“SOMEBODY DUG A BLUE SNAGGLETOOTH OUT OF THE ATTIC.” P. 27
FIVE PEOPLE WITH IDEAS FOR A FRACTURED CIT Y—INCLUDING CLIMATE CRUSADER ADAH CRANDALL AND CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR BETSY JOHNSON.
PAGE 11
NEWS
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FINDINGS AARON LEE
FORTUNE, PAGE 24
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 48, ISSUE 9 Oregon lawyers are looking closely at one time when North Dakota’s governor voted in Minnesota. 7
Erica’s Soul Food’s new location is in a building built by Black Freemasons. 23
Moda Center is half empty. 8
You can get your fortune told at Fortune. 24
Betsy Johnson’s helicopters removed bad bears from national parks. 13 Adah Crandall is sick of being called inspiring. 19 Oregon’s new southernmost glacier is now the Crook Glacier in Bend. 21
Portland Opera’s new interim music director is composing a dark comedy about Mary’s decision to give birth to Jesus. 26 The owner of toy emporium Dr. Tongue’s I Had That Shoppe gets mistaken phone calls from patients of a local podiatrist. 27
Jan 8, 2022, would have been David Bowie’s 75th birthday. 22
ON THE COVER:
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:
Climate change activist Adah Crandall, photo by Aaron Lee.
Six workers at a Portland nightclub tested positive for COVID-19 after a weekend of sold-out shows.
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DO YOU HAVE Do you have constant tinnitus? CONSTANT TINNITUS?
[photo may be omitted; text above photo would remain included]
or buzzing in the (Ringing(Ringing or buzzing inear)the ear)
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The National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) is conducting a study to measure tinnitus using a computerized testing system. The National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) is conducting a stud DETAILS: BENEFITS: ELIGIBILITY: measure tinnitus using a computerized testing system. Study participation requires Participants learn about their Veterans non-Veterans over a sp Details: Study participation requires one appointment, or fourand appointments one appointment, or four hearing and tinnitus and with constant tinnitus (ringing, about 6 months. Each appointment may last up to 3 hours. appointments over a span of receive $50 for each visit humming, buzzing or other Benefits: Participants their hearing and tinnitus receive $50forfor each v about 6 months. Each appoint-learn about attended. sounds inand the ears or head) attended. ment may last up to 3 hours. at least 6 months. Eligibility: Veterans and non-Veterans with constant tinnitus (ringing, humming, buzzi To learn more, Anneka at (503) other sounds in the earscontact or head) for at least 6220-8262, months. Ext. 55949 or Brandon at (503) 220-8262, Ext. 58269 To learn more,Dr. contact [approved study team member name(s) and phone number(s) James Henry, Principal Investigator; IRB #4188 Dr. James Henry, Principal Investigator; This is a researchIRB study,#4188 not treatment. information at https:/ This More is a research study, not/www.ncrar.research.va.gov/Documents/NormStds2.pdf treatment.
More information at https://www.ncrar.research.va.gov/Documents/NormStds2.pdf Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
3
DIALOGUE
• •••• ••••
A T R E A LRBO S ER E T •••• A E H T JAN 8
MICHAEL NAMKUNG
Good Pain: The Art of Being Hurt with
Steven Gosvener
For much of the past two weeks, Portlanders have craned their heads skyward, watching for snow. It arrived, in fits and starts—several inches over five nights, dusting the sidewalks and melting after sunrise each morning. It was a far cry from the winter storms that incapacitated Portland in 2016 and last February. (And, for that matter, the feet of snow now snarling traffic on Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge—if you’re reading this in the car, don’t drive east!) But it set off what every Portland snowfall does: a lively debate whether our citizenry and infrastructure are uniquely fragile. In this instance, the discussion was intensified by government efforts to shelter unhoused people from the cold. Here’s what our readers had to say:
JAN 11
Consider This
LADY CHAM, VIA WWEEK. COM: “I lived in Chicago…bring
OMAR EL AKKAD
it on! “Let’s see how many cars end up piled all over the highways. Then, we’ll see the real snowflakes demand free towing again…”
with
JAN 12
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Booklover’s Burlesque
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DARK SIDE a piece for
assorted lunatics feat. LOVE GIGANTIC
JAN 22
cozy classics
JAN 29
FEB 5
COVERS & BLANKETS
FEB 10
David Archuleta
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WINTERFOLK a benefit for JOIN PDX FEB 11
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Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
FIFTH_DOCTOR, IN RESPONSE: “It’s not so much
the snow as it is the ice here. Temps tend to go back and forth over the freezing point, making the roads icy and not snowy. “Driving in snow is fine. Driving on ice is another issue entirely. Admittedly, we lack the infrastructure here for dealing with either.
“I grew up in the Chicago area and learned to drive in a rearwheel-drive car with a manual transmission—during winter. It’s not hard to get around when the roads are plowed and salted.” STAIRWELL BANJOELE, VIA TWITTER: “Can’t wait to ski to
the grocery store like last year.” JILL HOLLERAN-BUNTING, VIA FACEBOOK: “Hey. Anyone
remember ‘Snowmageddon’ I think in 2019? They said it was going to dump on us and it was gonna be the worst? Grocery stores had entirely empty shelves ’cause people
Dr. Know
were stocking up for, I dunno, months? Then we got literally zero snow…not a single flake? I’ll believe this when I see it.” KURT CHAPMAN, VIA WWEEK.COM: “Well, when the
physical location is some 20 degrees north of the Tropic of Cancer it occurs. Like. Almost. Every. Year.”
BRIAN MILLER, VIA FACEBOOK: “We’ve had a very, very
warm fall and early winter. When ever it does that in the Pac NW, it’s followed by a wave of severely cold sprees. They don’t always last for long lengths of time, but they can cause a lot of trouble during it if you are not prepared. What to worry about more: Unlike years past, we did not have such a big population of homeless or people in RVs and the like without power; they won’t be able to handle it and survive.” LUKE ALBRIGHT, VIA FACEBOOK: “I just hope the snow
has been vaccinated twice and then once again a third time.” 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 MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx
Why do jerks leave the glove box open after rifling through an unlocked vehicle? I get that they’re looking for money or a gun or whatever, but if they don’t find it, they could close the box and the owner would never even know. —Marcali H. Yes, what is the world coming to when petty criminals can’t even be relied upon to tidy up after ripping you off? What’s next, white-collar offenses after Labor Day? Ending ransom notes with a preposition? It’s like they don’t even care. Still, whatever you may think about the manners of today’s car plunderers, you can’t fault their work ethic. In the first 11 months of 2021, Portlanders reported 7,744 thefts from vehicles to the police. Since two-thirds of property crimes go unreported, the real total may be as high as 23,000 (and that’s not even counting those canny thieves who evaded detection by not taking anything and carefully closing the glove box). As annoying as it may be to have your car broken into, Marcali, your misery has plenty of company. Then again, maybe you should be glad they didn’t take the whole car. As WW’s Sophie Peel
reported last month (“1,140 Cars Were Stolen in November Across Portland. Mine Was One of Them,” Dec. 15, 2021), Portland car thefts were on a record-setting pace last year, with just over 8,000 reported by Dec. 1. (For comparison, we had fewer than 5,200 in all of 2016.) In this case, 8,000 is probably pretty close to the real figure—most cars that are stolen outright do get reported to the police, in large part because that’s your only hope of getting your ride back. Which usually happens! Not to brag, but I too did my part for Portland’s record-setting month: I also got my car stolen (for the third time) in November 2021. As always, I recovered it within a week. In Mississippi, where the stolen-car recovery rate is 29%, this would have taken a miracle. (Everything takes a miracle in Mississippi.) In the Rose City, however, you actually have a 90% chance of getting your stolen car back—most of it, anyway. Seen in this light, Sophie and I are actually the lucky ones. So remember, if you want a happy ending to your car-crime story, always leave a set of keys in the glove box. You’re welcome. Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
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Offers require enrollment in both automatic payments and paperless billing. Without enrollment, the monthly service charge automatically increases by $10 (or $5 if enrolling with credit or debit card information). The discount will appear on your bill within 45 days of enrolling in automatic payments and paperless billing. If either automatic payments or paperless billing is subsequently canceled, the $10 monthly discount will be removed automatically. Offers end 1/10/22. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. New residential customers only. Limited to Connect 50 Mbps Internet or Fast 300 Mbps Internet. Early termination fee applies if all Xfinity services (other than Xfinity Mobile) are canceled during the contract term. Equipment, installation, taxes and fees, and other applicable charges extra, and subject to change during and after the contract term. After contract term, regular charges apply. Comcast’s service charge for Connect Internet is $50/mo. and Fast Internet is $70/mo. (subject to change). Service limited to a single outlet. May not be combined with other offers. Internet: Actual speeds vary and not guaranteed. For factors affecting speed, visit: xfinity.com/networkmanagement. Compares monthly recurring charge for Connect 50 Mbps Internet and Fast 300 Mbps Internet with discount for adding new Xfinity Mobile line for a year. Must sign up for Xfinity Mobile and activate a new line within 90 days of Internet order and maintain the line to receive mobile discount for 24 months. Discount will appear on your Internet bill within 30 days of Xfinity Mobile activation. Must keep Xfinity Mobile and Fast Internet service for 24 months to receive $30/mo. discount. If either Xfinity Mobile or Fast Internet is cancelled, or Fast Internet is downgraded within 24 months, you will no longer receive the Xfinity Mobile discount. Xfinity Mobile: Requires residential post-pay Xfinity Internet. Line limitations may apply. In times of congestion, your data may be temporarily slower than other traffic. After 20 GB monthly data use, speeds reduced to a maximum of 1.5 Mbps download/750 Kbps upload. For Xfinity Mobile Broadband Disclosures, visit: xfinity.com/mobile/policies/broadband-disclosures. $300 Prepaid Card Offer: For new Xfinity Internet customers adding Xfinity Mobile by 4/10/22. Must maintain the new line with an account in good standing for 90 days following line activation. Prepaid card mailed to Xfinity account holder within 16–18 weeks of activation of all required services and expires in 180 days. Limited to one $300 card per account. 5G Phone On Us: Requires purchase of new Motorola 5G phone while supplies last, new line activation, porting number within 30 days of purchase, and 24-month Device Payment Plan. Call for restrictions and complete details. © 2022 Comcast. All rights reserved. NPA239186-0001
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DARK MONEY GROUP LAUNCHES ATTACK ADS: A new dark money group has begun running political ads targeting Oregon’s three leading Democratic candidates for governor. “Voters for Truth LLC” has placed push polls online that appear to test different lines of attack against the Democratic front-runners. One such ad, bashing Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read, was spotted on Politico over the weekend. The LLC was established in New Mexico on Oct. 29 but gave no details about who’s in charge. Under federal elections law, private companies can spend unlimited sums of money attacking candidates as long as their “primary purpose” is not politics. Oregon law requires political ads to disclose top donors in the last 60 days before a primary election, though it’s not clear the wording of the Politico ad would trigger that requirement. Read more at The Portland Record, a civic data site that launched a campaign finance tracker this week. OREGON PRISONS REPORT A DOZEN DEATHS IN TWO MONTHS: The Oregon Department of Corrections announced Dec. 30 the death of 67-year-old Robert Lee Shaft, the 12th inmate to die in DOC custody in the last two months of 2021. Shaft, who was in custody at Snake River Correctional Institution near Ontario, died in hospice care, according to DOC. The other 11 deaths occurred at three of DOC’s 13 prisons: five at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, three at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla, and three at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville—the state’s only women’s prison. “None of these individuals were COVID positive at the time of death,” says DOC spokeswoman Betty Bernt. Among the dozen people who died, the youngest was Sarah Maebell Rodgers, 27, who died Nov. 15 at a local hospital, according to DOC. The agency did not provide any details as to the cause of Rodgers’ death. Two of the OSP deaths were men in their early 30s: Roberto Ruiz, 31, who died at the prison on Nov. 26, and Aleksandr Petrenko, 33, who died at a local hospital on Dec. 12, according to DOC. The department reported 44 total deaths in 2021. In comparison, 50 adults in custody died in 2020, Bernt says. Seven
of the 12 recent deaths were individuals in hospice care, she adds. “Many of our patients come to us in poor health, often related to lack of primary care and preventative services. In addition, as our population ages, we have seen increased morbidity and mortality that further adds to this problem.” GOP GOVERNOR’S RACE TAKES SHAPE: The two best-known GOP candidates for governor officially kick off their campaigns this week. State Rep. Christine Drazan (R-Canby), who earned high marks in her short tenure as House minority leader, launched her campaign Jan. 4. Meanwhile, Dr. Bud Pierce, the Salem oncologist who won the Republican nomination in 2016, will launch Jan. 6. As in his last run, Pierce is likely to rely on the fortune he built through his cancer centers. In previous statements, Drazan and Pierce generally positioned themselves in the middle of the party. Polls, however, show that GOP primary voters have a continuing affection for former President Donald Trump, which appears to be animating the campaign of another Republican contender, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam. This week, he proposed that people camping in public rights of way and living in their cars be sequestered in a camp on Port of Portland property and overseen by port police. “With time,” Pulliam said, “this will deter the enormous number of individuals coming to Oregon to live outdoors and commit crimes.” GIVE!GUIDE RAISES RECORD FIGURE: Every time it seems Portlanders can’t get more generous, they dig a little deeper. Almost 17,000 donors gave more than $7.8 million to the 2021 Give!Guide campaign, which closed at midnight Dec. 31. That’s a record-breaking figure—$1.25 million more than the previous all-time high in 2020. Give!Guide, presented by WW, raises crucial operating funds for 202 nonprofits in the Portland metro region. This year’s goal was to raise $6.5 million. Donors exceeded that goal by 20%. The two nonprofits who raised the most money were Oregon Cultural Trust and the Oregon Food Bank. Look for a detailed summary of giving in next week’s edition.
NEWS Homeward Bound WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
NASHCO
The strongest arguments for and against Nicholas Kristof qualifying for the ballot. BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S
njaquiss@wweek .com
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, the state’s top elections official, will decide as soon as this week whether Democratic candidate for governor Nicholas Kristof meets the constitutional residency requirement to appear on the May primary ballot. It’s a fraught question, as Kristof, the former New York Times journalist who grew up in Yamhill, has gone from being something of a novelty candidate to the dominant fundraiser in the Democratic primary. His $2.5 million war chest is $1 million more than his two leading rivals, House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) and State Treasurer Tobias Read, have raised combined. At issue is an ambiguous phrase in the Oregon Constitution that sets out the residency requirement for candidates for governor: “No person shall be eligible to the Office of Governor who shall not have been three years next preceding his election, a resident within this State.” On Jan. 3, Kristof submitted 100 pages of documents to Fagan’s office in support of his contention that he meets the requirement. The next day, trial lawyer and former state Rep. Nick Kahl (D-Portland), submitted a 17-page rebuttal, arguing Kristof does not qualify (Kahl supports Kotek but says he wrote his memo of his own volition.) A spokesperson for Fagan says the secretary will make her ruling, informed by a legal opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice, as soon as this week. Lawyers on both sides expect Fagan’s ruling will be appealed and swiftly make its way to the Oregon Supreme Court. Here’s what each side is contending.
KRISTOF QUALIFIES
Strongest Argument: Kristof’s attorney Misha Isaac, a former counsel to Gov. Kate Brown, says the issue of residence turns on where Kristof considers his home to be. Kristof left Oregon after high school but has owned property here since the early 1990s and has returned every year. In effect, Isaac argues, Kristof never left—while he lived all over the world and maintained a home in New York for 20 years, he always considered Oregon his home and intended to return permanently. Best Example: In a 1916 Oregon Supreme Court case that Isaac cites, the court determined that whether a person
400 THE BIG NUMBER
RESIDENCY QUESTIONS: Nicholas Kristof hopes to be on the May ballot.
votes in another state—Kristof cast his ballot in New York in 2020—“is of no consequence.” Killer Quote: “Either Mr. Kristof was always an Oregon resident because he always considered it to be his home—as he maintains,” Isaac writes. “Or he has been an Oregon resident since 2018, when he began living here more regularly to write his book about Oregon people and issues and to manage the overhaul of his farm.”
KRISTOF DOESN’T QUALIFY
Strongest Argument: Kahl points out a fact WW first reported in August—that Kristof voted in New York elections in 2020. When he signed his New York ballot, Kristof certified that “I am not qualified nor do I intend to vote elsewhere.” Kahl says acknowledging he wasn’t “qualified” to vote elsewhere (i.e., in Oregon) means Kristof could not have been an Oregon resident. Best Example: Although Kristof’s supporters say residency requirements are archaic and discriminatory, Kahl notes that more than 40 states employ them and cites what he believes
That’s the number of cars that can fit in the city’s two impound lots, owned and operated by Speed’s Towing and Sergeants Towing, which contract with the Portland Bureau of Transportation to tow abandoned cars from the sides of roads. As first reported last week on wweek. com, those two lots were near or at capacity for much of 2021, and are now running out of space to store abandoned vehicles. That’s because law enforcement isn’t conducting vehicle identification number inspections, which are legally required to
“ By nearly every objective measure, Mr. Kristof resided in New York until late 2020,” Kahl writes. “Therefore, he is not qualified to serve as governor of Oregon.” is an analogous and chilling precedent: In 1935, the North Dakota Supreme Court removed Gov. Thomas Moodie from office after determining he didn’t meet the state’s residency requirement, in part because he’d recently voted in Minnesota. “While registering and voting in a particular place is not conclusive,” the court found, “it is strong circumstantial proof of residence.” Killer Quote: “By nearly every objective measure, Mr. Kristof resided in New York until late 2020,” Kahl writes. “Therefore, he is not qualified to serve as governor of Oregon.”
scrap a car. “They’re not happening,” says Sergeants Towing general manager Jesse Copeland, whose impound lot fits up to 200 vehicles. “We’ve got vehicles stacked on top of each other.” Portland police officers used to conduct such inspections regularly, but gradually stopped doing them in the past few years. Transportation and police officials have pointed fingers at each other over who’s to blame for the backlog. Last month, PBOT asked the Police Bureau for a contract
allowing police officers to work overtime at the lots conducting VIN inspections. But the Police Bureau says that’s unlikely to happen: “We have issues filling our available overtime positions as it is, so I don’t believe we’ll be able to accommodate that request.” Devin Edwards, president of Speed’s Towing, says if VIN inspections continue to lag, “our lot will become so full of vehicles needing VIN checks we won’t be able to do any tows for PBOT.” S O P H I E P E E L . Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
7
NEWS
DONOR
QUOTED “Dame scoring 55 points, in a playoff loss, was the most dejected I’ve ever felt leaving Moda Center. I hate trading any of our guys, because we love them as people, but it was clear that the roster needed an overhaul this summer. Olshey failed, and we are where we are. “The Blazers aren’t just losing games, but night after night of blowouts feels more demoralizing. It feels like there is a cloud of doom over this team right now.”
Seat Fillers Trail Blazers ticket holders describe a bleak mood in Moda Center.
Michael Mickanen, a fan since the 1990s and current season ticket holder: “It’s disappointing. I think the fans that show up are supportive. But it’s 50% capacity at times, maybe 60%? The energy is not the same with all those people missing. COVID is probably a big thing for people not being there. You couldn’t bring your young kids until recently, since they can get vaccinated.
CORRESPONDENCE
BRIAN BRENEMAN
For the past month, Portland Trail Blazers games have been hard to watch. That’s bad news for people who already purchased their tickets. In December, the Blazers lost eight of nine home games by an average of 12.3 points and can’t even bother to pretend to try to play defense in the opening minutes on any given night. Franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard has struggled to play through an abdominal injury and adjust to new rules aimed at limiting fouls. Much of the rest of the roster is injured, sick with COVID, or 6-foot-3. Increasingly, it appears those season ticket holders aren’t making it to their Moda Center seats. Official ticket sales in Portland have dipped below 90% of capacity for the first time since the 2006-07 season—Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge’s rookie season. On many nights, the number of actual seats filled appears to dip far below 90%. Poor attendance isn’t just a sports story: It’s a troubling business indicator for a franchise that already faces an uncertain future. We spoke to three season ticket holders—and one fan who chose not to renew this season—to gauge the arena’s vibes. ERIC GRIFFITH .
“I was very disappointed when they hired [head coach Chauncey Billups]. I really questioned keeping my season tickets at that point, but I decided that I would continue, in the hopes that this was going to be a very nice season. And now I really do regret that I did continue. “I very likely will not renew the tickets. Here’s the deal: I could buy [single game] tickets all I want. If I wanted to go to 20 games a year, I can buy them on the market for cheaper than what the season tickets cost.” Catherine Stelzer, a lifelong fan who chose to pause her season tickets this year: “I was angry with how [general manager Neil] Olshey conducted business over the summer, and it left me feeling less than excited to support the organization. Between the GM fiasco and the pandemic, the decision was easy but also disappointing. Considering Omicron and everything else that has happened this season, I’m glad I made that decision.
8
Ty Delbridge, season ticket holder: “The mood definitely isn’t the same. It’s not as loud all the time, and you don’t feel as much energy. That’s also probably because of COVID and the stadium just not being full like in the past because of restrictions. “The Blazers team just seems so small on both ends, confused on how to play with each other, and bored. They don’t have energy, and I don’t think that pairs well with how Billups wants to play. “Obviously, I’d love for them to make a homerun trade and make a deep playoff run, but if I’m being realistic, that probably doesn’t happen. I really would just love for them to be fun to watch again and play hard even if that doesn’t mean wins so I at least feel like going to the games to see them is worth my time. I was ready for [former coach Terry] Stotts to go, but damn, at least his teams were fun to watch every night.”
ALL HANDS WARMED
In a cold snap lasting over a week, nearly 800 volunteers worked 1,500 shifts to operate seven shelters where unhoused people could keep warm. Many of the volunteers keeping shelter doors open were county employees summoned by emails from their bosses, who combined moral exhortation with monetary incentives. Emails reviewed this week by WW show that county workers were offered 20% premium pay for hours worked at shelters. In several emails, county officials said they especially needed medical professionals and behavioral health specialists to deal with the needs of people who typically sleep on the streets. The emails show the urgency with which officials responded to the winter forecast—and also the degree to which winter conditions stretched Portland-area resources. County officials say they began scouting locations for cold weather shelters this summer, after a heat dome blistered the city. “We also learned that we needed to open more shelters—both to expand our geographic reach and to spread people out to reduce the risk from COVID,” says county spokeswoman Kate Yeiser. More sites meant greater staffing needs. One man, who was housed, died of exposure on Christmas Day, and the Multnomah County medical examiner is investigating two other deaths, on Dec. 30 and Jan. 1, as possibly from hypothermia. AARON MESH . Time: 1:16 pm Monday, Dec. 27 From: Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury To: Multnomah County all employees Subject: Help needed for severe
Justin Hintze, owner of local food truck Jojo, who has attended about half the home games this season: “This season has been abysmal. The vibes are fucked and the team’s effort has been lacking. It’s just uninspired basketball and very dumb roster construction, thanks to (thankfully) fired Neil Olshey. “You have to start with trades. I love [CJ] McCollum as a player, and he’s been good to the city, but it’s been long past due to move him and rebalance the roster. They need perimeter defense more than anything else. I would love to start tanking if they can’t pull it together soon.”
weather shelters “With temperatures dropping and more snow expected, these shelters are life-saving. “We are offering incentive pay for every shift worked. Managers
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Emails show county officials beseeched employees to staff warming shelters.
will receive incentives for every day worked. Anyone who completes eight shifts will receive an additional paid holiday.” Time: 11:47 am Wednesday, Dec. 29 From: Multnomah County Chief Operating Officer Serena Cruz To: Multnomah County all employees Subject: Urgent needs tonight. We need your help at the shelters “Last night, we were able to provide a warm dry bed and meal to 448 people because of your incredible work. “But our outreach teams are really worried about tonight. People who are surviving outside and who’ve toughed it out so far are going to be really challenged by the low temperatures in the forecast. “We need your help to open more space at the Oregon Convention Center and other shelters. There is incentive pay
for any shift you complete.” Time: 5:01 pm Thursday, Dec. 30 From: Multnomah County Chief Operating Officer Serena Cruz To: Multnomah County all employees Subject: URGENT - Our work to staff the shelters may not be over “As you prepare to leave for the New Year’s weekend, I want to share an update. The weather is changing—and it looks more like we will open extreme weather shelters on Friday night. “So as I continue to thank the countless County employees who have been so flexible and nimble as we staffed severe weather shelters over the past week, we need to turn to you yet again. “We understand that things are moving quickly. And we cannot thank you enough for your support and flexibility as we weather this cold stretch to keep our neighbors warm.”
CONTRIBUTION OF THE WEEK HOW MUCH? $50,000
WHO GOT IT?
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland)
WHO GAVE IT?
The Oregon Nurses Association on Dec. 30.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Kotek, the longest-serving House speaker in Oregon history (she’s held that spot since 2013), entered the Democratic primary for governor as a strong favorite. But facing a combination of voters’ disdain for the status quo and unexpectedly strong fundraising by newcomer Nicholas Kristof, Kotek has gotten off to a slow start bankrolling her campaign, trailing the haul of not only Kristof but, for most of the fall, the other leading Democratic candidate, State Treasurer Tobias Read. Kotek also faces a disadvantage neither of her opponents need consider: House rules prohibit members from asking for money while the Legislature is in session, which it will be for up to 35 days starting Feb. 1. In a normal year, labor support for Kotek would be a given, but United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 threw its support and a $75,000 check to Kristof, so getting the nod from another group of frontline workers is a nice win for Kotek.
WHAT DO THE NURSES SAY?
The $50,000 check is the second largest the nurses have written since forming their political action committee in 2008 (only a $60,000 check to Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2010 was larger). ONA spokesman Kevin Mealy says the organization interviewed all three leading candidates, but found Kotek the most compelling. “Oregon’s next governor has the opportunity to address the many generational crises Oregonians are facing—including the COVID-19 pandemic, public health, homelessness, racism and climate change. We need a proven leader from day one.”
NEWS E M I LY J O A N G R E E N E
Panic at the Disco Multnomah County leaves revelers to fend for themselves in the Omicron wave. BY J U S T I N YAU
@PDocumentarians
One by one, workers at a Southeast Portland club told each other they’d tested positive for COVID-19. In a group chat, set up after a previous workplace outbreak in October 2020, the bartenders and security workers at the club, 45 East, texted each other the bad news. In all, six workers had tested positive for COVID-19 by Dec. 21. They had all worked the previous Friday and Saturday nights. As many as 1,200 people were on the club’s dance floor those nights, photos show, partying to the dubstep beats of that night’s headline DJ, Blunts and Blondes. The only reason those Portlanders learned of the first significant outbreak in a reopened club scene is because workers blew the whistle. Afraid that exposed customers would bring the virus back home to their families over a holiday weekend, three workers spoke to WW, which published word of the outbreak Dec. 26. Club management publicly confirmed the positive tests only after WW inquired. After the story appeared on wweek.com, 45 East manager Peter Webb issued a statement saying the club had followed all COVID-19 health and safety guidelines. (He declined to respond to further questions.) In at least one regard, he’s clearly correct: No federal, state or county rules required the
club to inform patrons of the outbreak. Instead, Oregon officials have offered a collective shrug on notifying the public of outbreaks in social spaces. “This outbreak shows us clearly that we cannot trust bar owners to notify employees and customers of such an incident,” says Amanda Hayes, a former employee of 45 East who says her onetime manager asked her to fill in for workers too sick to complete a shift. “There needs to be a protocol and oversight in place to mandate employers to report such incidents for the safety of everybody.”
OLD TOWN ROAD: Patrons of Portland nightlife enter at their own risk.
Notifying the public of an outbreak “is especially important,” says Oregon State University professor Chunhuei Chi, because “we are dealing with the most contagious variant so far.” Chi, who teaches health management and policy, points to international models for alternatives: Taiwan surged past the U.S. in getting more people vaccinated, and it requires people to scan their phones when entering public places so they can be notified in the event of a positive test. “My assessment is that our public health infrastructure actually is not as strong as we would like it to be,” Chi says. “If we had enough resources, enough infrastructure, we would have done a much better job in contact tracing and informing the public about the risk of exposure.” Eric Bowler, who owns the Old Town nightclub Tube, wants such a mandate. “If one bar requires vaccine cards, it just pisses people off and they just go next door,” he says. “It doesn’t
“ It’s already hard to spot a fake ID, and it is quadruply hard to spot a fake vaccine card.” Multnomah County officials say there is no need to require disclosure to the public: Anyone who goes to a restaurant, club, bar or gym this winter does so at their own risk. “Anyone who spends time in a public indoor setting, or a busy outdoor setting, should assume they’ve been exposed to the virus,” says county spokeswoman Kate Yeiser. That might surprise a lot of Portlanders, and 45 East workers did not assume clubgoers would understand that. Instead, they decided that knowing about the outbreak might motivate their patrons to do what workers had done: get tested.
do anything to reduce hospitalizations.” Two years into the pandemic, with a new Omicron variant that is milder but more contagious, it’s a confusing time. Other cities—Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—have vaccine mandates for indoor dining and other higher-risk indoor settings. Not Portland. In fact, even as 45 East management kept mum about the worker outbreak, it was doing more than local governments required to slow Omicron’s spread. The club has an entrance policy requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test in the past 24 hours.
Vaccines are no longer likely to completely halt the spread of the disease. But they do make it unlikely infection will result in hospitalization or death. At this point in the pandemic, public health officials are less worried about individual risk and more concerned about vulnerable individuals, schools closures, and hospitals again being overwhelmed. Vaccine mandates would prevent some spread and make it less likely the unvaccinated would be directly affected. Employers are required to report five or more cases to the Oregon Health Authority, which issues a weekly report of workplace outbreaks. It’s not yet clear if 45 East fell under that requirement or followed it. Chi says he also favors instituting vaccine mandates as other cities have done, but he adds there still needs to be a massive outreach to the unvaccinated. County officials tell WW they are concentrating on getting people vaccinated rather than creating new rules. Since Dec. 1, just over 18,000 county residents have gotten a first dose, roughly a third of them children under 18, according to OHA data. “Right now, the county is focusing our resources on increasing access to vaccines and boosters to the most vulnerable members of our community, while also encouraging the broader community to get vaccinated and boosted,” says County Chair Deborah Kafoury. “I will consider mandates when we believe that we’ve exhausted the effectiveness of voluntary approaches to getting more people vaccinated.” 45 East did a lot of things right. But as with much else in the pandemic, the club showcases the practical problems of enforcing social distancing among young people who’ve been cooped up for the better part of two years. In interviews, 45 East employees say high-volume, alcohol-fueled parties are difficult places to enforce the statewide indoor mask mandate. “I walk up and down the bar every night, asking customers to put on their masks,” says one bartender, who asked for anonymity for fear of being fired. “You have to argue with some of them and have some people thrown out because they refuse.” As for the club’s vaccination rule: Employees assume some patrons are lying to them. “It’s already hard to spot a fake ID,” says the same bartender, “and it is quadruply hard to spot a fake vaccine card.” Bowler, too, says vaccination cards are easily forged. “We’ve gotten no instruction or resource from the county on how to verify vaccine cards,” he adds. For some of the club’s workers, the outbreak signaled how vulnerable they are to possible retaliation from managers. Hayes, a 10-year service industry veteran, says even calling in sick at many bars carries the risk of not being selected for future shifts. In the past week, she and others reached out to state Rep. Rob Nosse (D-Portland) to ask for stricter rules on COVID safety and disclosure at nightclubs. “Obviously, what happened to these workers is not good,” Nosse says, “and I’m looking into it.” “I’ve never had a single day or shift of paid sick leave in 10 years of working in bars,” Hayes tells WW. “And then I thought, there needs to be a union for that.” Rachel Monahan contributed reporting to this story. Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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Five people with ideas for a fractured city. Not in living memory has a new year found Portland facing such unease—and exhaustion. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed bedrock fractures in The City That Works that had been widening long before the virus. Yet last year, Portland set an unenviable new record—citizens were murdered, killed in fires, or died in vehicle crashes at rates not experienced in more than three decades. Turning a calendar page didn’t solve the problems. In the first 72 hours of 2022, Portland saw three homicides, two traffic deaths, and four people were seriously burned while trying to keep warm while living outdoors.
PHOTOGR APHY BY
Fixing what ails Portland is going to take work. We often open the new year with an issue dedicated to listening. We call it Voices—an opportunity to hear how people living in or near Portland feel about the city. This year, hearing new ideas felt unusually urgent.
A ARON LEE
We spoke to five people who are making demands for change. One of them is the moral authority who calls for drivers to slow down (page 14), while another is a teenager trying to halt highway expansion (page 19). One man sees the suffering of children left to fend for themselves when classrooms went dark (page 18), and another brings healthy meals to sex workers (page 17). And for the first time, Betsy Johnson—the former lawmaker seeking to become the first woman in U.S. history to be elected governor as an unaffiliated candidate—discusses her policy prescriptions (page 13). The following pages contain no cureall. The people we interviewed don’t agree on an overarching solution for civic woes. What they do share is a conviction that the status quo is unacceptable, and a willingness to apply themselves to trying something different. These are their resolutions. CONTINUED ON PAGE 12
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BETSY JOHNSON Former state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) left the Legislature on Dec. 15 to try to do something no woman in America has ever done: win election as governor while running as a nonaffiliated candidate. Johnson, 70, graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School but then took to running a helicopter company. For 20 years, she carved out a niche in Salem: plainspoken, wry, often profane, and right in the middle of an increasingly divided Capitol. Befitting the purple Columbia County district she served, she’s pro-choice and pro-gun, for gay rights but voted no on higher minimum wages. She grew up in a wealthy Central Oregon timber family (her father and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s dad were pals), but her tastes run more to cedar-plank salmon than caviar. Her self-effacing humor belies a keen analytical mind and a golden Rolodex that has allowed her to raise nearly $3 million since entering the governor’s race—far more than any other candidate. At least part of her message will be that Portland is a cautionary tale for Oregonians: a one-party city where good intentions ran amok. She presents herself as an alternative to factional ideological disagreements, and is betting that message will resonate with disaffected Portlanders as much as anyone. “I’m not asking anybody to change their party,” she says. “I’m appealing to what I think is an Oregon populism that says we want to get back to being proud of our state.” N I G E L JAQ U I S S A N D R AC H E L M O N A H A N .
WW: When did Oregon lose its way? Betsy Johnson: We really lost our way with the advent of COVID. It seems to be a kind of collision of catastrophes. We’ve got 13 counties, a third of our land mass, wanting to flee to Idaho. We’ve got people not safe on this streets, whether you’re in Elgin or Laurelhurst. Portland is an accelerating death spiral disaster. The schools are a mess. Crime is rampant. I don’t think that there was that one moment that somebody could say, “This is when the wheels came off the rails,” but the concentration of power with one party has been a very significant accelerant.
Legislature sent over the list, we just funded it.
Was it a mistake to close the schools? We’re cheating our children out of
What did your company do? We flew
the educational experience, and the economic impact fell particularly hard on women. What perplexed me about the governor was this push to get educators to the front of the queue to get vaccinated ahead of frail old ladies. Then the schools didn’t reopen. How would Oregon be different if you were governor? I would work like
hell to bring the parties together, to try to tame the extremes right now because we’re governing from the extremes on both sides. Second: a clarion call for accountability. We have been spending money in ways that, if the federal government ever turned their eyes to little old Oregon, we’re not going to do very well. What are some examples of questionable spending? I asked some pretty
tough questions about Project Turnkey [the state spent $65 million to buy 865 hotel rooms] and was told I needed to dial it back a little. But I don’t actually know how many people got housed. I don’t know how long it’s going be until some of those social service agencies that took over the motels are going to be back at the general fund asking for continuing support. Another was a program headed up to save performance venues. It was about $50 million. I went back and asked [the Department of Administrative Services], did you do any kind of analysis? Is this money really going to their mortgages? And I was quite surprised at how vague it was. The answer was, well, the
The governor’s the CEO of an enterprise that has 45,000 direct employees and a $12 billion annual general fund budget. What qualifies you for the job? It’s a matter of scale. I’ve run a com-
pany for 20 years. Certainly, I don’t compare a small commercial helicopter company with 50 employees to 45,000 employees. But my experience in business gave me some of the right questions to ask. And unlike many people in my caucus, I have signed both the front and the back of a paycheck.
helicopters all over the Western United States logging, fighting fires. We built a power line in Arizona in a highly environmentally sensitive area. We took bad bears out of the national parks. We changed the latrines on top of Mount Rainier. We did a lot of movies. For 10 years, we were the prime contractor to the U.S. Geological Survey on Mount St. Helens. That was some of the most extreme, dangerous, complicated flying that I think you could imagine. You’ve cast a lot of votes in the past 20 years. What’s one you’d reverse if you could? The [Student Success Act, a
billion-dollar-a-year corporate tax in 2019]. I voted for it, absent a lot of future, unknowable-at-the-time information. In hindsight, the worst piece was just continuing to provide money without demanding actual reform. Oregon’s schools rank low in national ratings. How would you reform them? One thing: not be cowed by the Oregon
Education Association. Another: get advice in the governor’s office from real educators versus representatives of OEA or representatives of special interest groups.
against other jurisdictions, our failures would be highlighted to a degree that they haven’t been. That would be something that the governor’s office could easily do. Should Nicholas Kristof be allowed to run for governor? I don’t know. A lot
of money will be spent litigating that question. I don’t disrespect the fact that he’s a fine writer and a Pulitzer Prize winner. But I’ve been immersed in Oregon’s budget for the last 20 years. Mr. Kristof has not, and it is one thing to sit in Manhattan pontificating about problems. It’s another thing to be back here in Oregon trying to fix them. What’s your legacy after 20 years in the Legislature? The thing that I’m the ab-
solute proudest of is constituent services. There was no agency that was immune from getting badgered about fixing stuff. We’ve never asked, is this a Republican or a Democrat? During the time when unemployment checks weren’t getting out, we did hundreds of unemployment claims. I helped people find insulin when they couldn’t get their unemployment checks. You’re pro-choice but you’ve taken some votes many Democrats dislike: on the minimum wage, family medical leave, guns, and the environment. Seems like a narrow path to victory. Well, I agree it’s a narrow path. I’ve
been sort of an equal opportunity pisser-offer. It’s because I have voted with my core beliefs. I’m a little on the R side: fiscally responsible, accountable, big on public safety, and big on business. The economy is not the enemy of the Legislature, nor are companies that take capital risk and create jobs. A little on the D side: pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-civil rights. And I believe that there’s a role for government as part of a social safety net. Is there a model for the kind of independent governor you would like to be? Jesse Ventura? No, I look bad in
a boa. More like Tom McCall. He didn’t run as an independent. No,
he didn’t. He ran as a Republican, but with that same independent spirit Oregonians are proud of. We used to be proud of this place, but I don’t feel that that’s the case anymore. No woman has ever won a governor’s race running unaffiliated. Why could it happen next year? What’s different is
how many disaffected people there are. There are pissed-off Portland Democrats, and there are pissed-off Helix Republicans. And I am of the opinion that there are enough of them that there’s a path.
So what specifically would you try to bring about in the way of reform?
Everybody knows the state’s in tough shape. What’s your big idea to make things better? Deal with homeless-
I wouldn’t allow us to keep changing the metrics by which we measure our progress. We’re not making our math scores? We’ll change the metric. We’ve had this Oregon exceptionalism of writing our own tests. If we were normed
ness, get people off the streets. I’m part of the group of people that opened up the old Wapato Jail and is now the Bybee Lakes Hope Center. I don’t know what the current numbers are, but three weekends ago, 110 people, including
17 children, spent the night in that building. Isn’t Bybee Lakes really expensive?
We’re restricted to the number of people that we can have in there by COVID, and have had to make some extraordinary expenditures based on COVID. When the county abandoned that building, they strip-mined it. Once we come up to a full complement of people, the model works. Please give President Biden a letter grade based on his performance so far. I would have to say a D or an F. He said,
“I’m going to slay COVID.” Not so much. More people have died in the last year than in the preceding year. Our departure from Afghanistan was shameful. I think Mr. Biden campaigned on being a moderate uniter. I have not seen much evidence of that. What would be your grade for Trump? I wouldn’t give him a very high
grade either. Talk about divisive. I’ve agreed with some of the things that Mr. Trump did, but him as a person, not at all. It has nothing to do with the person, necessarily. I thought Mr. Trump took a harder line on the border than Mr. Biden has. Seeing those people sleeping under a bridge, packed in there like sardines, it’s horrifying. Why are Gov. Brown’s approval ratings are so low? She’s a very empathetic, af-
fable person. I think she could have used those attributes to draw people together more, but she has abrogated that responsibility. She has presided over an administration that has done it to Oregonians, not with Oregonians. You’ve been critical of her handling of the Oregon Employment Department. What would you have done differently? If I’d been this governor, I would
have dropped back in time to when I was secretary of state and had gotten an audit that said this system is vulnerable. Now, nobody knew that 300,000 people were going to call on it all at once. But there was an audit when Kate Brown was secretary of state that said this is a vulnerable system. Then we got $90 million from the feds. Did anybody do anything about it? No. There was another audit after she was governor. Did anybody do anything about it? No. Can you say anything positive about Tina Kotek? She has taken the unchecked
exercise of power to an art form. What’s one thing people don’t know about you that you’d like them to know? I don’t know exactly what you’re look-
ing for. Do I sing off-key to Rolling Stones songs in the shower? I don’t. I come from a family where public service was valued and practiced, and I have tried to carry on in that tradition. Have I made mistakes as a legislator and cast some dumb votes? You bet I have. Can I own those? You bet. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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ASHT ON SIMPSON Ashton Simpson has a simple wish for 2022: He’d like his neighbors not to die while crossing the street to their tents. Simpson, 36, is executive director of Oregon Walks, which advocates for safer streets. Portland is heading in the wrong direction on that front, having racked up a record 67 traffic deaths in 2021. Last March, Oregon Walks published a comprehensive analysis of three years of pedestrian deaths. The findings: Drivers speeding down wide streets that often lack crosswalks, sidewalks and adequate lighting are killing and maiming low-income people of color east of Interstate 205. A soft-spoken former Air Force mechanic, Simpson is emerging as a formidable voice for people often ignored in the halls of power. “My intention is to make sure that this is a city that starts working for its most vulnerable residents,” says Simpson, who previously worked at the Rosewood Initiative, a neighborhood-improvement nonprofit, and is now running for a seat on the Metro Council. He sees the carnage on eastside streets as part of a systemic failure of city government to invest in the outer eastside. “I don’t want to be seen as an angry Black man,” he says. “I am angry, but I’m angry for a reason.” NIGEL JAQUISS .
WW: What do you hope for in 2022? Ashton Simpson: Number one, we have to grapple with our homeless situation. A third of our pedestrian fatalities this year and last were folks living on the streets. We’ve got to take care of them. Second, east of I-205 is almost a forgotten land. I’m tired of seeing downtown being fine-tuned. We need to absolutely make sure every corner down there is Americans with Disabilities Act accessible, for example. But you can get around pretty well downtown. In communities out here where there is no sidewalk at all, people are dying. What’s the solution to homeless people dying in traffic? First, it’s triage.
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a shelter and connect them to services. Number two, the Portland Bureau of Transportation is going have to say, “No camping on freeways or off-ramps.” In 2015, the Portland City Council unanimously passed Vision Zero, which was supposed to end traffic crash deaths and serious injuries by 2025. The city has spent more than $120 million, but things have gotten worse. Why? Vision Zero is a great program,
but it’s running on the equivalent of a 1989 Mac or PC. Think of our streets as the hardware—you can interject any program that you like, but it’s not going to change much because you first have to change behavior and you have to change the built environment.
PBOT failed to install a single new speed camera for at least three years. What do you make of that?
Mismanagement? We know the cameras force drivers to slow down. The money is there— where’s the urgency? We’ve seen a big increase in traffic deaths and gun violence both concentrated in East Portland. Is there a connection? What I see is a lack
of a concerted effort to invest in these communities. Black folks often feel like the government doesn’t give a damn about us. We don’t need a huge police presence. We do need to expand Portland Street Response so that we can get folks out of harm’s way when they’re dealing with the Portland Police Bureau. But I would love to see us shrink the police budget and invest more in opportunities—like construction apprenticeships. You’re on the Interstate 5 bridge replacement committee. What’s your vision? We do need a new bridge, and it has
to include bus rapid transit. We don’t need a lot of lanes. If we really are serious about our climate goals, that drives everything. We also need walking and biking lanes and to look how light rail can shape what is a hundred-year bridge. We’re going have vehicles and freight moving across the bridge. However, we need to try to reduce single-occupancy trips as much as possible. How? We should move to a fare-free system so
that we make it more attractive and convenient.
And that also takes away the heavy enforcement element on transit that criminalizes our youth. Cities such as Cleveland and Detroit have been shrinking for decades, with a loss of tax revenue and services. Portland’s been growing for decades. So why are things getting worse instead of better? It seems like
there’s a good-old-boy system with the haves maintaining their control over how things are shaped. Power begets power, right? Money buys power, power buys policy that continues the will of power. It’s a cycle. The City Council talks a lot about equity. What do you see on the ground in East Portland? To quote James Baldwin,
“I hear what you say, but I see what you do.” The problem that we’re having in these eastside communities has been a problem for decades. After the summer of Brianna Taylor and George Floyd, we hoped to see change. But nothing’s changed—and it’s infuriating. Just because we don’t live in fancy homes and we don’t live near the city center and we don’t have the thousands of dollars to throw in political contributions, we are ignored. I came back from vacation the day before the Timbers’ championship game. At the airport, it was all green and gold and they sure cleaned up downtown. But then I get back to Northeast 122nd Avenue and Siskyou Street and nobody had come and helped those folks living off that freeway ramp. CONTINUED ON PAGE 16
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NIK EISAH NEW T ON On any given night before the pandemic, Nikeisah Newton traveled the length of greater Portland. “All the way east to 250th,” she says. “To the Dancin’ Bare. Back downtown. Out to the Gold Club, on Southeast McLoughlin.” Her business, Meals 4 Heels, delivers hot, healthy meals to people working in the sex industry. Made with dancers in mind, Newton’s recipes avoid ingredients that might cause bloat or gas. They’re well spiced, but judicious about garlic and onions. Most importantly, Newton’s recipes pack a lot of power because it takes energy to work it up and down a pole. The idea came to Newton after she saw fast food wrappers in her ex-girlfriend’s car. Her ex was working at a strip club at the time and told Newton she often got off work too late to find something healthy to eat. Newton—a longtime restaurant worker—started cooking meals for her. And her co-workers started noticing and asked if they could pay to have meals brought to them too. Originally called Meals 4 Six-Inch Heels, Newton honed her takeout and catering business as she went. Now Newton’s Meals 4 Heels occupies a little kitchen with a walk-up window at the Redd on Salmon, a detached building on the Central Eastside. Her brick-andmortar keeps different hours than her delivery business—lunch hours Wednesday through Saturday. She caters birthday parties and baby showers for her sex worker clientele. But as clubs reopen, Newton hopes dancers will put in more orders. “I miss that clientele, personally,” she tells WW. “Sex workers are, by far, the best clients and some of the best tippers.” The legal status of sex workers will be a high-profile debate in 2022, as advocates collect signatures for a ballot initiative to strike prostitution from Oregon’s criminal statutes. We asked Newton about that. But for now she’s concentrating on other kinds of aid—not just providing delicious and healthy food, but safety and understanding. SUZETTE SMITH .
WW : What kind of business is Meals 4 Heels? Is it nonprofit? For profit? Nikeisah Newton: Absolutely for profit. We’ve been open since Jan. 25, 2019. A lot of people still think we are a charity, and obviously that’s something to consider. Why do people think a service for sex workers would be a charity? You do a lot of good works. Not only feeding dancers, but activists. Feeding strippers
was how it started. But that’s been super rare since the pandemic. When the clubs closed down for COVID, my clientele dropped like 80%. I’d say most of my customers now are the general public, and social or activism groups. We’ve catered meals for the Q Center, Don’t Shoot Portland, the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. We made meals for a vaccination clinic. When sex workers moved to cam or remote work, were you still able to deliver to them? Some kept in contact, but
a lot of my early clients ordered over social media, and now anyone who puts “sex work” in their
profile risks it being taken down or put on hold. So that impacted my business and slowed it down. Now that the clubs are back open, can workers order through your site?
Yes, but I don’t have as much of a presence as I once did in the strip clubs because there’s a turnover every couple years. A new wave of workers comes in. I started out very grassroots so this feels like an opportunity to go at it strong and reintroduce myself with more professionalism. Promo code. SMS. Things like that. There’s a demand, so I just have to remind them I’m still out here. There’s a petition that voters might see on the ballot soon called the Sex Worker Rights Act. The aim is to decriminalize sex work. I’m
aware, I’ve been asked to get involved with it. Will you campaign on behalf of the measure? As soon
Act [which expanded Oregon’s anti-discrimination laws to include hair texture and styles like locs, braids and twists]. If the bill sounds correct, then I’ll support it. As long as the wording is correct, I would actively campaign to decriminalize sex work. I need to see what specifically is written. What don’t people understand about workers in the clubs? They’re people. They’re
people that choose their job. It’s not forced upon them. They’re members of our community. I think about the comments from a Fox News article that was written about Meals 4 Heels. Negative things people said like, “Why am I concerned with this?” People are really uncomfortable with sex workers, that they are taking their own power and controlling their own bodies—and their money, at that. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
as I get more information about it, I’ll be able to tell you. I’ve worked on other things, like the CROWN Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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WW: How is the mental health of the students you work with, and how are they readjusting to in-person school? Pedro Anglada Cordero: One thing that kids do when they’re struggling through learning is to avoid that learning, or isolate themselves. It manifests itself in disruptive behaviors. Breaking, pushing, running away, becoming physical. Kids in kindergarten through second grade probably have it the worst. Towards the higher grades, you may see more behaviors that are more connected to depression. Maybe more withdrawn, they don’t want to be seen. But I’m starting to see that in kids who are younger. I also see a lot of students who have a hard time detaching from their parents, to the point that they either cannot handle that and have a meltdown, or simply struggle throughout the day emotionally. Were low-income kids affected more adversely by online school? There are a lot of students who may have
spent time at home alone or been cared for by a slightly older sibling. So they’re not having any emotional support throughout the day for weeks and months, and then suddenly coming into a classroom where there are expectations of all kinds of rules and distancing guidelines and boundaries. How many of your families were affected by job loss? One hundred percent of the families that I help to apply for
rental assistance were—either partial or full loss. Maybe because of lack of child care, like one parent had to work with reduced hours, the other had to stay home. Oftentimes in households where there were both parents present, I saw that the father went back to work. And the mother had to stay home. What about gun violence? One shooting has a domino
effect. We’ve seen kids now coming into our schools who have lost a parent since the pandemic began through violence. Some kids are able to receive some support on the school level through counselors. But for some, it’s a one-day-at-a-time sort of thing. Sometimes those services are not available. Referrals for mental health services are usually behind. You may be referred to the service, but there’s high turnover and high attrition. The inequities in schools that existed before the pandemic—have they widened or narrowed? The
PEDRO ANGL ADA CORDERO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
Pedro Anglada Cordero can see the next tragedy poised to hit Portland. It’s happening among children. Anglada Cordero, 45, is a social worker in two North Portland elementary schools. He works primarily with Indigenous Central American and Black families, and many of the people he assists—more than 500 families, including around 25 he works with consistently—are living below the poverty line. In the past year, he’s seen how minority communities have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in ways other Portlanders don’t understand. His vantage point: schools, especially elementary schools, where children have yet to learn how to mask their traumas and stresses, lending to brutal honesty. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of Anglada Cordero’s work is his struggle to untangle for families the botched government aid program for tenants who can’t pay their rent. Some families, primarily Spanish speakers, have been waiting for more than nine months, their applications tossed back to them by a glitchy web portal. The effects of nearly two years in isolation on kids have been widely documented and debated in recent months, as symptoms of that misery bubble up in school hallways. But Anglada Cordero says many Portlanders still don’t see what happened to the kids who witnessed the worst side effects of the pandemic: lost jobs, evictions, domestic violence and shootings. In this interview, Anglada Cordero describes the Portland he sees. What he’s witnessed leaves him little optimism that state and city leaders can help heal Portland in the coming year. S O P H I E P E E L . 18
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pandemic basically comes along and says if you haven’t dealt with this, now it is time to do it. For a little time, we were wrestling with that conversation and taking action. But now we are moving in a drift where essentially we are collectively paralyzed. We are basically seeing how we continue to fail without taking action. During the beginning, when the schools kept nutritional services open and so on and were trying to find out who were the families who were really in need of resources, I was having discussions every day with teachers and administrators. There was a genuine interest in doing the best for the community. But once the discussions for hybrid learning started happening, the discussion changed from “let’s hear you and see you” to “if you don’t agree with us, then you are against us, and this is the way it’s gonna happen.” You’ve helped over two-dozen Spanish-speaking families apply for state rental assistance. What has made that process so cumbersome? People had
to call and wrestle with requesting Spanish, which many times is not provided. Whoever was calling, the phones were just being hung up. Another is access with technology and proficiency with internet tools like chats. A lot of these application sites work with language engines…and then maybe the way that’s translated in Spanish turns into something that you don’t necessarily understand. And terminology that is completely foreign, even in their own primary language. The rental assistance program has caused whatever trust that was left to have essentially gone away. How has your attitude about Portland changed in the past year and a half? I’ve deeply soured. I have
very little hope that city officials are going to do what is required to gain trust. We are in the middle of a collapse. It is time for people to become more together and start doing things instead of waiting for institutions or the state or the city to take action.
ADAH CR ANDALL The offices of Oregon transportation bureaucrats may seem an unlikely target for climate protests—and a 15-year-old Grant High School sophomore an unexpected leader for the year ahead. But it all makes a certain kind of sense in the dystopia where a summer day bakes Portland to 116 degrees. Adah Crandall grew up a typical Portland kid. She recalls an environmental education that taught her “it’ll be OK as long as we all recycle and compost and turn the lights out when we’re not home.” She was the kid who cared enough about animals to carry a spider outside and thought of climate change as something that individuals needed to deal with. But then she learned of the Oregon Department of Transportation’s plans to expand Interstate 5 through the Rose Quarter closer to where she was attending junior high: Harriet Tubman Middle School. It was the spark that led to her realization that cars and trucks belch two-fifths of Oregon’s carbon emissions. So she joined demonstrations at Harriet Tubman. Then she started organizing them. The protests she’s led have grown from a handful of teenagers to as many as 70 at a time—and they’re a required whistle-stop for Portland politicians who want to prove they are climate champions. And Crandall has become a standard-bearer for the youth movement that hopes to prevent additional lanes on I-5 not only in the Rose Quarter, but as it crosses the Columbia River—a long-delayed bridge project set to become a political battleground in 2022. (On Jan. 5, she’ll lead an Interstate Bridge protest at Metro headquarters.) Her role has brought repeated comparisons to teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg—a likeness Crandall acknowledges but doesn’t love. “I’m my own person,” she says. We talked to Crandall about her hopes for the year ahead and the fears that animate her work. R AC H E L M O N A H A N .
WW: Why make ODOT the focus of protests? Adah Crandall: People don’t usually think of ODOT as a villain in the climate crisis, but what they don’t realize is that 40% of our state’s carbon emissions come from transportation. We want to start with the sources that are contributing the most, and in Oregon’s case, a lot of that is ODOT, especially since they’re planning to expand all of these freeways and essentially make those statistics worse. What’s your view on the new Columbia River bridge? We’re not disagreeing the
bridge needs to be replaced. It is an earthquake risk. But ODOT is essentially using it as a way to disguise another multimillion-dollar freeway expansion. That’s definitely become one of the main focuses of the campaign. So commuters in Washington state want more lanes. What do you say to them? More lanes have never really worked
to reduce congestion. In the middle of a climate crisis, we can’t afford to be expanding fossil fuel infrastructure. Do you think that message will resonate with them? It’s really hard to change
people’s minds around this sort of narrative that freeways are how we’ve always done things. We have a sort of moral authority as young people. It’s definitely a matter of trying to get people to understand the logical or scientific aspect of induced demand—that freeway expansions don’t reduce congestion. But then also there’s more storytelling based on personal narrative: Young people care about this because we are fighting for our futures and we don’t want a world that has been destroyed by climate catastrophe. What’s been your favorite tactic so far? Over the summer we took the train
to Gov. Kate Brown’s mansion in Salem to rally outside of her mansion to veto House Bill 3055, which was the big transportation package that gave ODOT funding to continue bonding for freeway expansions. [Brown signed it.] That was a really powerful way to target Gov. Brown directly, especially because she’s someone who likes to think of herself and present herself as a climate leader. You met with her recently. What was that conversation like? For the first few
minutes of the meeting, she basically explained climate change to us in a weird sort of monologue. Like, yeah, we know that climate change is bad. There was a lot of her trying to shield herself from this guilt of realizing that young people are calling her out, and not being used to being called out in that way. It shows how powerful we are—that none of the elected officials want to be seen as our opposition. What was Portland’s 116-degree day like for you? It’s really terrifying. I wish that
I wasn’t in a position where this was how I had to be spending my time. I wish that as a seventh grader in middle school, I was spending time hanging out with friends and going to soccer, not testifying at government committees to stop them from expanding a freeway into my school. That statement even seems kind of dystopian. And just the fact that middle schoolers had to worry about those things is really disheartening. I’m really sick of being called inspiring, ’cause I think a lot of the time when people say that
young people are inspiring, what they really mean is that we are reassuring or that we’re making them feel more comfortable in that they’re not doing anything. I think the climate disasters—like the wildfires and heat waves—are even scarier from the perspective of someone who’s been so invested in this fight for climate justice. Seeing that the sky is red in the summer and knowing that that is what the future looks like—that’s the future that my generation is inheriting. And that’s really terrifying. You mentioned being afraid. Are you also angry? I shouldn’t have to be doing this
work. I shouldn’t have to be afraid. Past leaders and past generations have just sat. So do you find activism gives you a
certain amount of peace in a personal sense, not in a political sense? Does it help you feel better? I would
like to say that it helps. I think it’s better than not doing anything at all. I hear this story from a lot of activists where it’s like, “Oh, I felt so hopeless and scared, but then I joined the climate movement and now I feel great and hopeful.” I want to relate to that, but I don’t think I really do, especially because progress is so, so slow and, a lot of the time in the climate movement, it feels like we’re just fighting to prevent regression backwards. To some degree, I have to it be hopeful because otherwise there would be no way I could do this work. I am fighting for a better world, but a lot of the time I’m motivated by this fear of things getting worse. Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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STREET
NEW YEARS’ DAY ON THE EASTBANK ESPLANADE Photos by Sean Bascom On Instagram: @baaascom
Many of us spent New Year’s Day in a semi-inert state, bingeing TV shows about stranded soccer teams turning to cannibalism and guiltily ordering takeout barbecue from under a blanket. But these fine Portlanders got out in the bitterly cold Jan. 1 afternoon to make the most of the long weekend, running, strolling (and rolling) around the Eastbank Esplanade before the sun set at the completely reasonable hour of 4:38 pm.
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STARTERS
THE MOST IMPORTANT PORTLAN D C U LT U RE STORIES OF THE WEEK—GRAPHED .
RE AD MORE AB OU T T H E S E STORI E S AT WW EEK .CO M.
RIDICULOUS
ODOT
GORGES BEER
A winter storm closes Interstate 84 between Troutdale and Hood River, but some drivers sneak around the roadblocks, much to the consternation of ODOT.
Gorges Beer in Cascade Locks starts a new tradition, a Polar Bear Plunge into the frigid Columbia River on New Year’s Day.
FEMALE FOODIE
WINTER CLEARANCE
SALE
KIM BERNICK
After 15 years of latenight Sicilian slices and breakfast pies, Hammy’s Pizza calls it quits.
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SAVE UP TO
Portlanders miss a white Christmas by a matter of hours, but wake to a satisfying inch or two of fine white the following morning.
% O S N
ELECTED
BRANDS STYLES
AND
AW F U L
AW E S O M E
Limited to stock on hand. Shop early for the best bargains!
Oregon’s Lathrop Glacier has melted and evaporated—it’s completely gone.
COMFORT SHOES FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Mon-Sat 10-6pm Sunday 11-5pm
1433 NE Broadway St Portland • 503 493-0070
NASHCO
Kachka replaces tipping with a flat 22% service fee.
State park camping fees for out-of-state motor homes go up 25% effective Jan. 1.
J U S T I N YA U
BRIAN BURK
After six 45 East employees test positive for COVID-19, the club’s management tries to keep other employees in the dark.
WW readers break the Give!Guide donation record by $1.25 million, giving $7.8 million to local nonprofits. SERIOUS
Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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Winter Sale! Starts Thurs Jan 6th Ends Sat Jan 15th
GET BUSY
STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.
B R O A D WAY P O R T L A N D
969 SW Broadway 503-223-4976 Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun Jan 9th 12-5 www.johnhelmer.com
Winter Sale!
Voting is open for our Portland Pet Pageant! Starts Thurs Jan 6th Ends Sat Jan 15th
VOTE NOW!
Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun Jan 9th 12-5 www.johnhelmer.com
ABLIS
969 SW Broadway 503-223-4976
SEE | The Band’s Visit Though not as well known as Jesus Christ Superstar, the 50-year-old musical that opened Broadway in Portland’s current season, nor as flashy as Mean Girls, the one that followed, The Band’s Visit might just be the production we need to begin the new year. Based on Israeli writer-director Eran Kolirin’s 2007 film of the same name, The Band’s Visit follows a group of Egyptian musicians who get lost on their way to a gig to find themselves stranded in a tiny Israeli desert community. While that sounds like the makings of a geopolitical drama, the story centers on the magic of unexpected encounters and the universal nature of hospitality, messages that ooze kindness and sound just about right following years marred by a culture of callousness. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, broadwayinportland.com. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, noon and 5 pm Sunday, through Jan. 9. $29.50$99.50.
�GO | Detox Week: Ablis CBD Tasting
☛
DO | Serious Moonlight: A David Bowie Dance Party Celebrate the 75th birthday of the Thin White Duke in the long, shoebox bar beneath the Midnight Society. The Six is the perfect subterranean club to dance it up to favorites and deep cuts from all Bowie eras. DJ Gregarious and DJ Disorder will run the tour. The Six, 3341 SE Belmont St., themidnightsocietypdx.net/the-sx. $10, $8 if you wear red shoes. Proof of vaccination required for entry.
PRESEN T ED BY
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SEE | My Brilliant Career In this lovely, underseen Australian period film, a young writer (Judy Davis) finds her career stifled by her class status, a budding romance (with a dreamy young Sam Neill) and, of course, her being a woman in the year 1897. A perfect companion piece to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 503897-0744, cstpdx.com. 8 pm Saturday, Jan. 8. $6.
CRITERION
Whether you’re planning a dry January for a mental and physical reset after the holidays or are simply looking for a way to chill following a rocky 2021, the Growler Guys are here to help. Yes, the taproom is best known for serving beer, but for one night this week the shop is hosting Bend-based Ablis CBD. You can sample alcohol-free concoctions like the strawberry mojito or berry-lime sparkling water, but even if you can’t make it to the event, know that Growler Guys always has at least three of Ablis’ beverages on tap. The Growler Guys, 3739 S Bond Ave., thegrowlerguys.com. 5 pm Thursday, Jan. 6.
FOOD & DRINK JASON COHEN
TREVOR GAGNIER
HAVE A ’GANSETT: Bartender Sam Walsh holds up a Rhode Island Narragansett lager.
do more creative stuff, and come up with more specials,” Montgomery says. “Because I’ll have more resources and support, I feel like I’ll be able to spread my wings.” Pairing with Lottie & Zula’s also gives Erica’s a ready-made SUB SHOP: Lottie & Zula’s signature New bar and beverage program, which England-style Italian grinder, the Ricotti. she may also contribute to, including seasonal Southern beers. Montgomery originally opened her cart, in a convenience store parking lot at Southeast 82nd and Morrison Street, because it was extremely close to where she lived. That also happens to be Halyburton’s neighborhood. The two chefs are both devoted to the food of their home regions—Rhode Island, in Halydifficulty of getting equipment, such as coolers burton’s case, and Atlanta in Montgomery’s. and refrigerated cases. Montgomery says she both will and won’t miss In addition to the restaurant’s current having her workplace so close to home—it breakfast and lunch menu, which includes means a longer commute but better work and coffee, cocktails, beers and baked goods, Lottie life boundaries. As an activist, a Black business & Zula’s will be more grab-and-go and make- owner and an Atlantan, she’s also well aware at-home food, with such possible offerings of the significance of moving to a spot that is as pints and quarts of egg and tuna salads, so close to both Martin Luther King Jr. Bourotisserie chicken and lasagna. And while the levard and the Legacy Emanuel campus that restaurant specializes in mostly hot and toast- upended Portland’s historically Black Albina ed sandwiches, it’ll now also have cold ones, neighborhood. made with shokupan from An Xuyên bakery. “Yeah, and that’s one of the major reasons To eat on the premises, you’ll head outdoors why Fletch was really adamant about allowing to a patio on the west side of the building that space for me,” Montgomery says. “He told me was formerly used as storage space. And that’s that the building was actually built by Black also where you’ll find the yellow Erica’s Soul Freemasons. I feel like it’s divinely supported. The fact that he and the building owner want Food cart. Montgomery had previously used the to bring Black businesses back into that area kitchen at Lottie & Zula’s for catering proj- and create space for us, I respect both of them ects, and has also provided it with meatloaf so very much for that. We need much more of for sandwiches. Now she’ll have both prep that.” and a walk-in pantry space, putting an end Halyburton’s inspiration for the other new to the food cart grind of having to shop and addition, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vinyl, came from restock almost every day, while still cooking Charlotte, North Carolina. There his sister and business partner, Emily Peterson, runs Tip in the trailer. “Now that I’ll have more space, I plan to Top Market, selling beer, wine, food, records
Power Throuple
How could one storefront contain the power of Lottie & Zula’s, Erica’s Soul Food and new record store In-A-Gadda-Da-Vinyl? BY J A S O N C O H E N
@cohenesque
When Lottie & Zula’s sandwich shop first opened on Northeast Russell Street, it was a takeout window. The timing—October 2020— called for its ____. Co-owner John Fletcher Halyburton— known to most as “Fletch”—planned to eventually make full use of the former Toro Bravo space as an East Coast-style deli, market and cafe. It just wasn’t supposed to take 14 months. But now that the time has finally come, Fletch is not only fulfilling his original idea, but expanding on it. Lottie & Zula’s will open up a covered outdoor dining patio that will also serve as the new home of Erica’s Soul Food, the Southeast 82nd Avenue cart beloved for both its hot lemon pepper wings and owner Erica Montgomery’s community-minded spirit. And on Jan. 15, the indoor space will also have a record store, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vinyl, operating as kind of a permanent pop-up. “This is our third attempt to open the market up,” says Halyburton. Delays stemmed not just from COVID-19 precautions, but also the
and books. “The minute I went in there, I was like, ‘Man, this is the coolest thing ever!’” he says. “You get to order a sandwich and then grab some beverages and flip through records while you wait.” In-A-Gadda-Da-Vinyl will be run by Pete Maita, who has sold records out of Crossroads for the past three years. He and Fletch bonded over their love of ’60s and ’70s psychedelia and progressive rock, as well as Texas band the Sword. That said, punk and metal won’t be a huge focus of the inventory, as those genres are already covered by the full-time record store across the street, Black Water. Of course, coincidentally, Black Water is also in the bar business. And Maita—no relation to the local musician—is also a longtime customer of Turn! Turn! Turn!, another hybrid bar, food and record business, which provided inspiration for the name. What TTT got from the Byrds, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vinyl takes from Iron Butterfly. “I was trying to think of something that was kind of like in that mold,” Maita says. “A song from that era.” The record cases—right now no more than half a dozen, holding around 420 records each—will fill the space that used to be Toro Bravo’s hidden-away dining nook, on the east side of the building. Hours will be limited to weekends, as well as nights of Wonder Ballroom shows, with Maita as the sole employee and clerk. But while you may not be able to buy vinyl and a sandwich at 1 pm on a random Wednesday at Lottie & Zula’s, there’s always going to be some music playing, including a movable DJ cart for both inside and outside. Montgomery, whose own vinyl collection is still back in Georgia, says she’s ready: “Oh yeah. I’m a huge music person, and I’m super-hyped about this whole vibe. I should be a DJ as my second job.” EAT: Lottie & Zula’s, 120-A NE Russell St., 503-333-6923, lottieandzulas.com. 9 am-5 pm Tuesday-Saturday. Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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AARON LEE
BAR REVIEW
Top 5
Top 5
Buzz List
Hot Plates
WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.
WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.
J U S T I N YA U
1. SUNFLOWER SAKE
2930 NE Killingsworth St. side alley, sunflowersake.com. Noon-7 pm Monday-Wednesday. Portland’s first shop dedicated solely to sake is now open inside a speakeasy alleyway, serving varieties you’d never find at your average neighborhood sushi restaurant. Sunflower Sake is a sake store stocked with a carefully curated selection of approximately 125 bottles, all available to purchase. Those who prefer to sample and then commit can also take advantage of the on-premises tasting room, where you can explore rice wine by the glass, carafe or bottle along with an assortment of housemade snacks. Takeout from the neignborhood’s concentration of restaurants is also allowed. COURTESY OF PINK RABBIT
1. THE QUEEN’S HEAD
IN PARADISE: Fortune’s Papi Burger evokes the quality and simplicity of an In-N-Out burger.
Fortunate One Fortune’s second incarnation offers a spacious bar, packed dance floor and a vegan burger good enough to satisfy a carnivore. BY C A M P Y D R A P E R
They say fate is a fickle mistress. And the pandemic has flipped the death card for many Portland businesses. But as any tarot reader can tell you, a death card can also signify rebirth. Fortune, once located in downtrodden Old Town, defied death and found new life, reopening in the Sentinel Hotel last July. But is this new iteration destined for greatness? The answer lies within. Inside the seductive, dimly lit bar, the vibe is old meets new. Classic, vintage details in the domed, stained-glass ceilings and wainscoting on the walls belie a history dating back to the 1920s. Contemporary style has been tastefully applied to the Prohibition-era foundations. With tropical colors, bold art, and lush vegetation, Fortune has a buoyant energy. And there’s room aplenty for any kind of socializing you might be looking to do. The bar matches the space it occupies—it’s long and curvy, offering space for groups to build up at various points. You can generally bypass the chatty clumps to find a seat. If you want to keep things more intimate for date night, there are candlelit two-tops and cozy nooks. Out on the floor are tables for groups to gather around for after-work drinks. And comfy couches line the walls for lounging and people watching when the vibe turns to party mode. Fortune is very chill early in the evening, but the party starts rolling as the night goes on. Whether you’re there during the relaxing hours, or later when the dance floor is in full swing, you’re gonna want some booze. The signature cocktails are around $15. The bar has something of a tropical motif, so I went for the more tropical drinks on offer. They were fine. Boozy and juicy, they drank easy but lacked the kind of flavor complexity and craft you’d expect from a true cocktail bar. Maybe stick to mixed drinks, wines and beers and focus on the great atmosphere instead. 24
Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
A major new factor in Fortune’s revival is the vegan food menu by rising star Plant Based Papi. I was on a mission to drink, so I only tried the Papi Burger. And, family, I was pleased. Trust that from a heavy meat and cheese eater like me, praise for vegan dishes doesn’t come easy. But that burger, which evokes the quality and simplicity of an In-N-Out burger, is praise-worthy. And if the other menu items are anywhere as good, you won’t be disappointed. Despite that, I wouldn’t recommend looking at Fortune as a restaurant. It’s still very much a bar, so adjust your expectations accordingly. For entertainment, Fortune offers a rotating cast of great local and visiting DJs (like it did when it was in Old Town) playing hip-hop, R&B and funk. You can sip while the DJs spin on Mondays and Thursdays through Saturdays. Fortune is open until midnight on most nights but stays open until 2 am on Friday and Saturday. Obviously, the non-school nights are when things get turned up a few notches. Since Dec. 17, Fortune has required proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter. And, not to bury the lede, but Friday is also the night Fortune has a literal in-house fortune teller giving tarot readings in the backroom. You don’t need to be a believer in mysticism to have a great time drinking while your fate is revealed to you. Despite my skepticism, I still learned a lot about myself, like, apparently, I need to “get out of my head” and “root myself in the present” more. Whatever that means. Anyway, if you’re looking for some insight into your future, why not give it a shot? And what does the future hold? If you’re looking for a sumptuous cocktail lounge with great music, atmosphere, and vegan food that won’t make you miss meat, then your answer is Fortune. DRINK: Fortune, 614 SW 11th Ave., 503-3842347, fortune.bar, 4 pm-midnight Sunday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday.
19 SW 2nd Ave., 503-206-6293, thequeensheadpdx.com. 5 pm-midnight Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; 5 pm-1 am Friday; 5 pm-2 am Saturday. Just opened at the end of November, the Queen’s Head is an English-style pub and lounge heralded as an overt return of the LGBTQ+ community to Ankeny Alley. The Queen’s Head hosts drag shows and burlesque performances five nights a week, but also offers a shifting menu of bar snacks and comfort food drawn from across the U.K.’s Commonwealth: cucumber and watercress sandwiches, baked Brazilian coxhina dumplings, curry hand pies, and customizable charcuterie boards.
2. BOCCI’S ON 7TH
1728 SE 7th Ave., 503-234-1616, boccison7th.com. 4-9 pm Friday-Sunday. Bocci’s on Southeast 7th isn’t hip, but it avoids being stodgy. It’s not gourmet but is still wonderfully delicious. Walking in, you’ll be greeted by super-warm staff, and possibly the sounds of Bob Dylan floating in from the kitchen before being set up with free house-baked bread—dense and soft with a crusty, salty edge—served with olive oil and vinegar. The star dish is the chicken Marsala: a generous chicken breast lightly breaded and still very moist, served piping hot over spaghetti and a Marsala wine sauce that was buttery and rich without being painfully decadent.
2.PINK RABBIT
232 NW 12th Ave., 971-255-0386, pinkrabbitpdx.com. 4 pm-midnight Monday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday, 6 pm-midnight Sunday. Even before Pink Rabbit transformed its curbside patio into an outdoor discotheque, the Pearl District bar’s collection of picnic tables were consistently full. But now, with a weather-fortified patio full of mirror balls, string lights, additional speakers and living plant installations, you can safely anticipate a wait for the top-shelf toddy, which sips like counterprogramming—restrained, mellow and deeply comforting.
3. THE GARRISON
2610 NW Vaughn St., 503-719-7778, pizzathief.com. Noon-9 pm daily. The dual gem of Pizza Thief and its adjoining Bandit Bar is a newcomer that fits into its surroundings perfectly, serving up big, New York-style slices, quality craft beers and unpretentious cocktails under the neon lights of the Montgomery Park sign.
8773 N Lombard St., thegarrisonpdx.com. 5-10 pm Monday-Saturday. The Garrison is an unpretentious little neighborhood bar, like any other in St. Johns, except for the fact that while you might feel like a moron trying to order a drink made with mezcal and yellow chartreuse anywhere else on Lombard, here it is expected. Because its part of a micro-business complex, the Garrison’s patio is actually a courtyard shared with salons and restaurants. Its picnic tables and counters fill up with patrons ordering not only drinks, but also food from Gracie’s Apizza, Mikasa Sushi & Ramen, and Bolognese pasta pop-up Pastificio d’Oro.
4. CLOUDFOREST
4. PUSH X PULL
3. PIZZA THIEF
727 SE Morrison St., 503-893-2614, cloudforest.shop. 10 am-7 pm Thursday-Monday (outdoor seating only). A visit to the Cloudforest shop reveals an abundance of fine chocolate, ranging from the vanilla-infused Orchid bar to the Holy Wood: flavored with woodsy-herbaceous and reputedly medicinal palo santo. The namesake Cloudforest bar is refined solely from Nacional-type cacao beans grown in Ecuador’s Camino Verde orchard. Owner Sebastian Cisneros has also begun to extend his reach beyond bar chocolate. Summer brought ice cream made from cacao pulp, tasting of fruit with the barest whisper of chocolate flavor, and a hazelnut-chocolate spread suited to spoon right on top.
5. DENICOLA’S
3520 SE Powell Blvd., 503-239-5221, denicolasitaliandining.com. 4-9 pm Sunday-Thursday, 4-10 pm Friday-Saturday. An institution on Southeast Powell since 1978, DeNicola’s remains family-owned to this day. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a booth under a framed portrait of current owner Donata, who runs it with her sons and brother. There are red-checked tablecloths and a map of Italy on your table, and your order of cheese-laden eggplant Parmesan will come with a side of spaghetti, just as God intended.
821 SE Stark St., pushxpullcoffee.com. 8 am-2 pm Monday-Friday, 8 am-3 pm Saturday-Sunday. Coffee may be ubiquitous in our city, but Christopher Hall, the 37-year-old co-founder of coffee roaster and cafe Push x Pull, possesses a singular focus on natural process beans. “Natural process” refers to fermentation of the entire coffee cherry after harvesting. In Push x Pull’s capable hands, the results are flavorful espresso shots and captivating cortados.
5. COOPERATIVA
1250 NW 9th Ave., Suite 100, 503-3427416, cooperativapdx.com. 7:30 am-9 pm Wednesday-Saturday. New to the menu at the Pearl’s Italian market, the World Vermut Tour flight comes with three 3-ounce pours to remind drinkers that—to quote bar manager Joel Schmeck—”really killer vermouths” are made internationally and domestically. Alongside Spanish Lustau vermut rosé and Cnia Mata red vermouth, Cooperativa features Son of Man’s “Someday” vermouth. Made with the Basque-style Sagardo cider, brewed in Cascade Locks, this dry white warps the vermouth category—a category known to have few requisites other than being made with wine. The cloudy yellow bottle carries tart sips of kumquat and rhubarb.
POTLANDER
New Growth
TheBudGrower Starter Indoor Kit For grows that require some measure of discretion, a tent or cabinet kit can be a surprisingly affordable solution. TheBudGrower starter kit, for example, is a coat closet-ready tent kit that includes a 2-by-2-by-5-foot Mylar tent with a multiport, carbon-filtered ventilation system, Fox Farms growing mix (a top choice mix for established growers), a 150-watt bulb, and a reflective hood. It also comes with an essentials package that contains a humidity monitor, 5-gallon reusable fabric grow pots, a custom 24-hour light timer, and even glass jars for your harvest. The complete kit retails for $450, which may feel like a large investment up front for users on leaner cannabis budgets. Personally, when I saw how many discounts I’d racked up at my local shop for hauls that met or exceeded $200, I figured a savings goal of $450 was doable, especially when the return on investment is anywhere from 10 to 14 ounces of homegrown flower. Pros: Relatively affordable, smell-proof, fits in a standard closet. Cons: Considerable assembly required, though there are tutorial videos. Get it from: thebudgrower.com
At-home grow kits that teach cannabis farming skills and deliver hella weed by the end of winter. BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R
THEBUDGROWER
If you’ve ever looked at your stash—after a particularly indulgent dispensary spree—and thought, “Damn, I really need to learn how to grow cannabis for myself,” you are not alone. Likewise, if you went full plant parent during lockdown and at some point thought, “Dang, I should apply these greenery skills to growing my own cannabis,” your reasoning is likely sound. Considering the long winter ahead, now seems a good time to explore indoor grow systems not only to experiment with home growing beyond houseplant propagation, but also to establish a year-round harvest to supplement dispensary hauls. To that end, we took a deep dive into the quest for the perfect indoor grow system based on criteria like ease of use, simplicity, discretion, and cost-benefit ratio when it’s time to harvest. Here are a few of the top picks:
GROBO
A POT FOR POT
Grobo Grow Box For grow newcomers with a considerable budget, Grobo is the best-reviewed stealth grow box system on the market. While a typical tent system is designed for function, the Grobo feels designed for both function and contemporary home décor. The case looks more like an ultra-slim IKEA wardrobe than an indoor grow house, which is a feat considering the unit contains a 10-liter hydroponic tank and five different nutrient modules. The prerequisite carbon-filtered ventilation, LED lighting and air circulation are all automated to maximize yields, and the functions are all accessible via smartphone app. Starting at $2,000 for a cabinet that measures 14 by 14 by 48 inches, the Grobo Grow Box reportedly runs whisper quiet, emits very little odor, and produces harvests that could pay for the unit in less than two years. An ROI calculator on the website further breaks down the cost effectiveness of a stealth box for those who can afford the upfront investment. Pros: Contemporary furniture aesthetic, automated hydroponic system, automatic locks keep out curious pets and inquisitive kiddos. Cons: Very expensive. Get it from: grobo.io
a Pot for Pot A comprehensive grow kit perfect for the houseplant aficionado who has no need to be discreet, a Pot for Pot comes in sizes appropriate for windowsill, balcony or outdoor growing. The kits also come with a step-by-step guide, a fabric pot and drain saucer, a germination kit, and an objectively intense soil package that includes enriched soil, diatomaceous earth, a bacteria-based rooting booster, coco bricks, and separate pearlite topsoil. The whole shebang guides users through the entire grow process, from sprouting to harvesting, with the energy of an elder hippie/neighborhood green witch. The complete kit includes natural soap and neem oil (for your plant’s leaves), custom trimming scissors, a hybrid watering can/spray bottle, a three-part clip-on smartphone macro-lens for bud close-ups, and a seed coupon worth $40. Pros: Affordable (kits range $40-$300); generous yield (28 grams to 1 pound); mini, small, medium and large kits each contain all the bonus amenities. Cons: Indiscreet, no odor control. Get it from: apotforpot.com Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
MUSIC
Editor: Andi Prewitt | Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com RACHEL HADIASHAR
Now Hear This Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery.
1. Gym membership I’m a member of Me Fitness in Northeast Portland. I go four times a week. I’m not one of these people who’s, like, a gym head. I’m not doing this to get muscles or anything. I’m doing this mostly to keep moving because most of the work that I do, I’m staying in one place, just kind of sitting there. Your body’s an instrument. 2. Matcha Matcha is the type of thing you either love or you hate. It tastes very bitter. It’s a green tea that’s been ground. I don’t particularly care for coffee, but I will do matcha in the morning. I haven’t found it to have any kind of effect on the voice or anything like that. It may dry it out a little bit, but it’s nothing that’s detrimental. 3. Health care I don’t know why this country hasn’t figured it out yet. I went to England and I had to go to urgent care for something minor. I didn’t pay a dime. I’m not even a citizen of that country. I’m getting on my soapbox now, but we’ve seen that universal health care can work.
My Essential Seven: Damien Geter Portland Opera’s interim music director talks exercise, matcha, antiracism and more. BY B E N N E T T C A M P B E LL FE RG U SO N
When Damien Geter, Portland Opera’s interim music director and artistic adviser, says that he listened to every kind of music growing up, he means it. “It sounds hyperbolic, but it’s true,” Geter says. “We probably listened mostly to R&B and gospel, but we listened to Dolly Parton, we listened to Madonna. I went through a grunge phase. There was a lot of jazz in the house. We had records of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.” The epic range of Geter’s passions makes him the perfect music director for Portland Opera in 2022. Beginning with When the Sun Comes Out, a love story between two women set in an imaginary country, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Central Park Five, the company will introduce audiences to a diverse array of works that promise to expand audience perceptions about what opera can be— and who it can be for. “You’re going to see grand opera in totally different ways,” Geter says. “From a visual standpoint, you’ll see singers from every background you can think of, we hope.” With the shadow of the pandemic looming, he also adds, “We don’t want to do a whole season of drama and trauma. We do like to have a balanced season.” Geter has stories of his own to tell—including an opera he is currently composing that he describes as a dark comedy about Mary’s decision to give birth to Christ—but he took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss seven things he considers essential in his life, which he listed in no particular order. 26
Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
4. Friends I consider myself to be an introvert. I really do. Not even an extroverted introvert, whatever that is. But if I’ve noticed anything in the last year, it’s that I still need connection to my friends in some way. So it was fun for me to reconnect with a lot of people this past year when I felt a little safer to do so. 5. Laughter Well, I’ll tell you what makes me laugh lately— TikTok videos and these reels that pop up on social media. They have definitely gotten me through a lot of dark moments. Like today, I saw a reel of this doll that looked like [it was from] The Exorcist. It said something like, “Returning to work after day six of COVID.” 6. Anti-racist ideation Anti-racism to me means decentering white voices, putting voices of Black people in the center, creating intentional opportunities for Black people. That was hard [when I was teaching] because I worked in private schools, and the culture and dynamics were set up for white people. I’m just being honest with you. When I taught at Portland State University, I had one Black student, and I made sure that he was aware of everything out in the real world. I don’t teach there anymore, but we’re still in touch. And he still calls me and asks me for advice. 7. Music My brother was a DJ for a while. My mother sang in church. My grandmother played piano. Music has always been a part of our lives. My willingness to listen to everything has stayed with me as an adult. I actually don’t understand people who only listen to one type of music. SEE IT: When the Sun Comes Out plays at the Hampton Opera Center, 211 SE Caruthers St., 503-241-1802, portlandopera.org. 7:30 pm Friday, Jan 28; Thursday, Feb. 3 and 10; Saturday, Feb. 5 and 12. 2 pm Sunday, Jan. 30. $75.
BY DANIEL BROMFIELD // @BROMF3
SOMETHING OLD
Revisiting Rihanna’s 2005 debut, Music of the Sun, it’s clear she and her producers were still trying to figure out what she could do and who she could be. Despite this, it remains one of her stronger albums. The first single, “Pon de Replay,” is as astonishing as ever. The mushy ballads toward the tail end aren’t on the level of later weepers like “Russian Roulette” and “Kiss Me Better,” but the reggae and dancehall material that dominates it proves that even at 17 she’d already figured out how to project a sense of tough, earned nonchalance. SOMETHING NEW
San Antonio artist Claire Rousay stands astride the 2020s “emo-ambient” movement, using diaristic field recordings and found objects to capture the ephemeral parts of human lives that might otherwise slip away. Her new, album-length composition, Sometimes I Feel Like I Have No Friends—a rueful meditation on her failings in friendship—is at once the most emo and most ambient thing she’s released. Anyone who’s ever been unsure whether they need more or fewer people in their life will immediately understand. SOMETHING LOCAL
Ramona Xavier, aka Vektroid, vaulted the internet-enamored vaporwave genre to new levels of cultural ubiquity 10 years ago with her Floral Shoppe album, which she recorded under the moniker Macintosh Plus. Her New Dreams Ltd. project harks back to a more analog age, suggesting the numbing chaos of TV channel flipping. Fuji Grid TV II: EMX plays like a clip show of pop-culture detritus, flashing between slowed-down pop cheese and garbled monster noises at the click of a remote. If you want to fry your brain, you couldn’t do much better than giving it a spin. SOMETHING ASKEW
When Kanye West released The Life of Pablo exclusively to Tidal, that streaming service wasn’t yet available in Japan. Tired of waiting, Kyoto producer Toyomu pulled up a list of the lyrics and samples and—without having heard the original—cobbled together Imagining “The Life of Pablo.” It’s a lot weirder, as you’d expect, with a mournful robot voice filling in for Ye’s bray. Its irreverent treatment of its samples make the versions of “Ultralight Beam” and “Father Stretch My Hands, Pt. 1” sound like something you might hear in a dream.
Editor: Andi Prewitt / Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com AMAZON PRIME VIDEO
SCREENER
MOVIES
and buy something that caught my eye. I’d put stuff on display. That just kind of turned into a business. Actually, if you want to go way back, I used to sell toys out of my garage when I was really young—like, 8 or 9 years old. This is a true story. Instead of having a lemonade stand, I set up sheets of plywood on a couple of sawhorses and put out my toys for sale so I could go buy more. You recently appeared in a docuseries looking at the ways in which small toy shops have kept doors open during the pandemic. That’s kind of how the show started. The first season was all about COVID’s effect on independent stores, but from my guess, I think they found that people already living in their own COVID bubbles didn’t want to be hit over the head with it. I can understand that. And, if you’re going to show all these great mom-and-pop toy stores, why not show some of the toys?
AUCTION FIGURE: Mark Pedersen’s rare and eclectic collection of toys are on display in Amazon’s fourth season of A Toy Store Near You.
Toy Story
Owner of Dr. Tongue’s I Had That Shoppe and reality series star Mark Pedersen reflects on a memorabilia life. BY JAY H O RTO N
@hortland
“I always wanted to make films,” admits Mark Pedersen. But the founder of iconic local toy emporium Dr. Tongue’s I Had That Shoppe was instead destined for roles in the post-production side of the industry. Around the turn of the ’90s, Pedersen headed the Portland State University student film committee, worked as an assistant manager for Cinema 21, and helped create the first line of Dark Horse model kits based on classic Universal monsters. Then, after opening his store 30 years ago, the Portland native began amassing an international fan base as one of the country’s most prominent authorities on film and television merchandise. After moving three times in the past few decades, Dr. Tongue’s is now located in the Roseway neighborhood, and Pedersen has yet another claim to fame. His store is featured in the fourth season of A Toy Store Near You, the pandemic hit Amazon Prime docuseries developed by the Nacelle Company (The Movies That Made Us, All the Way Black) and directed by its founder Brian Volk-Weiss. Still dubious about whether the attention will translate to sales, Pedersen has noticed additional foot traffic since the episode began streaming Christmas week, but he still found time to speak with WW about the origins of Dr. Tongue and how he managed to stay afloat during the pandemic.
WW: Dr. Tongue isn’t your real name? Mark Pedersen: No, and I’m not a doctor. I just play one on TV. It goes way back to the ’90s when I was trying to open my first toy store. I didn’t wanna just call it Mark’s Toys, you know, and I was a big SCTV fan. Do you remember Count Floyd’s Monster Horror Chiller Theatre? The movies were always Dr. Tongue’s 3D House of (fill in the blank). The funniest part? There’s an actual Dr. Tongue here in town—a practicing physician. Ear, nose and throat? Podiatrist, I believe. I’ve gotten calls from patients. And do you take the appointments? I’ve filled a couple of prescriptions [laughs]. How did the toy shop come about? It’s just one of those things I kind of stumbled into. I was out of college, and during the good old days of Powell’s, there used to be a ton of magazines right next to the Anne Hughes Coffee Room. I grabbed a model and toy collector magazine that sounded interesting, started flipping through, and that’s what did it. I mean, I’ve always enjoyed toys. I’d always gone into thrift stores and bought interesting things for myself. In high school, I’d regularly visit the toy section of Sprouse-Reitz
You’ve managed to stay afloat, clearly. Well, a brick-and-mortar presence definitely helps purchasing. I’m not going to flea markets or garage sales during a pandemic, but a lot of people who’ve been cleaning out their houses end up bringing me stuff. Somebody dug a Star Wars Blue Snaggletooth out of the attic. I bought a tin battery-operated Godzilla from a customer who’s liquidating rare pieces. A couple Shogun Warriors have wandered into the shop. Compared to books or records, do you feel toy stores are better suited to surviving the age of internet retail? Oh, yeah. That’s the other reason I’m still here. You can come into the store and feel the toys, touch them, see if there’s any kind of hidden defect. I’ve had a lot of people tell me they’re tired of being ripped off by eBay and would just really like to see things firsthand before making the decision to buy. Honestly, when you buy toys from people, you have to at least give them a fair market value—wholesale value, at that. Treat them with respect. Don’t insult their intelligence. If you’re a scumbag, word gets around in the collecting community. And, by this point, your reputation is well known outside the Northwest. Oh, yeah. [The East Burnside Street location] was definitely a destination store. We had people from all over the world, and because of the reputation, they come to this one now, too. It was fairly common to have customers on regular buying trips for their own shops in Japan. The current incarnation’s somewhat smaller. It’s packed full of vintage goodness, looks great and people seem to really like it. But, you know, it’s funny. A few people have come up and said they thought it would be bigger, but I guess everything looks bigger on TV. SEE IT: A Toy Store Near You streams on Amazon Prime.
Get Your Reps In CRITERION
Jim Jarmusch’s arthouse dramedy explores the universality of the relationship between taxi driver and passenger. Winona Ryder and Gena Rowlands fill out the ensemble cast—their unforgettable sequence is a definite highlight. Clinton, Jan. 7.
The Brood (1979)
Night on Earth (1991) Told in a series of vignettes set across five different cities over the course of one night, auteur
One of his earlier works, body horror master David Cronenberg directs this suspenseful tale of a mentally ill housewife (Samantha Eggar) who receives “psychoplasmic” therapy from a controversial psychotherapist (Oliver Reed). After a series of brutal and strange murders, her husband
begins to suspect something is awry at the institution. No spoilers, but he’s right! Clinton, Jan. 7.
My Brilliant Career (1979)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
In this lovely and underseen Australian period piece, a young writer (Judy Davis) finds her career stifled by her class status, a budding romance (with a dreamy young Sam Neill) and, of course, her being a woman in the year 1897. A perfect companion piece to Greta Gerwig’s Little Women. Clinton, Jan. 8.
Harry’s second adventure ups the deadly danger (and the runtime—161 minutes!) with his and his friends’ discovery of the ominous Chamber of Secrets. This one’s worthwhile for the nightmare-inducing basilisk, Dobby’s freaky little antics, Gilderoy Lockhart’s uselessness, and a weirdly handsome Tom Riddle. Academy, Jan. 7-13.
Je Tu Il Elle (1974) and Adoption (1975) The Clinton is killin’ it this week—a Chantal Akerman and Márta
Mészáros double feature presented by Reel Feminism! Both released in the mid-’70s and running 86 minutes, these trailblazing French and Hungarian dramas probe the misunderstood lives of aimless, lonely and unfulfilled women. Clinton, Jan. 10.
ALSO PLAYING: Academy: Escape From New York (1981), Jan. 5-6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Jan. 5-6. Waterworld (1995), Jan. 7-13. Clinton: Happy Together (1997), Jan. 5. La Strada (1954), Jan. 6. A Hard Day’s Knight (1964), Jan. 9.
Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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MOVIES
APPLE TV+
NOW PLAYING TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
The Tragedy of Macbeth At once dignified and deranged, Denzel Washington’s Macbeth is just one of countless pleasures to be found in The Tragedy of Macbeth, director Joel Coen’s gorgeously austere adaptation of Shakespeare’s spooky saga about power and madness. The hurly burly is the same—once more, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Frances McDormand) plot to murder the rightful king of Scotland—but with the help of cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie) and production designer Stefan Dechant (The Call of the Wild), Coen brings a fresh sheen of grim beauty to the Bard’s text, using stark shades of black and white and eerily barren sets to deliver a master class in menacing minimalism. Even better are the performances, with Washington playing Macbeth as a creepily affable chap—“if there’s power to be had, why shouldn’t I have it?” he seems to wonder—and McDormand singeing the screen with steely terror. She understands that Lady Macbeth’s defining characteristic is her impatience with her husband’s pesky conscience, which makes it all the more haunting when she discovers a conscience of her own. She, Washington and Coen comprehend the play through and through, which is why The Tragedy of Macbeth is more than a movie. It’s a proper Macbeth. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Cinema 21, Hollywood, Living Room, Studio One.
Hollywood, Living Room, Movies on TV.
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 The Matrix Resurrections When the fourth installment of The Matrix franchise begins, we join white rabbit-inked hacker Bugs (Jessica Henwick) as she scrutinizes the epochal 1999 blockbuster’s still-breathtaking opening footage from wholly new angles just before inadvertently reanimating Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus within a faux FBI drone/sentient malware (Yahya Abudul-Mateen II). In the first feature directed without her sibling and lifelong collaborator, Lana Wachowski has a surprisingly droll touch and truly shines during trademark bursts of balletic shoot-’em-ups seemingly plucked from some near-future, zero-gravity fashion week. Now that the franchise has granted our heroes unlimited lives (and the world has proven itself to be all too eager to repurpose anti-authoritarian sloganeering for crypto-fascist ends), it’s hard not to notice the film drifting away from super-chic ultra-violence absent any semblance of consequence. In the weirdest way, though, the de facto immortality of Neo and Trinity renders their autumn romance all the more meaningful. However daft the narrative, which demands that Keanu Reeves, reborn as a celebrity game designer, spend each morning gazing wistfully at Carrie-Anne Moss’s latte order as a Bay Area supermom, his unconditional yearning echoes her eroticized devotion that defined the original. That should push the buttons of every aging cynic holding out hope that their first love might yet prove savior. There is spooning. Take the little blue pill. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Movies on TV, Pioneer Place, Sherwood, Studio One, Tigard. 28
Red Rocket Red Rocket opens in July 2016, as adult film actor Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), bruised from recent misadventure, returns to his hometown on the refinery coast of Texas. A compulsive con man, Mikey pries a fingernail of trust from his estranged wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod), and her addict mother, Lil (Brenda Deiss), hustling to get back on his feet in a brisk, comic opening act before the film reveals what it’s really about. Cinematographer Drew Daniels’ 16 mm photography conjures the sweat of an East Texas summer, and director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) excels at casting local nonprofessionals—although Mikey has somehow irrevocably code-switched himself into a SoCal boy. Baker treats even the most flawed of his characters with nuance and empathy. Less nuanced and more questionable are the glamorized sex scenes between 40-something Mikey and the high school junior he grooms, Strawberry (Suzanna Son, an adult at the time of filming). Nods to Trump’s looming ascendancy are a smokescreen—the relentlessly exploitative Mikey is no demagogue in the making and may instead be an avatar of Baker’s own instincts. How different is Mikey “discovering” Strawberry at a doughnut shop than Baker recruiting Son at a Gus Van Sant screening? How different is a director from a “suitcase pimp” after all? Mikey and Baker may not have the answers, but their struggle makes for compelling viewing. R. NATHAN WILLIAMS. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cinema 21, Clackamas Town Center, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Fox Tower,
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Swan Song When one performer plays identical characters in a movie, it’s often a contorted acting showcase: from Dead Ringer (1964) all the way to Dead Ringers (1988). But rarely, if ever, has it been done with the nuance and composure of Mahershala Ali in Swan Song. In this Apple TV+ sci-fi drama, the two-time Oscar winner double-embodies Cameron Turner, a terminally ill husband and father debating whether to clone himself (consciousness included) for his family’s benefit. In the frosty, minimal calm of Benjamin Cleary’s directorial debut, Ali’s performance creates the entire tone with each conflicted breath, working out the exact variation between the two Camerons. The original aches to control a process beyond his control (nod to Glenn Close as the preeminent should-we-trust-her cloning scientist), while the genetically unsick version pines to build on the memories of Cameron’s wife (Naomie Harris) and son (Dax Rey) they now both share. At a distance, Cleary has trouble balancing whether we’re watching an almost hokey tech-overreach thriller or almost maudlin memory piece (some discomforting mix of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina and Never Let Me Go), and it’s sometimes unclear from shot to shot with whom we should identify. But the genre particulars hardly matter. It’s a Mahershala Ali movie—twice over. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Apple TV+.
The Tender Bar Ever since Uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) flatly declared his little nephew hopeless at sports and pointed him toward a book-stuffed closet instead, J.R. Moehringer (Daniel Ranieri) was set on the path toward writerdom. And when The Tender Bar is about J.R. living a life worthy of its namesake 2005 memoir, the film is irresistibly charming. Abandoned
by his radio DJ father, J.R. and his mother (Lily Rabe) move into the tough-loving extended family’s Long Island home, cramped with outsized personalities like Grandpa (Christopher Lloyd) and Uncle Charlie. Helmed by George Clooney, who was on a directing cold streak dating back to 2005, The Tender Bar wisely tunes itself to the avuncular wit that a nearly 50-year-old Affleck inherits from leading men just like Clooney— quick with a line, a wink and (in this case) a free round at the family bar. While Tye Sheridan (as college-age J.R., flirting quite well at Yale) is by no means to blame for the movie’s shortcomings, its homestretch unwisely fixates on J.R. planning to write The Tender Bar and—even more bizarrely— on the memoir’s industry viability. That self-reflexive turn is nearly soul-sucking, presuming we cared about J.R.’s book more than J.R.’s family. Luckily the soul-sucking isn’t fatal; this one’s all heart. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Amazon Prime.
Licorice Pizza Imagine a teenage boy telling one of his parents about a woman he has a crush on. “She’s in her 20s,” he sighs. “I think I’m in love.” “It’s never going to happen,” the parent sternly replies. “Oh, I don’t know,” the boy says. “She did show me her breasts.” That conversation never happens in Licorice Pizza, but it could have. Set in 1973, the film rambles and roams through the San Fernando Valley, where 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman) sells water beds, opens a pinball parlor, and falls for 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim of the band Haim). While Gary and Alana never officially date, director Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread) repeatedly presents them as a potential cute couple, unable or unwilling to admit he’s made a movie about an adult preying on a child. There may be debate among moviegoers whether Anderson understands the sinister nature of their relationship, but there’s nothing in the film to suggest he does. Despite a gloriously strange subplot involv-
ing Sean Penn, a motorcycle and a wall of fire, Licorice Pizza isn’t cinema. It’s gaslighting on an epic scale. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, Clackamas Town Center, Eastport Plaza, Fox Tower, Hollywood, St. Johns Twin Cinemas, Studio One, Vancouver Mall.
Nightmare Alley As Guillermo del Toro’s sole feature between 2017’s Oscarwinning The Shape of Water and next autumn’s long-delayed Pinocchio, remaking studio-era crime yarn Nightmare Alley seemed an especially curious choice for the fantasist auteur’s victory lap. The remake of the 1947 classic about traveling sideshow grotesques and the predatory mentalist Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) who joins their act holds clear contempt for the supernatural. And, bereft of his usual tropes, even del Toro’s breathtaking visuals—lurid midway attractions and crystalline art deco interiors—threaten to overwhelm the wispy narrative and cavalcade of familiar faces fleshing out underwritten roles. Cate Blanchett alone seems sufficiently aware of the surrounding silliness to turn her psychotherapist co-conspirator into a femme fatale emoji, all cheekbones and gall, while our supposed antihero Cooper wanders through their scenes together with a slackjawed gawp of pained confusion. Although few modern stars could replicate the weaponized swagger fueling Tyrone Power’s heel turn as the original Stanton, Cooper’s hesitant, mawkish, perhaps concussed interpretation reveals a fundamental misreading of the material. Already burdened by clunky dialogue showcasing the era’s corniest catchphrases, del Toro and Kim Morgan’s leaden screenplay delves headlong into laborious exposition of the methodology employed for each telepathy routine and fixed séance. For all del Toro’s gifts, the leading monster sympathist of his generation evidently cannot understand the beasts men make of themselves. R. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, Cinema 21, Cinema 99, City Center, Clackamas Town Center, Cornelius, Dine-In Progress Ridge, Eastport Plaza, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Movies on TV, Sherwood, Tigard.
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"Welcome to Two-Two"--they both appear.
ASTROLOGY ARIES
(March 21-April 19): In the fantasy tale "The Wizard of Oz," a tornado lifts the hero Dorothy from her modest home in rural Kansas to a magical realm called Oz. There she experiences many provocative and entertaining adventures. Nonetheless, she longs to return to where she started from. A friendly witch helps her find the way back to Kansas, which requires her to click her ruby slippers together three times and say, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home." I suspect, Aries, that there'll be a different ending to your epic tale in 2022. At some point, you will decide you prefer to stay in your new world. Maybe you'll even click your ruby slippers together and say, "There's no place like Oz, there's no place like Oz." (Thanks to author David Lazar for that last line.)
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20): Fifty-five percent of the people who live in Toronto speak primarily English or French. But for the other 45 percent, their mother tongue is a different language, including Portuguese, Tagalog, Italian, Tamil, Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin. I wish you could spend some time there in the coming months. In my astrological opinion, you would benefit from being exposed to maximum cultural diversity. You would thrive by being around a broad spectrum of influences from multiple backgrounds. If you can't manage a trip to Toronto or another richly diverse place, do your best to approximate the same experience. Give yourself the gift of splendorous variety.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): One of your primary
Across
53 Paddled boat
1 "This _ _ _ really happening!"
54 "_ _ _ I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism" (1981 bell hooks book)
6 "Beavis and Butt-Head" spinoff 11 It can be scrambled 14 _ _ _ York (NYC, to some residents) 15 Monarch's domain 16 Former "Great British Bake Off" cohost Perkins 17 Computer character set that's mostly rainbows and macadamias? 19 Back-of-a-jigsaw hue
55 "In the Heights" Tony winner _ _ _-Manuel Miranda 56 2000s Nintendo controller named for a 2000s "SNL" alum? 58 Conclude 59 "My Dinner With Andre" director Louis 60 Elementary atomic particle 61 Low-_ _ _ graphics
20 Evaporating Asian sea
62 Medicine dispenser
21 Indicator that a new pope has been selected
63 Get the cupcakes ready Down
22 Reactor part
1 Equally split
23 Tripod part
2 Public radio journalist Ray with the podcast "Going for Broke"
24 Blokes 25 Time off, briefly 26 1990s Super Nintendo racing game (often on "top Nintendo games of all time" lists) 28 "Brave" princess 29 Special attention 34 Onetime owner of the Huffington Post 35 Inadvisable activity traveling down the slopes of Mt. Vesuvius? 38 MTV live show until '08 39 Tournament favorites 40 Continue the journey 42 Savory quality 46 Scared-looking, maybe 47 Donut flavoring 51 Stimpy's partner 52 Forward-facing font type (abbr.)
3 Meditative genre 4 Track layout 5 Mai _ _ _ (cocktail) 6 Interpersonal conflict, so to speak 7 He wrote "The Fox and the Lion" 8 Oven shelves 9 "Would _ _ _ to you?"
28 "Um, Actually" host Trapp 30 Lackey 31 Sciatic region 32 "_ _ _ for Alibi" (seriesopening Sue Grafton mystery) 33 Belgium-to-Switzerland dir. 35 Unspoiled 36 Seasoned pros 37 Suffix for skeptic or real 38 It may get hauled around the country 41 "Electric" creature 43 "The Magic Flute" passage 44 Candy paired with Diet Coke 45 Objective 47 Sends with a stamp 48 Geometry measurement 49 "The _ _ _ of Positive Thinking" 50 Floral accessory 53 Sicilian send-off 54 Part of N.A. or S.A. 56 Iraq War controversy, for short 57 Global currency org.
10 Friend of France 11 From Tartu or Tallinn 12 Snarly protector 13 Vague army rank? 18 "Well, sorta" 22 Matchbox toy 24 "Straight Outta _ _ _" (2015 biopic) 25 Stuff that sticks around 27 "Everybody Hurts" band
©2022 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.
last week’s answers
meditations throughout 2022 should be the following advice from The Laws of Human Nature, a book by motivational author Robert Greene. He writes, "In ancient times, many great leaders felt that they were descended from gods and part divine. Such self-belief would translate into high levels of confidence that others would feed off and recognize. It became a self-fulfilling prophecy. You do not need to indulge in such grandiose thoughts, but feeling that you are destined for something great or important will give you a degree of resilience when people oppose or resist you. You will not internalize the doubts that come from such moments. You will have an enterprising spirit. You will continually try new things, even taking risks, confident in your ability to bounce back from failures and feeling destined to succeed."
CANCER
(June 21-July 22): I would love to unabashedly encourage you to travel widely and explore wildly in 2022. I would rejoice if I could brazenly authorize you to escape your comfort zone and wander in the frontiers. It's not often the planetary omens offer us Cancerians such an unambiguous mandate to engage in exhilarating adventures and intelligent risks. There's only one problem: that annoying inconvenience known as the pandemic. We really do have to exercise caution in our pursuit of expansive encounters. Luckily, you now have extra ingenuity about the project of staying safe as you enlarge your world.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22): I suspect that your life in 2022 might feature themes beloved by Leo author Emily Brontë (1818–1848). "No coward soul is mine," she wrote, "No trembler in the world’s storm-troubled sphere." I suggest making that one of your mottoes. Here's another guiding inspiration from Emily, via one of her poems: "I'll walk where my own nature would be leading: / It vexes me to choose another guide: / Where the grey flocks in ferny glens are feeding; / Where the wild wind blows on the mountain-side." Here's one more of Brontë's thoughts especially suitable for your use in the coming months: "I'll be as dirty as I please, and I like to be dirty, and I will be dirty!"
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): What reversals and turnabouts would you like to experience in 2022, Virgo? Which situations would you like to transform dramatically? Are there imbalances of power you would like to rectify? Contradictions you'd love to dissolve? Misplaced priorities you could correct? All these things are possible in the coming months if you are creative and resourceful enough. With your dynamic efforts, the last
WEEK OF JANUARY 6
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could be first, the low could be high, and the weak could become strong.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "Everything good I've ever gotten in my life, I only got because I gave something else up," wrote author Elizabeth Gilbert. That has often been true for me. For example, if I hadn't given up my beloved music career, I wouldn't have had the time and energy to become a skillful astrology writer with a big audience. What about you, Libra? In my reckoning, Gilbert's observation should be a major theme for you in 2022.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Author C. S. Lewis
wrote that we don't simply want to behold beauty. We "want to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it." If there were ever a time when you could get abundant tastes of that extravagant pleasure, Scorpio, it would be in the coming months. If you make it a goal, if you set an intention, you may enjoy more deep mergers and delightful interactions with beauty than you have had since 2010.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian
singer-songwriter Tom Waits began his career in 1969. He achieved modest success during the next 11 years. But his career headed in an even more successful direction after he met Kathleen Brennan, who became his wife and collaborator. In a 1988 interview, Waits said, "She's got the whole dark forest living inside of her. She pushes me into areas I would not go, and I'd say that a lot of the things I'm trying to do now, she's encouraged." In 2022, Sagittarius, I'll invite you to go looking for the deep dark forest within yourself. I'm sure it's in there somewhere. If you explore it with luxuriant curiosity, it will ultimately inspire you to generate unprecedented breakthroughs. Yes, it might sometimes be spooky—but in ways that ultimately prove lucky.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn-born
Muhammad Ali was far more than a superb professional boxer. He was an activist, entertainer, and philanthropist who gathered much wisdom in his 74 years. I've chosen one of his quotes to be your guide in the coming months. I hope it will motivate you to rigorously manage the sometimes pesky and demanding details that will ultimately enable you to score a big victory. "It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you down," Ali said. "It’s the pebble in your shoe."
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): At a pivotal moment
in his evolution, Aquarian playwright Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) swore an oath to himself. I'll tell you about it here because I hope it will inspire you to make a comparable vow to yourself about how you'll live your life in 2022. Author Robert Greene is the source of the quote. He says that Chekhov promised himself he would engage in "no more bowing and apologizing to people; no more complaining and blaming; no more disorderly living and wasting time. The answer to everything was work and love, work and love. He had to spread this message to his family and save them. He had to share it with humanity through his stories and plays."
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Here's what Piscean
author Anais Nin wrote in one of her diaries: “When I first faced pain, I was shattered. When I first met failure, defeat, denial, loss, death, I died. Not today. I believe in my power, in my magic, and I do not die. I survive, I love, live, continue." According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Pisces, you could claim her triumphant declaration as your own in 2022, with special emphasis on this: "I believe in my power, in my magic. I survive, I love, live, continue." This will be a golden age, a time when you harvest the fruits of many years of labor.
Homework: What problem are you most likely to outgrow and render irrelevant in 2022? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
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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.
MCKENZIE YOUNG-ROY mckenzieyoungart.com @mckenzieyoungart
McKenzie Young-Roy is a freelance illustrator living and working in Portland, OR. She creates work with a focus on empathy, wonder, and mental health advocacy. Her portfolio includes both traditional and digital work, children’s illustration, and branded work for companies and non-profits. She has self-published a children’s book (The Alphabet Book) as well as a zine titled Safe, documenting living with diagnosed OCD. McKenzie’s recent illustration work has been an exploration into the magic of childhood nostalgia and the safety one can find in playfulness. All illustrations created digitally with an iPad Pro and the Procreate App. Willamette Week JANUARY 5, 2022 wweek.com
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