Willamette Week, May 4, 2022 - Volume 48, Issue 26 - "Bitcoin Republic"

DRINK: Suckerpunch’s No-Booze Buzz. P. 22 MUSIC: Dehd Is Alive With Good Vibes. P. 26 WILLAMETTE WEEK

“IT’S YOU, NOT HER.” P. 4 WWEEK.COM VOL 48/26 05.04.2022

PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY

How Oregon’s new congressional district could become a colony ruled by a distant crypto prince.

By Rachel Monahan. Page 13

2

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

FINDINGS JOHN RUDOFF

PTFC FOR PEACE, PAGE 20

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER VOL. 48, ISSUE 26 Oregon has stopped issuing cannabis licenses. Again. 6 Two Metro councilors work for nonprofits funded by Metro. 8 Home prices in Rhodedendron rose 46% last year. 9 Two-thirds of Oregon’s investigations of sexual abuse of people with intellectual or developmental disabilities were completed late. 10 A bitcoin billionaire in the Bahamas is running ads featuring Carrick Flynn and Larry David. 13 The National Wildlife Federation was poised to run ads for Carrick Flynn until he talked about owls. 15

It’s a short trip from Yale Law School to contracting malaria.

19

There is a mug you can drink coffee and smoke weed out of.

25

Chicago trio Dehd asked fans to share “bad love stories” on their hotline. 26 A series of mockumentary shorts in which Jenny Slate voices a seashell have been adapted into a feature film. 27 You can win a 40-inch Samsung Smart TV at Satellite Tavern’s Kentucky Derby party.

33

Suckerpunch’s best-named drink is Thank You for Being a Friend. 34

ON THE COVER:

OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK:

Crypto candidacies transform the political landscape in Oregon’s new congressional district, illustration by Nick Stokes.

Our May 2022 election endorsements for Portland City Hall.

Masthead EDITOR & PUBLISHER ART DEPARTMENT

Mark Zusman

EDITORIAL

News Editor Aaron Mesh Arts & Culture Editor Andi Prewitt Assistant A&C Editor Bennett Campbell Ferguson Staff Writers Anthony Effinger, Nigel Jaquiss, Rachel Monahan, Sophie Peel Copy Editor Matt Buckingham

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DIALOGUE

• •••• • • • •

TA R E B A LRO S ER E T A •••• E H T MAY 6

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Eldon “T” Jones + LaRhonda Steele JUN 28

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TIM O’BRIEN + JAN FABRICIUS UPCOMING SHOWS

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5/11 • CONSIDER THIS WITH LAURA KIPNIS 8/20 • DARRELL SCOTT 9/9 • FANNA FI ALLAH 9/23 • OREGON BURLESQUE FESTIVAL

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CENTRIST FOR COMMON SENSE, VIA WWEEK.COM:

“You know, WW, I thought maybe the chaos unleashed in this city following endorsements of people like Mike Schmidt and Jo Ann Hardesty would have taught the editors something. Apparently not.

I’m truly ashamed that you’ve opted to endorse Hardesty again. Either Gonzalez or Mozyrsky sound like reasonable candidates. Hardesty does not.

WW is one more reason why Portlanders are voting with their feet. Shame on you.”

TARA LINDSAY GILSON-FRAGA, VIA FACEBOOK: “Clearly,

Two of a Kind

LANI MISALUCHA & TIM PAVINO

Last week, WW endorsed the reelection of City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty. That endorsement was greeted with universal acclaim. Just kidding: It was met with frustration and scorn, as the city’s most embattled public official fights for her political career against two challengers to her right.

Hardesty’s detractors felt we airbrushed her record; her supporters felt we displayed insufficient commitment to police reform. Here’s what our readers had to say:

she’s done a lot of work, which is refreshing to see in an official. I believe she’d get farther by highlighting other things that help reduce crime: higher wages, more employment opportunities, higher graduation rates, and mental health awareness.

Focusing funds there and away from police without explicitly saying ‘defund’ is something we can all surely get behind.”

MARK SNEEDLY, VIA WWEEK. COM: “WW basically admits

Hardesty is terrible with her finances and of questionable character. Sounds like the exact person you wouldn’t want in a position of power. But they give her a thumbs-up anyway because she’s done a good job

of hamstringing the Portland Police Bureau and she forced some traffic changes. Meanwhile, crime and traffic deaths are breaking records. It’s like endorsing a serial arsonist for fire chief.”

KAROL COLLYMORE, VIA TWITTER: “You did over-

simplify. You took a risk and oversimplified something so deeply important to people that I’m shocked that you wrote it. Fighting for liberation and equality should not be the opposite of city safety. I’m sad that the nuance escaped you.”

STILLBOBAGGINS, VIA REDDIT: “The spread between The

Oregonian and WW continues to widen.

“The theme in WW is basically ‘everything is bad, but it’s not as bad as everyone thinks it is, so let’s just let everyone keep doing their thing.’”

BLASTOSIST, VIA REDDIT:

“WW’s endorsement of Hardesty: It’s you, not her.”

WHY REELECT FAILURE?

Let me start by saying I like WW. I like the wackiness and I like the skilled reporting. I remember fondly having dinner at local restaurants and reading the outrageous sexual ads to my beloved president emeritus of Reed College. In truth, I pretty

Dr. Know

much like everything about WW. I especially liked the mail I just received from WW that warned me that the endorsements would make me angry.

They did (and I am), but I still like WW. Crime is up, taxes are up, homelessness is exploding, the central core is emptying out, traffic fatalities are increasing, and the city’s infrastructure is decaying in front of our eyes.

The City Council has failed on almost every single count. They don’t cooperate. They haven’t researched the problems or sought substantive answers.

The endorsement of Hardesty and Ryan reflected that they tried hard. Hardesty did lower the speed limits, but the number of traffic deaths increased.

Ryan has energetically pursued policies that failed before to reduce homelessness.

Electing the lovable has failed.

Compared to previous Portland commissioners, Hardesty and Ryan have few qualifications.

We need more police and body cams. We need a centralized homeless shelter that supplies health, safety and treatment.

We need to stop deforestation and admit that “America’s greenest city” is steadily turning black.

Let me close on a positive note. There is nothing wrong that cannot be repaired. However, asking the same incumbents to continue failing is the worst form of folly.

Robert McCullough McCullough Research 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: PO Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296 Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

Gas prices are too high, so I’m going to bike more and spend the money I save on beer to help fuel the rides. If I only consumed beer for “fuel,” how many miles per gallon could I get? How much should I budget for my new green energy? —Raf It should be obvious that Raf here isn’t seriously planning to go on a beer-only diet—I’ll be surprised if he even starts biking more—but just in case somebody wants to freak out: No, I am not advising anyone to live solely on alcohol. (Do as I say, not as I do.)

Now, let’s run the numbers. The current average mileage for passenger cars is 23 mpg.

The mean gas price in Portland is $4.79 a gallon.

Thus, your fuel cost for driving like a regular schlub works out to 21 cents per mile.

The number of calories required for cycling varies based on the rider’s weight (you sound active, but you drink a lot, so I’ll guess you weigh 190) and speed (the average is 13 mph, but I’m pegging you at 10 since you’re wasted). That gets you to around 50 calories per mile.

What happens next depends on what kind

of beer you drink: A gallon of craft beer has about 2,000 calories, while the stuff you get at the ballpark is more like 1,600. That gets you 40 or 32 mpg, respectively, which I guess is the beer version of highway vs. city driving. I admit I didn’t expect your beer mpg to be so close to what a person would get with actual driving, but even so, if your goal is to save money, fueling your peregrinations with beer doesn’t pencil out.

A pint of draft beer is currently around $6.

That doesn’t sound too bad until you realize it’s equivalent to $48 a gallon at the pump. Even if you forswear craft brews at the bar and stick exclusively to Old German (God help you) by the case at Grocery Outlet, you’ll be lucky to get that figure much below $8 a gallon.

Even that best-case scenario is 60% more than you’re paying now—and that’s not even counting your out-of-pocket costs for a liver transplant every six months. Fueling up with beer sounds fun, but it’s more practical to do what I do: Use gasoline like normal, but splash a little on a hankie to inhale as you drive along.

Happy motoring!

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

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ABORTION RIGHTS RALLY ON THE PORTLAND WATERFRONT THIS SPRING BOOZE WAR BEGINS: The Northwest Grocery Association has not made an official announcement yet, but campaign finance filings this week with the Oregon secretary of state show the organization is beginning to spend money on a November ballot measure to allow hard liquor sales in grocery stores. With a few exceptions in rural Oregon, all retail liquor sales currently go through state-licensed, stand-alone stores. On May 2, the Customer Choice and Convenience Act of 2022 paid $100,000 to Metronome Consulting, a signature-gathering firm run by industry veteran Tim Trickey. Oregon grocers have sought privatization since at least 2011, when Washington voters approved it there. The powerful Oregon Beer & Wine Distributors Association opposes privatization, which probably presages an expensive battle over the issue. “Oregon grocers are excited to get our petition in the hands of voters who know we are way behind the times when it comes to state control over liquor,” says Amanda Dalton, president and CEO of the NGA . “It’s time Oregonians join our neighbors in California and Washington, who can conveniently buy liquor and cocktails in a can at their local grocery stores.”

CANNABIS LICENSES PAUSED AGAIN: In other Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission news, the state agency in late April reinstated a moratorium on new cannabis licenses only three months after it expired. The OLCC reopened the licensing process at the end of 2021, after a pause of more than three years that stemmed from a huge influx of new entrants into the legal cannabis market in 2016. On March 2, the Oregon Legislature passed a bill enabling the OLCC to extend the moratorium until March 2024. It was signed by the governor on April 4. The bill also mandated that any applications received after Jan. 1 by prospective licensees would be retroactively inactivated, a move that enraged cannabis business hopefuls and their attorneys. In early February, a group of cannabis lawyers sent a letter to OLCC director Steve Marks and commissioners, bemoaning the bill. The lawyers wrote that applicant seeking new licenses after Jan. 1 were entering “long-term leases, purchasing real estate, and/or making other significant investments based upon the expectation that their applications will be processed.”

OREGON LEADERS DECRY SUPREME COURT ABORTION DRAFT: This week, Politico obtained an early draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion in the pending abortion rights case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The upshot: A

majority of the court, based on preliminary responses to the pending case, is ready to overturn Roe v. Wade, which for nearly 50 years has made abortions legal under federal law. Pro-choice advocates, including U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) lashed out at the draft opinion. “This is a five-alarm fire,” Wyden said in a statement. An Do, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, says the state’s protections of abortion rights are strong. “The rights that are codified into state statue are really robust, but none of us can rest on our laurels or assume there isn’t more to shore up,” Do says. “It can’t just be about a legal right to access to abortion; it has to be about the ability to access providers, pay for care, travel to care when you need it.”

DRAZAN DROPS OUT OF KEY PORTLAND DEBATE: The City Club of Portland, one of this city’s most venerable civic institutions, invited five Republican candidates for governor to a debate May 3. Former Oregon House Minority Leader Christine Drazan (R-Canby) canceled the morning of the debate, as first reported by KGW. The Drazan campaign did not offer a reason. “Christine has participated in nearly a dozen public candidate forums, including two televised debates in the last two weeks,” says Trey Rosser, Drazan’s campaign manager. “She has also visited every corner of the state and hosted countless public events. While she is not participating today, she appreciates the forum provided by the Portland City Club and looks forward to the next opportunity.” Dr. Bud Pierce, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam, conservative writer Bridget Barton, and Medford businesswoman Jessica Gomez showed up for the debate moderated by KGW’s Laurel Porter and David Molko.

PEOPLE FOR PORTLAND LOBBIES DAN RYAN: People for Portland spent $69,000 on lobbying efforts in the first quarter of 2022. The advocacy group, which is attempting to reroute a large chunk of Metro homeless services measure dollars to emergency shelter beds and away from the creation of affordable housing, spent $69,000 on lobbying efforts in the first quarter of 2022, according to its quarterly report with the city. The only office the group communicated with, according to the report: that of Commissioner Dan Ryan, who oversees the Portland Housing Bureau and is the city’s liaison to the Joint Office of Homeless Services, a county and city agency. Nearly all the communications documented related to a forum on homelessness where Ryan spoke hosted by the group.

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7

CONTRACTS

Day Jobs Two Metro councilors’ employers get money from Metro. A candidate cries foul.

BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S

njaquiss@wweek .com

Two of Metro’s six elected councilors work for nonprofits that also receive money from the agency.

That’s become an election season issue because a candidate currently running for one of those councilor’s seats, Terri Preeg Riggsby, says that creates the appearance of conflict of interest.

Preeg Riggsby is seeking to unseat incumbent Councilor Duncan Hwang, who is also interim co-director of the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. That nonprofit receives grant funding from Metro.

“It’s a very clear conflict of interest,” Preeg Riggsby told WW in a recent endorsement interview. “It’s important for leaders to be above reproach.”

Preeg Riggsby formerly worked as a performance auditor for the Oregon secretary of state and has held elected office for 16 years as a member of the West Multnomah Water & Soil Conservation District board. So, although she’s got an obvious motivation to criticize her opponent, she knows something of what she speaks.

And the issue isn’t new. Records that WW obtained through a public records request show that Hwang is one of two Metro councilors who work for racial equity nonprofits contracting with Metro.

SAM GEHRKE

CO U R T E SY O F T H E C A M PA I G N

NEWS

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK

DUNCAN HWANG

JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ

Seat: Metro Council District 6 (Portland) Appointed: 2022 Works for: Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon That nonprofit’s funding from Metro since 2018: $139,000 in grants What he says: “I would not involve myself in decisions about potential funding or grants directed toward APANO. Those funding decisions are recommended by staff, reviewed by oversight committees and Metro’s independently elected auditor, and with scrutiny from the public and media.”

Seat: Metro Council District 4 (Washington County) Elected: 2018 Works for: Centro Cultural de Washington County That nonprofit’s funding from Metro since 2018: $326,000 in grants What he says: “In 2016, the Metro Council—before I was elected—adopted the Strategic Plan to Advance Racial Equity. The plan identified key strategies for Metro to work meaningfully alongside communities of color throughout the region.”

THE POLICY PROBLEM: Metro councilors—with the exception of Metro President Lynn Peterson, whose job is full time—are part-time employees. Metro pegs their salaries at one-third of the salary of a circuit judge, $52,847 a year.

Metro’s broad portfolio, which ranges from planning for regional transportation, land use and solid waste policies to running venues like the Oregon Convention Center and the Oregon Zoo, has expanded in recent years, with the passage of a $653 million housing bond in 2018 and a $2.5 billion homeless services measure in 2020.

Hwang and Gonzalez say that Metro’s expanded mission means that councilors end up working full-time hours for the agency, even though the pay is part time.

Preeg Riggsby says it’s exactly those expanded duties and particularly the raising and distribution of billions of new dollars that should make Metro and its councilors more responsive to any appearance of conflict of interest. She says the only way for councilors to remove the conflict if they also work for nonprofits that get money from the agency is to give up the nonprofit work.

“I think he should stop working at APANO,” she said of Hwang.

“I would quit that job. To me, that is black and white.”

Raising councilors’ salaries to full time is politically tricky.

Oregon legislative leaders considered and abandoned the idea of raising lawmakers’ salaries earlier this year, even though at least three veteran House Democrats are giving up their seats because of low pay.

Gonzalez and Hwang acknowledge that the optics of raising councilors’ pay are less than ideal. In the meantime, both men say, they are acting in full compliance with state ethics laws and steering clear of any situation that could present a conflict.

“I believe that part-time elected officials should not be prohibited from retaining outside employment,” Gonzalez says.

“That policy would have incredibly harmful and unintended consequences on the kind of people able to run for office.”

Hwang, a lawyer by training, agrees.

“When you elect citizens with day jobs, the potential for conflicts of interest in the public policy arena is simply a reality,” he says. “I strongly believe that Metro has processes in place that address these potential conflicts to maintain public trust in our decision-making.”

INDEX

Pod Squad The price of sheltering Portlanders in pod villages.

Nearly a year ago, WW first reported on a new project spearheaded by City Commissioner Dan Ryan: six safe rest villages in all quadrants of the city, each outfitted with basic hygiene services, communal living and cooking spaces, case management, and behavioral health services.

The idea was to shelter homeless Portlanders in pods while attempting to find them permanent housing.

The project has been plagued with a litany of setbacks. One year later, the city is just starting to place tiny pods on the sites officials selected.

City documents reviewed by WW quantify the cost of those villages and the expected out8

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

comes. Below are four numbers that are key to understanding the city’s most prominent response to homelessness. S O P H I E P E E L .

$16,000

The average price of the pods the city is purchasing for its villages. According to budget documents shared with WW, the city is purchasing tiny pods from five different companies due to pod supply shortages. Last week, the city placed 65 pods already purchased by the county during the pandemic at two of the six villages. Those cost the county just shy of $7,000 apiece at the time. “Due to challenges related

to the pandemic and global shipping crisis, no one vendor can provide the number of pods we require in the timeline needed to build all six [villages],” the document read.

sioner Ryan told WW last month he expects three of the six villages to be open by Labor Day. Ryan has not yet secured a funding source to extend the life of the villages past 2024.

$36,000

$28 million

The estimated cost to operate each tiny pod unit per year. That includes services like laundry, bathrooms, communal kitchens, case management, and behavioral health resources. The Joint Office of Homeless Service estimates it costs $40,000 to operate a motel bed annually, and $20,000 to $25,000 a year to operate one bed in a congregate shelter.

1,050 to 1,575

The estimated number of houseless Portlanders the city expects to serve with the safe rest villages by the end of 2024, when one-time federal relief dollars to fund the villages expire.

That number assumes each person housed at one of the villages will move into permanent housing within six to nine months. Commis-

The number of dollars the mayor’s office proposes to funnel to the safe rest villages in the upcoming annual budget using the second round of federal relief dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act. The $36 million is intended to fund the villages through the end of 2024, when the project expires. The $16 million allocated to the villages in the first round of ARPA funds, according to budget documents, was to develop the sites and “decommission or relocate the villages at the end of the lease agreements, and return leased properties to previous condition.”

In total, the project—if it houses all 300 people by the end of this year—will cost $44 million over its two-year life span. Come 2025, the city will have to secure more funding if it wishes to continue the project.

DONOR

CHRISTINE DONG

REAL ESTATE

CONTRIBUTION OF THE WEEK HOW MUCH? $225,000

WHO GOT IT?

Brian Decker, a candidate for Washington County district attorney

WHO GAVE IT?

Aaron Boonshoft, a Portland investor, gave two checks: $150,000 on April 4 and $75,000 on April 22.

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

NEW NEIGHBORHOOD: The Steiner Cabins in Rhododendron probably aren’t available, but it doesn’t hurt to check.

The Road to Rhododendron Where home prices in towns surrounding Portland rose most in the past two years.

Ever heard of Brush Prairie, Washington?

Plenty of other people have, and they’re snapping up houses there. It’s a town of about 3,000 people just north of Vancouver. House prices have risen there by 42% in the past two years, according to Zillow, compared with a 25% increase for Portland.

Brush Prairie is just one of 89 nearby towns that have outpaced Stumptown in housing prices. The biggest rise was in Rhododendron, Ore., where prices soared 47%.

Why are prices in the sticks soaring? Is it because antifa and the Proud Boys brawl in Portland? Or because there’s human poop on the streets? That may be part of it, says Oregon state economist Josh Lehner. But a bigger factor is price.

“Realtors tell clients, “Drive until you qualify,’” Lehner says. Prices usually fall as one gets farther from the urban core. “That’s a lot of what this is.”

The pandemic reinforced the trend, which is a national one, Lehner says. (See “What You Get in the Suburbs,” WW, April 13.) Many companies are letting employees work from home most of the time.

“If you’re going into the office one day a week, then you put up with the commute,” Lehner says.

So what can you get in Brush Prairie for around $578,000, the typical price in Portland in the first quarter of 2022, according to Zillow? How about a weird-looking ranch house built in 1980 that hasn’t been remodeled since? It does have four bedrooms and two baths, and it’s only 40 minutes from downtown when there’s no traffic.

Brush Prairie, here we come. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

CITY

2020 Q1 PRICE

2022 Q1 PRICE

PERCENT CHANGE

Rhododendron, OR

$299,767

$439,409

46.6%

Amity, OR

$416,757

$605,311

42.2%

District attorney elections are nonpartisan and, until recently, were rarely seriously contested. Boonshoft, chief petitioner for Initiative Petition 51, which would decriminalize sex work, is helping change that.

On April 18, Boonshoft also gave $50,000 to Spencer Todd, a criminal defense lawyer who is challenging incumbent Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson. His contributions to challengers in two of Oregon’s biggest counties highlight the efforts by criminal justice reformers to overturn the existing order in large prosecutors’ offices.

Incumbent Washington County DA Kevin Barton was the handpicked successor of longtime law-and-order DA Bob Hermann.

Clarkson, the incumbent in Marion County, occupies a similar role.

Reformers struggled to find credible challengers four years ago, but Decker, a public defender and former federal prosecutor, brings a strong résumé to the race. He’s attracted a slew of endorsements from Democratic establishment figures and now, with Boonshoft’s cash, has outraised Barton $496,000 to $439,000.

WHAT DOES BOONSHOFT SAY? Welches, OR

$340,565

$484,294

42.2%

Brush Prairie, WA

$575,624

$818,066

42.1%

Yacolt, WA

$439,051

$615,361

40.2%

Sheridan, OR

$274,004

$383,856

40.1%

Willamina, OR

$242,405

$339,468

40%

Dayton, OR

$366,056

$511,231

39.7%

Ridgefield, WA

$471,360

$658,242

39.6%

Brightwood, OR

$332,981

$464,693

39.6%

Boonshoft says he’s motivated by the case of Tony Klein, a former nurse at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, the state’s only women’s prison. More than a dozen women alleged Klein assaulted them at the Wilsonville prison, but the Washington County DA’s office declined to charge him. The U.S. Department of Justice indicted Klein in March.

“I was inspired to get involved in Brian Decker’s campaign when I heard the story about the women assaulted at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, and the current district attorney didn’t prosecute,” Boonshoft says. “I’ve donated money and been volunteering my time to the campaign. I’m a human rights advocate, and I believe that all people should have access to health, safety and justice.” N I G E L J AQ U I S S .

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

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NEWS BRIAN BURK

INTO THE WOODS: A caregiver took her client out to play Frisbee golf. She also allegedly abused him.

Power Differential

A new lawsuit opens a window into alleged sexual abuse of developmentally disabled Oregonians.

BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S

njaquiss@wweek .com

M.K. had never really had a close friend. And, in his late 20s, he’d certainly never had an intimate relationship with a woman.

But Ishah Fehon entered his life in a big way in 2019. She got him out of his Beaverton apartment and opened a new world to him.

They barbecued, went to the beach, and played Frisbee golf. And, allegedly, they had sex.

Except Fehon was not M.K.’s girlfriend. She was his paid caregiver. He suffers from autism spectrum disorder and a number of associated impairments. And Oregon law says intimate contact between a caregiver and a client is sexual abuse.

A new lawsuit filed May 3 in Multnomah County Circuit Court exposes a thorny issue that gets little attention from law enforcement or the courts—the sexual abuse of disabled Oregonians like M.K. (WW does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent.)

“This is a vulnerable population who has inherent difficulty advocating for itself, and people who are highly dependent on caregivers, often in their home,” says M.K.’s attorney, Peter Janci of the Portland law firm Crew Janci. “And there’s very little supervision.”

The lawsuit Janci filed this week alleges that two companies responsible for M.K.’s 10

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

care—Self-Determination Resources Inc., a Beaverton nonprofit, and Destination: Autonomy LLC, a for-profit company headquartered in Hillsboro—were negligent in the provision of his care, resulting in “physical abuse of a vulnerable person.” The lawsuit seeks $6.25 million in damages.

SDRI executive director Dan Peccia declined to comment. Destination: Autonomy and Fehon did not respond to requests for comment.

Federal statistics show people with disabilities are four times more likely than people without disabilities to be sexually abused. And of those who are abused, people with disabilities are only about half as likely to report their abuse to police.

In Oregon, that vulnerability may be magnified by state policies that seek to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream.

Advocates say that approach is vastly preferable to institutionalization but may lack necessary safeguards and suffer from a complaint system that rarely detects abuse.

Beth Brownhill, who runs the Crime Survivor Project at Disability Rights Oregon, says the abuse statistics for developmentally disabled people such as M.K. are staggering.

“More than 90% of people with developmental disabilities will be sexually assaulted,” Brownhill says. “Half will be assaulted more than 10 times over the course of their lifetimes.”

The new lawsuit, filed on behalf of M.K., a Beaverton man who is now 31, describes a situation that Brownhill says is all too common.

M.K. lives on his own but relies on a paid caregiver to help him with tasks such as grocery shopping, medication management, social skills, and integrating into the community.

Like other states, Oregon promotes maximum independence for people with developmental disabilities. That policy led to the closure in 2000 of the last major group institution in the state, the Fairview Training Center, and a focus ever since on helping people with disabilities live the fullest lives possible.

The Oregon Office of Developmental Disabilities Services uses state and federal funding to provide programming for people who might once have been lodged in Fairview or otherwise closeted away. The agency serves about 30,000 people a year at cost of around $1.6 billion, numbers that have risen sharply since Oregon implemented Obamacare in 2013.

To serve clients such as M.K., the state contracts with brokerage firms such as Self-Determination Resources Inc., which in turn contracts with caregivers such as Destination: Advocacy.

“This a big industry,” says Janci, M.K.’s attorney. “There are hundred of millions of dollars that flow through these brokerages to care agencies. At the agency level, we believe there

“I have significant concerns about whether our state is effectively capturing the abuse that is happening here,” Janci says. “We need to ask some questions about how these investigations are being conducted and whether we are doing everything we can to give voice to this vulnerable population.”

is an incentive to receive revenue at the highest level and staff at the most inexpensive level.”

M.K. says he’s had caregivers most of his life and has been entirely reliant on them since moving into an apartment by himself about five years ago. Fehon became his caregiver in 2019. She was supposed to spend about 10 hours a week with him. But their time together veered into prohibited territory.

According to a Washington County Developmental Disabilities program investigation completed last year, M.K. and Fehon disagreed about the extent of their sexual contact, but after interviewing both and reviewing text messages between them, investigator Rich Garcia found “due to the preponderance of evidence, the allegation of sexual abuse is therefore substantiated.” (Records show the Washington County Sheriff’s Office also compiled a report on the allegations, but no criminal charges have been filed.)

Janci, who specializes in representing victims of sexual abuse, questions whether the state’s ability or willingness to safeguard people with disabilities has kept pace with the problem of predation.

The state recorded 107 complaints of sexual abuse against people with intellectual or developmental disabilities such as autism between 2019 and 2021. Fewer than 12% of those complaints were sustained. And statistics show that more than two-thirds of the investigations were completed late.

“I have significant concerns about whether our state is effectively capturing the abuse that is happening here,” Janci says. “We need to ask some questions about how these investigations are being conducted and whether we are doing everything we can to give voice to this vulnerable population.” (A 2021 audit by the Oregon secretary of state praised ODDS for providing services to a large number of people but highlighted shortcomings in oversight: “There are no ODDS staff who are dedicated full time to any part of the complaints process,” the audit found.)

Janci says M.K.’s condition makes him particularly susceptible to manipulation and grooming—and unprepared to deal with the fallout from his abuse. The lawsuit says the improper sexual relationship caused M.K.’s preexisting anxiety and depression to spiral and that he prepared a plan—later thwarted—to kill himself.

“It broke my spirit,” M.K. says. “It destroyed me emotionally. I’ve always had trouble trusting people. Not being able to trust caregivers now is terrible. I no longer have all that I’ve tried to build to make my life better.”

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How Oregon’s new congressional district could become a colony ruled by a distant crypto prince.

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

rmonahan@wweek .com

I L L U S T R AT I O N S BY N I C K S TO K E S

A

bitcoin billionaire is funding two commercials now airing in the Portland TV market.

One of them is an ad for the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and stars comedian Larry David. He journeys through history rejecting good ideas—including the signing of the Declaration of Independence. When he’s told people have the right to vote, David recoils: “Even the stupid ones?”

The other ad is for Carrick Flynn, a 35-year-old candidate for Oregon’s newest congressional seat. “He’s out there looking out for all of us,” Tualatin Mayor Frank Bubenik says in the ad while Flynn smiles silently. (Under federal law, Flynn’s not allowed to speak because an outside group is spending unlimited sums on the ads.)

Sam Bankman-Fried, who lives in the Bahamas, helped fund both ads.

And the $8.6 million a PAC backed

by Bankman-Fried has spent on the 6th Congressional District race is the largest independent expenditure in any primary in the nation. It’s vaulted Flynn to a lead in the polls over six other candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination on May 17.

In 2020, for the first time in 40 years, Oregon gained enough people in the U.S. census to qualify for a new congressional seat, running southwest from the Cabela’s in Bridgeport Village over Willamette Valley wine country.

That’s mostly suburbs and farms—a place where Democrats hold an edge, but only by 7 percentage points.

Carrick Flynn is a local boy who rose from a family struggling with homelessness to attend Yale Law School and take jobs at a series of think tanks: He consulted on the pandemic strategy developed for the Biden administration, and for Open Philanthropy, a foundation backed by a Facebook fortune.

Flynn grew up in Vernonia. But to hear people in the district talk, he might as well have landed from Mars.

“Who is this guy? I still don’t know, and I’m mayor of the largest city in the district,” says Salem Mayor Chuck Ben-

nett. “He’s not made any contact with me. As far as I know, he has never been to Salem. Frankly, I found it a little disturbing.”

“This gentleman, who’s funding him in the Caribbean? I don’t know if I’m going to see him at my local watering hole,” says Ramsey McPhillips, a Yamhill County farmer who sits on the boards of four local nonprofits. “He just has something to do with the blockchain.”

Of Flynn, McPhillips adds: “People out here call him Mr. Creepy Funds.’”

“Does it still matter to you, Oregon, to have a member of Congress who’s dialed into the community in a deep way, has spent the time to get to know it?” asks Jon Isaacs, a longtime Oregon political professional who has managed congressional campaigns. “Or are we just going to vote for any random person who has one friend who has unlimited resources?”

WW wondered how a district that was supposed to give Oregonians greater representation was poised to become a colony for an idealistic billionaire with business interests before Congress.

We spoke to political insiders about the new strategies being used in the 6th District. We found that Flynn wasn’t the first candidate in this contest to benefit from cryptocurrency for a leg up on the competition (page 14).

And we talked to people closely involved with local politics—people who, in a typical election, would play a role in deciding who goes to Congress. We asked them when they first heard of Flynn, and what they’d like to say to him now (page 16).

Flynn has proven difficult to reach.

He decided not to show up in person for WW’s endorsement interview, blaming an exposure to the coronavirus—but he also declined to join via Zoom. For the next two weeks, WW made repeated requests to speak with him.

On May 1, two days before we went to press, the Flynn campaign consented to give us 25 minutes with the candidate himself (page 17). Finally, we could ask what so many in his district wonder: What are you doing here?

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

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THE 6TH DISTRICT FOOD CHAIN How crypto swallowed the race for a new congressional seat.

Money talks in politics. The last few weeks before election day see a deluge of ads on TV and social media, and a stack of mailers, which politicians hope will inform and persuade voters.

But this cycle, the money coursing through Oregon’s most intriguing electoral contest is cryptocurrency—and not just from a Bahamas-based billionaire.

At every stage of the race for Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, candidates used their money, connections and power to build an advantage. The tactics they’ve employed were often out of the ordinary. They have swamped traditional retail politics and rendered typical campaigns mute. Here are four new approaches, each of which potentially eclipses the last. R AC H E L M O N A H A N .

1. Draw a map for yourself.

Even before the 6th Congressional District existed, politicians saw opportunity in it.

In June 2021, former Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith became the first person to announce her candidacy—even before maps of the district were drawn. (She didn’t pretend the district would include her home, but said she’d buy a house there once the lines were in place.)

State Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Lake Oswego), who had served in the state Capitol for six years after first working as a lobbyist, led the effort to draw the new maps for Oregon’s six congressional districts. (She chaired the special committee in the Oregon House.) By Oct. 5, eight days after the Legislature approved those boundaries, Salinas was seeking the seat for the 6th District—some of which overlaps her legislative district. Her own home was not inside the new district’s borders.

Those two facts—that she drew the maps and doesn’t live in the district—have prompted some former allies to raise questions.

“She and I were raised with different understandings of what right and wrong were,” says state Rep. Paul Evans (D-Monmouth). “If I would’ve been chosen to lead the redistricting effort, I would’ve recognized that it would be not the honorable thing to then compete. Because whether it was or wasn’t fashioned to favor me, people would think that.”

Salinas told WW in an endorsement interview she did not personally draw the district lines. “I didn’t create this district, actually,” she says. “[Senate President Peter] Courtney created it. He moved things around.”

Salinas won the endorsements of key Democratic interest groups (the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood, Service Employees International Union) and has raised $520,000. But the district extends far enough south to attract other entrants: Dr. Kathleen Harder, onetime head of the Oregon Medical Board, and state Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon (D-Woodburn).

All these women—three of them women of color—have a record of public service.

The next entrants are from a different mold.

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2. Build a personal fortune from cryptocurrency.

In November, Intel engineer Matt West first upended how this race might run with a pledge to spend whatever it would take to get through the primary. West, who owns between $1 million and $5 million in cryptocurrency, according to official disclosure forms, has put $400,000 into his own candidacy and raised another $400,000. He’s running on a left-wing platform: He’s a Democratic Socialists of America member and supports Medicare for All. Cody Reynolds officially entered the race in January. A West Point grad who was once arrested for smuggling pot, Reynolds ran for Congress in 2012, 2014 and 2016.

This time, he reported donating $2 million to his own campaign—and says he made that fortune through cryptocurrency investments.

“I realized what we all know now to be true: It takes money to win elections,” Cody told WW. “Over the past 10 years, I have been making the money that I need to self-fund my campaign. I’ve been consulting and investing into various 3.0 technologies—cryptocurrencies. I was very early in bitcoin. I was very early in ethereum.”

A candidate with a personal fortune who can self-fund, or raise money from other rich friends to get elected, is a relief to party regulars because it means the national party won’t have to shell out the money.

That’s why the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recruited former state Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem), among others, to run for the 6th District. Clem has money from real estate and his marriage.

Clem decided not to run. But he says it wasn’t because of the self-funded candidates.

“I thought $1 million to $2 million but no track record, no name ID, no experience, couldn’t point to things they had passed or voted on or worked on,” says Rep. Clem.

“So, you know, [it] wasn’t overly daunting. But no one really wants incumbents right now, so I might have been dead in the water anyway.”

4. Rake in “independent” spending from national groups.

3. Know somebody who knows a guy who made a billion in crypto.

The first ads for Carrick Flynn debuted in February. Since then, the Protect Our Future super PAC has spent $8.6 million. That’s the single largest independent expenditure in any primary for the U.S. House.

The spending is placed in sharper relief because Flynn grew up poor and was for a time homeless. He rents his home in McMinnville and reported only $44,347.50 in income last year, from working as a consultant to the foundation Open Philanthropy, which is backed by the wealth of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and his wife, Cari Tuna.

But Flynn was two degrees of separation from the richest man in crypto: Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, a mop-haired tech wiz who sleeps in a beanbag chair in the Bahamas and says he made his fortune to give money to crucial causes, ranging from stopping climate change to keeping artificial intelligence from going haywire. (Not coincidentally, he is also asking Congress for favorable regulation of his company.)

Flynn is friends with Bankman-Fried’s brother Gabriel. (Flynn and Sam Bankman-Fried were themselves Facebook friends, but had no known contact until someone noticed Bankman-Fried had hit “Like” on one of Flynn’s status updates from 2018.) Flynn and Bankman-Fried also share ties in a movement known as “effective altruism,” which posits that wealthy people should base their philanthropic gifts on what produces the greatest good for the most people.

Bankman-Fried’s PAC, Protect Our Future, is spending money in six congressional races—but the biggest checks support Flynn. He hasn’t said why, but most observers think it’s because Flynn has worked on strategies to prevent future viral pandemics.

Jon Isaacs, who was Sen. Jeff Merkley’s campaign manager on his first run for the Senate and is currently organizing an independent expenditure for Portland City Council races, says there’s “no comparison” between the campaigns he ran and the one he sees for Flynn. (Isaacs has given to Salinas.)

“Carrick Flynn could be anyone,” Isaacs says. “He has no campaign of his own.

He has no record of community involvement. There is one person who appears to have little to no interest in Oregon, and he’s picked [Flynn] and he’s going to spend what it takes to get this person elected.”

So far, Sam Bankman-Fried has not reported contributtions to other organizations and PACS that have made independent expenditures on behalf of Flynn. But observers have noted a curious series of events in which previously uninvolved PACs jumped in for Flynn.

First, on April 11, House Majority PAC, the national fundraising organization affiliated with Nancy Pelosi and dedicated to supporting Democrats in general elections, began running ads for Flynn. Using independent expenditures, House Majority PAC has spent $1 million on ads for Flynn. The group didn’t directly answer questions about whether it had communicated with Bankman-Fried, but said instead it was merely endorsing the strongest candidate.

It’s unusual for House Majority PAC to pick a side in Democratic Party primaries.

Other curious facts: The newly formed Justice Unites Us PAC, which describes itself as Asian and Pacific Islander led, reports no money on hand but is spending $847,000 on its own independent expenditure to benefit Flynn’s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings. A Justice Unites Us PAC staffer who did not identify themself wrote via email: “We comply with all FEC regulations that require disclosures of our contributions and expenditures. Details are available for the public on the FEC website after filings have been submitted.” (No contributions are reported.)

Oddly, the National Wildlife Federation Action Fund also prepared last month to launch an ad campaign on Flynn’s behalf, to the tune of $200,000, according to a tabulation prepared by a rival campaign using FEC filings. (The FEC requires interest groups to disclose planned spending on advertising before it airs.)

The fund, based in Washington, D.C., hadn’t made an independent expenditure for a candidate since 2014. (It pulled back in the days after Flynn’s remarks about feeling sympathy for Timber Unity, which opposes carbon regulations, and his expressing indifference to the northern spotted owl.)

Mike Saccone, an adviser to the fund, says his group endorsed Flynn “based on his commitment to act on climate and his personal experience losing his home during a massive climate-fueled flood.” Saccone wouldn’t answer questions about why the group later spiked the ads, but local environmental organizations lobbied against the expenditure, particularly after Flynn’s spotted owl remarks, according to multiple sources.

The enormous spending by national interest groups is also very unusual—and raises questions about where the groups found the money to spend on an obscure congressional seat in Oregon.

It shows willful disregard of the principle that all politics are local.

“If the [local] people don’t trust their party at the national level, I think that’s a bad thing,” says Jeanne Atkins, a former Democratic secretary of state who, after seeing the lay of the land, gave to Salinas.

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

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MISSED CONNECTIONS Six residents of his district give their impressions of Carrick Flynn.

By now, nearly everyone living in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District has heard of Carrick Flynn. The list of people who have met him is far shorter.

As commercials for Flynn swamp his district, WW spoke to more than a dozen local officials and politically influential people in Oregon wine country and the Willamette Valley. We asked them when they first heard Flynn’s name and what they made of him.

Few had met him. But everybody had an opinion. These have been lightly edited for brevity and clarity. R AC H E L MONAHAN AND SOPHIE PEEL .

Chuck Bennett Mayor of Salem

How did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

I saw an ad on TV, like everybody else.

Is this a first for you—learning of a serious congressional campaign via TV? Yeah. I began seeing ’em all the time. And then my mailbox has just been constantly receiving these expensive-looking, large cards. There was no substance to them. My reaction: Who is this guy? And I still don’t know.

Do you have a sense of whether he would be a good congressman for the district?

No, he wouldn’t. What in his background would make me, as the mayor of the city of Salem, his [district’s] largest city, a former legislator from the district, a 50-some-year resident of this district—why would I be thinking he has a clue what he’s talking about?

Nothing he has said has indicated he knows anything about our community. Nothing. In fact, he seems to pride himself on not having much knowledge of the district or information about it.

Campaigns always take money. Why is this expenditure a problem?

This is so odd. This is a huge amount of money being dumped into a race on someone no one’s ever heard of. You’re not calling me because this makes sense to anybody that you’re talking to.

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Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

Ramsey McPhillips

Casey Kulla

When did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

We’re inundated out here [with ads]. Late February, through March. The first info I heard about him anecdotally: He was not good for Oregon’s land use system.

I’m a farmer that’s holding the line.

When did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

My wife got a newsletter or spam email probably in January. And she was like, who is this? And we checked in with everyone we knew, and nobody had ever heard of him. But [the Flynn campaign] reached out, having seen that I was taking other people on tours.

Yamhill County farmer, board member of four nonprofits

What would you tell him?

Before he runs for office, come roll up your sleeves and get involved in the community. That should be what directs his messaging and his advocacy, rather than some crazy ideology from out of state.

Several candidates have come to visit me at my farm to see what I’m doing with regenerative agriculture.

I’ve not heard from him at all. There’s a group of us that are deeply holding the wall here, for creating local jobs and protecting resources and the environment.

And none of the people have met him. That’s why we call him Mr. Creepy Funds.

Candidate for Oregon labor commissioner, Yamhill County commissioner, farmer

What did you talk about on the tour?

I took him on a very rough, fast drive into the forest with the intent of having the opportunity to talk.

There’s that magic about sitting next to someone and hashing things out, without having to look at each other.

We talked about forest policy. We jumped out at an intersection where a bunch of public land meets. I do this thing, it’s like indoctrination, explaining here’s our state forest policy, here’s our federal policy. On the spotted owl thing: I was like, “C’mon, dude! Did you learn nothing from me?”

What did you think of him?

He’s a very awkward fella but is very real. He was gentle, easygoing. He has a uniform. It’s like someone picked it out for him. It’s a checkered flannel and slacks that could be like, “I’m going to go split some wood or go talk to Bill Gates.”

Byron Brown

Civics and government teacher at Vernonia High School; retired last July after 24 years When did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

I taught him in middle school and in high school.

What was he like?

He asked a lot of questions, paid attention all the time.

He wasn’t very chatty. And this is rare for a boy in high school, but he always thought before he said something.

What was his relationship with other kids?

People cared about what he thought. He was always the smartest kid in the class.

Do you remember all the kids you teach or just some?

There’s no way I could remember them all. But nope, never forgot Carrick. As the years went on, I would hear about his accomplishments. We were all so proud of him. Even more so now.

Sal Peralta

McMinnville city commissioner, small business owner, lobbyist, advocate for campaign finance reform When did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

It was an ad on social media, probably Facebook. I’ve never met of him, never heard of him. Until I saw him on the super-PAC commercials. You can’t open up Facebook or YouTube or social media without seeing those.

What do you think of the spending?

I have never seen public consent so thoroughly manufactured by a single person, as Mr. Bankman-Fried has done.

A person who doesn’t reside here can spend millions to elect a congressman. And our highest court claims that this doesn’t corrupt candidates, our elections or our system of government? It’s disheartening.

Watching this year unfold has really undermined my faith in democracy. If this is the new normal, what’s the point?

“That’s why we call him Mr. Creepy Funds.”

Brian Clem

Democratic former state representative from Salem When did you first hear of Carrick Flynn?

Early to mid-January, I heard that there was this guy named Carrick Flynn who was investigating whether to run for Congress and looking for consultants and ended up crossing paths with mine.

What do you think of Flynn’s remarks on spotted owls?

I thought he was a Russian bot at first. But [the owl comments] made me consider voting for him for the first time. That proves to me he’s an actual Oregonian who lived through this stuff, like a lot of us, and will be a good general election candidate.

I grew up in a rural town like he did, and I have similar emotional wounds about how urban people think about rural areas as potentially just tourism destinations. And yet lots of people really are devastated financially—have been for 40 years—and it’s no joke. And there’s a reason they’re not voting for Democrats anymore in those areas.

And what was your reaction to the spending?

I’ve never even seen anything like that in Oregon politics. I hope he’s not a terrible human being and a bad person. You could win no matter what you are with that kind of money.

I do like to give the voters some credit: They might actually have voted for Carrick Flynn as a human being if they knew his story, coming from nothing. But they may not vote for him now because of the way he’s getting funded.

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

17

Q&A: CARRICK FLYNN The candidate says he’s no instrument of crypto cash.

Carrick Flynn says he’s misunderstood.

Nearly $9 million of independent expenditures have made Flynn’s face and plaid shirts ubiquitous on Oregon television screens. But Flynn, 35, says that spending isn’t the reason he leads in polls in his race for a congressional seat. And he says the local media have misrepresented his core values—this newspaper in particular.

Two weeks after Flynn elected to not attend WW’s endorsement interview, and after nearly daily requests for a sitdown, Flynn’s campaign staff consented to a 25-minute conversation by phone. Here are the highlights of that interview, lightly edited for brevity and clarity. N I G E L J AQ U I S S A N D A A R O N M E S H .

C O U R T E S Y O F C A R R I C K F LY N N

“The government should not itself be a natural disaster.”

Did any conversation stand out to you?

It’s kind of a recurring theme: People are really struggling with getting their medication, and the price of it is something that I don’t think I’d really appreciated. There was a woman the other day who lost her husband recently. She was just really scared about the medication situation. There’s something so wrong about it. She lives her whole life and does all this stuff. And this is the way it ends.

Could you give us an example of your independence, where you don’t toe the Democratic Party line? For instance, you said on a podcast that you had some concerns about the northern spotted owl. Are you a Timber Unity supporter?

WW: Based on what you’ve heard on the campaign trail, what’s the top priority for voters in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District?

Carrick Flynn: I would say something like stability. That’s what coronavirus did— not just the illness itself, but in terms of kids having to stay home from schools, the mass unemployment that initially took root, the problems of crime that ramped up dramatically during COVID. And some of the instability comes with political polarization, the stuff with the attempted insurrection. You hear a lot of people say something like they just want things to be normal again, or they would like sanity back.

How many doors would you say you’ve knocked on since you’ve began campaigning?

That’s a good question. It’d be less than 500, probably.

OK. A lot less than 500?

No. I would say something in that domain, but less.

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Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

So, I’m emphatically not a Timber Unity supporter. Actually, if I had something I could request to show up this article, it would be me encouraging people to go back and listen to that podcast. Because I did not say that, I do not mean that. I do have concerns about the economic effect conservation had on timber communities.

But I have concerns about economic effects of any large economic trends or any government regulation on communities. So I worry about Detroit auto workers. I worry about the rust belt.

And I grew up in a timber town when this was happening. And I will say the economic effect of it was absolutely devastating. The government needs to get better at making sure that if there’s a large change, there’s some sort of cushion. There needs to be some regulatory program that sets people into jobs. So it doesn’t just crash. The government should not itself be a natural disaster.

A lot of people in Oregon would characterize what happened with the spotted owl as an urban elite dictating policy to rural Oregon. Billionaires like Sam Bankman-Fried made a lot of money, and they would like to dictate public policy. So what’s the relationship between money and sound public policy?

Ideally, none. I was not fond of campaign finance as I understood it before I got into the campaign. Seeing it up close, it does not look better. This is a bad system. At the worst versions, you have the Koch brothers or Exxon Mobil influencing policy very

C O U R T E S Y O F C A R R I C K F LY N N

directly and very brazenly. I think none of it is good, but at least there’s a better end of it, where there are groups that find candidates that are trying to do what they’re trying to do, like prevent a pandemic from happening, and then just try to make sure that that message gets out. But no, the system’s not good.

When did you first come into contact with any of the Bankman-Frieds—Sam or Gabe or anybody else in the family?

So I’ve never been in contact with Sam at all. I don’t remember exactly when I met Gabe. I definitely at least knew him by 2019.

“I was not fond of campaign finance as I understood it before I got into the campaign.

Seeing it up close, it does not look better.”

Did you and he talk about your potentially running for Congress before this all started?

I talked to basically everyone before this started. I had some family and friends suggest I should do it.

You appear to be leading the polls in your district. It’s because someone you say you’ve never met has spent $7 million on your campaign, independent of your qualifications. In your mind, is that democratic?

I think my message is resonating. All that’s being said in advertisements about me is true. I’ve only been true about myself.

There’s a lot of different ways to approach an election. People who can self-fund cut off access to those of us who absolutely could not. There’s issues with people who kind of are elected by local political machines.

We’re just asking you if you feel like the way in which your election is being financed—that you are at the top of the polls because of the independent expenditure by one gentleman—whether you think that’s good for democracy.

I don’t agree with your premise. I think my message is resonating.

Are independent expenditures good for democracy?

Simple question.

And I’ve answered it three times, so I’ll move on. I’ve said before, I don’t like campaign finance, and if I have an option, if I am elected, I would be very happy to get involved with any serious efforts to reform it. It’s terrible.

What haven’t we asked you that we should?

What I’ll say is, I think you guys have missed me entirely. Like you’ve just gone in the wrong direction and kept going there. And I think if you wanted to understand me, you would find somebody who is extremely motivated by doing good in the world and who is very willing to upend their life to do that in lots of different directions, following the proposition of just trying to do whatever helps people the most.

So not someone with any political ambitions, and not someone who, for some reason, likes living in Liberia for long periods of time, or likes having malaria for a month or living on $8,000 in 2015, when all my colleagues who graduated from Yale were making over a million. But someone who’s really emphatically just trying to do good in the world.

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STREET

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Photos by John Rudoff On Instagram: @rudoffphoto

The Portland Thorns and Timbers shared the pitch at Providence Park for the first time ever on Wednesday, April 27.

The cause that brought the two football clubs together: helping the people of Ukraine. Players wore jerseys the colors of the Ukrainian flag, with Yellow beat-

ing Blue 4-3 by the time the 60-minute exhibition was over. But the score didn’t matter in the end. The charity match, dubbed PTFC for Peace, raised $500,000 (and counting) for UNICEF’s humanitarian response to the invasion.

UNIQUE MARKETS

UNITED BY ONE GOAL

GET BUSY

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

GO: Unique Markets Portland Spring Pop-Up

For some shoppers, the holiday version of this market may have saved Christmas, offering thousands of gift options made by local crafters during a time when global shipping delays left many lists unfulfilled. If you have anyone to buy gifts for this month (ahem, Mom), the pop-up is back at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with 175 emerging brands, artists and designers. Not only can you touch and see the items before you grab your wallet, the venue features free drinks, photo booths and food—making it a way more desirable experience than scrolling through Amazon. Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 300 N Winning Way, uniquemarkets.com. 10 am-4 pm Saturday-Sunday, May 7-8. $5 general admission, $35 VIP tickets.

DRINK: Kentucky Derby Party

If spending an afternoon sporting seersucker suits and widebrimmed hats while betting on an ethically questionable activity sounds appealing, there are a number of options around town. But the Satellite Tavern’s party will actually benefit a worthy cause: the Big Yard Foundation, which works to improve literacy and access to the arts in disadvantaged communities. You also have the opportunity to win a variety of admittedly neat prizes, including a 40-inch Samsung Smart TV, a private whiskey tasting for 10, and Timbers tickets.

Kentucky hot browns and mint juleps round out the experience. Satellite Tavern, 5101 N Interstate Ave., 503-841-6176, eventbrite.com. 11 am Saturday, May 7. $20. 21+.

 SEE: Appropriate Profile Theatre’s 2021-22 season ends with this play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins about three adult children reuniting at their dead father’s plantation to settle his accounts. Given the company’s penchant for the provocative—it also staged Gloria, Jacobs-Jenkins’ play about a mass shooting in a newsroom—it’s safe to say you can expect another bold Profile production. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave, 503-242-0080, profiletheatre.org. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 5-22. $35-$55.  SEE: Bella: An American Tall Tale In this Western musical adventure, Bella (Danielle Barker) seeks to reinvent herself in the wake of a scandal. The play is presented by Portland Playhouse, whose recent efforts include an ingenious production of Robert O’Hara’s uproarious satire Barbecue. Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott St., 503-488-5822, portlandplayhouse.org. 7:30 pm WednesdaySaturday, 2 pm Sunday, May 4-June 5. $20-$49. Pay what you will at the 7:30 pm Friday, May 6, BIPOC Affinity Night preview.  SEE: Hamlet Few people understand Hamlet as deeply as Valerie Asbell, founder and artistic director of the theater company Clever Enough. A devout fan and scholar of the Bard’s meditation on identity and revenge, she has previously directed the play and played Ophelia—and she’s all set to do it again in this new production. This time, however, there’s a twist: She’s playing both Ophelia and Fortinbras, the conqueror who famously ends the play by declaring, “Go, bid the soldiers shoot.” The Headwaters Theatre, 55 NE Farragut St., #9, cleverenough.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 1:30 pm Sunday, May 5-15. $15.

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FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Hot Plates WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. PHUKET CAFE

Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

AARON LEE

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In

1818 NW 23rd Place, 503-781-2997, phuketcafepdx.com. 5-10 pm Monday-Friday, 10 am-2 pm and 5-10 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Rocketship Earl has catapulted skyward again. Phuket Cafe, located inside the compact former Ataula space in Northwest Portland, is Akkapong “Earl” Ninsom’s newest restaurant and co-venture with bartender Eric Nelson. After barely a month, waits can run long for Ninsom’s new, twisted take on Thai cuisine, a niche he owns. It’s a challenge to describe the menu, but it reflects the pair’s recent travels in Thailand, and includes everything from oysters on the half shell to bacon bites to paella to a glorious pork chop—a massive 18-ounce Tails & Trotters cut, sliced from the bone for service.

2. KING TIDE FISH & SHELL

1510 S Harbor Way, 503-295-6166, kingtidefishandshell.com. 7 am-1 pm and 4-9 pm Monday-Thursday, 7 am-1 pm and 4-10 pm Friday, 8 am-1 pm and 4-10 pm Saturday, 8 am-1 pm and 4-9 pm Sunday.

One of Portland’s rare downtown riverfront restaurants has a new chef helming the kitchen. Alexander Diestra is a familiar name to anyone who pays attention to the city’s culinary scene, boasting more than 18 years of experience at places like Saucebox, Clarklewis and Andina. The Peruvian native is now shaking up the menu at King Tide by introducing new items such as bluefin tuna tartare, kanpachi crudo, ono ceviche, Wagyu coulotte and a seafood risotto with prawns and scallops—lively dishes that are a mashup of the flavors of his home country and Japan.

3. BLUTO’S

2838 SE Belmont St., 971-383-1619, blutospdx.com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

Bluto’s, named after John Belushi’s hard-partying character in Animal House, comes from Lardo and Grassa mastermind Rick Gencarelli and the ChefStable restaurant group. Like Lardo and Grassa, it aims for that fancy, fast-casual niche, with counter service and midrange prices belying some seriously tasty cooking.

Bluto’s portion sizes are perfect for sharing, so covering a table in a variety of dishes and allowing the flavors to mingle is the right way to eat here. The zippy citrus and sour labneh in the chicory salad should be eaten in between bites of the savory skewers and hummus scooped up with pita bread.

4. EAST GLISAN PIZZA LOUNGE

8001 NE Glisan St., 971-279-4273, eastglisan.com. Meatless lasagna available 4-8 pm Sunday, new lasagna pinwheels available 9-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

Though best known for its Detroit-style pies, East Glisan makes room on its menu for lasagna every Sunday, and the pasta is just as hefty as the shop’s square pizzas. With 12 lustrous layers, each slice is as thick as a brick and feels sturdy enough to construct a wall. The whisper-thin noodles are every bit as important as the creamy ricotta and crushed DiNapoli San Marzano-style tomatoes since there are no fillings like meat or spinach. This is filling food.

This is comforting food. This is “slow down and pay attention” food.

5. THE SPORTS BRA

2512 NE Broadway, 503-327-8401, thesportsbrapdx.com. 11 am-11 pm Wednesday-Sunday.

Billed as the first and only bar whose screens feature only women’s athletics, the Sports Bra is a unique concept that has generated excitement on a national scale. But the pub also promises to distinguish itself by serving food all made from scratch that will please carnivores, vegans, gluten-free patrons, and everyone in between. We’re most excited to try owner-chef Jenny Nguyen’s family recipes for dishes like Mom’s Baby Back Ribs—Vietnamese-style pork caramelized with coconut milk—and Aunt Tina’s Vietna-Wings, fried-and-glazed chicken on a bed of cabbage slaw.

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ded

Suckerpunch’s cocktails are complex, balanced and intriguing, even without the buzz.

BY A N D R E A DA M E WO O D

As I wandered out of Suckerpunch after spending a few hours chatting in the dimly lit space, with flashes of downtown views from its floor-to-ceiling windows, I joked to my friend that now that I’d had three drinks I was ready to dish a secret.

We both laughed, since we were as sober as when we started drinking. But the thing is, Portland’s first non-alcoholic bar still worked its magic: We had some complex yet balanced cocktails, and a cozy place to catch up. No booze was actually needed to loosen us up. (Bonus: I felt much better in the morning than if I’d downed three real drinks in short succession.)

Founder Andy McMillan, who himself does not drink and was desperate for better non-alcoholic drinking choices around town, has ridden a few waves while bringing Suckerpunch to its current home in the Goat Blocks on Southeast Belmont. First, there was the rising demand for zero-proof drinks. Then the pandemic forced his original 2020 pop-up to halt operations.

Next, he used the opportunity to pivot and sell makeyour-own home cocktail kits.

“I think the origin story for Suckerpunch is a few different things,” McMillan told WW in February 2020.

“We started our own non-alcoholic bar program at the festival that I run here [XOXO] in 2015. It’s this sort of combination of working on it through the festival and quitting myself shortly after we started doing that, and then seeing these spaces appear around the country and starting to see this sort of coalesce as a movement.”

Since late February, McMillan’s team has been serving its three original drinks from the previous pop-up, though the menu is set to change May 5.

My personal favorite of those offered in the initial lineup is Island Time, a tiki-inspired blend of Forest Grove winery Montinore Estate’s Verjus, Pok Pok Som drinking vinegar, galangal, yuzu, lime, bitters and shiso.

Often, drinks heavy on the vinegar give me heartburn, but this one is tart and served in a tall glass over ice that I’d like to enjoy on a patio.

Thank You for Being a Friend is both an excellently named drink and a delight, with Steven Smith Lord Bergamot tea, sweet notes of date and orgeat, topped with aquafaba (the starchy chickpea cooking liquid that is a dead ringer for egg whites). A third drink, Straight From the Fire, is the non-alcoholic answer to an old fashioned, swapping out whiskey and sugar for corn tea and smoked maple syrup.

You can order all three drinks, served with a few light snacks, as a prix fixe flight for $40, or you can pop in for one or two. Just don’t bring anyone under 18, because while there’s no booze, Suckerpunch is still intended to be an adult space.

And it very much is: To sink into a window table with views under the moody lighting and next to the sleek, wooden bar, feels very, well, sexy date night, minus the potential pitfall of overindulgence.

Right now, the space is temporary while McMillan continues to search for a location for a permanent Suckerpunch. But there are plans to open patio seating soon, and a retail space to sell some of the zero-proof bottles the bar uses for blending, so it’s safe to say it’s not going anywhere too soon.

DRINK: Suckerpunch, 1030 SE Belmont St., 503-2084022, suckerpunch.bar. 6-10 pm Thursday-Saturday, 6-8 pm Sunday.

SUCKERPUNCH

Top 5

Buzz List WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. TOPWIRE HOP PROJECT TOPWIRE HOP PROJECT

8668 Crosby Road NE, Woodburn, 503-765-1645, topwirehp.com. 11 am-8 pm Thursday and Sunday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday.

The average beer nerd can’t score a badge to the Craft Brewers Conference, the brewing industry’s largest annual gathering. But you can get a taste of some of the same beers that will be available to attendees of this year’s event. TopWire Hop Project—the beer garden that opened in the middle of Crosby Hop Farm in 2020—has announced that it will kick off its third season with a selection of special collaboration beers, many that are only available at the 2022 convention in Minneapolis.

Even when those kegs have tapped, return for the view of the hop bines, which grow 18 feet tall and surround the space like emerald green curtains.

2. URDANETA

3033 NE Alberta St., 503-288-1990, urdanetapdx. com. 5-10 pm Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 5-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

If you live by the slogan “Rosé all day,” then you’ll want a standing reservation at Urdaneta this spring. The tapas restaurant just announced its wine of the season is Punctum Petulante Pét Nat—essentially a wilder version of Champagne with a vibrant pink hue, bright berry aroma and red summer fruit notes. Urdaneta’s wine director chose this particular rosé because it pairs perfectly with chef Javier Canteras’ Spanish-inspired dishes, such as burrata drizzled with harissa honey, tortilla de bacalao (confit salt cod), and croquetas de jamon filled with béchamel.

3. FERMENT BREWING

403 Portway Ave., Hood River, 541-436-3499, fermentbrewing.com. Noon-9 pm daily.

There are few places more beautiful in Oregon during spring than Hood River when the fruit trees are in full bloom. Make a day trip to the area before the cotton candy-colored canopy disappears, and while you’re there, visit a stunning human-made attraction: Ferment, a two-story, gleaming glass brewery feet from the Columbia River. The business just released four new seasonal beers: Pink Boots Society fundraiser the Brewster’s Pale, Japanese-style lager Hana Pils, Holy Citra IPA, and White River, a limited-edition, wild-fermented saison. Do not leave without a half-liter bottle of the latter.

4. 503 DISTILLING LOUNGE

4784 SE 17th Ave., Suite 150, 503-975-5669, 503distilling.com. 3-9 pm Thursday-Saturday, 1-7 pm Sunday.

Portland has a new outlet where you can sample draft cocktails right next door to the source. 503 Distilling recently opened a lounge adjacent to its distillery inside the Iron Fireman Collective building.

That’s where you’ll find six rotating cocktails on tap, plus made-to-order mixed drinks, beer and wine. The draft options offer visitors first tastes of some of the newest concoctions coming out of the distillery, acting as something of a laboratory. And once you’ve had your fill of spirits, Ruse Brewing is a short stumble away.

5. THE EMERALD ROOM

2117 NE Oregon St., Suite 202, 971-213-1085, aimsiremerald.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday.

Portland’s Aimsir Distilling Company just nabbed three awards from the prestigious San Francisco Spirits Competition, so if you haven’t made your way into the brand’s swanky bar the Emerald Room, now you have as good an excuse as any to book a reservation. Be sure to sample the Aimsir Bourbon, its first whiskey that won double gold, and the Cold Brew Bourbon, which took home silver. The latter can be ordered in a boulevardier starting April 20, National Cold Brew Day.

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HANDMADE IN PORTLAND, OREGON

POTLANDER M C K E N Z I E YO U N G - R OY

MOTHER NATURE: From home grow kits to aromatic massage oils, there is a wide range of canna-gifts for Mom.

For the Dopest Moms We’ve rounded up the best smokable, edible and rubbable THC- and CBD-infused gifts for Mother’s Day.

BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R

even contains a battery-powered LED light board to showcase the contents.

Nowadays, the combination of motherhood and weed hardly seems taboo. In fact, there’s an entire cannabis industry niche catering to motherly types. From bath bombs to repurposed vintage bud vases, businesses are meeting the needs of a generation of baked moms, elder femmes and matriarchal figures.

Even mothers who eschew the dominant cannabis culture can find a variety of low-stakes, introductory products that make parenting a little easier.

So when it comes to picking out a Mother’s Day gift, you may want to skip the flower bouquets, assorted chocolates and World’s Okayest Mom coffee mug, and instead spring for an eighth of kush, a tube of THC truffles, or a new coffee mug she can smoke weed out of. For anyone who doesn’t yet claim the “stoner mom” title, consider nonpsychoactive products like topicals that can improve the skin, provide pain relief and generally rejuvenate self-care routines.

We’ve compiled a list of festive canna-gifts just in time for Mother’s Day, but take it from a mom: Anytime is a good time to show the mamas in your life a little gratitude, so you may just want to save the following list for year-round inspiration.

BUY: theapothecarrycase.com

For the Discerning Strain-Hunter Mom: Apothecarry Case Cannabis Humidor The canna-snobs among us will appreciate this opulent reinterpretation of both a lockable stash box and a classic humidor. These cases are available in a variety of sizes, and each is capable of maintaining precise humidity levels. If the mother in question is more of a dab connoisseur than a bud grinder, Apothecarry’s Dabney box is designed to hold 24 dab jars, and

For the Green-Thumbed Mom: A Pot for Pot Grow Kit A Pot for Pot offers simple, all-inclusive home-grow systems in a variety of sizes—from a kit that could fit on a countertop to a 35-gallon back-porch apparatus that can produce a few pounds of weed. Each includes everything you need to successfully grow cannabis, including flowering booster and trimming scissors.

BUY: apotforpot.com

For the Chocophile Mom: Hapy Kitchen, Grön and Serra X Woodblock Chocolate Bars Don’t try to coast through Mother’s Day by giving mom a solitary chocolate bar. Instead, splurge on a selection of Oregon’s finest edibles so mom can pad her stash box. Hapy Kitchen’s confections are studded with even more sweets, like graham crackers and marshmallows, while Serra’s collaboration with local chocolatier Woodblock set the standard for locally made edibles. Grön’s Ruby Cacao Bar comes in a beautiful shade of pink that’s as Instagrammable as it is delicious. Add to this bundle a few non-THC-infused bars for the times when Mama needs to satisfy her sweet tooth without getting a buzz.

BUY: These brands are sold at most local dispensaries.

For the High-Strung, Multihyphenate Mom: The Healing Rose’s Calm Mom Bundle

calming, restorative benefits cannabinoids can provide, the Healing Rose has assembled a package of its bestselling selfcare items. Bath soaks, aromatic massage oils and lip balm make this a great choice for the curious yet cautious consumer.

BUY: thehealingroseco.com

For the Tech-Obsessed Mom: LĒVO II Home Infuser The heritage method of extraction can be a daylong, or even a several dayslong, event that many modern madres simply do not have the time or patience to execute. LEVO II is built to simplify the process down to a few button pushes. The machine also contains odor and mess, is easy to clean and maintain, and comes in a variety of glossy candy colors.

BUY: levooil.com

For the Flower-Enthusiast Mom: LUVLI Farms Leftovers Cultivated by LUVLI farms, Leftovers is an astronomically high-THC strain with an interesting bit of legacy-to-legal lore behind it; bored after years of cultivating ubiquitous local varieties, the brand’s growers decided to produce an experimental phenotype that became one of this season’s most talked-about cultivars. Your mother is sure to approve, especially if you deliver it in a functional, weed-smoking mug.

BUY: For Leftovers: Amberlight Cannabis Dispensary, 2407 SE 49th Ave., 503-233-0420. For the mug: maryjaneshq.com.

For moms who lack the desire to get high but still want the

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MUSIC

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com COURTESY OF ALEXA VISCIOUS

Now Hear This Listening recommendations from the past, present, Portland and the periphery.

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD // @BROMF3

SOMETHING OLD From teenage remix-contest winner to New Age maestro to explorer of ’90s internet nostalgia, Canadian producer CFCF rarely settles down for long. Yet the best distillation of his approach is the Exercises EP, released 10 years ago, which defines the stately calm and poise he brings to nearly all his music. The high point is “Exercise 5 (September),” a cover of a song by the brainy cult-favorite artist David Sylvian that manages to be even more magisterial than its source material.

FACES PLACES: Jason Balla, Emily Kempf and Eric McGrady.

Blue Skies Ahead Dehd’s fourth album offers a jolt of hope, redemption and fun.

BY M I C H E L L E K I C H E R E R

“I feel like I’m in the shell of a firework and it’s being lit,” says bassist and vocalist Emily Kempf of Chicago trio Dehd. “I might be launched into the sky or explode on the ground, but we’re all feeling just really hopeful.”

There’s good reason for Kempf’s optimism. Blue Skies, Dehd’s fourth album (and their first on Fat Possum), is a collection of hope-inducing jams with a poppy post-punk vibe. From single “Bad Love” to ending track “No Difference,” it’s hard to find a skippable song.

“Sometimes it’s hard to remember to have fun and be happy when things are fucked up,” Kempf says. With Blue Skies, Dehd offers an antidote: themes of connection, redemption and fun woven throughout tracks in a not-in-your-face way.

After the release of 2020’s Flower of Devotion, the band got a cold call from Ami Spishock, who manages bands like Beirut, Grizzly Bear and Kevin Morby. Spishock fell in organic true love with the album, just before Pitchfork named it a “best new music” pick of the year. Suddenly everyone was knocking on Dehd’s door.

But true love was the winner, and Spishock was the best “mama bear” manager the band could have hoped for. Dehd then signed with Fat Possum, which offered a type of support the band wasn’t used to, including substantially more studio time.

“We’re really not an expensive band,” Kempf says. “But being able to be in the studio for a month instead of four days took away that ‘OK, you have an hour to get this right’ feeling.”

The extra playtime allowed guitarist and vocalist Jason Balla to further build his producer chops, while drummer Eric McGrady and Kempf injected each track with fresh energy.

“Sometimes I’ll sing in this really challenging way and it works really well,” Kempf shares in reference to “Bad Love,” a raw and honest love song with a Springsteen-like lyrical quality. She laughs and says, “Then I’m like, oh, now I have to always sing it that way.”

Those challenging moments are what make Blue Skies stick out.

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Kempf and Balla both push their vocals into new ranges, and when that drive is paired with catchy melodies and interesting hooks, the songs are stick-in-your-head fun with genuine emotional depth.

That’s true of “Bad Love,” which is about rectifying romantic faults, “Memories,” which is about lost friends, and “Windows,” the album’s pseudo title track. In addition to urging the listener to look ahead (“I was wondering how the rain was getting in/Was it from all this crying?/Or was it from heaven?”), “Windows” is about battling the urge to destroy oneself, culminating with a Roy Orbison-style croony repeat of what’s coming: “blue skies.”

Like Flower of Devotion, Blue Skies was written both for the studio and the stage, which gives Dehd a “they sound just as good or better live” designation. After all that time in the studio exploring new sounds—a cymbal here, a Wurlitzer there—the result is a repeatable, enhanceable live experience.

“We love our songs and we love playing to a crowd,” Kempf says. After years of sobriety, she says, music, for her, is partying.

Performing and creating provide an unbeatable release and connectivity.

To increase their reachability, Dehd’s website has a hotline where listeners can leave messages or ask questions. The most recent prompt was “Share bad love stories.” An upcoming prompt is “Ask Jason for recording advice.”

“We just want to help people,” says Kempf, who is used to the help-each-other-out atmosphere of Chicago’s music scene.

Kempf recognizes there’s an enormous amount of competition, inequality and heaviness in the world. She also believes: “It’s also OK to just let go for a second. You don’t have to suffer to take care of the world, either.” So it’s fitting Blue Skies insists that even when times are dark, it’s important to gift yourself some fun.

SEE IT: Dehd plays the Wonder Ballroom, NE Russell St., 503284-8686, wonderballroom.com. 9 pm Saturday, May 7. $17.

Blue Skies is out May 27 on Fat Possum.

SOMETHING NEW Kurt Vile is comfortably in weird old pro mode on (watch my moves), one of his loosest and most immersive albums.

Ostensibly a tribute to songwriting, it doesn’t have much actual songwriting on it: just circular mantras and stoner talk elevated to an art form. Yet it’s his best-sounding album in nearly 10 years, and his frequent references to family life raise the stakes beyond just slacker rock. How better to show you’re domestic and still freaky than to pose on the cover with your kids in a dragon mask?

SOMETHING LOCAL When he’s not teaching shoemaking classes from his Piedmont studio, master cobbler Jason Hovatter stitches the sounds of his environment into seasonal “mixtapes”as Learning From Place.

Field, his fall-winter 2021 mixtape on Bandcamp, is an hourlong trip through Oregon at its wettest and windiest, the better to listen to from the comfort of your home without having to brave the elements. And yes, his two callings combine sometimes; shoemaking tool music is exactly what it sounds like.

SOMETHING ASKEW Lucy Liyou is one of America’s most exciting young avant-gardists, incorporating text-tospeech software into fearlessly personal and poignant sound collages. Welfare is the more ambitious of her two albums so far, inspired by Korean folk opera and allowing its tracks to sprawl over 10-plus minutes, while the pop songlength, quickly-recorded tracks on Practice are less forbidding if slightly less head-spinning. American Dreams is reissuing them together as a double LP on May 20.

MOVIES

G ET YO U R R E P S I N

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson Contact: bennett@wweek.com

BRIGHT STARS: Tom Cruise, Marcel and Keke Palmer.

Summer 2022 Movie Preview From scary clouds to talking shells, here is your guide to the season’s upcoming films.

BY C H A N C E S O L E M - P F E I F E R

M I R I S C H CO M PA N Y

PA R A M O U N T, A 2 4 , U N I V E R S A L S T U D I O S

SCREENER

@chance_ s _ p

Pleasure (May 13) All-in arthousers can soon immerse themselves in Swedish filmmaker Ninja Thyberg’s story of a burgeoning porn performer ascending through the industry by making increasingly daring videos. Newcomer Sofia Kappel joins a cast largely made up of adult film actors in what’s being hailed as an incisive, firsthand depiction of porn production.

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On (June 24) What began as a series of mockumentary shorts, beloved for Jenny Slate’s squeaky, ASMR-esque voicing of a pinsized seashell, is now a feature—and it’s our choice for most anticipated animated film of the summer (next to Lightyear and Bob’s Burgers). Bringing all the tender existentialism of the shorts, Marcel is now venturing into the great wide world to find his shell family.

Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8) He’s not the first superhero to quit the cape as a plot point, but Thor is perhaps the first to braid his locks, meditate and goof around at director Taika Waititi’s behest while off the superhero clock. If a return to the irreverence of 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t interest you, perhaps Christian Bale playing (*checks notes*) Gorr the God Butcher will.

Men (May 20) After helming the brilliant and baffling big-tech miniseries Devs, director Alex Garland returns to movies with a horror entry he’s calling “aggressive.” Knowing Garland, that probably means Men will attempt to rupture your psyche and eardrums as Jessie Buckley navigates a bucolic menagerie of leering, stalking, gaslighting bastards.

Nope (July 22) Jordan Peele’s many producing forays and co-authorship of last year’s Candyman script didn’t fully pan out, but that shouldn’t dim enthusiasm for his directorial follow-up to Get Out and Us. Peele’s third film is set on a dusty horse ranch, which is intruded upon by something really big and ominous up in the sky. We’ll be lucky to watch Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer and Steven Yeun crane their necks.

Top Gun: Maverick (May 27) At this point, the Top Gun sequel might as well have been made in the 1980s. Even so, the pandemic’s most famous blockbuster holdout (which was actually filmed in 2018) is finally cleared for takeoff. And no movie star still demands the big screen (literally and figuratively) like Lt. Tom Cruise.

Bullet Trail (July 29) Brad Pitt stars in this adaptation of the Japanese novel Maria Beetle, about an imperiled assassin on a high-speed trip from Tokyo to Kyoto. With stunt guru David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) directing, it’s likely to be all about claustrophobic carnage and gymnastic fisticuffs.

Can’t you just picture the tracking shots now?

Fire Island (June 3) Starring and written by breakout standup comic Joel Kim Booster, this Hulu comedy goes where no mainstream romcom has before: on a Fire Island vacation for a gay, Asianled Pride and Prejudice riff. SNL’s Bowen Yang co-stars, alongside Margaret Cho, Conrad Ricamora and endless abs.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (Aug. 5) Marketed as a satirical cross between Scream and Spring Breakers, this weekend-gone-wrong tale of friends holed up during a hurricane stars Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Pete Davidson (SNL), Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give) and Lee Pace (Halt and Catch Fire). Could be a collection of career-changing performances and/or pure chaos.

Crimes of the Future (June 3) There’s no summer fun without 79-year-old David Cronen-

“I’m a man!” “Well, nobody’s perfect.” In Billy Wilder’s seminal screwball comedy, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis star as two musicians who mask themselves as women in order to evade the gangsters hot on their trail. But it’s Marilyn Monroe who steals the show as the irresistible, ukulele-playing singer who tests the men’s commitments to their disguises. Hollywood, May 5.

Season of the Witch (1973)

Originally released under the title Hungry Wives, this supernatural drama from George A. Romero follows a neglected suburban housewife (Jan White) who turns to witchcraft as a salve for her loneliness. More of a character study tracking the ’70s decline of the trad-wife ideal rather than a traditional horror film, which perhaps makes it even more compelling. Clinton, May 6.

Black Sunday (1960)

Italian horror maestro Mario Bava’s influential debut film centers on a witch who is sentenced to death by her own brother—and vows to return and exact bloody revenge. Two hundred years later, she does just that. The film’s brutal gore was so controversial it was banned in the United Kingdom. Clinton, May 6.

Akira (1988)

TORO

Movie seasons don’t abide by the Gregorian calendar.

They’re arbitrated by studio spreadsheets, holiday weekends, and amorphous concepts like “Awards Season” and “Dumpuary.”

But you know the start of a movie season when you see one, and summer 2022 unofficially begins this Friday with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which marks the return of legendary genre filmmaker Sam Raimi to not only superhero movies, but also, well, movies (he hasn’t directed a feature film since 2013’s Oz the Great and Powerful).

Strange is sure to be filled with Raimi’s reality-busting crash zooms, but there’s much more to anticipate. So let’s look ahead at our 10 most anticipated summer movies.

berg grafting ears onto the tops of people’s skulls. After eight years away from the director’s chair, the body-horror master reteams with Viggo Mortensen (A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) and brings Léa Seydoux (Blue Is the Warmest Color, No Time to Die) and Kristen Stewart into the dystopian (skin) fold.

Some Like it Hot (1959)

This massively influential anime, adapted from the eponymous 1982 manga and set in the cyberpunk dystopia of 2019 Neo-Tokyo, centers on the leader of a motorbike gang as he attempts to save his telekinetic friend from a corrupt government. Widely credited for catapulting the Japanese art of anime into the Western mainstream.

Hollywood, May 7.

The Virgin Suicides (1999)

Sofia Coppola’s ethereal coming-of-age tragedy, adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’ 1993 novel, mythologizes the nymphish and doomed Lisbon sisters (Kirsten Dunst included) through the eyes of a group of neighborhood boys—and Coppola’s own perceptive, dreamy, distinctively female gaze. Hollywood, May 9.

ALSO PLAYING: 5th Avenue: In the Mood for Love (2000), May 6-8.

Cinemagic: Doctor Mordrid: Master of the Unknown (1992), May 6. Clinton: Black Moon (1975), May 5. The Wicker Man (1973), May 7. In the Mirror of Maya Deren (2001), May 9. Hollywood: Marathon Man (1976), May 4. Midnight Cowboy (1969), May 6. Shadow of a Doubt (1943), May 7-8. Requiem for a Dream (2000), May 7.

Mommie Dearest (1981), May 8. Fist of the White Lotus (1980), May 10.

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MOVIES

OUR KEY

: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR. NEON

TOP PICK OF THE WEEK

: THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT. : THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

when the pace calms and the fireworks die down for an emotional climax, the film moves glacially. Inevitable? Perhaps, but it’s still disappointing that Everything Everywhere All at Once is less than the sum of its dazzling parts. R. JAY HORTON. Academy, Cinema 21, City Center, Clackamas, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Lake Theater, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Studio One, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE

PETITE MAMAN Cleaning out her recently deceased grandmother’s hallway closet, 8-year-old Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) discovers a forgotten paddleball game. Her dad is occupied; her grieving mother is suddenly absent. Paddleball is an apt solo activity, but three swings in, the ball flies off the string and into the woods. Maybe that’s the mechanism by which Petite Maman departs for the realm of magical realism, or maybe it’s just a superb symbol. But immediately, Nelly meets a girl of near-identical age and appearance (played by Sanz’s real-life twin, Gabrielle) building a nearby tree fort. After the visual and emotional grandeur of Portrait of a Lady on Fire, French auteur Céline Sciamma distills Petite Maman into 72 minutes of leaf crunching and dream sharing between two serious children looking to each other for what their parents can’t explain about loss and loneliness. Both Sanz girls’ performances are frank and watchful, not averse to occasional glee, and never so precocious that Sciamma turns them into screenwriting puppets. This is childhood the way we wish it could be during a crisis—and a quietly fantastical tale that punches megatons above its weight. Petite Maman is itself a near-perfect little artifact, a closed loop containing multitudes. Bat that ball once and feel everything that comes boomeranging back. PG. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.

THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT

Nicolas Cage is a rare acting legend whose filmography has become a genre-fluid library of cult classics. It’s a unique cinematic achievement that spans generations—and it’s what makes The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent work.

In the film, Cage plays a version of himself so meta it becomes difficult to determine what’s satire and what’s autobiography.

Here, “Nick Cage” is in a career slump, plagued by financial woes and rumors concerning his eccentric spending habits (in one scene, he offers to pay $20,000 for a gun-wielding statue of himself inspired by John Woo’s Face/Off). This compels him to accept a humiliating gig from wealthy superfan Javi (Pedro Pascal): appearing as a guest at his birthday party for $1 million. The action kicks off when the CIA recruits the actor to spy on his host, channel his inner “Cage,’’ and complete a mission. This results in a fun bromance with Javi based on their shared love of film (the true heart of the movie). Moments of absurdity come infrequently enough to enhance the comedic tone without defining it—and co-writer and director Tom Gormican knows his audience, giving viewers what they want with little care for what anyone else thinks. That’s an attitude any Nicolas Cage fan can relate to, and gleefully revel in. R. RAY GILL JR. City Center, Clackamas, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst, 28

Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, St. Johns Twin, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

AMBULANCE

Michael Bay’s Ambulance is stupid beyond belief, but it’s also thrilling, terrifying and impressively brutal. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Danny, a career criminal who enlists his adopted brother Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to help steal $32 million from a Los Angeles bank in broad daylight. It’s an insultingly improbable setup—even if Will needs money for his wife’s “experimental surgery,” why would he agree to Danny’s delusional scheme in minutes? But once they steal an ambulance to escape the army of police officers on their trail, the movie gets into a volatile groove. By trapping a bleeding cop (Jackson White) and a hardened EMT named Cam (Eiza González) in the ambulance with the brothers, Bay creates countless possibilities for triumphant tension.

When Cam has to use a hair clip to perform surgery, your heart skips a beat—and when snipers prepare to fire shots that could kill everyone in the ambulance, it nearly stops. Hyperactive editing and swooping camera movements make too much of the action a frantic blur, but there’s no denying Bay’s control over the exhilarating currents of fear that course through your mind and body as you watch.

Based on a 2005 Danish film, Ambulance strikes its share of false notes, but unlike most

Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

modern action movies, it understands the difference between bombast and suspense. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cascade, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Movies on TV, Progress Ridge, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE

A hyperkinetic sci-fi/ martial arts (kung fusion?) fever dream grounded in Asian American family dynamics, Everything Everywhere All at Once will be absolutely adored by some moviegoers from its very first moments. It’s a film made to be loved—and, given the sheer eye-popping technical wizardry at play throughout, nearly impossible to hate. Michelle Yeoh is typically dazzling as Evelyn Wong, a misanthropic laundromat owner called upon to save the multiverse from her daughter’s worst self (Stephanie Hsu, in a role intended for Awkwafina). Evelyn is an underwritten character, but Yeoh brings a welcome authenticity to the film, even if a performance of such finely shaded nuance isn’t the best fit for the DayGlo sensationalism of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the filmmaking duo known as Daniels (Swiss Army Man). As with Terry Gilliam, Edgar Wright or any other avant-garde sentimentalist pressing restless rhythms and visual inventiveness into the service of a wholly undeserving story, the directors effortlessly pep up the slow parts and paper over the plot holes, but

When it was announced that J.K. Rowling was unleashing five films based on a faux-academic textbook that she had assembled for charity, Harry Potter fans instantly knew two things about the coming Fantastic Beasts pentalogy: An epic saga wrung from a whimsical taxonomy was a terrible idea, and that mattered not at all. Despite the irrelevance of the concept, the IP-that-lived held enough power to birth a third adventure for cryptozoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), despite the recasting of big bad Johnny Depp, the transphobic rants from Rowling, and the tonal sea change from earlier entries’ Dr. Dolittle-esque period travelogue toward a secret agent yarn about a failed affair between arch-mages. While replacement Grindelwald Mads Mikkelsen lacks Depp’s cartoonish self-regard—which provided a romantic counterweight to the incandescence of Jude Law’s Dumbledore—his Hannibal/ Bond villain brand of drolly effete cruelty brings a necessary gravitas to a story that moves through a Disney-fied Weimar Berlin with bounce and verve. It also helps that the screenplay (by Rowling and Steve Kloves) expertly seeds the voluminous exposition with fan-servicing nods, but scarcely requires prior knowledge of the titular future headmaster. Yes, this is still the Potterverse, but to the film’s eternal blessing, it needn’t always be. PG-13. JAY HORTON. Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Wunderland Milwaukie.

THE NORTHMAN

If you like your men handsome, violent and oozing self-pity, you’ll get a kick out of The Northman, a new take on the Scandinavian legend that inspired Hamlet. It’s a satisfyingly brutish, mystical epic directed

by Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse, The Witch) and starring Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, a comically obsessive Viking prince. When Amleth was a boy, his father, King Aurvandil War-Raven (Ethan Hawke), was murdered by his uncle, Fjölnir (Claes Bang), who then married Amleth’s mother, Queen Gudrún

(Nicole Kidman). By the time Amleth is old enough to seek revenge, Fjölnir has lost the kingdom to a rival ruler and become a farmer, which is one of the film’s many perverse jokes—Fjölnir can never fall far enough to sate Amleth’s fury. While Amleth’s macho theatrics could have been intolerable, they’re undercut by the film’s peculiar humor.

There’s a charming self-amusement behind the exaggerated Scandinavian accents of the actors—they know they’re in a bonkers movie and they’re loving it. Plenty of audiences probably will too, but save for Queen Gudrún mocking her son with a beautifully mad cackle, Eggers is a director of divided loyalties—he rebukes toxic masculinity while reveling in it.

Hypocrisy is by no means fatal, but despite a glorious climactic duel on a lava-drenched volcano, The Northman leaves weary familiarity in its wake. Critiquing men like Amleth and Fjölnir?

Good. Leaving them behind?

Better. R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Cinemagic, Cinema 21, City Center, Clackamas, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza.

THE BAD GUYS

During its infancy as a major studio, DreamWorks Animation was often accused of attempting to mimic the output of its primary competition, the House of Mouse. Shark Tale was “Finding Nemo with gangsters.” Antz was “A Bug’s Life with Woody Allen” (despite being released first). Shrek was “any Disney princess movie with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s unmitigated bitterness over being ousted from the company.”

Now, 2022 brings us The Bad Guys, aka “Zootopia but not as good.” That’s a shame, because parts of the film genuinely work. The animation offers a beautiful blend of sketchbook textures and 3D models, and the voice actors are game for most anything, particularly Sam Rockwell and Zazie Beetz (who exchange winning repartee as a pickpocket named Mr. Wolf and a red fox politician named Governor Foxington, respectively).

However, the story is paper thin and flimsy—particularly during a third act that makes an unexpected detour from heist movie to science fiction—and the gags lean heavily on crude jokes, broad slapstick and the occasional out-of-nowhere pop culture reference. The Bad Guys isn’t terrible or offensive, but it’s far below the standards DreamWorks has set for itself. PG. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. AMC Vancouver, Bridgeport, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Plaza, Wunderland Beaverton.

JONESIN’

FREE WILL

B Y M AT T J O N E S

"Are You Cereal?"--it's right there on the box.

ASTROLOGY ARIES

(March 21-April 19): "Choose the least important day in your life," wrote Aries author Thornton Wilder. "It will be important enough."

I recommend that you make those your words to live by in the next two weeks. Why? Because I suspect there will be no tremendously exciting experiences coming your way. The daily rhythm is likely to be routine and modest. You may even be tempted to feel a bit bored. And yet, if you dare to move your attention just below the surface of life, you will tune into subtle glories that are percolating. You will become aware of quietly wondrous developments unfolding just out of sight and behind the scenes. Be alert for them.

They will provide fertile clues about the sweet victories that will be available in the months ahead.

TAURUS

(April 20-May 20): "Every successful person I know starts before they feel ready," declared life coach Marie Forleo. Author Ivan Turgenev wrote, "If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything, is ready, we shall never begin." Here's what educator Supriya Mehra says: "There's never a perfect moment to start, and the more we see the beauty in 'starting small,' the more we empower ourselves to get started at all." I hope that in providing you with these observations, Taurus, I have convinced you to dive in now. Here's one more quote, from businesswoman Betsy Rowbottom: "There's never a perfect moment to take a big risk."

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Poet Ranata Suzuki

ACROSS

1. "Call of Duty: Black _ _ _" 4. "The Ten Commandments" figure 9. Irritate 14. On a pension, briefly 15. Blazing 16. Risky GPS suggestion 17. Tried a little tender... loin 18. One-liner expert 19. Word in the name of many dental offices 20. Cereal featuring a wide receiver on the box?

23. "_ _ _ Scared Stupid" (1991 film) 24. 86.4 trillion nanoseconds 25. Run up a bill 28. "Spotlight" actor Schreiber 29. "Confessions" R&B singer 32. The _ _ _ (mysterious "Top Gear" driver) 33. Film composer Morricone 35. Acid in proteins 36. Cereal featuring a Grammy-winning singersongwriter on the box?

41. Per _ _ _ (salary phrase) 42. "Turning Red" studio 43. Off-duty 44. Turn down an offer 46. White who voiced Muriel on "Courage the Cowardly Dog" 50. Brett's role on "Ted Lasso" 51. Put two and two together 52. Monkey for whom a blood factor is named 54. Cereal featuring a

"Muppets Take Manhattan" and "Man of La Mancha" actor on the box?

58. Soft palate dangler 60. Rolled chip brand with "Fuego" and "Nitro" varieties 61. One in Orleans 62. Pesto ingredient 63. Take out 64. Shortz employer, for short 65. To the point that 66. Coat or shirt, maybe 67. Slide into your _ _ _

DOWN

1. Treatment for sore gums 2. Czar known as "The Great" 3. "Tristram Shandy" author (and 23-Across anagram) 4. Thanksgiving parade sponsor 5. "Carmina Burana" showstopper 6. _ _ _ Valley (Thousand Oaks neighbor) 7. "Domino Masters" host Stonestreet 8. Form a splinter group 9. Like annoying telemarketers 10. "I relate," online 11. Foolishly impractical 12. Website address 13. Benz tag?

21. Income 22. Monopoly game piece 26. Subtle (or not-so-subtle) gesture 27. Vanity centers 30. Bit of a beverage 31. Like most IPAs

©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.

32. Like Yogi, compared to other bears 34. _ _ _ pla (fish sauce) 35. "How to Get Away with Murder" actress _ _ _ Naomi King 36. Clear-skies forecast 37. Proto-_ _ _-European (early language) 38. Barely 39. "In the Heights" creator _ _ _-Manuel Miranda 40. Drive out, in a way 44. Storm of the Fantastic Four 45. Beer brand from Holland 47. It's heard twice in "Have you heard?"

48. Well-suited name (and a notable National Spelling Bee final word shout-spelled by the winner) 49. Ledger column 51. T-shirt size 53. Putdown for Bob and Doug McKenzie 55. Et _ _ _ (and others) 56. Model/actress Delevingne 57. About a B-minus, if I'm being generous 58. "Sit, _ _ _, sit. Good dog" ("Family Ties" vanity card) 59. Moving vehicle

last week’s answers

writes, "There comes a point where you no longer care if there's a light at the end of the tunnel or not. You're just sick of the tunnel." That's good advice for you right now, Gemini. The trick that's most likely to get you out of the tunnel is to acknowledge that you are sick of the damn tunnel. Announce to the universe that you have gleaned the essential teachings the ride through the tunnel has provided you. You no longer need its character-building benefits because you have harvested them all. Please say this a thousand times sometime soon: "I am ready for the wideopen spaces."

CANCER

(June 21-July 22): In the coming weeks, your imagination will receive visions of the next chapter of your life story. These images and stories might confuse you if you think they are illuminating the present moment. So please keep in mind that they are prophecies of what's ahead.

They are premonitions and preparations for the interesting work you will be given during the second half of 2022. If you regard them as guiding clues from your eternal soul, they will nourish the inner transformations necessary for you to welcome your destiny when it arrives. Now study this inspirational quote from poet Rainer Maria Rilke: "The future glides into us, so as to remake itself within us, long before it occurs."

LEO

(July 23-Aug. 22): "Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set," wrote author Ellen G. White. That's true!

And that's why it's so crucial that you formulate the highest standards you can imagine—maybe even higher than you can imagine. Now is a favorable phase for you to reach higher and think bigger. I invite you to visualize the best version of the dream you are working on—the most excellent, beautiful, and inspiring form it could take. And then push on further to envision even more spectacular results. Dare to be greedy and outrageous.

VIRGO

(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Before Virgo-born Leslie Jones achieved fame as a comedian and actor, she worked day jobs at United Parcel Service and Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. Her shot at major appreciation didn't arrive until the TV show *Saturday Night Life* hired her to be a regular cast member in 2014, when she was 47 years old. Here's how she describes the years before that: "Everybody was telling me to get a real job. Everybody was asking me, What are you doing? You're ruining your life. You're embar-

WEEK OF MAY 12

© 2022 ROB BREZSNY

rassing your family." Luckily, Jones didn't heed the bad advice. "You can't listen to that," she says now. "You have to listen to yourself." Now I'm suggesting that you embrace the Leslie Jones approach, Virgo.

LIBRA

(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "A person must dream a long time in order to act with grandeur, and dreaming is nursed in darkness." Author Jean Genet wrote that, and now I'm offering you his words as the seed of your horoscope. If you've been attuned to cosmic rhythms, you have been doing what Genet described and will continue to do it for at least another ten days. If you have not yet begun such work, please do so now. Your success during the rest of 2022 will thrive to the degree that you spend time dreaming big in the darkness now.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "Cursed are those

who feel floods but who can only express a few drops." So says an internet proverb. Luckily, this principle won't apply to you in the coming weeks.

I expect you will be inundated with cascades of deep feelings, but you will also be able to articulate those feelings. So you won't be cursed at all. In fact, I suspect you will be blessed. The cascades may indeed become rowdy at times. But I expect you will flourish amidst the lush tumult.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "It takes a great

deal of experience to become natural," wrote Sagittarian author Willa Cather. I'm happy to report that in recent months, you Sagittarians have been becoming more and more natural. You have sought experiences that enhance your authenticity and spontaneity. Keep up the good work!

The coming weeks should bring influences and adventures that will dramatically deepen your capacity to be untamed, soulful, and intensely yourself.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): "I intend to live

forever," proclaims 66-year-old comedian Steven Wright, who then adds, "So far, so good." I offer you his cheerful outlook in the hope that it might inspire you to dream and scheme about your own longevity. Now is a great time to fantasize about what you would love to accomplish if you are provided with 90 or more years of life to create yourself. In other words, I'm asking you to expand your imagination about your long-term goals. Have fun envisioning skills you'd like to develop and qualities you hope to ripen if you are given all the time you would like to have. (PS: Thinking like this could magically enhance your life expectancy.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): "Stop insisting on

clearing your head," advised author Charles Bukowski. "Clear your f---ing heart instead." That will be a superb meditation for you to experiment with in the coming weeks. Please understand that I hope you will also clear your head. That's a worthy goal. But your prime aim should be to clear your heart. What would that mean? Purge all apologies and shame from your longings.

Cleanse your tenderness of energy that's inclined to withhold or resist. Free your receptivity to be innocent and curious.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "The winner will be

the one who knows how to pick the right fights," wrote author Jane Ciabattari. Heed her advice, please, Pisces. You will soon be offered chances to deal with several interesting struggles that are worthy of your beautiful intelligence. At least one will technically be a "conflict," but even that will also be a fruitful opportunity. If you hope to derive the greatest potential benefit, you must be selective about which ones you choose to engage.

I recommend you give your focus to no more than two.

Homework: Is there somewhere in your life where you try to exert too much control—and should loosen your grip? https://Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology

CHECK OUT ROB BREZSNY’S EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES & DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES

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COMiCS!

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Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

I SAW THE SIGN This week, we conclude WW’s street sign series in which we asked readers to submit photos of their favorite signs around town. Our final batch features (clockwise from top right)the social justice activism of the Florida Room, the old-school charm of the Del Rancho Motel, innovative fundraising at Gethsemane Lutheran Church (it’s honest anyway), and Clyde’s pledge to mind its own business— not its clientele’s.

COURTESY OF ALAINA RODRIGUEZ C O U R T E S Y O F E R I C WA L K E R

COURTESY OF BRETT STERN

Jack Kent’s

COURTESY OF TOM CHAMBERS

Jack draws exactly what he sees from the streets of Portland. @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com Willamette Week MAY 4, 2022 wweek.com

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