NEWS: Taking Risks With Climate Cash. P. 11 EAT: Champagne Poetry Is an Ode to Dessert. P. 24 TV: Nathan Fielder’s Social Experiment. P. 30
WILLAMETTE WEEK
PORTLAND’S NEWSWEEKLY
THE ODD SQUAD WWEEK.COM VOL 48/40 0 8 .1 0. 2 02 2
THE LIST NO PORTLAND POLICE OFFICER WANTS TO BE ON. BY LUCAS MANFIELD. PAGE 15
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Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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FINDINGS TIM SAPUTO
VOL. 48, ISSUE 40 Fire destroyed the Roseway Theater. 6 Tina Kotek’s first boss in pol-
itics is gathering signatures for Betsy Johnson. 8
The architect of a tall wood building is now trying to erect a four-story complex on a property that lay fallow for 40 years. 11
A new exhibit celebrating the Land Art movement of the ’60s and ’70s is accessible only by shuttle bus in the East Columbia neighborhood. 22 Got taste buds of steel? The Doughnuts of Death competition awaits at this weekend’s Portland Hot Sauce Festival. 23
Lt. Rachel Andrew wasn’t happy that a subordinate brought a national TV crew to an undercover sting. 19
The Lloyd Center record shop Musique Plastique is the place to find a three-LP collection of music by Algerian raï singer Cheb Hasni. 29
Pickathon returned to Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley for the first time since 2019. 20
Nathan Fielder’s Oregon-filmed HBO series The Rehearsal recruits ordinary people for an unsettling social experiment. 30
ON THE COVER:
OUR MOST TRAFFICKED STORY ONLINE THIS WEEK: Private ownership of Ross Island creates a safe harbor for transient boaters.
Masthead Mark Zusman
EDITORIAL
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DIALOGUE
• •••• ••••
A T R E A LRBO S ER E T •••• A E H T Grammy-winning singer songwriter
AUG 11
TIM O’BRIEN + JAN FABRICIUS one of Mexico’s funniest
AUG 13
MARIO AGUILAR
TOO SLIM & AUG 18 THE TAILDRAGGERS
Montavilla Jazz Festival 22
AUG 19
PJCE’s The Heroine’s Journey
featuring
Marilyn Keller, Darrell Grant, & Rebecca Sanborn
TY CURTIS
AUG 26
AUG 20
an evening of contemporary Hawaiian music
DARRELL SCOTT
PAULA FUGA
+ Stephanie Schneiderman
AUG 27
a soulful, ecstatic musical experience
SEPT 9
FANNA FI ALLAH a fusion of visual arts & burlesque SEPT 14
SEPT 10
Consider This
ON BLACK POLITICAL POWER IN OREGON
Nina Simone Tribute
I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
LaRhonda Steele + The Adrian Martin Sextet
SEPT 17
TRACY GRAMMER UPCOMING SHOWS
SEPT 23 SEPT 24
OREGON BURLESQUE FESTIVAL •••••••••••••
8/28 • PHAME’S SUMMER FILM FESTIVAL 9/1 • SCIENCE ON TAP - HOW’D THEY FILM THAT? 9/11 • DANIELLE WALKER’S HEALTHY IN A HURRY TOUR 9/25 • JEFFREY FOUCAULT 9/30 • PEIA - TO THE WELL FILM & CONCERT RELEASE TOUR
•••••
albertarosetheatre.com
3000 NE Alberta • 503.764.4131 4
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
Among the summer “beach reading” WW delivered last week, one tale drew the most impassioned response: the explanation why dozens of junk boats are moored in Toe Island Cove, an inlet along the shore of Ross Island (“The Secret of Toe Island Cove,” Aug. 3). Derelict vessels gather at this spot in the Willamette River, the Multnomah County Sheriff ’s Office says, because law enforcement holds little power there. The island is owned by pensioners of Ross Island Sand & Gravel, an R.B. Pamplin Corp. holding. And private ownership of the waterway limits the sheriff ’s authority to tag and tow boats. Here’s what our readers had to say.
TONY CLIFTON, VIA WWEEK. COM: “Pamplin is 100% respon-
sible for the mess and the cleanup. Fine them. Take them to court. If this were private property on land, the owners are held responsible. Same should apply to the waterways that are ‘privately’ owned. Pamplin extracted their fortunes from the river, and now they pass the mess and financial burden onto the taxpayers. “What if you or I threw up our hands and permitted cars, vans, RVs, etc., all over our private property? We’d get more than a stern finger-wag from local authorities and law enforcement.”
SNEAKYNESS, VIA TWITTER:
“Waterworld is happening in the Willamette River and it kind of kicks ass.” KURTS, VIA WWEEK.COM:
“The strategy here is pretty self-evident. The state or whoever wants a company that no
longer exists to pay millions of dollars to put back the rock that it mined over many decades, effectively undoing everything it ever did. Short of tearing down fifty Memorial Coliseums and putting the concrete back in the river, there is no way that will ever happen. So Pamplin holds the prime riverfront real estate and the potentially beautiful island hostage and allows a bunch of meth-addled pirates to trash the place until the someone convinces Multnomah County voters to pay the lowlow price of 5 cents per thousand (say, $325 million) to buy it and declare it a natural area. (Of course, we will then need another $80 million to hire unarmed, sensitivity-trained park rangers to try and convince the pirates to leave voluntarily and offer them life coaches—but never mind that for now.) “Portland should cut its losses and offer Pamplin $10 million for the whole shebang, including the sites along 99E.
Dr. Know
BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx
Lately I’ve been seeing big, heavy-looking coils of extra power lines hanging off some power poles around Portland. Is PGE preparing for large chasms to open between specific poles around town, or some other emergency that the rest of us don’t yet see coming? —Ockham’s Razor Wire If, instead of wasting your time with “friends” and “relationships,” you spent your Saturday nights like I do, drinking gin out of a plastic bottle and reading Electrical Contractor magazine, you’d know that those coiled-up cables aren’t power lines at all—they’re fiber optic service loops. Fiber networks are experiencing explosive growth, as every company that used to move data through old-fashioned copper wires (using that dowdy relic, “electricity”) rushes to replace them with sleek fiber optic cables carrying beams of pure energy. Each of those cables may contain up to 160 individual light-conducting fibers. Luckily, splicing them together is no problem—inexpensive,
Redevelop the area now, put up some nice concrete apartment towers and a park, and let the island exist as it sits, minus the pirates, maybe add a few thousand yards of beach sand. What is the point of keeping this going for 20 years?” HANS, VIA EMAIL: “Just curious why the story includes no stated attempt to interview the ‘transient boaters’ in the headline or actual interviews with them. Seems like a huge gap in the story, or am I way adrift?” HEGEMONNYC, VIA REDDIT:
“That’s a funny little spot. In some ways, it’s one of the nicest views and location for a ‘houseboat’ in town. Your neighbors are all ho-boats, but the view can’t be beat. Way better than an RV on 115th and Foster.”
LOOSE AGGREGATE OF RELATED CONCERNS, VIA TWITTER: “Weird how a city
with a major housing crisis has an issue with informal settlements on the water as well as on land.” DOOOOFUS, VIA WWEEK. COM: “Wow, a 130-feet-deep
hole protected by the river currents? It should become a scuba diving theme park.”
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
easy-to-use machines automatically and unerringly connect each fiber to its counterpart in the next cable with a single click. Nah, I’m just kidding. Actually, every splice is a nightmare—somebody has to strip each individual fiber down to its one-third-of-a-millimeter-wide glass core (by hand) and painstakingly fuse it to the correct fiber on the other cable. Lather, rinse, repeat. The closest thing they have to an easy-to-use machine is a big plastic tray with channels in it to help you try to keep track of the dozens of individual strands. Now, imagine you just finished stringing one of these cables only to have a drunken, relevance-starved Charlie Sheen drive his Hummer into a utility pole, damaging a portion of the cable. That’s a real bummer, since splicing in a new section requires you to go through the whole fussy process twice. If only there were some extra cable on one side of the gap that you could just extend out to meet the other piece, so you only had to make one splice! This is just one scenario where a service loop—a few extra yards of inline cable, neatly coiled and put aside until it’s needed—comes in handy. In a sense, Ockham, your intuition about the loops being there to bridge chasms as yet unimagined was correct. Of course, if someone really does open a spacetime rift to the Upsidedown in our reality, no one will see it coming. (Except, perhaps, readers of Electrical Contractor magazine.) Questions? Send them to dr.know@wweek.com.
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Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com 5 7/6/22 1:54 AM
MURMURS
LOCAL MUSIC VENUES LOBBY CITY HALL OVER LIVE NATION: Music Portland, an advocacy group for independent artists and music venues, has entered talks with the offices of Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Dan Ryan (as well as Travel Portland) about Live Nation’s planned development of a 3,000-seat indoor music venue in the Central Eastside. News of the development, to be built on land owned by Prosper Portland, sent local music venue owners into a tizzy this spring, as WW first reported (“Standing Room Only,” June 15). They see the massive California events promoter as an existential threat because of the exclusive contracts it signs with artists in other cities it has moved into. The discussions matter because Live Nation will have to obtain a conditional land use permit from the city. (The Portland City Council would weigh in only if the permit were denied.) Meara McLaughlin, executive director of Music Portland, tells WW she’s talking to Live Nation representatives, too: “We’re being extremely cautious about a tender music ecology and a potential decimating threat. We look forward to constructive talks, but we understand what we have to lose and we’ll stand firm to protect it.” FIRE DESTROYS ROSEWAY THEATER: A three-alarm fire Aug. 6 consumed much of the historic Roseway Theater on Northeast Sandy Boulevard. Firefighters, who arrived at the blaze shortly before dawn, had it under control by midmorning, but the results were devastating: a burned roof, a collapsed floor and an uncertain future for the beloved 97-year-old neighborhood movie theater that was restored in 2008. “At this point, the investigators are waiting to enter the structure, so the cause is still under investigation,” Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman Terry Foster tells WW. “I was unable to enter the front of the building. But looking from above, most of the structure is destroyed.” Fire officials could not immediately say how many structure fires they’ve responded to this year. SECURITY SPAT RESULTS IN NATIONAL LABOR COMPLAINT: Local security companies were outraged when a city of Portland contracting policy resulted in their losing work to out-of-town firms that agreed not to oppose labor organizing (“Insecure,” WW, June 15). Now the National Labor Relations Board is investigating a complaint by one of the local firms, Northwest Enforcement, alleging that several downtown entities entered into a “hot cargo” agreement that led to the awarding of a contract to 6
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
BRIAN BROSE
BITTER SWEETS: Concession-stand items scattered amid ashes in the burnt-out Roseway Theater on Aug. 6. international security conglomerate GardaWorld. (A hot cargo agreement is a deal between an employer and union in which the employer agrees to hire only companies friendly to that union.) The June complaint names the downtown enhanced service district Clean & Safe, Service Employees International Union Local 49, and the Portland Business Alliance. Clean & Safe, SEIU and PBA did not respond to requests for comment. REFORMERS LAUNCH MORE EFFORTS TO CHANGE VOTING PROCESS: On Aug. 9, election reform advocates filed two ballot initiatives for 2024 that would change voting in state elections from the current first-past-the-post process to what’s called STAR voting. The acronym stands for “score, then automatic runoff.” It’s another version of ranked-choice voting, a concept that both the city of Portland and Multnomah County are considering as part of their charter reform efforts this year. Chief petitioners for the initiatives, including state Rep. Zach Hudson (D-Troutdale), want voters to rate candidates in state races from zero to five stars, then winnow out the lowest scorers in a series of tallies. Proponents say ranked-choice voting moderates partisan extremes and gives voters more opportunities to make their votes count. “Choosing our elected leaders is the cornerstone of representative democracy,” Hudson says. “It’s important to do this in the best way possible and that represents a consensus of voters.” METRO REFERS PARKS LEVY: While you were out camping, your ballot got a little longer (and now includes a vote on campgrounds). The Metro Council voted last week to refer a five-year, local option parks levy to the November ballot. The levy would replace an existing one that expires in June 2023. It would charge property taxpayers the same amount as the existing levy—9.6 cents per $1,000 of assessed value—and raise an estimated total of $98.3 million over five years. Metro has previously used large capital bonds, most recently $475 million in 2019, to buy greenspaces and now controls more than 18,000 acres. But those capital bonds can only be used to purchase property, not pay for operations and maintenance. That’s where the operating levy comes in. “Portland Audubon strongly supports the Metro natural areas levy renewal,” says Audubon conservation director Bob Sallinger. “It is a crucial funding mechanism to protect and restore our amazing system of regional natural areas and to connect the community to nature.” Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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DOCUMENT
Planning or Sustainability Following a damning report, City Commissioner Carmen Rubio will split the Planning and Sustainability Commission in two. BY SOPHIE PEEL
speel@w week .com
A report sent this spring to City Commissioner Carmen Rubio showed that one of the most important boards in the city was paralyzed by an ideological split. Rubio’s decision echoed King Solomon’s: She split the commission in two. What is the document? In April, Commissioner Rubio received a report from an organizational consultant about the Planning and Sustainability Commission, an independent, volunteer body that’s historically advised the Portland City Council on land use and planning issues. The commission is housed under the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, a bureau Rubio oversees. The report revealed an identity crisis: Members of the 11-member commission focused on climate resilience were sparring with other commissioners who prioritized land use issues. Bureau directors and staff felt that the commission at times overstepped its bounds and didn’t understand the consequences of some of its decisions in practice. One example: The commission recommended in 2020 that the city require private builders to design space on the perimeter of new construction for homeless people to rest. Worse, commissioners themselves didn’t understand the scope of their authority: Could they make decisions? Or could they just send strongly worded letters to city commissioners and bureau directors? Why does it matter? The report shows an important commission in crisis and described it as being rendered ineffectual because of unclear responsibilities, split ideologies among the commissioners, and years of muddled guidance from city leaders, including Rubio and her predecessors. One former PSC commissioner interviewed in the report said: “The mayor and Commissioner Rubio should share their vision and marching orders to go do something. Maybe they are too new, and they don’t know how to give direction to the bureau. Right now, there is no ‘why’…I don’t see a vision today.” It’s hard to understate the importance of this commission. It advises city leaders on land use planning and
HELP WANTED
DYING FOR ANSWERS Portland’s communities of color are dying at especially high rates during the pandemic. Help us investigate why. 8
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
critical decisions on housing construction, rezoning and climate resilience in city planning. For example, it helps craft regulations on housing density and building height. Some commissioners told the consultant the board was neglecting its core tasks in favor of advocacy. It also observed that because the scope of the commission’s work was so vast, it placed “their efficacy and the quality of the required land use work at risk. However, many of the commissioners, especially newer members, are deeply invested in advancing the city’s climate agenda.” The report described the commission as sometimes overstepping its authority, or making decisions without mapping out the consequences. The latest example: The commission sent a letter to Bureau of Development Services director Rebecca Esau in July 2021, urging her bureau to take into account the city’s climate plan and seek tribal input before granting a land use compatibility statement to a fossil fuel company that operates an oil terminal in Northwest Portland. Esau sent a hotly worded email back to the commission’s chair, Eli Spevak, urging it to stop advocating and instead work to create climate rules and regulations. “BDS is bound by existing policies and regulations, so the most effective use of [the commission members’] time would be to work on giving BDS the regulatory tools it needs to get the results the [commission] and City Council would like to see regarding future development and land uses in Portland,” Esau wrote. (Despite that, the bureau did, indeed, deny a LUCS for the oil terminal, citing environmental impacts and tribal rights—and after receiving crushing political pressure from both state and local officials.) What resulted from the report? On April 26, Commissioner Rubio directed the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability to split the commission into two distinct panels: one focused on sustainability, the other on planning. Both, as of now, will be housed under BPS, a bureau with fewer than 200 employees that will have to respond to two separate boards steering its policy. Magan Reed, spokeswoman for the bureau, tells WW, “We recognize that the scope of responsibility for the PSC has increased substantially over the last several years and is now more than one voluntary group of people can manage.” Mike Houck, director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute, served on the commission for 11 years before retiring pre-pandemic. Houck “totally disagrees” with the decision to split it up, he says, because when the commission first merged planning and sustainability in 2010, it “elevated issues related to sustainability” because the commission had more political clout. “I feel very strongly that PSC should address land use issues and issues related to climate change,” Houck says. “There’s a huge nexus with land use decisions.” Rubio tells WW: “Both stakeholders and members felt the commission was losing its impact, particularly as it relates to the planning function of the bureau.…I welcome greatly constructive feedback and conversations so we can make sure we get the structure and scope right-sized where Portland needs it to be today.”
THREE QUESTIONS FOR
Rachel Bristol Tina Kotek’s former boss at the Oregon Food Bank is supporting Betsy Johnson. COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
NEWS
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS WEEK
fact that Betsy Johnson is a staunch conservative who voted against efforts to address the root causes of hunger.” We asked Bristol what changed. N I G E L J AQ U I S S .
WW: Why are you supporting Johnson instead of Kotek?
At the first debate of the three candidates for Oregon governor, Democrat Tina Kotek talked about her first job in politics—one that set the tone for her rise to become the longest-serving House speaker in Oregon history. “I began public service at the Oregon Food Bank,” Kotek said at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association debate July 29. “I was attracted to their mission to end hunger, not just feed people,” Kotek explains on her campaign website. “And because I was raised as a person of faith with a belief in the inherent value of everyone, I knew I had found my calling as an advocate for others. I listened and learned and fought for ways to reduce food insecurity.” But as Kotek seeks to distinguish herself from GOP nominee Christine Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson, Rachel Bristol, who co-founded the Food Bank and hired Kotek there, is supporting Johnson. Not only that: Bristol, who retired as CEO in 2012 after 22 years at the food bank, is gathering signatures to put Johnson on the ballot. “Ms. Bristol can, of course, support whoever she wants,” says Kotek’s spokeswoman, Katie Wertheimer. “We would ask voters to consider the
During the pandemic, Portlanders have been hit especially hard, dying in greater numbers from the COVID-19 virus along with homicides, drug overdoses, suicides and summertime heat waves. No single community has been affected more in Portland than communities of color, mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. This trend hasn’t gone unnoticed: In the spring of 2021, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners declared racism a public health threat,
Rachel Bristol: I guess I’m yearning for the days of yore when we had statesmen and stateswomen who could talk and negotiate rather than just bully the other side. I just feel that Tina has gone to extremes and that the policies under her leadership have put us where we are, which is in a horrible place. This is not the Portland and Oregon that I grew up in and love.
Have you shared those concerns with Kotek?
No, I haven’t. To be clear, Tina did good work for us at the food bank. She created the idea of the Voices Project to get people who were experiencing hunger to tell their stories in a way statistics can’t. And I helped her when she first ran for the Legislature. But I see the state wasting so much money and not being effective in solving the bigger problems.
What do your friends say about your helping Johnson?
It has surprised people. But I think older voters and property owners and more of my Democratic friends are feeling like I am. [Bristol switched her party affiliation from Democrat to Independent in 2021.] I’ve known Betsy more than half my life. There were times I thought she leaned more right than left, but overall, she’s been a true moderate, and I’ve seen her work with both sides in a way that I haven’t seen from others in leadership positions.
and uneven vaccination rates among different racial groups has worsened the disparities. But the true extent of the increase has yet to be fully explored. We want to hear from Portlanders who have been affected by the increase in deaths—family members, friends and community members. If you’re interested in talking to us, fill out the form at: airtable.com/shrh2CR2PTnBUc2b4. R AC H E L M O N A H A N F O R W W, A N D B E T S Y L A DY Z H E T S A N D D E R E K K R AV I T Z F O R M U C K R O C K .
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NEWS S O P H I E M U R R AY
FOUR-DECADE WAIT: A developer hopes PCEF money will attract financing for a green office building in North Portland.
Green Venture The largest grant PCEF awarded for new construction is an ambitious project with a lot of question marks. BY ANTHONY EFFINGER
aeffinger@wweek.com
Earlier this summer, the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund awarded a small, 15-month-old organization in Northeast Portland $4.7 million to help build an earth-friendly office building on a vacant, 1.7-acre lot across from Emanuel Hospital. PCEF’s written description of the project, called the Williams & Russell Communal Office, makes it sound like the money is going directly toward installing solar panels, heat pumps, high-efficiency lighting, and above-code insulation. It sounds like money for construction. Project activities include installing variable refrigerant flow heat pumps, above-code insulation and windows, and high-efficiency lighting and water fixtures. The project would also use mass timber for the primary structure, rather than steel or concrete, reducing the building’s “embodied energy,” PCEF said in its description of the grant. But language in the 55-page application from Williams & Russell CDC, a nonprofit founded in April 2021, tells a slightly different story. There, the PCEF funds sound more like seed money to get the $24.3 million project going, not endstage construction funds to get it finished. The question is whether this is mission creep. Voters directed PCEF to use tax dollars to curb emissions and maximize the economic benefits of green energy in low-income communities of color, where climate change takes its biggest toll. With Williams & Russell, PCEF may be using the money instead to back a speculative commercial real estate development in a city that’s already rife with vacant offices. “The hope is that the PCEF implementation grant will stand as the foundation and catalyst for our funding efforts and signal to other organizations that the Communal Office is worth their investment,” Williams & Russell says in its application. And, like a venture firm, PCEF is taking on a lot of risk. “While the project mission is compelling and has the right team in place to bring it into fruition, the team may be unable to secure
the financing required to fully fund the project.” Similarly, in an interview with WW, the developer of the project, Anyeley Hallová, said details about how the PCEF money would be spent have yet to be determined. “The way we thought about it is, a lot of the money up front is more on the planning side and then some of the money is toward the development side,” Hallová said. “I don’t want to get into specifics partly because we haven’t talked to them yet about how that gets administered.” PCEF awards its grants by category. There are grants for clean energy, workforce development, regenerative agriculture, innovation, and planning. Williams & Russell got its grant under clean energy, not planning, despite what Hallová suggests. At $4.7 million, Williams & Russell is the fifth-largest recipient in PCEF’s second round of grants—which totaled $122 million—and the largest for new construction. Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability oversees PCEF. The bureau says Williams & Russell fits its specifications for clean energy projects. “This is not a planning grant,” BPS said in written answers to questions. “Eighty-four percent of the PCEF grant budget goes to construction. This includes both hard and soft costs, as all construction budgets do, including design, architectural/engineering, permitting, project management, materials, equipment, and labor for incremental costs above code.” The desire to leverage PCEF’s cash to develop a prime piece of real estate that has sat vacant for more than 40 years is understandable. What’s more, the office project would finally reclaim a property where Black-owned homes and businesses were razed in the name of “urban renewal.” Mayor Ted Wheeler says PCEF is not mandated to play it safe. To the contrary. “The fund was not designed to eliminate risk,” Wheeler said at the July 20 meeting in which the Portland City Council approved the $122 million in PCEF grants. “With a fund of
this type, there is inherent risk. There will be mistakes. There will be dollars that will go to organizations or programs that will not pan out. My presumption is that the voters understood that when they supported this fund.” Portlanders voted to create PCEF in November 2018. The fund generates money from a tax on large corporations and is now sitting on close to $300 million. In one way, PCEF has been the victim of its own success, at least in terms of funding.
“The team may be unable to secure the financing required to fully fund the project.”
Originally, PCEF was expected to take in around $50 million annually from a surcharge on retailers with annual sales of $1 billion or more in the U.S. and $500,000 or more within Portland. But a strange thing happened on the way to the tax office. The pandemic hit, and instead of buying airline tickets to Hawaii, Portlanders hit IKEA and Home Depot, driving sales at the big-box retailers that PCEF taxes. PCEF’s revenue hit $63 million in the year ended June 30, 2020, and soared to $116 million the next fiscal year. As of July 1, PCEF was sitting on $298 million, making it one of the largest pools of discretionary money in the state. Many Portlanders have grown skeptical of PCEF. In March, City Auditor Mary Hull Caballero released a report saying that the fund’s accountability systems were incomplete and that it hadn’t adopted measures to track its performance. The audit came just weeks after The Oregonian reported that one of the largest recipients of PCEF funds to date was founded by a woman who had served time in prison for defrauding energy companies.
City Commissioner Mingus Mapps voted to approve the PCEF grants at the July 20 meeting, but he had reservations. “I’m a little bit uncomfortable spending $100 million when we have a fresh auditor’s report,” Mapps said at the meeting. “Before we come back here in a year, I hope we have a chance to engage with some of the questions, concerns and reforms proposed by the auditor. Having a sense of what we’re trying to achieve and buy with these dollars would be very helpful to me.” Williams & Russell plans to build on ground the Black community holds dear. Known as the Hill Block for a building that once stood there, the lot sits at the center of the Albina District, where, between 1960 and 1980, the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation acquired 1,000 houses through eminent domain and, in the name of urban renewal, bulldozed them all. In 1980, the Portland Development Commission, now known as Prosper Portland, deeded a portion of that land to Emanuel Hospital so it could expand. That parcel has been empty ever since, an open wound for Black Portlanders who were evicted. Legacy Health, now owner of the hospital, plans to deed the land, which the county assessor values at $2.3 million, to Williams & Russell. Lawyers are working on the transfer, Legacy spokeswoman Vicki Guinn says, but no date has been set. Beyond its short history, Williams & Russell has other attributes of a venture-backed startup. Bryson Davis, the president, and Hallová, the developer, are highly educated. Davis has a bachelor’s degree from Reed College and a law degree from the University of Washington. He has spent most of his career in corporate law, most recently at Sussman Shank LLP. He left there in December to join PNW Business Law in Vancouver, Wash. Hallová, meantime, earned a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and two master’s degrees, one in landscape architecture from Harvard University and another in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has worked on marquee projects in Portland, including the Meyer Memorial Trust headquarters and Framework, which was going to be the first wood-frame high-rise in the U.S. Framework won a slew of awards, including the U.S. Tall Wood Building Prize from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which came with $1.5 million for research into tall wooden buildings. (Framework construction is on hold, according to its website.) So far, Williams & Russell has just a conceptual design for the four-story office tower, a five-story apartment building, and 23 townhomes, all at affordable rents and prices. “Our vision for the site is to create a place of opportunity for the Black community,” Williams & Russell said in its proposal. “This opportunity can come in various forms—through business enterprise, career development, art and expression, or by being able to call this place home.” Williams & Russell says the design phase will last beyond the middle of 2023. It hopes to get a building permit in April 2024 and complete construction by June 2025. All of that, according to Williams & Russell, is contingent on getting more funding, something it hopes the vote of confidence from PCEF will help it do. “We’re going to need a lot more funding for the full buildout,” Hallová says. Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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“Good citizens are the riches of a city.” Now accepting nominations for the coveted Skidmore Prize! Help us honor four young nonprofit professionals making a difference in our community. Must be age 35 and under during 2022. Nominations due by midnight, August 12. giveguide.org/skidmore-winners
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NEWS
Raising Arizona After months of inaction, dominoes begin to fall in the investigation of Joe Gilliam’s poisoning. njaquiss@wweek .com
For many months, the family and friends of Joe Gilliam have waited with increasing impatience for developments in the investigation into who poisoned the former president of the Northwest Grocery Association in 2020. Meanwhile, Gilliam remains in a long-term care facility in Clark County, Wash. Now 60, he cannot speak, gets his nutrition through a feeding tube, and depends on a tracheotomy to keep his airway clear. A hiker, runner and golfer prior to being poisoned—twice—with the toxic metal thallium in mid- and late 2020, Gilliam spends his days confined in bed or a wheelchair, his 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame now 50 pounds lighter and contorted by muscular contractions. Police in Lake Oswego, where Gilliam made his primary home, and Maricopa County, Ariz., where he owned a vacation home and where friends believe he was most likely poisoned, continue to pursue investigations into who tried to kill him (“Who Poisoned Joe Gilliam… Twice?” WW, Nov. 3, 2021). As is typical with pending criminal investigations, neither agency will comment on its progress. “Everybody is frustrated and wants this case solved,” says Dave Martin, a lifelong Gilliam friend. But last week brought two hints that the investigations were moving forward. On Aug. 3, Clackamas County District Attorney John Wentworth charged Gilliam’s son, Earl Joe “Joey” Gilliam III, with six counts each of aggravated first-degree theft and criminal mischief. Both are felonies. The charges relate to the first half of 2021, when Joey Gilliam held power of attorney over his father’s affairs as the elder Gilliam lay in a vegetative state. A court-appointed investigator in Clark County filed a report in 2021 suggesting that during those months, Joey Gilliam took about $350,000 from his father’s bank accounts. Joey Gilliam’s attorney, Shannon Kmetic, declined to comment on the charges. He previously denied any wrongdoing. The same day Joey Gilliam was charged, two detectives from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office came to the Portland metro area, apparently for the first time since the case began. Sources who spoke with them but requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the investigation say the detectives’ visit had at least two purposes. First, the detectives interviewed at least two people at the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office in Oregon City. The detectives reportedly suggested they’d made significant progress in the case and asked questions that suggested they were pursuing a financial motive for the attempts to murder Gilliam. The detectives also traveled to Clark County to see Gilliam in person. The purpose of that visit is unclear. People who have seen him in person say Gilliam at
times appears to respond to verbal cues with an awkward thumbs-up or thumbs-down gesture and seems to understand at least some of what is being said to him. The events of last week follow expressions of interest in Gilliam’s story from national television news programs. During the week of July 25, a reporter and camera crew from Inside Edition, the CBS network program, came to Portland to film interviews. That same week, a crew from Dateline, the NBC network program, also filmed interviews. Neither program has announced a broadcast date. In the meantime, Joe Gilliam’s friends and family wait for further news. In the absence of new information, tensions between many of them are high. Earlier this year, Joey Gilliam circulated a draft letter to his relatives and Joe’s friends suggesting it might be time to honor his father’s wishes that he not be kept alive by artificial means. That desire stemmed from Joe Gilliam’s having watched his beloved older brother, former state Rep. Vic Gilliam (R-Keizer), suffer a slow, agonizing death from Lou Gehrig’s disease. (Vic Gilliam died June 17, 2020, shortly after Joe Gilliam was poisoned the first time.) Joey Gilliam acknowledged that he contravened his father’s wishes in the weeks he lay in intensive care in an Arizona hospital after the second poisoning.
“Instead of going to heaven, he gets to live in hell.” “I also kept my dad alive on life support against his own written medical directive and even if I was after his money or wanted him to die I had every legal power to pull the plug on him right when he first got sick and they would of never known it was thallium,” Joey wrote in an April letter he shared with Joe’s circle. But, Joey Gilliam proposed in that draft letter, it might be time to honor Joe’s wishes. “I am begging anyone who is willing, to help me let my dad be free. The doctors have confirmed he is at baseline and will not ever recover,” he wrote. “Nobody in this world deserves to finish out their life like this.” That letter concerned Felicia Gilliam Capps, Joe Gilliam’s older sister and guardian, enough that she obtained a vulnerable adult protection order against her nephew, who has two previous felony convictions for assault. As her brother’s guardian, Capps controls who gets to see him. She has limited that access almost exclusively to her own daughter, who visits daily to take care of him, and Joe Gilliam’s daughter Olivia, a college student in Texas. In a statement, Capps said her top priority
COURTESY OF OLIVIA GILLIAM
BY N I G E L J AQ U I S S
YOUTHFUL ENERGY: Joe Gilliam before he was poisoned.
is her brother’s well-being. “This has been a very difficult time for me and our family as we navigate unforeseen and unprecedented challenges,” she said. “We are saddened and sickened by the harm that has been done to my brother.” One of the people who’s been prohibited from visiting is Tim Mooney, an Arizona political consultant and friend of Joe Gilliam’s for 30 years. Mooney was one of three people with Gilliam in Cave Creek around the time investigators suspect he was poisoned. Mooney denies any knowledge of what happened and says police have never sought to question him.
Mooney’s relationship with Joey Gilliam descended into mutual finger-pointing after the second poisoning. Nonetheless, he sees a sad irony: If Joey Gilliam had done what his father wanted him to and allowed him to die in early 2021, he would have inherited much of the money he now stands accused of stealing. Mooney says he and Gilliam talked about how Joe didn’t want to end up like his brother, Vic, “at least 50 times.” “Joe was a man of faith. He did not fear death because he knew where he was going,” Mooney says. “It makes it even more tragic and horrible that instead of going to heaven, he gets to live in hell.” Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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Jam on Hawthorne Thank you for 20 years of laughs, friendship, kindness, delicious food, patience, dedication, hustle, overall good times, and your ongoing support. We are thrilled to still be going strong because of all of you!
2239 SE Hawthorne Blvd jamonhawthorne.com
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THE ODD SQUAD THE LIST NO PORTLAND POLICE OFFICER WANTS TO BE ON. BY L U C A S M A N F I E L D
lmanfield@wweek .com
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BRIAN BROSE
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I
t’s no secret many Portlanders have an uneasy relationship with police officers. For eight years, Portland police have been under federal supervision for the force’s treatment of mentally ill citizens. Public trust was further frayed by riot cops’ violent response to the George Floyd protests in 2020. Nowhere does that trust matter more than in a courtroom. Police play a role often overlooked in the American criminal justice system. They don’t just bust bad guys; they also testify about them in court. And the testimony is often the most important evidence in a trial, determining whether a defendant will go free or serve some form of punishment. And while they are only a small minority of the city’s 767 sworn officers, WW recently obtained records that name three currently employed Portland cops flagged by the Multnomah County district attorney for added scrutiny if they’re ever called to the stand. The list is known informally as a “Brady list,” after a Supreme Court ruling in 1963 that requires prosecutors to disclose any evidence they have that might exonerate a defendant. These lists generally include names of officers who have a history of untrustworthiness that may need to be disclosed to defense attorneys. The Portland list also includes officers with criminal convictions. The DA’s office does not have a centralized system for tracking whether witnesses end up testifying in court, so it could not immediately say whether any of these cops had done so. The list has been obtained by news outlets before, but the names on it have received little notice and less scrutiny. In fact, the list was news to criminal defense lawyers WW spoke with. “I don’t know of anybody who’s seen this list,” says Juan Chavez, a lawyer at the Oregon Justice Resource Center, “except the people you’re showing it to.” The DA’s office created a database under Mult-
nomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt’s predecessor, Rod Underhill. Although most of the misconduct documented by the list has already been reported, the list, viewed in its entirety, seems to imply that untrustworthiness is a rare quality in public servants. Or that it’s rarely discovered. “What this shows us is that there are probably cops on the force who have lied, gotten away with it, and continue to testify in court,” says Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch.
WW OBTAINED A COPY OF THE list from a former police officer and then requested and received an updated version of the list from the DA’s office, which it prefers to call a “Potential Impeachment Disclosure index.” The DA’s office insists this isn’t a Brady list, because it includes officers convicted of a crime, not just those caught lying. Also, being added to the list does not bar prosecutors from calling you to the stand. (The DA keeps no other list, however.) Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland police union, explained why the DA dislikes the term. “A Brady list is a ‘do not call’ list where the person has been so ethically compromised that their word is mud,” he says. “This list is not that.” Given the feds’ disdain for the Portland Police Bureau and the loose criteria for inclusion, the list is surprisingly short—only three active PPB officers are on it. The lack of publicly available lists from other jurisdictions makes comparisons difficult if not impossible. A couple of examples: Philadelphia prosecutors kept a list of dozens of people they will never, under any circumstances, call to the stand. Denver prosecutors provided WW a list of 321 names when asked for their Brady list, but many on the list had allegations in their records that were “unsustained,” according to the document. Not surprisingly, defense lawyers think Multnomah County’s list should be longer. “The idea that only three of Portland’s current police officers have a problem with honesty is a
pretty embarrassing proposition,” says Charlie Peirson, a Portland public defender. Officers make the list by failing a review by six prosecutors in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. A decision to add a name to the list must be unanimous. While anyone can propose a name for consideration, prosecutors say they don’t investigate allegations against officers. “We do not investigate. We simply review documents that are provided to us,” says chief deputy district attorney Kirsten Snowden. Snowden declined to say how many people had been reviewed for inclusion on the list. “I think it’s a good process,” she says. “We understand that this can impact people’s careers, but we’re balancing that against our ethical obligations and our duty to disclose to a defense attorney.” Yet the offenses that landed officers on the list are hardly the most shocking misdeeds ever chronicled at the Portland Police Bureau. Reading the supporting documents might cause a reader to wonder whether prosecutors are tracking the most troubling actions inside the cop shop. Still, others were happy to hear that WW was publishing it. “Brady lists, in general, are lists of cops who are liars,” says Alan Kessler, a lawyer who successfully sued the city last year to obtain the names of police officers on its riot squad. “If you publish that, I think you’d do a whole hell of a lot of good,” he added. The list contains 33 names. At least seven still work for a public agency. In some cases, prosecutors noted, names of former police officers were added out of concern that they might one day be rehired. In the following pages, we examine the cases of four police officers on the list. One of them retired while this story was being reported. There is also a firefighter, a probation officer, and two TriMet supervisors. (WW will examine the TriMet cases in a future issue.) We believe it’s in the public interest for you to see what’s in the files—and to consider what isn’t. CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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Name: Andrew Caspar Hired: 1998 Agency: Portland Police Bureau Placed on the list: 2021 Status: Active Some police officers lie because they are overeager to put a suspect behind bars. Andrew Caspar lied so he didn’t have to chase a suspect, city attorneys say. In June 2019, Caspar and a trainee were getting coffee when dispatch said a homeowner in Multnomah Village had called in to report a man appearing to threaten a woman. What happened next is recounted in a document called an arbitration award. When a police officer is disciplined or fired, their union often files a grievance—and an arbitrator makes a final decision. In this case, that decision and a memo detailing the rationale for Caspar’s original firing were forwarded to the prosecutor’s office. The arbitration award says when the call came over the radio, Caspar got up and went to the restroom. His trainee later testified that Caspar, referring to the suspect, said to “wait until they get out of the neighborhood.” The officers waited at least 15 minutes before driving to the scene. They found a shirtless man walking away and neighbors yelling, “Go get him!” Caspar did nothing. Documents say Caspar admitted he told onlookers: “We don’t chase known suspects thanks to the Obama administration.” But when a homeowner showed them a broken window and graffiti left by the fleeing vandal, Caspar and the trainee then set out on a search. They did not find the shirtless man. Among the neighbors who saw Caspar’s actions that 18
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day: Rachel Novick, wife of former City Commissioner Steve Novick and, at the time, a researcher for Multnomah County’s Department of Community Justice. “I was like, I know he’s not supposed to do this,” Rachel Novick tells WW. Caspar blamed his delay in arriving at the crime scene on rush-hour traffic, but GPS data analyzed by the city indicated otherwise, according to the arbitration documents. Caspar was fired in 2020 for a “pattern” of dishonesty, both during that call and during the investigation afterward. After Caspar’s dismissal, his union intervened, and an arbitrator was “perhaps more sympathetic than the city,” he wrote in a July 2021 decision. He reinstated Caspar—with back pay. A month later, prosecutors reviewed Caspar’s case and added him to the list, citing this incident. But, they wrote, they intend to continue calling Caspar to testify. Caspar returned from a nearly two-year leave of absence in July 2021. That year, he earned $127,382. A police spokesman confirmed to WW that Caspar is still on the force. Caspar, reached by telephone, declined to comment. Name: Brian Hubbard Hired: 1996 Agency: Portland Police Bureau Placed on the list: 2018 Status: Active On Feb. 6, 2009, Hubbard blew a 0.25% on a blood alcohol breath test, three times the legal limit, after driving his Chrysler into a ditch. A nearly empty 50 ml bottle of Smirnoff vodka was found next to him in the car (“Driving
With Smirnoff,” WW, Aug. 11, 2009). Hubbard got a DUII and pleaded guilty to reckless driving. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation and a $370 fine. The Oregon Board on Police Standards and Training considered pulling his certification, but was won over by an apologetic letter he wrote to the board and a glowing review from then-Chief Rosie Sizer, according to a KGW report. That DUII landed Hubbard, a 26-year veteran of the police force, on the list. The police spokesman said he remains on the force today. Hubbard, through his union spokesman, declined to comment. Name: John Shadron Hired: 1999 Agency: Portland Police Bureau Placed on the list: Date unknown Status: Active Shadron has compiled an eventful history behind the wheel. On Jan. 10, 2010, Shadron, who has been a Portland cop for nearly 11 years, chased a former girlfriend through Gresham, weaving through traffic and driving in the bike lane, according to an account in The Oregonian of the prosecutor’s testimony. Shadron pleaded guilty to careless driving and was fined. In November that same year, he rear-ended a truck stopped at a red light, injuring the driver. Shadron was drunk and was charged not only with a DUII but also assault. Judge Michael McShane sentenced Shadron to pro-
was livid and, according to Justus, berated him over the phone. Andrew claims Justus yelled at her. Then-Capt. Chris Davis accused Andrew of lying about Justus’ demeanor on the phone. Then-Chief Mike Reese sided with Davis and suspended Andrew for two weeks. In a 2014 lawsuit, Andrew claimed this discipline was retaliation: Four years prior to the Nightline dispute, she had recommended disciplining Davis for allowing the improper use of an informant. Her lawsuit claimed Davis and Reese wanted revenge. In 2018, prosecutors reviewed her case file. They decided to add her to the list given “the amount of disciplinary material reviewed.” State records show Andrew had two leaves of absence in the mid-2000s for reasons WW was unable to determine. Andrew retired as a lieutenant in the Portland Police Bureau last month after a 28-year career. A request for comment through her attorney, Sean Riddell, was declined. Reese is now the Multnomah County sheriff. A sheriff spokesperson says Reese “disputes the allegations” and noted that Andrew dropped the lawsuit. Davis rose to the rank of deputy chief before switch-
and that if he did lie, it was not “in the line of duty.” Nevertheless, prosecutors added Novinger to the list in 2021 and, according to their memo documenting the decision, intend to continue calling him as a witness at criminal trials regardless. Earlier this month, WW called Novinger at his office, where he still works for the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice as a probation officer. There are 40 people currently under his supervision. Novinger confirmed he was still employed, but declined to comment on the incident. Name: Nicholas Perkins Hired: 2007 Agency: Portland Fire & Rescue Placed on the list: 2020 Status: Active Perkins is a Portland firefighter who infamously went on a drunken, racist tirade in 2019 while at a conference in Tennessee on taxpayers’ dime (“What Happens in Nashville,” WW, Aug. 4, 2020). In the wee hours of Aug. 18, 2019, Perkins was drunk and locked out of the Gaylord Opryland Resort. He’d started the night at a brewery and ended at “honky-tonks,” he
“The idea that only three of Portland’s current police officers have a problem with honesty is a pretty embarrassing proposition.” bation and 120 hours of community service. The state certification board reviewed Shadron’s case in 2012, determined that he had committed “gross misconduct,” but its police policy committee still voted unanimously to keep Shadron on the force. Prosecutors added him to their list, but do not have record of when. Shadron is still on the force. He declined to comment through his union spokesman. Name: Rachel Andrew Hired: 1994 Agency: Portland Police Bureau Placed on the list: 2018 Status: Retired Andrew is one of the few people added to the list to appeal the decision, prosecutors say. Her appeal, like all others, failed. She made the list for misconduct that included allegedly lying about a phone call in which she berated a subordinate officer for allegedly skipping work to do a filmed interview with America’s Most Wanted, according to lawsuits filed by Andrew and the subordinate. That subordinate was Sgt. Doug Justus. Justus investigated sex trafficking cases for the Police Bureau’s vice unit and had a flair for self-promotion. In 2010, he’d been interviewed by Dan Rather for a news segment on AXS TV entitled “Pornland, Oregon” in which Justus said the “very liberal” city had indulged a rampant sex trafficking problem. That same year, Justus traveled to Washington state to be interviewed on America’s Most Wanted and brought ABC’s Nightline along on an undercover sting. Andrew
ing jobs in 2021. He’s now chief of the Green Bay Police Department in Wisconsin. He directed WW to existing records and declined to comment. Name: Kevin Novinger Hired: 2016 Agency: Multnomah County Department of Community Justice Placed on the list: 2021 Status: Active Of all the cases that landed people on this list, probation officer Kevin Novinger’s is perhaps the most sensitive. He was accused of rape—and cleared. But in the process, the county says, he lied about what had happened. On St. Patrick’s Day 2017, Novinger and his girlfriend, a co-worker, went home after “three or four hours” of drinking at Kells Irish Pub downtown. They had sex. The next day, according to an arbitrator’s report, Novinger’s girlfriend called two of her friends, “very upset.” Novinger, she said, had anal sex with her without her consent. Three months later, they broke up. Nine months after that, she filed a sexual assault report with the Hillsboro Police Department, which assigned a detective. He wrote up a report and forwarded it to Washington County prosecutors, who declined to press charges. Meanwhile, the county hired an independent investigator who concluded it was “more likely than not” that Novinger was lying and the couple had, in fact, had anal sex. Novinger was fired by Multnomah County, but his union appealed. And Novinger was reinstated, an arbitrator noting that Novinger had been a “role model” during the four years he’d been employed for the county
later told investigators. At 4 am, he returned to the hotel and attempted to open the door using a credit card instead of his room key. He yelled at the hotel clerk: “I have my key, you black bitch…you black n—r, open the door!” Police were called and Perkins was sent home early from the physical and mental health conference (which Portland had paid $2,300 for him to attend). Fire bureau higher-ups were divided on what to do with Perkins. The professional standards chief interviewed Perkins and found his remorse credible. The division chief responsible for training wanted him fired. The city commissioner who runs the fire bureau, Jo Ann Hardesty, initially wanted him gone too, she told WW at the time. But Perkins’ union stood up for him. “We are absolutely taking somebody’s life and ruining it based upon a hesaid-she-said situation,” union president Alan Ferschweiler told Fire Chief Sara Boone. Boone suspended Perkins for six months without pay. She told WW in 2020 that she believed Perkins was capable of redemption and could be a positive example going forward. “As a Black person in a white institution, you have to create the change you want to see,” she said. A city official confirmed to WW that as of earlier this month, Perkins is still employed at the fire bureau. Last year, he earned $134,677. Even so, The Multnomah County DA reviewed his case in 2020 and determined that the “egregious and serious offense” would likely be admissible in court if Perkins was ever called to testify. They added him to the list. Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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PICK ME UP Photos by Allison Barr On Instagram: @alliisonder
After being canceled in 2020 and then never planned for 2021, Pickathon returned in full force to Pendarvis Farm in Happy Valley on Aug. 4-7. Some of the most anticipated names in the lineup included Wet Leg, Faye Webster and Sons of Kemet. This year, the festival had a new layout and was organized into neighborhoods to provide more open space for attendees. It was also fully livestreamed for the first time.
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GET BUSY
STUFF TO DO IN PORTLAND THIS WEEK, INDOORS AND OUT.
COURTESY OF FULLERTON WINES
EAT: Pairing Dinner with Chef Sarah Pliner The chef from Northeast Portland’s celebrated but now closed Aviary will helm the kitchen at Fullerton Wines’ next pairing dinner. Sarah Pliner is known for coupling French techniques with Southeast Asian flavors and Northwest seasonal ingredients. That’s led to a delightfully eclectic menu that includes everything from a miso black cod to a pork belly watermelon tea sandwich to braised rabbit with confit tomatoes in a white wine and cream sauce. Fullerton Wines, 1966 NW Pettygrove St., 503-477-7848, fullertonwines.com/ event-calendar. 5-9 pm Thursday, Aug. 11. $60.
VIEW: Sighted Land
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WATCH: Claydream Watch the tale of Will Vinton, revolutionary animator and Father of Claymation, with the premiere of Claydream at Cinema 21. The documentary maps the rise and fall (into the arms of Nike) of Vinton’s Emmy- and Oscar-winning studio, which was responsible for The California Raisins, Michael Jackson’s “Speed Demon” video and other things you might remember if you’re past your mid-30s. A post-screening Q&A features filmmaker Marq Evans. Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-223-4515, cinema21.com. 7:30 pm Friday-Saturday, 3:30 pm Sunday, Aug. 12-14. $9-$11.
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LISTEN: Sisters Rhythm & Brews Festival The quaint Central Oregon community of Sisters hosts a multiday music and beer festival, with a carefully curated lineup of both artists and breweries. Performers include Cedric Burnside, Grammy Award-winning grandson of Mississippi legend R.L. Burnside, and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes of the renowned Blue Front Cafe—Mississippi’s oldest juke joint. Village Green City Park, 305 S Fir St., Sisters, sistersrhythmandbrews.com. 4-11 pm Friday, 11:30 am-11 pm Saturday, Aug. 12-13. $35-$125.
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Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
COURTESY OF BLACKFISH GALLERY
Blackfish Gallery’s August exhibition, Sighted Land, celebrates the Land Art movement of the 1960s and ’70s, when artists turned to the earth for inspiration and materials. This 21st century iteration created by the Native American visual arts community reflects on the artist’s role in issues of land use and other ecological topics. The gallery is hosting a series of events around the exhibit throughout the month, but of particular interest are the guest artists panel discussion and shuttle tours to an interactive 4-acre site in the East Columbia neighborhood. Blackfish Gallery, 420 NW 9th Ave., 503-224-2634, blackfish.com. Artists panel 7 pm Wednesday, Aug. 10. Shuttle tours 10 and 11:30 am and 1:30 and 3 pm Saturday, Aug. 13, 20 and 27. Free.
COURTESY OF PDX HOT SAUCE EXPO COURTESY OF REVOLUTION HALL
EAT: Portland Hot Sauce Expo
With nearly a dozen different eating competitions given frightening names like “Doughnuts of Death” and “The Spicy Tacos of Hell,” you’re going to need some tough taste buds and a stomach of steel to participate in the Portland Hot Sauce Expo. Cheer on those brave enough to enter as well as the chihuahuas on hand for the annual beauty pageant. OMSI Bridge Lot, 1945 SE Water Ave., pdxhotsauceexpo.com. 10 am-6 pm Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 13-14. $10-$88.
GO: Beaverton Night Market
Head to The Round in Central Beaverton for the city’s last Night Market of the season, with more than 60 vendors and two performance stages. Representatives of the Lan Su Chinese Garden are scheduled to lead a paper lantern-making workshop, and the brand-new Reser Center will host specially curated displays. It’s a multicultural experience that should give you a new-found appreciation for the suburbs. The Round, 12600 SW Crescent St., Beaverton, 503526-2503, beavertonoregon.gov/nightmarket. 5-10 pm Saturday, Aug. 13. Free.
EAT: Mexican Culinary Festival
Taste the cuisine of four different regions of Mexico at Mt. Hood Meadows’ Mexican Culinary Festival. The resort’s culinary team will create authentic dishes, like slow-roasted Sinaloa pork, sopas and tortas, which you can enjoy with the late summer wildflower bloom as a backdrop. Take a hike or scenic chairlift ride beforehand to work up an appetite. Sahale Lodge at Mt. Hood Meadows, 14040 Highway 35, Mount Hood, 503-337-2222, skihood.com. 2-5 pm Saturday, Aug. 13. $45, $14 for a chairlift ride.
LAUGH: Amanda Seales Find out what Amanda Seales really thinks about your “per my previous email” emails. Best known for her role as Tiffany DuBois of HBO’s Insecure and the 2019 comedy special I Be Knowin’, Seales will share her hot takes on office culture and more as she swings through town. Expect doses of seriousness as well—she comes to speak her truth. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., #203, 971-808-5094, revolutionhall.com. 8 pm Saturday, Aug. 13. $35-$125.
SEE MORE GET BUSY EVENTS AT WWEEK.COM/CALENDAR. Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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FOOD & DRINK
Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com
Top 5
Buzz List WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.
1. NORTH 45
517 NW 21st Ave., 503-248-6317, north45pub.com. 4 pm-midnight Monday-Thursday, 2 pm-1 am Friday, noon-1 am Saturday, 2 pm-midnight Sunday. You never know exactly what you’ll find on North 45’s rear patio, but it’s the promise of a rollicking scene tucked out of street view that keeps people waiting for a seat. But like a mullet, the party in the back is balanced by a measure of refinement. The drink list circumnavigates the globe, from renowned Belgian Trappist beers to a booklet of spirits that’s almost two dozen pages long.
2. MIGRATION BREWING AT WASHINGTON SQUARE
9585 SW Washington Square Road, migrationbrewing.com. Noon-8 pm Monday-Saturday, 11 am-7 pm Sunday. Migration is making it cool to be a mall rat again. The 12-year-old company just opened a beer garden inside Washington Square with four taps as well as multiple packaged options, including cider and wine. The bar is surrounded by food court staples, which means you finally have the opportunity to pair a Migration classic like Straight Outta Portland IPA with a plate of piping hot orange chicken from the nearby Panda Express.
TASTE THE RAINBOW: Champagne Poetry’s collection of macarons is impressive: There are at least 16 flavors—just get them as fresh as possible.
Cakewalk
3. THE KNOCK BACK
2315 NE Alberta St., theknockback. com. 4-midnight Monday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday, noon-2 am Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday. Over the past two years, we’ve seen plenty of bars close, along with a slew of brave newcomers entering the market. But rarer is the resuscitation of any pandemic casualties. Now, the Knock Back, which shuttered in 2020 after an unsuccessful GoFundMe campaign, has returned to its original location with a new drink menu. Perhaps the best part, though, is the fact that it has also revived food cart boom standout Grilled Cheese Grill under its roof.
4. PACIFIC STANDARD
100 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-346-2992, kexhotels.com/eat-drink/ pacificstandard. 3 pm-midnight daily. At Pacific Standard, the new bar by bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler and longtime colleague Benjamin “Banjo” Amberg anchoring the Kex hotel, you won’t find any of the drinks the two men became known for at their former posts, Clyde Common and Pépé le Moko. But there are nods to those past hits in the all-new cocktail menu, like the summery rosé Negroni, the zesty All-Day Bloody Mary, and the Palm Desert Date Shake that’s decadent but not too boozy.
5. BUOY BEER POP-UP
1152 Marine Drive, Astoria, 503-2986833, buoybeer.com. Noon-8 pm daily. Show Buoy Beer some much-needed love by heading out to Astoria for pints at its new pop-up. By now, you’ve seen the devastating images of the brewery’s primary location above the Columbia, partially crumpled like a tin can. There’s no word on when the pub, which collapsed in mid-June, might reopen, but fortunately the brand was welcomed by the new Astoria Food Hub, where you can now get Buoy on tap along with classic seafood.
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Champagne Poetry is the pastel-hued dessert shop of your Instagram dreams. BY A N D R E A DA M E WO O D P H OTO S BY J O R DA N H U N D E LT
Walking into Champagne Poetry Pâtisserie is guaranteed to draw a smile out of even the most stubborn curmudgeon: The new bakery on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard is a pink wonderland of fluffy cakes, airbrushed tarts and airy soufflé pancakes. Named after the first track on Drake’s 2021 album Certified Lover Boy, there’s a definite feeling of trendiness infused into the bakery’s bright purple ube buns and lavender rose swirl macarons, meant to be photographed in front of an entire wall filled with pastel roses and a pair of neon angel wings. But as Drake samples the 1965 Beatles song “Michelle” heavily in “Champagne Poetry,” chef-owner Dan Bian also draws on classic influences for her confections. That is to say, everything about Champagne Poetry is actually dead serious, dedicated to infusing those French staples with everything from yuzu to guava to ube. Bian, who founded La Rose Pâtisserie in Beaverton, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Portland, training with renowned pastry chefs Cedric Grolet and Johan Martin. La Rose is no longer under Bian’s ownership, and she has turned her focus to opening this foot traffic-heavy spot on Hawthorne this spring. Weekends already boast a solid line of people
out the door, often sets of femme friends who stand back for a while, unable to decide which treat from the technicolor array they’ll order. To save yourself some time, start with the soufflé pancakes ($18), an eggy, aerated Japanese twist on the breakfast staple that requires its own special machines to make. They’ll take at least 20 minutes to arrive, so grab some sustenance to tide you over. There’s a whole mess of rosé to choose from, including several sparkling options, as well as espresso, boba tea, and one of the most balanced Italian raspberry cream sodas I’ve had in years— the drinkable cloud has an ideal ratio of treacly syrup, rich cream and fizzy soda. Champagne Poetry’s baked goods skew heavily sweet, but there are a few savory options, including a spinach feta croissant ($4.99), with a creamy filling inside a crispy and appropriately crumbly buttery dough. Mochi cookies ($4.99), both in standard chocolate chip and matcha with white chocolate, wrap cookie dough around soft, chewy mochi—a textural delight for anyone who prefers their cookies on the gooey side. The macaron ($3-$3.50) selection is truly impressive, with options from classic vanilla and pistachio to lychee and yuzu, but the results vary depending primarily on how freshly they’ve been baked. The real stars, however, are the cakes. My favorite is the Mango Tango ($8.99), Bian’s tribute to Grolet, who is famous for his hyperrealistic
bakes. Airbrushed to look like the real tropical fruit, your fork shatters the illusion, revealing a super-silky mango mousse with a layer of passion fruit and banana purée that provides a burst of tartness. Similarly, a dark chocolate mousse cake ($7.99) arrives looking to all the world like the perfect Homer Simpson doughnut: shiny, bright pink and topped with sprinkles. Cheesecakes ($6.99) are given a slight brûlée effect, and Champagne Poetry’s version is less dense and less sugary than a traditional New York-style slice. The matcha version provides a touch of bitterness for even more balance. The Cloud 9 buns ($3.99-$4.50) may seem flamboyant, standing 6 inches high with layers of cream cheese frosting and a dusting of milk powder. However, there is restraint in the saltysweet flavor and bready texture, which makes for a good morning bun that won’t send you into hyperglycemic shock. Particularly with the forthcoming loss of Pix Pâtisserie, Champagne Poetry launched at just the right time, filling what would’ve been a void: a pleasant place to have a drink and something divine to snack on before wandering on to continued adventures. I only wish it were open late every day, at least during the summer; I’d be in post-dinner at least once a week. EAT: Champagne Poetry Pâtisserie, 3343 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-265-8834, champagnepoetry.biz. 9:30 am-7 pm Tuesday-Thursday and Sunday, 9:30 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday.
Top 5
Hot Plates WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.
1. RUKDIEW CAFE AARON LEE
2534 SE Belmont St., 503-841-6123, rukdiew. com. 11:30 am-3 pm and 4:30–9 pm Monday-Thursday, 11:30 am-3 pm and 4:30-9:30 pm Friday, noon-9:30 pm Saturday, noon-9 pm Sunday. The most sought-after Thai appetizer in Portland these days might just be chicken wings, since the fall of Pok Pok has many hoping to discover an adequate replacement. Look no further: RukDiew’s hot wings are not only heavenly, the dish is secretly two great snacks in one. Flats and drums are tossed in a light chile-garlic sauce and served on a bed of fried basil leaves and egg noodles.
2. BEIRUT BITES
318 SE Grand Ave., 503-500-5885, beirutbitespdx.com. 11 am-8 pm Monday-Thursday, 11 am-9 pm Friday-Saturday. In 2021, Nicholas—one of Portland’s oldest Lebanese-Mediterranean restaurants—moved from its flagship location on Southeast Grand Avenue to a new, roomier building. Now the original space has been rebranded by second-generation owner Hilda Dibe as Beirut Bites, a fast-casual concept that uses family recipes to encourage newbies and longtime Nicholas fans to engage with casual dishes rarely seen in Portland, the specialty being five varieties of street pizzas.
3. CHENNAI MASALA
2088 NE Stucki Ave., Hillsboro, 503-531-9500, chennaimasala.net. 11:30 am-2 pm and 5:309:30 pm Tuesday-Sunday. Chennai Masala has been a South Indian standard for more than a decade. After the dining room was remodeled, it gained the feel of a midscale restaurant, shedding the cafeterialike vibe. South Indian food leans heavily vegetarian, so order accordingly. We suggest one of the dosas, a scrolled crispy crepe made with fermented lentil and rice flours. Good plain with just a side of aromatic sambar or filled with potatoes, chutney, egg, cheese, meat and more.
4. EB & BEAN
1425 NE Broadway, 503-281-6081; 3040 SE Division St., 971-242-8753; 645 NW 21st Ave., 503-889-0197; ebandbean.com. Noon-10 pm Sunday-Thursday, noon-11 pm Friday-Saturday. This summer, Portland has watched from afar while much of the nation has baked in punishing temperatures. Now that we’re baking, it’s time to start finding ways to stay cool. Fortunately, Eb & Bean just launched four new nondairy froyo flavors that should act as a temporary respite from the sweltering conditions: amarena cherry lemon, garden mint, vanilla coffee, and hibiscus mango.
5. DESI BITES
16165 SW Regatta Lane, #300, Beaverton, 971-371-2176, desibitespdx.com. 11 am-2:30 pm and 4-9 pm Tuesday-Sunday. Desi Bites is one of the Beaverton’s newest South Asian markets with a full restaurant. Beware, however, the dining area is tiny (while the store is huge) and it fills up quickly. Plan for takeout, at least as a contingency. Don’t be afraid to try the fiery tomato- and coconut-based Telangana curry, a specialty of Hyderabad. For a more mainstream repast, try the kati rolls or kebabs wrapped in paratha bread, which are messy but delicious.
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Garden Party Growing your own cannabis can be rewarding and fun. Here are six easy-to-cultivate strains to get you started. BY B R I A N N A W H E E L E R
As much as you may love a fruitful dispensary visit, few flowers can compare to the ones cultivated in your own kitchen, balcony or backyard. Not only does a small home grow help you refine your palate, the process can elevate your appreciation for well-cared-for cannabis. In Oregon, any household can cultivate up to four plants. That’s four opportunities to find your green thumb, dial in your plant daddy vibes, and become the growmaster of your stoner fantasies. Whether you start your grow with a clone or seeds, we’ve provided you with a list of easy beginner strains that will thrive both indoors and out. And when capitalism finally meets its grisly end, at least you can keep your stash jars full thanks to your newly discovered farming skills.
INDOOR STRAINS Blue Dream This balanced hybrid is a cross of Blueberry and Haze, and the resulting cultivar delivers a euphoric, mildly energizing high. Therapeutic users appreciate this strain’s ability to treat neuropathy, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and stress. THC levels top out in the upper 20s, but many cultivars sit somewhere between 17% and 23%, depending on where you source your seeds or clone. Expect dense, bright-green nugs with an earthy, vanilla perfume and sweet, herbal exhale. Flowering time: 75 days from germination Average yield: 20 ounces
Dutch Treat Popular Amsterdam cultivar Dutch Treat is a indica-leaning hybrid that typically delivers a giggly, perky head high and a super-soothing body buzz. First-time growers will appreciate how low maintenance this plant tends to be. Expect a sweet, piney nose and traces of blueberry in the exhale. The flowers tend to be bright green with a fine dusting of crystals. Flowering time: 56 to 63 days Average yield: 12 ounces
Blue Cheese This cross of Blueberry and Cheese is known for its creative, crystalline head high. The aroma is, as one
can imagine based on the name, hella pungent, which you’ll need to take under consideration when deciding where to place this plant—particularly if you live in an apartment or condo. Expect a creamy, skunky exhale and light green buds laced with bright orange threads. Flowering time: 49 to 56 days Average yield: 18 ounces
OUTDOOR STRAINS Northern Lights Northern Lights is one of the most popular and wellknown strains that’s thought to be native to the mountains of Afghanistan. While it is pure indica, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will put you to sleep. In fact, most users describe a nuanced high that’s buzzy in the head and velvety smooth in the body. Growers appreciate the plant’s hardiness and strong yields. Expect a woody, piney aroma and a slightly spicy exhale. Flowering time: 45 to 50 days Average yield: 18 ounces
Durban Poison Durban Poison is a pure sativa descendant of an African landrace strain brought overseas in the ’70s, and has become one of the more popular functional daytime varieties. Therapeutic users celebrate its ability to treat depression, chronic pain and bipolar disorder, but in large doses, Durban Poison has been known to produce anxiety in less-experienced users. Durban Poison should, theoretically, thrive outdoors, but be sure to give it some extra attention in the form of pruning, fertilizing and sweet talking. Expect a light piney nose, a pungent exhale, and dense buds covered in trichomes. Flowering time: 56 to 63 days Average yield: 13 ounces
Cinex This balanced hybrid of Cinderella 99 and Vortex is a popular strain with first-time home growers, since it has a short flowering period and high yields. The cultivar is also easy to care for. Cinex’s tight, minty-green buds are dusted with crystallike trichomes and amber filaments. Expect a bright, citrusy aroma and a powerfully skunky exhale. Flowering time: 50 to 60 days Average yield: 19 ounces
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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PERFORMANCE
Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com
LAURA HADDEN
SHOWS
WEEK
WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR BY DA N I E L B R O M F I E L D @ b r o m f 3
WEDNESDAY, AUG. 10:
Has anyone done more for reggaetòn’s global reach than Daddy Yankee? The Caribbean sound is the source of much of the most progressive and forward-thinking pop right now, and there’s a good chance many Americans heard the genre for the first time through Yankee’s “Gasolina.” The Puerto Rican singer-rapper claims to be retiring after this tour, and though musicians say that kind of thing all the time, it’d be a shame to miss a star of this stature before he leaves the stage for good. Moda Center, 1 N Center Court St. 8 pm. $81 and up. All ages. SHINE A LIGHT: Emilie Landmann, Laura Christina Dunn and Corinne Gaucher.
THURSDAY, AUG. 11:
Walk With the Prophets The Broken Planetarium revisits the myth of Cassandra in its original musical Live! Prophets! Live! BY S A R A G I Z A
If you’re wondering what the Broken Planetarium’s original musical Live! Profits! Live! has to offer, you might want to ask a more accurate question: What doesn’t it have to offer? Together, playwright-actor-composer Laura Christina Dunn and her fellow cast members prove there’s no need for a fancy theater, extravagant props, or designer costumes. When you possess their sheer talent and passion, any production can be a masterpiece. Based on the myth of the ancient Greek prophet Cassandra, Live! Profits! Live! uses COVID-19 to spark an overdue conversation about climate change and domestic violence. The play invites us to consider at least one upside to the pandemic (that it drew collective attention to the impact humans have on their environment), while also acknowledging that the oft-used phrase “safer at home” was not a reality for those locked in quarantine with their abusers. Live! Prophets! Live! (directed by Corinne Gaucher) stars Hannah Edelson as a modern Cassandra who awakens to find herself in an underworld of sorts, referred to as End of the Roadhouse. She has been studying the mass disappearance of tree frogs in Florida, but drowned while collecting data on sinking land. Cassandra finds herself in the company of real-life icons like Joan of Arc (Leina Naversen), Octavia Butler (Natasha Kotey) and Li Qingzhao (Emma Chang)—all women who were disbelieved, dismissed and punished for battling the status quo. There is also the narrator of the play, Hildegard von Bingen (Mikki Jordan), who wears the clothes of a nun, but transcends the established definitions of words like “wholesome,” “holy” and “pure.” Throughout Live! Prophets! Live!, Cassandra contemplates whether she should depart End of the Roadhouse or remain, a decision that isn’t made until each character shares her own story 28
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
through song. Their experiences raise grave questions—how do we heal the planet? How do we heal ourselves?—but the play is consistently fun and engaging. Live! Prophets! Live! tackles the tough with acting, singing, comedy, choreographed group dances and live musical instruments—including guitar, keyboard and banjo (the music is by Dunn, Trinh Youngman, Natasha Kotey, Red Yarn, Emilie Landmann, Ali Ippolito, Kristin Gordon George, Julia Babcock, Monica Metzler and Leina Naversen). As a result, watching the performance feels akin to attending an intimate cabaret. Its campiness is a joy to behold, but there’s a point to the juxtaposition of playful delivery and weighty themes: to remind us that we can care for our planet and its people while still enjoying our lives (Cassandra points out that “if we can shatter the world, just think of how we can shape it”). As Cassandra struggles to decide whether to return, she recalls a time when her mother “stopped trying for life to get better.” Perhaps that’s why Live! Prophets! Live! suggests that saving the world might require us to master and temper ourselves—just as Dunn (who is the Broken Planetarium’s artistic director) uses wit and music to temper the looming threats of abuse and an environmental apocalypse. Live! Prophets! Live! ultimately asks us to recognize that people will always need each other—and that everything is connected in some way. We’re asked to “look at the shadows we pretend not to see,” while staying both strong and tender, an invitation for further thought amid wondrous entertainment. SEE IT: Live! Prophets! Live! plays at Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-808-3331, brokenplanetarium.org. 2 pm Thursday and Sunday, 7 pm Friday-Saturday, through Aug. 14. Tickets $15-$25 sliding scale, Arts for All accepted at the door.
Oakland’s Slumberland Records has been a major player in jangly, retro-style indie pop for over three decades, but the past few years have seen some of its best output yet from bands like Papercuts, Umbrellas and The Red, Pinks, and Purples—all of which are performing on the Slumberland Records Tour, set to stop at the Doug Fir Lounge with an opening set by Portland’s Foamboy. Anyone who loves the sweet-sad sound of classic Smiths but feels icky about the guy singing on them will be right at home here. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 8 pm. $14. 21+.
SATURDAY, AUG. 13:
Between Bombino, Mdou Moctar, and Les Filles de Illighadad’s Fatou Seidi Ghali, it’s clear that the West African nation of Niger is the most reliable producer of great guitarists right now. After shuttling across Africa for much of his life to flee regional conflict, Omara “Bombino” Moctar became a whispered-about guitar talent nearly as soon as he first set foot in the United States. Learn why the likes of the Rolling Stones, Robert Plant and the Black Keys have sung his praises when he plays at the Star Theater. Star Theater, 13 NW 6th Ave. 9 pm. $25. 21+.
MUSIC
Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson | Contact: bennett@wweek.com
SPIN CITY: Musique Plastique.
Plastique Heart How the record shop Musique Plastique is leading Lloyd Center’s renaissance. BY R O B E R T H A M
m i l l e r. h a m @ g m a i l . c o m
P H OTO S BY T I M S A P U TO
While Musique Plastique, the local record shop specializing in post-punk, electronic, and world music that has been in operation since 2015, was forced to close in the midst of the pandemic, owner Tony Remple survived the hit better than most by pivoting immediately to online sales. But even though he held on to a dedicated customer base through sites like Discogs, he was itching to get back into a physical location. “I did see other record shops announcing, ‘This isn’t what I signed up for. I’m sorry, but we’ll see you later,’ and moved on,” Remple says. “I had a hard time doing that, but I needed to be in a physical space. I needed that for my own motivation and engagement.” Once it became safe to do so, Remple began the hunt for a new storefront, always with a mind toward unusual spaces or venues where you might not expect to find a record shop. He wound up finding a home that checked all the boxes in a surprising locale: Lloyd Center. Lured by very competitive rent and low overhead, Remple reopened Musique Plastique in a former Lids outlet near the
shopping mall’s famed ice rink in June. And since then, the record shop has become a beacon, inspiring other businesses to follow his lead. Floating World Comics recently announced it would be moving from its Old Town location into the mall, and clothing designers Dreem Street will soon be sharing a space with art gallery Brackett Creek Exhibitions. “It’s really exciting to me to be part of this and share energy together,” Remple says, “and I think it’s going to continue to grow. I’m down for what Jason [Leivian, Floating World Comics’ owner] is deeming the Lloyd Center Arts District.” This injection of fresh life into Lloyd Center feels especially unusual considering how close it came to vanishing completely. With big anchor stores like Macy’s closing their doors over the past few years, the shopping mall’s owners, EB Arrow, were drowning in debt. It was expected that KKR Real Estate Finance Trust, the New York investment firm that loaned Lloyd Center $177 million in 2015 for renovations, would foreclose on the mall and redevelop the entire 1.2 million-square-foot space. Lloyd Center got an 11th-hour reprieve via new managers, Seattle’s Urban Renaissance Group, who last December stated they intended to make sure “it continues to be a community gathering place.” URG may have gotten its wish with the arrival of Musique Plastique. While much of Lloyd Center still feels like a lawless ghost town with kids on skateboards sailing past the many vacant storefronts, the record store has been buzzing with visitors and activity.
Remple has partnered with Intro to Rhythm, an online radio station specializing in beat-heavy sounds that does regular live broadcasts out of Musique Plastique, and Dreem Street co-owner Eric Mast to hold informal parties at the shop. These hangs often spill out into the rest of the mall, with patrons taking advantage of the bank of massage chairs nearby or stopping by the retro arcade that sits two doors down. Outside of those bigger to-dos, Remple admits, Lloyd Center can still be very quiet. During my recent hourlong visit to Musique Plastique, the only visitors were a pair of teens that briefly skimmed through the store’s small selection of CDs before hurrying off to Hot Topic. Those slow stretches don’t seem faze Remple. He expects business will pick up once Floating World Comics opens its doors, as there tends to be a good amount of crossover between the two businesses’ customer bases. And he’s well aware that record collectors on the hunt for a three-LP collection of music by Algerian raï singer Cheb Hasni (which he was happily spinning when I stopped by) will find Musique Plastique no matter where it is. “How this is built is as a destination,” Remple says. “This is not the kind of mall record shop that would have been around in the ’80s or ’90s. It’s an alternate universe kind of situation, and that’s been fun.” SEE IT: Musique Plastique, 1405 Lloyd Center. 11 am-7 pm Tuesday-Saturday and 11 am-6 pm Sunday. Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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MOVIES & TV
HBO
STREAMING WARS
Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson Contact: bennett@wweek.com
SCREENER
YOUR WEEKLY FILM QUEUE BY B E N N E T T C A M P B E L L F E R G U S O N @ t h o b e n n e t t
IMDB
PORTLAND PICK:
SPLENDID TABLE: Nathan Fielder.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of The Falls, which began Jon Garcia’s trilogy of films about an impassioned romance between two Mormon men (Benjamin Farmer and Nick Ferrucci). If you can, watch the film with friends or family; it’s a conversation starter in the most profound, thrilling and emotional sense of the term. Free on Peacock, Roku, Tubi, Vudu.
Nathan’s Famous
INDIE PICK:
In the new Oregon-filmed HBO series The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder recruits ordinary people for an unsettling social experiment.
Yes, the scenes in Skate Kitchen (2018) with Jaden Smith are annoyingly slick and hollow. But it’s still worth seeing for Rachelle Vinberg’s ferociously realistic performance as a skater who runs away from her anguished and domineering mother (Elizabeth Rodriguez). Amazon Prime. Free on Plex, Tubi.
BY JAY H O R TO N
HOLLYWOOD PICK:
Based on a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins, Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition (2002) stars Tom Hanks as a gangster defending his son (Tyler Hoechlin) from a sadistic mob prince (Daniel Craig). The film’s sublime cinematography won Conrad L. Hall a posthumous Oscar, but the real revelation is Hanks, whose unnervingly convincing portrayal of a stoic killer makes the ebullience of Big feel far, far away. Netflix, Paramount+.
A Tunisian immigrant (Habib Boufares) attempts to start a couscous restaurant in The Secret of the Grain (2007), which won Best French Film at the César Awards (France’s version of the Oscars). The restaurant’s struggles are at once hilarious and unsettling (never has the prospect of missing couscous been so terrifying!), but Hafsia Herzi’s climactic belly dancing scene is pure cinematic bliss. Free on Plex.
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Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
PAT H É
INTERNATIONAL PICK:
@hortland
The cultural footprint of Nathan Fielder, who embodied the misanthropic marketer protagonist in Comedy Central’s docu-reality saga Nathan for You, has only grown since the series’ 2018 close. Now, he’s back with the Oregon-filmed HBO show The Rehearsal, which hawks his daft visions without the shield of relative anonymity. Compared with poo-flavored ice cream or Dumb Starbucks (two memorable Nathan for You gags), The Rehearsal’s central conceit—a Fielder-hosted program workshopping disputes in a replicated environment— seems harmless enough. Yet the show finds Fielder at his most transgressive, recruiting ordinary people to enact painful, real-life situations with the help of sets and actors. In The Rehearsal, people respond to a generic online posting (“TV OPPORTUNITY: Is There Something You’re Avoiding?”) with their innermost fears and desires. This leads to devilishly bizarre circumstances, like an Oregon woman ranting about satanism and snarling that “not everything is make-believe” after Fielder takes a performer pretending to be her son trick-or-treating. In another scene, Fielder helps a man rehearse an impassioned plea for inheritance funds disallowed by his brother, advising him to lower the volume and lessen the ethnic slurs—only to relent when the man argues that his dialogue will sound false without an undercurrent of casual anti-Semitism. Behind that moment lies the haunting truth that undergirds The Rehearsal: These people aren’t idiots. They’re ordinary folks brimming with shameless confidence in their instincts, convinced that checking facts or mollifying behaviors are akin to a coward’s death. By focusing on blithely delusional exemplars of blinkered egotism, Fielder neatly evades the unsavory optics of exploiting human prey for entertainment. Because he chooses his targets carefully, his efforts seem infinitely more romantic than they might have, even if they are invariably doomed. Having the keys to the HBO vaults helped Fielder fund
the show’s most spectacular sequences. On his command, teams duplicated a New York City sports bar down to its torn chairs and mishung artwork, encouraging precision in rehearsals of trivia-night confessions. Eventually, the entire bar set was shipped cross-country to a Clackamas soundstage so that Fielder had somewhere to hang out. When he deemed the experience too lonely, producers arranged for a liquor license and an 80-foot corridor connecting the bar with exterior signage in hopes locals might find their way inside. As the series has progressed, Fielder has exploited the network’s resources for more than just giggles. Case in point: voice-overs that bounce between sardonic and dopily portentous, turning harrowing amid orchestra swell and roving camerawork paced for maximum feels. It’s enough to make you wonder: Are the show’s excesses an intentional broadening of scope or a wry commentary on how easily our emotional triggers can be manipulated? Are we meant to pan for meaning below the layered absurdities or question the meta-provocateur drolly exposing our susceptibility to prestige TV? Fielder constantly raises those questions, playing on your suspicion that you’re being pranked. If any rules exist for the docutainment genre, it’s fairly obvious Fielder delights in subverting them (he’s never seemed especially precious about keeping things real). All the same, manipulating melancholia instead of laughs does make The Rehearsal feel different from Nathan for You. Comedy should serve no master beyond the joke itself, but heartstrings can’t be tugged in a vacuum. The Rehearsal (which will debut its next episodes, “Apocalypto” and “Pretend Daddy,” on Aug. 12 and 19, respectively) features all the pitfalls that come with linking your art to someone else’s life. When the stars align, it offers moments of truth without any hint of theatricality, but it also reminds us that it’s trickier to whip up poignancy than laughs. SEE IT:
The Rehearsal streams on HBO Max.
AMBLIN
TOP PICK OF THE WEEK
G ET YO U R R E P S I N PA R A M O U N T P I C T U R E S
Event Horizon (1997)
EASTER SUNDAY Jo Koy’s standup translates seamlessly to film in Easter Sunday, which captures his signature blend of humor and sentimentality. Written by Ken Cheng and Kate Angelo (and based on Koy’s life), the film centers on an Easter family gathering dominated by Susan Valencia, a matriarch exquisitely embodied by Lydia Gaston. Koy plays a version of himself named Joe, a struggling actor attempting to balance the ever-present demands of career and family. Due to a poverty of time, Joe often finds himself neglecting the most important people in his life, including his son Junior (Brandon Wardell), whom he struggles to connect with, and his mother, whom he struggles to please. Even as the film reaches for bigger and bigger jokes, its relatability makes it work—the essence of the story is Joe’s family and the sacrifices they’re willing to make for one another, along with Koy’s wit. Tapping into the devastating honesty of Valencia elders who emigrated from the Philippines to America, Easter Sunday reflects on the realities of generational assimilation, but it never loses sight of the inherent humor that only family can expose. PG-13. RAY GILL JR. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, City Center, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Evergreen Parkway, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Tigard, Vancouver Mall, Vancouver Plaza.
THIRTEEN LIVES
On a sunny afternoon, 12 junior soccer players (and their coach) decide to explore a cave. As they enter, their crimson uniforms contrasting with the dark rocks, the boys have no idea that the cave will flood and they will be trapped inside for 18 days— or that an international effort of more than 10,000 rescuers will be necessary to save them. Thirteen Lives tells that story, transforming the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand into a suspenseful, compassionate and disciplined film. It’s directed by Ron Howard, but without the soapy sensationalism of his most famous rescue movie, Apollo 13. As he observes the countless souls called to the cave—from parents desperate for news of their sons to volunteers who divert lethal amounts of water from the sinkholes above—it’s clear that he doesn’t care who these people were before the crisis or who they will be after. He simply wants us to be in the moment with them, feeling their terror and their dedication. Why? Because although Thirteen Lives celebrates the heroes of the rescue (including the British divers, played by Viggo Mortensen and Colin Farrell, who find the soccer team first), it isn’t about individuals. Howard wants to immerse us in a massive movement that, in some ways, transcended borders—“a war with water” that gave way to a vision of peace. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Amazon Prime.
BULLET TRAIN
Director David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, John Wick, Deadpool 2) takes an all-gas-nobrakes approach to Bullet Train, an ultra-stylized adaptation of
the novel Maria Beetle starring Brad Pitt as a mercenary codenamed Ladybug. Pressed into service by his handler (Sandra Bullock), Ladybug receives a “simple” assignment: recover a metal briefcase from a Japanese bullet train. Onboard, he faces a series of killers who multiply like a Matryoshka doll, each harboring their own mysterious, dubious motivations for being there and wanting him dead (a plot further complicated by the looming presence of White Death, a Russian crime lord played by Michael Shannon). While Leitch’s blatant attempts to imitate the kinetic filmmaking of Guy Ritchie (Snatch, Sherlock Holmes) overshadow some subtler flourishes, Bullet Train is deft enough to give each confrontation stakes and each character their time to shine (it helps that the members of its underworld ensemble are introduced through snappy dialogue and expository flashback scenes, giving the film opportunities to stretch its legs outside the confines of the train). The final reveals are trite, the action becomes absurd, and the character resolutions are vague, but Bullet Train delivers enough to be a forgivable blast of a movie. R. RAY GILL JR. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, City Center, Eastport, Fox Tower, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Tigard.
LUCK
The first feature from Skydance Animation whisks viewers to a wonderful world of magical creatures, but it doesn’t know what to do once it gets there. Luck’s heroine is Sam Greenfield (voiced by Eva Noblezada), an
18-year-old girl aging out of an orphanage. She’s been plagued with bad luck her entire life, but upon discovering a lucky penny, she nobly decides to use it to help a younger resident named Hazel (Adelynn Spoon) facing an impending meeting with a potential new family. There’s just one problem: Sam loses the penny, which leads her to follow a talking black cat named Bob (Simon Pegg) into the fantastical Land of Luck, which is run by leprechauns and their dragon leader (Jane Fonda). Throughout Sam’s wild, convoluted quest to find another lucky penny, Luck serves up slapstick animation with whimsical music cues more akin to a Saturday morning cartoon than The Wizard of Oz (which the film emulates without offering anything as poignant as the emotional bond between Dorothy and her sidekicks). It’s a lackluster start for Skydance, which enlisted the legendary John Lasseter, who left Pixar in 2018 after being accused of sexual misconduct, as head of animation. It remains to be seen whether Lasseter can bring any Pixar magic to Skydance—and continue to avoid meaningfully addressing the accusations against him. G. RAY GILL JR. Clackamas, Apple TV+.
Set in 2047, Paul W.S. Anderson’s paranormal sci-fi mind-bender stars Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne as crew members of the rescue vessel Lewis and Clark. Their mission? To recover the Event Horizon, a starship that disappeared into a haunted black hole seven years ago and probably should have stayed there. Screens in celebration of the film’s 25th anniversary. Hollywood, Aug. 12.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and We Are Little Zombies (2019)
5th Avenue’s “Punk Kidz” double feature. The star-studded Pilgrim is a battle between Michael Cera’s dorky bassist and his manic pixie dream girl’s Seven Evil Exes, while Zombies is an acclaimed Japanese music drama about four orphaned 13-year-olds who form a rock band. 5th Avenue, Aug. 12-14.
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
In this “anti-Western” period piece by Robert Altman, a fur coat-clad gambler (Warren Beatty) and a brothel madam (Julie Christie) become unlikely business partners in a small Washington mining town. Part five of Cinema 21’s “Seven From the ’70s” series, this screening features an introduction by film programmer Elliot Lavine. Cinema 21, Aug. 13.
Bad Education (2004)
The visionary Pedro Almodóvar directs this stylized meta-drama about a director whose life is upended when a trans woman claiming to be his childhood friend (Gael García Bernal) shows up with a short story she wrote, hoping for a part in his next movie. Screens as part of the Hollywood’s “Thank God It’s Queer” series. Hollywood, Aug. 15.
Fist of Fury (1972)
Bruce Lee’s second major film role finds the legendary martial artist choreographing his own fight scenes as a kung fu student defending Chinese honor against Japanese imperialism, all while avenging the murder of his master. Screens as part of the Clinton’s Bruce Lee Film Festival. Clinton, Aug. 15. ALSO PLAYING: Academy: Deliverance (1972), Aug. 12-18. Anaconda (1997), Aug. 12-18. Clinton: Shadowplay: Women in Experimental Animation, Aug. 10. Hollywood: Play Misty for Me (1971), Aug. 10. The Scarlet Empress (1934), Aug. 11. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Aug. 13. Heavy Metal (1981), Aug. 16. PAM CUT: Cryptozoo (2021), Aug. 12.
OUR KEY
: THIS MOVIE IS EXCELLENT, ONE OF THE BEST OF THE YEAR. : THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT. : THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED. : THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE. Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
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MCKENZIE YOUNG-ROY
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Jack Kent’s
True scenes from the streets. @sketchypeoplepdx kentcomics.com
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JONESIN’
FREE WILL
B Y M AT T J O N E S
"Trade Offs"--well, it's close enough.
ASTROLOGY ARIES
(March 21-April 19): Aries filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky wrote, "All my life, I've been going around waiting for something—as if I were waiting in a railway station. And I've always felt as if the living I've done so far hasn't actually been real life but a long wait for it—a long wait for something real." If I could speak with Tarkovsky right now, I would cheerfully tell him that his wait will soon be over. I'd say that in the coming months, Aries people who have been postponing and postponing, who have been standing by and holding on and biding time, will have an excellent chance to begin inhabiting their full, rich destiny. I invite you to imagine what that will feel like.
TAURUS
(April 20-May 20): Taurus poet Sherko Bekas wrote, "Each joy I wear, its sleeves are either too short or too long, too loose or too tight on me. And each sorrow I wear fits as if it were made for me wherever I am." With this as our starting point, Taurus, I'm pleased to report some good news. In the next three weeks, you will have zero sorrows to try on and wear like a garment. And there will be at least three joys that fit just right. The sleeves will be the correct length, and the form will be neither too loose nor too tight.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Tips on how to get the
most out of the coming weeks: 1. Create a big spacious realization by weaving together several small hunches. 2. Keep a little angel on your right shoulder and a little devil on your left shoulder. Enjoy listening to them argue, and don't get attached to anything they say. 3. Do the unexpected until it becomes expected. Then abandon it and try a new, unexpected experiment. 4. Meditate expansively on the question, "How many careers can I have in one lifetime?" 5. Enhance your home so it feels even more comfortable.
CANCER
ACROSS
1. Pack down firmly 5. Garbage bag size 9. _ _ _ above (slightly better) 13. Hammer on the screen 14. Heed a hypnotist 15. "Downton Abbey" countess 16. Scratches left on the chalkboard by a temporary teacher? 19. Director Guillermo _ _ _ Toro 20. "_ _ _-Hulk: Attorney at Law" (upcoming Disney+ series) 21. Theme park attractions 22. Riding transit without having to buy a ticket? 27. Yell at some sporting events 28. Assistance for a treasure hunter 29. Japanese eel and rice dish 31. Forensic scientist Barry (aka The Flash) 34. Tommy Pickles's younger brother on "Rugrats" 35. Quick bite 38. Java that works even better in all caps? 42. Actress Collette of "The Staircase" 43. South Africa-born "Strictly Come Dancing" celeb Mabuse 44. "Swell!" 45. Spanish newspaper whose name means "The Country" 47. _ _ _ Lingus (carrier based in Dublin) 48. Option for a non-grad
50. Difference between Nasdaq and Euronext? 55. "Blue screen of death" cause 57. Merchandise tracking ID 58. Be obligated 59. "Don't haggle too much at the flea market" and others? 64. D.C. management? 65. Natural gas add-in (for safety reasons) 66. Reasonableness 67. Lead-in to "margarine" 68. Rome's fifth emperor 69. Window frame
DOWN
1. "_ _ _ words have never been spoken" 2. Easy pace 3. Appropriation starter 4. Some high-end brain imaging 5. Pacific Northwestern pole 6. _ _ _ Dhabi (capital of the UAE) 7. "_ _ _ me tell you ..." 8. Soapmaker's need 9. Berry that's somehow still trendy 10. Separate with rope 11. Steve of "Family Matters" 12. Cafe cup 13. _ _ _movie (2008 web animation series named for the left-hand home keys) 17. Denny's rival 18. '60s TV equine 23. Chef Lagasse 24. Brackish swimmer also called a grindle or a swamp trout 25. The U of "SVU"
©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.
26. 1 on the Mohs scale 30. Blazing 31. Toward the rear of a ship 32. Language spoken in Vientiane 33. Hard-hit baseball 36. Card game with diamonds, squiggles, and ovals 37. "Hold it right there!" 39. Scam or sham 40. Ending for meteor or phosphor 41. Allowance of a sarcastic questioner (or a great Wordle score) 46. Fringe benefit 47. Cross in goth culture 48. Day one, informally 49. "My Psychedelic Love Story" director Morris 51. "The Jetsons" pet 52. Hospital garb 53. Up to one's neck (in) 54. Prawn of later Muppets features 56. Bi- cubed 60. Prodigal one, so it's said 61. Lyric poem 62. "What can I do ya _ _ _?" 63. Black or Red, for instance
last week’s answers
(June 21-July 22): Be fluid and flexible while still being rooted and sturdy. Be soft and sensitive even as you are also firm and resolute. Be mostly modest and adaptable, but become assertive and outspoken as necessary. Be cautious about inviting and seeking out challenges, but be bold and brash when a golden challenge arrives. Be your naturally generous self most of the time, but avoid giving too much. Got all that, Cancerian? Carrying out the multifaceted assignments I just described might be nearly impossible for most of the other signs of the zodiac, but they are in your wheelhouse. You are a specialist in fertile complexity.
LEO
(July 23-Aug. 22): "I've swung from ancient vines in the caves of Jamaica," exults Hoodoo priestess Luisah Teish. "I've danced with delight around totem poles and pressed foreheads with Maori warriors. I've joked with the pale fox in the crossroads, then wrestled with the jaguar and won. I have embraced great trees between my thighs and spoken words of love to thunder while riding lightning bolts." I offer Teish's celebratory brag to inspire you as you formulate plans for the coming weeks and months. What exhilarating adventures will you give yourself? What expansive encounters will you learn from? What travels outside of your comfort zone will you dare? The time is right for upsurges and upturns and upgrades.
VIRGO
(Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In his poem "The Pupil," Virgo-born Donald Justice speaks of how he spent "a whole week practicing for that moment on the threshold." I advise you to do the same, Virgo. The goal is to be as prepared as you can be for the upcoming rite of transition—without, of course, being neurotically over-prepared. It's fine and natural to honor the tension of anticipation, using it as motivation to do your best. One other thing: As you get ready, please have as much fun as possible. Visualize the sense of accomplishment you'll feel when you've reached the other side of the test.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23-Oct. 22): "One is always at home in one’s past," wrote author Vladimir Nabokov. But I encourage you to rebel against that theory, Libra. For now, find a way to NOT feel at home in your past. Question it, be curious about it, re-evaluate it. My hope is that you will then be
Willamette Week AUGUST 10, 2022 wweek.com
motivated to change how your history lives in you. Now is an excellent time to reconfigure your life story, to develop a revised relationship with its plot twists and evolution. Revisit and update some of your memories. Re-evaluate the meanings of key events. Enchanting healings will materialize if you do.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Of all the signs in the
zodiac, you Scorpios are most likely to regard that old pop tune by the Animals as your theme song. "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good," croons lead singer Eric Burdon, "Oh, Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." But you may have less motivation to express that sentiment in the coming weeks, dear Scorpio. I suspect you will experience record-breaking levels of being seen and appreciated for who you are. For best results, do this: 1. Inform your deep psyche that you have no attachment to being misunderstood. 2. Tell your deep psyche that you would very much like to be well understood.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): "Unless we are
creators, we are not fully alive," wrote Sagittarian author Madeleine L'Engle. She was referring to everyone, not just people in the arts. She believed that to be soulful humans, we must always make new things, generate fresh possibilities, and explore novel approaches. The restless urge to transform what already exists can be expressed in how we do our jobs, our parenting, our intimate relationships, and every other activity. You are now entering a phase, Sagittarius, when this initiatory energy will be especially available, needed, and valuable.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In her poem "Valentine," Capricorn poet Carol Ann Duffy tells a lover she won't give her a "red rose or a satin heart." Instead, her token of affection is an onion, a symbol of multi-layered complexity. "Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips," Duffy writes, "possessive and faithful as we are, for as long as we are." She adds that the onion will "blind you with tears like a lover." OK. I understand the tough attitude expressed by Duffy. Romance isn't a relentlessly sweet, sentimental romp through paradise. But I don't recommend that you imitate her approach to your love life in the coming weeks and months. Appreciate the sometimes shadowy and labyrinthine convolutions, yes, but don't make them more important than beauty and joy and love. How about invoking the symbol of a pomegranate? It represents fertility and rebirth out of the darkness.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Be extra expressive
with the people and animals you care about. Be even more amusing and generous than usual. Dare to be abundantly entertaining and engaging and empathetic. Make it your goal to draw out your allies' dormant potentials and inspire them to love themselves even more than they already do. I'll tell you about the endearing terms that author Vladimir Nabokov called his wife. Consider using them with your dear ones: "My sun, my soul, my song, my bird, my pink sky, my sunny rainbow, my little music, my inexpressible delight, my tenderness, my lightness, my dear life, my dear eyes, kittykin, poochums, goosikins, sparrowling, bird of paradise."
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Sometimes, you may
feel you're under the influence of a debilitating spell or hindered by a murky curse. Pisceans are prone to such worries. But here's a secret. More than any other zodiac sign, you have the power to escape from spells. Even if you have never studied the occult or read a witch's grimoire, you possess a natural facility for the natural magic that disperses curses. From the depths of your psyche, you can summon the spiritual force necessary to cleanse the gunk and free yourself. Now is a perfect time to prove to yourself that what I've said here is true.
Homework: What injustice are you most motivated to correct? Newsletter. FreeWillAstrology.com
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