Willamette Week, February 8, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 13 - "26 Reasons to Love Portland Right Now"

Meklit

FEBRUARY 16-25, 2023

Thursday, February 16

Bill Frisell Four

Feat. Gerald Clayton, Gregory Tardy, Rudy Royston

The Reser

Friday, February 17

Angélique Kidjo

Tuesday, February 21

Tord Gustavsen Trio

Ft. Steinar Raknes & Jarle Vespestad

The Old Church

Wednesday, February 22

Taylor Mcferrin & Marcus Gilmore

The Old Church

Saturday, February 25

Kiefer + Omari Jazz

Star Theater

Saturday, February 25

Mike Phillips

Winnigstad Theatre

Yemen Blues

Reimagines Remain In Light The Talking Heads Classic + Dj Nickodemus

Roseland Theater

Friday, February 17

George Colligan Trio

The Old Church Concert Hall

Hiatus Kaiyote

Saturday, February 18

The Budos Band + Sexmob Roseland Theater

Saturday, February 18 Ambrose Akinmusire & Gerald Clayton

Charlie Musselwhite

The Old Church

Sat Feb 18 & Sun Feb 19

Jazz Film: Inside Scofield McMenamins Kennedy School

Saturday, February 18

Dave Holland

An Evening With Meklit

The Reser

Sunday, February 19

Yemen Blues

Mississippi Studios

Wednesday, February 22

Shabazz Palaces + Moor Mother

Alberta Rose

Thursday, February 23

Charlie Musslewhite + Curtis Salgado

Revolution Hall

Thursday, February 23

Mark Guiliana

Ft. Chris Morrissey, Paul Cornish, Jason Rigby

The Old Church

Thursday, February 23

Storm Large Burlesque Big Band + Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra & Storyville Confidential

Newmark Theatre

Friday, February 24

Dave Holland Trio

Ft. Kevin Eubanks, Eric Harland + Derrick Hodge Trio

Newmark Theatre

Friday, February 24

Jack London Revue

Friday, February 17

Scatter The Atoms That Remain

Ft. Franklin Kiermyer, Davis Whitfield

Friday, February 17 • Late DJ Set

Nickodemus

Saturday, February 18

I Am Ft. Isaiah Collier & Michael Shekwoaga Ode

Saturday, February 18 • Late Show

Sexmob

Monday, February 20

Pjce Presents Ekta: The Unity Project

Wednesday, February 22

Zoh Amba

Ft. Chris Corsano

Thursday, February 23

Mel Brown B-3 Organ Group

With Sean Holmes & Arietta Ward

Friday, February 24

Sen Morimoto

Dumpstaphunk

Sunday, February 19 Christian Kuria

Holocene

Monday, February 20

James Francies + Kris Davis

Double Header Solo Piano

Hubert Laws

The Old Church

Tuesday, February 21

Hiatus Kaiyote + Butcher Brown

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Mike Phillips

Thee Sacred Souls + Orquestra Pacifico Tropical & Jalen N’gonda Revolution Hall

Friday, February 24

‘Take Me To The River’ Live Dumpstaphunk with Jon Cleary

Aladdin Theater

Saturday, February 25

Hubert Laws Quintet + Brian Jackson Quartet

Newmark Theatre

Friday, February 24 • Late Show

Mark Guiliana Beat Music

Ft. Nick Semrad & Chris Morrissey

Saturday, February 25

Aaron Burnett Trio

Ft. Michael Shekwoaga Ode, Nick Jozwiak

Saturday, February 25 • Late Show

Butcher Brown

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER

VOL. 49, ISSUE 13

Multnomah County is lowering the height of the Central Library stacks so it can see what you’re doing in there. 9

The founder of Shilo Inns owes $20 million to the IRS. 11

The arbitrator who reinstated Brian Hunzeker also gave the cops who killed James Chasse Jr. their jobs back. 13

The Republic Cafe was an early haven for Portland’s LGBTQ+ community. 16

Portland’s homelessness dilemma attracted the organizers of the Ethics Bowl

17

The Pharmacy, Dante’s Inferno and Star Theater were among the first nightspots to stock Narcan. 19

Beyoncé has 32 Grammys. GoodbyeCalev shares one of them. 20

Ken Zell is building a bunny church 21

Rachel Brooks recommends the pigeon pose to tense strippers. 23

The Lykoi is known as the “werewolf cat.” 27

For the first time ever, the Portland Winter Light Festival will have a closing ceremony. 29

Foster-Powell dwellers finally have a hip, upscale dining option. 30

Chocolate Oranges is probably as close as you can get to smoking a Terry’s Chocolate Orange segment. 32

The Brody Theater is being reborn as an art space for unhoused youth. 33

Portlander Nick Alfieri is a linebacker for the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns , an underdog American football team in Germany. 35

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Just about everyone still living in Portland had an opinion about last week’s cover story featuring those who left (“They Left,” WW , Feb. 1). We received a flood of emails, comments and Twitter dunks. Some readers were gratified to hear reflections of their own frustration regarding high taxes and a declining level of civic services. Others felt WW was too credulous regarding the complaints of high-income Portlanders who would like a lower tax burden. Here’s a sample of what readers said:

JOHN DONNERBERG, VIA WWEEK.COM:

“Finally, a realistic story about what people are actually doing in response to the mess in Portland. My family was born and raised in the Portland area for several generations. I owned a business, a rental property, and a house in Portland. I sold everything in Portland over the last two or three years. It simply broke my heart to have to leave. We moved just outside of Sandy. In hindsight, it was the best decision I’ve ever made. I do miss the old Portland (except the traffic), but on my occasional visits to town for a Blazer game, dinner or a show, I’m glad I don’t live in the middle of the chaos. I still root for my old city, and was happy to see life starting to creep back to downtown two weeks ago near the Crystal Ballroom. Unfortunately, it looks like there is a lot of work left to be done before Stumptown returns to her old glory. Here’s to a brighter future. I just hope I live long enough to see it.”

MIGUEL, VIA TWITTER:

“All I learned from this article is that a bunch of developers and ‘asset managers’ are pulling up stakes and skipping town based on feelings and vague concerns, so good! Maybe this means I can afford to get a house here one day, or a mayor who doesn’t suck.”

JASON NOTTE, VIA TWITTER: “For the duration of my time here, the ‘Why I Left Portland’ letter has remained a constant.”

PATRICK CARRICO, VIA WWEEK.COM: “Moving away from my

hometown was hard; however, it was nice to travel to places with thriving, joyous music and art communities like Louisville. It took a while to detoxify myself of my dour self-obsessed Portland attitude. Working with the homeless in other states, it was eye-opening to see how twisted ideas on ‘confidentiality’ and ‘professional boundaries’ had fostered the negative feedback loop that perpetuates Portland’s crisis. Things are only going to get worse in Portland; schools in crisis lead directly to homelessness. Every special needs student who drops out frequents ERs and shelters for decades until they get on SSI, no mater how groovy the nonprofit’s social media presence is.”

LEXUH, VIA REDDIT:

“A lot of folks came here when Portland was the shiny place to escape the small town they grew up in or the high cost of living in S.F. They stayed here long enough to realize that Portland isn’t a playground—just like every other city—and now they’re moving on.

“Also, when you look at the demographics of who’s leaving Portland, it tracks with a nationwide trend toward people leaving cities for suburban, exurban and rural areas when we get older. The insane stock market and housing boom gave UMC folks enough cash to ‘pre-tire’—move to their retirement dream location early.

“It’ll be interesting to see how the demographics here shake out in the future, but this doesn’t really feel like a compelling narrative about crime or taxation to me.”

WILSON MOKRZYCKI, VIA EMAIL: “Of all the articles I have read in the last year, yours rang true; you had the stories and the raw data to paint a very real picture that we all are living in.

“Thanks for being brave, for being honest and for including the important data to back up.”

CAM, VIA TWITTER: “Some people might go to an ‘alternative weekly’ newspaper and expect them to interview people other than reactionary homeowners that are interviewed on local TV stations literally every day. Not in Portland.”

CORTMORTON, VIA

REDDIT: “Two Saturdays ago, at 6 am, my house was hit by a bullet. It hit a foot and a half from my head where I was lying. I live on 58th and Belmont. It took eight minutes to reach 911, 40 minutes before the police came. By which time they were long, long gone. My partner and I might be long, long gone from this city before long too.”

AUTRY, VIA EMAIL: “WW, to be direct, is far from my favorite. Poor sources, overly opinionated columnists that don’t seem to fully understand the topic being written about, etc., is one reason I rarely, if ever read it.

“ Your article is high-quality journalism the city needs as it confronts the issues it’s facing.

“Thank you for sharing the stories of those that have been flustered and fed up to the point of not feeling welcome any longer. “Lack of welcome, not because of their race, gender or gender identity, but because of a basic failure on city leadership.

“It was a story that long needed to be told, and your telling it is deeply appreciated.”

Dr. Know

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

I haven’t seen anyone reading my water meter reader in ages. Indeed, it’s so overgrown it’s hard to believe anyone could read it. Is the Water Bureau just guessing at my bill? And if they’re charging me for something they don’t know for sure that I used, isn’t that just stealing? — Recently Mugged Liberal

As made-up reasons not to pay your water bill go, Mugged, this one is pretty weak sauce—and I say that as someone who’s not inexperienced at coming up with water-bill excuses myself. (Though, of course, my real life’s passion is coming up with reasons why I shouldn’t have to pay the arts tax.)

The main problem with your rationale is that you seem to think that the Portland Water Bureau has phased out the practice of reading individual customers’ meters in favor of some estimated statistical jiggery-pokery, which you figure means they won’t be able to prove you’re lying when you say your bill should be zero because your entire family gave up bathing, doing dishes and pooping in 2017.

Unfortunately for you, that jiggery-pokery hasn’t happened—at least, not yet. As of today, residential water bills are still based on old-fashioned meter readings taken by real, live meter readers. The Water Bureau

says they can do this in less than a minute, so it’s not that surprising you haven’t seen them. (Also, they probably know to keep a low profile so you won’t come out in your pee-stained boxers and bathrobe and start haranguing them about the Deep State.)

The fact that your meter seems inaccessible to you is adorable, but it means nothing to meter readers, who routinely use everything from hedge trimmers to underwater periscopes to get their data. With apologies to the Postal Service, neither weeds nor mulch nor wasps nor muddy water will stay these couriers from the swift calculation of your appointed bill.

What may stay them, however, is progress: Even as we speak, the Portland City Council is considering a contract that could set that stage for so-called smart meters that can beam your water usage data directly into Hunter Biden’s laptop (or whatever), reducing the need for manual meter reading. This suggests to me that it’s only a matter of time before “meter reader” takes its place on the list of quaint-sounding occupations lost to technology— you know, like “switchboard operator,” or “typewriter salesman,” or “newspaper columnist”—but maybe I’m just paranoid.

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

Legion of Lawsuits

Thirty low-income seniors have sued their nonprofit landlord over a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak.

BY SOPHIE PEEL speel@wweek.com

Thirty low-income seniors displaced from their North Portland apartment building after a 2021 outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease that sickened 14 tenants and killed one are now suing the building manager and owner, alleging the companies failed to keep them safe from the waterborne bacteria.

Most of the plaintiffs who lived at Rosemont Court are asking a Multnomah County circuit judge to award them no more than $10,000 each in damages from the nonprofit Northwest Housing Alternatives and the firm Income Property Management. (One of the plaintiffs, who contracted Legionnaires’, is asking for $750,000.)

The plaintiffs, all represented by Portland attorney Kevin Cathcart, make up about one-third of the building’s total population. (Cathcart is getting legal assistance from two New Orleans lawyers who have litigated Legionnaires’ cases before.)

Tenants were shuffled into hotels in early January 2021 at the outset of the outbreak, then moved back to Rosemont, then urged to move out at the recommendation of the Multnomah County Health Department, and at last were told they must move in mid-2022—though each had few affordable housing options, which delayed the move-out date for many of them.

It wasn’t until Dec. 7 that the last tenant moved out, according to NHA spokeswoman Ariane Le Chevallier. That’s despite the fact health officials never identified the source of the outbreak.

THE PLAINTIFFS

During much of 2021, tenants were fear-stricken of catching Legionnaires’ as their neighbors fell ill. Jane Foreman, 73, recalls the filters placed over every spigot in her apartment to prevent the Legionnaires’ from traveling through the air in droplets.

“It was like living with a time bomb in your apartment,” Foreman tells WW. “You didn’t know if it was going to go off in a day,

HOUSE BILL 2841

Long-delayed proposals for reforming public defense finally get an airing.

Sponsor: Rep. Paul Evans (D-Monmouth)

What it would do: The bill transfers Oregon Public Defense Services, the state agency responsible for ensuring every defendant has access to an attorney, from the judicial to the executive branch, and gives all three branches of government a say in the membership of its oversight board.

Also: It requires the agency to start hiring more of its own lawyers instead of outsourcing the job

a month, a year or never. It could be a little poof of air that was going to kill you.”

Jackie Varnadoe and Roy Story, married and both 75, lived at Rosemont for 10 years. Their family lived in the same neighborhood, only a couple of blocks away. But when Legionnaires’ broke out, they could find no affordable living arrangement. They called it quits in October 2021 and moved to Arizona.

“The lists were so long for affordable housing, and NHA wasn’t doing anything at that point to help,” Varnadoe says. “We just said, if we’re across town in Portland, we might as well be 100 miles away.”

Foreman and Varnadoe filed separate lawsuits in January.

THE RECORDING

Former NHA resident services coordinator and senior housing specialist Sofia Polzoni has been an onlooker with a guilty conscience since she quit her job at the nonprofit in the spring of 2022. She felt her employer wasn’t being transparent with its Rosemont tenants, or offering them adequate relocation help.

“It was mass chaos,” Polzoni recalls. “It was part of my job to reassure people as they came back into the building that everything was safe, even as more people were getting sick.”

Polzoni’s account is supported by a recording, obtained by WW, of an internal meeting May 25 at which top NHA officials discussed how to brand the mandatory move-out, which they planned to announce June 1.

In that recording, chief operating officer and director of asset management for NHA Ray Hackworth muses: “[There are] two options: We officially say the building is unsafe. The other option we have is to say it’s interrelated to our redevelopment goals. We have to choose one or the other. My preference is to not say that the building is unsafe, but to stay with our bread

to local contractors.

Problem it seeks to solve: OPDS is currently in crisis. Right now, more than 800 defendants across the state lack a court-appointed attorney, a constitutional violation.

Steve Singer, a hard-charging reformer, was brought in to lead the beleaguered agency in 2021. Less than a year later, he’d pissed off Oregon Chief Justice Martha Walters so thoroughly that she replaced the agency’s entire oversight commission—which promptly fired him.

Like so many of the crises facing Oregon right now, this one was easily foreseeable. Back in 2019, the state hired a nonprofit to suggest improvements for its benighted—and unique—public defense system, which outsources the job to local contractors.

The nonprofit, the Sixth Amendment Center, submitted a report recommending a substantial overhaul, which state lawmakers largely ignored. Three years later, they’re finally getting around

and butter, and say we’re moving towards rehabilitation.”

Executive director Trell Anderson recommends that NHA “lay it at the feet of the health department.”

“ We don’t want to say the building is not safe, because we believe it is. We don’t have the money in hand currently for the rehab,” Anderson says in the recording. “So for me, this is our ‘buy us as much time as we need to figure it out’ phrase.”

Le Chevallier says the tape demonstrates “just one of many scenario-planning conversations that took place over that time.… What’s most important is the final decisions that were made. [NHA has] gone to great lengths to prioritize the well-being of its residents at Rosemont Court.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The defendants have until Feb. 1 to furnish settlement offers to each of the plaintiffs. If they don’t, the two parties will enter into a discovery phase.

Last week, Foreman says she received a call from someone on behalf of Rosemont Court. They asked if she’d like to come back when the building reopens.

“I lost so much when I left Rosemont. I could list 50 things that I miss and don’t have here, number one being my community,” Foreman says. “But I don’t want to go back to Rosemont, because I wouldn’t trust going back to that building.”

Le Chevallier says the nonprofit is considering reopening Rosemont Court.

“NHA is considering options, including investing over $1 million to bring residents back to an improved building,” Le Chevallier says. “The water infrastructure is not being replaced… the Rosemont water system continues to be operated consistent with the water management plan prepared and administered by an expert consultant team.”

to implementing many of its proposals, including tamping down some of the chief justice’s power.

“The leadership, for whatever reason, kicked the can down the road,” says Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene). “No more can-kicking. It’s time to start moving it forward.”

Who supports it: Rep. Evans and Sen. Prozanski are co-chairs of the “Three Branch Workgroup,” which was tasked with solving the state’s public defense crisis early last year. This bill, introduced by Evans, is an early draft of a final bill the workgroup plans to present to the Legislature in the spring.

Transferring OPDS to the executive branch would force contractors to disclose their caseloads to the state, and improve the agency’s ability to forecast future need, Evans says.

By 2035, he hopes the state will be handling at least 30% of indigent cases on its own, without relying on contractors. That’ll give the state “the ability to surge, and send people when there’s a

problem,” he tells WW

Who opposes it: So far, no one has come out publicly against the bill, which is not yet fully baked. “Privately, there are some people concerned that it’s going to change the way they do their jobs,” Evans says.

The head of the Sixth Amendment Center, David Carroll, said he couldn’t comment on active legislation. A spokesman for the Oregon Judicial Department, which currently controls OPDS, said it was “neutral” on handing over the reins to Gov. Tina Kotek. Carl Macpherson, executive director of Metropolitan Public Defender, Multnomah County’s largest public defense nonprofit, was unavailable to comment on the bill.

But don’t be surprised when detractors come out of the woodwork once the workgroup finalizes its proposal. Says Evans, “I suspect a few more moments of drama because, hey, it’s Oregon—why not?” LUCAS

MANFIELD.

BILL OF THE WEEK

EVERYBODY OUT: No low-income seniors are currently living at Rosemont Court in North Portland.

Shhhhh

WILD FLOWERS

Nursery’s owner is sitting on empty houses.

Addresses: 9007 and 9029 SE Clinton St.

Years built: 1908 and 1922

Square footage: 1,038 and 961

Market values: $423,350 and $897,650

Owners: Jeibmann Greenhouses Inc. and Hanging Rock LLC

How long they’ve been empty: God knows. Why they’re empty: An oasis went feral.

Portland Nursery is a Stumptown institution. It was founded in 1907 and has been the go-to spot for everything from azaleas to zinnias ever since.

The operation has two Southeast locations, one at 50th Avenue and Stark Street and another at 90th Avenue and Division Street. Behind the 5-acre Division location, on Clinton Street, is a line of five properties, all owned by entities controlled by Jon Denney, the longtime owner of Portland Nursery, or his family. Property records show Denney started buying them, Monopoly style, in 1992.

The parcel at the northwest corner of 92nd and Clinton has a house and shed that appear connected to Portland Nursery’s operations (the nursery didn’t return phone calls or email). Going west, there’s an empty lot. Next come two abandoned houses, both surrounded by chain-link fences. Finally, in the middle of the block, stands a house that’s occupied by a renter.

Bruce Silverman is hopping mad about the changes coming to Multnomah County’s Central Library.

In a letter to library patrons two weeks ago, Vailey Oehlke, the county’s director of libraries, described a “refresh” to the stately Georgian structure that turns 110 this year.

Oehlke heralded a reimagined library. “I’m confident in what we will deliver—new spaces that aren’t just for storing books, but are catalysts for community experiences of learning, growth and discovery,” she wrote, without providing details.

But an internal communication obtained by WW shows wholesale changes are afoot at 801 SW 10th Ave.: After a nine-month closure beginning in March, gone will be much of the oak furniture, stone countertops, and tall shelves—and nearly half of publicly accessible books and periodicals.

In an interview, Oehlke noted the library has changed little since Google upended the way people seek information. “The transition from being storage places for books and bookshelves to places that are really centered on the human experience in those spaces is exactly what needs to be happening,” she says.

Silverman, 70, a retired property manager who lives in Northwest Portland, visits the main library regularly. He laments the planned changes.

“I am appalled,” Silverman says. “This is the murder of an essential piece of our community.”

We asked the questions he and others want answered.

WHAT’S THE BUDGET AND WHERE’S IT COMING FROM?

The two-part “refresh” of Central is budgeted at $20.9 million. Of that amount, $12.85 million comes from a $387 million bond voters approved in 2020. The bond called out the construction of a new east county library and the renovation of eight branch libraries. It didn’t mention closing Central Library for nearly a year. Oehlke says nobody hid the ball, but as her team began examining work at other branches, it was clear they needed to update the county’s main library.

WHY WILL NEARLY HALF CENTRAL’S BOOKS AND PERIODICALS DISAPPEAR?

The number of books and periodicals that are publicly accessible at

Central will shrink from 394,723 to 198,534, a reduction of 49.7%. In their place? More open space for library users, including specific areas for groups such as teenagers who may now feel underserved.

Silverman hates that. “Anyone who seeks to increase their knowledge in any of the arts or sciences needs to see how well a book is illustrated before they can know if it will be useful to them,” he says. “Any lover of fiction needs to sample a few paragraphs to determine whether they can enjoy the author’s writing style.”

Oehlke acknowledges that change but says materials will still be available—less visible but more efficiently retrieved. “Books will continue to be a priority,” she says. “The overall collection won’t be reduced in size—just how people access it will.”

WHY GET RID OF DURABLE, CUSTOM-MADE FURNITURE AND SERVICE DESKS?

The refresh will include the removal of some bookshelves and the downsizing of others. The goal is to create more usable, flexible and safer space, with more outlets for charging devices.

“Lower stack heights allow staff better visibility across individual rooms, and it allows patrons better visibility as well,” says library spokesperson Shawn Cunningham. “It helps staff spot inappropriate or problematic behavior if it occurs.”

That’s also the explanation for getting rid of some tables, chairs and desks. “The furniture at Central Library reflects dated and inflexible practices,” Cunningham says. “Currently, those materials and surfaces are large, heavy, fixed and uncomfortable for many users.”

What’s unsaid but implied: Central Library has long been a gathering place for unhoused Portlanders, and management is trying to adjust the physical surroundings to that reality.

Silverman is pessimistic. “If Vailey Oehlke thinks people don’t read books anymore, she should just close the libraries,” he says. “Multnomah will be the last county in the nation in terms of an informed citizenry, but we’ll have the largest warming shelter.”

Oehkle sees it differently. “Apart from parks, libraries are arguably the most public spaces in any community,” she says. “There’s an expectation and a responsibility for us to provide space in a way that respects people, no matter their background.”

NIGEL JAQUISS.

The two abandoned houses irk a neighbor who who lives across the street. “It’s quite disheartening to see a well-known, staple Portland company not doing much to help the housing crisis,” she wrote to us in an email.

Portland Nursery was started by a nurseryman named Albert Brownell, according to the company’s website. Avery Steinmetz bought it in the early 1920s and became an Oregon horticultural legend by modernizing the trade. After six decades, he sold it to Denney.

“ When he finally sold the nursery in the 1980s, Mr. Steinmetz wasn’t looking for the biggest profit,” the site says. “He was looking for the greatest vision. He wanted to make sure his nursery would remain an oasis in the city, a green space with a human touch.”

The proximity to his business on Division suggests Denney was thinking about an expansion when he started snapping up property on Clinton. If that was the case, then he’s been waiting a long time to make his move. He bought the abandoned house at 9007 SE Clinton in 1992 and the one at 9029 in 2002, property records show. He didn’t respond to a request for comment.

These days, the lots don’t really fit with Old Man Steinmetz’s vision of an “oasis.” They have a “human touch,” certainly. On a visit there this week, we found a trailer full of old tires and other junk partially blocking a road that has potholes deep enough to plant Douglas fir saplings.

Until recently, Denney and his family owned two more properties on the other side of Clinton. They sold them in 2021. In front of one is posted a development notice saying that a developer, MMDC Company, plans to build a three-story building with 36 apartments in it. The schematic shows new trees and bushes, plenty of which are available at Portland Nursery, just past the abandoned houses to the north. They could sure use a little greenery, too.

EFFINGER.

ANTHONY

Every week, WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, explains why it’s empty, and considers what might arrive there next. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

Multnomah County’s Central Library is about to get a makeover. Not everybody is pleased.

CHRIS NESSETH

Portland

“I really don’t think the state of Oregon or the United States is ready for a wise, benevolent monarch yet,’’ he told The Oregonian in 1995. “That’s what I would hope that I would be perceived as.’’

Two events changed his fortunes: First, in response to Hemstreet’s union bashing, the Oregon AFL-CIO launched a boycott in 1994 of all Shilo properties. That action went on for years and hurt enough that Hemstreet pushed for legislation in 1997 outlawing such tactics (the bill failed).

“To this day, there are a lot of people in Oregon who will never stay in a Shilo Inn,” says Jim Moore a professor of political science at Pacific University.

Even more damaging: the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which shut down travel for an extended period.

More than half of Hemstreet’s hotels filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath (each was a separate limited liability corporation). Court records suggest Shilo’s fortunes never really recovered. The chain is now down to 18 hotels, and records show some of those are in deep financial trouble.

Hemstreet canceled his Oregon voter registration in 2009, records show. He often uses a Las Vegas address, although he and his wife, Shannon, have also owned a 1,400-acre ranch near Missoula, Mont., and properties in California and Texas.

Battle of Shilo

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

For hotelier Mark Hemstreet, it’s come to this: A man who was among the biggest spenders in Oregon politics in the 1990s, who lived a life of private jets and sprawling ranches—not to mention the metro area’s largest American flags and Christmas light displays at his company’s Beaverton headquarters—today stands accused of not paying for his cattle’s fodder.

On Jan. 23, Cody Tippett, a farmer in Wallowa County, where Hemstreet owns a 9,200-acre ranch, filed notice with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office alleging that Hemstreet hadn’t paid him $101,356 for “labor and hay provided to feed cattle.”

Records show that Hemstreet, founder and owner of the Shilo Inns hotel chain (motto: “Affordable excellence”), has far bigger debts than the one for Tippett’s hay.

In December, the Internal Revenue Service filed a slew of liens against Hemstreet for unpaid income taxes. (Governments file liens to secure an interest in real property when taxpayers fail to pay their obligations.)

The December filings brought the number of IRS liens against Hemstreet filed with the secretary of state to nine. None has been released or paid off. The liens show that Hemstreet owes

the feds more than $20 million for unpaid personal income taxes and employee withholdings.

For some, failure to pay federal income taxes can result in criminal charges. In November, for instance, the U.S. attorney for Oregon publicized the guilty plea of Rebekah Williams, the owner of a now-defunct Damascus dump truck operation. After being indicted on 19 counts of willfully failing to pay $112,457 in federal withholding taxes for employees, Williams pleaded guilty to “willfully failing to pay employment taxes” and will be sentenced Feb. 14. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

his attorneys, Charles Markley, says the liens “are being handled by Mr. Hemstreet’s professional tax accountant and tax attorney to pay and resolve in the near future.”

To some observers, it looks as if Hemstreet is getting a free ride at the public’s expense.

“This woman [Williams] who owes back taxes for three years is probably going to prison, and he’s still out there enjoying himself and going to his ranches,” says Jody Wiser of the watchdog group Tax Fairness Oregon. “It’s not the way the system is supposed to work.”

Hemstreet, now 72, grew up in Beaverton as the son a wealthy hotelier, according to a 1995 Oregonian profile. He opened the first hotel of his own in 1974 on Northeast 82nd Avenue. By the millennium, Hemstreet owned about 50 Shilo Inns across the West.

Hemstreet, whose liens show he owes federal taxes going back to 2014 that amount to 175 times the sum Williams failed to pay, has never been criminally charged. An IRS spokesman declined to comment and the U.S. Attorney’s Office could not be reached by press deadline. (For that matter, Tippett declined to comment on the hay.)

Hemstreet could not be reached, but one of

In the 1990s, according to news reports, Hemstreet regularly gave more money than any other Oregon political donor, supporting conservative causes and candidates. He was particularly influential from 1995 to 2001, when, with his help, Republicans controlled both chambers of the Oregon Legislature.

At 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds, he was an outsized figure, living large in a 9,800-square-foot home on the shores of Lake Oswego.

His empire is dwindling. The Shilo Inns in Nampa, Idaho, Ocean Shores, Wash., and Bend have gone into bankruptcy in recent years, as the hospitality industry reeled from COVID-19. (Records show that Shilo Management Corporation, a Hemstreet company, got $4.92 million in federal Paycheck Protection Program loans—all forgiven—during the pandemic.)

“The regrettable voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcies were a result of the historic unprecedented COVID pandemic that caused loss of life, and health issues for many Americans as well as substantial economic hardship for many families and businesses across Oregon and the nation,” Hemstreet’s attorney, Markley, says.

In addition to not paying his taxes to the feds, Hemstreet has racked up considerable back taxes in Oregon as well. Liens show he owes the Oregon Department of Revenue more than $3 million.

Markley says those liens will be paid off, and he notes that Hemstreet has done a lot of good.

“Mr. Hemstreet has been in business for over 48 years and has proudly employed thousands of Oregonians and Americans across many states,” Markley says, “contributing millions in local, city, county, state and federal taxes that help support education, police and firefighters.”

But Tax Fairness Oregon’s Wiser says Hemstreet, whose political philosophy was built on the notion of personal responsibility, needs to make good on his obligations.

“His businesses depend on public infrastructure and services,” Wiser says, “but he’s not doing his part to pay for them.”

Rebekah Williams’ attorney, Ron Hoevet, prosecuted federal tax cases as a young lawyer. Now, he says, he probably defends as many tax cases as any criminal defender in the state.

That Hemstreet has so far dodged criminal scrutiny doesn’t surprise him.

“The IRS, in my view, doesn’t go after the big guys,” Hoevet says. “They target mostly cases that look like certainties—regular folks whose businesses are in trouble—rather than people like Hemstreet.”

Once among the biggest donors in Oregon politics, Shilo Inns founder Mark Hemstreet owes more than $20 million in back taxes.

FLIGHT RISK: The airport Shilo Inn has long been a gathering place for Oregon’s Republican brain trust.

“The IRS, in my view, doesn’t go after the big guys.”

ALBERTA ROSE THEATRE

WINNING RECORD

When the Portland police union fights disciplinary action against a cop, it rarely loses.

BY LUCAS MANFIELD lmanfield@wweek.com

remarkable record. “The reason that the PPA is historically successful is because we don’t just grieve everything,” he says. “We only complain when we think that it’s unfair.”

The PPA has taken the city to arbitration in only 2% of disciplinary cases, according to recent statistics he shared with WW

But those cases are often the most politically inflammatory, and the fact that appointed arbitrators so consistently overrule elected city leaders has long inflamed critics.

FEB

In 2021, Officer Brian Hunzeker admitted to leaking a confidential report mistakenly tying the Portland Police Bureau’s most vociferous critic, then-City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, to a hit-and-run accident. After public outcry, Mayor Ted Wheeler fired Hunzeker—over the objections of his own disciplinary committee and chief of police.

Now, two years later, Hunzeker has been reinstated by a Washington state-based arbitrator.

The mayor saved face by appearing tough. The cop kept his job. With memories of the scandal fading, the news cycle moved on. If we sound a little cynical, that’s because what happened last week followed a well-trodden path, a pattern that starts to feel like an eternal recurrence of Portland police discipline.

WW reviewed a list of arbitration decisions published by the state’s Employment Relations Board. The list is incomplete—until recently, arbitrators were not required to submit their decisions to the state.

But a review of even this limited set of decisions illustrates the cycle’s persistence. Out of the 10 cases in the past two decades involving Portland police misconduct, arbitrators ruled in cops’ favor in eight of them.

The Portland Police Association is one of the most powerful unions in the state, and has been for decades. A WW cover story in 2020 traced the long history of the union’s influence, and the hard-charging contract negotiations that underpin it (“The Blue Wall,” WW, June 24, 2020).

“I think every firing of an officer was overturned when I was in office,” former City Commissioner Mike Lindberg, who served from 1979 to 1996, told WW at the time.

Although police forces often have powerful unions, Portland is in some respects an outlier. Nationwide studies have shown that arbitrators typically run in officers’ favor only around 50% to 60% of the time.

Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, president of Portland’s police union, credits his organization’s judiciousness for its

OFFICER:

Brian Hunzeker, former president of the police union

WHAT HAPPENED:

Hunzeker leaked a confidential police report incorrectly accusing Jo Ann Hardesty, a prominent critic, of a hit-and-run.

CHARGES:

Leaking, retaliation

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE:

Fired

ARBITRATOR: Timothy Williams

RULING:

One-week suspension

DATE:

Jan. 31, 2023

RATIONALE:

Williams found Hunzeker guilty of leaking, but not retaliation. Williams was also unconvinced that the resulting Oregonian story did much harm to Hardesty, and concluded that

Such frustration led state legislators to reform the law enforcement arbitration process in 2021. Those reforms limited arbitrators’ power. They could only overturn discipline that was “arbitrary or capricious”— or for allegations that were false.

The latter is how Timothy Williams, a randomly appointed arbitrator with nearly five decades of experience, overturned Hunzeker’s firing. He concluded there was not “a preponderance of evidence” that Hunzeker was guilty of all the charges the city levied against him.

In March 2021, Oregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein called Hunzeker trying to confirm a tip that someone inside the Police Bureau was concocting a hit-and-run accusation against then-Commissioner Hardesty, a prominent critic. Hunzeker responded by texting Bernstein a copy of a police report listing Hardesty as the suspect in a hit-and-run accident in East Portland. (The crash victim had mistakenly identified Hardesty.) The Oregonian ran the story.

After Hunzeker admitted that Hardesty’s ongoing criticism of the city’s police force played into his decision to leak the document, the city added retaliation to the list of charges. Mayor Wheeler ultimately fired him.

But Williams disagreed. Given Hunzeker’s position as head of the police union, Williams wrote, his motivation was “public discourse,” not retaliation. In other words, because Hunzeker had a political job, he was entitled to engage in political speech.

This conclusion outrages Dan Handelman, head of Portland Copwatch, who noted that Hunzeker was acting as a police officer—not a union official—when he accessed the confidential file. “Ignoring that is a fundamental slap in the face to the community, to Jo Ann Hardesty, and to justice,” Handelman says.

If so, it’s only the latest. Here are the eight rulings on Portland police misconduct, including Hunzeker’s, that have been published by the state ERB. (In the other two, the union lost on technicalities—it failed to meet submission deadlines.)

a one-week suspension—more than the one-day suspension given to another officer accused of leaking the report, but less than the 12 weeks preferred by the chief of police— was the appropriate discipline.

OFFICER: Andrew Caspar

WHAT HAPPENED: Caspar arrived late to a welfare check, telling bystanders, “We don’t chase known suspects thanks to the Obama administration.”

CHARGES:

Laziness, lying

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE: Fired

ARBITRATOR: Michael Cavanaugh

RULING: Written reprimand

DATE: June 7, 2021

RATIONALE:

Cavanaugh says he was “perhaps more sympathetic than the city” to Caspar’s explanations for his delay in responding to a mental health welfare check. Caspar blamed “heavy rush-hour traffic,” despite GPS tracking data that suggested he was hanging out with a trainee inside a Starbucks. In the end, Cavanaugh was unconvinced Caspar’s evasions amounted to lies.

OFFICER:

Lt. Rachel Andrew

WHAT HAPPENED: Andrew filed a report claiming another officer “yelled” at her over the phone. She was also accused of being overly touchy-feely with co-workers.

CHARGES: Sexual harassment, lying

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE: 80-hour suspension

ARBITRATOR:

Judy Henry

RULING: 40-hour suspension

DATE: Sept. 14, 2014

RATIONALE:

Henry concluded that Andrew’s statement in her report was “untenable” and she had made “inappropriate comments.” The arbitrator was unconvinced, however, that Andrew’s sexual comments were unwelcome.

OFFICER: Scott Dunick

WHAT HAPPENED:

Dunick smoked pot, gave prescription drugs to a co-worker, and was arrested for DUII.

CHARGE:

Ongoing substance abuse problems

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE:

Fired

ARBITRATOR: Stanley Michelstetter

RULING:

Reinstated, with mandatory drug testing

DATE: Dec. 12, 2012

RATIONALE:

Michelstetter accused the police chief at the time, Mike Reese, of making “a number of crucial errors” during the disciplinary process, including failing to evaluate Dunick for disability retirement as the result of mental illness.

OFFICERS: Christopher Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice

WHAT HAPPENED:

Officers beat to death

42-year-old James P. Chasse Jr., who was unarmed and suffering from mental illness.

CHARGE:

Failing to ensure Chasse received proper medical care after he was tasered

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE: 80hour suspensions

ARBITRATOR: Timothy Williams

RULING:

Cleared of wrongdoing

DATE: July 9, 2012

RATIONALE:

Williams noted that paramedics examined Chasse at the scene, and the decision not to later send for an ambulance was OK’d by an on-call nurse—it was not a “mandatory requirement,” according to bureau policy.

OFFICER: Ronald Frashour

WHAT HAPPENED:

Frashour fatally shot 25-yearold Aaron Campbell in the back with an AR-15 rifle.

CHARGE: Excessive force

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE:

Fired

ARBITRATOR: Jane R. Wilkinson

RULING: Reinstated

DATE: March 30, 2012

RATIONALE:

Wilkinson concluded “it was reasonable” for Frashour to believe Campbell was armed, and reaching toward his waistband, when he shot him.

“This was a very tragic case,” she wrote, “one where the Monday-morning quarterback has the clear advantage when divining what went wrong.”

OFFICER:

Lt. Jeffrey Kaer

WHAT HAPPENED:

Kaer shot and killed 28-yearold Dennis Lamar Young, whom Kaer found parked outside Young’s sister’s home in what Kaer suspected was a stolen car. Young backed the car toward officers while attempting to flee.

CHARGE: Poor judgment

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE: Fired

ARBITRATOR: Gary Axon

RULING:

30-day suspension

DATE:

July 28, 2008

RATIONALE:

Axon sided with Kaer’s commanders, who believed the hasty decision to shoot deserved a suspension, not termination.

OFFICER: Scott McCollister

WHAT HAPPENED: McCollister shot and killed Kendra James, a 21-year-old Black woman, as he attempted to drag her from a car. There was a warrant for James’ arrest, and she was fleeing from a traffic stop.

CHARGE:

Poor tactics

ORIGINAL DISCIPLINE:

5.5-month suspension

ARBITRATOR: John C. Truesdale

RULING:

Cleared of wrongdoing

DATE:

Jan. 17, 2006

RATIONALE:

Truesdale cited a “disconnect” between the police chief’s “decision-making process” and the “true facts of the situation.” Kendra James was a dangerous flight risk, Truesdale concluded, and the city, “swept up in a maelstrom of swirling public opinion,” rushed to discipline McCollister prior to completing its investigation.

personal injury wrongful death trucking accidents product liability

REASONS TOLOVE PORTLAND 26 RIGHT NOW

hen the spark goes out of a love affair, all the marriage counselors agree, it’s time to remember what attracted you in the first place.

This Valentine’s Day, a lot of Portlanders are struggling to rekindle a romance with their hometown. Last week, we talked to six former residents who essentially went out to buy a gallon of milk and never came home. The population crash sings a breakup song—it’s a town of wandering eyes, everybody thinking about some other place to make their bed.

Whatever happened to Astoria? Maybe you’ll give her a call…

If this seems an inopportune moment to talk about loving Portland, we think it’s the perfect time. It is possible to be devoted to someone whose flaws you recognize and want to fix (hell, that’s as good a motto for local journalism as we’ve heard), and perhaps it’s necessary to see what’s special about a place in order to feel motivated to fix it.

For us, it’s the little things in the Rose City that still make us feel a surge of love.

It’s the woman who arrives each day at an Old Town kitchen to calm distressed people (Reason #2) or the artist who built a miniature gallery in his front yard (Reason #26). It’s a mom coaching her giant sons (Reason #16) and grandparents introducing a new generation to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Reason #13). It’s free pastries on two wheels (Reason #6), bars on four wheels (Reason #10), and the best pillows two cheeks ever felt (Reason #24).

We hope the 26 stories that follow give you reason to stick around. Over and over, they show people believing enough in a future for this city that they keep showing up.

M aybe love is making that choice.

MICHAEL

1. Because the Republic

Cafe is entering its second century…

Last summer, the Republic Cafe turned 100…ish. According to city documents, construction on the Chinatown structure was finished in 1922, but the restaurant itself didn’t open until 1930. Newspapers from the period identify a business called Republic Cafe operating as far back as 1919, which may explain the “New Republic” remnants painted on the parking lot entrance. Wai and Sue Mui, co-owners of the restaurant for more than three decades, just relied upon the date printed on the front of Republic menus: Indeed, it’s 1922.

Precise details of the Republic’s origins are far less interesting than the secrets behind its survival. Its Old Town neighbors have largely fallen to boutique hotel developments or tent camps. The Republic’s marching on, the last bar standing amid downtown’s underbelly. It survives without Oregon Lottery terminals or resorting to a second act as a Disneyfied tourist trap hawking glimpses of a long-lost seediness. Forget Jake’s. It’s Chinatown.

To be sure, the Republic’s kitchen believes any enduring success flows from diligently replicating dishes unaltered from the ’20s heyday of Cantonese American eateries. Both owners and lounge manager Heather Nissa further credit the 60-some years spent behind the bar by a dearly departed ’tender. “When Miss Mary was working,” Mui sighs, “very nice customers would stay late. People had their birthdays, wedding parties in the banquet room.”

A certain rough-and-tumble element should be expected. The annals of Republic lore contain as much sweet as unsavory—a cook’s head bisected by a hatchet for every Bud Clark bar floor proposal—but the past decade’s worst years ran particularly dark. “When I started seven years ago,” Nissa recalls, “we had one [police] officer come through, tell everybody he was only here at the new bartender’s request, and walk back out—that was the most help we ever got.”

But the lack of city scrutiny was perhaps a stroke of fortune. Back when the Republic opened, Nissa says, “We weren’t policed like everywhere else, and the Chinese were much more accepting of anybody who came in so long as they spent money and were respectful. The same rules didn’t apply here as they did

everywhere else, which led to a beautiful community flourishing.

“Even back in the ’20s, the rest of Portland was still segregated, you know? People who were Jewish or sexually oriented different than mainstream would come here, and diversity thrived. Patrons who’d normally never even see one another would end up having a good time together publicly at a time where nobody else could. Up until recently, at least, it’s always been the type of place where you’d get a crackhead hanging out with the chief of police. You still never know who you’re going to run into here.”

The Republic’s new minders have embraced that possibility. The once-and-future video poker alcove in adjacent Ming’s Lounge has been repurposed as de facto gallery and chill-out space, while the banquet room now hosts maker fairs and musical acts booked by Nissa’s husband, Mykal Ragonese.

Las t autumn’s westward relocation of raver haven Rainbow City into the vacant husk of neighboring Fong Chong has emboldened a freshly bustling nightlife that once more sees the cream of local tastemakers pack Republic to the wee small hours. Now that both Republic and Rainbow City help share the costs of a private security team based around the Society Hotel one block away, the community’s even resumed policing itself.

For Nissa, the rise of the next Chinatown empire comes as welcome vindication:

“The second I walked into the Republic, I knew I was meant to be here. It felt like home—where I belonged, where we all belong.

“There are still boards on the front door. Some benches could be replaced. The neon needs refurbishing. It’s far from perfect and just beautiful that way. There’s no place just like this anywhere in the world, and it’s been that way for a hundred years.”

JAY HORTON.

2. Because Jenn Coon shows up every day in the roughest part of the city…

Each afternoon for more than a year and a half, Jenn Coon has put on a neon orange utility vest, sneakers and jeans and made her way to Old Town. Coon works as a peer support specialist at Blanchet House, which serves both as a residential home for men in addiction recovery and as a meal provider (breakfast, lunch and dinner) for homeless Portlanders.

Coon, 54, a recovering addict and formerly homeless herself for six years in Portland, knows nearly everyone who comes down there.

“Most of the people on the streets know that I used to eat out of a garbage can. That helps keep me sober,” Coon says. “I don’t rub it in anyone’s face. But I do know recovery is possible. I’ve truly been where they’re at now.”

Coon spends every afternoon and evening talking to the people lined up for meals at Blanchet House. She’ll fetch them shoes if they’re barefoot. She’ll fetch them water if they’re coming down from a high. If someone brandishes a weapon and is violent, she’ll usher all the other guests inside. She’ll try to talk them down. If she feels they’re a danger to her, too, she’ll resort to her least favorite option: calling the police.

Coon, who stands 4-foot-10 on a good hair day, doesn’t take shit from anyone. She’s kind but firm. For the most part, people know not to mess with her. She doesn’t parse words about sometimes fearing the very people she cares for. But she doesn’t hold it against them.

“Sometimes I am afraid,” she says. “I think it’s the unpredictability that tends to scare me. It happens in the daylight, completely unprovoked. One day someone can be your best friend, and then the next day they don’t know who you are, and call you Aunt Margaret, or accuse you of taking their baby, or something so outlandish they want to kill you. You can’t make sense out of nonsense.”

For half a decade she lived a similar life to the people who live in tents and under bridges in Old Town.

Coon became an addict in her 30s. Her children were taken away from her. She bounced from drug to drug: first pills and Vicodin, then heroin, then meth. She says when she started administering via needle “is when it got bad.” She would wake up, on Southeast Foster Road and 74th Avenue, literally frozen to the ground.

After six years of living outside, she decided to get clean. She spent six months in residential treatment and another six months in transitional housing. Then she got her own apartment.

“My kids are back in my life, I have a brand new car and a job I’m proud of,” Coon says. “I go to church every Sunday. My life is just amazing.”

Amid warring ideologies over how best to address homelessness—housing first or shelter first—Coon doesn’t engage in the political squabble. She just shows up. Every day. SOPHIE PEEL.

3. Because high school athletes are getting paid…

When Oregon decided last year to allow high school athletes to partake in NIL deals—a partnership which allows student athletes to profit from a brand using their “name, image, and likeness”—sports apparel brands like Portland Gear had to act fast. Marcus Harvey knew who his first calls would be.

You may not know Harvey by name. But you’d recognize his work around town. That iconic “P” logo with the outline of Oregon inside, plastered on everything from T-shirts to hats to bags? That’s him. Oh, and if you happen to follow the “@portland” handle on Instagram—that’s him too.

Harvey launched Portland Gear back in 2014, and quickly amassed a following. “I just wanted to create a brand and a logo for the city that I loved, and something that I could wear,” Harvey says. “It turns out other people liked them.”

Harvey’s branding has landed on the outfits of Portland pro athletes like NFL linebacker Brennan Scarlett. Portland Gear’s first NIL deal was with Stanford women’s basketball star Cameron Brink. It partnered with Brink to launch a pink hoodie that featured her silhouette.

Thanks to Portland’s basketball scene, Harvey was acquainted with the two athletes he wanted to sign: Sofia Bell and Jackson Shelstad. Otherwise known as: the top basketball prospects in the state of Oregon. Bell is a nationally ranked wing at Jesuit High School. Shelstad, a top-100 player, is West Linn High’s point guard. Both athletes have committed to play basketball at the University of Oregon starting this fall.

On Oct. 20, Portland Gear announced it had signed the pair to an NIL deal that gives both students monetary and product compensation, in exchange for their promotion of Portland Gear. (After contacting the athletes’ parents, of course.) Shelstad and Bell also collabed with Portland Gear to release limited-edition T-shirts—the “Sofia Bell Jersey Tee” and the “Jackson Shelstad Jersey Tee.”

“ We have young high school consumers, and these are two people that other high schoolers look up to,” Harvey says. Plus, he adds, “we want the best people rocking our gear.” SHANNON DAEHNKE.

MICHAEL RAINES MICHAEL RAINES

CENTURY-OLD TOWN: The Republic Cafe is (probably) 100 years old.

4. Because we finally landed a bowl game…

If our city resembles a ginormous quad for fifth-year seniors of all ages, big-time college sporting events have been conspicuously lacking. We’re unlikely to host the Final Four or College Football Playoff any time soon, but at least one national intercollegiate championship looked beyond the gray skies, doughy theorists and massing vagrants.

The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, organizers behind the 27th annual Ethics Bowl to be held March 4-5 in Portland, evidently thought these were selling points.

“ We’re always looking for a fun city our members would want to visit,” APPE executive director Kristen Fuhs Wells tells WW “We hadn’t been to the West Coast for a while. And, also, we could tie local homelessness into the conference’s human rights theme. When we travel to cities, we try to tie in some of the ethical issues happening there, so the unhoused population was obviously something we considered.”

For the uninitiated, the Ethics Bowl’s origins date back to 1993 exercises organized by Illinois Institute of Technology professor Dr. Robert Ladenson, promoting reasoned deliberation of ethical standards applied to practical concerns. The strictly intramural contest soon gave way to a Chicagoland tournament that expanded over time to the current field of more than 200 schools attending 12 regional tourneys with 36 entrants advancing to the Portland Marriott stage.

As for the matches themselves, teams are read a question pertaining to one of several preselected issues ripped from the headlines. Each squad then structures a best take, their opponent offers additional commentary, the first team responds, and judges render their thoughts. “It’s structured like a debate,” Wells explains, “but students are trying to understand different

perspectives rather than zing each other. The format actually dissuades participants from hammering their point home.”

According to Wells, upcoming battleground case studies include “something on forced retirement, one about racial biases in reality TV, alcohol sales during the last World Cup, and tattoo copyright infringement—Kat Von D, I think, based a tattoo design on another artist’s arm, so who really owns that? There’s no right or wrong. These really are the gray areas.”

Oregon fans, alas, are out of luck for home favorites. Spokane’s Whitworth University and Seattle University are the nearest finalists this year. We happen to be in an especially strong region, Wells says, though a peculiarity of the rules allows each school to choose where they compete.

“ We very rarely see anyone going far out of their region to try and make it in. Remember, this is an ethical competition,” she laughs. “It’s not like we’re packing the stadiums!” JAY HORTON.

5. Because we’re building electric boats…

Marcelino Alvarez loves motorboats. He grew up fishing and scuba diving in South Florida, and boats have been part of his life since childhood.

But Alvarez, 43, doesn’t love the emissions from outboard motors, so he started a company to electrify them called Photon Marine. In a warehouse on Swan Island, he and his team are ripping the guts out of Mercury outboards and replacing them with electric motors. They test their prototypes on the Willamette River, using a nearby launch.

Alvarez, a serial entrepreneur, says there is no better place to build electric things than Portland because the town has so many engineers that specialize in electric vehicles.

“There is a subculture of EV knowledge here that no one knows about,” Alvarez says. “We reduce our risk 10 times by learning from other people’s mistakes.”

A company called Cascadia Motion is making high-powered electric motors. EVDrive makes high-powered motors. Daimler Truck North America is making electric trucks.

Alvarez’s plan is to start by making boats for commercial use. He wants to put his electric motors on small boats that ferry people from cruise ships to shore and back. The short, predictable round trip means guaranteed charging at the mothership. Eventually, Alvarez wants to build engines for pleasure craft, but battery technology isn’t advanced enough to quell the “range anxiety” of getting too far out to sea with an inadequate charge. “That’s a fool’s errand,” Alvarez says.

For now, maybe. But Portland’s hive of EV expertise might have us waterskiing behind quiet, clean, fast vessels someday soon. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

6. Because there is such a thing as a free breakfast, if you bike…

For more than 20 years, on the last Friday of every month, bikes, bridges, coffee beans and artisan pastry come together in the most Portlandian of ways, with volunteers, donations and grease-perfumed good vibes.

It’s all courtesy of Breakfast on the Bridges.

Founded as part of Portland’s first BikeSummer, the 2002 festival that would two years later be rebranded as Pedalpalooza, and maintained since then by volunteers from Shift2Bikes, a nonprofit that champions all things pedaled, Breakfast on the Bridges is a monthly morning event that equips commuters chevro-legging it across the Willamette River with free coffee donated by Trailhead Coffee and pastries contributed by local bakeries like Coco Donuts and Gluten Free Gem. The event bounces between bridges, serving both car-free spans like Tilikum Crossing and the pedestrian thoroughfare of the Steel Bridge.

“I would almost describe the vibe as like, dads around the edge of the soccer field on the weekend,” says volunteer Lillian Karabaic, who’s been serving coffee and pastries with the program for 16 years, “We bring little pop-up tents; it’s just a nice dry place to say hi to your neighbors.”

Karabaic and the other Breakfast on the Bridges volunteers haul their equipment to their bridge locations by bike. “We actually brought our stove and made beignets on the bridge,” Karabaic says. “We’ll probably do that next month because it’ll be Mardi Gras.”

Throughout the year, BOTB operates as a rotating bridgebased coffee klatch, cycling between Flanders Crossing, the Earl Blumenauer Bridge, the Steel Bridge and Tilikum Crossing. (Shift2Bikes also promotes and maintains the city’s established bike culture through large community rides like Critical Mass. Check out shift2bikes.org to learn more or volunteer.)

As many events have dissolved over the past couple of years, Breakfast on the Bridges has managed to stay the course, even securing a dedicated area on the newly christened Earl Blumenauer Bridge over the Banfield Freeway.

“None of the bridges have recovered their previous biking and walking commuter volume because a lot fewer people are going to work,” Karabaic says. “But we’ve always included people that are living outside as part of the community we serve. I think that’s one of the coolest parts: We serve surgeons commuting to work on their fancy racing bikes just as much as we serve someone that’s living outside.” BRIANNA WHEELER.

SHOWING CARE: Jenn Coon at Blanchet House.

7. Because an Amtrak trip to Eugene is as cheap as driving…

If you’re not in a hurry, there’s no better way to commute than by train. That’s been the case for most of the 22 years that Amtrak has operated its Cascades line between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C. During those two decades, passengers knew to expect two constants: a smooth ride and a late arrival.

That hasn’t changed. (While ridership has nearly rebounded to 2019 levels, according to a state presentation in December, trains were more than 15 minutes late nearly half the time.) What is different: Getting to Salem or Eugene by train is now cheaper than taking a Greyhound bus.

Two days after Christmas, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it was slashing prices. A trip from Portland’s Union Station to Salem fell from $14 to $10. Eugene? That trip is now $17. Depending on your rig, the same trips down Interstate 5 are within a couple dollars of that. Greyhound tickets to Eugene start at $18.

“It’s not a promotion. That’s the new rate for getting around Oregon on the Amtrak Cascades,” says ODOT spokeswoman Shelley Snow. “The goal is: get more riders in those seats.”

Is it odd for us to select as one of our reasons to love Portland the low expense of leaving? Yes. Yes, it is. But here’s the thing about these prices: It’s just as cheap to come back.

8. Because we’re still No. 1 in semi-factual superlatives…

No. 1 Best Foodie City (WalletHub, October 2022)

No. 1 City for Vegans and Vegetarians (WalletHub, September 2022)

No. 1 State That Eats the Most Burgers (Pantry & Larder, August 2022)

No. 2 Best City for Stoners (Clever Real Estate, April 2022)

No. 3 Best City for Dog Parks (LawnStarter, June 2022)

No. 6 Best City for Pastry Lovers (Lawn Love, December 2022)

No. 7 Best City for Witches (Lawn Love, October 2022)

9. Because Mayor Ted Wheeler is still banned from Jojo…

From its Southeast food truck to owner Justin Hintze’s social media presence to its bustling new location in the Pearl, Jojo is a quintessential Portland restaurant. Unless you happen to be the mayor of the Portland.

Soon after the restaurant opened in September, Hintze put up a flyer with a black-and-white photocopy of Ted Wheeler’s smiley avatar and, in plain block letters, “BANNED FOR LIFE.”

“To our dipshit mayor, you can’t eat here,” Hintze wrote when he put the pic on Instagram, while thoughtfully including “@ tedwheelerpdx” in the post.

What exactly did the mayor do to be the first person barred from the potato-wedge restaurant?

“Ted Wheeler is banned from Jojo because he’s a nasty ghoul that criminalizes poverty, tear gasses his citizens, and shields [the Portland Police Bureau] from any real accountability,” Hintze told WW via, what else, Twitter direct message. (Wheeler’s office did not reply to a request for comment.)

Despite his reputation for shitposting, Hintze is sincere in his politics—and his morality isn’t empty, having also leveraged his social media following to help raise more than $50,000 for the National Network of Abortion Funds around the time of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. Early last month, he also called attention to the fact that comedian and accused sexual predator Chris D’Elia was performing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. (D’Elia gets no chicken either: “BANNED EW

GROSS,” read the IG post.)

No. 8 Best City for Vampires (Lawn Love, October 2022)

No. 4 Best City for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, August 2022)

No. 8 Best City for Movie Lovers (Lawn Love, February 2022)

No. 1 State That Watches the Most Netflix (Techelate, September 2022)

No. 5 Best City for Singles (WalletHub, November 2022)

No. 1 City Where Sex Is the Most Common Dream (MyVision.org, April 2022)

No. 10 Geekiest City (Lawn Love, July 2022)

No. 10 Best City for Book Lovers (Rent.com, April 2022)

No. 1 City in Semi-Factual Superlatives (Willamette Week, February 2023)

Asked if there was anything Wheeler could do to freely experience the wonder of Jojo’s over-the-top sandwiches and fried potatoes in person, Hintze switches back to his jokey side.

“He could only get unbanned from Jojo if he lets me have Lloyd Center. Not sure how this works, but he can do it. I will demolish the ice rink because I’m jealous of people that can ice skate. I’m too clumsy and scared of ice.” JASON COHEN.

10. Because food cart pods all have bars…

Gone are the days when dinner at a food cart meant bringing a six-pack or a brown bag to a picnic table. These days, what sets the great cart pods apart from the good is beer.

DIY garage project Captured By Porches Brewing was the first to pioneer the concept in 2010 with a funky converted short bus with beer faucets drilled into the side. It looked like something from the set of Into the Wild. When CBP started pouring at the D-Street Noshery food truck pod on Southeast Division Street, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission didn’t know what to make of it. But after government agencies rubber-stamped their plan, the floodgates opened. Before long, CBP had other beer buses parked around town on Northeast Alberta Street and in St. Johns, and even though the family-owned brewery has since parted ways with its buses, several of its locations still exist under new owners.

These days, no self-respecting lot owner would dare to lease excess space to a food truck without putting in some sort of

ramshackle drinks cart. Tap trucks are practically ubiquitous as food truck pods themselves at this point.

An ’80s-era Italian box truck parked in a gravel lot on Southeast Belmont Street called EarthLab Libations regularly hosts guest brewery nights and has one of the best tap lists in town. Behind a martial arts studio on Northeast Glisan Street, the Beer Spot has a curated list from the former buyer of Lardo and Grassa. Scout Beer opened its own pod and is brewing beers inspired by campouts and s’mores for its two tap trucks. Even Breakside Brewery has parked a restored Winnebago with a kegerator on 82nd Avenue.

Let’s just hope the mobile ghost kitchens don’t figure out the reason why their business model is such a failure. Cart pods deserve a leg up. EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH.

11. Because Michael Hurley walks among us…

You can’t see Bob Dylan at The Bitter End, Sonny Rollins at the Village Vanguard, or Patti Smith at CBGB. But if you live in Oregon, you can see Michael Hurley, well, just about anywhere.

A genuine original and folk-blues giant—some say he invented “freak folk”—Hurley made his first album for Folkways in 1964, and put out his latest, The Time of the Foxgloves, just in time for his 80th birthday at the

AARON MESH AND MICK HANGLAND-SKILL.

ALL ABOARD: Waiting for a train at Union Station.

end of 2021. The Portland restaurant Sweedeedee—which is, not coincidentally, next to Mississippi Records—is named for one of his songs. And while his gigs have not been near as frequent during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s been an incredible fact of Portland music life that you can just go out and catch an artist of Hurley’s stature at the Laurelthirst Pub or Scappoose’s Rosebud Cafe (both bars at which he’s had regular monthly gigs), at various places around Astoria (where he lives), and even the odd farmers market, just like any scrappy local songwriter.

WW emailed a few people who know and love him—fans, friends, collaborators, fellow musicians—to talk about the man and what makes him sui generis.

ROBERT HAM

Guitarist, songwriter and Laurelthirst Pub co-owner Lewi Longmire may also be Hurley’s most frequent local accompanist. As a songwriter, I think it’s his ability to really draw you into HIS WORLD. Like, there’s a separate dimension he’s seeing into. They’re not characters in songs, they’re his pals. He’s bringing us missives from a different universe. As a guitarist, he’s brilliant. So incredibly fluid, and some of the best phrasing this side of Willie Nelson or Frank Sinatra. The unconventional timing in his music is because (to hear him tell it) when music first grabbed him, he thought he was a bluesman.

Eric Isaacson owns Mississippi Records, another of Hurley’s second homes.

How many 80-year-olds do you know of who write songs as good as the ones they wrote in their 20s and 30s? And he performs these songs in all kinds of unconventional settings. Going to the vegan grocery to pick up some lab-created meat stick? There’s Michael playing in Aisle 3. Gonna fly a kite in a park? There he is again, playing in the gazebo. Your neighbor’s yard? The record store? A tiny bar? A breakfast

stop overdose deaths…

Ellen Wirshup was sitting under a bridge over the Sandy River last summer, mourning the loss of a good friend to an overdose, when a question popped into her head.

“How can I just get Narcan everywhere?” she wondered.

Her answer is Project RED. What began in August as one woman’s door-to-door effort to get Narcan behind the counter at downtown Portland’s bars and clubs has become a full-fledged program, now part of a recovery initiative at the Alano Club of Portland, that ships the life-saving medication across the state. It will soon offer training for Portland Public Schools administrators, Wirshup says.

Wirshup, 29, was once a PPS student herself. The Grant High School dropout was a heavy drug user, first cocaine and then opiates, before becoming sober two years ago. After an overdose, Wirshup came to the realization: “I’m going to die from this.”

She began frequenting meetings at the Alano Club as part of her recovery. Then she proposed her new idea: put naloxone in venues. At first, the nonprofit gave her extra boxes of Narcan. Then it hired her.

These days, she’s still pulling shifts as a server at the The Moon and Sixpence pub in the Hollywood neighborhood. But her day job is now full-time harm reduction. She uses her experience both as a former addict and industry insider to convince Portland’s venues to stock Narcan along with alcohol.

Downtown bars and clubs, unsurprisingly, quickly signed up. “If you have a bathroom that locks, people are going to use substances in your bathroom,” Wirshup says. The Pharmacy, Dante’s Inferno and Star Theater grabbed boxes. But soon Wirshup was getting requests from farther afield, like Gado Gado on Northeast César E. Chávez Boulevard.

“It’s not just people in Old Town who see substance use happening right on their doorstep—it’s everyone,” she says. “It grew into a much bigger program faster than I was expecting.”

Wirshup gives a quick tutorial when handing out the tiny spray bottles. Each bottle, one in a pack of two that retails for $75, can reverse an opioid overdose in a matter of minutes. But it does require some care to use correctly, she explains.

She gave a reporter the quick tutorial she gives bartenders. Look for signs of an overdose: darkening around the fingernails and extremely slow breathing. Call 911. If available, administer Narcan, perform rescue breathing, and follow up with a second dose if the person’s condition doesn’t improve in three minutes. (Instructions are on the bottle.) Narcan causes rapid withdrawals that can be “really, really painful and uncomfortable,” Wirshup explains, and

restaurant? He’s everywhere you want to be.

Spencer Tweedy has covered Hurley’s “Slurf Song” with his brother, Sammy, and his father, Wilco frontman Jeff.

My dad played Have Moicy! for me when I was probably a preteen.

“Slurf Song” made a huge impression on me with its humor, its courage to talk about shitting, but also with the sweetness of the delivery, the acoustic guitar. I loved “Sweet Lucy” too. I loved the economy of the record. Michael accomplishes so much with a simple folk band arsenal.

If you follow local singer-songwriter Jeffrey Silverstein on Twitter, you know how big a Hurley fan he is.

Living in New York, I’d only get to see him once a year at Union Pool whenever he’d make the trip. When I first moved to Portland and realized I could walk a few blocks to his free happy hour set at Laurelthirst regularly, I knew I was in the right place.

Drummer Rachel Blumberg has also been one of Hurley’s occasional bandmates.

Playing with Michael requires a letting go. He drops beats and swirls around, and you just have to be really present, in the moment, listening and paying attention, while also letting go of your head and residing in feel. To be honest, it’s always felt like meditation to me. I love playing with him.

Isaacson gets the last word.

Go to New York or Paris and you’d have to attend a sold-out show with hundreds of people waiting outside clawing to get in to catch a glimpse of this guy. Come to Portland and he’s in the water, the air and the mountains too. He’s a natural part of the landscape. Read more meditations on Hurley at wweek.com.

13. Because the Clinton Street Theater is doing the time warp again…

At last week’s Melange, the POC variety show regularly hosted by the Clinton Street Theater, a drag artist in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume attempted to throw a pizza box into the audience. It didn’t land as expected.

“The power of the queen that threw it got it caught up in the stage lights,” says Clinton co-owner Susan Tomorrow. “It took about 20 minutes of me standing on the seats, fishing it down with a stick, to retrieve it. I was losing my mind laughing so hard.”

For decades, the Clinton Street Theater has been the grittiest cinema in town, short of the defunct porno palace the Oregon Theater up the road. Since 1978, the 220-seat movie house has shown Saturday-night screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with the requisite gowns and rubber gloves. Last April, the theater welcomed a cohort of new owners, when Lani Jo and Roger Leigh handed over the keys to Tomorrow, as well as Aaron Colter, Tom Kishel, Morgan McDonald, David Gluck, Steven Williams, and Jessica Barber.

Under this new collective, the 108-year-old space has undergone a shift dramatic enough to please Dr. Frankenfurter: What was an old-school repertory theater has become an avant-garde community arts hub.

Following successful fundraising efforts on GoFundMe, the new owners have been able to clear out nearly 5 tons of trash, add soundproofing curtains, give concessions an overhaul, construct new backstage areas, and install more dynamic lighting and sound equipment for live music. “We’re going through and actually fixing those things that were patched with plaster and confusion in the past,” Tomorrow says. “It’s been really nice to shine up and find the beauty of the theater.”

One aspect that’s been shined up is the theater’s most long-standing tradition: Rocky Horror. For reasons that include audience accessibility and staff comfort, the midnight screenings now start at 11 pm and finish up before the bars close. Since August, the Clinton has also added a biweekly show called Rocky Horror for Virgins (hosted by yours truly). This slightly toned-down version of the evening still incorporates audience participation through props, dancing and standup comedy, but explicitly removes elements of public humiliation for audiences who may be too nervous to dive into the full experience.

The reception has been heartwarming, with many parents and grandparents who attended the show in previous decades bringing their kids. At a time when LGBTQ+ content is being aggressively targeted by right-wing media and the existence of queer youths are being debated in Congress, Rocky Horror remains one of the only late-night events accessible to those under the age of 21.

“God, I fear on a daily basis for the safety of the theater because of the kinds of events that we do,” co-owner Colter says. “I hope that the kids who show up to Rocky Horror, as they have for nearly 50 years, continue to feel that it’s a supportive place. I think if you’re a parent taking your kid to that, you have a good relationship.”

But it’s not all about Saturdays. Church of Film, Mariel Lucas’ series that screens rare oddities, has now expanded to every Wednesday. Live performances are regularly selling out, like Melange and Violet Hex’s drag night Galore.

it helps to have someone stick around until help arrives.

Wirshup knows from hard-earned personal experience that prison and stigmatization don’t heal addiction.

“People choose recovery when they’re ready,” she says. “And Narcan gives them the chance.” LUCAS MANFIELD.

In April, the team will celebrate their first anniversary and John Waters’ birthday. Waters isn’t scheduled to appear: Baltimore’s king of sleeze is hosting a show at the Aladdin. But the Clinton is his temple, with a planned lobby transformation into a themed local art show and screenings of five of his most notoriously trashy films. “We’re hoping to get just the blessing of daddy John from afar,” Tomorrow says. THOM HILTON.

12. Because music venues are equipped to

MICK HANGLAND-SKILL

LIFE SAVER: Ellen Wirshup distributes boxes of Narcan to nightclubs.

14. Because we are home to a producer who just went to the Grammys…

Aviel Calev Hirschfield, the Portland hip-hop artist and producer known as GoodbyeCalev, fielded a FaceTime call from his manager last June, telling him to go check his Instagram. He had been tagged in a post by none other than Beyoncé, the pop superstar who was, that morning, announcing her new album, Renaissance

As Hirschfield quickly found out, his manager had shopped around one of his tracks, and it had been snapped up by Queen Bey and turned into “Heated,” a dance banger co-written by Drake.

“Time just sort of stopped for a minute,” Hirschfield says, sitting in his Multnomah Village recording studio next to a plaque commemorating Renaissance going platinum. “It was this shocking moment. I’ve been doing this a while and been pretty successful in it, but nothing like that. Ever.”

Everything that Hirschfield, 30, envisioned in the minutes after getting the news has come to pass. His first No. 1 album. His first million-seller. His first trip to the Grammy Awards last weekend, where Renaissance won Dance Album of the Year. (To the consternation of just about everybody, Beyoncé lost to Harry Styles for Album of the Year.)

All these accolades are the culmination of years of work by Hirschfield, who got his start as a rapper in the early ’00s. He soon evolved into a producer and engineer, working with a who’s who of the Oregon hip-hop and R&B scene and grabbing some lucrative commercial work.

While that allowed him and his partners in DB Nation Recordings to open up their home base in Southwest Portland, “Heated” has leveled things up considerably. The money he’s received for the track has been funneled right back into the studio to pay for new gear like the massive Moog synth he was using to add texture to a track from an up-and-coming R&B singer. And somehow, amid all the hubbub surrounding the success of Renaissance, Hirschfield has remained remarkably level-headed.

“I had a conversation with Deniro Farrar,” he says, referring to the North Carolina-bred rapper who moved here recently, “and when all this happened, he said, ‘Remember that your music was great before this. This is not what makes your music good.’ I just try and remember that.” ROBERT HAM.

No art form tells the story of Portland right now like our murals. Our brick walls are vision boards and the chalkboards of an al fresco history classroom.

Purple llamas watch over a gentrifying Southeast Foster Road. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery gaze onto Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard from the multicolor patchwork corner at Failing Street. Working Kirk Reeves smiles gently down Grand Avenue, rainbow staff lines adorned with half notes at his back.

If graffiti hints at the ways in which our city fractured during the pandemic, public art holds us together. It’s comforting to realize that so many Portlanders, who might otherwise never know the stories these images tell, pass under them each day. Reeves watches over people who never heard a note from his trumpet.

“It’s accessible to us all,” says Kristin Calhoun, director of public art for the Regional Arts & Culture Council, the Portland nonprofit providing funding to many of the artists and orgs responsible for the city’s murals. Alex Chiu, whose work adorns several public buildings, found his motive for making art changing: “Rather than making art for my own self-expression, I realized the importance of making art that resonated with the people that were going to see it on a regular basis.”

And new, large-scale works celebrating Portland’s communities, mythologies, legacies and potential keep going up across each quadrant. There’s even a mural project for the ’burbs.

Consider these five developments in the past six months:

• The nonprofit Portland Street Art Alliance partnered with Portland muralist and community organizer Jaymeer to organize the painting of a hypercolor, collaborative graffiti wall at 66 SE Morrison St. honoring Jason Brown, the late streetwear guru and organizer whose advocacy work pushed Portland to loosen its restrictive mural laws.

• Anyone whose commute follows MLK is probably familiar with Fresh Paint, a temporary mural program from Open Signal and the RACC that presents work by different local muralists on the center’s west-facing wall on wall between Northeast Graham and Knott streets. Currently on display is Growth by Jerome Sloane, a son of Irvington who began working in the 1980s. Two hands with vines wrapped around them reach up towards the sun, and abstract letters spell the word “growth” in an alphabet created by Jerome and executed in the style that he developed growing up in the neighborhood.

• Travis Fields, aka Campographic, completed a two-story spray-painted mural on Blanchet House on Northwest Glisan Street to commemorate the organization’s 70 years of meal services. It depicts longtime breakfast volunteer Stacee Scott serving steaming plates piled high.

• Chiu unveiled his newest public work, located at the People’s Food Co-op on Southeast 21st Avenue and installed just in time for October Fair Trade Month. It’s a portrait of Deborah Osei-Mensah, a cocoa farmer from Ghana who plays a key role in the Asunafo Cocoa Farmers union.

• The next eye-catching mural might come from a program on the other side of the West Hills. Going Public is a partnership of the city of Hillsboro, TriMet, Miller Paint, and RACC wherein a cohort of emerging BIPOC muralists are paired with established Portland muralists to create a whole new slate of public works. The program is designed to support emerging muralists by

providing not only mentorship and workshops, but also the opportunity to create a mural on one of the donated spaces.

16. Because a mom gets to coach her big boys…

Lincoln High School’s boys basketball team is a little unusual this year. The Cardinals have three players 6-foot-8 or taller, and they are at the top of the Portland Interscholastic League. The team often better known for GPAs than PPG has smoked perennial powerhouses Jefferson and Grant as well as emerging power Roosevelt on its way to a ranking among the state’s best teams.

But what’s really unusual is the relationship that the head coach has with the team’s two best players, twins Malachi and Moroni Seely-Roberts. She’s their mother.

Heather Seely-Roberts is also the only female head coach of a 6A boys varsity team in Oregon. She coached high school girls teams for 16 years in Oregon before moving into the college ranks at Southern Virginia for four years. But she and family wanted to come home to Oregon—and she wanted to coach the twins, the youngest of her five children.

Seely-Roberts, 53, first coached her boys at Yamhill-Carlton High School, where the twins won a state 3A (smaller schools) title in 2021, scoring 50 of the team’s 52 points in the title game. During the pandemic, when Oregon schools shut down, the Seely-Roberts family relocated to Utah so Malachi (6-foot-8, 180 pounds) and Moroni (6-foot-6, 205 pounds) could keep playing. Then, when they returned to Oregon, a former Lincoln girls coach told Seely-Roberts that the Cardinals needed a new boys coach.

She knew that parents at Lincoln, the city ’s most affluent public high school, were a tough audience. But Seely-Roberts had long ago sought advice from peers about the pitfalls and benefits of coaching your own kids: Make sure you have good assistants and hope your kids are either very marginal or very good. She thought the move would be positive.

“In terms of the classes that are available, and basketballwise, it’s a good move for the boys,” Seely-Roberts says. Not easy however: “We still live in Newberg and drive 40 minutes each way every day,” she adds.

The team is winning (17-3 and ranked fifth in the state at deadline), but Seely-Roberts says the best part of coaching her sons is what most parents of teenagers want: quality time with her sons.

“ What I’ve enjoyed the most is that I see things other parents don’t,” says Seely-Roberts, who teaches P.E. at Lincoln. “I watch them in the halls or on the floor. I watch them being good human beings. I’m getting to see them step up as people.”

That’s also the hardest part of being their coach—putting the whistle away. “I’m always making sure that when we leave the basketball floor that I don’t keep hammering them,” Seely-Roberts says. “Then, I’m Mom and we don’t talk to talk about the games anymore.”

Lincoln will enter the state tournament as a leading contender later this spring, and both boys have interest from multiple college teams. But they will both defer for two years to complete a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—their choice, their mother says.

And where does the coach hope to see them play next? “They say they are open to going to different places,” Seely-Roberts says, “but as their mom, I’m eager for them to go to the same college.”

NIGEL JAQUISS.

Because the city is ablaze with brightly colored murals…

BRIANNA WHEELER.

NATHANIEL PERALES

NATHANIEL PERALES

BEYHIVE MIND: GoodbyeCalev at his Southwest Portland studio.

17. Because a newsstand survives…

Arriving at Portland State University from Chicago, Karin Dibling missed newsstands. You know: the sidewalk kiosks where tabloid headlines shout scandal in neat stacks. They’re a staple of big cities, a cliché in the movies, and all but missing from Portland.

Except in one hallway on Southeast Division Street. “I’m the only newsstand in the city,” Dibling says. “I’m probably the last person in Portland to sell this stuff.”

Certainly, there’s no shop in Portland quite like The City Reader, which Dibling founded in 2014. It sits in the central corridor of apartment complex D Street Village, tucked between Tight Tacos and an Eb & Bean fro-yo joint. (It feels right that the only newsstand in this rainy burg is indoors.) Dibling, 55, occupies a stool next to the racks. The merchandise? Glossy, independently published magazines. There’s no newsprint in sight: Dibling stocks periodicals, the thicker the better.

She recommended a trio of favorites, including McGuffin and Noema. This reporter left for the coffee shop with a copy of music magazine Maggot Brain (which, by happy coincidence, featured an article by Robert Ham, author of Reason to Love Portland #14).

If the newsstand was an anomaly when it opened, it feels like a bulwark now—a paper fortress in a hall of black mirrors. But The City Reader manages to do a steady business, though Dibling didn’t care to discuss numbers. “It’s not huge, but it’s enough to keep me going,” she says. “It’s a lifestyle choice, let’s put it that way.” AARON MESH.

18. Because our hikes start with mysterious art installations…

The oddities begin almost as soon as Northwest Saltzman Road starts its winding, one-lane ascent from Highway 30 up to the trailhead into Forest Park. A caution sign warns, “Laundry Ahead. Expect Delays.” Soon enough, a gigantic clothespin dangles a pink brassiere over the road. Drivers often pause to take photos of the roadside art attractions: a 1959 Jaguar that was pulled from the bottom of the Willamette River and now is wrapped around a fir tree, and a fivestall “rest area” complete with water towers and a windmill.

The art is irreverent, unexpected and the product of one man: Saltzman Road resident Ken Zell. Zell, 75, is the founder of Faustrollean Fixture Company, an architectural woodworking business. When he retired eight years ago, he began this passion project he calls the “Flea Zorkus.”

“People say it brings them a lot of joy,” he says. “I like the idea of interrupting what you expect coming up the road—you’re thinking you’re going into the woods and, all of a sudden, it’s something different.”

Though most of the art is on his property, he pulled a city permit for the Jag since it’s so close to the road. He hasn’t gotten any pushback from neighbors or park officials. “The water people are real fans,” he says, as are the park rangers. Almost all the materials are reclaimed: The rest area is constructed with leftover bleachers that his company built for Nike, and the “toilets” are scraps from the Goby Walnut lumber store down the street. Coming soon: a “bunny church” and the “City of Lost Toasters.” RACHEL SASLOW.

19. Because our wine defies labels…

While attending a barrel tasting at a Washington winery in 2008, Vivianne Stardust Kennedy had an epiphany. After falling down an hourslong rabbit hole of tasting notes and blends with the sommelier, she looked up to find that out of the 30-member group she began the tour with, she was the only one left.

And with that, the Dungeons & Dragons devotee added another self-proclaimed “nerdy pursuit” to her list: the science of winemaking.

Kennedy was 28 years old. She was pretty far along a career path in retail management, and would need to complete Washington State University’s winemaking certification programs on nights and weekends while working two jobs. But thanks to support from people like her grandfather, Roger Allen Marks, that’s exactly what she did. In 2014, she opened RAM Cellars, which she named after him, in Southeast Portland.

It was just the first of several changes for Kennedy.

“In 2018, I came into the light as myself, authentically, as a proud transgender woman, and at that point I was unsure what my path forward would be,” Kennedy says. “I was really not sure there was a place for me in the industry.”

She is now the only transgender winemaker in the nation, producing her wines at Hip Chicks Do Wine urban winery in Southeast Portland. You can find RAM wines all over Oregon and Washington. Just head over to your local New Seasons and look for the most adorable hand-illustrated labels you’ve ever seen. Kennedy’s favorite RAM creations? The Red Malbec, Orange Fraîche, and Roussane.

Entering the wine industry isn’t easy for anybody—especially someone coming from a historically marginalized perspective. Kennedy says that after she came out, she lost business from vineyards and shops she had worked with previously.

“The gut reaction is, of course, to be really angry,” Viv says. “But any of those partnerships that ended because I am who I am opened the door for the next great partnership down the road.”

Her own experiences led her to want to prioritize creating more safe, accessible spaces in wine for other queer and trans people. Says Kennedy, “We would need to utilize the platform that we have with the winery to do good for communities that I’m a part of.”

Her namesake label, Viv, which she launched in the spring of 2019 after coming out, raises money for organizations that provide support to queer and transgender people. For each bottle sold, $3 is donated to organizations like the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund and Portland’s Q Center. SHANNON DAEHNKE.

PAISLEY LEE

RAM HEAD: Vivianne Stardust Kennedy makes wine. 21 Willamette Week FEBRUARY 8, 2023 wweek.com

20. Because restaurants close for a few days without notice…

When restaurants and food carts first reopened after the worst of the coronavirus pandemic, that didn’t always mean they were open. Business models and operating hours had to be adjusted. Customers were still slow to come back and workers hard to come by. Plus, you had to shut it down if anybody tested positive for COVID.

So yeah, it sucked to be the person standing in front of a closed bakery at 9 am—even after checking hours on Google! Or to find out that your favorite restaurant had halved its menu. But it would suck more to get subpar food and service from an overextended business. And 10 times as much when places close for good.

So now—at least in the world of food carts, smaller restaurants, and loyal diners—there’s been a much-needed recalibration of expectations. The customer isn’t always right, and sometimes owners and employees need a break—both mentally and physically.

“Closed August 3 to 6 to recharge and enjoy time with the people I love,” the food cart Poppyseed posted that month. Another, Sweet Lorraine’s Latkes, once took a Wednesday off when the owners wound up having family in town. Unplanned breaks due to weather (hot or cold), busted equipment or break-ins are considered a given. And so is unapologetic economic pragmatism. “CLOSED TODAY FOR CATERING. WE ARE NOT SORRY, WE GOTS TO GET THIS WORK WHEN WE CAN,” Kim Jong Grillin’ posted in December.

“I feel like post-pandemic, there’s been a much broader conversation around mental health in the workplace,” says Maggie Irwin, who co-owns the St. Johns pop-up-turned-restaurant Pastificio d’Oro with her partner (in both life and business) Chase Dopson. The pair do almost everything themselves (there’s one employee), so if they need a day off, that means the restaurant isn’t open.

“ We have so many repeat customers, and a lot of them that came in [after a closure] were like, ‘Hey, we saw your posts and like we’re so happy you guys did that. Like, it means a lot to us that you guys take care of yourself so you keep being in this neighborhood.’”

In the endless seesaw of work-life balance, consider this a win for life. JASON COHEN.

21. Because Portland’s hippest kids are trading houseplants…

Honey Latte Cafe undergoes a vibe shift after 6 pm.

The 3,000-square-foot Central Eastside coffee shop moonlights as a small-scale, all-ages music venue. Vintage couches, board games, and a book-filled vending machine are pushed aside to set the stage for that night’s performance—metaphorically speaking. They don’t have a stage yet. But… they’re working on it.

Cafe founder and co-owner Angelyna Tropets has been working as a DIY booking agent under “Honey Latte Presents” since 2017. Honey Latte has hosted performances ranging from indie groups like Laundry to edgy rock names like Chainsaw Girl to larger acts like Luna Luna.

The room fits 50 people. “Sometimes it’s young 16-year-old punk kids who are wearing furry things and rainbows and all these cool outfits,” Tropets says. “And then other times it’s like…people’s grandparents.”

Tropets started her business by popping up at random Portland markets with a mini espresso machine. She’s now co-owned Honey Latte Cafe with her husband, Deniz Aydemir, and Luke Nimtz since 2021. They plan to open another location and a separate, larger music venue sometime this year.

But only elite Portlanders (that is, those who follow Honey Latte on Instagram) know about the cafe’s third identity: the houseplant exchange.

Honey Latte’s most recent January “plant swap” invited guests to bring their own plants, cuttings and props. Walking in, patrons were greeted by Tropets, her friend, Sierra Rollers (the brains behind the plant swap idea), and, most importantly, two tables full of plant cuttings in labeled jars. Rollers had scissors, so that whenever someone brought in a new plant, other swappers could take (and swap) cuttings while sipping on a honey lavender latte.

“It’s just been a really fun way to meet people,” Tropets says. “Because like…if you love plants and another person loves plants…I just feel like that’s an immediate friendship.”

Tropets and Rollers also vended vintage clothing and art, respectively, at the last swap. So they figured why not add a couple more DIY vendors to the mix, and turn the next event into a combination plant swap and night market? And so Honey Latte Ca and Fueled By Plants will host their first-ever plant swap and night market from 4 to 8 pm Thursday, Feb. 19. SHANNON DAEHNKE.

22. Because karaoke is back…

In the doomiest days of the pandemic, microphones gathered dust as Portland’s raucous karaoke scene went into hibernation. Yet in the private karaoke rooms at John Brophy’s beloved Baby Ketten Klub, the music never quite died.

“Even during the pandemic, when we were able to halfway open our doors, people would come in to rent the private rooms—just to sing by themselves and just to scream,” Brophy says.

Today, the screaming and singing aren’t so private. There are more than 15 dedicated karaoke bars in Portland, and several dozen others that offer karaoke nights. There were pandemic casualties (rest in peace, Canton Grill), but it’s still feels like an impressive high note for a scene that suffered a total eclipse of the heart (sorry) when COVID-19 made spitting on strangers a verboten practice. (For one silent summer, the only regular karaoke night to be found was in the parking lot of Fryer Tuck’s chicken pub in the Southwest Hills.)

“ We are only seeing an increase, month after month, of business,” Brophy says. Karaoke is “something that Portland loves—it’s something the world loves—but Portland has always been a karaoke mecca. There’s people that go to karaoke six nights a week.”

With its phalanx of customized tracks, Baby Ketten Klub is like a real-life version of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s hip Karaoke ’n’ Roll business in the movie Step Brothers (in 2013, The New York Times proclaimed Brophy “the mastermind of America’s greatest karaoke night”). It’s part of a tradition of bougie karaoke in the Rose City that also includes the ultra-sleek Voicebox, whose two Portland locations have endured, despite the pandemic shuttering of its Boise and Denver outposts.

Grittier Portland karaoke joints survived the pandemic, too. The glow-in-the-dark tiki ambience of The Alibi still seduces many singers—as does the friendly, rowdy atmosphere of Twenty First Ave Kitchen & Bar, which hosts karaoke seven nights a week from 9 pm to 2:30 am under the light of a gleaming disco ball.

Places like Twenty First Ave amplify the awkwardly glorious vibe of karaoke. On any given night, you might endure all five minutes and 55 seconds of “Bohemian Rhapsody” from an overzealous singer or be accosted by a drunken patron who steps away from the mic to play matchmaker between you and your date. Yet amid the chaos, there are always moments of unearthly beauty, like the piercingly tender performance of Dido’s “Thank You” that I heard there on a Sunday night in December.

Maybe it took a pandemic for us to appreciate the community and connection that karaoke inspires. Brophy certainly sees it that way. “You walk into a bar and you’re no one to everyone in the bar,” he says, “but then you get up and bare your soul, and all of the sudden people are congratulating you on your song and introducing themselves.”

It’s often said that karaoke gives people permission to sing badly. Technically, that’s correct; emotionally, it’s bullshit. Hardcore karaokers know that when you’re standing in front of a cheering crowd, whether or not you’re in tune is irrelevant. All that matters is that when you sing, you don’t half-ass it. It’s one of the few things the pandemic didn’t change. BENNETT CAMPBELL

FERGUSON.

RING OF FIRE: Scenes from a night of karaoke at The Alibi.

23. Because our sex workers get free yoga classes…

During Rachel Brooks’ 18 years as a bartender, her shifts typically ended around 4 am. “There’s nothing to do late at night,” she says. “It’s pretty much drink or smoke to wind down—it’s not anything healthy.” Even the Original Hotcake House closes at 11 pm.

Enter SIN Yin. On Thursday and Friday nights from 11 pm to 4 am, SIN Yin is a drop-in, donation-based, relaxing yoga session for service- and sex-industry workers. SIN Yin takes place at Brooks’ new Central Eastside studio, Yin Yoga Space, which opened in October.

(A yoga instructor since 2016, Brooks also owns Seeking Space Yoga in Southwest.)

Students are welcome to stretch, relax, meditate and mingle during SIN Yin. Brooks also teaches classes on an as-needed basis. Otherwise, students can flip through a deck of cards with pictures of yoga postures to sink into. (Bartenders, consider shoulder-openers; strippers, try pigeon pose and other hip-openers to counteract all those hours in heels, Brooks suggests.)

Yin Yoga Space is dark and cozy, with candles flickering in sconces, black velvet seating, and freshly brewed tea before class. There are occasional live cello soundbaths. The lobby is stocked with healthy snacks for purchase, such as Better Bars, cold-pressed juice, dried fruit and crackers.

Most American yoga classes are long on “yang” energy—upbeat vinyasa flows that build heat. Yin yoga is a meditative, restorative practice that gets deep into the muscles and connective tissues. In a typical class at Yin Yoga Space, students hold postures for about three to five minutes each.

A security guard is on the premises for the duration of SIN Yin and available to escort students to and from their cars.

“Once I started to feel the benefits of yoga on my own body, I was like, why didn’t I have this earlier and why can’t we as service-industry workers or sex workers have the opportunity to take care of ourselves like this?” says Brooks, who tended bar full time at a range of bars, strip clubs and nightclubs. “The nature of the industry itself is, we get treated like shit. It’s a constant practice to remember to take care of ourselves.” RACHEL SASLOW.

24.

meditation cushions…

Mike Lindell, the My Pillow guy, is an asshole. Chi Moore, who sells eye pillows, neck pillows, meditation cushions, and sleep masks at the Saturday Market, is the polar opposite.

Just talking to Moore, 69, at his stall is relaxing, and the scents coming from his wares add to the calm. Few people have thought as much about pillows as Moore. He started making eye pillows as gifts.

“People liked them so much that they kept asking me to make more,” Moore says.

After some trial and error, he landed on using millet hulls to stuff his meditation cushions. The hulls, he says, are firm enough for support, but they yield just enough to mold to one’s seat. Moore sews a zipper into the cushions so more millet hulls can be added or subtracted. His eye pillows are just as well made. He stitches them out of silk that he marbles himself. Look for “water marbling silk” videos on the internet to see the basic technique, and then keep in mind that Moore takes it to another level. He scents them with herbs, oils and resins from India.

Even before the pandemic, people were turning to eye pillows to help them sleep, cushions to help them meditate, and special pillows to ease tension in their necks. Since then, many of us have turned to harder remedies, like Xanax and high-potency dope.

If you need something that harks back to the safety and comfort of your baby blanket, or a favorite stuffed animal, go see Chi Moore at Saturday Market. Look for the sign that says Dream Pillows. Be sure to talk to Moore for a while. Then, every time you drape a pillow over your eyes or take a seat to meditate, you’ll think of the Buddha-like man who crafted the thing, and you’ll relax even more.

ANTHONY EFFINGER.

25. Because you’d make a lovely tree frog…

Although it was far from a black-tie affair, patrons attending the debut installation of the Portland Art Museum’s newly rebranded Center for Untold Tomorrow’s recently revamped headquarters still had to dress for the occasion.

“To be honest, this is as close as someone can get to becoming an

astronaut,” gushed PAM CUT executive director Amy Dotson. “We help you put on fully haptic suits—air is blown through them, different soft robotics happens within them—and feed you a Michelin star meal in little bites individualized to the character and their journey. There are custom smells for each one as well.”

Call it a 22nd century Technicolor dreamcoat. CUT calls it Symbiosis. Don’t call it virtual reality. “You do have headset goggles,” Dotson says, “but it’s all eye-tracking that’s a little different from the traditional gamified VR headset.”

After entering Symbiosis during its Amsterdam run last year, Dotson snagged the rights for CUT to host the American premiere from Dutch interdisciplinary “experience design” collective Polymorf. Then the art museum brought over Polymorf’s CEO Marcel van Brakel and CTO Mark Meeuwenoord to tweak upgrades and ensure a proper fit for stateside audiences. The resulting show sold out all 3,000 spots in three hours and launched the former NW Film & Video Center’s new direction with pointed flair.

The concept of the interactive alternate reality? It’s the year 2222, and humans have entered a new, interdependent dance with the plant and animal kingdom. If David Bowie wished he could swim like dolphins can swim…well, Starman hadn’t tried on these spacesuits.

“This isn’t a do-not-touch thing,” Dotson says. “You’re using every sense you have to be a part of this experience. Six people a time come in and negotiate which character’s costume they’ll put on—a slug or a tree frog or an orchid-butterfly hybrid? You can be the front or back end of a sea creature, or you can be a kind of AI-bot tick living in that sea creature’s back.”

In other words, why see Avatar when you can become an avatar? Whatever the virtues and drawbacks of PAM CUT’s new, moviesplus-more approach to film studies, this is an experience you can’t get anywhere else on the West Coast. (Perhaps you can’t get it here, either. Like we said, it’s sold out.)

“ We’ll still show movies,” Dotson adds, “we’ll always show movies, but cinematic storytelling means so much more.” JAY HORTON.

26. Because along with the world’s smallest park, we have perhaps the tiniest gallery…

As an environmental engineer recently arrived in Portland, Grant Brady rarely mentions his career when chatting up strangers. “Right now, I tell people that I own an art gallery,” he says. “I sound very successful. Little do they know it’s about 2 cubic feet.”

Upon leaving Oregon State University and purchasing a home just off Southeast Powell Boulevard two years ago, Brady set to work building a 1/12-scale art showroom for his front yard, complete with toy figurine patrons and rotating diorama shows of surprising intricacy. “I did an orange polka-dot Yayoi Kusama exhibit during October that was really fun, and one [inspired by] fiber artist Gabriel Dawe and his spectrum strings. An installation piece might take a lot more time than a normal person would put in, but I’m just really into changing the look and feel.”

Beyond Brady ’s individual efforts, there has been a continual flow of new works submitted by browsers encouraged to take home a favored piece so long as it’s replaced with a creation of their own. “I get a lot of dog walkers and people walking by, normal street traffic, but I’m always really impressed when somebody goes out of their way,” Brady says. “I’ve had visitors from Canada, Bellingham, Seattle, Eugene, Berkeley.”

Though his might be the most fiercely curated, Brady’s gallery is far from the nation’s first such fun-sized take-a-penny, give-a-penny showcase, and Portland boasts a good number of variants. “The woman who runs the PDX Dinorama and I found 26 little exchanges around town and made what we call the Sidewalk Joy map. There are toy exchanges and seed exchanges. Somebody makes pottery you can buy for $5, one has fun little Lego mini-figures, this literal dog library has a stick exchange and miniature park on top—it’s really cute.”

Brady expects attendance to steadily rise through the spring while he expands his social media presence in conjunction with upcoming exhibits themed to Pride, “Earth Month” and, for February, another tribute to Kusama centered on hot pink tentacles. As his virality ascends, Brady would eagerly accept donations from an art supply store for materials passersby could grab for their own endeavors, but he dismisses notions of “directly monetizing or selling merch. I like the fact that it’s all purely just for free.”

“As a kid, if you have the idea of being an artist, the biggest thing you could do is get your art in a gallery,” he says, “so I just made that really accessible on a sidewalk scale. Just hearing from people what this location means to them, it’s like a bright spot of joy.”

JAY HORTON.

Because we make America’s best

MICHAEL RAINES

Missed Connections

This month only, with the help of Timberline Vodka, we’ve brought back Missed Connections for WW readers. And, it’s just in time for Valentine’s Day.

We asked you to submit your missed connections–and you answered the call. From the bakeryorder-to-first-date-pipeline to a romantic, if sight-less, search for bagels, proving that, whoever said romance was dead clearly hasn’t experienced a missed connection.

And maybe, just maybe,

you recognize yourself in one of these missed connections, and hope to be reunited with a longlost, potential love interest. If that is the case, send an email with the title of the missed connection you believe to be about you to missedconnections@ wweek.com. We’ll handle the rest from there.

Distilled at the highest standards with 46 levels of purification, Timberline is made with a blend of grain and Pacific Northwest apples. This award-winning Oregon Vodka is then bottled at 80 proof with glacier-fed spring water from Mt. Hood for an epically clean finish. Timberline Vodka is a proud partner of The Freshwater Trust, a local nonprofit whose mission is to preserve and restore freshwater ecosystems, including rivers, streams and creeks across the West.

You thought I was loud at the Brandi Carlile concert.

NYE. You: very dapper in a tie and jacket. Thought I might be able the fan club caller at Thorns games. Me: just loud, unrelated to soccer, and wearing a pink jumpsuit. I think it was just a case of mistaken identity but if you were flirting, that was my attempt at flirting back.

Missing you at the esplanade

We used to share shy smiles on the boardwalk every Thursday. For months, we’d cross paths and share a coy smile or a sly wink. Now it’s been weeks and we haven’t crossed paths. I miss you.

Can we be friends again?

We were so close years ago, but suddenly you stopped talking. I miss you, bad wolf.

Temporarily blind bagel beauty in St. Johns

You approached me in St. John’s, outside Storm Breaker brewery, asking for help finding bagels. You couldn’t see your phone’s map because of a pupil dilation procedure, and in that moment I would’ve scoured the whole earth with you to find those bagels. You had a feeling of familiarity and I swore I knew you from somewhere, but maybe it was just your lovely face with a view. You seemed a wonderful person, and oddly that shared moment really made my day, so thank you. But I just need to know; did you ever find your bagels and are your eyes okay?? Please do let me know, it’s been on my mind.

Meet-up Movie Night

A Meet-up group convened at Cinema 21 just before the Covid lockdown. We chatted before the movie, and a group went to a bar next door afterwards. We were at adjoining tables, but didn’t have a chance to talk again until I was walking out the door. You asked my name and I said “Christine, and see you at the next Meet up!” Wish I had more than just your first name - William.

The bakery order to first date pipeline

You: Complimented my Animal Crossing facemask and chatted about your island while I ordered a sandwich. I: Thought you were cute but wasn’t about to hit on you at work in front of other customers, god, and everyone else. It’s been a bit, but wanna grab a drink sometime and pick up where we left off?

So, you listen to Mitski? Hope we can listen together.

I saw you at Music Millenium the other day, picking out a Mitski record. You were wearing a yellow sweater and a red beret. It reminded me of Prince, and I immediately wanted to ask you about the record you grabbed but was too shy to approach you. If you’re reading this, let’s go record shopping together.

MRG: It’s been another 15 years…

without contact. I don’t know what life is for you today, but I’d Like to. DLD

Tyron Creek

Late afternoon on Thursday (Jan 27) or Friday (Jan 27)?, I was hiking Tryon Creek w/ a friend. You were walking 2 dogs and we stopped to talk to you in passing. I petted your adorable red Pekingese (?). We locked eyes for a minutethought I might know you - possibly we dated in the past? Wished I had given you my number, but was awkward with my friend in tow.

Carhartt jacket at Yahalla

It was a Friday night, about a month ago or more and we were both picking up food to go. I commented on your jacket and said I had one like it but I gave it away because it was too warm. I would have liked to ask you for your phone number but I am pretty shy. I hope I run into you again. Dinner on me next time?

Pioneer Square rendezvous

Well, it wasn’t exactly a rendezvous. More like intense eye contact, which we were both very reluctant to break. You were wearing a long down jacket and these really cool shoes. I wish I had known what brand those shoes were, so I could compliment you on them later, if our paths were to cross again. Maybe I’ll see you around?

Who was behind that gloryhole?

We met on Grindr. Your profile is blank. I came over to your place on Hawthorne. You have a plywood wall gloryhole setup. I lost my phone & login for Grindr. Your gloryhole is a single wall on brackets that’s flimsy. Some other guy came over during.

So, now that you’ve seen the matchmaking powers of our missed connections segment you want to submit your own, right? You’re in luck; send your missed connections to missedconnections@wweek.com, or scan the QR code to be taken directly to an easy-peasy fill-in form.

THE CHANGE

Wesley Guy

Special education teacher, Central Catholic High School

PHOTOS AND STORY BY JOSEPH BLAKE JR.

It was Ms. Barcelona who taught Wesley Guy how to spell in elementary school, with a YouTube series called Spelling Rap Rhymes. “My education and music have always been intertwined,” he says.

Two decades later, Guy, 30, is himself blending music and teaching. He works in the special education department at Central Catholic High School and has released an album, Bok Choy. He got his start in teaching four years ago in the Step Up program of what’s now McDaniel High School: “That’s where I fell in love with education.”

Guy has grown used to walking the halls of Portland high schools—McDaniel, Parkrose and now Central Catholic—and seeing students who are far more diverse than their instructors. He hopes his presence as a Black man allows a few of those teenagers to use their own voices rather than speak from the perspective of someone else.

WW celebrates Black History Month by meeting some of the people shaping Oregon’s future: Black teachers. Look for a photo essay on a new teacher each week of February.

CAT FANCY

Feline fanatics gathered at the Portland Expo Center last weekend for the city’s first-ever Cat Extravaganza and Adoption Event. Hosted by Loving Cats Worldwide, an international organization that works to educate the public about everything from breed preservation to rescue shelter assistance, the two-day show featured competitions for cats of all stripes, including Bengals, British short hairs and Lykoi— known as the “werewolf cat.” There were also dozens of vendors, a DJ playing cat-themed bangers, and plenty of kitties looking for their furever homes.

Photos by Chris Nesseth

On Instagram: @chrisnesseth

NOMINATE YOUR PET!

GET BUSY

SUPERGROUP: Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations documents the rise of the iconic Motown singers as the U.S. fell into civil unrest.

WATCH: Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations

This jukebox musical about the iconic Motown band will bring the fabulous tunes but also a dose of reality. Even though their music is upbeat, the original members of the Temptations struggled with drug use, creative strife and family tragedy amid the civil unrest of their era. The show’s honest handling of these issues continues to rack up accolades, including 12 Tony nominations. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, portland5.com/keller-auditorium. 7:30 pm Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday, through Feb. 12. $34.75-$129.75.

DRINK: Hip Chicks Do Wine Galentine’s Day

With Galentine’s Day fast approaching, it’s time to get the girls together for a night out and celebrate. Hip Chicks Do Wine, Portland’s oldest urban winery, has a delicious lineup of small plates, wine and sangria to mark the holiday invented by Parks and Recreation ’s beloved Leslie Knope. Continue to treat yo’self by doing some shopping—at least a half-dozen vendors will be on hand—and capture all of the buzzed memories in Flashback

Photography’s photo booth. Hip Chicks Do Wine, 4510 SE 23rd Ave., 503-234-3790, hipchicksdowine.com. 6 pm Friday, Feb. 10.

SHOP: Portland Indigenous Marketplace

The marketplace is a traditional space where people come to connect with one

another, and the Portland Indigenous Marketplace is no different—except, perhaps, for the fact that it will be held in a bar with top-notch food and drinks. The community is invited to support the event’s Indigenous and Black artists and entrepreneurs, who will be selling everything from leather goods to woven baskets made of cedar to beaded necklaces, earrings and satchels— all of which reflects the individual’s ancestry. You can expect 10 to 12 vendors each day who share the same goal of enriching their culture through art and public education. Bar Carlo, 6433 SE Foster Road, 503901-3881, indigenousmarketplace.org. 4-9 pm Friday-Saturday, Feb. 10-11. Food and drinks available for purchase at Bar Carlo.

WATCH: My Perfectly Valid Objections

Salt and Sage Productions presents the world premiere of Mikki Gillette’s feminist romantic comedy My Perfectly Valid Objections. The play follows a group of trans women as they negotiate the complexities of dating, and debriefs the audience after each interaction, which should offer moments both hilarious and touching. Oblique Coffee Roasters, 3039 SE Stark St., saltandsageproductions.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 6 pm Sunday, Feb. 10-26. Pay what you will, minimum $15 donation.

LISTEN: Portland Gay Men’s Chorus Presents: “It’s Complicated”

If you’re tired of hearing the traditional meet-cute love stories that always come out around Valentine’s Day, then head to Alberta Abbey for something entirely

different and refreshing. That’s where the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus will perform “It’s Complicated: A Cascade Concert,” an unpredictably messy tale about taking chances and the emotional push and pull that comes with it. Alberta Abbey, 126 NE Alberta St., albertaabbey.org. 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 11. $30 general admission, $18 for seniors and students.

DANCE: Portland Disco Ball

Journey back to the era of polyester, platform shoes and hot pants with the Portland Disco Ball, which will feature all of the greatest dance hits from the ’70s. The party goes until midnight, so be sure to get in a disco nap before heading out to this velvet rope-lined time machine. And if you don’t hear the song that you’re hoping to groove to, know that the DJs are very request friendly. Show Bar at Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., revolutionhall.com/ show-bar. 8 pm Saturday, Feb. 11. $10. 21+.

GO: Portland Winter Fest

Closing Ceremony

The Portland Winter Light Festival comes to an end Saturday with its first-ever closing party held in partnership with Fun Luv’n—the folks behind many of the city’s popular silent discos—and new community event center The Den. Celebrate the successful conclusion of the illuminated popup by dancing to the pulsating rhythms of EDM courtesy of some of Portland’s best DJs and help raise money for the artists who put their glowing creations on display. The Den, 116 SE Yamhill St., events. humanitix.com/glow-out. 10 pm Saturday, Feb. 11. $10 tier one (sold out), $16 tier two. 21+.

GO: Fastelavn Nordic Kids Carnival

The Nordic holiday of Fastelavn, based on the Catholic tradition of celebrating the arrival of Lent, falls on Feb. 14 in Denmark, Feb. 16 in Sweden, and Feb. 12 here in Portland. Nordic Northwest celebrates by hosting an afternoon festival for families, filled with kid-friendly activities like making fastelavnsris (decorative tree branches) and playing slå katten af tønden (hit the cat out of the barrel—don’t worry, no actual live felines will be involved).

Find out who will be crowned Kattekonge (King of Cats) and Kattedronning (Queen of Cats) during a thrilling afternoon that should most definitely wear out your kiddos. Nordia House, 8800 SW Oleson Road, 503-977-0275, nordicnorthwest. org/fastelavn. 2 pm Sunday, Feb. 12. $5 with membership, $10 general admission.

WATCH: A Darkly Decadent Burlesque Review

The Coffin Club offers an alluring spin on the holiday dominated by candy and flowers. Burlynomicon, the venue’s monthly burlesque showcase, will perform a Valentine’s version of its revue, turning up the debauchery with a dynamic cast of performers joined by vendors with wares described as “dark and decadent.”

The Coffin Club also promises a V-Day special at its vegan Coffin Cart and drink deals from the bar. The Coffin Club, 421 SE Grand Ave., thecoffinclubpdx.com. 8 pm Tuesday, Feb. 14. $25-$195. 21+.

FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Buzz List

WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. ABIGAIL HALL

813 SW Alder St., abigailhallpdx.com. 5-11 pm Sunday-Wednesday, 5 pm-midnight Thursday-Saturday.

There are few downtown bars—particularly hotel bars—as romantic as Abigail Hall, thanks to its cozy fireplace, pink and maroon leather banquettes, and dim lighting. If you haven’t even started thinking about where to take your date on Valentine’s Day (or the weekend leading up to it), you really can’t go wrong with the watering hole in the Woodlark’s lobby. Beverage director Derek Jacobi has created a holiday menu of mood-setting cocktails, including a strawberry Negroni topped with dehydrated slices of the fruit, and Color Me Intrigued, a sparkling wine-Belgian lambic concoction served in a Pop Rocks-rimmed Champagne flute.

2. ECLIPTIC BREWING MOON ROOM

930 SE Oak St., 971-383-1613, eclipticbrewing.com. 4-10 pm Sunday and Wednesday-Thursday, 4-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

Ecliptic Brewing’s first Cosmic Collaboration release of the year is a combination of two style trends: one from a decade ago, the other emerging during the pandemic. Black Cold IPA, made in partnership with Astoria’s Fort George, features the dark roasted malt flavor of a Cascadian dark ale (all the rage in 2012-13) and is fermented with lager yeast, leading to an assertive crispness found in the newly invented cold IPA. Order a pint or two and then debate whether a cold IPA is just an IPL with a different name.

3. PORTLAND CIDER COMPANY

3638 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 971-888-5054, portlandcider.com. 3-9 pm

Wednesday-Thursday, 1-10 pm Friday-Saturday, 1-9 pm Sunday. 4005 SW Orbit St., Beaverton, 503-626-6246. 3-10 pm

Wednesday-Friday, noon-10 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Portland Cider Company ushers in 2023 with a sunny new seasonal cider: Mango Mimosa. Like its name suggests, the medium-sweet beverage with a bubbly finish pairs best with brunch foods, like huevos rancheros and banana pancakes, but its tropical fruit notes also make it a good match for spicy dinner entrees—think Thai curry or carne asada tacos. Or just drink it solo anytime the gloom of our Pacific Northwest winter gets to be a little too heavy.

4. PACIFIC STANDARD

Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

Disco Inferno

BY NEIL FERGUSON

When popular pop-up Street Disco announced it would make the leap to a brick-and-mortar, Portland’s food scene started buzzing with the kind of excitement that usually precedes the highest of high-profile openings. That may have to do with the fact that Kyle Christy is at the helm. The chef established his reputation at Northeast Killingsworth Street restaurant Dame, then started a seafood-centric Street Disco predecessor called Gusto in 2019 with Dame compadre Jessie Manning.

With Street Disco, the two gained a loyal following eager to try their playful themed menus, which appeared at venues around Portland. The restaurant that resulted is owned by both, combining Christy’s adoration of seafood with what can be loosely interpreted as a highly elevated yet unpretentious, slightly nostalgic street food concept. And lucky for us, the buzz surrounding its opening is warranted.

For Foster-Powell denizens such as myself, the idea of a hip, more upscale dining option within walking distance is appealing. Nestled just off Southeast Foster Road next to a pot shop in the space formerly occupied by Char Pizza, Street Disco feels like a restaurant divided into two parts.

100 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 971-346-2992, kexhotels.com/eat-drink/ pacificstandard. 3 pm-midnight daily.

At Pacific Standard, the 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. “I just have no shortage of drink ideas,” Morgenthaler says. A gift and a curse we’re all thankful for.

5. FRACTURE BREWING

1015 SE Stark St., fracturebrewingpdx.com. 4-10 pm Wednesday-Thursday, 4-11 pm Friday-Saturday, 2-8 pm Sunday.

After months of brewing without a taproom, Fracture finally has a place for the public to enjoy a pint that it can call its own. Husband-and-wife team Darren Provenzano and Ny Lee, who met and worked together in a brewery in Vietnam, officially began welcoming customers to their Stark Street space in December. Year-round offerings, made in the former Burnside Brewing space, include two Pilsners, a West Coast IPA and a hazy. But don’t sleep on the seasonal Dark Lager with notes of toffee, raisin and chocolate that will warm you from the inside out this winter.

One side is hip and airy, with patrons sitting at cafe tables, perusing the extensive list of natural wines and munching on gourmet tinned fish and the occasional burger special. In contrast, the dining room is lined with plush green booths to complement the ’70s-style wood paneling. This creates a cozy-in-winter feel you want in a neighborhood joint, and one can imagine, come summer, Street Disco will open its big glass doors to give the room a sunny, sidewalk bistro vibe. Nineties hip-hop wafts from the speakers, a soundtrack that’s fitting for both sides.

Having been open only since October, some hiccups are to be expected. On my first visit, my date and I were ushered into the main dining room 45 minutes late due to our reservation being “double booked.” Service from that point on was efficient, though a second visit saw the food coming out at a slower pace. At

least the staff at Street Disco seemed aware of this and will hopefully tighten up their operation as they ease into a service flow.

Two things to know about the menu at Street Disco is that it changes frequently and nearly everything is sharable. During our two visits, there were several items that appeared both times, but the kitchen team had tweaked them to the point where they actually seemed new.

There are a handful of items one might consider appetizers, like the salt cod fritters ($13), fried to a golden crisp, which captured the essence of fish and chips in a bite that seemed to be a nod to Gusto. The kampachi crudo ($14) was a refreshing contrast, with diced radishes and Gordal

olives forming a sort of tapenade that provided a textural balance to the melt-in-your-mouth fish.

We dipped into other starters on another visit: luscious bone marrow topped with tender slices of wagyu tataki ($18) and The Original Not Lobster Roll ($10). The latter was a very Northwest combination of Dungeness crab and bay shrimp served on a sweet, chewy milk bun. Seafood is generally the star of the show at Street Disco, but it was well worth taking a detour from the ocean by ordering the grilled pork ribs ($18)—sure to become a sleeper hit—adorned with a barbecuelike fermented peach-and-honey sauce. With our carnal desire for meat satiated, we turned our focus back to

AARON LEE

The buzz surrounding Street Disco’s move from pop-up to brickand-mortar is well deserved.

HIGH SEAS: The party isn’t landlocked at Street Disco. In fact, seafood is the star of the menu.

the seafood and dug into the whole grilled branzino ($31). Though certainly large enough for a one-person entrée, the white fish is best picked at by two or more diners. There was a certain joy that came from delicately pulling back the crispy skin to reveal a bundle of thyme that released a sauna’s amount of fragrant steam. Just keep in mind that the cumin-heavy mojo sauce works better on the side instead of poured over as recommended.

This dish was off the menu the next time we dined, and one can only hope it swims back in the future. But there were other standouts to enjoy. The seared octopus ($24) was perfectly tender, coiled around soft potatoes soaked in green harissa. It was also a thrill to watch the kitchen team cranking out homemade ricotta cavatelli for the braised lamb neck ($23), served almost stewlike.

Top 5 Hot Plates

WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. FORTUNE BBQ NOODLE HOUSE

It’s highly advisable to explore Street Disco’s creatively curated wine library, but the rotating cocktail menu also deserves attention. Malachi’s Maize (bourbon, Nixta corn liqueur, peach and orange; $14) was the clear winner on our first visit. The Geto Bird ($14) remained on the menu and for good reason: Its warming blend of rum, fall spices and pear brought a smile to my face.

Street Disco is a delightful addition to the bustling yet still low-key Foster-Powell neighborhood that already includes breweries, cocktail bars, and pizza spots. Chef Christy and his talented team have created a sophisticated yet approachable and fun dining destination that prides itself on crafting thoughtful dishes with exceptional ingredients that are seasonal and local. Every bite was enjoyable and many were even sensational. Given the frequency of the menu changes, it will be exciting to see how Street Disco finds its footing and evolves.

EAT: Street Disco, 4144A SE 60th Ave., street-disco.com. 5-10:30 pm Thursday-Monday.

18 SE 82nd Ave., 503-265-8378. 9:30 am-7 pm Wednesday-Monday.

It’s been less than six months since Corina Wang opened Fortune BBQ Noodle House in a Southeast Portland strip mall, and the place is thriving. The longtime server at Kenny’s Noodle House launched the business last September, bringing along the savory congee and soups from her previous employer, and joined them with Cantonese barbecue classics, all for super-reasonable prices. The roasted pork belly is the standout. Arrive at opening and order by the pound to ensure you get your haul.

2. COSMIC BLISS 207 NW 10th Ave., 971-420-3630, cosmicbliss.com. Noon-8 pm Sunday-Wednesday, noon-9 pm Thursday-Saturday. Winter might seem a strange time to recommend chowing down on ice cream, but if you think about it, it’s really when you should be indulging in a summertime staple. Once all of the holiday decorations have come down and you’re left with gray, chilly winter days, there’s no better treat to encourage you to dream of July. There’s also a new scoop shop in town worth trying out before the summer rush: Eugene-based Cosmic Bliss, which is good news for those with dietary restrictions. There is both grass-fed dairy and plant-based ice cream, and everything is gluten free.

3. MASTER KONG SE 1522 SE 32nd Ave., 503-384-2184, masterkongor.com. 10:30 am-9 pm Monday-Friday, 10 am-9 pm Saturday-Sunday. A few months back, Jade District dumpling darling Master Kong quietly opened a location just off of Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, bringing its xiao long bao, wonton noodle soup, and congee closer in. The menu is the same, but ordering is done through a screen at the entrance. Shortly thereafter, piping hot bowls of its signature brisket noodle soup and “meat folders,” aka homemade steamed dough folded around pork belly, green onion and herbs, are whisked out to your table. It’s been pretty quiet at the new location, so head there soon to make sure it stays put.

4. WILD CHILD PIZZA 2032 NE Alberta St., 503-719-7328, wildchild.pizza. 3-9 pm daily. If you’ve grown weary of the city’s surplus of pizza joints, Wild Child will reinvigorate your palate. The new takeout window serves Detroit-style pies with a 72-hour-fermented sourdough crust. All the classic toppings you’d expect are available daily, while special combinations (like pineapple with bacon and jalapeño, or tater tots with spicy mayo and bonito) rotate in and out. This isn’t just pizza. It’s edible architecture.

5. JOJO 902 NW 13th Ave., 971-331-4284, jojopdx.com. 11 am-10 pm daily. Everything verges on the ridiculous at Jojo. The brick-and-mortar location opened in the Pearl in September, and since then it’s been pure maximalist dining. Servings are optimized for NFL offensive linemen. The fried chicken sandwiches are just as good as the ones at the Jojo food truck, minus the parking lot ambience. Smash burgers feature plenty of char without drying out entirely. And, of course, the jojos are in an elite tier here, staying crispy even when loaded with Tillamook cheddar and caramelized onions.

GILBERT TERRAZAS / STREET DISCO

STREET DISCO

TIM SAPUTO

Sugar High

Here are six sweet strains

BY BRIANNA WHEELER

This Valentine’s Day, instead of flowers and chocolates, streamline your shopping and give your stoner sweetie a top-shelf bouquet of chocolate cannabis flowers instead.

Several cannabis strains, both classic and modern, taste just like chocolate. And whether they’re bred from a chocolate parent strain or not, most of these cultivars share chocolate’s primary terpene: linalool. In cacao and cannabis, it’s the key driver of those rich, earthy and sweet botanical flavors and fragrances most of us crave. So just like your favorite craft chocolate bars, these cultivars can be incredibly complex and nuanced.

In a market flooded with cheese, diesel and piney citrus cultivars, a chocolate-flavored cannabis strain is uniquely charming, especially on Valentine’s Day. So this year, whether buying a gift for your pothead paramour or your lovely stoner self, consider taking home some of these chocolate strains.

Chocolope

Chocolope is a potent, euphoric strain that delivers an energetic and creative high prized by bright-eyed, social smokers. But users who favor this cross of Chocolate Thai with Cannalope Haze aren’t just party potheads. A large number of people report that Chocolope eases anxiety and moderates their mood when puffed judiciously. Newbies, take note: This punchy high could tip into paranoia if overdone, so inhale with caution.

BUY: Kaleafa Cannabis Company, 5232 SE Woodstock Blvd., 971-407-3208, kaleafa.com.

Chocolate Hashberry

There’s more than just chocolate-scented smoke to appreciate when using this strain. Chocolate Hashberry’s potent, long-lasting buzz should also be appealing—even for those whose favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. This finely tuned cross of Chocolate Kush and Blackberry Kush is a magic carpet ride in the head with cashmere-soft, bod-soothing physical effects that therapeutic users say are highly effective at relieving issues like chronic anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression and chronic pain.

BUY: TJ’s on Powell, 7827 SE Powell Blvd., 503-7197140.

Chocolate Oranges

For users in the market for a strain that leads to a heavier stone that also has an inhale reminiscent of a Terry’s Chocolate Orange segment, get ready, because there is a cultivar bred especially for you. Chocolate Oranges is a super-dank, blissfully syrupy, heavy-duty sedative strain worthy of either the nightstand or the stash box. This cross of Mint Chocolate Chip and Orange Valley OG is a couchlocking cultivar best suited for low-stakes activities. Many users say they experience an electric euphoria at the onset that smoothly dissolves into hazy relaxation. Others report it’s an effective sleep aid, depending on their resting state.

BUY: Kush Cart, 971-229-1281, kushcartpdx.com.

Chocolate Thai

Once known as Thai Stick (ask an old head), Chocolate Thai is a pure landrace strain native to Thailand, and a parent strain to many of the newer chocolate varieties on the market today. Though the cultivar features relatively low THC percentages by today’s boutique dispensary standards, Chocolate Thai is a potent, energizing strain that delivers a sugar-rushlike body high and a crystalline, hyper-blissed-out head high. Daytime users prize this strain because it can lead to a cool focus and inspired creativity. Therapeutic users report relief from chronic fatigue, anxiety and depression.

BUY: Mongoose Cannabis Co., 3123 SE Belmont St., 541-933-8032, mongoosecanabis.com.

Chocolate Trip

Strain hunters on the lookout for a chocolaty cannabis sedative with a psychedelic head high and buttery-soft body buzz should check out Chocolate Trip, a rare cross of Indigo Diamond and Chocolate Thai. Despite its hot-blooded lineage, this cultivar’s effects skew dreamy rather than bubbly. Recreational users describe highs that are elated yet firmly grounded, electrifying yet lazily soothing, and manageably psychotropic. Therapeutic users report relief from migraines, depression and chronic pain.

BUY: The Green Planet, 17332 SE Powell Blvd., 503912-1144.

Chocolatina

Chocolatina is a dank, moderately sedative strain bred from Tina and Mint Chocolate Chip. It’s known for its euphoric onset, which fizzles into a lethargy that recreational users appreciate at the end of a stressful day. The average THC level falls between 15% and 25%, but no matter where your strain lands, you can anticipate a giddy, serene head high and comfortably numb body buzz.

BUY: Northwest Cannabis Company, 17937 SW McEwan Road, Tualatin, 971-634-4400, northwestcannabis. com.

for the chocolate lover in your life (that could be you!) this Valentine’s Day.

AMP Grounds

Artist Mentorship Program co-founder William Kendall finds a permanent HQ at Old Town’s Brody Theater.

BY JAY HORTON @hortland

After a restless youth in London and San Francisco playing in bands he swears we’ve never heard of, William Kendall’s life path only came into focus once he began working with at-risk youth.

“ We could teach job training skills to someone experiencing homelessness,” he says. “Until they have a way to express themselves through art and music, it’s only half the package. Playing music with people, there are these moments when you nod at each other because the chord change is coming and you know things are happening. Isolated young people experiencing homelessness don’t have the chance to make these really deep, very emotional connections.”

Recognizing the desperate need for an organization that could help unhoused minors develop their own creative talents and relate to others through art and music, Kendall moved to Portland in 2005 and helped launch the Artist Mentorship Program as a means of redressing the glaring absence from existing resources.

As the program steadily expanded both services and ambitions in the past few years, Kendall became increasingly convinced that AMP required a formal home base to best fulfill its mission and, earlier this year, signed papers to take over Old Town’s Brody Theater.

As members hustle to refurbish the venerable former improv venue by mid-February, Kendall sat down with WW to discuss the discrete challenges and unexpected dividends of teaching kids how to educate themselves.

WW: How’d this all begin?

William Kendell: Basically, here’s our deal: AMP had been working in partnership with New Avenues for Youth, Outside In, p:ear, HomePlate, and just about every other youth services organization in town. As of [January], we’re building out our own space.

So, this isn’t a shelter.

We’re not a shelter, we won’t have beds, but there will be a dropin center providing engagement services: meals, art, music, resources of that nature. Janus opens their doors at 8:45 pm for the Street Light & Porch Light shelters for young people experiencing homelessness between the ages of 15 and 25. So, we’re going to be focusing on the block between 4 and 8:30 to make sure young people have a warm space available. That’s when most of them are experiencing pretty dangerous situations—assault, getting incarcerated, violent situations.

Then, of course, we’ll have our recording studio and our art studio spaces. And there’s a stage inside the new building, so we’ll have performances as well. We want bands to come and play for our youth. We want fundraising opportunities. We definitely want concerts.

What’s the fire code capacity?

Like a hundred, probably. At this point, I don’t think we’d want to have more people or open it up to the general public outside of our normal hours unless it’s some sort of sanctioned fundraising event. Last October, we hosted our biggest one to date and packed Star Theater with a slew of amazing acts: Mic Crenshaw, Eyelids, Louder Than Moz. Storm Large rocked the house. The Macks basically peeled the wallpaper off the space.

What about concerts by the kids?

A lot of nonprofits go, “Hey, let’s do a performance so we can show people what we’re doing with their donations.” We’re not going to force young people who’ve experienced trauma into a stressful situation because we think it might be developmentally helpful.

Will there be classes?

Rather than telling them how to paint or play music, we want them to become their own educators. Most kids who come into our space say they’re no good at art. So let’s try something really simple? Pull this silkscreen across, lift it up, and they go, “Holy shit, I’m an artist!” Then, we’re off to the races.

And with music?

There are the virtuosos, obsessed with music, and we end up learning from them. Most of the time, trying to get an instrument into a kid’s hand…we just want to start off with one note, you know? Or, we’ll just break out mayonnaise buckets and start drumming in a circle.

Do you reach out to experts in different fields?

One kid kept talking specifically about this cat Sebo Walker who was an artist and professional skateboarder. So I contacted him through Instagram and sent an email—loveliest guy ever, totally down for the cause. He came in, partnered up with this kid to work on a mural together, and they went out skateboarding. Fucking rad, you know?

If a kid comes in wanting to talk with Yo Yo Ma, I’m going to find him. If I have a kid in front of me who wants to learn, I am going to do whatever it takes to get somebody in the building who will teach that subject. I’ll eat glass to make that happen.

WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD @bromf3

FRIDAY, FEB. 10:

Nick Hakim is a singer confident enough in his own voice to mess with it in some truly deranged ways. The Washington, D.C., native emerged on 2017’s Green Twins as the resident soul man of the increasingly crowded psych-funk field, but subsequent albums like Will This Make Me Good reveal an eagerness to challenge listeners who might peg him as Tame Impala meets Sly Stone—and the Slylike willingness to drown his million-dollar pipes in sewer sludge. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503-284-8686, wonderballroom.com. 9 pm. $23. 21+.

TUESDAY, FEB. 14:

Patrick Shiroishi is a rising star of the new American wave of ambient music, folding field recordings and layers of saxophone into tender compositions with an emphasis on his family history—but his Oort Smog project with Mark Kimbrell is a different beast entirely. Combining dizzying prog chops with long stretches of improvisation, Oort Smog argues that free jazz can hit the same sweet spot as the gnarliest and most polluted-sounding death metal. No Fun Bar, 1709 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 503-236-8067, facebook.com/nofunportland. 7 pm. $10. 21+.

WEDNESDAY-THURSDAY, FEB. 15-16:

The Beths have spent the past five years as one of the best bands in indie rock, albeit in a low-key way. Led by observant New Zealand singer-songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, the band has developed a fervent cult following based on the three albums under their belts so far. Their third and best album, Expert in a Dying Field, might just be the one that brings them to the attention of the larger rock-’n’roll world, but for now, they’re the kind of band people either love or haven’t heard yet. Wonder Ballroom, 128 NE Russell St., 503-284-8686, wonderballroom.com. 8 pm. $22. 21+.

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

MOVIES

Reel Talk

With Regal’s parent company declaring bankruptcy, Portland-area movie theaters are facing a moment of reckoning. Can it lead to a rebirth?

BY ERIC ASH

In recent years, it’s been well documented that the movie theater industry is struggling, fighting battles on many fronts. The pandemic hit this business hard, among so many others.

2022 saw an uptick in sales, propelled by such blockbusters as Top Gun: Maverick. It was enough to suggest that Eric Wold of B. Riley Securities wasn’t crazy when he rated the stock of major national chain Cinemark (which operates several Century Theaters in the Portland area) as “buy” and predicted that by 2023 theater attendance would return to 2019 levels (that was a record-setting year, thanks largely to Avengers: Endgame, which grossed more than $2 billion worldwide).

Elsewhere in the industry, Regal Cinemas, which controls the lion’s share of the Portland multiplex market, has seen its parent company, Cineworld, go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Talks have taken place with Canada’s Cineplex and American rival AMC about potential buyouts, but negotiations have stalled.

From an outside business perspective, theater consultant Doug Darrow told Fast Company, “The U.S. is the most screened country in the world….Can we as an industry still maintain that number of movie theaters? Probably not.”

Meanwhile, Portland holds no shortage of small, independent cinemas outside the chains. If Regal were to shut down and take so much of the region’s cinematic real estate with it, what kinds of ripple effects would local theaters feel?

Aaron Colter, one of the owners of the Clinton Street Theater (famous as a weekly venue for The Rocky Horror Picture Show), takes an optimistic view of matters: “We took over operations in April 2022….There have definitely been some leaner months, but we’re optimistic that audiences will continue to support us and other local theaters due to our unique programming.”

On the subject of national chain issues, Colter says it is beyond his knowledge, but he brings the subject back to the independent theater scene: “Outside of Los Angeles and New York, there’s no other place in America that has so many well-respected, independent theaters….We shouldn’t take that for granted.”

Independent theaters do have a strong presence in Portland, and each has its own style. The Clinton, in addition to its weekly Rocky Horror screenings, frequently features a diverse array of shows and fundraisers on its calendar. The Laurelhurst Theater shows first-run movies on its four screens and presents a vibrant art deco face to the world. Out in Gresham, the Mt. Hood Theater features one movie at a time, in a cavernous cinema with seating for hundreds.

These independent theaters also have one key advantage over larger chains: Simplified operations mean lower costs overall. The Laurelhurst charges $9 for general admission and the Clinton charges $8 for most films (an exception being 11 pm Rocky Horror tickets at $10). Adult nonmatinee tickets typically start at $13 for Regal and $12 for Cinemark.

If Cineworld’s bankruptcy does lead to Regal’s demise, it would surely be one of the fastest ways Doug Darrow’s prediction of too many screens could come to pass, especially in this region. Regal operates 15 Oregon theaters from Portland to Salem, plus four in Vancouver.

In September 2022, Regal Sherwood closed. Theoretically, if more Regal Cinemas were to shutter, independent owners could take over and refurbish some of them, even expanding their own operations (which would be an ironic twist after Regal accrued growth in the late ’90s by consolidating with other, smaller chains).

There is something for everyone at Portland’s independent movie theaters—and there is something for everyone at the major multiplexes too. Despite the general downturn in the industry and the bankruptcy proceedings at Cineworld, there remains no shortage of cinematic locales for the denizens of the region to enjoy.

It’s all relatively status quo for now, but the entertainment industry in general never stands pat. It’s now a question of not if, but when, a sea change will come—and what it will look like.

“Outside of Los Angeles and New York, there’s no other place in America that has so many well-re spected, independent theaters. We shouldn’t take that for granted.”

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

The Game’s Afoot

Unicorn Town chronicles a Portlander’s American football journey in Germany.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER @chance_s_p

For its first 800 years, Schwäbisch Hall, Germany, was perhaps best known for producing salt. For the past 20, its calling card has been football—the American kind.

“It’s the only place in Europe where American football is the big sport: bigger than soccer, bigger than basketball,” says Nick Alfieri, director of the documentary Unicorn Town and linebacker for the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.

When Alfieri went abroad to continue his football career in 2016, the Portland native knew he wanted to document his experience, but that was all. Schwäbisch Hall turned out to be sports-movie gold: an oddball and an underdog.

The picturesque Southern German town is a David in the German Football League, facing burgeoning Goliaths from Berlin and Frankfurt. At about 40,000 people, its population is relatively minuscule; its number of paid players is routinely five times smaller than better-funded squads. But what Schwäbisch Hall does have is a team culture: “Unicorn Magic” is how the locals term the comeback-happy team’s “pure confidence.”

This uniquely positive and communal football tradition was established by 26-year head coach (and local high school teacher) Siegfried “Sigi” Gehrke, who helped found the team and played quarterback in its early years.

The Unicorns also thrive on a network of volunteers. This includes the vast majority of its German players, who work full-time jobs outside of football. “It’s more passion-fueled than results-driven,” says Alfieri, who spoke to WW from Portland during the GFL offseason (the 2023 schedule begins May 20).

Compounding their status as a good story, the Unicorns are a good team, one of the best in Europe despite appearing overmatched. Unicorn Town, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime, recounts Schwäbisch Hall’s push toward the 2016 German Bowl (the GFL’s Super Bowl equivalent) and all the charming culture shock of American players discovering local quirks: beers on the bus, 14 weekly team meals at participating restaurants in town and a coach who dutifully insists end-of-the-bench backups learn the game and travel with the team. His film took shape in sometimes unpredictable ways, Alfieri says. That’ll happen when the director is nursing broken bones and shaping the documentary one tackle at a time.

STREAMING WARS

YOUR WEEKLY FILM QUEUE

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON @thobennett

CYBERPUNK PICK:

Above all, Alfieri kept his camera rolling, sometimes as a helmet-mounted GoPro during practice, sometimes launching drones off hotel balconies across Europe. “You’re at the mercy of life and whatever happens,” he says. “I was totally oblivious and naive at the start.”

As for filmmaking chops, the former Portland Jesuit and Georgetown University linebacker briefly attended USC film school before returning to football, found constant inspiration in sports docs like Free Solo and primed his editing skills with the successful YouTube channel NALF, which highlights a range of German-American cultural differences and exchanges.

Unicorn Town was also fortunate to have an influential executive producer on board from the beginning: Christian McCaffrey, one the NFL’s best running backs. The San Francisco 49ers star roomed with Alfieri’s younger brother Joey at Stanford, where McCaffrey minored in film. He gave multiple rounds of notes on Unicorn Town and advised restructuring a key travel montage with splitscreen images. “I think that really elevated that portion of the movie,” Alfieri says.

Six years after the film’s main narrative wraps, Alfieri is still a Unicorns linebacker, a testament to how “Sigi” and Schwäbisch Hall refuse to run the team like a business. This ethos, Alfieri says, has allowed him and his fellow American “imports” to reexamine their definition of success.

“ We started to look at football as a vehicle for other aspects of life,” he says. “I think we all thought we’d go over for one year and then come back to the States.”

Don’t let the familial charm and cartoonish mascot fool you, though. The level of competition is high: Schwäbisch Hall tight end Moritz Böhringer was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in 2016. But if players perhaps lack the size or athletic gifts required for the North American leagues, Alfieri strongly recommends the GFL experience for its camaraderie, international education, and quality of life.

“ You’re not going to get rich playing football in Germany,” he says. “But basic needs are taken care of, and you have enough money to buy your after-game beers.”

SEE IT: Unicorn Town, not rated, streams on Amazon Prime (and free on Roku and Vudu).

Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995) is the greatest cyberpunk movie ever made. That’s right—it’s better than Akira, both Blade Runners and, yes, even The Matrix. And after languishing on DVDs and foreign Blu-rays, it’s finally available for streaming.

Ralph Fiennes stars as Lenny Nero, a peddler of VR sex fantasies who is pursued through Los Angeles by a pair of murderous police officers. Luckily, Lenny has an ally: Mace (Angela Bassett), an ass-kicking limo driver with whom he has far more chemistry than Faith (Juliette Lewis), the magenta-haired pop star he obsesses over.

As brutal as it is sexy, Strange Days is one of the most ferocious action films of the ’90s. In terms of pure adrenaline, it even tops Bigelow’s Point Break (1991), especially during a climax where New Year’s Eve revelers rise up against the film’s cop villains, filling the night air with confetti and blood (though there’s a heroic LAPD commissioner played by Josef Sommer).

By the time Strange Days was released, Bigelow was divorced from James Cameron, who co-wrote the film. But the story marries their respective sensibilities, fusing her keen insight into masculinity and violence (shades of The Hurt Locker) with his mastery of uncynical melodrama (Fiennes and Bassett’s soulful sparring plays like a prelude to Kate and Leo in Titanic).

Bigelow has confirmed that the politics came from her and the romance came from Cameron. Still, Strange Days is a Bigelow movie through and through—and it’s a testament to her gift for grabbing the audience by the guts and heart, as she does each time Fiennes and Bassett share the screen.

Movies are filled with couples who want to be together. Strange Days is about a couple who needs to be together, whether they know it or not. “You see, I care about you, Lenny—a lot more than you know,” Mace thunders. Therein lies the gift of Bigelow’s film: It does the greatest thing a work of art can do. It makes us care. HBO Max.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Despite its Feb. 14 billing at the Hollywood Theatre, Picnic at Hanging Rock is more romantic in the sense of English lit than Valentine’s Day.

The transcendent opening act of this pivotal title in the Australian New Wave often resembles the lightly supernatural sway of a great Gothic novel, as four picnickers go missing on a field trip in Victoria, Australia, circa 1900. The titular rock site of the schoolgirls’ picnic represents the natural world at its most symbolically active—equal parts alluring, liberating and devouring.

Director Peter Weir (who’d later become a Hollywood mainstay with Dead Poet’s Society and The Truman Show) creates soft-focus hypnosis, especially around the disappearance of Miranda (Anne-Louise Lambert)— whose ethereal beauty the film employs totemically, much like that of Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer.

With Hanging Rock always looming in the distance, we see how Miranda and her classmates’ rebellious choice to hike the ominous mound shakes everyone in the vicinity, from classmates to teachers to bystanders.

To be clear, Picnic at Hanging Rock is showing on Valentine’s Day due to the date on which the girls went missing: Feb. 14, 1900. So skip the gaudy chocolates and make this gorgeous, disquieting trip an annual tradition.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: Eve’s Bayou (1997), Feb. 10-12. Academy: Ghost (1990), Feb. 10-16, Wild at Heart (1990), Feb. 10-16. Cinema 21: Roman Holiday (1953), Feb. 11. Cinemagic: Moonage Daydream (2022), Feb. 12. Clinton: Set It Off (1996), Feb. 9. Purple Rain (1984), Feb. 10. Love & Basketball (2000), Feb. 13. Gundermann (2018), Feb. 14. Hollywood: It Happened One Night (1934), Feb. 9. Westworld (1973), Feb. 10. Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999), Feb. 11. Ghost in the Shell (1995), Feb. 12. How High (2001), Feb. 13.

CLOSE

Even at its best—with relatively kind peers, teachers and families—middle school is hell. Adolescent socialization starts and, immediately, it’s an irreversible cascade for Léo (Eden Dambrine) and Rémi (Gustav de Waele), two best friends from the Belgian countryside. We first see them at summer’s end, as gangly mirror images dashing joyfully through Léo’s family flower farm. Their childhood bond is so “close” that, any hint of burgeoning romance notwithstanding, they are indeed experiencing a kind of love. But a relationship this unself-conscious can’t repel schoolyard scrutiny and early teachings in masculine insecurity. Some of the ensuing change to Léo and Rémi’s friendship is sudden and frankly unbelievable, calling into question what story writer-director Lukas Dhont really wants to tell (precariously, he’s searching for a universal experience within a distinct trauma). Yet Close, an Oscar nominee for Best International Film that is clearly inspired by Celine Sciamma’s intimate coming-of-age portraits (Tomboy Girlhood), remains involving and intimate throughout—and it’s arguably a playbook for how adults should treat children. Maybe they just do middle school better in Belgium. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cinema 21.

INFINITY POOL

Brandon Cronenberg hardly runs from his father David’s towering horror legacy; junior’s latest is a turbo-charged entry in what’s become a family label. Infinity Pool sees a vacationing couple (Alexander Skarsgård and Cleopatra Coleman) accidentally commit a crime. Per their fictional host country’s laws, they face a choice: to be executed or pay handsomely to have a clone made for said execution. That sounds comically high concept, but Cronenberg doesn’t wallow in the how or why. Instead, Infinity Pool grows funnier as it evokes the depravity of Brandon’s previous films, Possessor and Antiviral. Skarsgård (the Swedish Adonis last seen barbarically flexing in The Northman) is debased, becoming a dead-eyed, melting sculpture—with assistance from newly anointed horror icon Mia Goth (X, Pearl ), who shrieks here like a cockney Olive Oyl and tries to top her personal-best freakout mugs. Sure, Infinity Pool isn’t fully convincing on an intellectual level. (Would imposter syndrome transform into liberating mania if you watched yourself die?

Ooooooo.) But the larger spasmodic experience outweighs any half-baked philosophy with its bass-drum score, orgiastic interludes, and body horror apparently hereditary to the Cronenbergs. Infinity Pool may not blow minds, but it reliably explodes heads. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Laurelhurst, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin.

NO BEARS

Recently released after being imprisoned for practicing his art, Jafar Panahi risked everything to make No Bears—as the

celebrated director has whenever picking up a camera since the Iranian government banned him from making films in 2010. In No Bears, as with This Is Not a Film and Taxi before it, Panahi autobiographically prods the very meaning of cinematic intervention and political filmmaking. In dual plots, we catch glimpses of a fictional movie Panahi is directing about two lovers attempting to flee to Europe, and then Panahi himself visiting a remote village where his photography stirs controversy among locals. Particularly in its rural setting, No Bears focuses on the excessive pleasantries and age-old traditions that constitute community equilibrium in the shadow of unseen revolution and violent crackdown. That obliqueness can be frustrating to sit with, as we observe characters talk circles around life-altering decisions, basic individuality, and fear of government reprisal. No morality police appear in the film—no bears either, though they’re rumored to prowl the village outskirts—but the title speaks volumes. These are the hovering threats that keep humanity fearful and hopeless. To judge or valorize anyone for staying, leaving or making peace in their country is not Panahi’s place. Far be it for the viewer either. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.

KNOCK AT THE CABIN

M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich of thrillers: It checks all of the boxes the genre requires, but leaves the palate yearning for more as the aftertaste of mediocrity lingers.

Parents Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) whisk their nature-loving daugh-

ter, Wen (Kristen Cui), away to the woods for a family vacation, but are met with four strangers knocking at their door, all wielding horrifying homemade weapons and spouting end-ofdays premonitions (they include Rupert Grint, who emerges from his silver screen hiatus with a bang, and Dave Bautista in a powerhouse performance that is a far cry from his previous testosterone-fueled roles). As for production, the film’s two cinematographers, Jarin Blaschke (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman) and Lowell A. Meyer (Topside, Thunder Road ), have crafted a handful of ingenious images that would have taken even Hitchcock’s breath away (especially a masterful POV shot in which Grint is pummeled with a barrage of fists). Unfortunately, the plot, adapted from the novel The Cabin at the End of the World, is an inch deep and a mile wide. Plenty of interesting questions are posed throughout Knock at the Cabin (the film revolves around a nauseating moral dilemma), yet it concludes without providing a compelling or coherent response to any of them. R. ALEX BARR. Academy, Bagdad, Cedar Hills, Cinemagic, City Center, Eastport, Lake Theater, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, St. Johns, St. Johns Twin, Studio One, Tigard.

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

THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT.

MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED.

by Calico Jack

by Jack Kent

JONESIN’

BY MATT JONES

ARIES (March 21-April 19): During my quest for advice that might be helpful to your love life, I plucked these words of wisdom from author Sam Kean: "Books about relationship talk about how to 'get' the love you need, how to 'keep' love, and so on. But the right question to ask is, 'How do I become a more loving human being?'" In other words, Aries, here's a prime way to enhance your love life: Be less focused on what others can give you and more focused on what you can give to others. Amazingly, that’s likely to bring you all the love you want.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have the potential to become even more skilled at the arts of kissing and cuddling and boinking than you already are. How? Here are some possibilities. 1. Explore fun experiments that will transcend your reliable old approaches to kissing and cuddling and boinking.

2. Read books to open your mind. I like Margot Anand’s *The New Art of Sexual Ecstasy*. 3. Ask your partner(s) to teach you everything about what turns them on. 4. Invite your subconscious mind to give you dreams at night that involve kissing and cuddling and boinking. 5. Ask your lover(s) to laugh and play and joke as you kiss and cuddle and boink.

where you can risk letting the world break your heart."

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Walter Lippman wrote, "The emotion of love is not self-sustaining; it endures only when lovers love many things together, and not merely each other." That's great advice for you during the coming months. I suggest that you and your allies—not just your romantic partners, but also your close companions—come up with collaborative projects that inspire you to love many things together. Have fun exploring and researching subjects that excite and awaken and enrich both of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio writer Paul Valéry wrote, "It would be impossible to love anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object." My challenge to you, Scorpio, is to test this hypothesis. Do what you can to gain more in-depth knowledge of the people and animals and things you love. Uncover at least some of what's hidden. All the while, monitor yourself to determine how your research affects your affection and care. Contrary to what Valéry said, I'm guessing this will enhance and exalt your love.

ACROSS

1. Aromatic ointment

5. Fitzgerald forte

9. Like some doors

13. "Superfood" berry

14. Approximately

15. Put on the hard drive

16. Flagship brew of what's now Spoetzl Brewery, named for the town in Texas

18. ACL's joint

19. Tea holder

20. Sweater style

22. Tongue-in-cheek

entertainment

24. "The game is ___"

25. Side-to-side skid

29. Surpass in smarts

32. Shaw on the jazz clarinet

33. Peculiarity

35. Suffix with ethyl and propyl

36. Pager sound

37. Like some 1940s pinups

38. Clamors

39. Web connection co.

40. Invoice words before a date

41. Assume as a fact

42. Not these or those

44. Circle segments, in some circles

46. Peeved

48. Do some karaoke

49. Term for a long streak of championships (last achieved in major pro sports by the 1980s New York Islanders)

52. Deeply dismayed

56. ___ Kadabra (enemy of the Flash)

57. 1977 four-wheel drive coupé that sorta resembled a pickup

59. Type of skateboarding that includes inclines

60. Birthplace of the violin

61. Egg, in Paris

62. "Game of Thrones" heroine Stark

63. Foam football brand

64. Knit material DOWN

1. Enjoy the limelight (or sunlight)

2. Bruise symptom

3. Cafe au ___

4. Ice cream flavor that's usually green or white

5. Blood relation, slangily

6. "Peter Pan" critter

7. African capital on the Gulf of Guinea

8. Become... something

9. Beginning of a JFK quote

10. Former Sleater-Kinney drummer who also worked with Stephen Malkmus and the Shins

11. "Voulez-vous coucher ___ moi?"

12. Smell real bad

14. Espresso foam

17. Bring delight to

21. "The Caine Mutiny" author Herman

23. Arouse, as one's interest

25. Italian model who graced many a romance novel cover

©2023 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. "___ my case!"

27. Superstar who holds records for most threepointers in a career, season, and NBA finals

28. Pyramid-shaped Vegas hotel

30. Belly button type

31. Students' challenges

34. New York college and Scottish isle, for two

37. Brings en masse to an event, maybe

38. Pillsbury mascot (whose name is Poppin' Fresh)

40. Roller coaster feature

41. Stop-motion kids' show set in Antarctica

43. Literary misprints

45. Daily record

47. Pan-fry

49. Broad bean

50. "Remote Control" host Ken

51. Ski resort transport

53. Rectangle calculation

54. Dino's end?

55. Initialism from "Winnie the Pooh" specials that predated text messages

58. TV alien who lived with the Tanners

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are an Italian wolf searching for food in the Apennine Mountains. You’re a red-crowned crane nesting in a wetland in the Eastern Hokkaido region of Japan. You're an olive tree thriving in a salt marsh in southern France, and you're a painted turtle basking in a pool of sunlight on a beach adjoining Lake Michigan. And much, much more. What I'm trying to tell you, Gemini, is that your capacity to empathize is extra strong right now. Your smart heart should be so curious and open that you will naturally feel an instinctual bond with many life forms, including a wide array of interesting humans. If you're brave, you will allow your mind to expand to experience telepathic powers. You will have an unprecedented knack for connecting with simpatico souls.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): My Cancerian friend Juma says, "We have two choices at all times: creation or destruction. Love creates and everything else destroys." Do you agree? She’s not just talking about romantic love, but rather love in all forms, from the urge to help a friend, to the longing to seek justice for the dispossessed, to the compassion we feel for our descendants. During the next three weeks, your assignment is to explore every nuance of love as you experiment with the following hypothesis: *To create the most interesting and creative life for yourself, put love at the heart of everything you do.*

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope you get ample chances to enjoy deep soul kisses in the coming weeks. Not just perfunctory lip-to-lip smooches and pecks on the cheeks, but full-on intimate sensual exchanges. Why do I recommend this? How could the planetary positions be interpreted to encourage a specific expression of romantic feeling? I'll tell you, Leo: The heavenly omens suggest you will benefit from exploring the frontiers of wild affection. You need the extra sweet, intensely personal communion that comes best from the uninhibited mouth-to-mouth form of tender sharing. Here's what Leo poet Diane di Prima said: "There are as many kinds of kisses as there are people on earth, as there are permutations and combinations of those people. No two people kiss alike—no two people fuck alike—but somehow the kiss is more personal, more individualized than the fuck."

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Borrowing the words of poet Oriah from her book *The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life*, I've prepared a love note for you to use as your own this Valentine season. Feel free to give these words to the person whose destiny needs to be woven more closely together with yours. Oriah writes, "Don't tell me how wonderful things will be someday. Show me you can risk being at peace with the way things are right now. Show me how you follow your deepest desires, spiraling down into the ache within the ache. Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In his book

*Unapologetically You*, motivational speaker Steve Maraboli writes, "I find the best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves." That's always good advice, but I believe it should be your inspirational axiom in the coming weeks. More than ever, you now have the potential to forever transform your approach to relationships. You can shift away from wanting your allies to be different from what they are and make a strong push to love them just as they are.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I analyzed the astrological omens. Then I scoured the internet, browsed through 22 books of love poetry, and summoned memories of my best experiences of intimacy. These exhaustive efforts inspired me to find the words of wisdom that are most important for you to hear right now. They are from poet Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Stephen Mitchell): "For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation."

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): To get the most out of upcoming opportunities for intimacy, intensify your attunement to and reverence for your emotions. Why? As quick and clever as your mind can be, sometimes it neglects to thoroughly check in with your heart. And I want your heart to be wildly available when you get ripe chances to open up and deepen your alliances. Study these words from psychologist Carl Jung: "We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy."

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "In love there are no vacations. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that." Author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras made that observation, and now I convey it to you—just in time for a phase of your astrological cycle when boredom and apathy could and should evolve into renewed interest and revitalized passion. But there is a caveat: If you want the interest and passion to rise and surge, you will have to face the boredom and apathy; you must accept them as genuine aspects of your relationship; you will have to cultivate an amused tolerance of them. Only then will they burst in full glory into renewed interest and revitalized passion.

Homework: Name one thing you could do to express your love more practically. Newsletter. FreeWillAstrology.com

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