NEWS: An Election? In This Economy? P. 8
VOL 47/26 04.28.2021
MOVIES: Aliens on Mt. HoOd. P. 28 WILLAMETTE WEEK PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
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OUTDOORS: Take Your Cat Hiking. P. 21
OREGON'S LARGEST VACCINATION SITE IS A
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ADVENTURE CATS, PAGE 21
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 47, ISSUE 26 A Portland man killed in Lents Park had been living near Laurelhurst Park . 6
Foraging tutorials are huge on
TikTok. 20
The term “adventure cats” originated in Oregon, because of course it did. 21
Intel dedicated 0.0128% of its revenue to anti-racism nonprofits. 7
One of Portland’s best cocktail bars puts its drinks to go in a plastic pouch. 22
Gary Hollands, one of our picks for Portland School Board, runs a training program for dump-truck drivers. 8
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Writer-composer Jason Robert Brown was sued by his ex-wife after the debut of the breakup musical The Last Five Years. 26
The freezer where Portland hospitals keep Pfizer vaccine is in a top secret location. 15
Bend is celebrated as an economic success story in the new HBO documentary Our Towns. 29
Pedalpalooza will be three months long this year. 18
NEWS: An Election? In This Economy? P. 8 OUTDOORS: Take Your Cat Hiking. P. 21 MOVIES: Aliens on Mt. HoOd. P. 28 PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
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Oregon’s largest COVID-19 vaccination site at the Convention Center, illustration by Jack Kent.
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A local director waited 15 years to use his great-great grandfather’s Welches cabin in a film. 28
Portlanders celebrate vaccination by buying pancakes and weed. 16
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μ-Ziq is pronounced “music.” 26
Organizers of the state’s largest vaccination site aim to get people in and out the door in 40 minutes to free up parking spaces. 12
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Discover what iQ can do for you
There’s a weed strain called Kryptonite, because of course there is.
The Oregon Historical Society will not apologize for making white men feel bad about themselves. 9
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: David Hernandez filmed Portland police shooting Robert Delgado in Lents Park.
OREGON'S LARGEST VACCINATION SITE IS A
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In response to anti-police marchers clad in black bloc garb repeatedly damaging property across the city after dark, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler extended a state of emergency last week and asked city residents to assist police in a crackdown. The mayor asked citizens to report the license plate numbers of black-clad demonstrators arriving in their neighborhood. He also called for Reed College to expel a student, Theodore Matthee-O’Brien, if he’s convicted of shattering windows downtown (“Trial by Fires,” WW, April 21, 2021). “There are ways that our other community partners and institutions can be helpful in making it crystal clear that the city of Portland will not tolerate criminal destruction or violence,” Wheeler continued. “Those who are engaged in it, let’s make it hurt them a little bit.” Here’s what our readers had to say: MaxPower, via wweek.com: “The definition of white privilege. Rich, white Reed College student from New York smashing windows and destroying property at a museum, nonprofit, churches that help the poor and homeless. I agree with Wheeler on this one.” Erleichda, via wweek.com: “Where did Wheeler get his riches? Where did he attend college, grad school? Do you know if the Reed student is on scholarship? Do you throw stones at your own glass house?” Frank Liess, via Facebook: “Ted seems to be overreaching his authority there just a tad. What a shocker.” Kwith, via wweek.com: Isn’t the Reed Institute privately funded? Since Mr. Wheeler’s constituents’ tax dollars don’t go to Reed, maybe he should concentrate on more fully representing the interests of his tax base (Nordstrom, [Oregon Historical Society], et al.), and see to it this offender
Dr. Know
WWEEK.COM 4
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Kris Rosenquist, via Facebook: “Nothing more precious than a privileged Reed kid from the East Coast somewhere vandalizing our fair city, thinking yeah…this will solve it. So tired of this crap. Agreed with Mayor Wheeler.” Mitch Craft, via Facebook: “Weird, it’s almost like almost an entire year of protests and direct action resulted in the cop who murdered George Floyd being arrested and convicted of murder.” @imdchmp, via Twitter: “Anarchist assholes tearing shit up in downtown Portland have zero to do with BLM, marginalized communities or a message of positive change. They’re criminals riding on the backs of people who are fighting for true justice.” Tomescu Mohr, via Facebook: “Have we implemented reform to allow for actual police accountability? As long as the answer is no, the protests continue.” @Mendensmalls, via Twitter: “Unprovoked and frivolous destruction of property is a quick way to distinguish yourself from the people who are actually out there trying to make a change for the Black community. Use your voice and your wallet. March, resist, speak out, but stop throwing rocks and fire at nothing.” 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
The Doctor is out. During his weeklong sabbatical, we present you with a subliminally relevant deep cut from June 26, 2013. Rob Ford R.I.P.
STAY SAFE, STAY INFORMED. WE ARE IN THIS TOGETHER.
is prosecuted and sentenced according to the laws currently on the books. That, in itself, would cause this student to miss a few classes.”
Portland has a “weak mayor” system of governance where the mayor shares power with four commissioners. It took me a little while to wrap my head around that. Are there any other major cities that use the same system? —Rudy G. The only other major North American city I could find that uses the weak-mayor system (where the mayor has little more legislative pull than any other member of the city council) is Toronto. As it happens, Toronto has been in the news lately, as its mayor, Rob Ford, has been under fire for allegedly smoking crack. And when I say “smoking crack,” I don’t mean “smoking crack” the way somebody who thinks the Cubs are going to win the World Series* is “smoking crack.” I mean the “smoking crack” where you have some crack and you’re like, “Yay! Crack!” and then you smoke it. You might think this would spell trouble for Toronto, but a recent Reuters story, “‘Weak mayor’ system keeps Toronto ticking through crack controversy,” suggests the city has managed to keep chugging along.
Since the mayor in a weak-mayor system is sort of a first among equals, with one vote on the city council like everyone else and no special veto power, the city’s business can keep rolling even if its chief executive is distracted, absent or, um, otherwise occupied. In strong-mayor systems, by contrast, the mayor hires and fires, writes the budget and bans large fountain drinks** more or less at will. If one of these mayors runs amok, the city will feel the burn. Thus, whatever you might think of the weak-mayor system, it does seem to be a good one to have if your mayor is going to smoke crack. I’m not saying that Portland Mayor Charlie Hales*** would ever do that, but still, it’s good to know. Footnotes from Dr. Know in Minor Family Emergency Land: *Hey, it was 2013. Today we would say, “…Timberwolves are going to win the NBA Championship.” Then we’d probably have to acknowledge the psychic abilities conferred by crack. **Mike Bloomberg, we hardly knew ye (or wanted to). ***Now, of course, it’s Mayor Ted Wheeler, and (psychic abilities aside) I’m not saying he should try it. But if he wants to, I know a guy. Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
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LIGHT RAIL BATTLE RESUMES ON COLUMBIA RIVER BRIDGE: Early talks on the next Columbia River bridge have hit the same snag that sank the last one: light rail. Earlier this month, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer told WW that a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia would need to include a light rail line or it wouldn’t be funded by the Biden administration. In an April 21 op-ed published on a conservative-leaning news site, Clark County Today, three Republican lawmakers in Washington state—including Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler—voiced renewed skepticism. “This same stubborn, top-down attitude effectively killed the last I-5 bridge replacement effort,’’ Herrera Beutler said. Light rail opponents in Clark County pulled the plug on the $175 million Columbia River Crossing in 2013. “As someone who opposed the failed [CRC] project because it became more about extending light rail and less about reducing freeway congestion and increasing freight mobility,” said state Sen. Ann Rivers (R-La Center), “I believe it would be foolish to go down that road again.” Blumenauer tells WW: “I support the regional leaders and process to replace the bridge and incorporate high-capacity transit. For me, light rail would be the preferred option because the Biden administration and our leadership in Congress are focused on equity and climate concerns. I have confidence that the region will make the right decision for our future.” ELIJAH WARREN’S STORY SPURS REFORM: The Oregon House passed nine bills April 26 that increase oversight of police. Among them: House Bill 2929, which requires a police officer to report another officer’s misconduct. On the House floor, Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Clackamas), who sponsored the bill and chairs the Judiciary Committee, cited as inspiration a WW story about a Portland police officer hitting Black homeowner Elijah Warren in the head from behind with a baton when he complained about tear gas seeping into his Southeast Portland home (“Who Hit Elijah Warren?” WW, Sept. 30, 2020). “Had officers not intervened, Mr. Warren could’ve been hurt much worse. But had other officers reported that officer’s misconduct earlier, Mr. Warren may have never been struck,” Bynum said. “Mr. Warren deserves better policing and deserves more from all of us.” HB 2929 now moves to the Senate. GOVERNOR SHUTS DOWN INDOOR DINING AGAIN: As COVID-19 cases surge across Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown again shifted the rules April 27 to ensure that 15 Oregon counties with high case counts must shut down indoor dining and gyms—but only for three weeks at most. Among the counties at “extreme risk” are Multnomah, Clackamas and Columbia, but not Washington County. Indoor dining in Portland last reopened on Feb. 12. This time, Brown announced $20 million to support businesses in extreme risk counties; she raised the cap on the number of outdoor diners a business can host from 50 to 100 and will reevaluate risk levels weekly instead of biweekly. The 15 counties will remain rated as extreme risk only if they continue to have high case counts and statewide hospitalizations increase by more than 15% as well as remain above 300 total cases. “With new COVID-19 variants widespread in so many of our communities,” Gov. Brown says, “it will take all of us working together to bring this back under control.” MAYOR HOPES TO EXPEL REEDIE: Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has called on Reed College to expel a senior if he’s convicted of smashing downtown windows, including those at the Oregon Historical Society, on April 16. Theodore Matthee-O’Brien, 22, a Reed anthropology major, faces seven felony charges—four for rioting and three for first-degree criminal mischief—stemming from property destruction in downtown Portland. “One of the individuals arrested is a student at one of the nation’s most expensive, elite, private universities that happens to be located in our community,” Wheeler said. “If that individual is convicted, I hope he’s expelled.” Reed College spokesman Kevin Myers says the school can’t comment on the conduct of individual students but that a disciplinary process could not begin until a student’s court case is resolved. Adds Myers, “Reed condemns vandalism in Portland.”
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FIVE QUESTIONS FOR
BRIAN BURK
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
PPB has no business responding to nonviolent crimes. That’s been my viewpoint since I was on the street and had very bad interactions myself with PPB officers. We will not call PPB even if our own lives are in danger. We’d rather take care of it ourselves. Because their interventions to anyone out there on the street always hurts one of us. I’ve actually met really good officers who treat people like human beings. I think there’s a lot of rotten apples, but every once in a while, a really good one falls off the tree. The problem is, if you throw a good apple in with rotten ones, eventually it becomes rotten, too. What do you wish people knew about Robert? Robert deserves for people to know that he wasn’t just somebody who was crazy in the park. He was a really good man who was somewhat misunderstood. People need to know how kind and funny and how sweet he really was. I used to watch him help people living around him even when he didn’t have anything. His kindness transcended everything about him.
CLOCKED SAM GEHRKE
GOOD FENCES: Friends and family mourn Robert Delgado at an April 23 vigil in Lents Park.
Raven Drake
The latest victim of a Portland police shooting was a familiar face to outreach workers visiting Lents Park. BY TE SS R I SK I
tess@wweek.com
Shortly before 10 am on April 16, Portland police officers arrived at Lents Park in response to a 911 call about a man quick-drawing a gun amid the spring greenery. The cops found Robert Delgado, who was holding what turned out to be a replica handgun, near the tent where he’d spent the night. Police issued commands to Delgado, who flipped them off in response, according to police radio transmissions. Four minutes after police arrived on the scene, Delgado was dead. Officer Zachary DeLong shot and killed him from 90 feet away, police estimate, while standing behind a tree. Like many Portlanders, Raven Drake believes Delgado’s death was preventable. Unlike most people, Drake knew him. Drake, 37, is the manager of Street Roots’ ambassador program, which does outreach work with Portland’s unhoused community—including sharing up-to-date information about the COVID-19 vaccine and conducting a trauma-informed survey about the effectiveness of Portland Street Response, which it is partnered with. Drake says she personally visited Delgado about once every other week since February. She and other Street Roots ambassadors would often sit and talk with Delgado in the park. Drake spoke with WW about her conversations with Delgado, the Portland Police Bureau’s interactions with the city’s unhoused community, and the reasons some people living outside choose to carry a weapon. The conversation has been edited for clarity and length. WW: When did you first meet Robert Delgado? Raven Drake: September of last year. Robert was up in Laurelhurst for the longest time. It was after the first sweep through Laurelhurst Park at the end of December, beginning of January, that Robert ended up moving down to the Lents Park area. We started seeing him in Lents in early February. 6
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Because Lents is so huge, we divided it into quadrants. So we’d see Robert probably every other week when we’d circle back through that quadrant that encompasses Lents Park. What was Robert like during those interactions? At first, Robert really wouldn’t speak to me. He was really quiet. When he first got to Lents, the interactions were a little strange. You know, new environment, new people living around him that he wasn’t quite used to yet. But seeing us, I think, we were a constant for him. I think he started to look forward to those visits. All of us used to be on the street. We were comfortable just sitting around his camp and having a conversation like human beings. I think for a few moments, each time we’d show up, the impact of being houseless wasn’t a factor. Over that time period, for me, he became a friend. He became somebody I liked to go out there and meet. He was really quiet but really sweet and funny once you got to know him. I enjoyed going out there and sitting down with him and having a laugh. Police say Robert was carrying a replica handgun. Can you explain why unhoused people might carry a weapon or something that looks like a weapon? I was unhoused. I am a trans woman. I myself kept a weapon. I had it for protection. You’re living out there, and the only thing that’s between you and anybody walking by is a little bit of ripped-up nylon. Weapons are commonplace out there. Even within our own unhoused community, there are violent people who will attack people for what they have. We don’t keep weapons to be a threat to society. We keep weapons to protect ourselves from that society. If Robert was living in a house that he was paying rent for, and someone tried to break in and assault him, and he used a weapon to defend himself, we would not be discussing him as a threat to society. But because he was in a tent on public land and he’s unhoused and doesn’t have a permanent address of his own, somehow having that same weapon makes him a criminal. And that’s not fair. Could Robert’s death have been prevented? It could have been prevented if Portland Police Bureau officers were actually correctly trained for that kind of situation. I believe that every PPB officer should be retrained, and I think they need extensive training to keep their jobs. I don’t believe that we’re a city ready to be without a police force, but I think any officer keeping their job must go through different criteria, because this is unacceptable.
Hunzeker Watch We’re still counting how long it takes to find the source of a police leak. 43 DAYS: ™ That’s the number of days since Officer Brian Hunzeker resigned from his role as president of the Portland Police Association due to what the union described as a “serious, isolated mistake related to the Police Bureau’s investigation into the alleged hit-and-run by Commissioner [Jo Ann] Hardesty.” We still don’t know what he did. The mayor’s office says it doesn’t know what he did. Hunzeker is still working patrol in the North Precinct.
54 DAYS: ™ That’s how long it’s been since the Portland Police Bureau opened an internal affairs investigation into the leaking of information that wrongly implicated Commission Jo Ann Hardesty in a March 3 hit-and-run crash. It has released no results of its inquiry. Police Chief Chuck Lovell said during an April 27 press conference that he personally does not know why Hunzeker resigned, but that he has confidence in the investigation, which is currently underway. “In this case, we’re comfortable having him continue his duties as an officer until the investigation is complete,” Lovell said.
42 DAYS: ™ That’s how long it’s been since the city inked a contract to hire an outside investigative firm to probe the leak. TESS RISKI.
NEWS M.O. STEVENS
DOCUMENTS
BLACK AND WHITE IN OREGON
Whose Childhood Is Most Painful? A state health survey shows formative trauma is highest among Oregon’s Black children.
INSIDE JOB: Intel’s board appears resistant to an audit of its pay equity.
Inside Intel The largest private employer in Oregon says a report on racism in company culture isn’t necessary. A corporation’s annual stockholder meeting rarely holds much interest beyond the circle of people investing in the company. But a letter sent by the board of chip-making giant Intel to its shareholders this month raised enough eyebrows that somebody forwarded it along to WW. That’s because of two reports requested by Intel stockholders: one on the median pay gap at Intel based on gender and race, and a report on whether formal company policies or unwritten norms promote a racist culture. The Intel board suggested other shareholders reject commissioning either report. That’s a noteworthy recommendation from the board of directors at the largest private employer in Oregon, with nearly 21,000 workers. Intel, headquartered in California, launched a 10-year “corporate responsibility strategy” in 2020 that addressed how the company would approach and advance environmental sustainability, inclusivity and corporate responsibility. Part of that plan aims to increase the number of minority and female leadership positions. In its 2021 report to shareholders, the company highlighted its pledge of $1 million to anti-racism nonprofits. (That’s 0.0128% of Intel’s $77.9 billion in revenue in 2020.) In response to an inquiry from WW, Intel spokeswoman Nancy Sanchez said the board recommended against the reports because they were duplicative. “They were unnecessary,” she said, “as the issues were already being addressed by existing initiatives.” WW contacted five of Intel’s biggest shareholders. None of the five companies, all national or international investment companies, offered comment. A spokeswoman for the Vanguard Group—which owns nearly 8% of Intel’s shares—declined to comment on the investment company’s position on the proposals, but pointed WW to a document outlining its expectations for boards and diversity disclosures—much of which closely mirrors the proposals on the ballot. Elizabeth Inayoshi, a former 30-year employee of Intel who’s now an employment lawyer, is critical of the company’s hiring practices. She says the shareholders essentially requested an audit: “The proposal seems to ask almost for an audit of their existing programs, and it never hurts to have an outside look, because talking to yourself is always an uninformative conversation,” she says. “Whatever
they’re doing, it clearly hasn’t brought any real change to the corporation.” Here are the two proposals facing shareholders and the rationale Intel’s board offered in meeting materials for rejecting them. SOPHIE PEEL. Proposal 1: “Stockholder proposal requesting a report on median pay gaps across race and gender, if properly presented at the meeting.” Board recommendation: • “Intel is committed to providing pay equity fairness and opportunity across all employees, to maintaining a high level of transparency in our diversity, inclusion, representation and pay equity data, and to promoting women and underrepresented minorities into senior leadership roles. • “The methodology we use for identifying and closing pay equity gaps is more effective for driving accountability and action than the methodology requested by the proposal. • “Our existing pay equity disclosures, detailed representation data, and robust discussion of our public goals and internal programs to promote gender and racial/ethnic equality at Intel provide the data needed to assess equal opportunity to high paying roles. • “We have already achieved gender pay equity across our worldwide workforce, and Intel continues to maintain racial/ethnic pay equity in the U.S. • “We already provide detailed reporting on the representation of our workforce by job level for gender globally and race/ethnicity in the U.S., including the public release of the EEO-1 survey pay data; in contrast, the additional statistics requested by this proposal would not reflect legitimate factors that can affect the data, such as job location and tenure, and would not provide greater insight into opportunities for high-paying jobs than our EEO-1 data and other reports provide.” Proposal 2: “Stockholder proposal requesting a report on whether written policies or unwritten norms at the company reinforce racism in company culture, if properly presented at the meeting.” Board recommendation: “The Board recommends a vote against this proposal given the company’s existing programs and policies to: foster a culture of diversity and inclusion; integrate non-discrimination measures across our performance management systems, compensation programs, and hiring processes; publish ambitious longterm goals and lead industry-wide inclusion and social equity initiatives; and transparently report our progress and data to drive accountability and encourage actions by others.”
Racism, financial hardship and abuse are just a few of the traumatic childhood experiences Black Oregonians face at disproportionately higher rates than other races, according to recent findings by state health officials. When children undergo these forms of trauma before the age of 18, they are known to the health professions as adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs. They increase the likelihood of physical and behavioral health ailments going into adulthood, says Portland pediatrician Dr. Deidre Burton. ACEs include physical and emotional abuse, witnessing domestic violence or substance abuse, and having an incarcerated parent—among many others. From 2015 to 2018, Black people reported experiencing more forms of trauma as children than any other racial demographic, with 38.5% reporting four or more ACEs, according to the Oregon Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a survey conducted by the Oregon Health Authority. Just 21.8% of white people reported having more than four ACEs. Like most other racial disparities, it comes as little surprise. “Of course our scores are going to be higher because of financial hardship and the environment lived in and the experience of racism itself,” Burton says. The COVID-19 pandemic can be added to the list of traumatic experiences, says Burton, who has been in private practice in Portland since 1994 and is affiliated with hospitals that include Legacy Emanuel. The disparity is devastating, she says. Along with higher case rates and deaths, the pandemic’s effects include isolation. “More Black children have experienced the loss of a loved one disproportionately, and they have been left home because their parents are on the front line. Because of the economic disparity, their parents have not had the luxury to stay at home and work virtually,” Burton says. “Black children have been left to fend for themselves.” A high ACE score often portends other problems, Burton says: diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and substance abuse—“which then creates an environment for my children that perpetuates that cycle.” Doctors need to start recognizing, she says, that poor health begins before its symptoms appear. “I think people broadly need to understand what ACEs are and what the impact is,” Burton says. “As health care professionals, we need to screen for ACEs. We need to talk about resilience and teach our kids coping skills. On a societal level, we need to start to address the disparities.” LATISHA JENSEN. High ACE score (4+) among adults aged 18 or older by race/ethnicity, Oregon 2015 to 2018 combined 50% 40%
38.5%
30%
34%
20%
23.3%
21.8%
Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander
Hispanic/ Latino
White
14.7%
10% 0%
22.1%
African American
American Indian/ Alaska Native
Asian
Source: Oregon Health Authority
Willamette Week APRIL 28, 2021 wweek.com
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CHRIS NESSETH
NEWS
WW’s May 2021 Endorsements Here’s who you should send to the School Board— and one museum that deserves your tax dollars. BY WW STA F F
503-243-2122
Off-year elections are unglamorous affairs. No candidates for governor or senator will appear on your ballot when it arrives in the mailbox this week. Voter turnout is always low. Yet this year, the key questions on those ballots are fiercely relevant to the concerns of Portlanders. Three seats on the Portland Public Schools Board are up for grabs, at a moment when parents and teachers are fiercely debating how to send kids back into classrooms. And the Oregon Historical Society—a museum whose windows have been repeatedly shattered in anti-police riots—is asking voters to renew its property tax levy. These contests don’t feature the kind of politics you see on cable news. But it’s here in the trenches where
Portland Public Schools Board, Zone 4
Herman Greene
When Rita Moore, a parent activist, chose not to seek a second term on the School Board, her departure set off an unusually sharp-elbowed bit of jockeying for her seat. A taste of that friction: Four people filed to run for the office, then suspended their campaigns. Three more are on the ballot and actively campaigning; a fourth has mounted a write-in bid. Thankfully, that tumult has produced an able front-runner: Herman Greene, the senior pastor of the North Portland church Abundant Life PDX. A Black leader who runs a summer mentorship program in the low-income housing tracts of New Columbia, Greene, 47, saw his own children through Roosevelt High School and is closely acquainted with the hopelessness plaguing the city’s poorest neighborhoods. (His wife and co-pastor, Nike Greene, runs the city’s Office of Violence Prevention which is trying to stem Portland’s rise in shootings.) Wickedly funny, Greene ably handled a question on his independence from the teachers’ union, a key endorser. (He has most of the major endorsements in this contest, including Moore’s.) His detailed understanding of the district’s shortfalls in serving students of color will be instrumental as the School Board tries to fix a deeply inequitable system. 8
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you’ll meet some of your fellow citizens most dedicated to public service. (In fact, a former city commissioner, Dan Saltzman, is running unopposed for a volunteer position on the board of Portland Community College.) As always, WW invited the candidates in major contested races to meet with our newsroom and make the case why they should receive our endorsement—and your vote. (Look for our endorsement in a contested PCC race later this week on wweek.com.) When possible, we interviewed candidates together, in the same Zoom room. We asked them serious questions about the future of our institutions, along with a more lighthearted query (inspired by pandemic cabin fever) about their favorite class field trip. We were reminded how many people are still seeking to make Portland a better, fairer place—even when no one is looking. Greene faces an impressive write-in candidate, Jaime Cale, a Rosa Parks Elementary employee (she’d have to quit her job if elected) and an organizer of the racial justice group Mxm Bloc. Cale, 43, recently organized a rally against reopening schools during COVID-19. She at times offered inconsistent answers on whether schools should be open right now. She provided a thoughtful analysis of how the district is still failing children of color, but she did not compel WW to recommend a write-in candidate when a solid one is on the ballot in Greene. Also running is Margo Logan, a fervent Trump supporter who has publicly espoused theories that match those of QAnon, and developed a conspiracy theory before our eyes—claiming the glitches in her internet connection were our attempt to shut her out of a Zoom meeting. Another candidate, Brooklyn Sherman, is a Portland State University business student running on a platform that includes improving school playgrounds. That’s a cause we hope he’ll continue to champion. Greene gets our nod. Greene’s favorite field trip: His most memorable was a middle school trip to a cave, where he wandered off with a friend, resulting in near disaster. It was his last time inside a cave.
Portland Public Schools Board, Zone 5
Gary Hollands
Hollands, 44, brings an unusual qualification to his bid for School Board: He owns a dump truck and teaches other people how to drive them. That might sound odd. But Hollands’ work is important: He founded Interstate Trucking Academy, and trains students of color in long-haul trucking and garbage-truck driving. Those are family-wage jobs that have not always welcomed people of color. He wants to increase trade education in schools so students feel encouraged to pursue “non-traditional” high-paying jobs like carpentry and construction if they don’t want to pursue a four-year college degree. He says the chasm between trade offerings at schools east and west of the Willamette River is too wide. Hollands has a close view of the district’s practices: He’s a track coach at Benson High School. (He’s also married to an employee of the district, a potential conflict that makes us a little uncomfortable.) We like his emphasis on closing the learning gap between white students and students of color—and he can point to the places where the disparities start, including third grade reading. Hollands has secured all of the key endorsements in this contest. His opponent, Daniel Rodgers, has none. Rodgers, 33, is a family physician who joined the race late. His plans for improving hybrid learning are vague as are his criticisms of the district. He’s a nice guy, but we were frustrated by his loose grasp of the details of how PPS functions. Hollands is well versed in those details, thanks to low-profile work that includes previously serving on the board of the Multnomah Education Service District. (It provides pencils and oversees special education.) We recommend you vote for Hollands. Hollands’ favorite field trip: A trip to the Columbia Slough. It was the first time he’d seen frogs in the wild.
Portland Public Schools Board, Zone 6
Julia Brim-Edwards
We aren’t always sure why Brim-Edwards, 59, a longtime Nike executive, wants the often thankless job of Portland Public Schools Board member. But there’s no denying the steadying hand she’s applied to the district. Think back to where PPS was when Brim-Edwards was first elected four years ago. Then-Superintendent Carole Smith had abruptly resigned after the discovery of lead in the water coming out of faucets and drinking fountains at several school buildings (and WW’s revelation that the district had hidden lead contamination at dozens more). A search for a new superintendent foundered when the board discovered its new hire had exaggerated his qualifications. The board itself was a nest of backbiting and mutual contempt. Brim-Edwards hasn’t just righted the ship—she’s plugged its hull and bailed the water out of steerage. Her most important task was steering the selection of a superintendent. She succeeded, leading what by PPS standards was a swift and collaborative process that settled on Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero, who has so far proved capable. Brim-Edwards oversaw the opening of two new middle schools, championed the rebuilding or renovation of half a dozen campuses and, perhaps most
NEWS importantly, opened the books on the health hazards in the district’s aging buildings. Not everything Brim-Edwards touches turns to gold. The pandemic has cast an unforgiving light on the inequities of the district, where affluent, white children are more likely to return to classroom instruction. COVID-19 has upended every school district in the nation and makes it harder to grade Brim-Edwards’ performance. But compared with when she arrived, PPS looks far more stable and vigorous. The name “Nike” doesn’t warm the heart of every Portlander, and Brim-Edwards’ role leading government affairs at Oregon’s sportswear giant rankles some observers. That frustration was aired several times in our endorsement interview by Brim-Edwards’ chal-
lengers: Max Margolis, a reading tutor with a background in crime and drug prevention programs, and Libby Glynn, co-president of the Bridger School Parent Teacher Association with a background as a researcher and supervisor for a catering company. Both offered good ideas—Glynn in particular made sharp observations about how PPS treats students with disabilities—but neither offered a compelling rationale for unseating the incumbent. Brim-Edwards has earned the opportunity to show what she can do once the district is free of the virus. Keep her on the board. Brim-Edwards’ favorite field trip: A tie between Franz Bakery and the Bonneville Locks to watch the salmon migration.
Find nonpartisan voting information for the May 18 Special Election at lwvpdx.org Portland Public Schools School Board Candidate Forum (Video to be online by April 30)
ONLINE NOW Recordings of 18 Candidate Interviews for our Video Voters' Guide
SUZETTE SMITH
PLUS Candidates' written answers to questions and Ballot Measure Explanations
Find information customized for your ballot at DOOMED TO REPEAT IT: On April 16, black bloc marchers shattered the windows of the Historical Society for the second time in a year.
Measure 26-221 Oregon Historical Society levy
Yes
History museums belong on the ballot. They are political institutions. Their curators decide which artifacts we preserve, whose heroes we venerate, and what shameful events we confront. Those choices have rarely been more contentious than over the past decade, when the renaming of buildings and the toppling of statues threw open the question of whose past should be part of our present. As it happens, these were also the first years when the Oregon Historical Society was receiving tax dollars. A property tax levy first passed by Multnomah County voters in 2011, and renewed in 2016, funds the museum and its archives to the tune of nearly $4 million a year. Multnomah County now asks voters to renew it for another four years. The levy costs homeowners 5 cents for every $1,000 of assessed property value. If your house is worth $200,000—roughly the median home value in the county—you’ll pay $10 a year, less than the price for one month of Netflix. Five years ago, when this levy was last on the ballot, we expressed some skepticism about a private nonprofit snagging taxpayer money. But OHS has proven its public worth—not least by providing free admission to all Multnomah County residents. Those visitors quickly grasp where OHS has landed on the question of how to tell Oregon’s story. It is perhaps the most decisively anti-racist
museum in America. Its latest exhibit, Experience Oregon, begins and ends its journey with the fate of Native American tribes. It displays a Ku Klux Klan hood to confront patrons with Oregon’s legacy of bigotry. The society’s quarterly magazine dedicated a recent issue to a scholarly consideration of white supremacy. As WW noted in a celebration of the museum earlier this year: “It is striking, the degree to which OHS is emphasizing the ugliest parts of Oregon’s heritage and presenting them as repulsive.” Some people want to look away. OHS executive director Kerry Tymchuk likes to tell a story about a recent visitor who felt uncomfortable about what he saw. “You make me feel guilty for being a white man,” he said. Tymchuk replied: “You’re not responsible for what happened 150 years ago. But you’re responsible for knowing what happened.” He’s right: Grappling with the past is a civic duty. Lately, that work is under attack from the political fringes, which seek either to enshrine society’s errors or erase them. You’ve probably noticed the historical society in recent headlines. This winter, the museum installed shatterproof glass after rioters broke windows, tossed a flare in the lobby and dragged a quilt made by Black women through the rainsoaked streets. This month, black bloc marchers struck again—and the glass cracked in a spider web pattern, but didn’t shatter. One of the vandals spray-painted a nihilist message: “NO MORE HISTORY.” Our reply: More history. Fund this museum.
www.vote411.org
Remember that your ballot is due back to the Elections Office or an official dropbox by 8 pm on Tuesday, May 18!
An informed voter is a powerful voter. Please vote. Willamette Week APRIL 28, 2021 wweek.com
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Big Shots Oregon’s largest vaccination site is a logistical masterpiece. We take you inside.
BY RACH E L M O NAHA N Photo Illustrations by
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JACK KEN T
For more than a year, Oregonians have been waiting for the end of the pandemic. For 226,999 of them, the end began here. The Oregon Convention Center—a cavernous, 160,000-square-foot hall plopped in the no man’s land between Moda Center and the industrial eastside—hosts the state’s largest vaccine clinic. Every hour it’s open 1,100 Oregonians walk through a maze of queues. Awaiting them: A needle filled with Pfizer or Moderna. More than 1 of every 8 COVID -19 vaccine doses in Oregon have been administered here, in a space that’s three-and-a-half football fields’ worth of rope lines, chairs and volunteers. What’s it like? It’s a logistical masterpiece—a medical Disneyland. Yet it also feels as spare and anxious as the line for customs at an international airport. “It was way more efficient than customs,” says Elliot Rask, 25, a commercial real estate broker, who clocked his walk at 960 steps during his April 22 visit. “Way more spacious, way more employees, you keep moving. It was kind of like the best airport in the world maybe. But no food and no one was tan.” The ceiling shines with brightly lit squares of fluorescent light, like a cross between a sci-fi starship and a Walmart. The hum of human voices vibrates off the concrete floor. And for those arriving after a year of avoiding crowds, the first step indoors can be arresting. “I had a little pang—I wouldn’t say terror—but it was a little bit like, whoa. I know this is supposed to be like exciting and safe, but I’m a little freaked out,” says Mark Brenner, 51, a University of Oregon professor who lives in Southeast Portland and received his second shot April 21.
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But what also stands out is the speed of the process. The lines move quickly, by design. The operation is a conveyor belt of arms being marched to the shots. “It’s like a fucking Swiss watch,” says one patient who went through this week, “churning that many bodies through.” The timepiece analogy doesn’t capture the mood of the place: It’s celebratory. On a recent Sunday morning, staff and volunteers applauded as they opened the registration desk at 11:45 am. “It’s awesome to be a part of history,” says Laurelei Bailey, a pediatric nurse who administers shots. “I’ve never worked in a place for so long that everybody wants to be there every day. Not just the people who are working there, but people who are coming.” Part of the pleasure? After a year in which nearly every American institution buckled under pressure, this works. It’s refreshing to see efficiency and competence in an undertaking of this scale. Portland’s four hospital systems linked arms to mount an unprecedented operation—All4Oregon, they call themselves—to get the city and its suburbs vaccinated. But since the new year, the only people who’ve been inside are those with an appointment and the volunteers and staff to help administer the shots. Reporters and cameras are generally barred. WW spent the past two weeks hearing the experiences of the people who visited, learning the mechanics that made it possible, and meeting a few of the people who keep it running. Now, we can offer you a virtual trip inside.
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2. Greetings! Tickets, Please. As people arrive by elevator or stairs in the Convention Center’s carpeted lobby, the first thing they see is a man dancing to a portable radio. “It was just this dude. He was just kind of dancing around,” recalls Vince Jamie, 34. “They were playing ‘In the Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins.” Behind the dancing usher: a rope line to enter Convention Hall D, where the vaccinators are. Workers at the door ask to see a QR code or a confirmation email—a bit like getting your ticket checked to enter a Blazers game. The vaccination site is by appointment only. Just 3% of people don’t show for their appointment. The bigger problem? “The major holdups that will slow down their entire machine is patients that arrive on the wrong day or don’t have an appointment,” says Chris Markesino, operations chief of the OCC site. “When patients arrive either on the wrong day or without appointment, we have to be able to pull them out of line quickly—so we don’t stop the entire line.” In addition to running the OCC site, Markesino is regional emergency management director for Kaiser Permanente. He choreographs the vaccination ballet, pacing some 20,000 steps during his 12-hour days, crisscrossing the operation in black Merrell dress shoes. He wears a white vest marked “CHIEF.” Markesino returned from a yearlong National Guard deployment peacekeeping in Kosovo just before Christmas 2020. He grew up in Portland and returned home to be a part of history. He quotes World War II Gen. Omar Bradley in the Sunday morning meeting with the team leaders who have managed 1,659 volunteers. “‘Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics,’” Markesino tells them. “This is a big operation. It takes a lot of us to make this happen.”
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There are 850 parking spaces under the Oregon Convention Center. Other than the number of available doses (see “How the Vaccine Gets to Your Arm” page 15), this is the primary limitation on how many people at a time can be vaccinated here. That’s a key reason why site operators are trying to shave off every minute upstairs: The goal is to get everyone back to their parking spot in 40 minutes. That rate of turnover leaves space for almost everyone to arrive by car. At bad moments, the basement garage can become a traffic jam. Honking horns echo across the support pillars as people—sometimes elderly and in wheelchairs—weave between idling cars toward the elevators. Parking attendants often work double duty as crossing guards—halting traffic and trying to stop people from crawling on all fours to attempt shortcuts under barriers. The anticipation messes with visitors’ minds. “I had one person tell me, ‘I was so excited to come today I didn’t remember where I parked.’ They literally don’t pay attention,” one attendant says with a laugh.
3. Registration Once an usher confirms you have arrived on the correct day, you are directed into a vast, twisting queue in Exhibit Hall D. Up to 250 people can fit in this first space. Arrows on the floor offer direction; 2,000 dots applied to concrete floors throughout the OCC remind people to socially distance. Markesino has 400 stanchions on hand, each with 7½ feet of retractable belt, for up to 3,000 feet of barrier, like what you’d expect for a roller coaster. At the end of the line, a yellow-vested gatekeeper directs people to one of 24 check-in desks for 30-second interactions. At that desk, staff ask patients for a COVID-19 check (“Have you had any symptoms? A recent diagnosis?”) and hands them a registration form and a golf pencil. People fill out the form at their own pace, at round tables that look like they’d hold cocktail glasses at a low-budget wedding reception. That’s another way to speed the operation: Whoever fills out paperwork fastest can move ahead. But consider that golf pencil. It’s an ordinary item, but it reveals the level of detail considered in the large operation. “We bought up all the golf pencils in the tri-county area,” says Markesino. And they are reusing them. “We’re running low on buying golf pencils, [partly] because they’re not making very many during the pandemic,” says Markesino. “So our volunteers actually wash pencils, to be able to put them back into circulation.” How do you wash a golf pencil? An army of volunteers wipes them down with hospital-grade sanitary wipes. GOLF
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4. Wayfinders A platoon of helpers wanders through the throng of people waiting in line and filling out cards. “Wayfinders,” Markesino calls them. They remind visitors to get out their ID and insurance cards before the registration station, and to take off extra layers before arriving at the vaccination chair. Their instructions give patients a sense of orientation so they aren’t surprised or unprepared for the next stage. It’s speed with a human touch. Virginia Kincaid is one of the volunteers. Wearing a yellow vest, face shield and surgical mask, she is stationed near the exit. Gregarious at 78 years old, Kincaid moved to Tigard nine years ago from Texas for her grandchildren. She came to volunteer at the Convention Center to “give back” after receiving her vaccine here a few weeks ago. Her only hesitation? Driving into Portland.
“I mustered my courage,” she says. “I’m really nervous about driving in Portland, because pedestrians will step out right in front of you. I’ll drive around Houston with my eyes closed. I did a dry run to find this place. Easypeasy.” Before the pandemic, Kincaid volunteered at Randall Children’s Hospital to cuddle babies in the neonatal ICU and serve lunch to seniors younger than she. Kincaid spent her year at home relearning to play the piano after a 35-year hiatus, but she was eager to return to volunteering. Kincaid stops people to make sure they’ve completed their paperwork fully before they step through the next doorway. One woman she stops on a recent morning wears a black mask with a message about the pandemic: “This was preventable.” Kincaid compliments her on her mask and agrees: “It was.”
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5. Identification and Insurance For most patients, the last step before a shot is another table that confirms their insurance has been entered into the computer. As in a doctor’s office, staff checks ID to match the patient with the appointment. That function is often performed by the National Guard, which is among the many agencies called into service at the site. That presents a hurdle for some. For all its efficiency, the OCC faces several criticisms. The place is massive—and while it has wheelchairs at the ready, it’s a lot of walking for seniors and people with disabilities. Also, it’s pretty much English only, say Latinx leaders. And for undocumented immigrants, having their ID and insurance handled by soldiers in uniform isn’t exactly welcoming. “It’s one of the barriers that has effectively moved us to not consider this a viable site for further investment of time and energy,” says Tony DeFalco, executive director of Latino Network. (OCC organizers say they’ve tried to make the site more welcoming; that effort includes a Spanish-language registration desk. Meanwhile, Legacy Health runs a Latinx-focused immunization drive in Woodburn; Oregon Health & Science University runs a drive-thru clinic at Portland International Airport that started by exclusively serving mobility-impaired patients.) If you don’t have ID, there are other security questions to prove the appointment is yours. If you don’t have proof of insurance, the guard member shrugs and moves you along for a shot anyway. Vaccinations are free.
6. Underlying Condition Check The anticipation now reaches its height. Once you’re clear of registration, it’s time to line up for a shot. “That was probably what I noted was just the longest wait,” says Kathy Wai, a North Clackamas School Board member. “I want to say around five minutes. It was a huge line. It just kept growing. But I was always taking steps.” For some, there’s no wait depending on the time. For others, the wait is longer. That’s because, when filling out their forms, they mentioned an underlying condition or an allergy. National Guard members circle potential problems with a red felt-tip pen. Red marks on your paper? You get diverted to a row of tables where a medical professional evaluates your risk of side effects. If approved, you rejoin the queue for vaccines.
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7. Vaccination Time Needles go into arms at 100 vaccination stations. The vaccinators include retired doctors, EMTs and nursing students. Each desk is supplied with dose vials, hypodermic needles and adhesive bandages. National Guard member Sanoe Aina has been vaccinating hundreds of people a day since January. “Everybody I’ve seen has been overly grateful,” she says. “People can thank me about 10 times in the two minutes they’re in the chair. “I always joke: I’ve never seen people so excited to get a shot.” A small fraction of people arrive at the station and—at the last possible moment—have second thoughts about the shot. In those instances, a vaccinator can wave a pink laminated 8-by-11 card. A nurse comes for a visit to answer any questions. The vaccine stations are set up for efficiency. As at the registration desk, there’s a yellow paddle with the station number to alert a volunteer to send the next patient. A blue card signals for more vaccine supplies. Amid the tables, there’s a curtained-off area, nicknamed the “Zen den,” for people who forgot to wear a short-sleeved shirt, are suffering anxiety, or otherwise need privacy. For the last two hours of the day, the Convention Center operation slows slightly. Vaccines are mixed and put into syringes on demand so as to avoid waste.
“They’re [going through] with a literal clicker, seeing how many people are actually in the center so they don’t make the mistake of having excess vaccines and wasting vaccines,” says Aina. Laurelei Bailey, the pediatric nurse, was struck by the artwork on the shoulders she vaccinated. “I’ve seen so many tattoos,” she says. She stuck a needle into Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Little Prince and Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist. The patients cry with relief—and sometimes the nurses spend time trying not to. “I fight back the tears,” says Angela Dorman, a registered nurse. “I just had a patient earlier [today] who lost her mom to COVID. She cried when she got her injection. You have moments like that with people, and you have moments where people are like, ‘I just want to get my injection so I can hug my grandchild for the first time in a year.’” Dorman, who wears big lab goggles with pink rims, works nine hour shifts vaccinating people. On a recent afternoon, she sat outside the Convention Center eating a steak Thai salad provided by her bosses. She had a story for every bite. “I had a person whose wife was in labor, and I asked, ‘You’re here. Why?’ and he said, ‘Before I hold my baby for the first time, I want to know that I’m vaccinated, even if by a few hours.’”
How the Vaccine Gets to Your Arm
8. Waiting As they leave a station, patients get a white Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccination card. The last thing the vaccinator does? Affix a piece of colored tape to the lapel of the newly vaccinated person. The tape—in most cases a Seahawks neon green—is marked with the time that person can leave the Oregon Convention Center. It’s usually 15 minutes after their dose. People with allergies or underlying conditions get pink tape. It lists a wait time of 30 minutes after their dose. The stickers are a safety protocol developed after instances of allergic reactions. (There are other safeguards: An infirmary lies behind a curtain in case of a slip-and-fall or any kind of medical event.) In the waiting areas, 650 chairs are spaced 6 feet apart. Some chairs are grouped in pairs for couples. People receiving first or second doses are sent to different waiting areas. The first-dose patients sit closer to the desks where they can book a second-dose appointment. Schedulers with computers on wheels (COWs for short) also come to people where they sit—like flight attendants pushing beverage carts down airplane aisles. There’s a hushed feel in this space. Newly vaccinated people sit with their thoughts, or look at their phones, waiting to return to the world. Volunteers hand out water bottles and watch for poor reactions. “There wasn’t socializing,” says Dianna Parrish, 36, who was vaccinated April 22. She alarmed the side-effect monitor by sporting a bright pink sunburn. She recalls thinking: “I promise you, if I was dying over here, you would know about it. I would make noise.” Large digital clocks show the time of day, down to the second, in red numbers. When the clock reaches the time on your sticker, you can go. Then it’s back downstairs to the parking garage. “The toughest part of the whole process is finding your car again,” says Clint Chiavarini, 49, a Metro data analyst vaccinated April 22. “The stairway that you come down is not the same as the one you go up.”
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On Tuesday mornings, the “pizza boxes” arrive. That’s the name pharmacists have given to the flat, square boxes—each one 9 inches across, gleaming a light bluish purple—that contain something Portlanders want even more than a slice of sausage and Mama Lil’s pie from Apizza Scholls. In fact, the boxes contain what’s arguably the most valuable substance on earth right now: COVID-19 vaccine doses. As Oreg onians march through the Oreg on Convention Center for shots five days a week, the doses are making their own journey. The weekly rhythm starts on Thursdays, when the Oregon Health Authority notifies vaccination operations across the state how many doses to expect. For the Convention Center, doses of Pfizer arrive by FedEx Air through Portland International Airport. On Tuesday mornings, they’re driven to an offsite location. That location is a closely guarded secret. “Somebody may come and damage the supply—I think that’s probably one of the biggest concerns,” says Majid Tanas, head pharmacist at Legacy Health. “I think the second one is—I forget where it was—a van ran the National Guard off the road, trying to get the vaccine.” Five pizza boxes, each holding 195 vials of vaccine, are stacked in a refrigerated delivery carton, wrapped in dry ice. With six doses to a vial, the carton holds enough doses for 5,850 people. The pizza boxes immediately get put into an ultrafreezer, which keeps the doses at minus 70 degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to Antarctica in winter. (By comparison, the lowest temperature of an average kitchen freezer is minus 5 degrees Celsius.) Tanas says All4Oregon, the organizers of the OCC site, sought Pfizer vaccines in part because Portland hospitals had the freezer capacity for such cold storage. OCC, which started by administering both Pfizer and Moderna shots, now solely offers Pfizer first doses. That simplifies scheduling first and second doses. It takes several hours to unpack all the boxes. After putting the pizza boxes in the super-freezer, the next step is checking the GPS tracker and a temperature monitor to ensure the doses have stayed cold for the whole journey. (Only once have they had to check with the manufacturer based on an anomaly, says Tanas.) The vials come with the hypodermic needles and syringes required to shoot them into arms. Pharmacists print out stickers that go on the vials to indicate the lot number. The day before the vaccines are given, the doses move from deep freeze into a refrigerator. (Pfizer vaccine can last five days at refrigerator temperatures.) They’re packed in refrigerated bags holding 10 vials each and driven to the Convention Center. At the OCC, behind thick blue curtains, operates a makeshift pharmacy, where the Pfizer doses are prepped. Moderna’s vaccine comes ready to shoot, but Pfizer’s requires mixing with saline. The saline gets drawn into syringes which a pharmacist double-checks, making sure the right quantity will go in. Then the saline is added to vials and mixed by turning them over. Nurses and techs draw doses into syringes before delivering them to vaccine stations. Each vaccine syringe has a deadline—a “use by” time, like on a can of tuna fish, but just a few hours after it’s prepped. The doses are handled with extraordinary care, so the clinic’s had to throw out only around 800 (roughly 0.2%). There are three reasons that happens: A needle is too dull to go into an arm due to a manufacturing defect; a sixth full dose can’t be drawn out of a vial; or some kind of impurity is found in the dose. (That last problem has yet to occur at OCC, Tanas says.) One sign of how much attention to detail pharmacists pay: Sometimes the Convention Center finishes a vaccine lot in the middle of the day. When that happens, the safety protocol calls for a pause in vaccinations so stickers marking that lot can be removed from stations and replaced with stickers signaling a new lot. So if you find yourself with an unexpected delay at the Convention Center, Tanas says that’s one possible reason: “We go and collect all the extra stickers.” RACHEL MONAHAN.
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9. The After-Party What do people do after a vaccination? They go to Denny’s. The chain diner, two blocks down from the Oregon Convention Center, is playing “Hotel California” on a recent Thursday morning. “This is my first time at Denny’s,” says Mindy Pham, 19, who has been working two jobs while she attends the pre-nursing program at Portland State. It was her first dose. She ordered a Lumberjack Slam—cinnamon pancakes, eggs, hash browns and toast. “We were just like, ‘What are we craving?’ and we thought breakfast, because it’s so early in the morning right now.” Denny’s is about a third of the way full. One employee half-whispers to WW, “We’re doing pretty well, as you can see.” Several Lloyd District businesses have reported a spike in foot traffic since the clinic opened. The Burgerville drive-thru a block up Northeast Grand Avenue is consistently packed with 10 to 15 cars. Workers jog to waiting vehicles, paper bags of burgers in hand, searching for who ordered what.
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Others celebrate vaccination the Portland way: They buy weed. “There’s been a lot of spillover from across the street and coming over here,” says Fields Puckett, who works at Oregon’s Finest Cannabis, a dispensary right across the street. “A lot of people have been proud and happy, or showed me their stickers,” adds Puckett. “Or people were like, ‘I wouldn’t be up this early normally.’” In the five days a week the Oregon Convention Center is open, more than 40,000 people make this journey. For Markesino, who tracks every detail down to the number of adhesive bandages used (as of last week, 401,891), the work is something he can tell future generations about. “This is historic,” Markesino says. “In 20 years, people will say, ‘What was your role in the pandemic?’ I can honestly say, ‘We vaccinated 360,000 people.’”
STREET DOWNTOWN Photos by Chris Nesseth On Instagram: @chrisnesseth
Whats your favorite Portland weather and why?
“Not hot, not cold, not windy, and when the sky is blue.” “When it’s cool in the early morning.”
“Ever-transient weather, because everything changes, and that’s just fine.”
“A good rainy day, with nice music. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
“A nice sunny fall day because I love the leaf colors and layering up.”
“When it’s 85 degrees, because it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold.”
“Sunny weather. I love the sunny weather.”
“Fall. I like the color of the trees and you like spring and summer.” “I like to be warm and see the pretty flowers and the light.” Willamette Week APRIL 28, 2021 wweek.com
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STARTERS
THE MOST IMPORTANT PORTLAND CULTURE STORIES OF THE WEEK—GRAPHED.
READ MORE ABOUT THESE STO R I E S AT WW E E K .CO M .
RIDICULOUS
In lieu of a festival, Northwest String Summit will host a drive-in concert series this summer.
A Portland auction house is attempting to sell a dagger that purportedly belonged to Nazi SS leader Heinrich Himmler.
HEY, PORTLANDAREA NONPROFITS! It’s time to apply for WW’s Give!Guide!
Pedalpalooza is coming back— and will last three months.
AWFUL
Biketown is getting 40 new docking stations built partly out of recycled bike tires and shoe waste.
JOEL RIEDEL
What’s the Give!Guide? It’s our year-end grassroots fundraising campaign that’s raised more than $40 million since 2004.
AWESOME
ALEX WITTWER
Oregon’s wolf population grew last year—but some advocates are concerned the growth isn’t substantial enough.
That includes a jaw-dropping $6,580,059 for 173 local nonprofits and the Oregon Cultural Trust last year. Some Multnomah County Library branches are reopening in June.
MICK HANGLAND-SKILL
Nonprofits of all sizes, from micro to mega, and all types are encouraged to apply.
Ataula, one of Portland’s best Spanish restaurants, has closed for good.
C H R
IS TI NE DO
NG
Learn more at
and apply by April 30!
E M I LY B E R N A R D S T E V E N S
GIVEGUIDE.ORG
Sugarpine will open a spinoff restaurant at the former site of Shirley’s Tippie Canoe.
SERIOUS 18
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The Portland Garment Factory is “completely destroyed” by a fire that officials have concluded was arson.
ANGEL OREGON TECH
TECH FEST NW 20 21
May 21, 2021 Tickets on sale now
TECHFESTNW.COM Join us in attending the region’s largest event for innovators, investors, and entrepreneurs. This year's event will focus on redefining entrepreneurship, creating a more inclusive tech economy, and discovering new solutions as Oregon builds back from the pandemic. Visit techfestnw.com to learn more about our speakers and programming.
TechfestNW is presented in partnership with Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
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GET INSIDE
WHAT TO DO WHILE YOU’RE STUCK AT HOME THIS WEEK.
MELISSA ASKEW
� GO: Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival Surely you’ve seen the photos on your Instagram over the past few weeks: friends in light summer wear, posing in front of technicolor fields of flora like that movie where Robin Williams wanders around the afterlife. And just as surely, it’s caused you to feel the first twinges of FOMO you’ve experienced in over a year. The Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, held 30 minutes south of Portland in Woodburn, is one of those quaint regional traditions that’s grown in popularity every year social media has been around, which means the weekend crowds can be huge— but like Multnomah Falls, if you’ve never been, it’s worth dealing with the masses. The blooms are at their peak, and the festival wraps up May 2, so expect an even bigger rush this week. But just think of the engagement! Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, 33814 S Meridian Road, Woodburn, woodenshoe.com. 9 am-6 pm Wednesday-Friday, 8 am-7 pm SaturdaySunday, through May 2. �
WATCH: Seconds As more people get vaccinated and a less isolated world looms on the horizon, it can feel as though we’re torn between two selves: the one who’s excited to get back out there and socialize again, and the one who wants to stay in bed and work from home forever. If you’re suffering from a similarly fractured identity, you’ll relate to this 1966 sci-fi thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. In Seconds, dissatisfied banker Arthur is looking for a second chance at life. Salvation comes in the form of an experimental procedure that allows him to fake his own death and form a completely new look and identity, and he is reborn as a handsome artist named Tony. Regret predictably ensues as he realizes his dream life is a nightmare. Streams on Amazon Prime, Apple TV Kanopy and other platforms.
DRINK: Pour Oregon Last year, the pandemic wiped out pretty much every single soiree, cellar tour and pairing supper scheduled for Oregon Wine Month. This May won’t see a return of the typical slate of extravagant 20
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in-person activities, but some organizers have now had enough time to plan virtual events, so prepare to engage in more sophisticated tastings beyond just downing a magnum alone on the couch while doomscrolling. Pour Oregon, an annual festival that features wines personally curated by the owner of Oregon-focused wine club Cellar 503, will take place online for the first time over the course of four days starting April 29. Interactive sessions include everything from cheese and wine pairings to a cookalong with award-winning chef Vitaly Paley, making for a series of Zoom meetings you’ll actually want to attend. Pour Packs can be purchased at pouroregon. com. Thursday-Sunday, April 29-May 2. $85-$150.
EXPLORE: #foraging on TikTok
If there’s ever a time and place to get into foraging, it’s springtime in Portland, and TikTok’s growing foraging community is arguably the easiest place for newby foragers to get started. Alexis Nicole (@ alexisnicole) is by far the most popular and trusted forager on the app. Her page is full of cutesy recipes for plants that are currently all over the city, like dog violet simple syrup, cherry blossom milk tea and magnolia leaf cookies. Mushroom- and forage-flavored pasta enthusiast @chaoticforager has a sizable following, too. Just be sure to double-check your information before actually eating anything you find outside—a lot of poisonous plants look like nonpoisonous plants, and not every cottagecore influencer actually knows what they’re talking about.
�
WATCH: Michelle Zauner in Conversation with Ben Gibbard Michelle Zauner’s just-published memoir, Crying in H Mart, is a touching account of her complicated relationship with her mother and her Korean heritage. In a way, it’s also about her complicated relationship with Oregon. Best known for the music she makes under the moniker Japanese Breakfast, Zauner grew up in an isolated, woody area outside Eugene, and wrote the first Japanese Breakfast songs while caring for her dying mother in her home state. For her virtual Powell’s talk about the new book, she’ll be joined by Ben Gibbard, which should be a novel
experience, given that it will probably be the only Powell’s talk you’ll ever attend hosted by Death Cab for Cutie’s frontman. 8 pm Thursday, April 29. Register at powells.com.
� STREAM: Sasquatch No, this engrossing three-part documentary by the team behind the Rajneesh-reviving phenomenon Wild Wild Country is not about hunting Bigfoot... well, maybe it is a little. A non-spoilery synopsis: In 1993, while working on a pot farm in Northern California’s fabled Emerald Triangle, two methed-up dudes burst into a cabin where David Holthouse was staying, babbling about finding three bodies torn to shreds among the crops and swearing that a Sasquatch did it. Now a successful journalist, Holthouse puts his reporting skills to use investigating his own memory, first confirming whether he really heard what he thought he did and, if so, who was it that got killed and who (or what) did it. In its examination of how myths are used to control reality, Sasquatch bears some links to HBO’s recent QAnon series—except much less dense, infuriating and, at half the runtime, less of a slog to get through. Streams on Hulu. � STREAM: Under the Overpass, Episode 4 Last fall, Resonance Ensemble started Under the Overpass, a series of short concerts performed and recorded under Portland bridges. This episode will offer a sneak peak of Sanctuaries, a much-anticipated, in-the-works “jazz opera” by veteran pianist Darrell Grant. Plus, it’s a collaboration with Third Angle Music, another organization offering some of the most innovative local pandemic programming. Resonance Ensemble, resonancechoral.org. Premieres Thursday, April 28, on YouTube. � STREAM: Mt. Hood Jazz Festival In a year when just about every concert has been canceled or postponed, one local institution is making a return. This spring, Mt. Hood Jazz Festival will hold its first event in over a decade—virtually, of course, but still. The lineup includes worldclass musicians like Wycliffe Gordon, Gerald Watkins Jr. and local legend Mel Brown. Friday-Sunday, April 30-May 2. See mhcc.edu/ NorthwestJazzBandFestival for lineup and streaming information. �
GERALD WATKINS JR.
HEAR: Fearless (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift The bad news is that Folklore wasn’t the practice run for the re-recordings of her old catalog that Taylor Swift had promised for years. The good news is that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sounds just a little better than the thinly produced but stunningly written 2008 original—and that her now-31-year-old voice makes the contrast between her protagonists’ fantasies and the writer’s knowledge that love isn’t always a fairy tale even more delicious. Stream on Spotify.
GET OUTSIDE STEPHEN SIMMONS
OUTDOORS
@ M A P L E A N D M A E AV E
Wild Cats
HAVE PAWS, WILL TRAVEL: “Adventure cats” Burma (above), Maple (right) and Dzánti (bottom) out and about.
Want to take your feline for a hike? Here’s some advice. BY M IC H E L L E H A R R I S
AS EVERY CAT OWNER KNOWS, IT’S BEST TO FOLLOW THEIR LEAD. NOT ALL CATS ARE MADE FOR THE WILD LIFE. KIRAH DOERR
Stephen Simmons was living out of his Jeep in Southern Oregon in 2013 when a girl approached him with a box of kittens. When he saw the tuxedo cat inside, he knew he’d keep him. Burma, as he named her, was raised on the road and took naturally to hiking. So Simmons did what anyone alive in the digital age would do: He started an Instagram account. “I certainly wasn’t the first person to enjoy the outdoors with a cat,” says Simmons, who posts photos of he and Burma’s various excursions via the handle @burmaadventurecat, “but at the time when social media skyrocketed, the movement highlighted to the world that cats can do more than just lie around and sleep, and are actually more suited to going on adventures and traveling than most people realized.” Since then, the “adventure cat” movement has exploded, with more Instagram profiles popping up focusing on intrepid felines more interested in scaling rocks than curtains. Think your kitty has what it takes? That depends. “Cats are not like dogs,” says Kirah Doerr, whose Instagram @dzantithedaring shows scroll-worthy photos of Doerr’s cat, Dzánti, hiking with her dogs Trojan and Douglas Fir, “so you’ll need to erase that expectation and just see what happens.” A rescue cat that Doerr took home and nursed to health, Dzánti started exploring the outdoors when he was just a kitten. But before treading the trails, he had to get used to wearing a harness. “I have two dogs, so I wanted to be able to take him outside,” she says. “When he was really little, I started out by having a little harness on him, and he would just wear it around my place and when we were outside on the back patio. Once he got bigger, then I started taking him out for walks and hikes with a harness and retractable leash.” According to Doerr, the best piece of advice for cat owners eager to take their pets out on the trails is to “be really patient” and make sure your cat is
ready for the wild before taking them along. She recommends starting out on low-traffic trails that require dogs to be leashed. “If your cat gets scared out there, then they’re not going to like it,” she says. “Whenever we pass a dog, I put Dzánti on my shoulder to avoid any confrontation. It’s all about assessing what your cat likes and making them feel safe and comfortable. In the summer, I like to take him out early so he doesn’t get overheated.” Of course, for those looking to take their kitty along steeper trails with tons of switchbacks, be prepared to tow Fluffy in a carrier backpack for a good part of the hike. “They’re not going to walk along with you like a dog would do,” says one cat owner, who shares photos of his cat, Maple, all around Oregon on his Instagram account, @mapleandmeave. (His other cat, Maeve, does not hike.) “I took Maple on the Cape Horn Trail, and he would stay in the backpack and then do a little walking, smelling flowers and ferns. It’s a lot slower of a process with cats because they want to explore everything. They don’t take a linear path. At least my cat doesn’t. So patience is key.” Like Dzánti, Maple first became acclimated to wearing a harness at home before attempting a hike. “It’s baby steps,” says his owner, who prefers to remain anonymous. “You don’t want to overwhelm them.” As every cat owner knows, it’s best to follow their lead. Not all cats are made for the wild life. “Burma was pretty much born into the adventurous lifestyle and thrived in it. But definitely know your cat’s limits. And make sure they’re chipped if taking them out on the trails,” says Simmons, who still adventures outside with Burma despite now living “a more civilized lifestyle.” Most importantly, “it’s all about enjoying the company of your cat and having fun.” While training a cat for outdoor adventures is no doubt an endeavor, it’s worth the effort as long as your kitty is up for it. And if not? Well, there are always lap naps.
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DRINK MOBILE
Deadshot’s Renegade Princess v. 3
COURTESY OF DEADSHOT
FOOD & DRINK
TOP 5
BUZZ LIST
Where to get drinks this week, one way or another.
1. Migration Rooftop at Canvas
1750 SW Yamhill St., 503-939-4164, migrationbrewing.com. 1-9 pm daily. This outpost of Northeast Glisan Street mainstay Migration Brewing is the peak realization of the rooftop bar. A 180-degree view takes in downtown, the West Hills and the Alphabet District. The panorama stretches all the way to the St. Johns Bridge and Mount St. Helens. After a round, it’s easy to understand why people keep moving to Portland: Above the din and discord, this city seems like paradise.
2. Tulip Shop Tavern
424 NE 30th Ave., expatriatepdx.com. 4-9 pm Thursday-Saturday. “We know of no other mixed drinks that will so readily transport you to a different year/country/situation,” reads the label on Expatriate’s bottled cocktails to go. Handsomely presented in a bottle with an attached lime twist and handwritten instructions, the Distant Colony is something akin to a refined paloma that should also work for anyone who likes a mule.
5. Tough Luck
1771 NE Dekum St., 971-754-4188, toughluckbar.com. 3-11 pm Monday-Friday, noon-11 pm Saturday-Sunday. If there’s a better way to celebrate your vaccination than a burger and a beer at Tough Luck, we’re at a loss to suggest it. This is a perfect place to ease back into public life without feeling mobbed. Order the masterful beer-battered fries, with or without a smothering of melted cheese, via a smartphone-based ordering system, then watch Damian Lillard lead a playoff campaign on high-definition TVs that face the outdoors. We should all be so lucky. BRIAN BURK
825 N Killingsworth St., 503-206-8483, tulipshoptavern.com. Noon-10 pm daily. Tulip Shop’s menu of cocktails to go offers pretty much every classic concoction you can think of, each coming in a sealed canister about the size of a Red Bull and wrapped in a custom black label splattered in white squiggles.
4. Expatriate
3. Roadside Attraction
A cocktail with a royal pedigree. BY E L I Z A R OT H ST E I N
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‚ ORDER: Deadshot/Ping, 2133 SE 11th Ave., 971-990-9887, deadshotpdx.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Friday, noon-10 pm SaturdaySunday.
TOP 5
HOT PLATES Where to get food this week.
1. Holler
7119 SE Milwaukie Ave., 971-200-1391, hollerpdx.com. 11 am-10 pm Monday-Thursday, 10 am-10 pm Friday-Saturday. After hitting the pause button last year, Holler is finally ready to welcome customers into its new space. The poultry-focused offerings are the result of chef Doug Adams’ popular fried chicken Sundays at Bullard. The birds’ buttermilk-coated skin, and limited availability, made the dish an instant hit and natural concept to spin off on its own.
2. Nicholas
1109 SE Madison St., 503-235-5123, nicholasrestaurant.com. 11 am-8 pm MondaySaturday, noon-8 pm Sunday. One of Portland’s oldest LebaneseMediterranean restaurants has a new, much larger home—plus new Lebanese-inspired cocktails and mocktails, and some of the city’s best falafel, shawarma and kebabs.
4. Haleakala: PDX Pop-Up
2816 NE Halsey St., instagram.com/haleakalapdx. 10 am-7 pm Saturday, May 1. This local kitchen collective comprises everything from artisanal pickle makers to homemade chimichurri manufacturers. Several vendors will be represented at this pop-up, with food from Latin American seafood restaurant Mestizo available from 10 am to 2 pm and then snacks from the Skinny Chef afterward.
5. Gumba
1733 NE Alberta St., 503-975-5951, gumba-pdx.com. 4:30-8 pm Wednesday, 4:308:30 pm Thursday-Monday. As a food cart, Gumba punched above its weight. Now a brick-and-mortar, it’s one of Portland’s best pasta palaces. Even if you’re still committed to takeout only, no meal in 2020 provided more of a “this feels like we are in a restaurant” frisson than Gumba’s beet, cabbage and endive salad, pappardelle with braised beef sugo, panroasted steelhead trout, and eggplant olive oil cake.
3. Everybody Eats
138 NW 10th Ave., 503-318-1619, everybodyeatspdx.com. 11 am-3 pm and 5-11 pm Tuesday-Saturday. Launched as a catering service on the outer eastside, Everybody Eats has moved into the heart of the Pearl District, bringing a menu inspired by co-owner Johnny Huff Jr.’s family roots in Texas and Louisiana. The showstopper is the Ultimate Seafood Mac-and-Cheese: shrimp, lobster and crab mixed with cheese sauce and noodles, with half a lobster tail, two prawns and lump of crab meat on top.
CHRIS NESSETH
Adam Robinson aims to confuse. “I don’t want you to know exactly what you’re getting,” says the bartender and owner of Deadshot. He’s currently mixing drinks alongside food from recently resurrected Ping, a Portland restaurant last seen in 2012. For Robinson, the partnership is at once a lifeline and a dream come true. Deadshot’s longtime culinary partner, Holdfast, closed in October 2020 due to the financial strain of the pandemic, leaving the bar in need of food to serve alongside its alcohol. Meanwhile, Ping, a former property of Pok Pok’s Andy Ricker, was mounting a comeback, and Robinson remains a fan: When he worked at Park Kitchen a decade ago, he ate Ping once a week. Now, the two operations share space and ingredients. Ping ’s food, inspired by the flavors of Singapore, Hanoi, Tokyo and Bangkok, pairs well with Robinson’s style, which draws from his time living in Taiwan and traveling throughout East Asia. “I’ve always used Asian ingredients–– bitter melon has been in my cocktails since Deadshot was a pop-up,” Robinson says. “Toasted rice powder, galangal, and pandan are always flavors I’ve gravitated toward.” Robinson makes cocktails that are, in his words, “complex, approachable, and leave you wondering.” He weaves this guesswork into the whole process, from creation to naming. The “Renegade Princess v.3,” originally made with nori and jasmine and named, respectively, for Disney princesses Ariel and Jasmine, is now in its third iteration on the Deadshot menu. It no longer has the namesake ingredients, but maintains its floral, grounded roots. Robinson chooses
words like “chocolate,” and “coconut” to describe the translucent orange drink, leaving one to wonder where the cream and dark brown specks are hiding. Robinson breaks it down: Coconut oil imparts flavor to white rum through a process called fat-washing. After the liquid substances commingle at room temperature, Robinson freezes the mixture, forcing the coconut oil to solidify. Once skimmed, the rum is left with a curious hint of beach. The chocolate comes from bitters, and the floral note from chamomile syrup. There is a peppery musk from gin that’s been infused with turmeric, and a savory, souplike scent that comes before your sip. Attribute that to a spritz of Combier Kummel, a liqueur from Holland made with caraway, anise and cumin. It’s crisp, smooth and earthen like a medicinal tea, reading almost as a homemade vermouth. The cocktail is worth your $13. You can dine on the patio, but if ordering drinks to go, they come in one of two forms: a juice bottle, for those that need shaking, or a clear Capri Sun-style plastic pouch for drinks like the Renegade Princess that are usually stirred. This royal cocktail comes premixed alongside a dehydrated lime round, a teeny clear spritz bottle of the Dutch liqueur, a “B(ig) F(ucking) (ice) C(ube),” and instructions to assemble. While the at-home process is fun, Robinson is eager for indoor dining to return so he can make drinks to order and patrons can enjoy Ping’s food hot off the grill grates. “Having it here, in person,” he says, “is a whole different experience.”
1000 SE 12th Ave., 503-233-0743. 3-11 pm daily. Shrouded in foliage and draped in all sorts of rusting accoutrements, from license plates to dock equipment, the front patio of Roadside Attraction has always felt like a refuge from the modern world. That it’s still cash only after all these years only exacerbates the sense that the place somehow exists off the grid.
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SuperWeed Five strains to pair with Free Comic Book Day. BY BRIA N N A W H E E L E R
On the first Saturday in May, the national holiday known to fans of superhero serials, graphic novels and all manner of manga as Free Comic Book Day overtakes Portland. Lifelong comic enthusiasts and newbies alike converge on our city’s many comic book shops to ogle new titles, discover new artists, and walk away with a couple of limited-edition free issues. For both the stoned and straight-edge comic book aficionados among us, this is not only a day to devote to all our favorite local shops, writers and artists—it’s a holiday that concludes indoor reading season and commences outdoor reading season. And for stoners, it can also be a time to revisit strains named for notable comic book characters of past and present. So this year, instead of just packing a bowl of Portland’s preeminent hero strain, Bruce Banner as you settle into your fave new titles, give one of these lesser-known cult faves a try—and then, if you’re so inclined, check out the books they’re each based on.
Vixen A treasured Black hero of the DC comic book universe, Vixen’s inaugural appearance was in Action Comics #521. Vixen’s powers originate from the Tantu Totem formed by Anansi the Spider—who, if you know your Ghanaian folklore, put the moon in the sky. The totem harnesses the power (or spirit) of any animal, past or present, giving Vixen some serious animal magnetism and crime-fighting prowess. Vixen was recruited by both the Justice League and the Suicide Squad, and her alter ego was an NYC high fashion model in the 1980s. So, naturally, I want to smoke a heroic amount of this strain. Vixen, the cannabis strain, is a mostly balanced hybrid that leans genetically in the direction of sativa, but users report effects that are more in line with a balanced hybrid or an effervescent indica. Bred from a cross of Go Time and Dark Side of the Moon, Vixen’s flowers are citrusy and woodsy. Expect highs that respond to your resting state and magnify rather than redirect your mood. Get it from: Mr, Nice Guy, 1034 SE 122nd Ave., 971-279-4766, mrniceguyretail.com.
Black Widow The Black Widow is an epithet used by multiple characters across the Marvel comic book universe. Claire Voyant was Satan’s ambassador, delivering the souls of the damned to the devil himself as Marvel’s Golden Age Black Widow, unrelated to her superspy successors. Natasha Romanoff wouldn’t come into the fold as codename: Black Widow until Tales of Suspense #52 in the early ’60s. Today’s Black Widow is Yelena Belova, soon to be introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well. Additionally, there are no less than four alternative universe versions of Black Widow. Getting to know the intricacies of the Black Widow sagas while partaking in a cultivar as complex as the dashing heroine herself sounds like a primo comic book stoner afternoon. The Black Widow strain is a super-balanced sativa hybrid that users report as offering buzzy head highs and smooth, elastic body highs. THC percentages hover around 17%, but the strain’s potency is hotly heralded as perfect for high-tolerance users. Expect a bold, fruity perfume and candy-sweet exhale to match. Get it from: Green Muse, 5515 NE 16th Ave., 503-954-3146, gogreenmuse.com.
Venom OG
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Green Lantern Folks, there are so freaking many Green Lanterns. Eleven characters so far have led storylines as new incarnations of the Green Lantern or members of the Green Lantern Corps. The most popular Lantern to readers unfamiliar with the depth of the Lanternverse is likely Hal Jordan, but if the premise of altruistic aliens, magic power rings and interstellar law enforcement pique your interest, there is totally a Green Lantern for you. I recommend Green Lantern #0 written by Geoff Johns. This modern take on the Lantern stars a Lebanese American Muslim from Dearborn, Mich., named Simon Baz, who eventually trains Earth’s first female Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz. The sativa strain Green Lantern has mysterious genetics but delivers an unmistakably long-lasting, energetic high. Users compare this euphoric phenotype’s effects to stalwart sativa Jack Herer, albeit with slightly mellower body and head highs. If the saga of Simon Baz (or Hal Jordan or Jessica Cruz) has got you feeling particularly inspired, this is the cultivar to puff on before shadowboxing yourself into Lantern Corps shape. Expect a peppery pine perfume and a mild citrus mouthfeel. Get it from: Alternative Solutions, 13560 SE Powell Blvd., 503-761-1635.
Kryptonite
Venom is a hugely popular character in the Marvel comic universe, a weirdly charismatic symbiote who forms memorable and/or disturbing odd-couple attachments to its human hosts, which in the past have included both Spider-Man and Tel-Kar. Venom’s narratives twist and arch through an entire “Venomverse,” which, when explored with earnestness and fat hits of Venom OG, may make the snarky alien parasite your new favorite antihero. Venom OG is an indica dominant cross of Poison OG and Rare Dankness. Most users favor this strain for its full-body relaxation and myriad therapeutic applications, including, but not limited to: pain, arthritis, anxiety and sleep disorders. Venom’s primary terpene is myrcene, lending a peppery balsam perfume to the buds and a skunky sharpness to the exhale. Expect a functional relaxation in the body and an emotionally calming head high.
This isn’t named for a superhero per se, but without Superman, there wouldn’t be kryptonite, and without kryptonite, how could we describe how completely leveled cannabis can sometimes leave its users? In general, Kryptonite has become a cultural shorthand for someone’s Achilles’ heel, but for stoners it mostly refers to either a musky therapeutic strain made famous by the Bay Area’s Oaksterdam breeders or a strain they no longer mess with. For our purposes, we refer to the former. Kryptonite is an indica-leaning hybrid bred from perennial faves Mendocino Purps and Space Queen. This cultivar is famed for its treatment of chronic pain; many users report the strain relieves the most debilitating of their symptoms without putting them to sleep. The THC concentration is typically in the midteens with enough fractional CBD to boost its therapeutic efficacy. And when you’ve been curled around a stack of comics all day and your lower back has begun to revolt, Kryptonite can be your back pain’s kryptonite. Expect a fragrance of funky tropical fruit and a sugary sweet inhale.
Get it from: Bridge City Collective, 4312 N Williams Ave., 503-384-2955, bridgecitycollective.com.
Get it from: Floyd’s Fine Cannabis, 9240 N Whitaker Road, 503-895-9500, floydsfinecannabis.com.
Willamette Week APRIL 28, 2021 wweek.com
FLASHBACK
THIS WEEK IN 2006
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PERFORMANCE
Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com C O U R T E S Y O F B R O A D WAY R O S E T H E AT E R
Love Lost
WHITE WEDDING: Kailey Rhodes and Jeff Rosick play a couple, seen here at the high point in their relationship, in The Last Five Years.
Broadway Rose’s filmed production of The Last Five Years makes music out of a doomed romance. BY BE N N E T T C A M P B E L L FE RGUS O N
At the beginning of The Last Five Years, Cathy (Kailey Rhodes) sings, “Jamie is over and Jamie is gone.” If you’re wondering who Jamie is and why he’s over and gone, fear not—the play will answer those questions. But that doesn’t matter so much as the cloud of wounded yearning that surrounds Cathy as she faces the audience while wearing a pair of jeans with a hole in the knee. Cathy is in romantic purgatory, but a character’s hell can be an audience’s heaven. By filming two-person plays with cinematic flair, Tigard’s Broadway Rose Theatre has proved its mastery of sublime minimalism. As its lovely 2020 staging of Daddy Long Legs confirmed, the company’s productions are the perfect way to get lost in the hopes and hurts of two intertwined souls. The Last Five Years is a chronologically scrambled autopsy of the marriage between Jamie (Jeff Rosick), a writer, and Cathy, an actress. Writer-composer Jason Robert Brown seizes fragments of their stories—including Cathy’s crumbling career and Jamie’s infidelity—and arranges them into counterintuitive patterns, leaping from end to beginning to middle to who the hell knows where. The more Brown distorts the timeline of Cathy and Jamie’s relationship, the clearer the toxicity of their connection becomes. Jamie’s inattentiveness during a trip to Ohio is perplexing (“You could stay with your wife on her fucking birthday,” Cathy fumes), but it’s downright infuriating when you realize that Cathy took a gig in Ohio because Jamie encouraged her to pursue acting more aggressively. He pushes her away, then punishes her for it. Jamie insists that Cathy is jealous of his success as a writer (“I will not lose because you can’t win,” he whines), but their marriage actually collapses because he’s a cheating asshole. Rosick recognizes that and fearlessly embraces his character’s callousness, especially during the ironically titled song “A Miracle Would Happen/When You Come Home to Me,” which is largely a self-pitying lament about all the women that marriage has denied Jamie.
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The Last Five Years rarely lets Cathy and Jamie interact—they mostly sing about each other, not to each other—but there’s a dark poetry to the distance between them. When Jamie sings his ingratiating “Schmuel Song,” lighting designer Carl Faber cloaks Rhodes in shadow, one of several grimly elegant metaphors that suggest Cathy is getting lost in the specter of Jamie’s ego. Faber’s evocative work is enhanced by scenic artists Liz Carlson and Jo Farley, who infuse the production with a visual grandeur that matches its emotional scope. Cathy and Jamie love and lose each other before a backdrop featuring a mess of skyscrapers, which seem to sprout from the intensity of the couple’s feelings. Their affection for each other may be misguided, but to them, it is as vast and complicated as an entire city. That’s why they cling to it for so long. Jamie is at once awful and awfully human, but the same can’t be said of Cathy. By refusing to give her anything resembling a flaw, Brown dehumanizes her. While Rhodes is riveting—her explosively emotional performance of the heartbreaking ballad “Still Hurting” makes you want to leap through the screen and comfort Cathy—she soars in spite of Brown’s writing, not because of it. It’s worth nothing that Brown was sued by his ex-wife, Theresa O’Neill, who claimed that The Last Five Years violated the terms of their divorce agreement. Although the suit was settled before the play’s 2002 New York premiere—Brown altered the story to reduce the similarities between O’Neill and Cathy—it’s hard not to wonder if his one-sided storytelling is the work of a man who never took the trouble to understand his former spouse as thoroughly as he understands himself. While Brown’s blinkered characterization of Cathy is a distraction, it doesn’t eclipse Broadway Rose’s majestic command of virtual theater. The company’s founders, Sharon Maroney, who directed The Last Five Years, and her husband, Dan Murphy, may eventually go back to creating colossal productions of expansive musicals like Into the Woods, but let’s hope they will carry a piece of Cathy and Jamie’s sad but unshakable story with them. I know I will. ™ SEE IT: The Last Five Years streams at broadwayrose.org/ last-five-years through May 16. A 48-hour rental is $25 per household, and $5 tickets are available through the Arts for All program.
MUSIC Written by: Daniel Bromfield | Contact: @bromf3
Now Hear This Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery. SOMETHING OLD If Bunny Wailer had any regret about leaving the Wailers just before their international fame under Bob Marley, you won’t find it on his solo work. 1981’s Sings the Wailers reinterprets tracks from his old band’s early days in a spit-shined, minimal style whose empty space makes it slightly eerie but whose quick tempos and brick-dumb pop hooks make it the best beach party soundtrack you could ask for. And if you still think all reggae sounds the same, try listening to this next to his debut, Blackheart Man. SOMETHING NEW The bad news is that Folklore wasn’t the practice run for the re-recordings of her old catalog that Taylor Swift had promised for years. The good news is that Fearless (Taylor’s Version) sounds just a little better than the thinly produced but stunningly written 2008 original—and her now-31-year-old voice makes the contrast between her protagonists’ fantasies and the writer’s knowledge that love isn’t always a fairy tale even more delicious. SOMETHING LOCAL “I ain’t moving to L.A., I play where I stay,” announces Karma Rivera on her “Kissy Face Freestyle.” Good for her. She’s one of the best rappers in Portland, comfortable over trap hi-hats or the midtempo lope of reggaeton. She can sing, too, an invaluable asset in a climate where being able to do both can make you a serious commercial threat. But “Kissy Face Freestyle” is all wolf trap-tight bars, delivered over a beat that sounds like Bambi running around in terror. SOMETHING ASKEW This one will be a pain in the ass to recommend. If you say it’s “μ-Ziq” (pronounced “music”), people will get confused and then judge you for listening to an artist with such a pretentious name. If you say it’s “Mike Paradinas” they won’t be able to find it on Spotify. But play even 10 seconds of 1997’s Lunatic Harness for someone sympathetic to ambient electronic music and watch as their eyes light up with video game colors. This is an album whose beats hit as hard as its synths and strings jerk tears.
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screener
MOVIES
Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com
GET YO UR REPS I N
LETTERBOXD
KEVIN ENGLAND
While local rep theaters are out of commission, we’ll be putting together weekly watchlists of films readily available to stream. As more people get vaccinated and a less isolated world looms on the horizon, it can feel as though we’re torn between two selves: the one who’s excited to get back out there and socialize again, and the one who wants to stay in bed and work from home forever. Thus, this week’s theme is fractured identity.
Persona (1966) CALL OF NATURE?: Sara Robbin plays a woman who believes she is being contacted by extraterrestrials following her abduction.
Close Encounters A century-old Mount Hood cabin is the beautiful backdrop of a new film about a therapist and his patient investigating alien communication. BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F EI FER
@chance_s_p
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SEE IT: Contactee streams on Amazon Prime.
Dead Ringers (1988) David “King of Body Horror” Cronenberg turns his attention from the corporal to the psychological in this twisted character study of twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons, in dual roles). Believing they are of one soul, the twins’ codependency is tested when they attempt to live their own lives, leading to a descent into madness. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, Hoopla, Hulu, iTunes, Kanopy, Peacock, Philo, Pluto TV, Sling TV, Starz, Tubi, Vudu, YouTube.
Images (1972) When children’s author Cathryn and her husband vacation at a remote Irish cottage, she finds herself haunted by apparitions and her own doppelgänger. While attempting to kill each one off, she cannot distinguish reality from her own fractured psyche. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Criterion Channel, Google Play, Kanopy, Mubi, Tubi, YouTube.
Always Shine (2016) When two longtime friends with varying degrees of success as actors vacation together at Big Sur to reconnect, they become entangled in a web of jealous rivalry. Sophia Takal directs this scathing indictment of Hollywood’s culture of misogyny. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Crackle, Fubo, Google Play, iTunes, Kanopy, Pluto TV, Vudu, YouTube. TCM.COM
When Oregon filmmaker Vincent Caldoni began mapping out his new alien abduction movie Contactee, he thought first in terms of power imbalance. After all, for contact to occur, one party traverses galaxies, possibly even dimensions, to explore another world. The other drives a blue Toyota Yaris 40 miles east of Portland. Caldoni’s genre picture needed a grounding element—an earthly relationship beset with an analogous power imbalance and parallels to the invasive testing of many abduction narratives. “I got to thinking about a therapeutic relationship where people can fall in love with their therapists, and therapists can fall in love with their patients,” says Caldoni, whose 15-year film career is highlighted by genre-hopping shorts and music videos for acts like Gojira and Alela Diane. “It’s very human! But it’s also such an overreach and terrible thing to do.” That juxtaposition, fleshed out with the help of Contactee star Sara Robbin, helped Caldoni unlock the story of a Portland woman named Natalia (Robbin) and her boundary-breaking therapist (Patrick D. Green), who seclude themselves in a cabin on Mount Hood. There, they wait—for something cosmic to contact Natalia, based on what she’s shared in their counseling sessions. The ensuing film, streamable via Amazon Prime, is a disorienting cycle of unsound methods, meddling and control disguised as temptation. As days fade into countless nights and wine is poured a few too many times, Caldoni’s film commits to an aura of fishbowl entrapment. “In a lot of those cases, I wanted the camera to be the beings,” Caldoni says. “They’re looking. They’re monitoring. I hope [it] makes the audience feel a little uncomfortable.” While Robbin alternately soothes and toys with the audience through her character’s serial mood shifts, Portland actor Green parries with an erudite calm. “In Patrick’s life before being an actor, he was a social
worker,” says Caldoni, who cast Green to replace himself as therapist Jay Rossi. “He came in with a lot of understanding about the lines the character is crossing.” Ironically, the barn-red mountain house itself—tucked away in Welches—is a serene place that holds special significance for Caldoni. Constructed in 1911 by his great-great grandfather, the cabin butts up against a shimmering alpine stream, and had been waiting for its star turn ever since Caldoni spent entire childhood summers there and “didn’t put shoes on the entire time.” “I have had that location in my back pocket my whole life,” he says. “I’ve been making films since I was, like, 20. I’ve thought about it before, and I was like, ‘No, not yet. I only get one crack at this. I gotta save it.’” Speaking of back-pocket ideas, the minimal special effects in Contactee borrow from a Stanley Kubrick technique famously deployed in 2001: A Space Odyssey. To create constellations and nebulae dancing across the black void of space, Caldoni poured coffee grounds into a starkwhite bathtub and then inverted the colors by running the footage in negative. And though its specific use in the movie shouldn’t be spoiled, DIY effects also included a Zentai bodysuit doused in road-marking paint. Let the paint dry if you try that one at home, Caldoni advises; the fumes are murder. As for influences, the writer-director holds some explicit interest in the alien-event genre through a long-standing fandom of The X-Files and Unsolved Mysteries. Even more, the volatile, isolated two-step of Contactee recalls films like Misery, Persona and Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Within that cluster of inspirations, it’s notable that Contactee never abandons its twisted therapeutic paradigm, no matter how heightened the science fiction. What you’re witnessing may or may not be human, but it’s always personal. “I love a movie where you end up unsure about the identity of a person you related to,” Caldoni says. “Because then the credits are rolling and you’re going, ‘Who am I?’”
One of the most influential and essential arthouse films ever made, Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece follows nurse Alma and her patient, a stage actress named Elisabet who has stopped speaking. Isolated in a cottage by the sea, the pair begin to bond—so well, in fact, they soon inhabit each other’s personalities. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Criterion Channel, HBO Max, iTunes.
Seconds (1966) In this sci-fi thriller by John Frankenheimer, dissatisfied banker Arthur is looking for a second chance at life. Salvation comes in the form of an experimental procedure that allows him to fake his own death and form a completely new identity, and he is reborn as a handsome artist named Tony. Regret predictably ensues as he realizes his dream life is a nightmare. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play, iTunes, Kanopy, YouTube.
MOVIES HBO
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK Our Towns When journalists Deborah and James Fallows conclude their new HBO documentary in Bend, the Central Oregon hub is held up as a beacon, having reinvented itself into a year-round tourist destination after weathering the 1980s timber crash. Evolving municipal identity runs through all eight profiles in Our Towns, based on the Fallowses’ 2018 book of the same name. While the film’s many drone-captured sweeps of marshes, highways and farmland are simultaneously majestic and too polished, the most useful takeaway from Our Towns is a psychological prophecy. The Fallowses note that although Americans are routinely intransigent when it comes to their national politics, they often believe their communities’ outlooks to be different. And with enough of that exceptionalism, cities can actually become positively idiosyncratic. California’s Inland Empire boxing gyms double as chess clubs. West Virginia public radio stations leap to the national stage. Small-town Maine newspapers stay robust against all odds. If Our Towns has a major shortfall, it too often employs industrial narratives as a crutch for town health and identity. Today’s innovations are framed as victories for locales like Bend, but the exit of the previous industry only shows how fickle and exploitative commercial definitions can be. Luckily though, the guiding principle here is classic, unassuming human interest—may it never decline, crash or outsource. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. HBO, HBO Max.
OUR KEY
: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR. : 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 WAT C 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. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.
ALSO PLAYING Do Not Split
Frontline crisis journalism has long been a staple of the Oscars’ Best Documentary (Short Subject) category. Unmercifully, the world never quits offering new topics. While Portlander Skye Fitzgerald’s Hunger Ward would beat out the rest of the 2020 nominees for its sheer, don’t-look-away portraiture, Norwegian journalist Anders Hammer’s Do Not Split presents a more gripping reportage of Hong Kong’s past two years. Between February 2019 and last June, a bill was proposed to allow extradition of criminal suspects in Hong Kong to mainland China, and a controversial anti-sedition law was passed, which allows China to establish a national security agency in the former British colony. All of that time, Hammer’s camera is guided on a tear-gas tour of a region protesting for its soul. The police brutality, flash bangs and thousands of young activists risking their futures should look familiar to any American viewer. But it’s the earnest ingenuity of the Hong Kong protesters on increasingly treacherous political ground that renders Do Not Split a must-see, with its coordinated umbrella charges and rooftop escapes. Now, months after the film’s completion, and with Beijing having recently granted itself authority to simply veto Hong Kong elections, the doc stands as a tribute to how ruggedly civilians will fight for a region seemingly lost to their past while still living out their wildest hopes for the future. NR. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Cinema 21, Hollywood, Virtual Cinema.
The Letter Room Short films (even the kind nominated for Oscars) are rarely the domain of big-name actors, let alone movie stars of Oscar Isaac’s caliber. But exceptions are often made for family, and director Elvira Lind casts her husband in a gentle, understated part in The Letter Room—one that runs counter to Isaac’s preternatural suave. In fact, Richard the prison guard has more in common with modest, disquieted Tony Shalhoub roles than Isaac’s X-Wing fighter pilots and folk singers. Obscured by a broom-bristle mustache and frumpy uniform, Isaac slowly unfurls the morbid curiosity resulting from Richard’s “promotion” to the prison’s communications department. Essentially, the new gig just means he surveils all correspondence leaving and entering the pen. Lind’s 30-minute short manages to subvert the guard-with-a-heart-of-gold setup in a few unexpected ways (watch for another well-placed cameo) as the power disparity between captors and captives shifts. In fact, confoundingly, the letter room may be the only carceral context in which the playing field levels. If everyone knows full well they’re either snooping or being snooped on, personal letters become fictions, then fan fictions, then forgeries. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime, Cinema 21, Hollywood, Living Room, Virtual Cinema.
Nina Wu Nina Wu is a struggling actress living in Taipei. When her agent nabs her an audition for a plum role in a ’70s espionage thriller, she hesitates after learning
it requires full-frontal nudity, though ultimately goes through with it. She earns the part, but discovers that the on-set environment is dangerous and brutal—the director is abusive in his quest to elicit Nina’s best performance, and the (mostly male) crew members do nothing to intervene. As Nina begins to unravel, repressed memories leak through the cracks, and she questions how she actually got the role in the first place. The answer is horrific, almost as horrific as the fact that Nina Wu is inspired by true events. Written by and starring Wu Ke-Xi in the titular role, this darkly surrealist character study takes inspiration from Satoshi Kon’s 1997 anime masterpiece Perfect Blue, and is a mesmerizing exploration of the myriad ways in which trauma completely alters one’s mental health, one’s identity, one’s entire world. As Joan Didion said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live,” which is exactly the coping mechanism Nina chooses. Though the film is occasionally a tad unfocused, it still retains a serrated sharpness, leaving an unforgettable scar. NR. MIA VICINO. On Demand, Virtual Cinema.
Opera This nine-minute short is the pinnacle of 2020’s Oscarnominated animated shorts. But if Opera tells us anything, beware of pinnacles. Patient and haunting, Erick Oh’s conceptual film comprises one drooping pan down a pyramid-bound society, and then one pan back up. Resembling a pagoda in some areas and a spectral Richard Scarry illustration in others, the structure is populated by thousands of minuscule and identical beings, but their boundaries are clear: a ruling force at the top, undergirded by intellectual and professional strata, with laborers at the bottom. Best seen on a 100-foot screen or with your nose 6 inches from your TV, Opera is
intensely allegorical, though it’s difficult to pin down for what exactly. The castes, exploitations and cyclical violence found in most every modern civilization? No answer seems too big. Whatever the inspiration, Opera is a technical stunner. A viewer could watch it 10 consecutive times and snatch some new fleck of detail from, say, the second box on the left, seven levels down. The macro-simplicity of countless stick figures milling around a triangle only enhances the themes as ambitious as Mother! and disturbed as Brazil. NR. CHANCE SOLEMPFEIFER. Cinema 21, Hollywood, Living Room, Virtual Cinema.
Clapboard Jungle Part diary, part guide, part sounding board for independent filmmakers, Clapboard Jungle is liable to make a critic self-conscious. Observing the five-year journey Canadian horror director Justin McConnell endured to make a feature film, any viewer is reminded that no matter your judgments when the credits roll, you’ve just implicitly watched years of rejection, sacrifice and growth synthesized on screen. McConnell (Lifechanger, Broken Mile) often speaks directly to his camera about “surviving” the industry, but he’s also candidly interviewed both friends and legends, including Guillermo del Toro, George Romero and Paul Schrader. That said, if it’s his prerogative to conflate the journey and destination, it’s the critic’s to separate them. Clapboard Jungle is saddled by the sheer, narrow tedium of McConnell’s projects’ constant fits and starts, amid a repetitive if enlightening deluge of filmmakers testifying to industry pitfalls. While its unbreakable focus on actualization and education could be the ideal go-get-’em for a frustrated artist, the project’s self-reflexive nature will always take for granted that we care as much as McConnell. Now, practic-
ing empathy is part of the point, but the broader takeaway is that anyone who’d make movies for love alone is obsessed. They feel called to the odyssey of it all in a way this review could never alter. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Arrow, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube.
Without Remorse Excluding dadcore classic The Hunt for Red October, the history of films based on Tom Clancy’s doorstop military tomes is as long, flat and drab as an aircraft carrier. The Michael B. Jordan-led Without Remorse only further squashes that reputation. Now decades divorced from the novel’s Cold War setting, the Amazon Prime revenge thriller is more indebted to tactical gear and clinical first-person shooter “realism” than the geopolitical intrigue that made Clancy the American military-industrial complex’s answer to John le Carré. Sicario: Day of the Soldado director Stefano Sollima sees only muted pain and expert violence in the rampage of Navy SEAL John Clark (Jordan) against the anonymous Russians who upended his retirement. While a standout prison scene partially redeems Jordan’s performance, any Michael B. devotee can see that his post-Creed habit of choosing films based on acting experiences (read: muscle-training like a SEAL and appearing believable with automatic rifles) has superseded his desire for script quality. Jordan delivers most lines at trailer-exposition volume, simultaneously stiff but strained. It’s perhaps his weakest performance to date in an arms exercise so joyless and rote it makes The Sum of All Fears look like Dr. Strangelove. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime.
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ART N’ COMICS!
Be a Willamette Week featured artist! Any art style is welcome! Let’s share your art! Contact us at art@wweek.com.
FEATURED ARTIST: Marilyn Stablein
Marilyn’s a Portland artist working in collage, assemblage, artists books and installation art. One of Marilyn’s recent books was recommended as a great “pandemic” read by Rain Taxi, an independent lit mag. marilynstablein.com
JACK KENT’S
Jack draws exactly what he sees n’ hears from the streets. IG @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com
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JONESIN’
Week of May 6
©2021 Rob Brezsny
by Matt Jones
"Ask Your Doctor"--they sound like prescriptions.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Created by Leonardo da Vinci in the 16th century, the *Mona Lisa* is one of the world's most famous paintings. It's hanging in the Louvre museum in Paris. In that same museum is a less renowned version of the *Mona Lisa*. It depicts the same woman, but she's unclothed. Made by da Vinci's student, it was probably inspired by a now-lost nude *Mona Lisa* painted by the master himself. Renaissance artists commonly created "heavenly" and "vulgar" versions of the same subject. I suggest that in the coming weeks you opt for the "vulgar" *Mona Lisa*, not the "heavenly" one, as your metaphor of power. Favor what's earthy, raw, and unadorned over what's spectacular, idealized, and polished.
Science writer Sharman Apt Russell provides counsel that I think you should consider adopting in the coming days. The psychospiritual healing you require probably won't be available through the normal means, so some version of her proposal may be useful: "We may need to be cured by flowers. We may need to strip naked and let the petals fall on our shoulders, down our bellies, against our thighs. We may need to lie naked in fields of wildflowers. We may need to walk naked through beauty. We may need to walk naked through color. We may need to walk naked through scent."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20) Taurus poet Vera Pavlova writes, "Why is the word yes so brief? It should be the longest, the hardest, so that you could not decide in an instant to say it, so that upon reflection you could stop in the middle of saying it." I suppose it makes sense for her to express such an attitude, given the fact that she never had a happy experience until she was 20 years old, and that furthermore, this happiness was "unbearable." (She confessed these sad truths in an interview.) But I hope you won't adopt her hard-edged skepticism toward YES anytime soon, Taurus. In my view, it's time for you to become a connoisseur of YES, a brave explorer of the bright mysteries of YES, an exuberant perpetrator of YES.
GEMINI (May 21-June20)
ACROSS 1 "Dis or _ _ _" ("You Don't Know Jack" round) 4 Ozone depleter, for short 7 Brotherhood brothers 12 Obama's first chief of staff Rahm 14 Fragmented 16 *"Feel the need to get in hot water? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ is right for you." 17 *"Are you managing your health under 'New Rules'? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ ..." 19 Our top story? 20 Things to pick
53 Gnocchi-like dumplings (from the Italian for "naked")
25 Kept inside
55 "Who Let the Dogs Out?" group Baha _ _ _
26 Former Army base in N.J.
In indigenous cultures from West Africa to Finland to China, folklore describes foxes as crafty tricksters with magical powers. Sometimes they're thought of as perpetrators of pranks, but more often they are considered helpful messengers or intelligent allies. I propose that you regard the fox as your spirit creature for the foreseeable future. I think you will benefit from the influence of your inner fox—the wild part of you that is ingenious, cunning, and resourceful.
28 Gadot of "Wonder Woman"
CANCER (June 21-July 22)
56 "You're in trou-bllle ..." 57 Poison lead singer Michaels 58 Barely enough 60 *"Want to feel like you did it your way? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ ..." 62 *"Feel like the only way to be cured is by meat? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ ..." 64 Milk acid 65 Seven days from now
23 7, on a grandfather clock
66 Nebraska senator Ben who voted to impeach in the February 2021 trial
24 Chime in
67 _ _ _ Equis
26 Prefix meaning "ironcontaining"
68 "Black-ish" dad
22 Film set in cyberspace
27 Maritime patrol org. 29 *"Lack of unusual influences getting you down? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ ..." 31 "Atlas Shrugged" novelist Rand 33 "And giving _ _ _, up the chimney he rose" 34 Marlins' MLB div. 35 In-browser programs 39 Tiny amounts 41 Conk out 42 Feast on the beach 44 Roman 1011 45 *"Do you need to reach higher in life? Ask your doctor if _ _ _ ..." 48 Aquafina rival 52 Game show host Convy and Muppet ... well, we don't get a last name
DOWN 1 "Done it before" feeling 2 Cremona violins 3 Gambit 4 Capital of the 21-Down Empire 5 Moroccan hat 6 Medical center 7 Age range for most highschoolers 8 Heavy burden 9 Bucks' org. 10 Out of _ _ _ (askew) 11 Like some renditions 13 Rapa _ _ _ (Easter Island, to locals) 15 Trivia quiz website that also offers pub trivia 18 Licorice-flavored seeds 21 See 4-Down
©2021 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.
30 Scarfed, even more slangily 32 Barks sharply 35 Marinated Philippine dishes 36 Disinfectant ingredient 37 Kuala Lumpur's _ _ _ Towers skyscrapers 38 Provide table talk? 40 "What's the _ _ _?" ("So what?") 43 _ _ _ Reader (alternative digest) 46 Home of Odysseus and Penelope 47 Won on eBay, usually 49 Took an x-ray of, perhaps 50 Kendall or Kylie 51 Consumption 54 Cozumel y Mallorca, por ejemplo 57 Rite performed by a mohel 59 Dairy dweller 61 Some two-door Audi models 63 One of "Two Virgins" on a 1968 album cover
last week’s answers
"The universe conspires in your favor," writes author Neale Donald Welsch. "It consistently places before you the right and perfect people, circumstances, and situations with which to answer life’s only question: 'Who are you?'" In my book *Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings*, I say much the same thing, although I mention two further questions that life regularly asks, which are: 1. What can you do next to liberate yourself from some of your suffering? 2. What can you do next to reduce the suffering of others, even by a little? As you enter a phase when you'll get ample cosmic help in diminishing suffering and defining who you are, I hope you meditate on these questions every day.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22) The poet Anne Sexton wrote a letter to a Benedictine monk whose real identity she kept secret from the rest of us. She told him, "There are a few great souls in my life. They are not many. They are few. You are one.” In this spirit, Leo, and in accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to take an inventory of the great souls in your life: the people you admire and respect and learn from and feel grateful for; people with high integrity and noble intentions; people who are generous with their precious gifts. When you've compiled your list, I encourage you to do as Sexton did: Express your appreciation; perhaps even send nostrings-attached gifts. Doing these things will have a profoundly healing effect on you.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) "It’s a temptation for any intelligent person to try to murder the primitive, emotive, appetitive self," writes author Donna Tartt. "But that is a mistake. Because it is dangerous to ignore the existence of the irrational." I'm sending this message out to you, Virgo, because in the coming weeks it will be crucial for you to honor the parts of your life that can't be managed through rational thought alone. I suggest you have sacred fun as you exult in the mysterious, welcome the numinous, explore the wildness within you, unrepress big feelings you've buried, and marvel adoringly about your deepest yearnings.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) As Scorpio author Margaret Atwood reminds us, "Water is not a solid wall; it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it." According to my reading of the astrological omens, being like water will be an excellent strategy for you to embrace during the coming weeks. "Water is patient," Atwood continues. "Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) In a letter to a friend in 1856, Sagittarian poet Emily Dickinson confessed she was feeling discombobulated because of a recent move to a new home. She hoped she would soon regain her bearings. "I am out with lanterns, looking for myself," she quipped, adding that she couldn't help laughing at her disorientation. She signed the letter "From your mad Emilie," intentionally misspelling her own name. I'd love it if you approached your current doubt and uncertainty with a similar light-heartedness and poise. (PS: Soon after writing this letter, Dickinson began her career as a poet in earnest, reading extensively and finishing an average of one poem every day for many years.)
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) Now is a favorable time to celebrate both life's changeableness and your own. The way we are all constantly called on to adjust to unceasing transformations can sometimes be a wearying chore, but I suspect it could be at least interesting and possibly even exhilarating for you in the coming weeks. For inspiration, study this message from the "Welcome to Night Vale" podcast: "You are never the same twice, and much of your unhappiness comes from trying to pretend that you are. Accept that you are different each day, and do so joyfully, recognizing it for the gift it is. Work within the desires and goals of the person you are currently, until you aren’t that person anymore."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Aquarian author Toni Morrison described two varieties of loneliness. The first "is a loneliness that can be rocked. Arms crossed, knees drawn up; holding, holding on, this motion smooths and contains the rocker." The second "is a loneliness that roams. No rocking can hold it down. It is alive, on its own." Neither kind is better or worse, of course, and both are sometimes necessary as a strategy for self-renewal— as a means for deepening and fine-tuning one's relationship with oneself. I recommend either or both for you in the coming weeks.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20) England's Prince Charles requires his valet to iron his shoelaces and put toothpaste on his toothbrush and wash all of his clothes by hand. I could conceivably interpret the current astrological omens to mean that you should pursue similar behavior in the coming weeks. I could, but I won't. Instead, I will suggest that you solicit help about truly important matters, not meaningless trivia like shoelace ironing. For example, I urge you to ask for the support you need as you build bridges, seek harmony, and make interesting connections.
HOMEWORK: The Dream of the Month Club wants to hear about your best nightly dreams. Truthrooster@gmail.com
Check out Rob Brezsny’s Expanded Weekly Audio Horoscopes & Daily Text Message Horoscopes
freewillastrology.com The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at
1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700 Willamette Week APRIL 28, 2021 wweek.com
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MICHAEL DONHOWE
503-243-2122 mdonhowe@wweek.com CASH for INSTRUMENTS
Tradeupmusic.com SE 503-236-8800 NE 503-335-8800
Steve Greenberg Tree Service
Pruning and removals, stump grinding, 24-hour emergency service. Licensed/Insured. CCB#67024. Free estimates: 503-284-2077
RESERVE YOUR TABLE AT REVOLUTIONHALL.COM
TRADEUPMUSIC.COM
Buying, selling, instruments of every shape and size. Open 11am-7pm every day. 4701 SE Division & 1834 NE Alberta.
Drive New Cars
M-F Day/Swing Ft/Pt North Portland Men and Women 360-718-7443
Complete Yard Service Senior Discounts We do it all! Trimming, hedges & shrubs, pruning, bark dust, gutter cleaning, yard debris pickup & weeding, blackberries and ivy removal, staining, pressure washing & water sealing 503-235-0491 or 503-853-0480
It’s Snow Time 50316 Columbia River Hwy. 30 Scappoose Only 15 miles from NW Portland
For all your lightbulb fixtures & parts
Live Music Schedule April 28 Annette Lowman Trio 630pm April 29 Mark Tegio 630pm April 30 Todd Sheaffer (RailroadEarth) - tickets required May 1 Todd Sheaffer (Railroad Earth) - tickets required May 5 Petty Cash 630pm May 6 Lynn Conover w John Lowell Mitchell 630pm May 7 Quick and Easy Boys 630pm May 8 Michael Hurley and the Croakers 630 lm May 9 McCarthy Creek 5pm May 12 Little Sue 630pm May 13 Dumpster Joe 630pm May 14 Alexa Wiley and the Wilderness 630pm May 15 Pagan Jug Band 630pm May 16 McCarthy Creek 5pm
Call for Tickets! 503-830-4681 Wed - Sat start 6:30pm Sun 5pm - All Shows Are Outside
Sunlan Lighting
7400 SW Macadam Ave
gorgeperformance.com
3901 N Mississippi Ave 503.281.0453 Essential Business Hours 9:00 to 5:30 Monday thru Friday 11:00 to 4:00 Saturday Sunlan cartoons by Kay Newell “The Lightbulb Lady” Facebook / Twitter Instagram / Google
sunlanlighting.com