Willamette Week, October 13, 2021 - Volume 47, Issue 50 - "The Harvest Issue 2021"

COPS: Body Cameras for Christmas? P. 8 NEWS: The Democrat Who Lost His District. P. 9 FOOD: The Tapas Torch Passed P. 22

HARVEST THIS YEAR’S CROP I S R E A DY FOR ITS C LO S E - U P.

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VOL 47/50 10.13.2021

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

S H AW N T E S I M S

FINDINGS

MARTHA BAKES, PAGE 29

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 47, ISSUE 50 Nearly a quarter of Portland ticketholders didn’t show up for a Wilco show. 6

The indoor cannabis industry more or less harvests year round.

The Rose City Riveters stopped buying beer at Providence Park. 7

Standing in a circle at the end of practice is significant to Danza Azteca group Mitotiliztli Tezkatlipoka, considering how excluded they feel from many other circles. 19

President Biden’s Justice Department wants body cameras in Portland. 8 National Guard members can’t

vote in the Legislature while helping staff hospitals. 9

Old Apple Farms had a surprising influx of new trimmers this year: former line chefs and prep cooks. 11 Cannabis is a monocrop. 12 Green Box co-founder Adrian

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Portland restaurant Wild North builds its menu around using all of the animal. 20 In 2020, Patricia Wolf released a record of of bird chirps recorded on Mount St. Helens. 21 A converted home that was once Beech Street Parlor is now a tapas restaurant. 22

Wayman was the first delivery person in Portland to earn a special license to deliver cannabis. 13

Scaponia County Park is named for its location between Vernonia and Scappoose. 27

Cold at the end of a growing cycle can cause cannabis buds to turn more purple. 15

Martha Bakes is part cooking show, but it does not feature Martha Stewart . 28

The Dragonfly Earth Medicine Pure certification operates on the honor system. 16

Last Meal is a film that includes glamour shots of death row inmates’ requested final dinners. 30

ON THE COVER:

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Harvest Issue 2021, photo

by Eric Christiansen.

A Portland comedian rebuked Dave Chappelle.

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Mark Zusman

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DIALOGUE

Last week, WW examined a controversy simmering among Portland-area officials distributing hundreds of millions of dollars to aid homeless people (“Cozy Quarters,” WW, Oct. 6, 2021). Several critics, including City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, say the office tasked with handing out the money is too cozy with the organizations receiving the funds. One example examined in the story: the case of Kristina Smock, a consultant who has received several contracts in the orbit of her husband, Marc Jolin, who runs the Joint Office of Homeless Services. Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury defended Jolin’s integrity. Here’s what our readers had to say: Eric A Blair, via Twitter: “Everyone in Portland needs to read this article. Honestly, this is one of the most underreported and underappreciated aspects of the homelessness crisis. Do those involved have an incentive to solve it? Or, are the incentives in the direction to perpetuate it?

Follow the money.”

Ils, via wweek.com: “I have known Marc for years and years.

I do not think he is the type to take advantage of his work to gain illegally or underhandedly.” ross williams, via wweek.com: “Defending Jolin’s sincerity is irrelevant. Despite what Kafoury seems to believe, the problem with conflicts of interest is not some sort of moral failure. The problem is that they inevitably narrow the decision making.

“You can see it in Kafoury’s own response to homelessness, which confuses the issue with the need for affordable workforce housing. There is a need for a bigger supply of affordable housing, but building more houses isn’t going to get the homeless off the

Dr. Know

streets or into a stable housing.

Telling the housing developers (nonprofit or not) that they aren’t the solution to homelessness is not going to cause them to change their business model to address the issue. Nor is it reasonable to expect they would, regardless of their sincere interest in the problem.

“Nor are you going to get someone who is part of the homeless services industry to shift to a model that eliminates the need for their services. Broken or not, they aren’t going to change their business model, and you can’t expect someone with deep personal ties to that industry to break it either.

“As usual, Hardesty is right.

She is challenging an established orthodoxy’s failures, but that’s not necessarily popular with those political leaders who have an interest in preserving the status quo.”

Jeremy Roark, via Facebook: “Maybe they should include some actual homeless folks in the planning and decision making instead of a bunch of people whose life-

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11 EARLY SHOW SOLD OUT LATE SHOW ON SALE NOW! PRESENTED BY TRUE WEST 4

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

CORRECTION Last week’s cover story (“Things Will Die,” WW, Oct. 6, 2021) incorrectly listed the number of bears that were illegally killed in Oregon in 2020 as 43. The correct number was 13, bringing the 2020 total to 417. WW regrets the error.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: 2220 NW Quimby St., Portland, OR 97210. Email: mzusman@ wweek.com.

BY MART Y SMITH @martysmithxxx

I had a cough on Friday and thought I should get a COVID test. I couldn’t get a PCR test until Sunday. Then I sat in a drive-thru for 40 minutes, and I still won’t get results until Tuesday—and I have health insurance! Shouldn’t testing be easier and faster? —Sara R.

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

long privilege puts them at too great a distance from reality to really know what’s needed.”

Will Harris, via Facebook: “I’ve known Marc for 20 years.

Worked with him on the streets for five. Self-serving was not something I ever saw from him.

It fundamentally contradicts his character. The article is a poorly framed hit piece on the system that itself is self-serving in tapping into community angst on this issue. As for some of these other comments, there are efforts to bring homeless voices to the table. There are people at the table impacted by homelessness.

And if you think professionals with decades of experience doing the work shouldn’t be at the table, as the article implies, I’m not sure you’re thinking about this in a constructive way. This article definitely wasn’t.”

Upon learning that you wanted easier, faster COVID testing, my initial instinct was to contemplate you briefly, mumble something like, “Yeah, well, people in hell want ice water,” and continue drinking my bottle of Aqua Net like nothing happened. After all, this wouldn’t exactly be the first time the pandemic brought inconvenience into our lives.

“Oregon has struggled since day one to have adequate testing,” says Multnomah County Health Officer Jennifer Vines, in part due to chronic shortages of both testing supplies and personnel. But if it’s any consolation, those supplies—notably rapid test kits, which can be administered at home (and which yield results in 15 minutes) are in short supply nationwide, not just in Oregon. Last month, the CDC urged the nation to use lab tests (like the one that took Sara five days) whenever possible, to preserve the nation’s dwindling rapid test supply.* So, once again, we’re victims of unavoidable

circumstance—or so I thought. But then, as I was researching ways to stretch the phrase “tough titty” into a 350-word column (doing pretty well at it, too, if I say so myself ), I ran across a tweet about an immunocompromised man in Germany who keeps a basket of 15-minute home COVID tests outside his apartment so visitors can confirm their non-infected status before entering—and no, his last name isn’t McDuck.

It turns out Europe is hip-deep in rapid test kits made by companies that would love to sell them here, too—as soon as they can get approval from the FDA. You know, the people who took four months to process Pfizer’s application for the COVID vaccine.

(They’re still working on Moderna because, you know, what’s the rush?)

Maybe—maybe—the vaccine approval timeline made sense. It’s actually going into people’s bodies; you want to be sure. But a test? It’s hard to imagine someone mishandling a saliva sample so badly that the person who gave it dies. I’m as big an apologist for government technocrats as you’re likely to find, but come on, FDA, pull your head out. *Preserve it for what? They don’t say, so I’ll just assume it’s rich people.

QUESTIONS? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.

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OLD TOWN-CHINATOWN

KRISTOF FORMS PAC FOR GOVERNOR BID: New York Times columnist and Yamhill native Nicholas Kristof made his first official move to enter the 2022 Democratic primary for governor Oct. 12. Kristof filed papers to form a political action committee with the secretary of state, a move necessary to begin raising and spending money. Kristof, who has taken a leave from the newspaper, has been preparing to run for months, including securing a legal opinion that supports his contention that he meets the Oregon Constitution’s residence requirements, despite having voted in New York last year.

Kristof will join a crowded Democratic field led by House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) and state Treasurer Tobias Read in the race to succeed Gov. Kate Brown, who cannot run again because of term limits.

OLD TOWN GROUPS DEMAND SAFETY: Cultural groups in Old Town sent a letter to city and county officials on Monday decrying rapidly deteriorating conditions in their neighborhood that they say threaten the health and safety of patrons and employees. The groups that wrote the letter are the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, the Lan Su Chinese Garden, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, and the Portland Chinatown Museum. They demand “immediate action to safeguard our visitors, staff and volunteers.” Leaders of the institutions wrote that the city’s failure to manage conditions in Old Town is disrespectful to the cultural history of the ethnic and religious groups, which have a rich economic history in the neighborhood.

They’re demanding a meeting with officials by Oct. 22 and requesting more police and the deployment of mental health professionals.

LEGENDARY AD MAN DIES: David Kennedy, co-founder of the Portland advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy, died Oct. 10 at age 82.

Kennedy and his business partner, Dan Wieden, founded W+K on April Fool’s Day in 1982, far from the traditional advertising meccas of New York and Chicago. Today, the firm employs 1,400 workers in eight offices around the world.

Kennedy worked on the “Just Do It” campaign for Nike and the ads that made Michael Jordan and Spike Lee synonymous with the brand. He also worked on the campaign that put singer Lou Reed on a Honda scooter, along with many other ads that etched themselves into popular culture. A prolific sculptor whose work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Kennedy retired from the agency in 1995 to concentrate on his art and charitable work, although he still stopped by the agency’s Pearl District headquarters periodically. “David Kennedy’s heart and soul and neural pathways are etched deep inside Wieden+Kennedy,” Wieden once said. “It’s who we are, it’s what we do, and it’s why we do it.”

REPUBLICANS CHALLENGE CONGRESSIONAL MAP: Republicans have filed a legal challenge to the new congressional redistricting map that followed Oregon gaining a sixth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after the 2020 census. The petition to Marion County Circuit Court—filed Oct. 11 by former Republican Secretary of State Bev Clarno, among others—argues that Democrats, who hold supermajorities in the state Legislature, drew a map that does not give state Republicans sufficient representation.

“The result of this highly partisan process is a clear, egregious partisan gerrymander, as has been widely acknowledged both in Oregon and across the country,” the petition states. “Under the Democrats’ gerrymandered map, enacted as SB 881-A, the Democrats are projected to win five of the six congressional seats in Oregon in a typical year.” The challenge was expected; Democrats have disputed the GOP’s allegations and call the new maps fair.

“Colorful and imaginative … a deeply affecting drama that leaves an ineradicable imprint.”

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ON STAGE OCT. 9 – NOV. 7, 2021 503.445.3700 | PCS.ORG SEASON SUPERSTARS

Vanessa Severo as Frida Kahlo.

Photo by Brian Paulette.

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NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

ANNABEL MEHRAN

THE BIG NUMBER

23%

Nearly a quarter of ticketholders for a Wilco show last week at the Schnitz didn’t show up.

BY TO R I L I E B E R M A N TO RI@WWE EK.CO M

On Oct. 5, indie music darlings Wilco opened the second leg of the band’s postponed Ode to Joy tour at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

So good, you won’t ever know: They played a show, but many seats remained empty as 23% of ticket buyers stayed home.

“Usually we have a very small percentage of no-shows,” says Robyn Williams, executive director of the Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, which operates the Schnitz. “Our [normal] no-show rate is 3, maybe 4, 5 percent. It’s really low.”

So it’s noteworthy that a band with a famously devoted following saw nearly a quarter of paying customers stay home.

Williams thinks people missed the show for a variety of reasons. Starting in August, the Centers for the Arts began requiring attendees to have a negative COVID test or be vaccinated to see performances. Masks were also required.

“It’s weird to wear a mask at a show,” says Katie Hadd, a Portlander who attended the Wilco concert, “but it’s worth it.”

David Leiken, owner of the Roseland Theater, a popular Old Town venue, confirms that, since August, concertgoers have adapted to changes in policy.

“At this point, people know the drill and they’re getting vaccinated,” says Leiken, “or they’re showing up with the right ID on their tests.”

Williams agrees, noting that her venues allowed ticketholders to get refunds after announcing their new COVID policies.

“Our refund rates weren’t horribly high,” says Williams. “Anybody who bought tickets before we had a vaccine or negative test requirement, they were all given windows to exchange their tickets if they wanted to.”

But COVID tests can be difficult to get in Portland, especially on short notice, which Williams speculates may have prevented some fans from seeing Jeff Tweedy and his bandmates.

“We don’t know if we had unvaccinated people that didn’t want to get vaccinated,” says Williams.

“People needed a [negative COVID] test and tests are really hard to find.”

HUNZEKER WATCH

But the answer might be simpler: Wilco is dad rock.

Which artist is performing can also dramatically affect attendance as performers have different types of audiences. Wilco formed in 1994, which means, at this point, many fans are also parents.

“This demographic tends to skew toward people with younger kids,” says Williams, speaking of Wilco’s audience. “We wonder if people were afraid

to come to the concert because…they worry about [COVID-19] being exposed to kids.”

Leiken posed a similar, if slightly different, theory about the Allman Betts show at the Roseland in early September, which also had low attendance numbers.

“I think that their audience is heavily conservative people from the South,” Leiken says, “and I don’t think they’re vaccinated.”

But people who attended the Wilco concert were comfortable with the COVID precautions put in place.

“They were enforcing mask wearing…and had staff walking around to check,” says Michael Meunier, who attended the Wilco show. “I felt pretty safe with pretty much everyone being masked the whole time.”

Those who did show up were happy to be back at a concert.

“It felt really good to be inside with other people watching live music again,” says Nels Johnson, who donned a mask to see the band. “It was incredibly therapeutic.”

An investigation launched before St. Patrick’s Day drags toward Halloween. BY TESS RISKI

222 DAYS:

That’s how long it’s been since the Portland Police Bureau opened an internal affairs investigation into the leak of information that wrongly implicated Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty in a March 3 hit-and-run. It has released no results of its inquiry.

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“ IT ’ S WE I R D TO WE A R A M A S K AT A S H OW, B UT IT ’ S WO R TH IT.”

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

211 DAYS:

That’s how long ago 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 Hardesty.” We still don’t know what he did. The mayor’s office says it doesn’t know what he did. Hunzeker has been on paid administrative leave since May 27.

210 DAYS:

That’s how long it’s been since the city signed a contract with an outside investigative firm to probe the leak.

PRIMER

PROPOSAL

Smarter Safety City Hall is moving to consolidate expensive functions in its biggest general fund bureaus.

As part of its fall budget adjustment process, Portland City Hall is seeking to make a couple of deceptively significant moves. While public debate focuses on how many cops the city needs and how they should fight crime, a quieter effort to reform public safety bureaus from within is accelerating.

City coffers are flush with a $62 million surplus, mostly because of higher than expected revenue from the business license tax.

Half of the windfall will probably go into reserves. But the commissioners in charge of the Portland Police Bureau and Portland Fire & Rescue want to use about $350,000 of the remainder to continue to shake up the city’s most tradition-bound and expensive general fund bureaus. (The police general fund budget in 2022 is $230 million, fire’s is $148 million.)

Before the pandemic and George Floyd’s murder, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty reached rare agreement on making the public safety bureaus more cooperative and efficient (“Double Stitched,” WW, Feb. 26, 2020).

The two frenemies deputized the city’s chief administrative officer, Tom Rinehart, to begin a multiyear process of consolidating administra-

New numbers show ODOT’s alternative to the gas tax is struggling.

New figures from the Oregon Department of Transportation show that hardly anybody is taking part in the agency’s pilot program to shift away from charging drivers a gas tax.

Twenty years after ODOT began exploring an option to have drivers pay a tax based on miles traveled—currently 1.8 cents per mile—fewer than 1,000 Oregonians have made the shift. That’s out of 3.1 million registered passenger vehicles.

What’s the problem?

Oregon and all other states— as well as the federal government—pay for transportation infrastructure through a gas tax charged at the pump.

Transportation fuel is the nation’s largest source of carbon emissions, so policymakers want the internal combustion engine to go away as soon as possible. But with it goes the gas tax. In other words, electric vehicles take money out of state coffers—because drivers don’t have to buy gas.

ODOT has said the state highway fund could go bust as early as 2024 without significant changes.

What’s the solution?

JOHN RUDOFF

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

tive functions—budgeting, personnel, etc.—and move toward a combined public safety bureau run by professional managers.

They and their council colleagues also hope to better integrate the city’s two smaller safety bureaus—Emergency Communications and Emergency Management—into a combined public safety operation.

The first major step in that process came April 1, when the city hired former fire chief and Bureau of Emergency Communications director Mike Myers to figure out how to consolidate some of the bureaus’ functions.

In the budget adjustment that the Portland City Council will consider next week, Wheeler and Hardesty propose to move top budget officials from police and a top finance official from fire to the community safety division of the Office of Management and Finance, where they would report to Myers rather than their respective chiefs. The goal is to reduce myopia and equip clannish bureaus with modern management.

“We hear all the time that Portlanders do not want to see their city government working in silos, and I can’t think of anywhere where close collaboration is more important than across our public safety system,” Hardesty says.

Myers is also working to improve the way the public safety bureaus communicate. He would like to see all of them—but particularly the police—be more transparent and responsive to Portlanders.

“It often doesn’t look like the audience for what we’re putting out is the public,” Myers says, adding that he hopes to streamline a balkanized public information effort. “I feel an urgency to get these changes made. They are happening faster than I thought.” NIGEL JAQUISS.

OReGOne

The Oregon Legislature recognized as far back as 2001 that a rise in more fuel-efficient vehicles would eventually result in revenue shortages if the state continued to depend on the gas tax. To combat the problem, lawmakers created the Road User Fee Task Force to come up with new ways to raise funds.

After pilot projects in 2008 and 2012, the task force eventually launched OReGO in 2015 to pilot a mileage tax. It became the nation’s first road usage fee program—charging by the mile instead of by the gallon.

How’s that going?

BOYCOTT: A fan boycott of Portland Thorns Football Club concessions and merchandise is entering its second week after two soccer matches that felt more like collective mourning. On Oct. 5, the Rose City Riveters and Timbers Army declared they would stop spending money on Thorns products until the front office met their demands for greater accountability and transparency in the wake of allegations that a former male coach sexually harassed women players.

“Our hearts and our actions are with Portland’s players—one hundred percent,” the

groups announced. “Our trust, however, is utterly shattered, and it cannot be repaired until significant changes take place across all levels of the PTFC organization.” Team owner Merritt Paulson responded by placing Thorns general manager Gavin Wilkinson on leave—but only from his Thorns gig, not his Timbers management. Few fans were mollified. “I don’t think Wilkinson losing his job and being replaced by another person that Paulson wants is going to help anything,” said Emma, a Thorns fan who asked to go by her first name only. SUZETTE SMITH.

OReGO began six years ago, with about 1,200 vehicles participating. Today, ODOT says, that number has shrunk to just 765.

Critics, including Portland economist Joe Cortright, say there’s no incentive to join the program as it’s currently constituted and, in fact, the way ODOT set the rules creates a disincentive for many drivers.

That’s because, for vehicles that get more than 20

miles to the gallon, OReGO becomes more expensive than the gas tax.

“If we are going to go to all the trouble to change the way we see the road system,” says Cortright, “we should be thinking about something from 21st century technology.”

Cortright advocates adopting a more complex program that measures a vehicle’s impact on roads and the environment and reflects that back to the user, rather than a flat rate for all types of cars.

But ODOT’s Michelle Godfrey says the agency isn’t bothered by the low enrollment.

“I’m not sure [more participation is a] goal of the program,” says Godfrey, education and outreach coordinator for OReGO. “The OReGO program as it stands really isn’t going to expand much more.”

So what is ODOT’s endgame?

ODOT says OReGO works fine: Lawmakers just have to require motorists to enter the program. The only flaw with the mileage tax, says Godfrey, is that it’s voluntary.

“We have enough people to test different aspects of road usage charging,” she says, “and there are so many things we want to prove in order to move toward a mandate in Oregon.”

Earlier this year, state Rep. John Lively (D-Springfield) introduced House Bill 2342, which would have forced Oregonians whose vehicles get more than 30 miles per gallon into OReGO no later than July 2026.

The bill failed, leaving Lively frustrated.

“If we don’t get a date certain that we are going to do this,” says Lively, “we never get to deal with those other issues of if it’s totally fair or not.”

Without a mandate, Lively says, OReGO has little effect.

ODOT can continue to test different scenarios, like how to implement a road usage charge between state lines, but that ultimately won’t help to solve the agency’s funding problem.

Lively says it’s past time Oregon made the pilot program a reality.

“The only way the program works,” he says, “is to start requiring people to use it.”

TORI LIEBERMAN.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

7

NEWS CHRIS NESSETH

Slow Motion The federal government is going to do what Portland wouldn’t: strap cameras on cops.

BY TE SS R I S K I

tess@wweek.com

City government moves notoriously slowly. And the process of equipping Portland Police Bureau officers with body cameras?

Absolutely glacial.

For nearly a decade, city leaders have debated—with the public and among themselves—whether to equip Portland’s 788-member police force with recording devices strapped to their chests.

That paralysis has left Portland an outlier: PPB is the only police department among the 75 largest municipal law enforcement agencies in the country that doesn’t use the devices, according to KGWTV. Once again, City Hall is now poised to set aside money for the cameras before the year is up. This time, Portland is being prodded into action by a greater authority: the U.S. Department of Justice.

“As one of the last major cities whose police force is operating without this tool and heading toward a historically high homicide for the year, this conversation is past due,” says City Commissioner Mingus Mapps. “Fortunately, with both the DOJ and the Portland Police Association pushing for a program, it’s all but certain that the city will fund a body-worn camera program this year.”

And body cameras have won over the support of a longtime skeptic: Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. “I’m confident that through good faith bargaining and working with the Department of Justice we will land in a good place,” she says.

Despite the optimism, unanswered questions that were once major sticking points in previous attempts to implement body cameras remain unresolved.

Among the most pressing is the concept of “pre-review”—whether cops should be allowed to review body camera footage prior to writing police reports.

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Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

“It’s such a dangerous proposition. It’s a cop that won’t blink,” says Juan Chavez, a lawyer with the Oregon Justice Resource Center. “This is a future that we all should be cautious about.”

Nevertheless, the Portland City Council appears poised to vote now and iron out the details later.

“We don’t need to have every detail set,” Mapps says. “That said, it will benefit the process to agree on some of the critical aspects of the program, such as our policy around the review of body-worn camera video footage. Many of these policy decisions have cost implications for the technology.”

The Biden Justice Department has a say in Portland body cameras because, nearly a decade ago, the DOJ found a “pattern and practice” of the Portland Police Bureau using excessive force against people with mental illness. Portland signed a settlement—and earlier this year, the city was found to be out of compliance.

So now the parties are meeting behind closed doors for mediation sessions before U.S. District Judge Michael Simon, who has been assigned to the case since the start. They’ve held two sessions so far, most recently on Oct. 6.

Among the proposed remedies for the Police Bureau’s failures to reform itself: body cameras.

Mayor Ted Wheeler is ready to comply.

“The mayor is working to get bodyworn cameras on Portland police officers as soon as possible,” spokesman Rich Chatman confirms to WW. “He recognizes that this equipment is important for the city of Portland to have a police force that is accountable and transparent.”

Chatman says Wheeler is “going to be moving forward with the procurement process” so that funding for body cameras will be included in the fall budget moni-

NEW LENS: Portland police officers, shown here after making arrests at a January protest, don’t wear body cameras. City Council pledges to finally change that.

toring process. (Wheeler’s office did not respond by press deadline to WW’s question about the anticipated cost of implementing body-worn cameras.)

That will be a popular proposal: Polling figures released this week by a business-backed group show 96% of Portland voters want police to wear body cameras.

“I know the police have wanted them for a long time. It’s been pennywise, pound-foolish City Councils of the past that did not fund this,” says Bob Ball, a retired reserve commander who spent more than 22 years in the Portland Police Bureau.

The funding for body cameras, meanwhile, sat in city coffers for years. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit—and Portland eliminated the nearly $835,000 set aside for the program.

“It’s clear to an overwhelming majority of Portlanders and all of council at this point that body-worn cameras are a critical tool for both police accountability and community safety,” Mapps says.

“My interest is in getting these cameras available for officers and benefiting the community as soon as possible. Council will resolve our differences and propose a reasonable policy that meets the Police Bureau’s and the city’s needs.”

But there is still potential for delays and roadblocks.

If the city and DOJ can’t reach agreement during mediation with the police union, which is an “intervenor” in the case, it’s possible the case will be appealed.

The appeal process could drag out the implementation of body cameras for months or years.

And the court-approved advisers in the case, called “amici curiae,” or friends of the court, represent some of the city’s most outspoken skeptics of body cameras, including the Mental Health Alliance and the Albina Ministerial Alliance’s Coalition for Justice and Police Reform.

Reasons to be cautious include privacy—who maintains the footage and how the surveillance tool will be used—and access: In which circumstances will the press and the public get to review footage?

How long will they have to wait to see it?

According to Chavez, a key constitutional issue is the concept of pre-review.

Critics of body cameras argue pre-review

will allow an officer the benefit of hindsight to justify their actions. For example, if an officer reviews body camera footage and notices after the fact that a suspect was armed or had a broken taillight, they could then use those factors as justification for a traffic stop or use of force even though the officer wasn’t aware of them in the moment.

“Pre-review is one of the big existential, constitutional questions that needs to be hashed out now,” Chavez says. “We need to prevent the police from being able to come up with these post hoc justifications.”

That’s also a major factor that deadlocked the approval of body cameras in 2016. But some see it as a benefit to the community at large.

“I land on the side of giving the officers the benefit of the doubt,” Ball says. “I think any tool that an officer has that can help them write the best report about what actually happened, we should support that.”

As WW first reported, the Portland Police Association in May proposed implementing body cameras in its union contract with the city.

That puts Portland in an odd position: It’s police who want body cameras and advocates of police reform who aren’t convinced. But the union’s drafted proposal shows why the minutiae of body camera policies raise questions about whether the devices will help or harm members of community, particularly those most vulnerable to negative interactions with police.

The union’s proposal, for example, said PPB officers would be allowed to pre-review footage from their own body cameras, as well as recordings from other body cameras that “capture the officer’s image and voice” before writing reports or testifying “in any forum.” The proposal also stipulated the city would need to hand over the footage within 24 hours of the union’s request—an Amazon Prime-like speed considering the molasses pace of Portland bureaucracy.

It’s not clear how much of that proposal the police union, or PPB, for that matter, actually expects to be enshrined in policy.

(The Portland Police Association did not respond to WW’s request for comment.)

Because it’s a subject of mediation between the city and the DOJ, as well as between the city and the PPA, which have been in mediation since July over the cops’ collective bargaining agreement, city officials have remained tight-lipped about their opinions on body cameras since May. That means that if something goes wrong with the camera proposal this time, the public might not know quickly. In a glaring irony, the decision-making process is currently happening behind closed doors.

“The details are currently reserved for the bargaining table as the city of Portland remains in negotiations with PPA,” Hardesty says. “With advancements in body camera technology, policies, and additional best practices to draw from, I now believe we can develop a body camera program that contributes to accountability, transparency, and better outcomes in policing.”

NEWS BRIAN BRENEMAN

BOUNDARY BATTLES: House Speaker Tina Kotek had to satisfy many interests in redistricting.

Thank You for Your Service Democrats redrew one of their own out of his district—when he couldn’t defend himself.

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

rmonahan@wweek.com

When Oregon lawmakers met to redraw the state’s legislative districts last month, many incumbents got to keep their seats.

One didn’t fare so well: a Democrat who had questioned the integrity of the redistricting process central to the leadership of House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland).

Fellow Democrats who controlled the process redrew Rep. Marty Wilde (D-Eugene), one of their own, out of a Democratic majority district representing Eugene and into one where he’ll likely lose if he runs again. In his new district, Republicans outnumber Democrats by 5 percentage points.

Wilde couldn’t attend the special session where he was voted out of a Democratic district and into a Republican one. He had been called up for National Guard duty to support Oregon’s hospitals as the surge of COVID-19 cases continued to overwhelm some parts of the state.

Wilde isn’t talking, owing to military rules about politicking while on duty. He is on National Guard assignment through the end of October.

Others say he got a raw deal.

“It was intentional, and it raises questions,” says Rep. Brad Witt (D-Columbia County) of how Wilde and he were treated. Witt is the other Democratic lawmaker redistricted into a Republican majority district last month.

Wilde is in just his second term as a legislator.

According to multiple sources familiar with Wilde’s plight, Wilde had violated the protocols of Kotek’s chamber by attempting and failing at an aggressive maneuver to bring a bill he sponsored to the floor on the final day of the legislative session. (It would have banned boats over

a certain size from pulling anyone riding waves behind them.) He had also openly challenged Kotek’s handling of the redistricting process, saying his fellow Democrats had twisted the boundaries of his district to achieve electoral success.

A spokesman for Kotek says it wasn’t personal, just business. “The committee’s work to develop new district boundaries was not personal in any way, and to suggest otherwise is just completely false,” says spokesman Danny Moran.

House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner (D-Portland) disputed the critiques.

“It’s ironic that legislative Democrats have been accused of being too partisan, and now apparently not partisan enough,” she says. “This is a good indication that the maps were drawn appropriately and legally. Redistricting shouldn’t be about making politicians or pundits happy; it’s about serving the needs of the people of Oregon, and that’s how the committees operated. The maps reflect the voices and needs of communities across Oregon, even if it makes a few politicians unhappy.”

Democrats say they were responding to the need for communities in the Eugene area to be better represented in Salem and that the rural areas of Columbia County represented by Witt have become more Republican.

“Two major considerations that we are not allowed to consider in drawing maps are partisanship and where incumbents live,” says Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego), who led the redistricting effort. “That means that inevitably—if this process is undertaken appropriately and legally—there will be sitting legislators who end up in the same district with each other, and some legislators who don’t like the composition of their new districts.

Legislative seats don’t belong to legislators but to their constituents.”

Perhaps so. But just a handful of sitting lawmakers— Democrats and Republicans—found themselves in unwelcome territory after the process was finished.

Kotek faced a daunting task in the special session: Her party needed to draw new maps to reflect Oregon’s population gains after the 2020 census—and the state’s expanded Democratic majority—without alienating Republicans so completely that they refused to participate.

Some advocates say Kotek found a clever incentive to offer Republicans in exchange for sticking around: Most maps preserve incumbents’ seats and, in some cases, make previously competitive districts less so.

“An incumbent protection gerrymander” is what Sal Peralta of the Independent Party of Oregon calls it.

That may be a clue to one of the mysteries of the redistricting session: House Republicans did not walk out over their objections to the maps. They didn’t get maps they considered fair, but they preserved their chances for reelection.

The maps passed by the Legislature largely preserve incumbents, with exceptions that sometimes prove the rule by sacrificing legislators who planned to leave anyway.

On the Democratic side, Sens. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) and Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) were put in the same district, but Dembrow has said he will not run again. Sens.

Lee Beyer (D-Springfield) and Floyd Prozanski (D-Lane County) are now in the same district, but Beyer has said he’s retiring. On the Republican side: The district of Rep. Bill Post (R-Keizer) now has a Democratic advantage, but he announced his resignation, effective Nov. 30.

Four Republicans face tough races after their districts were redrawn: Rep. Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles) faces a reelection fight against Rep. Anna Williams in a Hood River district that is more Democratic. Rep. Raquel Moore-Green (R-Salem) is now in a more Democratic than Republican district, though the incumbent, Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem), has said he won’t run again. Sen. Kim Thatcher (R-Keizer) faces a difficult reelection bid should she choose to run again. Sen. Bill Kennemer (R-Canby) now has a Democrat-heavy district; he says he’ll run again despite the odds.

One pair of Democrats in downtown Portland, Reps.

Maxine Dexter and Lisa Reynolds, were drawn into the same district, though Sen. Ginny Burdick (D-Portland) has said she will not run for reelection, leaving an open Senate seat in the area.

That so few Republicans were harmed in the making of the maps makes Wilde’s fate all the more notable. That’s especially true because he challenged the integrity of the process before being called up by the Guard.

Wilde’s Aug. 16 newsletter warned of problems with the existing map for his district. The University of Oregon, among other institutions, was split into different districts, what’s called “cracking” in the informal terminology of gerrymandering—splitting Democratic voters among districts.

“The problem is that communities of shared interests are split among different districts, which limits their ability to represent their interests effectively as a group,” Wilde wrote. “I hope that the new district boundaries will address that issue.”

Wilde succeeded. The university won’t be split.

But one precinct in Eugene got singled out for inclusion with the rest of Lane County: Wilde’s.

“It defies logic,” says Shaun Jillions, a corporate lobbyist with the advocacy group Fair Maps Oregon, which opposes gerrymandering. “Look at the map.”

Wilde hasn’t said what he’ll do next. After all, he can’t discuss politics until next month.

“He’s such a good guy,” says the Independent Party’s Peralta. “He’s been so fair minded. He was acting like a brake and conscience on some of what the Democrats were doing.”

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Meet Your Maker

Here are six Oregonians whose hard work puts weed on your table.

BY SOPH IE P E E L s p eel@ w week. c o m

Ever wondered, when you’re smoking a blunt or eating an edible, what went into making the thing that’s made life slightly more tolerable this past year?

Probably not.

It’s an old tale by now that the weed industry, still in its infancy at only 6 years old, has undergone massive and unrelenting challenges like oversupply, price plummets, wildfires, and a litany of banking and insurance issues because of cannabis’s federally illegal status.

Despite the uncertainty of working in the cannabis industry, those who make a living from it—sometimes a precarious one—are among the most devoted people you’ll ever meet.

They will talk endlessly about what they do, with great vigor, and have unending faith in the power of the plant. This past year, those people have endured singed crops, financial woes, burglaries, the threat of increasing monopolization, and an ever-fickle market.

While you were taking a pocket puff from your vape pen, pretending not to be the parent of the most intrusive toddler on the playground, very real people were laboring away to help bring you that little dose of temporary sagacity.

Here are six of those people. You can thank them by buying more weed.

THE FARMER

Amanda Metzler, owner of Bigsby Farms

In Oregon, cannabis became legal for recreational use in 2015.

Since then, cannabis flowed seamlessly into the lives of everyday Portlanders, and now, half a decade later, we have a dispensary around almost every corner carrying edibles, tinctures, dabs and old-fashioned flower.

That doesn’t mean our relationship with weed doesn’t still contain mystery—secrets even!

This year’s Harvest Issue is devoted to unpacking the 2021 harvest’s strains and supply chains.

We had conversations with farmers, trimmers, processors, and even the state of Oregon’s first licensed weed delivery driver to illuminate how your cannabis gets to your door (page 10).

The cover of this issue showcases the jaw-dropping cannabis photography of Eric Christiansen. We unpack his 10-plus-year 10

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career and methodical insights into how he captures his macroscopic “nugshots” (page 15). You might find a few hints for making your own ganja glow.

Or you might try for a spiritual halo with our rundown of things to look for when trying to purchase cannabis from the most ethical sources possible (page 12).

What are all those labels on your packaging? We’ve got help here too—common accreditations in Oregon and what they mean for you (page 16).

Finally, we wouldn’t leave you hanging out to dry for harvest season. Check out our picks for five new strains you should check out this Croptober (page 17).

Wakers and bakers, it’s time. This year’s crop is ready for its close-up.

—Suzette Smith Willamette Week Arts & Culture Editor

Dressed in muck boots and a Western snap shirt, Amanda Metzler walks the rows on her farm. That was not originally the plan.

When she and her husband first decided to invest in the industry back in 2017, they were living in Southern California. Amanda worked in politics, and her husband was a full-time 3D artist.

“We had no background in farming, we were just going to be the silent investors on this farm,” Metzler says.

Now they’re here full time.

On any given afternoon during the cannabis harvest season, Metzler, her husband and their expert grower take an ATV through the cannabis fields to assess whether the plants—eight strains in total—are ready to be picked the next day.

They look for cloudiness of the palms and color of the buds.

If the plants are ready, everyone meets up bright and early the next morning—7:30 am. They need four pickers and two to hang the plants to dry, one of whom is Metzler’s 73-year-old mom from Ohio.

Before starting out, they cook eggs, with spicy barbecue leftovers, on a flat top grill outside the barn. It’s usually quiet as the crew munches on breakfast, still waking up. The farm’s 13 sheep, including Cher, Dolly and Jolene, bleat gently.

Then they split up and spread out.

Pickers double up for each plant. Standing on either side of 5-foot bushy cannabis plants—each holding pruning shears—they trim the stalks.

Generally, they would prune all the way to the ground, but this year Metzler presold the farm’s leftover biomass to a processor for extraction of oils and distillates.

“Prior to harvest, we signed an output contract with a processor for

our biomass,” Metzler says. “We were lucky—that was right before the crash.”

There’s been a steady price drop for flower the past few months, because of oversupply.

(Demand has remained steady). Farmers—many still desperate to sell last year’s flower—have been selling even their best buds to processors for distillation, which is normally where only the less valuable biomass gets funneled.

“There were rumblings throughout the industry about a flower price crash in June,” says Metzler. “It started in earnest in August.”

Plopping an industrial scale right there in the middle of the field, the farmers—Metzler says the Oregon State Master Gardener program was their crash course—chop and weigh the plants before toting them back to the barn.

Metzler’s mom is already there, climbing ladders to carefully hang the plants along the rafters.

The cycle repeats—cut, weigh, package, drive and hang—about seven more times in a day.

At 5 pm, the 12-hour shift ends, and any employees who aren’t directly related to Metzler trudge home.

Harvest season is the time when farmers have to gauge, every year, whether it’s worth it, or even possible, to stay in an infant industry that’s been battered by natural disasters, price gluts, and ever-shifting regulations.

For Metzler, that terrifying adrenaline surge— of whether you make it or you don’t—is part of the fun.

THE TRIMMER

Pansy Wilcox-Fridley, trimmer at Old Apple Farm

It gets dusty in the barn. When dawn’s light shines through the six barn doors, it makes all the particles look like snow.

There’s no dress code at Old Apple Farm, except the required close-toed shoes and gloves, but most choose to wear a lightweight long-sleeve T-shirt.

Pansy Wilcox-Fridley says it helps with the dust. Her hired trimmers sit or stand, two to a folding table. Some chat or joke.

The barn has a DIY craft shop territorial feel: Each trimmer readies their favorite pair of scissors as a truck trundles in a massive amount of cut and dried weed. .

Each trimmer takes a bucket of plant and a three-tiered sifting tray. Then they get to work.

As they splice and cut up the plants, the first tier of the tray sifts out the trim and the second tray sifts out the kief. What’s left in the top tier is the gold: The A-buds.

A single trimmer produces about a pound of A-buds every eight hours.

Wilcox-Fridley makes her rounds to check on the trimmers. She strolls from table to table, making sure they’re not trimming carelessly.

“I would say it’s a playful student-teacher relationship,” she says. “They call me ‘trim mom.’”

Old Apple has a range of trimmers this year: There’s an even gender split, and a handful of over-50s. The real surprise: a whole lot of former line chefs or prep cooks.

“They’re the rising stars of the cannabis industry,” Wilcox-Fridley says. She looks for seasonal workers on Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and more standard channels like Indeed Jobs.

When each trimmer is done, they holler at Wilcox-Fridley. She collects the material, meticulously weighs it and logs it into the system: A-buds, B-buds, trim and waste. If all the plants from the tractor are gone, the trimmer can go home. If there’s more, they’re given another bucket until the shift is up.

In the cannabis industry, being a trimmer is an entry-level job. It’s not high-paying, it’s monotonous, and it can be hard on the body. The barn gets dusty.

But for some, that’s the joy of it: It’s predictable, you don’t have to talk to your table mate if you don’t want to, and no one’s complaining that you’ve oversalted the pasta.

THE PROCESSOR

Chris “Condor” Backhaus, extractor at Mule Extracts PDX

Extractors and processors got a bad rap when they first came on the scene, in 2018. A series of butane hash oil explosions cast doubt on this part of the supply chain.

“Immature people not doing regulated stuff,” Chris Backhaus says. Processing is no different from any other certified lab using flammable chemicals and gases. “It was just a few bad apples that made us look bad.”

Putting Metzler’s crack of dawn to shame, Backhaus wakes up every workday morning at 3 am. He fills a to-go mug with drip coffee and drives a short distance to the Mule Extracts lab in Estacada.

After he arrives, he preps the company extraction machine: a Frankenstein-esque contiguous hunk of metal tubes and cylinders. It takes about 15 minutes for the extractor to rumble to life.

Backhaus fills four mesh screen cylinder bags—colloquially called “socks”—with bud, trim or whatever material he’s using for that particular run. The part of the cannabis plant he uses determines what extracted oil the machine produces, which then determines what product will be made: edibles, shatter, diamonds, tinctures or butters.

The extractor machine is loud, but no noise-canceling earphones are allowed in the room. All the proper ingredients—namely pressurized butane and propane—are present for an explosion, with just a spark.

Backhaus says he would liken his job description to somewhere between a scientist and a machine operator. Once he loads the socks into the machine and starts the process, the next two hours entail Backhaus carefully monitoring the run. He turns valves to adjust pressure when needed.

The end product is anywhere from a viscous, amber-colored oil to a thinner, golden product.

Backhaus stores it in Pyrex dishes or jars until

the oil can be taken to smaller machines in the lab to be made into the final, marketable products.

In Oregon’s legal cannabis industry right now, processing is where it’s at: Extractors are immune to the flower market’s flimsiness and are bombarded by farmers and wholesalers desperate to get rid of product due to the current oversupply of flower.

Extraction is incredibly flexible. Depending on where demand is, extractors can make more edibles, tinctures or cartridges.

“I view this as a career.” Backhaus says. “I enjoy it. I’m in it for the long haul.”

THE WHOLESALER

Ryon Nicholson, wholesale distributor at Cosmic Treehouse

Ryon Nicholson’s monthly journey up and down the Oregon Coast is reminiscent of the routes door-to-door salesmen once trod.

For him, it’s a relic of times past. He has, for the most part, grown Cosmic Treehouse to a point where now he tells other salesmen to scour the roads.

But on a recent Wednesday, Nicholson did what he used to do nearly every day: got up at 5 am, bought a mocha at Starbucks —peppermint mocha if it’s wintertime—and drove to his warehouse in Southeast Portland to load up bundles of flower stored in thick totes, bud and sometimes other cannabis products into his truck.

He loaded up 32 pounds worth of pre-ordered flower and 25 pounds of “improvisational” flower from 23 different farms he hopes to sell on the fly.

These days, Nicholson makes $40 to $60 per pound of flower sold. A pound can cost anywhere from $100 to $2,000—depending on whether it’s sungrown, greenhouse-grown or indoor-grown..

For the next 14 hours, he drives down the coast of Oregon, stopping by eight cannabis shops and farms. Some have pre-ordered flower, so it’s a simple drop-off. For others, he’s arranged what he calls “show and smells,” where he brings different types of flower into the dispensary’s backroom so the manager can inspect it. Occasionally he’ll even show up unannounced, to dispensaries, to try to see what he can sell.

“They used to love me showing up. Now it’s here and there,” he says.

He has about 25 farms that he gets regular product from and takes his position as the middleman seriously; if he doesn’t sell, neither he nor the farm profits.

In a market that’s fluctuated dramatically since 2016, Nicholson says he’s loyal to those in the industry who have been by his side. He rarely takes on new farms.

Wholesalers are becoming slightly less relevant as vertical integration slowly creeps in on the Oregon cannabis industry. Bigger companies, both in and out of state, are creating their own supply chains, cutting out the middlemen like Nicholson. It’s inevitable in any maturing industry, but Nicholson feels like he’s still in the sweet spot.

He has no plans to stop what he’s doing.

Despite the uncertainty of working in the cannabis industry, those who make a living from it—sometimes a precarious one— are among the most devoted people you’ll ever meet.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

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What’s Ethical Weed and How Do You Find It?

BY B RIAN N A WHE E LE R

Despite the lightning-fast normalization of a formerly low-key stoner culture, many still recall Oregon’s black market cannabis industry. Before legalization, cannabis was—and, on the federal level, still is—a Schedule I drug. And as such, it generated a less than ethical business model—which a few farms still rely on today, despite the fact it can be exploitative.

Oregon’s boutique cannabis culture sets us apart from states with higher barriers of entry into the industry—individual farmers who prioritize people over profit can thrive in this environment. But knowing the difference between performative integrity and legitimate, industry-leading principles is as critical as knowing kush from brick weed.

It’s worth noting that buying weed produced as ethically as possible is hardly an inconvenience, considering how tightly intertwined cannabis quality is with the well-being of its farmers, handlers, and the soil from which it sprouts.

With that in mind, WW asked a few cannabis industry pros to share their best insider advice on how buyers can use their grass budgets to preserve Oregon’s best-kept-secret: an equitable, sustainable and abundant cannabis industry with the best damn weed in the nation.

CLOCK THE SUPPLY CHAIN Oregon’s boutique cannabis culture sets us apart from states with higher barriers of entry into the industry

Get familiar with the farms that supply your favorite edibles, concentrates, etc. There are several fully integrated brands—ones that own their farms, dispensaries, manufacturing processes and so forth—but many exist within a complex, interconnected network of farmers, post-processors, retailers and distributors. Knowing the channels your cannabis travels through before it hits your bowl can help ensure you’re supporting farms that cultivate with ecological conscientiousness, address inequalities wrought by the war on drugs, and appropriately compensate their workers, whether they work as year-round staff or seasonal farm support. That push for transparency can start with something as easy as cruising each brand’s social media.

SCROLL THE SOCIALS

“When I buy weed, I ask who grew it, then I look at the farm and their social media,” says Eden Williams, propagator for an organic cannabis farm in Sandy. “What are they talking about—the community, their employees, the world?” Williams’ savvy social media trick is remarkably handy when investigating the vibe of a recently discovered farm or brand.

But more than investigating a brand’s social feed to avoid farms that post pictures of money stacks, luxury cars, and other lavish displays of success, Williams looks for something she sees as far more relevant to the quality of cannabis: “Farms talking about paying their employees a livable wage and offering benefits, these are the farms that should be flourishing, not investment companies.”

USE YOUR INSIDE VOICE

If you’ve ever asked your budtender to recommend a strain, you could also ask what they think of the conditions of the brands and farms they suggest. Those inquiries might feel a little out of pocket for a quick, transactional, over-the-counter exchange, but just as experienced kitchen staffers can distinguish between factory and organic produce, dispensary staffers have an intimate knowledge of what happens behind the curtain of cultivation. And they’re often happy to share that with you.

For the emboldened, such a line of inquiry can, and should, extend to your budtender’s quality of life as well.

LEND YOUR SUPPORT

More often than not, Oregon’s cannabis industry champions farms founded from a therapeutic standpoint. That said, there are still plenty of cultivators treating this new industry as a sort of wild West, manipulating loopholes to exploit labor, expanding with disregard for the environment, and cutting vital corners to increase profit. But “it’s not just a matter of criticizing the industry,” says Amanda Tran, founder of the Cannabis Workers Support Network, “it’s a matter of making solutions and expectations clear.”

One way to bolster that transparency is by supporting the organizations working toward those very goals, such as the Cannabis Workers Coalition 12

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After Nicholson dropped off his remaining product—16 pounds of flower—at the warehouse, he said he got home around 6:30 pm, ate a leftover meatball sandwich, and went to bed.

THE DISPENSARY MANAGER

Gwen Miller, dispensary manager at Hashtoria

Cannabis quality is tightly intertwined with the well-being of its workers and the soil from which it sprouts. (workers’ rights and support), the Oregon Handlers Fund (cannabis workers’ permits for disadvantaged, marginalized workers), and Cage Free Cannabis (social, economic and environmental restorative justice), to name a few.

INVESTIGATE FARMING METHODS

Cannabis is a monocrop, meaning it’s grown repeatedly on the same farmland without rotating other crops through. This can put a strain on a farm’s environment, stripping the soil of nutrients, overusing water resources, and producing tremendous waste. Monocropping is, historically, a corporate-dominated agricultural system that prioritizes yield over sustainability, and it can be argued that the cannabis industry should not emulate monocropping’s worst features. While the concept of polycropping, or companion planting, is literally ancient, it’s still in its infancy in regards to contemporary hemp and weed farming. But until polycropping overtakes monocropping as the agricultural standard, the onus is on us end users to learn how our favorite farms handle their waste, control their pests, and steward their land. If a farm is keeping that information under wraps, it’s worth the time to find out why.

BUY SMALL

Part of the appeal of Oregon cannabis is how strongly it champions owner-operated small farms, and how that boutique aesthetic informs the industry at large. “I think [as the industry grows] that mindset is kind of eroding,” says Will Perry, co-owner/operator of Magic Hour Cannabis, “but we’re willing to continue sticking to our principles of organic small craft.” Perry’s is a common sentiment held by many smaller, craft brands across the state that similarly prioritize both quality and a healthy work environment. It’s an ethos that may be simplistic but, to some extent, defines the ethical buying of weed. “People say you are what you eat,’’ says Adriana Ruiz, Perry’s co-founder. “We say you are what you smoke.”

Gwen Miller’s favorite customer at the dispensary she manages was a hefty pastor who didn’t want anyone to know he smoked weed.

“He was a pastor and a family man. A Sunday school and Bible studies guy, all that. I had no clue. But one day he says, ‘Nobody knows that I smoke,’” Miller recalls.

Miller’s shop, Hashtoria, is the catchall of unsuspected users in the suburban town of Gladstone—because it is the only dispensary in town.

Sometimes at Starbucks in the morning, before opening the shop, people recognize Miller.

“I’m glad there’s only one of you,” an older stranger once said, out of the blue.

But Miller says older people are some of her most regular customers.

They appreciate Hashtoria’s discreet feel—nestled at the end of a cul-de-sac.

It screams suburban soccer mom, not dispensary.

“They’re still a little leery about the whole smoker and reefer thing,” Miller says. “To them, it’s still a bad thing—you might as well be doing the meths.”

Each morning, Miller comes in an hour before opening to unload the safes, arrange product in the shop’s glass cases, and unlock the doors. By 8 am, there’s generally a line.

COVID-19 launched Hashtoria’s profit margins into a realm the shop had never seen before. But even with those profits, Miller was terrified: Her whole family works at Hashtoria, and it was unclear whether the governor would deem cannabis an essential business.

“If we all lost our jobs, our entire household loses our income,” Miller says.

Over the past year, Miller has also struggled with high employee turnover—she blames stellar unemployment benefits.

“It’s a really easy job. You have to just hang out and sell weed all day, and if you partake, you’re already pretty knowledgeable about it,” Miller says. “I had a couple younger guys, and they just didn’t give a shit.”

Her team right now includes a former Marine and a dad—none of those young guys who don’t give a shit. She’s happy with them, and grateful for Hashtoria’s predictable autumn lull.

“This time of year slows down a bit, because it’s ‘Croptober,’ when people cut down their own weed plants,” Miller says. “But pretty quickly everyone gets sick of their own weed and comes back.”

THE DELIVERY DRIVER

Adrian Wayman, co-founder and delivery driver at Green Box

At age 17, in Atlanta, Adrian Wayman was arrested for possessing weed.

Ten years later, in 2016, he got the first city of Portland license for weed delivery.

“I didn’t want to just sit back and let a bunch of white people take advantage of this,” Wayman says. “It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t lobbied for it.”

Wayman’s business model is like Stitch Fix or Birchbox—a package of customizable goods delivered to your door in a pretty box.

He spent two years lobbying the city of Portland to create a weed delivery license. He went to every public hearing. He wrote letters to city officials. He even met with then-Mayor Charlie Hales and Commissioner Amanda Fritz.

Now, Wayman spends his days driving across Portland—the soundtrack to his drive alternates between visionary rappers like Young Thug and entrepreneurial podcasts like How I Built This—on delivery runs, distributing his pristinely packaged green boxes to the front doors of Southeast 122nd Avenue apartment complexes and ritzy West Hills houses alike.

It’s not unusual, Wayman says, for customers to order two to three boxes a month—which generally averages out to 20 to 30 home deliveries a day.

COVID-19 doubled his business’s demand, and it wasn’t uncommon during the shutdown days for Wayman to pull up to a house at the same time as a Grubhub driver.

Part of the allure of Green Box is that clients purchase from the privacy of their homes, negating possible embarrassment or shame for those still stuck in the taboo of cannabis.

“I have some people that make it look so much like a drug deal,” Wayward says. His favorite is a 57-year-old businessman who lives in a downtown high-rise. “He comes up to my car window and sticks his ID up to it. We usually deliver in our fancy box, but he’s like, ‘Just put it in a brown paper bag.’”

“He’s an older white man, I’m a black guy in a black-tinted window black car in downtown Portland. I’m like, ‘This looks really sketchy, but I’ll do whatever you want.’”

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Limits and/or exclusions may apply. Sale valid while supplies last.

Sale does not apply to already discounted items. Prices do not include tax.

14

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

Do not operate a vehicle or machinery under the influence of this drug.

For use only by adults twenty-one years or older

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Trichome How does photographer Eric Christiansen capture marijuana at its most microscopic?

BY AN N G U O

If there were a Ph.D. program for cannabis photography, Eric Christiansen’s Nugshots series would feature first on the syllabus.

His high-tech macroscapes of cannabis buds and their minuscule biologies, make glassy trichomes seem more like alien appendages than things grown from this earth.

Christiansen’s technique has become so advanced—and so methodical—that some of his single-second panoramas are constructed with stacks of shots.

“Like 400-plus pictures,” Christiansen tells WW. When he photographs now, he keeps a closed set because he’s run into proprietary issues, though it seems to embarrass him to relate this: “It’s like I was saying, macro stuff is really tricky, so if people see the adjustments I have on my camera—I mean, it just makes sense that they’d want to put those on theirs.”

A full-time cannabis photographer since 2015, Christiansen has been photographing buds for over a decade. He says he began experimenting with cannabis photography in 2009.

“I had just started getting into cannabis, but I had a couple friends who were way more knowledgeable than I was. They bought some buds that were, like, super purple—just mind-blowing—and I had to take a picture of it,” he says.

“When I got it under the lens, the first thing I noticed was I could barely get anything in focus.

The depth of field was so shallow. So, that kind of sent me down a rabbit hole of focus stacking, which is integral to all my macro work. I’m basically taking multiple pictures at different focus points, then combining them together on the computer to unlock a depth of field that you’d normally never be able to capture with a single shot.”

Christiansen’s methodical approach to macro lens photography exposes our favorite psychoactive plant at a level of detail that seems like it would assist whole new worlds of study about the attractive plants.

However, strangely enough, there isn’t much useful information conveyed by a bud’s beauty.

“When I started out, I didn’t really understand where the diversity between nugs was coming from. The same strain from different growers had so many differences. Even the same strain and same growers—but one grown indoors? One

of them grown in a greenhouse? They look totally different,” Christiansen explains.

“Now I know that most of the look comes from the growing style. Cold at the end of the growing cycle can cause more purple. It doesn’t really mean much.”

Still, even though he wasn’t unlocking new secrets of cannabis classification, Christensen remained transfixed, still figuring out to photograph what he would soon start to call Nugshots— “just for the beauty, per se, it was more the beauty.”

That beauty shines through in his 2015 photo collection, Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana.

Presented against inky black backgrounds, cannabis trichomes, terpene- and cannabinoid-filled tentacles, layer an entire kush flower, appearing as filaments or fine hairs to the naked eye.

Green and its 2017 sequel, Green: A Pocket Guide to Pot, both capture the wondrous multitudes of dried flower. But Christiansen noted with excitement that his upcoming 2022 book, Higher: The Lore, Legends, and Legacy of Cannabis, will be composed entirely of photos of live plants.

“A lot of those [dried flower] photos are from earlier in my career when I had to go to the dispensary to find buds. Back then, I would ask the budtender if I could pick out the particular nug-

get that I thought looked best. A lot of the time, they didn’t let me do that,” Christiansen laughs.

“Bud that goes through more hands sort of loses a little bit of the luster compared to the live plants. Live plants, the colors just pop. I think the colors will or the pictures will just be a lot more interesting. In the next book.”

These days, Christiansen finds himself gravitating toward indoor-grown buds. He’s always preferred indoor photo shoots.

The initial process of capture can be hourslong and arduous, requiring Christiansen to take hundreds of focused shots at every angle of a 360-degree rotation. “When you’re that close up, somebody walking on the other side of the room can introduce vibration that can completely ruin the shot.”

Thorugh Christiansen’s work we get to these microcosms of the canna-universe, we restudy them as miracles in the biological realm. We contemplate the connection between our recreational stonership and the delicate chemistry that takes place in the cells of our blessed green.

Within an inelegant morsel lies unexpected beauty; this is the visual lesson Christiansen will not let us forget.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

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LABELS: HOW DO THEY WORK? Five common accreditations you’ll find on cannabis packaging and what they mean for you.

BY CAL L E Y HAIR @ cal l ey nha i r

Officially, there’s no such thing as “organic” cannabis.

It’s a matter of semantics, not substance—the national agency that tests and certifies organic produce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, won’t touch a plant that’s still technically classified a Schedule I drug at the federal level.

That’s not to say there’s a lack of demand. A 2016 Consumer Reports study found that more than 1 in 3 marijuana users said they’d be willing to pay a premium for organic cannabis products. A 2019 report by TrendSource, a San Diego market research firm, put that figure at 53%.

In lieu of any sort of centralized certification agency, independent actors within the marijuana industry are taking matters into their own hands. One such company, Certified Kind, formed shortly after Oregon legalized recreational weed in 2014.

At the time, founder Andrew Black was working for a statewide USDA-approved organic certifier. Despite the new state law, cannabis remained taboo.

“We couldn’t even talk with growers who wanted to understand how to farm organically,” Black tells WW. He says he saw marijuana companies claiming to sell “organic” products.

He realized that the industry needed a standard process to fill the gap left by the USDA. “We needed to give organic cannabis growers a way to confirm and verify that their cannabis truly was organic,” Black says.

He wasn’t the only one. A smorgasbord of distinct but similar accreditors have popped up in the past decade or so, promising to grant consumers some peace of mind about the contents of the flower, edibles and oils they’re ingesting.

Across the board, the goals of each are more or less the same: discouraging genetically modified organisms and pesticides, promoting sustainable farming practices, and ensuring that employees are treated and paid well.

But not all accreditors are created equal. The differences are, if you’ll 16

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

excuse the pun, a little in the weeds. And for the average dispensary customer, it can be hard to tell the difference.

So, what does that label on your weed mean? And why should you care?

Here are five common accreditations and what cannabis companies need to go through to earn them:

CERTIFIED KIND

Certified Kind functionally operates as a USDA Organic equivalent. “When the day comes that they allow for USDA certification for cannabis, all of our farms will be ready. They’ve gone through all of the requirements for organizational certification,” Black says.

To qualify, farms must keep records detailing all the products they use to grow, harvest and process their cannabis. GMOs, ionizing radiation, sewage sludge, nanotechnology and most synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are banned, and farmers must prove the soil has been clear of any blacklisted substances for at least three years prior to harvest. In addition, participating farms must ensure permanent employees have access to potable water, restrooms, housing and food.

The certification process includes a site visit by a Certified Kind staffer.

To keep their seal, farms need to renew their application annually. Seven growers in Oregon are certified under the program.

Find out more: certified-kind.com

CLEAN GREEN CERTIFIED

The oldest certification agency on the list, Clean Green was founded in 2004 and touts itself as “the closest to ‘organic’ that cannabis can get.” The agency adopted the same pesticide and fertilizer standards used by the USDA Organic certification program.

The required site visit includes a series of hurdles: Applicants must show a comprehensive record-keeping system and pass a crop inspection and lab test looking for product contaminants. According to the agency’s website, 11 cannabis producers in Oregon have been certified by Clean Green.

Find out more: cleangreencertified.com

SUN + EARTH CERTIFIED:

Sun + Earth is for the customer looking to support small-scale, outdoor farms. In addition to an organic agriculture component (no GMOs or other prohibited substances), the agency focuses on sustainability. It offers accreditation to growers that promote biodiversity through such strategies as wild

5

Fall Strains for This Year’s Croptober Season The red of the changing leaves looks so similar to the fiery orange hairs of a potent cultivar.

BY B RIAN N A WH EELER

The indoor cannabis industry more or less harvests year round, but there’s something special about discovering a new-to-you strain as the summer turns the corner into autumn.

It’s a Pacific Northwest tradition to collectively retreat into overcast evergreen mist—by hikes or by tokes. With the abundance of Croptober delights this season, there are plenty of strains to help with the latter.

Whatever makes autumn deliciously stoney for you can only be enhanced with the addition of one, or all, of these equinox-intensifying strains. So, let’s cozy up, bliss out and send some thankful vibes to all our local craft farmers for another legendary Oregon harvest season. Pumpkin spice suggested but not required.

JUNGLE CAKE

edge farming (​​leaving unmanaged or “wild” areas between growing fields), pollinator plants and intercropping. They’re also required to adopt farming practices that conserve water, like timed irrigation and drip watering.

Sun + Earth issues green- and gold-level certifications. The gold level is more stringent—to qualify, a grower must use sunlight exclusively. Artificial lighting, even during propagation, is prohibited.

Employees must be compensated fairly and treated in accordance with labor laws. There’s also a community engagement piece to qualify for a Sun + Earth certification, and farmers must fulfill volunteering or lobbying requirements to maintain their seal. The process includes a site visit by the agency. Seven farms in Oregon are certified.

Find out more: sunandearth.org

ENVIROCANN FARM & NURSERY CERTIFICATION

Envirocann is less specifically focused on organic farming practices and more about overall quality control. The agency conducts a site visit and laboratory analysis to ensure that the product is compliant with all state and local laws, including pesticide residue testing.

A secondary certification level offered by the agency, EnvirOganic, additionally identifies cannabis “grown using exemplary practices, organic inputs, and in a manner exceeding current National Organic Standards,” the company’s website states. It lists 10 certified cultivators nationwide, most in California.

Find out more: envirocann.com

DRAGONFLY EARTH MEDICINE PURE CERTIFIED

The Dragonfly Earth Medicine Pure Farms program, or DEM Pure Farms, is a grower-to-grower agreement that cannabis producers can elect to join. Participants sign a pledge banning use of GMOs, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, petrochemical solvents, and soilless growing mediums (i.e., hydroponic or aeroponic systems). Signatories also agree to aim for a “closed loop” farm, which means all nutrients and organic matter produced by an agricultural activity are recycled back into the soil.

DEM Pure operates on an honor system—no third party oversees participants or conducts site visits. Eighty-two farms worldwide are Pure Certified, including 15 in Oregon.

Find out more: dempurefarms.com

This cross of White Fire #43 and Wedding Cake is a heavy-hitting hybrid with intense onset and effects that range from upbeat and euphoric to manageably relaxed and mellow. That responsiveness is part of what makes Jungle Cake so attractive to such a wide swath of users. The hybrid seems to take notes from a user’s resting state to dictate the course of the high, rather than sweeping the user away in a haze of potent psychotropia. This phenotype has a medium-high THC percentage of around 20, and should be used with caution by those with lower tolerance. Expect a funky perfume with crispy notes of pine and citrus, then a rich, dank exhale.

GET IT FROM: Pur Roots, 5816 NE Portland Highway, 971-865-5176.

KUSH MINTS Bred from a cross of Animal Mints and Bubba Kush, Kush Mints retains many of its parents’ most attractive features, namely Animal Mints’ titillating body high and Bubba Kush’s tender, soothing head high. Often cultivated as either a balanced hybrid or a hybrid with heavier indica genetics, this strain typically leaves users with creative clarity, effervescent energy, and stifled internal chatter, resulting in highs that are fulfilling for a wide scope of consumers. Those who prefer a relaxing strain that still delivers a potent high will appreciate the balance Kush Mints delivers, but even varsity stoners should prepare for the potential couchlock. Expect an earthy nose with surprisingly brisk notes of spearmint, then a spicy sweet exhale with a lingering suggestion of mint.

GET IT FROM: Lemonade, 6218 NE Columbia Blvd., 971-279-2337, thereallemonnade. com/pdx.

PINK ROZAY Pink Rozay is a straightforward indica strain bred by Cookies and named for its delicate rosy hue and equally sweet flavors. In case you’re not persuaded to give this strain a shot based solely on the fact that it’s pink (what?!), users also report swooning indica highs that deliver magic carpet-level cerebral effects and a sedative tingle that both uplifts and tranquilizes.

Frankly, they had me at pink weed, but your enthusiasm for novelty may vary. Expect a nutty, earthy perfume with loud notes of strawberries and spring blossoms, then a grassy mélange flavor of berries and tart fruit.

GET IT FROM: Cookies, 16102 NE Halsey St., 503-764-9863, cookies.co.

GLUEBERRY Glueberry is an expertly balanced hybrid with genetics borrowed from Blueberry, Gorilla Glue, and OG Kush. Users report highs that seem to walk the line between zippy sativa and sweet, soothing indica, without bleeding too far in one direction tor the other. In that regard, Glueberry can be an attractive cultivar for users whose cannabis preferences lean toward creative fuel or bedtime medicine. The onset arrives in a dizzying swoon before mellowing into its final form, which hums at the same frequency as the user, regardless of astral position. Expect an offensive diesel fragrance bolstered by softer notes of wet wood and sharp pine, then a tart, pucker-inducing exhale.

GET IT FROM: Mongoose Cannabis Co., 3123 SE Belmont St., 541-933-8032, mongoosecannabis.com.

JELLY RANCHER Though Jelly Rancher is a hybrid cultivar, it’s effects are widely regarded as deeply indica-esque. Users praise the strain as being at once thoroughly therapeutic—easing aches and pains, quelling stress, kick-starting appetites—and roller coaster-level recreational that delivers giggly, euphoric highs that evaporate into improved moods. Of all of Jelly Ranchers’ reported effects, however, munchies get first prize, so when preparing for a parlay with this strain, make sure the cupboards are stocked accordingly. Expect a botanical perfume with a candy sweet finish, a skunky mouthfeel and a lingering aftertaste of overripe berries.

GET IT FROM: Brothers Cannabis, 3609 SE Division St., 503-894-8001, brothers-cannabis.com.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

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•••• • • • ••

A T R E A LRBO S ER E T •••• A E H T NPR radio show

OCT 14

with

TOM SCHARPLING MOHANAD ELSHIEKY KAVEH AKBAR

NPR radio show

OCT 15 OCT 16

gory live comedy theatre OCT 21

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Crosby, Stills & Nash Tribute

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+ Liz Vice

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Make heart work your work.

Are you looking for the kind of job where you can make a difference every day? Join our virtual hiring event weekly on Wednesdays, 10 AM and 3 PM. Visit heartworkoregon.com for more info.

STREET

Mitotiliztli Tezkatlipoka Photos by Sean Bascom On Instagram: @baaascom

ON A FRIDAY EVENING, the sound of huehuetl drums, ayoyotes (rattling ankle bands with rows of wooden shells), and ayacachtli (a handheld rattle made from gourds) beat steadily in Alberta Park. Dancers for Mitotiliztli Tezkatlipoka, a Danza Azteca group, moved through their steps, spinning and stomping on the basketball court. At the conclusion, they formed a circle. Each member stated what was on their heart and mind, finishing with “Ometeotl!” an Aztec spiritual exclamation to honor “everything that surrounds us.”

Johnny Martinez, who organizes the group, says the dancers were rehearsing in preparation for a Dia de los Muertos festival next month. Danza groups, artists, musicians, and poets will come from all over the United States and Mexico for the event, to be held at the Garden Home Recreation Center, 7475 SW Oleson Road, on Saturday, Nov. 6.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

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Wild North—where the name of the game is using all of an animal, across the menu—has now opened a brick-andmortar restaurant.

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FILLS

WHERE DO YOU READ WILLAMETTE WEEK? @smokeshowk9 #READWW A dozen power brokers want downtown statues back on their pedestals.

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Fills, the Berliner-style doughnut shop, is launching a pop-up, just on Sundays—starting Oct. 17.

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�GO | Face to Face The opening performance of Oregon Ballet Theatre’s fall season, Face to Face contains three ballet pieces—Ben Stevenson’s Three Preludes, George Balanchine’s The Four Temperaments, and Jennifer Archibald’s SculptedClouds. While the trifecta represents a lovely smorgasbord of intimate and sparse works, Face to Face is also the only shot you’ll have at watching professional-level ballet in Portland until George Balanchine’s Nutcracker kicks off in mid-December. All three works are presented at each showing—but there are only three showings to choose from. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, obt.org. 7:30 pm Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 15-16. $24-$105.

FILMOTONOMY

PAT R I C I A W O L F

�GO | Patricia Wolf Formerly of the L.A. group Soft Metals, Patricia Wolf is better known these days for her experimental and electronic solo forays. In May of this year, she released Life on Smoking Mountain, a series of breathtaking field recordings of bird chirps and other gentle soundscapes taken on Mount St. Helens. Wolf probably won’t play birdsong at this Creative Music Guild-curated Improvisation Summit of Portland, but it would be pretty cool to see the crowd response if she did. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene.org. 9 pm Wednesday, Oct. 13. $15.

STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.

SEE | Possession After asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce, Anna (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting violently deranged behavior in this one-of-akind psychological thriller about the vicious, visceral dissolution of a marriage. Experience a newly restored version of the milk-drenched subway dance scene in glorious 4K! Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 9:30 pm Friday, 7 and 9:45 pm Saturday, 9:30 pm Sunday, Oct. 15-17. $8-$10.

�GO | Minority Retort: Mohanad Elshieky Pure happenstance led comedian Mohanad Elshieky to Portland. In 2014, he could have ended up at any of the five cities participating in a six-week exchange program from Libya, but he landed in Portland where he began to work on a dream of performing standup comedy. After appearing on Conan and Wanda Sykes’ docuseries Unprotected Sets, Elshieky’s move to New York to take a digital producer job on Full Frontal With Samantha Bee felt like nature correcting a cool error made in our city’s favor. So it’s nice that Elshieky still visits—even nicer that he appears in an excellent comedy showcase like Minority Retort, where hosts Jason Lamb and Julia Ramos curate some of Portland’s best comedic talent. Curious Comedy, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-477-9477, curiouscomedy.org. 7:30 pm Friday, Oct 15. $15-$20.

S H AW N T E S I M S

�GO | Martha Bakes Written by playwright Don Wilson Glenn and directed by Vanport Mosaic’s Damaris Webb, Martha Bakes stars Victoria Alvarez Chacon and Melanie Moseley as original first lady Martha Washington and her slave Ona Marie Judge. The script was inspired by a story passed down through Glenn’s family about Washington’s last will and testament—specifically, the part that set his Mount Vernon slaves free after the death of Martha. “This was folklore that was part of our culture and told in different ways through enslaved people, and then passed on to their children and grandchildren, and I thought it was unique,” says Glenn. Now, as the tale comes to life for vaccinated and masked audiences at CoHo Theatre, it also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery. CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 503-2202646, cohoproductions.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-17. $5-$50 donation suggested.

� VIRTUAL | Cecily Wong Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras and Portland writer Cecily Wong (Diamond Head) teamed up to write a directory of strange, interesting culinary tidbits from all over the world. Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide tells you what it is right away; this is a big book of weird food trivia. But if you’ve ever wondered about Norway’s pizza-consumption habits, what the rarest pasta in the world is, or if the guy who invented pad thai was evil, Gastro Obscura has your page number. Register for the Zoom event at powells.com. 6 pm Thursday, Oct. 14. Free.

�GO | Mic Check Soul Clap A long-standing Portland hip-hop showcase, Mic Check is one of the scene’s best curations of up and coming talent, flexing rhymes onstage.

This special Soul Clap show boasts not only new voices but established figures like Mic Capes and hosts DJ Klyph and DJ O.G.One. Though the small rooms it’s generally held in, like the White Eagle, give Mic Check a warm, community feeling— for this show’s purposes, Polaris Hall feels like a safer bet so cyphers can work their words at a safe distance. Polaris Hall requires proof of vaccination or a recent negative COVID test at the door for admission. But if you forget, the testing site at Mississippi Studios is less than a mile away. Polaris Hall, 635 N Killingsworth Court, 503-240-6088. 7 pm Friday, Oct. 15. $10.

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

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FEATURE

FOOD & DRINK

B R A S A H AYA

The Tapas Torch

Brasa Haya is a welcome addition to Portland’s endangered realm of Spanish cuisine.

BY AN DR E A DA M E WO O D

R

@adamewood

estaurant writing is all about hunger, but damn if I wasn’t thirsty for a new fine(r) dining restaurant.

I realized how much I needed this sort of infusion about midway through my first visit to Brasa Haya, a new Spanish restaurant in a converted home on Northeast Beech Street, formerly the Beech Street Parlor. Sitting inside (vaccinations required) with three friends, I tasted a perfectly stacked bite of pork belly and squid—the classic Spanish pairing of pork and seafood—with an unctuous twist of poached egg and bright salsa verde. It all created a taste combination even my adventurous palate hadn’t had before.

Swoon.

As the past year saw the closure of Portland’s Spanish pillars Ataula and Toro Bravo, this new spot from Ian Munzert is set to help shore up the losses. Previously, Munzert headed the kitchen at Commonwealth in San Francisco, but he moved back to his home state of Oregon after the Michelin-starred restaurant closed in 2019.

Just four months on from its opening, Brasa Haya is shaping up to serve as both a 22

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

neighborhood staple and a splurge-worthy destination, depending on how you play it. The basic tapas and pintxos make for a great post-work stop-by, paired with an ever-evolving wine and vermouth list (a preview sip of a Spanish white wine vermouth had serious pumpkin spice notes in a very good way), or the start of a decadent tour round the menu.

Brasa Haya’s salt cod croquettes were textbook: fried up light and crisp, with generous salty flakes of white fish in the soft innards. The tortilla Española was silky and light; in fact, my only gripe is that it was far too small a portion for a table of four to split effectively, but this is a problem inherent to tapas, not to Brasa Haya.

The patatas bravas, on the other hand, were an ample pile of nicely crisped potatoes, coated in spice and served over aioli.

You’ll love to see Munzert’s well-rounded vegetable take too: The coal-roasted cabbage is a must-order, served in two generous wedges, with a garum (fermented fish sauce) butter that gives it both richness and umami.

A grilled round of robiola cheese was wreathed with vinegar-soaked bread, smoked chanterelles, wilted dandelion

greens, and piquant Jimmy Nardello peppers that zip around your mouth, hitting all the texture and taste-bud stops on the way.

While there are tons of gluten-free choices, the restaurant is a tough fit for most vegans, with fish sneaking into many of the starter and vegetable dishes and half the menu devoted to seafood and meat.

But for us omnivores, there awaits a gorgeous plate of grilled octopus, oh so tender and wrapped like a tendril around a potato mousse so light it’s almost a foam, with grilled escarole, brown butter and crispy bits of fried caper.

I didn’t have $90 to drop on a platter of bone-in, dry aged Carman Ranch rib-eye, but a $30 plate of thin-sliced jamón ibérico served with grilled bread doused in good olive oil and pickles did hit the right level of decadence. It’s wild how that acorn-finished ham just melts on tongue contact.

But truly, it’s the offal dishes that stand out. In one, tripe is fried to a light crispiness, coated in a spicy red harissa and crème fraîche sauce, and sprinkled with herbs and thinly shaved celery. It is, as my boyfriend put it, Buffalo wild guts—the most uncanny take on wings I’ve ever had.

BRAVA: The patatas bravas are an ample pile of nicely crisped potatoes, coated in spice and served over aioli.

The dish is rich and quite unlike the rest of the menu, but I’d definitely take it with a good dry cider.

Fried sweetbreads veer back into more familiar territory, mild and adorned with pickled Fresno peppers, slices of blackberry, and roasted corn to create a very refined nuggie.

Grab a sherry flight—southern Spain is home to the sweet fortified wine, after all—and make sure to order at least two desserts to share. All of them are good, but always add a small slice of torrijas, or Spanish-style French toast. Sided with a scoop of sheep’s milk ice cream and topped with a sherry syrup, this dessert is deceptively simple, but it is also perfect. The custard-soaked brioche takes on a light crust while becoming melted and soft on the inside, sugary without going into onenote cloying.

With friendly and attentive service and some real surprises on the menu, it’s comforting to know that Portland’s Spanish cuisine torch remains afire at Brasa Haya.

EAT: 412 NE Beech St., 503-288-3499, brasahayapdx.com, 5:30-10 pm, WednesdaySunday. Indoor seating is not ADA accessible, vaccination required to dine indoors.

TOP 5 BUZZ LIST

1. The Soop

2377 NW Wilson St., 971-254-8982, hsbrew.co. 11:30 am-8 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 11:30 am-9 pm FridaySaturday, 11:30 am-7 pm Sunday.

A visit to the Hammer & Stitch taproom will remind you of an earlier era of craft beer, when breweries often popped up on the industrial fringes and tracking them down felt like a scavenger hunt. The brewery’s motto is “Keep it simple, stupid,” but “simple” does not equate with dull. The lager stands out for its bracing minimalism—each straw-yellow sip is light and crisp, and offers a quick burst of bubbles.

1902 W Burnside St., 971-710-1483, thesoopportland.com. 10 am-8 pm Monday-Friday, 11 am-8 pm Saturday.

The Soop has certainly been mistaken for a kitschy soup spot more than once. However, soop is a Korean word for forest, and when you visit, you’ll see why the name fits so well. Especially in the evening, the cozy restaurant glows with shades of warm magenta emanating from lamps that hang over microgreen planters in the kitchen. It’s strange to imagine fresh lettuce could make such a difference, but everything on Ann Lee’s somewhat eccentric menu—dishes as dissimilar as bibimbap, chicken and microgreen nachos, and even a BLT— benefits from the microgreens treatment.

2. Hop Capital Brewing

6500 S Virginia Ave., 503-206-4042, hopcapitalbrewing.com. 5-9 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 5-10 pm FridaySaturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday.

The satellite bar of Hop Capital’s Yakima, Wash., brewery, this John’s Landing taproom, open since January, introduced local drinkers to a lineup of beers that land somewhere in the middle of the city’s world-class and well-established scene. Head brewer Ambrose Kucharski is clearly having fun amid the hop flowers up north. His Donut Peach Raspberry Sour sounds as giddy as a Katy Perry costume and drinks just as tart and punchy. And the SupercalifragilisticHopsialidocious—a milkshake IPA that may set a record for the longest beer name to fit on a tap board—smells like a cotton candy stand.

Lactic acid provided the batch with the thick, smooth mouthfeel of a dessert beverage, but the sugary sweetness is cut short just in time by a bitter, backend fade.

The Meaning of Names

5202 N Albina Ave., 503-201-7038, sweedeedee.com.

9 am-9 pm Wednesday-Saturday.

Sweedeedee’s cuisine has always been a little hard to define. The North Portland cafe’s menu is deeply seasonal and farm fresh. While not exclusively vegetarian, it’s certainly vegetable heavy. A sign of Sweedeedee’s style is obvious in its summer tomatoes, served in olive oil with padrón peppers, basil and salt. It’s an incredibly simple dish but somewhat jaw-dropping for its colorful beauty and bursting, herb flavors.

When visiting Sweedeedee for dinner, visitors are best served with an assemblage of items. Perhaps the roast chicken, a vegetable dish, some Grano sourdough to sop up the olive oil, and then a bottle of wine for the table.

King of the World, the first narrative podcast from Portland podcast studio Rifelion, explores the Muslim, Desi American experience in the years following Sept. 11.

3. Baon Kainan

6031 SE Stark St., 503-432-8121, instagram.com/bellwetherbarco. 4-11 pm daily.

The climb up Southeast Stark Street to 60th Avenue is steep. But that just makes the little pub at the top of the hill tastier for the effort. From the hazy, romantic back patio to the roaring front room, Bellwether feels like a pub that fell into the world fully formed.

The cocktails are named in an egalitarian manner, numbered from 1 to 8. The 1 is perfect for summer: rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, cranberry grenadine and salt, served with a curled lemon rind. Not overly sweet, the tangy little number is like a loud, talkative friend whose energy you can’t help but find cheerful. Where Bellwether’s cocktails eschew clever titles, its wines pick up the slack. The selection includes an Orange Wine for Beginners and an Orange Wine for the Brave.

BY SU ZETTE SMIT H

4311 NE Prescott St., baonkainan.com. 5-8 pm Thursday-Monday, 11 am-3 pm Saturday-Sunday.

The biggest standout dish at this hot new Filipino food cart located in the Metalwood Salvage lot is its kare kare fries. The classic braised beef peanut stew is thickened and poured over fries, aided by a dollop of shrimp paste and bright red pickled Fresno chiles. The result puts poutine to shame, but be sure to eat them as soon as they come out of the cart’s window—the fries hold up, but they’re best when eaten hyperfresh.

4. YāYā PDX AARON LEE

4. Kachka CAITLIN COLLINS

3943 N Mississippi Ave., 503-889-0090, mississippistudios.com. 11 am-1 am daily.

Throughout the pandemic, Bar Bar was our constant.

With a covered patio, heat lamps and fire pits—that we were, for a time, forbidden to gather around— Bar Bar set the standard for distanced, gruff, lovable service. Now that things are a little more normal (though we’re still maskin’ and relaxin’), Bar Bar is back to setting the standard for live entertainment, top-notch burgers and a warming, rotating tap list that always has something surprising.

PRESTIGE: King of the World takes its name from the literal translation of Shahjehan Khan’s name.

2. Sweedeedee

3. Bellwether

5. Bar Bar

ADAM LIBERMAN

Where to eat this week.

1. Hammer & Stitch

960 SE 11th Ave., 503-235-0059, kachkapdx.com.

4-9 pm Sunday-Tuesday, Thursday; 4-10 pm FridaySaturday.

If you’ve finished all of your pandemic jigsaw puzzles, Kachka’s Baba Sima Tonic is a drink that’s also an activity. First, you pour the brandy into a heatproof vessel. Then, balance a spoon across the top, put down the sugar cube, and hit it with the rum, while also spilling some into the glass. Break out your lighter and—settle down, Beavis—FIRE! FIRE! The blue flame dances high above the spoon, caramelizing the sugar.

If we get another winter storm, or you’ve somehow managed to catch a cold despite all the mask-wearing, it’s definitely what you want.

PODCAST

TOP 5 HOT PLATES

Where to drink this week.

1451 NE Alberta St., 503-477-5555, yayapdx.com. 4-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Chef Steven Chin calls Cantonese barbecue his soul food, and you really feel that. The streamlined menu focuses on serving meat over rice with hot mustard, dipping sauce and pickled cucumber and carrot. It’s simple and it’s great. YāYā particularly nails the duck and char siu pork. Of all the duck we’ve sampled (and it’s been many; sorry to our avian friends), Chin’s is the most five-spice forward. The ducks he selects also have more meat on the bone than many others, leading to luscious full bites of bird. As Cantonese duck is served chopped and bone-in, this means a bigger and better payoff as you nibble.

5. Derby

8220 Denver Ave., 503-719-7976, derbypdx.com. 9 am-midnight Wednesday-Sunday.

Judith Stokes’ Derby is both a work in progress and an act of imagination: an all-in-one restaurant, bar, cafe and market with a patio for outdoor dining and events like live music and drag bingo. For now, Derby is first and foremost a brunch restaurant offering up the classic paralyzing choice: sweet or savory. If you’re dining in a group of four, no problem: You can split the cardamom custard French toast, mini macadamia nut waffles, massive (20-ounce) breakfast burrito, and the white cheddar, arugula and mustard aioli breakfast sandwich. You may also want some sides, like pandesal sweet rolls—not unlike Hawaiian sweet rolls, but with a more substantial crust and crumb—and longanisa sausage, a nod to Stokes’ Filipino heritage.

suzette@wweek.com

“I was a really shitty Muslim,” Shahjehan Khan narrates in the first episode of the podcast King of the World. Khan is referring to himself in his late teens and early 20s: a self-described stoner kid and college dropout.

It feels harsh to put that statement on a kid. And once you really get caught up in King of the World—which takes its title from the meaning of Khan’s name—the personable narration makes it nearly impossible to judge the sweet, depressed youth that Khan describes.

Khan was only 17 when the Sept. 11 attacks happened, and the first episode, which debuted Sept. 1 of this year, recounts the day from Khan’s perspective, explaining the ways the attacks fundamentally changed how he interacted with the world and it with him.

Though Khan grew up in a majority white Massachusetts suburb about 30 minutes west of Boston, it wasn’t until after the attacks that he recalls anyone actively, physically harassing him for his perceived race or religion.

As Khan moved on to college, at UMass Amherst, the paranoia he felt about the new, unwanted label of Muslim Arab weighed heavily.

“Just to be clear, Pakistanis are not Arabs.” Khan says on the podcast, as if settling some old score. “The term Arab refers to an identity based on culture and language, so not all Arabs are Muslims, not all Muslims are Arab.”

Khan’s family is from Pakistan, so the word he uses is Desi, which he explains means “from the country” in South Asia or the Indian subcontinent.

And while the narrator notes this with fire, the lost youth he describes spirals into a deep depression.

King of the World has an obvious tell in that the seven-episode narrative podcast is voiced by Khan—so you know he’ll be OK eventually.

“I am a musician and an actor. I have a degree in community social psychology. I’m also a person in long-term recovery from addiction,” Khan tells WW. As he says this, Asad Butt, the owner of Rifelion, the Portland media company that produced the show, interrupts: “He’s being modest. He co-founded this internationally renowned South Asian punk band.”

Rifelion has one other podcast series—an ongoing show called American Muslim Project, which spotlights Muslim actors and artists you may not have heard about. However, Butt considers King of the World to be the company’s flagship podcast.

Rifelion intended to finish the series on Khan’s Oct. 13 birthday, but Khan announced on Oct. 6 they were taking extra time to make the final two episodes “as strong as they can possibly be.…That’s the cool part about being an independent company. We make our own rules.”

So now is an excellent time to dip your toe in King of the World, which Khan has so generously allowed use of his interesting life—as a road map for exploring the experience of feeling like an outsider and perhaps Khan’s way back.

LISTEN: King of the World streams on multiple platforms, including iTunes and Spotify.

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THIS WEEK IN 2012

GET OUTSIDE All of the Leaves

Four Pacific Northwest hikes picked for their fall foliage.

BY M I CH E LLE H ARRI S

Fall is arguably one of the best times for hiking in the Pacific Northwest—the other being spring for its wildflowers. But the window for viewing full autumn foliage is short. For a few scarce weeks, vibrant big leaf maples, dogwoods, and Oregon white oak, to name a few, put on a show for those willing to lace up their boots on a now chilly morning and get outside. If you’re in search of autumn adventure, here are four spots within an hour of the city to get your nature fix.

Scaponia County Park Miles: 1 | Difficulty: Easy

A secluded recreation site along the Crown Zellerbach Trail, Scaponia County Park is situated by the East Fork Nehalem River. In charming, portmanteau fashion, the park is named for its location between Vernonia and Scappoose. The 7-acre nature park offers primitive tent camping—first come, first served.

However, even if you’re coming just for the day, a network of trails to explore within the park crosses several footbridges. In fall, yellow maple leaves provide a golden canopy—a nice contrast to the moss-covered forest. Scaponia also connects with the Crown Zellerbach Trail if you’re looking to extend the hike.

The whole place is purportedly haunted by the ghost of a horse thief and his dog who were pursued by an angry mob and ultimately met their demise on the banks of the Nehalem. Campers have reported seeing the apparition of the man and his dog walking along the river.

Directions: Take US 30 west for 15 miles before turning left onto Scappoose Vernonia Highway. You’ll continue almost 15 miles before you reach Scaponia County Park on your left. $5 day use fee (bring cash).

Milo McIver Riverbend Loop Miles: 5 | Difficulty: Moderate

Part of the network of trails in Milo McIver State Park, the Riverbend Loop is a beautiful autumn destination to view a wide variety of deciduous trees. At the Milo McIver Memorial Viewpoint Trailhead, you should be able to ogle Mount Hood, Mount Adams and the Clackamas River before hanging a left onto the Vortex Loop. You’ll come to an impressively large meadow featuring a medley of Douglas fir, red cedar, and vine and big leaf maple where hippies convened for a state-sponsored rock festival in 1970 that was Oregon’s version of Woodstock. Next, you’ll connect with the Riverbend Trail, which meanders along the Clackamas under the glow of golden leaves. Eventually, you’ll reach the Maple Ridge Trail, a mossy, forested area with a colorful mix of Douglas fir, maple, western hemlock, and black cottonwood, to name a few. Loop back along the Riverbend and you’re back on the Vortex Trail. For a shorter hike, park at the Riverbend Trailhead or the Maple Ridge Trailhead.

Directions: From I-84 east, take exit 6 for I-205 south and drive 8 miles before taking exit 13 for OR 224 east toward Estacada/Milwaukie. Turn right onto 224 east, continue for 18 miles, and turn left onto OR 212/224 east. After 1.6 miles, turn right onto 224 east and go a mile before turning right onto Market Road 39/South Springwater Road. You’ll soon make a left onto Springwater and drive 9 miles before you reach the park entrance on your left. $5 day use fee.

Mount Talbert Nature Park Miles: 3 | Difficulty: Moderate

Rising 750 feet, Mount Talbert is the largest of the extinct volcanoes that dot the metro area. A stone’s throw from Clackamas Town Center, the nature preserve is covered entirely by trees with 4 miles of trails—some steeper than others. Begin at the Mather Road Trailhead, which has restrooms and a picnic shelter. To the right of the picnic shelter is a short prairie loop with a sign detailing the park’s oak woodland restoration project. To the left of the restrooms, the main trail climbs up through a forest of Douglas fir, maple and birch. To summit, take a left at the Park Loop junction and keep left on the West Ridge junction, where you’ll climb a series of switchbacks under an umbrella of Oregon white oaks. While the view at the top is limited, the hike itself is like walking through a giant kaleidoscope.

Directions: From I-84 east, take exit 6 onto I-205 south and go about 7 miles. Take exit 14 for Sunnyside Road and drive a half-mile, then turn right onto Southeast 97th Avenue.

Drive for almost a mile and continue onto Mather Road. The park will be on your left.

Oaks to Wetland Trail

Miles: 1.7 | Difficulty: Easy A short but scenic loop located in Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, the Oaks to Wetland Trail is open year-round and provides lots of opportunities to catch a glimpse of busy wildlife.

From late September through November, the 5,217-acre refuge is a destination for an abundance of migrating waterfowl that make it their winter home. The trail is lined with Oregon white oaks, in part due to a 2020 restoration project that removed most of the Douglas firs. Crossing a footbridge, you’ll pass the reconstructed Cathlapotle Plankhouse that marks the village of Cathlapotle, one of the best preserved Native American sites in the Northwest. As you continue past Duck Lake, turn right at the junction and you’ll find oak woodlands filled with copper-tone leaves. You’ll eventually reach the turnaround for the loop. Be sure to check out the viewpoint that overlooks the wetlands and the sign detailing the history of the area as well as a 400-year-old oak tree nearby.

Directions: Take I-5 north into Washington and go 20 miles before taking exit 14 for Pioneer Street/WA 501 west toward Ridgefield. Continue on Pioneer for 4.2 miles, turn left at the traffic circle, and take the first exit to stay on Pioneer.

Go a half-mile to the next traffic circle and take the first exit onto North Royle Road.

After another mile, turn left onto Northwest 289th Street and, after a mile and a half, turn right on 61st Avenue. Continue onto Northwest 291st Street, which turns into Main Avenue.

The trailhead will be on your right. $3 day use fee.

WESLEY LAPOINTE

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Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com S H AW N T E S I M S

PERFORMANCE

MUSIC Written by: Daniel Bromfield | @bromf3

Now Hear This

Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery.

HELL’S KITCHEN: Victoria Alvarez Chacon (left) and Melanie Moseley star in Martha Bakes, where cooking is a dominant theme.

Colonial Herstory Martha Bakes takes a satirical look at the relationship between original first lady Martha Washington and her slave Ona Marie Judge.

BY C E RVA N T É P O P E

@ghettocross

What do you get when you mix theatrics with slavery, democracy and the culinary arts? A surprising educational tale, that’s what.

In the upcoming collaboration between CoHo Productions and Vanport Mosaic, Martha Bakes, those three concepts are explored via three very different genres onstage: historical biography, cooking show and one-woman satire.

Written by playwright Don Wilson Glenn and directed

by Vanport Mosaic’s Damaris Webb, Martha Bakes features Melanie Moseley and Victoria Alvarez Chacon as original first lady Martha Washington and her slave Ona Marie Judge. The script was inspired by a story passed down through Glenn’s family about George Washington’s last will and testament—specifically, the part that set George Washington’s Mount Vernon slaves free after the death of Martha.

“This was folklore that was part of our culture and told in different ways through enslaved people, and then passed on to their children and grandchildren, and I thought it was unique,” says Glenn. “I think Washington’s will was the first big news that was swept under the rug. He was such an important person of his era—everything he did influenced the nation. He chopped down a cherry tree, he didn’t tell a lie. Those were moralities that were part of our growth as a country, so I truly believe that Washington felt that this would make a big impact on the country as well.”

Now, as the tale comes to life for vaccinated and masked audiences at CoHo Theatre, it also commemorates the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery. WW spoke with director Webb on the process of turning an oral tradition into a play and why it should continue to be passed along to future generations.

WW: Tell us more about where the idea for the play came from. It’s described as “part cooking show” plus “part historical biography” plus “one-woman show,” and that sounds like so much in one production.

Damaris Webb: Don and I were sitting in my yard talking about how the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 13th Amendment was coming up. He had been doing some research into Martha Washington, because he was 28

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

reflecting on a story that’s been passed down through his family. In his ancestry, there were the enslaved and owned from the derivative of Mount Vernon. When George died, he said in his will that upon Martha’s subsequent death, all of the Washington slaves should be set free, but he would leave them for her comfort and survival. We were kind of joking about, “What if the slaves had learned that the only thing standing between them and their freedom was his wife? What would that be like?”

So how does cooking play into the story?

The study of food is an introductory way into the life of people, and the curiosity of these stories and recipes gets passed down from one generation to another. They’re usually through the matriarchal line—what’s held in those stories, in the cooking, in the tending to and the feeding of the people. Then, of course, there’s Martha [Washington] and Martha Stewart’s cooking show, so the idea kind of came together as another device to break the fourth wall.

The first act focuses solely on Martha and the second act is Ona’s, so what do we take away from their relationship?

Martha has certain legal standing as a widow—a white woman widow with money—but neither of them has a voice. They don’t have a vote. Without giving too much away, that’s really what they’re trying to unpack. But the kitchen—it all takes place in the colonial kitchen, and that’s the important part.

When it comes to some of those devices, is there any localized level to the play?

This was written about a year ago, so there have been subsequent drafts, but the Portland protests and the Black Lives Matter movement have influenced the play. That would be the most Portland-specific part of it—what happened here for the George Floyd protests. I do think these are excellent things to think about, how to make things locally relevant with questions that could invigorate the pointing-to’s in your own community and start conversations.

SEE IT: Martha Bakes plays at CoHo Theatre, 2257 NW Raleigh St., 503-220-2646, cohoproductions.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday and 2 pm Sunday, Oct. 14-17. $5-$50 donation suggested.

SOMETHING OLD I Shall Wear a Crown collects the definitive works of Pastor T.L. Barrett, best-known as the sampled voice screaming on Kanye’s “Father Stretch My Hands.” He’s also the creator of some of the ’70s’ most musically progressive and melodically dazzling Christian music. Even if “Turn On With Jesus” reminds us that this guy was, yes, a youth pastor, these recordings are still living proof that many of the most interesting musical ideas in pop and rock can be found in God’s domain rather than the devil’s.

SOMETHING NEW Michigan rapper Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade label is in the midst of a hot streak thanks to its boss signing other rappers with voices as weird as his. ZelooperZ comes off as an excited understudy on Van Gogh’s Left Ear, vibing terrifically with Brown on “Bash Bandicoon.”

Meanwhile, Bruiser Wolf’s Dope Game Stupid presents a Midwestern answer to E-40, his owlish voice ideal for punchlines until he drops truths so brutal you wonder why you were laughing in the first place.

SOMETHING LOCAL A name like Foamboy suggests softness, inefficacy, the quality of being a punching bag—a neat contrast with the muscular postdisco that the duo has been pursuing since changing its name from Chromatic Colors. Sober Daydream sets Katy Ohsiek’s sangfroid against a jazzy, hard-hitting backdrop from producer Wil Bakula and a boatload of local players. Imagine the grungiest and most elegant bits of the ’80s combined—as much synthwave as sophisti-pop, as much Sade as Schwarzenegger.

SOMETHING ASKEW The iffy concept means it’s understandable if you don’t even want to press play on The Legendary Marvin Pontiac: Greatest Hits.

No-wave boho John Lurie releasing blues music under the pseudonym of a MalianJewish institutionalized patient? But said boho is talented enough—and the music far enough from blues—that the concept seems like a gag at the expense of concepts. And there’s no mistaking Lurie’s voice: the stentorian sound of a man who’s seen it all but whose eyes still widen with wonder.

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SCREENER

MOVIES

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

Last Meal

No film here epitomizes the medium’s ability to experiment while maintaining gripping, grounded and discrete components like Last Meal. Displaying mostly vivid glamour shots of inmates’ requested final dinners, Australian directors Daniel Principe and Marcus McKenzie present a sort of anti-death penalty poem with lyrics mostly consisting of narrated news articles and court records. But it’s all in the editing, collaging and juxtaposing that the societal and spiritual madness of capital punishment bleed through: An eye for an eye, an entree for a life, we humans are monsters, and the most monstrous among us are still human. To be transparent, this was the very first film Sevinc recommended from her slate: “It’s wildly smart and unique and funny and hard-hitting and dramatic and sad all at the same time.” All true.

GET YO UR REPS I N

The Ring (2002), The Ring Two (2005) In this American remake of Ringu (1998), a woman named Rachel (Naomi Watts) discovers a haunted videotape containing an avant-garde experimental film by a young director named Samara. Just kidding—she’s a vengeful ghost, and Rachel has just seven days before Samara gets her. Though the first film is set in Seattle, the second is set, and was shot, in Astoria. Hollywood, Oct. 13.

Poltergeist (1982)

Alaskan Nets TRIBECA

BendFilm Festival is now recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an Oscar-qualifying event.

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

@chance_s_p

Willamette Week OCTOBER 13, 2021 wweek.com

This politely cartoonish skewering of the Vienna State Orchestra doubles as a clear-eyed parable about equity failure in arts institutions. Auditioning against a slew of human double bassists, our protagonist (whose identity really shouldn’t be spoiled) encounters orchestra leadership in higher and higher positions explaining why, despite a brilliant audition and the organization’s values, they can’t be accepted at this time. In this context, the vivacity of the string concerto is doubly striking. The form may be centuries old, but the musical release speaks to a freedom that still, somehow, doesn’t yet exist.

After asking her husband (Sam Neill) for a divorce, Anna (Isabelle Adjani) starts exhibiting violently deranged behavior in this one-of-a-kind psychological thriller about the vicious, visceral dissolution of a marriage. Experience a newly restored version of the milk-drenched subway dance scene in glorious 4K! Hollywood, Oct. 15-17.

Pieces (1982) This slasher flick follows a serial killer slinking around college campuses and killing female students, using their body parts to make a human jigsaw puzzle. An unholy hybrid of splatter films, body horror, exploitation and giallo. Presented and joined by the hosts of the podcast The Good, the Bad, and the What!? Cinemagic, Oct. 16.

Raw (2016) LETTERBOXD

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Possession (1981)

The Best Orchestra in the World

WHEN I’M HER

When the 2019 editions of the BendFilm Festival and the Oscars both named The Neighbors’ Window Best Narrative Short, an industry door opened. BendFilm’s head of festival programming Selin Sevinc describes the process of becoming an Oscar-qualifying festival as follows: “When you have such a precedent of successful programming and giving awards to films that end up winning the Oscar, you can apply to the Academy and say, ‘Hey! I’m good at this! Can I be a qualifying film festival?’”

That means for BendFilm Festival’s 18th year—an in-person and virtual event running through Oct. 17—its winners for Narrative Short, Animated Short and Indigenous Short (selected by juries) are submitted for Oscar consideration. That’s a prestigious feather in the festival’s cap since there are only 64 festivals in the world—27 in the U.S.—with the same power. That’s likely to elicit greater submissions in future years, predicts Sevinc. With 75 shorts in play for 2021 (along with 40 features and the festival’s inaugural showcase of music videos), animated, narrative and documentary films all swirl together in themed blocks.

“In general, my goal is to get more attention on shorts,” says Sevinc, lauding these selections as “some of the best” she’s ever seen. “Shorts are where you find the most interesting, inspiring little gems, I feel.”

Like every 2021 film festival, BendFilm puzzled over its pandemic form, electing to shrink its in-person screenings from a traditional four nights down to two. Those Tin Pan Theater evenings pack in extra significance in Sevinc’s mind, a brief resurrection for the tradition of watching other people watch movies.

“COVID showed everyone that you really don’t want to just watch Netflix for the rest of your life,” Sevinc says. “[The pandemic] taught us, ‘See? Cinema matters.’”

Including a short film or two perhaps headed for Oscar contention, here’s the best of what we previewed from the 2021 BendFilm Festival:

While The Ring follows a creepy little girl coming out of the TV, Poltergeist is about a creepy little girl getting sucked into the TV. A suburban family’s home is terrorized by malevolent spirits in this semi-family-friendly supernatural horror classic

by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper and the universally beloved Steven Spielberg. Academy, Oct. 13-14.

LETTERBOXD

Off to the Oscar Race

Friday Night Lights is a narrative sports formula well worth repeating if filmmakers commit to embedding with the right rural town and totemic team. In this case, director Jeff Harasimowicz chose perfectly, profiling the hoops-obsessed Metlakatla Indian Community in Southeast Alaska, which fields a state basketball contender from a mere 70-student school. These young men face all the same untenable community pressure as West Texas quarterbacks, but with the heightened stakes of literal and cultural death all around them. Make no mistake, it’s a boatload of high school basketball footage, but Alaskan Nets is a “this is our year” sports doc at its most earnest and appealing.

When I’m Her

In this short documentary, retired ballet prodigy Michael Cusumano becomes Madame Olga, donning drag to instruct a new generation of dancers through abiding selflove. Though the degrading rigors of Cusumano’s teenage years are largely just implied, it’s not difficult to understand what he lost when art devolved into expectation and torment. Sometimes it takes an alter ego to rescue a childhood.

SEE IT: BendFilm Festival screens online at watch.eventive. org/bendfilm2021. Virtual pass $100, in-person pass $175, all-access pass $275. $5 minimum pay-what-you-will to stream films and virtual discussions.

The visionary Julia Ducournau directs this French comingof-age horror film about a 16-year-old vegetarian who, upon her arrival at veterinary school, discovers she has a taste for meat. Human meat, to be precise. Ducournau’s use of cannibalism as metaphor for puberty and desire is ingenious, and Raw is an essential precursor to her recently released sophomore feature Titane. Clinton, Oct. 18.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: Je T’aime Moi Non Plus (1976), Oct. 15-17.

Academy: Beetlejuice (1988), Oct. 13-14. Night of the Living Dead (1968), Oct. 13-14. Friday the 13th (1980), Oct. 15-21.

The Fog (1980), Oct. 15-21. Clinton: Santa Sangra (1990), Oct. 15. Hollywood: Bay of Blood (1971), Oct. 14. The Wicker Man (1973), Oct. 17. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), Oct. 18. Night of the Living Dead (1968), Oct. 19.

NOW PLAYING

PAT R I C K R E D M O N D / 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y S T U D I O S

MOVIES

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

The Last Duel The place is France. The time is the Middle Ages. The crime is rape. That’s the premise of The Last Duel, director Ridley Scott’s thunderous cinematic portrait of Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer), a real-life noblewoman who accused Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), a squire and knight, of sexually assaulting her. Each of the film’s three acts is filmed from the perspective of one character—first Marguerite’s husband, Sir Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), then Le Gris, then Marguerite. While the male perspectives were written by Damon and Ben Affleck, the scenes that peer into Marguerite’s soul were scripted by Nicole Holofcener, who emphasizes the tension between monstrous masculine delusions and brutal feminine realities. The Last Duel understands the fluidity of memory—in one scene, Le Gris willfully misinterprets Marguerite’s mocking smile as a flirtation—but it unequivocally states that only Marguerite is telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The trial by combat between Carrouges and Le Gris that decides whether Marguerite will be vindicated or burned alive is exhilaratingly brutish, but the film keeps cutting away from the bloodshed to show us her haunted, hardened features. The greatest war in The Last Duel is the one she wages against the patriarchy, proving that Scott—who also directed Alien and Thelma & Louise—is still a feminist to his core. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

OUR KEY

: T H I S M O V I E I S E XC E L L E N T, O N E O F T H E B E S T O F T H E Y E A R. : T H I S M O V I E I S G O O D. W E R E C O M M E N D YO U WATC H I T. : T H I S M O V I E I S E N T E R TA I N I N G B U T F L AW E D. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

ALSO PLAYING No Time to Die The essence of James Bond is iteration, evolving just enough to survive new eras rather than conclude—just like the Cold War, Hollywood machine and patriarchal framework that birthed the character. So it’s an unprecedented position in which No Time to Die finds itself: belting out a nearly three-hour swan song to Daniel Craig’s chiseled, well-meaning, haunted 007. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga (Beasts of No Nation) breaks visual ground in the enchanting blues and purples of nocturnal Cuba and Jamaica set pieces, and bursts of eerie emotional tension stamp his trademark on action set pieces. Meanwhile, stellar supporting actors like Ralph Fiennes (M), Jeffrey Wright (Felix Leiter) and Naomie Harris (Moneypenny) savor their chemistry with Craig to the last sip.

Of course, No Time to Die was literally and figuratively meant for two years ago (delayed by COVID-19), when its plot line about weaponized contagions wasn’t so gutting, when villain Rami Malek’s dead stare and monotone whispering wasn’t such tired schtick. More impressive than fun, this 25th Bond outing wraps the Craig years with all the heartache (for Léa Seydoux’s Madeleine Swann) and visceral ass-kicking he’s cultivated since Casino Royale. Always in pain, always trying to quit, Craig’s Bond was the only 007 who saw his end from the very beginning. PG-13.

CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Cinema 99, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Division, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Hilltop, Living

Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, St. Johns Theater & Pub, St. Johns Twin Cinemas, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Mall, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

The Rescue “I could talk for an hour about the ways these kids could die,” admits Australian doctor Richard Harris about the Thai youth soccer players he extracted from 2018’s internationally famous cave flooding. These odd, macabre little moments are the most striking of documentary team Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s recounting-cum-reenactment of the harrowing 18-day rescue from Tham Luang Nang Non cave. Another diver wonders aloud whether he would’ve drunk his life away if the boy he ferried to safety for three subterranean hours had died. Much like in Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi’s Oscar-winning Free Solo, the filmmakers pick knowingly at the bare psyches of adventurers (swapping rock climbers for cave divers) fascinatingly desensitized to death.

And while the expert editing does wonders to disguise extended stretches of reenactment (like a very expensive episode of Dateline), creeping, unanswered questions of retraumatization float in those scenes’ staged abyss. Even if thornier issues of dramatic reproduction and white interloping are sanded clean off the film, The Rescue remains a worthy tribute to the operation’s 5,000 volunteers from all over Thailand, the U.K., U.S. and China. At every turn, they chose action when hope was for fools.

PG. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Clackamas Town Center, Fox Tower.

The Universality of It All The Universality of It All is the debut documentary by Andrés Bronnimann, a Swiss-Mexican-Costa Rican director and producer. The film, which took nearly two years to make, is a study of human interconnectedness as explored through the eyes of the director’s best friend, Emad, a Yemeni refugee living in Vancouver, Canada. The question driving Bronnimann’s project: How did two people with such different backgrounds become so connected? He starts to answer that by explaining how the two met in college in 2013, which instantly grounds the film in a relatable space before taking the audience on a voyage through some of the global events that defined that era. The Universality of It All touches everything from the Yemeni Civil War to the 2016 U.S. election to the great Costa Rican and Nicaraguan migrations. Bronnimann artfully lays out how those experiences contribute to our current migration trends by employing infographic aids and interviews with experts. But rather than presenting the information academically, Bronnimann artfully shoots imagery that pops off the screen like moving Life magazine photographs that provide emotional weight, and the narration is hushed but sincere. While this isn’t a documentary that follows traditional journalistic standards, it certainly gives us context worthy of any equation used to come to a conclusion about global migration. NR. RAY GILL JR. Virtual Cinema.

Bingo Hell Among the quartet of indie horror flicks streaming on Amazon Prime this October for the second annual Welcome to the Blumhouse anthology series, Bingo Hell continues along the gold-plated schlockmeister’s lighthearted, heavyhanded formula. While most Blumhouse productions depend on a steady stream of camera-ready 20-some-

things cast as good-looking corpses, this darkly satirical fable focuses on a rather different demographic. Within a working-class New Orleans neighborhood recently overtaken by hipster millennials, Adriana Barraza’s hausfrau heroine Lupita can’t help but notice the sudden exodus of her elderly cohorts following the overnight appearance of a suspiciously luxe gaming emporium run by the seedily sinister Mr. Big (Richard Brake), whose widescreen rictus grin furiously chews every inch of infernal casino scenery. A premise conflating gentrification with selling one’s soul has some teeth, and the picture’s far more engaging first half clearly illustrates the plight of struggling seniors already preyed upon by a rapacious housing market well before the devil came to town. Alas, that measured world-building renders the intercut scenes of close-up carnage especially cartoonish, and however textured the victims’ backstories, their gory fates feel weirdly incidental— collateral damage in service to the larger points expressed by a nonetoo-clever political skit. Characters so artfully constructed should be allowed to die gracefully. NR. JAY HORTON. Amazon Prime.

Dear Evan Hansen Is Evan Hansen a teen tormented by anxiety, isolation and depression? Or a con artist masquerading as the best friend of a boy who killed himself? The answer is simple—he’s both. Humans crave characters who are easy to adore or despise, but when Dear Evan Hansen debuted on Broadway in 2016, it defied that dichotomy, becoming a blockbuster musical and winning six Tony Awards. The movie mines the play’s ambiguous magic by bringing back original star Ben Platt as Evan, who is so lonely that he invents a history of bromance between him and his dead classmate Connor (Colton Ryan). Connor’s parents (Amy Adams and Danny Pino) accept Evan as a surrogate son, but he’s haunted by guilt—and the truth that his deception may be all that’s

keeping him from ending his own life. Dear Evan Hansen diehards will be delighted by the film’s heart-expanding performances of songs like “You Will Be Found,” but not by the ending, which radically revises the story so Evan can atone for his lies.

In the play, the greatest act of penitence wasn’t apologizing. It was living honorably in the wake of your mistakes, an idea the film fails to understand. The result? An adaptation with the shape of Dear Evan Hansen, but not enough of its sad, strange and beautiful soul. PG-13.

BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cedar Hills, Cinema 99, Division, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Stark, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, Wilsonville.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye In the most absurdly erotic scene in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) tells his future wife Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) how he found God. He claims that after running over a little boy and rupturing his lung, he vowed to devote his life to the Lord if the child lived. When the story is finished, Tammy Faye is so enraptured that she practically orgasms, proving that religion is an aphrodisiac for the pair—at least until they get lost in greed and the film develops a case of the biopic blahs. During the ’70s and ’80s, the Bakkers ruled PTL, a televangelist empire that created a Christian water park, concealed Jim’s infidelity, and swindled its followers out of millions. Their marriage was an epic saga of capitalism, faith and sex, so it’s no surprise that The Eyes of Tammy Faye tries to cram in decades of gaudy details. By trying to show us everything, the film risks saying nothing, but it’s somewhat salvaged by Chastain’s eerie sincerity and Garfield’s trademark smirk, which gives new life to the old joke that PTL stood for “pass the loot.” PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Fox Tower, Living Room.

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JONESIN’

by Matt Jones "It's Time to Get Things Started"--this is what we call these characters.

Week of October 21

©2021 Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Even the

wisest among us are susceptible to being fascinated by our emotional pain. Even those of us who do a lot of inner work may be captivated and entranced by frustrations and vexations and irritants. Our knotty problems make us interesting, even attractive! They shape our self-image. No wonder we are sometimes "intensely, even passionately, attached to suffering," in the words of author Fyodor Dostoevsky. That's the bad news. The good news, Aries, is that in the coming weeks, you will have extra power to divest yourself of sadness and distress and anxiety that you no longer need. I recommend you choose a few outmoded sources of unhappiness and enact a ritual to purge them.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In Norway,

you don't call your romantic partner "boyfriend" or "girlfriend." You say *kjaereste*, which is gender neutral and is translated as "dearest." In Sweden, you refer to your lover as *älskling*, meaning "my beloved one." How about Finland? One term the Finns use for the person they love is *kulta*, which means gold. I hope you'll be inspired by these words to experiment with new nicknames and titles for the allies you care for. It's a favorable time to reinvent the images you project onto each other. I hope you will refine your assumptions about each other and upgrade your hopes for each other. Be playful and have fun as you enhance your empathy.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The band

ACROSS 1 Joutsting weapon 6 Subjects that get "buried" 11 "Cribs" network 14 Bend (down) 15 Herb similar to black licorice 16 Paranormalist Geller 17 In-N-Out Burger "secret menu" order

65 Chocolate-dipped cookie desserts supposedly named after Phil Rizzuto

made with red pepper, eggplant, and chilis

68 Venezuelan's "very"

35 Airport for SXSW attendees

69 Muscat resident, for one 70 Newspaper pieces 71 Programming language named for Lord Byron's daughter 72 Evenings in ads

34 Fish eggs

36 Eleventh graders, for short 38 Spot for a houseplant 39 It comprises 11 time zones 40 Diamond deciders

19 Peccadillo

73 Astronaut's pressurized outfit

20 Ripped up

DOWN

43 Aquarium growth

1 Aspiring atty.'s exam

21 Land west of Wales

42 Nintendo franchise, familiarly

22 Express a viewpoint

2 "_ _ _ extra cost"

48 Brooklyn or Romeo Beckham, to Sir Elton John

24 Science lab container that could be corrosive if spilled

3 Bleak crime fiction genre

50 Adjusts to something new

4 Acquire

51 Name yelled at the end of "The Flintstones"

27 Lingers on 30 "One-of-a-kind" digital asset sometimes labelled a "crypto-collectible" 31 MSNBC host Melber 32 "Empire" star _ _ _ P. Henson

5 DDT-banning org.

6 Corrective eye surgery 7 "_ _ _ Nous" (1983 film) 8 Someone performing home repairs, e.g.

9 Night school class, for short

37 Jacob's Old Testament twin

10 Accompany to the airport, maybe

41 Genre associated with Hunter S. Thompson

11 Madonna #1 title that's ... self-descriptive

44 Texas Hold 'em stake

12 "If I Had a Hammer" singer Lopez

45 Boat or plane 46 It may touch the samenamed part of a cup

13 Covered with ivy

47 Airport near the U.S. Open site

23 "Slumdog Millionaire" actor Dev

49 Celebratory events

25 "Que es _ _ _?" ("What's this?")

51 It's typically made with apples, walnuts, and mayo

18 Actress Salonga

26 Cat-_ _ _-tails

58 Homer classic

27 Long story (not short)

59 Highway subdivision

28 "_ _ _: Legacy" (2010 sci-fi sequel)

60 Actor Alan of whom Bill Hader does a good impression 64 Defensive tennis shot

29 Contraction and perpetual bane of grammar purists 33 Eastern European relish

©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.

52 How some things are read 53 Nation that's mostly Sahara Desert 54 It may consist of a soft drink with soft serve 55 It joins the Rhone at Lyon 56 "No" voters 57 "Stagger _ _ _" (AfricanAmerican folk song) 61 "In _ _ _ of gifts ..."

62 "Unforgettable" singer Lovato 63 Kind of prof. or D.A. 66 901, to Nero 67 Fix, as in gambling

last week’s answers

Creedence Clearwater Revival, led by Gemini musician John Fogerty, achieved tremendous success with their rollicking sound and socially conscious lyrics. They sold 33 million records worldwide. In 1970, they were the best-selling band on the planet, exceeding even the Beatles. And yet, the band endured for just over four years. I foresee the possibility of a comparable phenomenon in your life during the coming months.

Something that may not last forever will ultimately generate potent, long-term benefits. What might it be? Meditate on the possibility. Be alert for its coming.

Create the conditions necessary for it to thrive.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian

philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote, "I am unlike anyone I have ever met. I will even venture to say that I am like no one in the whole world. I may be no better, but at least I am different." I urge you to make that your own affirmation in the coming weeks.

It's high time to boldly claim how utterly unique you are—to be full of reasonable pride about the fact that you have special qualities that no one in history has ever had. Bonus: The cosmos is also granting you permission to brag more than usual about your humility and sensitivity, as well as about your other fine qualities.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Nigerian poet

Ijeoma Umebinyuo writes, "I will always want myself.

Always. Darling, I wrote myself a love poem two nights ago. I am a woman who grows flowers between her teeth. I dance myself out of pain. This wanting of myself gets stronger with age. I host myself to myself.

I am whole." I recommend you adopt Umebinyuo's attitude as you upgrade your relationship with yourself during the coming weeks. It's time for you to pledge to give yourself everything you wish a lover would offer you. You're ready to claim more of your birthright as an ingenious, diligent self-nurturer.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):

As author David Brooks reminds us, "Exposure to genius has the power to expand your consciousness. If you spend a lot of time with genius, your mind will end up bigger and broader than if you spend your time only with run-of-the-mill stuff." I hope this strategy will be at the top of your priority list during the next four weeks.

You will have abundant opportunities to put a lot of "excellent stuff into your brain," as Brooks suggests.

Uncoincidentally, you are also likely to be a rich source of inspiration and illumination yourself. I suspect people will recognize—even more than they usually do—that being around you will make them smarter. I suggest you help them realize that fact.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Self-help

author James Clear describes a scenario I urge you to keep in mind. He speaks of "a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow, it will split in two." Clear adds that "it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.”

You'll thrive by cultivating that same patience and determination in the coming weeks, Libra. Proceed with dogged certainty that your sustained small efforts will eventually yield potent results.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseus Elytis was speaking like a consummate Scorpio when he said, “What I love is always being born. What I love is beginning always.”

Like most Scorpios, he knew an essential secret about how to ensure he could enjoy that intense rhythm: He had to be skilled in the art of metaphorical death.

How else could he be born again and again? Every time he rose up anew into the world like a beginner, it was because he had shed old ideas, past obsessions, and worn-out tricks. I trust you've been attending to this transformative work in the past few weeks, Scorpio.

Ready to be born again? Ready to begin anew? To achieve maximum renaissance, get rid of a few more things.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

"I haven't had enough sleep for years," author Franz Kafka (1883–1924) once confessed to a friend. It showed in his work, which was brilliant but gaunt and haunted. He wrote stories that would be written by a person who was not only sleep-deprived but dreamdeprived. The anxiety he might have purged from his system through sleep instead spilled out into the writing he did in waking life. Anyway, I'm hoping you will make Kafka your anti-role model as you catch up on the sleep you've missed out on. The coming weeks will be a fantastic time to fall in love with the odd, unpredictable, regenerative stories that well up from your subconscious depths while you're in bed at night.

They will refresh your imagination in all the right ways.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "The reason life works at all is that not everyone in your tribe is nuts on the same day," writes author Anne Lamott. I will add that on rare occasions, virtually everyone in your tribe is functioning at high levels of competency and confidence. According to my analysis, now is one of those times. That's why I encourage you to take extraordinary measures to marshal your tribe's creative, constructive efforts. I believe that together you can collaborate to generate wonders and marvels that aren't normally achievable. Group synergy is potentially at a peak—and will be fully activated if you help lead the way.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I believe

your plan for the rest of 2021 should borrow from the mini-manifesto that Aquarian author Virginia Woolf formulated at age 51: "I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one’s self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded." Does that sound like fun, Aquarius? It should be—although it may require you to overcome temptations to retreat into excess comfort and inertia.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "Anyone

who isn’t embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough," writes author and philosopher Alain de Botton. That's too extreme a statement for my taste. But I agree with the gist of his comment. If we are not constantly outgrowing who we are, we are not sufficiently alert and alive. Luckily for you, Pisces, you are now in a phase of rapid ripening. At least you should be. The cosmos is conspiring to help you learn how to become a more vibrant and authentic version of yourself. Please cooperate! Seek all available updates.

HOMEWORK: Tell me why you're such a gorgeous creature. https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

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

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

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SPOTLIGHT ARTIST KYRA ANASTASIA

Kyra Anastasia is a yoga teacher and Ayurvedic Practitioner.

During the pandemic, when yoga studios closed, Kyra decided to pursue other creative endeavors by dabbling in art. Her intention is to create pieces that uplift and inspire. She is most influenced by Portland’s very own Mark Rothko known for his colorful abstract art, which conveyed a sense of spirituality.

Inspiredyoga.com FB Kyra Anastasia Sudofsky

COMiCS!

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Be a Willamette Week featured artist!

Any art style is welcome!

Let’s share your art!

Contact us at art@wweek.com.

COMiCS! JACK KENT’S

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

IG @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com

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