Willamette Week, August 26, 2020 - Volume 46, Issue 44 - "Tales From the Crib"

“DO I WANT TO DROP DEAD NEXT WEEK? NOT REALLY.” P. 29

VOL 46/44 08.26.2020

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ANDI PREWITT

FINDINGS

KIDS

GOD’S THUMB IN LINCOLN CITY, PAGE 26

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 44 The Oregon Republican Party is “a goat rope,” says one of its members. 6

The key to winning a downhill unicycling race? Crash less than everyone else. 24

Tusitala “Tiny” Toese attended

Portland’s only living chestnut tree is located on a residential street in Sellwood. 25

Portland police stop Black pedestrians at about three times the rate of white ones. 9

The road to God’s Thumb begins in an abandoned cul-de-sac. 26

Saturday’s Proud Boy rally despite an open warrant for his arrest. 8

A Saucebox manager allegedly sent his Cuban American co-worker text messages featuring Pepe the Frog. 11 Gregory McKelvey owns a pomeranian named Teddy Wap. 14 A local goat herder was forced by roommates to quarantine in a tent with family for two weeks. 15 You can make Alexa fart. 15

under 17

FREE

RIP Zoigl-Lot Brew N’ Q , we hardly knew ye. 27 Pete Krebs would prefer not to drop dead next week. 29

COVID-19 put a touring production of Antigone on hold, so the director decided to film it inside Wapato Jail instead. 30

portlandartmuseum.org

The subject of a fashion documentary narrates the movie, but only his hands appear onscreen. 33

Kids these days have no idea what’s going on in the movie Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. 15

WE ARE OPEN! ON THE COVER: Tales From the Crib, illustration by Joy Bogdan.

TALES FROM

THE CRIB

Mark Zuckerberg is despoiling a tiny coastal village and Oregon’s natural treasures. The state invited him.

MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Mark Zusman

EDITORIAL

News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Matthew Singer Assistant A&C Editor Andi Prewitt Music & Visual Arts Editor Shannon Gormley Staff Writers Nigel Jaquiss, Latisha Jensen, Rachel Monahan, Tess Riski Copy Editor Matt Buckingham

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For almost two years, residents Tierra del Mar fought against a coastal drilling operation by Facebook (“The Facebook Coast,” WW, Aug. 19, 2020). A subsidiary bought a residentially zoned plot in the unincorporated Oregon coastal town, and converted the property into an industrial staging lot in order to lay undersea fiber-optic cables connecting Japan with Facebook’s server farms in Hillsboro and Prineville.

Tierra del Mar residents objected to the plans every step of the way. On April 28, a drill bit broke, causing Facebook to abandon 1,110 feet of drilling pipe, the drill bit and 6,500 gallons of drilling fluid under the ocean floor. Here’s what our readers had to say: Just Doing the Math via wweek.com: “Is this a surprise that money talks and everything else walks? Mark Zuckerberg has a reputation contrary to the public image he carefully cultivates. Just ask the folks in Hawaii who dealt with him during his 700-acre, $100 million land acquisition.”

Tami Hazen via Facebook.com: “[The plot’s former owner Joey] Harrington threw them under the bus. He could have chosen to sell to someone else. I guess they can all join the ranks of Americans who have ended up with a fracking site in their backyard because their neighbors sold out too.”

Scott McGilvery via Facebook: “There are loads of communications cables off the Oregon Coast.

Just because this has Facebook attached to it doesn’t make it any worse.”

To the Parents, Teachers, and Caretakers of Portland, Freeland Spirits is here for you.

Casey Lawrence via Facebook: “OK, I understand the discomfort due to the drilling and construction activities, but that’s temporary. What is the longterm effect? What will be on that lot after the cable is in place?”

We’ve made it easy for you to celebrate or wind down for the day, whether you like it neat, shaken, or stirred.

Badgerbabs via wweek.com: “Drill steel is just exactly that: steel. Left in a hole snaking across

We are all in this together!

With love, The Moms of Freeland

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Dr. Know

beneath the ocean floor, it will (given enough oxygen) eventually rust, like any piece of steel would.

Without knowledge of the exact ‘chemicals’ used in the drilling mud, the hysteria around the abandonment of these materials is highly premature.”

Floyd E. Holcom via Facebook.com: “Having landed most of the fiber-optic cables in Oregon, I can tell you that there were two pre-permitted Oregon sites under the previous corridor agreements that they could have used and been better for the environment. We told them that, we argued for that, and they made the decision that ended up not working. We are still here to listen and make it work for Oregon.”

Mark Murphy via Facebook: “This is what happens when you like not having any local government. I have zero sympathy for these people. Once they are done drilling and connecting the fiber optic, they’ll clean up and in a few years you won’t even know they were there. The people should have taken the money offered, or at least counteroffered a few grand more. Tough luck for them.” @AMP503 via Twitter: “It’s quasi-libertarian at best. It does have zoning, and is governed at county, state and federal level by a government that takes their taxes but obviously doesn’t care about them.

Take note: City government is to protect your interests from other levels of government.”

Rachel Taylor Brown via Facebook: “Life in the U.S. feels like an endless game of whack-a-mole.

Nobody has our backs. It’s exhausting simply to try to keep up on all the opportunism.”

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

Is there any good reason to keep the Electoral College in place? Is it a long drawn-out process to make it go away? Is it too late to make a change in time for the 2020 election? —Nixie S. Your faith in the American polity’s lightning-swift ability to correct electoral injustice is touching, Nixie, but perhaps misplaced. To put it another way: 2020? Don’t hold your breath for 2032.

The Electoral College has been a thorn in modern Democrats’ side for approximately (exactly) 20 years, partly because it always gives outsized influence to voters from small, conservative states and partly because it sometimes keeps the person who got the most votes from actually winning.

If that chaps your vegan-leather hide, wait till you hear why we have the Electoral College in the first place!

Father of the Constitution James Madison felt that the sparsely populated, slave-owning states of the South would never join a Union where they’d always be outvoted by the more populous, abolitionist states of the North.

The Electoral College solved this problem. Not only did it give these smaller states extra votes just for being states (as it still does today), it allowed

them to include their enslaved residents—who, to put it mildly, couldn’t vote—in the population count that determined how many electoral votes they should have.

In essence, the Electoral College was created to reward Southern voters for doing literally the most racist thing a person can possibly do. It’s almost like racial bias has been woven into the fabric of American political institutions since the very beginning!

I’m surprised no one has said anything.

Anyway, help is on the way—maybe. An interstate initiative called the National Popular Vote Compact aims to defang the Electoral College by having participating states agree to award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of what happens within their borders.

Once 270 votes’ worth of states are on board, the theory goes, the winner of the popular vote is guaranteed victory. So far, 16 states, representing 196 electoral votes, have agreed to participate. (Oregon signed on last June.)

Of course, so far they’re all Democratic-leaning states—Republicans don’t seem to regard the matter with quite the same urgency—but time will tell.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com

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GOV. BROWN RECALL DEADLINE LOOMS: The latest effort to recall Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown faces a July 31 deadline to submit 280,050 valid signatures. The current effort, led by Oregon GOP chairman Bill Currier, has reported spending just $22,000 so far, a pittance in signature-gathering terms. Although there are rumors circulating in Salem that the signature gathering has been far more successful than four previous stabs at recalling Brown, GOP insiders are skeptical that Currier will come up with the goods this time. “Overall, I’d say there’s a slim chance,” says one GOP insider. “But the GOP is such a goat rope that I wouldn’t bet on it.”

THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON WANTS DORM PAYMENT: The University of Oregon’s new housing policy is causing concern for students and their families as the school year opens amid a pandemic with a hybrid model of online and in-person classes. Students learned Aug. 21 they have until Sept. 1 to commit to dorm rooms, even if in-person classes are canceled. Dorm contracts “will remain in effect regardless of the University’s mode of delivery of courses.” The contracts will be canceled if UO is forced to clear the campus. UO spokeswoman Kay Jarvis says the university is trying to be as flexible as possible and emphasized parents can cancel existing contracts up to Sept. 1.

FACEBOOK REMOVES PAGE OF PORTLAND PROTEST ORGANIZERS: As part of its Aug. 19 purge of “anarchist groups that support violent acts amidst protests, U.S.-based militia organizations and QAnon,” Facebook removed the page for Pacific Northwest Youth Liberation Front—a group of youth activists instrumental in organizing Portland protests for the past three months. The organization has also at times celebrated property destruction and encouraged 6

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

confrontation with police. Reporter Nick Martin, who writes for The Informant, first tweeted Aug. 19 that Facebook removed PNWYLF’s page. The group confirmed its page had been taken down in an Aug. 19 tweet. Activists called the ban an attempt to suppress left-leaning voices and said it drew a false equivalence between anarchists and violent right-ringers. “For months, Donald Trump has explicitly blamed anarchists for the countrywide wave of protest precipitated by persistent police violence in the United States,” the petition says. “Today, [Facebook’s] decision to ban publishers who provide a venue for participants in protests shows that they are taking their cues about what should constitute acceptable speech from those at the top of the power structure.” A Facebook spokesperson did not respond immediately to WW’s request for comment.

POLICE BLAME PROTESTS FOR UNSOLVED ROBBERIES: Portland police say nightly protests are curtailing detectives’ ability to respond to a string of cannabis shop robberies. Last week, WW reported that Portland-area weed stores have been the target of at least 47 break-ins since late May—a rate of one burglary every other night—and three armed robberies (“Bud Snatchers,” WW, Aug. 19, 2020). Police say they don’t categorize property crimes by the type of business that gets hit, but bureau data shows burglaries are up 21% this year from 2019, rising from an average of 349 to 423 a month. Police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Allen says the bureau has 109 open robbery cases. “However, most of the Police Bureau’s detectives are working the protests and not able to actively work their cases,” Allen says. “It adds an extra challenge that certainly has an impact on their ability to investigate, identify suspects, and build criminal cases against them.”

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7

CHRIS NESSETH

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

ELECTIONS

Unendorsement A campaign to decriminalize drugs faces a different kind of controversy.

The Invincible Man

BLUE STATE: Proud Boys and their supporters rallied in Portland on Aug. 22.

Tusitala “Tiny” Toese is a wanted man. So why didn’t Portland police arrest him during Saturday’s protest?

BY TE SS R I SK I

tess@wweek.com

Before Tusitala “Tiny” Toese arrived at the “No Marxism in America” rally Aug. 22, he was a wanted man. But that didn’t stop him from attending the rally in broad daylight in downtown Portland and walking within feet of Portland police officers who had probable cause to arrest him.

What Toese did: On Aug. 11, Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dailey issued a warrant for Toese’s arrest after he violated conditions of his probation agreement stemming from a conviction for a 2018 assault. That agreement prohibits him from attending protests through 2022, and from leaving his home in Vancouver, Wash., except for work, medical appointments, and meetings with his probation officer. The agreement also requires him to wear a GPS tracking device.

On Saturday, Toese thumbed his nose at those restrictions and openly defied his probation agreement. Video showed him casually strolling by police.

What police did: Nearly 30 Portland officers stood by for the duration of the event. They did not attempt to apprehend Toese despite contacting the county’s probation unit and notifying it of Toese’s presence that afternoon, indicating police were probably aware Toese had an active arrest warrant while he was at the protest.

Their reason for inaction: The situation was already volatile and arresting Toese in the middle of it would only escalate it further, according to Multnomah County Department of Community Justice director Erika Pruitt, who had direct conversations with bureau staff regarding Toese’s attendance.

“I understand that there’s a lot that they have to consider in such a volatile situation, and I respect the decisions that they have to make,” Pruitt says. “We want Mr. Toese arrested and it is our expectation that he will be arrested.”

A spokeswoman for the DCJ, which oversees the county’s probation program, tells WW the Portland Police Bureau notified the department of Toese’s presence by sending a “possible offender contact” notification while Toese was probably still there.

“Law enforcement (PPB) did send notice [to DCJ] on Saturday about Toese’s presence at the protest,” spokeswoman Jessica Morkert-Shibley says. “We received an electronic notification on Saturday (8/22) afternoon at 2:41 pm through a law enforcement notification system.”

It remains unclear whether officers on the ground 8

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

had knowledge of Toese’s presence, but the bureau’s command post did, according to PPB spokesman Derek Carmon.

At the time of the protest, Toese’s GPS tracking bracelet, required by court order, was either not charged or not functioning because he had tampered with it, Pruitt says. She says DCJ hasn’t been able to consistently track Toese’s location for weeks.

Pruitt says DCJ extended Toese’s warrant to Washington state—where he lives—so Washington law enforcement has legal authority to arrest him, too.

Why it matters: Critics say the Portland Police Bureau has arrested left-wing protesters for much less.

“Tiny didn’t think anything would happen to him and he was right,” says Juan Chavez, director of the Civil Rights Project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

“They are playing favorites and it’s hard not to see it any other way.”

Ashlee Albies, a civil rights lawyer in Portland, says the decision not to arrest Toese is an example of viewpoint discrimination—that is, granting deference to one group because of their political views.

“They’ve been arresting protesters without any problem for the past 90 days,” Albies says. “I think it shows that viewpoint discrimination is a thing.”

Police Chief Chuck Lovell says that arresting in a crowd can make a tense situation worse. “What is it going to take for us to wade into a crowd of people to make an arrest on a warrant?” asks Lovell. “It’s probably not something we’d look to do in that type of crowd control situation.”

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Benjamin Souede issued a warrant for Toese’s arrest June 24 after video surfaced of him joining in an assault of a protester in Seattle.

Toese turned himself in that same day and was placed on house arrest June 25. His probation officer wrote on Aug. 7 that Toese continued to violate his probation agreement and she asked a judge to issue a second warrant for his arrest. That warrant, issued Aug. 11, is still outstanding.

Since July 22, DCJ has been seeking to revoke Toese’s probation and have him sentenced to one year in jail—the maximum he can serve for his violations, according to probation reports obtained by WW. That probation agreement, which Toese has violated on multiple occasions, followed his January 2020 conviction for punching a man in the face, unprovoked, on a Northeast Portland sidewalk in the summer of 2018.

WW’s previous reporting led to Toese’s arrest and conviction in that case.

“It seems like the First Amendment rights of some protesters are valued more highly than others’,” Albies says. “It has such repercussions for our community and how the community feels safe and protected.”

Oregon’s potential to be the first state in the nation to decriminalize methamphetamine and heroin with Ballot Measure 110 is controversial enough, but a blow-up among supporters of the measure now adds another layer of complexity.

Campaign resources are not the issue. The New Yorkbased Drug Policy Alliance, the major donor to the $2 million initiative petition to place the measure on the November ballot, was the force behind Oregon’s landmark 2014 measure legalizing recreational cannabis.

Measure 110 would decriminalize possession of illegal substances, but not the manufacture of them. And it would fund drug treatment by redirecting cannabis taxes and savings from a less-burdened criminal justice system.

But as proponents ready themselves to sell the measure to voters, emails obtained by WW show that communities of color, which are supposed to benefit from the measure, feel left out of the campaign.

Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president and CEO of the Urban League of Portland, “paused” the league’s endorsement of the measure Aug. 4 over concerns raised by communities of color.

What she said in an Aug. 4 email obtained by WW: “I was surprised that DPA will not consider any community investments in support of Oregon’s efforts to end our addiction crisis in lieu of large payments to the good ol’ boys and girls of Oregon political consultants. My team, and our state, is on the front lines of the movement for Black lives. So its puzzling that a national social justice organization that claims to want to work with us would be opposed to actual policy development through investing in and centering communities of color. (To be clear, this is not a pitch for the Urban League. We are busy with other priorities, as you may have seen on the national news, courtesy of local and federal police.)” —Harmon Johnson to the Drug Policy Alliance Why it matters: Statistics show that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by addiction and criminal penalties for drug possession.

What the campaign says: It pointed out that the Urban League of Portland does not oppose the measure and has not ruled out endorsing it in the future. A subsequent email obtained by WW said conversations are ongoing and that Harmon Johnson said she did not intend for her Aug. 4 email to the DPA to reach the public.

The campaign also pointed to a list of current endorsements by 33 BIPOC groups. Kayse Jama of Unite Oregon, a social justice nonprofit that often works collaboratively with the Urban League, says his group continues to work for passage of Measure 110.

Jama says the measure “will help eliminate the disparities that communities we organize face in drug possession charges and convictions, and it will put the resources we currently waste on those arrests and prosecutions into funding for meaningful, accessible, culturally competent treatment options for individuals who are seeking addiction recovery and treatment.”

Harmon Johnson says she shares that goal. “Every day, we lose seven Oregonians to alcohol and drug addictions,” she said. “I hope that we finally do what necessary to give our friends and neighbors the support they need to live long, healthy lives.” RACHEL MONAHAN.

NEWS

Undocumented and Unprotected Advocates say the COVID-19 moratorium on evictions only protects those with papers.

BY L ATI SH A J E N S E N

ljensen@wweek.com

When Paco lost his job in March, his landlord didn’t seem to care much about Gov. Kate Brown’s eviction moratorium.

Paco, 43, (WW is withholding his real name because he’s undocumented) worked full time as a cook before the pandemic.

Paco provided letters to his landlord showing why he couldn’t pay rent.

Despite the moratorium, Paco says the landlord pressured him to look for rent assistance. He then told Paco that he and his wife and three children would have to move out of their apartment in the Powellhurst-Gilbert neighborhood if Paco couldn’t pay.

Without proof of legal residence, Paco was in no position to blow the whistle on his landlord.

El Programa Hispano, a Latinx nonprofit, gave Paco two months of rent assistance, which helped, but he is still in debt and unable to pay rent after that.

“If I’m kicked out, I would have to live in my car until this pandemic is over and I can go back to work again full time,” Paco says in Spanish.

The nonprofit reached out to the landlord, and once the landlord discovered Paco had legal support, he changed his demeanor. He went from pestering Paco to pay the rent and threatening eviction to ignoring him altogether.

The landlord did not respond to a request for comment.

Across the state, advocates say, landlords are taking advantage of those hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic: undocumented Oregonians, particularly renters.

The residential eviction moratorium is supposed to protect all tenants regardless of citizenship status. Issued

by Gov. Brown on April 1, it prohibits eviction and late fees for nonpayment of rent. Initially, it was set to expire June 30, but Brown extended it by three months to Oct. 1 and added a repayment grace period ending March 31, 2021.

Undocumented Oregonians are particularly vulnerable to the economic dislocations the pandemic has caused.

They are ineligible for government assistance, such as unemployment and stimulus checks, and often lack savings and access to health care.

Paco is one of the people struggling.

He can’t pay his other bills, either. His children don’t know they might be evicted.

ROCKY BURNSIDE

BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON

HOUSING

El Programa Hispano’s executive director, Edith Quiroz, says there are hundreds of cases of discrimination and harassment across the state, and many cases like Paco’s fall through the cracks.

“There’s not a lot of pro bono legal support for these issues. That’s where they tend to get lost,” Quiroz says.

“These people that are essential workers cleaning hotels and working in the restaurants so that we can go eat, they don’t have resources.”

Anthony Veliz created the Oregon Latinx Leadership Network as a response to the pandemic. During weekly meetings, members share landlord-tenant stories of harassment.

“Verbal abuse, bullying, intimidation, that’s horrible,” Veliz says. “That can weigh on you for a lifetime. Where’s the accountability for the landlords?”

Landlords presume undocumented tenants don’t know the law, Veliz says.

Tenants like Paco,with families to shelter and provide for, often listen calmly and grin and bear it.

It’s hard to know how many tenants like Paco face eviction despite the moratorium. “There’s no number of how many cases [are recorded by the courts] because we know most of them go unreported,” Veliz says.

Tim Orr, hotline manager for the Community Alliance of Tenants, agrees with Veliz that court records can’t fully reflect what’s happening.

“We’ve seen landlords threaten to call [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement],” Orr says. “There’s a fear from tenants, a validated fear.”

The Rental Housing Alliance Oregon supports about 2,000 landlords with 20,000 rentals. RHA board president Kenneth Schriver is a landlord himself and says it’s unacceptable for landlords to prey on undocumented tenants, but it’s also not the alliance’s job to police its members. That’s up to the landlords themselves.

“What it means to be a good landlord involves a certain ethical and moral behavior,” Schriver says.

Paco continues to look for work every day, but there’s a lot of competition for the few available kitchen jobs. He’s at a disadvantage because he doesn’t have a Social Security number.

“In reality, it has been sort of hard,” he says. “Just imagine being without money, without anything. There has been nothing but worry because one doesn’t know what there is to do.”

Who Gets Pulled Over in Traffic?

For most Americans, getting pulled over by police is an inconvenience. For Black people, traffic stops can be frightening—and far more frequent than for whites. Portland is no exception.

The Portland Police Bureau released quarterly reports May 4 and Aug. 1 providing data on traffic stops during the first half of the year.

The numbers show that Portland police continue to disproportionately stop Black drivers and pedestrians.

Black people made up 5.8% of the city’s population in July 2019. But in the first quarter of this year, 16.8% of drivers stopped by Portland police were Black, nearly three times their proportion of the population. That percentage jumped to 18.4 % in the second quarter.Black pedestrians were even more likely to be stopped by police, accounting for 16.4% of stops in the first quarter, 21.1% in the second.

Meanwhile, white Portlanders were less likely to be stopped than their share of the population would suggest, whether driving or on foot. White Portlanders make up 77% of the city’s population, but in the first quarter, 65.7% of people stopped by PPB citywide were white. In the second quarter that number dipped to 63.8%, both reports revealing an underrepresentation of white people stopped by the bureau.

In fact, Black people were overrepresented in every single category in both PPB reports regardless of location, while white Portland-

ers again were underrepresented in police stops in all parts of Portland.

PPB did not respond to a request for comment.

Traffic stops are the most common way police interact with the public. In well-publicized cases around the country, routine stops have ended with Black citizens shot or killed.

Lawmakers passed a 2017 bill introduced at the request of Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum prohibiting police from racially profiling drivers.

Last year, when the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission reviewed how well Oregon police agencies were complying with the new law, the Portland Police Bureau failed two of three disparity tests, the only law enforcement agency in the state to do so.

Disparate policing is a big part of what’s driving the current social justice protests in Portland and across the country. Unfortunately, the new PPB stats show nothing much is changing in Portland.

State Sen. Lew Frederick talked about the pervasiveness of racial profiling in traffic stops in an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting last year.

“This is confirmation of the racism that we’ve seen for decades here,” Frederick said.

“It’s the old ‘If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.’ This is institutional racism. There’s no other way to describe it.”

LATISHA JENSEN.

Black population of Portland

Traffic stops by Portland police of people who were Black

TRUMPLANDIA

Portland Presidential Rage-O-Meter That kick to the head?

Trump watched it, too.

Since President Donald Trump deployed federal police to Portland, he can talk of little else.

Perhaps that’s because he sees the images of civil unrest in our streets as a winning issue for his reelection campaign. It could signal his eagerness to “send in the National Guard,” as he’s previously threatened. Maybe he just really likes saying “Portland.” Whatever the reason, at most of his press briefings—at a policy meeting in the Arlington, Va., Ritz-Carlton or at a campaign stop in Scranton, Pa.—he discusses our city.

How fixated is he? We decided to conduct a regular review of his official remarks and stump speeches, as compiled by the White House Press Office, to ascertain how angry the president is with Portland this week.

How many times did the president say the word “Portland” in remarks last week? 11 What was his harshest appraisal? “If you want a vision of your life under a Biden presidency, think of the smoldering ruins in Minneapolis, the violent anarchy of Portland, the bloodstained sidewalks of Chicago, and imagine the mayhem coming to your town and every single town in America,” he said Aug. 20 in Scranton. “If you want law and order, you’ve got to have law and order. You can’t have what’s happening in Portland. Did you see the kid get whacked the other day? Just whacked, like he was a piece of garbage? I mean, who could take it?”

How hot does his anger burn? He’s as angry as a right-wing protester pulling a gun on anti-fascists.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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NEWS WW ARCHIVES

ALL ABOARD FOR TUALATIN: The proposed Southwest Corridor MAX extension from Portland to Tualatin would cost $2.8 billion.

Taxing Belief Emails show why Metro’s multibillion-dollar transportation measure has drawn lots of opposition.

BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS

njaquiss@wweek.com

Unemployment in Multnomah County stands at 11%, a point higher than the state average. More layoffs are expected when the summer travel and dining season ends. Schools won’t open before April, and many local businesses will see no revenue until a vaccine for COVID-19 emerges.

Yet in this dismal economic climate, Portland voters face a remarkable slate of requests for new taxes on the November ballot.

Among the money measures: a $1.2 billion Portland Public Schools bond; a $405 million Multnomah County Library measure; a $240 million Portland Parks & Recreation operating levy; and a Multnomah County preschool measure that would raise $133 million next year.

“I can’t remember a time when there were so many tax measures on the ballot,” says Jim Moore, professor of political science at Pacific University.

But without a doubt, the measure that has elicited the strongest response is the package of transportation investments that Metro, the regional government, just sent to voters—a $4 billion tax to fund a new light rail line to Tualatin, a new Burnside Bridge, and several highway fixes.

Some of the region’s biggest private employers, including Intel and Nike, oppose the measure, as do the Portland Business Alliance, Oregon Business & Industry, and a dozen smaller business groups.

“This level of opposition is rare,” says Moore. “Big companies and the business groups usually work closely with government to determine what is doable.”

The business groups either support or are neutral on the other November tax measures, but they’ve already hired leading political consultants from both sides of the aisle—Kevin Looper on the left and Dan Lavey on the right—and one of the state’s top law firms, Harrang Long, to challenge Metro’s measure.

Opponents object to the taxing mechanism, which will charge employers, both for-profit and nonprofit, up to 0.75% of payroll.

Joe Cortright, a Portland economist, says academic research is clear: Payroll taxes provide a disincentive to hiring and are borne mostly by employees.

That’s a sentiment opponents of the tax have embraced.

“COVID-19 is a time when we’re turning to government for a lifeline, not an anchor,” says Ken Madden, owner of Madden Industrial Craftsmen, who opposes the measure.

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“Metro’s new wage tax is exactly the wrong tax at the wrong time. It will hurt family paychecks and threaten jobs.”

Prior to the pandemic, business groups were working with Metro on transportation investments—they want better freight mobility and less traffic congestion.

Business opposition only arose after COVID-19 crushed the economy. But Metro Council President Lynn Peterson firmly rejected requests from businesses that she delay the measure.

Her insistence on moving forward has galvanized opposition—and led to speculation that Peterson is using the transportation package to solidify her credentials as a candidate for governor in 2022.

“There’s no question she’s interested in running for governor,” says lobbyist and KGW-TV political analyst Len Bergstein. “I’m sure she’s hoping this measure will be a demonstration of that kind of leadership.”

Peterson’s desire to move the measure forward, even at considerable cost, was most evident in a last-minute exemption Metro included in its ballot referral July 16.

The transportation fixes, which Metro dubbed “Get Moving 2020,” are aimed at improving safety, benefiting communities of color, relieving road congestion, and addressing climate change.

The biggest-ticket items are an extension of the MAX light rail line from Portland to Tualatin ($2.8 billion), Burnside Bridge upgrades ($970 million), and Southwest Tualatin Valley Highway safety and bus projects ($800 million), and 82nd Avenue bus and safety upgrades ($730 million).

But after its project budget was complete, Metro unveiled a hefty exemption on the day it sent the measure to voters, adding a carve-out for local government employees, with little explanation.

Emails and text messages WW obtained under a public records request show that Metro scrambled to alter the tax at the last minute and has been less than transparent about the legal rationale and fiscal impact of doing so.

The emails WW obtained shed light on three issues: what the tax actually is, how Metro exempted local governments, and how much that exemption might cost.

One example: Metro’s lawyers argued in Multnomah County Circuit Court on Aug. 23 that the taxing measure should be called a “business tax” on the ballot.

Opponents argued in their court filings that the mechanism is more accurately called a “payroll tax.”

Polling shows the distinction is an important one for voters: “Payroll tax” polls worse than “business tax.”

The difference is what’s being taxed: A payroll tax, like the one that provides the majority of TriMet’s funding, for instance, is levied as a percentage of all wages an employer pays, while a business tax is a percentage of revenues or profits.

In the emails WW obtained, Metro’s own employees repeatedly refer to the agency’s measure as a “payroll tax” but never as a “business tax.”

Andy Shaw, Metro’s government affairs director, answered WW’s questions about the emails while making clear he could not discuss campaign issues because of elections law.

So why did Metro employees repeatedly refer to the measure as a “payroll tax” in internal communications prior to referral?

Shaw acknowledges they did so, and the Metro Council decided to use the term “business tax” for clarity.

“The term ‘payroll tax’ currently refers to two different taxes paid in this state: one paid by employers (to TriMet) and one by employees (to the state),” Shaw says. “A term that describes two different things is not precise enough.”

Opponents say the explanation is simpler: The term “business tax” polls better with voters than does “payroll tax.”

Shaw told WW in July that Metro decided to exempt local governments because of “limitations in state law around the ability of local governments to tax each other, which creates ambiguity” and “to protect the ability of local governments to respond to critical needs.”

On July 17, records show, Julia Brim-Edwards, a senior Nike lobbyist, asked Metro for that justification. “Can you send me the legal analysis that was done by Metro on the exemption for state and local governments from the employer payroll tax?” Brim-Edwards asked.

Shaw acknowledges Metro never responded to Nike’s request because there is no such formal analysis.

“On the day of the referral vote without prior notice, the Metro councilors decided to exempt local governments, including Metro, from payment of this wage-based payroll tax. Contradictory reasons were given for removing local governments from this payroll tax on wages. Some councilors said there was a legal reason to exempt governments from the tax, and yet no legal analysis was provided at the public meeting to justify this exemption,” says Nike spokesman Greg Rossiter. “The lack of transparency in not sharing the analysis is unfortunate, especially since the exemption appeared to provide government entities with special treatment that was not given to other employers, including nonprofits, businesses and churches.”

“The council decided to err on the side of caution on the advice of the Metro attorney,” Shaw says, “to eliminate the ambiguity and provide certainty.”

Opponents say they suspect the exemption was granted to blunt resistance from local governments and public employee unions. (It’s notable that local governments pay TriMet’s payroll tax.)

Metro has been similarly opaque about the impact of exempting local governments—which Shaw told WW on July 21 could be “as low as 5%.”

Emails make it clear Metro did not really know the cost when it added the exemption.

As Metro scrambled to quantify the cost of letting local governments off the hook in the days before referral, emails show Metro chief financial officer Brian Kennedy asked the consulting firm ECONorthwest for the cost of exempting local governments: “A reasonable assumption would be that [about] 11% of the local and private total would come from local governments,” came the answer.

Later that day, Shaw asked Kennedy for a number. “We think the range is 7% to 15% of total revenue,” Kennedy replied.

Shaw now says he wishes he’d provided a range: “In hindsight, it would have been better to have expressed the revenue impact as a range of 5% to 10% to better express the impact.”

Opponents note that Metro has good reason to minimize the impact of the giveaway to local government employers— to mitigate opposition from private employers who will pay the tax.

“When you look at all the measures coming in November,” Bergstein says, “transportation is the one on which COVID-19 has the biggest impact. It’s hard to believe voters will approve them all—something’s got to give.”

NEWS

Sauceboxer The manager at a prominent downtown restaurant got fired for racism—then rehired.

DAMON LAM

SAUCED: A lawsuit alleges Joe Rogers, co-owner of downtown bar Saucebox, fired manager Nick Perdue for racist behavior, then quietly rehired him as his assistant.

BY M AT T H E W S I N G E R

msinger@wweek.com

A prominent Portland restaurant group fired—and then rehired—a Proud Boy acolyte, according to a work discrimination lawsuit filed by an ex-employee.

Jorge Bello, a server at downtown cocktail bar Saucebox from 2017 to 2019, alleges he was subject to frequent racist comments and harassment from his general manager, Nick Perdue. After Bello alerted the owners, Perdue, now 32, was terminated—only to be promoted months later to a higher position within Bruce Carey Restaurants, the parent company to Saucebox and other high-end bars and restaurants in town, including 23 Hoyt, Clarklewis and the recently shuttered Bluehour.

In the lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court in April, Bello, who is Cuban American, claims he continued to be treated unfairly by management after Perdue’s firing in an effort to force him to quit.

The allegations arrive at a time when Portland’s hospitality industry is undergoing an internal reckoning.

In July, restaurateur Maya Lovelace began sharing stories from food service workers on her Instagram page, detailing sexual misconduct, abusive behavior, and toxic work environments in bars and restaurants across Portland.

Lovelace stopped—shortly after being accused herself

of prejudicial treatment of a Black employee—but the account @86dlistpdx continued to provide aggrieved workers with a platform. The accusations are producing real-world consequences: Last week, Dayna McErlean stepped down as owner of the Japanese restaurant Yakuza in part due to accusations of mismanagement that surfaced on the page.

In a statement to WW, Joe Rogers, who co-owns Saucebox with his partner, Bruce Carey, calls the allegations in Bello’s lawsuit “inaccurate.”

“Saucebox is fully committed to equal employment opportunities, does not tolerate discrimination of any kind, and is a proud member of the diverse Portland community,” Rogers writes.

Attorneys for Bello, the plaintiff, declined to comment.

But Bello’s lawsuit alleges years of racist behavior by Perdue.

The suit claims Perdue “stylized himself as one of the ‘Proud Boys’ and often regurgitated racist and misogynist philosophies in the workplace.” He regularly used racial epithets to refer to Bello and sent him “racially hostile” text messages featuring Pepe the Frog, an icon of the alt-right.

Bello also alleges that Perdue’s girlfriend, Maria Lanaras, a former bar manager at Saucebox, harassed Bello as well, referring to him as “little caveman” and flashing a white supremacist hand signal at him.

Bello says he did not alert the bar’s owners to their behavior because Perdue told him Rogers shared their views and Bello feared being retaliated against.

The hostility between Bello and Perdue reached a head on Jan. 22, 2019, when the two engaged in a shouting match in the bar over Bello taking unauthorized cigarette breaks. Screenshots show Bello texted that he felt like “kicking [Perdue] in the throat.” An argument ensued and Bello punched a door. He was escorted off the property by police. (Both sides dispute whether Bello quit in the heat of the moment or was fired by Perdue.)

In a brief phone call with WW, Perdue denied the allegations of racism and of having any association with the Proud Boys, referring to the lawsuit as “just a way [for Bello] to get a bunch of money out of the company.”

“We live in a very litigious country,” he said. “It’s too bad, because none of that is true.”

But following the incident on Jan. 22, documents WW obtained from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries under a public records request show that Rogers conducted an internal investigation in which “some Saucebox employees confirmed Mr. Perdue espoused politics that made them uncomfortable and claimed he was racist.”

Perdue was fired and Lanaras demoted.

Meanwhile, Bello was given his job back. But in the ensuing months, Bello claims he was subject to retaliatory actions by Perdue’s replacement, Mary Ulickey, including having his hours cut and being unfairly reprimanded for minor infractions. (Ulickey declined to comment, but according to the BOLI filing, she was an outside hire with no prior knowledge of either party.)

The final straw for Bello, however, came in May 2019, when he discovered that Perdue was again working for Bruce Carey Restaurants.

“After my two and a half years at this establishment, I cannot stand by the actions taken by you and the managers you’ve chosen to support,” Bello wrote in an email to Rogers tendering his resignation. “To have about 10 of your employees come forward, corroborating my story, and also bringing forth many of their own terrible experiences with Nick, you have chosen to bring him back to the company in spite of our collective concern.”

In response, Rogers told Bello that he was “misinformed.” The BOLI filing, however, confirms that Perdue was rehired as an assistant to Rogers “to complete odd jobs with the condition that Mr. Perdue take a diversity training course.”

Perdue declined to discuss his current standing with Bruce Carey Restaurants, but his LinkedIn page lists his job title as “senior administrative manager” for the chain. (He also works as an assistant general manager at Portland’s White House, a luxury bed-and-breakfast in Northeast Portland.) In April, Perdue appeared on a local podcast to discuss the effect of COVID-19 on the restaurant industry and said his job is to “administrate and grow the business” and that he got the position by being “a loyalist to the brand.”

At deadline, Rogers told WW the case had been dismissed. Bello’s attorney disagreed with that characterization, and the case remained open in the court docket.

Bello is seeking $400,000 for emotional distress and $50,000 in economic damages. Saucebox remains closed due to the pandemic.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

Non-parents just don’t understand.

Sure, everyone’s got it bad right now. But pour one out for the breeders, who’ve been in lockdown with the wee screechy ones for almost six months, and just received some discouraging news: Freedom doesn’t appear to be coming any time soon.

In a normal year, this is when parents would start popping bottles of rosé as their tiny roommates get shipped off to become another adult’s problem for a few hours. With the coronavirus pandemic still raging, though, Gov. Kate Brown said last week that at the current rate of infection, Oregon schools aren’t likely to open until damn near April. It’s like digging your way out of Shawshank

and popping up in Rikers. Don’t worry, though. We got you.

Sorry, we’re not offering to babysit. But we do have some advice.

In this issue, we’ve compiled a guide to surviving another season of parenting in quarantine. We’ve compiled a list of the must-own items for keeping the little ones distracted and thus yourself halfway sane (page 18) and produced schematics for constructing a blanket fort that’ll tie them up for hours (page 17). We also asked a few kids how they feel about all this—after all, if you’re stuck with them, they’re stuck with you, too (page 19).

We know, however, that the only people who can really grasp what par-

ents are going through right now are other parents. And so, over the past week, we surveyed dozens of Portland moms and dads about how they’re holding up. Some took the opportunity to vent, others shared what they’ve learned from having their routines upended like so many boxes of Legos.

Here, we’ve published 10 of the most illuminating responses. It might not tell you anything you don’t already know. If nothing else, though, take solace in the fact, if you’re feeling stressed, scared and a little bit crazy, you are definitely not alone.

—Matthew Singer, Willamette Week A&C Editor

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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k

k

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? They are brilliant. They pick up on everything. But they don’t understand what is going on. My son frequently hands me his shoes because he just wants to leave the house.

The McKelvey Family.

“Dad needs his Dame Time.”

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I think it has made us slightly more confident. Like, if we can get through this we can get through anything together.

Gregory McKelvey Age: 27 Occupation: Political campaign director How old are your kids? Stokely is 2 years old and my daughter is 1 year old. We also have a Pomeranian named Teddy Wap. What is your typical daily schedule?

At first, it was really difficult to get into a routine. The kids were staying up way too late, but eventually we fell into one. The kids both wake up between 7 and 8 am. We then try to keep the TV off until at least 3 pm for what we call “imagination time.”

The kids go to bed around 8 pm now—we read to them at night. We were lucky that we have kids who sleep through the night.

As for me and my wife’s routine, it is just diapers, Zoom meetings, and work.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them?

Currently looking for suggestions. The best thing for our 2-year-old is cartoons because it is the only thing he does independently. But we don’t want him to have too much screen time.

What is your sanctuary? We bought a Peloton bike. Other than that, it is basically 24/7 work either running the campaign for mayor or running a house of little monsters.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? The worst thing my son does is he thinks if the TV is on, we have to be watching Puppy Dog Pals, but Dad needs his Dame Time. Also, they are really fascinated with gravity right now, so they like to hold their sippy cups upside down as they drip onto the floor.

What have been the bright spots? We have gotten to see every little advancement that might have occurred at day care otherwise. For example, my daughter is learning to crawl. My son is learning to kiss and hug and talk. Those things are amazing.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? Before the pandemic I would come home with food, and people would eat it wherever they want.

Now we try to slow down for just a little bit every day at the table. Results may vary.

When you leave the house, where do you go most often? When the protests first erupted, we attended those until police violence made it clear they were not friendly for children.

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them to contribute around the house so I could have more free time to pursue things I like to do. Instead, I feel like I’m stuck in a rut of working my job, cooking, cleaning, and doing other household chores.

“They don’t really help out with stuff.”

Jason Anderson Age: 42 Occupation: Product manager How old are your kids? 13 and 11

“Teachers deserve anything they ask for.”

Jenny C. Age: 35 Occupation: Nurse How old are your kids? 7 and 4 What is your typical daily schedule?

Wake up, login remotely, make coffee, give kids chocolate milk, encourage teeth brushing, remote work for four hours, warm up noodles for kids or make sure they got a frozen PBJ from the freezer, give them a piece of fresh fruit and water bottles, eat leftovers myself, pet the cat, four more hours of work, shower, play outside with kids, dinner, read books, kid bedtime, attend a protest with a buddy.

What is your sanctuary? A phone call with my friend while sitting anywhere alone for 30 minutes.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? Fighting loudly when one of us is on a call.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? My kid broke their arm early on in the pandemic, and I had to take them to the ER. We didn’t have masks yet.

What is your typical daily schedule? I get up around 6 am to start working from home. My spouse usually starts work by 8 am. The kids will get up between 9 am and noon. My spouse and I will work till about 5 pm, then transition into making dinner.

The kids pretty much do whatever. I try to encourage them to help around the house with chores, but that’s been a stress point I’m tired of managing.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them? They are fairly independent at this point. One of my girls has a Barbie doll house remodel project she works on, but now we have pieces all over the house.

What is your sanctuary? I’ve been working on our basement. I stripped a 500-square-foot family room down to the exterior walls, reframed, had electrical work done, dry-walled, and am now working on installing a birch plywood ceiling.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? They don’t really help out with stuff. I’ll be making dinner and they’ll be disengaged looking at their phones on the couch while I do all the work.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? The girls got into a physical altercation while getting ready to do something.

I apparently chose the wrong child as the first person to parent, and the conversation completely dissolved from there.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? They’re way better at video games than I ever was.

What have been the bright spots? We typically spend a lot of time together as a family between activities and family trips, so without actual things to do, this has been tough. Family game night and movie night don’t mean as much when your kids have been doing whatever they want for the entire day.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? That I could never succeed in home school. Teachers deserve anything they ask for.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? This is an awkward development time for both ages. My youngest will cook, but only if it’s a sweet treat.

What have been the bright spots?

Talking as a family about “the germs” and wearing our DIY “FAUCI” shirts.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I don’t think I’ll ever get my needs met by them. My biggest need would be for

“Thank God for summer. When it’s over, we’re screwed.”

Bianca.

Age: 40 Occupation: Registered nurse How old are your kids? 5 years old and 18 months What is your typical daily schedule?

The only thing typical about our day is that we are up by 7:30 am, sometimes earlier, and that I make meals and snacks all day long. We are outside in the backyard a lot.

Thank God for summer. When it’s over, we’re screwed.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them? My daughter naps, but there is no break from my 5-year-old son. I’m trying really hard not to allow too much screen time, because his behavior turns terrible when he’s on the iPad for too long.

What is your sanctuary? I literally do not have one. By the end of the day, I am so stressed and burnt out. This is a really unsustainable way of life for families with small children.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? Ask for a snack 10 minutes after they just ate a cooked meal, then ask for a snack about 10 minutes after eating a snack.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? I have a good freakout at least once a day, it seems. I lose my cool with my son and cuss, which I hate doing, but he really sends me over the edge.

What have been the bright spots? I feel so bad but, God, it’s really hard to see any bright spots. We are all really struggling with the burden placed upon us right now.

My son is supposed to start virtual kindergarten, which I know will be a true disaster for him. My daughter looks at other people like they are aliens.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? We’re just trying to survive the day in my house.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? While I always knew my son was

probably a neurodiverse child, I will need to get a pediatric specialist to evaluate him.

He’s had all of his favorite things stripped away from him, and it’s brought out the worst in his behavior.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? That I have a lot of unresolved childhood trauma and PTSD as an adult from two traumatic, tragic early deaths in my life. I thought I had done a decent job of working through them, but it turns out, not so much.

goats were pregnant and I’m the main goat herder, so we couldn’t and it was all sorts of drama. It ended up with my partner, son and me living in a tent in the meadow for two weeks in March when it rained every day. I kinda freaked out a few times then.

“Constant mess-making.

Also, asking Alexa to fart or tell fart jokes.”

Liz Age: 45 Occupation: Former pastor, now unemployed How old are your kids? 8 and 3

Brenna Bell (middle) and family

“Minecraft is more of a fixture in my son’s life than I might want, but it helps him connect through others.”

Brenna Bell Age: 45 Occupation: Environmental lawyer How old are your kids? 15 and 11. My housemate has a 5-year-old son, and I have two other housemates, who are 26 and 31.

What is your typical daily schedule?

When school was in session, we had more of a schedule. Summer is a little more flexible since we’re not focused on distance learning to the same extent.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them? My screen boundaries have become more lax.

Minecraft is more of a fixture in my son’s life than I might want, but it helps him connect through others. We also live on a farm, so there are endless tasks to do.

What is your typical daily schedule?

Breakfast at 7:30. Play, feed bunnies, arts and crafts, lunch, walk around the neighborhood, play, chores, dinner, TV or games, bed. We go somewhere new every Thursday. On Friday nights, they get to stay up late with glow sticks and watch Dinosaur King.

What is your typical daily schedule?

Daily in-home applied behavior analysis therapy for my son, and then either a walk in a park or a scenic drive.

What is your sanctuary? My basement weed station.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? Oof. My kid is autistic, so that’s maybe a loaded question—probably makes me rethink reality and question how I thought brains worked.

What have been the bright spots? My 5-year-old son learning how to apply eyeshadow after months of sneakily absorbing my constant stream of Drag Race content.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? We kinda already lived in our own isolation bubble because of our son’s social development, so not much has changed really.

What is your sanctuary? My wife works in a shed in the backyard. I hide in the stairway and drink.

When you leave the house, where do you go most often? Either nature or Burger King.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? Constant mess-making.

Also, asking Alexa to fart or tell fart jokes.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? I’ve learned that my kid has probably absorbed more knowledge than I can comprehend, and that development is not a straight line.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? The preschooler put the smoke detector in the toaster oven and turned it on. It didn’t make any noise, it just caught fire.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them?

They are smarter and fiercer than I am.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, but neither does anyone else.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? I haven’t really freaked out yet. I’ve been mad and sad a lot but not freaked out.

My daughter’s worst freakout might have been when I told her all the Halloween plans she’d been making since last Nov. 1 are not going to happen.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? We’ve tried to do a family reading time, sort of like the Drop Everything and Read sessions I did in elementary school in the ’80s.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? I’ve realized what a generational and cultural bubble they’re in. My son and I watched Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, and I had to explain Catholic school, country clubs, and teen dance television shows.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? It hasn’t taught me anything new but has confirmed that I really need to be alone sometimes.

Nat West (right) and daughter

“We’ve actually become even closer because of the time spent at the protests.”

Nat West Age: 42 Occupation: Cidermaker How old are your kids? 16

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I’m a weakling.

What is your typical daily schedule?

Our daughter is unschooled, so very little has changed for her daily schedule except online classes where she used to have in-person.

What is your sanctuary? Riding my bike to work used to be that time for me, but then I started working from home. I just started going into my office and working there alone one day a week, and it’s been awesome to have the long bike commute again to be alone and to move my body.

I’ve realized what a generational and cultural bubble they’re in.

Margaret Seiler Age: 44 Occupation: Managing editor at Portland Monthly How old are your kids? 11 and 8

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? My son wants constant attention and wants to talk about the things that are really important to him— Minecraft, Legos, space—way more than I want to.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? My worst freakout happened because my partner was traveling in Scotland when the pandemic blew up and came home early, but my housemates were really freaked out about him living in the house, so they wanted us to stay somewhere else for two weeks and quarantine. But all our

Brianna Wheeler Age: 41 Occupation: Writer How old are your kids? 5

Brianna Wheeler and son

“I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing, but neither does anyone else. “

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them? Tell them to go outside, take a walk around the block, go pick up the apples that have fallen from our neighbor’s tree.

What is your sanctuary? Delivering beer for my husband’s brewery on weekends.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them? Our daughter has been very independent from an early age, being an only child and being unschooled, so she hasn’t had very much adjustment with quarantining. She picked one friend from a relatively early date to co-quarantine with, extending our “bubble.”

What is your sanctuary? We watched every season of Criminal Minds—299 episodes—since the quarantine started.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? I’ve been able to watch her eating habits more than pre-quarantine, and I’m pretty ashamed of what she eats.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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What’s been your worst freakout so far? We had a couple COVID-positive tests at work, so that hasn’t been fun.

What have been the bright spots? Cooking a lot more.

Protests have actually been really encouraging to me.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? Criminal Minds during dinner—but now that’s over, so we are floundering a bit.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? We have gotten a lot closer.

Last year, I traveled 45% of the year, and this year zero, so that has helped a lot. We’ve actually become even closer because of the time spent at the protests.

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I really like being her dad and would choose this over other options if given the chance.

Sasha Ackler and son

“Text them and yell.”

Sasha Ackler Age: 54 Occupation: Data application manager How old are your kids? 23 What is your typical daily schedule?

I work and my child works.

When you need a break from your kids, how do you distract them?

Text them and yell.

What is your sanctuary?

I needlepoint and read.

What do your kids do that drives you the most insane? He leaves glasses in his room and won’t do a thing I ask.

What’s been your worst freakout so far? When he showed up hungover on my birthday.

What have been the bright spots? Watching him succeed in his first real job.

What new family activities have you adopted or resumed? Baking.

When you leave the house, where do you go most often? Grocery store and pet food store.

What have you learned about your kids since being stuck at home with them? He is driven to succeed.

(503) 230-8040 info@madscienceportland.com

Instagram: MadSciPDX Facebook: MadSciencePortland https://Portland.Madscience.org 16

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

What has being stuck at home with them taught you about yourself as a parent? I got lucky and I’m proud of the tools I gave him to deal with his ADHD.

FORT DISTRACTION DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR THREE CLASSIC ARCHITECTURAL STYLES

Utilize mini spring clips from the hardware store to achieve coveted high ceilings.

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Spare your actual interiors by using 3M Command sticky hooks to erect this style.

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Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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TOOLS FOR SURVIVAL Nine items parents must consider buying to get through the next few months of quarantine.

JBL Wireless Headphones for Kids $39.99 at amazon.com Good

JINSERTA Touchless Foaming Soap Dispenser $45.99 at Amazon.com

For virtual learning, and also to keep you from hearing “Baby Shark” on an infinite loop.

Kids won’t properly wash their grubby little hands? Maybe they’ll be more inclined when an adorable giraffe vomits foam all over them.

Have your grade schoolers been listening to too much Alex Jones and now think the coronavirus is a hoax perpetrated by the Face Mask Industrial Complex? These cute patterns might change their tune.

BUG BINGO $25.99 at Amazon.com

If he’s going to try to eat them all the time, he might as well know what they’re called.

CUBCOATS Reversible Face Masks $11.99 at cubcoats.com

BRAUN Digital NoTouch Forehead Thermometer $89.99 at amazon.com

All of us have entered into new relationships with our thermometers, but this is like a radar gun for fevers, making it possible to monitor your kids’ temperature when they’re not even paying attention.

JUNGLE JUMPAROO $637.24 at amazon.com

PET Knife Apr foo

The hours of bouncy distraction are worth the potential turned ankle.

PLUM GARDEN Four Children’s Training Chopsticks $10.80 at amazon.com

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Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

LE TIT CHEF e Set & Kids’ ron $49 at od52.com

Living With Myself How do kids feel about quarantining with their parents? We asked some.

AREAWARE Gradient Puzzle $25 at amazon.com

Jigsaw puzzles are the ultimate time suck, and the pseudoRothko design ensures they’ll take days to finish.

It’s easy to forget amid the stress of the moment, parents, but you’re not just stuck inside with your kids right now—they’re also stuck with you.

Cabin fever is a two-way street: If you think you’re going crazy, imagine how the little person in your house feels having school, friends, and all semblance of a daily routine ripped out from under them.

We wanted to know. So we had some of our contributing writers turn their recorders toward their own tiny roommates and ask some hard questions—about themselves.

PARENT: CHRIS STAMM CHILD: P.K., AGE 6 Chris Stamm: What has it been like spending every minute of every day with me?

P.K.: It’s a little boring. But mostly not since I can watch a lot of TV and play video games a lot.

What’s the hardest thing about being home with me all the time?

That I can’t watch TV all the time.

How do you feel about going to school on the computer?

It’s a little bit boring, but I’m OK with it as long as it’s not too boring.

In normal situations it might not be a great idea to hand a child a knife but, y’know, desperate times and all that.

What’s hard about it?

I can’t do everything I usually do in a classroom. It’s a little bit hard.

What do you like about being home all the time?

Maybe that I can watch TV a lot. And play video games. And watch you play video games.

So basically you like screen time.

A lot.

Is there anything I do that annoys you?

Play your guitar too loud when I’m watching TV. Would your feelings about the pandemic be different if you didn’t have screens?

Very different. It would be kind of a nightmare.

Oh, you ate 30 pounds of raisins in three minutes? See how many you can eat with these, fool.

PARENT: KAT MERCK CHILD: FELIX, AGE 7 Kat Merck: How has it been having to stay at home the past six months?

Felix: I hate it. It’s good because my parents get to, like, know me and do

stuff with me a little bit more, but most of all I hate it because we have to stay home all the time, and do schoolwork. I really hate that.

What has been the hardest part?

I can’t see most of my friends, and if you leave your house, most places you have to wear a mask, and they hurt my nose. So I try not to go that many places.

How do you feel about being able to have so much quality time with your parents?

Hard times. Honestly, I just don’t like it, because staying home with my mom and dad means more arguments and more frustrations, and then more punishments.

What would be your advice for other kids in this situation?

Try to manage your parents. Try to do what makes you OK, but also makes your parents OK, because if they’re not OK, it’s going to make your life more difficult. Just try to find a way that both you and your parents can be happy. I haven’t done that yet.

PARENT: JORDAN GREEN CHILD: LANA, AGE 10 Jordan Green: What do you like about being home all the time?

Lana: Playing games. I like how I have more time to hang out with friends and think more than just going to school. I guess technically going to school is thinking, but…

I hear you. What’s been most difficult about all of it?

Not really being able to see my friends in person all the time.

Is there anything I do that annoys you?

No. Really?

No, not really.

Huh. That’s good. So it hasn’t been difficult being around me all the time?

No, besides the fact that you write a ton.

I write a ton? Thank you!

Oh, you’re saying that’s a bad thing and I spend too much time doing that?

Yes. OK. How do you think this would be without screens?

Probably much worse. I almost don’t want to think about it.

How do you feel about going back to school online?

I don’t mind.

Do you hope to go to school this year?

[Blows into glass bottle] I’m not sure. I could go either way.

PARENT: ANTHONY EFFINGER CHILD: VERONICA, AGE 15, AND CHRISTOPHER, AGE 17 Anthony Effinger: What’s it like to be stuck at home with your parents?

Veronica: Both my parents worked from home before COVID, so it’s not much different, but we do get to have dinner as a family much more often since activities like soccer, mock trial, piano, and bassoon lessons have all been canceled.

Christopher: I actually don’t mind it as much as others might. I think the main reason I haven’t gotten sick of it yet is because we all have our own areas of the house.

What are the best things about COVID-19?

Veronica: It’s hard to look on the bright side of a deadly global pandemic, but I’ve been able to focus on my athletic development more than ever. I’ve gotten into digital art.

I picked up the violin, and I entirely redid my room. I’ve also had time to learn about things that school won’t teach me, like leftist ideologies, the prison-industrial complex, and the fight for Indigenous sovereignty. And I’ve fostered a total of nine kittens for the Pixie Project.

Christopher: It really hurts Donald Trump’s chances of getting reelected.

What are the worst?

Veronica: Big picture, the worst things about COVID are the loss of life, the overcrowding of hospitals, and the number of people who are unemployed and struggling. For me personally, the worst thing is all the cancellations, school and soccer, in particular.

Christopher: It has also made the college application process way more challenging. I haven’t been able to visit any schools, and I don’t know how COVID will impact the admissions process. In a broader sense, it contributes to the feeling that people my age are getting absolutely screwed over.

What do you think when you see normal life happening in other countries?

Veronica: I am once again reminded of the massive shortcomings of the USA and its government. I wish I lived in Finland. Or Holland.

Christopher: When kids in New Zealand went back to school, I was jealous. Then I got angry at our own incompetent government because we were nowhere close to doing that. But now “normal life” is so disconnected from what we’re living through that it seems almost fake.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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ecologyoutdoors.org

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

Visit our website to make an appointment 717 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205 503.223.4720 www.maloys.com

Maloy’s is now OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Book online to shop our collection of fine antique jewelry, or for custom or repair work. We also buy.

STREET GOIN’ FAM Photos by Wesley Lapointe On Instagram: @wlapointe_photo

Family time in downtown Portland.

↱ Russell Wilkinson (center right) with Larry Hall (left), Danielle Simpson (center left), and Amanda Draheim (right), and their children

↱ Parents Yuri and Lily with their children ↱↱ Bob and Evie Cronkn

↰The Kipapa Family

↱ Parents Jamil and Sheka with their children Darius and Dawn

↰Parents Aqeel and Hadeel and their children, Farah (center right) and Lana (center left)

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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STREET

↱ The Fullerton Family

↰ Parents Jose Ruiz and Addison Salazar with their baby, Layla Ruiz, and Addison’s father, Adam Salazar

↱ Parents Jose and Nairobi Peraza with their children

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↱ Parents John and Rachel B. with their children

↰ Anthony McClintock (left) and Wyatt McClintock (right)

↱ The Cormack Family

↰ Parents Caitlyn and Edgar, with their baby, Ella

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

STARTERS

SPONSORED CONTENT

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS T H AT H AP P E NE D I N PORTLAND CULTURE THIS WEEK, F ROM B E ST TO WORST .

ASK!

MOVIE MADNESS

LEAH NASH

Nearly a dozen independently owned movie theaters across Oregon are petitioning the governor’s office to include cinemas in Phase 1 reopening guidelines. The petition, authored by Cinema 21 owner Tom Ranieri, argues that independent theaters have been misclassified as “venues” and should be allowed to reopen alongside restaurants.

Currently, movie theaters are included in Phase 2 of Oregon’s COVID-19 reopening plan. Along with Ranieri, the letter’s signees include Hollywood Theatre executive director Doug Whyte, Laurelhurst Theater owners Prescott Allen and Woody Wheeler, and the owners of McMenamins’ slew of theaters across the state.

A SEX ADVICE COLUMN FOR EVERY BODY Your sex questions answered by She Bop Education Coordinator & Sex Educator, Gretchen Leigh

AIN’T NO LIE

The cast for Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming Portland-filmed, stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio has been announced, and it includes some big names: Cate Blanchett, Christoph Waltz, Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton are all voicing characters in the upcoming animated movie. Del Toro’s version of the Italian fable began production at the Portland outpost of animation studio ShadowMachine last year, and according to the industry blog Oregon Confluence, Pinocchio has continued production through the pandemic. ShadowMachine, the studio behind critical darlings Tuca & Bertie and BoJack Horseman, opened its Portland office in 2015. Pinocchio will be the first big-name production to come out of its Portland office.

NO FUN PARK

THOMAS TEAL

KILLING SPREE

Killer Burger is plotting an expansion across the West. The Portland burger chain plans to add restaurants along the Interstate 5 corridor, from Southern Oregon to the U.S.-Canadian border, followed by outposts in adjacent markets, like Boise, Reno and Denver, and quadruple the decade-old company’s presence over the next five years. (It currently has 13 locations in Oregon and Washington.) Ambitious growth during a pandemic may seem risky, but founder and CEO TJ Southard says the company—most known for its Peanut Butter Pickle Bacon Burger—continues to be profitable.

SHUTTERED

For the first time in its history, Oaks Park will remain dark for the entire 2020 amusement park season due to the pandemic. The association that operates the 115-yearold attraction on the east side of the Sellwood Bridge announced last week that it would not open its rides or games for the rest of the year.

Employees spent months preparing the park to welcome back a reduced number of visitors by implementing additional safety measures, like temperature checks, online reservations and increased sanitation, but even after petitioning Gov. Kate Brown to resume operations, it still has not been given the OK to go forward. The association hopes to allow people back into the Roller Rink and Dance Pavilion sometime late this year.

After almost a decade serving inventive fusion food on Northeast Alberta Street, Aviary will close for good next weekend. Aviary’s small plates and adventurous dishes heralded a shift in Portland’s dining scene. The spot was named Restaurant of the Year by Willamette Week in 2012 and became known for an eclectic menu marrying Asian flavors with European techniques, including crispy pig ears and lobster fat spaghetti. It’s last day of service will be Saturday, Aug. 29.

ALL POPS ARE BASTARDS

JTE R.I.P.

BILLIONS

Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle, the gifted son of country legend Steve Earle and a recent Portland transplant, died Aug. 23 at age 38. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed. Earle was born in Nashville but moved to Portland three years ago with his wife, Jenn Marie. The couple had a daughter, Etta St. James, in July 2017. It’s unclear if Earle was in Portland at the time of his death, but during his time here he endeared himself to the local music community, playing intimate shows at Doug Fir Lounge, Mississippi Studios and Revolution Hall.

His final album, The Saint of Lost Causes, was released last year.

Otter Pops, the classic children’s snack brand, is being hit with calls for a boycott after reneging on an offer to provide popsicles to Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland.

Last week, a local Twitter user tweeted at the company, asking if it would be willing to donate ice pops for him to hand out at the protests.

The Otter Pops account initially responded enthusiastically to the request. But the next morning, the account deleted the response and appeared to retract the statement, blaming it on a contracted social media “consultant.” The tweet was met with backlash from Black Lives Matter supporters and spawned the hashtag #boycottotterpops. In a statement to WW, the company says its response “was not a reaction to complaints or tweets from outside parties, it was made because Otter Pops does not align with any political group or organization.” Otter Pops has since deleted its Twitter account.

I

T’S HOT. It’s the end of summer and I’m burning up in my apartment. I don’t want anything to do with my partner’s sweaty-ass skin on mine, but also… I do. How do I make sex enjoyable during a heat wave?

- SEXY AND SUPER-SWEATY SASS, I feel you. It’s creeping up towards 100 degrees as I write this, and I can just picture the sweaty sticky mess that might await me in my small apartment should I try to get frisky today. Luckily, I have some tried and true tips to make hot day play a little more bearable - even, dare I say, enjoyable!

First, consider setting your space up for hot-weather success. Put a towel (or two) down on the bed/couch/surface of choice to soak up some sweat and save the furniture. Put a washcloth nearby for dabbing your forehead - no one likes a salty drip in the eyes. If you want to get extra fancy with it, consider putting your washcloth in a bowl of cold water, so it’s both helpful and refreshing.

Keep a beverage nearby (a water bottle works great) so you can keep yourself hydrated, and so you have an option for pouring water on yourself if the heat gets out of hand. If pouring from a water bottle sounds like too much mess, maybe a spray bottle filled with ice water for an occasional spritz is more your style. If you have long hair, get it up and out of your face. Set up a fan or two to keep the breeze moving - nothing feels better on sweaty skin that some cool air - but be aware that a fan can cause lubrication to dry up very quickly. Bring backup lube!

“Bring backup lube!”

That reminds me - once your space is set up, make sure you’ve got all the extras you’ll want to cater your experience to the hot weather. If you’ve got backup lube on hand to deal with the dry-out, consider popping it in the fridge so it’s extra refreshing when you go to use it. Pull out any glass or metal toys you might have in your toolkit, and put those in the fridge while you’re at it. Glass and metal hold on to temperature quite well, and can offer a little relief when used on a sweltering day.

If none of those things are quite cutting it, you might need to commit to touch-less (or at least, lower touch) options to get down in the summertime. That could look like applying all the tips above to a mutual masturbation session with your boo, so each of you can work on yourselves without adding body heat to the mix. It could also look like an extra fun day in your backyard blowup pool (or a bathtub, shower, lake, river… you name it) with a waterproof toy of your choosing. What I’m saying is, SASS, that you have options to beat the heat while you get it on. Have fun, stay cool!

Have a question about sex? Submit to askshebop@sheboptheshop.com Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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GET...OUTSIDE?

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

SINGLED OUT: Joseph Boquiren describes downhill unicycle racing as “a controlled crash.”

1020 NW 17th Ave., | Portland, OR | 503.943.2780

One Is the Loneliest Wheel

me: I’ve raced speed skates, I’ve raced bikes for 15 years. I like the competition aspects of riding on one wheel. I really enjoy the skill of staying on one wheel. It’s hard. It took me, like, 25 hours to learn to free ride, which is riding without assistance. I like mastering difficult things.

Oregon’s only competitive unicyclist was bound for the world championship this year.

Then COVID happened.

Tell me about winning the national championship.

This was in Fort Collins, Colo., last year. It’s a lot like downhill skiing. Riders are sent off every 30 seconds. You’re seeded by age group, so I was toward the rear. It’s a 4-mile descent and over 3,000 feet of elevation lot. It’s a controlled crash going downhill. I crashed three or four times, but I realized when I got to the finish line I crashed less than anyone else. So a lot of it is just managing to stay on through technical terrain.

Before you ask: No, Joseph Boquiren doesn’t know the Unipiper.

An illustrator by trade, Boquiren entered the world of competitive unicycling a few years ago—mostly just to find other people to ride with. It didn’t really help in that regard: He says he’s the only unicyclist who rides for sport in Oregon. But as he began entering national races, his natural competitive streak kicked in. His finishes gradually improved until last year, when he was crowned the North American Mountain Downhill Champion in the Senior Division.

Boquiren was supposed to attend the Unicycling World Championship in France this year. But then, well, you can guess what happened.

WW talked to Boquiren about where he rides from here.

WW: Why unicycling?

Joseph Boquiren: I just started riding eight years ago and I was like, “I need to figure out some way to ride with other people,” because I was just riding alone. Cyclocross was one way to get with other people who ride with one wheel but ride competitively.

I have a pretty strong competitive streak in 24

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

You were planning on going to the world championships. It’s now been pushed to 2021. What did it feel like to have that taken from you?

It was pretty disappointing. I was emotionally ready for it. And then to have that not happen, I was like, “What am I going to do with my life now?” I had to do a reset and realize I have another year to get better. So that’s what I’ve been doing—practice and training and getting ready for 2021.

What do people say when they see you riding around town?

The biggest question I get asked is, do you know the Unipiper? I don’t know Brian.

He works in a different circle than I do.

Unicyclists tend to be like mountain lions: We are very solitary creatures.

MORE: See an extended video interview with Joseph Boquiren at wweek.com/distant-voices.

GET...OUTSIDE? W W S TA F F

Aw, Nuts Looking for an easy excursion? Go find Portland’s only surviving chestnut tree.

Before the 20th century, the Eastern U.S. was dominated by Castanea dentata, the American chestnut tree, aka the Redwood of the East. Towering forests full of them lined the Appalachians from Maine to Mississippi.

With trunks 10 feet in diameter and crowns reaching 100 feet into the air, the chestnuts were fast-growing, a valuable source of food, and produced straight-grained hardwood which framed most American structures and furniture for centuries.

In 1904, a forester named Hermann Merkel discovered blight on an American chestnut at the New York Zoological Park, now the Bronx Zoo. The culprit was

a bark fungus carried by imported chestnuts. Two years later, 99% of the trees in the borough were infected. By 1940, almost every native chestnut in North America was dead— one of the greatest ecological disasters in history.

While efforts to revive the tree by breeding fungal-resistant characteristics have been underway for decades, a few survivors still remain— and at least one within Portland limits: Heritage Tree No. 182, which towers 85 feet above the intersection of Southeast 11th Avenue and Lexington next to the equally impressive stump of its lightning-struck partner. JORDAN GREEN.

OLD GROWTH: Portland’s only living chestnut tree is in a residential neighborhood in Southeast.

BEN LANDSVERK

Choiring Minds The Low Bar Chorale’s weekly virtual sing-alongs have been drawing thousands of participants— and they’re generous tippers.

When COVID gives you lemons, make music. That’s advice from Ben Landsverk, a Portland musician who misses playing to live audiences.

“I miss it more than I thought I would,” he says.

Like so many, Landsverk has adapted.

Instead of playing out, he plays in—in his girlfriend’s living room in St. Johns, to be exact, where he has his studio.

From there, Landsverk leads a singalong called Low Bar Chorale. It used to be live at Revolution Hall. When COVID hit, Landsverk and his Low Bar collaborator, Kate Sokoloff, thought their new venture was finished. But, like so many improvisers, they decided to try it online.

They expected 100 or so viewers to log into the first virtual show, which they called “O Solo Low Bar.” Instead, thousands have shown up. Now, Low Bar Chorale is weekly, it’s huge, and it still has a cast of Portland rock stars that back the singers.

Landsverk, 43, is among them. He has

been playing violin since he was 3 years old and can play anything with strings, plus keyboards. And if you’re among the millions who listen to the hit New York Times podcast The Daily, you know his work: Landsverk and local musician Jim Brunberg have a band called Wonderly that wrote and recorded the theme song.

Landsverk credits Low Bar with keeping him sane during the pandemic. It’s also helping keep Portland musicians solvent.

The sing-along is free, but they invite you to buy a “virtual drink,” leave a tip, or make a donation. Because so many people do, Low Bar can pay its musicians the fee they would make playing live.

“There are so many times that music has saved my life,” Landsverk says. “And this is one of them.” ANTHONY EFFINGER. SING: The Low Bar Chorale is joined by special guest LaRhonda Steele on Tuesday, Sept. 1. 7 pm. Stream at facebook.com/lowbarchorale.

CLEARING THE BAR: Ben Landsverk leading the Low Bar Chorale at Mississippi Studios.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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HIKE OF THE WEEK

ANDI PREWITT

GET...OUTSIDE?

Hitchhike to Heaven One of the Oregon Coast’s most divine hikes was, until recently, a local secret. It’s out now.

God’s Thumb and the Knoll Distance: About 5 miles Difficulty: Drive time from Portland: 1 hour, 45 minutes

THE BIG FONZARELLI: God’s Thumb in Lincoln City.

BY AN DI P R E W I T T

aprewitt@wweek.com

If there is a peak that juts conspicuously into the skyline near the Oregon Coast, chances are good there’s a well-worn trail leading to the top.

From the state’s tallest sand dune in Pacific City to the prominent bald summit of Saddle Mountain, these mighty mounds of earth call to adventurers, promising the satisfaction that comes with conquering any thigh-burner.

But there is a hulking hill that dominates the view in the northern part of Lincoln City that, until recently, few people outside the local population knew was crisscrossed by a patchwork of paths leading to two stunning grassy overlooks and an impressive pinnacle called God’s Thumb.

Why has the network of old road beds and trails sat largely undiscovered? The answer lies partially in the strange setting where you’ll start this nearly 5-mile balloon. You wouldn’t immediately know you’re even at a trailhead upon arrival, since the road to get there dead-ends at a cul-de-sac nestled in a neighborhood of neatly poured sidewalks and houseless lots overgrown with vegetation. It’s a scene from a post-apocalyptic sector of Lincoln City that officials seemingly forgot to cordon off.

The approximately 360-acre site is actually a failed development the city purchased for $2.5 million in 2013, which allowed for a trail easement and the posting of maps—albeit temporary, weathered and sometimes torn images at this point—to help keep visitors on the correct route and off private land.

Near the rear center of the cul-de-sac, you’ll find an alcove leading into the forest and, after a couple hundred feet, the first of a handful of signs with illustrated directions, though many junctions remain unmarked. There’s also an annotated list of some of the creatures that call the woods and meadows home, including coyotes, black-tailed deer and the Oregon silverspot—a threatened orange and brown butterfly with its namesake metallic color on the underside of its wings. If you look closely during this hike’s stretches of open grassland, you’re likely to catch sight of it.

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Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

But for the first mile or so, you’ll be far too busy dodging muddy trenches that range from “gooey annoyance” to “ankle deep” even during a dry spell. Fortunately, as you continue along your ascent, the patches of muck disappear.

At the top of the ridge, you’ll reach a fork.

Veer right to get to God’s Thumb. This is not a quick jaunt on a short spur to the hike’s highlight. Instead, you’ve got to dig in for about one more mile, first plunging sharply into a darkened forest of spindly alders and stocky hemlock before pushing up into a salt-spray meadow.

You’re now standing on a seaside bluff that’s regularly battered by high winds, which means only a few clusters of the hardiest trees can withstand the conditions. That leaves unobstructed views of Depoe Bay to the south on clear days and north to Cascade Head, a bulging cape carpeted in a similar shade of green that’s almost like looking in a mirror at the land you’re exploring.

The Thumb lies straight ahead—a sage-colored knob with a jagged brown cliff face that’s as far out as you can get on this outcropping without tumbling into the ocean. Formed tens of millions of years ago, what’s now a gnarled mound curving upward was originally part of a basalt dike. Waves will continue to whip away at the formation until, a few more million years from now, nothing but a sea stack should remain. If you decide to clamber up it, do so with an abundance of caution: A number of injuries have occurred at this spot.

With a spectacle so inspiring its name suggests that even the Almighty admires the view by extending an approving digit, any hiker would be happy to turn around here and call it a day.

But there is one more location offering a different panorama: Once you’ve returned to the fork, hang a left and you’ll quickly reach the Knoll, another grassy expanse where elk are known to make their beds at night. From here, the entire city is on display, including Devils Lake, which from the vantage point looks more like a pond.

As you take it in, think about the fact that for years, only locals knew how to get to such a beautiful place. Now you’re in on their secret.

Directions: From Portland, head south on Interstate 5 and take exit 294 for Oregon 99W Tigard/Newberg. Continue on 99W for about 15 miles until you reach North Springbrook Road at Newberg’s eastern end. Turn left there to reach the Oregon 18/Newberg-Dundee Bypass, then rejoin 99W/18. In a little more than 3 miles, veer left to stay on 18 and continue for 53 miles.

Merge onto US 101 south and turn right onto Northeast Devils Lake Boulevard on the northern end of Lincoln City. You’ll hit the cul-de-sac in a little more than a mile.

HIKE DIFFICULTY KEY Parks Scare Me Dirty Boots Weekend Warrior Sasquatch

N

Astoria

Seaside

Tillamook

Portland I-5 Tigard 99W

18 18 101 Lincoln City

God’s Thumb

Newberg

McMinnville

FOOD & DRINK WESLEY LAPOINTE

PATIO REVIEW

Haus Bound Zoiglhaus has a poppin’ patio, but they’re still figuring out what to do with it.

BY AN D I P R E W I T T

aprewitt@wweek.com

If the E-Z Ups are out, that’s a sure sign a good time is being had.

Think of all the occasions where the portable shelters are typically seen: camping trips, picnics, beer festivals. Now that bars and restaurants are taking over sidewalks and roads for safer pandemic dining, those instant awnings are becoming the design accessory of the summer.

At Zoiglhaus, they’re one of the defining features of the brewery’s new pop-up beer garden in deep Southeast Portland.

Originally dubbed “Zoigl-Lot Brew N’ Q,” it has seating spilling outside the warehouse-sized pub and onto Southeast Ramona Street in Lents. That’s where you’ll find what used to be a lane for vehicle parking now occupied by a row of yellow pine picnic tables purchased in a pinch from Lowe’s.

“They were delivered unfinished by a very helpful and friendly staff,” says Jason Frischetti, Zoiglhaus brand ambassador, “who fashioned them for umbrellas and put a finish on them.”

On a recent gusty Saturday afternoon, the bright blue E-Z Ups anchored to the wooden seating were the sturdier option for the assembled crowd—couples primarily, but also a few groups of friends from different households who found that sitting diagonally at opposite ends of the table a practical way to socialize while maintaining distance.

The setup is bare-bones compared to some patios that have materialized in recent weeks. You won’t find any potted plants, Instagrammable backdrops or embellished barriers between patrons and traffic—just orange cones. But such frippery isn’t characteristic of the gritty Lents neighborhood.

Editor: Matthew Singer / Contact: msinger@wweek.com Food & Drink Event Listings by Andi Prewitt / aprewitt@wweek.com

PATIO SPECS Number of tables: Eight picnic tables and four bistro tables Space between tables: 8 feet Additional safety measures: Hand sanitizer stations; single-use paper menus; seats are sanitized between each use.

Peak hours: 6-8 pm

Music plays on speakers, galvanized tubs are filled with cans of the brewery’s Hop on Top—a sassy, seasonal dry-hopped Pilsner—and someone oversees a smoker.

It’s just enough to transform the oilstained patch of concrete off 92nd Avenue into a breezy block party.

Sadly, the outdoor cooking portion of the shindig has come to an end.

“We took into account the revenue we were taking in compared to the overall cost,” Frischetti says. “Unfortunately, it just didn’t seem sustainable.”

Like other quick pivots in the era of COVID -19, the Brew N’ Q was fleeting, which is a shame. The experiment, which started in late June, seemed just weird enough to work: a German pub, known for its schnitzel and award-winning Zoigl-Pils, rolling out a Texas-sized feed of slow-roasted pork shoulder and charred spare ribs. The kitchen will now focus on its core menu and at some point down the road introduce a “hot sheet” with rotating specialty dishes. Hopefully, that includes some of the short-lived barbecue items, like the sloppy-good grilled corn, flavored with Hot Cheeto dust and smothered in chipotle aioli.

Once the downpours unleash this fall, Zoiglhaus’ tents will have to come down, perhaps temporarily halting the street celebrations in Lents. But if the brewery can work its way around a pandemic, surely it can handle some Oregon rain.

“Trying to come up with new ways to navigate service is very challenging, but we are used to being flexible and finding ways to make it work,” says general manager Andrea Kelsey. “It has actually been a valuable learning experience to completely redesign restaurant formats in a very short amount of time, and I have found it very interesting, even if it is stressful.”

EAT: Zoiglhaus Brewing, 5716 SE 92nd Ave., 971-339-2374 zoiglhaus.com.

4-9 pm daily.

JÄGERSCHNITZEL

DUNKELWEIZEN AND ZOIGL - PILS

TOP 5

Taquería los Puñales

HOT PLATES

3312 SE Belmont St., 503-2067233, lospunales.com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

This taco shop is not yet 2 months old, but it feels as if it’s been serving the Sunnyside neighborhood for years. Every tortilla is made in-house that day, stuffed with an array of guisados—complex braises of meats and vegetables, including carnitas, barbacoa and chicken tinga.

Where to eat this week.

Eem 3808 N Williams Ave., Suite 127, 971-295-1645, eemto-you.com.

The most talked-about Portland restaurant of 2019 had difficulty adjusting to the reality of COVID-19, but it seems to have found its footing in Phase 1 with a new grab-and-go window focused on its world-beating curries.

And if you manage to snag one of its still high-demand outdoor tables, ’tis the season for co-owner Eric Nelson’s hyper-creative cocktails.

Nacheaux 8145 SE 82nd Ave., 971-319-1134,nacheauxpdx. com. Noon-7 pm WednesdayThursday and Saturday, noon-8 pm Friday, Sunday, 9 am-3 pm.

At Anthony Brown’s garishly teal-colored food truck, Mexican favorites get hitched to Southern food and CajunCreole flavors. The “Nacheaux nachos” start with a big pile of fresh-fried chips and also feature carnitas that could just as easily be cochon au lait, while a cheesy “crunchwrap” comes stuffed with red beans, dirty rice and fried chicken.

TOP 5

BUZZ LIST

Where to drink outside this week.

Lady of the Mountain 100 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971345-2992, kexhotels.com/ eat-drink/ rooftop. 5-10 pm WednesdaySunday; last reservations taken at 8:30 pm. Brunch 10 am-1 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Icelandic boutique hotel Kex is one of those rare gems in the city with a rooftop oasis.

The list of wine, beer and cocktails is long, but to make things easy, just order the Pimm’s Cup: It’s like an adult snow cone, made with cucumber-infused gin.

TopWire Hop Project 8668 Crosby Road NE, Woodburn, 503982-5166, topwirehop.com. 11 am-8 pm Thursday and Sunday, 11 am-9 pm FridaySaturday.

The state’s most secretive beer garden is hidden among the crops at Crosby Hop Farm in Woodburn. Follow the half-mile gravel road that runs between the bines and you’ll wind up at a 40-foot-long shipping container repurposed as a serving

Magna 2525 SE Clinton St., 503-3958542, magnapdx.com.

It’s past time for a food city like Portland to have its own great Filipino restaurant, and one year ago, we got one.

Chef Carlo Lamagna’s dishes are both intimately familiar and achingly cool, with showstoppers like the crispy pata, or fried pork leg, and pancit bihon, the Filipino version of Chinese glass noodles.

Piggins 1239 SW Broadway, 503-2229070, higginsportland.com. 11:30 am-8 pm daily.

Piggins is the parkside pop-up patio reimagining of Higgins, a Portland dining landmark since 1994. The menu is effectively a greatest-hits package of some of the restaurant’s most beloved dishes with no big chances taken, no vast departures accorded. That’s a good thing.

station pouring 10 rotating taps exclusively featuring batches made with the hops growing around you.

Mississippi Pizza Pub’s Atlantis Annex 3560 N Mississippi Ave., mississippipizza. com. 5-9:30 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

With the supernatural-themed Psychic Bar holding off on reopening until next spring, neighborhood staple Mississippi Pizza Pub has expanded onto its patio, serving slushies and slices, and even holding socially distant concerts by local artists.

Jinx 3000 NE Killingsworth St., 503-288-8075, jinxpdx.com.

Though full of high-end culinary hot spots, Northeast Killingsworth and 30th Avenue offer little solace for house-bound punk parents in need of escape. Enter Jinx.

With a modestly priced kids’ menu, there’s plenty to keep the offspring occupied while unwinding with a $3 Miller High Life.

Revolution Hall 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, revolutionhall.com. Noon-10 pm daily.

The sound board remains off at Revolution Hall, but the Buckman concert venue opens its roof deck to reservations for anyone who wants to quaff a few cocktails while taking in arguably the best view the eastside has to offer.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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POTLANDER YVONNE PEREZ EMERSON (LEFT), RICHARD DARBONNE (RIGHT)

HIGH ON THE HOG: Yvonne Perez Emerson.

SOMETHING ABOUT MARY: Make & Mary’s new brick-and-mortar store.

Make Believe Make & Mary goes brick-and-mortar but keeps its crafty soul.

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

Only a few shelves line the stark white walls of Make & Mary’s newly opened flagship store on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Still, the vibe at the cannabis skin care boutique is notably luxurious.

The centerpieces are not towering retail displays or elaborate altars to normalized cannabis commerce but a teal velvet couch, a glossy coffee table shaped like the state of Oregon, a bright copper still, and a botanical mural that spans the shop’s street-facing accent walls.

It’s a look that’s very much on-brand. Make & Mary started in 2017 as a line of handmade, CBD-infused skin care, beauty and lifestyle products, founded by local art educator, designer and community organizer Yvonne Perez Emerson.

She began promoting the line with a series of DIY workshops, wherein attendees could learn how to create the same products she’d been making at home for much of her life. Make & Mary quickly evolved from homemade salves and candles to a singularly unique product line—aromatherapeutic cannabis inhalers, anyone?—now housed within an elegantly boutique brick-and-mortar.

Perez Emerson initially launched Make & Mary while serving as the founder and president of the local arts education nonprofit WeMake. She offered a heritage craft-making workshop series that incorporated cannabis both functionally and socially.

The handmade products took off among the mostly femme participants, and Perez Emerson leaned in, using her extensive design experience to build a holistic self-care brand around the established folk remedies of her youth.

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Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

“I’d moved my studio down to Tillamook Street and built out a gallery space for workshops and speakers,” Perez Emerson says. “And it was great. I started doing these workshops based on heritage craft-making and medicinal cannabis. I was using CBD because I had a bad sciatica, and I was getting a little older, so I started putting full-spectrum CBD oil into some of my formulations. I would bring them to my workshops and people loved them. Eventually, I was like, wait a minute: I really want to be a woman in cannabis.”

It was in 2019 when Perez Emerson took a definitive step toward realizing the full potential of Make & Mary.

She was among the first participants in the Initiative, an accelerator program focused on women-run cannabis businesses.

“While there, I was having a hard time talking about the brand, because I think I designed it for someone else,” she says. “I ride a motorcycle, I’m full of tattoos, I’m Hispanic. I need to be me. Initially, I think I designed it for the yoga mom who shopped at Whole Foods. But I do yoga high. So I redesigned the whole thing. When I drew the logo, I wanted it to feel mysterious. ‘Is this a mushroom or is this a vagina?’ I want it to be alluring but also very grounded.”

Then the pandemic happened.

With in-person workshops no longer viable, Perez Emerson entertained the idea of opening a physical storefront.

“I need to do something,” she says. “If I’m not making, I get sad, and that is not good for my mental health. And I’ve always wanted to do retail.”

The sandwich board that greets customers on the sidewalk outside the new Make & Mary suggests that beauty can be holistic, feminine and radical all at once. The space is airy, with exposed ceilings that support low-hanging pendulum light, and a high-gloss concrete floor that reflects brilliant white walls and the three shelving units that sit inside the store.

Each shelf is thoughtfully stocked with Make & Mary’s line, as well as select products from other BIPOC makers.

Lush green plants drip from otherwise negative spaces.

Perez Emerson hopes to one day offer plant starts alongside a growing inventory of handmade BIPOC products.

She also looks forward to hosting workshops as she once did at WeMake.

Among Make & Mary’s notable products are a duo of rose gold cannabis inhalers—slim, lipstick-shaped capsules filled with pink Himalayan sea salt that has been soaked in botanical and cannabis essential oils, meant to be inhaled deeply, aromatherapy style. There is a selection of CBD sticks, skin serums, roll-on oils, and a single pillar candle.

Each product is a symphony of layered aromatics that blends skunky cannabis notes with matching essential oil blends. The sticks and oils are designed for targeted muscle relief, while the serums are meant to be part of a skin care regimen. Even the fragrant candle melts away to leave you with a geometric stash jar that is both airtight and aesthetically pleasing.

The store is only a marginally scaled-up version of the process Perez Emerson has been using for much of her life. In fact, behind the shop’s wallpaper-precise accent mural is a small, modified office that serves as the official Make & Mary kitchen. It’s where Perez Emerson makes her candles, skin serums and salve sticks, many of which are also carried by department stores nationwide.

But global domination isn’t part of her plans.

“I rather like making it myself. I like being connected to it, you know?” she says. “Can I make 500 units in a day? Yes. Can I make a thousand units in a day? Yes. Do I want to make more than that? No. I don’t want to do that because to scale that quickly you have to get funding, so you have to go fundraise. And I don’t like asking people for money, and I don’t know a lot of rich people. There’s something about building it on your own.”

SHOP: Make & Mary, 2506 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-444-7608, makeandmary.com. 10 am-6 pm Tuesday-Friday, 10 am-4 pm Saturday.

MUSIC ANDREA BOHON

Have the songs on All My Friends Are Ghosts been percolating all this while or is this fairly new material?

It’s a combination of the two. There’s stuff that was taking up room in the attic a little bit. I didn’t want to sell it or give it away. I had to use it. Then I was writing literally while we were recording. Just to remind myself that I could write stuff that was coming from a more current perspective. And I was really interested in seeing how well everything dovetailed, and I think it did. There’s a continuity that runs all the way through it.

A number of songs on the new album reckon with the deaths of friends and family members. Having dealt with that, as well as your cancer diagnosis in 2013, are you better equipped to deal with your own mortality?

I think so. Everything has an equal and opposite reaction.

If you get the shit scared out of you, presumably there’s an equivalent positive message in that. It’s very liberating to have gone through some of the steps of coming to terms with mortality. Cancer was a big step in shaking my awareness about a lot of things. I’m really thankful for that. Do I want to drop dead next week? Not really. I’m having a pretty great time.

Ghosts ends with the song “Be Happy Today.” Was it important to wrap up the album on a positive note like that?

My idea was that I’m writing all these songs about these heavy subjects, I think it would be really awesome to write a song that was about as happy as I could make it—with whistling and handclaps and the whole thing. But if you listen to the lyrics, it’s still concerned with, “Enjoy it while you can.” Regardless of my intent, I’m still wrestling with these ideas of inevitable change, but trying to find a bit more of a hopeful message in that.

Enjoy It While You Can PHOTO: Caption tktktk

In the past two decades, Pete Krebs battled cancer, lost loved ones, taught guitar and played with a lot of bands. Now, finally, he’s recorded a new album.

BY R OB E RT H A M

@roberthamwriter

It’s been nearly 20 years since Portland singer-songwriter Pete Krebs has released an album of original songs under his own name. But that doesn’t mean the two-time Oregon Music Hall of Fame inductee has spent the past two decades just sitting around the house—only the last five months.

Until the coronavirus put a halt to all live performances, Krebs, 53, was a fixture at bars around town with regular gigs playing everything from gypsy jazz to country swing to psych folk—a far cry from his days leading Sub Pop-signed indie power trio Hazel in the ’90s. When he’s not performing, he’s teaching guitar to students of all ages, and keeping up his own studies of the instrument.

In the time since the release of his last solo album, 2002’s Know by Heart, Krebs has also had a lot of personal issues to wrestle with. He was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2013—the second time he’s battled cancer in his life— the treatment for which took him out of the game for a number of months.

You’ve been studying guitar for some time now. Do you still feel like you have more to learn about your chosen instrument?

Oh, absolutely. It’s the kind of thing that you can just dig deeper and deeper and deeper into. You explore this big room and you realize how big the room is. That’s one where I wish I was 25 again, so I could have all this extra time to explore. It’s never ending and that’s what I like about it. I’m lucky enough to have something in my life that really intrigues me on an emotional level and an intellectual level—and that I can pretty much do until my fingers stop working or my brain stops firing.

The impact of his health scare and the loss of loved ones—both blood relatives and members of his musical family—is felt throughout All My Friends Are Ghosts, the new LP by Krebs and his backing band, the Gossamer Do you have any sense of what comes next for you?

Wings, out Aug. 29, a day before his Are you working on new mate54th birthday. But the album isn’t a rial or just waiting until things despairing one. The warm mix of Texopen up and you can start play“Cancer was a big step in Mex country, folk pop and reverbing gigs again? shaking my awareness about a soaked waltzes is almost defiant in For most of my adult life, I played lot of things. I’m really thankful its joy and humility. Of course, Krebs 200 to 250 gigs a year. I’ve played for that. Do I want to drop misses his drinking buddies, and one gig in the last five and a half dead next week? Not really. I’m the parental figure that inspired the months, and that was last night. cock-eyed “Brightest Stars,” but he That really does a number on having a pretty great time.” knows he’d be doing their memories a how you’re able to define yourself. disservice by continuing to wallow in When I look to the future, there’s —Pete Krebs their absence. enough uncertainty that I just WW caught up with Krebs in a want to focus on what’s right in break between guitar lessons to learn front of me. And that’s working more about the songs on Ghosts, his lifelong study of the with my students and continuing to teach privately and guitar and facing mortality in his 40s. doing my own geeky study of old music and trying to be better at my craft. Learning something without the WW: Was it surprising to realize that it had been influence of employment or commerce being part of my almost two decades since you released any new music decision. Or I’ll do something else and go out in a blaze of as Pete Krebs? glory.

Pete Krebs: I mean, it’s not like I stopped being a musician. I just felt like I was on a loop and I needed to get out of that loop. So my solution was to take the time to equip myself to be able to play music for a living. Up to that point, I was kind of cobbling it together. I wanted to learn how to play the guitar better and solidify my life a little bit more and…grow up, really. I didn’t really want to coast on HEAR IT: Pete Krebs’ All My Friends Are Ghosts is out the fumes of what I had done in my 20s.

Saturday, Aug. 29, on Cavity Search Records.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com ANTIGONE TRAILER

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COVID-19 put a touring production of Antigone on hold, so the director decided to film it inside Wapato Jail instead.

BY JAY HORTON

@hortland

As with practically every theater company across the country this past spring, the Northwest Classical Theatre Collaborative’s scheduled shows were all canceled in the wake of the COVID -19 pandemic. Following recent productions of An Iliad and Three Sisters, new adaptations of works by Homer and Anton Chekov, respectively, the acclaimed troupe was preparing to open another modern take of a classic: Sophocles’ immortal tragedy Antigone. The touring production was supposed to launch in April at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, then continue to play at other nontraditional venues, like homeless service agencies and rural schools, to reach culturally underserved people.

But the entire project was put on hold—until just a couple of weeks ago.

After months of trying to figure out how to go on with the show, director Patrick Walsh partnered with Portland’s Desert Island Studios to film Antigone, which will then be distributed to prisons, shelters and schools for screenings. Production took place Aug. 22-23 at Wapato, the jail built by Multnomah County that was never used.

As Walsh and his frequent collaborator Paul Susi (who plays Kreon) told WW shortly before the coronavirus stalled their slate of presentations, exposing incarcerated audiences to art is only the start of their mission.

WW: Why did you choose to stage Antigone?

Patrick Walsh: Our last performance of An Iliad was at [women’s prison] Coffee Creek Correctional. It was amazing but, you know, very heavily male-centric. So, I started to think about giving these women stories with a strong female protagonist. How great would it be if our male audiences had the chance to empathize with a strong female heroine, which doesn’t happen much in present-day literature, let alone classic drama? We’re doing the West Coast premiere of a translation by Anne Carson. She’s a brilliant poet and classicist and, the best part, a female, so the play is seen through that lens. There are very few widely available translations done by women, so to have that is just fantastic. The language is very modern, very urgent.

What is the message of the adaptation?

Walsh: Strip away plot mechanics and the play questions personal responsibility when somebody knows the right thing to do but doesn’t want to die for speaking out against unjust laws. Antigone wants to bury her brother. It’s all about conflict after a very long war.

People are fighting for recognition and dominance, and I think that will be really interesting for our audience to investigate.

Paul Susi: Why is she punished for loyalty to her dead brother? Why does she have to be responsible for all these traumas that she has inherited? What are your debts to family and feminism, and your own conscience? They’re all juicy, challenging topics, and we’re able to go there because it’s classical theater.

What are your audiences like?

Walsh: If I’m being honest, there really wasn’t much of a difference between the reactions of culturally underserved audiences and somebody at a normal theater, but I would say our best receptions were at the most restrictive places—maximum security, homeless shelters. I think we realized that breaking down these walls was actually part of the project.

Susi: With An Iliad, I was certainly worried about how these ancient Greek names related to day-to-day life in prison, but we actually found that the adaptation by Denis O’Hare and Lisa Peterson takes The Iliad out of time. By focusing on Achilles and Hector, the story’s really about examining cycles of rage and violence.

How can gods or heroes or anyone break those cycles?

That becomes something every Oregon community’s wrestling with right now. How do I get out of my own temper, my own addictions? It’s similar with Antigone.

Are there any concerns about safety when you perform at these venues?

Walsh: Our actors aren’t worried. We had some preconceived notions of people in prison, but we quickly realized those fears were pretty unfounded. There’s going to be corrections officers in the room, obviously, and you have to be at a certain level within the institution to be able to attend a performance like this. We’re not getting guys who were in the hole, you know? The people who signed up were really game for the experience.

Susi: Between my background in social services and work with at-risk youth in places like MacLaren Correctional Facility, I was pretty familiar with the world of incarcerated populations. If anything, I’m prejudiced against the more reputable companies in town charging $100 a ticket. Culture becomes a museum piece in those spaces. People are separated from emotional truth and authenticity because they’re looking at costumes and lights and the fancy lobby sponsored

by U.S. Bank or Wells Fargo. When barriers of privilege are gone, we fundamentally share the play together because of choice. These prisoners do not have to come to the show. We don’t have to go into a prison. But we are choosing to affirm our common humanity. That gesture, just showing up for one another, is where the work really begins.

BOOKS VA N E S S A V E S E L K A

Is it strange to have this epic, off-road book released in this moment when so few of us can travel?

It is a really strange thing. What Cheyenne says in the book is that she has plenty of freedom, what she wants is liberation. Whereas with Livy, she wants freedom. I think a lot about the difference between freedom and liberation.

We have the freedom to buy whatever bad, sugary breakfast cereal we want in 20 different flavors, but it’s not really freedom.

How did you approach writing about life in poverty?

I don’t think we can write about America without writing about money. I wanted to write about it in the way that I’ve experienced it before and also in the way that I’ve seen other people experience it, where what you want to do is a simple thing—you want to get from point A to point B—but because you don’t have any money, it sets off this series of absurd and stupid problems that you have to solve. I feel sometimes like it gets depicted with a sentimentality, or it gets depicted with a distaste for the hustle side of it.

Interstate Love Song In her new novel, Portland author Vanessa Veselka shows that the hero’s journey is not exclusive to the wealthy—or men.

BY S CO UT B R O B ST

@scout_brobst

For eight years, Portland author Vanessa Veselka has been working on an unsentimental love letter to America.

The first sentences of The Great Offshore Grounds, Veselka’s first novel since 2011’s Zezen, were written at Joshua Tree, Calif., as the shooting at Sandy Hook took place in Connecticut. Later chapters came in the wake of Ferguson, Mo., and the killing of Eric Garner by New York City police. Life stopped and started the novel at different moments, as Veselka reevaluated what it meant to write about the United States—and to write fiction—in the midst of political turmoil.

The result is the story of two sisters, Cheyenne and Livy, and their dysfunctional constellation of a family—an absent father, New Age mother and adopted brother. As the sisters negotiate the terms of their identity, they are drawn from the underbelly of Seattle to the coast of Alaska in a sweeping epic for the modern age.

The novel has won praise from authors across genre, with Roxane Gay crowning the book a “magnificent beast of a novel” and local luminary Lidia Yuknavitch calling it the “best damn story of women who forge their identities on their own terms” that she’s read in years. In the literary world, you can throw a stone and hit a book that sees a man finding himself somewhere on the Interstate Highway System. Veselka offers an alternative for women who are not wealthy, not fleeing trauma and—as she puts it—not traveling across the country to “do a blog.”

WW: When we talk about the “hero’s journey,” nomadic carelessness and spontaneity is usually reserved for men. What did it mean for you to explore that with two sisters?

Vanessa Veselka: This idea of the road as a space of becoming is denied women in a very profound way. We have this idea that when a man steps onto the road, his life begins. And we have this idea that when a woman steps onto the road, her life ends. She’ll end up in a ditch. There is that way in which that space of quest is never given to women.

There is a tremendous amount of vulnerability in poverty when you are a woman, and some of that involves sexual violence. Was that always going to be a guiding force in the novel?

The truth is that a lot of women who are upper middle class or are in more protected, elite environments, they experience sexual abuse and molestation just like women who are poor. But there is a big difference. For women in a certain economic echelon, getting raped is maybe something that happened in college, or it happened in a certain setting. They might have the resources for counseling. But for the poorest women in America, it’s a bad Friday night.

The simple idea that there is somebody who’s going to do something about it changes everything you do and how you tell yourself that story.

On the flip side, you write about depending on the kindness of strangers. Why did you want to include these moments of optimism?

A lot of those moments are drawn from my own experiences, that kind of bare human kindness. The way that people make room in their messy lives for you to have a small place in the corner if you need to—there’s an incredible generosity in that. I’ve experienced it and I’ve seen it, and I hope that I can contribute to it.

Did your feelings about our country change over the course of writing this novel?

I struggle with America. There is no “I’m gonna go to Canada” for me, because it’s like leaving the scene of a crime.

I’m here, I’m part of this country, I have a responsibility to this country, and I’m also very conflicted about it. I was playing through parts of this book with this concept of exceptionalism, because on the one hand it’s the worst idea in the world that’s caused unending harm. On the other hand, I love the idea that something can be made anew. One of the things I asked myself very deeply while writing was, “How can you love America?” And it’s not like I have an answer. I do believe in the American project. I can’t make a perfect argument for it, and I certainly can’t use history to defend it. But I do believe in it.

MORE: Powell’s Books presents Vanessa Veselka in conversation with Kristen Arnett at 5 pm Wednesday, Aug. 26, on Zoom. Go to powells.com/eventsupdate for registration information.

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

A Back-to-School Reading List for Adults Migrations, Charlotte McConaghy Slotted in the genre dubbed “literary eco-fiction,” Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations is a novel that’s as much a cautionary tale of a warming world as a love story. Franny Stone has roamed free her whole life, only to arrive in remote Greenland with the intention of tracking the last flock of Arctic terns. She charms her way onto a boat, pursuing her mission alongside a crew of eccentric fishermen who fold into the existential migration she begins herself. “If I were capable of staying any place, it might be here,” McConaghy writes. “But the birds won’t stay, and neither will I.”

Journeys North, Barney Mann Few know the inner workings of the Pacific Crest Trail like Barney “Scout” Mann. A veteran backpacker, he took to the trail in 2007, walking the continuous line from Mexico to Canada over the course of five months. In the years since, he has hiked through the Rockies and Appalachia, bearing witness to the spectacle of nature and the grit of human persistence.

Journeys North brings readers onto the trail with a half-dozen hikers, telling their stories of love, loss and irrepressible determination.

Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Saidiya Hartman In Wayward Loves, Beautiful Experiments, writer Saidiya Hartman recovers the experiences of young Black women at the turn of the 20th century, a community whose interest in free love and nontraditional relationships underscored—and guided—the changing status of marriage and gender in the American zeitgeist. Hartman’s book defies genre and the lens of its predecessors, critically examining the way things were and the reasons we reject that reality today through discussions on “riotous Black girls, troublesome women and queer radicals.”

The Smallest Lights in the Universe, Sara Seager Sara Seager has the dream job of elementary school students and science fiction devotees everywhere.

She is an astrophysicist, spending her days combing the abyss for exoplanets—those worlds outside of our solar system we would like to believe sustain life. In her memoir, Seager draws the extraterrestrial close to the earthly, meditating on a sky brimming with possibility in the wake of her husband’s unexpected death.

“I’d spent my entire life searching for lights in the dark,” she writes in the prologue. “Now I could only see the blackness that surrounded them.”

Show Them You’re Good, Jeff Hobbs In his latest work, author Jeff Hobbs balances the individual with the systemic, following four teenage boys who are seniors at different high schools in the city of Los Angeles. One is the son of undocumented delivery workers who sets his sights on the Ivy League, another has aspirations of a career in engineering. One struggles to manage the expectations of a highly academic family, while another cannot bring himself to take his academic life seriously. Show Them You’re Good is an immersive look at the paths we have access to and the limitations of a system that prides itself on opportunity.

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

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MOVIES

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com IN FRANCE MICHELLE IS A MAN’S NAME

SCREENER

TRUCK YEAH: Filmmakers had a tricky time finding this pickup for a specific scene in rural Oregon last year.

Go West An Oregon-shot short about a transgender man’s homecoming debuts this week at Los Angeles’ Outfest.

BY C H A N C E SO L E M - P F E I FER

@chance_s_p

In France Michelle Is a Man’s Name opens on a butt. Seen via sustained tracking shot, it’s a butt of unremarkable shape—attached to a trucker, resting in denim—walking a pair of legs into a gas station restroom. “[That] was based on the Western shot of the guy with the holster, but…you don’t realize you’re just staring at Clint Eastwood’s ass the whole time,” says writer-director Em Weinstein, who filmed their sophomore short in The Dalles, Tygh Valley, Dufur and Portland last September and will see it premiere at Los Angeles’ Outfest on Aug. 27.

Once in the restroom, the trucker squares up to a urinal, and there’s a brief but banal moment of frontal nudity.

Meanwhile, our protagonist Michael (Ari Damasco), a transgender man, exits the restroom, walking past the trucker, and the actual plot begins. Whose body the audience saw right there says a great deal.

“It’s not that I wanted to objectify [the truck driver] but just turn the gaze around a bit,” Weinstein says. “This is also a body in the way all these other bodies are.”

Simultaneously, Weinstein subverts expectations, demystifies a politicized space and waves the audience along toward the more important parts of this character study—Michael revisiting his childhood home in the rural West.

“I think one of the peculiarities about being a cis male person, or a masculine person in the world, even myself, is you’re so rarely…objectified,” says Weinstein, who was raised half their childhood in The Dalles, writes and directs theater in New York City, and identifies as nonbinary.

Mostly, In France traces a trans homecoming, parsing what Weinstein describes as the “very vast gap” between acceptance from a parent versus being truly seen. Gestures of support can be ill-conceived, like when Michael’s father (Jerry Carlton) orchestrates a bonding trip, filmed at Portland’s famous Mary’s Club.

“So many of [Ari’s and my] experiences have lived somewhere in those messy attempts of a parent to under32

Willamette Week AUGUST 26, 2020 wweek.com

stand their child,” Weinstein says. “I suppose the sad doomed fate of any parent is that they’re going to misunderstand their child.”

Weinstein’s prior short film, Candace, which won Best Film in the American Pavilion Emerging LGBTQ Filmmakers Showcase at 2018’s Cannes Film Festival, also ripples with personal history, but In France marks an escalation in cinematography, scale and deftness of storytelling. Among its best qualities is the ability to layer commentary, while never painting over Michael as a character.

As for the lead performance, Damasco plays Michael with a tender composure, the hardest kind to maintain because family is involved.

There are glimmers of hope for Michael’s parents, just as the redder parts of Oregon treated Weinstein and their “very queer, very trans” film crew with overwhelming hospitality. Even in vulnerable circumstances—like say, a 6 am announcement in a Tygh Valley diner that you really need to borrow someone’s vintage pickup for shooting that day—the surprises were positive.

“We found the truck from this really sweet guy who owns a repair shop,” Weinstein says. “That was the entire experience: people coming out of the woodwork and lending a hand, being helpful and tolerant. It gave me a lot of hope.”

If the future keeps unfolding as kindly as it did during the making of In France, Weinstein could become a returning Oregon filmmaker. Weinstein is developing a TV pilot they say they’d love to shoot here. Plus, there’s a feature-length draft of In France in the works, building on Western road trip elements and a father-son rescue mission. For the time being, Weinstein is back on the East Coast, but Oregon continues to beckon.

“I remember being a freshman in high school and not even knowing I wanted to be a filmmaker,” Weinstein says, “but still imagining the films I wanted to make about Oregon.”

SEE IT: In France Michelle Is a Man’s Name streams at outfest.org through Aug. 30.

GET YO UR REPS I N While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. This week, we highlight the action genre in honor of the streaming debut of what is easily the year’s best blockbuster (so far): Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020) A refreshing departure from the male gaze of Suicide Squad, director Cathy Yan’s take on the misunderstood antiheroine Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) finds her carving out a new identity after a messy breakup with the Joker. Now she teams up with an all-lady crew to take down a sadistic club owner (Ewan McGregor, hamming it up in the best possible way). Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Go, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube.

John Wick: Chapter 3–Parabellum (2019) Keanu Reeves stars as the titular John Wick, an excommunicado assassin on the run from a bevy of bounty hunters. Coordinated by the director’s own stunt company (the same one hired for Birds of Prey), the high-octane action is relentlessly satisfying, relying on respectable martial arts instead of repetitious explosions and lazily choreographed gunfights. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Go, HBO Max, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube.

Mission: Impossible–Fallout (2018) In the most critically acclaimed installment in the seven-film (and counting!) franchise, our hero Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and the IMF team engage in a race against time to stop a dangerous extremist from acquiring nuclear weapons. Worth watching for Cruise’s trademark frenzied running, the unbelievable stunt work, and Henry Cavill reloading his arms. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube.

Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) Quentin Tarantino’s slick homage to samurai cinema centers on a deadly assassin (Uma Thurman) who, after awakening from a four-year coma, swears bloody vengeance against her former team who put her there.

Volume 1’s main antagonist is not Bill but O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu), and it all culminates in one of the most unforgettable showdowns in cinema history. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Max, Hulu, Showtime, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube.

Hanna (2011)

Saoirse Ronan can do it all: serious period pieces, contemporary romcoms and even artsy action. Here, she plays an isolated 16-year-old trained from birth to be the perfect assassin. Now ready to enter the real world, she sets out on a cat-and-mouse journey across Europe to take down a malevolent FBI agent (Cate Blanchett) and her mercenary (underrated character actor Tom Hollander). Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Go, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

V U LT U R E . C O M

MOVIES TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

She Dies Tomorrow Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) knows for a fact that she’s going to die tomorrow. She’s seen things. Heard things.

She knows. Obviously, her best friend Jane (Jane Adams) doesn’t believe her at first. But then Jane begins having the same ominous visions. Now, Jane knows for a fact that she’s going to die tomorrow. As does Jane’s brother (Chris Messina), and his wife, and her friends, etc., etc. In most mainstream thrillers, we’d probably see the characters team up to fight death, but writer-director Amy Seimetz is detached from narrative convention, and her kaleidoscopic sophomore feature is, honestly, a lot less thrilling than it sounds. This is by no means a negative—it’s contemplative and challenging, harnessing dread from the fatal contagion of existentialist-fueled anxiety. In Seimetz’s neon-soaked world, death is a natural process, something to resign to instead of futilely resist. Though some viewers may find the aimless ambiguity baffling, this is a film to fully feel with all senses—to marinate in—rather than agonize over the intentional lack of logic and answers. Anxiety itself is often irrational, so this is Seimetz’s impressionistic response to that all too ubiquitous frustration. Embrace it.

R. MIA VICINO. 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 Boys State Politics makes strange bedfellows, and as the new VOD release Boys State showcases, large-scale political simulations bring about some weirdass dormmates. The documentary by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, the married couple behind 2014’s Sundance-winning The Overnighters, follows an engaging quartet—Reaganobsessed double-amputee Ben, loquacious Chicago expat Rene, hunky silver-spooner Robert, and progressive Mexican American Steven—among the 1,100 teens invited to participate in Texas’ 78th annual Boys State.

Remarkably, apart from some sneering glimpses of a young Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and other members of the literal old boys’ club, the camera rarely stops to relish the scenes of future policy wonks at the peak of teenage awkwardness. Considering that the documentary opens with a George Washington quote warning us about the tyranny of political parties and features spliced footage of a raccoon sifting through garbage, the filmmakers appear helplessly drawn to the nihilist joys of rooting on participants as they fashion fake platforms to sell fake campaigns for a fake governorship in a manner that is troublingly real. And while Robert’s exceedingly electable brand of swagger is surely intended as a cautionary tale, there’s no reason why natural charisma should be any worse a qualification for leadership than instinctive talents for demagoguery or manipulation. Even if this game isn’t rigged, the best players feel inherently suspect, nevertheless.

PG-13. JAY HORTON. AppleTV+.

A Girl Missing With the revenge preoccupations of Park Chan-wook but the no-frills living-room style of Ken Loach, Japanese writer-director Koji Fukada makes movies about the echoes of guilt. The successor to his 2016 high-water mark Harmonium, A Girl Missing witnesses the unraveling and transformation of a devoted nurse named Ichiko (played by Fukada

SHE DIES TOMORROW favorite Mariko Tsutsui) into a lonely woman about town. Her character shift is brought on by Ichiko’s nephew dispassionately abducting the granddaughter of a patient, but this kidnapping mystery is only the initial thread in one of 2020’s knottiest films. As with Harmonium, Fukada entrenches audiences in the darkest possible subject matter but omits violence or action that could rack up points for shock, style or catharsis.

His tastes are unflappably drab.

Meanwhile, Mariko is outstanding as a trusting woman realizing too late that accusations about the kidnapping are rippling her way. For the most part, A Girl Missing is a writing achievement.

At only 40, Fukada seems a whisker away from resounding international acclaim, but he keeps stiff-arming audiences back from any version of narrative or experiential gratification.

Still, if you dig a fathoms-deep script about guilt coming home to roost, consider this a loud but conflicted endorsement. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Virtual Cinema.

A Thousand Cuts If it’s felt as though democracy has been on the ropes this month, this year, this century, A Thousand Cuts is a harrowing snapshot of its knockout.

Since President Rodrigo Duterte’s election in 2016, the Philippines’ “War on Drugs” has effectively given the federal government carte blanche to execute anyone suspected of dealing or using narcotics. In A Thousand Cuts, director Ramona S. Diaz turns her lens on the beleaguered Philippine free press illuminating that state violence—mostly Maria Ressa, CEO of the journalism website Rappler and Time’s Person of the Year in 2018. (Ressa is currently appealing a conviction for “cyber-libel” that Reporters Without Borders has deemed “Kafkaesque.”)

The most tragic and canny component of Diaz’s documentary is simply its demonstration of how unpopular journalists are in a country where propaganda has accelerated through social media at an unprecedented pace.

Sure, Ressa procures Amal Clooney’s personal email in one slightly hopeful scene, but Diaz shrewdly cuts back to a rally of several thousand Duterte supporters bellowing for a strongman

who freely jokes about rape and turns murder into explicit federal policy. It’s a terrifying reminder for pro-democracy advocates to act now. Because once one side is unpacking publishing principles and the other is wholly comfortable with bloodshed, it’s probably too late. NR. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Cinema 21 Virtual Cinema.

Martin Margiela: In His Own Words No matter how often haute couture may borrow from Hollywood imagery, the silver screen rarely flatters our more fashion-forward designers. Films about the people behind the big-name clothing labels tend to accentuate their most cartoonish eccentricities—showing so-called visionaries leaning into the silliest flourishes of their own branding with a grim determination that borders on self-parody. The same cannot be said about the new documentary Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, which examines the career of the famously private avant-garde Belgian style icon, who abruptly left his own studio after his final 2008 show. The film does present an engaging opportunity to evade Zoolandrian caricature when fleshing out a designer known for his deconstructive strategies steeped in found-object whimsy—he has turned everything from a leather butcher’s apron to a broken dish into high fashion. And Margiela’s participation as narrator allows for thoughtful reflection and, since only his hands are shown, keeps the fashion world’s answer to Banksy wrapped in an air of mystery. However, director Reiner Holzemer never bothers to speculate how his subject’s guiding passions interrelate, resulting in a portrait that’s never quite as lively or unconventional as Margiela’s creations. For all but the most hardcore fashionista superfans, less really isn’t more this time. NR. JAY HORTON. Virtual Cinema.

Random Acts of Violence Serving as a fixture in the Apatow universe, directing a Canadian hockey comedy, and acting as lead

voice in the How to Train Your Dragon franchise, Jay Baruchel has a career that’s pleasantly odd—and growing odder. For his second outing as director, Baruchel helms the Shudder original horror film Random Acts of Violence, a jittery and disjointed adaptation of the 2010 graphic novel. The rapidly escalating yarn follows comic book artist Todd (Jesse Williams, Grey’s Anatomy) and his partner Kathy (Jordana Brewster, the Fast & Furious franchise) as they road-trip into the Great Lakes boonies. There, Todd seeks to conclude his Slasherman series once and for all, while Kathy reports on the serial murders that inspired the comics. And, would you believe it, people start dying gruesomely. Mirrored in Todd and Kathy’s relationship, the film’s most interesting feature, by far, reckons with artistic exploitation versus victim-oriented journalism. Through a self-aware script and Williams’ agitated performance, Random Acts suggests a long look in the mirror that almost any crime story (true or not) could stand to take in 2020. Ultimately though, this 80-minute bloodbath is more entrails than brains or, worse yet, actual scares. Plots are gonna plot, and contrivances about the killer’s interest in Todd and vice versa all but mutilate its knotty potential. NR. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Shudder.

Rebuilding Paradise When he’s directing fiction, Ron Howard’s voice tends to be that of a centrist dad: Obstacles loom impossibly large in movies like Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, but that’s what makes these men’s jobs worth doing, kids.

Howard takes pretty much the same stance in his documentary Rebuilding Paradise, sifting through the ashes of a 2018 inferno that consumed Paradise, Calif., claiming 85 lives and leaving little standing. Like all Howard efforts, except maybe that Grinch remake, Rebuilding Paradise clings to the best intentions, and it’s more emotive than inquisitive. The documentary’s favorite refrain is that the Paradise residents didn’t just lose homes, they lost home.

That’s a powerful and worthy sentiment the first few times, but Howard’s tendency to bask in the Rockwellian

fantasy of this lost community clearly takes precedence over more hardnosed insights on lawsuits against the electric company PG&E, regional and international climate concerns, and relevant Indigenous history in Butte County. The documentary actually tips its hat to all three of those ideas, which only really serves to highlight the more melodramatic approach. In interviews, Howard has called himself merely a “wannabe journalist.” He’s being humble, of course, but with this documentary, it shows. PG-13.

CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. rebuildingparadise.film.

Words on Bathroom Walls Adam Petrazelli (Charlie Plummer) is, for the most part, an average teenager. He dreams of being a chef, cooks for his divorced mother (Molly Parker), and crushes on his cute tutor, Maya (Taylor Russell). At the same time, he has chronic hallucinations caused by schizophrenia. His new medication seems to be working at first, but when he begins to experience detrimental side effects, Adam must decide what’s most important: his sanity, his relationship with Maya, or his culinary aspirations. Based on Julia Walton’s eponymous novel, this coming-of-age drama is at its best when it’s poking holes in the self-flagellating and false ideation that those who struggle with mental illness don’t deserve love. It’s an all-too-common burden to bear and quite an interesting one to explore, even if it occasionally feels crafted by and for people without mental disorders. For example, the over-the-top visualization of schizophrenia reads as inaccurate, and the three people Adam constantly hallucinates (a bohemian hippie girl, an often-shirtless playboy, and a raging bodybuilder) are stereotypical archetypes. Despite these trite flaws, the saccharine story itself is a valiant effort that could provide much-needed validation for alienated teens grappling with similar issues. PG-13. MIA VICINO. Virtual Cinema.

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JONESIN’

Week of September 3

©2020 Rob Brezsny

by Matt Jones

"Mental Blocks" - The answers will fall in line. [#177, Nov. 2004]

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

"A new idea is rarely born like Venus attended by graces. More commonly it’s modeled of baling wire and acne. More commonly it wheezes and tips over." Those words were written by Aries author Marge Piercy, who has been a fount of good new ideas in the course of her career. I regard her as an expert in generating wheezy, fragile breakthroughs and ultimately turning them into shiny, solid beacons of revelation. Your assignment in the coming weeks, Aries, is to do as Piercy has done so well.

I propose we resurrect the old English word "museful."

First used in the 17th century but then forgotten, it meant "deeply thoughtful; pensive." In our newly coined use, it refers to a condition wherein a person is abundantly inspired by the presence of the muse.

I further suggest that we invoke this term to apply to you Libras in the coming weeks. You potentially have a high likelihood of intense communion with your muses. There's also a good chance you'll engage with a new muse or two. What will you do with all of this illumination and stimulation?

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) "Every day I discover even more beautiful things," said painter Claude Monet. "It is intoxicating me, and I want to paint it all. My head is bursting." That might seem like an extreme state to many of us. But Monet was a specialist in the art of seeing. He trained himself to be alert for exquisite sights. So his receptivity to the constant flow of loveliness came naturally to him.

I bring this to your attention, Taurus, because I think that in the coming weeks, you could rise closer to a Monet-like level of sensitivity to beauty. Would that be interesting to you? If so, unleash yourself! Make it a priority to look for charm, elegance, grace, delight, and dazzlement.

51 It may be hard to follow

25 "She ___ Wrong"

1 Like blue material

52 Own (up)

26 Closet organizer, maybe

5 More up to the task

54 Get to the poi?

27 Daughter of Muhammad

10 Curtain holder

55 What you should hear in the background as you're solving/playing

28 Pertaining to a radioactive element

60 Pilgrimage to Mecca

30 Roofing goo

13 Cookie with a Thin Crisps variety 14 Really bad invitation turnout 15 "H to the ___ ..." (Jay-Z lyric)

63 Kirsten of "Wimbledon" 64 Word after guard or third

29 ___ the altar 32 Lawyer/novelist who wrote "Presumed Innocent"

16 Farm structure

65 Gore, as distinguished from his father

35 Keanu, in "The Matrix"

17 Destines to destruction

66 Clear a videotape

18 Deride loudly

67 Mixture

40 Web page for newbies

19 Set of which all seven elements are fittingly hidden in the grid

68 Rule opposed by Gandhi

22 Org. taken over by Mahmoud Abbas in November 2004

69 German dissents 70 Word repeated in an NPR game show title

38 Screw-up 43 The ___ Dolls (cabaret/ punk band) 45 Former MTV personality Daisy 48 Guarantee 50 "Who's ready?" response

23 Those, in Toledo

DOWN

53 Cedars-___ (L.A. hospital)

24 Campus activist gp. of the 1960s

1 Dominic Monaghan TV show

55 ___ Nabisco (bygone corporation)

27 Problem for a valet

3 Whipping reminder

31 Popular place to hang out

4 They may show actors' or doctors' names

33 Base x height / 2, for a triangle 34 Bread served with vindaloo 36 He said "Say hello to my little friend!"

37 Heavy president and family 39 Court figure 41 Drill bit, usually 42 Mean 44 Big galoot 46 Namer of Einstein as Person of the Century

2 Buffalo's lake

56 Part of AMA 57 Room in a Spanish house 58 4, on some clocks

5 Et cetera

59 Form a scab

6 Betty of cartoons

60 Belly laugh sound

7 King of Katzenstein, in a Dr. Seuss story

61 Pie ___ mode

8 Fit together 9 Fix a botched job at BaskinRobbins, e.g.

10 Wu-Tang member aka Bobby Digital 11 ___fest (Osbourne-hosted tour) 12 Egg carton amt.

47 She played Ferris Bueller's girlfriend

15 1040 org.

49 One who gives up too easily

21 Abbr. on a cornerstone

20 Under the weather 24 Pep rally intangible

©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.

62 Monogram of Peter Parker's publisher boss, in "Spider-Man"

last week’s answers

Each of us has a "soul's code": a metaphorical blueprint of the beautiful person we could become by fulfilling our destiny. If our soul's code remains largely dormant, it will agitate and disorient us. If, on the other hand, we perfectly actualize our soul's code, we will feel at home in the world; all our experiences will feel meaningful.

The practical fact is that most of us have made some progress in manifesting our soul's code, but still have a way to go before we fully actualize it. Here's the good news: You Scorpios are in a phase of your cycle when you could make dramatic advances in this glorious work.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

GEMINI (May 21-June20)

ACROSS

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Author Renata Adler describes a time in her life when she began to notice blue triangles on her feet. She was wracked with fear that they were a symptom of leukemia. But after a period of intense anxiety, she realized one fine day that they had a different cause.

She writes: "Whenever I, walking barefoot, put out the garbage on the landing, I held the apartment door open, bending over from the rear. The door would cross a bit over the tops of my feet"—leaving triangular bruises. Upon realizing this very good news, she says, "I took a celebrational nap." From what I can tell, Gemini, you're due for a series of celebrational naps—both because of worries that turn out to be unfounded and because you need a concentrated period of recharging your energy reserves.

CANCER (June 21-July 22) "I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak," proclaimed Cancerian author Lillian Hellman. I feel the same way. So often people have nothing interesting or important to say, but say it anyway. I've done that myself! The uninteresting and unimportant words I have uttered are too numerous to count. The good news for me and all of my fellow Cancerians is that in the coming weeks we are far more likely than usual to not speak until we are ready to speak. According to my analysis of the astrological potentials, we are poised to express ourselves with clarity, authenticity, and maximum impact.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Of all the mournful impacts the pandemic has had, one of the most devastating is that it has diminished our opportunities to touch and be touched by other humans. Many of us are starved of the routine, regular contact we had previously taken for granted.

I look forward to the time when we can again feel uninhibited about shaking hands, hugging, and patting friends on the arm or shoulder. In the meantime, how can you cope? This issue is extra crucial for you Leos to meditate on right now. Can you massage yourself?

Seek extra tactile contact with animals? Hug trees?

Figure out how to physically connect with people while wearing hazmat suits, gloves, masks, and face shields? What else?

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) "Like any art, the creation of self is both natural and seemingly impossible," says singer-songwriter Holly Near. "It requires training as well as magic." How are you doing on that score, Virgo? Now is a favorable time to intensify your long-term art project of creating the healthiest, smartest version of yourself. I think it will feel quite natural and not-at-all impossible. In the coming weeks, you'll have a finely tuned intuitive sense of how to proceed with flair. Start by imagining the Most Beautiful You.

"Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules," observes Sagittarian author Ashleigh Brilliant. According to my research, you have made excellent progress in this quest during the last few weeks—and will continue your good work in the next six weeks. Give yourself an award! Buy yourself a trophy! You have discovered at least two rules that were previously unknown to you, and you have also ripened your understanding of another rule that had previously been barely comprehensible. Be alert for more breakthroughs.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) "If you're not lost, you're not much of an explorer," said rambunctious activist and author John Perry Barlow.

Adding to his formulation, I'll say that if you want to be a successful explorer, it's crucial to get lost on some occasions. And according to my analysis, now is just such a time for you Capricorns. The new territory you have been brave enough to reconnoiter should be richly unfamiliar. The possibilities you have been daring enough to consider should be provocatively unpredictable. Keep going, my dear! That's the best way to become un-lost.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) "Dreams really tell you about yourself more than anything else in this world could ever tell you," said psychic Sylvia Browne. She was referring to the mysterious stories that unfold in our minds as we sleep.

I agree with her assessment of dreams' power to show us who we really are all the way down to the core of our souls. What Browne didn't mention, however, is that it takes knowledge and training to become proficient in deciphering dreams' revelations. Their mode of communication is unique—and unlike every other source of teaching. I bring this up, Aquarius, because the coming months will be a favorable time for you to become more skilled in understanding your dreams.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) In June 1876, warriors from three Indian tribes defeated U.S. troops led by General George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn in Montana. It was an iconic victory in what was ultimately a losing battle to prevent conquest by the ever-expanding American empire. One of the tribes that fought that day was the Northern Cheyenne. Out of fear of punishment by the U.S. government, its leaders waited 130 years to tell its side of the story about what happened. New evidence emerged then, such as the fact that the only woman warrior in the fight, Buffalo Calf Road Woman, killed Custer himself. I offer this tale as an inspiration for you Pisceans to tell your story about events that you've kept silent about for too long.

HOMEWORK: Maybe sometimes it's OK to hide and be secretive and use silence as a superpower. Example from your life? FreeWillAstrology.com Check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes

freewillastrology.com The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at

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