SHE’S WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
NOT TED “GOOD THING CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX LIKE COVID.” P. 4 WWEEK.COM
VOL 46/47 09.16.2020
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NEWS: OREGON IS ON FIRE.
4 P. 2 : . S y I r th AB NN ge Wo A C un Exp
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Portland voters are fed up with Ted Wheeler. But are they ready for
Sarah Iannarone? By Nigel Jaquiss | Page 13
uniQue
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
Visit our website to make an appointment 717 SW 10th Ave Portland, OR 97205 503.223.4720 www.maloys.com
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FINDINGS ALEX WITTWER
SUBLIMITY, ORE., PAGE 18
Working from home got you feeling snacky?
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 47 In the last 10 days, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island has burned in Oregon. 6
A short-lived Portland pizzeria may have invented Hawaiian pizza in the 1950s. 21
A forensic scientist in Clackamas County’s arson department is
The Jumbotron at Providence Park is visible from downtown Portland’s newest rooftop bar. 22
busy extinguishing a fire on his timber farm. 7
The closest city with good air quality is Pocatello, Idaho. 7 A Southeast Portland public school canceled a laptop distribution day after receiving political threats. 9 The Oregon Justice Department’s top employment lawyer was accused of sexually harassing a subordinate. 10 Sarah Iannerone wants to legalize all sex work and build municipal broadband. 14 Local zookeepers took 40 condors on a road trip to Idaho to get them away from the wildfires. 20
The best sandwich at Dimo’s Apizza is called the Beast—as in “roast beast.” 23
A new cannabis organization is hosting an “expungement clinic” this week to clear weed-related offenses from people’s criminal records. 24 Author Tommy Wallach’s novel We All Looked Up is like The Breakfast Club on the brink of the apocalypse. 25 A new online class teaches you multiple ways to recite compliments from Shakespeare plays. 25 Borrufa features a seven-minute foot bath. 26
ON THE COVER:
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
She’s not Ted, she’s Sarah Iannarone. Photo by Aaron Wessling.
A rare wind event had all of Oregon under a critical fire warning. Rightly so.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
DIALOGUE Last week, a rare windstorm swept through Oregon, stoking existing wildfires, sparking new ones, and spreading flames across an unusually dry state. As of Monday, Sept. 14, fires had burned more than 1,400 square miles, killed 10 and displaced thousands. Much of the Willamette Valley, including Portland, is enveloped in smoke from the blazes, leading to hazardous air conditions that in some parts of the state have maxed out the Air Quality Index. Here’s what our readers had to say about the historically large fires: @No_Signal00 via Twitter: “Rhode Island is 1,034 square miles. Keep that in mind for comparison.” Doofus via wweek.com: “Good thing climate change is a hoax like COVID, otherwise we’d be in for trouble.” Conner Williams via Facebook: “Perfect fire conditions caused by temperatures rising every year. Human-accelerated climate change will make these kinds of fires more common and last longer.” @MannyDantyla via Twitter: “This is what I was worried about happening, but I thought it would happen like 20 years from now. Climate change is here.” Kevin Gee via Facebook: “With the knowledge of the high winds coming through, every utility should have shut off lines in high-risk areas, or just altogether. The reason the [Highway] 26 corridor is not on fire is because PGE shut off those lines. It’s not like they didn’t see this coming.” Brandon K Buell via Facebook: “It’s almost like ignoring the knowledge of land stewardship of Indigenous peoples whose land we stole has led to an ecosystem collapse.” Mutie via wweek.com: “So, the governor who convened a group to reform state fire response is to blame, and the legislators who walked out in January and killed the reform are…what, just peachy?” Lance Boyles via Facebook: “Most of the fires are happening on federal land. Trump just yanked millions from the U.S. Forest Service to fund his stupid wall that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Remember?” @so_it_goeth via Twitter: “Let’s divert some money from the Portland Police Bureau and give it to fire control services. I think 75% would be adequate.” Louise Shurtleff via Facebook: “I have some questions.
Dr. Know
How much of the forests in Oregon are on federal land? Doesn’t the federal government have a responsibility to deal with problems on federal land? Are federally owned lands the financial responsibility of the state in which they exist? If so, why? Most importantly, who is going to pay for what is needed? People want low to no taxes but expect the very best of services provided for them. This is not a political question. It is a question of what is needed and how do we pay for it. You cannot expect any forestry service (state or federal) to work for free and with no budget. We need responsible solutions and not finger pointing and assigning blame.” Ron Bloodworth via Facebook: “Portland and many other places on the West Coast are having an air pollution emergency. The Air Quality Index in Portland is off the chart, meaning that we are all breathing poisoned air. This has been happening for days and this article says it will continue for days to come. Yes, the fires were and are terrible. Yes, many have lost their homes, livelihood, family members and friends. Now the very air we breathe is putting millions more up and down the West Coast at risk of illness and death, but nobody seems to be addressing this crisis. Just wait for rain and for the air to get better, they say. When you can’t breathe, you don’t have days to wait.” WHY CAPITALIZE BLACK BUT NOT WHITE? Why does Latisha Jensen capitalize BLACKS but not WHITES in their columns? If that’s not discrimination I don’t know what is. Is it major? No. But it’s the principle of implying superiority over another class of people. Are we not all equal? Andre Smith Northeast Portland Copy editor Matt Buckingham responds: All writers at Willamette Week now capitalize “Black” but not “white” as a matter of Associated Press style and near-universal industry practice. CORRECTION A story in the Sept. 9 edition of WW incorrectly stated there were more cases of shigellosis than COVID-19 in Multnomah County homeless camps. In fact, 46 cases of COVID-19 have been traced to homeless camps and less than 30 cases of shigellosis. WW regrets the error. 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
So what’s the deal with cops and bagpipes? It seems like every police event—especially funerals—features one or more bagpipe players. And they know only ONE SONG! A little variety might make them tolerable! Why are they here and not in Scotland? —Dirty Al Those of us who have lived near bagpipes might be forgiven for assuming their purpose at funerals to be the fallen hero’s final “screw you” to an ungrateful world. More charitably, you could say bagpipes are for situations where you want to have music but not in a way that might make people start having a good time. Either way, we can all agree that few instruments are better at conveying the bleak futility of the human condition. Still, how did they catch on with American cops? An answer may begin to suggest itself when I tell you that bagpipes are not unique to Scottish culture—they were culturally important in Ireland as well, where they featured prominently in traditional weddings and funerals. It’s true that Irish uileann pipes—that’s pronounced “illin’,” for you Run-DMC fans—aren’t quite the same as their Scottish counterpart. Scottish pipes get their air from a bag the piper blows into, while Irish pipes use an arm-operated bellows. (Could this bellows-powered instrument
be the long-theorized missing link between the twin hells of bagpipes and the accordion? Inquiring minds...) In any case, there was enough overlap between the two musical traditions that Scottish-style pipes, which are louder and better suited to outdoor events, began to appear at American Irish funerals in the 19th and early 20th centuries—right around the time big-city police departments in the U.S. were becoming heavily Irish. The sanitized explanation why so many Irish became cops and firefighters is that these were dangerous jobs that no one else was willing to take. More clear-eyed historians have noted that police and fire departments offered lots of public sector jobs for Irish political bosses like “Honest” John Kelly to spread among the members of machine-supporting Irish families. By the mid-20th century, the tradition of bagpipes at police funerals was as well-established as the stereotype of the Irish cop. Arguably, both helped early 20th century police departments cohere as an in-group, fostering a clannish, we-look-after-our-own subculture that served its members well. Plus ça change… QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com
MURMURS ASHTON SIMPSON
ASHTON SIMPSON
SURPRISE FOUND IN METRO TAX MEASURE: In an analysis of the biggest tax measure on the November ballot sent to clients this week, the Portland accounting firm Moss Adams highlighted a previously unreported fact: Metro’s $4 billion transportation bond measure, which has been billed as a payroll tax, could allow Metro to levy a tax on all compensation of affected employees, not just their salaries. “The ordinance as written imposes the tax on remuneration for services performed, including the cash value of all non-cash remuneration,” Moss Adams told clients. That would mean taxing health care benefits, money deducted pretax for retirement contributions, etc., which could increase the amount taxed by 30% or more. Metro government affairs director Andy Shaw acknowledges the ordinance would allow Metro to tax non-cash compensation, but he says the agency doesn’t intend to do that. “Items like benefits, employee deferrals to retirement savings plans, etc., were not a part of our revenue estimates,” Shaw says, adding Metro will clarify definitions if the measure passes. VOTERS DON’T LOVE IT: Meanwhile, opponents of the Metro transportation measure released select polling results showing that only 42% of likely voters support it. The survey by GS Strategy Group of 600 likely voters from Sept. 2 to 6 showed that number shrank to 32% after opponents tested arguments for and against the measure. The campaign for the measure accused opponents of lying, even before the memo on results had been released to reporters. “The opposition is clearly scared and can only cling to disingenuous distortions,” says Jeff Anderson, secretary-treasurer of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555, which backs the measure. SIMPSON WILL CHALLENGE HERNANDEZ: When state Rep. Diego Hernandez (D-East Portland) faced revelations in May that a former girlfriend had filed for a restraining order alleging threatening behavior toward her, he was already secure in his bid to be the Democratic Party nominee for his legislative seat. And in a district as solidly Democratic as House District 47, a Republican challenger, Ryan Gardner, is not considered much of a threat. But now Hernandez faces a challenge from the left. Ashton Simpson, 35, an Air Force veteran who works for the nonprofit Rosewood Initiative, is challenging Hernandez on the Working Families Party ticket.
Simpson, who grew up in Houston, has been active in transportation policy for the city and Metro’s transportation bond. He says his priority is to get more resources to East Portland, a community he says has been neglected too long. “We need adequate representation,” Simpson says. PRISONS RISK COVID OUTBREAK: The Oregon Department of Corrections will quarantine thousands of prisoners who were evacuated evacuated to Deer Ridge Correctional Facility near Madras and Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem as wildfires ravaged the state. Since last week, lawyers, prisoners and their families described horrid conditions at both prisons after the state evacuated more than 2,700 inmates there from four other prisons. Prisoners at OSP reported sleeping on mattresses laid on the floor within inches of each other, sans masks, and others at Deer Ridge reported nosebleeds and rampant coughing because the smoke inside. ODOC spokeswoman Vanessa Vanderzee says groups of prisoners from different facilities “co-mingled out of necessity” following the evacuations, and that ODOC will quarantine them for 14 days. It is unclear when the inmates who were evacuated will return to their original facilities. Experts fear an impending mass spreading event. “It could exacerbate an outbreak,” says Dr. Marc Stern, a physician who specializes in correctional health care. “Most prisons were not designed for infectious disease isolation and quarantining.” WHAT TIME IS IT? CLARNO ASKS COURT: It’s 5 o’clock somewhere, but Secretary of State Bev Clarno and the Oregon Department of Justice have asked an appeals court to rule precisely what 5 o’clock means. The state will appeal a decision by a Marion County circuit judge this week that Clarno must include the Oregon Republican Party’s statement in the November Voters’ Pamphlet even though it missed the 5 pm Aug. 25 deadline by 29 seconds. Clarno says she’ll print the GOP statement but wants the Oregon Court of Appeals to provide clarity on what the deadline means. “I still believe 5 pm is 5 pm, and we will appeal the ruling to ensure there is a bright line for filing requirements going forward,” she said. “I and our Elections Division remain deeply committed to administering all of our election processes in an open, transparent and nonpartisan manner.”
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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J U S T I N K AT I G B A K
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
HISTORY
Firestorm
HOT SPOT: The Riverside Fire threatened Estacada, Ore., for much of the past week.
“Megafires” this month alone nearly match the number from 1900 to 1999.
MEGAFIRES SINCE SEPT. 8, 2020: 5 FIRE | ACRES Beachie Creek | 188,374 Holiday Farm | 165,023 Lionshead | 168,097 Riverside | 134,575 Archie Creek | 121,379
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MEGAFIRES IN 2000-AUGUST 2020: 16 YEAR | FIRE | ACRES
2000 | Jackson | 108,000 2001 | Lakeview Complex | 179,400 2002 | Toolbox Complex | 120,085 2002 | Biscuit | 500,000 2006 | South End Complex| 117,553 2007 | Egley Complex | 140,360 2011 | High Cascades Complex | 108,154 2012 | Miller Homestead | 160,853 2012 | Holloway | 245,308 2012 | Long Draw | 558,198 2014 | Buzzard Complex | 395,747 2015 | Cornet-Windy Ridge | 103,887 2015 | Canyon Creek Complex | 110,262 2017 | Chetco Bar | 191,125 2018 | Boxcar 0410 RN | 100,207 2018 | Klondike | 175,258
MEGAFIRES IN THE 20TH CENTURY: 6 YEAR FIRE ACRES 1902 | Columbia (aka the Yacolt Fire) | 170,000 1933 | Tillamook Burn | 240,000 1939 | 2nd Tillamook Burn | 217,000 1945 | 3rd Tillamook Burn | 173,000 1996 | Ashwood/Donnybrook | 100,590 1996 | Simnasho | 118,000
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
Tinderbox Causes of four of Oregon’s most destructive September 2020 fires. On Sept. 7, Portland General Electric turned off the power grid near Mount Hood, leaving thousands without electricity but reducing the potential that a windstorm would blow down sizzling live power lines into dry brush. Seventy miles south, along the Santiam Canyon, several power companies didn’t turn off their grids. A Sept. 10 incident report by the Northwest Interagency Incident Management Teams, which coordinate regional fire response, shows the result: “At least 13 new fires were started between Detroit and Mehama from downed power lines during the peak of Monday’s wind event.” Those new fires fed into the Beachie Creek Fire, the Cascade Mountain blaze that has threatened some of Oregon’s most beloved natural areas, including Silver Falls State Park and Opal Creek. It’s not clear which companies’ lines caused the fire, but fire incident officials say both PGE and PacifiCorp operate in the area. “We are aware of reports that fires have been started by electrical equipment,” says PacifiCorp spokesman Drew Hanson. “We have no information at this time to know if any of the referenced fires were in our service area.”
State officials will spend months examining what factors contributed to Oregon’s catastrophic fires. The incident reports, which WW reviewed this week, provide a few initial clues. RACHEL MONAHAN. ALMEDA FIRE: Killed three and destroyed 1,500 homes in Phoenix and Talent. CAUSE OF THE FIRE: A suspected arson on Sept. 8 is under investigation. (No arrests have been made for the initial cause of the fire, but one person was arrested on suspicion of setting a second fire that joined the Almeda blaze.) The Douglas County sheriff has repeatedly said anti-fascist extremists are not suspects, despite widespread internet falsehoods. BEACHIE CREEK FIRE: Killed 4 people and ripped through Detroit and Mehama on Sept. 8, catching people there by surprise. CAUSE OF THE FIRE: Originally, lightning on Aug. 16, but according to a Sept. 10 incident report, power lines started more, and “then on Tuesday a large front of wind-driven fire ran through the city of Detroit from the east.” LIONSHEAD FIRE: Started on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation, reached west and combined with the Beachie Creek Fire. CAUSE OF THE FIRE: Lightning Aug. 16. RIVERSIDE FIRE: The blaze closest to Portland, it threatened Estacada and Molalla in Clackamas County. CAUSE OF THE FIRE: Incident reports say it was human caused but provide no further details.
ALEX WITTWER
In the last 10 days, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island has burned in Oregon. The fires closest to Portland—the combination of the Riverside, Beachie Creek and Lionshead fires—spanned 56 miles and consumed nearly a half-million acres. “We have not seen the likes of this fire, in this state, this integrated with our communities ever before,” said Doug Grafe, Oregon Department of Forestry’s chief of fire protection at a Sept. 11 press conference. Oregon’s fire troubles are worsening, the historical records show. On that, there’s little debate, though the reasons will become points of contention as the state moves to grapple with what to do about them: climate change, forest management, building in the forest, even building codes. The trend of fires burning more than 100,000 acres—so-called megafires—shows what this state has been up against. Their numbers are growing. RACHEL MONAHAN.
CAUSES
INDEX
Bad Air Here’s how dangerous Portland’s smoky skies are to your lungs
Last week, Portlanders were told to stay indoors for the second time in 2020, this time due to dangerous air quality. With fires raging across the state, Portland has been covered in smoke that contains fine particles, which are easily inhaled and lodged in the lungs. Prior to this year, Portland’s record high on the Air Quality Index was an “unhealthy” rating of 157. Now, it’s more than three times that—last Sunday, the city’s air measured a hazardous 477 on the AQI. Short-term effects include headaches, sore throat, scratchy eyes and difficulty breathing. For people with preexisting conditions like asthma, this much particulate matter can be life threatening. Health officials aren’t sure about the long-term effects. “We don’t know,” says Andrea Hamberg, an environmental health program supervisor for Multnomah County. “This is relatively new to science.”
Here’s what we do know. SHANNON GORMLEY. 20: The equivalent number of cigarettes you would have inhaled if you spent Sept. 13 outside in Portland. 50: Average number of Multnomah County emergency room patients admitted per day for respiratory distress during the air alert. 10: The number of hours you’d have to drive to get to Pocatello, Idaho, the closest city with “good” air quality on the Air Quality Index on the morning of Sept. 15. (By press deadlines, Tillamook, Ore. made the grade.) 2015: The first year Portland ranked “unhealthy” on the AQI since the creation of the scale in 1999. The city has experienced unhealthy air quality four of the past six summers.
NEWS DISPATCHES
In the Smoke Stories from the front lines of Oregon’s immense wildfires. BY AL E X W I T T W E R
@aswittwer
As nearly a million acres of Oregon burned in the past week, I drove toward the blazes, spending two days with the dazed and displaced residents of Clackamas and Marion counties. Here are their stories.
6th and Main Streets, Downtown Oregon City 2:15 pm Sept. 11 It’s time to get out of Oregon City, but Joe Perman’s car has broken down. His friends have arrived on the city’s main drag to help him, but the jumper cables aren’t giving it enough juice. Downtown is deserted—an eerie bookend to the initial crowds of celebration when this same strip reopened from COVID-19 just four months ago. “It’s been 40 years. I’ve never seen anything like this before, ever,” says Perman. A city of nearly 40,000, just 13 miles from downtown Portland, is preparing to flee at a moment’s notice. Kelly Isaacs stands near Perman’s car. Her cigarette mixes with the campfire air. She and her parents packed up their belongings, but the highways are jammed. “We figured if we left we would be sitting in traffic for a couple hours,” she says, “so we’re just still waiting. If we hear ‘Level 3,’ we’re out of here, but hopefully it won’t get to that.” They hook up new cables. No luck. They replace the fuel line fuse with a spare. Another attempt. The engine catches. Perman can leave town. Glen Oak Road, Oregon City 2:55 pm Sept. 11 Bill Olson can’t believe the generosity of his neighbors. He evacuated from Estacada and set up his RV in the parking lot of an electrical services home business off Cascade Highway in Oregon City. The owner told Olson, along with his wife and dog, to stay as long as they needed. “People that we don’t even know very well, they call and say, ‘You guys OK?’” Olson says. “That kinda restores your faith, doesn’t it?” About 5 miles away, evacuees pour into Clackamette Park, along the Willamette River. A supply tent with donated water, clothing and just-baked Papa Murphy’s pizzas is set up in a parking lot. A truck rolls in to unload more supplies. Stephanie Low sits underneath a tent and helps direct newcomers. “We have doughnuts,” she says, “we have fresh produce, lots of toiletries, more stuff than we can get rid of.” Olson thinks people act better in a crisis. “The sad part is that sometimes it doesn’t last long. You’re there when you need them and then we kind of go back to the way we were. And it would be nice if we could just hang on to a little bit of that when we move out of the crisis. And it hangs on for a little while but not nearly long enough.”
South Dayhill Road, Estacada 6:44 pm Sept. 11 Four trucks barrel through the highway closures and down a country road. Inside are wildland firefighters. They’re covered in soot from fighting fires inches from homes. Many are smoking cigarettes while they wait for orders. Cody, one of the firefighters, calls it “smoke inhalation training.” The crew, from a contractor called Diamond Fire and Forestry, is a mix of long-term firefighting veterans and newcomers. Michael, who declines to give his last name, shows me his soot-covered hands: “We’ve been fighting them all day!” It’s his first day on the job—and his first time ever fighting fires. Next to him sits Joshua Duran, known as Duran Duran on the fire lines.“We can go anywhere in the country,” Duran says. “We went to Montana, lived in Washington, been to California very often. This is the first time being in Oregon in a few years, pretty crazy.” Duran points at the handful of U.S. Forest Service vehicles—the “hot shots,” he calls them—parked a dozen yards away. Jim Beckwith sits at the wheel. They’re awaiting orders when to pull out and let the next fire crew take over. Beckwith says fires in the dense rainforests along the western slopes of Oregon’s Cascade range are a different beast than most Western fires. “We’re from Northeast Washington,” he says. “So we do get big fires up there, but we’re in a little bit different fuel type. It’s a little more open, dryer, fires move faster, but you get a big fire in this kind of timber, it’s like a 100-year event.”
Sublimity, Ore. 10:21 am Sept. 12 The weather chills overnight. Smoke from the fires mix with fog from the morning dew. The combination leaves stretches of Highway 205 a dreamscape of low visibility. Drivers put their hazard lights on to alert those in front and behind of their location. It’s a small gesture, but appreciated. A state trooper and a National Guardsmen block off a section of Highway 22. They are only admitting local residents. No press. No visitors. They had even turned away CNN.
A truck drives by, stops, reverses. “Where are you from?” the man asks. That’s a question that carries a hint of menace. In the rural counties, the evacuation notice has left many homes abandoned and susceptible to looters—though only one arrest has been made for theft in the past few days, people fear outsiders coming to take advantage of their misfortune. Media reports have focused on false rumors spreading of antifa arsonists. Some people out here believe the rumors. But more often, they attribute looting to no political motivation— just wickedness. A woman from Beavercreek says her husband drives back to their property several times a day to patrol for looters. He’s taped a sign to their truck: “Looters will be shot.” “A lot of folks around here are on edge,” says Doug, a local. He’s been patrolling for suspicious behavior and vehicles over the week. He blames the prospect of looting on mental illness and tells of a man he saw recently walking toward a fire with nothing but a garbage bag. “Be careful,” he warns.
Mehama, Ore. 11:22 am Sept. 12 Kristine Samuelson wades in boots and jeans through the smoldering brush on the timber farm that has been in her family since World War II. Samuelson, along with her husband, Lee, and two family friends, are fighting a portion of the Beachie Creek Fire with shovels and buckets. Nearly 150 acres of their 200-acre property in Marion County has been torched. On Sept. 8, they began fighting blazes on their property without the help of wildland firefighters—who have been stretched thin responding to fires across the state. “I first got on scene Tuesday morning and could not fight it by myself,” says Lee Samuelson. “Came back Wednesday with my brother and son-in-law to help evacuate the cows and fight the fire. We’ve been fighting it ever since with just my wife, daughter, son-in-law, and even my dad.” They were able to keep their structures safe from the flames. But it wouldn’t be until Sept. 11 that fire crews could respond. Within a day, those crews were able to contain the fire’s spread by quickly establishing fire lines through the underbrush. Hot spots still smolder with charcoal under the thick brush and roots of half-burnt tree stumps. Samuelson digs at a tree trunk to uncover a hot spot and then sprays it with water from a tank strapped to his shoulders. He moves through the brush with confident strides—his voice almost jovial as he speaks to family and friends fighting the fire with him, often out of sight. He’s a forensic scientist at the Clackamas County Sheriff ’s Office. Department? Arson. But he’s not interested in talking about the rumors. “It’s not time to get political now,” he says. “It’s time to fight the fire.”
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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Men’s Virility Restored in Clinical Trial; 275% More Blood Flow in 5 Minutes A newly improved version of America’s best-selling male performance enhancer gives 70-year-old men the ability and stamina they enjoyed in their 30’s. America’s best-selling sexual performance enhancer just got a lot better. It’s the latest breakthrough for nitric oxide – the molecule that makes E.D. woes fade and restores virility when it counts the most. Nitric oxide won the Nobel Prize in 1998. It’s why “the little blue pill” works. More than 200,000 studies confirm it’s the key to superior sexual performance. And this new discovery increases nitric oxide availability resulting in even quicker, stronger and longer-lasting performance. One double-blind, placebo-controlled study (the “gold-standard” of research) involved a group of 70-year-old-men. They didn’t exercise. They didn’t eat healthy. And researchers reported their “nitric oxide availability was almost totally compromised,” resulting in blood flow less than HALF of a man in peak sexual health. But only five minutes after the first dose their blood flow increased 275%, back to levels of a perfectly healthy 31-year-old man! “It’s amazing,” remarks nitric oxide expert Dr. Al Sears. “That’s like giving 70-year-old men the sexual power of 30-year-olds.”
WHY SO MUCH EXCITEMENT? Despite the billions men spend annually on older nitric oxide therapies, there’s one wellknown problem with them. They don’t always work. A very distinguished and awarded doctor practicing at a prestigious Massachusetts hospital who has studied Nitric Oxide for over 43 years states a “deficiency of bioactive nitric oxide… leads to impaired endotheliumdependent vasorelaxation.” In plain English, these older products may increase levels of nitric oxide. But that’s only half the battle. If it’s not bioactively available then your body can’t absorb it to produce an erection. Experts simply call it the nitric oxide “glitch.” And until now, there’s never been a solution.
NEXT GENERATION NITRIC OXIDE FORMULA FLYING OFF SHELVES Upon further research, America’s No. 1 men’s health expert Dr. Al Sears discovered certain nutrients fix this “glitch” resulting in 275% better blood flow. He’s combined those nutrients with proven
nitric oxide boosters in a new formula called Primal Max Red. In clinical trials, 5,000 mg is required for satisfying sexual performance. Primal Max Red contains a bigger, 9,000 mg per serving dose. It’s become so popular, he’s having trouble keeping it in stock. Dr. Sears is the author of more than 500 scientific papers. Thousands of people listened to him speak at the recent Palm Beach Health & Wellness Festival featuring Dr. Oz. NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath recently visited his clinic, the Sears Institute for AntiAging Medicine. Primal Max Red has only been available for a few months — but everyone who takes it reports a big difference. “I have the energy to have sex three times in one day, WOW! That has not happened in years. Oh, by the way I am 62,” says Jonathan K. from Birmingham, AL.
HOW IT WORKS Loss of erection power starts with your blood vessels. Specifically, the inside layer called the endothelium where nitric oxide is made. The problem is various factors THICKEN your blood vessels as you age. This blocks availability causing the nitric oxide “glitch.” The result is difficulty in getting and sustaining a healthy erection. How bad is the problem? Researcher shows the typical 40-year-old man absorbs 50% less nitric oxide. At 50, that drops to 25%. And once you pass 60 just a measly 15% gets through. To make matters worse, nitric oxide levels start declining in your 30’s. And by 70, nitric oxide production is down an alarming 75%. Primal Max Red is the first formula to tackle both problems. Combining powerful nitric oxide boosters and a proven delivery mechanism that defeats the nitric oxide “glitch” resulting in 275% better blood flow. There’s not enough space here to fully explain how it works, so Dr. Sears will send anyone who orders Primal Max Red a free special report that explains everything.
MORE CLINICAL RESULTS Nutrients in Primal Max Red have logged impressive results. In a Journal of Applied Physiology study, one resulted in a 30 times MORE nitric oxide. And these increased levels lasted up to 12 hours.
A new discovery that increases nitric oxide availability was recently proven in a clinical trial to boost blood flow 275%
“I measured my nitric oxide levels, you can buy a test kit from Amazon,” reports 48-yearold Jeff O. “Monday night I showed depleted.” Then he used ingredients in Primal Max Red and, “The results were off the charts. I first woke around 3 a.m. on Tuesday very excited. My nitric oxide levels measured at the top end of the range.”
FREE BONUS TESTOSTERONE BOOSTER Every order also gets Dr. Sears testosterone boosting formula Primal Max Black for free. “If you want passionate ‘rip your clothes off’ sex you had in your younger days, you need nitric oxide to get your erection going. And testosterone for energy and drive,” says Dr. Sears. “You get both with Primal Max Red and Primal Max Black.”
HOW TO GET PRIMAL MAX To secure free bottles of Primal Max Black and get the hot, new Primal Max Red formula, buyers should contact the Sears Health Hotline at 1-800-962-1650 within the next 48 hours. “It’s not available in drug stores yet,” says Dr. Sears. “The Hotline allows us to ship directly to the customer.” Dr. Sears feels so strongly about Primal Max, all orders are backed by a 100% moneyback guarantee. “Just send me back the bottle and any unused product within 90 days from purchase date, and I’ll send you all your money back,” he says. The Hotline will be open for the next 48 hours. After that, the phone number will be shut down to allow them to restock. Call 1-800-962-1650 to secure your limited supply of Primal Max Red and free bottles of Primal Max Black. You don’t need a prescription, and those who call in the first 24 hours qualify for a significant discount. Use Promo Code NP0920PMAX56 when you call in. Lines are frequently busy, but all calls will be answered.
THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. RESULTS MAY VARY 8
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
NEWS
Mugged Portland protesters say their lives were upended by the posting of their mug shots on a conservative Twitter account. speel@wweek.com
On Aug. 7, Black activist Ragina Gray was tackled by Portland police at a protest and charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and interfering with an officer. That same day, conservative Portland activist Andy Ngo shared Gray’s name and mug shot on Twitter. “Gray, 30, is charged with interfering with an officer, resisting arrest and more,” Ngo wrote on Twitter. “She was arrested at the violent antifa protest in Portland and quickly bailed out. Gray is frequently photographed with kids at protests and rants about white terrorism.” The photo was retweeted by 475 people. Twelve nights later, on Aug. 19, a man showed up on the doorstep of Gray’s mother’s eastside home. “He was sweaty and nervous looking, and he asked for Ragina by name,” says Lucinda Fisher, Gray’s mom. “He mentioned [Gray’s] son, and I noticed he had a gun in his hand.” Fisher slammed the door and called the police. Gray’s children, 9 and 4, whom she brought to protests with her prior to her arrest, fear for her life. “They’re scared that someone’s going to kill me,” Gray says. “My first instinct is to say, ‘No, that’s not going to happen.’ But there’s a huge risk.” Gray has no direct evidence that Ngo’s robust social media presence is the reason an armed man arrived at her mom’s house. Ngo’s prominence has been catapulted by Portland’s protests. He is editor-at-large at a Canadian conservative website called The Post Millennial and is also a regular guest on Fox News. Last year, he was assaulted at a Portland anti-fascist march, where masked assailants punched and kicked him in the head. Ngo has more than 700,000 followers on Twitter, many of whom share the belief that Portland protesters are a threat to national security. But Gray believes Ngo and his followers are watching her. And she is not the only one. WW has spoken with two others who have been arrested at Portland protests and had their names and mug shots tweeted by Ngo, and claim their lives have since been disrupted. “We’ve been lying low, and to be honest, we’ve been staying at home with the blinds closed,” says Phillip Wenzel, whose mug shot was shared by Ngo on Aug. 15. “I can get over Twitter trolls, but what gives me the most pause is the 1% of them that have genuine threats.” Critics call Ngo’s posts “doxxing,” or posting personal information about people to make their lives unpleasant. But what Ngo is doing is legal. The mug shots are public records. The arrests happened. And Ngo told WW that it is his “duty” to report on protesters who have been arrested, “given the risk that violence and riots present to the public.” Ngo wrote WW via email: “I believe my duty as a journalist includes informing the public about individuals who are believed by criminal authorities to be sufficiently dangerous to the public that they meet the standard for arrest.” Portland couple Erin and Phillip Wenzel started their evening Friday, Aug. 14, as they have more than 10 times before that. They donned their protest outfits: full gas respirators, masks, bike helmets, and a bulletproof vest for Philip, who had been in the front of protests as part of the drum line. Erin, a medic toting a first aid kit, usually settled in a few rows behind the line of drummers. That night, Phillip was arrested when the two of them were sandwiched between two lines of officers during a smoke-filled, chaotic confrontation captured on video that shows several protesters cowering under yellow shields as cops push them to the ground. A video of Wenzel’s interaction with police shows him shielding his face on the ground as a half-dozen cops tackle him. He was arrested, charged with assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, interfering with police, and disorderly conduct, and released the next day.
CHRISTINE DONG
BY S OP H I E P E E L
REPORTED AND BLOCKED: Ragina Gray says she’s received a slew of digital harassment since her mug shot was posted.
The next morning, Ngo posted his mug shot on his Twitter account, writing that Wenzel was “arrested at the violent #antifa protest.” Ngo also posted a biography of Wenzel from the law firm where he works as a paralegal. In Twitter responses on the thread, users added threatening comments and more personal information about the Wenzels, including the names and ages of members of his extended family. One comment read, “I’m writing a letter to his employer right now.” Another wrote, “Divorce and custody court paralegal scumbag who isn’t even smart enough to be an attorney. Lol.” The Wenzels quickly deactivated all their social media accounts: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. The next day, Phillip Wenzel received a voicemail threat on his cellphone from somebody named John in Michigan, who said, “I’ll have you know I’m 7 foot and 280 pounds.” The Wenzels alerted their employers. On Aug. 18, three days after Ngo posted the mug shot, Phillip Wenzel’s boss at Elizabeth Christy Law Firm sent him a letter that the firm had received 50 threatening or harassing communications since his arrest. “Because you have chosen to engage in activism that has resulted in violence, physical injuries, and negative publicity for [the law firm], there is now a major distraction from the business we are doing, a threat to my ability to gain new
business, and a threat to our employees’ safety,” Christy wrote in an email provided to WW. Three employees, after learning of the firm’s response to Wenzel’s arrest, announced their resignation in support of him on Sept. 10, in a letter shared with WW. The firm told Wenzel in a Sept. 11 letter that he would be laid off effective Sept. 16, citing a loss of work leading to a reduction in staff. Elizabeth Christy, managing attorney at the firm, told WW in an email that the layoff had nothing to do with Wenzel’s protesting. Both Wenzels say they now suffer from anxiety. Wenzel shaved his beard to change his appearance and now wears a hat when he walks his dog. April Epperson, who works at a Northeast Portland public school, is another protester who was arrested for disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer on Aug. 24 and was greeted that same day by a Ngo tweet sharing her mug shot and Facebook profile picture with part of the caption reading, “Like others recently arrest[ed], she works with children at an elementary school.” Several commenters on the subsequent Twitter thread shared the name of the school. On Aug. 29, an email arrived in her school inbox: Attached were her Facebook profile photo and a picture of a toad in a dress with a caption reading, “So fucking badass with your face covered? We can’t wait to come to your employer and do the exact same fucking thing you do to cops!” Epperson alerted the school about the email. That weekend, the school canceled a laptop distribution event scheduled the following Monday, Aug. 31. A school text blast sent to families read, “We are pausing [device distribution] for tomorrow. We will resume as soon as possible and alert you when that is. As a reminder, school grounds, including the playground, are closed.” Although the school did not explain its decision, Epperson believes the laptop distribution was postponed because of threats. (Portland Public Schools didn’t respond to WW’s request for comment.) Still, the messages continued. “The school started getting a bunch of phone calls and emails,” Epperson says. “People emailed [some staff members] my mug shot and told them I was arrested.” One email, sent Sept. 1 from a secure email address using the name “Jennifer Hartless” and shared with WW, includes a screenshot of Ngo’s tweet of Epperson’s mug shot. The photo is captioned, “This type of behavior seems a little unbecoming for a school teacher. Are standards any higher than this?” Tim Gleason, professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, says Ngo’s posts of mug shots are dangerous because of his targeted audience. “There’s some legitimacy to a claim of informing the public. But we have a pattern with this individual that his interest is in provoking violent reactions and doxxing,” says Gleason. “It’s a particular subset of conservative Twitter, and he knows that’s who he’s talking to.” In his response to questions from WW, Ngo contends he is taking on violent criminals that other journalists are afraid to confront. “If you feel that transparency and public right to know should be outweighed by arrestee rights to privacy, this is a complaint for the Legislature, not for journalists reporting in compliance with state and federal law,” he said. “A better question would be, ‘Why do some journalists feel compelled to hide the identities of suspected criminals from the public?’ Another would be, ‘Whose interests does the suppression of criminal arrest data serve?’” Ragina Gray continues to attend protests, despite threatening messages she receives on Instagram and Twitter. She says she deletes them as soon as she gets them, but says “people are calling me a terrorist, calling me a n-----.” And the messengers, she says, are “Mostly white men. All white men.” Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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NEWS M O T O YA N A K A M U R A / M U LT N O M A H C O U N T Y
EXPLOSIVE ALLEGATIONS: The Oregon Department of Justice sometimes argues its cases in downtown Portland courthouses, now shrouded in wildfire smoke.
Overruled A top state lawyer and union official is accused of sexual harassment by a subordinate. BY TE SS R I S K I
tess@wweek.com
A longtime trial lawyer for the Oregon Department of Justice has accused her supervisor—a lawyer who leads employment litigation for the state—of sexual harassment. She has also accused another of the DOJ’s top lawyers of gender discrimination and retaliation. On June 29, Heather Van Meter, a senior assistant attorney general at the DOJ, filed a tort claim notice, accusing her supervisor, assistant attorney in charge of civil litigation Marc Abrams, of kissing her on two separate occasions without her consent and urging her to break up with her then-boyfriend (now fiancé) so she could be with Abrams. She claims Abrams did so knowing he had the authority to have her fired—something she could not afford as a single mother raising two girls and battling breast cancer. A tort claim is a precursor to a lawsuit that gives the opposing party—in this case, DOJ—the opportunity to agree to a settlement instead of entering litigation. Van Meter also alleges that Steve Lippold, chief trial counsel for the DOJ, quashed her chances of getting hired for a new DOJ position that would have reduced her interactions with Abrams. She says Lippold later told her over the phone that the position would been a lot to handle because of her child care responsibilities. (Van Meter says she never had a problem balancing child care and work.) “I’ve reached the conclusion that as a female working mother attorney, my options are very limited at DOJ,” Van Meter wrote in the tort claim notice. “I can continue working for sexual harasser Abrams, and Lippold with his discrimination and retaliation, but the harassment and discrimination and retaliation will continue unabated; or else I can leave as constructive discharge.” The situation is awkward for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who, as the first woman to hold that job, has made equity a hallmark of her administration. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to Richard Meeker, the co-owner of WW’s parent company.) It is also awkward for the state: Not only is the Justice Department charged with the equitable administration of Oregon laws, but Lippold and Abrams are directly responsible for civil rights and employment cases. And Abrams, who co-hosts a radio show on KXL-FM, is president of the 10
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
union that represents state DOJ lawyers. Rosenblum did not respond to a request for comment. Before filing the tort claim noice, Van Meter says she sought mediation twice but received no response from the DOJ. The same day she filed the notice, the DOJ told her it had opened an investigation into her claims. That investigation is still ongoing, according to DOJ spokeswoman Karynn Fish. Neither Abrams nor Lippold have been placed on leave. Abrams and Lippold deny Van Meter’s allegations. “The accusations are untrue,” Abrams said in an email statement. “They are being investigated by DOJ and I fully expect to have them dismissed when the investigation is complete.” Lippold also pointed to the ongoing investigation and expressed confidence that the matter will be dismissed pending the investigation’s outcome. “There is an ongoing internal DOJ investigation concerning the allegations made by Ms. Van Meter, which I refute in their entirety,” Lippold said in an email to WW. “I trust this process completely and I am confident that the outcome of that report will be in my favor.” Van Meter’s attorney, Sean Riddell, declined to comment on the case beyond what’s written in the six-page tort claim notice. Riddell says Van Meter is currently on leave from her position at DOJ for a reason unrelated to the tort claim. Throughout the document, Van Meter alleges differential treatment by Lippold. Around 2016, Van Meter, who prior to joining DOJ in 2012 was a partner in the Portland law firm Williams Kastner and co-president of Oregon Women Lawyers, says she complained to human resources at DOJ after numerous instances in which Lippold outright ignored women lawyers who worked for him. Van Meter also alleges that, prior to joining DOJ, Lippold had “refused to allow a successful female attorney to become a partner because he did not believe that women should be trial attorneys or partners in law firms.” When she and other staff voiced these concerns to HR in the summer of 2017, Van Meter says, HR called Lippold over to relay the employees’ grievances. Shortly thereafter, Van Meter says, Lippold came to her office “angry and red-faced” and later told her that her caseload was
changing and she couldn’t handle jury trials because of “performance issues.” She confided to Abrams, the tort claim says. He then suggested Van Meter seek a transfer to DOJ’s Portland office to be away from Lippold. Van Meter says during this time, Abrams knew she was a single mother enduring multiple bouts of breast cancer and therefore unable to quit her job and lose health insurance. In October 2017, the two attended a professional event where they drank wine and commiserated about their respective divorces. Abrams allegedly vowed to help Van Meter secure an assignment in Portland and to increase the number of employment cases she was working on. As Van Meter left the event, Abrams offered to walk her to her car, she claims. Once there, he asked for a ride to his home in the Pearl District; Van Meter obliged. As she dropped him off, Van Meter says in the tort claim, Abrams leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “I was totally surprised and could not think of anything to say or do, since I never thought a supervisor of mine who specializes in employment law would be so reckless to do such a thing that was so obviously illegal and inappropriate,” Van Meter says. “It became clear to me at that moment that if I wanted his help or support getting an office or position in Portland and keeping my job, he had relationship/sexual expectations in return.” Van Meter says Abrams later texted her and asked if she liked the kiss. Van Meter says that, if she had complained about that incident, it would have to go through Lippold. She says she feared reprisal and didn’t report it. “Throughout, I knew that since Abrams was my supervisor and also union president he had the ability to make my work very difficult or possibly get me fired, which he absolutely knew I could not afford,” Van Meter says. But by 2018, Van Meter says, she considered the kiss “water under the bridge.” She continued in her position and she encountered Abrams at social events. The two sometimes drank wine together outside of working hours. Van Meter says nothing out of the ordinary occurred. In October 2019, Van Meter invited a few friends, including Abrams, over to her house for dinner. At the last minute, everyone canceled except Abrams, who was already on his way. The two ate dinner together, along with Van Meter’s daughters. Afterward, Van Meter went upstairs to put her daughters to bed. When she came back down, she claims, Abrams was still there. The two chatted casually. Then, Van Meter says, Abrams leaned over and kissed her on the lips. “I did not react or say anything, as I was totally surprised that two years later I had to deal with this again,” Van Meter says. “Again, I was shocked as I thought we had gotten past the incident from October 2017, he was well aware I had a very serious boyfriend with whom I was discussing marriage, he was still my supervisor, and my children were upstairs getting ready for bed.” After the kiss, Abrams told Van Meter he would be waiting for her if she left her boyfriend. He then went home. Van Meter told her boyfriend what happened. “We determined that I would avoid Abrams at work, never be alone with Abrams anywhere, and never invite him to my house or any functions,” Van Meter says. “Given Abrams’ position as supervisor and union president and Lippold being division head to whom complaints would go through, I effectively had no recourse unless I was prepared to quit my job and lose health benefits right before another cancer surgery.” Van Meter says she continued to search for new jobs within the Department of Justice. At one point, she was passed up for another job for which she says she was overqualified. Lippold was one of the interviewers. When he called Van Meter to tell her they had selected a different candidate, Van Meter alleges, he said “‘It’s good you didn’t get the [position] since you have such heavy child care responsibilities,’ implying that I could not have handled the position because I have children to care for.”
NEWS WESLEY LAPOINTE
RIP CITY: The residential infill project allows up to six housing units on lots zoned for single-family homes.
Carrying Water The fight for low-income housing has a new complication: City Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s push for expensive water meters. njaquiss@wweek.com
Advocates worry that the city of Portland’s residential infill project, passed just a month ago after five years of intense debate, may already be in trouble. The Portland City Council passed the aggressive new housing policy Aug. 12 by a 3-1 vote. Its goal: to increase density and add affordable housing to many Portland neighborhoods that contain mostly single-family homes. The policy rezoned such lots to promote development of accessory dwelling units and multiplexes—up to six units of housing—on lots where previously only a single home could be built. Officials expect it will generate 24,000 new housing units over the next 20 years. But now, groups that worked in support of the policy say Commissioner Amanda Fritz, the only “no” vote on RIP, could undermine it. Fritz’s opposition to RIP has led advocates to question whether a proposal she’s advanced to require an expensive water meter on each new dwelling—so four meters on a fourplex—is an indirect way to undercut the new policy. “Amanda Fritz has been vehemently opposed to RIP for five years,” says Ezra Hammer, a lobbyist for the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland. “Now she’s using the political power she has to make it less feasible for the development of middle housing and ADUs.” Fritz denies she’s trying to submarine RIP. “Win or lose, you make the best of things,” she says. “If [RIP]’s about affordable housing, let’s make sure it continues to be affordable.” The conflict highlights a characteristic of Portland’s unique form of city government, in which city commissioners both formulate and approve policy as quasi-legislators but then implement that policy in their roles overseeing city bureaus. In this case, Hammer says, Fritz is using the Portland Water Bureau, which she commands, to block RIP.
WW ARCHIVES
BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS
ongoing and not just to build,” Fritz says. Her second argument: If residents don’t have meters, they have no way to monitor their water usage, which could lead to excessive consumption. “As the world gets hotter and hotter, saving water is increasingly important,” Fritz says. Supporters of RIP say there are better ways to grant subsidies that won’t add to the cost of development in a city where housing is already too expensive. “Sadly, this proposal is a terrible step in the wrong direction,” says Diane Linn, executive director of Proud Ground, which helps low-income Portlanders purchase homes. “We implore you to find an effective solution to provide needed discounts without driving the cost of development higher and discouraging homeownership in the process.” David Sweet, land use and transportation chair for the Cully Association of Neighbors, says Fritz’s goals can be accomplished in other ways without jacking up the cost of housing. (Notably, individual meters are not required for apartment buildings larger than eight units.) He says it’s irrational to require a developer to spend $8,000 a unit so a tenant can qualify for discounts of $750. “The exact same thing could be accomplished by sending the eligible family a cash rebate,” Sweet adds. As for Fritz’s point about conservation, Sweet notes that many landlords already use submeters to measure tenants’ consumption. Those cost about $200, a tiny fraction of city meters. Steve Messinetti, director of Habitat for Humanity Portland/Metro East, which helps low-income families buy homes, says the policy would punish families on the margin of being able to afford a new home. “We see this over and over: Governments create policies that have implications on people of color and create barriers to homeownership,” Messinetti says. “The consequences may be unintended, but we really need to be
It’s not just the homebuilders who are alarmed: Housing nonprofits, including Habitat for Humanity and Proud Ground and the land-use group 1000 Friends of Oregon, have all raised similar objections with the city in recent weeks. Fritz is a longtime ally of neighborhood associations, many of which fear RIP will bring demolitions and rapid-fire growth. After voting no, she reiterated her long-standing objection that RIP would hasten gentrification and increase Portlanders’ dependence on automobiles. “Putting new homes where they never will have transit, never have sidewalks, never be close to jobs and services will mean we won’t be able to meet the climate emergency goals we all voted for a few weeks ago,” she told the council Aug. 12. (Environmentalists have scoffed publicly at that idea and generally embrace RIP.) After the vote, Fritz proposed an initiative for the Water Bureau, which is in the process of updating its code. Fritz’s idea: Any new housing unit, from an ADU (one meter) to an eightplex (eight meters), should have its own water meter. Critics say that’s unnecessary and expensive: about $8,000 per meter. (Fritz agrees with that cost estimate.) Fritz says her goal is to save low-income ratepayers money. Rezoning the city to create more housing isn’t enough, she says. The city should also ensure residents can actually pay their bills. Currently, the Water Bureau, which has some of the highest rates in the country, offers discounts depending on income. (Households that earn 60% or less of median family income can receive a refund of nearly $750 a year for combined water and sewer bills.) Groups such as Self Enhancement Inc., Latino Network and the Native American Youth and Family Center that work with low-income renters have complained to the Water Bureau that without individual meters, renters cannot qualify for the discounts. “The idea is to make sure new housing is affordable
AMANDA FRITZ
careful.” In a letter to the Water Bureau, Hammer the homebuilders’ lobbyist says Fritz’s proposal “flagrantly violates state law and discourages the development of much-needed middle housing.” (He’s referring to House Bill 2001, which prohibits local jurisdictions from passing rules that would place “unreasonable costs or delay” in the path of affordable housing.) Fritz acknowledges there’s a lot of pushback to her idea. She says she’s open to other means to accomplish her goals, including the city subsidizing meters or using less expensive new technology to track consumption. Those and other ideas are likely to get an airing at a council work session on the meter issue planned for Oct. 26. “I’m not wedded to doing this,” Fritz says. “It’s an important conversation that we ought to have.” Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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AARON WESSLING
SHE’S NOT TED
Portland voters are fed up with Ted Wheeler. But are they ready for Sarah Iannarone?
BY NIG E L JAQ UI SS
njaquiss@wweek.com
A little more than four years ago, Sarah Iannarone, an unknown Portland State University bureaucrat, launched a long-shot bid for mayor, preaching the value of sustainability and smarter transportation and land-use policies. She finished third, behind Ted Wheeler and former Multnomah County Commissioner Jules Bailey. This year, Iannarone, 47, is back—and running a far more aggressive campaign, pounding Wheeler and the Portland Police Bureau on social media. “Goddamn tired of watching reporters, medics, legal observers, peaceful protesters, and, yes, vandals getting targeted, arrested & assaulted by Portland Police,” Iannarone tweeted July 2. “F*ck you, Ted Wheeler, seriously.” In this season of COVID -19, economic devastation and fire, it’s protest that has come to define Portland in the eyes of the nation—and it’s also come to define Iannarone’s campaign. Few have latched onto the energy of protest more than Iannarone, who has been on the front lines dozens of
times, refers to herself as an “everyday anti-fascist,” and has declared, “I am Antifa.” Iannarone—a neighborhood activist, policy wonk and longtime student of what makes cities succeed—hopes to defeat Wheeler, 58, who in turn hopes to become the city’s first two-term mayor since the late Vera Katz. Buoyed by his aggressive response to COVID -19, Wheeler nearly won reelection outright in the May primary, getting 49% of the vote. Iannarone finished second in a 19-candidate field with 24%. But less than a week later, on May 25, Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. That changed everything. After three straight months of protests, some civil rights leaders have asked Wheeler to resign because his police are too aggressive. At the same time, businesspeople have criticized him for not keeping downtown orderly. The beneficiary of those conflicting views: Iannarone, whose chance of victory has risen as Wheeler’s popularity has plummeted. A recent poll showed two-thirds of voters disapprove of Wheeler’s performance.
“This race is a toss-up,” says Felisa Hagins, political director of Service Employees International Union Local 49, whose members endorsed Wheeler. If Portlanders are fed up with Wheeler, Iannarone has a simple pitch for them: She hated Ted before it was cool. She’s relentlessly opposed him for four years. And she offers Portland a clean break from the string of white men who have run the city since Katz left office 15 years ago. “The city deserves better than Ted Wheeler,” Iannarone says. “I have a real vision for Portland, and the reason I’ve pulled these policies together is because that’s what I see as our pathway out of this mess.” Yet Iannarone is still unknown to many Portlanders. To oust Wheeler, voters will need to decide what they think of Iannarone. Are they exhausted enough after a string of mayors with conventional résumés that they’re willing to bet on someone who spent her life outside the halls of power? Here are seven things to know about her: CONT. on page 14 Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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AARON WESSLING
“I HAVE LIVED A LIFE IN THREE DIMENSIONS IN
THIS CITY —THAT’S WHAT MAKES ME
QUALIFIED TO BE THE MAYOR RIGHT NOW.”
1.
IANNARONE IS AN OUTSIDER WITHOUT THE TYPICAL RÉSUMÉ.
Katz served three terms as speaker of the Oregon House before becoming mayor in 1993. Her successor, Tom Potter, served as chief of the Portland Police Bureau (a job history that these days would make him unelectable). Sam Adams was Katz’s chief of staff and a city commissioner before becoming mayor. Charlie Hales served two terms on the Portland City Council before he became mayor. Wheeler’s political résumé includes stints as Oregon state treasurer and Multnomah County chair. Iannerone is seeking the top job in Portland having never served in any elected office or worked in city government. She is instead an e-bike-riding mom from upstate New York who loves to sew, rummage through thrift stores, and stroll with her rescue mutt, Sir Francis Bacon. She pedals in the Naked Bike Ride. She has struggled financially, failing to pay state income taxes from 2010 to 2013. She didn’t graduate from college until she was 32 and is still grinding away at her Ph.D. Iannarone was born in Fulton, N.Y., a fading industrial town that was the birthplace of the Nestlé Crunch bar. Her father worked as a union electrician at Nestlé. (Iannarone won’t eat Nestlé chocolate because of the company’s environmental record.) Iannarone bounced around during her early years: a bit of college in a culinary arts program in Providence, R.I., short stints in Charleston, S.C., and New Orleans, even a job as a private chef for the country singer Mel Tillis in Branson, Mo. She married Nick Iannarone, a Baltimore native, in Las Vegas in 1998. The couple moved to Portland, where they had their only child, a daughter, the following year. (The Iannarones divorced in 2019 after a long separation.) While her daughter was a toddler, Iannarone returned to college at Portland State, graduating in 2005, the same year her husband opened the Arleta Library Cafe, which closed in 2018. She contributed the recipe for the cafe’s signature sweet potato biscuits. Iannarone says her life experience and work in the community are great training for City Hall. She notes that 14
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
white men with strong political pedigrees have not done very well as Portland’s mayors lately. “They get a free pass when they fail,” she says. “I have lived a life in three dimensions in this city —that’s what makes me qualified to be the mayor right now.”
2.
AN OUTSIDER HAS BEATEN AN INCUMBENT PORTLAND MAYOR BEFORE.
It’s been 36 years since a candidate with no previous political or executive experience beat an incumbent in a Portland mayor’s race. In that instance, Bud Clark, owner of the Goose Hollow Inn, stunned Mayor Frank Ivancie in the 1984 primary. Ivancie was the last conservative mayor to run Portland: His strong support for the Portland Police Bureau defined him. Clark, by contrast, was a jovial publican with a world-class beard. He pulled pints of beer, punted a raft down the Willamette River, and ended his pronouncements with a loopy catchphrase: “Whoop! Whoop!” He was a living embodiment of Portland’s values. Chuck Duffy, a Clark aide, says the Goose’s prominence and Clark’s flamboyance gave him a higher profile than Iannarone enjoys. “I don’t think she has the cache Bud had,” Duffy says. But nobody in the political establishment thought Clark had a chance, either. The city had shifted left under Ivancie—he was just the last to notice. Duffy and others say the same fate could await Wheeler if voter are sufficiently dissatisfied. “It would really come down to a sheer protest vote,” Duffy says.
3.
IANNARONE MAY NOT HAVE ANY POLITICAL EXPERIENCE, BUT SHE HAS A LOT OF IDEAS.
In 2006, Iannarone began pursuing a Ph.D. in urban studies at PSU. Adam Davis, a founder of DHM Research, who now heads the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center, advised Iannarone on research techniques for her graduate work. “She’s smart and very passionate about issues,” says Davis. “She can be laser-focused and she’s a hard worker.” In 2008, she co-founded a new nonprofit at PSU called
First Stop Portland. First Stop provided tours of the city for foreign delegations curious about Portland’s approaches to architecture, land use, sustainability, transit and other endeavors. The tours showcased Portland’s leading thinkers and most innovative businesses. “It was a terrific program for knowledge building, relationship building and business development,” says Davis, who served on First Stop’s advisory board. Iannarone’s boss at First Stop was Nancy Hales, wife of Portland’s then-mayor, Charlie Hales. Iannarone credits her time at PSU with giving her an immersion in smart cities and the kinds of policies that would fuel her first mayoral campaign. Her top priority: ensuring Portland is carbon neutral by 2030. “If you don’t aim for things, you won’t accomplish them,” Iannarone says. “And even if you fall short, you’ve achieved more than you would have otherwise.” She has other plans, which include undoing the constitutional ban on real estate transfer taxes to finance new housing. She’d also expand the Portland Clean Energy Fund; take the city’s money out of commercial banks to create a city-owned bank; and establish a municipal highspeed internet service. Iannarone is comfortable discussing details as granular as how to create a renter bailout fund: She’d double the tax on AirBnb from 2% to 4%. She wants to legalize all sex work and let anybody—not just citizens—vote in city elections. “While federal law prohibits non-citizens from voting in federal elections, states and cities are free to make their own decisions,” her platform says. If elected, Iannarone says, she’d draw an immediate contrast to Wheeler by granting Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty’s wish to command the Police Bureau and teaming up with Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt to investigate police violence during the protests. She’d figure out a way to keep right-wing extremists from fighting in Portland’s streets. Her campaign appeals to supporters such as Cameron Whitten, founder of the Black Resilience Fund. “Her vision is exactly the direction her city needs to go in,” Whitten says. “She has a chance to help us heal and work on a policy that works for everyone.” Stephen Green, who is active in Portland’s startup community, likes Iannarone’s focus on small business. Green says she is a “master communicator.” “She meets people where they are and really listens,” Green says. “Whether it’s a person who has flown in from Japan and speaks a different language or a person who’s houseless, she has a real ability to be present.”
4.
SHE CAN TAKE CREDIT FOR A SIGNATURE ACCOMPLISHMENT: THE ARLETA TRIANGLE.
In 2005, Iannarone decided to help clean up her Southeast neighborhood, Mount Scott-Arleta, which is bounded on the north by Foster Road, the west by 60th Avenue, the east by 82nd Avenue, and the south by Duke Street. She and other volunteers set out to revive a trashstrewn, triangle-shaped Portland Bureau of Transportation property at Southeast 72nd Avenue and Woodstock Boulevard. Mark Lakeman, executive director of the City Repair Project, which organizes such community undertakings, cautioned her against expecting cooperation from city officials. “PBOT hadn’t been able to be make that kind of project happen before, fixing a derelict space,” Lakeman says. “But she was so well prepared and so persuasive she got PBOT to go along.” Iannarone and her allies raised money and created a community amenity, with seating areas, public art and
AARON WESSLING
native plants, now known as the Arleta Triangle. She often cites the project as evidence of her ability to bring disparate parties together to overcome challenges. Iannarone’s community focus won over her highest-profile backer, state Rep. Karin Power (D-Milwaukie), chair of the Oregon House Energy and Environment Committee. In January 2018, when an ice storm gripped Portland, Iannarone helped set up an emergency warming center near Interstate 205 and Foster. Power responded to Iannarone’s call for supplies, filling the back of her Prius at Costco. “She puts in the work and she shows up,” Power says. “That’s the kind of thing that makes us all think, ‘I should take the road a little less comfortable and do more.’”
COMMUNITY BUILDER: “I am deeply rooted in the community, so I won’t need to be taught how to listen to the demands of the public or how to work through coalition to get things done,” Iannarone says. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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HER COMMUNICATION IS UNFILTERED.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
COURTESY OF SARAH IANNARONE
Iannarone’s Twitter account, @sarahforpdx, has 18,400 followers. That’s a quarter of Wheeler’s following, but Iannarone’s posts are far more memorable. Wheeler’s posts have a Dudley Do-Right quality, which makes him an easy target for mockery and scorn. By contrast, Iannarone does the targeting. Throughout the year, she has used her social media presence to decry the city’s police and its mayor. “I’m publicly financed. Ted is bought and paid for,” she tweeted Aug. 9. “I’m a progressive grounded in community. Ted is a neoliberal grounded in finance.” And on Sept. 4: “Wheeler has dug into refusing to address the true threats to our city: a rogue police force with sympathies for white nationalists.” Between 2016 and today, Iannarone traded in the pearls she wore in her first campaign for a gas mask. On dozens of nights over the past three months, she joined protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse. In an Aug. 7 interview on KGW’s Straight Talk, Iannarone repeatedly declined host Laural Porter’s invitation to disavow property destruction at the nightly protests. “Peaceful protests, in my opinion, might not necessarily be moving the conversation forward,” she told Porter. Iannarone says Porter didn’t give her a chance to fully answer the question. The day after taping the show, she sent KGW a statement. “Criminal activity is illegal, and of course I don’t condone it,” she said in her follow-up. “What I’m focused on is ensuring police do not use violence and even lethal force against people who have done nothing wrong.” But John Horvick, a pollster at DHM Research, says he isn’t sure Iannarone’s public pronouncements resonate with most voters. “I think the average voter in Portland would find her unappealing,” Horvick says. “That voter not as liberal as Iannarone or her Twitter feed seems to think.” Iannarone acknowledges she’s more outspoken than she was four years ago. She says there are two reasons for that.
First, she doesn’t have to worry about offending contributors. In 2016, she fell far short of her fundraising goals. Since then, she helped shaped the city’s new public campaign finance program and is its biggest beneficiary, scoring the maximum allowable $304,000 in city matching funds in the May primary. She is well on her way to maxing out for the general election, as well. Wheeler, who previously financed his campaign with big checks from real estate developers and business leaders, bet campaign finance limits approved by voters in 2018 would get stalled in court. He got that wrong and his campaign has failed to generate donations. (Iannarone has raised $471,000 in 2020, nearly twice Wheeler’s $258,000 total.) The second big change: This time Iannarone is running against an incumbent with a track record instead of for an open seat. “The last four years under Wheeler have made me a more vocal activist than even I would’ve liked to be,” she says, “because I’ve had to fight against policies that I think would harm my community.” Observers who have worked with Iannarone say she has a temper. Two examples involve the Arleta Triangle. Walt Nichols, a former chairman of the Mt. Scott-Arleta Neighborhood Association, clashed with Iannarone when he raised questions about the project’s finances. “It’s her way or no way and there’s no middle ground,” he says. “She is caustic and she takes things really personally when challenged.” Iannarone rejects that criticism: “Walt never volunteered, helped or wanted to be involved in any way except in telling us what to do and making demands of those of us doing the work,” she says. “I have zero tolerance for lazy blowhards and, of course, pushed back.” Nichols notes that fallout from the project also led to another incident that demonstrates Iannarone’s temper. Iannarone and Brian Borrello, an artist on the Triangle project, sought restraining orders against each other in 2010. In court documents, Borrello accused Iannarone of spray-painting an image of “an ejaculating male penis with the words ‘loose cannon’ on my workplace door.” Iannarone and Borrello declined to comment on the allegation, but Lakeman of City Repair recalls the dispute.
MADDIE MASCHGER
Her characterization of her academic bona fides is a recurring issue. In the 2016 Voters’ Pamphlet, Iannarone described her educational background as “PhDc”—the “c” standing for candidate. In May 2020, she changed that description to “Ph.D. (ABD)”—which means “all but dissertation.” She’s repeated that phrasing in the November Voters’ Pamphlet. In other words, Iannarone purports to have earned a doctoral degree she’s been working on since 2006, except for completing her thesis. Under Oregon law, making a false statement in the Voters’ Pamphlet is a felony. “An example of a false statement under ORS 260.715(1) is stating the candidate has a college degree when the candidate does not,” the elections manual says. “She’s absolutely violating the spirit of the law,” says Jim Moore, a professor of political science at Pacific University (and a Ph.D.). “That ‘c’ or ‘ABD’ doesn’t mean anything in academic nomenclature. She doesn’t have the degree. It’s that simple.” Iannarone defends the characterization. “It’s actually a set of qualifications that I’ve accomplished,” she says. “I am ABD and I have advanced a candidacy in a Ph.D. program. So that’s actually accurate.” (PSU professor Carl Abbott, Iannarone’s Ph.D. adviser, declined to comment.)
6.
COURTESY OF SARAH IANNARONE
5.
IANNARONE IS LESS THAN TRANSPARENT ABOUT HER ACADEMIC CREDENTIALS.
GRASS ROOTS: Iannarone, in the pith helmet she wears to protests (top), has received money from 5,000 contributors.
AARON WESSLING
He says although Borrello is his friend, he can be a hothead. “I’ve called him a dick myself,” Lakeman says. “She just went a little further.”
7.
DESPITE WHEELER’S UNPOPULARITY, IANNARONE HAS STRUGGLED TO WIN OVER KEY ALLIES.
ZANE FLEMMING
Iannarone is running to Wheeler’s left. Yet she is not picking up some of the key endorsements she might have hoped to earn. Despite her aggressive climate plan, for instance, the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, the state’s largest environmental group, recently endorsed Wheeler. OLCV board chair Jules Bailey (who ran against her and Wheeler in 2016) says that’s because Wheeler accomplished difficult tasks. He cites the residential infill project, which the City Council passed Aug. 12 after a five-year battle with neighborhood associations and other opponents. “It’s easy for somebody to stand up and say, ‘I’ve got a plan,’” Bailey says. “It’s another thing to stand up to powerful neighborhood and entrenched interests. Wheeler took a political risk in doing that.” On Sept. 14, the Next Up Action Fund, the voter engagement group formerly known as the Bus Project, endorsed write-in candidate Teressa Raiford for mayor. That was a repudiation of Iannarone, who got more than twice as many votes as Raiford in the primary. In a lengthy explanation of its decision, Next Up called Raiford “the fighter we need as Portland mayor to tackle the issues of police brutality, the climate crisis, houselessness, renter’s rights, and equity pay for living wages.” All things, of course, that Iannarone has pledged to do. Two figures central to the past three months of racial justice debate also aren’t convinced Iannarone is the answer. State Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) has led the push for police accountability measures in Salem. He’s known Iannarone for nearly 20 years, much of that time as a fellow PSU grad student. He endorses Wheeler. “She’s a great person and has a lot of good ideas, but I think she’d be better in another role,” Frederick says. “I may disagree with Ted on how he’s handled police issues, but I still feel he has a better handle on how to manage the whole city.” The skeptic who could prove most costly to Iannarone is Jo Ann Hardesty, the city commissioner who holds considerable sway with the electorate—as she demonstrated by helping Dan Ryan defeat Loretta Smith in the Aug. 11 special election runoff for City Council. Hardesty might seem the most sympathetic ear for Iannarone’s criticism of the police and Wheeler’s management of the bureau. Iannarone even co-authored a March 12, 2019, op-ed in the Portland Tribune urging that the mayor put Hardesty in charge of the Police Bureau, an assignment she’s pushed for ever since. Hardesty endorsed Wheeler in the primary. She says she remains undecided whether she’ll endorse him in November—yet she’s not inclined to endorse Iannarone. “She’s a nice woman and she has some good ideas,” Hardesty says. “But with the current crises, can Portland really afford another one-term mayor?” Intern Hank Sanders contributed reporting to this story.
STILL HERE: Mayor Ted Wheeler is taking heat from all sides, including the women pictured above and below him on this page.
WRITE IN: Teressa Raiford, the founder of Don’t Shoot Portland, finished third in the May primary but is attracting support as a write-in candidate. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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STREET STATE OF EMERGENCY Photos by Alex Wittwer On Instagram: @_wittwer
As wildfires burned across the state, thousands of Oregonians were forced to flee their homes—while others fought the flames.
On this page: Evacuees gather in Clackamas County.
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
Teena Putvain’s 17-year-old companion lies in the parking lot of a strip mall in Oregon City.
A member of Diamond Fire and Forestry poses outside the burn area where his crew fought the fire.
Horses in Sublimity.
Jim Beckwith, a 30-year veteran firefighter, sits in his truck outside a burn in Estacada.
Outside Sublimity.
Lee Samuelson surveys the damage to his property near Shellburg Falls Trail, north of Mehama. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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Over 40 condors are evacuated from the Oregon Zoo’s Jonsson Center for Wildlife Conservation in rural Clackamas County and relocated to Idaho.
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BIKETOWN
Beloved downtown beer bar Bailey’s Taproom announces it has closed indefinitely due to the financial strain of the pandemic.
HENRY CROMETT
Teacher
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Biketown suspends operation due to air quality just as it rolls out its new fleet of e-bikes.
Portland has the worst air quality of any major city in the world…
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Wyatt Tofte, great-grandson of Enchanted Forest founder Roger Tofte, dies in the Santiam Fire, along with his grandmother.
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Already reeling from COVID-19, several Portland restaurants temporarily close due to the smoke. AWFUL 20
Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
Q(UARANTINE)&A
Dark Times
OPINION
TOM PUTNAM
GET (BACK) INSIDE
WHAT TO DO—AND WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING— WHILE PORTLAND IS A SMOKE-CHOKED HELLHOLE.
Hot Shots
Your artsy wildfire Instagram posts aren’t helpful, particularly to evacuees.
Director Tom Putnam’s new movie is a love letter to parts of the Pacific Northwest wilderness that, as of this week, may no longer exist. When Tom Putnam went into the woods last year to make a movie, he couldn’t have known that several shooting locations would be reduced to ash by the time anyone got to see it. In The Dark Divide, Arrested Development’s David Cross portrays Robert Michael Pyle, a well-regarded lepidopterist, prolific author and college professor who, in 1995, spent six weeks trekking across Gifford Pinchot National Forest in southern Washington searching for new butterfly species. But for Putnam, who grew up just outside Portland in Clackamas County, The Dark Divide isn’t just a biopic. He spent a great deal of his childhood in Gifford Pinchot himself and shot much of the movie there. And with 18,000 acres of it currently ablaze, that’s only made the film more personal. “It really hits home for me,” Putnam says. “This is such an important place, and we’re not doing a good enough job to protect it.” MATTHEW SINGER.
Tell us about shooting in Gifford Pinchot. Most of my background is in the documentary world, and I tend to focus on [shooting] subjects in difficult places. So I thought, kind of stupidly, let’s do the same thing with this. We ended up in some
TOBIAS FÜNKE GOES CAMPING: David Cross in The Dark Divide.
locations where a film crew should not be: narrow trails with 200 foot drop-offs, lava tunnels hundreds of feet underground, up on Mount Hood in a snowstorm way above the treeline. And a lot of those locations are now on fire. Weirdly, we talk about the fires and how they seem to get worse year after year. And now I think the place where that exact conversation happened in the film is about to burn down. You’ve done two documentaries on firefighters in the past. What did those experiences teach you about what we’re seeing right now? Something I’ve come to realize over 11, 12 years of making movies with firefighters is that they’re kind of the canary in a coal mine. When a firefighter shows up and something is on fire, it’s usually because a whole bunch of things have failed. Yeah, lightning can strike and start a fire. But when you’ve turned a forest into a tree farm and all the trees are the same, and you’re not cutting back from power lines and not funding first responders properly, this is what happens. See the full video interview at wweek.com/distant-voices. The Dark Divide is available to stream through video on demand beginning Sept. 18.
O R E G O N S TAT E F I R E M A R S H A L
WW: What made you want to tell Pyle’s story? Tom Putnam: I grew up outside of Portland and basically spent every weekend hiking and camping and fishing in Gifford Pinchot during the time Bob wrote about. I spend a lot of time in L.A. now, and there’s not a lot of nature here, and I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I read his book.
We’ve all seen them by now. The orange skies. The quirky captions. Maybe even a thoughtful pose. Wildfire photos have started to feel inescapable on Instagram. In this moment of extraordinary tragedy, amateur photographers are scrambling to take over hashtags and gain followers. And it pisses me off. My experience with the fires is similar to thousands all over the West Coast. I was evacuated from the Bald Peak Fire last Tuesday evening, rushing from my home in an absolute panic, grabbing only my laptop, our dogs, and the ugliest pair of jelly sandals you’ve ever seen. Once I was safe, I checked in on social media, scouring location tags for information on fire containment. Anything useful tended to be buried under artsy images of the destruction I had just escaped from. One portrait showed a young woman in a face mask walking toward a fiery horizon with a caption about tackling adversity. I found them all deeply upsetting.
HISTORY
This Ain’t It, Chef What the hell was going on with this short-lived 1950s Portland pizzeria?
In the last few years, Portland has evolved into a pizza mecca. Name a style, and we’ve got it. But that’s a relatively recent development. In 1957, options were a lot more limited. One ambitious pizzeria, however, apparently tried to single-handedly broaden the city’s palate in ways that could either be considered progressive or an utter abomination. Last week, Portland game designer Neven Mrgan shared an ad from The Oregonian archives for a restaurant called Francine’s Pizza Jungle. Located at 500 NW 21st Ave., it boasted of being “1st in Pizzas From Around the World”—and based on the menu, that effectively meant “taking the culinary stereotypes of various countries and dumping them on a pie.” Some of the items actually seem ahead of their time. Most significantly, the “Hawaiian Pizza” used pineapple as a topping five years before the Canadian chef that’s credited with inventing the practice. But frog legs? Pickled herring? Corned beef hash? Friggin’ pork and beans? This being the 1950s, some of the dishes are borderline problematic for reasons that go beyond taste profiles: The “Chinese Pizza” is topped with noodles, because of course it is.
NOT FOR THE ’GRAM: Firefighters working to contain the Holiday Farm Fire on Sept. 8.
WEIRD SLICES: Based on ads in The Oregonian archives, Francine’s Pizza Jungle seems to have existed for only about eight months in 1957.
Francine’s Pizza Jungle was was short-lived: Eight months after its first ad ran, the space was converted into a Mexican restaurant. It’s currently occupied by Chinese spot Kung Pow. Who was Francine? Is there anyone still alive who actually ate there? If you have any information, please email msinger@wweek.com. Meanwhile, we’ll be over here making the signature Jungle Pizza with “cocktail fruit, apple sauce, chopped nuts.” It couldn’t be worse than breathing the air right now, right? MATTHEW SINGER.
Taking photos of the fires isn’t inherently inappropriate. Journalists risking their lives to capture the impact up close are an entirely different case. What isn’t OK is using someone else’s traumatic moment to boost your social media engagement. The photography culture of Instagram is one based on engagement. It’s important to use lots of hashtags and show a side of something that no one else has to build up likes and comments. It encourages one-upmanship to please the algorithm. A major natural disaster, especially one as visually striking as a wildfire, might seem an opportunity to grab your camera and get snapping. But in so doing, you’re potentially retraumatizing evacuees, and contributing to a tone-deaf internet culture that prioritizes likes over basic empathy. You’re not a documentarian—you’re only bringing attention to yourself. MCKINZIE SMITH. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK
Beast Master
TOP 5
HOT PLATES Where to eat once the smoke clears.
Sure, pizza is on the marquee, but Dimo’s Apizza also aims to join the Portland sandwich pantheon. @cohenesque
THE BEAST The Meat
This is not your average roast beef from the supermarket deli case. It’s a prime, whole top sirloin that Miriello seasons as if it were a Texas brisket. “You just salt the living shit of it,” he says. Miriello then follows with a marinade of rosemary thyme, parsley, garlic, chile flake, lots of black pepper and more salt. It sits for 24 hours, then gets trussed, seared and roasted at low temperature “until it’s blood rare in the center,” Miriello says. After cooling overnight, it’s thinly sliced “like you can see your face through it.”
The Bread
TREVOR GAGNIER
Miriello worked with Katherine Benvenuti of Bar King ’s bakery to develop a custom sesame semolina baguette with just the right size and texture. You’re not going to break your teeth biting into it, but it’s also sturdy enough for Day 2 leftovers. “These baguettes are perfect,” Miriello says. “I don’t want to sound sacrilegious, but I think they have a little bit more finesse and attention to detail—and certainly the quality of product that goes into them is better—than what you would probably get at an East Coast Italian deli.”
The Fixins
There are lots of ’em, including a robust, 12-month, cave-aged Gruyère, a fresh aioli that is slathered onto both sides, local heirloom tomatoes, sliced red onion that’s been shocked in ice water, and “shrettuce.” Then you close it up. “And if you can close it easily,” Miriello says, “you’re doing a bad job.”
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Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
EAT: Dimo’s Apizza, 701 E Burnside St., 503-327-8968, dimosapizza.com. Wednesday-Sunday 4-9 pm.
Inside Uptown Beer Co. at 6620 SW Scholls Ferry Road, rdburgershop.com. 4-9 pm WednesdayThursday, noon-9 pm Friday-Saturday. Rough Draft’s idea of the perfect burger is fatty, simple and crispy-smashed—just meat, cheese and condiments. The dark horse menu item, though? Vegetables. At least one delivers cruciferous vitamins and fiber: fried broccoli with hot cheese, pickled peppers, scallion and crispy jalapeños.
Kimura Toast Bar 3808 N Williams Ave., 971-266 8087, kimuratoast.com. 8 am-3 pm Tuesday-Sunday. At Kimura Toast Bar, thick slices of shokupan, or Japanese milk bread, can be the stuff of a light breakfast, a savory lunch or a meticulously composed dessert. You can get your toast simply, or under a hot dog. And yes, you can get it with avocado—a straight-up concession to the Portland market. RINGSIDE STEAKHOUSE
ello’s pizza mecca isn’t Naples. Rather, it’s his home state of Connecticut, where Pizza Jerk’s Tommy Habetz and Gracie’s The menu at Dimo’s Apizza is loaded. Apizza’s Craig Milello are also from. Like them, Miriello isn’t There’s a white clam pie ($34) and a spicy pepperoni pie claiming to make “New Haven pizza”—it requires coal rather ($27). There’s wild mushroom ($28) and cacio e pepe ($27). than wood, for one thing—but that’s the style he aims for: The Father ($28) is topped with sausage and hot pickled crispier than Neapolitan, but with more toothsomeness and peppers, and the Hail Mary ($28) with soppressata, Cal- “leopard” char than a New York-style slice. abrian chile and Castelvetrano olives. Among the current “That’s what I grew up eating, and that’s how I like my specials are “This Bacon Is Radicchio!”—bacon, pizza,” says Miriello, whose family go-to was Frank wood-roasted radicchio, caramelized red onion, Pepe’s The Spot, the 95-year-old pizzeria’s origtomato confit, fontina and thyme—and “The inal location. “I like a little bit more char than G.O.A.T.,” with blistered sun gold tomatoes, I think most Portlanders are used to—a little sweet summer corn, caramelized red bit longer of a bake, and a little bit more of onions, scamorza, goat cheese, parsley, a chew.” mint and basil (both $29). Equally inspired by the Italian storeBut if it were up to chef Doug Mirielfronts of his youth, as well as a stint doing lo, he’d insist you start with a plain pie. butchery and charcuterie at Gjusta in Los “I love running specials, but at the Angeles, Miriello has also made Dimo’s same time, I’m probably going to eat a a low-key, top-notch Portland sandwich cheese pizza,” Miriello says. “It’s the basis joint. Being from New England, he calls for all judgments of a pizzeria. If a pizzaiolo them “grinders,” but he won’t blame you if can’t make a cheese or a margherita, then we you call them subs, heroes or hoagies. DOUG MIRIELLO got problems.” There’s chicken and eggplant Parmesan ($15), At Dimo’s, which opened in mid-July in the sausage with broccoli rabe and Jimmy Nardello pepformer Burnside Brewing space that also hosted a pop-up pers ($16) and of course, “The Italian” ($16)—mortadella, by Danish brewery Mikeller last summer, the cheese pie soppressata and prosciutto cotto—on sesame semolina rolls ($22) starts with tomato sauce under a blanket of fresh and from the bakery at Bar King, another ChefStable member. dry mozzarella and pecorino, with a post-oven showering The most recent addition is maybe the most impressive. of Parmesan, extra virgin olive oil and Maldon sea salt. For a It’s called The Beast—as in “roast beast”—and it’s made margherita ($24), add basil and subtract the dry mozz. almost entirely from scratch in-house. The wood-fired Acunto brick oven is the same one “That was basically my childhood,” says Miriello. “I love a that was used at the hip-hop-inspired Neapolitan joint rare Italian roast beef sandwich, and I’ve taught myself how P.R.E.A.M.—both restaurants are projects of ChefStable, to do it pretty damn well.” Kurt Huffman’s omnipresent restaurant group—but MiriHere’s the lowdown: BY JAS O N CO H E N
Rough Draft Burger Shop
RingSide Steakhouse 2165 W Burnside St., 503-223-1513, ringsidesteakhouse.com. 5-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 4:30-10 pm Friday-Sunday. When RingSide emerged from the COVID-19 lockdown to hold a flash steak sale in April, it literally stopped traffic. Now the decades-old restaurant has relaunched its dinner service for the first time in nearly five months. A newly set up tent allows guests to dine outside. Bet you never envisioned eating filet mignon served by black-tied waiters in the parking lot.
Oma’s Takeaway 3131 SE Division St., 971-754-4923, omastakeaway.com. 5-10 pm Thursday-Sunday. It’s hard to say anyone can “win” in a pandemic, but Gado Gado found one heck of a silver lining, as its pivot to takeout is spinning off into its own restaurant. Oma’s Takeaway will now occupy the space formerly home to Whiskey Soda Lounge and feature Thomas Pisha-Duffly’s playfully inventive Southeast Asian items, including five-spice tater tots served with curry ketchup and char siu pork shoulder.
Havana Cafe 901 NW 14th Ave., 970-400-8887, havanacafepdx.com. 11 am-10 pm Tuesday-Saturday. Cuban restaurants are hard to find outside their native turf and nearby Miami. Havana Cafe remedies that with an unmissable rooftop experience in Northwest Portland. Among a handful of platters, lechon con mojo may be your power move: a mound of ultra-tender, deeply flavored slow-roasted pork infused with garlic.
FOOD & DRINK C O U R T E S Y O F M I G R AT I O N B R E W I N G
PATIO REVIEW
TOP 5
BUZZ LIST
Where to drink once the smoke clears this week.
Palomar 959 SE Division St., No. 100, 971-266-8276, barpalomar.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday. By reservation only. A reflection of owner Ricky Gomez’s Cuban American heritage and his hometown of New Orleans, Palomar doesn’t look like many other Portland bars. The interior could be a set piece from HBO’s Ballers, and the drink menu is just as colorful, full of piña coladas, daiquiris and all things slushy and beachy. Moving operations to its roof deck overlooking Division Street was, well, a baller move given the circumstances. With only a few more weeks of warm weather left, now is the time to grab a reservation.
Gin Alley
HEY, REMEMBER THE SKY?: The view from Migration’s rooftop patio, in less smoky tiemes.
Blank Canvas Migration Brewing migrates west—and then goes up. BY AN D I P R E W I T T
aprewitt@wweek.com
PATIO SPECS Number of tables: 17 Space between tables: At least 6 feet Additional safety measures: Menus accessible by QR code; an escort to the elevator and a table once on the roof; sanitation stations; floor markers to keep people 6 feet apart; guests are asked to bus their own tables. Peak hours: 3-8 pm
EAT: Migration Brewing Rooftop at Canvas, 817 SW 17th Ave., 971-291-0258, migrationbrewing.com. 1-10 pm ThursdaySunday. 21+.
Sandy Hut 1430 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-235-7972. Call to confirm hours. Dive bar, tiki bar and diner, the Sandy Hut has been a mainstay for service industry workers and young eastsiders for decades, and a 2016 makeover only made it more inviting. While most of its unique charms are found inside—the pool table with lion heads carved into the corners; the awesome Al Hirschfeld wallpaper—the oddly shaped building sits on an island along its namesake street, which makes grabbing a cocktail on its curbside patio a singular experience by itself.
ZOIGLHAUS
If you’ve largely been holed up in your own neighborhood for the past six months—walking the same blocks, stocking up on groceries at the same store—it’s easy to forget that other parts of the city you once roamed haven’t necessarily been preserved in amber. Even though it felt like much of the world curled up and hibernated last March, Portland’s skyline continued to change, even if you weren’t there to see it. That’s why regular MAX riders who roll through the Stadium District may find the sudden appearance of the new nine-story Canvas office building a bit jarring. It is, of course, an awkward time to add more square footage for desk dwellers when work is likely to continue remotely for the foreseeable future. But there is hope for this gleaming glass tower: At the very top lies the latest outpost of Migration Brewing, which boasts a panoramic view unparalleled among the recent crop of rooftop bars. And if it weren’t for COVID -19, the average person might never have gotten to see it. Rooftop soirees were supposed to be a perk for office tenants, with beer drinking relegated to the ground level, where Migration had planned to open its fourth pub. The 10-year-old brewery suddenly flipped floors after co-founder McKean Banzer-Lausberg had a late-night conversation with the developer and property manager. “The community needs more outdoor space right now,” Travis Drilling, regional leasing manager for the Urban Renaissance Group, recalls telling him. “This will bring more attention to the building, so let’s do this rooftop. Let’s take this amenity space and open it to the public.” From the Providence Park MAX stop, you step off almost directly in front of the entrance to the Canvas lobby, where your porter awaits behind a Migration-branded stand. Employees downstairs communicate with those on the roof to find out when a table is ready before showing customers to an elevator.
Since the building is practically nestled in the West Hills, the deck offers a different perspective of the city than other bars and restaurants. From the collection of white oak tables and picnic benches constructed out of handsome gold iroko wood, the view northwest goes from the Montgomery Park building to the prominent arch of the Fremont Bridge in the northeast. To the east, downtown’s mixture of high-rises and familiar skyscrapers resemble a jagged range. A trio of real mountains rises beyond that: St. Helens, Adams and Hood. Sometimes, the patio can feel as windy as one of those exposed summits. Hold on to your plastic cups of beer tightly and wear pants—skirts and dresses get flipped easier than the glasses up here. One more sight is worth noting: a massive screen inside Providence Park. While crowds aren’t currently allowed inside the stadium for Timbers games, you may be able to peek in on the action from Migration’s rooftop. The brewery already has some grand plans once games resume with fans in the stands. “I might have to put a tifo up,” says Migration co-owner Colin Rath, “because [the patio] is facing the opposing team seating.”
3348 SE Belmont St. 4-10 Wednesday-Saturday. Opening behind still-shuttered pseudo-speakeasy Circa 33 off Belmont, Gin Alley is, well, an outdoor gin bar located in an alley. The brainchild of veteran bar manager John Paul Longenecker, the drinks include a martini with locally sourced herbs, a strawberry and pepper gin fizz and, perhaps most tantalizing, a hazelnut mai tai.
Zoiglhaus 5716 SE 92nd Ave., 971-339-2374, zoiglhaus.com. 4-9 pm daily. If the E-Z Ups are out, that’s a sure sign a good time is being had. At Zoiglhaus, they’re one of the defining features of the brewery’s new pop-up beer garden. The setup is bare-bones, but it’s enough to transform the oil-stained patch of concrete on 92nd into a breezy block party. Sadly, the outdoor cooking portion of the shindig has come to an end, but the jägerschnitzel is still on the menu. And then, of course, there’s the beer: Cans of Hop on Top—the brewery’s sassy, seasonal dry-hopped Pilsner—sit in a galvanized tub, adding to the feeling that you’re at a neighbor’s summer hang. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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COURTESY OF THE CANNABIS WORKERS COALITION
MASIMBAASHE-ZVOVUSHE
S AV I N A M O N E T
POTLANDER
CHANGE AGENTS: (From left) Cannabis Workers Coalition members Jagger Blaec, Savina Monet and Jessica Ortiz.
Clean Slate The Cannabis Workers Coalition is launching the restorative justice movement Oregon’s weed industry has long needed. BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R
In weed-friendly Oregon, there are massive disconnects between the industry and the communities it serves. Even though recreational cannabis was legalized in 2014, an offense from the days of prohibition can still inhibit offenders’ housing prospects, employment opportunities, right to vote, even the ability to serve on their children’s PTA. While one sector profits, another continues to suffer lasting generational effects from the War on Drugs, and after six years, little corrective movement has been made. The Cannabis Workers Coalition is working to change that. The freshly formed social welfare nonprofit is on a mission to mobilize Oregon’s weed industry into a vehicle for restorative justice. The group focuses on three main initiatives: worker protections, industry diversification, and lasting legislative change. It’s launching this week with an expungement clinic at NW Cannabis Club, where attendees can have their records cleared on the spot and also access wraparound services such as public housing assistance, EBT enrollment, legal advice and referrals—and, if they are so inclined, even pick up a marijuana handlers permit. WW spoke with founding members Savina Monet, Jagger Blaec and Jessica Ortiz about its upcoming “expungement clinic” at NW Cannabis Club, as well as the necessity of taking the movement further, the lack of stoner representation in government, and holding cannabis companies accountable for righting the wrongs of the War on Drugs. WW: The Expungement Clinic is the Cannabis Workers Coalition’s inaugural event. Why choose this platform as your public introduction? Jessica Ortiz: I think the most important thing, especially as women of color ourselves, is that we wanted a safe place for people to see that they have allies and a place where they can gather, acquire information, and get educated on the next steps. This really hits home for me because I have family members that have paid the price 24
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for their involvement and use of cannabis. I want people to know that there is a community trying to make a change. Savina Monet: What we’re trying to do is just get as many people from the community there, especially the underserved community that has higher barriers of entry for the cannabis industry. And we want to serve them as well as we can so that when they leave the clinic, they feel more confident to either join the cannabis industry or even go and reapply for housing now that they don’t have a conviction holding them back. What makes expungement clinics such as this so critical to creating equity in the cannabis community? Monet: Expungement means different things in different states, but for Oregon what it means is to completely erase or seal your record, and that removes it from public and private databases. Many people that have past convictions are unable to vote. Ortiz: And if you’re a parent with marijuana conviction your position as a parent can be really difficult. Kids or visitation rights can be taken away from you. Jagger Blaec: This is just one event, but this is the stuff that we’re going to be doing: breaking down gatekeeping and building access. Why do you think the state has been so slow to implement broad restorative justice initiatives? Blaec: White supremacy. Monet: It’s a systemic issue. It’s not just cannabis. When it’s white people in charge, it takes so much longer because there’s no urgency behind a lot of the issues that you’re trying to dismantle. Ortiz: When the people you’re representing aren’t the people in charge, that creates a barrier to empathy and understanding because you don’t have your own experience, and if you don’t have anyone around you who uses cannabis and if you don’t see the benefits of it, then it’s so easy for stereotypes and myths and misconceptions to really seem super real.
Is that dearth of representation what led you to found the Cannabis Workers Coalition? Monet: I first started thinking about unionizing last year. Then, the same month that the murder of George Floyd happened, one of our good friends [event partner Raina Casey of the Oregon Handlers Fund] had posted a comment saying, “Hey, how about we all go $100 in for marijuana workers permits for people who can’t afford it?” And that was just revolutionary but also so easy for people to do. Giving a voice and empowerment to [workers], it needs to be continuous—asking the tough questions like, “Are you doing superficial things that look good on social media, or are you doing the hard work behind the scenes?” Let’s talk about blind hiring practices. Let’s talk about what you don’t even know because you don’t have an HR department. There are so many resources that are lacking in the cannabis space itself. We’re just trying to be that bridge. Your position as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit is unique in that it can act as both a social welfare organization and a labor union. How exactly does that balance benefit both worker and business members? Monet: As a nonprofit, we are able to do a lot of things that people would think are only reserved for labor unions. We can help with collective bargaining and employee representation. We can stay on as a mediator during certain meetings. We’re able to arm the workers with education so they know their rights. If the owners want to do any discriminatory practices, then the employees have a right to strike. For worker members, we’re definitely free. We are taking from the labor-union model where instead of having employees pay dues for their rights, we’re shifting it to the employers paying monthly dues to show that they’re dedicating themselves to their employees. And in this business, where money seems to be the main communicator, that’s big. GO: The Cannabis Workers Coalition’s walk-in expungement clinic is at the Northwest Cannabis Club, 1195 SE Powell Blvd., on Friday, Sept. 18. Noon-6 pm. See more information at cannabisworkerscoalition.org.
PERFORMANCE
BOOKS
Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com O R E G O N S H A K E S P E A R E F E S T I VA L
Written by: Scout Brobst Contact: sbrobst@wweek.com
FIVE BOOKS TO HELP EASE YOU INTO THE APOCALYPSE For the Time Being, Annie Dillard Coming from the patron saint of existential musings, Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being keeps pace with our time 45 years after its publication. The book conveys an obsession with the way things come together and then fall apart, where God, philosophers, still images and statisticians are looked to for answers on the failed promise of good things. It is instinctive to call Dillard’s work “cosmic,” but what she writes about is the earth, how we bear the tumult of life and insist on existing amid floods, plagues and incurable disease.
Left Behind, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
SEEING GREEN: Recordings of the Green Show, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s free, outdoor performances, are now streaming online.
O! for Outstanding Here are the five coolest (free) things on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s streaming service. BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RGUS O N
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.” Spoken by Claudius in Hamlet, those words sum up how fans of Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival are feeling. Most of the festival’s 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19, including a proposal to open productions for a fall run. And like the rest of the state, Ashland has been impacted by wildfires—the Almeda Fire has decimated the nearby towns of Phoenix and Talent. Happily, OSF has something to tide Shakespeare-starved theatergoers over until its hoped-for 2021 return: O!, a streaming service with a plethora of goodies (Shakespearean and otherwise). Launched July 2, O! charges viewers for some of its content (productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Copper Children streamed this summer), but it also offers free classes, interviews, music videos, readings and short films. It’s a lot to take in. So here’s a guide to getting started—a list of the five coolest free things that O! has to offer. Compliments From Shakespeare’s Plays When it comes to compliments, the Bard doth teach words to burn bright. This online course, taught by Kirsten Giroux, OSF’s associate director of artistic engagement, plunges into the artistry behind Shakespeare’s compliments, analyzing alliteration, assonance, pacing and pitch. It’s an addictive vocal exercise (I geeked out trying to see how many different ways I could say, “And when I love thee not, chaos is come again”). And who knows? It might give you some ideas for post-pandemic dating. Danni Cassette Queer BIPOC independent artists are spotlighted in O!’s WOMB series, which pays special attention to Los Angeles musician and analog connoisseur Danni Cassette. WOMB curator Jaz Hall’s interview with Cassette is worth watching, but your best bet is Cassette’s epically delightful “Banana” music video, which features them singing while dressed in a banana costume.
Digistories This is a series of digital short films inspired by a single theme: legacy. The results are eye-opening, poignant, surreal and never anything less than transfixing. Digistories includes Joanne Feinberg’s Broken Fixed, a conversation about anti-Semitism and self-love between three generations of Jewish women; Nikkole Salter’s Couture, a beautifully animated ode to the joys of dressmaking and mentorship; and Miles Inada and Devyn McConachie’s Anthrocumulus, which plays out like an enjoyably twisted riff on Hayao Miyazaki’s films. Green Show: Embodiment Project—Michael Brown The Green Show—the free, outdoor performance series that precedes evening shows at OSF—is one of the festival’s most enduring and iconic traditions. O! has archived videos of several Green Show performances, including this agile and impassioned tribute to Michael Brown from the San Francisco dance troupe Embodiment Project, which combines hip-hop, documentary theater and choreo-poetry. The performance begins with a defiant monologue (“His name cannot be erased”), followed by a ballet of backflips, cartwheels and pushups punctuated by haunting images, like a man shaking as if being shot and then becoming as still as a corpse. We Are Story: Season 1 Another Kirsten Giroux special, this series of courses begins with the instructor analyzing Hamlet with surgical precision and contagious joie de vivre. Shakespeare devotees and novices alike will get a kick out of her breakdown of Claudius’ opening speech, which delves into the usurper’s delicious doubletalk and barbarous turns of phrase (you know a guy’s up to no good when he refers to his spouse as the “imperial jointress of this war-like state”). Also worthwhile is Giroux’s scrutinization of Ophelia’s first scene, which makes a compelling case that despite the character’s seeming descent into madness, she can be craftier than the scheming men who surround her. SEE IT: O! programming is available at osfashland.uscreen.io/catalog
Left Behind is the Jurassic Park of apocalyptic novels, or the Ghostbusters, or maybe the Gone With the Wind. The first one, that is—not the franchised series of 16 books or the hallucinatory Chad Michael Murray film adaptation. In 1995, the evangelist-author tag team of Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins produced what is more or less Book of Revelation fanfiction that is at once wildly compelling and deeply uncomfortable, depending on your religious background. Here, the apocalypse is a game of winners and losers, and its entertainment value is unmatched.
Wave, Sonali Deraniyagala “End of days” happen most days if we stop getting distracted by the bigger picture—they happen in families and individuals, in countries and coasts. For Sonali Deraniyagala, who was not an author until this debut memoir, that end came with the Sri Lanka tsunami of 2004 and the loss of her sons, husband and parents. Wave is a sonnet of the aftermath. Deraniyagala writes about the way things flatten all at once, only to rebuild again, differently, in a sort of parallel life. It is an exquisite piece of writing, worth the read for anyone fascinated by the strange—and at times inexplicable—toughness of the human project.
We All Looked Up, Tommy Wallach Something of an apocalyptic Breakfast Club, Tommy Wallach’s debut novel tracks four Seattle high school students, each with their own timeworn reputation, in the two months they have to live before an asteroid is predicted to turn the world into crumbs. The characters are endearing, and Wallach’s writing, for all its grand ambition, is grounded and sweet. For some 200-plus pages, the reader is asked to believe that the world is possibly—probably—ending, and it is not a chore.
I Will Send Rain, Rae Meadows While fires skate the perimeter of our city and ask us all to plan escape routes, there was a different set of natural conditions a century ago that forced families indoors. I Will Send Rain is historical fiction that imagines the world stripped of moisture and covered in dust. In 1934, the earliest storms of the Dust Bowl are brought to Mulehead, Okla., and one family must wait for rain for any relief. Meadows writes through her young lead with optimism and warmth, somehow drawing light into barely habitable circumstances. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 16, 2020 wweek.com
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MOVIES
Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com VI SON TRINH
SCREENER
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’s films are all about going back to school—be it middle school, high school, college, or a prestigious prep academy that’s been taken over by a helter-skelter substitute music teacher.
Columbus (2017)
KEEPING SECRETS: Life is about to be disrupted for an immigrant family in Borrufa.
Sedate Cinema
Portland-shot Borrufa may have glacial pacing, but its story is melodramatic. BY C H A N C E SO L E M - P F E I FER
@chance_s_p
Within Borrufa’s minuteslong static shots, a viewer can wear many hats. For example, once you realize you’re watching Ireneo (Antonio Luna) simply sit in a chair for several minutes, welcome to amateur anthropology. Look how he keeps switching which leg he crosses in the figure 4 position… prideful but anxious. Then, you’re a film studies detective observing Leonora (Alma García) polish a floor: Is there some code to the mopping pattern? As still more moments fall away, perhaps your mind turns childlike and your eyes register only the visible changes: Hey, a dog wandered through the corner of the frame! That’s nice. Regardless of whether it’s right to classify Portland filmmaker Roland Dahwen’s debut feature Borrufa as “slow cinema,” the glacial pacing and minimal movement are the first stylistic choices many will notice. The entire two-hour film comprises approximately 20 camera setups, with scant dialogue to match. Within the multitude of negative space, though, is a family coming to terms with emotional cataclysm. Leonora and Ireneo’s ironing, sweeping, barbering, tortilla making—none of it pauses for revelations of Ireneo hiding a second family. “[The story] seemed in many ways suited for a melodrama, but I was interested in the quiet moments in between,” says Dahwen, whose film is available on demand Sept. 17-28 as part of the Northwest Film Forum’s Local Sightings Film Festival. “Life is a lot of work. And we tend to skip over these moments when we’re making entertaining things.” Much of the specific daily life depicted here came about organically, as the script Dahwen had been writing since he graduated from Reed College’s literature program in 2013 took on a new shape once the film’s first-time actors joined several years later. Alma García, mother of the director’s friend, Portland writer Stephanie Adams-Santos, brought dignity and complexity to a role Dahwen says he was struggling to define. García also brought her own mother, opening the door for a heartbreaking foot-bath scene and heightening Leonora’s overwhelming sense of duty amid the marital upheaval. “Once the actors graciously agreed,” Dahwen says, “I went back and rewrote everything with them in mind, 26
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knowing them as people and their habits.” Almost entirely in Spanish, Borrufa is technically a story of immigrated Portlanders, but it’s not really about Oregon as a destination any more than it is about Guatemala as a homeland. Dahwen prefers leaving more overt political and cultural signifiers to more overt films. If you don’t recognize the waters off Sauvie Island, for instance, you might never even know Borrufa was shot locally. “There are a lot of representations in films about immigration and migration that fall on similar tropes and rhetoric,” says Dahwen, offering sagas of new beginnings and forced departures as examples. “I was interested in making a film where all that is taken for granted. Of course, everyone belongs here as much as anyone belongs anywhere. I wanted to escape people being defined by their relationship to the state.” Instead, the characters are defined by the same dominant force that acts upon these slow-burning 16 mm frames: time. Its weight is felt everywhere, and fully experiencing the ticking seconds raises intuitive questions about the characters, too. If it takes this long to iron a shirt, how long does it take to fundamentally alter the constitution of family? In turn, Borrufa finds its deepest moments in pondering how silence, memory, secrecy, even dreams flow through generations. Particularly as they relate to the couple’s son, Heldáy (Heldáy de la Cruz), these forces come through in a few strikingly written monologues. “[Words] don’t solve anything,” Dahwen says, but the writer-director is simultaneously happy to share an axiom from Iranian master and stylistic influence Abbas Kiarostami: “In the total darkness, poetry is still there, and it is there for you.” While Dahwen was relatively happy with his film’s COVID-shortened premiere at the Portland International Film Festival in March, he isn’t shy about acknowledging that seven-minute foot baths aren’t to everyone’s taste in film. Still, one of the most beautiful qualities of Borrufa is its willingness to challenge not through pretension but understatement. “I think a few people will find it worthwhile,” Dahwen says, “and that’ll be enough for me.” SEE IT: Borrufa screens online via Northwest Film Forum’s Local Sightings Film Festival Sept. 18-27. Access tickets at nwfilmforum.org and your emailed receipt will contain a link and password for viewing.
A young architecture enthusiast (Haley Lu Richardson) working at a college library in Columbus, Ohio, finds her dreams reinvigorated after meeting Jin (John Cho), who’s visiting from South Korea to care for his comatose father. Director Kogonada’s moving drama is impeccably shot and profoundly human—a celebration of the beauty of architecture, vulnerability and passion. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Google Play, Kanopy, YouTube.
School of Rock (2003) In Richard Linklater’s megahit musical comedy, guitarist Dewey Finn (Jack Black) masquerades as a substitute music teacher at a prep school in order to make rent after being kicked out of his band. When he realizes the talent brewing in his fifth graders, he enters them in a Battle of the Bands competition, transforming the kids from stuffy classicists into mini rock stars. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Go, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.
Miss Stevens (2016) This tender indie dramedy from writer-director Julia Hart follows a high school English teacher (Lily Rabe) tasked with chaperoning a group of theater kids on a weekend trip for a drama competition. A pre-fame Timothée Chalamet co-stars as her talented but unstable student, delivering a star-making monologue from Death of a Salesman. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Kanopy, Vudu, YouTube.
Eighth Grade (2018) Comedian Bo Burnham’s directorial debut is a far cry from his deliciously cynical standup material—instead, it follows an anxious 14-year-old girl as she clumsily attempts to navigate the tempestuous waters of her last week of eighth grade. Imbued with warmth and sympathy, it’s one of those few dramedies that successfully conjure both laughter and tears. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Kanopy, Vudu, YouTube.
Booksmart (2019) One of last year’s best comedies, actress Olivia Wilde’s directorial debut follows two overachieving high school seniors (Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever) who realize they wasted their teen years studying instead of partying. Now, on the eve of graduation, the girls set out to cram four years of fun into one night of debauchery. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube.
MOVIES LETTERBOXD
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
Beau Travail With Criterion Collection’s new 4K restoration of French auteur Claire Denis’ 1999 tour de force, her already stunning imagery is enhanced to reach its full potential. Set in a French Foreign Legion camp in Djibouti, the verdant greens of soldiers’ uniforms and the vibrant blues of the Indian Ocean contrast even more brilliantly against the igneous heat of the African sun. Loosely based on Herman Melville’s novella Billy Budd, Sailor, this blistering drama focuses on former Legion officer Galoup as he reminisces about his career leading the troops. Specifically, he recalls the time a younger, stronger and more charismatic man joined the squad, consuming him with jealousy, implied to stem from his own repressed sexuality. Unafraid to probe the pressures and pitfalls of masculinity, Beau Travail, which translates as “Good Work,” argues that intensive athleticism can be both elegant and brutal. Abstract images of shirtless men relentlessly performing training rituals are rhythmic and hypnotic, yet devoid of glamorization—Denis opts to cultivate an authentic atmosphere rather than the typical propagandistic action that dominates domestic military movies. It’s why she remains one of the best working directors. NR. MIA VICINO. Cinema 21’s Virtual Theater.
BEAU TRAVAIL 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 Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets While most Oregonians haven’t set foot in their local for months, we’ve all passed that one obscure watering hole and thought, “Has this place been open the whole time?” Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is an ode to just that kind of dive. Experimental filmmakers Bill and Turner Ross train their lenses on Las Vegas’ Roaring ’20s on its final day in business, and we meet the affable barkeeps, trauma-soaked vets, wayward youngsters and shaggy loners toasting farewell to their only sense of community, no matter that it feeds on their marginalization and addiction. The weeping, the slurred professions of love, the gallows humor, the last dances—it’s as profoundly affecting as it is authentically scuzzy, but there’s a trick afoot. The amateur performers are clearly operating from some vague script, even if they are completely plastered. The sad-bastard country soundtrack is a little too on pitch and, in fact, the interior of the bar is not even in Vegas. Winner of the True/False Film Festival’s True Vision Award, Bloody Nose waltzes at the forefront of creative cinematic nonfiction. And this premise blurs the line between fact and fiction perfectly. After all, there is no stark reality for the spiraling barfly. The tears look damn real, and they flow like swill. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.
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+.
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.
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 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.
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JONESIN’
Week of September 24
©2020 Rob Brezsny
by Matt Jones
"Battle of the Alternative Bands" --predictions on who would win. [#464, Apr. 2010]
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
"It takes a lot of courage to be the same person on the outside that you are on the inside." Author Barbara De Angelis made that observation. I offer it up to you as a fun challenge. During the coming weeks, you may be strongly tempted to be different on the outside than you are on the inside. On the other hand, you'll have the necessary insight and valor to remain unified. In fact, you may ultimately create more congruence between your inside and outside than you have in a long time.
Seventy-nine-year-old Libran poet Robert Pinsky has had a triumphant life. He has published 19 books, including his own poems and essays, as well as translations of Italian and Polish poetry. For four years he served as the United States Poet Laureate. To what factors does he attribute his success? Here's one: "Whatever makes a child want to glue macaroni on a paper has always been strong in me," he testifies. He's referring to the primitive arts-and-crafts projects he enjoyed while growing up. In accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you, too, to get in touch and commune with the primal roots of the things you love to do. Reconnect with the original expressions of your passion for life.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) "People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within." Fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin made that observation, and now I'm conveying it to you just in time for the season when you'll need it most. Please note that I am *not* predicting you'll be devoured by dragons from within. In offering you this oracle, my hope is that you will: 1. acknowledge the existence of metaphorical dragons; 2. locate where they hang out in your inner realms; 3. study them and get to know them better; 4. devise a strategy for dealing with them safely.
GEMINI (May 21-June20) "Don't let them tame you," advised flamboyant Gemini dancer Isadora Duncan. Who did she mean by "them"? The mainstream critics, who might have wished she cultivated a less maverick style? Her managers and handlers, who may have wanted her to tone herself down so she could earn maximum amounts of money? Her friends, who cringed when she did things like dancing on a table wearing an evening dress at a party? In accordance with astrological omens, Gemini, I invite you to take a survey of what influences might wish you were more docile, mild, or manageable. And then meditate on how you could consistently express the healthiest kind of wildness.
CANCER (June 21-July 22) ACROSS 1 Maggie Gyllenhaal's brother
64 "Band B wins, because it's pointy and doesn't digest well"
30 Drive-thru drink with a plastic dome
67 Early actress Langtry
32 Villainous surname in the Super Mario Bros. series
68 Dir. opp. WNW
34 Request to the dealer
14 "___ Boot"
69 "Scientific American Frontiers" host Alan
36 Manufacturer of electronics for kids
15 Weasel out (on)
70 Didn't dine out
16 "You'd think Band A would hold up, but it's flimsy. Band B wins"
71 "Slippery When ___" (Bon Jovi album)
37 What automobile interiors may drown out
5 Tallahassee's st. 8 Earthy yellow shade 13 Fix text
19 Like some computer errors 20 Blood type for just over 6% of the U.S. pop. 21 They follow B 22 Unable to work, perhaps
72 Spotted
38 Geologic time periods 42 Sault ___ Marie Canals 44 Candle type
DOWN 1 Constantly napping member of The Wiggles
45 He might heal your hamster 49 "Se ___ espaÒol"
24 CPR pro
2 Song from Sarah McLachlan's "Surfacing"
50 "___ wisely"
26 Comp. storage sites
3 Highland Games garb
27 Forever, it seems
54 Clueless response
31 "Charter" tree
4 "At Last" blues singer ___ James
33 Diamond Head locale
5 Prez on the dime
35 "Band B wins, since Band A only has a tolerance for booze"
6 Kitschy '70s plug-ins
39 Wash against, as the shore 40 Cutesy-___ 41 Four Holy Roman Emperors 43 "Drop Band A on Band B? Band B wins, no contest" 46 1920s design style 47 Suffix for orange or lemon 48 Gaelic tongue 49 "Ben-___" (movie classic) 51 Shaker ___, OH 53 Furthest degree 55 Fertile Crescent locale 57 Golfer Aoki 59 Did some diamond inspecting?
7 Part of AARP 8 "___ the fields we go ..."
52 Reptilian warning 56 Obesity drug Orlistat, over the counter 58 Not too many 60 Business degs. 61 Stripper's fixture
9 "Mad Money" network
62 "The Neverending Story" author Michael
10 Job search insider
63 Jimmy of meat products
11 Spurred (on)
65 Half of an eternal balance
12 Hull wreckers
66 Movie studio filming site
15 Stringy cleaner 17 Footballer Manning 18 "Isn't that something?" 23 ___ Lobos 25 California/Nevada attraction
last week’s answers
In the Yoruba religion of *Ifà*, the English word "heart" has two different meanings and words. So says Yoruba priest Awó Falokun Fatunmbi. The first heart is the organ that pumps blood through our bodies. It's called *okàn*. Within the *okàn* is the second heart: a power center that regulates the flow of emotions. It's called *ègbè*. I believe your *ègbè* will be exceptionally strong and clear and generous in the coming weeks, Cancerian. Your capacity to feel deeply and truly will be a gift to all those with whom you share it. It will also have the potential to enhance your appreciation for your own mysterious life. Wield your *ègbè* with glee and panache!
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Ancient Greek philosopher Plato observed, "Do not train children to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each." The same principle applies to all of us adults who are committed to the goal of life-long learning. And according to my astrological analysis, it will be especially useful for you Leos to keep in mind during the coming weeks. It's time to energize your education! And here's the best way to gather the new teachings that are important for you to know: Follow what amuses your mind.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Christian author Frederick Buechner writes, "We are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves, and I believe that to love ourselves means to extend to those various selves that we have been along the way the same degree of compassion and concern that we would extend to anyone else." Let's make his thought your keynote for the next two weeks. Now is an excellent time to take a journey through your past to visit all the other people you have been. As you do attend to this poignant work, be generous with each of your old selves. Forgive them for their errors and praise their beauty. Tell them how much you love them. Thank them for how they have made possible the life you're living now.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) "A single ego is an absurdly narrow vantage point from which to view the world," wrote occultist Aleister Crowley. Author Gore Vidal agreed, saying, "Since no one can ever know for certain whether or not his own view of life is the correct one, it is absolutely impossible for him to know if someone else's is the wrong one." All of us can perpetually benefit from this counsel. And it will be especially healthy for you to heed during the next four weeks. Humility will be a superpower. Blessings will flow your way if you don't need to be right all the time. As you refrain from regarding your own opinions as God's holy decrees, you will generate good fortune for yourself.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) "It's a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you've been to all the places you don't need to be." Author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote that. I'm passing it on to you because I suspect you now possess the power to claim this rare gift. In the coming days, you don't have to engage in endless evaluations of the numerous possibilities. You don't have to risk falling victim to overthinking. Your clear, strong gut hunches will tell you exactly where you need to be and how to get there.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Novelist Henry Miller was in many ways a quintessential Capricorn. He described himself as being "in love with love, always in search of the absolute, always seeking the unattainable." Feelings like those are why your astrological symbol is the mountain goat that's always climbing higher, questing toward the next pinnacle. At your best, you're determined to keep striving for the brightest, the strongest, the truest. Sometimes you overdo this admirable imperative, but mostly it's a beautiful quality. You are hereby authorized to express it with maximum wisdom and eagerness in the coming weeks.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) "Go catch a falling star," wrote poet John Donne (1572–1631) in his poem "Song." "Tell me who cleft the Devil's foot," he went on to say. "Teach me to hear the mermaids singing." He wasn't being literal, but rather was indulging in poetic fancy to stretch his readers' imaginations. I'm offering you the spirit of Donne's poem, Aquarius, because you're ripe to transcend your limited notions about what's plausible and implausible. If you allow yourself to get extravagant and unruly in your fantasies, you may crack through shrunken expectations and break into a spacious realm of novel possibilities.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) I don't suggest you indulge daringly in sensual pleasures, cathartic exchanges of energy, and intoxicating pursuits of relief and release. The pandemic mandates us to be cautious about engaging in unmitigated bliss—even though the astrological omens suggest that if now were a normal time, such activities would be well worth focusing on. How can you resolve this dilemma? Possibilities: 1. Experiment zestfully with your live-in steady or spouse. 2. Get a COVID-19 test with a potential playmate, and if you both test negative, celebrate boisterously. 2. Round up a dazzler with whom you can generate rapture via Zoom. 3. Fantasize about delightfully gracious debauchery. 4. Go solo.
27 The whole thing 28 Burrito add-on, for short 29 Fashionable sandal
©2020, 2010 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.
HOMEWORK: In your fantasy, create an alternate version of yourself with a different name and a different 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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