Willamette Week, August 2, 2023 - Volume 49, Issue 38 - "Sophia Scores"

WHAT WE LEARNED FROM READING THIS WEEK’S PAPER

VOL.

49, ISSUE 38

Professional models resent being associated with “Cinco de Sexo.” 5

Slabtown may not get its city park. 6

Joe Gilliam’s daughter says he’s identified who poisoned him 7

“Cougar Barbie” is in trouble with tax collectors. 12

Kimberly Mitchell founded Fizz & Bubble and Weekends & Chocolate. 13

The Botto’s BBQ pitmaster stole $3 million from health savings accounts. 14

When she isn’t scoring goals at the World Cup, Sophia Smith takes hot girl walks to Trader Joe’s. 19

Wellspent Market will throw

its first-ever Green Bean Festival 21

White Pepper’s Classic Burger is everything you always hope a Big Mac will be but never is. 22

Division Winemaking is no longer located on Division. 23

Whalen Island boasts something akin to a shore pine Serengeti 25

Literal Gold Records is pioneering a radical business strategy: paying bands 26

The Oregon Jewish Museum is exhibiting the late Henk Pander’s portraits of Amsterdam 27

In Bill Plympton’s latest project, a mystical Clint Eastwood-style cowboy vanquishes villains with his music. 28

Last week, WW explored the workings of a pop-up fentanyl market that opens each evening at 6 pm along Portland’s Transit Mall (“Life in Hell,” July 26). Lucas Manfield spoke to drug users and police about the poison leaching into the city each night from a single corner, and followed emergency medical technicians as the overdoses spread outward from Southwest 6th Avenue and Harvey Milk Street over a single night. Here’s what our readers had to say.

COURTNEY RANSTROM, VIA TWITTER: “Portland’s fentanyl corner also happens to be my husband’s downtown bus stop. Can confirm—there is sketchy shit around there. Outside of the Rialto (on Southwest 4th Avenue) is also gnarly on the weekends. Great reporting.”

LINDA MCKIM-BELL, VIA FACEBOOK: “Sad that WW continues its yellow journalism attacks on our recovering downtown. This problem is mostly confined to one block. I have been enjoying downtown several times a week for the past three years. Portland’s downtown is recovering, but I am not seeing a story about this. I just bought my third shipment of 500 Love Downtown PDX buttons to distribute for free. What is WW doing to help our city? Has their reporter been to shops like Tiny Brambles, Goodwill, the Japanese goods store on Southwest Morrison and 10th? Have they interviewed the owner at Habibi’s or Mel’s Frame Shop?”

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, VIA TWITTER: “Searing piece about the drug scene on Portland’s streets. A ‘blue’ pill with fentanyl can be just $1, one of the cheap-

Dr. Know

est prices in the U.S. The cops leave at 5 pm and the open-air drug market opens at 6 pm—and overdoses start.”

SOUTH_BY_NORTHWEST, VIA REDDIT: “So let me get this right. Our police have the biggest budget they’ve ever had. There’s one issue that is currently the biggest existential crisis in our city. And our police have four bike cops working on it. And they clock out at 6 pm.”

CURIOUSENGINEER601, IN REPLY: “It’s like a comedy. There was an old cartoon where the coyote and sheepdog would clock in and clock out at regular times. Only in the cartoon the sheepdog did the job.”

ZBIGNEW, VIA WWEEK.COM:

“When do we stop handing out bail? How many times do you go in front of a judge before we say, ‘No more’? Is it the DA, the judges, or both, that need to stop the revolving door?

“ Why do we have a drug enforcement team that only works day shift? Is this like the gangs and guns team, where you have to show equity in arrests rather than chase the actual bad guys?

“Now the big question, will the voters finally pull their heads out and see that they are to blame for many of the problems facing the city?”

OSHANA KATRANIDOU, VIA FACEBOOK: “Historically, the sellers are white, but in accord with its racist foundation, Willamette Week places the cause of all wrongs upon those who are anything other than white. Perhaps it’s time to change the WW title from Willamette Week to ‘Willamette White.’”

_THE_AVANT_GARDENER, VIAS REDDIT: “Tragic to read this. And, I also want to say, vividly reported on. This was exceptionally well written and gives some person-first insight into the problem.”

MARIE B., VIA WWEEK.COM: “There definitely needs to be more help and support to recovery. My son begged for help for months. We were told everything was very backed up and didn’t know when help would be available. I kept reaching out to find him help for months. Then one night he collapsed walking across the street, dead. I can’t believe how many people are dying after waiting for help that rarely comes. Forget about spending millions on points, foil, straws, etc. Spend millions on real life-changing help. Give people hope!”

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR must include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to: P.O. Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296

Email: mzusman@wweek.com

BY MARTY SMITH @martysmithxxx

I’ve recently taken over a restaurant in North Portland, and I was thinking it would be fun to sponsor a Little League team, partly to be a good citizen but also as a promotional opportunity. Is that still a thing? Can I get my business name on the jerseys like in The Bad News Bears? —Mrs. Buttermaker

My first thought upon receiving your question, Mrs., was to wonder if Little League was even still a thing—it seems like exactly the kind of sepia-tinted childhood tradition that gets crushed by the advancing tide of modernity, like student smoking areas at public high schools and lawn darts.

I needn’t have worried. Unlike the practice of dads disconnecting all the seat belt alarms in the family car, Little League is still going strong. There are at least seven regional leagues operating within Portland’s city limits and more in the suburbs, any one of which would be more than happy to take your sponsorship dollars in exchange for the right to use strangers’ children as ambulatory billboards.

“We do put the business name on the back of the jersey, just like in The Bad News Bears,”

confirms Kevin Nadolny, sponsorship director for North Portland Little League. “Our price is $500 for a team sponsorship, and we’re usually locking in sponsors in December and January.” Rates for the other regional leagues—Southeast Portland LL, Hollywood Rose City LL, etc.—are similar.

The leagues’ geographic boundaries determine which kids are eligible to play in which league, but you can sponsor a team from anywhere. That said, you’ll probably get more bang for your promotional buck by putting your business’s name in front of folks who already live in your neighborhood.

And, in my opinion, it’s a lot of bang. Sure, it’s not quite as baller as having your own NBA team, or even naming rights to a major arena. Still, where else can you turn yourself from a glorified fry cook into basically the Mark Cuban of North Dekum Street (or wherever) for half a grand?

Finally, the fun doesn’t stop when the testicles drop: There are also many deserving softball leagues for grown-ups in Portland. Team fees in these leagues are a bit more—around $1,000 a season—but if you make sure your establishment is the go-to place for after-game beers, I daresay you’ll recover your investment and then some.

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

PROLOGIS SKIRTS PUBLIC SCRUTINY ON KMART CLEANUP:

COUNTY NIXED

STREET

RESPONSE AID: As supporters of Portland Street Response continue to pressure City Hall to support the embattled program (they’ve gathered nearly 11,000 signatures in a petition drive), details have emerged about one of the paths not taken. In June, when the city and Multnomah County were renegotiating the terms of the Joint Office of Homeless Services, which both help fund, Fire Commissioner Rene Gonzalez floated a last-minute proposal: The Joint Office, which has vastly underspent its budget, should allocate part of any unspent funds to support PSR and another Portland Fire & Rescue program called CHAT that provides medical support to Portlanders on the margin. Currently, the fire bureau is struggling to fund its traditional operations as well as the two new programs, which often help some of the same constituents the Joint Office seeks to aid. But Gonzalez’s pitch came to the county late and without support from Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office, so it is not part of the one-year extension of the operating agreement the county announced June 9. “Only raising this important question in a much broader amendment the day before a City Council vote is not in the spirit of collaboration and discussion needed to solve the complex problems unique to PSR,” county spokeswoman Julie Sullivan-Springhetti says. “We are assessing options for long-term funding and service delivery, and we’ve reached out to stakeholders and county staff to figure out how to make this city program a reliable community resource.”

PORTLAND NO LONGER HAS A DAILY NEWS -

PAPER: The Oregonian plans to stop printing a newspaper three days a week, limiting its editions to Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays—and leaving Portland without a daily paper for the first time in more than a century. The shrinking newspaper—which has run in print daily since 1881—will scrap its Monday, Tuesday and Thursday print editions beginning next year, according to a memo sent to staffers Monday evening. “As The Oregonian / OregonLive continues to press ahead, we will offer The Oregonian exclusively online to subscribers Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays next year. The change will become effective January 1, 2024,” John Maher, president of the Oregonian Media Group, announced in the July 31 email. In 2013, the paper began largely delivering to homes only on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The publication was, however, still printed every day and available, primarily in stores, seven days a week. Some die-hard readers also opted to have it delivered to their homes daily via an independent distributor. The choice to scale back printing to four days a week simply makes sense businesswise, Maher tells WW

There’s some confusion about who’s supervising the cleanup in East Portland where the vacant Kmart on Northeast Sandy Boulevard erupted in flames last month, raining Frisbee-sized chunks of charred debris on houses, parks and schools. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality asked Prologis, the company planning to build a shipping warehouse on the property, to sign a voluntary cleanup agreement, but Prologis declined. “Our understanding is they are working with the mayor’s office on cleanup,” DEQ spokeswoman Susan Mills says in an email. But the city says otherwise. “The city doesn’t have jurisdictional authority,” spokeswoman Jaymee Cuti says. Prologis, meantime, says it didn’t enter a voluntary agreement because one isn’t required. Neither DEQ nor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found any asbestos in samples they’ve taken (Portland Parks & Recreation found the carcinogen in one of nine samples it took). “This situation is not a hazardous substance cleanup event,” Prologis spokeswoman Jennifer Nelson said in an email. But without an agreement, the public may have trouble learning what gets cleaned up, DEQ’s Mills says. “Had a voluntary cleanup agreement been signed, it would have included a scope of work that DEQ would approve, and DEQ would have continued to be involved in engaging the community,” Mills says. “Since Prologis is doing the cleanup independently, it means we do not know the scope of what they will clean up, and DEQ is no longer at the decision-making table.”

NEARLY TWO DOZEN MODELS SUE PORTLAND SWINGERS CLUB:

Club Privata, the downtown Portland swingers club, was sued in federal court last week by 22 models who say the nightclub is using their images in promotional materials without permission. “Defendant misled consumers and defamed Plaintiffs’ character and reputation by making it appear that Plaintiffs were so-called ‘swingers,’” according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court on July 26. The models are asking for nearly $6 million in compensation for “gross and wanton” defamation. Included in the lawsuit are detailed biographies of the 22 models, who include Irina Voronina (Playboy ’s Miss January 2001) and Cora Skinner (78 million Instagram followers), as well as dozens of screenshots of Club Privata’s website featuring the often bikini-clad— or, in the case of the men, bare-chested—models advertising parties like “Cinco de Sexo” and “Sexy Sailors and Schoolgirls.” Club Privata never contacted any of the plaintiffs to request permission to use their images, the lawsuit alleges. The 8,776-square-foot club opened seven years ago in a building once occupied by Ron Jeremy’s Club Sesso, which was closed following an unpermitted swingers party. The new space is “Portland’s only upscale lifestyle nightclub,” according to a press announcement at the time. Representatives for Club Privata did not respond to requests for comment.

PORTLAND STREET RESPONSE

PROMISES, PROMISES

Chasing Ghosts, our weekly feature in which WW examines one mysteriously vacant property in the city of Portland, returns next week. Send addresses to newstips@wweek.com.

THE VANISHING PARK

sign plan: The eastern portion of the block would become a city park that, according to the 2012 Master Plan, “may be conveyed to the Parks Bureau.” In subsequent documents, the city stated it had set aside $5 million for it and had already hired a project manager.

WHAT’S HOLDING IT UP?

evaluate all legal options.”

Kim Gaube, a spokeswoman for Guardian, owned by developer Tom Brenneke, says it is “currently working to hand over Block 290E at no charge for the creation of a future city park. Understandably, these processes take time, and we are working with the city of Portland on the transfer of the land.”

GREETINGS FROM PORTLAND

Sign of the Times

Another national story about Portland’s problems appears—on Page 1 of The New York Times.

BY SOPHIE PEEL speel@wweek.com

Over the past decade, tree-filled plazas and modern apartment buildings have risen in the once-industrial Slabtown neighborhood of Northwest Portland, the result of a blueprint crafted by developers and the city aimed at transforming 18 acres into housing, greenspace and shops.

That development plan is in its last stages as one more massive apartment building goes up along Northwest 21st Avenue, with the daily scene featuring cranes, workers in hardhats and the throaty sounds of construction machinery.

But as the final units go up, a city park promised to the Slabtown neighborhood by developers appears to be in jeopardy.

WHAT WAS THE PROMISE?

Con-way Freight, the company that owned much of the Slabtown neighborhood, agreed to a large-scale development plan with the city in 2012. It would sell off parcels of the company’s land to developers in piecemeal fashion.

One of those parcels, purchased by Guardian Real Estate Services in 2015, would be called Slabtown Square. It would feature 200 apartments, commercial ground floor space, and a massive public plaza. (Slabtown Square suffered delays due to a series of objections by the Northwest District Association to the design of the building and its central plaza. It’s set to open in 2024.)

Another critical piece of the approved de-

ONE WILL BE PROVIDED FOR YOU

That’s unclear. But a few things could complicate the transfer.

First, the city never signed a legally binding agreement with Guardian Real Estate Services (or the block’s former owner, Con-way parent company XPO) for the handoff. And the Con-way Master Plan, which regulates the sweeping development, expires at the beginning of 2024.

Moreover, it’s unclear who has the authority to transfer the land to the city: Guardian or XPO. It’s also unclear what the asking price will be for the land—if there’s an asking price at all.

And then there’s the issue of who is responsible for environmental cleanup of the site before it’s transferred. The parks bureau says the city has been trying to get the land transferred since 2016, and one sticking point is “unresolved issues about which party is responsible for the environmental cleanup” of the block. (The 1-acre block is currently a construction staging area lined by gravel and filled with porta-potties, trucks, tractors and sheet metal.)

Now, the city’s Bureau of Development Service says, “Nothing in the Master Plan requires that the site become a city-owned and operated park.”

“The Master Plan contemplates that it may be conveyed to Portland Parks & Recreation,” bureau spokesman Ken Ray says, “but it does not require the parks bureau to take responsibility.”

The city is “actively working to obtain the property,” Ray adds, but if the handover isn’t completed by January 2024, “the city will

TRENDING

Oregon lawmakers boost spending on public defenders by more than $100 million.

As lawmakers passed a flurry of spending bills last month, they earmarked an additional $100 million for the Office of Public Defense Services, which funds legal services for defendants across Oregon who cannot afford attorneys.

That system has been in crisis in recent years as overworked public defenders have refused to take on additional cases, citing their rising caseloads. As a result, criminal defendants are now languishing in jail without a lawyer, a constitutional violation. (As of Aug. 1, there were 36 people awaiting a lawyer in Multnomah County jails and more than 250

statewide. Thousands more are out of jail but without a lawyer as they await trial.)

Fixing that problem won’t come cheap, explains Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D-Eugene). Much of the money is earmarked for programs lawmakers hope will attract new attorneys, like retention bonuses and increased hourly fees. But the upshot: “We’re going to have a system that is actually fair.”

Along with the additional money, legislators made sweeping changes to how the state will manage its public defenders going forward.

The office is moving to the

WHAT DOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD SAY?

The Northwest District Association has strong feelings about the possible loss of a promised park.

Emails between a board member of the NWDA and city staffers over the past three years, obtained by WW, offer a look into the confusion surrounding the transfer of the park—but little clarity as to what the holdup actually is.

City staff and NWDA board member Steve Pinger went back and forth about the intricacies of the handshake deal. Documents show Pinger worried that the Master Plan’s expiration in 2024 would mean that the zoning— which stipulated the area could be developed only as a park—would revert, meaning there would be no such obligation.

In early July of this year, the parks bureau told Pinger that the ongoing negotiations among Guardian, XPO and the city were confidential. That’s left the neighborhood in the dark.

The association’s same concerns persist today.

“That the promise of Slabtown Park may now evaporate is an outrage,” says current NWDA president Todd Zarnitz.

“The city says they want the park. Guardian says they want the park. However, there is no park, and there is a very real danger that there will not be a park,” Zarnitz adds. “The negotiations between the city and Guardian are confidential, so we do not know what went wrong nor what continues to go wrong.”

Last month, WW examined 10 stories by national news outlets that parachuted into Portland for some disaster tourism. This week, The New York Times added to the clip pile with a frontpage feature. (On Aug. 1, the Times followed this story with another: a photo essay of downtown Portland fentanyl use and overdoses.) Here’s a synopsis:

“Fighting for Anthony: The Struggle to Save Portland, Oregon”

The New York Times, July 29, 2023

HOW DOES IT INTRODUCE PORTLAND?

“Come to Portland, his sister said. It’s green and beautiful, people are friendly and there are plenty of jobs.” Those are the opening lines of the Times’ 3,400-word consideration of Portland’s twinned housing and drug crises. Such a kickoff foreshadows an unhappy ending. Indeed, the man who moves to Portland, Anthony Saldana, is soon lost in opioid and meth addiction, and living in a tent under a tree.

WHO WAS INTERVIEWED?

Saldana’s sister, Kaythryn Richardson, and a good Samaritan neighbor, Jakob Hollenbeck, form one narrative, following Saldana’s downward spiral. Reporter Michael Corkery also traces Portland’s larger decline by interviewing Josh Alpert, onetime chief of staff to former Mayor Charlie Hales; Portland Police Sgt. Jerry Cioeta, who decries Measure 110; and Society Hotel co-owner Jesse Burke, who gives the Times her trademark quote about how Portland needs fewer carrots and more sticks.

MOST MEMORABLE QUOTE:

“[Portland] is definitely not what I expected,” says Irida Wren, a transgender Tennessean who moved to Portland seeking homeless services but was stabbed six times in the torso and hands when a man attacked her tent. She and her partner are going back to Memphis.

MOST PERCEPTIVE OBSERVATION:

SOURCE: OFFICE OF PUBLIC DEFENSE SERVICES

executive branch and out of the purview of the state’s chief justice, who unilaterally dissolved its governing board last year after a dispute with its former director. And it will begin hiring its own trial lawyers, rather than relying solely on contractors, as it moves toward eliminating the “consortia” subcontractor model favored by private attorneys.

The goal, Prozanski says, is to

hold providers accountable while shielding the board from partisan politics.

“I am cautiously optimistic,” says Rep. Paul Evans (D-Monmouth), who, along with Prozanski, serves as co-chair of a workgroup dedicated to addressing the crisis. “We didn’t get into this situation overnight—and it’s not going to be fixed overnight.”

LUCAS MANFIELD.

While it offers no decisive evidence in the eternal debate over whether Portland’s unhoused are locals or newcomers, the story astutely perceives that the city’s allure to young people, some of them troubled, is a recipe for homelessness when combined with high housing costs.

WHAT’S THE DIAGNOSIS?

Portland has more fentanyl than apartments. Those cheap and potent opioids make every problem worse.

WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

The Times gives more ink to mutual aid efforts than stories of this kind usually do, but doesn’t leave the reader with much optimism that a fix is imminent. AARON MESH.

Developers promised the city a park in Slabtown. It’s unclear if the city will ever get the land.

WHAT OREGON SPENDS ON PUBLIC DEFENSE PER BIENNIUM

On the Rocks

BY NIGEL JAQUISS njaquiss@wweek.com

On July 30, Olivia Gilliam visited her father, Joe Gilliam, in the Clark County, Wash., assisted living facility that has been his home—and prison—since somebody poisoned him in 2020.

“He was really alert and awake,” she says. “You can tell that he’s still 100% there.”

For more than 20 years, Joe Gilliam ran the Lake Oswego-based Northwest Grocery Association, winning high-stakes political battles in Oregon, Washington and Idaho for some of the nation’s largest retailers.

But today, the man whose clients fed the region cannot feed himself. Nor can he speak or do much of anything. When Olivia Gilliam says her father is “still 100% there,” she means he indicates through eye movement, grunts and rudimentary gestures that he understands her and the short list of visitors allowed to see him.

“I told him, ‘I’m trying to fix this for you,’” Olivia Gilliam says. “‘I promise I will get something done.’”

But the prospects of police determining who tried to kill Joe Gilliam (“Who Poisoned Joe

Gilliam…Twice?” WW, Nov. 3, 2021) using thallium, a toxic heavy metal U.S. officials banned 40 years ago, grew slimmer recently when officials in Maricopa County, Ariz., declared their investigation “inactive.” (Officials believe Gilliam was poisoned at his vacation home in Cave Creek, 45 minutes north of Phoenix.)

The Maricopa County Sheriff ’s Office released the results of its investigation to WW under a public records request (as is customary, the office had declined to release the file while its criminal investigation was active). Here’s what we learned from the file:

The Investigation Went Deep. Police reports provide extensive detail about a search of Gilliam’s Cave Creek home in January 2021. Sixteen officers and lab techs descended on the property, scooping up electronics, samples from a vacuum cleaner, sink traps and 11 bottles of distilled spirits. (Friends theorized that somebody placed the thallium, which is odorless and colorless, in Gilliam’s drink.)

Because thallium is so rare, deputies sent those samples off to the FBI crime lab. Results came

back in May 2021: “no signs of thallium.” Meanwhile, investigators zeroed in on Ron Smith, a longtime Gilliam friend who lived in a casita on Gilliam’s Cave Creek property. A former Colorado lobbyist, Smith wrecked his career with a messy divorce: He put raw chicken in the ducts of his ex-wife’s home, poured caustic liquid on her prized piano, and texted her he “will ruin my life to ruin yours.” After a felony conviction, Smith moved in with Gilliam. But records show the men fell out, mostly over money.

In a January 2021 search warrant affidavit, a detective wrote that Smith was the focus of the investigation: “It is the belief of the sheriff’s office that the drink provided to [Joe Gilliam] by Ronald [Smith] on Nov. 9, 2020, may have been laced with thallium.” Records show that the sheriff’s office subpoenaed Smith’s bank and brokerage accounts, looking in vain for evidence of an electronic purchase of thallium, which is available on the internet.

They also interviewed Smith’s ex-wife, Michelle Young. “I asked Michelle if she thought Ronald could have poisoned somebody,” a detective wrote. “After a long pause Michelle indicated that Ronald is capable of that.” (Smith did not respond to requests for comment.)

Two Key Figures Never Talked.

Gilliam initially came to Cave Creek at the behest of another old friend, Tim Mooney, an Arizona political consultant who sometimes worked for Gilliam on Oregon campaigns.

Mooney and Smith loaned Gilliam money to help him buy his Cave Creek home, a deal memorialized in 2019 in what they termed the “Agreement of the Brotherhood.” When Gilliam’s girlfriend, Christina Marini of Lake Oswego, prepared a timeline of Gilliam’s mysterious illness for police, she determined he’d fallen severely ill on two occasions that coincided with meals and drinking with her, Mooney and Smith.

Records in the Maricopa case file show that Marini and Gilliam’s son, Joey Gilliam (a convicted felon whom Lake Oswego police also considered a suspect), spoke regularly to investigators both in Arizona and Oregon. But neither Mooney nor Smith ever agreed to an interview.

In one taped conversation with Olivia Gilliam, the lead investigator, Detective Tyler Thompson, says, “Do you ever speak to Tim Mooney? If you do, ask him to give me a call.”

Mooney confirms he never agreed to an interview but says he supplied information in writing to help Gilliam, whom he calls his “irreplaceable best friend.”

“I’ve encouraged the police to be more active in their investigation,” Mooney says, “giving the police in detailed writing everything I know and suspect. I’ve answered every question they’ve posed to me and added more that wasn’t asked.”

Law Enforcement Agencies Weren’t on the Same Page.

Among the many barriers to figuring out who poisoned Gilliam: early confusion about what was wrong with him, and investigations proceeding on different tracks in different states.

Doctors in Oregon misdiagnosed him initially, telling him he had a nerve disorder called Guillain-Barré syndrome. Not until after his second poisoning six months later did doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix identify thallium as the culprit.

In geographical terms, Gilliam was a big deal in

Oregon, well known to the state’s most powerful officials. But in a remote part of a sprawling Arizona county more populous than all of Oregon (Maricopa County contains 4.5 million people), he was nobody special.

Lake Oswego police pursued the case here, but records show the two jurisdictions struggled to cooperate. “I don’t have any control over what Lake Oswego does,” Maricopa County’s Detective Thompson said to Olivia in a taped interview. “They are doing things I’m asking them not to.”

One particular point of frustration: Marini, Gilliam’s girlfriend, took and reportedly passed a polygraph test in 2022. Thompson told Felicia Capps-Gilliam, Joe Gilliam’s sister and guardian, that the test results—which aren’t admissible in court—were allowing Marini to say she’d been “cleared,” which irked him. “We’ve been blocked by Tim [Mooney], we’ve been blocked by Ron [Smith], and now, after the polygraph, I expect we’ll be blocked by Christina [Marini],” Thompson told Gilliam-Capps.

An interview Arizona detectives conducted with their state’s head of poison control raised the possibility that Gilliam wasn’t poisoned in two discrete incidents. “This sounds like someone who was poisoned over months,” Dr. Dan Brooks told detectives, a suggestion that could implicate Marini, Gilliam’s constant companion.

“I never heard about that,” Marini says of the idea the crime took place over time, adding that no matter the scenario, she had nothing to do with Gilliam’s poisoning.

A Bombshell Interview Fizzled.

Last August, when Joe Gilliam’s health worsened dramatically, his daughter, Olivia, and his sister, Felicia, rushed to his side. Investigators had asked family members not to discuss the poisoning with Gilliam. But now his closest relatives feared he might die without ever having a chance to share what he might know.

With a video camera running, Olivia asked her father unrelated questions designed to show whether he could understand and respond. When she and her aunt determined he was tracking, Olivia began asking a series of questions: Did he know what had happened to him?

Olivia would later tell Detective Thompson in a taped call that when she asked about Ron Smith and Tim Mooney, her father gave a thumbs-up signal and raised his arm as best he could. “He had a full memory of how things played out,” Olivia Gilliam tells WW. “He remembers the entire incident, not just who was there.” (Mooney denies any involvement in Gilliam’s poisoning.)

Olivia Gilliam and Felicia-Capps Gilliam hoped the tape of that interview would shake up the case. Instead, it ground to a halt.

“I am very disappointed in the investigation by Maricopa County,” Felicia Capps-Gilliam says. “I’m frustrated that they didn’t do more.”

Olivia Gilliam, like many of Joe Gilliam’s friends, isn’t ready to give up. “I want to make sure the rest of his life is as safe as possible,” she says. “It’s unnerving to know there are people out there who want him dead.”

The Lake Oswego investigative file remains exempt from disclosure pending resolution of felony charges against Joey Gilliam, who stands accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his father as Joe Gilliam lay in a vegetative state. Trial is set for Sept. 28.

Arizona police say their investigation into the poisoning of Joe Gilliam is “inactive.” Here’s what’s in the case file.

RAISING ARIZONA: Joe Gilliam, Tim Mooney, and Ron Smith spent many evenings together at Gilliam’s Cave Creek home (top).

THE TARDY

DOZEN

BEHIND EVERY UNPAID TAX BILL IS A STORY.

BY WW STAFF 503-243-2122 PHOTOS BY CHRIS NESSETH @CHRISNESSETH

IT’S A LIST NOBODY SHOULD WANT TO BE ON.

On July 14, the Oregon Department of Revenue released a list of delinquent taxpayers, naming any individual or corporation who owed more than $50,000 in back taxes to the state.

Some of the delinquents are companies, but most are individuals. That may not be surprising: Oregon is more dependent on personal income taxes than just about any state, according to the Legislative Revenue Office—in 2021, personal income tax constituted 86% of the state’s annual general fund budget, which is now about $16 billion a year, not including Oregon Lottery funds.

In fact, Oregon has the fifth-highest top personal income tax rate in the country (9.9%) after California, Hawaii, New York and New Jersey. (Unlike those states, we have no broadly based sales tax.)

And when it comes to income taxes, Oregon has long struggled to collect from debtors.

“This is our sixth collections-related audit since 1997,” state auditors wrote back in September 2015. “Significant improvements identified in those audits have not been implemented, some dating back 18 years.”

For years, state Sen. Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose) subjected Department of Revenue officials to regular grillings in budget hearings.

In 2019, Johnson, then co-chair of the budget-writing Joint Ways and Means Committee, introduced Senate Bill 523, which would publish the names of taxpayers who owed the state more than $50,000.

“It was surprisingly hard to get passed,” Johnson says. “The big argument against it was that it would shame people. I thought it was an accountability bill.”

“It’s a civic obligation to pay your taxes,” Johnson added in a recent interview. “And it’s only fair when you consider all the car mechanics and waitresses who are paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes than people like Mark Hemstreet.” (See below for Hemstreet’s story.)

Johnson says Brent Walth, previously a managing editor for news at WW and now a professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, pushed her to do something about the Department of Revenue’s failure to provide public information about delinquents.

“Walth was relentless,” Johnson says.

Finally, after four years, DOR has released the list. It did so after giving notice to anybody affected, offering them a chance to pay up or agree to a payment plan. That followed a lengthy process that gives delinquents numerous chances to pay or dispute their bills.

When tax returns aren’t filed, the DOR bills for taxes owed based on the “best information available.” A number of the top delinquents WW profiles below claim that the agency’s practice means they owe less than what appears on the published list.

DOR spokesman Rudy Owens says about 97% of Oregonians pay their taxes on time. But for those who haven’t, the threat of appearing on the list of delinquents resulted in the payment of $6 million immediately and $27 million in payment plans. Those on the list DOR published owe a total of $202 million.

The number doesn’t include property taxes, which are collected by counties and were examined by WW in an earlier story (“Chasing Ghosts: Property Tax Debts,” Feb. 15), or federal taxes.

Over the past two weeks, WW took a closer look at the people who racked up monster tax bills. We found a few semi-famous names—including a very popular barbecue pitmaster—a lot of failed weed startups, and a few mysteries.

The stories of business implosions and ill-fated scams are undeniably salacious. But there’s a real—and substantial—social cost when your neighbors don’t pay their taxes. Only one person testified in favor of Johnson’s bill back in 2019: Maureen Barnhart, a constituent of Johnson’s who had recently retired from teaching. She pointed out that income taxes are the largest source of school funding in Oregon and the people who fail to pay their taxes have a direct impact on class size and student achievement.

“This bill is about people who don’t pay their fair share,” Barnhart says. “I was absolutely outraged about that then—and I still am.”

What follows are the 10 highest-owing individuals and companies on the Department of Revenue list with Portland addresses.

Sophie Peel, Lucas Manfield, Nigel Jaquiss and Anthony Effinger reported this story.

MARK HEMSTREET HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $3.59 million

WHO’S INVOLVED: Hemstreet’s wife, Shannon ($720,000), and his company Shilo Management Corporation ($388,000) also appear on the list.

THE BACKSTORY: Twenty-five years ago, when Republicans controlled the Legislature, Hemstreet was the biggest GOP donor in Oregon politics.

Hemstreet, 73, founded the Shilo Inn hotel chain in 1974. He grew the chain to 50 locations by the turn of the century, but Shilo’s motto—“affordable excellence”—was no match for the travel shutdown after 9/11 and a long-term boycott that labor unions organized against his hotels. (Hemstreet backed a 1994 ballot measure that would have cut public employee pension benefits, and other measures unions opposed.)

In June of this year, a Multnomah County circuit judge appointed a receiver to take over what remains of Hemstreet’s empire after he failed to pay creditors.

Court records described the need for the receiver to be accompanied by three Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies when he visited Shilo’s headquarters because the hotel’s general manager denied she knew where the corporate headquarters was (it was upstairs). Only after deputies went to get “one large battering ram from their van…and a separate crowbar” did staff unlock the office door.

INTERESTING DETAIL: On July 14, Hemstreet listed his 1,200-acre ranch on Montana’s Clark Fork River for $24.9 million. The 12,000-square-foot main lodge rents for $140,000 for three nights.

WHAT DOES HEMSTREET SAY? His attorney, Rahn Hostetter, did not respond to requests for comment.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: At the average acquisition price of $90,000 per room, the state’s Project Turnkey could buy 400 additional hotel rooms to house people across Oregon. NIGEL JAQUISS.

only fair when you consider

BATTLEFIELD: Shilo Inn’s Northeast Portland headquarters was recently visited by sheriff’s deputies.

car mechanics

CHARYL DAQUILANTE

HOW MUCH DOES SHE OWE? $961,881

MUNITOR CONSTRUCTION LLC

HOW MUCH DOES IT OWE? $1.38 million

WHO’S INVOLVED: Harley Meservey, former president of Munitor

THE BACKSTORY: Meservey, 52, began Munitor Construction in 2001 and ran the business until it shut down in early 2023. Meservey, who owns a home in Coos Bay and another in Portland, says he closed the business in part because his former bookkeeper, Susan Baird-Bagley, who died in early 2020, embezzled more than $800,000 from Munitor over a span of two years.

It all went south, according to Meservey, when Baird-Bagley “got together with a guy who ended up being a child sex offender, a check fraud and a business fraud. It’s really unfortunate because she was a complete straight shooter, we never had any problems and had no reason to mistrust her.” (Court records show Baird-Bagley’s husband is indeed a sex offender and has a criminal history.)

Munitor sued Baird-Bagley ’s estate and her husband after she died, alleging embezzlement. The filing alleges that the pair “caused or contributed substantially to Munitor incurring fees and penalties for nonpayment of payroll taxes.”

Meservey wants to leave Oregon because he’s “done” with it—he says homeless people routinely damaged his construction equipment.

“When you go out and try to do your job and

people break in and steal your stuff every day, you can’t make that money back,” he says. Munitor has been sued 19 times since 2002, often by building materials companies alleging nonpayment for construction goods. A 2022 lawsuit alleges Meservey failed to pay $190,000 on a loan, and the Coos Bay Sheriff’s Office was ordered by the judge to collect the collateral—a number of construction trucks—from Meservey’s home. And a lawsuit filed just last week alleges he has failed to pay rent since December on two floating house slips at Jantzen Beach.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Meservey placed 82nd at a SCORE International Off-Road Racing competition in San Felipe, Mexico, in early April of this year. A YouTube video can be found of a dune buggy, driven by Meservey, racing over mounds of dirt at the same competition in 2021.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Meservey says he’s working with the Department of Revenue to straighten out how much Munitor actually owes. Meservey says because the tax filings were filed improperly by the former bookkeeper, the state “just assumes a number and assigns it to you.” He estimates the amount he actually owes is “for sure more than zero” but “nowhere close to a million.”

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY:

11,040 Narcan kits. SOPHIE PEEL.

THE BACKSTORY: In 2021, the Department of Revenue issued a $899,000 lien for personal income taxes between 2005 and 2011. How Daquilante made her money in the early aughts—and whether she still makes money—is a mystery.

There are no current or old businesses associated with her name in Oregon. Property and court records do show she owned a few properties in the metro area, at least two of which were foreclosed on by lenders around eight years ago for nonpayment of loans. (She did work for a time in human resources at Bob Lanphere’s Auto.)

A woman who attended high school with her in the 1960s, Jenny Martindale, tells WW that Daquilante “closed herself off from everybody years ago,” and said she hasn’t spoken to her in 15 years. Martindale says Daquilante wasn’t wealthy: “She was like the rest of us.”

It appears Daquilante, now 70, had a fraught marriage. Her ex-husband, David, died in the early 2000s and had a history of DUII charges, a hit-and-run charge, a vicious dog charge and charges for resisting arrest. Though they divorced in 1985, they battled over child support, and in 1992 he sued her, alleging fraud.

Daquilante has been a frequent flyer in Oregon’s civil courts. Collection agencies in recent years have gone after her for unpaid bills to the Portland Water Bureau and a house repairs company. The Internal Revenue Service issued two liens against Daquilante in 2013 and 2014 totaling $237,000.

Some or all of the taxes are still owed. A man who purchased Daquilante’s home in 2009, Lambert Adjibogoun, sued her over damage in the basement. A friend of Adjibogoun’s who rented the home from Daquilante at the time remembers meeting her for the first time at a court hearing.

“She was very pleasant. She was dressed very nice,” the friend recalls. “You could tell she’d been to the salon for her nails and hair, but she was also very kind even though she was getting sued.”

INTERESTING DETAIL: In 2021, the owners of a warehouse in Tigard filed an eviction complaint against Daquilante, where, according to filings, she rented 4,873 square feet of space for storage of household items, including furniture, clothes and appliances.

WHAT DOES SHE SAY? After multiple texts and phone calls asking for comment, Daquilante finally responded with a brief text Tuesday afternoon. “Perhaps next year,” she wrote. “Thank you.” In her voicemail greeting, she refers to herself in a husky voice as “Cougar Barbie.” Two of her children also did not respond to phone calls or texts.

WHAT

THE BACK TAXES COULD

BUY: They could pay the annual salaries of 23 first-year teachers at Portland Public Schools. SOPHIE PEEL.

“It’s

all the

and waitresses.”

JOSEPH L. DUNNE

WHO’S INVOLVED: Rocky Mountain Properties LLC

HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $943,705

THE BACKSTORY: Joe Dunne says Rocky Mountain Properties LLC is a real estate company that improves and leases property. In a phone call, he wouldn’t say much else about it.

But like many of our tardy taxpayers, he is also in the weed business.

Dunne, 41, is the owner of Left Coast Canopy, which operates the Zion Cannabis shops in Southwest Portland and out in Ontario, on the border with Idaho, where pot is still illegal.

Rocky Mountain Properties is weed-adjacent at the very least. It owns the building that Zion occupies in Ontario, according to the Malheur County assessor’s office.

Dunne joined the green rush in January 2015, when he registered Left Coast Canopy with the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. A lawyer by training, Dunne kept practicing through March 2016, earning $7,083 a month, according to divorce court records. Dunne’s ex-wife, Celia Ferrer, petitioned for divorce in December 2015.

If court records are to be believed, the cannabis shops have been very good for Dunne. A judgment on support for the couple’s two children, dated Jan. 19 of this year, shows that Dunne was earning $20,000 a month, almost triple his law firm salary.

The couple are still in court over their divorce. Their next court date is Sept. 26.

Beyond taxes, Dunne has had trouble paying off credit cards,

WILLIAM D. SCHAUB

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $857,981

THE BACKSTORY: Bill Schaub, 72, is a well-connected guy with a lot of friends—but seemingly unlucky judgment in employment choices. For more than a decade starting in 1986, he served as general counsel for Capital Consultants Inc., a now-defunct Portland money management firm whose founder, the late Jeff Grayson, was convicted in 2002 in what was then the largest pension fund fraud in U.S. history. Schaub’s next boss? Andy Wiederhorn, the youthful financier and founder of Wilshire Financial Services. Wiederhorn did federal time for his role in the Capital Consultants scandal (Schaub was never charged with any crime). After that, Schaub became president of the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville. That nonprofit, started by Del Smith, a legendary character who founded Evergreen Aviation, was the subject of a scathing Oregon Department of Justice investigation in 2014 into Smith’s misuse of its nonprofit status.

Tax liens show that Schaub’s financial troubles date back to at least 2006. Schaub is now a lawyer in private practice, and only a few election cycles ago provided legal advice to then-candidate for governor and former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley.

INTERESTING DETAIL: When Gerry Frank, scion of the Meier & Frank department store chain, former chief of staff to the late Sen. Mark O. Hatfield and perhaps one of the best-connected men in Oregon, died last year, one of two personal representatives he entrusted to settle his estate: Bill Schaub. (Schaub’s total arrears includes $638, 980 he owes individually and $219,001 owed by his law firm, William D. Schaub, P.C.)

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Schaub did not respond to requests for comment.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: A North Face jacket ($95) and pair of Levis ($30) for each of the roughly 5,200 foster children under the care of the Oregon Department of Human Services. NIGEL JAQUISS.

too. Midland Credit Management sued him in Multnomah County Circuit Court in September 2020, alleging he had failed to pay a Capital One credit card bill for $4,352.19.

Judge Stephen Bushong ruled in favor of Midland on Dec. 16, 2020, ordering that Dunne pay the bill, with interest of 9% a year, until it was zeroed out.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Dunne got to keep all of Left Coast Canopy in the divorce, according to court records, along with his 2009 Acura, which he bought after they split up.

WHAT DO THEY SAY? Dunne says he doesn’t owe the state the amount it claims. “That number is derived from returns on a profitable company, but does not take into account any of the offsetting losses from other (unprofitable) companies,” Dunne said in a text message. “It’s an erroneous number that doesn’t actually reflect what I owe the state. I don’t owe the state anywhere close to that much money. I am working diligently with the state to correct this. The state has been very helpful, and I anticipate a quick resolution.”

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: The services of almost 17 administrative specialists to fulfill public records requests related to cannabis and liquor licensing compliance. The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission says it needs at least two because of an uptick in requests from tax authorities and other agencies “related to alleged tax irregularities, improper financial reporting or other criminal matters.” ANTHONY EFFINGER.

KIMBERLY MITCHELL

WHO’S INVOLVED: Fizz & Bubble LLC

HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $632,768

THE BACKSTORY: Back in the day, Kimberly Mitchell made soap for royalty.

Until 2010, she was founder at Beau Bain, which means “beautiful bath” in French. The company made bath bombs in Portland with ingredients from around the world.

“These indulgent bombs are not only found in some of the world’s best spas, hotels, and private residences, but have even transformed the private bathing chambers of royalty!” Mitchell, 52, writes on her LinkedIn profile.

After bombing royal baths, Mitchell founded a company called Fizz & Bubble LLC in February 2008, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. On LinkedIn, she calls the company F&B.

“I served as the creative force behind this whimsical brand that has introduced hundreds of fun and innovative bath, body and skincare products to the market,” Mitchell writes.

Around the same time, she started Weekends & Chocolate to make “advanced technology anti-aging skin and body care” products. An Instagram post for the company shows Mitchell on the QVC shopping channel with host Shawn Killinger. Mitchell upped her chemistry game in September 2019, when she started Chill Beauty, according to state records. Chill Beauty used nanotechnology to put CBD into beauty products. Chill posted its last Instagram post on Oct. 11, 2019, less than a month after its first.

F&B and Weekend & Chocolate are still going, according to Mitchell’s LinkedIn account. She registered a company called Beauty Brands Consulting in November 2021, according to state records.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Weekends & Chocolate made a “body polish” called “Gypsy Soul,” that contained (or perhaps smelled like) green floral, rosewood jasmine, and oak moss.

WHAT DOES SHE SAY? Mitchell returned neither emails nor phone calls.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: More than 237,000 ounces of KleenLine NRG No-Touch Pomberry Foam Handwash from Waxie, the San Diego company that supplies the state of Oregon with cleaning supplies. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

FORMER SHAMAN: The building where Man Vu’s dispensary Shaman Cannabis operated.

MAN VU

WHO’S INVOLVED: Vu and four limited liability companies he is associated with, according to the DOR’s list.

HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $693,434

THE BACKSTORY: Man Vu is a personal injury and business lawyer who practices out of Northeast Portland. But he partook in the cannabis boom, too.

Vu, 47, was a managing member of two dispensaries that shut down in recent years. Vu blames COVID-19, employee and partner turnover, and two robberies at gunpoint. According to state business filings, the only active business of which Vu has ownership is his law practice.

Court records show he was sued for $100,000, alongside several others, after they allegedly abandoned a dispensary lease in Northeast Portland in 2019. He’s been sued several times in small claims court over credit card debt and alleged nonpayment of rent for his law office at Northeast Halsey Street and 111th Avenue.

He’s also been sued three times in recent years for legal malpractice or negligence; at least two of the cases ended in a settlement. It appears he lives in a Happy Valley home owned by his elderly parents.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Vu says he does owe some late taxes, but the number listed is wrong because the Department of Revenue inaccurately “estimated what the [marijuana] tax should’ve been” even after he shut down both of his dispensaries. (He says he closed one four years ago and the other two years ago.)

Other businesses Vu is associated with that are included on the DOR listing were never operational, he says. “I don’t even know why they would owe taxes.”

“Right now, we’re trying to finally close the business down and file the taxes so that we’re current,” Vu adds. “I’ve talked to [the DOR] and they said they’re going to reduce it a bunch once the actual filings are submitted.”

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: They could cover the annual billings for four lawyers. SOPHIE PEEL.

JEFF GRAYSON

DARREN C. BOTTINELLI

WHO’S INVOLVED: Botto Barbecque LLC, Botto Barbeque LLC

HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $599,312

THE BACKSTORY: Darren Bottinelli’s story is one of crime, redemption, barbecue and, now, tax liens.

For years, Bottinelli ran a seemingly successful firm called Axis Health Partners that held money in tax-free employee health savings accounts. Bottinelli married the daughter of a prominent architect and joined the Waverly Country Club and the Multnomah Athletic Club, according to The Oregonian

But in 2014, Bottinelli abruptly closed Axis without notifying clients, leaving them to wonder where their HSA money was.

Bottinelli switched careers, starting a food truck called Botto’s BBQ in industrial Northwest Portland. Customers swooned. A WW reviewer waxed poetic in 2016, calling his Texas-style dry-rubbed ribs “the finest I’ve had in this city, with a thick, smoky black bark that slides off the bone like a banana peel, bones that’ll bite in two, and a beautifully limber texture.”

Asked about his past, Bottinelli told our reviewer he was “Obama-cared out of a job” in health insurance and decided to indulge a passion for smoked meat that started when he lived in Austin in the mid-1990s. Little did meat freaks or WW know, but in March 2016, right around the time he opened his cart, Bottinelli had pleaded guilty to fraud for stealing $3 million from 3,000 HSA accountholders.

That December, a federal judge sentenced Bottinelli to almost four years in prison. Billy Williams, then the U.S. attorney for Oregon, said Bottinelli used his customers’

accounts as a “personal ATM” to “maintain a luxurious lifestyle.” Botto’s BBQ closed and Bottinelli headed to the big house in Sheridan.

The feds let him out early for good behavior in July 2019, and he reopened Botto’s. “Slicing lunch at 11:00 today,” Bottinelli announced on Instagram with a shot of charred brisket.

His victims pounced on the post. “Hi, Mr. Bottinelli! I’m JUST one of the disabled folks who not only had the bad luck being disabled by multiple sclerosis but of having money for ‘medical expenses’ held for me by Axis Health Partners stolen by you to support your million-dollar lifestyle,” wrote pen0913.

“Are you still working to pay us our money back from Axis HRA?” asked ashh0216. “I have not received 1 dime in over 5 years.”

The notoriety didn’t hurt business. Bottinelli ditched the cart and moved into the old Pok Pok spot across from the Aladdin Theater in October 2020. The smoked-meat hits kept coming. This year, Yelp users ranked Botto’s No. 54 on its list of the top 100 restaurants in the U.S. But making money means paying taxes, and Bottinelli hasn’t paid his.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Some of the HSA clients Bottinelli defrauded at Axis were veterans and people with disabilities working at Goodwill Industries of South Texas, Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, Job Squad, Cascade Christian Services and Vets Securing America, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Bottinelli didn’t return calls or email seeing comment.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: Salaries for more than six Oregon State Police troopers for a year. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

SMELL THE FLOWER: Rose Buds PDX operates in North Portland.

KYLE K. DOBASHI

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $586,140

THE BACKSTORY: Dobashi, 47, is a volleyball coach, DJ and weed entrepreneur. The bulk of his debt is nearly a half million dollars in marijuana sales taxes owed by Rose Budz PDX, a dispensary operating out of a North Portland warehouse owned by MSST Holdings LLC, which is controlled by Dobashi. Three of his other businesses, including a Beaverton volleyball club and the Milwaukie weed dispensary Top Hat Express, also owe smaller amounts of various state taxes.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Dobashi is the director of T.E.A.M. Hiki No, a Beaverton youth volleyball

club that describes itself as “committed to providing a family oriented culture that facilitates the discovery of life lessons through the game of volleyball.”

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Dobashi says he recently changed accountants after his last one failed to file tax returns, and is now working with the state to get his name removed from the list. He tells WW that the amount he owes is “significantly less” than DOR estimates. “We have nothing to hide,” he said.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: They could cover participation fees for 4,500 kids to attend Portland Parks & Recreation’s Youth Volleyball Camp this summer. LUCAS MANFIELD.

“Are you still working to pay us our money back?”

OWEN L. HOUSEL

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $473,599

THE BACKSTORY: Owen Housel is a big man—6 feet tall and 200 pounds, according to a traffic ticket—and a big mystery. Except for his tax bill, he has left a small imprint on the public record. He appears to have played football at Yamhill Carlton High School (Yawama conference All-Star, 1972) and later attended the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University), where, according to a student newspaper, he refereed a powderpuff football game in 1976. He briefly—from 1993 to 1995—had a company in Lake Oswego called Owen L. Housel Inc. Housel, 68, got divorced in 1994 and again in 2020. It’s unclear how he ever made enough money to owe nearly half a million dollars to the Department of Revenue (he also has substantial federal tax liens).

Housel’s second ex-wife, Terri Housel, says it’s a mystery to her. “I never knew anything about his finances even when we were married,” she says. She wasn’t sure who could shed light on her ex’s financial situation. “I didn’t know any of his friends even when we were married,” she says. “I don’t know much about him.”

John Rusk, a lawyer who represented Housel in a family probate case a decade ago, expressed puzzlement that Housel made the DOR list. “I find that very dubious,” Rusk says. “He didn’t have assets to speak of when I knew him.” Rusk adds that Housel was legally blind and in poor health and may have died, although WW could locate neither him nor any record of his death.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Housel, a registered Democrat, hasn’t voted since 2008.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Housel could not be reached for comment.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: At an average salary of $66,000, it would pay seven teachers’ salaries for a year. NIGEL JAQUISS.

BRYAN W. GRUETTER

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $397,236

THE BACKSTORY: Gruetter once ran thriving legal offices in Portland and Bend—until 2012, when the Oregon State Bar took over his law practice after a series of clients’ complaints. It turned out he’d been using their settlements to cover personal expenses.

SAINTS INC.

HOW MUCH DOES IT OWE?

$444,373

THE BACKSTORY: Saints Inc. is the holding company behind the Portland-area cannabis endeavors of Jesce Horton and Dave Murray, who are listed in state filings as the company’s principals. Their holdings include the popular cultivator LOWD (“Love Our Weed Daily”).

LOWD, however, is not the Oregon Department of Revenue’s target. Instead, it’s Saints Inc.’s new upmarket marijuana delivery service, OWTLET, which faces a massive tax bill after it failed to file its quarterly tax returns. Horton says the DOR has vastly overestimated the new business’s sales.

Horton, an industry pioneer, left a corporate job to follow his passion cultivating cannabis— and to help others do the same. He’s founder of both the Minority Cannabis Business Association and the NuProject, which partnered with Prosper Portland to distribute $30,000 grants to local Black-owned cannabis businesses.

Saints Inc. has been a widely touted success

in recent years. In 2021, Horton told Forbes his company was on track to make nearly $1.5 million in annual profits. The following year, the founders were the only Portland names on Forbes’ list of 42 “pioneers to watch in the green gold rush.”

Still, not all of their plans have panned out. A 23,980-square-foot North Portland warehouse that Horton planned to turn into a dispensary is now up for sale, at an asking price of $4 million.

The swindle sent shock waves through the Oregon legal community. Not only did it wipe out the bar’s “Client Security Fund,” which paid up to $50,000 to cheated clients, but it raised questions about the bar’s integrity: Gruetter was the former chairman of its legal ethics committee.

He was convicted of wire fraud, sentenced by a federal judge to five years in prison, and ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution after he admitted, prosecutors say, to “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Gruetter spent three and a half years in California and Oregon prisons. But he has not repaid the debt. He’s currently on a $200 per month payment plan—not including the 25% of his paycheck that’s garnished by the state of Oregon for unpaid taxes.

WHAT DO THEY SAY?

DOR’s delinquent taxpayer database online says OWTLET owes more than $400,000 in marijuana taxes, 17% of retail transactions. But the exclusive delivery business has been operating for less than a year, Horton says, and has made only $7,000 in revenue. He says he’s submitting paperwork to the state to prove it.

“I damn near committed suicide because they’re sending me something saying I owe half a million dollars,” Horton says. “It’s that ridiculous.”

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD

BUY: Nearly 15 economic justice grants from the NuLeaf Project. LUCAS MANFIELD.

Last year, in a Washington County divorce petition, he listed his various disputed debts: $395,000 to the state, $263,000 to the Internal Revenue Service, and $1.1 million to the U.S. Treasury.

INTERESTING DETAIL: During his prison stint, Gruetter got sober and played bass in an inmate band.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Gruetter tells WW that his problems with the Oregon Department of Revenue stem from a personal income tax return he failed to file in 2010. Since then, he says, penalties and fees have inflated the debt far beyond what he can afford to pay.

Gruetter says he’s currently living paycheck to paycheck in a rental in Cedar Mill, earning $20.30 an hour as a full-time puppy trainer. “It’s what I should have been doing my whole life,” he says.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: One year’s salary for five forest managers at the Oregon Department of Forestry.

LUCAS MANFIELD.

LIMBER: Botto’s BBQ in Brooklyn.

GREEN DREAMS: A North Portland warehouse was supposed to become a dispensary.

On the previous page, you’ll find a commemorative poster of Portland Thorn and World Cup star Sophia Smith. It felt like the right moment to create a memento celebrating Smith. This week, after all, is her ascension to the international stage after three years winning the hearts of fans in Goose Hollow. Even in a city where women’s soccer rules, few players have matched Smith’s skill and poise, and nobody else rocks a bubble braid with such style. We could all use somebody to cheer for this summer. Smith is giving us that—and how. SHANNON DAEHNKE.

Get to know her with a few key stats:

AGE: 22

POSITION: Forward for the Portland Thorns and the U.S. women’s national soccer team

HOMETOWN: Windsor, Colorado

ARRIVED IN PORTLAND

IN: 2020. Smith played two seasons at Stanford University and led the Cardinal to the 2019 NCAA championship before being drafted by the Portland Thorns FC in the 2020 NWSL college draft. She was the No. 1 pick overall, and we got her… thank God. Though her Portland Thorns debut was delayed by the pandemic and an injury, Smith came in hot in September 2020, scoring her first professional goal within minutes of stepping onto the field at Providence Park.

GOALS SCORED FOR THE THORNS SINCE THEN: 31.

It’s a lot. Like…that’s pretty much her whole thing. Well, that, and upgrading the iconic “soccer braid” to a much more with-the-times bubble braid. Anyways…in Smith’s second full season in the NWSL in 2022, she scored 14 goals for Portland—a club single-season record.

HER TOP MOMENT AS A THORN: Smith was named the NWSL’s 2022 MVP—the youngest ever. She was also the top scorer for both the Thorns and the U.S. women’s national team, and was voted the 2022 BioSteel U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year. But you probably best remember her for scoring the first goal of the NWSL Championship game, then celebrating with an iconic shrug.

She dedicated the shrug to her doubters. “There’s been a lot of people who don’t think that I deserved to win MVP,” she told USA Today. “So that was a little bit of, you know, that’s that.”

HER FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTISTS: Kane Brown,

Beyoncé, Rihanna, Adele and Cardi B.

FAVORITE TAYLOR

SWIFT SONG: “Love Story” or “Enchanted”

WHERE SHE CAN BE SPOTTED IN PORTLAND: Going on hot girl walks to Trader Joe’s.

WHAT HER COACH SAYS ABOUT HER: “She’s extremely explosive,” Thorns head coach Mike Norris says. “World-class pace when she’s running with the ball at her feet. On top of that, just really good quick release…the ability to get shots off without any cues or triggers.”

WHAT SHE SAYS ABOUT HER GAME: “I shoot all the time,” she says on TikTok. “Like, any chance I get to shoot, I shoot.”

HOW SHE’S DOING IN THE WORLD CUP: In her World Cup debut July 21, Smith scored two goals in the first half, leading the U.S. team to victory against Vietnam. Smith then won player of the match, which was presented to her by her father. In a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands, she nearly scored the tie-breaking goal—it was deflected from the net by an opposing player. A July 31 draw with Portugal was forgettable for the entire squad, including Smith.

WHERE TO WATCH HER PLAY: A Women’s World Cup round of 16 watch party this weekend at The Sports Bra, 2512 NE Broadway. The party begins at 2 am Sunday, Aug. 6. Closer to home, the World Cup’s conclusion sets up Smith for a homecoming with the Thorns in a match against Seattle at 7:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 16.

IF SHE WEREN’T A SOCCER PLAYER, SHE’D BE: An interior designer with her own HGTV show. She told Yahoo Sports she doesn’t compare herself to past players: “I’m the first and only Sophia Smith.”

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BELLA WHITE ‘AMONG OTHER THINGS’

SAMANTHA

GRACE POTTER ‘MOTHER ROAD’

GET BUSY

AUG. 2-8

EAT & DRINK: Wolves in the Woods Dinner

If you’ve still never made it to Wolves & People’s charmingly rustic farmhouse property in Newberg, here’s an opportunity to try the brewery’s offerings in an outdoor setting closer to home. The Woodsman Tavern is hosting a dinner in collaboration with the business in its backyard, where you can pair either a Phillystyle roast pork sandwich or an Italian hoagie piled high with Olympia Provisions meats with one of four Wolves & People beers: Hibiscus Sour Jawn, Crushpad Pilsner, Farmer Tan Saison and Honeycone Hazy IPA. But why limit yourself when you could try them all? The Woodsman Tavern, 4537 SE Division St., 503-342-1122, thewoodsmantavern.com. 4-8 pm Wednesday, Aug. 2. $12 for each sandwich.

LISTEN: Pickathon Music Festival

It’s that glorious time of year when music and nature come together, creating an epic festival in the woods. Pickathon takes place every August at Pendarvis Farm, a beautiful green oasis just outside Portland where you can enjoy four days of eclectic sounds from artists representing nearly every genre. The lineup tends to feature new performers as well as those who are well established but play their deep cuts,

so be sure to check out the event’s Spotify playlist to listen to participants beforehand and then choose your own adventure. Don’t fret if you feel like you won’t make it to every act you want to—each artist performs twice in different venues, which range from the forest to meadows to farm buildings. Pendarvis Farm, 16581 SE Hagen Road, Happy Valley, pickathon. com. Noon Thursday, 11 am Friday-Saturday, noon Sunday, Aug. 3-6. $195-$225 single-day tickets, $220-$440 weekend passes.

WATCH: Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology

Be among the first to watch the latest and greatest in cinema from around the globe at this event, which screens 119 films, 110 of which are world or regional premieres. The Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology spans the course of four days with a schedule that includes panel discussions and parties featuring some of the most talented and creative minds in the industry. And guess who’s coming to town? The one and only Bill Plympton, the legendary animator who has been making us laugh and cry with his unique and hilarious cartoons for decades. He’ll give a special presentation on his past work, show clips from his newest

feature, Slide, and then mingle with the crowd at a reception. Bonus: Attendees of that session get a Plympton sketch to take home. OMSI, 1945 SE Water Ave., 503797-4000, omsi.edu. 5:15 pm Thursday, 6 pm Friday, noon Saturday, 2 pm Sunday, Aug. 3-6. Individual screenings $8-$10, with $2 off for OMSI members. All-access festival passes $35-$40, with $3 off for OMSI members.

GO: Vancouver Arts & Music Fest

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA presents the first-ever Vancouver Arts & Music Festival, which takes place over three days in downtown Vancouver. Enjoy incredible performances by the symphony, led by maestros Salvador Brotons and Gerard Schwarz. They’ll be joined by some of the world’s finest musicians, including violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianist Orli Shaham, and the innovative trio Time for Three. But that’s not all: The festival will showcase the city’s vibrant arts and culture scene, with extended gallery walks, live street art, pop-up concerts, food trucks, and much more. Esther Short Park, 605 Esther St., Vancouver, Wash., columbiaartsnetwork.org/events-1/vancouver-arts-and-music-festival. 10 am-5 pm Friday-Sunday, Aug. 4-6. Free.

Berries get their moment in the sun every summer. Come fall, we celebrate apples and pumpkins. But no one ever throws a party for the humble green bean—at least, not until now. Wellspent Market, in collaboration with the Culinary Breeding Network, hosts this inaugural event, which will include cooking demonstrations, a talk on the history of the green bean, and samples of a variety of beans bred by Oregon State University professor Jim Myers. You can also expect a number of unique dishes that incorporate the pods—from hot green bean sandwiches to micheladas spiked with pickled green beans to what may be the world’s first green bean soft serve ice cream. Wellspent Market, 935 NE Couch St., 503-987-0828, wellspentmarket.com. Noon4 pm Saturday, Aug. 5. Free.

SHOP: Unique Markets Summer of Local Love Pop-Up

Take a break from Amazon. Seriously. Its market dominance and excessive waste aren’t making the world a better place. Scratch that retail therapy itch by instead attending Unique Markets’ summer pop-up, which will feature more than 60 independent designers, artists, and food and beverage vendors. Attendees will receive a free limited-edition cotton tote bag, complimentary bottles of Topo Chico (gotta stay hydrated to shop), as well as access to pinball and arcade games provided by Wedgehead and a photo

booth. VIP ticketholders also get two free drinks by Straightaway Cocktails. Try getting Amazon to ship you bonus booze the next time you stock up. Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 300 N Ramsay Way, 503-235-8771, uniquemarkets.com/portland. 10 am-4 pm Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 5-6. $10.

EAT: No Kid Hungry Collab Dinner

21 Willamette Week AUGUST 2, 2023 wweek.com Presented by vancouverartsandmusicfestival.com In partnership with With support from 4-6 AUGUST VA NC OUVE R • US A AR TS & MU SI C FE ST IVAL Free Open to all ages! Esther Short Park & Downtown Vancouver Get ready for three days of exciting music, art, dance, food and fun!

COURTESY OF WOLVES IN THE WOODS

EAT: 2023 Inaugural Green Bean Festival

Top 5

Hot Plates

WHERE TO EAT THIS WEEK.

1. CHAAT WALLAH

7157 NE Prescott St., 971-340-8635, chaatwallah. com. 3-9 pm Monday-Friday, noon-9 pm Saturday-Sunday.

Deepak Saxena’s food cart has found a new home outside Upright Brewing’s second location in the Cully neighborhood. Chaat Wallah began operating out of 503 Distilling’s lounge inside the Iron Fireman Collective building, but that arrangement only lasted a few months. Thankfully, the business reemerged and is now offering a killer happy hour deal: $2 off of all sandwiches and $1 discounts on Upright beer from 3 to 6 pm Monday through Thursday. Now you have a tough decision to make: masala pulled pork, tandoori tuna salad or lamb smash burger?

2. CÂCHE CÂCHE

1015 SE Stark St. 5-10 pm Wednesday-Saturday, 1-8 pm Sunday.

Câche Câche, a raw seafood bar from Kurt Huffman’s ChefStable and St. Jack chef John Denison, is Portland’s newest and neatest oceanic idyll. The new place is aptly named after the French term for “hide-and-seek” since it’s hard to find and there is no phone number or website. The search is worth it for the lobster roll alone, though, which might cause a Mainer’s eyes to grow misty. Three ounces of meat are lightly dressed with a tarragon-infused aioli and then stuffed into a cuboid cut from a crustless Dos Hermanos Pullman loaf. Everyone must order this; sharing is a bad idea.

3. DOLLY OLIVE

527 SW 12th Ave., 503-719-6921, dollyolivepdx. com. 11 am-3 pm and 5-9 pm

Sunday-Thursday, 11 am-3 pm and 5-10 pm

Friday-Saturday. This month, The Wall Street Journal declared we’re “becoming a nation of early birds,” and it’s hard to argue with that point since Portland’s nightlife has never really rebounded from the pandemic. If we are all turning in earlier these days, might as well make the most of lunch, a meal that’s never been as leisurely as brunch nor as elegant as dinner, yet you can apply both of those adjectives to the midday meal experience at downtown’s Dolly Olive. Lunch service began in May and includes items that would suit just about anyone’s tastes, from a farro salad to a slow-roasted rosemary prosciutto-and-Gruyère panini to a crispy chicken confit. You can even pretend you’re at a fancy dinner and order a salted caramel cannoli for dessert—a move we highly recommend.

4. HIGGINS PIGGINS

On the Oregon Historical Society terrace at 1200 SW Park Ave., 503-222-9070, higginspiggins. com.

One of downtown’s most charming pandemic patios is back open for the summer season. Higgins Piggins returned to the South Park Blocks in early June, and this year’s iteration pays tribute to Venice’s backstreet locals bars known as bacari: cozy, simple inns that typically serve wine and small plates built around seasonal ingredients. At Piggins, you can expect a Pacific Northwest take, with a menu that includes artisan cheeses, charcuterie, salads, and cicchetti— snacks like tea service-sized sandwiches.

5. CHELO

Inside Dame, 2930 NE Killingsworth St., chelopdx.com. 5-9 pm Monday-Wednesday.

Chef Luna Contreras’ cooking has made appearances all over the city, and she’s received acclaim at every turn. Sometimes, Contreras flits about so quickly it can be hard to catch her. But from now until mid-August, you can find her playful, vegetable-forward take on traditional Mexican street foods inside Dame restaurant. Order a few items that likely won’t carry over to a smaller-plate version of Chelo that will open in a new location later this year, like the incredible chuleta de puerco, a bone-in pork chop, served with hot housemade tortillas, a super-tasty fire-roasted tomato salsa quemada and brothy beans, cooked to perfection.

FOOD & DRINK

Editor: Andi Prewitt Contact: aprewitt@wweek.com

Have It Your Way

BY EZRA JOHNSON-GREENOUGH @samuraiartist

As ubiquitous as burgers are, people don’t get sick of them. Whether they’re from a drive-thru, a food truck, a Thai restaurant, or an upscale eatery deconstructing the childhood classic.

You know what people also like? Secrets—hard-to-find treasures that make you feel in the know after that moment of discovery. White Pepper’s weekly burger pop-up combines those two things since it makes what may be one of the most difficult-to-find burgers in town, which is mercifully free of gimmicks and trends, and you don’t have to contend with line culture.

Most of the week, the kitchen at the 10-year-old Northeast Portland catering company is a quiet prep space by day, while some evenings its tasting room hosts weddings and corporate dinners. But on Thursday nights, White Pepper transforms into a neighborhood hangout serving burgers, cocktails and local beers. With just four hours of service a week, Burger Thursdays aren’t so much about seeding a new business or building something more ambitious—it’s not even about exclusivity. What Burger Thursdays offer is a way to connect with the community and a playground for the cooks otherwise occupied making large portions of celebratory cuisine for customers they will never see.

As you would imagine, catering companies are used to having their food photographed. The dishes have to make an impression on a brochure or website splash page. White Pepper’s burgers look like they came straight off the set of the most appetizing Burger King commercial ever shot—and there’s no disappointment when it comes to flavor like is so often the case with fast food.

While most bars and restaurants are falling all over themselves to jump on the smash burger trend, or re-create the vapid Americana burgers of their fast food-driven youth, White Pepper is making the “as seen on TV” version of a burger: fluffy, lightly brushed egg buns with sesame seeds, in perfect proportion to the patty, and just the right amount of classic toppings you would find in a by-the-book recipe. The Classic Burger ($12) is everything you want a Big Mac to be but never is: two housemade patties, American cheese, iceberg lettuce, mustard and mayo with ketchup on the side. No one element stands out; it’s just a harmonious combination that makes for the perfect summer meal.

The MOBB Burger ($13) is a more over-the-top, pub-style burger with all the toppings. The ground-beef patty is perfectly formed and layered with provolone, bacon, grilled mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, tomato and garlic aioli. I will take this gooey, filling burger with

GOOD BURGER: On Thursdays, White Pepper is quietly one of the most dependable sandwich stops in Portland.

Catering company White Pepper pumps out burgers one day a week that look fast food-ad attractive and taste 10 times better.

different textures and flavors over most others, and not the least because White Pepper doesn’t let any single one steer the ship.

The White Pepper Burger ($14) may be the namesake burger, but it is the least successful of the bunch. However, fans of rich, extra-savory burgers will find a lot to love: pungent feta aioli, peppery and grassy arugula, salty and chewy pork belly, with sweet roasted tomato and a little pickled red onion to cut all the fat.

The White Pepper menu is not just made up of straightforward beef burgers. It has non-red-meat options like the cult favorite salmon burger ($14), the Greek-inspired turkey burger ($13), and a fried chicken sandwich with ’Bama white barbecue sauce and housemade pickles ($13) during our visit. All sandwiches come with regular or Cajun house-cut fries.

The sharable sides are also pitch perfect. I can’t find any flaws in the beer-battered Walla Walla onion rings ($7) with a dash of Old Bay Seasoning, nor in the roasted cauliflower with tahini sauce, pickled onion, toasted pepitas and cilantro ($8).

On Thursdays, White Pepper is quietly one of the most dependable sandwich stops in Portland, popular enough that it prompted the

Buzz List

1. DIVISION WINEMAKING COMPANY’S WINE YARD

2005 SE 8th Ave., 503-208-2061, divisionwineco.com. 11 am-5 pm daily.

After producing wine for nine years on Southeast Division Street, Division Winemaking has left its namesake stretch of pavement for larger digs. The newly dubbed Wine Yard not only gives the team more square footage for fermentation and packaging; customers also benefit thanks to a more spacious tasting room, 2,500-square-foot courtyard, and multiple event spaces. Now that we’re officially in the dog days of summer, cool off with the 2022 Polka Dots Pétillant Naturel, a sparkling rosé that could be enjoyed any time of day (Division claims it could take the place of a morning mimosa).

2. BREAKSIDE BREWERY BEAVERTON

12675 SW 1st St., Beaverton, breakside.com. 11 am-10 pm daily.

Just when patient beer fans in Beaverton were beginning to give up hope that Breakside would ever actually open a long-planned taproom in Old Town, the company suddenly announced June 11 that the facility was ready for eager drinkers. The outpost isn’t complete, but you can now enjoy a roughly 150-seat beer garden and suds poured from Breakside’s retro Winnebeergo, which will serve as the temporary outdoor bar until a permanent one is finished. The 80-seat interior also recently opened. Order a classic like Wanderlust or the refreshing Mexican Lager (especially when temps top 90 degrees) and raise a glass to this powerhouse brand’s latest expansion.

3. SMITH TEAMAKER

500 NW 23rd Ave., 503-206-7451; 110 SE Washington St., 971-254-3935; smithtea.com. 10 am-6 pm daily.

All we can say is THANK GOD that stubborn heat dome has clamped down over the South and not the Pacific Northwest. Nobody wants to relive the misery brought on by 2021’s record-breaking heat wave. There doesn’t seem to be any sign of oppressive temperatures in the forecast; however, we’re entering the hottest part of the season, which means you’ll need to find ways to cool off. Smith Teamaker has an idea: a new Summer Chill Down menu. The lineup includes five iced teas along with three seasonal flavors (blackberry, coconut swizzle and agave sunshine), an iced matcha latte, mocktails, and even two different varieties of ice cream floats. Get ’em through Aug. 31.

4. JOHN’S MARKETPLACE – HALL

3700 SW Hall Blvd., Beaverton, 503-747-2739, johnsmarketplace.com. 11 am-8 pm Sunday-Wednesday, 11 am-9 pm Thursday-Saturday. Formerly parched downtown Beaverton has been swimming in beer for the past few years. The area has outlets for two breweries as well as a handful of beer bars. Joining the perennial beerfest is John’s Marketplace, which opened its third location on the edge of Old Town in April. Most everyone is here for a pint paired with the well-charred, quarter-pound smash burgers, including beer nerds sporting branded swag and moms clad in Lululemon with children in tow. Join them under the beer banners in the taproom before perusing the bottle shop for something special to take home.

5. TOCAYO AT PALOMAR

959 SE Division St., #100, 971-357-8020, barpalomar.com. 2 pm-sunset Saturday-Sunday. 21+. Palomar is the latest spot to get in on the “restaurant within a restaurant” trend by turning its rooftop bar into a pop-up taqueria. Tocayo, which is the Spanish term for two people who have the same name, is a nod to owner Ricky Gomez and chef Ricky Bella, who combine their love of Cuban cocktail and Mexican drink cultures in this project. Expect plenty of fruit flavors in everything from a mule with roasted coconut water to a frozen guava margarita to a pineapple-infused gin and tonic, so if a southof-the-border vacation isn’t in the budget this summer—escape with a drink instead.

once-seasonal pop-up to become a year-round side operation. Just be sure to check the business’s Instagram account for possible catering service interruptions before making the trip.

EAT: White Pepper Burger Thursday, 7505 NE Glisan St., whitepepperpdx.com/burger-thursday. 5-9 pm Thursday.

MIGHTY PINE: The scenery is ever-changing on Whalen Island, which includes patches of land akin to a shore pine Serengeti.

BY ADAM SAWYER

At 1.5 miles, the hike around Whalen Island isn’t long. There’s not much elevation gain to speak of either, barely 80 feet. But with regard to varied scenery, the patch of land in Tillamook County approximately 6 miles north of Pacific City is much like its larger and more-renowned neighbor, the Sitka Sedge State Natural Area. Even though Whalen Island has been there for hiking long before Sitka Sedge opened to the public, it’s still just hanging out in relative obscurity.

Situated in the same Sand Lake estuary, the route offers something new around every corner when it comes to scenery. During the course of this little loop, you’ll pass through grasslands, forests, dunes, beaches and mudflats—and probably be sad when it’s over. Very Sedge-like, just tighter in presentation.

The trail begins just beyond a gate at the north end of the parking area. It briefly passes through grassland before entering an open forest with occasionally tight corridors of salal and rhododendron. The trail dips and weaves its way along the east side of the island, providing occasional views of the estuary. Near the northern end of Whalen, you’ll gain more of a canopy. A spur on the right leads to the island’s edge and a proper viewpoint before the trail bends left toward Sand Lake.

The scenery changes again as you enter a grove of mature trees something akin to a shore pine Serengeti. You’ll soon encounter more spur trails leading to the water—some better than others with regard to viewpoints and beach entry. But bide your time; better access lies just ahead. The trail briefly rides a ridgeline and then descends across a pleasantly unexpected sand dune before arriving at a set of boot paths. Each leads to perhaps the best beach area on the west side of the island. During low tide, you can walk a fair distance out onto the mudflats if you’re into that sort of thing.

The trail then enters an enchanting forest of shore pine and beach grass. The combination makes for a remarkably pleasant stretch along a soft path of pine needles and sand. Through this section, you’ll encounter more trails providing beach access and viewpoints if you need them. Leaving the pines, the trail rises once more before diving into a shady, vegetated tunnel and emerging at a viewpoint at the Whalen Island County Campground. Continue to the left, and you’ll soon arrive at a threeway junction. Go right if you’d like to explore another fine but potentially more popular beach along the island’s south side. Going straight would get you to the campground. Or stay to the left and return to the parking area in about 100 yards.

DISTANCE: 1.5-mile loop

DIFFICULTY:  out of 

DRIVE TIME FROM PORTLAND: 1 hour, 45 minutes

DIRECTIONS: From Portland, take Highway 26 for 20 miles to Highway 6. Drive the length of Highway 6, 51 miles, to Highway 101 in Tillamook. Take Highway 101 south for 11 miles and make a right onto Sandlake Road. Drive 4.3 miles and take a left at a stop sign to stay on Sandlake Road. Go 3.6 more miles and make an easy-to-miss right onto Whalen Island Road. Carefully drive across a onelane bridge and bear right into the Clay Myers State Natural Area to reach the parking lot and trailhead.

RESTROOM AVAILABILITY: Vault toilets at the trailhead

Midas Touch

Literal Gold Records’ anti-recoup model is changing the game for Portland’s struggling music industry.

BY MICHELLE KICHERER IG: @MichelleKicherer

“It was never really our intention to run a label as it’s known,” Literal Gold Records president and co-founder Justin Ouellette tells WW “We’ve always wanted to experiment with what a label can do: what a label’s role and responsibility is in the music industry.”

Along with serving for many years as a graphic designer, Ouellette worked at Normative Records in Brooklyn. When he had the opportunity to start a label with a longtime friend, musician and producer Cameron Spies, he knew their ethos would align.

For years, Spies, known widely across Portland and beyond for his music producing and engineering work (and for his band Night Heron, Whimz and various other projects), has heard many client stories about labels, money and how to “make it” as a musician.

“ We ran out of reasons not to start [the label],” Ouellette says. “Especially once we met Jed. Jed’s kind of the secret sauce to everything,” He’s referring to Jed Overly, a musician who is Literal Gold’s label manager and a former artist and repertoire person at Tender Loving Empire Records. Thanks to his experience, Overly knew how to handle all areas of artist development, from scouting artists to shipping records.

“ We wanted to do a lot of stuff that wasn’t standard,” says Spies, adding with a sarcastic laugh, “Like, paying bands! Paying bands before the label recoups. Or, not having multiple records that the band is required to record with the label. There are just so many standard roadblocks for bands in their contracts, and they’re written from the perspective of protecting labels rather than protecting artists.”

That’s been how the music industry has functioned since the dawn of the industry. But Literal Gold says it doesn’t have to be.

Overly explains how a typical recoupment model works: “Say a label pays $10,000 to produce an artist’s album. The artist won’t see a dime of that money until the album has made back that $10,000.” For many artists, that could take a couple of years. “But most bands never recoup,” Overly adds. “Which means most bands never see money from that record. So we’re experimenting with a model that says, from dollar one, artists are making money.”

Though they ’re still flushing out the specific percentages, Overly gives an approximate breakdown of how it works. In short, when an artist first starts with Literal Gold, they’re making, say, 25% of sales,

until the studio recoups back the money it spent producing the record, at which point the tier shifts to 50-50. Eventually, the tier tilts so the artist is making 75% of the profits. “It’s been really revealing, implementing and doing it,” Overly says.

This approach means that when Literal Gold takes on an artist, it also takes on a fairly significant risk. When asked what types of albums the label is interested in producing, there’s only the briefest pause before Spies simply says, “We’ve got to like the music.”

That answer might seem a little cheeky, but it’s the truth—and it’s part of what makes the albums on Literal Gold so solid. A lot of collaboration happens in the studio: Overly might be the secret sauce, but Spies is the chef, connecting with artists and attempting to understand what they’re really trying to create.

One example is Portland-based synth pop queen Shawna Pair. After coming out as trans in 2019, the longtime musician’s sound went through a major rebirth. It was important for her to choose a producer and a label that would represent who she was and to support the sounds she was ready to experiment with.

While Pair showed up at the studio with what she calls “the spirit of every song,” she says Spies helped make them more “drive-y.” “This is the music I’ve been trying to do all along,” Pair says. “I’d only played in guitar rock and shoegaze bands [before], so I just didn’t know the specifics of producing electronic music.” The result? Pair’s debut album, Activator (out Aug. 11), a post-disco synth pop record with mean guitar licks and dancey hooks that spin on repeat in your brain waves.

While Literal Gold tends to lean toward music with electronic components, they’re not beholden to any particular genre. From the disco synth grooves of Bijoux Cone (whose Love Is Trash is out Oct. 20) to the shoe-grunge rock band Soft Cheese to the psych-rock group Salo Panto, Literal Gold focuses on churning out the hits and keeping more money in its artists’ pockets. The label’s experimentation continues.

SEE IT: Shawna Pair’s album release show with Salo Panto and Family Worship Center takes place at Show Bar, 1300 SE Stark St., #101, 503-776-5500, revolutionhall.com. 8 pm Thursday, Aug. 10. $12. 21+.

BY DANIEL BROMFIELD @bromf3

FRIDAY, AUG. 4:

It’s hard to imagine young fans enamored by Big Thief ’s earthy, communal take on American roots music won’t love Lucinda Williams ’ tough-as-nails country-rock grit. And fans who’ve followed Williams for any stretch of her nearly half-decade career will be happy to know there’s a young crew like Big Thief bringing cosmic Americana into the next generation. McMenamins Edgefield, 2126 SW Halsey St., Troutdale. 6:45 pm. $50.50. All ages.

SATURDAY, AUG. 5:

Love or hate his mercilessly efficient pop rap, it’s hard to deny the impact Soulja Boy has had on the pop landscape. In 2007, the then-teenage MC who became a star with “Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)”—and yelled his own name enough to ensure you remembered him—finessed the internet like no one before or since, paving the way for eccentric viral rap phenomena from Lil B to Yung Lean and proving that lo-fi regional strangeness had as much commercial potential as anything from the Cash Money or Roc Nation factories. Bossanova Ballroom, 722 E Burnside St. 7:30 pm. $39.50. All ages.

TUESDAY, AUG. 8:

Wolf Eyes comes closer than any other American noise band to being a household name. That’s partially because band member John Olson has captured the music-nerd internet zeitgeist with his “inzane_johnny” meme account, but mostly because Wolf Eyes makes harder, more visceral, more disgusting music than anyone else. Harsh noise is not a genre in which you make fans through compromise, and Wolf Eyes is living proof. Mississippi Studios, 3939 N Mississippi Ave. 9 pm. $18. 21+.

GUITAR HERO: Shawna Pair.

SHOW REVIEW

LOCATE S,1 AT POLARIS HALL

BY ROBERT HAM

“The show you’re putting on for us is so much better than the one we’re putting on for you.” So said Christina Schneider, the Athens, Georgia-based artist who records as Locate S,1, from the stage at Polaris Hall this past Thursday night.

Maybe she was a little surprised at the enthusiastic response she was getting from the humble crowd on hand to see her and a crack team of instrumentalists explore the far reaches of art pop. The 75 or so bodies scattered around the room did respond with an outsized joy to every song, and proved that dancing is possible for concertgoers in Portland.

It felt impossible not to be charmed into submission by what Schneider and her band brought to the table. Lyrically, Wicked Jaw, the new album from this project, carries the deep scars of the abuse that Schneider endured growing up and the wounds of bad love affairs. Those words are countered by music that lands somewhere in the zone between the winding brilliance of Jane Siberry and the more playful end of Stereolab’s vast catalog, with touches of disco and bossa nova thrown in for good measure.

Live, Locate S,1 synthesized these various influences into a leaner, more direct sound via a standard two guitars, bass, and drums backdrop. The three gents backing up Schneider onstage flashed their instrumental chops briefly with occasional showy fills or solos. (I’m going to spend the next month sorting out the dizzying drum fill that kicks off “Have You Got It Yet?”) Otherwise, they rightfully stayed in the pocket and in service of their leader’s flexible and subtly emotional vocals and her own fine rhythm guitar work.

“Y’all are thrilling me,” Schneider said at one point between songs. The feeling was mutual.

Haarlem Shuffle

The newly expanded Oregon Jewish Museum presents the Amsterdam of Rembrandt and Henk Pander.

BY JAY HORTON @hortland

After a lengthy renovation and sizable expansion into the former Charles Hartman Fine Art space, the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education has opened the exhibition The Jews of Amsterdam, Rembrandt, and Pander.

At first glance, the far-flung cityscapes drawn by the 17th century Dutch master and painted by recently deceased PDX transplant Henk Pander may seem unlikely choices for a gallery honoring the Oregon Jewish legacy. According to OJMCHE adjunct creator for special exhibitions Bruce Guenther, though, the artists share far more than just hometown ties to the Netherlands.

“This exhibition is a way of place and identity and sociopolitical history coming together through the visual arts,” Guenther says.” We look at the presence and absence of Jews in Amsterdam over a 400-year history through the eyes of two nonpracticing Christians who made work grounded in the Jewish community experience at times of major changes.”

Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked among a swiftly blossoming Jewish population drawn by the booming Dutch economy and newfound promise of religious freedom; Henk Pander, born in the Amsterdam suburb of Haarlem, grew up during the Nazi occupation and aftermath of the Holocaust. By examining each artist, Guenther tells WW, we come to develop our own greater understanding of past grandeur and all that was lost.

WW: How’d this all begin?

Bruce Guenther: Before COVID, the museum’s small print gallery had planned to show this group of prints assembled by a couple who collected Rembrandt’s [works].

[Museum director] Judy [Margles] asked if we could still do the show but make it more interesting, more engaging, and I said that we had a chance to change the narrative from just looking at another set of etchings.

They’re beautiful impressions, but if we talk about Rembrandt observing Amsterdam as the home of a Jewish community, we can make them tell a story.

This was the Dutch golden age. It’s the first time in European art when Jews were represented in all their humanity and not as the devil incarnate or evil Shylock. Amsterdam becomes a very important place economically, intellectually. The city quadruples in size from 1600 to 1621 when Rembrandt moves there and buys a home in the Jewish community where he’ll live for 21 years.

We have a painting of that same house by Henk Pander in the second half of the exhibition—the moment in the 20th century when massive sociopolitical events change Amsterdam’s Jewish community.

He was aware that it was Rembrandt’s house?

Very aware. He comes from a family that’s at least four generations of artists, and his father was nationally known as an illustrator of books. He’s born in 1937, goes to the Rijksakademie, in which Rembrandt studied, and lives in post-war Amsterdam, where the buildings still stood vacant because 140,000 human beings, the entire Jewish population who hadn’t escaped, were deported to the death camps.

Henk Pander was 3 years old when the Nazis marched into the Netherlands. They were trapped inside of Amsterdam during the bombings and air fight over the city. His father was briefly arrested, and the family almost starved to death. He had vibrant firsthand visual and emotional memories of witnessing the Haarlem synagogue be destroyed and friends of his father disappear because they were Jewish.

The paintings are recent, though?

Henk started these works in 2018. The ones we’re showing, about two-thirds of the series, are specifically about the streets of Amsterdam and the Jewish neighborhoods. He had an image in his head, he had the photos of the

street today, and he reanimated those with the weight of history and a sense of loss from personal experience.

Did the gallery’s expansion play any part when assembling the exhibit?

In the [museum’s] center, we’ve created an intimate space for the etchings—a celebration of humanity for this 17th century golden age. Outside that space are the buildings left as empty shells.

These are not bombastic pictures like Rembrandt’s reflection of the Jewish community’s prosperity. Henk’s paintings speak in a whisper. It’s not about bodies. They’re subtle paintings of anguish and horror. They are also, by the way, beautiful—60 by 70 inches, oil on canvas, lusciously painted. Henk was a colorist, and the paintings sing.

You see [in the paintings] that a street’s not simply empty. It’s a dead street that once was alive. The buildings Henk Pander observed reveal the history of the horror but so subtly that it takes two or three visits to notice the windows are darkened and by the side of the door a chair lies broken. In one painting, there’s rain, and it looks like the building’s bleeding.

Henk liked to talk about being a contemporary history painter. After the fall of the World Trade Center, he went to New York, spent two or three weeks drawing the wreckage, and made a spectacular painting. With all that, he was trying to do what artists have historically done: see and process the chaos of history passing. And engage with the emotional and spiritual continuance of humanity.

SEE IT: The Jews of Amsterdam, Rembrandt, and Pander exhibits at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, 724 NW Davis St., 503-2263600, ojmche.org. 11 am-4 pm Wednesday-Sunday, through Sept. 24. $5-$10. Members and children under 12 free.

YOUR REPS IN

MOVIES

Editor: Bennett Campbell Ferguson

Contact:

bennett@wweek.com

Columbus (2017)

With all due respect to the alluring beauty of Before Sunrise’s Vienna and Certified Copy’s Tuscany, no walkand-talk movie has a setting quite like Columbus (2017).

The breakout feature from Kogonada (After Yang) makes a feast of the titular city’s unlikelihood. After all, why would a 50,000-population community in South Central Indiana feature a rich backdrop of modernist architecture—from banks to bridges to parks—to rival an over-endowed art museum campus?

It’s only right that two strangers would find each other in such a place. Jin (John Cho), the embittered adult son of a famous architect, and Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young townie obsessed with art and unwilling to leave Columbus, spend the week chain-smoking and musing on the emotional weight of design.

A longtime video essayist on other directors’ work, Kogonada obsessively shoots Jin and Casey’s strolls. They’re always posing at some striking angle beneath the massive structures that frame their diminutive, temporary existence, but this ambitious formalism is leveled by Columbus’ calm, melancholy flow.

As with any good walk and talk, time crawls through a suspended, analog moment. Heart rates slow, ideas sharpen, change beckons. 5th Avenue, Aug. 4-6.

ALSO PLAYING:

Cinema 21: The Birds (1963), Aug. 5. Cinemagic: Rising Storm (1989), Aug. 4. Clinton: Funeral Parade of Roses (1969), Aug. 3. Shoplifters (2018), Aug. 4. Children of the Sea (2019), Aug. 5. Tampopo (1985), Aug. 5. Fireworks (2017), Aug. 6. Queer Japan (2019), Aug. 6. Hana-bi (1997), Aug. 7. Hollywood: From Here to Eternity (1953), Aug. 5-6. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1972), Aug. 5-6. Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973), Aug. 7-8. Living Room: The Big Lebowski (1998), Aug. 6.

Sliding Into OMSI

Bill Plympton is coming to OMSI to preview his upcoming film, Slide, at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology.

BY ERIC ASH

Since 2002, the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology has highlighted independent film worldwide. Once an international event visiting cities across four continents, the festival ultimately made Portland its permanent home by 2022.

PFCAT returns this August at OMSI, with events at the museum’s Empirical Theater, as well as the Kendall Planetarium, from Thursday through Sunday, Aug. 3-6. And on Friday, Aug. 4, the Empirical Theater will play host to Oregon animator Bill Plympton, with a retrospective of his works and clips from his upcoming feature, Slide, plus Q&A and autograph sessions.

In his field, Plympton is an international treasure. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, called him “the god of animation,” though in a 2012 interview at Australia’s Gold Coast Film Festival, Plympton humorously asserts that Groening was drunk at the time.

Fittingly for a friend of Groening’s, Plympton’s portfolio includes a Simpsons couch gag in the style of his own Oscar-nominated 1987 short Your Face. He also animated “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Don’t Download This Song” music video, which was nominated for an Annie. Many of Plympton’s animations, short and long form alike, are distinctly quirky and surreal, consistently using colored pencils for texture.

Plympton was born in Portland in 1946, and raised on a farm in Oregon City. “It was a gentleman’s farm…my father was a banker at Oregon Savings Bank,” he tells WW, adding, “It was closer to Estacada. There were a lot of logging trucks that came by at all hours.”

Plympton’s rural childhood is something he has in common with fellow animator Don Bluth, who grew up on a dairy farm in Payson, Utah. Like Bluth, Plympton was greatly influenced by early animated Walt Disney films; his first exposure to animation was seeing Disney’s Sleeping Beauty at age 13. Plympton also cites visual influences in Tex Avery, W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, and Jacques Tati, whose 1958 film Mon Oncle made Plympton’s 2008 Criterion Collection Top 10.

Growing up in the rural stretches of Clackamas County helped shape Slide. Plympton describes the film as being about a logging town, where “there’s a lot of lumberjacks, fishermen, and fog…and corruption. A mystical Clint Eastwood-type cowboy gets rid of the bad guys with his music.”

The music of Slide Guitar (the cowboy’s name) takes after the old country musicians Plympton’s father liked, such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline. “I played a lot of slide guitar when I was younger, when I moved to New York,” he says.

Animation can be a time-intensive labor of love, and Slide is no exception. “I did every drawing on this film,” Plympton says. “It’s about 40,000 drawings. It’s pretty rare, but for me, it was a joy. It took me seven years. COVID made it difficult to finance.” For that financing, Plympton turned to Kickstarter. As of May 10, 2023, 593 backers had pledged a total of $84,145, slightly above the campaign’s goal of $77,800.

Earlier this year, Slide was a “feature film contrechamp” (literally “reverse shot,” figuratively “out of competition”) official selection at the Annecy Festival in France. Also present at Annecy this year was Guillermo del Toro, whose Oscar-winning stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio was partly produced at ShadowMachine in Portland, as well as del Toro’s own studio in Guadalajara.

The success of Pinocchio has raised hopes that more animated films made outside Hollywood can prosper.

“I am happy that they do have a category [at the Oscars] for animated features,” Plympton says. “Slide has a shot, thanks to Guillermo, to get noticed at the Academy.” He anticipates Slide will be completed by September of this year.

Plympton adds, “If Mel Brooks became a cartoonist, and Clint Eastwood too, and they made a film together, it’d be something like Slide.” Who could resist that pitch?

SEE IT: Bill Plympton will attend the 2023 Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology at OMSI’s Empirical Theater, 1945 SE Water Ave., Suite 100, 503-797-4000, omsi. edu. 8 pm Friday, Aug. 4. $25.

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

THIS MOVIE IS GOOD. WE RECOMMEND YOU WATCH IT.

TALK TO ME

Talk to Me is the scariest horror movie of 2023. Walking the fine line between referential and redundant—good horror filmmakers employ motifs, but bad horror filmmakers rely on them—twin-brother duo Danny and Michael Philippou stun in their directorial debut, delivering a gripping (pun intended) plot driven by starmaking performances. Sophie Wilde shines as Mia, a grieving teenage girl reeling from her mother’s passing two years earlier. Then, a paranormal party trick lifts the veil between the living and the dead—and teens recklessly abuse it for entertainment purposes (shocking!). In some ways, Talk to Me is a natural evolution beyond the Ouija board, the deadest horse of all horror tropes. In others, it’s an existential exploration that leads to a genre-defining question: Can new rules be made and/or old ones broken? Either way, there are moments when the movie makes the theater feel like a vacuum, sucking you into a vortex of heart-racing, chest-clutching, jaw-dropping terror. It’s the enthralling kind of horror that you can’t look away from. R. ALEX BARR. Bridgeport, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Progress Ridge.

AFIRE

In the tradition of his many compromised romances (Phoenix, Transit, Undine), writer-director Christian Petzold explores connections missed, made and retroactively illuminated during a novelist’s work-cation on the Baltic Sea in Afire In black denim and gray New Balances, Leon (Thomas Schubert) is practically in uniform as someone who hates the beach. He’s destined to miss out, but the audience doesn’t. Petzold lets us enjoy Leon’s companions—his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), their unexpected housemate Nadja (Paula Beer), and a local lifeguard (Enno Trebs)—and Germany’s north coast. All the while, Leon frets over his manuscript, and a forest fire rages in the distance. Dreamy yet frustrated, blunt yet forgiving, Afire holds space for modern life’s many scales—a creative’s navel-gazing, less selfish characters’ acceptance of provincial life, existential dread. Reveling in Nadja’s beauty, intelligence and generosity (she’s always making goulash), Petzold keeps challenging the audience with Leon’s shaky grip on protagonist status. Often, this sour lump is the last character whose vantage point you’d want in this film, but that’s all part of Petzold’s ever-fascinating “both/and” filmmaking. People will still take meaningful vacations as the world burns; a bad writer can tell a good story; and Nadja will offer Leon a welcoming smile because they’ve shared a deeply imperfect moment. NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.

OPPENHEIMER

At the start of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, raindrops fall; at the end, fire rages. You’ll feel it burn long after the end credits roll. Nolan has made violent movies before, but Oppenheimer is not just about physical devastation. It submerges you in the violence of a guilt-ravaged soul, leaving you feeling unsettled and unclean. With agitated charisma and vulnerability, Cillian Murphy embodies J. Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist whose mind birthed the atomic bomb. When we first meet him, he’s a curly-haired lad staring

at a puddle, but he swiftly evolves into an excitable visionary leading a cadre of scientists into the deserts of New Mexico, where they will ultimately build and test a plutonium device (referred to as “the gadget”) on July 16, 1945. What saves the film from becoming a connect-the-dots biopic is Nolan’s ingenious chronicle of the post-World War II rivalry between Oppenheimer and Atomic Energy Commission chair Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.). The more Oppenheimer fights to put “the nuclear genie back in the bottle,” the more Strauss seethes and schemes, thrusting the movie into a maze of double-crosses that echo the exhilarating games of perception in Nolan’s 2001 breakout hit Memento Of course, the thrill can’t (and shouldn’t) last. As many as 226,000 people were killed when the U.S. bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and they haunt the film like ghosts—especially when Oppenheimer imagines a charred corpse beneath his foot. A man dreamed; people died. All a work of art can do is evoke their absence.

R. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Cedar Hills, Cinema 21, Cinemagic, Clackamas, Division, Fox Tower, Hollywood, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin, Studio One.

BARBIE

Once upon a time, Barbie dolls liberated all women from tyranny. The end… at least according to the first few minutes of Barbie, a sleek and satirical fantasia from director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women). Set in the utopian kingdom of Barbieland, the movie dramatizes the existential crises of the winkingly named Stereotypical Barbie. She’s played by Margot Robbie, who was last seen battling a rattlesnake in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and her misadventures in Barbie are hardly less bizarre. Plagued by flat feet, cellulite and fears of death, Barbie seeks the source of her ailments in the real world, bringing along a beamingly inadequate Ken (Ryan Gosling) with catastrophic consequences: Awed by images of Bill Clinton and Ronald

Reagan, Ken becomes a crusading men’s rights activist, leading a revolt against the government of Barbieland and instituting bros-first martial law. And they say originality is dead! With its absurdist wit, glitzy musical numbers, and earnest ruminations on whether matriarchy and patriarchy can coexist, Barbie is easily one of the most brazen movies released by a major studio. Yes, its tidy ending betrays its anarchic spirit—after insisting that empowerment can’t be neatly packaged in a doll box, the film seems to say, “No, wait! It can!”—but it would be churlish to deny the charm of Gerwig’s buoyant creation. In an age when genuine cinematic joy is rare, we’re all lucky to be passengers in Barbie’s hot-pink plastic convertible. PG-13. BENNETT CAMPBELL FERGUSON. Bagdad, Cinema 21, Clackamas, Eastport, Empirical, Fox Tower, Joy Cinema, Laurelhurst, Living Room, Lloyd Center, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, St. Johns, Studio One, Wunderland Milwaukie.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA

TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM

Part of what makes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles unique among other franchises is its malleability. Reinvention is as much a part of the Turtles’ DNA as glowing green ooze and a love of pizza—and in the case of Mutant Mayhem the recipe is a blend of family dynamics, grandiose sci-fi and heartfelt comedy. For the first time in franchise history, the Heroes in a Half-Shell are actually voiced by teenagers: Leonardo (Nicholas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon), Donatello (Micah Abbey) and Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) goof around and clown on each other like any other kids, and their interactions make for the movie’s strongest moments, comedically and emotionally. Things get mighty chaotic in the back half when we’re introduced to the megalomaniacal Superfly (Ice Cube) and his cadre of mutant henchmen (voiced by several recognizable names pulled from producer-writer Seth Rogen’s contact list), but it all fits with the movie’s eager, excited vibe. There’s a love for the boundless possibilities of the TMNT

world and a desire to bring as much of it to life as possible, all through the filter of a wonky, hand-drawn aesthetic that makes for some spectacular creature designs and doesn’t skimp on the martial-arts action. The quest for a perfect TMNT film remains incomplete, but Mutant Mayhem is nonetheless a fine effort: a stylish, fast-paced, eminently fun take on the material that updates the Turtles for the modern world without losing the oddball charm that has made them fixtures of pop culture since 1984. Cowabunga, dudes! PG. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Division, Eastport, Lake Theater, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Vancouver Plaza.

THEATER CAMP

In Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman’s hysterical mockumentary Theater Camp, self-delusion drives youth theater camp AdirondACTS and the lives of its eccentric campers. After the camp’s founder, Joan Rubinsky (Amy Sedaris), falls into a coma, devoted counselors Rebecca-Diane (Gordon) and Amos (Ben Platt) return to AdirondACTS to put on a biographical musical about their matriarchal founder— while crypto-bro Troy Rubinsky (Jimmy Tatro) flounders as he attempts to keep the camp afloat in his mother’s absence. Written by Gordon, Lieberman, Platt and Noah Galvin (who plays a stage manager), the screenplay delivers sharp deadpan humor as it satirizes theater kids’ notorious self-seriousness (children in a seemingly furtive drug deal negotiate for “throat coat” tea bags and Amos calls a child using a tear stick onstage “Lance Armstrong for actors”). The actors’ egos contrast with the camp’s financial ruin and the counselors’ stale individual careers; self-delusion becomes power in surviving a profession based on attention and rejection. Most scenes were improvised with rough outlines, a method that causes the story to wander, but highlights the actors’ craft and chemistry. It’s all captured with swift camera work that drenches the audience in summer camp nostalgia, a sweet blur seemingly over just as it began. PG-13. ROSE WONG. Bridgeport, Cedar Hills, Fox Tower, Living Room.

HAUNTED MANSION

Loath as Disney would be to admit it, Haunted Mansion pulls from the same playbook as its failed 2003 attempt to turn the titular theme park ride into a blockbuster: Once again, the studio has created a horror comedy that leans heavily on spook-house kitsch and self-aware snark. So what’s different this time? A slightly better script and a postmodern approach to the story, courtesy of director Justin Simien (Dear White People). Instead of an ordinary family facing the 999 specters that haunt Gracey Manor, the film assembles a ragtag team of discount ghostbusters to stop the haunt— namely a washed-up scientist (LaKeith Stanfield), a fast-talking priest (Owen Wilson), a sassy medium (Tiffany Haddish), and an excitable historian (Danny DeVito), plus the house’s current owner (Rosario Dawson) and her adolescent son (Chase W. Dillon, the surprise MVP of the cast). The actors have fun riffing on the material, but the jokes are hit or miss and the scares are (understandably) toned down to remain kid-friendly. There’s an ongoing theme of not wallowing in grief that adds a welcome weight to the story, but it’s diluted by every character having their own miniarc and a mystery investigation that has a few too many steps. Fans of the Magic Kingdom ride and kids with a taste for the macabre will likely find something to enjoy in Haunted Mansion, but for most everyone else it’s a passable but skippable trip to the other side. PG-13. MORGAN SHAUNETTE. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cedar Hills, City Center, Division, Lloyd Center, Mill Plain, Oak Grove, Pioneer Place, Progress Ridge, Studio One, Vancouver Plaza, Wunderland Milwaukie.

ACROSS

1. Anti-apartheid org.

4. Originated

9. Fabric (which is underneath the grid, in this puzzle)

14. Fan noise?

15. Concert venue

16. Repeated cry in the Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop"

17. Goal of some start-ups

18. Poker player's wear, maybe

20. "Rubber Capital of the World"

22. Pad kee mao cuisine

23. "Cats" monogram

24. Stoller's musical partner

26. Stir-fry vegetable

29. "Make love" follower

31. Diner shout

33. Graphic often including insets of AK and HI

35. Dog of Hagar the Horrible

36. "The X-Files" sightings

39. Armadillo feature

42. "Me and Bobby McGee" writer Kristofferson

43. Maroon 5's "___ Like Jagger"

45. "Werewolves of London" singer Warren

47. Install beforehand, as software

50. Philosophy of oneness

53. Inert gaseous element

55. Delay

57. Caltech degs.

58. Just ___ (minimal amount)

60. "I Will Be" singer Lewis

61. Uncaging (also, kinda the opposite of what this puzzle is)

65. Spheroid

66. "Buy U a Drank" rapper

67. Chopin composition

68. 1970s Cambodian leader Lon ___

69. To this point

70. Royal ___ (butter cookie brand with those reusable blue tins)

71. "What'd I tell ya?"

DOWN

1. Helvetica alternative

2. Laptop item (which should go underneath the circled answer in the same column)

3. Dance design, informally

4. It may be presented first

5. "It's the end of an ___!"

6. Columbia Sportswear president Boyle who starred in their "One Tough Mother" ads

7. Goth necklace designs

8. 1998 Olympics city

9. One-third of a three-step

10. Primus singer/bassist Claypool

11. Someone who gathers and sells shellfish

12. Reference books that can expand your vocabulary, quaintly

13. Garden equipment

19. One of two guards in a classic logic problem, e.g.

21. With a not-too-bright approach

25. Interstate access

27. Law enforcement orgs.

©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.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Emotions are not inconvenient distractions from reason and logic. They are key to the rigorous functioning of our rational minds. Neurologist Antonio Damasio proved this conclusively in his book *Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain*. The French philosopher's famous formula—"I think, therefore I am"—offers an inadequate suggestion about how our intelligence works best. This is always true, but it will be especially crucial for you to keep in mind during the coming weeks. Here's your mantra, courtesy of another French philosopher, Blaise Pascal: "The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know."

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The famous Taurus TV star Jay Leno once did a good deed for me. I was driving my Honda Accord on a freeway in Los Angeles when he drove up beside me in his classic Lamborghini. Using hand signals, he conveyed to me the fact that my trunk was open, and stuff was flying out. I waved in a gesture of thanks and pulled over onto the shoulder. I found that two books and a sweater were missing, but my laptop and briefcase remained. Hooray for Jay! In that spirit, Taurus, and in accordance with current astrological omens, I invite you to go out of your way to help and support strangers and friends alike. I believe it will lead to unexpected benefits.

inspiring you to purge all bunkum and nonsense from your life—not just in relation to health issues, but everything. It's a favorable time to find out what's genuinely good and true for you. Do the necessary research and investigation.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): "I’m amazed that anyone gets along!" marvels self-help author Sark. She says it's astonishing that love ever works at all, given our "idiosyncrasies, unconscious projections, re-stimulations from the past, and the relationship history of our partners." I share her wonderment. On the other hand, I am optimistic about your chances to cultivate interesting intimacy during the coming months. From an astrological perspective, you are primed to be extra wise and lucky about togetherness. If you send out a big welcome for the lessons of affection, collaboration, and synergy, those lessons will come in abundance.

28. Whittling tool

30. N.C. capital, for short

32. Quart divs.

34. 1990 Literature Nobelist Octavio ___

36. Diamond expert

37. How serious players play

38. Wear out, as a welcome

40. President pro ___

41. Acronym popularized by Rachael Ray

44. Absorb, with "up"

46. Like the eyebrows in a 2014 viral video

48. "Pictures ___ Exhibition" (Mussorgsky work)

49. Completely avoided

51. Finite units of energy during the day, in a coping mechanism theory

52. Randall ___, creator of XKCD

54. '90s treaty acronym

56. Postpone indefinitely (or where you'd see what this puzzle represents)

57. This one, in Spain

59. Brown, in Bordeaux

62. 50-50, for instance

63. 1099-___ (bank tax form)

64. Mag staffers

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): "Did you learn how to think or how to believe?" When my friend Amelie was nine years old, her father teased her with this query upon her return home from a day at school. It was a pivotal moment in her life. She began to develop an eagerness to question all she was told and taught. She cultivated a rebellious curiosity that kept her in a chronic state of delighted fascination. Being bored became virtually impossible. The whole world was her classroom. Can you guess her sign? Gemini! I invite you to make her your role model in the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In the coming weeks, I advise you not to wear garments like a transparent Gianfranco Ferre black mesh shirt with a faux-tiger fur vest and a coral-snake jacket that shimmers with bright harlequin hues. Why? Because you will have most success by being downto-earth, straightforward, and in service to the fundamentals. I’m not implying you should be demure and reserved, however. On the contrary: I hope you will be bold and vivid as you present yourself with simple grace and lucid authenticity.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 1811, Leo scientist Amedeo Avogadro (1776–1856) formulated a previously unknown principle about the properties of molecules. Unfortunately, his revolutionary idea wasn't acknowledged and implemented until 1911, 100 years later. Today his well-proven theory is called Avogadro's law. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, Leo, you will experience your equivalent of his 1911 event in the coming months. You will receive your proper due. Your potential contributions will no longer be mere potential. Congratulations in advance!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Israeli poet Yona Wallach mourned the fact that her soul felt far too big for her, as if she were always wearing the clothes of a giant on her small body. I suspect you may be experiencing a comparable feeling right now, Virgo. If so, what can you do about it? The solution is NOT to shrink your soul. Instead, I hope you will expand your sense of who you are so your soul fits better. How might you do that? Here’s a suggestion to get you started: Spend time summoning memories from throughout your past. Watch the story of your life unfurl like a movie.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Nineteenth-century Libran physician James Salisbury had strong ideas about the proper ingredients of a healthy diet. Vegetables were toxic, he believed. He created Salisbury steak, a dish made of ground beef and onions, and advised everyone to eat it three times a day. Best to wash it down with copious amounts of hot water and coffee, he said. I bring his kooky ideas to your attention in hopes of

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Please don’t make any of the following statements in the next three weeks: 1. “I took a shower with my clothes on.” 2. “I prefer to work on solving a trivial little problem rather than an interesting dilemma that means a lot to me.” 3. “I regard melancholy as a noble emotion that inspires my best work.” On the other hand, Sagittarius, I invite you to make declarations like the following: 1. “I will not run away from the prospect of greater intimacy— even if it’s scary to get closer to a person I care for.” 2. “I will have fun exploring the possibilities of achieving more liberty and justice for myself.”

3. “I will seek to learn interesting new truths about life from people who are unlike me.”

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Champions of the capitalist faith celebrate the fact that we consumers have over 100,000 brand names we can purchase. They say it’s proof of our marvelous freedom of choice. Here’s how I respond to their cheerleading: Yeah, I guess we should be glad we have the privilege of deciding which of 50 kinds of shampoo is best for us. But I also want to suggest that the profusion of these relatively inconsequential options may distract us from the fact that certain of our other choices are more limited. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I invite you to ruminate about how you can expand your array of more important choices.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My best friend in college was an Aquarius, as is my favorite cousin. Two ex-girlfriends are Aquarians, and so was my dad. The talented singer with whom I sang duets for years was an Aquarius. So I have intimate knowledge of the Aquarian nature. And in honor of your unbirthday—the time halfway between your last birthday and your next—I will tell you what I love most about you. No human is totally comfortable with change, but you are more so than others. To my delight, you are inclined to ignore the rule books and think differently. Is anyone better than you at coordinating your energies with a group's? I don’t think so. And you’re eager to see the big picture, which means you’re less likely to get distracted by minor imperfections and transitory frustrations. Finally, you have a knack for seeing patterns that others find hard to discern. I adore you!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Is the first sip always the best? Do you inevitably draw the most vivid enjoyment from the initial swig of coffee or beer? Similarly, are the first few bites of food the most delectable, and after that your taste buds get diminishing returns? Maybe these descriptions are often accurate, but I believe they will be less so for you in the coming weeks. There's a good chance that flavors will be best later in the drink or the meal. And that is a good metaphor for other activities, as well. The further you go into every experience, the greater the pleasure and satisfaction will be—and the more interesting the learning.

Homework: Make up a fantastic story about your future self, then go make it happen. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

"That Can Be Arranged"--there's a time and place.