Willamette Week, May 3, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 25 - Up in Smoke: The Rise and Fall of Shemia Fagan

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WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER

VOL. 49, ISSUE 25

The hours of VI to IX are covered with graffiti on the Jackson Tower clock 8

An escort service listed its address as Washington Center on Google Maps. 11

Oregon Secretary of State

Shemia Fagan resigned because of WW ’s reporting. 14

Rosa Cazares threw a champagne fundraiser for Fagan— and one year later, Fagan urged auditors to interview Cazares.

15

Viking Soul Food serves mead in shot glasses carved from the horns of an unidentified animal. 19

The rooftop at Lolo Pass welcomes drinkers back with Spring Pea martinis 19

Home cannabis growers should top the Pennywise strain only once. 20

Call Forty Feet Tall’s music indie pop at your own risk. 21

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Cazares then signed Fagan to a cannabis consulting contract that paid more than her state salary. 17

Broadway in Portland is ending its 2022-23 season with a 9/11 musical 18

For one day only, Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub is serving tacos and margs. 18

In a certain sphere of pop fandom, Caroline Polachek commands the same devotion as Mariah Carey and Beyoncé. 21

Broadway Rose’s latest production includes a chorus line of World War II Soviet women pilots 22

Absolute silliness is one of the most valuable forces in the galaxy 24

than their state jobs, especially ones that create clear potential for conflict of interest.

“3. Probably time for a new

MAL DEPORTIMENTE, VIA

“This is just a standard greasy deal of the sort that has been considered a side helpin’ o’ creamy goodness for your standard pol of a certain stature. Until it comes to light at just the wrong moment. Then they wriggle and protest and Willamette Week, for

VINYL272, VIA REDDIT: “Yeah, she’s gotta resign. This is a debacle that the Democrats cannot afford to let slide, the elections have gotten much tighter, and people are fed up. Voting is already hard enough with the limited information we have about each candidate, and it’s insulting to Oregon voters if they

“Even if it’s legal—it’s shady, it’s operating in bad faith, and it’s an insult to her constituents to think they’d be fine with her working a second job that requires her to ‘recuse’ herself from key parts of her job.”

TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for Letters must be 250 Submit to: PO Box 10770, Email: mzusman@wweek.com

argue that words become unmentionable based on whatever topic the dominant culture is most afraid to talk about. In the 16th century, it was religion: The old-timey oath “zounds,” for example, was a euphemism for the then-unprintable “God’s wounds.” The Victorians were terrified by sex, which is how our current, waning crop of no-longer-all-that-dirty words originally became dirty. (The subject likely to underlie our next cluster of unutterables is left

But let’s return to the topic at hand: You may have missed it, but plenty of writers who are not me have used expletives in WW This paper is what’s known as an alternative newsweekly, and while alt-weeklies would like to be known for their gutsy, occasionally confrontational reporting and a colorful prose style influenced by boundary-pushing journalists like Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, in actual practice the main thing everybody knows about them is that they let you swear in print. You’re getting what it says on the tin, and if you think I’m bad, try reading “Savage Love”

The New York Times and print these so-called taboo words when they’re part of a title or a quotation. Live a little! Sure, some folks are adamant that a phrase can have just as much impact without profanity as with it. But frankly? I think those people need to chill the heck

wweek.com.

FIGHT OVER PROLOGIS WAREHOUSE INTEN -

SIFIES: Citizen opponents of a 260,000-squarefoot Prologis freight warehouse planned for the Argay Terrace neighborhood in East Portland were scheduled to testify before the Portland City Council on Wednesday. Prologis plans to knock down the old Kmart on Northeast Sandy Boulevard that’s controlled by real estate mogul Zygmunt Wilf, owner of the Minnesota Vikings, and build the warehouse to move merchandise for companies like Amazon and Home Depot. Opponents say the project would pump more diesel exhaust into a neighborhood that’s already choking on it, and that truck traffic would endanger students at nearby schools. Elizabeth Durant, chair of the Parkrose School Board, planned to read a statement from students, who are busy taking exams. “Our students are worried about the air they breathe,” Durant tells WW. The main permit for the warehouse is still under review, says Portland Bureau of Development Services spokesman Ken Ray. The demolition permit for the old Kmart is “approved to issue,” and BDS is waiting for payment on it, Ray adds.

STATE STRIKES NEW DEAL WITH ROSS ISLAND

SAND & GRAVEL: Ross Island Sand & Gravel, the company that mined the Willamette River bottom around its namesake island for 76 years, ending in 2001, has struck a new deal with the Oregon Department of State Lands to refill the hole it left behind. RISG and the state renegotiated a 2002 fill permit and have agreed on a completion date of 2033 and a much larger performance bond—increased from $500,000 to $6 million. That’s a big deal because, as WW has reported, RISG owner Dr. Robert Pamplin’s financial situation has grown precarious. The new permit also calls for increased shallow-water habitat enhancement. Bob Sallinger, conservation director of Willamette Riverkeeper and a longtime participant in talks over the island’s future, says his group is satisfied with the new permit but still wants to see the island become public land some day. “We are pleased that DSL was able to secure a hard end date for the reclamation work, interim benchmarks to measure progress, and a much higher bond to help ensure that the work will get completed,” Sallinger says.

“It has already taken far too long, but this helps ensure that the restoration work will finally be completed by 2034.”

PROSECUTORS REQUEST CASH TO ANALYZE

FOOTAGE FROM NEW BODY CAMS: Body cameras are coming to Portland cops—and that means more work for Multnomah County prosecutors. They’ve asked for additional funding to fill five positions to help sift through the new evidence, “in order to more completely fulfill MCDA’s constitutional and ethical obligation,” the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office noted in its latest budget request. The office currently has two investigators and one assistant sifting through footage—but still hasn’t enough eyes to view it all. Last week, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson obliged, earmarking $1 million from the county’s contingency fund for the DA’s body-worn camera program.

“Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, Portland Police Bureau, and [Oregon Health & Science University] Public Safety are all working to incorporate body-worn cameras,” notes DA spokeswoman Elizabeth Merah. That’s 400 to 500 new cameras, she estimates. “We expect to see a significant increase in our office’s workload.” This budgetary line item joins those for the office’s new shoplifting and car theft task forces, which were announced in a splashy press conference on Monday.

STOUT AWAITS FATE IN COLUMBIA COUNTY: State Rep. Brian Stout (R–Columbia City), the freshman lawmaker accused of sexually assaulting a campaign volunteer, is awaiting a decision whether a five-year protective order against him should stay in place. After a third day of testimony April 25, Columbia County Circuit Judge Cathleen B. Callahan told the courtroom she would issue a written ruling on the matter.

Stout denies charges that he sexually assaulted the woman and threatened to push her off a cliff at Multnomah Falls if she told anyone about what began as a consensual affair. (It is WW ’s policy not to name victims is sexual assault cases.)

Stout, who is married, was stripped of his House committee assignments at the Capitol in January.

ROSS ISLAND LAGOON

A big bridge means costly tolls.

For 20 years, highway engineers on both sides of the Columbia River have fantasized about replacing the aging twin Interstate 5 bridges connecting Portland to Vancouver. Over time and after the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, the wish list from the Oregon and Washington departments of transportation, working together as the Interstate Bridge Replacement Project, has expanded to include rebuilding seven interchanges and widening I-5.

Like Sonny Corleone, those dreams could meet an untimely demise at a toll booth.

HOUSE BILL 2098 The Two Towers

CHIEF SPONSORS: The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation

WHAT IT WOULD DO: Previous bridge replacement efforts have failed in part because there wasn’t enough money to pay for them. There still isn’t—and the price tag on the full-build option has ballooned to about $6.5 billion. But with tens of billions of federal highway dollars up for grabs, the DOTs want both states to ante up $1 billion to generate federal matching funds. This bill would be Oregon’s commitment to a billion-dollar contribution.

The time pressure for Oregon lawmakers is twofold: First, they want to provide a match to the $1 billion that ODOT’s partner, the Washington Department of Transportation, has pledged to the project. Second, every state also wants to snag federal infrastructure money, so there is competition and thus pressure to generate a fundable proposal.

PROBLEM IT SEEKS TO SOLVE: Engineers say the two spans are obsolete (one is more than 100 years old) and would collapse in the event of a catastrophic earthquake. (Environmentalists agree it’s time for a new crossing, but they favor a bridge- and light rail-only version, which they say would be far cheaper, because it wouldn’t expand I-5 and would promote less driving.) Most people agree on the problem but, in addition to disagreeing on the scope of the replacement, they disagree on how to pay for it.

ODOT faces declining gas tax revenues and has far more projects than it can afford, even before tackling this megaproject. Gov. Tina Kotek dismissed a proposal to pony up $1 billion from the general fund. (Those dollars are earmarked for education, human services, and public safety, so transportation projects historically don’t get them.) Lawmakers have previously told ODOT to figure out how tolling could pay part of the tab. Yet there is disagreement among constituents whether to use congestion pricing (variable tolling to discourage peak-hour use, a favorite with environmentalists) or straight tolling (ODOT’s favorite) to generate revenue, and there’s increasing opposition to any road use changes.

WHO SUPPORTS IT: The highway departments in both states (although they technically may not take a position on legislation), the Port of Vancouver, the Portland Business Alliance, the construction industry, and the Oregon Trucking Associations. These groups support the full build, including fixing all the interchanges.

“ While this bill is only the first step in the process of building a new I-5 bridge, it is an important first step,” Jana Jarvis of the Oregon Trucking Associations testified April 27. “The unprecedented availability of federal funds necessitate moving forward with Oregon’s portion of the funding now in order to apply for federal funds in a timely manner.”

WHO OPPOSES IT: The Just Crossing Alliance, the Sierra Club, 1000 Friends of Oregon and other environmental groups favor the slimmeddown, bridge- and light-rail-only version. “This project bundles together a bridge replacement with a freeway expansion, which is both expensive and will induce more driving in the long run, which causes congestion to return,” testified Brett Morgan of 1000 Friends of Oregon. “In addition to this, both ODOT and WDOT have a history of major highway projects going as much as two to three times over the initial cost estimate.”

The bill got its first public hearing last week—about 60 speakers testified—and the committee will hold another hearing on the bill May 4 at 5 pm. NIGEL JAQUISS.

Downtown Portland can’t find investors, visitors or tenants.

BY ANTHONY EFFINGER aeffinger@wweek.com

Book a south-facing room high up at The Nines Hotel downtown (for sale) and you’ll get a view of Jackson Tower (covered with graffiti, in default).

The two towers, which flank Pioneer Square, tell the story of downtown Portland right now. The owners of office buildings are missing loan payments, and hoteliers are struggling to attract guests, as two of the three graphs on this page show. The third one speaks to a larger trend: Portland is losing population, something that seemed unthinkable three years ago.

Jackson Tower Partners LLC, the owner of the 12-story beaux arts office building at the corner of Southwest Broadway and Yamhill Street, borrowed $11.5 million from JPMorgan Chase in 2018 and missed its first loan payment Nov. 1, 2022, according to a complaint filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court on April 5.

Asked why her client defaulted on the Jackson Tower loan, California attorney Sherry DuPont blamed “the deterioration of downtown Portland.”

The numbers bear her out. The Urban Land Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based association of real estate experts, says Portland’s market ranks 56th out of 80 cities in terms of at-

tractiveness, behind even Baltimore (52nd), St. Louis (45th) and Detroit (40th).

Portland hotels are struggling, too. While tourists and business people have returned to many other cities, Portland has struggled to rebound from the protests and riots that rocked

the city in 2020 and the pandemic that finally relented last year. Pebblebrook Hotel Trust sold the Heathman to RB Heathman LLC for $41 million in February. It’s seeking a buyer for The Nines.

Portland’s struggle to attract investors and visitors is reflected in its population figures. While similar metro area (Seattle, Austin, Nashville) saw their populations rebound somewhat in 2022 from pandemic losses, Portland residents kept leaving town. All three findings were featured in a presentation by economics firm ECONorthwest obtained by WW

Attractiveness of Portland’s Real Estate Market

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Sources: Urban Land Institute, Oregon Office of Economic Analysis

Hotel Occupancy in Portland Central City

Source: CoStar

Population Change

Natural Increase

Residual Net Migration

HARD TIMES: The Jackson Tower, defaced.

CHASING GHOSTS

Up Shit Creek

Duplexes too disgusting to occupy stand on the banks of Johnson Creek.

ADDRESS: 6402 SE 103rd Ave.

YEAR BUILT: 1946

SQUARE FOOTAGE: 660

MARKET VALUE: $1.1 million

OWNER: 103rd Multiplex LLC

HOW LONG IT’S BEEN EMPTY: 6 months

WHY IT’S EMPTY: Out-of-state landlords and a soiled watershed

Sometimes, Portland apartment complexes become such dumps that the city has no choice but to intervene. Such was the case last year at the cluster of single-story duplexes on the banks of Johnson Creek in the Lents neighborhood in Southeast Portland.

After two years of neglect, the property ’s septic system backed up, flooding the surrounding property and—a lawsuit alleges— soiling the neighboring watershed with sewage.

“I couldn’t even open my windows in the summer months,” says former tenant Jessica Schlesinger. “It was horrific.”

She and the remaining fellow tenants became so frustrated with the stink they filed a complaint with the city. After inspectors released dye into the septic system and photographed pink plumes in the surrounding grass in 2021, the city ordered the apartments vacated a year later.

Now, the access road is closed too. The only way to get to the property, sandwiched between a nature preserve, the Springwater Corridor, and an industrial yard, is on foot or by bicycle.

When WW visited last weekend, a man was scavenging for cans in the mounds of trash spilling out of apartment doorways. The windows and doors of the seven units had been crudely boarded up, but squatters moved in anyway. A filthy mattress was visible through one of the partially boarded windows.

Unwanted tenants had been living at the complex until police showed up to clear the property last month, an unhoused man living nearby tells WW. An affidavit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court says a sheriff’s deputy arrested a man and a woman for trespassing at the address on April 7. The deputy said he was acting on the authority of the buildings’ owners.

The property was purchased in 2020 by a Washington LLC

REFRESHER

for $700,000. The LLC is controlled by two people, Christopher Baird and Eric Matson. According to legal filings, Matson lives in Washington state and Baird lives in Bradenton, Fla.

The LLC’s attorney declined to comment.

According to a website for Chris Baird Consulting, Baird obtained a business degree from Western Oregon University before embarking on a career as a real estate investor. Since then, he “has traveled the country to meet with, and learn strategy from, prominent leaders such as Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump, Robert Shemin, Colin Powell, Zig Ziglar, Rudy Giuliani, and John

WW’S MAY 2023 ENDORSEMENTS

MULTNOMAH COUNTY COMMISSIONER

District 3

Julia Brim-Edwards

At this difficult juncture in Multnomah County history, voters need a budget hawk who will help Chair Jessica Vega Pederson devise and execute a plan, even if that means making some people angry.

PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS BOARD

Zone 3

Derrick Peterson

Ideally, Peterson would use what he learned working behind bars to stop kids from sliding down the school-to-prison pipeline.

Maxwell” and is “actively investing” in Portland, Sacramento and Birmingham. He says he “partners and coaches entrepreneurs” who “can earn 20%+ cash on cash returns annually.”

A lien was filed against the property last year after the LLC’s representative failed to pay a contractor’s bill for $2,000. And now, Baird and Matson are being accused in federal court of sacrificing the environment in the quest for profit.

A city hearings officer determined that raw sewage had leaked into Johnson Creek, and she declared it an “imminent danger to the health and safety of the public” in October. The “violation was intentional,” hearings officer Marisha Childs noted.

“I’m surprised the findings by the city don’t warrant some sort of criminal investigation,” remarks Michael Fuller, the lawyer who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Schlesinger, the former tenant.

She moved into one of the complex’s one-bedroom units in 2021 and has watched it deteriorate since. Her apartment was repeatedly vandalized and burglarized. Once, she was assaulted by someone looking for a neighbor. “It was the Wild West at this place,” she says.

The landlords eventually refunded her deposit. She’s now asking for up to $2.5 million in damages. LUCAS MANFIELD.

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

Ballots arrive this week—for real, this time. Here’s who we recommend.

MEASURE 26-238

Imposes capital gains tax to fund eviction relief services and legal representation

No

We encourage voters to reject this sloppy, unnecessary measure and instead raise their voices to encourage the county to deploy existing funds to help more tenants avoid eviction.

MEASURE 26-240

Five-year renewal of Portland Children’s Levy

Yes

Voters should renew the Children’s Levy, which has demonstrated a track record of real good for vulnerable kids.

ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD: The apartment complex overlooks the Foster Floodplain Natural Area.

PHOTO CREDIT

KICKED OUT: Squatters have been removed and the access road is now closed.

Power Vacuum

Emails show two years of bargaining and finger-pointing around downtown Portland’s most notorious property.

BY LUCAS MANFIELD lmanfield@wweek.com

PHOTOS BY BRIAN BURKE

Last summer, as a downtown city block deteriorated into an open-air fentanyl market, the mayor’s top fixer, Sam Adams, swung into action.

He negotiated an understanding with the owners of Washington Center, the vacant commercial real estate complex that dominates a block of Southwest Washington Street. Its owners, a top Portland real estate family, would keep it clean, and the city would pay to board it up.

The agreement fell apart. Six months later, after WW and other news outlets documented the extent of the blight, Washington Center was raided by a police squadron and boarded up— but not the way the deal originally intended.

The city didn’t pay for it, as promised. And Washington Center’s owner, Menashe Properties, left the job unfinished, fencing only along one corner of the complex and leaving open an area under the eaves to the west, commonly used for the sale and smoking of fentanyl rocks.

Eric Zimmerman, an adviser to Mayor Ted Wheeler on downtown matters, said at the time that the mayor’s office and the Menashes were “talking.”

Now, WW has confirmed just how long those talks have been going on. Emails and documents obtained by WW via a public records request show that the city was pressing the Menashes to do something about Washington Center’s deteriorating condition as early as two years ago.

And indeed they did, putting up a fence and securing doorways, before fire inspectors dis-

covered a previously unknown tenant in the basement and sent the negotiations backpedaling.

The emails leave many questions unanswered. The mayor’s office tells WW that Adams’ original plan for the city to pay to board up the property was a bad idea, but did not explain what precipitated the change in attitude. Adams resigned in January amid allegations he was bullying employees, and initiatives under his purview have been shifted to other officials.

Barry Menashe, in an interview with WW, says his family has received no help from the city but was unaware of specifics about the negotiations. His son, Jordan, subsequently asked WW to stop “harassing” his family. Jordan Menashe, who controls the LLCs that own Washington Center, moved to Dallas last year and has left day-to-day management to his sister, Lauren. She has stopped responding to emails.

What is clear is that empty promises were made by nearly everyone involved in Washington Center’s attempted rejuvenation—precipitated by a city bureaucracy where the left hand does not talk to the right.

Despite appearances, Washington Center has, until very recently, not been vacant. Verizon Wireless ran a data center in its basement. Full of valuable gear, flammable storage tanks, and possibly asbestos, the subterranean infrastructure was a frequent target for thieves and vandals, emails obtained by WW indicate.

Verizon wanted Menashe Properties to do something about it. So did the mayor’s office. In the summer of 2021, it met with representatives for Menashe Properties, pleading with them to

fence off the property. So the company did. It even sealed off several of the buildings’ exits at the urging of the Portland Police Bureau.

Portland Fire & Rescue, however, was not pleased. On July 16, 2021, a fire inspector emailed Menashe Properties executive Ross Kelley, saying he was “surprised to discover” Verizon operating in the basement.

Sealed exits in an inhabited building are a safety hazard, the inspector explained. Fire exit signs led nowhere, and some parts of the complex couldn’t be evacuated without a key. “You are potentially risking lives and are assuming a huge liability,” he said.

Kelley appeared frustrated. “We are trying our absolute best to respond to every agency in Portland, which at many times are at odds with each other,” he noted.

Still, Menashe Properties unsealed the doors and moved the fence. The firm hired a security company to patrol the upper floors of the main building “several times a day.”

In July 2022—a year later—Kelley sent the fire inspector a photo of a gated, fenced enclosure around the entrance of a CenturyLink office, saying a tenant was asking Menashe Properties to do the same at Washington Center. “I believe the answer is ‘no’ from our prior discussions,” Kelley wrote.

Not so, explained the inspector, as long as it was outfitted with “panic hardware” allowing for an emergency exit. (It’s unclear what Kelley did with this information. The upgraded fences do not appear to have been installed.)

Meanwhile, a drug market popped up on the sidewalks outside the complex, first in the areas not surrounded by a fence—and then inside too, once the chain-link barrier was breached and

“We are trying our absolute best to respond to every agency in Portland, which at many times are at odds with each other.”

toppled.

The city had been aware of this for months. In November 2022, Lauren Menashe told the city that the situation was getting “worse and worse as each week goes on.”

“Sophisticated criminals” were sneaking in to steal fiber optic and power cables, she said. Meanwhile, campers on the sidewalks appeared “more dangerous and physical.”

But what was “beyond belief,” she noted, was Washington Center’s “new tenant.” Someone was using the vacant complex’s valuable placement in the center of downtown on Google Maps to advertise an escort service, with photos of scantily clad women and a WhatsApp number. (A city official responded, saying Lauren Menashe should “contact PPB via 911” to handle the trespassers. It’s not clear whether she did—or if any escorts ever physically occupied Washington Center. As of press time, the listing remains on Google Maps, although the number has been disconnected.)

By then, Sam Adams had gotten involved. At the time, Adams was Mayor Ted Wheeler’s righthand man, a former Portland mayor himself with deep connections to the city’s business community and the ability to navigate its byzantine bureaucracy. He, Lauren Menashe and Mark Wells, manager of downtown’s enhanced service district, Clean & Safe, toured the buildings on July 8.

In a September 2022 email, Adams sketched the outline of a deal in which the Menashes would pay a city contractor, Graffiti Removal Services, to clean up the outside of the complex while the city boarded it up. “VERY GOOD NEWS,” Lauren Menashe responded.

By November, the proposal had become a “plan,” circulated by Christine Leon, director of the mayor’s newly created Public Environment Management Office for graffiti cleanup and trash removal. In exchange for the city’s help securing Washington Center, the Menashes would “maintain [a] locked and secure fence” and Clean & Safe would increase patrols of the block.

(Mayoral spokesman Cody Bowman says WW’s characterization of “early conversations as a ‘deal’ is a bit inflated” and repudiates Adams’ offer to pay to board up the complex: “We believe this would have been a costly endeavor and not a good use of taxpayer dollars.”)

In order to get started, the Menashes needed to secure permits and hire an architect, the city said. Lauren Menashe was losing patience. When city officials asked for her opinion about murals they wanted to paint on exterior walls, she shot back: “The murals are wonderful, but not the #1 priority for this hazardous and dangerous site that I own and have no control over.”

“To put it simply: when can we start boarding the building up?” she asked in a Nov. 22 email.

Delays mounted. By March, when WW visited the block, neither the Menashes nor the city appeared to be making any progress on implementing the plan. By then, scavengers had broken into the vacant KeyBank on the corner and ravaged the vault. The fence had been torn down, and each of the complex’s alcoves were filled with people smoking or openly dealing fentanyl.

WW’s story published March 22 triggered recriminations among all parties.

Wells pointed the finger at the Menashes, saying they had stopped talking with him after refusing to pay their Clean & Safe dues in

September. Lauren Menashe blamed city code enforcement. “We all know that mutual plans to board up were disallowed numerous times due to suggested fire code and fire life safety violations,” she wrote.

Kelley, the Menashe Properties VP, appeared to believe the mayor’s office was responsible.

“What happened to the proposal from [the contractor] that the Mayor’s office was looking to board up the property?” he asked in a March 22 email.

“Let’s just say we didn’t get help from anybody,” Barry Menashe now tells WW

The mayor’s spokesman, however, says the city has done its part by cleaning up graffiti and trash. City Hall is now continuing to push for “greater boarding up of the alcoves,” Cody

Bowman said in a statement to WW on May 1.

He pointed the finger at the Menashes. “Private property owners across the city are stepping up to take care of their tenants and securing vacant properties to deter loitering, which is an issue that was allowed at the Washington Center,” Bowman wrote. “Every building owner has the right to trespass unwanted people doing unwanted things on their premises. The city has been asking the owners of this building to improve the situation for about a year, regardless of whether they had a tenant or not.”

Still, the city was spurred into action. Police began round-the-clock patrols. And on April 12, dozens of officers piled into Washington Center to clear it of squatters. The issue of egress was now moot—Verizon had moved out. Shortly thereafter, plywood walls went up around the southwest steps, long a hangout for unhoused Portlanders smoking fentanyl.

The boarding-up cost $30,000. “The city didn’t pay a dime,” Barry Menashe says. “I’m born here. Forget the buildings. I’m sick and sad that everybody is suffering.”

Meanwhile, the steps’ denizens migrated to the other side of their building to hang out under the eaves of the former KeyBank. In the evenings, dealers continue to stalk the corners. On Friday night, a trio of police squad cars sped to the scene because two men were kicking a third in the head as he lay in the middle of Washington Street.

UNFENCED: The plaza at Southwest 5th Avenue and Washington Street under the eaves of Menashe Properties’ vacant complex is a hangout for Portlanders smoking fentanyl.

“Let’s just say we didn’t get help from anybody.”

BOARDED UP: After months of back and forth, Washington Center’s alcoves were covered with plywood last month.

EYESORE: The brand-new fence is now coated in graffiti.

DRUG MARKET: The former KeyBank.

‘ASCENDANT BLUES’

The Florence Rhododendron Festival is the secondoldest flower festival in Oregon. Thousands come from around the world to celebrate with us every year. We hope you will too! Enjoy the Davis Shows Carnival, classic cars & motorcycles, join the parade, admire the flowers, soak in the fun small-town pageantry. The Rhododendrons that thrive along the Oregon Coast are the stars of the Festival and we celebrate their beauty!

For more information visit RhodyDays.net

Come be part of our biggest party of the year and enjoy all that Oregon’s Coastal Playground has to offer.

EXTRAORDINARY SPEED, THE POLITICAL CAREER OF

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan ended Tuesday morning after a self-destructive decision to freelance for a troubled cannabis outfit.

“The secretary of state’s office functions well only when Oregonians have complete faith and trust in the actions of who they chose to hold the office,” says former Gov. Kate Brown. “To achieve this, the secretary must be beyond reproach, lead with integrity, and be as transparent as possible. Unfortunately, Secretary Fagan has failed Oregonians’ trust.”

Until last week, Fagan’s future had few limits. “She’s the only Democrat in this state who could write her own ticket,” says one Democratic political consultant. “The brightest star on our bench,” says another.

But that star burned out quickly.

“This was the correct decision,” says U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) of Fagan’s abrupt resignation. “The people we elect to represent us must be able to focus on the public service that is required of us as elected officials.”

Fagan, 41, a former legislator and employment lawyer, was next in line to follow Gov. Tina Kotek whenever Kotek leaves office. And because that might not happen for eight years, Fagan and her supporters already had a Plan B—it was a poorly kept secret that she hoped to succeed Wyden when Oregon’s 74-year-old senior U.S. senator called it quits.

In the meantime, she was in effect the state’s chief integrity officer, responsible for conducting elections, auditing state agencies and programs, and making sure that companies doing business in Oregon were legally registered here.

Last year, when she determined that journalist Nicholas Kristof didn’t meet Oregon’s residency requirements to run for governor, Fagan issued a statement that could be the credo for her office.

“The rules are the rules, and they apply equally to all candidates for office in Oregon,” Fagan said then.

But a fast-breaking scandal of Fagan’s own making pulled her under. She couldn’t convince the

“SECRETARY FAGAN MADE A TRAGIC MISTAKE ON A JOURNEY OF PUBLIC SERVICE IN WHICH SHE HAS OTHERWISE EXCELLED IN ADVOCATING FOR POLICIES THAT WOULD BUILD A BETTER STATE WITH MORE AND IMPROVED OPPORTUNITIES FOR OREGON’S FAMILIES.”

pillars of the Democratic Party and Oregonians that the rules didn’t apply to her.

FAGAN’S TROUBLE BEGAN

March 29, when WW published a story about the second-largest cannabis dispensary chain in the state, La Mota, and how the couple who founded it and their companies faced millions of dollars in state and federal tax liens and lawsuits alleging unpaid bills. Even as La Mota’s principals, Rosa Cazares and Aaron Mitchell, failed to meet their financial obligations (the tax liens issued against them and their companies now total over $7 million), they somehow found the money to contribute more than $200,000 to the state’s top Democrats, including $45,000 to Fagan.

Politicians, including Kotek, brushed off questions about taking campaign contributions from a retail chain that had allegedly stiffed so many creditors, including the state of Oregon. But pressure mounted.

And then, last Thursday, an admission by Fagan blew the scandal wide open.

The day before, on a Wednesday morning, WW received a tip that seemed too unbelievable to be true. Acting on the tip, WW sent questions to Fagan at 1 pm on April 26.

At 1:45 pm the following day, April 27, Fagan admitted to WW that she’d signed a contract to work as a consultant for Veriede Holding LLC, whose principals are La Mota’s owners, Cazares and Mitchell.

To sign the contract, Fagan shirked one of her fundamental responsibilities: overseeing the audits of state agencies, a function she called in a 2020 campaign debate “the best tool the secretary of state has.” On Feb. 15, more than a year after the secretary of state’s Audits Division began looking at the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s regulation of the cannabis industry, Fagan recused herself from the audit.

Fagan abdicated a primary duty of the office to which Oregonians had elected her—holding state agencies and offices to account—in order to take large monthly payments from two of her most prominent political donors who were facing a litany of legal and financial problems.

Worse still, working papers from the audit showed that a pressing concern for Fagan before the audit began and when it was halfway through was to make sure auditors heard criticisms Cazares had expressed to her about the OLCC.

In other words, Fagan directed a key tool of accountability to suit the interests of state’s second-largest cannabis chain, then went to work for its owners while she held a full-time job as the person charged with ensuring the integrity of state government and elections.

Three former Oregon secretaries of state told WW on Tuesday morning that Fagan should resign, adding painful cuts to Fagan’s ability to recover from the scandal.

“The bad judgments, lack of due diligence and transparency, and failure to immediately cancel this ill-advised contract once millions in tax liens and unpaid bills came to light have done incalculable damage to Oregonians’ trust in the agency,” said Phil Keisling, who served as Oregon’s secretary of state from 1991 to 1999.

Bev Clarno, a Republican who served from 2019 to 2021, said there “aren’t enough hours in the day to do that job well and have time left over for other work.”

Jeanne Atkins, secretary of state from 2015 to 2017, says Fagan displayed extemely poor judgment in taking the contract: “This was a huge mistake.”

SHIFTING LOYALTIES

A timeline of Shemia Fagan’s dealings with La Mota.

Beginning with the first public record that connects the troubled cannabis chain La Mota’s owners to Secretary of State Shemia Fagan, here are the key points in the relationship that destroyed Fagan’s career. SOPHIE PEEL.

we would be happy to provide one. We would just need a detailed description of the circumstances,” the commissioner staffer writes. “Please note, your request for an opinion or letter of advice and the Commission’s response would be public record.”

Fagan does not ask the commission for formal written advice.

FEB. 15, 2023: Fagan emails subordinates to inform them she is recusing herself from the OLCC audit due to the contract with Veriede Holding.

SEPT. 5, 2020: Aaron Mitchell donates $10,000 to Fagan’s campaign for Oregon secretary of state.

SEPT. 18, 2020: Rosa Cazares holds a fundraiser for Fagan at a Northwest Hills mansion that the couple rented.

OCT. 9 & 27, 2020: Mitchell donates another $15,000 to Fagan’s campaign.

NOV. 4, 2020: Backed by organized labor, Shemia wins her bid for Oregon secretary of state.

JAN. 27, 2021: In her first month in office, Fagan asks auditors to discuss the scope of a planned Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission audit with Cazares.

JAN. 29, 2021: Cazares emails Fagan a list of gripes about the OLCC. The list includes “Heavy Handed Enforcement, Micro Management, Takes productive time from business, Due Process, Middle Management.”

APRIL 26, 2021: Cazares and Mitchell throw another fundraiser for Fagan. Mitchell contributes another $20,000 to Fagan’s campaign.

JUNE 25, 2021: Fagan presses the state’s lead auditor to speak with Cazares about the scope of the OLCC audit. “As your team begins scoping for the Cannabis audit, please have them reach out to Rosa Cazares with La Mota,” Fagan writes to Audits Division director Kip Memmott. “She will provide very helpful industry-side scoping.”

DEC. 13, 2021: Fagan meets with Audits Division managers to discuss the audit’s kickoff. “Shemia asked if the team had interviewed Rosa Cazares with La Mota,” notes from the meeting read. “Shemia said the initial impetus for the audit is a belief that folks who are running cannabis businesses are treated differently.”

FEB. 24, 2022: Records show Cazares tells auditors the OLCC is sexist, ageist and unsupportive of people of color. “They see our sales and how much money we have or shouldn’t have. They see us go from one store to 30, and maybe they feel like we shouldn’t have that,” Cazares says, according to the notes. “They make me feel like I’m a criminal.”

FEB. 7, 2023: Final draft of the audit is sent to the OLCC for response.

FEB. 9, 2023: Emails show that after Fagan makes a call to a staffer for the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (it’s unclear when), the staffer emails Fagan to follow up. “Should you wish to request advice or an opinion specific to you and your situation,

FEB. 24, 2022: Fagan signs a contract with Mitchell and Cazares for consulting work. It stipulates that Fagan will be paid $10,000 a month, plus a $30,000 bonus for every cannabis license obtained outside of Oregon and New Mexico.

MARCH 24, 2023: Fagan responds to WW ’s questions about whether La Mota’s tax liens and lawsuits raised concerns for her. “I had no idea about unpaid taxes,” Fagan writes. “You’ll need to direct any financial questions to their company representatives.” She makes no mention that La Mota is now a current client of hers.

MARCH 29, 2023: WW publishes the findings of its investigation into La Mota, Cazares and Mitchell. Later that day, the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries officially terminates a half-million dollar grant awarded to a nonprofit co-founded by Cazares for a registered apprenticeship that never could have been registered by the state because cannabis remains illegal federally.

APRIL 27, 2023: Fagan confirms in response to WW ’s questions that she signed a contract in mid-February with Veriede Holding and recused herself from the OLCC audit due to the contract.

APRIL 28, 2023: Top Republican legislators Sen. Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and Rep. Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville) demand that Fagan resign.

Gov. Tina Kotek requests two investigations, one by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission and another by the state Department of Justice, and says she will donate $75,000 to the Oregon Food Bank, just slightly more than La Mota and its founders contributed to Kotek’s election campaign.

APRIL 29, 2023: At a weekend press conference, Kotek says she is “dismayed” by Fagan’s outside contract. “I don’t have outside employment,” Kotek adds. “I only have one job.”

APRIL 30, 2023: More than 10 elected state officials and lawmakers pledge to make charitable donations equivalent to what La Mota and its founders contributed to their campaigns. Fagan remains quiet.

MAY 1, 2023: Fagan releases a copy of the contract and holds a press conference to answer reporters’ questions. She reveals she spoke to Connecticut Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz on behalf of La Mota and adds she didn’t know Cazares and Mitchell prior to her 2020 campaign.

And yet she says she hopes to rebuild Oregonians’ trust in her. Fagan announces she terminated the contract on Sunday—more than a month after WW reported on the chain’s millions in tax liens and lawsuits alleging nonpayment of bills.

MAY 2, 2023: Fagan resigns.

GIVING BACK

Here are all the Oregon Democrats giving political contributions from La Mota to charity.

On April 27, WW first broke the news that Secretary of State Shemia Fagan was moonlighting as a contractor for the owners of the embattled La Mota dispensary chain—a job she took while her office audited the state agency that regulates cannabis.

Since that revelation, Oregon Democrats who received political contributions from the chain and its founders, Aaron Mitchell and Rosa Cazares, have scrambled to scrub any association with the company. They’re doing that by pledging charitable donations equivalent to campaign contributions they received from La Mota and its founders.

The total pledged so far to various nonprofits and charities is $152,000.

Below is a list of the politicians who, since April 28, have pledged to donate campaign contributions they received from Mitchell, Cazares, La Mota or the political action committee run by Cazares to nonprofits or charities. And the ones who haven’t. SOPHIE PEEL.

GOV. TINA KOTEK

Total La Mota contributions: $68,365

Donation: $75,000 to the Oregon Food Bank

SENATE PRESIDENT ROB WAGNER (D-LAKE OSWEGO)

Total La Mota contributions: $12,500

Donation: $12,500 to Habitat for Humanity

SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP FUND

Total La Mota contributions: $10,000

Donation: $10,000 to Oregon CASA Network

FUTUREPAC HOUSE BUILDERS

Total La Mota contributions: $20,000

Donation: $20,000 to Lines for Life

STATE TREASURER TOBIAS READ

Total La Mota contributions: $1,800

Donation: $2,000 to Portland Community College Foundation

REP. ANDREA VALDERRAMA (D-PORTLAND)

Total La Mota contributions: $500

Donation: Undecided, but says she’s “leaning towards” the Black Futures Farm

LABOR COMMISSIONER CHRISTINA STEPHENSON

Total La Mota contributions: $7,500

Donation: $7,500 to Northwest Workers’ Justice Project of the Cannabis Worker Resilience Partnership

MULTNOMAH COUNTY CHAIR JESSICA VEGA PEDERSON

Total La Mota contributions: $1,000

Donation: $1,000 to East Portland Neighbors

REP. DACIA GRAYBER (D-TIGARD)

Total La Mota contributions: $1,000

Donation: $1,000 to the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project

REP. HOA NGUYEN (D-PORTLAND)

Total La Mota contributions: $500

Donation: $500 to the David Douglas Education Foundation

REP. ANNESSA HARTMAN (D-GLADSTONE)

Total La Mota contributions: $500

Donation: $500 to the Fathers Heart Ministry in Oregon City or the Gladstone Food Bank

MULTNOMAH COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY MIKE SCHMIDT

Total La Mota contributions: $2,000

Donation: Schmidt says he will give an equivalent amount—but hasn’t decided which charity.

U.S. REP. EARL BLUMENAUER

Total La Mota contributions: $3,500

Donation: $3,500 to Classroom Law Project and OMSI

U.S. REP. VAL HOYLE

Total La Mota contributions: $26,000 (Hoyle returned $20,000 to Mitchell last year when Hoyle decided to run for Congress and dissolved the PAC set up to support her reelection as Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries commissioner.)

Donation: None; returned to La Mota

SECRETARY OF STATE SHEMIA FAGAN

Total La Mota contributions: $45,000

Donation: $16,000 left in her PAC will go to the Oregon Humane Society.

And here are the politicians who have not pledged to donate political contributions from Cazares, Mitchell, La Mota or Cazares’ PAC: Beaverton Mayor Lacey Beaty, Beaverton City Councilor Ashley Hartmeier-Prigg (she says she’s used all her campaign funds but won’t accept further contributions from La Mota), and the Democratic Party of Oregon.

THINGS UNRAVELED QUICKLY

in the 72 hours after Fagan admitted to WW that she had taken outside work.

Over the weekend, three key Democrats, Kotek, Senate President Rob Wagner (D-Lake Oswego) and House Speaker Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), issued statements that were anything but supportive. Kotek said she was “dismayed” by Fagan’s actions. She asked the Oregon Government Ethics Commission to investigate and requested that the Oregon Department of Justice examine the circumstances around the OLCC audit. Through a spokesman, Wagner expressed “significant concerns” about Fagan’s actions.

“These allegations are bad, it’s difficult to see them any other way,” Speaker Rayfield added. “It has obviously impacted the credibility of the secretary of state’s audits.”

And many of the politicians, including Kotek, who’d also taken La Mota money suddenly rushed to get rid of it after weeks of inaction (see “Giving Back,” page 16).

Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp (R-Bend) and House Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville), said the quiet part out loud, demanding Fagan’s resignation.

Meanwhile, Fagan initially defended her decision to take outside work from a state-regulated business, saying she had broken no ethics laws and had gone above and beyond by recusing herself from the OLCC audit.

Here’s what she did not do: immediately make public her consulting contract.

Instead, she shared the contract the following Monday morning only after intense pressure.

“That was a huge mistake,” said a crisis communications consultant over the weekend. “She missed the chance to get it out there. Now, she looks like she’s hiding something.”

Indeed, Fagan was holding back details that made matters worse.

The contract shows she was paid substantially more for her cannabis consulting—$10,000 a month, plus $30,000 for every cannabis license obtained outside of Oregon and New Mexico— than her $77,000 state salary.

The document provided little detail about what she was getting paid for, although Fagan told reporters she was doing non-legal research on cannabis business opportunities in other states. (She said that once she was readmitted to the Oregon State Bar, she planned to perform legal work for the company.)

Meanwhile, Fagan was broke. Filings in 2020 from her divorce show she spent more than she made every month. Her credit card, tuition and personal debt totaled nearly $135,000. She admitted as much about her financial status in a May 1 press conference: “To put it bluntly, my secretary of state salary alone is not enough to make ends meet.”

Other details that WW uncovered before she shared the contract did not help Fagan, either.

Records show she pressed the Audits Division twice to speak with Cazares about the scope of the audit as early as January 2021—well before the audit had even begun. Cazares’ complaints about the OLCC in an interview with the lead auditor—that it was sexist, heavy-handed with enforcement, punitive, and unsupportive to people of color, and treated her like a “criminal”—made their way into the lead auditor’s questioning of OLCC leaders during audit interviews conducted in 2022.

And records also show Fagan only recused herself from the OLCC audit a week after the yearlong probe was substantially finished (see “Shifting Loyalties,” page 15).

Longtime political observers say the judgment she displayed irreparably damaged her ability to remain at the job.

“Taking a contract itself crosses a line,” says Jim Moore, director of political outreach at Pacific University. “But taking a contract with an organization which has business with the state of Oregon is a bright red line.”

PEOPLE WATCHED IN SHOCK

as the career of a once-rising star of the Democratic Party took on the trajectory of a SpaceX rocket.

For most of Fagan’s career, she could do no wrong. After growing up poor—she says her mother suffered from addiction and the family was sometimes homeless—in the tiny town of Dufur and then The Dalles, she worked her way to law school and, in 2012, knocked off an incumbent Republican for an Oregon House seat in Clackamas County.

In its endorsement that year, WW called Fagan “one of the best first-time candidates we’ve ever seen.”

After two terms in the House, Fagan left politics briefly to focus on her young family (she has two children) and make some money. But as Oregon’s housing crisis worsened, progressives in 2018 searched for a candidate to challenge Sen. Rod Monroe (D-Portland), a longtime lawmaker and landlord who stood in the way of tenant protections.

Fagan stepped up, trouncing one of the Democrats’ elder statesmen 62% to 20%. She came back to Salem bolder—in 2019, she shocked propriety and her Senate colleagues by standing on the Senate floor to oppose the reelection of the longest-serving Senate president in Oregon history, Peter Courtney (D-Salem).

“TAKING

In 2020, with the secretary of state’s position open, public employee unions and other progressive groups landed on Fagan as the person they’d most like to see supervising the state’s elections. They helped her squeeze by former state Sen. Mark Hass (D-Beaverton) in the Democratic primary by less than a percentage point. Fagan memorialized her new position with a large tattoo reading “VOTE” on her right forearm.

Fagan took office just as President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election vaulted the low-profile work of election administration onto front pages.

“My mission is simple: My job is to build trust,” Fagan said at a 2022 Democratic Party of Oregon event where La Mota was a chief sponsor. “We want to build trust between Oregonians and their state government.”

Chris Koski, professor of political science at Reed College, says the once “sleepy office” of the secretary of state is now steeped in politics. “They’re now dealing with a policy issue—democracy—that used to be universally agreed upon.”

Fagan appealed to working-class Oregonians. She often told the story of her rocky childhood. She said her personal experience watching Oregon programs do little to help her family would make her a powerful and dogged auditor.

But her career appears to have come to a sudden end because she traded away what mattered most—the trust of the public—for $10,000 a month.

“Secretary Fagan made a tragic mistake on a journey of public service,” says U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), “in which she has otherwise excelled in advocating for policies that would build a better state with more and improved opportunities for Oregon’s families.”

Nigel Jaquiss contributed reporting to this story.

MOM

A CONTRACT ITSELF CROSSES A LINE. BUT TAKING A CONTRACT WITH AN ORGANIZATION WHICH HAS BUSINESS WITH THE STATE OF OREGON IS A BRIGHT RED LINE.”

GET BUSY

LAUGH: Heather McMahan –The Comeback Tour

Based on the name of Heather McMahan’s debut show, The Farewell Tour, the standup comic either expected success so momentous she could call it a career, or instant failure that would push her out of the biz. Fortunately for fans of the Instagram storyteller, neither happened and she’s back on the road with The Comeback Tour. McMahan will bring her wit and Southern charm to Portland for just one night, so don’t miss your chance to witness why her brand of humor earned her a spot in Variety’s 2022 Comedy Impact Report. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5.com. 8 pm Friday, May 5. $42.14-$95.14.

PLAY: 2023 Pokémon Regional Championships

zation that supports education programs for underprivileged youth. Or you can lean into Kentucky Derby fripperies by entering the contest for best dressed while downing mint juleps and rooting for the long shot. Satellite Tavern, 5101 N Interstate Ave., 503-841-6176, satellitetavern.com. 11 am-5 pm Saturday, May 6. $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

DRINK & EAT: Portland Tacos & Margs Crawl

WATCH: White Bird

Presents: MOMIX

White Bird is closing its landmark 25th season with the internationally renowned dance company MOMIX, known for its astounding inventiveness and physical beauty. This talented company of highly technical performers will take the audience down the rabbit hole in a performance of Alice, artistic director Moses Pendleton’s latest creation, a stunningly unique take on the Lewis Carroll Wonderland classic. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-245-1600, whitebird.org. 7:30 pm Wednesday, May 3. $32-$75.

WATCH: Come From Away

Broadway in Portland also wraps up its 2022-23 season, with this provocative, Tony Award-winning musical about a somber topic that wouldn’t seem well suited for spirited song and dance: the aftermath of 9/11. Come From Away was inspired by the true story of 38 jetliners, carrying approximately 7,000 passengers, that were ordered to land at Gander International Airport in Newfoundland following the 2001 terrorist attacks. The characters are inspired by actual Canadian citizens who not only came to the aid of the stranded travelers, but embraced those strangers and invited them into their homes during a frighteningly mind-numbing period. Keller Auditorium, 222 SW Clay St., 503-248-4335, portland.broadway.com.

7:30 Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 pm Saturday, 1 and 6:30 pm Sunday, May 3-7. $34.75-$139.75.

DRINK: May the 4th Dual Party

It’s the day Star Wars superfans look forward to all year to don their freshly dry-cleaned Jedi robes: May 4. Join-

ing the themed celebrations this year are Binary Brewing and Loyal Legion’s Beaverton beer hall. Since the two businesses are just blocks from each other, they’re teaming up and hosting a Dual Party that will include commemorative T-shirts, discounts to anyone dressed in costume, and a special sticker for visitors of both events that can be honorably worn like a physical Untappd badge. Don’t forget to try R2D Brew (get it?!) made by Loyal Legion beer manager Herb Apon and Roger Wood, Binary’s head brewer and co-founder. It was appropriately hopped with Galaxies, presumably harvested from one located far, far away. Binary Brewing, 12345 SW Broadway, Beaverton, 503336-0554, binarybrewing.co. Loyal Legion, 4500 SW Watson St., Beaverton, 503-372-5352, loyallegionbeerhall.com/ beaverton. All day Thursday, May 4.

EAT: Tournant Flower Moon Dinner

Known for their live-fire cooking, the founders of Tournant keep their feasts constantly flickering by changing locations each time. Chefs Mona Johnson and Jaret Foster kick off their latest series of itinerant dinners—all named after the seasonal moons—with Westward Whiskey at Dundee’s version of a Lake Cuomo mansion, Del Mar Villa. The evening begins with oysters as well as craft cocktails and single-malt whiskey tastings at a welcome reception. A long-table dinner, inspired by Johnson and Foster’s travels in Mexico, will be served in the ballroom, and each course comes with a glass of Brick House Vineyards wine. Del Mar Villa, 22111 Riverwood Road, Dundee, tournantpdx. com/tournant-events. 6 pm Friday, May

6. $295 (includes service fee).

Some things never change, and that includes the ever-strong bond between Portland and the Poké-verse. It only makes sense, then, that our fair city is hosting the 2023 Pokémon Regional Championships, where $65,000 in scholarships and prizes is up for grabs. Players will battle it out for valuable points that count toward a potential invite to this year’s World Championships, so expect all the tension and action of a major sporting event because that’s exactly what it is to local fans. Oregon Convention Center Exhibit Hall C, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., 800791-2250, teamnw.net. Noon Friday, 8:30 am Saturday, 7:30 am Sunday, May 5-7. Spectator passes sold out. $70 to register for competition.

GO: Portland Cinco de Mayo Fiesta

After a three-year absence, the city’s waterfront festival season officially kicks off with the Portland Cinco de Mayo Fiesta. This bilingual three-day celebration, hosted by the Portland Guadalajara Sister City Association, is the state’s largest multicultural festival. You can expect performances by internationally acclaimed Mariachi Ciudad de Guadalajara and Oregon’s own Ballet Folklórico México en la Piel. Ten local mariachi students will also appear onstage with Mariachi Ciudad on Saturday night. And it wouldn’t be a Waterfront Park festival without food booths and a Ferris wheel, so enjoy a progressive dinner by sampling dishes made by more than 30 vendors serving classic Mexican food and a Family Fun Carnival with plenty of rides (though maybe enjoy those in the reverse order). Tom McCall Waterfront Park, 98 SW Naito Parkway, 503-8237529, cincodemayoportland.com. 10 am-11 pm Friday and Sunday, 11 am-11 pm Saturday, May 5-7. $8-$25.

DRINK: Kentucky Derby Party

It’s derby time, so dust off your obnoxiously large hats and seersucker suits for the Satellite Tavern’s second annual party centered on the so-called most exciting two minutes in sports. Concerned about the dubious ethics of horse racing? You can attend the event for the sole purpose of supporting the Big Yard Foundation since a portion of the admission fees goes to the organi-

Oddly enough, only a couple of the stops on this Bar Crawl Nation Cinco de Mayo-themed event regularly serve Mexican fare. But for at least one drunken afternoon you can order tacos and margaritas from places like Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub, Shanghai Tunnel Bar, and The Big Legrowlski. Make sure your phone is charged since you’ll use a special app to check in at each venue, then get to day drinking. Starts at Rialto Poolroom, 529 SW 4th Ave., 503-2287605, barcrawlnation.com/events/portland-tacos-margs. 2-7 pm Saturday, May 6. $24.99 general admission, $54.99 VIP. 21+.

GO: In Bloom Spring Gala

This event benefits kids, but it’s designed for adults. The flower-themed gala at Revolution Hall’s Show Bar features live music by Kris DeeLane & The Hurt, great food and drinks, and a live auction with items up for bid from local purveyors like Son of Man Basque-style cidery, Upright Brewing, and Portlandia Vintners (organizers must know booze is the way to Portland Public Schools parents’ wallets). Funds raised at the event will support staffing levels at Southeast’s Sunnyside Environmental School. Revolution Hall Show Bar and Patio, 1300 SE Stark St., 971-808-5094, revolutionhall.com. 5:30-9 pm Saturday, May 6. $25-$100.

WATCH: Bubble & Squeeze

The duo you need to uplift your spirits after a challenging few years takes the stage this weekend at the Clinton. The Amazing Bubble Man and accordion diva Jet Black Pearl come together for a one-of-a-kind show with bubble magic, psychedelic video projections, and wacky tunes. And, no, this isn’t geared for toddlers, so leave the kids (under age 16) at home. Clinton Street Theater, 2522 SE Clinton St., 971-808-3331, cstpdx.com. 7 pm Saturday, May 6. $15. 16+.

LISTEN: Devin the Dude

“The Dude” is coming to Portland! Not the one who rocks a bathrobe while swilling white Russians, but the legendary hip-hop artist who has helped shape the genre, beginning in 1998 with his debut solo album, The Dude. After more than two decades, Devin the Dude has remained relevant thanks to his smooth delivery, introspective lyricism and banger productions. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene. org. 8 pm Sunday, May 7. $20 general admission, $50 meet-and-greet package. 21+.

WONDERLAND: MOMIX closes White Bird’s season with a performance of Lewis Carroll-inspired Alice

FOOD & DRINK

Top 5

Have It Fjord Way

BY ALEXANDER BASEK

Viking chic is everywhere these days, from Marvel’s Thor to CBS’s Ghosts to the resplendent beards and manes of many Major League Baseball players. Vikings: so hot right now! As always, we’re ahead of the curve in the Rose City. Portland’s own Viking Soul Food, now a long-standing member of The Bite on Belmont food pod, opened in 2010. In late 2022, owners Megan Walhood and Jeremy Daniels expanded, opening the first brick-and-mortar location of Viking in Southeast Portland.

The new location is in a former taqueria on a bustling stretch of Southeast Woodstock Boulevard between Double Mountain Brewery and a New Seasons. This outpost has many things the food cart does not: indoor seats, a liquor license, and ready-made items, including a beet-based hot sauce named after Thor’s mythically unpronounceable hammer.

The space is not big; it’s more longship than great hall. Inside are about eight seats, most of which surround the open kitchen. An additional two picnic tables provide some breathing room outside, but it’s a tight squeeze. Upon entry, the ambience is more hygge than hip. Mushroom stew bubbled away on the stove top. A stack of books with titles such as Fire + Ice and Entertaining the Finnish Way sat by a bottle of mead and two shot glasses carved from the horns of…something. That mead, by the way, is made nearby by Wyrd Leatherworks and Meadery. It’s described on the menu as a “great intro” to mead, a designation Viking Soul Food’s pickled herring rather pointedly does not receive.

All of this isn’t to say the soul food aspect is absent. Rather, it’s the restaurant’s secret superpower, boosting otherwise austere dishes. The Troll Snack ($15) comes on dark rye crackers, topped with a Jarlsberg-and-garlic spread. It’s a mouth-puckerer, the ideal after-school snack for an elementary school

Editor: Andi Prewitt

Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

Hot Plates

WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. PHO OREGON BEAVERTON

12870 SW Canyon Road, Beaverton, 503-747-0814, phooregon.net. 10 am-9 pm Monday-Saturday, 10 am-8 pm Sunday.

Pho Oregon, Portland’s 20-yearold Vietnamese beef noodle soup standard bearer, has opened its second outlet after nearly two years of planning. If an early visit was any indication, it was worth the wait. The must-have pho order, the No. 1, is a quart-sized cauldron of aromatic awesomeness with thin rice noodles as well as bits of beef tendon, tripe, quartered meatballs and more. When the urge for hot soup wanes, the menu seems to ramble endlessly with choices, from rice plates to grilled meats to stews.

2. SALT & STRAW

Various locations, saltandstraw.com. 11 am-11 pm daily.

kid who already gets a 5 o’clock shadow. I loved the pickled egg, which I heretofore knew only as a gag on The Simpsons. Viking Soul Food’s version is brined with beets, giving the finished product a lovely lavender hue. It looks like it should be on the box of a Paas Easter egg dyeing kit, but it tastes great, with a fudgy yolk that’s covered with black pepper mayo, an orange dollop of salmon caviar, and a shower of fresh dill.

Many items on Viking Soul Food’s menu come surrounded by a lefse, a delicate wrap made with potatoes, butter and flour. Traditionally, lefse are heated on a griddle before they are served fresh with butter and sugar. In the olden days, lefse would be dried to last throughout the winter or a long sea voyage. Today, you can just order at the counter, no oceangoing or rowing needed. If the culinary history (or gluten) is too much for you, all of the larger entrees also arrive as salad plates.

The versatility of the lefse works wonders, adding lightness to the savory wraps and giving heft to the kid-friendly, sweeter iterations. The lefse is more like a crepe than a flour tortilla in texture, so it never overwhelms and merely complements the accompanying ingredients. In something as traditional as the smoked steelhead ($13), it recedes in the background, supporting the crunch of the greens and the tartness of the pickled shallots and dill crème fraîche. Ditto for the tender pork-and-beef Norwegian meatballs ($13), served with gjetost (a caramelized goat cheese with a hint of sweetness) and pickled purple cabbage, as well as the wine-braised pork sausage of the pølse ($12), with Jarlsberg, mustard and lingonberries.

Those iconic lingonberries also appear inside the sweet lefse ($8), filled with a tart jam and cream cheese or a lemon custard. These are intensely homey and comforting, ideal for littler Vikings. Both fillings are in the excellent thumbprint cookies ($4), too, served with an ample squirt jam or custard in the center. When available, the special winter wrap ($8), with roasted apples, honey, walnuts and chèvre is likely the most pleasing dessert for an adult palate.

What Viking Soul Food lacks in seating it makes up for in heart. Years after their “you got chocolate in my peanut butter” inception putting meatballs inside a lefse, Walhood and Daniels are now loving ambassadors of Scandinavian street food. Giving it their own spin, they turned Viking Soul Food into a Portland institution along the way. Let’s all raise a horn of mead in celebration.

EAT: Viking Soul Food, 4422 SE Woodstock Blvd., 971-430-0171, vikingsoulfood.com. 11 am-7 pm Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-8 pm Friday-Saturday.

More than a decade ago, cousins Tyler and Kim Malek began changing people’s taste for ice cream—daring them to go beyond Baskin-Robbins’ 31 flavors—by opening Salt & Straw and working with unique ingredients. The company, which has expanded considerably since then, is marking its 12th anniversary this month by unlocking its flavor vault and bringing back dormant varieties. That means for a limited time you can get old favorites, like black olive brittle and goat cheese, honey marshmallow rocky road and mango habanero IPA sorbet as a scoop, or in pints and milkshakes.

3. KI’IKIBÁA 3244 NE 82nd Ave., 971-429-1452. 11 am-9 pm Tuesday-Sunday.

With a menu full of panuchos, salbutes, relleno negro and menudo, it feels sacrilegious to start with an ode to Manuel “Manny” Lopez’s burritos, but we’re gonna do it. We love these burritos passionately. Go for the asada, which is seasoned and grilled, layered with black beans made with lard and spices, and given the usual sour cream, cheese and guac treatment. But the true God-tier move is the layer of crispy griddled cheese, which adds salt and crunch, resulting in deep satisfaction.

4. KAEDE

8268 SE 13th Ave., 503-327-8916, kaedepdx.com. 4:30-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday. Seating by online reservations only. Kaede, a 16-seat “sushi bistro” in Sellwood, shifted recently from takeout service to dine-in and reservation only, making the bar the best place to be. It’s where you can sit with a cup of sake in hand and become entranced watching co-owner Shinji Uehara slice fish flown in from Tokyo and gently hand-mold the rice for nigiri. There’s no omakase meal here, but the nigiri premium will get you eight chef’s choice rice-and-fish delicacies. And keep an eye out for anything that’s rare in our neck of the woods, like the bright pink Japanese alfonsino fish we had during our visit.

5. BUMPER BURGER 17980 SW Baseline Road, Beaverton, 503-828-7340, bumperburger.com. 11 am-6 pm Thursday-Friday, noon-6 pm Saturday-Sunday. Bumper Burger has declared war against price creep on America’s favorite sandwich. Founder-cook Mat Norton sells his quarter-pounders for truly jaw-dropping rates: $3.50 for the entry-level hamburger, $4 for one with a slice of gooey American cheese, and for the extra-hungry, there’s the $9.50 People’s Meal, which features the double-patty 50/50 Burger. No matter what sandwich you order, always get the made-fresh-daily pimento cheese. The pleasantly piquant spread adds velvetiness to every bite—and it costs only a dollar extra.

Buzz List

1. LOLO PASS ROOFTOP BAR

1616 E Burnside St., 503-908-3074, lolopass.com. 4-10 pm daily. Beyond giving guests a place to rest their heads at the end of the day, Lolo Pass is home to one of Portland’s newer rooftop bars where locals and visitors alike can sip drinks and take in the view of the Central Eastside. The fifth-story perch reopens May 4 following its winter hibernation with a new and seasonally changing cocktail menu. The debut Snap Pea martini sounds like the perfect vibrant drink to toast the warming spring afternoons.

2. GIGANTIC BREWING TAP ROOM AND CHAMPAGNE LOUNGE

5224 SE 26th Ave., 503-208-3416, giganticbrewing.com. 2-9 pm Monday-Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday-Sunday.

When considering a collaboration, Upright Brewing’s Alex Ganum posed this question to Gigantic founders Ben Love and Van Havig: “What would happen if we brewed an imperial Pilsner like an IPA?” Naturally, that led the trio to experiment, and the result is Czech Your Cold IPA, a crisp, light-bodied brew with hints of lemongrass and lemon peel. You can find it on tap and in bottles at Gigantic’s flagship as well as its two other locations.

3. DIRTY PRETTY

638 E Burnside St., dirtyprettypdx. com. 4 pm-1 am Sunday-Thursday, 4 pm-2 am Friday-Saturday.

This is the third venue in industry veteran Collin Nicholas’ quickly growing bar portfolio, which also includes Pink Rabbit and Fools and Horses. As with its sister locations, you can expect a fusion of Asian and Hawaiian ingredients in Dirty Pretty’s food menu (pork-shrimp shumai, fried saimin, furikake jojos), and the lengthy cocktail list is filled with tropical flavors. Drinks with names like Jungle Juice, Charliebird and Guava Wars should brighten what’s been a pretty gray Portland spring.

4. FRACTURE BREWING

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

This month, the Lil’ America food cart pod welcomed its final tenant, and if you haven’t checked out the eclectic mix of vendors—Guyanese bakes are sold feet from crab boils, vegan corn dogs and Hainanese chicken rice—the recent opening is a good excuse to get out there.

Be sure to order a beer (but, really, you should get several) made by Fracture’s Darren Provenzano. During our last visit, the medallionlike West Coast IPA and the canary-colored Hazy were both standouts, but the Pilsner trio (classic, West Coast, New Zealand) is what really stole our hearts. Yes, they all taste different.

5. MILK+T

Inside the Portland Food Hall, 827 SW 2nd Ave., milkandt.com. Noon-6 pm Tuesday-Thursday, noon-8 pm Friday-Sunday.

MILK+T, pronounced “milk and tea,” is a Beaverton Asian- and women-run bubble tea bar making the leap across the West Hills by opening an outpost in downtown Portland. A pint-sized version of the suburban shop is part of the revival of the Portland Food Hall, which was slow to reopen following the pandemic lockdown. Despite MILK+T’s closet-sized space, it serves drinks with big flavors and premium ingredients, like the Classic (a black milk tea) and the adorably named Piglet (strawberry coconut milk).

Viking Soul Food sets sail in a new brick-andmortar location.

SKOL SURVIVOR: Many items on Viking Soul Food’s menu come surrounded by lefse, a soft Norwegian flatbread.

POTLANDER

Clone Wars

BY BRIANNA WHEELER

Who’s up for some springtime gardening?

In the Pacific Northwest, green-thumbed stoners are always in low-key garden-planning mode, debating which cultivars will make the best garden additions, demand the least amount of attention, and result in the greatest payoff. For garden witches and novice gardeners establishing an outdoor plot or an indoor grow, the first bloom of spring is a truly poetic (and realistic) time to explore which strains have produced the strongest and healthiest clones.

No disrespect to the purists out there sprouting their own seeds, but for the rest of us, cloned plants are a straightforward way to cultivate our own cannabis garden to maturity with minimum drama.

Cloned plants are typically bred from cuttings provided by a prolific mother plant. They retain the same genetics as the parent and, when grown in stable conditions, will express the exact characteristics, including not just her stinky terps and heady cannabinoids, but also the essential vitality that made her an optimal candidate for cloning in the first place.

For novice growers attempting to cultivate their first cannabis plant or seasoned stoners preparing their plots for a new season, here are a few of this year’s hottest clone phenotypes, now available for countertop cultivation, porchcore potting, or garden ganjafication. Make sure to research which growing environment will best benefit your new plant homies, and let’s all compare our homegrown buds in 50 to 60 flowering days.

INDOORS

Ice Cream Cake

There are several variations of Ice Cream Cake, the two most popular being a cross of Gelato #33 and Wedding Cake and a cross of Cheesecake and Dream Cookie. Both deliver super-relaxing, sweetly blissed-out, potentially sedative effects and exhibit a sweet, creamy exhale and vanilla funk nose. Ice Cream Cake phenotypes typically flower in 50 to 60 days when grown indoors, and reportedly drop a considerable yield (2 to 4 ounces) of smallish, tightly constructed buds.

BUY: Archive Portland, 10645 SE Henry St., 503-719-4229, archivedispensary.com.

OG Kush

Inarguably one of the most famous contemporary strains, OG Kush, or simply Kush, is the dankest, most euphoric and intensely psychotropic variety of cannabis. It delivers a cushiony high in both the body and head, and is popular among both therapeutic and recreational users. If attempting an outdoor arrangement, use caution. OG Kush can be difficult since the plant is highly sensitive to environmental changes and susceptible to pests. But indoor growers with a zenlike space can expect around a 60-day flowering period.

BUY: Marijuana Paradise, 9663 SW Barbur Blvd., 503-8934881, paradisepdx.com.

OUTDOORS

Pennywise

Users hoping to cultivate a plant with milder, more therapeutic effects should consider Pennywise, a high-CBD cross of medicinal strain Harlequin and peppy cultivar Jack the Ripper. This 1-to-1 CBD-to-THC strain delivers around 12% of each cannabinoid and has a bitter coffee aroma and sweet, piney exhale. Outdoors, Pennywise has a 55- to 65-day flowering period, and it’s recommended that growers top only once (snipping the growing tip of a plant’s main stem at a 45-degree angle, encouraging two flowering tops to form rather than one).

BUY: Satchel,, 6900 N Interstate Ave., 503-206-4725, satchelpdx.com.

Pink Runtz

The prize-winning cross of Pink Panties and Rainbow Sherbet (or Runtz, depending on the OG breeder) delivers a potently euphoric, deeply dissociative high that’s become a fast favorite of varsity users along the West Coast, particularly fans of swoony yet balanced hybrids. For an indoor grow, Pink Runtz has a flowering time between 50 and 65 days, but when grown outdoors can typically be harvested in mid-October.

BUY: Green Gratitude Cannabis, 10322 SE Holgate Blvd., 503444-7707, greengratitude.us/cannabis-delivery-portland.

Using cannabis cuttings to grow new plants is a simple, effective way to start your home garden.

MCKENZIE YOUNG-ROY

To Post Punk and Beyond

Portland’s Forty Feet Tall talks experimenting, expanding and touring.

SHOWS OF THE WEEK

WHAT TO SEE AND WHAT TO HEAR

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD @bromf3

THURSDAY, MAY 4:

No one does exquisite queer anguish quite like Jamie Stewart, frontman of the long-running avant-rock project Xiu Xiu They’re the kind of band that might’ve helped you get through high school, but unlike, say, Hawthorne Heights, you don’t have to get into them by a certain age for them to mean a lot to you. Their bleak but empathetic worldview is as easy for anguished teens to relate to as those who connect with “Adult Friends,” one of the bleakest visions of growing older ever recorded by a rock band. Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., 503-239-7639, holocene. org. 8 pm. $20. All ages.

FRIDAY, MAY 5:

BY MICHELLE KICHERER

IG: @michellekicherer

“As someone not in the band, how would you describe it?” Forty Feet Tall guitarist Jack Sehres asks me.

I’m talking with the band via Zoom, where the four members sit on a couch in the homemeets-practice space of Sehres and the band’s bassist, Brett Marquette. We’re debating “Look Both Ways,” the opening track off their new EP Tunnel Vision (Magnetic Moon). I’ve asked about the song because it’s got quite a different energy than what I’m used to hearing from the band.

Forty Feet Tall is known as a post-punk, alt-rock outfit. They’re also famed for their dynamic, punky shows where people inevitably start crowd surfing—and, also inevitably, vocalist Cole Gann soars into the audience with the humble confidence of someone who knows exactly what he’s doing and how to do it. The crowd seems to hold him up with pride, hands starstruck and reaching to support the still-singing dude above their heads.

“I would say it’s more like indie pop,” concludes Sehres of “Look Both Ways.” This comment elicits a round of no-it-doesn’ts from the other band members. Marquette is particularly vocal about the alleged misnomer, clarifying that he while does like poppy shit, “that’s just not what this is.”

I tell them my own answer is complicated. Comparatively, the song does tiptoe a little closer toward indie rock and maybe even pop than most of what the cuatro has produced thus far; the guitar borders shoegaze, the vocals are dreamier.

Then there’s the EP’s second track, “Cherry

Blossoms,” which opens a little mournful then dives into straight-up grunge. The harmony on “Tunnel Vision” has a Beach Boys-y quality. It’s hard to describe Forty Feet Tall’s sound within a word or three. And that’s exciting.

Forty Feet Tall is exploring music beyond “screaming and shit,” as Marquette puts it with a laugh, going on to share that his basslines are heavily influenced by Motown tracks. Like Gann and drummer Ian Kelley, Marquette is a trained jazz musician.

“I’ve always wanted to have a really fast song that has a straight-up jazz breakdown in the middle,” he says.

George Martin’s Baroque-influenced piano solo on The Beatles’ 1965 song “In My Life” (cue Beatles nerds nodding and referencing the recording speed-up trick for that track). A great example of the kind of exploration the boys are getting down on now is the aforementioned title track. “Tunnel Vision,” after kicking off with a catchy guitar hook and undertones of unifying synth, mellows into an unexpected six-part harmony, a moment in which Gann says he was pushed outside of his comfort zone. The pusher in question was their longtime producer, Cameron Spies, whom they refer to as their fifth member when they’re in the studio.

Collectively, the songs on Tunnel Vision do more than sound sick. They address heavy topics. “Tunnel Vision” tackles climate change; “We Can’t Go Back to Normal” was written in response to the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests against police brutality.

Before math rock meant “prog you can study to,” there was Deerhoof, one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic Bay Area bands ever. Even if their name predicted the 2000s trends toward critical darlings with animal-related names, their sound is wilder and weirder than that of just about any of their contemporaries, built around the human-horn squawk of singer Satomi Matsuzaki and the brilliant, relentless drumming of Greg Saunier. Their new album, Miracle-Level, is their first in Matsuzaki’s native Japanese. Aladdin Theater, 3017 SE Milwaukie Ave., 503-234-9694, aladdin-theater.com. 8 pm. $22. All ages.

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY, MAY 9-10:

You can hear undertones of jazz influence in the drumlines as well. Kelley, who first learned the drums by studying the drummer at his “heavily musically induced” childhood church, stopped studying music in college because it ruined the fun and exploration (he went on to pursue a career in social work, which is “a story for another time,” as he puts it with a smile). On his own, Kelley continued learning drums in the jazz style (listen to “Tunnel Vision” to hear some of that influence shine).

“If we’re going to do this jazz breakdown, I have my homework set out for me,” chimes in Sehres, who spent 15 years studying classical piano. He’d be curious to explore some Bachstyle touches on future tracks, referring to

“ We have about seven songs in progress and about 45 ideas,” Marquette says when I ask what’s in the works. They’ve got an East Coast tour coming up and another tour along the West; they just got back from recording a session at Audiotree in Chicago. The band is excited to get back in the studio with Spies where they plan to continue pushing outside of their comfort zones into some of the inspiring territory of genre-bending the band so admires.

SEE IT: Forty Feet Tall plays at Spoon Benders’ album release at Doug Fir Lounge, 830 E Burnside St., 503-231-9663, dougfirlounge. com. 9 pm Friday, May 12. $15. 21+.

In a certain sphere of pop fandom, ex-Chairlift singer Caroline Polachek commands the same devotion as the likes of Mariah Carey and Beyoncé (in fact, Beyoncé’s “No Angel,” one of her most complicated and uncomfortable songs, was co-written by Polachek). Though Polachek’s great new album, Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, draws on the early-web, quasi-New Age aesthetic of late ’90s and early ’00s pop, it eschews the bratty irony of her “hyperpop” peers for the kind of dignity and sang-froid that comes naturally to a confident and talented music industry veteran. Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W Burnside St., 503-225-0047, crystalballroompdx.com. 8 pm. $39.50-$70. All ages.

FAB FOUR: Forty Feet Tall.

“We have about seven songs in progress and about 45 ideas.”

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

RICH HALLEY 4 WITH TIM DUROCHE

BY ROBERT HAM

One of the best reasons to attend a live jazz gig is the guarantee of seeing or hearing something that you never have before and never will again. That’s the beauty of a genre built on improvisation that encourages musicians to find common musical ground even if they’ve never shared a stage together before.

Take what happened April 24 at Turn! Turn! Turn! With saxophonist Nathan Hanson visiting from Minnesota, drummer Tim DuRoche jumped at the chance to play live with his longtime friend. An ensemble was quickly assembled, including bassist ShaoWay Wu and clarinetist James Falzone, who swung down from Seattle to join in the fun. Speaking with DuRoche before their set, he was adamant that the quartet he had dubbed Spring Field was simply going to play free.

The combination of players was mind-bending and caustic. Hanson and Falzone playfully fought to find common tonal ground, especially as the latter broke out a pennywhistle to counter the former’s soprano sax work. DuRoche seemed especially inspired, playing with a ferocity he doesn’t often tap into even as he nudged the rest of the players into something as straight ahead as a samba beat or a snapping swing rhythm.

By contrast, the other band on the bill that night, the quartet led by saxophonist Rich Halley, has been playing together for years. And it was precisely that shared collective experience that heightened the power of the music. Halley’s compositions tend to be muscular and assertive to match the sound of his tenor playing. The rest of the group, including Rich’s son Carson on drums and bassist Clyde Reed, matched his pugnacity, slipping with ease between Lounge Lizards-like noir and a merciless force worthy of Ornette Coleman’s early ’60s run.

She Can Do That

Broadway Rose’s original play Audition From Hell puts its female cast front and center.

BY LINDA FERGUSON

Once female musical theater actors hit a certain age, they start to disappear from starring roles faster than their gray roots can grow back. Broadway Rose Theatre Company’s invigorating new play, Audition From Hell, says to hell with that convention and features not one but five leading ladies, all of whom are past the normal expiration date for female performers.

Written and directed by Sharon Maroney, Broadway Rose’s producing artistic director, Audition From Hell is about four actors vying for two parts in a new play. From the moment they appear at the audition, their desperation to snag one of the roles creates a palpable tension.

Samantha, played by Laurie Campbell-Leslie with a mixture of goofy fear and genuine warmth, jitters her leg so vigorously the stage seems to be vibrating. Meanwhile, Jennifer, a self-proclaimed bitch played by Lisamarie Harrison, saunters around with her hand on her hip, then admits she wants this job because her career peaked 25 years ago, and she’s never been as happy as she was back then.

Time is running out for all the ladies. Mary Jo (Emily Sahler), who tugs off her Ugg boots before cramming her feet into a pair of poppy-colored pumps, says she hasn’t been cast for a show in two years. “All I do is audition,” she says. Samantha, too, acknowledges that her own “days of playing Ado Annie [the flirty gal from Oklahoma!] are gone.”

Unfortunately, the fourth auditioner, Linda (Courtney Freed), turns out to be

Jennifer’s archnemesis, the one who double-crossed her, sending her career into a downward spiral. And when Jennifer’s rage results in a full-on brouhaha, everyone is drawn into the feud, including Anika (Laura McCulloch), the beleaguered director-producer of the fictional play.

“Obviously,” Anika tells the women at one point, “you ladies aren’t in your 20s.” Neither is she. Early on, Anika sings a song called “I Can’t Do This.” While she’s a mature woman with a prominent white streak in her hair, she’s also a grieving widow who doubts her ability to succeed without her husband by her side.

Maroney, though, refuses to portray her characters as pathetic victims of an ageist and misogynist society. In the spirit of sisterhood, Samantha cheers up Mary Jo with homemade granola bites and convinces her to stay at the audition when she tries to escape. The women will get through this awful day, Maroney’s script shows, if they stick together.

There are plenty of sentimental moments in Audition from Hell. Samantha sings about her husband of 36 years, saying, “I guess I won the prize.” The only male character, Ben (Isaac Lamb), the accompanist, also makes a clichéd remark about Anika’s moxie as she overcomes her worries and persists in producing the play and taking “her place at the table.”

Lively music and witty lines, though, keep the show from turning to treacle. Particularly delightful is Anika’s solo number. As choreographed by Dan Murphy, “Pizzazz” starts as

a classic showbiz routine, complete with a big smile and jazz hands, before it spins into slapstick as the spotlight starts bouncing around the stage like an errant rubber ball and Anika gets tangled up in her feather boa. Other highlights include Jennifer’s crack about the mayhem of the audition (“I paid a cat sitter $25 an hour for this?”) and Linda’s lament, “Why did I wear this underwear?”

The women auditioning here particularly adore the chutzpah of Hello, Dolly! But Maroney’s story offers more than toe-tapping entertainment by asking serious questions. Do women have to be a certain age and size to be worthy of attention? Can they find true success and satisfaction when they become comrades rather than competitors?

In the program notes, Maroney says she started writing her play after watching a sappy Hallmark movie. “I could do better,” she told herself. While Hallmark sticks to its patented formula of canned romance, Audition From Hell is anything but predictable. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the play’s deliciously zany grand finale, which includes a chorus line of World War II Soviet women pilots.

Yes, Maroney can do better than Hallmark. And with this funny, female-centric show, she did.

SEE IT: Audition From Hell plays at the Broadway Rose New Stage, 12850 SW Grant Ave., Tigard, 503-620-5262, broadwayrose.org. 7:30 pm Thursday-Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, through May 14. $20-$50.

ALL THAT JAZZ: Emily Sahler, Laurie Campbell-Leslie, Courtney Freed and Lisamarie Harrison.

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi

The filmmakers behind Free Solo discuss their latest daring documentary, Wild Life.

BY CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER @chance_s_p

Many documentarians have a type: Werner Herzog, the expressive eccentric; Errol Morris, the unreliable powermonger. And then there’s Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, who clearly have a thing for subjects whose enormous undertakings inflect and reflect their relationships.

The husband-and-wife team won an Oscar for just such a portrayal in 2018: Free Solo, about Alex Honnold’s death-defying ascent of El Capitan. Then, Chin and Vasarhelyi immediately graduated to the ambitious recreation-heavy documentary The Rescue (2021), about the 2018 cave extraction of a trapped Thai soccer team.

Their latest, Wild Life, explores the unprecedented conservation efforts of Doug and Kris Tompkins, who helped create a Chilean national park system by donating 15 million acres of unspoiled wilderness.

The Tompkins’ personal histories fall into Chin and Vasarhelyi’s outdoor adventure wheelhouse. Doug Tompkins founded The North Face and shared near-mythic climbs and treks with his best friend, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard (who appears in the film). Kris Tompkins, the former Patagonia CEO, becomes the documentary’s focal point as she reckons with her husband Doug’s untimely death and how to see their ecological vision through.

Before Vasarhelyi visits Cinema 21 for a May 5 screening of Wild Life, we caught up with the couple to discuss creative partnerships, climbing legends, and giving away fortunes.

All of these films have something in common that way. Despite the odds, these divers figured out how to save 13 strangers [The Rescue]. Alex [Honnold] had an audacious dream and he put in the work [Free Solo]. Here, the physical stakes are not quite the same, but the Tompkinses put everything on the line.

Do your films often feel impossible to execute in the early stages?

Vasarhelyi: This one was different. Jimmy knew Doug well, but this was the first time I’d made a film about someone I never met. The sheer time frame we were trying to cover from the 1960s to today and the complexity of these people’s lives…it’s an impossible pitch. But the constraints are the opportunities. We have this blind faith we’ll figure it out. What’s Doug’s line, Jimmy?

Jimmy Chin: Commit, then figure it out.

Jimmy, what did Doug Tompkins and Yvon Chouinard mean to you as a young rock climber?

Chin: They really defined the lifestyle that I aspired to. Yvon defined the ethos of climbing. Obviously, he also recently committed his company [Patagonia] to fund saving the planet.

What’s it like for you two, as life partners and creative partners, to spend so much time inside another couple’s story?

on our own.

Vasarhelyi: And also…really? They created 17 national parks, and we can’t figure out [school] drop-off?! [Laughs]

What’s the shared characteristic among Kris, Doug and Yvon that makes them willing to donate fortunes?

Vasarhelyi: It comes down to this ethos of Doug and Yvon being climbing partners, dirtbag climbers. They went out into the world with nothing and created themselves. It’s a humility, which is a funny thing to say about billionaires. But [Kris and Doug] weren’t billionaires at the time. Kris and Doug did this with about $130 million cash, and the rest was priceless 25 years of work. Yvon said the other night that you’re born naked and you’re going to die naked, so how much do you really need?

You knew the subjects well beforehand, so what surprised you while shaping Wild Life?

Vasarhelyi: It’s this idea of regeneration, second chances, and the courage to take those steps, like leaving your role as the CEO of Patagonia when all your best friends live in this one little town in California and you move to another country and fall in love. It’s this idea of being inspired and finding another life. Kris does that again after Doug dies. Doug and Yvon are legends, but we really found the movie when we actually embraced that this is Kris’ story.

In the ruminating rock doc Personality Crisis: One Night Only, David Johansen’s battered vocal cords need about an hour to warm up. With 6 inches of pompadour and six decades of yarns, the New York Dolls frontman (later Buster Poindexter) serenades the Café Carlyle in Personality Crisis’ central performance.

It’s obvious why this slender vessel of New York and rock history would interest Martin Scorsese, co-directing here with David Tedeschi the editor of Scorsese’s last music documentary, Rolling Thunder Revue (2019). Here, Scorsese structurally emulates The Last Waltz (1978), honoring the concert’s flow and venturing into interviews and archival collages between songs.

That approach affords the film and its audience time to warm up alongside Johansen. Slowly, the lounge lizard’s boozy, Teflon artifice is suffused with melancholy, humility and depth, as we begin to feel the oceans of water under the bridge and all the possible pleas for fame and credit that Johansen doesn’t make.

Chin: None of the participants settled ever. They’re always examining their lives and thinking about what more they can do.

WW:

Why are you drawn to documenting seemingly impossible undertakings?

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi: It’s this idea of human possibility. I find it really moving.

Vasarhelyi: I think it’s all very romantic. I’m always humbled by the love that [Kris and Doug] shared and how Kris had to assume her own voice after Doug died.

Chin: When you have a great partnership like that, you’re more than the sum of the parts. That’s especially true for our filmmaking. We couldn’t make the same films

SEE IT: Wild Life plays at Cinema 21, 616 NW 21st Ave., 503-2234515, cinema21.com. FridayThursday, May 5-May 11. $9-$11.

Like most genuine counterculturalists who pass age 70, Johansen is imbued with the power of surviving in a world that picked off his friends and never knew what to do with him, save profitable imitation. Johansen’s not bitter, but when he growls the blues, there’s every reason to listen and—in the Carlyle’s confines—luxuriate. Paramount+.

INTO THE GREAT WIDE OPEN: Kris Tompkins.

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

In the opening moments of Cotton Comes to Harlem legendary actor-turned-director Ossie Davis telegraphs a set piece to come by resting his camera on The Apollo’s façade.

This adaptation of Chester Himes’ 1964 novel is a witty tilt-a-whirl of a crime caper—more anthropologically minded than the cool-fueled Harlem movies about to follow (Shaft, Black Caesar, etc.). But even more, Cotton is about the kind of cultural theater that takes hold when a community is starved for direction and hope.

That’s how the charismatic Reverend Deke O’Malley (Calvin Lockhart) coaxes $87,000 out of the neighborhood, hawking seats on his “Back to Africa” arc. Almost immediately, the cash is stolen, purportedly winding up inside a thematically dense bale of cotton that seems to float around Harlem. Two Black police detectives (Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques) serve as the film’s outsiders’ insiders, trying to navigate judicial politics and return the money to an ensemble delightfully led by Redd Foxx.

Cited by some as a proto-Blaxploitation film, Cotton Comes to Harlem screens on Monday, May 8, at the Hollywood Theatre.

5th Avenue: Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda (2017), May 5-7. Academy: Stalker (1979), May 5-11. Taxi Driver (1976), May 5-11. Cinema 21: Citizen Kane (1941), May 6. Man With a Movie Camera (1929) with live score by Montopolis, May 6. Cinemagic: Blood Diner (1987), May 5. Horror Express (1972), May 5 and 7. The Land Before Time (1988), May 6. Girls Nite Out (1982), May 6. Re-Animator (1985), May 6 and 11. Django (1966), May 6 and 9. 12 Monkeys (1995), May 7 and 8. The Millionaires’ Express (1986), May 10. Clinton: The Witches of Eastwick (1987), May 7. Hollywood: Party Girl (1995), May 5-7. Seven Samurai (1954), May 6 and 7.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3

Kicking off the action with the somber notes of Radiohead’s “Creep”—perhaps humanity’s greatest ode to self-loathing—writer-director James Gunn makes it clear that audiences are in for a weighty experience with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The story, which sees the team race across space to save the imperiled Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and uncover his tragic backstory along the way, is very nearly perfunctory, but that’s somewhat the point: These characters and the love Gunn and his fellow creators have for them is what shines through and gives the whole series life. After an uneven first act and a comedy-of-errors heist, Vol. 3 finds it groove when our heroes face off against Chukwudi Iwuji’s High Evolutionary (who blends Alphonse Moreau’s mad science with Elon Musk’s messianic delusions) and truly sings in moments that acknowledge the darkness and abuse our heroes have survived, but also celebrate the humor, heart and creativity that makes the superhero genre so special. Ultimately, Vol. 3 is a terrific conclusion to the trilogy because it does the same thing the previous movies did: shine a light on misfits and weirdos, celebrate their flaws and foibles, and prove that ingenuity, empathy and, yes, absolute silliness, are the most valuable forces in the galaxy. PG-13. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. Bagdad, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Eastport, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Lloyd Center, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One.

SAM NOW

This hard-earned family journalism project by Portland documentarian Reed Harkness sounds at first blush a bit like Boyhood or Michael Apted’s Up series. In the film, Harkness lovingly traces the childhood evolution of Sam, his 7-years-younger half-brother, who gleefully performs stunts and gags in front of a Super 8 camera. But fairly quickly, a mystery takes over Sam Now. In 2000, Sam’s mom vanishes; three years later, the Harkness boys turn their amateur filmmaking into a documented quest to find her. That’s plenty intriguing, but Sam Now soon transcends the search premise too. Like its subject and its director, it grows up, depicting the fractured Harkness family for what it is: a confluence of histories and pathologies that perhaps can’t be reconciled. Sam Now affords screen time and consideration to everyone in the family, and it’s a masterful editing achievement to stitch an 80-minute family portrait from material that could so easily be precious, overlong and myopic. Instead, the film balances the constant allure of the past with the irresolvable present. “Healing” is too linear a word. The most a family can do is try—and making a 25-year monument to understanding is one hell of an act of trying. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Screens 7:15 pm Wednesday, May 3, at Cinema 21, premieres on PBS on Monday, May 8.

BEAU IS AFRAID

Do not listen to anyone who claims to understand Beau Is Afraid after the first viewing.

Written and directed by Ari Aster (Midsommar, Hereditary), the film is a comedy crossed with the nightmare of a fully grown mama’s boy (with some farcical lovemaking and an animated sequence thrown in for good measure). Does Aster have any insight into masculinity or motherhood? Or has he created a soulless, swaggering compendium of weirdness? Either way, I can’t stop thinking about Beau Is Afraid, or its epically unlucky protagonist (Joaquin Phoenix). Beau’s insane misadventures defy explanation, but let it suffice to say that the nearly three-hour film chronicles his attempts to attend the funeral of his mother (Patti LuPone) after she is decapitated by a falling chandelier. With the zeal of a born-again book of Job fan, Aster turns the entire universe against Beau. When he comes home, of course there’s a warning on his door about a brown recluse spider in the building; when he opens the door, of course that very spider is lurking in his apartment (let’s not even talk about the sequence with the stabbing, the partygoers and the water bottle). Beau Is Afraid is so hysterical you may groan when it abandons joyous lunacy for a blunt conclusion in which Beau is literally put on trial for being a terrible son. It’s enough to make you want to scream, “We get it! Beau has issues with his mom! Jeez!”

After two tightly scripted horror hits, Aster may now be lost in a web of quirky pretensions and indulgences, but that shouldn’t stop audiences from savoring the mesmerizingly demented new design he’s woven. R. BEN -

NETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Academy, Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Eastport, Evergreen Parkway, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Lake Theater, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge.

CHEVALIER

Nobly intended but middlingly executed, Chevalier attempts to bring a progressive mindset and revolutionary spirit to period costume dramas. To whit, our story follows Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), the mixed-race son of a French aristocrat whose musical genius makes him the toast of Paris and even a friend to Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton), but soon learns the ruling class’s tolerance of mulattos has its limits. While the plot follows expected routes and ends more with a fizzle than a bang, an earnest desire to highlight a genuinely impressive historical figure shines through. Harrison proves himself a born movie star, guiding the story with an easygoing charm and brightness, and there are strong dramatic turns from Samara Weaving as the chevalier’s muse and Ronke Adekoluejo as his formerly enslaved mother. Chevalier doesn’t break much new ground, but it provides a new angle on a popular genre, spotlighting an underexplored view of history and giving great artists a chance to shine in front of and behind the camera. PG-13. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Fox Tower, Vancouver Mall.

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.

by Jack Kent

JONESIN’

BY MATT JONES

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Before forming the band called The Beatles, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney performed under various other names: the Quarrymen, Japage 3, and Johnny and the Moondogs. I suspect you are currently at your own equivalent of the Johnny and the Moondogs phase. You’re building momentum. You’re gathering the tools and resources you need. But you have not yet found the exact title, descriptor, or definition for your enterprise. I suggest you be extra alert for its arrival in the coming weeks.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I've selected a passage to serve as one of your prime themes during the rest of 2023. It comes from poet Jane Shore. She writes, "Now I feel I am learning how to grow into the space I was always meant to occupy, into a self I can know." Dear Taurus, you will have the opportunity to grow ever-more assured and self-possessed as you embody Shore's description in the coming months. Congratulations in advance on the progress you will make to more fully activate your soul's code.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Georges Rouault (18711958) was a Gemini painter who bequeathed the world over 3,000 works of art. There might have been even more. But years before he died, he burned 315 of his unfinished paintings. He felt they were imperfect, and he would never have time or be motivated to finish them. I think the coming weeks would be a good time for you to enjoy a comparable purge, Gemini. Are there things in your world that don't mean much to you anymore and are simply taking up space? Consider the possibility of freeing yourself from their stale energy.

ACROSS

1. Nights before holidays

5. Loos

8. Radio and podcast streaming platform, for short

14. Mediocre

16. What a suspect might enter

17. Guessing game with yes/ no answers

19. Put on a patch, maybe

20. Unnatural raspberry color/"flavor"

21. "Tik ___" (Ke$ha hit)

22. "It ___, Captain Vegetable / With my carrot, and my celery" (early 1980s Sesame Street song)

25. Surname of fictional siblings Shiv and Roman

27. Big ceramic pot (or a French-sounding greeting backwards)

29. Way of obscuring messages practiced by Leonardo da Vinci

33. Sunburn-soothing substance

34. "His Master's Voice" initials

35. "Downton Abbey" title

37. When a second-shift worker might return to the office

42. Asuncion assent

43. Ritter of country music

44. ___ speak (as it were)

45. Ancient chariot-racing venue

49. Present day, for short?

50. Actress Thurman of "Gattaca"

51. 157.5 deg. from N

52. Recede, at the beach

55. Devilish creatures

57. Participial suffix

59. What the first words of the theme answers (including this one) might represent when repeated

65. Let out fishing line

66. Post-accident inquiry

67. Light touch

68. Enter the auction

69. "Girls" creator Dunham

DOWN

1. Doc seen for head colds

2. Solemn oath

3. It's way past April in Paris

4. Nine-digit IDs

5. Fret-free query

6. ___ au vin

7. Ticket leftover

8. Rude remark

9. Hilton, for one

10. Center intro

11. Bunches

12. Spot near Lake Tahoe

13. To-do list entry

15. Alamogordo's county

18. "The Time Machine" humanoid

22. Muslim religious leader

23. Grain holders

24. Like some unexpected endings

26. Org. for women since the 1850s

28. Trickster god of African folklore

30. Call sign that dates back to the original Star Wars movie

©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.

31. Whitewater rides

32. Some wedding cake figurines

36. "The White ___"

38. Flight awards

39. Chinese e-commerce company that went live in the U.S. in late 2022

40. Studied closely

41. Wine's bouquet

46. Animals in a 2022 World Cup-adjacent beauty contest

47. Stamp-issuing org.

48. Common graph axes

52. Cabinet dept. concerned with schools

53. ___ fides (credentials)

54. Comedian Bill

56. Clumsy attempt

58. London lockup

60. "Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling ___" (actual 2023 New Zealand comedy show)

61. "All Things Considered" host Shapiro

62. Wish to take back

63. Longtime Mad Magazine cartoonist Martin

64. The Specials genre

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Britain occupied India for almost 200 years. It was a ruthless and undemocratic exploitation that steadily drained India’s wealth and resources. Mahatma Gandhi wasn’t the only leader who fought British oppression, but he was among the most effective. In 1930, he led a 24-day, 240-mile march to protest the empire’s tyrannical salt tax. This action was instrumental in energizing the Indian independence movement that ultimately culminated in India’s freedom. I vote to make Gandhi one of your inspirational role models in the coming months. Are you ready to launch a liberation project? Stage a constructive rebellion? Martial the collaborative energies of your people in a holy cause?

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): As crucial as it is to take responsibility, it is also essential to recognize where our responsibilities end and what should be left for others to do. For example, we usually shouldn’t do work for other people that they can just as easily do for themselves. We shouldn’t sacrifice doing the work that only we can do and get sidetracked doing work that many people can do. To be effective and to find fulfillment in life, it’s vital for us to discover what truly needs to be within our care and what should be outside of our care. I see the coming weeks as a favorable time for you to clarify the boundary between these two.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo-born Marie Laveau (1801–1881) was a powerful Voodoo priestess, herbalist, activist, and midwife in New Orleans. According to legend, she could walk on water, summon clairvoyant visions, safely suck the poison out of a snake's jowls, and cast spells to help her clients achieve their heart's desires. There is also a wealth of more tangible evidence that she was a community activist who healed the sick, volunteered as an advocate for prisoners, provided free teachings, and did rituals for needy people who couldn't pay her. I hereby assign her to be your inspirational role model for the coming weeks. I suspect you will have extra power to help people in both mysterious and practical ways.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): What are the best methods to exorcize our personal demons, ghosts, and goblins? Or at least subdue them and neutralize their ill effects? We all have such phantoms at work in our psyches, corroding our confidence

and undermining our intentions. One approach I don't recommend is to get mad at yourself for having these interlopers. Never do that. The demons’ strategy, you see, is to manipulate you into being mean and cruel to yourself. To drive them away, I suggest you shower yourself with love and kindness. That seriously reduces their ability to trick you and hurt you—and may even put them into a deep sleep. Now is an excellent time to try this approach.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): As she matured, Scorpio poet Sylvia Plath wrote, "I am learning how to compromise the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities without such screaming pain." I believe you're ready to go even further than Plath was able to, dear Scorpio. In the coming weeks, you could not merely "compromise" the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities. You could synergize them and get them to collaborate in satisfying ways. Bonus: I bet you will accomplish this feat without screaming pain. In fact, you may generate surprising pleasures that delight you with their revelations.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Some primates use herbal and clay medicines to self-medicate. Great apes, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas ingest a variety of ingredients that fight against parasitic infection and help relieve various gastrointestinal disturbances. (More info: https://tinyurl.com/PrimatesSelfMedicate.) Our ancestors learned the same healing arts, though far more extensively. And many Indigenous people today still practice this kind of self-care. With these thoughts in mind, Sagittarius, I urge you to spend quality time in the coming weeks deepening your understanding of how to heal and nurture yourself. The kinds of “medicines” you might draw on could be herbs, and may also be music, stories, colors, scents, books, relationships, and adventures.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The mythic traditions of all cultures are replete with tales of clashes and combats. If we draw on these tales to deduce what activity humans enjoy more than any other, we might conclude that it’s fighting with each other. But I hope you will avoid this normal habit as much as possible during the next three weeks, Capricorn. I am encouraging you to actively repress all inclinations to tangle. Just for now, I believe you will cast a wildly benevolent magic spell on your mental and physical health if you avoid arguments and skirmishes. Here’s a helpful tip: In each situation you’re involved in, focus on sustaining a vision of the most graceful, positive outcome.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Is there a person who could serve as your Über Mother for a while? This would be a wise and tender maternal ally who gives you the extra nurturing you need, along with steady doses of warm, crisp advice on how to weave your way through your labyrinthine decisions. Your temporary Über Mother could be any gender, really. They would love and accept you for exactly who you are, even as they stoke your confidence to pursue your sweet dreams about the future. Supportive and inspirational. Reassuring and invigorating. Championing you and consecrating you.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Congratulations on acquiring the Big New Riddle! I trust it will inspire you to grow wiser and kinder and wilder over the coming months. I've compiled some clues to help you unravel and ultimately solve this challenging and fascinating mystery. 1. Refrain from calling on any strength that's stingy or pinched. Ally yourself solely with generous power. 2. Avoid putting your faith in trivial and irrelevant "benefits." Hold out for the most soulful assistance. 3. The answer to key questions may often be, "Make new connections and enhance existing connections."

Homework: Name three wonderful things you want to be experiencing one year from today. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

"Say That Again?"--echoing that sentiment.