the desert in an linear, episodic quest to rescue his kin, encountering soothsayers, temptation and horrors along the way. With non-actors in every role, the film initially seems like a cinéma vérité tale that involves little more than a man walking. Then, just as interest wanes, the hero walks backward into the subterranean lair of a gold-obsessed hermit. Suddenly and without warning, the film explodes into something completely different—a supernatural tale filled with explosive color, immaculately framed tableaus and enough freaky imagery to fill a funhouse. But lest this all sound highly modernized, the directors keep Zerzura completely grounded in a tale that spans nine centuries, a fable that has stood the test of time as a cautionary tale about the blind pursuit of greed. The hallucinatory elements aren’t just a gimmick. They serve to plunge you headlong into the tale, and at times, it’s breathtaking. AP KRYZA. SEE IT: Zerzura screens at Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Wednesday, July 19. $9. 42
Willamette Week JULY 19, 2017 wweek.com
In this biopic of Canadian folk visualist Maud Lewis, Sally Hawkins embodies the mid-20th century painter with incredible resilience. The whimsy Maud pours into her colorful landscapes is a tonic to her painful relationship with her husband Everett (Ethan Hawke) and her severe arthritis. Maud meets Everett when, looking for an escape from living with her Aunt Ida (Gabrielle Rose), she signs up to work as his housekeeper. Hawkins’ portrayal of resisting physical decay is deeply touching, and Hawke, one of Hollywood’s most prolific emoters, exercises ultimate restraint as Everett, breaking his wife’s heart as a grumbling, nearly unreachable soul. As a couple, they’re “like a pair of odd socks,” Maud waxes in one of the film’s most touching moments. It’s a moment to relish, because hardship is far more common in their remote Nova Scotia cottage—the one Maud gradually turns into a four-walled canvas, illustrating petals and birds on every surface. It’s not that Maudie wastes these two remarkable performances, they’re just the only two hues on its palette. Otherwise, it’s a paint-by-numbers biography that resets constantly and clunkily with folk arpeggiating, and never really digs for Lewis’ deeper character or philosophies in its script. Who knows what made her great, the film says, but her essence was innately good. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Living Room.
Megan Leavey
With a more expressive star and a more experienced director, this Iraq War tale of a U.S. Marine and her German shepherd could have been more than what it is: a glossy, facile and TV-ready tribute to a heroic woman who deserves a much better movie. PG-13. Clackamas.
My Cousin Rachel
Spooky, sexy and gleefully menacing, this fresh rendition of Daphne du Maurier’s novel is a terrific showcase for its stars, Sam Claflin as dunderhead lord of a coastal estate in Victorian-era England who seeks vengeance against the cousin of title, and said cousin (Rachel Weisz), whose masterful performance blends anguish, toughness and terrifying rage. PG-13. Fox Tower.
The Mummy
The Mummy is a bunch of haphazard action sequences hastily constucted a one-sided romance between
an Egyptian zombie princess (Sofia Boutella) and Tom Cruise’s goofy daredevil Nick Morton. Still, it’s almost wonderous in its stupidity. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Empirical.
Paris Can Wait
Would a lighter version of Eat, Pray, Love even be a film at all? PG. Bridgeport, Kiggins.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Ahoy matey! Johnny Depp is washed! PG-13. Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Oak Grove, Vancouver.
Rough Night
In Lucia Aniello’s first feature film about millennial women behaving badly, five college friends reunite for Jess’s (Scarlett Johansson) bachelorette weekend in Miami. The cast is packed with America’s stoner, foulmouthed sweethearts, including Ilana Glazer from Broad City, Jillian Bell (Workaholics), SNL’s Kate McKinnon and Zoë Kravitz. Johansson is our straight woman, the mild-mannered everygirl running for state senate and engaged to Paul W. Downs, who co-wrote the film with Aniello. Downs and Aniello are both Broad City writers, and any fan of the show will endure girls’ night tropes (like slow-motion entrances into hotel lobbies and bikini-area grooming gaffs) for the shining moments of modern female-fueled comedy pointedly accurate for 25-35 year-olds. After a freak accident results in a dead stripper, the friends make the messy situation dirtier with every scene, like when Kravitz must seduce the swinger couple next door (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell) to obtain the tape from their security camera. Rough Night doesn’t revolutionize wild weekend movies, but it’s a smart skewering of the bro’d out black comedies that have dominated the R-rated genre. R. LAUREN TERRY. Cedar Hills, Eastport, Fox Tower, Tigard.
Snatched
Picture the worn-out gimmick of the hapless character on a mission, walking in slow motion while gangsta rap ironically scores their strut. Picture a film unimaginative enough to use that gag three separate times and you have Snatched. R. Vancouver.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
The second reboot in a cinematic series that’s merely 15 years old is as interesting for what it leaves out as for what it tackles. There’s no damsel in constant distress. No revisiting the murder of Uncle Ben or a radioactive spider bite. Hell, there’s not even a world-threatening conflict. Instead, director Jon Watts takes Spidey’s first solo outing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and puts him up against something far more daunting: high school. Sure, Peter Parker (Tom Holland, returning after a star-making turn in Civil War) has to face off against Michael Keaton’s snarling winged menace Vulture. But he also has to find a date to homecoming, train for the academic decathlon and deflect bullies, all while learning to control his newfound superpowers under the tutelage of Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.). As such, Homecoming is as indebted to John Hughes as it is to Stan Lee. There are some excellent, showstopping action sequences sprinkled across the runtime, but Homecoming takes greater pleasure in watching the gawky Holland’s trialand-error as he navigates his sophomore year. It’s a sunny, breezy comic-book romp of little consequence. In an age of glowering caped crusaders, Homecoming reminds us that we should be having fun watching men in tights smack into walls. PG-13. AP KRYZA. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.
T2: Trainspotting
It’s been 21 years since Trainspotting turned a blackly comic druggy caper into generational touchstone, and the followup posits that if you can survive the first rush of freedom and weather the inevitable hangover of crashing dreams, nostalgia becomes the last true habit. R. Laurelhurst.
Their Finest
’Ello, love! It’s what seems to be the thousandth period romance this year, this time revolving around a screenwriter (Gemma Arterton) in the British film industry in 1940, marred by needless plot hiccups that make this film dissonantly depressing. R. Academy, Laurelhurst.
War for the Planet of the Apes
While the title tags of its two predecessors, 2011’s Rise and 2014’s Dawn, are virtually interchangeable, the “War” in War for the Planet of the Apes could scarcely speak louder. The third installment in the new Apes saga is designed like a classic Hollywood combat epic. Though he’s now gray around his tortured eyes— the ones so human they continue to feel like a motion-capture miracle— the Messianic chimpanzee Caesar can find no peace. He must now face down an army colonel who resembles Brando’s iconic Kurtz in every way except for being played rather casually by Woody Harrelson. Marred by irredeemable, indistinct human characters, War feels every bit the technological achievement of Dawn without the inter-primate intrigue. While the second film examines the hazards of tribal communication, War finds its meaning in suffering. In their quest for sanctuary, Caesar’s dwindling band of Muir Woods apes resembles history’s most abused populations: Israelites, Gulag prisoners, forcibly relocated Native Americans. It’s operatic, very long and intentionally little fun. The stakes are cataclysmic enough to end this franchise, though they probably won’t. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Bridgeport, Cascade, Clackamas, Ceder Hills, City Center, Division, Eastport, Evergreen, Lloyd Center, Tigard, Vancouver.
Wish Upon
Newton’s third law of wishes states that for every wish granted by a numinous foreign artifact or spiteful djinn, an equal and opposite blood debt must be repaid. Basic physics aside, Wish Upon is the story of unpopular high schooler Clare Shannon (Joey King), who is haunted by memories of witnessing her mother’s hanging suicide when she was a child, and now lives with her father Jonathan (Ryan Phillippe) and dog in the same house 12 years later. Clare’s daily torment includes being nearly run over by her more popular texting-and-driving peers as she rides her bike to school, and later we see her engaged in an all-out lunchroom brawl with one of those same classmates. It’s never easy being a teenager, and Jonathan, realizing that Clare’s circumstances are tougher than most, tries to be a doting father and surprises her by gifting her a scary-looking antique Chinese music box scavenged from a neighbor’s dumpster. Clare comes to learn that the music box is not actually very useful if you just want to hear a little ditty, but it does purport to grant its owner seven wishes. Ignorant of the strings that usually come attached to such things, she begins making wishes. Wish Upon doesn’t offer anything new to the “be careful what you wish for” trope, but there are a generous handful of tense moments and amusing bits of dialogue. The film is well-paced, and all in all, you could do worse if you’re looking to see some blood. R. R. MITCHELL MILLER. Clackamas, City Center, Division, Stadium, Tigard.
Wonder Woman
I never thought I’d get a lump in my throat watching a superhero movie but here we are. Patty Jenkins’ telling of Diana Prince’s (Gal Gadot) WWI origin deftly balances action, romance, comedy and emotional heft like no other in genre has. PG-13. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.
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Here’s a well-known secret: Most recipes It also offers a very easy way to make your for edibles just use own cannabis butter. weed butter. To make your own, just add one cup of butO n c e y o u h a v e ter for every 7 to 14 grams of marijuana and butter infused with one tablespoon of lecithin. You simply place it decarboxylated can- all in the machine, set the temperature to 200 nabis, you just substi- degrees for two hours and push a button. tute it for regular butter in any recipe, and you While it doesn’t emit any intense smells, have an edible. make sure to place it somewhere away from The downside is the propeople, as a blending noise cess. Making your own weed comes on every few minbutter is time-consuming. utes. After the two hours, If simmering in a pan, it we opened the machine to takes two to three hours. some gooey, brown syrup In a Crock-Pot, it takes up and poured the mixture into to a full day. If you’re a high a rubber cookie tray shaped schooler and your parents like sticks of butter (sold are out of town, sitting at separately) and let it sit. It home for three hours and will harden in a few hours, watching a pan might be but you’ll need to refrigerworth it. Oh, but the smell— ate it to really get the butter it lingers for a long time. consistency. Of course, making your I f y o u’r e a p u r i s t o r own edibles isn’t necestrying to start your own sary thanks to legal weed. edible company, we recomDispensaries pack an abunmend you use the filter bag dance of edibles that include ($12.95) to filter out all the “The world’s first everything from ice cream leftover stems and gunk. But to cake pops. But those countertop Botanical if you’re just trying to make products are rarely cheap. an updated version of pot Extractor™” This brings us to the Magibrownies, just dumping the cal Butter machine ($174), concoction into the molds (Ooh... fancy!) which is billed as “the world’s will do. first countertop Botanical Extractor™.” Once you remove the butter, you can set it to Basically, it’s part Crock-Pot, part blender, the “car wash” function, where it’ll automatidesigned for infusing the essence of healthy herbs cally clean itself. into butter, oil, lotions or tinctures. The best thing Then, just follow any recipe you want, about the Magical Butter machine is that you can replacing the regular butter with your new use it to infuse any herb, so it’s not just for can- weedy butter.
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Across 1 Chicken ___ (Italian dish, informally) 5 TV logician 10 Blot 14 Hairy twin of the Bible 15 Fluorescent bulb gas 16 ___ cosa (Spanish “something else”) 17 French term for a temporary residence 19 Algerian setting for Camus’s “The Plague” 20 Did some pranking
25 Shelley’s elegy for Keats
43 Handled
26 Castaway’s refuge, perhaps
47 John who once cohosted “Entertainment Tonight”
27 Fix eggs, maybe 29 Running count 30 Cross-shaped Greek letter 31 Diva’s rendition 33 “___ Ho” (“Slumdog Millionaire” song) 34 Duo behind the CW series “Fool Us” 39 Giants giant Mel 40 Brand in the pet aisle
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48 First Lady and diplomat Roosevelt 50 Got to the point? 52 With 56-Across, low-budget programming source
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35 Like horror movie characters, as they eventually find out 36 Running account 37 Opening for Quest or glades 38 Shine’s partner? 42 Dissertation writer’s goal 43 Tintype tints 44 Homecoming attendees 45 Visit to an Internet page, informally 46 ___-Roman wrestling (var.) 47 Game show question that determines which team plays 49 Using half as many digits as hexadecimal 50 Most common throw with two dice (D6es, for those of you playing at home) 51 TV show that took in Ted Danson 53 Seafood in a shell 54 “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” star Michael 57 0∞F phenomenon 58 Torero’s encouragement 59 Quick snooze last week’s answers
27 Stereotypical last word of art films
55 “It seems to me,” online
28 “This American Life” medium
56 See 52-Across
31 Sagrada Familia architect Gaudi
60 Has ___ with (is connected)
Holograms, on Saturday morning TV
32 Splinter, for one 61 Without ___ in the 33 Leader of the world ©2017 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 #JONZ823.
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Week of July 20
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
er alignment to take maximum advantage of current cosmic rhythms. For the next three weeks, say them periodically throughout the day. 1. “I want to give the gifts I like to give rather than the gifts I’m supposed to give.” 2. “If I can’t do things with excellence and integrity, I won’t do them at all.” 3. “I intend to run on the fuel of my own deepest zeal, not on the fuel of someone else’s passions.” 4. “My joy comes as much from doing my beautiful best as from pleasing other people.”
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
The world will never fully know or appreciate the nature of your heroic journey. Even the people who love you the most will only ever understand a portion of your epic quest to become your best self. That’s why it’s important for you to be generous in giving yourself credit for all you have accomplished up until now and will accomplish in the future. Take time to marvel at the majesty and miracle of the life you have created for yourself. Celebrate the struggles you’ve weathered and the liberations you’ve initiated. Shout “Glory hallelujah!” as you acknowledge your persistence and resourcefulness. The coming weeks will be an especially favorable time to do this tricky but fun work.
The Greek word philokalia is translated as the “love of the beautiful, the exalted, the excellent.” I propose that we make it your keyword for the next three weeks -- the theme you keep at the forefront of your awareness everywhere you go. But think a while before you say yes to my invitation. To commit yourself to being so relentlessly in quest of the sublime would be a demanding job. Are you truly prepared to adjust to the poignant sweetness that might stream into your life as a result? It’s a favorable time to strengthen your fundamentals and stabilize your foundation. I invite you to devote your finest intelligence and grittiest determination to this project. How? Draw deeply from your roots. Tap into the mother lode of inspiration that never fails you. Nurture the web of life that nurtures you. The cosmos will offer you lots of help and inspiration whenever you attend to these practical and sacred matters. Best-case scenario: You will bolster your personal power for many months to come.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20)
Two talking porcupines are enjoying an erotic tryst in a cactus garden. It’s a prickly experience, but that’s how they like it. “I always get horny when things get thorny,” says one. Meanwhile, in the rose garden next door, two unicorns wearing crowns of thorns snuggle and nuzzle as they receive acupuncture from a swarm of helpful hornets. One of the unicorns murmurs, “This is the sharpest pleasure I’ve ever known.” Now here’s the moral of these far-out fables, Gemini: Are you ready to gamble on a cagey and exuberant ramble through the brambles? Are you curious about the healing that might become available if you explore the edgy frontiers of gusto?
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
I suspect you may have drug-like effects on people in the coming weeks. Which drugs? At various times, your impact could resemble cognac, magic mushrooms, and Ecstasy -- or sometimes all three simultaneously. What will you do with all that power to kill pain and alter moods and expand minds? Here’s one possibility: Get people excited about what you’re excited about, and call on them to help you bring your dreams to a higher stage of development. Here’s another: Round up the support you need to transform any status quo that’s boring or unproductive.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
I predict that four weeks from now you will be enjoying a modest but hearty feeling of accomplishment -- on one condition: You must not get diverted by the temptation to achieve trivial successes. In other words, I hope you focus on one or two big projects, not lots of small ones. What do I mean by “big projects”? How about these: taming your fears; delivering a delicate message that frees you from an onerous burden; clarifying your relationship with work; and improving your ability to have the money you need.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Spain’s most revered mystic poet was St. John of the Cross, who lived from 1542 to 1591. He went through a hard time at age 35, when he was kidnapped by a rival religious sect and imprisoned in a cramped cell. Now and then he was provided with scraps of bread and dried fish, but he almost starved to death. After ten months, he managed to escape and make his way to a convent that gave him sanctuary. For his first meal, the nuns served him warm pears with cinnamon. I reckon that you’ll soon be celebrating your own version of a jailbreak, Leo. It’ll be less drastic and more metaphorical than St. John’s, but still a notable accomplishment. To celebrate, I invite you to enjoy a ritual meal of warm pears with cinnamon.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” So said psychologist Carl Jung. What the hell did that meddling, self-important know-it-all mean by that? Oops. Sorry to sound annoyed. My cranky reaction may mean I’m defensive about the possibility that I’m sometimes a bit preachy myself. Maybe I don’t like an authority figure wagging his finger in my face because I’m suspicious of my own tendency to do that. Hmmm. Should I therefore refrain from giving you the advice I’d planned to? I guess not. Listen carefully, Capricorn: Monitor the people and situations that irritate you. They’ll serve as mirrors. They’ll show you unripe aspects of yourself that may need adjustment or healing.
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“I’m very attracted to things that I can’t define,” says Belgian fashion designer Raf Simons. I’d love for you to adopt that attitude, Virgo. You’re entering the Season of Generous Mystery. It will be a time when you can generate good fortune for yourself by being eager to get your expectations overturned and your mind blown. Transformative opportunities will coalesce as you simmer in the influence of enigmas and anomalies. Meditate on the advice of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke: “I want to beg you to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves.” I’ve compiled a list of four mantras for you to draw strength from. They’re designed to put you in the prop-
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AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)
A source of tough and tender inspiration seems to be losing some of its signature potency. It has served you well. It has given you many gifts, some difficult and some full of grace. But now I think you will benefit from transforming your relationship with its influence. As you might imagine, this pivotal moment will be best navigated with a clean, fresh, open attitude. That’s why you’ll be wise to thoroughly wash your own brain -- not begrudgingly, but with gleeful determination. For even better results, wash your heart, too.
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PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
A “power animal” is a creature selected as a symbolic ally by a person who hopes to imitate or resonate with its strengths. The salmon or hare might be a good choice if you’re seeking to stimulate your fertility, for example. If you aspire to cultivate elegant wildness, you might choose an eagle or horse. For your use in the coming months, I propose a variation on this theme: the “power fruit.” From now until at least May 2018, your power fruit should be the ripe strawberry. Why? Because this will be a time when you’ll be naturally sweet, not artificially so; when you will be juicy, but not dripping all over everything; when you will be compact and concentrated, not bloated and bursting at the seams; and when you should be plucked by hand, never mechanically.
This product may be habit forming. Do not take over state lines. For use by adults 21 and over. Keep out of reach of children.
Homework
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