Willamette Week, September 23, 2020 - Volume 46, Issue 48 - "Good Grief"

NEWS: REMEMBER TERESSA RAIFORD’S NAME. P. 9 RESTAURANTS: WHO’LL STOP THE RAIN? P. 21 CANNABIS: WHAT WE LOST IN THE FIRES. P. 25 WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

“MY TASTE BUDS ARE WRECKED.” P. 22 WWEEK.COM

VOL 46/48 09.23.2020

GOOD GRIEF In 2020, everyone is struggling with mental health. Here’s our guide to finding peace.

Page 12

THANK YOU PORTLAND FOR VOTING

SUBARU OF PORTLAND THE BEST AUTO DEALERSHIP IN 2020!

WITH THE RECENT HAZARDOUS AIR QUALITY DUE TO THE FOREST FIRES YOUR AIR FILTERS MAY BE IN NEED OF REPLACEMENT.

Air Filter Replacement

29.95

$

parts and labor

A dirty or clogged air filter can affect the fuel economy and overall vehicle performance. A restricted air filter can affect the way the engine maintains the correct air-fuel mixture. If the air filter is restricted, the fuel mileage and overall vehicle drivability can deteriorate rapidly. Replacing your air filter element is a quick and effective way to keep your engine running at its peak performance. A clean air filter helps your engine work more efficiently by letting the airflow get to the engine with no restrictions. A clean air filter can also prolong the life of your engine. An air filter should be replaced after approximately 15,000 miles depending on driving conditions.

Cabin Air Filter Replacement

39.95

$

parts and labor

The cabin air filter acts as a screen to protect the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system from outside elements that could harm it, while simultaneously filtering the air you breathe. Your vehicle’s cabin air filter should be replaced every 12,000 miles for MY 2015 and 7,500 miles for MY 2014 and older. Genuine Subaru cabin air filters provide a crucial line of defense against airborne contaminants, trapping them before they enter your Subaru HVAC system or the lungs of anyone in the vehicle.

You may notice restricted air flow when it’s time to get changed.

ANY YEAR OR MODEL SUBARU 2

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

DIALOGUE

FINDINGS PAO L A D E L A C R U Z

SAFER SPACE, PAGE 16

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 48 One in 8 prisoners at Snake River Correctional Institution have contracted COVID. 4 Mayor Ted Wheeler is getting outraised 5 to 1 by Sarah Iannarone. 7 Teressa Raiford ’s supporters don’t want a white savior. 9

Some Black Lives Matter demonstrators have taken up microdosing mushrooms in order to continue protesting. 14 Psychedelic drug enthusiasts have begun referring to the pandemic as “the Great Pause.” 14

Eating mac and cheese at 2 am is an acceptable form of self-care. 15 The Clippers blew a 3-1 lead. 20

A local teacher spent quarantine setting trail running records at Mount Hood, Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. 22 Food cart Galactic Grapes got the idea for its candy-coated grapes from a place near Atlanta called the Craxk House. 23 Ten percent of Oregon’s food service establishments have closed this year. 24 There’s already a cannabis product harvested during the wildfires called “Smokey Joe.” 25 Portland filmmaker Howard Mitchell decided to move to Portland based on a coin flip (heads was Austin). 28

A meme generator was created to mock Portland’s own Balloon Letter Guy. 21

ON THE COVER:

Paola De La Cruz

Paola De La Cruz spent her most impressionable years in the Dominican Republic alongside the warm sun and singing wind.

Upon moving to Boston at the age of 9, she was inspired by the activist movements happening around her. Paola interweaves digital and analog media, patterns, stitching and shapebased illustrations to evoke intimacy while challenging the themes of cultural identity and coming of age.

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: Portland protesters say their lives were upended by mug shots posted to Twitter.

MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER

Mark Zusman

EDITORIAL

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

WILLAMETTE WEEK IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY CITY OF ROSES MEDIA COMPANY

ART DEPARTMENT

Creative Director Joy Bogdan Senior Production Designer Jack Kent Illustration Intern Paola De La Cruz Photography Intern Mick Hangland-Skill ADVERTISING

Director of Sales Anna Zusman Account Executives Michael Donhowe, Justin Eulalio Thomas Marketing Coordinator Candace Tillery

2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Main line phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 296-2874 Classifieds phone: (503) 243-2122 fax: (503) 296-2874

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Give!Guide Director Toni Tringolo TechfestNW Director Shelley Midthun Cultivation Classic Director Steph Barnhart Oregon Beer Awards Director Rachel Coddington Friends of Willamette Week Director Anya Rehon DISTRIBUTION

Circulation Director Spencer Winans Entrepreneur in Residence Jack Phan

OPERATIONS

Accounting Manager Kim Engelke Staff Accountant Shawn Wolf Manager of Information Services Brian Panganiban OUR MISSION

To provide Portlanders with an independent and irreverent understanding of how their worlds work so they can make a difference.

Though Willamette Week is free, please take just one copy.

Anyone removing papers in bulk from our distribution points will be prosecuted, as they say, to the full extent of the law.

Willamette Week welcomes freelance submissions.

Send material to either News Editor or Arts Editor.

Manuscripts will be returned if you include a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. To be considered for calendar listings, notice of events must be received in writing by noon Wednesday, two weeks before publication.

Questions concerning circulation or subscription inquiries should be directed to Spencer Winans at Willamette Week.

Postmaster: Send all address changes to Willamette Week, 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Subscription rates: One year $130, six months $70. Back issues $5 for walk-ins, $8 for mailed requests when available.

Willamette Week is mailed at third-class rates.

Association of Alternative Newsmedia.

This newspaper is published on recycled newsprint using soy-based ink.

Last week, WW published a profile of mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone (“She’s Not Ted,” Sept. 16, 2020). A neighborhood activist who’s never worked in city government, Iannarone has benefited from the toll the protests have taken on the approval ratings of incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler. A self-described “everyday anti-facist,” Iannarone has attended several of Portland’s protests against police brutality. WW’s cover story examined Iannarone’s outsider appeal and her decision to list her academic credentials as Ph.D. (ABD)—which stands for “all but dissertation”—in the November Voters’ Pamphlet.

(Iannarone now faces an elections complaint alleging she has misrepresented those credentials.) Here’s what our readers had to say: Deb Lowenthal via Facebook: “Another political neophyte, ‘what have you got to lose?’ candidate. I’m not thrilled with Ted, but…”

Nopojoe via wweek.com: “Egad, the choices. I have lost confidence in Wheeler. Not surprisingly, he fails to be innovative and flexible in response to the challenges.

And no one is expecting that of him. Iannarone has had no real life experience in governance. Things are too intense for learning as you go. Two months out, I don’t expect a savior to appear from the wings. We are hosed.

It’s chicken**** but I will probably just leave my ballot blank on that race.”

Sonja Miller via Facebook: “Another mayor with training wheels, no thanks. At least Wheeler knows how to manage money and be an administrator. Whether you like his outcomes or not, he is experienced. She is able to take potshots without demonstrating any real admin or leadership capability.” @gayhouse90 via Twitter: “’3. Iannarone may not have any political experience, but she has a lot of ideas.’

This only applies to yt ppl? This same point is used to detract from @TeressaLRaiford. She’s got ideas. She’s got moves. She’s gonna save Portland.” @johannesolaf via Twitter: “The Ph.D. dissertation isn’t some minor add-on, like an undergrad capstone.

It’s the main thing. I like Sarah Iannarone, but her listing Ph.D. (ABD) as a serious credential is a bit embarrassing. ‘Ph.D. candidate’ would have been the more standard and less misleading phrase.”

Dr. Know

IANNARONE WAS NOT ON THE “FRONT LINES,” WHATEVER SHE SAYS ABOUT HER PH.D. The assertion that Sarah Iannarone has been on the front lines of the protests dozens of times is absolutely false (unless you mean the front lines of Twitter).

People on the ground know that she showed up for vanity shots with her new helmet when the feds were here, but even then had to get that picture quickly and get out to avoid being confronted for her constant attempts to appropriate the movement. Still today, if Sarah were to approach the front lines, she would likely be confronted for accepting the assertion made by this article as truth. It’s absolutely not true. This lie is an affront to all of the people who actually are on the front lines of the protests. This lie is an insult to resistance community members who risk their lives, then showing up for jail support in the morning. She is not at all part of the frontline protest community, let alone a person who has been on the front lines dozens of times. It’s just plain not true.

The lie obfuscates another truth—Black women started the initial [Multnomah County] Justice Center protests. The lie demonstrates Sarah’s pattern, also described in the article, of inflating her past “work” for political gain. Furthermore, this false statement projects an image of broad support for Iannarone in the protest movement, when actually, no Bloc we are aware of claims her.

Susan Anglada Bartley Southeast Portland In Pacific University poli sci professor Jim Moore’s comment about Sarah Iannorone’s use of Ph.D. (ABD), he says, “She’s absolutely violating the spirit of the law....That ‘c’ or ‘ABD’ doesn’t mean anything in academic nomenclature.” He is wrong. The ABD is used routinely on one’s C.V. to indicate a Ph.D. candidate who has completed all but her/his thesis, important info for academic search committees assessing job candidates. As for the “c”? Never heard of it.

Linda Isako Angst, Ph.D. Southeast Portland LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification.

Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210.

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx

During the recent smokepocalypse, we were told to stay inside with the windows and doors closed until further notice. Does that really help? If you really could seal your house airtight, wouldn’t you just run out of oxygen pretty quickly? —Air Hoardin’ Time for another of our patented Dr. Know bogus mathfests, where our quantitative rigor is matched only by our qualitative stupidity! I’ll be using imperial units so those of us old enough to remember the now-discredited brontosaurus from textbooks (or, in some cases, from real life) can follow along.

For argument’s sake, we’ll assume your house or apartment is outfitted with magical, elf-forged super-weather stripping, suitable for submarine screen doors or space travel. We’ll further assume 9-foot ceilings and 1,000 square feet of floor space all to yourself—9,000 cubic feet of air, all told.

The average American adult uses about 19 cubic feet of oxygen a day. (If you exercise, you use more, but I did specify “American.”) Dividing 9,000 by 19 gives you 474 days of air—pretty good, right?

Well, not quite—recall that only 20% our air is actually oxygen; the rest is nitrogen and other gases.

Still, the remaining 1,800 cubic feet of pure O2 is enough to sustain you for about 95 days.

Or it would be, if you had it conveniently concentrated in an oxygen tank. Unfortunately, it’s diffused unhelpfully throughout your increasingly suffocating panic room, and your lungs can only extract oxygen from this miasma down to a concentration of 10% or so. This brings your prognosis down to something like 48 days.

It gets worse! The real problem with a sealed room isn’t running out of oxygen, it’s the buildup of carbon dioxide. You exhale 15 cubic feet of carbon dioxide per day. Within six days, your bomb shelter’s air will be an already-uncomfortable 1% CO2, and by day 24, your air will have reached 4% CO2, a level the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has declared an immediate danger to life and health.

All that said, a week or 10 days of airtight lockdown—longer than you might suppose—should be eminently survivable. Movies and TV shows where two teenagers get locked in a walk-in cooler and have 12 hours to escape dying as virgins are, apparently, not as realistic as you thought. But I won’t say anything if you don’t.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

3

Music Millennium

MURMURS MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

Presents: Record Store Day Drop 2

Saturday, Sept. 26th Special Store Hours 8am- 10pm Over 100 Special Limited Vinyl Releases!

Titles from: The Allman Brothers Band Brandi Carlile Dinosaur Jr. The Doors Bill Evans Jerry Garcia

Jimi Hendrix Paul McCartney Primus The Ramones The Replacements Tegan and Sara Roger Waters

AND MANY MORE!

Where do you read Willamette Week? #READWW Tag us to be featured

DOWNTOWN VIGIL FOR THE LATE JUSTICE RUTH BADER GINSBERG, SEPT. 19

COVID RAMPANT AT SNAKE RIVER PRISON: More than 1 in 8 inmates at Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Ore., have tested positive for the coronavirus, state data shows.

Out of approximately 2,900 inmates, 394 have tested positive for the virus. Another 405 have tested negative, meaning the facility hovers near a 50% positivity rate among those tested. On Sept. 22, the Oregon Department of Corrections announced a man incarcerated at Snake River had died the previous day after testing positive.

He was in his 80s. The facility has now been the site of three of seven COVID-19-related deaths of Oregon prisoners. Of the approximately 900 employees at Snake River, 139—or 15%—have tested positive for the virus. “Institutions continue to clean and disinfect numerous times a day,” DOC said in a statement Tuesday. “If an [adult in custody] becomes ill and exhibits flulike symptoms, then [state and federal] guidance for supportive care are followed.”

MOST OREGON RENTERS ARE IN DISTRESS: Fifty-three percent of Oregon tenants say they paid their monthly rent during the pandemic by cutting back on food and medication, according to a survey conducted this month by Portland State University and the Community Alliance of Tenants. More than 1 in 3 of the 460 Oregon renters surveyed have failed to pay their full rent during the pandemic and cannot afford to pay what they still owe. The survey results were released as part of an effort to lobby for more renter protections, including an extension of the moratorium on evictions, which expires Sept. 30.

Gov. Kate Brown has said she doesn’t expect to call a special session until after the election, so any extension of the eviction moratorium in the next week would have to come from her. “The governor is continuing to have conversations with community leaders and stakeholders,” says Brown spokesman Charles Boyle, “to look at options surrounding a moratorium for evictions for renters.”

LAWMAKER FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST UNION LOBBYIST: State Rep. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) filed an ethics complaint

4

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Sept. 2 against Jeff Anderson, a lobbyist for United Food and Commercial Workers Local Union 55, over Anderson’s comments to the NW Labor Press about whether employees who get COVID-19 should automatically receive workers’ compensation benefits. That’s a divisive issue in Salem (“Virus Proof,” WW, July 29, 2020), and the union, which represents grocery workers, says it’s a key issue for its members. Bonham says Anderson “clearly implied that UFCW’s political contributions in the 2020 election cycle would be tied to whether legislators signed a letter expressing support for one of the organization’s top legislative priorities.” That could violate Oregon ethics laws against trading campaign contributions for influence. Anderson says he was merely describing what the priorities for the union would be. “Suggesting that a union can’t describe its legislative agenda is a baseless complaint,” he tells WW. “Rep. Bonham knows it’s baseless because if it did have merit, he himself would be in violation of taking money from a number of organizations that very explicitly telegraph their expectations of legislators: Koch Industries, the gun lobby, and the financial sector, to name a few.” The complaint is under preliminary review by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: WW’s coverage of right-wing extremism was named the best in the nation last week by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. Former WW reporter Katie Shepherd received the award for her coverage of an assault committed by a violent right-wing brawler, Tusitala “Tiny” Toese. Last February, Shepherd revealed that prosecutors had dropped a case against Toese, even though they had a witness, a cooperating victim and a confession. Her reporting led to one of the first guilty pleas by a rightwing extremist in Oregon in the past decade.

Shepherd was hired last year by The Washington Post. Her prize headlines several honors for WW at the AAN Awards, including runner-up prizes for health care coverage, long-form news story, special publication and innovation.

When it comes to Internet, you’ve got options.

Everyone uses their Internet a little differently, so when it’s time to find a plan that fits you, it’s good to know you have options. And Xfinity gives you the ones you need. If you’re on a budget, there’s a speed for that. If you’re not ready to commit, you can get a plan without an annual contract. And no matter what option you choose, you’ll get Advanced Security included with the xFi Gateway — which gives you added protection for your devices. It’s Internet with the power of options.

And that’s simple, easy, awesome.

Go to xfinity.com, call 1-800-xfinity or visit an Xfinity Store today.

Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. All devices must be returned when service ends. Call for restrictions and complete details. NPA231673-0004

137465_NPA231673-0004 Value No Price 9.639x12.25 Willamette.indd 1

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com 6/8/20 2:58 PM5

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

ELECTION 2020

Three Questions As Oregonians weigh their choices for November, we start quizzing the candidates.

BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N

r monahan@wweek.com

Wait’s over. It’s time. Oregonians will begin receiving ballots in the mail three weeks from now. Among the choices facing Portlanders: contested races for Oregon secretary of state, Portland mayor and a City Council seat. Starting this week, WW will ask the candidates questions intended to clarify their priorities, draw distinctions between their values, and establish how they view the office they’re seeking.

Oregon Secretary of State

The winner of this contest will oversee elections, even as threats to Oregon’s vote-by-mail system multiply. Democrats and Republicans are both alarmed about the integrity of the system—but for different reasons. Democrats fear President Donald Trump’s undermining of the U.S. Postal Service endangers the delivery of mailed ballots, while Republicans (whose constituents are typically rural) fear hardships for voters driven from their homes by wildfire.

We asked the candidates: Do you believe all Oregon votes will be counted in the November election?

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

Sen. Shemia Fagan (D-East Portland):

Yes “I’m confident every vote will be counted.

Oregon has blazed this trail for decades, and we have a long-established and very secure system.

I’m proud to be the only candidate in this race to support automatic voter registration and prepaid postage. Frankly, I think the biggest threat we face this election isn’t any problem with our proven and tested vote-by-mail system but from misinformation that is designed to undermine voter confidence, spread conspiracy theories and depress turnout. As an elected official— and certainly as a candidate for secretary of state—I think it’s important to always provide accurate information on voting and ballot security.”

Yes “I have every confidence that all the votes will be counted but as secretary of state, I would strive for improvements in our current system. Allowing postmarks on mail ballots at least on the Saturday before, if not on election day, would help ensure every Oregon voter’s ballot will count.

Allowing postmarked ballots that come in after election 6

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek. com

Portland City Council, Position 4

In the past four years, incumbent City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly led the Portland City Council in establishing unprecedented tenant protections: first an ordinance that required landlords to pay moving costs for tenants they evicted without cause, then new limits on how much landlords could charge for a deposit and what screening questions they could ask tenants. Eudaly was opposed at every turn by landlords. We asked her and her challenger, academic Mingus Mapps: In the past four years, Portland has passed some notable tenant protections. What, if anything, would you vote to repeal in the next four years?

What would you vote to change about the rules?

City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly:

“Now is the time to strengthen our work to keep Portlanders housed.

I advanced Portland’s relocation assistance ordinance in my first 30 days in office and fair access in renting last year. These are the strongest protections Portland renters have had since World War II. “In this moment, when we are anticipating a tidal wave of evictions and foreclosures, without a dramatic intervention at the state and federal levels, we must work to build upon our local protections. I am currently working on a tenant opportunity-to-purchase policy that would provide tenants and affordable housing nonprofits with the right of first refusal to purchase buildings that are up for sale. Additional solutions I am pursuing include extending the eviction moratorium, funding for eviction defense, increasing rent assistance, supporting the work of the anti-displacement task force that I helped create, and continuing our track record of building permanently affordable housing.”

Mingus Mapps:

“The spirit of the existing tenant protections is in line with my values, and I have no plans to repeal existing tenant protections. I’d like to focus on moving forward.

Portland needs to do a better job at increasing renter protections. We must also protect small ‘mom and pop’ landlords, in addition to their renters, so that affordable units do not go off the market, stay

occupied and everyone thrives. We need to increase our supply of affordable housing. And we need to increase homeownership, especially among working families.

“I have plans to increase protections. We can protect renters by increasing funding for emergency housing vouchers and by extending the ban on evictions until the current fiscal crisis has passed. We can also protect renters by developing and implementing better anti-displacement policies and by establishing a zero-tolerance policy for racial discrimination in Portland’s housing market.”

Portland Mayor

Mayor Ted Wheeler ran for office four years ago on a platform of police reform. This summer, in the face of Black Lives Matter protests, Wheeler cut the Police Bureau budget, though not enough to please protesters or their allies.

We asked the mayor and his challengers for the bottom line: Should the budget for the Portland Police Bureau be increased, decreased or remain the same in the next budget cycle? How much should it change by? Where should the money come from and where should it go?

Mayor Ted Wheeler:

Continue decreases to the Portland Police Bureau by less than $5 million each of the next two years “ I ’m p r o u d t h a t my administration has done more to demand and implement reforms than any past mayor. We’ve st a r t e d a n u n a r m e d response unit, created the Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing, expanded behavioral health capacity, and mandated bias and deescalation training.

“This summer, I committed to reallocating $12 million in funds from PPB to support communities of color and implement reforms. That was in addition to approximately $15 million in reductions already announced by my administration earlier this year.

“Last fall, I also directed a 2% budget reduction for PPB over the course of the next three years. In collaboration with Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, we created the Public Safety Working Group, which started the process of making these cuts. The savings from these would be used to fund programs like Portland Street Response and other programs prioritized by the council through the budget process.

“We have a long way to go, and voters have a chance to help push overdue reforms in November.”

AARON WESSLING

Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer):

day has worked well for many years in Washington state, and I would like to see if we can explore that system for Oregon.

“I’m also concerned about Oregonians who’ve been displaced from recent wildfires, potentially jumping through hoops to get their ballot. Many of these voters had their mailboxes burn down along with their homes and are now transient—moving from one location to another over the next several weeks. It’s helpful to know there are ways to work with elections officials to have ballots mailed to temporary addresses. However, I’ve pushed for those officials to spread the word so voters know they can go to any county clerk’s office in Oregon to have their hometown ballot printed, vote on that ballot, and it will get back to their county elections office at home.”

Sarah Iannarone:

Decrease the police budget by at least $25 million “We must listen to our BIPOC community on issues impacting them most. I supported the research and advocacy of leaders like Unite Oregon and the Portland African American Leadership Forum calling to return the Police Bureau budget to pre-2016 levels by eliminating biased programming and redirecting $50

NEWS J O N AT H A N I N T H AV O N G

million to community-led public safety programs.

“We’re asking police to do too much. The same officers we watch brutalizing protesters are not appropriate first responders for those experiencing houselessness or in mental health crisis. We need to provide real help for everyone who calls in a way that reflects our values.

“The police budget has increased while City Council has cut vital programs like parks and YouthPass. Had council taken the opportunity for transformational change, these costly nightly protests would have reduced in intensity and frequency. Portlanders want us spending our precious dollars on economic recovery and community resilience rather than squandering them on police overtime at protests, tear gas, and costly lawsuits regarding police brutality. We should look into expanding the Portland Street Response, piloting a guaranteed-income program for marginalized and vulnerable people, investing in communities harmed by overpolicing, and building community safety hubs across neighborhoods to prepare for disaster, displacement and pandemic.”

BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON

Teressa Raiford:

She did not respond to WW’s request for comment.

DONORS

Contribution of the Week How much? $500 Who got it? Mayor Ted Wheeler on May 20 Who gave it? This is the unusual part: The donor was his political consultant, Christian Sinderman of the Seattle firm NWP Consulting.

Why is it interesting? Usually, consultants get paid

by their clients rather than give money to them. Instead, Sinderman gave the mayor the maximum donation the day after the May primary.

The contribution also draws attention to the struggles of the campaign. Wheeler, who missed averting a runoff by less than a percentage point, has had three campaign managers and struggled with fundraising.

After a court decision this spring upheld campaign finance caps approved by Portland voters in 2018, the City Auditor’s Office decided in May that candidates had to abide by a $500-per-donor limit on contributions.

Wheeler had opted not to observe such a limit in his previous fundraising, and he also chose not to participate in the city’s public campaign financing system. That means his leading opponent, Sarah Iannarone, has raised five times his war chest. Wheeler has reported raising just over $70,000 since the primary; Iannarone has nearly $370,000.

What does the campaign say? “Christian, like

many others who support the mayor, simply wanted to contribute to the effort as an individual outside of any work his firm is doing,” says Wheeler campaign manager Danny O’Halloran. “We’re grateful for his, and all of our donors’, support.” RACHEL MONAHAN.

Who Gets Therapy?

Black Oregonians can find few mental health care providers who share their experiences.

Oregonians have plenty of fuel for anxiety these days.

The air outside can be too smoky to breathe, and the air indoors might contain droplets from coronavirus-carrying sneezes. For Black residents, the worry may be worse: Imagine the national conversation were focused on how to respond responsibly to police killing you.

However, when Black Oregonians seek mental health care from a Black counselor to talk about these experiences, their options are scarce. Black mental health care providers are greatly underrepresented in Oregon.

A 2017 Oregon Health Authority report showed Black care providers made up less than 1% of each type of mental health focus—including Black psychologists, therapists and counselors—while Black Oregonians made up 2.2% of the state’s population.

Meanwhile, white non-Latinx mental health care providers were overrepresented across the state, making up 75.1% of the population but 80% or more of each type of

mental health care provider.

Black psychiatrists were slightly better represented at 1.4%, while white psychiatrists made up 81.7%.

For communities of color, a culturally specific therapist is crucial because many of the issues they face are a direct result of racism and other oppressive factors such as high poverty rates. OHA health assessments show that those in poverty and with other disadvantages are more likely to experience mental distress.

Portland counselor Denise Williams is a Black woman with almost 30 years of experience in the field. She tells WW that Black people are mentally exhausted from dealing with racism, especially younger people.

“It just wears them out,” Williams says. “They’re just tired, it drains them. The sad thing for me is, I grew up with this. I expect it.”

The need for mental health care is present and symptoms appear early in life. Oregon health advocacy group Our Health Oregon writes that nearly half of all mental illness begins at as young as 14 years old.

Williams says white therapists can be effective for Black clients talking about racism, but it’s unlikely.

“I always say, being Black, you could never know how I feel,” Williams says. “I could explain it to you over and over again, but you could never feel what I feel, because you’re not Black.” LATISHA JENSEN.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek. com

7

9-Day Closure Interstate Bridge The northbound span of the Interstate Bridge will close from September 19–27, 2020.

Traffic in both directions will share the current southbound bridge span.

Where do you read Willamette Week? #READWW Tag us to be featured

Expect delays and congestion. @markwoolleygallery:

INTERSTATE BRIDGE

TRUNNION REPLACEMENT

interstatebridge.org

Where do I read Willamette Week? At the cabin next to Still Creek, in the afternoon in the Mt Hood National Forest, accompanied by the New Yorker, a beverage and always a pad and favorite pen...... think about supporting local independent journalism by becoming a friend of WW at wweek.com/support!

FRIENDS OF WILLAMETTE WEEK

FACTS

ARE THE FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE Arm Yourself. Support local, independent journalism.

Become a Friend of Willamette Week. wweek.com/support

8

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

NEWS MISS LOPEZ MEDIA

THE WRITE STUFF: Teressa Raiford is doing little campaigning for her write-in candidacy but has vocal support from activists.

The Third Way Teressa Raiford isn’t on the November ballot.

Many Portland activists want her to be mayor anyway.

BY AA R O N M E S H

amesh@wweek.com

Back in May, Teressa Raiford’s yearslong bid to be Portland mayor appeared over.

Raiford, 50, announced her challenge of Mayor Ted Wheeler in late 2017, the year he first took office. In the primary this May, in a field of 19 candidates, she got 8.5% of the vote, finishing a distant third behind Wheeler and Sarah Iannarone.

Then Minneapolis police killed George Floyd. Starting May 28, Portlanders took to the streets by the thousands to protest the police killings of Black people. With six weeks remaining until Election Day, those protests continue.

For Raiford, such protest is nothing new. For most of the decade, she has shepherded demonstrators who decry the actions of police. She has confronted elected officials in City Council chambers and consoled the families of people shot by officers. This summer, her nonprofit organization, Don’t Shoot Portland, successfully went to court to limit the cops’ use of tear gas.

The issue she has spent much of her life championing— police accountability—has never been more prominent.

So in July, her campaign volunteers asked a question: Why shouldn’t she be mayor?

“She has been doing the work that a mayor should have been doing,” says Jacinda Padilla, Raiford’s campaign manager. “After so much turmoil, people didn’t know that she was running for two years, and we didn’t want that work to go to waste. People who didn’t even vote for Teressa in the primaries started to turn back to Teressa.”

So increasingly, the city is plastered with posters featuring an illustrated portrait and a demand: “Write in Teressa Raiford.”

Raiford declined to be interviewed for this story, saying her campaign staff could speak for her. Those volunteers say Raiford’s experience as a Black woman whose family has endured racism and violence as well as her activism and outreach make her the right candidate for the times.

Susan Anglada Bartley, an educator, writer and activist, is among the supporters of the write-in campaign.

“Teressa Raiford has so much talent and expertise,” Anglada Bartley says. “She is a multidimensional person and frankly a superior candidate, especially for this political moment.”

That’s frustrating for Iannarone, who is trying to position herself to Wheeler’s left and whose campaign has repeatedly scuffled with Raiford’s backers online. But it also displays the divergent views among Portland progressives over what result should come from four months of protests.

If the mayoral election is a referendum on the future of the Portland Police Bureau, the three candidates offer competing visions. Wheeler calls for balance: He celebrates the promotion of a Black man, Chuck Lovell, to police chief and the cutting of $15 million from the bureau’s budget but says the police force is needed to ensure public safety. Iannarone seeks wholesale reform and says Wheeler’s changes don’t go far enough.

Raiford? She wants to dismantle the bureau and replace it with something better.

“If you know anything about Teressa, she’s not a traditional candidate,” says Token Rose, a community organizer who is volunteering for Raiford. “She’s for [police] abolition. She’s calling for defunding of police. She’s calling for radical ideas.

That’s always been Teressa, that’s always been her niche in Portland, and after May 19 people started to listen.”

Raiford grew up in Portland. Her family owned the Burger Barn, a Northeast Portland restaurant that in 1981 was the target of a notorious incident: Two off-duty Portland police officers tossed four dead opossums on its doorstep. In her 20s, she moved with her two children to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a manager at Bank of America. In 2010, she returned to Portland, shortly before her nephew was killed in an unsolved shooting.

That death propelled her into activism. The group she founded, Don’t Shoot Portland, seeks to comfort and organize the survivors of gun violence—particularly shootings by police. In 2016, she formed a nonprofit. (Don’t Shoot Portland’s most recent filing with the state, in 2019, reported an annual revenue of $36,407; Raiford, the executive director, received no salary.)

Raiford has sought office before. She challenged City Commissioner Amanda Fritz in 2012, receiving 3.2% of the vote.

She sought to unseat former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith in 2014 (she got 6.6%) and ran a write-in campaign for Multnomah County sheriff in 2016 (3.2%).

Meanwhile, she drew a fiercely loyal following of Black activists for her organizing, especially during protests of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.

She was arrested marching to a Bernie Sanders presidential rally in 2015. Charges were dismissed, and she sued the police for allegedly targeting her for her statements. A judge dismissed the case last year.

Destiny Houston, an activist, doula, and organizer with the Kid-Centered March for Black Lives, says that history is part of Raiford’s appeal. “Going through being harassed by the police and all the trials, she’s somebody who can represent the Black experience in a police state,” Houston says. “Her whole mission is to create a society where people aren’t losing people to police violence.”

Raiford took Don’t Shoot Portland back to court this summer, joining a class action lawsuit seeking a temporary restraining order against Portland police use of tear gas at protests. (A judge ruled partly in favor of demonstrators.) The group is currently suing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security over President Trump’s deployment of federal police to guard the downtown courthouse.

Under Raiford’s leadership, Don’t Shoot Portland in July took organizational leadership of the most prominent display of resistance to Trump: the “Wall of Moms,” a group of yellow-clad women who faced off in gas masks each night with federal officers. When that group dissolved amid internal rancor, Raiford founded another: Moms United for Black Lives.

Don’t Shoot Portland also briefly ran an all-you-can-eat, donations-only barbecue for protesters called Riot Ribs, until that operation also ended after organizers said an outsider hijacked it.

Raiford’s volunteers say she isn’t spending much time campaigning. Instead, she’s focused on mutual aid efforts—that is, projects where citizens help each other through difficult times.

This month, during massive wildfires, Don’t Shoot Portland organized a donations drive to send air filters, personal protective equipment, and menstrual hygiene products to smokeclogged neighborhoods on the edge of the city and the Warms Springs Reservation, where the Lionshead Fire raged.

Not everyone is impressed. Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, the most vocal critic of police on the City Council, quarreled with Raiford in 2016 during debate over a new police contract.

“Last time I had a conversation with her, we were in City Council chambers,” Hardesty recalls. “She started attacking me. She said, ‘The NAACP is just sucking up the all the money; you’re going to jail.’ I said, ‘The only way I’m going to jail is if I kick your butt.’”

Hardesty hasn’t endorsed in the mayor’s race. But she doesn’t support Raiford. “I don’t find her someone that I would want to deal with,” Hardesty says.

Some members of Raiford’s coalition raise eyebrows. She has the backing of key members of Stop Demolishing Portland, a group of homeowners who oppose infill development.

Few people could find Raiford’s write-in campaign as frustrating as Iannarone, whose campaign is trying to unite the left against Wheeler, only to find that some activists prefer Raiford, whom Iannarone thought she had already defeated.

“I respect her work,” Iannarone says, “and we just had an election in May after she campaigned for several years, and she didn’t break 10% of the vote. My singular focus this whole time has been on unseating Wheeler. And that’s what I intend to stay focused on.”

Anglada Bartley, the Raiford supporter, says Iannarone’s candidacy is ill-timed.

“Given that she is, like myself, a white woman, she can’t say she really understands all forms of marginalization Black and Indiginous people feel,” she says. “That is knowledge Teressa Raiford walks in the door with.”

Rose is more blunt. “People think that we owe something to Sarah,” they say. “And we don’t. She will never be the face of our revolution. We didn’t ask for a white savior, and we didn’t show up to protest for a hundred days now, risking all of our lives, for another white savior. We asked for Black lives to matter.

“Teressa had been talking about police brutality,” Rose adds. “People are actually starting to see it. And so people are asking for ways to show up for Black lives. So now we’re providing those answers. People noticing us is a win. Of course we’re going to win. We anticipate winning, 1,000%.”

Nigel Jaquiss contributed reporting to this story.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

9

NEWS N ATA L I E B E H R I N G

SUPPORT

LOCAL

INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM BECOME A FRIEND OF WILLAMETTE WEEK WWEEK.COM/SUPPORT

10

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Gambling Men A risk assessor says the state of Oregon lost court cases it should have settled—and punished her for speaking up.

BY TESS R ISKI

tess@wweek.com

In a whistleblower lawsuit filed Sept. 10 in Marion County Circuit Court, a longtime state employee accuses the Oregon Department of Administrative Services of retaliating against her for complaining about the Oregon Department of Justice.

It’s an unusual lawsuit, because the plaintiff claims her bosses didn’t back her up in a dispute with another state agency. Her claim: that DOJ ignored her advice and unnecessarily litigated cases that resulted in jury verdicts against the state.

In addition, the plaintiff claims that DOJ lawyers treated women with contempt.

Shauneen Scott is a 35-year employee of the state of Oregon. Since 2015, she has worked as a risk manager for the Department of Administrative Services. Scott was responsible for reviewing complex liability claims against the state and determining whether to pay or negotiate the claims—or ask the DOJ take them to court.

Hundreds of people threaten to sue the state each year. The DAS evaluates those legal claims, and decides whether the state is more likely to lose money by paying out a settlement or going to trial. In effect, risk managers perform for the Department of Justice the role an insurer often plays for a private company—they evaluate potential loss and decide whether a trial is worth the gamble.

But Scott alleges she witnessed a “pattern and practice of violations by attorneys from DOJ” that included DOJ lawyers determining “without authority” whether a case should settle and the dollar amount of the settlement.

Scott says DOJ lawyers routinely denied her office the ability to settle claims for a “low and reasonable amount” and instead determined that cases should go to trial, resulting in what Scott described as unnecessary million-dollar losses. What’s more, the DOJ lawyers would then continue to bill and collect attorney fees from the state’s risk management division.

“Despite having no legitimate defenses and recognizing that a high-dollar jury award was likely, DOJ insisted that if plaintiff ’s attorneys were going to get a large amount of money, they would have to ‘work’ for it by going to trial,” the complaint says. “As a result, the state unnecessarily loses millions of dollars after jury verdicts or ends up paying higher settlements just before trial that could have been avoided had prior settlements been reached.”

Scott alleges her superiors at the Department of Administrative Services allowed this practice to occur despite its strain on the state’s resources. She does not cite specific cases.

Scott’s lawsuit claims she raised concerns with her supervisor and was retaliated against by having her workload reduced significantly and being scrutinized differently than her colleagues.

Scott is suing her employer, DAS, for retaliation. She’s seeking $700,000 in non-economic damages, including embarrassment, anxiety, humiliation, emotional distress, damage to her professional reputation and loss of enjoyment of life.

“Our client has leveled serious accusations that should be of maximum importance to the citizens of this state,” Scott’s attorney, Shannon Rickard, tells WW. “She looks forward to the opportunity to prove her claims in a court of law.”

DAS declined to comment, citing pending litigation.

Scott’s complaint also says that DOJ lawyers are “dismissive of women” and treated her with condescension. It suggests they lost taxpayer money by underestimating the women they faced in court.

She says male leadership at the DOJ described opposing female lawyers as “nothing more than support staff” and that trial leadership and trial lawyers regularly make “unsupported, racially discriminatory, and defamatory statements about opposing attorneys and victims who bring cases against the state.”

That’s the second time this summer that a legal claim cites a misogynistic culture within the DOJ. (A tort claim filed June 29 by Oregon DOJ trial lawyer Heather Van Meter accuses her supervisor Marc Abrams of sexual harassment and lead DOJ trial lawyer Steve Lippold of sexist comments and behavior.)

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has described gender equity as one of her top priorities, which makes the complaints unsettling. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to the co-owner of WW’s parent company.)

In a joint statement issued in response to questions from WW, Rosenblum and Deputy Attorney General Fred Boss pledged an investigation into claims made in the lawsuit and said the agency is committed to fostering a professional and safe environment “free of discrimination or harassment of any kind.”

“It is, of course, disheartening to learn that anyone thinks we are not living up to these standards,” Rosenblum and Boss said. “We commit to looking fully into the allegations of Ms. Scott’s complaint that pertain to DOJ and, if appropriate, to making improvements to our settlement processes and workplace—to align them with the ‘gold standard’ of conduct and service we aspire to.”

Kyrgies.com Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

11

GOOD In 2020, everyone is struggling with mental health. Here’s our guide to finding peace.

“How could 2020 get any worse?”

Whenever someone, somewhere, writes or mumbles or scream-cries that question, the forces controlling this godforsaken year seem to take it as a challenge.

Once-in-a-lifetime global health crisis not traumatic enough for you? How about we add 100 nights of confrontations between protesters and tear gas-happy police? Let’s throw catastrophic wildfires and historically dangerous air quality on top of that. And then, just as the smoke dissipates and the sky reappears…

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead!

What’s next? Murder locusts? Biblical floods? Or maybe just a contentious presidential election that’s guaranteed to have most of us breathing into a paper bag as the results come in?

In the best of times, everyone could probably use therapy. But right now, no one can claim to be doing fine.

That’s why, with the arrival of fall—and in this part of the country, the start of six months of rain, darkness and seasonal depression—we’ve dedicated this issue to helping you find some level of serenity in the madness of 2020.

For some, that might mean eating a giant bowl of mac-and-cheese at 2 in the morning (page 15), or taking hallucinogenic mushrooms and tripping the stress away (page 14). Under the right conditions, both are valid forms of self-care. So we spoke to proponents of psilocybin therapy—which Oregon voters have the chance to legalize in November—and a doctor working to redefine what it means to be truly healthy.

We’ve also paid particular attention to the mental and physical well-being of Portland’s BIPOC community, who’ve been on the front lines of the fight for racial justice not just for the last four months but the past four centuries. We talked to a psychologist working to establish a therapy network specifically for Black Lives Matter supporters (page 16), and the organizer of a pop-up offering multiple forms of healing to protesters—for free (page 17).

Again, though, we’re all going through this year together, including mental health experts. On the following page, we asked a dozen therapists, counselors, yoga instructors and others in the healing field about their own methods for coping with...everything.

Hopefully, you can cull some strategies for maintaining over the next three months. Because precedent says 2020 definitely can get worse. But with the right tools, we can get through this year, and whatever comes after.

—Matthew Singer, Willamette Week A&C Editor

12

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

PAO L A D E L A C R U Z

GRIEF

Catherine Nyhan

Therapist First off, it is important to remember that we are all in a place of collective grief during this time. This means that we may feel and behave like we are grieving. This is a cyclical experience, and the first suggestion I make is to first acknowledge what is happening and wherever you are in it, whether that be anger, rebellion, depression, anxiety, sadness, numbness, shutdown or business. Battle fatigue and compassion fatigue are real and come with true exhaustion.

Knowing that there is no way we can perform at the level we were before the coronavirus hit is a form of radical acceptance. This means we start with the basics: Eating, drinking, showering, getting dressed as if you have somewhere to go can help. Think about preparing for the winter in Oregon by planning indoor activities, ways to get exercise, ways to create outlets for fun, and community—try a soup swap or some way to stay in contact with people. Finally, I recommend that you consider taking additional minerals as our bodies are burning a lot of them with the stress that we are under.

Vanessa Washington

Counselor My main focus has been to shift what I’m exposed to on a regular basis. I limit when I listen to the news and monitor how often I’m getting on to social media. This reduces the number of times my heart and brain have to track and absorb crisis information. When I can’t lean out of TV, news and social media, I make sure I’m following accounts that are committed to Black joy and wellness and celebrating the full humanity of my culture and identity. I’m also working on creative routines that give my heart and my brain other things to track and absorb—like specific times where I’m vibing to a song or performance instead of the thoughts trying to consume me. I also just got some roller blades to mess around with, so I’ll be out rolling in these streets soon.

Crystal Davis

Holy Fire reiki master teacher This year has been difficult for all of us and our nervous systems. I have navigated this year with daily breath work to support my lungs, lemon water in the morning for energy, meditation to calm my mind, and journaling to stay in touch with my heart. I define spirituality as being in relationship with something bigger than myself—the forces that connect and keep me in conversation with the whole of existence. This can look like feeling the earth beneath my feet when I’m out for a walk, the sensation of breeze, the sun on my face, or listening for the pulse of my heartbeat. I observe how those experiences create change in how I feel. For me, this is at the core of mindfulness.

Liz Eisman

Instructor, Living Yoga I believe we all need to connect with something larger. Feeling the earth, smelling the dirt, watching squirrels, collecting bird feathers, connecting with my neighbors when I walk my dog have all been a part of my resiliency practice. In addition, I remind myself—and even challenge myself—to reach out when I am starting to feel isolated or deflated. I feel my feelings while also looking for opportunities to see humor and feel gratitude. I march when I can march, make calls when I can make calls, and sleep when I can sleep. And I literally use my eyes to widen my perspective: I focus broadly and set my eyeballs deeper in my sockets so I can settle deep inside myself as I meet the outer world.

Tim Osborn

Lead pastor, Mosaic Church Bulletproof coffee first thing in the morning. This means I don’t need to fix breakfast and it gives me more time for reading. Each morning includes a few pages of a narrative Bible and then something related to our nation’s history of racial wrongs: The Warmth of Other Suns, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, Between the World and Me. I also don’t touch my phone, the internet or social media until I’m done reading. This allows intentional space for peace as the day begins.

”I REMIND MYSELF— AND EVEN CHALLENGE MYSELF— TO REACH OUT WHEN I AM STARTING TO FEEL ISOLATED OR DEFLATED.“ —LIZ EISMAN Brita Britnell

Health food influencer Like everyone, I’ve really struggled to stay sane throughout 2020. What has helped me a lot is to give myself small things to look forward to. For me, those are usually trips, but since travel is limited, I’ve had to get creative. Something as simple as a virtual cooking class or apple picking with family has helped break up the workweeks and given me something fun to really look forward to—plus, I end up with apple pie.

When all else fails, a nice evening on the couch playing Animal Crossing always makes me feel better.

Valerie Yeo

Kathryn Mathew

Holistic nutritionist I have found it helpful to take one day at a time. I give myself unconditional permission to feed, rest and move my body in ways that bring me comfort and joy when possible. Going barefoot in the grass or the garden almost daily has been another comforting anchor. I honor that there are moments in time that feel rough and it’s OK for it to feel that way. Be gentle with yourself.

Anjuji Shah-Johnson

Therapist Personally, I have been focusing on trying to find moments—often literally minutes—of stability and balance internally and externally. Externally, maintaining and building new connections with others to keep hold of a sense of community. Internally, I use a practice that I learned a few years ago of balancing energy and breath in my body, focusing on the left and right sides of my body, then the front and back and finally the upper and lower halves of my body. I also do a ton of reminding myself and those I am in contact with that intense and/or unusual responses are very much in line with these intense and unusual times.

Toni Cornett

Yoga therapist I’ve focused on the little things, as it’s the little things that save us. The moments people tend to take for granted are usually the moments of the most value: morning tea time, socially distanced dance parties, slow walks around the neighborhood. (Sounds like a dating profile.) Give gratitude for the people in your life. Notice all that you do have. It’s an unprecedented time, but even so there’s always one thing to be grateful for.

Annie Lauren Rosen

Yoga instructor On an exhale, allow the tongue to fall from the roof of the mouth and the lips to part slightly. This is the mechanical relaxation of the jaw and a signal from body to brain that you are well and safe. Engage the muscles between the shoulder blades, while softening the shoulders, and you have a posture that says to the brain, “I am openhearted. I have everything I need. I am curious rather than afraid.”

Ronkwahrhakónha Dube

Counselor All I can say is, do what you can and forgive yourself if you can’t.

Psychologist Since the start of the pandemic, I have been trying to remember a line I often repeat to my therapy clients, that there is no way we “should” feel other than how we feel in the moment. Anxiety is a normal reaction to ongoing trauma. We live in a culture that loves to prescribe activities we should do to make ourselves feel better. However, this type of self-care approach can covertly foster shame that we are doing yet another thing in the wrong way, or not doing enough.

Rather than a prescriptive approach, I find it is more helpful to attune to what we may need in each moment, and to recognize that it is subject to change.

Also salient in this particular moment is that those who hold marginalized identities are experiencing a significantly greater impact from this collective trauma. As a woman of color in a helping profession, I often feel the urge to take on more in order to feel like I am doing enough, and feel easily burned out as a result. During this season, I am trying to remember to embrace rest as a part of my work.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

13

V I A F L I C K R U S E R N AT U R E LV R

THE

GREAT

PAUSE Psilocybin therapy is coming to the ballot in November. Many Portlanders are already on board.

BY AN TH O N Y E F F I N G E R

In troubled times, it’s tempting to turn to substances in order to cope.

With a pandemic killing thousands worldwide, fires immolating the West Coast, and an unstable president sending heavily armored federal agents to quash protests for racial justice, it’s tempting to pour vodka on your Cheerios in the morning, drink a 12-pack for lunch, and wash down a handful of Xanax for dinner.

Some Portlanders are taking a more constructive approach and finding solace in a drug that at first glance seems purely escapist: psychedelic mushrooms. But talk to almost anyone who has begun tripping recently and you learn that most of them are confronting the end times, not running from them.

Former assistant film director and entrepreneur Carolyn Fine, 47, can testify. She struggled with depression for years, trying medication and therapy. She had done mushrooms as a teenager, and three years ago, at age 44, something called on her to try them again. She bought some and headed to Manzanita with her partner. The experience was transformative.

“I’m going to get a little woo here, but I felt very held by the universe,” she says. And the effects have lasted. “I don’t go to a hopeless place anymore. It doesn’t feel terminal.”

Mushrooms have been popular in this part of the world since the 1960s, when native Oregonian Ken Kesey spread the gospel of LSD. The cool, wet state is perfect for growing Psilocybe semilanceata, the slender little ’shroom better known as the liberty cap.

Interest rekindled in 2018 after author Michael Pollan ate mushrooms and dropped acid for the first time in his life and wrote a glowing book-length review called How to Change Your Mind. A year later, director Louis Schwartzberg released Fantastic Fungi, a feature-length film about mushrooms, many of them magic. Portlanders filled the theater—it drew 10,000 viewers to Cinema 21 and was the most-watched film at the arthouse theater in 2019.

Then, the pandemic hit, and even more people flocked to the fungi. Kayci Marie Mitchell, president of the Portland Psychedelic Society, a group that advocates for the safe, responsible use of hallucinogenics, says the group’s Meetup roster grew from 4,000 at the beginning of the year to 5,200 now.

“People are referring to this as the ‘Great Pause,’” Mitchell says. “They are going within and having these miraculous changes in perspective. It’s amazing what they can accomplish.”

The science is on Mitchell’s side. Researchers at the 14

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research have published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, many of them showing that psilocybin is therapeutic for people suffering from depression, addiction, and the existential distress of living with life-threatening diseases. And this November, Oregonians will vote whether to become the first state in the country to legalize the therapeutic use of “magic mushrooms.”

But proponents of psychedelic healing aren’t waiting for the law to change. There is a growing number of “guides” working underground who sit with people after they take mushrooms or LSD, don headphones and eyeshades, and wait for what the compounds conjure. Their “patients” usually take double or triple the “concert dose,” which is about 2 grams of mushrooms or 100 micrograms of LSD. Sometimes, subjects will take a “heroic” dose, which is three to four times what they might take recreationally. At that level, the ego often dissolves and the user feels inseparable from the rest of the universe.

The key, especially at high doses, is to “integrate” the experience into everyday life. Research shows that a single trip can lift someone suffering from depression out of a rut, but it is more likely to last if followed by sessions aimed at understanding what happened, guides say.

“Of all the things I could be doing to help people get through this time, I can’t think of anything better,” said one guide, who declined to be named. “Many people who come to me say, ‘My psychiatrist is on board with this,’ because it helps them process things.”

The magic in mushrooms comes from the molecule psilocybin. When digested, psilocybin breaks down into psilocin, a compound that looks like serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, memory and the sensing of pleasure. Scientists suspect that psilocin stimulates serotonin receptors, causing parts of the brain that are normally isolated to connect. Those new connections appear to ramp up the brain in extraordinary ways.

On her first therapeutic trip, Carolyn Fine knew immediately that she had to make the same experience available to others, which is hard because mushrooms and most other psychedelic compounds are still Schedule I illegal drugs, meaning that the U.S. government considers them as addictive and dangerous as heroin.

Fine felt her white privilege acutely when she thought about how she could pick up a bag of illegal drugs and drive off to the coast without getting busted. So she started the Psychedelic Equity Project to “center BIPOC voices, and try to create some safer spaces for the exploration of life on the psychedelic path.”

So much of the “psychedelic renaissance” is attributed to white men like Michael Pollan, she says, and it’s important to remember that psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, ayahuasca and other natural compounds were first used

by Indigenous people.

“White people didn’t invent this,” she says.

There has been progress, says Gabe, 23, a BIPOC grower who works with Fine and prefers to use only his first name because of the legal risks. A regular at the nightly protests for racial justice, he sells his mushrooms on a sliding scale to people in the movement and beyond.

Wealthy customers pay a premium so he can give some away to people who make minimum wage or who are experiencing houselessness.

“I see this as my mock socialist economy,” he says.

Socialist or not, his business is booming: “Since the start of the pandemic, my sales have skyrocketed,” he says.

But Gabe, like some in the psychedelic community, oppose Measure 109, which would leave out protections for small growers like him. It will favor growers with capital who can afford certification of their businesses, he says, and wall off the use of a naturally occurring compound by people outside the dominant white culture. (Sam Chapman, campaign manager for Yes on 109, says the campaign has “been working alongside local and national BIPOC community leaders to ensure that psilocybin therapy is equitable, accessible and affordable for all.”)

Fine and Gabe see mushrooms as fuel for the Black Lives Matter movement and other efforts for change.

Many of Gabe’s customers are “microdosing” psilocybin, taking tiny amounts lift their moods and help them process the trauma of the conflict. “A lot of people don’t have energy for the fight,” Gabe says. “This medicine gives people a renewed sense of purpose.”

Like many people who have had profound experiences with psilocybin, Fine and Gabe talk about psychedelic mushrooms with reverence. They describe them as conscious beings that may be searching us out because the world is at a tipping point.

“A lot of people think the psychedelic renaissance, is about the mushrooms trying to wake us the fuck up before we destroy the planet,” Fine says. “They are incredible teachers, but they don’t necessarily care about our feelings. You might have a beautiful, mystical experience, but you can have a punishing and destabilizing one, too. Go in knowing that you have a big responsibility to metabolize and integrate the experience you have, and don’t go it alone.”

DO NO HARM Dr. DeAun Nelson wants to change how we think about weight and health care.

BY SHA N N ON GOR MLEY

Since the start of quarantine, the internet has been flooded with social media posts and articles disparaging weight gain during the pandemic, birthing the term “the Quarantine 15.”

According to Dr. DeAun Nelson, those posts and articles aren’t helping anyone.

“Quarantine 15—I hate that term,“ says Nelson, a Portland naturopathic doctor and educator, about weight inclusivity in medicine and the host of the podcast Do No Harm, which is about removing weight stigma from health care. “It’s OK if you gain a little weight.”

When people feel desperate for a sense of control over their life, a diet can feel like an answer.

“We have the expectation that we have control over all our health,” says Nelson. “Weight is certainly something that people assume that everyone has complete control over and could be put in a ‘normal’ [Body Mass Index] category if they just tried hard enough. That’s not accurate and that’s not real.”

It’s a difficult conversation to broach because it initially seems counter to much of what we’ve been taught. Public health messaging often lacks nuance, and conversations about fully divesting from diet culture require a lot of nuance. Plus, it requires unraveling assumptions created by classism, medicalized racism, and misconceptions about mental health.

But the idea that weight isn’t the best indicator of health is backed by a growing body of research, and slowly gaining mainstream recognition.

“People come in a wide range of bodies,” Nelson says. “If everyone is given wider access to taking care of those bodies, we would all be better off.”

As something of a crash course in health without weight loss, we asked Nelson about the biggest misconceptions around weight and health, and why you shouldn’t worry about the Quarantine 15.

1. IT’S NORMAL TO GAIN WEIGHT DURING A GLOBAL CRISIS. Quarantine has altered entire lives, including exercise and eating habits. Stress can also lead to weight gain or weight loss. “With all the things that have been going on in 2020, everyone’s body is going to respond a little differently,” says Nelson. “Recognizing that everyone’s body feels the stress a little differently and saying, ‘I might gain a little weight, I might lose a little weight, I might stay the same, I’m not sure. I’m not worrying about the weight so much, I’m worrying about the things I do have the capacity for to take care of myself.’”

Many of us are also struggling to take care of ourselves, dealing with exacerbated mental health problems or extra financial insecurity. “A lot of us in the regular world do have a lot of capacity to do a lot of stuff every day,” she says. “Most of us just don’t have that. We have other worries that are taking much more space in our brains, and so being able to recognize this is the capacity I have.”

2. WEIGHT IS NOT THE BEST WAY TO DETERMINE HEALTH. “Weight is not a significant health indicator,” says Nelson. “Even when we see weight change due to behaviors, very often when we look at it, it is the behaviors that are making the health changes,

sgormley@wweek.com

not the weight itself. There’s certainly people who make health changes whose health improves but their weight doesn’t change, and there’s some people who can gain weight and actually be healthier.”

Getting rid of the stigma around weight is part of public health in and of itself. “Definitely, systematically, we have issues with people with larger bodies, and we have expectations and assumptions that we make around those folks, and that does directly affect the health of everyone in larger bodies,” says Nelson. “Having access to medical care, not being stigmatized against in that care, not being stigmatized against in jobs, things like that.

Those are all things that I can’t individually change, but I can get together with other individuals and start working on change.”

3. LIFESTYLE DIETS ARE STILL DIETS. The fact that fad diets and crash diets are unhealthy and don’t lead to long-term weight loss has recently gained mainstream acceptance. Diets can lead to patterns of restrictive and binge eating and slower metabolism, essentially triggering your body’s famine responses. But Nelson says that conversations about why “diets don’t work” often don’t include plans like keto or paleo that are branded as a “lifestyle changes” but are still concerned with weight loss.

“You kind of have to look at the lifestyle change that’s being purported, especially if it’s a program, and try to determine, ‘Am I being told to restrict something?’” says Nelson. “Is ‘healthy’ being couched in a weight loss manner?

Is ‘feeling good’ subtly indicating that I’m going to be feeling good because I’m smaller than I was before?”

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there is no such thing as a positive lifestyle change, or that eating more fruits and vegetables isn’t a good thing.

“But then they can also eat the foods that are considered taboo, like sugary foods or starches, non-vegetable carbohydrates,” says Nelson. “If you’re eating all of that and making sure you’re eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and a variety of foods, that can be a lifestyle change that’s supportive of health, if you’re not restricting calories and you’re not trying to exercise off all your calories.”

4. EATING MAC AND CHEESE AT 2 AM CAN BE AN ACT OF HEALTH. At a time when most of us are thrown off our usual routines and consumed by feelings of uncertainty, it’s expected that people will latch on to any comforts they can. In a sense, eating a big bowl of mac and cheese, sugary cereal or whatever your comfort food of choice happens to be can be an act of health, especially if you haven’t had the time or mental energy to eat enough throughout the day.

“It can also be anti-health,” says Nelson. “It depends on why you’re eating it.” But mental health influences physical health, so regardless of why you’re eating what you’re eating, beating yourself up about it isn’t going to help.

“Especially now, being able to have some self-compassion is ultimately going to be more beneficial than anything we put into our mouths,” she says. “Stepping away from that perfection that a lot of us feel on a regular basis and saying, ‘This is not perfect, nothing’s going to be perfect, and certainly right now nothing’s going to be perfect,’ and being as OK with that as we can.”

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

15

PAO L A D E L A C R U Z

FOR US,

BY US

Safer Space looks to create a therapy network exclusively for the Black Lives Matter movement.

BY C E RVA N TÉ P O P E

@ghettocross

WW: Why is something like Safer Space important?

Anita Randolph: We know that we have this gap not only in the BIPOC community, where access to mental health support is an issue, but there are so many issues we’re facing right now that we just don’t have the support for. I also identify as African American and I work in mental health, so I understand the difficulties, stereotypes and stigmas that go along with no-call support in my own community. There’s just this huge outcry for mental support, and I see people getting braver at the center of everything. In phase one, we’ve been collecting volunteers who are licensed clinicians. They could be psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, or social workers who specialize in counseling and mental health. We’ve got about 100 clinicians who signed up in less than a week, and we’re still hoping for more to sign up. They’re getting thoroughly vetted, because it’s extremely important for me to not perpetuate a broken system where we have individuals going in for mental health support and coming out more traumatized. We’re checking everyone’s licenses, as well as asking them a series of questions regarding their history with volunteering and working with the BIPOC community. They’ll also go through our anti-racist and trauma-informed training as well.

As a member of the BIPOC community myself, I know I’ve been resistant to seeking the help I need because of the lack of counselors of color, especially who accept the Oregon Health Plan.

Have protesters and other BIPOC citizens expressed similar concern about not wanting 16

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Have most of the people who have signed up so far been white? I understand that especially in Portland and especially during a time right now that considering white people as your peers is very dependent on how they present their allyship. Might that be another hurdle for people who need that type of support but don’t consider white people to necessarily be their peers?

It’s definitely a hurdle. I’m from Atlanta, and if this were in Atlanta, there wouldn’t be an issue. There would be so many Black and Brown people signing up. But this is the Pacific Northwest, and there aren’t many BIPOC individuals in the field out here, which is really difficult. In order for us to do this, all volunteers must go through the anti-racist and trauma-informed training. I don’t care how high of a position they have at their hospital or practice. They won’t be able to offer support until we can ensure that all of their interactions will be appropriate. People are going to have to be very humble through this process. They’re going to have to do a lot of legwork.

Just looking at the typical BLM protest out here, I feel like there may be more non-BIPOC than BIPOC participants. Is there a hierarchy of who can receive support first based on their identity, or is it on a first come, first served basis?

We’ve got a lot of volunteers so far, so I’m hoping this won’t be an issue. It’ll be first come, first served, with priority obviously given to BIPOC individuals. When someone in need comes to us, they’ll be able to look at a picture of the clinicians and read biographies and choose who they want help from. I don’t want to take anyone’s power away from them—I want them to feel empowered by the process and to feel like they’re in control.

And can people who don’t protest for whatever reason, but who still support the movement, come and get help?

C O U R T E S Y O F A N I TA R A N D O L P H

Outside the centuries of violence Black people have faced simply for existing, on a more local level, the past 100-plus days of protests have exacted an undeniable mental and emotional toll on BIPOC individuals and the allies who support them. Without an immediate end in sight, the need for mental health maintenance is becoming even more crucial, especially to keep the fight for justice alive.

Anita Randolph saw that need immediately. Along with mayoral hopeful and activist Teressa Raiford, Randolph— a neuroscientist originally from Atlanta who’s now doing medical research into addiction — have teamed up to start the Safer Space program, a peer-to-peer mental health support group for the BIPOC community and supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement.

It’s volunteer-run, with professional mental health providers offering their services to fill the gap between the specific support people of color often need and the lack of quality care they actually receive.

Randolph spoke to WW about how Safer Space will operate, and the challenges such a program faces operating in a city with Portland’s demographic makeup.

help from someone they can’t relate to?

That is a huge problem. Even with me being in the mental health field, this is the first state I’ve lived in where even I haven’t explored getting peer-to-peer or mental health support myself because I see how bad discrimination is in the Pacific Northwest. I see how badly I’ve been treated at hospitals I’ve worked at, and I’m like, “Wow, this is really an issue. I wouldn’t want to be your client.” I’m just really glad that we have individuals who are willing to take the leap and provide some type of service for everybody. We don’t care if you have insurance or not—our services are free. We won’t turn you away.

ANITA RANDOLPH

Of course. There are many reasons why people don’t or can’t protest, like health issues or regarding COVID, and there are so many different ways to push the movement other than protesting. That’s why we just left it very general, to just be a supporter. That could be somebody who is working on policies, someone like you who is interviewing people and spreading the word, or someone who comes to the protest and is organizing stuff. We understand that there are so many pieces of the puzzle and we need everybody to fill in their piece. In order to do that, everybody has to be mentally charged and ready.

Since there is a more loose definition of support, how will Safer Space approach the people who “support” the movement just because it’s a trend to do so, who maybe post a photo or two on Instagram with a hashtag, but their support doesn’t go beyond that?

That’s a big problem, too. It really sucks. We’re going to try our best to come up with some type of system where the clinician can flag someone and then we go and follow up with them. Because the service is free, we don’t want people out here trying to take advantage of this system we’re trying to get off the ground.

There are so many negative people out there, but we have to try. I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I have to try.

For more information about Safer Space, see dontshootpdx.org/safer-space-for-black-lives-matter.

REST

EASY

New healing collective Radical Rest believes that if you free the body, the mind will follow.

BY B R IA N N A WHEELER

BRIAN BROSE

T Aisha Edwards really wants to be the official White House therapist.

“If I was Donald Trump’s therapist, we would live in a different America,” she says with a laugh. “I’m not even playing. Quote me.”

She laughs, but the sentiment is authentic. After 14 years serving marginalized communities with high-risk, out-of-control-behaviors, Edwards has come to see mental health as a way to learn how the body becomes a vehicle for oppressive systems, both in the physical world and within.

She credits those insights to somatic therapy—a practice emphasizing the connection between mind and body— which is also a driving force behind the health collective she founded, Radical Rest.

Established in the wake of the George Floyd protests, Radical Rest is an autonomous collection of local healers offering free and donation-based services to BIPOC activists working the front lines of Portland’s continuing protests.

“I know that what these movements need to be sustainable is healing justice,” she says. “It feels pertinent to be doing something, not from the policy framework, but inside our own bodies.”

At its core, the term “healing justice” refers not just to equitable care—it is also meant to address unpacking the trauma caused by internalized white supremacy, capitalism and ableism. This mission of dismantlement anchors Radical Rest’s manifesto: To take down the oppressive systems that surround us, we must first destroy them within ourselves.

Radical Rest’s provider network is a diverse assortment of practitioners, many from marginalized communities themselves. Patients can shop services and connect with providers directly on the Radical Rest website, further sim-

plifying the relationship between patient and provider.

“I definitely see mental health as being involved in a comprehensive approach to healing oppressive systems,” says Edwards, whose own somatic therapy practice, Full Flight Wellness, serves community members affected by systems of normalized oppression. “I spend all day with patients unraveling and uncoupling the ways that capitalism, white supremacy, and colonization have dismantled their relationships with their bodies.”

To provide care under the Radical Rest umbrella, practitioners commit a certain amount of room in their caseload each month to serve members of the BIPOC community who may not otherwise have access to their services.

Though all the providers donating their time share the same somatic worldview, they each embody that mission in their own singular way, from bodywork, talk therapy and naturopathy to tarot, astrology, music t h e r a py, a n d a n c e st r a l medicines. Wellness can be found in a transcendent tarot reading, chakra work, acupuncture, or even a bit of witchcraft. But regardless of the delivery, each service provided through Radical Rest aims to empower frontline protesters as a means to support the greater movement of abolishing white supremacy.

Radical Rest’s providers are scheduling services through September 27, after which the team will take a brief recuperative break and reconvene in mid-November.

“I can see that my providers are fatigued and I’m fatigued,” Edwards says. “We’re going to take some time to be true to the mission, and Radical Rest itself is going to take a radical rest.”

See radicalrest.org for more information.

”IF I WAS DONALD TRUMP’S THERAPIST, WE WOULD LIVE IN A DIFFERENT AMERICA. I ’M NOT EVEN PLAYING. QUOTE ME.“ —T AISHA EDWARDS

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

17

STREET SUPPORTLAND Photos by Chris Nesseth On Instagram: @chrisnesseth

The PDX Ewoks—a collective of street medics and crisis support workers—organized a support effort at Clackamas United Church of Christ in Milwaukie to aid those displaced by the wildfires in Oregon, while Snack Bloc offered free supplies at North Portland’s ReBuilding Center.

Rev. Adam Ericksen opened his church to provide emergency relief for those displaced by the wildfires in Oregon.

18

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Snack Bloc’s free store at the ReBuilding Center on North Mississippi Avenue.

Julia delivers food to volunteers at various mutual aid locations across town.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

19

STARTERS

T H E MOST I MP ORTANT TH I N G S TH AT H A PPE N E D I N P ORT L AND C U LT U RE T H I S WE E K , G R A PH E D .

RIDICULOUS ABC-MITCH HAASETH

Unfold is now even more accessible with equity pricing!

The Clippers blow a 3-1 lead and get mercilessly clowned on Twitter by CJ McCollum.

McCollum

B R U C E E LY / TRAIL BLAZERS

ABC cancels Portland-set Stumptown, despite good reviews and decent ratings.

HENRY CROMETT

Our classes are now all online, plus Park Pop-ups!

The Pacific Northwest Brew Cup in Astoria devises a unique way to go forward—a mix of bingo and bar crawl, basically.

unfoldportland.com

BRIAN BURK

Single classes are $5 - 15 Unlimited memberships range from $25 - 120/month

AWFUL

AWESOME

Not your typical yoga studio, we feature: Gentle, Yin, Restorative, Strength, Flow & Chair Yoga, plus Meditation!

LRADEN WIKI COMMONS

A

S

N IA

N

E

-F

LI

CK

R

WIKI COMMONS

Pacific Northwest College of Art merges with Willamette University, providing a lifeline for PNCA during an uncertain time for higher learning and art institutions.

The beerpocalypse continues with the closures of Back Pedal Brewing and Rogue Pearl Public House.

Silver Falls State Park survives the fires relatively unscathed.

Fires destroy much of Breitenbush Hot Springs.

JAC

K

K

E

N

T

IAN SANE-FLICKR

New Craft Cider Collection featuring 2 Towns Ciderhouse. moonstruckchocolate.com

20

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

Art patron and Old Portland icon Glenda Goldwater dies at age 87.

After a week of historically bad air quality, Portland can breathe again!

SERIOUS

Q(UARANTINE)&A

ALEX WITTWER

GET...OUTSIDE? Vetting Process Veterinarians like Kate Schoenhals have been treating horses, llamas, cows, rabbits and even a couple of emus displaced by the Oregon wildfires.

BY S HA N N O N G O R M L EY

sgormley@wweek.com

Last week, thousands of Oregonians were displaced by wildfires. Hundreds of their pets and livestock were, too.

To house the farm animals, expo centers and fairgrounds in Portland, Salem, Corvallis and Albany have been converted into temporary boarding facilities for farm animals whose owners have had to flee from the fires.

Kate Schoenhals is one of the Oregon State University veterinarians leading the visits to livestock evacuation sites.

Schoenhals, who specializes in equine care, has spent most of her time in the field reassuring owners that their animals are safe and offering advice on how to make each animal’s temporary living situation more comfortable. But she estimates that since evacuations began, she alone has had to treat 75 to 100 animals that required veterinary intervention.

Just Like Honey Soul singer Moorea Masa’s new single is at once deeply personal and widely relevant.

Though her second album has been completed since February, Portland soul singer Moorea Masa felt that releasing new music amid the turmoil of this year didn’t feel right. Until now. “I had a lot to process,” she says, “but it feels like what I’m writing about is relevant to right now, and I can release music in a meaningful way.” “Honey,” her appropriately smooth new single, is inspired by her tumultuous relationship with her mother, a Black woman who has struggled with mental illness for much of her life.

“Everything that I’m doing for this album—and this song specifically—is to bring awareness to mental health and wellness in the BIPOC community,” Masa says. “I think about my mom, and I wish she would’ve had more access to the same resources that a lot of white folks do.” For the virtual single release party, Masa has teamed up with Musicians in Solidarity—a local organization working to bring diversity training to music venues—to raise money

WW: What’s the scene like at those large evacuation sites?

Kate Schoenhals: Both Linn County and Benton County fairgrounds are where they house fair animals, so they have at least the means of setting up temporary pens and housing for large volumes of animals. It’s usually not this last minute. It looked like a giant makeshift boarding facility, with all different species. They housed chickens, rabbits, llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, pigs, horses—the only things missing were dogs and cats because people kept them with their people.

What are some of the common injuries you’re treating?

Fortunately, a lot of people were evacuating their large animals and livestock when they were getting Level 1 and 2 evacuation warnings. It seemed like a lot of it was preemptive—those horses and cattle weren’t in an actual fire before they were evacuated. There were some respiratory issues associated with smoke inhalation, and also with being shipped into a community housing pool where bugs and germs can be shared that aren’t usually shared. Mostly, honestly, it was things like lacerations experienced from the trauma and stress of transport. There was a horse that had a pretty good wound after having to ford a river to evacuate.

How do you treat a horse that has been inhaling wildfire smoke?

There is no magic cure or treatment. It’s mostly just rest and supportive care. We had a few that came down with influenza, which is a virus shared across horses even when there isn’t smoke in the air. I think the smoke exacerbated the situation, and they got even more sick than they otherwise would have been.

So they ended up with some secondary bacterial infections. We treated those with antibiotics. Honestly, the rain clearing out the air was key. It’s essentially supportive care, just trying to get them through and keeping them eating, drinking, pooping and peeing.

See the full video interview at wweek.com/distant-voices.

COURTESY OF MOOREA MASA

HEAR THIS

ONLINE

“Fortunately, it wasn’t like the burns and scary things that you might expect with a fire. It was just associated with the chaos of having to mass evacuate,” says Schoenhals. “I really think that getting the animals out sooner rather than later is key to survival.”

WW talked to Schoenhals about the scene on the ground and what it’s like to treat a horse suffering from smoke inhalation.

MOOREA MASA

for Radical Rest, another local organization offering free wellness services for BIPOC (see page 17).

Additionally, the first $500 in sales from “Honey” will be donated to an organization supporting Black Lives Matter. “There’s so much trauma in our world right now,” Masa says. “For a long time I wasn’t sure what my place was in all of it. But now I really want to put all my energy into organizations who are supporting BIPOC prosperity and wellness.” LAUREN KERSHNER. Moorea Masa plays her virtual single release show Friday, Sept. 25, at instagram.com/mooreamasa.

7:30 pm. Donations to Radical Rest encouraged.

The Writing on the Wall

Portland artist Michael James Schneider’s viral balloon messages have inspired both praise and derision. He’s fine with either.

COURTESY OF MICHAEL JAMES SCHENIDER

MANE EVENT: A horse near Sublimity, Ore., at the edge of the Beachie Creek Fire.

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

MICHAEL JAMES SCHNEIDER

Michael James Schneider knows you’re making fun of him. He doesn’t particularly care.

It’s unlikely you’ve made it this far in 2020 without having some of Schneider’s work cross your social media feeds. Scroll through Twitter or Instagram and, at any given moment, you might come across the Portland artist’s short-cropped beard and thickrimmed glasses, standing against a brightly colored wall, next to a message spelled out using inflated balloons. It could be an inspirational quote, a reminder not to text an ex in the middle of a pandemic, or a statement accusing Donald Trump of simultaneously being racist and a rapist.

He gets a lot of earnest shares and retweets, sure. But lately, Schneider has become ubiquitous enough to inspire a backlash. Detractors have called his work faux-woke and performative, cringy or flatout sad. “I’m not saying that the letter balloon guy is the nation’s worst person, I’m simply stating that he’s in the conversation,” read one Tweet. He’s even inspired a meme generator allowing users to create parody versions.

Schneider is aware of the criticisms. But he’s just kept on creating—mainly because he’s not doing this for anyone other than himself.

“I’m a little selfish in my art in that I make it for myself. I make art to make the lambs stop screaming,” he says. “There’s something really calming, centering and grounding about making my art that has helped me get through what has been a really, really shitty year for most people.”

But that’s not to say Schneider—who previously went viral for a project in which he “married” a boyfriend he built out of used wine boxes—doesn’t want to find an audience. After all, everyone is going through this shitty year at the same time. It’s why he’s spent 2020 using his platform to push political messages and raise awareness for social causes.

And while his main objective is to quell his own anxieties and insecurities, it never hurts to hear from people who relate to those same feelings.

“It makes me feel great when so many other people—total strangers all over—can relate to what my headspace looks like at a given moment and can resonate with the words just as strongly as I do,” he says. “That online popularity is validating, but I know it’s place. I’m not creating for an audience to get as many online dopamine hits as possible.” SAM HILL. Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

21

GET...OUTSIDE?

J .T. L E H M A N

OUTDOORS

ALWAYS ON THE RUN: Tyler Green “fast packing” through Glacier Peak in the North Cascades.

King of the Mountains My brother spent quarantine breaking local trail running records. I asked him, “Why?”

BY JO RDA N G R E E N

As both a mild-mannered Portland-area health teacher and competitive long-distance trail runner, Tyler Green had his life doubly upended by COVID-19.

His first race of the year—a 165 km trek through the Gaoligong Mountains in southwestern China—was canceled. He also planned to run the Chuckanut 50k near Bellingham, Wash., the 101 km Eiger Ultra Trail in Switzerland, and the Run Rabbit Run ultramarathon near Steamboat Springs, Colo. Each race was canceled in turn.

Then the school year ended abruptly, leaving Green with a lot of extra time to train but nothing to train for.

And so, like many others in the fast-growing sport of trail running, he channeled his energy to FKTs, or fast known times—the speed records for over 2,500 trails worldwide.

The times are tidily compiled at FastestKnownTimes. com, a database that includes notable paths like the Pacific Crest, the Appalachian, and the Wildwood through Forest Park. For a while, Green held the record for the Wildwood Trail and set the record in 2018 for the Timberline Trail, breaking a mark that had stood for more than 35 years. (The women’s FKT for the Wildwood is currently held by Green’s wife, Rachel.)

The sudden abundance of free time gave him the opportunity to complete a long-term personal pursuit he deemed “the Trifecta”: achieving FKTs for the 41-mile Timberline Trail around Mount Hood, the 30-mile Loowit Trail around Mount St. Helens, and the 93-mile Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier.

It’s quite an accomplishment, but I have to admit, I saw it coming, because Tyler Green is also my brother.

We grew up in the shadow of Mount Tabor, so I’ve watched him run around volcanoes since he was small.

But the stamina required to accomplish what he has is hard for me to wrap my head around. I wanted to know more about the Trifecta, and the pain of trail running. So I called him for a chat.

WW: How did you get into trail racing?

Tyler Green: It probably started from school races against friends. And then Portland Parks had these all-comers meets at Gabriel Park and Lents Park. So I started doing those races, and that got me into this running thing, and I just continued that through high school. I did one year of college running and then went to Nepal. I hiked a bunch and was getting more into 22

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

outdoor adventures and backpacking and a little bit of climbing and stuff, and then I got into cycling as well, like cyclocross road and mountain biking. But that was so expensive and you have to spend a lot more time doing it. Then I got back into running and was just doing it for fun and to stay fit. There’s the Wildwood Trail in Forest Park, and I wanted to see that trail in its entirety. So I started doing out-and-back runs, and they just got longer, and I got more fit and was having fun seeing all this new trail. So that hooked me.

The first FKT you earned in the Cascades was the Timberline Trail. What got you started on this path?

For years, I thought, wow, it’d be cool to run around that mountain faster than anyone. I mean, it dominates our skyline. We grew up there. We grew up on that mountain, and that trail specifically was one of my first big trail runs. So that really had me interested and I went for it. With the Timberline, I reached a very beautiful state of flow where it felt nearly effortless…not really. But it felt so good.

How did your focus on the Trifecta change as the pandemic unfolded?

The Wonderland Trail is massive. It’s twice as long as the other two trails. So that was going to be a multiyear project. Last year, Rachel and I went and checked it out over three days. And then this year, I was going to do it in one or two days and just try it out. When all the races were canceled, going for the Wonderland made the most sense. It’s this very clean loop around a mountain, a single official route. It ends exactly where it started.

What are the differences between these trails?

With Hood and Rainier, you’re running through these old-growth forests, and the ground has a nice spongy give to it, and you’re like, jumping over roots and having fun. And most of Loowit is exposed, out of the trees, ash and sand. So that has this desolate, unforgiving feel. And there are a lot of loose rocks around the size of softballs. Runners call them “babyheads.”

What do you eat during these?

I’m trying to get 200 to 300 calories per hour, like the equivalent of a Snickers bar, but in highly digestible forms. Cantaloupe and watermelon are really good.

Soda is great. The fizziness is refreshing.

One thing I’ve seen over your career is, you’re always competing against elite competition. Like, in high school, you were up against this legendary field of distance runners like Galen Rupp and guys trained

by Alberto Salazar. It seems with trail running you’ve found an ideal medium.

One of the interesting things about FKTs is, it’s just you.

You either get the fastest time or your effort disappears.

Tell me about prepping for the Wonderland Trail, the last record you needed for the Trifecta. You knew other runners were training to beat that record also, and one of them is your friend Dylan Bowman, who set a new FKT by an hour and a half. When did you learn he’d set that?

Five days before. We each knew we were going to run it at some point this summer, but to see him break it by 90 minutes—I thought I’d have to run under 18 hours, and he ran it in just under 17 hours. So it was a big shift on what would be required to run this. I found out in the middle of the night, and I was sleepless after that. All I wanted to do is hold the Trifecta for a day.

But that’s not always feasible because there could be someone running the Wonderland a little bit faster while I was running it. All I can do is run each route as fast as I can.

So, you had this incredible record to beat and you surpassed it by 18 minutes. How did it feel when you crossed the Wonderland finish line?

That final mile or so I was just floating. There’s a phrase I’ve heard that it’s like a marionette. It’s not like when someone wins a basketball game and everybody’s jumping up and down. It’s more like you snip the lines and just crumble. And there’s relief. I mean, I have discomfort for a while, like my legs are gonna be sore. My taste buds are wrecked. So it’s not like I could just sit and enjoy a beer. I kind of nurse myself back and hobble to the car.

And then the next day felt more like a celebration, to go back to Paradise Lodge and sit and look at the mountain and just enjoy it. That was pretty cool.

You’ve mentioned the transcendence of mountains, how these runs are like pilgrimages. Will you describe that a little?

You get to see these mountains from every single aspect. And I think the mountain itself has an energy.

One interviewer mentioned that we conquered the mountain, and I almost wanted to correct her and say the mountain conquers us. We happened to run a decent time around it. The mountain gives you scale to yourself and how small you are and how big and grandiose the rest of this world is.

TYLER GREEN’S TRIFECTA Loowit Trail (30 miles) Time: 4:59:54 Previous Record: JT Lehman, 5:05:58 Timberline Trail (41 miles) Time: 6:10:58 Previous Record: John Coffey, 6:24:23 Wonderland Trail (93 miles) Time: 16:40:55 Previous Record: Dylan Bowman, 16:58:41

FOOD & DRINK

and steadier rains move in. Restaurant and bar owners don’t know for sure whether patrons will want to bundle up for beers on a patio, yet many are taking measures to make those settings as cozy as possible, just in case they do.

“We’ve all put massive amounts of work into our outdoor spaces. What do we do when it starts raining for six months?” says Hohl, who used the spring lockdown to spruce up an underused patch of dirt and grass next to his taphouse with potted flowers, Adirondack chairs and umbrella-topped picnic tables. His landlord even allowed him to cut a hole in the wall and install a serving window.

Hohl is already thinking about winter and ways to keep utilizing the area—such as roofing in the patio and installing heaters—though he probably won’t rely on the yard alone.

“We are looking at ways to actually reopen the taproom with social distancing guidelines,” he says, “at least get a few tables inside.”

In Portland, Ezra Caraeff closed all his properties—the Old Gold, Paydirt, Tough Luck and the Hi-Top Tavern—out of concern for his employees’ health as soot and ash hung in the air.

That loss in earnings means preparations for service in inclement weather have become even more important.

“As far as winter goes, I’m hoping a combination of socially distant indoor seating and outdoor tents for people who want to RAISE THE ROOF: Bars like Century—seen here in 2016— drink with a jacket on will work,” he says. “I don’t know. Honestsurvived the summer by moving business outdoors, but ly, no one’s done this before. The one thing we keep finding as we Portland’s rainy months present a new challenge. go along here is that there’s no template for this.”

There are three large, heavy-duty tents—“circus grade,” as Caraeff describes them—at three of the bars, and even though he knows not even those shelters can protect from the pinpricks of raindrops blown sideways during a typical December in Oregon, he’s pushing forward and elevating the outdoor venues where he can. Most recently, that meant scrambling to the roof at Old Gold to run power to some new string lighting.

“We’re trying,” Caraeff says. “I think that’s kind of our motto right now. We can’t not do anything, but it’s such a slow death. It feels like we’re just getting to pick out our own coffin.”

As if restaurant and bar owners needed another obstacle, one more challenge besides the weather awaits. The Portland Bureau of Transportation’s Healthy Business permits, which it rolled left in 2020. He estimates he lost $15,000 to $20,000 by suspendout in May to allow food and beverage operators to turn street ing service during the week Portland experienced dangerous air parking and alleyways into al fresco dining rooms, are set to quality. expire Nov. 1. So far, the agency has not announced an extension “This is the time of year where you try to pay off debts of the but may consider one. winter and maybe get a little bit ahead,” says Bowler. “It’s getting Eric Bowler received one of those permits to take over a to the point where the debt’s gotten bigger and we’re not paying portion of Southeast 10th Avenue near Sandy Boulevard, which any of them off. It’s dire.” gave him the opportunity to move all of Century outdoors. That’s The restaurant association says it’s difficult to gauge how much where he feels safest hosting game day parties and the enthusiof an effect the smoke-related shutastic shouting those events tend to downs will have on the industry, but inspire. If allowed to keep operatit’s a significant setback for businessing in the right of way, he’s consides already ravaged by the pandemic. ered winterizing the space. But he Of the approximately 10,000 food isn’t convinced it will be worth it. service establishments operating “I just don’t see how hospitable across Oregon, at least 1,000 have you can make a tent with heaters gone under since COVID-19 hit—and in terms of being able to cover that number is only expected to your rent and utilities and payroll grow. and insurance,” Bowler says. “The “When this is all said and done, math is really hard to make work.” my estimate is that we’ll see 30% to While the industry outlook 40% permanent closures,” Astley going into fall appears grim, there says. “I have seen a report that are reasons to remain hopeful. says it could be as high as 85% of “No. 1, restaurant operators are independent restaurants that will incredibly innovative and resilpermanently close their doors.” ient,” says Astley. “The other is, as Local restaurateurs are simiOregonians, we tend to do things larly pessimistic. According to an in the rain or we don’t do anything impact survey conducted by the at all. We’re more than willing to National Restaurant Association, have to endure a little weather 89% of Oregon restaurant operhardship in order to support our ators say their total dollar sales local restaurants, brewpubs and volume in August was lower than THE GREAT OUTDOORS: Oregon City’s Coin bars.” it was one year prior. Overall, sales Or, even endure a little smoke.

Toss hopes to winterize its new patio. slid by 39% on average, while 62% Last Wednesday, after Portof businesses reported that total operational costs spiked due to landers had been trapped in their homes for a week to avoid supply-chain issues. breathing in the toxic air, Coin Toss’ owner had no shortage of The diminished occupancy, increased expenses and no signs customers who were eager to hang out on the patio, even though that Congress will pass another stimulus package before the end skies still looked—and smelled—like campfire smoke. of the year paint a bleak picture for bars and restaurants.

“I think people want a little sense of normalcy and our regAnd now, winter is coming. ulars want to see each other,” Hohl says. “If it helps create some The week of post-Labor Day weekend closures may be somesense of normalcy, then by all means, we’re here.” thing of a preview of the coming months once temperatures fall THOMAS TEAL

FEATURE

Winter Is Coming

Portland restaurants have seen fire. Now, they’re preparing to see rain— and in an already difficult year, the results could be devastating.

BY AN D I P R E W I T T

aprewitt@wweek.com

COIN TOSS

All Tim Hohl could do was keep refreshing his computer screen.

As the founder of Coin Toss Brewing caught up on work at his Oregon City taproom on Sept. 10, he was simultaneously keeping track of the online Clackamas County wildfire map. Outside, smoke settled in like a thick fog and ash fell to the ground as if it were a light snow. The Riverside Fire had been creeping closer toward town, which was at Level 1: Get Ready evacuation status.

Hohl updated the website again. The area that had been highlighted in green that morning was suddenly bright yellow. All of Oregon City, including the industrial park where the brewery is located, was now upgraded to Level 2. At that point, he knew it was time to pack the essentials and go.

Two weeks later, Coin Toss is intact, the skies have cleared and customers are back in the beer garden. But between the heightened evacuation level and days of lingering haze that made outdoor drinking hazardous, Hohl still feels the sting of a week of business completely wiped out during a year when a pandemic had already eaten into profits.

“It was probably going to be one of our busiest weekends of the year, because the weather is still nice,” Hohl says. “We put a lot of work into our outdoor seating area, and business has been steady until the fires hit. We had a food truck Friday, a food truck Saturday and a special event with a brunch food truck on Sunday that all got canceled.”

Coin Toss is among the hundreds—if not thousands—of breweries, bars and restaurants that lost much-needed revenue in the waning days of summer following a series of devastating wildfires that have burned nearly 1 million acres to date. Although no one in Portland was forced to make a dramatic escape, the smokechoked skies forced people to shelter inside, shutting down the outdoor oases many eateries expanded or enhanced to lure guests wary of eating inside.

“So many of the restaurants that were previously closed and then could only reopen at reduced capacity found some success with outdoor dining during the summer months,” says Greg Astley, the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association’s director of government affairs. “But, of course, with the smoke being as bad as it is, it’s been a devastating blow.”

The timing could not have been worse. Business owners like Eric Bowler, who operates Southeast Portland sports bar Century, along with the Tube nightclub which has been closed since March, have tried to take advantage of every day of good weather

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

23

FOOD & DRINK CART SPOTLIGHT

Fruit of the Moon Galactic Grapes is Portland’s new candy crush.

CHRISTINE DONG

GRAPE IS THE PLACE: Galactic Grapes co-owner Andre Montgomery.

BY E L I Z A R OT H ST E I N

TOP 5

HOT PLATES Where to eat this week.

Dimo’s Apizza 701 E Burnside St., 503-327-8968, dimosapizza.com.

4-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

The menu at Dimo’s Apizza is loaded with variations of the New Haven-style pies chef Doug Miriello grew up eating in Connecticut. But his new spot aims for a place in Portland’s sandwich pantheon, too, with monstrous grinders like The Beast— as in, “roast beast.”

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. It’s a mound of ultra-tender, deeply flavored slow-roasted pork infused with garlic.

Rough Draft Burger Shop Inside Uptown Beer Co. at 6620 SW Scholls Ferry Road, rdburgershop.com. 4-9 pm WednesdayThursday, noon-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

24

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

BUZZ LIST

Where to drink outside this week.

Migration Rooftop 817 SW 17th Ave., 9th floor, 971-291-0258, migrationbrewing.com. 1-10 pm Thursday-Sunday.

In the Before Times, Migration’s sun-drenched front patio was one of Portland’s great summer evening beer drinking spots. That’s continued to be true in Phase 1, but apparently it wasn’t enough: The ascendant brewery has gone and launched a rooftop taproom at downtown’s freshly opened Canvas building. It boasts a panoramic view few others can claim, which includes the Providence Park Jumbotron.

Mad Hanna 6129 NE Fremont St., 503-288-2944, madhanna. com. 2-10 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-10 pm Friday-Saturday.

Mad Hanna is not for the surly at heart. “Have a Drink, Meet a Friend” is the unofficial motto—that’s what’s painted into the Oregon Trail-themed mural out back at least. It has a backyard you’ll swear you visited for a barbecue your first summer in town, which is perfect for this season of distance.

Gin Alley 3348 SE Belmont St. 4-10 pm WednesdaySaturday.

Opening behind still-shuttered pseudo-speakeasy Circa 33 off Southeast 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.

BIBLE CLUB

As far as Vicky Carmichael and Andre Montgomery know, there are only two places in the country where you can purchase a candy-encrusted grape.

One is a shop just outside Atlanta called the Craxk House. The other is Galactic Grapes, their splatter-painted food cart, located at the center of Fusion Food Pavilion on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Carmichael and Montgomery’s version might not be so subversively named, but it’s equally addicting. Individually plucked grapes are coated in a secret syrup, rolled in crushed candy, then frozen. The couple refer to the flagship product as “the fruit of the future,” but the individual elements are straight out of the ’80s: Smashed Lem-

onheads and Fun Dip powder congeal into puckery geodes to make “Blue Raspberry Lemonade,” while “Poppin’ Skittle-Berry” uses Pop Rocks. Biting into any of them quenches like chugging an artificial sports drink—crisp, juicy, electrolyte-forward.

“It’s stardust and moon rocks,” Montgomery says. “That’s why they’re so galactic and outta this world.”

Sugar is in both owners’ DNA. Montgomery’s grandmother is a confectioner in Detroit. Carmichael inherited her sweet tooth as well: “I’m Hispanic,” she says. “We candy everything.” Taking inspiration from the Craxk House after seeing it pop on his Instagram feed, Montgomery began making and selling the treats at home— after getting permission from the originators—then graduated to a cart last year. It’s a true family affair: Their 7-year-old daughter also helps out, selling the grapes and inspiring some of the flavors.

“My daughter loves working here,” Montgomery says. “She’s into seeing people happy that they’re eating the grapes she helped create.”

Galactic Grapes doesn’t have a regular menu and offerings rotate daily. Planners can click through the cart’s Instagram stories on the day of to see what’s available, but the true experience requires spontaneity. Show up and grab what’s on hand—usually three flavor options, prepacked in varied sizes. The XS pack gets you 20 grapes for $10 (plus complimentary plastic container), or you can spring for the XXL party pack: $100 for 300 grapes. One regular often picks up the latter for staff meetings.

But the community’s role in the success of Galactic Grapes goes beyond consistent patronage—it’s a critical link in the cart’s supply chain. Friends have willingly deputized themselves as scouts, reporting on grape sales across Portland supermarkets, and donate bunches picked up on their own grocery store runs. In turn, Carmichael and Montgomery allow friends in need of work and quick cash to run the operation for a shift or two and keep the day’s earnings.

“We really do our best to put back into the community because they have given us so much,” Carmichael says. “We pay our bills, we feed our kid with this business. We’re blessed, and it’s purely off of community support.”

TOP 5

EAT: Galactic Grapes, 5800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 213-246-7993, instagram.com/galacticgrapespdx. Call to confirm hours.

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. The fried broccoli with hot cheese, pickled peppers, scallion and crispy jalapeños at least delivers cruciferous vitamins and fiber.

La Moule 2500 SE Clinton St., 971-3392822, lamoulepdx.com. 4-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Going from Paris to Portland may seem an odd career move for a chef. But for John Denison, it made perfect sense. Having started his career at St. Jack before bouncing around some of Europe’s finest kitchens, he’s back at Aaron Barnett’s other French-inspired restaurant, moving the menu in an even more Gallic direction. Denison’s tour de force? An ultra-rustic pâté en croûte.

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, with French Isigny St.-Mere butter, or as a cheese toast, even under a hot dog.

Bible Club 6716 SE 16th Ave., 971-279-2198, bibleclubpdx.com.

5 pm-midnight Wednesday-Thursday, 5 pm-1 am Friday-Saturday, 4-11 pm Sunday.

Enter a time machine to the Prohibition era where the drinks artfully pack a punch and the period décor is strictly, sumptuously on theme. Drinks like the Suffragette (pisco, ginger syrup, lavender bitters, sparkling wine) are served in antique glassware with a Gatsbian garnish, accompanied by a reliable lineup of upscale bar fare.

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

4-9 pm daily.

The brewery’s new pop-up beer garden is barebones, but it’s enough to transform the oil-stained patch of concrete off 92nd Avenue 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.

POTLANDER COURTESY OF ROGANJA

Up in Smoke The wildfires largely spared Oregon’s cannabis crop, but farmers still took a hit.

BY S OP H I E P E E L

@sophiegreenleaf

On Sept. 8, Roganja co-owner Peter Butch stood in the garden of his family’s cannabis farm in Eagle Point, watching as the Obenchain Fire climbed over the ridge bordering his 1-acre grow.

That night, as his neighbors and family evacuated, he used a hose to drench his property until the following morning.

“It just burnt overnight, getting closer and closer, and burnt through my family’s property,” says Butch. “It [burnt the land] that my dad pioneered.”

Butch says only 10% to 20% of the grow was destroyed by ambient heat from the wildfire. But structures used for processing and drying were burnt to ash—as well as his and his mother’s homes. His irrigation system and drip lines used to water crop also melted from the heat. He expects there’s $300,000 worth of damage to cannabis structures on his property.

“It’s gonna cost a lot to rebuild,” says Butch. “We were actually having an incredible summer up until these fires hit. Almost smoke-free, a beautiful fall. [And then] we had about nine nights of horribly smoky skies.”

As wildfires raged through Southern Oregon this month, where many of the state’s cannabis farms are located, farmers found themselves on the fighting end of a natural disaster few saw coming. The blazes came at a particularly inopportune moment: Harvest season has begun, with the bulk of collection happening late this month and through October.

The devastation to actual cannabis grows has been relatively limited, says economist Beau Whitney—only about 2% to 4% of the state’s supply was impacted. Successful grows need excessive amounts of moisture to survive, and that may have saved many of them from going up in flames.

But damage to the infrastructure of the industry, such as drying and trimming buildings, irrigation systems and the ability of pickers and staff to return to areas that are still under evacuation orders, might be where the trouble lies.

“Unless you have that insurance money coming in, that’s a loss,” says Whitney. “That’s where the impact is: How do you pull up from your bootstraps and get back into the game? That’s the real tough part.”

And because cannabis is still federally illegal, property and crop insurance is hard for cultivators to access.

As the fires encroached closer to farms, many farmers used primitive measures to protect their grows from catching fire.

At the peak of the wildfires, East Fork Cultivars in Takilma was surrounded on nearly all sides by fires within 1 mile of the property. Co-owner Nathan Howard and a few staff members dumped buckets of water along the border as the flames creeped closer. Other farmers used handheld hoses to soak their properties, tractors to dig fire lines along property borders to stop the fire, and handheld leaf blowers to blow off ash from individual plants. Howard’s staff also pulled up shrubs and trees they thought would exacerbate the fires.

Even if ash and smoke cover the plants, Whitney says he’s not too worried about farmers being unable to use

BURN ONE: The Obenchain Fire creeps closer to Roganja’s cannabis farm in Eagle Point, Ore.

and sell that flower. Smokier plants can still be used for distillate, though farmers would have to take a profit cut since it is less valuable than smokable flower.

Still, Whitney says the adaptable cannabis market is already using the smoke as a marketing tool.

“I’m seeing some extracted oil brands and names of brands like ‘Smokey Joe,’” he says, “so I’m starting to see the market react immediately already.”

And even if everyone has a slightly smoky flower this harvest season, “the smoke won’t have an impact on the overall market because it’ll be so ubiquitous throughout the entire system,” Whitney says. “They have to buy something.”

Smoke and ash, says Nathan Howard, isn’t a big concern for East Fork, as it’s had a small crew hand-watering plants and removing toxins that have settled from the smoke—and anyway, smoke is a natural deterrent to the particular mold endemic to cannabis plants, Howard says.

Instead, the concern for Howard is the ethical quandary of whether to allow salaried farm staff back despite unhealthy

air quality. Takilma is still under Level 3 evacuation orders, and though East Fork has had several local employees volunteering to survey the plants, the crew of seasonal pickers probably won’t come back.

That could spell trouble for harvest season, which has already begun and picks up in force through October.

“We’re potentially facing devastation if we go into next week and can’t invite our team back,” says Howard. “We have many thousands of pounds of cannabis that need to be harvested next week.”

Rhea Miller, who co-owns Millerville Farms with her husband, Matt, is neighbors with East Fork. She says she’s been obsessing over whether to even harvest the plant, which she says is covered in a thick layer of ash.

“I’ve been analyzing different outcomes, as far as taking the loss and bulldozing it down now and stop spending money on it, to harvesting it and exploring extraction or harvesting once cut and seeing how it smells,” says Miller.

“We learned from the cannabis glut of 2017: If you don’t know where the plant is going or what it’s doing, don’t touch it.”

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

25

PERFORMANCE

BOOKS

Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com PICA.ORG

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

FIVE BOOKS ABOUT THE OTHER PORTLAND (AND SURROUNDING AREAS) Amy and Isabelle, Elizabeth Strout

TIME MARCHES ON: TBA offers a mixture of in-person and virtual events this year.

Time’s Almost Up Despite the pandemic and recent wildfires, the Time-Based Art Festival has found a way to press on. Here are the highlights of the final week’s schedule.

PICA.ORG

BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RGUS O N

“A festival of interdisciplinary art” is an accurate but insufferably unromantic way of describing the TimeBased Art Festival, better known as TBA. The festival is nothing less than a colossus of the strange and the glorious, a place where you might see a film that never ends, a dance through a fountain, or a Q-and-A session that plunges into hysteria.

TBA, which is organized by the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art, hasn’t been hindered by COVID-19 as much as you might expect. “Early in the pandemic, I would say everything was questioned and considered, but we always kept our priorities on supporting the artists we work with in whatever way we could,” says Erin Boberg Doughton, an artistic director at PICA. That support has led to TBA’s final week, which will feature both virtual and in-person events that exist under the umbrella of the festival’s current theme, Take Your Time.

With that in mind, here are five TBA events worth taking the time to enjoy, all of which can be seen at picatv.org.

Instrument/Traveler’s Ode For Dao Strom, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in the Sierra Nevada foothills, music, poetry and visual art aren’t just forms of expression—they are her three voices as an artist. Instrument/Traveler’s Ode sees them combined, merging guitar, photography, piano, song-poems and recorded noises—including the sounds of birds and rivers. Her performance will stream Sept. 26 and will be played on cassette decks in PICA’s annex the next day. 6:30 pm Saturday and 1 pm Sunday, Sept. 26-27.

Audience Portrait The spectators will become the spectacle at this Zoombased event, which asks viewers to post a picture or to simply show their face so that TBA can capture an image of its 2020 audience. “The Audience Portrait is a little bit of an experiment,” says Kristan Kennedy, another PICA artistic director. “[We] asked ourselves, ‘How do we capture that feeling of being together during TBA, or that moment we share the space in a live performance or gallery just [by] being present, looking and relooking?’

It is a time to listen and just be.” 6:30 pm Wednesday, Sept. 30.

A Movement for Black Laughs Black lives and laughs will matter at this celebration of Black humor in political movements featuring Dahlia Delu Belle, The Real Hyjinx, Anthony Robinson and Debbie Wooten. It’s a program pitched at the intersection of comfort and enlightenment, one of the festival’s defining dualities. “Many of the artists in TBA have created projects that can be comforting and/or enlightening. It depends on the audience,” Boberg Doughton says. “I would also say many of the projects question who gets to experience comfort or enlightenment, or who defines what those terms mean.” 6:30 pm Thursday, Sept. 24.

Debajo del Agua: The Wake Work of Enerolisa Núñez When many people think of Dominican music, they think of merengue. Yet one of the Dominican Republic’s defining musical forms is Afro-Dominican religious music performed in the salve style, which is also called palo or atabeles. Debajo del Agua is a talk by artist-musician-writer manuel arturo abreu that explores the music of Enerolisa Nuñez, also known as the “Queen of Salve.”

It’s part of a series of TBA events from Home School, a free pop-up art school run by arturo abreu and Victoria Anne Reis. 4 pm Friday, Sept. 25.

Puro Teatro: A Spell for Utopia Uruguayan choreographer luciana achugar is a singular artist, a visionary who can find beauty in bodies on pavement or the stillness of a cat. Puro Teatro: A Spell for Utopia continues her quest to create what PICA describes as decolonized, uncivilized, utopian art. Achugar recently posed the question, “What is a theater without a theater?” COVID-19 may have made that question difficult to answer, but if her previous work is any indication, A Spell for Utopia will offer an intriguing and inimitable response.

4 pm Saturday and 5 pm Wednesday, Sept. 26 and 30.

THE VOICE: Dao Strom will perform song-poems via livestream.

SEE IT: Tickets and scheduling information for the TimeBased Arts Festival can be found at pica.org.

26

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

When Elizabeth Strout writes about Maine, she comes home, again and again.

Most of her books, in some way, center around the rural Northeast, the region she grew up in without newspapers, movies or worldly novelties. The familiarity shows.

In 1998, Strout published her much-loved debut novel, Amy and Isabelle, the story of a teenager and her mother gripped by scandal and the oppressive smallness of backroads towns. Strout writes with a subtlety most authors only dream of and manages to draw the reader into the sweetness and grief of everyday life with ease.

Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes It’s an unproven theory, but books set in fictional locations tend to be easier on the soul. They don’t get tangled up in the gritty details. In the seaside town of Calcasset, Maine, podcaster-turned-author Linda Holmes spoon-feeds her characters every New England cliché—lobster, accents, a clunky class divide. There is a new widow and a scorned professional baseball player, both looking for escape. They might fall in love. In the three days it will take you to finish this book, you will probably feel a little less cynical about the world, and a little more resentful that you cannot afford a waterfront vacation home.

Carrie, Stephen King Of course, Stephen King is the archangel of modern New England literature, and horror, and politically aggressive tweets. The thing is, his debut novel happens to be really, frustratingly good. In the Maine town of Chamberlain, King gives the masses what they want—a 16-year-old outcast who manages to wage holy war on those who have wronged her (everyone) through all means possible (telekinetic mass murder). King once described Carrie as a “cookie baked by a first grader,” but all the greats sell themselves short.

Summer, Edith Wharton For a holistic transplant, there is Summer by famed and fabled aristocratic novelist Edith Wharton.

Written one whole century ago and set in the country town of North Dormer, New England, Wharton writes of misguided passion and new love from the perspective of a young girl almost comically humbled by life. There are rolling hills and gooseberry bushes, things tragically missing from the Portland landscape, and the sense that the worst thing that could happen is a mismatched betrothal or maybe the onset of Prohibition.

On Beauty, Zadie Smith In the past two decades, Zadie Smith has carved out her own place in the top tier of modern writers, and at least some of that is due to On Beauty. In a college town outside of Boston, Smith writes about self-important academics and contentious family dynamics, zigzagging between the American Northeast and London for a trans-Atlantic reckoning on all of the cultural institutions we hold close. “The future’s another country, man,” Smith writes. “And I still ain’t got a passport.”

WORDS COURTESY OF STEVE CONNELL

Gimme Indie Rock

Portland-based Puncture upped the game for punk zines. A new anthology shows how.

Something that came out of the introductory essays in this collection was Katherine’s pretty strict standards.

How was it to have your work edited by her?

I probably got off more lightly than most people. It was really, really seriously done, professional work. Katherine worked for real magazines, so she didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t be presented that way, too. I think that’s one thing that made it stand out. The major publications did that, but for a lot of the zines, it didn’t necessarily matter that much. I think it made Puncture different in the end.

Was it gratifying to see artists that Puncture championed early on become more widely known?

It was fantastic to see all those bands get bigger, and they deserved it. Sleater-Kinney getting covered in Time magazine.

Even the Mountain Goats—certainly the records are different and if [frontman John Darnielle] carried on recording into a boombox, it probably wouldn’t have happened, but all the greatness was there in those songs. Maybe we played a little part in that, but I think it showed how things were changing, too. I remember Spin trashing Neutral Milk Hotel. At times it seemed like they didn’t get or they didn’t want to get it.

READ IT: Now Is the Time to Invent!: Reports From the IndieRock Revolution 1986-2000 is out now on Verse Chorus Press.

ZINE AGE DREAM: Puncture editors Katherine Spielmann and Steve Connell in 1994, shortly after moving to Portland.

BY R OB E RT H A M

@roberthamwriter

On the outside, the first issues of Puncture looked like the dozens of other roughly constructed zines covering punk and post-punk culture in the 1980s: hand-folded and stapled with cut-and-paste cover art.

What set it apart was the content on the inside. The writing was wise and witty, covering artists ignored by most other underground papers—the Virgin Prunes, Negativland, Toiling Midgets—and included thoughtful writing on literature and film. As it became a proper magazine with glossy covers, eventually relocating from San Francisco to Portland, and opened its ears to embrace hip-hop, jazz and the avant-garde, Puncture remained on the bleeding edge. It was the first to write about Guided By Voices, Jeff Buckley, and Neutral Milk Hotel in any meaningful way, and even published an early excerpt of David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest before the novel became a phenomenon.

The magazine folded in 2000 when founder Katherine Spielmann and fellow editor-life partner Steve Connell started the publishing imprint Verse Chorus Press. But Puncture hasn’t disappeared. The first six issues were anthologized last year, and this month sees the publication of Now Is The Time To Invent!, a collection of features culled from the magazine.

The book picks up the story in 1986—starting with college-rock luminaries Throwing Muses and ending with Sleater-Kinney, the cover stars of the final issue. In between are rare interviews with Fugazi and critic Lester Bangs, powerful essays on misogyny in the underground scene, and coverage of the now legendary 1991 International Pop Underground Convention in Olympia, Wash. It’s not the complete story of Puncture but a great document of how indie went from a subgenre to a cultural watchword. The book also serves as a beautiful memorial to Spielmann, who passed away in 2016.

From his home in Hamburg, Germany, Connell spoke with WW about how he went from a reader to becoming the magazine’s managing editor, covering the music no one else would, and watching those once-obscure artists become icons.

WW: When you stumbled upon Puncture, what made it stand out to you?

Steve Connell: There were some great fanzines, but they weren’t as well written. Puncture had a frame of reference that the others didn’t have. It seemed zine-y and punky but also very literate. And that’s where I was. I was a weird university post-graduate who ended up working for Rough Trade. It was pretty clearly my kind of thing.

You moved to the U.S. to work at Rough Trade’s offices

in San Francisco not long after. Did you seek out Katherine immediately?

No. She called up the office because she was looking for a Test Dept record. We used to import all these English things and she had her ear to the ground. I was the person she ended up talking to, and I went, “Oh, Puncture!

Puncture We should talk.”

Clearly, you two hit it off instantly. What was it that drew you to Katherine?

We had a similar background in some ways. The first major discussion we had was about what was the best rock novel.

Back then, there really weren’t that many, and we agreed it was Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street.. That was a good start, I think.

Even as the magazine got bigger, Puncture still stuck to covering artists and scenes that other publications tended to ignore.

We were definitely drawn to the more left-field stuff. I mean, I was a huge R.E.M. fan all through those years, but there wasn’t much point raving about R.E.M. in a little zine when they were being covered in Rolling Stone.

Why did you move yourselves and the magazine to Portland?

I stopped working for Rough Trade, and then the [1989] earthquake happened, so Katherine didn’t want to live in San Francisco anymore. And the city was changing pretty fast—it was yuppie-fying and rents were going up. We realized that if we wanted to spend more time doing Puncture and not have full-time jobs, we’d have to find a cheaper place to live. And, of course, in ’92, when we moved, the scene with Hazel, Pond, and the Spinanes was starting to happen. We were like, “Yeah, this is the place to be.”

Beyond music, Puncture was very connected to the world of literature, publishing excerpts of Infinite Jest and interviewing authors. Was that in the DNA of the magazine from the start?

I think Katherine probably would have most wanted to do a literary magazine. But there wasn’t a DIY way to do that back then. We always wanted to make sure literature was in the mix. There were always reviews, and running excerpts of books started in the Portland years. And we transitioned into doing Verse Chorus Press and stopped doing Puncture.

How was it to experience the trajectory of Puncture from this photocopied, hand-stapled zine to a fullfledged magazine with a glossy cover?

We didn’t want to fetishize this idea of, “It’s gotta look like a zine.” That was pretty much all you could do then. It was rubber cement, cut-and-paste, those guidelines that you cut with your X-Acto knife. We went with the technology as it developed. We got a Mac Plus as soon as they were available. I learned PageMaker and then it was off to the races.

Puncture’s Greatest Hits

Women in Rock: An Open Letter Writer Teri Sutton presaged the riot grrrl movement with her 1988 essay that lays bare the ugly sexism roiling within the supposedly enlightened indie-rock scene.

Sleater-Kinney The first-ever interview with the venerated trio, with then-drummer Lora MacFarlane, was published in a 1995 issue of Puncture.

Fugazi D.C.’s most important band gave a rare interview to Lois Maffeo in 1990 following the release of their first album, Repeater.

Jonathan Richman Camden Joy blended fiction and journalism to wondrous effect for this portrait of the revered singer-songwriter.

The Pastels In 1998, musician-poet David Berman interviewed the influential Scottish pop trio—by fax.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

27

MOVIES

Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com H O WA R D M I T C H E L L

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, in honor of Netflix’s recent release of the star-studded The Devil All the Time, we highlight films boasting stellar ensemble casts.

The Devil All the Time (2020) Based on Donald Ray Pollock’s critically acclaimed novel, this gritty, dramatic thriller follows a young man (Tom Holland) through a series of strange encounters with sinister characters in the corrupt town of Knockemstiff, Ohio. Co-stars include Riley Keough, Sebastian Stan, Mia Wasikowska, Bill Skarsgård, and standout Robert Pattinson as a lecherous preacher.

Netflix.

DEBT OF GRATITUDE: Forgive Us Our Debts is a much-needed examination of Portland’s history of discrimination.

Homesick Police brutality and its links to the housing crisis are themes in the Portland-set short Forgive Us Our Debts.

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

@chance_s_p

28

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

SEE IT: Forgive Us Our Debts screens at the Cinema Unbound Drive-In at Zidell Yards, 3030 SW Moody Ave., prior to The Shining, on Saturday, Sept. 26. 9 pm. Sold out.

Jim Jarmusch’s nocturnal dramedy consists of five vignettes, all focusing on a different cab driver in a different city on the same night. Perhaps the most notable of the anthology is the opener, in which a grungy chain-smoking cabbie (Winona Ryder) escorts a movie executive (Gena Rowlands) around L.A. Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, HBO Max.

Magnolia (1999) This epic drama from auteur Paul Thomas Anderson explores the myriad ways in which fateful coincidences form delicate connections, binding us all together. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Julianne Moore as a pill-addicted housewife, Philip Seymour Hoffman as a tender nurse, and Tom Cruise in one of his most memorable roles as a bawdy motivational speaker. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO Go, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

IMDB.COM

On Aug. 15, Portland filmmaker Howard Mitchell’s new short preceded Do the Right Thing at the NW Film Center’s newly launched drive-in theater.

In some ways, the pairing was natural. Like Spike Lee’s 1989 classic, Forgive Us Our Debts depicts an urban neighborhood and its Black residents caught in the cyclical distress of poverty and racism. In its 15-minute runtime, Mitchell’s film zooms in on a family of Black Portlanders falling victim to a predatory gentrifier and the police who enforce his practices.

On Sept. 26, Forgive Us Our Debts finds another apt pairing at the Zidell Yards drive-in: The Shining (1980).

This time the connection is tonal.

The oppressive dread of Forgive Us Our Debts owes much more to Kubrick than Lee. The threat of violence hovers as a thick, low-lying inhalant, as 13-year-old Trey (Jason Putnam) fields mysterious phone calls, while his grandma (Tracy Shaw) naps to grainy gospel tapes and his father, Dante (Jacques Allison), arrives home on edge and toting a 30-rack.

There’s no haunting per se, but you wouldn’t be wrong to think some ancient treachery lurked just outside the family’s front door. Mitchell certainly views his film as one focused on a violation.

“I wanted to think about the idea of ‘home’ and make it universal,” says the director, who also goes by the pseudonym Gato. “Robert Frost said that home is a place, that when you get there, they have to let you in. Home is yours.

No one can take it from you. And yet, we know they can.

And rather violently.”

Panama-born and New Jersey-raised, Mitchell moved to town in 2009 after flipping a coin: heads Austin, tails Portland. Tails turned up, Mitchell relocated from Seattle, and Forgive Us Our Debts marks his fifth short film, made possible in part by a 2018 fellowship from the NW Film Center. Though Mitchell has captured Portland from a sidewalk vantage before in a series of shorts connected by public transit, Forgive Us Our Debts led him to plunge deep into the city’s history of discrimination.

“Police brutality is inextricably linked to the housing crisis,” Mitchell says. “It’s a two-headed dragon.”

Certainly, depictions of police violence against Black civilians have become more frequent in film and TV during the past several years, but rarely with such an emphasis on the grotesque as in Mitchell’s work. Backgrounding Trey’s after-school routine with a graphic Dante’s Inferno coloring book, Mitchell also doubles certain disturbing shots, like a police officer scoffing and grinning at Trey’s father’s defense of their home.

“It’s this idea of the spiritual and the profane crashing together,” Mitchell says of his Alighieri allusions. “You have the grandmother representing faith and then Dante bringing in his rage and Black anger. And the boy wrestling with the two between himself.”

Put another way, it’s uncommon for injustice against Black Americans to be played for horror in film, not drama. Mitchell’s work aims to peel open the audience’s eyes and force them to stare through Trey’s. The director cites classic international cinema like The Spirit of the Beehive (Spain, 1973) and The 400 Blows (France, 1959) as inspirational examples of shedding intellectual bias through a young POV character.

“It’s the tabula rasa of a child, that clear mind, unhindered,” Mitchell says. “A child is something we’re all supposed to identify with. [That] may take the guard off some people.”

Relating to audiences while maintaining artistic credibility is something Mitchell often views via his Portland State master’s degree: adult education with a critical theory emphasis. As for feeling at home after his fateful coin flip, Mitchell wishes there were more Black filmmakers in Portland, but he also credits the Film Center for supporting his work when he might have otherwise moved away.

Now, it seems, Portland’s sometimes hidden hells may have unlocked new creativity in Mitchell, as he develops his first feature: a PDX noir.

“It expounds upon these same themes as a crime drama,” Mitchell says. “The mayor is involved, and this Black bike repairman becomes embroiled and has to sleuth his way out of it. I think it’s ripe. There’s a lot of darkness here.”

Night on Earth (1991)

Waiting for Guffman (1996) A troupe of community theater actors, led by their eccentric director, Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest, who also directs), aims to put on an original musical celebrating their small town’s history. Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Bob Balaban, Catherine O’Hara, and the always delightful Parker Posey co-star in this almost entirely improvised mockumentary.

Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube.

Babel (2006) Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett headline this heartrending drama from multi-Best Director Oscar winner Alejandro Iñárritu. Tragedy strikes while the American pair are vacationing in Morocco, and their stories internationally intertwine with their Mexican nanny (Adriana Barraza) and her nephew (Gael García Bernal), as well as a hearing-impaired teen girl in Japan (Rinko Kikuchi). Amazon Prime, Google Play, iTunes, Netflix, Vudu, YouTube.

SLANT MAGAZINE

MOVIES TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

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.

BLOODY NOSE, EMPTY POCKETS

She Dies Tomorrow

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 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.

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.

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.

LX 2048 The image of the lone figure wandering a deserted metropolis is as old as our modern idea of the apocalypse. Yet you could have approximated such iconography in many West Coast cities last week. That’s to say, the criteria for credible near-term science fiction sharpens quickly, and indie auteur Guy Moshe is a mostly believable architect in LX 2048. Twentyeight years from now, the sun sears skin on contact, humans cling to the indoors and their VR, antide-

pressants are basically mandatory, and insurance companies offer cloned replacements of deceased loved ones. But Adam Bird (James D’Arcy) resists it all—a real 1999 man, who likes to drive to the office, brew coffee and thumb his guitar. What’s missing here is not imagination but a more nuanced observation of human relationships as a mystery unfolds. Adam’s marriage to Reena (Anna Brewster) is hyperbolically vindictive mostly to move plot, a blur of suggested world-building by way of accusatory monologues about Adam being a loser and a dinosaur. The expository cheapness stands in stark contrast to patient, demonstrable moments of futuristic alienation—particular kids’ devotion to VR. Ultimately, all movies are better with Delroy Lindo bit parts, but LX 2048 still feels like the one before Moshe’s breakout. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.

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.

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

29

ART N’ COMICS!

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

FEATURED ARTIST: Tanner thepaintwhopaints.com instagram.com/thepaintwhopaints Tanner is a 9-year-old American Paint Horse, who paints! His owner discovered his incredible talent for learning tricks, and taught him how to unbridle his creativity by picking up a paint brush; a creative way for them to play together. Tanner creates inspiring and irreverent works of abstract art. A portion of all proceeds are donated to help rescue horses.

Come view five new pieces in his series, “Equinox” at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts 11am - 5pm | September 26, 2020 368 S. State Street, Lake Oswego (outdoor event) accepting commissions for fall

JACK KENT’S

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

IG @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com

30

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

JONESIN’

Week of October 1

©2020 Rob Brezsny

by Matt Jones

"Adjusted to Fit Your Screen"--what the flip is going on? [#590, Sept. 2012]

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)

"I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself," wrote 16th-century author Pietro Aretino.

By January 2021, Aries, I would love for you to have earned the right to make a similar statement: "I am, indeed, a royal sovereign, because I know how to rule myself." Here's the most important point: The robust power and clout you have the potential to summon has nothing to do with power and clout over other people— only over yourself. Homework: Meditate on what it means to be the imperial boss and supreme monarch of your own fate.

In her high school yearbook, Libra-born Sigourney Weaver arranged to have this caption beneath her official photo: "Please, God, please, don't let me be normal!" Since then, she has had a long and acclaimed career as an actor in movies. ScreenPrism.com calls her a pioneer of female action heroes. Among her many exotic roles: a fierce warrior who defeats monstrous aliens; an exobiologist working with indigenous people on the moon of a distant planet in the 22nd century; and a naturalist who lives with mountain gorillas in Rwanda. If you have ever had comparable fantasies about transcending normalcy, Libra, now would be a good time to indulge those fantasies—and begin cooking up plans to make them come true.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) "The basic principle of spiritual life is that our problems become the very place to discover wisdom and love." Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield made that brilliant observation. It's always worth meditating on, but it's an especially potent message for you during the first three weeks of October 2020. In my view, now is a highly favorable time for you to extract uplifting lessons by dealing forthrightly with your knottiest dilemmas. I suspect that these lessons could prove useful for the rest of your long life.

GEMINI (May 21-June20) "My business is to love," wrote poet Emily Dickinson. I invite you to adopt this motto for the next three weeks.

It's an excellent time to intensify your commitment to expressing compassion, empathy, and tenderness.

To do so will not only bring healing to certain allies who need it; it will also make you smarter. I mean that literally. Your actual intelligence will expand and deepen as you look for and capitalize on opportunities to bestow blessings. (P.S. Dickinson also wrote, "My business is to sing." I recommend you experiment with that mandate, as well.)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

5 Hiking path

53 Rapper _ _ _ Def

10 "Which came first?" choice

54 Walkway on an airline flight

30 Three, in Germany

13 Clapton or Cartman

58 Bullfighting cheer

14 Candy branded as "The Freshmaker"

59 What Neil Armstrong partook in, e.g.

32 _ _ _ fatty acids

"I’m the diamond in the dirt, that ain’t been found," sings Cancerian rapper Curtis Jackson, also known as 50 Cent. "I’m the underground king and I ain’t been crowned," he adds. My reading of the astrological omens suggests that a phenomenon like that is going on in your life right now. There's something unknown about you that deserves and needs to be known. You're not getting the full credit and acknowledgment you've earned through your soulful accomplishments. I hereby authorize you to take action! Address this oversight. Rise up and correct it.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

16 Stuff to fix a squeaky hinge

62 Homer's outburst

35 Troy's friend on "Community"

ACROSS 1 What your answers must be written in to understand the theme

49 Cartoonist Guisewite, or her comic strip

27 Postpone

51 Faith whose name comes from the Arabic for "glory"

29 Do the "I am not a crook" thing with the V-signs, for example?

28 Make big speeches

31 Completely devour

36 Under the weather

17 Aligned correctly

63 It may be tossed after a wedding

19 Pompous attribute

64 Charity benefit, maybe

20 Stun gun relative

65 Take notice

43 Well-known quotations, often

21 Jewel

66 Some religious observances

45 "Are you a man _ _ _ mouse?"

67 Stretch across

47 Warm up after being in the freezer

22 Amy Winehouse hit song 24 Complainer's sounds 26 1980s hairstyle that may have involved a kit

DOWN

27 Donut shop quantities

2 Operatic solo

30 Cop show with the line "Just the facts, ma'am"

3 Sty dwellers

33 Cupid's Greek counterpart 34 Wire-_ _ _ (like some terriers' coats)

1 Like some checks: Abbr.

4 Crafty plans 5 Symbols after brand names 6 Rule over a kingdom

37 Rowboat propeller

7 Chilean mountain range

38 Transmit electronically, in a way

8 Checklist component 9 Rawls of R&B

39 Devices that, when turned, adjust themselves (just like the theme answers)

10 "Land sakes alive that's awesome!"

40 Greek vowel 41 Suffix form for twenty and thirty, but not ten 42 Audrey Tautou's quirky title role of 2001 43 Stay away from 44 Moved the borders to create a new area, perhaps 46 They're collected in passports 48 Coffee dispensers

11 Prefix for byte meaning "billion" 12 Amorphous clump 15 Jam, margarine, or cream cheese, e.g.

18 Sci-fi film set inside a computer

39 Activity done in heated beds

49 Amounts on a bill

The author bell hooks (who doesn't capitalize her name) has spent years as a professor in American universities. Adaptability has been a key strategy in her efforts to educate her students. She writes, "One of the things that we must do as teachers is twirl around and around, and find out what works with the situation that we're in." That's excellent advice for you right now—in whatever field you're in. Old reliable formulas are irrelevant, in my astrological opinion. Strategies that have guided you in the past may not apply to the current scenarios. Your best bet is to twirl around and around as you experiment to find out what works.

50 Liability counterpart

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)

51 Physiques, in entertainment tabloids

“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have,” says motivational speaker Robert Holden. Hallelujah and amen! Ain't that the truth! Which is why it's so crucial to periodically take a thorough inventory of your relationship with yourself.

And guess what, Virgo: Now would be a perfect time to do so. Even more than that: During your inventory, if you discover ways in which you treat yourself unkindly or carelessly, you can generate tremendous healing energy by working to fix the glitches. The coming weeks could bring pivotal transformations in your bonds with others if you're brave enough to make pivotal transformations in your bonds with yourself.

52 Lotion ingredient 53 Actress Sorvino 55 Shower gel, essentially 56 Hit for The Kinks 57 Actor McGregor 60 Clumsy sort 61 Org. that provides W-2 forms

last week’s answers

HOMEWORK:Homework: Make up a song that cheers you up and inspires your excitement about the future. It doesn't have to be perfect. FreeWillAstrology.com

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Scorpio-born Prince Charles has been heir to the British throne for 68 years. That's an eternity to be patiently on hold for his big chance to serve as king. His mother Queen Elizabeth just keeps going on and on, living her very long life, ensuring that Charles remains second-in-command. But I suspect that many Scorpios who have been awaiting their turn will finally graduate to the next step in the coming weeks and months. Will Charles be one of them? Will you? To increase your chances, here's a tip: Meditate on how to be of even greater devotion to the ideals you love to serve.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) Inventor Buckminster Fuller was a visionary who loved to imagine ideas and objects no one had ever dreamed of before. One of his mottoes was, “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” I recommend that you spend quality time in the coming weeks meditating on butterfly-like things you'd love to have as part of your future—things that may resemble caterpillars in the early going. Your homework is to envision three such innovations that could be in your world by October 1, 2021.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) During World War II, Hollywood filmmakers decided it would be a good idea to create stories based on graphic current events: for example, American Marines waging pitched battles against Japanese soldiers on South Pacific islands. But audiences were cool to that approach. They preferred comedies and musicals with "no message, no mission, no misfortune." In the coming weeks, I advise you to resist any temptation you might have to engage in a similar disregard of current events. In my opinion, your mental health requires you to be extra discerning and well-informed about politics—and so does the future of your personal destiny.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) "Pretending is imagined possibility," observes actor Meryl Streep. "Pretending is a very valuable life skill and we do it all the time." In other words, fantasizing about events that may never happen is just one way we use our mind's eye. We also wield our imaginations to envision scenarios that we actually want to create in our real lives. In fact, that's the first step in actualizing those scenarios: to play around with picturing them; to pretend they will one day be a literal part of our world. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to supercharge the generative aspect of your imagination. I encourage you to be especially vivid and intense as you visualize in detail the future you want.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) "My own soul must be a bright invisible green," wrote author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau.

Novelist Tom Robbins suggested that we visualize the soul as "a cross between a wolf howl, a photon, and a dribble of dark molasses." Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska observed, "Joy and sorrow aren’t two different feelings" for the soul. Poet Emily Dickinson thought that the soul "should always stand ajar"—just in case an ecstatic experience or rousing epiphany might be lurking in the vicinity. In the coming weeks, Pisces, I invite you to enjoy your own lively meditations on the nature of your soul. You're in a phase when such an exploration can yield interesting results.

23 Exercise machine unit 25 Makes embarrassed 26 Class warmup before a big exam

©2020, 2012 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.

Check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes

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

1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700

Willamette Week SEPTEMBER 23, 2020 wweek.com

31

5/31/2020

Brothers.jpeg

CLASSIFIEDS

TO PLACE AN AD, CONTACT: MICHAEL DONHOWE 503-243-2122 / mdonhowe@wweek.com

Complete Yard Service Senior Discounts

We do it all!

Trimming, hedges & shrubs, pruning, bark dust, gutter cleaning, leaf cleanup & weeding, blackberries and ivy removal, staining, pressure washing & water sealing 503-235-0491 or 503-853-0480

A SEX TOY BOUTIQUE FOR EVERY BODY

CASH for INSTRUMENTS Tradeupmusic.com SE 503-236-8800 NE 503-335-8800

Do you have questions about sex?

Send your query to: askshebop@sheboptheshop.com Select questions will be answered in Ask She Bop's next sex advice column

Steve Greenberg Tree Service Pruning and removals, stump grinding. 24-hour emergency service. Licensed/Insured.

CCB#67024. Free estimates.

503-284-2077

SHOP ONLINE AT WWW.SHEBOPTHESHOP.COM CHECK OUR WEBSITE FOR CURRENT SPECIALS / ALL CLASSES NOW ONLINE! / PORTLAND OREGON

Sunlan Lighting For all your lightbulb fixtures & parts

3901 N Mississippi Ave 503.281.0453 Essential Business Hours 9:00 to 5:30 Monday thru Friday, 11:00 to 4:00 Saturday

TRADEUPMUSIC.COM

Buying, selling, instruments of every shape and size. Open 11am7pm every day. 4701 SE Division & 1834 NE Alberta.

LOCAL REPORTING THAT DRIVES

CHANGE After WW reported both outbreaks at Townsend Farms, Gov. Kate Brown and OHA announced a reversal in policy.

Drive New Cars!

Get Paid Weekly. North Portland, M-F, Day positions open, part & full-time., men & women, 18 years up. Must drive stick shift. Immediate openings. Call 360-718-7443

After WW revealed the outbreak, the Oregon Health Authority pledged to report clusters of cases at child care centers in its weekly reports.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#advanced-search/from=mdonhowe%40wweek.com&query=in%3Asent+brothers&isrefinem

Five members of Oregon’s congressional delegation are calling on the U.S. Marshals Service to disclose information following a June 15 report from WW.

BECOME A FRIEND OF WILLAMETTE WEEK

Sunlan cartoons by Kay Newell "The Lightbulb Lady" Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Google

WWEEK.COM/SUPPORT

www.sunlanlighting.com

SURF SUP SKATE GORGE PERFORMANCE 7400 SW Macadam, Portland visit gorgeperformance.com M-F 10-8, Sat 10-7 Closed Sun

BOARD RIDING SINCE 1983

Great Deals. Every Day. All 4 Floyd’s Locations!

9240 N. Whitaker | 801 NE Broadway | 5944 NE Sandy | 5217 SE 28th

5 8

$ $ .33 GRAMS 1/8THS CONCENTRATE of

Open Daily 9am- 9:55pm 21+ Recreational

| 18+ Medical

FloydsFineCannabis.com While supplies last. Some restrictions may apply. Tax not included.

Keep marijuana out of the reach of children. Do not operate a vehicle or machine under the influence of marijuana.