Willamette Week, February 22, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 15 - "Dive In: Spring Arts Guide 2023"

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER

VOL. 49, ISSUE 15

A downtown Portland skyscraper by Pietro Belluschi is nearing foreclosure. 5

Homeless Portlanders spent six times as many days in Legacy’s burn ward in 2021 as they did in 2017. 5

Clackamas County residents really hate the highway tolls proposed for Interstates 5 and 205. 6

State Treasurer Tobias Read says dumping energy stocks would cost the state’s pension fund $90 million a year. 7

Somebody gunned down two Oregon weed entrepreneurs in Houston 8

It sometimes rains inside an East Portland man’s apartment. 11

Star Trek: The Next Generation ’s John de Lancie says some of his co-stars used “fake voices.” 15

Portland Opera hosted the world premiere of Bernard Herrmann’s Wuthering Heights 16

In theater, swimming pools and bathtubs are the final frontier. 18

Ken Kesey and Ursula K. Le Guin were published in the Northwest Review, the University of Oregon literary journal resurrected in 2020. 20

McMenamins Hillsdale became Oregon’s first brewery since Prohibition , in 1985. 25

Zapiekanka is also known as Polish pizza 25

Studio One’s cinemas were designed to resemble penthouses in Istanbul, Rome and Tokyo. 27

You can belly up to the bar at Lloyd Athletic Club as early as 5:30 am. 27

Rose petals make dainty rolling paper 28

Oracle Wellness employs a cannabis chef 28

The new owner of the Goonies House would put out the welcome mat for a Goonies sequel or TV show. 30

A chance encounter at a Super 8 camera store led to Jim Jarmusch and Forest Whitaker’s collaboration on Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 31

A Proud Partner of

WW, nomic view of the local economy. The bottom line is, many property owners are behind because of the pandemic, when faltered because Portland went from being an obsession for travel section to a Maoist hellscape subjects and disdain for others. Rome fell in part because it couldn’t collect taxes to pay for its empire. Taxes pay for

MT. HOOD, VIA WWEEK.COM:

“So, business owners who don’t pay their property taxes are ‘deadbeats,’ but tenants who don’t pay their rent and drug zombies who attack pedestrians are ‘victims.’ Umkay, that’s so Portland…”

ANDREW REA, VIA FACEBOOK: “There seem to be a lot of abandoned properties in this town which owners are just sitting on without subletting, leasing, or selling. The city of Portland should penalize these owners in some way for sitting on these properties for so long.”

unchecked, a true class society

“Property taxes in Portland are a hot mess with real, long-term financial consequences for many people. There is no rhyme or reason for what property tax rates are compared

KURT CHAPMAN, VIA WWEEK.

nights of mostly peaceful rioting and looting has consequences. Rampant, unabated blue tarps, spent needles and human waste prosecute criminal actions have consequences. People, be they locals or tourists, refuse to enter Portland in general. Expect it to get worse, despite the protesta-

REDSHIFT, VIA WWEEK.COM: “I totally think people choosing, en masse, to not pay a corrupt government which either wastes, pockets, or abuses its power to tax is an entirely valid and very, very effective thing to do. In fact, this entire country was formed by pretty much doing exactly that.”

CORRECTION

An item in “Reasons to Love Portland Night Now” (WW, Feb. 8) incorrectly reported that the Breakfast on Bridges event rotates between bridges. In fact, the event occurs simultaneously on several bridges each month. The story also credited the event to the nonprofit Shift2bikes, which no longer runs it. WW regrets the errors.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words.

Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland OR, 97296

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

a fire destroyed Linn City’s mill and much of its waterfront in early 1861, but its citizens were undeterred. They began the long, slow process of rebuilding—except, in this case, the process turned out to be not all that long since pretty much the entire town got washed away in a flood later that year.

ebuilding after one disaster makes you look gutsy, rebuilding after two starts to make you look a little bit stupid. The city’s denizens took the hint, and the town was largely abandoned. Development would return to the area after the completion of the Willamette Falls Locks in 1873, but Linn City qua Linn City was ast forward to 1913: telephones! Gibson girls! Napster! A chunk of land including what was then known as West Oregon City, along with Willamette Heights, Sunset and Bolton, decided to incorporate as its own town, partly to avoid being annexed by Oregon City proper.* The city fathers needed a name for the new town, and—after an extended process likely featuring some of the most boring arguments you can possibly imagine—they settled on West Linn, which tarts up the historic Linn City with some geographic flair borrowed from West Oregon City. I know, it’s hard to believe that was the best they could come up with, but

“Portland creep” before it was cool!

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

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2023 Timberline® Vodka, 40% Alc./Vol., Gluten Free. www.timberlinevodkas.com

PERFORMANCE & SIGNING

SATURDAY MARCH 4TH 5PM

Seattle rock band Iris Drive blends multiple styles of music and diverse instrumentation to create a sound that is centered in outlaw country and is reminiscent of the early days of rock and roll.

GONZALEZ EXPLAINS TENT BAN POLICY:

City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez announced last week that Portland Street Response, the mental health crisis team under his watch as fire commissioner, would no longer hand out tents and tarps to homeless Portlanders. He says the policy, which he crafted, received full-throated support from Fire Chief Sara Boone and the city’s fire marshal. “Hypothermia is a risk, as is frostbite. But when talking about frostbite, you’re losing fingers,” Gonzalez tells WW. “But these burns, they’re life changing even if they don’t kill you.” Gonzalez says data from the Legacy Oregon Burn Center drove the policy: It showed that stays of homeless patients in beds at the burn ward went from a total of 294 days in 2017 to 1,803 in 2021. Advocates have pushed back against Gonzalez’s policy, calling it cruel and inhumane during the coldest and rainiest months of the year. Asked why he would ban tents and rather than enforce fire rules, Gonzalez responded, “Because of humanity, and recognizing that people are using these [fires] to keep themselves warm.”

ICONIC SKYSCRAPER NEARS FORECLOSURE:

The downtown real estate crisis crushed one of Portland’s architectural gems last week. The owner of the 14-story Commonwealth Building, one of the first modern skyscrapers built, defaulted on its loan and said foreclosure may be coming. Designed by renowned modernist Pietro Belluschi and completed in 1948, the aluminum-clad building was among the first to have a sealed, air-conditioned interior. The current owner, KBS Growth & Income REIT, said in a regulatory filing that the building is worth less than what remains on its loan because of poor business conditions downtown. “Given the depressed office rental rates and the continued social unrest and increased crime in downtown Portland where the property is located, the company does not anticipate any near-term recovery in value,” KBS said. Like many downtown buildings, the Commonwealth suffered during COVID-19, when violent street protests and expanded work-from-home rules prompted tenants

to ditch office space. KBS said occupancy at the Commonwealth tumbled from 87% at the start of 2021 to 52% as of Sept. 30, 2022.

TWELVE CITY PARKS WILL GO DARK: Portland

Parks & Recreation will begin this week to remove 243 light poles across 12 city parks that the city deemed structurally unsound and potentially dangerous to passersby. Only two of the affected parks will get replacement lights—but not until mid-2024. Parks officials say they have no funding available to replace the removed lights in the other 10 parks, all but two of which are on the east side of the Willamette River. The parks affected are Colonel Summers, Irving, Ladd’s Circle, Lair Hill, Montavilla, Mt. Scott, Mt. Tabor, Rose City Golf Course, Sellwood, Sellwood Riverfront, Wallace and Woodstock. Parks Commissioner Dan Ryan said in a statement that he will work with the bureau to “explore funding to replace light poles as quickly as possible.”

“BENZO BENCHES”

REMOVED IN OLD TOWN: The notorious open-air drug market on Northwest 5th Avenue between Couch and Davis streets is no more, following efforts by police and neighborhood businesses to discourage drug dealing and loitering. Police reports referred to the stretch of TriMet’s transit mall as the “benzo benches,” after the pair of prominent steel and wood benches that were installed on the sidewalk in 2009. Those benches were removed in October at the request of local businesses.

“It seemed like the benches were encouraging people to hang out,” says Scott Robertson, operations manager at Portland Mall Management Inc. “We have the benches in storage and will reinstall them as soon as we are asked to do so.” The mall was clear of loitering on a recent weeknight, partially thanks to a chain-link fence put up around the neighboring parking lot. The benches are another example of wood furniture disappearing from Portland landmarks—Multnomah County’s Central Library plans to remove much of its oak furniture in recognition of its role as a gathering place for unhoused Portlanders.

IRVING PARK

Congestion Ahead

ODOT has big ambitions in Salem, but its path to success is getting steeper.

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

The Oregon Department of Transportation is working toward funding two big projects in Salem this session. Although the widening of Interstate 5 at the Rose Quarter and the Interstate Bridge Replacement project are separate, both may depend on persuading Oregonians to pay tolls for something they now get for free—the use of I-5, Interstate 205 and the Columbia River bridges.

A lot is happening: new flexibility on the part of the bistate Interstate Bridge Replacement consortium; a bill that could block tolling; and the emergence of new critics.

Here’s what’s changed:

The IBR looks less like a done deal: Start with the surprise Feb. 9 announcement from IBR director Greg Johnson that contrary to the long-publicized plan to built two double-decker bridges, his group was now also considering a long-discarded single-deck option. State Rep. Khanh Pham (D-Portland) says she’s not sure what prompted the flexibility, but she’s hopes it might mean an openness to scaling back the project and its $7.5 billion cost—she’d like just to replace the bridge, not the seven freeway interchanges that are part of the current plan. “The IBR group has been selling us one particular design for years,” says Pham, who serves on the Legislature’s Joint Interstate 5 Bridge Committee. “The opportunity to consider design changes is really exciting.” Although Johnson claims a single-deck option was always a possibility, Chris Smith, a member of the Just Crossing Alliance, which has monitored the IBR closely, says Johnson’s

shift might be because a double-decker design is unsafe (Bob Ortblad, a Seattle engineer critical of the design, says it would be the steepest interstate highway bridge in the country). Sen. Brian Boquist (R-The Dalles), also a member of the legislative bridge committee, says putting all the traffic on one level might also allow engineers to more easily comply with Coast Guard requirements that the bridge be high enough for marine traffic (the current design is not). “Meeting USCG standards would be easier with a single deck,” Boquist says.

Tolling is under siege: ODOT has said it expects to use toll revenues for both projects. But on Feb. 21, state Sen. Mark Meek (D-Gladstone) introduced a bill that could hamstring ODOT.

Since 2017, when lawmakers set aside funding for the Rose Quarter project and greenlighted the restart of the Interstate Bridge Replacement, ODOT has been grinding slowly toward either tolling (raising money for projects by charging for usage) or its more progressive cousin, congestion pricing (using tolling to reduce traffic and emissions). Meek’s response, Senate Bill 933, dropped with a thud in Salem. It prohibits tolling on I-5 or I-205 (except for the I-5 Columbia River bridges). Meek says ODOT has failed to come up with a plan to stop drivers from

Falling Footsteps

BY SOPHIE PEEL speel@wweek.com

New figures published by the Portland Business Alliance in its annual economic report show that both employee and visitor foot traffic in the heart of Portland recovered steadily after the spring of 2021, but has since stagnated—a concerning development as city leaders try to enliven the central city.

Employee foot traffic across downtown, Old Town and the Central Eastside as of December 2022 was 48% lower than it was pre-pandemic. Still, that’s a stark improvement from the spring of 2021, when foot traffic bottomed out at around 75% less than it was prior to the pandemic. ECONorthwest, the research firm that produced the data, used a technology

that measures cellphone activity.

However, there’s reason to be cautious: The graph at right illustrates that the central city’s employee foot traffic is at the same level it was in the spring of 2022. That should signal to politicians that vacant office space, as some economists have warned, will only rebound to a point; hybrid work, to some extent, is here to stay for many companies that once called Portland’s core home.

“A sustained decline in foot traffic will imperil critical employment opportunities, small businesses, and the tax revenue that our local governments depend on to deliver essential public services,” PBA CEO Andrew Hoan tells WW. “It is imperative that state and local leaders continue to make the recovery of our central

diverting off toll roads to free neighborhood streets. “A lot of us campaigned on giving our constituents relief from tolls,” he says. “And we’re going to do that.” Lurking behind Meek’s legislation: A 2024 ballot measure, Initiative Petition 4, would give citizens a vote on any toll, including on the Columbia River bridges. “I think ODOT is realizing how unpopular tolling is,” Meek says.

Environmentalists have company: ODOT has placated critics of the Rose Quarter project, including Portland Public Schools and Albina Vision Trust, isolating environmental groups. But the growing tide of anti-tolling sentiment adds a new dimension, as does the emergence of business interests—the Oregon Trucking Association, Pacific Seafoods, and the Northwest Electrical Contractors Association. Those groups are heavy users of I-5 and I-205 for local business and support Meek’s bill, says their lobbyist, Rick Metsger of Pac/West Lobby Group. Metsger adds that ODOT’s “plan to encircle the Portland metro area with tolls is a plan without a plan and fraught with perilous consequences.” ODOT spokeswoman Jenny Cherrytree says the agency doesn’t comment on pending legislation but remains committed to congestion pricing. A public comment period on an I-205 tolling project is open through April 7.

FOOT TRAFFIC IN THE CENTRAL CITY

Source: Portland Business Alliance

city an urgent priority.”

Tourists, diners and shoppers are more enthusiastic. Visitor foot traffic in the central city gradually increased throughout most of 2022, until September, when it began a slight decline,

which may be seasonal. Still, as of December, visitor foot traffic was 27% lower than it was pre-pandemic. That’s not great, but it’s better than office attendance.

GETTING OLDER: Oregon and Washington have been working to replace the Interstate bridges for more than 20 years.

Foot traffic in the central city has improved but looks to be plateauing.

CHASING GHOSTS: PROPERTY TAX DEBTS

Acrop Harvest

A West Burnside landmark is behind on its taxes.

HOUSE BILL 2601

Divestment from companies that invest in fossil fuels is an enormous issue for pension funds across the country—and in Salem.

In simple terms, advocates want pension fund managers hired by the Oregon State Treasury to pull pension investments out of companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and thousands of smaller companies, both publicly traded and private, that invest in oil, gas and coal and to reinvest the money elsewhere. Divestment as a tool for change goes back to at least the mid-1980s, when U.S. pension funds dumped South African stocks, a tactic historians credit for contributing to the end of apartheid. Since then, activists have pushed fund managers to shun tobacco stocks, arms makers, coal producers, and investments in Iran and Sudan.

Divestment can force change, but it can also bring risk: In a 2020 analysis of the impact of six different divestment programs, CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, reported that the tactic had cost pensioners more than $2 billion over the previous two decades—all of it related to selling tobacco stocks.

No w, Oregon lawmakers are proposing that this state’s pension funds, including the $90 billion Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement Fund, pivot away from fossil fuel-related investments. It’s an emotional argument laden with facts, figures and charts, and it’s a rare issue that divides Oregon’s largest public employee unions.

Here are the details:

CHIEF SPONSORS: State Reps. Khanh Pham (D-Portland) and Mark Gamba (D-Milwaukie), and state Sen. Jeff Golden (D-Ashland)

take aim at Oregon’s publicly traded stocks, which are easy to spot, and they demand scrubbing the Oregon Investment Council’s hefty investments in private equity funds—run by the likes of KKR & Co.—which are opaque and illiquid. “We have an exceptionally hard time grasping what’s going on” with private energy investments, Sen. Golden said. “More than any other states, we don’t know what we’re investing in.”

WHO SUPPORTS IT: Divest Oregon and just about every environmental organization in the state, along with some unions whose members have skin in the game, including the Oregon Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. While many of those groups focus on climate hazards, two highly experienced investment professionals, Chris Abbruzzese, chief investment officer at Rain Capital Management, and Thomas Sanzillo of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis argued last week that divestment would in fact reduce the risk of losing money. “Fossil fuels have been major contributors to investment portfolios and the world economy for decades,” Sanzillo said. “This is no longer the case. Exiting from fossil fuels is a strategy designed to protect institutional investment funds from losses.”

Address: 1717 W Burnside St.

Year built: 1906

Square footage: 18,993

Market value: $2.75 million

Owners: Haralambos and Diane Polizos

Property taxes owed: $78,871.41

How long it’s been delinquent: 3 years

What those taxes could buy: More than 315,000 condoms for distribution in Multnomah County student health centers

Why it’s delinquent: A death in the family

Like many of the properties behind on their property tax payments, the Acropolis Hotel still hums with activity.

Its ground floor is anchored by an outlet in the Fantasy for Adults Only sex shop chain. The window displays offer an array of jockstrap thongs, baby doll nighties, and more complicated underwear, although the store, once open around the clock, has shrunk its hours to noon to 8 pm.

Next door in the same building, a tattoo removal parlor run by homeless services nonprofit Outside In closed on March 17, 2020, and never returned—the pandemic closure notice still hangs in the window. Above it

are apartments. Despite its name, the Acropolis Hotel isn’t taking bookings.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that the hotel shares a name with the Acropolis Steakhouse, the Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard strip club where the $7 rib-eyes came from the owners’ Estacada ranch. Those owners, Haralambos “Bobby” Polizos and his wife, Diane, also own the Acropolis Hotel.

The Polizos family is behind on property taxes at both locations, though the tab run up on Burnside is about twice as large.

While the past three years couldn’t have been easy for operators of nudie bars or low-rent apartments, the more likely explanation is the 2019 death of Bobby Polizos. He was 80.

Shortly after his death, Diane Polizos said she would keep the strip club going. A woman who answered the phone at the family home this week said Diane wasn’t available. Her son, Andreas Polizos, who is listed as the Acropolis Steakhouse’s contact by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, also said he would pass a message to her.

We asked him if the failure to pay property taxes had to do with the death of his father. “I’m sure it has a lot to do with a lot of things,” he said. AARON MESH.

WHAT IT WOULD DO: Prohibit the State Treasury from making any new investments in fossil fuel companies and require that all funds the treasury oversees sell all publicly traded stocks on the “Carbon Underground 200 List” (a compilation of energy stocks) within six months of HB 2601 going into effect.

PROBLEM

IT SEEKS TO

SOLVE : In a public hearing last week, the chief sponsors eloquently described the large and growing impact that burning fossil fuels has on the climate. They and nearly 100 groups in Oregon argue that investing in fossil fuels is both contrary to Oregon’s carbon reduction goals and causes current harm, and is a bad long-term investment since fossil fuel stocks will lose value as consumers shift to greener alternatives. They

WHO OPPOSES IT: Some longtime lawmakers, such as Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend), are leery of the Legislature setting investment policy for money that belongs to pensioners who expect maximum returns. “The bill makes a damaging assumption that the money belongs to the state,” Knopp testified. State Treasurer Tobias Read, whose agency, under the direction of the Oregon Investment Council, invests Oregon’s pension money, says divestment reduces options and would cost pensioners about $90 million a year through lower returns. State and local government employers would have to make up those losses with increased pension contributions. That, in turn, could require higher taxes or cuts in services. One of the big three public employee unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, agrees with Read. So does Oregon AFSCME political director Joe Baessler. His 25,000 members worry that the bill “could cause a significant increase in the unfunded liability and an increase in PERS employer rates,” Baessler testified. Testimony on the bill continues Feb. 23. NIGEL JAQUISS.

IN ARREARS: The Acropolis Hotel has fallen behind.

Sudden End

The murders of two Oregon cannabis entrepreneurs in Houston highlight the industry’s unnecessary dangers.

.BY SOPHIE PEEL speel@wweek.com

Until recently, friends say, Dana Ryssdal enjoyed a larger-than-life bachelor’s existence in Portland. He sat in suites at Trail Blazers games. He partied and golfed in Las Vegas. He also spent time with family, traveling to Colorado and Washington to visit a niece and nephew.

But on Jan. 27, police found Ryssdal, 35, in a Houston townhouse, shot to death. Also found in the home, according search warrant records obtained by WW: 129 pounds of what appeared to be marijuana, 10 pounds of hash oil, and $36,000 in cash.

Five days later, police found Ryssdal’s friend, James Martin III, dead in the trunk of a car that had been towed from where police found Ryssdal. Martin had also been shot to death.

The Houston Police Department tells WW it hasn’t yet identified any suspects, and declined to comment on the pending investigation.

But back in Oregon, the double homicide has rocked the cannabis industry.

“It was so shocking to hear that Dana was killed,” says Nathan Howard, co-founder of East Fork Cultivars.

Some industry sources think that unless the federal government legalizes cannabis, the legal and illegal

markets in Oregon will be inextricably linked and laced with danger. The federal prohibition means weed remains a cash-only business and that surpluses in prime growing states cannot be shipped to other states as is the case with other crops.

Although Oregon’s congressional delegation has pushed for federal legalization, it hasn’t happened. The preservation of the black market can have deadly consequences. In 2021, for example, two Portland men and two of their would-be customers died in a Southeast Portland shootout. Police said it was a weed deal gone wrong.

And because legal dispensaries are forced to deal in cash, armed robbers target them. A 2020 Portland robbery left one budtender dead.

Some in the industry are hesitant to draw any conclusions from the deaths in Houston.

“ We should let the investigation play itself out,” says longtime Portland cannabis lawyer Amy Margolis. “We shouldn’t engage in speculation.”

But Beau Whitney, an economist who follows the industry, says the federal prohibition on cannabis makes the industry unnecessarily dangerous.

“There’s safety issues. There’s money issues. There’s no banking,” Whitney says. “The threat is palpable.”

FAST FRIENDS: Dana Ryssdal (left) and James Martin (right) four years ago at a Blazers game at Moda Center.

Mike Reeves, a former business partner and longtime friend of Ryssdal’s, tells WW he spoke to Ryssdal on the phone the day he was killed. “We talked about golf and workouts. It was just totally normal,” Reeves recalls. “Total Dana stuff.”

In 2016, the two, along with other friends, co-founded LTRMN Inc., a Portland-based cannabis distribution company.

“Dana’s superpower was making people feel seen,” Reeves recalls. “He was the guy in the room that everybody gravitated towards. He had a laugh that we’ll miss.”

Ryssdal left the company in 2020, but those close to him say he remained in the industry, though it’s unclear in what capacity.

Friends of James “Jimmy” Martin, described him similarly: Big smile, big laugh. Richard Roth met Martin 15 years ago at a poker game in Houston, where Martin then lived.

“He lit up every room he ever walked into,” Roth tells WW. “He was just as comfortable in a Fortune 500 CEO meeting as he was at a Biggie concert. ”

Ten years ago, Martin released a rap video called “Hustle Hustle Ball.” In it, he’s barechested and wearing sunglasses, a backward cap, and cargo shorts hanging low on his hips. Surrounded by friends, “Jimbo” raps about money, weed and bodacious women.

Martin also had a keen business mind, and over the following decade, he built a successful cannabis business.

Roth says Martin, 37 when he died, funded Roth’s Portland edibles business starting in 2016. Martin provided Roth $100,000 over two years, while building his own business in Southern Oregon.

Martin co-founded Rogue Valley Cannabis, which operates three dispensaries in Southern Oregon and had a distribution arm. On top of that, he became a father and bought a home in Jacksonville, Ore.

Roth says more recently, Martin wanted to sell his stake in Rogue Valley Cannabis. It’s unclear if he had. “He was trying to move back to Houston,” Roth says. Ryssdal’s and Martin’s deaths come at a turbulent time for the Oregon cannabis industry.

When Oregon legalized recreational cannabis in 2015, industry veterans hoped small farmers would thrive and set the state up eventually as a leader in interstate shipping..

Since then, though, big money outsiders have flooded the industry, contributing to chronic oversupply and low prices, and federal legalization remains uncertain.

Inevitably, some the oversupply has found its way to the black market.

The Legislature held a special session in 2021 to address rising weed-related crime in Southern Oregon and sent money and police to beleaguered counties.

To industry onlookers, Ryssdal’s and Martin’s deaths pose the question: Will oversupply and the unchecked black market lead to more crimes involving the legal industry?

Whitney thinks so

“It’s still dangerous,” he says. “People are getting killed. And no one’s talking about it.”

Ryssdal had recently sold his Southeast home in Portland, Reeves says, and was spending more time in Southern Oregon. His friend describes him as a “rolling stone.”

“He liked to be on the road, to be out in nature, ” Reeves says. (In 2021, Oregon business filings show, Ryssdal founded a company categorized as “transportation leasing.”)

Martin had also tried to separate himself from the Oregon industry, it appears, but some ties remained. In addition to his involvement in Rogue Valley Cannabis, Martin is listed as a part owner of a marijuana wholesale distribution company that dissolved in September 2022, according to business filings, but still has a license with the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission.

One of Martin’s business partners in Rogue Valley Cannabis, a man named Jonathan Quintero, was implicated in a federal civil case in July 2022 for allegedly participating in a black market marijuana shipping operation in Medford. Federal court filings say the operation shipped weed across state lines, primarily to Florida.

The documents also note that local detectives were “familiar” with Quintero due to “previous marijuana investigations,” including a seizure of more than 20 guns and 2,400 pounds of weed in 2022 from a Medford property Quintero owns.

(Quintero has denied wrongdoing through his attorney. He declined to comment on Martin’s death.)

While the cannabis industry waits for more information about Ryssdal’s and Martin’s deaths, the paradox remains: Oregon is a great place to grow weed and, for now, a tough place to make money selling it, at least legally.

In a Feb. 15 report to the board of the OLCC, the agency’s director of analytics and research, T.J. Sheehy, showed a graph of a strong 2022 harvest and called Oregon’s capacity for producing top-quality weed “boundless.”

“But demand is bounded by in-state consumption,” Sheehy said. “That’s always going to be the dynamic until federal [legalization].”

It‘s unclear if Ryssdal and Martin ever had a formal business relationship, but it appears their friendship stretches way back: A Polaroid photo posted by Ryssdal nearly four years ago shows he and Martin, Martin’s arms thrown around Ryssdal, in a suite at Moda Center for a Trail Blazers game.

“I love this place and everyone that comes thru,” Ryssdal wrote in the caption.

“He was the guy in the room that everybody gravitated towards.”

Indoor Rain

A Southeast Portland man may live in the city’s least habitable apartment.

BY ANTHONY EFFINGER aeffinger@gmail.com

Lu’kas Porter is willing to bet anyone that he lives in the worst apartment in Portland.

Not because it’s just west of the concrete wall along Interstate 205 off Southeast Division Street. Or because it’s small for two people, one large cat and a lot of stuffed animals. Or because there are people living in cars and RVs at the entrance to the parking lot. (They’re all really nice, Porter says.)

The problem is the apartment upstairs. Some nights, the bass from the music is so loud that it shakes the pictures off his walls. Once, someone blasted away at a car in the street with a shotgun. Very often, one of the people up there calls him a faggot. They’re squatters, Porter says, and there are new ones every few months.

The greatest hazard is that they keep flooding the upstairs apartment, which in turn soaks Porter’s ceiling. It’s fallen in five times, he says, once on his bed. The deluges are drug-related, Porter suspects. During a particularly bad flood last year, he went upstairs and a man said he had taken GHB and passed out after trying to fix the water heater. GHB, or gamma-hydroxybutyrate, is a party drug that can knock you out if you take too much, or if you combine it with alcohol.

“He offered me some,” Porter says.

WW knocked on the door to the apartment upstairs from Porter last week to ask about the situation, but no one answered.

“Before the floods, it was drugs, guns and music.” Porter, 37, says. “After that, it was drugs, guns, music and water. Lots of water.”

So why does he stay? Because the rent is $1,200, and he splits it with his roommate, Ka-

tie Pranger, 45. He doesn’t think he could find anything near that price in a normal place. Even one-bedroom apartments in his ratty complex go for $1,600. Porter works as the birthday party manager at the KingPins bowling alley on Southeast 92nd Avenue, a job he loves but that doesn’t pay as much as he’d like.

Porter’s experience shows that for people working marginal jobs in high-rent, low-vacancy Portland, the line between being housed and being homeless is thin. Although there are plenty of tents on city streets, situations like Porter’s are less obvious downtown because few people living in Pearl District condos are likely to miss a rent payment and end up outside.

But in Porter’s neighborhood—Montavilla—that line is bright. Porter’s been homeless before, just like the people outside his door, and he fears that he will be again if he doesn’t grit his teeth and make the best of it.

Porter says he’s called every city agency he can think of, to no avail. A tenant advocate says his experience may be extreme, but the lack of response is also typical of what others in Portland’s low-vacancy rental market face.

Kim McCarty, executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, says there is little Porter can do, beyond suing the landlord, which is expensive.

“In some jurisdictions, the health department can intervene with fines for failure to make repairs,” McCarty says. “The fines can be an incentive for the landlord to take their landlord obligations seriously. Unfortunately, there is not one regulatory agency to enforce landlord-tenant law.”

The squatters live in unit 404 of the four-build-

ing, 35-unit complex at 9257 SE Clinton St. Porter and his roommate live in unit 402, just below. Ownership of unit 404 is traceable back to 2005, when TSPN LLC, controlled by a Happy Valley man named Tanveer Ahmad and his family, owned the complex. Alton Maddox, a current owner and head of the homeowners association, says Ahmad was part of the group that developed the property. Ahmad and his family didn’t return multiple calls or emails.

In March 2007, according to The Oregonian,

changing hands between the Ahmad family, banks, and other buyers.

Right now, Multnomah County property records show Sonia Ahmad as the owner of unit 404. (Sonia is Tanveer Ahmad’s daughter, Porter says.)

Porter became involved with the Ahmads in 2018, when he rented unit 404 from them. They got into a dispute over repairs (the toilet was filled with cat litter when he moved in), and Porter says he stopped paying rent. Ahmad won a judgment after Porter missed a court date.

Porter moved downstairs to unit 402 in March 2020 and rented from another owner, Maryika Gibson. Beyond the banging music and the gunshots, things were tolerable until January 2022, when water began trickling into his bedroom. After 18 hours, he called Portland Fire & Rescue. Porter says firefighters broke down the door to 404 and discovered that the water heater was leaking. Porter had to sleep in the living room for two months until contractors fixed his ceiling.

The GHB episode happened a month later, and water has been dripping from different parts of his ceiling like Oregon rain ever since. In mid-October, the paint on his kitchen ceiling bubbled. Contractors arrived and found the drywall soaked. They removed it and covered the 8-by-10-foot hole with plastic sheeting. A jury-rigged funnel directs water into a trash can.

Porter says he has tried everything to improve his situation. He’s called the Portland police, the fire bureau, and the Bureau of Development Services’ property compliance helpline. He’s pleaded with the homeowners association and with the Ahmads, to no avail. He even called the FBI because the squatters seemed to be operating a bootleg appliance store. Washers, dryers and refrigerators come and go regularly, Porter says, often blocking the walkway to his apartment.

The cops, he says, told him they couldn’t enter the unit without a warrant. The fire bureau said not to call again unless his life was in danger. The Portland Police Bureau did not return an email seeking comment. The fire bureau didn’t return a phone message. BDS acknowledged it had received complaints about unit 404.

Maddox, the head of the homeowners association, says there’s nothing he can do because the unit’s owner has ghosted. Case in point: Ahmad owes $100,000 in delinquent HOA dues.

“He’s the worst of the worst,” Maddox says.

Beyond the guns, drugs and noise, the problem for Porter is that there is no way to turn off the water to Ahmad’s apartment. The whole complex is on the same account, Maddox says.

a man by the name of Tanveer Ahmad pleaded guilty to traveling to Libya without U.S. government authorization. The trip was a felony violation of U.S. sanctions. Ahmad agreed to settle the charges by paying back $275,000 he had earned while working in Tripoli.

A month after that, Ahmad borrowed $126,750 from Washington Mutual Bank to refinance unit 404, according to court filings. Ahmad gifted the apartment to Sonia Ahmad later that year, the last of several transactions among his family. In 2011, Ahmad filed the first of at least five bankruptcies, according to court filings. Property records show numerous transactions occurred across the complex, with units

“Everyone is on the same system for water and sewer,” he says. “It’s the worst design in the world. I don’t know how the city let this through.”

Porter says he’s become attuned to the sound of dripping water and that he wakes up every morning expecting to hear it. But there may be relief in sight. Though property records don’t reflect it, Maddox says unit 404 is actually owned by the bank now, and auction.com shows that unit 404 is scheduled to go on the block March 14 at 1 pm.

With more responsible owners might come less indoor rain. Lu’kas Porter can only dream.

“Before the floods, it was drugs, guns and music. After that, it was drugs, guns, music and water. Lots of water.”

WATER DAMAGED: Lu’kas Porter eyes the latest hole from leaks in his apartment ceiling.

Composer Nicholas DiBerardino likens his latest composition, the Star Trek-inspired Darmok & Jalad, to an alien language—and the audience to a starship crew that must decode it. That’s not a bad metaphor for Portland’s spring arts season as a whole.

The coming months will see a devotion to bold, boundary-pushing and downright wacky acts of creation. And Darmok & Jalad (page 15), to be played at the Alberta Rose Theatre alongside a performance of The Soldier’s Tale narrated by Trek’s own “Q,” John de Lancie, is just the beginning.

Want to take in a rarely showcased side of Portland? In his photographic chronicle The Portlanders (page 20), David Mc-

Carthy offers an unflinching portrait of a tent-strewn city, while also capturing moments of beauty—from sunlight illuminating evergreens to motorcycle headlights shining outside Kelly’s Olympian.

Eager to see opera pushed in urgent, contemporary directions? Portland Opera is currently gearing up for Thumbprint (page 16), Kamala Sankaram’s take on the life of Pakistani human rights activist Mukhtar Mai. It’s a tale of surviving sexual violence and defending every girl’s right to an education (about as far from The Marriage of Figaro as you can get).

The most imaginative event of the season is likely to be Bodies (page 18), a Boom Arts-produced installation, created by Ray

Young, that will require the audience to plunge into a swimming pool. It’s proof that artistic daring is not only about reimagining your craft, but how people experience it.

When journalists cover the arts, they often fixate on meaning. That matters, but so does confronting the perceived limits of form. As Archibald MacLeish wrote, “A poem should not mean but be.” That philosophy can apply to all the arts—and this season, Portland is taking it to heart.

Bennett Campbell Ferguson, Assistant Arts & Culture Editor

ILLUSTRATION BY JAX KO

Trekking Into Portland

Chamber Music Northwest and the Curtis Institute of Music unite for a concert that brings Star Trek legend John de Lancie to the Rose City.

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON @thobennett

Growing up obsessed with Star Trek: The Next Generation, composer Nicholas DiBerardino never imagined he would tour with one of the show’s most beloved stars. But on March 14, he and actor John de Lancie (who played the all-powerful prankster “Q”) will be at the Alberta Rose Theatre for a concert that celebrates the past and future of classical music.

Presented by Chamber Music Northwest and featuring students and alumni from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, the evening’s centerpiece is a performance of Igor Stravinsky’s musical fable L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), narrated by the inimitable de Lancie (whose ebullient delivery of lines like “Mon Capitaine!” has made him a god to Trekkers).

The concert will also showcase other works, including a piece by DiBerardino inspired by the classic Next Gen episode “Darmok,” in which Capt. Picard (Patrick Stewart) struggles to communicate with aliens who speak solely in metaphors. It’s one of the most intellectually ambitious hours of television ever produced—and DiBerardino was determined to musically distill its philosophical richness.

WW spoke to de Lancie and DiBerardino about joining forces for a program that promises to delight aficionados of classical music and Star Trek alike.

WW: What role did music play in your childhood?

John de Lancie: My father, oboist John de Lancie Sr., taught at Curtis, ultimately ending up being the director of Curtis for eight or 10 years.

I went to so many concerts at the Academy of Music. It was a way to listen to music—but, closer to the vest, it was a way to be with my dad, who wasn’t

around very much. I listened to the music, I got to talk to some people—the stagehands were really nice to me—and I would go across the street, get myself something to eat, some candy.

With A Soldier’s Tale, Stravinsky brought so many influences together, including jazz.

As a narrator, I can’t imagine how you bring all that together.

The Soldier’s Tale was originally intended for something very different from what you’re going to see. It was not originally a one-man show—you had at least three or four actors/dancers onstage. I told some of my friends who know the piece, and they said, “Oh, are you playing the devil?” “Well, yes, and also the soldier and also the old lady and also the wife.”

The texture of your voice is always so melodic and wonderful to listen to. How do you get the sound that many of us consider iconic?

When I went to Juilliard, we all had to audition on the first day, and the voice teacher said to me, “Your voice is so bad that I’m not sure if there’s anything I can do.” And at the end of my time there, she said, “You’ve taken nothing that I’ve given you.” And I said, “Well, you know, Liz, you told me there was nothing you were going to help me with, so I took you at your word.”

Unlike some people who I’m not going to mention in the Star Trek world who have fake voices, I’ve never done anything like that. You know if your voice is working properly when you put it under an enormous amount of stress. I guess what I’m doing is fine.

How old were you when you first saw “Darmok”?

Nicholas DiBerardino: I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation in syndication in middle school. That show captures the majesty of what it means to understand someone, what it

means to be a scholar or a diplomat—these very esoteric or even elevated ways of being a person. As someone who loves teaching, all that’s in there.

How do you make the leap from loving that world to creating something inspired by it?

I kept thinking about “Darmok” because of this idea of communication and grammar—that idea of speaking in metaphor. Because you can almost understand what the aliens are saying. But you can’t quite get there. That feeling was really interesting to me, and it felt like it was closely connected to the feelings I was interested in exploring musically.

When you’re writing a piece about the struggle to communicate, are the instruments in conversation?

There are moments in my piece where certain factions or groups are having a similar thought and then they’re rudely interrupted by someone else. It’s basically three duets: You have two string players, two brass players. and two wind players, plus this percussionist who’s back there.

By the end of the piece, do you have to bring it all together to underscore the core idea of finally learning how to speak an alien language?

At the end of the piece, everything finally comes together in the sense that all the instruments are playing together harmoniously. Whereas before, these kinds of atomic musical materials were the music. When everyone finds each other—when this music finds its voice or we find a way to hear it—then we actually do have the emergence of something like a melody, without us having to make any effort.

SEE IT: Curtis on Tour: The Soldier’s Tale with John de Lancie will be performed at the Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta St., 503-719-6055, albertarosetheatre.com. 7:30 pm Tuesday, March 14. $10-$67.

wweek.com

filled up only about 40% of the opera house. Portland Opera is heeding this shift in the cultural winds with its second production Thumb, a contemporary work based on a piece of recent history that feels damningly reflective of cury Kamala Sankaram with a libretto by novelist Susan Yankowitz, the opera is a dramatic retelling of the story of Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who, in 2002, was gang raped as a kind of authorized revenge for an alleged affair her brother was having. It was expected that Mukhtar would take her own life as a result of the

tead, she took her attackers to court, where they were sentenced

to death (though later acquitted of the crime), and used the incident as a platform to advocate for the education of girls in her country. The title of the opera comes from the hope that when these young women are old enough to vote, they can do so by signing their names rather than marking their ballots with a thumbprint.

“There is something extremely exceptional in Mukhtar’s story, yet there’s a familiarity to it, as well,” says Omer Ben Seadia, the theater vet who will direct Portland Opera’s production of Thumbprint. “There is something about the state of the world, and the state of women in the world,

that her story, at first, felt like something we’ve known or heard of before. But the end result of it is so spectacular. That’s what makes this story specifically worth telling and retelling.”

Since its 2014 debut, Thumbprint has served to break some important barriers within the slow-to-change opera community. Productions of the work, including Portland Opera’s forthcoming staging, have featured a cast made up entirely of singers of South Asian descent. And the music helps open up the possibilities of modern opera by blending modes of traditional European classical with the sounds and instruments from Hindustani culture (harmonium, tabla).

That combination, says Maria Badstue, the Indian-born artist who will conduct Thumbprint here in Portland, “seems simple. The harmonics are not that complicated. But the rhythmical patterns—the musicians have to clap at some points—that can be very difficult. It would be a mess in any European orchestra, for sure, but also great fun. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with that.”

Another challenge will be the profound emotions Thumbprint will surely stir up within the people bringing this production to the stage. Badstue admits to getting “very affected” when she reads through the score and the libretto. So much so that she has been preparing for the same to happen to the singers and musicians once rehearsals get underway.

“Being in that story is hard because we can’t distance ourselves from it,” Badstue says. “It’s not a drama from 200 years ago. It’s actually now. I feel it already without music and without the singers. That’s also why I want to do it. It’s not a happy story [and it] begins from a very, very sad starting point. But in the end, it’s one that is built on hope.”

SEE IT: Thumbprint plays at the Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503-241-1802, portlandopera.org. 7:30 pm March 18, 22 and 24; 2 pm March 26. $35.

Tamisha

A. Guy and Claude “CJ” Johnson, Photo by Christopher Duggan

Boom Arts brings the artistic (and aquatic) visions of Ray Young to Portland with Bodies and Thirst Trap.

BY ALEX BARR

No matter the medium, art at its core seeks to evoke emotion through a fluid moment of human connection. That’s especially true of London artist Ray Young’s Bodies, an upcoming performance art piece that immerses participants in a dazzling show of light, sound and water, delivering a powerful sensory experience. Sponsored by Unlimited, the world’s largest disability arts commissioning program, and produced by Portland’s Boom Arts, Bodies will be performed in April, making its United States debut. And Portland audiences can also buy tickets for Thirst Trap, Young’s ingenious at-home theater experience.

WW spoke with Tracy Cameron Francis, artistic director of Boom Arts, about Young’s creations and what audiences can expect from these two one-of-akind experiences.

WW: How did you first encounter Ray Young’s work? What’s the connection between the U.K. and Portland?

Tracy Cameron Francis: I was actually introduced to their work through another program in Vancouver, B.C. I’m really interested in things that play with form and go outside of normal theater conventions and also that are rooted in social justice and climate action work. So, I found this piece really intriguing and was really excited about it.

Bodies is described as “a swimming pool theatrical performance experience.” Is the event being held at an actual swimming pool?

Yes, so it’s indoors and heated just in case. The Portland weather in April can be iffy.

Will the artist attend the performance?

Young is not going to be physically here for the piece because it’s a piece about climate change and we didn’t feel it was appropriate to fly people here for the installation. But we are hoping that they will be able to Zoom for conversations for folks to learn more about their piece and about their work.

Can you talk more about Young’s other piece, Thirst Trap?

So there are two works that are in relationship to each other, and we encourage folks to do both. Thirst Trap was a piece that was created during the pandemic and that one is done at your own home in your own bathtub. You can decide which day you’d like your box delivered to your home and the box has links to sound recording, some props to use like a bath bomb, and tea to create that performance experience in your own home.

What can audiences expect going into this performance? What will they need to bring?

When you register for the event, you are asked what your swimming ability is, and based on that, it dictates where you enter the pool from, so either the shallow end or if you’re more comfortable swimming we might have you in the deeper end of the pool.

We do have a lifeguard available throughout all the performances, and there’s also flotation devices that were specifically designed for this show that are also available. But we asked folks to bring their swimsuits and bring your poolside sandals or your goggles if you like them.

What does the performance itself entail?

The whole experience in the water is about 50 minutes. It’s basically a guided audio and visual experience with closed captions and audio descriptions provided as well so it’s accessible. We’re very much making sure that the audience takes this as a personal experience and as a fully sensory and embodied experience.

Is there anything else potential audiences should know about either Bodies or Thirst Trap?

I will say that Thirst Trap is very, very limited because we’re shipping a certain amount of the boxes from the U.K., so people should get those tickets very soon.

SEE IT: Bodies plays at Swim 3 Diamonds, 971303-8977, boomarts.org. Multiple showtimes April 20-23. $35.

The Portland Diaries

In his photographic odyssey The Portlanders, David McCarthy captures a city’s battered, beautiful spirit.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER @chance_s_p

David McCarthy’s photography collection The Portlanders (Northwest Review, 169 pages, $44) begins where his memories do—in Sellwood with landmarks of his youth. The Yukon Tavern appears in the book’s second photo with an exterior hardly changed since Mc-

Carthy would use it to recognize his grandparents’ neighborhood in the late 1950s. But a reader can move only three pages down memory lane before the first tent appears in a photograph, tucked into a thicket below the Sellwood Bridge. That’s Portland in the years McCarthy documents (2015-2022), its rugged beauty and communal spirit

increasingly pockmarked by suffering.

“To me, this is about what’s happening to the people,” says McCarthy, a recently retired architect, third-generation Oregonian and Southeast Portland resident since 1990.

The Portlanders ’ black-andwhite palette lends extra drama to overcast skies and an alluvial

Sammy Rat Rios and Danny Bernardo in

Young Americans. Photo by Jingzi Zhao.

quality to the concrete, as the book reflects the city with a mirror’s intent, says publisher and editor S. Tremaine Nelson. You’ll find classically local sights within: a resident belly-sliding in the rare snow and families perched atop Keller Fountain. But the book is broadly organized around unavoidable realities, namely how implements of the classic Pacific Northwest vacation—the tent and RV—backslid into becoming housing-crisis survival netting.

could possibly have been our first when this is happening in our city,” Nelson says.

McCarthy and Nelson, a bornand-raised Portlander who returned from the East Coast in 2018, undertook the book project last winter, influenced in part by Robert Frank’s The Americans. That iconic 1950s photography project captured American lives seldom seen in Rockwellian veneer and Life magazine gloss.

Today, The Portlanders tries to puncture a different dominant narrative: that Portland is dead, ablaze or beyond any recognition.

“I want this to be the document of record of what Portland was like during a period of time when it became politicized and exploited for various national political agendas,” Nelson says.

Still, there’s a fascinating tension to where people are and aren’t in McCarthy’s visuals, compared to The Americans ’ emphasis on portraiture. McCarthy often keeps his distance from subjects—he admits to some shyness—defining most shots with the angles of walls, railings, roofs and façades and showing how Portlanders interact with those forms by invitation or desperation. That architectural eye, McCarthy says, informs how he notices temporary structures as well.

“In some cases with the tent arrangements, somebody is thinking about what they’re doing and leaving space for carts and campfires or stoves,” he says. “They’ve arranged things in a way that works for them and their neighbors.”

“Everybody’s just trying to live,” says Nelson, adding that McCarthy’s work taught him how many unhoused Portlanders are still working blue-collar jobs every day. “There’s no political statement being made by boiling your water on a Coleman stove before biking to work. This is a book about people trying to survive and make it through the day at the confluence of two gorgeous old rivers.”

The Portlanders marks the first book from the resurrected Northwest Review, the onetime University of Oregon literary journal that published the likes of Ken Kesey and Ursula K. Le Guin for 54 years before its funding was fatally slashed in 2011. Nelson (a former poetry reader for The Paris Review) and a volunteer crew of editors gave Northwest Review a second life in 2020. It’s since published seven issues, including a handful of McCarthy’s photos.

“There was no other book that

T he photographer’s lens (whether on an iPhone SE, pocket digital Canon or, every so often, a film camera) is often positioned unassumingly, where any pedestrian would wait for a food cart order or scan a crosswalk. From that sidewalk vantage, readers witness the relative emptiness of the pandemic years and could perhaps re-sensitize to how the human beings sleeping in public seemingly outnumber the fire hydrants and newspaper boxes.

McCarthy attributes the book’s visual flow to his poetry classes at the University of Oregon, where he graduated in 1980. The 200-plus photos build momentum and symmetry from page to page, wordlessly pondering the meaning of canopies, for instance. Tents, leafy overhangs, car tarps, covered picnic tables—they’re of a piece in a city where shelter equals existence.

“Here’s the world as we see it now,” McCarthy says of his book. “Maybe not beautiful, but there’s something worth looking at here.”

Water Music

SAT MAR 18 | 7:30 PM

SUN MAR 19 | 3:00 PM

Music fit for royalty! Luminary musician, scholar, and harpsichordist

John Butt leads Handel’s masterpiece and Telemann’s rarelyheard Wassermusik

Tickets start at $36

A Mozart Jubilee

SAT APR 15 | 7:30 PM

SUN APR 16 | 3:00 PM

John Butt conducts a sparkling program of Mozart and Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. Dazzling concertos performed by PBO soloists, and special appearance by Portland soprano Arwen Myers! PBO.org

ArtWalkabout

Eight trending galleries to check out.

BY JAY HORTON @hortland

A Sometimes Gallery

Opened two years ago by Amy Rowan out of the corner of Lisa Congdon’s studio-office—hence the project’s name—A Sometimes Gallery was always intended as a means of galvanizing a creative community ravaged by the pandemic. Perhaps best known for themed group shows like Paper or Sometimes I Think It’s a Painting, its commitment to inclusivity extends to smaller-scale exhibitions like Jessica Poundstone and Rose Lazar’s Superbloom, where the artists hosted intermittent drop-in workshops. 687 N Tillamook St., Suite C, asometimesgallery.com. By appointment only, save for opening and closing parties.

AFRU Gallery

A little bit fine art, a little bit rock ’n’ roll, AFRU shows faithfully serve both masters. The newly expanded Central Eastside gallery has space enough to house studios and host community engagement workshops, while the main hall alternates between venue and showcase for original visions (Ben Milam, Rebecca Lynch) interspersed with drolly provocative group exhibitions like Halloween’s The House That Haunts Us All or the current Flash Flood, which brought local tattooists’ artistry from skin to canvas. 534 SE Oak St., 503-347-7443, afrugallery.com. 2-6 pm Friday, noon-6 pm Saturday, 2-6 pm Sunday.

Helen’s Costume

A stone’s throw from the old mask emporium, which closed in 2017 after a 127-year run, the deceptively ramshackle Montavilla gallery enlists contributions by both far-flung artists (Scotland’s Erica Eyres, say) and trending PDX-steeped creatives for the barbed whimsy of mixed-media exhibits like December’s imp-themed Hob Gob 7706 SE Yamhill St., 503-442-0899, costumeintl.com. Hours vary.

ILY2

Originating from the fishbowl studios that restless visionary Allie Furlotti erected along the disused West End shopping hub during the depths of the quarantine malaise to aid hand-picked talents and inspire passersby glimpsing the artists at work and play, this ever-evolving creative hub lies on the cusp of its long-awaited great leap forward. In the former PDX Contemporary home wholly reimagined by Andee Hess (“Portland’s secret design weapon,” claims Architectural Digest), ILY2’s new 1,600-square-foot flagship gallery formally launches with a Bonnie Lucas show March 25 while its residency program (rechristened “ILY2 too”) has been transplanted to the long-vacant Studio Shots space inside a Lloyd Center suddenly bustling with DIY polymath tastemakers. 925 NW Flanders St., ily2online. co. 11 am-4 pm Tuesday-Saturday. ILY2 too, 2201 Lloyd Center, G113. By appointment only.

Kyler Martz

Adjoining Icon Tattoo, where he still inks up a loyal clientele, and across

the street from wallpaper artisans and fellow Icon veterans at Lonesome Pictopia, globally renowned illustrator and muralist Kyler Martz’s first storefront offers a decidedly humble introduction to globally renowned talent. The recent Seattle émigré is likely best known for outsized corporate projects up north (the three-story octopus sculpture spreading tentacles above PCC Community Market, the 30-foot whaleboat adorning the walls of Facebook’s regional offices, the fleet of nearly 40 “Treasure Trucks” he painted for Amazon). But the eclectic array of items (prints, pins, postcards, handkerchiefs) on display within his still unnamed studio all betray the same distinctive blend of fanciful retro stylings and resonant folk-art imagery. 819 N Russell St., kylermartz.com. Hours vary.

Nucleus Portland

Younger sibling of a respected Alhambra gallery, Nucleus Portland launched seven years ago with the first iteration of what would become annual crowd-pleaser SALUT! (an exhibition of 100-plus artists using 4-inch coasters as canvas) and keeps the taps pouring through Last Wednesday Drink & Draw events. For more sober-minded consideration, Nucleus’ 2023 schedule includes shows by Japanese ceramicist Kozy Kitchens and manga artist Shintaro Kago in the main showroom, while nearby Nucleus House will host works by N.Y. illustrator Dadu Shin and Berkeley’s Deth Sun. 2916 NE Alberta St., Suite B, 971-386-5114, nucleusportland.com. Noon-6 pm Thursday-Sunday. Nucleus House, 1137 NE Alberta St. Noon-4 pm Friday-Sunday.

SE Cooper Contemporary

Located on the grounds of a sprawling Lents family residence and open to the public for just six hours each week. The founder of SE Cooper Contemporary (a former co-director of NYC’s Soloway Gallery) hasn’t seen much need to promote installations until a few weeks before opening, but the enviable succession of artists he’s exhibited over the past few years (Graham Collins, Fawn Krieger, Taryn Tomasello) has offered thoughtful works of spare beauty and conceptual rigor that contextualize the larger setting to its best advantage. 6901 SE 110th Ave., 503-752-4017, secoopercontemporary.com. 11 am-5 pm Saturday.

Well Well

An artist’s collective now spanning a dozen members, Well Well opened inside of the Oregon Center for Contemporary Art with an eye on expanding opportunities for local talents to increase visibility beyond the region. After the late February close of current group exhibition Everything Leaves a Trail, a spotlight on textiles woven and manipulated to the rhythms and sensibilities informing modern art, the gallery will house founding member Katherine Spinella’s multimedia showcase Dandelion while the main hall holds continuous screenings of electric city magic valentine, the meditative Q*bert abstraction animated by Sam Cohen and scored by Beth Wooten. 8371 N Interstate Ave., #1, wellwellprojects. com. Noon-5 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Spring Arts Calendar

Eight more events worth seeking out this season.

BY RAY GILL JR.

Forbidden Fruit

This show, which marks Shaking the Tree Theatre’s 20th anniversary, puts the idea of original sin on trial and flips the script on feminine curiosity with assistance from the audience. Participants enter a mystery container where they’ll be asked to make a choice. It’s essentially a mashup of Pandora’s box and Alice in Wonderland that invites you to explore eight installation rooms dedicated to a fruit, fungus or grain. Shaking the Tree Theatre, 823 SE Grant St., 503-235-0635, shaking-the-tree. com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 5 pm Sunday, March 4-April 1. $5$11.

An Untitled Love

The music of neo-soul legend and Grammy Award-winning artist D’Angelo is the inspiration for this stirring performance, which has been described as an homage to self- and Black love. Created by award-winning choreographer Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M company, the program brings together dancers of diverse backgrounds and

and Felisha Ledesma, Remembering to Remember: Experiments in Sound is a mosaic of live performances, workshops, multichannel compositions, and video works at the cutting edge of experimental sound and moving image art. It features works by the likes of Crystal Quartez, Nyokabi Kariuki, Synth Library Portland, and Takashi Makino. Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, 15 NE Hancock St., 503-242-1419, pica.org. Through Sunday, March 19. Free.

How to Make an American Son

Written by Christopher Oscar Peña, How to Make an American Son explores the nuances of assimilation through the story of Honduran-born Mando and his son Orlando. It’s the latest production in Profile Theatre’s season devoted to the works of Peña, Lauren Yee and Kristoffer Diaz. Imago Theatre, 17 SE 8th Ave., 503-2420080, profiletheatre.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, June 8-25. $45.

Will Burkart

Come welcome the fresh face quickly blazing his own trail in the comedy world. Burkart, a viral sensation who has coordinated a national tour without the help of agents or managers, brings his own special brand of observational humor to the stage of Curious Comedy Theater. Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 503-477-9477, curiouscomedy.org. 7:30 pm Sunday, March 19. $20.

disciplines to delve into personal history and identity in this new evening-length work co-commissioned by White Bird. Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, 503245-1600. 7:30 pm March 2-4. $32-$75.

Kimberly Akimbo

Jeanne

Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

The revolutionary 1975 French film heralded upon its release as “the first masterpiece in the feminine in the history of the cinema” screens at the Clinton Street Theater in March. The acclaim for Jeanne Dielman continues to this day; Sight and Sound magazine named it the No. 1 movie of all time in its once-a-decade poll of critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics. Delphine Seyrig stars as a middle-aged widow whose daily monotony is interrupted by an occasional dalliance as a sex worker. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-8083331, cstpdx.com. 7 pm Tuesday, March 21. $8.

Remembering to Remember: Experiments in Sound

Curated by Roya Amirsoleymani

David Lindsay-Abaire’s Kimberly Akimbo is a very different type of coming-of-age story. Twilight Theater Company presents this hilarious and devastating story of a teenager with an unfortunate condition that causes her body to age faster than it should. Twilight Theater Company, 7515 N Brandon Ave., twilighttheatercompany. org. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, 3 pm Sunday, March 17-April 2. $23.

OUTwright Festival

Fuse Theatre Ensemble’s OUTwright Festival features a wide variety of readings by LGBTQIA+ artists. This “incubator for new works” is designed to educate future generations on the struggles and successes of those who came before by sharing stories, both new and old, while also providing workshops, panel discussions, and artistic opportunities. Readings include Glitter by Mikki Gillette, Sappho: The Tenth Muse by Ravyn Granholm, and Queen of the Deseret by Carlos-Zenen Trujillo. Back Door Theatre, 4319 SE Hawthorne Blvd., fusetheatreensemble. com. June 4-18.

Andre Goodlow

Director of Teaching and Learning, Parkrose School District

PHOTOS AND STORY BY JOSEPH BLAKE JR.

Andre Goodlow remembers the moment everything changed for him. A Black man gave him and his cousin a ride to school. They rode along, listening to music. But when they got to school, the man parked his car instead of continuing on his way.

“ What are you doing? Why are you coming up to the school?” Goodlow, now 40 and the married father of two, recalls asking.

“I’m subbing today,” the man said. It was a eureka moment.

“That was the first time I saw any representation of someone that grew up in my neighborhood that looked like me, walked like me, loved sports as I did, and listened to the same music I did, be a teacher,” Goodlow says. That was the connection that brought him into teaching.

He’d like to see more Black teachers. “We need more educators, especially young Black educators, that are able to connect to the Black youth and share the same stories and experiences that they do,” he says.

Today, Goodlow is the director of teaching and learning at Parkrose School District, one of the state’s most diverse districts. He’s keenly aware of the impact he can have.

“My mission was to always reach out,” Goodlow says. And he’s far from finished: He is currently enrolled in the Portland State University Ed.D. program and hopes one day to become superintendent.

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.

GET BUSY

LISTEN: Listen Up!

Artichoke Music has teamed up with Portland Radio Project for this monthly curated series, which amplifies the sounds of women and nonbinary singer-songwriters in the Pacific Northwest. Don’t fret if you can’t make it to the intimate confines of Cafe Artichoke; the program livestreams on PRP at 99.1 FM or at prp. fm. This week’s lineup of performers includes Shireen Amini, Alex Whiler and Annie Wilder. Artichoke Community Music, 2007 SE Powell Blvd., 503-232-8845, artichokemusic.org. 7-9 pm Friday, Feb. 24. $15.

LISTEN: Hey Old Friends! The Music of Stephen Sondheim

Come hear the classic mastery of Stephen Sondheim performed by outstanding local artists Merideth Kaye Clark, Susannah Mars and Stephanie Lynne Smith. This tribute to the American composer is an expanded version of the sold-out October premiere at Resound NW. There are now two full acts, a few added surprises, and complimentary audience gift bags. And the best way to enjoy a show like this is with a fantastic dinner and drinks at one of Portland’s musical treasures, Wilfs. Wilfs Restaurant & Jazz Bar at Union Station, 800 NW 6th Ave., 503-223-0070, wilfsrestaurant.com/events. 7:30-9:30 pm Friday, Feb. 24. $35 general admission. $45 food-and-drink minimum for Wilfs.

DRINK: 30th Annual Hillsdale Brewfest

After serving Portland beer enthusiasts for more than three decades (it became

Oregon’s first brewery since Prohibition in 1985), it’s time for some reflective rejoicing at the 30th anniversary of McMenamins Hillsdale’s brewfest. Traditionally a one-day event, the celebration has been extended to a weekendlong “Battle for the Belt,” as McMenamins brewers vie for the title of best brew. Come enjoy trays featuring 11 beers to sample before exercising your constitutional right to vote for the tastiest. McMenamins Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, 1505 SW Sunset Blvd., 503-246-3938, mcmenamins.com. 5-8 pm Friday, 11 am-8 pm Saturday and 11 am-5 pm Sunday, Feb. 24-26.

DRINK: Threshold Brewing

Fourth Anniversary Celebration

Threshold Brewing, owned and operated by wife-husband team Sara and Jarek Szymanski, not only survived its first year of business (a notoriously perilous time for anyone hanging a shingle in the hospitality industry), the producer endured a pandemic to reach this four-year milestone, and a celebration is in order. The 10-barrel brewery will offer zapiekanka (also known as Polish pizza) for $4 and release special beers, including a highly anticipated Northwest-style Pilsner collaboration with ForeLand called FourShadow. Threshold Brewing & Blending, 403 SE 79th Ave., 503-477-8789, threshold.beer. Noon-4 pm Saturday, Feb. 25.

SEE & LISTEN: Flowers for Black Elders

Onry is one of only a few Black male professional opera singers in the Pacific Northwest, and he hasn’t forgotten about

the people who helped make that dream come true. The award-winning performer pays homage to his musical mentors with Flowers for Black Elders, a multimedia project he curated with executive producer Joni Whitworth that closes this week. Listen to the elders’ powerful stories through recorded interviews while observing the history etched in their faces captured in beautiful portraits by photographer Brett Brown. Closing event at One Grand Gallery, 1000 E Burnside St., 212365-4945, nationale.us/flowers-for-blackelders-2023. 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 25. Free.

DANCE: DJ Dojo Showcase: Femme-Powerment Dance

Dancing to the debut DJ sets of Mother Void, Afton Rose and Danusu should be a uniquely entertaining experience. Aria Tau put the word out that she was looking for women to join her DJ Dojo when these brave souls stepped up to the turntables. In just six short weeks, they learned to DJ and will now perform in front of a live crowd for the first time. So, join this initiation ritual to welcome them into the order of women-identifying DJs as their sets roar the message, “I was born to lead! And I will lead as a divinely feminine, musical dance floor Queen!” SomaSpace, 4050 NE Broadway, humantix.com. 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 25. $33, includes cacao ceremony.

LISTEN: And That’s Why We Drink: On the Rocks Tour

New York Times bestselling authors Em Schulz and Christine Schiefer are once again recording episodes of their award-winning podcast And That’s Why

We Drink in front of a live audience, and Portland made the tour. “I couldn’t be more excited to get back on the road and show everyone our newest spooky footage from a brand-new surprise location,” Schiefer says. Part comedy and part true crime/paranormal investigation, the program should both tickle your funny bone and scare your pants off. Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, andthatswhywedrink.com/live. 8 pm Sunday, Feb. 26. $39.50-$59.50. 21+.

WATCH: Alice Street

Murals are one of the earliest forms of human expression, and the award-winning documentary Alice Street fights for that voice to continue to be heard. The film focuses on two artists who form an unlikely partnership in order to paint their most ambitious mural in downtown Oakland, ground zero for gentrification. Watch the community galvanized by art challenge the city’s plan to build history-obliterating luxury condos and join the global conversation Alice Street sparked during its run of 30-plus film festivals. The screening is followed by a Q&A with the director, Don’t Shoot Portland’s founder and others. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-808-3331, cstpdx.com. 7 pm Tuesday, Feb. 28. $10.

IN BLOOM: Opera singer Onry pays tribute to his musical mentors with the exhibit Flowers for Black Elders.

Top 5

Buzz List

WHERE TO DRINK THIS WEEK.

1. MCMENAMINS 23RD AVENUE BOTTLE SHOP

2290 NW Thurman St., 971-202-7256, mcmenamins. com. 10 am-10 pm daily.

For the second year, McMenamins has partnered with Great Notion Brewing so that each brewery can make the other’s beer recipe while giving it a unique spin. This time around, the industry old timer has produced two different Great Notion beers: What’s Colder Than Cold, a double IPA inspired by Juice Box fermented with lager yeast for a crisp finish, and an even bolder 13.9% ABV Ice Cold Triple IPA. The latter could only be bottled because McMenamins has a distilling license. Drink with care.

2. WORKSHOP FOOD AND DRINK

1407 SE Belmont St., 971-229-1465, fermenterpdx. com. 5-10 pm Thursday-Sunday, 5-11 pm Friday-Saturday.

Aaron Adams, the chef behind the self-dubbed “beneficial bacteria emporium” Fermenter, has launched a late-night lounge right next door to that house of fermented foods. Small plates at Workshop Food and Drink are all vegan and inspired by Adams’ Cuban roots, but we’re most excited about the deep list of cocktails. Many use kitchen byproducts to help offset waste, like Yes Whey, a classic milk punch with a housemade cashew yogurt whey.

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 any time the gloom of a Pacific Northwest winter gets to be a little too heavy.

4. PACIFIC STANDARD

FOOD & DRINK

Editor: Andi Prewitt

Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

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. 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.

HOLDING COURT: You can grab a beer at Lloyd Athletic Club’s bar any time the gym is open.

Raising the Bar

NEW SEASONS MARKET–WOODSTOCK

BY JAY HORTON @hortland PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS NESSETH

Despite Portland’s reputation as a drinkers’ paradise famously stuffed with mixology parlors and artisanal honky-tonks, large swaths of the city limp along without proper cocktail service. But every so often, a sort of workaround exists—establishments that don’t want to become a saloon, but just so happen to boast a few stools and a bartender almost as if they were accessories.

We’ve rounded up some of the city’s most unexpected watering holes, throwing out venues like spas and salons that offer clients complimentary beverages, social clubs (Elks, Eagles) that are basically dives with dues, and any business that treats alcohol as a loss leader for foolish expenditures (gambling dens, golf courses, hotels).

The remaining grab bag of shadow taverns have been judged by the usual criteria: crowd, look, utility, drinks. These businesses likely wouldn’t show up as “closest bar” in a Google Maps search, and neither patrons nor employees would describe the places that way. However, sometimes it’s good to know there is a hidden oasis with alcohol waiting just around the corner if you happen to know where to look.

4500 SE Woodstock Blvd., 503-771-9663, newseasonsmarket.com/our-stores/woodstock. Noon-8 pm Friday-Sunday.

Optionality: Take a peek, the sign says, halfway up the first landing. The best is yet to come, promises the next set of stairs. As one turns onto the third landing, the staircase explodes with a vibrant Treehouse Bar and Lounge ad hawking the wonders to be found just a few feet farther.

Ambience: An honored citizen takes his time finishing a cup of soup in the corner of an otherwise vacant deli turned break room leading onto an expansive if generic rooftop patio.

Service: At 6 pm on a Saturday night, a hastily scrawled sign apologizes for any inconvenience but the bar has closed. Another note, directly above but written by a different hand, announces a two-drink maximum. It truly seems for a moment as if the bar has 86’d itself.

Intoxicants: Beer, beer everywhere and not a soul to pour.

Sociability: A pair of New Seasons staffers sent upstairs to clean explained that

Here are five drinking dens in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find them.

citywide staffing shortages have been especially problematic for the grocer, where most employees carrying an alcohol service permit had split.

STUDIO ONE THEATERS

3945 SE Powell Blvd., 971-271-8142, studioonetheater.com. 2:30-11 pm Monday-Friday, 9 am-10 pm Saturday, 9 am-11 pm Sunday.

Optionality: Hiding a boutique multiplex behind a Les Schwab and an O’Reilly Auto Parts store on the dreariest stretch of Portland’s ugliest boulevard isn’t the best way to drum up foot traffic. But this area is starved for anything resembling the datenight lounge Studio One tries so hard to be.

Ambience: As the name somewhat obliquely suggests, the founders imagineered each of their seven auditoriums to resemble penthouses in far-flung destinations like Istanbul, Rome and Tokyo. It’s a distracting way to watch a movie; however, state-ofthe-art A/V technology ensures you quickly become immersed in the film.

Service: Whether or not they understand the whole of the joke, the rangy young bartenders are laughing—at me, at you, and most certainly at the surroundings.

Intoxicants: A dozen taps, more than 50 wines by the glass, and healthy pours of topshelf liquor—and gourmet popcorn that nearly justifies the operation.

Sociability: Interactions tend toward the awkward frisson of second dates, curdling movie night banter between faded friends, and lonely guys arriving early—like, y’know, a theater lobby.

ARTBAR & BISTRO

1111 SW Broadway, 503-432-2964, portland5.com/artbar. Open for most evening events at the Newmark, Winningstad, and Brunish theaters and Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Optionality: The small army of volunteers demanding tickets here are purely administrative support. They didn’t have any information about Artbar and seemed genuinely surprised by its presence. It does, indeed, tend to blend in with the lobby, and presumably, the powers behind Portland’5 Center for the Arts open the lounge in accordance with some counterintuitive algorithm based on date, act and Lord only knows what else.

Ambience: The legitimate theater’s always a bit more garish and slapdash than remembered, but a few outsized flourishes—a ginormous vacant throne carved from the lap of a headless demon, pagan figures offering sacrifices on both sides of a massive stone fireplace—keep things interesting.

Service: Had we visited an hour earlier or later, I’m certain the transaction would’ve been conducted within moments. The bartender, when we finally approached, was a model of brisk efficiency. Unfortunately, arriving at a show’s intermission meant a line quickly formed and snaked out of view.

Intoxicants: $12 for a hearty slug of well (Old Forester) whiskey.

Sociability: In theory, circumstances should blend the easy familiarity and charged atmosphere of pre-concert drinks with First Thursday’s aspirational glad-

handing. The actuality of routine drudgery complicated by relationship dynamics roiling under heightened time pressure equals the worst elements of holiday travel and fourth-quarter restroom trips.

one, no matter the age, rested elbows on the bartop with weight pitched forward in a complicated maneuver that showcased their calves at full flourish. Each one, no matter the size, dithered between pint and

Hot Plates

WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. HEAVENLY CREATURES

2218 NE Broadway, heavenlycreaturespdx.com. 5-10 pm Monday-Saturday.

The food is just as strong a pull as the drink at this wine-focused bar founded by longtime Portland sommelier Joel Gunderson and chef Aaron Barnett. Plates are mostly small and meant for sharing and tilt seafood heavy. But one way we’d like to experience Heavenly Creatures would be to come alone on a rainy weekday with a book, order a lush French blend from Domaine Pignier, and snack on the most perfect plate of hearty slices of young yellowtail, served raw on thick toast with tonnato.

2. MASTER

KONG SE 32ND

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.

3. STREET DISCO

4144A SE 60th Ave., street-disco.com. 5-10:30 pm

Thursday-Monday.

Two things to know about the menu at Street Disco is that it changes frequently and nearly everything is sharable. Start by diving into a few of the items that you could consider appetizers, like salt cod fritters, which capture the essence of fish and chips in a bite, or The Original Not Lobster Roll, a very Northwest combination of Dungeness crab and bay shrimp. Then conquer one of the entrees: A whole grilled branzino delighted on one visit, though the grilled pork ribs are sure to become a sleeper hit.

LLOYD ATHLETIC CLUB

815 NE Halsey St., 503-287-4594, lloydathleticclub.com. 5:30 am-9:30 pm Monday-Friday, 7 am-8 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Optionality: This particular stretch of Northeast Portland has no shortage of fluorescent-lit taverns showing sports, but the potential for finagling an early morning hair of the dog intrigues.

Ambience: Almost pointedly dated yet obsessively maintained, well-scrubbed furnishings bracket a disused conversation pit. The overlit tableau feels like a set for a Reagan-era sitcom.

Service: If you’re a newcomer touring the facility, you’ll be helplessly swept along by the ingratiating spell of an aggressively helpful young associate as he points out the showers, sauna and workout area all in an effort to push membership, of course. The practiced camaraderie and flattering undercurrent aren’t unlike the patter of a maître d’ showing you to your table. Just expect to be shown a ton of penises along the way.

Intoxicants: Four craft beers are on tap at $6.50 a pour. I inquired, in my role as exercise-prone gym shopper, if they’d thought about a full liquor license, but the athletic club, alone among all the spots visited, might have reason to fear members lingering too long at the bar. What if some of the old boys finish up a game of squash at 5 pm and never leave? “Five’s fine,” said my tour guide, the salesman’s veneer momentarily darkening. “Nine am, you run into problems.”

Sociability: As the fresh-faced young desk clerk tidied the area around the taps, a slow succession of thick-necked chuckles trundled by for an apres-lift tipple. Each

glass before selecting pint and immediately regretting the decision. Each one, failing to make further eye contact after the transaction was concluded and the clerk resumed wiping the Formica to high gleam, let nervous tension build and build before blurting out half-questions regarding her fitness that she deftly undercut by switching hands and surfaces midquery. They call this maneuver the clean and jerk, I believe.

THE VELVET ROPE

3533 SE César E. Chávez Blvd., 971-2717064, velvetropepdx.com. 8 pm-3 am Friday-Saturday, 8 pm-2 am Sunday.

Optionality: Oddly enough, the original Portland sex club’s only nearby competition for nightlife dollars lies almost out of sight across the intersection, where the very edge of Studio One’s neon exteriors appear to wink, blush and disappear.

Ambience: Sleazy, yeah, but of an especially denatured, antiseptic, pro forma flavor of original sin. Though a recent-ish remodel updated the interior’s forgiving cobalt glow, the predominant vibe leans into the tired, tawdry ramblings of a gay uncle well past his prime.

Service: See Lloyd Athletic Club.

Intoxicants: Full bar priced a shade more than the locale would suggest, but the prices are low enough to make the whole experience feel kinda seedy.

Sociability: Leave aside the sad, naked men—they’ve grown to expect as much— and you’ll find a clientele that’s more eclectic than rumors suggest: aging sex kittens overemoting performative foreplay, middle-aged swingers, and attractive young guys surprised to learn that sex is not guaranteed at a sex club.

4. FORTUNE BBQ NOODLE HOUSE

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.

5. 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.

ALLISON BARR

Hope in Hemp

Hemp

may have come

BY BRIANNA WHEELER

In 2023, hemp is no longer synonymous with textiles, biofuel and rope. Today, hemp is just another subgenre of weed, albeit one with a THC percentage lower than 0.3%. But here’s the catch: THC is one of many cannabinoids, some of which are nonpsychotropic and therapeutically reliable, which is what makes hemp, or low-THC cannabis, so appealing. It’s also what makes Hemp Day (Feb. 4) worth celebrating all year long. We should all consider integrating hemp into our wellness routines now that it’s available in a wide variety of products, including tinctures, gummies and capsules. Plus, hemp is a vibe all on its own, and frankly, if you’re not tuning in, you’re missing out. Here are a few of our favorite hemp products for both the stash box and medicine cabinet.

Plain Jane CBD Pre-Rolls

For smokers who have trouble navigating the evolving world of low-THC strains, Plain Jane is a great place to source robust hemp cultivars that deliver satisfying, flavorful and smoky AF smokes without the cottony head trip. However, its hemp does deliver a deeply relaxing body buzz and overall sense of calm. Unlike other popular online hemp brands, Plain Jane’s cannabis is all grown either in house or at one of its sustainable partner farms in Southern Oregon. Therapeutic users on the hunt for a specific cultivar, take note: Plain Jane sells no fewer than 10 unique strains.

BUY: plainjane.com

East Fork Cultivars Blue

Orchid Organic Hemp CBD Oil

No conversation about Oregon hemp is complete without mentioning East Fork Cultivars, the trailblazing business behind Portland’s celebrated Hemp Bar. Integrating one (or all) of the brand’s tinctures into your daily wellness routine could prove beneficial for years to come. Aside from leveling out your mood and relieving pain, CBD can act as a neuroprotectant and has anti-inflammatory properties.

BUY: eastforkcultivars.com

Sway Blunts X Royal Rose Petal Blunt

The low-dose smokes produced by Sway feel like they should

be held onto for a special occasion, particularly this blunt produced with Royal Rose: a hand-rolled, petal-encased hemp blunt. For the uninitiated, using rose petals as rolling paper, or as part of a mélange of smoking herbs, is a generations-old technique that adds a sweet, slightly feminine and altogether uplifting perfume to the experience. These blunts could be a great way to introduce a newbie to both low-dose herb and the entourage effect that results from the alternative wrap.

BUY: swayblunts.com

Oracle Wellness Tincture

Formula 003 Awake and 004 Sedate

Another line of tinctures designed for self-care is Oracle Wellness’ Awake and Sedate. Both were formulated by cannabis chef Megon Dee, whose hemp solutions are consistently highly rated for both their efficacy and culinarily informed terpene profiles. For those who’ve eschewed low dosing for astro traveling, Oracle also sells a hemp-based CBD tincture designed to calm an unmanageable high.

BUY: oraclewellnessco.com

Barbari Hemp & Botanical Pre-Rolls

Spliff aficionados with an affection for botanical blends are probably already aware of the Barbari line of adaptogenic smoking herbs, crafted for pairing with cannabis. These prerolls stand apart from others because they’re made with a variety of leaves, seeds and flowers rather than tobacco. That results in magically perfumed products with complex flavors.

BUY: barbarishop.com

Make & Mary Adaptogenic CBD Massage Oil

A high-quality hemp topical is a must-have item in your medicine cabinet, and while Oregon boasts a number of hemp brands that produce those products, none deliver them as elegantly as Make & Mary. Made with the same scent profile as its Face & Body Serum (herbaceous and woody with a floral undertone), this massage oil is made with ashwagandha, aloe and rosehip seed. Use it after soaking in a bath in order to help soothe and relax your body.

BUY: makeandmary.com

Day

and gone, but you can continue to celebrate its wellness properties all year long.

MUSIC PERFORMANCE

WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR

The Rules of the Game

Mikki Gillette’s latest play, My Perfectly Valid Objections, is a witty exploration of transgender women’s dating experiences.

BY MORGAN SHAUNETTE

Dating is scary. You put yourself out there, baring your insecurities, hoping against hope to find that rare someone who makes you feel loved and wanted. The risks of embarrassment, rejection and heartbreak are high, to the point where some avoid taking the plunge at all.

As Mikki Gillette frames it, dating while transgender can be even scarier. The same pitfalls exist but with the added fear of prejudice, bigotry or even violence. It’s a minefield externally and internally, and it’s an experience she invites audiences into with My Perfectly Valid Objections, a new play from Salt and Sage Productions, now playing at Oblique Coffee Roasters.

The show is presented as a series of vignettes showing a collection of first dates between young trans women (Ruby Welch and Juliet Mylan) and their prospective cisgender suitors (Heath Hyun Houghton and R. David Wyllie). They’re all awkward and uncomfortable, with the men behaving inappropriately despite their purported liberal bona fides. However, just as often, it’s the women who are their own worst enemy, as understandable insecurities and indecisions tend to bubble up and lead to panicked oversharing.

Despite the fears the women express, Objections is a comedy first and foremost and things never get too dark. The men are often ignorant and self-righteous, but rarely chauvinistic and never outright malicious. Gillette’s script never broaches the overly dramatic, instead inviting viewers to laugh at the little

absurdities that make up courtship, including many that cis people may not even be aware of.

Staging the show in a coffee shop is an unconventional choice, but it’s one director Asae Dean uses to her advantage. Putting the audience on the same level as the action ends up bringing them closer to it. These are smaller, more intimate stories and it adds something to view them in a more intimate way.

The minimalism of the setup also means that the actors and script need to do all the heavy lifting to keep the audience engaged, and fortunately they’re all up to task. After some awkwardness in the first few scenarios, the players settled into their ever-shifting roles well, making each one distinct and comical without resorting to outright caricature. And while the script drags in the back half, Gillette demonstrates a keen ear for dialogue and a naturalistic sense of humor that keeps the audience engaged.

The final story in Objections reconnects with the same couple from the first vignette, showing them still together three years later. It demonstrates that despite the perils of dating and the very real threats to trans lives in the world, there is hope for a better tomorrow. Love is real and out there for everyone, so long as you’re willing to go through a lot of bullshit to find it.

SEE IT: My Perfectly Valid Objections plays at Oblique Coffee, 3039 SE Stark St., saltandsageproductions.com. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 6 pm Sunday, through Feb. 26. $15.

Kaho Matsui is one of the most exciting experimental artists in Portland, with a fearsomely prolific output and a diaristic approach that often entail making whole albums in days or weeks—a surprising fact given the complexity and depth of albums like her new No More Losses, a collaborative effort with features from a who’s who of local experimentalists. Yet before she started recording three years ago, Matsui was already a regular on the live circuit, and she’s due to make an appearance at The Six. The Six, 3341 SE Belmont St. 8:30 pm. $10. 21+.

FRIDAY, FEB. 24:

Rotting Christ emerged from Greece in 1987 as one of the most blasphemous metal bands in the world, pushing their sacrilegious lyrics to extremes that would be comical if their music didn’t sound genuinely frightening. They’ve caught no end of legal trouble for it on their international tours, and at a time when the innocuous likes of Sam Smith wearing a bargain-bin devil hat at the Grammys can spark a Satanic panic among the Christian right, the music of Rotting Christ feels both exhilarating and necessary. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St. 7:30 pm. $25. 21+.

SATURDAY, FEB. 25:

Across 10 albums in 20 years, Cass McCombs has emerged as one of the great perennials of American roots rock. Without a single towering underground classic to live up to, he can indulge in a formidably consistent if low-key career, earning the respect of the likes of Bob Weir and finding fans in indie, jam band, and Americana circles. His new album, Heartmind, feels like a milestone in his career, dealing honestly with the alternately exciting and exhausting life of a touring musician. Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St. 9 pm. $22. 21+.

29 Willamette Week FEBRUARY 22, 2023 wweek.com

ASAE

DEAN

The New Goonie on the Block

Behman Zakeri, the superfan who recently bought the Goonies House in Astoria, discusses his plans for the storied property.

BY ERIC ASH and BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON

In the mid-’80s, a group of boys who would grow up to be Oscar contenders (Sean Astin, Josh Brolin and Ke Huy Quan) filmed an adventure movie at a place that became one of Astoria’s greatest concentrations of cinematic history: the Goonies House. In The Goonies, it’s easy to see why real estate developers plan to buy up the Goon Docks and force the Goonies and their families to move away. Astoria has a reputation for being picturesque, and the Goonies House, perched atop an unpaved cul-de-sac with panoramic views over the town, river and ocean, is no exception. Still, the film’s fictional developers would surely have been stunned after seeing how much the house sold for in December 2022: $1.7 million.

For several years, starting in 2015, when the film celebrated its 30th anniversary, previous owner Sandy Preston made a point of posting signs prohibiting fans from approaching the house, in response to overwhelming swarms of visitors. She reversed course in 2022, but by the end of that year, she had sold the house to a new owner with a new perspective.

Now the house belongs to Kansas City entrepreneur and Goonies superfan Behman Zakeri. His plan is to preserve the

house as a shrine to the film, and he encourages tourist foot traffic.

Though a neighbor did put up a “Goonies Not Welcome” sign like Preston might have done a few years ago, Zakeri’s old friend Michael Eakin responded with a sign reading (in Goonies-style lettering) “Ignore Karen” on the house in between, which he himself has purchased.

Zakeri told KGW, “The reason I’m buying this is for the community.” If fortune favors him, it won’t be his last time buying a landmark from a beloved ’80s film classic, as he’s also expressed interest in buying the McFly home from Back to the Future, located in the Los Angeles suburb of Arleta.

For now, though, Zakeri’s focus lies on making this Astoria house a dream come true for all his fellow Goonies. WW spoke to him about his plans for the property, including his hopes for a Goonies sequel or series.

WW: When did you first see The Goonies and what impact did it have on your life?

Behman Zakeri: In the summer of 1985. The movie inspired me from the day I saw it, and subconsciously set the path for my life and business career.

How long had you been thinking about buying the Goonies House?

Since I was a kid, but I got serious about buying it when we visited the Goonies House for the 30th anniversary celebration in Astoria in June of 2015.

Is it tricky to balance the desires of fans and of neighbors?

It’s definitely a challenge, but we have so much support from friends, family and neighbors that we will manage well.

What can you tell us about the planned citywide treasure hunt you’re hoping to host?

No specific details right now, but we would like to see this happen someday soon!

What kind of hopes do you have for a Goonies sequel, and what role would the house play in it?

I will be doing everything in my power to push for either a Goonies sequel or a series (similar to what they did with the Cobra Kai series and the Karate Kid movies). I have to believe that if they do either, the Goonies House will play a big role in the sequel or the series.

NEVER SAY DIE: Liz and Behman Zakeri.

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

MOVIES

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

STREAMING WARS

YOUR WEEKLY FILM QUEUE

BY BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON @thobennett

SODERBERGH PICK:

A Warrior’s Winding Path

With an unconventional leading man and a revolutionary score, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai endures as an unlikely classic.

BY RAY GILL JR.

All filmmakers reflect the world around them, but few have captured the zeitgeist like director Jim Jarmusch, a soft-spoken New York transplant from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, with the philosophy, “Life has no plot, why must films or fiction?”

The cult hero status accrued by Jarmusch is born from his keen social observations, even when it’s sometimes difficult to decipher what he’s trying to say. That’s particularly true of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), his urban samurai mob movie classic, which plays at the Hollywood Theatre on Feb. 25.

A film that fascinated movie fans by viewing subcultures through a surreal lens, Ghost Dog’s seemingly accidental success is arguably due to its groundbreaking score (by RZA) and leading man (Forest Whitaker). “You see, I start with actors that I want to make a character for,” Jarmusch said in a 2011 interview with Louder Than War. “I don’t know what the story is or where it’s going at all. I just sort of jump in and start. In fact, I think I do it backwards.”

Ghost Dog was the product of a chance encounter between Whitaker and Jarmusch at a Super 8 camera store. And Jarmusch didn’t just hire an actor most filmmakers would have scoffed at for such a role: He specifically made the role for him.

Together, the pair concocted a character we’re compelled to root for despite the moral ambiguity and brutality of his job. A hit man with a samurai’s code, the protagonist known only as “Ghost Dog” has a sense of purpose that’s somehow inspiring. And then there’s Whitaker himself, whose portrayal seers the consciousness with little dialogue.

“There’s something about Forest that goes right to my heart,” Jarmusch said in a behind-the-scenes documentary. “There’s something very human and beautiful about his presence.”

Ghost Dog was big in the Black community due to a familiar Afro-Asian cultural theme born from East Coast summer scorchers driving urban Black youths of the ’70s into air-conditioned grindhouse theaters for double-fea-

ture combos like Black Caesar and The Five Fingers of Death

These Blaxploitation and martial arts films had a profound impact on kids seeing nonwhite heroes for the first time. That led to the emergence of the first Black martial arts leading man, the incomparable Jim Kelly, and a generation of young moviegoers raised to see themselves fighting back against The Man through music and movement.

Enter RZA, founding member of the Wu-Tang Clan, whose music was shaped by those theaters and became the sound Jarmusch sought for the atmosphere of Ghost Dog. At the time, RZA just so happened to be looking for a project to score, spurred by a conversation he’d recently had with Quincy Jones (having never scored a film before, he looked to Peter and the Wolf and Sergei Prokofiev for guidance).

In Ghost Dog, we witness the protagonist’s unyielding loyalty to a feckless gangster (John Tormey) from a crew hanging on to relevance during the waning days of the Italian Mafia. “If one were to say in a word what the condition of being a samurai is, it’s basis lies first in seriously devoting one’s body and soul to his master,” Whitaker narrates from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo.

Jarmusch compared Ghost Dog’s sense of devotion to that of Don Quixote, but it all boils down to finding security in a sense of purpose. In a rapidly changing world that rarely makes sense, it’s a comfort knowing someone like Jarmusch is still diving headfirst into the randomness we struggle to make sense of and taking notes.

The film speaks to so many of us. And like the Ghost Dog’s French-speaking Haitian-immigrant best friend (Isaach de Bankolé), we may not always know what’s being said, but we understand.

SEE IT: Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, rated R, plays at the Hollywood Theatre, 503-493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 7 pm Saturday, Feb. 25. $8-$10.

As Alice Hughes, a novelist sailing across the Atlantic, Meryl Streep is effortlessly mesmerizing in Steven Soderbergh’s Let Them All Talk (2020). Yet she generously shares the screen with Lucas Hedges (Manchester by the Sea, Lady Bird), whose painfully realistic performance as Alice’s nephew Tyler becomes the film’s secret weapon, emotionally speaking.

Tyler joins Alice and her friends Roberta (Candice Bergen) and Susan (Dianne Wiest) on the Queen Mary 2, which is just barely big enough to contain their many grievances. Roberta is furious that Alice used details of her disastrous marriage in a novel, but that’s just one ripple in a whirlpool of jealousy and regret that threatens to engulf the quartet.

None of this is particularly interesting to Tyler, who has a secret mission: spying on Alice for her agent, Karen (Gemma Chan), who’s also aboard the ship. It’s an assignment born of desperation (if Alice doesn’t finish her latest manuscript, Karen’s career is kaput) that leads to adoration.

Like the rest of the cast, Hedges and Chan mostly improvised their dialogue (riffing on a screenplay by Deborah Eisenberg). That might account for the uncanny believability of their relationship, from Tyler’s awkward yearning to Karen’s breezy obliviousness to his feelings. (Case in point: She doesn’t know or doesn’t want to admit that their excursion to a disco club is a date.)

In one scene, Karen weeps over a past relationship while Tyler listens. It’s an exchange far more transactional than their agreement regarding Alice: She revels in his attention, while her willingness to be vulnerable with him makes him feel special. Crudely put, it’s a “friend zone” scene, but that lurid term doesn’t quite fit their relationship or the scrambled social codes that define interactions between men and women.

The end of Tyler and Karen’s relationship is best summed up in her one-word line: “Fuck.” But what makes Let Them All Talk moving is its conviction that connections (romantic or otherwise) always matter, even when they explode and leave ashes of anguish in their wake.

“If you feel attracted to someone from your heart, and you look at them and you feel and you can see their soul, there’s no bad version of that, to want to be a part of that,” Alice tells Tyler. “And we should treasure it. We’re lucky to have that feeling. It’s the greatest; it’s the fullest expression of what it is to be alive.” HBO Max.

Greased Lightning (1977)

Before biopics became highly valued and managed marriages of licensed IP and celebrity estates, the movies could more or less do as they liked. That’s the charm of Greased Lightning, a loose biography of the first Black NASCAR champion, Wendell Scott, that will be shown in 35 mm as part of the Portland Black Film Festival.

Starring a career-peaking Richard Pryor as Scott, the film casually morphs from cute love story to breezy bootlegger comedy to gleefully exaggerated comeback story. For his part, Pryor plays Scott very straight, stripping back his razor-sharp truthteller persona to a youthful earnestness.

Scott’s support system includes his wife (Pam Grier), childhood best friend (Cleavon Little) and crew chief (Beau Bridges), all helping push a pioneering and unlikely career forward. Director Michael Schultz is at the helm, fresh off Cooley High and Car Wash, and brings a similarly light touch and appealing character camaraderie to his collaboration with Pryor (they also teamed for Which Way Is Up?) as Scott’s racecar ambitions evolve from pipe dream into underdog gold. Hollywood, Feb. 26.

ALSO PLAYING:

5th Avenue: Get Out (2017), Feb. 24-26. Academy: Super Fly (1972), Feb. 24-March 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011), Feb. 24-March 2. Cinema 21: Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Feb. 25. Cinemagic: The Seventh Curse (1986), Feb. 22. Clinton: Ma (2019), Feb. 23. Candyman (1992), Feb. 24. Tales From the Hood (1995), Feb. 25. Quilombo (1984), Feb. 27. Hollywood: The Mask (1994), Feb. 24. Seven Chances (1925), Feb. 25. Basket Case (1982), Feb. 25. Truck Turner (1974), Feb. 28.

EMILY

From its opening, a question of selfishness pulses within this Emily Brontë biopic. How could Emily dare write a novel so rife with “selfish” characters as Wuthering Heights, her older sister Charlotte implores. Actor-turned-director Frances O’Connor’s debut film then flashes back to Emily’s teen years to consider the pain, passion and self-focus necessary for a young woman to pen an all-time-great novel in a culture deadening to her inspiration. Emma Mackey (star of Netflix’s Sex Education) plays Emily as a proverbial middle child, rebellious with a sly remove. She employs her senses as a sponge, soaking in the ghostly vigor of the West Yorkshire moors despite the Anglican influence of her father (Adrian Dunbar) and hunky new local preacher William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). O’Connor’s script largely invents a web of Brontë family dynamics, positing her path to becoming the lit-loving clan’s simultaneous North Star and black sheep. That’s a welcome alternative to depicting staunch Victorian manners and Emily glued to a writing desk. Still, one wonders if a slightly bloodier performance (think Keira Knightly, circa 2007), as opposed to Mackey’s inherently modern-feeling cool, could have elevated the sensuousness. But as an act of risk-taking imagination, Emily gives a legendary novelist and the power of selfishness their rightful flowers. R. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.

THE CIVIL DEAD

CLOSE

OUR

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

: THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT.

: THIS MOVIE IS ENTERTAINING BUT FLAWED.

: THIS MOVIE IS A STEAMING PILE.

Comedians Clay Tatum and Whitmer Thomas have been best pals for 20 years, but their debut narrative feature imagines a fainter bond. Tatum (who directed the film) plays Clay, a broke Los Angeles photographer who runs into struggling actor Whit (Thomas) on the street. It appears Clay has more or less ghosted his old friend from Alabama—fitting, given that Whit claims to be an actual ghost (cause of death unknown) who is visible only to Clay. Looking for a lifeline, Whit vocalizes that this is an experimental Casper scenario: a benevolent spirit buddying up with a human. Tall premise aside, the film’s generative force is the duo’s meandering chemistry and the silly way they mumble in support of idiotically jagged haircuts and dance-karate kicks. The offkey relationship comedy recalls improv-driven Joe Swanberg and Lynn Shelton indies, but what complicates The Civil Dead is the surprisingly bad underlying vibes and the question of why Clay, a person with nothing going on, struggles to engage with a willing friend. Things that go bump in the night may be asking for a little bro time, but do self-focused young artists have it in them to heed the dead’s desperate call? NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. On demand.

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-ofage 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.

THE VOLCANO: RESCUE FROM WHAKAARI

While Fire of Love poeticized the quaking, deadly romance of Mother Earth, this Netflix documentary is more of an eruption anatomy. Minute by minute, The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari chronicles the sudden, tragic bursting of New Zealand’s Whakaari (or White Island) in 2019 and the experiences of the dozens of tourists and guides who were trapped in an improbable nightmare. It’s a story worth telling, as most of director Rory Kennedy’s are (she made Downfall: The Case Against Boeing and Last Days in Vietnam), but perhaps not at feature length. The preeruption dread is as powerful as witnessing survivors’ scars, but the straightforward rescue mission marks a major slump, a series of “just the facts, ma’am” interviews with pilots, cops and volunteers who did what they could expediently, and explains only that much. Intermittently, the film verges on criticizing ineffective threat systems or unregulated eco-tourism, but The Volcano isn’t willing to explore controversial ramifications, even to illustrate how responsibility was eluded. The film honors lives lost and given, but a prime-time news special could do the same. PG-13. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Netflix.

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

by Jack Kent

JONESIN’ BY

MATT JONES

"Just Visiting"--a monopoly on two initial letters.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Philosopher John O'Donohue wrote a prayer not so much to God as to Life. It's perfect for your needs right now. He said, "May my mind come alive today to the invisible geography that invites me to new frontiers, to break the dead shell of yesterdays, to risk being disturbed and changed." I think you will generate an interesting onrush of healing, Aries, if you break the dead shell of yesterdays and risk being disturbed and changed. The new frontier is calling to you. To respond with alacrity, you must shed some baggage.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Rightwing religious influencers are rambling amuck in the United States. In recent months, their repressive pressures have forced over 1,600 books to be banned in 138 school districts in 38 states. The forbidden books include some about heroes Nelson Mandela, Cesar Chavez, and Rosa Parks. With this appalling trend as a motivational force, I encourage you Tauruses to take inventory of any tendencies you might have to censor the information you expose yourself to. According to my reading of the astrological omens, now is an excellent time to pry open your mind to consider ideas and facts you have shut out. Be eager to get educated and inspired by stimuli outside your usual scope.

the world a more welcoming place with which you have a more intimate relationship. And that would be an artful response to current cosmic rhythms.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Are you aimless, impassive, and stuck, floundering as you try to preserve and maintain? Or are you fiercely and joyfully in quest of vigorous and dynamic success? What you do in the coming weeks will determine which of these two forks in your destiny will be your path for the rest of 2023. I'll be rooting for the second option. Here is a tip to help you be strong and bold. Learn the distinctions between your own soulful definition of success and the superficial, irrelevant, meaningless definitions of success that our culture celebrates. Then swear an oath to love, honor, and serve your soulful definition.

ACROSS

1. Kama ___ Records (Lovin' Spoonful label)

6. Frittata ingredients

10. Aeration

14. "It's worth ___!"

15. Actress Petty of "Orange Is the New Black"

16. "Garfield" drooler

17. Fictitious "100% Colombian Coffee" farmer in an old ad campaign

19. Clue weapon

20. Sculptor, e.g.

21. Sailor's hook

23. Mil. mess duties

24. Acorn, later

27. Beastly sorts

31. Musician such as Stéphane Grappelli (and not many others in that genre)

35. Ooze with

37. Award named for a TV network

38. Sch. with a campus in Atlanta

39. Fundamental physics particle

40. They'll get to U

afterwards

41. Religious crusade

43. CN Tower's prov.

44. Conditional suffix?

45. Courtroom figs.

46. Business partnerships

50. Eventually

51. "I ___ a lot of problems with you people!" (Festivus "Airing of Grievances" line)

52. Move like a toad

55. Nest builder

57. Pooh's morose friend

60. Nursery rhyme pet

63. French science fiction novelist who's the second most-translated individual author in the world

66. Like the goateed twin, it's said

67. Shimmery gem

68. Fur tycoon John Jacob

69. Stare intently

70. Trees used for archery bows

71. Some Wikipedia entries

DOWN

1. "Wheel of Fortune" host since 1981

2. Unlawfully take over

3. "I'm as surprised as you ..."

4. Pasta ___ (boxed dinner)

5. Dune buggies, briefly

6. Pipe bend

7. Pan, for one

8. Actor Kinnear

9. In a rather large way

10. Not seriously

11. Altar-ed statement?

12. Five-digit address ender

13. Tappan ___ Bridge

18. The whole gamut

22. Part of TGIF

25. Disinclined (to)

26. Word spelled out after "sitting in a tree"

28. Cyclist's wear (for aerodynamic purposes)

©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.

29. Test type

30. Small earrings

32. Fuss

33. Type of garden with rocks

34. Decides on

35. Smiley face, for example

36. Element in strobe lights

41. Pasta sauce container

42. "Graph" ending

44. Make way happy

47. Just a bite

48. Initials for an oversharer

49. Sporty trucks, for short

53. "Ripley's Believe It ___"

54. Jury's makeup

56. Deceive

58. Performance assessment, for short

59. "Oh ___ can!"

60. One way to get your kicks

61. Director DuVernay

62. "Les ___" (Broadway musical, casually)

64. Congressional creation

65. Golfer Ernie

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I think we can all agree that it’s really fun to fall in love. Those times when we feel a thrilling infatuation welling up within us are among the most pleasurable of all human experiences. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do it over and over again as the years go by? Just keep getting bowled over by fresh immersions in swooning adoration? Maybe we could drum up two or three bouts of mad love explosions every year. But alas, giving in to such a temptation might make it hard to build intimacy and trust with a committed, long-term partner. Here’s a possible alternative: Instead of getting smitten with an endless series of new paramours, we could get swept away by novel teachings, revelatory meditations, lovable animals, sublime art or music, amazing landscapes or sanctuaries, and exhilarating adventures. I hope you will be doing that in the coming weeks, Gemini.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The scientific method is an excellent approach for understanding reality. It's not the only one, and should not be used to the exclusion of other ways of knowing. But even if you're allergic to physics or never step into a chemistry lab, you are wise to use the scientific method in your daily life. The coming weeks will be an especially good time to enjoy its benefits. What would that mean, practically speaking? Set aside your subjective opinions and habitual responses. Instead, simply gather evidence. Treasure actual facts. Try to be as objective as you can in evaluating everything that happens. Be highly attuned to your feelings, but also be aware that they may not provide all facets of the truth.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Is there anything in your psychological makeup that would help you do some detective work? How are your skills as a researcher? Are you willing to be cagey and strategic as you investigate what’s going on behind the scenes? If so, I invite you to carry out any or all of these four tasks in the coming weeks: 1. Try to become aware of shrouded half-truths. 2. Be alert for shadowy stuff lurking in bright, shiny environments. 3. Uncover secret agendas and unacknowledged evidence. 4. Explore stories and situations that no one else seems curious about.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The country of Nepal, which has strong Virgo qualities, is divided into seven provinces. One is simply called “Province No.1,” while the others are Sudurpashchim, Karnali, Gandaki, Lumbini, Bagmati, and Janakpur. I advise Nepal to give Province No. 1 a decent name very soon. I also recommend that you Virgos extend a similar outreach to some of the unnamed beauty in your sphere. Have fun with it. Give names to your phone, your computer, your bed, your hairdryer, and your lamps, as well as your favorite trees, houseplants, and clouds. You may find that the gift of naming helps make

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The next four weeks will be a time of germination, metaphorically analogous to the beginning of a pregnancy. The attitudes and feelings that predominate during this time will put a strong imprint on the seeds that will mature into full ripeness by late 2023. What do you want to give birth to in 40 weeks or so, Scorpio? Choose wisely! And make sure that in this early, impressionable part of the process, you provide your growing creations with positive, nurturing influences.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I recommend you set up Designated Arguing Summits (DAT). These will be short periods when you and your allies get disputes out in the open. Disagreements must be confined to these intervals. You are not allowed to squabble at any other time. Why do I make this recommendation? I believe that many positive accomplishments are possible for you in the coming weeks, and it would be counterproductive to expend more than the minimal necessary amount on sparring. Your glorious assignment: Be emotionally available and eager to embrace the budding opportunities.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Actor Judi Dench won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth in the film *Shakespeare in Love*—even though she was onscreen for just eight minutes. Beatrice Straight got an Oscar for her role in the movie *Network*, though she appeared for less than six minutes. I expect a similar phenomenon in your world, Capricorn. A seemingly small pivot will lead to a vivid turning point. A modest seed will sprout into a prismatic bloom. A cameo performance will generate long-term ripples. Be alert for the signs.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Most of us are constantly skirmishing with time, doing our best to coax it or compel it to give us more slack. But lately, you Aquarians have slipped into a more intense conflict. And from what I’ve been able to determine, time is kicking your ass. What can you do to relieve the pressure? Maybe you could edit your priority list—eliminate two mildly interesting pursuits to make more room for a fascinating one. You might also consider reading a book to help you with time management and organizational strategies, like these: 1. *Getting Things Done* by David Allen. 2. *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People* by Stephen R. Covey. 3. *15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management* by Kevin Kruse.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): "What is originality?" asked philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Here’s how he answered: "to see something that has no name as yet, and hence cannot be mentioned though it stares us all in the face." Got that, Pisces? I hope so, because your fun assignments in the coming days include the following: 1. to make a shimmering dream coalesce into a concrete reality; 2. to cause a figment of the imagination to materialize into a useful accessory; 3. to coax an unborn truth to sprout into a galvanizing insight.

Homework: What’s something you would love to do but were told never to do by someone you loved? Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com