43.48 - Willamette Week, September 27, 2017 by Willamette Week Newspaper

“WHAT POWER DID GILLIGAN HAVE OVER THEM?”

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a Better

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BRAD MAYER’S DEATH POINTS TO A LOOMING PROBLEM FOR THE WAVE OF OREGONIANS WHO WILL NEED LONG-TERM CARE.

BY NIGEL JAQUISS | PAGE 11

WWEEK.COM

NEWS A FIGHT IN THE SEWERS. FOOD BREAKSIDE SLABTOWN NOW GOOD.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

HILARY SANDER

FINDINGS

OUTTAKE: Breakside Brewery, PAGE 23

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 43, ISSUE 48.

Those weird trenches you’re seeing in new speed bumps are not just city employees doing a half-assed job. 4

A superstar techno DJ will be pouring his “personally curated sake brand” at an upscale ramen shop. 22

Mayor Ted Wheeler is doubling

Emo-sampling trap rap is a thing now. 29

down on his campaign promise to “make sure every person living on Portland’s streets has a safe place to sleep” by the end of next year. 7 There is a new cannabis lifestyle magazine coming from one of the founders of Kinfolk. 20

The Brazilian women’s national soccer team once had to practice on a field with a horse. 39 California cannabis farms are killing all the salmon. 40

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ON THE COVER: Glass head painting by Rosie Struve. Photo by Alyssa Walker.

Your ﬁrst look at the post-ﬁre Columbia River Gorge.

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DIALOGUE Last week, WW wrote about Cedar Mill condo owners who faced the threat of losing their homes due to increased homeowners association fees (“Trouble in the Village,” WW, Sept. 20, 2017). The fight in Westlake Village continued—in the online comments.

ing it so they go from living modestly to being on the verge of poverty. Big-time shenanigans are going on (to put it in a nice way for posting), and I’m so glad Willamette Week has brought this to their readers.”

SF1515, Westlake Village homeowner, in Steve Tait, via Facebook: “This is a classic response: “I too own a property in Westlake ‘land grab’ by the HOA and their richer sup- Village. I am concerned because my property porters. If you can force out the poor people by value is tumbling quickly and the property is whatever means, then you can renovate and sell not being maintained. There are steps going to your stolen property at a huge profit. As soon as the upper floors that are rusted, and if someone these renovations are completed there falls through…well, what would the will be a huge selloff of certain homes financial consequence be for that?” by absentee owners. The state needs to “Trust me. There is Ssc, Westlake Village homeownintervene.” er, in response: “This is absurd. a better Our buildings are falling apart. This Gregory A. Freemont, via Face- way than book: “It is a tough call, but I am on should have been done 10 years ago, uprooting the side of the HOA. Those who cannot but the past boards didn’t start a afford now will not be able to afford in people plan or put money into reserves. I am at the meetings, and you sit there the future, so do it now [that] it has to from their be done. If you are having a hard time homes.” and complain and yell, but when anything is said you disagree with, selling in Portland’s red hot market, there is something wrong with the you get up and leave.” property.” Wesley Mahan, via wweek.com: “A few ideas, Virginia Thompson, Westlake Village hom- if you’re a condo owner: Get to know every board eowner, via wweek.com: “People who have member, and how to contact them. Go to every not lived here for 10-plus years, as I have, do not single HOA meeting. Demand that the board know what the hell has gone on and how many regularly and frequently communicates with the times repairs have had Band-Aids slapped on owners. Get and read the HOA regulations, and them, because they do not realize what it takes know what your rights are. Be reasonable: HOA to maintain the property that was built in 1980. fees cannot remain static for years on end, and Hello? Shit is falling apart here. If you have not will have to increase with inflation and the age lived here and witnessed what has happened for of the building. Be proactive and involved, and many years, you have no right to judge. Meetings encourage the other owners to get involved.” here have been like Jerry Springer episodes.”

Linda Struble, Westlake Village homeowner, in response: “Trust me. There is a better way than uprooting people from their homes or mak-

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

Dr. Know BY MARTY SMITH

Lately, I’ve seen speed bumps with trenches dug through them. I approve of this—I can align my tires with the cutouts and not slow down as much—but I can’t help thinking my convenience isn’t the reason. What’s the deal? —Trench Foot We’ll deal with your scofflaw tendencies in a moment, Foot. First, journey with me to a magical land of never-ending sunshine, where speed bumps may soon become a thing of the past. Around the year 2000, the United Kingdom (I lied about the sunshine) started incentivizing people to buy diesel cars, which emit less CO2 than those that run on regular gasoline. Unfortunately, diesels emit more nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and soot than their petrol-powered brethren—emissions that are worst when the car is accelerating. Thus, some U.K. environmentalists have suggested that speed bumps—which cause frequent slowing down and speeding up—should be eliminated. Of course, other environmentalists have called this plan “daft,” but we can dream. As for those channels you’re seeing in Portland speed bumps, they’re spaced such that ambulances, fire trucks and the like can drive over them 4

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

at speed without having to slow down. One channel runs directly down the road’s center line, so regular drivers can’t use them— unless they, you know, steer slightly to the left, so as to put their left tires in the center channel. Also, you need a wide vehicle, like a truck, to make full use of the channels. Lucky for us, there’s no correlation between big trucks and people who drive like assholes. I should stress that this maneuver is both dangerous and totally illegal—you’re partially steering into oncoming traffic—but BikePortland.org has already published photos of people doing it. Still, the new bumps should keep reasonably law-abiding motorists from speeding. An incorrigible few may try to take advantage, but at least it’ll keep them off the sidewalk. QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

CITY OF PORTLAND

MURMURS Portland Meadows Still Playing Poker With State

Portland City Hall Comes to Aid of Dreamers

The Portland City Council is preparing to spend up to $50,000 to help undocumented immigrants who arrived in this country as children stay in the U.S. The money would help immigrants seeking to renew their reprieves from deportation granted under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before the Oct. 5 deadline the Trump administration created when it announced plans this month to phase out the program. The resolution, proposed by City Commissioner Nick Fish, is expected to pass next week. “You can feel so helpless,” says DACA recipient Mariana Garcia Medina, 22, a staﬀer in Fish’s oﬃce who helped prepare the resolution. “It’s nice to know there’s something we can do within our limited power.” Garcia Medina, who grew up in Tigard after arriving in the U.S. at age 3, is currently awaiting a response to her own application to renew her DACA status.

Nightclub Owners Sue City Over Sprinklers

Landlords of 14 Portland nightclubs, including Dante’s, the Dixie Tavern and Silverado, filed a lawsuit Sept. 25 against the city of Portland, alleging it overstepped its authority in imposing a 2013 ordinance mandating sprinkler systems, and then compounded the damages by applying the ordinance inequitably (“Hot in Here,” WW, July 6, 2016). The lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on behalf of the three club owners, their companies and other nightclubs, claims the city’s actions were “uneven, unfair, unpredictable, arbitrary and capricious,” and seeks $750,000 in damages. The City Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

DANIEL STINDT

GARCIA MEDINA

The battle over the legality of commercial poker in Portland continues. The Oregon Lottery and Portland Meadows remain at loggerheads over the racetrack’s desire to host poker and remain a lottery retailer. In July, the lottery canceled the contract that allows Portland Meadows to have 10 video poker terminals, more than any other location in the state. The cancellation came after Oregon State Police investigations found Meadows’ poker games appeared to violate state and local gambling laws (“Burning Down the House, WW, March 22, 2017). Meadows now has until Oct. 30 to agree to follow all laws, appeal that cancellation in court or give up its lottery contract, which in 2016 generated $1.83 million in revenue for the state and nearly $350,000 in commissions for Meadows.

WEST LAKE VILLAGE

Condo Owners Stage HOA Coup

Condo owners in the Cedar Mill neighborhood have won a reprieve from the new fees that many feared would drive them from their homes (“Trouble in the Village,” WW, Sept. 20, 2017). On Sept. 21, at the annual meeting of the Westlake Village Condominium Homeowners Association, the group calling itself Save Westlake Village took over all ﬁve positions on the HOA board. They intend to rescind the fees the previous board imposed to pay for a $6.4 million renovation project for the 200-unit complex.

NEWS INVENTORY

The Things They Carried BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N

Circular saw July 26, 2017 Springwater Corridor

rmonahan@wweek.com

very time it sweeps a homeless camp, the city of Portland must catalog and store for 30 days the personal possessions it finds during the cleanup. It’s not clear the city has consistently lived up to that obligation. WW reported this summer about a homeless man who discovered his belongings had been trashed by the city contractor who swept out his camp (“Tossed Aside,” WW, July 26, 2017). WW then obtained via a public records request the catalog of camp items stored by the city during the past three years. The list shows that in the month after WW wrote about the improper disposal of belongings, the city appeared to be more diligent about logging and storing such property, although a city spokeswoman denies it. “The storage procedure has not changed,” says Office of Management & Finance spokeswoman Jen Clodius. After the story was published, Portland listed items stored from 21 camp sweeps—up from just eight sweeps in the previous month. The list also gives a glimpse of the homes Portlanders created amid tents, sleeping bags and trash bags filled with clothes.

Pioneer sound receiver March 1, 2017 North Kerby Avenue

Ted Wheeler P

ortland Mayor Ted Wheeler made a dramatic pledge on the campaign trail nearly two years ago: He promised to ensure that “every person living on Portland’s streets has a safe place to sleep” by the end of 2018. In Wheeler’s first city budget, the city’s investment in the city-county homelessness services ag enc y increased slightly to $26.5 million. This year, Wheeler has alarmed advocates by saying the city couldn’t keep forking over that much money. WW asked Wheeler for an interview about the seeming contradiction. He bristled: “You’re going to write an article that says I suck.” But he doubled down on his pledge to find safe places for homeless people, throwing his support behind not just increased shelter beds but, for the first time, an effort to add 2,000 more units of “supportive housing”— affordable units with extra supports for people facing addictions or mental health problems. RACHEL MONAHAN.

400 350 300 250 200 150

SEP ’17

JUL ’17

AUG ’17

JUN ’17

APR ’17

FEB ’17

MAR ’17

JAN ’17

DEC ’16

NOV ’16

SEP ’16

MAY ’17

2017 OCT ’16

JUL ’16

AUG ’16

JUN ’16

APR ’16

MAY ’16

FEB ’16

Pokémon cards May 25, 2017 Sullivan’s Gulch, Northeast Portland

4 QUESTIONS FOR

450

MAR ’16

Number of people seeking shelter per night

Orange bag with dress shirts and other clothes inside March 1, 2017 North Kerby Avenue

Yellow skateboard June 6, 2016 Gateway Green bike park along I-205

succeeded in turning no one away by finding people places to sleep in area churches and motels. But rising demand is one indication that Portland’s housing crunch is far from over. “The market-rate housing that most families called home…continues to see rising rents, low vacancies and increased competition,” says Human Solutions executive director Andy Miller. “Right now, the situation is bleak.” RACHEL MONAHAN.

2016

The Lost City of Z book May 25, 2017 Sullivan’s Gulch, Northeast Portland

Ceramic bowl June 20, 2016 Southeast 43rd Avenue and Powell Boulevard

Families Seeking Shelter The Human Solutions Family Shelter on outer Southeast Stark Street was built to house 133 people a night. But the number of families seeking help initially edged upward after the shelter opened in a converted vegan strip club in February 2016. In the past four months, the number of people seeking shelter has more than doubled. On one night— Sept. 7—440 people sought help. The family shelter has

Binder full of Magic the Gathering cards March 23, 2016 Northeast 7th Avenue and Flanders Street

Hewlett-Packard computer July 28, 2017 Taken from an impounded Winnebago RV

TRENDING

Black piano March 1, 2017 North Kerby Avenue

Skuut wooden kid’s bike March 1, 2017 North Kerby Avenue

100

White Playboy bunny purse Feb. 16, 2017 Southeast 9th Avenue and Ash Street

I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y R O S I E S T R U V E

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

You pledged to make sure that “every person living on Portland’s streets has a safe place

to sleep” by the end of 2018. Will yo u k e e p t h a t promise? Yes, I think we can. Half of it was aspirational and half of it was specific numbers. At the time I made that pledge, it was Dec. 22 of 2015. It’s hard to believe it was almost two years ago, but it was. At the time, I was asked how many beds is that exactly? I stated that it was probably between 1,000 and 1,500 additional beds. At the time, we had fewer than 800. I figured we’d need at least 1,800. Does that mean you want more than 4,000 shelter beds in Portland, given the latest homeless count? Listen, I’m not Superman. [But] I’m not going to back off of [the campaign pledge] at all. If there’s one thing I’ve come to clearly understand, this isn’t just about housing. We have, as a nation, a widespread addiction problem. If we’re serious about addressing this homelessness issue, it’s going to require more resources going towards permanent supportive housing and towards mental health

and addiction services. In order to meet that need with the resources we have, there’s going to be pressure between dollars that go to shelter versus dollars that go to prevention and housing. How do you achieve that? My belief is we need long-term sustainable funding that addresses not only the shelter piece but longerterm problems around addiction services and mental health services. And that will require a new source of dedicated revenues to be able to be successful. What will next year’s budget look like? I’m not willing to commit to any number. I’ve learned a thing or two. People freaked out when they saw that I said that our current contributions weren’t sustainable over the long term. I’ve never said I would pull back in this next budget. In the near term, I believe we will be able to make, maybe not dollar for dollar, but in the neighborhood of what we’re currently investing.

INCREASE IN BED DEMAND AT HUMAN SOLUTIONS FAMILY SHELTER

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

NEWS “IF I’M NOT GETTING REPRESENTED, THEN I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH PAYING DUES. I CALL IT EXTORTION.” —DENNIS DUFFEY

Gutter Politics SOME PORTLAND SEWER WORKERS WANT A BETTER CONTRACT. THEY’VE TURNED TO THE NORTHWEST’S TOP UNION BUSTERS FOR HELP. BY AN N A W I L L I A M S

503-243-2122

Dennis Duffey has been a proud union member for much of the past three decades. The 54-year-old Portland Bureau of Environmental Services employee has organized the workers at a print shop, sat at bargaining tables across from management, and worked as a shop steward in Bakersfield, Calif. In 2007, he took a job with the city as a wastewater operator, adding chemicals to water and maintaining machinery at the Columbia Boulevard Wastewater Treatment Plant in North Portland. That makes him one of 1,100 local government employees represented by Laborers Local 483. But Duffey wants out. He says Local 483 treats sewer workers like second-class citizens in the union—failing to show up for their grievance hearings, negotiating a contract that leaves wastewater workers making far less money than their counterparts in other cities, and pressuring them to vote for that contract. “If I’m not getting represented, then I have a problem with paying dues,” Duffey says. “I call it extortion.” So Duffey and at least five other disgruntled Portland wastewater workers turned to an unlikely ally: the Freedom Foundation, a right-wing, union-busting think tank based in Olympia, Wash., that’s increasingly active in Oregon. On Aug. 29, the foundation filed a public records request 8

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

with the city’s human resources department, asking for the names of 607 public employees who are covered by the same city contract as treatment plant workers. (Local 483 also represents workers at the regional planning agency Metro.) The nonprofit requested the records after Duffey asked it for help. The foundation says it wants to assist Duffey and his fellow sewer workers in collecting enough signatures from members of Local 483—about 200—so workers may vote whether to stop paying dues. In 2016, the Freedom Foundation made a large-scale records request for the names of Oregon home health workers within Service Employees International Union Local 503, the state’s largest public employee union. Foundation activists landed at the front doors of more than 10,000 workers, urging them to stop paying dues. The prospect of a similarly invasive campaign in Portland has frightened and angered the rank and file in one of the city’s largest public employee unions—who fear a few disgruntled workers have summoned a powerful rightwing force that could jeopardize hard-won gains. Duffey says since he hooked up with the Freedom Foundation, he has received almost 30 union-printed postcards in his home mailbox, with members calling him a “douche,” a “piece of shit” and a “scab.” Another says: “Shame on you for supporting the Koch brothers. I hope you lose your union job.”

Local 483 leaders say Duffey’s gambit is a dire threat to the union, which depends on dues to fund its operations. Wesley Buchholz, former interim president of Laborers 483, calls the foundation’s outreach “economic violence.” Buchholz decries the vulgar postcards, but he isn’t surprised people are angry. “It’s visceral and terrible and mean,” he says, “but I’d like to think the balance of those 30 cards are people having a fight-or-flight reaction to their union coming under attack.” The Freedom Foundation is open about its desire to destroy unions. CEO Tom McCabe told supporters in a 2015 fundraising letter “we won’t be satisfied with anything short of total victory against the government union thugs.” McCabe also wrote that his think tank “has a proven plan for bankrupting and defeating government unions through education, litigation, legislation and community activation.” Ben Straka, a policy analyst at the foundation, says activists use “various” means to find their targets’ email and home addresses. Straka would not elaborate. Foundation representatives have already shown up at city workplaces in the past month, and Duffey expects door-to-door visits to begin soon. The new Local 483 contract with the city of Portland gives wastewater operators with 10 years’ experience, like Duffey, a 9 percent raise. But this summer, Duffey and other wastewater operators surveyed treatment plant contracts in Pacific Northwest cities comparable to Portland. In some cases, Duffey and his colleagues make 20 percent less than their peers, and this year’s contract with the city of Portland won’t close the gap. Some of Duffey’s co-workers say they don’t want to “bust” Local 483 but to pressure the union into releasing wastewater treatment plant employees so they can join a different union. “I’m in the laborers union, and I should be in the millwrights union,” says one treatment plant employee who requested anonymity because he fears retaliation. “No one likes the Freedom Foundation or what’s behind it. [But] nobody’s going to break the union up. That’s not the goal here.” Buchholz and Local 483 business manager Farrell Richartz both say getting more workers to participate in union activities is the way to deal with internal disagreements, rather than involving an “extremist” organization like the Freedom Foundation. “Can we get better?” Richartz said, “Yes. We’re constantly asking for participation.” Because Laborers 483 represents workers with dozens of different job descriptions, “bargaining is necessarily complex” Buchholz explains. Richartz adds that the foundation has taken advantage of a few members’ grievances to “create division” between members. Meanwhile, Portland city officials are weighing whether to release employee names to the foundation. (Local 483 has tried to block the request.) Duffey says whatever the outcome, he doesn’t regret bringing in the Freedom Foundation. “I believe unions are in decline,” he says, “because of unions like 483.”

WILLIAM GAGN

NEWS

HOT WINGS: On May 1, masked protesters reacted to police forcefully canceling a protest by lighting fires on Portland’s streets and breaking storefront windows.

Quieted Riot MULTNOMAH COUNTY PROSECUTORS TAKE A HARD LINE AGAINST ARRESTED PROTESTERS. BY KAT I E S H E P H E R D

kshepherd@wweek.com

Prosecutors and defense lawyers are increasingly at odds about a question that will persist in Portland as long as Donald Trump is president: how to resolve the arrests of local protesters. On Sept. 25, prosecutors made a splash in the most prominent case to emerge from downtown protests and vandalism on May Day. Damion Zachary Feller, 23, was sentenced to five years in prison for throwing lit flares into a police car and a Target store lobby during the May 1 melee. But most protesters get arrested for far more benign behavior—and yet the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office has ratcheted up the consequences for them. The crackdown stems in part from the May 1 protests, which got out of hand. Police in military gear declared the May Day march a riot. Officers abruptly demanded that the crowd go home. Masked demonstrators instead ran wild, getting airtime on CNN and Fox News by setting bonfires on the light-rail tracks, smashing store windows and trashing a police vehicle. In the aftermath, Mayor Ted Wheeler, channeling the frustration of downtown business owners and many commuters, asked local prosecutors to get tough with protesters. “There are people who are habitually engaged in vandalism or violence in our community,” Wheeler told KATU-TV on May 3. “They shouldn’t just walk scot free. They will be prosecuted.” But before prosecutors could do that, Multnomah County’s chief criminal judge changed the rules of engagement. In June, Judge Edward Jones acquitted three defendants who had been arrested at protests and charged with the same traffic violation: failing to obey a police officer. Jones ruled in those cases that a person who was passively resisting could not be charged with the infraction the DA’s office had levied. His reasoning came from an Oregon Supreme Court case, State v. McNally, which established in April that no one may be charged with a misdemeanor for “interfering with a peace officer” while passively resisting an officer’s orders. Jones tells WW he acquitted the three protesters because he felt prosecutors were using a lighter charge “so they would not have to give people jury trials and to avoid defending the passive resistance clause.”

Jones’ ruling reduced the options available to the Multnomah County DA. So prosecutors ended their previous practice of charging protesters with a traffic violation, which let them off with a warning and eight hours of community service. Instead, the DA’s office began charging most people arrested during a protest with seconddegree disorderly conduct—a class B misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. The effect has been exactly what Wheeler wanted: a legal crackdown. Protesters who don’t think they did anything wrong are accepting a plea deal to reduce the misdemeanor charge to a violation, fearing that losing a criminal case could land them in jail and threaten their jobs. The harsher approach has divided observers of Portland street activism. In a city that claims to be united against the Trump presidency, critics say the mayor and prosecutors are taking a law-and-order stance against activism. “The prosecutors know they will lose at the traffic violation trial, so the prosecution uses the threat of criminal charges to coerce a plea deal,” the Portland chapter of the National Lawyers Guild says in a statement. “After valiant efforts to challenge power constructs in the streets, protesters are effectively prohibited from doing so in the courts.” Deputy District Attorney Haley Rayburn, who has handled most of the protester cases in Multnomah County Circuit Court, says bringing tougher charges isn’t something the DA’s office wants to do—but she says Jones’ ruling gives them no choice. “The court made a ruling that forced us to bring criminal charges,” Rayburn says. “The court wanted us to proceed with these as crimes so that people would have the opportunity to have a jury trial.” Except, of course, protesters are reluctant to take the risk of losing such a trial. One of the first protesters to plead guilty under the pressure of a misdemeanor charge this summer was David Carlson. Carlson, 31, was arrested for standing in the street and leading chants through his bullhorn at a Feb. 20 protest after an officer ordered him to move. In late June, the Multnomah County prosecutor warned if he didn’t plead guilty to a violation, the DA would charge him with a criminal misdemeanor instead. That alternative was too risky for Carlson. Carlson says the DA’s approach in effect criminalizes free speech. “No one actually gets their day in court because the system is set up against you,” he says. “You just have to deal with it and take the consequence. You’re considered guilty until proven innocent.” Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

WILLAMETTE WEEK’S 5th annual

30 + Beers + ciders you can’t taste anywhere else

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Saturday October 14th noon-6pm

In a Better Place LIFE AND TIMES: James “Brad” Mayer, in a school photo from the 1960s; with his brother-in-law Bill Kenney and niece Rachel in San Francisco in 1999; and after the 2004 accident that injured his brain.

Brad Mayer’s death points to a looming problem for the wave of Oregonians who will need long-term care.

BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

n June 9, James “Brad” Mayer learned to his dismay that he was going to be moved from the Gresham adult foster home where he lived. Mayer, then 63, started smashing his left leg into the end of his steel hospital-style bed where he’d lain for 12 years, unable to walk and barely able to speak as a result of traumatic brain injury. He required roundthe-clock care, costing the Oregon Health Plan $7,800 a month. “Brad, what are you doing?” asked Karen Campbell, the owner of the foster home. “Dying.” “Why?” “Not moving,” he replied. In other words, Mayer didn’t want to leave. Campbell says she urged him to stop hurting himself and placed a protective boot over his ankle and padding on the end of the bed. But Mayer, a big man at 6 feet 4 inches and more than 200 pounds, kept banging his ankle, over and over, creating a giant bluish-purple bruise. Mayer’s sister, Michelle Keyser, says Mayer panicked when he overheard state and county officials telling Campbell they were closing her foster care homes. “When you are locked inside a body that doesn’t work and a brain that is severely injured, any change in routine is going to cause anxiety,” she says. “A lot of anxiety.” Mayer’s leg grew infected from the banging. He began refusing the nutrition he received through a feeding tube and declining the daily suctioning necessary to keep his

lungs clear. Mayer also began hyperventilating, causing him to aspirate fluids and eventually contract pneumonia. With some difficulty, officials found a new foster home placement for him. But Mayer never made it there. On July 11, Mayer—a lifelong Dodgers fan—watched the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Shortly after the game ended, Mayer died. His family fears a similarly bleak fate could await thousands of other aging Oregon baby boomers. “This isn’t about Brad,” says Mayer’s brother John. “It’s about all the other vulnerable people in the state system.” Mayer was one of a large and rapidly growing number of Oregonians who suffer from traumatic brain injury, a condition that experts say is poorly understood and difficult to treat and can require a lifetime of expensive care. In the past decade, the number of people suffering what researchers call a “silent epidemic” of traumatic brain injury has soared (see “Battered Brains,” page 12). Such injuries make up the most extreme cases of declining health in the wave of baby boomers who will require long-term care. Seniors and people with disabilities are the largest and fastest-growing component of the $3.5 billion Oregon Department of Human Services budget. Oregon pioneered an elegant solution to this demographic crunch: adult foster homes, which charge a quarter or less of the cost of nursing homes and provide a less institutional setting. No other state, according to AARP, provides a greater percentage of long-term care in such a setting.

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Today, there are about 70,000 Oregonians in long-term care. Nearly half get that care in their own homes, according to state ﬁgures, and about 7,500 are in adult foster care. But the number of Oregonians aged 85 or older is set to soar, which will require an enormous increase in long-term care. Less obvious than the inevitably of aging is the surge in traumatic brain injury, which often leaves victims needing specialized care for the rest of their lives. Such injuries increased 47 percent nationally between 2007 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC doesn’t break out numbers by state, but car crashes, one of the top causes of brain injury, have in the past two years shown the greatest percentage of increase in the past half-century. Oregon’s rate of serious car crashes during that time far exceeded the national increase: From 2014 to 2016, fatal crashes in Oregon rose 41 percent, more than in all but two states. Sherry Stock, executive director of the Brain Injury Alliance of Oregon, says brain injuries are often misdiagnosed, sometimes missed completely and poorly understood, which has led to them being called “a silent epidemic.” “People with brain injuries don’t usually have the support that people who are developmentally disabled do.” Stock says. “For dogs and kids, you can get money. But if you are not a dog or a kid, you’ve got problems.” NIGEL JAQUISS.

IN A BETTER PLACE 12

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2050

S O U R C E : O R E G O N D E P A R T M E N T O F E C O N O M I C A N A LY S I S

COURTESY OF STEPHANIE KENNEY COURTESY OF STEPHANIE KENNEY

COURTESY OF KAREN CAMPBELL

 SOUL MAN: Mayer’s accident robbed him of his ability to walk and nearly to speak. But his brother, John, say his sense of humor remained as “dry as the Mojave.”  HOME BASE: Brad Mayer (top) loved baseball, especially his hometown L.A. Dodgers. Below, Mayer is pictured before his injury—he’s at far right with siblings Michelle Keyser, Paul Mayer, Stephanie Kenney and John Mayer.

Karen Campbell ran two of Oregon’s most specialized and highest-cost adult foster homes. But as of Aug. 22, Campbell is out of business, shut down by officials who acknowledge a desperate shortage of people like her who can provide specialized long-term care. The shuttering of Campbell’s facilities points to a risk inherent in Oregon’s foster care-friendly model: The pressure to serve more people with more challenging disabilities threatens to overwhelm the capacity of mom-and-pop operators. Adult foster homes present regulatory challenges similar to Airbnb’s emergence in the hotel industry: The small-scale operations of a private home are hard to police. But the stakes in adult foster care are much higher because residents are so vulnerable. “It’s the Wild West,” says Paula Carder, an assistant

professor who studies adult foster care at Portland State University’s Institute on Aging. Pressures are growing as families chase scarce adult foster care beds amid state and federal assaults on Medicaid funding. Mayer’s family believes bureaucrats struggling with those pressures hastened his death. Officials deny they are to blame. “That’s ludicrous,” says Mike McCormick, DHS’s deputy director of aging and people with disabilities. “There was a history of noncompliance with the rules. This was a safety issue.” But Keyser, Mayer’s sister, says the state set Campbell up for failure. “It’s been a cluster,” she says, “one damn thing after another with no regard for any of the other residents, including my brother.”

ven before his brain injury, Brad Mayer led a difficult life. “We lived in an extremely violent household with a violent, gun-toting alcoholic for a father,” says Keyser. “He despised Brad from birth and wanted him not to exist.” Mayer struggled through school and into adulthood, working a series of marginal jobs. He never married or had a long-term relationship. Only in the last few years before his accident did he find peace, working in customer support for a telecommunications company and making a group of friends at an Aloha church. “He was happy for the first time,” Keyser says. Then, on Oct. 10, 2004, a man driving a jackedup pickup ran a stop sign in Hood River and T-boned Mayer’s vehicle. The truck’s front bumper connected with Mayer’s head, partially shearing his brain stem. After leaving the hospital, Mayer landed in a nursing home in Vancouver, Wash. His family says conditions there were abysmal. When they found him a placement at Highland Heights, Campbell’s home for medically fragile residents, his body broadcast neglect. The smell of feces and urine had so thoroughly permeated his skin that it took two months of twice-daily baths at Campbell’s house to rid him of the stench. “He was a big man,” says Keyser. “He needed his diaper changed six or eight times a day.” Mayer had moved into what’s known as an adult foster home. Starting nearly 40 years ago, Oregon pioneered alternatives to nursing homes. There were two reasons: Staffing requirements and regulation make nursing homes expensive, and residents often prefer a less institutional setting. Today, Oregon has 1,700 licensed adult foster homes. Each can serve up to five residents. Most are paid for by the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. Of every Medicaid dollar, Oregon’s general fund contributes 31 cents and the feds 69 cents. “Adult foster care is tremendously valuable,” says PSU’s Carder. “But for providers, it’s a really difficult life. You have to be home all the time, and you can never take a vacation.”

CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

DANIEL STINDT

t takes muscle and fortitude to bathe and turn—at least once every two hours, to prevent bedsores—a man with traumatic brain injury. Karen Campbell, 57, has plenty of both. Campbell has been bathing, moving and serving foster home residents since 1980. Campbell, who raised seven children, is a plain-spoken dynamo. Behind horn-rimmed glasses, her broad face is often split by a grin and bracketed on one side by a cellphone held to her ear. She lives in Highland Heights, a rambling, 3,600-square-foot hillside home in Gresham. There, Campbell cared for five medically fragile patients. Her family lived upstairs, and each resident had his own bedroom on the lower floor of the house, overlooking a backyard dotted with rose bushes and a spindly apple

tree. (Her other foster home, “Shaun’s Place,” served five residents nearby.) On a typical day, until Highland Heights closed last month, four caregivers began bathing patients at 6 am, while two office staff scheduled doctor appointments, managed medication and handled paperwork. To move a man as big as Mayer from bed to wheelchair required a Hoyer lift, effectively a mini-crane. While in bed, Mayer needed to be moved hourly to avoid bedsores. Staff fed him through a tube in his abdomen and regularly had to plug the opening to prevent him from pulling the tube out. Each interaction required gloving up—Mayer’s caregivers could go through 50 pairs a day for him alone. “Brad was gruff but an absolute sweetheart,” Campbell says. “He loved to watch sports with

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COURTESY OF KAREN CAMPBELL

“THEY WERE PEOPLE I LOVED AS IF THEY WERE MY OWN CHILDREN. THESE MEN WERE NOT MEAL TICKETS TO ME.”

 OUT OF BUSINESS: Karen Campbell ran two adult foster homes, until the arrival of a new patient. “We took in [Kevin] under immense pressure from the state,” she says. “I told them, ‘There are going to be big problems, and I don’t want my license to be aﬀected.’”  HORSEPLAY: Campbell wanted her residents (shown at Shaun’s House) to be as active as possible. “A lot of places just put guys in wheelchairs or beds and leave them there,” she says.

my husband, and he was crazy about music.” In the afternoons, Campbell’s residents gathered in a common area between their bedrooms. They might throw Nerf balls or play with balloons, both for entertainment and to sharpen their motor skills. Patients at Shaun’s Place who were more ambulatory engaged in tae kwon do, ballroom dancing and singing to stimulate their brains and get them moving. Staff members monitored residents through the night, changing diapers and shifting those who could not move themselves. Some residents lived with Campbell for more than a decade. “They were people I loved as if they were my own children. And so did my staff,” she says. “These men were not meal tickets to me.” Families, guardians and residents praise Campbell. Bev Bristol, whose son, Robert,

moved in with Campbell in 2005, says Campbell was the best thing that happened to her son after he was injured in a car crash at age 18. Prior to coming to Campbell, Bristol says, her son was in a nursing home. “It was the difference between night and day,” Bristol says. “With Karen, he got cognitive therapy and physical therapy. He made real progress, and she kept him busy.” Families from far away also sought Campbell’s services. Ursula Padrutt, a Swiss lawyer, represented an American who’d fallen seriously ill while in Switzerland. Padrutt flew to Portland, where the American patient had family, to inspect Campbell’s facilities. Impressed, she sent the man to Portland on a private jet. “The hospital in Switzerland said he’d be lucky to live for three years because he was so sick,” Padrutt recalls. “With Karen, he lived eight years.” Padrutt says she visited her client a halfdozen times at Campbell’s home. “It was a very clean, happy place,” she says. “And he loved Karen. You could tell that.” But not everybody loved Campbell.

CONT. on page 16 Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Daniel stinDt

“THEY STARTED LOOKING AT CAREGIVERS IN ALL SETTINGS IN THE WAY THEY ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BEFORE.”

n the summer of 2016, state officials asked Campbell to take on a new patient, one with more challenges than any resident she’d managed before. Earlier, the man’s mother told the Governor’s Task Force on Traumatic Brain Injury about the huge cost of her son’s care. “After his brain injury, our son was so heavily medicated, resulting in such severe behavioral issues, that he was the only patient in the psych unit at the hospital for nearly 10 months, costing [the Oregon Health Plan] over $370,000 a month until the state finally agreed on a placement,” the mother said. DHS searched the state for an adult foster home that could serve the man, who was prone to violence. Finally, in July 2016, the agency placed him with Campbell, in a room across the hall from Brad Mayer. The man, whom WW will call “Kevin” to protect his privacy, required at least two full-time caregivers round the clock. The state paid Campbell $27,000 a month to care for him. That’s a lot of money, but a tiny fraction of the previous cost of keeping him at Salem Hospital. Kevin’s brain injury required heavy medication, contributing to his volatility. Overwhelmed, Campbell called 911 regularly. Kevin was sedated and hospitalized at least nine times in the first six months he lived with Campbell. Campbell says Kevin’s mother regularly complained to her and state officials about her son’s care. (Kevin’s mother declined to be interviewed for this story.) Kevin also loved to walk—and sometimes run. He would go for miles around the neighborhood, caregivers trailing behind. (Foster home residents cannot be locked in.) Once, Campbell says, she and her staff had to restrain him physically from running into a busy street. “We saved him from getting run over,” she says, “but we got sanctioned for unlawful use of restraints.” Campbell’s struggles to care for Kevin put her entire operation—two houses, serving 10 residents—in jeopardy. The agency that paid her, DHS, had in 2016 seen its acting director and top managers fired for failure to adequately regulate juvenile foster care facilities and was under the Legislature’s microscope. Fred Steele, the state’s long-term care ombudsman, says the broader agency turmoil appears to have spurred DHS to give foster homes greater scrutiny. “I think they’ve changed,” says Steele. “They started looking at caregivers in all settings in the way they always should have been before.”

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

 CAREGIVER: Karen Campbell with Jose Gutierrez, one of the 10 men with traumatic brain injuries she served.

elf-effacing and slight, Lee Girard is an unlikely-looking cop. But as Multnomah County’s director of Aging, Disability and Veterans Services, she’s responsible for licensing the county’s 636 adult foster homes. Every year, she shuts down a handful of them. In Oregon’s 35 other counties, the GIRARD state regulates adult foster care. But years ago, Multnomah County established its own system. Inspectors make four regulatory visits per year to each home, compared to one a year in other counties. “We’ve just had a desire to go beyond what the state requires,” Girard says. That approach can create tension. “Some providers are feeling too much micromanaging from Multnomah County,” says Petronella Donovan, president of the Independent Adult Foster Home Association. “It’s a ‘gotcha’ attitude.” Girard’s team walks a thin line. If inspectors do too little, vulnerable residents can suffer and bad outcomes can result. If they do too much, they risk reducing the availability of a scarce resource. In November, five months after Kevin moved into her home, county inspectors documented 39 violations at Campbell’s homes. Many of them related to recordkeeping for medications. (The average adult foster home resident takes nine different prescription medications, so keeping them straight is crucial.)

The report also cited three instances of “abuse”— including restraining Kevin. Campbell disputes those findings, although she acknowledges struggling with the administrative side of her business. “They have added so much paperwork, it made it so I couldn’t do what I was good at—the tactile care,” Campbell says. In March of this year, county inspectors returned to Campbell’s homes and determined she had failed to address the violations they’d identified in November. Campbell signed an agreement not to accept any new residents and to close in three years. But on June 9, a state and county team returned to Campbell’s place and told her—in front of residents, including Mayer, Campbell says—that the homes needed to be shut down as soon as new placements for the residents could be found. That’s when Mayer learned he would have to move, his family says. Others agree the news was delivered insensitively. “They didn’t contact the families,” says Paul Normandin, whose brother Fred lived with Campbell for a decade. “They didn’t seem to care they had a family relationship with each other. They just broke it up.” Girard denies that. She says her staff made every attempt to notify residents’ families rather than allowing residents to find out directly. She says the real issue was Campbell’s performance. “In the nine to 12 months before we moved to this agreement, we had a monitoring system with a progressive action plan,” Girard says. “She wasn’t able to comply with a plan of assistance.”

DANIEL STINDT

UNHAPPY MOVE: Robert Bristol and his mother Bev say Karen Campbell turned Robert’s life around. They wish he’d been allowed to stay with Campbell.

Campbell’s supporters say it’s no coincidence that after operating foster homes for more than two decades, she fell afoul of regulators only after she agreed to care for Kevin. Campbell’s attorney, Lee Meadowcroft, formerly worked for Girard’s unit at Multnomah County. He finds regulators’ actions puzzling. “There were some rule violations, but a lot of what they wrote her up for was ticky-tack stuff,” Meadowcroft says. “If the county is really looking out for the good of the patients, they have huge discretion. And if you talk to any of the guardians, there was no issue with the care.” Girard acknowledges specialized adult foster homes are in short supply. And she’s well aware the need is growing rapidly. But she says as a regulator, that’s not her concern. “For us, it’s all about the quality of care that’s provided,” Girard says. “It’s all about resident safety.”

n Sept. 9, Mayer’s family held a memorial service for him in Los Angeles, where he was born. After months of communication with DHS, Multnomah County and even lawmakers, Mayer’s family is convinced the way regulators handled the closure of Campbell’s homes led to his death. “He’d be alive today if they’d handled this properly,” John Mayer says. McCormick of DHS says the idea that regulators were out to get Campbell is absurd. (Both

state and county officials declined to answer questions about Kevin, citing federal privacy laws. They also declined to comment on Mayer’s siblings’ assertion that their brother would be alive if the closure of Campbell’s homes had been handled better.) “I thought I had a great relationship with Karen,” McCormick says. “We would talk once a week. In the end, the issue was safety.” Yet in July 2017, as the deadline for closure of Campbell’s homes loomed, officials couldn’t find placements for all the residents. So they called Campbell—could she keep some residents an extra month? “If I’m so dangerous, why are they leaving people with me?” Campbell asks. She remained open until Aug. 22. Today, Campbell is frequently on the phone with former residents’ families, offering advice and support. On a recent day, Robert Bristol, who lived with Campbell for 12 years before moving to a foster home near Beaverton, returned to Campbell’s home with his mother to play cards. “My new place is OK,” Bristol says. “It’s not as good as Karen’s place. I’m trying to teach them the things she did with us.” Campbell sobs as she compares the closure of her foster homes to the death of her 4-year-old from a brain tumor two decades earlier. “This is a bigger death to me than my own birth child,” Campbell says, “because it involves so many people.”

A BETTER PLACE Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

“It gives people the anonymous confidence to be assholes.”

“I think the internet is great in the ways in which anonymity allows fluid expression and community building, but the bad thing about the internet is that it privileges output over listening, which translates to empathy. I don’t think good listeners are very active in the comments.”

“I’ve always though of it as people letting out aggression in a forum that doesn’t actually require them to do it in person.”

Stree t

BY SA M GEHR KE

@samgehrkephotography

“It has to do with the things that you wouldn’t say to someone’s face based on prescribed social codes. We need to be connecting more and more in a physical space to avoid having those perceived truths spreading online. It’s profoundly more useful to have one friend tell you if there’s something wrong than a thousand people you don’t know doing so.”

“Because there are no direct consequences.”

WHY DO YOU THINK PEOPLE ARE SO MEAN ON THE INTERNET? OUR FAVORITE LOOKS THIS WEEK.

“Anonymity.”

“Because they like the power it gives them.”

“There’s absolutely no accountability in that world. It’s a really punk move to pull.”

Alma is a place where women and their babies are liberated from unnecessary interventions. At Alma, partners are involved in the birthing process, and the babies pass from the womb to the mother’s arms without stopping at an examination table. We offer water births, privacy, relaxation, and a secure and warm environment, designed to support the way a healthy birth naturally unfolds.

Call for a Meet & Greet with a midwife and a tour of our birth center. Most insurance accepted. Nitrous Oxide available for labor. Joni Pedersen Traci Gamet Certified Nurse Midwives

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Brooke Bina

Families know that giving birth is not an emergency but a journey, and that is why they are choosing Alma Midwifery Birth Center right in the center of Portland.

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The Bump

h g u o l S e h T FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA IS COMING TO PORTLAND THIS WEEK. HERE’S OUR SPEC SCRIPT FOR A SEQUEL TO APOCALYPSE NOW, SET IN THE EXPANSIVE HOMELESS CAMPS OF NORTH PORTLAND’S COLUMBIA SLOUGH. BY DANA ALSTO N dalston@wweek.com

EXT. SLOUGH - DAY

CAPT. JAMES WILLARD sits in a kayak overlooking the Columbia Slough (pronounced “sloo”), a 19-mile channel of water and gunk running from Fairview Lake to St. John’s. His eyes scan the moss-stained horizon, then drift down to an old photograph he is holding, provided by city officials who are seeking to disband these camps before they can organize.

around them is completely eviscerated. Kilgore barely reacts. KILGORE: Napalm’s pretty nice, too. SCENE EXT. FLOATING HOMELESS CAMP - DAY

WILLARD: (voice-over) I’d been hunting for him for the past month, down this trail of mud puddles and lily pads.

Willard’s kayak floats slowly toward a small village on rafts. Hordes of residents stand and stare at the vessel. Willard stares back, scanning the makeshift shacks and huts. His eyes narrow.

We PAN DOWN to see the photograph. It is a portrait of GILLIGAN, a scruffy-looking man with a wide smile on his face.

WILLARD: This was madness. What was this place? What kind of power did Gilligan have over them? Imagine Portland’s reaction.

WILLARD: (V.O.) He’d been living out here, on a city of rafts, a mayor of a remote homeless encampment. And as I studied my target, the more I couldn’t get him off my mind. Here we were, in the darkest heart of Portland, descending down a river of madness.

We PULL BACK to reveal a small caravan of kayaks, all helmed by U.S. Marines in ’60s-era uniforms. One of them mans an M-60 machine gun mounted to the bow. The leader, COLONEL WILLIAM KILGORE, wears a wide-brimmed hat and speaks with a gung-ho shout. KILGORE: You smell that? (Wafts it in) Sewage. I love the smell of sewage in the morning.

Behind him, one of the kayaking soldiers holds a large boombox on the front of his vessel. Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” blasts from the speakers, filling the slough with the menacing assault of classical music. The fleet of kayaks continues onward at a snail’s pace. Suddenly, a small squad of F-22 bombers screams overhead and bombs the entire area. The slough instantly transforms into a gigantic fireball. The aquatic convoy is left unscathed. The vegetation

In the distance, a figure emerges from the largest hut. CLOSE-UP on Willard as he stares back. It is GILLIGAN, the mayor of the raft village. Willard’s journey is at its end: he has found his target. He kayaks forward, floats up next to the dock and exits. GILLIGAN: Welcome, Captain, to Slough Town.

He speaks in a measured, even manner that’s quietly jovial. Willard is transfixed but guarded, unsure of what to make of the conversation. GILLIGAN (cont.): Mayor Ted has sent you to remove me from this place, I imagine. Is that why you’re here? To relocate my command? WILLARD (nods) Relocate, with extreme prejudice. GILLIGAN: (feigns shock) The horror! GO: Francis Ford Coppola will be at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, Monday, Oct. 2. 7:30 pm. $15-70.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

STARTERS

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 NEW CAPITOL: Veganfriendly karaoke bar Capitol Bar plans to open this October in the building at 14th and Broadway, a year after WW first reported it was in the works. The building is owned by music video director and popsurrealist photographer David LaChapelle. Partners John Janulis and Liam Duffy (Century Bar, Jackknife) and Christopher Cook (Church) plan to open the first floor in mid-October with back-room karaoke, while work on the bar’s second floor continues. >> St. Johns is getting two new beer spots on the same stretch of Lombard Street. 48 North will open any day now next to the Royale Brewing Co., with 48 taps of beer, cider and kombucha. Just four blocks east, StormBreaker Brewing told the New School beer blog they’re opening a second 7,200-square-foot brewery and pub in the location of the former Plew’s Brews.

PHOTO: ANJA CHARBONNEAU FLORAL DESIGN: AMY MERRICK

CHAIN EFFECT: A bike advocacy group will attempt to create a human chain along Naito Parkway this Thursday, to show support for bike lanes. Bike Loud PDX is organizing a “human protected bike lane” along Better Naito, the temporary protected bike lane currently installed in one of the parkway’s car lanes. The temporary lane will be removed on Sunday, but Bike Loud hopes to make Better Naito permanent. “There’s not a lot of safe streets that have bike lanes downtown,” says advocate Emily Guise. “Naito is pretty important for anyone who wants to get anywhere downtown.” Portland Bureau of Transportation launched the project to accommodate increased foot traffic along the waterfront during the summer and it’s scheduled to be reinstalled next spring. The bike lane became a contentious subject last June when the Portland Business Alliance launched a campaign for the lane to be permanently and immediately removed. EAT YOUR VEGGIE: Portland is about to get another cannabis lifestyle magazine, this one by and about women. Broccoli, which comes from former Kinfolk art director Anja Charbonneau, looks at cannabis “through an art, fashion and culture lens.” It launches in November and will be published three times a year. “We’ve been developing this magazine for all these interesting creative women who enjoy cannabis,” Charbonneau tells WW. “It seems like people are ready for something like this.” The first issue will feature an interview with Korean smoke-wear designers, a profile series of the women leading Portland’s cannabis scene and the first in a recurring travel feature about places to visit while under the influence. SO FRESH: The winners have been judged in the Fresh Hop category of the 2018 Oregon Beer Awards—in time to still drink the beers. Judges tasted 72 beers from 45 Oregon breweries, and awarded the Fresh Hop gold medal to Breakside Brewery for its fresh hop Cascade Wanderlust IPA. Silver also went to Breakside for its What Fresh Beast hazy IPA freshhopped with Mosaic, while StormBreaker Brewing won the bronze for its hazy fresh hop House Martell, also made with Mosaic hops. The other 23 categories have yet to be judged, and will be announced at the Oregon Beer Awards next February at Revolution Hall. 20

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

9/27 W E D N E S D AY

SHEER MAG

NICOLE KRAUSS

On their new album, Need to Feel Your Love,, Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag bring together classic power-pop and Kiss-esque riffage together under the banner of punk—an invigorating mixture that offers the year’s best soundtrack for city kids locking lips in a world poisoned by authoritarian creeps. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., 503-2337100, hawthornetheatre.com. 8 pm. $12 advance, $15 at the door. All ages. See profile, page 27.

Nicole Krauss is one of the most important voices in literature, and Dark, is a blockbuster that ends in the Israeli her new book, Forest Dark desert. Weirdly, her Powell’s reading comes the day before her former brother-in-law, Franklin Foer, brother of twee Jonathan Safran, is scheduled to read. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., powells.com. 7:30 pm. See book review, page 39.

9/28

T H U R S D AY

CANOE THE SLOUGH What better way to celebrate the coming of fall than with a canoe ride through our own sludgy, slow-moving Everglades? Don't own a canoe? No prob. Rent one, along with paddles, life jackets and all the gear you need. Just mentally prepare yourself. When we went in June, we saw some shit. N Kelley Point Park, columbiaslough.org. 5-9 pm. $10 suggested donation. All ages.

9/29

F R I D AY

JANET JACKSON

Get Busy WHERE WE 'LL BE SLAMMING F R E S H H O P S A N D BAT H I N G I N FAYG O T H I S W E E K .

After postponing her tour twice to have a baby at the age of 50, Janet Jackson is finally hitting Portland in support of her now 2-year-old album, UnS EPT. breakable, a welcome comeback record that makes up for the disasters of Damita Jo and Discipline. Just ignore the fact that she sounds eerily like her deceased brother on a couple tracks. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St., 503-235-8771, rosequarter.com/ venue/moda-center. 8 pm. $25-$215. All ages.

27- OC T. 3

I LOVE CATS. AND DRINKING. Finally, a place to drink and talk about your cat in public without being judged. Rest assured, there are other people like you, and they will be here, along with DJ Meow, a “name that meow” contest, catthemed stand-up comedy and cat-themed drink specials. Tryst, 19 SW 2nd Ave., 503477-8637, barflymag.com. 5-9 pm. 21+.

INSANE CLOWN POSSE

Look, you’ve gotta see Insane Clown Posse at least once in your life, and given the goodwill flowing toward them right now in the wake of the Juggalo march in D.C., there’s never been a better time for your Faygo baptismal. Trust us, it’s an experience you’ll tell your grandkids about. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St., 503-206-7630, bossanovaballroom.com. 7 pm. $26. All ages.

S AT U R D AY

9/30

FRESH HOPS FEST

BEYLESQUE

Miss the parking lot pop-up last week? This is your last big Portland chance for fresh hops, and it’s a doozy. Seventy Oregon breweries will be pouring their farm-fresh, straight-from-the-hopper beers at Oaks Park both Friday and Saturday, including a fresh hop hazy from Great Notion. Oaks Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way, noon-5 pm. $20 for glass and 8 tasters. Starts Friday at 5 pm.

For the third year, Pink Hanky is staging their burlesque and performance art tribute to Beyoncé. Striptease and Queen Bey may sound like a heteronormative version of empowerment, but Pink Hanky is a queer art production team, and some of the funds will go to Ori, a gallery upstart that showcases works by queer artists of color. Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center, 8371 N Interstate Ave., 503-286-9449, disjecta.org. 8 pm. $22.

10/1

MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

TANK AND THE BANGAS S U N D AY

It's impossible to watch Tank and the Bangas’ winning entry from this year’s NPR Tiny Desk Contest and not see stars in the making. Led by singer and slam-poet Tarriona Ball, the New Orleans six-piece foregrounds her shape-shifting vocals and narrative storytelling against elastic funk-and-soul grooves that play equally to fans of Chance the Rapper and public radio listeners. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., startheaterportland.com. 7:30 pm. Sold out. 21+.

Picked from thousands of international submissions, the third year of the Manhattan Short Film Festival will screen 10 narrative short films from 10 different countries. To make it even more global, it will also play in cities on almost every continent on the same day. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 503-238-5588, cstpdx.org. 4 pm. $7-$10 sliding scale.

M O N D AY

10/2

THE THING

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

“Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be.” Celebrate the 35th anniversary of John Carpenter’s tense horror masterwork, with some disgusting practical effects and Kurt Russell reaching maximum Kurt Russell-ness. McMenamins Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 503-223-4527, mcmenamins.com/mission-theater. 5:30 pm., $4 for adults, $3 for kids.

Yes, that Francis Ford Coppola. The guy behind Apocalypse Now and the Godfather, will be hanging out with a New York Times reporter on the stage of the Schnitz, talking about how excited he is about a new form of art called “live cinema,” essentially a live-DJ’d form of film entertainment .Arlene Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, portland5.com. 7:30 pm. $15-$70.

10/3 T U E S D AY

BLEACHERS Known as the solo outing of “the other guy from Fun,” Jack Antonoff ’s side project makes a fantastic surrogate for the teenage melodrama of Panic! At the Disco. The bevy of endearingly earnest, ’80s-inspired pop tracks of this year’s Gone Now deserve placement in whatever today’s equivalent of The OC is. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033, roselandpdx. com. 8 pm. $29 advance, $31 day of show. All ages.

ARMY OF DARKNESS B-MOVIE BINGO The third Evil Dead movie might also be the best in the series. It’s certainly the funniest. Bruce Campbell’s Ash is chock full of so many quips and one-liners, it will make your head spin. Hail to the king, baby. Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., hollywoodtheatre.org. 7:30 pm, $9 adults, $7 students and kids under 12. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Shandong

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

By MATTHEW KORFHAGE. Editor: MARTIN CIZMAR. Email: dish@wweek.com. See page 3 for submission instructions. www.shandongportland.com THOMAS TEAL

FOOD & DRINK

Shandong www.shandongportland.com

Fillmore Trattoria

Italian Home Cooking Tuesday–Saturday 5:30PM–10PM closed Sunday & Monday

REVELRY

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 27 Kasumi Tsuru Sake Dinner

Zilla Sake will go epic this Wednesday with a 12-course omakase and sake-pairing dinner with the brewer of Japan’s Kasumi Tsuru sake brewery, serving five rarely seen sakes, including junmai daiginjo, otherwise unavailable in the United States. Dinner’s $145 with tip and drinks included—call for reservations. Zilla Sake, 1806 NE Alberta St., 503-288-8372. 6:30-9 pm.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 Portland Fresh Hops Fest

1937 NW 23RD Place Portland, OR 97210

(971) 386-5935

Seventy Oregon breweries will be pouring farm-fresh, straight from the hopper beers at Oaks Park Friday and Saturday, including a fresh-hop hazy from Great Notion, a fresh-hop saison from Little Beast and a fresh-hop sour from Yachats. $20 for glass and 8 tasters Oaks Park, 7805 SE Oaks Park Way, 503-233-5777. 5-8 pm.

Barkada: Melvin Brewing Dinner

TALK:

5am 7am – 2pm

MUSIC:

2pm – 5am

Filipino chef Melvin Trinidad will team up with Melvin Brewing for a Melvin x Melvin pop-up pairing seven courses of pulutan—Filipino drinking food—with seven Melvin beers. Expect Filipino-spiced Thai wings, beef brisket in peanut butter curry and gai lan in Filipino-style XO sauce, among others. Feastly PDX, 912 SE Hawthorne Blvd.,eatfeastly.com. 7 pm.

Richie Hawtin Pours You Sake

For whatever reason, Detroit-viaCanada techno superstar Richie Hawtin will just be hangin’ at Afuri, pouring you flights of his personally curated sake brand Enter.Sake, which enlists ancient breweries all over Japan to please the personal palate of Mr. Richie Hawtin. Afuri, 923 SE 7th Ave., 503-468-5001. 7-9:30 pm.

Prost Oktoberfest

Prost will be tapping eight echtDeutsch Festbiers on a big outdoor patio at the big Mississippi Marketplace food pod, which Prost

owner Dan Hart now owns. Paint your face, don your best lederhosen and get beschwipst. Prost, 4237 N Mississippi Ave., 503-954-2674. Through Sunday.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 30 Aussie Chef Meets American Barbecue

Chef Outta Water is what it sounds like—a chef making food out of their element, in this case, seafood chefs from Astoria and Australia making barbecue over firepits. We’re told to expect crocodile bratwursts. ADX Portland, 417 SE 11th Ave., 503-915-4342, adxportland.com. 6-10 pm. $25 includes two beers.

SUNDAY, OCT. 1 Buckman Backyard Party

Bar Casa Vale, Biwa and Danwei Canting are having a huge-ass block party in the Casa Vale/Biwa parking lot, along with nearby nearby BaseCamp brewing. There will be DJs. There will be grills and steamers on the patio. There will be killer cocktails from Casa Vale. And there will be sake. Sunday is nice. Bar Casa Vale, 215 SE 9th Ave., #109, 503-477-9081. 2 pm-7 pm.

Rachel Yang Cookbook Dinner

In honor of her new cookbook My Rice Bowl, chef Rachel Yang will be in town from Seattle cooking a feast at her Portland outpost Revelry, with 7-8 bites and courses for a cool $45. Revelry, 210 SE MLK Jr Blvd., 971-339-3693. 7 pm.

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 Indigenous Food Dinner

Han Oak will host a 7-course meal of indigenous foods cooked by Taste of Native Cuisine founder M. Karlos Baca and Navajo chef Brian Yazzie, with salmon caught by the Warm Springs tribe, accompanied by stories and songs. The $100 dinner is a fundraiser for the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance. Han Oak, 511 NE 24th Ave, 971-255-0032. 6 pm.

3. Aviv

Where to eat this week:

1. Han Oak

511 NE 24th Ave., hanoak.com. Han Oak just did the smartest thing ever and merged its prix-fixe and dumpling nights: all the dumplings, all the ssam, all the cocktails, all the time. Cool. $-$$$.

2. La Leña

RADIO IS YOURS 22

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

1864 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-946-1157, lalenapdx.com. Peruvian spot La Leña isn’t perfect—but that chupe de camarones seafood chowder pretty much is, with a potent house-made shrimp stock pepped up with chili. $$.

1125 SE DivisionSt., 503-206-6280, avivpdx.com. Aviv pretty much revolutionized hummus in Portland, with eight distinct preparations including hatch chile, zhoug and harissa versions. $$.

4. Ara Restaurant

6159 SW Murray Blvd., 503-747-4823. After 10 pm on a Saturday, this may be the most hoppin’ Korean spot in all of Portland. $$.

5. Dil Se

1201 SW Jefferson St., 503-804-5619, dilsepdx.com. A restaurant co-owned by a former chef of Chennai Masala brings great Indian to downtown, with killer masala dosas. $$.

HILARY SANDER

KRITIK

SO MANY HEADS! Breakside from above.

Breaking Good IT IS SO NICE THAT BREAKSIDE IN SLABTOWN IS NICE NOW.

BY M AT T H I AS KO R F H ÄGE

I am remembering myself on the very first time I was drinking at Breakside Brewery in the year 2011. I was very late coming to the bier party, which had started already a year ago! But then, it was also very far away from me. The brewery was very tiny three barrels and it was way up in the North of Portland, in a place called Dekum Triangel, and I was first drinking a bier called Just the Tips, which was a bier made with spruce trees that tasted so much like Christmas. I learned later it was also a sex joke. American brewers are always making sex jokes! But the nachos were perfect American nachos and the burger was a perfect American burger, and the brewpub was a perfect American brewpub. It is still a perfect American brewpub there in Dekum, with very good burgers and nachos and very friendly people who know all about the bier. And while I prefer a German biergarten full of very large lager steins with handles on them, Breakside in Dekum was to me the best American brewpub. Ever since that time, almost every other brewpub that was not Breakside has been worse. For Septemberfest, which is a bier month in Portland that happens in September at the same time as Oktoberfest, I have made many visits to the new Breakside Brewery in the Northwestern neighborhood of Slabtown, which is a neighborhood named after graves or logs or something.

My god, Breakside is a very fancy brewery now! Outside there is a crazy painting of a very large face of a sad man whose nose is very orange. And where they used to have a logo of a chair there is now a brand new logo made by a logo company that looks like a frisbee that is spinning. There are two floors of bier bars and crazy art on the wall inside as well, and 24 taps of very hoppy bier, and many fancy young people working there who are young and beautiful. They have told me they are opening a biergarten in the sky, on the rooftop, where you can look out and see other rooftops being built. And it is so full of people! The people who drink there are also young and beautiful. But when I first arrived in Slabtown in March there were no nachos at all, and the burger was on this butter-filled French brioche bun and it had two dry patties or very strange “Red Duck” sauce, and the tater tots were big and strange earthapple pillows, and a $9 pretzel was so large it was larger than some babies. And the food was very expensive! God be thanked, the bier was still very good, with the best hazy India Pale Ale bier I have ever had in a brewpub that was not Great Notion, and so many other hoppy biers! Here in “Slabtown,” I have had California-style IPA, and Northwest IPA, and that wonderful hazy New England IPA called What Rough Beast that used to be called Something Wicked, and a very good IPA with a hop called

Cashmere that tastes very much like a cantaloupe. It is a wonderful bier pub, and many of the very good biers are made by a brewer named Will Jaquiss (who I must disclose is the nephew of a reporter at WW). But it was not until quite recently that they had food we wanted to eat. Well, now they have food like that! The burger ($12) now has a tangy sauce that is very nice and is a balance to the buttery bread. There are nachos there ($9) like the nachos they have in the perfect brewpub of Dekum, with so much cheese and pico de gallo and jalapenos it is like a salad made of only fat and spice. And the wings ($9) have gotten much nicer. They are the large and saucy kind of wings with two joints, and they are sometimes a little mushy, which sounds like a dirty word in German. But often they are also very good and crisp and spicy and sweet, especially when you order the Buffalo Sauce. The mac and cheese is a whopping $15, but it is also so very good, with two different cheeses and so rich. Now the Breakside is being very much like the brewpub we were falling deep in love with six years ago. And this is so good, because we very much like the bier. Breakside are the neighbors to our offices and we like to drink there without having enemies, and so we decided we would not say anything until we knew we could say something very nice. And so now, we are saying it. We are saying we are so very happy that Breakside Slabtown is now a place we very much like to be. GO: Breakside Slabtown, 1570 NW 22nd Ave., 503-4447597, breakside.com. 11 am-11 pm SundayThursday, 11 am-midnight Friday-Saturday. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

WILLAMETTE WEEK’S

WHISKY

RA M E N + W H I S KY

ララーーメメンン

FESTIVAL

美味 TICKET INCLUDES RAMEN + WHISKY PAIRINGS FROM EVERY RESTAURANT

！

Saturday, November 4 12–5pm at the North Warehouse

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All oﬀerings of Portland’s ﬁnest ramen and Japanese whisky cocktails under one roof!

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Japanese whisky education and tasting table from Beam Suntory

GET TICKETS at bit.ly/RamenandWhisky2017 $35

ウウィィススキキーー

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC PROFILE MARIE LIN

= WW Pick. Highly recommended. Prices listed are sometimes for advance ticket sales. At-the-door increases and socalled convenience charges may apply. Event lineups are subject to change after WW’s press deadlines. Editor: 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.

Sturgill Simpson

[COSMIC COUNTRY] With 2014’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson cemented his place at the forefront of the genre’s new outlaw class. Comfortable juggling hallucinogens with deep-rooted spirituality, Simpson and his shit-kicking band of session musician virtuosos spent the following months establishing a reputation as the best live show in country music. Once he got unparalleled crossover appeal, with Nashville brass and hipsters alike eating out of his hands, what did Simpson do? He dropped a soul album. Last year’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth, with its Dap-King horns and cover of Nirvana’s “In Bloom,” is so left field it makes its predecessor look like a Garth Brooks album. Country hasn’t had a more likeable, restlessly innovative star in years. PATRICK LYONS. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335. 8 pm. $39.50-$69.50. All ages.

Tropical, the founding Vivian Girl, Crystal Stilt and finally solo artist suffered a musical crisis of faith after relocating from her adopted home of Brooklyn to L.A. She worked a crappy job, thought about giving up on music altogether and opted instead to enlist a new producer, Dave Harrington of Darkside, and write a record that sounds much more like shamelessly-retro 1980s goth pop rather than the Black Tambourine-goneMotown effect of her previous endeavors. Between this and the new Alvvays record, infectious, quirky neo-New Wave is having quite a moment. CRIS LANKENAU. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St, 503-231-9663. 9 pm. $12 advance, $14 day of show. 21+.

Ben Folds, Tall Heights

[PIANO DAD-POP] In his two-decade career, Ben Folds has gone from fronting the ultimate nerd-pop band to producing

CONT. on page 28

Frankie Rose, Suburban Living, A Certain Smile [NEW WAVE] For her latest offering, Cage

TOP

FIVE SONGS THAT PROVE COLDPLAY ISN’T AS SOFT AS YOU THINK

“Politik”

The A Rush of Blood to the Head opener is the closest Coldplay have ever come to a political wokeness anthem. Even though the repeated “Open up your eyes” lyric is dangerously close to the cloying conspiracy mongering of fellow Brits Muse, watching Martin bang out the staccato piano part live is still titillating nonetheless.

2 “Violet Hill” The lead single from Coldplay’s 2008 record Viva La Vida feels downright raucous, with its abundance of distorted guitars, trudging percussion and thinly veiled lyrical allegories of revolution. 3 “A Whisper” With its off-kilter structure and angular guitar riffs, this deep cut from Rush of Blood represents Coldplay’s furthest diversion from their tried-and-true Beatles-y approach. A group like Foals or Minus the Bear could do wonders with this one should they muster the gusto to try. 4 “Spies” While the most memorable tracks from their excellent debut Parachutes feel like Oasis singles, the minor-key dread that moves “Spies” from verse to chorus and back would feel right at home on Amnesia—the 2001 Radiohead album that will start to feel like a direct response to Coldplay now that someone has put the idea in your head. 5 “Birds” This song is actually pretty soft in the grand scheme of things. But the chiming, bouncy guitar lick that carries “Birds” ever so slightly away from the now-familiar territory of digitally enhanced doofus rock is an effective consolation for former fans who were actually excited about Coldplay becoming the next U2. PETE COTTELL SEE IT: Coldplay plays Moda Center, 1 N Center Ct. St., on Monday, Oct. 2. 7 pm. $49-$301. All ages.

C O U R T E S Y O F AT L A N T I C R E C O R D S

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28

Rage and Romance SHEER MAG WRITES SONGS ABOUT LOVE IN A TIME OF HATE. BY CHR IS STA MM

Sheer Mag is generally content to let its dirty and invigorating mixture of classic power pop and Kissesque riffage speak for itself. But with the recent release of their first LP, Need to Feel Your Love, Sheer Mag is ready to talk. “We weren’t done figuring out what kind of band we wanted to be in,” singer Tina Halladay says of Sheer Mag’s first couple years, during which the Philadelphia quintet released three acclaimed EPs while fending off press requests. “We were figuring it out as we went along. Finalizing any thoughts wasn’t really beneficial to us. It seemed kind of silly to do those things when we only had a couple songs.” They were a ridiculously great couple of songs, though. It’s no surprise that people wanted to know more about Sheer Mag right away, but there wasn’t much to learn beyond a pretty standard origin story. Brothers Kyle and Hart Seely began the project as a punk-house bedroom experiment, and after realizing they were onto something, the Seelys brought their roommates Halladay and Matt Palmer into the fold, the latter recruits putting words to the brothers’ majestic throwbacks. You can hear the band’s magic emerge fully formed on the first track of their first EP, released in 2014. “What You Want” slides Sheer Mag into the world on a riff that could have been lifted from any point on the spectrum between Thin Lizzy and Royal Headache. Then Tina Halladay takes the mic at the 30-second mark to carry the band into the stratosphere. She just has one of those voices, a natural wonder that hits the heart straight on. There’s pack-a-day rawness and lovesick vulnerability and old-fashioned punk disgust all bound up in it, and Sheer Mag wouldn’t be Sheer Mag without it. Of course, now that Halladay is ready put that voice to work on something as mundane as an interview, technology gets in the way. It sounds like a rat is gnawing at the connection, and half of Halladay’s words get lost in a garbled demonstration of cell phone failure.

Which is okay—Need to Feel Your Love is the only statement of purpose Sheer Mag needs. The album delivers on the promise of the title and offers the year’s best soundtrack for city kids locking lips. But the freedom found in loving and fucking is always temporary, a fleeting escape from a world poisoned by authoritarian creeps. Sheer Mag is justifiably angry about the state of the world and utterly unshy about it. On album opener “Meet Me in the Street,” Halladay finds herself “seven blocks north of the avenue/ Throwing rocks at the boys in blue. On “Expect the Bayonet,” she sneers the titular threat at “rich men in their white skin” who have ruled with violence and can only be brought down by same. Sheer Mag is essentially marrying the lingua franca of hardcore punk with the arena-friendly bombast of classic glam rock, and as the band’s reach widens, they are finding fans who want the wild party without the righteous rage. Haram, a New York hardcore band with lyrics in Arabic, opened a few recent shows for Sheer Mag, and during one of their sets, Halladay saw that her band is starting to speak to people who are missing the point. “This old woman was just screaming ‘speak English’ [at Haram] over and over again,” Halladay says. “Stuff like that brings me back down to the bottom rung. Why are these people at my show? Maybe they’re not listening to what we’re saying. Maybe we can be more clear. It was super upsetting. It’s hard to always know what kind of people are listening to the music and what they’re taking from it.” It would be great if awful people like that would stay home. It would be even better if a Sheer Mag show convinced them that the wrong side of history is no place to live. That’s a lot to ask of a band—the world is way too messed up for pop music to fix—but Sheer Mag might just be pissed and passionate enough to try. SEE IT: Sheer Mag plays Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE 39th Ave., with Tenement, on Wednesday, Sept. 27. 8 pm. $12 advance, $15 at the door. All ages. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

L LOY D P U R SA L L

MUSIC

SIDE PROFILE: Goldlink plays Hawthorne Theatre on Friday, Sept. 29. a William Shatner album to playing in orchestras and releasing eight solo albums. The Chapel Hill, N.C.based musician has gotten the Five back together here and there, but this time around, it’s only him, and you can drop $249 for a meet-andgreet. His latest album is So There, released in 2015, and it’s a reliable mix of chamber pop showcasing his still-boyish, playful vocals. SOPHIA JUNE. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave, 971-230-0033. 8 pm. $33.50 general admission, $249 meet-andgreet. 21+.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 Insane Clown Posse

[NOT A GANG] See Get Busy, page 21. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St, 206-7630. 7 pm-11 pm. All ages.

Moses Sumney, Angelo de Augustine

[SOUL-FOLK] Moses Sumney’s falsetto has the power to part oceans and cure plagues. His ethereal voice floats over spare instrumentation like a ghost. Even in the swelling moments of crescendo, Sumney’s pipes will leave listeners breathless. The L.A.-based singer rose quickly a few years back with just his guitar, some pedals and that voice of his, but instead of taking advantage of the sudden attention to churn out a debut haphazardly, he took his time and honed his vision. His recently released first album, Aromanticism, explores the idea of being truly alone, both romantically and existentially. Sumney doesn’t bemoan loneliness—he explores it, even embraces it. Even more impressive, despite their heady ruminations, Sumney’s songs never feel maudlin or morose. Listen to “Lonely World” and try to resist the urge to tap your toe. JUSTIN CARROLL-ALLAN. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St, 503-2319663. 9 pm. $18 advance, $20 day of show. 21+.

GoldLink, Masego

[FUTURE BOUNCE] On his earliest projects, DMV native GoldLink birthed a kinetic, electronic-influenced style he dubbed “future bounce.” The beats were light on their feet and his energetic delivery was captivating, but something crucial was absent. His most recent album, At What Cost, delivered the missing parts—clear, overarching narratives, more eclectic instrumentation and standout singles. Sacrificing none of his hyper-local charm, Goldlink weaved an elaborate tapestry of D.C.-area music that doubled as a coming-of-age story. Performing has always been the rapper’s strong suit, but now he finally has the substance to back up his rapid-fire rhymes and dance moves. PATRICK LYONS. Hawthorne Theatre, 1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd, 503-233-7100. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Janet Jackson

[OG DIVA POP] See Get Busy, page 21. Moda Center, 1 N Center Ct St. 8 pm. $25-$215. All ages.

Richie Hawtin, Hito, Jak

[DARK HOUSE] It’s fitting that Richie Hawtin, one of Detroit’s second-wave techno DJs, is the son of a Kraftwerk-loving Ford Motors employee from across the border in Windsor. Though his myriad projects often assume alternate monikers, it’s the grooves and oscillations of krautrock, house and techno that unite Hawtin’s oeuvre, with 2016’s odds-and-ends release From My Mind to Yours serving as a perfectly accessible primer to his Plastikman and 80xx personas, among others. PETE COTTELL. 45 East 315 SE 3rd Ave. 9 pm. $20-$30. 21+.

Post Malone, Smokepurpp

[YOUTUBE RAP] Post Malone’s “White Iverson” catapulted into the zeitgeist in 2015 when the Texasraised rapper was just 19. Viral hits come and go, but Malone has proven he has the chops to stick around a while. His talent for country-spiked hooks over opiated beats isn’t just popular with teenagers, either. Malone has received co-signs from some of rap and pop’s top current names, including Justin Bieber, Quavo of Migos, 21 Savage, 2 Chainz and Kehlani, who’ve all worked with the braided, corn-fed white kid from Dallas. His debut album, Stoney, went platinum, but its songs tread welltraveled subject matter—the importance of doing what you want to do, the recklessness of youth, etc.— which made the album a little, well, boring. Furthermore, Malone’s insistence that he’s more of a rock and country star than rapper brings back Kid Rock flashbacks. Still, his show promises to be loud, high energy and choked with weed smoke, so it’s not all bad. JUSTIN CARROLLALLAN. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

The Dream Syndicate, Eyelids

[NEO PSYCH] Like Television before them, the Dream Syndicate’s reputation rests almost entirely on their debut album. The Days of Wine and Roses came out in 1982, a tad late on the New Wave curve, but still stands as a definitive classic of early American alternative rock. Steve Wynn channeled the punk side of Velvet Underground, stirring in a healthy dose of white-lightning California guitar-jam culture into the potion. Dream Syndicate became champions of the “Paisley Underground” sound, and by the end of the ‘80s their cult status garnered support tours with R.E.M. and U2. The band’s first new album in 30 years came out earlier this month. How Did I Find Myself Here? showcases a mature and recognizable 21st century version of Dream Syndicate, opening with a laid-back, 11-minute groove exploration and ending with

some serious fan service, bringing original vocalist Kendra Smith back for a beautiful dirge. NATHAN CARSON. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave., 503-248-4700. 9 pm. 21+.

SUNDAY, OCT. 1 Vance Joy, Amy Shark, Chappell Roan

[INDIE CHURCH SONGS] Vance Joy is a Melbourne football player who turned mega-star almost overnight with the nauseatingly sincere “Riptide,” which you’ve probably heard in a GoPro surfing commercial. His latest single, “Lay It On Me,” is one of his only new songs since Dream Your Life Away exploded in 2014, and it’s more of the same—a croony Lumineers-like ballad full of tight harmonies, inspirational “cool church” acoustic guitar riffs and a whole lot of “oh oh ohs,” but with more Bon Iver-style vocals. Admittedly, once you stop being stuck up about the formula, it’s a nice little listen. SOPHIA JUNE. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St, 503-225-0047. 8 pm. $42 advance, $45 day of show. All ages.

Tank and the Bangas, Sweet Crude

[SOUL SPEAK] See Get Busy, page 21. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave, 503248-4700. 6:30 pm. Sold out. 21+.

Rakim, Libretto, Jonny Cool, DJ Wicked [THE R] Rakim is the Marlon Brando of hip-hop. When he came on the scene in the mid-’80s, he elevated the form to levels previously unscaled. No one had heard rap quite like his—his way with words was knottier and more dexterous than anything that came before, and pointed toward the future of the art. While a teased reunion with DJ Eric B. last year seemingly died before it even started, and though he hasn’t released an album since 2009’s The Seventh Seal, classics like “Paid In

Full” and “Follow the Leader” remain jaw-dropping (and tongue twisting) lessons in rhyme. MATTHEW SINGER. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St, 503-284-8686. 8 pm. $22.50. 21+.

MONDAY, OCT. 2 The Victor Wooten Trio

[BASS GOD] Whether he’s laying down the foundation for worldfamous instrumentalists like banjoist Bela Fleck or playing a heart-wrenching solo version of “Amazing Grace,” five-time Grammy-winning bassist Victor Wooten ranks among the most powerful living voices on his instrument. A true musicians’ musician, Wooten will pull virtually every professional bass player in Portland (and many other acclaimed jazzers) to the seats at Revolution Hall, where he will showcase the same hyper-virtuosic and melody-driven bass style he’s been pioneering for decades. Equally acclaimed drummer Dennis Chambers and saxophonist Bob Franceschini round out Wooten’s trio tonight, making this performance even more of a can’t-miss event. PARKER HALL. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St #110, 503-288-3895. 8 pm. $30 advance, $34 day of show. 21+.

TUESDAY, OCT. 3 Billy Bragg

[THE UNION FOREVER] Kind of like a British, punk Woody Guthrie, or a more erudite Joe Strummer, or an Essex-bred Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg is a selfless champion of the working man who is bar none the best dude to drunkenly champion when you’re arm in arm with your fellow proletarians in the pub. His Wilco collaboration in the early

CONT. on page 30

COURTESY OF SOUNDCLOUD.COM

PREVIEW

Lil Peep

[SADBOI TRAP] With the so-called “emo revival” in full swing and the stuttered sounds of trap serving as the de facto backbeat for the youth, it was only a matter of time before an upstart YouTube star hamfistedly smashed the two together and hit paydirt in the process. Though his credentials within either genre are dubious, there’s no denying that Long Island-born Gustav Åhr, aka Lil Peep, has managed to rankle just the right corner of the critical elite with his string of white-hot Soundcloud singles. Magically fusing grimy trap beats with samples of emo stalwarts like Brand New and Mineral, it’s the perfect backdrop for lugubrious lyrics about suicide, drug abuse and depression. On this year’s Come Over When You’re Sober, Åhr ditches the samples in favor of guitar tracks that are both expressive and amateurish in equal measure, a move that’s likely the result of him finally learning how to play his own rudimentary drop-D licks to keep the lawyers at bay. While his peculiar brand of sonic cannibalism may not be appealing to the savviest industry types, it’s worth appreciating for its inevitability if nothing else. PETE COTTELL. SEE IT: Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave., 971-230-0033. 8 pm Tuesday, October 3. $18.50 day of show, $21 day of show. All ages. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC aughts paid tribute to Guthrie’s incomplete musical ephemera, but it’s Bragg’s steadfast dedication to the downtrodden that makes him one of our greatest living tunesmiths. CRIS LANKENAU. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, 503-234-9694. 8 pm. $39.50 advance, $42 day of show. All ages.

DATES HERE

INTRODUCING JAMES REXROAD

WILLAMETTE WEEK’S 5th annual

Jon Bellion, Travis Mendes & Blaque Keyz

PRO/AM Saturday October 14th noon-6pm

30 + Beers + ciders you can’t taste anywhere else

[FESTIVAL FAVE] You’ve likely heard Jon Bellion before. The 26-year-old Long Island-based artist wrote the chorus to Eminem and Rihanna’s 2013 Grammy-winning collaboration “Monster,” three years before his chart-topping single, “All Time Low,” dropped. With the release of his debut album, The Human Condition, Bellion’s easy electronic pop has been remixed by dozens of artists and has hit the druggy festival circuit running. Bellion makes electronic music that’s half for the EDM crowd and half for people with a love for pop melodies, creating music that sounds tailor made for a Fast and the Furious trailer—something that’s not exactly rap, but more modulated spoken word, set to deliriously catchy beats. SOPHIA JUNE. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503225-0047. 8 pm. Sold out. All ages.

Bleachers, Tangerine

[TEEN DRAMA] See Get Busy, page 21. Roseland Theater, 8 NW 6th Ave, 971-230-0033. 8 pm. $29 advance, $31 day of show. All ages.

CLASSICAL, JAZZ & WORLD Trio Subtonic with Dan Balmer

[GROOVE JAZZ] Local bass-drumskeyboard three-piece Trio Subtonic will add a special fourth member to their groovy jazz outfit for this show at Portland’s new jazz outpost, joined for the night by guitarist Dan Balmer, who reigns among the longest-standing six-string kingpins in the Rose City. With Balmer in tow, the soulful tunes from the band’s excellent 2016 release, Fiction, take on a new and interesting shimmer, providing fans an interesting glimpse at the gears inside the band’s music, and new listeners an even more compelling reason to spend their beer money on local jazz. PARKER HALL. Jack London Revue, 529 SW 4th Ave, 503-2287605. 9 pm Saturday, Sept. 30. 21+.

The Broken Consort

[AMERICANA TAPESTRY] This debut concert by a group of early music specialists recently relocated from Boston and New York to Portland takes listeners on a journey through the rich, turbulent history of American music, played on appropriate instruments. A traditional piece from Great Plains tribes represents preEuropean music, while 16th century Latin American songs reflect the Spanish-indigenous American collision. A work for Ngoni, the ancient West African stringed instrument brought to Virginia by slaves, marks the beginning of the greatest contribution to American music, from Africans and their descendants. Colonial conquest shows up in the first song written by a composer born in the American colonies and 18th century choral works by the first great Anglo-American composer, William Billings. The journey continues with early folk music, including shape note hymns, a set of tunes by the greatest American composer of the 19th century, Stephen Foster, up to the West Coast premiere of Douglas Buchanan’s 2016 composition Green Field of Amerikay. BRETT CAMPBELL. The Hallowed Halls, 4420 SE 64th Ave., 503-319-8329. 2 pm Sunday, Oct 1. $50, free for Big Mouth Society members. All ages.

For more Music listings, visit 30

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

Maximum Mad WHO: Jayson Smith (vocals, bass), David Mullis (backing vocals, guitar), Mark Bassett (guitar), Travis Wisner (drums). SOUNDS LIKE: The urge to punch somebody and then punch yourself, and somehow finding humor in both. FOR FANS OF: Red Fang, Unsane, Helmet, Harkonen, Botch. When asked about the driving force behind his new band, Jayson Smith gives probably the last answer you’d expect from the frontman of an aggressive noise-rock act called Maximum Mad. “From the get-go, my intent with this band was fun,” Smith says. “Keep it light, keep it fun.” “That might not seem like the obvious guiding principle for such loud, rampaging music, but for four musicians used to volume, distortion and yelling, the band’s practically an extreme-music summer camp.” Between bassist and vocalist Smith, guitarist and backing vocalist David Mullis, guitarist Mark Bassett and drummer Travis Wisner, Maximum Mad’s members have done time in upwards of 10 other bands that hail from all over the spectrum, but share one attribute: “We all come from noisy-loud,” Smith says. Maximum Mad certainly checks that box. The band’s first release, the Dear Enemy EP, opens with a squall of feedback before blazing ahead into an astonishingly catchy assault of in-your-face riffs and cyclical grooves that doesn’t relent until closer “Obscene Gestures” concludes with—guess what?—more feedback. Grimy but melodic, shouty but not screechy or growly, thick but not sludgy, this should appeal to anyone who doesn’t let their extreme tastes get in the way of appreciating pop melodicism and a sense of humor. The band’s name comes from a jokingly proposed title for a Mad Max sequel—Mad Max 2: Maximum Mad—and was selected from a group of potential names that also included Wiseass and Mekaneck, the latter being a reference to “the saddest” character in the He-Man universe, according to Mullis. “As you can tell, we weren’t taking things very seriously,” Smith says. “And we don’t. There’s no reason to.” Regardless of intent, Dear Enemy certainly doesn’t sound half-assed. It was recorded, mixed and mastered by veteran engineer Stephen Hawkes, who’s worked with dozens of bands, most notably Portland stoner metallers Red Fang and fellow Stumptown noise rockers Gaytheist. The six-song set is Spartan and cohesive, even if Smith once thought poppier cut “Unmanned” didn’t fit. Hawkes wanted to record it and Smith says he initially protested, but then thought to himself, “There’s no rules. We can do what we want!” In the hands of less experienced noisemakers, that devil-maycare approach would spell unchecked disaster. For Maximum Mad, it’s revealed the inherent fun in playing loud, heavy music with your friends. PATRICK LYONS. SEE IT: Maximum Mad plays Tonic Lounge, 3100 NE Sandy Blvd., with Norska, Greenriver Thrillers and Drunk Dad, on Saturday, Sept. 30. 8:30 pm. $7 advance, $10 day of show. 21+.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC

DATES HERE

ALBUM REVIEWS

Months BLACK HATS FOR WAR (Self-Released)

[TENSION EXERCISES] On their second album, indie rock four-piece Months tighten up their strong points while ramping up their discordant freak-out side. W hen W i lson Vedi ner of Point Juncture, Wash., first got together with Deer or the Doe’s Aaron Robert Miller two years ago, the best part of the collaboration was the exchange of two dudes with different songwriting aesthetics fighting to get their contributions in. Vediner offers coy, bedroom-soft coos and muted, crystalline arpeggios that set the framework of the best tracks, while Miller is the gruff carnival barker coming in as the volume escalates. The fact that Months have nearly perfected such difficult juxtaposition in just two records is mostly a testament to their rhythm section. Will Hattman’s rolling toms and jazzy snare work couples with Courtney Sheedy’s thick, enveloping bass lines, laying a precise and sturdy foundation for Vediner and Miller’s war of vocal volumes. Even when Months open “Month” with dissonance and bazillion BPM pounding, they still manage to create a sense of tension thick enough to make the louder, inherently more gratifying moments feel rapturous. Just remember to keep your finger on the volume button so you can go full blast the same time they do. CRIS LANKENAU. SEE IT: Months play The Know, 3728 NE Sandy Blvd., with the Wild Body and Mujahedeen, on Saturday, Sept. 30. 8 pm. $6. 21+.

Cool Nutz TERRANCE

(Jus Family)

[LEGACY RAP] Call Cool Nutz an old-head if you want. He won’t take offense. While rap itself is just now entering middle age, and only beginning to contend with what that means on record, Portland hip-hop’s Mayor for Life accepted his elder statesman status long ago, and it’s a role fully embraces on Terrance, his 11th album. “I’m a big fish swimming in a small pond/Open up the floodgates to put the whole city on,” he raps over a typically soulful Tope beat on highlight “Old,” where the 45-year-old native of North Prescott Street takes a big-picture view of the legacy he’s leaving behind and determines “it’s more than the trophy shelf.” There’s a tone of mentorship throughout, even on autobiographical tracks like “No Laces,” which recounts the old days hustling on Portland street corners without devolving into lecturing or self-glorification. Musically, Nutz doesn’t try to keep up with the young ’uns, sticking with the slow-rolling West Coast production that best suits his measured, no-nonsense delivery—though he does try his hand at the staccato Migos flow on “Did It Twice,” with not-embarrassing results. As usual, Nutz culls from his prodigious contact list, calling in cameos from E-40 and fellow local legend Maniac Lok, but the overstuffed guest list is one of Terrance’s few flaws: On a record branded with his government name, you expect a little more intimacy and instead come away wishing you had more opportunities to commiserate one-on-one. MATTHEW SINGER. SEE IT: Cool Nutz plays Ash Street Saloon, 225 SW Ash St., with Rasheed Jamal, Mooky, Juma blaQ and DJ Fatboy, on Saturday, Sept. 30. 9:30 pm. $12 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. 32

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC CALENDAR WED. SEPT. 27 Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave The National Parks, Rivvrs

Catfish Lou’s

2460 NW 24th Avenue Robbie Laws Jam Session

Dante’s

350 W Burnside St GBH, D.I., Fetish

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St The New Division

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont St Social Music

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd Sheer Mag, Tenement

Justa Pasta

Kenton Club

2958 NE Glisan St Sutherlin

Spare Room

4830 NE 42nd Ave Karaoke From Hell

3341 SE Belmont St Jacob Miller, Jamie Drake, Anywhere West

The Fixin’ To

116 NE Russell St Thursday Swing featuring The Ladybugs, The Hot Lovin’ Jazz Babies

FRI. SEPT. 29 Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway Sturgill Simpson

Ash Street Saloon

Tonic Lounge

722 E Burnside St Insane Clown Posse

Triple Nickel Pub

3646 SE Belmont St Argyle

THU. SEPT. 28 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Dave Mason

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway Sturgill Simpson

Catfish Lou’s

2460 NW 24th Ave Lloyd “Have Mercy” Jones presents Swamp-OPhonics

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St Ninja Sex Party

Dante’s

350 W Burnside The Paladins

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St Frankie Rose, Suburban Living, A Certain Smile

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont St Airport, Ancient Oak

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd Mayday

Jack London Revue 529 SW 4th Ave Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St The Early Bird Project, Quincy Davis, Jesse the Imaginer

350 W Burnside Karaoke from Hell

Lincoln Performance Hall 1620 SW Park Ave Schubert Ensemble

The Lovecraft Bar

The Old Church

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Ehnahre, Seven Chains, Caustic Touch, Hail

Dante’s

3728 NE Sandy Blvd ThirstyCity

225 SW Ash St Benefit Show for Call To Safety

1422 SW 11th Ave Holly Bowling

1028 SE Water Ave Yaquina Bay, Happy Abandon, The Cabin Project

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd The Sing Team & The Eagle and Child

The Secret Society

The Liquor Store

MON. OCT. 2 Bunk Bar

The Analog Cafe

Star Theater

2845 SE Stark St Bamboozle and La Rivera

4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd Josue Santiago, Rags and Bones

128 NE Russell St Rakim, Libretto, Jonny Cool, DJ Wicked

8 NW 6th Ave Ben Folds, Tall Heights

421 SE Grand Ave God Module, Blakk Glass, Visions In Black

The Goodfoot

The Ranger Station

Wonder Ballroom

Roseland Theater

3939 N Mississippi Ave DAN DAN, Wet Fruit

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd Picturesque

3728 NE Sandy Blvd Drouth, Taarna

116 NE Russell St The Not-So-Secret Family Show featuring Red Yarn, Pete Krebs

3939 N Mississippi Ave Sarah Shook and The Disarmers

The Know

The Analog Cafe

The Know

The Secret Society

Mississippi Studios

Kelly’s Olympian

13 NW 6th Ave Ninja Brian’s All-Star Variety Luau Spectacular

LAST WEEK LIVE

LaurelThirst Public House

8218 N Lombard St Landlines, Mini Blinds, Honey Bucket

Mississippi Studios

[SEPT. 27 - OCT.3]

2025 N Kilpatrick St Small Field, Lightning Rules, Transit Method, Muff Pistol

1336 NW 19th Avenue Anson Wright Duo 426 SW Washington St Orion Freeman, Pretty Gritty

For more listings, check out wweek.com.

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.

Bossanova Ballroom

Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave Charts, Hawkeye, Motorcoat

Catfish Lou’s

2460 NW 24th Avenue The Kings of Blues Tribute

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St Campfire Caravan

Dante’s

350 West Burnside Agent Orange, Get Dead

Doug Fir Lounge

830 E Burnside St Moses Sumney, Angelo de Augustine

Eastburn

1800 E Burnside St XMELT, No Me Gusta

Fremont Theater

2393 NE Fremont St Brothers Of The Baladi

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd GoldLink, Masego

High Water Mark Lounge

6800 NE MLK Ave Heartless Magnus, Rile, FLESHH, Polygris

Jack London Revue

529 SW 4th Ave Bobby Torres Ensemble featuring Margaret Linn & Tyler Conti

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Camp Crush, Rococode, Shae Altered

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave Valley Queen

Mississippi Studios

SHOUT OUT LOUD: The easy way to describe a Downtown Boys show is to say it’s part basement punk party, part political rally. But that’s not totally accurate. For one thing, political rallies aren’t nearly as substantive. At Mississippi Studios on Sept. 21, the rising Rhode Island quintet didn’t just chant empty slogans or unleash a torrent of anti-government invective. Instead, the band delivered something closer to a church service—a 40-minute sermon on the sins of white supremacy, with hymnals in the form of double-barreled, sax-addled blasts of furious hardcore. Introducing each song with impassioned spiels that frequently bled into and continued out of the songs themselves, frontwoman Victoria Ruiz spoke the group’s message as much as she shouted it, threading their anti-capitalist, pro-labor themes into a single, cohesive narrative. (Crucially, she never invoked the name of Donald Trump directly, implying these issues are much bigger, and older, than any one person.) Often, it seemed like the music was interrupting the speechifying rather than the other way around, but the truth is it all serves the same function, as a platform for cathartic release. While the Thursday night crowd was probably a bit sleepier than those the band typically encounters, there were still those in the audience who clearly needed it—like the guy who grabbed the mic to growl the line “a wall is just a wall,” or the fans who stormed the stage for the concluding “Monstro.” MATTHEW SINGER. Mock Crest Tavern

3435 N Lombard St Hot Club of Hawthorne

Moda Center

1 N Center Ct St Janet Jackson

Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave Ben Bonham

Roseland Theater

8 NW 6th Ave Post Malone, Smokepurpp

SouthFork

4605 NE Fremont Chris & Dawn’s Sharp Four

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave The Dream Syndicate, Eyelids

The Fixin’ To

8218 N. Lombard St Star Witness, Randall Wyatt, DJ Ozroc, DJ Alisha B

The Hallowed Halls 4420 SE 64th Ave Guy Davis

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd Dark/Light, Public Eye, Sloppy Kisses, Vog

The O’Neil Public House 6000 NE Glisan St Spirit of 206

The Secret Society

116 NE Russell St Becky Kilgore and the Cowhands; The Rock Bottom Boys, The Junebugs

The Waypost

3120 N Williams Ave

Body Shame, Mulva Myasis, Alien Parkinson’s Project, Bathwater

Tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Fake News, Tallwomen, Porch Cat, Aka Faceless

Best of the NW: Tributes to Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots

Doug Fir Lounge

Turn! Turn! Turn!

830 E Burnside St Elliott Brood

White Eagle Saloon

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd Dark Tranquility

8 NE Killingsworth St Shadowlands, Loveboys, Husky Boys, Body Mask 836 N Russell St JT Wise Band; Ojos Feos, Mr. Musu

SAT. SEPT. 30 Alberta Abbey

126 NE Alberta St 7th Annual Family Tradition with Lonesome Billies, My Voice Music, Lincoln’s Beard, Tom Swearigen

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway The Music of Led Zeppelin

Ash Street Saloon

225 SW Ash St Cool Nutz, Rasheed Jamal, Mooky, Juma blaQ, DJ Fatboy

Bunk Bar

1028 SE Water Ave Patrick Sweany

Catfish Lou’s

2460 NW 24th Ave Karen Lovely Play It Forward Fundraiser for The Pongo Fund

Dante’s

350 W Burnside

Hawthorne Theatre

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St Love Theme, Mattress, Sun Pac

Jack London Revue

529 SW 4th Ave Trio Subtonic with Dan Balmer

Kenton Club

2025 N Kilpatrick St Manx, Dad Works Hard, Dorado

Mission Theater

1624 NW Glisan St Garcia Birthday Band

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave Kacy & Clayton, The Parson Red Heads

PCC Sylvania Campus Perfoming Arts Center 12000 SW 49th Ave Portland Taiko, Takohachi, En Taiko, Unit Souzou

Pioneer Courthouse Square

701 SW 6th Ave KNRK Oktoberfest: Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 Colin Hay

SouthFork

4605 NE Fremont St. King Louie & LaRhonda Steele

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave Toadies

The Firkin Tavern

1937 SE 11th Ave Malt Lizard, Frenz, and Tom Ghoulie

The Fixin’ To

8218 N Lombard St Trujillo, Old Junior, Wet & Reckless

The Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd Months, The Wild Body, Mujahedeen

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Coloring Electric Like

The Old Church

1422 SW 11th Ave Minor Key Series presents Leyla McCalla

The O’Neil Public House

6000 NE Glisan St Zingari; Tumbledown

The Secret Society 116 NE Russell St The Sentiments, Manimalhouse

The Waypost

3120 N Williams Ave Cook & Rose, Tenbrook

Tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Maximum Mad, Norska, Greenriver Thrillers, Drunk Dad

SUN. OCT. 1 Alberta Rose Theater

3000 NE Alberta St Hans-Joachim Roedelius

Al’s Den at Crystal Hotel 303 SW 12th Ave Pete Kartsounes

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St Vance Joy, Amy Shark, Chappell Roan

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St GGOOLLDD

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Sammy Warm Hands, Lisa Vasquez, Gradient, Ogar Burl

Lan Su Chinese Garden 239 NW Everett St Chinese Opera Performance: Qian Yi

Mississippi Studios

3939 N Mississippi Ave Future Historians, Gary Farmer, The Loved

Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave Dan & Fran

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 Shawn Colvin and Her Band

Star Theater

13 NW 6th Ave Tank and the Bangas, Sweet Crude

The Hallowed Halls

4420 SE 64th Ave The Broken Consort

3939 N Mississippi Ave Ice Balloons, Sun Foot

Moda Center

1 N Center Ct St Coldplay

Muddy Rudder Public House 8105 SE 7th Ave Lloyd Jones

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 The Victor Wooten Trio

TUE. OCT. 3 Aladdin Theater

3017 SE Milwaukie Ave Billy Bragg

Alberta Rose Theater

3000 NE Alberta St A Hawaiian Evening with Makana

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

1037 SW Broadway Amos Lee

Catfish Lou’s

2460 NW 24th Ave Billy D & Kathryn Grimm

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St Jon Bellion, Travis Mendes & Blaque Keyz

Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside St Aaron Lee Tasjan

Hawthorne Theatre

1507 SE César E. Chávez Blvd Nekromantix

Lincoln Performance Hall 1620 SW Park Ave Schubert Ensemble

Revolution Hall

1300 SE Stark St #110 Buckethead with Brain and Brewer

Roseland Theater

8 NW 6th Ave Bleachers, Tangerine

The Fixin’ To

8218 N Lombard St Eaton Flowers, Dr. Amazon, Cool Flowers

The Ranger Station

4260 SE Hawthorne Blvd Bluegrass Tuesday

White Eagle Saloon 836 N Russell St TK Revolution Jam

Wonder Ballroom

128 NE Russell St Lil Peep

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MUSIC

TR EAT F L E S ’ YO

A l l e N T H Ay e R

NEEDLE EXCHANGE

BUY-ONE-GET-ONE

FREE ENTREES 5:00-CLOSE * No Coupon Needed

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304 SW 2nd (& Oak) // 971-242-8725

Danny Holloway (LOS ANGELES) Years DJing: Since 1997. My first DJ name was “Nate Stone” for “2 Stoned Productions.” For years I flew under the radar playing great records at crappy gigs until I started DJing at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, Calif., where Jon Blunck—soon to start Sweater Funk in San Francisco—booked DJs like me and Tom Noble. One day Jon brought his friend by the name of Dâm Funk to one of my gigs. This was before he started his legendary night ’80s boogie-funk party, Funkmosphere. Genre: Reggae, funk and rare groove, all on vinyl. Danny don’t mess with Serato. Where you can catch me regularly: Every Sunday at Reggae on the Roof of the Freehand Hotel in downtown L.A. Also first Tuesdays at the Townhouse in Venice. Craziest gig: Welcome To Jamrock Cruise—that’s an actual reggae party on a cruise ship—when Damian Marley passed me a spliff in the middle of my set. My go-to records: I never leave home without my Ximeno 45s ‘cause they’re good for party rockin’. Don’t ever ask me to play…: U2. NEXt GIG: Danny Holloway spins at the Wayback, 4719 N Albina Ave., with Rev Shines, Maxx Bass and the Ambassador, on Saturday, Sept. 30. 6 pm with a Q&A from 7-9 pm. 21+. Century Bar

930 SE Sandy Blvd The Warm-Up (hip hop, r&b)

Dig A Pony

WED, SEPt. 27 Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave Atom 13

Elvis Room

203 SE Grand Ave DJ Philadelphia Freedom

Ground Kontrol

511 NW Couch St TRONix: Logical Aggression (electro)

Killingsworth Dynasty

832 N Killingsworth St DX7th Heaven (fm synthesis)

Rock Hard PDX

13639 SE Powell Blvd Electronic Dance Music Night

Sandy Hut

1430 NE Sandy Blvd DJ Marty King

the Embers Avenue 100 NW Broadway Knochen Tanz (ebm, industrial)

the Firkin tavern

1937 SE 11th Ave Firkin Full of Eye Candy

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

the Know

3728 NE Sandy Blvd Venus In Furs: A Darkly Gothic Erotic Dance Night

the Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Event Horizon (darkwave, industrial)

tonic Lounge

3100 NE Sandy Blvd Death Throes (death rock, dark wave)

Whiskey Bar

31 NW 1st Ave Dalek One

tHU, SEPt. 28 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave JAUZ

Beech Street Parlor 412 NE Beech Street Maxx Bass

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave Ladies Night (rap, r&b)

736 SE Grand Ave A Train and Eagle Sun King (vintage cumbia)

Elvis Room

203 SE Grand Ave DJ Tiger Stripes

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St Sinjin Hawke + Zora Jones

Killingsworth Dynasty 832 N Killingsworth St Based Goth

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave Salad Nights w/ Benjamin (international disco, synth, modern dad)

Sandy Hut

1430 NE Sandy Blvd DJ Schneck Tourniquet

the Liquor Store

3341 SE Belmont St Xtrah (Cyberfunk, UK)

the Lovecraft Bar 421 SE Grand Ave Shadowplay (goth, industrial)

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St Bubblegum Death

Where to drink this week.

S O F I E M U R R AY

BAR REVIEW

1. Urban Farmer

701 E Burnside St., 503-946-8151, burnsidebrewco.com. For a steep $20 at this steakhouse high in the Nines, you can get the ﬁnest Vieux Carré we’ve ever had in Portland: barrel-aged as long as two years and poured from tiny barrels in a cascading mixed-age solera system kept in a little locked case in the back room.

2. Creepy’s

627 SE Morrison St., 503-889-0185. Creepy’s isn’t creepy, unless you think the circus is creepy: It’s clown paintings, big-eyed kids and John Quincy Adams, plus goofball coﬀee cocktails and a great spicy chicken sandwich.

3. Jack London Revue

529 SW 4th Ave., jacklondonrevue.com. Jazz is back on the westside, in the no-nonsense velvet-curtained basement of classic pool hall Rialto, lit up with candles and Christmas lights and outﬁtted with deep vinyl booths.

4. Laﬁtte’s

2327 NW Kearney St., thewaitingroompdx.com. The upstairs at the Waiting Room is an ode to New Orleans, with absinthe paraphernalia and classic crystal glassware holding some seriously evolved cocktails from barman Chazz Madrigal.

5. Elvis Room

203 SE Grand Ave., 503-235-5690. Consider the gildedmirrored, white-walled upstairs of the Elvis Room a belt-buckled pelvic thrust of budget extravagance and good hamburgers.

FRI, SEPT. 29 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Richie Hawtin

Black Book

20 NW 3rd Ave The Cave (rap, r&b, club)

KNOWN QUANTITY: Whether the name is meant to acknowledge it or not, Local Celebrity (820 N Russell St., 219-545-1771, thelocalcelebrity.com) exists between some formerly famous walls. When it opened at the dark end of North Russell Street in 2001, previous occupant Mint helped usher in the craft cocktail era through the innovations of Lucy Brennan, one of the true celebrities of Portland bartending. New owner Daniel Leussler doesn’t have quite the same reputation—his claim to any level of fame is the local music performance series Killingsworth House, which he films in his basement— but his aspirations for the place appear far more modest, anyway. While he kept the vinyl booths, curved concrete bar and exposed brick walls, the new vibe is more casual clubhouse than swanky mixology lab, with four pinball machines occupying a sunken nook at the back of the main bar area, a stage in the small adjoining room for weekend concerts and a patio that probably won’t get much use for the next eight months. You can still get cocktails, including a $6 caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil, but beer pairs better with the various rice bowls coming out of the kitchen. It’s a fine hangout, if fairly nondescript. With McMenamins’ White Eagle Saloon already filling the demand for a half-venue, half-bar under the Fremont Bridge, the bestcase scenario for Local Celebrity seems to be as a pre-game MAX stop on the way to Moda Center during Blazer season. But there are certainly worse fates than that. Fame isn’t for everyone, after all. MATTHEW SINGER. SAT, SEPT. 30 45 East

315 SE 3rd Ave Dieselboy & DJ Icey

Beech Street Parlor

Crystal Ballroom

412 NE Beech Street DDDJJJ666 & Magnolia Bouvier

Dig A Pony

20 NW 3rd Ave The Ruckus (rap, r&b, club)

1332 W Burnside St 80’s Video Dance Attack 736 SE Grand Ave Anton (rap, r&b)

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St Snap! 90s Dance Party

Killingsworth Dynasty

832 N Killingsworth St Switch (queer house dance)

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave D Poetica

Quarterworld

4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd DJ Provoke (boogie, new wave, electro)

Spare Room

4830 NE 42nd Ave The Get Down

The Goodfoot

2845 SE Stark St Soul Stew (funk, soul, disco)

Whiskey Bar

31 NW 1st Ave GANZ w/ Octaban, Dar, R&R

Black Book

Crystal Ballroom

1332 W Burnside St 80s New Wave Video Dance Attack

Dig A Pony

736 SE Grand Ave Deena Bee (hiphop, r&b)

Eastburn

1800 E Burnside St Soulsa! (merengue, salsa, cumbia)

Holocene

1001 SE Morrison St Main Squeeze Dance Party (house, disco, techno)

Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St GLMG Presents: The 00’s

Killingsworth Dynasty

832 N Killingsworth St Dynasty a Go-Go! (soul, funk, mod, garage)

Lay Low Tavern

6015 SE Powell Blvd DJ Matt Stanger

Moloko

3967 N. Mississippi Ave Blue Moon w/ Jimbo, Djenks & Survival Skills from Beat Parlor (deep house, various rhythms)

Quarterworld

4811 SE Hawthorne Blvd ElecTRON

Bridge Club and No Control present: Ariel Zetina

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave Sad Day: Amy Winehouse

MON OCT. 2

The Analog Cafe

Ground Kontrol

720 SE Hawthorne Blvd ANDAZ Bhangra Bollywood Dance Party

511 NW Couch St Reaganomix: DJ Jay ‘KingFader’ Bosch (80s)

The Liquor Store

Star Bar

3341 SE Belmont St Gran Ritmos: Siete Catorce

639 SE Morrison St Metal Monday

The Lovecraft Bar

421 SE Grand Ave DJ Tito Black

The Wayback

4719 N Albina Ave Blazing 45s: Danny Holloway

Valentines

232 SW Ankeny St It’s Lit

SUN, OCT. 1

421 SE Grand Ave Black Mass (goth, post punk)

TUE OCT. 3 Kelly’s Olympian

426 SW Washington St Party Damage: DJ AM Gold

Sandy Hut

1430 NE Sandy Blvd Eye Candy

Black Book

The Embers Avenue

20 NW 3rd Ave Flux (rap, r&b, club)

100 NW Broadway Recycle (dark dance)

Ground Kontrol

The Lovecraft Bar

511 NW Couch St Black Sunday: DJ Nate C. (metal)

421 SE Grand Ave Sleepwalk (deathrock, gothrock, post-punk)

Produce Row Cafe

Tube

204 SE Oak St

18 NW 3rd Ave Tubesdays w/ DJ Jack

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

PERFORMANCE REVIEW J E R R Y M O U AWA D

Restaurant Guide publishes

october 25 Portland’s definitive annual look at the best of the robust culinary selection our city has to offer. Featuring our Top 100 Restaurants as well as the Restaurant of the Year. 503.445.1426 advertising@wweek.com

GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS: Michael Streeter and Carol Triffle.

Quiet Desperation A STAGE ADAPTATION OF RAYMOND CARVER STORIES IS MORE INVENTIVE THAN ITS SOURCE MATERIAL. BY B EN N ETT CA MPB ELL FER GU SON

In the third act of Imago Theatre’s Human Noise, a motel manager named Holly (Emily Elizabeth Welch) recalls a farmhouse she used to visit. It’s one of her most precious memories, because the couple that lived there embodied Holly’s hopes of growing old with her husband, Duane (Bryan Smith). That dream now seems impossible. Duane has cheated on Holly in the motel where she works, and now she’s contemplating leaping through a window. So it goes in Human Noise, which adapts for the stage three short stories and a poem by the late Oregon writer Raymond Carver. Though it doesn’t undermine the power of the beautifully minimalist scenic design or the actors’ skillful ability to channel the grief, fear and lust in the stories, Human Noise adheres to Carver’s work perhaps too loyally. At least that isn’t true of “Neighbors,” an uproarious tale of middle-aged sexual awakening. It stars Michael Streeter and Carol Triffle as Bill and Arlene, a couple tasked with feeding their neighbors’ cat. The routine favor rapidly mutates into a kinky odyssey of self-discovery. Unbeknownst to each other, the repressed Bill and Arlene both use their neighbors’ apartment as a personal sanctuary of masturbation, unleashing some funny-sad mayhem that puts a comedic spin on the show’s obsession with doomed, turbulent love stories. Like the other three stories in Human Noise, “Neighbors” vocalizes Carver’s text mostly wordfor-word. The characters refer to themselves with lines like, “She shakes her head.” 36

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But Human Noise isn’t a glorified audiobook. The actors are remarkably comfortable with the unconventional dialogue, as well as Mouawad’s unusual set, which features two skeletal door frames that mirror the play’s bleak emotional landscape. If only the stories themselves possessed that kind of inventiveness. Once Human Noise plunges into Carver’s “A Serious Talk” and “Gazebo,” it devolves into a rote battle of the sexes. Men are portrayed as treacherous, sex-crazed animals and women as hysterical homemakers who meekly cower in the face of confrontation. The dispiriting view of gender looks frustratingly narrow compared to Mouawad’s bold creative flourishes, like filling the play with music by Béla Bartók and Igor Stravinsky. Yet there are moments when Human Noise transcends Carver’s stereotypes, including when Holly recalls that farmhouse. Staring out into the audience, Welch speaks of Holly’s dashed dreams with such passion and eloquence that you feel as if you’re not watching a character, but a friend you desperately want to protect. Human Noise has enough moments like that to draw you into the play’s world, even if it isn’t as impactful or complex as it yearns to be. SEE IT: Human Noise plays at Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th St., imagotheatre.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday through Sept. 30. $10-$20 sliding scale Sept. 28-30. $25 Sept. 30, which includes a reading by Carver’s partner, Tess Gallagher.

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

REVIEW PAT R I C K W E I S H A M P E L / B L A N K E Y E .T V

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

An Octoroon

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ 2014 script is a satirization of an 1859 melodrama, The Octoroon. JacobsJenkins is black; the original playwright, Dion Boucicault, was white. It’s a dense, complicated play. Thankfully, Artists Rep has filled every supporting role with highly competent actors. If anything, An Octoroon’s message is to point out a need for constant questioning. It pushes back against the language we have for discussing race in more ways than just dramatic punctuation of the word “octoroon.” It tests our cultural lexicon, too. SHANNON GORMLEY. Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison, 503-241-1278, artistsrep.org. 7:30 pm WednesdaySunday, 2 pm Sunday, through Oct. 1. $25-$50.

Hand to God

Midway through Hand to God, a pink sock puppet attempts to bite off a classroom bully’s ear. More than just a vicious monster, Tyrone is the embodiment of the rage and grief of Jason (Caleb Sohigian), a fatherless teenage boy. In Triangle Productions’ staging of the Tony Award-winning play, Sohigian brilliantly sustains the illusion that Jason and Tyrone are two halves of one soul, trying to balance a need for control with a longing to strike out. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. The Sanctuary at Sandy Plaza, 1785 NE Sandy Blvd., trianglepro.org. 7:30 pm ThursdaySaturday, September 7-September 30, 2:00 pm Sunday, September 17-24. $15-$35.

DANCE Beylesque

See Get Busy, page 21. Disjecta Contemporary Arts Center, 8371 N Interstate Ave., disjecta.org. 8 pm. $22.

Degenerate Art Ensemble and Mizu Desierto

Two of the Pacific Northwest’s strangest contemporary artists are performing new works in the same show. With the help of film and immersive staging as well as movement, the works will be more like extremely abstract storytelling than a traditional dance show. The Headwaters Theatre, 55 NE Farragut St., witd.org. 8 pm Friday-Saturday, Sept. 29-30. $5-$30.

COMEDY Becky With the Good Jokes

For the second edition of the monthly showcase, there’ll be standup comedy from Braunstein plus the likes of JoAnn Schinderle and Adam Pasi. But there will also be music from the Decemberists’ Jenny Conlee and the premier of Braunstein’s movie about comedy in Alaska, her home state. Funhouse Lounge, 2432 SE 11th Ave., funhouselounge. com. 10 pm Saturday, Sept. 30. $8 advance, $12 day of show.

PASSED DOWN: Allison Mickelson, Robert Mammana, Aida Valentine.

Growing Pains

ALISON BECHDEL ATTEMPTS TO UNDERSTAND HER FATHER IN FUN HOME.

nly a few minutes into Fun Home, we know how the story will end. Adapted from Alison Bechdel’s graphical memoir, the musical tries to make sense of the cartoonist’s complicated relationship with her closeted gay father, Bruce (Robert Mammana). Our narrator is present-day Bechdel (Allison Mickelson), who explains the play’s fate in the first scene. “He killed himself and I became a lesbian cartoonist,” she says. Propelled by goofy, singalong anthems, Fun Home switches between three different stages of Bechdel’s life. There’s Alison (Aida Valentine) growing up in the funeral home where her father enforced heteronormativism on his daughter. There’s Alison at college (Sara Masterson), who transforms from nervous and slumped shouldered, to belting out love songs as she discovers her sexuality and falls for a classmate named Joan (Kristen DiMercurio). Then there’s Alison the narrator, the successful cartoonist behind Dykes to Watch Out For, and who’s attempting to understand her father through jumbled memories. The show premiered on Broadway in 2015 and won multiple Tony awards that same year. It went on tour for the first time last October, but Portland Center Stage is staging its own production. PCS’ production is so intimate and charming, it’s hard to imagine Fun Home on a giant Broadway stage. The set is relatively minimal. Though the scenes in the funeral home are fleshed out with vintage furniture, Alison’s college dorm is just a desk and a bed. At the end of the play, Bruce remains a mystery to Alison. Where did he go late at night? Was it a gesture of solidarity when he mailed her a novel with a lesbian protagonist? Why did he call her into his embalming room when she was little just to ask her to hand him scissors? But Fun Home’s yearning for understanding imbues even the most uncertain and difficult moments with tenderness. In one scene, Bruce shames Alison into wearing a dress instead of a pair of Converse and a boyish T-shirt to a family party. “Do you want everyone talking about you behind your back?” he asks her. Through Alison’s self-discovery, we can see Bruce’s misguided hope of sparing his daughter from the pain he feels, while he remains deprived of the freedom she eventually finds. SHANNON GORMLEY SEE IT: Fun Home is at Portland Center Stage, 128 NW 11th Ave., pcs.org. 7:30 pm Tuesday-Sunday, noon Thursday, 2 pm Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 22-Oct. 22. $25-$70.

Cannabis Issue Publishes OctOber 4 It’s been six months since WW’s Potlander Magazine came out. It’s time for a refresher! This years fall cannabis issue will cover our local grow scene, what dispensaries are facing and the products they are showcasing. Don’t miss your chance to promote your brand in our second annual issue highlighting the cannabis industry. 503.445.1426 advertising@wweek.com Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

VISUAL ARTS J O S H L AT H A M

PROFILE

Out of Body

EXTRA SUGAR: And Don’t Call Me Shirley.

A SITUATION OF MEAT EMBRACES GROSSNESS. SHA N N ON G O R M L E Y

sgormley@wweek.com

Dakota Gearhart’s installation is an entranceway to a demented world. We Are The Intimate Freaks You Asked For is the first work you encounter in Disjecta’s new show, A Situation of Meat. Electrical wires coated in lumps of dingy-colored confetti hang from a rectangular frame, lining a thin walkway into the exhibit. Standing inside the structure days before the show opens, curator Julia Greenway explains that it isn’t completely finished. The TV hanging inside the hallway will play Gearhart’s animation. Underneath the screen, there’ll be an illuminated pool of liquid. “We’re going to make it really milky and viscous,” says Greenway, who’s the director of Seattle’s Interstitial gallery. “Like cum, breast milk, sort of like out-of-body liquid.” A Situation of Meat is the first of four shows that Greenway will create as Disjecta’s curator in residence. Even partially finished, it’s epic: five massive installations in the cavernous Kenton gallery. There’s Virginia artist Braxton Congrove’s collection of pink squiggly sculptures that vaguely resemble intestines, and yellow ovals that Greenway calls “eggs” but look more like pills: large, two-toned capsules nestled on a fluffy pink pillow. In And Don’t Call Me Shirley, by Portland artist Maggie-Rose Condit, fake maraschino cherries are suspended over a king size bed that’s soaked in goopy, red-tinted corn syrup. “Grotesque” is a word Greenway frequently uses as she walks around the exhibit. But A Situation of Meat 38

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is not shock art—it’s playful and even serene. Elizabeth Mputu’s epigenetic therapy treatment is like a metaphysical healing workshop. Projected on a large wall, the video depicts pressure points and is narrated by a deep, slow-motion voice. Greenway says she isn’t interested in things that are uncommonly grotesque so much as the everyday grossness we choose to edit out of our lives. Especially with social media, she says, “You get to curate a self. I think it’s important to be gross.”

jected above a pool of water. One part of the film is an underwater shot of chicken feet as they’re dropped to the bottom of a tank. They almost look like thin human hands with wrinkled knuckles and pointy fingernails, until you notice the sliver of bone and tendon sticking out of the severed end. In a moment that’s both funny and bizarrely fascinating, a foot hanging down from the top of the screen curls and uncurls its talens, scraping the pile of feet below it. In another scene, two pink dahlias hang upside down from the top of the screen. You only realize that they’re suspended in water when streams of milk are poured into the frame. It’s beautiful and delicate, until the flowers start sloshing around, destroying the ribbons of white. The water becomes a gray, murky mess, and the flowers push against the glass container - Julia Greenway, curator like frantic anemones. It’s tempting to see moments like that as a libMel Carter, one of the artists in the show, agrees. eration from traditional femininity. The uninhibited yet “There’s more of a non-binary approach to femininity, subtle grossness of the entire show verges on cathartic. that it can be more than just beautiful and dainty.” All But A Situation of Meat is concerned with embracing of the artists in A Situation of Meat are femme-identi- the grotesque, not fetishizing it. fying, but according to Carter, her interest in grossness Besides, Greenway’s primary interest as the show’s is purely personal. “It’s more just something we all curator wasn’t really ideological. “All of these artists gravitate towards. Like when you’re talking to your best are the biggest weirdos,” she says. “I wanted to see what friend about some weird sex thing.” they would look like in conversation together.” Carter’s installation, desires as round as plums, is one of the most serene corners of the exhibit. Sectioned off SEE IT: A Situation of Meat is at Disjecta, 8371 N Interstate Ave., disjecta.org. Noon-5 pm Friday-Sunday, by temporary white walls, a nine-minute video is pro- through Oct. 29. Free.

“WE’RE GOING TO MAKE IT REALLY MILKY AND VISCOUS”

BOOKS REVIEW

= WW Pick. Highly recommended.

WILLAMETTE WEEK’S 5th annual

BY MATTHEW KORFHAGE. 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.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 28 Ross Robbins and Nathan Wade Carter

Two Portland poets will read at Portland’s hallowed Daedalus books. Painter Ross Robbins is the author of 2013’s I Want to say How I Feel and Be Done With It Forever, and the forthcoming The Book of Definitions and The Three EPs. Nathan Wade Carter, who also writes and records under the name Purrbott, has a chapbook called ROYGBIV, and is founder of online literary zine SUSAN / The Journal. Daedalus Books, 2074 NW Flanders St., 503-274-7742. 6 pm.

Professional smart guy, secondmost-famous Foer and former New Republic editor Franklin Foer has a new book out in which he tells us that Google is failing in its quest not to be evil, while Amazon and Facebook aren’t even fucking trying. The World Without Mind is a scathing polemic against the new insidious monopolists of pretty much everything. Anyway, you can buy his book on Amazon, which you’d totally know already if you’d Googled it or followed his Facebook page (facebook.com/franklin.foer.3). Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 29 Gwendolyn Oxenham with Portland Thorn Allie Long

Back in 2004, when journalist Gwendolyn Oxenham played futebol feminino in soccer-loving Brazil, her team had to hitchhike to practice and share their practice field with a horse. More recently, the World Cupwinning U.S. women’s team sued to get equal pay with a men’s team that just got their asses handed to them by Costa Rica. She’ll appear at Powell’s with Portland Thorns and national-team midfielder Allie Long, whose story figures large in Oxenham’s new book Under the Lights and in the Dark, about women’ soccer all over the world. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

SUNDAY, OCT. 1 Zoë Quinn

Zoë Quinn, whose name became synonymous with #gamergate and the online harassment of women— or wait, sorry, “ethics in video game journalism”—is telling her story in her new book Crash Override, not only about the controversy and harassment but her own activism to try to halt it. Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 pm.

MONDAY, OCT. 2 Mark Bowden With Buzz Bissinger

Mark Bowden’s Black Hawk Down is already a classic of American war reporting, a wrenching account of modern asymmetrical war loved by every angry old man in America. He’s back in the trenches with Hue 1968, the story of the Vietnam War Tet Offensive that kicked America in both the balls and the ego. He’ll be joined by in conversation with Buzz Bissinger, author of another relentlessly grim vision of war, Friday Night Lights, Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., 800-878-7323. 7:30 am.

IN FOREST DARK, ISRAEL IS THE ABYSS.

hen Jules Epstein disappears into the deserts of Israel, mountains are moved. The Israeli president himself calls to intervene, to console. Epstein is large—a talker, a powerful New York lawyer who always has the last word because he will always respond to any challenge. Except, when we first encounter him in Nicole Krauss’ new novel Forest Dark (Harper, 304 pages, $27.99), he isn’t any of those things. The pushy, garrulous man has been replaced with a diminished version of himself—divorced from his wife, robbed of his coat and mugged of his phone. He is a hapless, once-imposing Philip Roth figure who has “lost his interest in pleasure,” traveling to Tel Aviv to reconnect with his birth. En route, he is waylaid by a shady rabbi named Klausner. Meanwhile, a novelist named Nicole is suffering from a failed marriage and an unsettling sense of dislocation that builds in her until “one autumn afternoon when I came through the door of my house I shared with my husband and our two children, and I sensed that I was already there. Simply that: already there.” Nicole, too, is drawn to Israel—in this case, by a strong feeling that she Krauss is dreaming her life from the Brutalist maze of the Tel Aviv Hilton, where she was conceived. When she gets there, a shady old man named Friedman has a briefcase and a proposal. Nicole’s and Epstein’s twinned journeys form the alternating rhythms of the novel, whose prose is often jarring in its beauty. Krauss describes the act of dancing as a series of small collapses inside us as we move—or perhaps “a continuous collapse, soft but ongoing, as if snow were falling inside us.” The book, too, is a continuous collapse, driven less by plot and motivation than the nebulous pull of undertow, the dream-logic of David Lynch. Amid ruminations on the eerie unheimlich of Freud and an alternate history of Kafka, in which he died in Israel, both Epstein and Nicole are drawn into the desert with a slow and sickly inevitability. Zionist intrigues, encounters with Israel’s military roughnecks and near-drownings in the sea are just vehicles moving the two outside their own lives. The reader waits for Epstein’s and Nicole’s two stories to intersect, but they don’t, really. Instead, they copycat each other, forming strange doublings until you realize you’ve passed through the mirror: One narrative has been living inside the other like a ghost. It’s interesting, though, that both Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer—her novelist ex-husband who dallied weirdly with Natalie Portman in the New York Times—would both publish novels about writers with failed marriages, who each chase after calamity in Israel. “We walked away from our marriage side by side,” Krauss writes in the voice of the fictional Nicole. But maybe that’s just one more dark mirror in Forest Dark. After all, Israel is where you go when your life fails: Israel is the howling abyss. MATTHEW KORFHAGE.

PRO/AM Saturday October 14th noon-6pm

30 + Beers + ciders you can’t taste anywhere else

GONI RISKIN

Franklin Foer

Kafka’s Grave

GO: Nicole Krauss reads Wednesday, September 27, at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 E Burnside St. 7:30 pm. Free. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

COURTESY OF SHANE ANDERSON

MOVIES Screener

THE EEL RIVER IN A RIVER’S LAST CHANCE.

Running Dry

A RIVER’S LAST CHANCE HOPES TO PREVENT ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER. BY DA N A A LTSO N

dalston@wweek.com

A River’s Last Chance is beautiful from the onset. Shane Anderson’s documentary opens with a montage of Northern California’s Eel River, speckled with salmon and wildlife. Wide shots of the river framed by forests and mountains are rendered through stunning cinematography. The beauty of the river only makes the environmental damage at the center of the film more heartbreaking. A River’s Last Chance—Anderson’s latest collaboration with Portland-based environmental organization Pacific Rivers—tracks damage to the Eel. Three years ago, the river ran dry due to over-logging, over-fishing and a hydropower dam that disrupts salmon migration. One shot shows a salmon that’s reached the end of the river where it’s so shallow, the fish has to struggle to stay underwater. It’s outrage-inducing, which is exactly Anderson’s goal. “We’re trying to build a storytelling campaign,” he tells WW. “We’re always trying to push for changes.” A River’s Last Chance will premier this week at the Hollywood Theatre. It screens as one of 19 films in this year’s Portland EcoFilm Festival. Anderson is far from formally trained. The Washington native is a former fisherman and professional downhill skier. He took an interest in movie-making after appearing in skiing films in the late ’90s. Anderson’s skiing career was short lived —he broke his back in 2000 at the X-Games 40

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after half a decade on the slopes, and he became disillusioned by how much the scene was driven by corporate sponsorships. “My friends and I got fed up with the politics of it all,” he says. Anderson moved to LA and worked in Hollywood for five years. It was in one of the smoggiest cities in the world that his concern for the environment took shape. “I ended up living with this actress who was making documentaries on environmentalism and the Green Movement and such,” he says. “I kinda got inspired from her.” That inspiration led to a move back to Washington, where Anderson filmed Wild Reverence, a documentary about threats to the West Coast’s steelhead trout population. He followed that up with Behind the Emerald Curtain, which profiles the political gamesmanship surrounding Oregon’s logging industry. Pacific Rivers used publicity from the film to introduce legislation reforming the Oregon Forest Practices Act. The legislation didn’t make it through the House, but with A River’s Last Chance, Anderson isn’t deterred in his effort to get audiences involved. The Eel is one of the longest rivers in California and one of the best preserved salmon routes along the Pacific. But increased human interference has put that in danger. For interviewee Eric Stockwell, a member of the Eel River Recovery Project, that’s hardly a surprise. “What’s difficult around here is that you come to realize people are disconnected from the landscape,”

he says. “The fish and the places that they choose to use are all indicators of our own environment. Modern people don’t seem to connect the dots on all that.” A River’s Last Chance explores that disconnect with long sections dedicated to the river’s history. Anderson breaks down the destructive practices that harm the forest and the river, including illegal marijuanagrowing operations, which regularly disrupt the river to divert water to crops. In one scene, a fly-over shot of the forest reveals swaths of trees cut away for greenhouses. “There’s a rush to make money in the cannabis industry right now,” Anderson says. “You’ve got all these people coming in from all over the world now that don’t live there full time, that don’t know about the river or the ecosystem, who aren’t environmentally conscious at all. Those people have got to go.” But Anderson recognizes that forcing people out of the area isn’t a feasible course of action. He hopes to help revive the damaged fish population by restructuring the river’s dam, which prevents salmon from completing their trips downstream. “Everyone at the local level wants to see the river returned to its former glory,” says Anderson in his narration of A River’s Last Chance. “It’s critical that we the people take a stand for a future we want to see.” SEE IT: A River’s Last Chance is at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., Sept. 30, 6:30. $9. See portlandecoﬁlmfest.org for full schedule.

GET YO U R REPS IN

Chinatown

(1974)

Shady environmental politics provide the backbone for one of Jack Nicholson’s most iconic roles.Chinatown screens as the only ﬁction ﬁlm in this year’s EcoFilm Fest, even though the water supply thievery is kind of eclipsed by the fucking crazy ending. Instead of shrugging their shoulders at the moral implications of screening a Roman Polanski movie, the theater and festival will donate 20 percent of the proceeds to the domestic violence hotline Call to Safety. Hollywood, Sept. 30.

Serial Mom

(1994)

Taxi Driver

(1976)

In John Waters’ send-up of tabloid culture and normalcy, Kathleen Turner plays a mom living in the suburbs of Baltimore who’s the perfect housewife and a homicidal maniac. One of the Pope of Filth’s most underrated ﬁlms, Serial Mom is made all the more absurd by that fact that it also stars Sam Waterston as Turner’s husband. Academy, Sept. 27-Oct. 5.

If Martin Scorsese’s recent ﬂops have been getting you down, all you need is a trip into the disturbed mind of Travis Bickle to keep your Scorsese fandom alive. With career-deﬁning performances from both Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, the bleak and chilling movie is enough of a masterpiece to eclipse any late-career indiscretions. Academy, Sept. 27-28.

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Now that the wave of zombie comedies has ﬁnally crashed, we can begin to forgive Edgar Wright’s apocalyptic breakup story for starting it. Clinton, Oct. 2.

The Thing

(1982)

Somebody in this camp ain’t what he appears to be. John Carpenter’s tense horror masterwork features lots of disgusting practical eﬀects and Kurt Russell reaching maximum Kurt Russell-ness. Mission, Sept. 27-Oct. 2.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: Magic Mike (2015), Sept. 19-Oct. 1. Clinton Street: Freak Orlando (1981), Sept. 27. Hollywood: Army of Darkness (1992), Oct. 3. Laurelhurst: Dazed and Confused (1993), Sept. 27-28. Misery (1990), Sept. 29-Oct. 5. Mission: Bonnie and Clyde (1993), Sept. 27-28. Misery (1990), Oct. 1-8. NW Film Center: Killer of Sheep (1978), Oct. 2.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 27, 2017 wweek.com

MOVIES : 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 Woodshock

Woodshock is a dark and dreamy ode to the Redwoods and the weird shit that happens in rural California. Kirsten Dunst stars as Theresa, a spacey medical dispensary employee who laces a few grams of shwaggy cannabis before rolling up a deadly joint for her terminally ill mother. Theresa is no stranger to this spiked concoction—the film is interspersed with flashbacks of her stumbling through the woods in a silk nightgown. The pain of grieving her mother draws her toward a hallucinatory escape, and sober moments become fewer and further between. As Theresa’s grip on reality loosens, flashes of her bloodied nightgown hint at violent highs ahead. The film was co-wrote and co-directed by Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the sisters behind the wunderkind high-fashion label Rodarte. Shot throughout Humboldt County, the dreamlike forest scenes show the sisters’ reverence for visual art and for their home state. Windows sparkling with coastal condensation cast distorted light on characters’ grim expressions, and geometric shapes glide across the misty tree tops when Theresa exhales. Aesthetics aside, time spent during lengthy shots of Dunst trailing her fingers around redwood trunks could’ve better served to flesh out the rest of the characters. It’s more fever dream than thriller, but permafry has never looked prettier. R. LAUREN TERRY. Fox Tower.

STILL SHOWING A Ghost Story

In David Lowry’s emotional exercise in magical realism, 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. Lowry’s vision is on full display here, and the result is one of 2017’s most powerful films. R. DANA ALSTON. Academy, Kennedy School, Laurelhurst.

Atomic Blonde

An adaptation of the Oni Press graphic novel Coldest City, Atomic Blonde depicts Berlin at the Cold War’s last gasp. Charlize Theron plays a British secret agent set to meet up with James McAvoy’s rogue operative and rescue a vital informant from East Germany. Even with the playfully stylized flourishes teasing coherency from a pointlessly complicated narrative, the film has a giddy devotion to its own daft momentum. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Tigard, Vancouver.

Baby Driver

It takes a scant five minutes for Baby Driver to feel like one of the best car-chase films of all time. 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. 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 hyper-stylish car chase opera the world deserves. R. AP KRYZA. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Tigard.

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!). But this anarchic entry in the Despicable Me franchise eschews forced wholesomeness and delivers a truckload of dumb fun. PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Empirical, Milwaukie, Tigard, Vancouver.

Detroit

We meet Larry Reed (Algee Smith) and his R&B group the Dramatics at the Fox Theater. Just as they’re about to go onstage, the announcement comes that the show has been canceled due to rioting. Larry heads to his $11 room at the Algiers Motel. One thing leads to another, and the Detroit police come to believe they’re under attack by the Algiers guests. What happens there is harrowing, and will leave you feeling emotionally drained. Perhaps the filmmakers thought it was too harrowing because the Algiers incident comes to an abrupt end and the last 30 minutes of the film deal with the aftermath. Despite a third act that doesn’t really fit with the first two, there’s a lot to like about Detroit, notably very strong performances by Smith and Poulter. R. R MITCHELL MILLER. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Living Room Theaters, Vancouver.

Dunkirk

In Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. we get to follow a few soldiers and pilots and civilians at sea, but they’re more like stand-ins 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. 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, Oak Grove, Tigard, 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. Valley Cinema Pub, Vancouver.

Good Time

Constantine Nikas is positive his little brother shouldn’t be institutionalized for his mental disability. And that’s all we learn about the hyperactive Queens street tough (Robert Pattinson) before he and his brother rob a bank. This pacing is crucial to the Safdie brothers’ forceful new thriller. As movies about robbery and the ensuing chase go, it’s more like being dragged behind the getaway car than observing from the passenger seat. Amid the chaos, Pattinson as Constantine cuts a fascinating figure. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Clackamas, Fox Tower, Hollywood.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard

Ryan Reynolds plays disgraced security agent Michael Bryce, and Samuel L. Jackson is master assassin Darius Kincaid. The stars complement one another perfectly and, in the weirdest way, organically flesh out undeveloped characters otherwise defined solely by Hollywood clichés. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.

Ingrid Goes West

Ingrid Goes West gets off to a promising start, with an interesting premise and smart, funny dialogue. Title character Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) is in many ways your typical millennial. In the morning when she wakes up, she immediately reaches for her phone to see what she missed while asleep. But Ingrid’s social media addiction has a dark side, as evidenced by that time she crashed a wedding and maced the bride, a stranger who snubbed her on Instagram. But the film becomes less of a dark satire about social media addiction and fame. It’s a shift that frustratingly happens just as you begin to wonder where the film is taking you. Rather than taking some more intriguing turns, it seems to just take its foot off the gas and coast to its destination. R. R MITCHELL MILLER. Clackamas, Fox Tower.

Stronger

Most movies described as “inspirational” practically beg to be dimissed as manipulative feelgoodery. Yet this biopic of Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal) resists the allure of the triumph-over-adversity cliches that would have doomed it. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Clackamas.

(Elizabeth Olsen), the tribal police chief (Graham Greene) and myriad snowmobiles. There are constant references to predators and prey, and it’s fueled with male aggression and female pain. But while those pitfalls are common, Wind River’s unexplored geography, depth of spirit and honoring of survivalism are not. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Vancouver.

Wind River

Wonder Woman

Wyoming’s Wind River is a hell of a place to examine an ignored America and a fitting setting for a noir thriller. In the directorial debut from Taylor Sheridan (writer of Sicario and Hell or High Water) a game tracker (Jeremy Renner) discovers the frozen body of a young Native woman. A hardscrabble investigation unfolds, and the tracker joins forces with an FBI agent

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, Milwaukie, Pioneer Place, Tigard, Vancouver.

REVIEW COURTESY OF CARGO FILM & RELEASING

Editor: SHANNON GORMLEY. 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: sgormley@wweek.com. Fax: 243-1115.

Logan Lucky

In his comeback heist film, Steven Soderbergh seems actively disinterested in challenging his legacy. As the Logan brothers, Channing Tatum and Adam Driver, are laconic and weatherbeaten, gentle roughnecks who need a win in this life. And as explosives expert Joe Bang, Daniel Craig’s brilliance is in appearing like a maniac but never detonating. Soderbergh is perhaps Hollywood’s finest technician, and it’s a pleasure to watch him tour his Vegas act through Appalachia. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic Theatre, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Roseway, St. Johns Twin Cinema & Pub, Tigard, Vancouver.

Mother!

In his new psychological thriller, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky continues to be extra. Mother! stars Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem as a couple living in a secluded house. Bardem. For a while, it works simply as exercise in anxiety. But the last third of the movie drops into heavyhanded metaphor. The realization that Aronofsky—never one for subtlety— has basically positioned the whole film to be about himself is both unfulfilling and eye-roll inducing. But man, what a nightmare. R. DANA ALSTON. Bridgeport, Casacade, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Hollywood, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Tigard.

Patti Cake$

The “chasing your dreams” picture is not a new idea. Within that framework, director Geremy Jasper’s first feature film is pretty entertaining. Aspiring rapper Patti is filled simultaneously with self-confidence and self-doubt. Australian actress Danielle Macdonald gives one of those performances where it would be difficult to imagine anyone else playing them now. Patti Cake$ is a simple story done well, with lively performances and positive energy. R. R MITCHELL MILLER. Cinema 21, Hollywood.

Spider-Man: Homecoming

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, Living Room Theaters, Lloyd, Oak Grove, Tigard, Vancouver.

BENEATH THE DREAM: Ben Jakupcak plays a young Wes Hurley.

From Russia With Love LITTLE POTATO DEPICTS A CROSS-CONTINENTAL COMING-OUT STORY.

es Hurley hadn’t seen an American film until after the Soviet Union collapsed. In Little Potato, the Seattle director’s minidocumentary, Hurley’s mother Elena Bridges remembers watching Frankie and Johnny on one of the three TV channels that permitted American movies after the Iron Curtain fell. “Michelle Pfeiffer’s apartment was so cozy,” she says. “If ‘Potato’ (her nickname for Hurley) and I could live in such a little place, I would be so happy, I wouldn’t need anything else.” Through archival footage of Russia and interviews with Hurley and Bridges, Little Potato depicts the mother-son duo’s attempt to find the America they idealize. Buoyed by Hurley’s discovery of his homosexuality and Bridges’ brief stint as a mail-order bride, the two finally concoct a scheme to immigrate to America. The 12-minute film screens this week at the Portland Queer Film Festival along with Hurley’s narrative short film Rusalka and episodes from his campy and abstract web series Capitol Hill, which is sort of like RuPaul mixed with Twin Peaks. Gayness is deeply entrenched and accepted within the mythology of Hurley’s films. Little Potato is unique in his repertoire not only because it isn’t fiction, but because it’s set in a country where the government denies the very existence of homosexuality. Through interviews with Hurley and Bridges about Hurley’s early masturbation habits, we learn about his decision to come out to his mother. Hurley was worried that masturbating itself was punishable in Russia. But more than that, he feared telling his mother that men were at the forefront of his desire. Russian society was an obstacle, but the potential of horrifying his mother was what really prevented him from discovering himself. Hurley’s fear proved to be unfounded. After he came out to Bridges, the two decided they needed to leave Russia to live their best lives. In that way, Little Potato is as much an algorithm for negotiating with one’s sexuality as it is a plea for letting go of a world, or even a self, that doesn’t welcome you. JACK RUSHALL.

SEE IT: Little Potato is at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave. 7:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 1. $10. See pdxqueerﬁlm.com for full schedule. 42

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T I N H O U S E ’ S T U M B L R PAG E

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Hobby Garden WANNA GROW YOUR OWN CANNABIS? START WITH TIN HOUSE’S NEW CANNABIS GROW GUIDE. BY M AT T STA N G E L

Like most people who take up the hobby, when I first started growing weed at home I discovered a huge learning curve. Not only did I quickly find myself amidst a stack of books on soil science, plant pests and diseases, but I had to navigate many other practical considerations. Where exactly would I set up my garden? Which grow style would I try? What equipment would I need? What would the day-to-day labor really look like? Where could I skimp and save? I wish I’d had something like Grow Your Own: Understanding, Cultivating, and Enjoying Cannabis from Portland’s own Tin House Books ($26.95, 300 pages), a new grow manual for all the canna-curious green thumbs out there. This book would’ve saved me a lot of time. Co-authored by Nichole Graf, Micah Sherman, David Stein and Liz Crain, Grow Your Own is everything a person needs to make an informed decision about whether or not they really want to grow weed at home. It likely won’t be the last book you’ll need to cultivate great cannabis, but I’d happily recommend it as the first. It walks the reader through equipment decisions, grow space designs, environmental controls, plant nutrition, care instructions and harvest techniques—painting an accurate picture of what a hobbyist-level indoor cannabis garden requires of its operator. In addition to being a time-saving overview of all things homegrown, Grow Your Own is a relatable, friendly introduction to the weed world. With smart infographics and crisp language, the text opens with a brief and entertaining history of cannabis followed by an overview of the plant and how it interfaces with the human body—covering botanical anatomy, the mammalian endocannabinoid system and the science behind cannabinoids and terpenes.

Rounding out its beginner-level bookends, Grow Your Own finishes with a newcomer’s guide to cannabis in its various consumable forms—flower, extracts, tinctures and topicals— as well as an intro to consumption methods from joints to bongs to dabs. There’s even a tidy collection of recipes for those who want to try their hand at homemade edibles. In addition to its unprecedented approachability and comprehensive scope, the book is also a departure from the grow manuals of yesteryear by being explicitly billed as for women by women. It espouses a social justice lean that calls out an industry dominated by white folks who are, more often than not, male. Further stoking the for-women-by-women angle, the book’s launch will be commemorated by a free Cannabis Community Fair hosted by Holocene on September 27, featuring female speakers from the industry alongside tables run by companies like Phylos Bioscience (keepers of the Phylos Galaxy cannabis genetics database), Broccoli magazine (a new “women-in-cannabis quarterly from the creator of Kinfolk”) and Pearl Extracts (hands-on terpene education). Alongside education stations, a series of talks emceed by Grow Your Own co-author Liz Crain will encompass a little something for everyone: Farma’s Emma Chasen will inform listeners on how to best interact with budtenders, and April Pride, founder of cannabis lifestyle brand Van Der Pop, will give a talk entitled, “Women’s Sexual Health in the Age of Legal Cannabis.” Like the book, the event promises to be a straight-talk cannabis education. Moreover, it signals the future of cannabis culture as legalization spreads across the country—accessibility and the demystification of a special plant. GO: The Cannabis Community Fair is at Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., holocene.org, on Wednesday, Sept. 27. 6 to 10 pm.

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Across 1 Whipped cream amount 7 Meat-and-veggie sandwich 10 It gets checked, hopefully 14 Medium-sized Grande 15 Cheerleader's yell (though maybe not so much these days) 16 Affirm 17 When to listen to 1950s jazz? 19 It comes between 3 and 27, in a series

20 Kilt fold 21 ___ Field (Brooklyn Dodgers' home) 23 Receptacle for roses 26 Sand hill 28 Singer/songwriter/ actress Jenny 29 Oklahoma neighbor of Vance Air Force Base 30 Glorify 32 The night before 33 Photo that anyone can take? 39 Sty resident 40 Beehive State cap.

41 Herd animal 42 Topaz mo. 43 Place to nap between two mountains? 46 "May ___ excused?" 47 Supremes first name 48 007's alma mater 49 "Problematic with ___ Kasher" (Comedy Central series) 52 One-fifth of quince 55 "___ Get It On" 56 Say yes (to) 58 It comes way

"Mass Appeal"--writ large. before 18-Down 60 Designer Lagerfeld 61 "Just calm down with your iPhone releases, OK?" 66 Grade sch. 67 Old M&M hue 68 Magazine publisher 69 Lumberjack's tools 70 Lofty poem 71 Words that can precede either half of the theme entries Down 1 Dance move where you duck your head and stick out your arm 2 Gold, to a conquistador 3 Cup rim 4 Passed on the track 5 1977 Scott Turow memoir 6 Peeled with a knife 7 "Toxic" singer, casually 8 Getaway 9 "Get ___ to a nunnery": "Hamlet" 10 Engine cooling device 11 "___ to a Kill" (Bond film) 12 Prefix for meter or pede 13 Strand of hair 18 Letter before upsilon 22 Pixelated 23 Gore ... and more 24 Blacksmith's instrument

25 Persistent attack 27 Throw out 31 Words With Friends piece 33 Spotted 34 Edison's middle name 35 Barely enough 36 Act together 37 Factory fixture, maybe 38 Balances (out) 44 Costar of "The Hangover" and "The Office" 45 Original "Saturday Night Live" cast member Newman 48 Go by 49 Fabricates 50 Neighbor of Silver Springs, Florida 51 Eyeglass kit item 53 Plumber's rightangled joint 54 Bowler's challenge 57 ___ Cooler ("Ghostbusters"themed Hi-C flavor) 59 Diner breakfast order 62 Experienced 63 Quiz site 64 Flowery chain 65 Tiny bit of work last week’s answers

©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 Septmeber 28

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats likes to play along with the music of nature. On one occasion he collaborated with Mandeville Creek in Montana. He listened and studied the melodies that emanated from its flowing current. Then he moved around some of the underwater rocks, subtly changing the creek’s song. Your assignment, Aries, is to experiment with equally imaginative and exotic collaborations. The coming weeks will be a time when you can make beautiful music together with anyone or anything that tickles your imagination.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20):

Some newspapers publish regular rectifications of the mistakes they’ve made in past editions. For example, the editors of the UK publication The Guardian once apologized to readers for a mistaken statement about Richard Wagner. They said that when the 19th-century German composer had trysts with his chambermaid, he did not in fact ask her to wear purple underpants, as previously reported. They were pink underpants. I tell you this, Taurus, as encouragement to engage in corrective meditations yourself. Before bedtime on the next ten nights, scan the day’s events and identify any actions you might have done differently -- perhaps with more integrity or focus or creativity. This will have a deeply tonic effect. You are in a phase of your astrological cycle when you’ll flourish as you make amendments and revisions.

anything like it. I hope you don’t. In fact, a very different approach is preferable for you: I recommend that you start with safe, manageable tasks. Master the simple details and practical actions. Work on achieving easy, low-risk victories. In this way, you’ll prepare yourself for more epic efforts in the future.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):

Be realistic, Libra: Demand the impossible; expect inspiration; visualize yourself being able to express yourself more completely and vividly than you ever have before. Believe me when I tell you that you now have extra power to develop your sleeping potentials, and are capable of accomplishing feats that might seem like miracles. You are braver than you know, as sexy as you need to be, and wiser than you were two months ago. I am not exaggerating, nor am I flattering you. It’s time for you to start making your move to the next level.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

In accordance with the astrological omens, I invite you to take extra good care of yourself during the next three weeks. Do whatever it takes to feel safe and protected and resilient. Ask for the support you need, and if the people whose help you solicit can’t or won’t give it to you, seek elsewhere. Provide your body with more than the usual amount of healthy food, deep sleep, tender touch, and enlivening movement. Go see a psychotherapist or counselor or good listener every single day if you want. And don’t you dare apologize or feel guilty for being such a connoisseur of self-respect and self-healing.

CANCER (June 21-July 22):

A queen bee may keep mating until she gathers 70 million sperm from many different drones. When composing my horoscopes, I aim to cultivate a metaphorically comparable receptivity. Long ago I realized that all of creation is speaking to me all the time; I recognized that everyone I encounter is potentially a muse or teacher. If I hope to rustle up the oracles that are precisely suitable for your needs, I have to be alert to the possibility that they may arrive from unexpected directions and surprising sources. Can you handle being that open to influence, Sagittarius? Now is a favorable time to expand your capacity to be fertilized.

It’s high time to allow your yearnings to overflow . . . to surrender to the vitalizing pleasures of nonrational joy . . . to grant love the permission to bless you and confound you with its unruly truths. For inspiration, read this excerpt of a poem by Caitlyn Siehl. “My love is honey tongue. Thirsty love. My love is peach juice dripping down the neck. Too much sugar love. Sticky sweet, sticky sweat love. My love can’t ride a bike. My love walks everywhere. Wanders through the river. Feeds the fish, skips the stones. Barefoot love. My love stretches itself out on the grass, kisses a nectarine. My love is never waiting. My love is a traveler.” One of the oldest houses in Northern Europe is called the Knap of Howar. Built out of stone around 3,600 B.C., it faces the wild sea on Papa Westray, an island off the northern coast of Scotland. Although no one has lived there for 5,000 years, some of its stone furniture remains intact. Places like this will have a symbolic power for you in the coming weeks, Cancerian. They’ll tease your imagination and provoke worthwhile fantasies. Why? Because the past will be calling to you more than usual. The old days and old ways will have secrets to reveal and stories to teach. Listen with alert discernment.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):

The United States has a bizarre system for electing its president. There’s nothing like it in any other democratic nation on earth. Every four years, the winning candidate needs only to win the electoral college, not the popular vote. So theoretically, it’s possible to garner just 23 percent of all votes actually cast, and yet still ascend to the most powerful political position in the world. For example, in two of the last five elections, the new chief of state has received significantly fewer votes than his main competitor. I suspect that you may soon benefit from a comparable anomaly, Leo. You’ll be able to claim victory on a technicality. Your effort may be “ugly,” yet good enough to succeed.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

I found this advertisement for a workshop: “You will learn to do the INCREDIBLE! Smash bricks with your bare hands! Walk on fiery coals unscathed! Leap safely off a roof! No broken bones! No cuts! No pain! Accomplish the impossible first! Then everything else will be a breeze!” I bring this to your attention, Virgo, not because I think you should sign up for this class or

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):

You’re approaching a rendezvous with prime time. Any minute now you could receive an invitation to live up to your hype or fulfill your promises to yourself -- or both. This test is likely to involve an edgy challenge that is both fun and daunting, both liberating and exacting. It will have the potential to either steal a bit of your soul or else heal an ache in your soul. To ensure the healing occurs rather than the stealing, do your best to understand why the difficulty and the pleasure are both essential.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):

In 1901, physician Duncan MacDougall carried out experiments that led him to conclude that the average human soul weighs 21 grams. Does his claim have any merit? That question is beyond my level of expertise. But if he was right, then I’m pretty sure your soul has bulked up to at least 42 grams in the past few weeks. The work you’ve been doing to refine and cultivate your inner state has been heroic. It’s like you’ve been ingesting a healthy version of soul-building steroids. Congrats!

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