The
Harvest Issue
WILLAMETTE WEED: FIVE DAYS OF CANNABIS AT WEED.WWEEK.COM.
CANNABIS HAS BEEN A BRIGHT SPOT IN A DARK YEAR.
IT’S TIME TO SPARK UP SOME JOY. P. 9
ELECTION: CAN DEMS WIN A SUPER-DUPER-MAJORITY? P. 5 NEWS: A COP WITH NO NAME. P. 7
“ I support a free, local,
and independent press. ” — Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
In these challenging times, Oregon needs, more than ever, a strong press — and a strong Attorney General Ellen led a Public Records Reform Task Force, resulting in muchneeded and long-awaited reforms. Ellen received the First Freedom Award from the Oregon Society of Professional Journalists for her commitment to government transparency. Ellen has stood up for Oregonians’ affordable health care and insurance, working to cut drug prices and fight the opioid epidemic. Ellen has been a strong advocate for consumers, taking on powerful corporations and protecting seniors from scams and frauds. VOTE to Re-Elect Ellen Rosenblum as Oregon’s Attorney General. So she can keep fighting for US! 2
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
Ellen Rosenblum has dedicated her career to fighting for and protecting the people of Oregon — as a prosecutor, as a judge, and now as our Attorney General. She’s the People’s Attorney. Authorized and paid for by Elect Ellen Rosenblum for Attorney General
DIALOGUE
FINDINGS CHRIS NESSETH
OUR ENDORSEMENTS, PAGE 8
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 46, ISSUE 52 Democrats are poised to take over Bend. 5 Unlike current tuition-free preschool programs, Multnomah County’s would last year round. 6 “Officer 67” is off the streets. 8
Smokable hemp is considered the “green tea” of cannabis. 10 Boomers are crazier about weed than any other generation. 12
A myrcene-dominant cannabis strain has a smell like a dank basement . 14 Looking for something to do while high in Portland? May we suggest crying at the art museum? 16 Christmas is canceled. 19
Halloween? Also canceled. 20
In the days before legalization, one local chef ran an after-hours “cannabis speakeasy” out of a bar in downtown Vancouver, Wash. 21 Bri Pruett once got so high she threw up in her purse in the back of a rented town car. 23 There’s no blood in BloodyVox, but there is a lot of red cupcake frosting. 24 Short of Breath was the prophetic
title given to a new podcast last winter, before… [gestures broadly]. 28
A cast of David Harper’s head should appear in every haunted house in America. 29
ON THE COVER:
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
Cool Nug finally gets his close-up, art and design by Jack Kent.
Our endorsements for Portland City Hall.
MASTHEAD EDITOR & PUBLISHER
Mark Zusman
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In our endorsement issue for the November election, WW endorsed incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler in the most competitive mayoral runoff this city has seen in years. His challenger, Sarah Iannarone, is a former small business owner who has been outspoken on social media about Wheeler’s failures in office, particularly his handling of the nightly protests against police brutality that have gone on since late May. Meanwhile, local activists are running a write-in campaign for Teressa Raiford, the founder of Don’t Shoot Portland and a longtime community organizer. Here’s what our readers had to say about our endorsement of Wheeler: Jacob via wweek.com: “Ted Wheeler is a do-nothing mayor. He has done nothing to rein in nightly police violence against protesters. He has done nothing for homelessness—just sweeps of camps that push people around the city like whack-a-mole. He has no plan for citywide housing, like Sarah Iannarone does. Further, Ted Wheeler has repeatedly broken campaign finance laws during the election. I thought Willamette Week actually had progressive values, but instead they endorse Ted because of ‘experience.’ The only thing he’s experienced at is sitting on his hands, supporting powerful businesses and bowing to an unchecked and out-ofcontrol police force.” @iamsamantic via Twitter: “My vote for @sarahforpdx has been informed by your critical reporting on the mayor’s missteps and governing style over the last four years. Absolutely wild endorsement here in light of that reporting.” @Obelisk23 via Twitter: “They’re just being realistic. Sarah won’t be better for Portland. Ted is just more of the same mediocre leadership. Sarah will throw the gas can on a fire and it will get worse. It’s also hard to support someone who lies about their graduate degree. I’ve never heard of a Ph.D. ABD.” @muuurrcris via Instagram: “Tear Gas Teddy is such a cowardly choice, WW. If you want change, you don’t reelect the person who failed to bring about that change.”
Dr. Know
Leo Lancer via wweek.com: “We have all gone through the hell of having an unqualified bully who lies as our president. Why would Portlanders vote for an unqualified, lying bully for mayor? Sarah sneers at everyone who disagrees with her from her social media pulpit, while she arrogantly demands the wheel, despite never having driven. She is a budding equivalent to Trump. If you are thinking about voting for her, please, look at her behavior closely and objectively. I know I’d like a better choice of who to vote for too, but she is not better than Ted. She lies about her credentials. She’s an incredible critic, but she’s never accomplished anything. Her lack of diplomacy will make her a terrible mayor.” David Edward DeAinza via Facebook: “Not buying Sarah’s ‘vision’ and no experience to run a major city. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t.” @more_chairs via Instagram: “In your article you claim Teressa Raiford lacks the expertise her two mayoral opponents do, but fail to expand on what these skills she lacks are. Is navigating a grassroots campaign throughout the city for five years not enough? Her legal battles with the city of Portland not enough?” @terrehaunt via Instagram: “Thinking the mess is broken windows instead of a broken system is your problem, WW. This is racist AF.”
CORRECTION In our endorsement for Multnomah County Circuit Court judge, WW incorrectly stated that Adrian Brown has more state court experience than Rima Ghandour. In fact, Brown has more federal court experience, and Ghandour has more state court experience. WW regrets the error. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@wweek.com
BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx
I’ve been a die-hard recycler since the days when you had to rip the cellophane out of window envelopes. But I’m discouraged by recent reports that some (all?) of our recycling winds up in the landfill. Is anything still actually being recycled? —Penny H. You don’t have to be a tree-spiking eco-warrior to have heard about the seismic shift in the world trash market in 2018, when China decided to stop buying 99% of the recycling it used to take off our hands every year. As we reported at the time (“You’re Doing It Wrong,” WW, June 6, 2018), America’s recycling was so contaminated with dirty diapers, Ho Ho wrappers and nonrecyclable plastics that the Chinese government decided it wasn’t worth its people’s time to clean it up. Which is a damned shame—until this happened, it seemed as if we were really getting something right for once. Americans in general, and Portlanders in particular, were diverting ever-greater amounts of our trash into those blue bins. From there, it was whisked halfway around the world to be turned into socks, or fidget spinners, or singing wall-mounted
fish or something. Anyway, it was gone, and it wasn’t going into American landfills—score one for the planet! Provided, of course, you define “the planet” as “the Western Hemisphere.” Even in the good old days—before China told us where we could stick our trash—much of our discarded plastic wasn’t actually getting recycled. Processors picked out the easy-to-recycle stuff; the rest went into Chinese landfills. Or worse! Due to the fact that the Chinese Communist Party is not exactly the Sierra Club, plenty of this plastic waste wasn’t even buried. It was just dumped in the open air and left to wash into rivers, or even dumped directly into the sea. Considered in this light, the trash ban is probably a net plus for the environment. For China, it’s a Sierra Club-like effort to tackle its domestic pollution problem. And for the rest of the world, it’s a wake-up call—one that may yet inspire us to come up with a better solid waste policy than “out of sight, out of mind.” QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
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MURMURS JUSTIN KAT I G B A K
KIM THATCHER
THE ANSWER IS TH E PROBLE M IT’S TIME TO RETHINK
COMMUNITY SAFETY
RETHINKPORTLAND.COM
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COMMISSIONER PROPOSES COMBINING POLICE, SHERIFF’S OFFICE: As numerous groups and elected officials ponder how to reform the Portland Police Bureau, Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran last week made public one of the ideas that many officials have discussed privately: folding PPB into the Multnomah County Sheriff ’s Office. Meieran voiced the idea at a meeting of the Local Public Safety Coordinating Council. The rationale: The two agencies have many duplicative functions, and the county already covers prosecution, jailing and post-incarceration supervision, as well as mental health and addiction services and public health functions that overlap with police work. Meieran says such a reorganization could occur as part of the charter reform work the city is commencing. “In the context of deep community safety systems reform, it’s time to seriously consider dissolving PPB and potentially bringing the work of law enforcement to the county, which has a much broader, integrated, upstream and holistic approach toward public health, safety and justice,” Meieran says. Mayor Ted Wheeler, who oversees PPB, is interested. “I remain intrigued by the idea of a merger and am pleased that Commissioner Meieran is interested in significant structural changes,” Wheeler says. CANDIDATE’S HUSBAND LEAVES STATE: Republican secretary of state nominee Kim Thatcher’s husband moved out of Oregon this summer. Records show Karl Thatcher gave his wife, state Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer), $575 in campaign contributions, listing a Washington address where he is now registered to vote. Thatcher says her husband moved for businesses reasons and to help with grandchildren in Washington. “We are expanding business operations in Washington,” says Thatcher, who has represented Keizer in the Capitol since 2005, and whose opponent is state Sen. Shemia Fagan (D-East Portland). “We also considered how important it was for one of us to be up there as full time as possible to help our daughter, who has 11-month-old twins, and had a very difficult pregnancy, and helping her manage all four kids during the COVID restrictions that Washington has.” Kim Thatcher says she has no
plans to move to Washington, but instead expects her husband to return once his grandparenting services for their daughter are no longer needed. RIGHT-WING BRAWLER TOESE JAILED: Multnomah County Circuit Judge Kathleen Dailey sentenced Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a regular at Portland Proud Boys rallies, to six months in jail on Oct. 20 after he violated conditions of his probation. In January, Toese pleaded guilty to assault for punching a man on a Northeast Portland sidewalk in 2018. As part of his parole agreement, Toese agreed to not attend protests in Multnomah County for two years. The court on Tuesday found Toese “in willful violation of [his] probation” after he attended an Aug. 23 rally in downtown Portland in blatant defiance of his parole agreement. Toese has been held in the Multnomah County Jail since Sept. 1 after a judge issued an arrest warrant. The court imposed a sixmonth sentence and will credit Toese with time served. His release is slated around March 2021. LAWMAKERS, CITY CONSIDER BUYING MOTELS: Two lawmakers, state Reps. Pam Marsh (D-Ashland) and Alissa Keny-Guyer (D-Portland), are pitching a bold proposition to the Legislature’s Emergency Board on Oct. 23: They want to spend $65 million in state money to buy up low-cost motels around the state. COVID19 and wildfires have exacerbated Oregon’s homeless crisis, and fires destroyed thousands of homes—2,500 in Marsh’s district alone. At the same time, the drop in travel has slammed the hospitality industry, leaving some lodging owners desperate to sell. Marsh says during the pandemic, traditional congregate shelters in gyms or churches aren’t an option, and buying at low prices rather than renting space makes long-term sense. “We think there is an opportunity to give some owners a way out,” Marsh says. “And in the long term, if you add a kitchenette, it can become transitional housing or used in a different way.” On a separate track, Mayor Ted Wheeler says the Portland Housing Bureau and Prosper Portland are also exploring buying distressed hotels and motels. “We have to be creative and innovative,” Wheeler says, “and consider partnerships.”
MAPPED
CHRIS NESSETH
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
BLUE UP: Democrats hope to increase their advantage in the Oregon Legislature.
Swing Dance
Democrats have the opportunity to flip more legislative seats in the suburbs—but they’re vulnerable elsewhere. BY R AC H E L M O N A H A N
rmonahan@wweek.com
Two years ago, Republicans all but washed out in the Portland suburbs after a blue wave solidified Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the Oregon Legislature. For years, Democrats sought supermajorities—defined as three-fifths of membership—to be able raise taxes without Republican support. The 2018 election had immediate consequences: Lawmakers in 2019 passed the Student Success Act, a new tax on businesses that, prior to COVID-19, Democrats expected to bring in $1 billion a year. Their next benchmark for solidifying control over Salem? A two-thirds majority in each chamber, which would provide Democrats quorums in both the House and Senate, blocking the GOP tactic of walking out to derail bills. There’s reason to doubt whether Democrats can expand their 2018 gains in November, but they’re also unlikely to lose the suburbs—not with President Donald Trump on the ballot. Republicans, meanwhile, are hoping that Trump will help them turn out more conservative voters—at least compared with 2018—and that this time local issues will take precedence over national ones. “I expect 2020 to be a much better election cycle than 2018 for Republicans in Oregon,” says Trey Rosser, executive director of the Evergreen Oregon PAC, the House Republicans’ political action committee, “due to the gross mismanagement by the Democrat supermajority on important issues facing Oregonians, such as the failure with unemployment insurance, forest management, raising billions in taxes, and allowing violence in Portland for over 100 straight days.” But Democrats have good reason to think Oregonians will have Trump on their minds as they fill in the bubbles on their ballots. “I don’t think we should underestimate people’s disgust
with our national government,” says Felisa Hagins, political director for Service Employees International Union Local 49. Predicting how people will vote is notoriously perilous. But party registration provides some clues. A look at the places in Oregon where the voter demographics have changed tells us a few things about what to expect on election night. 1. Republicans’ best hope of picking up a House district is along the south coast in District 9 where Democratic incumbent Rep. Caddy McKeown (D-Coos Bay) is retiring at the end of this year and Republicans now enjoy a 1 percentage point registration advantage. And Democrats’ best chance to pick up a seat is in House District 54, where they enjoy a 16-point registration advantage, even with a Republican incumbent in office. That partly explains the ferocity of the attack ads Rep. Cheri Helt (R-Bend), a moderate, is running against her Democratic challenger, prosecutor Jason Kropf. (Last week, WW reported that Helt has made an issue of accusations of sexual harassment in the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office, where Kropf works. An Oregon Trial Lawyers Association staffer expanded the scandal by asking the victim to stay silent to benefit the Kropf campaign. The woman at the center of the uproar, Jasmyn Troncoso, told WW she’d vote for Helt if she still lived in the district.) 2. Ever since winning a supermajority in 2018, Democrats have been vexed by a Republican tactic of halting progressive bills by walking out of the Capitol to deprive the House of a quorum. But Democrats, who hold a 38-22 advantage in the House, have almost no chance of picking up the additional two seats they would need to create a quorum on their own unless there’s a blue tsunami. Outside of Bend, the hottest races are ones in which Democrats are defending seats, not trying to pick them up. One tough fight: House District 32, along the North Coast, where Rep. Tiffany Mitchell (D-Astoria) did not seek reelection. In District 52, covering Hood River and the western Columbia River Gorge, Democrats enjoy a slight registration advantage; Rep. Anna Williams (D-Hood River) is facing a rematch against former Rep. Jeff Helfrich (R-Hood River), the incumbent she defeated two years ago. But registration advantage isn’t everything: Democrats are not as aggressively contesting the seat of incumbent Rep. Ron Noble (R-McMinnville) in District 24, where Democrats have less than a percentage point advantage; he’s outspent his opponent, Lynnette Shaw, by more than 2 to 1. “We’re making
sure voters know how extreme and out of step with the district he is,” says Hannah Love, executive director of FuturePAC. “He walked out on his constituents, he doesn’t think climate change is human-caused, and he thinks businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ employees.” Democrats argue they shouldn’t have to win walkout-proof majorities. “This is a ridiculous bar,” says SEIU’s Hagins. “The Republicans have broken government that badly that Democrats have to win majorities or supermajorities and super-supermajorities to stop shutting down government. That’s absurd.” 3. In the more conservative Senate, where Democrats hold an 18 to 12 advantage the odds are still stacked against them, but Democrats have a better chance of snagging the two seats they need to over-ride a GOP walkout. There are two districts with a registration advantage favoring Democrats where Republicans are up for reelection, in Bend and in Salem. But incumbents still have an advantage. Meanwhile, Democrats are defending an open seat along the coast. All three districts have women running, which may or may not play well in swing districts. Democrats can hope women candidates will help draw the contrast with Republicans. “The three women running to represent the state Senate in Central Oregon, the coast and Salem all have a wealth of experience and are incredible candidates,” says Meghan Cavanaugh, executive director of the Senate Democratic Leadership Fund. “Now more than ever, voters in these districts are looking for a candidate who will stand up for a woman’s access to the full spectrum of reproductive health options.”
WHERE THE INCUMBENT PARTY IS OUTNUMBERED
Senate District 10 (1 percentage point advantage for Democrats) Senate District 27 (5 percentage point advantage for Democrats)
House District 24 (less than 1 percentage point advantage for Democrats) House District 9 (1 percentage point advantage for Republicans) House District 54 (16 percentage point advantage for Democrats) Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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NEWS COSTS
BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON
Who Benefits From Tuition-Free Preschool? A Multnomah County preschool measure could prove lifechanging for people of color.
TIME FOR SCHOOL: Multnomah County wants preschool for all.
Paid Tuition A Multnomah County measure offers more child care than other public preschool programs—at a higher price. There’s a lot of information in the 41-page report proponents prepared for Multnomah County Measure 26-214, which would fund preschool for eligible county children, many of them from low-income families of color. “Preschool is a powerful force for good. It has real, lasting positive impacts for children and families,” says the measure’s architect, Multnomah County Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson, in the preface to the report. But Vega Pederson and her allies left one important detail out of their pitch: what already existing public preschool programs cost. The campaign is clear how much 26-214’s new income tax of 1.5% to 3% on high-income earners would raise— $133 million next year, rising to $202 million by 2026. (The measure allows the county to tack on another 0.8% in 2026.) And the county knows how many children it expects to serve: 7,000 by 2026. Dividing $202 million by 7,000 yields an annual cost per student of $28,857, a total that will pay for all costs including administration, rent, etc. However, neither the report nor the campaign says how that compares to public preschool programs today. But deep in the document—on page 35—is the fact that 3,116 Multnomah County children are already enrolled in 6
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
publicly funded preschool. How much do those preschool slots cost? We asked the Oregon Department of Education’s Early Learning Division, which pays for them. ODE spokeswoman Melanie Mesaros says there are two programs: one funded entirely by the state, which pays $12,500 per student for a full-day program, but only when school is in session. The second, which is much larger, gets a mixture of state and federal Head Start funding, is more generous, paying about $20,000 per student. Mesaros says the federally subsidized program costs more “because of comprehensive services that accompany the model.” She adds that the state picks up some administrative costs for the programs above the per-student funding. Preschool funded by Measure 26-214 would be significantly more expensive for two reasons: It would offer a year-round option rather than operating just during the school year. And the measure’s proponents, led by Commissioner Vega Pederson, want to raise pay for preschool educators—from about $15 an hour now to an average of $19.91 an hour by 2022. “Reliable care provides support to families that decreases workplace absenteeism and turnover,” Vega Pederson said. “All together, these opportunities promote a healthier and more just society.” A campaign spokeswoman, Alicia Lauer, says the focus should be on the benefits Preschool For All offers, not on state costs, which the campaign has nothing to do with. “The unprecedented community and small business support for universal preschool speaks for itself,” Lauer says. “Preschool for All represents the future of policy— made by the people and for the benefit of all people in our community.” NIGEL JAQUISS.
For the past four months, WW has examined the racial disparities that make life in Portland and Oregon more difficult for people of color. One measure on Multnomah County ballots could prove life-changing for people on the wrong side of that ledger. Measure 26-214 would provide tuition-free preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds in the county, paid for with a 1.5% tax on income over $125,000 for single filers and $200,000 for joint filers. Experts and advocates tell WW that providing free education and living-wage teaching jobs would begin to address at least six of the inequities previously discussed in this column. Some of those disparities include unequal housing, income and poverty rates, as well as disproportionate bullying and discipline at school. This measure has the potential to address some of these issues directly. In other cases, these inequities overlap and improving one area could help with another. Early Learning Multnomah co-director Molly Day has 30 years of child development experience. She says Measure 26-214 could boost communities that need it most, particularly in areas east of 82nd Avenue, which face an extreme wealth gap. “Lack of access can’t be separated from the broader social context of racial oppression that exists in our county,” Day says. “Access to preschool is a vital importance not only to parents but to improving child care, improving health care and improving housing.” Consider income, poverty and unemployment rates, for instance. The average Black family cannot afford to rent in a single Portland neighborhood while an average white family can afford to rent in nearly all parts of the city. Parents who face the burden of trying to pay for housing and child care would now face one less expense. (Along with an extra $1,000 per month, free preschool could further increase a family’s income by giving both parents the option to work full time, which could, in turn, lower unemployment rates.) “You don’t have to make the choice between taking your child to preschool or paying your rent or your mortgage,” says Lydia Gray-Holifield, an advocate who helped craft the measure. “Parents don’t have to worry about paying for preschool, that’s empowering.” Another way the preschool measure could address racial disparities is by creating a more culturally aware classroom by diversifying the student body at an early age. Students of color are bullied by their peers at a higher rate and are more frequently disciplined by their teachers. Free preschool could also help balance student achievement levels, which remain woefully unequal. Frances Sallah, a co-director of Early Learning Multnomah, is a Black single mother who has herself faced poverty. “What we know is that the earlier the children are learning, the better the outcomes are for later on in their life,” Sallah says, “especially for brown and Black kids.” Day calls tuition-free preschool an anti-poverty measure. “Preschool doesn’t do everything for us,” Day says. “But what it will do is give us a base to build so many other interventions that we didn’t know we needed until we had preschool.” LATISHA JENSEN.
NEWS
Human Error An affair between the head of human resources and a subordinate is the latest sign of trouble at the Oregon Department of Justice.
BY TE SS R I SK I
tess@wweek.com
The director of human resources for the Oregon Department of Justice resigned Aug. 31 after an independent investigation found he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a subordinate. The investigation followed a complaint filed April 25 by a former senior generalist in the DOJ’s HR department against Bob Koreski, her supervisor and the head of the 1,300-employee agency’s HR department since 2014. WW obtained the investigative report through a public records request and is withholding the complainant’s name because it was redacted from the report. Reached by phone, the employee declined to comment. Neither Koreski, who did speak with WW, nor the employee who filed the complaint disputes the findings of the investigative report. The report looked only at their specific situation, but it comes on the heels of another complaint about misconduct at high levels of the agency, which, among other functions, is supposed to ensure compliance with laws governing workplace harassment. DOJ’s 300 lawyers represent the state in court, ensuring that laws, including civil rights, are enforced. The investigative report raises questions about the judgment of Koreski, an official in effect responsible for watching the watchers. And it presents a test for his boss—Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who has proclaimed gender equity as a top priority and is up for reelection. (Disclosure: Rosenblum is married to the co-owner of WW’s parent company.)
Rosenblum appears to have acted decisively. In a statement responding to WW’s questions about the investigation, Rosenblum and Deputy Attorney General Fred Boss said they determined after reading the investigator’s findings that Koreski could no longer continue in his position. “Upon reviewing the investigator’s report, we lost confidence and trust in his ability to serve in a leadership role,” Rosenblum and Boss said in a joint statement. Near the end of 2019, the report says, the employee and Koreski had a lunch meeting where they discussed the possibility of beginning a sexual relationship. The employee’s time working for the DOJ was nearing its conclusion. She was slated to begin a new position at a different public agency after the new year. About two weeks later, on Jan. 10—the woman’s last day working for the DOJ—the report says the two had sex in Koreski’s office after hours. The sexual relationship continued through March, the report says, and the two remained in an “emotional affair” until sometime in April. During this period, the two had sex in Koreski’s office three additional times, as well as in other undisclosed “private locations,” the report says. The independent investigation, conducted by Jill Goldsmith, a Portland lawyer hired by the DOJ, determined that Koreski “invited a female subordinate to engage in a sexual affair with him as she was leaving the DOJ but while she was still employed.” In her complaint, the employee accused Koreski of sexual harassment. Both parties agree the relationship was consensual, but the employee says the power differential
between her and Koreski clouded her decision-making. For the six years prior to the affair, the employee viewed her relationship with Koreski—who was her direct supervisor—as one of trust and respect. She valued him as a mentor, the report says. “[She] claims that by virtue of having worked for Koreski for six years and holding him in a position of respect and esteem, she was more vulnerable to his advances than she would otherwise have been,” the report says. “[She] stated that this unequal power relationship significantly impacted her decision to engage in a sexual relationship with Koreski.” In late August, Koreski resigned from DOJ, where he had worked since 2011, according to his LinkedIn account. His last day was Aug. 31. “I made a terrible personal mistake and deeply hurt the people I love most, my wife and kids—but my job performance was never compromised,” Koreski said in a statement to WW. “Any suggestion of such is false. I love my family. I resigned to protect them and move on.” Rosenblum and Boss said the investigation found Koreski’s actions didn’t meet the agency’s standards. “All DOJ employees are expected to meet the highest standards of professionalism, but those in a leadership role have a particular obligation to model irreproachable behavior and sound judgment,” Rosenblum and Boss said. “The HR director resigned in lieu of disciplinary action.” Koreski says the “discipline” that DOJ was going to impose was termination and that he decided instead to resign. The woman, too, has departed from state government. After her last day with the DOJ in January, she briefly moved on to a new position at another state agency, where she continued to collaborate with Koreski on an investigation. At the same time, the two were still involved. (The investigator concluded that there was no evidence that “their relationship substantively impacted [her] work in that matter.”) One expert on employment law says Koreski’s behavior raises questions about the agency’s HR department. “Sexual harassment law requires employers to effectively prevent and correct incidents of harassment,” says Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, a law professor at Willamette University. “Obviously, if the person who is conducting the review of harassment claims is alleged to have committed harassment himself, that calls into question the objectivity of the review of other complaints.” The former human resources generalist is one of three state employees who have leveled serious allegations against top DOJ officials since April. (Both earlier cases were first reported by WW.) One of those employees, Shauneen Scott, was a risk manager at the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. She complained that DOJ lawyers ignored her advice to settle cases brought against state agencies and treated women plaintiffs and lawyers dismissively. In June, a longtime trial lawyer for the Oregon DOJ, Heather Van Meter, filed a tort claim notice accusing her supervisor, Marc Abrams, of sexual harassment. (Abrams leads employment litigation for the state and serves as president of the union that represents lawyers working for the DOJ.) Embedded in that claim were allegations that Steve Lippold, the chief trial counsel for the DOJ, discriminated against Van Meter because she was a woman and working mother. Both Lippold and Abrams denied Van Meter’s claims when WW contacted them in September. Unlike Koreski, who was placed on leave pending results of the investigation into his conduct, neither Lippold nor Abrams has been placed on leave during an independent investigation into Van Meter’s allegations. That investigation began July 13 and is still ongoing. Abrams remains one of the lead attorneys representing the state against allegations of sexual harassment at the Oregon Legislature.
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NEWS ALEX WITTWER
WW’s 2020 Endorsements Ballots must be returned by 8 pm Tuesday, Nov. 3.
U.S. PRESIDENT Joe Biden (D)
U.S. SENATE Jeff Merkley (D)
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES District 1: Suzanne Bonamici (D) District 3: Earl Blumenauer (D) District 5: Kurt Schrader (D)
OREGON SECRETARY OF STATE Shemia Fagan (D)
OREGON TREASURER Tobias Read (D)
OREGON SENATE
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS: In a new policy announced Oct. 16, Portland police officers will be required to display three-digit numbers on their helmets at protests.
No-Name Defense Portland police remove an officer accused of violence from the streets—but won’t identify him. BY L ATISH A J E N S E N
ljensen@wweek.com
A Portland police officer under investigation for striking a Black homeowner and shoving three other people at protests has been removed from street duty after WW raised questions about his actions. The officer has so far been identified only by the number on his riot helmet: 67. In the past month, WW has reported four separate incidents in which “Officer 67” allegedly used excessive force. His actions have sent at least three people to the hospital, including Elijah Warren, who says Officer 67 struck him from behind Sept. 5 as he complained to other officers about tear gas seeping into his Southeast Portland home. On Oct, 19, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office confirmed to WW that Officer 67 was one of five officers removed from policing protests amid investigations into their conduct. The removal of the five officers from street duty was announced Oct. 16 as part of a modest slate of reforms, including requiring officers to display a three-digit number on their helmets and uniforms. But the Portland Police Bureau and the mayor’s office declined to reveal the name of Officer 67, even though he has been removed from street duty. Wheeler, who also serves as the city’s police commissioner, says he would prefer to make all the officers’ names public, but he’s been advised by the City Attorney’s Office not to do that. “My preference as mayor is that we provide as much information as possible,” Wheeler tells WW. “But the City Attorney’s Office says legal issues and contractual obligations prevent us from doing that.” The secrecy surrounding the officer’s identity is extraordinary, given that until May, all officers wore their names on their uniforms. But after nightly protests began in Portland following the killing of George Floyd, officers began taping over their name tags. The bureau said officers were at risk of being “doxxed,” having their names, addresses and other personal information shared on social media. That safety rationale for not displaying officers’ names on their uniforms now extends to not revealing their names in almost any unflattering context. The city won’t release the names of officers under investigation or cops who have been taken off street duty. Last Sunday, city 8
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
officials released officer pay data to The Oregonian—and withheld the names of hundreds of officers. Wheeler says he’s not thrilled about that. He says officers convinced city officials they could be doxxed if their names were disclosed. The mayor says he’s sympathetic to officers’ desire to keep themselves and their families safe, but worries the bureau is overreacting. “I’ve been doxxed as much as anybody in this community,” Wheeler says. “I know what the risks are. My preference as mayor is that we provide as much information as possible.” City officials, speaking on background, say a combination of the city’s contract with the Portland Police Association, past practices, and the Oregon Public Records Law makes them reluctant to name officers accused of bad behavior. Arbitrators have repeatedly overturned city discipline of police officers, including high-profile terminations. The city believes that naming officers prior to discipline being handed down may give the union ammunition to say officials prejudged an officer by naming him. The union contract also calls on the city to reprimand officers in a way “least likely to embarrass” the officer. And finally, the public records law conditionally exempts details of an investigation from disclosure, so while the city could reveal an officer’s name, officials fear that doing so would lessen the chances of making any discipline stick. The city’s consistent refusal to release the name of the officer wearing helmet 67 comes even as he has for weeks been identified on social media by leftist activists without incident. He was removed from street duty following two stories by WW in the past month. In the second, two journalists and an activist described him assaulting them. One video shows him shoving a protester to the ground where she twisted her ankle and had to seek medical attention. In another, he yanks a Black woman’s arm then throws her to the concrete at a protest downtown. One woman says he knocked her down on two separate occasions. In conversations with Chief Chuck Lovell, Wheeler says he’s encouraged the bureau to take seriously the public’s desire for greater transparency. “Right now,” Wheeler says, “the most important thing the bureau can do is rebuild community trust.”
District 14: Kate Lieber (D) District 24: Chris Gorsek (D)
OREGON HOUSE
District 26: Courtney Neron (D) District 27: Sheri Schouten (D) District 28: WLnsvey Campos (D) District 29: Susan McLain (D) District 33: Maxine Dexter (D) District 35: Dacia Grayber (D) District 36: Lisa Reynolds (D) District 37: Rachel Prusak (D) District 38: Andrea Salinas (D) District 39: Christine Drazan (R) District 40: Mark Meek (D) District 41: Karin Power (D) District 44: Tina Kotek (D) District 47: Ashton Simpson (WFP) District 49: Zach Hudson (D) District 50: Ricki Ruiz (D) District 51: Janelle Bynum (D) District 52: Anna Williams (D)
PORTLAND MAYOR Ted Wheeler
PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL Position 4: Chloe Eudaly
METRO COUNCIL
District 3: Gerritt Rosenthal District 5: Chris Smith
MULTNOMAH COUNTY CIRCUIT JUDGE Position 12: Adrian Brown
BALLOT MEASURES
107 (Campaign finance limits): Yes 108 (Tobacco, vaping tax): Yes 109 (Psilocybin therapy): Yes 110 (Decriminalizes drug possession): Yes 26-211 (County library bond): Yes 26-213 (Portland parks levy): Yes 26-214 (Tuition-free preschool): Yes 26-215 (Portland schools bond): Yes 26-217 (Police oversight board): Yes 26-218 (Transportation tax): No 26-219 (Water Fund spending): Yes
THE HARVEST ISSUE Cannabis has been a bright spot in a dark year. It’s time to spark up some joy. “Everybody must get stoned,” a young singer famously suggested in 1966. It wasn’t until 2020 that everybody started taking that directive literally. Before this year, Oregon’s cannabis industry dealt with one disaster after another, from the cultivation glut that put many farms out of business to the vaping crisis that threatened to incinerate consumer confidence for good. Then the pandemic happened. Buyers mobbed dispensaries across the state, leading to record-breaking sales. It makes sense that, in one of the most stressful years in modern times, people would clamor for new ways to cope. But studies suggest those habits will stick beyond the current global health emergency. And it seems to be converting the last remaining skeptics: Even Joe Biden— who was spewing “gateway drug” rhetoric not that long ago—is talking about federal decriminalization should he win the White House in a couple of weeks. If there’s anything to feel hopeful about in this country right now, it’s weed. So with harvest season arriving, we’ve decided to celebrate. In our annual fall cannabis issue, we’ve looked at the ways the business is shifting for the better, from the
booming boomer demographic that’s making the industry more accessible for everyone (page 12) to the rise of smokable hemp (page 10) that’s moving weed out of its “bathtub gin” phase toward gentler, more subtle highs. Are you looking to become a more conscientious consumer? We’ve put together a primer on how to use your nose to literally sniff out the strain that’s right for you (page 14). Or do you simply want to see the city through newer, redder eyes? We’ve got 25 suggestions for what to do in Portland when you’re high, from roller skating around the waterfront to taking a blissful nap under the St. Johns Bridge (page 16). And that’s just what we could fit into print. It’s such a big year for cannabis, we’ve launched a website featuring infused recipes, interviews with rising industry game-changers, a live 420 smoke session, and a virtual award ceremony for the winners of Cultivation Classic, Oregon’s biggest organic cannabis competition. See it all at weed.wweek.com. It’s still rough out there. But there is joy to be found. It’s time to spark it up. —MATTHEW SINGER, WW ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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E A S T F O R K C U LT I VA R S
Rope-a-Dope It was once thought smoking hemp would only give you a headache. Now, it’s one of the fastest-rising segments of the cannabis market. ALL GROWN UP: East Fork Cultivars grows two variations of smokable hemp.
BY S OPHI E P E E L
@sophiegreenleaf
Sometimes, Sonia Wright wants to smoke a blunt. That doesn’t always mean she wants to get high. In that situation, she lights up one of the hemp pre-rolls she and her wife started selling this year under their brand name, Sway. “You’re not going to have to take a nap or stare at a wall for a while because you’re overwhelmingly high,” says Wright. “Smoking CBD is just a return back to something we’ve been doing for a long time.” When Wright and her wife, Melody, initially created their business, they quickly found that getting a license to sell higher-THC products through the Oregon Liquor Control Commission would be an expensive and arduous process. So they instead started packing their blunts with hemp flower, a variety of the cannabis plant with minuscule amounts of the intoxicating component THC and high levels of cannabidiol, or CBD. “The THC market is very hard to break into, so when hemp became legal we scooted over and we saw a huge opportunity,” says Wright, who says she’s lucky to have gotten into the smokable hemp market before it was infiltrated by bigger out-of-state corporations, a trend local higher-THC cultivators have begrudgingly watched for the past four years. “Hemp is this wide-open space, and it’s much more plausible for us bootstrapped business owners.” After hemp was legalized with the 2018 Farm Bill, farmers jumped on the opportunity to grow a newly legal product with a smorgasbord of uses. Selling hemp biomass for extraction into distillates and oils, which includes the leaves, stems and flower, garners about $4 to $10 a pound, according to cannabis economist Beau Whitney. But selling the flower separately for smoking has a much higher price tag, anywhere from $150 to $350 per pound. “It’s an option for farmers to recoup some of their costs or get higher prices per pound now that biomass prices have collapsed,” Whitney says. Still, the concept of smoking hemp—long assumed to produce nothing but headaches—took a while to catch on. The number of licensed acres for growing hemp in Oregon exploded from 105 acres to 64,000 between 2015 and 2019. That number has fallen this year, to 49,000, as the hemp industry experiences a glut similar to what cannabis farmers faced several years ago.
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But the trend of smoking hemp is still rising. In January, sales of smokable hemp in dispensaries totaled $30,000, according to OLCC data. By September, that dollar amount had doubled. That number represents “but a sliver” of the hemp market, says Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the OLCC. Since it won’t get you high, hemp with under 0.3% THC can be sold outside dispensaries, but there isn’t reliable sales data for that segment of the market. What is driving consumers toward hemp? Mason Walker, co-owner and CEO of East Fork Cultivars in Takilma, Ore., says producers fought during prohibition to make a product with the highest THC content possible, to get smokers blasted off a few hits. After all, when a substance is illegal, there’s little demand for nuance. But now that hemp is legal and the stigma of weed is declining, consumers are craving a gentler product. “The shadow of prohibition is still blocking a lot of consumer access,” Walker says. “As it does get bigger, there will be more people interested in the light beer, the wine, the green tea of cannabis, as opposed to the Everclear and moonshine of cannabis.” For many, the social aspect of smoking a blunt, even one that won’t get you stoned, is far more fashionable than sticking a CBD oil dropper in your mouth or munching on an infused chocolate bar. And unlike gummies and other infused products, the effects of smokable hemp take only a few minutes. Because you’re inhaling it, says Wylie Atherton, former cannabis critic for The Oregonian and regular consumer, the CBD “plunges” into your nervous system. “This is an example where supply leads demand,” says Atherton. “It was a consumer void that needed to be filled, but it started with farmers best monetizing their hemp. It’s staggeringly more profitable.” Atherton says he smoked THC several times a day for seven years, until his anxiety became too intense. A few years back, he found smokable hemp and now rolls his own blunts again. Wright says smoking hemp can feel and taste differently depending on the strain and how it’s rolled: It can taste herbaceous, floral, citrus or spicy. Different strains can offer peaceful energy, tranquility, an elevated mood, better focus or physical relaxation.
“I don’t necessarily feel the smoke in my lungs,” says Wright, a self-described “glutton for the pleasurable pain of smoking,” “but in my head and my face [I feel] relaxation and euphoria, but really subtly.” To Wright, smoking hemp is ritualistic. For others, it’s physically essential. Todd Vogt, 46, has been an elite rower since college. He was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease in 2018. He discovered smokable hemp that same year and uses it to manage tremors and pain, regulate sleep and calm his anxiety. Because of his diagnosis, Vogt can qualify for the Paralympics, and he’s training two to three times daily to qualify for the Tokyo games in 2021. He says CBD products help his recovery: “I do beat the snot out of my body.” Smokable hemp is both for connoisseurs and more casual consumers. You can buy craft smokable hemp, or you can buy hemp that’s gone through an expedited drying and curing process, bringing its market price down. East Fork Cultivars grows two variations of smokable hemp. One is dried on the stem in temperature-controlled conditions for weeks; the other is put in a hot kiln and dried within a day. The Wrights sell cheaper blunts called “pinners,” which contain a third of a gram of flower; “slims,” which contain a little more; and pricier “Thai sticks” in which the flower is wrapped around a stick, cocooned in one of the plant’s fan leaves, and doused in extract. “When you roll it in extract,” Wright says, “you’re rolling it in money.” Most consumer industries tumble through a rotating wheel of product fads: First, it was classic high-THC joints, then edibles, then distillates and extracts, then CBD-infused drinks and oils. The cannabis industry has gone through the predictable product churn of novel and cool, then reliable and classic, then downright mainstream and hence abominable. For those in the industry, smokable hemp isn’t any of those. It’s here to stay, because the ritual has always been around. “We go through life doing really shallow breaths all the time,” says Wright. “The feeling of inhaling smoke, where you’re closing the airway a little bit and feeling the air come in, mimics breathing in meditation. And there’s something really grounding about that.”
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Large inventory of extracts • Market ready products • Toll Processing Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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R A C H A E L R E N E E L E VA S S E U R
The Stoned Age Seniors are among the most loyal consumers of recreational weed—and the industry is shifting to meet their needs.
BY M E IRA G E B E L
@MeiraGebel
The first time Ralph Glatt smoked a joint was in 1968. He was a junior in high school and he had just gotten his motorcycle license. He loved the feeling of being high from the first puff and remembered thinking to himself, “If I ever get to where I can do this day after day, I’d consider myself successful.” Today, by his own standards, Glatt is a very successful man. He’s 68 now and lights up about five times a day. In a pre-COVID world, he would ride the bus to different dispensaries all over the city, go to cannabis events, and learn as much as he could about different strains. But for most of his life, between college and retirement, while he was raising a family and building his career, weed was still highly illegal and ridden with stigma. It wasn’t until he and his wife moved to Portland in 2013, and marijuana was legalized for adult recreational use in 2015, that Glatt could partake in his favorite hobby as much as he wanted. “It was what I was looking forward to my whole life,” he says. For baby boomers like Glatt, interest in cannabis is at an all-time high right now, and expected to continue rising. There are many reasons for that, like access to disposable income and more free time. But the main concern for older folks is that aging can come with an increasing amount of pain. Experts, however, say pain management isn’t the only reason seniors are reaching for rolling papers. Turns out, they actually like the feeling, too. According to Steph Barnhart, program director of Cultivation Classic, the largest annual cannabis competition in Oregon (disclosure: WW produces it), judges aged 55 and older are more enthusiastic about weed overall and continually rank it higher than any other age group. “This consumer has the potential to have a profound impact on the market,” says Barnhart. “This group has endured much more prohibition than most of us, so it’s fascinating to see this enjoyment and enthusiasm from people who thought that weed might not ever be legal.” Beau Whitney, a chief economist at Portland-based Whitney Economics, a cannabis consulting company, says millennials and Gen X still make up the majority of total cannabis sales—77%—but baby boomers spend the most whenever they do hit the dispensary. Glatt, for example, 12
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would normally spend over $2,000 a year on flower before he started growing his own. “Initially they were intimidated by the market,” says Whitney. “But there’s a lot of curiosity by the baby boomer generation because there’s been these tremendous advancements in the delivery mechanisms for cannabis. You’ve got these tinctures and transdermal patches in addition to very sophisticated beverages and edibles.” Because there’s a huge variety of cannabis products now, the barrier for entry is lower than it’s ever been. It’s no longer a matter of hitting a bong in your cousin’s basement or buying a dime bag from a dealer in an alley. Hence, boomers are hopping on the bandwagon. And in Oregon, dispensaries are basically like Starbucks, too. There’s 660 across the state, with trendy décor, modern branding and educated budtenders who can answer any and all queries. Boomers have a lot of those. “They have all these questions, they do their own research, and they are pretty into it,” said Michelle Karlebach, the district manager of Nectar Cannabis. “Like three years ago, we started going to senior centers and adult centers, bringing along our staff, and we would put together an hour-and-a-half-long presentation on cannabis. Then after, I would get a bunch of phone calls asking me to recommend products.” Karlebach also says it helps if seniors can walk into a dispensary and see someone who looks like them—meaning someone in their age range. Right now, most budtenders are in their 20s, but shops like Nectar are trying to change that by actively hiring more diverse candidates. In a 2019 report published by Headset, a cannabis analytics company, boomers prefer dry flower products over everything else, possibly because past consumption habits die hard. But Emma Chasen, an educator at Eminent Consulting, credits CBD, the non-intoxicating element of the marijuana plant, with reintroducing skeptical seniors to the industry in an unthreatening way via balms and gummies. “I kind of joke that CBD is a gateway drug to cannabis,” she says. “It’s really important for them to be able to go to the grocery store and find a CBD tincture and maybe try it, for stress management or sleep or anxiety. When that works for them, then that allows them to include maybe more THC into their wellness regimen.”
The omnipresence of CBD across the country has allowed older folks to shed some of the fear that comes with stepping foot in a dispensary for the first time, Chasen says. And once a product works, whether CBD or THC, boomers tend to stick with it. Whitney said boomers, out of all age groups, have the most brand loyalty regardless of price, whereas millennials will buy whatever is on sale that week. In part because boomers spend so much on weed, both Whitney and Chasen anticipate more products and brands will hit the market in coming years aimed specifically at seniors, not just to get high but to address other problems. And what’s notable about the 55-plus crowd’s enthusiasm about cannabis is not what kind of pot gets them excited but what they are trying to avoid. “They are at this age where they are moving later into life and health problems are starting to become more on the radar,” says Chasen. “New issues are now popping up, such as menopause for women or arthritis or something like that, and people want to find alternatives to the boatload of pharmaceuticals being thrown at them to manage pain.” Whitney agrees. He cites a study done by the National Institutes of Health that found in states where medical marijuana was legal, opioid-related overdose deaths were decreased by 27%. “I think, for the baby boomers, the fear of opiates is much greater than the stigma of cannabis,” says Whitney. “Some are even doing it out of necessity, meaning they don’t want to address ailments with opioids anymore and are winding down their prescription drug use.” For Ralph Glatt, weed has allowed him to keep a handle on the pain from a recurring foot injury. Still, he mostly smokes because he’s always liked it. He doesn’t drive anymore and says he doesn’t have much responsibility that would require him to act a certain way, like a job or pressure to earn a living. Nowadays, his life is about having fun and “letting loose.” “I could not be happier with my life and my ability to smoke the way I do,” says Glatt. “We can indulge our fantasies as much as or as little as our minds and bodies will allow us to, while we age gracefully, of course.”
WEED shopper As part of Willamette Weed, we’re excited to present exclusive promotions to WW readers. Take advantage of these great discounts and deals this month.
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Kaleafa Dispensary is offering WW readers 15% off their next purchase of any product in-store (6 locations!) and online. Redeem this promotion by entering the promo code "www" at checkout when ordering online and mention the code "www" in-store at checkout and a discount will be applied to your order. Good until 10/31. Limit 1 per person. Discounts do not stack.
20% off No THC and Full Spectrum CBD Lines themendico.com Mendi offers Oregon grown CBD recovery tools that are designed by athletes, for athletes. Oregon soccer heroes Megan and Rachael Rapinoe were responsible for bringing cannabis to the playing field. Mendi is proud to help them in building equity and equality across cannabis and sport. Mendi is offering 20% off CBD recovery essentials. Redeem this promotion by entering the code CC20 at checkout on their site. This promotion is available until the end of October.
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Green Muse, the presenting sponsor Willamette Weed is offering 10% off Top Shelf Flower. Redeem this promotion in-store using the code WW - Sponsor. This promotion is available until Sunday 11/1.
20% off your first order arathidispensary.com Arathi Dispensary is a Cannabis Delivery retailer in Portland, OR. Arathi Dispensary offers choice cannabis curated from the finest genetics at the best prices in Oregon. Arathi is offering 20% off your first order. Redeem this promotion in store by using the code "welcome 20."
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Good until 11/1. Limit 1 per person.
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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@LaurenYTerry
Has this happened to you? You’re standing at the flower counter of a dispensary, ready to find the right strain to fit your mood and your needs. You peruse row after row of flower options, studying labels and menus, carefully weighing THC percentages and strain names to find the high you’re looking for. You make your selection, pop that pop-top at home and spark up…only to find yourself wholly disappointed by the effects you feel. The strain your friend told you made them feel sleepy ended up making you anxiously clean your house. Or the “hybrid” strain listed at 29% THC made you fall asleep before the opening credits for the sci-fi flick you queued up on Netflix even finished. The reality is, neither name nor potency percentage gives you an accurate idea of what kind of high to expect when smoking cannabis. What you should do instead is follow your nose. Because individual plants vary too much from batch to batch, and so many different iterations of genetics can come from plants all named the same thing, smelling those jars of bud remains the best way to assess what will happen after you light up. Our bodies are intrinsically familiar with terpenes—the organic compounds that fill your nostrils as you zest a lemon, walk past a fragrant wall of jasmine, or diffuse an essential oil. When it comes to cannabis, terpenes not only distinguish aromas but the unique effects of each cultivar. In a 2011 article for the National Library of Medicine, neurologist and cannabis researcher Dr. Ethan Russo breaks down the synergistic relationship between cannabinoids like THC, CBD and CBN with the terpenes found in cannabis plants (and across nature) and how the effects we feel are caused by particular combinations of those compounds. We barely understand 20 of the 200-plus terpenes found in cannabis, but his data highlights a number of clinical studies already conducted around the world on the most common terpenes seen in most modern strains. By understanding what terpenes do, and how to smell them out, consumers can get a far better read on the possible effects that may follow. Or, to put it another way: “Your nose knows,” says Valerie Roszina, a manager at TreeHouse Collective in Northeast Portland. The question then becomes, what should you be sniffing for? We asked experts for basic tips on shopping with your nose. It’s worth noting, however, that in this time of COVID-19, most dispensaries aren’t letting anyone sniff their jars prior to purchase right now, but most budtenders can give you a sense of the aroma if you ask them. Just be patient if they’re busy, and leave a tip if they take the time to go full Bill Nye for you.
1. If the scene is bright, you’ll feel all right. If you aren’t confident in picking up top notes as you sniff, local cannabis chef and wellness guide Liv Vasquez recommends closing your eyes. “When you are really relying on your nose to pick up the scent,” she says, “it can help to focus your energy on that one sense.” An amateur terpene researcher in her own right, Vasquez often diffuses specific terpene extracts during her infused food events to complement both the flavors and the feelings of the strains used in the meal. Familiar scents are always more easy to identify. Citrus notes, for example, are a common aroma easily detected in many beloved strains, from Moon Puppies to Tangie. Depending on the batch, some Girl Scout Cookies varieties can smell more citrusy than others. “If you’re smelling citrus, you’re smelling limonene,” says Vasquez. “This one’s really mood elevating for me. I think for most people, if you close your eyes and smell something fresh and citrusy, it’s a very happy scent. I can say most citrus-forward strains are great for my mental health and give me a little bit more pep in my step.” Science backs that up: Russo cites a 2006 study that demonstrated increased serotonin and dopamine in the brains of mice that have inhaled limonene via citrus oils. 2. Be aware of secondary scents. It’s fairly safe to say that shoppers looking to soothe anxiety or depression can seek out lemon-orangey scented flowers. But what about the people who experience more anxiety from uplifting strains that fall on the sativa end of dispensary menus? That’s where secondary fragrance notes come in. If the first thing you smell is orange, but the second scent is more earthy, like you’re hiking through the woods on a rainy day, you’re picking up on mellower terpenes like myrcene present in that flower. “If I were to describe the smell of myrcene, I would probably call it ‘Granny’s purse,’ ‘forest floor’ or ‘dank basement,’” says Vasquez. “It has a musty and musky, hoppy smell to it. Strains known as sleep aids and effective treatments for back pain, like Hell’s OG, tend to be very myrcene-dominant.” In his 2011 article, Russo points out myrcene is already employed to aid sleep in Germany, and in other mice-based trials proved effective as a muscle relaxant and sleep barbiturate. That means an uplifting strain with citrusy top notes but earthier secondary notes could be the perfect balance of uplift and calm for those made anxious by the average sativa-categorized strain. 3. What if it stinks? And then there’s the funk. Those skunky, funky notes can be much more difficult to put into words, even for cannasseurs. Some of the most beloved strains bring to mind the moldy aroma of a wet basement or a blue cheese. A common
terpene between cultivars of the Cheese and Diesel varietals is phytol, abundant in green tea and wild lettuce, both of which are known for relaxing effects. “Funkier strains tend to be great for inflammation and for getting lost in thought,” says Vasquez, who points out that these mustier notes may indicate the presence of myrcene, plus a little extra. Knowing myrcene is sedative and phytol can be relaxing, assume that the harder the funk is to describe, the more comprehensive the mellowing effect will be—a full-bodied tension release from head to toe. 4. Trust your nose. Before you get too intimidated at the idea of such scientific sniffing, know that common sense can guide your nose in many cases. Take linalool, the terpene found in abundance in lavender—a plant humans have inhaled for its relaxing effects for decades. Linalool does the same thing in weed. Hence, if you detect any whiff of lavender, that strain is going to possess some calming attributes. Similarly, think of the invigorating effect when you take a deep breath beneath the spiky boughs of a pine tree. The pinene terpene is most responsible for that refreshing aroma, and Russo cites two studies on the sharpened focus and memory-aiding effects caused by inhaling it. So when you pick up a piney note, it’s fair to assume this strain could get you a little buzzy. The nice thing about this odor-based shopping approach is that although cannabis doesn’t have the wine industry’s centuries of exploration on varietals and their aromas to help vocalize these scents, cannabis also has few oenophilic pretensions. We’re talking about a species of plant that includes a fundamental varietal known as Cat Piss—come as you are, and don’t worry about knowing the right vernacular.
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503-477-4430 mindritepdx.com
You really don’t even have to be good at sniffing to do a good job shopping. At the end of the day, just follow your nose, and trust what it’s trying to tell you: If a citrus scented flower stands out from the crowd of weed smells before you, your body might be sensing you’re in need of a little mood boost, and it’s angling you toward that limonene-packed profile. “If your body likes a strain when you smell it, you might even notice your body react by salivating or, even sneezing,” notes Vasquez. “That’s your body telling you something, and it can be an effective way to identify a strain that delivers the effects you want.”
What Is Selinadiene? At this point, even casual cannabis consumers are at least glancingly familiar with the concept of terpenes, the organic compounds found across nature that contribute to the unique aroma and effects of every plant. Maybe you’ve heard of myrcene, which is notably present in sleepier strains. Or perhaps you’ve seen something about how lemon-scented flower is indicative of limonene, known for its uplifting qualities. Those two are among a dozen or more common terpenes that have been studied at length. But there’s one terpene showing up on test results across the country that not a whole lot is known about: selinadiene. It’s been found in the Cannabis Cup-winning indica Star Bud and many of this year’s Cultivation Classic submissions. Outside of cannabis, selinadiene contributes to the flavor and aroma of German hops, and it’s also found in Ceylon, a tree in the cinnamon family used in traditional medicine to bring calm and lower blood pressure. While it’s hard to find any research done on the unique effects of selinadiene, processors like Farmer’s Friends Extracts have acknowledged one of the reasons they see it show up so frequently in their oils may be that it is a particularly hardy terpene, more soluble and suited to maintain potency through CO2 extraction methods. In any case, consumers drive the research, and if this vast spread of test results says anything about this emerging terpene, it’s that people are into it, even if they aren’t aware of that fact. It’s probably only a matter of time before we know selinadiene as well as we do limonene. And then the next terpene will crystallize out of the other 150-plus terpenes found in cannabis we have yet to understand. LAUREN YOSHIKO.
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Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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25 Things to Do in Portland When You’re High Get blitzed, go out, and don’t forget to protest.
BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R
Getting high out of your mind and going on an urban walkabout is an exercise in community awareness anytime, but in 2020, as one of the few out-of-the-house activities we can all safely enjoy, it’s also an exercise in social awakening. Because this city is going through it, y’all. But here’s the thing. Portland is still a wonderland. To the north and east, a glittering river snakes through a majestic gorge dotted with picturesque sailboats. To the west are green rolling hills that light up like a fireworks display in the fall. We’re in the shadow of a snow-capped mountain, and an hour away from the ocean. Fruit trees bent over in abundance spill onto highways, and labyrinthine rose gardens perfume entire city blocks. It’s magic here. This is a city worth sticking up for. And if you need a reminder, here are 25 things which, under the right influence, will make you fall in love with Stumptown for the first time all over again. 1. Watch the sunset from the top of Mount Tabor. If you face west, as the sun descends behind the hills, the main arteries of Hawthorne, Division and Powell become dazzling ribbons of red and white, flowing to and from the city center like blood through arteries. But let’s be real: Everything looks cool when you’re stoned at the top of a volcano. 2. Take a meditation walk through the Peninsula Park Rose Garden. Portland has several rose gardens that look straight out of the mind of Lewis Carroll, but Peninsula Park’s is by far the best one for living out your Red Queen fantasy through manicured hedges, topiary gateways, and byzantine brickwork. 3. Roller skate along the waterfront at twilight. Gliding through the walkways as the city lights dance on the surface of the Willamette is simply thrilling. Pro tip: The skating surface along the waterfront only feels rough compared to a slick rink. If you spent 15 minutes warming up on the gravelly lot beneath the Morrison Bridge, the paved path will feel smoother than a suburban driveway. 4. Spill some tears at the Portland Art Museum. Whether you park your sad ass in front of the questionable anatomy of a medieval renaissance baby Jesus or the larger-than-life technicolor fanfare of Indio Cuauhtémoc: The World Stage, Brazil, weeping in the face of prolific works of art while high is super cathartic. Smoking an emotionally disarming indica before a gallery tour can make that face full of tears feel like a baptism. 5. Ride the MAX from the Skidmore Fountain to Goose Hollow. If this is part of your commute, lucky you. This scenic stretch of metro rail can be a revealing city tour, from the notorious (Shanghai tunnels everywhere!) to the spiritual (the high school from Twilight!) to the indomitable (not even 2020 could kill the Yamhill Pub!).
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Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
6. Feed the Fazio ducks. One of the more charming zoning anomalies that make this city so wonderfully weird, Fazio Farms is an agricultural oasis sandwiched between the Columbia River and Interstate 5, a super-isolated country farm plunked in a dense industrial pocket. And it’s got ducks, y’all. Ducks. 7. Bike the Columbia Slough. The path curves along the relatively still waterway, facing the business end of a burly handful of factory lots all within listening distance of the Portland speedway. On the right afternoon, it’s a symphony of muffled engines, metal fabrication, trains, and all of God’s waterfowl. 8. Protest! Get stoned and get logrolling—it’s the Portland way! 9. People watch at Pioneer Courthouse Square. It’s easy to take Portland’s Living Room for granted unless there’s an event happening, but if you get gloriously high and just commit to people watching, it’s a fascinating look at the cross section of this city beyond our own insulated neighborhoods. 10. Wander the abandoned Concordia Campus. Walking around a defrocked Christian college while stoned feels so deliciously naughty. Who’s gonna tell on me? Jesus? 11. Poach some alley fruit. In the neighborhood surrounding the abandoned college, a network of bushy, narrow alleyways bends and doglegs to Alberta Park. Late in the summer and in early fall, those spaces are bursting with fruit trees and rogue tomato stalks and squash vines. Look, it’s not stealing if it was gonna die in the alley, anyway.
12. Visit (or fight) the geese at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. Those dramatic bastards are either gonna love you, hate you, or ignore you altogether. Either way, they are majestic beasts to vibe with from a safe distance. 13. Help an activist paint a mural. This moment in our shared history will be remembered through our artwork, so if your high is hitting you creatively, mask up and lend a hand. 14. Take all the panoramic selfies at Columbia Crest. On a clear day, you can capture many mountains, bridges and miles of cityscape behind your own heavy-lidded, bloodshot visage. What says Greetings From PDX better than a stoner picture postcard? 15. Catalog boxcar graffiti at the Albina Yard. Flanked by both North Coast Seed Studios and Tillamook Station, there is some very cool modern art to enjoy in this cluster of renovated industrial blocks, but the train yard that occupies the most real estate also has some of the most arresting touring artworks in the city.
JACK KENT
16. Get a plate at Kee’s Loaded Kitchen. When the munchies arrive, nothing—and I mean nothing—hits like a plate of soul food. 17. Ride the escalators in Pioneer Place. If capitalism truly goes the way of the dodo, let us at least keep our memories of the dizzying Pioneer Place escalators that climb from subterranean depths to a thrilling viewpoint all for the sake of making rich people richer. 18. Climb a tree in Forest Park. Choose the right tree for your skill level, then settle into the nooks and pretend you’re a forest sprite for an afternoon. The break from reality is a blessing we should indulge in as much as possible. 19. Eat at Union Burger. Now that the clamor over trendifying burgers has died down, maybe we can go back to getting heroically stoned and destroying something more classic, like the towering meatscapes from the Union Burger cart on MLK.
20. Drop off neighborhood care packages. A blanket, a snack pack, and some friendly resources are all you need to make a highly effective care package for your houseless community members. Include some weed for the ultimate Portlander parcel. 21. Gently gawk at the Burnside Skatepark. I know, I know: “Locals only!” But even after the commodification of Lower Burnside, checking out the scene under the bridge is very much worth getting hollered at by a belligerent oldhead skating shirtless with a bent cigarette hanging out of his mouth.
24. Visit the Bigfoot Museum. Just beyond the borders of Portland proper in Boring, the North American Bigfoot Museum welcomes visitors to another of Mount Hood’s gateways with the state’s ’Squatchiest gift shop and the type of discovery center-style cryptozoology exhibits a stoner could really space out on. 25. Take a nap under the St. Johns Bridge. Position yourself just right and drift off to the image of this gloriously green, iconic feat of engineering slow morphing into a skyscraping gateway of cannabis stalks.
22. Practice witchcraft at Rocky Butte. Despite its Christian college neighbor, the east-facing side of the butte is decorated with dramatic stonework that calls to mind sorcerer’s cauldrons, ethereal spires and occult-themed masonry. 23. Walk to the middle of a bridge and eat some wind. When was the last time you got high out of your mind and just gazed at your city from the viewpoint of one of our stunning bridges? The wind is legit delicious up there. Just be careful of flies. Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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STREET
PHOTOS BY
Wesley Lapointe
On Instagram: @wlapointe_photo
AAAAHGRICULTURE Pumpkin picking at Topaz Farm on Sauvie Island. (Full disclosure: Owner Kat Topaz is a former WW employee.)
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STARTERS
THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS T H AT H AP P E NE D I N PORTLAND CULTURE THIS WE E K, GRAP H E D.
RIDICULOUS
POLLACK
Protesters rebuild the “nightmare elk” statue after Patriot Prayer stole the previous one.
ALEX WITTWER
Oregon scientists hold a funeral for a “dead glacier” on South Sister in Central Oregon.
Kachka suspends its Alfresca pop-up, but chef Bonnie Morales’ famous dumplings are now available at New Seasons.
A new doughnut shop is moving into Blue Star’s flagship downtown location—this one specializing in the creme-filled “Berliner” style.
AWFUL
AWESOME
Christmas is canceled: For the first time since World War II, Peacock Lane, “Portland’s Christmas Street,” will go dark for the season.
Naomi Pomeroy closes her iconic fine-dining destination Beast, but plans to replace it with a new, more “accessible” concept.
Hotel revenue in downtown Portland is down 81% from a year ago, according to Travel Portland.
Beloved Lebanese restaurant Nicholas is moving to a larger space after 33 years on Southeast Grand Avenue.
SERIOUS
RE AD MORE AB OU T T H E S E STORI E S AT WWE E K .COM.
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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GET...OUTSIDE?
WHAT TO DO—AND WHAT OTHERS ARE DOING—AS PORTLAND REOPENS.
STORYTIME
Q(UARANTINE)&A going to come up when you and your children are at that same door. Those kinds of things make it hard to watch your distance from other groups of people who don’t necessarily live with you and can pose a threat to you and your family.
No Tricks, No Treats Halloween isn’t canceled. But in the age of coronavirus, health officials suggest it needs a makeover. AARON WESSLING
What about just taking candy from houses that put it in a bowl on their porch? It’s safer than going up to a door. It also puts less social pressure on neighbors who might be at higher risk. But there’s still the issue of crowding around that table. It’s hard to tell kids you can’t go up to that table at once and to watch their space around other children who might be crowding around the same table. That’s why it’s just as difficult to maintain distance around a table even if it’s not a door.
Scorpion Queen A Portland illustrator’s new book is about an orange menace being destroyed by democracy. Sounds familiar.
Are typical Halloween masks not helpful in preventing the transmission of COVID? It’ll definitely make you look scarier, but they have holes and mesh where you breathe out, around the nostrils usually, so that makes them not an ideal mask for COVID-19 transmission. An alternative would be to dress up regular face covering that fits snugly around cheeks and chin and dress it up to fit with your costume.
ANY QUESTIONS?!: Sorry, we’re sure the David S. Pumpkins costume will still work next year.
Don’t shoot the messenger—or stab her with rusty meat hooks, or throw her into the sewer with a pack of cannibalistic mutants—but in Dr. Shimi Sharief’s professional opinion, Halloween maybe shouldn’t happen this year. She’s not saying we have to outright cancel the holiday, of course. But with an actual virus making everyday life spookier than it’s ever been, perhaps it’s a good idea to rethink some of the traditions of the season. First and foremost: no trick-or-treating. Echoing the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Oregon Health Authority is advising against letting the wee ones go door-to-door this year, a suggestion that certainly won’t help parents already on edge. But Sharief, a senior health adviser for the OHA, says reimagining spooky season is important to stemming the spread of the coronavirus—and it’s not just the kids who need to sacrifice, either. MATTHEW SINGER. WW: Is trick-or-treating canceled this year? Dr. Shimi Sharief: Trick-or-treating is really tricky this holiday season, for lack of a better term. It just makes it really hard to keep your distance, avoid crowds, all the things we’ve been trying to practice since the start of the pandemic. While we’re not trying to cancel Halloween, we’re trying to give people better alternatives on how to celebrate it this year. Trick-or-treating is one of those things we might unfortunately have to cancel, or give people recommendations on who they can trick-or-treat with, which is their immediate family members. What’s the main health threat with trickor-treating this year? It’s not knowing if the people who answer the door will be wearing a mask. More than that, it’s the risk of crowding. You can’t tell what other families are 20
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
What other Halloween traditions should families be wary about? There are things people do during Halloween, like corn mazes and hayrides, that we’re really advising against because again, it’s hard not to be in a crowd in those spaces. We’re really emphasizing trying to do as much as you can with your immediate family members, and trying to do everything as virtual as possible. Even if you have to go out, an alternative would be going out in your car, just driving around and looking at displays and not congregating in people’s yards. What’s your advice for parents trying to explain this situation to kids? My colleague, who’s a pediatrician, had some wonderful advice for how to talk to children about the pandemic. Children have varying understandings about what’s going on around them, be it age or whatever the other children around them are exposed to and talking about, and it’s really about taking their lead and augmenting the information that way. They might be asking questions, and just be truthful: “We have to be a little more careful this year.” While this is certainly dealing the biggest blow to small kids, grown-ups of a certain age love Halloween, too. What’s the OHA’s message to adults? Unfortunately, it’s a lot of the same messaging as July 4 or Labor Day weekend. We’re really advising people to watch their group sizes. No groups greater than 10, and especially not if they include people you don’t live with. That said, we do realize people will gather, and while we do have a pretty high mask compliance here in Oregon, we do recognize people who don’t wear masks tend to gather also, and we’ll continue to message, track the data and message back out when the holiday gets closer—because these are real considerations for the holidays after that come in November and December. See a full video interview at wweek.com/distant-voices.
In the first few pages of Portland author and illustrator Cat Champion’s latest picture book, Scorpion Saves the Night, a maniacal orange lion who has burnt half the world to a crisp confesses his ultimate desire: “I wish to be the most powerful, most feared and most dangerous king the world has ever seen.” That wish is foiled by a political savvy of a group of young girls, among them a scorpion armed with the power of the democratic process. Coming just weeks before the presidential election, Champion admits the book gives no illusion of political neutrality. “It’s kind of like throwing a water balloon at a forest fire,” Champion says, “but every little bit helps.” Drawing has long been Champion’s source of personal healing. A tattoo artist by trade, they released Depression Cats, an oddball coloring book, in 2018, designed for anyone who wanted “something else to do other than being sad.” For their second release, representation and accessibility were a priority from the beginning. A full reading of the book is available on YouTube, and Champion chose to offer free Kindle downloads for the first five days following publication. Champion left rural Oklahoma for Portland over a decade ago, but the heroes of Scorpion Saves the Night were inspired by the women they grew up with—people who returned kicks in the face from horses with punches of their own. Rather than feeding into the one-dimensional trope of the “tough woman,” something that runs through most children’s literature, Champion decided to write characters that acted more like the real women they know. “When I moved away I realized that a lot of the world was populated by people like that,” Champion says. “I wanted to honor that. My hope is that both parents and young ladies look at it and see someone who looks a little more like them and think, ‘Maybe I can grow up and possess a little magic and power of my own.’” SCOUT BROBST. Scorpion Saves the Night can be purchased through Amazon or at catchampion.com.
FOOD & DRINK SI RO A C
CHEF SEBA ST IA
A Cool Buzz and Some Tasty Bread
N
FEATURE
Two cannabis-infused recipes to help you sink into fall. BY S E B AST I A N C A R OSI
Everyone remembers Fast Times at Ridgemont High and, in particular, super-slacker and perpetual stoner Jeff Spicoli. Spicoli lived for skipping school, surfing tasty waves and catching a cool buzz. But what no one knew was the love Spicoli had for his mom and her old-school banana bread. This American classic is perfectly sweet, super moist and full of complex banana flavor— and a good dose of weed. It’s the best way to use overripe bananas A healthy source of potassium, iron, magnesium, niacin, riboflavin, vitamins B6
and C, fiber and energy, the banana is a nutritional powerhouse, minus the fats and cholesterol. Bananas have also been found to contain limonene and eugenol, two powerful, antioxidant-rich terpenes found in other plants, including cannabis. With legalization, the stigma surrounding cannabis is fading away, and more and more people can finally use those overripe bananas to make cannabis banana bread. Whether you’re “learnin’ about Cuba and havin’ some food” or just hangin’ with your mom, enjoy this moist, terpene-fortified recipe.
Willamette Weed weed.wweek.com
Ride the Donkey A cannabis-infused cocktail with speakeasy origins. Several years ago, I owned and operated a restaurant and craft cocktail bar in downtown Vancouver, Wash. It was a raucous joint with a secret—that Chef Carosi offered a cannabis cocktail and edibles menu after-hours, speakeasy style, three years before legalization.
THE ’COUVE DONKEY
Whisk Microplane grater Fine strainer Empty wine bottle with cork
‚ EQUIPMENT NEEDED
‚ INGREDIENTS NEEDED
PREP TIME: 8 minutes YIELDS: 1 cocktail TOTAL THC/CBD: Variable
1 quart organic cane sugar
16-ounce Mason jar or glass Bar stir spoon
½ cup cannabis sugar (made in
‚ INGREDIENTS
2 ounces cannabis-infused bourbon, whiskey or rye (made in the MB2E MagicalButter Machine) 2 ounces ginger and madrone syrup (recipe below) 2 ounces fresh squeezed lime juice 2-3 dashes orange bitters Good-quality ginger ale
‚ DIRECTIONS Fill a 16-ounce Mason jar or glass
¾ full of ice. Add all the above
ingredients except the ginger ale. Stir well. Top off with ginger ale. Stir again. Garnish with a long stem of cannabis or hemp leaves, and the squeezed lime wedge or a fresh lime wheel. HOW TO MAKE THE SYRUP ‚ EQUIPMENT NEEDED Medium saucepan
PREP TIME: 30 minutes COOK TIME: 55 minutes YIELDS: 2 loaves TOTAL THC/CBD: Variable
‚ EQUIPMENT NEEDED Electric mixer 2 loaf pans Large mixing bowl Whisk Chef’s knife Cutting board
‚ INGREDIENTS
1 cup chopped walnuts 1 cup sour cream ½ cup salted creamery butter ½ cup cannabis butter (made in the MB2E MagicalButter Machine) 1¾ cup pure cane sugar ¼ cup cannabis sugar (made in the MB2E MagicalButter Machine) 4 pasture-raised farm eggs, beaten 2 cups mashed banana pulp 1 teaspoon cannabis infused pure vanilla
the MB2E MagicalButter Machine) 1 cup honey 22 grams madrone bark 1 cup fresh grated ginger root 1 stick cinnamon 2 drops True Terpenes Eugenol 3 cups water
‚ DIRECTIONS
Place all the ingredients, except the terpenes, in a medium saucepan over low heat. Let steep for 45 minutes, then let cool 1 hour. Repeat steeping for another 45 minutes on low. Add the terpenes, stir well. Let cool for 3 hours, then strain and bottle. Chef Sebastian Carosi is a farm-raised, Portland culinary professional with more than 25 years in the restaurant and hospitality industry who has been cooking with cannabis since the mid-’90s. He shares most of his terpene-fortified recipes on Instagram: @chef_sebastian_carosi. See more recipes from Chef Carosi at weed.wweek.com.
extract (made in the MB2E MagicalButter Machine) 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 teaspoons kosher salt A hefty pinch each of cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and ground clove 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger 2 drops True Terpenes Eugenol
IMAGES COURTESY OF SEBASTIAN CAROSI
JEFF SPICOLI’S MOM’S BANANA BREAD
The specialty was the ’Couve Donkey, a weed-infused play on the Moscow mule. In a very short period I made almost 10,000 of these pourable representations of Washington state. It also became one of those things patrons asked for at other bars around downtown but just couldn’t find. Those black-market days are long gone, but bureaucrats still won’t let cannabis and alcohol meet in a bottle. So make your own. If you must use a straw, make sure it’s made of hemp fiber. SEBASTIAN CAROSI.
‚ DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the loaf pans, cream the butters and the sugars. Add the eggs, banana pulp, sour cream, vanilla, grated ginger, terpenes and the chopped nuts. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, dry spices and the baking soda. Add the creamed banana mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients. Gently fold the wet and dry ingredients together, being careful not to overmix. Pour the mixture into the loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes on the middle rack. Test doneness with a toothpick inserted into the center. It’ll come out clean when done. Let cool for 15 minutes. Enjoy while still warm with maple creamery butter or cannabis butter. Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK TREVOR GAGNIER
PATIO REVIEW
TOP 5
BUZZ LIST
Where to drink outside this week.
McMenamins Crystal Hotel Zeus Cafe
303 SW 12th Ave., 503-384-2500, mcmenamins.com. 7 am-10 pm daily. Business is back at McMenamins, though it doesn’t look quite like it used to, at least not at the Crystal Hotel’s streetside patio. The space was simple at first, with tables in the street along with a smattering of potted plants. Then Edgefield lent some of its collection of black, wroughtiron tables and chairs, along with barrels that evolved into miniature gardens: During a recent visit, an apron-clad employee wound his way through the cooperage harvesting green tomatoes, which later became the menu’s newest addition: tomato mozzarella Benedict.
Old Town Brewing
Walled Off Threshold Brewing battens down the hatches for winter. BY AN DI P R E W I T T
aprewitt@wweek.com
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Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
PATIO SPECS NUMBER OF TABLES: 7 SPACE BETWEEN TABLES: 6-plus feet ADDITIONAL SAFETY MEASURES: Tables
and benches are sanitized between each use; cans on the tables display a thumbs up or down to indicate where it’s safe to sit; hand-sanitizer stations; separate entrance and exit routes with floor markings. PEAK HOURS: 5-7 pm Tuesday-Saturday, 1-3 pm Sunday. DRINK: Threshold Brewing & Blending, 403 SE 79th Ave., 503-477-8789, threshold.beer. 4-7 pm Tuesday-Saturday, noon-3 pm Sunday.
Teardrop Lounge
1015 NW Everett St., 503-445-8109, teardroplounge.com. 4-10 pm WednesdaySaturday. Reservations required.
TOP 5
HOT PLATES Where to eat this week.
Birrieria PDX
16544 SE Division St., 971-336-6804. 11 am-9 pm Tuesday-Thursday, 9:30 am-9 pm Friday-Sunday. The birria boom has reached Portland, and this cart in deep Southeast is one of its main purveyors. Birria de res, like its sibling, barbacoa de res, has a long tradition in many parts of Mexico, but Birrieria PDX’s menu goes beyond classic applications: Other inventive options include the keto taco, made with crispy melted cheese instead of a tortilla, and birria ramen, the Japanese noodle soup made with the broth of the birria, resulting in something that tastes more like pho or Thai boat noodles.
Galactic Grapes
5800 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 213-246-7993, instagram.com/galacticgrapespdx. One of the only places in the country where you can purchase a candy-encrusted grape is out of a splatter-painted food truck in Northeast Portland. Co-owners Vicky Carmichael and Andre Montgomery call the titular product “the fruit of the future,” but the individual elements are straight out of the ’80s: smashed Lemonheads, Fun Dip powder and Pop Rocks act as seasoning, and biting into any of them quenches like chugging an artificial sports drink—crisp, juicy, electrolyte-forward.
Baerlic Brewing’s Super Secret Beer Club
1020 SE Grant St., 503-477-9418, baerlicbrewing.com. 2-8 pm daily. Baerlic Brewing is among that inspired group of entrepreneurs during the pandemic that looked at the cracked, gray parking lot behind its building and somehow saw a socially distanced party. The 6,000-square-foot space has turned into a Bavarian-inspired drinking lawn, complete with a huge faux foliage backdrop affixed with the words “Super Secret Beer Club.”
Stem Wine Bar
3920 N Mississippi Ave., 503-4777164, stemwinebarpdx.com. 5 pm-close Monday-Friday, noon-close SaturdaySunday. Businesses that opened just weeks before the mandated coronavirus closures in mid-March have had a tough go—just ask 45 North. Five weeks after opening, the North Portland wine bar shuttered. It’s back open now, but dealing with yet another obstacle: rebranding. Now known as Stem, the bar offers a wide global selection, spanning from the Willamette Valley to South Africa, with private tasting appointments available through its website.
Rock Paper Fish
2605 SE Burnside St., rockpaperfishandchips.com. 11 am-9 pm WednesdaySunday. Rock Paper Fish is yet another fast-casual Micah Camden restaurant, and yet another quick pandemic pivot. Open since mid-August, it’s a pickup- and delivery-only fish-and-chips window, operating out of what used to be Boxer Ramen in the Burnside 26 building. The seafood may be mostly local or regional, but the style is New England: double-battered, double-fried, with thick fries reminiscent of Belgian frites.
Han Oak
511 NE 24th Ave., 971255-0032, hanoakpdx. com. 5-8 pm FridaySunday. Takeout only. Peter Cho’s Han Oak wows diners nightly with its modern, progressive take on Korean cuisine—at least, it did until, well, y’know. But the restaurant—one of Portland’s best, regardless of cuisine—has revved back up again, offering Cho’s world-beating dumplings and what on paper sounds like it will soon be the city’s favorite new obsession: a steamed bao burger.
Sunshine Noodles
3560 N Mississippi Ave., 971-2201997, sunshinenoodles.com. 11 am-3 pm Thursday-Saturday. Sunshine Noodles is an avowedly irreverent, none too serious take on contemporary Cambodian food by Revelry vet Diane Lam. The corn pudding is a candidate for the city’s best new dessert, but the lime pepper wings are the breakout hit—spicy and complex, they want for nothing except a beer, and perhaps a napkin.
CHRIS NESSETH
Portland is undergoing another building boom. That may come as a surprise since we’re in the middle of a pandemic. But in every corner of the city right now, foundations are being laid and frames are going up. To be sure, this trend looks nothing like the proliferation of high-rise hotels that sprouted in the heart of downtown two years ago. These structures are much humbler, simpler and scaled down. Yet they’re probably the most essential projects Portland has seen in recent years if our bars and restaurants are going to ride out the winter amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Many of those patios you savored all summer long following the stifling lockdown are now getting walls and roofs in preparation for cooler temperatures and wetter weather. “We knew that things probably wouldn’t change with the number of infections [decreasing], and we will not get out of Phase 1 for a very long time,” says Threshold Brewing & Blending founder and brewer Jarek Szymanski. “We started thinking about some type of covered outdoor seating because we’re such a small operation.” Preparation to enclose the Montavilla neighborhood brewery’s pop-up street seating began about a month ago. Earlier in the year, once Multnomah County food and drink establishments were allowed to reopen, Szymanski hauled four picnic tables from the 750-square-foot taproom—cozy by normal standards but tiny during a pandemic—and placed them in some parking spaces along Southeast 79th Avenue. “Fortunately for us, we’re on a side street,” Szymanski says, “and traffic is very low.” Threshold’s location has the added benefit of facing east, which kept drinkers shaded when the 4 pm sun was beating down. But come winter, that also means the space is bat-
tered by the strong east wind funneling out of the Gorge. Szymanski knew shielding customers would be crucial if he intended to keep hosting them outside into 2021. To fortify his expanded taphouse, he enlisted the assistance of his wife and Threshold co-owner Sara’s cousin, who runs locally based Adaptive Construction & Design and “has a sixth sense for aesthetics.” First, they built a raised deck after discovering the street wasn’t completely level. Then the bones for three walls went up, which will be wrapped with transparent vinyl once rain is more consistent. The frame was topped with a silver corrugated roof, now adorned with dangling LED string lights. And if you look closely, you can spot engraved blocks of wood bearing the brewery’s “T” logo on the structure. The shelter is still a work in progress. Last week, Szymanski scoured the city for reclaimed wood that would match the taproom’s rustic design in order to finish the walls. After coming up empty-handed at each stop, he figured he’d bring the inside out by using cedar planks instead and eventually install heaters. “We’re going to continue to brainstorm how we can make it look more attractive,” Szymanski says. “You know, maybe we’ll stencil it. Maybe we’ll paint it different colors so that it stands out.”
5201 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-200-5988, otbrewing.com. 4-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 3-9 pm Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday. While many makeshift pandemic patios are nothing much to look at, Old Town’s is different: It immerses you in nature. The temporary woodland is laden with trees on loan from the city of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. Some are squat and bushy, others taller than the red umbrellas shading the patch with blooming flowers in a complementary shade of crimson.
One thing to note about Teardrop Lounge: Unlike the other establishments on this list, the pioneering craft cocktail bar does not have outdoor seating. Instead, the bar has reopened with the intent of creating the safest possible environment for indoor imbibing. That includes a new, heavy-duty HVAC system and plexiglass around its center bar, among other measures overseen by expert COVID safety consultants. Will it all make customers comfortable enough to drink inside again? Hard to say—but the cocktails remain mighty enticing.
POTLANDER
Willamette Weed weed.wweek.com
WW: What differences have you noticed between the weed cultures in SoCal and Oregon?
HOTSEAT
In Bed With Bri
Comedian Bri Pruett talks bongs, stoner tarot and getting way too Doug with high. LEAH NASH
Bri Pruett: The first thing I want to talk about is dispensaries. I hate L.A. dispensaries. Portland dispensaries are gorgeous. Portland figured out boutique dispensaries before anywhere else. People are not as connected to the horticulture in L.A. It’s all about big business. In California, you’ve got to find your spots, otherwise you could be giving your money to someone who also owns a pharmaceutical company. The kind of mom-and-pop stuff, which is sort of the norm in Portland, you have to hunt out down in L.A. What’s your favorite thing to do when you’re high in Portland? Ooh, girl, here is the move. Get a bagel from Henry Higgins—cream cheese, scallions, capers, tomato, the works. Wrap that bitch up. Walk up Mount Tabor, march to the top. Smoke a joint on one of those benches on, like, a Tuesday at 11:30 am. Nobody can touch me. I am the highest. Since the pandemic, you’ve pivoted from your High Priestess live comedy, weed and tarot shows to hosting your own motivational podcast, You Can Do It With Bri Pruett. But you still pull cards during every episode. What is your relationship with tarot? I am called to various spiritual explorations. I also believe in science, just in case anyone was concerned, but tarot cards were something I developed as a practice when I started smoking weed. I would pull a card and I would usually ask the question, “What do I need to expect today? What needs to be on my radar?” And I’d pull, like, King of Pentacles, and this card says I need to bring Daddy energy into some part of today. That’s sort of the lessons I get from tarot. There are probably 20 cards I could pull on a given day that will remind me of what I need to know. Ritual, beliefs and symbols really assist me in all of the magical things I want to do.
BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R
Maybe you know Bri Pruett from when she landed on WW’s inaugural Funniest Five list in 2013. Or maybe you saw her featured on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle, or came across her hilarious TedTalk about reclaiming beauty standards. Or maybe you just went to Clackamas High with her. Pruett may have traded Stumptown for Hollywood, but the comic has stayed on the local radar nonetheless. She’s
coming back to town—virtually speaking, anyway—this Friday to host the 420 Social Smoke Session, as part of WW’s Willamette Weed digital cannabis week, featuring a budtender-guided smoke sesh, special guests and live music. In anticipation of the occasion, Pruett sat down for a stoner heart-to-heart about how dope it is to get high alone on the top of Mount Tabor, her obsession with tarot cards, and that time she dabbed herself into oblivion while hanging with Doug Benson.
What can listeners expect from You Can Do It? This is a pep-talk podcast. I bring on performers and I cheer them up about anything they struggle with. It’s a lot more tender than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be light and stupid, but people have a lot on their plate. The thing is, being fat, some people come to me for emotional support anyway, so I just thought I’d formalize it, but I’d get something out of the deal. I like that I am a nurturing person. And it is very empowering to offer that service to people I love—mostly women, though, just for my own sanity.
What is the most ingenious smoke utensil you’ve ever had to come up with? I started smoking pot as an adult, so I didn’t need to do any of that dumb shit. I had glassware. In fact, it is sort of a passion. That’s like a status symbol to me, having really gorgeous smokeware. I love to smoke from really beautiful pieces. What’s your glass collection look like? Uh, bad. I use a bong I brought from Portland that I got it on Hawthorne in the “glassware district.” It’s a sturdy little guy, but all the potions and brews just can’t get it pristine clean. So I’m ready to upgrade. Right now, I’m a major joint roller because it just feels like the right time for joints. Tell me about the last time you got way too high. Very recently I was on Doug Benson’s YouTube program, Getting Doug With High. And what they do, because of safety, is they send a car to your house. At the end of the show, I do a dab on camera. Cool. Then after the show, I do another dab. I’m cool. I’m trying to hang out with these Hollywood professionals. I don’t do dabs in my home life. But I’m trying to fit in, so I do another dab. And I should have stayed there and hung out. But I was too nervous, so I left immediately. I get back into the fancy town car, and as this man was driving me back home, I threw up. And I am a person who knows they’re going to throw up and is just like, “What is the most effective way I can do this?” So what your girl did—I am a fucking pro—I took the handkerchief I had on my head, and I put it on the seat next to me. I opened my purse. I dumped all the contents of my purse onto the handkerchief. I threw up effectively into my purse. Then I closed my purse and tied up all of the contents of my purse into the handkerchief like a bindlestiff. I texted my boyfriend. I said, “Hey, I’m coming home in 20 minutes, get all of the cash in the apartment.” I thought the fancy driver was going to tell Doug Benson that I had thrown up in his car and he would never drive for this show again. I was so high. My boyfriend came out and he gave me like $30 that I had stashed away. I said to the driver, “This is a tip.” And he was like, “Thank you?”
SEE IT: Bri Pruett hosts WW’s 420 Social on Friday, Oct. 23. 4:20 pm. Registration is free or $30 with the 420 Social Box from Gnome Grown. Go to eventbrite.com/e/420-socialtickets-122177140115 for tickets. Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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Elisabeth Jones Sales and Rentals 516 NW 14th Ave. Portland, OR 97209 www.elisabethjones.art Victoria Mihich, Surrender to What is, Acrylic and Ink 30” x 40” $1,200, Monthly Rental $60
Robin Silver, “William Blake Paradise Lost, Collage on Cello 18” x 49”, $500, Monthly Rental $50, Rental goes toward purchase.
Paintings by Thomas Duane and Emily Miller are part of the Seventh Generation Project, in partnership with the Surfrider foundation.
Thomas Duane, Crab Rock, Tillmook bay, Acrylic and Ink on panel, 25” x 50” $2,950, Monthly Rental $170, Rental goes toward purchase.
Emily Miller, Crucible, Acrylic on Panel, 26” x 50” $2,700, Monthly Rental, $160 Rental goes toward purchase.
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FLASHBACK
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THIS WEEK IN '94
PERFORMANCE
BOOKS
Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com COURTESY
Written by: Scout Brobst Contact: sbrobst@wweek.com
OF BODYVOX
FIVE TERRIFYING BOOKS TO READ THIS HALLOWEEN
The Family That Couldn’t Sleep, D.T. Max
LOVE AT: “First Bite” is one of the dances performed in BloodyVox.
The horrific creature in D.T. Max’s debut novel is a product of neurobiology. The prion is an ordinary protein that characterizes some of the illnesses we are most afraid of: fatal insomnia, kuru, mad cow disease. The proteins themselves are not alive and do not carry genetic material, meaning there isn’t much to do about them. Max, a journalist and longtime staff writer at The New Yorker, reminds us that science is almost always scarier than fiction, bringing the reader into the lived realities of the degenerative diseases that eat holes in our brains with a brutality we have yet to understand, let alone treat.
The House Next Door, Anne Rivers Siddons The House Next Door fits neatly into almost every haunted-house trope. There are the middle-class sensibilities, the wooded hillsides and the scenes of suburbia, all of which work together to produce a dense novel of familial tragedy as strange accidents fall upon one square of real estate. First published in 1978, the novel has plenty of dated social references, but it remains a favorite of the genre (and of Stephen King) for its treatment of human fallibility and actions in crisis.
Let BloodyVox Flow BodyVox unleashes a cinematic, Halloween-themed dance spectacular. BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RGUS O N
When people used to ask BodyVox artistic directors Jamey Hampton and Ashley Roland if their company performed The Nutcracker, they gagged. They don’t have anything against holiday shows—it just depends on the holiday. “So we thought, what would be our holiday that we love?” Roland says. “We went through the list and it was obvious that it had to be Halloween.” Hampton and Roland’s passion for spooky splendor drives their new dance film BloodyVox: Lockdown, which is part of a series of BloodyVox shows that began in 2010. It’s one of the company’s most ambitious works—it was shot at locations across the Portland area, including Forest Park, Lone Fir Cemetery and Sauvie Island, and will be shown as a drive-in movie at Zidell Yards. Those who don’t make it to those screenings can also stream the film online. WW spoke to Hampton and Roland— who are married and appear in Lockdown— about choreographing the film, balancing artistic expression with social distancing, and why parts of the production look like a car commercial (in a good way). WW: Did you start with the subtitle Lockdown, or was that something that came later in the process? Ashley Roland: There’s a particular piece called “Lockdown” within the evening, and we explore the subject of being in lockdown. And it’s sort of a metaphor piece. It’s a dream or a nightmare piece about what’s happening.
As a company, we had to come together—and like the NBA or some of the major league sports, we had to make a quarantine agreement, even though we couldn’t live together and people have other jobs outside of here. We had to make an agreement for our behavior, how we would interact in the community—wearing masks, coming to the studio in clean clothes, bringing fresh water. Did you try to choreograph so the dancers would stay farther apart? Jamey Hampton: No. The show was already choreographed, so you’d have had to remake the entire show. It’s filled with lifting, and the style of our work is very connected dancing. We knew that in order to do the work, we were going to have to touch each other, lift each other, throw each other around—and we couldn’t wear masks the whole time. How would you characterize the style of the choreography? Hampton: Our work, we call it contemporary dance. We don’t call it modern dancing because nothing is modern anymore. Having sort of made our peace with that moniker, what characterizes our work is several things, all of equal importance: physicality, precision, athleticism, humor, theatricality, mystery, romance, winsomeness. Roland: Our take on Halloween is not the gory, screeching, stabbing, frightening experience. It’s more the absurd. Hampton: That’s the irony—there’s no blood in BloodyVox. There is very deep red-colored cupcake frosting, but there’s no blood.
The Hunger, Alma Katsu INTO THE WOODS: Much of BloodyVox was filmed in places like Forest Park.
What were some of the techniques that cinematographer Robert Uehlin brought to BloodyVox to make sure that it was going to come alive onscreen? Hampton: He filmed the whole thing in 4K so he could instantly zoom in on an area of the frame or go from slow motion to fast motion and have a dynamic to it that is very engaging for the viewer. It looks like some beautifully done Chrysler commercial in some places. Roland: [Laughs] No, more like a Porsche. The wonderful thing about going from just filming a dance concert in our theater to going out into the universe is that you can play with distance and angles and shooting through trees and shooting from above and shooting from underneath so much more easily than when you’re using a black box. So for us it was just liberating. Could you talk about any particular things you want audiences to get out of BloodyVox? Hampton: It has a lot of deep emotionality to it, and a lot of the humor enables the deep emotionality to happen. Everything isn’t just heavy and sad all the time, or perplexing. We use humor in a very strategic way, and also it’s necessary for us. We have to find humor in things or else we’ll just go insane. SEE IT: BloodyVox: Lockdown screens at the Drive-In at Zidell Yards, 3121 S Moody Ave., bodyvox.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Friday, Oct. 22-23; 2, 6:30 and 9 pm Saturday, Oct. 24; 6:30 and 9 pm Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 29-31. $35-$55.
Alma Katsu’s The Hunger reimagines a tale any student of the American school system will have heard many, many times. In the 19th century, pioneers traveling west to California were racked with conditions the human body was not meant to withstand— hunger, isolation and the bitter cold of winter. In Katsu’s novel, that hunger lapses into cannibalism, fueled by a demonic spirit that threatens to fully unravel the humanity the survivors are already beginning to question.
The Laws of the Skies, Grégoire Courtois The Laws of the Skies, much like the classic it is often compared to, Lord of the Flies, can easily be consumed over a weekend or two weeks of hourlong high school class readings. The plot is familiar: A children’s camping trip exposes the barbarity of human nature when survival is at stake, and it reflects on whether we love violence because we were born, or bred, to love it. Translated from French, Courtois writes like a poet and narrates like a fabulist, settling into a queasiness that is—for better or worse—as thrilling as horror gets.
I Remember You, Yrsa Sigurdardottir Ten years ago, when Yrsa Sigurdardottir’s I Remember You was first published for an Icelandic audience, the story goes that readers found the cover so unsettling it was changed for the wide release to English-speaking countries. Few reports substantiate this rumor, but the fact is that the book continues to elicit strange reactions from those who read it—a remarkable feat for a story with little gore and no cheap tricks. Rather, it is some 300 pages of dry, cloying dread, a ghost story that chills like the best of them.
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MOVIES
Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com COURTESY
SCREENER
GET YO UR REPS I N
OF SHORT OF B R E AT H
While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. For the month of October, we highlight all the best scary movies for your Halloween marathons, and our last week is all about horror comedy. Sometimes all you can do in the face of abject terror is laugh—especially fitting considering Election Day is just around the corner.
Fright Night (2011) In this revamp of the 1985 cult classic, a teenager (Anton Yelchin) suspects that his ridiculously handsome neighbor (Colin Farrell) is a vampire. Of course, no one believes him, so he turns to a Criss Angel-esque magician/supernatural expert (David Tennant) for help. Hilarious, perfectly cast and sharply written, this is one of those rare remakes that’s on par with the original. Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Showtime, Sling TV, Vudu, YouTube.
Tragedy Girls (2017)
Gasping for Air
before George Floyd’s killing, and before Portland’s air singed the lungs last month. Fittingly, Portland actor Kristina Haddad’s portrayal of Olyssa operates with almost physiological distress. In fact, the strained timbre of Haddad’s voice might require some deep breathing just for a listener to shake off. It certainly took her some hyperventilation to put on. “I personally suffer from anxiety, so I was able to totally relate to that aspect,” says Haddad, whose CV includes extensive voice work for video games, commercials and films. “I definitely worked myself into a state.” That’s not to say Olyssa is a purely panicked character. She’s just constantly pressed to buy time and understanding from a constellation of onlookers—exes, judges, bosses, dubious friends—who are only selling patronizing lessons. Veteran Portland thespian Tom Walton voices one of those skeptical characters, Olyssa’s ex-husband Luke. Seeking full custody of their daughter, Luke is a thicket of problems himself, but overcoming substance abuse and poverty seems to have translated into superiority, not empathy. “I like that he’s flawed, too,” says Walton, who starred in Morrow’s 2019 Irish thriller, Black Pool. “There’s that element of ‘I have conquered my demon at least for now…why can’t you?!’ I know [friends] who have been in phases of sobriety where they tend to be on a high horse and judge the shit out of everyone else.” While the narrative podcast form is ready-made for locking into a character’s
A Portland State professor’s new podcast with a prophetic title humanizes a gauntlet of poverty. BY C H A N C E SO L E M - P F E I FER
@chance_s_p
The drop into ruin is short but steep for Olyssa, the protagonist of the new narrative podcast Short of Breath. The coastal Oregonian is unceremoniously laid off from a seafood plant, scorned by her preteen daughter, threatened with losing custody, and relapses into addiction. At her nadir, Olyssa picks a shouting match with the moon. That moment, soundtracked in the audio drama by a forest’s worth of hooting and rustling, has less to do with nocturnal loneliness and more with the moon’s penchant for mocking a person feeling their smallest: It’s steadfast but impossibly remote and constantly visible with no aid. That’s one possible analog for the series’ conspicuous connection—set in November 2016—to Donald Trump’s election. Directed by local filmmaker and Portland State film professor Dustin Morrow, Short of Breath humanizes a gauntlet of poverty in the vein of directors Debra Granik or Ken Loach. And though Trump’s victory is played for foreboding, its lack of relevance to Olyssa’s spiral is just as striking. Hopes of economic stability abandoned her long before 2016, and forthcoming crises will surely compound the ongoing ones. After all, Short of Breath was the audio play’s prescient title when it was recorded in the winter: before COVID-19, 28
Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
CHOKED UP: The 2016 election is the backdrop for a new podcast that was recorded pre-COVID.
tone, chemistry can be tougher to brew. Walton, who’s appeared in over 100 theatrical productions, points out that podcast acting requires waiting for a scene partner to completely stop speaking before volleying back, which can stifle otherwise natural rhythm. Still, the lead actors in Short of Breath credibly manufacture that ironically comfortable knowing exes sometimes share. Haddad says there was no option but to establish an immediate rapport when she met Walton in a Portland State recording booth. “Because it is just your voice,” she explains. “Audiences will be all the more discerning about whether something comes off as truthful.” “Your performance is only as good as who you’re with, otherwise you seem sort of hammy and ridiculous and they seem muted and vacant,” Walton adds. “When you both go there, that to me is the wonder of acting.” Though its hope is mostly faint, the podcast does double as a plea for patience—and having it for those who matter close to home. On the doorstep of another ominous national election, Short of Breath suggests that life’s last-ditch footholds often come from splintered relationships, dingy bureaucratic offices and third or fourth chances. If no one will break your fall there, the moon isn’t likely to help. “I don’t care how stable your life looks,” Haddad says. “That underlying sense that the rug is going to be pulled and you have to be five steps ahead and it’s kind of your fault…it’s unrelenting. No wonder she couldn’t breathe.” LISTEN: Short of Breath streams at shortofbreath.libsyn.com.
In order to get more compelling content for their true crime blog, a pair of high school girls resort to casual murder. But as their body count grows, so does their following, much to the suspicion of their video editor (Jack Quaid). Filled with tongue-in-cheek homages to the teen scream canon like Carrie and Friday the 13th, this satire feels tailor-made for slumber parties. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014) Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s mockumentary follows a group of vampires who live together mostly peacefully in a modern New Zealand flat—until one of them bites a human, accidentally transforming him. The concept of centuries-old vampires grappling with modern life proved so popular that Clement created an eponymous TV show that’s just as wickedly funny and critically acclaimed. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, Kanopy, Vudu, YouTube.
Drag Me to Hell (2009) Directed by horror legend Sam Raimi, this campy parable tells the woeful tale of a loan officer (Alison Lohman) who becomes hexed by an old woman after turning down her request for a mortgage extension. Now, she has just three days to reverse the curse before she’s dragged to—you guessed it— hell. Amazon Prime, Google Play, Hulu, iTunes, Sling TV, Starz, Vudu, YouTube.
Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Definitely more goofy than legitimately scary, Frank Oz’s musical horror comedy stars Rick Moranis as Seymour, a florist in possession of a strange plant that he soon discovers has an unquenchable thirst for blood. The film features an unforgettable special appearance by Steve Martin as a masochistic singing dentist. Amazon Prime, Google Play, HBO, HBO Max, Hulu, Vudu, YouTube.
MOVIES TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
ALSO PLAYING Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
The Trial of the Chicago 7 Anyone who thinks nonstop talk can’t be cinematic hasn’t seen an Aaron Sorkin movie. Sorkin (who won an Oscar for writing The Social Network) is living proof that film is both a visual and a verbal medium. Actors tear through his tender-witty-wrathful writing as if attacking crisp, chewy steaks—and the stars of his courtroom epic The Trial of the Chicago 7, which he also directed, are no exception (the cast includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne and Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The film is set mostly in the late ’60s, when seven anti-war activists were accused of conspiring to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The bravery of the brutalized defendants is justly legendary, but the film is no self-righteous history lesson. The script is stocked with zingers (“This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I’m concerned, it’s an honor just to be nominated,” one defendant says of the trial) and Sorkin’s depiction of patriotism curdling into fascism is visceral, not didactic—Frank Langella as Judge Julius Hoffman unleashes a nauseating portrait of real-life evil. Sorkin also shows us devastating images of demonstrators being tear-gassed by police, but he doesn’t belabor the similarities between 1968 and 2020. He knows when to shut up and let history speak for itself. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Netflix. 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.
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.
Kajillionaire In the new film by legendary former Portland polymath Miranda July, a miserable con artist called Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) could use space from her parents (Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger). For one thing, she literally bends over backward for their nickel-and-dime schemes, limboing beneath security cameras to shoplift. For another, they had the gall to name her Old Dolio. Whether in film (Me and You and Everyone We Know) or fiction (The First Bad Man), July’s worlds typically hang on off-kilter drabness. In Kajillionaire, the family lives in an office building where soap seeps through the walls each afternoon, and a barely recognizable Wood dresses in Biff Tannen tracksuits and talks a bit like Napoleon Dynamite. Yet the truth of the hyperbole is that the Dyne family is just trying to make the rent. When a captivatingly bubbly stranger (Gina Roriguez) questions the family’s methods, July’s film poses a clear and timeless question: Can parents ever change? Crushing, hilarious and hopeful, the central conflict becomes Old Dolio vs. attachment theory. Will her first relationships on this earth shape all future ones, like a heartless developmental cookie cutter? Don’t be scared of the final answer. By the end, you’ll want to call a parent. Or you won’t. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.
Save Yourselves!
Alien invasions are often fraught with drama, but co-writerdirectors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer’s debut can make even the most ruthless killers seem… cute? Though their script overloads on violence, there’s still a warm tone that drives this science fictioncomedy hybrid. When Su (Sunita Mani of GLOW) and Jack (John Reynolds of Search Party) realize they are spending more time on their phones than with each other, the Brooklyn couple makes a pact to go upstate and turn off their electronics. What a week to unplug: Aliens take over the world, but they don’t get the news. They are too busy learning how to fish, hike and chop wood to notice the invasion. The extraterrestrials, overseen by visual effects supervisor Jeff Desom, are a marvel of dexterity, with 10-foot tongues that shoot out of their round, furry bodies. The “poofballs” are a perfect metaphor for the seemingly innocent, cutesythemed social media sites that suck us dry (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). After all, this is a film about a couple disconnecting to reconnect. When Su and Jack unplug, they are no longer alienated from each other. R. ASHER LUBERTO. On Demand.
Chop Chop A mold of David Harper’s head should appear in every (socially distanced) haunted house in America. Like Boris Karloff (Frankenstein) or Doug Bradley (Hellraiser), the bald, hangdog character actor endows Chop Chop with the most proven horror concept of the past 120 years of film: a very scarylooking man with a sharp object. So when Harper’s murderous form appears on the doorstep of a young couple, Liv (Atala Arce) and Chuck (Jake Taylor), the spine tingles in classic fashion. The fact that Rony Patel’s would-be slasher film pivots so quickly and aggressively away from an unstoppable-monster bloodbath is potentially to his creative credit, but unfortunately, no part of the disturbed underworld odyssey that follows works anywhere near as well. Chuck and Liv’s fly-by-night encounters with a string of sadists in bathrobes recalls the “Gimp” interlude of Pulp Fiction or a swing-andmiss like Hotel Artemis, where fate leads the main characters into alternate hells that suggest an entire universe of pain merchantry just off screen. It doesn’t cohere in Chop Chop, and Arce and Taylor reach for a murmuring naturalism that stunts their terror and ours. The nice thing about meat-cleaver menaces—they don’t overthink anything. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On Demand.
Coming Home Again Adapted from a 1995 New Yorker essay by Chang-rae Lee, this quiet little drama by director Wayne Wang follows a young man (Justin Chon) who returns home to care for his cancer-stricken mother. The bones of the story have been told countless times due to its universality, but rarely from the unique perspective of Korean American culture. Filmed mostly using static shots and one-takes, Coming Home Again encourages its audience to bask in the stillness, like gazing into a reflecting pool. It’s also devoid of a manipulative dramatic score—emotions are stirred naturally. Yes, this means there are occasional bouts of monotony as we watch Chang-rae cook in silence for minutes at a time. It’s intended to be elegiac, since Korean food plays such a crucial role, even if it often comes off a bit stagnant. One dynamic scene in particular stands out, however: Chang-rae runs into an old friend, and after a few minutes of catching up, he inevitably asks how Chang-rae’s mother is doing. “She has cancer,” he says, then laughs at his own devastation, then
apologizes for laughing. This moment defines the spine of the entire film: a poignantly authentic exploration of the complexities of grief, and the pain embedded in its hovering anticipation. NR. MIA VICINO. Virtual Cinemas.
The Doorman Another take on the ever more familiar tale of a dispossessed paladin single-handedly battling foreign thieves acting as a late-stage capitalism metaphor, The Doorman is hardly the first ill-conceived variant of Die Hard. However, this latest iteration might well be the laziest. Leave aside the improbability that PTSD-beset combat soldier Ali (Ruby Rose) has embraced the glorified greeter duties in the titular role, overseeing the lobby of a ritzy Manhattan co-op. The building also just happens to house the family of her widowed brother-in-law and former crush. And what are the odds that a squad of murderous art thieves (led by a sleepwalking Jean Reno) has hidden stolen Rembrandts in the walls of the very same structure? It’s a ridiculous scenario fueled by absurd circumstances driving forward a protagonist who would never actually exist, though Rose’s manic deathbot heroine seems no less unlikely than the actress-modelliving anime herself. If nothing else, she knows how to throw a punch following tours of duty in Batwoman and John Wick: Chapter 2. Director Ryûhei Kitamura knows how to frame her weaponized flexibility to best sell the daft premise. Nothing about this awkwardly constructed dreck bears even the slightest resemblance to life as lived by real people, but the sheer shimmering strangeness of its star captivates nonetheless. R. JAY HORTON. On Demand.
The Glorias A bus. Black and white. The only color is the yellow of the road. The only passengers are four women of different ages. These are the titular Glorias, liminal representations of legendary feminist Gloria Steinem. Two of them are Academy Award winners Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander, the latter portraying Steinem from ages 20 to 40, the former from 40 onward. Using the bus as a narrative framing device, this biopic chronicles her journey from troubled childhood to underappreciated journalist to political activist to co-founder of the groundbreaking Ms. magazine. Julie Taymor’s direction is at its most compelling when indulging in whimsical fantasy sequences reminiscent of her Beatles musical Across the Universe (2007). Her huge swings don’t always hit as intended, but they at least differentiate it from the boiler-plate biopics that inexplicably dominate the cinema landscape. It’s exactly these sporadic, creative risks that make the frequent expository dialogue and bloated storyline that much more exasperating. There’s an engaging film buried in the 139-minute runtime, and it’s a treat when it occasionally rears its head, be it in the form of co-stars Bette Midler and Janelle Monáe or the crucial amplification of intersectional feminism. Though this road trip is undeniably necessary, it’s a bit of a slog nonetheless. R. MIA VICINO. Amazon Prime, On Digital.
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Willamette Week OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
JONESIN’
Week of October 29
©2020 Rob Brezsny
by Matt Jones
"Rhymes at the Zoo"--a group effort for Take Your Kids to Work Day. [#831, May '17]
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Reed Galen is an American political consultant who has worked long and hard for conservative causes. But in next week's election, he opposes conservative Donald Trump, whom he regards as an authoritarian tyrant. He writes, "Democracy is on the ballot. It's a binary choice between good/bad, honorable/ dishonorable, healthy/sick, forward/backward. There has been nothing like this in our lifetimes." If you've read my words for a while, you know I'm a connoisseur of ambiguity and uncertainty. I try to see all sides of every story. But now I'm departing from my tradition: I agree with Reed Galen's assessment. The American electorate really does face a binary choice between good and bad. I also suspect, Aries, that you may be dealing with a binary choice in your personal life. Don't underestimate how important it is that you side with the forces of good.
"Feeling too much is a hell of a lot better than feeling nothing," declares Libran author Nora Roberts. I trust you will see the wisdom of that perspective in the coming weeks. On the downside, there might be some prickly, disorienting feelings arriving along with the rich flood of splendor. But I'm convinced that most of the surge will be interesting, invigorating, and restorative—although it may take a while for the full effects to ripen. And even the prickly, disorienting stuff may ultimately turn out to be unexpectedly nurturing for your soul.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Taurus politician Dan Coats has belonged to the conservative Republican Party all his adult life. He served in the US Congress for 24 years, and later as President Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence. Since leaving that office, Coats has criticized his ex-boss. He has said, "Trump doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie." In accordance with astrological omens, I urge you to be fiercely non-Trump-like in the coming weeks. It's crucial to the welfare of you and yours that you tell the whole truth.
©2020 / 2017 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.
GEMINI (May 21-June20)
32 "Call Me Maybe" singer Carly _ _ _ Jepsen [E]
Many stories that were popular long ago are still studied today. One example is the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, originally told during the first century BC. Another is Homer's epic tale the *Odyssey*, which harkens back to the sixth century BC. I have no problem with learning from old tales like these. It's important to know how people of previous eras experienced life. But for you in the coming months, I think it will be crucial to find and tell new stories—tales that illuminate the unique circumstances that you are living through right now.
63 Go off-script (sorry, Ella, it doesn't mean "get more pounds")
33 "I Like _ _ _" ('50s political slogan)
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
64 Slow animal that grows wings and gets in your clothes? [E]
35 Someone who might cook meatballs for you [S]
ACROSS
55 Palindromic Turkish title
29 Dislikes [S]
1 Sound of a punch [E] {I created this puzzle for Take Your Kids To Work Day in collaboration with my thennine-year-old twins. Clues followed by an [S] were written by Sid, and clues followed by an [E] were written by Ella.}
56 Water animal with flippers that makes barters 24/7? [S]
31 Poker money
5 Green paper that you pay with [E] 9 They make up stairs [E] 14 Make goo-goo eyes at 15 Tennis's Arthur _ _ _ Stadium 16 Like some dirt bike tracks [S]
61 Wants really badly [S]
66 She was a princess "long ago" [E] 67 "The coolest kid in the universe" [E] 68 Lake that sounds scary [E]
34 "Hallow" ending
36 Animal that's cute, fuzzy, lazy and gray [E] 37 _ _ _ for "Ricky Bubwick" (apparently a name that Sid just made up) 38 Everyone [S]
19 Former "Come on down!" announcer Johnny
69 Me: "How about the clue 'Used needles,' Ella?" Ella: "No, new needles. You have to use them because it affects the fabric more than you expect."
20 "I _ _ _ open this jar. Can you help, Daddy?" [E]
70 Martens and McStuffins, for instance [S]
46 Looks rudely
21 Monkey that eats curtains? [E]
71 Air France fliers, once
50 "Understood" [S]
23 "Gimme _ _ _! ... What's that spell? Ella!" [E]
1 Type of wild "kitty-kitty" :) [E]
17 Fearsome cat that spends moolah on Lamborghinis and mansions? [S]
24 There are 100 in a century (abbr.) [S] 26 Something a toy poodle says [E] 27 Rat-a-_ _ _ [E] 28 Something that people say in awe [E] 30 Pookums [E] 35 Scaly creature that likes to eat frosted sweets? [S] 37 Ninja Turtle that wears red, to his friends [S] 40 Getting from _ _ _ B 41 Kid that can have a cellphone [S] 42 Bird that smokes and does vandalism? [E] 47 Sneaky little animal [E] 48 _ _ _ gin fizz 49 Kid who is "epic!" [S] 52 The _ _ _ on the Shelf [S] 54 Sid: "I'm not _ _ _ years old anymore." Me: "No, I mean _ _ _ as in 'I _ _ _ some food.'"
DOWN 2 Type of lizard in "Sing" [E] 3 Horse's mesh protection against pests, maybe 4 Sinn _ _ _ (Irish political movement) 5 Spike thrown in the road to stop robbers [S] 6 "_ _ _ was saying ..." [E] 7 Like show horses' feet 8 "_ _ _ Danger" (Nickelodeon show) [E] 9 Quaint stores (you'd think, based on how they're spelled) 10 Piece that goes on the floor [S] 11 Queen in Arendelle [E] 12 Water drop sound [E] 13 "Auld Lang _ _ _" 18 Something said in an "argument party" [S] 22 Teacher's helper [E] 25 Region with Legoland, informally [S]
39 Toilet paper layer 43 Turns evil or moldy [E] 44 Remote control car part [S] 45 Tag situations? [S] 49 Enjoys, as food [S] 51 Marks that are lines [S] 53 Popular [E] 56 Parents "who do puzzled goodness" [S] 57 Brickell whose band is the New Bohemians 58 "There ought to be _ _ _" 59 It may be parallel [E] 60 Olympic hurdler/ bobsledder Jones 62 Drinks that are alcoholic [S] 65 "Waterfalls" trio
last week’s answers
I'm surprised when I hear that fans of Donald Trump enjoy my horoscopes. My political views, which are deeply aligned with my spiritual philosophy, have always been very progressive. And I've never hidden that fact. How can someone who appreciates my ideas also like Trump, a vile bully who has unleashed enormous cruelty and chaos? If you yourself are a Trump fan, I understand that after reading the preceding words, you may never read my words again. But I need to follow my own astrological advice for us Cancerians, which is: Be bold and clear in expressing your devotion to the ideals you hold precious. For me that means supporting Joe Biden, an imperfect candidate who will nevertheless be a far more compassionate and intelligent and fair-minded leader than Trump.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) Dionysus was the ancient Greek god of drunkenness and ecstasy and madness. His followers were inclined to immerse themselves in those states. Yet as historian Robert Parker points out, Dionysus himself "was seldom drunk, seldom mad." His relationship with his consort Ariadne was "dignified and restrained," and "smiling tranquility" was his common mood. I recommend that in the coming weeks you act more like Dionysus than his followers—no matter how unruly the world around you may become. The rest of us need you to be a bastion of calmness and strength.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) Virgo military expert Jim Mattis enlisted in the US Marine Corps when he was 19 years old. Forty-three years later, having been a Marine all his adult life and a general for six years, he retired. Later, he served under President Donald Trump as the US Secretary of Defense. After leaving that position, Mattis testified that Trump was "dangerous" and "unfit," adding that Trump "has no moral compass." Be inspired by Mattis, Virgo. Do your part to resist the harmful and unethical actions of powerful people who affect you. Be extra strong and clear in standing up for integrity.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) Scorpio politician Joe Biden wasn't my first choice for President of the United States. During the selection process, I championed his opponents Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But now I support Biden wholeheartedly. He has several policies I don't agree with, but on the other hand I know it's critical that we Americans ensure he replaces the appalling, corrupt, incompetent Trump. In the coming days, I advise you Scorpios to also consider the value of wise and pragmatic compromise in your own sphere. Don't allow a longing for impossible perfection to derail your commitment to doing what's right.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) The United States has suffered terribly from COVID-19. Of all the world's countries, it has had more cases and more deaths. Why? One major reason is President Donald Trump. He has consistently downplayed the seriousness of the disease, has advocated many unscientific cures, and has been lax and erratic in supporting the therapeutic measures that virtually all epidemiological experts have recommended. It's no exaggeration to assert that Americans will reduce their coronavirus misery by electing Joe Biden as president. In this spirit, and in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to meditate on how you could reduce any and all of your own personal suffering. The time is right. Be ingenious! Be proactive!
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) "By my love and hope I beseech you," pleaded philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. "Do not cast away the hero in your soul! Hold holy your highest hope!" That's always good advice, but it's extra crucial for you now. You will generate good fortune for yourself by being in close connection with the part of you that is bravest and wisest. The people whose lives you touch will have a special need for you to express the vitalizing power of intelligent hopefulness. More than maybe ever before, you will be inspired to cultivate your heroic qualities.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) I've been writing my horoscope column for a long time, and it has evolved dramatically. One aspect that hasn't changed is that every four years, I've endorsed a candidate for the president of my home country, the United States. Another unchanging aspect is that I regularly reveal my progressive views about political matters. Some people who have only recently discovered my writing express dismay about this. "I don't want politics with my horoscopes!" they complain. But the fact is, politics have permeated my horoscopes since the beginning. Now I urge you to do what I just did, Aquarius, but in your own sphere: If there are people who are not clear about who you really are, educate them.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) "The worse the state of the world grows, the more intensely I try for inner perfection and power," wrote Piscean author Anais Nin during World War II. "I fight for a small world of humanity and tenderness." I encourage you to adopt that perspective for the rest of 2020. It's an excellent time to respond boldly to the outer chaos by building up your inner beauty. I also suggest this addition to Nin's formula: Call on your resourceful compassion to bolster the resilience of your closest allies.
HOMEWORK: Homework: To read more of my views on the US election, go here: bit.ly/voteforlifeandlove
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 OCTOBER 21, 2020 wweek.com
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