rapper

THE SOPRANO: Sure, Portland Opera’s new artistic adviser can sing, but she also wants to rap.

My Essential Seven: Karen Slack

An opera star talks Starbucks, YouTube and wanting to be a rapper.

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON

Karen Slack is an opera star who secretly wants to be a rapper. “My husband says I’m the worst rapper on the planet,” she says. “[He] keeps saying, ‘You are ridiculous, you need to stop.’ It really takes a brilliant mind to be able to put words together in that way—the fl ow, how they do it, the clever hook.” If there’s anybody who knows about musical flow, it’s Slack, a soprano with a singing voice as smooth as glass and as rich as gelato. At 18, she became the youngest-ever winner of the Rosa Ponselle International Competition for the Vocal Arts at New York’s Alice Tully Hall, which is just one of the many accolades she has accrued. Her incandescent talents have also illuminated Tosca, Aida and Porgy and Bess, and she recently accepted a new role— serving as an artistic adviser to Portland Opera. Slack, who lives in Philadelphia, has plans for PDX: “I hope to help [general director] Sue Dixon and the organization move into the 21st century, and to be refl ective of what the community would love to see on the stage.” WW spoke to Slack about her on and o– stage passions, covering everything from poetry to ca– eine.

1. My husband

He was my childhood sweetheart. We grew up in Philadelphia together, literally around the corner from each other. He’s like, “I knew you were going to be my wife.” I’m like, “Oh please,” but I guess he was right. I love him, of course—I’m in love with him—but he’s also my best friend. He’s the greatest guy I’ve ever met outside of my dad.

2. YouTube

YouTube is the very first thing I turn on in the morning, because I get to catch up on all the political drama that I missed during the day—MSNBC, CNN, PBS, whatever. I get to catch up on all my reality shows, because, of course, when I’m working, I don’t get to see everything. I like it all…all the trash. I love it, because it’s not my life.

3. The ocean

I love the sea. Through my travels, I’ve been able to put my toe in the Mediterranean Sea and been able to swim in the Caribbean. My birthday is Sept. 22, and so that’s way after Labor Day, when all the beach bums from Atlantic City and Wildwood are gone. I just like to sit on the beach for my birthday and refl ect on my year and feel fall in the air. It’s very refl ective of how we should think. We are all one. We are all connected, just like the water.

4. Museums

Everywhere I go, I try to visit a museum. I love history. That was always my favorite class in school. Being an opera singer, it all makes sense now. You’ll be thinking of going to a town and just singing with a symphony, and then you get there and you learn the history of the place and go to these local museums, and you get a better gauge of what that place meant—and means—to people.

5. Live opera and hip-hop

There’s nothing like live music, and I think that that’s why so many people are mourning the time that we’re in—we can’t get together, we can’t sing together, we can’t perform together, we can’t be together in that space. There’s nothing that can replace the sound of a human operatic voice coming out, pouring out from somewhere—the stage, the orchestra. We must get back to the theater.

6. Black female poets

Nikki Giovanni, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Lucille Clifton…I mean, I could just go on and on. I feel connected to them and I feel proud. Specifically, because of the kind of world that we’re in right now— with Black Lives Matter and all the movements and Say Her Name—as a community of women, we need to be uplifted. And when I read poetry and words by Black female poets, it helps me understand who I am, what I want to say and have the courage to speak truth—my truth—and to speak freely.

7. Starbucks Ca è Verona co ee

It’s essential. It saves lots of lives. It complements chocolate cake, and that’s exactly what I love. My day’s not going to go well unless I’ve had a little bit of Ca– è Verona. You say you like Starbucks, it’s like sacrilege to many people…but there’s something about Verona I like.

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

FIVE BOOKS FOR MANIFESTING FALL

Autumn, Ali Smith

Yes, a book called Autumn is low-hanging fruit. But Ali Smith’s novel is less about yellowing leaves and seasonal baking than it is about change— personal, social and systemic. Daniel Gluck and Elisabeth Demand are an unlikely, mismatched pairing: He is 69 years her senior, quietly dying and wedded to the past. She is in her 30s, aged out of greenness and fi rm in her commitment to Gluck. Meanwhile, the world itself is shocked into consciousness by Brexit. “That’s the thing about things,” Smith writes. “They fall apart, always have, always will, it’s in their nature.”

The October Country, Ray Bradbury

Sixty-fi ve years after publication, Ray Bradbury’s grisly collection of short stories still sets the precedent for gothic horror and seasonal indulgence. For some unknown reason, stories about bodies in lakes and jars that can sever the ties of marriage just don’t hit the same in the sunny months. For Bradbury, The October Country is left to the people who think only autumnal thoughts, who live in the spaces where the “hills are fog” and the “rivers are mist.” Portland, in all its oppressive heat, has not arrived at October Country yet, but enough wishful thinking may hurry the process along.

August, Romina Paula

Not for the faint of heart—or the world weary— Romina Paula’s August is an especially candid walk through loss, grief and the frailty of the human spirit. Private and confessional, Paula writes of a 21-year-old woman burdened by the death of a friend, coming of age in reverse and reluctantly returning home to the foothills of Argentina. “Freeing the monster wouldn’t o– er me more than two possible fates,” Paula writes. “Either it would devour me or it would request my hand in marriage.”

Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

The world Ishiguro constructs in Never Let Me Go is not our own, but it is well worth taking the weekend to sit down and imagine that it is—that there are diseases that can be cured with human costs and technologies that reduce the body to its smallest parts in the name of the greater good. The book is haunting, but the immersion is cathartic. It is almost too easy to fall into Ishiguro’s imagery of the idyllic English countryside, watching the seasons shift on a pastoral estate. Summer, fall, winter and spring each bring the characters closer to a life beyond recognition.

The Shepherd’s Life, James Rebanks

As for alternative lives in alternative universes, James Rebanks has established the model. The son of a shepherd who was himself the son of a shepherd, the Rebankses have lived and worked in the Lake District of Northern England alongside sloping hills, refl ective water and an abundance of sheep for more years than records can grant. Here, the sheep guide the seasons, ordering life and allowing those who tend to them to dissociate from modern demands. The memoir is timely, as romanticizing ruralism from afar is all the rage these days.

SCREENER

MOVIES

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

ALLYSON RIGGS/NETFLIX

A TROUBLED TRIO: The kleptos from Trinkets face more challenges in Season 2.

Larceny and the Real Girls

The heroines of Netfl ix’s Portland-set shoplifting saga Trinkets keep swiping right…and wrong.

BY JAY HORTON

@hortland

When Trinkets was renewed for a second season shortly after its June 2019 premiere, few industry insiders seemed surprised. While only its streaming masters knew for sure just how many viewers were actually watching, the high school rom-dram met the usual criteria for survival: adoration from a desirable demographic (teenage girls), star-kissed source material (the show was adapted from Legally Blonde screenwriter Kirsten “Kiwi” Smith’s YA novel), and the greater Portlandia setting evidently preferred for Netfl ix tales of frustrated adolescence (see: Everything Sucks!, American Vandal, All Together Now). If anything, Trinkets’ unique plot about a group of kleptomaniacs who bond because of their shoplifting habit appeared to be an automatic green light for continued renewal. But the latest string of 10 episodes, released in late August, will be the last. Truth be told, this particular series began coasting soon after Shoplifters Anonymous brought our mismatched trio together. Last summer’s distinctly meandering deep dive inside the pockets of three none too especially complicated teen thieves left few questions hanging. Even the climactic episode’s cli“ anger—when blossoming wallfl ower Elodie (Brianna Hildebrand) runs away from home to follow her indie songstress crush on tour—didn’t tease coming revelations, which are simply a return to dreary squabbling and court-mandated recovery programs. Season 2 begins a couple of days after the fi rst one left off and sees the heroines slowly returning to form. Discovering that life on a tour bus isn’t all tickle fights and giggles, Elodie drifts away from the eternal after-party to pluck out tunes on a pilfered ukulele. Back in Lake Oswego, Tabitha (Quintessa Swindell) and Moe (Kiana Madeira) have mostly escaped punishment for boosting, crashing and then sinking the beloved car of Tabitha’s abusive ex, Brady (Brandon Butler), and she celebrates her newfound freedom by seeking out the company of brooding bartender Luka (Henry Zaga). Meanwhile, Moe takes to day drinking her way through a brief suspension from school for hitting Brady when he threatens to go to the police about the car unless Tabitha starts dating him again. Hardly the first show to adopt an adolescent’s point of view, Trinkets perhaps uniquely relishes the blinkered perspective and skewed risk assessment teenage self-obsession affords. We root onward each crime spree. We ignore all hints of dependency issues. We bristle against every sign of parental dominance by imperfect guardians, no matter how benevolent their intentions are. Also, importantly, we forget just how young these girls are supposed to be. While the second batch of episodes is flawed, Hildebrand (Deadpool, The Exorcist) gives a bravura performance, trading in aggrieved sorrow, active bitch face and smoldering bemusement. In the rare instances her character does lose her cool—lashing out at her harmless stepmom for modifying a family sweet potato recipe—the eœ ect is less like roiling teenage pettiness than a hot fl ash of spinster aunt judgment. Trinkets, once again, references its Portland settings so weirdly often that the Rose City feels utterly intrinsic to some underlying vision. However seriously we’re meant to take the relentless upsell of Puddletown as woke Narnia for sulky “creatives,” the show is an unfailingly gorgeous travelogue that throws a spotlight on the shiniest aspects of a storied cityscape colonized by younger, sleeker, steelyeyed careerists. At the end of the day, capping its run at 20 episodes might have made the most sense, simply because the heroines grew progressively less likable. The sort of profound egotism forgivable during a fi rst relationship reads as worryingly corrosive by the second. To a certain extent, the show always worked best as dreamily pleasant wish fulfi llment: a consequence-free glide through the late wonder years where the angles always fl atter.

GET YOUR REPS IN

While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of fi lms readily available to stream. This week, in honor of the great actor Chadwick Boseman’s passing, we highlight some of the most memorable and under-the-radar roles of his all-tooshort career.

42 (2013)

In his breakout role, Boseman plays the groundbreaking Jackie Robinson, chronicling his myriad struggles and triumphs that pepper his journey to becoming the fi rst Black Major League Baseball player. His layered, tenacious performance was cited by Marvel execs as being a key factor in his casting as T’Challa in Black Panther (2018). Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Get On Up (2014)

Another biopic, this one centers on the life of funk singer James Brown (Boseman), is told nonlinearly, jumping around sporadically from the 1930s to the 1990s. Boseman performed all of his own dancing and even some of the singing, earning critical acclaim for his dynamic portrayal. HBO Go, HBO Max.

Message From the King (2016)

After learning his younger sister Bianca is in danger, Jacob King (Boseman) is drawn from his home of Cape Town, South Africa, all the way to Los Angeles to save her. When he arrives, he embarks on a bloody tour of vengeance. In addition to starring in this tense revenge thriller, Boseman also served as executive producer. Netfl ix.

Marshall (2017)

Boseman co-produced and starred in this legal drama as the titular Thurgood Marshall before he became the very fi rst Black Supreme Court Justice. Here, he’s an NAACP lawyer in the 1940s, tasked with navigating one of the most complex cases of his career. The fi lm premiered at Howard University, where Boseman earned an honorary degree and delivered a compelling commencement address. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube.

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

Spike Lee’s epic follows a group of Vietnam War vets who return to the country in order to recover the remains of their late squad leader: the valiant Stormin’ Norman (Boseman). While it’s not technically his fi nal performance (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is slated for release on Netfl ix later this year), it’s nevertheless a fi tting farewell. Netfl ix.

The Personal History of David Copperfield Bonk! Bonk! Bonk! Bonk! In a single scene from The Personal History of David Copperfield, David (Dev Patel) bangs his noggin four times, channeling the deliciously manic energy that director Armando Iannucci (The Death of Stalin) brings to this adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel. Tales of orphans looking for love and profit are ripe for slick sentiment, but Iannucci amplifies the story’s comedic absurdities without sacrificing its emotional force. At 119 minutes, the film is too trim—an extra half-hour would have allowed Iannucci to more credibly chronicle David’s transformation from a child laborer in a bottling factory into a gangly yet graceful gentleman. Yet there’s no resisting the cast (especially Peter Capaldi as the merry charlatan Mr. Micawber and Ben Whishaw as the pious swindler Uriah Heep), and while Iannucci revels in the story’s goofier episodes—including the theft of a concertina from a pawnshop—he captures David’s growth with moving sincerity. “Don’t worry,” David tells his younger self in a fantasy scene. “You’ll make it through.” At a moment when too many of us are wondering if we’ll make it, that message of resilience is at once inspiring and comforting. PG. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Virtual Cinema.

OUR KEY

: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR.

: THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT. : THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED. : THIS MOVIE IS A PIECE OF SHIT.

ALSO PLAYING

Boys State

Politics makes strange bedfellows, and as the new VOD release Boys State showcases, large-scale political simulations bring about some weird-ass dormmates. The documentary by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine, the married couple behind 2014’s Sundancewinning 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 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 sti¥-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.

She Dies Tomorrow

Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) knows for a fact 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.

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

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD

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.

Measure for Measure

If you ever wanted to see a Shakespeare movie with a mass shooting, now is your chance. The Bard may have written Measure for Measure as a comedy, but director Paul Ireland has reimagined it as a grim crime flick. The film updates the story (and the dialogue) for modern-day Melbourne, where two young lovers, Jaiwara and Claudio (Megan Hajjar and Harrison Gilbertson), are wrenched apart by a false accusation. Their last hope is Duke (Hugo Weaving), a slovenly gangster whose imperious beard is matched only by his power in the Australian underworld. Weaving (who also played the sinister Agent Smith in The Matrix) is as lordly as ever, and Hajjar and Gilbertson are sweet as two kids whose towering passions belie their tender ages. Yet their performances can’t conceal the film’s failure to answer the questions about love, loyalty and religion that it raises. Jaiwara is a Muslim immigrant, but Measure for Measure callously dismisses faith as an annoying obstacle to her love life. It’s enough to make you wonder if the film believes in anything at all, or if its pretensions are as flimsy as Duke’s signature burgundy bathrobe. NR. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. On Demand.

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 e¥ects, 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 e¥ort that could provide much-needed validation for alienated teens grappling with similar issues. PG-13. MIA VICINO. Virtual Cinema.

STEPHANIE CHEFAS PROJECTS

FEATURED ARTIST: JEREMY OKAI DAVIS

Jeremy Okai Davis (b. Charlotte, NC) received a BFA in painting from the University of North Carolina. Davis relocated to Portland, OR in 2007 where he has continued his studio practice in addition to working as a graphic designer and illustrator. His work has shown nationally. Davis’s work resides in the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon’s permanent collection.

FAVORITE THINGS curated by JEREMY OKAI DAVIS

GROUP SHOW THROUGH SEPT 5

Stephanie Chefas Projects 305 SE 3rd Ave #202 Portland

www.stephaniechefas.com

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

JACK KENT’S

Jack draws exactly what he sees n’ hears from the streets.

IG @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com

JONESIN’ by Matt Jones "Join Up!" -- Two and two are indeed four. [#215, Aug. 2005]

ACROSS

1 Starts the golf game 8 Steel worker of sorts 15 All pointy and line-y 16 Season division 17 Yell directed at a muchhated portal? 18 Speedo bunch? 19 Org. 20 "Classic Concentration" puzzle type 22 Word before Moines or Plaines 23 Target of crunches 25 "Charlotte's Web" author White and namesakes 26 In ___ (actually) 27 Voicemail message opener, if you know someone well 30 Georgia airport code 31 One-named comedian and host of "Celebrity Fit Club" 32 "What'll break if I break up with you" response, for a thuggish couple? 37 Where letters are sent to the mil. 38 Futuristic van Damme flick of 1994 39 Sweet su—x 40 Vegetarian's "Duh!" response to why they hate their formerly vegan pal? 43 Brit or kiddie follower 44 Actress Jillian 45 Illegal lighting 46 Early gay rights advocate AndrÈ 48 Campus comedy with a cameo by George Clinton 49 Wind dir. 50 Mass ___ (Boston thoroughfare, to locals) 51 Play cowritten by Mark Twain and Bret Harte 53 Prepare the day before 57 Drink Mencken called "The only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" 60 Library's attempt at copying milk ads? 62 Like leftovers 63 Ripken's team 64 He's a little froggy 65 Keep in check

DOWN

1 Fanfare noise 2 Deputy played by Michael Weston in the "Dukes of Hazzard" movie 3 They're stroked but not seen 4 Sarkisian, for Cher, once 5 Gathering dust 6 County gatherings 7 Like some refills 8 Lincoln or Grant, e.g. 9 Not-quite-ready-to-fold remark 10 Tayback who played Mel on "Alice" 11 Lang. that doesn't really contain that many words for "snow" 12 Forest floor growth 13 Blurry area, maybe 14 Witherspoon who played an angel in "Little Nicky" 21 Confidential phrase 24 Outdo in 26 Pt. of ESL 27 "If ___ be so bold ..." 28 Shat this clue has 29 Took on, as a burden 30 Redundant-sounding cash dispenser 31 Dominant figures 33 "___ of Me" (1993 PJ Harvey album) 34 Auction grouping 35 Capital home to a Viking Ship Museum 36 Ultra-bright 41 Go quickly 42 Muscle that makes things stand upright 46 Entire range 47 Trump's ex 48 Dashboard 49 Annoy your bedmate, in a way 52 Composer Stravinsky 54 Part of a reversal, maybe 55 Actor Ed in a famous "Tonight Show" tomahawkthrowing stunt 56 Pigsty 58 Phone line invasion 59 Lance of the O.J. trial 61 Leave change on the table

last week’s answers

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

"It’s not that some people have willpower and some don’t," observes author James S. Gordon. "Rather, it’s that some people are ready to change and others are not." Lucky for you, Aries! Your willpower is even more potent than usual right now, and your willingness to change is growing stronger. And so very soon now, I expect you will reach the threshold that enables you to act crisply and forcefully. You will become so convinced that it's wise to instigate transformation that you will just naturally instigate transformation. Adjust, adapt, improvise, improve!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi is an expert on the mental state known as being in the flow. He defines it as what happens when you're completely absorbed in what you are doing: "immersed in a feeling of energized focus," with "full involvement and enjoyment in the process of the activity." According to my reading of the astrological omens, you are extra likely to enjoy such graceful interludes in the coming weeks. But I hope you will be discerning about how you use them. I mean, you could get into a flow playing video games or doing sudoku puzzles. But God and Life and I would prefer it if you'll devote those times to working on a sublime labor of love or a highly worthy quest.

GEMINI (May 21-June20)

According to researcher Rosalind Cartwright, "Memory is never a precise duplicate of the original. It is a continuing act of creation." Neurologist Oliver Sacks agrees, telling us, "Memories are not fixed or frozen, but are transformed, disassembled, reassembled, and recategorized with every act of recollection." Reams of additional evidence also suggest that our experience of the past is always being transformed. In accordance with astrological potentials, I invite you to take advantage of this truth. Re-imagine your life story so it has more positive spins. Re-envision the plot threads so that redemption and rebirth are major features. Engage in a playful reworking of your memories so that the epic myth of your destiny serves your future happiness and success.

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

All of us are susceptible to fooling ourselves and lying to ourselves. And all of us are susceptible to the cowardice that such self-sabotage generates. But the good news is that you Cancerians will have an expansive capacity to dissolve and rise above self-deception in the coming weeks—and will therefore be able to call on a great deal of courage. As Cancerian author and Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön says, "The essence of bravery is being without self-deception."

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

If you like, I will give you the waning crescent moon and the dawn breeze. Do you want them? How about sudden bursts of joy for no apparent reasons and a warm greeting from a person you thought had a problem with you? Would you be interested in having those experiences? And what about an unexpected insight into how to improve your financial situation and a message from the future about how to acquire more stability and security? Are those blessings you might enjoy? Everything I just named will be possible in the coming weeks—especially if you formulate a desire to receive them and ask life to provide them.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

Virgo poet Mary Oliver was renowned for giving herself permission. Permission to do what? To become a di›erent person from the self she had been. To shed her familiar beliefs and adopt new ones. To treat every experience as an opportunity to experiment. To be at peace with uncertainty. I think you'll be wise to give yourself all those permissions in the coming weeks—as well as others that would enhance your freedom to be and do whatever you want to be and do. Here's another favorite Mary Oliver permission that I hope you'll o›er yourself: "And I say to my heart: rave on."

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

"The more unintelligent people are, the less mysterious existence seems to them," wrote philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. I agree with that idea, as well as the converse: The more intelligent people are, the more mysterious existence seems to them. Since I expect you to be at the peak of your soulful intelligence in the coming weeks, I am quite sure that life will be exquisitely mysterious to you. It's true that some of its enigmatic qualities may be murky and frustrating, but I suspect that many of them will be magical and delightful. If you ever wanted your life to resemble a poetic art film, you're going to get your wish.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)

Comedian and actor Aubrey Plaza bragged about the deal she made. "I sold my soul to the devil," she said. "I’d like to thank the devil." Plaza is quite popular and successful, so who knows? Maybe the Prince of Darkness did indeed give her a boost. But I really hope you don't regard her as a role model in the coming weeks—not even in jest. What worked for Plaza won't work for you. Diabolical influences that may seem tempting will not, in the long run, serve your interests—and may even sabotage them. Besides, more benevolent forces will be available to you, and at a better price.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

Many of you Sagittarians specialize in generous breakthroughs and invigorating leaps of truth. Often, you make them look easy and natural—so much so that people may not realize how talented you are in generating them. I hope you adjust for that by giving yourself the proper acknowledgment and credit. If this phenomenon shows up in the coming weeks—and I suspect it might—please take strenuous measures to ensure that you register the fullness of your own accomplishments. To do so will be crucial in enabling those accomplishments to ripen to their highest potential.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel wrote, "When you die and go to heaven, our maker is not going to ask, 'why didn't you discover the cure for such and such? why didn't you become the Messiah?' The only question we will be asked in that precious moment is 'why didn't you become you?'" I hope that serves as a stimulating challenge for you, Capricorn. The fact is that you are in an extended phase when it's easier than usual to summon the audacity and ingenuity necessary to become more fully yourself than you have ever been before.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18)

Years ago, comedian Lenny Bruce observed, "Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God." His statement is even truer today than it was then. Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank, has gathered the concrete evidence. Church attendance was way down even before the pandemic struck. Now it's even lower. What does this have to do with you? In my astrological opinion, the coming months will be prime time for you to build your intimate and unique relationship with God rather than with institutions that have formulaic notions about who and what God is. A similar principle will be active in other ways, as well. You'll thrive by drawing energy from actual sources and firsthand experiences rather than from systems and ideologies that supposedly represent those sources and experiences.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)

Psychologist Carl Jung wrote, "The function of dreams is to restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes the total psychic equilibrium." According to my reading of the astrological omens, you especially need this kind of action right now. To expedite your healing process, meditate on what aspects of your life might have become too extreme or one-sided. Where could you apply compensatory energy to establish better equipoise? What top-heavy or lopsided or wobbly situations could benefit from bold, imaginative strokes of counterbalance?

HOMEWORK: What's the best possible commotion you could stir up—a healing commotion that would help heal and liberate you? FreeWillAstrology.com.

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