Willamette Week, July 15, 2020 - Volume 46, Issue 38 - "Fevered State" by Willamette Week Newspaper

NEWS: BLOODSHED ON THE SIDEWALK. FOOD: PIZZA! AT THE STREET DISCO. MOVIES: MARCHING WITH JOHN LEWIS.

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WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE YOU’RE KILLING YOUR BRAIN.” P. 26

In a nation succumbing to COVID-19, where does Oregon stand? These 9 charts will show you. by Rachel Monahan Page 13 WWEEK.COM

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A daring half-dramatized, half-documentary ﬁlm adaptation of the best-selling book by Joe Simpson about a catastrophic 1985 climb of Peru’s 21,000-foot Siula Grande mountain by Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates.

The Death of Stalin ﬁnds director/co-writer Arnando Iannucci (“Veep,” In the Loop) in riotous form, bringing his scabrous political humor to bear on a chapter in history with painfully timely parallels.

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS

A breathtaking 3D documentary from the incomparable Werner Herzog follows an exclusive expedition into the nearly inaccessible Chauvet Cave in France, home to the most ancient visual art known to have been created by humans.

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THE DEATH OF STALIN

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A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO BILL DICKEY FOR HIS SEEMINGLY ENDLESS GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT. 2

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CAMO CLUB: A federal officer in downtown Portland on June 11.

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 38. The U.S. Marshals Service shot a Portland protester in the face with a munition. 5

Sambo’s. In 2020. 21

At least four people have been arrested for shining green lasers in the eyes of federal officers. 8

If you’re interested in doing a deep dive on castrated opera singers, there is a podcast. 22

Multnomah County’s new top prosecutor says American progress “took some property damage.” 10

Mic Crenshaw was fighting white supremacy in both Portland and Minneapolis long before it was cool. 22

A onetime Black Panther started a pop-up barbecue restaurant in Lownsdale Square. 11

Portland’s best cheeseburger pizza has arrived. 23

Oregon is the last state on the West Coast to require masks outdoors. 14

cigarette. 25

Umatilla County has a higher rate of COVID-19 cases per capita than Florida. 15

At least 67 percent of Oregon’s hospital beds are occupied. 16

ON THE COVER: WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

Martin Luther King Jr. gave Congressman John Lewis the nickname “the Boy From Troy.” 27

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

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Oregon health officials traced COVID-19 outbreaks to a fraternity bash and a bachelor party. In a Nation Succumbing to COVID-19, Where does Oregon stand? These 9 charts will show you. by Rachel Monahan Page 13

WWEEK.COM

MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Mark Zusman

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“YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE YOU’RE KILLING YOUR BRAIN.”

COVID-19 looms over a fevered state, illustration by Jack Kent.

NEWS: BLOODSHED ON THE SIDEWALK. FOOD: PIZZA! AT THE STREET DISCO. MOVIES: MARCHING WITH JOHN LEWIS.

There’s still a restaurant in Lincoln City called Lil’

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DIALOGUE On July 2, President Donald Trump deployed federal officers to Portland. Nine days later, one of them shot protester Donavan La Bella in the face with a munition (see page 6). The president then bragged that the feds had “very much quelled” Portland protests against racism and police brutality, which were “totally out of control.” Trump also claimed that a rise in gun violence in liberal cities is the result of calls to defund police forces. In response, Mayor Ted Wheeler called the injury inflicted by the federal officer “unacceptable” and criticized the U.S. Marshals Service for “escalating an already tense situation.” WW reported the news on wweek.com. Here’s what our readers had to say: Bryan via wweek.com: “Imagine being told when [Department of Homeland Security] was created after 9/11 to combat terrorism that 20 years later DHS would be deploying agents to protect courthouses from graffiti. Talk about jumping the shark!” Robert Sauceda via Facebook: “When it comes to a pandemic response the POTUS is quick to shift the onus to the state’s government. But when it comes to policing matters, all of a sudden the POTUS not only involves himself but wants to micromanage the issue? The POTUS shouldn’t get to pick and choose which crisis he wants to respond to.” @eric_hedford via Twitter: “Can’t believe I agree with Trump. This is a sad day.” Frankie Olivo via Facebook: “If people want these protests to die down or just stop, I think you just threw some fucking fuel to the fire.” Amber Dawn via Facebook: “Rioters, not protesters. If they were peacefully protesting this wouldn’t be happening.” Jessica Birdsong via Facebook: “I don’t believe that cops have a right to just declare any assembly a riot and then be able to get away with shooting and gassing people indiscriminately.”

Dr. Know

Rob Sydor via Facebook: “That person should not have been fired at with anything. Watch the video and if you are still OK with it, do some soul searching.” Sam Haber via Facebook: “I see Republicans are still all about states’ rights.” James Doddridge via Facebook: “How would [gun violence] be because of defunding the police if that hasn’t happened yet?” Elizabeth Buckwalter via Facebook: “Ted Wheeler is not doing anything. It doesn’t matter where we lie on the political spectrum, I think we can all agree that this mayor is not leading. He’s not even playing the middle. He’s just hiding out at home, hoping it will all go away.” Michael D Martin via Twitter: “Words are a nice start @tedwheeler. Now it’s time for some action on behalf of your constituents.”

HOOVERVILLES RETURN AS TRUMP TENTS

In your latest issue, you write that the police are going to resume homeless camp sweeps [Murmurs, WW, July 1, 2020], and that the camps, 10 or more tents together, have grown from three to 40 since March 12. It doesn’t take much to see that there are more and more tents going up on the streets of Portland. These were once called Hoovervilles, but now might be called Trump Tents. You don’t pay rent if you live in a tent. Sweeps are obviously not the way to deal with poverty, unemployment and homelessness during a Depression. Worse is coming. Mark Haubrich Southwest Portland LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx

I’ve been driving with expired tags since May. I heard the cops wouldn’t ticket me, since the DMVs were all closed. Now the DMV is open again. How long do I have before I have to drag my sorry butt down there? —Ellen T.

Remember when the coronavirus first hit? And you couldn’t do anything because everything was locked down, but the powers that be were super-cool about it, because it obviously wasn’t your fault? Can’t do your taxes because H&R Block is closed? Not a problem, we’ll postpone tax day. Can’t pay your bills because your workplace shut down? Tough break, maybe this extra $600 will help. Can’t get new tags because there’s no DMV? Don’t sweat it, we’ll deal with it later. It was obvious that this honeymoon wouldn’t last. Sure enough, today really is tax day, COVID or no COVID, and that extra $600 runs out on the 31st of this month. If you picked July in your office’s “When Will the Feds Go Back to Telling Us to Ram It?” pool, step up and claim your turkey. Inconveniently for my rhetorical position, however, your honeymoon with Oregon (or at least the car-registration amnesty) actually lasts until October. That said, I wouldn’t wait. (Who am I kidding? I’d put it off till 4:45 pm on Sept. 30, but you

shouldn’t.) Not only will there be seven months’ worth of lapsed registrations fighting to beat the Oct. 1 deadline, but October is the month when the federal Real ID Act is scheduled to take effect. This means that, starting on Oct. 21, every Oregonian who wants to fly commercially (granted, by then that could be nobody) will need either a passport or a brand-new, Real ID-compliant, DMVissued driver’s license. You can imagine how tough it’s going to be to get a DMV appointment in September. Wait, what? Yes, it’s true—in an organizational tweak that arguably should have happened in 1979, the DMV now accepts (nay, requires) appointments. You can find out more about this (including many other ways to avoid spending time at the DMV) at dmv2u.oregon.gov. We’ll all miss the tradition of passing down that little ticket through the three generations it takes for your number to be called, but progress is progress.

STAY SAFE, STAY INFORMED. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER. WWEEK.COM

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

HENRY CROMMET

MURMURS

AMINÉ AT THE ROSELAND, IN HAPPIER TIMES

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

RELIEF APPROVED FOR VENUES: The Oregon Legislature Joint Emergency Board voted July 14 to grant nearly $10 million in federal CARES Act money to performing arts venues around the state. Many Portland clubs, including Crystal Ballroom, the Roseland, Revolution Hall and the Aladdin, received the equivalent of seven months’ operating costs via the vote, which passed with bipartisan support. On July 15, the Portland City Council will consider a smaller package of assistance: $4.35 million to venues, both publicly and privately owned, and to artists. As of this writing, the proposal has the votes to pass. House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) told her colleagues that giving life support to the venues, which will be the last businesses to reopen, is vital. “We need to move this money quickly and efficiently,” Kotek said.

COVID CASES SPIKE IN OREGON PRISONS: Following an outbreak at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Ore., the number of active COVID-19 cases in Oregon prisons spiked significantly. Currently, 398 inmates and staff in the Oregon Department of Corrections system have COVID-19, according to the agency’s online tracker tool. The largest share of those cases are at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, where 141 inmates and 36 staff have the virus. The second-highest tally is at Snake River, where 120 inmates and 21 employees currently have COVID-19. Department spokeswoman Jennifer Black says no inmates at Snake River are currently hospitalized due to COVID-19. In total, 6,830 inmates in Oregon’s prison system are under quarantine, and another 150 are under medical isolation, meaning they are confined to a single cell “with solid walls and a solid door that closes, to prevent contact with others and to reduce the risk of transmission.”

TANGLE OVER BLACK RELIEF FUNDING: Lawmakers also voted July 14 to send $62 million in CARES Act money to the new Oregon Cares Fund to “create a lifeline for families, small businesses, and communitybased organizations” in the state’s Black community. Senate Minority Leader Fred Girod (R-Stayton) presented legislative counsel’s review of the concept, which found that absent precise data justifying why one group should be singled out for relief, the fund “would almost certainly be unconstitutional.” Girod and his GOP colleagues noted the state’s Native American and Latinx communities have also suffered historically and are disproportionately harmed by COVID-19. Democrats presented an outside legal opinion defending the fund and the Emergency Board approved it on a split vote, with some Republicans voting for it. “It’s time to do something real,” said Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland), “not make symbolic gestures.”

TRANSPORTATION MEASURE FACES OPPOSITION: Representatives of the region’s largest private companies, including Intel, Nike, the Standard, Precision Castparts and U.S. Bank, met with Metro Council President Lynn Peterson on July 14, urging her to delay a planned referral of a $4 billion transportation measure to the November ballot. That ballot is likely also to feature funding measures for preschool, K-12 schools, health care and libraries. In addition to concerns about timing, business leaders don’t like Metro’s proposed funding mechanism, a 0.75% payroll tax. They told Peterson they are prepared to mount a serious opposition campaign and have retained political consultant Kevin Looper to run it. “This is not anti-tax and it most certainly is not anti-transportation,” Looper says. “But you can’t punish employment in the middle of an economic crisis when people are struggling just to make ends meet.” Peterson is undaunted: “The time to act is now,” she said. “If we delay, we will not be able to create tens of thousands of jobs when we need them most, and our region could miss opportunities to leverage federal, private and philanthropic funds.”

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KO DY W H I T E A K E R

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

BY THE NUMBERS

Shock Troops Federal officers sent by President Trump run downtown. Little restrains them. BY TE SS R I SK I

tess@wweek.com

Whose streets? Trump’s streets. For the past two weeks, federal officers have patrolled the blocks surrounding the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse. That’s thanks mostly to President Donald Trump, who deployed the Department of Homeland Security to at least three U.S. cities that had seen significant street protests—Portland, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The sight of armed federal officers—who look dressed for overseas combat or the U.S. border they are trained to protect—is an alarming one for many citizens. The image summons memories of other moments of civil unrest in U.S. history: National Guardsmen shooting college students at Kent State in 1970, or federal troops responding to the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992. In fact, this is at least the second time federal officers have confronted Portland protesters during the Trump era: In 2018, they cleared a camp that blocked the entrance to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement offices in the South Waterfront. This time feels different, however: For one thing, the president is making a show of force in an election year. He sent officers here following a June 26 executive order to protect national monuments and buildings—part of his campaign to keep statues of historic figures from being “defamed” by those who see them as symbols of oppression. On July 13, Trump boasted that his agencies curbed an uprising in Portland that local cops couldn’t control. “We’ve done a great job in Portland,” Trump said. “Portland was totally out of control. We very much quelled it, 8

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

and if it starts again, we’ll quell it again very easily. It’s not hard to do, if you know what you’re doing.” In response, state and local officials have fumed—or said little. After all, they have been complaining for weeks that “agitators” were setting fires and wreaking havoc. Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell says the feds follow a different chain of command than his bureau, and Mayor Ted Wheeler says he can’t oust them from the city. On July 14, he told the acting U.S. secretary of Homeland Security that he wanted federal officers to leave town. “We do not want or need their help,” he wrote on Twitter. It did not take long for Trump’s officers to go on the offensive. On July 11, one officer of the U.S. Marshals Service shot a protester in the head with a projectile. The protester, named Donavan LaBella, underwent facial reconstructive surgery, and remains in serious condition. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General is investigating the incident to determine if the officer violated protocol. The bloodstain left by LaBella on the sidewalk of Southwest 2nd Avenue is the image by which this deployment is likely to be measured. But we gathered a few other numbers that help tell the story. Days federal officers have actively patrolled Portland protests: 14

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN: Federal officers make arrests in downtown parks on July 11.

U.S. Marshals Service Federal Protective Service U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) *The FBI has assisted with investigative follow-up on select arrests.

Minimum number of protesters federal officers have arrested since July 3: 19 Number of protesters federal prosecutors have charged since July 3: 13 Maximum sentence those charges carry: 10 years in prison Number of people charged after shining a green laser in officers’ eyes: 4 Number of times a Texas man struck a federal officer with a hammer at a July 10 Portland protest: 3 Monetary damage the feds say the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse has sustained: $50,000

The first recorded arrest happened on the evening of July 2.

Yards from which a man shone a green laser at officers before they arrested him: 40

Number of agencies active in Portland protests: 4*

Width in feet of a “flimsy” plastic shield a protester was carrying before the feds arrested her: 2.5

Department of Homeland Security

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

CONTRACTS

SERGIO OLMOS

All Aboard Several endorsers of Metro’s transportation measure were also paid to gather input on it.

“The consequences of Donald Trump unilaterally dispatching federal law enforcement into U.S. cities played out in Portland with a peaceful protester shot in the head. Trump and Homeland Security must now answer why federal officers are acting like an occupying army.” —U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on July 12 Wyden was the first elected official to formally decry Trump’s deployment of federal officers to Portland, speaking out on July 10. Two days later, after Donavan LaBella was shot in the head with a munition by an officer of the U.S. Marshals Service, Wyden escalated his condemnation of the president.

BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON

Who Lives in Poverty in Multnomah County? Black and white people sit at the extreme ends of the wealth gap. Life in Portland for Black and white people is overwhelmingly different. In the coming weeks, WW will explore these contrasting realities—the inequities that have molded the Black experience in this city and state. This week, we look at poverty. Multnomah County poverty rates are highest in the Black community, compared with any other racial or ethnic group in Multnomah County—while white people are in the exact opposite position. According to a December 2019 county report, 35% of the Black population faces poverty compared with 14%

The Metro Council votes July 16 whether to refer a $4 billion transportation funding measure to the November ballot. Business leaders have asked Metro President Lynn Peterson to delay the measure. But Peterson’s proposal enjoys the support of the Getting There Together Coalition, a group comprising dozens of nonprofits that says it “strongly supports” referral. Those nonprofits are especially crucial to the measure’s prospects, because they represent several communities of color. Some members of Getting There Together are also contractors Metro paid to conduct outreach to the communities they represent, mostly people of color. Between December 2019 and May 2020, the four groups asked their constituencies for feedback on the measure. They presented their findings to the Metro Council in May. The dual roles of the nonprofits—as contractors and “strong supporters” of the Metro measure—could present a conflict of interest because it raises questions about whether Metro is purchasing community support. “It puts the groups in a conflict-of-interest position,” says Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College. Gronke says it’s absolutely appropriate for Metro to include groups traditionally excluded from big-dollar policy decisions, but hiring groups that represent those marginalized communities muddies the waters. “It’s not a good look,” Gronke says. But Andy Shaw, Metro’s director of government relations, says there’s no conflict. Shaw says the agency began hiring culturally specific outreach contractors for a 2019 parks bond measure after concluding its own outreach efforts were only reaching a narrow audience. At one meeting aimed at soliciting public input, Shaw recalls, Metro staffers outnumbered civilians 4 to 1. Shaw says gathering the information required to put together a bond proposal that meets everyone’s needs is a totally separate effort from the campaign to pass the

of white people. That drastic income difference is a root cause of why an average Black family can’t afford to live within Portland city limits, as WW reported July 8. Poverty is defined as a household with an income below 100% of the federal poverty level. Although 16% of Multnomah county residents meet this official definition, many are undercounted and 34% still cannot meet basic needs based on their income. The racial disparity corresponds with a geographic one. Outer East Portland, where many Black people live, has the highest poverty rates in Multnomah County, with 22% of residents living without basic necessities. According to the county report, East Portland has inadequate access to resources such as public transit, parks, quality education and food. This increases children’s chances of remaining in poverty when they come of age. The racial wealth gap has grown for the past 40 years and is ongoing. In the report, 24% of white households experience “asset poverty”—that is, a lack of property that can be passed along—while Black people again have the highest rate, at 52%. For decades, banks and other establishments refused Black people access to creating generational wealth. That legacy is reflected in these numbers. LATISHA JENSEN.

measure, should it be referred, and that the four contracts Metro inked have nothing to do with any campaign. “This is all part of our plan to advance racial equity,” Shaw says. “The purpose here is to find out what improvements and what program would help people in specific communities,” he adds. “We’ve struggled in our efforts to get authentic input into transportation in the past.” Vivian Satterfield, director of strategic partnerships at Verde, a coalition member and outreach contractor for Metro, says any concerns about Verde’s roles are misplaced. Satterfield says Verde has advocated aggressively for improvements to the projects in the proposed measure and has been sharply critical of some key components, including big-ticket projects on Northeast Airport Way and in the Sunrise Corridor. She says the Metro contract doesn’t undercut Verde’s independence. (The other groups did not respond to requests for comment.) “I stand by Verde’s work,” Satterfield says. “We need resources to engage with our community. I don’t see anything wrong with that or curious about it. Every part of our work has been public and well-documented.” NIGEL JAQUISS.

Nonprofits Contracted by Metro That Also Endorse Metro’s Measure APANO Communities United Fund: $40,000 Verde: $50,000 Portland African American Leadership Forum: $50,000 Unite Oregon: $60,000

Percentage of Racial/Ethnic Groups in Poverty in Multnomah County

Source: Multnomah County

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KO DY W H I T E A K E R

NEWS

FED UP: Protesters are now being arrested on federal property, which could take charging decisions out of Schmidt’s hands.

ers. My focus is going to be on conduct. I think that when you look historically at this nation, it’s during these protests when we’ve gotten some of the changes that we are proudest of in our nation’s history. And sometimes it took some property damage. It took more than just peaceful protests to get the government’s attention. I’m very mindful of that. ABOUT SCHMIDT: Multnomah County’s next district attorney sees the value of street protests.

Hotseat: Mike Schmidt The new Multnomah County district attorney must decide who faces criminal charges amid Portland’s protests. BY TE SS R I S K I

tess@wweek.com

Weeks before Portlanders started chanting, “Defund the police!” Mike Schmidt was elected to reform the prosecutors. On May 19, the 39-year-old Schmidt won 77% of the vote for Multnomah County district attorney. Schmidt, who previously directed the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission and worked as a prosecutor for the county, ran on a platform of eliminating the state’s cash bail system and appointing a hate-crime prosecutor. Even though he won handily over law-and-order candidate Ethan Knight, discussions of abolishing police departments were mostly relegated to activist groups in Portland. Times changed—and fast. Criminal justice reform is no longer a niche topic. It is the topic of the moment, and Schmidt is tasked with proving he’s the reformer he has portrayed himself to be. Two weeks after Schmidt was elected, a crowd of people anguished and enraged by the killing of George Floyd smashed in windows and set fires inside the Multnomah County Justice Center—the very courthouse where Schmidt will soon prosecute criminal defendants. Will the protesters who have thrown water bottles at police face jail time? That’s Schmidt’s decision. His predecessor, District Attorney Rod Underhill, resigned on June 16—essentially punting the hard decisions to the new guy. The labor union that represents district attorneys in Multnomah county—the office has 75 lawyers that report to Schmidt—backed Knight in the election. It hasn’t offered Schmidt a warm reception: Traci Anderson, the senior deputy district attorney and president of the Multnomah County Prosecuting Attorneys Association, resigned from her role unexpectedly July 7—the day after Gov. Kate Brown appointed Schmidt officially to his role. And President Donald Trump recently deployed federal officers to the streets of Portland. This week, we asked Schmidt what he’ll do. WW: Do you plan to drop charges against the protest10

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

ers who’ve been arrested in the last six weeks? Mike Schmidt: I’m not going to categorically say I will never prosecute this type of case or this type of charge. It’s going to be case by case. It’s going to be looking at: Is this potentially us suppressing speech? We should err on the side of not doing that and letting people express themselves. And then, once it gets over the line to really putting people in harm’s way and danger, we’re going to take those cases more seriously, like we would in any other type of situation. Maybe there is enough evidence in this case, but does it serve a public interest? For some of these cases, it’s not going to meet that test. I think people are out there exercising their First Amendment rights, and we need to respect that and guard that and protect that and cherish that as a democracy. U.S. Attorney for Oregon Billy Williams doesn’t share your progressive commitments—and federal officers are making arrests downtown. Are you concerned the feds will step on your turf and prosecute protesters? There definitely are going to be philosophical differences. And there are also going to be times where it’s probably in the best interest of our community on working together and making cases. I don’t want to get into a situation where we are always at war. I think it benefits the residents of the county sometimes to be working together, and other times it’ll be incumbent upon me to stand up for the values of this community and say we’re not going to go along with that. It’s definitely not going to be my strategy to say, hey, I’m not prosecuting these cases so that the feds can do it. I need to work out what the relationship is. I haven’t had a chance to talk yet with Billy Williams. I think we both know going into that conversation that there’s going to be some areas of disagreement and some areas of agreement. Portland Deputy Police Chief Chris Davis recently called protesters “agitators.” Do you agree with this characterization? I don’t like the idea of good protesters versus bad protest-

Are you expecting pushback from the DA’s staff because your views might differ from theirs? They are reacting to this moment in our community, just like everybody else is. We’re all doing some soul searching, and the attorneys in that office are the same. They are thinking to themselves, “Have we been part of the problem and been blind to it? Are there things that we can do differently?” What do you do when they revolt because you’re a prosecutor who doesn’t want to prosecute? If I was to run into something like that, which I don’t think I will, then you just go through the process of trying to help people transition to other work. Or [I’ll] say, “Maybe this just isn’t the job for you anymore,” and hire a staff that is ready and willing. And I’ll tell you, I’ve had many people reaching out to me excited about the prospect of a reformminded district attorney. Do you support police use of tear gas against protesters? My problem with the tear gas is, you’re using a mass tool that impacts everybody that’s there, whether or not they’re engaged in any kind of violent or tumultuous behavior. If they’re just there exercising their First Amendment rights, they’re equally getting gassed as everybody else is. I also understand that when you see things like buildings getting burnt and structures with people inside, sometimes you have to have some way to get a crowd dispersed. It just becomes untenable. So there’s a fine line to walk there, but I would like to see a more toned-down, demilitarized response to a lot of the protests that we’re seeing. What is the biggest roadblock you see getting in your way of accomplishing criminal justice reform? In this COVID-19 economy, resources are going to be a real challenge for a lot of the reform that I want to accomplish. Sometimes we say, “Well, it takes $30,000 a year to incarcerate somebody in this state in prison.” Incarcerating one less person, though, doesn’t put $30,000 in somebody else’s pocket. You have to close prisons, you have to close jails. That’s the only way to actually realize that savings. We didn’t suddenly wake up and have all of these issues in our criminal justice system. I hope people understand that it’s going to take more than a day to unwind a lot of these things. This is the Titanic, and it’s going to take some time to turn this ship around.

NEWS

Bombs Over Burgers

I’m gonna tell you, I’m not going nowhere. And I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing.” Riot Ribs runs on donations. Transparency is a high priority. “We try to get any supplies donated, and we try to spend our money only on food,” says Beans. The barbecue uses Google Docs to publicize donations alongside receipts, so everyone can see where the money goes. It also tweets summaries of its balance sheet. (It accepts money on Cash App at $riotribs.) The idea of a donation-based restaurant isn’t new. Lentil as Anything has been doing it for over 20 years in Melbourne. SAME Cafe serves Denver, and Jon Bon Jovi’s JBJ Soul Kitchen is in New Jersey. But pay-what-you-can eateries have yet to catch on in Portland. For Riot Ribs, public response has been supportive. City officials want the operators to get a permit. “We did have I think some park rangers come by and tell us that the tent, the canopy, is a structure,” Beans says. On a smartphone, Beans pulls up City Code 20.12.080, which concerns “Structures in Parks.” The tent is not a structure, Beans says, because Riot Ribs can pull up stakes if it has to. “But for now we’re pretty set on staying here.” For the future, “a food truck maybe would be the goal.” Of course, Riot Ribs faces challenges few other restaurants do. “We have one bulletproof vest,” Beans says, as well as donated gas masks. When police rush the park, one volunteer stays on the grill. “And then usually it’s just mayhem and we just try to find everyone.” Once things calm down, volunteers return and cooking goes on. CHOPHOUSE: Riot Ribs installed a smoker in Lownsdale Square. Lorenzo and Beans both emphasize that they are not rioters, and that Riot Ribs’ interest is in feeding won’t give their names. Many arrived from other cities, the community. The condiment table is also stocked with other protests: One had backpacked from Minneapolis canned foods, Advil, hand sanitizer, and tampons and after things quieted down there. Others had migrated feminine pads for anyone who needs them. from Seattle’s famed Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or “We are here feeding everybody, no matter who, no CHOP. Most of the people running Riot Ribs are housematter what, no matter how much food they want,” Beans less, living in Lownsdale Square. It’s a loosely knit group of says. “That’s the goal.” 10 to 15 volunteers who support a handful of “peak time” cooks. It’s an all-night diner. “Seven pm to 7 am is when most people are on the grill,” Beans says. Those are also the hours when protests are at their peak. During slow hours, others rotate in so cooks can set up tents and sleep. It started with one man grilling outside his van on the sidewalk during the protests. He’s Lorenzo, a lifelong Portlander. He declines to give his last name, fearing reprisal by the police. The cops also gave his barbecue its name. “That night of the Fourth [of July], they threw some tear gas,” says Lorenzo, “and they said we was causing a riot. That’s why I named it ‘Riot Ribs.’ Because they tear gassed us six times. On the sixth time, I thought I was THE FOUNDER: Lorenzo opened his going to die. The medics had to hold my head back, pour first location on a city sidewalk. water in my eyes and stuff, and I couldn’t breathe.” So then, the obvious question: How’s the food? Lorenzo says he came to a July 4 protest to barbecue Volunteers in gloves serve me two crispy, juicy, seaand give a speech. But he stayed until 8 the next morning, grilling through six rounds of tear gas. He says people even soned ribs on a paper plate, with macaroni salad and coleslaw from the box, rounded out with a bag of Cheetos wanted breakfast, but by then he was too tired. Lorenzo says he was a and a can of Coke. Perfect for a long summer night in the member of the Black Pan- park. Vegan choices are limited. The Boca burgers go on the thers in the late 1960s, when Portland police same grill as the meat, and most of the snack chips and shot Albert Williams, that cookies have dairy in them. But volunteers have told me he led a sit-down dem- expanding vegan options is a next step. Despite being onstration at the Oregon served from a box, the macaroni salad and coleslaw hit State Penitentiary as the spot and were served chilled. The soda was warm, so an inmate, and that his BYO ice—or even your own cup. The ribs showed expertise on the grill, striking the uncle was involved in the perfect balance of crispy and juicy. They were articulate1968 prison riots. “So it kinda like, run in ly seasoned, cooked through and nowhere dry. Despite the family,” he says. “God the barbecue’s humble origins, this is no amateur operaprepared me for this. And tion. Somebody here knows what they’re doing.

@BrianOaster

The city parks facing Portland’s downtown courthouses can be a grim place these days. A line of demonstrators squares off each night with officers sent by the president. A bloodstain marks the sidewalk where protester Donavan LaBella’s head was split open July 11 by a federal munition. The parks are regularly filled with tear gas and screams of pain. They are also, improbably, home to a barbecue restaurant. A blue tent, white plastic fence and drifting column of smoke mark the location of a 30-inch metal grill with a smoker. It’s called Riot Ribs. “ We have ribs, we got a lot of pork, pork butt, hamburgers, brats, hot dogs,” says a volunteer who goes by “Beans.” Also on the menu are grilled corn, watermelon, macaroni salad, potato salad, coleslaw, chips and soda pop. “Texas toast now, apparently,” Beans says, gesturing toward two boxes. On July 12, two dozen people stand in line. And none of them are paying. “It’s completely, 100% free,” says Beans. “Our philosophy is, eat till you’re full. So if you want five burgers, we’ll give you five burgers.” If you want a measure of how a pandemic and 46 consecutive nights of protests have changed downtown Portland, perhaps nothing tells the story like a dozen volunteers running a pay-whatyou-can pop-up barbecue shack in a park surrounded by federal police. Portland recently lost Le Bistro Montage, Pok Pok shut down all but one of its locations, and Old Town Brewing just announced a temporary closure. Meanwhile, Riot Ribs reports it’s served 7,500 plates in just eight days. TASTE OF FREEDOM: Ribs with Most of the proprietors

mac salad and coleslaw. Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

AARON MESH

BY BRIA N OAST E R

AARON MESH

Protesters feast on Riot Ribs, a donations-only barbecue in the center of a standoff with the feds.

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In a nation succumbing to COVID-19, where does Oregon stand? These 9 charts will show you. BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N

r m o n a h a n @ wwe e k .co m

Oregon is a state choked by COVID-19. Since July 1, the state has seen 3,800 new cases of the virus, more infections than in the entire month of May. According to a variety of experts, the gradual resumption of economic and social routines in this state is responsible for the virus’s swift resurgence, from Portland to Pendleton. “Economics is driving some of the risk we are exposing people to,” says Carlos Crespo, vice provost at Portland State University and a professor of public health. One month after Gov. Kate Brown lifted the lockdown, health watchdogs are demanding she shut down the state again. “You don’t need to be an epidemiologist to recognize that things are getting worse,” says Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran. “The writing is on the wall. The governor will [eventually] close bars and indoor restaurants, but the delay in doing the inevitable will only make things worse. It’s not a hard decision, it’s just not being made.” Brown has not taken that advice. Instead, this week she took incremental steps: She required masks be worn outdoors, and she

banned house parties of 10 people or more. On July 13, Brown acknowledged that Oregon is poised on the brink. “Today we are sounding the alarm because we are at risk of letting the virus spiral out of control,” she said. “The question now is whether Oregon will be the next New York or the next Texas.” She was referring to the two capitals of the disease: New York, which led the nation in deaths two months ago but has since fought the virus to a draw, and Texas, where hospitals are now overwhelmed. Yet many citizens remain convinced Brown is overreacting. They think masks are for cowards, and the governor is a tyrant. To grasp how precarious this moment is for Oregon, we took a look at how it ranks among other U.S. states in a catastrophic year. We compared Oregon to other states on testing, hospitalizations, deaths, case counts, and bar and restaurant repenings. We found that Oregon is neither the nation’s strictest state, nor the most foolhardy. In some ways, we’ve been cautious. In others, Brown hasn’t made the tough decisions that could prevent wider spread of the disease. In fact, what the comparison shows is this:

So far, Oregon has been pretty lucky. Our death rate is low, and our rise in cases doesn’t match that in other places. But our stability is fragile. We don’t have the capacity in tests and ICU beds to keep up with a spike that our rules aren’t guaranteed to prevent. “I think it’s a mix of luck and having good policy to some extent, in that we had a fast response early,” says Numi Lee Griffith, a health care advocate with the public interest group OSPIRG. “I think that’s a big part of why we haven’t been hit that hard so far—even though we’re next to Washington and California, which have both had relatively severe outbreaks.” “Overall, as a state, we are doing OK,” she added. “But some of the rural counties are getting hit really, really badly already.” Back in February, Americans living in Florence, Italy, warned that the virus was rapidly killing people, and begged this nation to avoid a similar fate. If Italy was a warning to America, now America is a warning to Oregon. In the following pages, we’ll show you where we stand—and how we could fall into disaster. CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

POLICIES WHERE ARE MASKS REQUIRED?

The COVID-19 crisis is framed by politics, to state the obvious. President Donald Trump turned mask-wearing into a culture war and has spoken dismissively of a disease that has in four months killed 133,000 Americans—nearly triple U.S. deaths in the Vietnam War— and 244 Oregonians. The lack of federal leadership has resulted in a patchwork of policies to stem the virus’s spread. Oregon is neither the strictest state, nor the most lax.

Until July 13, Oregon was the only state on the West Coast without a mask requirement in all public spaces, indoors and out. This week, Brown changed that: Anywhere people can’t stay 6 feet

apart from each other, they must mask up. Brown’s latest mask policy, while significant, still isn’t the strictest in the country.

EVERYWHERE IN PUBLIC WHERE SOCIAL DISTANCING ISN’T POSSIBLE ENTIRE STATE: EVERYWHERE IN PUBLIC

BRIAN BURK

ALL INDOOR PUBLIC SPACES (INCLUDING TRANSIT AND BUSINESSES) MOST INDOOR PUBLIC SPACES

EMPLOYEES OF BUSINESSES ONLY REQUIRED IN SOME CITIES AND COUNTIES NO REQUIREMENT

Source: Masks4All, an advocacy group

WHERE ARE RESTAURANTS AND BARS OPEN? Few places are as conducive to the spread of COVID-19 as bars and restaurants. In most states, dinein eateries and watering holes are among the last establishments to reopen. Gov. Brown kept such businesses closed longer in Portland than in other Oregon cities. Now both bars and restaurants are

open statewide, albeit with shortened hours. This month, many U.S. states have acknowledged that opening bars was a mistake—and shut them down again. The most recent? California, which issued another last call July 13.

RESTAURANTS AND BARS ARE BOTH OPEN RESTAURANTS ARE OPEN BUT BARS ARE NOT RESTAURANTS AND BARS ARE BOTH CLOSED

Source: The Washington Post

FACE TO FACE: On July 13, Gov. Kate Brown required Oregonians to wear masks in outdoor spaces where people can’t keep 6 feet apart.

HOW LONG WERE RESTAURANT DINING ROOMS CLOSED? In March, most U.S. cities locked down in rapid succession as the virus arrived on our shores. But many cities and states reopened swiftly—seeking to jump-start their economies at the encouragement of the president. Oregon was more cautious:

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

Gov. Kate Brown reopened the state gradually, making Portland go last. Here’s how Portland’s timeline compares to those of other, similarly sized cities.

RESULTS HOW DO OREGON’S RURAL OUTBREAKS COMPARE TO AMERICA’S HOT SPOTS?

Oregon has largely escaped the most horrifying outcomes of the coronavirus. That probably reflects a combination of policy success and dumb luck. The state has less international travel than other early U.S. hot spots, didn’t have any super-spreader outbreaks, and shut down early.

Oregon’s status looks less rosy when you look at its rural counties. As elsewhere, Oregon’s hot spots first sprang up in cities, but cases are now much more prevalent in the countryside. That’s thanks in part to COVID denial, and outbreaks at food processing plants and state prisons. In fact, over the past two weeks, as of July 11, some of Oregon’s rural counties are getting sick at a rate that surpasses that of the hardest-hit states in the nation.

HOW DEADLY HAS COVID-19 BEEN IN OREGON?

AVERAGE NEW CASES PER DAY PER 100,000 PEOPLE

Oregon has so far experienced a low COVID-19 death rate by U.S. standards. Per capita, Oregon has the sixth-lowest death rate in the nation.

TOTALS BY STATE

TOTALS BY COUNTY

DEATHS PER 100,000 RESIDENTS

Source: The New York Times, as of July 11

HOW FAST ARE CASES RISING IN EACH STATE? A nationwide rise in cases is what most alarms elected officials and public health experts. Oregon is seeing a steep increase—but it pales in compari-

son to the spikes in Texas, Florida and California. In fact, Oregon is seeing cases rise more slowly than any of the states along its border. Sources: COVID Exit Strategy, Jacob Fenton (The Accountability Project at the Investigative Reporting Workshop OPB), WW

Source: COVID Exit Strategy

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

BRIAN BURK

OUTLOOK While Oregon has fared better than many states in the first stage of the pandemic, its prognosis isn’t terrific. The state has little testing capacity and even fewer hospital beds. That leaves little margin for error as Gov. Brown weighs her next big decision: whether children should return to classrooms this fall.

HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE GETTING COVID TESTS? Oregon has consistently tested for COVID-19 less than other states, in part because this state’s modest case counts make it a low federal priority. That’s a problem because testing is the first step in figuring out where the virus has taken hold, so health officials can stop a few cases from exploding into a widespread outbreak. Oregon officials project testing-supply shortages will get worse as other states experience dramatic spikes. That could leave Oregon incapable of determining who is sick—which is one of the few ways to keep the disease from spreading, short of sending everyone home again. PER 100,000 PEOPLE

KEEP YOUR DISTANCE: Portland City Hall helped bars and restaurants, like this one in the Pearl District, to expand their patios into the street.

HOW MANY HOSPITAL BEDS ARE OCCUPIED? Oregon has the lowest per capita number of acute care beds of any state in the country. That now creates a complication if the pandemic takes hold in Oregon. So far, the number of people getting severely

ill hasn’t outstripped hospital capacity. Even so, Oregon’s few cases have filled hospitals nearly as much as those in states with far more people falling ill.

Source: Johns Hopkins University, as of July 12

Source: COVID Exit Strategy, as of July 11

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

WILL KIDS GO BACK TO SCHOOL THIS FALL? The Trump administration is again politicizing the pandemic with its push for factfree school reopenings. That leaves school districts to decide whether they should let children return to classrooms in the fall. Some districts have already pivoted to video. (All these districts will have an option for students not to attend school in person. That could mean everything from computer games to Zoom classes.) It’s the next decisive point in the pandemic—and many districts, including Portland, concede their plans are fluid.

DENVER: SLATED TO FULLY REOPEN AUG.

17 AUSTIN: TO FULLY

DAYS A WEEK

OPTION FOR

DISTANCE

LEARNING,

REOPEN

AUGUST

SEATTLE: MAY HAVE TWO

IN-PERSON,

SLATED

AUG.

PORTLAND: MAY HAVE TWO

SEPT.

SEPTEMBER

LOS ANGELES:

IN-PERSON,

DISTANCE

LEARNING,

DATE TBD

TO BE DETERMINED D MINNEAPOLIS: MAY FULLY

WILL MOVE ENTIRELY TO

REOPEN,

DISTANCE

DATE TBD

LEARNING,

ONE TO THREE DAYS

OF IN-PERSON LEARNING,

OPTION FOR DISTANCE

WITH

LEARNING,

FIRST DAY

DATE TBD

BRIAN BURK

AUG.

NEW YORK CITY:

BRIEF ENCOUNTER: Across the city, Portlanders are returning to social activities, from queuing for ice cream to riding scooters. The respite may be short-lived.

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

NEW TIMES REQUIRE NEW THINKING It’s times like these that your largest asset can be a life saver. Right now, your home equity could promote the financial stability you want in retirement. It’s a well-known fact that for many older Americans, the home is their single biggest asset, often accounting for more than 45% of their total net worth. And with interest rates near all-time lows while home values are still high, this combination creates the perfect dynamic for getting the most out of your built-up equity. But, many aren’t taking advantage of this unprecedented period. According to new statistics from the mortgage industry, senior homeowners in the U.S. are now sitting on more than 7.19 trillion dollars* of unused home equity. Not only are people living longer than ever before, but there is also

greater uncertainty in the ecomony. With home prices back up again, ignoring this “hidden wealth” may prove to be short sighted when looking for the best long-term outcome. All things considered, it’s not surprising that more than a million homeowners have already used a government-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loan to turn their home equity into extra cash for retirement. It’s a fact: no monthly mortgage payments are required with a government-insured HECM loan; however the borrowers are still responsible for paying for the maintenance of their home,

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especially in times like these. The cash from a HECM loan can be used for almost any purpose. Other common uses include making home improvements, paying off medical bills or helping other family members. Some people simply need the extra cash for everyday expenses while others are now using it as a safety net for financial emergencies. If you’re a homeowner age 62 or older, you owe it to yourself to learn more so that you can make the best decision - for your financial future. We’re here and ready to help. Homeowners who are interested in learning more can request a FREE Reverse Mortgage Information Kit and DVD by calling toll-free at

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*Source: https://reversemortgagedaily.com/2019/12/17/senior-housing-wealth-reaches-record-high-of-7-19-trillion Reverse mortgage loan terms include occupying the home as your primary residence, maintaining the home, paying property taxes and homeowners insurance. Although these costs may be substantial, AAG does not establish an escrow account for these payments. However, a set-aside account can be set up for taxes and insurance, and in some cases may be required. Not all interest on a reverse mortgage is tax-deductible and to the extent that it is, such deduction is not available until the loan is partially or fully repaid. AAG charges an origination fee, mortgage insurance premium (where required by HUD), closing costs and servicing fees, rolled into the balance of the loan. AAG charges interest on the balance, which grows over time. When the last borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse dies, sells the home, permanently moves out, or fails to comply with the loan terms, the loan becomes due and payable (and the property may become subject to foreclosure). When this happens, some or all of the equity in the property no longer belongs to the borrowers, who may need to sell the home or otherwise repay the loan balance. V2020.03.16 NMLS# 9392 (www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org). American Advisors Group (AAG) is headquartered at 3800 W. Chapman Ave., 3rd & 7th Floors, Orange CA, 92868. Licensed in 49 states. Please go to www.aag.com/legal-information for full state license information. These materials are not from HUD or FHA and were not approved by HUD or a government agency.

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

STREET

SUMMER IN NORTHWEST PORTLAND

Photos by Brian Burk

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

To the PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL, PORTLAND POLICE BUREAU and the PORTLAND POLICE ASSOCIATION:

THE PEOPLE

DEMAND

• the immediate removal of federal police forces from the streets of Portland; • an immediate and permanent ban on the use of LRAD, tear gas, stun grenades, pepper balls, baton or sponge rounds and other impact projectiles; • that you reduce the Portland Police Bureau budget by $121 million; • that you redirect the funding to housing, mental health services and the needs of Black, Indigenous and People of Color; • the civilianization of 2/3 of the Portland Police Bureau workforce; • that officers obtain individual professional liability insurance as a condition of employment; • that deadly force should be used only “when all other reasonable means have failed and are impractical.”; • that officers involved in a shooting or death in police custody be interviewed within 24 hours and without the opportunity to review video of the incident; • that officers with more than one disciplinary action within the contract period be terminated;

• that performance evaluations may serve as the basis for discipline, discharge, demotion, or involuntary transfer; • that the Mayor and Police Chief be the final authority on police discipline – NOT AN ARBITRATOR; • that police disciplinary records and citizen complaints be made public record; • the elimination of the “embarrassment clause”; • an end to the cash bail system in the City of Portland.

PROTESTS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL SUBSTANTIVE REFORM IS ACHIEVED Paid for by a concerned private citizen. 20

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T H E M OST I M PO RTA N T T H I N G S T HAT H A P P E N E D I N P O R T L A N D C U LT U R E T H I S WE E K , FR O M BE ST TO WO RST . LEAH NASH

STARTERS

CINEMA 21 IN 2011

BIG SCREEN, SMALL CROWD Cinema 21 is giving a limited number of patrons the option of reliving the experience of going to the movies again. To help cover expenses accrued since the nearly 100-year-old theater was mandated to close in mid-March, the theater is launching a series of benefit screenings open to only 25 patrons, beginning Saturday, July 18, with Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams. “Our giant 500-seat auditorium allows for ample social distancing,” owner Tom Ranieri said in a press release. Admission costs $99 per show, which includes a reserved seat, a $25 gift card to the theater, a Cinema 21 tote bag, and complimentary concessions. All moviegoers will be required to wear masks and abide by the 6-foot distancing guideline. Dates and tickets can be found on Cinema 21’s website.

FLATTENED FEE The Portland City Council has voted to cap restaurant fees charged by third-party delivery services during Oregon’s coronavirus-prompted state of emergency. Effective immediately, third-party delivery apps and services cannot charge restaurants more than a 10% commission if the third-party service delivers and 5% if the restaurant makes the delivery. During the pandemic, local restaurants have counted on takeout and delivery to stay afloat. But to make deliveries, they often rely on apps like Grubhub and Caviar, companies that small local businesses have little bargaining power against and which often take a substantial chunk of each sale. Before the cap, some delivery services charged restaurants up to 30% in fees. Companies face a $500 fine for violating the ordinance.

CANCELED BE THY NAME A 63-year-old Lincoln City restaurant is facing mounting pressure to change its name, which is derived from a 19th century children’s book widely considered racist. Sandy resident Myriam Macleod launched a petition on Change.org calling for Lil’ Sambo’s—which sits along Highway 101 on the Oregon Coast—to rebrand. The petition has amassed nearly 500 signatures so far, while a hashtag campaign is spreading on social media. The restaurant’s website explains that the name, previously Lil’ Black Sambo’s, came from the 1899 children’s book The Story of Little Black Sambo, written by Scottish-born author Helen Bannerman. Set in India, the book features illustrations filled with racist stereotypes—not to mention that the term “sambo” has been used as a slur toward Black people going back to the mid-18th century. Tourists tend to flock there for the breakfast food, making the property’s jorts-sporting tiger holding an umbrella in its tail something of a landmark. General manager Cary Moore says he understands why people want the name changed, but there are no plans to do so. “We have no intention of offending anyone,” he says. “We just want to serve breakfast.”

GHOSTED Old Town Brewing has temporarily shut down its historic restaurant in the heart of its namesake neighborhood, which over the years has gained a beloved following for its beer and reputation for being haunted. Owner Adam Milne tells WW he had been struggling with the possibility that he might have to shutter the location on Northwest Davis Street since at least last week. “The moment of a temporary closure became, sadly, clear on Thursday when our revenue for the day was $18.75,” he says. The Old Town site has long been popular outside the beer nerd crowd, since it is located directly above Portland’s infamous Shanghai Tunnels and reportedly boasts a number of ghosts. Old Town’s Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard location and brewing headquarters remains open to customers.

GET DAILY UPDATES ON HOW CORONAVIRUS IS AFFECTING PORTLAND

THE SHOW MUST NOT GO ON COVID-19-related event cancellations have started stretching into next year. The Oregon Symphony, Portland’s largest arts organization, has canceled all of its concerts and other services except digital programming through 2020. That comprises 43 symphony performances in Portland and Salem, and about 250 education and engagement programs statewide, including those for schools, hospitals and prisons. “The reason we didn’t do it sooner,” says symphony president and CEO Scott Showalter, “is because we really want to perform, and if there’s any chance that we could, we were holding out hope.” Dance company White Bird has also announced there will be no performances during its 2020-21 season. Co-founders Walter Jaffe and Paul King plan to keep patrons engaged by posting dance videos—particularly by artists of color—and engage in online conversations about how to address systemic racism through art.

SUBSCRIBE NOW WWEEK.COM/NEWSLETTERS Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

GET...OUTSIDE? Q(UARANTINE)&A

Mic Crenshaw, Rapper and Activist

JULY 8-14

WHAT TO DO—AND WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING—AS PORTLAND REOPENS.

MY QUARANTINE PROJECT

Casey Bozell’s Keep Classical Weird Podcast COURTESY OF ALIGNED ARTISTRY

WW: How have you been staying sane the last few months? Mic Crenshaw: Sanity is relative. On any given day I can get through a spectrum of emotions as far as how I’m doing, from feeling really optimistic to feeling worried and anxious. Today I’m doing pretty good. It’s a beautiful day. If the pandemic had to come, this is a good time for it to come. I know you’ve been performing at the protests, and you’re a founding member of Anti-Racist Action. On top of that, you’re originally from Minneapolis. I’m curious, then, about what this current uprising has been for you personally. In this moment, a lot of us who began organizing against violent white supremacists have been reminiscing and there’s a lot about the Reagan years that are very similar to what’s happening in Trump’s United States. What’s changed is the way oppression looks. It’s more high-tech. The surveillance state is a lot more developed. And the performative clashes that happen as part of left wing versus right wing, and the way the media talks about it, are more predictable today. When we were doing it, there might have been some media coverage, but a lot of it didn’t happen in front of the cameras. A lot of it didn’t happen in the environment of protests, it happened on side streets and in residential areas and parking lots and alleys and at concerts. The degree to which the public spectacle is part of it was a lot less. What’s your experience been like as a performer at these protests? To perform, on the one hand, is something I really enjoy doing. It’s a highlight of my week. But in this time, the captive audience is even more in tune with the message in the lyrics I’m sharing and the speeches I’m giving. It feels very powerful for me sharing a message, because I can tell it’s being shared and appreciated in a way that’s not just entertainment. There have been a lot of discussions about pacifism versus militancy and how people protest during this uprising. How do you feel? These are big questions because people show up in myriad ways and they’re in varying stages of development and consciousness from their subjective point of view and lived experience. In terms of violence, there was this earlier conversation when we were watching Minneapolis go up in flames about whether it was Black people who were setting fires and doing property damage and vandalism and socalled looting or whether it was white people on the left who are part of antifa and just really wanted to break things, and whether that somehow discredited the rebellion in response to George Floyd’s murder. It’s not either or—all those things are probably true to some extent. But none of those things take away from the fact that the rage is justified. When you have masses of people who are enraged due to historic brutality, oppression, hatred, terror, you’re going to see things breaking, you’re going to see things burning, because people have an explosive amount of emotions associated with how they’ve been treated. I’m not saying I’m for it or against it, but in the wake of it, we’ve seen change I don’t think would’ve happened if things weren’t damaged to the extent that they were. See the full video interview at week.com/distant-voices. 22

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Earlier this year, following a rehearsal by the Portland Opera Orchestra, violinist Casey Bozell and her fellow musicians landed on a familiar topic of conversation. “We got on this accessibility conversation that we have a lot,” Bozell says. “How do we reach more people? Why aren’t more people into it? And I said, offhand, ‘What I want to do is start a podcast about classical music and talk about the stuff that we find fascinating.’ One of my colleagues said, ‘Yeah, why aren’t you doing that?’” That was all the motivation Bozell needed to launch Keep Classical Weird at the start of May. On each easy-to-swallow episode, she and guests explore interesting figures or rarely discussed curiosities of the classical world that they hope will open the door to new listeners. On a recent episode, Bozell and flautist Sophia Tegart chatted about the scatology-laden letters Mozart wrote to his family. A few weeks’ earlier, both were joined by mezzosoprano Aleks Romano to explore the history of castrati—singers often castrated before puberty to maintain their ability to reach high notes. Not all of the episodes are about such unpleasant subjects. Recently, Bozell and performer David Saffert

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looked into the life of flamboyant pianist Liberace, and she brought on a trio of guests for an early episode that asked the core question: “Why is classical not cool?” “We’re in a generation where audiences will show up at concerts and they’ll have very little context for what’s going on,” Bozell says. “Our traditions have not done a lot to accommodate that. This podcast format, I thought, would start to bridge that gap a teeny bit.” It helps to have Bozell as a guide. The current concertmaster for the Newport Symphony and member of the orchestras for Portland Opera and the Oregon Ballet Theatre, Bozell exudes a plucky personality and infectious enthusiasm that can make a conversation on an otherwise dry subject like Ravel’s “Bolero” feel riveting—which surely is part of the reason that Keep Classical Weird has quickly earned a passionate fan base. “I knew going in that my husband and my parents would listen,” Bozell says, “but it’s been much more than I expected. I’ve got one listener in France who has downloaded every episode. I don’t know anybody in France! It’s so cool that they decided to give it a shot and stuck with it.” Keep Classical Weird is available on most major podcast platforms. New episodes are released every Friday.

The Grave on the Wall by Brandon Shimoda “The Grave on the Wall is haunted, which is to say that the history it unsettles comes alive and happens all at once. Brandon stares into everything with his inexhaustible attention, into a history of war and imperialism, a half-told family history of photographs and immigration documents—a documentary, a documentary of the documentary—and at the center of it, he stares into the grave on a wall, a photograph of a man wearing a white bra and slip, his grandfather, Midori, who was forced into detention at Fort Missoula during the United States’ brutal campaign to punish and test the allegiances of its own Japanese American citizens. Have you ever really looked at someone as they really look at a photograph? When you read this book, you really, really look at someone as they really look at a photograph. It is a portal for the ghost of a ghost, which only knows to come closer. It’s not just a document from which Brandon untangles the dead, but it’s a portal through which the ghosts can show themselves to him. To exchange that kind of attention between the living and the dead is love.” —Zachary Schomburg, author of Mammother (2017)

FOOD & DRINK REVIEW

Looking Like a Snack White Owl’s Street Disco pop-up goes lowbrow but aims high.

BY JO R DA N M I C H E L M AN

@suitcasewine

“Nobody knows how to operate right now. It’s all just so uncertain.” Street Disco chef Kyle Christy is talking about his new outdoor snack bar project, housed inside the sprawling White Owl Social Club space in Southeast Portland’s Buckman neighborhood, but he may as well be speaking on any facet of life in summer 2020. Our bizarre ride to the dark side of this annus horribilis has been hard on chefs and restaurants in particular, an avalanche of reckonings, financial and otherwise, that shows no sign of slowing down in the weeks and months to come. And yet, in our strangest hour, there are still new restaurants emerging, improbable as it seems. Most are takeout only for now. All are works in progress. Call the early weeks of Street Disco a sort of public beta, then, with updates and changes announced regularly on Instagram. “We’re trying a couple of different things with our team, so we can see what works, and adapt,” says Christy, adding, “We pretty much get to do whatever we want.”

Summarized simply, Disco Snacks is a multifaceted snack bar concept at White Owl. There is a daily menu with upgraded bar munchies—think Manchurian cauliflower, huckleberry tofu, veggies with whipped ricotta for dipping, oysters by the dozen—alongside a new natural wine approach made up of chilled, patio-ready reds at $30 and under from Jessie Manning, part of the team at Dame, North Portland’s natural wine bottle shop and bistro. Christy is a Dame alum as well, and his ambitions for Disco Snacks go far beyond daily small plates. So far, that looks like a series of distinct concepts: Taco Tuesdays, a public school cafeteria homage to tacos of the hard shell variety ($3-$5); a coming outdoor wood-fired grill situation, offering fish, lamb, and gorgeous veggies cooked in woodsmoke on the White Owl patio by purveyors like Wild Roots and Ayers Crook; and pizza inspired by the suburban food court experience, currently available as pre-order on Fridays and Saturdays, with updates through Instagram. “As a kid, pizza to me meant the Little Caesar’s at Kmart,” says Christy. “I didn’t start hearing about Detroit pizza until a few years ago. To me, that’s just nostalgia.”

Early versions of the pizza concept were developed by the chef at the height of the initial coronavirus lockdown, used as a ploy to trade with winemaker friends in exchange for their bottles. There are elements of that classic Detroit style in Christy’s product, but it differs from the more purist versions available around town at spots like East Glisan Pizza Lounge. These land more like an individual “pan pizza,” almost like what you’d get at the small-town laser tag parlor, albeit with fresher ingredients and a lot more hand-washing. “I just want to do fun stuff,” Christy says, and these pizzas are undeniably fun, ideal for a nice lunch but really built to be enjoyed after a glass or two or four of your beverage of choice. There are standard-issue pies—cheese ($12), Hawaiian ($15), pepperoni ($14)—but also a very good clam pie ($17), almost like a garlic bread with fresh Manila clams shucked to order over herbs and pecorino. The stunner, however, is the cheeseburger pie ($17), a heavyweight concoction born of some suburban hunger dream. There is nothing else quite like it in Portland, and the best of its kind I have ever had.

ASHTON MORGAN

STREET DISCO’S CHEESEBURGER PIE

THE DOUGH “Our dough is very similar to focaccia,” says Christy, “very straightforward and pressed out in the pan with our fingertips.” The end result lands somewhere between a Detroit-style square slice and a Costco frozen pizza bread: chewy and hefty and capable of soaking up a satisfyingly deep amount of flavor.

THE CRUST After placing the dough, low-moisture mozzarella is sprinkled around the side of the square pan. During baking, little strands of the mozzarella creep over the side of the dough, fusing with the crust to create a sort of cheese wall. “People call it Detroit style but to me it’s Little Caesar’s style,” Christy says.

EAT: Street Disco at White Owl Social Club, 1305 SE 8th Ave., street-disco.com. 3-9 pm daily.

THE TOPPINGS Christy starts with a thin layer of ketchup underneath the mozzarella, but not too much, which is important. He then makes a sizable “smash” burger patty using high-fat Painted Hills beef. Once cooked, the burger is chopped up alongside onions and pickles (sourced from New Jersey cult favorite Grillo’s) and topped with American cheese.

THE FINISH Once cooked, the cheeseburger pie is topped with still more onions, this time raw, and a mustard-forward secret sauce of the chef’s own design. “I’m a huge fan of both grilled and raw onions on my burger,” Christy says. And so it goes on his cheeseburger pizza.”

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

bringing out the crowds. The rotating “pop-up” slot is where the real treats reside. A few weeks ago, she revived classic Portland Sichuan palace Lucky Strike. And this week, beginning July 16, it’ll host vegan meals from Meals for Heels, the nationally lauded food delivery service typically dedicated to feeding Portland’s sex workers.

TOP 5

HOT PLATES Where to eat this week.

1. Kachka Alfresca 960 SE 11th Ave., 503-235 0059, kachkapdx.com/alfresca. 3-10 pm daily. A pop-up in the truest sense of the term, created in a time of great pressure and adaptation, Kachka’s outdoor spinoff may have been largely improvised, but it is so utterly of its time and place in this shared moment that it feels like a vital addition to the food landscape. Twenty-some cabana-styled tables sprawled across a parking lot rooftop above Southeast Portland, and food is ordered by phone. If you know and love Kachka, there are many old favorites on offer, but the pop-up has allowed owner Bonnie Morales to dive into another vein of nostalgia, one informed by her childhood watching her Soviet émigré parents run a 1990s bistro in the Chicago suburbs. It doesn’t all necessarily make sense—the Sex on Beaches and Cobb salads and pulsing Russo-disco soundtrack combine to form a sort of trans-Siberian TGI Friday’s—but it is damn fun.

3. Holler 7119 SE Milwaukie Ave., 971-200-1391, hollerpdx.com. 11 am-6 pm Tuesday-Saturday, online ordering available 3-5 pm. On the one hand, over the last year and a half, Portland has overloaded with options for fried chicken. On the other hand, can you ever really have too much fried chicken? And then, on the third hand, the city’s latest chicken shack is courtesy of Doug Adams, the Top Chef alum behind Texas barbecue haven Bullard, one of the best new restaurants of 2019. Adams recently opened the casual, familyfriendly Holler for takeout, and while we haven’t had a chance to sample the birds yet, we’re confident offering a blind recommendation. And anyway, Adams and co-owner Jen Quist aren’t exactly launching from scratch here. They spent the last four months testing the takeout model at Bullard, with meal boxes that have included the exact fried chicken churned out here.

2. Pix-O-Matic 2225 E Burnside St., 971-271-7166, pixpatisserie.com/ pixomatic. Open 24 hours. Yes, it’s a vending machine. But don’t think of it as just a retro-chic update on the machines you used to grab an apple from in college, although that’s partly the inspiration. Owner Cheryl Wakerhauser fills her machine daily with the items that have made Pix an after-dinner destination for two decades: decadent pies, rich mousses, truffle cakes, crème brûlées and those famous macarons. But it’s not just sweets

CARLEIGH OETH

BUZZ LIST Where to drink outside this week.

1. Level Beer 5211 NE 148th Ave., 503-714-1222, levelbeer.com. Sometimes the perfect afternoon means hunkering down with a book and a beer in the corner of a quiet bar. When such a mood strikes, stay far away from Level. But if you’re looking for a scene more like perpetual summer camp—where the squeals of children are the predominant soundtrack—then head to this 2-acre plot in the industrial hinterlands of Northeast Portland and find a spot on its massive patio, which is actually a converted greenhouse. Level’s founders also have children, which pushed them to produce beers with an alcohol content that won’t leave your head spinning, like the crisp, 4.5% ABV Grisetta Stone, whose flavors bob between citrus and black pepper. 24

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

KEE’S LOADED KITCHEN

with-flavor soul food are big enough to share with friends. Every Thursday through Sunday, Nelson serves whopping 4-pound homestyle plates to the neighborhood she grew up in—most recently, she’s used donations to provide free or discounted meals to Black Portlanders. People stand in line for an hour to get her food, and she sells out every single day she’s open, almost always within a couple of hours. Watch Instagram for the day’s offerings, and be ready to move.

5. Tonari

3625 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-516-2078, instagram.com/keesloadedkitchen. Lunch ThursdaySunday until sold out. In 2018, Kee’s #Loaded Kitchen won WW’s Food Cart of the Year honors. It’s easy to see why: Chef Kiauna Nelson’s heaping plates of mouthwatering, dripping-

2838 SE Belmont St., tonaripdx.com. 4-6:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday. Takeout only. At Ryan and Elena Roadhouse’s new restaurant, Tonari, the intricate details stack up to form a singular tableau. The drastically remodeled former Accanto space—next door to the couple’s seven-time James Beard Award-nominated omakase experience Nodoguro—is a visual delight from top to bottom. Pity it’s not open for dine-in yet, but they are doing takeout, offering a broad range of options, from a subtly perfect smoked mackerel Caesar salad to beautifully arranged teishoku sets—a composed bento with sides, rice and choice of simple main protein.

Palomar

Shine Distillery & Grill

959 SE Division St., No. 100, 971-266-8276, barpalomar.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday. By reservation only. A reflection of owner Ricky Gomez’s Cuban American heritage and his hometown of New Orleans, Palomar doesn’t look like many other Portland bars, nor does it taste like one. The interior could be a set piece from HBO’s Ballers, and the drink menu is just as colorful, full of piña coladas, daiquiris and all things slushy and beachy—plus Cuban diner staples like bistec ($16), lechon asado ($14) and a Cubana sandwich ($10) topped with matchstick fries. In other words, it was already a great summer bar, and now that it’s moved operations to its roof deck overlooking Division Street, it might just be perfect. Well, nearly perfect—reservations are required in order to maintain social distancing. But once you get a spot up there, it’ll be hard to leave.

4232 N Williams Ave., 503-384-2585, shinedistillerygrill.com. 3-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 3-10 pm Friday-Saturday. It was probably only a matter of time before Williams Avenue got a shiny new two-story bar that looks teleported from the Pearl. While most distilleries are boutique affairs relegated to minimal storefronts or corners of industrial spaces, the menu and ambience at Shine gives brewpubs like Breakside and 10 Barrel a run for their money. The focus is on liquor, and the bar churns out some fantastic cocktails. Owner Jon Poteet spent quarantine bottling hand cleaner made from his distillery’s high-proof byproduct, and now that Multnomah County has reopened, he’s making the bar’s roof deck for safe drinking under the summer sun.

Stormbreaker

R&R

4. Kee’s Loaded Kitchen

TOP 5

LEVEL BEER

KEE’S LOADED KITCHEN

FOOD & DRINK

832 N Beech St., 971-703-4516, and 8409 N Lombard St., 971-255-1481, 8409 N Lombard St., 971-255-1481. Noon-10 pm daily. StormBreaker is familiar with the Portland brewing circle of life. In 2014, founders Rob Lutz and Dan Malech set up shop in the former home of Amnesia Brewing, changing up the food menu and, of course, the beer program while maintaining the property’s best feature: the large patio facing North Mississippi Avenue. Then, two years ago, Lutz and Malech expanded north, moving into the space once occupied by Plew’s Brews and a neighboring dentist office, adding ax-throwing lanes and a magnificent mural of the St. Johns Bridge, while once again keeping the attractive patio intact. Name a style and StormBreaker makes a damn fine version of it, from its citrusy Cloud Ripper IPA to the Opacus Stout, which has all the hints of chocolate you want without going down like a pint of Ovaltine.

716 NW 21st Ave., 503-384-2219, randrpdx.com. 3-10 pm daily. Overhauled from a Belgian bar into a faux-beachside resort, R&R borrows elements from your Hawaiian vacation Pinterest board—palm fronds, piña coladas, poke—and brings them to life. That even includes an LED sunset repeats every few minutes. Of course, if you’re drinking here now, you’ll probably opt to be outside, in the actual sunshine. Thankfully, the drinks are as transportive as the décor, with cocktails swimming in citrus and rum. The dark molasses and fresh lime in the mai tai might almost have you convinced you’ve ducked into a poolside cabana.

POTLANDER REVIEW

Summmer Chill A sampling of CBD products from Medford’s Plain Jane.

BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R

In a market flush with both legitimate and novelty CBD products, finding a consumable that speaks to your needs can be challenging. Medford’s Plain Jane, however, has tapped into the market with such calculated brilliance that it may have swayed my whole squad to incorporate non-psychoactive cannabinoids into their regular consumption. In early 2019, members of the squad and I attended the RAD Expo, a cannabis convention for retailers and dispensaries that, for legal reasons, mainly featured CBD brands. This protracted day of bombastic booth-barking and sampling resulted in a very familiar brand of bad-weed headache, typically borne from lungfuls of seeds, stems and/or being fooled into puffing on industrial hemp. It’s altogether too easy to get swept up in the alternative health and lifestyle buzz around cannabinoids, and finding trusted brands is an exercise in trial and error. So naturally, we approached the Plain Jane product line with some trepidation. I needed a panel opinion, but I also wanted to be confident in these products before presenting the Plain Jane spread to the rest of my squad for a tasting party. I auditioned one of its Sour Space Candy pre-rolls as soon as they arrived. Sure enough, that pre-roll told me everything I needed to know.

Sour Space Candy Prerolls ($15 for an 8 pack, 3.5 g each) In terms of fragrance, mo u th f e e l, s mok a b il ity and looks, Plain Jane’s pre-rolls are indistinguishable from those containing THC. The terp profile is rich with tart notes of citrus and flowery herbs, the inhale is smooth and velvety, and the exhale is a perfumey mashup of stank weed and an English garden. The warm, ephemeral wash of CBD complacency accompanies each draw, never feeling like intoxication, but rather like the quenching of an indefinable, newly discovered thirst.

C a v i a r Tw a x H e m p Joints (1 g, $10 each) First on deck for the crowdsourced smoke were the Caviar Twax joints, meaty pre-rolls coated in a cashmere layer of CBD keef and laced with CBD oil. We were all aghast at the weight, construction, fragrance and feel of the joints between our fingers. They felt luxurious, expensive, and totally extravagant. Once lit, they burned evenly and slowly, filling the room with an earthy bouquet, which, while not nearly as pungent as the Sour Space Candy, was still inoffensively aromatic. We smoked them with the same casual intensity as we would when we used to pass around similarly opulent THC joints in the pre-COVID era, which surprised us all since we felt no discernible effects, at least not right away. Bonus: There was not one cough while the twax joints were smoked.

Palm Leaf Mini Hemp Blunts ($14 for a 4-pack, 0.5 g each) Next up were the Palm Leaf Mini Blunts, 3 inches each of Blueberry Diesel, Sour Space Candy, a CBG blend, and Golden Cherry strains, neatly dressed in deep green palm leaves and decorated with tidy cigar bands. The size was perfect for personal use, and each smoked evenly down to the filter in approximately 10 to 15 minutes. The Blueberry Diesel and Sour Space Candy both delivered expected flavor profiles and mouthfeels—sweetly herbal silk and sour stank corduroy, respectively—but the Golden Cherry and CBG varieties landed differently. “This tastes medicinal, but not unpleasantly so,” said the Golden Cherry smoker, comparing it distinctly to the nostalgic flavor of cherry children’s cough syrup. The CBG smoker then slowly turned her head to mine and quietly contemplated whether or not she felt “high” before deciding yes, she did in fact feel some semblance of a high. When unpacking what that high felt like, the easiest way to describe it was as a very sheer wash of relaxation that harmonized with her resting mood.

Cigarette-style Hemp Pre-rolls ($3 for a 2-pack, $13 for a 20-pack) As the night wound to a close, I passed out the cigarette-style joints. We came to a consensus immediately: These are made for a strangely unfamiliar smoke. There is a distinct difference between consuming tobacco and cannabis, and it was mildly disorienting. “This is weird because you hit joints like joints and cigarettes like cigarettes,” said one crew member. After getting used to it, the consensus was these were actually marginally suitable replacements for tobacco cigarettes and would probably make the process of quitting tobacco somewhat easier by providing a familiar crutch. They won us over in the end. For the record, we hit them like both cigarettes and joints—interpret that as you will.

BUY: Find products at tryplainjane.com.

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

BOOKS

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com JAKE SILBERMAN

PERFORMANCE

CLASS CLOWN: Jake Silberman’s new album, recorded at Funhouse Lounge, is now streaming.

My Essential Seven: Jake Silberman From Scrabble to sugar highs, the Portland comic told us how he’s maintained his sanity during lockdown. BY AN DI P R E W I T T

aprewitt@wweek.com

Jake Silberman isn’t supposed to be here. If things had gone according to schedule, the comic—who was voted WW’s Funniest Person in 2018—would have bid farewell to the city where he honed his standup and been an official resident of New York for nearly seven weeks by now. The plan was to hit the road for a tour with friend and frequent onstage collaborator Hunter Donaldson, recording footage along the way for a future documentary, and eventually settle for good on the other side of the country. But in the era of the coronavirus, all plans have been ripped to shreds—which is how Silberman, who relocated from Minneapolis to Portland in 2013, found himself extending his stay in Oregon indefinitely, while facing a staggering confluence of ill-timed events. In early March, just before Oregon went into lockdown, Silberman gave two weeks’ notice to his full-time employer, for whom he wrote scripts, in preparation for the big move. Then every show he had booked canceled in a matter of days. Then his final destination, New York City, erupted

1. Comedian group chats We all do Facebook Messenger. Most hours of the day and night someone is on there talking shit to somebody. Since quarantine, I’ve started a few new chats, where we’re keeping up with each other’s lives and joking about everything—either local comedy scene drama or national news. I’m used to seeing these guys most nights, if not every night of the week. A big part of comedy is hanging out and shooting the shit with people. We try to keep it going through the digital stuff. 2. My bike I try to go for a walk or two a day, but walking around the same neighborhood, it’s, you know, the same scenery. So getting on the bike has meant a little bit more to me in some ways. Especially as the weather is finally turning nice, I’m planning on some longer rides throughout the city and potentially bike camping. It’s weird, I used to have no time and couldn’t do any of this and now I have all this time, but there’s a deadly disease out there, so I’m trying to find a balance of making it safe. 3. Sugar I have a major sweet tooth, and me and my girlfriend have been trying to cut back on it, but it’s my only vice besides standup, honestly, because I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I don’t do any drugs. You don’t really have a lot of outlets anymore. For me, I was used to going out literally every night and expressing myself. Now I don’t really have that. Sugar is still this one little thing that I can control. It’s a cheap outlet, but it is an outlet. 4. My friend’s HBO Now password I actually was able to lock down a password for pretty much all of the streaming services. I said HBO specifically because I’ve been going through The Sopranos for the first time. I’m on 26

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

with COVID-19 cases and the death toll skyrocketed. Then Silberman was denied jobless benefits because he quit—just a bit too early to know the virus would upend the economy and quickly push the rest of his department onto the unemployment rolls. “Some bad luck, for sure,” says Silberman, “but on the bright side—and I do try to think about this—I am really thankful I hadn’t just moved to New York, because I would’ve been in a lot worse position.” Even though he’s currently sidelined from in-person performances, you can still hear some fresh material on Silberman’s new record, The Crowd Work Album, which debuted July 10 and features the comic bobbing and weaving like a prizefighter while jabbing the audience with jokes. The recording is one instance over the past four months when he lucked out—it was made in late February at the Funhouse Lounge, in the final days when people were allowed to gather in a confined space without worrying about spreading respiratory droplets. We caught up with Silberman just after the album’s release to find out what has helped him pass his time in quarantine.

the last season right now. That has definitely been a latenight thing for me. I should be, like, reading more, but TV is just so easy to fill the hours with. 5. Scrabble That is one of the very low-tech things that me and my girlfriend got into. I don’t think I’d ever even played Scrabble before, and then we watched this documentary on the competitive Scrabble world. It’s a game and a thing where you don’t feel like you’re killing your brain by zoning out and watching TV. And, for a comic, it’s never bad to learn new words. 6. My partially finished new computer I’ve always had old laptops, so I didn’t really have a great computer situation. As things started to look like we’re going to be inside for a while, I bought a MacBook, kind of hated it and returned it. Then Hunter Donaldson, my roommate and friend, was like, “Hey, I’ll just build you one!” I’m not trying to sound like an asshole, because I do appreciate him putting it together, but there are some glitches. I’m kind of like, “You’ve done enough.” So I called up a computer repair company to have them take a look. I don’t know, maybe I am being an asshole…a little bit. 7. Applying for unemployment Hooo, yeah. I’ve had a big journey. I was in a weird situation, because I did technically quit my job. It was very unfortunate timing. I’ve been applying for 13 weeks, and I finally got a call and they said, “Yeah, because you quit, even though you quit and then the world fell apart, you are not eligible.” Honestly, it’s so confusing. I can’t believe how confusing of a process this is for such a terrible time in the country. LISTEN: The Crowd Work Album is available on Amazon Music, Apple Music, Bandcamp, iTunes, Pandora and Spotify. $10.

Written by: Scout Brobst / Contact: sbrobst@wweek.com

A WEEK OF VIRTUAL READINGS AT POWELL’S

July 15: Carlos Fonseca Widely regarded as one of Latin America’s best young writers, Carlos Fonseca is known for blending theory and fiction, creating stories with just as many edges as there are pages. His first novel, Colonel Lágrimas, began this tradition. It’s a tale of overly ambitious mathematicians and philosophical anarchists that one reviewer deemed “literary ventriloquism.” His follow-up, Natural History, continues in the spirit of experimental style, introducing a cast of fashion designers and museum curators with fraught family histories. Fonseca will be joined by his translator, Megan McDowell.

July 16: Matt Ruff It takes healthy doses of imagination and cynicism to task yourself with sketching out what next-generation internet culture may look like, a burden Matt Ruff has embraced with open arms. His latest novel is 88 Names, a literary joy ride through a thought-up world of video games and virtual reality. It is one part cyber thriller, another part “twisted romantic comedy,” carefully balancing the politics of the gaming world with the absurdist realities of the games themselves. Ruff will be joined in conversation by author Christopher Moore.

July 17: Zach St. George Zach St. George’s The Journey of Trees is what is says on the tin—something of a travel memoir spanning continents and species, with sections dedicated to the giant sequoia, ash, black spruce, Florida torreya and Monterey pine. St. George tracks down these trees and speaks to the people who care about them most, entering the woods with conversationalists, biologists and foresters whose life’s work is to keep things alive. St. George will be joined in conversation by author—and, incidentally, creator of the podcast Joe Exotic: Tiger King—Robert Moor.

July 20: Eric Swalwell The latest in a long line of resistance novels by resisting politicians is Endgame, Congressman Eric Swalwell’s account of President Trump’s impeachment trial and the inner forces that consistently work to curb his rogue actions. The book begins with Swalwell’s own political history before delving into his time as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee, investigating foreign interference in our elections and the testimony of our thoroughly unorthodox leader. Swalwell will be joined in conversation by Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici.

July 21: Diane Zinna For those drawn to sensationalist interpretations of Scandinavian folklore, Diane Zinna is the latest author to publish work centered on the unsettling, if not joyously colorful, Midsommar’s Eve celebration. It’s also worth noting that Zinna began work on the novel over a decade ago, some 12 years before the cult favorite horror film was released. The AllNight Sun brings a grieving American teacher to her friend’s Swedish home to reset, introducing her to Midsommar traditions that take a turn for the worse. Zinna will be joined in conversation by Natalie Jenner, author of The Jane Austen Society. See powells.com for registration information.

Have a movie screening you’d like to submit to our Get Busy calendar? Go to wweek.com/submitevents for instructions.

D A N N Y LY O N / M A G N U M P H O T O S . P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F M A G N O L I A P I C T U R E S .

MOVIES

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

GET YOUR REP S IN While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. This week, we’re highlighting films adapted from stage plays—dramas soaring with ornate dialogue and through-the-roof emotional heights.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) Tennessee Williams’ classic drama tells the tale of alcoholic ex-football star Brick (Paul Newman), his wife, Maggie (Elizabeth Taylor), and his dying father (Burl Ives) as they hash out a litany of repressed feelings over the course of one eventful night. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Doubt (2008)

ONE MAN, MANY ROLES: Congressman John Lewis was an original Freedom Rider and worked to register voters in the South.

The Art of an Activist This intricate, thorny parable stars Meryl Streep as the austere head nun of a Catholic school who suspects the priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of preying on a young boy. But is her suspicion rooted in a personal vendetta? Both were nominated for Oscars, as were co-stars Amy Adams and Viola Davis, with the latter scoring her nod for just eight minutes of screen time. Amazon Prime, HBO Go/Now, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu.

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1966) In the late, great Mike Nichols’ impressive directorial debut, an academic husband and wife (played by real-life spouses Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton) in the throes of a troubled and volatile marriage invite a young couple into their home for late-night drinks. The result is off-the-wall chaotic, to say the least. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Rabbit Hole (2010) Married couple Becca and Howie (Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart) struggle to come to terms with the death of their young son after he’s struck by a car. The pair deal in different ways: Becca by meeting with the car’s driver (Miles Teller), and Howie by smoking pot with a fellow group therapy member (Sandra Oh). Wonderfully acted and painfully real, this underseen indie drama is a poignant portrait of grief. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube.

Closer (2004) “Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but it’s better if you do.” Another Mike Nichols film, this one centering on four beautiful people (Jude Law, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen and Julia Roberts) who all simply cannot stop sleeping with each other. That’s the whole plot. And it’s phenomenal. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Sling TV, Showtime, Vudu, YouTube.

A new documentary profiles longtime civil rights leader and Georgia Congressman John Lewis. BY RO BERT HA M

@roberthamwriter

John Lewis, the 17-term congressman representing Georgia’s 5th District, needs no introduction. The 80-year-old has made his mark on American history on the front lines of the civil rights movement in the ’60s. Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders, worked to register voters in the South, and helped organize the famous March on Washington. And in recent years, he’s been a tireless advocate for causes like gun control and the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. With all those accomplishments, it’s astonishing it took so long for a documentary to be made about his life and work. John Lewis: Good Trouble finally tells that story. Directed by Dawn Porter, the film is a deeply felt portrait of the congressman. Yes, his many accomplishments—and the faces of the equally important figures he collaborated with—are on display, but what leaves a more lasting mark is Lewis’ indefatigable spirit and humility. To discuss the making of this documentary and its timely appearance during the continued Black Lives Matter protests, we spoke with actor and activist Erika Alexander (Living Single, Get Out), one of the producers. WW: How did you first meet Rep. Lewis? Erika Alexander: I have been a campaign surrogate for a few candidates, mostly Hillary Clinton. I’m her most-traveled surrogate and have worked with her on different initiatives and her campaigns for

10 years. With her, I met many people who supported her campaign or worked with her, and one was Congressman Lewis. I campaigned with him in Georgia. We were just in awe of him. I called it “our class” on how to be young, gifted and Black in the South in American politics. He was the teacher and it was heaven. I imagine you were familiar with some of the congressman’s history before that. I was as familiar as maybe most people who know a little bit about political figures, but I had no real sense of the depth and complexity and how long his career has lasted. I knew enough to need to know more. Is that part of your interest in wanting to get this film into the world—to help people understand more about what Rep. Lewis has been part of ? Absolutely. He’s often the supporting player in a Robert Kennedy documentary or a Martin Luther King documentary. But this time the spotlight is on him. Dawn Porter did a really great job of that. People get to learn how he’s the “Boy From Troy” and that Dr. King gave him that nickname. There he was, desegregating the diners in the South and participating in the March on Washington. How strong a hand did you have in the making of Good Trouble? Dawn is one of the best documentary filmmakers and a natural-born storyteller, so she doesn’t need me to do that work. I facilitated the access to the congressman

and to most of the figures you see talking, whether it was President Clinton or [Massachusetts Rep.] Ayanna Pressley or [former Georgia House Minority Leader] Stacey Abrams. Were there aspects about Rep. Lewis’ life and work that you learned for the first time during production? Definitely how long he had determined to be committed to social justice. I have to go back to the fact that, at 17, he wrote a letter to Dr. King, and he found a way into the struggle by joining the Freedom Riders. We see the Edmund Pettus Bridge action all the time, but we don’t know how he got there. The icon status he has he came by the hard way—by truly committing his life to fight for civil rights and justice for all. This documentary arrives at an almost perfect time with the continued protests against police brutality. Do you see the connections between what Rep. Lewis was fighting for during the ’60s and what is happening now? There’s no doubt that we’re living in unprecedented times. A documentary talking about how long this man has worked inside of these issues is instructive. Democracy is a moving target. It has to be nurtured. People have to really sacrifice and commit to looking at themselves and their own practices. If we reconstitute ourselves to what we were before, then we deserve what we get. SEE IT: John Lewis: Good Trouble streams on Amazon Prime, Google Play and YouTube. See review, page 28. Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

July 15-21 PHOTO COURTESY OF MAGNOLIA PICTURES.

MOVIES TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

John Lewis: Good Trouble Congressman John Lewis is an undeniably important civil rights leader: Over his 60-year career, he was arrested 45 times for protesting, and his steadfast activism paved the way for the end of segregation and the advancement of voting rights. His impassioned, tenacious approach to these issues also “highlighted the inactivity of the federal government,” according to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is interviewed in the film along with a host of other well-known leaders, ranging from new-wave progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar to outdated centrists like the Clintons and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It’s difficult to make a documentary about a living person that doesn’t feel self-serving, especially if the subject is a politician, of whom there are no perfect ones. At times, Good Trouble manages to avoid this trap by featuring archival footage of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, but its present-day content is cursory, verging on toothless cloying and pandering. Did we really need a segment dedicated to Lewis’ fondness for dancing to Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”? While Good Trouble may be emblematic of our flawed tendency to lionize public servants—though Lewis’s impeccable voting record does demonstrate he practices what he preaches—it also serves as a welcome and timely reminder that causing a stir is exactly what creates societal and political change. PG. MIA VICINO. Amazon Prime, Google Play.

OUR KEY

: T H I S M O V I E I S E XC E L L E N T, O N E O F T H E B E S T O F T H E Y E A R. : T H I S M O V I E I S G O O D. W E R E C O M M E N D YO U WATC H I T. : T H I S M O V I E I S E N T E R TA I N I N G B U T F L AW E D. : T H I S M O V I E I S A P I E C E O F S H I T.

ALSO PLAYING All I Can Say

Profound intimacy runs throughout Shannon Hoon’s home video archive-turned-documentary, but it’s not due to footage of the late Blind Melon singer’s newborn baby, or laying down the “No Rain” vocal track or spying on Neil Young through an air vent. It’s democratized time that creates the closeness. Hoon playfully but obsessively recorded his life between 1990 and 1995—a span in which he evolved from an Indiana ne’er-do-well to alt-rock icon to Icarian tragedy. The catalog unfurls into a timeline of elation, failure and boredom that most Hollywood editors would dice into a 45-second touring montage. Even more meaningful, the audience can feel how time sped up for Hoon himself. Through Rolling Stone covers and rehab stints, he recorded his life almost daily with the intention of watching the tapes later for clarity. While this doc will obviously carry deeper meaning for Blind Melon fans, any viewers will appreciate the snapshot of the era, which doubles as a glimpse of how the diary method changes the diary. Any approximation of All I Can Say in 2020 would directly or indirectly nod to the fans. In a trip back to 1992, though, we can experience the thrilling and ugly disembodiment of being truly uninvited. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. allicansay.oscilloscope.net.

The King of Staten Island Scott (Pete Davidson) needs help. When we first meet him, he’s driving on a freeway with his eyes closed. The King of Staten Island, directed and co-written by Judd Apatow, is the story of Scott opening his eyes to reality—a big step for the mouthy, insecure, mentally unstable 24-year-old living with his mom (Marisa Tomei) in her Staten Island basement. He dreams of opening a tattoo restaurant (“Ruby TatTuesdays!”), an idea so bone-headed even his stoner friends turn it down. Part of Scott’s arrested development is linked to the death of his firefighter father 17 years earlier. Though his life is a slog, both Davidson’s performance and Apatow’s management of his talent make Scott easy to root for: Davidson, like Scott, lives with his mother and lost his father, also a firefighter, in the World Trade Center attack in 2001. The most touching

moments pull from that reality, and Apatow’s improvisational style of directing, although meandering in some past films (Trainwreck, Funny People), does well to reflect Davidson’s loose-jointed way of being. A couple scenes stick out. A low-key argument with a group of firefighters at a Yankees game, his mom’s new boyfriend (Bill Burr) among them, feels painfully honest, while a party montage sees Scott finally letting loose. Mostly, the movie is memorable because of Davidson, who with his boyish smile, buggy eyes and comic timing brings an honesty to a role that stuck with me like a permanent tattoo. He’s a star—and man—in the making. R. ASHER LUBERTO. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Fandango Now, Google Play, Vudu, Xfinity, YouTube.

Magnetic In our current hunkered-down state, a documentary about extreme sports in picturesque settings is an extremely welcome premise. Thank you, Netflix, then, for giving us the cinematic equivalent of a trip around the globe by recently adding Magnetic to your lineup. Directed by Thierry Donard, the little-seen 2018 gem opens with shots of what look like the biggest waves on the planet. In Portugal, 100-foot swells loom over silhouetted bystanders watching from a cliff, a tiny dot on a surfboard charges down the face at killer speeds. Yew! The doc then cuts back and forth between seven other extreme sports, in seven rad locations. From skiing the Alps to windsurfing in Ireland to speed flying in New Zealand, Magnetic captures some of the bravest athletes navigating captivating scenery in ways that would seem impossible were it not captured on film. Those looking to learn about the whys and hows of these sports will be disappointed— the faces of waves and mountains are more memorable than human ones. But Donard wisely centers his movie on the sensory experience of watching his characters do incredible things. The world is their playground, Donard seems to say. It could be ours too if we put down our phones, got off the couch and explored. NR. ASHER LUBERTO. Netflix.

Manchild: The Schea Cotton Story In 1995, Schea Cotton was the country’s top-ranked high school basketball player. The hoop dreams were high and his vertical was higher. Cotton, whose publicity matched that of later stars, like LeBron James and

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

JOHN LEWIS: GOOD TROUBLE Jason Kidd, was such an explosive athlete you couldn’t help but wonder if he ate gunpowder before each game. At 15 and 16, he was packing arenas, signing autographs and appearing in Sports Illustrated features. Then the moment was gone. The NBA draft passed him by in 2000, as did his competitors, like Baron Davis, Paul Pierce and Tyson Chandler. How could a top prospect in his sport drop off the map so quickly? That’s the cautionary tale spun by Manchild: The Schea Cotton Story, a brisk, troubling documentary that doesn’t over-dribble. In less than 90 minutes, Manchild tells Cotton’s story through interviews and archival footage of the 6-foot-6 player dominating the court. “He was LeBron James before LeBron James,” says former Celtic Paul Pierce. The only way to stop him was off the court. The documentary doesn’t shy away from detailing the media’s perverse role in hyping kids at an early age and the NCAA’s corruption, which derailed Cotton from playing Division I basketball. But Eric Herbert’s directorial debut, which premiered at the L.A. Film Festival in 2016, and released on streaming services this summer, is more than a “what could have been” narrative. It’s a rewarding reminder of how athletes who are considered “failures” can still rebound off the court. NR. ASHER LUBERTO. Amazon Prime, Google Play.

Shirley When it comes to holding an audience hostage, there’s no better actress than Elisabeth Moss. As writer Shirley Jackson, the actress owns this drama by playing the type of tortured heroine that helped her rise to prominence (The Handmaid’s Tale, Her Smell). The film, based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s novel of the same name, imagines the life of the literary figure and her husband, famed critic and liberal arts professor Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), in 1960s Vermont. They’re soon joined by Fred (Logan Lerman), who’s hired as Stanley’s campus assistant, and his newly pregnant wife, Rose (Odessa Young). The young couple plan to temporarily stay with Jackson and Hyman while they search for a place of their own but find themselves lingering much longer than they’d prefer. At first, things seem normal. Fred becomes increasingly busy with academic life, while Rose forms a dubious connection with Jackson as she works as their housekeeper. But following the success of

her short story “The Lottery,” Jackson becomes increasingly stressed while penning her next novel. Like the characters she famously wrote about years later in works like The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Jackson’s stress morphs into hysteria. The film reflects that madness with disorienting camerawork and perversely enjoyable dream sequences. Director Josephine Decker proves she’s a specialist when it comes to shifting genres, as Shirley jumps from horror to domestic drama to gothic fairy tale with ease, giving Moss the chance to do a bit of everything, and the audience an opportunity to see Jackson’s menacing style of storytelling come to life on film. R. ASHER LUBERTO. Amazon Prime, Google Play.

Carmilla A carriage crashes and out climbs Carmilla, a mysterious young lady ready to spark the 19th century English gentry in their own version of The Witch meets Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Taken in by a local family to recover, Carmilla instantly earns the affection of their teenage daughter, Lara (Hannah Rae), and the distrust of Lara’s stern governess (Jessica Raine) and the attending physician following the crash (Tobias Menzies). Based on one of the earliest known works of vampire fiction, dated 1871, Carmilla seeks to explore how oppressive social expectations of women catalyze a fairly innocent rebellion that can look devilish in the right (or wrong) light. But that kind of social commentary requires an insightful dramatic core, and Carmilla too often shoehorns in horror elements for convenience. Director Emily Harris’ script constantly fills gaps where character detail should go with demonic illustrations, dream sequences and time-lapse footage of decaying wildlife. Even if it is pinned between the stately drama and the scrappy genre play, Carmilla arrives lovingly crafted and noticeably well lit, creating constricting circles of visibility around its characters with encroaching darkness. It just doesn’t matter how well we can see them; we don’t know them. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. filmmovement.com/carmilla.

Greyhound The ocean has always beckoned Tom Hanks. From mermaid romances (Splash) to Gulf shore shrimping (Forrest Gump) to tragically losing Wilsooooon (Cast Away), Hollywood’s favorite Everyman has often been put in his place by the briny abyss.

In Greyhound, it’s more like Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay, premeditated the humble place. Stoic and dutiful as the skipper of a U.S. destroyer shielding a convoy from Nazi U-boats, Hanks undercooks his own passion project in this ominous Apple TV+ war movie, which Sony sold off to streaming when the pandemic hit this spring. Largely free of backstory or B plots, Greyhound (or, Coordinates: The Movie, as it could’ve been called) steams forward as a historical military exercise. Hard right rudder now, to avoid yet another unidentifiable ripple in the black waves. On the one hand, there’s value in fixating a war movie so fully on process that the glory is sapped out of violence. But Greyhound veers too sternly toward lifelessness. Of all the nautical Hanks movies to imitate, this one apes Captain Phillips, obsessed with the realism and alienating qualities of military might. It’s too bad Hanks has narrowed the definition of Everyman to “glum avatar for bravery.” PG-13. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Apple TV+.

My First and Last Film There’s no reason you should know 60-something Milwaukeean Tracey Thomas. In fact, the Everywoman hook of her video interview project is that you don’t. My First and Last Film deals in snapshots of life circa age 60 as Thomas chats with her friends about late-life creativity, retirement and death. This half of the film is charmingly unpretentious, like a formless and casual imitation of Michael Apted’s Up series. But fairly quickly, Thomas’ world becomes more intensely selfconscious when her boyfriend-cinematographer dies. Through the film’s middle, the otherwise puckish Tracey seems unsure how to finish certain sentences, much less a documentary. It’s a testament to the fledgling director’s desire to forge personal meaning that she did. Still, any national or international audience is left with questions about the broader value of amateur autobiography. According to Thomas’ own goals, My First and Last Film was never built for scrutiny from the outside world, which makes full-on criticism tricky. In the end, it’s difficult to recommend the doc in the same way it’s tough to champion a random stranger’s blog or Instagram account. Peeking at an unfamiliar life can be a very worthwhile empathy exercise. Anything longer than a peek, though, is why documentarians exist. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. cstpdx. com.

FLASHBACK

THIS WEEK IN '09 WHEN WE THOUGHT THIS WAS THE WORST ECONOMY WE'D SEE IN OUR LIFETIME.

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

SPOTLIGHT

LISA CLINE by JACK KENT

Lisa moved to the USA in 2005 from Japan and she’s half Chinese, half American. Her art is inspired by the human body, nature, meditation, and dreams. She paints with gouache on paper and recently started exploring digital illustration. You can see Lisa’s art at www.space-notes.com or Instagram, @space_notes

Jack draws exactly what he sees n’ hears from the streets. Buy an original Sketchy People drawing and help keep Portland weird, and fed! Jack is donating all proceeds to Meals on Wheels! E-mail or DM Jack to help fight hunger. IG @sketchypeoplepdx | sketchypeoplepdx@gmail.com kentcomics.com

Be a Willamette Week featured artist! Contact us at art@wweek.com.

Willamette Week JULY 15, 2020 wweek.com

JONESIN’

Week of July 23

by Matt Jones

"Double Negatives"--it's one way to double up.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

"If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time," "The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day." Aries playwright Samuel Beckett made that observation, and now I'm passing it on to you as you glide into an extra-creative phase of your astrological cycle. I hope you will regard Beckett's idea as an open-ended encouragement to improvise and experiment. May it rouse you to brainstorm about novel possibilities. May it inspire you to explore fresh trends you could launch. May it mobilize you to imagine the new worlds you might *Big Bang* into existence.

Your word of power for the coming weeks is *ubuntu*, a Zulu term meaning "I am because we are" or "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity." Nobel Prize-winning theologian Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes, "A person with *ubuntu* is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished." I hope that between now and August 25, Libra, you will put *ubuntu* at the center of everything you do. Make it an intensely practical practice.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Author Diane Ackerman tells us, "So often loneliness comes from being out of touch with parts of oneself." That's the kind of loneliness I worry you may be susceptible to right now, Taurus. You're a bit out of touch with aspects of your psyche that are crucial for you to include in your total sense of self. You've been neglecting to nurture certain soulful qualities that keep you healthy and wise. Please note: It won't be useful to try to find those parts of you in other people; you will have to locate them in your own depths. Here's the good news: The coming weeks will be an excellent time to do just that.

GEMINI (May 21-June20) "Someone ought to do it, but why should I?" Author and activist Annie Besant identified that sentence as the motto of people who are moral cowards: those who know about an injustice but do nothing to address it. Very few of us have completely avoided that behavior. Most of us, including me, have now and then chosen to serve our need for comfort instead of standing up against corruption or unfairness. But I think it's more important than usual that you Geminis don't engage in such moral cowardice now. More depends on your integrity and bravery than you realize. ACROSS 1 Maker of Musk cologne and perfume

60 Kathryn of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" 61 One way to run

31 "2001" studio 32 CBS show with many spinoffs

6 1990 World Series MVP Jose

62 Actress Dreyfuss of "Dear Evan Hansen"

33 911 responder

10 Ruler of Iran, once

63 Yelp rating unit

14 "Legend of a Cowgirl" singer Coppola

64 Past the due date

35 Enormously

15 No longer a fan of 16 Sagacious 17 Subject of library censorship

65 Canadian ballplayers, once DOWN 1 Agree (with)

19 Like many vaccines

2 Epps of "House M.D."

20 Before, to Byron

3 Barn attachment

21 _ _ _ terrier (Toto's breed) 22 Fantasy sports option

4 "Barbara _ _ _" (Beach Boys hit)

23 Bandleader known as "The King of Swing"

5 Family tree members 6 Batman's sidekick

25 Orchard measures

7 Soap that floats, per old slogans

28 Basis of the game Ticket to Ride, for short 29 "Dawn" author Wiesel 30 Awards show hosts 34 Twaddle 37 In fine order 40 Multi-vol. reference set 41 Lets pass 42 Fridge problem 43 Life story 44 Basil and pine nut topping 45 Cheap bowlful, maybe 52 "Magpie and the Dandelion" band The _ _ _ Brothers 53 Prepare for baking, as challah dough 54 "The Racer's Edge" 57 Coin-shaped Hanukkah candy 58 Pet owner's alternative to kibble

8 "The Masked Singer" panelist Ken 9 1978-82 sitcom planet 10 Suit in a tarot deck 11 U.S. Grant's original first name 12 Carne _ _ _ fries 13 "Hobbs & Shaw" actress Mirren 18 Rather prominent on the internet these days 22 Many a museum marble 23 Served as 24 108-year-old cookies that thankfully have a bunch of varieties to keep things fresh 25 Prefix with plane or dynamics 26 You're reading it 27 What a tangelo is tangled up in? 30 _ _ _ a high note

©2020 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 #JNZ990.

34 High degrees 36 One who believes that one hand makes light work? 38 "_ _ _ Mad At Cha" (Tupac Shakur song) 39 Little piggies, perhaps 43 Recovering 44 Hawk 45 Goes ballistic 46 Deflect 47 Peach _ _ _ (Escoffier creation) 48 Appointer of Justice Kagan 49 "Ready _ _ _, here I come!" 50 Thanks, to J¸rgen 51 "Where's the _ _ _?" 54 Stock option? 55 Lawnmower brand that means "bull" in Spanish 56 BlackBerries and Palm Pilots, e.g. 58 Schenkel who designed many Zappa album covers 59 Not-entirely-secure method of sending documents

last week’s answers

CANCER (June 21-July 22) Born in 1936, Cancerian author and activist June Jordan was a black feminist bisexual born to Jamaican immigrant parents. When she was growing up, her father beat her and her mother committed suicide. Later, she raised her child alone as a single mother. Despite the challenges she faced, she published 28 books, won numerous awards, and wielded significant influence. How did she do it? She was a highly evolved Cancerian in the sense that she put a priority on treating herself well. "I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect," she testified. I'd like to make that your keynote for the rest of 2020. Your task is to achieve June Jordan-levels of self-care.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) "How can I communicate to wild bunnies that I am their ally?" asked a Twitter blogger named Ghost Girl. That question is a good place to start my oracle for you. In the coming weeks, I think you'll be wise to meditate on how to enhance your relationship with all kinds of wild things: animals, people, weather, landscapes, and your own exotic thoughts and fantasies. In my opinion, you will upgrade your intelligence and wellbeing by increasing your access to influences that don't necessarily play by conventional rules and that draw their energy from primal sources.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) It’s never too late to have a rebellious adolescence— hopefully bigger and better and smarter than any you've had before. And according to my analysis, now would be a favorable time to get started. Is there any stuffy authority you'd be wise to flout? Any dumb and oppressive conventions you would benefit from breaking? Any stale old traditions you're primed to ignore so you can create some lively new traditions? In my estimation, you will generate good fortune for yourself if you try some benevolent mischief and creative experiments.

HOMEWORK: What's the best change you've experienced since the beginning of the pandemic? FreeWillAstrology.com

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) "The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them," says Scorpio-born Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough." I trust you've arrived at this realization on your own in the past few weeks. And I hope you have audaciously expanded and supercharged your dreams so that they do indeed surpass your current ability to accomplish them. If you have not yet done this daring work, please attend to it now. If you have done it, move on to the next step: making definite plans to acquire the power and resources necessary to achieve your new, improved dreams.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “The soul should always stand ajar,” wrote Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson, “That if the heaven inquire, / He will not be obliged to wait, / Or shy of troubling her.” I'm confident that this will be a fertile meditation for you in the coming weeks. So what does it mean? By "heaven," I assume Dickinson meant marvelous interventions, sacred revelations, and lucky accidents—and maybe also soulful invitations, out-of-the-blue opportunities, and supernatural breakthroughs. What do you think, Sagittarius? What can you do to make your soul ajar for phenomena like those?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) “Everything is complicated,” wrote poet Wallace Stevens. “If that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.” I agree! And therefore, I conclude, you should shed any resentment you might feel for the fact that our world is a crazy tangle of mystifying and interesting stories. Drop any wish that life will stop being so fascinatingly messy and confusingly intriguing. Instead, why not celebrate the deep riddles? And revel in the intriguing complexity? And give holy thanks for the paradoxical beauty? Everything I just said should prepare you well for the next four weeks.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) "After you make a fool of yourself a few hundred times, you learn what works," testifies musician and singer Gwen Stefani. In my own life, I've had to make a fool of myself more than a few hundred times to learn what works. My number is closer to a thousand—and I'm still adding new examples on a regular basis. In the coming weeks, Aquarius, I highly recommend that you try what has served me and Gwen Stefani so well. You're entering a phase when your foolishness will generate especially useful lessons. Being innocent and wildly open-minded will also be very useful.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) Actress Gwyneth Paltrow founded Goop, a company that markets exotic, expensive health treatments. She claims that far-infrared gemstone therapy and crystal-based sound-healing baths will dissolve your negativity. Allowing bees to sting your scars will supposedly cause the scars to fade. Drinking "sex juice," a blend of watermelon and alkaline water, will enhance your libido. The "collagen martini," which is a mix of vodka, vermouth, olive juice, and collagen peptides, will smooth your skin's wrinkles. I'm favorably disposed to you taking strong actions to improve your well-being in the coming weeks, Pisces, but I recommend that you try cheaper, more reliable modalities than those Paltrow recommends. Like what? Ample sleep and good food, for starters, along with fun exercise, time in nature, enjoyable meditation sessions, and tender expressions of love.

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